Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-09-18

We copied recently sketch of For
tune Snow, a colored man near Louis
vile, Ky., who is said to be one hun
bred and twenty-four years old, and was
STYLED the Oldest man in America. 7"
The Sterling (Ky.) Sentinel now prints
the following account of another colored
man of that State, who may with safety
be called the oldest man in the world.
Perhaps the end is not yet
"Sam Bowles, who lives near the foot
of that wonder of nature, Carrington's
rock, one OF the attractions of that
charming resort of summer, the Olym-
plan Springs, in Bath county, is the old
est darkey in the country. Sam IS so
old that the clock in his rude cabin long
ceased ticking off the hours, old Father
Time having given up in disgust the job
of numbering the hours, days, weeks,
months and years that stretch out that
old nigger's life a long ways back tow
ard the dying hour of the late Mr..
Methuselah, who was said to have been
no spring chicken when he handed in
his checks. Sam claims to have been
the cook on, the vessel that brought
Christopher Columbus over. He doesn't
know his exact age at the time, but
thinks he was upward of forty. He was
born in Africa, and was presented to
Queen Isabella by a Moorish prince who
courted her favor.
He is one of the most remarkable
specimens of humanity in existence.
He doesn't remember how long he has
been blind, but distinctly recollects that
the last sight his eyes ever looked upon
was that great warrior, Ponce de Leon,
kissing an Indian princess behind an
angle of the stone fort that eminent
military General erected at San Au-
gustine, Fla, and which still stands as
a proof of the correctness of the old
darkey's memory. His blindness was
brought about by his being stung in
the eye by mosquito or an alligator or
a buffalo, he doesn't know which, as he
was asleep. He lost his last tooth one
hundred and fifty years ago, and owing
to chronic rheumatism in the gums, he
has been compelled to subsist by smell
ing his victuals.
"Taken altogether, old Sam Bowles is
a curiosity, and we have no doubt of the
truth of his story, for he proved it to US
on the spot. Why, massa,' said he,
do you see dat dornick out dar !?
meaning Carrington's rock. We assured
him that we saw it very plainly. Well,
said he, 1 planted dat dornick when it
was no bigger than a warnit (walnut)
de day first settled heah, an you may
know OATS been no little while We
believed him, and came to the conclu-
sion that he is really older than he
claimed to be, for, though no geologist,
and never having tended crop of rocks,
we are satisfied that it took substantial
old Darlington several thousand years
to reach his present imposing proper
tiOns. When We suggested that it was
that ancient mariner, Admiral Noah, for
whom he cooked, he emphatically in
sisted that it was Columbus, whom, he
maintains, was better sailor in a min
ute than Noah was in three years voy-
age. Not being posted in nautical mat
tiers, we gave in to the old darkey's SUI
perior knowledge of things pertaining
to the sea. He thinks his life has been
prolonged by drinking the Olympian
waters, the only beverage he uses, a
barrel of which Mr. Gill has had hauled
over 20 his cabin regularly every
week for about hundred years."