The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1907-06-08
OLD AGE BUGABOOs.
BY Emily Nj. Bishop, in Her New
Literary Work, Seventy Years
YOunp."


Young.'
In her latest work, Miss Bishop
strikes the key note in the following
chapter when she asks is "old age
at a certain period inevitable and
whether or not we may not be tangle-
ed and entwined in error of mistak-
ing old-age bugaboos for old age"
This chapter is pleasing one and
we reproduce it for readers of The
Union:
No sane person desires to be old.
Some philosophic make-believers may
declare that they are looking for
ward to a good old age" or that they
do not mind being old Such declar-
alton is only a bowling to what they
believe to be the inevitable. But
is old age to certain year-period
inevitable? May not the venerable
belief that it is, be one of those
false beliefs deckcd in truth s garb
which tangle and entwine in error
of mistaking old-age bugaboos for
old age?
Before seeking ways and means to
the attainment of Seventy Years
Young, let us, first of all distinguish
between organic old age and some of
the most prevalent of these old-age
bugaboos.
The worst hobgoblin Of all is years.
Years. the mere arbitrary measure
ment of time! In themselves they are
Aothing- intangible, imponderable,
Invisible. And yet who entirely es-
apes their paralyzing influence?
they have literally terrorized many
victim into premature oldness of
ind and body. Every city and town
We dropped their quota of old men
''ho gave up business and dropped
III active interests while yet capably
'isorous, who, with pathetic acquies-
ance, allowed themselves to be rel
egated to Old-Agedom. simply be-
cause the years had made certain
tally against them. The attitude OF.
adult children toward their parents
is not infrequently one of gross in
justice solely because of an
erroneous estimate of the weight of
years. When their parents reach the
age of about sixty, some children,
from sense of duty or because of
loving solicitude, assume the atti-
tude of guardians over them. Faith
err or Mother" is then considered
too old to have good judgment in
business affairs or to bear RESPONSE
bilities and, sometimes, even to
know what he OF she wants to wear,
eat or say.
Judging by our fear Of years ana
our subservance OF them, it would
seem as if they have some occult
control over our lives against which
it is useless to struggle For an alot-
ted period-during youth and early
maturity-the nature of this con-
troll is gracious, but, at certain pre-
scribed date, it becomes strangely
malevolent. Did such fatalistic
power inhere in years, we might well
pray to die young, but fortunately it
does not.
True, our birthdays recur with un-
failing persistency and the years ac-
cumulate on every ones record with
never slip-seven seventeen, seven
times seven, seventy-but birthdays
at worst can only indicate traditional
old age; they have no power to in
duce organic old age-the only real
oldness.
Is man daunted by the new days,
new years, new joys and new eXper-
fences which the future holds for him
when he says, 81 dread to be old?"
No. The act of living attracts us in
voluntarily. We do not dread to
live Love of life lies in what to-
morrow promises quite as much as
what today is. Dread Of age is dread
of certain untoward mental and phys
ical conditions which usually, but
not necessarily, accompany accumu-
lated years.
Other old age bugaboos that stare
from our mirrors and alright us are
gray hair, expression nodded features
and lines on the face. These physi-
cal incidents in themselves do not
even denote that a goodly number of
years have passed over ones head,
much less do they denote organic
oldness. A severe shock to the ner-
vous system may turn ones hair
white in a single night. Sometimes
without any discernable cause the
hair turns gray before person is
out of his teens. Lines on the face
are the record of mental stress and
struggle; anxiety, grief, worry, irrit-
ability, self-depreciation, and even
intense thought lead to the contrac-
tion OF the muscles which causes
wrinkles. Tennyson is scientific as
well as poetic when he speaks Of
the Strengthened forehead of the
FOOL The features are nodded and
Informed not by years. but by ex-
perience of emotion. Sometimes the
work of these invisible artists is
identifying, sometimes disfiguring;
sometimes they work swiftly, again
they daley and idle for long time.
When man pulls himself together
rising from his chair with an effort,
says, 81 feel pretty old today" he
does not mean that he realizes that
there is an additional line or two