The Somerset reporter., 1908-03-26

al CONSIDERS this Inc complexion OF Un6
work he was assigned to do-to take
the Atlantic feet to the Pacific coast
On the cordial invitation of Japan,
the big fleet will visit that country.
Admiral Evans retires in August.
A great surprise awaited the people
when it was announced Monday
morning that Hon. Charles E. Little
field, member of Congress from the
Second District, had rendered his
resignation to the Governor, to take
effect on September 30, next. He
says that holding the position for
nearly nine years has been to him a
large financial loss, and he now feels
constrained, from sense Of his duty
to his family to resume the general
practice of his profession. 1t is we'll
und erstood that he will open a law
Office in New York City. Since the
days of Blaine, Maine has had no such
brilliant representative on the floor
of Congress as Charles E. Littlefield.
Wearing no mans collar, ready to
fight the Democratic party, together
with Gompers and his allies, and even
to antagonize members of his own
party when they took course against
his honest convictions, he had the ad-
miration of every one who likes stall
wart independence of thought. His
withdrawal from Congress will be a
distinct loss to the State and nation.
OF the candidates who are each day
springing up to take his place, (not to
fill it, } we can only say their name is
legion.
The prolongation of human life, al
ways an attractive subject, has lately
| assumed an aspect of great and I'M
usual Importance. Prof. Metchinkoff
(and we have nothing serious against
him except his Nance at the head of
the Pasteur Institute claims that of
the three chief evils that hang over
us-disease, old age and death-ra-
tionaI hygiene and preventive meas
ures will ultimately rid us of the first
named affection. He is equally firm
in the belief that old age and death
may be long postponed. He points
out that scientific investigation proves
that senility is nearly always preco-
cious and that it's disabilities and
miseries are for the most part due to
preventable causes. Experiments
have convinced him that the phenom-
ena of senility are due to intestinal
putrefaction. He maintains that the
inherited structure of the human
large intestine and the customary
diet of civilized man are particularly
favorable to the multiplication of the
microbes by which putrefaction is
caused. The avoidance of alcohol
and the rigorous exclusion from diet
of foods readily putrefied, such as
rich meats, and of raw and badly
cooked substances containing mi
crobes, would in his Judgment do
much to remedy the evil. While the
Professor may be right in his position
that even in old age death may be
long deferred, we should like to know
why, in the name of common sense,
an elderly person should devote his
entire time and energies in protrac-
ted effort to keep the breath of life
in his body. For a person to be al
ways seeking after symptoms" with
a finger on his pulse or heart, always
see king to avoid a draft, must be
fraught with constant anxiety. Let
the last part of life be lived cheerful
ly and hopefully, not securing salts
faction so much in self preservation
as in the good of others. Then when
death comes, it will not be in the
shape of a hideous monster.