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Show Past the Centorjr ?w -4 n2? 'i - y P vWv f I . h . v Jv IN i ;. f va Sf.l seems scarcely more than 75. His face " ' " spy '4 'N.'s-s-rV: ' .v;!U is sun browned and unwrinkled. He Is ifcUifre l5 ' ?; ti acthe and robust and w.ll sooner csn.eii I ing a mean snot tne road tl,an t0 T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON C-p N RECENT weeks a for-rT for-rT eign visitor to our shores .iTy i has attracted considerable r?6 r attention by his claims to Q being 156 years old. He is 5J$ ZaroAgha, who hails from fell ' fl Istambul, Turkey, and who has many Interesting recollections rec-ollections of events.which took place over a century ago. He claims that when he was 20 years old he heard the news of the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France, and that he served as a soldier In the Turkish army in 1798 when the Turks successfully barred the march of Napoleon Na-poleon from Egypt through Palestine toward India. During his visit to Paris, before coming to the United States, It was reported that he had "no official documents docu-ments with stamps or seals to p,rove his unusual age," but upon his arrival ar-rival at Providence, R. I., last July he was photographed "exhibiting his birth certificate which is dated February Feb-ruary 16, 1774." As a result of the publicity which this venerable Turk has received, some even more remarkable remark-able cases of longevity have been reported. re-ported. One is a Chinaman, for whom the claim of being 163 years old has been set forth. Another is Ivan Pros-kuniak, Pros-kuniak, a Russian peasant, who Is claimed to tie 170 and Is said to have been discovered last year by Henri Earbusse, the French author, in the course of a long trip through the Ural mountains in Russia. M. Barbusse is reported to have declared that "Ivan Proskuniak is an even better preserved pre-served specimen of humanity than Zaro Agha. Ivan has all his teeth, eats goulash peppered with powerful spices and chews tobacco, while Zaro can only manage milk and goat's cheese for his diet." But the prize winner so far is another an-other Chinaman if we are to believe the following story which appeared In the New York World recently: "That lively young man from Turkey, Tur-key, Zaro Agha, who claims a mere 156 years of life, must surrender his longevity laurels without a struggle if the life story of LI Chung-yun, whose fame reaches these shores from far off China, is ever authenticated. For Li claims to have entered this world 252 years ago and grown to the prime of manhood 06 years before Zaro was given his first nursing bottle. bot-tle. Nor does Li concede a thing to the playboy of Istambul in the matter of matrimonial prowess. He claims to have burled 23 wives before taking his twenty-fourth bride, while Zaro led but 11 to the altar. "One record young Mr. Agha may be welcome to retain as far as LI Is concerned: con-cerned: the Turk's claim to be the only man alive who has survived 156 years without a single drink stronger than goat's milk to sustain him Is not challenged by the 252-year-old Chinaman. China-man. He has never kept track of how much rice wdne he may have consumed in the last two and a half centuries. "But LI, like Zaro, does confine himself to his own particular diet, and the item in it which he attributes his hardihood is ginseng root. "Lest any reader be Incredulous of Li's age let ns hasten te- add that It Is vouched for by that eminent scholar. schol-ar. General Pel-fu, who also qualifies as a full-fledged ex-war lord, having captured Peiping after the custom of great military figures In his native land and having once brought all North China under his sway. Fu occasionally oc-casionally takes his pen in hand. "According to Fu, at whose home the venerable Li lived for some time, the latter Is 'an educated man and still possesses a virile mind.' In fact, he recently delivered a series of lectures lec-tures at the University of Cliangtu on the art of life In general, with particular par-ticular emphasis on how to get the most "lit of each century. "LI, who eats nothing but herbs, disbelieves dis-believes strongly In any form of strenuous stren-uous exercise- 'Golf Is the shortest way lo a short life,' lie told one of his audiences. When he was 217, he added, lie himself tried half an hour of tennis, which he regrets to this day, feeling that It shortened his life span at least a decade. A life of harmony har-mony in spirit and soul is the essence es-sence "f his teaching. "Prof. Wu Chung-chieh, dean nf the department of education at Changtu university, has learned, It is reported, 1 v 1 Zaro A-gha that 102 years ago Li received official offi-cial felicitations from the Chinese government on the occasion of his one hundred fiftieth birthday, and that again, in 1877, the government congratulated con-gratulated him on passing the 200-year 200-year mark. He Is further reported to have found records showing that LI was born in 1677." Such are the reports which have been widely published in our newspapers newspa-pers during past months. But they have also resulted In discussions In other publications which tend to discredit dis-credit these stories and bring the weight of scientific testimony to bear out the belief that none of those mentioned men-tioned are anywhere near the aga claimed for them. Recently the New York World expressed its doubt that Zaro Agha was 156 years old and quoted the chief actuary of the New York Life Insurance company to the effect that no authentic record exists of a human life longer than 106 years. "Centenariansare and have always been extremely scarce. There were only slightly more than 4,000 people in the United States In the last" census cen-sus who claimed to have attained that age. But it is significant that of this number almost 3,000 were negroes; close to 2,000 negro women said they were 100 years old or over. Although negro females form only 5 per cent of the total population, they give the country half its centenarians! "On its face, such a situation is highly improbable, and while we are not questioning the honesty of those who make the claim, we strongly suspect sus-pect that In the great majority of cases they are mistaken as to the exact ex-act number of years they have lived. Many of the old negro people are illiterate, il-literate, and nearly all of them lack authentic records giving the date of their birth. "In fact, we find that wherever records rec-ords are absent centenarians rise up and flourish. Turkey and the Balkans have long been a hnppy hunting ground for centenarians, In spite of the fact that conditions of life are very hard and public health standards are exceedingly low. The clnims to extreme old age are nearly always appealing fictions. "In riiy opinion, authentic centennrl-ans centennrl-ans are so few In America that they can be counted on the fingers of one's two hands." Perhaps most Interesting of all "authentic "au-thentic centenarians" which tills coun. try has ever known was Cornelius Cole. In 1922 the New York Times printed an Interview with him in which he is described thus: "In 1847 young Cornelius Cole, then twenty-four years old, received his degree of bachelor of arts from Wes-leyan Wes-leyan university. A short time later came rumors of the gold discovery In California and with a half dozen friends he set out to make his fortune. for-tune. In 1922. Cornelius Cole, sole survivor of his class, preparing to celebrate 'his hundredth birthday on September 17, received an invitation from his alma mater to come to Mid-dletown, Mid-dletown, Conn., and receive an honorary honor-ary LL. D. In spite of opposition from friends and members of his family who thought the Journey too arduous for a centenarian, lie came, bringing wilh him recolleeLions which went back to the thrilling days of ')9. and an active legal life that Included a friendship with Lincoln, a place in both houses of congress, an Interesting Interest-ing part in the purchase of Alaska to say nothing of a live interests In events of today. "Cornelius Cole, cent enririan, former for-mer senator from California and native na-tive of Seneca county, New York, tmnK or taning ners. ins memory is surprising, his outlook young, and his comments when not serious are colored col-ored by a sense of humor that a man half his age might envy." Ex-Senator Cole died November 3, 1924, at the age of 102. The record in his case Is clear. But considering the fact that It would have been easy enough to check up on the facts, it seems remarkable that In 1924 manv newspapers printed the picture of "Maj. Edward James Monroe, son of the fifth President of the United States, who is feeling fit nt the atre of 109." The onlv difficulty with this story Is that President Monroe had two daughters but no son I Stories of persons who claim to have lived more than 100 years are numerous, but few of these cases will stand up under rigid Investigation, nc-ording nc-ording to James A. Toby, writing In a recent issue of the Scientific American, Ameri-can, who says that the age of a very old person seems to be one of the matters most susceptible to deviation from the truth, for memories are usually usu-ally hazy In the extremely old, and the relatives, friends, and neighbors of these patriarchs seem always ready to exaggerate their antiquity. He then cites numerous examples of longevity which proved to he greatly exaggerated. A few years ago a Kentuckinn named John Shell received re-ceived considerable notoriety as being 131 years of age, but a somewhat searching inquiry revealed hi in to be not more than 100, If he were even that. In 1904 a Russian newspaper calmly reported the death at the advanced age of ISO of a woman named Therese Abalva. Another Russian newspaper In 1026 was more modest, for It allotted al-lotted only 138 years to Ivan Tretya, a peasant of Rostov. A Hungarian farmer, Teter Zortay or Torton, exceeded ex-ceeded them all for he was supposed to have been 185 wdien he died In 1724; as was also St. Monngh, whose death occurred in 1781. Some months ago Henri Barbusse, the French author, au-thor, recounted his visit in Georgia in Transcaucasia to Nikolai Andreye-vitch Andreye-vitch Shapkovsky, who was reputed to be between 142 and 147. One of the most famous of the very njed persons of history was Old Parr, who was said to have been born In England In 1483 and to have died there in 1635. He was working as a farm laborer at the age of l-r2 when an Interested nobleman, the earl of Arundel, took hi in to London and put him on exhibition where he died a siiort time later. John Taylor, known as the "Water Poet," got out a book called "The Olde, Okie, Very Olde man," in which he extolled this long life In prose and verse. Thomas Parr was said to have been married at 120, and after the suitable Interval to have become the father of a child. When he died In 1035, the celebrated William Harvey, discoverer discover-er of the circulation of the blood, performed per-formed an autopsy on him and found his general condition good, though the brain cells were somewhat worn. A reprint of Taylor's hook was Issued by James Caulfleld of London In 1794. Old Parr's unusual age was accepted until 1873 when W. J. Thorns, deputy librarian of the house of lords, made a real Investigation of the case and concluded that about fifty years had been Improperly tacked on to the actual ac-tual life of Parr. The gentleman was a real centenarian, but little more than that. Mr. Thorns also exposed two other notorious long-lifers. A certain countess coun-tess of Desmond was credited with 140 years, but the doubting librarian showed that the uges of two separate countesses of the same name had been added together; Instead of one person living to 140 years, two women had each lived about 70. A writer familiar with Mr. Thorn's Iconoclasm on this subject, a John R. Bailey, wrote a book In 1XSS which he, called ".Modern Mclhuselalis," and In It he cited u number of Instances of well-known centenarians. He began with St. Anthony, who was said to have lived to 105, but most of his other examples, such as the Kmperor Cantaciizenus of the Fourteenth century, Pletho, Cornaro, Titian, Ie Fontenelle and Ainory, were only 09 or 100. 'j'lio author, however, did list a dozen cases which he believed to have been actually 100 years old or more. VVi-alorn .N'uwKpr.p'.T Urilyn ) |