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Show : j Dorothy Dix Talks I i WHEN IS THE HAPPIEST TIME OF LIFE? 8 By DOROTHY DlX. The World's Highest Paid Woman Writer I One of our -wonderful self-made men " a man who has achieved great fame Tnd fortune by his own efforts, and K-ho is himself on the shady side of ' Mfty, has been philosophizing about ! jfe ' Among other things he says is that we should grow happier as we f roW older, and that we are sure to - now happier if we have done our ', york in the world well. Let all those who look upon age as j tragedy ponder well this comforting thought." For it is true. Age should ' ,e the most beautiful time of one's ; (e just as twilight Is the most beau-tiful beau-tiful time of the day. Instead of dreading it, one should look forward to it with joyous anticipation as one : does to that serene hour between the ' lon and striving of the day and the sleep of the night, when one sits with quiet hands and quiet soul, and re- members and dreams. We are in the way of thinking of youth as the happiest time of life because be-cause it is filled with high animal spirits, spir-its, with health and strength and en-tusiasms en-tusiasms and fierce desires. Ve forget for-get that youth is also the season of cataclysmic reactions; that it is a time of black griefs, and hopeless disappointments dis-appointments and devastating sorrows. sor-rows. For youth has no perspective on life i md cannot distinguish between moun-:ains moun-:ains and molehills of troubles. It has acquired no philosophy with which to comfort itself when things go wrong. It has not learned to trust to time to smooth out its difficulties and dry its ) tears. With it every catastropho is . A broken slato is as heart wrench -i ing a grief to us when we are children 3S a broken heart is when wo are grown up. A rain( that prevents us from going on an excursion is as bitter bit-ter a disappointment as is the failure : of our most cherished ambition later on. Not to have a party frock like i the other girls, or a dress suit made! by the college tailor that the other j boys affect, not to be invited to some particular dance, or to be a wall flow-jft4 flow-jft4 sr when one gets there, fills one with W i despair at eighteen that no wreck Bind ruin of one's fortunes could W bring at fifty-eight. W For in youth the sensibilities are all fljraw. The feelings are all on the sur-K sur-K face. The vears crow a cuticle over Jihem. Experience hardens them, and : so with age wo are immune from a ! 'thousand sorrows that tear like vul-: vul-: ! lures at the hearts of the young. I We have learned to see ' things in i their true proportions, and to esti-; esti-; .mate them at their real worth, and so '. nre can smile over the things over i which sweet -and-twenty agonizes, and i mildly wonder that it can vex itself ; 'with such trivial follies. ; Does youth wear the willow and eat lts heart out invain longing for some : particular he or she? Age could tell if it that romantic love does not last, and that Romeo and Juliet would have rgi quarreled within a week if they had i married. Youth weeps its eyes out because it cannot have the pink chiffon chif-fon and satin slippers upon which it has set its fancy. Age does not give a regret to the gauds of fashion but settles down comfortably in its old clothes and big shoes. Youth perishes perish-es with disappointment if barred from any planned pleasure. Age turns with a sigh of relief to its book in the corner. cor-ner. In this country, where wo are generally gen-erally the architects of our own fortunes, for-tunes, youth is mostly -a time of bitter bit-ter striving, of hard work and rigid self denial for both men and women. Many of the people who, in their old age, feast on cakes and ale and ride in limousines, lim-ousines, in their youth were short of bread and butter, and walked to save street car fare. Thus, for a multitude, ago is as it should be. the harvest time of life. They can have the luxuries, the indulgences indul-gences that thoy never hadwhen they were young, and gratify the dreams that were once merely fairy tales to them. Age becomes their holiday, and there is nothing more delightful than I traveling to the far parts of the earth, I or sunning themselves at Palm Beach and Southern California, or building 'for themselves beautiful homes that have in them everything that is their heart's desire. Women dread age as their worst enemy, en-emy, but it is, in reality, their best friend because it is after the average woman has passed middle age that she really has the play time of her existence! exis-tence! Up to then life has been a mad rush full of toil, and scrimping, helping her husband get a start, full of care and anxiety over her babies, but at middle age her task is practically done. Her children are settled. Her husband prosperous, and she has leisure leis-ure and monqy to do all the things that she has always wanted to do. So age brings to us its compensation compensa-tion of peace and comfort, and noue should be so happy as those who can look back on a life well lived, full of worthy work and kindly deeds. oo ! |
