Part 2

Every one knows Sir James Fitzjames Stephen; most people have heard of Mr. Leslie Stephen--the two most distinguished members of the Stephen family resident in this country. The Stephen clan, however, is widespread, and there are eminent Stephens scattered all over the world. "Any Stephen," said Mr. Froude in his "Oceanea," "could not fail to be interesting." Sir Alfred Stephen, the deputy governor of New South Wales, is declared by Mr. Froude to be regarded as the greatest Australian, by nine out of every ten of the people of Sydney. But the judicial renown of Fitzjames, the literary fame of Leslie, and the colonial reputation of Sir Alfred, all pale their ineffectual fires before the marvellous claims of George Milner Stephen, across whom Mr. Froude stumbled in New Zealand, and who has now turned up unexpectedly in London. He is, as Mr. Froude said, a very noticeable person. In fact, he is a thaumaturgist of the first order. While his relatives in the old country have devoted all the energy of their intellect to demonstrate the absurdity of all the superstitions built upon any arbitrary interference with the invariable laws of nature, their kinsman George Milner suddenly displays at the antipodes a gift of healing which, if the veracious records of colonial and American newspapers can be relied upon, rivals the most famous exploits of apostolic times. Not, indeed, that George Milner has yet raised the dead to life. That is beyond his powers. But all the minor marvels, such as making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk, are accomplished by him in the ordinary course of his daily practice. Although this miracle-working Stephen is a physician whose patients are healed by the touch, he is nevertheless a physician practising the healing art like other eminent authorities--for the prescribed fee of the ordinary medical practitioners. The only difference is that whereas the ordinary physician attends his patient daily for weeks and sometimes months, Mr. Stephen's course, if a course at all, ends at the latest in three visits, and the charges, therefore, are correspondingly low. Two guineas for consultation fee, one guinea each subsequent visit, or four guineas at the outside, are to be regarded as his retaining fee; but in those cases--and they are said to constitute a large proportion of those submitted to him--in which he effects a complete cure he naturally expects to be remembered by the grateful patient whom he has restored to health. This, however, by the way. In response to an invitation to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ office, Mr. George Milner Stephen described to a member of our staff with much detail the nature of his work. It is a sufficiently marvelous story to arouse attention, even on the part of the incredulous; and the unbelieving authorities owe it to the public to institute a series of investigations into their relative's claims, in order that he may either be claimed as the master healer of his age, or summarily prosecuted as a rogue and vagabond, who is obtaining money under false pretences. It is monstrous that a gentleman of his rank and position should be allowed to go at large, making such enormous claims of quasi-supernatural powers, without having them promptly brought to the most rigorous of scientific tests.

Mr. George Milner Stephen is a man of wide and varied culture, of great experience in affairs, and has spent his life in public service of the most varied kind. Brought up to the bar, he has been a trained lawyer all his life. He has been acting-governor of South Australia; he refused the colonial secretaryship of New Zealand; he has been official draftsman for the colony of Victoria; he has held the balance of power in more than one colony; and in the colony of New South Wales, at the time when he suddenly discovered his miraculous powers, he was leading counsel on circuit, and in receipt of one of the largest professional incomes of any lawyer at the antipodes. Nor was his training solely colonial. He had repeatedly visited England, and had been called to our bar. He takes a keen interest in mineralogical science, and in the course of his career has exhibited on more than one occasion great personal bravery and indomitable nerve. That such a man, so highly connected, so carefully trained, with the intellect of a lawyer and the experience of a statesman, should be in our midst claiming to be endowed with the gift of healing spoken of in the New Testament as vouchsafed to the Christians of apostolic times, is a portent indeed, and one well worthy of the attentive consideration of the most sceptical among us.

"It was six and a half years ago," said Mr. Stephen in reply to a question, "that I first discovered that I possessed this gift of healing--it was by pure accident. A friend who suffered from deafness jokingly appealed to me to give him back his hearing. I, also in joke, made some passes over his head, when to my utter astonishment I discovered that his deafness disappeared. One experiment of this kind led to another, and in a short time I found myself overwhelmed with patients of high and low degree, begging me to heal them of their diseases. For three months after the discovery of my gift the sudden influx of patients who would not be denied left me no time to attend to my practice; and, willy nilly, I was compelled to give up the law and take to medicine--if you may call by the name of medicine a profession in which no medicine is given."

"Then do you use no medicine at all?"

"None whatever. The nearest approach to medicine that I ever gave to a patient is a little magnetized ointment--that is, camphorated lard, and a little magnetized oil. But it is only occasionally that I use these. Neither do I use passes, although it was by the use of passes that I first discovered that I possessed this gift."

"But how do you proceed?"

"Variously. Sometimes I lay my hand upon the part affected; at other times I breathe into the eye, ear, or mouth of the patient. Then, again, on other occasions I am able to banish the disease by a mere word or gesture."

"Are you a mesmerist or a magnetic healer?"

"Mesmerist I am not; for mesmerism implies the throwing of the patient into a mesmeric sleep. Neither am I a magnetist, properly so called, for there is no outgoing of magnetism from my body when I am healing. The ordinary magnetist admits that he cannot cure more than four persons per diem; I have cured as many as thirty, and beyond the weariness caused by standing, I have been no worse at the end than at beginning."

"How do you explain these miracles?"

"I don't call them miracles. They are marvels, and I cannot explain them. All that I know is that I have gone through the Australian colonies, New Zealand, and many of the States in America, and that wherever I have gone the same effect followed. At my touch, diseases and defects declared incurable by the first physicians of the faculty, disappear. I remember well healing Sir James Martin, the chief justice of New South Wales. Six years ago he was given up by the doctors and declared to be dying, breathing with great difficulty, and hardly able to speak without pain. I laid my hand upon his chest, and in a few minutes all difficulty of breathing disappeared, he was able to speak freely, and in a short time he had completely recovered. He resumed his seat upon the bench, and remained a hale, active man till his death, which occurred just the other day. That is only one case out of many."

"How many?"

"I think I have been the means of healing about 30,000 patients in the six and a half years during which I have devoted my time to the work. Of course many of those patients were suffering from diseases which might have been cured by ordinary means. Others were declared to be incurable."

"Declared to be incurable by whom?"

"By the chief physicians in the colonies. I have in my pocket"--producing the papers as he spoke--"certificates signed by the witnesses, attested sometimes by magistrates, and at other times by ministers of religion and colonial ministers, that the person named in the certificate has received instantaneous relief by my touch. Here is one in which a person stone-blind from birth received sight when I blew into his eyes."

"Then do you cure all diseases?"

"Certainly not. There are many things which I cannot do. I cannot raise the dead, nor can I restore an arm which has been cut off, a joint which has been excised, or an eye which has been destroyed. When there has been complete destruction of any important organ I cannot effect a cure; but when destruction of the organ has not been complete, I am frequently able to effect a cure in cases which the regular faculty have given up as utterly hopeless."

"Take cancer, for instance: can you cure that?"

"I have treated some cases with remarkable success; but of course I can do so only when the cancer has not eaten too far into the vital organism of the sufferer. I have treated some thirty cancer cases, the cure in all being complete. The treatment was that of laying my hands over the part affected, anointing with a little magnetized ointment, and sometimes the injection of magnetized oil. Beyond that I do nothing. I have here records of ten cures of cancer in all parts of the body. If you will glance over the accounts, described by the newspapers at the time when they occurred, or copies of the certificates which I leave with you, you will see that there is almost no limit to the variety of the cures which I have been able to effect."

"That is all very well, Mr. Stephen, but you will not make converts by newspaper extracts. The point is this: Will you consent to submit your gift to a practical test?"

"Certainly," said he; "I have already written to Sir Baldwin Leighton, asking him if he can place me in communication with the governors of deaf, dumb, and blind asylums, in order that I may be able to try my powers upon the patients of those institutions. I am quite satisfied that if I am allowed a fair opportunity of trying the effect of my healing touch, ten out of every hundred of the inmates of these asylums will receive their sight, or regain their speech and hearing. I ask for no payment: I simply request that in these institutions which are maintained by the public charity for the relief of helpless sufferers, and where, therefore, there can be no collusion or any suspicion of trickery or fraud, I should be allowed to lay my hands upon the eyes or the ears of the inmates. I can do them no harm; and I am perfectly sure that in at least ten per cent of the cases I shall be able to give great if not entire relief."

"This is all very well; but before you can expect the governors of public institutions to allow you to touch their inmates there must be a preliminary illustration of your power. Otherwise they would say justly that they would be over-run with quacks, all of whom might wish to try a patent nostrum upon the unfortunate 'inmates of public institutions.'"

"Very well," said Mr. Stephen, "I am willing to submit my gift to the most stringent test which your scientific sceptics can suggest. I am willing to give an exhibition of my power under any test, in the presence of any picked number of sceptics whom you may nominate, and you may bring there half a dozen cases of disease certified by the faculty as incurable. Of course you will not bring sufferers whose complaints are manifestly beyond my power to cure. As I said before, I make no claim to restore organs that are destroyed, but there is a sufficiently wide category in the complaints 'that flesh is heir to' to afford you an ample choice of half a dozen typical incurable cases. When the deaf, dumb, lame, and otherwise suffering persons whom you wish experimented on have been brought and are in the presence of those whom you shall name, I will undertake to effect an immediate improvement in the condition of, say, four out of the six. It will probably become a complete cure on the second or third visit. I seldom or never see a patient more than thrice."

"Well, that seems fair. You have no objection to my publishing this offer in the _Pall Mall Gazette_?"

"None. I make no profession to any skill. I can only exercise a power which I discovered quite accidentally was vested in me. The limits of that I can ascertain only by experience. I am perfectly willing to have that power subjected to the severest tests which you can suggest, and I have no doubt at all, from the invariable experience of the last six years, that cures will be effected for which no existing scientific hypothesis can adequately account."

The _Gazette_ says in another column:--"We commend the challenge of Mr. George Milner Stephen, which we publish in another column, to the special attention of all interested in the exposure of popular delusion. Here is an educated English barrister of unimpeachable character, who has rendered no little service to the state, informing all the faculty that he can heal patients whom they have dismissed as incurable, by merely breathing on them or touching them. In an ordinary, unknown, vulgar charlatan this challenge might have passed unnoticed. In the case of the Australian cousin of Mr. Justice Fitzjames Stephen it must be treated more seriously. We invite communications from our scientific readers as to the best way of putting our visitor to the test."

Scores of American healers do similar works to those of Dr. G. M. Stephen, but the fashionable press ignores them because they have not wealth and social position. The JOURNAL OF MAN will endeavor to do them justice. In all such cases, in which the healing power is inexhaustible, we know that it is replenished from spiritual sources. Dr. Stephen exercises a little policy in not mentioning the spiritual source of his power. Godless science and dead sectarianism recoil from spirit life. No human constitution contains an inexhaustible fountain of life--the fountain is above, and fortunate are they who can reach it.

HUMAN LONGEVITY.

The possibility of long life, illustrated in the first number of this JOURNAL, may easily be corroborated by referring to numerous examples; but the fact that the nobler qualities of human nature are the most efficient promoters of longevity is our most important lesson, and it is illustrated by the superior longevity of women. He is a misanthrope who does not recognize their superior virtue, and he is a poor statesman who does not wish to see that virtue imparted to our political life, and who does not recognize the importance of giving to woman the most perfect intellectual and industrial education, that she may be self supporting. The British census show that there are 948,000 more women than men in Great Britain. The _St. James Gazette_ says:--

"Prof. Humphry of Cambridge has prepared a series of tables which contain some interesting information about centenarians. Of 52 persons whom he mentions, at least 11--2 males and 9 females--actually attained the age of 100. Others attained very nearly to the hundred years. Only one of the persons reached 108 years, while one died at the alleged age of 106. Of the 52 persons, 36 were women and 16 men. Out of the 36 women 26 had been married, and 11 had borne large families. Of the 26 who had been wives, 8 had married before they were 20, 1 at 16, and 2 at 17.

"Twelve of the fifty-two centenarians were discovered to have been the eldest children of their parents. This fact, adds Dr. Humphry, does not agree with popular notions that first children inherit a feebleness of constitution, nor with the opinion of racing stables, which is decidedly against the idea that 'firstlings' are to be depended on for good performances on the course. The centenarians generally regarded were of spare build. Gout and rheumatism were as a rule, absent. 'It seems,' says Prof. Humphry, 'that the frame which is destined to great age needs no such prophylactics, and engenders none of the peccant humors for which the finger joints (as in gout) may find a vent.'

"Of the fifty-two aged people, twenty-four only had no teeth, the average number of teeth remaining being four or five. Long hours of sleep were notable among these old people, the period of repose averaging nine hours; while out-of-door exercise in plenty and early rising are to be noted among the factors of a prolonged life. One of the centenarians 'drank to excess on festive occasions:' another was a 'free beer drinker,' and 'drank like a fish during his whole life.' Twelve had been total abstainers for life or nearly so, and mostly all were 'small meat eaters.'"

The oldest woman in Austria at this time is Magdalene Ponza, who is 112. "She was born at Wittingau, Bohemia, in 1775, when Maria Theresa sat on the Austrian throne. George III. had then been but 15 years King of England, Louis XVI. who had ruled a little more than a twelvemonth in France, was still in the heyday of power, the Independence of the United States of America had not yet been declared, Napoleon and Arthur Wellesley were as yet but six years old. Magdalene Ponza retains full possession of her mental faculties. Unfortunately she can only speak the Czech language, and she can neither read nor write. However, she answers questions briskly enough through the youngest of her surviving grandchildren, herself a woman of 60. Magdalene Ponza's age is authenticated by the outdoor relief certificate of the Viennese Municipality."

Of American centenarians we have a number, some of whom are still living. Harrisonville, New Jersey, has two, Michael Potter and Bartholomew Coles. Polly Wilcox of Hope Valley, R. I., celebrated her centennial last year; so did Jane Wilcox of Edgecomb, Maine, while she had a sister 94, and a daughter 81. Old Auntie Scroggins, of Forsyth Co., Georgia, is now 104 years old, and is still one of the most effective shouters of the Methodist Church to which she has belonged 94 years.

Miss Phebe Harrod, of Newburyport, Mass., celebrated her centennial last year. She still takes a lively interest in passing events.

Grandmother Sarah Drew, at Halifax, celebrated her centennial a year ago. Her constant companion is an old Bible which has been in the Drew family for 250 years.

Mrs. Triphene Bevans, of Danbury, Mass., held a lively centennial reception in the parlors of the West Street Church, April 14, 1886. Her health, hearing and speech were good, and her step brisk. She attributes her age and good health to good habits and allowing nothing to trouble or worry her. She has always been a strict church member.

William Waterman, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is said to be 109 years old. It is said he "is a Methodist, uses liquor and tobacco, and finds no fault with the world."

Joseph O'Neal of Barnesville, Georgia, might have been living still if he had not been frozen to death last winter, at the age of 107, in a sudden blizzard. He was a negro, and had over 200 descendants.

Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, of Reading, Penn., who had lived a century, might be still living if she had not been killed last year, while walking on the railroad track.

Of those who overrun the century, we might mention further, Simon Harras, who died in Putnam Co., Indiana, last January, aged 109. His memory was good to the last.

Mrs. Elizabeth Small, relict of Dr. Samuel Small, at Lewiston, Maine, had passed her hundredth birthday a few weeks, when she died of apoplexy; and Mrs. Susan Phillips, of Wilson Creek, N. C., died last year just as she finished her century.

Nathan, formerly slave of Benj. W. Bodie, died last year in Mississippi, Talbot Co., aged 107.

Christopher Mann, of Independence, Missouri, died last year, aged 111.

The oldest of all, and probably the oldest minister in the world, is Rev. Thos. Tenant, of Vineyard Township, Arkansas, an itinerant Methodist preacher, born in 1771, now in his 116th year.

Mr. Edward Gentry told a more remarkable story at Indianapolis, last July. He was at the governor's office, and gentlemen were guessing at his age. None supposed him over fifty; but he said he had a son fifty-two years old, and was himself seventy-eight. He added: "My doctor has given me a fifty years' longer lease on my life, barring accidents. My father is 128 and is still living. My mother died at the age of 117, and her mother lived to the same age." Mr. Gentry is of English birth.

Perhaps the best specimen of family health is that of the Atkinson family of Gloucester, Mass. Nine children were born, and all lived. The first death in the family was a few weeks ago, when John Atkinson died, aged eighty-four. When he died the ages of the nine amounted to 703 years.

Aunt Dinah John, the oldest Indian at the Onondaga reservation died in May, 1884, aged 109.

About ten years ago, when Governor Seymour was about to make an address at an Indian fair on the Onondaga reservation, Aunt Dinah walked upon the platform and asked to be introduced to him.

Mr. Gardner said, "Governor Seymour, this is Aunt Dinah, who wants to become acquainted with you."

"Oh, no; him get acquainted with me," Aunt Dinah explained. "Me know him before he know anybody. Many years ago me go to Pompey Hill, his father's grocery. Governor's father say: 'My squaw very sick.' I ask, 'What matter?' His father say, 'Go in and see for yourself.' He go into a room; see a little pappoose about a foot long." Then moving toward Governor Seymour, and pointing her finger at him, she said: "That pappoose was you, Governor Seymour, born that night."

Aunt Dinah called frequently at Mr. Seymour's and took especial delight in rocking the cradle and showering caresses in her native fashion upon the future Governor of the State.

About three years ago she became blind, and has since been kept at her home on the Onondaga reservation. She retained her faculties to the last. Her husband died thirty years ago. Her dying request was that the pagan ceremony be first observed and afterward the Christian ritual.

What are we to reckon, says the _Home Journal_, as the declining period of man's existence? The point at which old age taps us on the shoulder, and says it comes to keep us company, varies with every individual. It depends a great deal on circumstances, which are hardly the same in any two cases. Some writers have said that a man is old at forty-five, others have set down seventy as the normal standard. Dr. John Gardner, who has written on "Longevity," remarks: "Long observation has convinced me that sixty-three is an age at which the majority of persons may be termed old, and as a general rule we may adopt this as the epoch of the commencing decline of life."