The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-11-20
RADLEY NEWELL is
NOW ON THE FARM
yermont's Famous Blacksmith Healer
Who Was Exploited by Brattleboro
Men Some 10 Years Ago
Prefers Retirement.

From the smithy Of a little Vermont
town to the consulting room OF pro
! fessional healer of really national fame
and then back again to obscurty, this
! time found ON a farm IN the hills, is the
record OF one Bradley ;. Newell, pagan
now living on his fathers old home a,
Rowe. in the very northwestern corner
Of Massachusetts.
Hes an interesting personality, this
acknowledgement farmer, with his
union OF superb physical strength and
his naiyely original mental processes.
In fact, he's about as near to primitive
man as they make EN-. With his tall
ness and his splendid shoulders seeing
them, The Iewers' up in Copley
square are boyish by comparison-and his
thick, black hair and beard, II isn't hard
TO imagine him strding through a pr
mordial wilderness or crouching close TO
the red Goals OF his fire while beast eyes
burning and red like the Goals, stare
hungrily at him from the outer darkness
and he stares back, unmoving but un-
afraid. II is part OF the direct. primary
power Of the man that he inevitably
tnds association with images OF wild
strength.
Then when one comes TO talk with
him one finds that he is primitive men
tally as well splendidly, superbly prlml-
tive. Live the natural life that Is
what he breaches He has scarcely even
arrived at the concept of simplicity,
which always <presupposes certain pur-
poseful setting aside of some things, a
certain trained mental distinction your
perfect, Joyous savage has never learned.
What honestly like and enjoy, that
Is the thing for me-" is the latters doc
rinc and il is Newells.
So. because he honestly likes and en-
Joys" it, he has gone back to the big'
breezy. healthy farm and stopped trav-
cling in parlor cars all over the country
and earning money by the thousands.
lie was not exposed" his healing pow.
or. such as it is, has not gone out OF
him, he simply refused after. two years
10 live any longer life which dld not
suit him and chose instead what Tor nm
makes happiness; : A..
1t was only l3 years ago, IN the sum
ner of 1895, that he was 'discovered"-
,r, rather discovered himself. 1t was
II wears ago, in 1897, that he went
hack" to the farm where he now lives.
As TO the manner of his revelation, he |
himself has told the story many times
low he was working away at his Jorge
n Jacksonville one hot day in August,
md "a voice said, Just as clear and dis
met as | ever heard: You can cure the
lick by laying on your hands.
II didn't say anything to ANYBODY,
,e goes on, because | was AFRAID that
hey would laugh at me. l Just kept ~
o myself. One day not long, after tnat
ny wife had headache, ana ,ne , rHiee
aid to me: You can cure your Wiie,,
o I saws kind of dubious like: Ellen, !
link / can cure your headache, l took
err hands. held 'em in mine for mn
re- and she says kind OF, surprised;
Nhv. Bradley, my headaches all gone.
hat was the starting OF 1t, ana IL peen
At first he stayed quietly at home
-orkinp in his smithy and curing
,lks" between whites. But his fame
as spreading, and patients came TO MN
rom cities, and then others came urging
i'm to go to cites. n., va |
He iourneyed first to Brattleporo, ",
zen to Greenfield, Springfield and Dos
N After that he Travelled all over the |
,untry, out west, down south, many II
aces. For one period of about eight 5
onths he took in over 25,O0o,. though {
e charges seldom exceeded S. for each )
eatment. and he constantly refused to |
Ike money from poor persons who were
elk. =, =.
Generally his wife travelled with him, /
r he has a wife and five children, t
rong, handsome little replicas of him a
If, all of them. Furthermore, he adj t
its to quite unmodern but very hui |,
an delight in having the youngsters al n
avs near him. h
He was really separated from them "
ly once for any length of time, and t
at was during his trip to Europe, not G
ry long after the beginning of his n
reer as curer. He went with the An
mt and Honorable Artillery company
Boston and chad a bully good time" n
cording to his Rooseveltian description e,
the trip. D
Everybody was mighty good" he goes Is
in his big, rich voice that somehow d
Ems to belong to winds and woods, not | Of
Ills and ceilings. 1--WE dined with the II
ince of Wales-he that's King Ed n
Ird now-and he certainly is regular at
ly good old sport. Queen Victoria, l vi
ink, was one of the incest, most moth 10
Y old women | ever saw. Then we ii
mt to France and Germany and Hol- 81
I'd.
What interested me most? The peo-
mot so much the rich lords and w
lies as the common people, the way III
~ lived, what they ate, how they fir
rked, their little children. It's those is
,ple that really are the world. you in
ow-the others are only the little 81,