Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-17
Little Talks by
Beatrice FdTtd1

1t was q very blind world that
used to take it for granted that mid
dle-aged women have outgrown ro-
mantle love,
Love?-an affair of the twenties.
And ever afterward. home and fire.
side and housekeeping, the cook
book and the sewing machine.
Whether woman was married or
single, whether she had known love
or had only dreamed of it, the fires
of romance were supposed punctu-
ally to die in her at thirty.
Then, two or three years ago, a
European writer set the world gos-
siping by publishing a book called
The Dangerous Age" Dangerous,
that is, because of its romantic sus-
ceptibility. Dangerous because while
it is particularly hungry for roman
tic love, romantic love isn't always
within it's reach. You see, were not
speaking of eighteen and nineteen,
the time when romance promptly
answers to romance. No. the dang
erous age" is-forty.
Eighteen and nineteen don't un-
derstand this idea in the least.
They are incredulousr and derisive.
Everybody's safely married at forty,
they protest. Everybody has hus-
band and a houseful of children.
Isn't it only little short of scam
dalous for a woman at that time OF
life to talk of romance?
The Rebirth of Love
But the truth is, of course, that
there are plenty of women in the
world who arrive at middle age
with hearts unsatisfed. There are
widows who have known a brief
season of love, then long period of
loneliness, and who at forty, still
young. and with q keen zest for life,
feel within themselves such posi-
bilities of romance as twenty only
gets a glimpse of. .
There are unmarried women who
have lost their lovers. There are
others who never found the love
ideal that their fastidious youth de-
nfanded. At forty life has taught
these women good deal. They feel
that above all other things they
have learned how to love. And their
lonely natures de cry out for an OBJ
ject to spend this love on.
, Isn't it entirely natural and rea-
sonable?
A deeply interesting instance OF
hi h IHNR a.
love-letters written by the brilliant
English woman, Anne Gilchrist, to
our great American poet, Walt
Whitman.
Mrs. Gilchrist was a widow. She
hadn't cared deeply for her hus-
band. He hadn't in the least typi-
fled romance to her. She was the
afectionate mother of four children
She had wide circle of friends, in
Guiding the foremost writer's and ar
lists of England. She cared greatly
for books and poetry. And she was
a little more than forty That is
she was at the very height of the
dangerous age.
Then Walt Whitman became ia
nous the world over by publishing
his wonderful book of poems called
Leaves of Grass" The poems
showed how deeply he understood
the realities of life and love. To
the lonely English woman, they
were like a personal voice crying
loudly and directly to her hungry
heart.
With perfect simplicity and nat.
uralness, she answered the cry.
Love letters to n Poet
She wrote Whitman a long letter
indeed series Of letters, telling him
of the profound personal love that
his poems had awakened in her, and
taking 1t for granted that he, too
would be ready to love her and
claim her as his wife.
1t was magnificently romantic
And tho letters themselves were the
very breath of romance.
MY love rises up out of the
weary depths of grief and tramples
upon despair" she wrote him. Il
can wait-any time-a lifetime, any
Efetmes-I can suffer, / can dare
can learn, grow, toll. but nothing
in life or death can tear out of my
heart the passionate belief that one
day ! shall hear that voice"
II was tragic that Whitman
couldn't answer her in her own
language, the language OF passion
ate love. Instead no wrote hel
kindly. sgentiy. briefly and therefore
discoufngingiy. Yet after a few
years still undiscouraged, Mrs. Gil
christ came to this country with her
children and came TO know Walt
Whitman az q friend.
Two years later, when she went
back to England. she who wanted
so much more, had learned the hard
lesson of accepting the poets mere
friendship. Since Whitman could
not meet her love with love, she
found way to quiet that tumultu-
GUS heart of hers. And her danger
GUS age was over, .t
But her letters alone, as eloquent
perhaps and as ardent as, any love-
letters ever written, would of them
selves disproye the old fashioned
notion that twenty Is the supreme
and only age of romance.
No twenty-year-old girl could love
with the sustained fervor that Anne
Gilchrist did during the five un-