Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-12-27

| end we all know that exercise, diet, dress
| sanitary conditions are all important
Born on the hills in Fulton county,
| -four hundred feet above the Maha.k
| Valley, | enjoyed pure air to start with
With walks OF five or ten miles and rides
on horseback of many more. Outlines be-
lore breakfast; skating, cOdStlng. sleigh.
riding with boys as well as girls, for in
our old academies we had coeducation
everywhere. We enjoyed abundant means
for fun and frolic.
In those days the languages and math-
ematics were not thought to be too strong
intellectual pabuium for girls. Five years
in all my studies and plays in the con
slant companionshp Of boys I count as
one Of the happiest periods Of my girl
hood.
Thus the girls acquired strength. cour
age and self-assertion and the boys cour-
teSy, refinement and self-control
Thus youth passed with comparative
freedom, and the foundation was laid for
health and intellectual development
WifehoOd and motherhood brought their
duties, without the usual disabilities
that feeble women, ignorant of the laws
of health, endure. Nature does her best
at all periods of woman's life TO MAKE
each change one of added health and
happiness. Those obedient to her laws
rejoice in every step from youth To age
FIFTY is the heyday of her intellectual!
life. Then the vital forces used in re-
production are garnered in the BRAIN CIV
ing new ideas and adding force clearrles,
and beauty to thought. There comes elo-
quence of expression and she finds a wild
er field for her sympathies. She has new
interests in the great world which Is the
future home of her children. in which
she is now to labor to make 1t fit for
them to live in.
Now the wise woman sees she has new
duties in the state to build up govern
ment for the benefit of the whole people
She has duties in the church to save her
children fromyall the narrowing ssupersti
lions that have SO long oppressed the fu-
man mind. This sbrd finds her able to
meet-u. ~14
This Is a happy picture of my life. anG
now. in my eighty-fifth year, life is as
sweet TO me ever. l have no pains or
aches, no regrets or forebodings for my
self; all my sorrows are for the troubles
of others.
regrets for the past are vain: the page Is
turned; there is no remedy for what j.
done. AS to the future, anxieties arc
equally vain; we do not know what ore
day will bring forth; what we hope or
fear may never occur; the present is all
that is ours.
1t is the general opinion that with age
must come decrepltude, that its inevitable
accomplishments are wigs and spectacle
ear trumpets and false teeth. weak knees,
asthma neuralgia and rheumatism.
This is by no means the case.
| know sound old gentlemen on the
shady side of eighty who read without
spectacles, whose hearing is as keen as
rabbits, VINO can walk as briskly as
most men OF lOrlN. ana nave as Keen
zest as ever in all there is in life worth
enjoying.
One OF the most celebrated dancing
masters in western New York Mr.. Coo
leigh, played on his violin and danced as
lightly as a boy of sixteen.
And ii our senses are not so keen as
in youth our spiritual eyes behold the
unfolding of many glories we never saw
before. We hear the music in the air, the
harmonies of nature UNDECIDED in the
early days, and the interior life grows
brighter as the years roll on, the hori-
ION of thought broadens. new vistas open
to unknown paths. and We See visions
and dream dreams of celestial harmony
and happiness, and of the complete full
tilment of all our earth-born plans and
purposes.
They are begun in youth in doubt and
weakness, but finished at last in faith
and victory.
For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself. though in another
dress;
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars invisible by
day.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Chicago
Chronicle.