THE HANDFUL OF THINGS WE KNOW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 44, 1 March 1895, Page 27

THE HANDFUL OF THINGS WE KNOW.

Several years ago an American humourist and poet published some verses called " Little breeches " This was an odd name given to a very smill boy who wa9 caught out in a tremendous snowstorm, and finally found in some hay quite a distance from the house, However the boy got there bothered everybody to explain. It was certain he never could have walked. 80 his fathar said the angels must hava dove it ; they just stooped down and toted him to where it was safe and warm," he said. The poetry about it (supposed to have bPen written by the youngster's father) starts off in this way :— I don't go much on religion, I never ain't had no show ; But I've a middling tight grip, sir, On the handful of things I know.

That's it ; Ths handful of things we know. There aren't many of 'eiu, but there are a few. And one of them is this: that tor a hundred results there is only one cause. Nature develops and makes difference s ; never a new force.

Here, for example, is an incident which shows oar meaning. About Christmas 1889, Mr E. B. Wiight had hd attack of influenza. Previous to this be had always been strong and hearty. Well, be got over the influenza ; still it bad given him (as he says) " a shake." Atter this he got along fairly well, until February o( this year £1892) when the influenza attacked him again. This time the malady " meant busings." Nearly every bone and muscle in his body ached like sore teetb. His skin was bot and dry, and to bed be was obliged to go. For sixteen days he was under a doctor. At the end of that time he found himself alive and that was about all you could say lor him.

In his letter he goes on tn tell what happened next. " I had a foul taste in tbe mouth," he says, " and my teeth and tongnt were covered with a thick slimy phlegm. My wife Bays my tongue was like an oyster shell, and I'm sure it was rough as a nutmeg grater. What I ate, which wasn't mucb, gave me pain in the chest and sides. After a mouthful or two I felt full aud blown out, and I used to swell to a gre it siz ■. By-and-by a hacking cuigh set in and my breatoing got short and quick. At night I lay for hours gasping for breath, and often cougned so I was afraid I should burst a blood vessel. I got weaker and weaker and was like a broken-winded horse. The doctor said it was asthma, but he wasn't able to relieve i. Although I live ouly two minutes walk from the factory where I work, 1 bad to stop and rest on my way many a time.

"Thus maters went with me until Jine, 1892. Then oie day I took up the Essex Newsman, and read of a man living at E 3 "sham, near Buneray, having be«n oured by Mother Seigsl's Curative Syrup. I got some of this medicine from the International Tea Company, Braintree. After a few doses my breathing grey easier, and by keeping on with the Syrup my food soon digested, thecuugh left me, and I gained sireagth. lam now as strong as ever, can eat anything, and walk for miles. I am a brusbmaker, and work at the factory, ot Messrs John West and Sons, Hi^h Sireet, Braintrae, ana have lived in this town over forty years. (Signei) E. B. Weight, Sandpit Road, Braintree, Essex, Augußt 23rd, 1892.'"

Now let us see how this illustrates the proposition we started out with. For almost three y a ars Mr Wright was ill with what seemed like a series of different diseases. He bad the influenzi twice, the asthma one, and another disease whicb he gives no name to — even if he recognised it. Look for amoment at;thevane y and incongruity of the pains and troubles he mentions, but he doesn't deaonbe tb. m nil, either. You would fancy he had half a dozen ailments at lea«t. Y> t be bal but one- indigestion and djsp psia — of which all b s bodily disturbances (influenza included — a b ood disease) were s.imp oms, AH came out of tbe stomach, and when Seigel'd Syrup fltt that right the others quietly departed.

What, then, is one thing of " the handful of thiDgs we know "? Answer : That nearly all eons of diseases are really symptoms of indigesti >n and dyspepsia, and that Mother I; ei gel's Curative Syrup cures it. Double that fact up in your flat and hold on to it tight.