The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-09-04
THE STANDPOINT
OF TWO AGES.

When all is said. the widest chasm
in the world ana the hardest to bridge
over is that which divides youth from
age. Between the two is the gulf in
which lies all the illimitable ignorance
and unfathomable experiences of two
lives. and no matter how closely akin
an old person and a young one may be,
they are. in some sort, like travellers
who call TO each other in "a language
one is only beginning to learn and that
the other has half forgotten.
Youth and age have curiously little
in common. 1t is so hard to remem-
Der when one is shivering in the icy
plast of December, that the air still
blows warm and sweet about young
April 1t is so difficult to realize, when
one has seen ones own meager harvest
gathered in, that another is sowing in
hope with all the possibilities of the
future stretching before him, radiant
with eternal promise. Above all, when
one has grown old and blase-when
one is tired Of the weary show, when
everything is as tedious as a twice
told tale, and the actors seem merely
puppets whose mirth rings hollow and
whose tears are too false to move us
it is so hard to remember that an
other is looking at the play of life
with fresh eyes. and pulses that thrill
to every varying phase of interest
ready to give it the tribute of their
smiles or tears.
True and strange. but truest and
strangest of all in this-that we should
so soon forget the desires and emotions
of our youth. Listen to any middle
aged man desCant on the fOllies of the
young men of to-day. He does not hes
itate to declare that they are imbeciles.
and that there has been a general dec
adence of the human race since he
was boy. Look at me sir he cries.
when ! was a boy did you ever see
me smoking cigarettes? Did you ever
observe me wearing a collar so high
that it threatened to cut my ears off ?
Did you ever know me to waste my
time and spend my money running
around after little 1y-up-the- creek
girls instead of working and saving
so as to get a start in life? No sir.
That wasn't the kind of a young man
was" and then he sketches a picture
of the boy he thinks he was-so wise,
so Virtuous, so industrious, so obedent
TO parents, so solicitous of his employ
er's welfare that it has no parallel out
side of the covers of Sunday-school lit
erature.
When he contrasts his own sons with
the model he was a their age, and
observes how far short they have fall
en- of that shining example. he is filled
with the deepest pessmism, and dark
ly wonders what the country is com
ing to when the men of his genera
ton are dead. AS he looks at his
daughters he signs to think that they
are no such noble, deserving youths
as he was, whom they may hope to
marry. If there were, he could ask
nothing better for them, but how any
girl, not raving lunatic, could be
rash enough to entrust herself to the
modern young man passes his COM
prehension
The funny part of it all is that he
is in deadly earnest in these opinions
a kindly and celebrating hand has
been drawn across the slate of mem
DRY, and the score wiped out against
him. He has honestly forgotten that
as boy he shirked work, and cut
school, and learned to smoke behind
the barn, and that as a young man
he followed the fashion. and never
saved a cent until he got married.
and that his wife's father made pre-
cisely the same remark about his
daughter marrying him.
women, when they come to recall
ing the follies of their own youth, have
no better or more reliable memories
than men. No middle-aged woman
ever listens to the conversation of a
young girl and her hobbledehoy beau
without a shudder at the idiocy of
their remarks, and a throb of graft
IN fralr
have been that silly. Never, she is
firmly convinced. was she ever guilty
OF uttering such inanities, never did
she giggle, never could she have en-
dured the society of such sap-headed
youths. On the contrary she is posi-
tive that when she was Young she
and the intellectual young man who
visited her. sat up decorously and dis
cussed art and literature. She has
forgotten how she and her girl chum
used TO lie awake half the night ex-
changing condolences about that too
perfectly sweet young man, who part
ed his hair in the middle and clerkeG
IN the dry goods store, and how she
used to read sickly poetry. and under
score the dark and passionate pas
sages, and write chow true" opposite
them. and was altogether so silly and
sentimental the wonder is that she
ever toCdpeu the 1901 Killer.
What mother. in advising her daugh-
tiers, ever failed to hold up her own
impeccable youth for their emulation.
Dear me, how proper we were then
How respectful TO our elders. how du-
tiful TO our parents, how willing to
be guided by them when they picked
out for us the good young man who
led the prayer meeting, instead of thu
young soapegrace who led the germa.
that we had picked out for ourselves
Mamma never fiirted. oh, no! 81,
never sat out dances in dark corner
with interchangeable but fascinating
young men. She always kept every
body at their distance. and as for
kiss in the dark-horrors-such a thing
was never done when she was young
And how did YOU ever set married? o"
asks Miss Pert. and mamma breaks
off her homily IN confusion. because
she has happened TO remember-well.
several things she has no mind to re-
late to her daughters.
What does youth. on its part think
Of age? II is every whit as intoierant
and as sure Of its viewpoint being the
superior outlook on life. II is a terri
BILE shock TO our vanity TO realize it.
but it Is true nevertheless. that youth
does not regard those of us who are
older as models to be initiated. but
merely as object lessons of what to
avoid. What mannerisms we have ac-
quired that excite their derision! How