The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-10
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKN. Director.
Washington, D. @.
STRETCHING THE LIFE LINE.

/ a
father had of living your allotted three
score years and ten, because you live
in healthier century. OF course. you
may depart this life suddenly before
your time by getting in the way of a
rapidly travelling auto. or as a result
of an insignificant pin scratch But
| barring accident, the chances of liv-
! ing to grow old gracefully are getting
better every day.
Two hundred years ago, the average
| person lasted only twenty years on this
! danger-infested globe. Half a century
| ago. the average life line had stretched
to forty years. and now 1t is estimated
| to have reached fifty years. 1t is true
that in the days when germs flour
ished unmolested some folks lived to
/ be one hundred years and more, but
| babies died by the thousand, and
surgery was in the saw and hammer
stage when to perform a major opera
ton was practically murder. Today.
| if you get stabbed in the heart a sur
geon coolly opens you up, takes out
your heart in his hand, repairs it and
sews it in as good as ever.
| Improved sanitation and scientific
war on mosquitoes, flies and rats are
recent developments which are max
/ ing life safer. So are antitoXins, vac
cination, aneSthetics, antiSeptics and
public health education. But along
/ with our firmer grip on Father Times
cOattails, we are developing an un-
| precedented amount of old age dis
! eases. The public health service re-
ports that never before has there
been so much heart trouble, cancer,
| troubles, largely because never before
have there been so many elderly peo-
pie.
Disease Starts in Youth.
In time, no doubt, we will attack
these diseases systematically in youth
when they start. 1t was found recently,
for instance, that 20, 900 school chill
of heart disorder, and this knowledge
| has led to special attention to their
! teeth and tonsils, diet and exercise.
| Many of these children live in five
story walk up tenements, which ac-
counts in some cases for symptoms of
strain.
1t is suggested that pupils with weak
hearts should be put in separate
schools where their health could be
more carefully watched than in the
regular public school buildings. One
| fifth of the deaths over forty years are
due to heart. failure, tho a large pro-
/ portion of heart trouble is preventable,
or durable if taken in time.
Is old age a disease? What causes
lit? and finally and most important, is
it preventable? are questions which
have been answered in many ways, but
! to which conclusive answers are still
being sought.
1t is a well known fact that old age
is usually accompanied by hardened
arteries, stiff Joints, loss Aof faculties,
and general debility. But these condi-
/ tons do not inevitably occur. Thomas
Edison, who is seventy-three, and who
| hopes to live to see one hundred and
fifty, says that because he sticks to a
spare diet his arteries are as soft as in
4 of n L.,
pie of more than eighty years who
were more spry and mentally alert
than others of sixty. These people
seem to offer greater resistance to
disease due to a strong constitution
and healthy habits Of life.
Long Life Hereditary.
DR.. Alexander Graham Bell, who
has collected data regarding 5000
persons who lived to be eighty years
| or over, concludes that these charac-
teristicS are often handed down. SO
that longevity becomes q family trait.
He believes that longevity should be
cultivated as it has been in the Hyde
family noted for consistently long lives
thru many generations. Doctor Bells
plea, in short, is for a healthier race,
which will have long life as one OF
the signs of its vitality.
No practical method of preventing
senility has ever been discovered.
| Metchnikoff idea that If a mans
long Intestine, which is a great col
lector of germs, were cut out, he
would stand a good chance of greatly
extended youth, has lost favor.
Those who have attained to a vigor-
Gus old age furnish theories that are
at least more practicable tho less SEN
lsauonal. Most very old people are
proud of their antiquity and like to
hand their recipe on to posterity. Up
to seventy, age is a thing to be con-
cealed If possible. but when the Bible
limit is passed safely. and the elderly
person feels as fit as ever, he begins
to take a pride in himself as a srot OF
conqueror of time. He develops a
philosophy as a guide for others, the
only difficulty being that few of the
guides agree.
Thus, many centenarians advise
those who would emulate their
achievement to get plenty of sleep
meaning eight to twelve hours al
night, and a few maps in your spare
time in the day. But along come some
: other old age authorities, Edison, for
example, and hold that six hours of
sleep in twenty-four will give the best
results.
Many ancient sages think that only
total abstinence from drinking. and
smoking keeps them youthful, tho
occasionally an expert of equal lon
gevity takes issue with them. There
was still living not long ago a woman
known to be 113 years old who had
been a devotee of the corncob pipe
for ninety years.
Onions Preserved Her.
One old lady who reached 107, left
word for posterity that onions did it
one at every meal, no matter whether
company was coming or not. An old
man concluded that only by refusing
to kiss or be kissed had he kept his
vigor to 100.
Most centenarians. however agree
that simple food. enough sleep. fresh
air, and a calm temperament are the
prime factors in warding off old age
apparently the only thing to do is to
work out your own plan. Then if you
live to 100 or so. you can brag about
your system. If your system fails no
body can say to you, Il told you so, u
anyway, which is one comfort.
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