The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-11

' age that has seen so much and ex- perienced so much. and learned so much, should be more interesting than callow and ignorant youth
 So l ask you again, why Is age a badge of shame instead of being a crown of honor to us? SEVENTY.
 do not agree with my correspond ent that the public generally regards age as a disgrace. Personally, we all want to keep young because youth Is the beauty time, and the Joytime of life, but we look upon the old age of others with a certain reverence and respect, and a great tenderness.
 When you come down to brass taoks, popularity rests upon person ality with both age and youth alike. Whether we like to have an indi- viduar1 around, and enjoy talking to such a one depends upon the con- gentality of the man or woman, not his or her age.
 The real reason that old people, as a class, are not more sought after socially is that so many old people permit themselves to become bores.
 They tell over the same stories a thousand times, and spend hours re- war, or what they did when their first babies cut their teeth. Or they whine and complain about their gout,. and how people neglect them.
 Or they become mere incarnate selfishness and tyranny and rule every one about them with a rod of iron. Or they hold forth perpetually on the decadence of modern life, and dismally prophecy that the world is going to the dogs, and opire that every day. in every way, everybody and everything Is worse and worse. Or they have the advice complex, and try to force everybody about them to live according to their way of think Ing and doing.
 We don't avoid the egotistic, the. garrulous, the pessimistic, the but tinskis because they are TO-. We fight just as shy of them when they are r. It isn't the age it's what the individual has to give us. And when we find an old man or woman who has kept sweet and gentle, and broad minded, and interested in others more than in themselves, We enjoy them even more than we do youth, because they are rarer, and have a melower flavor.
 There is a great art in growing old gracefully, and wise are those who begin in middle age to study 1t.
 DOROTHY DIX.
 Dear Miss Dix: How can convince my sweetheart that I love him? tell him so over and over again. I have given up all other men for him. and never go anywhere except with him. vet still he doubts my affection for him. Do you think the fact that am a few years older than he makes him feel this way?
 ANNA F. ,
 Go to it, lady. Tn the classic lan- suage of the street, your beau is "stringing" you. There's never any trouble in convincing man that. you love him. He thinks you do be- cause you couldn't help it if you tried {
 Did you ever hear of a middle-aged man lying awake at night worrying over keeping his wife's affection, or, dieting to maintain a boyish figure like the one she fell in love with 2 No. my child, it's women who won der if men really, truly love them, and mean all they say when they swear vows of eternal devotion. It never even crosses a mans mind that woman isn't Truthful Jane when she tells him it is with her for keeps.
 Either your sweetheart is just teasing you. in order to have you say it over to him again when you tell him that you love him, or else ne is paving the way for 2 sneak. At any rate, in either case. you will be wise to put the soft pedal on your sweet talk for awhile. and let him do a