The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-03-15
ABOUT LONGEVITY.

The following interesting facts con-
cerning longevity are from the pen of
DR.. Felix L. Oswald, the eminent
scientist and writer The countries
of Southern Europe are beginning to
publish their centennial statistics, and
a 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
peninsula where the struggle for ex-
istence is most discouraging, re-
markable number of peasants and
petty Government officials have ex-
ceeded the Psalmist's average by
century or more. They are mostly
villagers, these survivors under diff
culties, and with rare exceptions
children of poverty, rarely able to in
dulge in any pleasures and pastimes
tending to make life worth living.
How could they escape death by
ennui-undoubtedly foe to the per-
sistence of vital vigor?
An explanation is suggested by the
fact that human life can be protrac-
ted by a combination of abstemious-
ness and quietism. A torch, blazing
in the whirlstorm of a gale, needs
an abundant supply of fuel, but
rushlight, cleaning in the sheltered
nook of chamber, can be fed on a
minimum of ola small spoonful per
hour, provided that the fame is pro-
tected against every air current. On
the same plan the lamp of vitality can
be kept burning for long series of
decades. Controlling wrath, shun-
ming exciting pleasures, avoiding vio-
lent emotions of all extremes of phys
ical exercise, will reduce the expen-
diture of vital vigor to that of the
reptiles that crawl into distances of
time unattainable to many of their
more active fellow creatures. 1t is
the longevity of hermits and widowed
country parsons. 1t is the survival
of prisoners, fed on scant rations, but
doomed to enforced inactivity, and
saved from worry about the means of
subsistence.
Frederick Mentzel, the Saxon
chancery clerk, who caused the out
break of the seven years war by sell
ing the secrets of his government, was
kept thirty years in cell just large
enough for bench, pail and pallet,
but too small for any attempt at Pc
destrian exercise, and Varnhagen von
Ense mentions the still stranger case
Of the prisoner Darapski, "born in
1774 in Karskod near Praga, Eastern
Poland, brought to Novgorod in his
22d year as conscript to the Russian
army, and soon after sentenced to
death for mutiny and assault with in
tent to kill. The Empress Catherine,
acting on a recommendation of the
Governor of Novgorod, committed
his sentence to Imprisonment for life,
but ordered that on every anniversary
of the deed Can attempt to kill his
colonel) the convict should be put in
the stocks and kept on half rations
for a week after, the full ration being
two pounds of black bread day and
a jug of cold water" On these terms
Darapski was boarded at the fortress
of Kirilov till 1868, when at the ap-
proach of his goth birthday he was
again recommended to mercy and lib
Grated by the Car 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 improvement in his diet was gran
ted only after his 8oth year, when he
received small piece of bacon, and
an occasional pint of syrup with his
rye bread.
The peasants of Western Spain be-
come accustomed to an almost equally
frugal bill of fare. Ash cakes, as
hard as navy biscuit, and dish of
brown beans constitute the staples of
their food meat only on Sundays
and a slice of cheese when they are
doing extra work in the harvest sea-
son. As a rule, they do not leave
their novels before 8 A. M, and trudge
about in listless way for three or
four hours, wedding their parched
fields or gathering brushwood on the
hillsides. Their after dinner siesta
may last till q P. M, when they sally
once more and hunt up their stray
cattle in the cool of the evening.
They cannot sleep away all their leis-
ure hours, but do what they can, and
day-dream 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 rills every summer,
and the poor cottagers cannot 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 we'll
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
main horror of helpless old age there
is no risk of actual starvation for be-
ings of our species who have learned
to subsist upon parched corn and be-
lotas, a sort of sweet acorns, that can
be gathered by bushels in the forests
of the highlands. A more unexciting
existence cannot be imagined outside
of prison cell, for illiteracy obliges
the sluggish old rancher to abstain
even from mental emotions. Life
thus stagnates the stream meander-
ing through treeless hills receives but
few aff1uents, but the same droughts
have so reduced the speed of the cur
re,1tc that the time of ifs Journey to