Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1906-09-10
AGE OF SENTIMENT.
OLD JESTER TIME DELIGHTS IN
PLAYING STRANGE TRICKS.
Aging Folk Seem to Be the Only Sen.
timentaIists Left-Present Gener-
alton Seeks Money and Ma
teriaI Comforts.
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

l ~-SANA
| the fact is that almost the only senti-
mentalists we have left are the old.
| Time is a jester and he likes to play
| strange tricks by sleight of hand. He
has stolen the slender grace of yonder
| substantial matron and given her
| goodly store of avoirdupois. He has
robbed her of the roundness and
| smoothness of girlhood and left
creases and crows feet to mark the
years, but of one thing he has not
been able to defraud her. Deep in
her heart there is spring Of ro-
nance that bubbles up with the same
silver sound and sweet freshness that
| it did when she was bride, and al
! though she may be a grandmother, she
| is more sentimental now than the
pretty bride of the second generation.
Many an old fellow whose name is
| known in the stock market and at
whose beck the world of finance
changes place as children do in the
game of stage coach, has an unsus-
pected fountain of sentiment hidden
| in his soul. He is shrewd, hard-head-
| ed and sagacious, but the soft bit OF
sentiment is in him still, and 1T re-
| spends to the touch of music and
poetry, to the watt of a perfume, or
the sight of daisies in June. Such
man will carry folded away in his
vest pocket bit of fugitive verse or
| a faded photograph, the kind that was
| formerly called a carte de visite. The
picture is old-fashioned, but it brings
| back to him the memory of girl who
| died long ago, in the peace summer
| that followed our civil war
| The old people watch with certain
sympathetic interest the love affairs
OF their juniors, and often resent and
regret the obvious lack of sentiment
shown by these. A young woman mar
| ries a man who can give her COM
| Portable home and relieves her from
| the drudgery of teaching or sewing
| or the inconvenience of dependence
on parents who have younger children
| to provide for. To the sensible per
| son who takes a discreet, common
place view of life, it seems justi-
| fable proceeding, eminently wise on
| the part of the young woman. why
should she ask for anything more than
a solid foundation of respect and
esteem on which to begin her mar
ried life. The people of her own
period are very apt to take this mat
| ter of fact view. Not so the elderly
| ladies who were wooed and won with
chivafrous ardor in the long ago, who
know what real courtship means, who
md nc vi q on
as a sanctuary, and who shudder at
| the thought Of a profane foot cross
| ing that sacred Threshold. They have
had to part with many illusions on the
road. but the one illusion that has
remained to them a pure reality is
Loves young dream.
Watch people as they read the lat
est passionate novel and listen to their
criticisms and discussions. The
younger portion of the community
wait with resignation, not to say in
| difference for. the next number OF the
magazine in which the current serial
shall begin, and resume its exciting
| episodes. 1t broke off at psyche
| logical moment. To the white-haired
WOU1du
easv-chair beside the window, the
story was of breathless interest The
people were not mere puppets, but liv-
| ing beings who had reached climax
of good or i'll fortune and she prob
| ably met them in her dreams for
| dav or two. She it is who loves a
! lover. She it is who looks across the
room at some one as old as herself
who was young when she was, and
meets in his eyes the glance of COM
prehension that she fails to find in the
younger faces about her.
Every generation receives its stamp
in the days of it's youth. The pres
ent generation is living in a time OF
| wonderful material progress, in a
time. too, when to be rich is the am
bition of nine-tenths of the communi-
ty and when to nine-tenths poverty
seems the most dreaded fate in the
universe. So universal is the desire
for wealth and for the luxuries and
privileges that wealth makes possible,
that various crimes and corruptions
have found their way into places that
once would have shuddered at the
thought of them and scorned their
very name
How can sentiment live and flourish
in time when gold and greed are the
idols of mems hearts?
For the 1ourishing of sentiment
leisure is needed. Not only is the
nresent generation ambitious for ma
terial prosperity, but it is in hurry
to get on People no longer live con-
tentedly year after year, in the same
place; they do not strike their roots
deeply anywhere; they are always on
the road California or the Bahamas,
Europe or the far east, allure peo-
pie from their firesides, and globe
trotters are so common that their
coming and going ELECTS no comment
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