GRANNY GORTON'S BIRTHDAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 2, 10 May 1895, Page 27

GRANNY GORTON'S BIRTHDAY.

BATUBDAY, January 21, was a great day in Central Village, in the State of Connecticut, in America. On that day Mrs Jonathan Gorton was 100 years old, and formally received her friends, of whom hundreds were present. She wore her beßt black silk gown, with a rose in the bodice. The venerable lady waß seated in a comfortable armchair on a platform in the b«st room of her house. Then the train of callers filed through, each and all Bhaking hands with her. " Granny Gorton," as she is called, is a trim little body and very nimble on her feet. There was never anything ailed her, she saya, and, except that her eyesight isn't quite bo good as it ÜBed to b\ she is as active as any woman of 50. Why has Granny Gorton live 1 so long 1 Why is she bo active now? She lets out the sec/et herself when she says, " There was never anything ailed me." That's it, and all of it. People who live 100 years are not so very rare. The deaths of 45 such were reported la^t ye^r in England— 22 mea and 23 women Yet, compared to the multitudes wno die, these are nothing— nothing Can we not k»ep things from ailing us, and so live long as Mrs Gorton ? Yea, if we will take the trouble to do it I Men and women 100 years old, still vigorous and clear-headed, should be a sight so common as not to be remarked, and will be yet in the future. Why not bo now? "ABk yourself the question," as the boatmen say down on Deal beach. Here s how it is: A woman's tale. She B(.ys she fell ill when a girl of about 15. She lost her appetite, tad pains in the sides and ohest, frequent headaches, and was often obliged to lia down on the coach and rest. All this didn't promise long life, did it? No- it was a bad start. ' Well, she got worse instead of better. She was often sick vomited her food, and spitting up a sour fluid. For five years she went on this way. This brings us to October. 1881. Sha was then in service as parlour-maid at Leamington, Hastings, Warwickshire. Here she sufferei from constant sickness, retching and heartburn. Inechust pains were so bad ua to bend her double. No position that she could take relieved her. Hjr stomach was so tender and sore that everything she a'e pained and distressed her. For nunths and months she only took liquid fooJ-aai'k and beaten eggs, and so She got weaker and weaker every d,iy, a > she says. Of course • how else could it be 1 A doctor at Rugby told her she had " ulceration of the cbest," wbicb she didn't at all. What is " ulceration of the chest ? He gave her medicines and advice, but Bhe grew no better on that account. Tnis young lady wjb now about twenty years old, with a poor outlook for ever being much older. She didn't expect i' nor did her friends. Then ano her doc or, being coDßulted, said 1 ulceration of the chest," like his medical brother at Rugby. Both wron/. 6 ' " After six months' medical treatment," she says, " I gave up my situation and returnod to my borne a, Buxton Laraae, Norfolk. This was in June, 1882. Then I was taken bo bad 1 had to take to my bed My mothtr thought I was ia a decline." Now, the word " decline " meaDS consumption, as we all know • a disease common in England and incurable everywhere. Tbou-ands of bright girls and young men •' decline " into their graves every year in this populous island. Sad enough it is to see. vVbH, at this point her good and wise mother interfered in her daughter s case. She gave the doctors the go-by and sent to Norwich for iome bottles of Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. In two weeks the young patient began to feel betier, and in three months she got a new situation and went to work. ''Since then, fifteen years ago," she says, " I have kept in better health than ever Defore in my life, thanks to Beisrel'a Syrup. Yours tru.y, (Signed). (Mrs) Sabah Klkanob Bakeb, 8 K.ng's 8 ree', Unurch Koad, Tottenham, near London, September 30th, 1892." A dozen words moro and we're done, Mrs Baker's ailment was indigestion and dyspepsia, nothing else, and quite enough. Trio ulcaration ' was inflamation of the inner coating of the ntnmacb a symptom of the disease. We wish her a long and happy life, and merely add that if all her sex could avoid or cure this one trouble most of them might live to be as old as Granny Gorton.