THE MISER'S DIAMOND NECKLACE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8885, 19 September 1890, Page 4

THE MISER'S DIAMOND NECKLACE.

In the year 1740 there lived in the Latin quarter in Paris, a famous miser named Jean Avere. The wealth concealed in the obscure rookery where he resided wns.believed to be .fabulous, a^d was no doabt reaUy^ very great. Aoion^ his treasures was. a celebrated diamoi i necklace of immense value. This he concealed so carbfuNy thai he ultimately forgot : ts hiding-place himself. He Bon^ht diligently for weeks, anc l, fejjia? | to find v, became almost in3ane. Thiß rendered him even less • capable of remtnibrance, and he took to his bed broken in body as In mind. A few weeks latter a doctor and an old woman who had sometimes done odd jods about his house, were both at his bi 1-side, seeing Ibat the. -end was near. As the clook m the neighboring tower tolled one, he ceased his low muttering and sat up and shrieked,-" I remember where it is now. I can put my hand on the necklace. Fqr God's sake lot me po for it before I forget it again 1" litre bis weakness and excitement overcame- hinr, and he sank bacK among his rags, stone, dead. Physicians and Btadenta are familiar with tfcfise outflaahings. of memory at the great crisis of human fate. Lpt the reader consider tbis^ while' we relate atfepißode in the humble career of a Signalman, Andrew Agge, who may bs found on duty in his box at Cu!gaii.b, a little station on the Midland, twenty-three mileß south of, Carlisle. Mr A^ge is on duty every day, and must break bis faßt without leaving his poet. The confinement and mental strain tell on, the system, 'lbe strongest man cannot stand it long without feeling- its effectß. It- makeß one thinfe of the passionate, exclamation in Tom Hood's "Song of the Shirt," " Ob, God I that bread Bhould be so dear, And flesh and blood bo cheap." Our friend had been at' the same work for many years, although be was only thirty-five when these lines were written In 1884 he began to feel that he was about to break down. "I don't know what ails me," he would say, "but I can't eat." What ha forced down produced no sense of satisfaction or strength. Sometimes he was alarmed at finding ho could scarcely walk on account, of giddinesa. He said to himself. " What if I should be seized with this at some moment when there is trouble on the line; and I need all my wits about me ?" Other features- of thiß ailment were pains in the cheßt and sides, coßtiyen«Bß,! yeilotWißirin arid.eyes, bad- tusie in the ■ mouth, rising of foul gas in the throat,' &c. TbpJoctor.said Agge,must give up his, confining work or rißk utter disability. He oauld not. Wife and children were in ttie way. - 8o he remained at hia post and grew worse. But his work was always right, telegrams were promptly received and sent, and no train got into trouble through any neglect or fault of hia. His disease —indigestion and dyspepsia —took a step further, and brought on kidney and, bladder trouble. The doctor, at Appleby, g&id, "MrAggp, yon are poisoned withthte foaljitnffja your stomach and blood." Hfe doom^ seen -A • to be -sealed. > lt> was like a death warrant: Six* months more rolled" by. On duty one morr'ng he was attacked with ro great and >so, sharp a distress-he could neither st nor stand. He says : " 1 tumbled down on that locker and lay- there all the forenoon. Signals mi»ht be given, the telegraph needle might oli'fy bat I heeded' Juem no n".te than a man in the grave heeds the beating of the rain against his own tombstone." ; He was alone at first, • but help arrived, and the poor signalman was!carried homr. Physicians laboured on his case without a^ail. Around Jim bed were his .five little children, the mother being absent in an institution, to be treated fora serious ailHere he lay for weeke, port of the time nnconedoua., Nothing was to be done but to wait for the end. Then the torpid faculties awakened for a moment. Memory flashed vp, and he recalled the fact that a medicine which he had used with benefit years before, and then thrown aside and forgotten, teas concealed ;n a secret place at the' tignal box. He sent iorfy and took a dbse. Soon bis bowels moved, the kidneys acted;-the pain wa» eased, he felt better. With brightened nope he sent to Catliile for more. It arrived. He used it. and in a few days the doctors were astonished to find. thtir patient out of doora, and on the road to recovery. Be regained-his-health completely ,_ and, in speaking of bio expereince, said to the writer r.*'Wbata wonderful thing it was that, on what promised to be my death-bed, I suddenly remembered, where Had put that ball-used bottle of Mother Seigel'a Curative Syrup. That flaßh of memory, probably suved me from death.' 1 2- ■■■ ' ' '