Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-06-23
LIFE OFFERS ADDED CHARM WHEN
THIS AGE is REACHED, SAYS
HELEN A. SAXON.
DIGNITY AND AUTHORITY.
Ones Opinions Change and the Mind Is
More Sympathetic, Broader
and Chastened.

-
there's the rub.''
That, of course, is feminine and
hence partial view, still there is no deny
ing that to all but the bravest of us 40
has prosaIc, not To say forbidding,
sound. and to many, the prospect of ulti-
mately attaining 1t comes with a pang.
we hear much about the raptures of
youth and the contemplatiye happiness of
lold age, but who rings the joys of 40? Is
it because we are all so immersed in it's
pleasures as to have no time TO recount
them! The happiest women, it is said,
are those who have no histol. 40 may
be mute for the same cause. Yet it is
not to be doubted that we have fallen
into the way of regarding it as Il hum
drum age which has little to do with
pleasure OF any sort-a practical. dry.
desert stage of existence devoid of those
earlier flowers of romance fair but frag-
lie, that bloomed along the path of %
Forty an Early Age.
Yet the fact that it is the most prolonged
period of life-tor we are all 10 nova
days, arriving at it earlier and remain
ing longer than ever before-proves CON
clusivey that it is also the happiest and
most desirable. 1t is entirely in this
sense, of course, that DIR. Oslers now fa-
nous Wlttlcism regarding the proper des-
Tiny Tor people over 40 is TO be inter-
preted and i'll which old age becomes an
unhXed period indefinitely postponed In
the days of Jane Austin it was far other
wise. TO be 40 was to have passed
beyond the pale of social interest, if not
OF responsibility, and even at five and
thirty Colonel Brandon was scarcely to
be regarded as an eligible candidate for
lnatrlmony, although every allowance
was made for his advanced stage of
llte. Now, however, ii is permitted to
ne 40 ana unaShamed, and, indeed one
Is sometimes ashamed of not being 40
as IS the awkward case of II clergyman.
Il friend OF mine, just now, who finds
himself approved by the church where he
mas Deen ON probation, Mt all points save
that OF his years, which attain only the
Inadequate number of twenty-nine. 1t
IS safe to infer that to him the advan-
tages Of 10 are no uncertain quantity.
Is One of Experience.
But it was not the advantages of forty
that l set out to talk about, but the per
qulsltes-those little joys and satisfac-
tons thrown in, that we take for grant
ed or overlook altogether-especiaiiy per
haps, when we happen to see the way
the athletic young fellows half our age
Suh oShu llitlt Udli over the
held The ability to recognize types, TO
classify men and women at a glance, to
read whole life-chapter in the lift of
an eyebrow, the slope of a chin the
droop of shoulder-these are among
the perquisites of 40-fruits of experi-
ence that we may be hardly conscious
Of yet that add Unreasonable vistas to
life. You come to know a person bet
ter in some ways than he knows him
self. You see him in relation to his
environment and to forces he cannot
| himself discern or gauge, you know
what he is likely to do under given con-
ditions. and you know, too, what condi-
tions are likely to be given. You allow
something always, for that obscure fac
tor around which the interest of most
life-games centers, the personal equation
You can never be sure just what it will
lead man to do, You can only be sure
that it is not as large factor or he as
free an agent as he himself supposes
When you find yourself able thus to
discern human nature in its subtler
phases, you may know you are 40 To
youth, preoccupied with himself-and
with Eve. his other Self-it is not given
to know all things. He slni thinks his
earth the center of the solar system. and
is unaware of a universe outside. 1t is
the gradual perception of other worlds
besides his own that takes the conceit
out VI ulIl Idlef.
Accumulation of Authority.
Another perquste of 40 is the accu-
mutation of authority conferred upon us
by the fight of time. We find a pleas
, ing sense of Importance stealing over us
, as we attain the dignity of years, even
though we may never have done any,
thing to exactly justify it. Young peo-
pie begin to defer to us, or at least to
accord us certain privileges, such as the
best seat. \ sense of virtue acerues
from merely the occupancy of that seat
; "a comforting sense of having probably
deserved it after all. We find. too, that
: the maXims impressed upon us in our
youth, for which we never saw any rea-
son or use, have been lurking all these
years unsupported in the recesses of our
brain. and are now, like the seventeen
year locust. ready to come forth and
fulfill destiny in their turn. 1t gives us
a sustaining sense of personal rectitude
to point the moral with these maxims as
= we descant upon the beauties of right
eousness To skeptic youth with the
squrming feet and downcast counte-
nance. We bask in the reflection of a
supposed righteousness ourselves. and
find it new and agreeable sensation.
Mistakes of Others.
> Then what stories are being wrought
out and lived under our eyes. Infinitely
! more thrilling than those of the written
, page or the footlights to those of us who
I have learned to read in life's primeval
: language. The effect of prosperity. the
! contrasts of fortune. the subtle Standings
t and shiftings of character under certain
influences and conditions. make delicate
and fascinating tales To the discerning
eye of mid-aSe. Tho mistakes and foi-
bles of others. too. afford a comforting
= Salve for our own. At least we can CON
+ sole ourselves. we have not made such
; Il mess of things as poor Brown. who
: got caught in the boom-after plenty of
warning. too-or Jones. who made such
: m ass of himself IN stocks and rs for
Robinson. who knew where to drop his
, line. we wouldn't be in MS fur-lined boots
for a good deal. Wealth carries with il
too mnny RESPONSIBILITIES nnMainYs Nnn