San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-03-02
ONLY A BOY.
What Is Supposed Win BE Written q
Hundred Years From Now, When
Women Assume the Rule.
CFrom the Item }

(From the nemJ
Years ago, in the little village OF
N, on the banks of the beautiful
Hudson, lived q family of which l had
the misfortune to be member, and not
only a member, but SON an only son
and in that fact lay the cause of the
wretched existence l led.
The family was large-eight children,
and all girls except myself, unfortunate
mel Would that l had been girl!
MY mother was known in the village as
q strong-minded woman, and many
were the times was led to realize the
truth of this assertion.
The harsh invectives, the disparaging
epithets leveled at me for daring to be
q boy in the age of feminine govern
ment, when called to mind, even now
sends cold tremor over my diminutlve
frame, dwarfed and warped by the edu-
cation received.
When l speak of education, let no
visions of Yale or Harvard, with fresh
men, sophomore, senior years-with
hazings, serenades and commencement
days-hoat through your mind. Alas i!
these happy experiences OF which L
happened to overhear some faint de-
scriptions, were reserved for my more
masculine sisters. They went to col
lege; 1 remained at homo.
i remember we'll our days of infancy.
Instead of the customary dolls, nursery
rhymes and all the parephernalia that
accompanies the happy home of child
hood, geometrical figures, hieroglyph-
les, instruments representing The plan
etary system, and all that aids in i'm
parting knowledge were used to inter
est the youthful mind. "Old things
had passed away; all things had be-
come new" Toys and ornaments
were made to give way before the re-
auirements of utilitarian age.
AS soon as my sisters had mastered
the alphabet they were sent to college,
not allowed to remain at home through
fear of becoming etfeminate. When
my father-poor, much-abused little
man-ventured to inquire for what
field of usefulness my mother. intended
to tit me, he was informed that l was
good at tending baby" doing odd bits
of sewing, and numberless other little
errands about the house. And the
poor, hen-pecked man submitted, while
he saw his promising son kept at home,
O maid -of-all-work. After twenty
years course at college, my sisters re-
turned. Never will forget the i'm
preston produced on seeing them.
Their like can be found neither in
heaven nor earth. Preceding their ar
rival, sundry dispatches, legal docu-
ments, suspicious looking manuscripts,
kept flooding the mails, all of which
seemed suggestive of evil. Even then
L smelt the battle afar off," and would
fain have laid me down beneath some
grassy nook at peace with the world
and ,Uomen. longed for the wings of
q dove, that 1 might "fee away and be
at rest" But fate would have it other
wise. The dreaded day arrived, and
found me still alive and in the posses
sion of good health, would that could
say good spirits, also. The sun never
rose and set that day upon moe mis-
cradle creature than |. My mother,
alive with keen expectancy, and already
glorying in the fame that had preceded
her uAuBnJeISJ SecuuSu unusually hoiSh
and severe to me, and l often caught
her looking at me with peculiar ex-
preston, as though she wondered why
/ came into the world, and, having
come, why had the impudence to re-
main. She never solved the problem;
neither did /.
But, as 1 said before, the day ar
rived, and with it also my sisters. A
decided masculine step and decided
masculine jerk of the door-bell con-
viewed the sad intelligence that my sis
ters had returned. i, still keeping the
position of errand boy, answered the
bell and ushered in Prof. l.. The
picture Is as vivid as though it hap
pened Yesterday. She, / was after
wards told, was the fa--famed mathe-
matician. who reflected such credit on
the college that educated her. Tall,
angular, gray-eyed, gray-cOmplexioned,
and almost gray-haired, rose she on the
horizon. Her dress-hov can L de-
scribe it-hov do justice to its simple
ity, and the economy practiced IN Its
cutP No bevitching little bows, no
mysterious loops or fringes relieved