Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-05-14
Growing Old.

Growing Old.
Fighting with old age is like fight
ing cloud Of gnats. Cut and hev
as you may, they come back in thei
thousands; and, insignificant as eacl
item is, by their multitude you are
undone. Fill up the wrinkles witt
the best enamel-but that self-accus
ing bag under the chin, which wa
once as round as a billiard ball an,
as soft as peach? Dye the whiten
7 ing hair to the last new shade O
bronzed gold and cover with coil
and f'rizettes, well matched by the
hair dresser, where the naked patche
shOw-but that increasing adipOse
tissue? those incurving nails ? thost
thickening nostrils? Supply the gap!
which the Tooth Of Time has made
in your inventory, and supply them
with the deftest imitation to be had
paint your eyebrows blacken the
lids; restrain eXuberance here make
yourself really fine example of Iivt
ing decorative art-and you are moi
step further from the abyss o.
physical ruin. What Thor could
not accomplish, neither can you
and the ravages of that Tooth can
be repaired no more than splintered
glass is repaired by pasting tissue
paper over the fracture. Something
is sure to betray you.
On women this trial of growing
old weighs more heavily than on
men; and the art is consequently
more difficult to learn. Indeed,
with two types of women - the
pretty women who have been queens
of society, and the active rulers of
their households who have been
clever managers and emphatically
nlditreSSe fenlnleS-it is an art never
learned at all. The one will still ap-
pear as an inferior copy of her
former self long after her beauty
has passed away the other will still
attempt activities of mind and body
long after her faculties have decayed.
Neither will yield to the inevitable,
neither confess the ineXorabie and
neither can be made to see the diff
ference between then and now. One
must have heart of stone not to
pity the futile endeavors of these
poor victims of Observation-Disclosures
wrecks on the great ocean of life
still doing their feeble best to fly the
tattered colors of youth and energy
still engaging in the contest with
the fresh, the vigorous, the un-
harmed. If they would but learn the
art of wise steering, and make for
that safe, placid, uneventful harbor,
wherein lie the art and dignity of
growing old
Men suffer, too, in this struggle
with time and old age. Though not
so welded to their own beauty, be-
cause not so dependent on it for love
as woman, still, even a philosophic
Adonis regrets his increasing waist
coat and that natural tonsure ever
widenining on his pate. He looks
back with regret to the time wnen
he was the handsOmest man in the
roOm-and the women made him
know it. Now the affectionate fa-
miliarity of young wives and pretty
girls is but an additional pang. pro-
claiming him, as it does, as an in
nocuous old fogey-a lion with teeth
drawn and claws cut. But he has
his cOmpensations. He has his
sports, his business, his public duties;
and the greatest trouble is when
these fail him-greater than when a
pretty Miss SauceboX pats him on
the shoulder and calls him an old
dear. Football had to be given up
when he ceased to be a youth
cricket and polo, and lawn tennis
Jagged longer. When these became
impossible, the hunting-field and the
links were still free-though these al
last failed him, like the rest. His
walking powers diminished and
his twenty miles with ease, fan
toe-and-heel," came down by fine
and insensible degrees to self con.
gratulatiOns on two-mile walk as 8
really heroic feat. "All things IN
moderation" This text follows him
throughout. He finds that he can.
not take his wine as he used. He
may have made his head like 8
gentleman" in his youth, but ap
preaching age unmakes it pretty fast
Certain dishes have to be given up
else will gout and ndrheumatism avengt
his indiscretions; and he has to learr
self-control and abstinence as tn,
years go by, and carry his digestiv,
powers along with him. Still, hi
mind is as clear as q bell, he says
and he could give points to the sharp
est youngster in his employment -
But here, too, by degrees, his man
ner of conducting his business fail
of its former success-and the newe
metods do not suit him. He doe
not move with the times in anythin,
in business, literature, art, science
politics. He disapproves of it all
for he is no longer educable, and al
most always turns back to the cor
ditions of his own youth as the on
perfect moment in the history of tn
nation.
KENTUCKY CoRoNER--Yes, tn
papers found upon the decease
prove that he was Col. Blood.