The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-06-03

Levi Bresson, whose Oldest Boy Is
Now 65 Years of Age and Whose
Youngest Baby Is 8, who Married
No Education, No. Capital, No Tall
EMIL Decided That My Only OPP
portunity Was in n Large Family.
Children Are nm Ipyestment--I am
Satisfied.
From the New York World.
When a man is the father of forty-one
children he owes the world an excuse.
Here is the excuse of Levi Bresson.
whose forty-second child was recently
born, but didn't live.
II was born in direst poverty. I had
no education, no capital, no talent, on
which to found a successful or prosper
Gus career. l carefully reviewed every
chance there might be for boy in my
position. and decided that my only OPP
portunity was in a large family. Chill
dren are an investment. Like all invest
ments that are worth while there is a
risk. Mine was successful. / am salts
fed"
Levi Bresson is 81 years old. He has
none of those infirmities that make old
age a burden. His sight is still keen.
his wit sharp. his conservation interest
ing and his senses unimpaired.
He lives in the township of Sterling, r.
l., just over the Connecticut line, ten
miles from the nearest railway station.
His house is neat little wooden struc-
70 n ~ ~
house. AS Bresson's children came TO
be the only ones who attended school,
however, and the Bresson home was a
very miserable sore of howell, the town
ship voted to give the school house and
surrounding farm to Bresson.
He received me there last week with
the transformations hospitality that is
( Characteristic of the French Canadians
of whom the little settlement is COM
posed. BTesson is a little man, but he
stands erect. His head is small, his fea-
lures clean cut, his face close shaven;
his eyes are restless and colorless and
suggt st mental activity; his nose is strong
and denet6s character; his lips are thin
and suggest a disposition to save; his hair
is close cropped, with no tendency to
badness; his clothes are well patched
speaking volumes for the good wife-his
third
Good ''FnmiIy" Man.
Before he admitted it I knew Bressor
was sill well versed in mill1-b bottle lore
and the relative virtues of infant foods
and the quickest remedy for aggrava ed
Group. He is the sort of man to detect from
the degree of petulance in a midnight how
whether the cause be collie or a misplaced
pin or measles or. just natural vein OF
ugliness inherited from it's mother, and he
70 GiclI ho hn11
hold while he administers the quickest
cure and rocks the latest back tc
dreamland
Bresson says very seriously that If ht
lived in France or Cana1a or any Other
eppreciative country he would be granted
pension; but he adds with a ferven
thank God' that Providence has beer
more gene-ous than this country, in Civ.
ing him health at four-score years and
one.
Il do my own farming" he said, with ;
suggestion of pride. 'and l guess get al
out of the farm that there is In It, Las
year l drew out 500 bushels of pota toes
and they were The soundest, smoothest
largest crop around this part of the coun
try
Not all alone?"
THAT I did. and them that we didn'
need l carted off and sold"
Don't the children help@
They amt old enough. You see they'r,
the children by my last wife There
/ eleven Of hem. Tho Oldest is thirteen AM
| she's in the convent, our Danielson way
! Phebe here" patting the baby's haxer
| mead, she's three, and she's the Youngest
| The LAST one, you know, didn't live, and
| took that as a sort of inalcat ton from
| Providence that my family days had com
to a finish. Counting out that last one
/ there was forty-oce. guess I'm satisfie<
/ ia mi fy
will be grown and able to support m
/ when I get old"
Levi Bresson rubbed his hands with sat
isfaction. They were very old hands
stained and wrinkled and coarsened b,
/ labor.
Looking Forward to Old Age,
when shall you begin to get old. MI
Bresson?"
"Oh, long about fifteen or twenty wear
now / ought 10 be able to lay off. TN h
close on to hundred then, and 1 haven
spent many idle minutes. A man couldn't
| you see, Sringing up a family like mine
We began to work younger in the plac
where I was born
But surely the responsibility of rear
Ing forty-cne children is that many time
as great as rearing one?"
Responsibility. Nonsensey
Nonsense! 1t isn't a matter of resnon
sibility after you have the first dozen: r.
only matter of keeping their faces clea
and putting a few extra potatoes Ia m
pot; and by that time the older ores ar
able to help"
Think of the shoes"
They go barefooted most of the Will
| hereabouts.'
And the frocks to be made and lam
derer, and the dinners to be cooked N,
the dishes to be washed, and the fire
little urchins 10 be bathed and put 10 be
at night"
'fWell, the women folk must have
little something 10 do, you. know. That
what they expect. 1t can't be any hafde
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