Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1858-04-01
ulQSGRAlAN NGOUS,
THE OLD MANS BRIDE.

Il was an old fool Yes; | was an old
fool, and that's all there is about it. !
ought to have known better; she was not
to blame, poor thing! she is but child
yet, and these baubles pleased her ambi-
tious mothers eye. 1t was not the old
man, but his D,oney-his MONEY! might
have knownit. May and December-Nay
and December-pshaw how could I ever
have believed that Mary Terry could love
an old fellow ike me 2 Mark Ware sur
veys himself in the large parlor mirror
See; it reflects portly man of sixty,
with ruddy face, snow white hair and eyes
from which the light of youth has long
since departed. And yet there is fire in
the old mans veins, too see how he strides
across the carpet, calculating with fresh
emphasis, Yes, ] was an old fool AN old
fool But | will be kind to her, | am not
the man to tyrannize over young girl be-
cause her mother took her out of the nur-
sery to make her my wife. / see now it is
not in reason for young girl like her to
stay contentedly at home with my frosty
head and gouty feet. Poor little Mary
No; III not punish her because she can
not love me she shall have what she wants
and go where she likes; her mother is on
" too proud to trot her out as the wife Of
the rich Mark Ware. If he will make
them both happy, let them do it; may be-
and Mark Ware paused may be, after she
has seen what that Dead Sea apple-the
the worlds made of, she will come back
and love the old man little; may be
who knows? No woman who is believed
in, and we'll treated, ever makes bad wife
there never was bad wife yet, but there
was bad husband first; that's gospel;
Marks gospel, any how, and Mark Ware
is going to act upon it
Mary shall go to the ball tonight with
her mother, and | will stay at home and
nurse my gouty leg. There's no evil in
her; she's as pure as lily, and if she
wants to see the world, why-she can see
it; and though | can't go dancing round
with her, never will dim her bright eyes;
no, no =
THAT will do Tigy, another pin in this
lace; now move that rose in my hair a lit
tie to the left so, that will do
That will do Tame phrase for that
small Grecian head, with its crown Of braid
ed tresses for the full, round throat, and
snowy sloping shoulders for the round,
ivory arms, and tapering rosy tipped fin
gers; for the lovely bosom and dainty waist
Well might such beauty dazzle Mark
Wares eyes, till he failed to discern the
distance between May and December.
Mark Ware had rightly read Mary
She was guiltless and pure, as he had said;
| and, child as she was, there was that in
her manner before which the most auda-
cious eye would have shrunk abashed
When the young bride first realized the
import of these words she had been made
to utter, till death doth us part she looked
forward with shuddering horror at the long
weary monotonous years before her. Her
home seemed prison and Mark Ware the
keeper Its very splendor oppressed her.
And she chafed and fretted in gilded fet-
ters, while her restless head cried out
Anywhere but home But she must sit
there in her prison-house day after day, lis
tening only to the repining of her own
troubled heart? Must the bee and butterfly
alone be free to revel in the sunshine ?
Had God made her beauty to fade in the
sitting atmosphere of darkened parlors, lis
tening to the complaints of querulous old
age? Every pulse of her heart rebelled.
How could her mother have thus sold
her. How could Mark Ware SO unmag-
unanimously have accepted the compulsory
sacrifice? Why not have shown her the
world, and let her choose for herself? Oh,
anywhere, anywhere from such home
There was no lack of invitations abroad
for Mary had flashed across the fashionable
horizon like some bright comet, eclipsing
all the reigning beauties. No ball. no par