THE SIGNALMAN ON THE MIDLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5935, 13 September 1890, Page 4

THE SIGNALMAN ON THE MIDLAND.

There aro probably about a million men employed in various capacities on the Railways of Great Britain—a number large enough, if thoy were soldiers, to overrun Europe. Upon tho intelligence, fidelity, and physical condition of this vast army i depend the lives of the multitudes who are | constantly travelling by rail. Any sudden and serious disability happening to one of thorn may result in a disaster which would put hundreds of families in mourning. Accustomed as it is to safe and swift conveyance from point to point the public scarcely realises this fact. Tho following brief narrative, which is strictly true, will therefore bo read with interest :— On the Midland Rail way, twenty-three miles south of Carlisle, there ia a little fi .fioti called Ciih-.iith. Here there is. a si„na!-box in which Signalman Andrew Autre is to be found on duty daily. As is the c-ise w:th all other signal boxes, this one contain" the levers and the usual complicated electric and mechanical coutri.vttn.eß for m.-ikin.- and receiving signals. Mr. A _-g-' i< on duty nearly overy day, and takes his luncheons without "leaving his post. He is a sturdy man of thirty-five, in good health, un'd no complaint has ever been made against him by the Company or by the public ; vet an incident occurred a few years airo that came near depriving him of V.i- position and his life. For some time he had not felt well, tlio worst and most dau-e<-r.->iis phase of his indisposition being a ki.-.ii ..f giddiness that would seize him un...t .-■*■• Uy and, as he described it, "set eve viiiiug to moving and twisting round and 'i .und." The doctor told him frankly that it was a symptom of a still more radical complaint brought ou by too much confinement, and by his irregular habits of eating and sleeping, and that he had better abandon his work for a while, and try a change of scene. But this was easier said than done. He had a family to support, and couldn't afford the luxury of a vacation. He knew no other business, and could not risk the loss of his place. His work was always done, however, no matter how he felt. But it is only fair to say he had many anxious hours over it. His ailment, which he had discovered to be indigestion and d}>pepsia, now set up more alarming symptoms. A physician at Appleby assured Aggo that there was serious trouble with his kidneys and bladder. "It is," paid the doctor to the Signalman, " the result of the condition of your digestion. Your blood is poisoned by"your stomach, and every organ of the body is crippled by it." This was, a miserable outlook for Agge, who went back to Calgaith with small courage for his work. He took hold, though, as well as ho could, and kept up until one morning several weeks afterwards. He was in his box i_ usual when of sudden a sharp pain shot through him as though he | had been stabbed with a knife. He tumbled down on the looker in the signal-box, and lav thero all tho forenoon in acute distress aiid agony. For the time his work was a secondary consideration. Unable to remain in that position any longer, ho laid down arid rolled on the floor. Tho pain in his hips and back was so intense that he compared it to being out with dull knives and pierced with hot irons. Aggo was alone when the attack came, and as nobody except railway officials are allowed in the signal boxes, it was somo time before bis plight was discovered. Finally, however, the station-master came in, tho neighbors wero summoned, nnd the suffering man was put into a trap and taken to his house, half a . mile away. There he was ill for weeks, : part of tho time unconscious. When the ■ physicians had avowedly got to the end of I their resources it was agreed that tho Signalman's end was only a matter of a . very little time. . This was the situation when a singnlar . thing happened. Two or three years before,'-, bile Aggo was feeling the earlier * symptoms of his disorder, he had taken a ' medicine that helped him : getting better ; he put the bottle aside, still half full, and ' forgot it altogether. : Now, as ho was almost in a dying con--1 dition, his memory flashed up one day, and he distinctly recalled where he had put it. 1 A search was made and then it was found. • The prostrate Signalman began using it ' and, to the astonishment of neighbors ami ' doctors, in a few days was able to get out ; of doors. Wo may mention that tho medicine ' was the well-known preparation, Mother L Seigel's Curative Syrup, althouiih to ad--1 vertise the article is nut the chief motive for s this littlo narrative. As a matter of_ fact, ' Signalman Aggo kept on doctoring himself [ with it, and it cured him, be its nature 1 what it may. He went back to his box ' long ago, aud this incident is printed in " order that the reader may know more of the character and experience of a largo and faithful body of public servants.