FOUR HOURS TOO LATE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2086, 15 February 1894, Page 49

FOUR HOURS TOO LATE.

" Oh,- God! if 1 could recall the past three of foiif hours. See what trouble a man may bring upon hmselfaU in a moment"

Mr James Curtis and Mr C. S. Bennett, both of San Francisco, had been intimate friends for years. Last summer they quarrelled for the: first time, each accusing the other of wrong, Better thoughts prevailed, and they were reconciled. But you can't undo what lfl once done. Memory kept the record on her slate* They avoided each other as much as possible. Still, living as neighbours, men must meet sonve time. These two met in the btrcet. The quarrel was renewed. Bitter words flew fast and thick, and Curtis, besidehimself •With rage, drew his pistol and shot Bennett dead on the spot. Later in tile day he used the above language — so laden with self-reproach and sorrow. Yet how useless, how hopeless, how vain. But was Curtis right in saying thtto trouble may come all in a moment P True, it often; seems so, but is there not a deeper fact which we don't see P It matters nothing what Ote nature of the trouble is. Therefore let us' consider a different case on the sarae principle. An intelligent woman says: — "In October" 1890 I had an attack of illness from which i never expected to rtc jvct. I had aching paiuo ail over me and a cough that nearly shook cue to pieces. I obtained no good sleep night or ctay. and had to take to my bed. I was fed witfc liquid food from an invalid's cup, for I could not raise myself in bed. My heart fluttered so you could hear it beat on the pillow, and often pains struck through it as though somebody had stabbed me. I lay perfectly helpless aud could scarcely breathe. A doctor attended me over a month, but I grew weaker and weaker. Sometimes at night I wag so bad he feared I would not live till morning. He called in a consulting physician, and both agreed that my condition was critical. I was fed with brandy to keep me alive. My husband and daughter stayed with me almost constantly. None of the medicines administered had any effect. I was almost at death's door. "AtthistimeMrs Keeling, of Mutley, near Plymouth, a friend of mine, urged me to try a medicine called Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. I procured a bottle, and after a few days I was able to take and digest sufficient food to give me some strength, and the worst symptoms were greatly abated. After having used six bottles of the Syrup my health was completely restored, aud I have since felt better than for the previous 30 years. My two daughters have also been cured of indigestion by it. I will gladly answer any inquiries." (Signed) Mrs Louise Jackson, Builders' Arms Hotel, Bridge Road, Hammersmith, London, Jauuary 14, 1892. In tho letter from which the above is an extract, Mrs Jackson further says that for over 20 years before the attack of October 1890 she had suffered from a disordered stomach and liver. She had a bad taste in the mouth, a poor appetite, and what little she ate gave her pain. She felt dull, languid, and tired, and had a miserable sinking feeling in the stomach, great pain in the chesb and sides, palpitation, giddiness, and frequently fell in the street and had to be assisted home. So we perceive that in her case a cause, long in operation, at last produced the crisis which came near ending her life. It is always thus, whether we recogoise the cause or not. The crime committed by Curtis was tbe sudden passionate act of a man who allowed thoughts of hate and vengeance to take possession of his mind and breed the condition which made murder possible. In the very different case of this lad} '8 illness it was an enemy of her body, indigestion and dyspepsia, which at length broke out into violence. The lesson ib the same. Watch the beginning of evil and check it while yet it may be easily controlled.

— Dick : " Yes, you see, I'm in no end of a. fix. I would never have proposed if I'd had the least idea that she would accept me, but she did." Jack : " Well, propose again, »s if you had forgotten. That will make her mad enough to refuse you."