The suburban citizen., 1901-11-30
THE NAV WOMAN oF FIFrY.
Young Looking GrandmOthers OF To-day
and a Fresh Cause Of Discomfort.

Young Looking GrandmOthers of To-day
and a Fresh Cause of Discomfort.
The grandmother may not have dis
appeared altogether but her outward
and visible signs have changed enough
to make her very different from what
she used to be-. The woman Of fifty
to-day looks as little like the ideas
formerly entertained Of that age as
she wants to.
If the ideal of thirty years ago is in
her mind she may look like an old
woman. If she prefers to follow the
mode of the day she may look as
young as the dressmakers and her
own natural condition will enable her
to appear. And this youthfulness will
not attract the least attention.
If her hair be without a suspicion
of gray and her figure slim that will
be no more unexpected than the youth
fulness Of her dress; and the woman
Of fifty may now dress like the woman
of thirty and still observe the best
standards of taste. She may even dye
her hair without committing any such
transgression of the laws of taste as
she would have been guilty of several
years ago. Even If she dyes it yellow
she win be criticised no more sharply
than the woman Of thirty would If
she did the same thing.
Now middle age has the privileges
Of youth and is at liberty to keep
itself as attractive looking as possible.
The woman of fifty is not to be put
among the aged nowadays because
she happens to have accumulated a
certain number of years and has be-
come a grandmother She is not for
that reason to be counted among the
women who are forbidden to think Of
their looks or to attend to their ap-
pearances further than to see to it
that their white caps are coquettishly
trimmed with ribbons and their black
dresses free from wrinkles. 1t used
to be foregone conclusion that they
would be wrinkled themselves whether
their gowns were or not.
The woman of fifty enjoys her pres
ent privileges so much that it is a
wonder that she could ever have rec
onciled herself to the old ideas.
Whether the liberality that is shown
now toward the woman of this age
will be extended to those still her SEN
ior remains to be seen. 1t is certain
that nobody supposed twenty years
ago that the women Of fifty would ever
look as they do to-day, or would be
able to dress with taste and proprlety
in the styles that they adopt to-day.
SO this new view may be extented
to take another and older class.
The new woman Of fifty has not
been received by all of her sex as a
complete success. Some of the objee-
tions to her are plainly founded on
prejudice But what follows is not the
talk of a woman who is in the lest
prejudiced, and there is no criticism
to be made Of her intelligence. She
thinks that women were happier when
they were less youthful-looking at
fifty.
There may be-" she said, greater
satisfaction among women Of a certain
age that they look younger now than
they were able to appear several years
ago; but they are no happier than they
were for that reason. There are
more dissatisfied, discontented-look-
ing women of fifty nowadays than
there ever were in the past
Il think it is largely due to the fact
that their new dress and their new
place in the world do not in the least
agree with their ages. 1t is rot Of the
least use for a woman to look like
forty or younger when she is com
PEELED to act still as she would at her
real age.
ut is this incongruity between the
woman's looks and the way she is CON.
PEELED to act that makes her unhappy
and discontented with her lot. She
looks in the glass I'D sees that she
looks younger by ten years than she
Is. That makes her feel Gs If sAc
would like to act more in accordance
with the age she wcuH like to be
But that is out of the question n the
majority of cases, and she is con-
PEELED to reconcile herself as best she
can to the difference between her locks
and her aspirations.
THAT is the evil Of the new change
in the woman Of fifty. She may be
younger-looking that sho was IN the
old days, but shc is not so happy
New York Sun.