Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1915 — FOR PROLONGATION OF YOUTH [ARTICLE]

FOR PROLONGATION OF YOUTH

At 35 Unmarried Woman Btill Has Hope—At 50 or 60 Man Cannot Be Cali led Aged. If there be any one thing that distinguishes our age from the ages which have preceded it, it is the prolongation of youth, remarks the Rochester Post-Express. Formerly a girl who did not marry before her twentysixth summer was looked upon as passe. At thirty-five, if she remained unwedded, she was described as a ccmfirmed old maid. Now she may bo young at twenty-six, and no sane person considers her unmarriageable at thirty-five. A man is no longer old at fifty, or even at sixty. As Dr. C. W. Saleeby, a London physician who knows something about psychology, admirably puts it: “If your arteries are soft, if you still believe in life and love and friendship and the future, it does not matter a straw how old your body may be; you are still young, for your soul is young, and youth is a state of the soul.’" He adds that the revolution which is taking place in our Ideas at youth and age means the union of two precious things, enthusiasm and experience, which to our ancestors appeared incompatible. One result of the change must bo that we shall have fewer youthful prodigies. William Pitt was prime minister of England at twenty-four, but in the future politicians in the early twenties will be only “boy orators.” The statesmen of forty will be only in the stage of apprenticeship for the work of government. Youth will have to wait longer because it will last longer. Withal, age will be genial, not harsh, and the young may learn from those who, though growing old, still retain the spirit of youth, how to enjoy the passing years wisely.