FAIRLY WELL ISN'T WELL ENOUGH.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2888, 13 December 1898, Page 4

FAIRLY WELL ISN'T WELL ENOUGH.

Let us say that your wages are twenty shillings a week. You have worked hard, and done your best, and feel that you have earned your money. Very good. Now imagine that wheu Saturday night comes your employer hems and haws, and wants to put you ofl' with fifteen. I'll be bound you would think yourself hardly treated. What are the great strikes m this country commonly about ? Why, m some fashion they are wages or hours ; it comes to the same thing. Be it understood that the writer uses an illustration of another fact— that is all. What is that fact ? We shall work it out of the following personal statement. "Nearly all my life," says Mrs Sarah Dalby, " I have been subject to attacks of biliousness, accompanied with sickness, but got on fairly well up to the early part of 1882. At this time I began to feel heavy, dull, with an all-gone, sinking sensation. My skin was sallow, and the whites of my eyes had a -yellow tinge." As everybody knows, or ought to know, the colouring matter was bile. The liver being torpid, and, therefore, failing to remove the bile from the blood, it entered the skin; and showed itself on the surface. But the discolouration isn't the worst mischief done by the vagabond bile, containing many poisonous waste elements ; it disorders the whole system and sets up troublesome and dangerous symptoms, some of which the lady names. " I had a bad taste m the mouth," she goes on to say, "and, m the morning particularly was often very sick, retching so violently that to see the dawn of day. "My appetite was poor, and after eating I had pains at my chest and side. Frequently I couldn't bring myself to touch food at all ; my stomach seemed to rebel at the very thought of it." [ This was bad, but the stomach was light, nevertheless. More food would nave made more pain, more indigested matter to ferment and turn sour, more of a load for the sleepy liver, more poison for the nerves, kidneys, and skin. And yet, without the food, how was she to live? It was like being ground between the upper and the nether millstones.] " After this," runs the letter, " I had great pain and fluttering at the heart. Sometimes I would have fits of dizziness and go off into a faint, which left me quite prostrated. Then my nerves became so unset and excitable that I got no proper sleep at night, and on account of loss of strength I was obliged to lie m bed all day for days together. I went to one doctor after another, and attended at Bartholomew's and the University Hospitals, but was none the better for it all. "In September, 1883, my husband read m Reynold's Newspaper about Mother Seigers Curative Syrup, and got me a bottle of it. After taking it for 3 days I felt relieved. Encouraged and cheered by this I kept on taking the Syrup, and m a short time all, the distress abated, and I was well— better than I had been. That is ten years ago, and since then I have never ailed anything. With sincere thanks, I am, yours truly (Signed) Mrs Sarah Dalby, 93, Tottenham Koad, Kingsland,London, N M January 2nd, 1894." Now run your eye back to the first sentence of Mrs Dalby's letter, and you will come to these words, "J got on fairly well," etc. This is the sad thought. Her life has always been at a discount; she has always got less than her due ; she lost part of her health— wages. Do you take my meaning ? Of course. Whatever may be our differences of opinion as to the rights of capital and the value of labour, it is certain that every human being' is entitled to perfect health — without reduction, without drawback. All the more, as nobody else loses what one person thus gains. No, no. On the contrary, a perfectly healthy person is a benefit and a blessing to all who are brought into relations with him. But -do all have such health ? God help us, no ; very, very few. Why not ? Ah, the answer is too big ; I can't give it to-day. To the vast crowd who only get on "fairly well" I tender my sympathy, and advise a trial of the remedy mentioned by Mrs Dalby.