Rev. John Todd, D. D. – Fashion controlled by youth (in the early 19th century)

“Our country is a youth, and nothing but what is elastic and youthful, is in fashion. Our legislators, our professional men, must all be young to be popular. The stars are to be looked at only while they are rising. A man of fifty is considered almost superannuated, with us. Such is the fashion.”

(from The Student’s Manual: Designed, By Specific Directions, to Aid in Forming and Strengthening the Intellectual and Moral Character and Habits of the Student, Northampton MA: J. H. Butler, 1835 – available online)

 

Note that, in the decade of the 1830s, the population of age 16 and below had risen to equal the population of age 20 and above.