Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-01
CRIPPLED SOLDIERS.
BEARING THE MEMENToES or
HARD-FoueHT CONFLICTS.

Dancing with Wooden Leg-rhe Itch
| ing Of an Absent Toe-One-LeCged
| Elevation.
@One of the most remarkable things TO me, y
said physician of prominence, 1T that the
old soldiers of the war bear the mementoes u
bot conflicts, the remembrance of days or
weeks or months Of suffering and misery
| with such cheerful unconcern. Most men
who wear wooden legs or cork legs do it in q
way TO create 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
there was probably not a lady in the room
with wooden-legged man.
There are other remembrances Of various
conflicts that can not escape observation A
closed eye, an ugly scar, clipped nose, q
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 l have
known cases in which the bearer of such dis
figurenent was accused of carrying his mark
through some disgraceful brawl, rather than
as momento Of the struggle in which he
played the part OF the hero.
THE ITCHING OF An ABSENT TOE
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 himself down for rest
on side hill just inside the skirmish line,
wise, as it were, went through his cap brim,
clipped an eighth Of an inch or his shapely
nose, and went through the end of his shoe,
cutting of squarely his middle toe His nose
is all right now except a persistently pale
speck on the end, but the missing toe comes
back like ghost to make him nearly frantic
at times.
Il have seen him jump from his chair in
the Office, unbutton his shoe, kick it as high
as the ceiling, and dance round like a mad
man People who did not know the story Of
the missing toe are very apt to jump TO the
conclusion that my friend is erratic as well as
eccentric, and it is not very often that he
makes an explanation. He says it is bad
enough to have finger or toe itch when you
can get at it, but TO have a toe take an itch
ing SPELL and know that it isn't there and that
you can't get at it even if you could reach 400
miles, and to have it keep up that irritating,
tantalizing, exasperating itching for ten or
fifteen minutes and TO have no chance Of get
ting at it is too much for human nature"
oNE-LEGGED MEN on A MARCH.
THE funniest thing in the business" said
one-armed stalwart, lis to see lot Of one
legged fellows on a march Not long ago at
a regimental reunion a squad Of veterans,
each OF whom had lost a leg or part of
leg, determined to march in the procession.
They had all sorts of appliances, and each
one was proud Of his own substitute for the
leg that nature had given him. When the
band struck up one Of the old marching tunes
we were on level ground, and all these famed
veterans moved off with as stately step as if
they had never been wounded rejoiced
greatly in the thought that they would dem
onstrate that cork legs and wooden stubs an
swered all the purposes Of soldering.
But there came a change in the elevation
of the street and my one-legged squad were in
disorder at once In going up the incline
more than half the wooden or cork appliances
got out Of order, and the spectacle OF these
old fellows trying to keep time was u,licrous
enough to 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
il the ranks. They really believed that they
could march as We'll as anybody could, and
note that most OF the older boys. now gray
headed and rheumatic, believe they can
march fifteen or twenty miles at stretch
without fatigue. At all events whenever oc-
casion offers they attempt an exploit OF the
kind and make believe that the sickness tina;
follows is caused by the weather. Inter
Ocean @Curbstone Crayons.r