The Palatka news and advertiser., 1916-09-15

YEARS AND AGE.
i ..****+*s.* j. j. j. + + + + j. j.
How old are you?

1loN, oli etlS you
We measure our youth by years
and our middle life by the same STAN
dard, but the rest of our lives by the
vigor of our bodies and minds-by
what we can do.
It's a hard proposition-this grow
ing old,-hard to realize and harder
still to accommodate ourselves to;
almost as hard to realize as the fact
that our children are growing up and
are crowding US out of the strenuous
things of life.
Americans are credited with the
ambition to "die in the harness." 1t
used to be in the old western days,
to "meet the end with our boots on"
And why not? Why should the last
ten or twenty years of an active life
be spent in useless inactivity? Why
should any of US lose even a part of
the tense interest in human activi-
ties that filled our best years?
There's a good reason why many,
if not most, of us do. It's because
we have wasted our capital--our
physical capital-or used it too law
ishly in the prime of life, and it is
exhausted when we should still have
a splendid reserve. When we should
still be active, our own physical weak
nesses concern us to the exclusion Of
wider and bigger things. Soon we
are forgotten and go to the scrap
heap before our time
Is there anything more pitiable
than a man of so or 60 tottering
about with the weaknesses of 80
years, complaining of his own private
assortment of ills and nuisance to
everybody? On the other hand, what
is grander than the man of 70 or 80
years, smiling and loved by all, TAX
ing an active and intelligent interest
and sympathy in the affairs of young
er men and giving no advice unless
it is asked for?
Under present conditions of health
knowledge and sanitation, one of ev-
cry four Americans dies before he is
five years old, and one-third never
complete their twentieth year. 1t is
only the fttest that survive to do the
real work of life. Like the soldiers
that make our armies, they are pick
ed men. But why shouldn't the pick
ed, the fit, be larger proportion OF
those who start in the race?
Most of the babies die because they
don't have a fair start in life from
unfit parentage. This inheritance
may have its influence to mature
years, but when a mans strength
carries him through the first score of
years, it's largely his own fault if it
doesn't take him to his rightful three
score and ten.
The conservation of energy, the
conservative use of ones physical
strength, adds to that strength. It
makes him ready to meet emergencies
that demand the greatest continued eX-
ertion. Engineers calculate the de-
terioration of rapidly moving machin-
cry at 20 per cent or more each year.
The slower machine may last ten
or twenty years.
All of which suggests that the hu-
man machine, more complicated than
any vet devised by man-require5
careful watching. The strenuous eX-
ertions and anxieties of the thirties
and forties overtaX the fifties and six
ties and bring the final breakdown ten
or twenty years before it is due. The
prudent man heeds the warnings of
hardening arteries and stiffening mus
cles, of the headaches that come af-
ter prolonged mental effort, Of fail
ing eyesight, and of the inability to
do or endure what once was easy.
And the prudent man faces the fact
that these warnings are to be found,
whether or not he may sense them
himself.
Always the oncoming years, wheth-
er or not they seem to be as full Of
vigor as those that are gone, bring
the wise necessity of becoming a
closer intimate of the family doctor.
With his training he will detect the
warnings that you don't believe exist
yet. We, all of us, have to face the
inevitable ending Of life, and all of US
hone to put it off and off. Few cf'
us get so tired of life that we are
willing and waiting for its ending
But the real way to postpone the end
is to be prepared to live, to keep the
machine, the body and the mind, in
good repair Above all, don't wor-
ry, be at peace with yourself and
with all men that the days may be
long in the land.-State Board of
. Hao1tb Pl1llatiT