AS OLD AS QUEEN VICTORIA

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 113, 14 May 1902, Page 6

AS OLD AS QUEEN VICTORIA

There are not a great number of people living in this country who were born in the same year as Queen Victoria. They who entered the world so long ago as 1819 and are still with us hale and hearty are undoubtedly in the running to become centenarians. A notable example of this very small band is Mrs Elizabeth Fuller, of No. 44, Ryder Street, Surry: Hills, Sydney. This venerable old lady was born in England and came to Australia with her husband before she had attained her eighteenth year, long previous to the great gold rush. She has, therefore, already reached the full age attained by Wellington, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Bismarck, and Tennyson, men who found time to accomplish a vast amount of enduring work, which establishes the fact that it is not among the most uneven if ul or least suffering lives we must look for examples of longevity. If that were not so, we should not now be writing of Mrs Fuller's career. To work strenuously for many years building up a competency, to succeed in that effort, and then to have the proceeds of your industry swept away by the miserable process of litigation is disheartening to the last degree. That is what happened to Mrs Fuller. A weaker mind than hers would have become unbalanced by such a disaster. But that is not all. It i s proverbial that troubles come not as single spies, but in whole battalions, and so it was in this case. Enjoying excellent health, scarce knowing what serious illness was during the first 71 years of her life, Mrs Puller now met with an accident. Losing her footing while ascending the stairs, she sustained a fractured arm and collar-bone —a serious calamity to befall anybody, but specially a woman 71 years of age.

Mrs Fuller thus writes of her experiences consequent upon her accident: "I became an inmate of the Sydney Hospital, and after being in some degree patched up there was discharged, within two months as cured. My worst troubles, however, were only just beginning. The fall must have wrenched by back and injured my kidneys, for a dull continuous pain set in in that reg-ion, which allowed me no rest by day or night, producing urinary difficulties of a most distressing nature, and an obstinate constipation. I visited the leading hospitals as an outdoor patient, and was at one time under treatment at my own home by a lady doctor. None of the plasters, liniments, lotions, or other medicines they gave me proved of any service. As time passed the pain in .ity back increased so much that the agony 1 endured was intolerable, and I fell as if I could' have welcomed death to end my sufferings. In this wretched condition I remained two years. Then my daughter, Mrs W. Johnson, of Arden Street, Waverley, bought me three of Mother Seigel's Soothing Plasters, a box of Mother Seigel's Operating Pills, and a Dottle of Mother Seigel's Curative Syrup. She did this on the advice of a friend, who said he was sure Ihey would relieve my sufferings if given a fair trial. Happily for me the accuracy of his belief was soon established, for the plasters, used in conjunction with the Syrup and Pills, at once reduced the backache to a tolerable degree, and in two months had quite mastered it. I was once more able to eat, sleep and get about in comfort." After so long an illness, and at my advanced age, a quick restoration to perfect health and strength was not to be expected, but I persevered with the three Seigel remedies for six months, and was rewarded by a daily improvement in my condition. At the end of that time I felt as well as a person of my years could hope to be, and 1 have remained well from that day to this."

The loss of Mrs Fuller's well-earn-ed saving's has been in some degree repaired by the grant of an Old Age Pension by "the beneficent State of New South Wales—a boon extended only to those who have resided in the State continuously for at least 25 years, and in itself a sure warrant of the respectability and honour of the. recipient. A good thing, and one to be devoutly thankful for, without' doubt, but less wonderful than that other relief which Mrs Fuller has so well described and acknowledged.