The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-12-21
BOY OR GIRL FIRST?
WHICH IS PREFERABLE TO START
A FAMILY.
Many Reasons Why Boy Would Seem
Most Desirable, and Equally
Good Arguments In Favor
of THE Girl

It is better that The first child in a
family should be a boy. Then if the
father dies the post of head of the
family falls to him naturally. He be-
comes its protector. Whether or not
the father dies, the oldest child, If a
boy, can stand between the younger
children and the world. in their play
contact with it, True there are no
little mother" possibilities in him
and he is an Indifferent nurse; there
fore, in many tenement families, the
birth Of a daughter as the first child
is preferred.
That is one of the drawbacks about
being an elder sister. She is too han
dy to have around the house. she
becomes the maid of all work We
know Of several charming women,
now well along in spinsterhood, whose
destiny unfulflled may be charged TO
the fact that they were elder sisters.
They were always nursing babies
somebody else's babies. The cares Of
the household descended on them pre-
maturely, and their old.fashioned
ways, the SOLDERING marks Of respon-
sibility in face and manner, lessened
their appeal to the captious and row
ing fancy Of young men. To the han
dicap Of diminished opportunity was
added the handicap Of diminished
charm.
1t is well, then, for girl to have
an older brother. 1t is not always for
tunate for her to has two or three
younger sisters. Humanltys natural
sense of justice has long discerned
this. Jacob If you remember, had to
take Leah to wife before he was al
lowed to espouse her younger sister,
Rebecca. The feeling, very marked
among the Jews and sometimes stereo-
typed into a custom, has strength
among all peoples. In return for an
elder sisters sacrifices, the family
sense OF fair play requires that her
younger sisters shall not become her
competitors They are expected to
stand aside. to remain in the back
ground, until she has had chance to
annex a man.
Sometimes-pretty often indeed
the event shows that the younger sis.
ter has not kept far enough in the
background The captious and rowing
fancy of the elder sisters STEADY" is
attracted by the vision of fresher
charms in the same family circle and
womans inyincibe foe. youth, strikes
her down through the arm OF a daugh
ter Of the same mother Probably
ten Thousand novels and plays have
been written about this theme-the
characteristic theme of Cinderella L.
and apparently most Of them have
seen the light in England. The riv
airy Of sisters seems to be more def
mite and overt there than elsewhere.
Shall the elder sister ruler then. Is
at all times a live and poignant issue
The rebellion of the younger one
against a rule represented as tyran
nical is often a sympathetic episode
and sometimes the oldest daughter ha!
general popularity as slight as {
stepmother's. The sutton, at any rate
will not have regard for the claims o
primogeniture-unless they are re-en
forced by dowry observation-disclosures
he is tame lover who will let thu
rule first come, first served" deter
mine his choice of wife Stl. ad
hitting numerous exceptions. the rul,
is a good one. as applied to sisters