The San Francisco call., 1905-05-31
WOMEN MUST
FORGET ACE.
BY ANGELA MORGAN.
. HE State census bureau Of Mime
sofa has ruled that women cannot be

r HE State census bureau of Mime
| sofa has ruled that women cannot be
! ] compelled to tell how old they are
when questioned by enumerators.
| Good This is a step in the direction OF
| progress.
| The right of women to forget age is
something our advancing civilization Is
beginning to recognize. Any step that
will help women not to be old Is goou
step. ANY measure that will assist IN
freeing the sex from the stupid tradl-
tions of centuries concerning age is a
benefit to humanity-an aid TO evolution.
Why shouldn't women be permitted TO
forget how old they are? 1t is constant
remembering that really establishes old
age. 1t is continually holding in mind
a record of the mileStoneS one has pass
ed that fastens upon the mentality the
idea of physical degeneracy. And this
idea in turn pictures itself upon the body.
1t is only by forgetting about years
that women are free TO be young. When
custom permits woman to forget, she Is
able to keep youth with her, not only IN
her mind and heart, but in her physique.
1t is when woman is perpetually re-
minded Of the flight of time that she
grows old. For instance, look back upon
the woman of % a quarter of century
ago She was an "old maid hopelessly
out of the matrimonial market. Behold
the radiant bachelor girl of the same age
to-day. She is at the very perfection OF
womanhood-she is young. The best OF
life stretches ahead of her.
Witness, too, the youth Of women to-
day who have passed the three-score
limit Thirty years ago the achievement
would have been looked upon as impos-
sible.
What is the secret? Wherein lies the
difference? Not in any change that has
taken place in natures laws. Youth was
just as possible for women twenty-five
years ago as it is now. The secret is just
this: In those days women were not per-
mitted to forget their years. The various
customs and conventions prescribed by
the ignorance of the period to mark the
different stages of a womans progress
toward the grave served to emphasize 80
strongly the idea of advancing decrepi-
tude that the yielding sex did not have
any choice but to comply.
Women have grown stronger and more
intelligent, however hence the refusal OF
the sex to-day to Re bound by such ira
ditions. The modern woman claims the
right to forget how old she is-as age Is
counted in years. Don't ridicule her for
it and say she is ashamed to admit her
age.
She is not ashamed She is simply en-
Iightened. She has caught on" to the
principle of being young. She sees that
age is not matter OF years, but OF
thought and activities. Therefore she
keeps her thoughts fresh and vigorous
and engages in pursuits that give mind
and body plenty Of stimulating exercise.
She keeps her entire being so alive and
so interested, she is so busy and her life
is so happy that she hasn't time to re-
member just how old she is.
Do not charge a woman with deceit
who is disinclined to advertise her age.
Her disinclination is not necessarily an
evidence of deceit. Rather, it is a sign of
advancement.
II a woman of 60 is really young enough
to look 45 why should she be obliged to
confess to so?
It ought to be one of the aims of civ
ilization to-day to help women to forget
their age. When the. mind becomes bur-
dened with years the body becomes bur-
dened, too. Let women forget their
wears.