Smyrna times., 1878-10-09
Better than the Red Ribbon,

They were working for months to get
sold Saws" TO put on a red ribbon and let
whisky alone. Nearly every man in his
neighborhood on Larned street wore the
insignia, and "Old Saws had no trouble to
see that they had more to eat and more
clothes for their children as soon as thew
stopped pouring down whisky. He dis.
covered, too, that these men we're busy
where he could hardly find days work,
for any man wanting to hire prefers a sober
laborer to one whose red eyes and thick
tongue tell of a degraded nature.
"Old Saws" cursed the Red Ribbon bust
ness high and low. He said it was tyran.
nical interference with the rights of free
citizen, and that it was an insult to him to
have folks thinking that he didn't know
what was good and bad for him. Men
finally gave him up as a sot, and waited for
some inhuence-they could not imagine
what it would be-that should finally set
him to thinking. cold Saws poured down
whisky, had less to eat, grew more ragged
in looks and vile in nature, and one day
when his drunken carcass was pulled out
OF snowbank woman who stood by ex-
| claimed:
THAT man has no more soul than the
| lowest brute on earth ~
last hope anyone had entertained of re-
| forming the man was surrendered.
In the crazy old shanty called "home,' a
ragged, forlorn-looking wife and five
children shivered around the stove, quar-
relied over the scanty meals, looked out of
the rag stuffed windows and waited-not
for the bright sun-not for a storm to pass
not for good news-not for change for
the better, but waited for that brute to
come "home" and curse and pound them.
Even the two.year-old babe wished itself
dead. Temperate men pointed out the
family as a warning to drinkers; children
hurried by the house, and pedestrians
wondered why smallpox did not take root
there.
And yet, in that old hovel, and in that
hunger-pinched and despairing family was
that influence which men had hoped to see
exert itself. 1t cropped out in a curiou:
way, but it had all the power of dozer
street one day and told him that his DO,
Ned was in the hospital, carried there from
the street, where he had been run over.
course -V' The old man checked him
SELF Little Neds big blue eyes had al
> ways seemed to look into his soul, anC
the boy had complained the least of any
t When the ugly-drunk father had glaret
around the room, seeking for some excus
to beat his wife and children, this boy haC
creLt under his halflifted arm and climbe
upon his knee, fearing nothing. One da
\ when the children found a nickel on tn
walk he saved it for father, proudly say
ing:
i Ma wanted to buy a loaf of bread, bu
I l wouldn't give it up! l knew you'd wan
!, it to buy whisky Amt good boy?"
y The father took it, but the words burne
/ his heart like FIRE, and he bought brea
with it, though he hadn't tasted whisk
that whole day.
5, So Ned was in the hospital cod Saws
was two-thirds drunk when told the new
and he staggered against pedestrians as b
made his way to the hospital. AS the doc
- were opened for him, and as people pl
. "Mr." to his name and treated him as
Y he had been a gentleman, he felt ashame
of himself for the first time in ten years.
"I-Pll come in after while! ~ he star
mered as he backed out, and retreated
the street and walked up and down uni
his brain and speech were clearer. I
felt that he was ragged and uncouth, ar
he would not have returned to the hospit
had not the memory of Little Ned's pa
face and big blue eyes been stronger thi
his shame.
"Come right in," they said to him-"tt
way-here he is, suffering good deal, b
not fatally injured"
When cold Saws saw the clean bee
tidy rooms and well.dressed people,
would have been glad to hide his face frc
those who were looking at him. When
discovered that his injured boy had be
-. robed in long white nightgown, clean
'-u the purest snowflake, lump worked il
- the sot's throat, and he gasped:
"N-Ned, lin awful s-sorry"
81 knew you'd come, and l want to
ry, ma, too" whispered the child.
"Old Saws mind few home in a s
,ia. ond. He saw "ma" in rags, without CO..
tho for head or feet, and he felt that the peo
or would hoot her if she appeared there.
dis "S-she'll c-come, guess" he choked
the he turned away his head, and he felt a
nd, some one had stabbed him to the heart.
. oig, Is Yet, there was something else in st
ciai for him. A nurse, sitting back iowa
no him and unconscious of his presence,
div I saying to patient:
the "Poor child-how pity him His fat
A is drunken brute who ought to freeze
nd death The family are halfclothed, b
ate. fed, and lives worse than wolyes-all I
1-i9 , T "Old Saws" as they call him, may p
. whisky down his throatp
Ice. Ned heard the words too. His blue G