In theNationof January 8, 1914, commenting on the hygienic reference board of the Life Extension Institute the writer tells us that they will even tackle such problems as ventilation, how to clothe and feed the body, etc. Some have advocated compulsory annual examinations for all. This theNationcondemns. There is the danger of false diagnosis as to degree or kind of defect. An ailing man might be injured by knowing the seriousness of his trouble. It might detract from the joy of life and to compel it would be an undue invasion of liberty, for it is not like vaccination and similar measures necessary for all.
What the old need is an occasional examination of sight and hearing, of respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and perhaps sexual system, each by an expert, with hygienic and therapeutic suggestions based upon these results. This the Life Extension Institute does not attempt to furnish and it is perhaps too much to expect yet.
A few other voluntary organizations for the benefit of the old should be mentioned here.
The “Borrowed Time Club” of Oak Park, Illinois, dates from the year 1900 but was reorganized in 1911, and in 1920 had 294 names on its roster. It admits only those of seventy years of age or more and has clubrooms of its own in which it holds weekly meetings. One of its most impressive customs is an annual meeting devoted to the memory of the brethren who have died during the year, with a service at which a floral tribute is laid upon each vacant chair placed in a line on the platform by younger members of the families of the deceased. Political and religious questions are barred. There are no fees but a voluntary offering once a month, and any citizen of whatever creed or race, whether rich or poor, is eligible. Fraternal sympathy and companionship are fostered. There is music and a prayer at most of the meetings, illness of members is reported on, current events discussed, and a program usually provided. “The main purpose of the organization is to bring happiness to others.” There are perhaps a hundred and fifty associate members. This club has several branches, and others of similar name and character have been established in other cities.
To the writer, the name of the club seems unfortunate in assuming the Biblical limitation of life at three-score-and-ten, as if we were incurring indebtedness and living on by the special indulgence of Father Time if we surpass that age. Why are we debtors after more than before this age, when the fact is we are living on capitalaccumulated or inherited and in no sense on credit? The religious features that seem to characterize every program are well and no one could have anything but commendation for the interest displayed in sick members or in the annual tributes to the dead. But the thanatic outlook from the “west window” should not predominate and the discussion of current events and interest in vital problems should be kept most lively to offset the attitude of patheticism to which the old are only too prone.
The Sunset Club, at present largely composed of women over sixty, has little organization although it has many branches in various parts of the country. Its purpose is not only to have old people help and be helped by others to useful occupations but to supply reading matter, chaperones, etc. Anyone can start a club anywhere, intellectuals can get together, the rich can help those in need, those with unoccupied time can help those who need sympathy and companionship, those with happy homes may occasionally open them to the homeless, or they can simply form good cheer circles. There are no dues but volunteer funds have sufficed for this “silver-haired sisterhood,” which has often provided friends for the friendless and employment for the unoccupied. Many women of the more or less leisured class have thus found spheres of usefulness which they preferred to bridge, gossip, “kettledrum or kaffee-klatsch.” Some branches of the club have an exchange where members can send things that they make for sale. Young couples, especially brides, are often aided in starting homes.
In Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, is a beautiful public park with an avenue of old trees under which the old men of the district who were come to the resting time of life used to foregather “for a crack and a smoke.” Then a kind man, remembering the frequent rainy days there were, presented them with an old railwaycarriage as a shelter where this group could meet in shower or shine. Later the park was extended and a public-spirited man erected a pretty little dwelling for the club, red tiled, with a veranda all around. Here are games and books and here the club meets at will. Provision has also been made for a yearly summer holiday for the members.
Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, boasts an octogenarian society, the last annual meeting of which on September 29, 1921, witnessed a gathering of twenty-one members.
A sagacious and venerable correspondent has suggested to the writer that the time is ripe for some kind of a senescent league of national dimensions which should, of course, establish relations with all existing associations of the old but should slowly develop a somewhat elaborate organization of its own, with committees on finance, on the literature of senescence, including its psychology, physiology and hygiene, etc. If such an organization under any name were founded, it should certainly have an organ or journal of its own that should be the medium of correspondence, keeping its members informed to date upon all matters of interest or profit to them, perhaps keeping tab on instances of extreme longevity or unusual conservation of energy, with possibly a junior department eventually for youngsters of fifty. It should concern itself with the phenomena connected with the turning of the tide of life, which so often occurs even in the fourth decade. It would be interesting to know how such an organization would appeal to intelligent old men and women. That it might do great good is hardly to be doubted.