Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-25
LIVE PAST CENTURY MARK.
Many Persons Of All Sorts Who Have
Reached Extreme Longevity. -

From the New York Tribune.
Ever since the days of the many-eenturied
patriarchs mankind has eyinced great inter-
est In those who have passed the usual lin
its of life The disposition to calculate and
speculate as to centenarians is shown by
the estimate that man who lives to be
sixty years old has spent seven months In
buttoning his shirt collar. Perhaps even
such a speculation is, on the whole, about
as valuable as some of the maximS and
rules laid down by those who have passed
the century mark. Still, notwithstand. ng
jocular estimates and the contradictory
maxims of the centenarians themselves, the
interest of the many in these veterans In
the army OF life is undeniable and increases
rather than diminishes with the years. Men
like Professors Loeb and Burke are study
ing In the laboratory the origin of life, but
there have probably never before been so
many intelligent persons who seized with
avidity upon every plausible plan or rule to
pIolong life.
The prediction is frequently made that
the ordinary mortal span will eventually be
so heightened that man will be at his best
from 20 to 100, and that those who die at
less than the latter age will be deemed
guilty of culpable negligence.
Some find the secret In a return to what
they call the natural simple life of the pa
triarchs of Scripture and would have us
grind between rude stones the grain for our
daily food. Some assert that In uncooked
foods lies the road leading to the century
gate, while others would have US live as we
please and take no thought of long life as
the surest means of reaching it. No rules
or maxims are too absurd to have their fol-
lowers. and the one conclusion that may
safely be adduced is that the majority of
people would gladly live long provided the
usual infirmitieS of age could be avoided.
Whethef the old world with its settled
ways and life ordered by centuries of pre-
cedent, or the new world with its different
climatic and governmental, agricultural and
industrial conditions. is conducive to the
greater longevity remains a mooted ques-
ton Certainly many seem to have found,
TX not the fountain of youth, at least the
fountain of years in the new world. IN
dams In California and Mexico are credibly
declared to have reached ages from 100 to
No. and at Hoiuca. Mexico. a few years ago
lived a man whose claim to be 1872 did not :.
perhaps, require discount of more than
33 1-3 per cent.
That New York the busiest city on the
continent, is not unfavorable to longevity is
stcwn I'm the large list of centenarians 1t
has numbered among its citizens, while a
popular saying In the Connecticut valley Is
that the inhabitants never die, but dry up
and blow away.
On the other hand It must be admitted
that many centenarians of the new world
were born in Europe. In the obituary col
umns of the London Times one day few.
years ago twenty-three deaths were record
ed and the united ages of seventeen of
those long-liyed individuals amounted to
/. tSS9 years. or an average of nearly seventy
nine Ireland has furnished liberal list
os centenarians, including not only persons
who lived and died in the Emerald isle, but
also a goodly number who emigrated to
America and helped to swell the records of
longevity In the new world. The chances
for living to DC 100. therefore, seem to be
equally divided between Europe and Amer
lea, and also between men and women
which seems to be only equitable That.
at least, Is one comfortable reflection in re-
gard to centenarianism. because 1t Is of
general application and refers the question
OF years to the personal equation.