LONGEVITY'S MYSTERY
SEEKINC THE FORCE THAT CAUSES
• ALL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY.
fcongevity In Men and Animals—Condi
tions Upon Which Fife Depeiicls—Peo
ples of Short Stntuve Who Are Short
lAved—ltnphl Development u Monaco.
In a paper read by Dr. Carleton Si
mon, tile President of the Hundred
Year Club, at its annual meeting, he
said:
Longevity depends upon: 1, vital en
tirety; 2, physical condition of various
organs; 3, expenditures, physical, men
tal and generative; 4, recuperation and
reparation.
The first, that of vital entirety, or
the essential principle of life, is a mys
tery that requires solving. In the
words ol' Huxley, it is the law c" na
ture when working through ot-'ftaVlzed
matter. It is not soul, for ttiat is n
spiritual, intangible thing. Vital force
is material. It is a condition and a
priority that overreaches in importance
all other studies. A great many scien
tific experiments have lately been un
dertaken which may throw now light
upon tiiis fascinating subject. We are
upon the eve, the threshold, of a mar
velous discovery that lays bare this
wonderful power that sits behind the
throne of all physical activity.
To illustrate thi3 wonderful basic
principle of life I desire to call your at
tention to certain facts beyond dispu
tation: In Liberty County, New York
State, a short time ago, a gentleman
in digging for a well upon a hill dug
Into thirteen feet of earth, when soliil
rock was reached. Seventeen feet of
this rock was blasted away, and at the
very last blast, thirty feet from the
surface of tlio earth, incased in solid
rock, enniched, was found a frog
alive. This is authentic and is duly
attested by witnesses. This frog must
have been entombed for over 33,000
years, alive, and, aside from the mar
velous fact of tiie solitude of the ages,
entombed alone. What marvelous
force must be behind it to hold and
stay decay!
The stoppage of circulation Is death.
This seems true when applied to hu
man life. When applied to amphibious
life this does not hold true, for the
frog may he frozen solid, every drop
■of his blood frozen; thaw him out and
he is still alive. This is also true of
many fishes.
The study of ordinary laws, now
known and apparent, in answer lo the
question of longevity, is directed to
laws of economy which are compensa
tory. These have been studied, experi
ments and researches extending into
all parts of the biological world have
been made, and my general deductions
fite the following:
[ StrvfcluraT quality of size seems to lie
kignlflennt in value as a guide to lon
gevity in animals and plants. It would
seem as if the initial impulse of inher
ent vital energy, upon which all life
depends for its causation, was so abun
dantly inherited as to he over and
above that used up in resisting dis
ease and decay, and that such surplus
age of vital force, having no other use,
gave impetus to growth and increased
•structural strength. - ,
Rapid development presages rapid
-decay. Rapid growth also produces
immature development. That which
implies quick construction also implies
less intricate structure. When applied
to life it means less organic develop
ment. In short, early reproductive ca
pability is the rule lo a short life. It
is the rule in nature's realm that small
organization, great or early reproduc
tion power and short life are allied.
Nature in this way seems to take care
,of Its various species, for animals that
are short lived are enabled to propa
gate more in order to reproduce rap
idly that which time so quickly re
moves.
A few striking examples wil bear
out this fact in the animal and vege
table kingdoms:
Mammalia:
Elephant—Extreme age, 200 years.
Fecundity, one birth at a time.
Greenland Whale—Extreme age, 330
years. Fecundity, every few years.
Rabbit Extreme age, eight years.
Fecundity, seven litters per year; av
erage, eight in a litter.
Cat—Extreme age, eighteen years.
Fecundity, several litters per year; av
erage, four per litter.
Fish:
Pike—Extreme age, 207 years. Fe
cundity, unknown. (Size of one men
tioned by Y'arrcl weighed 330 pounds,
and was nineteen feet long.)
Herring—Extreme age, four j-ears.
Fecundity, couutless thousands yearly.
Oviparous animals:
Ostrich—Extreme age, 120 years. Fe
cundity, few eggs yearly. Sun per
forms in hot elimnte the function of
sitting in six weeks.
Dove—Extreme age, ten years. Fe
cundity, almost continuously. Sits
upon eggs ten days.
Plants:
The Sequoia glgontes In California
measures ninety-nine feet in circum
ference ana is 300 feet high; age per
rings, 430 years.
Very many annual and biennial deli
cate in strength, small in size, living
only one or two years.
The rule of large organic structure
and late life holds good when applied
to the human race. Our centenarians
were not nil large men; some were
only of medium stature; some below It.
Still, the rule of organic structure, as
found in animals, will be borne out in
tne human family. Not essentially
when viewed in a single example, but
truly so when the rule is applied to the
class they sprung from collectively.
It is the order of the species we must
study, not an Isolated specimen, hut it
is only by an average tnut the fact he
comes pronounced.
Thus we have nations of small stat-,
lire ivho are short lived. These I have
divided into three groupings*
Group "A" Races smallest sized
men and women and short lived: Es
kimo. Mongol, Burmese, Siamese, Jap
anese, Jukaghrites, Koriakites, Benga
lese, Javanese, Malays, Hottentots.
Group "B"—Races moderate sized
men and women and longer lived: Chi
nese (South race), Georgians, Arabs
Turks, Syrians, Egyptians, Italians,
Spaniards, French.
Group "C"—Races largest sized men
and women and longest lived: Chinese
(Tartar race), Scandinavians, English
Russians, Finns, Bulgarians, Irish.
Scotch, Germans.—Albany Argus.
Practical Economy.
It is a pity so many people "shy" at
the word economy—those at least who
ace well provided with this world's
goods—and that, merely because they
choose to think it synonymous with
stinting, though tills is not the real
meanlug of the word. In the same way
plenty is often looked upon as waste,
yet there Is a vast difference between
the two. lint the amount of waste
that goes on even in the best regulated
households where the mistress and scr
nuts have i.ot set their minds on
i lighting against It is incredible; waste,
not always wilil'ul, certainly, or likely
to cause the favored ones any serious
discrepancy in the year's total, though
It is never desirable, and becomes a
positive danger for such as have to
reckon their weekly expenses pretty
closely. For every housewife, of high
or low degree, there is a duty which
should stand pre-eminent, viz.: thai
of checking waste in order to provide
her establishment with the maximum
of comfort with economy—that econ
omy which implies order, regularity,
cleanliness and daintiness, according
to her means, ami without allowing
of countenancing carelessness and in
difference, which often go a long way
to make everybody discontented whilst
they materially Increase the dillieul
ties of home bookkeeping.—Philadel
phia Ledger.
Our I'ailrnnd Kil RB.
A railroad president and a United
States Senator were talking about liov
ernment ownership of railroads.
"I believe," said the Senator, "that it
would he a good idea for this Govern
ment to buy and operate all the rail
roads in the United States."
"Well," replied the railroad presi
dent, smiling significantly, "if the Gov
ernment lias the money to pay for 200,-
000 miles of railroad, with an aggre
gate capitalization of nearly $5,000,-
000,000, I can point out the shop where
most of the goods can he bought."
"The shop?" echoed the- Senator, in
quiringly.
"That is what It amounts to, Sena
tor. There are seven or eight men that
control all the railroads of the United
Stairs, and most of them can he found
In New York City on any business
day."
"Who are they?" the Senator asked,
eagerly. . • ... /', ' ,
"Propounded in Wail Street, or In
any assemblage of well-informed rail
road men, this question will invariably
elicit mention of these names:
,T. I'lerpont Morgan, W. K. Vandcrbilt,
E. H. Harrlman, George J. Gould,
William Itockefeller, Jacob H. Sehiff,
James J. Hill, A. J. Cassatt."
—Ainslee's Magazine.
Testing Fireproof Stairs For Flats.
In Frankfort, Germany, official tests
have been made of fireproof stairs for
apartment houses. Fires fed with a
material which gave forth an Intense
heat were built in the yard of one of
the fire department houses, and over
these fires the stairs were placed. The
longest resistance was shown by the
stairs which had a covering of plaster,
and it was found that they could he
used twenty-five minutes after the fire
was started. The stairs covered with
fireproof paint were made of so many
different materials and of such vary
ing strength that no definite results
could he arrived at, hut they were
serviceable after five or ten minutes
in the heat. Of the stairs of wood
and not covered with fireproof paint,
those of oak withstood the fire the
longest.
Defends Newspaper Heading,
In his attitude toward the daily press
Lord Kelvin presents a curious con
trast to Bishop Creighton, whose ig
norance of journalism has been re
ferred to in this column. To an Inter
viewer who asked him whether he
read a great deal Lord Kelvin a little
while ago made the rather startling
reply that he had not read a book for
thirty years. "I read nothing but the
daily papers. Well, perhaps that Is an
overstatement: it may not be thirty
years, but it is a long time. Of course,
1 am continually referring to hooks,
hut I have not the time for steady
reading, except the daily papers, and
I feel especially bound in crises of our
history to study the course of events."
Compare this with Mr. Balfour's
statement: "I never read the papers!"
—London Chronicle.
An Automatic Ticket Machine.
Recent experiments by railway offi
cials in Berne with an automatic ticket
machine, invented by a Swiss, have
given entire satisfaction, says a Berne
correspondent. The machine Is similar
to the ordinary automatic machines,
but the glass cases contain the tickets
on which are printed the names of the
stations and the price of the ticket.
By dropping in the right amount and
pulling a handle the ticket is set flee.
The machinery is so well constructed
that an insufficient sum of money or
any base coins will not work the
spring, and there is no danger of the
purchaser losing the whole amount.
Over 3,000,000 of the American pop
ulation are said to be in annual need
and actually receive some kind of char
itable assistance.
IA VERY COSTLY TARGET?
£ *
Keproductlon of n War Ship That £
Will Cost it Fortuno to Bo
Used as a Mark. da,
<*? JT
K vOJ-rVv-if v *
Our naval experts are making ready
to test a new gun and a new explosive
in very elaborate fashion. No old war
ship being available, the Brooklyn
Naval Yard has received orders to
make a dummy vessel, at a cost of
$•70,000 or $75,000, the side of which
is to be an actual duplicate of an actu
al man-of-war.
This costly target, says the New
York Journal, will be used to test one
of the new twelve-inch rifles such as
are now being installed on our latest
battleships.
Upon this floating target will also
he trained the new Gathman torpedo
gun. One from this frightfully
destructive weapon may blow the
dummy war ship into splinters.
Naval officers are now discussing the
question of what avail it would be if
the armor were of the finest quality if
a shot striking it should drive it bodi
ly ir.to tlie sido of the ship or so strike
and injure it as IU permit large quan
tities of water to enter. It is thus
evident that the quality of the armor
is only one element of the resisting
power of the ship's side.
CT" I "
I, L CTn „
.. * J
FLOATING TARGET SHOWING FULL SIDE OF A BATTLESHIP.
j ■
Armor must be held and supported
by suitable framing like that forming
the ship's hull and of sufficient
strength so that It shall nt least resist
any serious injury until the armor is
actually pierced through and through,
and in the latter case the damage to
the framing should be local only.
The special point that it is hoped to
settle in the coming test with the big
target is to note how a shot from the
torpedo gun will affect the ship's side
nbout the water line. For a consider
able portion of her length a ship's side
is protected by a belt of armor extend
ing from three feet above to four and
one-half feet below the water line.
The upper portion of this armor Is
fourteen inches thick down to a point
one foot below the water line, below
which it decreases to seven inches at
the bottom. The armor is bolted to an
elaborate system of framing forming
the portion of the hull. It is the effi
ciency of this framing that is to form
the object of the coming test. For this
purpose the target is now being de
signed by Captain Capps. It will
represent part of thg side of the bat
tleship lowa.
All tills structure and wall of armor
when complete will be mounted ou a
big float and towed out to sea oft San
dy Hook.
When viewed broadside on it will
look like a small section of the bat
tleship lowa. But looked at from be
hind or from either end it will pre
sent the curious form shown in the
diagram. Several years ago the French
Government built a dummy represent
ing the complete side of a war ship
as a floating target. Our new target
is modeled after that.
The Gnthman gun which is to be
trained ou this miniature enemy has
a huge barrel with an eighteen-inch
bore, but the gun Is shorter and light
er than our twelve-Inch naval guus. It
has just lately been completed nt a
cost of .fGj.OUO at the Bethlehem
(Penn.) iron works, and is to hurl gun
cotton shells.
One shot from the Gnthman gun is
expected to sink the biggest war ship
afloat.
Twice a year, in the first week in
April and October, the Chinese carry
food to their dead.
THE AMERICAN STEEL INDUSTRY.
WSPMh ■:% !ljj
U~K>:iy-.vfb f- - ; -Y • •
;
THE PAY-CAR AT THE HOMESTEAD WORKS.
—l'rom Harper's Weekly.
Driving an Knglne by T.lgbt of Snn.
People in Bos Angeles are much ex
cited over the apparent success of the
machine recently built there by Bos
ton capitalists to harness the rays of
the sun and make them work a steam
engine.
They have built a huge "sun mo
tor," which pumps up water for irri
gation purposes. The sun motor looks
like an inverted umbrella,. consisting
of a reflector thirty-three feet six
inches across the top, lined with rows
of small mirrors. These reflect the
sunlight, concentrating it upon a small
boiler in the centre, in which steam is
generated.
This, after all, is only a modifica
tion of the huge sun motor built by
Ericcsou and set up in Boston, many
years ago, the boiler in that case being
a long tube running longitudinally
with the mirror. Whether the heat
from the sun can compete with the
heat from coal, from an economical
standpoint, is, however, doubtful. On
a cloudy day the sun motor would
have to go out of business altogether.
Perhaps at Los Angeles, which is in
the sunny land, more sunshiny days
will be found than anywhere else on
earth. In these latitudes there would
be many days in the year when such
an engine would bo altogether useless,
while a coal engine would be always
reliable.—New York Herald.
File Making Machine on Exhibition.
In the American Museum of Natural
History can be seen some new and in
teresting household utensils from the
Arctic regions.
They belong to a hitherto unknown
race of Esquimaux dwelling on a
bleak and supposedly uninhabited isl
and in the north end of Hudson Bay.
These people have been termed a lost
tribe from their primitive condition
and mode of life. The most remark
able feature about them is the fact
that they stand to-day at the very be
ginning of culture, literally living in
c .
the stone age. They know nothing
of the use of metals, and they possess
not a single article of modern manu
facture tnat has been introduced into
America since the landing of Colum
bus.
One of the most startling objects
found among their effects was a crude
and primitive tire drill, used to start
a flame. This ancient method of pro
ducing lire by friction is the same that
was used a thousand years ago. A
stick of wood swiftly turned in a slot
under a steady pressure produces a
cone of dust, which gradually springs
into a blaze.—New York Herald.
|TO G.AIJV ' |
TEHHITOHy
Kingston, Jamaica, April 4.
The following statement of the
causes leading up to the recently de
veloped boundary trouble between the
republics of Hayti and Santo Domin
go and of the present condition of af
fairs is furnished by persons just re
turned from the island: What is
known as the Dominican republic, or
the republic of Santo Domingo, was
once a province of the republic of
Hayti. In 1544 the internal troubles
and state of anarchy which then pre
vailed (as a result of the revolution
which overthrew the government of
President Boyer, after twenty-five
years in office) facilitated and was the
cause of the secession of the eastern
portion of the island, which then pro
claimed its independence. The exist
ence of the new republic was recog
nized by the Haytien government in
1874. The question of the delimitation
of the frontiers arose naturally from
the fact that the territory of the
Dominican republic is not, and never
has been, defined. The incident that
has recently jeeurred at Phitobert, on
the northern frontier, and which great
ly endangers the friendly relations of
the sister republics, is considered by
the Haytiens to be premeditated
provocation on the part of the Domin
icans. The Haytien posts established
in that district to put down smuggling
and brigandage from over the border
have had to defend themselves against
the repeated attacks. By mutual con
sent the river Massacre, which divides
the Dominican province of Dajabon
(or Baxavon) from Haytien territory
has for a long time been provisionally
accepted by this government as the
natural boundary of the two states.
All the country on the right bank of
the river was acknowledged to belong
to Santo Domingo, while the country
on the left bank was regarded by both
governments as Haytien territory.
And hereby hangs a funny and in
teresting tale. The Dominicans a year
or two ago conceived a brilliant idea.
Knowing that nature sometimes makes
rivers in the tropics change their
courses it occurred to some people re
siding on the right bank of the stream
that they might add considerably to
Dominican territory if they could
manage to effect a deviation in the
| Oil Versus
V CoQk.l
T-i ox* '-* T -' r i'-iX
Ex-Gov. Hogg of Texas, believes that
the discovery of oil in such bountiful
quantity in that commonwealth will
revolutionize the fuel question of the
whole world. He says that the manu
facturers of this country and Europe
have not yet come to a sense of a rea
lization of what the wonderful oil dis
covery and development in the Beau
mont fields means to them. The prob
lem that now confronts the oil pro
ducers of the new district is what shall
they do with the oil.
Seven gushers already in the Beau
mont field is a record which is adding
dally interest in the development in
the new oil region. It seems to be gen
erally recognized that the great value
of the oil Is its quality as a fuel,
placed by natured where It i. capable
of doing he most good to the greatest
number at the least cost of production.
The special advantages which Beau
mont oil has over any other oil in the
world Is in the fact that it can be pro
duced and marketed at r minimum
Co3t. Being produced within eighteen
miles of a seaport, it can be piped
Into tank steamers at a cost so small
as to be almost incalculable, and it
can l>e delivered at the seaports of the
If cuba" is j !
11 v HAPPY|
I .T,-i. - >; til **!'.•<
Gen. Wood, military governor of
Cuba, is in Washington. He says
everything is harmonious in the island
and it is prospering. What is wanted
is the repeal or reduction of the sugar
tax now in force by the United States.
With the former granted Cuba would
embark on a career of unprecedented
prosperity.
As public affairs go they nre in such
a condition that they could be turned
over to the Cubans on forty-eight
hours' notice. Every position not held
by a Cuban has one just below it held
by a Cuban who thoroughly under
stands his American superior's duties.
The tranquil condition of Cuba can
best be understood by the fact that
Gen. Wood's home is only protected
by a single Cuban guard, and one could
journey all over the island without
molestation as well as in the United
States. Highway robberies are not
unknown in Arizona or New Mexico,
and perhaps on a tour through twenty
towns of Cuba they may occur, but
they are a rarity.
In the Pinar del Rio and Puerto
Principe provinces no troops are sta
tioned, and but 4,200 throughout the
entire island. The people appreciate
the change of the last ten years. Two
years ago last January we were issuing
200,000 rations, today not any, except
in the hospitals. There are 180,000
children enrolled for the public schools
when at that time tha-e were but few.
Cf these children 132,''00 altcnu scr.ool,
i It Was Found Nco ;!
< essary To Move a;!
\ River. ;
bed of the Massacre. And no sooner
thought than attempted. Huge boul
ders and trunks of trees were repeat
edly rolled Into the river. This, the
Haytiens say, with the knowledge and
connivance of the Dominican govern
ment. But up to the date of the com
mencement of the present troubles all
such attempts to improve upon nature
proved unavailing. For the Haytiens
on the left bank discovered the little
scheme, and time after time removed
the obstacles iu the river before dam
age was done. However, within a cou
ple of weeks ago, a remarkable thing
happened. The Haytien soldiers at
Phitobert, situated on Haytien terri
tory on the left bank of the Massacre,
retired to rest one night. When they
awoke next morning they looked in
vain for the river. The bed over
which the water had previously flowed
was dry. Investigations followed, and
it was found that the river was flow
ing over a new channel some miles to
the west. Of course the Dominicans
discovered, not that the river had
changed its bed in the course of a
night, but that the Haytien soldiers
had transferred some' substantial
building- some miles into the interior
of San Domingo in the space of a sin
gle setting and rising of the sun. The
Dominican representatives appeared
immediately on what was Haytien ter
ritory the day before and called upon
the Haytien officer to remove his po
sition to the other side of the river.
The Dominican officer who made the
demand expressed the indignation of
his government at the contemptible
action of the Haytiens. The Haytiens,
however, refused to withdraw their
post, calling instead upon the Domini
cans to restore the river to its origi
nal bed. Then the trouble commenced.
There was a clash of arms. The Hay
tiens had the upper hand, and so the
Dominicans agreed to have the whole
matter decided by arbitration. Mean
time, however, the Dominicans are
quietly preparing for war, and there is
a strong feeling in I-layti that there
wlil be a clash of arms before the ques
tion of arbitration is settled. The
Haytien troops along the frontier
have been reinforced and are now
quietly awaiting the coming of the
Dominicans to force them back across
the river.—Philadelphia Times.
| Product of the Tcxa.s
} Field Come
J Into Use for Fuel.
I United States, Mexico, the West Indies,
1 South America and Europe at a cost
! so low that no other fuel can be usol
in competition for steam purposes.
Fuel oil from wells in the Beaumont
field can be piped into the seaboard at
Port Arthur and run into tank steam
i ers at a total cost of production and
transportaion no exceeding ten cents a
| barrel, and as three and one-half bar
j rels of oil are equal to one ton of coal
| for steam purposes, this is equal to the
delivery of coal at the seaboard at a
! cost of thirty-five cents a ton.
| The location is specially advantage
ous for shipment to Mexico and the
West Indies, which arc the largest im
porters of American coal, receiving
, nearly eighty per cent of all the coal
that is exported, excepting that which
1 goes to Canada. In considering the ex
port feature of fuel oil and the advan
; tageous location of the Beaumont field,
| the growing importance of New Or
leans and Galveston as seaports should
not be overlooked. These ports now
stand respectively fourth and fifth in
the value of their exports, which in
each case amount to •more than double
that of San Francisco, and are only
exceeded by New York, Boston and
; Baltimore.
anHBHKHHHUXBSBBisnEB&BBMBi
U
j, £ Her People Want <
8 S Uncle Spin's Pro- S
| ) tection to Gain ?
I £ fUiches. -> )
f jvrW-Tyvro. v-. . KXVJ3T ff,y. T-jig-CTiaiHl
of which there are 3,300, and we have
3,800 teachers. The streets of Havana
and other cities are clean, and there
lias been 110 case of yellow fever in
the former city since March 5.
fin© nn<l Costly Limtlicr.
'i he finest and most costly leather
that Is iu;ed in this country for manu
facturing purposes is known In tho
trade as piano leather. This leather,
so called because it is exclusively em
ployed for covering piano hammers, is
in its raw state an American product,
being the slt'n of the gray deer, which
are found only in tl. ■ vicinity of tho
great Northern and Western lakes. But
as American tanners have not acquired
the art of properly curing the skins,
they have to he shipped to Thuringia,
Germany, to he tanir d before they can
be used by the manufacturers of piano
actions. The German tanners have
agents in the West, who collect tho
deerskins from the Indians and half
breed hunters. When the skins are
returned to the United States as fin
ished piano leather they cost the piano
manufacturers from sls to S2O per
pound. The world's supply of this val
uable and very necessary material is
monopolized by a family of tanners
who own nnd operate six or seven es
tablishments in Gt rmany, the largest
of which are located at Thuringia.—
Washington Star.
An awkward boy is a chip off the
o'.d stumbling block.