The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-03-31


eldest sister. Born in the family at
time when the means were
limited, she had to take part Of the cares Of
i the household-holding and carrying around
! the younger children after awhile, and if
there is anything that excites my sympathy
it is a little girl, carrying Juggling around
great fat boy, getting her ears boxed because
elder sister has came to young womanhood
she is worn out with the cares, and has sacri-
feed her attractiveness, perhaps, on the altar
of sisterly fidelity, and may be consigned to
ceGbacy. The world may call her some un-
fair name, but in heaven they call b er
Miriam. The two most unfortunate
places in the records of births are the first and
the last places-the first because she must toll
for the home before they can afford hired
pet. Among the brightest of the equipages
that will sweep throu sh the streets of heaven
will be those occupied by sisters who have
sacrificed themselves for brothers. They
will have the finest of the apocalyptic white
horses, and some who looked down
upon them on earth will have to stand aside
to let them pass as the charioteer cries:
sMake way, the queen is coming!" Oh let
not sisters begrudge the care they bestow Vi pom
their brothers. 1t is a very hard thingfor you
to think that boy whom you know as well
as you do your brother will ever be anything
very useful. He may not be Moses. There
is only one of them needed in six thousand
years. But will tell you what your brother
will be-either blessing or curse to society;
for wretchedness. He may not be the de-
liverer of nation, but after your father and
mother are dead he may be the deliverer of
the household. Thousands of houses to-day
are kept going by the elder brothers.
Estates we'll invested and yielding comfort
able support for the younger members
of the family just because the elder broth
er had the courage to be leader when father
laid down and died. Do not begrudge the
care and the attention, oh, sister, you bestow
upon your brother. Whatever you 90 for
your brother will come back to you. If you
be ill-natured and unobliging and censorious,
all these things will recoil upon you after
awhile from his vitiated and despoiled disposi-
ton; but if you are patient with his
him a good Christian example, the influence
will be reflected back upon you in his splen-
did behavior in some crisis of life when he
would have failed but for you. Do not snub
him. Do not tease him. Do not disparage
his abilities. Do not speak depreciatingly Of
his prospects, In many families brothers and
sisters think it no harm to tease each other.
Sometimes teasing may be .pleasur-
able and only an innocent hilarity,
ana luuOcenG fdlileIy, OuG WILL ~
makes the eye flash with anger look
out. You committed a sin against God,
you shall have to answer for on the Judg-
ment Day. You might better take bunch Of
thorns and draw them over your brothers
cheek, or take knife and run its sharp edge
across your brothers hand until the blood
spurts. That would be a damage to the body,
but the spirit of teasing, that is the thorn
and the knife that scratch and cut the soul. 1t
g of for hot "a
brothers do not think it any harm to tease
the sisters, and the sisters do not think it any
harm to tease the brot ers. Sometimes it is the
color of the hair Sometimes it is the shape Of
the features. Sometimes tits an affair of the
heart Sometimes it is the revealing of
secret. Sometimes it is a sug-
gestive look. Sometimes it is a guffaw.
Sometimes it is the mere coughing Of an
''ahem!" Tease, tease, tease. For Gods sake
quit it. Christ says that he that hateth his
brother is murderer, and when you tease
brother or sister into hate you turn him or
her into murderer or murderesS. Moreover,
let not jealousy ever take its place in sisters
soul because brother has more honor, or be-
cause he comes to more means. Even this
heroic and glorious Miriam of my text
was struck with this evil passion
til times lad had unlimited in influence over
her brother, and now he got married, and
more than that he marries black woman.
He says she is an Ethiopian. The sister is
outraged beyond all bounds. First, because
he married at all; second, because when he
married be committed miscegenation, and
she is thrown into frenzy and then she gets
as white IS corpse, and then gets whittier
than a corpse, and then she is as white as
chalk. In other words, she has the Egyptian
leprosy. Then Moses, whom she had wat he'd
from the banks of the Nile, by one earnest
prayer brings to her restoration. Oh, letnot
jealousy have any place to sit or stand
In sisters soul. Your brothers successes
are your successes, his Victories oh, sister, are
your victories; for you must remember that
while Moses in crossing the Red sea led the
sheets of brass uplifted glittering in the sun,
led the instrumental music, clapping the
cymbals until the last afirighted neigh Of the
Egyptian cavalry horse was smothered In the
wave, and the last Egyptian helmet went un-
der. Oh, brothers and sisters, stand together,
how it strengthens the family; and what
awful wreck it makes when there is disin-
tegration, and brothers and sisters are quar-
reiins over fathers will, making the sur
rogates court horrible with the clangor. Bet
ter if when you were children in the nursery
that with your playhouse mallet you had ac-
cidentally killed each other fighting across the
cradle than having come to maturity, and IN
your nerves and arteries the blood Of the
same father and mother, you go to fighting
each other across the parental grave OF the
cemetery. Let me say, brothers and
sisters, your interests are identical. One
Of the finest specimens ever seen OF
a family standing together is the family OF
the Rothschilds When Meyer Anselm
Rothschild was dying in 1919, he called his
sons about his deathbed-Anselm, Solomon,
Nathan, Charles James, and he made them
there by his death pillow promise that they
would always be united on Change. The
obligation kept, that house became the
mightiest commercial force on earth, ana
when they lifted their sceptre or lowered 1t,
nations rose and fell. Powerful illustration
of what a family may achieve If they stand
together. But if instead Of doing this for a
selfish purpose, if instead of doing it
for a magnitude Of dollars, the family
stand together because they want to
to be useful and they want to help raise this
fallen world, and they want to do good, how
grand and glorious. Let the sister do her
part and the brother will do his part. Ii
Miriam will watch her brother from the bank
Of the Nile, Moses will rescue her when
struck with leprous disaster. After your
father and mother are dead-and they will
be soon, if they have not already made exit
the sistarly and the fraternal tie will be the
only lipament that will hold the family
together. Have you ever thought Of that!
Oh, how many reasons for deep and unfalter-
ing affection you have, brothers and sisters.
Rocked in the same cradle, bent over by the
same motherly tenderness, toiled for by teh
same fathers weary arm and aching brow
with common inheritance Of all the family
secrets, with name given you by parents
who expected your prosperity and happiness
charge you, oh, brothers and sisters, be low
ing and kind and forgiving. If the sister