GRANNY GORTON'S BIRTHDAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 3, 17 May 1895, Page 27

GRANNY GORTON'S BIRTHDAY.

Satubday, 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 htr btst black silk gown, with a rose in the bodice. The venerable lady was seated in a comfortable armchair on a platform in the best room of her house. Then the train of callers filed through, each and all shaking hands with her. Granny Gorton," as Bhe is called, is a trim little body and very nimble on her feet. There was never anything ailed her, sue says, and, except that her eyesight isn't quite so good as it used to be. she is as active as any woman of 50. Why has Granny Gorton lived so long ? Why is she so active now? She lets out the secret herself when she says "There waa 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 last year in England— 22 men and 23 women Yet, compared to the multitudes who die, these are nothing— nothing' Can we Dot keep things from ailing us, and so live long as Mra trorton 1 Yes, if we will take tbe trouble to do it ] 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 so now ? " Aek yourself the question," as the boatmen say down on Deal beach. Here s how it is A woman's tale. She says she fell ill when a girl of about 15. She lost her appetite, had pains in the sides and chest, frequent headaches, and was often obliged to lie down on the couch and rest. All this didn't promise lone 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. bhe was then in service as parlour-maid at Leamington, Hastings, Warwickshire. Here she suffered from constant sickness, retching and heartburn. Toe chest pains were so bad us to bend her double. No position that she could take relieved her. Her scomach was so tender and sore that everything she ate pained anl distressed her. For months and months she only took liquid food— milk and beaten eggs, and so on. oo ' She got weaker and weaker every day. so she says. Of course ; how else could it be ? A doctor at Kugby told her she had " ulcerahon of the chest, whicb she didn't at all. What is «« ulceration of the chest ? He gave her medicines and advice, but she grew no better on that account. Tbis young lady was now about twenty years old, with a poor outlook for ever being much older. She didn't expect it nor did her friends. Then another doctor, being consulted, said 11 ulceration of the chest," Hke his medical brother at Bucbv Both wronK. 6 '* " After six months' medical treatment," she says, "I gave np my situation and returned to my home at Buxton Lamas, Norfolk. This was in Jane, 1882. Then I was taken so bad I had to take to my bed. My mother thought I wag in a decline." Now, the word " decline " means consumption, as we all know • a disease common in England ond incurable everywhere. Thousands or bright girls and young men •« decline" into their graves every year m this populous island. Sad enough it is to see. Wei), at this point her good and wise mother inteifered in her daughter s case. She gave the doctors the go-by and sent to Norwich for some bottles of Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. In two weeks the young patient began to feel belter, and in three months she sot a new situation end weDt to work.

'Since then, fifteen years ago," she says, « I have kept in better health than ever before in my life, thanks to Seigel's Syrup. Yours nu 7| u ( o gQ ! d^ t (M u 8) SABAH EleA3 «»b Bakbb, 8, King's street, Oburch Koad, Tottenham, Dear London, September 30fcb, 1892 " A dozen words more and we're dove, Mrs Baker's ailment was mdigestioD and dyspepsia, nothing else, and quite enough Tbe ulcaration was inflamanon of tho inner coating of the stomach a symptom of the disease. We wish her along and happy lif t . an d merely add that if all her Bex could avoid or core this one trluble most of them might live to be as old aa Granny Gorton.