Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

96 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.
could be written of other venerable men still living. Brougham
lived to his ninetieth, and Palmerston survived to his eightyfirst year. Earl Russell is eighty. Lyndhurst died in his ninety-first year. The French historian and publicist, Guizot, is
eighty-four. The civic and martial chieftains of Germany, who
figured most prominently in the late terrific campaign, are many
of them very old.
Philadelphia has an unusual share of remarkable men still
living between seventy and eighty, and a number even beyond
that great age. The posterity of the well-known merchant,
Daniel Smith, presents a record rarely paralleled. The mother
died in I799, leaving seven children, five of whom are now living. The oldest brother, James S., died in I86I, in his eightyfirst year. Francis Gurney Smith is still living, in his eightyeighth year; also Richard S. Smith, president of the Union
Mutual Insurance Company, who will be eighty-two in August;
Daniel Smith, Jr., was eighty last February; William S. Smith
is seventy-nine; and Charles S. Smith, seventy-two in April.
Mrs. Poulson, the sister, died last year, aged seventy-six. The
six brothers have lived over fifty years each with their wives.
They have lived blameless, useful, and honorable careers as
merchants and as leaders in great public works. What is most
delightful of all is that the wives of four of these gentlemen survive at nearly the same age as themselves. They have all celebrated their "golden weddings." It is not often that a single
family can present such longevity and such unstained and even
distinguished reputations. Like their ancestors, they are truehearted Philadelphians; and he who would gather some of the
most interesting memoirs of the city founded by William Penn,
could do nothing better than to interview the eldest of these
five brothers at his residence on Pine Street, Philadelphia. I
have several times referred to Horace Binney, in his ninety-first
year-in his day among the ripest and ablest lawyers in the
world. General Robert Patterson is the evergreen of his time