The Board and the Velvet.

Manawatu Herald, 12 June 1900, Page 3

The Board and the Velvet.

" A thbone " said Napoleon. " is a board covered with vtlvet." Strip the velvet from the throne, ami you have nothing left but bare, vulgar boards ; replace the velvet and you have the moat coveted symbol of hu-raD power and gory. How easy the transition, how vast and the difference ! There is no operation in chemistry more sharp and sadden than that in human life whereby extremes of feeling follow each other— tears rarefying into smiles and smiles condensing into tears. I 9 happiness, or is power, so poor a thing then, that it drops into its antithesis at a touch ?— at a breath ? L?t us not be too hasty With our answer, a* we may b% » rong. The great French Emperor was a cynical fellow, and right well he loved a throne, even though it was only an upholsttred board And we all love life and its .b'essings even though they are uncertain and shsky. ■ ' Hence, when we hear a man say, " / had nil pleasure in life, and did not care what i#came-o/7»e»" we are interested to know the reason Vhy. The person from whom we quote the c wprds explains hirasefl thus :— •• For over two years," he tells us, " I Buffeted from loss of appetite, s'eeplessne?s, and nervousness. Piior to May, 1894, I bad always betn strong and hearty. At this time I began to fe> l^fliat something had come over me — I felt so low and weak. After eating my f*ce would flush, and the food gave me great pain across my chest and the left side. I had a cutting para around the heart, and bad attacks of palpitation." I. beg to interrupt our good friend a moment at this point. The burning of a barn or a hayrick may make a bigger blaze than the burning of the cottage we Uv« in. Bat the latter alarms and excites us most because we do live iv it. On the same principle a very painful ailment of the hand or foot may cause little or no mental anxiety, while a disturbance of the heart's action does, for the heart is one of the three houses which life reside in, the other two being the brain and the lung*. Yd; » generally happens is so-called heart tnmbfeff, the worry was needless, as we shall, pwsentry Bee. # "for weeks together," continues the narrator, " I got no proper s eep, and, in truth, co bad was this condition that I , dreaded, going to bed. My nerves were ' thoroughly unstrung, and affected the left aide of my face, which was quite drawn. I suffered martyrdom with facial neuialgia. " As time went on I gr.w to be so low and miserable that I had no pleasure in life, and did not care what became of me. I consulted a doctor, but none of his medicines helped me. Better and wors*. I continued to suffer, until a friend told me about Mother Seigel'a Curative Syrup and persuaded me to try it. I got a bottle from Mr Pulhanj, Grocer, Spring Road, and after taking it a short time I felt it was doing me g od. I slept well, and bad less distress after meals. This encouraged me to persevere with it, and gradually I got stronger, and the nerve pains wore j yrr- I now enjoy good health, and have recommended this medicine to many of my c&stomers. You can publish this statement as you like. (Signed) Harry Wenden, Hairdresser, 171. Spring Koad, Bt John's, Ipswich, July 17th, 1896." Mr Wenden's explanation of his loss of life's pleasure is commonplace after all. And yet. how much more important than it were unique or exceptional ; because the commonplace is the universal. It is disease, my gentle reader, that tears the velvet from thrones, that robs the cottager of his sleep, that makes the baby cry in its cradle, that strips the strong man of his vigour, that wipes the bloom from the cheeks of fair women, that hurries humanity to the churchyard with bowed heads and bleeding feet. And the most pitiless ogre of all diseases is the one from which Mr Yfeuden suffered, and which Mo her Seigel's Syrup cures- -indigestion, dyspepsia, Even without the velvet, Health is the best of thrones, and this gfcat remedy helps to keep you seated safely and happily upon it.