The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1888-02-22
KEEPING UP "rHE BoY.s
How to Clear the Cobwebs Out of the
Brain--Keen ExhiIaration.

Brain-Keen ExhiIaration.
Nowadays, elderly men, in greeting one
another, are very fond Of the phrase, Chow
do you do, old boyln 1t is good sign that
the title is so popular. There has been too
much foolish discussion In books OF physi-
ology as to the date at which one ceases to be
boy and becomes a man. Dates can never
settle the question. It Is settled by the far
more pertinent query, how long In life can
you continue to enjoy dancing, rowing, rum
ming, swimming, coasting, etc.i Now, care
full investigation establishes the fact that the
American Of today can keep up his keen In
terest in these things just about twenty years
longer than the fathers did Fifty years ago
the average man of IS was ashamed Of not
looking old Cutaway coats and derby hats
would have seemed as uniting for such q
stage OF existence as the motley garb Of q
harlequin. If he did not stand ON his dig
nifty aud abjure childish sports he felt he
would lose all authority over his children.
One dash with them on a double runner down
hillside would, he believed, finish him for
ever in their eyes. So, Of course, the boy
dies young in him.
What a change OF scene Is witnessed to-
day, particularly in the newer sections of the
country. Let any one take, for example,
winter run out to the great northwest, and
see what is going on in cities like st. Paul
and Minneapolis No matter what his age,
inevitably win he fall in with some middle
aged judge or colonel who will say: II want
you to go out with me tonight to the tobog-
gan slide; it's grand fun, / tell your So out
he goes, and in due time finds himself on the
very edge of dizzy precipice of glare ice.
The first invitation to go down he declines as
respectfully as he would an invitation from
a maniac to jump off Bunker Hill monument
with him. Soon, however, the contagion
grows irresistible The judges wife and the
colonel's aunt tell him what glorious sensa-
ton it is, and, almost before he knows it, he
is on the toboggan and whizzing like rife
bullet through empty space. Losing his
breath for a moment, he RECEIVERS it as the
toboggan strikes the level ice of the lake at
the bottom, and then, as he flies across the
smooth moonlit surface, the boy Of 10
leaps TO life in him once more, and he will
not believe he is a day older. Then, when
at last the party gets back home again, ex-
hilarated with the wild motion, the laugh
ter, the glowing exercise Of the pull up hill
aud the exposure to a fine temperature of
zero or under, he says; 'srhis Is the way to
clear the cobwebs out of the brain and get
into fine working trim against tomorrow
The glory of the boy is that he likes fun,
and woe be to the man who ceases to like It.
or, at any rate, to feel that his own capacity
for keen exhilaration is dead and gone As
the cares Of life increase, and the spirits be-
gin to flag, then comes the time when some
external stimulus should be on hand. No
old fellow can do the thing alone. He would
be ashamed, moreover, to go out with troop
of schoolboys, and be treated, perhaps, as the
bald headed prophet was, without single
bear on duty to call upon for redress No,
he must have grown up people to enjoy the
fun with him. Give him such for company,
set bis blood tingling with the wintry air
and the lightning swift motion, light up the
scene with the brilliant colors of the dresses
OF the toboggan club, and fifteen minutes will
be enough to persuade him that tho age at
which the boy need degenerate into the hum
drum, dried up, old man must lie somewhere
far out of sight of 60.--Boston Herald