Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27

EFT occurred to the Senator one evening,
when half dozen young men and women
were twitting around him, that the at
titude of. these younger people toward
him would have amounted in words, to
something like this: You wonderful old man!
Eighty-eight years of age and in your rlghC
mind and apparently with your wits still about
NOu We think you're wonderful. We reverence
Won for not being something that has broken
down and needs to be swept up in the DUST
pan.
That was precisely come to analyZe 1t, the
way the world behaved. Isn't he wonderful!
Look how spry he is. Senator, are you going
to dance with me? Catch him mapping, if you
canl Want to know the youngest man in
this crowd? Meet the Senatorl
Exhibit A. Meet the Senatori
Out of question to be treated in . way that
vas not special and deferential to his great
age How elaborate everybody was IN manner
toward him. And how deliberately you were
90 and spry you tried to keep up the haliu-
Cination OF youth.
Senator don't you sleep?
Nonsense, leave it to you youngsters TO
need sleep. I'm never tired.
NEVER tiredl Sometimes it seemed 10 the
y Senator. as he climbed into his evening
clothes that the old bones would sag In q
heap under him and veritably need to be swept
up i'm a dustpan by q servant in the morning.
Never tiredI Sometimes at dinner, surrounded
By his children grandchildren, guests, it seemed
TO him that the room began to wave and the
faces to blur and the lights to dim. But only
for q second. Can't be caught mapping. What
was that you were saying? Bridge. Yes.
little later, but 1 want to dance first. You
young ones are too set IN your ways.
IsE.t he wonderful Can't keep up with him.
n I have his pep ut So I'll be lucky. Grand
fattNsr this is my dance Come, that's a swell
Bl8 Bottom.
2 nsy stood on the sidenneS and applauded
and Just for good measure you gave them the
double dip and the hotsie tOtsy! No doubt
abe'lt it, the way to feel young was to act
yQtng Lovely 1.-the grandchild in your arms
OF. often as not somebody else's grandchild. It
kept you alive and going and out Of the doc
tors clutches 20 dress every night for dinner;
dG0ce, cards or theater. Kept you On tiptoe,
60, to force your memory to be well oiled
and your wits nimble. None OF the garrulous-
ness or forgetfulneSS or repetttiouSneSs Of age
for the Senator. The mind has to be treated
like a fire horse, in fine fettle. Nimble. Re-
spoHs1ve. Fleet.
Many and many a time, when he felt memory
slipping, the trick was to discipline 1t. Never
forget a name. Sign Of bad memory. All right
IN the young, but sign Of decay in age. Never
repeat yourself. Sign of senility. Never do1e
IN q chair. Never register surprise at the new
youth Reminisce, but seldom. Keep apace
with current events. and compare them favor
ably, II at all, with the good old days
It was a strange loneliness, being 80. Crowds
Of progeny and adoring youth about one, but
all the real people one had known lying m
those minaret cities called cemeteries. Prac-
tcaIly the entire universe with whom the SEN
GtOr had been young, and with whom he had
grown into ripe age, had folded its hands and
closed its eyes. Even the contemporary old
people were Of generation younger than he.
heavyweight gave you isolation beyond the
explaining You were Of one world and YOU
had to pretend that you were of another. And
pet it kept you young. Oh yes, it kept you
young
THE curious part of it all, although you never
explain that because there was no one
Ieft living who could understand was that it
was easy to be reckless with what was left Of
hfe because the idea of death had become SO
simple. Nothing much to dread. On the con-
trary, vast and beautiful reunion to con-
template. Another fantastic aspect Of this
was that so many who were dead belonged
also to the youngsters. Men and women, dozens
of them who had died in their fortieS and ffties
and even sixties would be young to the Sem
aAae in death, when the time came for the
rgunion, as they had been in life.
will be Older than almost any one in the
world of death just as am in the world of lifeI
Rubbish" said the Senator aloud Getting
morbid"
the Senator's slogans for sidestepping the i'm
plications of the years. There were. of course,
ewrtain exceptions. Twice a year he journeyed
On the home of granddaughter to visit her
bedridden octogenarian father-in-law. q friend
Of half lifetime. Ever 50 often, too, he found
occasion to visit the white haired aunt By mar