"The father of the Jewish boy Simon Abeles, was Lazarus, and his grandsire Moses Abeles who for many years had been Chief Rabbi of the Jews. Whilst already of tender years, there had been discovered in this boy a special leaning of the spirit towards Christianity. Whenever he could, he separated himself from the Jewish youths, and associated with the Christian boys, played with them, and gave them sweets which he had collected from his father's table, in order to gain their good will. The Jewish cravat, stiffened with blue starch, which the Jews wear round the neck, thereby distinguishing themselves here in Bohemia from the Christians, was quite repugnant to Simon. As the light of his reason became brighter, he took every opportunity of learning the Christian mysteries. It happened that he was many times sent by his father, who was a glove dealer, on business to the house of Christopher Hoffman, a Christian glover. There he tarried in contemplation of the sacred, not the profane, pictures that hung on the walls, although the last were more precious and remarkable as specimens of artistic painting, and he inquired with curiosity of the Christian inmates, what was signified in these pictures. When in reply they told him, that one was a representation of Christ, another of the mother of Christ, the miracle-working mother of God, by Buntzel, and another, the holy Antonius of Padua, he exclaimed, from his heart, sighing: 'Oh, that I could be a Christian!' Moreover, a Jew called Rebbe Liebmann bore witness, that the boy sometimes passed whole nights among Christians, and did not appear at his father's house. "Now many maintained that this leaning to Christianity arose from a supernatural source, and was produced by the baptismal sign, which had been impressed upon him by a Christian, whilst he was in the cradle. When later this report had been carefully investigated, it was certified that a preceptor, Stephen Hiller, was once sent to Lazarus Abeles to obtain payment of a debt, that he there found a child lying alone in the cradle, and had, from deep impulse of heart, baptized him with the elemental water which was at hand. On being examined by the consistory of the Right Reverend the Archbishop, this preceptor, who is now invested with a chaplaincy, said that he did not know whether the child was the little son of Lazarus; nay, his supposition had been far stronger, that it was the son of a Jewish tailor. From such evidence this weighty point remained doubtful.