Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-12-11
THE M|IDDLE-AGED.
PEOPLE WHO ARE STRONG FROM Elk.
PERIENcE AND LONG HABIT.
All the Good Things Of Life Not Crowded
into the First Thirty Years-Lovo
and HsPplness in Later
LIE.


Ah1A9iHNlh LTt5s.l
Joking aside. is It not time that the
middle aged people were setting up their
banners and blowing their bugles a little
in the world. They have the solid work
OSfghting to do, while the young folks
make all the t~antara, aud go glittering
about tho tield. Is life really an empty
work after 80 ? Are the best prizes, the
keenest jest Of enjoyment. the finest relish
of art, nature, books. all the good things
which God has given us-all Of these
crowded into those first thirty years?
Does the man whose hair is grizzled work
less e1ectually, love less passionately or
hate less fercely than the youth whose
lip is barely furred with down?
ROMANCE AND REALITY.
The young people, in the literature Of
every country, are credited with all the
romance aud most Of the power of life.
las it not been a good deal the fault Of
middle.aged poets and romancers that
this is the case? A man finds the years
slipping put Of his grasp. fast and faster,
just when the possibilities Of life open
out before him, vast and unconquered.
He fancies that he needs nothing but
more time to conquer them. 20, that
l were young again." he cries in poem
or novel. ~, happy, omnipotent youth"
Whereat, the young people. hearing this
dinned into their ears from age to age,
fancy that they really are happy and
omnipotent They forgot to count up
what they have done, They measure
their power by what they dream they
car do standing with cropping, out.
stretched hands towards the hazy stretches
of life.
At 4S a mar has tramped over these
stretches. They are no longer hazy to
him. He has sunk deep into the quag.
mires; he knows where the best paths lie;
he has climbed the peaks and breathed the
pure heavenly airs there. He has lost the
elan and the blind daring with the i'm
pregnable self-contidence of youth. But
he knows himself he has now, if ever,
found out his work; he holds it well in
hand. He has the strength which comes
from tried skill. experience and long
habit Granted there is less romance il
his view of life than in that of his son,
the undergraduate. But there is reality.
1t is the difference between the fantastic
lights of a picture and the sun which
warns the blood and makes the corn ripe
and red; between the tin sword in the
actors hand and the keen dagger which
cuts to the heart
IN LATER LIFE.
AS for love, all novels end with mar
rage. The fervor, the delight, the real
ity of the passion, we are told, belongs L
youth; middle age sinks into dull. gray
monotony Of common place habit. Itfact
it is the young whose love finds utteranct
in signs, in poems, in at best a selfish
monopoly Of the beloved one; it is TIN
middle-aged man and woman who quietly
sacrifice day by day every hope and am
bition, every talent and taste which give
them identity among men; who becom,
drudges, who give health, strength, lf,
Itself, drop by drop, for love.
AS for happiness, we suspect a muc'
larger share comes into a mans life il
middle age than ever before. In the frs
place, clever young Americans with edu
cation, as a rule, are melancholy. The
are not content with their capital in life
unless it includes a misery which they car
nurse and coddle. The middle.aged mar
is past this weakness. He is satisfied t
take the cup of life which each day
brings, without stirring it up to find thu
dregs. To the young man every grief il
immortal. The older one knows it will
end in a month or a year; the junior takes
pleasure in art, in books, in music, ever
in friendship in a scrappy, inconsistent,
feverish way. The elder knows where Il
find his enjoyment, and drinks it in pro
longed, deep, leisurely draughts.
In short, if youth and old age have wor
all the praise of the poets heretofore,
much is left to be said by common sense
of the golden mean Of life.