Four Hoars Too Late.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4867, 5 February 1894, Page 1

Four Hoars Too Late.

"Oh, God! if I could recall the past three or four hours. See what trouble a man may bring . upon himself all in a moment." Mr James Curtis and Mr C. S. Bennett, both of San Francisco, had been intimate friends for years. Last summer they i quarrelled for the first time, each accusing the other of. wrong. Better thoughts prevailed and they were reconciled. Bnt you can't undo what is onoe done. Memory kept the record on her slate. They avoided each other as much aa possible. Still, living as neighbours, men must meet sometime. Those two met in tbe street. The quarrel was renewed. Bitter words flew fast and thick, and Curtis, beside himself with rage, drew his pistol and shot Bennett dead on the spot. Later in the day he used the above language— so laden with self-reproach and Borrow. Yet how useless, how hopeless, how vain. Bnt was Curtis right in Baying that trouble may come all in a moment 1 True, it often seems so, but is there not a deeper fact which we don't see? It matters nothing what the nature of the trouble is. Therefore let ns consider a different case on the same principle. An intelligent woman says :— " In October, 1890, 1 had an attack of illness from which I never expected to recover. I had aching pains all over me and a cough that nearly shook me to pieces. I obtained no good sleep night or day, and had to take to my bed. I was fed with liquid food from an invalid's cup, for I could not raise myself in bed. My heart fluttered so you could hear it beat on the pillow, and often pains struck through it as though somebody had stabbed me. I lay perfectly helpless and could scarcely breathe. , A doctor attended me over a month, bu? I grew weaker and weaker. Sometimes at night I was so bad he feared Z would not live till morning. He called in a consulting physician and both agreed that my condition was critical. I was fed with brandy to keep me alive. My husband and daughter stayed with me almost constantly. None of tbe medicineß administered had any effect. I was almost at death's door. "At this time Mrs Keeling,, of Mutley, near Plymouth, a friend of mine, urged me to try a medicine called Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. I procured a bottle, and after a few days I was able to tike and digest sufficient food to give me some strength, and the worst symptoms were greatly abated. After having used Biz bottleß of the Syrup my health was completely restored, and I have since felt better than for the previous-thirty years. My two daughters have also been cured of ' indigestion by it. I will gladly answer any enquiries. " (Signed) Mrs Louise Jackson, Builders' Arms Hotel, Bridge Boad, Hammersin'th, [ London, Jan. 14th, 1892." , In the letter from which the above is an , extract, Mrs Jackson further says that fcr over twenty yearß before the attack of i October, 1890, she had suffered from a - -disordered stomaoh and liver. She bad a [ bad taste in the mouth, a poor appetite, , and what little she ate gave her pain. She . I felt dull, languid, and tired, and had a . miserable sinking feeling in the stomaoh, great pain in the cheat aud sides, palpitation, giddiness, avd frequently fell in tht p street and had to be assisted home. ° So we perceive that in her caße a cause _ l long in operation, at last produced tht crisis which came, near ending her life. II

_ is always thup, whether we recognise the causo or not. Tho crims oimmitt.-d by Curtis was the sudden passionate act of a man who allowed thoughts of ha'e and vengeance to take possession of his mind \ and breei the condition which made ( murder possible. In the very different c -fie of this lady's illness it was an enemy . of her body, indigestion and dyspeptii, I wbrst' at length broke oat into violenc9. Tbe lesson is the same. Watch the ; be^inasvg of evil and check i€ while yet it may bo- ft^6ily controlled.