Life in London.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3135, 21 February 1889, Page 3

Life in London.

Is London growing bettor or worse? The question has been asked despondently enough in tbo face of recant .revelations; but in the lettur of Mr Geol'go Mctfrce iu the Daily News we have an K|swer cheery enough. Mr McCree has been for forty years a . worker among the London poor, and - is on nodding terms with about half the "criminal classes," "Lifo in London," says this energetic optimist, "is sweeter and purer than it over ~ was," and he quotes the People's "Palace, the Children's Dinner, the Blue Ribbon, the Board school (which has given us boys and girls far superior in mannor and morals to any . London ever had fcoforo), ragged . refuges for women, tho cheap excursion trains, tonic sol fa \jP'Bging, flower growing, increase of sympathy between rich and poor, teinperancq halls, public baths, treatment of animals, street language, and other signs of improvement, This from a practical worker is cheering, . but much of it is rather saying that London "ought to be" better tliun it «> is.

Centenarianism. The late Sir G. Cornewall Lewis maintained, in the face of everything to the contrary, that centenarianism was a myth. But had he lived at the present time, his belief roust have been shaken by the' well-authenti-cated instances within recent years of persons who have exceeded the age of one hundred. Turing 1888, the . Ages of centenarianism. which have subjected to careful investigation, amounted to twenty-eight. Of these, John McDonnell, an Irishman, who claimed to have served in the rebellion of 1798, was the patriarch, having attained at his death ;the extraordinary age of 112 years. Scarcely less wonderful was the ' Maidstone lady who lived to be 105, She remembered Nelson sailing for Trafalgar, and was on board' the Victory at Chatham before the vessel departed. The mo3t celebrated living instance of centenarianism is M, do Chevreul, the chemist of Paris, whose 103 rd birthday occurred during last year. 'l'wo Irishmen, aged ' respectively 112 and 105, are said to be living iu County Limerick, and the Protestant Rector in Cork died on December 31st, having completed 107 years. All these cases prove the fallacy of Cornewall Lewis' assumption. They also tend to give credence to the belief that a well-regulated life, free from care and annoyanco, may after all, in any country, be leyond the limit of one <fHhdred years.

Stanley's Nationality. " One who Knows Better" writes to the Times: "Ono who Knows" has been strangely misinformed as to the original name and early history of Mr Henry 11. Stanioy. . liis birthplace was not Mold, hut Denbigh, where be was bom on Thursday, /jfenuary 28th, 1811. His mother, fltyiom I well knew, was the daughter of a. butcher in that town, and his father, John Rowlands, was a farmer who lived at Segrwyd, in the near vicinity, Tho child was a grejt. favorite with his maternal grandfather, who somewhat prophetically named him "Fy nhyn dvfodol i," that is, "My man of the future." When he was hve years old his grandfather died suddenly; as his daughter desscribe/it, " ho fell dead in the garden." home was broken up and the was placed with one Richard Price and his wife, who lived in the Bowling green in Denbigh ' Castle, Shortly afterwards the son of this man, also named Richard Price, carried him on his back from Denbigh to the St. Asaph Union Workhouse, where he wa3 brought up and bore tho name of his father, John Rowlands. His subsequent career may be read in a little book publishod some years ago by Mr Camden Hotten, of Piccadilly, entitled, if I recollect aright, 11 H. M. Stanioy, Story of his Life, by Cadwalladr Rowland." Tho namo of Stanley is derived not, as stated by your conespondent, from a lady who adopted him, but from a storekeeper in whose f service he lived when ho first arrived "Ui America. His mother died in her \ffixty-third year, on March 23rd, 1880, and was buried in the ohiirchffijfc Bodelwyddan, neat' St. ASjt). It is recorded on her coflin plate in these simple words tlwteho was" Mother of H. M. Stanley, tho African exnlorer."