A Few Inches of Plain English.

Manawatu Herald, 15 October 1895, Page 3

A Few Inches of Plain English.

» Nowadays men are doing all sorts of wonders by means of electricity, both in fr mechanics and in chemistry. I see by the ■■frpevs that they expect to be able to produce real diamonds by it. Perhaps they may ; marvels never cease. But we will wait till they do before we crow over that job. Up lo this time, anyway, everything that is both valuable and useful is the fruit of hard work. Even diamonds are mostly got out of rocky mines. And, within reasonable limits, it is good for us to have to work Ten shillings honestly •arned is better for a man than twenty in the shape of a legacy. The best condition of things for any country would be when fair wages could be earned straight along, without lass or deduction for any reason. But in the present aspeot of human affairs this is impossible. Whose fault it is we cannot now discuss. One source of losa, however, is plain •nough, and some remedy for it ought to be found. In England and Wales every working man averages ten days of illness per year, making the total loss of wages from this cause about £16,000,000 a year. We are talking of the average, you see. But inasmuch as all working-men are not ill every year, this average does not fairly show the suffering and loss of those who are ill. In any given year many will lose no time at all, while others will lose no time at all, while others will lose individually from ten days to six months each No charity, no savings, no income from clubs, Arc., oan make up for this— even in money alone — to say nothing of the pain and the misery. Alluding to an experience of his in 1888 Mr George Lagdon says, " I had to give up my work. How this came to pass he tells us in a letter dated from his home in White House Road, Stebbing, near Dunmow, August 24, 1892. He had no inherited disease or weakness, so far as he knew, and was always strong and well up to April of that year— lßßß. Then his strength and energy began to leave him. He felt tired, not as from work,, but body failure. He eat down to his meals, but not with his old eagerneis and relish. There was a nasty oopper-like taste in his month, his teeth and tongue were covered with slime, and his throat dogged with a kind of phlegm, difficult to " hawk up " and eject. He also speaks of a nagging pain in the stomach, flatulency, and much palpitation Of the heart as having been among his symptoms. As the ailment — whatever it was — progressed he began to have a hacking cough which, he says, seemed as if it must shake him to pieces. He could scaroely sleep ; on account of it. One of the most jalarming features of his illness, however, were the night sweats, for the reason that they showed the existence of a source of weakness which must soon, unless arrested, end in total prostration. In fact he was obliged to give up his work altogether. To him— as to any once active nan — this was like being burned alive. One doctor whom Mr Lagdon consulted said he was consumptive, and it did indeed look that way. "for twelve weeks," he gays, " I went on like this, getting weaker jad weaker, and having reason to believe Ibatitwonld end in my taking the one long/ journey from which no traveller rejjgjgis. " It was now July— Bummer time, when life, iothft healthy is so pleasant and full P^f-iope. At this time wy sister-in-law goilcom Mr LinseAl's (Stebbing) a medicine that I bad not tried yet. After having used one bottU I felt batter, and when I had used the second I was cured, and have not lost an hours' irori since." Tbe reader will notice that between the dftto of hit taking this medimnt and the j

' date of his letter tilere Is tin interval of four years. We may, tb.6ref9re, infer that his cure was real and permanent. The medicine, by the way, was Mother . SelgeVe Curative Syrup. It is not likely he *M fofgdt its name nor what it did 1 for him; fii? disease Was indigestion and dystiepslaj tHe deadly ebeifl* of every labouring Ittafl or womttfl under the son, no matter what they work tit or Work tvith — - hands; brains; or both; Is It hefcessary to flratt a "nidral' — i Bchool-bbflk styie— from these facts ? No, , it is not. We have talked plain English) and that is enough.