The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-11-06
A WOMAN,S AGE.
1t Is Her Dearest Secret and Well Does
She Preserve 1t.

It Is Her Dearest Secret and Well Does
She Preserve 1t.
The Prince of Wales once asked very
pretty woman her age. She replied, "Just
25." Five years later he met her again,
when he asked the same question. lust
25," she again replied. Tho prince smiled
and said, 1.-Two years ago you made the
same answer. 'Ah, your highness, sure
ly you don't think l am a woman who
says one thing today and another thing to-
morrow
Women all the world over-white black,
red and yellow-equivocate on one point;
that point Is their age. In fact, there is
something essentially unfeminine in the
make up of u woman who having arrived
having very much arriyed-at years of
discretion, docs not equivecate And it is
u woman's first duty to be feminine,
Looking over the blue book, where our
ages arc periodically registered, one fact
stands out for all who run to read. 1t is
that the vast majority of womens ages
therein recorded cluster near the early
twenties and the multiples of ten.
That women arc reluctant to ''change
figure" is common knowledge. When she
has passed the thirticth milestone, a wom-
twenties, from which she refuses to move
until compelled to do so by tho too evident
pressure of years.
This feminine propensity TO falSify ones
age IL not always the result Of vanity. II
may urise ut times from slovcnly habit
of the mind, which is loath to change
figure that has done service for so long.
When the new year comes on u.s. the pei
often clings with sentimental forgetfulnoss
to the figures of the old. 1t rebels against
putting where Il q has been.
Perhaps the same lazy sentiment and
forgetfuincss urge woman to fabricate an
cgc in consonance with her desire
Tie fayoritc sticking age" for women
is 25. This is proved by the fact that the
number Of women returning themselves as
between 90 and % is far larger than the
number of girls returned ten years before
as being between 10 and 10, The former
must naturally be the survivors qf the lat
ter. Here is IL little mystery of which the
solution must be found in tho intricate
mazes of wonan's vanity,
Why woman should begin to faisify
her age in the early twenties has always
been "a puzzle to the fair and square mind
cd lords of creation. From 20 to 50 Ia as-
surcdly the table land of woman's life and
Granted. But women are essentially
prudential in their calculations
Ii one is determined to stick at 20, to
refuse to run the steeple chase of lifo fairly,
to decline to take aU "a bound the third
multiple of 10. it is we'll to begin in good
time. a year or two in the early twenties
IL never missed.
And u woman never stoops to pick up
what she has thus lost, which leads to the
conclusion that women are wise in theiF
gcneration.-New York journal.
Do Ants Ever Sleep?
Some years ago the leading naturallsts
startled the world with the intelligence
that the common ant had never been
known to sleep. They claimed to have
made long series of observations which
Syarranted such remarkable conclusions.
The published statements of the results of
these observations excited considerable
comment. for, If the assertion should prove
true, the ant wGpA be the only exception
known in the apnqi world where sleep
at some time or other is not an absolute
necessity. Later observations on this point
prove that the sensational natuPalists viz
made the announcement were not IN pos
session Of facts which would justify such .
aapnlpsiap- --St. Louis Rapubua