Vermont Phoenix. May 4, 1838 || Kentucky Gazette. May 3, 1838 || Tarboro' Press. June 23, 1838
WILD BOY OF THE WOODS.
[A second Caspar Hauser.]
The following account of a boy found wild in the State of Indiana, is from the Canton (Ill.) Herald:
We have seen in several papers an account of a boy, apparently thirteen or fourteen years old, who was found in the woods in the vicinity of the Chathilinot Prairies, in the State of Indiana. It is said the boy is now in the family of a Col. Clark[, or] Clarkson, of Bush Hill, a place not far from the spot where he was found. He is handsomely formed, has fine limbs, very elastic in his movements, stout, with clear, full and intelligent black eyes. He has been several months with the Colonel's family, during which time he has uttered no articulate sound, expressed no wish by any sign, though he evidently pays considerable attention to things and events around him. He sometimes gives a sort of piercing screech, which by its being always at a measured elevation, and after which he seems to listen with care, affords ground for the conclusion that the poor fellow has been accustomed to receive some sort of answer from a source to us unknown. He chooses the naked earth for his bed, and utterly rejects all covering save a deer skin, which he wraps around his body. He takes his food in a raw state—principally beef, poultry, potatoes and nuts. It is astonishing with what voraciousness he consumes small birds. He will strip off its feathers and entrails, and devour it with a relish amounting to an extacy. He has thus far evinced a melancholy temperament, choosing to be much alone, and makes for the woods whenever an opportunity is presented, but when found attempts no escape, but passively returns. He manifests no attachment for any human being, save a servant girl in the family. By her request he has occasionally eat a little corn bread, and set down for a moment on a chair. Wheat bread he peremptorily refuses. He has made comparatively no advancement toward civilization.
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Similar stories:
Peter the Wild Boy, Victor of Aveyron, Kaspar Hauser [Wikipedia]
