STARVED INTO MUTINY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2167, 5 September 1895, Page 35

STARVED INTO MUTINY.

A famous mutiny on shipboard came to pass in this way : When the ship, which had sailed from L .melon, was well down the Channel, ib was found that tho provisions intended for the usa of tho oraw were rot' en, and, of courso f uuealable. The men complained to the captain, who promised to put into Bams near p»rt and exchange tbe bad stores for good. He failed to keep hia word, aod as the poor sailors couldn't sail the ship 10,000 milea on empty stomach?, they killed the captain and mate, helped themselves to tbe cabiu provisions, held high jinks for a few weeks, and finally scuttled the ship, put off in the boat*, nnd were all loefe but. three. The captain could have prevented all this if he hud chosen to ; but perhaps the owners and he had put up the bad job on the men. Very likely, and got served out for it. Th(-y were both orimiunla andfooli.

But there are ships that must needs sail to the end of the voyage with only the original stores. Come, what may, they can't go back Of put into any port. Some are well found and others badly ; and so voyages differ.

To modify the illustration, the latter kind of vessels are human being*. At birth we sail on a voyage which by rights ought to ba 70 years long. Bub how many of us co:.tinuo on tho Sea of Life that long ? Very few comparatively. Most of U* go down sooner. Why P Bf cause we recklessly, . carelessly, or ignorantly waste the stock of vital force with whiuh Nature endown us at the start. There are no meat shops or bakeries on the Atlantic, nor aro there any places after birth whero we oau beg or buy more "life." This is perfectly plain to me. Ia it plain to you PI am afraid it isu't. Let's sea whether a little incident will throw light on it.

Mr Heory Fish had been a fortunate man. His forbears had done well by him. Up to the autumn of 1890 he could say, " I have always been strong and healthy." For 30 yenra he h<id worked as a painter for one employer. He must have been not only a healthy man, but a good painter. So far his " vitality," bis constitution, had been equ&l to all demand) on ib. It had endured a lot of hard, work, resisted the weather, and digested his food. Then it refused to go on. It struck work. It wouldn't make sail or pull an oar. In plain English, the symptoms or sigos of the trouble were these : Loss of appetite, bad taste in the mcufcb, fcerriblo pains after Fating, yellow eyes and skin, and rheumatic gout in the feet. His legs and stomach became fearfully swollen, and hia heart palpitated and thumped fright* fully nearly all the time. On account of tha distress given him by solid food he could only eat slops, and not much (strength can be got out of them.

By-and-bye the be&t he could do was to hobble about on crutches. He could not lie abed at all, because he couldn't draw his breath when} lying dowu. For over & month he snatched, what sleep he could when supported upright on his crutches. Just think of that, and be thank* ful it wasn't your case. He wasn't able to lift his hand to his mouth, and had to be nursed night and day. He got co low (in spite ot doctors attending him) that he didu't expect to live, and didn't desire to. One doctor said he had heart discise, and that his heart was big aa a bullock's, which war nonsense. During all this illness Mr Fi»h had a professional nursa from a convalescent home. When he had uanb so low as to make it a wonder how ho kept alive at all, he fust heard of the medicine which finally cured him. In concluding his letter he sayu : " After beginning to take Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup I never looked behind me. _ I got stronger every day, and have ailed nothing sinoe. This medicine saved my life, and I want the public to know it. (Signed) Henry Fish, Great Malvern, County of Worce&ter, Januarj 12, 1893." Only a word more. We spoke of men and women being like ships that have to sail to tha end of tbe voyage with what supplies tbey start with. By that we mean, not supplies of food, but supply of power to digest food. You see the difference ? Bread and meat are no better than lead and leather if you oan'c digest them. In Mr Fi6h's case it was not fcod tbat failed, but power to use it. He had indigestion and dyspepsia. The wonderful remedy discovered by Mother Seigel stopped the waste of vitality ciused by the disease, and enab'ed Nature to use foad to build up the perishing body. He will now proceed, we hope, towards the porb oE Old Age with favouring winds. Yet, save for timely rescue, he would doubtless have gone down, as millions do, leaving but a momentary eddy over the spot where they disappear.

During August 1,243,104 ft of timber were exported from Qrej mouth.

Eton has now 1019 students. Among them are four earls and seven eldest sons of peers?

Mr C. J. Pbaraeyn has given £500 to the Wellington Cathedral fund, which brings the fund up to £2346.

A grass fire ab Cheviot swept about 1000. acres of the Benmore block. One hundred sheep were destroyed.

The coal export from Westport last week wm 3200 tons, of which the Westport Coal Company shipped 2694 tons and the Cardiff Company 506 tons. The hospital returns for the p»«t week aro Remaining from previous week, 101 ; admitted during the week, 19; discharged, 13; deaths (Archibald M'Ktwen and Jessie Newsome), 2 ; total remaining in tho institution. 105,