Evening star., 1902-09-15
AUNT SALOME AT 1O1.
Eat "Plain Vittles" and Let LIQUOR
Alone if You Would Live Long.

Bangor OIe.) Corr New York Tribune
Aunt Salome Sellers of Deer Isle will eel
ebrate next month her 101st birthday an
niyersa1y, and ell Deer Isle, with MANY
visitors from far away, will be at her
quaint old home to do honor to one of the
most interesting women on the Maine coast.
Aunt Salomes old neighbor, who had been
her friend from childhood Uncle Nathaniel
Robbins, died a few months ago, aged 1O1
and she mourned him much, but her own
health is apparently good as 1t was five
years ago. and it is likely that she will
live for several years yet
Mrs. Sellers Is a great favorte with the
summer visitors at the: islands, and many
of them write letters to her during the win
ter from their homes in Boston and New
York. She is skillful with the needle, and
within the last few years has made sixteen
handsome quilts, which she proudly ex-
hibits to callers.
In Aunt Salome's home everything
breaths OF the past. There is a wide mouth
ed fireplace, the old fax wheel, the brass
candlesticks and snuffers and the ancient
furniture, and many quaint dish and i'm
plement that have been In her possession
for the greater part of a century. The can
dlesticks she Durchas sed with her share of
the surplus money distributed by Presi-
dent jackson. Many people put their
share of the surplus into himsy finery'
says Aunt Salome but l bought some
good times by.
Aunt Salome well remembers the war Of
1S12 one OF her most vivid recollectiOns of
that struggle is Of the capture of an En-
gfish merchantmen by the American pri-
vateer Paul Jones, at Smalls Cove, Deer
Isle ON that occasion the noise of the
cannonading SO excited the children of the
school that she attended that they all ran
to the shore and the master, who was as
much excited as any of them, made no at
tempt to teach any arithmetic or spelling
that day.
1t was in the year 1913, as she tells it,
that two English ships took cargoes
of lumber at Bucks Harbor near Castine.
which latter place was at that time held
BY the British, The captain of the Paul
Jones heard Of their presence and lay in
walt for them behind the Fox Islands, Civ
| ing chase as soon as they appeared in the
bay. One of the Englishmen went down
through Eggemoggin Reach, while the
other stood straight out to sea. followed by
| the 'privateer. This latter merchantmen
went ashore near Smalls Cove, in rather
sheal water, and the privateer could not
get near enough to make her guns effect
| i've. In this emergency Ebenezer Small of
Deer Isle boarded the Paul Jones amid a
shower of bullets from the Englishman and
| piloted the privateer within easy range.
After few shots the EngIishman surren-
| dered The Paul Jones put a prize crew
! on board the captured ship and started off
down the reach in pursuit of the other,
plloted by Captain Samuel Kent of Swan s
Island. The fleeing Englishman soon
| oVertaken and captured and was afterward
| toWed to Salem, where great many other
| privateer prizes had been taken. The ship
that went ashore at Smalls Cove was after
ward f1oated by crew of tories and taken
| back to the British at Castine, but the
| salvors got neither thanks nor reward.
| Aunt Salome was one of the original
| members Of the Martha Was lington Soci ty,
which is temperance organization formed
| at Deer Isle seventy-one years ago. and
| which still fourishes there. The Washing
| tonlan Society, similar organization form
| ed by the men of Deer Isle at about the
| same time, went out Of existence several
years ago. These two societies were in the
thick OF the rum riots" which caused SO
| much excitement at Deer Isle in the year
| 1870 Aunt Salome says that simple diet
and correct habits have enabled her to live
| past the century mark, and that if every
| one would eat plain vittles" and let liquor
| and medicines alone all might live to a fine
! old age,