The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-01-08

faster than any other men who wero in
their prime when the war ended, II
years ago. AS for cripples becoming
rare, that is true as far as their ceasine
to be conspicuous objects, but they arr
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.
mutilatiun Of their wearers being no.
ticed: Many men wander about witt
artificial legs whom nobody would evei
suspect of being maimcd."
In q practical demonstration Of what
he said he called upon three of his EN-:
ployees--a young woman, boy and {,
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 artif.
cial leg, and each of the others were SUP
ported on two wooden limbs.
"There," he continued, with an air OF
triumph, lis 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 it's existence, the man will
skate, and the boy run race. This il
all attained by the use of solid rubber
foot that is elastic under the heel tread
and bends at the toes like natural
foot. I could point out to you in the
street scores Of mon 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
ural members. And that is the great
reason why cripples are disappearing.
It is common error that more men
were manned in battle during the wal
RA~>- 2>>-:-er->> oh A:...>. >.f vi uss,
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 were made by the war in
any year of the war. That affirm from
intimate knowledge of more than 6, OO(
cases. According to tho war records
there were only about $4,000 cripples
made on both sides, North and South,
by the war. OF course the exact num-
Der has not been, and cannot be ascer.
tanned, for not only were many cases
never reported, but in not few in:
stances injuries received in battle led
to amputatiou number of years after
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 leg amputated in
1877, in consequence of fracture re.
ceived in 1865, when he was q member
of the 18th Pa. Cav.
II have made thousands of legs and
arms for soldiers, who are supplied with
them free of cost by the government.
They are allowed a new limb every five
years. A good leg of willow, we'll made,
with good steel joints and springs, and
a rubber foot, will last Is years, with
proper care, and IN arm is good
for lifetime. The elasticity of
the rubber foot increases the dur
ability as well as the servicea-
bility of the leg. A first class leg costs
500. I have heard of artificial lege
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, and il
1 had to wear an artificial leg I am
sure I would prefer plain one with
that great American invention, the rub
Der feet, rather than any gold plated
or jeweled one without it. I 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 to
set mans head whirling, and to prose-
cute the artificial limb business proper
ly requires exclusive attention to it.
But I know all about it, and I often
have to repair arms and legs, SO that ]
meet many persons who wear such
things, and I give you my word that !
have been surprised more than once by
men who came into my store and dis
closed that they had artificial legs. !
had not observed any indication of II
in their walk. I know q girl en-
ployed in the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
who has wooden leg with q solid
rubber foot, and nobody of all those
about her every day, not even the other
girls who sleep in the same room with
her at night, suspect the fact. Sh<
is q very smart, bright girl, and she
told mo that the secret of her conceal.
ing the fact 50 we'll is that, when she
commenced wearing it, she carefully
and systematically trained the we'll leg
to adapt itself to the movements of the
manned one instead of reversing that
process a. most persons do. The rub
Der foot is the invention of an old and
experienced American maker, and is &C.
knowledged in Europe as we'll as this
country Is the greatest discovery of the
age in this direction.
Henry Laurens Bascomb, the actor
who had both his feet amputated in
consequence of their being frozen, has
had them replaced by rubber ones, and
he now walks about almost Is well a.
we'll enough, at all events, to
enable him to teach elocution and cot.
ing.