Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-08

a RICH old lady recently died,
II and in her will she left be-
IA quest of ten thousand dollars
to the woman who had been
her faithful friend and companion
for many years.
The rich woman's children there
upon brought suit to annul the will,
alleging that the companion had
gained undue influence over their
mother by means of flattering her,
and telling her that she was still
beautiful, although she was afflicted
with the bodily infirmities of age,
and this so wrought upon their moth
er's vanity that she was not of sound
and diSpoSing mind, ETC., etc.
II did tell her she was beautiful"
said the companion in her defense,
but I had no Interior design in say
ing so except to make her happy. 1
bought lovely, soft negligees for her,
and when 1 would put them on her,
and arrange her hair .prettily, she
looked like picture of beautiful and
serene old age, and I would tell her
so, and the light would come into
her eyes, and her cheeks would flush
like schoolgirls.
Sometimes, hours afterwards, 1
would find her still with smile on
her lips and I know that she had
been happy, living over again the
days of her youth, when she was a
famous beauty, and when all of her
little world burnt incense at her
feet.
ut took something of the sting out
Of age to feel that her charm wasn't
entirely gone-that there was some
thing still left in her to call forth
admiration and a tribute of praise,
even if only from woman who was
her companion.
I did. but 1 did it through love, and
to make her happy, and I'm glad of
every compliment I paid her, and
only wish they had been more, and
that I had made them gorgeouser
and gorgeouser, as Alice in Wonder
land would say"
I'm for the companion against the
children who, you may be sure, do
not have to reproach themselves with
even having handed out any jolly to
mother. She deserves her ten thou
sand for having spread the velvet
ney soft and pleasant for the old
lady's feet, and I hope she gets it
| with interest.
More than that, she deserves it for
the lesson she has taught the bal
ance of us, for we are conscience
stricken as we realize how cruel we
have been in assuming that praise
is the sole prerogative of the young
and that the old have no self love
to be pleased or hurt, no vanity that
fungers for few words of appre-
citation now and then.
Yet we know that the love of ap-
probation never dies. It is as strong
at seventy as at seventeen, and ou1
store teeth are just as much a sweet
tooth as our milk teeth. Only we
feed candy to babes, and forget that
grandma and grandpa are starving
for the sweets we are too stupid to
offer them, and which their pride
and their dignity forbid them to ask
for.
If you don't believe this try tell.
ing. grandmother that she is better
looking thar her siXteen-year-olo
granddaughter, and still has a come
hither look in her eyes. She will
tell you to begone, and not make
sport of an old woman, but she will
give unmistakable evidence of being
far more pleased with the compli.
ment than Miss Sixteen would, if you
swore to her she was the living i'm
age of the Venus de Medici.
And how should this be otherwise
human nature being what it is? II
is not possible that the woman WI