SOME FAMOUS OLD MEN.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 66, 15 September 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME FAMOUS OLD MEN.

The world has still some living examples of marvellous vitality. General Neal Dow has just celebrated his 90th birthday. Another eminent American, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, was born in the same year as Mr. Gladstone, and is proud j of the fact. In England we have the truly surprising case of George Miiller, the founder of the Orphan Homes at Bristol. He is now in his 89 th year, hale and hearty, and since he was 80 he has twice gone as far as the Antipodes. Earl Grey is still a sleepless political critic at the promising age of 91, while Mr. C. P. Villiers, the great Freetrader, and the " father of the House of Commons," is still able to attend in Parliament at the age of 92. Archdeacon Denison. Mr. Gladsone's old antagonist, is still hale and vigorous in his 89th; and we may recall an interesting fact connected with the late Sir Harry Verney, that at 90 years of age he ran a race with a number of men all upwards of 70 years of age, and came off the victor. These are not all the memorable examples of longevity, but they include the best known names, and gathered, as they are, from different classes, they testify comprehensively to the frequent union of old age with great mental activity. The moral to be deduced from these illustrations of longevity appears to be that the number of a man's years does not signify his real age. Some men are olderat4othanothersatßo. The secret was told by a happy ootogenarian, when he said that there was no care, no anxiety, and no business of State ■whioh lie could not lay down at will when he took off his coat at night in order to prepare for rest. Worry frequently kills; work very seldom.