Reminded of His Dead Mother.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4579, 27 February 1893, Page 1

Reminded of His Dead Mother.

[EXTEACT ..ROM A PBIVATB lETTER.] It was the latter part of August, 1891. A friend and I had come down from Ramsgate to Minster, to see the venerable church there, which is a thousand years old. I entered the churchyard and sweated myself npon a nameless grave while he went in search of somebody to unlock the doors of the edifice and show its wonders. In a few minutes he returned in company with an elderly lady, to whom he introduced me, saying she . was the custodian and guide of the place. I gazed at her face for some moments without a word. If my own mother, dead and gone fifteen years, had come back to speak to her only- son, I should scarcely have been more astonished. For this woman was almost my mother's double ; the same size, the same face, and the same way of parting the hair and combing it in smooth bands from the forehead. I told her bo, and we were friends before either, fairly knew the other's name. What a queer v. orld it is. She then conducted us through the ancient fane, and spoke of the long vanished past, of tha monks and nuns who once sang and prayed within itß walls, of the' quaint carvings on the bard oak seats in the chancel, of that precious relic, the Cranmer Bible, which reposes in ' a glass box against a pillar, and bf many matters besides, drawn from the apparently exhaustless well of her detailed and accurate information*

| Finally the talk veered round to the wholeaomeness of the vicinity, the bracing nature of its sea breezes and so on. Then our guide, Mrs Sarah Herd Baid : — " I have lived here in Minster fifty years, and seen many ups and downs. One of my sons is now in America, where he is doing well. He wants me to 'leave England and make my home with him, but I doubt if I ever shall.* I am somewhat like that old yew tree out in tbe yard, deeply rooted to tbis soil, and might be the worse for pulling up. Then lam getting on in life, and ills grow apace with age. In the spring of 1878 I had a serious attack. At first I scarcely knew what to make of it. There was no disease that I recognised in particular. .1 felt tired in body and weary in mind.' There was much pain nt my chest and baok, and a kind of tightness at the sides, as though physical force were applied there to restrain me from moving. My appetite, which was usually good, fell away j and whatever I ate or drank gave me pain, .and. I lived almost entirely on bread and water. I was always in pain and couldn't sleep, so as to feel refreshed by it. After a time I grew so weak as jto be unable to go about my work. A bitter aud sickening fluid arose into my mouth, and I perspired to such an extent that the sweat sometimes rolled off my face to the floor." ' t

I (the writer) break in upon Mrs Herd's story at this point, merely to say that this tendency to sweat without the provocation of labour or of exercise ia always a sign of a debilitated condition of the system. ■ It means that the blood is impure arid impovished, the kidneys working badly, and that the body lacks nourishment, and is living feebly on what was previously stored in it. In other words, the stomaoh has refused its duty, and the other organs are in sympathy, with, it. Now we will let the lady proceed,' begging , pardon for the interruption. She went on to aay :— "For a tim^ I tried to cure myself with various domestic remedies- which sometimes answer. But they failed, and I consulted a physioian. With aU respect to the doctors, they occasionally fail to. This one did. "Ton kqow there comes a time in all long illneaj.es when we get in some way nsed to pain and misery, and make no further efforts' to get tid of it. In fact, we don't know how, and so don't try. For about three years I remained wretched and ailing, and dull, unhappy years they were. My sufferings were beyond all. I had ever known before, . yet there seemed nothing to do bnt to bear tbem -as patiently as I could. , At this date,, 1881, certain friends bf mine spoke to me of the great benefit they had received from the use of Mother Seigel's Syrup, for indigestion and dyspepsia. This threw light |on my mind, although I cannot say 1 it made me at once a believer in Seigel's Syrbp. At length, however, in July, 1881, 1, began to take it. ' In all I used six bottle?, and found my health fully restored. Ten years bave elapsed, and I have had no attaok since. Bnt if Ido in future I shall know where to put my hand on the remedy." . Our visit being virtually over, we called for a few moments at Mrs Herd's home, 2, High street, Minster, Kent, and then wended our way back to Ramsgate. -..#!_ fr York; October; 1891. v C. M. E.