Strange True Stories of Louisiana
Page 32
X.
THE CROWNING PROOF.
"If ever our little Salome is found," Eva Kropp had been accustomed tosay, "we shall know her by two hair moles about the size of a coffee-bean,one on the inside of each thigh, about midway up from the knee. Nobody canmake those, or take them away without leaving the tell-tale scars." Andlo! when Madame Karl brought Mary Bridget to Frank Schuber's house, andEva Schuber, who every day for weeks had bathed and dressed her godchildon the ship, took this stranger into another room apart and alone, therewere the birth-marks of the lost Salome.
This incontestable evidence the friends of Salome were able to furnish,but the defense called in question the genuineness of the marks.
The verdict of science was demanded, and an order of the court issued totwo noted physicians, one chosen by each side, to examine these marks andreport "the nature, appearance, and cause of the same." The kindred ofSalome chose Warren Stone, probably the greatest physician and surgeon inone that New Orleans has ever known. Mr. Grymes's client chose a Creolegentleman almost equally famed, Dr. Armand Mercier.
Dr. Stone died many years ago; Dr. Mercier, if I remember aright, in 1885.When I called upon Dr. Mercier in his office in Girod street in the summerof 1883, to appeal to his remembrance of this long-forgotten matter, Ifound a very noble-looking, fair old gentleman whose abundant waving hairhad gone all to a white silken floss with age. He sat at his desk inpersistent silence with his strong blue eyes fixed steadfastly upon mewhile I slowly and carefully recounted the story. Two or three times Ipaused inquiringly; but he faintly shook his head in the negative, aslight frown of mental effort gathering for a moment between the eyes thatnever left mine. But suddenly he leaned forward and drew his breath as ifto speak. I ceased, and he said:
"My sister, the wife of Pierre Soule, refused to become the owner of thatwoman and her three children because they were so white!" He pressed meeagerly with an enlargement of his statement, and when he paused I saidnothing or very little; for, sad to say, he had only made it perfectlyplain that it was not the girl Mary Bridget whom he was recollecting, but_another case_.
He did finally, though dimly, call to mind having served with Dr. Stonein such a matter as I had described. But later I was made independent ofhis powers of recollection, when the original documents of the court werelaid before me. There was the certificate of the two physicians. Andthere, over their signatures, "Mercier d.m.p." standing first, in a boldheavy hand underscored by a single broad quill-stroke, was this"Conclusion":
"1. These marks ought to be considered as _noevi materni_.
"2. They are congenital; or, in other words, the person was born withthem.
"3. There is no process by means of which artificial spots bearing all thecharacter of the marks can be produced."
Handwritten conclusion number 3 and signatures of Mercierdmp and Dr. Stone.]