Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-04-08
CRIPPLED SOLDIERS.
Dancing with IA wooden Lcg-The
Itching of an Absent Toe-Onc-
Legged Men OH the March.

One OF the most remarkable things to
me, said a physician OF prominence, is
that the old soldiers OF the war bear the
mementoes OF hot conflicts, the remem-
brances of days or weeks or months OF
suffering and misery with such unconcern.
Most men who wear wooden legs or cork
legs do it with the impression that the
limbs lost in battle are still part OF
themselves. The other night at dance,
one OF the most graceful walters on the
floor was a man who had lost his leg at
New Hope Church, and yet there was
probably not lady in the room VINO
thought for moment that she danced
with a wooden-legged man.
There are other remembrances OF va
rious conflicts that can not escape obser-
walton. A closed eye, an ugly scar, Il
clipped nose, a broken jaw, or distorted
chin are not the sort of things to make
any man cheerful, and yet never heard
any soldier thus disfigured complain or
grumble in public, and | have known
cases in which the bearer OF such dis
figurement was accused of carrying his
mark through some disgraceful brawl,
rather than as memento of the struggle
in which he played the part OF a hero.
lltL ll'hlNp VI An Ab5ENl lOE.
There is one man in the city who, in
the second year of the war, had the tip
OF his nose and his middle toe carried
away by one shot. He had thrown him
self down for rest on side hill just in
side the skirmish line, when stray rebel
bullet took him lengthwise, rs it were,
went through his cap brim, clipped an
eighth OF an inch offhis shapely nose, and
went through the end OF his shoe, cutting
off squarely his middle toe. His nose is
all right now except persistently pale
speck on the end, but the missing toe
comes back like a ghost to make him
nearly frantic at times.
| have seen him jump from his chair
in the office, unbutton his shoe, kick it as
high as the ceiling, and dance around
like Il mailman. People who do not know
the story OF the missing toe are very apt
to Jump to the conclusion that my friend
is cratic as well as eccentric, and it is
not very often that he makes an explana.
ton. He says 1t is bad enough to have
a finger or toe itch when you can get al
it, but to have n toe take an itching spell
and know that it isn't there and that you
can't get at it even ii you could reach
400 miles, and to have it keep up that ir.
ritating, tantalizing, cxasperating itch
ing for ten or fifteen minutes and to have
no chance OF getting at it is too much foi
human nature.
! oNE.LEGGED MEN on 4 MARCH.
The funniest thing in the business, said
Il one-armed stalwart, is to see lot o.
one-legged fellows on march. Not lonl
ago at regimental reunion a SQUAD O
veterans, each OF whom had lost leg OF
part OF leg, determined TO march in the
procession. They had all sorts of appli.
ances, and each one was proud OF his owr
substitute for the leg that nature haC
given him. When the band struck vi
one OF the old marching tunes we were
on level ground, and all these lame vet
Grams moved off with as stately step a,
if they had never been wounded. | re-
joiced greatly in the thought that they
would demonstrate that cork legs and
wooden stubs answered all the purposes
OF soldering
But there came change in the eleva
ton OF the street, and my one-legged
squad were in disorder at once. In goinl
up the incline more than half the wood.
en- or cork appliances got out of order
and the spectacle OF these old fellows try
ing to keep time was ludcrous enough tC
make any man laugh and pitiful enough
to make most people cry, but they joked
and laughed, dropped out for minute
adjusted their wooden legs, and were
again in the ranks. They really believed
that they could march as well as an,
one could, and | note that most of tho
older boys, now gray-headed and rheu
matte, believe they can march fifteen OF
twenty miles at a stretch without fatigue
AT all event whenever occasion offers
they attempt an exploit Of the kind anG
make believe that the sickness that fol
lows is caused by the weather.