Morning journal and courier., 1889-07-04
ABLE-soDIED THOUGH mAImEp.

Persons Who Get Along with one
 Arm or Leg Better Than Others With
 Two.
 From the Philadelphia Recordl
 Men with but one leg who can win prizes from champions in foot race, men with no legs who can climb like cats, and men with but one arm who can mend fishing net and manage a boat like 6 sailor, are among the curiosities of the Twenty-first ward.
 William Stookhouse of Bridesburg, who is 35 years of age, and has no legs at all, Is one of the most astonishing climbers in the country. He lost his legs when child, and goes about on two crutches. He cannot rise without help, but he can swim like dol phin, and goes up the rigging of ship like a cat, "skinning" up to the trucks and oom- ing down by the stays.
 John Ferguson, also of Bridesburg is the most noted one-armed man in Philadelphia. Eighteen years ago, when 6 boy of 10 years, he fell from an apple tree and broke his left arm, which had to be amputated close to the shoulder, leaving no stump. He soon de- veloped an aptness for doing everything with his remaining arm which ordinary people do with two arms. He rows a boat, taking the
 
 mechanical appliances. He pushes Runners on the marshes for rail and reed birds, fishes 8 shad-net and cleans and opens his catch with great dexterity. As swimmer he has few equals, and has never yet been beaten in swimming matches, of which he has made several from Bridesburg to Pea Shore across the Delaware River, distance of over two miles. A coal merchant for whom he formerly worked stands ready to back him against any one-armed man in the United States at shoveling . ton coal into a cart. He is a scientific boxer, and can climb a rope like any seaman.
 George Birch of Frankford is 30 years old, and lost leg when very young. He runs foot races either with or without @ crutch, and has been the winner of numerous sack races at Pastime Park and at other places. With stump for foot he dances jigs and kicks bar higher than his own head.
 Joseph Schaffer, another Frankford curi- osity, is 50 years old, and lost one leg when 8 baby. He uses @ stump, and can run up ladder as fast es any bod carrier, get in and out of a wagon with wonderful alacrity, and mount horse as adroitly as cavalryman. The late Edward Parry once offered to match Schaffer against any man in Phlladelphl at getting in and out of a trotting sulky.
 Daniel Bastian, Sohaffer's neighbor, is 35 years old, and has but one leg. Bastian has walked a mile, heel and toe, in 7 1-2 min utes, and has run 100 yards in 15 seconds, using crutch in both cases.
 Glenn Cotter, thirty-fve-year-o resident of Frankford, has one good leg only the other having withered in childhood. Cotter Is 8 noted swimmer, and frequently supports two small boys on his back while he swims around in Frankford Creek. He also pos- sesses the faculty of walking on his hands, frequently covering an entire square in this way for the amusement of his com paniens.
 Another one-armed man, William Wooten, 8 police telegraph operator at the Twenty fifth ward station house, who died year or two ago, was in the habit of sculling himself in a boat across the Delaware, and would then shoot rail and reed birds with great success.