Old Men

The American College of Surgeons, meeting in Washington last week, grew so indignant about Prohibition,* that they delayed for a day listening to Dr. Charles Horace Mayo tell how to stave off death.

Surgeon Mayo's lecture, finally delivered, was pertinent with the week's news. There had died Brewer George Ehret, 92, whom German bands serenaded as they drank his beer free on his birthdays; Soldier John McCausland, 90, one of the last two Confederate Army generals; Historian James Ford Rhodes, 78; Dr. Edward Wyllys Andrews, 70, an organizer of the American College of Surgeons.

In Manhattan, Professor-Critic Brander Matthews of Columbia University, aged 75, for 25 years an apostle of correct speech, was stricken dumb by thrombosis (bloodclot) on his brain.

In New Jersey, Inventor Thomas Alva Edison approached his 80th birthday (Feb. 11) ; in Bermuda, Dr. Francis Landey Pattton, 84, onetime (1888-1902) president of Princeton, celebrated his birthday; lectured to the local Rota,ry club. Dr. William Williams Keen, 90, of Philadelphia, also celebrated his birthday. John Davison Rockefeller,* 87, played golf in Florida with Soldier Adalbert Ames, 91, last Union Army gen eral. And in Detroit, Soldier Roland, 100, came forward. To memoralize the death of Empress Charlotte, he had put on all his medals, for once he had been a colonel of lancers under her hus band, Maximilian.

Is it true that everybody is living longer than his forbears, and how does that happen? wondered Surgeon Mayo's hearers at Washington. The average length of life was 20 years in 1650; 40 in 1850; 45 in 1875; is 58 now. This improvement is so, he declared, be cause people are learning to take better care of themselves. Said he: "The dangerous age of a woman is from 16 to 18. But the dangerous age for a man is from 50 to 55. If you can't keep your eye on them, lock them up. . . . Gland transfusion is the bunk."

In Philadelphia, 137 miles from Washington where Surgeon Mayo talked, one of these older men, himself a surgeon, made his comments on old age. He was Surgeon William Williams Keen, who celebrated his 90th birthday during the week. Great technician in brain surgery, he has written much on diverse medical subjects; has taught; has fought, in the War. Governments have given him their medals of gratitude, students their adulation. Of old age, he said last week: "It just happened. I have lived a happy life and am fortunate in having made many friends. I love life and I have no sure cure formulas."

And President Samuel Matthews Vauclain of Baldwin Locomotive Works, 70, but called a "successful old business man," said, drily: "Age makes no difference. If a young man has ability and foresight, he will succeed. So will an old man. Age itself is only an incident."

*Said President-elect George David Stewart, regarding Prohibition: "Russia went dry in 1915 and then went crazy in 1917." Of death, he said: "It is the most merciful of all the most merciful provisions of nature." *He preserves interest in current affairs, including the oil market; owns control of the Wheeling & Lake Erie and Western Maryland railroads, which younger men wish to buy.