The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1866-06-22
After Fifty Years.
by MARY c. VAUGHAN.

learned the lesson NJ All, uecuuSC 70
love him seemed natural, a part of life
not to be discovered from it, from my
earliest recollection.
We shared joys and sports, wept
together over the loss of our pets,
which John helped me bury. We at
tended the same school, studied from
the same books, and read the same ele-
giant essays from the English Reader,
with the same high pitched lrawl
John was my devoted slave, and /,
incipient coquette from my earliest
recollection, tyrannized over and tor
mented him, freezing him with my in
difference, or warming him in the gra-
cious light of my smiles, as suited my
mood and purpose.
Il is a mistake to suppose that there
are coquettes only in the higher walks
of society, or that coquetry is the out
growth Of advanced civilization. The
truth is, that it is natural instinct
with most women, and is often devel-
oped even in childhood, as in my case
We were poor people, living down
by the sea, subslsting partly on our
fisheries, partly by the cultivation of
our half barren sand farms, and only
subsisting by this union of marine and
agricultural pursuits. We had no
culture, little knowledge Our teach
ers were nature, who wore for us one
of her most forbidding aspects, and
such persons Of our own class as strove
to exc out the means of livelihood by
keeping school for few months of
the year, in the old brown schoolhouse
which stood among the sand knobs
half a mile from the sea- To this
humble temple of learning, people
tlocked from the fishers hamlet by the
shore, and from the scattered farm
houses that dotted the barren region.
John Lawry was farmers son, and l
was fisherman's daughter. We wore
homespun and went barefooted OF
course we were not learned in any of
the artificial modes Of society. We
knew only the ruder and Simpler forms
Of life And yet was u coquette, and
gave John heartaches as real as any
deyotoe Of society ever inflicted or
felt
There are some natures with whom
submission only leads to encroach-
ment. Mine was one of these. If
John had resisted, or stood upon his
own rights, should have yielded
But he allowed me to feel my power,
and it was too sweet to be relin-
pushed.
As we advanced toward manhood
and womanhood, the chains were but
riyeted more firmly | became more
arrogant and John more yielding, and
it was but seldom that i did not find
myself victor in any difference of plan
on opinion that arose between us.
Were / to tell the exact truth, l
would own that always experienced
more heartfelt respect for John when
he resisted my tyranny. Woman-na-
ture is an anomaly. Wompn loves to
reign, but she prefers, as lover or Il
husband, one who is manly and dom
inant Yielding and weakness belong
to her sex, and are not quite respecta-
BILE in the other. 1t is good fun, rare
sport, to tyrannize over ones lovers,
but it is a sort of recreation that one
tires of. 1t is not the real business Of
our lives.
| have heard, in these later years, Of
certain women, who, with great ver-
bosity and perseverance, demand what
they are pleased to name the rights Of
their sex. l know that | shall be
deemed heretical by these in what /
say, but l have lived long life, in
which circumstances have made me
thoughtful and obseryant. l believe
man to be the dominant sex, and
though | would not for one instant up
hold in him the defrauding of woman
in her motherhood, her property, or
the emoluments of labor. do not ac-
knowledge for her the possession of
any rights which she has not the capa-
city and the power to maintain.
But when | commenced writing
about John and myself, nothing was
farther from my thoughts than to be
led into disquisition upon the rights
of woman. All wanted to say was,
that | believe woman respects self
asserting man more than timid one,
and really prefers, at least when she
begins to live earnestly, to yield rather
than to reign. Ii she reigns, she de-
sires rather that it shall be through
the affections than as matter of
right.
As have said, / always respected
John most IN his moments of resis-
lance, but was not the less 10th to
seem to yield was disposed always
to have my own way, and would toler-
ate no objection from him.
1t came to pass, in the course of the
years, that railroad approached the
sea not far from our hamlet, and this
brought, especially in the summer
time, an influx of strangers into our
neighborhood. Half mile from our
hamlet, and farther down the little bay
at whose mouth it stood, there was a
fine fiat leach lying along sheltered
cove, which afforded admirable bath
ing. Some Spectator or company
erected at this place large hotel,
which, closed and comfortless many
months of their year, was soon crow
ded resort during the summers.
The building Of this hotel caused