Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1933-12-07
Battered Barber
By DOROTHY DOUGLAS
g by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
WNU Service

BATTERED didn't begin to express
- the havoc wrought in BARRIERS big
frame, when they carried him off the
est hospital.
After they had finished with him
the nurse and surgeOns-Barber looked
out from his multitudinOus bandages
~Ith mOurnful eyes and sensed the
truth.
mo more football-for me?" he es.
Sayed q smile. you've been over
generous with your bandages. haven't
you?" he queried.
mot more than you needed, my lad"
said one kindly surgeon. aside from
a seriously smashed knee, you have
twisted wrist, dislOcated collar bone
and a 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
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. BARRIERS
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.
There was one, however. who looked
upon BARRIERS plight with eyes that
had a CLINT of triumph in them. She.
the girl whom Barber wanted to
marry, had persistently refused to
marry a professional football player.
Perhaps, now that football as a pro-
fessiOn had been snatched from him,
he would listen to reason and take up
some business which would mean a
regular salary and some kind of def
mite future assured.
Marcella never quite knew whether
it was a touch of snobbishness on her
part or whether she dreaded merely
being the wife of the famous Robert
Barber.
eat any rate" she had often said
to Barber, IL would much prefer to
love a 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.
CRADLE"
So in the hospital Barber lay there
thinking over all that Marcella had
said and realizing that she certainly
had a right to her views. Certainly
athletes could not be called interest
ing as 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
word puzzles, quite fed up with his
own inner resources Barber fell prey
to depression.
1t was his little red-haired nurse
whom he nicknamed Crimson Ram
bier beca .se 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 a 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 had 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 kiddie OF
two all Joined in that curious group
of small images.
But above all BARRIERS eyes had
taken on new interest in things
about him. The depression was grad
ually giving way to something akin tc
hidden fires bursting outwardly into
fame.
And that career of art, started in Sc
curious a way, was to carry Barber tt
the very heights, for the little figure:
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 sa.
yes to the question which Barber hat
so many times asked.
1t was through the Crimson Ram
bier that the dragging forth OF
sculptOr-to-be took place, for in he
ramblings about she came across on
who was we'll in a position to expires
a verdict on those little nurses, SUI
geons and children.
And when they were carried care
fully away to the great ones studi
for inspection, tear squeezed thrOug
tho dark brown laSheS of CrimSO