ATTRACTIVENESS OF AGE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 550, 3 July 1909, Page 11

ATTRACTIVENESS OF AGE.

women and men l who keep their ;••'■'■;■■■ ' "'youth. : .':.'', . ■ "As- a matter of■ fact;* nobbdy' «J old nowa- ■ daysj ; .except■ perhaps-the very:young (says 3 wise writer);. Men; when they reach sixty' or ■ seyenty, to 'longer .■ grow.' .'long- white beards as' they used to ; dp in the dear dead days. ~Tiiis gate them; a pious and patriarchal -appearance,' which- removed' them, far from the. flippancies of 'youth.' : A beard is fatal to'romanco.; ,It needs 'a ■particularly Btrikirig'.or"arresting face 'to overcome the disabilities of. this facial .appendage: Somebody queried' the, other day : why elderly men on' the-' stage ' no; longer looked ridiculous when :, The ; parts are played .by actors who are ertheradean-shavcn or divested, of all; hirsute adornment save a (neat, little' moustache. men retain the""spirit. of ybuth:Mness.inuch longer'.tKan their predecessors. ■They-mdulge, in. golf and'other, games, and by thwVmeans'.sSuccessfully . ward off what the : discpntented: ■siigar-broker'.' described as "adipose deposit" formerly-when they had ■passed--their youth' they. adopted a pompous and iearyj attitude,'/and'.developed a- strong predileciibn';..for. heavily.-reminiscent discourses about,' 'My .'j'youns , ' days" .1 of ;' 'Whon ,1 ! was,. your age:" Now they ■ brush: aside .fall such: distinctions., The^septuagenanan is •as lively: and alert: as; the stripling, -and -by ' reason "of his-' years and, Worldly wisdom is probably a . more interesting companion. ■ .'Furthermore, women often admire men who havjo; risen.'.'to the top, , of their profession—it the ;rwsse , ssion''-bf: i . : ,a' , certain ..force;fulnoßß~ of: charaqter which, frequently find 'specially attractive. ' Nowadays young men may", sometimes be found ii: places 0? I authority,ibut, as a rule,, it is,the man of fifty or. sixty who'achieves this distinction. It must also be admitted that the manners of elderly men are, generally speaking; superior to those of their younger contemporaries. .Perhaps there , is nothing which makes a man ; sp unpopular with women as boorishness,of. behaviour. Ho'jnust be. aivery great gemus;pr-'a very strong- personality' ; 'to compensate for any-deficiencies" ui'this;feßpecti.. . ,Of. ;/ wombn'"alsb itmay : 'be said'ctbat they lose not one iota .of; their, attractiveuess when they'i'reach middje-'age. Daughters often find' their m6st 'serjous rivals ."in':.--their, and sometinifSs ' even iii 'their ' No Voman admits to being old. ,Tp ;do so :would. bo to brand; her as .hopelessly out of date. -At the_-first,signs pf T "Timers. effacing.fingers" the modern woman does riot betake herself to the chimney corner with a piece of vfondy,. work,: there to -..watch-: with- aiyresigned - expression the younger generation, growing up around her.

Far from it-rshe hies her with all possible speed to her beauty doctor, her masseuse, and her hairdresser, and returns triumphantly jwith "the rosy glow of summer upon her dimpled cheek. , -' In the sixties or seventies women wero wont to don lace caps when they reached the age of twenty-five orso, and. when they married they invariably adopted dowdy littlo bonnets, which at brico .destroyed all suggestion of the sprightliness 'of youth. In addition to the charms of her well-preserved youthfulness, by reason of her wider knowledge and experience; of life," the middle-aged ■woman is usually a more' afc tractive ; companion that; the : maiden' 'of "sweet and twenty." ~/ .', ;. , : .':,,» ''.. 1/ On the whole,'there we many reaeoiuifori

the popularity of the aged, and it is much bettor that it is: so. Omar Khayyam' bewailed the early passing youth— ■.':■- Alas! that Spring should vanish with the •■"■' ' rose, •.'.•■.■ "'' '. V '■■_ '. . ' '-..', That 'Youth's sweet scented manuscript ■ ■ should clossH-. , , '".-V- ■ ,-■' '■■' ' '■', but really; there is no why' the "sweet scented-manuscript should close", .until the-.book of life is ended, if men and women imltivate- that wideness v of interests, that alertness of mind, and that tightness of heart, which alone can' keep ■ them young, to the very end. • .'■■• ', . ; ■/,'.: