save you from the common fate of all who grow old. But if you have
saved up enough money to make you independent, it will be merely a
matter of mild regret to you. If, however, you have laid up nothing for
the rainy day that is bound to come to you, it will be a tragedy that
you will pray death to end.
For in all the world there are no people so piteous and forlorn as
those who are forced to eat the bitter bread of dependence in their old
age, and find how steep are the stairs of another man’s house. Wherever
they go they know themselves unwelcome. Wherever they are, they feel
themselves a burden. There is no humiliation of the spirit they are not
forced to endure. Their hearts are scarred all over with the stabs from
cruel and callous speeches.
In youth money is a convenience, an aid to pleasure. In age it is
an absolute necessity, for when we are old we have to buy even
consideration and politeness from those about us. This is true even in
the households of our own children, for between the father and mother
who are able to pay their own way and are the source of a never-ending
flow of gifts and treats, and the father and mother who must be
supported is a great gulf fixed. It is the difference between having
the place of honor and the back seat; between being listened to with
respect and having one’s opinions derided; between having one’s little
peculiarities catered to as interesting characteristics and being
snubbed for one’s old-fashioned ways.
Nor is this as unfeeling and hard-boiled as it seems. The average young
couple has all it can do, in these times of the high cost of living, to
provide for itself and the children, and it makes the burden crushing
to have to add the extra weight of the support of the old people of the
families.
The fate of the dependent old is so terrible that it is a marvel that
it does not frighten every one into trying to provide against it. Yet
it was recently stated in a journal of statistics that 80 per cent of
the men and women more than sixty years of age were dependent either
upon their children or upon public charity. Don’t let this misfortune
befall you. Guard against it. Begin systematic saving while you are
young, so that when you are old you will at least have the comfort of
being independent.
Are you laying up affection for your old age? Most of us have a curious
and naïve belief in what we call “natural affection.” We befool
ourselves into thinking that people must love us because they stand in
a certain relationship to us and because there are blood ties between
us. Never was there a more fallacious theory. There is, to be sure,
the mother’s passion for the child she has borne and the instinctive
clinging of the child to its mother while it is young and helpless, but
that is all. It doesn’t follow as a matter of course that grown-up men
and women love their parents just because they are their parents. As a
matter of fact, they don’t, unless the father and mother have won their
love by years of tenderness and understanding and sympathy. You can’t
be hard and tyrannical and selfish and stingy with your children and
expect them to love you because it is their duty to do so. If you want
your children to love you when you are old, you have to begin winning
their hearts when they are in the cradle.
Have you laid up a good supply of friendship for your old age? No
complaint is heard more often from the old than that they are lonely.
Few come to see them. They are seldom asked out. No one sends them
flowers when they are sick. They are neglected and they crave the
little attentions that we all like and yearn for the society of their
fellow creatures. Now, when old people are lonely, it is always their
own fault. It is because they have neglected to lay up any friendships
for the sere and yellow days when they have no longer the power to
attract people to them.
They have gone their selfish way through life, sufficient unto
themselves in their youth. They have never held out a helping hand to
those in need. They have never wept with those who wept and rejoiced
with those who rejoiced. They have not bothered to write notes of
condolence or congratulation. They have never visited the sick and
afflicted. They have never spent an hour listening to an old person’s
garrulous talk, and so, when they get old, they are repaid in the same
coin.
Are you laying up any mental riches for your old age? I know an old
lady so feeble that she cannot stir from her chair, and whose eyes have
failed so that she cannot tell day from night, and who is so deaf that
she cannot be read to, but who passes her days delightfully reciting
to herself whole cantos of Scott and Byron and recalling word for word
chapters of Dickens and Thackeray and Miss Austen. Her mind to her a
kingdom is, in which she finds entertainment and amusement. Will you be
amused or bored when you are in your nineties and have nothing but your
own society? I know another woman, middle-aged, who is deliberately
laying up a treasure of memories of travel to solace her in her old
age. She will never know a dull moment, for she will have something to
think about besides her rheumatism and her diet when she sits alone in
the twilight of life.
Old age comes to us all. Don’t let it find you empty-handed or
empty-minded. Thus shall you make it a time of happiness instead of
torment.
_The Blue Book of Social Usage_—
Etiquette
In Society, In Business, In Politics, and At Home
_By EMILY POST_
“The most complete book on social usage that ever grew between two
covers.” There are 24 pages about introductions and greetings, 7 about
street conduct, 13 on conduct at the theatre, 10 on conversation, 25 on
cards and visits, 33 on invitations, 12 on teas, 61 on dinners, 12 on
breakfasts and suppers, 26 on balls and dances, 12 on “the debutante,”
12 on matrimonial engagements, 33 on preparations for the wedding,
35 on “the day of the wedding,” 23 on funerals, 58 on letters, 22 on
dress, 9 on the clothes of a gentleman, 34 on the well-appointed house,
24 on traveling at home and abroad.
The author is a shining figure in society and her charming and popular
book is accepted everywhere as the authoritative Blue Book of Social
Usage. Illustrated.
_Crown 8vo, Cloth. 639 pages. $4, net; flexible leather, $7.50, net;
postage, 18c extra._
_The Blue Book of Personal Attire_—
How to Dress Well
A valuable treatise by an authority which considers dress for women
from both the artistic and the practical view-points, and provides
sound information on the principles of tasteful and attractive apparel.
Not only does this book give details for enhancing one’s personal
appearance, for slenderizing the stout, for broadening the slender, for
the selection of headwear and other accessories, but also practical
guidance for the selection and testing of materials, choosing of laces
and furs, budgeting the dress allowance, and for the care and up keep
of the wardrobe. It is brimful of the very information pertaining to
dress, color, and toilet accessories about which every woman hesitates
to accept any but truly trustworthy advice and is a fitting companion
to Emily Post’s “Etiquette.” Modistes, designers, dressmakers, and
milliners will also find this work of highest value. Illustrated.
_8vo, Cloth. 494 pages. $3.50, net; postage, 18c extra._
The Blue Book of Cookery And Manual of House Management
_By ISABEL COTTON SMITH_
_With an Introduction by Emily Post, Author of “Etiquette”_
This is not “just another cookbook,” but an original and authoritative
guide for the preparation of foods and for house management. All the
originality and importance of this volume would be of limited value
unless it were written by so capable and practical an authority as
Isabel Cotton Smith. It contains more than 2,000 recipes; gives
complete information on the management of house and home, with
invaluable suggestions for table economy, and includes everything for
every season and every day in the year, for every possible repast from
breakfast to late supper and from teas and picnic meals to specially
designed menus for children at home and at school, as well as menus for
vegetarians.
_Crown 8vo, Washable Fabrikoid. $2.50, net; postage, 18c extra._
A Woman of Fifty
_By RHETA CHILDE DORR_
This unique autobiography of a remarkable and courageous woman covers
one of the most revolutionary periods of time in history—from virtually
the beginning of a concerted movement to organize the women of this
country in the fight for equality in politics and industry to the time
when these hitherto unattainable causes were firmly established in our
economic and governmental systems. As journalist, lecturer, editor, and
writer, the author has taken part in virtually every event that marks
her generation; was the only woman war correspondent with the famed
Russian Women’s “Battalion of Death” on the last Kerensky offensive
on the Eastern Front; spent three years in “after war” Europe, and is
to-day in the thick of things in this country. Written in a frank,
forceful, and grippingly interesting style.
_8vo, Cloth. 482 pp. $2.50, net; postage, 18c extra._
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers
354-360 Fourth Avenue, New York
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 58 Changed: which are resonsible for more real
to: which are responsible for more real
pg 61 Changed: you happen to be born in a certain relationshp
to: you happen to be born in a certain relationship
pg 71 Changed: any particular trade or profesion
to: any particular trade or profession
pg 101 Changed: earn her own living as a “poor working women.”
to: earn her own living as a “poor working woman.”
pg 105 Changed: so far be it from me to abridge
to: so far be it for me to abridge
pg 150 Changed: life better than than that of the successful
to: life better than that of the successful
pg 179 Changed: he will be filled fell of pep and energy
to: he will be filled full of pep and energy
pg 179 Changed: discovery that somewhow the mysterious something
to: discovery that somehow the mysterious something
pg 188 Changed: she is not likely to tarnish your deal.
to: she is not likely to tarnish your ideal.
pg 217 Changed: as many men starving for affection as there are woman.
to: as many men starving for affection as there are women.
pg 218 Changed: reward depends altogther on his wife’s attitude
to: reward depends altogether on his wife’s attitude
pg 221 Changed: their purpose when they falter and waiver
to: their purpose when they falter and waver