The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1871-04-12
Captain Lahrbusll.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH B1RTY-
DAY OF A WONDERFUL OLD MAN,

DAY OF A WONDERFUL OLD MAN.
A writer in Blackwood's Magazine
| some years ago wasted good deal o,
! ingenuity and research to prove that
there was no authenticated instance OF
any one having ever passed the age o,
one hundred years. He laid especia]
stress upon the fact that the reportcd
cases We're usually among a class of
people who had no data in regard ia
their earl y years, and with this arcu-
ment and general charge of impos-
tnre ia other instances, he dismissed
the subject. But we have seen of late
several unqucstionable cases of long
evity surprising century of years.
The recent death of Deacon John Phil
lips, who, when one hundred and four.
walked to the polls in Massachusetts
to vote for Lincoln, will be remember
ed and on Thursday, General Watts
De Peyster entertained at breakfast n
party of friends who were gathered to
celebrate the one hundred and fifth
day of Captain Lahrbush.
1t is probable that no man who ever
lived has held in his memory so vast a
sweep OF history as this venerable sol
der. 1t is little to say that his life
embraces all our past, for he was born
ten years before 0ur revolt eliminated
III the Declaration of Independence
IN the year of his birth the partition of
Poland consolidated the Kingdom of
Prussia, and completed the creative
work of the Fredericks. He was forty
years of age when before his eyes, on
the battlefield of Jena, the great EN-
pcror destroyed the m Military power of
the Kingdom and reduced to notsiia.
tue army organization which had ex-
cited for Years the ignorant admiration
of Europe. He saw the dramatic meet
ing of Napoleon and Alexander on the
raft at Tilsit, where the Empernrs
made peace i'll the ready fashion of
those times: and few years later he
formed portion Of the guard that kent
watch in st. Helena over the dis
crowned and exiled conqueror of the
world.
In the vast scope of his memory the
changes of realms and dynasties must
appear like the dissolving views of Il
magic lantern. Belgium and Italy
have arisen into being since he grew
old. He has seen new dyDasties enter
and possess the thrones of Sweden,
Denmark, Portugal and Spain. In
France the inglorious reign of Louis
XIV, The troubled life of Louis XVI.
paying the penalty of ancestral crimes,
the immense and renovating convul-
sion of the Revolution, the lurid glo-
ries of the Consulate and the Empire,
the restoration of the unteactable and
unfnrgettlng Bourbons, their expul-
sion, and the reign of Orleans, new
Republic, born in the streets and
throttled anew by Bonaparte, and
after scare of years third avatar of
Liberty, whose results the world is
hreatlilessly awaiting have passed in
bewildering succession under his OBJ
servant eyes. He may live to see more
and greater changes yet.
But the developments he has wit
messed on this side of the ocean surpass
the widest dreams of Eastern fancy
The years pass swiftly to the aged,
and who can tell the amazing and diz-
Tying speed which our progress must
have worn to his tranquil visionq To
him the metaphors of onr daily speech
must seem somewhat like reality
The emigration that has poured into
the wilderness must appear to him like
an enormous living wave, and our new
cities and States must have seemed to
have sprung up over night, like the
ground of the prophet. He witnessed
our great war with wholesome cheeri-
ness, never for an instant doubling the
result. 1t would be hard to convince
man who had known the country in
crease tenfUid in his life-tim that it
was to fall to pieces at the first serious
blow.
1t is hard thing to kill nation or
man that possesses any vitality. We
have stood some hammering, and are
able to stand still more; and all the
malice of fate and circumstance has
had no effect npon Captain Lahrbnsh
except to improve his health and cheer
fuiness. As General DE Peystrr said,
he had been left for dead on the bat
tle-fe!d. cast up as dead by the ocean,
smitten down for dead by the pesti-
leHce, pierced for q century by the
fshafts of time, and yet his tough fiber
does not seem to be shaken. He drinks
enough laudanum every day to relieve
us of our Common Council, if it were
properly administered, but it no more
damages his frame of iron than SC
much wine of Bordeaux. He pledged
his friends to another breakfast in
1881, and every one seemed to think
that among the doubtful ones at that
festival, it was not prudent to count
the indestructible Captain. Serus IN
cGlam redeat.-[New York Tribune.
70 The Chicago Times has the fol
lowing concerning the proposed monu-
ment to the late Stephen c. Foster:
A correspondent of Every Saturday