The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-11-13
ALICE CRAIG's MISTAKES.

Alice Craig married at seventeen.
At that age she was peculiarly SIM
pie and child like girl. She had been
bred in the retirement of the country
BY q maiden aunt, who, dying when
Alice had reached the age of sixteen,
had bequeathed to the child hand
some fortune. At her aunt's death
Alice returned to the home Of her par
ents, which she had left at the age OF
three years.
The family consisted of her father,
a thong htless, extravagant man, en-
dowed with remarkable social powers,
and living in a circle SO much above
his own status, in point of wealth, that
he was always embarrassed by his et-
forts to retain his footing among them;
her step-mother, who, twelve years be-
fore, had been an exceedingly pretty
bride, but was now faded, hopeless
invalid. tyraunizsd over by several
load voiced, dirty children, that COM
pleted the inharmOnious household
Alice was decidedly uncomfortable.
though with but vague knowledge of
the cause. And it was by no means
wonderful that when her father pre-
seuted to her a sutton from his own cir
Gle man skilled in the arts by which
thoe of the world know how tn COM
mend themselves towomen handsome,
polished man, that she should. after a
little maidenly reluctance and hesita-
ton, accept the offer SO warmly urged.
Her husband, man many years
older than herself, had few tastes in
common with her He MAS essential
ly a worldly man, living on the worlds
applause. MS highest standard of right,
public opinion. In the early days
of his acquaintance with Alice. and of
his marriage, her simplicity. her gen.
uihe religious faith, assessed for him
a piquant charm. This vanished, how
ever as might have been expected, the
moment it interfered with his plans
The standard of right by which Alice
guided her life was the Bible-a very
different one from her husbands.
He looked only to the approval of
man. She looked with awe to high
er source, and sought her guidance
there.
Mr.. Craig was a gentleman; he
could not quarrel with woman. So,
when there were conflicting views be-
tween himself and wife, he showed
his disapproval by contemptuous 81
lence, OF by a few severely sarcastic
illusions, and then left her to herself.
Alice had never loved her husband.
The fountains of her heart had re-
NAMED unstirred. and though she bore
this treatment tearfully, there was not
that ranking sting which it would
have left in loving soul. Ste knew
little of life from observation. and at
length she came to comfort herself
with the idea that the gradual sepa-
ration Of interests, never very firmly
united, for they had not been welded
at the furnace of love. was Inevitable,
and an experience common to all.
Thus in all the years of their mar
riei life, Mr.. Craig went his own
worldly way, and Alice went hers
alone, with only her sweet child to
soothe and cheer her. Jasper was
twelve years of age when a little
brother was born to HIM, to his de-
light, and TO add to the mothers
comfort, under the almost entire alien
alton of her husband.
Mr.. Craig had by this time almost
entirely deserted his home, living with
a set of dissolute men much younger
than himself, who welcomed him.
perhaps, more for his reckless expen-
diture of money, than from any fra
ternal feeling. Alice had no longer
influence over him. She feared him
almost as much as he despised her,
and gladly turned to the solace af-
forded by her children.
Alice was travelling with her chill
dreu when summoned to the death
bed of her husband. She returned
hurriedly, to find the house closed,
while in q darkened room the old man
lay slowly breathing out his life. He
had been stricken down in the midst
of his excuses, and now lay, his
bloated face surrounded by its fringe
of white hair, bereft of its Aorid hue,
and more pallid than the pillow on
which it rested. The only words he
spoke were a feeble complaint of
Alice's absence, no farewell to her, no
dying message to his children, no SOL
emn words to reunite, on the verge of
the grave, those long diverging lives.
He passed away, and Alics was
widow, but not more in heart than she
had been during many years of es-
arrangement.