Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-07-04
BILL NYE
HAS SOME THOUGHTSON METHUsELAH AND
THE GRAND OLD NAN.
Standing OF Old Time for Ten Csnturies-Why
He Never Enlisted Constantly DiSap-
pointing Undertakes, He Had
to Go at Last.
Boston Gl5S

have Just been reading JaineS ~.
comb Riley's response TO the Ola MAN
at the annual dinner of the indianapolis
Literary Club, and his reference to Methu-
selsh has awakened in my mind many recoi-
Lotions and "reminiscences of that grand
old man. We first meet Methuseiah III the
capacity of son. At the ageof siXty-hVe'
Enoch arose one night and telephoned his
phvsician to come over and assist INN IN
meeting Methuselah. Day at last dawneo
on Enoch's happy home, and It's first req
RAYS lit up the still redder surface oil the
little stranger. For three hundred years
Enoch and Methuselah logged along to-
gether in the capacity of father and son,
Then Enoch WAS suddenly cut down. 1t
was at this time that little Methuselah
first realized what it was TO be an orphan.
He could not at first realize that his father
WAS dead. He could not understand why
Enoch, with no inherited disease, should
be shuffied out atj the age of three hundred
and sixty-fve years. But the d""tor sald
to Methuselah, MY 50, You are mdeed
fatherless. / have done AL could, but 1t
is useless. | had told EnOch many time
that if he went in swimming before the Ice
WAS out of the creek, it would finally down
him. but he thought he knew better than
did. He was a headstrong man, En0ch
was. He sneered at me and alluded to me
as a fresh young gssling, because he was
200 wears older than was. He has received
of the wilful, and verify the doom Of the
smart Aleck is his
Methuselah now cast about him for some
OCCUPATION which would take up his atten-
ton and asSuage his wild passionate grief
over the loss of his father. lie entered
into the walks of men and learned tie
ways. 1t was ut this time that he learned
the pernicious habit of using tobacco. We
cannot wonder at him when We remember
that he was now lathcrlesS. He WAS ut the
mercy of the coarse, rough world. Posi-
bly, he learned to use tobacco when he went
away to attend business college after the
death of his father. BE that ~ it may, the
noxious weed certainly FASTENED his death,
for COO years after this we find him n
corpse.!
Death is ever n surprise, even at the end
of long illness and after a ripe old age. To
those who are near, it seems abrupt; 80 to
his his grandchildren, some Of whom sur
vived HIM, his children having died of old
age, the death of Methuselah came like
thunderbolt from clear sky.
Mcthuselah succeeded i'll cOrding up
more of Il record such as it was, than any
other man of whom history informs us.
Time, the tomb buldera and amateur-mOwer
came and leaned over the front yard and
looked at Methuselah, and ran his thumb
over the Jagged edge Of his scythc, and
went away whistling low refrain.
HE KEPT Up THIS REFRAIN BUSINESS
Tor nearly ten centuries, while Methurlah
continued to stand out amid the general
wreck of men and nations.
Even rs the young, strong mower going
forth with his mower for 10 NOW swareth
the tall and dignilied drab hornets nest
and paSseth by on the outer side, 50 Time,
with, his Waterbury hOur-glass and his
oyerw0rked hay knife over his shoulder,
and his long Mormon whiskcrs and his
high sleek dome Of thought, with its gay
lambrequin of hair around the base Of il,
moved all around Mcthuselah and then
passed on.
Methuselah decorated the graves of those
who persisted in dozen different wars.
He did not enlist himself, for over 900
years of his life he was exempt. He would
go TO the enlistimg place and offer his
services, and the officer would tell him To
30 home and encourage his grandchildren
To 20. Then Mcthusclah would sit around
Noah's front steps, and smoke and criticisc
the conduct of tho war, also the conduct
of the enemy.
1t is said of Methusclah that he never
was the same man after his son Lamech
died. lie was greatly attached to Lamech,
and when he woke up one night To find his
son purple in the face with membrancous
Group, he could hardly realize that he
might lose him. The idea Of losing boy
who had Just rounded the glorious morn
of his nth year, had never acquired to
him. But death loses a shining mark, and
garnered little Lammie and left Methusclah
to moan and mourn on for couple more
centuries without him.
Metluselah finally got so that he
couldn't sleep any after o'clock i'll the
morning, and he didn't see how any one
else could. The older he got, and the less
valuable his time became, the earlier he
would rise, so that he could get IN early
start. As the centuries filed slowly by,
and Mcthuselah got where all lac had to do
WAS to shuttle into his loOse-Gtting clothes
and rest his gums on the top of a large
Slcek-hcaded cane and muttcr up the
chimney, and then grOIn and cxtricate
himself from his clothes again and retire
He rose earlier and earlier in the morning
and muttered more and more about the
young folks sleeping away the best of the
day, and said he had no doubt but that
sleeping and snoring till breakfast time
helped to carry off Lam. But orc day
OLD FATHER TIME CAME ALONG
with new scythe, and no drew the whct-
stone across it few times, and rolled the
sleeves of his red flannel undergarlnet up
over his warty elbows, and Mr.. Mcthuselah
passed on to that undiscovered country
with ripe experience and long, clean
record &C.
We can almost fancy how the physicians,
who had disagreed about his case all the
way through, came and insisted on post
norton examination to prove which was
right and what was really the matter with
him. We can imagine how people went By
shaking their heads and reqetting that
Methuselah should have tempered with
tobacco when hc knew that it affected his
heart.
But he is gone. He lived to see his own
promissory notes rise, flourish, acquire in
terest, pine away at last, and finally out I
law. He acquired large farm in the very
heart of the county seat, and refused to |
move or plot it and call it Methuselah's /
addition. He came out in the spring regu- !
larly for 900 years after he got too old TO /
work out his poll tax on the road, and put /
in his time telling the rising generation 1
how to make good road. Meantime other /
old people, who were almost loo years of.
age, moved away and went We, where
they would attract attention and command /
respect. There was actually no pleasure |