The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-08
EVENING CHAT
The Young Sister.
BIZ RUTH CAMERON.

1t ism wholly the younger sisters
fault. It never is entirely the person S
own fault when he or she is spoiled.
In this case it's partly the older sister
and partly the mother or father that S
to blame
The oder sister went to a business
college straight from grammar school,
or if she was fortunate enough to go
to high school, she had to wear old
clothes and scrimp and go without
right and left, because father was the
only wage-earner in the family then,
and the ordinary mans wages are not
supposed to really support family
under present day conditions. If she
managed to stay the whole four years,
she was probably graduated in a white
waist AID linen skirt, and didn't go to
the class dance because she couldn't
have pretty gown.
Younger sister. on the contrary, goes
through high school as a matter of
course and probably goes to college,
too. Nor does she have to Scrimp and
go without things. BY reason of the
contributions to the family purse now
made by older sister. or perhaps by
two or three older sisters or brothers,
financial conditions in the family are
much improved, and younger sister
does everything her Weather friends
do. She takes vacation trips: she goes
to all tie functions; she has pretty
gowns and all the expensive little ac-
ceSsorieS such as shoes and stockings
to match. She says she must have
them aT1 big sister, remembering her
own pangs over the lack of such
things, is the first to agree as to the
stern mes essity for them.
And it goes. All that the older
sisters lacked the younger must have.
And because it is given her so freely
she soon takes It as a matter of
course Perhaps she even looks down
upon tce older sister. Why not? She
never vert to college; why. she didn't
even go through high school. Her
grammar is often shameful. Besides,
younger siSter is apt to be much pref
tier than her older sister. You see,
the older girl was growing up at time
in the family history when very frugal
fare and hard work were the order
of the ley, and most of the good looks
she did have she has lost in the bad
air and confinement of the office.
Whereas younger sisters years of de-
velopmenu were passed in much more
propitiOus circumstances, and she has
never inperiled her good looks by
overwork, Can you blame her then,
for feeling the superiority that any
pretty girl is conscious of?
My friends, you may think 1 am
simply geenralizing and using my inn
aginatiou in this matter. 1 am not 1
am thinking of younger brother right
in this neighborhood who wore silk
stockings and was generally dude at
high school, while his older sister
worked her heart out, almost entirely
of a younger sister whose mother
slaves TO make her the prettiest gowns
that are displayed at the high school
dances while the older sister, who
works ten hours day. does her own
sewing or wears cheap ready made
things.
of course it is right that the
younger children should have all the
that better financial con-
ditions make possible. But they should
not be taught to think they can have
every luxury their Weather compan-
ions afford. And most emphatically
of all, they should be taught to realize
and be grateful for all that their broth
ers and sisters have done for them,
and dore without themselves.