The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-09-30
THE OLDEST MAN
Was it Thomas Cam, Aged 207,
According to Parish
Record?

mentioned In your recent editorial
article, bat would say that the extra
ordinary Case of Thomas Cam. aged
207, rests on the parish record ut st.
Leunard's, Shorsditch, copy of
which appeared in the Penny Maya
zins of 1888, from which II appears
he lived from fourth of Richard vi.
TO the thirteenth of Elizabeth. having
been born in 1881. One would like to
inspect this record to see If there Is
any apparent tampering with the en-
try. for IL this remarkable case is
authentic Cam may have been the old
est person of all time, the years of the
bible being very uncertain.
/ quite think the age attributed to
Henry Jenkins, the Yorkshire man
(i69). is Authentic, bot | know Of no
further evidence of Ii than his tomb
stone inscription written by DIR.
Thomas Chapman, which credits this
centensrian with temperance, a life
to William Edwards O6S), whose
case / have faith in-he is commem-
GRATED on a slab in Cserey church.
near Cardiff, Glamorgan, and died in
1868. Tombstone inscriptions are not
easily tempered with. The case Of
Juano Truxo is perhaps very uncertain,
sne being a negrtss of Tecuman, 8.
A, and is reputed to have attained
1852 years ''in spite of her fondness
of stimulants. Betsy Tnantham, Of
Tennessse-probably another negress-
is S id to have died in 1913, aged 154.
believe la Thomas Pairs age (i52).
He married his second wife when 1870
an till his l30th year performed all
his usual work. Twenty years later
he went to London to see Charles l..
but the royal treatment at court was
toj much for him. it is alleged. PETE r
Czsrtsn. or Toitiu, the Belgrade
patriarch, a notorious glut en-. could
u { have been troubled much with
indigestion. as he is stated to have
Ii ed to 15J, and sven 1870 odd years.
l 1891 a Countess of Eccleston is said
to have died in Ireland ut 143, and
again evidence is lacking, bur the
countess of Desnold's case Is an ex
%traoIdinsry one. She dancsd with
a. hard III. when duke of dlOucester,
aud d scribed him ss one Ut the
slraightest and propsrest men she
ev Z saw
This merry widow died ia 1894,
surviving her husband, tue twelfth
earl. seventy years. retained her
~faculti to the END. could walk ten
miles a day until a week of her death
at l40. and according to the inscription
on hei portrait at Muckross abbey,
Killarney, lin ye course of her pill.
g.ipsee renewed her teeth twice. "
sir William Temple relates that ''she
must needs CLUB a tree t. gather nuts,
so. falling down, she hurt her thigh
which brought a fever and her death. F"
A modern instance, and one appar-
emily deserving of ~credence, is that
DIR. William Mead. Of Ware, County
of Herts. a stone In the cLurcbyard
giving his age 14i years with the odd
months. weeks and days. Like Or.
Chao- Choy, who died the other day,
after arrival in New York, he prob
ably used longevity tablets or other
wise discovered the art OF living long.
The death of Korti In the government
Of Kutais of a small farmer named
Knabea In his 141st year was an
uouuced recently. "Oil without and
honey within" was believed by one
ancient to be the secret of longevity
The tomb Of Margaret Scott. Of Dali
keith. Scotland (l7ss). tells the princi-
pal events which she saw during q
career Of 1875 years.
But their name is legion. Mark or
Marcus Jordan, the Nv estphalixn
patriarch" is said to have won q
pedestrian match at 1O7. He believed
in exercise foi all ills, three meals
a day, and no medicine" Jean
Frederick Waldeck. an undoubted
c~entenarian, died at Paris about 1879,
aged loo, and the female soldier,
Phoebe Hessel, who. born In 1913 at
Sepney. fought at F~ontenoy. where
sne was wounded, in 1745, reached 10s.
according to her tombstone at Brigh-
ton. 1t seems quite likely that Brown,
the Cornish beggar, did attain 100,
with a life free from care. / have a
photograph of James Carne, who died
In Cornwall a few years ago at lO5.
He was highlands oldest parish clerk;
indeed he. his father and grandfather
had been parish clerks at st. Colomb
Minor for $50 years. and there were
only six since 1895. A Welsh cente-
marian who died q few years ago had
sung in a church choir for ninety
years, surely a record. Anyone inter.
ested in the subject Of longevity will
find q long list Of cenenarisns 10
"Rutter's Worthless" ana Chamber
Book OF Days among other publica-
tions.
Deafness Cannot be Cured
by local applications, as they cannot
reach the diseased portion OF tie ear.
There is only one way to sure deafness
and that is by constitutional remedies.
Deafness is caused by an inflamed con-
dition Of the mucous lining Of the Eu-
stachian tube. When this tube is in
famed you have . rumbling sound or
imperfect hearing, and when it Is entire
y closed deafness is the result, and I'M