The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-04-07
JOHN CARTER.
BY JAMES PARTON.


! A few steps from the office of th
New York Ledger, there sits, in th
open street, young man who has los
both arms, and who earns his liveli
d-by cutting kindling weed-witl
his feet. With one of his feet b.
holds pine board, and with the toe
of the other he holds a long sharI
knife, with which he cuts, with grea
rapidity, long strips from the board
; On cold days in the winter you cal
see him thus employed, and he doe.
not appear to suffer either from the
severity of the weather, or tie awk
wardness and monotony of his occupa
ton, ....-
remember, too, that when l wa:
about ten years Of age, a man used tc
sit on the Battery in New York, JUS
within the gate of Castle Garden, who
was also deprived of both arms, and
who used to cut out very good like.
nesses from black paper with pair OF
scissors held in his toes. He cut out
my likeness for one, and kept it rs
a curiosity for several years. We
have recently seen also how quickly
men could learn to write with their
left hand, who had lost their right in
the war; some of whom learned to
write legibly in ten days, and very
well in three months. ...
But what are such examples as
these to the case of John Carter,
whose arms and legs were all paralyzed
and totally helpless, and who yet
became one of the most exquisite
draughtsmen that ever lived? The
reader, l am sure, will bc interested in
this story of man who showed more
strikingly than any other the power
which the human mind has to triumph
over bodily def ficienc;es.
On Saturday night in May. 1886,
a party of young silk-weavers were
carousing i'll an ale house in the vii
lage of Coggeshall, in the English
County Of Essex. SiIk-weaving was
n profitable employment then, and
these men earned what they call in
England good wages that is, about
four dollars a week; much of which
they wasted in guzzling beer. Late
in the evening, when the party had
taken enough beer to deprive them OF
what little sense they had, one of
them proposed that they should go to
a gentleman's park near by, to rob the
rocks nests Of the young birds-a
great delicacy to men who seldom eat
any meat but bacon The suggestion
found favor, and seven or eight weav-
eTs sailed forth on the expedition
about midnight.
One OF them, John Carter by name,
a wild, dissolute young fellow, about
twenty years Of age, climbed to the
top of high fir-tree, and while he
was attempting 10 jump to another,
which in the darkness of the night he
thought he could reach, he struck Of
his object, and fell to the ground. The
height of the branch from which he
slipped was about forty feet, and he
would probably have been killed i'm
mediateiy, If his fall had not been
broken by other branches. As it was,
he lay upon the ground insensible,
and his companions carried him home
on hurdle. The accident occurred
about one o'clock in the merning, and
he was brought home shortly before
daybreak .....
HIS wife, who had gone to bed sick,
and anxious about her scapegrace of
IL husband, heard the noise outside of
the cottage, and supposing he had
come home drunk, as he often had be-
fore, came down to let him in. Upon
opening the door, she saw her husband
lying upon the hurdle still insensible,
with one of his friends sitting by his
side, the others having fed. a doc
tor was sent for, who arrived between
four and five in the morning. The
doctor found him insensible and mo-
tionless, cold, and breathing imper-
fectly, and with pulse extremely fee
ble. He concluded at once that either
the brain or spinal column was fatally
injured, and that the patient would
die in q few hours. He ordered, how
ever, hot fannels and other means of
restoring wormth TO the body. To
wards evening the pulse became strong
er, and in the course of the next day
his senses returned, and he was able
to. inform the doctor that the injury
was in the upper part of the spine,
near the back OF the neck
1t soon appeared that the entire
body below the neck was paralyzed,
and so it remained as long as the pa.
tient lived He suffered little pain,
but he could neither move hand nor
foot, nor turn himself in bed, nor was
there any feeling in his flesh, except
in that of his head and neck, and thus
he lay for fourteen years, his body tor
p;d and only his head really alive.
Previous TO the accident, there had
been nothing remarkable in his life or
character. His parents were honest
laboring people, and he had attended
a charity school long enough to learn
to read and write. AS a school boy,
he had been noted for an unusual in
clination to draw. He was one of
those boys who, whenever they have a
pen or pencil in hand, or q piece of
chalk or charcoal, are strongly dis
posed to disfgure their books and
States, and the walls of their room,
with rough representations of animals
and other familiar objects. At the
usual age he was apprenticed to silk.
weaver, and at twenty was a married
man, distressing his wife with his be-
havior. Not that he was bad by ma.