A happy illustration showing how the last years of a long life can be spent in contentment and business activity, I find in the New York Tribune. In 1897 the paper noted the fact that deacon David E. Cushing of Cambridgeport, Vermont, had kept the same store for fifty-four years, and hoped to make it full three-score. This item brought an immediate response from Mr. Thomas Cooper of Philadelphia, who, writing the Tribune, said:

"Bah! Cushing is only a boy. I have conducted my business in my store, No. 3 North Front Street, for over sixty-six years, have passed eighty-seven summers, and can do a boy's work yet. I have taken the Tribune ever since it was first issued fifty-seven years ago. I may have the privilege of voting for President in 1900."

Practical people will be pleased to know that Mr. Cooper had the pleasure of voting for President in 1900, and that as late as 1903 he was still selling brushes at the old stand on North Front Street.

For another fine example of faithful devotion to business from young manhood to ripe old age we can turn to the life of Moses C. George of East Boston, Massachusetts, who has operated one lathe for the Manson Lumber Company for fifty years. He claims that his youthful face and figure are due to temperate habits; but his intimate friends say that cheerfulness, an even temper, and absolute freedom from any sort of worry have made him young in appearance and happy in life.

Another striking career of long continuous business activity is that of Mr. L. G. Hurlbut of Gardiner, Maine. When I heard from him a few months ago he had worked fifty-five years at the shoemaker's bench, and was yet serving some of his earlier customers who began to patronize him more than forty years ago. During his life of eighty-three years, Mr. Hurlbut has worked at no other trade than that of shoe making. It pleases the young old gentleman to have the fact known that the pincers he has used constantly for fifty-five years are one hundred and twelve years old. Though never owning a house, he and his wife have lived happily in the same small cottage for more than fifty years. His life is made enjoyable by contentment. He is rational in his mode of life, has formed many friendships, enjoys the advantages of a remarkable memory, and is satisfied that the life he has lived is worth while.

An interesting character among those who find comfort in longevity and constant occupation, is Mr. Henry A. Hinckley of Boston. He has the distinguished honor of being the oldest clock-maker in the United States. He was born at Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1810, and was apprenticed to a Boston clock firm at the age of fourteen years. Before he was sixteen he made a clock twenty-three inches high in eight hours and fifty-five minutes. When his apprenticeship terminated he made three voyages on a whaler on the Northern Pacific which occupied eleven years. In 1847, Mr. Hinckley returned to Boston, and two years later built the famous electro-chronograph for Professor John Locke, which was subsequently purchased by Congress for $10,000 and placed in the United States Naval Observatory.

It was unusual for a man over fifty years old to secure enrollment in the volunteer service in the Civil War; but Mr. Hinckley was successful in enlisting in the Forty-fifth Massachusetts, and after two years of participation in the war, was discharged. When ninety-four years old he enjoyed much of the vigor of his earlier days. He was still at work, normally and healthfully himself, cheerful, sleeping well, and playing the violin, singing many of his favorite songs with old-time unction. He has not permitted Father Time to take from him the spirit and loves of his youth.

Men and women usually obtain what they aspire after. It is the constant striving for the highest possibilities commensurate with our varying conditions and abilities that makes longevity healthful. I have in mind another modest and venerable tradesman who furnishes striking evidence in this matter.

Amariah V. Haynes of Woburn, Massachusetts, became an octogenarian several months ago. He has worked at harness-making for sixty-one years without an interruption, and at the writing of these pages he confidently expects that several years more will be pleasantly spent astride his favorite stitching-horse. That he might enjoy good health and be able to work steadily, Mr. Haynes' habits have been distinctly temperate. He tells me that he has never lost a day from his business on account of illness.

Mr. Haynes is religiously cheerful and hopeful. He says he lives to get the most out of life, and in this matter he is very successful. One characteristic of the man is worthy of mention. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for thirty-eight years, and it is his boast that in all that time he has never been absent from a meeting of the lodge. Once when he was confined to his home with a sprained ankle, his fellow-members, in order that he might maintain his exceptional attendance record, called at his house and carried him in their arms to the lodge room.

Perhaps the most remarkable career achieved by any locomotive engineer in the railway world is that of Mr. Benjamin S. Moore. In March, 1904, he celebrated the fifty-third anniversary of his employment in such capacity on the Central Railway of New Jersey. Fifty-five years ago he became associated with the company and only a few months since had a firm grip on the lever of a switch engine at the Elizabethport shops. Mr. Moore is described as being healthy and active, and when questioned as to his habits of life, he said that his success in holding his responsible position for more than half a century could be ascribed to his love of his work, a contented mind, a faithful discharge of his duty, and good digestion.

In September of last year the citizens of Washington Court House, Ohio, united in paying honor to the Hon. William Millikan, who had reached his ninety-eighth year. At that time he was editor of the Fayette County Herald, and was the oldest editor in the United States. His business activity included about eighty years, and yet the weight of almost a century of life was not heavy enough to compel him to throw aside the responsibility of editing his newspaper. Mr. Millikan has been temperate in all things, is a plain liver, has taken abundant exercise, and finds enjoyment in his extreme old age.

The career of Mr. Jeremiah C. Lotz has recently attracted much public attention. Forty-two years ago he was appointed from Indiana to a position in the counting department of the internal revenue bureau at Washington. He has been continuously in the revenue service since that time. It seems that his plan of living has not been of the common or indifferent sort. At the right time he began to adopt such a mode of life as would not only insure good health and prolong his days, but make his usefulness secure. In both a physical and mental sense, Mr. Lotz is now reaping the results of a well-ordered life. He is also enjoying the distinction of being one of the most trustworthy officials in the internal revenue department. Although he is over eighty years old, he reaches his desk promptly at nine o'clock every morning, and for forty-two years there has been no exception to this rule.

The simple life, the constant activity, and the longevity of these modest workmen suggest a few lines from Holmes: "By temperance and good habits of life, proper clothing, and sufficient exercise, the old man of our time may keep his muscular strength in very good condition. I doubt if Mr. Gladstone, who is fast nearing his eightieth birthday, would boast in the style of Caleb, that he was as good a man with his axe as he was at forty, but I would back him - if the match were possible - for a hundred shekels, against that over-confident old Israelite to cut down and chop up a cedar of Lebanon."