THE BABY ON A BATTLEFIELD.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 28

THE BABY ON A BATTLEFIELD.

On tbe 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 I 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 smiling amid that dreadful scene as though the 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 1 When we lose them how great the vacancies they leave 1 Read the story of an escape, as told by a parent. My daughter Eate, now 11 years old, had always been delicate. She was pale and thin, and it seemed as though a breath of cold I 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 on the chest and side. Her abdomen was distended as though she had over-eaten, when in fast she ate scarcely more than a bird. She spoke of a bad 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 oonld scarcely stand. We thought her to be in a decline. Then came a sign even more alarming, — a short, dry, deep-sounding 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 Eate 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: — " Katb is vbby much bbtteb She is bating wem. and sleeping wem, ; and the hoses abb coming into her thin cheeks." What could have happened ? In another month we had the happiness of welcoming oar daughter in our new home in Manchester. How great was onr 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 a dose 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 Eate 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 ! (Signed) Frederick Butcher, 6 Birch road, Crumpstall, 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, Man* Chester, and an impartial acquaintance writes that Miss Kate Butcher is one of the brightest young girls to be met with anywhere — quick, precocious, and fall of vivacity and wit. Speaking of the daughter's recovery her mother says : " I do not care wiat anyone may say, there is no medicine 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 the blood, like myriads of her sex. The hollow cough, which sounded bo consumptive, was one of the symptoms, not the | disease. She needed life and strength from her food, but bow could she get it with her stomach torpid and dead P Mother Seigel's Curative j 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 9 instances out of 10 you will see just such a wonder as narrated above. We wish long life aud happy days to this young lady and her good parents and friends. 5

— The Queen has bougbfe a lock of hair which belonged to Charles the First's head before he lost it. — Scarcely the Same. — " I hear your engagement with Miss Boodle is off. How did it happen ?" — "In strict confidence, Smith, she got angry because I stole a kiss."' — " I don't see why that should provoke her — when you were engaged." — "Well, you see, I stole the kiss from another girl." The experience of years furnishes the most couvinoing e?idenoe that thousands of lives are annually saved by the use of Ayer's Cherry Pectoral. It speedily cures all affections of tha throat, bronchia tubes, and lungs,