Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-10-09
London Telegraph


At last the oldest inhabitant has turn
ed up. There is no doubt about the
fairness of his claim to this title, and no
chance that a rival will soon appear, fo1
this venerable PERSONS age exceeds by
half a century even that of old Parr, who
is perfectly well known to have beaten
every other patriarch since the antedi-
luVlan days. 1t is, perhaps, Q drawback
that the neWly-discnvered centenar1an or
rather quO-centenarlan is an Am erican.
One is inclined to grudge that pushing
and somewhat " stuckup'' continent the
possession of all the biggest, oldest, and
oldest, as well as newest things. But
there is no help for it in this case. We
must bow to antiquity in the person of
the very old fellow who has been de-
scrlbed by the correspondent of Ger
man paper. He resides in the Repub-
lie Of Columbia-a state whose chief
products seem to be tobacco, straw hats,
monks; volcanoes, and earthquakes
chiefly the last,-and he is a halfcaste,
Miguel Soils by name. At a recent con-
ference of physicians in Bogota, DR..
Luis Hermandes told how he had inter
viewed the patriarch. Soils, it appears, is
modest enough to claim an age of no
more than $50 years, but his neigh bors.
all Of whom, of course, have known
him from infancy, repudiate thenotion
that he is such q youngster, and loudly
assert that he has oyerpassed his second
century. The evidence on, this point, 1t
must in candorbe> admitted, is not quite
conclusive. The Oldest inhab itants told
DIR. Hermandes that when they were
boys Soils had the reputation of being
more than century old, and confrma-
ton of this is said to be afforded by the
fact that signature which Soils recog-
nlzes as his own appears among the
list of contributors to the cost of erect
ing the convent Of San Sebastian in 1712,
when he was sprightly infant of so or
Whereabouts. But, unfortunately, Us no
witness of this interesting signature can
be found in the natural course of things,
the attestation turns upon Old Soils
good faith or his memory, and, without
being uncharitable, we may fear that
one or the other may be defective. For
the rest, the aged curiosity is interest
ing enough. DR.. Hermandes found him
in good health and at work in his gar
den Ellis skin resembled parchment,
and his long snow-white hair was wound
about his head in turban fashion. His
eyes cleaned so fxedlyy as to make
his visitor feel uncomfortable when
looking at him. He attributed the length |
of his life to regular and moderate diet.
He eats only one meal day, but that
consists Of strong and healthy food"
to which he devotes himself assiduous-
ly for more than half an hour at a I
stretch, having discovered that no man !
can eat more in half an hour than he |
can digest in twenty-four hours. But
this is not all, for he fasts two whole |
days every month, and then refreshes
himself by copious draughts of cold wa
ter which is probably more stimulating
diet in those regions than it is in Eu-
rope. Finally, he always lets his food
get cold before partaking Of it, and he
considers that this precaution has had
a great deal to Go with the prolongation
of his life. On the whole, however, one
would like to know more about this
Northumberland and weired-looking
hermit of the Columbian wilds before
crediting the statement that he came
into the world just as Cromwell was
leaving it, and that he was an octogena-
rian at the time of Culloden. The old
fellow may be a practical joker, and
may owe his highly-effective makeup"
to the monks of San Sebastian, who
would be sure to enter into the fun of
the thing. |