Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-30

Belledir. Fla, Jan. 20.
Can it be In, getting older
Than a feW short years ago!
For I do not Ike il colder
Where the tointcr gales are boldcr
WITH their touch of slect and snoU.
For I've found beneath the sun
Heat and life are ulrdDs one,
And the founts of youth eternal
Arc iohcro tropic rivers run.
Where the Southern sun Is bedming
And their hair is turning gray,
Where the golden light is streaming
can see them dopn here dreaming
OF another younger day.
Far apart from rorkin0 den
As they brdsSie up the glen,
They haze found the game that calls
Where their hearts are young again.
MOT bulglng in the slightest into any
~ form Of economies, 1t was Adam
Smith who first suggested that the
wealth of nation was measured by
its happiness. Which brings up again
the rare value of sport in a field not
often covered for public review. We
refer here to the competitive life Of
those who have slipped on beyond fifty,
and yet. who through inheritance, ira
dition and habit are still just as keen
cen and Twenty-Five.
MOST Of US have the idea that sport,
AV1 after all, is for the kids. The right
type of sport iS great thing for any
kid. But when you get slant al men
Cf fifty, sixty and seventy, sunbrowned
and keen for battle, adding years. and
joy to their old existence under Caro-
gins to wonder whether sports top
value isn't for the veteran who has
drifted on toward the late afternoon,
with the sun of existence marching
| steadily and surely to its twilight home
in the West. From fifty, sixty and
seventy they have returned to thCi:
youth again. in place of sitting SOM
bcrly in SOME city club watching the
sun of life go down through shaded
curtains.
l. ture Of the older man in sport. He
hasn't the drive and pace and speed OF
youth, but in competition, on the aver
moro likely to hang on while there Is n
| fighting chance left. lie isn't quite so
easily discouraged 1t may be he has
found that. after all. the big thrill
comes IN the pursuit and not the cap
turc, and that the contest is something
of for greater value than the goal.
TN MANY Of these Southern goli
l. matches, through Southern winters
Mt tournament play. we have watched
veterans we'll beyond fifty giving every
thing they had to the contest, apparently
srrapping 1t out as II championship
were At stake. Yet, after one of these
grim. determined contests. when beaten
on the last green. there apparently was
no toucl Of sting or regret They had
lad the glow of contest and the result
was a minor affair.
TT IS n great thing to work for the
L health Of the younger. But why moi
more encouragement for the sport OF
those who have left their one and twenty
some thirty or forty years behind? The
general idea before has always been IL
have the older men working 40 that tht
Young can play. Why would il be So
for out Of The way to have the younger
men working so that the old could play
by younger men here we mean thoS,
between twenty five and forty. Bot
golf and tennis now have their scnioI
championship, but these should be ever
more lifted TO cmincnce thnn they arc
today. Why not intprscctiOnul match"'
among the East, West and South. will
championships as widely hcralded a
the national title hunts? For. after all
these championships of veterans woulc
mean a lot more along the line of gen
eral good and general JOY than the mere
test OF finding the best man in a ficlc
largely given to the advantage Of youth
A GE comes to all, making no ex'
"A ceptions. So why not make large
preparation to see that the last few
spans Of the journey are worth waitir.
for before one dips over the hill to tak'