Not identified. Of the variant forms in which the contributor's name appears in the Office Book [Goëtznitz, Goëssnitz, Von Goetznitz], the third form is probably the correct one. (Wills had trouble with umlauts.) The four items listed in the Office Book give the following information about the contributor: was a German officer; took a proper pride in his nationality and his profession; had served in the army in Saxony in "848 and had been in Bohemia in autumn of 1851. Had apparently visited Puerto Rico and had lived for some time in the U.S. In his wandering life there, had been at Fort Snelling in the Minnesota Territory, also in Arkansas and Texas; only date given in connection with his stay in the U.S. is April 1857. Was familiar with London.

The incidents that the contributor relates are dramatically told. There was "good stuff" in "The Last Victim of the Gauntlet," wrote Dickens to Wills, Aug. 21, 1858, after reading the published article, but it had not been carefully looked over before being set in type: "‘That’ is constantly put for 'who,' which is a great vulgarity. Such an expression too as 'vowed him revenge' is extremely bad."

Author: Anne Lohrli; @ University of Toronto Press, 1971.