Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-12-20
Legs, Arms and Monuinents.


There is something more than red tape
Reading down the dry details, the statistics
Of men and Of material We stumble upou
startling and curious facts which are full Of
patbos and touching suggestion. To a man
gho duly appreciates the two legs upoi
Which he stalks to his business, and the two
arms with which he fights the battle Of life,
Il will be interesting to know that the War
Department has furnished up to July Ist
last past, 1881 legs, 2.240 arms. not 10
mention IS hands, and feet. But the
work is not yet finished The Secretary
estimates that 1000 limbs remsin to ba
supplied; as there are cases in which AN
adaptation is impossible from tAe nature OF
the injury, il is recommended that tho mon
ey value of the limb which he would have
received had bis stump been more compli.
ant, be paid to every one in such wise a suf.
! ferer. Thus the Government seems to be
doing allthst it can do to soften these sur
gical austsrities Of the war, and to Iestors
the MANNED and crippled soldier to some
thing like usefulness md selfsupportine
status. But however kindly and efficient
may be this provision, and however great
mny he the triumpbs Of mechanical skin,
the sufferiDgs, the Disadvantages, and the
art ofthe inventor, no cunning Of the ply
sician, can restore the nerves which have
been rudely severed or make the patient
physically whole sgain. The natural COM
plement Of limbs is the best simply because
it is natural; and although habit nay ac-
custom the wearer to bis succedapeum, he
| will alwaysbe conscious of the loss Which art
has merely made tolersble. He may have
| the power ol 'comotion. but not the strength
long to continue it; and the new arm which
restores his outward appearance may he in
capable OF severe exertion. When the best
is done the loss remains, and that loss must
be entered upon the proper side in the ac-
count current of the Rebellion. a'
| 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 assistance. They sleep peace.
| fully enough in the lortyone military GEM
eteries Of the Nstion--one hundred and
four thousand FIVE hundred and twenty SIX
of them-and every mouldering body rep
resents human life Which, before the Re.
tellion, was useful. active and productive.A-
There are. more to come, and the number
! will probably be increased to two hundred
and forty nine thousand three hundred and
ninety seven. To these must be added the
remains of those who were buried else
where. What harvest of death! What
! an expenditure of the vitality of the
land What draft upon the production
| Of the future What a diminution of the
real wealth Of the countryt But, putting
aside the cold calculations Of the economist,
every reader Of ordinary sensibiiity will re-
call the mental and physical suffering, the
bereavements, the untinely departure of
the dead, and the long and sharp sorrow of
the surviving--of wives, of children, of
sweethearts, to whom the telegram or the
letter bore intelligence, which, If il did not
palsy their souls, at least changed the whole
tenor Of their lives, and while it darkened
all their future, left them possibly self: de
4 pendent and alone in bleak and busy
world There are wounds which pensions
] do not heal, and wants which the Govern
bment, however generous. cannot supply
All the laws in the world cannot give back
4 the son to his widowed mother. or restore
the husband to the arms of bis lonely, wife.
There is and can be no record in the War
Department of broken hearts--there is no
4 bureau of bliRhted hopes, no Secretary to
compute the sighs and tears, the days, of
distress, the sleepiess nights. or the false
moeking dreams of women whom the red
hand of war, stretching from the farrof bat
tle-feld, has remorselessly smitten,. upon
the very hearth stone ola blasted home,
with all its tender reeollectiohs, and, may be-
stern material necessities. The Govern
ment places little iron monument at the
! head OF the soldiers grave it pensions his
widow and provides for his children. Can
it do more? Yes, more, much morel II
can remember in all It's vauhted policy il
all its law-makine, in all > its care of The
present. and in all its provision for the, fu