HOW DID THE THIEF GET IN ?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIII, 28 March 1896, Page 363

HOW DID THE THIEF GET IN ?

You wake up some morning and miss your watch, your parse, your best clothes and other valuables. Yet neither you nor any member of your family beard a sound during the night. Neither is there a sign of how the thief got into the house nor by what road he decamped. You rush round and tell the police, and also decide to keep a dog and a shot gur. You will let thieves know they mustn’t come fooling around your premises after this. A sensible procedure. Meanwhile your watch, your money, etc., are gone. Quite so.

Now suppose I should tell you that the thief who stole yonr 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 ynu had ever seen or heard of him. VV 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 bad 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. ()ne 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 1 got worse and feeling anxious, returned home.’ How he was finally cured we will mention in a minute. First, however, about his rheumatism. Every intelligent person knows that rheumatism and gout (its twin brother) is virtually a universal ailment. It does its eruel and body racking work in every country and climate. No other malady causes 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. But 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 sodinnt, which is de posited in the torm of sharp crystals in the muscles and joints. Then comes in Ham mation and agony, otherwise rheumatism. Thus you perceive that it doesn’t come from the outside but from the inside—from the stomach. Our friend's cold, caught in the mine, didn’t produce bis rheumatism, it clogged his skin and si kept all the poison in his body instead of letting part of it out. Here is our very good friend Mr Richard Heakin, of Pentervin, Salop, who expresses an opinion in this line. Let us 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 sol diers or wild beasts. ‘ Doesn’t make any odds,’ do you say ? Beg pardon, but it does—heavy odds. For it teaches us to look in the wrong direction for danger. Do yon 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, but 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 cured 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 onr money : he often takes our life too.