East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1859-08-11
MALCOLM WARREN
The Old Mans Lesson.

Meloolm, wouJdnt s-o ont sta-nieeit
Come, stay WITH me tins evening.
Not this evening, Alice. I have prom
ised to meet some friends this evening
and must keep my word. l will be at
home in good season..
Il had hoped that I should have your
company. Come, why can't you try and
see if l cannot make you as happy as
those companions whom you are to meet:
Just this once, Malcolm, O, this once 7
NO, no, Alice; / am going out
What-crying Now what's the use OF
that? Can't fellow go out once while
without leaving a crying wife 2
Il can't help it Malcolm. But here,
kiss me before you GO
Thus spoke Malcolm Warren and his
young wife. Malcolm was young man,
twenty-seven years of age, and carpen-
ter by trade. His wife was one of the
sweetest dispositioned girls in town, and
she made one of the best wives. She
loved her husband with all the energy of
her pure soul, and she knew that she was
loved in heart. Her two children, boy
and girl, often saw her shed tears when
they were alone with her in the snug lit
tie sitting.room, and the boy was old
enough to ask what made his mother cry,
but she dared not tell him.
Malcolm Warren owned the little cot
tage in which he lived, and he had paid
for it all out of his own hard earnings,
while Alice had borne her own share of
the burden, by purchasing all the furni-
ture. Malcolm was stout and an excel
lent workman, and had never yet seen
the hour when he needed to lay idle for
the want of work. A better-hearted
youth lived not in the town, and when
he took the gentle Alice for his wife,
there was many fair maiden whose bo-
som gave place to kindly envy. They
would not have robbed Alice Of her
prize; but they only hoped that their own
lot might be as fortunate. Why, then,
should cloud come upon that house p
Why should Alice weep? All, for the
same reason that thousands of our fairest
daughters wept. For the same reason
that hot tears are ever crying out their
silent appeals for mercy; tears that run
until they make food that fairly shrieks
as it rolls over our land.
Malcolm Warren had high social ma
ture = his society was priced by all who
could secure it--and he had been indulg-
ing in the false smiles of the wine-cup.
For the last year he had been allowing
his appetite to gain strength. At first
it was only an occasional glass; then "a
glass or so once in while, and then
'one or two glasses day. But lately he
had gone so far as to spend his earnings
away from home, and for nearly two
months past he had spent all his money
with his jovial companions. Alice saw
all this, and she knew full well where it
would end if it was not stopped, She
knew her husbands nature, and she
knew how surely he was fallen. She had
whispered to him her fears, and he had
tried to laugh them off as idle whims.-
She had prayed to him to stop the fatal
career while he yet had strength, but he
had been offended because she would
think that he would ever become drunk.
ard. So Alice was afraid to speak all
her fears. Yet she saw with clear eye
all that was coming. She saw the broad
road upon which her beloved was travel
ing, and her heart was aching. She
knew that even now want was staring