"YOUR LIFE IS NOT WORTH A STRAW."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 14, 3 August 1894, Page 27

"YOUR LIFE IS NOT WORTH A STRAW."

Not worth a straw, eh ? Then it was worth just nothing— nothing at all. Who has not ussd that comparison a thousand times to express absolute wordlessness? A straw? The wind blows it away, fire burns it up, cattle tread it in the mud, it rots by the roadside! What of it ? Who cares for a straw 1 Yet thi* is exacMy whit a doctor recently said to ona of his patients, " Your life is not worth a straw " Hjw much is a doctor worth who will speak so t » one that trusts him, and has no hope but in his skill 1 For my part, if he were up for sale at auction, I would bid one straw for him— no more. Even if what he said was true, he had no right to siy it. Such a doctor is more lively to kill witb his tongue than to cure with his drugs. A woman tells the story, and she tells it well. If it doesn't siund like the truth, then I don't koow what ever does. The dates and the facts are a'l ther<>, plain and orderly. " la the sumTifi of 1878," she says, " I fouad myself feeling tired languid, low-spirits d, an i we,k. I felt as if some evil were about to Happen. My apptti'e was poor, and after ettiog I had excruciating paiu at my lvi is and sides. There wisa horrible gnawing pain at tie pit of my atomac w , and a rising in the throat as if I should choke. My he id felt as though I had a ton weight on it. Gradually I got woras, and for months could take only liquid fojd. At night I lay awake for hours together. " Later on I sufE red greatly from nerv>ug prostration. My legs trembled and sh ok sj 1 feared to fall. If a koock came to the door I tretnbl"d from head to foot. I ha 1 fnquent attacks which began witb pa'pitation of the heart acd sudden Btoppage of the breath. At the-e times I was speech lees and he'pliss Ihi y siy I looked like a orpse.cold and bloodies", my finger-nails aad lips hating turned black. After a while ibis would pasn c IT, 1-aviDg me weak and pros-tr-i'e I got so emacidtid an 1 thin that I was only a bag \of bones, and bo weak I had to take hold of the furniture to steady myself as I eiosaed the room. As tune went on the nervousness and forebodings of evil co incrensed ihit I feared I should out of my mind. The neighbjurs snid ie would be a mercy if the Lord would release ma from my sufferings ' Id tniH condition I onrrinued for over four years, during which time I cotisulted tiw doctor s, but nothing they gave me did any good. They all said my ailment was h art disease, aud one said, ' Your life in not n'orlh a straw ' '• In despair I gave up taking physic, as I felt that nothing would save me. In May, 1882, ten years ago, a lady (Mrs Richardson) called at my house, toUl me of Mother Seigel'd Curative Syrup, and strongly advised me to try it. I did s-, and felt somewhat better after the first bottle ; and by th£ time I had taken three bo ties I was completely cured. From tnat to this I have had no return of the attacks, and am bo strong I c^n do any kind of work. But for Sei^el's S\rup I should have been in my grave long ago. I wish others to know this, and will answer any who call or write." (Signed) Kmma WiCKENDrfN fw.fe of William 'Wickeaden, gardener), Pembroke Villas, 123 MoflEit Road, Thornton Heath, March 17th 1892. So it turned out that her life was not only worth a straw, but worth a whole golden harvest of health and better days. Yet no thanks to the doctors. Her compacted symptoms puzzled and .ilaanaed them, to bo sur**, but why 1 Is it not the doctors' daty to underut md such things? Moet assuiedl/. Just as a lawyer shouli know the law, or a piiot ihe rockt, tuies. and lights of a coast. Had some of these medical men known that Mrs Wickji.den's malady was indigestion and dyspepsia, and not heart decease, they might possibly hive relieved her. Bat, contuse i by the symptom", they were blind to tne cause. We may well wonder if there are many such doctors in England. Cates like this show that the clear sight belonged to Mother Seigel ; and to berremedy hobts of people in this country are indebted for physical salvation wheu, in very truth, their lives seemtd aa straws. Remember this was ten years ago, and the malady has not re« turned, showing that the cure was a permanent one,