The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-03-03
Battered Barber
By DOROTHY DOUGLAS
@ by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
WNU Service

wNU Service
BATTERED didn't begin to express
II the havoc wrought In BARRIERS big
frame, when they carried him of the
football field and swiftly to the near
est hospital.
After they had finished with him
the nurse and surgeons-Barber looked
out from his multitudinous bandages
with mournful eyes and sensed the
truth.
mo more football-for met" he es.
sayed a smile. you've been over
generous with your bandages, haven't
your" he queried.
mot more than you needed, my lad"
said one kindly surgeon. aside from
a seriously smashed knee, you have q
| twisted wrist, dislocated collar bone
and slightly cracked nose bridge"
But apart from that I'm quite all
right" BARRIERS twisted smile hurt
| the tender hearts of those nurses who
had helped the surgeons patch up the
battered player. Suppose I'll have
to take to addressing envelopes for q
career"
"Or writing poetry" suggested the
surgeon. Its certain you'll never
play football again and-the country's
going to miss you, my boy"
The nurses turned away. Barber's
| fine mouth, despite the effort he made,
was quivering. A football hero he
was and now he lay physically shat
tered and rudely sundered from all
that made life interesting.
upon BARRIERS plight with eyes that
had CLINT of triumph in them. She,
the girl whom Barber wanted to
marry, had persistently refused to
marry professional football player.
Perhaps, now that football as pro-
fession had been snatched from him,
he would listen to reason and take up
some business which would mean q
regular salary and some kind of def
mite future assured.
Marcella never quite knew whether
| it was q touch of snobbishneSs on her
part or whether she dreaded merely
being the wife of the famous Robert
Barber.
"At any rate" she had often said
to Barber, 81 would much prefer to
love man who made his living by
means Of his brain power instead Of
by his athletic accomplishments"
You don't love me, Marcella, or
you wouldn't mind my profession be-
ing what it is-it is perfectly hon.
orable."
So in the hospital Barber lay there
thinking over all that MarceIla had
said and realizing that she certainly
had a right to her views Certainly
athletes could not be called interest
ing as a whole.
And as week upon week went by
and Barber still lay in the hospital the
time began to hang heavily upon him.
Tired of reading, bored with cross
own inner resources Barber fell prey
to depression.
1t was his little red-haired nurse
whom he nicknamed Crimson RAM
bier because Of her hair and her nat
ural tendency to ramble happily all
over the place In search of amuse-
ment for her patients, who brought
him some modelling wax.
Its what children love to play
with on rainy day. Now you just
start right In and try to model me or
that bed post-whichever interests
you most"
Barber laughed and pressed the soft
clay with fingers now sensitive to suf-
fering and strangely unlike his own
strong hands. AS a matter of fact,
Barber had always mad secret long
ing to model things but had crushed
down the feeling lest he be considered
a first-class nut.
And so, in another weeks time,
there was a most amusing array of
tiny figures standing upright on his
bedside stand. Nurses short and
nurses tall-nurses smiling and nurses
glum-and a generous sprinkling of
white-robed surgeons and a kiddie or
two all joined in that curious group
of small images.
But above all BARRIERS eyes had
taken on a new interest In things
about him. The depression was grad
ually giving way to something akin to
hidden fires bursting outwardly into
fame.
And that career of art, started In SO
curious way, was to carry Barber to
the very heights, for the little figures
standing so bravely there in the hos
pital, held that In their workmanship
which only the master hand can CON
tribute.
Marcella felt her heart beat trium-
phantly, for surely now she would say
yes to the question which Barber had
so many times asked.
1t was through the Crimson RAM
bier that the dragging forth of a
sculptor-to-bG took place, for in her
ramblings about she came across one
who was well In position to express
a verdict on those little nurses, sur
geons and children.
And when they were carried care