UNPROTECTED OLD AGE. [Faint A CORRESPONDENT.] S OME time ago, being
at a country town, I was asked by a friend in London to call on an aged lady who had made known that she stood in need of advice and assistance. She was a person of some little means, who lived by herself, her nearest relations being settled at a distance. I found her in a very feeble and nervous condition, but tolerably clear in mind. She told me that some months before she had had one or two fits, probably apoplectic, after which she had remained for a long time quite unable to do anything for herself. Her position of a lady in extreme old age, thus afflicted, with no relative near her, appears about as pitiable and helpless as can be conceived. To her, however, help of some sort came. A tradesman of the town with whom, as well as his wife, she had been previously acquainted, and whom she described as a man especially distin- guished by his piety, came to her assistance, and by him and his wife, she said, she had been most carefully and kindly looked after during her long illness. Even her partial recovery had not abated their attentions or led them to discontinue their daily visits. It appeared, however, that the acquaintance had its drawbacks. The lady, having been unable during her illness to go out to receive her money at the bank and transact other necessary business, had been induced to execute some document in the nature of a power-of-attorney, authorising her protector to act for her in the management of her affairs, and this he had now sought to convince her (and evidently with success) was irre- vocable, notwithstanding her partial recovery. I found, more- over, that she had made her will, and that by it her protector was constituted both executor and residuary legatee. Here, again, she had been fixedly persuaded that what had been done was irrevocable, on the ground that the will was expressed (in the usual language, we believe, of such documents) to be her last will. The use of these words, she had been assured, took away from a testator the ordinary legal power of revoking a will and making another. But more remained, for she told me she had already advanced by way of loan to her protector a considerable part of her property, and I could not discover on inquiry that she had received any security for these advances.
Mistrust at length grew heavy upon her, and she managed, I know not how, to crawl to a post-office close by, with a letter to a relation, telling something of how she was placed, and of her need of help. Hence resulted my visit, and I shall not soon forget the terror she seemed to feel while explaining her difficul- ties, or how often she sent me to the door to see whether any of the people of the lodgings, in which her protector had placed her, were listening at the key-hole ; or how furtively she told me of a little hoard of sovereigns she held secreted in some hole or corner, and of her wish, if she got worse or any crisis came, to slip them privately into my hands for transmission to a relation of hers who was in poor circumstances.
It became clear to me, however, after two or three visits, that the poor lady had not nerve or strength enough to shake off her thraldom. It might seem easy enough to call in a solicitor, re- voke the power-of-attorney and will, forbid her protector the house, and invite him to account for his receipts ; but when I suggested all this, she told me she felt she had not strength to go through with it, that the attempt would kill her. She dreaded, too, that she might, even if successful, be left absolutely without anybody to take care of her. Very possibly she was right in all this, and I felt that if she could not emancipate herself altogether,
it was useless to encourage her to struggle against her protector upon matters of detail, which was what she seemed inclined to.
Very soon, too, her protector, hearing of my vista, questioned her about them, and she, at last confessing that she had sought advice respecting her affairs, was so reproached and threatened that I found her, when next I saw her, in a state of pitiable terror and distress. It became apparent to me, in fact, that I was more likely to do her harm than good by further interference.
After making her understand how I might be summoned again, if needful, I ceased to visit her. A few months later she died. Some time afterwards a settlement of her affairs was come to, but how, or upon what terms, it is not material to the present purpose to relate.
If, indeed, the tale already told were but an isolated in- stance of the plunder of the weak and helpless by the strong and cunning, which seems ever in progress everywhere, it would not be 'worth the telling here. But is it an isolated instance, or is this kind of manipulation of unprotected old age a trade, and one extensively practised ? Inquiry appears to lead to the latter• conclusion. Most people seem to know, within their own experience, of some instance of this kind ; and country lawyers, who ought to be the best autho- rity on such a subject, abound in them. I well remember being startled by hearing from the lady so often mentioned how her protector had in previous instances kindly taken charge of and nursed decrepid old people, and how he had felt himself much surprised when on the deaths of these objects of his solicitude, it turned out that he had been handsomely remembered in their wills. It seems much to be feared that there are in most localities a Pecksniff or two (and no man, however unscrupulous, could be fit for this business unless he were a Pecksniff), watching the decline into decrepitude and helplessness of old people who have money, but have not friends or connections to take care of them, always ready and officious to step in with the aid people thus circumstanced so sorely need, sparing neither time nor trouble to give it, and looking for their unholy reward when the day arrives for meddling with their victims' money and tam- pering with their wills. And though now and then their prey may be rescued from them, yet the feebleness of purpose of the old and paralytic renders this most difficult in their life-time ; and of the undue influence which, if proved, might vitiate their wills there is rarely evidence obtainable after their deaths. The law, indeed, can always be set in motion for the protection of absolute imbecility or idiotcy, but mere senile weakness seems beyond its cognisance.
Yet surely not even an infant in the clutches of a baby-farmer deserves more sympathy than the man or woman who in second childhood gets within the gripe of one of the ghouls who prey upon old age. Not only is the victim's property endangered during life, and his most cherished wishes respecting its trans- mission after death ruthlessly over-ruled, but too often the cares by which his favour was first won are discontinued when the prize is quite secure, and he lingefs in neglect and squalor. Imagination may suggest even worse than this,—that it may even sometimes happen that as life slowly declines, impatience may whisper to the greedy and unscrupulous watcher who is to profit by its close how very little it would take to extinguish the feeble flame that yet flickers in the almost exhausted lamp.
From a certain point of view, nevertheless, and within certain limits, it may be said that the trade in question is a legitimate trade. Though the majority of men pass at once from the pos- session of some amount of energy of mind and body to the grave, yet is there a considerable minority, especially amongst those who attain to length of days, for whom between active life and disso- lution is interposed a period (often extending over years) of help- lessness of body or mind, or both. Those who have families pass these years of dependence, perhaps not always unhappily, in the seclusion of their homes. H marriage and a family on /300 a year has its drawbacks, it has, at least, given to many a man affectionate care at the close of life. But to those who have none at home to take charge of them in decrepitude, help from without is, when decrepitude comes, an inevitable necessity. Such help, faithfully rendered, undoubtedly deserves a liberal reward, nor is there any reason why an honest man should not undertake such services in order to earn it. The evil is that the care of old age and decrepitude so often gets into the hands of unprincipled adventurers, who speculate only on the larger gains obtainable by vile practices.
To point out the evil, however, is no doubt easier than to sug- gest a remedy. In all such cases, much is done if public atten- tion can be drawn to the subject. The growth of a class of skil-
ful and trustworthy nurses is, no doubt, a boon to old age. But helpless old age often needs a great deal more than nursing, needs money affairs transacted and business looked after. Is it too much to hope that the time may 'come when aid which is above suspicion may be placed within reach of the old and helpless, even for purposes so delicate as these ? ' X.
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