Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-12-02

at 80 and was sim going on at 81: and don't
forget that Napoleon married josephine when
she was 80.
In literature. TOO the older woman seems
to have been the most important. Through her
richer experience with life, the individual reac-
tons Of fiction heroine who has lived longer
are more interesting and more important to the
reader. Besides the older woman in a novel
has much love Of life and genuine spirit as
the younger girl, but she also enjoys the ad-
vantage Of knowing how to make the best use
of her powers to attract the opposite sex.
AN author can put . wider range of con-
versaton into q mature heroine; he can endow
great insight into persons and things; he can
make her able to comprehend tears as well as
laughter because she has been in actual contact
with the world and its inhabitants
The same rules hold good for life it seems
to me. Women who have lived longer and ex-
perienced disappointment as well as joy have
q wider knowledge and memory from which to
draw. They are apt to lose completely the self
consciousness that surrounds puppy love. and
they are therefore the real heroines of fact as
well as Of drama.
ITO those who still advocate the power of
the young girl, and cite historical examples to
prove their point, I say: Remember that Helen
of Troy was just as beautiful at the end of the
long Trojan War; that the Queen of Sheba.
though she may have been young in years,
was mature according to our standards, and
that all Of Roman history celebrates the matrons
like Cornelia, who considered their children to
be their greatest jewels.
sCNCE I'm . woman. I'm willing to take
- the word Of one Of my own sex. Agnes
Repplier, whose essays are widely read and
loved, said that she believed older women
were always more enthralling than younger ones.
Her favorite heroine Is Thackerays Becky
Sharp. who improves as she grows older. And
We must not forget that it was Becky Sharp who
was the first woman in English fiction to cone
quer by reason Of her intellect and not merely
her youth and beauty
While he agrees with Miss Larrimore in DIS
counting the power Of sheer youth, DR.. e. A.
Speiser. professor at the University Of Penn
sylvania and expert in ancient history, goes
even further in his estimate Of what constitutes
the ideal age for . woman.
an all my delvings into the buried past"
declared DR.. Speiser, Il have found that lapperJ
never left q mark except by the accident Of
their beauty. They have inspired poets and
musicians. but they have never exerted any
real influence except by purest chance, through
no calculation Of their own This has been true
in all ages.
1T is the woman past 80 who really counts.
II Is women past 80 who have been able to
change the course Of events not merely because
Of their physical appearance and emotional ap-
peal, but also because of their strong char
acters and their ability to persuade and foree
men to their way of thinking.
1T Is always the older woman and never the
young girl who has permanent effect on his
tory. She has the intellect and the experience
which are necessary in . person who wants to
control other human beings: the young girl II
unschooled in the ways Of the world does not
nlfY1CioNt
and must be satisfied with eulogies to her
beauty rather than with accomplishments Or
failures which she brought about through her
own will"