The Opelousas courier., 1903-05-16

figured in the history Of last year.:
u We often hear that this is the
young mails age, and this is largely
in the business world, but 1t Is
afro an age Of old people. Much as
thl youngsters would like to have the
CID fellows 60 to the rear and take a
comfortable seat on Easy street, the
1dd5lM@ s9ains that at no time In the
history Of man has the influence I'M
tie activity of the veterans been more
potent in the affairs of the world.
There are about $500 persons over
100 years Of age In the United States.
The average expectancy of life is In
creasing oil over the world. 1t Is es-
tlmated that the prolongation of life
has gained twenty-five per cent. IN the
last fifty years. The list of gentleman.
ians is growing longer with each sue-4
ceeding year. 1t is a curious fact, too,
that for every man who has reached
the age Of 100 there are two women.
Statistics Of most countries confirm
this statement.
1t used to be said that forty was 1.-The
old age Of youth" and that fifty was
''the youth of old age" Charles i.
Yerkes, In a recent London Interview,
said that q man was not really ripe for
business until he was fifty, being with
few exceptions merely an apprentice
before that age. Henry Clews lately
said he knew many men who had
achieved their greatest success after
they were sixty. Everybody knows
that Michael Angelo, Titan, Voltaire,
Franklin, Newton, Lord Brougham,
Palmerston, Kent, Goethe, Gladstone,
Bismarck and others performed great
things even after they were eighty
yeaxs old. In fact, there are theorists
to-day who assert that the man who
dies. at 100 dies a century too young.
WOULD PRoLoNa LIFE.
How to extend the span of life in
denitely Is the problem to which many
seem to set themselves nowadays. Sci
entists and doctors promise almost UNI
limited age to coming generations. Pro
lGSSOE dCQuS AOCD AAu SeASAS .
working on experiments which have
for their objects the production of life
without a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
the arrest of death in germs. Pasteur
Institute experimenters are trying to
prolong human existence indefinitely
by checking the advance of death on
the Threshold, in the cells themselves.
thus arresting senile decrepitude by the
use Of a specific serum for the blood,
instead of attempting to combat ex-
ternal disease.
BUT let us turn to some Of the inter-
estAng old people Of last year. The old
est practicing physician in the United
States, and probably the oldest in the
world, is DR.. j. P. Wood, Of Coffey-
vile, Kan, who celebrated his Tooth
birthday early in 1902. He was born
ii Dublin ON January 4, 1902, and be-
gan practicing at the age of twenty
two.
"But," he always adds, in telling
about 1t, ~ have done mighty little
practicing on myself"
He served as a surgeon in General
Taylors army In the Mexican War.
DR.. Wood attributes his long life and
sustained yigor to the fact that he has
always lived plainly and temporarily,
INDUCING In no excesses and stunning
liquor and tobacco al he would a dead
~ poison. AS a student in Transyl-
vania Medical College he Joined a CO.
terie Of classmates who had pledged
themselves to this manner Of living.
All but one Of the parties to this COM
pact lived to be over seventy.1ve, five
lived to be " eighty. one became a
n~onagenarian, while DR.. Wood, the
sole survivor, is now In his 101st year.
a REMARKABLE MAN.
John Barlow, a remarkable old mar
Of Montgomery County, New York,
who passed his 10th birthday last
spring, tells us that he has drank
whisky and chewed and smoked to-
bacco nearly all his life. He was still
hale and hearty at last accounts, and,
moreover, was said to be counting O.
well-known widow aged ninety-seven,
with good prospects Of making her his
fifth wife. This wonderfully preserved
old nan has never required the SER
vices Of a physician, a dentist or an
oculist He has lived much In the open
air as a farmer, and has always pre-
ferred walking to riding in his local
travels.
Keeping the temperance question In
view, however, as a sine qua non to
long life. Francis NJ. Anthony. a cen
tenarian living near Bloomington, ILL.,,
who celebrated the 1920 anniversary
of his birth last May, counters upon
Mr. Barlow in fine style. At this cele-
bration Mt. Anthony told his friends,
with DO little pride, that In all the
years which had been allotted to him
he had never tasted alcohol or tobacco.
He put stress on this as an indispensa-
BILE condition to health, happiness and
q serene old age. He is a native OF
County Tyrone, Ireland, and came to
this country in 1890, settling with his
parents in upper New York. In 1873
he removed with his family to Illinois.
Many OLD WOMEN.
AT various times during the year at
tention was drawn to remarkable old
ladies, the more notable Of whom form
exceptionally interesting links with the
past. In 1894 Mrs. Fannie Epstein
was born In the Russian city Of Kovno.
This aged woman, who has celebrated
her 108th birthday. is still living in Chi
eago, making her home with q daugh-
ter lightweight years old. Her mother,