The morning call., 1891-10-23
A FATAL YEAR.

Two months and a half of this year still
remain to elapse, and yet it is already ap-
parent that tie mortality Of 1891, among the
great ones of the earth, is going 10 prove
heavier than that of any recent year. The
scylhe of death has been extraordinarily
active.
Two monarehs-King Kalakaua of the
Hawaiian Islands, and King Karl of Nurtem-
berg-and two other rulers of nations,
Abdurrahman Khan, Ameer of AfghanistaD,
and Balmaceda, President OF Chile, departed
this life in 1891. The ike fate befell the
following, among other statesmen: Baron
HaussmaD, William Window, Senator VIII
son of Maryland, John T. Swift, Governor
Robinson Of New York, Sir John MacdOn-
aid of Canada, Hannibal Hamlin, William
Henry Smith and Charles Stewart ParnelL
Among soldiers whose lives ended this year
may be counted General Sherman, Marshal
Won Moltke, General Boulanger, General
10 Johnston and Admiral Porter, who was
soldier as well as sailor. Among men OF
letters who have fallen since new year may
be enumerated knglake the historian,
George Bancroft, Robert Browning, Benson
J. Losing and James Russell Lowell
The churches have lost Archbishop Magee,
the primate Of England, Rev. Howard
Crosby, DR.. Van Dyke Of Brooklyn, and
several others of scarcely less note. Art
has suffered by the deaths of Meissonier
Emma Abbott and Lawrence Barrett, aud
finally among people VINO were generally
known may be mentioned Leonard Jerome,
p. 7. BaTnum, Nine. BlavatSky, Charles
Bradlough and George Jones of the Times.
OF all these, most had reached the full term
of life, and none were cut off in their
youth.
The actual number Of deaths in 1890 did
not probably fall short of the list Of 1891,
but there were fewer notabilities among
them. The only monarch Who died in that
year was William III Of the Netherlands;
but one great soldier, Lord Napier Of Mag
dala, appears in the list; the Marquis Tseng
of China is the only statesman of world
wide fame; Schieman was loss 10 arch
eology. but the Empress Augusta and
the Duke de Montpensier were hardly
missed. French literature suffered by
the loss of Adolphe Belot, Alexandra
Chatrian, Octave Feuilet and Alphonse
Karr. But the reaper was, on the whole,
more merciful in that year than he has been
this year.
Notwithstanding his ravages there still
remain with US a good many prominent men
who have crossed the age which used to be
regarded as the normal limit of life. Among
the survivors of the War of the Rebellion
are General Banks, who is Is, and Generals
Butler and Beauregard, who are each 70,
while among those who took an active part
in that struggle outside of the army are
John Sherman. who is 20, and George S.
Boutwell,. who is 70. In Europe power and
place have always been conducive TO Ion
gevity. Gladstone is 80, Queen Victoria r.
Bismarck il 76 KOssuth-whO is living in
obscure poverty-is 50. Other celebrities, on
whom old age has fallen lightly, are Whit
tier, who is SO; Tennyson, who is 81; Verdi,
who is composing new opera at n;
Holmes, who is 81, and Judge Field, who is
deciding cases with his usual clearness, at 70.
1t has long been known to actuaries of
insurance companies that the term Of hu-
man life Is gradually increasing in length.
The march OF medical science has baffled
many diseases which used to be mortal,
and among well-to-do people the develop
ment Of transportation has prolonged life by
facilitating change of air-the best of all med
icines. People who would have died at 90 in
the last century now reach the age of so by
carefully changing the air they breathe,
uuueT the ADVICE OF physicians. NOT mas
the progress of sanitary science been less
beneficial to the poorer class. Systems of
drainage, planned on scientific principles
reduce the mortality of cities, and avert NAL
aides which used to deeimate whole neigh
borhoods, Free dispensaries, which now
exist in all great cities, likewise bring the
latest discoveries in medical science within
the reach OF the poorest; and boards Of
health forbid the ignorant to indulge in
those suicidal habits which used to establish
cradles of disease. The human frame is SO
constituted that after a certain age each
organ becomes less fitted to perform its
functions, and at last the whole machinery
becomes involved and refuses to work But
there is no question, all other things being
equal, that this period may be deferred, on
the average, considerably beyond the span
allowed in Ecelesiastes. A centenarian is
an abnormal phenomenon; but there is no
reason why, in the twentieth century, per-
sons of sound frame and correct habits may
not look forward to reaching their eghtieth
year.