He left the hotel before
me, intending to go to New York, and thence to Bremen; it was in the
latter city that his great discovery was first made public; or,
rather, it was there that he was first suspected of having made it.
This is about all that I personally know of the now immortal Von
Kempelen; but I have thought that even these few details would have
interest for the public.
There can be little question that most of the marvellous rumors
afloat about this affair are pure inventions, entitled to about as
much credit as the story of Aladdin's lamp; and yet, in a case of this
kind, as in the case of the discoveries in California, it is clear
that the truth may be stranger than fiction. The following anecdote,
at least, is so well authenticated, that we may receive it implicitly.
Von Kempelen had never been even tolerably well off during his
residence at Bremen; and often, it was well known, he had been put
to extreme shifts in order to raise trifling sums. When the great
excitement occurred about the forgery on the house of Gutsmuth &
Co., suspicion was directed toward Von Kempelen, on account of his
having purchased a considerable property in Gasperitch Lane, and his
refusing, when questioned, to explain how he became possessed of the
purchase money.
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