OLD AGE INCURABLE
The following story is told of John Hay:
He had been ailing one time, and a friend made bold to ask what the trouble was. “I am suffering from an incurable disease,” answered Mr. Hay bravely.
A sense of delicacy prevented the friend from making further inquiry; but he told the story to many of his associates, nearly all of whom were acquainted with Mr. Hay, and the report soon spread around Washington that a deadly disease held the Secretary of State within its grasp. One intimate acquaintance of Mr. Hay determined to find out the nature of the secretary’s ailment, and addrest him one day with the remark: “I have been told that you are suffering from an incurable disease. Is it true?” “It is,” said Mr. Hay, in a sad tone. “What is the incurable disease?” then asked the insistent acquaintance. “Old age,” exclaimed Mr. Hay, with a chuckle. (Text.)—Milwaukee Free Press.
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OLD, ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE
To feel young and able to take on new duties and perform them satisfactorily at the age of 73 should put heart into every discouraged person who is nearing the seventies. Such a person was the matron of the “rest home” for working girls, Arrity Hale.
When Arrity Hale was seventy-three years old, her husband having died some time before, she began to find it hard work keeping her small house going. She never told any one of this, but neighbors began to suspect it. A well-known New York family had a country-place near the village, and they had always been on friendly terms with Mrs. Hale. One member of this family was connected with the Working Girls’ Vacation Society, and she, with some other women, was contemplating the foundation of a home in the neighborhood as a branch of the society.
The woman in question and her friends interested with her in the project, were all alumnæ of Miss Green’s school in this city. Miss Green was a famous preceptress a generation or so ago, and she numbered in her classes at No. 1 Fifth Avenue many of the girls who are now the society matrons of the city. After teaching three generations of pupils, and when she was considerably more than seventy years old, she decided to give up her work.
Her old pupils determined to do something in her honor, something that would be a lasting tribute to her, and acting upon a suggestion from her, they determined to purchase a cottage in the country to be used as a rest-home for working girls during their summer vacations. That was how the “L. M. Green Cottage” was established.