The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-13
RATE OF SUBSCRIPTIONS.
TIES OF ADVERTISING.
Legs, Arms ANA RIOnumcnts,


War. Reading down the dry details,
the statistics of men and material, we
stumble upon startling and curious
facts which are full of pathos and touch
| ing suggestion. To a man who duly
appreciates the two legs upon which he
| stalks to his business, and the two arms
with which he fights the battles of life,
! IT will be interesting to know that the
War Department has furnished up to
July lst last past, 3,OSl legs, 2,24O arms,
not to mention 55 hands, and feet
But the work is not yet finished. The
Secretary estimates that 900 limbs re-
main to be supplied; and as there are
| cases in which an adaptation is impos-
slble from the nature of the injury, it
is recommended that the money value
\ OF the limb which he would have re-
ceiVed had his stump been moro com
plant, be paid to every one in such wise
| asufferer. Thus the Government seems
to be doing all that it can do to soften
these surgical austeritieS of the war.
and to restore the MANNED and crippled
soldier to something like usefulness and
| Il Self-Supporting status. But however
kindly and efficient may be this provis. .
ion, and however great may be the tri-
umphs of mechanical skill, the suffer
ings, the disadvantages, and corporeal
! 1ncOnVenienceS remain. And no art of
| the inventor, no cunning of the physi-
| clan, can restore the nerves which have
been rudely severed, or make the pa
tlent physically whole again. The ma
tural complement OF limbs is the best
simply because it is natural; and al
though habit may accustom the wearer
to his succedaneum, he will always be
conscious of the loss which art has
| merely made tolerable. He may have
the power of lOcomotion, but not the
strength long to continue it; and the
! new arm which restores his outward
appearance may be incapable of severe
eXertion. When the best is done the
loss remains, and that loss must be en-
tered upon the proper side in the ac-
count current of the Rebellion.
But there are torn and shattered
bodies which are beyond the reach of
the surgeons hand, and to whom the
Secretary of War can send no assist
| ance. They sleep peacefully enough in
the forty-one military cemeteries of the
Nation-one hundred and four thou
| sand five hundred and twenty-six of
| them-and every moldering body rep
resents human life which, before the
Rebellion, was useful, active and pro-
ductive. There are more to come, and
the number will probably be increased
| to two hundred and fOrty-nine thous-
| and three hundred and hinety-seven.
To these must be added the remains of
those who were buried elsewhere. What
| harvest of deathl What an expeudi-
| ture of the virility of the landl What
| draft upon the production of the fu-
| tuFel What a diminution of the real
| wealth of the country! But, putting
aside the cold calculations of the econ
| OmiSt, every reader of ordinary sensi-
bility will recall the mental and physi-
cal suffering, the bereavements, the un-
timely departure of the dead, and the
| long and sharp sorrow ofthe surviving,
of wives, of children, of sweethearts,
| to whom the telegram or letter bore in
telligence, which, if it did not palsy
their souls, at least changed the whole
tenor of their lives, and while it dark
ened all their future. left them possibly
| self-dependent and alone in n bleak aud
busy world! There are wounds which
| pensions do not heal, and wants which
the government, however generous,
the world cannot give back the
son to his widowed mother, or
| restore the-husband to the arms of his
1 lonely wife. There is and can be no re-
cord in the War Department of broken
hearts-there is no bureau of blighted
hopes, no secretary to compute the
sighs and tears, the days of distress, the
sleepless nights, or the false and mock
ing dreams of women whom the red
hand of war, stretching from the far-ot1
| battlefield has remorseleSsly smitten,
| upon the very hearth-stone of a blasted
and, may be, stern material necessities.
The Government places u little iron
monument at the head of the soldiers
grave; it tpensiOnS his widow and pro-
vides for his children. Can it do more2
Yes, more, much more! 1t can remem-
| berlin allits vaunted policy, in all its
| law-mRking, in all its care of the pres
ent, and in all its provision for the fu-
ture, how much the very opportunity OF
doing anything has cost us, and by
what sacrifices we have earned the
right and the power to shape the desti-
nies of the republic, and to make it in
deed the guardian of all its children
against every form of oppression. We
want no wasted lives. We want no
gratuitous mortality. We want a
| steady remembrance of the past; un-
vexed by revengetul memories and per-
petuated hatreds, but always fresh
when principles are at stake, or social
equities again endangered. So much
| is due to those who have suffered and
to those who have died.-N. Y. Tribune.
| -S0S-