The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-05
Is Thirty The
LOUe DeadHne;
It's All Error, Asserts
Rupert Hughes; There's
No Limit.
BY RUPERT HUGHES

THE wise and witty VIII Durant
Il probably is so sorry now for
roboing men past 80 of the capacity
for love that it is almost cruel to
speak of it.
The greatest practitioner of his
day. DR.. Osler, became famous for
what he never said and people still
blandly misquote the Osler theory.
though he has been dead for years
and denied the statement that is
glued to his name.
Gelett Burgess wrote a quatrain,
stating that he rather would see
than be a purple COW. 1t grew SO
popular that he dashed off another:
Yes, I wrote the Purple Cow,
I'm sorry now I wrote it:
I'll kill you If you quote It.
DR.. DuranU may be equally danger
Gus by this time, but he has not yet
denied the appalling words he
signed:
"A man past 80 is incapable of
love. A man above 80 may go wild
over a blonde chlorine. That is
not love. Love is absolute devotion
the desire to give full service to
another"
1t would be hard to cram more
error and false implication into
equal space.
NXTHY is it impossible to love a
w blond "chorine?" Is a brunei
deaconesS necessarily more lovable?
AS for absolute devotion" and full
service" numberleSs court records
would seem to show that blond
chorineS are able to extract from
aged millionaireS more devotion,
fuller service and self-sacriflce than
any other class from any other
class.
I have not space or time to go
deep into history, but few dazzling
contradictions of DR.. Durant occur
to me almost at once.
In the first place, the first man
was past 30 when he loved the first
woman. for I read in an oxford
catechism written about the year
1400 that Adam, when he was
created. was "a man of the winter
of age"
1t was after this time that Eve
was created for his express COM
pany, and he certainly loved her at
first sight. Furthermore, as Saint
Bernardino of the same period
states, women are cleaner than
men, for woman was made Of a
fine. clean rib, while man was made
Of lump of clay
Take a few of the most famous
love stories: Antony and Cleo
patra, for instance. Surely Antony
loved Cleopatra; he gave up victory
and all to follow her. Yet he was
az when he first met her, and she
was about %.
Where is there a more pitiful, pas
sionate love story than that of Abe
lard and Heloise? Yet when Abe
lard met Heloise he was 39. she
was much younger, but her love
continued on through life until her
death. when she was more than so,
and they were buried side by side.
In Murray's words, There has
never been a passion more famous.
1t was great love"
= n
CONTRAST with it the almost
~ equally famous romance of
Robert and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning. He was 80 when he met
her; she was 38. Her father op-
posed the marriage so bitterly that
two years later they eloped.
His poetic references to her, half
angel and half bird" and her So
called "Sonnets from the Portu-
guese." written when she was 40
are as glowing with love as anything
in literature.
If Browning did not love his
wife, and if she did not love him.
then nobody ever loved anybody.
Among musicians the devotion Of
Gluck to his wife was famous. They
met when he was IS.
Beethoven never married. but he
could love: and his burning letters
to his immortal beloved" his
unSterblichle geliebte were written
after he was a.
HaWthorne'S marriage is among