The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-09-28
NOT NATURAL END
Death From Old Age Never in
Scheme of Things.
Mar Really 10 tho Only Animal That
Is CoddIed, Propped UP, and
Kept Alive.

Those wistful clingers to life who
cherish the ignoble ambition Of dying
Of old age, if they smust die at all
may be shocked to hear that death
from old age is not a natural death
There's a paradox that will bear the
light Of reason, for it can easily be
shown that such a death is quite re-
mote from the normal operations OF
Dame Nature when she is left to her
own devices, says a writer in the
Philadelphia Inquirer.
Dame Nature would have made
short work of Uncle Johnny Shell,
aentucky's senility freak, who died
the other day at the reputed age of
1874, had not the driveling old mans
relatives and neighbors, to say nothing
Of the rustic showmen who sometimes
exploited him as the "OldeSt man on
earth," conspired to protect him from
the normal accidents of injury or
starvation that otherwise overtake the
WORKOUT individuals of any species.
No creature is permitted by Dame
NatureS to flag superfiuous on the
stage" until overtaken by the disso-
luton of absolute senihty. Wild ami
mails don't live to die of old age. They
don't linger along as doddering de-
pendents, like the Kentucky Methu-
selah.
The superannuated elephant or buff
falo isn't supported or tended by the
herd. 1t retires gracefully to a soil
tary state of existence and maintains
Itself as well as it can with its failing
faculties until 1t starves to death,
stumbles over a cliff or is overcome by
enemies.
Whatever the end may be, it comes
pretty quickly and is considered by
some far more merciful than the pro-
tracted life that Uncle Johnny Shell
dragged out for so many years. The
elderly tiger, no longer spry enough to
catch the nimble antelope, becomes a
m%an-eater and peaches babies on the
outskirts of some village. Then some
body gets up a tiger hunt. and al ex-
bullet saves it from the unnat-
ural disgrace of dying of old age.
Who ever found a senile or en-
rabbit, robin, wolf, bear, trout,
wren, black bass or minnow?
Why, Dame Nature wouldn't dream of
allowing her nice, clean cosmos to be
cluttered up. She cleans house with a
of accidents.
Even the peaceful tree is not al
owed to cumber the earth beyond the
period of its ability to Withstand the
formal stress of the elements. 1t may
De. a California sequoia over 5000
years old or a Cape de Verde baobab
,ver 5000 years old, and it may have
it's period of growth and en-
cred its period of decay, but 1t will
lot be allowed to die Of old age. Some
torn will bring it down In its glory.
The untidy business of living to die
f old age is a fad Of civilized man.
is d%eplorabIe products are often seen
n almshouses. Also civilized man has
the curse upon his domestic
cts to a certain extent, so that Sen1le
nd enfeebled dogs and cats are kept
live by sentimentalists long after out
aged common sense would have called
Or ch%loroform.
The tradition of Uncle JOhnny's ex-
.eme age is not supported by any Of
cial records. A scientific investigator
no sought to ferret out the facts
,und that he could not honestly de-
uce any greater age for Uncle Johnny
a hundred years or whereabouts.
Local tradition always ~exaggerates
lie age of a very old person, as In the
use of old Parr, whose bones crumble
Westminster abbey, and whose
was embalmed in a book entitled
The Olde, Olde, Very Olde Man" Old
arr was a Shropshire peasant who
as reputed to be 152 years old when !
ken to London by the earl of Arundel 7
Id presented at court. 4
He died the same year-1635. DIR. 7
lillian Harvey, who discovered the /
r~culation of the blood, performed an .
and found the body in excel :
at condition. He thought death had :
caused by the change from sim :
e mi fare to the rich diet of :.
,ndon high life. On Old PARIS tomb y
e recorded the names of ten mon
chs, from Edward ~ to Charles /, {
der whom he lived. But later his Y
rical investigation threw a strong I
ubt Oh the length attributed to his q