Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-08
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Perpetual Youth Fallacy
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate, Inc.
tn HE fountain of perpetual youth, which
has been the age-long question Of hui

And it isn't a fountain after all. 1t is sur
gical operation, and the Ponce de Leon who
found it is no gay adventurer, but cold.
hard scientist.
Anyway, it is quite true that nowadays it
it is perfectly simple matter to have TWEEN
ty-f1ve or thirty years Topped off your appar-
ent age. If you growing middle-aged,
and have accumulated the wrinkles, and the
downward cast of countenance that are in
evitable to your years, all that you have to
do is to go to a doctor who practices facial
surgery.
He will cut little slit back of your ears
and above your eyes, and take out a few
cores of super1uous erpidermis, and run a i.
few tucks in the muscles, and execute little g
picoting and fancy embroidering stitching.
and, VOLTA, there you are young and beau@l-
full again. Your eyes are not the drOopihg
eyes of age, but the wide open, round, wop-
dering eyes of youth once more. 1aIr
cheeks are full and plump, instead of sag
ging. Your skin doesn't count, for in these
times even school girls wear
handmade compilations, while as for your
hair, it is mere matter of the shade you
prefer.
The miracle has been wrought. Out .
wardly, you are sweet-and-twenty, instead of
a long way past forty. 1t is only your soul
that is old, for, alas, no art can rejuvenate
our weary spirits and give us back the opttm-
ism, the enthusiasm, the joy in living, the
the heart was young.
So one wonders if the elderly woman,
whom science keeps perpetual debutante in
looks, does not find her restored youth a
boomerang instead of a blessing. Without
doubt it is consolation to her vanity to be-,
young and beautiful and more, and S>ok
the fit companion of cal1ow youths, an airy,
fairy creature whom one expects to dance.
her satin slippers to ribbons and spend hours
spooning in the moonlight, but how such
one, with her sophisticated soul, must yawn
behind her hand at the twadd1e Of school
boys! How her rheumatic bones must cry
out for red f1annels and radiators, and easy
chairs, instead of incoming in damp places!
We all sigh, ooh that we were young
again!'' but in reality there are not many Of
us who would take the gift of perpetual youth
if it were offered to us on silver salver. This
is as true of women as it is of men, though,
woman's age is supposed to be her greatest,
asset, and her worst handicap.
1t Is the custom to speak of youth as a
time of ineffable joy, Of circling wings, and
golden glory of laughter and care-freeness.
This is not the case except with the very
few who are the darlings of the gods. To
most, youth is period of fierce joys and
fercer sorrows; of black despairs and weary
waiting, for to youth the time between Christ
mas and Christmas is an eternity. 1t has
no philosophy with which to console itself for
disappointment, and no experience to teach
that the darkest day has it's end. ~.
1t matters nothing that the sorrows Of
youth are over trif1es. Not to be invited to a
party to which all the other boys and girls
are going, is to youth tragedy as great as
to go bankrupt in later life. To be held up,
to the scorn Of the world at fifty, is no moro
blighting an experience than it is to be wall
flower at twenty. Life hurts us SO at every
point before we learn to laugh instead OF cry. I
OF course, every woman likes to think OF
the time when she was young, and brag about
how pretty she was, and get out her old
photographs and look at the starry-eyed,
slim, young creature she was, but she really
doesn't wish to go back and be that girl
again. ,ag
For well does she remember all the
stormy, hectic years of her girlhood, how she
agnoiZed over her clothes, and her beaux,
and the tears she shed because she couldn't
have as pretty dresses as some other girl.
Above all, she recalls with shudder, the
weary husband chase; the bo-es she had to
endure; the cyclists she had to flatter to
draw men about her on the chance that in the
crowd there would be that she wanted.
Nor can she forget her fears that the right
man would never come along, and that if
he did he might overlook her, and to her dy-
ing day she will recall the horror of the
nightmare of her wedding preparations, and
the weepy honeymoon in which she and her
John learned to adjust themselves to each
other, and live together in peace. "'
What woman would go through it again.
even to be rewarded with the Prince Charm
ing of the fairy tale? Every woman knows
that her happiest years are those after she
is safely married, or else after she has ac-
cepted o1d-maidenhood, and has given up the
struggle to get married.
And no young wife wears the placid ex-
preston Of the middle-aged woman who has
accepted her husband as he is, with all his
faults and fancies, and is making the best
of him instead of trying to make him over. ,f,
Nor does any woman ever know peace of
mind and body until she has reached the
age when she has ceased to care whether she, d,
attracts men or not and when she realizes
that the people who like her and admire her
do it for something other than her looks.
Then only can she let out her corset strings,
and cut down the heels of her shoes. and eat
what she likes and say what she thinks, and
be comfortable, and happy.
Because youth is so greedy OF pleasure and
sensations, we think IT the most enjoyable
time of life. AS we'll might an epicure envy
a dock laborer his capacity for devouring
corn beef and cabbage. Youth has no dis
examinations. It makes no subtle compare &c
sons. 1t 1avors nothing with the aroma of =
delicate memories. All it wants is quantity
not quality.
It is onlr when we become middle-aged
that we are able to be gourments in pleasure,
and to SAVIOR the flavor Of any situation to
its fullest, to know what Is fine in music, art,
and conversation, and to really enjoy life be-
cause we have got perspective on it, and
know how feeting are both pain and pleasure.
So there are not many Of us who would
spend our money on the perpetual youth doc
tor. Real youth holds charms only in retro