Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1902-10-11

Capt. Disnoad, % San Francisco,
Aged 1O0, II Muscular and
Agile as q Youth.

~
handsprings, ride q wheel, bend his
body in every shape and perform
gymnastic feats which would stump
most men, resides to-day in San
Francisco. His name is Capt. Dia-
mond, and his great age, which his
agility might lead one to doubt, is
easily attested by family documents.
Having chung to life so long, Capt.
Diamond sees no reason why he
should now succumb to the grim
reaper, just because he has passed
the century mark. He looks ahead
to another fifty years which he shall
wrest from the grave in the same
manner that he has already pro.
longed life, which would probably
never have spanned five-score years
were it not for the training Capt.
Diamond put himself into twenty-five
years ago.
To this venerable athlete life is n
fine thing, and well may it be. His is
not the driveling, dripping, sen;le old
age of the usual centenarian. He is
STRAIGHTFORWARD, supple, active. His
muscles are hard as steel. His facul-
ties are keen and alert. He is pleas
ant to look upon, and there is every
possibility that If he engaged in n
rough-and-tumble fight he would not
be the most i'll used man in the fray.
If man thinks thirty, forty or
fifty years worth adding to his life.
CaYt. Diamond will tell him how it
is done. The cantain has never mar
ricd. and though it may seem hard
he holds this ms one of the secrets
of his longevity. Then he never eats
to excess. and eating to excess with
the captain means not gorging but
indulging in three meals day. Capt.
Diamond himself eats only twice q
day. The nature of his food may be
judged by his breakfast menu, which
consists of wheat or barley mush,
boiled Goldfish with potatoes, and u
cup of hot water. Meat the captain
has not eaten in fifty years. Sugar
he keeps at safe distance. White
bread he avoids. In eXtenuation of
this severe course of living, the cap
tain declares that the body of the
average person of middle age con-
tains more dead muscles and nerves
than living ones. 1t is the weight
and trial of dragging around these
dead muscles that exhaust the living
ones and cause one to endure life
of inertia and fatigue.
People. he declayes, eat three
hearty meals day, whether or not
they require them. and when their
palate naturally rejects fine food the
body does not need, desserts and
tempting dishes are concocted to
spur it on.
Exercise, of course. the captain en-
joins as one of the most needful ele-
ments to preservation. The captain
compares himself to an old bird. One
never sees traces of age or decay in
an old bird, he says. They die
through violence or accident. Why
not man:
The captain was born in Plymouth,
Mass, in 1896, says the Detroit News
Tribune. He went out into the
world without money. canals and
railroads. In 1864 he was chief agent
at st. Louis in charge of government
supplies.
He held n position as gripman I'M
til he was so years old. and it was
the fear of losing this position which
caused the captain to work hard to
retain his hold upon life and energy.
The Hoover Health club of San
Francisco. which has watched his eff
forts closely, can testify TO his ex.
kro or1;porv vOuthfulnaSc