Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1874 — The Walking Cure. [ARTICLE]

The Walking Cure.

He has passed Atlanta, Ga., and gone to Topeka, Kan. —De Mahler—a man who has traveled around the world and all over it on foot. He walks for pleasure. Sometimes a wagoner on the road accosts him with. “ Stranger, want a lift?’’ He always replies, “No; rather walk,” and some miles on he.passes the home of the wagoner, who by this time has his wife and children out to look at the man who had rather walk than ride. De Mahler goes trudging oh like the Wandering Jew. He has put 40,000 miles behind him since 1862, and has acquired such momentum now that he can’t stop. He must walk to be happy. Of course he stops sometimes for rest and refreshment ana sleep, but ’tis only a halt. An Atlanta editor took De Mahler to his house, and got the following particulars of his walks in life out of him: De Mahler is a Virginian. He has estates that yield him such an income as enables him to go where he pleases to enjoy himself in his own way. He was wounded in the beginning of the war, and when his wounds - healed he was bent nearly double and was totally unable to walk. He was rolled up almost like that being which turns itself into a ball and wheels from place to place. He went to Paris to get straightened out. The surgeons operated upon him, but after a fair trial they couldn’t make his head and feet stay at their respective ends of the man. At length they told him that nothing could effectually cure him but walking, persistent walking. He resolved to try it. Ha told his doctor that he was going to walk out of Paris and leave France on foot. The doctor told him he was crazy. He, however, commenced the journey, and made only 104 yards from his lodgings the first day, with the aid of a stick. The doctor tended him two weeks on his trip, that is until he got out of Paris.’ He had then begun to improve and was filled with a glorious hope, lie put his whole soul into his walk. In a month he was on the sunny slopes of the Pyrenees and had begun to straighten up like a man. He walked on, and on, and on.—-At length he was entirely cured and strode with a firm tread. Thus he walked along the world and across it, and became intensely interested iu his travels. He sailed across the seas, but walked the decks of vessels in order to keep his foot in. On land he seems to walk as naturally as the winds blow and the streams flow, and now he can't stop. He makes pencil sketches of the best scenes and remembers every place he has been in, and the name of somebody he met and talked to. He is the oughly cured of his war wounds, but n. ly lazy people might think that the cure is worse tjian the original Affliction, ■ / ' l,:/.