than the female. Hence the more tranquil habits and greater predominance of the moral nature in women increases their longevity, while the greater indulgence of the passions and appetites, the greater muscular and intellectual force among men, are hostile to longevity. Hence the establishment of a true religion, or the application of the “New Education,” will greatly increase longevity. It will also be increased by greater care of health in manufacturing establishments, and by diminishing the hours of labor; for exhausting physical labor not only shortens life but predisposes to intemperance. The injurious effect of excessive toil is shown in the shorter lives of the poor, and is enforced by Finlaison’s “Report on Friendly Societies to the British Parliament,” which says (p. 211) “The practicable difference in the distribution of sickness seems to turn upon the amount of the expenditure of physical force. This is no new thing, for in all ages the enervation and decrepitude of the bodily frame has been observed to follow a prodigal waste of the mental or corporeal energies. But it has been nowhere previously established upon recorded experience that the quantum of sickness annually falling to the lot of man is in a direct proportion to the demands upon his muscular power. So it would seem, however.”

Philanthropists should therefore unite in limiting the hours of daily labor to ten or less. But more quiet pursuits have greater endurance; women keeping house have no ten hour limit, and the editor of the Journal generally gives more than twelve hours a day to his daily labor.

A Negro 135 Years Old.—The St. Louis Globe Democrat says: James James, a negro, and citizen of the United States, who resides at Santa Rosa, Mexico, is probably the oldest man on earth. He was born near Dorchester, S. C., in 1752, and while an infant was removed to Medway River, Ga., in the same year that Franklin brought down electricity from the thunder clouds. In 1772 there was quite an immigration into South Carolina, and his master, James James (from whom he takes his name), moved near Charleston, S. C., in company with a number of his neighbors. On June 4, 1776, when 24 years of age, a large British fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, arrived off Charleston. The citizens had erected a palmetto-wood fort on Sullivan’s Island, with twenty-six guns, manned by 500 troops under Col. Moultrie, and on June 28 the British made an attack by land and water, and were compelled to withdraw after a ten-hours’ conflict. It was during this fight that Sergeant Jasper distinguished himself by replacing the flag, which had been shot away upon the bastion on a new staff. His master, James James, manned one of the guns in this fight, and Jim, the subject of this sketch, with four other slaves, were employed around the fort as general laborers. Jim followed his master throughout the war, and was with Gen. Moultrie at Port Royal, S. C., Feb. 3, 1779, when Moultrie defeated the combined British forces of Prevost and Campbell. His master was surrendered by Gen. Lincoln at Charleston, S. C., on Feb. 12, 1780, to the British forces, and this ends Jim’s military career.

He remembers of the rejoicing in 1792 throughout the country in consequence of Washington’s election to the Presidency, he then being 40 years of age. In this year his first master died, aged about 60 years. Jim then became the property of “Marse Henry” (Henry James), owning large estates and about thirty slaves near Charleston. On account of having raised “Marse Henry,” Jim was a special favorite with his master, and was allowed to do as he chose. His second master, Henry, died in 1815, about 55 years of age, and Jim, now at 63 years of age, became the property of James James, Henry’s second son. In 1833 the railroad from Charleston to Savannah was completed, then the longest railroad in the world, and Jim, with his master, took a trip over the road, and was shown special favors on account of his age, now 81. James James was ten years of age at his father’s death, and when he became of age he inherited large estates, slaves, etc., among whom were “old Uncle Jim” and his family. James James in 1855 moved to Texas with all his slaves. He desired that his slaves should be free at his death, and in 1858 moved into Mexico, so that they could be free before his death. James returned to the United States and died in Texas, and in 1865, after there were no longer slaves in the United States, Uncle Jim’s children and grandchildren returned to the United States. Five years ago, at the age of 130, Jim could do light chores, but subsisted mostly by contributions from the citizens, but for the past two years, not being able to walk, he remains for the most part in his little jacal, his wants being supplied by generous neighbors. The rheumatism in his legs prevents him from walking.

So many cases of great longevity have recently been announced, that their detailed publication would be tedious. The New York Sun says: “A town in Cuba prides itself upon being the home of eleven women, each of whom is over 100 years of age.” According to the census of Germany, December, 1875, there were 160 persons over 100 years of age, of whom there was one woman of 115 years, and another of 117, one man of 118, and another of 120. Our own country has a better record of longevity than this.

Let us rest content with the fact that the world has many centenarians, and that we too are free to live a hundred years, if our ancestors have done their duty in transmitting a good constitution, and we have done our duty in preserving it.