Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-10-17
RUSSIAN GENIE NARIANSsIs'9:
Dweliers In tho Caucasus whose Ages
Run Up TO 1i0 and $50.

OWellefS In tpc ShucsiSuS w hsSS <>ts0'
Run Up TO 1i0 and $50.
Last year 40 old peasant named Ivan
Kouzmin was reported to have trav-
eled from Moscow to Kiov nj the aye of
100 He was said to ho III good health,
He had formerly been coachmm 10
Count Sheremotiof, hui i'll 1910 WAS
sent TO Siberia where ho spent 81 years,
returning In 1924. His is not the only
instance In which q Siberian exile has
survived TO extromo old age Two years
ago there was said to have died in Sa-
mara one Layrentii Efimof, who had at
tanned the age of $50. According to the
newspaper reports of him he took part
az boy in the famous Pugatohef re-
bellion in the reign of Catherine the
Great, and for his share in that brief
but sanguinary outbreak spent 30 years
of his life in Siberia Recently there
was said TO be living in the village Of
Vank (Saratof government) an Arneni-
an aged ITO, the proud ancestor Of 81
descendants, Of whom II We're still liy-
ina. His name was David Ka2arian.
Another Armenian, priest named Ter
Mikaeliantz, was reported not long ago
to DO living at Gori in tho Caucasus at
the age of 10S. Ee was still able to
walk TO church and once year per-
formed the liturgy. IF recent history in
the Turkish empire continues to repeat
itself, such instances of longevity among
the Armenians seem likely to become
rare. Last December there died in the
government of Kharkof an old man.
Theodore Liptzof, who was said to have
reached the age Of l15. He well re-
membered the Napoleonio invasion Of
1919 1t is worth noting that he drank
vodka freely and that he took snuff and
was on inveterate smoker Of tobacco
which he not infreQuently ohewed as
we'll The Caucasus would seem to be q
region favorable TO length Of days In
addition TO the instance Of the Arme-
MAN priest already quoted the following
other instances have been reported from
there:
Last year in the town with the I'M
pronounceable name of Mtzkhet, peas
ant with the appropriate but equally
unpronounceable name of Adam Mario
lekishwili died at the reputed age of
1870 Unfortunately some doubt must be
thrown on the accuracy Of this instance,
for the newspaper (The Kavkaz) from
which it is quoted adds that Adam left
two sons, the eldest 60 and the youngest
40 years of age. II this be true, the
youngest son must have been born to his
father at the great age Of 80, an almost
incredible feat in nonpatriarchial times.
Adam is said TO have left widow aged
100, and this same town with the I'M
possible name is stated still to shelter
several old men and old women between
30 and 100. Three years ago one of its
favored inhabitants, woman, died at
the age of 1870. Happy Mtzkhet! In
Tifiis, not long ago, q woman named
Urumsima Arutunova died at the sup
posed age of 100, and as recently as
May last brutal murder was brought
to light in the district Of Tiflis in which
the victim was said to be 100 years old.
The object Of the crime was not discov-
cred. The case of Nicolas de Savin, the
old French soldier who was taken pris-
oner by the Russians in 1919 and died
two years ago in Saratof at the age Of
1875, was commented upon at that time
in the English press. About the same
time the case of another old soldier was
brought forward, Finn living in Wy
borg, whose age was said to be 1872.
This summer there was said to be liv-
ing q still older Cossack soldier. This
man, named Solodof, residing 10 the
village of Jovnino (Poltaya govern
ment), is reported 10 have passed his
one hundred and twenty-dfth birthday.
Finally an old woman, aged III, is, it
Is stated, still living in Nikolaief. She
is Pole and remembers the taking of
Warsaw by the Russians in 1893. IN
closing the list it is we'll TO add that in
many Of the instances quoted a closer
investigation might materially diminish
the ages Of the persons in question.
Only last year paragraph appeared in
the papers relating to an old man who
had come from Siberia and who had
reached the age of 1873. A later para
graph stated that on examining his pass
port his true age was found to be only
99.-London Lancet.