Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-08-29
TRIUMPHS OF OLD AGE.
what the OctOgenarians, De Lesseps ana
Ericsson Have Accomplished.


Ericsson Have Accomplished.
Two notable examples are now be-
fore the public, of men whose sinews
have waxed not old, whose eyes are
not dimmed and whose natural force
is not abated by the eighty years
which they have lived in the world.
One is DeLesseps, the famous canal
builder, whose mental force, physical
strength and moral audacity, might
well be the envy of men half his years,
Just emerging from his conflict with
the English commander and the khe-
dive during the Egyptian war, when
alone he defended the neutrality Of the
Suez canal, he has entered into "A con-
tract with the English government to
build another without yielding SIN
gle claim or demand which he made
when the khedive threatened him with
English vengeance, nor, regardless OF
international consequences, taking a
backward step. In the meanwhile he
is pushing forward the Panama canal
project, which is to the Suez canal
what an Alpine tunnel is to a country
ditch, obtaining money, ignoring pro-
tests and objections, and bringing to
its support an indomitable will and a
self assertion, possessed only by the
master.minds of war and statesman
ship, Although eighty-one years OF
age he is the husband of a compare
lively young wife and the father OF
eleven children, the youngest of whom
is only a few weeks old. His public
projects are asfar reaching as if he
were but fifty; his physical vigor
equal to his mental force. The COM
bination at such an age is very rare.
Another instance is the inventor
Ericsson, of the same age as DE Les
seps, and in all but his years a young
man yet. 1t is more than twenty
years since his invention, the Monl-
tor, arrived in Hampton Roads just in
time to prevent the United States
forces from being driven from the Nlr-
ginia peninsula. Since that time, ma
val warfare has been revOlutionlzed
again. The low, creeping iron'clad IS
a thing of the past, unless against an
immense armament and the steel-coN-
cred fleets of the modern navy. TO
meet this formidable enemy Ericsson
has dived beneath the water, and This
torpedo boat, the Destroyer, is expect
to be 1.-The cheap defense of nations
against the monsters which all first
class governments row own to keep
one another in order. His solar en-
CINE destined to store up and use the
suns rays in tropic latitudes for the
purposes of irrigation, is still on his
hands; but of its success little doubt
is expressed. At any rate, his fore
score years seem to find him as hope
full, active, vigorous and industrious
as at any period of his life.
Such lives are exceptional, but not
solitary instances. Dandolo, DOge of
Venice, won some of his greatest ma
val victories at eighty, and stormed
and captured Constantinople at the
age of ninety; benjamin Franklin
was as bright, inventive and active
in his seventy-6fth year as in his fifth
eth; Goethe was nearly eighty when
he wrote the second part of "Faust;"
both Bacon and Newton were far ad-
vanced in years when they made some
of their most notable discoveries. But
these are marvels in human history,
and well entitled to provoke attention
and curiosity. If a man survives his
sixtieth year, he is generally well con-
tent, even if active and strong, to live
upon his past fame and achievements
rather than to undertake new enter
prises or plan new projects,