The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-15
GROWING OLD GRATEFULLY.

There is something almost majestic
something compelling not only admt-
ration but reverence-in the presence
of a woman who has attained her au-
tumnal maturity and remained as beau
tiful, as so many do. And the dress,
says a writer in the New York Even
ing Post, which is in harmony, is per-
haps the most perfect combination of
richness and softness, and even of mag
nificence, that feminine apparel is cap
able of 1t certainly seems strange,
when such opportunities of wearing
even royalty beautiful garments, which
yet soften and disguise such lines as
tell that youth is gone, are abundant
ly at hand, that women prefer those
which belong to her rose-time. often
a man, who would find in his elder
friend, perhaps the mother of his sweet
heart, a reverent check to his coarser
scrutiny and comments and the reallza-
ton of an ideal, now turns away amaz-
ed and disappointed, to see her in the
garments suited to her child.
What l have just written seems and
in measure does apply almost entire
ly to jewellers in great cities and in the
centers of social rivalries. But the
spirit, the lack of recognition of the
charm and influence of living for our
selves, and developing in our children
a desire to take our lives as nature
ordered them, remains the same wher-
ever wealth comes, even in such mea-
ger quantities as shall give the pre-
cpdanna IN in a II
munity.
Personally, ] sat the unwilling Yit-
ness of the fitting of a wig upon the
head of a woman from a little, rural
interior town, whose face told plain
ly the lapse of fully sixty trying years.
1t was made of soft light brown hair,
delcately waved, with airy curls fall
ing from q crown of puts, and the
hairdresser In vain struggled to make
one ringlet drop just to the wearers
fancy, behind the left ear.
Her natural hair was of a dark
brown tint, but sparsely touched with
gray, and this she had cut quite short,
yet when the wigmaker removed the
fair false locks, the harmony of COM
plexion with even the remnant of ma
lures covering to her head was so
plainly visible that even the merchant
anxious to sell her wares, was moved
to exclaim honestly: "Oh, do let your
hair grow; you would look ten years
younger"
Later, she was moved to say to me:
THE lady Is going TO give a reception
for her daughter on her wedding day,
and she insists upon wearing that wig"
My favorite theory of environment
asserts that rural life and its sur
roundings are helps even to the least
Discerning eyes, as to the beauty of
natures ordering, and really defends
the weakest Of us from finally sharing
the fate of those blossoms that sud-
denly find the wintry frosts and SHOWS
have killed all hope of future beauty.
No gentle trusting REIMBURSEMENT Of
youth has prepared for it's full de-
scent. But when one goes into the
shops where the mass of people mot
the exclusive, wealthy citizen, but the
vast crowds which come by trains and
boats) make their purchases, the fruit
less search for garments appropriate
to elderly women, shows that country
life has not cured the evil. The freer
opportunity to discern the error has
not been a success in this matter. The
shopkeepers, statesmen, saleswomen re-
peat with parrot-like persistence,
Things must be in the style, or no
body will buy them, madam"
Have you no bonnet suitable for
elderly ladies?" mo one wears them,
madame; this model has Just been
copied for Mrs. so-and-So." naming a
woman whom you thought old twenty
years ago.
There is literally no provision made
for woman's autumnal days. You are
either besought to think yourself we'll
suited with a picture hat" c'suits you
exactly'O, or are shown something
which you associate with at least an
eighteenth birthday and the aspect OF
a faithful servant" The fault is
neither with the milliners nor the mo-
distes Women who have the means to
do anything more than elothe them
selves and aspire to please pleasure
7 do not undervalue the pleasure. Il
is very real--as a rule, forget all about
the perfect beauty Of autumnal days.
Yet they are such wonders Of delight,
these said roseless daysi
Do let US see II we cannot, amid so
many reyivals, bring back gayer,
truer childhood. a nobler ambition to
youth, a genuine pride I'm autumn's
perfection and dignity, and so keep our
winter at bay.