REMINDED OF HIS DEAD MOTHER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7082, 2 March 1893, Page 4

REMINDED OF HIS DEAD MOTHER.

[EXTBACT BBOM A, PRIVATE IBTTEB.] It was the latter part of August 1891. A friend and I had come down from Kamsgate to Minster, to see the venerable church there, which is a thousand years old. I entered the churchyard aud seated myself upon a name* less grave while he went in search of somebody to unlock the doors of the edifice and show 1 its wonders. In a few minutes he returned in company with an elderly lady, to whom be introduced me, saying she wets the custodian and guide of the place. I gaaed at her face for some moments without a word. If my own mother, dead and gone 15 years, had oomo bach to speak to her only son, I should scarcely have been more astonished. For this woman was almost my mother’s double ; the same size, the same face, and the same way of parting the hair and combing it in smooth bands from the forehead. I told her so. and we were friends before cither fairly knew the other’s name. What a queer world it is. She then conducted us through the ancient fane, and spoke of the long vanished past, of the monks and nans who once sang and prayed within its walls, of the quaint carvings on the hard oak seats in the chancel, of that precious reiio, the Oranmer Bible, which

reposes in a glass box against a pillar, and of many matters besides, drawn from tbe apparently exbaustleas well of bar detailed and accurate information. Finally the talk veered around to tbe wholesomeness of the vicinity, the bracing nature of its sea breeses and so on. Then our guide, Mrs Sarah Herd said : - ** I have lived here in Minster 50 years, and seen many ups and downs, One of my sons is now in America, where he is doing well. He wants me to leave England and make my home with him, but I doubt if I ever shall. lam somewhat like that old yew tree out in tbe yard, deeply rooted to this soil, and might be the worse for palling up. Then lam getting on in life, and ills grow apace with age. In the .pring of 1878 I had a serious attack. At first I scarcely knew what to make of it. There was no disease that I recognised in particular. I felt tired in body and weary in mind. There was much pain at my chest and back, and a kind sf 1 tightness at the sides, as though physical force were applied there to restrain

me from moving. My appetite, which was usually good, tell away j and whatever I ate or drank gave mo pain, and I lived almost entirely on bread and water. I wan always in pain, end couldn’t sleep eo as to feel refreshed by it. After a time I grow so weak bs to be unable to go about my work. A bitter and sickening fluid arose into my mouth, and I perspired to each an extent that the sweat sometimes rolled oft my face to the floor.” I (the writer) break in upon Mrs Herd’s i story at this point merely to say that this tendency to sweat without the provocation of labour or of exercise is always a sign of the debilitated condition of the system. It means that the blood is impure and impoverisned, the kidneys working badly, and that the body lacks nourishment, and is living feebly on what was previously stored in it. In other words that the stomach has refused its duty and the

other organs are in with it. How we will let the lady proceed, begging pardon for the interruptionShe went on to say t —" For a time I tried to cure myself with various domestic remedies which sometimes answer. But they failed, and I consulted a physician With all respect to the doctors, they occasionally failed too. This one did. You kno w there comes a, time in all long illnesses when we get in some way used to pain and misery, land make no farther efforts to get rid of it. In fact, we don’t know how, and so don’t try. For about three years I remained wretched and ailing, and dull unhappy years they were. My suf ferings were beyond ell I had ever known before, yet there seemed nothing to do bat to bear them as patiently as I could. At this date, 1881, certain friends of mine spoke to me of the great benefit they bad received from the nso of Mother Seigel’s tfyrnp, for indigestion and dyspepsia. This threw light on my mind, although I cannot say it made mo at once a believer in Seigel's tiyrup. At length, however, in July 1881, I began to take it. In all I used six bottles, end found ay health fully restored. s>n years have elapsed, and I have bad no attack since. But if I do in future I shall know where to put my band on the remedy.” Our visit being virtually over, we called for a few moments at Mrs derd'a home, 2, High Street, Minster, Kent, and then wended our way back to Bamagate. 0. M. B. New York, October, 1891.