The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-04
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The Worlds Grand Old Men.

Worlds Grand Old Men.
Mr. Glaostone's splendid mental and phys
lcal powers serve to recall other celebrated
INSTANCES IN modern times where remarkable
vitality preserved life far beyond the ordl-
nary span. thus Titan, who spent all his
HE apouI court, painted fine picture at
the age Oh nInety-siX. At ninety-nine he
| stlll retained his energy for work and I'M
de1tooK large picture for the Franciscans.
unfortunately, he died Of the plague in his
hundreoth year. or there is no knowing
what ne might not still have achieved.
Mlchael Angelo too, the distinguished sculp-
tor OF the modern world, was working away
most theoretically in his eighty e1ghth year.
But truly surprising example of physical
strength In green old age was witnessed in
he case OF Enrico Dandoo, the famous Doge
OF Venice. This most illustrious member of
family which gave four Doges to the re-
| public, was born in ITO or 1ll2. After lead
ing a most active life, and raising Venice to
| condition of great power'and magnificence,
the subdued Constantinople in 1908, being
| then upward of ninety years of age. He led
| his troops to the assault with irresistible
force and v1gor, and lived for five years
after this extraordinary feat. which is prob
| ably unparalleled in the worlds history.
Creb1llon, the French dramatist, wrote his
lie Triumvirat'' at the age of eighty-one,
| and did not die till seven years after that.
| At the age of eighty three, Voltaire super
| intended the arrangements for the perform
| ance of his last tragedy, ''lrene," Frances
Burney, Madame d'Arblay, was writing
away brlskly at the memoirs of her father
in her eightieth year. and she survived for
| eight years after that. Benjamin Franklin,
| the great American patriot, was in Office as
president of the state of Pennsylvan1a at
the age of eighty-two. He was an old man
when the Declaration of Independence was
| signed, and he made capital joke on that
occasion. Some one having said to him,
''You know, Franklin, we must all hang
| together in this NATTER" he instantaneous
ly replied. ''Yes, or we shall assuredly all
| hang separately
| Coming to our county, we find many ex-
| traordinary examples of longevity combined
with the continuous exercise of the intel
lectual faculties. Herrick lived to be eighty
| three; old Isaak Walton wrote his beautiful
Lives of Donne.'' ''Wotton,' etc., at
green old age, and died himself in 1858 at
the age of ninety; and John Evelyn, of
DIARY fame, lived to be eighty-six. Sir
Isaac Newton rendered active service to
| the Royal Society as its president when he
was eighty three. Charles Macklin, the
dramatist and actor, author of THE Man of
| the World,' lived to the patriarchal age of
one hundred and seven. Colley Cibber,
another well-known dramatist, and some
time poet laureate, lived to be eighty-six;
and two of the late poet laureates, Words
worth and Tennyson. were octogenarians.
Joanna Baillie, still another drama
~ civ han
and lived to her eighty-ninth year.
| But if we wish to see what the intellectual
faculties are capable of in the supposed
''sere and yellow leaf" we need only turn
to the works of that master of fine, nervous
English, Walter Savage Lander. Five
scenes, or dialogues, being the last "Imagi-
nary Conversations" written by the poet,
were produced between his ty-eighth
and eighty-ninth year; and one or two, at
least. are worthy of their predecessors. Ex-
ceptional, indeed, and very wonderful was
| the lot of Lander, who carried the weight
of ninety years with little loss of intellect
tual power, and that after much self
achieved greatness and self-indicted misery,
The patriarchal poet so weakened himself
| by abstaining from food that death probably
came at last earlier than it need have done.
| The celebrated Lord Lyndhurst, who as
| thrice lord chancellor of England, was
| threatened with blindness after he became
| an octogenarian. Like Mr.. Gladstone, he
| successfully underwent an operation for
| cataract, only in this case the courageous
| old man was ninety years of age, and he
| spoke in the House of Lords afterwards
| M. Jules Simon, the eminent living French
| statesman, is another octogenarian who is
| about to undergo an operation for cataract.
| The great and versatile Lord Brougham
| entered into debate long after he was
| eighty, and wrote more than one work
after he was eighty-three. The present
| writer conversed with him when he was
| eighty eight, and he then seemed to have
| at his fingers ends a knowledge of public
events at home and abroad. Victor Hugo,
| the illustrious, was in literary harness to
| the last; John Barnett, the composer, was
| vigorous till eighty-seven and George Ban
croft, the historian, took horse exercise at
| ninety.
The world has still some living examples
of marvellous vitality. Gen. Neal Dow has
just celebrated his ninetieth birthday.
Another eminent American, DR.. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes was born in the same year as
Mr.. Gladstone. and is proud of the fact. In
England we have the truly surprising case
| of Georg Miller, the founder of the Orphan
Homes at Bristol He is now in his eighty
| ninth year, hale and hearty, and since he
was eighty he has twice gone as far as the
Antipodes. Earl Grey is still sleepless po-
litical critic at the promising age of ninety
one, while Mr.. G. P. Villiers, the great free
trader and the Father of the House of
Commons" is still able to attend in Parlia-
| ment at the age of ninety-two.
Archdeacon Denison, Mr.. Gladstone's old
antagonist, is still hale and vigorous in his
eighty-ninth year; and we may recall an
interesting fact connected with the late
Sir Harry Verney, that at ninety years of
age he ran a race with number of men all
upwards OF seventy years of age, and came
off victor.-( Westminster Gazette.
The Fastest Train.
Nondon Daily Telegraph.)