The record-union., 1897-01-31
DADDY'S DOLLY.

you SO before
Why does Daddy want dolly? Not to play
with! No, my dears
But because its silent features tell OF
faults III bygone years.
Long ago, before you, Willie. or my little
Loo was born,
Daddy used to kiss another little T,o,1ie
every morn.
Elder sister to you, darlings She has
W., gone to that bright place,
mere the angels kiss her now dears-
u-, KISS her bonny angel face.
When she lived your Daddy hadn't got a
pretty home like this
mo nice cot Tor her to sleep in; no nice
friends for her to kiss.
IN the room there was no fire and nc
carpet on the floor.
All her toys We're old and dirty, like the
dolly in the drawer
Children, that reminds me of a little
story which I'll tell,
All about a tiny maiden; of a dirty doll
as well
Strange enough, twas on a Christmas
evening it happened. too;
so well call the dolly Daddy's.' and the
little lady Loo
Well, this Daddy loved his Louie: loved his
home and loved his wife;
But his home was most unhappy, and he
IlVed Wretched life.
For he had another love; a love that
breaks each sacred link;
A love that ruins heart and souI-the
cursed love of drink.
"Once upon Christmas eve. the mother
of this little Loo,
Having neither food nor money, knew not
what she was to do.
Her husband was out drinking To his
home he would not come
Till all his weekly wages had been spent
to pay for rum.
AS she Wept, the door was opened by tiny
toddling thing;
A little girl who held a box, and sweetly
thus did sing:
"'GOD BLESS YOU. GENTLEFOLK.
LET NOTHING YOU DISMAY;
REMEMBER CHRIST, OUR SAVIOR.
WAS BORN ON CHRISTMAS DAY
'In England where this Louie lived. it is
a custom old
AT Christmas time for children thus to go
out in the cold
The doll within the box our new horn
Savior represents,
They sing their Christmas greeting.
Kindly people give them cents.
THE mother sent the maiden from the
door with kisses kind,
Then going to the window, pulled aside
the dingy blind,
And peered out at the evening sky, which
seemed SO clear and bright
AS If 1t We're impossible to snow and storm
that night.
Then turning to her little Loo she took
her on her knee
And said, Can mammals darling sing
God Bless YOU after me?'
Together, then, they sang the tiny beg
gar's Christmas song
And little Loo could sing il without man.
mas help ere long
Then they got an empty herring box and
~, made it nice and clean;
They dressed the dirty dolly-little Loo's.
of course, / mean;
They dressed it like a babe, in one of
Louie's baby frocks:
Ihey seWed it where its head was loose.
and put it in the box
It's leg was doubled up bit; it had but
one, no more,
Which, by the bye, is just like Daddy's
dolly, in the drawer.
"On balmy winter evening Loo went
bravely from her home,
with her dirty dolly in the box, from
house to house to roam,
Singing with her baby voice that simple
Christmas lay,
Begging. that they might have food upon
the Christmas day.
Soon kindly lady met her, taking pity at
her plight,
She pressed into her little hand a silver
dollar bright.
Meanwhile her drunken father to his
Wretched home home had come
His money gone, his brain befogged, his
senses stepped in rum.
When little Louie hurried home and ran
in at the door,
The sight so startled her she dropped her
money on the floor
Across the parlor rolled the coin, toward
the drunkard's feet
Enough to buy another drink enough to
stand a treat,
With hideous, exultant laugh, he snatched
il from the floor
And rushed toward the temple of his hated
love once more.
Soon the night. which had been bright
and warm and beautiful till now,
Grew cold and stormy, and the streets
were covered thick with snow
Then came the father home again, more
brutal than before;
He bade his little Louie go and sing and
beg for more.
In vain her gentle mothers prayer, in vain
she bids him think:
lie cares for nothing-nobody-he must
have more to drink.
While the cruel storm was surging down
the street and round the blocks,
Poor little Loo was sent out, with her dolly
and her box
ITO heavy sluggish slumber soon the
wretched father fell,
His weeping wife knelt praying for the
child she loved so well.
The hours dragged slowly on, until the
midnight came and passed,
Each minute to the mother seemed like
double of the last.
Then daylight peered in stealthily beneath
the ragged blind,
And sounds of joyous chimes were borne
upon the frozen wind
Still no tiny footsteps fell upon the
mothers yearning ear;
No longed for baby's voice then came her
breaking heart to cheer.
At early morn the father woke, and
pressed his throbbing brow,
Sick and i'll. but still his brain was not
besotted now
He saw his weeping wife He marked her
anguish deep and wild.
He gazed around, but nowhere could he
see his child.
In, he ~
remorse ana Tear
He went to seek his little one. He sought
her far and near.
HE sought her up and down the town.
He sought her high and low
He found her in churchyard corner,
mid the drifted snow
Her head was resting on the herring box,
and to her breast
Her dirty, one-legged dolly in her arms
was closely pressed.
She was dead. Frozen to death. Her soul
had gone above
On her image of our Savior lavishing its
latest love
She lies in that same corner, where she
laid her down TO die.
Very near TO where your little sister and
your mother lie.
'' GOD BLESS YOU, MERRY GENTLE
FOLK, LET NOTHING YOU DIS
REMEMBER CHRIST. OUR SAVIOUR.
w 40 iepINN o-> ilGiS Mao LA l..
so sang that little Louie, and she sang
il not in vain,
For on that day her father vowed he'd
never touch drink again.
Although he lost his darling on that bitter
Christmas morn.
He looked upon that dolly as a Savior
newly born.
Be sure he treasured IL, and kept his vow
for evermore.
God bless that doll-like Daddy's dirty
dolly in the drawer"
Walter Browne. in New York Herald.