Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Dunstan Times, Issue 1166, 4 July 1884, Page 3

PAWNING A PAIR OF TROUSERS FOR MEDICINE. James Francis I homas lives in Pontnewyny.ld, near Pontypool, Alomraouthshire. He is now'twenty-three years of age, living with his mother, a widow.. Some eleven years ago, then a mere boy, he went to work in the coal pit as a miner, in order to assist his mother in rearing -her fatni’y of bride children. Soon, however, the little fellow broke down in health ; but the necessities of the family seemed, to require it, and hecon inued to toil in th» mines, suffer., i g all the time from the effects of indigestion, an agonising symptom being asthma, in such a troublesome form that the boy was unable to lie in bed. Working through the day, end resting as beat he could in a arm-chair during the night, naturally undermined his cousiution. Year by year his health grew worse and worse, until at last rheumatism came wijh all • its dreadful agony. One joint after another became swollen and inflamed, so that he was obliged to stop work. In this sad plight the now young man was confined to the house for two long years, suffering all that mortal could endure. One physician after another was called upon to treat his complaint, but with no benefit for the poor fellow continued to grow worse and worse. Hoping to find some means of relief, a consultation of doctors was held, when it was decided that an organic disease of the heart existed in an incurable form, and that } medical aid could not aff rd relief. He was given up to die These years of expensive’ medical treatment had exhausted the little savings of the mother, and they had no money to bny even the necessaries of life.