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 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.'

99

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

proves that his aim is still good. He ascribes his length of life and vitality to his great interest. in outdoor sports and hunting, when a young man, developing a rugged constitution that lasted him many years after he was forced to quit strenuous work because of "old age." He asserts that he was so busy living that he reached his one hundred and six years before he realized it and wants to live fifty years more if possible. "I feel as if I could do it, too," he declared. "I now can take my ease and comfort and the world looks good to me. I have always lived a temperate life, never drank, never kept late hours, and still have had as much or more fun than the average man, I think. It is only now when I have nothing to do that I get to worrying and when I find myself in that condition I take a walk or

made it a point to talk and joke with all of them. At the close of the day's festivities she showed no signs of fatigue. Others, fifty years younger, were tired

out.

All her life Mrs. Harrison has been a humorist. She always has refused to look on the dark side of anything even when there was occasion for sad

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 veteran. Looks after small chicken

and truck farm, doing a great deal of manual labor.

George W. Austin, aged one hundred and five, of Kent, Ohio. Walks down town every day. Goes to church on Sundays. Eats anything and reads everything. Born in Hartford, Connecticut. Carpenter and contractor. Mrs. Sarah Todd, aged one hundred and three, of Eugene, Oregon. Sister-in-law of Lincoln's wife. Attends to household duties. Does marketing. Reads and writes. Recently registered as voter. Robert Golitely, aged one hundred and five, of Ozan, Arkansas. Educated negro. Now police judge; served as United States Consul at Madagascar under President McKinley.

traveling alone. Does not drink or use

tobacco.

J. M. Phipps, aged one hundred and one, of Shenandoah, Iowa. Looks like sixty. Tall, straight and walks with rapid stride. Hasn't eaten meat in ten years. Recently traveled alone to Oklahoma for visit. Says he will reach one hundred and twenty-five. None were great athletes, or, on the

Mrs. Mary Lindsey, aged one hundred and three, of Sherman, Texas. Able to read and write. Takes lively interest in affairs.

Mrs. Ellen D. Rotrammell, aged one hundred, of Sherman, Texas. Hearing and voice good as ever. Enjoys life. Eyesight a little dim. Eats heartily. James H. Snyder, aged one hundred, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Walks with a crutch because of injury received when a sailor. Eats freely, reads well and smokes daily. Takes great interest in politics. Is a progressive.

Joseph Fisher, aged one hundred and seven, of Bedford, Indiana. Uses tobacco, drinks a little liquor; never sick in life. Recently drove one-horse wagon from Linton, Indiana, to Bedford. Born in Washington county, Indiana.

Dr. F. N. B. Oliver, aged one hundred and five, of Altus, Oklahoma. Civil War veteran. Walks easily and a great traveler. Came here recently from visit in several Texas towns,

other hand, weak

lings. They were just average men and women who took good care of themselves. Each had plenty of outdoor life, was always busy, and observed the health laws. Of course, none of them lived intemperate lives.

These men and women did not have the advantage of the boons of civilization in their youth. They underwent hardships and drudgery that people now do not have. They did not have the modern house with its bathroom -and that bathroom, by the way, is accounted a great factor in the extension of life. They did not have gas and electricity and a hundred other devices to make work less hard and give them more time for enjoyment.

When does a person become old? Think before you answer. There are thousands of men who are over seventy that work every day, who take a prominent part in the world's affairs and who get much out of life.

Among great scientists and men who have shaped the world's history, a long life, in which the latter part was the most effective, has been an often noted circumstance. The case of the French naturalist Fabre is perhaps the most remarkable. At fifty he was absolutely unknown, the last half century of his life being the productive period.

HOMAS B. WELLS of New York and Spring Lake, New Jersey, claims no kinship with the mystic Aladdin, who, we are assured, could by the simple process of rubbing a magic lamp summon a genie and cause him to execute any commands his master might give him. But Mr. Wells seems to be about the nearest approach to that wonderful personage of which we have any record, for he produces results almost as marvelous and his methods are similar. About the only difference is that, instead of a magic lamp, he uses the modern electric switch, while the mystic electric current takes the place of the genie.

Mr. Wells has recently brought into being the first electric residence. Ac

cording to his own

story he was forced into doing it.

the

in

While a wealthy
man, Mr. Wells
objected very
strenuously when
bills, which came
from the Spring Lake
Electric Lighting Com-
pany, showed that he
was being charged
eighteen cents per kilo-

watt hour. Protests availing nothing, Mr. Wells determined to become his own electrician.

Here are some of the things he has succeeded in doing: making ice for sixtenths of a cent per pound; lighting and heating his bungalow; doing the cooking, washing and ironing; mixing drinks; running his own moving picture machine and phonograph, and an electric fountain for table decoration; operating an apparatus for drying hair; a vacuum cleaner; mechanically mixing bread, beating eggs, chopping meat,

SOME OF THE HOUSEHOLD DEVICES The percolator works rapidly at very little cost: the toaster and the broiler have the same advantages for table use: the home moving picture machinewell, just think of that for all the family.

The abundance of current set Mr. Wells to thinking and later to experimenting and inventing with the idea of making it work, not only after sunset, but but all through the day. What he accomplished in a few months has already been chronicled. His

house today is undoubtedly the most perfectly appointed and smoothly working electric dwelling in the world, a fact which is due in large measure to two comparatively recent inventionsthe Edison storage battery and an automatic controller which regulates voltage.

Along with the gas engine there is located in the rear of the Wells' bungalow one hundred storage batteries. By running the engine only seven hours,