The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-08-25
AGE COMES CREEPING ON
0minous Signs Of Old Age Caught
by an Observer.
Some Hints of Habits That Should
Obtain in the Shadowy Years
OF Life---rrecepts and
Examples to Go BY.
Household Words.


Household Words.
Many of us are fortunate env.5h to
escape most of the seriou maladies
which beset humanity. 1t has been said
that it is a great art to grow old grace
fully" and that is quite true, II great
ly depends upon whether we know how
to grow ole wholesomely-as nature
intends that we should.
Growing old is part of natures orig
NAL intention. 1t is no malady. If the
right conditions are secured, it has a
health, a vigor, and a beauty which are
peculiarly its own. Youth cannot have
these any more than %springttme can
have the flaming sunsets. the holly Der
Ties and the bracing frosts of late au-
tumn and winter. Youth must wait I'M
til its time comes, and yet the habits
and dispositions of youth are each con-
%tributing its share towards old age
investing the stock of health ard cheer
fulness, which old age will nave to
spend. a great poet-and poets may be
greater than physicians in true diagno-
s:s-has thus addressed one who loved
the simple and severe ways Of nature
and of life:
Omission" and he responded without amy
Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die,
Nor leave thee when gray hairs are nigh,
A melancholy slave;
But an old age serene and bright
ANd Lovely AS a l.apland night.
Shall lead to thee to thy grave.
1t is a terrible Indictment against so
ciety or themselves when youth OF man
hood does not desire to attain old age.
1t Signifies that decay, which when pre-
mature is disease, has already set in.
The worm is in the blossom, so that the
fruit VIII be worthless. The Wholesome
evolution Of nature is at work only
when each stage of eXiSteF"" ita' IL,
ward, but with actual expectancy to
the stage upon which ii is advancing.
There is something intensely melon
choly-something limiting of social de-
ca~dence-when people, in granting
childhood proper outlets for its joyous
restlessness, do SO with the thought,
Let them be happy, poor dears. while
they can" Happy childhood, in whom
we know divine Wisdom les uncon-
scious, not feel this. 1t longs in
tensely TO grow up"
Let youth be warned. There are
many who eXhort youth to save mon
ey," hat is We'll enough. but the triest
providence is that which stores health
and hope.
1t should be understood that a life
of hard work and hard fare, il coupled
with fit food and good ar, is a far bet
ter provision for the We'll being of old
age than are idleness and luxury. IL
has been Well remarked that most CEN
tenarians are to be fonnd among poor
people, even among those whose iib"is
M privations may be considered eN-
IRENE. Few indeed are the m~illionaireS
who attain to this honor, 1t is also t.
be quoted that these Very aged people
among the poor are quite disiilcl.ned tc
give up their work. Their object ap-
pears to be TO find, not how ltttle they
can do, but how much. They have real,
ly loved and respected the labors oi
their lives. possibly without knowing it
and they are in no haste for the re
tirement' which 50 often puts prema
ture end to the existence OF the sue,
ceSsful business man.
The first distinct syn of advancing
years generally appears in the eyes
Between the ages of AZ and 30. thoss
who have hitherto enjoyed the blessing:
of normal eyesight find that a hang,
is coming upon them. At first they
scarcely notice what it is, ana adJus
their arrangements TO 1t. II We SCI
them in church, or at a concert. W.
may notice that they hold prayer booi
or program further and further ava!
from their eyes, giving their heads {
characteristic jerk backward. some
times they experience discomfort II
other wavs. After needlework or writ
" - q. ..-.. s tl,-,- l,l. JN,.t, .nyN-
ing" sometimes they suffer from
headaches. and a sense of mental confu
son which they never knew before
The truth is that the muscles OF tn
eye have lost their ~pliability, and ca1
only do what they formerly did by
great though often unconscious effort
They must 50 to an ocullst.
clippers" are now generally recon
mended rather than spectacles, becaus
they can be so placed on the nose as I
give help in close work. reading writ
ing or sewing, while leaving the eye
free to look above them at the room Q
the landscape, for which their serve
is not required. Nor need they be wor
out of doors, but only kept ready 70
emergencies.
1t must be remembered that tn
Change Oh NIStci -
and involves no disease. Those person
who appear to escape it, and OF "hoi
we hear they worked OF read Withou
spectacles till their death in a
age, have, in youth. suffered from a cei
tain degree of simple short sight, sEsr
enough, possibly, to have escaped the
own notice. or the observation Of other
before ophthalmic knowledge was $
we'll advanced. To these people tn
change of life absolutely brings relie
SO far as near work is concerned.
There are, however, a few instance
in which this does not appear 10 nav
been the case, and yet the use OF glass;
is undulely postponed. 1t IS often OF
servable that these people suile' nut
in other WAYS, become weak. nervous
and depressed. They are, in short, us
lesslv expending their energy IN cor
trolling the muscles Of the eye-iorcih
it to its old work, as an inValld mgr
force herself to lift once accustome
weights, There is sometimes a curIou
pride in this immunity from the con
mon lot of normal humanity. ~
when. under such circumstances. tf
health is visibly lowered III stanoar'
the use of glasses should be gently D.
firmly i]nsinuated, and will be probabi
found so beneficial as to be present.
tolerated.
rho .rro, IF hearinr undergoeS r