Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-28

Seelngs believing, says the old
adaSe.
That's wrong. If we accepted it
as so, we would be fooled a hun
dred times a day. The fact is, not
one of our senses deceives us so
much or so often as does sight. why,
what we actually see in every in
stance-that is, the image imprinted
on the retina-is upside down; it is
| only the familiarity with objects
gained by our sense of touch that
| enables our brains to correct the in
verted vision.
No wonder that the blind man
suddenly endowed with sight cried
out that he saw men as trees walk
ing. They appeared to him head
downward with their legs waving
in the air.
Things are seldom what they
SEEM" MARBLES Little Buttercup in
| Pinafore. skim milk masquerades
| as cream"
So the truth is not that we be-
lieve what we see, but that we see
what we believe.
This was rather forcefully borne
in upon me the other evening. A
woman I have known quite a while
dropped in to see me. She is
| breezy, very much alive person, with
hundred different interests, so ami
mated and buoyant that she is al
ways good company L thought as
7 she came in that she was looking
especially fit, her cheeks glowing
and her eyes sparkling from a brisk
walk, her fur collar drawn up about
her throat, and wearing a very be-
coming, somewhat dashing hat.
| l.
time, but L had meyer stopped to
| consider her age. / had simply ac-
cepted her at face value as one gets
into the habit of doing with the peo-
pie one meets in a city. I knew, of
course, she was beyond the first
blush of maidenhood; but IL 1 had
been asked how much beyond 1
would have been puzzled to answer.
Probably L should have put her at
about thirty to thirty-five years old.
During the course of our CONVEX
sation, though. l happened to men
tton another acquaintance of mine,
referring to ner as a dear old lady"
and speaking sympathetically of her
infirmities. l have never hesitated
in mentally assessing her age as in
the close neiEhborhood of three score
and ten, and she looks every day of
eighty.
"Oh, do you know herr" said my
caller. why, she and l came from
the same town. We were school
girls together"
stared at her in astonishment
"But-but." L stammered before l
thought, "she must be years older
than you?"
She did not answer at once; then
rrrtFf IL
lips.
Not so much as you might think"
she said. II believe the difference
between our ages is exactly five
months"
The compensation shifted then to
other topics, but each time 1 looked
at her during the rest of her call
more'and more marked change SEEM
ed to have taken place in her ap-
pearance. L noticed now that her
neck-for she had thrown back her
furs-was drawn and stringy; that
her hair was touched up, that the
corners of her mouth sagged. and
that her face was etched with hun
dreds of fine. little lines. She grew
visibly old before my eyes.
And as If her confession had
loosed some measure of restraint she
held upon herself, her manner per-
ceptibly changed. She was no longer
the assured buoyant woman who had
come in at my door, but querulous
and uncertain in her tone, even
shade pessimistic.
Imagination, you will say. Pos
sibly; nevertheless my whole i'm
preston of that woman has been
altered. Before that evening IL /
had been a big man seeking some