Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-07-09

People don't live to be as old as Me shuselah these days, but there are a number now living who if they last until the end of the present year, win have seen three centuries. That. of course, does not mean that they then will be 300 years old, but only that they were born at the close of the sev- enteenth century, and lived through opening of the to-be-more wonderful this wonderful nineteenth. to see the twentieth.
 There are a number of these old peo- pie in the United States and some of them were born here. when the repub- lie was in it's infancy They saw the times that tried mems souls;" they remember Washington and his Con- tinentals, and old Tippeeanoe Harrison and old Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor fighting in Mexico at the head of the American army; and Mcclellan and Grant and Lee and StonewaH Jackson and Sherman and Sheridan mixing it lip in the fratricidal strife that marked the passing of slavery and the martyrdom of Lincoln; they saw the first steamboats and the first rail- road trains aud the introduction of electricity; and in their old age they hays come upon people balancing themselves upon two wheels and traY- cling about over the country at sur prising speed; they have wondered at the harnessing of electricity and its use as motive power to drive cars and carriages, and engines that once were run by steam; they have just seen a war between nations finished off in a few short months, with modern fight ing implements, that in their youth would have lasted for years; they have Seen the United States grow from an infant republic to world power. and they appreciate the marvellous h the things that to the youth of today seem commonplace.
 There were no records of births and deaths kept in this country when these old people were young, so there is no way in which their number can be com pated with exactness. But a competent authority has estimated that there are at least 700 of them scattered about over the states. In the older countries of Europe, however, these records have long been kept up, and over there it has been figured out that on the first day of the twentieth century there will be over 1000 persons living who were live on the last day of the eighteenth century.
 seryia is especially the country of centenarians, and leaves all other Eu- ropean countries hopelessly in the rear in the longevity race. One man in 2,260 has seen 100 years, and, in all, seryia boasts 575 men of 100 years or over
 Ireland ranks next, with one cente- marian in every 8.1S0 of the population. or 578 in all.
 Spain fayors length of years. and out of 43,000 Spaniards one is eentena- rian, with a total of 401.
 Norway, numbers 23, or one in about 9G 000.
 England. Scotland and Wales rank next, with 192. or one in about IT, GOO.
 France has 219 centenarians, or one in 1S0. 750.
 Sweden ranks seventh, with 90 only. or one In 250.000
 Germany has 78, or one in 705,000.
 Denmark only claims 2, or less than one to 1000, GOO of it's DO ,claton; and Switzerland, with all it's reputed health mess, seems not to possess a single centenarian.
 In Northampton. England, latter day Methuselah lies buried in the porch of All Saints church. John Bailes' gravestone declares that he lived to bs 126, but local tradition adds yet an- other four years to the total This re- vised version is reached thus: Bafles affirmed that when he was a boy of 12 he was present at Tilbu4y when Queen Elizabeth reviewed her troops. and as that was in f588 and he died in 17O6. his age was 130 instead of 126. Against this is the testimony of the parish reg ister, which reduces the age of its John Bailes to about IA. There Is no proof that the John Bailes of the register was the Bales of the tablet. The latter had a daughter who claimed two years more than century for her span of life, and that achievement counts certainly in her fathers favor. Leay- ing him. then. in undisputed possession of his l3O years. John Bales began life under Queen Elizabeth, and finished it under Queen Anne, thus seeing out all these rulers; James l., Charles l.. Cromwell Charles IL, James II. and William and Mary! These old people seem to have stood to one side while the procession of life marched by, friends without nImber have come in- to their lives. and gone out again. hav- ing iiYeA tongeritheir grlefs must have been greater. or at the least more nu- ,merons than those of their fellows. i but so too, perhaps, were their joys And now in the fullness of their Gays they are waiting, resignedly fqr the summons to join those who have gone before to explore ths great mystery.