Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1870-01-13
AIisecllaneous.


I> churchvnrls and cemeteries of
civilized people there is not. and never
could have been. any considerable error
as to age recorded. Every individual.
not being a savage or idiotic. cherishe.
his birthday and remembers his age.
For this reason. tombstone age records
acquire statistic value. They lead us
I" form our own conclusions as IL the
number Of those chances whereby the
normal thrccscorc wears and ten of
mans appointed age are curtailcd bv
accident or disease.
tombstone records confirm what the
personal observation Of each Of us must
have suggested. that Of all who die.
comparatively few die of old age. Doe
tors. moreover. will tell Us that even
when old age j. said to be the cause of
death, this i seldom literally true. Oli
/ age may bc compared 10 a waning fire.
that. IT let alone. will of itself burn ont.
/ but which rarely * let alone some
thing happens To the waning life fire.
spmcthnI Stir, il rudely or incauiious-
. Is. and 10 out il goes. Even old Parr
himself. though diving at the patriarchal
age Of one hundred and iif(y-two. can
not be said To have died from the wear
ing ont of the animal machine. The
celebrated Harvey who dissected him
found no symptoms Of decay. 1t was
PARIS misfortune (if must call it so)
10 have been taken l,y the Earl of
Arundel u the Court Of Charles the
| First. where he ate and drank luxu-
riously. perhaps for the first time in his
| life. The change OF diet was more than
! his constitution could stand. Old Par-
was killed by kindness. There is in
/ the library Of the British Museum a
/ book published in the wear 1855. hv one
/ Taylor. The title Of this book is The
/ Old. Old. the Very Old Man" and il
refers To old Thomas Parr. In this
| volume we have a full account of Parr's
| coming to London. 1t seems that old
| Parr was one of three celebrated hu-
man curiosities at the Court of Cha les
L.. one of the two remaining being IA
giant. the other dwarf. This will he
gathered from versified preface to the
volume. and Of which the first four lines
are subjoined =
"Of subjects (my dread liege), It's manifest
You have the oldest the greatest, and The least
1hsi tor an old, a great a"d litt man.
NJ kingdom tsurel compare with Britain can
Notwithstanding Old PARIS great
age. know not why his name should
lord it over other names Of men
his seniors. Even in British history
we meet with more remarkable ex-
ample of longevity take, for instance.
Thomas earn, who, according to the
parish register of St. Leonard, Shore
ditch. died January %, in the year
1858, aged two hundred and seven.
Born in the reign of Richard H.. earn
| lived in the reigns of twelve kings and
queens. namely, Richard H.. Henry
w.. ". W.. Edward w., and w..
Richard ILL.,, Henry VII, and VIII.
Edward W., Mary. and Elizabeth
Even admitting that some sort Of error
has crept into Mr.. Carn's annals. can
lay my finger upon one other English
patriarch at least older than old Parr,-
Henry Jenkins. There can lie no rea-
sonable doubt as to this worthy's age.
seeing that incidents remembered by
him fix it. According to his own ac-
count. when about eleven or twelve
years old. he was sent to Northallerton.
in the North Riding, with horse load
of arrows, to be used in the battle of
Flodden Field, September 8. 1913.
From NorthallertOn. he states they were
sent on to the field of battle bv a big
ger boy. all the men being employed il,
getting in the harvest Once, jenkins
was subp9naed as witness on a trial at
the Yorkshire assizes to proye a con-
tested right of way, when he swore to
near one hundred and fifty years mem
Ory. The judge cautioned him to be-
ware what he swore, because there
were two men in the court, each above
eighty, who had both sworn they knew
Of no such right of way. Those
men," replied Jenkins, "are boys to
me-" Upon which the judge asked
those men how old they took jenkins
to be. They answered that they knew
him very we'll, but not his age, for that
he was a very old man when they we're
boys.
Several other occasions are recorded
when jenkins mentioned particulars
that would fix his age within narrow
limits, hence theeo ooomo 70 voaoon q