Evening star., 1897-03-06
THE wORLD.s CEyTEy.R1.xs
America Far fin the Lead and Women
Ahead EXeryMhere

From the Courier Des Etats-Unis,
1t Is sufficient to take a look at the sta
tistics of the centenarians to Re struck with
the extraordinary superiority that is en-
1oyed by the female sex. The census Of
the population Of the United States in 1880
shows that out of 1881 persons who were
more than 100 years DID, 2!Ss were women
and .39S men. In truth, these figures cam
not be accepted without reserve. II We
take into account the number of centenar-
fans. tolerably authentic. that exist i'm
France and in England, 1t is difficult to ad-
NIT that in the United States longevity
should assume such a marvellous develop
ment
If the men, and especially the women
who approach the fiftieth year. or have
passed 1t, take few years off the date of
their birth, sort of patrarchal vanity in
duces the octogenarians of both sexes to
make themselves older in order to win the
glory of having passed an entire century.
1t should be remembered that birth regis
tration does not exist In the United States,
and that the assertions of the illiterate
whites and of the negroes in regard to their
age are far from meriting unlimited conf
dence. The old slaves that were made free
after the war of secession did not know,
matter of fact, what year they came into
the world, and, moreover, they often eX
hibited a fondness for astonishing the CEN
sus takers by giving astounding ages. 1t
duce the legions of centenarians of all
colors which the official statistics of the
government of the United States proudly
display.
The figures proved by French documents
inspire less suspicion because they are far
more modest. In 1895 there were in France
only &c men and 14I women who passed the
age of 100 years. This makes total OF
213 persons, a very modest number, no
doubt, when it is compared with the 3,?sl
centenarians of the United States. BY TAX
ing into account the difference that exists
between the population of the two coun-
tries, the number of old people whose birth
goes back to more than century is
tenth of what it is In America. The diff
ference is altogether too great for proha-
bility.
The official documents of the British gov
ernment give no less plausible guarantees
of authenticity than the results of the cen
sus in France, and they furnish us with
testimony worthy of belief in regard to the
number of centenarians that exist in GER
tain portions of the united Kingdom. In
London, for example, there were in 1891
twenty-one persons who were more than a
century old. By curious coincidence, the
published in 1894 for the whole territory OF
Scotland was also twenty-one, but as the
population of the ancient kingdom of the
Stuarts is SeEsibly inferior to that of the
metropolis and. as the centena-ians who
are still alive are not counted in the total
in which the deaths are given, it is presum-
able from this comparison that the pure air
Of the mountains is much more favorable
for human longevity than the foggy at
mosphere of the Thames. Nevertheless
the most interesting fact in these English
documents Is that in London, well as
in Scotland, the same proportion exists in
the quotas furnished by the two sexes to
the favored society of the centenarians.
Out of twenty-one persons of British ma
tionality who reached the age of 100, six
teen are women and five men. In spite of
the difference in the climate, and of the
mode of living, this proportion is maintain
ed with rigorous exactitude in the fogs of
the metropolis of the united kingdom and
In the pure, cold, but salubrious air OF The
Grampian Hills.
In France out of ten centenarians there
were seven women and three men. The sex
that it is no longer proper to call fair when
Ii reaches that degree of longevity more
than doubles the other in centenarians, al
though. unlike those of the other side of
the channel, 1t does not reach the aston
ishing majority of more than two-thirds.
According to the calculations of a learned
Englishman in regard to the number of
countries where it Is possible for statisti-
clans to procure the evidence worthy of abb
solute belief, the proportion is forty-three
to twenty-three, that is nearly twice as
many.
This shows that the quota of the contin-
gent which both sexes furnish to the privi-
legged corporation of centenarians cannot.
for want of indisputable documents. be
is beyond doubt, and that is that a wo-
man has two or three times as many
chances as a man to pass the 1OO-year
mark