“KISS ME, JACK, AND LET ME GO.’

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 43, 5 April 1895, Page 3

“KISS ME, JACK, AND LET ME GO.’

Oace, long ago, I was witness to a duel in California. The two men had been bosom friends, but had quarellei about (of course) a woman. Splendid fellows both—young, brainy, and ambitious. As they stood in a clear place among the pine trees near Sacramento, pale as lilies, steady as rocks, weapons in band waiting for the word, the rising sun shining athwart the line of vision, they presented a picture too often seen in 1856. The pistols cracked almost simultaneously. One man stood erect, evidently untouched, the other fell upon his back and lay straight and still. Seconds, surgeons, and spectators rushed to his side. He was “ all there,” mind as well as body. “ No, don’t disturb me,” he said coolly to the doctor ” “ I’m shot fatally and shall die in five minutes. Call Jack and be quick.” Pistol still in hand, his antagonist came and bent over his erstwhile chum. The excitement among the crowd was intense ; the dying man alone was calm. “ Jack, my darling old boy,” he said, “ forgive me and forgive her. Kiss ne and let me go.” A minute more and he was dead, with Jack lying across his body, crying like a baby. After I have told you another and very different story, I’ll show wherein they teach the same lesson:

There is no tragedy in this one; nevertheless it is of wider human interest than the other. A woman had been ill more or less all her life. The details are commonplace enough, and yet they will appeal to millions who care nothing for the jealousies of young men in love. “ At times,” she says, I suffered from pains at the back of the head, and a sense of a weight, and felt tired and weary, yet it was not from work only. I had a strange feeling too, of something hanging over me, as of some evil or longer that I could not explain or define. “ My appetite was variable ; sometimes I could eat anything and again I could not touch any food at all. But 1 ivas never laid up, as it were." 1 please not© the last sentence. It may seem like the weekest but really is the strongest point in Ibis lady’s statement. We will tell you why in a moment. She goes on: “ Still I was often in misery, but got along fairly well until August, 1890, when I had a severe attack of rheumatism. First the great toe of my right foot and the thumb of my right i hg,nd gpew hot and painful. After a time thp trouble extended tp my back apd hips, I could not straighten myself j I was almost beut double. Month after month j was like this, getting little or no sleep at night. Medical treatment proved of no benefit to me. in December, 1801, (he pain almost drove me mad. My face was swollen to nearly twice its natiural size, and my eyes were so covered by the enlarged Jifis that I could hardly see. There was a constant ringing in my ears, apd the cloctpnj said I had erysipelas, For days and days I could not walk across the floor, and for some time I was able to move about only by taking hold of the furniture or other objects. When all other means had been tried and had failed Mother Seigol’s Curative Syrup was recommended to me. A single bottle did mo a deal of good. I kept on with, it, and soon was stronger and in better health than for for+y years previously. X still Stake an occassional dose apd continue in good health notwithstanding my ago (48) apd the ‘ change of life.’ I tell everyone what the Syrpp has dope fpr me, apd give ypu pcfmjssiqn to publish what I said-' Yours truly (Signed), (Mrs) Mary Jane Milner,s, 18, Walker's Buildings, Brewery Lane, Thornhill Lees, near Dewsbury, Yorkshire, Oct. 12th, 1892.”

Now for the lesson of both these iuei« I dexits'; what isit ; This; that it isnotpeople ' in desperate extremities who suffer most. Pain is in proportion to the resistance to disease, '-f-’ltose who wne> aye, in despair, who g-jvo pp, have present punishment largely 'Dying people are the most comfortable of all. Hopelessness and dissolufidn asu>ipistcr their own anodynes. Thosp wlyp are not laid yp, wljo are il|, and yet v/pi% aylty struggle; nerd pity apd was ope, and tosyojj Hjlotber SeigeJ always yroTep a friend, (