The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-03-28
ABOUT LONGEVITY.

cernlng longevity are from tne pen OF
DR.. Felix l.. Oswald, the eminent
scientist and writer: The countries
OF Southern Europe are beginning to
publish their centennial statistics, and
few months ago thus revealed the
surprising fact that the famine prov
inces of Portugal and Spain led the
world in the production Of centena.
rians. In rocky Algrave, in drought
cursed Aragon and Estremadura pre-
cisely in those portions of the old pen
insula where the struggle for existence
is most discouraging, a remarkable
number of peasants and petty Govern
ment officials have exceeded the Psal.
mist's average by a century or more.
They are mostly villagers, these sur.
vivors under difficulties, and was with
rare exceptions children of poverty
rarely able to indulge in any pleasures
and pastimcs tending to make life
worth living. How could they escape
death by ennu,-u undoubtedly foe to
the persistence Of vital vigor?
An explalatior is su2g, >t'd t'y the
fact that human life can be protracted
bv a combination of abstemiousness
and quietism. A torch, blazing in the
whirlstorm of gale, needs an abun.
dant supply of fuel, but a rushlieht,
cleaning in the sheltered nook of a
chamber, can be fed on minimum OF
ola small spoonful per hour, pro-
vided that the flame is protected
against every air current. On the
same plan the lamp of vitality can be
kept burning for long series OF de-
cades. Controlling wrath, stunning
exciting pleasures, avoiding violent
emotions of all extremes of physical
exercise, will reduce the expenditure
of vital vigor to that of the reptiles
that crawl into distances of time un-
attainable to many of their more ac-
tive fellow creatures. 1t is the long
evity of hermits and widowed country
parsons. 1t is the survival OF prison
ers. fed on scant rations, but doomed
to enforced inactivity, and saved from
worry about the meaEs of subsistence.
Frederick Mentzel, tue Saxon chan
Gerry clerk, who caused the outbreak
of the seven years war by selling the
secrets of his government, was kept
thirty years in a cell just large enough
for bench, pail and pallet, but too
small for any attempt at pedestrian
exercise, and Varnhagcn Won Ense
mentions the still stranger case Of the
prisoner Darapski, 'Eorn IN l714 in
karskod near Praga, Eastern Poland,
brought to Ncvsorod n his 22nd year
as conscript to the Russian army,
and soon after sentenced to death for
mutiny and assault with intent to
kill. The Empress Catherine, acting
on recommendation Of the Governor
of Nougorod, commutcd his sentence
to Imprisonment for life, but ordered
that on every anniversary of the deed
Gan attempt to kill his colonel the con-
vict should he put in the stocks and
kept on half rations for Il week after
the full ration being two pounds of
black bread day and 4 jug of cold
water" On these terms Dlrapski
was boarded at the fortress of kiriloy
till 1868, when at the approach of his
Goth birthday he was again recon-
mended to mercy and liberated by tue
Cars order. Pity with his white
hairs induced his jailers to connive at
occasional deviations from the rule of
his confinement He was allowed TO
sweep the corridors and to gather
chips for his little stove, but an i'm
provement in his diet was granted
only after his S0th year, when he re-
ceived 4 small piece of bacon, and an
occasional pint of syrup with his rye
bread.
The peasants of Western Spain be-
come accustomed to and almost equal
ly frugal bill Of fare. Ash cakes, as
hard as navy biscuit, and a dish OF
brown beans constitute the staples OF
their food; meat onl y on Sundays and
a slice of cheese when they are doing
extra work in the harvest season. AS
a rule, they do not leave their novels
before 8 p. m, and trudge about in a
listless way for three or four hours,
wedding their parched fields or gath
ering brushwood on the hillsides.
Their after dinner siesta may last till
p. NJ, when they sally once more
and hunt up their stray cattle in tie
cool of the evening. They cannot
sleep away all their leisure hours, but
do what they can, and day daydream
through the long after noon, listening
to the strumming of a drowsy guitar.
The time of field sports has gone by,
fish have become scarce in streams
that shrink to rlls every summer, and
the poor cottagers canno; afford the
price of ammunition to hunt the few
deer that still haunt the uplands of
the Sierras. Bull fights there are, but
only for the comparatively well-to do
burghers of the large cities. Old
Pedro Garcia prefers to avoid the
sting Of envy, and drowses away hol-
idays on his little rancho. On the
other hand nature has saved him the