THE SIGNALMAN ON THE MIDLANDS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2087, 19 August 1890, Page 4

THE SIGNALMAN ON THE MIDLANDS.

There are probably about a million men employed in various capacities on the Railway* of Great Britain—a number large, enough if they were soldiers, to overrun Europe Upon the intelligence, fidelity, and physical condition of this vast army depend the live* of the multitudes who are constantly travelling by rail. I 'Any kuddeh and aerious disability happening to one of them may result in a disaster which would put hundreds of families in mourning. Accustomedais it ia to safe and swift conveyance from point to point, the'public scarcely! realisesf.this fact. The follows g brief narrative, which is strictly true, will therefore be read with,interest: On the Midland Railway, twonty-thj-ee miles south of Carlisle there » a little station called Oulgaith. Here there is a signal-box in which Signalfalan Andrew 'Agge is to be found oh duty daily! As is the case with all other signal 1 boxes, this 6ne contains the levers and the usual complicated electric and ’mechanics! contrivances i for making and receiving signals. Mr; Agge is on duty pearly every dayj and takes his Itmcheons without leaving .his post. He is a sturdy man_of thirty-five,, in good health, and; no complaint has ever been against him by ; the Company or by the public ; yet an incident oocnrrel a few years ago that came near depriving him of his position and his life. For some lime he had not fejt ,well, thp worst and most of nis indisposition being a kind of giddiness that would seize him unexpectedly and, 01 he described it,”‘‘set ever* thing to moving and twisting round and round.” The doctor told him frankly that it was ai symptom of » still more radical complaint i brougot on by to much confinement, and by hi* irregularbahts of.eating and BlegpiD", and-, that he.had better aband,<u his work for a while, .and try a change of scene.

But this was eas'er said than done. Ha had a family to support, and couldn't.afford the luxury of a vacation, He knew no other business, aod could not risk the loss of‘his pUoe. His Wbrk was always done, however, no matter how he felt. But it ia only fait to say he ihad many anxious hours over it. His ailment, which he had discovered to bo indigestion: and dyspepsia, now set up more alarming simptoms. A physician at Appleby assured Agge that there was serious trouble with his kidneys and bladder. ‘lt is/ said the doctor to the Signalman, ‘the result of the condition of your digestion. Your blood is poisoned by your' stomach, and every organ -of the body :is crippled by it.’ '■ This was a miserable outlook for Asge, who went back to Oulgaith with small •courage for his work, He took hold, though, as well as he could, and kept it up until one morning several weeks Afterwards. He was in his box as usual when of a sudden a shorp pain shot through him as ohough ho had been stabbed with a knife. Ha tumbled down on the looker in the iSignal-box; andlay there all the forenoon in acute distress and agony. For the time his work was a secondary consideration. Unable to remain in that position any longer, he laid down and rolled on the floor. The pain in his hips and back was so intense that ho compared it to being out with dull knives, and pierced with hot irons. Agge was alone when the nttaek came, and as nobody except railway officials _are allowed in the signal boxes, it was some time before his plight was discovered. Finally, however, the station-master came in, the neighbours.were summonedjand the Buffering man was put into a trap and taken to his house, half a mile away. There he was ill for weeks, part of the,;,time unconscious. When the physicians had avowedly gob to the end of their resources it was agreed that the Signalman’s end was only a matter of a very little time. This was the situation when a singular thing happened. Two or three years before, while Agge was feeling the earlier symptoms of his disorder, he had taken a medicine that had helped him ; getting better, he put the bottle aside, still half full, and forgot it altogether.

Nowi as he was almost in a dying condition, his memory ' fltihed up one .day, and he distinctly recalled where .he had put it. A search was made and 1 then it was found. The prostrate Signalman began using it to the astonishment of neighbours and doctors in a few’ days was' able to get out of doors. We may mention that the. medicine was the well-known preparation,'-'Mother SeigelV Curative Syrup, although" ''to advertise the article is not the chief motive for this'little narrative. As a matter; of s foot, Signalman Agge kept on doctoring himself with it, and it cured him, be Its nature what it may. He went baoknto his box long ago, and this incident is printed in order that the reader may know more of the character and experience ~of a lafge ond faithful body of public servant*.