Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-12-14
NO. 295
Gales aud 2ketehss.
THE CORK LEG.
A Comic Tragedy.
FROM THE EToILE PoLAIRE.

Some of our readers may recollect a
capital comic song Of this name very
much in fashion fifty gears since, succeed
ed by very few of its race so good in our
own time. The following is Dntch YER
sion Of the original legend:
Gentle reader you know Rotterdam Ii
you have ever spent day in that very
clean and very prosperous city, you must
have been shown by somebody a two-story
house situated on the Hague and Leyden
canal. Whoever pointed out the humble
house OF course informed you that GEN.
tury or so back It had been inhabited by
one of the most celebrated meehancans
in Holland or the world
His trade was to make surgical instru-
ments. but he excelled 10 every kind of
delicate construction. Women and men
and parents sought him out in hopes that
he could supply them with remedies for
The ravages of age or the defects of nature
To all appearance he could set mans
shoulders right if they were crooked. he
could restore the female form when age
had robbed 1t of its roundness, but his
greatest success had been in branch in
his art OF which he has since been consid-
cred the inventor-the manufacture OF ar
tiicial legs. His name was Turningvort.
Ii any of our readers have ever been TO an
establishment for the sale Of artificial limbs,
and have looked over the stock with q
view OF choosing one, he will remember
the grace and delicacy with which they
were made to mannuvre before him. how
their beauties were pointed out to him.
and their shape expatiated on until he
almost felt persuaded that So handsome
piece OF mechanism might be very much
more convenient than going about upon
foot crippled with corns, or threatened
with aristocratic twinges from hereditary
gout.
One morning. as master Turningvort
was sitting at his work bench diligently
engaged in polishing an instep, foo'man
came in in haste and requested h IN to
wait immediately upnn Myuheer van
W0dtnblock the richest merch int in
Rotterdam at that period. Turningvort
pulled oil his paper cap. put on his best
rurled perwig, assumed his laced cooked
hat, took down his silver headed cane and
set out for the abo lie of The wealthy
| burgher.
Mynheer van Wodenblock had been the
artisan OF his own fortune. There was no
one upon earth he loved except himself,
| and his notion was that nobody else had
any claim to benefit by his accumulated
property. A few days before be had been
pestered by visit from one of his cous-
ins. who had had the impudence to come
and ask him to assist him.
Mynheer Won Wodenblock was seldom
very courteous to his poor relations. and
never listened to any applications of the
kind, but on this occasion the poor wretch
was so importunate that he lost all pa
tience. He was standing at the top of
some high marble steps which led up to
his front door.
The cold was very sharp. the streets
were icy the poor relation teeth chatter
ed in his head. Van Wodenbock was
not to be kept standing in such IA draughi
on such day. on his own threshold. He
suddenly administered u vigorous kick a
"posteriori' to his visitor, lost his balance
in the effort, and tumbling down the flight
of marble steps. was picked up by the
needy cousin on the curbstone. At first
he felt very sick and dreadfuly stunned.
Then, when he began TO comprehend what
had happened, he found he had fractured
his right leg and knocked out three good
teeth from his upper jaw.
| His first impulse was to have his cOus-
in arrested on charge of attempted hon.
4
humane he contented himself with hav-
ing him thrown into the debtors prison,
where he might have the satisfaction of
refiectiag as he sat with nothing to do,
that his wife and children were at large,
aud nobody hindered them from dying of
cold aud hunger
False teeth, made out of whatever-they
e-them- Of nowadays, were not in
vented till the present century, but den-
list and a barber-surgeon OF that day un-
dertook to replace the three lost teeth by
three white sharp fangs extracted from
the mouth of poor poet who had very
little use for them, and consented to sell
them that the rest might have something
to do.
The most skillful surgeon in Rotterdam
was called in to examine the fractured
limb. Subjects for dissection were hard
to procure just then in Rotterdam. Van
Wodenblock himself had been recently
very severe on some cases OF body snatch
ing brought under his Jurisdiction. The
surgeon had great lecture to deliver at
the hospital to a graduating class OF young
men. He wanted a middle-aged gentle.
mans leg to use for anatomical demon
strations, so he settled doubtful point in
his own mind by saving il of promptly.
1t was u beautiful amputation. 1t did
him great credit with the faculty. He
carried it away in his carriage, and made
use OF il that very evening.
Poor Wodenblock reflected sadly that
from The time he had been fourteen
months old he had been biped, and
somewhat restless one.
lie hated sedan chair. II almost
made him sick. He had a prejudice n
favor Of "meting out space with his own
conpasses, and for all these various rea-
sons he had recourse to Master Turning
wort. He wanted to give him orders for
an artificial leg that should improve If
possible upon the works OF nature
The artist In legs, somewhat abashed.
entered the apartment of the rich inva-
lid. Mynheer van Wodenblock was ly-
ing on the bed. his elegant left leg (the
one that was lefD stretched out before
him; an embroidered quilt hid the alb
sence of the right leg.
"Tmningvort," he said, 'you must
Continued IN fourth pags.l