Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-02-08
CRIPPLED CHILDREN.
LITTLE ONES WITH MERRY HEARTS
AND WITHERED LIMBS.

LITTLE ONES WITH MERRY HEARTS
AND WITHERED LIMBS.
Sunshine and Shadow, Mirth and Pathos
in a Hospital for Unfortunate Children.
How They Forget Pain in Play-Scenes
in the Wards.
Only crippled newsboy, swinging himself
along with the aid of crutch. All! It's
hard lines for such lad! But there is a
| place in this city where there are scores of
such children even more helpless than he. It
is the Crippled Chldren's hospital on Forty
second street.
| They look bright and happy enough at first
| glance, as you see them at play in the big
| hall at the top of the building. with its four
| great vide Widowed towers. Happy enough!
| As they swing high in the air in hign backed
chairs suspended from strong ropes or play
| hide and seek around tAs pillars, in the
| depths of the big windows and behind the
screens. And they are very happy and
bright when, for awhile, they forget their
| pain and qulvering nerves. and shout with
laughter quite as gleeful as If many of the
| little heads and crooked backs were not
| bound Up in hideous iron francs. And they
| trudge around the room after runaway ball
with as much zest as though the halting,
| tedious step and clanking braces did not hold
them back at every turn.
Hark! What q rumble! Look down to
the end of the hall There is a great chatter
ing going on, and out from the crowd fly
half a dozen tricycles abreast, each manned
by girl of ten or whereabouts With
swiftly working feet and hands and shining
eyes they roll down the long hall side by
side. Evidently they are running race. At
the further end they wheel round ard roll
back again more slowly, guiding with dex-
terity their wheels through the score OF more
of advancing riders who had followed in
their wake.
PAIN AFTER PLEASURE.
All is not play, however, much as they
enjoy it. and pretty soon some pale faced girl
draws out to the side and christening the
straps that hold her foot in the step, she
raises it ON her knee and chafes it with her
hands, while she means with pain.
Every afternoon the children come up
here, and the paralyzed and lame remove one
or both shoes and go through these exercises
TO strengthen their diseased limbs. 1t is all
done under the eye of skillful professor, who
tenpers every exercise to the condition of
the little one Sometimes when he fastens
the straps of the tricycle. the child utters a
quick cry and oftentimes must be lifted off
the machine, being too tender to endure the
exercise for that day.
There are the bars for paralytics at one
end, where the child seats herself and with
her hands on the opposite bar works herself
with swinging motion back and forth. This
is to try to bring life back into the wiGhered
muscles, and after weeks of practice it some
times succeeds
After play hour comes the hard part of the
day, when the little ones gather in their
wards each in his or her own little chair,
and wait for the surgeon to come and band
age them. -Four o'clock is their dark hour,
and it is with fearful faces and many sigh
that they wait the coming Of the house
doctor
The nurses go from one to the other, loosen
ing braces and straps and unwrapping band
ages, and then with quick step and business
like air, albeit with kindly touch in his
sl1llful fingers, the surgeon comes in and be-
gins his work. And then there are pallid
cheeks and lips, clenched fingers and brave
struggles to hold back the cries that seem as
if they would come out, and there are tears
and means from the little ones, whose baby
hearts cannot understand the suffering they
have come into.
WAITING FOR BREAD AND MILK.
After an hour OF SO he finishes, the last
bandage is fastened, the last brace firmly
set in place and the last strap buckled
down. and then the children move about
little while, putting away the doctors
utensils, picking up the scraps he has left
and getting the room ready for their evening
heal They take their chairs again and,
placing them in row, one directly behind
the other, sit down to wait until the waitress
brings in their bowls of milk and heaping
trays Of bread
The ward is divided into two sections, with
a double row of tables in each. The children
are stretched out in two rows in the rear of
the tables At the tap of the nurses bell. the
first row rises and proceeds in an orderly
manner up the side of the table till each child
is opposite her place. They go pushing their
chairs in front of them for but few of the
little ones could walk without this support.
When these were all in places the nurse
tapped the bell again as a signal to those in
the other section. There was rush of wheels
and shrill, scraping sound. And then the
bell tapped again, and instantly each tiny
hand was folded and each head bowed, and
in low. reverent voices these words sounded
through the room:
'Our heavenly Father, we thank thee for
giving to us this food, and we bumbly asI.
thee to bless our strength to thy service.
Amen
And then there was a rafting of spoons.
and each child fell to eating with as much
enjoyment as though there were no such
things as disease and braces and surgeons in
the world. When the peal was over and the
dishes removed the tables pushed back out OF
the way, and the girls brought out the band
age boxes and proceeded to roll bandages for
the next twenty minutes, till every one was
ready and packed away for the next days
dressing.
At Z o'clock the little ones went to bed.
There was much botherhlg over inconvenient
back buttons on aprons and dresses, a sudden
CLEAN OF baby arms, SO thin and wasted, IN
lacing of shoes and adjusting Of braces and
straps by the nurses, and then cool white
night dresses obscured the bright heads for
moment ere they were buttoned into their
places
All! these children have grown old in suffer
ing, till out of the little features the light of
careless childhood seems to have faded, and
even their gayety seems pitiful--New York
Herald
Uniucky Days for Weddings.