THE SECRET OF HER AGE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 664, 15 November 1909, Page 4

THE SECRET OF HER AGE.

■ ■Itt ct)mes''as.rather i'shock 'to■ tire. ordifiary i WoTSiSBj lh« fact teat no>.fewer than four Kew ; Zealandr'pbetesses have.been 'teißflg^fte^world; ; how ; ol'd ttey ato- ,'lTie fact .was' pablwhed i befiwo Jo »' iittfoairthol6gy r but; how it ha* gone SBtoad: on fiago wings of blacfe ana tthite; md siiitM world may know,. , ! ■ : ,'Sh6ysfe'{nnkitii not .altogether without preceueiiv 'and' a> basfy search ~<&, hboks'-of tho /'Wfio's' Who''-' typa, ■ show.. : that .■'other wottotf :'writor have .caadid. ■Hrs.i.HtiaifhroyWaW teflsi tbooe' wfio care to : hear, thai! she i« fifty-cixue*' fifty-two, ilr*. Koogsoii.Unrnett' sisty, Edith Wharton 'Wilforrf sixty-four,' Johit b'trange-, .WiJatSj*-, .frfty-tfrreOi \ flora. Aihe : Steele, eisty-two/ saw the two ..vcterais: of- roteanco, Miss: Btaddon scvenfcy-ttfOv and Khoda Erongh-. 'tort'stety-m'no,-'-. ; ..,-. : • ' .' ...• -i .'..■'.,'' After' fsading th&t :list, one is iirclinetf to think-Out pffhap* the ■■ habit h general/ that' tho literary riady mast needs foil her ago, but lte4.:are-10thers .who do' noi'-'pablisfi' such facts for 'all thi world to seo/ Kiss Sfarie Corelli, for tostariee', ha* Mihittg to say about tho daW tftafigar* fi«r to an astonished British public, Mary \« similarly riiscreet, in company nplh Mvs It. T, Meade, Mk. Cornwalfir West, and <inifo a nambor of others. In fact, ft is the exception for thW o««i Aztfi to bo published among the others that go to mate np a brief biflftiaphicaf notice I'tiey usually content themselves with giving tho <Mt of publication of beofts, with sometiftSM the date of Marriage, and occaaMhM 1 V sums refereno to tbtir' schools or collegw. That thoy were ham at some previous date i>. left to the reader's inference Madame Tctraraini, among great singers is equally roticMit, «f aro tho mort famous of notnim artists' and f though ono would thinl! her record 61 achiovotnent, and ita nature, would prerMt her paying: any attention to minor Matt»«, so is the only women member of the Tn<ttitnto of Engineiw, ll'adsnio Cnno, by the way, who may bo taken as resiresentaJivs of tho woman sc/enlisf, says that sho was bflriv forfy-iwo years ago. But should they tell it at all? Thif is tho ({ttestton that the ordinary woman asks, and that <ho afiswi is for herself to tho nee.i tw o. ». , .- ,Itis a tradition ad'old as the days of Eve —who always Said she didn't know how old ! *£* s?* broauso it was ridicnloos to reckon I tne »rs of a grown woman in dayr and wedii l -that tiaman shall not take tnrfr world into ■\JiL « oßft *« , » -ty, this respect (Jmte probably ft woAiou'r friends cmlit her with a few wU^ »aii *he pm«(!ssM f but a* she, for h£ ffisL m \ t hi nV"«r iffldar-ostimato nfl.s/' S^ h VMtk<i t0 , (f19 are won d«tn*»d iht> rrobUtttfon of a woman'* ago It «?I J&7 ftncc '' te . 6B Adored by many i™ 'l h ".£ H, rf v F in ?M eh Meh danghter-s SfLw'S ß^,' "'Ketone *o «any a *««♦(,. £ i, h j had reachod tU & H J* rrt !! ft » t « l " , - "W L 'lb» Mm« of hero- ' * Bte * Iot " 1 in ♦ ,'X'f (le ? r ' r 116 '. w ,«n?n's wards' in out hosffbrfA* pAtfcpb. who nmst"lit It not that Mm Ante moro hardly with a woman than a man that make* her dW the advahcu of age. On the contrary, many a worn™ will appear bright and handsome when a. man of her years fi cmmpled, bent, and grey, and though the appearance of >onth pasw tiom b. woman moro quickly than from a youth, old age is ap( to pounce moro quickly on tho man. The ,ce« fact ttst Amy !Joc£ now Vittle a itoinin will sometimes bo affected bv tho ravawj of tftr-e, after she ha? reached *Js?r dall<d "the Criminal side of thirty. In reference to this, it may bo pointed out what inust haw been o v«y strong factor m w 2. 8061t " Kinptation to masquerade as a man; the fact that by <o doing *tie could drop twenty years fm.u her life and start again with great wst hb one of tho younger gonoiation, ft was a prospect to fempt any woman, , It will bo noticed tit » grnerel role that the nflman over fifty does not object to stafinjr her ace, and over seventy sho is proud to do so, thongh own horo ono i<taemfc*rs that certain old a«o pensioners have shyly hesitated at .?"?!"" Vl n P,^*' 0 " «S soon as- they were eligible. Also the very young woman who has In some way dist'ngtmhed limelf is delighted to let the world atriilm her precocity. Miss Chrfstabdt Tanthnret and Mits Annie Kenny, for instance, are Well content to lot their very few yearj bo recorded, and ono can recall tho names of varlons writers who have been ndmired for the yontlifalncw of their achievemonts; Marjory Bowen for instance, who wrote and pnblished lurid romance at the ago of seventeen. The trouble about that attitude is that the resultant applause is necessarily so bnefj and in a very snort time people are reckoning that tno prodigy must ho pretty old, flinco she has neon eo long in tho public eye. And then aha is apt to be s6Try she spoke. Tho other lady who states hor ago frankly is tha bride, and it is sometimes hard that sho makes this statement in tho presence of peoplo who haw been guessing curiously what the register wonld repeal. As a matter of fact, no bridO over ttvonty-one need state her exact ago. Tar all legal purposes it is quite sufficient to describe hertolf as of "full age," and thorn are kindly clergymen who are careful to notify tlia nervous bride of that fact,