THE APOTHEOSIS OF MIDDLE AGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2571, 24 June 1903, Page 65

THE APOTHEOSIS OF MIDDLE AGE.

I I Middle age, so far from hurrying on into senility, so far even from standing still, wouldseem actually to have stepped backwards and marched alongside of youth. Thvic is a jauntiness, a buoyancy, an elasticity about the middle age of to-day at which our fathers would have shaken their heads as unseemly. The gulf which once separated the middle-aged parent from hi? , children has been filled up. The curtain which shrouded the middk-aged mangener.illy from the eyes of youth, and which ciused him to be regarded with respect, if not with awe, has been lifted, and in obedience to the same influences which have made the schoolmaster the friend of the schoolboy and the regimental officer almost the comrade of his men, the middle-aged man of to-day is never so happy as when working or playing upon an equality with, and actually iv competition with, youth. Of course, to use a common phrase, youth ' will generally be served, but by no means invariably to such an extent as to make the action of middle age ridiculous or contemptible. So the middle-aged parent respects the opinion, and is not above taking the advice, of the son hnlf his age who iassociated with him in business, and is not . r.sbamed to be seen playing with him in the same cricket match, or pulling^ with him in the same boat, or joining with him on perfectly equal terms in most sports and pastimes. The result can only b: regarded as thorough'v wholesome and delightful. Without going so far as to say that the young men of the present day are superior to their fathers at the same ! age, it may be asserted that, as a rule, i there is less kicking over the traces on the part" of the modern young man than there was in the days when a young man was haidly regarded as a responsible being, anl when parental discipline was sternly maintained until long after the normal years of discretion were passed. ... As with men, so it is with women. Social statisticians tell us that the age at which ' women are considered most eligible for marriage has been very notably advanced of late years, and we know that the lament ■of maiiy a match-making mamma is that I the most dreaded rivals of her darling are I not to bs found so much among the girls of her own age as amongst women who, not many years ago, would have been relegated to the ranks of hopeless old-maiden-hood. The fact that the middle-aged lady of to-day is much younger in manner and tastes is. of course, not the only reason for this, but it is amongst the most potent. To a woman of 40 half a century ago the I so-called fun of life was a closed book. 1 Such a one who should have dared to cultivate the attractive arts, whose laugh was loud and frequent, whose .j talk should have been of frivolity and pleasure, who should have given time to> juvenile pursuits, who should have studiously affected the society- of men, would have been regarded askance, and have been classed amongst those "old enough to know bettor." If a girl did not man-y by the time she was 1 five-and-twenty her case was regarded 1 almost as hopeless. At 30 she was generally a balhoom "wall-flower," a Dorcas meeting and Aunt Tabitha sort of mdi!- ! vidua 1 , a "poor thing," the butt of raillery ' and satire, and regarded quite as an elder by the young. If she did marry, it was ' usually to the "old bachelor" of those days I — to the man whose representative to-day [ can still enter with real enjoyment into the pursuits and pastimes of youth, and who hopes to have some years yet of it ! b.foiv him. Nowadays it is impossible to go to anj' centre of fashionable resort without being impressed by the fact that not only are middle-aged women as numerous ,i- young one*, but that they enter into lire spi'nt of their surroundings with all the , \eive of youth, and that so far from keeping themselves in the background and shunning observation, they are in the very forefront of all that is going on. Bioadly j-peakmg, there is no reason why the middle-aged ttomo.ii should n»t enjoy life as lung as possible, and put off to the • last moment the discarding of youthful manner, any more than the middle-aged man. But when we come to a nearer examination uv .-hall find that the parallel d<-t'S not hold good, inasmuch a.3 the woman carrying out this line of conduct too often goes beyond the limits of duty. The middle-aged man who i.s the companion of his boys in theii pleasuies and pursuit', or vsl'o can thoroughly enjoy a youthful life, so fa. from being a worse man of business. i.« u-ually all tlw better and theiv is no mconMitency in a man so dividing his tune between his duties and his pleasuies a.s to be enthusiastic in both. But with woman it is different, and by some apparently unfair, but unrepealabie law it would seem that the midd'e-agod woman who, so to speak, places herself i in competition with girls young enough to lie Wv daughters can only do so at the pi ice of impel formed duties . . And here may be leniarhed another cuiious ton tiasst in the opeiation upon th° two sexes of what we have luII-kI the apotheosis of middle agt— that whilst lathers and sous haw been driw.i closei together, mother - aud «Li.ughtti.-> have become uioie separated. Fathers have inaiked time on the road ot life to allow their sons to come up with them, -uid have then pmcieded side by sub ,tud aim in aim; niofheis, in many inst im.es, have gunc ahead a» often as not upon quite a ditieient part of the loadfiom I heir dangktus. or. what is .still more "tiikinij. upon the same path, but without ii cognition or communication. Huw this vsiil work out it is not easy to piedid . . Ihe middle-aged father of to-day may u-taia his vouthfulness in certain direction 1 - : still, he is a middle-aged man who has had his experiences, his struggle, and his tioubLs; and this side of L's n.'tuie um-t be leflected to seme degr c upon tile rlisii.tcter of his boys, so that they i.di h.'idh fail to become more' lnnnn.th in hih Miciety than they would lia\e become under the old regime ol distinction and imj lation, and by t lie nine tlipy aie middleaged will piob.ibly ha\e almo-t u< litrl ■ i Y/»utUiulu'Wi S left u^ had then giaiidfatlit-i-

at the same age. "Similarly, tlie launching forth into the world of girls at an age when their grandmothei s weie still tightly held under parental discipline must result in their premature development into women, so that when they attain middle age they will be smarter, lceener, busier, and more active in some respects than, were their grandmothers, but older in appearance, manners, and ideas. On thj whole, we think that although the middle-aged man and women of to-day are far and away ahead of their grandparents in the matter of making the most of life, there will be in the not distant future but few representatives of hale, hearty, stately, impressive old age, and that the progress between the two milestones of life marking respectively middle age and old agi will oe more of the nature of a jump than it was in days when life moved at a steadier pace. — Spectator.