A Good Reason for Old Age.
Mrs. Emily Mayhew Osborne, of New York City, celebrated her one hundredth birthday anniversary. She used spectacles, but only to "rest her eyes." On this centenary of her birth she "led her fifteen descendants in a tango step, four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren joining in the applause which greeted this skillful attempt to reconcile Puritan ancestry with modern liberalism." We guess that the "tango" is the exuberance of a reporter's fancy, but we welcome the portrayal of the aged lady's sprightliness, particularly as it was coupled with the reason which Mrs. Osborne gave for the splendid old age which she had attained:
"I have lived to enjoy vigorous old age because of the clean, moral life of my forefathers."
Mrs. Osborne was descended from Thomas Mayhew, the first governor of Martha's Vineyard. This Thomas Mayhew was the first of a succession of five generations of Mayhews, who with great devotion and success labored among the Indians of Martha's Vine yard and the adjacent islands. For one hundred and sixty years, from 1646 to 1806, the members of this remarkable family gave themselves to the secular and especially the religious welfare of their red brothers. One of them, Rev. Experience Mayhew, labored in this service for sixty-four years, up to the age of eighty-five. Another of this goodly succession lived to be eighty-nine years old, and Governor Mayhew died at the age of ninety-two. Verily true of the Christian are the words of Isaiah's Messianic prophecy: "He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."
Among the things for which I am most profoundly grateful are my godly ancestors. Among my most earnest prayers is this, that I may carry on the noble succession. This much we may wisely take from the ancestor worship of the Chinese, that we may reverently acknowledge our debt to the strong men and women of the past, who have put so much health into our bodies and souls. You also owe this debt, do you not? Then pay it by noble living in your turn!