627 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:

ALEXANDER WHISTELO, 595

A Prussian soldier was detected taking certain jewels and corporal ornaments from the image of the Virgin Mary, and boldly asserted that she gave them to him. The case was novel, and a counsel of prelates and other learned men was convened, who, not averse to miracles, adjudged the thing possible. Frederick the Great understood the trap and suffered the soldier to be discharged; but the next day it was proclaimed that on pain of death, none should thereafter take advantage of the generosity of the Virgin Mary. Now let it be proclaimed by authority of the mayor and corporation that no black man shall hereafter presume to get a white child; but let the fellow be, in the meantime, discharged.

And now that we have returned from our voyage around the world, let us look at how the thing stands on a nearer view. Ten or twelve of the most experienced physicians declare this thing next to impossible. One gentleman says emphatically that if it is true, it is a prodigy, and prodigies, he believes, do not happen, though perjuries do. Some of the professional witnesses have resided long in those countries where, if such facts were natural, they must have fallen within their notice; but they never saw one such as would warrant their belief in this case. Others have practiced in that particular and useful branch which enables them to judge with certainty in matters of this nature; and envy cannot deny that they have brought more into the world than they have sent out of it. The very gentlemen who ushered into life the babe, whose name will be bright in the annals of zoology, physiology, pathology, and all the ologies (Doctor Secor), agree that it is the child of a white man. Doctor Mitchill denies it, partly on the authority of the quadrupeds of Paraguay, and partly because Miss Williams has deposed otherwise. Allowing the analogy in such transactions between mere and four-footed animals, yet I am not so easy in allowing weight to the testimony of a woman who swears to her own shame; and if I did give weight to her testimony, I should not admit any conclusion to be drawn from it in this case; for it is as strong one way as the other. She scuffled.

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