" KISS ME, JACK, AND LET ME GO."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 50, 12 April 1895, Page 27

" KISS ME, JACK, AND LET ME GO."

Once, long ago, I waa witness co a dnel in California. Tbe two men had been bosom friends, but had quarrelled about (of course) & woman. Splendid fellows both — young, brainy, and ambitious. Aa they stood in a clear space among the pine trees near Sacramento, pale as lilies, steady as rocks, weapons in hand waiting for the word, tie rising sun shining athwart the line of vision, they presented a picture too often seen in 1856. The pistols cracked almost simultaneously. One man stood erect, evidently untouched ; the other fell npnn his back and lay straight and still. Seconds, surgeons. and spectators rushad to his side. He was " all there," mind as well as boiy. " No, don't disturb me," he said cooly to the doctor, " I'm shot fatally and shall die ia five minutes. Call Jack and be quick." Pistol still in hand, his antagonist came and bent over hia erstwhile cmm. Tbe excitement »mong the crowd was intense; the dying man alone was calm. "Jack, my darling old boy," he said, " forgive me and forgive her. Ki»s me and let me go." A minute more and ha was dead, with J irk lying across his body, crying like a baby. After I have told you another and very different story, I'll show wherein they teach the same lesßon. Tuere is no tragedy in this one ; nevertheless it is of wider human interest than the other. A woman bad been ill more or less all her life. The details pra commonplace enough, and yet they will appeal to millions who care nothing for the jealousies of young men in love. "At times," she says, " I suffered from pains at the back of tbe head, and a sense of weight, and felt tired and weary, yet it was not from work only. I had a strange feeling, too, of somethiag hanging over me, as of same evil or danger that I could not explain or define. " My appetite was variable ; sometimps I could eat any thing and again I could not touch any food at all, But I was never laid up at it were. Please note the last sentence. It may seem like the weakest bat really is tbe strongest point in this lady'd statement. We will tell you why in a moment. Sbe goes on : " Still I was often in misery, but got along fairly well until August, 1890, when I had a severe attack of rheumatism. First the great toe of my right foot and the thumb of my right hand grew hot and painful. A.Ft»o a time the trouble extended to toy baci and hips. I could not «'• 'irhten myself ; I was almost bent double Month after montu 1 w.s like this, getting little or no sleep at night. Medical treatment proved of no benefit to me. In D.cember, 1891, tlie pain almost drove me mad My face was swollen t) marly twice its natural siz«, and my eyes were bo covered by the enlarged lids that I could scarcely see. There was a cons ant ringing m my pars, and the doctors said I bad erysipelas. " For days and days I could not walk across the floor, Bnd for some time I was able to move about only by tnking hold of the furniture or other objects. When all other means bad b^en trie! and had failed Mo'her Seigel's Curative Syrup was rfcommenrted to me. A Biogle bottle did me a denl of good. I kept on with it, and soon w»s stronger and in better health than fur forty years previously I still take an occasional dose and c mtinue in good health notwithstanding my age (48), and the ' change of life.' I tell everyone what the Syrup baa done for me, and give you permission to publish whst I have said. Yours truly (Signed), (Mrs) MART JANE MILNEB, 18, Walker's Buildings Brewery Lnce, Thornhill Lees, near Dewsbury, Yorkshire, October 12ib, 1892." Now for the lesson of booh these incidents ; what 19 it? This ; that it is not people in desperate extremities who suff r most. Pain is in proportion to the resistance to disease. Those who surrender, who are in despair, who give up, have present punisbmeDt largely remittted. Dying personß are the most comfortable of all, Hopelesßnesg and dissolution administer their own anodynes. Those who are not laid up, who are ill, and yet work and Btruggle, need pity and help. This lady was one, and to such Mother Seigel always proves a friend.

At a demonstration of the unemployed lately held in Trafalgar Square, the following motto was emblazoned on the banner of one of the Trades' Unions :—" A starving man haaanataral right to Jhia neighbour's bread—Cardinal Manning."