Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-21
ANGELElNOS LIVE LONG
AND MOST HAPPILY Y
Climate of Southern California ReviVifieS and Re-
generates and Turns Old Age Into What
Appears to Be Perpetual Youth
Written for The Herald by COL Joseph D. Lynch

I about the old lady, and they expressed
an intense desire to see her. I saved a
small bottle of extra dry Mumm for
the old lady, and we stopped at her
house on the way through the village.
AS we entered, Donna Bulalia, who
was sitting Turkish fashion on n ta-
BILE, seized an old rag of some kind and
a needle and thread and began to pre-
tend to sew. We had undoubtedly talk
en- her by surprise, which was no Won
der, as her grandchild, who was a cob
bier and 81 himself, was hammering
away at his bench--not n very observ-
ant lookout, as one might say. The
stitches which Donna Eulalia was pre-
tendedly taking UP in the cloth were at
least an inch above 1t. 1 whipped the
cork out of the bottle, after exchang-
ing the salutations of the day, and
rendered her a full, old fashioned glass
of champagne. She drank 1t slowly
and with gusto, smacked her lips and
handed me back the emptied measure.
I offered to refill it. She smiled, nodded
her head, and said:
"Gracios, senior, bastante." (Thank
you, sir, enough.)
had at that time seen but one CEN
tenarian In my lifetime, and L studied
her with absorbing interest. Did she
look 1877 years old? 1 assure you she
looked 5000 years old. Such a mass of
wrinkles was simply inconceivable-
bewidering. Withal she had been a
notably healthy woman and had not
been confined to her bed. She was
then within a few weeks of her death.
but she gave as much evidence of en-
ioying that glass of wine as Dick
Swiveller himself would have shown.
Home of the Long Lived
Whatever may be said as to the
adaptability of Southern California for
the cure of this or that disease it is
certainly favorable to longevity. This
is true of the whole state, and was il
lustrated the other day by the bo-
hemian clubs giving a dinner In San
Francisco to Uncle Georgia Bromley
on his elghty-eighth birthday Col.
Stevenson of "Stevenson's Regiment"
was given banquet at the Palace
hotel on his ninety-second birthday,
a few years before his death. On that
occasion he was asked by a reporter
of the San Francisco Chronicle to what
he attributed his extreme old age.
my son." said the colonel, Il ascribe
it to the fact that, when could get it,
always drank a good whisky punch
before my dinner"
That was the old gentleman's joke,
but the fact Is that, to the last day
of his life, he was as lively as a but
terf1y.
Many old men, indeed, we have had
in Southern California, and old wo-
men as well, without reckoning in
Donna Eulalia, Old Don Juan Warner,
a we'll known pioneer who landed in
San Diego county way back in 1882,
was bustllng about twenty or thirty
years after DR.. Osler's chloroforming
age. He was a typical Yankee and
was called Don Juan Largo by the ma
tive Californians on account of his
great height. He filled all sorts of
functions hereabouts, from Indian
fighter to trader and editor. He was
at one time proprietor Of Warmers
ranch, in San Diego county, over
which there have been so many law
suits and which now owns Downey
Harvey as its lord. Don Juan had the
great misfortune to lose his eyesight
In the last few years Of life which
touched the nonagenarian limit.
The last Of the Mexican governors of
Alta California, Don Pho Pico, was
extremely vigorous up to his ninetieth
year and beyond. He retained marked
physical vigor to the end.
Los Angeles is today full Of men of
marked vigor, who seem able to defy
the advances of time. One Of these is
the Hon. Sherman o. Houghton, who
was elected to congress from this dis
trict, then the Fourth, thirty-three
years ago. Tom Reed, the dead and
gone speaker Of the house of represent
read law with Mr.. Houghton ever so
many years ago in San Jose. Nobody
would be surprised to see our towns
man mounting the hustings now and
proclaiming the doctrines of Lincoln
with his old-time cogency. He is
striking confutation of DR.. Oslers fool
rescript and twice did Los Angeles the
honor of representing her in congress.
Los Angeles grand old man Slau-