HOW TO LIVE LONG.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXX, Issue 4729, 14 June 1911, Page 4

HOW TO LIVE LONG.

Mr Thomas Alva Edison, the famous invenor, who disbelieves in the immortality ot the soul, declares in an interview his conviction that the human body is a machine which, if properly treated, is capable of sustaining life in comfort and enjoyment for 150 years. He stated that he himself expects to livejto that age. The inventor’s confession of his expectations of a long life was elicited by a controversy started by Mr .1. C Stubbs, of Chicago, a friend and business associate of the late Mr E.

H. Harriman, who announces that he will retire on his Gsth birthday. Mr Stubbs declares: "1 am going to retire because I want to live,” and adds, “all business- men ought to retire at i>s for their own sakes as well as for the sake of the institutions they serve.” According to Mr Stubbs the reason Mr Harriman died at a comparatively early age was that lie

“worked all day and thought out problems at night. ” Mr Edison received an interviewer at his Orange laboratory in New Jersey, at the conclusion of a week during which he had worked seventeen hours a day, including one stretch of forty-eight hours. “I can think,” he observed, “twice as much work twice as long as Mr llarriman did and Mr Stubbs does. This is due to the fact that mv system of living is based: (1) on proper eating; (2) proper sleeping; and (.'!) on proper clothing. “Why did Mr llarriman think in bed? Because he ate too much. Mr Stubbs and others of his ilk eat as much, though not as wholesomely, as a hodcarrier, without taking any exercise. They choke their engines with too much coal. 1 eat just as much as I want, and that is very little, perhaps half a handful of solids at each meal. The result is that I am asleep thirty seconds after my head hits the pillow. Mr llarriman spent fair out of eight hours in bed thinking and dreaming. 1 am in bed for six hours, and ail of it is good solid sleep. I never dreamed in ray life. “I am now' 64, and can work and think better than ever I did. This talk of retirement is bosh. I have worked since 1 was twelve, and hope to continue working until I am lf)U. My Baradise is here on earth. “My physical condition is perfect. This is also due in part to the fact that I clothe myself sensibly.” Mr Edison here kicked olf a shoe two sizes too large, and exclaimed with a chuckle, “So with trousers and shirts. Every vein and artery is thus given a chance to do its work, for none of them is ever pinched. Bacteria starve in my system. They have abandoned the job of trying to fasten Bright’s disease, diabetes and other sickness on me. What vices have i? Well, chewing tobacco. My wdfe used to object to this, but since she learned that the Chief Justice has the same habit she is resigned and thinks it respectable. ”