Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1899 — THE 18-YEAR-OLD BROTHER. [ARTICLE]

THE 18-YEAR-OLD BROTHER.

He Needs Frequent Large Doses of Commendation from Hie Sister. Your brother is not particularly handsome, and now that he Is 18 years old you cannot deny that he is awkward, says the Ladles’ Home Journal. He suggests to you a shape not unlike that of a spider, for he seems principally arms and legs, while he has wonderful ability In the way of stumbling when he ought to walk straight. The girl who tries to do right should be quick enough to realize that to make her brother more at ease in the general world she must clear from his mind any ideas he may have as to his own lack of beauty or grace. The boy of 18 usually needs a good dose of commendation, or else he believes that everybody is banded to scoff at him. When he is introduced to a strange girl he doesn’t know what to say, and ye| she is a pretty girl, for she stands and looks at him and seems to convict him of being out of place, while he wishes that he were at' home. He wishes again that he hadn’t come to the party and he is about as awkwardlooking ami as unhappy as any boy of his age can be. The belle of the room gets rid of him with a great quickness, and he realizes that she is laughing at him as he sees her chatting and smiling with an older man. Then he grows bitter. This is the time that his sister needs to bring all her sweet influence to bear upon him. She can ask her partner to take her over to her brother, and politely excuse herself as being engaged to her brother for the dance or promenade. She can make him grow to believe In himself, and soon may present him to some girl, less beautiful, perhaps, than the other, but one who knows how to encouragp and make happy another girl’s brothdr, because she has a brother and knows how tender the feelings of a boy are and how easily wounded.