The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-02-17

What sptty that, with advancing years
life so often loses its zest and ffeshnesss
As the dew Of youth whales, away eoes
the bounding Joy and the young entha.
'ssiasln, and he'path, crows dry and dusty,
Al when the brook in mid summer sinks
among the sedges, no more the silverv
glee and -bubbling laughter Of eirlhood
and boyhood, the shine and sparkle of the
merry eye gone out, the spirits dull and
Tagging, existence tapering down, in.
stead of the more Astounding life. The
facial lines grow hard, the lips are set,
the motions nervous, hurried, Poor Rich.
ards maxims written out large on the
whole demeanor, the Dutchman's motto:
Maybe If you have no pisness here,
etc." placarded on every tone and &C.
ton: And when the days cares on the
street or farm are finished, the leaden,
moping, silent atmosphere which the faith
er of the family creates, when he bangs to
the door and hangs up his hat, and shoves
his toes, with gruff thank you," into
his slippers, and buries his nose in his
newspaper. II not exactly cantankerous,
yet moody, soggy, bunchy, irresponsible,
like fowl in melting time. Alas! for
old age when collapse begins in middle
life. 1t is like crossing the Alps in Octo-
Der the wrong way, going from Italian
vineyards into Switzer snow drifts.
It need not, ought not so to be. Life is
indeed battle, responsibilities multiply,
work presses on every true man and
woman, and hard work, too; but it need
not take out of lite its keenness and its
relish, nor need that dull, malignant devil,
care, dog us all the way, to whip us on
like horses in treadmill. The hardest
workers and the best are they who set their
anvil blows to songs. Collapse never
comes legitimately from the piling up of
work, responsibility or care, but from
working from low aims, ignoble motives,
fretful dispositions, depressed faculties,
and but one set Of faculties, un-
relieved, untouched by finer issues.
There Is but one room to live in, and that
the dingy .work-room of the basement.
The upper floors, with nobler prospects,
fitted up by the great builder who designed
man for his own temple, are all locked up
and the shutters closed. The best facul-
ties have been unused, the inner and
deeper sources Of strength and Joy have
never been discovered. The man or tho
woman has learned how to make money or.
TO keep house In the same unvarying rou-
tine Of daily treadmill work, but never
learned how to read, to think, to observe,
to love, to store the various apartments of
the soul with precious things, to be rich in
good works. But, instead, personal talk
to feed the craving after knowledge, fri
volity and mental Incidence; for reading
whist, for conversation, gossip, and worst
of all and nearest to collapse, moral indo-
lence, the utter narrowness and selfishness
of the life that by saving itself is sure to
lose itself. "
The late Rev. E. H. Sears, in one of his
discourses entitled Everlasting YOUTH"
suggests, among others, two simple con-
ditions Of keeping advancing life elastic,
fresh and green: Alacays to be learning
something that lies out Of the routine Of
daily soork;; al,oays to Be doing something
out Of and beyond the circle Of prsoate and
personal tnteTest. Let US always be learn.
ing something above our daily work,
which shall subordinate and glority it.
Keep clear of the ruts. Don't grow into
the machinery of your profession to be
whirled around as one OF the spokes of
the driving wheel. And, above all, don't
live to yourself, so as while alive to die
spiritually, and become a withered limb
of society, good for nothing but to be.cut
off and burned in the contempt of social
oblivion Springfield (Nass.) Republican,.