HOW IT IS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2369, 27 July 1899, Page 8

HOW IT IS.

I -In the streets of the town where I lire I sometimes meet a' poor fellow who is so badly - I off that his appeal for a penny .or two isr hardly to be resisted. He has lost both his legs above the knees, and punts himself alonjr the pavement with his hands, like a loaded barge in shallow water. Thank Mercy, one doesn't often see human hulks like himWhere there is a single instance of a man having lost both legs or both arms there are a dozen where only one limb of the pair is missing. And where there is a single case of the latter sort there are a hundred eases of 1 people who are lame, or more or less disabled, ,by disease or minor injuries, which are : scarcely noticeable, yet in the long run very serious to those so afflicted. Consequently, when we sum up both classes wo perceive that it'isn't the^total wrecks and the incurables that are most expensive ta society, but the prodigious host which must work, and does work, yet always under dif1 nculties and against hindrances. Men and women are regularly employed, but who are continually breaking down in a small way, thus losing fragments of time and fractions of wages, are of the kind I mean. The amount of income lost in this way in one year in England is immense. And so far as the cause ; l of all this is disease, and not accident, or born , bodily imperfection, it is almost always pre1 ventablo and generally curable. Look at thisj for example, and take heart. t "In the spring of this year (1897)," tho writer says, " my health began to fail*me. My j appetite was poor, and after meals I had a ! pain and weight at the chest. I could nob sleep owing to the pain, and I got weaker i every day. I had so nvuch pain that I dared! ; not eat, and rapidly lost flesh. " I was in- agony night and day, and often sat by the fire at night us 1 could ( not rest in. i bed. I had a deal of muscular .pain, particularly in .the arms. I gradually got worseand worse, and in two months lost two score pounds weight. I "I saw a doctor who gave me medicines ancf ' injected morphia to ease the pain ; but.l was no better for it. Then T met with a friendV *who told me of the great benefit he had de-riv-ed from the use of a medicine calledMother Seigel's Syrup. I got a bottle of it from Mr S. Richardson, chemist, Bridgma'n street, and in a week I could eat 'well, andfood no longer distressed me. Therefore T kept on with the medicine, and soon was strong and well. I am now in the best of health, and recommend this remedy to all T meet with. You are at liberty to publish this letter as you like." — (Signed) William Bridge,. Grocer and Baker, 65 Bridginan street, *Bolton, October sth, 1897." Here we have an illustration of the proposition with which this article sets out. From. Mr Bridge's account of his own case, we see- | that he lost a considerable time from his business. How much that represents in money he does not say ; nor is it important to theargument. For two months or more he lost from his business practically all he was worth; ti it; and what that situation would have signified, had it been indefinitely continued, any intelligent person can imagine. Men frequently become. stricken with poverty as with, illness in that way. However well any busi- 1 ness may be managed in an emergency by others, it is not to be supposed that it gets on as prosperously as when the proprietor i* himself at the helm. And he cannot be there while he is suffering agonies from disease.' This is true even if we make no calculation of the direct expenses created byillness, "nor of the suffering experienced — the latter not eoiriputable in terms of money. Now, please remark how quickly Mr Bridge wai cured of his ailment — bad as it seemed and really was. Dating from the time he began using Mother Seigel's Syrup, he says: — '" In a week I could eat well, and the food no longer distressed me. His trouble was of the digestion only (acute dyspepsia), for which this preparation long ago proved itself a specific. Had he known of and employed it when* the attack began he would have lost no time, felt no pain. The lesson of the case is this : — As indigestion ia a common complaint, and dangerous also when neglected, the remedy should be at. hand for immediate use when needed. Tho more valuable the treasure the more strict should be tho guard over it. And health is a jewel compared with which- rubies are as the, glass beads of savages.

The Mercantile and Bankruptcy Gazette, ins distinguishing between a Richard. John Sed- ' don and the Premier, styles the latter the Right Hon. Sir R. J. Sedclou. j Mr John Shannon, who died in the Duni edin Hospital a few days ago, was (says tho. Cromwell Times) a very old resident of Matakanui. Ho was one of the miners chosen as a member of the Mining Conferences which took place in the early days, of which the late Hon. V. Pyke was chairman. He left a widow and two children. , Enginedriver Carter, who had charge of fcha second train on«»the occasion of the Rakaia accident, received notice on Wednesday of his dismissal from the railway service. He has been under suspension since the date of tho accident, March 11 — rather more than four < months, — and during that period he refused the offer of a good appointment in Southland, hoping, on his acquittal at the Supreme Court sittings, to be reinstated in the service* After the finding of the recent Court of Inquiry the present decision of the department was, perhaps, inevitable, but it certainly seems hard (says the Press) that Carter should have been kept in suspense so long, and that he should have lost the opportunity offered to km of other. eowsloymenU,