Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-08-15
FAMOUS HEALER DIED
IN MEXICAN DESERT
No Longer Any Doubt That Francis
SchIatter Perished Near
Casas Grandes.
BODY IDENTIFIED AND BURIED
Los Angeles Doctor. Who Knew Him
Well. Returns From Casns Grandes,
After an investigation, Con-
vinced of schlatter's Death.


WINGED of schlatter,s Death.
Denver special: There is no longe.
any doubt that Schlatter. Denver's ia
nous healer, is dead. Several years
ago 1T was reported he died in Mexico
put the report was never confirmed
until recently. Reliable information
has come that he persisted miserably
on a lonely Mexican desert, unattend-
ed by any of the thousands who pro-
fess themselves cured by his mir
aculous touch.
Dr. II. +. Gray, of Los Angeles, has
just returned from Casas Grandes,
state OF Sonora, Mexico. While in Mex
ico, DIR. Gray came upon Schlatters
lonely grave. He saw all the parapher-
MALTA and wearing apparel of the heal
err, which are now in possession of the
Jeffepoliticia, or chief official, of Casas
Grandes.
DR.. Gray says that there is absolutely
no aoupt that the strange healer came
to his death in a loneiy Mexican desert
line.
thousands of people will remember
senator. His wonderful Cures his
great following and the hundreds of all
classes who thronged to his apart
ments. waiting eagerly in the street in
the long line that slowly filed by him
IN order that the garment might be
Kissed OR the healing touch bestowed.
spoke rather of the superstition and
credulity of the middle ages than the
matter-of-fact skepticism of nowadays.
Divers and many prophets have
I'm mn Nil
held popular attention for month, a
year; others have lasted but day.
sut none have exerted so great fol-
lowing as did this uncouth Norwegian
shoemaker, who was besought by rich
and poor, humble and great with a
strange, feverish Intensity that
amounted almost to religious fanat-
icism. For Schlatter, the healer, pro-
fessed to be endowed with a divine
touch.
His faith in himself approached sub
Unity. Without an apparent feeling Of
blasphemy he cultivated in his bearing
striking imitation of Christ. His
long, haxen hair, light brown beard '
dropping garments, bare feet and an
expression of unutterable WEAKNESS
and ecstatic absorption through which
IN deeper undertone ran mournful
vein of religious fervor might easily
nave betrayed the conscious charlatan
py cures apparently so thorough and
testimony so sincere that his bitterest
enemies and those most bent upon his
exposure We're dumfounded.
An Ignorant Shoemaker
NO doubt the cures he effected We're
the result of suggestion. Before Schlat-
ter's rise to notoriety he had been an
humble, ignorant shoemaker. and con-
Quoted little shop in the Sums The
MT
tlous. Intensely religious, his eyes far
apart, his feverish, flushed, irregular
features made one think of Zola's
workers in the field or NIillets man
With the hoe. 1t is not improbable that
Schlatters remarkable success was due
to the fact that he thoroughly believed
In himself and so made others believe.
The newspapers here were much bent
on exposing Schlatter. But they did
not succeed. Great crowds of hundreds
thronged about the healer-not alone
the ignorant. the superstitious, the
credulous, but persons apparently of
almost every station in life, and the
universal enthusiasm concerning the
power Of this simple Shoemaker was
marvellous.
Schlatter, after leaving Colorado,
went to Las Vegas, then to Alhh-
querque. and the last sight of him was
crossing the Southern Pacific railro I'd
near Deming, N. NJ. He then pas. Ia
into Mexico and through the desert 10
Casas Grandes. found food and shelf ,r
for himself and care for his burro wi III
some lonely Mexican families who dwtlt
In the caves made in the abandon, "a
Mexican mines.
Here the strange healer lived several
months, and here he drew about him
self small following among the Mex
lean mine laborers and their families
An opening in one of the caves led
to large interior cavern fitted up as
an altar. Schlatter never commanded
the following among the lonely cliff
dwelling laborers OF Casas Grandes
that had thronged to touch the hem of
his garment in Denver and Abu-
Querque.
Died In tho Desert.
Schlatter remained some three
months in the cliffs of Casas Grandes.
Then, mounting his burro, this strange
man started forth into the desert to
fast and pray, with the intention of ul-
timately returning to the United States.
But 1T grew hot in the desert and he
had taken little food and water. His
Mexican followers grew uneasy. They
followed Schlatter up and found him
lying dead under a cactus bush
Miles behind on his back trail the
llealer's! famished burro was discoy-
cred and still nearer was found the
brass staff which Schlatter always car
ried. In one hand he clutched the bible
given by one of the most prominent
women of Texas who believed Schlat-
ter had worked miracles upon the body
of her sick son. In his pocket was
found the watch given by a prominent
Burlington official whose inherited in
trinity had miraculously yielded to the
divine touch.
The Jeffepolitica of Casas Grandes
was Informed that the body had been
found. He learned that 1t was the body
o? Schlatter and gave it a descent
burial in the old cemetery near Ter
RACES.
So the healer was buried, having
passed away, scarcely known, in an OBJ
scure Mexican hamlet, While the cities
Of the Rocky mountain region were
still ringing with his name.
No healer in modern times has
aroused SO strong a belief in his pow
ers or won as large a following And
still numerous Schlatters now travel
ing throughout the west are gaining
the pecuniary benefit of the dead mans
notoriety.
Being a Woman.
Philadelphia Press: THE typewr;te,
girl We have now, said Merchant, "can
rattle things off ON the machine as fast