Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1896-12-15

To the aged: Have you at this season
thanked the Almighty for sparing your
| life up 10 the present, or have you been
moaning for the good old days:
trust not this latter. | read In Shakes
peare and other early books many things
regarding the aged. In those swash-
buckler times the average man no
sooner lost his quickness Of eye and
activity OF body then he was too often
carelessly pushed aside 10 develop
peeyishness and general dissonance
from the world. have not the slight
est doubt that Shakespeare correctly
mlrrored his day and age.
Compare those conditions with the
present. Admitting that there IL sort
OF dead-line AT fifty, after which man
can scarcely hope TO get entry into a
new business, the young and active be-
ing almost alone in demand, there yet
remain twenty and more possible years
Of life 10 enjoy the fruits OF early indus
try and TO take share In a world that
holds out vast possibilities OF rich in
spiration in church work, In reforms, in
culture, and in thought.
But 10 enjoy life and 10 fight off the
day when the young no longer listen to
you with interest, you must make up
your mind not to oppose new knowledge
Just because il differs from your earlier
impressions. Whenever, a. intimated,
YOU sigh for the former days, and say
the present are worse, il is an undoubted
evidence to your listeners that your mind
Is no longer receptive and that you are
not merely old In years but actually and
really old In mind.
He who is constantly gaining knowl-
edge and sssimilating il never grows
old and when Natures last debt Is
paid he Is sincerely missed.
Some time ago was visiting In a
doctors office In Delaware. In came his
silver-haired wife. woman OF seventy,
and with good deal OF glee she pointed
TO the perfect arrangement OF the petals
of a plant that she had not hitherto no.
ticed In the garden. | glanced at her
radiant face and understood the secret
OF beautiful, companionable age; IL Is
ALWAYS TO be on the alert for something
new and interesting in this blessed world
wherein we are permitted TO linger for
time.
A perfect illustration Of this is seen in
that dear "Old Boy" Oliver Wendell
Holmes. Gladstone Is another case.
No one can associate the idea OF age
with him, when, with persistency most re-
markable. he continues TO write on the
most erudite subjects and brightens them
with the very latest gleanings of knowl-
edge.
Another instance comes TO my mind.
Last Sunday heard DR.. Edward Everett
Hale, of Boston. This friend OF Holmes,
and OF the group who have made Boston
famous In American literature, is grow
ing very old. but, like Moses, his fire Is
not abated. His voice, instead OF being
treble or husky piping, is deep and
full, and makes me think, from It's
resonance and power, of the voice OF one
who shouteth beneath a bridge. When
he blurted out In his peculiar way some
emphatic thought his whole body seemed
to rise up and dstend in the pulpit. Yet,
thought |, mannerisms, voice, frame,
these three, would not have drawn such
an audience had there not been in his
sermon perfect and harmonious touch
with the thought, the questions, the
difficulties of this actual present day.
All cannot be as pleasant as Holmes
nor as learned as Gladstone, nor as in
fluential as Hale, but none are as limited
in their possibilities and their enjoy
ments as those Of an earlier age.
Your only hope for the complete con-
fidence of the young around you is to
make them feel your interest in the
present day and your kindly entry into
their problems and perplexities. Any
different course will estrange them and
YOU will be bereft of the sweetest solace
of age, that comes from the looking up
ward Of the young for advice and guild
ance. Almost with hush in his voice,
one of the college boys said to me to- day
when | was walking through Princeton
on my way to Trenton for my Thanks
giving dinner "Mrs. McCOsh looks after
US boys yet. What do you think! The
other day she called on sick boy though
she did not know him. We boys rever-
ence her." That is model old age.
To the young: Remember, young
folks, as you grow with me into fuller
understanding Of your actual existence
as living responsible thing, separate
as to identity from every other, that the
world is and must be run by the people
that are in it. How absurdly simple
that sounds But the sound Is the only
simple part of It. Give the fact deep
thought andit will encourage you as 1t has
me to put forth the best effort possible.
To realize that the multitudinous activi-
ties of the world are based upon living
beings, not dead ones, is to get the belief
burned into your soul that you-ob-
scure, insignificant, weak perhaps-are
part Of the machinery.
Then too the active participants In the
great affairs Of the world are just ordi-