OLD LADIES. (John Bull.)

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 415, 12 January 1875, Page 2

OLD LADIES. (John Bull.)

What has become of those gracious beings we remember in our youth with peculiar tenderness and regard — the " Old liadies," who were wont to shed sneb a. halo of diatuly on the hearths and homes of other days ? We never see them now ? what i 3 the reason P Where have they vanished ? What has taken their place ? Formerly in many houses there was an arm-chair ever set in one particular spot ; ever tenanted during certain hours of the day by the " grandmamma " of the house ; a venerable figure in black or grey silk, with frills ot lovely old lace and a cap of the same quite covering Hie head and tied under tbe chin with white or grey satin ribbon. Delicate, worn, white hands, covered with black silk mittens, and daintily knitting or working some simple worsted work completed the picture, and assisted to form the centre of the family group round which young and middle-aged viel in piving homage, No troubles, no naughtiness, must reach the ear of grandmamma, unles9, indeed, under the seal of confidence, in the hope of the comfort and counsel it was hers to give. She must never be worried or hurried or put about " ; her own chair was always left for her ; and also her own place at the table, or in the carriage, if on a fine day she condescended t:> "take an airing." It might not s^em as if such a life had much effect on others, but we believe it had ; we believe it created a most wholesome atmost, phere of love and reverence, such as is now sadly missed ; for, as we have before said, such old ladies seem to have vanished from the face of c .rth. Nowadays grandmamma is always making herself useful ; nursing coinehody, or going to visit her district, or into society. She is trotting abou*; in the mud with a basket on her arm, in a waterproof cloak, or paying visits in a bonnet and gown exactly like her daughters, for fashion now does not acknowledge age. You are to wear whatever is " worn," be 4t simple or elaborate, crownless bonnpts or bonnets without string* : and if the hair is grey or you have not got any, you must invest in a chignon of plaits. And so old ladies exist no longer in a definite form, but are frittered away into more or less young ones, only worn out instead of fresh. We hear a great deal of tbe want of respect paid to age in the present day ; and very true it is, and very lamentable; but, after all, is it not partly the fault of those who will not accept the dignity of age? If you see a lady dressed in the beighth of fashiou and behaving like a joung person, is it your business to observe or suggest the fact that she has wrinkles and grey hair through it all ? If you meet a person stumping about here, and there, and everywhere, in nil weathers, are you to insist on implying by jour manner that sbe «ught to stop at home ? It may be very useful certainly that she should pursue her good works, and help others, and cultivate society j but, ofter all, 'was then* not I^h special mission open to her before, of a kind not less usefu than these practical matters, and which no one but bersell can feel ? Ought not an old lady to accept age as her voca-£ tion for the sake of the young? Her presence in days of old had something of the nature of a shrine in the house, which everyone sought for peace and comfort, as well ag to " encompass her round with Bweet observances." It was to charming to place footstools at her feet, or cushions around her ; to fetch her knitting or her spectacles ; to read to her, and then converse and hear the beautiful and quaint old wo,rld stories that no one will ever now hear again, Was all this waste of time ? We think not •- cay more, we doubt if the reverence and tenderness thus instilled, almost unooneciously, by a living presence, djd not do n>ore for the elevation cf thfl yrmng than tbe scmcirhsi fuwy modern ideal

vr^wr^buttHn our wopfii'^['broi(q>ie in ofot?; manner^ wßas wonder? W?4fr3'our oujtdr livea' fa a jostling orowd,? and our inner 1 ires in a, state of incessant fidget, and this applies to old an<J young alike. Therefore one of tko most, beautiful forma of existence is beoomiug daily more and more obsolete, and ita memory will ere long be lost to us. W*» may see young girls, pretty sprightly matrons, active, energetio middle-aeed women, all racing «nd chasing each other in^the various aims. of life ; and there may — thtre must — be aomo w Lose gait is more vigorous, whose eyes are less bright, whose limbs ure less active ; and sooner or later these will perish and fall by the vrayside ; but the beauty, the holinesa of old age will bo unknown among us, and therefore age will be unreverenccd j there will be no old < ladies !