It's Gone, All Gone, and I'm Going Too.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4574, 20 February 1893, Page 1

It's Gone, All Gone, and I'm Going Too.

| For many a year did the same man sweep I a certain street-crossing in Hampstead. Through all seasons and in all weathers, there he was, sweeping the crossing and taking such gratuities as were given him. Time wore away, and he came to be eighty j veara old. He appeared at his poet no more. | A lady district visitor looked him up at his lodgings. What a picture of squalid j destitution 1 No fire, no food, no friends j j Wife and family he had none — never had. The poor old fellow was perishing' of starvation, of want. Some money was raised for his benefit and he was removed to a London Hospital. Here he lay several weeks sinking daily. One night he was clearly very low. Near him stood one of the hospital physicians and a nurse. Seeing him clutch nervously at his pillow, the nurse, supposing | the patient desired to be raised up, put his ! arm beneath him to perform that service. In doing so the nurse's hand came in con- ; tacfc with an object which he withdrew. | Tt was a dirty little canvas bag tied with a | leather Btring. As it was laid aside the I old man perceived what had been done, lifted his skeleton, frame, partially from ' the bed, and, trembling with excitement, said in a shrill whisper : "Ah my treasure, my treasure! It's gone, all gone, and I'm going too!" and Bank baok dead. The bag contained JBSOO in notes — the savings of his miserly life. And he, there, dead of starvation, even more than of age. Well, what of it ? you say. The wretched old man was better dead than alive. Quite so, but most human events have a moral, a lesson, about them, if we keep an eye out for it. What, for example, can we learn from tho following facts ?•— One night about ten years ago a man whose name we can furnish, went to bed as usual, apparently in good health and spirits. A few hours later he lay unconscious on the floor. In explanation he stated that he had been seized, suddenly, with a pain of such violenoe that he was compelled to rise — a pain in the chest. After rising he losthia senses and sank down on the spot where he had stood. His wife aroused by the noise, struck a light and saw her husband in that situation. She afterwards declared he had gone black in the face, and. that his eyeß looked as if they were starting out of his head. Restoratives were applied which brought him to, but he was not as before ; so quickly and unexpectedly do we cross the boundary line between two opposite bodily conditions. It is like stepping from the broad blaze of day into a damp cavern packed with darkness. He felt weak and Bick, with a Btrange " all-gone" sensation throughout his whole system. His mouth tasted badly, and was filled with a slimy sort of phlegm, his head ached, he was unable to draw a deep breath, he walked with difficulty, and went about his business like a man who is haunted by a paralysing dream. Perplexed and alarmed lie consulted physicians, who prescribed for him, without, however, producing any noticeable improvement.. The strong, clear-headed man of previous years was ,gone— changed as by the wand of a vicious magician into the feeble being he now wa3. Even with this dismal prospect before him our friend travelled not on level ground; bis path* led downward ; he 'grew worse. In December', 1888, he had a distinct and bad attack, gave up business, and went to bed. There he remained for a weary, painful month — thirty days, as long as thirty years of power and occupation. The doctor said there was something wrong with the stomach and bowels. After he once more rose from his bed he still suffered dreadful pain, and could rest neither day nor night. Indeed, some nights he never slept a moment. So weak had he become that when he attempted a short walk he was obliged to abandon the effort, return and go to bed. His own words are these : — "To give you an idea how reduced I had become I may mention that I lost over three stone weight and was wasting away. I kept on like this until January, 1891, when Mr Everson, of Occold, told me of a medicine called Mother Seigel's Syrup and the good it had done. I tried it, and in three days I felt | better. Cheered and encouraged by this , I continued to use it, with the ie&ult> that I wholly recovered from my mysterious malady. I am now Btrong and hearty, and business is again a pleasure. The Syrup did me more good in a few weeks than all my ten yearß* doctoring put together." (Signed) Albert Thorndyke, proprietor of the Grapes lan, Church street, Eye, Suffolk. May Ist, 1891. What do we learn from this ? We learn that while a -nieerly fool like our croaaing- [ sweeper may starve for money, a wise man with more reverence for his bodily temple | seeks and finds a remedy for a tendency to starvation, induced by disease : that the disease was indigestion and dyspepsia, and the remedy Mother Seigel's Syrup.