"How I Lived to Be 100."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 18, 22 January 1904, Page 4

"How I Lived to Be 100."

A LIVELY CENTENARIAN. Richard Foskett cclarated his Hundredth birtUlay recently by dancing a hornpipe m *he presence of a Daily M-a.il reporter. It was no more i'.<™vado that made him lilt »J> l,i;i k "g s allu snout > Hj.tt Mixer loi.e O'f living. "Hearty?" Mr Fol fctt luui|>'l«ed at the very idea of being anything else. "Do J. look delicate? Look at this." Then lie begum dancing a hornpipe to tlie accompaniment o( his own melodious whistling. "There are not many men who could do that aI. my wg'_\" he remarked, repeating his performance for the the benefit of itaU'-a-dozLin friends who had just arrived with tlvir ccmtatulations. It is a wise philosophy which Richali.id Foi-fatl practises. "1 tboroughly believe in regular living and a contented mind," Ire said. "That is the groat tiling. 1 alsio advocate work for the man who would live long. 1 worked hard until I was tixty, huit it didn't hurt me. Work only kee-pn one iiv condition. "There is going to he a birthday party to-rtiigiht," the centenarian went on wiit'li the enthusiasm o:' a youth of seventeen. "My desemdaints are coming, and T shall Join in the dancing.'' A GOLDEN RULE. The main who talks about the nnliieal'tihAnetis of London will have to argue awiay the case of Richard Foskett. He was born in White-

ohupcl, artd spent the greater part of Ms life there. Hither Green, the home of hi.". l retirement, is suburban, Rut it is still London, Mr Fosfeett is an advocate of the doctrine of moderation. "Eat (good, jftaiin food an|d plenty of it," he slays, when questioned as to the proper diet for would- I ,* centenarians. "Plain food caln't 'hurt any one. With rujifii'J to tl'.'cohbl, I have always- .studied my desires. If I feel I vvaVi't a little Ivor of spirits I Halve it. M'odeiation in all things hlas been my rule. As you see, lam smoking now. "1 scarcely know' what illness is, tar ain occasional cold is all that I naive skittered. I am still HaWle to oo!d in the heaid, so I always keep my cap on in chilly weather." So Maying, he raised his head cohering anld displayed a heavy crop of long grey hair. Few men have so excellent a memory. He cam recall the terrible winter of 1814, when he saw a fotuiwin hand coach 'diriven over the frozen Thames from Putney to the Tower, umd when a whole bullock was roasted on the Ice. This bale and hearty centenarian enjoys suiyht aw.! hearing of which many a yoWngur main would be proud. He has buji-kd six of his twelve children', anld he followed lvis wife to her last rcsti'i-Jg-pluce thirty years a,gw. 1 have thirty-two tiVa'.vdt'hiildren and twenty greatfifi.iKlchilid.ieii," he says proudly. "It in a good living to be alive." '■•■lS LONG LIFE A BOON ?" The qiiistitmfcivhethor long life is a boon is raised by Mr Theodore Watts-Bunion, the author, who, in cojiveisation with a representative of t'lre Pail! Mall Gitwette," described how Mr SwipJUurne, the poet, was oSUn desiwiildeni when the s;u||iect of lcmyovity was mentioned, because he uhiougiht it was lietter fur a writer to die at the hcigjit of his career, thus preventing the critics from sayi'nig that his last work would not compare with earlier ones. " The last time I met Tennyson," said Air Waitt.v-Diwjl<;'n', "ike was in his eigh-ty-third year, and he said lie felt keenly such a persecution of ab.stu.nl isonw." Mr Oeorge Meredith's case is somewhat the same, avldod the author of Aylvvin. Expressing .his affectionate legiet at Mr Swinburne's illness, "he remarks on the coincidence that he has just been under the doctor's iMnds himself. Lite says the medical men haive '-pulled him through,' and that it is 'an ill service to a maui of seventy-live.' " "I confess 1 can't see why men of this ,'itamj) wlwuulid talk in that strain," conithrued Mr Watts-Dun-tow. "After all, they should reflect that, as tlie generations go on, life is proponing itself. Our forefathers d'kid fa,r too young:, an|d we are recovering the ground they lost. The I*'oj«i!i' age for a man to live is a htiAiidivdi—tlJat. is, under fair conditions." A d'octor well, known in the profession because of his cleverness in keeping old ]>eople aMve, said, "No cue is so happy as a healthy old poison. An old person enjoys a' jofce, a book, or a play more than any one, while the saime |>ers : on' is oil'ten so deaxl to sullering that he Can bear the loai of a oliild with I>erfeet e>.f,ua;ninjity. old ago htts nrany coinjA'iMatiuns. It is so oasy to enjoy and so ejiflicult to suffer.