Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1919-08-05
MEN CHANGE? mo-!
Mr.. Goslington Confident They
Preserve Their Ideals.
OF Course, With Advancing Years He
Admits Some Of the Enthuslasms
- May Be Lost, but There's
Reason for That.

"An older friend Of mine once said
to me-" said Mr.. Goslington, that
men preserve their ideals until they
are somewhere around fifty, but after
that they look out for themselves.
"Not having yet reached that more
or less mature age myself, I can't say
what / shall be when I get there.
Maybe / shall get hardened, too, and
take a like cynical view but don't
think so now. Anyway, it is my OBJ
servation as far as I've got that most
men are generous in spirit and that
mem carry through life, in the main,
the characteristics with which they
start. The man endowed with gen.
circus heart stays generous to the end
of his days. We certainly do meet
some hard old men, but I have known
young men who were hard and close
listed; and I should rather attribute
the seeming closeness Of some men as
they grow older not to tight-wadness
but to the development Of habit OF
discrimination.
"What my friend meant to say to
me was that while men start In life
with the natural enthusiasms of youth;
while they then espOuse all good
causes and give generously Of their
time and money, yet as they grow older
they discover that most Of the innu-
merable enterprises started for the
betterment Of mankind are never car
ried to completion, and that there's a
lot of sham in the world and that
really most people. are out for what
they can make; and so as man grows
older, when he comes to be fifty or
thereabouts, he says to himself, What's
the use; why should I waste my time
and money! And looking at things in
that light from that on he leaves re-
form and that sort Of thing to the
younger set, while for himself he looks
out for No. 1.
"Now what find is that as men be
come more experienced in life they do
discover that not all causes are worthy
of support; that some, fine as they
may seem to be, are visionary and can
never come to fruition; that some are
managed wastefully and so do not ap-
peal 10 a man who likes to see money
used to the greatest advantage. And
find that men come to consider more
and more the sponsors of projects put
forth with an appeal for money; but
men do not lack generosity-far from
1t. 1t is true that some men as they
grow older do grow harder and look
out for themselves alone; but this is
not true of mankind in general.
Having encountered frauds, and
having met with notoriety seekers who
sought to promote their own fame
rather than the enterprise In which
they were engaged, whatever measure
Of merit that might contain, men do,
as they grow older, grow more canny
but the man with generous streak
in him in his youth, which the vast
majority Of men have, holds 1t as long
as he lives, and it can be reached by
the right appeal.
$50 I don't quite agree with my
older friends views; and it makes me
smile to recall that once when 1 stood
in need Of wise counsel and had called
on him he took time to talk to me
and tell me what 1 needed to know,
and he lent me money besides. He
thought he was tough, wise old bird,
but he didn't know himself as well as
he thought he did. He was born with
sound heart, and despite the fact
that he was now well past fifty, he
was still running true to form"