The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-02-23


Mr.. McCullough's motion to recon.
slider was then tabled.
The Scripture Says Old Age is Honorable.
BILL ARP IS THREE SCORE AND
Ten.
He Declares that Moses Had the Blues
The Old Must Accept their Des-
tiny With Grace and Gratitude.
How many miles to Milybright {? "
Three score and ten"
[ can't help thinking of that old
nursery song, for have just past my
sevcnty-tirst birthday and am there
fore just seventy years old. 1t is like
crossing the Ruibcorn, and like Caesar
l may say, 1.-The die is cast" l have
reached the allotted age, and now
every day that | live is personal
privilege favor not promised nor
deserved. There is something solemn
and serious in the word, for scripture
and ancient history seem to have
made 1t significant. There were sew.
enty elders Of Israel and the Lord sent
out seventy missionaries seventy
learned men translated the Old Testa-
ment, and mans age was cut down by
degrees from 900 to seventy, and there
the Lord called halt, and Moses saith
that all the excess is labor and sorrow.
Moses was feeling very blue when he
wrote that. The old man lived to be
l2O and had troubled time, but |
know some men and many women who
lived past eighty and whose last DAYS
were their best days. Those who have
lived right or tried to and have been
unselfish and arc blessed with good
wife or a good husband and loving
children can take all the risks that
attach to four score years. Labor and
sorrow do not necessarily follow old
age. Sydney Smith said when he
was seventy.four: - am at ease in
my circumstances in tolerable health:
toterating churchman-much given
TO talking, laughing and noise am,
on the whole, a happy man have
found the world,an entertaining world,
and am thankful to Providence for the
part allotted me in it,"
Longfellow lived to he seventy five.
When he was seventy he wrote his
friend Childs: st is like climbing
tho a lps: you reach Il snow crowned
summit and see behind you the deep
'oiiSS eoIStChlnS mllcS ana miles
away, and before you other SUBMITS,
higher and whittier, which YOU NAV
have strength to climb or you may
not. Then you sit down and mediate,
and wonder which it will be. This is
the whole story"
DIR. Holmes saw so much fun in
everything that he couldn't help max
ing funny rhymes about an old man.
Rnt NOW bio ,nco ,b;,>
And it rests upon his chin
Like q stall
And crook is in his back
And melancholy crack
Is in his laugh"
Then he was sorry that he wrote it,
for he says:
''I know it is n sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here
The doctor didn't expect to live to
be eighty-five, for long ago he said :
"Our brains are seventy-year clocks !:
the angel OF life winds them up once
for all, then closes the case and gives
the key to the angel of the resurrec-
tion."
But an old man is not obliged to
have a crook in his back nor crack
in his laugh. We see many aged men
who are straight as an Indian and
have not lost the musical tone of their
voice. Habit and pride of person have
much to do with this. know an aged
matron, nelghbor of ours, who when
she is sitting hardly touches the back
of chair, and yet she is not stiff or
awkward-always graceful, always
beautiful. She is kind and gentle in
her age, and has warm welcome
wherever she visits. If she cannot
hear all that Is said she is not embar-
rassed, for she says what she lacks in
hearing she makes up in seeing and
reading and Is thankful for tho facul-
ties that are still left her. | never
saw her with u troubled look, though
| know she has had trouble and deep
grief. Now, contrast such q woman
with one who is always complaining Of
her hard lot, or saying something dis
paraging about her neighbOrs
But the o|d-time mothors had some
excuse 70" bent shoulders, for it was
the fashion to sleep on pillow and boil
ster, and it was the fashion to lean to
the child while it was nursing. Habits
begun In childhood and continued in
motherhood will never be broken in
the decline of life. | believe that the
habits OF the girls OF this generation
are an Improvement on those of the
past. They do not lace like they used
to, and they carry themselves more
gracefully. They have better fitting
| shoes and corsets. They have more
comfortable seats at school and are
not allowed to lean forward to thei.
books or slate or writing pad, The
life insurance companies have at last
discovered that women live as long as
men, II not longer, and policies ar<
issued to them on equal terms The
longevity Of both sexes is increasing
slowly but surely, and the only draw
back is intemperance-w anC
opium. Were 1t not for these, the
three-score andten limit would soor
be advanced to four score and give III
a stronger and handsomer race OF peo
pie.
Shakespeare gave us some types o
old age that seem to have fitted The
times in which he lived, but they are
very rare In ours. Prince Hal sai
to Falstaff "Have you not all tn
characters OF age-a moist eye, dr.,
hand, yellow cheek, a white beard
a decreasing leg, an increasing corpoi
osityp Is not your voice broken, you
wind short, your chin double, your wi
single and every part about you bloat
ed with antiquity ?"