The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-02
Is Thirty the
LOUe DeadIine?
No One but a FIagpOIe,
Hermit Could Say So,
Thinks Fontaine Fox.
BY FONTAINE FOX

HAD 1OrBOLCen CLle name Oh LIldC
l. flagpole-sitting champion who
makes his living by spending weeks
at time cut off from humanity
while suspended In a bo'Sun's chair
from pole on top of some high
building that needs publicity.
Then the other day I read some
thing that brought 1t all back. The
f1agpole- sitting champion is DR..
Will Durant, and while 1 cannot re-
member what f1agpole he inhabits
now, it seems to me he won his
championship last summer out in
Chicago.
1t must have been DR.. Durant, be-
cause in the newspaper article to
which refer he had written that
a man is incapable of falling in
love and giving a woman sincere
devotion after he passes the age of
30. Could anyone but a flagpole
hermit have said-and meant-such
a thingP Certainly not.
There is an advertising slogan OF
some paint company which says,
Save the surface and you save all"
Man and women, too, are embraced
by the theory of that slogan, be-
cause when the original love affair
cracks and peels they need new
coat of rose colored paint.
A properly conducted marriage is
not a perpetual love affair, by any
kind Of reckoning. Indeed, it is a
succession of love affairs between
the same man and the same woman.
Each affair may last for about the
length of time that DR.. Durant
might sit on a flagpole, say two
weeks. The intervals are the placid
periods during which the lady and
the gentleman of the establishment
get along without rioting; dwell in
mutual unintereSt like a couple Of
passengers in a street car.
Those placid intervals may con-
tinue for half a day, or a day, or
any number of days, depending on
the individuals involved. Naturally
this behavior persists until people
are far beyond 80, even unto OLD
age; and occasionally, or oftener,
the stimulus to love is excited by
some third party.
THERE is a grandfather of my
i acquaintance who was a low
ing husband and father by all the
standards, of bonneville until he
suffered a hayward outbreak of his
disorder and eloped to California
with a woman of 40. I got all the
details at the club, one day during
luncheon, from the man who was
sent West to retrieve the Grant
grandfather.
II just landed from the coast"
he began, land what sap G.. P. is"
Then he proceeded to tell about
G. P.'s symptoms. He is brilliant
person whose income is in excess
of $4,000 a year, under a contract
he has with a corporation that re-
CARDS him as indispensable.
AS some people are susceptible
to colds, G.. P. is susceptible to love.
He was exposed some months ago
to a third-rate movie actress who
is far beyond the stage where she
can stand anything but soft focus
shots.
Crows feet and family blue
pouches under her wolfish eyes had
cut into her earning powers when
she met G.. P, whose earnings tend
to increase as he gets older. In
cidentally. Mckinley still was Presi-
dent when G. P. celebrated his
thirtieth birthday.
This woman and G. P. trotted
around from one night club to an
other for weeks. not because they
cared especially for night clubs, but
because they found a live and let
live attitude i'll such establishments
on the part of all but the walters
and hat check girls.
If G. P. was not in love with Tins
woman I'd like to have DR.. Durant
tell me what was wrong with him.
Then we heard they had gone to
California. After that there was
some authentic gossip concerning
the arrangement G. P. had made
for the care Of his wife and family.
He had agreed to turn over $4,000
a year to the home folks.
TINE man who called him a sap
l. is himself a valuable employee of
the business with which G. P. is
connected.
We'll" he continued. that day he
returned, II brought him home, but
do you think I could pry him away
from that woman? There was not
a chance. He is as crazy about her
as if he were a boy of Is and she
his first Sweetie.
And you should hear her. She
could not drag him out of Holly
wood fast enough, because there
were too many good-looking girls
hanging around. Then she makes a
pretense of being well-born and
carefully reared until she gets few
cocktails aboard, at which time her
conversation begins to take a freight
Of outlaw words she has picked up
in theatrical boarding houses. But
G. P. says he loves her"
NoWA my argument is this: If a
young boy jeopardized his financial
welfare. angered his parents and
cut himself off from lifelong as
sociates in order to follow some girl
who was rated beneath him in d.
vantages. every one, DR.. Durant, in
cluded, would smile upon the ro-
nance.