Evening star., 1924-08-13
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
now THAT I'M FIFTY. Albert Pay
son Terhune. George II. Doran


MS own particular kingdom Of the
world, climb up into the high place
that half century of living has
puht Tor his use. 1t takes nerve for
this enterprise. For about all that
meets the eye from this outlook point
is either unwelcome or wholly hate
ful. To the front. graying spaces
To the rear, a litter of broken love-
linesses-youth, hope romance, IL
lusion. Now and then some philoso-
pher or some optimist does make the
grade for the sake Of this prospect
Albert Terhune does it here, waving
a friendly hand for US to join him.
Let's go.
The 50-year summit gained, Ter
hume, practical man that he proves
to be, promptly sets about taking
stock of himself-liabilities on this
side, assets over there. Shock and
protest follow his immediate action
| of sinking the whole Of himself, ex-
cept the top of his head, into the
| liability basket, declaring as he does
this that, apart from the brain, there
isn't one fraction of an inch of the
body that is anywhere near as good
as it was 25 years ago or even 10.
Where d'you get that stuff about
not being as good physically as you
were at 3o?" one 5o-year-old growls
Now I'm every bit as good as / was"
but nobody listens, for it isn't true,
and he knows that it is not.
%* x
"At 50"-Mr. Terhune still pursuing
the liability side Of his physical
ledger-"a wise man realizes that his
body can no longer do the splendid
things which once it could achieve
| with ease" No, not an age of de-
creptitude. Certainly not An age,
| rather, when many things which once
were fiercely necessary are now
merely desirable. Moderation must
be F'ifty's keynote" Oh, yes, Fifty
can still do all the things physically
that Twenty can do. But no longer
can he do them to gorgeous excess
Nor is there one of them he can do
as well as can Twenty"
1t is round about so that the omi-
nous signs of age begin to gather. 1t
is here that the younger man adds
sir when he addresses you. This,
the first bitter evidence of your aging,
state Not long after you hear an
unmistakable reference to 'the old
gentleman" And on one fatal day
the idiot of kindly intentions blithers
loudly. Why, you're the youngest
man here" When that third and
croWning tragedy occurs, you may
know past all doubt that you are an
| old, old man" Along this and re-
lated lines Mr.. Terhune follows the
most significant of Fifty's liabilities
The assets are comparatively few.
Happily, they are more worth while
They have to do chiefly with the
mind-with the top of the head that
| escapes the liability basket At so
the mind is at its best, according to
this diagnostician. 'It may not be
much Of a mind, but such as 1t is, it
is doing its strongest and most sus-
tained work" This is the truly pro-
ductive period. Here mental proc
esses are most exact concentration
most complete, distractions and fears
reduced to a minimum. Another asset
of the so period is its friends-fewer
friends. to be sure, but better ones
Among the compensations for the loss
OF youth there is. or may be, the man
and-wife friendship. "I think the
man and wife who have reached or
are nearing the so mark together,
after 20-odd years of welded life, are
more to be envied than all the worlds
immortal or immoral lovers from
Paris and Helen to Lancelot and
Guineverc."
4 i
There are some things, to be
sure'-Terhune again-"wherein Fif-
ty is near bankruptcy. Among them
are love-making, dissipation and GER
tain forms OF pleasure"-the silly
craze for athletics, one takes it and
midnight suppers and futile gallan-
tries.
I'm the gloriously idiotic eos every
thing is possible and most things de-
sirable. In the 20s a man holds every
winning card, and with the possible
and usual-exception of the money
card. He has looks and spirits
and seething vitality and hope and
half-score other swiftly losabIe but
heaven-sent assets"
In the 30s and sometimes until the
mid-40s he has the technique and the
experience and the skill taught him
by the 20s, and he has lot of the as
sets left over from waning youth.
These enable him to win-yes, often
to win against the redoutable 20s
themselves-by dint of his greater
craft and wisdom and by that same
hard-earned technique
Much to be learned from Fifty, much
to be remembered, so Mr.. Terhune
says. That is why he has here taken
his pen in hand. The single prac-
tical difficulty about the matter is
that those for whom the lessons are
set are the very ones who appear to
be disqualified for learning them.
Take the quest of pleasure alone.
Here the money card is the single
trump that Fifty holds. He gets what
he can pay for across the counter
never more, sometimes ludicrously
less. There is gay romance about
the penniless pleasure-seeker of
20. There is only nauseating fu-
tility about the penniless pleasure
seeker of So" Here Mr.. Terhune
sketches in few pictures-all IA
miliar pictures. This is one Of them:
Three Winter Garden girls, just re-
leased from a late rehearsal. They
were waiting, possibly for taxicab,
possibly not. There passed them a
fine, outstanding man of so or there
about in the uniform of street
cleaner. He grinned a merely COM
radely greeting to them. Indignant
and triple virtue rose at once. One
turned her back on the civil chap.
One shrilled. "At his age too! The
old fool!" The third said, in icy re-
buke, "Gran'pa, you'd ought to be
ashamed of yourself!' A week later
one of the trio at Shanley's. She was
leaning far across a table, her baby
blue eyes fixed in a stare that looked
exactly like alteration into the face
of her escort-a sleek possessor of
the money trump, 60 or none, whose
| teeth were showing poor teamwork
as he ate" Everybody recognizes
| this picture-except the aging fellow
| who holds the center of it. His COM
mon name is that old fool" Around
him contempt and reprobation futter
| more or less openly. AS a matter Of
fact, this Is rather pathetic picture.
Tbo nd ta a ;S