“ The distinction between the two is well illustrated in Pennsylvania, for in that state, prior to the enactment of the statute in question, it had been expressly decided that a court of probate, as such, was absolutely wanting in jurisdiction to administer the estate of a person who was alive, simply because there existed a presumption which was rebuttable as to the fact of death. ”

“ It is indeed natural to presume that a person who has disappeared, if he continues to exist, is prevented from returning by some obstacle stronger than his own will, and which, therefore, places him in the category of an incapable person, whose interest it is the duty of the law to protect. And it is for this reason that the provisions as to absence in the Code are placed in the chapter treating of the status of persons, because the absentee, in the legal sense, is a person occupying a peculiar legal status. ”

“ The school district paid the interest as it accrued to Mrs. Smith, at her domicil in the city of Reading, up to the 1st of April, 1888. In that year she left her domicil in the city of Reading, and for nearly nine years-up to March, 1897-she had not been heard from. At that date her only son, who resided in Reading, alleging the absence of his mother for the period stated, and the fact that she had not been heard from, and the consequent presumption of her death, made application to the register of wills, under the statute to which we have just referred, for letters of administration. ”

“ If it is true that, generally speaking, every person is held, at his own peril, to watch over his own property, nevertheless the law owes a duty to protect those who, from incapacity, are unable to direct their affairs. ”

“ The plaintiff in error, Margaret Cunnius, now Margaret Smith, whom we shall hereafter refer to as Mrs. Smith, prior to and at the time of the passage of this act, was domiciled in the state of Pennsylvania. In virtue of her right of dower in certain real estate of her husband, which passed to him from his deceased mother's estate, she became entitled to the annual interest during her life on the sum of $569.61. ”

“ It is further provided that before any distribution of the estate of such supposed decedent shall be made to the persons entitled to receive it, they shall give security, to be approved by the orphans' court, in such sum as the court shall direct, conditioned that if the absentee 'shall, in fact, be at the time alive, they will, respectively, refund the amounts received by each, on demand, with interest thereon ”