Word: cudney
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hobbling, crawling, shoving, shrieking, the crowd of blacks and whites pushed five policemen into the Mississippi River in their inordinate eagerness to reach John Cudney. For his "miracles" of healing the scrawny, bearded, old Canadian who used to peddle kindling prescribed no medicines, charged no fees...
That was in New Orleans in 1920. Next spring Los Angeles police stopped John Cudney's meetings on "Miracle Hill" because lepers were mixing with the crowds. But his Los Angeles sponsor, Mrs. Ella Farley, had already cleaned up with picture postcards of him at 25? each and her brother had cleared $4,000 on the "Miracle Hill" soda pop concession. U. S. postal authorities continued to permit thousands of handkerchiefs to be sent to him for blessing, because he made no charge...
...Venice, nearby beach resort, built a "Miracle City" for him. The Bureau had to make him quit at 8 o'clock every evening to give its other concessions a chance. One day in September he manipulated the limbs of a longtime rheumatic. Next day she died and John Cudney was arrested for manslaughter. When a jury acquitted him six months later he marched from the courtroom on a path of flowers...
...kept on marching, out of Los Angeles. Seattle had him for a while, and other towns in the Northwest. Four years ago he turned up in Oroville, Calif., an old mining town, a little whiter, a little scrawnier and no longer plain John Cudney. He was now Brother Isaiah, 88th & last incarnation of the prophet Isaiah. On a rocky hillside he built a great ramshackle temple for his collection of handkerchiefs, canes and crutches, a colony of tents for 40-odd followers whom he called "Immortals." "I shall live forever," he told them, "and so shall you if you obey...
| 1 |