Only Four to Man the Pumps.

Manawatu Herald, 13 August 1895, Page 3

Only Four to Man the Pumps.

« Dear, clear ! When you come to think of it how closely related things are ; how one thing brings up another. Ide'B are like a lot of beads on a string, aren't they ? A letter I have just been reading makes me remember what happened to me one winter twenty years ago. The story is too long to tell here, so I'll merely give you the tail end of it. 1 was supercargo ou a barque bound from London to Rio. A tremendous gale, lasting five days, wrecked us. Forty-eight hours after it censed there were four men and no more Ipft on the vessel. The captain had been killed by a falling spar, three of the crew washed overboard, and the rest of the ship's company (save us four) went away away in the long boat with the first and second mates. We were were taking in water at the rate of six inches an hour. Working with all our might the four of us could pump that out in forty minutes, but we must do it every hour. It was awful work. For two days we kept it up, without sleep. Then we Btopped, took the quarter boat and shoved off. The sea was quiet —no wind. White we Jay to within a mile of her the ship threw up her no.se and went down stern first. We were picked up the nest day by a banish brig. Now the odd thing is that the letter which reminded me of that experience has nothing whatever to say about ships. Please help me to find out the association, The lndv who writes the letter says that in July, 1881, she got a bad fright. Exactly what it was she doesn't * ell. I wish she did. Anyway it so upset lipr that Bhe didn't get over the effects of it for nine years. After that her appetite fell off ; she lost all real relish for fond, and what she did eat only made trouble instead of nourishing her. It gave her pain in the pit. of the stomach and (curiously enough) between the shoulders. She pays her eyes and pkin presently turned ypllow an a, buttercup. Her face and abdomen swelWl, and her feet the same, the latter so much so that she was obliged to have her shoes made lamer. " T got little sleep at night," she says, 11 and was in so much pain I had to propped up with pillows. For weeks to gether T could not Up down in bed. I had a dry, lioUow cough, and bad night sweats Then diftrrlicra sot. in, and my bowels he. came ulcerated. 1 wan often in dreadful agony for forty eight hours at a time. Then I would have a chi'l a« Miongh a buck"* of cold water wpi'p poured down my back. I pot so low I could no longer sew, knit, or do any housework or look after my children. My sister had to come and help in the house. " Everybody said T was in a decline and must. dip. What I suffered for eight years tonaue cannot tell. The doctor could do nothing for me.. He said my complaint was comp'icnt^d and bad one to deal with. In 1886 I went a* ft ll outdoor patient to the Shrewsbury Infirmary, but only got transient relief." Thp writer is in good health now, but why did her case remind me of the shipwreck ? Let's se'tle that first. The association is easy and natural. Just see. The ship sank because the four men hadn't the strength .o pump out the water as fast as it came in. Twenty men might have got her into port. Tt is the last straw that breaks the camel's ba<-k ; the last unsupplied need that makes poverty abject and desperate. These bodies of ours carry the seeds of disease with them all the time— chi°fly the poisons created by imperfect indigestion, made worse by careless habits. But as long as nothing extraordinary happens we manage to scrape along in a half-and-half sort of fashion. Yet we've got in our blood the stuff that any of a dozen dwases is made of, only waiting for something to Fet it afire. While the liver, kidneys, lungs and skin heep u« fairly free— that is, don't let the load get too heavy— we say " Oh, yes, I'm tolerably well, thank you." Little pains and unpleasant symptoms bother us now and then, but wo don't fancy they mean anything. By-and-by something happens. A cold, too hearty a meal, a night of dissipation, an affliction through death or loss of property, a fright as in Mrs. Bunce's case, &c. Over we go. The last straw has crushed us. One loose spark has blown up the barrel of powder. The crew is too small to save the ship. The kidneys, Hver, skin, and stomach strike work, and we, must have help right away or perish. All of which means the explosion or latent in digestion and dyspepsia po sons in the blood. There ! isn't it plain why I thought of thpship? Now for the conclusion of the lady's story. She says : "In 1889 I first heard of Mother Seigel'R Curative Syrup: Half a bottle made me feel better, and by keeping on taking it I was soon strong and well as ever. (Signed) Mrs. Ann Bunce, The Par-, Worthen, near Shrewsbury, Fehruary 22nd, 1893 " If there were only a way to save sinking ships as certain and trustworthy as Mother Seigel's medicine is in the case of sinking human bodies, what a blessing it would be to poor sailors