Show gives his rules for attaining rioe old age new lork dec G mark twain tonight was the guest of honor at a dinner at given by george harvey la honor of the seventieth birthday tile guests confined closely to writers 0 literature liter aturo and about authors were present nearly half of them women during the dinner a congratulatory cable message was received from england signed by forty of the most distinguished writers there including thomas hardy georgo meredith alfred austin arthur balbour Bal tour rudyard kipling anthony hope sir gilbert parker sir conan doyle lan maclaren mrs humphrey ward and israel zangwill the principal souvenir which each guest received was a bust of mark twain halt life size president roosevelt and J C handler harris sent letters and among those who spoke or poems were W D howells richard watson gilder dr henry vandyke Dran doer matthews dr weir buchell MU chell kate douglas john kendrick lck bangs amelia ban hamilton W mablo caroline wells irvcng ranche der andrew carnegie G W gable hopkinson smith and agnes Repp lie mr roosevelt wrote 1 I wish it were la my power to be at the dinner held to celebrate the seventieth birthday of mark twain it is difficult to write of him by his real name instead of that name which has become a household word wherever the english language is spoken he bisone isone of the citizens whom all americans should delight to honor for he has rendered a great and peculiar service to america and his writings though such as no one but an american could have written yet emphatically come within that small list which are written for no particular country but for all countries and which are not merely written tot the time but have an abiding and p value may be live long and year by year may he add to the sum of admirable work that he has done sincerely yours THEODORE ROOSEVELT when mark twain arose to speak he could not proceed tor several minutes on account of the cheers that were given in greeting he said the seventieth birthday it als the time of lifa when you arrive at a new andl aatu dignity when you may throw aside the decent reserves rea erves which hava oppressed you for a generation and stand unafraid and unabashed upon your seven terraced summit and look down and teach you can tell the world how you got there it Is what they all do you shall never got tired of telling by what delicata arts and deep moralities you climbed up to that great placed you will explain the process and dwell on the particulars with senile rapture I 1 havo been anxious to explain my own system this long time and now at last I 1 have the right 1 I have achieved my seventy year in the usual way by sticking strictly to a scheme of my life which would kill anybody else it sounds like an exaggeration but that is really the common rule for attaining old age wo have no permanent habits until w are forty then they begin to harden presently they petrify then business begins since forty I 1 have been reg ular about going to bod and getting up and that is one of ho main things I 1 have made it a rule to go to bed when there was not anybody left to sif up with and I 1 have made it a rule to get up when I 1 had to this has resulted an fn an unswerving regularity or irregularity in tho matter of diet which is another main thing I 1 have been bently strict in sticking to the which did not agree with me until ono or tho other of us got the best of it until lately I 1 got the best of it myself but last spring I 1 stopped frolicking with mince pie after midnight up to then I 1 bad always believed it was not loaded for thirty years I 1 have taken coffee and broad in tho morning and no bite or sup till in tha evening 1 I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time I 1 have no other restriction to maka as regards smoking As for drinking I 1 have no rula about that when the others drink 1 like to help otherwise I 1 remain dry by habit and preference this dryness docs not hurt me but it could easily hurt you because you are you let it alone since I 1 was 7 years old I 1 leavo seldom taken a doce of medicine and have still more seldom needed one but up to 7 I 1 lived exclusively on al medicines not that I 1 needed them for I 1 dont think I 1 did it was tor economy my father took a drug store for a debt and it made cod liver old cheaper than the other breakfast foods I 1 was the first standard oil truet by the time the drug store was exhausted my health was I 1 lashed and there has never been much the matter with mo since 1 I have never taken any except sleeping and resting and I 1 never intend to take any exercise Ex erciso loathsome and it cannot be of any benefit when you are fired I 1 was always tired 1 I have lived a severely moral life but it would be a mistake for other people to try it or for me to recommend it very few would succeed you have to have a perfectly colossal fetock of morals and you cannot get them on a margin you have to have th whole thing and put them in your box morals are ap acquirement alke mu sic alko a foreign lag like piety poker paralysis no man 19 born with them I 1 myself I 1 started poor tareo acore years and ten it Is the scriptural of limitation after that you owe no active duties tor you the strenuous life is over you are a time order expired man to use kippings Kip lings military phrase you have served your term well or less well and you ara mustered out you are become an honorary mem her of the republic you are emanie herc Is no for vou adv buyle |