The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-14
STORY OF LONG LIFE.
RecOlIectiOns of Mary Mcdonald. a
Negress of Philadelphia, who Has
Lived I11 Ycnrs

From the New York Evening Post.
Mary Mcdonald will celebrate her
1920 birthday anniversary if she lives
until the 14th day of next November.
She was a dusky little pickanniny in
big farm kitchen at Valley Forge,
when George washington's hungry
soldiers began to climb the barn-yard
fences of the neighborhood. They knew
pert Mary; and she remembers them.
with the aprons full of apples she
showered upon them. as wildly as she
does the first morning of the TWEEN
tieth century. when she realized that
she had lived to be the oldest woman
in the world.
Until few days ago there was every
reason to anticipate that she would
step as lightly out of the old year as
she entered it-or at least would cross
the milestone on her own small feet:
but slight attack of pleurisy has in
truded on her confidence. She has been
lifted out of the huge arm-c chair that
hitherto comfortably engulfed her tiny
bent form, and has been intrusted to
q white cot in the Home for Aged and
lnfirm Colored Persons. in West Phil
adelphia.
Two inseparable companions of her
with her-her cheerfulness ana her
| pipe.
Fondness for Her Pipe.
Mary, a pipe?" asked visitor re-
| proachfully as the box of tobacco was
espied beneath the table There was
no penitent embarrassment in Marys
response. Her dim eyes twinkled as
she turned her head. She stretched
out wrinkled emaciated hand and
! with loyal fondness reached for the
| pipe. Three times a day throughout
her present illness it has been her con-
| idant and comforter. The physicians
who attend her make no objection. She
cannot remember when she did not
smoke. She learned how to use the
narcotic weed from her white MISTRESS
in the reign of King George III. When
any one, NOT of her own race frowns
on her frequent prolonged indulgencies,
she always narrates this piece of his
tory and pensively closes the CONVEX
sation. Her earliest duty as an inden-
! tured maid was to hold the taper that
lighted the pipe of her superior. She
| soon learned how to hold it for herself
No one appeared to think anything
| of 1t when l was a girl" she often re-
| plies. She was never slave, but lived
in the family of Reese Howell from the
age of four until she ended her maid
enhood by becoming a bride at eigh-
teen. Household domestics were then
held by contract. They were bound for
| term of long service as securely as
if they had signed the agreement.
Mary was one of the fortunate waits
who was happily placed among strang-
| ers. She won kindness from all of
| them; and looks back over a hundred
years to girlhood frightened by long
walks, horseback rides, quilting bees,
and popcorn parties in the glow of
open fireplaces. She never danced to
the accompaniment of a fiddle in the
| barn. II didn't care for that" she ex-
planned with a deprecating gesture. II
had plenty of other exercise" To
| Mary's permanent regret 1t must be re-
| corded that she never had any exer-
cises in reading and writing. So she
has never read any book except Ma
| lures.
Life Mt Valley Forge.
"All the schools were pay-schools
when l was young she remarked,
and there were not even pay-schools
near Valley Forge. So 1 had to learn
by listening to what 1 heard about me
every day"
Her cheerfulness is one of the Sc
crets of her long life-in not only her
own opinion, but that of the scientists
who have studied her history. She
never has worried, she told me can
dfdly-not even about her age Proof
of this looks down from the wall of her
room. Mary has permitted a card to
remain there which tells the whole
world the date of her BIRTH
MRS. MARY MCDONALD
WAS BORN
THE ELEVENTH MONTH, THE
FOURTEENTH DAY
IN THE YEAR ITO.
In small postscript of pardonable
vanity she reads on the placard every
day-or would read If she knew how
to spell-that she has sewed 1884,
pounds of carpet-balls since January,
| 1891, without using spectacles.
Il never wore glasses" she adds in
comment to increase the wonder that
her record excites.
But this summer her sight has failed
slowly. Cataracts are forming over
both eyes. And her hand is less steady
In finding her pipe. But her voice re-
mains clear, her hearing is keen and
her mental faculties apparently are as
strong as they were when she was only
a hundred years old.
She does not seem to weigh more
than forty pounds. Her frail withered
body sometimes droops like a piece of
old brown parchment; and only the
woman's presence in the depths of
her favorite rocking chair. Yet the
vitality that animates her appears in
exhaustible. She does not care to talk
when her head pains, but at all other
times she is a winsome hostess, for she
chats of events that no one living here
except herself ever has seen, and she
always is ready to laugh at the..wit of
herself or others.
VALLEY Forge is the word with WI
to conjure when she drifts into words
Of meditation-when her brown head
falls low on her breast, and her clay
pipe slips from her withered fingers
1t never fails to fathom the deepest
reverie or tempt conversation out of
listlessness. Her voice grows strong
with excitement. as she pictures the
tragic scenes of the Revolution, and
her whole being quivers with interest
RecoIIectiOns of n Battle.
VALLEY Forget oh, it was dreadful.
dreadful I'll never forget the fire and
noise. The soldiers were tramping all
day long-up and down. up and down.
skirmishes. ! have been as close to
through a crack in the wall and was
almost blinded. The smoke was so
thick and heavy around me that I
, couldn't see my own hand
A college professor, one warm day
recently, interrupted Mary at this point
of her narrative. He wanted to apply
a scientific test to her memory
WAS the weather as hot at that pc
= ps