Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-03

Diligent Investigation has failed to FIND
any. foundation for the grounds on which
Yorkshire has thus delighted to honor Jen.
kins. He is his only witness. and the only
proof for the claim he set up is his own
word, which he contradicted when under
oath.
Although he did not claim to be so ole.
Ihomas Parr is more famous than jenkins.
al least out OF Yorkshire, and because of his
supposed great age he had the honor of be-
ing buried in Westminster Abbey. He pre-
tended to have been born in 1883. and he
lVed to 1875. That year his pretensions be
came n9lsed abroad, and he was brought up
10 London and presented to Charles | BIZ
Lord Arundel. To over-indulgence at the
festivities, to which he was Invited, his
death in November of that year is attribu-
tea. According to an account OF him by
Jchn Taylor, which was published while he
was in London, he was not married until
ne was so years old, when he became tho
father OF two children. After the death of
his wife he was married for the second
time at the age of 122. In 1888. at the age
OF 100, he is said to have done penance BY
standing In a sheet in Alderbury church.
shropshire, for having had an illegitimate
child by one Catharine Milton. His first
VIE did not die until he was 112. Taylor's
lie or Parr is apparently founded on whai
the old man told him. and there is really
nothing to prove that Parr was much over.
loo. The inscription, therefore,, in Westmip-
ster in which MS age is given as 1872 lies
hioie tHaH hOSl epltapnS.
The age claimed for the countess Of Deg.
mond, 140 years, has been dlsproyed THE
claim is founded on the supposftion that she
was married in the reign OF Edward ". If
has been discovered that she was net mar
ried until forty-fve years after Fdyard,e
death, SO that. when she was presented to
James | in 1914, she was considerably less
IMAM 100 years of age, unless she married
unusually late in life. As Edward " died
IN 1888, she must have married at an un-
nSllnllV nQrlV nun & rh-
the last year of his reign, for If she were
lao in 1914 she would then, of course, have
been 8. ~
New York used to have an alleged cente-
marian whose claims were, in the opinions
OF the unprejudiced, more than successfully
disputed by w. G. Thoms. an Englishman.
whose hobby was to try to prove that re-
puted centenarians were nearly all frauds
Ills prey In this instance was Captain Fred
erick Lahrbush, who died in 1877, ar the
age, If his own figures be taken, of In Can
tam Lahrbush, according to his own story.
was born In England in 1865. He entered
me BRUSH army in 1887, and, in the course
Vi MS career, served with Nelson at Copen-
watched Napoleon at st. Helena.
his alleged 10th birthday was celebrated
III TINS city IN 1870 with such pomp and cir
cuHlstance that several of the London papers
chrohicled MS career, as well as the pro-
ceedings, at length. Mr.. Thoms read those
reports and his hobby was aroused. He
transacted the army records, and discovered
that a Lieutenant de Lahrbushe entered the
BRUSH army in 1909, and was cashiered
about eight years later. As CAPTAIN Lahr-
push practically admitted his identity with
this cashiered lieutenant. even IL he served
as one of Napoleon's jaiIers, he could not
nave been with Nelson at Copenhagen, as his |
military career had not begun. when the bat
tie OF Copenhagen was fought.
While admitting his Identity with the
lieutenants in the controversy
which followed Mr.. Thoms' dispute of his
p~retensions, Lahrbush still insisted that he
was born in 1866. He had previously said
he had sold out from the army. When
to book by Mr.. Thoms he alluded to
the cause Of his cashiering as a youthful
indiscretion. although he must have been |
by his own figures over so when it occurred.
Thoms took Lahrbush's figures as
to the age on which he entered the British
army-according to them he was 21-and
consequently always considered that he had
found Lahrbush to be twenty years younger
han he claimed
Lahrbush was a pet of the Episcopalians
here and was allowed to sit in a sDecial
chair in one Of their churches, so they took
up his cause with ylgor. and in spite of his
Nelson legend being exposed, continued to
believe in his pretenslons, and many prob
ably 90 still.