The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-09-08
''red lips. redder still.
Kissed bV Strawberries on the hi

And thus II is the children are IN
tuitively drawn toward him, and
young, pure-faced mothers are forever
lowering about him, with just such hu-
mornings and kindly ministrations as
they bestoW upon the little emperor OF
the household realm, strapped in his
high chair at the dinner table. crying
Amen" in the midst of grace" and
ignoring the "substantials" of the
grooming board, and at once insist
ing upon a square deal of the more
temporal blessings" of jelly, cake and
pie. And the old man has justly earned
every distinction he enjoys. Therefore
let him make your hearthstOne all the
brighter with the rudy coal he drags
up from it with his pipe and comfort
ably settles himself where. with remi-
niscent eyes. he may watch the curling
smoke of his tobacco as IL indOlently
floats, and drifts, and dips at last, and
vanishes up the grateful flue. At such
times, when a 5-year-old, what haven
every boy has found between the old
grandfather's kneesi Look back in
fancy at the faces blending there-the
old mans and the boy's-and, with the
nimbus of the smoke wreaths round
the brows, the gliding of the freight
on chez and chin. and the rapt and
why but for the silver tinsel of the
beard of one and the dusky elf-locks
of the other, the faces seem almost like
twins.
With such a view. of age, one feels
like whipping up the lazy years and
getting old at once. In heart and soul
the old man is not old-and never will
be. He is paradoxically Old and that is
all. So IL Is that he grows younger
with increasing years. until old age at
worst is always at level par with
youth. Who ever saw a man so old
as not secretly and most heartily 20
wish the veteran years upon years of
greater age? And at what age did ever
any old man pass away and leave be-
hind no sudden shock, and no selfish
hearts still 10 yearn after him and
grieve on unconsoled2 Why, even in
the slow. declining years OF old Me-
thuselah-the banner old man of the
universe-so old that history grew alb
solutely tired waiting for him to so off
some place and die-even Methuselah's
| taking of must have seemed abrupt to
his immediate friends, and a blow to
the general public that doubtless
! plunged il into the profoundest gloom.
! For s69 years this durable old man had
''smelt the rose above the mould" and
, doubtless had a thousand times been
told by cOngratulative friends that he
didn't look a day older than 96S; and.
necessarily, the habit of living, with
/ him, was hard TO overcome. In his
/ later years what an oracle he must
I have been, and with what reverence
| his friends must have looked upon the
little, CLASSY hairless man"
and hung upon his every utterance!
And with what unerring gift of proph-
] ecy could he fOretell the long and
\ husky drouths of summertime gracious
rains, at last-the milk-sick breeding
autumn and the blighting winter, simp-
| ly by the way his bones felt after a
| centurys casual attack of inflamma-
| tory rheumatism! And, having an
| nually frosted his feet for
| some odd eenturies-boy and man
we can fancy with what quiet delight
| he was wont to practice his prognosti-
/ eating facilities on the boys" fore
casting the coming OF the then fiedgling
| cyclone and the gosling blizzards. and
doubtless even telling the day of the
month by the Way his heels itched.
| And with what wouderment and awe
must old chronic maladies have regard
ed him-taekling him singly or In solid
| phalanx, only TO drop back pantingly.
at last, and stink away dumfounded
and abashedl And with what brazen
/ pride the final conquering disease must
have exulted over its shameless vic
tory, But this is pathos here, and not
& place for ruthless speculation: a
place for asterisks-not words Peaeei
J peace. The man is dead The fever
called living is over at last" The pa
tent slumbers. He takes his rest He
sleeps. Come away, he is the oldest
dead man in the cemetery.
| Whether the hardy. stabilized old man
| OF the country. or the Opulent and
well sroomed old man OF the me
/ from - be Is one in our esteem and