A Few Inches of Plain English.

Manawatu Herald, 29 October 1895, Page 3

A Few Inches of Plain English.

Nowadays men are doing all sorts of wonders by means of electricity, both in mechanics and in chemistry. I see by the papers that th*-y 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 to this time, anyway, everything that is both valuable and useful is the fruit ol hard work. Even diamonds are mostly got out of rocky mine*. And, within reasonable limits, it is good for us to have to work Ten shillings honestly earned is better for a man than twenty in the shape of a legacy. 'Ihe best condi ion of th ngs for any country vi ould be when fair wages could be earned straight along, without less or deduction for any reason. But in the present aspect of human affairs this is impossible. Whose fault it is we cannot now discuss.

One source of loss, however, is plain enough, 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 wags from this cause about £16.000,000 a year. We are talking of the aoerage, you see. Bat inasmuch as all working-men are not ill every year, this average does not fairly show the suffering and los 3of those who are ili. In any given year many will lose no time at all, while oth<-r* will lose no time at all, while ethers will lose individuI ftl&& om ten days to .six months each No ■ihMßtmajajtings. no income from dabs,

&0., can make up for this— even in money a l one _to say nothing of the pain and the misery.

Alluding to sin experience of his in 1888 Mr George Lagdon say.?, " 1 had to give tip my .work. How this name to pass Be tells us in ft fetter flatc/i from his home in White ilouse Road, Sobbing, n>ar Rtinmow, August 24, 1802. Hn had m» inherited disease or weakness, so far as he knew, &hA vtte always strong au<l well up to April of that year - 18??. Then his strength and energy began to leave him. He felt lived, not as from work, but body failure, tie sat down to his meals, but not with his old eagerness and relish. There was a nasty copper-like taste in his mouth, his teeth dnd tongue were covpn d with, slime, and his. throat clogged with ft Rinfl of phlegm* difficult to ''hawk tip " and eject. lie also speaks of a nagging pain in the stfcfmach,. flatulency, and inufch 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 aa if it must Bhake him to pieces. He could scarcely sleep on account of it. One of the iriost alarttting features of his illness, however, were the night swells* for the rea'sbn that they showed the eiistetifie (it a source of weakness which mast soon, unless arrested, ehfl in total prostration. In fact he was obliged to give up his work altogether. To him— as to any once active man — this was like being burned alive. ■■ One doctor whom MrLagdon consulted said lie wfis consumptive, and it did indeed look that way . " For twelve vreeks," he says, " I went on like this getting weafier and weaker, and having reason to believe that it would end in my taking the one long journey from which no traveller re- ■ turns.

•' It wils now. Jrtly— stimmer time, when life' to the healthy Is sti pleiiSafat fintf full of hope. At this time my sister-id-law got from AJr Jjinsell'B (Stebbing) a medicine that I had hot tried yet. After having used one bottle I felt better, and when I had tlsett the seCOBd I was oared, and have not lost an hbitr.i' iowk sincei' The reader will notice that betweeti tlie date of his takihg this meflicitJe and tlife date of his letter there is fin Interval of. four years. We may, therefore, infer that his cure was real and permanent. The medicine, by the way, was Mother Seigel's Curative Sjrup. It is not likely lie will forget ' its name npr what it did for him. His disease waS iuaigestion and dyspepsia, the deadly enemy of etei£ labouring man or woman under the sun, no matter what they work at or work with — hands, brains, ov both.

Is it necessary to draw a "moral"— school-book style— from these facts? No, it is not* We have talked plain English) and that is enough.