Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-24
SUNDAY MORNING TALK.
The Perilous Decade.

An acute observer of human life states
his mature conviction that there are two
particularly dangerous periods in life. The
first extends from the age of twelve to
eighteen and is known as the period of
adolescence about which We are hearing
more today than ever before Psycholo-
gists ministers and teachers are all saying
that during these years the decisive choices
are being made; boys and girls are coming
to a consciousness of themelves and all the
wonderful reserves of personality are being
disclosed.
Corresponding to this period, this investi-
gator of whom l speak named the years
from thirty to forty as a second great pc
Rod in a mans life, and 1t is of that period
of which we may think little While to-
day. So these lines are designed chiefly for
persons between thirty and forty years of
age, though any one else may read them II
he or she wants to, because the youngest
of US, If he lives will pass through those
years and the Oldest of us has already run
that gauntlet.
Why. then is the decade from thirty to
forty perilous one? One great reason is
that the idealism of earlier life may by that
time have spent itself.
That is the trouble with so many men
and women in the thirties. The bright
dreams which gave glory to their school
days have faded away. They lasted While
after the first plunge into the cold world
with the hard and perhaps the seamy side
of life revealed ones feliowmen in new
and unfavorable light The absorbing
whirl of daily activity swallowed up Inn
pulses of an aesthetic, literary and spirit
uaI character. BY thirty many men are in
the fierce scramble for material good, com
peting with their neighbors, outwitting them
# possible, playing the risky game of mod
ern business and playing 1t in the same
spirit in which the majority of men play
it,
Sc n+f,a t1,a
decade is a perilous one for an entirely
different reason, namely, from the siacken-7
ing of ambition. BY thirty most men have
married and established homes Tor them
selves, have gotten into the groove of th@iF
work have found the occupation and the
interests which will probably engage them
the rest of their lives. The danger to them
Is that they will become the victims of an
easy-going contentment with what they
have and what they are They stand about
as we'll in the community as the average
men of their class Why Should they not
let up little on the pressure and drive
of labor, allowing themselves little indui-
ence, why not relax little the standard of
former years? Why should they form large
and exacting plans touching their future?
Why not be satisfied with things as they
are and why not in particular be satisfied
in the main with ones self? Simply be-
cause the self-compiacent spirit is always
suicidal and those who cherish it in the
thrties from that time on Degenerate, lose
power even IL they do not lose fortune or
social standing. The eternal law for every
man is that he shall push on, that no tenn
porary good fortune or immunity from
trouble shall take him out of the ranks of
the worlds workers or make him INDECENT
and self-centered.
Years of fierce temptation these are, from
thirty TO forty. and it behooyes US to recog-
nize their critical character. We may undo
in them much Of the good we have hitherto
done. We may have gone through the ado
descent period with credit to ourselves. but
at this second great time OF testing We
may let that which Is worst in us dominate.
Only by holding fast to our ideal, only by
manly and purposeful effort can we get