Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-07-11
GROW OLD GRACEFULLY.
How Young People Should Accept tn
Coming of Gray Hairs.

How Young People Should Accept the
Coming of Gray Hairs.
1t is often said that few women know
how to grow old gracefully. There is
certainly a graceful way and an ungrace-
full way of taking all the goods and ills
of life, and since we must take what life
offers us it is well to accept what comes
in as graceful manner as possible
The ungraceful way of receiving the adj
vances of Father Time is persistently to
refuse to acknowledge him. Here is a
gray hair, and | am only %! pull it out )"
Out it comes and seven more spring up in
its place. "a large hat or turban al
ways did become me, and I'm sure I'm
not SO old that | need give them up YETI
Perhaps not, but, all the same, a modest
little bonnet with strings tied under your
chin is vastly more becoming to you now.
Il shall get that particular shade of red,
or pink, or blue, for it always was
so becoming to me. Yes, it always was;
but it isn't now, all the same. If you will
only face the fact that the first freshness
of youth has departed you can then find a
shade more becoming to your present
complexion than that particular one you
are so set on having.
This is the spirit of the young woman
of 20 or 80 who, although she may be q
wife and a mother, still clings to the
traditions of girlhood. But the middle
aged woman, and the woman in her sos
and COS may be even more ungraceful.
1t doesn't seem possible that she can
ignore Father Time so utterly at that
age but she does She bangs her hair;
wears juvenile bonnets, and even hats;
tight-itting jackets, and dresses copied
from her daughters or younger friends.
She pinches her waist, and her feet, and
her hands in the vain attempt to disguise
the fact that her form is not the same
that it was ten, twenty, thirty years ago.
q fO III tn fa at
that her waist measure is larger, and
that she wears a half-size. larger boots
and gloves than she once did. The dread
of growing old throws q dark shadow
over the glowing monday, or what should
be the beautiful long afternoon of her
life. Middle age, TO q woman of strong
character and a cultivated mind, brings
the best chance in life for progress in
knowledge, for study. for thought that
enlarges the mind and plants upon the
countenance the impress of a beautiful
spirit.
A true, earnest woman, who lives to
grow, can never have q better opportunity
for usefulness, nor be able to win more
admiration from those whose approval
is worth winning than in middle life,
if she only takes the right method in
doing so. increasing years ought to bring
wisdom, and they will if they are not
wasted in vain attempt to settle down
where we are on the road, instead of
travelling gladly onward and upward.
Many women have achieved their best
work in literature. in art, in business,
in self culture, after they were 30 years
old. while not few have taken up new
studies in which they have found much
profit and pleasure, or entered upon a
new life of enlarged responsibilities on
some unexpected road after they were
40. The best way to grow old grace
fully is to grow in knowledge and useful
lJn To ho Il
mired and priced to the end of their DAYS.
The Domestic Magazine