The Man Harness

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 38, 16 December 1893, Page 7

The Man Harness

The cable messages have had a good deal to say of late regarding the Medical Battery Company and its head, Mr C. B. Harness. He has been the subject of some severe newspaper criticisms, the latest to attack him being the Pall Mall Gazette, whose writer opens in the following plain terms : “ I intend to show, and I have reams of evidence to prove, that the Harness “ electropathic ” treatment, which is so largely advertised and puffed, is nothing better than a cruel fraud ; that Harness himself is a man of no pretensions whatever to scientific or medical knowledge, but is a common, illiterate, and nnscrupnlous charlatan ; that the so-called electropathic belt is a swindling appliance, without any electrical virtue whatever ; that it is sold for more guineas than it is worth shillings ; that Harness issues disgusting pamphlets, teeming with lies, to catch both men and women ; that his testimonials are worthless; that he has been exposed most completely in the law courts; and that the reports were suppressed on account of his advertisements ; that he has shown that he would rather pay any money than go into a witness box ; that his patients are hoaxed by bogus experiments and fraudulent representations; that his whole object is to get money out of them ; that he preys on the ignorant poor, whom any other rogue would scorn to rob, and resorts to trickery of the meanest and basest sort to make them pay. “ All this I say, and much more I intend to say, with the full consciousness that every word of it can be proved up to the hilt, and that Harness knows it can. Throughout the length, and breadth of the land there are poor duped victims crying out for compensation against the monstrous and insidious quack, who has cozened them of their money and often of their health as well. For the Harness belt not only does not cure; in many cases it has positively injured. Men and women suffering from internal and dangerous complaints, from strains, ruptures, and even incurable diseases, go to him, knowing nothing of their state, in the faith that he will cure them. They believe it because he says so.” It is only fair to add that Mr Harness, according to a recent cable message, claimed that he would he able to vindicate himself in the eyes of the public during the hearing of the cases brought against him.