nneapolis, Minn., May 31, 1891.

GROWING OLD GRACEFULLY, AND PRESBYTERIANISM.

_Question_. How have you acquired the art of growing old
gracefully?

_Answer_. It is very hard to live a great while without getting
old, and it is hardly worth while to die just to keep young. It
is claimed that people with certain incomes live longer than those
who have to earn their bread. But the income people have a stupid
kind of life, and though they may hang on a good many years, they
can hardly be said to do much real living. The best you can say
is, not that they lived so many years, but that it took them so
many years to die. Some people imagine that regular habits prolong
life, but that depends somewhat on the habits. Only the other day
I read an article written by a physician, in which regular habits
--good ones, were declared to be quite dangerous.

Where life is perfectly regular, all the wear and tear comes on
the same nerves--every blow falls on the same place. Variety, even
in a bad direction, is a great relief. But living long has nothing
to do with getting old gracefully. Good nature is a great enemy
of wrinkles, and cheerfulness helps the complexion. If we could
only keep from being annoyed at little things, it would add to the
luxury of living. Great sorrows are few, and after all do not
affect us as much as the many irritating, almost nothings that
attack from every side. The traveler is bothered more with dust
than mountains. It is a great thing to have an object in life--
something to work for and think for. If a man thinks only about
himself, his own comfort, his own importance, he will not grow old
gracefully. More and more his spirit, small and mean, will leave
its impress on his face, and especially in his eyes. You look at
him and feel that there is no jewel in the casket; that a shriveled
soul is living in a tumble-down house.

The body gets its grace from the mind. I suppose that we are all
more or less responsible for our looks. Perhaps the thinker of
great thoughts, the doer of noble deeds, moulds his features in
harmony with his life.

Probably the best medicine, the greatest beautifier in the world,
is to make somebody else happy. I have noticed that good mothers
have faces as serene as a cloudless day in June, and the older the
serener. It is a great thing to know the relative importance of
things, and those who do, get the most out of life. Those who take
an interest in w