Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-03-09

How to Clear the Cobwebs out of tn
BraIn-Reeu ExhilaratiOu.

How to Clear tho Cobwebs out of the
Brain-Keeu Exhilaratiou.
Nowadays, elderly men, in greeting one
another, are very fol- d of the phrase, "How
do you do, old buyi7 1t is u good sign that
the title is 50 popular There has been too
much foolish discussion i'll books of physi-
olOgy as TO the date ut which one ceases to be
n boy and becomes a mun Dates can never
settle the question. 1t is settled Ey the far
more pertinent query, how long in life can
you continue to eujoy dancing, rowing, run
ming, swimming, coasting, etc,t 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 4j was ashamed of not
looking old. Cutavay coats and derby hats
would have seemed as uniting for such II
stage of existence as the motley garb of IA
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 n double runner down
hillside would, he believed, finish him for
ever in their eyes. SO, of course, the boy
dies young in him
What change of scene is witnessed to-
day, particularly i'll the newer sections of the
country. Let any one take, for example, a
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 will he fall in with some middle
aged judge or colonel who will say: II want
you to go out with me tonight to the tohog
gan slide; it's grand fun, tell you" So out
he goes, and in due time finds himself on the
very edge of dizzy precipice of glare leo
The first invitation to go down he declines as
respectfully ns he would an invitation from
IA maniac to jump of 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 whzzing like a rifle
bullet through empty space Losing his
breath for 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 lie 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
and the exposure to fine temperature Of
zero or under he says: This is the way to
clear the cobwebs out of the brain and got
into fine working trim against to omomow."
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 exhlaration 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 cut with troop
of schoolboys, and be treated, perhaps, as the
bald headed prophet was, without u 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,
SGT his blood tingling with the wintry air
and the lightning swift motion, light up the
scene with the brilliant cOlors of the dresses
of the toboggun club, and fifteen minutes will
be enough to persuade him that the age at
which the boy need degenerate into the hum
drum, dried up, old man must lie somewhere
far out of sight of G0-Boston Herald