y taking
in washing. She is of the opinion that "we are now living in the last
days"; that, as she interprets the "signs", the "end of time" is drawing
close. Her conversion to Christianity was the result of a hair-raising
experience with a ghost--about forty years ago, and she has never--from
that day to this--fallen from grace for as "long as a minute".

To know "Aunt" Mary is to be impressed with her utter sincerity and, to
like her. She is very proud of one of her grandmothers, Edie Dennis,
who lived to be 110 years old, and concerning whom a reprint from the
Atlanta Constitution of November 10, 1900, is appended. Her story of
Chuck, and the words of two spirituals and one slave canticle which
"Aunt" Mary sang for her interviewer, are also appended.

AUNT EDIE DENNIS HAS
REACHED GOOD OLD AGE

--SPECIAL--

(FROM ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
NOVEMBER 10, 1900.)

Quite a remarkable case of longevity is had in the person of Edie
Dennis, a colored woman of Columbus, who has reached the unusual
age of 109 years of age and is still in a state of fair health.

Aunt Edie lives with two of her daughters at No. 1612 Third Avenue,
in this city. She has lived in three centuries, is a great-great
grandmother and has children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren
and great-great-grandchildren, aggregating in all over a hundred
persons. She lives with one of her "young" daughters, sixty-six.

Edie Dennis is no doubt one of the oldest persons living in the
United States. Cases are occasionally reported where 105 years is
reached, but 109 years is an age very seldom attained. A wonderful
feature of this case is that this old woman is the younger sister
of another person now living. Aunt Edie has a brother living at
Americus, Georgia, who is 111 years old.

Notwithstanding her great age, Aunt Edie is in fairly good health.
She is naturally feeble and her movements are limited. Even in her
little home, from which she never stirs. Although she is feeble,
her faculties seem clear and undimmed and she talked interestingly
and intelligently to a Constitution reporter who called upon her
recently.

Aunt Edie was born in 1791, just eight years before the death of
George Washington occurred. She was a mother when the war of 1812
took place. The establishment of Columbus as a city was an event of
her mature