Clemens of Overdyke

After Napoleon's German wars, the countries ravaged by his armies fell into a state of misery and demoralization which we, whose lives have been spent in peace and prosperity, can hardly form an idea of. During this period, children without parents or friends, and left utterly destitute and uncured for, were quite common in Germany. Several such children were taken to Count von der Recke's asylum at Overdyke; among whom were two especially, whose cases are noteworthy, as showing in what a state of degradation human beings might be found living in civilized Europe, not a half century ago. One day a boy was sent to the asylum ragged and bleeding. He could not tell his name, so, as it was St. Clemens Day, they named him Clemens.

When they asked him where he had come from, he said, "from the other side of the water"; but his answers to other questions were mostly unintelligible. When his mind had been somewhat developed, he told what little he knew of his story. He had been set to keep swine, and shut up with them at night. The peasant, his master, gave him scarcely enough food to sustain life, and he used to suck the milch sow and eat herbage with the pigs. When he just came to Overdyke they had to keep him out of the salad beds, as though he had been a pig himself; for he would go on all fours in the garden, and seize and eat the vegetables with his projecting teeth. He never lost his affection for pigs; and they were so tame with him that they would let him ride about on their backs. His pleasantest recollections and his favorite stories were about his life with them in his childhood.

This boy was not actually an idiot, as his history shows; but he was probably of imperfect powers of mind from his birth. He is described as having a very narrow head and low forehead. His eyes were heavy, and he could not be made to run quickly or walk in an orderly way, though he was not deformed. He was always inclined to laugh, was of a joyous disposition, insinuating, and sensible to kindness. But on the other hand, he was subject to uncontrollable fits of passion; and once, on being reproved for using frightful curses (a habit which he had learned in former times), he tried to murder his benefactor with a wood-cutter's axe he had in his hand, and laughed heartily as he was being taken away to be put in confinement.