The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-02-04
.GREEN OLD AGE."
For TEE DIsPATcH:l

Both by sacred promise and pr0fane
precept long life has been regarded as
blessing, while to live forever has
been the dream of every mortal from
Abraham to Pence de Leon, and from
the time of DR.. Dee's researches TO
those Of DR.. Higginbotham's expert
ment. Some sickly rhymster has
family lisped something about Il
would not live always" but it is the
sturdy, strongly marked wish OF most
people to live long. The eminent
legislator who drew up the Ten Com
maudments. for the guidance of the
children OF Israel knew very well what
he Was about when he held out the
promise OF long life to the fiiially
obedient. 1t was the solitary promise
of the Decalogae. and Was inserted be-
cause it was recognized as the great
link that would keep the children in
the faith of their fathers.
: All that a man hath will he give in
exchange for his life" and well he
might, when it is the only tangible
rock to which he can cling in the
illimitable. ocean of speculation. 1t
may indeed be set down as an axiom
that the desire 10 live and to live long
is natural and sane, and that the de-
sire to cut life short is insane and uR-
natural. Longevity has been sought
for with persistence only equalled by
that displayed on the part of those
curious gentlemen who have been
anxious to deal in the transmutatiOn
of metals, but the elixir OF life has
eludtd the students as thoroughly as
the philosopher stone has slipped
from the hands Of the alChemists-
This is not TO be wondered AT, be-
cause the elixir maniacs have wished
TO resnpply that which is lost, to make
the old neW-but it is rather SurpriS
ing that with all our intimate ac
tqaaintanee with our physiological
selves we have discovered no formul II
that viii unfailiRgly arrest decay and
SO lehgtlieu out the'span of our lives
An ocean of ink she'd has been Gt-
voted TO the proper presentation OF
the art or prolonging life, wonderful
discoveries have been reported, mar
Vicious nostrumS have been discovered,
extraordinary regimenS have been
tabulated, but all without avail-We
cannot depend upon fixed rules TO pro-
duce iongetive any more than we can
account for the vagarieS of feminine
taste We know that there are certain
things which exert powerful influence
apon our lives and the length of their
course. Of such as these are temper
ance, pure air, regular exercise and
an easy mind, Self-deuial and V3rtue-
proper attention in fact to whatever
has to do with the inner chemistries of
nature and the laws of organized
bodies. Bnt these things are no in
fallible. Thomas Parr lived to I52,
WAS anything but temperate mah
during his life, and died FROM the
effects Of q drinking bout, so the
avoidance of liquor is not always the
cause of longetiye. That old Venetian
Louis COrnarO, who lived to he 100,
was habitually guilty of irregular eX-
cesses; Henry Jeukyns of Yorkshire,
lived to be 1863, yet depended ON char
ity for , living, which he solicited in
all sorts of weather. Albuma Marc
| reached $50 in the sultry interior of
Ethiopia; and Christian Drakenberg
reached to within four years of that
| time OH the sterile lAountainb Of Nor
way. Ii is said that Hippocrates
lived TO be l04 in the delicious Isle of
Cos, but it is also on record that Jane
Reese lived 10 be l03 among the
marshes OF Essex.
1t would seem from this that long
evity is not question of climate any
more than it is of S0briety. 1t is true
that some climates are distinguished
| for 3p inSalubrity that shortenS human
life while other climates have a ten
dency to lengthen it. 1t is quite pos
Bible, for instance, that there are no
! centenarians to speak of on the coast
of Sierra Leone, and it rs said on the
other hand that in the interior of Nor
way, the air is so pure that the in
habitants live until they are actually
tired of living. The coast of Devon
shire, the sweet wales of Utah. and
the whole of California are certainly
far more congenial to the human frame
| than the swamps of Missolonghi, OF
the poison-sTept deserts of Syria; but,
IS We have seen, extraordinary cases
of longevity have occurred ih the most
iHauspicious places, dramatically speak
ing. ANY table of Gul iOsities In vitSi
statistics will show this. Abraham
| Paiba lived until be- was 142 in South
Carolina. James Sand WAS 4 native
of the pottery districts of Staffordshire
| and lived to be 40, his wife dying only
twenty years his junior. Francis Bons
and Alexis Goldschmidt wers both
Frenchmen. and died aged respectively
l2l and AZ years. Margaret Potter
was Scotch woman and lived TO be
132; Richard Dyed WAS u Welshman,
and emily quilted his native hills for
kingdom come when he Was 1873 years
of age. James Hayley was brought up
| Ia ,ho I. 10, cI,s, IN,
at the ripe age of liz. while Agnes
MilbUre attained the maturity Of lie
amid the smske and fOgs Of London. 1t
certainly does not look as if climate
was the essential.
| Many of these people, most Of them
indeed, were in poor circumstances,
one or two of them being paupers,
Yet it eannoS be needinesS that is the
requisite, for the Countess Desmond
attained the age of $40, and the last
Marquis OF WINCHESTER was I06 whsu
he made way for the next Of kin.
1t might be supposed that the Ions
liveIS themselves we're able to impart
the secret Of their enduring strength
yet such is not the case aBd for every
score of old men whose opinion were
ssked there would 10 - score az re-
cipeS. One would attribute it 30 be
ing much IN tho open air; another t.
An sxtreme SssGIlsGity in diet; another
10 moderate but,regniar proportions O
. wine on ethar sttInuants; another i
his drinking nothing hut water, and Sc
ON through the whole gaInu! sf theory
There are some people who believe il
following certain precerts, such nj
those thai inculcats the keeping OF th'