Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-24
|Life'sProblems
| Are Discussed
BY Mrs. Wilson woodrow


Not long ago a clever woman pro-
pounded this riddle: What is the
golden age in man?
And she answered it in defiance
of DIR. Osler who. it will be remem-
bered, said, or was reported to have
said. that the span of mans activ-
tiles ended at forty, and that at
sixty he would benefit the world by
quietly chloroforming himself out
of existence.
She answered it by putting the
golden age of man at forty-seVen,
because he then still has his hair
and teeth and a reasonable waist
line and a fair share of his illusions.
but has lost the bumptious self-con-
ceit of youth. gaining in its place
sense of achievement and a mel
low tolerance, a solidity of character
that is sustaining and dependable.
AS | was trying to decide whether
I wholly agreed with her or not,
the companion question naturally
fitted into my mind: When is
woman in her prime? At what age
is she at her best? And l found 1t
a far more perpleSing conundrum
Viewed from every angle, II seems
to be a movable feast.
The development of man is logical
and consistent. He runs true to form
through his seven ages. just about
the same now as he did in the days
of Shakespeare. The insurance act
uaries and golf and the dancing
craze may have added a few years to
the traditional three score and ten,
and have put off by so much his sub
sidence into "the lean and slippered
pantaloon." But from the moment
the doctor announces, ITS boy!'
YOU can foretell with reasonable
accuracy his horoscope.
From one to seven he VIII be
chubby darling; from seven 10 1our-
teen an unkempt savage; from four-
teen TO twenty-one cub; from
twenty one to thirty-five, so alb
sorbed in himself and his career,
or his wife and his baby, that except
to himself and his business assocl-
ates and his wife and his baby he
is an unmitigated bore. Then some
where between thirty-five and three
score and ten he hits his apogee
and becomes a real, full-nedSeu
human being, just as the pol!ywog
loses his tail and gains his croaK
and becomes fuil-hedSea oulliIos'
At somewhere between thirty-hVe
and seventy. then, or eighty, or
ninety, the male of the species is IN
his prime. / would not say definitely
at forty-seven, although that is
fair average: for ] have known men
still distinctly pollywoggtsh, ana
others at the same age VINO were
gruff. old, bass croakers with pleary
eyes and hides as tough and wrlnkled
as that of a rhinoceros.-
Also I have known specimens VINO
apparently never had prime, frohc-
some urchins of eighty and grizzly
from
cradles. Endymions who remain
eternally young, and solemn prigs
that never had any youth.
But these no more AFFECT the gen
eral truth of the proposition than
does the fact of snowstorm In
July or a torrid day in January anect
the orderly procession of the zodlac'
Mans successive stages or deVeiop-
ment follow each other as certainly
and as regularly as harvest ana
seed-time, Spring, Summer, Autumn
and Winter.
Rut woman. always original,
daring and unconventional. permits
of no such classification. She is Just
as apt as not to reverse the process,
and be an unkempt savage from one
10 seven. a Martha burdened with
many cares from fourteen to twenty,
and at any old age thereafter sud
denly blossom into the dlmpleu udr-
ling she should have been when she
wore starchy, white frocks and pink
hair ribbons.
Mrs. Eddy, the founder of
Christian Science. was at nearly
fifty an invalid in a New England
town. Her life had been passed in
obscurity. She was no different ap-
parently in her material circumstan-
ces from thousands of poor rela-
tions" in similar Npositions, some of
whom each of us count as acquaint-
ances and to whom we refer with
q deprecatory shake Of the head as
Poor Annie" or"Poor Estelle," or
poor some one else, with an emphasis
on the Poor"
Yet in those years when, accord
ing to tradition, a woman should
resign herself to the rocking chair
by the fireside, she built up a world
wide religious organization. directing
with consummate generalship all its