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Show LIVE PAST CENTURY MARK Many Persons of All Sorts Who Have Reached Extreme Longevity. Ever Hlnce the days of tho numy-centurlcd pcrtrlnrrlm mankind lmn evinced great Interest Inter-est In thono who hav passed the usual limits lim-its of life. Tho disposition to calculate anil cpeculato us to centeuarlana In shown by the estimate that a man who lives to bo CO yeara old hus spent tvcn monthu in buttonlnc hlg shirt collar. Perhaps even such a speculation specula-tion Is, on tlio whole, about us valunblu us somo of the maxims nnd rules lnKl down by Ihone who havo passed the century mark Still, notwithstanding Jocular, estimates und the contradictory maxims of the centenarians themselves, thu Interest of the many In these veterans In the army ot life Is undeniable nnd lucrtrnsei! rather than diminished with tho years. Men like. Profa. Loeb nnd Burke are studying In the laboratory the' origin of llfo, but there hav probably never beforo been so many Intelligent persons who nclzed with avidity upon every plausible plan or ruhs to prolong life. ma prediction is ircquenuy maue mat tne ordinary mortal tmn will eventually be to lengthened that man will bo at his 1ohi from TO lo 100, and that those who die nt leis than the latter ago will bo deemed guilty of culpablo negligence. Some find the secret In a return to what they call tho natural ulmple life of thu patriarch pa-triarch of Scripture and would havo us grind between rude stones the grain for our dally food. Somo assert that In uncooked foods lies the road leadlnir to tho century gate, whllo others would have us llvo as we pleuco and tako no thought of long llfo aa tho surest menus of reaching It. No rules or maxims cro too absurd to havo their followers fol-lowers nnd tho tne conclusion that may pafc-ly pafc-ly bo adduced Is that the majority of people would gladly live long provided tho usual Infirmities In-firmities ot nro could bo avoided. Whether tho old world with Its ncttlod ways nnd llfo ordered by centuries of precedent, or the now world, with Its different climatic and governmental, agricultural and Industlral conditions. In conducive to the greater longevity remains a mooted question. Certainly many fem to have found, If not tlio rountaln of youth, at least tho fountain ot yearn In tho new world. Indians In California nnd Mexico arc credibly lto, nnd at Ilnluca, Mexico, a few years ngJ lived a man whose claim to be 19J did not. perhaps, rcqulro a discount of more than 33 1-2 per cent. Tlint Now York, , the busiest clly on the continent. Is not Unfavorable to lonrevlty Is Bhown In tho Inrge list of centcnarlnns It ha numbered among Its citizens, while a. popular saying In the Connecticut valley Is that the Inhabitants never die, but dry - up nnd blow n way. On tha other hand. It must be admitted that many centenarians of tho new world wore born In Europe. In the obituary columnn of I he london Times one dny a few years ago Iwonty-thrco deaths wero recorded, and tho united ages of ceventccn ot thoso long-lived Individuals amounted to 133D years, or an average of nearly 70. Ireland has furnished a liberal list of centenarians, Including not only persons whj lived nud died In tho Emerald Em-erald Iblc, but niso a goodly number who emigrated to America nnd helped to swell th records of lonrevlty In the now world. Tho chances for living to be 100, therefore, seem to bo equally divided between men and women, wom-en, which poems to be only equltnble. That, at least. Is ono comfortable reflection In regard re-gard to ccntenarlanlm, because It Is of. gon-eral gon-eral application and refers tho question of years to tho personal equation, New York Tribune.' |