Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1893-04-14
He Is . Jolly Old Philosopher.

He IL . Jolly Old Philosopher.
New York: Sun There is 60 much
gayety and truth in letter with
which we are favored by q venerable
correspondent that we must here
print the chief part Of 1t:
sOf course like the Suns kindly
words about old people, but 1 do not
agree with its statement that old
age is heavy burden at the best.' I
do not find it SO. 1t is to me the
happiest period Of q life that has
been rich in happiness. 1t has
brought freedom from many cares,
relief from vain ambition. The mind
is broader than ever it was before,
and just as lively and fertile as ever.
The spirit seems to be quickening,
the humors are generous; the brain
and hands are active; the physique is
lusty; the step is light: there is no
heavy burden on this old back, which
is straight as stick, and which has
got r.d OF the burdens that it bore
forty years ago. The past has given
me knowledge of life, and Of the
world and of mankind, all of which
l like better every year. Ihave had
more experience during three
quarters of q century than most
otter men who have lived so long,
and now I am reaping the benefit Of
all Of them. I like society, beauty,
gayety, books, travel, song, wine, a
base ball game and a yachting trip:
even the light fantastic toe is not
stiffened, and the horse that carries
me knows how to gallop. Comestibles
taste as good as ever: flowers are as
fragrant as of yore; give me music,
the opera and the play. The voice is
less resonant than once it was; it is
mellower. The gobbets of the hair
on the head are thinner than they
were, but not less satisfactory. Life
is lovely: time goes beautifully:
happiness increases with the years.
There was once a gentleman in New
York, Capt Lahrbush, whom knew
when he was in the second century of
his life, and a chippier man of his
years never walked our streets, or
had more enjoyment of a good
dinner. l hope that within a year
from this time we shall hear and see
in New York that most delightful of
all the comic operas Of modern times,
"Falstaff," which the great Vero', in
the 18th year of his fruitful life, mas
composed and put upon the Italian
stage, a most picturesque opera, con-
tanning elements Of novelty and
charm which did not exist in that
produced by him flfty-tive years ago,
or in any of his army works Of the
past half century, an opera which
has brought him congratulations
from all the maestros in Europe.
Verdi is not groaning over the heavy
burdens of old age. As the London
Saturday Review says, 1T is hard to
believe that his new opera is not the
work of an impetuous young man in
tine heydey of life.' The Sun itself
recently reminded us that the two
most powerful and active men Of our
times, the pope and the English
premier, are we'll beyond eighty. Let
me wind up by saying as a truthful
septuagenarian, who has tried to get
the juice of each year for three
quarters of century, that the years
nf good old age are the best years
of life"
All right, then, fellow citizens,
venerable, cheerful, wise, proud and
lightly burdened citizen. You talk
as Verdi sings; you are as busy as
Gladstone: you have some of The
traits of Leo XIII. May you live to
be older than Capt. Lahrbush, of
New York, who, as Gen. James
Watts de Peyster can testify, was
festive in the second century Of his