The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-01-26

taken life as she found it, the bitter
with the sweet.
She has never found 1t necessary
to diet, but eats whatever pleases
her. And here's a fact that may seem
surprising-she drinks both tea and
coffee, and has done so all her life.
Mrs. ,Proechel has always been a
| fervent member of the German Luth-
eran church
She has never needed the services
of physician during her long life
except once when several years ago
she fell and sprained her arm, and
then she didn't believe that he did
her much good. She has never tasted
medicine in her life.
She threads the needle for her
| daughter, mere youngster of sew
enty-siX years.
She does not care for modern things,
but prefers to live mostly in the past.
A few years ago she was given her
first auto ride by her grandson, DR..
F. w. Prail of this city, and although
she chung closely to her companions
| in the whizzing car, shet gave no
| further proof of her surprise. She
demonstrated with her attendants for
helping her into the car "as if she
were an old woman" =
Mrs. Proechel does not speak Eng
fish, but she is ready to converse with
! friends in German on conditions in
Germany when she left that country.
| The past year has seen slight de-
/. cline in her condition. She is not as
active as she formerly was. She could
spin vigorously up to within the past
year.
The venerable woman does not see
many advantages in living to such a
age, and she says that she would n"
wish any of her friends to live so
long. "It is too long to live" she says.
] She is not contented with her long
evity and longs to join her husband in
the Great Beyond.
On her birthday, w. F. Kemper, the
green house man of this city will
present her with one hundred carna-
lions.
| Think of living one-hundred years.
Three times the average life of man.
And think of the vast changes that
have taken place since Grandma"
Prail first saw the light of day away
off in the German village of Her
mansdorf, . hundred years ago this
! Friday James Madison was then
President of the United States. There
were no electric lights, telephones,
| telegraphs, automobiles, motion pic
/ lures, elevators, steamship lines or
any of the other modern inventions
that facilitate life in this day. Abra-
ham Lincoln was a lad of eight years
! buried inthe obscurity of a Kentucky
J forest. The country was just resting
| from it's recent struggle with Great
Britain for the freedom of the seas.
| The fires Of the great slave question
which was to flame forth later into a
great civil war We're, not yet kindled.
Andrew Jackson was the popular hero
! the Roosevelt of the times although
| he fought more and talked less than
his later day prototype.
| But one feature of our country re-
mains unchanged-it is the same to-
i day. as it was when that little Ger
man girl was born across the seas a
hundred years ago, and that is the
spirit of freedom and equality extend
ed to the burdened citizen of another
| land. We are glad that it was true at
f., that time for it doubtless Influenced
| Grandma" Prail in coming to this
country, and this land could i'll afford
| to lose one of her sturdy, Industrious
| kind.
| AS this gentle, little old lady cele-
| brates her hundredtbN birthday, she
will undoubtedly be the recipient of
many felicitious wishes. She has
visited this city many times (she ex-
poets to come again at Eastern and
has many friends locally as well as
iri other sections of this county. Put
above all, she may feel. especially
contented as she looks back upon a
long life. filled with service TO her
fellows And she may spend her re-
naming days basking in the honor &C
corded her by her descendants and
1.-THE citizens of her community.