Miscellaneous.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9999, 25 May 1895, Page 5

Miscellaneous.

GBANNY GOBTON'S BIRTHBAY. Saturday, January 21st, was a great day in Central Village, in the State of Connecticut, in Amerloa. On that day Mrs Jonathan Gorton was 100 years old and formally received her friends, of whom hundreds were present. She wore her best black silk gown, with a rose In the bodice. The venerable lady was seated in a comfortable armchair on a platform in the best room of her house. Then the train of callers filed through, each and all shaking hands with her. " Granny Gorton," aa she is called, is a trim little body and very nimble on her feet. There was never anything ailed her, she aays, and, except that her eyesight isn't qnite so goad as it used to be, she ia aa active as any woman of 50. Why has Granny Gorton lived so long P Why is she so active now 1 She lets out the secret herself when she says, " There wbb never anything ailed me." That's it, and all of it. People who live to 100 years are not so very rare. Tbe deaths of 45 such were reported laat year In England— 22 men and 23 women. Yel compared to the multitudes who die, these are nothing — nothing. Can we not keep things from ailing us, and so live long as Mrs Gorton P Yea, if we will take the trouble to do it I Men and women 100 years old, still vigorous and clearheaded, should be a eight bo common as not to be remarked, and will be yet in the future. Why not so now? " Aek yourself the question," as tho boatmen say down on Deal beach. Horo's how it is : A woman's tale. She aays she fell ill when a girl about 15. She lost her appetite, had pains in the sides aud cheat, frequent headaches, and was often obliged to lio down on tho couch and rest. All this didn't promise loug life, did itP No ; it was a bad start Well, sho got worse instead of botter. She was often sick, vomited her food, and spitting up a sour fluid. For fivo years she went on this way. This bringa ua to Oatober 1881. She was then in sorvica as parlour-maid at Leamington Hastings, Warwickshire. Here she suffered from conatant siokneaa, retching and heartburn. The obeat pains were so bad as to !>end her two double. No position that she could taku roliovod hor. Hur stomach was so tonder and oore that everything ahe ate pained aud distressed her. For mouths and months Bhe only took liquid foodmilk and beatori oggs, and so on. She got weaker und weakor every day, ao ahe says. Of couroo ; how elso could it be? A doctor at Rugby told her she had " ulceration of the ohost " which sho didn't at all. What U " ulceration of tho chest ! " He gave her medicines and advico, bnt Bhe grew no better on that acoouut. This young lady was now about 20 years old, with a poor outlook for over boing much older. Sho didn't expect it, nor did her frieuds. Then another doctor, beiug consulted, Baid " ulceration of the ohest, ' like his medicul brother at Rugby. Both wrong "After six months' medical treat ment," sho says, " 1 <>nve up my situation and returned to my home at Buxton Lamas, Norfolk. This tvus in June, 1882. Then I was taken so bad I had to take to my bed. My mother thought I was in a decline."

Now, the word ''decline" means lonaulnptlon, as we all know ; a disease lommon ia England and incurable iverywhere. Thousands of bright girls md young men " decllDO " Into their graves every year In this populous sland. Sad enongh it is to see. Well, at this point her good and wise mother Interfered in her daughter's case. She gave the dootora the go-by and sent to Norwich for some bottles of Mother 9eigel'a Curative Syrup. In .two weeks the young patient began to feel better, and in three months she got a new situation and went to work. " Sinoe then, fifteen years ago," she «ays, " I bavo kept in better health than ever before in my life, thanks to Ssigel's Syrup. Yours truly, (!-igned), (Mrs) Sakah Eleanor Baber, 8, King's Street, Church Road Tottenham near London, September 30th, 1892." A dozen words more and we're done. Mrs Baker's ailment was indigestion and dyspepsia, nothing else, and quite enough. The '• ulceration" was inflammation of the inner coating of the stomach, a symptom of the disease. ' We wish her a long and happy life, and merely add that if all her sex coald avoid or cure this one trouble moat of thorn might live to be as old as Granny Gorton.