Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1891 — HOW TO BEACH OLD AGE. [ARTICLE]

HOW TO BEACH OLD AGE.

Chata on Longevity with Five Septuagenarian Statesmen. In no city of the United States will you find so many energetic old men as in Washington. Octogenarians and septuagenarians flourish here like the flowers that bloom in the Spring, and in most of them the blossoms of their old age are more beautiful and more fragrant than were those of their youth. One of the oldest young men in gubliclifeis Senator Henry B. Payne. te was born in New York Statw-in 1810 during the first year of Madison’s Presidency. He can laugh like a boy and he enjoys the society of young men. Upon my asking as to the secret of his good health and spirits at this advanced age, he said: “I attribute my good health and long years to a good constitution and to tne fact that I control my appetite and am temperate in both eating iand drinking, 1 take exercise regulafly, chiefly walking, have but little to do with the doctor’s, and I think I am all the better for it. ' About fortyfour years ago,: when I was thirtyfive years of age, I was forced to leave off my practice at the bar on account of hemorrhage of the lungs. I had something to do with doctor’s at that - time, but have had not much to do ■with them since. “How about your diet,Mr. Payne? " “I eat everything that agrees with me and drink what I like, but not to excess. I don’t use tobacco, but I don’t believe that long life depends on its use or non-use. The main thing is temperance, in work as well as eating and .drinking. I believemany men are killed by overwork and worry. Sam Randall died from over work. He had a splendid physique, but he broke it down in working on a Tariff bill and by laboring here all summer. I don t believe that activity hurts any one, but overwork does. Then I don’t let things worry me. I like life and I believe that it is worth living. Ex-Senator Thomas L. Clingman is about two years younger than Senator Payne. He is as bright as a dollar and active as a voung satyr. Said he:

“I will be seventy-eight years old in a few weeks and lam in perfect mentals and physical health. I walk about three miles every day and think I have been younger during the Ulast three years. I think that the improvement of my health since 1885 has been largely due to the use of an extract of tobacco which I have invented, which stimulates the perspiratory and other organs and opens up the whole system. lam a bachelor, but I have wanted to get married all my life, and first fell in love at five. I have wanted to marry since then, and I want to marry now more than ever, but I can’t afford itr ‘‘As to my habits, I have been temperate all my life. Ido not eat more than half the amount of the ordinary man, and I did not drink a drop of spirits until I was forty-eight.. At this time I tried a mint julep and thought it helped me, and since then I have taken some spirits just before my meals or some wine with my meals. As to my meals, I eat breakfast at 8 o’clock, and confine myself to a big cup of coffee, a piece of meat and some stale bread. lam fond of cakes for breakfast, and my breakfast for years at Willard's Hotel consisted of buckwheat cakes and coffeer~ “I sleep about five hours every night and am troubled somewhat with insomnia. I usually go to bed about eleven and rise at dawn. As soon as I get out-of bed 1 take a cold bath, and if my breakfast was then . ready, I would eat it. As it is not, I roll around in the bed and read the paper until the breakfast bell rings. J have never smoked, chewed or snuffed, and I can’t say whether or not these habits are injurious. What is one man’s drink, is another man’s poison. As to advice I would give young men, I would say be temperate in habits, use no spirituous liquors before you are fifty and drink no wines except at meals. Keep the joints well oiled with exercise, marryas soon as you can after twenty years of age, don’t overwork and don’t worry, and if you have a deceut conscience and a fair constitution, there is no reason whv you should not reach four-score. ,r Justice McArthurfiS one of the retired Justices of the United States Supreme Court "of the District at Washington. He has led an active and hard-working life, and now, at seventy-seven, he does not look as old as many a man of sixty. He is tall, erect and fine-looking. “I am,” said he, “naturally of a strong constitution, and I attribute rnv almost perfect physical and mental condition largely to a very good set of digestive organs. I can eat anything and drink anything, and am one of the few men of whom it may be said that they do not know that they have a stomach. I have been so throughout my life, and I attribute my continuing in this condition to rest and bathing. If lam up late at night, I take pains to sleep late the next morning, and if I am at a big dinner I see that my pores are thoroughly open the next day, so that any deleterious matter that I may have taken into my system may pass away. I don’t believe in asceticism, nor in the mortification of the flesh by rigid rules of diet, by limiting the appetite and by denying one’s self that good may come. I believe that man should take as much pleasure out of life as he can consistently with his work as he goes along. The desire for enjoyment is natural, and it should be gratified as much as hunger and thirst. “I am a great believer in hot air

baths, and I keep myself in good condition by one of them every week. I think .the Turkish baths sire good, but my favorite bath is the alcohol hot air bath, which I take regularly when I am at home. When lam away I take the hot water bath, making the water red hot., and soaking myself in it until the perspiration flows freely out of every pore of my skin. I don’t believe in the use of much soap in bathing, and think that the pores of the skin are not helped by the alkali taken into them.” “Of what nature is vour alcohol bath?” “It s a bath of the vapor of alcohol. I take it in my bath room, and do it by putting perhaps a gill of alcohol in a iron cup. I light this and place it under a chair; then, having undressed, I seat myself over it and around the chair, making a hot air chamber for myself. In a short time I begin to perspire, and the perspir- , atiom runs out of my pores in streams, washing out my skin and ' making me perfectly clean. When the alcohol is burnt out I throw off the blanket and jump into my bath tub, which is filled with water at a blood beat. After a short stav here I rub myself with a crash towel and then complete the rubbing with a softer one. I then lie down for a few minutes and when I get up I am a new man. Such a bath makes you feel that you had never been clean” before. It revives your whole system and the alcohol acts as a tonic. You got only the good qualities in the Alcohol, the burning having pecipitated the injurious ones, and these, going into your system through the pores as vapor, act upon you as a tonic. Some people rub tlieir skin with raw alcohol, but I do not advise this nor do I think it beneficial. ” “As to marriage,” said Justice McArthur, “I decidedly think it tends to the length of days, and I would advise eyerxYOung man to get married. As to smoking, the abuse ol tobacco is I think, injurious, but I do not think it hurts me in moderation. I smoke two cigars u day and enjoy them. “The only exercise I take is walk ing. I walk about three miles a day when in Washington, and I am fond of it. I usually see the bright side of things, and in looking back at tho difficulties I have surmounted in my life. I believe in work and not worry, and I think that any young man who will use the criterion of common sense life,enjoy it as much as he can, treat himself as he would a good machine and conform to nature aud nature’s laws, has a good chance for many days. The oldest men in Congress are Gen. Vandever, of California and Gen: N. P. Banks of Massachusetts. Borth are several years past their threescore and ten. Both 4ire perfectly erect and both possess the highest degree of physical and mental vigor. Both have led lives of hardship. Both have served in the war, and both starting out as poor , boys have made themselves famous. Gen. Vandever is, I judge, 6 feet high. He .was born in Maryland in 1817, was a Brigadier-General in the Union Army and was a member of Congress when James Buchanan was President of the United States. Now at seventy-three he is again in Confre<s, and as I chatted with liimtoay about the secrets of longevity he walked with a step more springing than mine and his only sign of age was in the white strands of his sandy beard. Said he: “I can’not say that my vigor at threescore and ten is due to any fixed hobbies of diet or exercise. I have been a haixj worjeer all my life and I have been ordinarily -temperate. I am rather careful as to iny'~Catmg r ... and I lead a regular life. I married at thirty, and I believe that marriage conduces to length of yearer You ask me what advice I would give to young men who wish to live long. I can only say that they should be temperate in eating, drinking and work, that they should be content to take the days as they come and not worry about the future. I believe that exercise in the open air is good, and I think every young" man ought to get married.” Gen. Banks is the straightest man in Washington. He is about seventyfive, and has led a life full of hardships. He worked in a cotton factory when he was a boy, went on the lecture platform before he was of age, and was in Congress over a half a century ago. He was elected Speaker in one of the most noted Speakership contests of our history, and ha was one of the roughest fighters and one of the most vigorous workerk among the Union Generals of the late war. During the war he was in constant exposure, but he came out of it a comparatively strong man and went again into Congress. He has been in Congress a number of times since then, and you will now find no more pleasant companion or philosophic statesman than he. He attributes his good health largely to a moderate care of himself and to a good constitution. He believes that the mind lias a great influence on the body, thinks that marriage is conducive to longevity, and sees no reason why he should not live in good health for years to come.