Davenport Daily Republican Davenport, Scott, Iowa January 8, 1903 GENERAL NEWS OF IOWA Iowa Woman's Strange Power Waterloo, Jan. 7 - Mrs. M.L. Southwick, living at the corner of Lincoln and Center streets, is gradually finding herself beseiged by sick persons who desire that she cure them by the laying on of hands. She possesses some peculiar power over disease which she attributes to magnetism and which she discovered by accident and has by constant study developed to good use. She is a lady of more than ordinary intelligence, and freely confesses that the power comes from some source which she is unwilling to call divine inspiration, although she says she is guided entirely by instinct in effecting her cures. She formerly lived in Waverly, and it was there five years ago that she discovered her power when she cured Mrs. Herman Miller of that place of a serious throat affliction by the laying on of hands to the affected part. She has lived here about a year and during this period has cured many people of different diseases. She says when she is in the presence of a sick person she experiences a peculiar sensation in her hands and fingers and can not resist the inclination to place her hands upon the afflicted person, which invariably brings relief to the sufferer. So successful has she been that her friends and those whom she has cured have urged her to rent an office and enter the profession as a magnetic healer. For her services she has so far made no charge, as she says the gift was freely given to her and she feels that she dare not accept money from its distribution to comfort others. She has more success treating children than old person, and several remarkable cures in her immediate neighborhood are attributed to her skill. In once case she treated a parient under who she had failed to conquer the disease. He acknowledged the improved condition of the patient after several treatments and there has been no return of the trouble. Oldest Convict Dead Anamosa, Jan. 7 - Wm. Dilley, Iowa's oldest convict in point of time served, is dead. He passed away at the Anamosa penitentiary. The machinery of the old frame simply refused to longer carry the load of affliction. Dilley looked much older than he really was. He was gray and stooped like an octogenarian. In reality he has spent just half of his life behind prison bars. Dilley's crime was wife murder and committed at a time before capital punishment had become a recognized method of atonement in Iowa. He was doing a life sentence from Johnson county, where he was convicted in January, 1877. He had served 26 years. Dilley's number was 239. The highest register number today is 4.967, and thus has he witnessed the admission and departure by death, parole and completed sentence of 4,000 men. Dilley has assisted in the construction of every building that has been erected in the pentitentiary in the last quarter of a century and this means that he has a hand in practically every piece of architecture taht now adorns the state property, for the walls and all the handsome buildings that now grace the property have supplanted the former wooden stockade and the temporary structures in use at the time of his incarceration. Iowa in Brief. - Mrs. Henry Hudson of Algona is dead because of a ruptured blood vessel of the brain. - A.R. Kuller, postmaster of Dysart, was married Christmas night to Miss Flora Powellson, a milliner of that town. The wedding was kept a secret until this week. - Louis Zalzovcky, a well known character of Marshalltown, died this week. He had been a resident of the city 20 years and was a carpenter and joiner by trade. - Rev. G.A. Bryant, the Jesup pastor who created such a furor last summer is back in Waterloo. It is believed that he wishes to effect a reconciliation with his wife, who has remained true to him in spite of his absence. - Waterloo police are after Mr. and Mrs. "Dr." Lawrence, clairvoyants, who have been making that town, on a charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. Nick Ternes, a farmer, is alleged to have been swindled out of $150 which he left with the Lawrences so that they might have a dream and secure Ternes a wife. Cathy Joynt Labath Iowa Old Press http://www.IowaOldPress.com/