The Lincoln County herald., 1870-02-10
Old Ladies'.
From the Saturday Review.

all time, an old woman has been taken to
xpress the last stage OF usefulness and ex.
haustion and while meeting OF ofbearded
dotards goes by the name Of a council Of
sages, and its deliberations are respected
accordingly, a congregation ofpalsied ma.
irons is nothing bu. a congregation Of old
women, whose thoughts aud opinions on
any subject whatsoever, arc Of no more
value than the chattering Of so many
maepies. In fact, the poor old ladies
have hard time of it; and If we look at
it iu its right light, perhaps nothing
proves more thoroughly the coarse flavor
of the worlds esteem, respecting women,
than this di.dair which they excite when
they are old. And yet what charming
old ladies one has known at times-wo
men quite as charming in their own way
at seventy as their rAnd-daugh,ers are
at seventeen, and all the more so because
they have no design now to be charming,
because they have given up the attempt
to please for the reaction Of praise, and
long since have consented to become
physically old, though they have never
driftcd into unpersonablencss or neglect.
While retaining the intellectual vivacity
and active sympathies Of maturity, they
have added the softncss, the mellowness
the tempering got only from experience
and advancing age they are women who
have seen and known and read great
deal, and who have suffered mnch, but
whose sorrows have neither hardened nor
soured them rather have made them
even more sympathetic with the sor vows
Of s:ncrs. and pititul for all the young.
They have lived through and lived down
all their own trials, and have come out
into peace on the other side; hut they
remember the trials of the fiery passage,
and they feel for those who have still
to bear the pressure they have overcome.
These are not women met with in society !;
they are Of the kind who mostly stay at
home, and let the world come to them.
They have done with the hurry and glitter
of life,and they no longer care to carry
their gray hairs abroad they retain their
hold on the affections Of their kind, they
take an interest in the history, the science,
the progress of the day, but they rest
tranquil and content by. their own tireside
and they 81, to receive. but do not 90 out
to gather. The fashionable old lady who
haunts the theaters and drawing rooms
bcwigged, beirizzled, painted, CHASTITY in
her vain attempts to appear young, hid
eous in her frenzied clutch at the pleas
ures melting from her grasp. dcsper
ate in her wild hold on life that is pass
ing away from her SO rapidly. know,
nothing Of the quiet dignity and happi
ness OF her ancient sisters, who has been
wise enough to renounce before she lost
In her own house, where gather small
knot Of men of mind and women Of char
acter, where the young bring their per
plexities and the mature their deeper
thoughts, the dear old lady of ripe expe
rience and loving sympathies and cult
waited intellect holds better court thar
is known to any of those miserable old
creatures who prowl about the gay place.
of the world, and wrest|e with the young
for their crowns and garlands -thos,
wretched simulacra of womanhood who
will not grow old and who cannot become
wise. She is the best kind of old lady
extant, answering to the matron of classic
times-to the Mother in Israel before
whom the tribes made obeisance in tokel
Of respect-the woman whose book of lifi
has been we'll studied and closely read
and kept clean in all pages. She has beer
no prude, however, and no more idealist
She must have been wife, mother. ant
widow; that is, she must havo known
many things Of joy and grief and hav'
had the fountains Of life unsealsd. How
ever wise aad good she may be as spin
ster she has had only half a life f.; and il j
the best half which has been denied her
How can she tell others. when they com
to her 10 their troubles. how time and
healthy will have wrought with her.
she has never passed through the sam
circumstances Iheoretic comfort il al
very we'll, but one word of expericnc
goes beyond volumes of counsel based o
general principles and lively imagina
tion.
The very dress of old Indies is in itsel
- study and a revelation of eharaotess
There are the beautiful old women, VIII
make themselves like old pictures by
profusion of soft lace and tender grays
and the stately old ladies' who affec
rich rustling silks and sombre velvets
and there are the original and indlvidui
old ladies', who dress themselves aftc
their own kind, like Mrs. Basil Montagu
and Miss Jane Porter, and have cache
Of their own, with which fashion hs
nothing to do. And there are the ol
women who wear rusty black stuffs an
ugly helmet. like caps; and thosec VIII
affect uniformity and going with tn
stream, when the fashion has become n,
tionnl; and these have been much exeI
cised of late with the chignon. and IN
new bonnets, But Providence is libera
and milliners are fertile in resource,
In fact, in this as in all other sections Q
humanity. there are those who are beaui
full and wise, AMI .hsse who are FOOLS