A CENTURY OF DANISH HISTORY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2809, 14 February 1878, Page 2

A CENTURY OF DANISH HISTORY.

A well authenticated case of longevity is reported from Copenhagen. On Wednesday, November 21, there died in that town, at the age of 102 years 11 months 11 days, a Mr Joban Joseph Bongo, a glass dealer and glass cutter by trade, the oldest citizen of Copenhagen. He was born on the 10th of December, 1774, not early enough to have seen Queen Caroline Mathilde before she was carrird to Cronbbrg Castle and sent as an exile to Celle, but still at a time when as a boy he could from eye-witnesses hear the report of the public execution of that Qu~ ;n's unhappy favourite, the once all powerful minister Struencee. He was a youth of over 18 when Louis XVI. was beheaded, a man of i.O at the time of Waterloo and tbe downfall of Napoleon I. Till he was IC3 year old Mr Bonge managed his business himself, and attended in hi* shop, though he had been compelled some years earlier to give up working at the glass-cutter's wheel. On the 10th of December, 1874, he received from the King a decoration, not as a reward for living so long, but as an acknowledgment of an active and honour* able life of no common extent. Even after having completed his century, the old man could be seen every day sitting at the same table in one of the most - frequented cafes of Copenhagen, sipping his tumbler of toddy and glancing at the papers, withered and wrinkled as an over-kept winter apple, but withal hale and healthy, with his mental powers unimpaired, and perfectly able to help himself, even to walk without a stick. Hia death, which was sudden at the last, was ocasioned, rot by any decline of strength, but by a severe cold.