Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-04-14
The Woman of Forty.

This title is more feared nv women
than it deserves. The middles of things
are really the best if we could only real
ize it; beginnings and endings are full of
lear and dread. Still, when the ominous
number forty is i'll sight. what tremors if
sends through the feminine heart-fortv.
and the best half of life gone. Small
wonder that so many make a stand Mt
30 and refuse to advance, calling in sci
ence and art to aid in restoring the
edlhce.' The sweet Wrinkled old face.
carrying its LIES story, is already as ex-
tinct as the Dodo.
Granting that woman can stand still
for time, what other period of her life
should be so happy? The fever and fret
of youth gone, the aching joys all over,
the worst known. There is still the calm
September, the golden glory of the year,
TO come, and. with the clearer eyeSght
that experience gives. how much more
widely and sanely will she enjoy the
pleasures that come to her now. The
forty years wandering in the wilderness
were not without purpose. The compen-
satlonS for 4 lost youth are many. Youth
has been far too much belauded, looked
on. indeed, by many as a huge Joke;
but it is not much of a joke when one
can not see it at the time. Middle age
is really the period when life is at its
highest and best, and for w5nen still
more so if some measure of youthful
looks can be retained. and to that end
modern hygiene can do much.
Unfortunately the experience of the
race has taught women that appearance
counts nine points out of a possible ten,
;Sld liz many cases it does; but il should
not be forgotten that if a mans brain is
interested his affection will be more last
ing The eyes tire sooner than the brain.
The pretty face that has no charm of
mind to back it up is soon forgotten.
Where mind is there must be charm, and
that is Natures own gift. 1t Is there or
it is not: brains and charm combined can
go far and rise high. Nature is kindly
mother. and keeps many compensations
of her ugly ducklings. Mind has beau
ty all its own. Seton Merriman-peace
to his asheS.-says over and over again.
I'VE always are exactly what we look.
| That may be. but the seeing eye is rare.
The brainy woman must. however. be
clever enough to keep her brains out OF
sight if she wishes to be social sue
cess, and to remember q the same time
that post-meridian charms will not be
enhanced by untidy habits of dress. She
will do we'll to study the rise and fall of
the sleeve as we'll as that of the Dutch
republic Never forgetting a dainty frill
or furbelow or any of the little courtesles
of life, these are the qualities that bring
her SEliIlQ9 through every Sot4di OEutdi.
do not wish to belittle the average
woman minus charm and that saving
grace, sense of humOr; she is the back
bone of society, n canal as compared to
a rushing. sparkling river. 1t is the
depths and unsupported shadows that
are so enthralling The unknown is al
ways interesting. 1t is that very quality
of certainty about the average woman
that is so appalling. Ten years from
now one could easily predict what she
would be doing thinking. or saying on
any given subject Nevertheless. there
is many crisis in life when that very
dullness of hers IS soothing; when that
certainty and cocksureness of every
thing under the sun is the one quality
YOU need in her. When all the world
your special world, is tumbling about
your ears and disaster seems inevitable.
what a comfort it Is to find some one
in your horizon sure of anything,
The one quality most desirable in a
woman in this restless Twentieth cen
tury, and about the hardest to find. is
repose It has been so drilled into us
in youth that idle hands find the in
evitable michief that few Of us know
how to be idle without serious qualms OF
| conscience. DIR. Isaac Watts has a good
deal to answer for in the fidgetv fussi-
ness of the present generation But n
Thoreau s;ttin- with folded hands be-
! side a lake. relieved from the vulgariz.