The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-08-29
COrcerni"y Growing 9ld.

In the August number Of thSt best Of
Magazines, the Eclectic, there is highly
readable article take from the Frassr's
Mdgvsine, called CONCERNING EtowINe
OLD" IL was written by some E,gIis'
clergyman, ard aside from somss'of Us eieri
cal Peculiqrities, has much thatas phioso-
phicrl and instructive. x
We quote passage or two: ?
"Muny Of the most sffecli9s Thought-
which can enter ,he human mud are. con
cefntng the .apss OF Time, aukthe traces
which its I"pse leaves upon the, hHIaad, be-;
ings. There is something whfdE touch s
In the bare thought OF Gro@fs& Old.
know house on certain OF 0se walls
there hangs portraits Of med ers OF the
'smiiy for many years back. AgAis not Il
grand housA, where to .impe minds the
rob.- o. brocada aud the suits. armour Jni /
to carry home the ideas of reot human be-
ing. 1t j. the house Of o not tEealthY gem
tleman. The po'trai's repaesent people
whose mind, did rot run mufh upon deep
Y
specul''io"s or upon prarticsl ~ litics; but
Who no d ubt had many thoughts us to how
they should succeed in getting the ends To
me t. With such people does the writer
reeI at home; with such prdbnbIy does the
majority Of his readers. remember here,
III" portrai, Of frniI old lady, plainly on
the larrherest confines of life. More than
four score years had left their trace on the
venerable head; you could fancy you saw
The aged hands shaking. Opposite, there
hung the picture Of blooming girl in the May
Of beauty. The blooming girl was the
mother Of the venerable Of four score
Paintings catches but q glimpse of time;
but they keep that glimpse. On the can
vass the face never grows old. As Dekker,
has it: "False color last after the true be
a.d." III We looked at The two Picures, in
sort OF reverie. II you ask what it is
that | though, OF in locking at them, truly
c,nnot tell you TIE fresh young beauty
WIS the mohrr; the aged grand dame was
the child; that was reilly all. Bat there are
certain thoughts npon which you can vague,
Iy brood Tor u long time.
You remember reading how upon day
not many years since, qcftanln miners, Work
ing under erourd, camfppon the body Of
poor fellow who bad pefished in the sutfoca-
ting pit forty years bepfe, Some chemical
agent to which the boaa had been exposed.
an agen, prepared in t6e lab,ro,ory Of Ma,
,ure. had effsctualiy affssted the progress Of
decay. They bought 10 the surface. and
'oT ! 'T1fis. ,tBSisd away sfr quah
exposure to the atmoA A,here. it lay there the
, image OF fine sturdy young man. No con
vuIsion hod passed over the face in death,
the features were tranqnil, the hair wss
black as jAt. No one recog iz'd the face;
! a grner ttion had grown up sInre the day IN
which the miner went down his shat for
the last tina. Bat 'ottering old WON II,
who had hurried from her cytIage, ut hear
IL! the news. came up; she ew again the
face which all thes' yeers she Ind never
quite forgot. The poor m1n was to have
been her husband the day after that o, which
he died. They were rough people Of courss
who were looking on; liberal educaation
and refined feelings were not deemed esser-
tial to the mn whose work it is to get up
coal, or even tin; but there were no dry
eyes there when the gray hooded old pill
grim cast herself upon the youthful corpse,
and pou ed cut to its deliea many words OF
pndearment unu' sd tor forty ye'rs. 1t was
a touching cuntrist; the one SO Id, the
! other 80 young They both had been young,
these lolg years ag,; but time had gone on
with the living, aud still with the dend.
The writer considers age in all its draw.
backs and in all its advantages. He is one
evidently o. the sort VIII, have enjoyed well
he days oi his youth yet now thnt he has
advanced in yenrs, there is percep,ible in his
experience a conviction that it is not good
Tor most people to be old, because to be old
is to be helpless, dependent and unhappy, in
most instances. There is this about it, how.
ever, which it seems to us, the writer might
have noted, and that is, that very few peo"
pl. of all the human race live either to be
happy or unhappy in old age. Thirty three
years is the great average, and two or three
times round on your fingers will count up the
old people in most any community.
Here is another quotation however, and it
is paragraph of exquisite sentiment:
The dead are the only people that never
grow old. There was something typical in
arestment OF time in the case Of the youth.
full miner, Of whom we huve already spoken.
Your little brother or sister that died long
ago remains Ia death and 10 remembrance
the same young thing forever. 1t fourteen
years this evening since the writer's sister
left this world. She was fifteen years OLE
then-she is fifteen yet. Ihave grown older
since then by fourteen years. but she has
never changed as they advanced and if God
spares me 10 tours core. never shall think o
her as other than the youthful creature she
faded. The other day listened as poor
woman told OF the death of her first born
child. He was two years old. She had
small wsshiDg-green, across which was
stretched rope that came in the middle
close to the ground. The boy was leaning on
the rope, swinging backwards and forwards,