Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-15
WHEN Is A MAN OLDg
A Georgia Court Thinks Sixty-Six |
Years About Right. |

Chicago Times Herald.
The supreme court of Georgia has decided
that man who has reached his Goth year
Is 'aged." The decision was made under
clause of the constitution of Georgia ex-
empting the property OF "aged and infirm
persons" from levy and sale, the law being
construed literally in order to promote it's
object, the court holding that a man Sc
years old is entitled to it's protection.
This need not raise unnecessary alarm in
the breasts of chose who are old, or who
are growing old Notwithstanding the
opinion, it still remains true that man is
mo older than he feels even though the
Cogging finger of time does point forward
on the dial plate. Old at &c! Look at Glad
stone at SS, and Bismarck at 50! Do they
show any diminuton of intellectual vgor or
activity? Legouve, the French academiclan,
is in his Goth year, Leo XIII in his S7th
Senator Morrill, in his S7th. Justice Field
in his SD, ex-senator Palmer in his S0th,
while Queen Victoria is about to celebrate
in her 18th year, the longest English reign
in history. These are but a few of the great
numbers of men and women in every land
today who are exercising potent influence
on the world. and in every walk of life and
of human endeavor and aspiration are as
active and as useful as ever.
Let no man think achievement is not for
him simply because the family record sums
up his years to threatening total. THE
sixties" said Red Jacket to his young braves,
have all the twenties and forties in them"
Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles
Wrote his grand Oedpus and Simonides
Bore off the prize of verse from his COM
When each had numbered more than four
And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten
Had but begun his Characters of Men.
GhaHcer at Woodstock with the ntshtngales
Goethe at Weimar, toi.ing to the last. -
Completed Faust when eighty years were
past.
History resounds with the performances of
men whose years numbered threescore or
more. "My Cid with the feecy beard" driv-
ing the Moors from Spain, Dandolo, Doge OF
Venice at 80 and storming Constantinople
at "a, and in our own time Won Moltke at
70 conducting campaign unparalleled for
brlliancy and result in the history of war
There are feats of arms; would you search
other fields? In science there are Darwin
and Spencer and Pasteur and Lister, and
if you go back trife, Sir Isaac Newton,
who could name a discovery for every one
of his S5 years. 1t was Voltaire who said
that If all the great men of all the ages
could be assembled in congress Sir Isaac
Newton would be chosen 10 preside by unani-
nous consent.
who in advanced years won imperishabe
renown are legion. Everybody can recall
their names. Milton wrote his great epic
when nearly 60. Michael Angelo at 80 won
the Triple crown Tor excellence In painting,
sculpture and architecture. Browning at n
wrote his most characteristic poem, and
Tennyson at 81 gave to the world the most
exquisite OF his lyrics. We name but a few
for the roll is long.
The Georgia judgment Is all right enough
for the case before the court, but let no
man of 66 think that 1t applies to him. Let
him, after the cheerful manner of our be-
loved "Autocrat," look old Father Time
squarely in the eye and tell him he does
not know what he is talking about If he
calls him old!