How It Is.

Temuka Leader, Issue 3470, 25 July 1899, Page 1

How It Is.

In the streets of the town where I live I sometimes meet a poor follow who is so badly off that his appeal for a penny or two is hardly to bo resisted. Ho has lost both his legs above the knees and punts hims If along the pavement with Irs hands, like a loaded barge in shallow water. Thank Mer y, one doesn’t often seo human hulks like him. "Where 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 cases of people who are lame, or more or less disabled, by minor injuries which are scarcely noticable, yet in the long run very serious to those so afflicted. Consequently, when wo sum up both classes we perceive that it isn’t the total wrecks and the incurables that are most expensive to society, but the prodigious host which must work, and does work, yejalways under difficulties and against hindrances, men and women 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 incomes lost in this way inone year in England is immense. And so far as the cause of all this is disease, and not accident or born bodily imperfection, i j. is almost always prevcntible and generally curable. Look at this, for example, take heart: — e “ In the spring of this year, (1897),” th writer says, “ my health began to fail me" My appetite was poor, and after meals j had pain and weight at the chest. I could not sleep, owing to the pain, and I got weaker every day. I had so much pain ihat I dared not eat, and rapidly lost flesh. “1 was in agony night and day, and often sat by the fire at night as I could not rest in bed. I had a deal of muscular pain particularly in the arms. I gradually got worse and -worse, and in two months lost two score pounds weight. “ I saw a doctor who gave mo medicines and injeo'ed morphia to ease the pain; but I was no better for it. Then I mot with a friend who told me of the great benefit he had derived from the use of a medicine called Mother Seigel’s Syrup. I got a bottle of it from Mr S. llichardson. Chemist, Bridgman Street, and in a week 1 could oat well and food no longer distressed me. Therefore I kept on with the medicine, and soon was strong and well. lam now in the best of health, and recommend this remedy to all I meet with. You are at liberty to publish this letter as you like.”— (Signed) William Bridge, Grocer anl Baker, ti.j, Bridgman Street, Bolton, October sth, 1897. Here wo have an illustration of the proposition with which this article sets out. From Mr Bridge’s account of bis own case we see that he lost a considerable time from his business. How much that represents in money ho does not say ; nor is it important to the argument. For two months or more he lost from his business practically all ho was worth tc 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 business may be managed in an emergency by others, it is not to bo supposed that it gets on as prosperously as when tho proprietor is himself at the helm. And ho cannot be there while he is suffering agonies from disease. This is true even if wo make no calculation of the direct expenses created by illness, nor of the suffering experienced—the latter not computable in terms of money. Now, please remark how quickly Mr. Bridge was cured of his ailment —bad as it seemed and really was. Dating from the time ho began using Mother SeigoTs Syrup, he says; —“ In a week I could oat well, and tlxe food no longer distressed me.” His trouble was of tho digestion only (acute dispepsia) for which this preparation long ago proved itself a specific. Had ho known of and employed it -when the attack began he would have lost no time, felt no pain. The lesson of the caso is this ;—As indigestion is a common complaint, and dangerous also when neglected, the remedy should be at hand for immediate use when needed. The more valuable the treasure the more strict should be the guard over it. And health is a jewel compared with which rubies rae as the glass beads of savages, jyll