The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-21

While the brother sailed OF for resounding
sphere the sister watched him from the banks
of self-denial.
Miriam was the Oldest of the family Moses
| and Aaron. her brothers, and younger. Oh, the
| power of the elder sister TO help decide the
brothers character for usefulness and for heav-
| en-! She can keep off from her brother more
evils than Miriam could have driven back, water
| fowl or crocodile. from the ark OF bulrushes.
| The older sister decides the direction in which
the crade-boat shall sail, by gentleness, by gooc
sense, by Christian principle she can turn 1t
| toward the palace, not of wicked Pharaoh. out
| of holy God: and brighter princess than
Thermutis shall lift him out of peril, even relig
ion, whose ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
| her paths are peace. The older sister, how much
| the world owes herl Born while yet the family
was in limited circumstances, she had to hold
and take care of her younger brothers. AND II
| there is anything that excites my sympathy 1t
| is q little girl Juggling around great fat child,
and getting her ears boxed because she cannot
keep him quiet. By the time she gets to young
womanhood she Is pale and worn out, and her
attractiveness has been sacrificed on the altar
of sisterly fidelity, and she is confined to celibacy,
and society calls her by an ungallant name, but
| in heaven they call her Miriam. In most fam
lilies the two most undesirable places in the rec
ord Of births the first and the last, the first
because she is worn out with the cares of home
that cannot afford to hire help and the last be-
| cause she is spoiled as pet Among the grand
est equipages that sweep through the streets OF
sacrificed themselves for brothers. They will
have the finest of the Apocalyptic white horses,
and many who on earth looked down upon them
will have to turn out to let them pass
Let sisters not begrudge the time and care be-
slowed on brother. 1t is hard to believe that
any boy you know so well as your brother can
ever turn out anything very useful Well, he
may not be Moses There is only one OF that
kind needed for 5000 years. But tell you what
your brother will be-either a blessing or curse
to society and candidate for happiness or
wretchedness. He will, like Moses, have the
choice between rubies and living coals. and your
influence will have much to do with his decision.
He may not, like Moses, be the deliverer OF
nation, but he may after your father and mother
are gone, be the deliverer OF a household. What
| thousands of homes are to-day piloted by broth
| ers. There are properties now well invested and
| yielding income for the support Of sisters and
younger brothers, because the olce. brother rose
to the leadership from the day the father lay
down to die Whatever you do for your brother
will come back to you again. II you set him an
ili-natured, censorious, unaccommodating ex
ample, it will recoil upon you from his own
irritated and despoiled nature. If you, by pa
thence with all his nfrmities and by nobility OF
character, dwell with him in the few years OF
your companionship, you will have your coun-
ses reflected back upon you some day by his
| splendor of behavior in some crisis where he
would have failed but for You.
Don't snub him. Don't depreciate his ability.
Don't talk discouraginely about his future.
Don't let Miriam get down off the bank OF the
Nile and wade cut and upset the ark of bull
do not consider it any harm to tease. That
spirit abroad in the family is one of the meanest
and most devilish. There is teasing that is
pleasurable, and is only another form of limo
cent railery, but that which provokes and irri-
tates and makes the eye fash with anger is to
be reprehended It would be less blameworthy
to take bunch of thorns and draw them
| across your sisters cheek, or to take knife
ed Sk1 cha n1r unY1N
brothers hand till the blood spurts,
for that would damage only the body; but teasing
is the thorn and the knife scratching and LAGER
ating the disposition and the soul 1t is the
curse of innumerable households that the broth
tease the sisters and the sisters the brothers
Sometimes it is the color of the hair, or the shape
of the features affair of the heart. Some
times it is by revealing secret, or bya sug-
gestive look. or a gutfaw. or an "Aheml" Iease
Tease Tease! For Gods sake quit it. Christ
says: sHe that hateth his brother is murderer
Now, when you, by teasing make your brother
or sister hate. you turn him or her into muir
derer InurderesS.
Don't let jealousy ever touch sisters soul. as
it so often does, because her brother gets more
honor or more means Even Miriam, the hero
inc of the text, was struck by that evil passion
of jealousy. She had possessed unlimited infu-
ence over Moses, and now he marries and not
only so, but marries blind woman from Ethio-
pia. and Miriam is so disguised and outraged at
Moses, first, because he had married at all, and
next. because he had practced miscegenation.
that she is drawn into frenzy and then begins
and then whittier than a corpse. Her
complexion is like chalk; the fact is,
she has the Egyptian leprosy. And
now the brother whom she had defended on the
| her restoration. Let there be no room in all
| your house for jealousy to sit stand. It is a
| leprous abomination. Your brothers success, 0
sisters. is your success. His victories will be
your victories. For. while Moses. the brother.
led the vocal music after the crossing of the Red
sea- Miriam, the sister. with two gittering sheets
of brass uplifted and glittering in the sun, led
| the instrumental music, clapping the cymbals
till the last frighted neigh of pursuing cavalry
| horse was smothered in the wave and the last
| Egyptian helmet went under.
How strong it makes family when all the
| sisters and brothers stand together and what an
awful wreck when they disintegrate, quarreling
| about fathers will and making the surrogate's
you were little children in the nursery that with
your playhouse mallets you had accidentally
killed each other fighting across your cradle,
than that, having come to the age OF maturity
and having in your veins and arteries the blood
of the same father and mother, you fight each
other across the parental graves in the cemetery.
If you only knew it, your interests are identi-
cal OF all the families of the earth that ever
| stood together perhaps the most conspicuous is
the family of the Rothschilds. AS Mayer
Anselm Rothschild was about to die in 1912, he
gathered his children about him-Anselm,
Solomon, Nathan. Charles and James-and
made them promise that they would always be
united on Change. Obeying that injunction,
they have been the mightiest commercial power
on earth and at the raising or lowering of their
scepter nations have risen or fallen. That illus
trates how much. on a large scale and for selfish
purposes, united family may achieve. But
suppose that instead of a magnitude of dollars
as the object. it be doing good and making
salutary impression and raising this sunken
world. how much more ennobling! Sister, you
do your part. and brother will do his part If
Miriam will lovingly watch the boat on the Nile
Moses will help her when leprous disasters
strike.
When father and mother are gone, and they
soon will be If they have not already made exit,
the sisterly and fraternal bond will be the only
ligament that will hold the family together
dnara andsa inf ltor;x