Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-13

| ture to say that the proportion of
the former who retain their youth
| full lines and spruceness of appear
ance Is at least five to one better
than the latter.
l have a letter from a husband
and wife inveighing against these
careless, slouchy, slovenly habits
INTO which so many young people
allow themselves to drift as soon
as they are fairly settled down to
matrimony. They cite as a hor-
rible example an acquaintance of
theirs, a young man gently born
and reared and college finished,
who about year ago was married
to charming girl.
He knows, of course, all the
refinements and conveniences of
life; but he seems to have taken
marriage as sort of an excuse
for back to the blanket" His
table manners, according to my
correspondents. would put even a
savage to blush. He eats indis-
criminately with fork or fingers,
piles his plate with food and then
sits with his head down in it,
gorging and gobbling regardless
of every one else, and by his glut-
tony disgusting any one unfortu-
nate enough to be at his board.
Think of the poor wife who has
to witness that joyous exhibition
three hundred and siXty-five times
year! Think of the disillu-
stoned husbands who carry to work
with them the vision of a figure
with frowsy hair and in a dirty
kimono! For no matter how SLOW
emily one may himself become, he
can always appreciate and resent
lack of neatness or refinement
in another.
Those people-the gluttons and
the slovenS and the 'slothful and
the remiss-are deliberately throw
ing away their silk" What would
that college man think of a foot
ball team which chucked all the
restraints of the training table on
the eve of big game? Yet, en-
gagged in vastly more important
contest, he does everything he can
to put himself out of condition.
agreed that theoretically at least
old age is an unnecessary evil.
The body constantly renews itself
and If the adjustment of bones
and nerves and muscles and or
gans is preserved intact. it should
function as perfectly at ninety as
at twenty-on The silk" the
spirit of youth-for any valid reas-
on to the contrary should be as
strong in the centenarian as in
his great-grandson.
But it is a peculiar quality; not
physical alone, else why a John l..
Sullivan, a Bob FitZsimmons,
Terry McGovern dead when hard
ly more than in the prime of life?
Rather. it seems to me a blend
n a 9 ri nrfif nafN na1N
element supporting and reactinG
upon the other-the spiritual upon
the physical, and the physical upon
the mental. The glutton not only
increases his girth but clogs his
brain and deadens his soul The
vacant mind expresses itself in eye
and speech and gait. Slovenliness
of dress quickly reflects itself in
every other attribute.
And we are all slowly commit
ting suicide. We are all by one
method or another-by work, by
worry, by indulgence or neglect
getting rid of the silk" The
silk" The, only thing which
makes life worth the living. The
force which does everything in the
world worth being done.
This is an era of conservation.
Why then not conserve our great
est natural resource? Don't make
marriage an excuse to sag and grow
old. 1t was the spirit of youth that
attracted every husband and wife
to each other in the first place.
Preserve that spirit, and you retain
the attraction, you hold your rom
ance, you solve the marriage
problem.
Think young, act young, be young
Being old after all,
Being old is after all only lazy
habit. Shake it off. Go into training
physically, mentally spiritually.
Keep your body fit, your mind alert,
your soul awake, and the silk"
will be there.