AS OLD AS QUEEN VICTORIA

Feilding Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 1459, 10 June 1902, Page 4

AS OLD AS QUEEN VICTORIA

There is >\ great number of people living iu this country who were born in the same year as Qaeen V ctoria. Those who entered the world so long ago at tit 1819 and are still with us hale find hearty are undoubtedly in the running to become centenarieras. A notable example of this very small band is Mrs Elizabeth Fuller, of No 44, Ryder Street, Surey 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 fall age attained by Wellington, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Bisinark. and Tennyson, men who found timn to acomplish a vast amount of enduring work whicL establishes the fact that it is not among the most uneventful or less suffering lives wo must not loak 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 happen ed to Mrs- Fuller. A weaker mind than hers would have become unbalanced by snch disaster. But that is not oil. It is proverbial that troubles come not as single spies bat in whole battalions, and eo it was in this case. Enjoying excellent health, scarce knowing what serious illness was daring the first 71 years of her life, Mrs Fuller now met with an accident. Losing her foo'ing while ascending the stairSj she sustained a fractured arm and collar-bone a serious c-ilamity to befall anybody, but specially a woman 71 years of age. Mrs. Fuller thus writes of her experiences consequent upon her accident: "I become an inmate of the Sydney Hospital, and after being Th some degree patched up there was discharged within two months as cured. My worst trouble, however, were only just beginning. The fall must have wrenched my back and injured my kidneys, for a dull continuous pain set in in that region which allowed me no rest by day or night, prodncing uvinavy difficulties of a most distressing nature, and an obstinate constipation. I visited the leading hospitals as an outdoor patient, and was at one tin]* 3 under treatment at my own heme by a lady doctor None of the plasters, liniments, lotions, or otber mediciaes they gave we proved of any service As time passed the pain in rny back iucreased so much that the agony 1 indurpd was intolerable, and I felt a? if I could have welcomed death to end my sufferings. In this wretched condition I remained two years. Then my daughter, Mrs W. Johnston, of Arden > v treet, Wnverley, bought me three boxes of Mother Seigel's Soothing Plasters, a box of Mother Seigel's Operating Pills, and a bottle of Mother SeigePs Curative Syrup, the did this on the advice of a friend, who said he was sure they would relieve tiiy sufier ings if given a fair trial. Happily for me the accuracy of this 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 bad quite mastered it. I was once more able to eat, sleep, and get about in comfort. After so long an illness, and at rny advanced ago, a quick restoration to perfect health and strength was not to expected, but I persevere d with the three Seitffl remedies for six months, and was rewarded by a daily improvement in my condition. At tbe end of that lime I felt as well as a person of my years could hooe to be, and

I have remained well from that day to this." The lofvS of Mrs Fuller's well-earned sayings has beeu in some degree repaired by the grant of an Old A;^e Pension bv the beneficent State of New South Wales— a boon extended only to those who have resided in the State continuously for a least 25 years, and in itself a sure wrarant of the respectibility and honor of the recipient. A good thing, and one to be devoutedly thankful for, without doubt, but leas wonderful than that other relief which Mrs Fuller has so well described and acknowledged.