The Portland daily press., 1874-07-01
MARY Clemmer Ames Correspondence with the In
dependent.l
About Charming Woman,s Age.

WASHINGTON, ID. c., June 6, 1S74.-How
good of you, my Independent, to tell eyery-
body that my hair isn't gray, and that the
time has not come for me to don il as "a
crown of glory" Not that l mind it a bit.
am so used to being regarded as an object
OF antiquity by my contemporaries that it is a
remark to the contrary that startles me.
When l was seventeen, l wrote a rhyme
called mo Longer Young" Eve lost it, but
these lines were in it:
"To catch a shadow in the glass
face no longer young, alasl
10 hear in mirth of girls and boys
The refrain OF our former joys"
have been paying the penalty OF such pre-
cocity ever since. Let me tell you, girls, to
get into the newspaper before you are sixteen
is not only ridiculous and silly, but disastrous,
if you want any one to imagine that you
ever had any youth, and especially if the
writing demon who pursues you compels you
to write in the tone of an old woman, with
out any OF her wisdom. Two facts springing
from this age.in-aGvance reputation are really
melancholy. When L am iairy old, whole
generation will spring up and excam, at
mention of the name: why, isn't that old
woman dead yet? I'm sure beard of her as
gray-haired when l was youngf' Now it
will mortify me dreadfully when people
shall assert that / have outlved my time
"a period never too long delayed in this
country. Then, when you have grave
suspicious that you are neither very strong
nor wise, and are attacked by sudden im-
pulses to say or do something ridiculous, If
only to burst for moment the heavy chain
of responsibility that holds you increasingly
to daily and hourly toil-to feel blithe and
bright and free as any girl-just to be jerked
aptonab by letter? Aye, by scores of let
tiers from sister women, addressing you as if
you were Methuselah. brother men usual
ly write to lecture and to dctate.) l mind
them not. It's the women letters that tug
at my heart strings. All my dears, if you
could see me take to my bed after some of
your illusions, literally sick because L am not
wise enough nor strong enonsh to help you,
you would pity me. II l cannot solve the
problem OF my own existence, how can un-
ravel yours? Ii / had lived thousand years
/ could not do that. Then the conditions
and influences in each individual lot are so
distinct and often so conflicting no life in its
detail may measure itself by another, and
very rarely make the special work or success
of another its own. To make the most aud
the best of every day as it comes to us is the
finest secret of daily living that L have ever
yet been able to learn.
Now for a little story, so egotistic I'm afraid
of it, and so pat that hope you viii like it.
Two gentlemen came to Washington to
see the sights, and, among others, sought an
''aged LADY, whom they had only seen
through the columns of the Independent.
SITS the one who writes the 'Woman's
Letters from Washington whom We wish to
see," said the spokesman.
II am She"
''Some mistake" and both men set their
elbows and stared.
Pardon" said the spokesman ''Pm sure
everybody who reads the Independent thinks
that the woman in Washington has
reached an age when she no longer desires
the appreciation of men,
II never expect to reach that age. Why
did you think had gained it?"
because was sure you were so old that
you knew ii was impossible that you could
ever be personally agreeable to gentlemen;
and that's why you dast to write about 'em
as you do, and pictur 'em (members of Con-
gress, mean) as you do in the IndepeRd-
ent.