The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-07-31
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
MAKING HIMSELF USEFUL IN
Hls OLD AGE.
The Philosopher Has Reached His
Seventeen Miio Post.

Chow many miles 10 MilybFight2
Three score and ten" Now, since i
have Just passed my SEVENTEEN year on
this mundane sphere, ] can't keep that
old refrain out OF my mind. Three
score and ten Il follows me about,
aud seems 10 say: "Your time is out,
old gentleman. Every day you live
now is del gratia-a favor-an extra
allowance that was not promised aud
is not deserved. SO, be thankful and
prudent, and don't drink too much ice
water this hot weather A young
mans majority il twenty-one, az old
mans seventy. Twice he crosses the
Rubicon, II he lives that long, and
then comes another rivera dark one
and like Caesar he may say, Jacta
est alea'-the die Is cast,
was Illuminating about this seventy
years-this magical sacred number
that is mans allotted age. Seventy
learned men translated the Old Tesla
ment 300 years before Christ, aud sew
enty disciples we're sent out by Him as
missionaries to preach the gospel and
establish His church. 1t was Moses
who wrote that the days of our years
shall be three score and ten, and yet
he lived to DO one hundred and twenty
years-nearly twice the allotted age,
and half OF which was labor and sor-
row-working with a vexatious and
ungrateful people. 1t is curious how
gradually the age Of mankind dropped
down from nine hundred TO one humid
red and twenty in the ten generations
that succeeded Noah; then it dropped
to seventy in the next tens and there
il stands. There has been no change
for 1000 years. The long suffering Of
the Creator seems to have been APP
peased.
Well, Of course these seventy years
are not the fixed limit for any man or
woman, but they are certainly the
allotment of human longevity. But
few go beyond it, The wagon breaks
down all over. 1t can't be patched up
any more. For several years it has
been sent to the shop occasionally for
repairs, and been doing light work,
but She time will surely come when
wheels and axles and hounds must all
collapse. This is no misfortune nor
fault nor penalty, but, as Judge Ham
mond used to say, at is the law of
this case, and there is nothing so very
sad or horrible about 1t. 1t is just
such a change as all nature is going
through, and if a man lives right, he
has no reason TO lament its coming.
Every seed of tree or flower is a sym
| Dol of our own resurrection.
Old age has its rewards as we'll as its
infrmities. Moses said that the young
men shall stand up and honor the faces
of the old men, and many Of the prom
Uses are a good old age-a full age-a
ripe old age, as a shock of corn in its
season. How considerate are the child
rem to their aged parents, and how
loving are their grandchildren. 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 sometimes they are the
best of all. Sydney Smith said: 81
am seventy-four years old, am at ease
in my circumstances, in tolerable
health, a mild wing, a tolerating
churchman, much given to talking,
laughing and noise. 1 am, upon the
whole, happy man-have found the
world entertaining, and am thankful
to providence for the part allotted me
in it,"
Much depends on q mans surround.
ings, but more depends on his philoso,
ply. One poet says:
''The world is very lovely. Oh my God,
thank Thee that live"
Another says:
81 would not live Away, ask not to stay
Where storm after storm grows dark DER
the way"
Bryant writes beautifully about life
and death and lying down to pleasan
dreams. Dr. Holmes pokes his ire
sistible humor at old age;
''But now his nose is thin
Aud it rests upon his chin
Like staff,
And crook is in his back
And melancholy crack
In his laugh;
But kLow it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
AT him here"
And il was. He should have risen u
according to scripture and tipped hi
hat to the poor old man. But sh
bears are extinct in that region, an
the doctor knew it.
Mr.. Shakespeare is somewhat sal
4. castle himself, for he makes Prime
Hal say to Falstaff:
Q "Are you not written down with a
the charters of old age? Have you nc
e a moist eye, a dry hand, a yello
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