The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-04-10

IH1lK WEDlS " AAI2A "a
resnect for one who has attained 10
donble or treble her years. There IS
9ome+hing lacking. The collegians OF
botb sexes would do well to turn their
ANALYTICAL minds on themselves, and
As Improvement is the order Of the DAY
add TO their fund of becoming attain
ments the sweet, old-fashioned attTl-
butte Of courtesy and reverence toward
age.
II is easy. after all, if one viii watch
carefully TO do the little kind thing
that makes for comfort, and not DO it
aggreggively. Ii is not necessary to aa-
inst a pillow at the elderly persons
hack as if she needed it. / saw sweet
woman nut a pillow behind an invalid
with such tact that the sufferer, who
was acutely sensitive on the subject
of her condition, did not suspect that
her hostess had her illness in mind.
my dear" said this tactful woman,
aIf you are built as l am, you must
find that chair desperately uncomfort-
able without a cushion behind you. l
simply will not sit in it without this
little bit of a pillow wedged in at the
small of my back. l find it so much
more comfortable so, that | am sure
you will"
Of course, elderly people like to
talk Why should they not be allowed
to do it? The boy or girl listener is
impatient of what he or she terms in
wardly "garrulousness." Is not the
prattle of youth as trying to old peo-
pie? But, to do them justice, unless
they are very grabbed, they listen to
it kindly.
Unfortunately one seldom sees a
young person rise and remain standing
when an old person enters the room.
Yet to loll back in a chair under such
circumstances is one of the greatest
rudenesses of which girl or boy is
capable.
Right here may l put in a plea for
the old man? In the first place, he is
not as popular as the old woman. She
it often beloved; he poor soul!
is too often endured. In very truth he
is not so lovable as his lady wife. He
did not take the time while he was
young to cultivate the little niceties Of
life as she did. Women have more
regard for appearances than men have,
and their life is not spent so often in
counting-room and office; they are, in
their daily life, surrounded by refined
persons more than are their husbands;
they do not have to talk by the hour
with rough men, give orders to surly
underlings, eat at lunch counters, and
join in the morning and evening rush
for life to get seat in a crowded car
or train where the law is "Sauve qui
peut." or, in brutal English, every
man for himself and'-no matter who
for the hindmostl" All these
things, after years and years, influence
the man or woman. 1t is inevitable.
It even affects the inner life. The
Book Of books tells us that though the
outward man perish the inward man
is renewed day by day. Some
times the inward man is hardly
worth renewing at the end Of a life
Of such rush and mad haste after
the elusive dollar that there has been
no place for the gentle amenities of
existence. Therefore, as the man gets
old, his nature comes to the front, and,
too often, the courtesies that were
pinned on him by loving wife, and
kept polished up by her, drop off and
he does not want to bother to have
them re-adjusted. Consequently, he Of
ten has habits that are not pretty. He
is irascible; he is intolerant with
youth, and, now that he is laid aside.
he likes to tell of what he did when
he was as active as the young men
about him. Dear young people, let
him talk! Listen to him, and remem-
Der that at your age he was just as
agreeable as you. Consider, too, that
if, when you are old, you would es-
cape being the self-absorbed being You
think him, you would do well now to
begin to avoid the selfshness and self
oHoCA PkAOAA bIcLb JOu lllu uidhG Tie Old
man Objectionable. Practice on him.
and he will in his old age still be do
ing good work
1t is not pleasant to feel old, to know
that you are set aside in the minds of
others as "a has been.".s There are few
more cruel lessons given to human
beings to learn in this hard school we
call life. And this task has to be
learned when strength and courage
wane, and the grasshopper is a bur
den. II young people would only make
is unnecessary for the older person to
acquire it! 1t does with youth to
make the declining years Of those near
the end of the journey weary waiting
for that end, or peaceful lettering on
a road that shall be a foretaste of
Il T..