Workers of 85 and 95 years.

IT is no very uncommon thing to find Life-boatmen able to continue on active service until they have passed the three score years and ten ; but it is not only in the Life-boats that old age shows an active and effective interest in the work of the Service.

In October last the Institution had a letter from its Honorary Secretary at Southampton, Mrs. Walter, in which she said that she had called a meeting of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild to ask for their help in carrying out a Life-boat sale of work. The Guild, however, preferred to organize a whist drive, so Mrs. Walter carried out the sale of work herself, and raised over £30. She wrote of it, "it was a labour of love, and I am never idle a minute; but, being 85 years old, I shall not be able to do quite so much." The latest member of the Ladies' Life-boat Guild is Mrs. A. Barber, of Hindhead, Surrey, who is now in her 96th year. Mrs. Barber is a subscriber not only to Headquarters, but to the Alnmouth and Boulmer Branch, in which she takes a special interest, as she is Northumbrian by birth, and lived in Northumberland for forty years. She writes of those early days : " I have been interested in the North since I once lived there, and one day at Tynemouth, 75 years ago, there was a storm, and we ran to see the ships go into the Tyne. There were no piers then, and we saw one sud- denly go back into the open sea.

The Life-boat put off from the house, and I can see her now pulling over the great waves, and, alas, all in view, the boat went down with all hands before they could rescue it. Excuse me telling you this, but old people do not forget, and even here last week my nurse was reading of the storms at sea. It may interest you to know that I saw Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Edward Prince of Wales open a Station in 1849. I have no power to collect except by writing, but I am planning a quite promising means of raising some more money and interest for the beloved Life-boat Service.".