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ALBERT R. MANN 
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 Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137 
 
 _ Cornell University Library 
 
 QP 85.S65 
 
 Masters of the old age; the value of Ion 
 
 3 1924 003 178 344 
 
gg \4 Cornell University 
 
 ifflli h) Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003178344 
 
Masters of Old Age 
 
Masters of Old Age 
 
 ®tj? Haltw nf Congftrtta SUuatrateh h^ 
 Prarttral lExamjtUa 
 
 BY 
 
 COLONEL NICHOLAS SMITH 
 
 Author of "Stories o( Great National Sonss," "Hymns Historically Famous,' 
 
 "Songs from the Hearts of Women/' and "Our Nation's 
 
 Flag in History and Incident" 
 
 It matters not how straight the gate, 
 
 How charged with punishment the scroll, 
 
 I am the master of my fate: 
 I am the captain of my soul. 
 
 W. E. Hknlbt. 
 
 MILWAUKEE 
 THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 
 
 1905 
 
 C-i, 
 
 #- 
 
31S8S0 
 
 COPYEIGHT BY 
 
 THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 
 
 I90S 
 
INSCRIPTION. 
 
 It is with rare pleasure that the author is privileged 
 to inscribe this volume to 
 
 LIBBABIAN OF COLtTMBIA UNITBR8ITT, 
 NIW YORK CITY, 
 
 who writes so timely and well on The Philosophy of 
 Staying in Harness. He has an impressive message for 
 the normal man, whether old or young, which is briefly 
 comprehended in these two paragraphs: 
 
 First, to live. Not to exist. Second, to be a man 
 among men. Third, to do that which will endure. 
 
 All this talk of "stepping out and giving the young 
 man a chance," is supremest folly. The young men 
 never have "a chance" equal to the opportunity of 
 working side by side with those in experience, in that 
 
 wisdom which comes from practical trials 
 
 Counsel and action, wisdom and energy, age and youth, 
 mixed in proper proportions, secure the finest results. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER. , PAGE. 
 
 ■ — I. "Staying in Haenbss" - 1 
 
 II. Age in Relation to Mental Activity 14 
 
 III. Can We Spaee the Old Men? - 25 
 
 ^ IV. Two Views op Old Age - 39 
 
 V. Growing Old and Keeping Young 43 
 
 VI. Old at Fifty — ^Young at Eighty 50 
 
 VII. Growing Old Cheerfully 57 
 
 VIII. Never Too Old to Leakn 71 
 
 IX. The Last Years of the "Grand Old 
 
 Man" - - 84 
 
 X. Intellectual Work and Longevitt - 91 
 
 — XI. Ought We Never to be Sick? - 101 
 
 XII. Three Distinguished Engineers 110 
 
 XIII. Half a Century's Service in One 
 
 Church - ... 115 
 
 XIV. Lives that Rebuke the Dead Line 
 
 Dictum - - 119 
 
 XV. When is a Man Too Old? - 125 
 
 XVI. A Group of Young Old Men - - 136 
 
 XVII. Bryant's Habits of Life 143 
 
 XVIII. Some Remarkable Centenarians - - 148 
 
 XIX. The Case of Coenaro 159 
 
 XX. Women Centenarians 166 
 
 XXI. "At Evening Time it Shall be Light" 175 
 
 XXII. "Keep on the Sunny Side of the 
 
 Street" - 182 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 -^XXIII. The Abt of Living - 191 
 XXIV. General Gbant's Last and Gbeatest 
 
 ViCTOEY 202 
 
 XXV. Some Chaeactebistics of Longevity 207 
 
 XXVI. Conditions foe Longevity 213 
 
 XXVII. CONSBEVING THE BnEESIES OF BlDEELY 
 
 People 220 
 
 XXVIII. How to Live the Simple Life 228 
 
 XXIX. The Beatitude of Old Age 234 
 
 XXX. Oij) Age and the King of Tekrobs - 243 
 
 XXXI. Addendum: Advanced Life and the 
 
 Food Question 253 
 
 Geneeal Index - - 273 
 
THE PUEPOSE OE THIS VOLUME. 
 
 F books which teach young men and 
 women how to avoid the pitfalls of 
 life and how to succeed in business 
 affairs, the quality is excellent and 
 the supply adequate to the demand. Of books 
 which suggest in a practical way how aging per- 
 sons can best maintain a spirit of cheerfulness 
 and hopefulness, and prolong useful lives, I 
 know of none whose scope equals this volume. 
 
 To make a right start in life is of great im- 
 portance. To end life well is all-important. 
 When Paul of Tarsus was in prison for the sec- 
 ond time in Rome, and his martyrdom only a 
 few months off, he wrote a letter to his young 
 friend Timothy in which he said: "I have 
 fought a good fight, I have finished my course, 
 I have kept the faith." Keeping the faith to the 
 
X MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 end is the supreme thing. It is the keynote of 
 Masters ob' Old Age. 
 
 'No attempt has been made to prepare this 
 book on a scientific plan. It is not a discussion 
 of the contention of certain physiologists that 
 the limit of human life should not be less than 
 one hundred years. In a large measure it is the 
 ever interesting story of victories over old age 
 and physical impairment by men and women of 
 all classes and of varied talents. It contains 
 many personal experiences illustrating the 
 methods by which health and usefulness may 
 be maintained by those of advancing years. 
 The list of persons who have achieved honorable 
 careers at a time of life when many suppose that 
 work and aspirations should cease, is by no 
 means exhaustive, but it is fairly representative 
 of a very large number of persons who under- 
 stand, and put to a practical use, the true art of 
 living. 
 
 I have no intention of advertising a "beauti- 
 ful ideal" of old age, nor of presenting any 
 fanciful theory regarding cheerfulness and 
 fortitude in those hampered by painful bodily 
 defects, What I fervently desire is to lay be- 
 fore the reader some helpful facts obtained from 
 many, individual experiences which may pos- 
 sibly assist others to add to their lives a com- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. xi 
 
 fortable measure of serviceableness and enjoy- 
 ment. The lesson the book teaches is that it is 
 worth while to live in a manly and a womanly 
 way and to be of some account to somebody in 
 spite of age or environments. 
 
 The most valuable piece of personal prop- 
 erty of which anyone can be possessed is the 
 human body. In its mechanism it is the great- 
 est of all wonders. Unless it is used properly, a 
 healthy and happy old age is out of the question. 
 In my purpose to place within the reach of the- 
 reader some practical helpfulness in his effort 
 to make a right use of the body during the ad- 
 vancing period of life I have received valuable 
 assistance from such eminent physicians, physi- 
 ologists, and scientists as John Madison Taylor, 
 M.D., Philadelphia; Koger Sherman Tracy, 
 M.D., !N'ew York; and Sir Hermann Weber, 
 M.D., London. Their contributions tp the sci- 
 ence of right living are of exceptional worth to 
 those who are earnestly striving for good health, 
 usefulness and joyous length of days. 
 
 It has been ordained that I should pass years 
 in physical weakness, and with the scriptural 
 limit of life near by I may not expect freedom 
 from its depressing and often devitalizing ef- 
 fects. It is natural, therefore, that I should 
 find inspiration in communing with the veter- 
 
xii MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ans in harness, and the patient and industrious 
 invalids. Hall- Caine says that the only time a 
 book makes a man happy is when he is writing 
 it. That sentiment appeals to me with great 
 force. And if those who chance to read this 
 little volume derive half as much profit there- 
 from as I found comfort and strength in prepar- 
 ing it, its publication will not be in vain. 
 
 Nicholas Smitit. 
 Milwaukee, Wis., 
 June the first, 1905. 
 
Masters of Old Age 
 
 OHAPTEE I. 
 
 "Staying in Harness." 
 
 O remain active members of society 
 and continue to do our share of 
 life's work is a matter of vital con- 
 cern to those of us who are classed 
 as elderly people. Of course it is not always 
 easy to dismiss the thought that we are growing 
 old. But by far too many persons fancy that 
 at sixty, seventy, or eighty, development is held 
 in check because of age, and only little can be 
 accomplished in the physical and mental field 
 of life. 
 
 Under normal conditions the rule prevails 
 that there are few insurmountable obstacles to 
 a happy utilization of mind and body during 
 the period of old age. The practical question is 
 not whether we can push the natural age of man 
 to ninety or one hundred years, but whether we 
 
2 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 can keep our bodies so pure and active, and so 
 preserve the integrity of our mental powers, 
 that between fifty and ninety our place will not 
 be in seclusion, but in some degree, at least, in 
 the full tide of the world's activities. 
 
 Julian Hawthorne has a suggestive article in 
 the 35th volume of The Cosmopolitan^ entitled 
 "Resist Gravitation," a practical interpretation 
 
 '^of which I understand to be this: Keeping 
 one's self in a condition of physical soundness, 
 grasping a large hope of the future, possessing 
 a wholesome self-confidence, and staying in 
 harness in spite of advancing age. Men get 
 
 ~~Ehe vulgar notion that when they are fifty or 
 sixty they should begin to think themselves old ; 
 but in these pages are given many of the rap- 
 idly multiplying examples which prove that a 
 man need be no older than he chooses. 
 
 _ In speaking of the philosophy of this matter, 
 Mr. Hawthorne says: "The gist of it is that 
 we should resist gravitation, moral, mental, and 
 physical. Do not let your body sag down- 
 ward, or your mind or your character. You 
 will notice that all old persons who permit 
 themselves to be old have bodies that are slowly 
 being dragged downward; their thoughts, also, 
 are heavy and slow. These tendencies may 
 be overcome by taking thought about them: 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 3 
 
 sit erect in your chair; when you stand, lift 
 yourself to your full height; when you speak, 
 let your voice possess full volume and energy. 
 Never believe that you are a back number. 
 Read new books (really new ones, not old ones 
 rehashed); associate with lively people; be 
 plucky and take your part. Gravitation, in all 
 planes of existence, is man's enemy if he yield 
 to it, but his best friend if he resist it. Have 
 confidence in the possible integrity of human 
 life, from start to finish, and it will reward you 
 with health, strength, and felicity." 
 
 If one wants an encouraging lesson on the 
 subject of staying in harness, he can find it in 
 the life of Professor Theodor Mommsen, who 
 died in Germany in November, 1903. He was 
 one of the greatest of all the historians of 
 Rome, and was also one of the most eminent 
 scholars of his time. In stature he was insig- 
 nificant, and his frame was surprisingly ema- 
 ciated, his weight being hardly more than one 
 hundred pounds. His physical condition 
 seemed so frail that one might reasonably sup- 
 pose that with advancing years Professor 
 Mommsen could not resist the temptation to lay 
 aside the hard work attending the life of a great 
 scholar and rest upon the honors he had already 
 won. But the little old man, whose voice was 
 
4 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 full of sweetness and his laugh as merry as that 
 of a girl of sixteen, could not so close his life. 
 Had he lived thirty days longer he would have 
 celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday, and in the 
 work of his last year he manifested the energy 
 and mental power of a man in middle life. 
 
 To show how Professor Mom m sen could pull 
 in harness in his later years, the London Tele- 
 graph says that when he was sixty he lost his 
 whole library through fire in his residence at 
 Charlottenburg. Many friends feared that the 
 blow would be too much for him. Not a bit of 
 it ! After a brief space of time he recovered his 
 good spirit, his great energy of character help- 
 ing him over every obstacle, and more than ever 
 he seemed to embody the words of Goethe: 
 "when a man is old he must do more than when 
 he is young." 
 
 Mrs. Hannah B. Humphrey of Warsaw, 
 ISTew York, seems never to have been disturbed 
 by the thought that when she became old she 
 would be decrepid and useless. In 1902, at the 
 age of ninety-five, she was an active clubwoman. 
 She understood the philosophy of life. Emer- 
 son says "the high prize of life, the crowning 
 fortune of a man, is to be born with a bias to 
 some pursuit, which finds him in employment 
 and happiness." Mrs. Humphrey secured this 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 5 
 
 high prize of life. When within a few years 
 of being a century old, she was not only busy 
 attending to many household affairs, but in the 
 art of embroidery she thought herself equal to 
 any young woman in Warsaw, and her speci- 
 mens exhibited at the fairs never failed to take 
 the first premium. 
 
 Only a few days ago I read an interesting 
 story of the life of Mr. George Ives of Fre- 
 donia, New York. On the day that he was one 
 hundred years old some friends called at his 
 house to congratulate him upon having attained 
 to so great an age. They expected to find him 
 in his home comfortably seated in an easy chair, 
 waiting patiently for the final summons. But 
 he Was not there. They were told by the house- 
 keeper that the old gentleman was in the field, 
 following a harrow ! Mr. Ives does not believe 
 in the "antique morality" that when a man is 
 seventy years old or over, "it is time for him 
 to lay aside the things of the present, life and 
 to prepare his soul for the next." He told his 
 visitors that he could see no reason why he 
 should stop work because he was a hundred 
 years old. 
 
 How not to get old. in the sense that one 
 must master the inclination to let his mind and 
 body "sag downward," is one of the great prob- 
 
6 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 lems which, confront people of advanced years. 
 To win the "high prize of life" is to keep ac- 
 tively employed in some useful occupation to 
 the end. This is not mere sentiment, but a 
 practical matter. There is open to almost all 
 aged persons an opportunity to enjoy a fair de- 
 gree of health, to possess a good temper, and to 
 engage in some helpful employment, however 
 humble. There is a lot of sense in the saying 
 of a French philosopher that a man should keep 
 at his work as though immortal, even if he 
 should know that his death would come to- 
 morrow. And another moralist struck the key- 
 note of a principle that should control every 
 life — "a man who on a sinking ship does not 
 take his pill at the prescribed moment and wind 
 up his watch, lacks a manly quality." 
 
 Mrs. Hannah W. Truex of Caneadea, ITew 
 York, has this happy idea of the duty of old 
 age. In October, 1904, she celebrated her 
 ninety-sixth birthday, and on that day had com- 
 pleted a quilt that contains nine hundred and 
 seventy-five pieces; and during the previous 
 year she had pieced six such quilts, which kept 
 her hands and mind busily employed. Her 
 living for a purpose makes Mrs. Truex a per- 
 fect type of an aged gentlewoman. 
 
 There are many fine examples which sustain 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 7 
 
 the timely suggestion of Julian Hawthorne con- 
 cerning the resistance of the gravitation of the 
 mind and. body. There is a chance for most old 
 men and women to make their last years radiant 
 and useful if they be not chronic victims of the 
 vicious idea that old age is a condition to be 
 dreaded. Complete mastication of wholesome 
 food, exercise, fresh air, cheerful temperament, 
 and good hours, are high-class doctors. They 
 seldom fail to renew one's life and energy. It 
 was only a few months since that the Hon. Pres- 
 ton H. Leslie, in arguing a case before the State 
 Supreme Court of Montana, incidentally made 
 the remark that he was entering upon the sixty- 
 fourth year of his practice as a lawyer. He was 
 then eighty-five years old, and seemed to be as 
 alert and active as many attorneys far younger. 
 In years long gone by he had been governor of 
 Kentucky ; he had also been territorial governor 
 of Montana, and finally United States District 
 Attorney. He had mastered the art of warding 
 off the fate that often overtakes men of seventy 
 or eighty years. 
 
 Up to the present time the oldest and one of 
 the most reliable lighthouse keepers in the 
 United States is a little, fragile woman of 
 eighty years. Her name is Harriet E. Colfax, 
 a cousin of Schuyler Colfax, at one time 
 
8 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives at 
 Washington, and Vice-President during Gen- 
 eral Grant's first term. Eor forty-three years 
 this frail, but active-minded and self-reliant 
 woman has kept the harbor light burning at 
 Michigan City, Indiana. Her strength, in a 
 large measure, was limited. But in illness, in 
 winter's storms, in the blackest nights, she 
 never failed to set in place "the blazing guide of 
 two generations of mariners." She loves her 
 work for the good there is in it, and also because 
 it gives her an opportunity to spend much of the 
 day in the open air. In the summer of 1904, 
 Miss Colfax said she was still able to do her 
 work and was loath to give it up ; but the Gov- 
 ernment had concluded to erect a new light- 
 house, far out into the lake, which only a 
 strong man can manage, and the great, old- 
 fashioned lamp which she had tended for forty- 
 three years and which had been the hope of 
 many sailors in the terrors of many storms, was 
 soon to go out forever. 
 
 There is an old saying that youth, like the 
 kingdom of heaven, is in the heart. This beau- 
 tiful sentiment is forcibly expressed in the 
 career of the late Mr. John McCoy of Inde- 
 pendence, Missouri. His nephew, the Kev. 
 John McCoy of Appleton, Wisconsin, writes 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 9 
 
 me that his uncle was engaged in the business 
 of banking, and lived an ideal life. He not 
 only stayed in the harness, but possessed the 
 happy faculty of keeping himself young as long 
 as he lived. One of the maxims of his life was 
 to forget himself and keep in touch with young 
 people. When Mr. McCoy laid down the cares 
 of life in 1904, at the age of eighty-eight, he 
 had made the incomparable record of superin- 
 tending the same Presbyterian Sunday School 
 for fifty-six consecutive years. 
 
 In Milton's Sonnet to Oyrica Skinner, is 
 this resolution: 
 
 "Yet I argue not 
 Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
 Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer 
 Eight onward." 
 
 These lines furnish a text on which many a 
 good sermon could be preached relative to 
 pulling in the harness against physical weak- 
 ness as well as old age. Herbert Spencer died 
 in December 1903, at the age of eighty-three. 
 Indeed, he was like Paul, "an ambassador in 
 chains," but he stayed in the harness. 
 
 Some years before First Principles was pub- 
 lished in 1862, Spencer suffered a nervous 
 breakdown. When the attack came he was 
 hardly forty years old. He gradually sank 
 into a condition of practical invalidism. But 
 
10 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 his courage and purpose failed not. He was 
 no gnunbler. He was as much' of a philosopher 
 in pain and weakness and advancing years, as 
 he was master of the system of philosophy 
 which made him famous. His business was to 
 work, and he worked! Time and again his 
 physical exhaustion was so weakening that he 
 could dictate only a few brief paragraphs in 
 a day, but after all his achievements were mar- 
 yellous. Forty years measured his suffering, 
 ' and during those forty years he built his great- 
 est monuments to his genius. 
 
 How one can keep his mental energies on the 
 stretch for full seventy years and yet maintain 
 a physical condition that gives no sign of decay, 
 is seen in the career of Sir Joseph D. Hooker 
 of England, who recently passed his eighty- 
 seventh year. He is probably the greatest liv- 
 ing botanist, and some of his most interesting 
 work has been done in Utah, Colorado, Cali- 
 fornia, and the Kockies. By his wisdom and 
 skill in keeping the physical nature on the high 
 plane which has characterized his mentality. 
 Sir Joseph has not been smitten by the frosts 
 of eighty-seven winters. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable invalid of our 
 time is Bishop Samuel Isaac Joseph Scher- 
 eschewsky (pronounced Sher-e-shev-ske), born 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 11 
 
 of Jewish parentage in Kussian Lithuania, in 
 1831. He was educated in Russia and Ger- 
 many, and on coming to the United States in 
 1854, he embraced Christianity, took a course 
 of studies in theology, became an Episcopalian, 
 and received deacon's orders in St. George's 
 Church, New York, in 1859. He went to 
 China in 1860, and was elected by the House of 
 Bishops to the Missionary Episcopate of Shang- 
 hai in 18Y7. 
 
 No sooner had Bishop Schereschewsky begun 
 his labors in China than he started his mon- 
 umental work "which gave to three-quarters of 
 the people of China the Bible in their own 
 spoken language — ^thus doing for China what 
 Luther did for Germany and King James' ver- 
 sion did for the English-speaking race." 
 
 In 1883 the Bishop returned to the United 
 States in a paralyzed and almost helpless con- 
 dition. His friends supposed he was going 
 home to die. But it was at this period that he 
 performed his greatest achievement. Instead 
 of dying, he cautiously, but persistently, gave 
 all the energy his limited physical condition 
 would allow to a revision of the entire Manda- 
 rin Bible which had been translated from the 
 original Hebrew and Greek between 1870 and 
 
12 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 1881 by a committee in Pekin, under the per- 
 sonal supervision of the Bishop. 
 
 During his residence in the United States, 
 which extended from 1883 to 1895, Bishop 
 Schereschewsky began an entirely new transla- 
 tion of the Bible into Wenli, the classical lan- 
 guage of China, This almost herculean task 
 was accomplished, says Mr. W. Gr. Fitz Gerald 
 in Everybody's Magazine, "without any Chi- 
 nese scribe or assistant, and the whole stu- 
 pendous script, in Roman letters, was written 
 on a typewriter (made expressly for him), with 
 his two paralyzed front fingers. The Wenli 
 text, which the Bishop humorously calls his two- 
 fingered Bible, represents fourteen years of un- 
 remitting labor. 
 
 "The last time an official of the American 
 Bible Society saw the Bishop in Tokio, he af- 
 fectionately patted the arms of his chair with 
 the atrophied fingers, and remarked: 'To com- 
 plete my task I have sat in this chair for over 
 twenty years.' " 
 
 On his return to China in 1895, the Bishop, 
 in collaboration with the Eev. J. S. Burden, 
 translated the Book of Common Prayer into 
 Mandarin. Since 1897 he has resided in 
 Japan, and, spite of his great infirmities and 
 three-score years and ten, he has compiled a 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AaE. 13 
 
 Mongolian dictionary, and at last accounts he 
 was preparing a volume of references to the 
 Mandarin Bible. 
 
 Bishop Schereschewsky is not only the most 
 remarkable invalid of this generation, and in 
 every sense the master of his fate, but Pro- 
 fessor Max Miiller says he is one of the six 
 most learned Orientalists in the world. 
 
OHAPTEE II. 
 
 Age in Relation to Mental Activity. 
 
 AELYLE says the richer a nature 
 the harder and slower its devel- 
 opment. He reminds ns that the 
 cabbage is the quickest and com- 
 pletest of all vegetables. He gives the story 
 of two boys as an illustration, who were once 
 in a class in the Edinburgh Grammar School: 
 John was ever trim, precise, and dux; Walter 
 ever slovenly and dull. John developed like the 
 cabbage, and in due time became Baillie John 
 of Hunter Square; there he stopped. Walter 
 struggled on against a slower growth, but in the 
 course of years became Sir Walter Scott of the 
 Universe. Nearly every one of those tales 
 which conferred immortality upon him, was 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 15 
 
 written after he had reached the age of forty- 
 six. 
 
 Keminiscent of Oarlyle's reference to the 
 slow development of a rich nature, is his own 
 literary career. While he was never a doltish 
 student, the prospect in his younger manhood 
 of making a name for himself, was exceedingly 
 dubious. At twenty-three his. life's plans were 
 so unsettled and the outlook as to his success 
 as a teacher in Edinburgh so uncertain, that he 
 seriously entertained the idea of quitting Scot- 
 land, the land of his birth, and emigrating to 
 America. 
 
 Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 
 which is said to have been the most successful 
 of all his works because it completely revolu- 
 tionized the public estimate of the great states- 
 man and ruler, was published when Carlyle 
 was forty years old. The first two volumes of 
 Frederick the Great appeared when he was 
 sixty-three; another two when he was sixty- 
 seven ; and the last two when he was sixty-nine. 
 
 The most famous of Swift's works is Gulli- 
 vers Travels. Almost immediately after its 
 appearance it was in the mouth of the world; 
 yet the Dean did not begin to write the im- 
 mortal satire till he was past fifty-seven, com- 
 pleting it in two years. 
 
16 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Macaulay was a strong writer in his early 
 manhood, but he was forty-eight when he issued 
 the first and second volumes of his History of 
 England. He seemed never to be in haste with 
 his work, for he was fifty-five when the third 
 and fourth volumes appeared. Good though the 
 essays are which he produced before he was 
 forty-five, they pale when compared with the 
 work of his mature years. 
 
 Darwin did not establish his reputation as a 
 naturalist until he was passing fifty, when his 
 Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec- 
 tion was given to the world. The Descent of 
 Man, hardly less famous than the previous vol- 
 ume as an epoch-making work, was published 
 when he was sixty-two. 
 
 It was in 1855, when Longfellow was forty- 
 eight, that he wrote "The Song of Hiawatha." 
 After that age he was as prolific as he was ex- 
 cellent, for in the years following came his 
 splendid translation of Dante's "Divine Com- 
 edy," and the poem of exquisite beauty, "Mar- 
 ituri Salutamus." The latter was written in 
 1875 for the fiftieth anniversary of his grad- 
 uation from Bowdoin College, the occasion be- 
 ing one of unusual impressiveness and deeply 
 affecting. The poem closes with the character- 
 istic lines : 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 17 
 
 For age is opportunity no less 
 Than youth itself, though in another dress. 
 And as the evening twilight fades away 
 The sky is filled with stars invisible by day. 
 
 The readers of William OuUen Bryant will 
 remember that the great poet made his transla- 
 tion of Homer s Iliad at the age of seventy-six, 
 and of The Odyssey a year later. So ably was 
 this task performed that the translations are 
 said to be, in many respects, the best that any 
 English writing poet has yet produced. The 
 passing of sixty-four years from the appearance 
 of his immortal Thanatopsis to the writing of 
 The Flood of Years, brought no loss whatever 
 to his poetic capacity. In his editorial man- 
 agement of the N'ew York Evening Post he dis- 
 played the same remarkable mental balance and 
 power up to his accidental and sudden death 
 in 1878, at the age of eighty-four, as when he 
 assumed control of that paper in 1826. 
 
 It was not until late in life that Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes became known to the world as 
 a writer of fiction. The romance of the Pro- 
 fessor and the Schoolmistress interwoven with 
 his "Breakfast Table" essays, might be re- 
 garded as his first venture in that field. But 
 Elsie Venner, which appeared in 1860, was the 
 first real work of Holmes as a novelist. The 
 
18 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Guardian Angel, some seven years later; and 
 eighteen years further on, when he had reached 
 seventy-six, he published A Mortal Antipathy. 
 Of The Guardian Angel, produced when the 
 doctor was approaching seventy, an English 
 critic said: "There is no such minor poet in 
 the whole range of fiction as the immortal 
 Gifted Hopkins. ... If Dr. Holmes has 
 more characters like Gifted Hopkins in his 
 mind, the hilarity of two continents is not in 
 much danger of being extinguished." The Iron 
 Gate, which Dr. Holmes wrote for a breakfast 
 given in honor of his seventieth birthday by the 
 Atlantic Monthly, has been called the finest 
 creation of his genius since the publication of 
 The Cambered Nautilus, written some twenty 
 years previously. 
 
 There was no rapid development of Wash- 
 ington Irving's best powers as a writer. It is 
 said by competent authority that the volumes 
 which came from his pen toward the close of 
 his life "added to his reputation." When his 
 life of Oliver Goldsmith appeared in 1849, 
 Irving was sixty-six years old, and his Mahomet 
 and His Successors was published a year later. 
 His long-planned and affectionate life of Wash- 
 ington, in five volumes, was completed only 
 with the year of his death — 1859. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 19 
 
 The intellectual powers of George Bancroft, 
 our distinguished historian, were so vigorous at 
 seventy-six that he was able to publish a cen- 
 tenary edition of his works; and at eighty-two 
 he prepared his History of the Formation of the 
 Constitution of the United States. He was 
 eighty-three when he revised the edition of his 
 history in six volumes. His mental faculties 
 were well-preserved up to his death in his 
 ninety-first year, in 1891. 
 
 When Frances M. TroUope came to America 
 from England in 1829 for the purpose of es- 
 tablishing herself in business in Cincinnati, 
 she lacked only a few months of being fifty 
 years old. She was a stranger in a strange 
 land, and was without a literary career. 
 Though her enterprise failed, she was not idle. 
 During the three years' residence in this 
 country, Mrs. TroUope gathered material for 
 Domestic Manners in America, which she pub- 
 lished in London in 1832. From the time she 
 was fifty-two to her death at eighty-three, she 
 published upwards of one htmdred volumes — 
 novels of society, and impressions of travel mak- 
 ing up the sum of her works. Mrs. TroUope 
 was widely read, and during her thirty-two 
 years of authorship her income from her books 
 
20 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 is said to have reached one hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Humboldt is an illustration of what a man 
 is worth intellectually after he is sixty or sev- 
 enty. It is true that he did some great things 
 before he was sixty, but his greatest works were 
 produced after that period. He was sixty 
 years old when, at the instance of Emperor 
 Nicholas of Eussia, he undertook a scientific 
 expedition to the north of Asia to explore the 
 Ural and Altai Mountains, Chinese Dzungaria, 
 and the Caspian Sea. He was sixty-seven when 
 he published, in five volumes, a Critical Exam- 
 ination of the Geography of the New Conti- 
 nent. When about seventy-four years old, 
 Humboldt began to compose Cosmos: Essay of 
 a Physical Description of the Universe, which 
 has been unanimously recognized as "one of 
 the greatest scientific works ever published." 
 The fourth and last volume was not issued until 
 1858, one year before his death at the age of 
 ninety. 
 
 A writer who made a reputation for himself 
 as an author late in life, was Saavedra Cer- 
 vantes. The first part of Don Quixote, which 
 Carlyle calls "our joyfuUest modern book," 
 was published when he was nearly sixty, and 
 eight years passed before the second part ap- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 21 
 
 peared. Cervantes and Shakespeare died on 
 the same day, April 23, 1616. 
 
 It is refreshing to read how Goethe wrought 
 at his tasks till he passed the age of eighty. 
 Time did not seem to weaken his intellect nor 
 slacken his energy. In its literary phases, his 
 life may be divided into four periods, the 
 fourth being that of old age — ^from 1805, when 
 he was fifty-six, to the year of his death, at the 
 age of eighty-three. During that period a 
 large number of works were published — some 
 of his greatest — and among them is Faust, his 
 masterpiece. The first part was written when 
 Goethe was between fifty-six and fifty-eight, 
 and the second part was completed only a few 
 months before his death in 1832. Some of his 
 most beautiful poems were written when he 
 was about seventy-five. 
 
 It was late in life that Victor Hugo began 
 some of his great works. Les Miserables was 
 written when he had passed fifty-seven, and was 
 published in ten languages on the same day in 
 1862. The Toilers of the Sea was brought out 
 when he was sixty-four, and The Annals of a 
 Terrible Tear, at seventy, at which age his 
 mental vigor showed no sign of decline. Hugo's 
 Ninety-Three, published when he was about 
 seventy-two, is regarded by wise and able critics 
 
22 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 to be the most virile of his novels, with "more 
 intensity of action and a truer tragic catas- 
 trophe" than even Les Miserables. The last 
 part of The Legends of the Centuries, written 
 when he was approaching eighty, reaches the 
 high-water mark of his achievement in lyrical 
 epic. 
 
 A striking example of how mental activity 
 can be maintained during the period commonly 
 called old age, is found in the life of Mrs. Mary 
 Somerville, the distinguished English math- 
 ematician and scientist. She did not allow her- 
 self to suffer from brain rust, nor to become ir- 
 ritable from dyspepsia or gloomy thoughts. She 
 was fifty years old when the first of her im- 
 portant works, Celestial Mechanism of the 
 Heavens, was brought out in London in 
 1830. At fifty-five, Mrs. Somerville pre- 
 pared The Connection of the Physical Sci- 
 ences; at sixty-eight. Physical Geography; at 
 eighty-six. Molecular and Microscopic Science. 
 
 At the age of ninety-two Mrs. Somerville 
 wrote : "I am still able to read books on higher 
 algebra for four or five hours in the forenoon" ; 
 and to the day of her death at I^Taples, in 1872, 
 she was engaged on the revision and comple- 
 tion of a treatise on The Theory of Differences, 
 which included some exquisite drawings. Only 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 23 
 
 a few days before she passed away, she said: 
 "I regret that I shall not live to learn the result 
 of the expedition to determine the currents of 
 the ocean, the distance of the earth from the 
 sun determined by the transit of Venus, and 
 the source of the most renowned river." 
 
 Wo physician in this country, excepting Ol- 
 iver Wendell Holmes, has written so many vol- 
 umes on varied topics as Dr. Silas Weir Mitch- 
 ell of Philadelphia. In the practice of his 
 profession he is eminent and always busy, and 
 yet he has found time to do a large amount of 
 literary work. He is seventy-five years old, 
 but in his medical practice and in his literary 
 labors he is still actively engaged. I make this 
 reference to Dr. Mitchell because his best lit- 
 erary efforts have been accomplished since he 
 reached the age of fifty. He has written some- 
 thing like thirty volumes, besides one hundred 
 and twenty-five essays and monographs upon 
 nervous diseases, poisons and their antidotes, 
 comparative physiology, and chemical medicine. 
 His Hugh Wynne, generally conceded to rank 
 among the best stories of the American Eevolu- 
 tion, was written when the doctor was nearly 
 sixty-six years old. His clever Comedy of 
 Conscience, was published two years ago; and 
 a book that will appeal to every patiotic Amer- 
 
24 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ican boy is Dr. Mitchell's The Youth of Wash- 
 ington, which is skilfully written in an auto- 
 biographic form. It was little less than a mar- 
 vellous undertaking in a man who has devoted 
 his long life to medicine and scientific pursuits. 
 But his new novel, Constance Trescot, is re- 
 garded by critics to be the greatest of all his 
 works. It is a powerful psychological study of 
 a woman, is intensely interesting, and was writ- 
 ten when the doctor was seventy-five. 
 
 The list of names prominently associated 
 with the subject of "Age in Eelation to Mental 
 Activity" is a long one and interesting. Time 
 and again has it been proven that the highest 
 level of courage, insight, and faith, has been 
 reached by men and women after they have 
 passed three-score years and ten. 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 Can We Spare the Old Men? 
 
 HILE the fact that numerous men 
 and women have performed some 
 of their best work after they have 
 entered their seventies or eighties, 
 shines out in biographical history, there is an 
 increasing disregard for age manifested in va- 
 rious employments and professions. It seems 
 that we are hardly up to some of the Orientals 
 in exhibiting a proper reverence for the wisdom 
 of years and experience. 
 
 In discussing the question, "Can We Spare 
 the Old Men?" The Independent of July 2, 
 1903, said: "The saddest state of affairs is 
 found in the professions, and especially in those 
 which in one way or another have the making of 
 public opinion. Every little while someone 
 
26 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 asks why there are no great newspapers to-day ? 
 Time was when The Tribune^ The Sun, The 
 Times, The Evening Post, and The Spring- 
 field Republican, helped to make history. 
 Their opinions counted for something. That 
 was when their editorial pages were contrihuted 
 by men of ripe experience. Greeley, Dana, 
 Kaymond, Bryant, Godkin, and 'Sam' Bowles 
 were men of tinlike minds and of different char- 
 acters, but they had one qualification in com- 
 mon. They had lived. They had stored up 
 experience. They were not kids." 
 
 It may be true that some of the veteran read- 
 ers of the press, whose memories run back to 
 the fifties and sixties, feel the loss of the vigor- 
 ous personality, the strong characteristics, and 
 the able and pronounced opinions of the dis- 
 tinguished editors, who, having filled their mis- 
 sion, have passed away. But will not The In- 
 dependent admit that there are many men of 
 matured brain power and ripe experience con- 
 tributing editorial pages to some of our widely- 
 read newspapers of to-day ? 
 
 But The Independent goes on to say : "In the 
 universities the state of affairs threatens to be- 
 come even worse. The modern University 
 President has become infected with the business 
 way of looking at things. He thinks he is run- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 27 
 
 ning 'a plant' like a cotton factory or a barted 
 wire mill, and must turn out a certain number 
 of intellects of assorted sizes every June. For 
 this work he needs a lot of young hustlers in 
 the professors' chairs, who can do business on 
 the 'step lively' plan of the trolley car con- 
 ductor. And as to the ministry, it is only 
 necessary to recall the oft-bewailed 'dead-line 
 of fifty years,' beyond which the clergyman's 
 usefulness is supposed to end. Indeed, there 
 would almost seem to be no suitable place in the 
 world's work to-day for the man over sixty un- 
 less it be the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. 
 
 "The whole situation, we say, is a sad one. 
 It is sad because it reveals an utter failure to 
 discriminate between the pretentious things and 
 the real things in human life. It is sad because 
 the results will be more and more destructive 
 of quality, of manner, of appreciation of the 
 sound and the beautiful, which only long years 
 
 of hard experience can reproduce 
 
 Young men must do most of the world's hard 
 and active work, but there is a work which they 
 are incompetent to touch. An age which knows 
 the difference between wisdom and knowledge 
 will retain for that work the men who are com- 
 petent. Wherever manner and quality are still 
 
28 MASTEB8 OF OLD AGE. 
 
 in demand, wherever real goods are still sold, 
 the man of experience is found." 
 
 Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, in his Beula-Land, 
 says: "In this fast age there is a clamorous 
 demand for young men, and sometimes a dispo- 
 sition to shelve those who are past three-score; 
 but there are some men who will not be shelved, 
 or, if they have been, the public necessities take 
 them down again, and demand their ripe judg- 
 ment and experience. When a diiEcult case 
 comes into court it is commonly a veteran law- 
 yer that is called on to make the decisive argu- 
 ment; when the young physician is baffled by 
 the novel disease, the old doctor, who has turned 
 down every malady known to mortal flesh, is 
 called into consultation. When the life of 
 Germany was assailed by the legions of France, 
 three old heads were put together — Kaiser Wil- 
 helm, Bismarck, and von Moltke; they soon 
 blew the invasion into fragments. The ancient 
 parish of Franklin, Massachusetts, was once 
 disturbed by novelties that threatened its or- 
 thodoxy and its peace ; the venerable Dr. Em- 
 mons, at the age of ninety, put on his cocked 
 hat, and, marching into the meeting-house, 
 quelled the commotion in fifteen minutes, and 
 scattered the fogs of heresy from the atmos- 
 phere." 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 29 
 
 Whether the world can well spare its old men, 
 depends on what kind of old men they are. 
 There are various grades of men who are old. 
 Some men make themselves old, and lead a 
 humdrum sort of life — aimless and indifferent. 
 They are much like the man whom Ralph 
 Waldo Emerson describes as having lived "to 
 wear out his boots." And there are others 
 whose opportunities and environments are not 
 particularly favorable, yet keeping themselves 
 young in heart and active in mind, are of some 
 account to the communities in which they live. 
 The manner in which men and women grow old 
 is largely a matter of education, of purpose, of 
 will-power. Sometimes an ailment, which the 
 laws of hygiene cannot prevent nor medicine 
 cure, brings on premature old age and makes 
 life burdensome and seemingly profitless; but 
 in a majority of cases "man is man and master 
 of his fate." 
 
 General William Booth, who organized the 
 Salvation Army in London in 1865, completed 
 his seventy-fifth year in April, 1904. During 
 the past forty-two years he has accomplished 
 an enormous amount of work in evangelism 
 associated with the Army. An impress of his 
 wonderful personality has been made in many 
 Mnds. After he attained his seventy-third 
 
30 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 year he was active in preaching and organizing 
 in America, Trance, IN'orway, Sweden, Den- 
 mark, Belgium, Scotland, and England. He 
 had just passed his seventy-fifth birthday when 
 he set for a lively campaign against the powers 
 of evil in Scandinavia, Germany, and Switzer- 
 land. 
 
 He is a grand old gentleman, a faithful 
 bishop of souls ! Seventy-five years old, and no 
 church can shelve him ! 'No ecclesiastical body 
 can depose him. He has taken good care of 
 his body. His heart and mind are continually 
 set on things that inspire. These keep him 
 young and vigorous. 
 
 The value of old men in public affairs is 
 seen in the career of the late Justin S. Morrill 
 of Vermont, who rendered an unbroken service 
 in the Congress of the United States of forty- 
 four years lacking only a few months. In 
 point of continuous tenure of ofiice he surpassed 
 the record of any other member of either branch 
 of that body since the foundation of the Grov- 
 ernment. There was no time in those forty- 
 four years that the people of Vermont thought 
 for a moment that the Senator could be spared. 
 
 It will surprise some people to read that when 
 Mr. Morrill was eighty-eight years old, he rose 
 in his seat in the United States Senate, and. 
 
MABTEIRS OF OLD AGE. 31 
 
 with old-time vigor and clearness of intellect, 
 led in the debate on the question of the annexa- 
 tion of Hawaii ! Up to the month of his death 
 — ^December, 1898 — his interest in the affairs 
 of his State and the Nation did not abate in the 
 least. It is said of him that he never missed a 
 roll call in the Senate, and that he made fewer 
 mistakes than any other man in public life. 
 
 As a rule, people are apt to forget that a 
 man's value to the community should be meas- 
 ured by his capacity to perform honest service, 
 and not by the number of his years. The oldest 
 trade unionist in the United States is John 
 McDonald of Bethel, Connecticut. He is 
 ninety-eight years old, and the Hatmaker's 
 Union, of which he is a member, has intrusted 
 him with the treasurership of the Union for 
 forty years. At the time I am writing, Mr. 
 McDonald is active and cheery, and attends 
 to the duties of his office with businesslike reg- 
 ularity. He does not make a parade of his 
 age, but goes about his daily task with an apti- 
 tude that puzzles those who cannot understand 
 the philosophy of growing old naturally. 
 
 In 1897 the Chicago Tribune published an 
 account of a minister who had preached the gos- 
 pel faithfully for more than forty years, and 
 against his will was retired. He had become 
 
32 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 gray in the service of the Church. His form 
 was somewhat bent, but his voice still rang out 
 in true tones. However, the younger members 
 of the parish thought him old-fashioned, and he 
 was forced to vacate the pulpit. 
 
 In law and medicine, the man of gray hair 
 and ripe experience is greatly honored, but not 
 so in regard to ministers in a large majority of 
 churches. This deposed minister did not share 
 the feeling of the Psalmist when he sang : "Oh, 
 that I had wings like a dove ! for then would I 
 fly away and be at rest." The old veteran 
 nerved himself for the battle and the burden 
 of the day. Although he was seventy-two years 
 old, he began the study of medicine, and upon 
 his graduation opened an office and practised 
 with success for several years. He "died in 
 the harness." An account of his life says that 
 he prescribed for his patients up to the very 
 day he passed away. 
 
 It is regrettable that Tlie Tribune did not 
 reveal the doctor's identity. His name should 
 be put in bold type with other true gentlemen 
 who are masters of their years, and who do not 
 devitalize themselves by self-pity when mis- 
 fortune overtakes them. 
 
 There is a gentleman living in Lincoln, 
 Illinois, James F. Hyde by name, who passed 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 33 
 
 the "dead line of fifty" over forty years ago, 
 and yet cannot be spared. He has held various 
 offices of trust, such as City Treasurer, City 
 Controller, Deputy City Collector, and expert 
 bookkeeper for three business houses in Lincoln. 
 Mr. Hyde is ninety-one years old and has not 
 missed a day's work in years, save when he has 
 taken a vacation of two weeks in summer. One 
 thing has done much to increase his longevity 
 — ^he never worries. He is always at peace 
 with himself. That he is rapidly taking on 
 extreme old age gives him no concern. 
 
 The instances are exceedingly large in num- 
 ber which show that age does not disqualify 
 a person from practical service of some kind. 
 The Second Baptist Church of Chicago can ill 
 afford in this year of 1904, to part with the 
 services of "Aunt Lizzie" Aiken, who has filled 
 the office of Church visitor for forty years. She 
 is one of the noble women of the Civil War, 
 whose heroism and self-sacrifice gave her wide 
 fame and commanded the gratitude of the ISTa- 
 tion. She was a hospital nurse of special abil- 
 ity, and it is said that the number of soldiers 
 to whom Miss Aiken had read passages from 
 the Bible, with whom she had prayed, and 
 whose eyes she had closed when life expired, 
 exceeded three thousand. Since the war she 
 
34 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 has been visitor to those who need the aid of the 
 Church, and the love and practical sympathy 
 of consecrated womanhood. Tip to the time 
 she was eighty-four years old her visitations 
 were constant. People of all classes and con- 
 ditions have been comforted and strengthened 
 by her kindly offices. - 
 
 "Aunt Lizzie" is now eighty-seven, and dur- 
 ing the past three or four years she has been 
 much confined to her home, still her life is full 
 of sunshine, and has a gracious influence upon 
 all who call upon her. 
 
 A person cannot become "master of his fate," 
 nor "captain of his soul," until he learns the 
 art of taking care of his mind and body. Men 
 and women who have won great victories de- 
 spite of old age or physical infirmities, have 
 held a tight grip on the nervous life as well as 
 holding mastery over their thoughts. By these 
 means they achieve what might seem impossi- 
 bilities to those who care but little about mental 
 culture or physical development. 
 
 I was reading the other day of Hardinge 
 Stanley Giffard, first Earl of Halsbury, who 
 is now the oldest member of the British Cab- 
 inet. He is eighty-one years old, and, by a 
 thorough study of the laws of health, he is able 
 to do a vast amount of hard work. It is said 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 35 
 
 that he goes to Westminster in his capacity of 
 first judge of the realm at ten o'clock in the 
 morning and remains there until four in the 
 afternoon, hearing appeals. This would seem 
 to be a sufficient day's work for a judge of four- 
 score years. But Lord Halsbury takes his 
 place, a few minutes later as speaker of the 
 House of Lords and remains there until that 
 body adjourns, which many times is not till the 
 early morning of the following day. 
 
 A good example of how to live and how to 
 serve in old age is found in one of "God's vet- 
 erans" — Archbishop John J. Williams of Bos- 
 ton, who has become the dean of the Catholic 
 hierarchy of the United States since the recent 
 death of Archbishop Elder of Cincinnati. The 
 Archbishop is eighty-three years old, but he is 
 active, clear-headed, and performs an enormous 
 amount of labor connected with the vast details 
 incident to the arch-diocesan office. He meets 
 every day's task with the same composure, 
 cheerfulness, and zeal that were characteristic 
 of him twenty years ago. The saying that "a 
 man is no older than he feels," is exemplified 
 in Archbishop Williams' life. He has studied 
 how to live so as to make advanced years an 
 honor and work a pleasure. 
 
 It seems that Columbian College, Washing- 
 
36 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ton, could not well dispense with the services of 
 Adoniram J. Huntington, who was Professor 
 of Latin and Greek in that institution at three 
 different periods, beginning in 1843 and ending 
 in 1900. He was active as a professor until 
 he was eighty-two years old, and now, at eighty- 
 six, is emeritus professor of Greek. He is 
 still a student, and frequently delivers sermons 
 in the Baptist Church to which he belongs. 
 
 Former Governor Francis E. Lubbock of 
 Texas, has passed his eighty-ninth year, but is 
 still in harness. He not only takes an interest 
 in State affairs, but at the age of eighty-five, 
 he brought out his Six Decades in Texas, a pub- 
 lication of unusual interest and value to the 
 State in which he has lived for sixty-eight years. 
 
 Mrs. Adeline D. T. Whitney, although she 
 has passed her eightieth year, has not lost her 
 hold on the reading public, and her twenty- 
 seventh volume has, just been issued from the 
 press. Its title is Biddy's Episodes, and the 
 fact that it is sweet-spirited, bright, wholesome, 
 interesting, is proof that she is now just as able 
 to help and attract her readers as when she 
 wrote her charming story. Faith Gartney's Oirl- 
 hood, thirty years ago. 
 
 In The Cosmopolitan for May, 1905, is an 
 article on "The Philosophy of Staying in Har- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 37 
 
 ness," by James Hulme Oanfield, LL.D., Li- 
 brarian of Ooluinbia University, New York, 
 and from it I will take two refreshing par- 
 agraphs, which must close this chapter : 
 
 But the harness which enables one to pull 
 his full share of life's load, to render his full 
 share of service, should never be taken off — 
 can never be laid aside while any measure of 
 desire and ability to satisfy desire remains. 
 All this talk of "stepping out and giving the 
 young men a chance" is supremest folly. The 
 young men never have "a chance" equal to the 
 opportunity of working side by side with those 
 rich in experience, in that wisdom which comes 
 from practical trial. Volunteers under fire are 
 steadied by veterans, and a shrewd man always 
 drives colts with older horses. Counsel and 
 action, wisdom and energy, age and youth, 
 mixed in proper proportions, secure the finest 
 results. 
 
 Men who have grown selfish and narrow and 
 stubborn and hard, and are obstacles in the path 
 of all progress, may not be quoted to the con- 
 trary of this general contention, since these 
 are abnormal — are excrescences rather than a 
 part of natural growth, and should be dealt 
 with as such. But the rule should be and is 
 that men grow sweeter as they ripen, larger with 
 
38 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 increase of days, and constantly of more value 
 to themselves and to the world — and to them- 
 selves because to the world. This value should 
 not be lessened and this service should not 
 be minimized by any short-sighted, foolish 
 sentiment about "giving place to others." The 
 world has a crying need of all men, with all 
 their faculties and powers most wisely and in- 
 telligently and unselfishly and effectively ac- 
 tive, through all possible length of days. There 
 can be no overproduction in this direction. 
 Any other than the most complete and long-con- 
 tinued development of the whole man, and of 
 every man, weakens and impoverishes all men. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Two Views of Old Age. 
 
 HEN^ Hogarth's years were drawing 
 to a close he executed a picture in 
 which his purpose was to illustrate 
 the end of human life. On the can- 
 vas was a shattered bottle, a cracked bell, an 
 unstrung bow, the sign-post of a tavern called 
 "The World's End," falling down, a shipwreck, 
 the horses of Phoebus lying dead in the clouds, 
 the moon in her last quarter, and the world on 
 fire. "One more thing," said Hogarth, "and I 
 have done." He then added to this picture a 
 painter's palette broken. It was the last work 
 he executed. This was Hogarth's view of old 
 age just before his life closed at sixty-seven. 
 
 Against this dark picture which represents 
 Hogarth's feeling as to what life was to him, I 
 
40 MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 
 
 want to set the hopes, the aspirations, and the 
 faith of Dr. Edward Everett Hale. About ten 
 years ago the Eev. Dr. Henry M. Field, editor 
 of The Evangelist, New York, published in his 
 paper a conversation with Dr. Hale, which ran 
 as follows : 
 
 "We began to forecast the time, not far dis- 
 tant, when we should pass into another sphere. 
 This did not dampen the conversation in the 
 least. I asked Dr. Hale, 'Does it cast a shadow 
 over you to think that life is coming to an end V 
 'Not in the least: for it is not coming to an 
 end; we only pass from one stage to another.' 
 Then said I, 'You have no doubts as to the 
 future life?' 'Not the slightest,' was his re- 
 ply. I answered, 'I say with all sincerity that 
 though I am nearly seventy-three years of age, 
 I would not be a day younger than I am.' 'Nor 
 I,' Dr. Hale emphatically said. 'Do you shrink 
 back at the thought of passing out of the known 
 into the unknown V 'On the contrary, I some- 
 times feel a longing to know what is beyond the 
 veil, and I am eager to see the curtain rise. To 
 such death is but the passing out of the darkness 
 into light.' Death for us every one may be 
 'swallowed up in victory.' " 
 
 This conversation reveals the Christian faith 
 of two great men. Dr. Field is in his eighty- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 41 
 
 third year. He edited The Evangelist for 
 forty-five years, has published many important 
 books, and still puts cheer and mental vigor in 
 his work. 
 
 Dr. Hale and Dr. Pield are twins in their 
 happy and breezy style of living and working; 
 and they are twins in another sense — they were 
 born on the same day — in the same year — April 
 third, 1822. Since Dr. Hale wrote The Man 
 Without a Country, forty-two years ago, a little 
 book that made a deep impression on the public 
 mind, he has been a remarkably active man in 
 literary undertakings. The increase of years 
 has not made his work less facile and delightful. 
 He was close to eighty years old when he pub- 
 lished his Memories of a Hundred Years, a 
 work of uncommon interest and value. And he 
 could be called an octogenarian when, in col- 
 laboration with his children, he wrote New 
 England History in Ballads. 
 
 At eighty-two, Dr. Hale was elected chaplain 
 of the United States Senate, and in addition to 
 performing the duties of that office, he keeps 
 his pen busy. He does not propose to abandon 
 intellectual effort before it is absolutely neces- 
 sary. By judicious means he has guarded him- 
 self against the common misfortunes of elderly 
 people. When I asked the doctor for some of 
 
42 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 the rules which served him best in maintaining 
 his mental and physical vigor in his advanced 
 life, he wrote : 
 
 "Live in the open air as much as you can. 
 Let no man think of himself more highly than 
 he ought to think. Por this it will be con- 
 venient not to think of yourself much at all. 
 
 "As you grow old do not go a long time with- 
 out easily digested food. The centre of all 
 healthy physical life is sleep. Whatever else 
 you do, take care that you sleep well. This 
 means that you do not work the brain in the last 
 six hours of any day." 
 
 The spirit of Dr. Hale's life is expressed in 
 his motto, which has many times been repeated 
 around the world : 
 
 Look forward and not backward; 
 Look up and not down; 
 Look out and not in; 
 Lend a, hand. 
 
 He carries with him an extraordinary atmos- 
 phere; and from his life can be learned the 
 great lesson of service and hope. 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 Growing Old and Keeping Young. 
 
 MONG the active octogenarians of 
 the United States there is none 
 more beloved or distinguished than 
 the Eev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler 
 of Brooklyn, Wew York. He has lived a great 
 life. He is still living a life that is making 
 history. For thirty years he was pastor of 
 Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in 
 Brooklyn, and in 1890 he resigned to enter a 
 ministry at large. In evangelism, temperance, 
 and philanthropy, his work has been remarkably 
 successful. 
 
 Dr. Ouyler's life has been unusually fruitful 
 and active; and in his eighty-third year he is 
 still full of personal sympathy and personal 
 service. He has written upwards of twenty 
 books, and his special articles published in lead- 
 ing religious papers number about four thou- 
 
44 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 sand, many of which have been rendered into 
 foreign languages. 
 
 When I asked Dr. Cuyler for a few lines on 
 "Growing Old and Keeping Young," he kindly 
 sent me the remaining part of this chapter, 
 which was originally prepared at the request 
 of a London publisher. It is characteristic of 
 the doctor, and will be read with deep interest : 
 
 "Old" is a relative term after all. I have 
 known people who were rather pitiably old at 
 fifty ; and when I met that swift-footed Christ- 
 ian, William E. Dodge (senior), at the age of 
 seventy-five, with the brisk gait of a boy and 
 with scarcely a grey hair on his head, I said 
 to him, "You are one of the youngest men in 
 New York." 
 
 How to keep young — ^that is the problem; 
 and it is a vitally important problem, for it 
 really means how to make the most of life, and 
 to bring in the largest revenue of service for the 
 Master. 
 
 Healthy heredity counts for a great deal. 
 Longevity runs in certain clean-lived families. 
 Tor example, that stalwart philanthropist, Neal 
 Dow, alert at ninety-two, told me that his 
 Quaker father reached ninety-four, his grand- 
 father eighty-five, and his great-grandfather 
 ninety. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD A&E. 45 
 
 . Such inherited vigor is a capital to start with, 
 and not to be wasted. On the other hand, one 
 of the most atrocious of crimes is that com- 
 mitted by some parents, who not only shorten 
 their own days, but make long life an impos- 
 sibility to their offspring. 
 
 Supposing that a man has a fairly good and 
 unmortgaged constitution to start with, there 
 are several practices and methods to ward off 
 the infirmities of a premature old age. 
 
 The first and most important is — ^to keep the 
 commandments. Our Creator has written cer- 
 tain laws on our mortal bodies — laws as irre- 
 pealable as those written on the stone tables of 
 Sinai; laws for the breach of which Jesus 
 Christ has made no atonement. To squander 
 vital resources by violating these laws, or even 
 by neglecting them, is an unpardonable sin. 
 
 There are suicides in Christian churches — 
 yes, in some Christian pulpits ! Kigid care as 
 to a digestible diet does not mean fussiness. 
 It means a clear head, clean blood, and a chance 
 of longevity. Stimulants are dangerous just in 
 proportion as they become indispensable. Hard 
 brain-work, hearty eating, and no physical exer- 
 cise are the short road to a minister's grave. 
 That famous patriarch of the New England 
 pulpit, Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, who was vig- 
 
46 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 orous at ninety-five, used to say, "I always get 
 up from the table a little hungry."' The all- 
 comprehensive rule of diet is very simple — • 
 whatever harms more than helps, let alone. 
 Wilful dyspepsia is an abomination to the 
 Lord. 
 
 A second essential to a healthy longevity is 
 the repair of our resources by sound and suffi- 
 cient sleep. Insomnia is worse than any of the 
 plagues of Egypt; it kills a man or woman by 
 inches. How much sleep is absolutely neces- 
 sary to bodily vigor must be left to Nature. 
 She will tell you if you don't fool with her. 
 "Burning the midnight oil" commonly means 
 burning up life before your time. Morning is 
 the time for work; one hour before noon is 
 worth five after sunset. 
 
 When a man who has as much strain on his 
 brain and on his nervous sensibilities as most 
 ministers have goes to his bedroom, he should 
 school himself to the habit of dismissing all 
 thought about outside matters. If he has diffi- 
 culty in doing this, he should pray for divine 
 help to do it. This suggestion is applicable to 
 hard-worked business men and to care-laden 
 wives and housekeepers as it is to ministers or 
 brain-workers of any profession. 
 
 That wonderful physical and mental phe- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 47 
 
 nomenon of this century, Mr. Gladstone, once 
 told me that he had made it a rule to lock every 
 affair of State and every other care outside of 
 his bedroom door. To this excellent habit he 
 attributed his sound sleep, and to his re- 
 freshing sleep he largely attributed his 
 vigorous longevity. Paddy's rule is a good 
 one — "When you slape, pay attintion to it." 
 Personally, I may remark that it is to a 
 full quota of slumber at night and a brief nap 
 after a noon meal that I owe fifty-six years of 
 steady work without a single Sunday on a sick- 
 bed. 
 
 To keep young, every man or woman should 
 endeavor to graduate their labors according to 
 their age. After three score and ten lighten up 
 the loads. It is over-work that wears out life; 
 just as it is the driving of a horse after he is 
 tired that hurts him and shortens his days. But 
 while excess of labor is injurious to the old, an 
 entire cessation from all labor is still worse. A 
 workless life is commonly a worthless life. If 
 a minister lays off the burdens of the pastorate, 
 let him keep the tools sharp by a ministry-at- 
 large with pen and tongue. When a merchant 
 or tradesman retires from business for himself, 
 let him serve the public, or aid Christ's cause by 
 enlisting in enterprises of philanthropy. 
 
48 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Eust has been the ruin of many a bright in- 
 tellect. The celebrated Dr. Archibald Alex- 
 ander, of the Princeton Theological Seminary, 
 kept young by doing a certain amount of intel- 
 lectual work every day so that he should not 
 lose his touch. He was as full of sap on the day 
 before his death as he was when missionary in 
 Virginia at the age of two-and-twenty. He pre- 
 pared and often used a prayer that was so beau- 
 tiful that I quote a portion of it for my fellow 
 disciples whose life-clock has struck three score 
 and ten : 
 
 "O most merciful God, cast me not off in the 
 time of old age ; forsake me not if my strength 
 f aileth. May my hoary head be found in right- 
 eousness. Preserve my mind from dotage and 
 imbecility, and my body from protracted dis- 
 ease and excruciating pain. Deliver me from 
 despondency in my decliniijg years, and enable 
 me to bear with patience whatever may be Thy 
 holy will. I humbly ask that my reason may be 
 continued to the last ; and that I may be so com- 
 forted and supported that I may have my testi- 
 mony in favor of the reality of religion and of 
 Thy faithfulness in fulfilling Thy gracious 
 promises. And when my spirit leaves this clay 
 tenement, Lord Jesus receive it ! Send some of 
 the blessed angels to convoy my inexperienced 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 49 
 
 soul to the mansions which Thy love has pre- 
 pared: and oh, may I have an abundant en- 
 trance ministered unto me into the Kingdom of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
 This beautiful petition flooded his closing 
 . years with sweet peace and a strength unbroken 
 to the last. 
 
 A sore temptation to the aged is a tendency 
 to querulousness and pessimism. Losses are 
 unduly lamented, and gains are not duly recog- 
 nized. While we cherish and cling to many of 
 the things that are old, and are all the better for 
 having been tested, let us not seek to put our 
 eyes in the back of our heads and live only in 
 the past. Keep step with the times ; keep sym- 
 pathy with young hearts; keep in touch with 
 every new-born enterprise of charity, and in 
 line with the marchings of God's providence. 
 A ten minutes of chat or play with a grandchild 
 may freshen you more than an hour spent with 
 an old companion or over an old book. 
 
 If life is spent in God's service, its later years 
 may be well described in the quaint Scotch ver- 
 sion of the 92d Psalm : 
 
 And in old age when others fade 
 They fruit still forth shall bring; 
 They shall be fat, and full of sap, 
 And aye be flourishing. 
 
CHAPTEK VI. 
 Old at Fifty — Young at Ejghty. 
 
 N instance showing how one can 
 take on age gracefully and increase 
 his physical strength in advancing 
 years is found in the life of Kich- 
 ard Henry Dana. There is peculiar interest in 
 his case because in the first half of his life he 
 was troubled with frequent periods of inval- 
 idism. 
 
 It may not be too great a digression to say 
 that Mr. Dana was the father of Eichard Henry 
 Dana, Jr., who won the hearts of tens of thou- 
 sands of American boys, and deeply interested 
 sailors serving under many flags upon almost 
 every sea, by his fascinating little book. Two 
 Years Before the Mast, which was translated 
 into many languages. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGS. 51 
 
 The elder Dana was distinguished as a 
 scholar and an author. Until he was fifty years 
 old, much of his time seems to have been de- 
 voted to the business of keeping himself out 
 of the grave. His long period of invalidism 
 was little more than an existence. He could 
 hardly call it living, although he accomplished 
 a fair amount of literary work. 
 
 On passing the half century line, a radical 
 change took place in Mr. Dana's physical con- 
 dition. His habits of life, though previously 
 not seeming to be irrational, were revised. His 
 body took on new powers ; and up to the time of 
 his death at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 
 1879, his intellectual vigor was fully main- 
 tained. His bodily activity during the old age 
 period far surpassed that of his young man- 
 hood. The beautiful touches of fancy so fre- 
 quent in his "Tales," written in his early years, 
 were reflected in a large degree in his advanced 
 age. He was a delightful old gentleman. What 
 greatly attracted his friends was his graceful 
 bearing and his serene faith. The last forty- 
 two years of his life were well worth living. 
 He was ninety-two years old when he departed. 
 
 The facts associated with the later years of 
 Mr. Dana's life suggest the career of Adam 
 Ferguson, the historian of Kome and professor 
 
52 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 of philosophy at Edinburgh. At the age of 
 fifty he began to reap the harvest of many years 
 of conviviality. An attack of paralysis, which, 
 it was said at the time, "ought to have killed 
 him," led his friend Joseph Black to induce 
 him to adopt a vegetarian diet, and to abstain 
 from all intoxicants. After this he rarely dined 
 out except with Black, and Ferguson's son 
 Adam used to say that it was "delightful to 
 see the two philosophers rioting over a turnip." 
 But the "turnip" redeemed Ferguson from in- 
 validism and he lived to celebrate his ninety- 
 third birthday. He did much literary work 
 aiter his fiftieth year. His old age was a splen- 
 did example of how simple living will prolong 
 one's life and throw a stream of sunshine on 
 his pathway. Ferguson was in full possession 
 of his faculties to the year of his home-going 
 and at no time during his life was be more 
 graceful and entertaining than when he entered 
 the nineties. He died the year following 
 Waterloo, and Sir Walter Scott says that when 
 Napoleon was at last and forever conquered, 
 the news came to the aged patriot as a Nunc 
 Dimittis. 
 
 A veteran of the Victorian era recently 
 passed away in the person of George Frederick 
 Watts — distinguished as a sculptor as well as a 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 53 
 
 painter. When we need a fine example of what 
 a man can do for himself in prolonging life 
 and accomplishing great results, the story of 
 Watt's career is a good thing to read. 
 
 Though Watts was in his eighty-fourth year 
 when his death occurred in London in 1904, 
 he was far from being superannuated or shelved 
 by the younger generation of his profession. 
 Some of the warmest tributes to his talents ever 
 paid him were received just before he closed 
 his career, from his brother artists who were not 
 half his age. Portraits, symbolical paintings, 
 and statuary came from his studio with a regu- 
 larity that might indicate he was good for many 
 more years of active and valuable service. One 
 of the most striking of his recent exhibits is 
 called "Physical Force," a colossal horse and 
 rider, which went to South Africa as an orna- 
 ment for the tomb of Cecil Rhodes. 
 
 Watts' picture, "Love and Life," painted 
 when he was sixty-eight years old, and which 
 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
 sought to have removed from the White House 
 at Washington, has found an abiding place in 
 the private apartments of the President. 
 
 But the sermon of Watts' life is in the care 
 he took of his> bodily health. As late as 1903, 
 when asked to explain the secret of his health. 
 
54 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 cheerfulness, and power in his advanced years, 
 he said : 
 
 "Being naturally sickly, I had orders to take 
 care of my body. I have never smoked. 
 Greater things were done in the world, immeas- 
 urably greater, before tobacco was discovered, 
 than have ever been done since. The cigarette 
 is the handmaid of idleness. I do not say that 
 possibly it may not be a sedative to over- 
 wrought nerves, but over-wrought nerves in 
 themselves are things that ought not to be. Of 
 wine I have taken very little. In my earlier 
 years I used to take a little, but for a long time 
 have never touched any form of alcohol. At 
 meals I never drink anything, even water. Tea 
 — ^yes, in moderation. And so, with regard to 
 food I have been compelled to be very abstemi- 
 ous — to eat moderately and of simple food; to 
 go to bed early (nine o'clock, for the most part), 
 to rise with the sun, to avoid violent exercise, 
 and to enjoy plenty of fresh air." 
 
 The oft repeated statement that a man may 
 die old at thirty or young at eighty finds cor- 
 roboration in the life of the Eev. Henry Griggs 
 Weston, CD., LL.D., President of Crozer The- 
 ological Seminary, Chester, Pennsylvania. The 
 history of his case is as interesting as that of 
 Dana, Ferguson, and Watts. I will let the doc- 
 
MASTER8 OF OLD AGE. 55 
 
 tor tell his own story, which was given out in 
 September, 1904: 
 
 "When I was thirty years old I broke down 
 so that for two months I did not speak a loud 
 word, and everybody thought I was going to 
 die. I didn't die, but the following summer I 
 was not able to do any work and I had time to 
 think how a man ought to live. 
 
 "I made up my mind and formed my plans, 
 which I have followed ever since. And I have 
 done a great deal of work. I can't speak as to 
 the quality of it, but the quantity has been all 
 that I can ask. 
 
 "The first absolute necessity of life is air to 
 the lungs, and so I began that summer the prac- 
 tice of filling my lungs every day for half an 
 hour at a time with fresh air, the best I can 
 find. That custom I have followed ever since, 
 and every day now I see that my lungs are ex- 
 panded to their full capacity with the best air 
 obtainable. 
 
 "The second principle I adopted was that the 
 sun is the source of health, and I can look out 
 from the room where I sleep and the room that 
 I occupy at the sun shining. 
 
 "The third principle is that God made night 
 for sleeping. It is my duty to sleep when the 
 night comes, and it is my duty to get up in the 
 
56 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 morning when the morning comes, and I 
 dropped all night work. I had my regular 
 hours, to which I adhered, for sleeping, for eat- 
 ing, and for work, and I did not suffer them to 
 be broken in upon except by absolute necessity." 
 
 When the doctor was questioned as to his 
 food, he said: "I did not diet myself more 
 than this — ^that I am a small eater, have no love 
 for high living, and do not eat rich food." 
 
 As to the matter of smoking he remarked: 
 "In 1846 I broke off smoking. I had smoked 
 and used tobacco for eight years then. I was 
 an excessive smoker. When I got out of 
 tobacco, often I would ride ten miles to lay in a 
 stock. I made up my mind that I would not be 
 a slave to the habit, and I quit it." 
 
 Dr. Weston has been President of the Theo- 
 logical Seminary for thirty-seven years. He is 
 in his eighty-fifth year, and keenly relishes a 
 walk of frona one to three miles daily. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Growing Old Cheerfully. 
 
 ANT persons have what is some- 
 times called a "diseased" feeling 
 against growing old. They look 
 upon old age as a melancholy 
 necessity. 
 
 But since advanced age is as natural as enter- 
 ing into life, why not meet that condition nat- 
 urally ? Why should we borrow trouble or har- 
 bor regret concerning the operation of a law of 
 nature ? With the approach of the scriptural 
 limit of human life bodily vigor declines. The 
 sight grows dim. The grinders cease because 
 they are few, or are wholly lost. But why 
 should these matters which are inevitable, dis- 
 pel generous impulses or disturb one's peace of 
 mind ? A frost does not hurt hard autumn 
 
58 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 fruit. It takes the prickly cover off from one, 
 and turns the juices of the other to sugar. Mr. 
 Beecher says he "does not know of anything 
 that is made sour by frost except men. They 
 sometimes are. October, the ripest month of 
 the year, and the richest in colors, is a type of 
 what old age should be." 
 
 There is something very beautiful in growing 
 old if life is lived naturally. Old age is a 
 divine condition because Providence has de- 
 creed it. Shade trees and forests are never 
 more attractive than when autumnal frosts 
 tinge their leaves with ruddy gold. The most 
 charming pictures of the sun ever painted do 
 not represent the brightness of its rising, nor 
 its luster at resplendent noon, but rather its 
 golden setting. 
 
 And so in human life, the sweetest, the ten- 
 derest, the divinest picture of motherhood is 
 not seen at the age when she gives the world 
 her first born, but rather when her hair is whit- 
 ened and her face furrowed with age. It is 
 then that she becomes truly sweet-featured, and 
 her presence in the home a benediction. And 
 we can hardly consider that a man reaches his 
 best estate at forty, or even at fifty. The true 
 test of his manhood, of his power to do 
 things, comes when the years begin to weigh 
 
MASTERS OP OLD AGE. 69 
 
 upon him. An unnamed Italian moralist says : 
 "A man grows old most gracefully when his 
 hand still rests lightly, but with the touch of a 
 master, upon the work which has stood to him 
 for his ripest years." It is a great thing to live 
 so that the richest part of life shall be its 
 evening. 
 
 The Lord is wonderfully gracious to the 
 children of men. He gives to almost all men 
 and women the capacity to attain old age grace- 
 fully. By a happy process of nature some beau- 
 tiful traits of character are within the reach 
 of those who are aging which may be utilized 
 to much advantage if they are not heedlessly 
 or wilfully repelled. In an elderly person the 
 sympathies are increased. The nature is more 
 kindly and the spirit more forgiving. As a rule, 
 the heart grows warmer. The fountain of bile, 
 which in former years was too often stirred to 
 distress, perhaps by an impetuous temper, is 
 dried up. Age has softened his asperities. 
 Many times "the aged have been seen to linger 
 so rich in disposition, and so bright, and beau- 
 tiful, as to make youth seem poor in treasure 
 when compared with old age." 
 
 Of the softening effects of age there is an 
 excellent illustration in Shakespeare. He 
 wrote "The Tempest," calm and beautiful. 
 
60 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 shortly before he died on his fifty-third birth- 
 day, in 1616; "the wisest of dramas thus 
 springing from the brain which had followed 
 the master love play with the unrivalled trag- 
 edies of stormy intellect." 
 
 Mr. !N"orman Hapgood, to whom the fore- 
 going quotation belongs, once said in The At- 
 lantic Monthly, that a friend of his, designing 
 for a ,golden wedding, carved three compassion- 
 ate women, "Spring, Summer, Autumn — ^there 
 was no fourth." The artist was wise. We live 
 in the heart, and if incompassionate Winter 
 should knock at its door, keep him out! 
 Holmes, in Over the Teacups, gives ah account 
 of the last annual dinner of six of the ten sur- 
 vivors of his college class of 1829. Six old 
 men in place of thirty or forty who surrounded 
 the long oval table in 1859, when he asked — 
 "Has there any old fellow got mixed with the 
 boys ?" "Boys," he adds, "whose tongues were 
 as the vibrating leaves of the forest ; whose talk 
 was like the voice of many waters ; whose laugh 
 was as the breaking of mighty waves upon the 
 seashore." "Were we melancholy ?" asked Dr. 
 Holmes. "Did we talk of graveyards and epi- 
 taphs? 1^0. We were not the moping, com- 
 plaining grayheads that many might suppose 
 we must have been. We had been favored with 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 61 
 
 the blessing of long life. We had seen the 
 drama well into its fifth act. The sun still 
 warmed us, the air was still grateful and life- 
 giving. But there was another underlying 
 source of our cheerful equanimity which we 
 could not conceal from ourselves if we had 
 wished to do it. l*I"ature's kindly anodyne was 
 telling upon us more and more with every 
 year." 
 
 When Holmes died in 1894 — some five years 
 after the class meeting just referred to — The 
 London Spectator remarked that it would await 
 his autobiography with lively curiosity, for it 
 wanted to know if he was ever unhappy. His 
 autobiography never appeared because he never 
 wrote one. It is known, however, that Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes was never in an unhappy 
 mood. He trained himself to grow old so grace- 
 fully that in every circumstance of his life he 
 was joyously optimistic. The 'whole purpose 
 of his living was to make the world better. 
 Whether in essay, or novel, or speech, or poem, 
 he was ever the same genial, buoyant-spirited 
 Holmes. 
 
 Another gathering of "modern Methuselahs," 
 similar to that described by Holmes, which 
 teaches a valuable lesson as to the cultivation 
 of cheerfulness in old age, was a banquet given 
 
62 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 at the Essex Club, in Park Place, Newark, ITew 
 Jersey, in May, 1894. Such an assembly has 
 not often been known in this country. The din- 
 ner was given by Silas Halsey, of Newark, for 
 Judge Joseph Alexander, of South Orange, 
 IsTew Jersey. There were nineteen guests. The 
 youngest man was seventy; eight were not far 
 short of the span of four score years ; six were 
 octogenarians ; one was ninety, the guest of the 
 evening was ninety-two, another was ninety- 
 three, and the senior, one of the j oiliest of the 
 lot, was niuety-five. 
 
 The assembling of these bright old boys is a 
 matter of interest to all who believe with Lydia 
 M. Child that the rarest attainment is to grow 
 old happily and gracefully. None of the com- 
 pany was grim-visaged. Everybody was glee- 
 some and vivacious. Those manly men, some 
 of them looking down from the summit of such 
 extreme longevity, did not indicate by any ex- 
 pression of feeling that there was anything like 
 morbidity or disquietude associated with old 
 age. In the addresses delivered were bright 
 stories and pleasing reminiscences which signi- 
 fied that these men, though in the so-called 
 "Arctic region" of their lives, were living over 
 again the happy days of their younger man- 
 hood. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 63 
 
 There is sound philosophy in the saying of a 
 sage that "every man is his own age." We need 
 not read between the lines to catch the meaning 
 of this aphorism. In the main, the sage is 
 right. Of course many persons are separated 
 by the broadest differences of temperaments, of 
 powers of development, and of other conditions. 
 There are those who develop in wisdom, intel- 
 lectual strength, and grace of manner under 
 conditions which would not be favorable for 
 like development in others. However, while 
 the great host of white-haired veterans are on 
 the homeward march but few need be left be- 
 hind as to advancement in character and useful- 
 ness. There is no occasion why any one should 
 be pessimistic on the subject of old age. To 
 train one's self to be cheerful and useful in the 
 fulness of his years, is the doing of a thing that 
 is as necessary as protecting one's body from 
 disease. The art of living is an unknown art 
 to many, but to those who aspire after the best 
 things which belong to longevity — ^briefly com- 
 prehended in good health and nobility of pur- 
 pose — the way to success is very encouraging. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that a good meas- 
 ure of cheerfulness and contentment depends 
 wholly upon our views of old age. Those who 
 wisely keep their bodies in a normal condition, 
 
64 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and grow to advanced life as naturally as a 
 plant grows to maturity, will have no fear as to 
 what will happen when they are seventy or 
 eighty years of age. If we think of old age as 
 a "melancholy necessity," it will not take long 
 to grow old, and everything that is animating 
 and hopeful will be crowded out of the mind 
 and heart. All the wholesome pleasures of life, 
 its joys and peace, and its practical usefulness, 
 are determined by our aspirations. In short, 
 old age is what we choose to make it. 
 
 Prentice Mulford says: "Three-fourths of 
 our people look the old man or woman at sixty 
 c because they have always received it as an in- 
 evitable necessity, from which there was no pos- 
 sible escape — ^that they must be on the down- 
 hill side of life at that age. It is to them 'a law 
 of nature.' It is for them only the law of 
 ignorance." 
 
 Many creeds by which old age can be made 
 useful and cheerful have been published, but I 
 must quote one adopted by the late Dr. William 
 C. Gray, editor of The Interior, Chicago. He 
 was a strong preacher of righteousness, al- 
 though he never delivered his sermons from a 
 pulpit. His life was a great sermon. In his 
 Camp-fire Musings, published shortly after 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 65 
 
 his death which occurred on the last Sunday in 
 September, 1901, he says : 
 
 "A happy life is to be had by making ra- 
 tional enjoyment one of the objects of life. 
 And that is not money-getting. It is not in 
 fashion or display. It is in trying to make 
 one's self and others happy. I go fishing and 
 camping and strolling and do not care a con- 
 tinental either for wealth, or wealthy people 
 because they are wealthy. I wear loose and 
 comfortable clothes, take plenty of exercise, re- 
 fuse to let my mind dwell on unpleasant things, 
 never worry about lost opportunities or iponey 
 losses, keep out of the way of cranks and quar- 
 relsome people, and try to see the bright or the 
 humorous side of things, cultivate love for my 
 kindred, a ^d cra ck many little chestmi t of a 
 joke. 
 
 "I never read any of the crimes or scandal 
 columns of the dailies, choose cheerful books, 
 and get out of the way of the whiners and 
 growlers and scandal-mongers. One can have 
 a happier life — Chappy as the day is long — by 
 making happiness one of the main purposes of 
 living. The foundation of this is good health. 
 Anybody can have good health by starting out 
 in time for it. It is to be had by the moderate 
 eating of simple and wholesome food, which 
 
66 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 soon becomes a luxury to the. palate; a clean, 
 skin; out-door exercise every day, without re- 
 gard to the weather, except in the way of warm 
 and dry clothing; keeping the mind cheerful; 
 keeping the heart kindly ; avoiding anxiety and 
 longing about business affairs; contentment 
 with one's lot." 
 
 A happy and serviceable longevity has come 
 to be regarded as one of the grand prizes of 
 human existence. And reason has again and 
 again suggested the inquiry whether care or 
 skill can increase the chances of acquiring 
 such a prize, and can make old age as comfort- 
 able and happy as the earlier period of our man- 
 hood. This inquiry may be perplexity to a 
 great many, but to the brave men and women 
 who are ambitious to fill their old age with no 
 little degree of joy and freshness of spirit it is 
 not difficult to answer. The instances are nu- 
 merous of persons of advanced years being able 
 almost to renew their youth and to crown their 
 last days with cheer and thanksgiving. 
 
 But in striving for length of days that carries 
 something of gladness and gratitude with it one 
 must heed the words of wisdom spoken by 
 Gorgias, a celebrated Greek rhetorician who 
 lived in the time of Socrates. When he was 
 asked how he had managed to grow to a hundred 
 
MABTEBS OF OLD AGE. 67 
 
 years so joyfully, and so full of observation, he 
 answered that he had never been wont to do 
 anything for merely personal pleasure. 
 
 The prescription for a sound growth and de- 
 velopment in the aged is hardly less rational 
 than Elisha's recipe for the cure of ISTaaman's 
 leprosy. But some one has said that he who 
 would live to be a useful old man must begin 
 early to be one. The fact remains, however, 
 that comparatively few designedly take meas- 
 ures in early life to live longer than their fel- 
 lows. But many a man has lengthened his 
 fruitful years far beyond the age given by the 
 Psalmist when it was supposed, long before, 
 that his days were numbered. 
 
 To be old and yet feel young, what a prize ! 
 Our country is young, but too many of its peo- 
 ple are growing old before their time. We 
 strive for money with all our might. We 
 glorify heroes and men of rank and fortune, 
 and too often selfish men of power, but forget 
 ourselves — forget that we ought to glorify the 
 youthful, the cheerful, and the heart-wam mmg^ 
 thi ngs of life.. 
 
 Eecently The Outlook printed an editorial 
 on "Christmas To-day," in which it said that 
 Lowell was once passing a great building in 
 London which bore the inscription, "Home for 
 
68 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Incurable Children" ; with a twinkle in his eye 
 he turned to the friend who was walking with 
 him and said, "They'll take me there some 
 day." The thought is beautiful. The editorial 
 then goes on to say : "The poets, artists, dream- 
 ers, lovers, who make the world endurable and 
 life worth living are children at heart; when 
 they leave all of childhood behind them, they no 
 longer see visions and dream dreams; they be- 
 come as dull and uninspiring as the rest of 
 Jacob's sons. It was Lowell, too, who said that 
 he had 'an inexhaustible fund of inexperience' 
 about him. Blessed are they who never become 
 wholly sophisticated, but who still dream and 
 wonder and believe !" 
 
 . . . "Age is not a matter of years, but of 
 feeling. Youth is the power of feeling things 
 freshly; of finding joy in common as well as 
 uncommon things ; of being eager, enthusiastic, 
 gay; of refusing to count the cost; of keeping 
 the capacity for admiration and wonder. Age, 
 on the other hand, is becoming so sophisticated 
 that the faculty of enjoying simple things is 
 lost, the capacity for fresh feeling, for admira- 
 tion and enthusiasm, exhausted." 
 
 How can much of the buoyancy of youth be 
 reincarnated in the hearts of the tired, and 
 world-worn men and women of to-day? How 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 69 
 
 can we imbibe the spirit of Lowell, and 
 save from exhaustion "the capacity for fresh 
 feeling, for admiration and enthusiasm" ? In 
 answer to these questions a few plain principles 
 of life, though of vital importance, can be 
 named : 
 
 Strict moderation in all things should be our 
 guiding maxim. 
 
 Learning in whatsoever state we are placed 
 to be content. 
 
 Consoling ourselves with the beautiful words 
 of the Psalmist: "Weeping may endure for a 
 night, but joy cometh in the morning." 
 
 Keeping in close touch with the best things 
 of to-day. 
 
 Loving the friendships of young people, and 
 never by our conversation or manner giving 
 them occasion to complain that we are self- 
 opinionated, or out of date, or were born too 
 long ago. 
 
 Exercising a perfect faith in Christianity. 
 In life's journey it is as "the shadow of a great 
 rock in a weary land." 
 
 Establishing our souls on the golden text of 
 the greatest essay on love ever written; "But 
 now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and 
 the greatest of these is love." 
 
70 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Some one has said that miracles will not be 
 out of date so long as men believe in love. 
 
 Eemembering the lines by Philip James 
 Bailey : 
 
 "We live in deeds, not in years ; in thoughts, 
 not breaths. 
 
 In feelings, not in figures on the dial. 
 
 We should count time by heart throbs. 
 
 He most lives who thinks most, feels the 
 noblest, acts the best." 
 
 So far as possible, to engage in some useful 
 and active occupation. As the water of a run- 
 ning brook is sweet, so a life filled with wisely 
 chosen mental and physical activity, brings 
 health and enjoyment. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Never Too Old to Learn. 
 
 LIVEE WENDELL HOLMES, in 
 
 one of his admirable breakfast 
 table talks, said for the encourage- 
 ment of those who have passed the 
 meridian of life, that he found that he could 
 learn anything twice as easily as in his earlier 
 days, the reason being that age had brought him 
 increased power of concentration. In conse- 
 quence, he was not afraid to attack a new study, 
 and recounts having taken up a difficult lan- 
 guage when past sixty, with entire success. He 
 likewise recites a popular story of a young 'New 
 England farmer, who refused to plant apple 
 trees on the score that he would not live to eat 
 the fruit of them. The young man's grand- 
 father, hearing the remark, planted the orchard 
 himself and lived to drink cider from it. 
 
72 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 It is an old saying, as wise as it is trite, that 
 a man is never too old to learn. The ability to 
 acquire knowledge, in whatever realm his mind 
 may lead him, ends only when a man closes the 
 account with this life. "When Thomas Henry 
 Huxley died in 1898 he was past seventy-three 
 — not an old man, by any means. His life had 
 been one of patient, arduous investigation, 
 solid, rational, scientific teaching, and brilliant 
 and original writings. He was just passing his 
 sixtieth year when he was convinced that he had 
 made a blunder in not mastering the old Greek 
 language in his earlier years. Although he was 
 one of the busiest scientific scholars in the 
 world his strong will power enabled him to 
 learn the tongue of Homer thoroughly. While 
 Huxley was performing this serious task none 
 of the new propositions of interest to the scien- 
 tific world escaped his thoughtful attention. 
 
 I have elsewhere made note of the fact that 
 the Eev. Dr. Eobie, at the age of eighty-three, 
 was a student in the theological department of 
 Harvard University during the summer of 
 1904. With him was the distinguished Dr. 
 Leonard Woolsey Bacon, seventy-four years old. 
 The latter had been a popular preacher, writer, 
 and lecturer for fifty years, yet he wanted the 
 assistance of Harvard in his purpose to make 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 73 
 
 further investigation of certain theological 
 questions, and therefore he placed himself un- 
 der the instruction of competent professors dur- 
 ing the summer months of that year. Entering 
 the University at the same time and for the 
 same purpose, were two other ministers each 
 over sixty years old. 
 
 It has been affirmed that men and women 
 who have done nothing great before the age of 
 fifty or sixty, will never do it. This may be the 
 rule, but there ' are some notable exceptions. 
 As time goes on they have developed a new 
 courage and have accomplished much in their 
 maturer years. 
 
 I am writing a portion of this and other 
 chapters of Mastees of Old Age in August, 
 1904, in the "Log Cabin" on the high, green- 
 robed, and wooded banks of Fox River near 
 Appleton, Wisconsin. It is the summer home 
 of Mr. Alexander J. Eeid, editor of the Apple- 
 ton Daily Post, and formerly United States 
 Consul to Dublin, Ireland. Clustering around 
 this quiet, restful home, so charming in its 
 natural surroundings, are hallowed associations 
 of the past, and one is touched with a feeling, 
 almost sacred, by the many tender memorials 
 of love. 
 
 Here I have had the rare pleasure of meeting 
 
74 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 one of the most remarkable of our Wisconsin 
 women — Mrs. Theodore Oonkey, mother-in-law 
 of Mr. Eeid. Her life affords an interesting 
 and beautiful illustration of the many new, 
 worthy, and helpful things which can be done 
 during the period of old age. Hers is a life 
 that is constantly reaching out towards some- 
 thing. Although her years have been variously 
 clouded, she makes the most and best of the 
 present and has bright visions of the future. 
 To her activity is life. 
 
 Mrs. Conkey is eighty-two, and only recently 
 she resumed her pencil drawing which had been 
 discontinued for nearly forty years. Her later 
 achievements have not only afforded her much 
 congenial occupation, but they have been the 
 source of much delight to her family and 
 friends, and by many competent critics they are 
 considered remarkable. Moreover, Mrs. Con- 
 key has still more recently become interested as 
 a worker in another branch of art. For some 
 time she has been taking lessons in water col- 
 ors, and has shown herself to be an exceedingly 
 apt pupil — some of her creations, indeed, being 
 lovely companions for her best pencillings. 
 
 In the spring and summer time, Mrs. Con- 
 key's morning hours are spent in pleasurable 
 activity among the plants and flowers in her 
 
MA8TEUS OF OLD AGE. 75 
 
 garden, for which she has a great fondness, and 
 the afternoons are devoted to reading and draw- 
 ing. She retains the grace and walk — although 
 of course, not the strength and endurance — of a 
 young girl. Her activity and achievements 
 are, however, not altogether surprising in a 
 woman who has had all the experience of Wis- 
 consin pioneer life, and who had the resolution 
 to join and remain with her husband, who was 
 an officer in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, dur- 
 ing two campaigns of the Civil War. 
 
 Dr. Hemphill of Portsmouth, Ohio, a fine 
 type of the old school physician, was in his 
 eightieth year when he determined to take up 
 the study of Hebrew. His youthful ardor and 
 strong mentality well equipped him for the 
 difficult task, and in due course of time he had 
 acquired a practical knowledge of the language. 
 
 The career of Mrs. Abrey Kamoo who died in 
 Boston a year ago, is interesting. She was 
 born in Tunis, North Africa, in 1815, and was 
 the daughter of a triplet, a merchant of high 
 social prominence in Tunis. She was a triplet 
 herself, and during her married life of five 
 years she twice gave birth to triplets. Commo- 
 dore Perry, of Lake Erie fame, brought her 
 to this country, after which she was married to 
 Dr. Enrique Kamoo, a graduate of the Uni- 
 
76 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 versity of Cairo. They made their home in 
 New Orleans, where the doctor died imme- 
 diately preceding the Civil War. 
 
 Mrs. Kamoo's sympathies were with the 
 Union, and in 1862, disguised as a man, she 
 made her way through the Southern camps to 
 theT!Torthern forces and enlisted as a drummer, 
 under the name of Tommy Kamoo. A year 
 later, when it became known that she was a 
 woman, she was transferred to the hospital de- 
 partment, where she served as a nurse to the 
 end of the war. 
 
 When Mrs. Kamoo was sixty years old she 
 settled in Boston and began the study and prac- 
 tice of dermatology. For the remaining twenty- 
 nine years of her life she was actively engaged 
 in her profession and as an expert in that 
 science she established a large practice. 
 
 It is interesting to learn how much United 
 States Senator Marcus A. Hamia accomplished 
 long after his meridian. Shortly after his 
 death in February 1904, the !N"ew York Finan- 
 cial Chronicle printed the following significant 
 editorial note : 
 
 "The career of the late Senator Hanna was 
 one which could hardly have been possible in 
 any country outside of the United States. A 
 man whose first appearance on the political 
 
MASTEB8 OF OLD AGE. 77 
 
 stage, even in a small role, occurred at the age 
 of forty-three, who was not known to the people 
 at large, or suspected of having the qualities of 
 a political leader on a large scale, until he had 
 reached the age of sixty; and who made his 
 first tour of political speech-making when he 
 was sixty-six, is an obvious exception to pretty 
 much all precedent." 
 
 The passage of Anthony Donovan of Mad- 
 ison, Wisconsin, from the blacksmith's shop to 
 the municipal bench is of peculiar interest. 
 When he was twelve years old, his patriotism 
 was greatly aroused by the war's enthusiasm in 
 1861. At the age of fifteen he determined to 
 see some fighting, so he ran away from home, 
 and in February 1865, enlisted in the Seventy- 
 sixth Pennsylvania, in which he served eight 
 months. On his return home he was placed in 
 a blacksmith's shop, and twenty-two years and 
 two months were spent in hard work at the 
 forge. 
 
 But Mr. Donovan could not believe that it 
 was best for him or his family that he should 
 give all the working years of his life to the 
 blacksmith trade. He was no dreamer. The 
 proverb says: "Where there is no vision, the 
 people perish." Mr. Donovan had a vision. 
 He saw better environments and higher life in 
 
78 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 law courts than at the forge. Cold critics and 
 pessimists would say that a man over forty, 
 fresh from the blacksmith's shop, with the 
 "muscles of his brawny arm as strong as iron 
 bands," was not a promising candidate for the 
 learned profession of the law. 
 
 But a blacksmith, whose thirst for knowl- 
 edge was so great and his will power so robust 
 that he could master the tyranny of the smoking 
 habit, and afterwards used his spare money in 
 buying an illustrated edition of the Bible in 
 thirty-two parts, and the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 nica in twenty-nine volumes, at one hundred 
 and seventy-four dollars, could grasp almost 
 anything within the scope of his dreams. 
 
 Mr. Donovan doffed the leather apron in 
 1888, and two years later he was graduated 
 from the law department of the University of 
 Wisconsin. After practising law two years 
 he was elected to the important office of Mu- 
 nicipal Judge for the term of six years. His 
 service on the bench was so creditable that he 
 was reelected, and his third term came to him 
 as a unanimous testimonial of the esteem in 
 which he is held by his fellow-citizens. 
 
 Another example of ambitious old age is that 
 of Mr. Jules Lumbard, perhaps the greatest of 
 all singers of the Civil War. He sang in the 
 
UABTEB8 OF OLD AOB. 79 
 
 memorable Lincoln campaign of 1860, and was 
 the first to sing in 1861, the song that electrified 
 the IsTation— "The Battle Cry of Freedom." 
 
 After his successful career as a singer during 
 the Civil War, Mr. Lumbard removed from 
 Chicago to New York City, where he was em- 
 ployed in the ofiice of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 way; and in 1888 he accepted a corresponding 
 position in an office in Omaha. But he became 
 restless in a place that did not stimulate self- 
 reliance and mental activity ; so after he passed 
 the age prescribed by Moses in the Ninetieth 
 Psalm, he began to study law, and last year, 
 when he was seventy-four, he was admitted to 
 the bar and began to practise. 
 
 Everybody will wish that the patriot who so 
 thoroughly stirred the hearts of the people by 
 his songs in the days which tried the souls of 
 men, will live long to enjoy the fruits of his 
 laudable ambition. 
 
 Once Henry D. Thoreau propounded these 
 questions: "Did you ever hear of a man who 
 had striven faithfully and singly towards an 
 object, and in no measure obtained it? If a 
 man constantly aspires, is he not elevated ? Did 
 ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, 
 sincerity, and find that there was no advantage 
 in them — ^that it was a vain endeavor ?" 
 
80 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 I use this quotation as an introduction to an 
 interesting bit of personal history which shows 
 the value of aspiration after higher life, al- 
 though the ardent striving for more favorable 
 environments and better living may not begin 
 till one is sixty years old or more. 
 
 In 189T a woman was living on the South 
 Side, Chicago, who had spent by far the greater 
 part of her life of sixty years on a farm not 
 many miles from that city. Her time had been 
 continually occupied from early morning till 
 late at night by the work of a farm-home. In 
 her case the words in Eusden's Cambridge Com- 
 mencement poem seemed to apply with special 
 force: "A woman's work, grave sirs, is never 
 done." Living in this condition there was no 
 opportunity for her to enlarge her life or culti- 
 vate her finer tastes. As this fact was revolv- 
 ing in her mind, she reckoned that her remain- 
 ing years might be fifteen — possibly twenty or 
 more. And at sixty she made the resolve that 
 Frances E. Willard made at eighteen : "I will 
 spend my coming years in being somebody and 
 in doing something for somebody." 
 
 This strong-hearted and wise-headed farm- 
 er's wife persuaded her husband to dispose of 
 the farm and remove to Chicago. This was 
 done, and there they began a new life. The 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 81 
 
 change was strange to both of them, but they 
 easily adapted themselves to the unique condi- 
 tions. The woman took lessons in china paint- 
 ing, then in crayon, and finally in oil. Her 
 work was so well executed that it received 
 praise from the art critics. Besides this, she 
 made herself useful in other lines of endeavor, 
 and at the age of seventy there was so much joy 
 and usefulness in her life that none of her 
 friends could discover that she was growing old. 
 The time when a man or woman should get 
 out of the harness and cease to be a student 
 in some branch of human knowledge ought not 
 to be limited by age. Only the other day I read 
 of a brave soul in San Francisco who is 
 strengthening her mind as well as her days 
 while she is passing swiftly through the period 
 of advanced life. I regret that I cannot give 
 her name, as she was designated only by "A. 
 C. G.," presumably her initials. Until four 
 years ago she had been a teacher, completing 
 thirty-six years in that profession without the 
 loss of a week during any of the school months. 
 She does her own housework, and at the age of 
 seventy-three is taking a course of study every 
 day and earns her own education. Mrs. "A. 
 0. G.," has the correct idea that the best of life 
 is before her, and her purpose is to work on 
 
82 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 cheerily, hopefully, st;^diously, and triumph- 
 antly to the end. 
 
 Does the reader know that Haydn's twelve 
 grand Symphonies were not composed until he 
 was about sixty ? And his "Creation," one of the 
 sublimest compositions in oratorio music, was 
 not produced till he was sixty-fire. He learned 
 the most when he became what the world would 
 call an old man; for it was during the whole 
 period of his residence with Prince Esterhazy, 
 in Hungary, that he can be said to have edu- 
 cated himself for those great works of his ad- 
 vanced life on which his reputation now chiefly 
 rests. 
 
 Thomas H. Benton was one of the most con- 
 spicuous men that ever served in Congress, and 
 in some respects he was the ablest. He was 
 United States Senator from Missouri contin- 
 uously from 1821 to 1851, but he failed in his 
 candidacy for the sixth term. His congres- 
 sional district then sent him to the House of 
 Representatives, where he sat for two years. 
 Although he was seventy-two years old when he 
 was defeated for reelection to the House, a new 
 life was opened to him. He wrote his Thirty 
 Years' View in two large volumes, which pre- 
 sented a history of the workings of the political 
 parties from the administration of John Quincy 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 83 
 
 Adams to that of Franklin Pierce. He then 
 began the difficult task of making an abridg- 
 ment of the debates of Congress from the found- 
 ation of the Government to 1850. Benton was 
 then an old man — about seventy-six — and the 
 last pages of the great work, in fifteen volumes, 
 were dictated in a whisper shortly before his 
 death, he having lost the power to speak aloud. 
 While Benton was always a student, his most 
 diligent, painstaking work was done after he 
 left Congress. He lived to learn. President 
 Roosevelt wrote an admirable biography of Ben- 
 ton for the American Statesmen series, and 
 among the closing sentences are these words: 
 "Benton grew in character to the very last. He 
 made better speeches and was better able to face 
 new problems when past three-score and ten 
 than in his early youth or middle age." 
 
OHAPTEE IX. 
 
 The Last Years of the "Grand Old Man.' 
 
 
 ]Sr the history of the public service 
 that man has rendered after he had 
 reached the period commonly called 
 old age, there is nothing so re- 
 markable as the career of William E. Gladstone. 
 When he died in May 1898, it was said that 
 England lost the most brilliant intellect ever 
 devoted to the service of the State since par- 
 liamentary government began. Grladstone's 
 public life became most picturesque after he 
 passed the age of sixty. Had he retired from 
 public service at an earlier period, human cal- 
 culation can easily make out vs^hat the result 
 would have been. It is certain that he would 
 not have become one of the most prominent fig- 
 ures in English history. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 85 
 
 When he entered the House of Commons in 
 1832, at the age of twenty-three, he attracted 
 but little attention so far as his work and in- 
 fluence were concerned. Benjamin Disraeli, 
 who became a member of the Commons five 
 years later, spoke slightingly of Gladstone, 
 calling him a young man of small parts and of 
 smaller promise. But in .after years, when 
 these two men began to make history, the fact 
 was established that "Disraeli was a skyrocket, 
 and Gladstone a fixed star in the firmament." 
 
 The purpose of Gladstone's life was differ- 
 ent from that of Disraeli. In all matters of 
 public concern, Gladstone, "like a mighty trans- 
 atlantic steamship, ploughed his way through 
 fogs and storms, keeping his prow steadily set 
 toward the attainment of the highest ideals." 
 It was by this means that he reached the highest 
 dignity attainable by any British subject — that 
 of Prime Minister, to which he was elected 
 four times — at the age of fifty-nine, seventy- 
 one, seventy-seven, and eighty-three. By the 
 attainment of the highest ideals in private life 
 and public service, he became known as the 
 "Grand Old Man," a title as noble as that of 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 But how did Gladstone accomplish so much 
 during the last twenty-five years of his public 
 
86 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 life? What were his habits of life? These 
 are matters with which we have to do in this 
 brief article. 
 
 Gladstone did a prodigious amount of di- 
 versified work. No man knew better than he 
 how to command the resources at hand. He 
 seemed never to be oppressed or driven to strain 
 his strength. One of the things that made his 
 old age so fruitful was that "no pressure of 
 work made him fussy or fidgety, nor could any- 
 one remember to have seen him in a hurry." 
 
 He lived simply and regularly, and was ex- 
 tremely domestic in his tastes. He was frugal 
 without being abstemious, but against luxury, 
 on the table or off of it, he determinedly set his 
 face. Plain living and high thinking was his 
 standard. 
 
 Newspapers and various publications have 
 said much about Gladstone's habit of masti- 
 cating his food. It appears to have become 
 almost an international question, as many ac- 
 counts of it were given in English and Amer- 
 ican papers for some years. The popular story 
 was that he attributed his good health and 
 vigor to chewing his food so long before swal- 
 lowing it. The Hon. Lionel A. Tellemache, 
 who published some of his "Talks with Glad- 
 stone," asked him if it were true that he 
 
MAaTEHS OF OLD AGE. 87 
 
 ascribed his good health to the practice of masti- 
 cating his food twenty times. His answer was 
 that when his children were young he told them 
 that, when eating they should think of four 
 bars of music, common time, written in quav- 
 ers; by which he meant that they were to bite 
 each mouthful thirty-two times. Gladstone 
 himself looked upon this as a counsel of per- 
 fection. "He ate very slowly," says Mr. 
 Tallemache, "and I was surprised by this as he 
 talked so much. Montaigne, who never reached 
 old age, had to increase mastication when he had 
 passed middle life, and found it a bar to talk- 
 ing." 
 
 Mr. Gladstone had other rules for the 
 preservation of his mental power and physical 
 energy. He felt the importance of sound sleep. 
 He acquired the power of keeping his mind 
 from politics, or business affairs of any kind, 
 after he retired at night. He went to bed to 
 sleep and not to think. Mr. Tallemache says 
 when the great orator, John Bright, was ill, 
 Gladstone mentioned his own rule for sleeping 
 to him, and the former replied, that when lying 
 in bed was the time he did the most thinking 
 about his speeches. This brought from Glad- 
 stone the remark that "Bright's imprudence 
 about his health was abominable." 
 
88 MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 
 
 Another rule for the promotion of health to 
 which Gladstone strictly adhered, was physical 
 exercise. He walked niiich until he was be- 
 yond seventy. He was fond of out-door sports ; 
 and when it became impracticable for him to 
 continue his walks, he would dress in his shirt 
 sleeves and devote much time to cutting down 
 useless trees on the Hawarden estate. The 
 story is told that when he was chopping down 
 a tree he received a telegram from Sir George 
 Grey that he would reach Hawarden that even- 
 ing from Windsor. He read the message, and 
 remarked, "very significant," and quietly went 
 on with his work. "Resting on the handle of 
 his axe, after a few minutes, he said: 'My 
 mission is to pacify Ireland.' He resumed his 
 chopping, and said not another word till the 
 tree was down. One thing at a time, and 'rest 
 everywhere,' were two guiding principles in his 
 busy life." 
 
 The Christian religion "guided every day 
 and every act of Gladstone's career. From the 
 straight line of orthodox Christianity he never 
 swerved by the breadth of a hair." He laid 
 much stress on the importance of Sunday rest 
 as a means of preserving health. Attending 
 Church services regularly on Sunday and even 
 on week days, was always restful, as well as 
 
MASTEBS OF OLD AOE. 89 
 
 spiritually helpful to him ; hut he never liked to 
 hear more than one sermon during the day that 
 compelled him to think. He needed rest for 
 the mind as well as for the body. 
 
 Gladstone never troubled himself about the 
 curiosities and the difficulties of certain theo- 
 logical problems. When he was once asked: 
 "If the righteous are to be severed from the 
 wicked immediately after death, what need will 
 there be for a Day of Judgment?" the great 
 statesman simply replied: "I cannot answer 
 such questions. The Almighty never took me 
 into His confidence as to why there is to be a 
 Day of Judgment." 
 
 It was natural that a man who so thoroughly 
 understood the art of living should make his 
 last years his greatest. It is no wonder that at 
 the age of seventy-six he could lead the first 
 great battle for Home Eule. It is not sur- 
 prising that his moral earnestness was as fer- 
 vent in his eighty-ninth year as when he was 
 thirty. When his "life-clock had already 
 struck eighty-six," he made a thrilling speech 
 on behalf of bleeding Armenia, which led the 
 London Times to say that it was an effort un- 
 paralleled, even as a mere physical achievement, 
 by a man who was so far advanced in life. 
 
 Summing up all things pertaining to Mr. 
 
90 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Gladstone's life — his intellectual power, and the 
 spirit and purpose of his living — it is not diffi- 
 cult to tinderstand how, in his later years, he 
 became "the most colossal character on the 
 globe." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 Intellectual Work and Longevity. 
 
 HE familiar saying, "JSTot work, 
 but worry, that kills," is a truth 
 well worth remembering. The 
 false impression generally prevails, 
 however, that a life wholly devoted to intel- 
 lectual work is usually not a long one. In 
 1898, James J. Walsh contributed to Annals of 
 Hygiene a brief article in which he declared 
 that the assumption seems to be that the drain 
 upon vital nerve force, of years of continuous 
 mental effort, exhausts nature's store of energy 
 before its appointed time. He produced a 
 necrological list for the previous year to show 
 that men who devote themselves continuously 
 to scientific investigation along certain lines in 
 
92 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 medicine do not pay for fame in shortness of 
 life. 
 
 Mr. Walsh closes his article with this par- 
 agraph: "It is more than probable that, given 
 a certain amount of vital energy, its conserva- 
 tion will be best studied by orderly, regular, 
 and constant employment at some work that is 
 at once absorbing in itself and satisfactory in its 
 results. Work of itself, when not excessive, 
 is a tonic and stimulant rather than a depressant 
 of vital energy. Intellectual work, instead of 
 being incompatible with the full cycle of al- 
 lotted life to the organism, is rather an addi- 
 tional factor in securing the completeness of 
 life by rounding out, developing, and satisfying 
 the higher faculties." 
 
 Few men of his day did more brain work 
 than John Wesley. His natural constitution 
 was tfeeble. But aside from mastering the 
 classics and becoming a linguist of no mean 
 ability, he travelled 250,000 miles, mostly on 
 horseback, and preached 42,500 sermons. 
 
 And yet this great evangelist of the eight- 
 eenth century was eighty-six years old before 
 he became conscious of the infirmities of age. 
 He ascribed his unusual vigor to constant exer- 
 cise, his early rising, and his habit of daily 
 preaching, morning and evening. When he 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 93 
 
 was eighty he travelled from four to five thou- 
 sand miles a year. Like Gladstone, Mr. Wes- 
 ley could command sleep whenever he needed it. 
 
 In Mr. Wesley's eighty-second year he made 
 this remarkable statement in his journal: "It 
 is now eleven years since I have felt any such 
 thing as weariness." At the same time he re- 
 corded beautiful impressions of nature and 
 books more frequently. He went so far as to 
 compare and criticise Ariosto and Tasso, and 
 indulge now and then in dramatic reading and 
 criticism. He was careful of his physical hab- 
 its and had a perfect knowledge of the laws of 
 hygiene. Once he said of himself that he never 
 felt lowness of spirits for a quarter of an hour 
 since he was born. 
 
 We have a striking instance how intel- 
 lectual work and longevity have gone hand in 
 hand in the life of the Eev. Andrew Matthews 
 of Gumley, Market Harborough, England, who 
 died in 189Y. Besides devoting much time to 
 ministerial work, he had been an earnest student 
 of natural history during the whole of his long 
 life. His achievements while the snow of time 
 was on his head were marvellous. In 1872, 
 when fifty-seven years old, he published a work 
 in Latin, called Trichopterygidae Illustrata, 
 illustrated by himself with thirty-one plates, 
 
94 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 detailing the full anatomy of this family of al- 
 most invisible insects. It is a black beetle 
 with narrow wings margined with hair, and is 
 usually found among decaying vegetables. 
 With the exception of the egg-parasite, it is 
 perhaps the smallest insect known. 
 
 At the age of seventy-three Mr. Matthews 
 prepared a comprehensive description of his 
 favorite branch of natural history for the great 
 American work on the Natural History of Cen- 
 tral America. But what is most remarkable 
 is that, in his eightieth year he completed a 
 second volume of his work, fully illustrated by 
 his own hand from microscopic dissections of 
 these minute beetles. 
 
 After the publication of the first volume, Mr. 
 Matthews, who had lost none of his youthful 
 spirit, was offered the honor of the Fellowship 
 of the Eoyal Society of England, which he 
 modestly declined "lest his scientific acquire- 
 ments should be estimated by the number of 
 letters after his name." 
 
 Beranger, the greatest song-writer of France, 
 is credited with saying that all good workmen 
 live long. While this may not be literally true, 
 it is suggestive. Men who train their minds 
 with the wisdom that prudence dictates they 
 
MA8TER8 OF OLD AGE. 95 
 
 should train their bodies, are slow in growing 
 old physically or mentally. 
 
 Emerson says that a man of large employ- 
 ments and excellent performance once remarked 
 to him that he did not think a man worth any- 
 thing until he was sixty. This is not the belief 
 of many employers nowadays; however, the 
 man did not greatly stumble in his judgment. 
 
 The poet and essayist was charmed by the 
 mental vigor of the men who had long passed 
 the accepted age limit. He refers with evident 
 pleasure to the fact that in the old governments 
 the councils of power were composed of men old 
 in years and strong in intellect. The patri- 
 cians, senators, the presbytery of the Church, 
 and the like, were old in age. And in naming 
 some of the "seniors who feared no city, but by 
 whom cities stand," Emerson tells of the re- 
 miarkable career of blind Dandolo who was 
 elected doge, or chief magistrate, of Venice "at 
 eighty-four; stormed and captured Constanti- 
 nople at ninety-four, and after the revolt was 
 again victorious and elected at the age of ninety- 
 six to the throne of the Eastern Empire, which 
 he declined, and died doge at the age of ninety- 
 seven." 
 
 But we need not go so far from home for shin- 
 
96 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ing examples of intellectual activity and lon- 
 gevity keeping company. 
 
 The career of John Quincy Adams is a re- 
 markable piece of biographical history. He 
 had been minister to five different European 
 courts, Senator of the United States, eight years 
 Secretary of State, four years President, and 
 yet his fame vras not fully established. In his 
 Twenty Years in Congress, Mr. Blaine says 
 that it may be fairly doubted vrhether if Adams' 
 presidency had closed his public life, his fame 
 would have attracted special observation. "But 
 in his sixty-fifth year, vs^hen the public life of 
 the most favored draws to a close, the noble and 
 shining career of Mr. Adams began. He en- 
 tered the House of Representatives in 1831, and 
 for the remainder of his life — a period of sev- 
 enteen years — ^he was one grand figure in that 
 assembly. His warfare in favor of the right 
 of the humblest to petition for redress of griev- 
 ances is among the memorable events in the 
 parliamentary history of the United States. 
 It was in a large degree the moral courage of 
 his position that first fixed the attention of the 
 country, and then attracted its admiration." 
 
 As Gladstone won the title of "The Grand 
 Old Man" by the distinguished service he ren- 
 dered his Government and humanity after he 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 97 
 
 had passed his sixtieth year, so Adams was 
 not designated as "The Old Man Eloquent" 
 until he was beyond sixty-five, the age at which 
 the greatest part of his public career began. 
 
 It is amazing how much some men have ac- 
 complished and others are now accomplishing 
 in the professions under conditions which would 
 smite the average man with discouragement 
 and utter inactivity. We read of Dr. Alonzo 
 Garcelon, once Governor of Maine, attending 
 strictly to his medical practice when he had 
 passed his ninetieth year, and sometimes driv- 
 ing fifteen miles to minister to a patient. And 
 John Erost Irving of l^ew York, is in harness 
 at ninety-two years. He began his career as an 
 author seventy years ago by writing "Indian 
 Sketches," and he still holds on to the pen. 
 
 James M. Hoppin, emeritus professor of the 
 History of Art at Tale, neither works nor walks 
 as though he is mid-way between eighty and 
 ninety. His intellectual force is not impaired, 
 and it was only four years ago that he wrote 
 Oreat Epochs in Art History, a work of perma- 
 nent value to art students. 
 
 Among the veterans of intellectual work, is 
 the Eev. Joseph Glass Monfort, D.D., of Cin- 
 cinnati. He began his ministerial labors and 
 assumed the responsibility of editing a Pres- 
 
98 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 byterian journal nearly seventy years ago. His 
 life has been one of great mental activity. He 
 is now ninety-five years old, but a short time 
 since he was obliged to cease from writing and 
 public speaking on account of the failure of 
 his eyesight. His daughter, Mrs. H. B. More- 
 head, writes me that her father is perfectly well 
 except as to sight and hearing, "and is enjoying 
 life very much, but of course misses the use of 
 his eyes more than anyone can appreciate." 
 
 Oliver W. Gibbs is emeritus professor of 
 Physics and Chemistry at Harvard, and al- 
 though he is nearly eighty-three, he is the active 
 President of the National Academy of Sciences. 
 And there is Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 
 whose brain has been wonderfully active for 
 the past sixty years, and at four-score he is 
 still busy writing and lecturing. 
 
 But one of the most striking examples of long 
 continued professional service and mental ac- 
 tivity despite bodily defects is found in the life 
 of Mr. William E. Cramer. He was born in 
 Waterford, 'New York, in 1817, and was grad- 
 uated from Union College in 1838. From 
 1843 to 184*7 he was engaged in editorial writ- 
 ing on The Albany Argus; and in the latter 
 year he established The Daily Wisconsin at Mil- 
 waukee. From that time to his death. May 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 99 
 
 twenty-first, 1905, a span of fifty-seven years, 
 Mr. Cramer was the editor-in-chief of that 
 paper. 
 
 There are those who are seized with the 
 ridiculous notion that when a man reaches the 
 age of discretion — say three or four score years 
 — about the only thing for him to do is straight- 
 way to set his house in order. But the life of 
 Mr. Cramer teaches that we ought not to mag- 
 nify the discovery that we are growing old nor 
 lament if we are fettered by physical imper- 
 fections. For thirty-five or forty years Mr. 
 Cramer was without sight, and could hear 
 only by the aid of a speaking-tube. But these 
 bodily disadvantages, which would have ham- 
 pered and made cowards of a large majority 
 of professional men, did not discourage Mr. 
 Cramer. In spite of these conditions he 
 lived a large life. By energy and industry, 
 by quick perception and remarkable powers 
 of memory and judgment, he practically over- 
 came these physical detriments. 
 
 In a note declining an invitation to respond 
 in person at a banquet given in honor of Wash- 
 ington's birthday, in 1906, Mr. Cramer said : 
 
 "I have been engaged fifty-seven years in 
 Wisconsin in editing and publishing a daily 
 newspaper, and three years in the same vocation 
 
100 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 in Albany. I have therefore a record of sixty 
 years of work as the editor of a daily news- 
 paper, and I know that this embraces a longer 
 period of continuous editorial work than has 
 been achieved by any other person in the United 
 States, and, without vanity, I can add, in the 
 world. I must soon be called hence, and I 
 want to reserve all my health and my strength 
 to be embodied in my favorite newspaper. The 
 Evening Wisconsin." 
 
 That Mr. Cramer accomplished so much 
 under such depressing conditions, is a marvel. 
 
 Twice Mr. Cramer visited Europe in 
 company with his wife, and his defect of sight 
 and hearing did not prevent him from writing 
 for his paper while on his journeys many 
 graphic descriptions of men and things as he 
 viewed them. 
 
 In Mr. Cramer's case, as in many others I 
 have noted, his mental activity was his life. 
 
 Space fails me to tell of others who, having 
 left more than eighty years behind them, seem- 
 ingly unconscious of the time according to the 
 calendar, are still vigorous and active in intel- 
 lectual work. 
 
OHAPTEK XI. 
 
 "Ought We Never to be Sick?" 
 
 MOITG the men whose patience, 
 fortitude, and well-planned work 
 during the last years of a long life 
 should be a keen incentive to those 
 who have arrived at a period called "remnant" 
 of their days, Henry Clay Trumbull is con- 
 spicuous. He was born in Stonington, Con- 
 necticut, in 1830. His education, which was 
 thorough, was not obtained in a college, and yet 
 he received a Master's degree from Yale, and 
 his Divinity degrees from Lafayette College 
 and from the University of New York. In the 
 Civil War, Dr. Trumbull was chaplain of the 
 Tenth Connecticut Infantry, and was grad- 
 uated from three Confederate prisons — Libby, 
 Charleston, and Columbia. 
 
102 MASTJEBS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Some incidents in the life of this remarkable 
 man are well worth repeating here. After the 
 war, a life insurance company offered Dr. 
 Trumbull twenty-live thousand dollars a year 
 for his services, which was declined. He pre- 
 ferred to receive one-tenth of that salary as Mis- 
 sionary Superintendent of the JSTew England 
 branch of the American Sunday School Union. 
 This prompt refusal to abandon the Christian 
 educational work in which he was engaged, for 
 a salary as large as that which the President of 
 the United States was then receiving, was a 
 perfect measurement of the soul-standard of 
 the man. He was living to do Christian work, 
 not to make money. 
 
 In 1875, when John Wanamaker of Phil- 
 adelphia — ^the leader of American merchants — 
 wanted an editor for the Sunday School Times, 
 a publication he owned, he found out Henry 
 Clay Trumbull, and offered him the position 
 which was accepted. Por twenty-five years the 
 doctor performed distinguished service on that 
 journal. 
 
 Dr. Trumbull died in December 1903, and 
 shortly afterwards a correspondent, who be- 
 lieved in faith cure, sent to the Sunday School 
 Times a communication in which he emphasized 
 the belief that people ought never to be sick. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 103 
 
 He furthermore criticised the Times because it 
 did not support the theory of "divine healing." 
 Under the headline, "Ought We Never to be 
 Sick ?" the Times printed an editorial in answer 
 to the correspondent, which revealed the won- 
 derful mind and heart of Dr. Trumbull when 
 he was an old man and in a condition of hope- 
 less invalidism. I can quote only two par- 
 agraphs : 
 
 "The editor of the Sunday School Times 
 has more confidence in the heavenly Father's 
 planning for his life than his own planning. 
 The editor has seen so many of the blessings of / 
 ill-health that he would not be willing to ask f 
 the Father to change what, in His love and / 
 wisdom, that Father thinks best to provide. _j 
 
 "To take an illustration close at hand, it is 
 evident to those who knew the late Dr. H. Clay 
 Trumbull, as it was evident to Dr. Trumbull 
 himSelf long before his death, that one of God's 
 greatest blessings to him was the sending into 
 his system of the disease which, during the last 
 three years of his life deprived him of the power 
 of walking, and made him a 'shut-in.' Because 
 of that plan of God, Dr. Trumbull was freed 
 from the ordinary ofSce duties of editorial work, 
 and was enabled to devote his consecrated pow- 
 ers and accumulated spiritual resources of his 
 
104 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 lifetime exclusively to ^yriting. In this way 
 he was permitted to send God's message in 
 greater fulness and to many more souls than 
 could possibly have been the case in the ordi- 
 nary course of life had he been in his cus- 
 tomary good health. Six books, written in that 
 shut-in period, have extended and preserved his 
 influence for future generations. One alone of 
 those six, Individual Work for Individuals, has 
 made a profounder impression for good upon 
 the Christian workers of the world than any 
 other book written by Dr. Trumbull during his 
 long lifetime. Does it look as though the Ohio 
 reader could have planned better than God in 
 this matter ?" 
 
 No person should be discouraged from enter- 
 taining an ambition for length of days. One 
 of the plainest duties of life is to live in har- 
 mony with the laws of hygiene that we may 
 enjoy the luxury of a fruitful old age. But 
 if by any cause we become sick, or crippled in 
 body, or sorely bereaved, the best remedy is that 
 prescribed by St. Paul: "To take our part in 
 suffering hardship as good soldiers of Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 The aspect of suffering is always hard; but 
 the old saying is eternally true that, no one is 
 good for much till he has passed through a 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 105 
 
 great sorrow. To make the glaring head-light 
 of a railway train of any use there must be 
 darkness. Electricity can be of service as a 
 motive power only when it meets with resist- 
 ance. Gail Hamilton says that it is the suffer- 
 ing soul that breathes the sweetest melodies. 
 The masterpieces of the world's greatest artists 
 are but transmutations of cheap pigments. 
 And Hugh Macmillan reminds us that the most 
 brilliant colors of plants and flowers are to be 
 seen on the highest mountains in spots which 
 are most exposed to the storms. "There, in the 
 frowning desolation, subjected to the fiercest 
 tempest of the sky, the lichen exhibits a glory 
 of colors such as it never shows in the sheltered 
 valley." 
 
 These facts are analogous to certain condi- 
 tions of human life. The baptism of pain is 
 one of the instrumentalities which God uses for 
 purging away the dross of our natures. And 
 how true it is that adversities are often angels 
 in disguise. Job was a thousand times richer 
 in his understanding of the love of his Maker 
 after he had passed through deep waters. "Ex- 
 plain it as we may," says Dr. Hillis, "the dark- 
 ness has its discipline and suffering its sanctity. 
 No city has ever built a monument to a man 
 
106 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 who has lived in uniform prosperity, perpetual 
 sunshine, and untempted goodness." 
 
 There is a mystery about the distribution of 
 sorrow. It is a matter which any attempt to 
 explain would be idle. The Prince of Peace 
 and Infinite Love could not escape Gethsemane. 
 ^Neither can we escape it. The reason why 
 the bitter cup comes to everyone is not for us 
 to understand. - l^Tor do we know why a good 
 many lazy and stupid people with an aimless 
 existence, living on little, knowing but little, 
 and doing but little, reach a very old age while 
 the active and intelligent perish untimely, not 
 living long enough to come within sight of be- 
 ing octogenarians. These phases of human 
 life are constantly confronting us, and, as Ly- 
 man Abbott says : "Bolt the doors as we may, 
 sorrow and death knock at them, and the im- 
 mortal strength of love itself cannot keep them 
 shut." 
 
 But, paradoxical as it may appear, sickness 
 and sorrow have brought many blessings to the 
 world. I can give but one illustration. At the 
 beginning of the last century, Margaret Haugh- 
 ery, a devoted Catholic, was born in Baltimore. 
 After removing to New Orleans some seventy 
 years ago, death took away her husband and all 
 her children, leaving her in poverty. She ac- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 107 
 
 cepted a position as servant in an orphan 
 asylum, and there she learned to love orphan 
 children. At the close of the Civil War she 
 opened a bakery in that city, and for years 
 drove the bread wagon herself. Business pros- 
 pered with her, and she became known as the 
 orphan's faithful friend. No poor woman or 
 child ever left her bakery empty-handed. She 
 never wore a pair of gloves in all her life, never 
 owned a silk dress, and could neither read nor 
 write. 
 
 Mrs. Haughery was one of the homeliest 
 women in ISTew Orleans, but everybody loved 
 her for her beautiful soul. She grew rich, and 
 all her wealth was used to gladden the lives of 
 the homeless children of poverty. She founded 
 and endowed an asylum for orphans ; and when 
 she died in 1882, governors and senators. Cath- 
 olic priests and Protestant ministers, and the 
 rich and the poor walked side by side in follow- 
 ing her body to the tomb. A public square in 
 that city is named after her in which stands a 
 great bronze statue of Margaret Haughery, clad 
 in a simple dress, a plain shawl over her shoul- 
 ders, and a little child standing by her side 
 with her strong, loving arms around it. 
 
 No true soldier is ever anxious to get into 
 a fight, but when a battle is inevitable, he cour- 
 
108 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ageously faces the storm of shot and shell, and 
 if perchance he escapes with his life, though he 
 may be wounded, and crippled for the rest 
 of his days, he never regrets that he did his 
 duty; and the story of the hardships and dan- 
 gers of war he never tires of telling. 
 
 It is thus with a brave, true man engaged in 
 the business affairs of life. He may wish never 
 to be sick, and may dread old age ; but if sick- 
 ness comes, and his life is full of years, he 
 yields not to discouragement nor complaint, 
 but is imbued with the spirit of the stalwart, 
 faith-filled Paul whose three prayers for the 
 removal of his thorn in the flesh were not an- 
 swered, yet exclaimed, exultingly: "Most 
 gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weak- 
 ness, that the power of Christ may rest upon 
 me." 
 
 It was this spirit of submission, hope, and a 
 purpose to turn to good account an affliction 
 which the world would call a misfortune, that 
 made the last years of Dr. Trumbull his best. 
 Neither illness nor old age prevented him from 
 making himself master of his fate. His life 
 teaches the lesson found many times repeated 
 in these articles that advanced years afford fre- 
 quent opportunities for effective service. 
 
 The patience and endurance of Dr. Trumbull 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 109 
 
 suggest a beautiful sentiment once uttered by 
 Phillips Brooks, which elderly people, partic- 
 ularly, should memorize: "Do not pray for 
 easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not 
 pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray 
 for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing 
 of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall 
 be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at 
 yourself, at the richness of life which has come 
 to you by the grace of Grod." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 Three £)istinguished Engineers. 
 
 SOMAS HOOD once asked the 
 question, "What can an old man do 
 but die?" The author of "The 
 Song of the Shirt" always held a 
 pessimistic view of old age. He was a chronic 
 dyspeptic. It was hard for him to understand 
 how anyone of sixty or seventy years could be 
 jolly and hopeful. Victor Hugo, speaking 
 from experience, says fifty is the youth of old 
 age. But Hood said, a short time before his 
 death, at forty-seven : "An old infancy is what 
 is to be dreaded." 
 
 There are many answers to Hood's question 
 to be found in these pages, and one which is 
 particularly striking is the life of Charles H. 
 Haswell of ISTew York City. He was born in 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. Ill 
 
 1809, and in his young manhood entered a 
 steam engine factory. In 1836 he was ap- 
 pointed chief engineer by the Navy Depart- 
 ment, and was the first engineer-in-chief in the 
 United States navy. The first of all steam 
 launches was designed and operated by him. 
 He is called "the father of the steam yacht." 
 He was the first to put zinc into a marine steam 
 boiler, or the hold of an iron steam vessel, in 
 order that the galvanic action of the salt water 
 and copper might be exhausted on the zinc in 
 preference to iron. 
 
 Mr. Haswell designed and built several steam 
 frigates and many merchant vessels. He was 
 eighty-nine years old when he received the ap- 
 pointment of consulting engineer of the Board 
 of Public Improvements of the city of 'New 
 York, and engineer in charge of the extension 
 and improvements on Eiker's Island, Long 
 Island Sound. In originality of conception 
 and thorough knowledge of his difficult profes- 
 sion, he has excelled, and his many achieve- 
 ments have brought him recognition from 
 European as well as American sources. Em- 
 peror Nicholas of Russia acknowledged Mr. 
 Haswell's scientific attainments by presenting 
 him, in 1853, a diamond ring. 
 
 Mr. Haswell is the author of several works. 
 
112 MABTER8 OF OLD AGE. 
 
 one of them being The Mechanics' and En- 
 gineers' Pocket Booh, which he first published 
 sixty-two years ago. The seventieth edition, 
 making a total circulation of about one hundred 
 and eighty thousand copies, was issued in 1904. 
 Mr. Haswell is still a splendid specimen of 
 cheerful, solid manhood. He is ninety-five 
 years old, is in good health, and he now writes 
 a letter which would be a good example to many 
 young students of to-day. A letter from him, 
 dated October 29th, 1904, lies before me. It 
 is written in a hand as small and beautiful as 
 that of Henry Clay's, and bears no sign that its 
 author is nearing the century record. He tells 
 me: "I am well. Kise early, and walk out 
 much. I smoke only moderately. Had a se- 
 vere and continued indigestion for twenty years, 
 but when I stopped the use of spirits, which I 
 had used with moderation, the trouble was 
 wholly overcome." 
 
 Thomas A Morris of Indianapolis, Indiana, 
 is another engineer of honor and fame. He is 
 a remarkable man in his accomplishments as 
 well as in his longevity. He began to learn the 
 printer's art eighty-one years ago. It has been 
 seventy-one years since he was graduated from 
 West Point. Over ninety per cent, of the men 
 and women now living in the United States, 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 113 
 
 were not born when Mr. Morris was assigned by 
 the War Department to assist the engineer corps 
 in constructing the National road in Indiana 
 and Illinois. He had charge of the construct- 
 ing of the Central canal; was chief engineer 
 of the Madison & Indianapolis Railway, sixty- 
 three years ago ; was afterwards chief engineer 
 of the Terre Haute & Eichmond railway, the 
 Indianapolis & Belief ontaine, and the Indianap- 
 olis & Cincinnati line, and was also its pres- 
 ident. He served with distinction in the Civil 
 War, and later was selected ,as chief engineer 
 of the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railway. Mr. 
 Morris is now ninety-three years old. He un- 
 derstands "the philosophy of staying in har- 
 ness," and is the active president of the Indian- 
 apolis Water Company. 
 
 Another civil engineer whose life is an inter- 
 esting study, is George E. Gray of San Fran- 
 cisco, California. He began his work as an 
 engineer on the New York State canals, away 
 back in the forties. He was chief engineer of 
 the New York Central Railway from 1853 to 
 1865. During the following six years he was 
 consulting engineer of the Central Pacific road ; 
 and for fourteen years was chief engineer of the 
 Southern Pacific, and later engineer of various 
 
114 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 other roads comprised in the Southern Pacific 
 system. 
 
 At the age of eighty-six, Mr. Gray is active 
 in many enterprises in which he takes an in- 
 terest. I learn from Who's Who in America 
 (1903-1905), that he is one of the trustees of 
 the Leland Stanford, Jr., University; a mem- 
 ber of the Institute of Civil Engineers of Lon- 
 don, England; and president of the board of 
 directors of the California Academy of 
 Sciences. 
 
 Mr. Gray's activity is an impressive re- 
 minder of the fact that the man who, at eighty, 
 or any other age at which he retains a healthy 
 mind and does not shrink from any undertaking 
 merely because death is near, gets the best out 
 of life. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Half a Century's Service in One Church. 
 
 T is said of athletes, boxers, and 
 wrestlers, that they have a "second 
 breath." After they have about 
 spent what may be called their first 
 strength, a rallying of the system takes place, 
 when they are said to have come to their "second 
 breath," and can hold out a great while. 
 
 Does not this apply to our feelings in respect 
 to growing old? We may have a timid, or a 
 sad feeling to overcome which arises from the 
 consciousness that we are rapidly taking on 
 years, but we soon reach the period when we 
 feel that age is not all embarrassment and de- 
 cay, but is, as George Macdonald puts it, "the 
 ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within 
 that withers and bursts the husks." 
 
116 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 This power of renewing strength, of acquir- 
 ing the "second breath," is forcibly exemplified 
 in the career of the Kev. Edward Robie, D.D., 
 of Greenland, New Hampshire. The twenty- 
 fifth of February, 1904, marked the fifty-second 
 anniversary of his continuous pastorate of the 
 Congregational Church at that place. Illness 
 had kept him out of the pulpit only a few Sun- 
 days during that long period. When the anni- 
 versary was celebrated, the doctor had seen the 
 flowers of eighty-three summers. But he was 
 not shelved. He was not too old for practical 
 service. Time had been kind to him, but this 
 was because he always had respect for Time. 
 Therefore, at eighty-three he was young and 
 vigorous in thought and active in the work of 
 the ministry. On the day of the celebration 
 the fact received special emphasis that there was 
 no minister in that section of New Hampshire 
 more abreast of the times than Dr. Eobie. 
 
 An event of unusual interest recently oc- 
 curred in the life of Dr. Eobie. At the age of 
 eighty-three years he was a student at the divin- 
 ity school of Harvard University. This was 
 during his summer vacation in 1904. In ex- 
 plaining this peculiar incident, he said that 
 his parishioners, to whom he had preached for 
 over half a century, were particular as to the 
 
MASTEBa OF OLD AGE. 117 
 
 quality of the sermons they had to listen to, 
 and he was simply performing his duty in 
 spending his vacation at the University in do- 
 ing some extra V7ork in modern theology. Em- 
 erson says our best thoughts come from others, 
 and the Patriarch Robie was at Harvard that 
 he might receive new thoughts — ^new inspiration 
 — and thereby be better able to carry messages 
 of greater power to his congregation. 
 
 The work of Dr. Robie at the University 
 emphasized the fact that a man is no older than 
 he feels. And perhaps the surest way to make 
 the baneful dead line of fifty dictum unpopular, 
 so far as the ministry is concerned, is to fill 
 pulpits with the material out of which such 
 men as Dr. Eobie are made. 
 
 Dr. Robie was born in Gorham, Maine, in 
 April, 1821. He is a fine linguist, a preacher 
 of excellent ability, and in Church history and 
 law he is high authority. Greenland is his 
 first pastorate, and will be his only one. His 
 good people, young and old, who have been so 
 often comforted and strengthened by his faith- 
 ful ministry, have expressed the unanimous 
 wish that his pastorate at Greenland shall close 
 only with his death. 
 
 In October 1904, -Dr. Robie wrote me about 
 his habits of life as follows : "I have never been 
 
118 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 what would be called a strong, robust man, but 
 I have seldom had any special ailment or dis- 
 ease. My pastoral care of a country church 
 for fifty-three years has given me work enough 
 for healthful exercise of body and mind, with- 
 out occasion for worriment or over-work. Mod- 
 eration in eating and drinking and thorough 
 mastication of food, have been favorable to con- 
 tinued bodily health. And in all and above all, 
 the Lord has kept me alive, given me the assur- 
 ance of His love, and constant cheerfulness and 
 joy in Him." 
 
 As a sunny landscape inspires flowers, so Dr. 
 Robie's benignity and cheerfulness inspire love 
 and reverence. There has been no time in his 
 pastorate extending over half a century, when 
 •his affection for his people was stronger, or his 
 influence in the pulpit more uplifting, than in 
 the golden autumn of his life. 
 
OHAPTEK XIV. 
 lives that Rebuke the Dead Line Dictum. 
 
 HEKE are thousands upon thou- 
 sands of instances which prove that 
 the dead line of fifty is not only 
 false but positively vicious. It is 
 working intolerable harm in many ways, par- 
 ticularly in school rooms and in the ministry. 
 A splendid rebuke to the notion that a man's 
 usefulness is lost at fifty was the recent action 
 of the school authorities of Cambridge, Mass- 
 achusetts, in paying a deserved tribute to Super- 
 intendent Francis Cogswell, upon the comple- 
 tion of his fiftieth year of service in the schools 
 of that city. On the evening of June twenty- 
 seventh, 1904, over five hundred public officials, 
 principals of schools, teachers, and citizens met 
 in the Cambridge Latin School hall to tender 
 
120 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 their congratulations to the superintendent. It 
 was a fitting reception to a public official who, 
 at the age of seventy-five, was not growing out 
 of his work, but growing into it. 
 
 President Eliot of Harvard University paid 
 a fine tribute to the character and ability of Mr. 
 Cogswell. General William A. Bancroft made 
 a highly complimentary address from which I 
 quote a few lines of special interest : 
 
 "Ten years ago Mr. Cogswell went to the 
 mayor of the city and said, 'If you think I am 
 too old to be superintendent of schools, I will 
 resign.' He who was mayor smiled, but mar- 
 velled much. He did not then think that Mr. 
 Cogswell was too old, neither does he now think 
 that he is too old. Mr. Cogswell is still super- 
 intendent. 
 
 "Some expression of the high esteem in which 
 this man is held his fellow-townsmen desire to 
 make. As a part of this expression, a commit- 
 tee has caused to be put upon canvas, by the art 
 of a fellow-townsman, a representation of his 
 features. The committee, Mr. Mayor, has re- 
 quested me to present this portrait to the city, 
 and to ask you, as the city's highest representa- 
 tive, to have it hung in the City Hall. As long 
 as this community shall endure, we think it will 
 be worth while for its people to contemplate the 
 
MASTB1B8 OF OLD AGE. 121 
 
 character of him whose face this painting de- 
 picts." 
 
 There is striking significance in this inci- 
 dent. Instead of turning the venerable super- 
 intendent "out to grass," as the majority 
 of school authorities would have done, he 
 was honored by a public reception, and con- 
 tinued in the service. Moreover, the large por- 
 trait in oil of Mr. Cogswell was suspended in the 
 City Hall that thousands who enter there here- 
 after may behold the man who, after fifty years 
 of continuous service as an educator, did not 
 grow old in heart nor suffer the impairment of 
 intellect. 
 
 Those super-serviceable persons who are con- 
 tinually insisting upon drawing the dead line on 
 a man's activity at fifty or sixty years, will be 
 compelled to leave Mr. John Ueber out of their 
 calculations. He lives in !N"ew Orleans, and is 
 the oldest teacher, in point of actual service, in 
 the United States. To his credit are set down 
 sixty-five years of unbroken labor in the school- 
 room. The school in which Mr. TJeber was on 
 duty for such an extraordinary period was a 
 private institution, established early in the last 
 century. For over fifty years Mr. TJeber had 
 his brother Jacob for an associate, and the fif- 
 tieth anniversary of their joint service was eel- 
 
122 MASTERS OP OLD AGE. 
 
 ebrated with particular enthusiasm by their 
 former pupils and friends. In 1904, Mr. John 
 TTeber retired from the school, not because of 
 any dead line, but at the urgent request of his 
 children, who thought that after sixty-five years 
 of continuous teaching, he should have some 
 time which he could call his own. 
 
 Many of Mr. Ueber's pupils became public 
 men of note. The school was non-sectarian, and 
 was unique because of the fact that the principal 
 text book was the Bible. Pupils of all shades 
 of religious belief were admitted, and there was 
 no proselyting. But one rule of the school was 
 as fixed as the law of the Medes and Persians — 
 all had to study the Bible. 
 
 Mr. Ueber is nearly ninety years old. In 
 explaining why he has been spared to enjoy so 
 many years of educational work, he says that he 
 has always lived in contentment. Growing old 
 has not caused him trouble. He has preserved 
 his health by using the good things of this world 
 but not abusing them. 
 
 At the time I am writing this chapter, Pro- 
 fessor Zephaniah Hopper of Philadelphia, has 
 completed his sixty-second year as a teacher, 
 and for fifty years he has been connected with 
 the Central High School of that city. In 1904 
 he had reached his eightieth year, and yet the 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 123 
 
 pernicious dead line was not drawn upon 
 him. He enjoys the refreshing belief that 
 he is good for several years more of teach- 
 ing, and the members of the board of education 
 are of the same opinion, for they have requested 
 him to continue his service in the Central 
 school ; and in recognition of his long, efficient, 
 and conscientious work in shaping the lives of 
 the young men and women who have been his 
 pupils, the honorary degree of doctor of phil- 
 osophy has been conferred upon him. 
 
 The reception given to Professor Cogswell 
 suggests that President Eliot is in his seventy- 
 first year, and that his educational work is as 
 thorough to-day as it was thirty-six years ago 
 when he became the head of one of the greatest 
 universities on this continent. 
 
 Another gentleman whose life and work play 
 havoc with the dead line theory, is James B. 
 Angell, President of the University of Mich- 
 igan. I do not contend that at the age of 
 seventy-seven his constructive powers are as 
 great as thirty years ago, but there are some 
 interesting and helpful facts which shine out 
 in his life of to-day. He still possesses a re- 
 markable degree of vitalizing force. His strong 
 faculty enables him to "do things" very much 
 as he did before he crossed the half -century line. 
 
124 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 He has lost none of the influence which years 
 since inspired the students at Ann Arbor. Dr. 
 Angell is a cheerful, active gentleman of nearly 
 eighty, whose life teaches the great lesson that 
 there should be an indivisible companionship 
 between a hopeful and aspiring soul and old 
 age. 
 
 In this noisy, worrying, complex world it is 
 refreshing to turn to such modest, able educators 
 as those named in this chapter. They are mas- 
 ters of their years. They are also models of 
 "the simple life." And in their profession of 
 training the minds and hearts of boys and girls 
 and young men and women, they are among 
 the great men of their time. 
 
> 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 When is a Man too Old? 
 
 T is delightful to set one's thoughts 
 on the activities and achievements 
 of men of character, force, and 
 power. More particularly is this 
 true of those who are not worried nor hampered 
 because they are in their eighties or nineties. 
 The story of their manner of living stimulates, 
 infuses new hope, inspires, and makes a man of 
 sixty or seventy feel as if the condition, which 
 is called old age is, after all, something to he 
 proud of. 
 
 In an issue of the 'New York World, printed 
 in August, 1904, appeared the following par- 
 agraph : 
 
 "Almost simultaneously with the event of the 
 nomination of the Hon. Henry Gr. Davis for the 
 
126 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Vice-Presidency, the manager of a large manu- 
 facturing plant in New Jersey issued an order 
 removing from the pay rolls of the company all 
 employees who had passed the half-century 
 mark ; a judge is retired from the bench who has 
 reached the age limit of seventy years, and an 
 army officer, having become sixty-two years old, 
 is placed on the retired list." 
 
 One does not have to look far to find instances 
 to prove that this hard and fast rule of dis- 
 charging employees, and retiring judges and 
 army officers, is unfortunate. When is a man 
 too old to be of service ? Must it be taken for 
 granted that a man of fifty is useless to a man- 
 ufacturing concern? that a judge at seventy is 
 no longer competent to pass upon a case? that 
 an officer at sixty-two has lost his ability to com- 
 mand? A man's age is not always to be de- 
 termined by the years he has lived, but rather 
 by his energy and power of mind. 
 
 There is a surprisingly large number of oc- 
 togenarians actively engaged in the various pro- 
 fessions. And it is said that only a small per- 
 centage of the great corporations of the United 
 States are without a prominent official that is 
 eighty years old or more. 
 
 Who are the men whose power is still felt in 
 financial circles in New York City ? The ablest 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 127 
 
 and greatest of them are octogenarians. Only 
 a few of them can be named. William A. 
 Smith, a banker, and "father of the Stock Ex- 
 change," is a busy man at eighty-four. Samuel 
 Sloan, chairman of the board of directors of the 
 Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway, 
 and director in sixteen other railway companies, 
 is eighty-seven. John A. Stewart, chairman 
 of the board of trustees of the United States 
 Trust Company, and a director in a multitude 
 of other financial organizations, is eighty-two. 
 Jacob Daniel T. Hersey, who began to man- 
 ufacture thread and yarn sixty-seven years ago, 
 is now, at the age of eighty-three, an active 
 member of the Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 A unique figure, and certainly one of the 
 strongest characters on Wall Street, is Kussell 
 Sage. When he reached his eighty-eighth year 
 in 1904, his visits to his Nassau Street office 
 became less frequent than formerly, but he is 
 yet a power in the financial world. He is alert 
 as ever to great public questions; and has a 
 strong hold on the twenty-four large N^ew York 
 corporations in which he is a director. 
 
 William H. Mailler, is a shipping merchant 
 of wide fame. For the past sixty years he has 
 been head of the firm of Mailler & Querean in 
 the Australia and New Zealand trade. Mr. 
 
128 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Mailler is eighty-one years old, but measured by 
 his capacity for business, he is not more than 
 sixty. 
 
 Darius 0. Mills, a financier of enormous 
 wealth, is entering his eightieth year. He is a 
 man of many activities. In philanthropic work 
 he is especially distinguished. Between 1895 
 and 1898 he built two large hotels in New York, 
 at which persons of limited means and of good 
 character, can be served with wholesome and 
 well-cooked meals at from fifteen to thirty cents, 
 and obtain clean and airy lodging rooms at from 
 twenty-five cents to fifty cents a night. Direct- 
 ing personally his many benevolent schemes and 
 his duties as director in eighteen large corpora- 
 tions, he is one of the busiest of the mighty 
 financiers of l^ew York. 
 
 The active president of the Northwestern Mu- 
 tual Life Insurance Company is Henry L. 
 Palmer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was 
 eighty-five years old in October, 1904, and being 
 perfectly competent to successfully discharge 
 the duties of the ofiice which imposes great -re- 
 sponsibilities, the company is not willing that 
 he should retire. Mr. Palmer is one of the most 
 distinguished Eree Masons in America. He is 
 the oldest living Past Grand Master, Grand En- 
 campment, Knights Templar of the United 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 129 
 
 States, and now holds the ofBce of Grand Com- 
 mander of the Supreme Council JSTorthern Juris- 
 diction of the United States, Scottish Kite 
 Masons. 
 
 The story of the bodily strength and mental 
 vigor of William Pinckney Whyte of Baltimore 
 reads like a romance. On August ninth, 1904, 
 he became eighty years old, and was one of the 
 hardest working members of the bar of his city. 
 A correspondent of the JSTew York World says of 
 him : "His eightieth birthday he celebrated by 
 doing some preliminary work at his office, then 
 rushing to Alexandria, Va., where he tried an 
 intricate case, then coming back to his office 
 and seizing a great mass of correspondence, in- 
 cluding a great number of congratulatory let- 
 ters, hurried to the train for his country home, 
 there at his leisure to read them over and pre- 
 pare for the next day's busy duties." 
 
 Mr. Whyte has been Governor of Maryland 
 and United States Senator. But he likes the 
 law better than politics, and to his profession he 
 bends all his energies ; and notwithstanding his 
 four-score years he is now to be found on one 
 side or the other of almost every great case, 
 especially in the State courts where corporate 
 interests are involved. 
 
 Instances of longevity are chiefly among the 
 
130 MASTERS OP OLD AGE. 
 
 abstemious, and Mr. Whyte attributes his ro- 
 bust health to temperate habits. 
 
 Sir John Tenniel of London, the self-trained 
 artist, is eighty-four years old. He is famous 
 as a book illustrator, and especially as the cor- 
 toonist of Punch. In the art of making car- 
 toons which embody both pathos and humor, 
 his hand has not yet lost its cunning. He keeps 
 himself young by a happy disposition and true 
 gentlemanliness, and still successfully defends 
 his title "as the finest cartoonist who ever put 
 pencil to paper." 
 
 Americans contemplate with pride the work 
 of Daniel Huntington, one of our famous ar- 
 tists. He is noted for his fine portraits of Lin- 
 coln, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Agassiz, Bry- 
 ant, and many others. Among his figure pieces 
 are his exquisite "Mercy's Dream," "Mrs. 
 Washington's Eeception," "The Good Samar- 
 itan," and "Righteousness and Peace:" 
 
 Mr. Huntington was eighty-seven years old 
 in October, 1904, was enjoying the rich reward 
 of a life well-lived, and still wielded his brush 
 at his studio in l^ew York. 
 
 Eastman Johnson is another busy octo- 
 genarian artist to whom Americans pay homage 
 because of his preeminent ability and useful- 
 ness in his profession. He has painted the por- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 131 
 
 traits of more of his countrymen than any other 
 artist of his time. The list includes many of 
 the most distinguished public men and women 
 from Alexander Hamilton to Bishop Henry 
 Codman Potter. Medals from all the great ex- 
 positions of the nineteenth century have been 
 awarded him. And there are many public 
 buildings and galleries in our large cities which 
 his genius has done much to adorn. 
 
 Mr. Johnson's old age is blessed with a rare 
 degree of enjoyment. He knows how to live, 
 and to say that truly of any man is a high com- 
 pliment. Good, red, warm blood still courses 
 through his veins; and at eighty-one he is in 
 no mood to put on canvas a broken palette — a 
 dark picture that Hogarth, at sixty-seven, left 
 behind him as a symbol of old age. 
 
 There remain with us many grand old men 
 who are doing conspicuous service in all depart- 
 ments of human endeavor. Chief among those 
 in governmental affairs is King Christian of 
 Denmark, called the "Father-in-Law" of Eu- 
 rope. He is eighty-six years old, but he rules 
 his kingdom with as clear a head and with a 
 sense of justice as thorough as when he ascended 
 the throne in the strength of his splendid man- 
 hood, thirty-two years ago. 
 
 Intellectual leadership does not always be- 
 
132 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 long to men of middle life. The line for im- 
 portant work cannot be drawn at fifty or even at 
 sixty years. William I. was seventy-four when 
 he commanded the German armies in the 
 Franco-Prussian war. Lord Koherts was sixty- 
 seven when he was made commander-in-chief of 
 the British troops in South Africa, and it was 
 through his leadership that the Boer war closed 
 in favor of the English forces. 
 
 After George Dewey left the JN'aval Acad- 
 emy he waited forty years for an opportunity 
 to make a record for himself, and he was sixty- 
 one before he won his Trafalgar in Manila Bay. 
 Our distinguished Secretary of State, John 
 Hay, had passed his sixty-fourth milestone be- 
 fore he gained the honor of being one of the most 
 brilliant diplomatists of modern times. 
 
 A man may have spent more than half his 
 allotted days and yet be able to achieve a greater 
 career than he ever before dreamed of. 
 Ohauncey M. Depew says that when Commo- 
 dore Vanderbilt was seventy years old he was 
 worth about $17,000,000. Even at that age 
 he did not consider himself too old to take up 
 larger business responsibilities. He saw the 
 possibility of railway extension, and beginning 
 with a line only one hundred and twenty miles 
 long, in the following thirteen years he in- 
 
MASTBBS OF OLD AGE. 133 
 
 creased the mileage to 10,000 and added one 
 hundred million dollars to his fortune. 
 
 When we hear so much about the thing called 
 the "dead line," whether it be set at forty, or 
 fifty, or sixty, it is pleasant and helpful to 
 study the life of Lord Kelvin. He was born in 
 Belfast, Ireland, eighty-one years ago, and is 
 counted among the foremost scientists of the 
 age. 
 
 According to pessimists who fancy that a 
 man is old when he steps over the half-century 
 line. Lord Kelvin is indeed an "old man." But 
 as I am writing these pages, his mental capacity 
 is so great and his attainments so varied and 
 brilliant, that he is not growing out of the work 
 of scientific research, but keeps on working be- 
 cause, to use his own language, "there is noth- 
 ing else to do." He has every appliance in 
 ventilation and electricity that England and the 
 United States can provide, and it is in his lab- 
 oratory that one of the master minds of the cen- 
 tury works as diligently as when he was in the 
 prime of life. 
 
 I want to digress a little and say that when 
 Lord Kelvin was known as Sir William Thom- 
 son, he wrote a valuable essay upon the digestive 
 organs of elderly people. His purpose was to 
 suggest a way by which those becoming ad- 
 
134 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 vanced in years could conserve their energies 
 and thereby retain good health. He emphasizes 
 the point that unless care be observed in reg- 
 ulating the diet — reducing the quantity rather 
 than particularizing as to the items of food 
 taken — distressing symptoms will constantly 
 arise. It is much easier to avoid the usual 
 trouble with the digestive organs than to cure 
 it. He holds firmly to the belief that the dis- 
 appearance of the teeth is a plain indication 
 of the return to second childhood, and therefore 
 the food should be of such a character as may 
 not require the assistance of the teeth to masti- 
 cate. And he goes so far as to recommend that 
 lost teeth be not replaced by artificial ones lest 
 more food be eaten than the organism can dis- 
 pose of. 
 
 Lord Kelvin is a man of great wisdom in his 
 mode of living ; but while his opinion regarding 
 the nonuse of artificial teeth by persons of ad- 
 vanced years cannot be taken literally, the sug- 
 gestion it offers can hardly fail to be of value 
 to practical men and women. 
 
 To carry on life's work bravely and to be se- 
 rene, patient, and do good during the period of 
 old age is a topic of universal concern. And 
 the cynic and the pessimist are doubtless 
 abashed in the presence of men and women who 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 135 
 
 retain cheerful spirit and constructive powers 
 though they live far beyond the span assigned 
 by the Psalmist. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A Group of Young Old Men. 
 
 HAPPY illustration showing how 
 the last years of a long life can he 
 spent in contentment and husiness 
 activity, I find in the !N"ew York 
 Tribune. In 1897 the paper noted the fact that 
 deacon David E. Gushing of Cambridgeport, 
 Vermont, had kept the same store for fifty-four 
 years, and hoped to make it full three-score. 
 This item brought an immediate response from 
 Mr. Thomas Cooper of Philadelphia, who, writ- 
 ing the Tribune J said : 
 
 "Bah ! Cushing is only a boy. I have con- 
 ducted my business in my store, 'No. 3 North 
 Eront Street, for over sixty-six years, have 
 passed eighty-seven summers, and can do a boy's 
 work yet. I have taken the Tribune ever since 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 137 
 
 it was first issued fifty-seven years ago. I may 
 have the privilege of voting for President in 
 1900." 
 
 Practical people will be pleased to know that 
 Mr. Cooper had the pleasure of voting for Pres- 
 ident in 1900, and that as late as 1903 he was 
 still selling brushes at the old stand on E'orth 
 Front Street. 
 
 Por another fine example of faithful devo- 
 tion to business from young manhood to ripe old 
 age we can turn to the life of Moses C. George 
 of East Boston, Massachusetts, who has operated 
 one lathe for the Manson Lumber Company for 
 fifty years. He claims that his youthful face 
 and figure are due to temperate habits ; but his 
 intimate friends say that cheerfulness, an even 
 temper, and absolute freedom from any sort of 
 worry have made him young in appearance and 
 happy in life. 
 
 Another striking career of long continuous 
 business activity is that of Mr. L. G. Hurlbut 
 of Gardiner, Maine. When I heard from him 
 a few months ago he had worked fifty-five years 
 at the shoemaker's bench, and was yet serving 
 some of his earlier customers who began to 
 patronize him more than forty years ago. Dur- 
 ing his life of eighty-three years, Mr. Hurlbut 
 has worked at no other trade than that of shoe- 
 
138 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 making. It pleases the young old gentleman to 
 have the fact known that the pincers he has used 
 constantly for fifty-five years are one hundred 
 and twelve years old. Though never owning a 
 house, he and his wife have lived happily in the 
 same small cottage for more than fifty years. 
 His life is made enjoyable by contentment. He 
 is rational in his mode of life, has formed many 
 friendships, enjoys the advantages of a remark- 
 able memory, and is satisfied that the life he has 
 lived is worth while. 
 
 An interesting character among those who 
 find comfort in longevity and constant occupa- 
 tion, is Mr. Henry A. Hinckley of Boston. He 
 has the distinguished honor of being the oldest 
 clock-maker in the United States. He was born 
 at Earnstable, Massachusetts, in 1810, and was 
 apprenticed to a Boston clock firm ,at the age of 
 fourteen years. Before he was sixteen he made 
 a clock twenty-three inches high in eight hours 
 and fifty-five minutes. When his apprentice- 
 ship terminated he made three voyages on a 
 whaler on the Northern Pacific which occupied 
 eleven years. In 1847, Mr. Hinckley returned 
 to Boston, and two years later built the famous 
 electro-chronograph for Professor John Locke, 
 which was subsequently purchased by Congress 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 139 
 
 for $10,000 and placed in the United States 
 E"aval Observatory. 
 
 It was unusual for a man over fifty years old 
 to secure enrollment in the volunteer service in 
 the Civil War; but Mr. Hinckley was success- 
 ful in enlisting in the Forty-fifth Massachusetts, 
 and after two years of participation in the war, 
 was discharged. When ninety-four years old 
 he enjoyed much of the vigor of his earlier days. 
 He was still at work, normally and healthfully 
 himself, cheerful, sleeping well, and playing 
 the violin, singing many of his favorite songs 
 with old-time unction. He has not permitted 
 Father Time to take from him the spirit and 
 loves of his youth. 
 
 Men and women usually obtain what they 
 aspire after. It is the constant striving for the 
 highest possibilities commensurate with our 
 varying conditions and abilities that makes lon- 
 gevity healthful. I have in mind another mod- 
 est and venerable tradesman who furnishes 
 striking evidence in this matter. 
 
 Amariah V. Haynes of Woburn, Massachu- 
 setts, became an octogenarian several months 
 ago. He has worked at harness-making for six- 
 ty-one years without an interruption, and at the 
 writing of these pages he confidently expects 
 that several years more will be pleasantly spent 
 
140 MA8TER8 OF OLD AQE. 
 
 astride his favorite stitching-horse. That he 
 might enjoy good health and be able to work 
 steadily, Mr. Haynes' habits have been dis- 
 tinctly temperate. He tells me that he has 
 never lost a day from his business on account 
 of illness. 
 
 Mr. Haynes is religiously cheerful and hope- 
 ful. He says he lives to get the most out of life, 
 and in this matter he is very successful. One 
 characteristic of the man is worthy of mention. 
 He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity 
 for thirty-eight years, and it is his boast that in 
 all that time he has never been absent from a 
 meeting of the lodge. Once when he was con- 
 fined to his home with a sprained ankle, his 
 fellow-members, in order that he might main- 
 tain his exceptional attendance record, called at 
 his house and carried him in their arms to the 
 lodge room. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable career achieved 
 by any locomotive engineer in the railway world 
 is that of Mr. Benjamin S. Moore. In March, 
 1904, he celebrated the fifty-third anniversary 
 of his employment in such capacity on the Cen- 
 tral Railway of New Jersey. Fifty-five years 
 ago he became associated with the company and 
 only a few months since had a firm grip on 
 the lever of a switch engine at the Elizabethport 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 141 
 
 shops. Mr. Moore is described as being healthy 
 and active, and when questioned as to his habits 
 of life, he said that his success in holding his 
 responsible position for more than half a cen- 
 tury could be ascribed to his love of his work, a 
 contented mind, a faithful discharge of his duty, 
 and good digestion. 
 
 In September of last year the citizens of 
 Washington Court House, Ohio, united in pay- 
 ing honor to the Hon. William Millikan, who 
 had reached his ninety-eighth year. At that 
 time he was editor of the Fayette County Her- 
 ald^ and was the oldest editor in the United 
 States. His business activity included about 
 eighty years, and yet the weight of almost a 
 century of life was not heavy enough to compel 
 him to throw aside the responsibility of editing 
 his newspaper. Mr. Millikan has been tem- 
 perate in all things, is a plain liver, has taken 
 abundant exercise, and finds enjoyment in his 
 extreme old age. 
 
 The career of Mr. Jeremiah C. Lotz has re- 
 cently attracted much public attention. Forty- 
 two years ago he was appointed from Indiana to 
 a position in the counting department of the in- 
 ternal revenue bureau at Washington. He has 
 been continuously in the revenue service since 
 that time. It seems that his plan of living has 
 
142 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 not been of the common or indifferent sort. At 
 the right time he began to adopt such a mode 
 of life as would not only insure good health and 
 prolong his days, but make his usefulness se- 
 cure. In both a physical and mental sense, 
 Mr. Lotz is now reaping the results of a well- 
 ordered life. He is also enjoying the distinc- 
 tion of being one of the most trustworthy 
 officials in the internal revenue department. 
 Although he is over eighty years old, he reaches 
 his desk promptly at nine o'clock every morn- 
 ing, and for forty-two years there has been no 
 exception to this rule. 
 
 The simple life, the constant activity, and the 
 longevity of these modest workmen suggest a 
 few lines from Holmes: "By temperance and 
 good habits of life, proper clothing, and suffi- 
 cient exercise, the old man of our time may keep 
 his muscular strength in very good condition. 
 I doubt if Mr. Gladstone, who is fast nearing 
 his eightieth birthday, would boast in the style 
 of Caleb, that he was as good a man with his 
 axe as he was at forty, but I would back him 
 — if the match were possible — for a hundred 
 shekels, against that over-confident old Israelite 
 to cut down and' chop up a cedar of Lebanon." 
 
CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 Biyant's Habits of Life. 
 
 NE of the most eloquent sermons on 
 the preservation of the mind and 
 body is found in the every-day life 
 of William Cullen Bryant. The 
 death of any man who has lived beyond four- 
 score years ought not to be considered a sur- 
 prise. But the passing away of Mr. Bryant 
 startled every intelligent man in America. At 
 the age of eighty-four he was so buoyant in 
 spirit and active in mind and body, and the 
 poetic fancy still survived in him "as though 
 it had drunk from the fountain of eternal 
 youth," that his passing from the busy scene of 
 life was a surprise as well as a sorrow. 
 
 The manner in which the author of Than- 
 atopsis maintained such freshness of spirit. 
 
144 MASTKRS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and performed so much literary labor long after 
 lie was three-score years and ten, is an interest- 
 ing study. His habits of life became so impor- 
 tant a matter to the public that in 1871, at the 
 request of a New York publisher, he prepared 
 the following statement: 
 
 "I have reached a pretty advanced period of 
 life — T8 years and 4 months — ^without the usual 
 infirmities of old age, and with my strength, 
 activity, and bodily faculties generally in pret- 
 ty good preservation. How far this may be the 
 effect of my way of life, adopted long ago, and 
 steadily adhered to, is perhaps uncertain. I 
 rise early — at this time of the year about half- 
 past five; in summer, half an hour, or even an 
 hour, earlier. I immediately, with very little 
 incumbrance of clothing, begin a series of ex- 
 ercises, for the most part designed to expand the 
 chest, and at the same time call into action all 
 the muscles and articulations of the body. These 
 are performed with dumb-bells, the very light- 
 est, covered with flannel; with a pole, a hor- 
 izontal bar, and a light chair swung around my 
 head. 
 
 "After a full hour, and sometimes more, 
 passed in this manner, I bathe from head to 
 foot. When at my place in the country, I 
 sometimes shorten my exercise in the chamber, 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 145 
 
 and going out, occupy myself for half an hour 
 or more in some work that requires brisk exer- 
 cise. After my bath, if breakfast be not ready, 
 I sit down to my studies until I am called. My 
 breakfast is a simple one — hominy and milk, 
 or in place of hominy, brown bread, or oatmeal, 
 or wheaten grits, and in season, baked sweet 
 apples. Tea or coffee I never touch at any time. 
 At breakfast, I often take fruit, either in its 
 natural state or freshly stewed. After break- 
 fast I occupy myself for a while with my 
 studies, and then, when in town, I walk down 
 to the office of the Evening Post, nearly three 
 miles distant, and after about three hours, re- 
 turn, always walking, whatever be the weather 
 or the state of the streets. In the country I 
 am engaged in my literary tasks, till a feeling 
 of weariness drives me out into the open air, and 
 I go upon my f arni or into the garden and prune 
 the trees, or perform some other work about 
 them which they need, and then go back to my 
 books. 
 
 "At the meal which is called tea, I take only 
 a little bread and butter with fruit. In town, 
 where I dine later, I make but two meals a day. 
 Fruit makes a considerable part of my diet. 
 My drink is water. 
 
 "I never meddle with tobacco, except to quar- 
 
146 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 rel with its use. That I may rise early, I, of 
 course, go to bed early ; in town as early as ten ; 
 in the country somewhat earlier. For many 
 years I have avoided, in the evening, every kind 
 of literary occupation which tasks the faculties, 
 such as composition, even to the writing of let- 
 ters, for the reason that it excites my nervous 
 system and prevents sound sleep. I abominate 
 all drugs and narcotics, and have always care- 
 fully avoided everything which spurs nature 
 to exertions which it would not otherwise make. 
 Even with my food, I do not take the usual 
 condiments, such as pepper and the like." 
 
 In the article, "Age in Relation to Mental 
 Activity," found in another part of this vol- 
 ume, it will be seen that some of Mr. Bryant's 
 best work was done after he passed the age of 
 seventy years. During the last ten or fifteen 
 years of his life he appeared on many special 
 occasions as a public speaker. He was an or- 
 ator of splendid powers. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of May, 18Y8, Mr. Bry- 
 ant delivered the oration at the unveiling of the 
 statue of the Italian patriot, Giuseppe Mazzini, 
 in Central Park, New York City. It was a 
 masterpiece of descriptive oratory. The after- 
 noon was intensely hot, and during the exer- 
 cises, Mr. Bryant's uncovered head was exposed 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 147 
 
 to the burning rays of the sun. When he had 
 concluded the oration, he walked in company 
 with James Grant Wilson to the home of the 
 latter, and as they were about to enter the house, 
 Mr. Bryant fainted, striking his head upon a 
 stone step. Hemorrhage in the brain soon fol- 
 lowed, and on the twelfth of June, his life, 
 which had been singularly pure and fruitful, 
 came to an end. 
 
CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 Some Remarkable Centenarians. 
 
 SHORT time ago Leslie's Weehly 
 said that centenarians are not such 
 a prodigy in the world as to make 
 the simple attainment of one hun- 
 dred years of life an event calling for special 
 comment. This is true. To last one hundred 
 years with no particular purpose in view, is one 
 thing; to live one hundred years, or even to a 
 high average of longevity, behind which is a 
 practical aim, is a different matter entirely. 
 Many persons have existed for a century ; others 
 have actually lived a century. For lack of 
 space I can name only a few centenarians from 
 whose lives some lessons can be drawn. 
 
 The real life of Colonel George L. Perkins is 
 a fascination. He was born at Norwich, Con- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 149 
 
 neetieiit, August fifth, 1788, and died in the 
 same city September sixth, 1888. Centenarians 
 are rare enough at best, but Colonel Perkins was 
 an exceptionally choice and noble specimen of 
 his species. Some facts of his life possess a 
 peculiar interest. He passed away only seven 
 teen years ago, and yet he remembered Wash- 
 ington well; was a paymaster in the United 
 States army in the war with Great Britain in 
 1812; was a member of the committee to wel- 
 come General Lafayette in 1824; was one of the 
 incorporators of the l^orwich and Worcester 
 railway in 1836; was elected treasurer of the 
 company when he was forty-seven years old, 
 and was active in performing the duties of the 
 office upwards of fifty years. He outlived eight 
 of the nine presidents of the company, and more 
 than ninety directors. He voted at eighteen 
 presidential elections, and cast his ballot at 
 every state and general election for seventy-six 
 years. A correspondent of the ISTew York 
 Tribune, noting the celebration of Colonel Per- 
 kins' one hundredth birthday, suggests that it is 
 hard to realize that only nineteen such lifetimes, 
 one after another, "would reach back from the 
 present year beyond the birth of Christ !" 
 
 But how can the Colonel's century of life and 
 remarkable activity in private business and an 
 
150 MA8TEE8 OF OLD AGE. 
 
 unlagging interest and participation in this 
 world's affairs for eighty years be accounted 
 for? The correspondent referred to says that 
 Colonel Perkins so admirably preserved his 
 body and mind that without information con- 
 cerning his age no one who met him for the first 
 time would ever imagine that he. had passed fur- 
 ther along in years than the seventies. He made 
 it a law to adapt himself easily and happily to 
 the conditions surrounding him, and by that 
 means was "singularly free from senile pro- 
 lixity." His excellent health was largely due 
 to his fine care of himself, and his buoyant and 
 amicable disposition. He studied the art of 
 preserving health with splendid carefulness. 
 This, it is said, was his only hobby, and "the 
 wonderful success that attended his efforts in 
 that direction not only justified riding it freely, 
 but lends to his convictions and precepts great 
 value" to those who are interested in prolonging 
 a life worth living. 
 
 Mrs. Perkins reached her ninetieth birthday, 
 and it is pleasant to record the fact that they 
 lived together as lovers for seventy-one years. 
 
 When Dr. John H. Kellogg, editor of Good 
 Health, Battle Creek, Michigan, was in San 
 Francisco in 1903, he met Captain C. E. D. 
 Diamond of that city, who at that time was one 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 151 
 
 hundred and seven years old. The doctor says 
 he was a remarkable representative of the results 
 of sober and temperate living. He had been 
 engaged all his life in active muscular pursuits, 
 and could then outdo the majority of young men 
 in athletic performances. 
 
 Dr. Kellogg gave Captain Diamond an exam- 
 ination, and found no evidence whatever of 
 physical degeneracy. The cheerful centenarian 
 ate two meals a day, consisting chiefly of fruits 
 and nuts. He had never made use of stim- 
 ulants or narcotics of any sort. He stands as a 
 splendid example of what can be done by a 
 natural, wholesome mode of living, as a means 
 to attain a happy old age. 
 
 California has another centenarian in the 
 person of J. J. Overton, who has lived in three 
 centuries. He is a citizen of Long Beach, and 
 his business is that of a peanut and candy 
 vender. He was born in Warren County, Penn- 
 sylvania, in October 1797. He is a veteran 
 in military service, having been in the Black 
 Hawk Indian War, the Mexican War, and by 
 some means he was enlisted in the Civil War 
 when he was sixty-seven. His activity at the 
 age of one himdred and seven is surprising. 
 In the summer of 1904 he walked to Los An- 
 
152 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 geles, twenty-two miles. A walk of three or 
 four miles a day he calls moderate exercise. 
 
 Mr. Overton is quite a philosopher. When 
 he feels ill, he refrains from eating until his 
 health is restored. He never takes medicine; 
 and he attributes his long and peaceful life to 
 abstemiousness in diet, having always lived on 
 plain, coarse food. He claims that the major- 
 ity of people eat too much. An epigram of 
 his is worth remembering — "Digestion is the 
 key to life." 
 
 Mr. Wolf Weismann, a Russian Jew, of Ho- 
 boken, !N"ew Jersey, attained his one hundred 
 and fourth year in 1904. He had always been 
 interested in the accounts of long-lived persons 
 of various countries, and therefore was prepared 
 to speak intelligently on the subject of longev- 
 ity. When asked to give the press his views on 
 old age, he said that it was good to be old, if 
 one had lived as he ought to. Though past a 
 century old, he enjoyed life as much as when he 
 was thirty. He made the happy expression that 
 every man ought to be "an evergreen." Nature 
 had always been his model — sturdy, straight, 
 wholesome, and refreshing. 
 
 Mr. Weismann stated that the nervous Amer- 
 ican sleeps too much. Instead of sleeping so 
 long, he ought to walk much out of doors. He 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 153 
 
 offered the suggestion tliat if one would live 
 happily and healthily he should be with children 
 as much as possible, as they can teach elderly 
 people much of the beauty and simplicity of life. 
 
 In all his reading about long-lived races and 
 individuals, Mr. Weismann said he was con- 
 stantly impressed with the influence of content- 
 ment of mind. It seemed to him that in spite 
 of all the efforts of modern science, enlightened 
 Americans and Europeans cannot compete with 
 certain barbarous, almost uncivilized peoples, 
 in the matter of prolonging the span of human 
 life. 
 
 Mr. Hiram S. Cronk of Oneida County, New 
 York, was one hundred and five years old in 
 April, 1905, and died May thirteenth, 1905. 
 He was the most distinguished centenarian in 
 the country, not because of his great age, for 
 there are others who were his seniors, but be- 
 cause he was the only survivor of the War of 
 1812. He fought with his father and two 
 brothers at Sackett's Harbor, New York, May 
 twenty-ninth, 1813, when the Americans re- 
 pulsed an attack by the British. 
 
 A curious fact which has drawn much public 
 attention to Mr. Cronk is that the Board of 
 Aldermen of New York adopted a resolution 
 which gave him a public funeral. 
 
154 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Mr. Cronk lived on the same farm seventy- 
 five years. I am unable to obtain direct in- 
 formation concerning his mode of life except 
 that his habits were temperate and that he had 
 been exceedingly active in taking personal man- 
 agement of the farm up to the time he had 
 rounded out a century of life. 
 
 He voted at twenty successive presidential 
 elections, beginning with John Quincy Adams 
 in 1824, and had he been at home he would have 
 voted for President Roosevelt in 1904. This 
 time-worn veteran spent his last days in great 
 peace, and being quite a philosophical man, he 
 must have felt highly honored that when life's 
 long journey ended, his burial would be an im- 
 posing public occasion. Mr. Cronk was a de- 
 vout Christian. His heart was tuneful to the 
 end and he was able to carry the tunes of the 
 old, familiar hymns in a fairly good voice. 
 
 Men of four-score years must seem young to 
 the Hon. David Wark, LL.D., of Fredericton, 
 New Brunswick. It was last year that he be- 
 came one hundred and one years old, and it was 
 in prime health that he celebrated the gladsome 
 event. The pleasure of the occasion was height- 
 ened by a congratulatory message from King 
 Edward. 
 
 Mr. Wark was born in Belfast, Ireland. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 155 
 
 Most of his life has been spent in the Dominion. 
 He has been a member of the Senate since 1867, 
 and has not been absent from any session of 
 that body during the thirty-seven years of his 
 official life. He has been longer in public ser- 
 vice than any other legislator of the present 
 day, having devoted more than sixty-tv?o years 
 to politics. Still an active Senator, he is a 
 leader in many reforms. In 1903, Sir Wilfred 
 Laurier offered to place a government car at the 
 disposal of the Senator that he might travel with 
 comfort from his home in Fredericton to Ot- 
 tawa, the capital, but Mr. Wark declined, pre- 
 ferring to make the journey in an ordinary 
 coach. 
 
 The habits of persons who have reached great 
 age, particularly centenarians, is always a mat- 
 ter of common interest. Mr. Wark says: "I 
 made it a rule to eat nothing that disagrees with 
 my digestion, no matter how palatable the food 
 may be. This is why I discarded beef, mutton, 
 and pork. My diet is simple, and I live much 
 out of doors." 
 
 It was by no extraordinarily good luck, nor an 
 inborn quality of endurance, that enabled Dr. 
 Du Boisy of Hanover, Prussia, to celebrate his 
 one hundred and fifth birthday. From the be- 
 ginning of his professional career his chief am- 
 
156 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 bition was to enjoy good health that he might 
 render successful service to the sick. As late 
 as 1897, at one hundred and three years of age, 
 the doctor was able to make his daily rounds 
 among his patients. 
 
 William Eeynolds Salmon of Cambridge, 
 Glamorganshire, Wales, died in March, 189Y. 
 lie was the oldest known individual of indis- 
 putably authenticated age, the oldest physician, 
 the oldest member of the Eoyal College of Sur- 
 geons, and the oldest Eree Mason in the world. 
 Dr. Salmon's creed was that life should not be 
 measured by years, but rather by the amount of 
 time devoted to worthy pursuits. His habits 
 were of such a character that even in his last 
 years physical nature hardly ever suggested to 
 him that he was growing oldj and his spiritual 
 nature was so full of fervor and hope that he 
 ever felt he was going onward and upward. 
 
 One of the most distinguished centenarians of 
 Europe is Professor Manuel Garcia of London. 
 He rounded out a century of life on March sev- 
 enteenth, 1905. For a long time he was pro- 
 fessor of vocal music in the University of Lon- 
 don. Three events of his life are noteworthy: 
 He made his debut in Italian opera in New 
 York City, eighty years ago; he was the voice 
 
UA8TER8 OF OLD AGE. 157 
 
 teacher of Jenny Lind; and he is the inventor 
 of the laryngoscope. 
 
 His one hundredth birthday was celebrated in 
 a manner befitting the professor's character and 
 service. He was received by King Edward at 
 Buckingham Palace, who bestowed on him the 
 Commandership of the Victorian Order. Later 
 Professor Garcia attended a reception held un- 
 der the auspices of the Laryngological Society, 
 where he received an enthusiastic welcome, and 
 the Spanish Charge d' Affaires invested him 
 in behalf of King Alfonso with the Koyal Order 
 of Alfonso XII., while Professor Fraenkel of 
 Berlin, representing Emperor William, pre- 
 sented to him the Gold Medal for Science. He 
 was also the recipient of many congratulatory 
 addresses, one of which came from the New 
 York Academy of Medicine and another from 
 McGill University of Montreal. 
 
 These special honors were not bestowed on 
 Professor Garcia simply because he had lived a 
 hundred years. They were inspired by the fact 
 that in old age as well as in younger manhood, 
 he had been of service to mankind. He had 
 never been unmindful of the laws which 
 strengthen both body and mind; and to this is 
 largely attributable his remarkably good health 
 at the close of a hundred years on earth. 
 
158 MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 
 
 Dr. J. M. Trench says in The Medical Exam- 
 iner, that of five hundred and eighty centenari- 
 ans interviewed by newspapers in the United 
 States during the two years previous to 1903, 
 all gave the same rules for long life, namely 
 these: First, regular habits; second, work; 
 third, plenty of exercise in open air; fourth, 
 simple food; fifth, marriage; sixth, the avoid- 
 ance of worry. But Dr. French offers the opin- 
 ion that heredity is one of the most important 
 elements in extreme individual longevity, while 
 a high average longevity is promoted mainly by 
 favorable environments, good mode of life, bet- 
 ter hygiene in health, and proper care when 
 sick. 
 
 As to the conditions which promote a high 
 average longevity, referred to by Dr. French, 
 Peter Cooper, the celebrated inventor, man- 
 ufacturer, and philanthropist of New York, 
 is an encouraging example. He did not inherit 
 a strong constitution, and in his case as in many 
 others, the fact that he reached a ripe old age 
 (ninety-two) can be ascribed only to his careful 
 mode of living. He subjected himself to no 
 influences or exposures which cut off the great 
 mass of men in civilized countries from living 
 out their natural lives. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 The Case of Cornaro. 
 
 HE experience of Luigi (Louis) 
 Cornaro in respect to longevity and 
 its relation to diet and temperance 
 is one of the most interesting and 
 instructive that has ever been recorded. 
 
 He was a Venetian gentleman of a noble 
 family, and some authorities say he was born in 
 1463. Other writers fix the date of his birth 
 three or four years later, but this slight differ- 
 ence of opinion as to when he came into the 
 world is of no consequence since the fact is not 
 disputed that he became a distinguished cente- 
 narian. 
 
 In his young manhood Cornaro started out 
 on a life of riotous living, which continued until 
 
160 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 he was nearly forty years old. He became so 
 wasted by dissipation of many kinds that his life 
 was despaired of. When he realized that in- 
 temperance and sensuality were rushing him to 
 a premature death, he resolved to reform his 
 habits. He adopted strict rules of frugality in 
 eating and drinking and frequent but gentle 
 exercise. By this means he prolonged a cheer- 
 ful, happy age covering over one hundred years, 
 his death occurring at Padua, Italy, in 1566. 
 
 When Cornaro was eighty-five he wrote his 
 celebrated treatise. The Certain Method of Ob- 
 taining a Long and Healthful Life, in which 
 he held that with increasing age and diminish- 
 ing powers, a corresponding decrease in the 
 quantity of food must be taken in order to pre- 
 serve health. This little volume passed 
 through thirty different English editions, and 
 has been translated into many European lan- 
 guages. I will quote three paragraphs from 
 the book to illustrate Cornaro's quaint way of 
 setting forth his case : 
 
 "There are old lovers of feeding who say 
 that it is necessary that they should eat 
 and drink a great deal to keep up their 
 natural heat, which is ~ constantly diminish- 
 ing as they advance in years; and that it 
 is, therefore, their duty to eat heartily, and 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 161 
 
 of such things as please their palate, he 
 they hot, cold, or temperate; and that, were 
 they to lead a soher life, it would be a short one. 
 To this I answer that our kind Mother ISTature, 
 in order that old men may live still to a greater 
 age, has contrived matters as that they should 
 be able to subsist on little, as I do, for large 
 quantities of food cannot be digested by old and 
 feeble stomachs. By always eating little, the 
 stomach, not being much burdened, need not 
 wait long to have an appetite. It is for this 
 reason that dry bread relishes so well with me ; 
 and I know from experience, and can with truth 
 affirm, I find such sweetness in it that I should 
 be afraid of sinning against temperance, were 
 it not for my being convinced of the absolute 
 necessity of eating it, and that we cannot make 
 use of a more natural food. And thou, kind 
 parent Nature, who actest so lovingly by thy 
 aged offspring, in order to prolong his days, 
 hast contrived matters so in his favor, that he 
 can live upon very little ; and, in order to add to 
 the favor, and to do him still greater service, 
 hast made him sensible, that, as in his youth he 
 used to eat twice a day, when he arrives at old 
 age he ought to divide that food of which he was 
 accustomed before to make but two meals, into 
 four ; because thus divided, it will be more easily 
 
162 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 digested ; and, as in his youth he made but two 
 collations in a day, he should, in his old age, 
 make four, provided, however, he lessens the 
 quantity as his years increase. 
 
 "And this is what I do, agreeably to my own 
 experience; and, therefore, my spirits, not op- 
 pressed by much food, but barely kept up, are 
 always brisk, especially after eating, so that I 
 am obliged then to sing a song, and afterwards 
 to write. 
 
 "JSTor do I ever find myself the worse for writ- 
 ing immediately after meals, nor is my under- 
 standing ever clearer, nor am I apt to be drowsy, 
 the food I take being in too small a quantity to 
 send up any fumes to the brain. Oh, how 
 advantageous it is to an old man to eat but little ! 
 Accordingly I, who know it, eat but just enough 
 to keep body and soul together. I eat only 
 twelve ounces of solid food per day, consisting 
 chiefly of bread, broth, and eggs, mutton, per- 
 haps chicken or pigeon ; some kinds of fish, such 
 as pike, all of which are proper for old men." 
 
 At the age of ninety-one and ninety-five, 
 Cornaro put forth two other books on the sub- 
 ject, each glowing with the same cheerfulness 
 and enthusiasm which were characteristic of 
 the first. 
 
 How much Oornaro's abstemious habits must 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 163 
 
 have had to do with his remarkable vitality may 
 be inferred from the fact that having, when 
 seventy years old, met with a terrible accident 
 by which his head and body were terribly bat- 
 tered and a leg and arm dislocated, he recovered 
 — although physicians had pronounced his in- 
 juries fatal — almost without medical treatment 
 and without feverish symptoms. 
 
 The ease of Cornaro is full of common sense, 
 instruction, and encouragement; and it goes 
 without telling that many have been immensely 
 benefitted by adopting, in a fair measure, his 
 wise regimen and abstemious habits. 
 
 Richard A. Proctor gives an interesting ac- 
 count of Thomas Wood, who became known as 
 "the abstemious miller." By unnatural living 
 he had grown excessively corpulent and was suf- 
 fering from a number of ailments, including 
 violent rheumatism and gout. When he read 
 Oornaro's little treatise on "A Sure Way of 
 Prolonging Life," he adopted the rules therein 
 prescribed, and soon found his health well es- 
 tablished, his spirits lively, his sleep no longer 
 disturbed by frightful dreams, and his strength 
 of muscles so far improved that he could carry 
 two hundred and fifty pounds at the age of fifty, 
 whereas at thirty he had not been able to lift 
 much. What added greatly to his comfort as 
 
164 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 well as to his health, was the loss of ahout one 
 hundred and fifty pounds of flesh. 
 
 A countless number of scientific experiments 
 and individual experiences make it certain that 
 persons who are fifty or beyond, and of delicate 
 structure, can enjoy good health on a simple, 
 well-balanced diet. Leo XIII. was about as 
 frugal as Cornaro, and lived a little over ninety- 
 three years, and almost to the very last he did 
 a great deal of hard mental work. 
 
 Of late years Mr. Horace Fletcher, who is a 
 modern Cornaro as to diet, has written much on 
 nutrition and sociology, and his experiments at 
 the laboratories of various Universities in this 
 and other countries concerning dietary matters 
 are important. He advocates small rations for 
 everybody, and grows strong on his own med- 
 icine. After a thorough scientific research rela- 
 tive to human nutrition, Mr. Fletcher greatly 
 reduced the quantity of his daily food with re- 
 markably beneficial results. 
 
 He is now fifty-four years of age, and not 
 long ago he made seven hundred and fifty miles 
 in ten days on a bicycle through Germany and 
 France. It required the expenditure of con- 
 siderable energy to cover seventy-five miles each 
 day, but he made the trip successfully on a diet 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 165 
 
 consisting of rolls, milk, cream, potatoes, and 
 beans. 
 
 To further test the practicability of his nutri- 
 tion scheme, Mr. Fletcher climbed the Washing- 
 ton monument — eight hundred and fifty-four 
 steps — and ran down the entire distance with- 
 out stopping or being fatigued. 
 
 It should be added that Mr. Fletcher did not 
 inherit a robust constitution. 
 
k^a^l 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 Women Centenarians. 
 
 HEN" the census of the United 
 States was taken in 1900 it was 
 ascertained that there were 6,298 
 persons between the ages of ninety- 
 five and ninety-nine. Of this number, 2,432 
 were men, of whom 618 were foreign horn. Of 
 the 3,866 women, 813 were of foreign birth. 
 Those whose ages were one hundred years or 
 upwards, numbered 3,536 — ^men, 1,289, women, 
 2,247 — the foreign born being 191 and 228 
 respectively. 
 
 It will be seen that far more women than 
 men have attained the rank of centenarians. 
 This is true in England, France, and Germany, 
 as well as in the United States. The reason is 
 obvious. Women, as a rule, are freer from 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 167 
 
 mental worry and exposure to the various cas- 
 ualties, indiscretions, and other causes to which 
 illness and untimely death are so often due. It 
 is a fact of common interest that with rarely an 
 exception, all the centenarians had been mar- 
 ried. The concensus of opinion among them 
 is that marriage promotes longevity. Only one 
 woman of the many centenarians interviewed 
 on this point, was opposed to that opinion. 
 
 Miss Eliza Work of Henrietta, New York, 
 lived one hundred and five years. She gave only 
 two reasons why she lived so long : Because she 
 never had drank tea or coffee ; and, "above all," 
 to use her own words, "I never got married." 
 Her brother lived to see his one hundred and 
 first birthday, but his sister was obstinate in 
 holding to the opinion that he would have lived 
 much longer had he never drank tea and coffee, 
 and remained single. "People," she said, "who 
 drink such things, and then aggravate the mat- 
 ter by getting married, ought not to expect to 
 live long." 
 
 Of some of the many women who lived to 
 pass the century milestone, it is worth while to 
 make special mention. Mrs. Sylvia L. Dun- 
 ham, who was born in Connecticut, in 1800, is 
 widely known as "The Grand Old Woman," of 
 that state. Up to 1904 she took care of a gar- 
 
168 MA8TEBB OF OLD AGE. 
 
 den, and never failed to take daily exercise in 
 the open air when the weather permitted. She 
 was careful of her habits> using only simple, 
 nourishing food, and never took stimulants of 
 any kind. Her tranquility of mind was re- 
 markable. 
 
 Mrs. Dunham lived to enjoy the enthusiasm 
 attending twenty-two presidential campaigns. 
 The incidents of her life which she regards with 
 greatest pride and pleasure are: Born July 
 seventeenth, 1800 ; at five years of age rode in 
 a stage coach; at forty, in a canal boat; at 
 ninety-nine, in an electric car ; at one hundred, 
 in an automobile. 
 
 Another centenarian of American production 
 was Mrs. Deborah Powers of Lansingburgh, 
 ITew York. She was the wife of William Pow- 
 ers, an oilcloth manufacturer, who lost his life 
 in 1852 by the accidental burning of varnish. 
 After her husband's death, Mrs. Powers suc- 
 ceeded him in the business, and took into part- 
 nership her son, Albert E. Powers, who is now 
 eighty-seven years old, and is still working. The 
 firm was knovsm as D. Powers & Son, for the 
 continuing of the family enterprises. She gave 
 the vast business her personal attention, and es- 
 tablished a bank in connection with the oilcloth 
 factory, and amassed a large fortime. She re- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 169 
 
 tained her vigor of mind and body as head of 
 the firm imtil her death in May, 1891, at the 
 age of one hundred and one years. 
 
 It was by no patent right that Mrs. Powers 
 was able to live beyond a century. While she 
 was a woman of unusual energy and ability, and 
 labored diligently, she was the embodiment of 
 wisdom in caring for her health. She under- 
 stood from the beginning of her extraordinary 
 career, that health is the soul that animates the 
 body and makes success in life possible. 
 
 Mrs. Polly Mays died at her home in Prank- 
 lin County, Maryland, in December, 1898, at 
 the authenticated age of one hundred and eleven 
 years. Her health and physical vigor were 
 well preserved up to within a few months of her 
 translation. Three months prior to that time, 
 Mrs. Mays climbed a steep mountain, and could 
 walk a mile or more with but little fatigue. 
 Her youngest child was sixty-six years old, and 
 her eldest was eighty at the time of her death. 
 
 It does not appear from the record that lon- 
 gevity was a feature of Mrs. Mays' family. She 
 was wise in her manner of living. She enjoyed 
 life ; and in her sphere, though it was humble, 
 it was a life worth while. Her extreme old age 
 was one of happiness, and brought great pleas- 
 ure to her household. 
 
170 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Eecently the citizens of Fayette, Ohio, man- 
 ifested their appreciation of an old resident 
 who had rounded out the full measure of one 
 hundred years — Mrs. Amelia Du Bois. The 
 public schools closed that the children might 
 join in the festivities of the occasion. Hun- 
 dreds of scholars, teachers, and prominent cit- 
 izens assembled at the opera house where appro- 
 priate exercises took place. 
 
 This demonstration was not prompted solely 
 by the fact that Mrs. Du Bois had lived a cen- 
 tury. She is an exceptional centenarian. Ev- 
 ery faculty of her mind is alert and responsive. 
 Her life is full of sweet contentment, and there- 
 fore she is a joy to the household. She is an 
 accomplished needle-woman, and devotes much 
 of her time in preparing gifts for her friends. 
 
 The crossing of the century line cannot, in 
 most cases, be attributable to "good luck." As 
 a rule, behind such lives are a purpose and a 
 mode of living which count for much in the 
 attainment of extreme old age. Here is another 
 case illustrative of this fact. 
 
 Miss Eaehel Martense of l^ew York City was 
 one hundred and three years old in 1904, and 
 except for a dislocated knee, she could walk 
 about the house without trouble. As a shrewd 
 observer of humanity she has lost none of her 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 171 
 
 aeuteness of former years. Many times people 
 called at her home in Elatbush Avenue, and out 
 of curiosity would ask to see the centenarian. 
 When their names were announced, the old lady 
 would smile and remark : "They think they're 
 going to see a mummy, but they'll find I haven't 
 lost my wits yet." 
 
 When Miss Martense was interviewed by 
 press representatives, on her one hundred and 
 third birthday, she was cheery and talkative, 
 and as to the care of her health, she said : 
 
 "I never tried hard to live to be even one 
 hundred years old. I took good care of myself, 
 kept early hours, ate plain, well-cooked food, 
 and let nothing worry me at all. I think that 
 is the secret of my age. 
 
 "Then, again, when I was young I did not 
 dress in what was called the height of fashion. 
 I liked plenty of room in my clothes so that I 
 could breathe deeply and not be encumbered by 
 a lot of clothing. I never did any tight lacing. 
 
 "I did such work as came to my hand, and 
 did it uncomplainingly. I spent much of my 
 time out of doors and never took any intoxicat- 
 ing drinks. I always had my food boiled when 
 I possibly could and avoided rich foods of all 
 kinds. I never cared for rich foods and rich 
 gravies. I always liked to eat plenty of fruit 
 
172 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and drink milk. I never over-ate in any way, 
 and was not very fond of sweets. 
 
 "I think any person can live to a ripe old 
 age who will do a fair share of work and refuse 
 under all conditions to do any worrying. Early 
 in life I discovered that it does not pay to 
 worry." 
 
 Evidently Miss Martense's splendid temper- 
 ament and abounding good humor contributed 
 very largely to her health and length of years. 
 At the time of the interview she was as sweet 
 and amiable as when in the full strength of 
 womanhood. 
 
 Among English centenarians of recent times 
 was Mrs. Elizabeth Hanbury, who passed aw^y 
 at Richmond, in October, 1901, having attained 
 the age of one hundred and eight years. Miss 
 Sanderson was born of Quaker parentage, in 
 London, in June, 1793. When the celebrated 
 Elizabeth Fry began the systematic visiting of 
 [Rewgate prison, Miss Sanderson joined her in 
 the labor and continued the work for many 
 years. She was especially assiduous in visiting 
 convict ships for women; and was associated 
 with other leaders in many branches of reform, 
 benevolent, and philanthropic work. 
 
 After her marriage, in 1826, to Cornelius 
 Hanbury, she spent much of her time among 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 173 
 
 the prisoners in Stoke Newington; and on one 
 occasion when she was pleading before the 
 Home Secretary for the life of a poor prisoner, 
 she was met with the reply : "Mrs. Hanbury, I 
 can not alter the law ; but, if I were accused, I 
 should like to have you plead for me." 
 
 In the course of time Mrs. Hanbury became 
 an acknowledged minister among the Friends. 
 During her long life she maintained a deep in- 
 terest in religious and benevolent undertakings, 
 and was able to do much reading and writing 
 after she passed her one hundredth year. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret Anne Neve, whose life meas- 
 ured one hundred and ten years, died in Eng- 
 land in 1903. Her last thirty or forty years 
 were not simply an existence, as many might 
 suppose, but were lived for a purpose. She 
 always had something to do. She never lacked 
 resources. She was past one hundred before she 
 ever thought of going into retirement. 
 
 When Mrs. Neve was ninety years old she set 
 out alone for Oracow, in Austria-Hungary, to 
 see the memorial erected to Kosciuszko, the fa- 
 mous Polish patriot and general. After her one 
 hundredth birthday she 'walked to and from 
 church regularly. For forty years after she 
 reached three score years and ten she was able 
 
174 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 to do what many men and women of to-day 
 would hesitate to do at half her age. 
 
 A great many who have attained extreme 
 longevity have no other claims to distinction, 
 but it was different with Mrs. !N"eve, says the 
 London Spectator. She was a useful woman to 
 the day of her death. Her life was so orderly in 
 all things^ — and here is the beauty of it — that 
 "she lived in joyful contemplation of the happi- 
 ness of the past." She could freely comprehend 
 the beautiful sentiment of the Prophet Zecha- 
 riah, "At evening time it shall be light"; and 
 out of her own heart could believe with Lord 
 Bacon that above all, the sweetest canticle is 
 Nunc Dimiitis — "JSTow let Thou Thy servant 
 depart in peace." 
 
OHAPTEK XXI. 
 
 "At Evening Time it Shall be Light." 
 
 N 1882 Mr. Benjamin William 
 Leader, of England, executed a 
 painting which at once became 
 famous because of the poetic sug- 
 gestiveness of its meaning. The old church of 
 Whittington, with its great black yew-trees and 
 mossed tombstones, has endured a long day of 
 storm. The building, as well as the tombstones, 
 seems as if it may have stood for centuries. 
 Thik part of the picture cannot be otherwise 
 than solemnly impressive. It is just such a 
 scene as Hogarth might have painted in his last 
 years. All is decay. To some it would seem 
 as if death ends all. 
 
 But the picture has another view. Upon the 
 drenched landscape at last bursts the sunshine 
 
176 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and the long hours of gloom end in a ruddy 
 glow which foretells a fine to-morrow. It is not 
 difiicult to interpret the meaning of the artist. 
 Behind the gloomy church, the old sepulchres, 
 and all the dismal surroundings, is the glow of a 
 lovely sunset. 
 
 So, often-times it happens that a human life 
 has to endure heavy storms, weariness, and sad- 
 ness until the day of its existence draws nigh to 
 a close. Then the storm passes away, and the 
 evening of life becomes filled with a golden 
 peace, and like the old church and the black 
 yew-trees, the somber past, thus illumined with 
 that mellow light, seems to have a solemn beauty 
 of its own. This delightful theme is taken by 
 Mr. Leader from a line in the seventh verse of 
 the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah, "At even- 
 ing time it shall be light." 
 
 There are discouragements of many sorts in 
 the present life. Time and again our hopes are 
 gone, and we become depressed by the condi- 
 tions suggested by the scene in the foreground 
 of the picture just described. Particularly is 
 this true with elderly people. Age comes on, 
 the strength of our former years has departed, 
 our burdens seem to grow heavier, the clouds 
 hang lower, and life is harder to live. Too 
 many aged persons dwell on the things sug- 
 
MA8TEB8 OF OLD AGE. 177 
 
 gested by the gloomy features of the picture, 
 while their hearts are turned from the golden 
 sunset which the artist borrows from the beau- 
 tiful sentiment in Zechariah's prophecy. Christ- 
 ian faith has everything to do with our happi- 
 ness in the Indian summer of life. 
 
 Talleyrand had one of the greatest intellects 
 France ever produced. His career was remark- 
 able. But Carlyle wrote of him : "He lived in 
 falsehood and on falsehood." On his eighty- 
 third birthday his feeling found expression in 
 these doleful words : 
 
 "Eighty-three years of life are now past; 
 filled with what anxieties, what agitations, what 
 enmities, what troublous complexities; and all 
 this with no other result than a great weariness, 
 physical and moral, and a profound sentiment 
 of discouragement with regard to the future, 
 and of disgust for the past." 
 
 For a man so shamelessly corrupt, immoral, 
 and selfish, there could be no light at evening 
 time. 
 
 On the other hand, an incident in the life of 
 Dr. James Scott, of Maine, is worth relating. 
 By the time he was sixty he was overtaken by 
 some business misfortune. The vicious dead 
 line of fifty worked to his disadvantage. While 
 the lines had not fallen unto him in pleasant 
 
178 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 places, he was not discontented, neither did his 
 manly courage fail him. He seemed to grasp 
 the great fact that the brightest sunshine that 
 gladdens the earth is liable to be overhung with 
 black clouds. And therefore in the day of his 
 troubles his good temper and his 'Christian 
 faith were not at a discount. 
 
 Mr. Scott concluded to engage in a profession 
 in which no dead line of fifty or sixty was ever 
 drawn. He entered a medical school, gradu- 
 ated with honors, and for more than twelve 
 years he was a successful practitioner. During 
 all this time there flashed upon him the beau- 
 tiful light at evening time. 
 
 We all know the heart-burnings which Mary 
 Clemmer Ames (Mrs. Hudson) must have en- 
 dured for some years during her first marriage. 
 A short time before her death, in 1884, when 
 in the prime of her intellectual powers, she 
 wrote a friend : 
 
 "Though I am not old I have sounded the 
 deeps and shadows of all that is called society 
 till I feel through my heart of hearts that all 
 that is of real value is the lowly contrite spirit, 
 the clear mind, the loving, consecrated heart; 
 all else is emptiness, vanity, vexation of soul. 
 I am very happy solely because I have reached 
 that upper ether of spiritual calm which envy. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 179 
 
 jealousy, and malice cannot reach. I do com- 
 mon work, plenty of it, but in a spirit of con- 
 secration which ennobles it — at least for me. 
 At last there can be no beauty for you or me 
 but the beauty of holiness." 
 
 Mrs. Hudson never realized so vividly the 
 splendor of the sunset so beautifully illustrated 
 in Leader's allegorical painting, as when she 
 lived in fatal invalidism caused by an accident 
 in 1878. 
 
 In a large measure life's evening takes its 
 character from the day which has preceded it. 
 If we stand four-square in relation to all the 
 storms, disappointments, and hardships of life, 
 there will be light at evening time. Goodness, 
 love, noble aspirations, an implicit faith in im- 
 mortality, alone can give vitality to the closing 
 years of a long life. 
 
 When I read Zechariah's prophecy there 
 leaps into my mind the story of James Watt's 
 career. His improvements in the steam engine 
 were so important and fundamental that he is 
 practically its inventor. 
 
 Watt has been called one of the most extraor- 
 dinary men England has produced. Yet he 
 was always delicate and suffered throughout his 
 life from frequent attacks of wretched nervous 
 headaches. His organism was full of weakness 
 
180 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and pain, and he was hardly ever free from des- 
 perate depression of spirits. And yet how mar- 
 vellously important was the work he accom- 
 plished ! 
 
 His apprehension that his powers of mind 
 had been worn out, happily remained groundless 
 to the hour of his death in 1819. It is said of 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson that in the latter part of 
 his life, in order to satisfy himself that his 
 mental faculties were not impaired, he began to 
 learn a new language, and fixed upon the Low 
 Dutch, and finally was able to read much of 
 Thomas a Kempis in that unattractive tongue. 
 And Watt, in his old age, when he fancied that 
 his powers of mind were weakening, determined 
 to test his ability to learn the Anglo-Saxon lan- 
 guage, an undertaking that brought most satis- 
 factory results. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott having met Watt when the 
 inventor was eighty-two, describes him as the 
 alert, kind, benevolent old man, his talent and 
 fancy overflowing on any subject. "This gifted 
 man of science," says Scott, "was then as ob- 
 stinate a peruser of fiction as if he had been a 
 very milliner's apprentice of eighteen." 
 
 It was light at evening time with Watt. ]N"ot- 
 withstanding that nearly all his life had been 
 spent amid clouds and storms, "the element of 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 181 
 
 immortal freshness" seems to have found a place 
 in his heart, and at eighty-four his earthly life 
 closed in hope, sunlight, and calm. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 "Keep on the Sunny Side of the Street." 
 
 HEN Dr. Kobert CoUyer, the widely 
 known and highly honored Uni- 
 tarian minister, became an octo- 
 genarian, two years ago, he gave out 
 a recipe for living long and being happy. He 
 has had experience. He practises what he 
 preaches. He knows all about the twists and 
 the turns, the ups and the downs of the long 
 journey from the small blacksmith's shop in 
 Shoemakertown, Pennsylvania, to the great pul- 
 pit of Unity Church, Chicago, and later to that 
 of the Church of the Messiah, New York City. 
 His prescription for a long and beautiful life 
 is as simple and terse as the sermons which have 
 made him famous. It is within the reach of 
 everybody. No druggist can furnish a substi- 
 
MASTURS OF OLD AGE. 183 
 
 tute for it. It cures nine times out of ten. It 
 is this : "Cultivate a good temper. Live a nat- 
 ural life. Eat moderately of the food that 
 agrees with you. Keep on the sunny side of 
 the street." 
 
 To those who are growing old, here are some 
 suggestions in practical wisdom. Be patient. 
 Do not rush into extremes. Adopt a wholesome, 
 and a well-balanced dietary. To live naturally 
 is to keep the mind clear and the heart clean, 
 and to take reasonable exercise in the open air. 
 An old writer of much good sense has said: 
 "When men lived in houses of reed, they had 
 constitutions of oak ; when they lived in houses 
 of oak, they had constitutions of reeds." This 
 illustrates how injury may come to the body 
 through an insufficient supply of oxygen, which 
 used to be called "vital air." 
 
 Dr. Collyer is a noticeable example of the 
 effect of rational living. He is ever on the 
 sunny side of the street. He carries sunshine 
 wherever he goes. He knows nothing about 
 doldrums. He is a strong character in cheer- 
 fulness, amiability, and tranquility. His mes- 
 sage to the aged is one that always rejuvenates. 
 
 Miss Louisa May Alcott once said that a part 
 of religion was to look well after the cheerful- 
 ness of life and let the dismals shift for them- 
 
184 MASTERS OP OLD AGE. 
 
 selves. This sentiment suggests some facts in 
 the life of Miss Fannie Dean of Glenwood, 
 Iowa. So far as money goes, she is a child of 
 great misfortune; but in cheerfulness, and in 
 loving service to those in need, she is a million- 
 aire. In all the v?alks of her humble life she 
 keeps on the sunny side of the street. In 1904 
 she vs^as seventy-nine years old and was earning 
 two dollars a week at the washtub, her strength 
 not permitting her to earn more. Out of this 
 pittance Miss Dean assists in educating two 
 girls in India, and regularly gives ten dollars 
 a year to a school for blind negro children in 
 the South. In Christian zeal, in hope and good 
 cheer, she is not surpassed by any woman, old 
 or young, in Glenwood. 
 
 Some people have all the music of their lives 
 set in the minor key. They take to the shad- 
 owed side of the street. Their imagination, 
 when wrongly exercised, is one of the worst of 
 foes, particularly to elderly people. Many per- 
 sons live in perpetual discomfort because their 
 minds are not employed in useful ways. This 
 sort of thinking is carried so far that they im- 
 agine that the world is against them. How- 
 ever hard one's lot may seem to be, there is room 
 for hope and an opportunity for some kind of 
 worthy achievement. 
 
MA8TER8 OF OLD AGE. 185 
 
 At the present time there lives in Casey, Il- 
 linois, a sweet-tempered invalid, Lizzie Johnson. 
 For many years she has not been released from 
 pain, and so helpless is she that her head 
 scarcely ever leaves her pillow. Taking human 
 nature as we generally find it there is occasion 
 enough for her to do much grumbling because 
 of her hard condition. But no words of dis- 
 comfort come from her lips. More than that, 
 she is as industrious as she is resigned and cheer- 
 ful. During the past fourteen years, by making 
 simple articles of various designs, she has gath- 
 ered in some eight thousand dollars, which has 
 been wholly devoted to mission purposes. 
 
 The value of a loving temperament and a 
 bright countenance is shown by the testimony of 
 an eminent Chicago physician who, for obvious 
 reasons, withholds his name from the public. 
 He once had a patient in the hospital whose fits 
 of depression undid the work of most of the 
 medicine prescribed. For some time he could 
 not understand it. The nurse was homely in 
 her personality, was not sweet-voiced, and per- 
 haps was not quite as sympathetic and tender as 
 a nurse ought to be, but she was skilled in her 
 profession and was a devoted worker among the 
 sick. Once she was called away from the city 
 by the death of her mother, and a substitute was 
 
186 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 provided. The new nurse was somewhat inex- 
 perienced, was not as regular nor as skilful in 
 giving medicine as her predecessor, but she had 
 a gracious manner, spoke in a tone almost be- 
 witching, her countenance was always winsome, 
 and her mirth impressible. 
 
 The patient began to mend rapidly, and the 
 physician gave his remedies credit for the de- 
 lightful change in the man's condition. But 
 in the course of two or three weeks the old nurse 
 returned and took her place in the sick-room. 
 It was not long before the patient had a relapse. 
 His fits of gloom returned, it appeared that med- 
 icine had lost its power. One day the sick man 
 said to the physician : "Doctor, would you mind 
 sending back Doris? I don't believe you can 
 help me, anyhow, but I feel better when Doris 
 is here ; she is so jolly." Simply to humor him, 
 the favorite nurse of the physican was dis- 
 missed, and Doris was recalled. A rapid change 
 for the better took place in the patient, and in 
 two months he was able to return home. 
 
 It is said that the nurse of smiling face, of 
 blithe spirit, is fairly sharing honors with the 
 distinguished physicians of Europe. 
 
 It pays to keep on the sunny side of the 
 street. That light-hearted octogenarian. Lord 
 Kelvin, who does as much brain work as any 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 187 
 
 philosoplier of hia age on earth, recently ad- 
 dressed the students of St. George's Hospital, 
 London. He told them that they must not ex- 
 pect patients to be healed by such things as 
 drugs and splints alone. He made it very plain 
 to the students that doctors ought to make use 
 of cheerfulness and kindness ; and last, but by 
 no means least, spiritual consolation. 
 
 When Miss Edith Franklin Wyatt, author 
 of Every One His Own Way, was at Bryn Mawr 
 College from 1891 to 1893 as a student, she 
 was called "the girl in the cheering-up bus- 
 iness." She was ever on the sunny side of the 
 street. Her life was full of light. She taught 
 the beneficence of laughter. The rejuvenating 
 force of cheerfulness was exemplified in her 
 everyday life. The girls who were homesick, 
 and discouraged; "girls who were behind in 
 their studies, and tired students, went to her for 
 a bit of sunshine and encouragement and they 
 always found it." In Miss Wyatt the faculty 
 of cheerfulness and wholesome humor, is a di- 
 vine gift, and it is just as much her business to 
 spread sunshine as it is to earn a living by her 
 well-trained mind. She is a born maker of 
 happiness. 
 
 If ever a man walked on the sunny side of the 
 street it was Oliver Wendell Holmes. He al- 
 
188 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ways walked in the light. He was one of the 
 great "joy-makers" in our literature. The doc- 
 tor had a wonderfully joyous, sanguine vitality. 
 His humor was exceptional and extraordinary. 
 With his inherent goodness and beauty of char- 
 acter was an exuberance of himior; and when 
 people smiled or laughed at what he said, the 
 smile or laughter came from the very soul of 
 the reader. 
 
 Contentment with one's lot and a cheerful 
 view of life and all its demands, are important 
 factors in promoting longevity. Some philos- 
 opher has said that there is such a thing as 
 "laughing wrinkles away." 
 
 Some time ago a railway train made a stop 
 at the quiet village of Kexville, New York. A 
 passenger put his head out of the window and 
 began to chat with several octogenarians who 
 were standing in front of the station house. He 
 said to one of them : 
 
 "I should think you would have a pretty 
 lonesome time living here." 
 
 "What," was the answer, "lonesome, and 
 three trains a day ?" 
 
 This gray-haired veteran understood the 
 philosophy of life. He had found a sunny side 
 to eighty years. Wholesome living with con- 
 tentment is great gain. This is the way to live 
 
MASTEBS OF OLD AGE. 189 
 
 if we want to live long and be joyous. Any 
 other course of personal habits will bring us 
 into judgment. 
 
 The late Senator Hoar of lEassachusetts, was 
 a grand old man. He was a great statesman, 
 a profound scholar, a splendid Christian gentle- 
 man. Once, in speaking of his every day life, 
 he made the characteristic remark: "I have 
 never got over being a boy. It does not seem 
 likely that I ever shall." He was right. So 
 far as blithesomeness is concerned, this grand 
 old man of the United States Senate never got 
 over being a boy. His sweet, infectious smile 
 was not to be forgotten by those who met him. 
 Even in the hot debate in the Senate, he would 
 smile benignly upon his antagonist no matter 
 how bitter or angry that antagonist might be, 
 and would seem to say: "I smile on that man 
 because I want to encourage him to make out as 
 strong a case as possible. I have a stronger 
 one myself, and can smile even while he is doing 
 his best to confound me." 
 
 The venerable Daniel Kimball Pearsons, 
 M.D. of Chicago, is distinguished for his phil- 
 anthropy. He celebrated his eighty-fifth birth- 
 day in April, 1905, by giving $150,000 to five 
 colleges in the mountain regions of the South- 
 ern States. He keeps on the sunny side of the 
 
190 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 street. His life is full of kindness and joy. 
 When he gives $25,000 or $100,000 to a worthy- 
 institution he smiles; in fact he always laughs 
 when he separates himself from his money. 
 His great joy in his old age is giving. This 
 is his hobby, and he rides it remarkably well. 
 He gives, and laughs, and keeps in good health. 
 Besides a solid Christian faith, some useful 
 employment, and a stomach that is never abused, 
 there is nothing in longevity that pays so well 
 as cheerfulness. It is a hobby that every man 
 and woman ought to ride. It has been called 
 the bright weather of the heart. It is a wonder- 
 ful tonic for old age. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 The Art of Living. 
 
 HOETLY before the distinguished 
 minister, lecturer, and reformer, 
 Theodore Parker, passed away in 
 Eome in 1860, he uttered this la- 
 ment: "Oh, that I had known the art of life, 
 or found some book or some man to tell me how 
 to live, to study, to take exercise. But I found 
 none, and so here I am." His body, which was 
 never strong, had broken down about mid-way 
 of what should have been his length of useful 
 days. He was a month or so past fifty, and his 
 life's work was done. 
 
 In some regards Mr. Parker's habits of life 
 were reasonably simple. But his portrait, taken 
 at forty-eight, makes him look like an old man. 
 Something was wrong. His biographers say 
 that he indulged in "vigorous exercise," which. 
 
192 MASTERS OP OLD AGE. 
 
 considering his weak frame, was almost suicidal. 
 Then, again, his mental work was out of pro- 
 portion to his physical capacity. In one year 
 he read three hundred and twenty volumes, and 
 his plans for further reading, writing, lecturing, 
 and preaching, were so extraordinary as to be 
 dizzying to any ordinary mind. It is no won- 
 der that his life went out at the early age of 
 fi;fty. It was a most tragic waste of faculty. 
 What he gained in intensity of labor he lost in 
 time. 
 
 Theodore Parker did not make the most of his 
 opportunities. He worked the wrong way. 
 There was a great life before him. But there 
 was too much of the unhealthy sentiment in it 
 that "man is born to a few days and full of 
 trouble." He drove himself to an early death. 
 Many others do the same thing but in different 
 ways. They do not take into account the pen- 
 alty of intemperance — ^not in over-feeding and 
 careless drinking — but in improper exercise, 
 and in too much mental strain in unfavorable 
 conditions. It was Montaigne who said "there 
 is nothing so handsome and lawful as well and 
 truly to play the man ; nor science so hard as to 
 know how to live this life." 
 
 A man is said to be rich in proportion to the 
 number of things which he can afford to let 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 193 
 
 alone. This thought brought from an old phil- 
 osopher the remark when passing a crowded ba- 
 zaar in which everything attractive and costly 
 was for sale: "How many things there are in 
 this world that I do not want!" 
 
 It is one of the many great pities that there is 
 so much truth in the saying of Montaigne con- 
 cerning the living of this life. It is as surpris- 
 ing as it is deplorable that the mastery of the 
 appetites, the cultivation of good temper, the 
 exercise of careful judgment, should be cat- 
 alogued among the great difficulties of life^ 
 What men and women need most is "life more 
 abundantly," but how few, comparatively, suc- 
 ceed in obtaining it. Too many come short of 
 grasping the remedial and vitaliziag agencies 
 which spur them on to make the highest devel- 
 opment and render the best service in this 
 world. The question not only involves righteous-'" 
 ness from a spiritual view-point, but skill and 
 prudence in all matters pertaining to hygiene.. 
 
 In one of Thomas Starr King's sermons is a 
 story of an Eastern monarch who was a noble 
 ruler, but who received a message from an 
 oracle that he was to live only twelve years more. 
 He instantly resolved that he would turn these 
 to the most.account, and double his life in spite 
 of destiny. He fitted up his palace gorgeously. 
 
194 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 He denied himself no form of pleasure. His 
 magnificent gardens were brilliantly lighted 
 from sunset to sunrise, so that darkness was 
 never experienced within the circuit of his 
 estate; so that, whenever he was awake the 
 stream of pleasure was ever flowing, and even 
 the sound of revelry was never still. Thus he 
 determined to outwit the oracle by living nearly 
 twenty-four years in twelve. But at the end of 
 six years he died. The oracle foreknew and 
 made allowance for his cunning scheme. "No 
 doubt the monarch on his death-bed saw the 
 vigor and despotism of the laws of life with 
 which it is vain for infinite art and will to 
 wrestle." 
 
 The story is a fable in form, but true in 
 spirit. The monarch was wrong. No man 
 can crowd twenty-four years in twelve. It is 
 solidly and scientifically true that a man cannot 
 Jransgress the laws of nature and live an active 
 life of three-score years and ten. It is by doing 
 only rational things that the more abundant life 
 can be obtained. 
 
 Nowadays we read many theories about how 
 to live long. But the simple lapse of years is 
 not life. There is more to life than eating and 
 drinking, "pacing around the mill of habit, and 
 turning thought into an implement of trade." 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 195 
 
 William Dean Howells says : "As you get on in 
 the forties you will understand that life is 
 chiefly what life has been." But this cannot 
 be regarded as the rule. The real life — "life 
 more abundantly" — comes many times after 
 one has reached advanced years. It is the re- 
 sult of daily duties well performed. One of 
 the best evidences we have of a life lived accord- 
 ing to the highest art, is the soul of the man re- 
 flected in the face — in his conduct. 
 
 Rufus Choate and Daniel Webster were once 
 opposing counsels in an important case in which 
 the size of certain wheels was involved. Mr. 
 Choate was a man of rare eloquence, and "filled 
 the air with the rockets of rhetoric and dazzled 
 the jury." Bizt Mr. Webster was the wiser 
 man. He caused the wheels to be brought into 
 court and placed behind a screen. When he 
 rose to make his plea, the screen was removed, 
 and his only reply to Mr. Choate's powerful 
 eloquence was, "Gentlemen of the jury, here 
 are the wheels I" The wheels themselves had a 
 greater influence over the jury than Mr. 
 Choate's argument. So the man whose life is 
 large, whose heart is the receptacle for some 
 elements of good, whose daily living is a prayer 
 for power to meet every task, stands for more in 
 relation to old age and practical service than 
 
196 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 all the theories concerning how to grow old 
 which are being constantly preached from a 
 mere physical point of view. 
 
 Had Theodore Parker clearly understood the 
 larger, calmer, and healthier life, it is safe to 
 "say that no physical breakdown would have 
 taken him to Rome to die. He once said that 
 he was many times asked to preach a sermon on 
 old age, and when he was forty-four he re- 
 sponded to the request, and the sermon was de- 
 livered in Music Hall, Boston. But he could 
 not preach from experience, for he was not old. 
 He could speak only from observation. He 
 could see what a beautiful thing is the old age 
 which crowns a noble life, of rich or poor. He 
 could refer to Eranklin, whose careful living 
 carried him to the age of eighty-four; and to 
 Alexander Von Humboldt, who accomplished 
 more at eighty than most men of genius could 
 achieve at forty. But as to himself, Parker 
 could say nothing. The sap of life was out of 
 him before the thought of studying how to live 
 impressed itself upon his mind. During all the 
 years of his wonderful mental activity he for- 
 got that a man cannot keep young, nor long 
 maintain his usefulness, by over-taxing his 
 strength. 
 
 It is a great privilege to live to an old age 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 197 
 
 that is beautiful. The art by which one can 
 attain to it may be difficult in many respects, 
 but it is worth striving for. Thinking out a 
 life of continued hope and service, and then 
 pressing toward the mark of such high calling, 
 is not impossible to the average man or woman 
 who is ambitious of exercising a fidelity to 
 every trust. In this matter, as in most of the 
 affairs of life, the saying of George Crabbe is 
 true: "Be there a will, and wisdom finds a 
 way." 
 
 When the late Kichard Salter Storrs, CD., 
 in the earlier years of his ministry, spoke from 
 his pulpit on the beauty of old age, he was not 
 dealing in sentimentality. He was sincerely 
 endeavoring to impress upon the hearts of his 
 hearers one of the great facts of life. When the 
 doctor was approaching four-score years, he not 
 only experienced all the beautiful emotions 
 which ought to belong to old age, but his mental 
 powers remained unimpaired; and his oratory, 
 to the last year of his life, was so graceful and 
 strong that his splendid sentences, falling from 
 his lips in rapid succession, would fit in his 
 discourses with the precision of the keystone of 
 an arch. 
 
 While the art of living is not one of the lost 
 arts, far too many persons of all classes do not 
 
198 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 imderstaiid it as they ought. But conditions 
 are gradually changing for the better. I have 
 observed elsewhere in this volume that some of 
 the best known bankers and merchants in 
 Europe and the United States are well advanced 
 beyond three-score years and ten, and are still 
 in the very prime of their powers. They are 
 lusty patriarchs, hale and hearty, although 
 many of them are carrying the burden of eighty 
 years. These vigorous governors of great cor- 
 porations and directors of huge enterprises seem 
 to have mastered the art of living. 
 
 United States Senator John Fairfield Dryden 
 of ]!^ew Jersey, President of the Prudential Life 
 Insurance Company, says the facts are abundant 
 tending to prove that useful longevity is being 
 attained by men and women with an increasing 
 degree of frequency in our country, and he 
 quotes an authority who affirms : "It is certain 
 that our American men at sixty are not broken 
 jup as badly as our fathers were at forty." 
 
 If old age should be beautiful in its useful- 
 ness, and if the human frame is a greater piece 
 of mechanism — "a higher expression of creative 
 skill than the solar systems" — ^the business of 
 reaching after the best possible standard of 
 physical, moral, and spiritual living ought to be 
 the chief purpose of life. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 199 
 
 Miss Susan Brownell Antliony is a shining 
 light among octogenarian women of America. 
 She has thoroughly studied the art of right liv- 
 ing. This has been as much the business of her 
 life as that of attending every National Con- 
 vention of the Woman's Suffrage Association 
 for the past thirty-seven years. 
 
 While carefulness in eating and taking help- 
 ful exercise in open air and dressing in an easy, 
 comfortable fashion have contributed immensely 
 to Miss Anthony's longevity, there is another 
 auxiliary that needs to be mentioned : "She has 
 had something for which to live. Work has 
 been her physical salvation. The cause in 
 which she has been so indefatigably engaged has 
 been an inspiration. It has lent elasticity to 
 her step and has sent the blood throbbing 
 through her veins with the delicious tingle of 
 achievement." Next to taking care of her 
 health. Miss Anthony's high ideal was useful- 
 ness, and her life's work has been so widely ap- 
 proved that when she celebrated her eighty-fifth 
 birthday in February, 1905, the love and appre- 
 ciation of her co-workers were tendered her in 
 the form of greetings from the equality clubs 
 of Finland, Switzerland, Holland, Austria, Grer- 
 jrr.any, Australia, and from all quarters of Worth 
 and South America. 
 
200 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 I cannot close this chapter without saying a 
 few words concerning Dr. l^athan Smith Davis 
 of Chicago, who died in 1904, at the age of 
 eighty-eight. He was one of the greatest 
 physicians this country has produced. His pro- 
 fessional practice extended over a period of 
 sixty-eight years. 
 
 From the time Dr. Davis was twenty years 
 old, he began the serious study of the art of liv- 
 ing. He never lost the spirit of youth. His 
 simplicity of manner, his benignant qualities 
 and kindness of heart, and his Christian zeal 
 were always a part of the man. "To know how 
 to grow old is the master-work of wisdom, and 
 one of the most difficult chapters in the great 
 art of living." But he mastered the art, and by 
 precept and example he never ceased his efforts 
 to teach it to others. During the last years of 
 his life he walked every day to his office, a full 
 mile, only the stormiest days making an excep- 
 tion to this rule. He maintained that his vig- 
 orous constitution was attributable to proper 
 exercise, to moderate diet, and to abstention 
 from liquor and tobacco. The plain, common 
 sense laws of life and health were his constant 
 guide. 
 
 Dr. Davis was a prophet in his profession. 
 He was a missionary with a message, and this 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 201 
 
 message he proclaimed throughout his life. To 
 those well on in years, and who are wise enough 
 to believe that nothing comes too late, the mes- 
 sage will be helpful. It marks out the only 
 pathway to soundness of body, mind, and soul. 
 
OHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 General Grant's Last and Greatest Victory. 
 
 T has been said that the best ages of 
 the world, the best hours of history, 
 are in touch with the periods of 
 struggle. And we turn to the lives 
 of men and women whose hair is whitened with 
 age, and whose bodies have become infirm by 
 disease, to find some of the most inspiring ex- 
 amples of human achievements. It requires a 
 storm of thunder and lightning and wind to pur- 
 ify the air and make perfect the purpose of sim- 
 mer. Time and again it has taken the weight 
 of years, or an invalidism born of disease or of 
 accident, or of natural defects of body, to bring 
 out the highest qualities of manhood and 
 womanhood. It is worth remembering that "no 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 203 
 
 portion of Paul's wonderful career was pro- 
 ductive of more solid results than the years of 
 his imprisonment at Kome." 
 
 General Grant's greatest victory was not won 
 in his forties at Donelson, nor at Vickshurg, nor 
 at Appomattox. His most heroic days were 
 spent in his sixties, among the moaning pines 
 on the summit of Mt. McGregor when he was 
 battling with a painful disease. The record of 
 those days forms one of the most pathetic chap- 
 ters in American biography. It not only illus- 
 trates the sublime courage and purpose of the 
 man, but teaches us how to strengthen the things 
 which remain and to make the most of what is 
 left. 
 
 It will be remembered that in 1883 General 
 Grant invested all his savings in a banking 
 business in New York City, organized under the 
 firm name of Grant & Ward. The General 
 had no business training, he knew nothing what- 
 ever of the art of money-making, and being 
 very confiding, he was easily imposed upon by 
 designing persons. He could save a nation, but 
 could not save himself and family from the 
 unblushing rascality of his partner who wrecked 
 the bank in May, 1884, By this event, Grant 
 was plunged into financial ruin. Having noth- 
 ing left with which to support his family, he 
 
204 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 was urged by book publisbers to begin at once 
 the preparation of his Personar Memoirs, which 
 shrewd bookmen readily saw would give him a 
 comfortable fortune. 
 
 At that time General Grant was a little over 
 sixty-two years old — just in the prime of his 
 mature manhood. He started to work on his 
 Memoirs in the summer of 1884, but hardly had 
 he put pen to paper before he began to suffer 
 from a persistent irritation in his throat. A 
 month later physicans discovered that cancer 
 had begun its deadly work at the root of the 
 tongue. But this soldier of iron will, of mar- 
 vellous self-reliance, of physical and moral cour- 
 age equal to any emergency, patiently and brave- 
 ly put himself to the task of writing the record 
 of his life. His chief purpose in making this 
 fight against pain and disease was, that after he 
 had passed away his wife might not become an 
 object of charity, nor dependent upon the gen- 
 erosity of the American Congress for support. 
 General Grant wrote as rapidly as his suffer- 
 ings, and a careful examination of official doc- 
 uments, would permit. It was a race between 
 death and his endurance. 
 
 In the winter of his life, when the sea of 
 trouble rolled fiercely against him, his courage 
 and hope shone above the storm like the cliff in 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 205 
 
 Goldsmith's grand simile in "The Deserted 
 Village": 
 
 "As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm. 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread. 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 General Grant's disease became so alarming 
 that on the sixteenth of June, 1885, he was re- 
 moved to the cottage of Joseph Wilhelm Drexel, 
 on JVtt. McGregor, near Saratoga, New York. 
 Two days after his arrival at the cottage, he 
 wrote on a card these pathetic words: "It is 
 just a week to-day since I have spoken. My 
 suffering is continuous." But this did not cause 
 bis pen to lag. It is said that he composed more 
 matter in the eight weeks following the first of 
 May, 1885, than in any other eight weeks of 
 his life. During the two months prior to his 
 death, he wrote fifty pages of the book in as 
 many days. On the first of July, he worked 
 continuously four hours, and on the second, 
 three hours. Hovering between life and death, 
 in almost constant agony, and speechless from 
 disease, this heroic soul patiently struggled 
 through his daily task, and laid down his pen 
 only when the book was completed — four days 
 before he fell asleep, Thursday, July twenty- 
 third, 1885. 
 
206 MABTEBS OF OLD A.GE. 
 
 General Grant's purpose was accomplished. 
 He fought a good fight, he finished his course, 
 he kept the faith. The sales of the work in 
 two volumes were enormous. In less than two 
 years after he died, Mrs. Grant received 
 $395,000 as her share of the sales of Personal 
 Memoirs, and later her share reached $500,000. 
 
 Such a successful literary undertaking, pro- 
 duced while the author was in the unrelenting 
 grasp of disease and past three-score years, can 
 find no parallel in history. 
 
CHAPTEK XXV. 
 
 Some Characteristics of Longevity. 
 
 N the literature pertaining to lon- 
 gevity there is mucli to encourage 
 those who are advanced in years. 
 The heart may weaken somewhat, 
 the body shrink, the hair whiten, the teeth de- 
 cay, but after all there is enough left on which 
 one can establish a useful and enjoyable old 
 age. 
 
 George M. Humphry, M.D., of England, 
 says that in a close examination made some 
 years ago it was found that in three hundred 
 and sixty-two persons over eighty years old, the 
 arteries were found to be knotty or abnormal 
 in only four cases, even in two hundred and 
 fifty-seven, and tortuous in seventy-one. The 
 pulse was compressible in three hundred and 
 
208 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 eleven cases, and unnatural or incompressible 
 in only seventy-two. In a large majority of 
 cases, therefore, the arterial system appeared 
 to present a healthy condition in those v?ho had 
 lived beyond the allotted years of man. 
 
 According to Dr. Humphry, the action of the 
 heart did not vary much as age advanced. 
 From eighty to ninety years it averaged seventy- 
 three to seventy-four in men, and seventy-eight 
 to seventy-nine in women. It was said to be 
 regular in three hundred and twenty-two cases 
 out of four hundred and seven, and irregular in 
 only eighty-five. 
 
 The failure of nutritive force in the brain 
 manifests itself sometimes in the lessening of 
 that power of concentration and quickness of 
 attention upon which the sharp stamping of 
 impressions and the ready recall of them, de- 
 pends; hence the memory of recent events is 
 commonly impaired. But Dr. Humphry re- 
 marks that many of the very aged persons ex- 
 amined were in possession of normal mental fac- 
 ulties. He also says that it was satisfactory 
 to find that the active and long-continued 
 functional activity of the matured brain seemed 
 in no way to impair its enduring qualities, and 
 that good, earnest, useful employment of body 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 209 
 
 and mind, are not only compatible with, but 
 even conducive to longevity. 
 
 Among the many excellent examples of this 
 preservation of mental and bodily faculty to 
 extreme old age is that of Titian, vsrho painted 
 his famous "Pieta" — now in the gallery at 
 Venice — in his ninety-ninth year, and it is said 
 to tell of his incomparable steadiness of hand. 
 
 Dr. Humphry is firm in the belief — founded 
 upon investigations — that the aged people are 
 not, on the whole, prone to disease. No special 
 malady, he is assured, seems to visit them. 
 The nutritive processes are said to be more 
 easily led astray in early life, when they are in 
 greatest activity, than in old age. 
 
 W. E. 0. Latson, M.D., of New York, pub- 
 lished in Health Culture, a short time ago, the 
 results of a careful examination as to certain 
 physical characteristics which are usually asso- 
 ciated with longevity. His conclusions are as 
 follows : 
 
 First. Ninety-nine out of one hundred peo- 
 ple have curvature of the spine. The octo- 
 genarian is the hundredth man. His spine is 
 a straight line, his head erect, his chest broad 
 and deep. This means that the vital organs 
 are properly supported by the attachments pro- 
 vided by nature, and that they do not rest upon 
 
210 MABTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and crowd each other. The heart, lungs, stom- 
 ach, liver, and kidneys are thus enahled to do 
 their work unimpeded. 
 
 Second. Another important characteristic of 
 those who achieve longevity is the hahit of slow, 
 deep respiration. Deep, full breathing means 
 an immensely increased amount of oxygen in- 
 gested, and an equally augmented quantity of 
 poisonous matter eliminated by the lungs. 
 Mental quietude is essential to proper breathing. 
 The excited man, the emotional individual, who 
 suffocates with joy, palpitates with enthusiasm, 
 chokes with rage, gasps with astonishment, sighs 
 from the intensity of his attachments — ^the emo- 
 tional individual by every inequality in his 
 respiration, abbreviates his life. 
 
 Third. The old person — ^the hale, vigorous, 
 healthy old man — amoves easily, lightly, silently. 
 He has always moved that way. That's the 
 reason he is here now instead of with others who, 
 with their gasps and sighs, their clinched brows 
 and twirling thumbs, their intense emotions, 
 and complaints, are gone and forgotten. 
 
 Fourth. Those who live long are invariably 
 small eaters. Gourmands die young. The oc- 
 togenarian is always frugal. The enormous 
 physiological task of digesting and excreting 
 daily pounds of food not needed by the organ- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 211 
 
 ism, is not performed by the frugal eater, and 
 so he has the more vitality to expend in thought, 
 in working and in living out his century. We 
 live not so much because of what we eat as be- 
 cause of what we do not eat. 
 
 In an article on "Exercise for the Aged," 
 published in Oood Health, John H. Kellogg, 
 M.D., of Battle Creek, Michigan — a voluminous 
 writer on matters pertaining to health and 
 longevity — agrees with Dr. Humphry in an im- 
 portant particular. He says: 
 
 "Eecent observations have shown that the 
 arteries which convey the blood to the brain 
 retain their natural size, taking on these changes 
 much later than other parts of the body. Hence 
 it is that the brain maintains its integrity to a 
 more advanced age than do most of the organs. 
 This very fact shows the value of exercise in 
 delaying the approach of old age. The average 
 brain does more work as years advance, while 
 the average body does less. It is only the brain 
 that has been accustomed to constant, sys- 
 tematic activity that is exempt from the senile 
 changes that occur in other parts." 
 
 Another characteristic of old age is given by 
 the Eev. William Jowett of England, who said 
 many wise things when writing on how to grow 
 old naturally. He suggests that the aged are 
 
212 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 less disturbed by care and the world. We be- 
 gin to understand that things never really mat- 
 ter so much as we supposed. We are able to 
 see them more in their true proportion instead 
 of being overwhelmed by them. We are more 
 resigned to the will of God, neither afraid to de- 
 part nor over-anxious to stay. We cannot see 
 into another life, but we believe with inextin- 
 guishable hope that there is something still re- 
 served for us. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 Conditions for Longevity. 
 
 HE question of the possible exten- 
 sion of human life has attracted 
 considerable attention among med- 
 ical men and scientists of Great 
 Britain of recent years. Sir Henry Thomp- 
 son's volume on Foods and Feeding and the 
 later edition of his little book, Diet in Relation 
 to Age and Activity, have doubtless set thou- 
 sands to do some practical thinking on the sub- 
 ject of reforming their habits of life, especially 
 as they relate to food and exercise. 
 
 During the past year, Sir Hermann Weber, 
 M.D., who is eminent among British scientists, 
 delivered a lecture before the Koyal College of 
 Physicians in London, in which he presented 
 certain conclusions which he had reached as to 
 the best means of producing healthful conditions 
 
214 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 and thereby extending the duration of life. Sir 
 Hermann is a sprightly octogenarian. He is a 
 member of several medical and scientific socie- 
 ties on the continent and in North America, and 
 has given the laws of health special attention 
 during his wonderfully successful professional 
 career. Some points he made in his recent ad- 
 dress are worth repeating : "After having care- 
 fully entered into the records of more than one 
 hundred cases of very long lived persons, I have 
 reason to say that by far the majority of them 
 were temperate, were small meat eaters, lived 
 much in the open air, and led an active life. 
 Many of them lived a life of toil with great re- 
 strictions as to food and comforts, while most of 
 them were early risers, and a great number of 
 them had a joyful disposition and performed 
 their work cheerfully. 
 
 "We must endeavor to produce a healthy state 
 of the blood and to maintain the blood vessels 
 and lymphatics in a sound and vigorous condi- 
 tion. Life, we may say, depends to a great ex- 
 tent on the state of the organs of circulation. 
 If we review the different means in our power 
 to prevent early decay and to keep the circula- 
 tory system in a healthy condition we find that 
 the most efficacious are given by the different 
 forms of exercise. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 215 
 
 "Walking is the most natural form of exercise. 
 The action of the heart and the breathing are ac- 
 celerated thereby and more blood is passed into 
 the blood vessels, which are obliged to contract 
 more frequently and carry it with greater en- 
 ergy to the different organs and tissues. At 
 the same time, the number and depth of inspira- 
 tions are increased, more oxygen is taken up and 
 more carbonic acid is given out. Walking, 
 however, does not only act directly on the heart, 
 but by the action of the muscles of the legs 
 more blood is attracted to them and all afferent 
 vessels of the lower extremities carry away more 
 blood from the heart, and the afferent vessels, 
 the veins and lymphatics carry more blood back 
 to the heart and force it to contract more ener- 
 getically. 
 
 "Great moderation in the amount of food, 
 especially of the most nourishing articles (flesh 
 and pulses) ought to be practised by everybody, 
 particularly by old people, and is a great aid to 
 longevity. Almost all authorities are agreed on 
 the subject that in old age the amount of food 
 ought to be very limited. Dr. George Oheyne, 
 for instance, says in one of his rules: 'The 
 aged should lessen the quantity and lower the 
 quality of their food gradually as they grow 
 older, even before a manifest decay of appetite 
 
216 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 forces them to it.' An important subject con- 
 stantly preached but almost as constantly 
 neglected is tborougb mastication. Many 
 forms of indigestion, many states of imperfect 
 nutrition, of the whole body, are caused by bolt- 
 ing the food. Nothing ought to be swallowed 
 until it has been perfectly comminuted by masti- 
 cation and by the admixture of saliva. Com- 
 bined with the fault of bolting, is often that of 
 washing down the food before it is properly 
 masticated. This is likewise a grave mistake, 
 committed frequently by great eaters and by 
 those who take much fluid during meals, which 
 is in itself a bad habit." 
 
 Dr. Weber says the idea that alcohol does for 
 old people what milk does for children, is er- 
 roneous. He declares that it is not in any sense 
 one of the agents that prolong human life. The 
 main points of his advice are comprised in the 
 following sentences : 
 
 Moderation in eating, drinking, and physical 
 indulgence. 
 
 The keeping of every organ of the body, as 
 far as possible, in constant working order. 
 
 Regular exercise every day, in all weathers, 
 supplemented in many cases by breathing move- 
 ments, and by walking and climbing tours. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 217 
 
 Going to bed early and rising early and re- 
 stricting the hours of sleep to six or seven. 
 
 Daily haths or ablutions, according to indi- 
 vidual conditions, cold or warm, or warm fol- 
 lowed by cold. 
 
 Regular work and mental occupation. 
 
 The reader will be interested in the informa- 
 tion that Dr. Weber, who is past eighty-two, 
 and is one of the busiest men in his profession, 
 finds recreation in the study of Greek numis- 
 matics, a branch of knowledge in which he is 
 eminent. 
 
 If the average class of men and women who 
 are approaching old age will make it part of 
 their daily duty to observe the important rules 
 of health given by Sir Hermann, they will have 
 little difficulty in convicting the Psalmist of 
 error when he limited human life to three-score 
 and ten years. 
 
 It may be further said that the secret of liv- 
 ing long lies in the attainment of a natural life 
 to be brought to an end by natural death. And 
 nearly every man, says Eichard Anthony Proc- 
 tor, did he but give his vital powers fair chance, 
 would find that, like 
 
 "The wonderful one-hoss shay. 
 He was built in such a logical way, 
 (As to run) a hundred years to a day. 
 And then of a sudden (to pass away)." 
 
218 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Speaking of the conditions for longevity and 
 man's usefulness in old age, Dr. Harvey Wash- 
 ington Wiley, chief of the Government Bureau 
 of Chemistry, has recently published what may 
 be called an answer to the declaration of a 
 former Johns Hopkins professor, that a man's 
 value to his community or to the world ends at 
 sixty. What the doctor says is well worth 
 studying. 
 
 To live long, one must live moderately both 
 as to eating and drinking. It is not necessary 
 to be a prohibitionist, but one must not dissi- 
 pate. Age hardens the veins. Tissue is not 
 built up then as in youth. Starting with a 
 strong, healthy body, and living temperately, 
 the next requisite is work. Idlers rust out. 
 Workers should exercise their talents in a way 
 to prolong life, by following great endeavors 
 by periods devoted to play. Recreation is an 
 essential part of the recipe for old age. 
 Amusement is as necessary as is sustained en- 
 deavor if one looks for mentality and health in 
 old age. To achieve this desired end, science 
 is working hard. It is exposing the "fake" 
 medicines, which do harm and no good; it is 
 discovering new means of preventing diseases 
 and advanced methods of checking such ravages. 
 Science is winning out against such scourges as 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 219 
 
 diphtheria, consumption and contagious dis- 
 eases. These scientific facts and developments 
 give assurance that the average human life of 
 usefulness vsrill be increased to seventy years in- 
 stead of forty, and that the maximum of ordi- 
 nary activity will be increased from the present 
 three-score years and ten to ninety years. Then 
 there will be more examples of men who have 
 lived properly who will reach a century of life. 
 What used to be regarded as a generation was 
 thirty-three and a third years, but now it is 
 more than forty years. 
 
OHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 Conserving the Energies of Elderly People. 
 
 T will surprise men of sober thought 
 and understanding to learn that 
 out of a male population of 38,- 
 800,000 in the United States in 
 1900, only 176,571 were eighty years old or 
 over. These figures possess a peculiar signifi- 
 cance. The fact that only one man in 220 
 becomes an octogenarian, is a strange com- 
 mentary on our mode of life. By the same 
 census it is also shown that only one man in 
 30,000 lives to be one hundred years old. Any- 
 one can see that the proportion of octogenarians 
 to the total population is remarkably small. 
 Scientists are telling us that the age of three- 
 score years and ten, or even four-score years, 
 should be the rule, not the exception. 
 
MASTEBa OF OLD AGE. 221 
 
 The census of 1900 brought to light some 
 valuable facts relating to the average age of our 
 population. The average age at death of native 
 whites of native parents, was thirty-six years; 
 while that of foreign whites was a little over 
 fifty-five. The average age of the population 
 in 1900 was twenty-four among the native-bom, 
 and fifty among the foreign-bom — a fact to 
 which our native-born citizens can hardly point 
 with pride. 
 
 There was a decrease of death rate in 1900 
 over 1890, among those of sixty years or under, 
 but unfortunately an increase in the rate at each 
 age above sixty years. 
 
 The special charge against a large majority 
 of. American people is that they not only bolt 
 their food, but, as a rule, eat at the same meal 
 too great a variety of foods which are incompat- 
 ible. Practical people who have given dietetics 
 a careful study will be inclined to admit that 
 there is quite sufficient ground for the charge. 
 While the desire to live long is as powerful an 
 instinct in Americans as in any civilized na- 
 tionality, we are far from living up to our duty 
 regarding the observance of some of the rules 
 which greatly assist in prolonging human life. 
 
 But if one reads Sir Henry Thompson's book 
 on Food and Feeding — a London publication — 
 
222 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 he will get the impression that Americans are 
 not sinners above all others of the English- 
 speaking tongue in respect to "mis-feeding." 
 And the fact is significant that Dr. John M. 
 French recently contributed an article to The 
 Medical Examiner in which he says that there 
 are ten times as large a proportion of cente- 
 narians in the United States as in England. 
 
 Notwithstanding the rush and hurry of Amer- 
 ican life, an encouraging fact remains, that the 
 interest in attaining a useful longevity is wider 
 spread than ever before. In very recent years 
 the question has received the attention of the 
 ablest specialists in the land, and by their con- 
 tributions to the leading periodicals, in which 
 they give the results of close study and thorough 
 experiments, they have rendered a valuable ser- 
 vice to the reading public. 
 
 John Madison Taylor, M.D., of Philadelphia 
 who, for sixteen years was assistant to the dis- 
 tinguished Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, has written 
 three valuable articles on "The Conservation 
 of Energy in those of Advancing Years." Lim- 
 ited space prevents me from quoting from Dr. 
 Taylor as freely as I should like ; but I am glad 
 to believe that the extracts I am able to give will 
 serve a good purpose. Those who desire to ob- 
 tain a fuller and a more satisfactory under- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 223 
 
 standing of the doctor's views and suggestions 
 respecting the question of longevity, can find 
 the articles in the 64th volume of The Popular 
 Science Monthly (1904). He suggests in a 
 practical way how anyone may earn, what he 
 terms a postponement of the "evil day," which 
 is not always ill-health, but many times an in- 
 capacity to enjoy life as old age comes on. The 
 doctor says : 
 
 "The study of the conditions and changes in 
 the tissues of human beings as they pass beyond 
 middle age, would seem at first sight to be of 
 widespread interest. Upon the simplest pre- 
 sentation of the matter it will be universally ad- 
 mitted to be of the greatest importance." He 
 then says that the first principle of economics 
 is not so much what we win in any line of in- 
 dustry, but what we save. In making an appli- 
 cation of this principle to the art of living, he 
 suggests that perhaps the most important qual- 
 ity,, mental or physical, which conditions the 
 attainment of enjoyment of advancing years, 
 "is a serene mental view; a capacity for delib- 
 erate enjoyment of whatever betides* In short, 
 a cheerful temperament is as good as an insur- 
 ance policy; indeed far better." But the doc- 
 tor adds : "Much might be said along this line 
 of prevention of death by prolongation of life. 
 
224 MASTEBa OF OLD A&E. 
 
 but it has been presented to every one of us 
 many times in endless guises and from divers 
 sources. The diiEculties are that we fail to 
 realize the practical applicability of the oft- 
 reiterated truths which become trite and weari- 
 some and yet are of golden quality and unspeak- 
 able value. 
 
 "Old people are sensitive to cold because their 
 surface resistance is lowered and their heat- 
 producing powers are waning. The tendency 
 shown by many to stay indoors and keep them- 
 selves over-protected and over-clothed is a grave 
 error. This habit should be overcome gradually 
 but firmly, and they should be in the open air 
 as much as possible, the clothing used being 
 'sufficient, but never too much. This is par- 
 ticularly true of underwear, which should be 
 light and porous, preferably linen next to the 
 skin, which can be supplemented by extra 
 woolen underwear placed over this to vary with 
 the conditions of the temperature. Outings are 
 essential to encourage free oxygenation through 
 the lungs and skin. Chill of surface is much 
 more likely to follow exertion where too much 
 or too heavy underwear is used, and the results 
 are far more serious than if there is too little." 
 
 There are two other paragraphs which must 
 be quoted from Dr. Taylor because they touch 
 
MASTERS OF OLD A&E. 225 
 
 upon vital points relative to the conserving of 
 our energies in old age : 
 
 "As the effects of age come on it is the part 
 of wisdom to omit the use of stimulating articles 
 of diet to which we accustomed ourselves in 
 youth and adult life. As the period of old age 
 is reached, by which is meant about seventy, 
 the regimen should be markedly simplified and 
 always taken with the greatest deliberation. A 
 general rule is recognized to obtain in most 
 cases, that the more nearly the diet is reduced 
 to bread and milk and fruits, the longer will the 
 persons live and enjoy good health. It must 
 be borne in mind, however, that exceptions will 
 occur, and where the strength is being rapidly 
 lost from any cause, it is wise to increase the 
 variety until the strength is restored to the 
 normal for the age reached. It is almost a 
 working axiom in the achievement of long life 
 that the less we eat and the less variety of foods 
 are eaten, the better. Exceptions will arise; 
 sometimes follies may be committed by carrying 
 these thoughts too far. But in the main it can- 
 not be gainsaid, and a great many of con- 
 spicuous illustrative instances can be pointed 
 out, that as a working equation, the least should 
 be eaten compatible with existence, to secure 
 the greatest amount of continued health. . . . 
 
226 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 A choice of vegetables and semi-animal foods 
 are preferable to red meats. 
 
 "Temperance in food and drink is an essen- 
 tial condition of the best results. Eegularity 
 of conduct is important both in bodily habits 
 and the daily routine of labor and pleasure. 
 Open air is the sine qua non of longevity. It 
 is obvious that the healthier and happier old 
 people, are those who are reasonably active. 
 My experience justifies the conviction that 
 where activities have been encouraged, always 
 with full estimation of the limiting conditions 
 present, improvement results. To utilize the 
 young morning hours is best for all, particularly 
 for the aged. Much sleep is not needed for 
 them, unless they crave for it. Dozing during 
 the day is salutary, but long night sleep is not 
 necessary as a rule." 
 
 Dr. Taylor emphasizes the importance of the 
 strengthening of the will in carrying out what- 
 ever is useful in promoting health, and in check- 
 ing the craving for stimulants, anodynes, and 
 other injurious agencies. 
 
 An incident apropos of the advantage of 
 elderly people conserving their energies, is re- 
 corded in the life of the late Senator Justin S. 
 Morrill of Vermont. The story is told that 
 one day he was accosted by a friend with this 
 
MASTERS OP OLD AGE. 227 
 
 question: "How is it, Senator, that you at 
 eighty-eight or eighty-nine, are hale and hearty, 
 while I, at seventy-six, am a cripple, full of 
 rheumatism and all manner of aches and pains 
 and general disabilities?" "Why," said Sen- 
 ator Morrill, "I can't account for it unless it 
 is that I am drawing dividends and you are 
 paying assessments." 
 
OHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 How to live the Simple Life. 
 
 ISTOTHEE distinguished physician 
 to come to the relief of that large 
 class of aged persons who ought to 
 be interested in the question, "How 
 to live the simple life," is Eoger S. Tracy, 
 M.D., formerly Registrar of Records of the De- 
 partment of Health of New York City, and 
 author of several works on sanitary subjects. 
 As a prelude to an excellent article on longevity, 
 he says : 
 
 "There seems to be a consensus among com- 
 parative physiologists that the limit of human 
 life should not be less than a hundred years, 
 and some have fixed it at one hundred and 
 twenty years. Why, then, do so few reach that 
 limit, which is supposed to be a minimum and 
 
MASTERS OF OLD A&E. 229 
 
 not a maximum ? Why do we fall so far short 
 of a normal life? Whose fault is it, our own 
 or somebody else's? Does this minimum of 
 one hundred years imply conditions that can 
 never be met ? Does it apply merely to theoret- 
 ical man, who never existed excepting in the 
 scientific imagination, or does it lie within the 
 compass of every human being who starts right, 
 and lives right up to the very end ?" 
 
 Dr. Tracy does not go so far as to make 
 direct answers to all of these questions, but he 
 offers some important suggestions which cannot 
 fail to be of profit to those who may have a de- 
 sire to study how to live long and to enlarge 
 their capacity for usefulness while passing 
 through the period of old age. To all such 
 right-minded persons I heartily commend his 
 article, which is published in the February 
 number of The Century Magazine, 1904. 
 
 Speaking of the weakening of the physical 
 energies and the clogging of the entire machin- 
 ery of the body during advanced life. Dr. Tracy 
 
 "Exactly what may bring about this clogging 
 of the organism, is not known, but that it is 
 hastened by an over-supply of food and drink 
 is certain. In early life the system is vigorous 
 enough to rid itself of this surplus, but with 
 
230 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 advancing years there is more and more diffi- 
 culty in disposing of it. Unfortunately, most 
 persons do not recognize the slow waning of 
 their powers in this respect until it is forced 
 upon their consciousness in such a manner that 
 it cannot possibly be ignored. They go on 
 eating and drinking just as much, and of the 
 same articles as they did twenty years before, 
 without regard to consequences. This course 
 of living gradually leads to a general enfeeble- 
 ment of the body, and at the age of forty-five, 
 or thereabout, the man begins, in various ways, 
 to be disagreeably reminded that something is 
 wrong with him. His appetite, as he says, 
 goes back on him ; he is troubled with constipa- 
 tion; he does not see as well as he did. So, 
 after a year or two of wondering and grumbling, 
 he begins to fear that he is breaking up, that 
 something serious is the matter, and he either 
 consults a physician or betakes himself to tab- 
 lets, pills, and pick-me-ups, in the hope that his 
 troubles may, after all, be only transitory. 
 
 "Now these questions suggest themselves: 
 What is a proper diet and what is moderation ? 
 How shall one know what to eat and how much 
 he shall eat? It is not surprising that in our 
 present highly artificial mode of life these ques- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 231 
 
 tions should be to most persons very perplexing ; 
 yet the answer lies not far from the surface." 
 
 Dr. Tracy prescribes no special diet. He 
 has no fads. He contends for rational eating 
 and drinking. He illustrates the danger to 
 longevity of careless over-feeding. "For- 
 tunately," he says, "as we have a guide within 
 ourselves as to the quality of our food, so we 
 have also one to indicate the quantity. When 
 we need food there will be hunger; and when 
 hunger is satisfied all excess is not only waste 
 and refuse, but positively injurious. We all 
 eat too much. 
 
 "This restriction in the amount of food is 
 not a hardship. It does not involve self-denial 
 when one is used to it. On the contrary, to eat 
 too little at one meal as to be hungry at the next, 
 affords the greatest satisfaction. Hunger will 
 be ever the best sauce, and he who can always 
 sit down to a meal with a ravenous appetite, 
 and rise from it with his brain so clear and his 
 circulation so free that he can work or play im- 
 mediately without discomfort, experiences one 
 of the highest joys of life. 
 
 "1^0 one was ever sorry for having volun- 
 tarily eaten too little, while millions every day 
 repent having eaten too much. It is said that 
 the great lesson homeopathy taught the world 
 
232 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 was this : That whereas physicians had been in 
 the habit of giving the patient the largest dose 
 he could stand, they have been led to see that 
 their purpose was better subserved by giving 
 him the smallest dose that would produce the 
 desired effect. And. so it is with food. In- 
 stead of eating, as most people unfortunately 
 do, as much as they can, they should eat the 
 smallest amount that will keep them in good 
 health. 
 
 "Moderation in diet has more to do with pro- 
 longing human life than any other one thing. 
 A proper dietetic regimen, once attained, brings 
 all the rest in its train. Sleep, exercise, clean- 
 liness, equanimity of spirit, all hang upon it. 
 Life is not only prolonged, but is constantly en- 
 joyed, most of its minor annoyances vanishing 
 when digestion is perfect. Pay no attention to 
 fads. They give rise to too much introspection, 
 and that is bad for everyone." 
 
 Ohristoph Wilhelm Eufeland, a celebrated 
 German physician, who died in 1836, has often 
 been quoted as saying : 
 
 "In general we find that those men who were 
 not too nice or particular in their food, but who 
 live sparingly, attained to the greatest age. It 
 is, at any rate, certain that the prolongation of 
 life does not so much depend on the quality as 
 
MASTERS OF OLD A&E. 233 
 
 on the quantity of our nourishment, and the in- 
 stance of Oornaro affords an astonishing proof 
 how far a man of weakly constitution may 
 thereby prolong his existence." 
 
 If the readers of this volume, who are on the 
 downward path of increasing years, desire to 
 live the simple life and escape an untimely en- 
 feeblement of mind and body, they will receive 
 much assistance by studying the articles written 
 by Drs. Taylor and Tracy. In them will be 
 found a true "guide, philosopher, and friend." 
 
OHAPTEE XXIX. 
 The Beatitude of Old Age. 
 
 FEW days before John Greenleaf 
 Whittier celebrated his eighty-fifth 
 birthday, in December, 1891, the 
 New York Tribune said : 
 "One day this week a young gentleman in 
 Amesbury, Mass., known and loved by a great 
 many thousands who never grasped his hand or 
 looked into his eyes, will pass his eighty-fifth 
 birthday. Young, because whatever may have 
 happened to his physical powers in all these 
 crowded and eventful years, he has carried with 
 him through all of them that abounding love 
 for humanity, and for all his fellow-men, that 
 keeps the spirit always young, always in touch 
 with to-day. Gentleman, because in more than 
 sixty years of service to the thinking, reading 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 235 
 
 world, he has said no word that was not helpful, 
 hopeful, full of that gentleness and tenderness 
 which, outside of all creeds and beliefs and 
 theologies, attracts to-day the loving reverence 
 of mankind for the 'First True Gentleman.' 
 
 "To grow old gracefully, to keep with us, 
 spite of disappointments and bereavements and 
 losses and increasing physical ills, the youthful 
 spirit, the charm and sweetness of a gentle tem- 
 per and unselfish soul, that indeed is a beati- 
 tude ; one of the greatest ; to be crowned by the 
 last of all : 'Blessed are the dead who die in the 
 Lord,' 'for their works do follow them.' It is 
 such a graceful drawing to a close of a long and 
 useful life that the attention of the English- 
 speaking world will be drawn to this week by the 
 occurrence of the eighty-fifth birthday of the 
 Quaker poet." 
 
 The friends of the beloved Quaker poet hoped 
 
 that the wish expressed in Oliver Wendell 
 
 Holmes' lines might be realized : 
 
 "What story is this of the year of his birth? 
 Let him live to a hundred, we want him on earth." 
 
 But this was not to be, and Whittier was 
 translated nine months after his eighty-fifth 
 birthday. 
 
 Emerson had no sympathy with the creed of 
 the street, which says: "While old age is not 
 
238 MASTERS OF OLD XaS. 
 
 disgraceful, it is immensely disadvantageous." 
 He knew the value of experience which comes 
 of a life of many years. "Life and art are 
 cumulative, and he who has accomplished some- 
 thing in any department alone deserves to be 
 heard on that subject." 
 
 The Eev. Edward Everett Hale took up the 
 duties of Chaplain of the United States Senate 
 in 1903, when he was eighty-two years old. But 
 the pleasantness of mirth and the gentle light of 
 hiunor still form a large portion of his daily 
 life. A few months after his removal to Wash- 
 ington he was in Senator Hoar's committee room 
 and, looking upon the portraits of the Senators, 
 he said to the clerk : 
 
 "I thought that the Senators were all old 
 men." 
 
 "Well," said the clerk, "some of them are 
 pretty old, are they not ?" 
 
 "Old?" said Dr. Hale; "I should think not. 
 There's Senator Pettus of Alabama, who is 
 eighty-three and who has reached the age of 
 discretion, but the rest are young fellows, so far 
 as I can see." 
 
 Most of these "young fellows" to whom Dr. 
 Hale referred, were seventy or over. Their 
 lives were indeed a beatitude. In conversation, 
 in general bearing, in youthf ulness of spirit, in 
 
MASTERa OF OLD AGE. 237 
 
 activity in attending to the affairs of state, they 
 showed no signs of increasing age. 
 
 To persons of clean lives and active minds 
 old age is one of the beatitudes. 
 
 What made Mrs. George Henry Gilbert's old 
 age a beatitude? Here is the answer to the 
 question. One month before her sudden death, 
 in December, 1904, at the age of eighty-three, 
 a writer in The Outlook had a conversation 
 with her, in which she said : 
 
 "I am very happy, and I have only gratitude 
 for my life, for the kindness of everyone. I 
 think I am the most fortunate woman in the 
 world. It is strange, but my husband and 
 children seem so near to me. They appear to 
 be so very close. Do I think, that when I am 
 put down there (pointing to the ground), that is 
 the end of me? No, indeed; I know better. 
 What is the yearning we have here (putting her 
 hand on her heart) that makes us sure there is 
 something to come, that makes us say our 
 prayers, that helps us try to be good ?" 
 
 The Eev. Dr. Edward D. Morris of Colum- 
 bus, Ohio, is a stalwart gentleman of eighty-one. 
 For thirty years he was professor of theology 
 in Lane Seminary, Cincinnati. His hopeful- 
 ness and happiness have not been buried in old 
 age. When the doctor was seventy years old 
 
238 MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 
 
 he wrote a poem, entitled "Three-score and 
 Ten," which reflects his glad hope and serene 
 mind at that time. I can give only five stanzas : 
 
 The best of living is the last. 
 
 And life seems sweetest at its close ; 
 
 And something richer than the past 
 These days disclose. 
 
 I mourn not now the silver hair. 
 
 The trembling hand, the failing power, 
 
 As here I wait and calmly dare 
 The coming hour. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 And even when I sorrow most. 
 
 Yet happy are the tears I shed. 
 And bright the memories of the lost: 
 
 The precious dead. 
 
 # * » » * 
 
 Alone, but not alone, I stand; 
 
 Around, above, a Power divine 
 Is shining, and a heaveiily Hand 
 
 Is touching mine. 
 
 » * * « • 
 
 And so, reclining on the slope 
 
 Of life, apart from busy men, 
 I firmly grasp this larger hope — 
 
 Three score and ten! 
 
 Another beautiful illustration of longevity 
 as a beatitude, is the life of that distinguished 
 philanthropist, the Baroness Burdett-Ooutts of 
 London. It is not extravagant to say that she 
 is one of the most extraordinary women of the 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 239 
 
 age. It was not her wealth nor her political 
 influence that raised her to the British peerage, 
 an honor never before bestowed upon a woman. 
 It was her lofty character, her bountiful ben- 
 efactions among the poor that bestowed upon 
 her the title of Eight Honorable, and also gave 
 her the freedom of the cities of London and 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 The Baroness is directress in some twenty 
 large organizations and associations, and her 
 personal influence is felt in every direction to a 
 degree almost as great as half a century ago. 
 Although she is in her ninety-first year, her 
 mental vitality and physical vigor and activity 
 in Church and philanthropic work are retained 
 in a remarkable manner. She was never more 
 lovely in mind and heart than since she became 
 a nonagenarian. 
 
 Of course her wealth and fame and social 
 standing brought her many wooers in her 
 younger womanhood, but when she married she 
 married for love, and in 1881, when sixty-seven 
 years old, she became the wife of an American, 
 Mr, William Ashmead-Bartlett of Philadelphia, 
 who is thirty-two years her junior. A royal 
 license was obtained in England that he might 
 assume her name. 
 
 There are many refreshing instances of 
 
240 MASTERS OF OLD A&E. 
 
 blessedness filling the lives of those who have 
 left more than eighty years behind them. We 
 see ideal old age in Julia Ward Howe (now 
 eighty-six), the philanthropist and poet, who 
 gave us the immortal song, "The Battle Hymn 
 of the Republic" ; and in the versatile Adelene 
 D. T. Whitney, whose books have carried de- 
 light and profit to many thousands of homes. 
 
 Beautiful is the life of Mrs. Isabella Beecher 
 Hooker, the last survivor of the original 
 Beecher family. She is eighty-three and still 
 retains her charming philanthropic spirit and 
 has lost none of her old-time interest in the 
 movement "to emancipate woman from unjust 
 laws." Mrs. Frances Jane 0. Van Alstyne 
 (Fanny Crosby), whose gospel songs have been 
 sung the world over, is eighty-five years of age. 
 Although she does not remember ever to have 
 seen the light of day, her mind is in perfect 
 peace, and she is still reaping in joy the fruits 
 of a song-inspired life. 
 
 Time has not squeezed all the enjoyment and 
 blessedness out of the life of Judge Charles 
 Field of Athol, Massachusetts. He has lived 
 to pass his ninetieth birthday, and he still pre- 
 sides in the court almost every day. Many a 
 man has died old at sixty or seventy, but at 
 ninety Judge Field is still harnessed for life's 
 
MABTEBa OF OLD AGE. 241 
 
 work, is full of vigor and mental strength, and 
 is the oldest judge in the United States who ex- 
 ercises full judicial functions. His explana- 
 tion why he is able to accomplish so much work 
 in extreme age is common to almost every oc- 
 togenarian and nonagenarian: "He has lived 
 frugally, which means rationally, and worked 
 constantly when he was not at play." 
 
 There are thousands of men and women 
 whose names are rarely ever seen in the public 
 prints whose lives have been clean and fruitful, 
 and who, in their own modest way, have wisely 
 worked out the problem of making old age a 
 beatitude. To them belongs even higher honor 
 of dignifying and beautifying longevity, than 
 to those whose calling and environments have 
 kept them constantly before the public eye. 
 
 A case in point is that of Mr. and Mrs. John 
 Lowe of Laurel, Jones County, Mississippi. 
 The husband is ninety-five and the wife ninety- 
 six. The measure of their married life is 
 seventy-seven years, and during all that time 
 they have lived on one farm. It is said that 
 thirteen of their children are living, and also 
 sixty-two grandchildren, one hundred and 
 twenty-three great-grandchildren, and nine 
 great-great-grandchildren. 
 
 Neither Mr. Lowe nor his wife are old 
 
242 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 enough to be called old fogies. He still takes 
 delight in bunting, and is counted one of the 
 best marksmen in the county. Both are in ex- 
 cellent health at the time I write, and because 
 of their plain, sensible way of living they are 
 "as happy as the day is long." 
 
 A perfectly contented mind and a beautiful 
 faith was exemplified in the life of the late 
 Samuel Wescott of Toledo, Iowa. The length 
 of his days was one hundred and two years. A 
 distinguished physician once told Eichard An- 
 thony Proctor that in all his practice he never 
 knew of but one person who died a natural 
 death. But the end came to Mr. Wescott in a 
 natural manner. He was taken to the polls on 
 the eighth of November, 1904, and the follow- 
 ing day the end came as peacefully as if he were 
 passing into pleasant sleep. 
 
 Happy is that man or woman who can say, 
 with George Macdonald, that the sweetness of 
 life does not belong to the young alone, and that 
 old age is not all decay. 
 

 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 Old Age and the King of Terrors. 
 
 ILLIAM C. GKAY, LL.D., editor 
 of The Interior, Chicago, from 
 whose amp-Fire Musings I have 
 previously quoted, was a man of 
 splendid powers. By his manner of life he 
 demonstrated as fully as any person possibly 
 could how wisely and naturally old age can be 
 taken on, and how easily the crown can be torn 
 from the brow of the King of Terrors. 
 
 Once I spent an hour with Dr. Gray, only a 
 few months before he closed the affairs of this 
 life. He knew on that bright summer morning 
 that he was marked for an early calling home. 
 But he chatted as cheerfully and as amusingly 
 as though his successful life might be prolonged 
 indefinitely. He was a brave soul. He not 
 
244 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 SO much as cast a hint in any manner that an 
 incurahle aibnent held mastery over him, or 
 that he should soon bid farewell to The Interior 
 and its thousands of readers with whom he had 
 been so pleasantly associated for thirty years. 
 In the Thirty-first Musing, written at eventide, 
 he leaves this message for the consolation of 
 the living: 
 
 "A woodsman brought us a present of a little 
 fawn. We cared for it tenderly, but to-day I 
 found it sleeping, and when I thought to waken 
 it, it slept on. Its slender limbs were cold, and 
 I sought to warm them. Placing my hand to 
 its side, its little heart was fluttering like a 
 bird. Its sleep was deep and painless. Why, 
 even this child of the forest, namieless, aimless, 
 with no higher object in living than to live, is 
 so cared for that its life goes out in peaceful 
 repose* 
 
 "Is this what men call the King of Terrors? 
 Is this drifting away that which men look for- 
 ward to with dread ? For indeed, it shall come 
 to us in no other way than it came to this inno- 
 cent fawn — a fluttering heart, benumbed limbs, 
 fading light, voices, however near, seeming to 
 come from afarj and at last silence and perfect 
 repose. We need not regard death as a person- 
 age of much consequence. Who is he ? No- 
 
MASTEBa OF OLD AGE. 245 
 
 body but the Lord's liveried servant standing 
 at the door to swing it open. There is no more 
 reason why we should fear him than his proto- 
 type at the door of the home of a friend. There 
 we do not think of the usher. We see the light 
 in the broad windows, forms behind the lace 
 curtains, and catch a strain of music, a whiff 
 of flowers, and hear the continuous sound of 
 many voices, and we feel by anticipation the 
 clasp of greeting, and see smiling faces of wel- 
 come. What has the black-plimied porter to do 
 with us but open the door? .... 
 
 "The habit of regarding one's self as yoimg 
 becomes a fixed habit, and it continues until 
 rudely broken by some irresistible evidence 
 that it has outlasted its time. But the convic- 
 tion once admitted to its place, one becomes 
 accustomed to the new situation, and begins to 
 enjoy the prerogatives of old age. There is 
 usually, strange to say, greater confidence in 
 the stability and security of life than when 
 young. This comes of experience. The aging 
 person sees his kindred passing away one by 
 one, his old acquaintances going or gone — and 
 he unconsciously loses the instinctive sense of 
 personal danger. He acquires a feeling of ex- 
 emption from the common fate. Possibly this 
 is providential preparation, so that our last 
 
246 MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 
 
 years may not be marred by fear of that which 
 is inevitable and not distant — ^that clouds and 
 premature darkness and chilly and dismal rains 
 may not overshadow our setting sun. This free- 
 dom from care about death is not the result of 
 an intellectual condition, but only a placid habit 
 of mind. . . . Very few people, as they 
 come near the change, experience any fear of 
 it. Death is a process of nature, and is gradual, 
 gentle, and painless." 
 
 'Eo moralist, whether in ancient or modern 
 times, has dwelt more beautifully, or with more 
 common sense on old age than Cicero. He did 
 not live to be an old man, having been taken 
 off by Mark Antony's soldiers in December, 
 43 B. C. But as the great orator approached 
 his sixtieth year he discussed the subject of old 
 age and death very gracefully in one of his 
 Dialogues. I can find space only for a brief 
 quotation : 
 
 "Spriag represents the time of youth and 
 gives promise of the future fruits ; the remain- 
 ing seasons are intended for plucking and gath- 
 ering in those fruits. IsTow the harvest of old 
 age, as I have often said, is the recollection and 
 abundance of blessings previously secured. In 
 truth everything that happens agreeably to na- 
 ture is to be reckoned among blessings. And 
 
MASTERS OB' OLD AGE. 247 
 
 what is more agreeable to nature as for an old 
 man to die ? Old men die as the exhausted fire 
 goes out, spontaneously, without the exertion of 
 any force ; a state which to me indeed is so de- 
 lightful that the nearer I approach to death, 
 I seem as it were to he getting in sight of land, 
 and at length after a long voyage to he just com- 
 ing into harbor." 
 
 Schiller says that death must be a blessing 
 because it is universal. This is the rational 
 view of it. Dr. Samuel Johnson lived in mor- 
 tal dread of dying, but when he lay on his death- 
 bed in 1784, at the age of seventy-five, his 
 hypochondria, which had bothered him all his 
 life, vanished. The King of Terrors was only 
 a phantom, and the great lexicographer, essay- 
 ist, and poet, fell asleep like a tired child. 
 
 There is much beauty in the sentiment on 
 death expressed by Henry Ward Beecher after 
 he had become what the world calls an old man. 
 Death had no terrors for him, and once he said : 
 
 "When I die, do not place crepe — ^the emblem 
 of gloom — on the house, but rather hang a bas- 
 ket of flowers at the door as an emblem that a 
 soul has passed from death unto life." And 
 again he said: "To me the gate to the grave is 
 the pearly gate. Death, to me, is no slamming 
 door of darkness, behind which sprites gibber 
 
248 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 to frighten men. I abhor all the momiments 
 which represent grief as a child of midnight 
 nursed by sorrows that the night breeds. Dying 
 is translation." 
 
 There is a picture of the character of L. 
 Allen G-ilbert's "Vanity," which, viewed at a 
 distance of three or four yards, has a frightful 
 face, livid and ghastly. But there is a hideous 
 fascination about it that impresses the beholder 
 and draws him closer to it. On approaching 
 the picture, the hideousness disappears, and the 
 face, which at a long view was repulsive, is 
 found to be the face of an angel. It is a pic- 
 ture of death, and the purpose of the artist was 
 to impress the idea that the terror of death is 
 an apprehension. 
 
 Death may not be pleasant in prospect but it 
 should afford us much peace of mind to know 
 that in reality dying has no sting. Physicians 
 who have seen many persons pass out of life, 
 have testified that while some of them have been 
 violently opposed to dying, they never saw one 
 who was afraid of death in the sense of terror or 
 apprehension. 
 
 From a practical point of view we find that 
 death is analogous to sleep. Just as one who is 
 tired by the burden and heat of the day quietly 
 falls asleep at evening time, so one whose life's 
 
UA8TERS OF OLD AGE. 249 
 
 work is well done and whose condition other- 
 wise is normal, peacefully passes into sleep at 
 the close of his earthly day. Among the last 
 words spoken by Frances E. Willard were 
 these : "How beautiful to be with God." And 
 it is recorded that a distinguished physician, 
 when on his deathbed, calmly whispered: "I 
 wish I could hold a pen and write down what 
 a delightful thing it is to die." It is said that 
 it was never intended that a natural death in 
 old age should be anything but peaceful. 
 
 That noted English dramatic writer, Wil- 
 liam Mountford, is beautifully quaint in ex- 
 pressing his view of old age and death. He 
 calls the years of old age, stalls in the cathedral 
 of life in which aged persons can sit and listen 
 and be patient till the service is over, and in 
 which they may get themselves ready to say 
 "Amen," at the last, with all their hearts and 
 souls and strength. 
 
ADDENDUM. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 Advanced Life and the Food Question. 
 
 HE proper study of mankind is what 
 to eat and how to eat it. This is 
 not precisely what Pope said, hut 
 the sentence as written is never- 
 theless correct. 
 
 We eat to live, and what we digest is of more 
 consequence than what we eat. The Bible says, 
 "The life of the flesh is in the blood." Good 
 blood cannot be made without good digestion. 
 Therefore the question of wholesome food and 
 careful feeding is of the highest consequence to 
 persons of all ages, but vitally so to those who 
 have reached the period at which old age is com- 
 monly supposed to begin. 
 
 While the misuse of foods seems to be on the 
 increase in the United States, we are told that 
 
254 MASTERS OF OLD AGS. 
 
 the science of foods and eating has of late years 
 been considerably advanced tbrough. researches 
 made not merely into the compositions of foods, 
 but also concerning the amount of food required 
 to produce a given amount of energy and work- 
 ing power. 
 
 The wisest and oldest physicians in this 
 country are vigorously preaching the gospel of 
 common sense in its relation to eating and 
 drinking. The chapters in this volume which 
 have to do with "How to Live the Simple Life," 
 "The Conservation of Energy in those of Ad- 
 vancing Years," and so on, sharply suggest the 
 practical character of the work being done by 
 these apostles of right living to advance the 
 general health and well being of the people. 
 
 The digestive organs make up the most won- 
 derful of all wonder-working machines. The 
 stomach, in particular, is remarkable in its con- 
 struction. It has a hard task to perform and is 
 long-suffering. But there is a limit to its en- 
 durance of abuse. The common stomach com- 
 plaint which causes so much anxiety and dis- 
 tress is not a disease. It is only a loud cry 
 against loading it to its fullest capacity with ill- 
 assorted and poorly masticated foods. It has 
 been said that three-fourths of all the poor 
 health in the world is due, directly or indirect- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 255 
 
 ly, to the failure of the digestive organs prop- 
 erly to dispose of the food eaten. 
 
 Mr. George P. Brett, President of the Mac- 
 millan Company, "New York, says: "Indeed so" 
 great are these evils of over-feeding and es- 
 pecially the over-indulgence in our modem city 
 life that I have heard an educated and illus- 
 trious foreigner, who frequently visits our 
 eoimtry, refer to it as the land of carrion and 
 cathartics." 
 
 My own experience ia this matter may be of 
 some value to others. Per a long time I was 
 tormented by what seemed to be stomach indi- 
 gestion. I used box after box of digestive rem- 
 edies purchased at drugstores, but relief was 
 only partial, and I kept on eating various foods 
 without an intelligent understanding of their 
 proper relation to each other, or how digestion 
 of different kinds of food was accomplished, and 
 of course the distress was not permanently re- 
 moved. Finally I consulted my physician, 
 Walter Kempster, M.D., who pronounced my 
 ailment intestinal indigestion. He explained 
 the matter to me, prescribed a simple remedy, 
 and told me to beware of foods which contained 
 a large proportion of starch. 
 
 This incident was one of the important 
 turning points in my life. I began to read 
 
256 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 up on foods and digestion. Special attention 
 was given to age in its relation to diet. My 
 mode of eating and drinking was greatly 
 changed. The regimen was simplified and 
 mastication was thorough. Meats were exclud- 
 ed from my dietary, and drinking during meals 
 was abandoned. And from that time to the 
 present there has not been the slightest recur- 
 rence of indigestion in any form. 
 
 Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, the eminent 
 British physiologist, once asked: "Why has 
 America the best dentists?" He answered the 
 question himself by saying : "Because it has the 
 best roller mills; and the better the mills the 
 finer the flour ; and the finer the flour the worse 
 the teeth. Hence, the best dentists." And some- 
 one suggests that Sir Thomas may have truth- 
 fully added: "And finer the flour the more 
 dyspeptics." But it is not so much the fineness 
 of the flour that causes the trouble, as its mis- 
 use. 
 
 The question of food and digestion as they 
 relate to people of advancing years is of supreme 
 importance. From the many persons named 
 in this volume, and also from the careful inves- 
 tigations by physiologists and scientists in 
 America and Great Britain, it is absolutely 
 certain that while a good supply of food is es- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 257 
 
 sential during the period of growth and middle 
 life, a diminished supply, as Sir Henry Thomp- 
 son says, is desirable in relation to health and 
 prolongation of life during the declining years 
 when physical exertion is small, and the digest- 
 ive faculty sometimes becomes less powerful 
 also. The system of supporting aged persons, 
 as it is termed, with increased quantities of food 
 and stimulants, is an error of cardinal iniport- 
 ance. The elderly man who desires to preserve 
 fair health and to attain to longevity should 
 gradually diminish his use of strong nitrogen- 
 ous and much fatty food. 
 
 It may be best to remark right here, that 
 Hutchinson, and other able physiologists, say 
 that women require less food than men, for their 
 bodies are not only as a rule of less weight, but 
 are relatively richer in fat and poorer in muscle 
 than those of men. 
 
 We, who are facing the setting sun, need to 
 know more fully concerning the influence of 
 various forms of food on growth and recuper- 
 ative powers. We ought to be practical in the 
 choice of foods, never fussy nor over-nice. Our 
 appetites, providing they have no bad propensi- 
 ties, should guide us in the matter of eating. 
 There is plenty of time before us so that we can 
 afford to let the teeth and mouth do their full 
 
258 MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 
 
 share of the digestive work. And unless we are 
 equipped with good digestive powers and appe- 
 tites which will not get the better of our judg- 
 ment, there is danger of over-feeding. Sidney 
 Smith once wrote to Lord Murray: "If you 
 wish anything like happiness in the fifth act of 
 life, eat and drink about one-half of what you 
 could eat and drink"; and this creed is well 
 worth taking into our lives. 
 
 There is another matter relative to old age 
 and diet which is of vital concern. The rule 
 is that leanness and longevity go together. This 
 is a law of nature to which there are compar- 
 atively few exceptions. ''The typical man of 
 eighty or ninety years," says Sir Henry Thomp- 
 son, "still retaining a respectable amount of 
 energy of body and mind, is lean and spare, and 
 lives on slender rations. A man of advanced 
 years who is growing thin has little hope of 
 remedying his leanness by diet or patent prep- 
 arations. 
 
 I count myself qualified to speak from per- 
 sonal experience on this point. Within the past 
 six years physical misfortunes from which there 
 seems to be little hope of a permanent recovery, 
 have reduced my weight from one hundred and 
 fifty-three pounds to one hundred and twenty- 
 five pounds. No part of this loss can be re- 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 259 
 
 stored to me by fattening foods or flesh-forming 
 emulsions or tablets. But as I approach three- 
 score and ten, and better comprehend the simple 
 life and what not to eat, and how not to worry, 
 I wouldn't give a nickel a pound for any flesh 
 which, by any artificial means, could be added 
 to my slender body. 
 
 Mrs. Ellen Henrietta Eichards, instructor in 
 sanitary chemistry in the Massachusetts Insti- 
 tute of Technology, is one of the ablest physio- 
 logical chemists in this country. In her special 
 line she has done excellent work for the United 
 States Government, and is the author of sev- 
 eral works on the subject of foods. When I 
 wrote her for an opinion as to what food was 
 best adapted to persons of advancing years, she 
 said: 
 
 "Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
 "Boston, October 20, 1904. 
 "Mt deae Ool. Smith: 
 
 "There is no such thing as a definite dietary 
 for any ten persons, let alone one thousand. 
 What is one man's meat is another's poison. 
 
 "Our only test is in the result, and one may 
 eat food prepared in a certain way with satis- 
 faction, while another will not eat it and will 
 not thrive on it. 
 
260 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 "The simplest way is by expulsion of hearty 
 dishes, of hearty meats, and of puddings and 
 pastry, of strong acids like vinegar, of many 
 kinds of food at one meal. See to it that what- 
 ever food is used it will be well-cooked and sim- 
 ple, that is not many ingredients in one dish 
 but well flavored ; that the quantity is not large 
 at any one meal, and that the meals are frequent 
 if it suits. Ellen H. Eiohaeds." 
 
 In regard to the matter of two or three meals 
 a day, Wilbur Olin Atwater, professor of chem- 
 istry in Wesleyan University, and special agent 
 in charge of the nutrition investigation made 
 by the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
 says: 
 
 "The best physiological evidence implies that 
 moderate quantities of food taken at moderate 
 intervals, are more easily and completely di- 
 gested by ordinary people, than larger quanti- 
 ties taken at longer intervals. If the same 
 amount of food is to be eaten it is hard to see the 
 advantage of two hearty meals over three ordi- 
 nary meals." 
 
 To eat rationally and obtain the best results 
 possible from what we eat, it is important that 
 we should understand the classes into which 
 nature has divided the various foods. A simple 
 statement respecting these divisions will no 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 261 
 
 doubt be helpful to practical people who desire 
 to get the most good from the food they use. 
 
 There are three principal classes of foods — 
 proteids, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteids — 
 which are also designated as proteinous, al- 
 buminous, and nitrogenous foods — include the 
 lean of meats, the white of eggs, nuts, the curd 
 of milk, and the gluten of bread. They are 
 also found in large proportion in fish, game, 
 peas, beans, lentils, and in cereals and a few 
 vegetables. 
 
 The proteids are the most important of all 
 food compounds, because they make blood, 
 muscle, nerve, bone, and renew the waste which 
 is continually going on in the body. They pos- 
 sess a function which cannot be performed by 
 any other foods. Only on them can the health, 
 mental and physical vigor be permanently main- 
 tained. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the stomach 
 is capable of digesting only meats, and animal 
 foods, such as eggs, milk, and cheese. It has 
 little or no power over the starches, sugar, 
 and fats ; and as our daily food is largely com- 
 posed of the latter class, it is said that the stom- 
 ach plays only a small part in digestion. And 
 yet it is one of the most abused organs of the 
 body. 
 
262 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Carbohydrates embrace the sugars, the 
 starches found in abundance in bread, potatoes, 
 rice, sago, tapioca, the various cereals, honey, 
 syrups; and in a moderate quantity in fruits 
 and vegetables. These are valuable foods in 
 that they supply the body with heat and energy, 
 and are also transformed into fat. While the 
 proteids may furnish a certain amount of heat, 
 the carbohydrates, which are burned in the 
 body, cannot make muscle, bone, nor repair 
 waste tissues. Just as coal generates steam for 
 the locomotive, the carbohydrates produce heat 
 and power for the human body. 
 
 It should be understood that all starchy foods 
 are digested by the pancreatic juice and the 
 small intestines; but practically, the digestion 
 begins in the mouth, and for that reason they 
 should be completely masticated. I emphasize 
 this fact because very many of the troubles aris- 
 ing from indigestion are intestinal, and these 
 can be avoided by simply masticating thorough- 
 ly all farinaceous or starchy foods, such as rice, 
 potatoes, sago, bread, and so on, and placing an 
 hygienic limit as to their use. 
 
 Fats do not make blood, bone, nor muscle, 
 but form fatty tissues and serve to develop some 
 heat the same as starches, and like them and a 
 limited portion of the proteids, they are burned 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 263 
 
 in the body. The fats are digested by the bile, 
 aided to some extent by the pancreatic juice. 
 
 To attempt to state definitely what propor- 
 tion of proteids, fats, and carbohydrates should 
 form a dietary for everybody would be foolish 
 for the reason that a combination of foods that 
 would agree with one person might disagree 
 with another. However, physiologists have as- 
 certained by repeated and thorough experiments 
 that as a rule the food should consist of from 
 fifteen to twenty per cent, of proteids and from 
 sixty to seventy-five per cent, of carbohydrates. 
 
 Dr. Hutchinson, an eminent English author- 
 ity, believes that the proportion of animal foods 
 (meat, eggs, milk, fish, game, etc.), to vegetable 
 products, should not be more than one part of 
 the former to three of the latter, for persons 
 approaching old age. But he suggests that even 
 this proportion be gradually reduced in favor of 
 carbohydrates. 
 
 It is an established fact that during the latter 
 third of a person's life the softer foods such as 
 fruit, well cooked cereals, light mixed animal 
 and vegetable soups, and poultry and fish, are 
 particularly valuable and appropriate. 
 
 But after all, there is much truth in the say- 
 ing that every man must learn from his own ex- 
 perience what food agrees with him and what 
 
264 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 does not. Hard and fast rules cannot be laid 
 down for universal adoption. However, some 
 statements of a common sense character can be 
 given which will appeal, I believe, to every man 
 and woman who wishes to obtain the best results 
 from diet during the period of advancing age. 
 
 It stands to reason that every one should eat 
 slowly, masticate the food so completely that it 
 will be reduced to a liquid before it is swal- 
 lowed. Eat too little rather than too much. Do 
 not drink liquids of any kind during the process 
 of eating. 
 
 The highest authorities in medicine, physiol- 
 ogy, and science say that meats — red meat in 
 particular — should be used sparingly, or what 
 is better, should be eliminated from the dietary 
 of the aged. The reason for this is that meat is 
 too hearty a food, having little or no carbo- 
 hydrates. There are many satisfactory and 
 valuable substitutes for meats at reasonable 
 prices in nuts, and various compounds of nuts 
 and milk. There are also excellent soup stocks 
 made from vegetables and nuts. 
 
 Physiological chemistry assures us that 
 legumes — ^peas, beans, and lentils, when dried 
 and well cooked — are more nutritious than beef. 
 The white of eggs contains seventy-eight per 
 cent, of water and twenty per cent, of proteid. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 265 
 
 and the yolk fifty-two per cent, of water, sixteen 
 of proteid, and thirty per cent, of fat. It will 
 be seen, therefore, that eggs are almost a per- 
 fect food; and when they are soft-boiled, or 
 soft-scrambled, or used raw in warm milk, are 
 not difficult to digest. 
 
 Wheat is called the king of grains and its 
 bread the staff of life. The explanation of this 
 is that wheat is said to supply nearly every ele- 
 ment required for the development of the hu- 
 man body. For this reason the bread question 
 is of paramount importance to persons whether 
 young or old. 
 
 Chemical experiments made by the United 
 States Agricultural Department relative to the 
 nutritive value and digestibility of the various 
 breads in common use show that the digestibility 
 of white bread averages 93.37 per cent. ; whole 
 wheat bread 91.50 per cent. ; and graham bread 
 86.94 per cent. Experiments also reveal the 
 fact that bread eaten with milk has its digesti- 
 bility increased about fifteen per cent. 
 
 Professor Atwater gives the nutritive value 
 of white bread at 9.2 per cent and whole wheat 
 at 9.7, while the same flour transformed into 
 breakfast food has a nutritive value of 12.1 
 per cent. 
 
 It is conceded by all physiologists and hygien- 
 
266 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ists that the starch of toast is more readily di- 
 gested than the starch of bread, which accounts 
 for the fact that zwieback — bread twice baked — 
 holds such a high place in the dietary of those 
 who require a palatable and an easily digested 
 form of bread. Bread, raised with yeast, is far 
 more healthful and digestible when stale, than 
 when fresh; and whole wheat bread is more 
 laxative than the white. 
 
 In many matters pertaining to diet every per- 
 son who is reasonably well informed touching 
 the principles of hygiene, and is captain of his 
 palate, must be a law unto himself. It must be 
 stated, however, that there are some command- 
 ments which ought not to be broken. 
 
 Vegetables and fruit should not be eaten at 
 the same nieal. They are incompatible and 
 usually cause indigestion. 
 
 It is not rational to use nuts in "topping off" 
 a meal at which meat is eaten, because they are 
 a highly concentrated food, and therefore are 
 too hearty for such a purpose. The nourishing 
 value of many nuts is much greater than any 
 kind of meat. 
 
 Use as few fried foods as possible. In most 
 cases they are an abomination. The frying- 
 pan, as too often employed, is a menace to fam- 
 ily health. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 267 
 
 A liberal quantity of fruit, either fresh or 
 stewed, and not too acid, should be eaten at 
 breakfast and supper, preferably, of course, at 
 the beginning of the meal — ^with whole wheat or 
 brown bread — ^for the plain reason that the 
 lighter and more easily digested foods should 
 first enter the stomach. A few writers on cook- 
 ery have the peculiar notion that fruit should 
 come last at a meal, but they do not explain why. 
 
 Beware of sour pickles and strong condi- 
 ments, such as spices, mustard, and vinegar. 
 There is no health in them. 
 
 Never add sugar to milk or cream in eating 
 cereal foods. To disobey this injunction is to 
 waste good material and cause more or less fer- 
 mentation in the stomach. 
 
 Do not drench the stomach with hot or very 
 cold drinks at meal time as they retard diges- 
 tion. Washing down food with any kind of 
 drink is pernicious. 
 
 The drinking of tea and coffee should be done 
 sparingly, and never while eating. There is no 
 food element in these drinks. Analyses show 
 that whatever of nutrients may be found in the 
 genuine or cereal coffee grain, they disappear 
 almost entirely in the beverage. There is no 
 doubt that it would be far better for the diges- 
 tion and nervous system of most persons well 
 
268 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 advanced in life, if milk in some form, or the 
 better grades of cereal compounds, were used as 
 a substitute for genuine tea and coffee. 
 
 Our diet should be as simple as possible, yet 
 wholesome. We should not eat much fat. That 
 which is found in nuts and butter and cream, is 
 abundant. Rich food in the form of pies and 
 cakes, should be avoided. There is no food 
 value in them, but much harm. 
 
 Elderly persons — or persons irrespective of 
 age — for that matter — ^who are constipated, 
 should strictly observe certain rules pertaining 
 to diet and drink. Laxatives or cathartics can- 
 not alone cure constipation. Unless disease has 
 attacked the bowels — atnd this does not fre- 
 quently occur — food, water, and exercise will 
 effect a cure in almost every case. For years I 
 was afflicted with habitual constipation which 
 was unusually severe. Pills, massage, enema, 
 and all other so-called constipation cures were 
 of no avail, except to afford temporary relief. 
 
 When heavily burdened by the ill-effects and 
 obstinacy of my trouble, and almost disheart- 
 ened, I began to "read up" on foods and drinks 
 as they relate to constipation, and the result 
 was hardly less than marvellous. In the 
 course of two months I was cured, and I think 
 I can coniidently say that the cure is permanent. 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 269 
 
 I began by drinking two glasses of water, of 
 moderate temperature, half an hour before 
 breakfast, two in the middle of the forenoon, 
 and two in the afternoon. For breakfast, I ate 
 plenty of stewed fruit — usually prunes — with 
 whole wheat or Boston brown bread, followed by 
 one of the easily digested and nourishing 
 cereals. Supper was much the same except that 
 occasionally I added a soft boiled or scrambled 
 egg. For dinner, I used vegetable soup, a few 
 nuts, but chiefly nut compounds — of which 
 there are several valuable ones — and these took 
 the place of meat. I ate very few potatoes for 
 the reason that they contain much starch. I 
 made a pretty free use of succulent vegetables, 
 but taking only one kind at a meal. Whole 
 wheat or coarse brown bread was used, and 
 pastry discarded. The food was masticated to 
 a liquid. In the meantime I gradually reduced 
 the quantity of laxatives, and in eight weeks 
 was able to discontinue their Use altogether. 
 
 I still continue the simple, but nourishing 
 diet, and, in yielding real enjoyment, every 
 meal is as good as a feast. 
 
 Eminent physiologists agree that the follow- 
 ing foods should be used for the relief of con- 
 stipation, especially when the trouble is asso- 
 ciated with advancing years : Coarse brown or 
 
270 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 whole wheat bread, shredded wheat, toasted 
 wheat or corn flakes; fresh green vegetables — 
 particularly spinach, Spanish onions, asparagus, 
 lettuce, rhubarb; prunes, figs, apples, peaches, 
 berries ; buttermilk, applecider ; honey ; English 
 walnuts and almonds. Water should be used in 
 abundance, but not during a meal. 
 
 Poods to be avoided in cases of constipation 
 are : Hearty meats, eggs — specifically, if hard 
 boiled or fried; milk; pastry and puddings 
 made of starchy foods, as rice, sago, and tapi- 
 oca ; fried foods and rich gravies ; cheese ; fresh 
 white bread; pickles and other strong condi- 
 ments ; and tea. 
 
 During the past few years an amazing variety 
 of prepared breakfast foods has been thrown on 
 the market. Some of them are compounds and 
 others consist of the pure grains. As these 
 cereal foods occupy an important place in the 
 dietary of many people, a table giving the chief 
 component parts of some which are best known, 
 with a comparison of their food value with that 
 of beef, will be of interest. These analyses were 
 made at the United States Experiment Station 
 of the Iowa College, and by Professor Atwater, 
 to whose work for the Department of Agricul- 
 ture, I have already referred : 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AQE. 271 
 
 AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF SOME COMMON 
 FOODS. 
 
 Carbohy- 
 
 Water. Proteid. Fat. drates. 
 
 Porterhouse steak. . . 52.4 19.1 17.9 
 
 Sirloin steak 54.0 16.5 16.1 
 
 Round steak 62.5 19.2 9.2 
 
 Granose flakes 5.84 13.64 1.65 72.73 
 
 Malta Vita 4.78 13.20 1.60 73.17 
 
 Wheat breakfast food 9.6 12.1 1.8 75.1 
 
 Oat breakfast food... 7.7 16.7 7.3 66.2 
 
 Corn meal 12.5 9.2 1.9 75.4 
 
 Force 5.57 12.20 .87 75.72 
 
 Vim 7.23 14.91 1.75 70.07 
 
 Egg-0-See 6.56 12.32 1.29 74.51 
 
 Grape-Nuts 3.06 12.63 .85 79.23 
 
 Granola 5.63 14.56 .96 75.75 
 
 Malt breakfast food.. 8.95 16.14 1.44 69.03 
 
 Shredded whole wheat 6.26 16.27 1.43 70.98 
 
 Apitezo 2.82 21.10 .28 71.99 
 
 This table shows that most of these grain 
 foods contain a very satisfactory nutritive value 
 as compared with beef. The foods also afford a 
 pleasing variety in our dietary system, and usu- 
 ally contain more available nutriment and en- 
 ergy than the same wheat or other grains, made 
 into bread. 
 
 Thus, in a brief space, I have given the basic 
 principles of hygienic living for those who have 
 left the greater part of the expectation of life be- 
 hind them. It is for them to decide whether or 
 not their lives shall be guided by these prin- 
 ciples. 
 
272 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Shall those of us who are nearing the ripeness 
 of age think more of preserving the soundness 
 of our digestive organs, than of the vulgar busi- 
 ness of pleasing the palate? Shall we strive 
 to possess an intelligent understanding of the 
 nature and use of foods which are most service- 
 able in maintaining mental and physical activ- 
 ity ? Can we determine "not to touch, taste, or 
 handle either food or drink that will prove in- 
 jurious to the perfect circulation of the blood ?" 
 Can we add to these virtues contented, busy, 
 hopeful lives ? If we do these things, then much 
 will be done to prolong our days beyond the 
 limit which the Psalmist says constitutes the 
 natural age of man. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
GEE^EKAL INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 A Group of Young Old Men - - - - - 136 
 
 Abbott, Lyman - 106 
 
 Advanced Life and the Food Question 2S3 
 
 Adams, John Quiucy 96 
 
 Age in Relation to Mental Activity - 14 
 
 Aiken, "Aunt Lizzie" 33 
 
 Angell, President James B. - - 123 
 
 Anthony, Susan B. - - 199 
 
 Ames, Mary Clemmer 178 
 
 Art of Living, The - - ... 191 
 
 At Evening Time it Shall be Light - - 175 
 
 Atwater, W. O. - 260, 265, 270 
 
 B 
 
 Bacon, Leonard W. - - 72 
 
 Bailey, Philip James ... 70 
 
 Bancroft, George - ... 19 
 
 Beans, Food Value of - - - - 264 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward - - 247 
 
 Benton, Thomas H. - - - 82 
 
 Beatitude of Old Age, The - - 234 
 
 Blaine, James G. - - - 96 
 
 Bread, its Digestibility .... 265 
 
274 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Booth, General William 
 
 
 29 
 
 Brett, George P. 
 
 
 255 
 
 Brooks, Phillips - - 
 
 
 109 
 
 Burden, the Eev. J. S. 
 
 
 12 
 
 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness 
 
 
 238 
 
 Brunton, Sir Thomas L. 
 
 
 256 
 
 Bryant, William CuUen 
 
 17, 
 
 143 
 
 C 
 "Can We Spare the Old Men?" 
 
 
 25 
 
 Canfield, James Hulme - 
 
 
 37 
 
 Carbohydrates Explained 
 
 261, 
 
 262 
 
 Centenarians (men) 
 
 
 148 
 
 Centenarians (women) 
 
 - 
 
 166 
 
 Centenarians, Statistics Relative to 
 
 
 166 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas 
 
 14, 
 
 15 
 
 Colfax, Harriet E. 
 
 - 
 
 7 
 
 Cicero on Old Age and Death - 
 
 
 246 
 
 Cogswell, Superintendent Francis 
 
 
 119 
 
 CoUyer, Kobert, on Cheerfulness 
 
 
 182 
 
 Conkey, Mrs. Theodore 
 
 
 73 
 
 Cooper, Peter 
 
 
 158 
 
 Conserving the Energy of Elderly People 
 
 
 220 
 
 Cornaro on Old Age and Diet 
 
 
 159 
 
 Cramer, William E. 
 
 . . . 
 
 98 
 
 Cuyler, Theodore L. 
 
 28, 
 
 43 
 
 D 
 
 Dana, Richard Henry 
 
 . 
 
 50 
 
 Darwin, Charles R. - - - - - 
 
 - 
 
 16 
 
 Davis, Henry G. 
 
 - - 
 
 125 
 
 Davis, Dr. Nathan S. - 
 
 
 200 
 
 Dead Line Dictum Rebuked 
 
 
 119 
 
 Dewey, Admiral George 
 
 
 132 
 
 Dean, Fannie 
 
 
 184 
 
 Donovan, Judge Anthony 
 
 
 77 
 
 Dryden, John F. 
 
 
 198 
 
MABTERa OF OLD AQE. 275 
 
 E 
 
 Food Value of - - - - - 264 
 
 Eliot, President Charles W. 123 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo - ----- 4, 95, 235 
 
 F 
 
 Fats, as a food - .... . . . 261 
 
 Ferguson, Adam - - - - - - - - 51 
 
 Field, Judge Charles 240 
 
 Field, Henry M. - - - - - 40 
 
 "Financial Chronicle," The, quoted .... 76 
 
 Fitz Gerald, W. G. - - - - - 12 
 
 Fletcher, Horace 164 
 
 Food for the Aged 259 
 
 Foods, Analyses of - 271 
 
 Foods, Classification of - - - - - 261 
 
 French, Dr, John M. - - - - - 158, 222 
 
 G 
 
 Gibbs, Oliver W. 98 
 
 Gilbert, L. Allen 248 
 
 Gilbert, Mrs. George H. 237 
 
 Gladstone's Achievement in Old Age - - - - 84 
 
 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 21 
 
 Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" quoted - - - 205 
 
 "Good Health," quoted 211 
 
 Grant's Last and Greatest Victory 202 
 
 Gray, George E. 113 
 
 Gray, William C. 64, 243 
 
 Growing Old Cheerfully 57 
 
 "Growing Old and Keeping Young" 43 
 
 H 
 
 Hale, Edward Everett ... - - 40, 236 
 
 Halsbury, Lord 34 
 
 Hanna, Marcus A. - - - - - - - 16 
 
 Hapgood, Norman - - - - 60 
 
 Haswell, Charles H. - - - 110 
 
276 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 ^Haughery, Margaret 106 
 
 Hawthorne, Julian ... . - 2 
 
 Hay, John - - - - 132 
 
 "Health Culture," quoted 209 
 
 Hillis, N. Dwight . . - 105 
 
 Hoar, George F. - - - - - 189 
 
 Hogarth, William - - - - - 38 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell - - 17, 60, 71, 187, 235 
 
 Hood, Thomas - - 110 
 
 ^Hooker, Isabella B. - - - - 240 
 
 Hooker, Sir Joseph D. - 10 
 
 Hopper, Professor Zephaniah - - 122 
 
 Hoppin, Professor James M. - - - - 97 
 
 ^Howe, Julia Ward - - 240 
 
 Howells, W. D. 195 
 
 How to Live the Simple Life - - - - - 228 
 
 Hugo, Victor 21 
 
 Humboldt, Alexander von - .... 20, 196 
 
 Humphrey, Hannah B. - .... . . 4 
 
 Humphry, Dr. George M. 207 
 
 Huntington, Adoniram J. - . . 36 
 
 Huntington, Daniel ... - .... 130 
 
 Huxley, Thomas H. ... 72 
 
 Hutchinson, Dr. Robert 257, 263 
 
 Hyde, James F. 32 
 
 "Independent," The, quoted 25, 26 
 
 Irving, Washington 18 
 
 Ives, Gteorge 5 
 
 J 
 
 Johnson, Eastman ... 130 
 
 Johnson, Lizzie -- ... 135 
 
 Johnson, Samuel . - . 180, 247 
 
 K 
 
 Kamoo, Abrey 75 
 
 Kellogg, Dr. John H. 150, 211 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 277 
 
 "Keep on the Sunny Side of the Street" - - 182 
 
 Kelvin, Lord .... 133, 134, I86 
 
 Kempster, Dr. Walter 255 
 
 King Christian -... 131 
 
 King of Terrors, The - - - 243 
 
 King, Thomas Starr ... 193 
 
 L 
 
 Latson, Dr. W. R. C. - 209 
 
 Leader, Benjamin W. -- 175 
 
 Leslie, Preston H. 7 
 
 "Leslie's Weekly," quoted 148 
 
 Longfellow, Henry W. - - 16 
 
 Longevity, Characteristics of - - - 207 
 
 Longevity, Conditions for - - 213 
 
 Longevity and Intellectual Work - - - 91 
 
 Longevity in the United States 220 
 
 • Lowe, Mrs. and Mrs. John - - - 241 
 
 Lowell, James Russell - - - - - 67 
 
 Lubhock, Former Governor Francis R. - 36 
 
 Lumbard, Jules 78 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay, Thomas Babington - . - - 16 
 
 Macdonald, George - . . 115, 242 
 
 Matthews, the Rev. Andrew 93 
 
 McCoy, the Rev. John 8 
 
 McCoy, John ..... . 8 
 
 Macmillan, Hugh 105 
 
 Meats, Substitutes for - - - ... 264 
 
 Mills, Darius O. 128 
 
 Milton's Sonnet to Cyrica Skinner - - 9 
 
 Mitchell, Dr. 8. Weir - - - - - 23 
 
 "Modern Methuselahs" - - 61 
 
 Mommsen, Professor Theodor - - - - - 3, 4 
 
 Morrill, Justin S. 30, 226 
 
 Morris, Professor Edward D. - • - - - - 237 
 
278 MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Morris, Thomas A. 112 
 
 Montfort, the Rev. Joseph G. ... - - - 97 
 
 Mountford, William 249 
 
 MOUer, Max -- .-- 13 
 
 N 
 
 Never too Old to Learn - - - - - 71 
 
 Nuts, Food Value of - - - - - 264 
 
 o 
 
 Octogenarians in the United States - - 220 
 
 Old Age a Beatitude - - - - 234 
 
 Old Age and Cheerfulness - - - 57 
 
 Old Age and Food - - - - - - - 259 
 
 Old Age and Leanness 258 
 
 Old Age, Two Views of 39 
 
 Old at Fifty— Young at Eighty 50 
 
 "Ought We Never to be Sick?" - - - 101 
 
 "Outlook," The, quoted - - - 67, 237 
 
 W 
 
 Palmer, President Henry L. - 128 
 
 Parker, Theodore - - - - - 191, 196 
 
 Pearsons, Dr. D. K. 189 
 
 Proctor, Richard A. 163, 217 
 
 Proteids, their value as food ^ - 261 
 
 R 
 
 Reid, Alexander J. - - - 73 
 
 Richards, Ellen H. - - 72, 116 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore - - - 82 
 
 Rufeland, Dr. Christof W. 232 
 
 s 
 
 Sage, Russell .... 127 
 
 Schercschewsky, Bishop ,..., .. jq 
 
 Scott, Dr. James - - - - - - 177 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter - 14, 180 
 
MASTERS OF OLD AGE. 279 
 
 Smith, Sidney 258 
 
 Somerville, Mary 22 
 
 Spencer, Herbert 9 
 
 "Staying in Harness" 1 
 
 Storrs, the Eev. K. S. - - - 197 
 
 Sunday School Times, quoted - - .... 103 
 
 T 
 
 Talleyrand, Charles Maurice de - - - - 177 
 
 Taylor, Dr. John Madison 222 
 
 Tellemache's Talks with Gladstone 86 
 
 Tenniel, Sir John 130 
 
 Thompson, Sir Henry 221, 257, 258 
 
 Thomson, Sir William 133 
 
 Three Distinguished Engineers 110 
 
 The Beatitude of Old Age 234 
 
 Thoreau, Henry D. - - - - - - - - 79 
 
 "Three-score and Ten" 238 
 
 Tracy, Dr. Koger Sherman 228 
 
 The Last Years of the "Grand Old Man" ... - 84 
 
 "Tribune," the Chicago, quoted 31 
 
 "Tribune," the New York, quoted .... 136, 234 
 
 Trollope, Frances M. 19 
 
 Truex, Hannah W. 6 
 
 Trumbull, Henry Clay 101 
 
 u 
 
 Ueber, Professor John 121 
 
 V 
 
 Van Alstyne, Frances Jane C. 240 
 
 Vanderbilt, Commodore 240 
 
 w 
 
 Walsh, James J. 91 
 
 Wanaraaker, John ... 102 
 
 Watts, George Frederick . - - 52 
 
 Watt, James 179 
 
 Weber, Sir Hermann 213, 216 
 
280 MASTERS OF OLD AOE. 
 
 Wesley, John 92 
 
 Weston, President Henry G. 54 
 
 When is a Man Too Old? 125 
 
 Whittier, John G. - 234 
 
 Whitney, Adeline D. T. 36, 240 
 
 Whyte, Former Governor W. P. 129 
 
 Wiley, Professor H. W. 218 
 
 Willard, Frances E. 80, 249 
 
 Williams, Archbishop John J. 35 
 
 "World," the New York, quoted 125 
 
 Wyatt, Edith Franklin 187 
 
 V 
 
 Young Old Men 136 
 
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