Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-06-11
Undressing Little Ned.
Detroit Free Press.

IN front OF twenty-five cent e.
press wagon p repeated the man i
tones of surprise.
eyes"
Well, now, it's a curious case,
he slowly continued. :" We a
thought he'd gone to the dogs, TO
sure, for he was drinking a pint 0
whisky a day, but few months ag
he braced right up, stopped drink
ing, and now L hear he's in goot
business and saving money. l
beats all, for the last time I saw
him he seemed half underground.
When you 60 home at night anc
find that all is well with your owl
flesh and blood, do you 60 reasoning
that the rest of the world must care
for itself? Do you ever shut your
eyes and call up the hundreds oil
faces you have met during the day,
even if it be a strangers, do you
let it drop from memory with your
dreams, or do you call it up again
and again as night comes down, and
hope it may lose more of its bright
ness in the whirling mists of time
So Whisky Bill was hunted
down. An inquiry here and there
finally traced him to a little brown
cottage on by-street. He sat on
the step in the twilight, a burly,
broad-shouldered man of fifty, and
in the house three or four children
gathered around the lamp to look
over a picture-book.
eyes, they used to call me
Whisky Bill, down town." he re-
piled, as he moved along and made
room, "but it is weeks since I
heard the name. No wonder they
may think me dead, for I've not set
eyes on the old crowd for months,
and l don't want to for months to
g They tell me you have quit
One could see that by |
your face"
" 1 hope so; haven't touched a
drop since February. Before that
[ was half drunk day in and day
out, and more of a brute than a
nan. l don't mind saying that my
Vife's death set me to thinking;
'ut | didn't stop my liquor. God
orgiVe me, but / was drunk when
he died, half drunk at the grave,
md l meant to go on a regular
pree that night. 1t was low down,
If, but l was no better than a
'rute those days"
'SAnd so you left your motherless
children at home and went and got
trunk ?"
"No, 1 said [ meant to, but 1
idn't. The poor things were cry
1g all day, and after coming home
'om the burial l thought to get
m tucked away in bed before l
ent out. Drunk or sober, l never g
ruck one of EN- blow, and they
ever ran from me when l staggered '
ome. There's four of EN- in there,
I'D the youngest isn't quite four c
ears yet. | got the older ones in
I'd all right, and then came little
ed. He had cried himself to :
eep, and he called for mother as y
on as [ woke him. Until that
ght | never had that boy on my A
lee, to say nothing of putting him 4
bed, and you can guess these big 8
gers made slow work with the B.
oks and buttons. Every minute
kept saying his mother didn't do ?
at way, and mother done this way, s
d the big children were hiding Ca
cir heads under the quilt to drown e:
cir sobs. When I had his clothes q
and his nightgown on 1 was &C
hamed and put him down, and e.
len the oldest saw tears in nv ii
es and jumped out of bed to put :!
r arms around my neck, 1 dropped n
, name of Whisky Bill right 2.
en- and forever" p;
"And little Ned?" Lao
"Mebbe I'd have weakened but
him." replied the man as he
ped his eyes. CATER | got the S.
Ids night-gOwn on what did he o.
but kneel right down beside me j
d wait for me to say the Lords ~
aver to him! Why, sir, you in in
ght have knocked me down with
feather There 1 was, mother
d father to him, and 1 couldn't 1
four words of that prayer to sip9
We my life :! He waited and waited
me to begin, as his mother al
Us had, and the big children were I
iting, and when l took him in
arms and kissed him 1 called ~
lven to witness that my life cat
'uld change from that hour. And X
it did, sir, and I've been trying
d to lead sober, honest life.
d helping me, no one shall call {
Whisky Bill again"
The four little children-little
in his night-gown-came out bbat
a goodnight kiss, and the boy i
L. L Il 4