IT’S GONE, ALL GONE, AND I’M GOING TOO.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7069, 15 February 1893, Page 4

IT’S GONE, ALL GONE, AND I’M GOING TOO.

For many a year did the same man sweep a certain street-crossing in the Hampstead. Through all seasons and all weathers, there he was, sweeping tbe crossing and taking such gratuities as were given him. Time wore away, and he came to be 80 years old. He appeared at bis post no more. A lady district visitor looked him up at his lodgings. W bat a picture of squalid destitution. No fire, no food, no friends. Wife and family he had not —never had. The poor old fellow was perishing of starvation, of want. Some money was raised for his benefit and he was removed to a London Hospital. Here he lay several weeks sinking daily. One night be was clearly very low. Near him stood one of the hospital physicians and a nurse. Seeing him clutch nervously at his pillow, tbe nurse, supposing the patient desired to be raised up, put his arm beneath him to perform that service. In doing so the nurse’s band came in contact with an object which he withdrew. It was a dirty little canvas bag tied with a leather string. As it was laid aside the old man perceived what had been done, lifted his skeleton frame partially from the bed and, trembling with excitement, said in a shrill whisper. “Ah my treasure, my treasure I It’s gone, all gone, and I’m going too I” and sank back dead. The bag contained £6OO in notes—the savings of his miserly life. And be, tbere, dead of starvation, even more than of ago. Well, what of it P you say. The wretched old man was better dead than alive. Quite so, but most human events have a moral, a lesson, about them, if we keep an eye out for it. What, for example, can we learn from the following facts P— One night about ten years ago a man whose name we can furnish went to bed as usual, apparently in good health and spirits. A few hours later be lay unconscious on the floor. In explanation bo stated that he had been seized, suddenly, with a pain of such violence that he was compelled to rise, —a pain in tbe chest. After rising he lost his senses and sank down on the spot where he had stood, bis wife aroused by the noise struck a light and saw her husband in that situation. Bhe afterwards declared he had gone black in the face, and that his eyes . looked as if they were starting out of bis head. Restoratives were applied, which brought him to, but he was not as before. So quickly and unexpectedly do we cross tbe boundary Hue between two opposite bodily conditions. It is like stepping from the broad blaze of day into a damp cavern, packed with darkness. He felt weak and sick, with a strange “ all gone ” sensation throughout the whole system. His mouth tasted badly, and was filled with a slimy sort of phlegm, his head ached, and he was unable to take a deep breath, be walked with difficulty, and went about hie business like a man who is haunted by a paralysing dream. Perplexed and alarmed he consulted physicians, who prescribed for him, without, however, producing auy noticeable improvement. The strong, clear headed man of previous years was gone—changed as if by the hand of a vicious magician into the feeble being he now was. Even with this dismal prospect before him our friend travelled not on level ground ; his path led downward j he grew worse. In December, 1888, he had a distinct aud bad attack, gave up business, and went to bed. There he remained for a weary painful month—thirty days, as long as thirty years of power and occupation. The doctor said there was something wrong with the stomach and bowels. After he once more rose from his bed he still suffered dreadful pain and could rest □either day nor night. Indeed, some nights he never slept a moment. So weak bad be become that when he attempted a short walk he was obliged to abandon the effort, return and go to bed. His own words are these;—“ To give you an idea how reduced I had become I may mention that I lost over three stone weight and was wasting away. I kept on like this until January, 1891, when Mr Everson, of Occold, i told me of a medicine called Mother Seigel’a Syrup and the good it had done. I tried it and in throe days I felt better. Cheered and encouraged by this I continued to use it, with the resnlt that I wholly recovered from my mysterious malady. I am now strong and hearty, and business is again a pleasure. The Syrup did me more good in a few weeks than all the ten years doctoring pat together." (Signed) Albert Thorndyke, Proprietor of the “ Grapes Inn,” Church Street, Eye, Suffolk. May Ist, 1891. What do we learn from this? We learn that while a miserly fool like our crossingsweeper may starve for money, a wise man with more reverence for bis bodily temple, seeks and finds a remedy for a tendency to starvation, induced hy disease :—that the disease was indigestion and dyspepsia, and the remedy Mother Seigel’s Syrup.