The Stick and the Crust.

Manawatu Herald, 16 May 1899, Page 3

The Stick and the Crust.

A stick and a crust of bread. Like the bands of a olpok these two articles told the time o' day for nearly a year in a certain man's life. Yet, unlike the hands of a clock, the were not visable at once. When he needed the stick he had no use for the crust ; and when the crust was welcome he had no further occasion for the st : ck. Albeit he was a young fellow of twentysix, you wou'd be wrong in supposing this stick to have been a weapon for attack or dafence. In . that- case the crust and the stick would have been harmonised. As it was, they did not. For the stick was a Itippork not a club. Now, when a man feels the pressure of eighty or ninety years he is apt to want a travelling companion of that sort ; but one in the very heyday of youth, not suffering from any injury and not constitutionally feeble, or malformed, should commonly be able to walk without a stick. And so this young man had always done up to the time when he fell out with the crust and with all than the crust stood for or represented. His own account of the circumstances runs thus;— •• Up to October, 1893, 1 had been a strong, healthy, and active man. Then I commenced to feel week and out of sorts. I was heavy, tired, and had no energy, i What had co*ae over me I could not imagine. I had a foul nasty taste in the mouth and was constantly spitting up a thick, phlegm. My appetite left me, and what little I ate lay on my stomach like lead, causing me gr at pain about the chest. A short, distressing cough settled upon me and troubled me day and night. " At night my sleep was disturbed and broken with night sweats and frightful dreams. I had great pains at the left s : de around the heart, and my breathing was hurried and short. Next I began to spit blood and was greatly alarmed at it. I wasted away rapidly, losing over a stone w. right in a mo^th, and became so weak that I was unable to rise on my feet without assistance. " Although on'y a young man of tw*entysix I was obliged to hobble about with a stick, and cou d walk but a short distance even, at that. Worried and anxious I attended the York- County Hospital, where the .doctors Bounded me and said l ioas in . aZomitorvption. - Hero we have another of the serious and often fatal mistakes that are made in cases like this. Misled by symptoms which in some respects resemble those of consumption, medical men hastily decide that the lungs are affected, treat the patient perfunctorily for the hopeless disease he is not afflicted toith, and leave result to chance. Hence he often dias of dyspepsia and its complications— his true disease — which, unlike consumption, is curable by the remedy our friend finally employed. "'lhey gave me cod-liver oil," he oontinued, " and medicines, but I got no better. Indeed, I was go low-spirited and miserable I didn't care what became of me. As time passed I grew weaker and weaker. " After I had endured ten months of this, Mr R. W. Dickinson, the chemist in Walmgate, advised me to try Mother Seigel'g Syrup. After taking it a few days I fait much belter, my appetite reviving and my food giving me no pain. I continued to take this medicine only, and soon the cough and breathing troub'e loft me and I began to ga : n strength and flas' n . Whan I had taken three bottles I was as strong as ever, and could eat and anjoy even a dry crust. I have since had good health. You are at liberty to publish this letter and refer all inqu'rers to me. (Signed) Isaiah Lrwis 124, Walmgate, York April Bth, 1894."

. If the reader wonders how a man could suffer so much, becomes so emaciated and weak, and be pushed so near the grave's edge through what is sometimes flippantly called " mere indigestion," he has yet to learn that the digestion is the arbiter of life and death. The " crust " (food), enjoyed and digested, means life and strength. Rejected it means the "stick," to supplement swift coming weakness ; and then the prone position, which help is vain Mother Seigel's Syrup enabled Mr L9wi3 to substitude the crust for the s ick. It cured his dyspepsia.