The age-herald., 1901-12-01

From the New York World.
 Who are the oldest maa and woman alive?
 The committee on vital statistics of the Hundred Year Club. after months of pry- ing into this problem. is ready to an nounce the result of its discoveries.
 The oldest man alive today, according to this research, Is Izal Rodofsty, of Mos COW, R lssia, aged 136. His case Is reported to the club by pr. Joseph Jernosky of Moscow Rodofsty retains good eycsight, but poor hearing. He was never known to suffer an illness. las used liquor, but not tobacco. He comes of d long-lived family. bis father dying at 12O.
 The most agee woman of today, so far as the committee can discover is Mrs. Nancy IIollifeid. an inmats of the Bat tie Creek GMich) Ssnitarium, who has seen IF years. Her case is reported by Dr. Wood, a physician of that institution. She has always lived temperate, simple life, doing homework principally since she reached maturity.
 There are much more remarkable cases than these on record but the claims Of but relatively few centenarians can be corroborated. Ismail Hudjo, of Khuti, Alabama, is reported to have died last month at the age of 16D his faculties being unimpaired and his teeth intact until the last. Whether or not this was a bona fide case. however, has not as yet been determined by the committed.
 The hobbies of centenarians are being looked into by the Hundred Year Club. To become adept in the art of fine living a century 1t Is best, necessarily to con suit the practical and experienced men. The field for this study Is fertile, inas- much as the characteristic centenarian IS an inveterate hobby-rider.
 The food hobby Is that most In evi- dence. Her chief subsistence for the last two years was brown sugar and cold water, is reported of a woman lOO years old. For the last thirty years she subsisted entirely on potatoes, IS related of an old lady no woman or 105 "lived chiefly on flour provisions during the last forty years of her life.
 A man 1O3 was never known to drink anything but buttermilk,' and another. 116. was never known to drink draught of pure water" An Englishman. 1ol. lived chiefly on vegetable. diet and drank frequently of the famous rock wa ter of Llandridod."
 He ate nothing but bread made of Turkey wheat and constantly abstained from wine and tobacco" is said of a man of ll4. while of another, 116, 1t is written that "his supper for forty years was roast turnips." A Philadelphian. 10S lived on very solid food, urank tea in the after noon, but ate no supper
 Hobbies Of centenarfans enter conspic- uously into practically all life habits Tt was his frequent custom to promote precipitation and then change his linen particularly as he advanced in life" re- counts a biographer of Charles Macklin the English ,playwrite who died at the age of 107 It was this genius further custom mot to sleep on feather bed but on mattress which was couch without curtains. placed in the center of the room. He usually lay with his head high" it is further stated. but for the last twenty years never took of his clothes unless to change them or his linen, or to be rubbed all over. with warm brandy or gin"
 William Hotchkiss. known as "the col ored doctor.'' who died in St. Louis in 1895, and whose Masonic record was traced back 100 years. showing conclu- sively that he was at least 121 years old, :" attributed his long life to hobbies. de- scribed as follows: He is said by those