"NOTHING IN IT"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 75, 21 December 1937, Page 4

"NOTHING IN IT"

Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, in a recent address to the stndentg of Columbia University, said : " 'Try to be youthful, young man,' is a sagacious counsel. ' Try to keep youthful, old man,' is the word of wise experience. Above all else, do not ever forget that years of bodily life are no measure of intellectual age and chpacity. To forge a fixed and arbitrary rule in terms of years as the limit of man's usefulness or human service would only be to behead a large portion of the world's intellectual and moral leadership, and thereby to impoverish mankind. " There is an anecdote of Chauncey M. Depew which puts the whole matter in a nutshell. On his ninetieth birthday Mr Depew was called upon by a representative of the Press, who brought him congratulations and good wishes, and invitcd a statement from Mr Depew as to how it felt to be ninety years of age. " ' But,' said Mr Depew in a tone of startled surprise, ' I am not ninety years of age !' The young journalist, quite taken aback, said : 'Were you not born, sir, on April 23, 18347' 'Certainly,' answered Mr. Dephew. 'Then,' said the journalist triumphantly, 'surely that makes you ninety yehrs old to-day?' 'Oh,' replied Mr Depew with a charaeteristic smile, 'I see, young man, I see. You are one of those who mehsure age by years. There i a aothing in it, young man. Nothing in it 1' " l