TWO GRAND OLD MEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2771, 29 March 1910, Page 3

TWO GRAND OLD MEN.

THEIR AIDS TO LONGEVITY. The fallacious doctrine of "too old at forty” has not been advanced very emphatically during the last year or two. The London correspondent of the "Lyttelton' Times” mentions 1 two instances that would 1 answer any argument based on the idea that a man ceases to be an effective worker when he readies his fifth dtcade. Sir Hiram Maxim, the famous inventor, and Dr. Furnivall, the distinguished scholar, both celebrated their birthdays last month. Sir Hiram, a mere youth of seventy, got up at 6.30 a.m and, spent a sixteen-hour day in work and 'recreation, whilst Dr. Furnivall. a middle-aged man of eighty-five, spent a good part of his day rowing on the Thames and in entertaining young folks at his birthday party. The two men were asked by a newspaper to supply their recipes for long life and success. Sir Hiram Mavim replied with the following rules of conduct: —Avoid tobacco, avoid alcohol, never waste a moment, a.lwavs be anxious to find something to do, be accurate and persevering, rise early • and • retire to bod before midnight. "The man who watches the clock is timing disaster, he added. "Every road leads' somewhere, find out where it ends before you tread it. Don’t be a mere copyist. Do

something no one has done before.” Dr.. Furnivall replied that the secret of a long and happy career lay in never smoking, never drinking, always having a hobby, and reading and thinking. Reading without thought was useless. Tlio basis of recipes for the, elixir of life is, in each case, the non-use of tobacco and alcohol. There are other ingredients which may be added, so to speak, “to tastes,” but both these wonderful old-young men are in agreement that nicotine and' alcohol are inimical to healthy longevity. Possibly they are right, hut it is hard to. avoid the suspicion that the secret of Their wonderful mental and physical endurance is to be found rather in the individuals than in their modes of life, irven if all men were to follow faithfully the rules prescribed by Sir Hiram Maxim and Dr. Furnivall, tlie result would, not be invariably the same.