not venture to pronounce what it
was; but that lady returned to her home perfectly cured
of her distressing malady. More than that--cured
completely, from that moment, forward."[198]

About the same time, Mrs. Elizabeth Mix, a negro woman living in
Connecticut, achieved great fame through her healing by prayer. Many
testified to the efficacy of her prayers and bewailed her death.

[Illustration: GEORGE O. BARNES]

Francis Schlatter (1856-1909) was a native of Alsace, France. He was
born a Roman Catholic and, so far as he was affiliated with any
denomination, always remained one. When a year old, he was blind and
deaf and was cured by his mother's prayers. He came to America in
1891, and first settled at Jamestown, Long Island. Early in 1893 he
moved to Denver, Colorado, and in the following July he felt impelled
by inner promptings to start out, he knew not whither. Probably
mentally unbalanced, he wandered through the wilderness of the great
Southwest without shoes or hat. Fasts, temptations, visions, arrests
and imprisonments, and healings combined to furnish his experience
during these wanderings, always, as he said, being led by the Father.
In July, 1895, he arrived at Las Lunas, New Mexico, where he first
attracted public attention as a healer. From here he went to
Albuquerque, where he treated as many as six hundred persons in a day,
many very effectively. After forty days' fast, which was broken by a
hearty meal of solid food, he went to Denver and here reached the
pinnacle of his fame and success. At the home of a sympathizer, daily
from 9 A. M. to 4 P. M., he treated those who came to him, always
without any remuneration. From two thousand to five thousand people
would congregate in line, reaching nearly around a city block, five or
six abreast, but he was never able to treat more than two thousand in
a day. Crowds came from other cities, and some few from great
distances, even the New England States. He stood inside a fence, and
as each one came along he held the patient's hand for a short time;
lifting up his eyes, he prayed and then assured the sufferer of
relief within a certain time. Through the mail and in other ways he
received handkerchiefs which he blessed and returned with assurance of
relief through them. Not all cases handled were restored to health or
even noticeably eased, but large numbers testified to cures, some of
which came immediately and others by degrees. He did not preach.
Altho