GRANNY GORTON’S BIRTHDAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1794, 14 December 1895, Page 2

GRANNY GORTON’S BIRTHDAY.

Saturday, January 21st, was a great day in Central Village, in the State of Connecticut, in America. On that day Mrs' Jonathan Gorton was 100 years old and formally received her friends, of whom hundreds were present. She wore her best black silk gown, with a rose in the, bodice. The venerable lady was seated in a comfortable armchair on a platform in the best room of her house. Then the train of' callers filed through, each and all shaking hands with her. ‘ Granny Gorton,’ as she is called, is a trim little body and very nimble on her feet. There was never anything ailed her, she says, and, except that her eyesight isn’t .quite so good;as it used to be*? she is as active as any woman of 50. Why has Granny Gorton lived so long? Why is she so active now? She lets ,out the secret herself when she says,' ‘ There was never anything ailed me.’ That’s it, and all of it. ..... People who live 100 years are not so.very fare. The deaths of 45 such were reported last year in England—-22 men and 23 women. Vet, compared to the multitudes who ode, these are nothing—nothing. Can we not keep things from ailing us, and so live as long as Mrs Gorton? Tes, if we will take the trouble to do it I Men and women lOO: years old, still vigorous and clear-headed, should be a sight so common as notj to bo remarked, and will be yet in the future. Why not so now ? ‘ Ask yourself thip question/ as the boatmen say down on Deed beach. : . how it is: A woman’s tale. She Says she fell ill when about a girl of 15 r She loSt her appetite, had pains in the sides and chest, frequent headaches, and was often obliged to lie dowh on the couch and rest. \ All this didn’t promise long life, did it ? No; it was a bad start. Well, she got .worse instead of better. She was often sick, vomited her food, and spitting up a sour fluid. For five years she went on this way. This - brings ns to October, 1881. She was then in service as parlour-maid at Leamington, [Hastings, Warwickshire.' Here : she suffered from constant sickness, retching, and heartburn. The cutest pains were so bad as to bend her double. No position that she could take relieved her; Her stomach; was so tender and sore that everything she ate pained and distressed her. For months and months she only took liquid food—milk and beaten eggs, and so on. ... She got weaker and weaker every day, so she says. Of .course; how else could it be ? A doctor at Eugby told her she had * ulceration of the chest,’ which she didn’t at all. What is ' ulceration of the chest? He gave her medicines and advice, but she v grew no better on that account. This young lady was now about 20yeafs old, with a poor outlook for ever being-much older.; She didn’t expect it, nor did her friends. Then another doctor i being consulted, said ‘ ulceration of the chest,’ like his medical brother at Rugby. Both wrong. * After six months’ medical treatment/ she says, ‘ I gave up my situation and returned to my home in Buxton Lamas, Norfork. This was in June, 1882. Then I was taken so bad 1 had to my bed. My mother thought I was in a decline.’ Now, the word * decline ’ means consumption aB we all kno%; a disease common in England and incurable everywhere.; Thousands of bright girls decline ’: into their graves every year in this populous island. Sad enough it is -to see. Well, at this point her good and wise mother interfered in her daughter’s ease. She gave the doctors the go-by and sent to Norwich for some bottles of Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup. In two ■weeks the young patient began to feel better and in three months she got a new situation and went to Work. ‘ Since then, fifteen years ago,’ she says, * I have, kept in better health than ever before in my life, thanks to Seigel’s Syrup. Yours truly, : (Signed), (Mrs) Sarah Eleanor Baker, 8, King s Street, Church Road, Tottenham] near London, September 30fch l 1892.’ A dozen words more and we’re done. Mrs Bakers’ ailment was indigestion and dyspepsia, nothing else, and enough. The ‘ulceration’ was inflammation of the inner coating of the stomach, a sympton of the • disease. We wish her a long and happy life, and merely add that if Ml her sex could avoid or cure this one trouble most of them might live to be as old as Granny Gorton.