MAGIC BOOTS,

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2023, 7 March 1907, Page 3

MAGIC BOOTS,

CURIOUS PROSECUTION. NEW YORK, January 13. In the criminal branch of tlie Supreme Court to-day Matthew Hilgert was charged with violating the medical law by selling “magic boots” guaranteed to cure all diseases. Hilgert, as readers of The Daily Telegraph already know, obtained big sums for his boots, which, he said, were charged with electricity and had other medical properties. £2O was a common enough price. He had done well in America, and was preparing to invade tlie London marketj wheii some customers began to question whether his claims as a healer of disease by boots would bear scientific examination.

The Assistant Public Prosecutor, Mr Hart, in opening the case to-day, conceded that Hilgert was a remarkably good bootmaker, but his claims that his wares would cure any disease of the limbs from rheumatism to locomotor ataxia were unwarrantable. The prosecution would prove by patients of Hilgert’s that they finished the boot treatment in a worse condition than they began.

Mr Abraham Levy, coipisel for Hilgert, says that )iis client is a much misunderstood benefactor of mankind. He has devoted his whole life to the scientific making of boots and shoes. If a boot conforms to the shape of the person’s foot, thjit person is happy. If it does not, he is most miserable. Seven generations of the Hilgert family have devoted their lives to the making of boots, and my clients,” said Mr Levy, “has the advantage of tho experience of seven lives. He made his first pair of shoes when he was but nine years old. Poor health is due to the unbalanced conditions of the human system. By the scientific making of boots, Hilgert has been able to establish the balance. His scientifi-cally-made shoos not only assist the circulation of the blood, which is life.”

lii brief, Hilgert maintains that lie carried on a perfectly legitimate busncss, and hopes to convince the Court of his claims as a benefactor to humanity.

In the course of tho evidence this afternoon, it developed that Hilgert had what ho called a “ chamber of miseries.” This Wll s fi 11 of braces and other tl in rC S w lit h. lie said, bo took from some of his patients, to whom lie had supplied ma gle boots. According to one witness. Hilgert told him that one of the braces in tho collectioi had been used by Dr. Potter, Episcopal Bishop of Now York. o o to o o u. Q C-l .£ P-i lO OI rH CO. o r-l g . — ~ — O M D to Ol o o o Ol o 3 I CO o 7>C i—i o - — — — - — b d S 101 00 05 o o to to C5 | 80 24 he was og 3 g > £ > w 1 jM : *. * 55 55 £ 55 $ 2| H to ' o a P.S.3 1 1 1 I CO O CO i *: g p H — — — — ~ — TH Dry C— Oil O cCO Do CO CD u '2 § to2 P3 “ — — d — — s Q . o to 05 C- =3 3g co CD co ° a a — c3 ■ a a . ■13 § a 00 CD tO oa «D CD CD X O & 05 J <3 -a a IS* CX o cp g 41 -a £ a -e o u Ci X ■*£ 00. » — oo s CO CO CO m 2 § g o O o O O o tc-g S o sO CO CO CO CO m 00 C'l r-l <N CO V* l.o ,CD g “ § a |qq o s h rs jgjs P * 0 EH 1 i 4. : -§