HOW TO KEEP YOUNG 



How to Keep Young. 



BY MISS MARY A. ROE, WATERTOWN, NEW 

 YORK. 



Many men and women, no longer 

 able to attend to the daily routine of 

 business or of household cares and hav- 

 ing no interests in reserve to fall back 

 upon, gradually settle down into a 



MISS ROE IN HER GARDEN. 



dreary, helpless old age. Their 

 thoughts and conversation are occupied 

 with trivial gossip and the details of 

 their maladies, real or imaginary. If 

 they would begin earlier in life to in- 

 terest themselves in something worth 

 while, outside of their daily surround- 

 ings, they would keep their minds clear 

 and active, and with increased zest be 

 able to devote their leisure, when it 

 came, to these pursuits and would re- 

 main more vigorous in mind and body 

 I am a woman not far from eighty, 

 and my chief interest has been and is 

 still a love for nature study. But not 

 as a specialist. Any one can find enjoy- 

 ment in observing the marvelous beau- 

 ties of God's creation, if our eyes are 

 trained to look for them. 



One of the greatest pleasures of my 

 life came more than thirty years ago, 

 when I had an opportunity to glance 

 into the world of the infinitely little 

 through the powerful lens of a solar 

 microscope. 



A friend in Los Angeles, a teacher of 



the natural sciences in a college there, 

 had the use of this microscope, the 

 largest I ever saw. 



The windows of her room were cov- 

 ered with close wooden shutters, in 

 one of which was a round hole that held 

 firmly the large lens of this microscope 

 exposed to the direct rays of the Cali- 

 fornia sunshine. On the wall opposite 

 was a white curtain, such as is used 

 for illustrated lectures. 



For the first time I saw one of the 

 one-celled amoebae that scientists tell 

 us were the first forms of animal life 

 that appeared on this old earth, and 

 that myriads of them are still living in 

 our pools and streams. 



From some water in a pool near-by 

 my friend placed two drops in the cen- 

 ter of a glass slide, covering it with a 

 thin convex glass which held the fluid 

 securely when in position to be magni- 

 fied. Then on the screen I saw a small 

 pond, with many curious forms moving 

 rapidly, dividing and subdividing, each 

 division becoming a perfect amoeba until 

 the heat of the sun on the large lens 

 evaporated the water and destroyed 

 their life. 



We also made a study of those forms 

 of vegetable life that are called diatoms. 

 These were upon seaweed gathered on 

 the Pacific coast at San Pedro, near 

 Los Angeles. 



W T e cut off very small bits from the 

 seaweed and placed them under the 

 magnifier. On the screen was thrown 

 glittering forms, some crescentic, 

 others oval or oblong, in colors like 

 the ruby, emerald and topaz. They 

 had a hard, flint-like shell enclosing a 

 semifluid substance resembling the 

 white of an unboiled egg, called proto- 

 plasm, that Professor Huxley says is 

 the "physical basis of all life." 



My friend found some earth near the 

 ocean that looked to me like chalk but 

 which she said was composed of the 

 fossil shells of these diatoms. She ex- 

 changed some of this diatomaceous 

 earth with scientists who were making 

 a special study of these forms. 



One day she said to me, "I have re- 

 ceived a slide that you will be glad to 

 see. 



When it was placed in the micro- 

 scope, on the screen was reflected a 

 Latin cross, about two feet in length, 

 made of circular fossil diatoms, the larg- 



