The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1903-08-26
4 SENSE OF HUMOR.
IT is A POTENT FACTOR IN KEEPING
LIFE SWEET TO THE END.


Take your fun while you may;
you'll never be young but once" is n
popular fallacy. 1t rrosupposes two
things that the young, because of
youth, must have fun and that as soon
as it Is passed the capacity for enjoy.
ing 1t is over.
Some never grow old, and some are
never young Age lies in the indiydu-
al and is not question Of dates
Because a person ceases TO be able TO
giggle at every remark, to bubble over
with gleefuness at the slightest prov
cea ton, is no criterion that real mirth-
rulness has fled The delicate sense of
humor that may take the place of this
snowy buoyancy Is far more to be
priced
A sense of humor Is potent factor
In keeping life sweet to tho end. A
green sud jolly old age is as jolly as
gay youth.
A sense of humor can be cultivated,
and it should be as asslduously as for
bearance, kindness or any of the car
dip"i,A ithpe sr,pi,int, 49,, -
spar asserts Itself only when 1t Is
thought joy and mirth must flee also.
Are we sure that youth Is so posi-
lively happy as it Is supposed to be? Is
there not restessness, an uncertain
ty, In the steps of Il young girl that
causes anxiety to be mingled with ey-
cry move? She Is full of theories, IL
imbued with ideals, but how to obtain
the desired ends Is a mooted question.
She can never be as securely happy as
Is the married woman, or unmarried,
who has, as it We're. found her feet
surely and knows how to get what she
wants, or, Mt least knows what she
wants to get. There Is n restless look.
ing forward for pleasures each day, an
unhappy killing of time before some
promised joy arrives In the young that
all who have passed 1t can painfully
remember.
Girls are so imbued by the thought
less with the idea that all joy ceases
with youth, that they have feeling of
commiseration for those who have bid
farewell TO this ephemeral period. Lit
tie do they realize how the study Of all
life, the enlarged power TO feel, to see,
to bear, to live, to enjoy, Is the price
less gift of every added year.
There IS something pltiful in watch
Ing the nervous grasp ut joy In youth.
We see constantly young girls literally
afraid to loosen their hold on one day
or one pleasure TO fulfill an act OF sim
pie duty.
There Is not unfamiliar story of a
young girl In ballroom who was stop
ped as she walked about the floor on
the arm of one Of her partners by an
old family friend, who inquired, with
interest, for her mother.
MY dear, I'm glad | saw YOU" he
repeated. Flows your motherf"
No reply. She only chung to the arm
on which she leaned and was hasten
ing by when the old gentleman, seeing
her fear lest her escort should slip
away, laid his hand on the young
mans coat collar.
My dear, I'll hold him." he cried,
twinkling his eye wlckedly. Flows
your motherr
lie was not very nice old gentle
man, perhaps, but that he got full
share of fun out of life non S%ould
doubt. and the attitude of the Young
girl. holding fust to her prize lest he
should escape, is exactly the attitude
of youth that looks to the early days
for all Its share of JOY.
| was In II group of young unmar-
rled women, some nearing thirty, 9TH
ers who had just overstepped this crit
zeal date. They were expressing In
graphic language their sensitiveness
about their age.
have taken some pains to hunt up
statistics about the attractions and ne
complishments of women who were
past this age which | commend to
their perusal. In the first place novel;
lists are taking women between thirty
and forty for their heroines. 1t Is the
woman who dares to have thoughts
and has cultivated herself to the point
of expressing them who commands
while.
Helen of Troy was over forty when
she pcrpetrated the most famous elope-
ment on record, and as the siege of
Troy lasted twenty years she could not
have been very Juvenile when the i'll
fortune of Paris restored her to her
husband. who, 1t is said, received her
with love and gratitude.
Cleopatra was past thirty when An
tony fell under her spell, and her fas-
cinations for him had not lessened
when she died ten years later.
Percles welded Aspasia Mt the age
of thirty-six, and she welded undis-
puted influence over men for thirty
years afterward.
Livia was thirty three when she. won
the love of Augustus, over whom she
maintained her ascendency to the last.
Louis XIV. welded Nine. Maintenon
when she was forty-three years of age.
Ninon, celebrated beauty and wit
OF her day In France, captivated the
love of the Able de Berias at the age
of seventy-three.
Anna of Austria was thirty eight
when buckingham and Richelieu were
her devoted and jealous admirers.
There are women ready TO die of
senile debility ut forty and women who
first begin to taste the full perfection
of womanhood's development at that
age.
1t may be noted in passing that old
age must be full of modification IL the
ghosts OF wiekedly spent time haunt
the mind.-Susan w. Ball In Terre
Haute Gazette.