CENTENARIAN'S DIET.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LIX, Issue 9934, 3 August 1908, Page 2

CENTENARIAN'S DIET.

MARVELLOUSLY VIGOROUS OLD AGE. Iv his little one-storey, thatched farmhouse, standing a few miles from Ballygawley, County Tyrone, amid a grove of trees which lie planted himself seventy years ago, Thomas Kelly, who shortly after his one hundred and seventh birthday climbed a ladder to repair his own roof, gave bisjecipe for the attainment of such a l«kspan of life. The old man, with thcrossistance of his seventy-year-old son, rills a mountain farm of seventy-four acres, sixty acres of which he reclaimed front morass. He has never had a day's illness until about four months ago, when he caught a chill and was laid up for a few days.

"He attributed his length of years, he said, to plain, wholesome food, early rising, moderate use of alcohol, hard work, plenty of fresh mountain air, the smell of peat fires, and a good constitution. Tobacco he has never used.

Though he speaks in a child's high treble voice, he is still straight and erect. He can walk without the aid of a stick, and, as he remarked, "I'm not such a bad-looking ould man, either." Every morning he is up at five o'clock, dresses himself, lights the fire, and puts the kettle on to boil. For breakfast he has oaten meal porridge, followed by a cup of tea and an egg. For dinner lie takes the usual Irish farmer's meal—potatoes, cabbage and bacon, and before retiring his supper is a bowl of gruel.

Last autumn he was visited by Jndge Ross, of the Irish Land Court, and Professor Bond. He expected a visit from the Duke of Aberoorn about the same time, but the Dufe»fl| illness prevented this. Before winter set in, he walked to Carrickmore, five miles distant, to see Mrs Peggy McGurk, who is two years his junior.

Above everything else he is proud of the fact that at the last general election he walked into Ballygawley, eight miles distant, to record his vote for the present member for South Tyrone (Mr T. W. Russell). After his day's work is over in the fields his great delight is to get his grandchildren round him at the fireside, and sing to them the old-time ballads of Ireland.

Mr Kelly, whose father died at the age of fifty, is the father of six sons and four daughters, several of whom are in America.