OCR Text |
Show When Is a Man Old? It is a youthful critic who contends that the really old man may be recognized recog-nized by his strict, and style-defying attention at-tention to comfort, especially in the matter of wide aud ample footgear, says tho writer of a quaint and delightful delight-ful little essay on "Old Age" in Ap-plctons. Ap-plctons. A cynic insists that as a man ages his prayers become both more devoted and more frequent. More after mv own heart, however, is the belief of a genial bachelor who avers that the man who can. without faltering rocito "The House that Jack Built, " proves beyond question that the gray and thickeninjr mists through which the old man gropes his way to the tomb lie yet in the far distance and, better still, aro gilded to beauty by those chromatic rays of eimplc-hcarted enjoyment, love of' life and humanity, aud cxhaustlcss humor, without which even the aspiring path of youth must' be drear indeed But, r'eviowine impartially all theso theories. I incline still moro to my own secret obsession and am convinced even more stronelv that there is but one reagent re-agent to which all conditions of old age readily respond. This is the influence of that strange, restless, compelling energy en-ergy tho wiud. Though from my earliest youth J have been fascinated by its wild majesty, ma-jesty, dominated by its tameless power, and can recall no hour-of my life that its voice, whether in impassioned outburst out-burst or vaguo underbrcath, did not inspire in-spire or soothe a sensitive soul, I have long noted its peculiar effect upon an aging man. . In a man 's reception of the wind lies the decisive assurance whether or no old age has bognn its subtle- work of dissolution. Should a gentle zephyr arise, he will straighten his bent shoulders, throw-open throw-open his coat, bare his headthereby earning a stern and well-merited ro-buko ro-buko from his nearest female relative and seem to draw now lifo from its balmy breath. But let the zephyr increase to a stiff breeze and he retreats before it. gaining gain-ing shelter as swiftly aa may be; while before a gale he cowers in absoluto terror, ter-ror, even the swirling echoes which reach tho snug hearth filling him with nervous apprehension. Perhaps the old man is reminded of that other mysterious force which is slowly, surely, relentlessly, impelling his rcluctant-fttcps toward the shadows and he shudders in its gras.p. |