San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-10-20
oriental Care for The Aged.

pSA ''Nhl9s
believe that Orientals have more
reverence for the old than those
I'm whose Veins there courses an
other blood. Philosophize on this
topic, which In it's simplest expires
sion is caring for the aged, and you
will understand that when primitive
man no longer showed indiffer-
ence to the wants of a non. con tribut-
ing and therefore useless or help
less father or mother, the younger
mans moral nature made its first
great step in advance. 1t was the
awakening of family affection. Take
that remorseless law, the survival Of
the fittest, of Gods creatures IL is
man alone who tried to extend for q
few years or months the lives of
other whose days are neary spent.
Occupied with what are more con.
genial topics. enamored with their
art, we bark back TO the nearer
Assyria, Ph9nicia, Egypt, Greece,
and grope there for the moral prece.
dents. Bold is he VINO dares say,
Look further beyond, go still
more to the East" Let him point to
China as the country, the cradle
of humanity, which from an unknown
past has exerted its silent influence.
In China ancestral worship is part
and parcel, root and branch, of q re-
ligion which existed 1000 years be-
tore Christ, and it's creed has not
been changed today. Ancestral wor-
ship spread from East to West 1t
penetrated all Asia. 1t sanctifies
Vedic and Sanscrit poetry. What
more beautiful sentiment is there
than this, when Saxon tsla tends her
flowers: Let US give water to those
plants which have passed their flow
ering time, tor our virtue will be the
greater when it is wholly disin terest.
ed" Under certain notifications
this respect for age became fixed
among the tent-dwelIers in Arabia, or
that land north of it from whence
sprang the Jew.
the treatment Of their old people may
he Oriental or not OrieDtal-you are
at liberty to call it what you please
but it is very beautiful and touching;
and it is good because assiduous and
painstaking; and it carries out abso-
iutely what it tries to do. Sentiment
alism, when at work in home for
the aged and infirm, is il practical?
or charitable institutions those de-
voted to the care of the aged present
special difficulties. For an old man
or woman there is no fountain of
youth, no rejuvenesence. Age Is an
incurable disease. Inmates of homes
are necessarily fixtures. With each
added year cares increase. Questions
of comfortable quarters, sanitary con-
ditions, though complex, are some
what material in general character,
and fiud their solution in eXpendi.
Sure. So much money per head per
diem may seem hard way of putting
it., but it is the common sense method
Of considering any business.
Endless has been the study devoted
to the clothing of the aged, the food
best suited for waning appetites, and
the talents of specialists have been
taxed to their utmost powers. But
there is something which neither
dollars,nor cents will buy for the aged
and that is happiness and centented-
ness. 1--WE iced and clothe you,
nurse you, but beyond this purely
physical routine, look you here, old
folks, what more have you to ask?
We are not going to call you
old lumber, broken.down mechanisms,
and bid you crumple or rust
away. but do not exact of us the &C.
cOmplishment of the impossible"
Prs cticsl people say about that much,
but this is really what is in their
IN nds: "Vtgetate, old cummers, and
be cOntented to bask a little while
longer in the sun. and then, when you
pass away, we will attend to having
you decently buried" Just here
comes in this Jewish sentimentalism
1t may be a most exaggerated kind of
a thing, Chinese, if you please to call
it so; at least it is not Russian.