IMPRISONED ON A SHIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1191, 28 December 1894, Page 19

IMPRISONED ON A SHIP.

The steamship Normannia, from Hamburg, arrived in the port of New York on Saturday, September. 3rd, 1892, with cases of cholera on board./,/Many of the ship's company had died W the passage. At Hamburg and elsewhere'in Europe the disease was raging. The authorities in America were alarmed less the scourge should be introduced into that country. Hence they quarantined the Normannia with every soul of her passengers and crew. The writer was a passenger. It was an awful time. Death was among us, and on all sides of us. JNobody knew who next would fall. We were imprisoned." Liberty never seemed so fair, nor so far. We could neither fight nor fly. There we were—hundreds of us—perfectly well, and yet bound together as with chains, that the health officer of the poit might see whether the plague would not yet break out in our midst. When at last —after weeks of this—we were set on shore, men lifted their hats aud reverently said, " Thank God !" This was being shut up under conditions to make it horrible and fearful. Yet any form of incarceration ib bad enough. Here is a woman, for example, who says, " I never moved a yard from my own doorstep for twenty weeks !" Her own house was a prison to her. Who had sentenced her ? A judge? No; a power greater and more pitiless than any judge. Her tale runs thus:—ln April, 1882, whilst living at Lasher's Farm, Old Sampford, Essex, a fire broke out, and the family were burned out of house and home. We have no call to remark on such a calamity. The very thought of it is fit to make one shiver with dread. For most of us it is like the world coming to an end to experience such a disaster. Well, what happened after that the lady shall tell in her own fashion —the best of all fashions, because it is plain and straight to the point. She says:-—"Owing to ourbedding being danrp f rom exposure; I took a bad cold, which brought on rheumatic fever. For fourteen days I was confined to my bed, and for twenty weeks I never moved a yard from my own doorstep. After a time the fever abated, leaving me weak, languid and low. At first I had a sickening taste in the mouth and a poor appetite. No matter how simple and light the food was, I was afraid to eat, for it was sure to give me pain at the chest and sides ; so I often had to loosen my corset and undress myself during the day. I could not bear the weight of my ing"l was constantly ; spitting up a sour, frothy fluid, and had a gnawing pain at the pit of the stomach —like hunger,. and yet different. It was with difficulty I voided the kidney secretion, - and my bowels, ankles, and legs began to swell. I got worse ;'I in agony night and day, and could not put my foot on the ground. Soon afterwards a husky cough took me, and my. throat filled with a thick phlegm. I could not sleep, and was never easy. Later on I had often to sit up in bed, for I felt as if I should choke. .' ;.

" Year after year I continued to suffer in this way, growing worse and worse, until I despaired of ever being well again. But who can tell when trouble will come, or when relief ? A wonderful Providence is over ail. . .'■"■ ;•"

"One day in June a book came by post describing Mother Seigel'si Curative Syrup and what it had done 'for many poor sufferers. I got a bottle from Mr Suckling', medicine dealer, and after taking it for a short time all pain left me, and I gradually gained strength. By taking an occasional dose I have since kept in good health, and can eat and digest', any kind of food. (Signed) Mas Lydia Green, Moor End, Great Sampford, via Braintree, Essex, Aug. 24th, 1892/' ; , Now, in order that Mrs Green's clear and truthful statement may be of use to others, (as she desires it to be), we must add a word or two. The bad cold she caught at the fire no doubt " brought on " the rheumatic fever (as she relates), but there was something back of the cold, for a cold never causes rheumatism.- The rheumatic seeds, or poison, must already lie in the blood; and that poison is always created by preexisting indigestion and dyspepsia, whether the sufferer knows it or nou. This is proved by the fact that Mrs Green's chief ailment for ten years after the fire was not rheumatism, but indigestion and dyspepsia and dropsy, which is one of its results and symptoms. When the digestion was finally righted by the remedy she alludes to, all her apparent maladies ceased together. Why ? Because she had but one, as we have said.

Ah, yes. Disease is, a stern gaoler. And how sweet (and cheap) is liberty, obtained by Mother Seigel'shelp.