Life's Happiest Period.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue VII, 14 February 1903, Page 472

Life's Happiest Period.

When an ancient Greek philosopher was asked which he considered was the happiest time in a man’s life, he promptly selected the period between the ages of forty and forty-five. On being pressed for the reasons which induced him to make this selection, the philosopher added: "At forty a man, if he be intelligent, has lost his illusions, and looks upon the world as it is, not as he would like it to be. He is still young enough to partake of the pleasures of youth, yet has sufficient experience never to permit his heart to rule his head; is moderate in all things, and wisely shy of hazardous enterprises.” On being further asked which he considered the happiest time in a woman’s life, the philosopher paused a long while, and when at. last he replied he prefaced his answer by asserting that this was the more difficult question of the two. Finally he said: “When she is too old to be called a girl, and not old enough to be called a woman without the word ‘young’ prefixed to it. I am unable to be more definite, for the differences among women are greater than the differences among men. The healthy young woman sees only the brightest side of life, and to her vision the future is filled with golden possibilities of which the mental anticipation is delightful.” In this pronouncement it will be noted that the wise old Greek uses the word “healthy” in a qualifying

sense. Omit that word and the sentence at once loses more than half its truth. Here is a case which will prove our statement. “From the age of nineteen until I completed my twenty-third year, I did tot know what it was to be well for a s’ngfe day,” writes Mrs. R. Huntley, of t's. Ultimo - road. Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales, under date 19th June, 1902. “But for Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup it is doubtful if I should be here to-day to describe my experiences. My ailment was chronic biliousness and dyspepsia. Words are inadequate to convey a conception of my sufferings diring that miserable period. I was (ben a tailor’s machinist, employed in that capacity by Messrs. Godferson and Smith, of the Royal Arcade, Sydney. Ordinary food was poison to me, and I was obliged to exist on soda-water, milk, plain biscuits, and dry toast. Even that fare would sometimes distress me to an intolerable degree. My skin turned sallow, my eyas sank and were surrounded by dark, hollow circles. I slept only by fits and starts, my slumbers being haunted and harassed by horrible dreams and nightmares. There was a dull continuous pain between my shoulders and in my right side. I grew thinner and thinner, until I was reduced to mere skin and bone, and became so weak that I could hardly walk to my place of business. Often the noise of my sewing-machine, and the close air of the workroom, would bring on a splitting headache that maddened me. Then there were fits of retching and vomiting, which troubled me with great frequency. When there was nothing in the stomach to come up, I would retch and strain until I became exhausted and faint, when my workmates would improvise a couch for me with their cloaks and jackets, and I would lie for. hours unable to move. I was treated by three doctors; but I believe the medicines they prescribed irritated my stomach and did me more harm than good. After four years of misery I was persuaded to try what Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup could do for me, and within a few days began to mend at such a rate that everybody who knew me was amazed at the improvement in my condition. The vomiting ceased, the hue of health returned to my cheeks, my eyes brightened, and at the end of two months I was in every respect thoroughly cured.”