THE GOLDEN CHARIOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9082, 16 June 1888, Page 3

THE GOLDEN CHARIOT.

CANADIAN HEALERS AT WORK. THE SCENE DESCRIBED. THE HALT, MAIMED, AND BLIND. SUDDEN CURES. WHOLESALE TOOTH EXTRACTING. The talk of the town just now is not about the tariff, or the Chinese question, or tho depression, but about the extraordinary cures which are said to have been wrought

by a female doctor near the Waverley Hotel. Educated people generally did not put much faith in the accounts of what had been done, knowing how easily the public are gulled by those who hawk about " cure-all" nostrums. Under these circumstances an accurate description of what is actually taking place is sure to be of value. There would not be room for a full report of all that was done yesterday afternoon, but wo think the following will bo sufficient to give a fair idea of the scones which are being enacted every afternoon near the Waverley Hotol. By two o'clock yesterday afternoon a crowd of from 1200 to 1500 people had collected in the vacant allotment beside the Waverley Hotel. The rows of express carts were tilled with people. The windows of the hotel across the road were crowded. Men were roosting liko fowls all along the hoarding adjacent to the Waverley. Every vantage point was occupied. In the crowd were old men, little children, pretty young girls, married women and single, sailors and marines in uniform, workingmen of all kinds, artisans who had worked through their dinner hour to got free for an hour in the afternoon to buy some medicine, and see the woman who they heard had wrought such wondrous cures. Sprinkled through the crowd were people with bandaged heads, hands in slings, and all tho deaf, dumb, halt, maimed, and blind, apparently, in Auckland.

Shortly after two the "golden chariot," drawn by three white horses, was driven down Queen-street by a little woman in black. Besides hor sat a quiet, foreignlooking man, with a fair complexion and brown beard also dressed in black, and behind them was a brass band, playing gaily. They drove right into the heart of the crowd, and commenced operations at once. The crowd swayed to and fro, and would-be patients struggled violently to get near. Dozens of hands seized tho waggon and struggled for precedenco in getting their maladies treated. A sea of pale, careworn, wrinkled, miserable faces, many of them bandaged, thronged round the waggon. The man waved them back.

" De lady doctor will begin now on dis side of de waggon to pull teeth." " Now then," said the crowd, laughing, " now's the time to get j'our ivories out." Meanwhile the woman was busy getting her instruments out of a case, and laying them in order on a tray beside her on tho seat of the buggy. She is a little woman, a French Canadian, with a coil of glossy black hair, regular features, a pleasant kindly expression on her face. She is dressed in deep mourning, and wears a snowy white apron. On her lingers were a number of rings with magnificent diamonds in them, as large almost as small beans, and on her wrist a splendid diamond bracelet.

Tho first part of the programrao was tooth-pulling. A woman was the first patient. She lay back in the carriage, opened her mouth, and three stumps of teeth were out almo?t in as many seconds, ovidently without pain, and to the patient's manifest astonishment.

" You who want your teeth out, put up your hands." Up went a forest of hands. " Dis side only for toots," says the lady with a pretty, quaint accent which sets tho crowd laughing good humouredly. Sho waves her hand, the music begins, and another patient, a man, steps up, leans back in the carriago, opens his mouth and points to a tooth. She examines the mouth, gives a series of little nods and smiles, nicks up a pair of pincere, and in a few seconds whips out 10 teeth, amid tho laughter and applause of tho crowd. Tho next was a little child crying , . Madam pats heron the cheek in a motherly way, smiles, and three teeth are out in a twinkling. In this case—almost the only one—the child evidently felt the pain severely, and screamed. Three shillings were slipped in her hand by the doctress before she was dismissed. This was a common occurrence afterwards, as nearly all the children treated received a present of a shilling or two. A jaunty young larrikin followed. He wanted a back tooth out. She selected a powerful pair of forceps, stood up on the seat over him, and wrenched out a big long-fangcd molar. He gives a little groan of agony, but he received scant sympathy from the crowd, who laughed outright. This scene went on for some time, a continual stream of patients getting in at one side and out at the other, minus one or more " toote," in almost all cases without wincing or changing colour in the slightest degree. Many indeed would point confidingly to another tooth when ono was pulled, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world to get teeth pulled. A woman had six out in as many seconds. '' How many?" was the cry. " Six toots," says tho lady. " Dear, dear, wonderful! Six tootses !" say the crowd laughing. " She talks like a child with her tootsies," says a girl of the crowd ; " fancy sitting up there in front of all the young fellows r

Then madam begins to speak to the crowd in French, while the husband translates in broken English. "It's not because sho wants to make money," says her husband. " I no like it at all—money," she joins in. (" Hear, hear," and laughter from the crowd.)

" Non! Ino like it at all, po,sdu tout." Then she went on in French, her husband translating. " Some people say, ' But, madam, if you don't like money why do you come here and work like this ?' It's because she likes work ; if she do noting it is like being in a coffin—she might as well be in the cemetery if she do noting." " You must work for uzzers !" said her husband translating. " Not for yourself, you understand," she broke in in English. " You must work for uzzers because they are so poor and suffering ; she believes she is skillful, and very e.ble and proficient." " Out" she broke in—" I am very skilfool, yes I can do much good." ("Hear, hear," and cheers from the crowd.)

" She will bet £100 that no ono in New Zealand will do better than she can do. Yen, she is good for something." Then the music started, and there was more tooth-pulling. It was a woman, and as madame whipped out the teeth she kept nodding and saying " Oui, lam good for something," while the great diamonds on her hands flashed fire in tho sunlight, and the band played bravely. " One," said the crowd counting, "2, 3, ■i, 5 (Oh !), 6 (My word), 7 (laughter), 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (cheers)."

" 12 out, and she wants sorr.s more," said tho lady laughing gleefully as she held up the twelfth tooth in the jawa of a great ugly forceps. 13, 14, counted the crowd,' and then at last the patient was satisfied, madam stopped, and the crowd cheered madly. Thin was the end of the tooth-pulling, and a heavy, helpless, old woman was lifted into the carriage. " Ob, that is Mrs. Reed," said one of the crowd. "We tried to get her down yesterday, but she would not come."—She had been paralysed for 30 years, and could not move her hands, and suffered from gout and rheumatism.

" She'll cure her," they said in the crowd. "They made an old woman of 94 dance yesterday." An old man named Rubie, an oysterman, who seemed well known to the crowd, also got up. He was stone deaf, they said. She took an instrument and examined his ears, and then nodded to herself. Some of the patent medicine, the "Canadian Perfume," was put on bits of wadding and stuffed in his ears, and he was left so for about r half-an-hour, while she turned her attention to Mrs. Reed.

" Will you hold up your hands who know this woman ?" Eight or nine hands were held up, and someone said she was a resident of Ponsonhy. " Some say we bring our patients from Canada with us." (Aha! and laughter

from the crowd.) "Now you know dat is not true." (Applause.) " That woman is jusfc like a bag of potatoes, you cannot move her, not at all. I try to do my best, I cannot cure all de people ; I do not claim to make a miracle." ("Now, we'll see," they cried, "she'll doit.") The hood of the buggy was pulled up, the man Rubie was turned out, and a bib of damask curtain was held up in front of the hood, while the lotion was applied to the old woman. Then the band struck up. Boom, pom, pom ; boom, pom, pom ; and the crowd began to beat time and the boys to whistle, while they waited. Then the hood was lowered and the curtain taken away, and the patients were allowed to rest, while the virtues of the "Canadian Perfume" and the "Powder Precieuse" were explained, also the manner of using them. The maa mixed up some of the powder in a decanter of water, and explained its "blood purifying" properties. To show its harmless nature he poured out a glassful and drank it. " Good luck to you," old boy," said the crowd.

A cupful of this mixture was given to each of the patients, and they were left for a while.

A man named Pyke, understood to bo a butcher's assistant, at this stage came up to be treated for a tumour at the back of his head, Some of the lotion was applied and his head bound with a handkerchief. He also was dismissed for a time. In about a quarter of an hour he was summoned again. "A two twin tumour" said the man. The crowd laughed add repeated his words. "If she removes that sho's a very clever woman. Oh, she'll do it. The doctors could not do it; they said the man would bleed to death. She doesn't use no knife. By George ! I'll get a bottle of that stuff. She's passed her diplurna. Of course she has, don't you make any mistake about that. I saw her in Plymouth in 1880. What's her name? Duplo, or something." That is what the crowd said.

While her husband attended to Pyke, madam operated on Rubie's ears with a peculiar looking pair of forceps. Out of each oar she cut a bit of red matter about the size of a pea, which she displayed to tho crowd. Then she said, " You are a long time deaf ?" " Yes," ho replied in a high voice, not yet adjusted apparently to his new-found sense of hearing. "How long you been deaf ?" " Fifteen years." " That's right," said one, " there's no rubbish about that, that's reality." " And she charges nothing," said another. "Do you know this man ?" she asked. " Oh, we all know him," cried many voices. Rubie then came forward and said he was perfectly satisfied. " Good on you," and the crowd cheered. Pyke's turn now enme. The husband wrapped a bit of cloth round the tumour and wrenched it out by main force. Two large white irregular masses, each about an inch in diameter, displayed themselves amid the doad silence of the crowd.

" I told you it was a twin," said the husband. "Anybody can do it on an animal, ft horse, with tho medicine." Madam picked up the tumours, stuck them on the prongs of a forceps, and showed them to the crowd. " What nerve she has !" said a big, rough sailor, "I couldn't touch them things." " There's no deception about that," said another. *' There's no two ways about it, she's a clever woman !" said a third. "I'll believe in medical science after this," said a fourth. And so it went on. It would be tedious to describe all that took place. Sufiice it to say that Mrs. Reed was enabled to walk, slowly and heavily it is true, but she could walk. We understand she went up Queen-street alone. Possibly she may have been able to walk before, but it certainly did not seem like it, and as the crowd expressed it, after the treatment she seemed to be a new woman.

When Mrs. Reed went away they started selling medicine at 3s (id for the bottle, and powder. Hats were passed up from all parts with money in them, and for '24 minutes they were as busy as they could be, raking in money and sending out tho packages at the rate of 10 to 1(5 bottles a minute by the watch. When the bottles got about, a peculiar resinous, ethereal, penetrating emell was perceptible. A case containing ifi fine gold and silver medals .was displayed after this. " She's the monarch of all diseases," says one. "By Jove, she is," said another. "Keating," said a red-coated marine, " I wouldn't trust her in a London mob ?" "No," said his friend, a sailor, "not with all that money." " What a kind smile ia on her face," said one. "Yes," said another, "nothing ever ruffles her temper." Two or three other cures were performed ; there was more tooth-pulling, and finally more medicine sold. Reckoning by the whole time of selling and the number of packages sold per minute there must have been some £50 worth disposed of.

A reporter went up afterwards to the Star Hotel, and learned that th« name of the lady doctor was Madame Josephine Duflot, formerly Madame Enault. Mr. Paul Duflot is her second husband, and they are both French Canadians. She has for 25 years been travelling about in her " golden chariot," creating an immense sensation everywhere. M. Duflot showed the reporter a Belgian diploma for both himself and wife. It was headed " La Commission Medicale," and was an old and tattered document. "Vis 6" and stamped with all kinds of official seals—German, French, Italian, and signatures of chiefs of police. Then were shown two volumes of testimonials, and page after page of official letters of thanks from hospitals for donations of £25, £50, 1000 francs, 3500 francs. There were literally hundreds of them, and notifications that M. Duflot had been elected life governor of this hospital, and that hospital, Bendigo, New Orleans-, Texas, small French country towns—everywhere, apparently. A volume of newspaper notices was also shown —Canadian, United States, French, German, and English. The headings of some of the articles were very curious. For instance, "Trioraphe de S. M. la Ileine de la Denture," " Empress of Disease and Physic," " Beauty Easing Pain," "Plus de Mai aux Dents," "The talk of the Town," "An Angel of Mercy/ , "Touching Scenes," "A Good Samaritan," and so on. Therte was a certificate from the Belgian Consul at Melbourne that the diploma was regular. From our Registrar-General at Wellington, -was a letter stating that he was in possession of their dental diploma. The case of medals was also shown. The principal was the " Legion d'Honneur," presented to Madame Duflot by Napoleon 111. Another, a large gold one, was from the King of the Belgians. There were many others from private persons presented, "nan settlement pour .son grand talent, mais mrlout pour son humanite.'" From Fort Worth, Texas, was a specially interesting testimonial, given because, while small-pox was raging thero, and hundreds were dying daily, they never flinched from their duty, and worked without pay. There were also a number of photographs showing huge crowds, and the "golden chariot" in the centre. 4

" Why do you work in tin's way ?" asked the reporter. "To advertise our medicine. In the ordinary way it would take £1000 and six months to introduce it into a town. Now you see we do it in a few days. Our medicine is selling all over the world." They had como first to Adolaide, he explained, arid after working through Australia, landed in Dunedin, where they stayed four months. In Christchurch they stayed three months, and would have been there still had they not met with a terrible accident. Madame Duflot's son, the oldest of seven children, a fine young fellow, about '20 years, was drowned in Lake Ellesmere while on a shooting excursion. Sho was heartbroken, and could stay in Christchurch no longer.