Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-11
WHEN DO MEN BECOME OLD !?
SOME ARE AGED AT TWENTY,
OTHERS YOUNG AT EIGHTY.
It Is the Manner and the Mind That
Make Persons Fas-
cinating.

From the Planet
| Are we ever too old? That. perhaps. is
| the best way of putting the question. AS
matter of fact | have known Wearled
old men of twenty and fascinating young
sters of eighty. 1t is all a matter OF
temperament.
There is living at this moment well
known Londoner whose father-a por-
trait painter-went out to India at sew
enty- years of age to paint the native
princes. At eighty-ive he migrated to
China. and at ninety-five he was estab-
lished as portrait painter in the palace
of famous mandarin. Shortly afterward
the favorite wife of the great man was
hurriedly beheaded, and the artist fled
the country in disguise.
The cry of the employer is today that
man is too old at forty and YOU will
find few men who can obtain really
good position after thirty-five. and yet
they are not even at the best physically.
while mentally speaking they have far
to go Lord Kitchener has just taken
up what may be the most important
post of his life at sixty years of age, and
Lord Roberts was just upon seventy
when he took command of our troops in
the South African war. And yet. accord
ing to the senseless dictum of these
ldiotic employers. man is unfit for the
duties of life after he has passed his
fortieth birthday. This policy Is not only
stupid. it is absolutely suicidal. for l re-
peat that a mans best years for almost
everything except cricket or foot ball lie
between his fOrtieth and sixtieth birth
day. and it is then that of all periods
during his life his mind is capable of the
greatest strain and of the most brilliant
output A hardresser told me once that
it wasn't ladies or old dandies who in
vested in hair dyes. but mechanics. mid
Al Il ,i,ict md
curates, all of them men between forty
and sixty, many of them thoroughly ex-
perienced and we'll trained in their lies
work and at the very top Of their powers.
And yet their employers. with a capaci-
ty for suicide of which few but English
men would be capable, had turned them
adrift in favor of stupid and incompetent
youths and girls.
Venerable Hunters.
1t is a curious question this of age.
Only within the last few days 1 . have
heard of two splendid men who hunt three
days week and each of them is in his
ninety-third year. while the Rev. John
Lord who died few months ago, used to
day after his hundredth birthday. And
1t is a curious fact, which I have often
proved in my own experience. that it is
not the old man who is old-fashioned in
uiS iolloHS, Uut Tic SOuhS iudIl, lHc olucT
man is the more he appears to keep
pace with the times. For the simple
reason that his is the growing mind Gen.
Booth is a remarkable case in point. At
eighty, years of age he is in touch with
the whole of life, and while he is more
at home in motor car than any one l
have ever met, he is hurrying to and fro
over the face Of the whole globe and abb
solutely up-to-date-to use an odious but
expressive phrase-in every particular.
1t Is often said that to youth especially
belongs the joy Of life and love. And
often wonder if it is really so. In seven
cases out of ten you will find that the
young woman of the present day has no
use for the young man of her own age.
She finds him crude, rude, narrow in his
outlook upon life, selfish, conceited and
stupid. In the older men she finds
brains. consideration, certain charm
perfence of Lille and humanity that can
only come of years of travel and exist
ence in the wide world. But then it
must be borne in mind that woman is
always ten years older than man.
A man of fifty would be bored to death
talking to young man. while he finds a
young woman of exactly the same age is
a delightful companion on a perfect equal
ity with himself.
Older Mans Advantage.
l was very much amused once on board
ship. There was a large party Of young
people of both sexes, but much associated
with them was a tall and singulary
handsome and we'll bred man, nearly six
ty years Of age. One night 1 overheard a
young fellow-an ugly. underbred. un-
couth. ill-nlannered, ignorant donkey
expressing his indignation to one of the
ladies that this old fool' should SO mo-
nopolize the attention of the young won
en- on board. Il wonder why on earth it
is" he concluded; hes nearly forty
years Older than am
Look in the looking glass;" rather
cruelty replied the girl to whom he was
complaining and then perhaps you will
understand"
But, need scarcely point out that it
was not the difference in their looks that
counted; it was the difference between
manner and no manner Manners maketh
the man. and this is absolutely true with
regard TO women, but it is astonishing
how long it is before men themselves
realize this great truth.
l do not mean to suggest for an instant
that age has not also its very serious and
inevitable drawbacks. We have realized
this only too keenly in the earlier cricket
matches of the season Men we'll on in
the thirties have not the same alertness
suppleness and agility that they possess
ed in the twenties. and falling physical
powers are always distressing. But after
all, it is the mind that really counts, and
it ought to be laid to heart far more than
1t is by employers OF clerks and mechan-
les that in nine cases out of ten the mid
dle-aged or even downright elderly clerk
or mechanic is not only not too old for
his work, but that he is actually worth
far more to his employer than ever he
was before.
He has acquired with age. experience,
responsibility and steadiness of purpose.
And the same with half the professions.
A clergyman or n minister without actual
knowledge and experience of life and of
human nature is scarcely worth his salt.
A doctor or a barrister, a journalist or a
novelist gains in worth every day of his
life between forty and sixty. Youth is all
very we'll in the cricket and foot ball
field, but life calls for something else
besides good fielding or quick dribbling.
And more and more is the folly Of the
popular saying TOO old at forty being
demonstrated to the English public today.
Let us hope il will die q speedy and un-