The Washington herald., 1916-02-06
Compensations Of Age.
BY JOHN D. BARRY.

sideration she replied About thirty. By that
time most of us have passed through illusions.
We are really grown up. Then age differences
are comparatively unimportant." She made
concession to herself. however by declaring that
she intended to acknowledge that she was
more than forty
Forty is such nice indefinite age for
woman" she remarked Some women look old
at forty and others look young. By keeping healthy
in body and in mind believe that, no matter how
long live, stay within speaking distance of
forty"
Though she was going into what was bound to
be losing fight, she had the advantage Of being
fortified with humor. Those people who resist age
are indeed fortunate if, while resisting, they
| can regard their plight as joke.
The mistake lies, however in regarding age as
plight Once accepted, it ceases to be- such
There are great compensatons in frankly belong
ing to ones own period, just as there arc great
penalties in striving to belong, to seem to be-
long, to period more youthful. The best way OF
all is to keep from being self-conscous to follow
| spontaneously and easily the guidance of
They get most out of life who cooperate with
life, who live in their period, provided of course,
they wisely meet its exactions.
The youngest old woman that | know is
greats grandmother. She lives not in herself
withered of face and old in her body, but in the
children of three generations, some of them old
in fact, but to her vision. One might think
that after much experience of birth she would
find the coming Of children tircsomc. Such how
ever, is not the case. The youngest grandchild is
the greatest wonder, the recipient Of the largest
fund of love, which increases with giving.
On the other hand, there is such thing as
being too willing to grow DID, or. is sometimes
said to give up. Growing old ought not to be
process of giving up There is big difference
between resignation and acceptance. The old
fashioned women, many of them, used to go out
of their way to deny youth and to welcome age
Over young faces they would put grandmothers
caps. 1t is we'll that this practice has disappeared
There are no old women now" is remark
that sometimes hear made in a tone OF regret
But, like many of those sentimental utter
ances, it is not true. There just as many old
women there were, and just as many
silly old women, perhaps more. Even under sedate
caps vanity could persist, and the instinct to play
for admiration and to frt. The increase in sl-
ness may be more apparent than real the result of
4 tHc cStdunSHeu luSdi lHSitlHR women 10 seem as
young they And there are still many
who, though they may follow the youthful fashions
in dress, old in their attitude toward life
This contradiction, pathetic in the extreme
may be found among those who fight most per-
sistently against age. If the energy spent on re-
sisting appearance turned to resisting age in
the spirit, the results, including even those tina,
Nh ysiraI would he
To try to look young when one feels old is i'm
possible.
| But to be young in feeling really to appreciate
and to love life, to draw into the spirit the ex-
hilaration of living, is to achieve those reactions
that keep the blood in circulation and that make
the face glow and the eyes shine. The painted,
death in life Beside hem, healthy old age takes
on something of the look of youth with color in
the wrinkled skin and with fire in the sunken eyes
! There arc those whose philosophical attitude of
acceptance inclines them to add to their age They
are likely to be men Where they arc women they
may be partly influenced by bravado The most
desparing remark | ever heard the subject of
age from man who after suddenly scouir-
ing great wealth, found his wife, 10 his chaerin,
unable to resist the vanities and the aurements of
the world,
""Oh, wish that were old together" he
said. He orcsaw the dangers that lay in the golden
path Though they inclined him to will the years
away, they apparently did not make him see that
the cause OF the trouble lay in his having too much
money. If he and his wife could have gone back
to the simple condition of their earlier happiness,
the dangers would have vanished
The people that volunteer information about
their age often put themselves under suspicion,
especially if they are women "Mstrust the woman
that tells you how old she is" The saying is lit
tie hard. There are those who, given to fibbing
about their age would not wilfuily lie about any
thing else. In this weakness there is human ap-
4 peal. Just why people want to make themselves a
year or two younger than they would be hard
to explain. 1t IS easier to understand those bold
Iprevaricators who, without turn of the eyelash
slice off five even ten years. They make a
heavy tax self-control. Besides they take
risks particularly when they speak in presence of
spectful and frank advocates of the truth given TO
plain speaking. Besides the prevaricators arc more