MATURITY'S CHARM

Evening Star, Issue 22790, 27 October 1937, Page 17

MATURITY'S CHARM

REVOLT -AGAINST “ OLD AGE" The greatest laboratories in the world are conducting most amazing experiments in physics, chemistry, and dietetics, to determine the causes and effects of “ old age,” states a writer in the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald.’ As year succeeds year, the dream of ageless youth becomes nearer. . . . In the eighteenth century the average span of life was 29 years, in the nineteenth century it was 40 years, in 1915 it was 48 years, in 1925 it was 65, and in 1930 59 years, and it is truly said that the future will bring still more progress in this direction. . . . Women have played a great part in this revolt against “ old age.” Helena llubenstein, one of the world’s greatest beauty specialists, says the mature years of a woman, starting at 40, are of special interest, for at that ago her work in restoring youth and beauty really commences. She is also keenly interested in the youthful years, when the foundation of lasting loveliness is laid. She has always contended that a woman cannot realise her full powers of beauty, charm, and attractiveness until she reaches the maturer years from 40 onwards. Women in Australia do not prepare to develop themselves properly for maturity, but in history, and modern times as well, the most brilliant and attractive women enjoy their greatest successes in their forties, fifties, sixties, and even beyond that age. Women can, and should, make their mature years the best of their life. . . . In Europe this is an accomplished fact, but her© in Australia women still have to learn the art of living beyond their twenties, gracefully, and more brilliantly, than their girlish days. Por some time past many women have made themselves ridiculous by trying to emulate the girls of 18—-imitating their coy and kittenish ways, fashioning their lips into rosebuds like the younger girls. ■' Hates to Be Alone.” Not until a woman is in her mature years does she know and can she create the joy of privacy and self-communion for herself. The woman who says she hates to be alone is rarely very interesting. She lives in an atmosphere of idle chatter, with the result that her conversation is usually banal. Some women improve wonderfully with age, for youth without intelligence is not enough. Grace of motion, poise, and self-control are only acquired by years of conscious effort. The slackness of young years cannot he compared with ■the graceful movements and studied gestures, together with the poise of head and body, of their elders. Most young girls have a fluffy prettiness which attracts for the moment, but it is not lasting, like the charm, authority, and poise of the woman of 40. The young girl cannot control, nor does she know how to hide, her overimpulsive or over-enthusiastic temperament. Physically, the older generation may not he able to find a common meeting ground with the younger, but in things of the mind there should be no barrier. Keep on learning new things, but in our odd moments we must relearn the old things, in the light of new advances. But, more than that, young (

people, and their elders, can and should enjoy well-chosen and good reading together, because it adds to the subjects for conversation between them, and opens up to both interests in common which mean hitherto unappreciated pleasure in each other’s company.