ing day, and working condition laws. People not only live longer than they formerly did, but what is better, they retain their vitality and usefulness longer. The condition and happiness of the average man has improved with his longevity. They cannot be separated. One element is essential to the other.

There are few persons in the United States who realize that we have with us more individuals of great age than fifty years ago. There are from five to six thousand persons in the United States today who have reached one hundred years. Some have reached one hundred and twelve years and there are records of still greater ages. A Montana Indian proves that he is one hundred and thirty-three years old; an Oregon woman reached one hundred and twenty. Only two years ago there died near Quitman, Texas, Mrs. Laura Kilcrease, at the age of one hundred and thirty-six.

Flourens and Haller, famous physiologists, pointed out the fact that other mammals live five times the length of their growing period. They put the human growing period at thirty years,

AVERAGE AGE: OVER EIGHTY-EIGHT

Octogenarians of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, in their first annual reunion last fall. In the middle of the first row is Mr. Macager Weiss, who is one hundred and twelve years old. He gets around as though he were not more than sixty and seems to be good for twenty or thirty more years of life.

and asserted that one hundred and fifty years, therefore, should be the span of human life.

Pure water has played an important part in lengthening life. It was not so many years ago that little or no attention was given to sources of water supply. Now cities spend immense sums to furnish fresh, pure water. Between the years of 1902 and 1906, figures on typhoid fever victims showed that the death rate per one hundred thousand inhabitants in four cities that used water from wells was 18.1 per cent. Again, figures from nineteen cities that used polluted river water showed that the death rate from typhoid was 61.1 per cent. This difference shows what a little care will do to extend human life.

In the eighteenth century, fifty million persons died in Europe from the ravages of smallpox. This was easily half the population. But when vacci

nation was introduced, this disease lost its terrors. Yellow fever, cholera, and typhoid have also been conquered.

Laws have been passed giving the workingmen an eight-hour day and requiring that conditions of factories shall be sanitary. It has been shown that longer working hours mean shorter lives; that tenement districts have a much lower mortality rate than districts where the well-to-do live. People who rent have a higher death rate than those who own their own homes, and persons living in five- and six-room houses live longer than those who live in houses of less rooms. Of course there are exceptions, but these facts have been found by the highest authorities, chief among whom is Professor Irving Fisher of Yale. He was commissioned by the United States. Government to investigate and report on the conservation of human life, and his search included all parts of the world, and comparisons of all data and authorities.

Mankind is making a determined but gradual effort, not only to add years to life, but to add years of usefulness, and to increase the length of working

power of man, and success is crowning these efforts.

Some men and women in the United States who have advanced past a hundred years of age display vitality that amazes, yet which should only be expected in view of the lives they have lived. These remarkable old persons are young compared to the age humanity will attain if it keeps on increasing the average. Some of these persons of more than a century of years are as robust as many half their age. How have they retained this vitality? It is no secret. Simple living, plenty of outdoor life, not too much work or too much idleness, and absence of worry are the greatest factors.

Abraham Wilcox of Fort Worth, Texas, is one hundred and twelve years old, but he takes keen enjoyment in life. He walks two miles or more every day as a "constitutional" and, occasionally, he even takes a small glass of beer. He looks forward with all the enthusiasm of a boy to a visit to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, when he will be one hundred and fifteen years old. Mr. Wilcox reads the newspapers every day and is inter

ested in everything about him, from the food being prepared for his dinner to the latest feats by aeroplanes. This aged man looks forty or fifty years younger than he really is. His skin His skin is white but not deeply lined. His vision is excellent and he walks nearly erect. Thirty years ago he gave up smoking, as his doctors warned him he was near death from old age and that use of tobacco would only hasten the end.

Wilcox not only shows various family records to prove his age but relates with much vividness events during his childhood connected with the history of England that would be impossible

to recite unless he were living then. Questioners often have tried to trip him but they always have failed and he takes delight in tripping them. Wilcox was born in Devonshire, England, in 1801 and came to the United States in 1831. When the Civil War broke out he tried to enlist but was rejected because he was too old.

In the Ozark Mountains of Marion county, Arkansas, just across the Missouri line, lives Mrs. Elmyra Wagoner. She, too, is one hundred and twelve years old. There are a thousand wrinkles in her face and she looks her age, but in her actions she is sixty. Up until a very few years ago, when still past the hundred-year mark, Mrs. Wagoner kept a large garden and was able to work in the fields. While she has given up outdoor work, she is still active. On inclement days she sits by the fireplace in her mountain home home and spins. On pleasant

days she may be found walking about the yard. Recently her great-great-granddaughter was married at Protein, Missouri, six miles from the Wagoner home. This woman of one hundred and twelve years walked to the wedding, enjoyed it, and then walked back home, a distance that would tire out many persons half that age. There are scores of persons at Protein who vouch for this and they tell of similar feats by Mrs. Wagoner showing remarkable physical power.

Asked to give the causes of her longevity, the aged woman smiled and said that she hated to admit she was getting old. "Clean, honest living, plenty of work, plenty of good food, and a desire to help others when sick or in trouble, I think gave me my long lease of life," she said. "I was always so busy caring for others and thinking of them that I never had time to worry whether I was getting old or not."

Asa Goodwin of Sterrett, Alabama, is one hundred and six years old. His endurance powers are even more remarkable than those of Mrs. Wagoner or Abraham Wilcox. He walks five miles every day. He works several hours daily in his garden, eats anything he likes, and reads without glasses. His family is probably the largest in the United States. A reunion recently held in his honor was attended by eight hundred and fifty persons, three hundred and fifty being blood relatives. Goodwin has been a hunter all his life and he frequently takes down his rifle and

ness. Because she has always been cheerful and jolly, and because of cleanly, careful living she has reached one hundred years and still feels young. There is a "young" lady living in Warren, Ohio, who is devoted to motorcycle riding. She is only ninetyone years old and doesn't expect to give up her "joy rides" for several years longer. She is Mrs. Catherine Osborne and she takes a daily ride. with a young man who drives the machine. Until very recently, she did all the

housework, milked COWS, churned, and did farm chores. She has lived the most of her life in the country and has been an expert horsewoman. To these rides, Mrs. Osborne ascribes her long life and rugged constitution.

Another remarkable woman is Mrs. Bertha M. Rose of Denver, who is sixty-four years old and an athlete. She learned to swim at forty-five, and to dance at fifty-five years. Mrs. Rose

does a handspring with ease and uses dumb-bells daily as light exercise. She can outrun a girl of twenty, and she is an expert on the parallel bars. She attributes her vitality to outdoor life, banishing drugery and being an optimist. She says she will never grow old.

Here is a list that gives a few of the very oldest persons in this country who still retain agility of mind and body. No invalids are included:

Macager Weiss, aged one hundred. and twelve, Beaverbrook, New York. Walks around as much as a man of sixty.

Joseph Fray, aged one hundred and twelve, New York City. Born in Poland. Possesses all faculties. Never sick. Says plain food, plain living, honesty, and plenty of sleep gave him long life. Was a merchant.

George Banks, aged one hundred and fifteen, of Bangor, Maine. Civil war Looks after small chicken

veteran.