Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1909-06-10
OLD TIME GRANDMoTHERs.

sion in the keep young" act every
where. The Sunday papers brlstle
with warnings how not to get old.
Beauty doctors advise how to starve
off wrinkles, how to avoid fat, how
to keep supple, how to blonde brown
hair, blacken gray hair, or wig the
bald head with the curled
allen tresses. Complexion improv
ers cover pages in magazines, and
how to shade the female figure into
an hour glass via corsets and pads
makes life one round of pleasure.
High heels to shorten the foot
stripes to make the short one tall,
and checks to make the tall one
short are advised in the "hints to
the wise." This is the time when
the fakir gets his work in, and many
are called but few get up. With all
these warnings, helps, hints and
advice all women look young, and
there isn't grandmother to be had
for love or money in most large
cities. In some way-off village or
in some country home, one may run
across grandmother, but the
species is almost extinct. In days
of yore one remembers wrinkled
darling, whose hardened hands felt
as soft as silk on fevered brow. A
bonnet was tied with wide ribbon
strings under a double chin. A
dress gathered full enough to keep
secret the size of the waist line was
never too smart for chubby little
fingers to clutch A waist cut
surplice, bore no high starched col
lar to scratch the tender little face
of the sleeping grandchild. Grand
mothers apron pocket always con-
tanned everything needful, string,
cookies, plaster for cut, or cnndy
for a cold. When baby had the
Group, the first call was for grand
mother. She did not stumble in
laced too tight to breathe, fearing
for an enameled nose, and dressed
like French doll to hide natures
ravages. Not she. She came in
haste, with unbounded love. The
starched trained nurse might do for
grown-ups, but it was only on grand
mothers ample bosom that curly
locks found relief. 1t was to such
grandmother that boys came for
advice when their girls got off wrong
or that girls told their little love
spats to. Imagine young fellow
getting confidential with a fur
beloved, founched, made-over, up
to-date grandmother of today! She
would snap up the youth and have
bis scalp dangling at her belt before
his 16-year-old girl could get him
away from the mature sirens charms
The old-time grandmother was a
different proposition. In her clear
eyes truth spoke. First in the
house of rejoicing came the old-time
grandmother, and always first in the
house of sorrow. Freed in q
measure from the daily grind of the
housekeeper, there was ample time
for grandmother's interest in human
kind. Her day for fashions tyrany
was over. There was plenty Of time
to devote to those who needed the
help Of those dear, work blessed
hands. She, dear heart, was no,
curling her wig, rougeing her lips
lnassaging her neck. peroxiding bel
[ pompadour, lacing her waist, ant
belladonaing her eyes. With some
times cap on her neatly partec
scanty gray hair, she was the rock o
Gibraltar on which the famil,
leaned. Today all the world il
young, or wants to be outside young
anyway. Perhaps some day gooG
fairy will start the rage for grand
mothers. A grandmother whose
heart bears no wainkle. whose SOU
ir as full OF gold a. her hair is 81
gray; grandmother unashamed 81
her age, telling her beads OF good
4 ~. ~. a. -. 1.