The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-18
FROM OTHER PENS
LONGEVITY.

Is modern science on the eve of dis
covering the secret of longevity, that
elixir for which alchemists of old sought
SO assiduously with their test tubes and
retorts and chemicals that would or
would not affiliate? Statisticians, who
know how to calculate such things
and where to go to get the figures
for the calculations, tell us a story OF
the ever-increasing longevity of man.
According to these statistics, arranged
comparatively, human life has almost
doubled in duration in the last four
centuries. Four hundred years ago the
average length of human life was be-
tween Is and 20 years. In three CEN
turtles it climbed up to 80 years, and
today it is we'll on toward 40 1t is
said that only three-fourths of the
babies born on the earth live beyond
the sixth year. and fully a half die
before reaching the age of 16. Out of
every 100 people who are born, there
is only an average of one who lives to
be 65. These would be appalling statis-
tics if 1t were not for the comforting
thought that they are steadily imICov-
ing as is shown by the increased
longevity. why men live longer now
than they did in past centuries is vari-
ously ascribed to improved modes OF
living, to temperance in eating and
drinking, to the lack of exterminating
wars and to the wonderful advance in
sanitation, hygiene and the science OF
surgery. All of these are no doubt
contributary causes, but perhaps the
last three are the greatest aids. The
doctrine of cleanliness has been the
doctrine of physical salvation; and at
some points where sanitation could
not reach, the surgeons knife has ia
ken up the story of longevity. Cutting
out the rotten specks has saved many
an otherwise doomed man. Since the
days of reliable statistics centenarians
have been the exceptions in the popula-
ton of the world, but if science con-
tinueS to improve conditions so that
longevity may go on increasing at the
present rate, the time may come when
the Biblical story of Methuselah may
sound less like a mistake in mathe-
mates or the exaggeration of a per-
fervid Observation-Disclosures CONNER
cial Appeal.
AS EACH SIDE SAW 1T.
According to American reports
thirty Mexican soldiers fired at the
American cavalrymen on the Ameri-
can side of the boundary and were
driven off. According to Mexican re-
ports ten American cavalrymen fred
at three Mexican woodcutters on the
Mexican side of the line and were
driven off. AS to the international re-
lations of this affair both reports may
be honestly made. Except the mart of
it made by the Rio Grande the bonn
dairy between the United States and
Mexico is an imaginary line, and men
on either side might pass it without
knowing it. Those Mexicans NAV have
been in the United States while think
ing themselves still in Mexico or the
may have been in Mexico
while thinking they were still in the
United States. So as far as the bonn
dairy is concerned each side NAV have
meant to tell the truth. But when II
comes to the point of deciding who
was the bully boy with a glass eve
we can't give both sides credit for sin
cer1ty. 1t is not probable that the
Mex1cans thought they were ONLY three
when they were really thirty, or that
the Americans that they were thirty
when they were really three But even
In this respect one side or the Other
may have reasoned that the difference
between three and thirty was on1v n
cipher, and that a cipher was NOTHING
Ihey may have thought that nuttipo
on or taking off a mere cipher didn'f
matter, and so put on or took N Of
according as by the addition or aIi,n
nation they would make .thennsaI,,a
Drawer. OF course, each side renorte1
That the other side ran. The affair
was too far out in the wilderness e..
the presence of any bystandars 80
might tell the truth.-Florida T,,,as
Union. AiAhes-