DISRAELI IN HIS OLD AGE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 757, 20 October 1876, Page 4

DISRAELI IN HIS OLD AGE.

Mr Disraeli is set down in the Parliamentary Companion as scarcely yet 70 : but he has not yet put off the appearance and the ways of youth. He dresses like a young man ; he tries to walk like a young man; at a distance and when he is erect and not in motion he still looks almost like a sort of young man. But the face, with its fallen cheeks and lips, its deep, shaky wrinkles, its awful hollows, its deep convulsive movements, the thin wisps of hair striving to keep their color and to cover the bald places; the yellow, muddy ghastly hue spreading from forehead to chin; the eyes that are occasionally aroused under the impulse of great excitement to an unnatural glitter—all this seems to suggest one of the most fearful forms in which vindictive old age punishes and humbles those who have shown themselves too obstinate in resisting her approach.

It is curious to observe the little pause which Mr Disraeli makes at the bar of the House—or at least the place where the bar ought to be—before he ventures on the task of walking up the floor to his seat on his ministerial bench. Evidently he still loves to show an appearance of jaunty and youthful vigor as he passes up the floor under every eye. So he stops for a moment at the bar and steadies himself, as you sometimes see a man who has drank too much endeavor to steady himself before crossing a street. He surveys the distance, makes a Arise start or two, and then goes at it. The attempt is usually very successful, a little too well done, perhaps,for reality. He accomplishes the journey in one stroke, if we may use such an expression, without stopping or taking breath or faltering, but with a sort of determination and self-mastery which shows how much it costs to be young and jaunty still.