The Washington herald., 1921-05-13
LOOK PLEASANT. PBEAsEs

to the old, and to those who are
growing old.
1 begin by asking you a point
blank question:
How do you make life for the
members of your family?
Are your children and your grand
children waiting with what patience
they can summon for you to die. 50
that they may be free to do as they
please about their own affairs?
Are you a burden and an afhic-
tion that il takes the courage of a
martyr to bear?
Or are you gentle. and mellow.
and tolerant. and wise. benedic-
tion on the home wherein you dwell?
You are one or the other. In the
many long hours in which you sit
with folded hands, search your con-
duct. and see to which class you
belong. And il you find that you
belong to the class of old people
who are pests who destroy all OF
the happiness of the young, reform
Yourself 1t is never too late to
mend, you know.
Listen. grandma and grandpa. Do
you ever think Of the significance
of this when you hear a~woman
say. oh, yes. I am perfectly crazy
t. have a colonial porch built on the
sopth side of the house. and some
. d(y l am going to do it. But mother
old, and she doesn't want any
thing changed, so we will make no
alterations as long as she lives
Or pehaps YOU will hear woman.
who is herself middie-aged, say:
The dream Of my life is to travel
and to spend the winter in some
big city, but l can never do 1t as
long as mother lives. She won't
hear of having a maid to wait on
her. so l can not leave her. but
some time when l have the freedom
to do as I like, l am going to see
the world"
or a man will say that he KIN ws
he is doing business in a slipshud
oId-fashioned way and that he can
never make any changes as long
as his father is alive. but as on
as his father passes away he wi !!
entirely reorganize his store. or fac
tory.
You hear people make remarks
such as these every day, grandpa
and grandma. and stripped of the
gIittering generaIities with whic h
they have clothed the brutal facts,
~
people are waiting for death to set
them free Of the tyrannical and
narrow-minded and disagreeable old
parents to whom they are bound.
II is pretty dismal thought.
isn't IL. that those nearest and dear
est to us are waiting for US to die
in order to enjoy themselves and
do the things they want to do. and
that we are shadow on their sun
shine?
But it is our own fault il We have
made life with us simply an endur-
ance test. and that is what so many
old people do by their whims, and
their crotchets, and their hard little
cut and-dried notions about every
thing under the sun.
Perhaps, grandma, you are one Of
the old women who interfere with
everything your daughter. or your
daughterinlaw. does, because it
4 isn't the way that you did when
you were young. Yon didn't go to
bridge parties You didn't raise
your babies on the bottle. You
didn't use your best china every
day You didn't wear dresses that
were short in the skirt and low
in the neck.
Hence. every time your daughter.
or daughter-in-law. goes to
bridge party, or fixes the baby's
bottle or sets the table with her
wedding silver, or gets a new frock.
she has to listen to a TRADE from
you on the subject.
Don't you ever stop to think how
dreadedly tired she must get of II, or
how reconciled she will be when
you are dead. and she doesn't have
to listen to your querulous COM
ments any more?
Doesn't it ever occur to you that
the young people have a right to
run their own lives in their own
way. and that it is hands OF for
you? You have had your life. Let
the young have theirs
Don't be a wet blanket that takes
the fun out of everything by chill
ing enthusiasm with your endless
objections and fauIt-fndings. Sup
pose they didn't do certain things in
your youth. Just reflect that there's
been a lot of progress in the past
sixty or seventy years. suppose
YOU don't approve of certain things
young people do now. The Lord new
or appointed you public censor of
other peoples conduct. Kindly bear
IN mind that it is likely that other
people are just as. capable of judg-
ing questions of morals and man
ners as you are.
Exactly the same code Of conduct
applies to old men. They, too,
should remember that the young
have rights that the old should re-
spect. and that because a man has
celebrated certain number of
birthday anniversaries does not
make him a Solomon. or entitle him
to become the tyrant of the hearth
stone The only old people in the
world who have a right to be as
disagreeable, and meddlesome, and
fault-fnding as they please are
those who are rich enough to live
in their own houses, with nobody
about. them but those who are hired
to stand them.
i once saw carved on tomb
stone in a little country churchyard
this epitsph:
she Was So Pleasant to Live With"
think that is the most beautiful
tribute that was ever paid a human
being. Let us so live. brothers and
sisters. that that may be said Of
us, especially when we are old. lie.
US SO live that nobody will be wait
ings impatiently for US to die.
n