AIR AND WATER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14005, 14 September 1909, Page 3

AIR AND WATER.

"A GRAND OLD DAME. - * At the great age bfcloso on 100. years, Mrl .Sarah H. Cohen, of 32, iJroadway, Westminster, widow, of a once well-known public nian, held a birthday receptipn on Saturday, July 24th, at which some 200' relatives and friends, were present. Mrs Cohen was born on July 27th, 1801), and married in 1838, the year oi the Coronation of Queen Victoria, an; event which she viviuly remembers. Her maiden name was Isaacs, and she belongs to 'a' family eminent in the annals of London Jewry. One of her relatives was the lat-e Sir Henry Aaron Isaacs, who was Lord Mayor ;«f London in 1889-90, and both she and her husband enjoyed the friendship of the late- Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Sitting talking to her.by the open window of her room in the liroadway it was easy to guess that one of the secrets of her long life was air- equable temperament and a placid contentment with her position. There have been other helpful conditions. "I have always believed'- in fresh air,' 7 she said. " "1 always sit by the open window, and I sleep with 'my' bedroom window wide open. Fresh air. and cold water are the greatest aids to health and long life I know of, and I recommend - them ' to all' young people." . The voice is clear' and strong when the old lady speaks, and gives no sign of the frailty of old age. Her eves are bright and sparkling, and she has, except when fatigued, as she was by Satunlav's reception, a. complexion which a schoolgirl might envy. This she attributes to her fondness for fresh air and cold water. Her figure, too, is still erect and slim, and she is able to do a fair amount of walking. She has never worn a pair of spectacles, her teeth arc her own, and" her head is crowned bv a wonderful aureole of silvery white'hair. Altogether she is a "grand dame :! of the old school and thinks there were no times like the past. She has many memories of the old parochial life of Westminster, and can recall the time when, round and alioiit her home, there were many old cottages with gardens in front covered with creepers. Those have all vanished now with the exception of three or four in the neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace. Mrs Cohen can .recall the Coronation of William IV., and the fair in Hvde Park that followed it. She got a glimpse of Queen Victoria on her Coronation Day, and describes her as a pretty young girl with blue eyes and a beautiful complexion. Airs Cohen is the mother of fourteen children, and has twenty-one' grandchildren and eighteen great-grand-children. Many beautiful bouquets of flowers and baskets of fruit were presented to the old lady on Saturday, and amongst the friends of her late husband who called on her were Mr

Glan'yille Smith, Mr H. O. Hamburg, who were Mr Cohen's colleagues on the old vestry, and Mr W. E. Harland Oxley,' a well-known writer on the antiquities of Westminster. Mrs has lived for sixty-three years in the house above her late husband's shop m Broadway,- alniost within the shadow of 'the .Abbey nnd not much more t'liui a stone's ;.tnro\v from the Houses of Parliament. - . -. ~.■■