The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-08-29

We copied recently a sketch Of Fortune
Snow, q colored man near Louisville, Ky,
who is said to be one hundred and twenty
four years old, and was styled 1.-THE oldest
man in America The Sterling (Ky.)
Sentinel now prints the following account
of another colored man in that state, who
may with safety be called the Oldest man
in the world, Perhaps the end is not yet !:
9Sam Bowics, who lives near the foot of
that wonder Of nature, Carrington's Rock,
one Of the attractions Of that charming re-
sort of summer, the Olympian Springs, in
Bath county, is the Oldest darkey in the
country. Sam is so old that the clock in
his rude cabin long ago 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 towards the dying hour Of the
late Mr.. Methusalel, who was said to have
been no spring chicken when he handed in
his checks. Sam claims to have been the
cook on the vesselthat brought Christopher
Columbus over He doesn't know his ex-
act age at the time, but thinks he was
upwards 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. lie
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 Augustine. Florida, and
which, still stands as a proof of the cor-
rectness fof the old darkey's memory.
His blindness was brought about by his
being stung in the eye by mosquito or
an alligator or 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,
has been compelled to subsst by smelling
his victuals.
"Taken altogether, old Sam Bowles is
curiosity, and we have no doubt of the
truth of his story, for he proved it to us
on the spot. why, MESA, said he. do
you see dat dornck out dar2' meaning Car
ringtons rock. We assured him that we
saw it very plainly. 'Well,' said he 1
planted dat dornick when it was no bigger
than warnit (walnuD de day fust sell
tied heah, an you may know dats been
no little WHILE We believed him, and
came to the conclusion that he IS really
older than he claimed to be, for, though
no geologist, and never having tended a
crop Of rocks, we are satisfied that
1T took substantial old CARING
ton several thousand years to
reach his present imposing proportions.
When we suggested that it was that an
Gent mariner, Admiral Noah, for whom he
cooked, he emphatically insisted that it was
Columbus, whom. he maintains, was a
better sailor in minute than Noah was in
three years voyage. Not being posted
in nautical matters, we gave in to the old
darkey's superior knowledge of things per-
tanning 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 to
his cabin regularly every week for about a
hundred years.