El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-07
SUNS RAYS GIVE LIFE
A Californian Now 113 Years Old
Expects To Live 200 Years

Andrew Joseph thompson, OF santa
Rosa, Cal. aged 113 wears, arrived inst.
Paul on his way to Weyerhauser, Wis,
where he is going TO attend the mar
riage of his great granddaughter
Irene Tibbils, who lives near that
town, and was seen by a reporter.
Mr.. Thompson has false teeth and
mis- hair is gone. with the exception of
a few battered gray whisps, but he is
AS active as a kitten and bright-eyed
as lad of Is. His companions are
Warden Thompson of Santa Rosa and
Elmer Thompson of the same town.
These gentlemen are Mr.. Thompson's
grandsons. One is 81 years old and
the other SO. They say the old mau
can run a mile IN six minutes fat on a
sandy road, and that he expects to live
another hundred years. The aged
Californian is wealthy, having made q
large fortune in California gold proper
ties in the early days. de is we'll ed
ucated, having been trained as doctor
in Edin burgh, from which city he took
his departure for the United States
with several others, now all dead, in
1909.
1t is not stretching the truth to as
sert that Mr.. Thompson appears about
IS years of age. He stands as straight
rs pine, has square should
ers, ard his face is full
anu EOuuu. here Is QOLQlES
in the mans walk to suggest
his great sge, and he tossed of bottle
of Bass ale with great nonchalance.
Later he expressed the opinion that it
was about breakfast time and one OF
the dutiful grandsons was dispatc he'd
to order beefstesk.
''None of your giblets, now" the
old man shouted after him. 81 want a
porterhouse cooked rare, with baked
potato and some coffee"
1.-The fact of the matter is, said Mr..
Thompson, as ne lit y cigar and pulled
it with evident enjoyment, that [
am so old and so healthy because l
have discovered the secret if not of
eternal life at least of living a couple
of hundred years in comparative
comfort.
In my opinion the dread of death is
what causes death 10 innumeraole
cases. OF course l do not mean that
organic disease can be overcome by
the means L have adopted, but 1 do
think that all the deaths that occur
from what we Characterize as general
collapse could be- averted. My plan ia
simple enough. Iu the fret place, / re-
fuse to be worried about anything. |
never did worry. Il must of course, be
taken into consideration that [ have
really nothing in particular to worry
about, and that there has been
nothing to cause me to worry for the
last sixty'years or more. Since L ceased
active business about sixty years ago l
have never let a day pass when the sun
shone without bearing my body to It's
rsys for one or two hours.
ION my place in California 1 have
an inclOsed space where L am free to
go naked without being seen by any
human eye. The sun sinks into my old
bones and gives then new life. My
skin is as brown as al Indians all
over. It has been that way ever since
l began this practice of sun bathing.
For cold weather l have glass house
at the top of my residence, comfort
ably fixed up, and there l take my
bath through windows when COM
PEELED to do go.
"There is no crankiness in my meth
3D." concluded the aged traveller. 1T
Is simply giving the Lords own med
tcine a chance to do its work, aud l can
assure you that one hour of bright
sunlight pouring down on the bare
human body is more beneficial to the
health of that body than a whole dis
pensary full of drugs"