St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-03-18
ABOUT LOVELY old LADIES.
Some of the Noble Types that are
Presented by Old Age.
A Busy, Afecti0nate Woman Says Mrs.
Amelia Z. Barr Never Loses Her
YOutil-The Tender and Graceful
Beauty of LIES Autumn.

may be as charming in their way at seventy
years Of age, as their grand-daughters are
at seventeen for it is the low sun in life,
as well as in nature, that makes the color,
and the evening of well-spent days, ought
| to have the splendor and the peace of the
| westering sun. At the same time, Age is
not exempted from the variety which distin-
| cuisines every other portion of life. Beauty,
| use, grace and value are to be found among
| aged women, though they may have differ
| ent aspects from the same qualities in youth;
| and again, there are those to whom the years
! have taught nothing, and given nothing and
from whom they have taken away, even that,
which in the days of their youth they pos
sessed. The latter class, in no way come
under the designation of "Lovely Old
Ladies'" They are tue Mrs. Skewtons, and
Miss Crawleys of fiction; prowling about the
gay places of the world, that they ought long
ago to have decently retired from. Out of
their place, and therefore out of use and
honor, caricaturing youth and beauty, they
are fit objects for the scorn of those youth
full years they affect; and also of those
mature years, they dishonor.
Age has, however, far nobler types than
these. It's physical beauty is thing to be
felt, not seen with the eyes; and therefore
the thoughtless and unfeeling do not see
it. For the beauty of age is derived beauty.
! 1t is the essence of pain and sorrow and
| victory, informing the mere flesh and blood,
and transferring it. Youth thinks sorrow
to be an accident of life, which it may
escape. On the contrary, it is the very
| wool woven into the welt of life. Our
! nerves were made to suffer; our hearts were
made to bleed; and every woman that at
tains to the highest law of her being, must
have been wounded in all her affections, and
be able to say of every part of her body g it
has its history of suffering" Pain is specially
the reflner of women, and it is to its fine
craving, they owe in age that clear, passion
less face, and that air of patience and seren-
ity, which in itself is beauty far beyond
! that Of mere form or color.
Nothing has ever so absolutely proved the
beauty of age as the =" human documents"
which are now one of the great attractions
of our magazines-the faces of famous men
and women from their youth upward. In
the great majority of these documents"
the round, PUPPY prettiness of youth, steadily
grows finer, nobler, more instinct with in
tellect and feeling; so that no one with a
soul, could hesitate moment, between
the beauty of the youthful and the aged
face. The first is perhaps only the likeness
OF a handsome animal; but the latter has
been craven by the lessons of life, until it
has become the likeness of living soul.
Looking at such faces in aged women,
we are never reminded of their years; Tor
their souls throw welt of radiance across
the pale, or wrinkled lineaments. No amount
| Of mechanical training, no "schoof' of eX-
preston or repression, can teach an aged
woman this air and attitude of her years,
if her nature is hard, worldly, and unlovely,
it is from within, not from without, and
even little child will never need to be
told the difference. No. not until the fierce
passions of youth and middle age are stilled
not until the eyes lose their fire, and the
cheeks their flush, is the Beauty of the
Lord our God upon us''-the beauty of a
spirit purified by loss and yet radiant with
a better hope.
| For really beautiful old women are of
that noble band who are born for adversely,
by this token-that they have conquered it.
They have been wives and mothers. they
have climbed many Hill of Difficulty with
the one they loved, they have walked with
God in the Valley of the Shadow of Death
They have sent sons and daughters into
the world well trained for its many conflicts.
They have laid others in the grave They
| at least understand in all its variety and
fullness the low sad music of humanity"
To them come the young with all their
passionate griefs and hopeless losses, and
the middle aged with all their anxious per-
plexities. For the words of such women,
especially to their own sex, are wiser and
more potent oracles, than any Delphian
priestess ever uttered; since they surely,
who have come nobly out of deep tribula-
lions, can best tell of the joys and gains of
conquest.
It is foolish idea, that Age cannot ad-
wise or sympathize with youth. The world
indeed changes and moves onward, but the
great essentials and attributes of humanity,
change not. What the women of Abraham's
time were, in their loves and hatreds, so
are the women of the present day; and those
who have felt the force, and drank the
sweet and bitter wine of both conditions,
are for the young, earth's best councillors :;
since their experience does really, often
attain
! "To something like prophetic strain"
while undoubtedly, the residium of human
wisdom, refined by age, is perhaps the best
there is in US.
And pray who can sympathize with youth
as well as the aged can? Even in the matter
Of love affair, no young woman will give a
sympathy so wise, and so warm, as a good
kindly old woman. Her own love-life may
lie far behind her; but it lies in that glory
of memory, which no selfish thought troubles.
She remembers that =" she too has been in
Arcadia" She had no jealousies to warp
her counsel, and she has very likely u
stronger, and more romantic prepossesion
in favor OF a love match, than the majority
of eager ambitious young women are capable
of feeling.
Why not? The past is ours, only when it
is gone. The young never understand the
meaning of their youth-its love, and Joy,
and sorrow-until they can look back from
e long distance of years. Then only they
know the meaning of it all Then only,
they see the blunders they have committed );
the opportunities they have wasted; the
priceless affections they have flung away.
Youth, while passing, is a condition but
partially enjoyed and apprehended; but in
Old Age, it is claimed as an inheritance,
that nothing but humiliation can take from
Us.
As youth is the season OF personal charm,
and as woman's influence in this direction.
is most easy and evident there is no wonder
that they fear the days, when they will be
no longer feshly, lovely and desirable Yet
in the matter OF physical beauty, Old Age is
not necessarily ugly. It mas its OWE beauty
the beauty OF to autumn of life and this