The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-07-15
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Bill Arp Tells What an Old Han Of Sew
enty Can Do.
O. Constitution.

on this mundane sphere, l cant keep
that old refrain out of ny mind. Three
score and ten! It follows me about
and seems to say: "Your time is out,
old gentleman. Every day you live
now is del gratia-a favor-an extra
allowance that was not promised and
is not deserved. So, be thankful and
prudent, and don't drink too much
ice water this hot weather. A young
mans majority is twenty-one, an old
mans seventy. Twice he CROSSES the
Rubicon, if he lives that long, and
then comes another rivera darker one
and like Caesar he may say, "Jacta
est alea'-the die is cast"
I was Illuminating about this seventy
years-this magical sacred number
that is man allotted age. Seventy
learned men translated the old tesla
ment 800 years before Christi ard sew
enty disciples were sent out by Him
as missionaries to preach the gospel
and establish his church. It was Mo
ses who wrote that the days of our
years shall be three score and ten, and
yet he lived to be one hundred and
twenty ~years-nearly twice the allot-
ted age, and half of which was labor
and sorrow-working with a vexatious
and ungrateful people. 1t is curious
how gradually the age Of mankind
dropped down from nine hundred, to
ono hundred and twenty in the ten
generations that succeeded Noah; then
it dropped to seventy in the next ten,
and there it stands. There has been
no change for 1000 years. The long
suffering of the Creator seems to have
been appeased.
Well, of course these seventy years
are not the fixed limit for any man or
woman, but they are certainly the al
lotlnent of human longevity. Butfew
go beyond it. The wagon breaks down
all over. Ican't be patched up any
more. For several years it has been
sent to the shop occasionally for re-
pairs, and been doing light work, but
the time will surely come when wheels
and axles and hounds must all col
lapse. This is no misfortune mol
fault nor penalty, but, as Judge Ham
moad used to say, cts the law of
this CASE" and there is nothing so
very sad or horrible about it. 1t is
just such a change as all nature is
going through, and if a man lives
| right, he has no reason to lament it's
coming. Every seed Of tree or flower
is q. symbol of our OWL resurrection.
Old age has it's rewards as we'll it's
infrmities. Moses said that the
young men shall stand up and honor
the faces of the old men, and many of
the promises are a good old age-afull
age-a ripe old age, as a shock of corn
in it's season. How considerate are
the children to their aged parents,
and how loving are their grandchll-
dren. They run our errands and comb
my back hair and black my shoes and
go to the postofice. The years from
seventy to eighty are not always years
of labor and sorrow-sometimes they
are the best of all. Sydney Smith
said: II am seventy-four years old,
am at ease in my circumstances, in
tolerable health, a mild whig, a tolera-
ting churchman, much given to talk
ing, laughing and noise. | am, upon
the whole, a happy man-have found
the world entertaining, and am thank.
full to providence for the part allotted
me in it.
Much depends on a man surround
ings, but more depends on his philoso-
ply. One poet says:
1.-THE world Is very lovely. Oh, my God,
I thank Thee that I live"
Another says:
IT would not live Away, T ask not to stay
Where storm after storm grows dark DER
the way"
Bryant writes beautifully about life
and death and lying down to pleasant
dreams. DR.. Holmes pokes his ire
sistible humor at old age:
"But now his nose is thin
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And o hump In his back
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh;
But I know 1t Is q Bin
For me 20 sit and grin
At him here"
And it was. He should have risen up
according to scripture and tipped his
hat 10 the poor old a But she
bears are extinct in that region and
the doctor knew it.
Mr.. Shakespeare is somewhat sar-
castle himself, for he makes Prince
Hal say to Falstaff:
care you not written down with all
the characters of age? Have you not
& moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow
cheek, a white beard, a decreasing
leg, an increasing corporosity2 Is not
your voice broken, your wind short,
your chin double, your wit single,
and every part about you blasted with
antiquity?'
That is a vile SANDER upon the three
score and ten of this generation. Look
at the stalwart forms Of many Of At
%lanta's notable men who have long
since passed the Rubicon, such as DR..
Alexander, George Adair, Chess How
ard, Redwine and Lawshe and big Jim
Dunlap. 'Big Jim" says he is just
the age of Bismarck and Gladstone,
the three greatest living octogenarians
and there is no melancholy crack in
his laugh. George Adair is still a
Scotch Irishman from away back, and
if he hadn't have fallen down stairs
at the "Old Village SCHOOL, show,
would be taken for about thrce-score
and five, and no more. And DR.. Alex
ander is not even a sixty-6ve-year sus-
pect. In fact old age carries itself
better now than it used to. People
take more pride in their personal APP
pearancc, especially the women. |
was just thinking about a neighbor
whose visits are always welcome-who
comes with a smile and who never
says a bitter or a foolish thing. She
is said to be old, but she still is beau
tiful, and sits in her chair with the
graceful case of a young matron of the
olden time. She has had trouble, but
hides it in her heart, and is always
calm and serene. Would that we
all could grow old as gracefully and
give as much pleasure to those around
us.