Smyrna times., 1874-01-21
Old Age in Public Life.


against the confirmation of Mr.. Gushing was
his seventy-four years of age. We do not be- |
lleVe either in his case or in the lives OF the |
many aged statesmen who have exercised a
marked influence on their time that septuage-
marian wisdom is whit less practical than that
of the man in the MONDAY of his years. We
are too apt in America to imagine that man
capacity and good sense are suddenly ex
tinguished after he completes his sixtieth year.
This IS in the genius of our institutions, per-
haps, but it is a lamentable error that we
should make haste to Danish from our estimate
of the services of our leading men. glance
from the galleries of the House Of
Representatives down on the assembled
wisdom of the country shows that the
men who make our bad laws, who disorder
our finances and spend three months in the
year in laying the network of endless litiga-
ton are seldom ripe in years, wearing the
white emblems Of fine old age 1t is the
middle-aged man, Eusied with ambition and
the perpetuation of his own power, who
has to do with the vital interests of the
country. In Europe NJ. Theirs, day after
day, from the tribune Of the French
Assembly, controlled that turbulent body as it
was never disciplined before, and at his great
age was able to govern France, though wedged
between ultramOntanism on the one hand
and red republicanism on the other. Nearly
|
| septuagenarians. In Germany we have the
venerable Emperor, and still more surpris-
ing illustration of mental power and telling
energy, in MOltke, the ablest strateglst of the
age. England has generally been ruled by
white haired statesmen. Palmerston at sew.
enty five had a large share in all the changes
made in the map of Europe Lord
Derby was in power at seventy; Lord
John Russell begins a fresh war on the
Popo at eighty-tour, while hisillustrOus antag-
Onist is but pne year his junior Gortschakotf
of an octogcnarian, but wilicr Minister never
served a monarch So that, in fine, Europe
is governed by an octogenarian Oligarchy.
J Turning to our own country, we have General
Dix in his old age as good a Governor as ever
} filled the chair Mayor Havemeyer, who is sc
old that we dare not investigate the truth
: occupies the civil chair of the municipality
and discharges its duties with as much vim a,
5 young man of eighty. We notice, then
: that wherever there is old age there is careful
l conscientious administration.
$ While, therefore, we need more of thi
class of public servants we do not wish t
y disparage the labors of younger men. Pitt a
3 twenty-tour was at the helm when EnganC
y was riding out the most violent politica
Il storm that ever tested her institutions. L
p the East there is the young Viceroy of Egypt
n whose diplomacy was always match for tn
: cunning measures of the late aged Ali Pacha
Il a statesman who has probably delayed tn
i exunt OF the Turks from Europe by at eas
K fifty years To speak at large, the work
Q the world is done by young men-by thos
d between twenty five and thirty fve-and Will
II it may not always be of that cool and dt
n lberate nature which distinguishes the labor
e of the old man, it is nevertheless the work
is the age. Between twenty-five and thirty. .fv
IS a man sees more clearly than at any futur
b time in his life, although happily he does NJ
s. know it. 1t is during this period that he giv'
Id fashion to his career and direction to b
aspirations. Disrae said in his Glasgo
m speech that youth should learn two things
ut Know thyselfl" and harmonic with Il
OF spirit Of the age. Oltentimes, we migl
lp say generally these public men born befoI
a the dawn of the nineteenth century are not
a our time. They belong to the silk stockiI
We and knee buckle gentry STILL Yet when tn
gh recognize that the world moves they are Il
1t. most valuable of officials. 1t is not so mu,
nd what public servant in exalted station do
by that we regard as the essential part of
to duties, but rather what he abstains fro
ell doing. All will recognize that in an old IN
tn this desirable quality is the best develope
OF Yet eight years does not always mean
ng age Tune at best is a convenient fictio
sh- and if we could get at the tissues and me
're brances of Caleb Gushing we might find the
nd as full of vitality as if he were but fifty, a
hit the same is true of many of his conteml
lad raries-N. T. Herald.