The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-04-27
HE IS A JOLLY OLD PHILOS-
OPHER.
Getting the Juice of Each Year
for Three Quarters Of q Cen
fury.
New I ok SUM-

There are so much gayety and truth
IN letter with which we are favored
by a venerable correspondent that we
must here print the chief part of it:
"Of course like the SIMS kindly
words about old people, but do not
agree with its statement that old
age is a heavy burden at the best. !"
| do not find it 50. 1t is to me the
happlest period of life that has been
rich in happiness. 1t has brought
freedom from many cares, relief from
vain ambition. The mind Is broader
than ever 1t was before and just as
lively and fertile as ever. The spirit
seems TO be quiCkcnng; the humors
are generous; the brain and hand are
active; the physique is lusty; the step
IS light; there is no heavy burden on
this old back, which is straight as a
stick, and which has got rid 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 like better every year.
| have had more experience during
the thrcc-quartcrs Of 4 century than
most other men who have lived SO
long, and now | am rcaping the hene-
fit of all of them. | Ike society, beauty,
gayety, books, travel, song, wine, a
baseball game, aAd 4 yachting trip;
even the light fantastic toe is not
stlliencd, 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
mcllOwcr. The gObbcts of hail 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 4 gentleman in New York, Capt.
l.ahrbush, whom | knew when he was
IN the second century of his life, and
chIppier man of his years never
walked our streets or had more enjoy
ment of good dinner. | hope that
within year from this time we shall
hear and see in New York that most
delightful of all the comic operas of
modern times, % Falstaf," which the
great Verdi in the 10Th year of his
fruitful life has composed and put
upon the Italian stage; most pictur-
esque opera, containing elements of
novelty and charm which did not exist
IN that produced by him fifty-tive
years ago, or in any Of his many works
OF the last half century, an opera which
has brought him congratulations from
all the meastros in Europe Verdi is
not groaning over the heavy burdens
OF old age. As the London SATURDAY
RtTIC7o says, cit is hard to believe
that his new opera is not the work of
an lmpetuous young man in the heyday
OF life. The SIN itself recently re-
minded us that the two most powerful
and active men of our times, the
Pope and the English Premier, are
we'll beyond SO. Let me wind up by
saying as truthful septuagenarian,
who has tried TO get the Juice of each
year for threequarters of century,
that the years of a good old age are
the best years of life.
All right. then, fellow citizen, veneer
able, 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
NH. 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 CEN
fury of his existence.