The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-08
WHEN WOMEN GROW OLD.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Women No
Longer Young.

-SAA a Al Us W Abh " 41AO~N 90
Threats, Shriveled Faces and Sunken
Eye Caverns.
From the New York Commercial Advertiser.
/ When we hear some one speak of IAN
old gentleman" it is not difficult to pict-
ure him in our minds eye. He is either
calm and dignihed, nervous and irritable.
or of that unfortunate type occasionally
seen-the giddy old masculine flirt, whose
bleary eyes, gay neckties and amorous an
tics render him an object of ridicule and
aversion to all who know him.
But it is not so easy matter to classify
old ladies. Women are almost as diversi-
fed in old age as in youth, and often as
pleasing to study. Living less in the
senses and the self than men in youth and
middle life, women are better able to
adapt themselves to the monotony and I'M
selfshness of the role which the aged are
obliged 10 play whether they will or not.
First, there is the dear old lady who
has kept the look of childhood in her
eyes and mouth way into the seventies.
She has trim figure, with girlishness
about the waist despite all the children
and grandchildren which have climbed
upon her knees. She seldom wears a
color of any description, but her black
UFtSS duu pplUtL always nave du dir VI
the prevailing fashion about them, how
ever humble may be her circumstances.
In her youth she was one of the girls who
people said had "a knack'' for trimming
hats and hanging skirt, and this knack
has followed her through life and will
follow her to the grave. Her good taste
and ready fingers have enabled her to
make becoming and agreeable appear
ance on a small income, and these quail
ties render her a trim and attractive old
lady, whose clean looks and bright
smile and cheerful manner cheat time of
at least ten years, in all save remOrseless
dates. In soul, expression and figure she
is forever young. The elasticity of her
mind and heart has kept her body timber,
despite toll and sickness, and many
younger women marvel at her 1.-the step
and supple grace of movement. She has
been a sweet girl, a loved wife, good
mother, and she is an adored gr i
mother. Her wonderful adaptabiIVy
has caused her to fit in each position life
offered as if it were her true sphere. All
that the years taught her she remem-
bers, and can help child with its lesson,
a girl with his costume or boy with his
kite. The young people all adore her, for
she is so full of sympathy helpfulnesS and
wise suggestions. She is the first to hear
their love secrets, and they are never
satisfied with their new clothes until she
has seen and approved. Scores of younger
people might die and be less mourned
than this old lady with the heart of a
child.
The quaint old lady is another type,
quite as good, no doubt, more self-immO-
lating frequently, but not so charming as
the other. After the birth of her last
child. if not after the first, the quaint old
| lady ceases to think of dress, save as a
covering for the body. She is neat and
clean in the care of her person, but her
gown is maze precisely as it was in her
early wifehood, and her bonnet remains
as nearly one style as the milliners sup
ply. Her hair, too, is combed in the same
manner she arranged it forty years ago.
She thinks it unseemly for her to be fuss
ing over fashions or caring about her APP
pearance, further than TO be respectfully
dressed. She leaves that for the younger
women. She has been dutiful wife, but she
, is devoted mother and grandmother.
Her husband, in his day, was won't to cast
an admiriug glance on the sly at more
dresSy women, but he was pleased with
his prudent and sensible wife on the
whole, and if he would have liked her to
keep a little closer pace with the fashions
he never told her so. If he has wandered
from his allegiance to her she has never
suspected it, for women devoid of romance
are seldom suspicious She has never
studied mankind, and the fact that they
are married impels allegiance in her mind.
She is a pious, God fearing woman, and
most excellent nurse. She watches with
the sick and the dead. There is patient,
sad look in her face, and in repOSe she
seems rather to be Illuminating over past
sorrows than anticipating joys to come.
She has a kind word for all the young
people, yet she is inclined to cast slight
shadows on their fresh hopes by talking
TO them about the uncertainty of happi-
ness in this world and the temporary ma
of md rtI 1yy FThau do
not instinctively go to her with their joys
or sorrows, but she is the first to know of
their bodily ailments and her sympathy
and helpfulness in times of sickness rem
der her invaluable in the family. Her
quaint, slow, bowed figure moving up the
church aisle on Sundays is a part of the
service, and every one treats her with
consideration and respect.
Exactly opposite to her by nature and
habit is the dressy old lady who either
does not or will not realize the flight of
time She may have been belle and a
beauty in her youth, who finds it impossi-
BILE to give up playing the role even after
the audience has gone and the lights are
out: but l have seen her also, without
beauty or grace, possessed of this un-
quenchable mania for adornment, making
herself a grotesque and pitiable object in
her old age. Perhaps In her youth
= she may have been deprived of the
L
nine heart Graves. and the long starved
appetite, gratified at last, destroys reason
and Judgment. More frequently she is
passe belle whose passion for admiration
has grown into a veritable disease.
have seen such a one, whose dried and
withered face proclaimed her to be no
stranger to three-score years and ten,
barring her still beautiful bust and Shout
ders in full evening dress, wholly uncon-
scious of the frightful contrast made by
her withered throat and shriveled face.
have seen her, too, dressed in all the
colors of the rainbow, with waving
plumes upon her GainsbOro hat, acceutu-
ating the haggard hollows in her cheeks
, and the sunken caverns of her eyes, toss
ing her head like some airy school girl.
She is full of "reminiscences of conquest,
and no man is 50 young that she does not
believe him susceptible to her powers of
fascination.
Such women invariably rely upon the
gifts nature originally bestowed, neglect
: ing all wise means of preservation of
their charms Too vain or indoent TO
work for such an end, they depend upon
bodily decoration, unconscious that gay
colors only serve to render their faded
skins and worn features more noticeable.
Most unfortunate phase Of all this is
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