The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-20
TN IN Morris county, N. j., il a little


colony of the sick and ailing who are seek
Ing to win their way back to good health by
living very much as did old Adam and his
wife They 60 about In their pine groves
entirely naked, sleep either IN the earth
or on 1t, cover their bodies with mud and
eat little save fruit and nuts.
Their guide, philosopher and friend. IN
short, their physician, is Charles Lauter-
wasser Of Littleton avenue, Newark. and
he, in turn. 10 an enthusiastic disciple OF
Adolf Just Of Germany, whose sanitarium
In the Hartz Mountains. established Few
years ago, now attracts thousands, ana
tales Of whose cures find their way in In
creasing numbers to this country
Lsuterwasser is hydropathic physician
and for a number OF years has made his
living by administering q water cure at
his home in Newark. When he first read
OF Just's teachings he smiled cynicsLly,
but he continued to read.
1t seemed preposterous to hope for the
cure of all manner of diseases by putting
patients into premature graves. he grew
curious, however, as he read, until he went
out into his yard, dug a shallow grave Tor
himself and lay down in it.
He stayed there some time, and the longer
he stayed the more interested ne became.
He now dec lares that no man will ever
die while in one of these graves, no matter
how i'll he may be.
@Up there in my camp he says. III any
OF my patients are very sick and groan
and feel that death is near, ! lay them in
tho grave and then need bother no more
20 long as they are there.
Almost at once they get relief. You
have no idea how powerful the earth IL.
1t is full of electricity and it seems to draw
all sickness out of one"
The Damp is called Bethesda. 1t has a
charming little lake and is surrounded
almost completely by pine trees Lauter-
wasser hunted all over New Jersey and
over part of Pennsylvania and New York
before he TO und this spot.
1t is In Longwood Valley, in Milton town
ship, with the long mountain that separates
the valley from Green Pond looming high
on one side. There is but one road through
the valley and the place is quite secluded.
Three years ago the camp was opened
with fifteen patients. Last year. during
the season. from April TO November, it
had more than thirty, and this year, so far,
there have been sixty.
Stories Of the strange cures effected
there are being spread about northern
New Jersey, and now and then physicians
find their way to the place. Like every one
else, they knock at the gate out OF curiosity
and full Of soepticism. When they pass
out, however, at the close Of their visits
they are usually thoughtful, for they have
found many things hard to explain.
This would be good place to send a
rheumatic patient said one doctor laugh
inRly AZ he was about TO enter the camp
not long ago.
In two or three minutes he saw men
suffering from rheumatism lying stark
naked on the ground, with nothing but
blanket over them and not even that between
the body and the earth. There we're suffer-
ers from dropsy, consumptives, others with
cancer In the stomach. still others with
serious eye diseases and one slowly recover
ing from locom otor ataxia. One man who
went to the camp apparently hopeless
cripple with rheumatism about month
ago now walks about little.
No medicines are used; nature does 1t
all. Indeed they call it the Back to Ma
ture' cure, and they believe they can cure
almost any Ill that the human body ever
falls heir to, making almost single excep-
ton Of insanity. Further than this, they
do not pretend to do it themselves, but
assert that any ono can effect q cure if only
he will 20 back to the simple life Of pre-
historic man and follow closely the ways
Of the wild animals.
io
who has gained sixty-four pounds in year
He went to Bethesda In the spring OF last
year, living skeleton. wasted to skin and
bono from a stomach disorder that was
apparently eating his life out.
He then weighed eighty-two pounds.
In the fall he returned home much better
but the progress he made by living the
simple life of the camp bore its real fruit
during the winter. and he gained steadily
Last spring, when he returned to the camI
to complete the cure, he weighed l48 pounds
What he has gained since no one can tell
for they allow no scales in the camp, since
patients might be cast down II they foune
they were not gaining as rapidly as they
believed they should.
Another young man went to the camp las
April after five years in a Newark Hospital
whore little had been done for him. He
too, was a living skeleton, suffering from al
ossifcd knee, q serious disorder OF thu
spine and one or two other complaints
He wore o brace when he left the hospital
and without it he could not walk, and thel
only with great difficulty and much pain.
Soon after he reached the camp he tool
his brace of, and has not worn 1t since
He now walks without any aid, although
OF COURSE his limp is quite perceptible
But his radiant general health is wha
attracts visitors.
One patient who was seriously i'll stage
at the camp for several weeks until he fel
himself somewhat better, when he insiste
on returning home. The doctor told hir
that il he did he would die; but the ma
was crazy with inconsistencies, so he went.
In lees than week the doctor was sum
moned to the mans house. Physical ms ha
said that the man was at deaths door, b,
the nature curist told him that If he woul
come back to the camp and lie down in tn
grave again he would get better. The ma
was taken back to the Morris county hill'
and, to make long story short, he Is no.
at home again, perfectly well.
1t is complained at the camp that the
get only tho patients that are given up b
hospitals and doctors of medicine. hence
In many cases, the recovery is slow. tn
simplicity Of the place and the method