The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-08-19
OLD.BOY
WONDER
g
By FANNIE HURST
20 by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.)
(WNU Service)

Ut OCCURRED to the Senator one
evening, when half dozen young
men and women were twitting
around him. that the attitude of
these younger people toward him
would have amounted in words, to
something like this: You wonderful
old mani lightweight years of age
and in your right mind and appar-
emily with your wits still about you.
We think you're wonderful. We rev.
erence you for not being something
that has broken down and needs to
be swept up in the dust-pan.
That was precisely. come TO analyze
It, the way the world behaved. Isn't
he wonderful! Look how spry he
is Senator, are you going TO dance?
Catch him mapping if you can! Want
TO know the youngest man in this
crowd? Meet the Senator!
Exhibit A. Meet the Senator!
Out of question TO be treated in a
way that was not special and defer
entail to his great age. How elaborate
everybody was in manner toward him.
And how deliberately. if you were
lightweight and spry, you tried to
keep up the haIIucination of youth.
Senator. don't you ever sleep?
Nonsense. ] leave it TO you young
sterS TO need sleep. I'm never tired.
Never tired Sometimes ii seemed
TO the Senator, as he climbed into his
evening clothes, that the old bones
would sag in a heap under him and
vertically need to be swept up in a
dust-pan by servant in the morning.
Never tired Sometimes at dinner.
surrounded by his children. grand
children, guests. it seemed TO him
that the room hogan to wave and the
faces blur and the lights to dim. But
only for a second. Can't be caught
papping. What was that you were
saying? Bridge. Yes. a little later,
but want to dance first. You young
ones are too set in your ways.
Isn't he wonderful Can't keep up
with him. If I have his pep at fifty.
I'll be lucky. Grandfather. this is my
dance Come, that's a swell black
bottom.
They stood on the side lines and
applauded and just for good meas
ure you gave them the double dip
and the hOtsie totsyl No doubt about
it, the way to feel young was to act
young. Lovely 1.-THE grandchild In
your arms, or often as not, somebody
elses grandchild. 1t kept you alive
and going out of the doctors clutches
to dress every night for dinner; dance,
cards or theater. Kept you on tiptoe,
too, to force your memory to be well
oiled and your wits nimble None of
the garrulousness or forgetfulness or
repetitiOusness of age for the Sen
ator. The mind has to be treated like
fire horse. in fine fettle. Nimble.
Responsive. Fleet.
Many and many time, when he
felt memory slipping, the trick was to
discipline it, 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
doze in chair. Never register sur
prise at the new youth. Reminisce
but seldom. Keep apace with current
events. and compare them favorably.
If at all. with the "good old days"
1t was strange loneliness. being
lightweight. Crowds of progeny and
adoring youth about one, but all the
real people one had known lying in
those minaret cities called cemeteries
Practically the entire universe with
whom the Senator 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 a generation younger
than he. Lightweight gave you an
isolation beyond the explaining. You
were of one world and you had to
pretend that you were of another. And
get it kept you young. Oh, yes. II
kept you young.
The curious part of it all, although
you could never explain that. because
there was no one left living who could
understand. was that it was easy to be
reckless with what was left of life, be-
cause the idea of death had become
so simple. Nothing much to dread.
On the contrary. vast and beautiful
reunion to contemplate. 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 fifties and even sixties
would be as young to the Senator in
death. when the time came for the
reunion, as they had been in life.
will be older than almost anyone
in the world of death just as | am in
the world of lifel Rubbish ~ said
the Senator aloud. Getting morbid"
Never associate with old agei An.
other of the Senator's slogans for
sidestepping the implications of the
years. There were, of course, GER
tain exceptions. Twice year he