The Monroe journal., 1922-11-14
Bethune Faith Healer" Has
A Successor in Joe Mundy

II the oil Mundy home and told Of
how ice hai learned the power 10
heal by looking al sufferer, from
his wife. who died several years ago.
The Mundy home is old and weather
beaten. Ii is a grew rambling, OLD
house. a story and half with a wide
windswent hali through the middle.
Two chimneys built outside at either
end, provide for heat in winter.
A few sleepy hounds dozed in the
back yard, only wakened when wal
nuts from the trees overhead thump-
ed them in the sides. as Mrs. Mundy
rccounted the curative fea;s Of her
brother-.n-
"Ke worked on this child last
night" she declared, indicating her
small daughter, who sat in her lap
and stared at the strange newspaper
man and his compaion. "She is abJdI
well now. but she had bad case of
thrash before Joe looked at her. Here,
honey. omen your mouth and let the
man see how you're cured up" and
the child obediently opened a mouth
from which the thrash" was disap-
pearing.
"Yes. Joe gets letters b ythe hatful.
| lust told him today he would have
to get somebody TO read and answer
them for him. Some of them we can
hardly make out, they're written so
bad. The letters come from most ev-
erywhere. -,
People have been here from North
Carolina, from Anderson county,
pretty near everywhere around here.
They come with mighty near every
sort of disease and Joe he looks at
them.
"Yes. he charges something to
heal folks, but he don't collect when
he don't cure them. No cure, no
money. is the way he works il, and
he'll wait to let you see how you're
going to get well before you pay.
He gets five dollars to cure pellagra,
bat it's worth il.
mo, he wouldn't tell how he cures
folks. lie said if he did the power
would leave him. He just looks at
them and the disease leaves. Joe
says he can feel virtue go out Of him
when he cures anybody, and then his
mouth gets sore. His mouth gets
sore after every cure, he says; stays
sore pretty much all the time, l
reckon.
"The power has been in Joe to cure
disease for years. His wife had il
and it's growing on Joe. He just
keeps on trying and he keeps on cur
ing people. There's Alice Williams,
a colored woman on the place. She
had pellagra something bad, till Joe
looked at her, and now she's well.
"And the other day. Mrs. Mollie
Nickles sent for Joe to come over to
her place quick to cure a mule that
had got cut and was bleeding. When
Joe got there the mule had pretty
near bled to death, but he looked in
the mules eye and the blood stopped.
Joe can always stop blood. He can
cure eczema easy, and most any kind
Of skin disease. Joe will try to cure
anything, but won't take any pay un-
less 1t cures.
II know Joe can cure pellagra, be-
cause he cured my daughter, Her
arms were all red and sore until Joe
looked at her. Pretty soon, they oe-
gan to scale off and now she's about
WELL" Mrs Mundy asserted.
Mundy claims that the power to
heal is handed down from female
member OF his family to a male menl-
Der and viee-versa. A member of he
same sex in the family cannot trans
nit the power to another Of that sex,
according to neiehbors. For in
stance. a mother can hand down the
power to a son, but not a daughter.
Mlndy says his power came from his
wife.
The healer is a heavy set. freckled
man. who farmed until his wife died
and his children all married. Now he
does little but hunt and heal.
Only about once week does Mundy
leave the country to visit towns. "He
goes to Abbeville nearly every Satur-
day. Mrs. A. H. Mundy says, but
he usually stays around pretty close.
He hardly ever goes down 10 Green
wood"
Mundy belongs to Gilgal Methodist
church.