LOVING HALTS OLD AGE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 862, 14 November 1916, Page 4

LOVING HALTS OLD AGE.

BELIEF OF SAKAH BERNHARDT. Sarah Bernhardt, interviewed on her recent arrivel in America, had the following remarks to make about the warding off of old age:— "I look well? I am young for my years? That is because I love and am loved. They who love much and are much beloved remain young. The reason is plain. Love creates in human chemistry happiness. Happiness is the greatest of tonics. It is the true elixir of youth." "Women would all feel and keep young if they loved life and loved humanity as I do," she. said. "Every morning when I awake I think 1 shall meet many persons who admire and love me, and I shall admire and love them. Work is Zest of Life. "There is much interesting work to be done. 1 love that, too. 1 have done much work, hard work, in my life, the work of nine women. Yet never for a moment has work seemed a drudgery. It has been an expression of the zest of life, the love of Ufe and of people I have always had. Work is drudgery when interest in it, has ceased. Drudges always look old though they are but 20. "That, then, is my message to women, to all women: Love people, love

life, love work, and you will never grow old." War Changes Nation. "Bo you think the war will make any change in the character of the French 1 ?" "Yes, from a look into the faces of the soldiers for whom I recited in the trenches I saw it would. Yes. Facing death makes a change in an individual's character. After lookingjnto the face of death he is never agam the same. France has looked into the face of death and her women have become more serious. Her men have become more virile. The change will be felt in economic and industrial conditions. Women will go on with the work that has been called man's, and which they had to learn because of the war. Our 'elevator men' in Paris are women. Oh, yes. And the conductors on our railway trains. They will remain.

"As for me, you see that I laugh and am happy. lam not weary. I start to-night for Montreal. It pleased me to meet my fellow-artists, Mine. Fitzhugh and Mme. Lillian Russell. They came here to greet me.'' Mme. Bernhardt's physician, Dr De Hue Blaisvoygne, during her operation and convalescence, accompanies her, and will guard her health as he endeavoured to guard her against discussions of what he classiiied as "international subjects." But when madame will, she will. She willed not to rest, but to leave for Montreal, to begin her American cross-con-tinent tour.

Madame Bernhardt made a strange entrance in to the Hotel Majestic. It seemed pathetic until one had a glimpse of her laughing face framed in vivid .hair. All those who accompanied her ini*ej' limousine got out of the automobile beforgher. Then a legless chair, Sedan, was slipped into the door of the car and with little aid from those standing near fire-door her sinuous body, thinner now, bestTrwed itself in the chair. She was borne into-4h.e carriage entrance and taken to the' Louis XVI. suite in an elevator reserved for her. Glad to be Here. As soon as she had taken a seat in the drawing room she received the delegation from the Press. Flowers surround,ed her. A smart slate-coloured hat with saucy wings topped her hair. In the lace of her bodice appeared a bow of velvet ribbon. Lace enveloped her throat, and fell over her hands. "I am glad to be here. I had expected not to be here," she said, occasionally injecting an English word in a French sentence. "We would not have been had not the Espagne had a wonderful captain. An extraordinary man! He steered the boat this way—then pouf —he is off again in another. His course was zigzag like the lightning, or a rabbit dodging hounds. No, I was not afraid. I'm never afraid. lam French and the world has learned that the French do not fear. "But an intelligent person, though fearless, realises danger. I new our danger. I knew what was possible to us at, any moment. I thought of Maurice, my dear boy. I thought of him as a little boy. I sailed in an atmosphere of Maurice into safety. But I was not afraid. I have never feared death. An old woman once told me I should live to be 00. Often I believe her."