THE OLDEST MAN IN NEW YORK.
Strangers visiting the Church of the Ascension, in New York, cannot
fail to notice the presence of an old gentleman, who occupies an arm-
chair immediately in front of the chancel, in the middle aisle, and who
gives the responses to the service in a very loud and distinct manner.
This is, perhaps, the oldest man of the entire million of New York city
inhabitants. It is Captain Lahrbush, formerly of the British army, but
for the last twenty years a New York resident. He was born in London,
on the 9th of March, 1765. It is not extravagant to say, that his life
has been more remarkable, embracing more various and extraordinary
experiences, than that of any one now living, in any quarter of the
globe. He entered the military service of Great Britain, October 17,
1789, and fought, under the Duke of York, with the Sixtieth Rifles, in
Holland, in the campaign of 1793. Five years later, he was present when
Humbert surrendered to Lord Cornwallis, at Pallinauck, in Ireland. In
1801, he was with Lord Nelson at the taking of Copenhagen. In 1806-7,
he was an attaché of the suite of Lord Castlereagh, at Vienna; and on
the 22d of June, of the latter year, he witnessed the memorable
interview between Napoleon and Alexander, at Tilsit. During the next
two years, he was with the Duke of Wellington, in the Spanish
peninsula, and was knighted at Talavera, having received promotion for
distinguished gallantry at Busaco. In the year 1811, he was sent to the
Cape of Good Hope, and bore a prominent part in the Caffre war of 1813.
When Napoleon was imprisoned at St. Helena, Captain Lahrbush was
charged with his personal custody, as commander of the guard, a
delicate and responsible duty, which he performed for the greater part
of 1816-17. The following year, wearying of the military profession, he
sold his commission in the Sixtieth Rifles, and retired to private
life, but subsequently went to Australia, in the capacity of
superintendent of a convict station at Cathure; and in 1837, at the age
of seventy-one, removed to Tahiti. From this point he made many
voyages, to the East Indies, to China, and to different parts of South
America. In 1842, in consequence of having taken sides with the
Protestant missionaries against the Roman Catholic propaganda, he was
forcibly removed from Tahiti to France, and took occasion of this
removal to travel on the continent. In 1847, when eighty-one years of
age, he undertook the management of Lord Howard de Welden's estate, in
the Island of Jamaica; and, in 1848, came with his widowed daughter and
grandson to New York. Both mother and child died soon after their
arrival, leaving him, at his advanced age, lonely indeed. But the old
man has lived on, to the present moment, in the enjoyment of
unimpaired, and a truly wonderful degree of bodily health. In 1867, he
celebrated his one hundred and first birthday, at a breakfast in the
house of an eminent gentleman of New York, where many officers and
citizens were invited to meet him. His appearance is that of a hale
man, and, as seen in church, he looks the junior of many others in the
congregation. The most surprising fact connected with the old
gentleman's prolonged life, is, that for many years he was in the habit
of taking seventy-five grains of opium--and, on one occasion, he took
one hundred and fifty grains in a dose. Though he has long abandoned
the use of the drug, he feels certain he could drink half a pint of
laudanum with impunity. Captain Lahrbush is said to retain, with
surprising freshness, the scenes and events of some of the grandest and
most imposing of modern history of which he has been the eye-witness.
He speaks of Blucher as having been very good company, but a heavy
drinker, who swore terribly at Napoleon. Louisa, the Queen of Prussia,
he thought the handsomest woman of her time, and Alexander, of Russia,
the most elegant-looking man in Europe. As for Napoleon, whose face he
had an abundant opportunity to study, he declares that no likeness that
was ever taken of him, conveys the proper idea of his features and
their expression. The closest resemblance, he says, is that of the
coins of the empire, especially the profile upon the five franc pieces.