Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 142, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1903 — OLD AGE AND A YULETIDE RETROSPECT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD AGE AND A YULETIDE RETROSPECT.

In the above picture the artist has touched the key of memory and produced some fine harmony. If you are young and the future seems endless, and the end of life sometimes to be found far away—down where the sun sets--you will not have so great an Interest in the fine old couple In the Christmas cartoon. Christmas night, In a good many homes, that old man and that old woman will sit before the fire and find their Christmas happiness In memory. The fire light casts a soft glow on silver hair and many wrinkles. Her hand Is in his knotted fingers, and you could tell that they are lovers to whom years of toll and enduring has brought content and peace, the chastened joy that comes to the old who have lived well; to the man who has tried and the woman who has understood. The man says something like this: “Mary, ■wife, I feel to-night as if the children were with us, and to us comes the reflected joy of Christmas that began at the cradle and will end how soon the good God alone knows. I’ve been thinking about the Christmas of my boyhood. We didn’t have much in those days. Little gifts and much good will. Father used to get up In the cold at half past 3 and build a rousing fire so that the children could examine their stockLngs without freezing. We carried them to his bedside, and he seemed to get as much joy out of them as we did. • “Those were happy days. And then came manhood, and you, dear heart, and the love of a good woman shining in your eyes. I can see It now, as we sit. old and alone, by the fire. Years have not dimmed the Jight, Mary; sorrow has not changed it; there are no wrinkles in our hearts. “Remember that first Christmas in our home, after the

first baby came, Mary? That waa John W., named him after your father. I don’t think there is anything finer this side of Paradise than the baby’s first Christmas, I can see our boy now as he lay at your breast, wife, and we were not ashamed to ask Providence to help him to grow strong, manly, true to our ideals. He has his own family, his own blessed children now. I can almost catch the music of their happy faces to-nightTand it Is rich and sweet and true. God made men and women hungry for children’s 16ve, dear. Don’t you know that? He gave us our own to laugh, weep and rejoice over and, Just when the lonesome period of life came,- gave to us a doubled blessing, the children of our children. They are a thousand miles away this night, and yet we feel their presence. They have helped us to live. We have' forgotten every ill that came with them and through them and only count the Joys. -• “There are tears on your face, dear Mary, and I know that you are happy. It is the woman’s way to weep when her heart Is full. We are almost done. We can look hack, far down the road, and count the milestones —75 for me and 70 for you. They are good round years, Mary. We don’t regret them. Here by the fire let me make acknowledgment You are the best gift that has been given to me. I’ve lived on your coverage. I’ve labored for your praise. I’ve accomplished to make glad your eyes and to justify your confidence. All the material things of the world are less than love, dear. It Is only a little distance to the sunset, Maryland, please God, we’ll walk together, your hand in mine, your heart In my keeping, content with the life that has been, and full of hope that the Christmas of eternity shall be ours to live together.” Cincinnati Post