Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-29
CARE FOR THE AGED.
Is 1t an Oriental Virtue, or of More Recent
Origin?

IL an Or1ental or OF more Recent
Origin?
believe that Orientals have more rever-
Ier for the adb an boo in P hss geR
on this topic. which, in its simplest ex
preston, is caring for the aged. you will
understand that when primitive man no
longer showed Indifference to the wants of
a nome contributing and therefore useless
or helpless father or mother. the younger
man moral nature made its first great
step in advance. 1t was the awakening of
family affection Take that remorseless
law, the survival of the fttest, of Gods
creatures it is man alone who tries to ex-
tend for few years or months the lives OF
others whose days are nearly spent.
Occupied with what are more congenia!
topics, enamored with their art, we hack
back to the nearer Assyria, Ph9nica,
Egypt, Greece, and grope there for the
moral precedents. Bold is he who cares
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 ltt
silent influence. In China ancestral wor-
ship is part and parcel, root and branch,
Of religion which existed for thousand
years before Christ, and its creed has not
been changed to-day. Ancestral worship
spread from east to west. 1t penetrated
all Asia. It sanctifes Vedid and San
scrit poetry. What more beautiful senti-
ment is there than this, when Sakontala
| tends her flowers: ''Let us give water to
| those plants which have passed their
fowering -time, for our virtue will be
the greater when it is wholly disinterest-
ed" Under certain notifications this
respect for age became fixed among the
tent jewellers in Arabia, or that land north
of it from whence sprang the Jew.
Jewish sentimentalism in regard to the
treatment of their old people may be
Oriental or not Oriental-you are at liber-
| ty to call it what you please-but it is
very beautiful and touching; and it is good
| because assiduous and painstaking; ane. it
carries out absolutely what it tries to do.
| Sentimentalism, when at work in home
! for the aged and inirm, is it practical?
Of charitable institutions, those devoted
to the care of the aged present special diff
| fcult1es. For an old man or woman there
| is no fountain Of youth, no rejuvenesc-
! ence. Age is an lncurable disease. In
mates of homes are necessarily fixtures
With each added year cares increase
Questions Of comfortable quarters, sani-
tary conditions, though complex, are
somewhat material in general character,
and find their solution in expenditure. So
much money per head, per diem, may
seem hard way of putting it, but it is
the only common sense method OF cOnsld.
ering any business.
Endless has been the study devoted to
the clothing of the aged, the food best
suited for waning appetites, and the tai
ents of specialties 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 ana
conten5edness.
"We feed and clothe you, nurse you,
but beyond this purley physical routine,
look YOU here, old folks, what more have
you 10 ask? We are not going to call you
old lumber, broken-down meohanisms.
and bid you crumble or rust away, but do
not exact of us the accomplishment of the
impossible" Practical people say about
that much. but this is really what is in
their minds. "Vegetate, old cummers,
and be contented to bask 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 JEWS sentimentalism. 1t may be a
most exagerate kind Of thing, Chinese,
if you please to call is SO, at least it is not
Russian.-Harper's Weekly.