The Washington herald., 1922-12-29
n SAYS DAMON
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lyon INTERESTS APPEAR TO DOMINATE TIC SESSIO
Faith a Marvellous Healer.
+ The Forerunner Of Coue.
Baseball's Healer.
/ McGraW and the Races.

NYEW YORK, Dec. 2S.-Years
~ ago this writer, a cub re-
~ porter, followed the singu-
lar doings of Francis Schlatter,
"the healer" He was the fore
runner of NJ. Coue and his auto
suggestion.
Schlatter, bewhiskered, sanity
looking, bobbed up out of no.
where, curing people in Denver,
Colo, of ailments by the simple
process described as the laying
on of hands. His only medicine
was faith.
He performed what seemed at
the time well-nigh miraculous
cures. The writer has often
wondered if all these cures were
permanent.
Many of the ailments he cured
were doubtless imaginary. How
ever, if a man thinks he is sick,
he is assuredly not well.
Thus, In many cases, Schlatter
effected a mind cure. Faith is q
marvellous tonic.
Schlatter was a tremendous
sensation for several weeks.
Thousands went to see him. Then
he disappeared as suddenly as he
came, drifting off into the desert.
Afterwards many impostors
ca ling themselves Schlatter
popped up in different parts
Of. the country, trading on his
strange fame. The real Schlat-
ter probably died soon after
quitting Denver.
CCHLATTER would take no
~ money or other reward for
his. services.
The theory promptly devel-
oped that he was insane. Then
as now people could not under
stand a man doing something
for nothing.
The impostors were not that
impractical. They were in the
Schlatter business for what
there was in it.
NJ. Coue has come a long
time after poor Schlatter, but
no one thinks NJ. Coue insane.
On the contrary his very sanity
makes him popular. Yet the
foundation of his autosugges-
tion is the thing that worked
Schlatter's apparent cures
faith.
IOHN j. McGRAW discovered
u autosuggestion in baseball
before NJ. Coue was ever
heard of.
McGraw once had a big Mis-
sion Indian catcher, John ].
Tories, called Chief Meyers.
Fora couple of seasons Meyers
was a mighty slugger, then his
batting fell off.
Like all ball players, Indians
or otherwise, Meyers loved his
batting average. He brooded
over his slump, seeking an ex-
PLANTATION. Finally he devel-
oped the idea that it was due
to the advertising signs on the
centerfield wall at the Polo
Grounds.
1t was very important to Nc
Graw that Meyers get to hit
ting again.
He tried to laugh the Indian
out of the theory that the signs
affected his batting. Meyers
persisted in the belief.
Finally McGraw went to
Harry NJ. Stevens, concession
naire at the Polo Grounds who
controls the advertising priv
ileges on the walls and asked
him to paint out the signs.
81 know it is all nonsense,
Harry" McGraw said. ''The
signs have nothing to do with
his slump. But he thinks he
can't hit while they are there,
and as long as he thinks he
can't hit, why he can't hit"
BASEBALL has long had its
- own private healer, a man
called "Bonesetter" Reese.
Reese does not willingly en-
ploy autosuggestion in his
methods. However, he has at
tanned such reputation that the
average ball player, highly i'm
aginative in the matter of pain
goes to him with a faith that is
undoubtedly an important factor
In the cure.
This man lives in the lively
city of Youngstown, Ohio. He
was once a worker in the steel
mills. Assisting injured CO.
workers, he discovered one day
that he had much natural ia
cility for the treatment of in
juries to bone ana muscle.
He got to treating ball players,
gradually attaining note, until at
one time he had almost a monop-
oly on handling the injured play
ers Of the big leagues.
Reese's methods, as described
TO the writer by ball players
treated by him, suggest osteop-
athy. He uses his hands in his
nninistrations.
1t is quite conceivable that any
physician could do the same
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