ONLY FOUR TO MAN THE POMPS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10070, 10 August 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

ONLY FOUR TO MAN THE POMPS.

Dear, dear ! When you come to think of it how closely related thioga are ; how one thing brings up another. Ideas are like a lot of beads on a Bttin?, aren't they 1

A letter I have juat been reading makes me remember what happened to me one winter about twenty years ago. The story is too long to tell here, so I'll merely give jou the tail end of it. I was supercargo on a bark bound from liondon to Rio. A tremendous gale, lnsting five days, wrecked us. Fortyeight hnurs af terit ceased there were four men and no more left on the vessel. The captain bad been killed by a falling spar, three of the orew washed overboard, and the rest of tho ship's company (save ub four) went away ia tho long boat with the first and second mates. We were taking in water through a leak at the rate of six inches an hour. Working with all our might the four of ub could pump that out la forty minute), but we must do it every hour. It was awful work. For two days we kept it up, without sleep. Then we stopped, took to the quarter boat and shoved off. The sea was quiet — no wind. While we lay ;to within a mile of her the ship threw up her nose and went down stern first. We were picked np nest day by a Danish brig. Now the odd thing 1b that the letter reminded me of that experience has nothlog whatever to say abont ship?. Please help me to find oat tho association.

The lady that writes the letter says that in July, 1881, she got a bid fright. Exactly what it was sho doesn't tell. I wish she did. Anyway it so upset her that she didn't get over the eftecta for nine years. After that her appetite fell off ; she lost all real relish for food, and what she did cat only made trouble instead of nourishing her. It gave her pain in the pit of the storoaoh and (curiously enough) between the shoulders. She says her eyes and skin presently turned yellow as a buttercup. Her face and abdomen swelled, and her feet the same, the latter so much so that she was obliged to have her shoes made larger. * r

" I got little sleep at night," she says, " and was in so much pain I had to be propped up with pillows. For weeks together I could not lio down in bed. I had a dry, hollow cough, and bad night sweats. Then diarrhea* set in, and my bowles became ulcerated I wit ofton in dreadful agony for fortyeight hours at a time. Then I would have a chill as -though a bucket of cold water were poured down my back. I got so low I could no longer sew, knit, or'do any housework or look after my children. My sister had to come and help in the hou?e.

"Everybody aiid I was iv a decline and "must die. What T suffered for eight years tongue cannot tell. Tho doctor could do nothing for me. He said my complaint was complicated and bad to deal with. In 1886 1 went as an outdoor patienl'lo the Sbewsberry Infirmary, but only got transient relief."

The writer is In eood health now, but why did bor onse remiud me of theßbipwreokP Let's settle that first. The assooiatiou is easy and natural. Juat see. The ship sank because We four hadn't tho strength to pump oat the water B 9 fast as it came in. Twenty men might have got her into port, jt is tbe last straw that breaks the camel's back ; tho "last unsupplied neeil that makes poverty abjeot and dseporato.

These bodies of onra carry tbe Beeds of disease with them all the time — oMefly the poisons created by imperfect digestion, made worso by careless habiis. Bat as long aa nothing extraordinary happens we manage to sorapa alone in n half-and-half sort of fashion. Yet we've got in our blood t.he stuff that any of a dr Z'n diseases is made of, only waiting to set it afire. While the liver, kidneys, longs and skin keep ub fairly free —that is don't let the load get too heavy — wo s»y, " Oh. yes, I'm tolerably well, thank you." Little paios and anploasant symptoms bother us now and then, but we don't fariby they mean anything . By-and-by something happena. A cold, too hearty a meal, a night of dissipation, aa affliction through death or Jobs of properly, a flight, as in Mrs Bonce's case, Ac. Ofer wo g.o. The last straw has crushed us. One loose park has blown up the barrel of powder. Tho crew is too small to save the ship. The kidneys, liver, skin, and ' stomach strike work, and we mast have help right a *ay or perish. All of whioh means the explosion of latent Indigestion and dyspepsia poison* in the blood. There ! iau'e it plain why I thought of the ship ? Now for the conclusion of the lady's story. She sayn : "In 38891 first heard of Mother Seigol'B Ourativa Syrup. Half a bottle mado me feel better, and by keeping on taking it I was anon as strong and well as evor. (Signed) Mrs Ann Bunco, The Park. Worthen, near She wsberry, February 22nd, 1893" If thfiro were only a way to save sinking ahlpß nn certain and trustworthy as Mother Seigel's nmdioine is in the case of sinking human bodies, "what a blesi« ing it would be to poor Bailors.