Paragould soliphone., 1921-06-29
CONVERSATION BETWEEN A YOUNG MAN AND AN OLD MAN
 Bruce Barton at 34
 Russell HI. Conwcll at 78


 a newspaper and read that same
 Lincoln anccdote, and it was head
 ed: "A New Lincoln Story Al
 new Lincoln story indced-but somei
 of us old men heard it sixty years ago, and probably there were old men in that day who had heard it sixty years before. Life is like that--always old and always new. MT. Barton: Precisely. Always new to the young, but old to the old. When you've heard all the Jokes, and seen all the actors. and there is no new scenery. doesn't the show get tiresome before the last curtain?
 You've played all kinds of parts soldier, traveller, newspaper man, lawyer, preacher, lecturer, uniVer- sity president. There aren't any new parts left for you. Honestly, Doctor Conwell, is the world still Interesting when man is seventy eight?
 Doctor Conwell: That's a straight question, and l can answer it just as directly. I never in all my life have been happier in living than
 am right now.
 l Mir. Barton: No one could hear lyou say that and not believe every word of it. And yet, it's trcmen- | sy
 imagine that age doesn't take away
 more than il can give. l can re-
 member distinctly saying to myself, Age the first time, Well, now that S
 a wonderful piece of literature; but, after all, the old man was just l whistling to keep up his courage. ; ! Doctor Conwell: 1 know just
 how you feel. You think you're
 having the very best years of your life right now, don't you?
 Mir. Barton: They seem mighty good.
 do, and they should. They seemed {so to me when l was thirty-four. But can you think back fifteen or l twenty years to your college days,
 or before? The day when you
 had so much freedom and so little | responsibility? Weren't there mo- Ilnents when you looked with a sort of pity at business men, thinking | I lives? 1 imagine you said to your self sometimes, "These free years arc the happiest years I'll ever have. After this comes work, work, work, and no more fun" Yet you wouldn't
 go back to those college days again, | would you?
 I Old age looks back to the fight l ing years as you look back to col lege. Think of it this way; Think of some day ill your life when you worked hard and things went just right. You came to the end lit
 tie tired, but filled with the satis- faction of having done what you
 set out, in the morning, to do. You
 took a bath, and put on comfort
 able clothes, and rested. Your mind
 and body and spirit were all at perfect peace with the world We'll,
 that is old aSe--the end of the day l You remember the Bible verse: Let
 not him that girdeth on his harness l boast himself as he that puttcth | it off, There is joy in the battle,
 but more in the victory. The sun
 rise is beautiful, but tho sunset | is more beautiful. l cant expect
 you to realize that now; it isn't
 right that you should. But you
 may take il on faith and the word of an old man; it is true
 Mir. Barton: But so many of ones friends go first. You say
 the sunset is beautiful. But sun.
 sets are SO much more beautiful when ono has others to share tho enjoyment of them. Isn't there d
 sadness in facing tho sunset so much alone?
 Doctor Conwell Oh. but one isn't alonc Most of my contcmpo- raries have gone on. to he sure: of
 the members of my regiment only
 seventeen are still alive. But
 have recruited the regiments of my friends to full strength again and again, there were never more of
 them in inc world than now. As
 for the old friends, the sorrow of
 losing them is further behind me every day, the certainty of meeting them again draws daily closer. Age has double the number of tue friends of youth the friends of the present and tho friends Of the past. who are the friends of the future. too. Did you ever think of that? An old man is already a citizen of two worlds. No matter whether he wakes up tomorrow here or over there, he wakes up among friends. Here, or there, he is already at home.
 MT. Barton: It's rather strange question. and perhaps l ought not