The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-10-12
INCREASING LONGEVITY.
Americans in Particular Live Much
Longer Than in Past Ages.
Remarkable Instances of Extreme Old
Age-Intellectual Activity Is No
Bar to Long Life and
Good Health.

A writer in the Washington Post
calls attention to the many instances
of remarka bic longevity which from
year to year have been reported. Pass
ing by the hundreds of years asserted
to have been lived by the antediluvian
heroes of Hebrew tradition, the appar-
ent numbers in which may mean some
thing entirely different from what
they would mean in our decimal scale
of enumeration, and down through the
Greek and subsequent ages, whose
method of counting we do not under
stand, we find continuous record of
persons arriving at an advanced old
age. These, from one point of view.
constitute very small minority, and
vet, from another. form a considera BILE
and important element.
The number of deceased persons who
had attained an exceptional old age
was probably greater in the year 1893
than in any recent period. During the
last three or four months of the year
the general public became familiar
through a perusal of the daily papers
with the remarkable obituaries of
those who had departed. having lived
to great old age. A month or SO
since we read of life that had reached
the extraordinary limit Of one hundred
and thirty-fve years. We have since
read of the death of a woman at Hart
ford Conn, who was old enough to
give warning of the approach Of the
British fleet in 1872, and SO saved the
New England coast from threatened
devastation. And still later we have
been ;Dprised of the death at Terre
Haute. Ind, of a man 104 years old,
who attended the funeral of Washing
ton. cast his first vote for Madison and
was q soldier in the war Of 1912. From
other data it is apparent that great
longevity has been on the increase for
many years, particularly in America.
But it may be remarked that the
constitutions that carried these per-
sons up to the centennial mark or be-
ycnd were formed very many years be-
fore Americans began living at the
present rate. and that the best part of
most OF those old lives was passed be-
fore the modern suicidal rush of the So
ciety and business worlds. 70 have q,
good chance for longevity it is almost
unnecessary to say that an originally
good constitution is of the first i'm
portancc, though to this primary OK
cellence carcfulness in the art Of living
must be added. The secret of long life
is one Of which nature alone holds pos
session. \ remarkable fact is that in
tcllcctual activity and success have
been no barriers to long life. Even
deep philo5 optical studies have proved
q help rather than q hintrance to men
of literary pursuits. Voltaire. who at
birth was put into quart pot, could
never have attained his eighty-fourth
year had he not followed the strict,
sober. active life which he chose. Glad
stone exercises the highest powers of
successful craftsmanship at an age of
eighty-four years, after having under
gone the constant turmoil of political
contest for considerably moro than
half a century. Bismark is practically
an octogenarian. Won Moltke was
nearing ninety when he died. 1t seems
| that the review OF these and numerous
other instances would sufficiently es-
tablish the theory that continuous in
tellectual activity is conducive to the
| perpetuation Of good health and the
prOlOngation Of life.