The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-04-29
THE MIDDLE-AGED
PEOPLE WHO ARE STRONG FROM EX.
PERlENCE AND LONG HABIT.
All the Good Things of Life Not Crowded
Into the First Thirty Years-LOvs
and Happiness in Later
Life.
IPhnadalnhia Press !

llhlaueiplta Press.
Joking aside, is il 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
of fighting TO do, while the young folks
make all the tantara, and go glittering
about the field. 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 thingt
which God has given us-an of these
crowded into those first thirty years
Does the man whose hair is grizzled work
less etfeCtually, love less pasSionately or
hate less fiercely than the youth whose
lip is barely furred with down?
ROMANCE AND REALITY.
Tho young people. in the literature Of
every country, are credited with all the
romance and most of the power of life
Has ii not been a good deal the fault ot
middleaged poets and romancers that
this is the case? 4 man finds the wears
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 20, that
were young again." b. cries In poem
or novel, -, happy. ON Iipotent youth "
w hereaS the young people, hearing this
dinued 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
can do standing with cropping, out
stretched hands towards the hazy stretches
of life.
At IS man has tramped over these
Stretches They are no longer haZy to
him. He has sunk deep into the quag-
nifes; he knows where the best paths lie;
he has climbed the peaks and breathed the
liz, l. 1r,-A
elan and the blind daring with the i'm
Qregnable self-cOntdenCe of youth. But
ne knows himself he has now. if ever,
found out his work; he holds il well in
hand. He has the strength which comes
from tried skill. experience and long
habit Granted there is less romance in
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 q 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
-iage The fervor. the delight. the real
lty of the passion. we are told, belongs 10
youth middle are sinks into dull gray
mOuotOny of common place habit Ii fact
Il Is the young whose love finds utterance
IN signs, IN poems, IN at best a SelnSh
monopoly of the beloved one it is the
middle-aged man and woman who quietly
sacrifice day by day every hope and am
bition, every talent and taste which gives
them identity among men; who become
drudges, who give health, strength, life
itself drop by drop, for love
As for happiness. we suspect much
larger share comes into a mans life in
middle age than ever before. In the first
place clever young Americans with edu-
cation as rule, are melancholy. They
are not content with their capital in life,
unless it includes misery which they can
nurse and coddle The middle-aged man
is past this weakness. He is satisfied 10
take the cup of life which each day
brings, without stirring ii up to find the
dregs To the Young man every grief is
immortal The olf~r one knows it will
md in a month or a year; the junior takes
pleasure in art in books in music. even
in friendship in a scrappy, inconsistent
fevcrish way. The elder knows where 50
find his enjoyment and drinks il in pro
longed, deep. leisurely draughts. -
In short, if youth and old age have won
all the praise of the poets heretofore
much is left to be said by comrlOn sense
Of the golden mean of life.