"Our OId Mammy."

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1833, 5 April 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

"Our Old Mammy."

" What's thai for ? " aeked a Free Press man, as he saw a car driver on Woodward avenue lake a nickel from his pocket and pass it into the fare-box. " For her." "What her?" The car stopped and the driver got down with a " Good morning, mammy ! " and asBisted an old woman of 70 to enter the car. " Did you pay for her ? ' " Yes." "Why?" "Well, the story runs hack for aimost two years," he said, as he picked up his lines. " I reckon you know Bill ? " " Yes." "Weil, two years ago he was one of the toughest men in Detroit. He drank, swore, gambled, and had all the other vices lying around loose. I tell you, he was a terror when off duty and on a spree. He was getting so bad on his car, that another week would have bounced him, but something happened." " What ? " "He was coming up one evening, halfdrunk and full of evil, and somewhere about Davenport street he lurched over the dashboard. He caught and was dragged, and the horse began to kick and run. That old woman there was the only passenger on the car, and when she saw the accident she came out, grabbed the flying lines with one hand and the brake with the other, and looking down upon Bill fhe called out : "Oh I Lord ! help me to save him 1 He's a wicked young man and not nk to die 1 ' " Well, she stopped that car and held to the horse until some one came along aad helped Bill out of his fix, and she was all the time calling him ' poor boy ' and 'my son ' and thanking God he was not killed. Ho had a close call, though, and ie was a solemn warning. From that night he hasn't taken a drink, and no driver on this line has a cleaner mouth or is taking better care of himself." " And the old woman ? " " She lives away out, along with a daughter. Many's the dollar Bill has sent after her since that night in the way of clothes and provisions, and he'll never forget her. The story came to the rest of us after a while, and we've sort of adopted her as ' Our Old Mammy.' We help her on and off, pay her nickel out of our own pockels, and when the car isn't too fall we have a minutes' chat with her. She likes us all, and we wouldn't trade her off for the whole line. It's a bit of romance among ourselves, you seejtf " Yes. Did she ever talk to you T" "Did she? She sat right there on that stool one day two months ago, and said : " ' My son, let drink alowe 1 It robs the pocket, chcata the brain, and leaves you friendless 1 Don't swear 1 Oaths go with a vicious soul I Keep your temper I The man who can't control his temper is no better than a caged wolf ! " " She said that with her blue eye 3 reading my soul and her old voice trembling with earnestness, and every word went right to my heart and lodged there. She's had something to say to most of the boys, and I reckon each one is the better for it. Curious, ain't it, how we found our old mammy, and maybe you'll believe with some of the rest of us that Providence had a hand in it." — Detroit Free Press.