IT WAS MARY SHERLOCK'S WAKE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4119, 25 May 1892, Page 3

IT WAS MARY SHERLOCK'S WAKE.

" Thero lays a hundred yetira o' ponco and happiness," It was tho wake of Mary Sherlock, who had died of old age; and it took placo on the night of Thursday, March l!)th, 1891, in the City of isew York, Tho room was crowded with men and women, old and young, and an aged junkman, who sat on a keg in the middle of tho room, said In overy new-comer, "There lays a hundred years of peaco and happiness," to which the patty responded in chorus,! Faith.' Milte/nivor thier'yotdj did ye speak." Fur Grandma Sherlock had come to America from Ireland before any of them, und, no doubt, was at least 105 years old when she onded her long journey.

But fho was fine of the old stuck ancj never knew what illness' was. ' ' l How different is such a story as this, (or tolt( by a woman J ; !' 1 was pevor wolj in tny life,'' she Bays, "alpys weak and ailing, constantly sick, and troubled with giddiness and swimming in tho head. People who did not know me would at times think I was tipsy, i always had a poor appetite, with bad taato in the mouth in the morning, aud pain after eating. ' 1 had great pain and tightness in the chest and side, and was languid and tirod a.ttßr the least exertion,.sob* was unable to work iiraetmy own living. " As to sick headncho, I was seldom free from it, and often my heart would palpitate, so 1 had to stop and hold myself, for fear' ot falling: . 1 was nearly always under the doctor, and' when 1 J was so, something formed jrt my'mbiith that thtf doctor called ' ranula," and 1 was confined in the Exeter Hospital 17 hooks with it.

"From that timo I was worse than ever, and after eating the least morsel of food 1 heaved at the stomach and would spit upMour fluid; • ■•' ' ( ' !' Better and.worse I contmuod until Apt ib 1889, wholi l'-became jnuch worse, and my abiioinlifl swelled until it reached a great w.e, and a pain in tho side snd back wade me scream out, Indeed, 1 was in such agony I could not stir hand, or foot. Just ihen my neighbour, Mrs Harris, wife of Joshua Harris, tho road contractor, camo iu, and 1 had to be

carried to bed. So droadlul was the paiu that I broke out into a heavy sweat,. and : a faintness came over me. Mis Harris stayed with mo and poulticed me, but no 1 got no bettor my mother, who lived at Housdon, was sent for, She camo at once, and sent for a doctor, as 1 was in terrible distress, and fighting for breath, Tho doctor said ho could not tell what was tho matter, and a second doctor was sent for from Seaton by tlia clergyman, who thought I was dying, So critical miß my conditiuii consider™ that prayers were made for me at tht church. "The swelling of the bowelsincreaaod, and the doctor Bald il this swelling did not go down I could not get bettor, as it most bo ii tumour Ho seemed puzzled by my case and kopt changing iny mulicine, but 1 got no relief. My brother ana others who came to see me all believed me to be dyii,g. "After two montliß of this a ladj named Mrs Stocker, who lived at Eoujdon, came to see mound told me about a medioino called Mother Seigel'B Syrup, and said,' You try it, fur it once saved my lifo." " I sent to Mr Gage, tho grocer at Seaton, and got a bottle, and before I had taken tho contents I felt better, the pain was easier, and the swellim; 1 have spoken of gradually wont away, Alter having taken three bottles I was able to move about, and now fed better than 1 ever did in my lifo before, and am stronger than when I was a girl. But, oh, if 1 had known of Mother Seigel's Syrup soonor, it would have saved me years of misery, (Signed) MksMakyHoake, Combpync. Axromster, Devon, Feb. 18, 1.891.

Tin's was a caso of chronic indigestion and dyspepsia, with terrible constipation ; the swelling was caused by matter in tho intestines which bad probably been slowly accumulating for months. In tho. meantime tho festering mass fill d the whole syßtem with poison, earning all the other symptoms doscribed. Women are subject to this far more than men, on account of t their careless habits, It occasionally happens that surgical interference is necessary. Tliero was no tumour of course, tut in tho end there might have been, had not Seigel's Syrup removed the loathsome doposit belore it was too lato.

W hat a pity that womon (and men too) will not check the first symptoms of disease, and thus, liko Mary Sherlock, enjoy a. hundred years of peace »..d happiness.