Litchfield enquirer., 1876-03-02
ments upon young figures which surpris.
 ed the steady-going mirror in nheta quiet

1uoutS upOu young uSuE0S Wu1Cu buHPHAp' ed the steady-going mirror in her quiet chamber.sdns9y sui 10 m1olta3q sdT
 again, said Mrs. Fellows.
 lIe She had promised to- fb6 at the party. i as stShe looked so grave when first asked EIher, Mary explained to the giFla, 'sthat
 was sorry spoke of it! I was afraid she l thought we wanted her only as la' sort 9of Ieonyenience to help out our pantofnine by the effect of her white hair. But 1l minute she smiled in her cheefy way, and
 said, as if she saw right through nae: I suppose, my chlld, you think being old . sort of misfortune, like being hnnchback- l ed, or blind. and are afraid of hurting my 1 feelings, but you, needn't be- The good Lord has made it so that at whichever end of life we are, the other end looks pretty uninteresting, and if it won't hurt your feelings to have somebody in the ] party who has got through all t6etroubles you have yet before you I should be glad
 to come That was turning the tables for us pretty neatly, eh, girls?"
 The young ladies would not have had
 the old lady guess it for worlds, but truth | compels me to own that all that week they improved every opportunity furtively to | study Mrs. Fellows's gait and manner with a view to perfecting their parts. "
 Frank and George met a couple of times in Henry's room to smoke it over and set
 tie details, and Henry called on Jessie to arrange several concerted features of the programme, and for some other reasons for aught know. Y"
 As each one studied his or her part and stroye in imagination to conceive how they would act and feel as old men and old women, they grew more interested, ,and more sensible of the mingled 4pathos and absurdity of the project, and its decided general effect of queerness. They all set themselves to make study of old age in manner that had never occurred to them before and never does occur to most peO. pie at all. Never before had their elderly friends received so much attention at their hands. .l" 4a..' +'''..' s> ''N'.'' '.~'' s In the prosecution of these observations they were impressed with the entire lack of interest generally felt by people in the habits and manners of persons in other epochs of life than their own. In respect of age, as in so many other respests, the world lives on flats, with. equally little in. terest in or comprehension of the levels above or below them. And a surprising thing IS that middle age is about as un- able to recall and realize youth as to an- tlcipate age. Experience seems to go for nothing in this matter. .-.
 They thought they noticed, too, that old people are more alike than middle aged people. There Is something of the same narrowness and similarity in the range of their tastes and feelings that is marked in children. .,.s '.
 The reason they thought to be that the interests of age have contracted to about the same scope as those of childhood, be- fore it has expanded into maturity. The skein of life is drawn together to a point at the two ends and spread out in the middle. Middle age is the period of most diversity, when individuality is most pro- nounced ., ... .., .-r-.s .5
 The members of the club observed with astonishment that, however afectionately we may regard old persons, we no more think of becoming like them than of be- coming negroes. If we catch ourselves observing their peculiarities. it is in, 8 purely disinterested manner, with a com plete and genuine lack of any personal coming. ... .... .... c
 They could not help wondering if Hen- " were not right about people never real ly growing old, but just changing from one personality to another. They found the strange inability of one epoch to un- derstand or appreciate the others, hard to reconcile with the ordinary notion of Q persistent identity. .a4t
 Before the end of the week the occupa- tion of their minds with the subject of old age produced singular effect. They be- gan to regard every event and feeling from a double stand. point, as present and as past, as 1t appeared to them and as it would appear to an old person. ...
 Wednesday evening came at last, and 2 little before the hour of eight, five vener- able figures, more or less shroRded, might have been seen making their way from different parts of the village towards the Fellows mansion.
 The families of the members of the club were necessarily in the secret, and watched their exit with considerable laughter from behind blinds. But to the rest of the vil- lagers it has never ceased to be 8 puzzle who those elderly strangers were who ap- peared that evening and were never before or since visible For once the Argus-eyed curiosity of Yankee village. compared with which French or Austrian police are easy to bafae, was fairly eluded #H' i' 70 Eight o'clock was the hour at which the old folks party began, and the reader will need a fresh introduction to the company which was assembled at that time in Mary Fellows parlor. Mary sat by her grand. mother, who from time to time regarded her in @ half-puzzled manner, az if it re. quired an effort of her reasoning powers to reassure her that the effect she saw was an illusion. The girls brown hair was gathered back under lace cap, and all that appeared outside it was thickly pow dered. She wore spectacles, and the warm tint of her cheeks had given place to the opaque saffron hue of age. She sat with her hands in her lap, their fresh color and dimpled contour concealed by black lace half-glove. The fullness of her young bosom was carefully disguised by the arrangement of the severely simple black dress she wore, which was also in other respects studiously adapted to con- ceal, by its stiff and angular lines, the lux, urious contour of her figure. As she rose and advanced to welcome Henry and Jes- sic, who were the last to arrive. it was with striking imitation of the tremu- lously precipitate step of age. E eax "a
 Jessie being rather taller than the oth- CTS, had affected the stoop of age very successfully. She wore a black dress spotted with white, and her whitened hair was arranged with a high comb. She was the only one without spectacles or eyeglasses. ....
 Henry looked older and fesbler than any of the company. His scant hair hung in thin and long white locks, and his tall. slender figure had gained 8 still more meager effect from his dress, while his, shoulders were bowed in marked stoop;. his gait was rigid and jerkY. He ass1sted himself with a gold headed cane, and sat in his chair leaning forward upon it.. George, on the other hand. had follow ed the hint of his fathers, figure in his make up, and appeared as a rubicuAd old gentleman, large in the waist, bald, with an apopiectic tendency,a wheezy asthmat- ic voice and full white beard. l1Es aA ,5
 Nellie wore her hair in row of white curls on each side of her head. and in ex- cry detail of her dress and air, affected the tcoquettishs old lady to perfection, for which. of. course. she looked none the younger, Her cheeks were rouged to go with that style. s.. ..n--....... ..san A.. :, F
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