=--These
women, the Ladies of the Abbeys and the special servitors of the
Church, reached the first independent places of distinction which
women in Christian civilization attained and to them, at least, age
added power and veneration. Hence, even while they ignored their
relationship to common womanhood, they often allayed superstitious
cruelty toward other old women.

Whenever any subject class develops within it a genius or a quality of
talent or a specialty of activity that gives personal prestige, that
class as a whole gains recognition. The Carlisle Indian who beats at
the game of football; the Afric-American artist whose works claim
admiration; the representative of the backward nation who shows power
of achievement formerly supposed to be the sole accomplishment of the
conquering peoples, not only makes a place for himself, he opens the
door to wider opportunity for his class. So the woman of the religious
orders, when of scholarly achievement and of commanding intellect,
showed these qualities in increasing example as she grew older and
more experienced, and so worked to make a place for the older woman in
every sphere of life.

Slowly it began to dawn upon the common consciousness that the
individualistic family of one young couple and their children needed
props from within if it had lost those from without--those ancient
props which sustained as well as controlled young fathers and mothers
in the collective family. Hence grandmothers, and grandfathers, as
well, became of recognized use in the care and upbringing of children.
The picture of the grandmother by the fireside holding the youngest
baby and the grandfather coming in with a gift for the young mother,
who is manifestly pleased, with the young father in the background
delighted at the family welcome for his offspring, is not only old but
the theme of many of the world's best-loved paintings and stories.

=To-day Comparatively Few Really Old at Seventy.=--To-day there has
come about a wholly new condition in the most advanced centres of
social life in respect to the aged. In the first place, there are few
"old" grandmothers left. There are grandmothers, but they are
sprightly and give little token of being passee or laid on the shelf.
There are few old men left. There are those who have passed the
allotted term of threescore years and ten, but they well know and make
all others understand that this was a mistaken limit to human powers.
They look fo