The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-06-24
THE BLESSED
BARRIER
Y
By FANNIE HURST
(G by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.)
lWNU Service)

rOMEWHERE in the heart, the
mind and the spirit of young
~ Sterling was a barrier as high,
practically, as his life was long.
Had you even suggested anything
of this to any member of the Buh-
low family, they would have met the
implication with loyal and heated de-
NAL.
How could Sterling secretly feel
himself an outsider in the Buhlow
family, when not one of the Buhlow
children, although they had quite sim
ply been told when they each became
eight, had an atom of consciousness
that Sterling was not blood brother?
AS a matter of fact, bending too
far backward perhaps to achieve this
end, Ann and Proscow Buhlow took
pains to see to it that Sterling re-
ceived even more than their own chill
dren of parental solicitude.
The fact that Sterling had been
adopted by Ann during a previous
marriage was as remote in the minds
of her present husband and children
as if it had never happened.
Sterling belonged. AS the senior
member of remarkably alert group
of children, he was the acknowledged
leader of the clan.
STERLING is too outrageously clev-
alleged eldest, treating him in the col
loquial young fashion of the modern
mother. HE sets dreadful example
to the rest of the children. They
have to live up to him."
STERLING is not clever" AIMS real
ly eldest, Shirley, would sing out on
such occasions. Hes a soulless mis-
anthrope, an acid-flinging cynic, a
misbehaviorist, and he passes off
among the unworldlings of my moth
er's generation as clever"
"Oh, Shirley, be yourself" Terry,
two years below Shirley, would re-
tort on the fling of a soft pillow.
you know you'd give your sleepy
head to be as clever as Sterling"
"What Shirley can't be, she is not
going to bid for" remarked her IA
Their, lodging in turn the same sofa
pillow flung by Shirley toward him.
that had been flung by Terry to his
sister.
Father, it is good thing you make
it point to speak your true words
in jest. Otherwise your family would
never grant you hearing"
Typical, all this, of the way Ster
ling stood in the admiration of his
so-called parents and brothers and
sisters. Not only the two older of the
Buhlow children vested him thus in
their full and enthusiastic approval,
but the stepladder of younger ones
followed suit with hero worshiping
eyes.
STERLING this" STERLING that" IF
I had Sterling's brains" STERLING is
the genius of this family" IF only
Sterling would take the trouble he
could be anything he set out to bel"
Something undoubtedly there was
in Sterling. The something that
would not take the trouble. Time
after time, her sweet, anxious eyes
scrutinizing this youth, Ann tried to
analyze that trouble. Proscow, too.
And as Ann said banteringly of her
husband, as a famous alienist whose
job it was to analyze the workings
of the human brain, Proscow ought
to be able to ferret out the way to
attack the streak of cynical inertia
in Sterling.
Darling, with all your brains, isn't
there anything you want to be?'
81 want my father to substitute me
with ten thousand a year as guar
antee against the horrible thought Of
ever wanting to be anything"
STERLING, won't you be serious just
once? You're twenty now. The time
has come when you simply have to
decide what you want to do with your
life. You're too talented! Music
Painting. Writing. I've suspicion
you can be great person in any one
of them"
Perhaps"
"Proscow, you talk to him."
Curious, with any one of their own
children, this problem would have
been treated in quite another manner.
In fact, the problem of Terry had al
ready been handled with decision and
the school for his medical training
selected. With Sterling. Just because
Of his equivocal position in the
household, the dilemma Of stimulat-
ing him to action was subtle and
troublesome one.
"You know after all, Sterling, your
father. in spite of his wealth, could
never be wealthy enough to encour-
age a dilettante in the family"
A flush ran beneath the pallor of
the best-looking member of the Buh-
lows. Ann had struck in. Proscow,
and rightly, would not permit one Of
his sons to live off of his largess