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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1894)
Tlao rlfglrt tiling; in. furnlslilngs txt 1Me Globe. THE COURIER 11 r- I .. Rt k? -t- A f it- r I alien to the other. The bare hypothesis throws a flood of light on t he countless incongruities in humanity. It offers an explanation, and quite a satisfactory one. People unsound in body or in mind, eccentric, unbalanced, discontented, are partly themselves and part ly somebody else. The divergent portions quarrel, and their quarrel waxes hotter and more irreconcilable as time goes on. The head and hearts of these are not on terms of understanding, nor are tho spirits and the brains. They are. most of the time, in conflict, and the result is wretchedness, which is tho condition of so many of tho earth's inhabitants. They that are born themselves are the lucky ones. They enjoy the world into which they come under favorable auspices. They are the optimists, and their preponderating neighbor?, tho discordant are tho pessimists. Is not this solution of the mystery of tempera ment in a nutshell? Are we acquainted with our own ages? Do we get accurato re ports of an advent on the planet? Not always, by any means. Un educated peoplo generally do not know when they first saw the light. They vary their statements according to inclination and circum stances. Very few women, however intelligent and cultured, have any clear ideas on that point. If they have learned of their birthday they try to forget it, after they have reached 20. And they commonly suc ceed. Why should they try to remember what is unpleasant? Not many women would wish to bo more than 25, the most charming age of the sex. And why should they be more? Men would like women to bo over young, and the best way to keep them young is to think them young, and make them believe they are young. Men laugh at women because they are unwilling to discloeo their age. Their unwillingness comes from the fact, perfectly patent, that he considers that their attractiveness diminishes with years and that after a certain time it is wholly lost. Their age is specially their own; they have an indisputable right to withhold it if they choose. It is their proper secret (no satirist will deny they can keep that,) and no one, unless their lover or husband, can claim the privi lege of sharing it. They are not so reticent as they have been on this subject, probably because marriage is no longer their sole ob ject in life. Having learned how they may be financially indepen dent, they have grown independent otherwise. Nevertheless, they may have practical grounds for preserving silence concerning their years. Man certainly has; henco he is not, as is commonly thought, over ready to proclaim his natal hour. His reasons are commercial, not connubial, and they are valid. But, even setting tkose aside, he has no more relish than woman has for being old. Ago is not alluring to anybody. It may be vener able, but it is hardly interesting to its bearer. Wo hear a great deal about beautiful old age; but is it ever beautiful to him, or her, who has reached it? Old ago is beautiful only to those that are ptill considerably on this side of it. It is called beautiful because it is less repellant in some cases than in cases generally. But, obviously enough, beauty and old ago are incompatible. Can decline, decay, waning powers, approaching helplessness be beautiful at any time, in any sense? The thought is unentertainable, self-contradictory. Death may be beautiful, may be often welcome, especially after a hard, wearing, painful life; but old age, in and of itself, never can be. We accept old age as wo accept anything hateful or afilctive, in that it can not be shunned. Man's commercial opposition to talking of his age, after middle life, arises from fear lest he be thought old. The mass of men are money-earners, many of them dependent on salaries, and they are naturally sensitive in regard to their years. Their employers may think them past their prime, beyond their dayB of usefulness, and, consequently, reduco their pay or dispense .vith their service; tho same fear will influence men on the down grade, if they are profes sional or in business on their own account. They may not be con sidered so capable as formerly; their clients, patients, parishioners, patrons or customers may fall off; may go elsewhere; may seek new connections. Under the shadow of much apprehension stand most men, not momentarily secured against chance and change. They can not, in a word, afford to be thought old, however capable they are, owing to possible injurious result to themselves. Ib not this sufficient to justify them in using discretion as to advertisement of their years? Discretion is prompted, not by vanity or weakness, but by a sense of self-protection. The truth is that no one's age is positive or definite. Only two or threo persons can know it, ordinarily, most closely connected with the occurence. Age aoes not. speaK ior useu, physicians would put it, moro subjectivo than objective Years do not mako it. Nature fails to discloso it. It depends on feeling. So long as wo feel young wo remain young, oven if wo have reached seventy or more. Somo persons cannot live long onough to bo old; other persons cannot dio early enough to bo young. Tho spirit, not tho body, tho mind, not tho organization settles tho matter. Who of us is not acquainted with persons older at .TO than others at GO? There are old children and young veterans. Many of us aro born old, and octogenarians frequently dio iu their youth. Poets aro over youthful; philosophers are over old; mathematicians, though in their teens, aro representatives of antiquity. Ages are not fully realized by its carrier. He is usually acquaint ed with tho number of years that have been assigned him, though ho is apt to think, in his inmost being, that thoy havo been over counted. He is sure that ho does not look as old as ho has been taught to beliovo. "Can I possibly bo 53?" ho asks himself. "There must bo somo mistake about it. My friend Wiggins is 53, and young in appear ance, too, for his years. Would my worst enemy havo tho audacity to presume that I look to be his equal in ago? Most of my acquaint ances, I am confident, do not suppose mo to be much over 40. Ono man offered to bet me, tho other day, that I was not 15; and ho is a man of discernment and strict integrity. If I do not know that, I would not havo lent him $50 just before he proposed tho wager. Ho says that he is an excellent judge of ages. "What fools somo fellows are about their ages ! There's Jenkins, for example! Ho swears ho is isn't fifty yet; and he's sixty-five if he is a day. He's so awfully made up that some of his associates speak of him as an admirably preserved man. By Jove, that's just what ho is ! And he never suspects it, simpleton that ho is.' As a rule, both sexes are prone to think that those anywhere near their own ago are much older. Women think it, but aro too tactful to say it. Men blurt it out. Thoy do not find it easy to believe that any one of their associates is materially their minor. Fellows much past sixty, visibly decrepit, are fond of addressing cronies or forty or less as "men of our age;' of using such phrases as "Wo'ro no longer young now," "We're getting old," "At our timo of life," etc. Many a man has a strange way of judging of the age of another, almost a stranger perhaps. Hearing that the other is forty, ho ex claims (without the slightest information on tho subject): Forty? How absurd ! Why, I'm 47, and ho's older than I, of course-" The probability is that ho is older than he admits. Those who volunteer to declare their age are likely to deduct something from it, before making the declaration. Thoy compound with themselves for their assumed candor by telling a deliberate falsehood. When they deal with so important and so precarious a topic as their own age, thoy must, they fancy, be allowed large ethical license. At any rate, they take it. Not only aro somo individuals, of tho same age as others, younger than they in essenco as well as appearance; some nations and races seem younger than other nations and races. An Englishman, usual ly, whether young, in middle life or far beyond it, impresses one as younger than an American of liko years. This may bo due to con stitution, equable temper, calm mind, out-door exercise, regular hab its. But be the cause what it may, it is, unquestionably, a fact. Americans, again, differ from ono another in youthful seeming. Those on the sea-coast look younger than thoso in the interior; those in cities than those in the country proper. A New Yorker, at 70, shows to moro physical advantage, is etraighter, healthier, fresher' more energetic and alert than a New England farmer at 55 or Co! The former takes far better care of himself than the latter; is better fed, better clad, better lodged; has immeasurably more pride of body and a much easier mind. The old ideas about the superiority of the country to tho town in health, content, longevity has been exploded. Again tho French are younger than the Germans from their im proved cooking, lighter diet, larger cheerfulness, augmented vivac ity more secular disposition. The Italians are younger than the Spaniards, who still cling to midiaevalism, bull fights and intoler ance. The Russian, despite their autocratic government, and their total lack of individual development or opportunity for betterment, are younger than the Scandinavians, whoso extreme seriousness,' poverty, limitations weigh them down, and early aud furrows to their brows. The Russians gamble against fortune and destiny, and make madly merry over volcanic craters. But the Scandinavians toil and brood until the true spirit of merriment is extinguished. Really age is not age. It depends entirely on the man. How many wo know who live to 75 and are never mentioned as old ! Others, below forty, are seldom spoken of as young. We may make ourselves young or old, irrespective of years. The determination to icuiam juuug iicsoriea uh itum pnjsicai ana menial decline. The moder philosophers are right. Really, there is no such a thing as o u.iius XiETSKI DROWSE, It is, as the meta- Time; it is only a phenomenon.
