St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-05

All aPIlI, 1000, Tic EilBllSU press ana
periodicals were proclaiming the ar
rival OF new poet in Alexander Smith.
young Scotehman, whose Life
Drama" was praised by the dictatorial
critics with one cordial acclaim that
would have gladdened the broken heart
or Keats. FoIty-one years are gone
since that cheering shout of fame. and
today the poets own lines describe him
to this generation:
'fhe largest son OF Time
VINO wandered singing to the listening
world,
VIII be as much forgot as the canoe
That crossed the bosom of a lonely lake
thousand years ago."
Not quite so deep the oblivion, how
ever while his name is remembered for
some noble prose essays. among them
one called the First Gray Hair"
1t is not likely that this touch of his
genius would be wholly appreciated at
the present time. Even in tue matter
of gray hairs the fin de steele velocity Of
progress has grown them in the scalp
of youth, and they are not the browning
evidence of age they were When Alex
ander Smith was young. in the cool.
calm, slow years considerably over a
half century ago. Looking back, how
fast the world is going in every way.
When compared with the old, sedate
Inconvenience so very remote, either.
Today Flora Temple, the erstwhile fa-
nous trotter, would be ridiculous in
any quotation of speed. and the crowds
who wagered on her then phenomenal
gait are simply unimaginable beside
present records of horses and plungers.
As it is with horse speed. SO 1t is with
mankind. In the swift life-course of
the present time there is scarcely any
youth in the old time sense.
There are no restrictions worth the
name to hedge it-no gradual conces-
slons to pleasures and amusements-in
verify, no probationary halt before
youth becomes lord of itself"
1t is that from the start. Except for
the fleet period of being classified as
youth. it signifies scarcely more than
the name. since it prematurely com
passes the experiences of the ripest
maturity. Allowing for ali the learned
theories concerning gray hair, the here
tofore common belief has been that it
ment age, and, likewise, when visible
in the locks of youth it is believed to be
legible of passions and excuses, as
when in leaf the frost winds come, and
after in the summers breath it waves
but iron boughs.
SO there is no surprise in seeing the
first gray hair in the tresses of any age
now. We have changed all that, for we
have outstripped and outlived such
tritiiDg indications.
The regrets and the sentimentaliZing
are not for us since we have reversed
the Old routine of things in having gray
hair at any time, without regard 10 the
supposed natural order of such happen
ing. Therefore, it is with a half curl
Gus, half amused interest that we read
Alexander Smiths essay on the first
gray hair. and wonder how such trifie
moved him with deepest pathetic
feeling.
We cannot understand it. because age
from our standpoint is chiefly joke,
and 'old'' is the worst. the most routing
adjective we hurle at anybody or any,
thing.
We scan each other. and even while
deceitfully saying GLOW we'll you look -
"Ilme has forgotten you. OF deals light
ly with YOU" we are eying each other.
and ready to laugh at the subterfuges
to simulate long vanished condition.
A countryman was once speaking
about the ''encrustments" of age, and
1t seemed to the listener that it was not
in the least Partingtonian, but a nice
distinction, since indisputably age to-
day shows encrustments" as well as
encroachments.
While multitude will laud the
beauty of gray hair, it is nevertheless
beauty no one covets, and no one ever
welcomes. even when tits the CROWN of
long life. which the average human
being hopes to live, despite all draw
backs to good looks.
1t IS strange that while we are so SEN
sitlve to the decay of physical comeli-
ness, and communicative enough about
the external havoc of years. whether
regarding ourselves or our world, there
is decline that few people have the
courage to keep before their own minds,
and still less are they willing to impart
to others. And why? Because an in
definable yet convincing sensation
haunts them that it is trenching upon
the final admission of Hamlet-''the
rest is silence"
The decline of life itself is the griev-
Gus part, and the concern for mere
looks, gray hair, ETC., is suggestive of
Burke's saying about plying the plum
age and forgetting the dying bird. The
vast superficial majority Will forever
continue this forgetting of the para
mount consideration, and when its
watchful thought is layished on an
Impossible rehabilitation of bygone APP
pearances 1t is doubtful whether life's
yeritaD.e decline has the least interest
or meaning. If the sad truth comes
home to this majority once in while,
rather casually, perhaps, yet impress
sIve, it begets desperate sort of
bravado to test the reality of the de-
cline. 1t will not go slowly, dropping
late hours, certain eatables and drinka-
Dles, and avoiding all the eXcitements
that exhaust the mysterious proto-
plasm of life. The proceeding is like
wading in as far as tenable in a deep
stream until after many ventures the