Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-05-06
NEWELL THE HEALER
HAS GIVEN HEALTH TO THOUSANDS
BY LAYING ON OF HANDS.


Uses No Form of Invocation.
Until ono hot day last August Brad
ley Newell was only the blacksmith OF
the little Vermont village of Jackson
Vile. He was Just like all the other
blacksmiths the village had ever seen.
From early sunrise until late IN the DAY
be made the sparks fly at the anvil, and
the children used to gather at the door
and watch him put on the stagecoacn
that runs from Brattleboro, ~ miles
away. Now they look up to him with
feeling half wonder and awe. From one
Of the most obscure of men he has sud
denly become known for hundreds OF
miles about as the blacksmith healer,
who, by the laying on of his hands, IS
able to cure nearly any disease. Dozens
of his townspeople attest his cures, and
hundreds from surrounding villages and
towns have felt the healing influence OF
his touch.
At the village tavern he is the sole
topic of conversation and is pointed out
to visitors as a man gifted with super
natural powers. The blacksmith still
works at his trade and stops between
odd jobs that he does for the folk about
the country to place his hands upon the
afflicted and bid them go their way
cured. Newell is strikingly handsome
man, large, we'll formed, with frank,
open face, big hazel eyes and clear,
white complexion. He himself claims
nothing. All he knows is that he has
cured. Unlike Schlatter, he does not
claim to be Christ.
When asked from where he consider
ed he received his power to heal, he said:
II don't know. guess never shall
know. One day last August Twas work
ing in the shop, and there was buzz
ing in my ears. 1t was strange, funny
buzzing. buzzing that I had never
heard before-not buzzing and ring
ing like when you have cold in your
head or have heard loud noise, but
buzzing that I can't describe I stopped
and listened to it, and voice said just
as clear and distinct as any voice ever
heard
"'You can cure the sick by laying on
your hands.
II didn't say anything to anybody
because was afraid that they would
laugh at me. l just kept it to myself
One day not long after that my wife
had headache, and the voice said to
me, You can cure your wife, so says
kind of dubious like, ELLEN, ! think
can cure your headache. I took her
hands, held 'em ON mine for minute,
and she says, kind Of surprised, why,
Bradley, my headaches all gone That
was the starting of it, and it's been going
ON ever since"
The people say, no matter where the
blacksmith gets his power, over 1900
people have been treated by him since
last August, when the mysterious voice
first buzzed in his ears and then told
him he possessed the power to heal. The
spiritualists say that Newell is heal
ing medium and the voice that spoke to
him was a spirit doctor who desired
him to be under his control. The ones
who profess to know it all sit about the
tavern and say it's hypnotism. Others
say it's magnetism.
While the churchgoing population of
the little village do not lend their sup
port to the healer, they do not denounce
him. They claim that any power he
possesses comes through God Almighty.
The minister Of the only church in town
is Miss Craven. She is Methodist and
speaks pleasantly of Newell. She does
not know that the healer's power is
against any of the teachings of Scrip
ture, but is sure that he does not get it
from the devil.
When asked what kind of diseases he
had cured, the healer said, mostly all
kinds-rheumatism, lameness, SWELL
ings, heart trouble. pleurisy. colds, tu-
mors, deafness and nearly every kind"
A man from Halifax with the erysipe-
las, almost dead and crazed with pain,
was brought to him. In five minutes his
erysipelas was gone and he left we'll
man.
| A boy named Freeman Hager, who
had been unable to move a muscle for
four days after case of scarlet fever,
was cured by Newell. The boys father,
who had suffered for years by being hurt
by falling tree, was also cured at the
same time.
While many have claimed that the
healer cured persons imagining they
were sick, the fact that he has cured
animals as we'll is held up by his be-
levers as strong proof that this is not
true. He receives letters from all parts
Of the country, asking him to come to
this or that place and do what he can.
He seldom replies to them.
He recently made trip to Brattleboro
to be gone day, but SO many people
desired his services that he was COM
PEELED to remain three days. The healer
himself never promises cure and never
asks anybody to have faith. While not
believer in religion, Newell is not a
scoffer and thinks that every man is
entitled to believe as suits him best. For
all his work he does not ask cent If
any one desires to give him money and
he feels they can afford it, he accepts it,
If they are poor, he refuses the money.
Since he has started to heal people it is