The Washington herald., 1917-07-28

Perhaps the greatest shock that any
of US ever get Is when We first have It
borne in upon that to cold and APP
praising public we seem old.
OF course, we know that we have
had more birthdays than We like to
count. We realize, when we stop to
think of II, that we are subject to
| rheumatic twinges, and that We have
/ come to favor our left knees when
we walk, and that we come down
steps carefully one at a time instead
of taking them by leaps and bounds,
and that we have to be a little careful
about our diet and have other signs
and symptoms that we would call age
In another.
| But we still feel young and cherish
the fatuous belief that we look young.
and so It Is a solar picks blow when
we realize that we have not escaped
the common human doom, but have
ourselves passed into the scar and yell
low leaf.
The chief reason that we so dread
age is not because 1t brings the end of
life in an appreciable distance, but
because we do hate to pass into the
class Of these who are pensioners
upon the good nature and forbearance
Of all with whom we come in contact
1t is so terrible to think Of becoming
one of those whose personal charm
and interest are gone and who are
endured either from a sense OF duty
or from a desire for graft.
For II is undeniable that most old
people are unattractive. They are tire
some to talk to. boring to listen to,
full Of crochets and whims and mar
3 -.
so 1t is no wonder that we shudder
as we see ourselves approaching the
era Of senile frowsiness.
That is why when a woman be-
gins to perceive crows feet form
pocketbook and rushes to the beau
ty specialist. and why when a man
begins to find difficulty in tying
his shoes he takes up golf and
! commences to bant. They are try
ing to keep young.
Alas, after we are so the art of
keeping young is a lost art. and we
would do better IL we devoted our
energies and thoughts to study
ing the art of growing old grace
fully.
We talk a great deal about the
faults OF the young and urge them
to correct them. and about the pit
falls into which youth is liable to
stumble and against which we
warn II.
But whoever speaks of the faults
of age or the dangers into which
it may blunder? Yet age has its
faults no less than youth and is
just as liable to fall into evil
habits.
We assume that age is a state
OF perfection. but the truth is that
it is only too often a ime OF utter
selfindulgence and selfishness. and
that is why old people are so often
an afflication grievous to be borne
| by those who have to live with
with them. And this is why those
Of US who wish to be loved and
! cherished for ourselves, and not for
the prospective requests in our
wills, should recognize the faults
that beset age and try to guard
against them.
Old people excuse certain weak
nesses in themselves on the ground
OF age, just as youth excuses its
follies in the same fashion. boy
must SOW his wild oats, says the
! drunken rounder. Old people have
a right to their ways, declare the
fossils who make martyrs of their
families and block public progress.
Neither excuse excuses. but youth,
at least, admits its faults, while
age accounts its weakness unto it.
self for virtue.
| Why then should we not guard our
selves against the temptations OF age,
1 a
the temptations of youth? We might
begin with the first temptation. which
Is to be comfortable instead OF smart
in dress. 1t is so easy to degenerate
into the stocking feet and no corsets
state Of ease at home, and from that
the descent into the it-doesn't-matter-
Observation-Disclosures mold habit, that
makes so many elderly people look as
II they were candidates for the rag
bag and the bath tub.
| At no other time in their whole
lives do people need good clothes
| and good grooming so much as they
do after the beauty of youth has
fed. systematically can be at
tractive in spite Of a kimona and
down-at-the-heels slippers, or pic
turesque in a negligee shirt and
sneakers, but sixty-odd needs all the
| attractions that exquisite neatness
and the best dressmakers and tailers
can throw about it.
The next weakness of age against
which we should guard ourselves is
garrulousness. Why should any sane
person permit himself to talk too
much any more than he would drink
| too much? We all know when our
| tongues are running away with US
| and IL We have any intelligence at
all we put the emergency brakes on
and stop them.
Why should we not keep tab on
| ourselves as we grow old and re-
frain from telling the same story
| over and over again? The mere fact
that a story is our favorite story is
! sufficient warning in itself to make