The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-11-08

laughing faces that ran to meet me-
Tommy put by my cane; Nellie draws up
my easy chair; Joe gets my slippers and
puts them on my feet; and then the ac-
Gordon is brought for grandpapa, and I
forget my tolls amid the dance, and l
grow young again for the morrow.
"Aye, madam" said the old man of
threescore and FIVE, turning to Bettie's
mother, "it is not nonsense to be cheerful
and merry, to keep the spirit fresh, while
the body bears the bufeting of the winds
of the hour. The whirlwind may tear
the branches, and the lightning seattle the
trunk Of the old tree, but if the heart be
sound it will still bring fofth the bud and
blossom to the last, or put forth the green
leaves of its youth till the winds lay it low.
"No no; it is not nonsense to be mer-
ry and cheerful. Let your children be
joyful. Frown not down the exuberance
of cbildood and youth beneath the forms
of dignity, or the monotony of utilitarian
ism. Let it bubble and sparkle and glow,
long as it flows in right channels.
"The brook that dances through the
valley, singing its accompaniment to the
birds and the flowers, make all brighter
by its presence. But dam its sunbright
waters, and they will become stagnant
and impure, or overleap their barriers,
carrying evil and destruction with them.
~ am threescore. and five. l have
lived in the old world and the new. In
the village and in the great metropolis of
the civilized nations. My trade led me
into the houses of the lord and the peasant,
the merchant and the mechanic-my love
of investigation into the prison and the
poor house, the school and the haunt of
vice.
"I have watched the child upon the
street, and in the drawing room, in the
crowded city, the quiet village and the
wildwood home. Half of my threescore
years were spent in England, half in the
"Land of the West," in its new houses of
village, town, city and country; and |
have come to believe that large proper
tion of the vices of humanity are the out
growth of restricted virtues.
The pent up streams of nature have be-
come turbid and vile, through unnec6ssa-
ry and uncomfortable bondage. Some
of the worst of crimes, if traced back to
their beginning, will be found to originate
in the best feelings of the human heart.
Cold, unsympathisiDg harshness has turn
ed sweet into bitter, and rendered life
accurst. Many boy has found his ruin
in the brothel, or at the gaming table,
because his father was too dignifed to
make himself agreeable to his young COM
ions at home, or too severely pious to
shorten the hours and temper the impet-
uosity of youth by joining in the evening
game, or merry dance at the fre-side.-
Many a mother has Seen her daughter 60
down to destruction, or wean out miser
able life, because she could not conde-
scend to make one of the evening party,
or take an interest in the sport or amuse-
ments of her child, thus bringing her in
to nearer and closer relations with her
self than the endearments of parental love
could ever do, while the cold, formal bar
riers of proud dignity and sobriety are
kept between them. The people of this
country assume old age even in the very
prime of life, and it is not unfrequent to
find men, and women, too, bowed and
broken at thirty-fve. Ere sixty winters
have bIeached their locks, or cooled the
warm current of life, they cease to be
useful to themselves or others. This
would not be so much matter, if they
would cease to be annoying; but their
life is spent in drawing dark lines over
every beautiful picture; and in their deep
groanings and disconteuts, they became
the scare crows of old age to all the young.
No wonder it has become popular,
though vulgar saying, often in the mouths
of both young and old in this country
"'Go it while you're young;'
and no wonder that Young America rush
es headlong into pleasure, and like the
bee in the sugar, bowl, takes surfeit at
once. For the teaching and practice of
age are 700 often that
"' When you're old you can't
II would rather be the blind fiddler in
the chimney corner, who gives innocent
life and mirth and JOY to the house. than
the sonbre statesman or learned philoso-
pher. whose presence brings hush of
mirth; whose eye makes the young heart
tremble; and whose cold stern life makes
laughter-loving childhood exclaim-'Ob,
may I never grow DID,
The merry old man played
Life let US CHERISH"
while the little ones capered with glee,
and the gentle mother smiled her thanks
for the lesson of wisdom, drawn from tho
experience of