WHEN AGE BEGINS TO THREATEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2676, 4 December 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

WHEN AGE BEGINS TO THREATEN.

THE SECRET OF REMAINING YOUTHFUL.

(By Alice Garrison)

There are some women who dread the coming of age as they might the approach of some great disaster. Youth does riot fear it for it seems far off and courage is one of the qualities of young womanhood. The great secret of retaining feminine youth, greater by far in it,s po- ' wer than by all the lotions and creams in the world, good as they are, is the maintenance of the unafraid attitude toward life the “smite for any fatethat invites and brings to us the things which are to benefit us. If a woman can but keep the. youthful spirit by dismissing the worries over matters that cannot be helped, she will, always’ see the star breaking through ... the storm the rainbow arching the sky after darkness. . We have learned that it- is lolly to “feel” old as women used to, when they had entered the thirties. They accepted the role of middle age and let inaction and lack of interest in outsiao affairs attack them. Above all they buried romance and adopted a sombre manner of dress, talked of youth as of something past, a lost joy—instead of glorying in the new pleasures and opportunities that maturity had brought them. The woman who dreads age as a calamity goes to an extreme that is pitiful in counterfeiting youth by means of a make-up that, as a rule, defeats her object. She goes carefully to the hairdresser’s every second day to have her hair Marcoled, although this stagy stvle of coiffure gives to most heads a stiff and set look that is anything but youthful and that none but a youthful face can stand. Long ear-rings are the lasmon and she adopts them, although ear-rings add vears to a woman’s appearance and can only bo worn effectively by a piquantly girlish face. These items nro far - more ageing in their effect than simple dressing and an avoidance of too many decorative accessories. Certainly no one would dare to undervalue youth, but to the- intelligent woman the present should be equally pleasurable in its maturer knowledge of life and the happiness that comes to us as a reward for our efforts toward right living. We play with our youth as- a oaby does with a sunbeam oil the carpet, and 10, it is gone in the twinkling ot an eye ! Then real life, realisation of what life means, begins. Why do ,\o mourn, then, for thb unconscious girlhood, when existence was only a f anytime.

Women age, physically, more quickly than men only because their lives are, perforce, lived differently, and especially because they allow the domestic environment, to become the indoor life. Nine men out of ten or more, perhaps, go out six days in the week, rain or shine, travel in cars, feel the friction of life and breathe outdoors for a space. Therefore a man at fifty is not old —nor does he for a moment consider himself so. He can even fall in love, romantically, and gains a confidence in himself that is positively superb. His mind does not dwell on age as a disaster; - quite the contrary. He keeps putting his limit ahead as long as health 'holds out.

He argues that, while his mind remains keen and active, lie knows more with every twenty-four hours, and as he wins success he realises that ho gets more power. Business is a good deal of a game to the American, and that is the real reason why he pursues it so steadfastly. A streak of grey in his hair does not give him the bines. It is delightful .sometimes to observe how dauntlessly ne refuses to admit that romance is no longer for him. A woman, on the contrary, looks in the mirror and loses heart, forgetting the great old ladies of history who continue charming until the end. It only wben a woman loses her desire to attract admiration that she ceases to be admired.

Tlie only part oT~age to be dreaded by a woman is that which tempts her to mental _ and physical indolence and which banishes her sentimental weaknesses, so often the most attractive charm of the np-to-dafe woman. Once she loses her wish to be loved and admired, the brain, that wonderful general of each individuality, lets her take her place in the rear ranks. It is the saddest thing in the world to see a woman who has relaxed her hold on the grace and beauty of life; who allows much sleep, afternoon naps, unkept toilets and heavy foods to take the place of her old daintiness and lively joy of life. 7,’he years should normally bring new interests and higher pleasures. Any woman who fails to find delight in the developments of life and .character about iter; in the. drama of life itself, its fulfilments, its disciplines, even, is all out of harmony with the big scheme or she is in bad. health.