A Woman 112 Years Old

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 114, 2 April 1887, Page 4

A Woman 112 Years Old

Magdalene Ponza, the oldest of the Emperor Francis Jossph's who entered her one hundred and twelfth year on Christmas Eve, has been interviewed by the Vienna correspondent of the Times. She was born at Wittangau Bohemia, in 1775, when Maria Theresa sat on the Austrian Throne. Magdalene Ponza retains full possession of her mental faculties. Unfortunately she can only speak the Uze-ih language, and she can neither read nor write. However she answers questions briskly enough through the youngest of her surviving grandchildren, herself a woman of sixty. Magdalene Ponza's age is authenticated by the outdoor relief certificate of the Viennese municipality, which, with magnificent generosity, allows her four florins and forty kreutzers — about 6s 6d — a month. The venerable dame lest the last of her teeth thirty years ago, but she has an excellent appetite, eat meats minced, drinks a little beer daily, and hobbles about her room without much difficulty with the help of a stick. Sixty years of her life was spent in her native village, more than thirty in another village, and she was past ninety when she came to Vienna seventeen years ago. All the doctors who have seen her pronounce her to be one of the most extraordinary cases o" longtvity on record, for she complains of no ailments beyond a slight asthma. Her worn face with its countless wrinkles, does, however, look preternaturally old. Giving the correspondent her photograph, Magdalene Ponza scored her mark on it with a fair steady hand, and remarked with a smile that her first portrait was taken by a painter in her village ninety years ago. This is before the German Emperor was born. The centenarian has received a good many visits and presents since her last birthday, but one must regret that more has not been done for her through official channels. She shares one single poor room with her grandaughter and the latter's husband, who is bedridden with a spinal complaint. A woman who is perhaps the doyenne of all the women in Europe, and who has lived under aix Austrian sovereigns, deserves at least that her closing days should be spent in comfort.