GRANDFATHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 205, 19 January 1866, Page 3

GRANDFATHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS.

To my thinking, the most interesting periods of human life are the two extremes — infancy and ol 1 age. There is nothing on earth so pure, so beautiful* so innocent, so kissable, as a bright-eyed, laughing, dimpled baby ; nothing except a very old man, sans eyes, sans taste, sans testh, sans every thing but a good conscience and a sound heart. 1 olteri wist that ahakespeare had not put that speech-picture of life into the mouth of Ja.-ques. j Jacques was a melancholy man, and took a melun- i choly view of things. lf hs had not been a misanthrope, a baby might have presented itself to his miud as chuckling and crowing in his nurse's arms, and not as muling and puking, ln like manner, he might have drawn a pleasant picture of a green and happy old age, instead oi insisting so much upon leanness and slippers and shrunken shanks. The seven ages, as Jacques depicts them, may be in accordance with a certain rule ot life ; but, for my part, I have met witli many beautiful exceptions, and I love to dwelt upon them. Ifc has been my good fortune fco know many old men, who, after tne toil and strife of life, retained all the original innocence and simplicity of their earliest childhood. 1 have seen them— and I can see them now — sitting in their easy-chairs, their gums as innocent of teeth, and their heads as innocent of hair, as when they lay ni their mothers' laps — sitting there biding the Lord's good time patiently and cheer i'ully, while sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters hovered about them, and patted tliem and smoothed their pillows, and spoke to them in those simple words which seem as well adapted to the old minas to the ctidd. There is a purifying iniiuence in old age which we all recognise. We may know that the old man has led a wicked life but when old age come? upjn him, wriniding his brow, bian- hing his hair, aad bowing him to the earth, ifc seems as if he had been redeemed and puriiied by Time. I can understand why the patriarchs prayed so frequently and so earnestly for length of days ; prayed lor life untd the passions and tiie vanities of human nature should have passed over like a cloud, 1 aving the heart to beat its las; throb on the peaceful shore of eternity. I It always seems to me that at fourscore a man is neither in this world nor in the n^xt, but that he is in a position betweon the two, and can look calmly upon both. I •yonder if I am right in my impression that very old men are mostly cheeriul. 1 hope lam j for I love to think so. It is pleasant to believe that human nature can work out its owu puriiha tion on earth and return to its orig.nol iunocenje, with only such sins on ifcs head as it cannot help and is not responsible for. Right or wrong it is certain that this is the impression which most ot us have of persons in extreme old age. We fondle them as we fondle children, we talk to them as we lead thera aboufc by tue hand, as thenparents talked to them when they wore first learning to walk. They need help and care now just as they needed them then. There is graudfaiuer sitting in his choir by the fire, seemg things dimly, hearing things vaguely, as he saw and heard from his mother's knee. And we sit by and talk of him as if he did not not hear us and understand what we say. " Toor oi I grandfather," we say, looking towards him; "he is tailing very much. He can't see to read now even with his specs, and that is a groat deprivation to him. Uufc he is cheerful for all that. Ain't you, grandfather, dear?" And the dear old baby knows by the sound o your voice and the look that you direct towards him that you are addressing nim; and ho onatavours to guess your meauiug, and says something m reply, accompanying it with a pleasant chuckle, to signify tliat he is quite- happy. He crops his handkerchief or his spectacles, just as a baoy drops its spoon or its ivory ring, •and you go and pick fcnem up and put; them back into his Oid hand, patting him ou his bald heal, and making him comfortable in his chair. Aa he sis there mumbling, and gazing with his viewless eves into the lire, you wonder if that feeble old man could ever have been tlie restless, fidgety, madcap schoolboy, tlie ardent lover sighing like furnace, the fierce soldier, bearaetl like the pard, fuli of strange oaths, seeking the bubble reputut.on in the cannon's mouth ? Where be his pranks vow, where his sighs, h*s big loui voice ? Ali these things have passed away like a dream, and in old a^e he awakes again t-j infancy. I think it must bd pkasant to sit upon the last shore tnus and wait for the boat, not imp itient for, neither dreading its Lomi>g, pleasant io hear the plash of the oaro aud the uintaut &ong of the rowers aa they come to b^ar you away to thae goMw Ituui where youth ii fitenwl*. I should &>4

it difficult fo talk of old grandfathers otherwise than in this strain, for I have never known an old grandfather who, whatever his previous life, did not wear an aspect of innocence. Age is not altogether unkind. ' While it withers the beauty it al*o expunges the traces of the evil passions. The film that comes over the eye is a veil to hide the. glare of anger ; the wrinkles that score the brow are strokes of Time's pen desiipied to obliterate the frown and the scowl that Passion has written there so boldly. I can recal many grandfathers who were a practical testimony to the soundness of the theory which I have just broached with regard to the purifying influenc; of age. I remember one, a little feeble, cherry, merry-hearted old fellow, who had been a terrible Turk in his young days. He had been passionate, imperious, violent, a constant source of trouble to his wife, and a terror to his children. When he became an old grandfather he Was transformed into the most docile creature imaginable. His own little grandchildren could rule him and make him do just as they liked. " Do you remember, grandfather," one of them would say, " when you used to give it to your boys all round with the horsewhip ? " " No, no, my dear," he would answer, " I hope I mver did that." "Oh, but you did, grandfather, and grandmother says you used to get drunk and break the chimney ornaments." " Oil, fie, fie, no, my dear," says the old man, "ifc couldn't have been me; it must have been somebody else." And g;anny strikes in and affirms that he did the deed, completely smashing two china shepherdesses that had been in the family for a century. Which relation sends the old man into a fit of laughter so hearty and good humored that you cannot conceive he could ever have been capable of the violent conduct imputed to him. 1 dare say he ca** scarcely believe it himself now, when age has cast, the devil out of him. I renumber another grandfather whose ninetysecond birthday was celebrated nofc many years a-^o in the house of his grauddaughter. He was a picture of aged innocence, gentle, patient, affectionate, and docile as a child. But he had been, as he himself confessed with a sigh, a " roarer " in his day — a sad dog among the women, sir, a ,-ix- bottle man, a beater of the watch, a nightbrawler, a swaggerer, ever lvady to eat fire and resent tlie slightest insult with lead or steel. And there lie was, on his ninety-second birthday, propped up at * table, with a napkin tied round his neck. The swaggerer, who was so ready with sword or pistol, canu t now be trusted with a kniie and fork. His food has been cut up for him, and he is eating it with a spoon. The sixbottle man is meekly drinking toast-and-water, weakly flavored with brandy, from a mug. He cannot grasp a tumbler now, and finds it convenient to have a drinking vessel with a handle. Be who hai been a sad dog among the women, sir, and ruined so many reputations, grows faint before the feast is over, and feebly calls to his granddaughter to come and support himi And there he lies, like a weak child, nestling his palsied head on her bosom — fche gay Lothario ! end sometimes wonder whar. is meant by the commandment which says, " Honor thy lather and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the iand whi>-h the Lord thy God giveth thee." Does it mean that they who honor lather and mother will five lono- ? Can it be that tho=e otherwise wicked persons, who five to be happy old grandfathers, attain length of days be.ause, in their youth, they honored their fathers and mothers ? Lt is pleasant to think so, pleasant to see howbread thus ea ly cast upon the wa ers comes bick, after many days, to the generous hand which originally bestowed it. How seLtom do we m^ei .-n°the highway of life with a greyheaded grandfather trudging the last miles of the journey, friendless and aLone. JN early always he has children or grandchddren by his side to ease his burden, and take him by the hand, and help him up when he faints by the way. With regard to grandmothers ! Is it not a fact that wo are accustomed to associate a certa.n idea of worldliness and selfishness — of wickedness, in iaC f, — with grandmothers, wliich does not arise iii our minds when we picture to ourselves an aga^ ■'raudfalher ? We are indebted, in a great measure., ro the novel writers for thia impression ; bat w. have no reason to qut-stion the faithfulness of thi jioture. We rarely have the idea of a wicked ol .. Grandfather, but we often, I am afraid, have th idea ol a wicked old grandmother. There is th popular ideal of the wicked old woman iv a wig, walking with a crutch-stick, mafccli-makuig foi worldly goods, scheming, lying, telling improper stories, gambling at cards, and cheating sometimes. Is it a true picture, a faithful likeness ? 1 am if, ai .1 sjiuetitnes it is. There are go jd grand mothers of course ; but there are bad ones, t,i.d they are more often bad than the grandfather.*. Eut we must make reasonable allowance for them A man in his young and middle-age days can have his tiing, his fill of pleasure. He can sow his wdd oats to the last grain. The wide scope of his indulgence enables him to see the folly of things Not so with a woman. Her young days are a period of restraint ; her married life is one of subjection. H she be wickedly inclined, it ia not until she becomes an old grandmother that she can have her fiing. The old grandfather ht.s done with the froward ways of the world, the old grand mother begius to take them in haud. ' There are certain outward attributes of the crrandmother which accord with this view of her character. While the old grandfather humbli bows Ms bald head or blanched hair to fche stroke of Time, the old grandmother endeavors to bear up against him with a wig or a false front. She s a skittish creature sometimes, and wilL go out into the field when the harvest is fully ripe, and coquette with the old gentleman who wields the scythe. She beguiles him to drop his gleaming blade and sit down beside her, and she is quite free with him, and taps him over his oil knuckles with her fan. This grandmother tricks herseli iuto the belief that the 0;d man wili continue polite, and wdl not suddenly rise up, take his weapon in hand, and cut her down with the resfc. And so she goes on pursuing worldly traffic to the very last i'his, of course, is only true of some old women ; but it is true of them all, thnt they are more troublsd about the world's affairs than men ; that when they are disposed to any vice, they follow it with a stronger passion ; that when they are tht victims of any weakness, they are more completely under its indueuce. Avarice has been ca.ted a good old gentlemanly vice. It is rather, i think, a good old gentle womanly vice. There is an extreme period of age when a man drops the money-bags ; but a woman clings to them to the last, and wid die witii her fingers clutching them. Not that she is naturally more avaricious than man, but her life of dependence has filled hei with an inordinate dread of poverty. She is afraid of being alone and friendless, without money. The old man has not this dread. At a certain stage he cares little what becomes of him. He will go to the workhouse cheerfully, while the woman will, of ah last resources, avoid that. The drop of dew which glistens uuder the sunlight like a diamond, reveals under the microscope, a mass of writhing, wrigling worms, few-some to look at. Let us theu stand a little back from our grandfathers and grandmothers. Lut us shut up the miscroscope and view them under the sun. Going dowu the hill together hand in hand, they are a spectacle to till the heart with gratitude to Heaven thab such a peaceful fate is man's ou earth. What a privdege for a grown man to have an aged graudiather and grandmother ! — to be their stay and support; in lheir old days, to stand by at last and close their eyes. What happiness to the aged to be thus lovingly tended, aud have their own old care repaid to them. Truly, length of days are a Diessed portion to old people, who live to see their children and their children's chddren 6pring up around them with a constant increase of affection — giving assurance that man can never die, and love cau never fade.