IT'S GONE, ALL GONE, AND I'M GOING TOO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 21, 10 March 1893, Page 15

IT'S GONE, ALL GONE, AND I'M GOING TOO.

Fob many a year did the same mau sweep a certain street-crossing in Hampstead. 1 hough all seasons and in all weather?, there be war, sweeping tbe crossing and taking such gratuities as were given him. Time wore away, and he came to be eighty years old. Reappeared at his pout nn more. A lady district visitor looked him up at his lodgings. What a picture of squalid destitution. No fire, no food, no friends. Wife and family he had none — never had. The poor old fellow was perishing of starvation, of want. Some money was raised for his benefit and he was removed to a London Hospital. Here 1 !) lay several weeks sinking daily. One night he was clearly veiy low Near him stood one of the hospital physicians and a nurse. Weeing him clutch nervously at his pillow, the nurse, supposing the patient desired to be raised up, put his arm beneath him to perform that service. In doing so the nurse's hand came in contract with an object which ho withdrew. It was a dirty little canvas bag tied with a leather string. As it was laid aside the old man perceived what bad bees done, lifted his skeleton frame partially from the bed and, trembling with excitement, said in a shrill whisper — " Ah my treasure, my treasure ! It's gone, all gone, and I'm going too I" and sank back dead. The bag contained £500 in notes — the savings of his miserly life. And he, there, dead of starvation, even more than of age. Well, what of it ? you say. The wretched old man was better dead than alive. Quite so, but most human events have a m^ral, a lesson, about them, it we keep an eye out for it. What, for example, can we learn from the following facts ?— One night about ten years ago a man whose name we can furnish, went to bed as usual, apparently in good heath and spirits. A few hours later he lay unconscious on the floor. In explanation he stared that he had been seized, suddenly, with a pain of puch violence that he was compelled to rise, — a pun in the chest. Af'er rising be los r bis senses and sank down on the sput where he had stood. His wife arouse 1 by the noise, struck a h^h and caw h-r husband in that m nation. She afterwiids dec arid he had gone bla kin the f ee, and that bis eyes looked hs it they were starting out of his head. Restoratives were appliid which brought him to, but he was not 89 before. So quickly aud unexpfdedly do we cross the boundary line between vwo opp site bodily conditions. It is like stepping from the bioad blaze of day into * damp cavern packed with darknefs. He felt weak and sick wi h a strange "all-gone ' sensation throughout Us Vkhole system. His mouth taste! badly, and wa<i filled with a slimy sort ot phlegm, his head ached, he was unabie to draw a dtep brea'h, he walked wuh difficulty, and went about his business like a man who is haunted by a paralysing dream. Perplexed and alarmed he consulted physicians, who prescribed for him, without however, producing any noiieeablo improvement. The strong, clear-neaded man of previous years was gone — changed as by the wand ot a vicious magician into t ie feeble being ha nuw was. Even with this dismal prospect before him our friend travelled not on level ground ; his path led downward ; he grew worse, lv December, 1888, he had a distinct and bad attack, gave up business, and went to bed. There he remained for a weary, painful month — thirty days, as long as thirty years of power and occupation. The doctor said there was something wrong witn the stomach and bowels. After he once more rose from his bed he still suff red dreadful pain and could rest neither day or night. Indeed, some nights he never slept a moment. So weak hud he become that when ho attempted a short walk he was obliged to abandon the eiforr, return and go to bed. His own words are these :—": — " To give you an idea how re luced I had become I may mention ihat I lost over three stone weight and was wasting away. 1 kept on like this until January, 1891, when Mr Everson, of Occold, told me of a medicine Cilled Mother dei^el's Syrup and the gocd it had dooe. I tried it aod in three cays 1 felt better. Cheered and encouraged by this I continued to use it, with the result that I wholly recovered from my mysterous malady. iaoi now strong and hearty, and business is again a pleasure. The Syiup did me more good in a few weeks than all my ten ye^rs doctoring put together." (Signed) Albert Thorndyke, Proprietor of the " Grapes Inn," Church Street, Eye, Buffjlk. May Ist, 1891. What do we learn from this? We leun that while a miserly fool like our crossing-sweeper may starve for money, a wise man with m< re reverence for his bodily temple, seeks and rinila a remedy for a tendency to starvation, induced by disease : — that the disease waa indigestion and dyspepsia, and the remedy Mother Seig«l's Syrup.