Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1936-07-02
HANGING ON TO TIME

the subject "How to live long," will
claim the attention of a great num-
Der of people. In the face of many
disbursements and dependency,
leading to numerous suicides, very
large percent of our people are anx-
ious to live long. Long life! Those
words have an attraction tnat
makes you sit up and take notice.
Many are not going to attain to it,
no matter how much they desire.
Too many of us are not going to
heed natures laws enough to have
a fighting chance to round out a
long life: In other words, we don't
intend to pay the price. Yet we ma
ourselves gambling on the chance,
expecting in some way, to beat 1t
somehow away beyond mans al
lotted time. If there be a set OF in
fallible rules by which we may be
sure of pulling ourselves up to the
nonagenarian or century mark, we
don't know them. Wise men who
have felt absolutely certain that
they had found the secret long life,
the real, elixir and would her
aid the good news through the
press, then lie down and die, scarce
ly reaching the three score and ten
mark We had an example Jew
years ago. A Frenchman, who came
over here lecturing on the power or
suggestion, Every day in every
way, I'm getting BETTER or some
thing to that effect, then went
back to Paris and died at the age OF
~. Little use to pay any attention
o,Ix WI, al, fn
liver the goods,'' those who have
reached or are nearing the century
mark; and they, as a general thing,
are a bundle Of contradictions. Ii
we were to try to follow them all,
about the best thing we could do
would be to make our will, and get
busy pricing cemetery lots. These
various opinions usually reflect the
fads and fancies, likes and dislikes
of Mr.. and Mrs. Longlifer. Most ev-
eryone who has reached ripe old
age will have an aversion to some
particular vice or habit, and they
delight in telling that it was by
avoiding that particular thing that
they owe their longevity. On the
other hand, they may be clinging to
some fad and they will trot that in
and tell you it's the thing you
must observe. A year or SO ago.
over in Europe there was man,
FARO Agha, who died at the reputed
age of 164. What he attributed
his long life to, we do not know
Perhaps it was by sticking to his
Turkish pipe. A somewhat recent
bit of advice comes from Russian
woman, Dr. Marie Charlotte De Go
liere Davenport, hygiene lecturer,
who died in ST. Louis quite recently
at the age of Ill years. Here is
what she said: Never get angry,
learn self-control, develop agility,
avoid excesses in all things, don't
put anything on your face that you
wouldn't put in your stomach;
don't let your mind die" There is
a lot of good sense in the above, but
you can readily see that her kick, .
coming was cosmetics. Edwin Mark
ham, remarkable man, and poet,
gives his rule for longevity, but it is
too late for many of us to profit by
it. Briefly, he said, che didn't pick
one of those young squirts that loaf
around, for a father, nor painted
young fapper for a mother" Nu-
merous other instances might be
given along this line. Even the
writer has his fool ideas, some of
which he is putting into practice,
but they wouldn't look we'll in
print, besides some might be offend
ed, moreover we haven't lived long
enough to prove anything. Some
time ago a middle aged man in fail
ing health living at some little dis
tance, got it somehow that we were
trying out some Of the various
health rules, came to see us, and we
somewhat hesitatingly told him
some things, but he couldn't agree
with us, as the treatment, he declar-
ed was worse than the disease, 50
he went his way, and never spoke to
us after that, as nothing was said
at the funeral. So we have to be
careful Some peoples health rules
conflict with others. An old codger
advised us to drink plenty of good
whisky Many would interpret that
ourselves to good whisky" we
wouldn't drink any at all. In view
of all these conflicting ideas perhaps
what a young man once said about
his mother may come as near hit
ting the nail on the head" He was
a conceited young Shanghai, the
only son of a widow who had been
left with a farm and some money
This particular poppinjay's idea of
taking the place of the deceased
father and carrying on, was as re-
mote in his mind as a bath tub in