The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-30
THE ZOUAVE JACOB.

non-oommissioned officer of Zouaves, named
JaoOb-presumably a Jew-wbo, it seems,
claims the power of working miracles, OF, If
not miracles, cures without anv agency save
his own will. According to popular rumor
he can cure all diseases in an instant by the
glance of his eye, has cured the heir of the
Bonapartes Of scrofula, has cured Marshal
Forey OF hemiplegia, has cured the Count de
Chateauveillard, or some such name of long.
standing paralysis, has cured this chiffonier,
and that fshwife, and the other Auvergnat
porter of most diseases known to man. 30
profound is the belief in his powers among the
lower classes, that the street in which he ope-
rates is blocked up, and the police, either
moved by the annoyance, or warned Dy
the nriasts that cures of the kind did not
tend to increase belief in Christianity, or
dered the exhibition to end. ALI this is
very vague, too vague for comment, but it
appears from really respectable testimony
that man of this name wearing Zouave
uniform, has really claimed power OF curing,
by an effort of the will, such diseases as have
their origin in paralysis of the nerves, that he
has either cured, or deceived, or bought GER
tain protectors, and that he has excited sort
OF ItTOre among the lower classes. Further,
it seems that one Englishman, presumably
intelligent and certainly educated, has had
access to his room during the cures. The Bir-
miDgham Journal is not, we fear, paper
quite so much read in London as it deserves
to be, but it possesses a Paris correspondent
who is certainly great gossip, and we fear
given when hardly pressed to trust little
to a very fertile imagination, and who makes
upon the subject of this Zouave the following
extraordinary statement, by far the most
minute that has yet appeared in England. We
cannot help the length of narrative which is
well worth the time it takes to read and
which is absolutely essential to our purpose:-
"The Zouave admits no one to his presence
who is not really afflicted with disease or in
frmity-those who are led to the Rue de la
Roquette by curiosity being compelled to re-
main in the waiting Fortunately, |
was furnished with letter from his best
friend, and became privileged at once. l en-
tered the room with twenty of the most ragged
and dirty of the whole mob, and am thus
enabled to describe the scene. The Zouave
was standing as If in a revery when we entered
Pellmell into the long, low apartment where
the cures were performed. He was leaning
against the wall, with his eyes half open, after
the fashion of Sonnambula before entering
completely into trance, the only difference
being in. the intense light shot out from the
living orbs beneath the dropping eyelids. He
neither spoke nor moved while his father
busted himself in arranging the visitors upon
the low wooden benches before him. Every
crutch and stick was taken from the infrm
patients, and placed in the corner be-
hind the door, amid the timid whines
of the poor frightened creatures, accus-
toned to look upon the help afforded by
these objects as absolutely necessary to their
safety. When all were seated thus. leaning
the one against the other, the father going
close up to the son, whispered in his ear. He
was aroused in moment, and coming for
ward with movement brusque and hurried,
savoring of the military camp, and not in the
least OF the solemnity of the magicians sane
tuary, he walked up and down for a few
minutes before the eager line of sufferers. To
each he told the disease under which he or she
was suffering, and the original cause of the
malady; and, as no objection was made in any
one case, am led to suppose him to have been
right in all.
Presently, however, l observed him to
stop suddenly, and fix his eye upon one of the
patients who sat at the extreme end of the
second bench, and after examining him for a
moment, turn aside with a slight shudder,
which | observed was neither of disgust nor
dread but kind of involuntary recOil He
said abruptly, pointing with his forefnger
straight into the face of the individual ne
addressed 81 can do nothing for your dis
ease it is beyond my power; go, and re-
member it is useless to return This was all,
but the words acted upon the man like
magic spell. He shook from head to foot,
like the aspen leaf, and tried to gasp out
few words, but whether of prayer or expostu-
lation it is impossible to say, for his tongue
seemed paralyzed, and clung to the roof of his
mouth, while the Zouave turned aside with
an indescribable expression of fear, certainly
this was soon shaken off, and he again passed
before the line, uttering simply the words,
Rise and walk y The sound which simulta-
nsously burst from the assembly could find no
fitting description in any language. 1t was a
sort of moaning whine, kind of finfantine wall
ing, evidently produced by fear and daubt.
One feeble old beggar woman, whose head had
stopped its palsed shaking from the moment
the Zouave Jacob had fixed his glittering eye
upon her, was the one who gave expression to
the feeling which had evidently taken posses
sian of them all 'Oh, how can move with
out my crutchesY and having turned yearn-
ing look towards the corner where these old
friends and supporters were standing, with a
host of others, she began to humble and moan
most piteously. But the Zouave looked for
an instant down the line, with an ominous
froWn on his brow, as he found that not one of
the patients had obeyed his orders.
F'NO pretensiOn to the sacred character of a
prophet, or inspired seer, was there for he
stamped with such rude violence on the floor
that the easement shook again. He almost
uttered an OATH but it was unfinished, as he
once more uttered the command to rise and
walk, so that others might be admitted in
their place. Then came the most strange and
mysterious moment of the whole ceremony.
One by one did every individual seated upon
those low wooden benches rise and stand erect.
No Words can describe the singular spectacle
offered by this fearing hoping, doubling
crowd, as each one found himself standing
firm upon the legs which for years had ceased
to do their Office. Some laughed like foolish
children eon1a rom aiuad NUrannad I'm stOlid