Show ila i la st the U el lintur M 0 ct JL M k ax I 1 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON cp C p N it E I 1 T weeks necks a for p c eign agi vi visitor aitor to our shores afi alij aj has as attracted considerable isasi 19 attention n by tits his claims to being years leara old lie ile Is zaro agha who halls from who has many interesting ree of events which took place over a century ngo ile he elal lealma ms tint 11 when lio lie was as 20 years old lie he heard tile the ne news w 8 of the execution of louis XVI XV al and id marle antoinette of Fr fiance alice 11 UK 1 1 that lie served us as a soldier in the T army lu in 1708 when the turks successfully barred the march of napoleon from egypt through palestine toward india D during a ring ills his visit to parts paris before com coming ing to the united states it ft was as reported that lie had no clai documents with stamps or seals to prove his unusual age but upon hlf his arriva I 1 at providence R I 1 last july lie he w was am photographed exhibiting tits his birth certificate which Is dated february 16 1774 11 As a result of the publicity which this venerable turk has received some even more remarkable I 1 cases of longevity have been reported one Is a chinaman for whom on tile tho claim of being years vears old has been set forth another Is ivan pros luniak a russian peasant who Is claimed to be and Is said to have been last year by henri barbusse the french author in the course of a long trip through the ural mountains in russia al barbusse Is reported to have declared that ivan Is an even better preserved specimen of humanity than zaro agha ivan ian lias has all tits hla teeth eats goulash peppered with powerful spices and chews tobacco while zaro can only manage milk and goats cheese for ills diet but the prize winner so far Is an biller chinaman if we HO are to bel believe eve the following story which appeared in tl the io new york world recently that lively young man from turkey k ey zaro agha mio claims a mere years jears of life must surrender his longevity laurels without a struggle it the life story of lt LI Chung yun iun whose famel fame reaches these shores from far off china la Is ever authenticated for lt LI claims to have entered this wo world ald years ago and grown to the pr dilme ile of manhood 00 90 years sears before zaro wa was 9 given ills his first nursing bottle nor does lt LI concede a thing to the playboy of istanbul in the matter of matrimonial prowess lie ile claims to have burled buried 23 wives before taking tits his twenty fourth bride while zaro led but 11 to the altar one record young mr agha may be welcome elcome to retain as fur far as lt li Is concerned the turks claim to be the only man alive who has survived years without a single drink stronger tt ronger than th a u goats milk to sustain him Is not challenged by the year old chinaman lie ile has never kept track of how much rice wine he be may have consumed in the last two end and a half centuries but lt LI like zaro does confine himself to his own particular diet and the I 1 tem item in it which he attributes his hardihood Is ginseng root lest any reader be incredulous of lis age let us hasten to te add that it Is vouched couched tor for by that eminent scholar general pel pat fu who also qualifies quail fles as a full hedged fledged ex war lord having captured helping after the custom of great military figures in his native land and having once brought all north china under tits his sway fu occasionally casio caslo nally takes his pen la in hand according to pu fu at whose home the venerable lt LI lived for some time the latter Is an educated man and still possesses a mind in fact he recently delivered a series of lectures tit at the university of on the art of life in general with particular emphasis on how to get the most ut lit of each century LI ILI who eats nothing but herbs disbelieves strongly in any form of strenuous exercise golf is the shortest wa way y to a short life lie told one of bis nud audiences lences when lie was he added he himself tried half nn an hour of tennis which lie regrets to this day dai feeling that it shortened tits ills life span epan rit nt least a decade A life of harmony in spirit and soul la Is the essence of f tits ills tencil teaching lug prof wu u cluing caleb dean of the department of education at university has learned it Is reported oh hel aaro ro agha ha that years ago lt LI received official felicitations feli citations from the chinese government on the occasion of his 0 ono aa ilu hundred adred fiftieth birthday and t that I 1 I 1 at again in 1877 the government congratulated him on passing the year mark ile he Is further reported to have found records showing that lt LI was b born orn in 1677 11 such are tile the reports which have been widely published in ili our new newspapers spa during past months mont lis but they have also resulted in discussions in other publications Icat ions which tend to discredit these stories and bring the weight of scientific testimony to bear out the belief that none ol of mentioned are anywhere near the aga claimed tor for them recently the new york world expressed its doubt that zaro agha was years old and quoted the chief actuary of the new naw york life insurance company to the effect that no authentic record exists of a human life longer than years centenarians Centen arians are and have always been extremely scarce there were only slightly more than people in the united states in the last census en who claimed to have leave attained that age but it Is significant that ot of this number almost were negroes close to 2000 negro women said they were years jears old or over although negro females form only 5 per cent of the total population they give tile the country halt half its centenarians centen arians I 1 on its face such a situation Is highly improbable and while we are not questioning tho the honesty of those who make inake the claim we strongly suspect that in the great majority of cases they are mis mistaken as to the exact number of years they have lived many of the old negro people are illiterate Jit erate and nearly nil all of theu thena lack authentic records giving the data of their birth in tact fact we find that wherever records are absent centenarians centen arians rise up and nourish flourish turkey and the balkans have long been a happy hunting ground for centenarians centen arians in spite of the fact that conditions of life are very hai hadd d and public health standards are exceedingly low the claims to extreme old age are nearly always appealing fictions rn in my opinion authentic centenari ans are so few in america that they can be counted on the fingers of ones two hands perhaps most int interesting er esting of all authentic centenarians centen cente narla arians us which this country has ever known was cornelius cole in 1822 1922 the new york ti times mes printed an interview with him in which he Is described thus in 1847 young cornelius cole then twenty tour four years old received his degree of bachelor of arts from wesleyan university A short time later came rumors of the gold ilis discovery covery in Calik california ornia and with a haf dozen boien friends frienda he st set out to make his fortune in 1022 1922 cornelius cole sole survivor of ills his class preparing to celebrate tits his hundredth birthday on ion september 17 received an invitation from his altna alma mater to come to middletown dle town conn and receive an honorary LL D in spite of opposition from friends and members of his family who alio thought the journey too arduous tor for a centenarian he came bringing with him recollections which went back to the thrilling days of and an active legal life that included a friendship with lincoln a place in both houses of congress an interesting part in the purchase of alaska to say nothing of a live interests in events of today cornelius cole centenarian former senator from california and native of seneca county new york seems scarcely more than 75 ilia face Is sun browned and unwrinkled lie ile la is active and robust and will sooner offer ills his arm aim to a woman when crossing a mean 11 spot pot in n the road than to think of taking hers ills memory la Is surprising hla his outlook young and ills hla comments when a not 0 t serious are colored 0 red by a sense of li humor u mor that a man half ills his age might envy ex senator cole died november 3 1024 at the age of the record in ills case anso la is clear but considering the fact that it would vo ild have been easy enough to check up on the facts it seems remarkable that in ili 1921 1924 1 many newspapers printed tile tho picture of maj edward james mouroe monroe son or of the fifth president of tile tho united states who Is feeling it fit at tile age of the only with tills this story la Is that president monroe had two daughters but no son I 1 stories of persons who claim to have lived more than years tire are nui numerous nerous but few oathee of thee these cases will stand up under rigid investigation ac to jaines A toby writing wilting la in a recent issue of tile the scientific american who says that the age of a very old person seems to be one of the matters most susceptible to deviation from the truth tor for memories ore are usually a ily hazy in the extremely old and the relatives friends and neighbors of these patriarchs seem always ready to exaggerate their antiquity lie he then cites numerous examples of longevity which proved to be greatly exaggerated A few years ago a kentuckian named john shell shelf received considerable notoriety as bel being n 9 years of age hut but a somewhat searching inquiry revealed him to be not more than it if ahe he were aen even that in 1904 1004 a russian newspaper calmly reported the death at the advanced age of of a woman named thereso therese abalia another russian newspaper in 1028 1926 was more moie modest for it allotted only years to ivan kretya a peasant of A hungarian farmer peter bortay or torton exceeded them all for lie he was supposed to lune have been when lie ho died in 1721 as was also st Mon agli whose death occurred in 1781 some months ago barbusse tile the french author anthor recounted ills his visit in georgia in to nikolai andreae Shap kovsky who was reputed to be between and one of the most famous of the very aged persons of history was old parr who was said to have been born in england in 1483 and to have died there in 1035 1635 lie ile was working as a farm laborer at the ago age of when an interested nobleman tile earl of Aru arundel naci took him to london find and put him on exhibition where lie he died a short time later john taylor known as the water poet got out a book called the olde olde very olde man in which lie extolled tills this long life in prose and verse thomas parr was said to have been married at and after the suitable interval to have become the father of a child when lie died in 1033 1635 tile the celebrated william harvey discoverer of the circulation of the blood performed an autopsy on him ond and found tits his general condition good though the brain cells were somewhat worn A reprint of 0 taylors book was iss issued ed by james Can caulfield cansfield ifield of london in 17 1704 04 old parrs unusual age was waa accepted until 1873 when W J thorns thoms deputy librarian of the house of lords lorda made a real investigation of the case and concluded chrit about fifty years had been improperly tacked on to to actual ca lire life of parr the gentleman was wag a real centenarian but little more than that mr thorns thoms also exposed two other notorious long lifers A certain countess of deamond was credited with years but the doubting librarian showed that the ages of two separate countesses count esses of the same name had been added together instead of ono one person living to years two women had each lived about 70 A writer familiar with mr air thorns thoms iconoclasm on this subject a john B nalley balley wrote a book in 1888 which lie he called Alo modern dern and in it lie ho cited a number of instances of well known centenarians centen arians ile he began with st anthony who was said to have lived to but most of his other examples such as the emperor of the fourteenth century aletho cornaro titian de fontenelle and amory were only DO or the author however did list a dozen cases which lie he believed to have been actually years old or more Q by 4 western newspaper Nw paper union |