The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-03-12

and Just turn myself out to grass and
do nothing but play and play and play.
know If I can stop work I can live
longer and have a good time besides"
Is that your idea of the way of spend
ing your years when you pass the three
score milestone? Well, my friend, If
that Is your expectation of spending
your life when your hair has become
silvered tell you you will be doomed
to bitter disappointment. In the first
place. you will not have a good time II
you stop working In the second place,
IL you stop working. instead of prolong-
Ing your life, as you expect, you will
shorten 1t by many years. have rare
ly seen 1t fail where a man voluntarily
gives up work so that he can pass a
lazy old age that he Is a miserably I'M
happy being and finds a premature
grave And I have rarely found It to
fail IL an old man branches out In new
work that the years of his earthly life
are increased.
Hard Work and Long Life.
AS a rule. the greatest thinkers and
the hardest mental workers in the
world have been among the longest lived
men. Study the long list of men old in
years. but young In heart. branching out
into new work when at seventy years or
beyond Marden, In his book Pushing
of Illustrations in reference to this fact.
Dandolo, the dore of Venice. was a war
rior who led his soldiers in battle at
ninety-four and was offered a crown at
ninety-six. Titan at ninety-nine was
struck down with cholera in Venice when
he was at work on one of his canvases.
Pope Leo XIII at ninetv-three was the
most powerful personality in all Europe
both on account of his pontifical throne
and his own Powerful mental equipment.
When an American bishop said to him,
your holiness we hope God may let you
live to become a centenarian," the Pope
answered: MY friend. do not try to
limit the power of God I expect to be as
hard at work after am a hundred years
old as I am now" DR.. Samuel Johnson
wrote his greatest book when nearly
eighty. James Watt learned German when
he was eighty-flye. Isaac Newton and
Benjamin Franklin were hard at work
on scientific subjects when over eighty
Lord Palmerston and William e. Glad
stone were both prime ministers of Eng
land at fourscore years. Robert Hail."
says Marden. Learned italian when
past sixty. Noah Webster mastered sew
enteen languages after we was fifty. And
some of the best works of Longfellow,
Whittier and Tennyson were written at
ter they were seventy"
Aged friend, the reason you are grow
ing old and whitening up Is because you
have stopped branching out. You have
taken In sail and are drifting simply
drifting, toward the rocks of DEATH and
drifting fast. Take a new lease of life
by taking a new interest in things Study.
study, study. Work. work. work. Go
and hear ever fine singer and every good
speaker and read every new book that
you can. The most foolish law the Uni
ted States government ever made was
when It established old soldiers homes.
where the old veterans of the civil war
could go and live and do nothing. If an
old soldier is physically helpless, then.
of course, he should be cared for. But
a well soldier in Danville. ILL.,. or Santa
Monica. Cal. or Milwaukee. Wiss, or the
CID Soldiers home in Washington should
be encouraged to work II he is able. Stag
nation means premature death. mental
and physical as we'll as spiritual "It
is better to wear out than to rust out"
is a poor maxim. We have no right to
do either. But I would tell those who
are coming on toward old age there is
more danger for most of us of rusting
out than of wearing out.
Don't Talk of Troubles.
I:ow should we renew the strength of
young manhood? BY never talking about
our ailments or misfortunes IL we can
avoid 1t. Il til, rheumatism will pull
at our nerves and swell our joints, then
a. far as possible don't mention It, II
ti-s holidays bring up sad memories, then
If we must cry let us go to our rooms
and have good cry alone. but not be-
fore others. II we were once wealthy
ana some old friends of better days will
now have nothing to do with u.s. then
Go not keep burdening those who are still
faithful 10 Us with our never ending tales
of woe. The most common sense prescrip-
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