--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Kirby, George D. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 6 published: 1912-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Kirby, George D., "Interesting Stories V and VI," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 6 (April 1912): 511–512.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1506unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1506unse start_page: 511 end_page: 512 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1506unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Interesting Stories V and VI Interesting Stories. SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY GEORGE D. KIRBY. V. Old Age. "Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth." Cicero. There is much profitless talk just now in the country about age as a bar to employment. In mere manual labor when a man is really physically enfeebled by age, it is a bar that cannot be overcome. In the industrial world it has become accepted that a man is too old at forty, and the London (Eng.) county council works decided a year or so ago not to engage men over thirty-five. Despite all the evidences of precocity, Mr. Dorland arrives at a conclusion which in the intellectual world gives an average of fifty for the master work of great men. But it should not be. The old are needed to "teach the young idea how to shoot." There is a place for Nestor, even in an army, as well as for Hector. 512 IMPROVEMENT ERA Youth has its advantages, and age has its own, and the old head on young shoulders is too great a rarity to depend on for the running of the business of the world. But it is noticeable that the cry for "young blood," once more prevalent even than now, comes mostly from lips that are old. "It is a crime to be old," said one old man caustically to another who had refused him employment on that account — "unless one is an employer." The question, "Which is the happiest season of life?" being referred to an aged man, he replied : "When spring comes, and buds are breaking on the trees, and they are in the soft air the covered with blossoms, I think 'How beautiful is spring' and ; when the summer comes and covers the trees with its heavy and singing birds are among the branches, I think, foliage, 'How beautiful is summer.' When autumn loads them with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of frost, I think, 'How beautiful is autumn.' And when it is sere winter, and there is neither foliage nor fruit, then I look up through the leafless branches as I never could until now, and see the stars shine." VI. — A Happy Home. A happy home is the brightest spot on earth that the eye of God looks down upon. Love and peace in his home sends sunshine around the man wherever he goes; disorder and trouble there, misery is everywhere. There are few worries of life which a man cannot now and then shake off, but who can shake himself free from the skeleton in the closet, from the worry of the household, a blister on the heart. A day will tell how many a man carried that with him without wincing down to the grave. When husband and wife are helpmates to each other in the best sense; when order and love and goodness prevail in the house, then the man who has a hard battle in life to fight can leave his struggles behind him when he enters there. With all our faults we are the most home-loving of people, and that is the reason why we are the greatest of people. Whatever helps home life is a national blessing; what hurts home life is a national curse, and the greatest curse that can touch these blessings is what would tamper with the peace and blessedness of our homes. Sugar City, Idaho.