Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-01-08
ARTIFICIAL LIMBS.
The Perfection TO which Their nfanufac.
turs Has Been Brought.

Gen. Hoke, of North Carolina, Il
credited with remarking OF the rapid
disappearance, in late years, of the
manned veterans of the civil war, and
saying that in q few years men who
have lost arms or legs will be rare. A
newspaper paragraph to that effect was
shown 10 q maker of artificial limbs,
who furnishes more substitute arms and
legs than anybody else in the United
States, he said: ut is true there are
not so many cripples observable il
the streets as there were a few years
ago, but il is also true hat there are
almost as many in the community, and
probably always will be as long as
We have railroads. So far as
the old soldiers are concerned, I don't
imagine that they are dying off any
faster than any other men who were IL
their prime when the wal ended, II
years ago. As for cripples becoming
rare, hat is true as far as their c~easine
to be conspicuous objects, but they are
here among us all the same. The diff
ference is that the perfection to which
the making of artificial limbs has beer
carried, especially in legs, prevents tn.
mutilation of their wearers being no,
ticed. Many men wander about with
artificial legs whom nobody would eveI
suspect of being manned"
In a practical demonstration of whai
he said he called upon three of his EN-
ployees--a young woman, a boy and 1
middle-aged man-and set them walk.
ing to and fro in his large Office. There
was nothing peculiarly observable in the
gait Of either-no heavy, wooden tramp
no stiffness in The motions of the feet
and no hating in the alternating steps
yet the young woman wore one artifi
cial leg, and each Of the others were sup
ported on two wooden limbs.
"There," he continued, with an air OF
triumph, as the climax of scientific
invention in this direction. Nobody
would imagine seeing them in the street
that they have been crippled. And the
young woman will dance all night with
that substitute leg without her partner
~suspecting its existence, the man will
skate, and the boy run a race. This is
all attained by the use of a solid rubber
foot that is elastic under the heel tread
and bends at the toes like a natural
foot. / could point out to you in the
street scores of men that wear these rub.
Der feet, not only old soldiers, but vic.
Tins of railway and other accidents, and
you would not recognize in their easy
springy and noiseless walk that they
were not in possession of all their nat
Iral members. And that is the great
reason why cripples are disappearing.
1t is a common error that more men
we're MANNED in battle during the war
than during any other time of equal
duration in the history of the country,
but the fact is that there are as many
cripples made by the railroads in each
year now as we're made by the war in
any year of the war. That | affirm from
intimate knowledge of more than 5000
cases According to the war records
there we're only about %, 900 cripples
made on both sides, North and South,
by the was. OF course the exact num-
Der has not been, and cannot be ascer-
tanned, for not only were many cases
never reported, but in nota few in.
stances injuries received in battle led
a. a-ow.taktnn N pn.Bnr ~ - No ofAar-
wards, so long that they could not have
been included in the official records OF
kept an exact account Of. There wa
Henry La Rue, Of Pennsylvania, for in
stance, who had a leg aInputated in
1877, in consequence of fracture re-
ceived in 1865, when he was q member
of the 18th Pa. Cav.
IL have made thousands of legs and
arms for soldiers, who are supplied with
them free of cost by the government.
They are allowed q new limb every five
years. A good leg of willow, well made.
with good steel joints and springs, and
q rubber foot, will last Is years, with
proper care, and an arm is good
for q lifetime. The elasticity OF
the rubber foot increas~s the dur
ability ss well as the servicea-
bility OF the leg. A first class leg costs
800. / have heard of artificial legs
being made to order in France with
gold-plated joints and all sorts of fancy
business, costing several hundred dol.
lars, but have never been called upon
to get up anything of the kind, end il
I had to wear an artificial leg i am
sure / would prefer a plain n with
that great American invention, the rub
Der feet, rather than any gold plated
or jeweled one without it. / am called
upon TO furnish from 5000 arms and
legs, comparatively few of the former,
every year, and you may say, on my
authority, that the railroad system Of
this country, as at present conducted,
and the machinery used in so many
branches Of manufacture, may be relied
upon to make three cripples for every
one that would be likely to be made by
another war"
A dealer in surgical appliances said
II do not deal in artificial limbs any
more, for the reason that the things i
have to keep are multifarious enough r.
set a mans he&2 whirling, and TO prose-
cute the artificial limb business proper
ly requires exclusive attention to il.
But / know all about it, and / often
have to repair arms and legs, so that ]
meet many persons who wear such
things, and / give you my word that j
have been surprised more than once by
men who came into my store and dis
closed that they had artificial legs. l
had not observed any indication Of il
in their walk. i know & girl en-
ployed in the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
who has a wooden leg with q solid
rubber foot, and nobody Of all those
about her every day, not evsn the other
girls who sleep in the same room with
her at night, suspect the fact. She
is q very smart. bright girl, and she
told me that the secret of her conceal
ing the fact SO well is that, when she
commenced wearing it, she carefully
and systematically trained the well leg
10 adapt itself to the movements OF the
MANNED one instead of reversing that
process as most persons do. The rub
Der foot is the invention Of an old and
experienced American maker, and is ac-
knowledged in Europe a. well as this
country as the greatest discovery Of the
age in this direction.
Henry Laurens Bascomb, the actor
IL - ~ 49, - -----AL-1 =