The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-11
| THE MIDDLE-AGED.
EoDIe WHO ARE STRONG FROM EX'
prRlENCE AND LONG HABIT.
!, the Good Things of Life Not Crowded
,u.o tho First Thirty Years-LOve
4 and Happiness in Later
Life.
PHILADELPHIA Press. |

liking aside is it not time that the
idle AGED people were setting up their
tanners and blowing their bugles little
4 the world They have the solid work
Il fighting to do, while the young folks
znake all the tantara, and go glitterlng
bout the field. Is life really an empty
sVork after 30 Are the best prizes, the
keenest lest of en- ioyment, the finest relish
III 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
ess efectually, love less passiOnately or
hate less fercely than the youth whose
p is barely furred with down?
ROMANCE AND REALITY.
The young people, in the literature of
every country, are credited with all the
romance and most of the power of life.
as it not been a good deal the fault of
middle aged poets and rOmancers that
sthiS is the case? A man finds the years
Slipping out 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. 80, that
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
sOmnipotent They forgot to count up
8 what they have done They measure
i their power by what they dream they
can do standing with cropping, out
Stretched hands towards the hazy stretches
j Of life
At 48 a man has tramped over these
Stretches. They are no longer hazy to
him He has sunk deep into the quag-
.pnHes; be knows where the best paths lie
be has elm bed the peaks and breathed the
pure heavenly airs there. He has lost the
Plan and the blind daring with the i'm
pregnable self confidence of youth. But
be knows himself he has now, if ever,
Ound out his work; he holds it well in
Aand He has the strength which comes
rom tried skill experience and long
FaoL Granted there is less romance in
PlS view OF life than in that of his son,
ne undergraduate. But there is reality.
i IS the difference between the fantastic
igltS OF a picture and the sun which
warns the blood and makes the corn ripe
aug red; between the tin sword in the
ac.ofs hand and the keen dagger which
GUS TO the heart
IN LATER LIFE.
AS 1or love, all novels end with mar
"sG The fervor, the delight the real
81! oi The passion, we are told, belongs 10
5vuIl: middle age sinks into dull. gray
!; 4.G;noIony OF commonplace habit Itfact.
~ lIe young whoseAOve finds utterance
~ gnS IN poems, in at best a selfish
rna;oII5Upoly OF the beloved one, it is the
,aLoua:e5e-aged man and woman who quietly
I5i ;,; day by day every hope and am.
t G,',ou every talent and taste which gives
J -UGi identity among men; who become
i,.oitSeS' who give health, strength, life
''Sen' drop by drop for love.
,o as Ior happiness, we suspect a much
i mig 81 snare comes into mans life in
n nituue age than ever before. In the first
%a:e, clever young Americans with edu.
s e.oion, as rule, are melancholy. They
my MY not content with their capital in life.
pI- 1esS II includes a misery which they can
is use Use ana coddle The middle-aged man
toli past TINS weakness. He is satisfied to
6rir me cup of life which each day
DIS Without stirring it UP to find the
imT 10 Inc Young man every grief is
en ,,5tor'aI The Older one knows it will
n rIu IN month or a year; the iun. or takes
IN fr;or3 Ia art, IN books. in music, even
fev 1..e1ushlp In a scrappy. inconsistent,
fra ,SI rs: way The elder knows where to
i lou MS enjoyment. and drinks it in pro
T. ~ ueep. leisurely draughts.
ali a. snoFt' II youth and old age have won
mro ehe praise of the poets heretofore
] of ~ Is lett to be said bv common sense
VIC golden mean of life.