The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-09
LIVING roNo rN nm LAND.

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 The Paimist, speaking of the duration of human life, said: The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fore score years. yet Is their strength labor and sorrow; for 1t is soon cut off and we fly away"
 This was David's estimate of human longevity in his day. Before the flood men lived to be almost one thousand years old. Noah, who lived both before and after that event, died at the age ot $50 years. but after him there was a gradual shortening of human life, begin ming with his own sons. and their imme- diate descendants. For example, shem died at eoe; his son, Arphaxad. 4ss. and 50 1t went on down to Terah. the father of Abraham, who died at 2o5. and Abra- ham himself lived to be i7s. Thus hu- man life shortened until 70 years was looked on by David as the expected limit. Yet there are a number of instances re- corded in modern times where men and women have reached the age of some of the early patriarchs. The following list compiled by contemporary, will not be found uninteresting:
 The Pope has lived long. but Thomas Parr and Henry Jenkins are respectively credited with the ages of 152 and 169. Jeanne Serimphan was married when she was la and died when she was & lS. pr; .h: father of two children, and died at 12o. Marie Priou reached the age of 1bS A woman of Meta. the mother of twenty four children. died at the age Of 100. Sur day. Patrick O'Neil buried seven wives and died at i20. and a Norwegian peasant is recorded as dying at 160 and leaving two sons. one aged 1os and the other only 3 summers. Mr. Robert Taylor lived to be 134 and died of excitement on receiving the picture of Queen Victoria signed by herself. An Irishman named Brown, who was a habitual drunkard, lived to be 120. A French drunkard lived to be n2; he had daily jag for ninety years. Du- rand DEstivel of Cahors, lived to be 12s. A woman Of 124 drank strong coffee in great quantities all her days. while a man of 1i4 lived on. fruit, chiefly melons, and chewed lemon peel.
 The fact that some of these. examples were strictly temperate people, while oth- ers were just the reverse, may be of in- terest to students of cause and effect. We are only giving few cases where Da- vid's limit has been more than doubled in modern times. To these we must add the case of Townsend Miller. Mohawk Indian, now living on Long Island, and who is now 1o4 years old, and recently told reporter that he felt 'just about as usual" and adds that he hasn't shown any signs of petering out yet. He says he has chewed and smoked tobacco since he was four or five years old. and thinks it is almost as good a preservative as whiskey. 'T like whiskey," he told the reporter. but the old kind we had years ago beats the kind we get now"
 There spoke old age. As we advance in years. we can recall so many eatables and drinkables that are not as good as they were in the long ago. Much of this is doubtless due to the substitutes and adul- terations in food and drink, and also to changes in preparation and cooking, though undoubtedly the greater portion of our dissatisfaction arises from changes in ourselves. Our tastes change as we gF0W OIus HS OO our powers OL ulSeStioh and assimilation, and between it all we find few things as they used to be. It is possible. that in his young days the old Indian could get the pure whiskey which was so common half century or more ago. and doesn't take kindly to the chem icaiiy manufactured article which so of ten passess for whiskey at this day.
 But there was another reason given by Miller which is worthy of serious consid- eration. When asked to what cause he attributed his longevity, his terse reply was: Just minding my own business. !" There's a whole lot of significance in that expression. Sometimes-in Kentucky. for example--a man who fails to mind his ownt business is liable to be exterminated suddenly, but leaving out all considera- tions of violence, there is no doubt that many a life has been materially short ened by worrying over the affairs of oth- CTS. The man or woman who strictly re- frains from fretting about the business and lives and habits of others. has a bet ter chance of long life than does one who habitually worries over outside matters Just to minding my own business is a good prescription.