St. Paul daily globe., 1892-05-06
MAIDENS, WIVES AND MOTHERS.
O'Clock Tea--Kings Daughters Coneer--First Straw
berry Festival--For st. Luke's notwithstanding Old
Graeefuly--GoSsp.

n big armed chair when / entered her
room. and so deeply engrOSSed in her
book that she did not hear me at first.
| had an opportunity TO observe her
surroundings before she looked up.
The bed, with its snowy spread and
shamS, was as dainty as that of any
girls of sixteen. There were pretty
mats on the dressing case, and
odd bits of fancy work and
tides about the room, made by
her own fingers in spare moments.
There was a handsome rustic stand,
filled with fine, strengthening house
plants, that had been carefully tended
by her own hands all through the WIN
ter. Her house dress was faultlessly
neat, and she sat before the broad win
dows, where wandering ray OF tue
afternoon sun fell athwart the quiet
figure. making sort of halo aronnd the
kind old face crowned with natures Sill
yer diadem. 1t was
An Ideal Picture
of old age, fer in the quiet afternoon of
a well-Spent life, albeit her declining
years are slipping away under an alien
reef, unS0laced by the love and care OF
ones near and dear. this kindly soul is
making the most of the time still vOueh-
safed her, instead of repinlng over
the loss of home and friends. L
was deeply touched by the sight.
and it occurred to me to con-
trast this picture of old age
with the more common one, in which
the central figure is grumbling, moroSe
old woman, whose days are too often
Spent in making herself miserable. i'll
common with every one who has the
misfortune to be under the same roof
with her. | believe the secret Of cheer
full old age, aside from having a good
heart. is having something particular to
do. No one will dispute the statement
that people rust out quicker than they
wear out. If women would turn their
atteDliOn to some art, as the steady cares
OF middle life begin TO slip from their
shoulders on to those of the younger
generation. life would remain strong
and sweet within them until the last
spark of consciousness was eXtingulShed.
This is by no means an original idea,
but its worth bears repetition. Ihe
space at my command would fail
me to tell of the distinction that has
been won in different fields, by those
far from young. Schliemann was thirty
four years of age before ne knew a
word of Greek. George Eliot was
thirty-ive when she put her hand to
the first of her great novels. Prescott
published the first of his almost perfect
histories at the age OF thirty-tive. Og-
Ivy, who made an excellent translation
of Homer, began to study Greek at fifty.
As Old as lie Feels.
The first of our Waverlv novels ap-
peared when the author was torty-One,
and CoWDer was nearly fifty before he
did his best work. When we think of
Mary SOmervile at ninety writing upon
the physical sciences. of Gladstone at
eighty hewing his oaks and studying
Homer. and of TennySOn, also all OctO-
genarian. writing Across the Bar" no
one can hold his hands and say: Il am
too old 10 DO anything OF any moment"
"a man is only as old as he feels, y
says Oliver Wendell Holmes; who GER
tainly carries a young heart, if his head
is gray.
NumberlesS cases that are not so
marked might be cited. A woman whose
stories have done an incalcnlable amount
of good did not dream that she could
write until her children had gone to
homes of their own, and she began to
write TO beguiie her loneliness. Another
woman, whose songs are household
favOrites. did not know anything of the
theory of music till she was fifty, when
she began to study harmony. Today she
is well known as composer, and her
music supports her most comfortably.