More
serious theorists or statisticians, while commenting on the
subject of the relative longevity of the sexes, attribute the
supremacy of woman in the matter to the well-known cause, namely,
that in general she leads a more calm and unimpassioned existence
than a man, whose life is so often one of toil, trouble, and
excitement. Setting aside these theories, however, the census of
French centenarians is not devoid of interest in some of its
details. At Rocroi an old soldier who fought under the First
Napoleon in Russia passed the century limit last year. A wearer
of the St. Helena medal--a distinction awarded to survivors of
the Napoleonic campaigns, and who lives at Grand Fayt, also in
the Nord--is one hundred and three years old, and has been for
the last sixty-eight years a sort of rural policeman in his
native commune. It is a rather remarkable fact in connection with
the examples of longevity cited that in almost every instance the
centenarian is a person in the humblest rank of life. According
to the compilers of these records, France can claim the honor of
having possessed the oldest woman of modern times. This venerable
dame, having attained one hundred and fifty years, died
peacefully in a hamlet in the Haute Garonne, where she had spent
her prolonged existence, subsisting during the closing decade of
her life on goat's milk and cheese.
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