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

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 51, 19 April 1895, Page 27

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

Onob, long ago, I wae witness io a dnel in California. The two men had been bosom friends, but had quarrelled about (of courne) a woman. Splendid fellows both— yonng, brainy, and ambitious. As they stood in a clear space among the pine trees near Sacramento, pale as lilies, steady as rocks, weapons in hand waiting for tbe word, tue rising Ban Bbining athwart the Hoe of vision, they presented a picture too often seen in 1856. The pistols cracked almost simultaneously. One man stood erect, evidently untouched ; the other f«ll npon his back and lay straight and still. Seconds, surgeons, and spectators rushad to his side. He was " all there," mind as well as body. " No, don't disturb me," he said cooly to the doctor, " I'm shot fatally and shall die in five minutes. Call Jack and be quick." Pistol still in hand, his antagonist came and bent over bis erstwhile ccum. Tbe excitement among the crowd was intense ; the dying man alone was calm. " Jack, my darling old boy," be said, " forgive me and forgive her. Kies me and let me go." A minnte more and he was dead, with Jack 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 lesson. Tbere is no tragedy in this one ; nevertheless it is of wider human interest than the. other. A woman bad been ill more or ltes all her life. The details sra commonplace enough, and yet they will appeal to millions who care nothing for the j< aloaeiee of young men xv love. " At times," she saye, " I Buffered from painß at the back of the 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 something hanging over me, as of same evil or danger that I could not explain or define. " My appetite was variable ; sometimes I could eat anything and again I could not touch any food at all. But I was never laid up as it were. Please note the last sentence. It may seem like the weakest but really is the strongest point in this lady's statement. We will tell you why in a moment. She goes on : " Still I was often in misery, but got along fairly well until August, 1800, when I had a severe attack of rheumatism. First tbe great toe of my right foot and the thumb of my right hand grew hot and painful. Afteo a time tbe trouble extended to my back and hips. I could not straighten myself ; I was almost bent double Month after month I w<b like this, getting little or no sleep at night. Mpdical treatment r,r->ved of no benefit to me. In December, 1891, the pain almost drove me mad My face was swollen to nearly twice its natural siz-, and my eyes were so covered by the enlarged lidß that I could scarcely see. There w»s a constant ringing iv my ears, and the doctors said I had erysipelas. " For days and days I could not walk across the floor, and for s ima time I was able to mo\e about only by Uking hold of the furniture or other objects. When all other means had been tiied and bad failed Mother Soigel's Curative Syrup was recommended to me. A eingle bottle did me a deal of good. I kept on with it, and soon w»s a'ronger and in better health than fur forty years previouely. I still take an occasional dose and contioue in good health notwithstanding my age (48), and the ' change of life.' I tell everyone what the Syrup has done for me, and give you permission to publish what I have said. Yours truly (Signed), (Mrs) MA.BY Jane Milnjes, 18. Walker'a Buildings Brewery Lane, Tbornhill Lees, near Dewsbury, Yorkshire, October 12t,b, 1892." Now for the lesson of booh these incidents ; what is it ? This ; that it is not people in desperate extremities who Bt,fE r most. Pain is in proportion to the resistance to disease. Those who surrender, who are in despair, who give up, have present punishment largely remittted. Dying persons are the most comfortable of all. Hopelessness and dissolution administer their own anodynes. Those who are not laid up, who are ill, and yet work and struggle, need pity and help. This lady was one, and to Buch Mother Seigel always proves a friead.