PEASANT MIRACLE DOCTOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 219, 15 September 1924, Page 8

PEASANT MIRACLE DOCTOR.

HERB HEALER IN STYRIA. BESIEGED BY THOUSANDS. Some time ago the Maharajah of Dharampul arrived in Vienna with a large suite and seventy heavy chests. The other day the ailing Maharajah left Vienna for the little place of Stainz, near Graz, the capital of Styria, in order to consult there the Wunderdoktor (miracle doctor),''Johann Reinbachcr, popularly called Hollerhansl. He inhabits a cottage and receives his patients or their emissaries, in a consulting-room which serves as a waiting-room as well, where he diagnoses his visitor's illness from secretions. He is described as a meagre peasant, with sharp features, who works in a blue apron and with a hat on his head, assisted by his "secretary," a boy of 16 or 17, who writes out the prescriptions. As. a rule his medicines are somple, consisting mostly of herbs. Immense crowds flock to his place, «who wait for many hours, sometimes even a whole night and part of the following day, until their turn comes, so that 'frequently he starts work at 4 a.m., pausing only for short intervals for meals. Owing to his lack of time he is unable to answer the numberless letters of inquiry that reach him daily. Being a very Catholic, he does not receire patients" on Sundays. He built a chapel and a large church at Stainz. His popularity is so wide throughout Styria that the doctors have ostracised him as a most dangerous competitor, and from time to time the authorities attempt to make things uncomfortable for him. His earnings are declared to be enormous.