Jesse Pomeroy Ends 40th Year in Prison

1916

Notorious Prisoner Longer in "Solitary" Than Any Other "Lifer" in Country.

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Jesse Pomeroy, serving a life sentence for murder, has just completed his fortieth year in solitary confinement at the state prison in Charlestown. Pomeroy is said to have served in solitary longer than any other prisoner in this country, and, unless the commitment order is changed, he will have to be kept in that manner until he dies.

He began his sentence at the age of 16, after having been convicted of diabolical attacks on several small children. In recent years numerous efforts have been made to secure for him the privileges of a "trusty," but all of these have been unavailing.

Numerous attempts at escape have been made by the notorious prisoner, and these, together with his known predilection for taking human life, have influenced the authorities in strictly adhering to the conditions of the original sentence which prescribed solitary imprisonment.

While "solitary imprisonment" is the name given to the punishment Pomeroy is undergoing, it does not mean that he never leaves his cell. He goes out in the yard every day in charge of a guard and spends an hour there. But that is while the other prisoners are at work in the shops. During the forty years that he has been confined Pomeroy has seldom seen the face of a human being other than those of his keepers and of his aged mother, who died several years ago.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

And They Didn't Exercise

1910

William M. Evarts, who lived until he was nearly ninety, said he kept his health by never taking exercise. The celebrated Dr. William George Mead, who lived to the surprising age of 148 years, spent nearly all of his time in the open air and played a little golf. Dr. Mead used to drink two or three quarts of water every day, and perhaps there is a suggestion in that. Old Dubois, who lived in Canada for the better part of 119 years on the north shore of Lake Erie, never worked and never took exercise. He spent seventy-five years of his life fishing with hook and line and ate nothing but baked apples and milk and brown bread and unsalted butter. Perhaps you can live that long if you do nothing but fish and eat what old Dubois did. But take notice that these long livers never exercised. — New York Telegraph.

Oregon's Vigorous Old Men

1902

A well-known citizen of 77 years who had been out in the country, and had a large paper sack of mushrooms in his hand, which he had gathered himself, was standing at the corner of Fifth and Morrison streets, Saturday afternoon, waiting for a car. Another old-time citizen, who will be 80 in a few months, came to the same corner to wait for the same car. The man with the mushrooms exhibited them proudly, and said that they were to be put up in glass, adding that he had bought about 100 pounds in the market, which was already put up, but it was difficult to find really fresh ones. He then asked his friend of 79½: "Where have you been lately? I haven't seen you for a week or so." "I have been busy for a week," was the answer. "I had 12 cords of wood to put in, and it was so hard to find anyone to do it, I concluded to put it in myself." "Did you wheel it in in a wheelbarrow?" asked 77. "No, indeed; I had to carry it up a flight of 11 steps, two or three sticks at a time. I got in six cords in three days and finished the other six this afternoon, and so had the afternoon to come down town." As they boarded the car which came up a stranger, who had overheard their conversation, remarked: "By Jingo! they raise pretty husky old men here in Oregon."

Freaks Entitled to Fame

1919

European Families That Had More Than Ordinary Claims to World's Attention

There is living at Bilbao, Spain, a family of seven who between them possess no fewer than 164 fingers. One of them has 23 fingers, another 21, while of the remaining five each can boast a couple of hands with 12 fingers apiece.

At Koshilivo, Russia, a very similar phenomenon exists in the fifty or more descendants of a peasant with extra fingers on his hands, who married at the beginning of the last century, all of whom are dowered with from one to five fingers in excess of the normal number.

The last surviving member of what was perhaps the record family with regard to weight was, in the person of Charles Atkins, a few years back interred at Harrow, England. He weighed 476 pounds, his brothers, who predeceased him, being no less than 504 and 560 pounds.

The family record for longevity has not been beaten since Robert Parr, the great-grandson of the celebrated Thomas Parr, died in 1737 at the age of one hundred and twenty-four. His father lived to celebrate his one hundred and ninth birthday, his grandfather reached one hundred and thirteen, while his great-grandfather was 152 at the time of his death.

There is mentioned in the Harleian Miscellany a Scotch weaver and his wife who were the proud parents of 62 children, 50 of whom reached their majority.

Large as this family was, its fame pales before that of a Russian, one Ivan Wassilig, who was the proud father of 87. By his first wife he had 69 children in the following order: Four times quadruplets at a birth, seven times triplets and 16 times twins. By his second spouse he had twice triplets and six times twins.

Undoubtedly the record for misfortune belongs to a Belgian family named Adnet. The father, Jean Adnet, was drowned; his wife committed suicide, while of his two sisters one was killed by the kick of a horse and the other by a blow received from a falling scaffold.

Jean Adnet had six children, four sons and two daughters. Of these the latter perished through the overturning of a pleasure boat. One of the sons was stabbed in a drunken brawl, another was crushed to death by a heavy wagon, while the remaining two, who emigrated to America, were slain in 1891 while fighting for Balmaceda against congressists. — Stray Stories.


Don't Sneeze; You May Die

Scientists say that we are never nearer death than when we sneeze, the act causing a momentary convulsion of the brain.

Luck In the Clover

1903

Any one who carries about a four leaved clover will be lucky and will have the power of discovering ghosts or evil spirits. With it under the pillow the lover may insure dreams of the beloved one. A fragment in the shoe of a traveler insures a safe journey. Of the five leaved clover it is declared that if it be worn on the left side of a maiden's dress or fastened behind the hall door the Christian name of the first man who enters will be the same as that of the future husband.

The power of the four leaved shamrock for good is familiar to all, from Lover's once popular and pretty song, the speaker in which pictures what she would do should she find the magic plant:

"I would play the enchanter's part and scatter bliss around,
And not a tear or aching heart should in the world be found."


Centenarian Chances

Taking a million as a basis of calculation, statistics show that at the end of seventy years there will still survive 212,000 out of 1,000,000 persons. At the expiration of eighty years there will be 107,000 survivors of the original million. When it comes to ninety years of existence only 8,841 out of the 1,000,000, or one in 115, will be living. Of the original 1,000,000 only fifty-four will live to see ninety-nine years, or about one person out of 18,500. The century mark will be reached by only twenty-three out of the 1,000,000.

Their Long Span of Life -- "Same Razor Everyday, 53 Years"

1922

London — Setting forth a compilation of the longevity of many of the common-place things in life — things which though soon every day are scarcely given thought — the London Mail points out that the length of useful life possessed by articles of man's handiwork forms an interesting speculation, and one which is full of surprises.

"For instance, an artificial leg had been worn by its owner for sixty years and was still serviceable at the end of that time.

"The average life of a locomotive engine is about twenty years, but there are many cases on record of this term being greatly exceeded. One built in 1846 worked for a period of over fifty years, first as a passenger, then freight, and finally as a shifting engine. Another completed over two million miles, equal to one hundred year's service, on the ordinary basis of twenty thousand miles a year.

"In the year 1913 a town in Wales was using a fire engine which had been in active service for seventy years on end. But this record pales when compared with that of an engine which was still in use at the beginning of the present century by a firm of metal rollers in Birmingham. This, a beam engine, was erected in the year 1767, and worked continuously for one hundred and thirty-six years before it was last pulled down and replaced.

"There is a case on record of a man using the same razor every morning for fifty-three years."

—Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, Jan. 23, 1922, p. 4.


1899

A Long Service

In remote parts of Scotland the old Covenanters' love for long services on the bare hillside still lingers. At Dingwall a recent communion service in the open air lasted from 10 a. m. until 4 p. m. without exhausting the staying power of the congregation.

Beware High Heels, Says a Woman, 95

1920

She Tells Her Sex How to Win Health and Long Life

KANE, Pa. — Low-neck dresses and high-heeled shoes will be avoided by girls who want health and long life, if they take the advice of Mrs. Catherine Sellin of Kane, who has just observed her 95th birthday. Mrs. Sellin came to Kane in 1869 and has not been outside the town's limits since then. She is clear of mind, vigorous of health, and keeps abreast of current news.

"To attain a long life and good health a girl must observe very simple rules," in my opinion," said Mrs. Sellin. "She should eat slowly, breathe deeply, get lots of sleep, never expose her throat in cold weather by wearing these modern low-necked dresses and she should not wear very high-heeled shoes.

"Exercise is important and of all exercises there is none better than digging in the soil. The best thing in the world for a woman's health is to put on loose overalls and work around in the garden. I don't see how girls manage to work at all in some of the strange things they wear nowadays. In the winter, housework is exercise enough."

She's Going To Be 100 — Gets to Bed Early, Doesn't Dance

Syracuse, NY, 1918

Go to Bed Early, Don't Dance and Don't Worry and Live to Be 100

Mrs. Ann Land, Who Will Celebrate 100th Anniversary Next Saturday Says People To-day Are in Too Great Haste.

Says Too Many People Get to the Other Side of the Hill Without Any Reserve to Hold 'em Back.

Mrs. Ann Land of No. 1210 Grape street will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of her birth next Saturday.

"All my life I've followed a set of rules," said Mrs. Land. "They are: Go to bed early. Eat carefully. Don't dance. Don't worry. It's because I've followed them that I'm going to have a birthday it is given few women to have.

"Young folks in this country live in too much of a hurry while they are young. Then when they get onto the other side of the hill they haven't anything in reserve to hold 'em back. They just slip down and get to the bottom quick."

Mrs. Land wasn't born in this country. She came here when she was 35, a bride. Her husband had a brother in this city and Mr. and Mrs. Land came directly here. She has lived in the little house in Grape street sixty-five years.

For thirty years she has been an invalid. Stepping from a street car in the days when the motive power was horses instead of electricity, the car started too soon. She was thrown violently to the pavement and her spine was injured.

But the fact that her legs have been helpless all these years has not impaired her usefulness. She does all the mending for herself and daughter, Mrs. Sarah Henry, who lives with her. She sews rags for carpets and makes ironing holders.

She has never worn glasses and just of late she has confessed to a growing dimness of sight.

"I'm only bothered in threading needles," she added hastily when she told of this affliction. "Sarah threads a lot of them for me and when I've used 'em all I call her to thread more."

She has been a widow since 1864, when her husband, John Land, was killed in the Battle of The Wilderness. She had four children, but all have died excepting Mrs. Henry.

It has always been a source of grief to her that she did not receive sufficient education in her youth to enable her to read extensively.

"In the old country large families educated their boys in those days, and let their girls shift for themselves. I had eight brothers," she concluded simply.

Mrs. Land likes to talk of the days in the old country, when, as she grew old enough, she filled positions as cook in the homes of various personages of high degree, lords and such.

She likes to tell of her trip across the Atlantic, which was her wedding trip, and attended by so many disagreeable occurrences that she never wanted to go back.

"In the first place I was seasick every inch of the way until we got near enough the shores of New Jersey to smell the peach orchards, which were in bloom," she explained.

"There was mutiny on board. A lot of sailors had been shipped at Liverpool and paid full wages for the trip. A day out we ran into bad weather and they made trouble. My husband saved the captain from being shot by knocking down a man who had a pistol pointed at his head. Those men made the remainder of the trip in irons. Maybe a trip isn't so difficult now, but I don't want to take it."

She doesn't understand why the world is at war.

"War is bad business," she said shaking her head. "It makes so much unhappiness and is so useless. It made a widow of me."

She hasn't any ambition to "live to a great age," she declares, but "rather expects she will."

My grandmother was 104 years old when she died. My father was nearly a hundred. All my people lived to be old, so I may as well be resigned," she said.

—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 23, 1918, page 17.

Dr. Z.V. Purdy, Logansport, Indiana, Nearly 104 Years Old

Riverdale, Illinois, 1915

NEARLY 104 YEARS OLD

Still Enjoys a "Shot" and a Chew of Tobacco

Dr. Z. V. Purdy, who resides near Logansport, Ind. returned home Wednesday after a five weeks visit with his son J. Purdy of Harvey. The doctor will be 104 years old if he lives until next March. He was born at Harper's Ferry Virginia, March 5, 1812. He practiced medicine for many years in Kentucky and Indiana before retiring some years ago. He is quite strong for one of his years; his mind is clear and his hearing and eyesight good. The scribe had the pleasure of quite a chat with the old gentleman last Wednesday morning while he was waiting for the Panhandle train at Riverdale. He was accompanied by his sons J. W. of Star City, Ind., and J. Purdy of Harvey. He served nearly six years in the army and carries a silver mounted cane presented to him by Gen. W. T. Sherman at the close of the war.

The doctor takes a little stimulant of whisky toddy about four times a day and always keeps his plug of tobacco handy and uses it frequently. He says he has never taken any great care of his health, but lives "one day like another" and expects to live for many years yet. He is still interested in current events but likes to talk of the old days and can remember dates very clearly.

The scribe has heard and read about people a hundred years old, but this was our first experience to meet and greet a person of that great age. Wonder how many of our subscribers know a man or woman 100 years old. Write us about it if you do.

—The Pointer, Riverdale, Illinois, December 24, 1915, page 1.

Why Married Men Live Long

1916

The reason a married man lives longer than a single man is because the single man leads a selfish existence. A married man can double his pleasures. Any time he has a streak of good luck it tickles him all over, but it makes him feel twice as good when he tells his wife about it. And she is so pleased and proud that he feels like a two-year-old. There isn't a chance in the world of a man's arteries hardening or his heart weakening when he can get a million dollars' worth of pleasure out of making his wife happy. — Cincinnati Enquirer.


Too Thorough

"Why don't you try to make your constituents understand problems of government?"
"That's what I have done," replied Senator Sorghum. "I have been too thorough about it. A lot of them now think that they can give advice instead of taking it." — Washington Star.

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 3.