HOW DIO THE THIEF GET IN ?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XII, 21 March 1896, Page 332

HOW DIO THE THIEF GET IN ?

You wake op some morning and misa your wateh, yonr pnrae. your best elotbes and other valuables. Yet neither you nor any member of your family beard a sound dating the night. Neither is there a sign of how the thief got into the house nor by wbat road he deeamped. You rnsh round and tell the police, and also decide to keep a dog and a shot gun. You will let thieves know they mustn’t come fooling around your premises after this. A sensible procedure. Meanwhile yonr watch, your money, etc., are gone. Quite so. Now suppose I should tell you that the thief who stole your property never entered your house at all ; that he was born in it; bad lived twenty years in it: never had been out cf it till he went off with the things, albeit not a soul of yon had ever seen or heard of him. W hat would you say to me! You would call me an idiot and threaten to have me sent back to the asylum. But don't be too sure. ‘Later on,’ says Mr Heakin, ‘rheumatism struck into my system and I had pains all over me. I was confined to my bed for three months with it and could not dress myself. In this general condition I continued for five years. One after another I was treated by fourteen doctors in that time, but their medicines did me little or no good. At one time I went to the Infirmary at Shrewsbury, where they treated me for heart disease ; but I got worse and feeling anxious, returned home.’ How he was finally cured we will mention in a minute. First, however, abont his rheumatism. Every intelligent person knows that rheumatism and gout (its twin brother) is virtually a universal ailment. It does its ctnel and body racking work in every country and climate. No other malady canses so vast an aggregate of suffering and disability. Whatever will cure it is worth more money in England than a gold mine in every country. Bnt does rheumatism * strike into ’ the system as a bullet or a knife might strike into it! No. Rheumatism is a thief who steals away our comfort and strength : but it is a thief, as I said, who is born on the premises In other words, it is one—and only one—of the direct consequences of indigestion and dispepsia. And this is the why and wherefore : Indigestion creates a poison called uric acid ; this acid combines with the chloride of sodium to form a salt; this salt is urate of sodium, which is deposited in the form of sharp crystals in the mnscles and joints. Then comes inflam mation and agony, otherwise rheumatism. Thus yon perceive that it doesn’t come from the outside but from the inside—from the stomach. Onr friend’s cold, cangbt in the mine, didn’t produce his rheumatism, it clogged his skin and so kept all the poison in his body instead of letting part of it out. Here is onr very good friend Mr Richard Heakin, of Pentervin, Salop, who expresses an opinion in this line. Let ns have his exact words. He says : • Rheumatism struck into my system ' Of course we understand that he speaks after the manner of men. You know we talk of being ‘attacked’ by this, that, and the other complaint, as though diseases were like soldiers or wild beasts. ‘ Doesn’t make any odds,’ do you say ! Beg pardon, tut it does—heavy odds. For it teaches us to look in the wrong direction for danger. Do you see now !

Thirteen years ago, in the spring of 1880, whilst working in the Roman Gravel Lead Mines, Mr Heaken took a bad cold. He got over the cold, bnt not over what followed ir He was feeble, without appetite, and had a deal of pain in the chest and sides. His eyes and skin were tinted yellow, and his hands and feet were cold and clammy. Frequently he would break out into a cold perspiration, as a man does on receiving a nervous shock caused by something fearful or horrible. He was also troubled with pain at the heart and had spells of difficult breathing —what medical men call asthma. Mr Heakin adds: ■ I was cared at last by Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup, and without it I believe I should have been dead long ago ' Very likely, very likely ; for this thief, although he may wait long for his opportunity, isn’t always satisfied to run away with our comfort and our money ; be often takes onr life too.