Simonet – healing medium of Bordeaux Le Figaro of July 5th, reported in these terms of a judgment passed by the court of Bordeaux:
“In recent times, the fury in Bordeaux was to consult the sorcerer of Cauderan. We estimate at one thousand, or twelve hundred, the number of visits he received each day. The police, who professed skepticism, were concerned with such a success, and wanted to raid the castle of Bel-Air, where the sorcerer had established residence. Around the house of the sorcerer there was a crowd of people claiming to be suffering from all kinds of diseases; great ladies also came there in horse-drawn carriages to consult with the enlightened.
The magistrates, after questioning the sorcerer, had no doubt that they were dealing with a poor madman, that was exploited by those very ones that gave him hospitality; therefore, the sorcerer Simonet was not included in the persecution that was concentrated against the Barbier brothers, skillful accomplices who reaped all the profits of Gascon credulity.
Their house, that as true Gascons, they decorated with the name of a castle, had been converted into an inn; only the wines that were sold there had nothing in common with what one calls, in Languedoc, the Château wines; besides, they had forgotten to obtain a license, so that the administration of indirect taxes sued them.
The sorcerer Simonet was called as a witness.
- Where did you learn medicine, you who were a simple boilermaker?
- And what do you think of the revelation? What were then the disciples of Christ? What were they doing, these poor fishermen who converted the world? God appeared to me; he gave me his science, I don't even need the remedies, I am a healing doctor.
- Where have you learned all this?
- In Allan Kardec… and, Mr. President, I tell you with all the possible respect, you do not seem to know the science of Spiritism and I strongly urge you to study it. (Amusement to which the judges themselves could resist)
- You abuse public credulity. So, to cite just one example, there is a poor blind man that all of Bordeaux know. He had the weakness to go to you, and he brought you the donations that he received from public charity. Did you give him his sight back?
- I do not cure everyone, but you have to believe that I am doing cures, for the day justice came, there were more than 1,500 people waiting for their turn.
- It is true, unfortunately.
- Mr. Imperial Prosecutor - And if this continues, we will take one of these two measures: either we will bring you here for fraud, and justice will assess if you are mad, or we will take administrative action against you. Honest people must be protected against their credulity.
At the Château de Bel-Air, the consulted were not asked for money; they were only given a ticket number, for which they were charged twenty cents; then there were some that trafficked with these numbers, selling them for up to fifteen francs. Finally, food was given to the poor peasants, that sometimes came from the far distances of the department. Finally, there was a collecting box for the poor; it is not necessary to say that the hosts of the sorcerer took over the money of the poor.
The court condemned the Barbier brothers to two months and one month in prison, and 300 francs towards indirect contributions.
Ad. Rocher.”
Here is the truth about Simonet, and how his faculty was revealed.
The Barbiers built in Cauderan, a suburb of Bordeaux, a vast establishment, as there are several in the district, intended for balls, weddings and feasts, and to which they gave the name of Château du Bel-Air, that is no more Gascon than the Château-Rouge or the Château des Fleurs, in Paris. Simonet worked there as a carpenter, and not a boilermaker. During the construction work, it happened quite often that workers were injured or sick; Simonet, a long time Spiritist, and knowing a little bit about magnetism, was instinctively led to them, and without premeditated intention, to care for them by the fluidic influence, and he cured many of them. Rumor of these healings spread, and soon he saw a crowd of sick people rushing to him, so true is it that, whatever one does, one will not take away from the sick the desire to be cured, no matter by whom. We learned from eyewitnesses that the average number of those that showed up was over a thousand per day. The road was cluttered with cars of all kinds, coming from several leagues around, with carts and equipment on the side. There were people who stayed overnight to wait for their turn.
But in this crowd, there were people who needed food and drink; the entrepreneurs of the establishment provided for it, and it became a very good deal for them. As for Simonet, who was a source of indirect profits, he was housed and fed, that was the very least, and one could not blame him for it. As people jostled at the door, to avoid confusion, they took the wise step of giving new arrivals a ticket number; but they had the less happy idea of charging ten cents for this number, and later twenty cents; given the crowds, it made a fairly round sum per day. However small this retribution was, all the Spiritists, and Simonet himself, who had nothing to do with it, were sorry to see that, foreseeing the bad effect it would produce. As for the traffic of tickets, it seems certain that a few people in a hurry, to get through earlier, bought the seats of poor people who were before them, that were very happy with this unexpected profit; there is no great harm in that, but it could and necessarily had to result in abuse. It was these abuses that motivated the judicial action directed against the so called Barbiers, as having opened an establishment of consumption, before having obtained a license for that. As for Simonet, he was not implicated, but simply called as a witness.
The general disapproval attached to the exploitation, in cases analogous to that of Simonet, is worthy of note; it seems that an instinctive feeling leads, even nonbelievers, to see in the absolute selflessness a proof of sincerity that inspires a kind of involuntary respect; they don't believe in the faculty; they mock it, but something tells them that if it exists, it must be a holy thing that cannot, without profanity, become a profession; they limit themselves to saying: he is a poor fool who is in good faith; but whenever speculation, in any form whatsoever, has mingled with any mediumship, criticism believed itself to have been spared from any consideration.
Does Simonet really heal? People worthy of faith, very honorable, and who had more interest in unmasking fraud than in advocating it, have cited many cases of perfectly authentic cures. It seems to us, moreover, that if he had not healed anyone, he would have already lost all credibility. Besides, he does not pretend to cure everyone; he does not promise anything; he says that healing does not depend on him, but on God, of whom he is only the instrument, and whose assistance must be implored; he recommends prayer and he prays himself. We very much regret not having been able to see it, during our stay in Bordeaux; but all those who know him agree in saying that he is a gentle, simple, modest man, without boasting or arrogance, who does not seek to avail himself from a faculty that he knows can be withdrawn from him. He is kind to the sick whom he encourages with good words; his interest in them is not based on the rank they occupy; he has as much concern for the most miserable as for the richest; if the healing is not instantaneous, that happens most often, he takes all the necessary steps into it.
This is what we have been told. We do not know what the consequences of this affair will be for him, but it is certain that, if he is sincere, and if he perseveres in the feelings with which he seems animated, he will not lack the assistance and the protection of the good Spirits; he will see his faculty develop and grow, whereas he will see it decline and be lost, if he takes the wrong path, if above all, he thinks of taking pride in it.
Observation: At the time of going to press, we learned that, as a result of the fatigue that resulted for him from the long and painful exercise of his faculty, even more than to escape the harassments of which he was the object, Simonet has resolved to suspend all reception until further notice. If patients suffer from this abstention, a great effect has, nonetheless, been produced.
