DIED WHILE IN PRAYER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXX, Issue 79, 5 April 1894, Page 4

DIED WHILE IN PRAYER.

"Another vmn was found m a kneeling posture his face buriedin his hands, asif he had died m prayer." I clip this pathetic sentenoe from an acoount of the St. Etienn coal mine disaster whioh occurred m France, m Deoember, 1891. The fire bad been smouldering for years m a remote part cf the mine, but its further advance had been stopped by barriers, Yet they proved intufficient at last, and the terrible fire-damp exploded, eeattering death throughout the mine. Such inoidentß are too will-known m Englaud to need further explanation or comment. Has it over struok you that the interior of the human body is like the interior of n coal mine ? Well it ii. All its operations go on m solitude and darkness. Gases are engendered m ii that are just a3 dangerous as fire-damp. Generally they — yet hold on let's have the little story firat. It's about a woman, In faot, its from her, too, and is sure to interest somebody ; may be you. She say b that a long run of time, from ohildhocd to jears after her marriage, she never knew what illness was ; that is, bo as to remember it, or to have it made a mark on her, as we may say. But mighty few folks manage to escape tho old elate driver altogether. Nor did she. "It was m the summer of 1890," she says, " wh«n I began to feel bad. My appetite was poor, end what I did eat ga\e me great pain and distress. My food seemed to lie like lead and after eveiy meal, no matter how simple the food was, I had tha moat exoruciating pain yon can imagine. I had a nagging, thudding pain at ray chest, and through to my shoulder*, that was very hard to bear. So bad was it that I thought something (perhaps a turnout) was growing within me. As soon as ever food entered my atomaoh I ÜBtd to say, ' It is beginning,' meaning the gnawing pain. " I took all kinds of things for relief and applied muitard plasters to the client, but nothing did me any good. After a time I dartd not take a proper meal ; I was afraid to eat, and got very thin and weak. It was as much as I could do to go about my house ork. In Ootober of this year (1891) Mrs James Mercer, of 176, High Street, Longton, recommended me to try Mother Seigel's Curative Syrop, and I got a bottle and commenced to take it. After a few dotes I felt relief. My food agreed with me, and by the time I bad taken one large Aottle all the pain had left me, and I now feel as well as ever I did. "—Yours truly (signed) Mrs Elizabeth Weight, 12, King Street, Hanley, Staffordshire, November 19th, 1891. You ask me what the sad fate of the misers have to do with the case of Mrs Wright I'll tell yon m half a minute. Thii lady s«ya she was taken ill m the summer of 1890. Now, do you suppose the illness and the cause t>f the illness came up at the same time ? By no means. Cause first, tffeot afterwards— that's tbe order, always. And, see here! A came may be at work for weeks or years before you notice any results ; and until you do notice results, you don't know there's aught gone wrong. Isn't that so ? The miners, to be sure, knew that there was a fire m tbe mine. Bat it was fenced oS from them and they thought they wets safe. Ibe barriers leaked, and death griped them m a twinkling of an eye. The bedy is like a mine, as I have said Disease and death are caused by the action of poisoneua gases and acids inside °f it. They all start from the stomaoh and then creep into every part ; sometimes fast, sometimes slow. In some acute diseases very fast. Tha dootors often call gout an " explosion" of nrio aoid. The source of all these deadly things is indigestion and dyspepsia. Slight symptoms firat, then the more terrible and alarming. Watoh the way it comes on. This wan Mrß Wright's ailment. She suffered fifteen months before she found out what the matter was and what to do. Graoions, meroy if we only knew tbe sort of things that go on m our bodies we'd understand that it's about as dangerous to work m a coal mine.