For several years applicants from nearly all parts of New England visited him with the story of their sufferings and praying for a relief, which, it is averred, was in many instances really obtained.

Letters from the sick who were unable to visit him, describing their diseases, were sent him; and many are yet living who believe that they were restored miraculously at the precise period of time when Austin was engaged in reading their letters.

One of my uncles was commissioned to convey to him a large number of letters from sick persons in his neighborhood.

He found the old man sitting in his plain parlor in the simplest garb of his sect,-- grave, thoughtful, venerable,--a drab-coated Prince Hohenlohe.

He received the letters in silence, read them slowly, casting them one after another upon a large pile of similar epistles in a corner of the apartment.
Half a century ago nearly every neighborhood in New England was favored with one or more reputed dealers in magic.