THE BABY ON A BATTLEFIELD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 996, 3 April 1891, Page 27

THE BABY ON A BATTLEFIELD.

On the night after the battle of Waterloo, in the blood-stained mire of a ploughed field, lay an English officer, dead where he fell. At his side lay the body of his wife, who had- followed him from England, and perhaps arrived in time to receive his last sigh. On his breast was their baby, sound asleep, and smilinsr amid that dreadful scene as though angels were inspiring its dreams. Ah, God! what a thing is childhood; touching Heaven in its innocence and earth in its agony. While we have the children how large the places they fill! When we lose them how great the vacancies they leave ! Read the story of an escape, as told by a parent. My daughter Kate, now eleven years old, had always been delicate. She was pale and thin, and, as it seemed, as though a breath of cold air would destroy her, She was now better, now worse, but never well. In the summer of 1885, she complained of a sense of weight in the chest and side. Her abdomen was distended as though she had over-eaten, when in fact she ate scarcely more than a bird. She spoke of a had taste in the mouth, and would always be holding her sides, or placing her hands against her temples, as if to relieve the pressure there. She also had pains between the shoulders, and her breath was very offensive. She was always tired and languid, and though naturally a bright, intelligent child, would lie for hours in a listless)condition. She grew weaker and weaker until she could scarcely stand. We thought her to be in a decline. Then come a sign even more alarming, a short, dry, deepsounding cough. My wife and I feared it was consumption. In our anxiety we consulted the doctors, who said, ‘ Yes, your daughter has consumption.’ What a sad prospect for us ? About Christmas, 1885,1 removed my family from Huntingdon to Manchester. Poor Kate was too weak to take the journey with us ; she remained with her grandmother at Thorp Farm; Norfolk. Still the dear child sank from week to week. What was our surprise, some time afterwards to receive a letter from grandmother reading like this ; ‘ Kate is very much better. She is eating well and sleeping well; and the roses are coming into her thin cheeks.’ What could have happened ? In another month we had the happiness of welcoming our daughter in our new home in Manchester. How great was our joy when we saw the wonderful change which had taken place in her. She is now a fine, healthy child, and never ails anything more than any girl may. Now, what wrought this change ? What gave us back our daughter, seemingly almost from the brink of the grave ? I will answer frankly, for there is nothing to conceal : Seeing her deplorable state, and that none of the medicines she- had taken proved appropriate to her strange malady, her grandmother one day said to-herself, ‘ I think I will give Kate ados© out of my bottle of Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup.* Her grandmother had received great benefit from this medicine herself for a complicated disease. It was given to Kate and the good effect Was immediate. She at once rested more tranquilly and had something of an appetite, and a little later her grandmother was justified in writing to us as I have already stated l (Signed) Frederick Butcher, 6, Birch Road, Crumpsall, near Manchester. Mr and Mrs Butcher are people of the highest respectability and well educated. For some, years Mr Butcher was an assistant at the great: shop of the Messrs Lewis, Market Street; Manchester, and an impartial acquaintance writes that Misa Kate Butcher is one of tha brightest young girls to be met with anywhere —quick, precocious, and full of wit. Speaking of the daughter's recovery her mother says : ‘ I do not care what anyone may say, there is nomedicine so good as Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup.’ The proprietors of Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup desire to make no false impressions. The young girl did not have consumption : —She suffered from indigestion and dyspepsia, and from poverty of blood, like myriads of her sex. The hollow cough, which sounded so consumptive, was one of the symptoms, not the disease. She needed life and strength from her food, but how could she get it with her stomach torpid and dead 2 Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup corrected the ailment at its root and recovery quickly followed. We repeat once more the fact that is taught by this interesting case When in doubt treat any and all complaints as symptoms of indigestion and dyspepsia, and in nine instances out of ten you will see just such a wonder as narrated above. We wish long life and happy days to this young lady and her good parents and friends.