p. 22 | A Canvasser a Hundred Years Old by I. A. Ford

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 22, 1912

A Canvasser a Hundred Years Old

By I. A. Ford

THROUGH the kindness of one of our tract society secretaries, we received a clipping from the New York Herald of July 8, 1912, containing announcement of the celebration of the one-hundredth birthday anniversary of Mr. George Clinton Paine, of New York, who for the past twenty-five years has been a book agent. We quote from the article as follows:—

"George Clinton Paine will celebrate to-morrow the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth, with his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. . . .

"Mr. Paine walks five miles a day in the pursuance of his occupation, that of a book agent, in which business he has been engaged for more than twenty-five years. His eyesight is excellent, so that he employs spectacles only when he reads fine type; his appetite requires three meals a day to be satisfied; his digestion is all that can be asked for; and on the whole, his appearance might be envied by many a man thirty years his junior.

" 'I attribute my long life to a simple life and to abstemious habits,' said Mr. Paine to a Herald reporter yesterday. 'I smoked, or attempted to smoke, a cigar in 1820, but it made me deathly ill, and I never tried the experiment again. I never drank a drop of liquor unless it was mixed in medicine for fever and ague, which attacked me when I was a young man; and I never chewed tobacco. I am fond of bread and milk, and I consider this a most wholesome diet. I lived in the open, and do so now whenever I can; so that when you ask me for my recipe for longevity, I reply, Temperate habits and the simple life.'"

Evidently Mr. Paine's work as book agent has been a physical blessing to him, as it has given him the opportunity of spending considerable time in the open air. He has continued in this line of work for twenty-five years. His example is worthy of emulation.