A PAUPER’S DYING REQUEST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1669, 6 December 1887, Page 3

A PAUPER’S DYING REQUEST.

An amusing and yet pathetic incident in what the poet Gray called the “ short and simple annals of the poor," is told by Mr John J, B, Micklejohn, one of the Inspector* of the Poor, at Lerwick, Shetland Islands' He says that some time ago an old woman, named Barbara Smith, came under the no i:e of the Board. She was extremely ill, and it did not look likely that she would lopg need care of any kind. She did not reside on the mainland, but on a small island a few miles 1 distant, and there being no parochial institu* tions in that place, Barbara necessarily occupied the position of a pauper living out. The trouble from which she suffered dated back many years. In better and more pros* parous days ihe bad in some way laid the foundation for Chronio Indigestion and Dyspepsia, and out of this had sprung other complaints an age and bodily infirmities crept

apace upon her. Barbara was not ignorant, albeit she (had fallen into poverty. In earlier life she somehow obtained the advantage of a fair education, and this, added to native shrewd* ness, enabled her to use good judgment in respect to her own situation and state of health. Although she had long suffered from asthma and a bronchial affection, Bar* bara was wise enough to see that these ail* ments arose from the disordered stomach and digestion, and that if the main trouble could be cured the others would soon leave her* It is probable that her disease began as others do, with the usual symptoms; head* aches, bad breath, the rising of sour fluids in the throat, oppression and faintness at the pit of the stomach, loss of sleep, coated tongue, dull eyes, bad taste in the mouth, &0,, and finally became chronic and hopeless through her not being able to find any remedy. The Inspector states that she had been under medical treatment for years, but to no effect. In this strait she one day made the following touching appeal to the Inspector ; “ I have been swallowing medicines for "months. They d 6 me no good, I am “ going on from worse to worse, I can en* “ dure it no longer. 1 feel that in a week or " two I shall be dead. There is one last “{request I would make of you: give me a “ bottle of Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup; “itis my only hope. If it proves a failure “ and does me no good I will die in peace, “ and make no more expense to the parish." It seems she had got hold of one of Mother Seigel’s Almanacks and read of the great cures wrought by the Syrup in oases like hers.

The Board pitied the poor lone woman and granted her petition, believing, however, the Syrup would prove as useless se the other medicines she had already taken. What was their astoniehment to find, in the course of a few days, that she had not only been able to get ont of bed, but to move about outside the house, and had taken journeys to a considerable distance, and was actually enjoying better health than since she was first taken

ill. The asthma and bronchitis, which were no more than symptoms of her true disease {indigestion and dyspepsia), rapidly abated, and it now seems that Barbara will soon be as hale and hearty as the Inspector himself, and be one of the hosts of living witnesses to the power of Mother Seidel’s Syrup to save the thousands who were just ready to perish, Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup is for sale by all chemists and medicine vendors, and by the proprietors, A. J. White, Limited, S 3, Farringdon Boad, London, £.O.