WHEN IS A WOMAN REALLY OLD?-

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8294, 24 September 1903, Page 1

WHEN IS A WOMAN REALLY OLD? -

When is a woman old, or rather, how long is a woman actually young? It is an important question, and the usual answer is that to others a woman is as old as she looks, and to herself as old as she feels. A woman is actually young at twentyfive, and she isn't old until she is thirty; and she isn't really old then, but just settled. "A woman may be any age she chooses," asserted a man of the world the other day, adding, "I know several charming young women of fifty, it is simply a matter of temperament." Really, there is no year of a woman's life, no ten years, in which yon can definitely demand that she should cease to be young. There are some women who probably will never cease to be young at moments and under certain circumstances ; but they are and must be like Cinderella at the ball with the clock on the stroke of twelve. The staying power gives out long before the power of appearing young, yes, and being young-. But, after all, what is the charm of youth? Is it physical simply? Of course, clear eyes and skin, round, firm outlines, and freshness of lips and cheek are lovely, but not all young girls' possess them. Is it manners? There is a charm about the timid yet well-trained manner of an ingenuous girl, but the gracious tact that comes only by experience, the self-poise that knows just what to say and do and leave undone, possesses even greater charm. And surely it is not the intellect and the conversational power of youth to which people so lovingly cling. The crude ideas, the impossible theories, the misplaced credulity, or the sweeping iconoclasm—are these the conditions of mental development in which women would remain? What then? In spite of the reason one can bring to bear upon the matter, the fact remains—and, no doubt, will remain—that youth is a possession to be clung to as long as possible, and feigned as much longer as may be. In the new order of things, with deeper interest, wider outlook, enlarged sympathies, woman now feels the relentless march of years much less than formerly, and with all the new light upon her phyiscal care and of health in regard to exercise and diet, the natural age of man would perhaps be from 120 to 140 years, and his best working years would be from 80 to 100, and women would be in their prime, and at the age of greatest loveliness at 60. Ancient sculpture abounds in examples of mature womanhood. Venus de Milo, says the New York Sun, is evidently a, woman of 30. All the Junos, Minervas, Venuses, Melpomenes, and many Madonnas are mature women. Titian preferred to paint women at 30. Rubens goes without difficulty as far as 40. Van Dycke does not recognise age at all; with him art is free. He .entertained a sovereign contempt for time. Rembrandt does more; by a gesture, a look, a smile, he banishes age.