The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1933-04-07
Battered Barber
BY DOROTHY DOUGLAS
9 by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
WNIJ Servfce

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 me?" he es-
f, sayed a smile. you've been over
generous with your bandages, haven't
your" he queried.
mot more than you needed,.m lad"
said one kindly surgeon. Aside from
seriously smashed knee, you have a
/ twisted wrist, dislocated collar bone
and a slightly cracked nose bridge"
! "But apart from that I'm quite all
| right" Barber's 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.
There was one, however, who looked
upon Barber's plight with eyes that
bo1 n pl;,t of trfuponh IN thoYu Sho
the girl whom Barber wanted to
(, marry, had persistently refused to
marry professional football player.
Perhaps, now that football as a pro-
4 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.
Il Marcella never quite knew whether
1t was touch Of snobbishness on her
being the wife of the famous Robert
Barber.
"At any rate" she had often said
to Barber, II 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 Marcella had
said and realizing that she certainly
hsd 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
own inner resources Barber fell prey
to depression.
1t was his little red-haired nurse
I whom he nlcknamed Crimson Ram
bier becacse 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 matter of fact,
Barber had always had a secret long
Ing to model things but had crushed
down the feeling lest he be considered
first class nut
And so, In another weeks time,
there was 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 kddie or
two all joined in that curious group
of small images.
taken on new interest In things
about him. The depression was grad
ually giving way to something akin to
hidden fires bursting outwardly into
flame.
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-tobe took place. for In her
rambllngs about she came across one
who was well In position to express
verdict on those little nurses, sur
geons and children.
And when they were carried care.
fully away to the great ones studio
for inspection, a tear squeezed through
the dark brown lashes of Crimson
Rambler.
Barber saw it and his heart gave
q great bound.
Darling" he cried swiftly and
seized the white hand hanging Imply
beside his bed. Would you have
loved me II had still been football
player"
II would love you II you were the