The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1897-04-09
SPEAKING OF LONG AGO.

To-day, as l pen these lines, one pic
ture from the long-vanished past rises
in my memory as clearly as though
it hung on a wall before my very eyes.
1t is of boy about fourteen years old,
propped up in great armchair with
pillows and bed-clothes, and gazing
through a window. He is just. conva-
lescing after long and dangerous ill
ness, and is still thin, pale, and weak.
The strong arms of his loving father
have taken him from the bed and
placed him snugly by the window in
order that he may see his playmates
at their games in the snow; for the
time is mid-winter. They wave their
hands to him and he waves his hand
feebly to them. The scene is from my
own boyhood forty years ago. What
magic has conjured it up now? Only
a sentence from a letter.
This: q was so weak that for
years l had to be carried upstairs to
bed" A lady speaks thus of her girl
hood. What a pitiable thing. 1t is
not what nature meant; but alas! too
often what really happens in this per-
verted world Children should never
suffer pain, for pain is punishment.
For whose offences, then-surely not
their own-do the little ones sicken
and die by uncounted millions?
From childhood" so runs the let
ter, 81 was always delicate. When
fourteen years old got chill on the
lungs which left me in a weak state.
Indeed, l was always tired and weary,
and never knew what it was to feel
strong"
Now, tell me, if you can, what sad
der reading one is apt to come upon
than this? Fancy young girl being
Arrays tired, weary, and weaki-too
weak to climb the stairs to her own
bed! so feeble and lifeless as to re-
quire to be carried over the house
through which she should have skip
ped and danced like a fawn What
had so crushed her? Disease? What
disease and how caused?
81 was very pale" continues the
letter; "My feet were cold and clam
my, and hot sweats now and again
burst over me. My appetite was poor;
and, after eating, l suffered such pain
at the chest and sides that it often
amounted to agony; and the palpita-
ton of the heart was so bad that many
times l got no sleep at night on ac-
count of it,
And this at an age when the heart
should beat quickly only with feelings
of joy and hope; and girlish~ forms in
their beds should be as quiet as re-
cumbent statues.
after a time" says the writer, Il
could take liquid nourishment only,
my stomach being to weak to retain
anything solid. Thus, l gradually
wasted away until was nothing but
skin and bone. | had not even strength
to walk across the floor; and all who
saw me said it was impossible that l
should ever get well.
From time to time l saw doctor
after doctor, and twice went to the
Sherborne Hospital, but received no
benefit from the treatment there. At
last the doctors said that both mig chest
and bOlrels ircre liberated and that
there l1ds no hope of my recoUery. /
was now so bad that could take moth
ing but weak brandy and water-and
that only occasionally
I'm this hopeless condition l linger-
ed on until March, 1890, when l heard
of Mother SiegePs Curative Syrup. AL
though l have given up all hope of
deriving any benefit from any medi-
cine, l nevertheless, sent for a bottle
of Syrup, and after having taken it for
a few days l found myself little better.
This led me to continue using it, and
shortly l was able to take solid food,
and the sickness gradually left me.
Holding to this medicine-the only one
that had ever helped mel grew
stronger and stronger until | was in
good health. Without Mother Siegel's
Curative Syrup l should never have
recovered; and you must try to imagine
how grateful l feel l never can put
my thankfulness in words. Yours tru-
ly (Signe0 CMrs.), Mary Jane Hilliar,
Rimpton, near Sherborne, Dorset,
March 9, 1893"
We rest at this. Here is life story.
How can we commend on it adequate
ly? What a pity that this woman
should have so suffered. What salts
faction to know that she suffers no
more! And yet-the lost time, the lost
happinessi All, yes! Mother Siegel had
reason enough to induce her to labor as
she did TO relieve her sister women.
Thank Heaven for her success.
Mrs. Hilliar's real disease was of the
stomach = indigestion and dyspepsia;
inherited, probably, and made chronic
by circumstances. The remedy she
finally used cured this, and so freed
her from all the symptoms and results.
How kindly are the arms that carry us
in our weakness. How glorious not to
need theml