HE CAME HOME TO DIE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9117, 16 May 1891, Page 4

HE CAME HOME TO DIE.

One day ia December, 1888, a British transport vessel arrived at Gosport. Only a brief look was needed to assure the spectator that she had made the long voyage from India. There were soldiers on board;. some on leave of absence to visit home, and others so worn and wasted that it was plain to see why they were come back from the East to the dear old Island. Of these poor fellows a few were able to go on to their friends, while others were just strong enough to bear the journey to the Navy Yard Hospital. Among the latter was one to whom we will introduce the reader. —Yon would have fancied him to have been about 30 years of age, yet the vigour and elasticity of youth were missing,— Disease bad done fcho work n£ time, and it was but the wreck of a man that entered the hospital doors that day. It was a matter for wonder that he lived to reach an EDglish port. Several months later, by accident, the writer oE these lines heard that soldier's story from his own lips, and here it is substantially in his own wordß :— " In the year 1883," he said, " I enlisted in Her Majesty's 51st Regiment, and was coon ordered out to India, where I arrived on the following Christmas; and left there for Burmah, October 6, 1886, where I remained 18 months, being present at Mandalay when King Theebaw surrendered to our troops. Here my good health began to give way. At first I had a sinking feeling at the pit of the stomach, and was so dull and drowsy. I could scarcely keep up. I had pain in the right side and under the shoulder blades. My spirits were depressed and everything seemed sad and melancholy. I couldn't eat, and lay in bed sleepless night after night till I was almost wild for lack of rest. My skin and eyes turned yellow, as is so common with Euro: peans in India; my tongue was badly coated, feet cold and clammy, stomach sick and upset, vomiting, and constant diarrhoea. In this bad form I lay in bed for four months in 1887. " Both the regimental doctor and a doctor of the Indian Government said I was suifering from dysentery. I was weak as a baby, and passed nothing but slime from the bowels. No treatment availed to stop the diarrhosa, which was fast draining the life out of me. Finally I was cent home, and arrived at Gosport in December 1888, where I lay in the hospital until February 1889, when I was discharged as incurable, and placed in the Army Reserve. " I returned to Warhoys, in Huntingdonshire, (my home) and tried to work. But it was impossible. I was so emaciated that old acquaintances did not at first recognise me. Then they said,' Hodson, you needn't trouble to buy any more clothes. The only suit you'll require will be a wooden box.' "After eating, even a little, I was obliged to hurry away fcom the table because of the terrible grining, gnawing pains in the stomach and bowels. My father and mother were alarmed, and I consulted a doctor at Warboys, but what he gave me had no good effect. "At last it was Mr Nicholl, the chemist, of Warboys (now of Croydon), who said to me, ' Hodson, yon had better try Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup.' On this I bought a bottle and used it, but I couldn't see it did any good. Mr Nicholl said, • Try it again. I have such confidence in it that I will give you the second bottle free of charge.' "He did so, and before I had taken the half of the second bottle I began to feel relief. This was encouraging, and I procured the third bottle. Before I had finished it I was so much improved that I was asked to go back to work. But I was afraid to risk it, and said, No; wait till I have used three bottles more, for this Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup is doing for me what no medicine in India or Eogland has done yet—it is healing mo from tho very depths where I was ill and dying. "So, as you may suppose, I kept right along with Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup until the fifth bottle was gone. Then I presented myself to the astonished people of Warboys as robust, strong, and well as I was when I first entered the army. I returned to my work, and mt COMRADES LOOKED UPON ME AS ONE BISEN fbom the dead. With eyes full of wonder they asked, ' What has done this for you ?' and I answered, • I owe my life and health to Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup, and am willing that everybody in England should hear me say so.' I have never lost an hour's work since, and will gladly reply to letters of inquiry.—Johm Hodson, Warboys, Huntingdonshire." ; Mr Hodson's real disease was indigestion and dyspepsia, caused by change of climate, food, and habits. The diarrhwa was one of its symptoms—Nature's effort to get rid oE the poisonous matters in the stomach and buwels. Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup cured the digestive malady, and the symptomß vanished as a necessary consequence. But our friend did not get the right and only remedy a day too soon. '. 2

Come along, old fellah, just had a big divvy; join me in a bottle of " Lebeau " Dry Champagne. —A curious state of things prevails at Berwiek-on-Tweed. A portion of the burgh is in Scotland, and bera tbe pubs, are religiously closed on tbe Sabbath ; on tbe remaining portion, which is on English soil, they are open during certain hours, and it is curious to note bow tbe population of the town during those hours drift towards the eoutb, as if by one common instinct, DBAF FOBTY XHABS. The deioription of a simple remedy, by which a sufferer has just been cured of deafness and noiiet in tie head of pobty tbabs' staitoiho, sent FB«.— Apply Hioholboh, ,WWHH»m rtreafc. Molhotirno —In Oorea every unmarried man is considered a boy, though he should live to be 100, No matter what hie age he follows in position the youngest of the married men, despite the fact perhaps of having lived years enough to be their father. —A few weeks ago the Indian railways leading to the Ganges were almoat blocked with a rush of pilgrims to tbe Audbodoz Jog festival. This occurs at irregular intervals, the last having coma in 1864, and the next not being expected for 50 years from now. The obief point in it ia that it provides a specially auspicious time for bathirjg in the Hindu's sacred river. —Hollyhock is merely a corruption of holyoak, a trea or flower held in much estimation by the lady abbesses and nuns of old; and which abounded in tbe gardens of convents, it being considered by them as posßeesing sacred and protecting qualities. —In 12 months 1100 purses were left in cabs »nd 'buses in London, About half of the careless owners did not even trouble to inquire at Scotland Yard after; their property, " Lebeau" Champiigne. a superior drr wine