Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1878 — Age. [ARTICLE]

Age.

“It is hard to grow old gracefully, some authority tells us, and when we see the strenuous efforts made by many to resist the incursions of time, we readily agree to the proposition. But it is like fighting against the stars in their courses, and perhaps the struggle only renders the ravages of years more apparent. People are constantly growing old, and yet no one seems to get used to it. Doubtless we ought to accept every chancre age brings as an incident of the journey .merely, as we accept the changes of the seasons, taking part in the pleasures peculiar to each without hankering unwisely for those beyond reach and unseasonable. Wrinkles should not appall or gray hairs afflict nor the loss of blobm sadden, since, we would not barter our experiences, our memories, the fruit of years, for all the beauty youth can boast. Those who earn their bread have a feeling Uiat age disables them in the eyes or the world, and diminishes their chances of obtaining a livelihood; others, who have been used to being merely ornamental, to being admired and complimented upon the very charms of which age divests us, cannot endure its approach with equanimity, rebel against being supplanted by younger people, against being laid upon the shelf like a book that has outgrown its interest, and they to repel it by a thousand arts and cosmetics. They are afraid to grow old, and fear is always ungraceful. But has age no advantages, no comeliness, no attractions? Has not the old person weathered many a dangerous point? Has she not survived many a vanity, many a heart-ach* ? Has she not learned to live from day to day, to find pleasure in trifles, to suffer without whining? Has she not the monopoly of giving advice? Is not her conversation as interesting as a historical romance? Could any other make thd past defile before us as in a magic mirror? Who can tell us so faithfully as she of the manners and customs of fifty years ago —how the hair was the gown cut? Is she riot an encyclo pedia of the details which go to make up history? Does anyone elbow or contradict her, or tell her that her problems are all unproved, and her enthusiasms only unripeness? No precious possibilities keep her restless. She is acquainted with youth no less than with age, and claims the advantage of having seen them both, near at hand and in perspective. Her work is done and harvested; and though she may regret the time when she bore the burden and heat of the day, yet what has she to dread from frost or blight? Moreover, does not age have the armchair, ami the seat in the horae-cars? Harper's Bazar. —President Hayes has received a letter from “ a Virginian,” who np doubt is crazy, saying that, unless he receives $200,000 from the White-House he will go there and assassinate Mr. Hayes. a It is never too late to mend; but the better way is to avoid getting on a tare.