The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-10-04
Mrs. Stanton on Old Age.


At a recent reunion of the aumnae of a
celebrated college ut Troy, n. Y, Mrs
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was among the
speakers. She was the oldest graduate pres
ent. and the only surviving member of the
class of 1882.
Although she will be seventy-seven in
November. she read her manuscript with
out glasses
Among other things, she said, though
many of us are old in years, we may still
be young in heart
Women trained TO concentrate all their
thoughts on family life are apt to. think,
when their children are grown up, their
loved ones gone. and servants trained to
keep the domestic machinery in notion
that their whole work in life is done; no
one needs now their thoughts and care:
quite forgetting that the hey-day of woman's
life is on the shady side of fifty, when the
vital forces heretofore expended in other
ways are garnered in the brain. when their
thoughts and sentiments flow out in broad
channels, and when from the depths Of
poverty and suffering. the wall of humanity
grows as pathetic to their ears as once was
the cry of their own children.
Or, perhaps. the pressing cares of family
life ended. the woman may awake to some
slumbering genius in herself for art, science
or literature, with which to gid the sunset
of her life.
Longfellow's beautiful poem, "Morituri
SalutamuS." is full of hope and promises
for all of us. He says:
Something remains for us to do and dare;
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear.
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers,
When each had numbered more than four-score
years.
And Theophrastus at four score and ten
Had but begun his Characters Of Men.
CHANGER. at Woodstock with the nightingales,
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales;
Goethe at Wcimar. tOling to the last,
Completed Faust when eighty years were past.
These are indeed exceptions; but they show
How far the gulf stream of our youth may flow
Into the Arctic regions of our lives,
Where little else than life itself survives.
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself. though in another dress.
And, the evening twilight fades away.
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day!
These are encouraging words to those
who feel that years are creeping on, and age
must come. but the heart and brain still
burn with the fervor and energy of youth.
it is the tendency of tho age to set aside
MI persons over fifty as ''in their old age 1t
is common to hear man or woman of fifty
or sixty spoken of as venerable" and
naturally persons of that age knowing how
they looked upon, quietly accept the
situation and settle down into Il helpless
condition. thinking their lifes work is done,
and they have nothing left to do. | was
very forcibly struck with the difference in
the women of the north and south
IN this respect at the large conven-
ton | attended at Chicago in May. There
We're just such women as Mrs. Stanton;
reyenty-seven Years of age, and probably
older, who had travelled thousands of miles
to attend that convention, and whose voices
We're heard uttering the strongest words Of
wisdom and encouraging their younger Sis
tiers to press on To higher education and adj
vanccment. \ woman can keep her mental
strength by constant use. The mind, ike
anything else, may rust and become dim by
disuSc; we must keep our clocks and
watches wound up if we would have them
run and give us good time. We must keep
our furniture polished if we would have it
bright, and SO with the mind. 4 woman
need not think that it is age that dims its
brightness: i'll health and mental trouble
will effect it. but Il woman who keeps her
health can cultivate and keep the mind and
brain in use and be useful to those around
her and TO her race. if she lives Il hundred
years. and prove the truth of the lines,
Something mains for us to do and dare;
Even the Ole st tree some fruit may bear
he bot,'ra
All Thoughtful people must pause While
reading daily of the dreadful scourge of
cholera to send up sympathetic prayer for
the sufferers. Being so far removed from
1t, we can scarcely appreciate the awful sut-
fering attending the pestilence. Even now
that it has touched our shores we throw OFT
the thought ana think, 'it will die OUT be-
fore it gets a foothold 1t may, or it may
not, time alone can answer that question,
but while it still claims its victims by the
thousands it must occupy our thoughts.
While our sympathy goes out to all, one
little paragraph in Il recent paper has taken
such hold upon my thoughts that find my
self constantly reverting to it. 1t was this;
the item was from Hamburg; think OF 1t
in that one city. the epidemic has caused
the death of about three thousand children,
and has left 2,4O0 orphans Is there
sadder word in our language than that of
Orphan" TO my mind the 5000 gone
are far better off than those left to the
mercies of this cold world. Poor little
waits, suddenly. with only few hours of
illness, little ones taken from loving arms
that have never had other shelter, to never
again behold their parents hurried away to
wonder and wait. till the little minds cease
to try To grasp the mystery. 1t Is to me
the saddest and most pathetic side of this
great peStilence.