Paralyzed Child Healed

Miss Katherine Most of 120 Watchung Avenue, Plainfield, New Jersey, yesterday (October 18th, 1906) discussed with a reporter the remarkable cure of six-year-old Frank Luji of Redmond Street, who has been reclaimed from a cripple’s life through the Christian Scientist’s treatment. Six weeks ago, this boy was totally paralyzed and unable to help himself. Now he has thrown away the iron braces which had been used on his body, and he is able to walk and feed himself. The home news told Monday how the boy had suffered from infancy, how he had lost the use of his arms, and how his spinal column had become affected soon after birth. how his father tried the best physicians in the land without any improvement in the boy’s condition, and how at last he had given the boy over to a Christian Scientist. It appears that Mr. Luji had first heard of the Christian Science treatment through a fellow workman named Anderson, who at one time had been a sufferer from sciatica. He had been cured by Christian Science treatment and was a firm believer in the doctrine. He advised Luji to take the boy to New York to be treated by the healers of the Christian Science Church there.

Luji did not take the boy to New York, where the Scientists told him the child would have to undergo what is known as present treatment, or in other words, be constantly in the presence of the healer. Miss Katherine Most of Plainfield was recommended. She being the healer living nearest to New Brunswick. The father took his son to Miss Most’s home six weeks ago. She told him he would have to leave the child and not visit at intervals more frequently than once every three weeks or every month. Luji agreed to this proposition. When Miss Most put the little boy to bed that night, she removed the cast and braces that had held his weak little body together for many years and threw them in a closet. After treating praying for the child by prayers and supplication for two weeks, the little fellow was able to turn over in the bed and move his arms. One week later, the child could get out of bed, and soon after that, he was able to walk downstairs and, at meal times, took his place at the table with the other members of the family. Last week, Miss Most took the little boy for a walk to the Watchung Mountains, and since then, he has accompanied her on shopping tours through the city. Tuesday, Miss Most took him to New York, and while a reporter was talking to her at her home yesterday about the child, he abruptly entered the room and told about his trip to the city himself, and finally said he was going there again someday. Miss Most is about forty years old, of slender build and refined manner, with her sister, Miss Pauline Most. She conducts a boarding house in the Hand building on Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

Miss Most told the reporter she had been living in Plainfield for about three years. All of her family are Christian scientists. When asked if it were not possible to treat the Luji boy at the home of his parents in this city, she said, “No, the parents would have too much human pity for the child and would sympathize with it in his affliction. While here, the child is surrounded by kindness and love, and his mind is diverted from the affection that made him a cripple for such a long time. When he cries or seems distressed, he is treated through prayer, and the love and kindness bestowed upon the child causes him soon to forget his suffering. If the little boy continues to improve as rapidly in the next six weeks as he has during the past six weeks, he will soon be entirely cured. Miss Most claims no credit for curing the child of its affliction. She says, “God is the healer. All we do is done by way of prayer,” Miss Most said there are about thirty Christian Scientists in Plainfield and that a movement is now on foot to establish a church there. At present, the church or the sect holds meetings at the Babcock building. Miss Most is a member of the Second Christian Science Church of New York.

“Miss Most tells how a was cured by prayer” from the Central New Jersey Home News in New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 18th, 1906.