The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1855-07-13
v;ne ola Age.

In the June number of Hunts Merchants
Magazine is a table Of the average age at
tanned by men pursuing different occupa-
tons. Some ofits facts are of SO much general
interest that we CLEAN them from it and pres
ent them in chronological order:
The man who dies youngest, as might be
expected, perhaps is the railway brakeman.
dis average is only 81. Yet this must be
taken with some allowance from the fact
that hardly any but young and active men
are employed in that capacity.
At the same age dies the factory workman,
through the combined influence of confined
air, sedentary posture, scant wages, and un-
renting toll.
Then comes the railway baggagemen, who
are smashed, on an average, at 80.
Milliners and dressma kers live but little
longer. The average age of the one and the
other SO.
The engineer, the firemen, the conductor;
the powdermaker, the well-dggef, and the
factory operative, all of whom are exposed to
sudden and violent deaths, die, ON average,
under the age of 80.
The cutler, the dyer, the leather dresser
the apothecary, the confectioner, the cigar
maker, the printer, the slversmith, and paint-
er, the shoe cutter, the engraver, and the
machinist, all of whom lead confined liz es in
an unwholesome atmosphere, none of them
reach the average age OF 40.
The musician blows the breath all out of
his body at 40. The editor knocks himself
into pi at the same age.
Then come the trades that are active or in
purer air. The baker lives to the aver
age of 43, the hatcher to SO, the brickmason
TO At, the carpenter to 20, the furnaceman to
AZ, the mason to 48 the stonecutter to 43, the
| he ,itb -
to A., the drover to 40, the cook TO As, the
innkeeper, to 40, the laborer to A, the domes-
tic servant (emale) to AZ, the tailor to 43,
the tailoress to Al.
Why should the barber live till SO, if not
to show what virtue there is in Personal neat.
ness and soap and water?
Those who average over half a century
among mechanics, are those who keep their
muscles and lungs in healthfu and moderate
exercise, and are not troubled with weighty
cares. The blacksmith hammers till l, the
! cooper till so, the builder till 50, the ship
wright till So, and the wheelwright till so.
The miller lives to be whitened with age as
we'll as flour, at 81. The ropemaker length
ems the threads OF life to 81. Merchants av-
erage 50.
Professional men live logger than is gener-
ally supposed. Litigation kills clients some.
times but seldom lawyers, for they average
55.
Physicians prove their usefulness by pro-
longing their own lives to the same period.
Clergymen who, it is to be presumed, en-
10y greater mental serenity than others
las. till S.
Seafaring life and its adjuncts seem instead
of dangerous, to be actually conducive to
longevity. We have already seen that the
shipwright lives ill Sc. The sailors averages
43, the caulker 81. the sailmaker So, the
stevedore 81, the lerrymen 65, and the pilot
ga.
|, A dispersion of Providence that Maine
Law men may consider incomprehens is,
that brewers and distillers live to the ripe age
of Ga
Last and longest lived come paupers, 81;
and "gentleman," 6S. The only two classes
that do nothing for themselves, and live on
their neighbors, outlast all the rest. Why
should they wear out when they are always
! idle!