HOW TO LIVE TO 150.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 330, 17 June 1911, Page 9

HOW TO LIVE TO 150.

MR. EDISON'S PLAN. Mr. Thomas Alva Edison, the famous inventor, who disbelieves in the immortality of the. soul, declares in an interview his conviction that the human body is a machine which, if properly treated, is capable of sustaining life in comfort and enjoyment for 150 years. He stated that lie himself expects to live to that age. The inventor's confession of his expectations of a long life was elicited by a controversy started by Mr. .1. 0. Stubbs, of Chicago, a friend and

business associate of the late Mr. E. H. Harriman, who announces that he will retire on his 05th birthday. Mr. Stubbs declares: "I am going to retire because 1 want to live," and adds, "all business men ought to retire at 05 for their own sakes as well as for tne sake of the institutions they serve." According to Mr. Stubbs, the reason Mr. Harriman died at a comparatively early age was that he "worked all day and thought out problems at night." Mr. Edison received an interviewer at his Orange laboratory in New Jersey at the conclusion of a week during wiiich he. had worked 17 hours a day, including one stretch of 48 hours. "I 'can think, he observed,, "twice as much and work twice as long as Mr. Harriman did and Mr. Stubbs does. This is due to the fact that my system of living is based: (IV On proper eating; (1) proper sleeping; (HI on proper clothing. "Why did Mr. Harriman think in bed? Because ho ate too much. Mr. Stubbs and others of his ilk eat as much, though not as wholesomely, as a hod-carrier, without taking any exercise. They choke their engines with too much coal. I eat just as much as 1 want, and that is very little, perhaps half a handful of solids at each meal. The result is that I am asleep 30 seconds after my head hits the pillow. Air. Harriman' spent four out of eight hours in bed Ihinking and dreaming. I am in bed for six hours, and all of it. is good solid sleep. I never dreamed in my life. "I am now 114, and can work and think belter than ever I did. This talk of retirement is bosh. I have worked since I was \i, and hope to continue working until T am 150. My Paradise is here on earth. "My physical condition i-; perfect. This is also due in part lo lie. fa el that I clothe mvM'lf sensibly." Mr. Edison here kicked oil' a slide two sizes (00 large, and exclaimed with a chuckle: "So with trousers and shirts. Evcry vein and artery is thus given a, chance to do its work, for none of them is ever pinched. Bacteria starve in my system. They have abandoned the job of tryiii" to fasten Bright's disease, diabetes and other sicknesses on me. What vice have T? Well, chewing tobacco. My wife used to object to thi:, but since she learned that the Chief Justice has the same habit she is resigned and thinks it respectable."