The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-11-22
NO SUCH THING AS CORK LEGS
THE MAKING OF ARTEFECLIL
 LINES.


 They are making artificial limbs so
 cleVerly these days that the people who
 wear them forget they suffered the
 triAing embarrassment of losing a leg
 or two or even an arm. They put in
 such flexible joints and such charming
 rubber feet that the Wearers of these
 improved legs dance gayly at balls and
 cotilions without raising a question as
 to the makeup of their limbs. There
 is man in a downtown office wearing
 an artificial leg and foot-his own hay
 ing been amputated four inches below
 the knee, who jumps six feet forward in
 a sprightly manner just to show what
 he can do when the subject of wooden
 legs is mentioned. He can pick up a
 two hundred pound man in his arms,
 and hold him easily and dance a jig
 with his rubber foot and willow limb.
 He would just as soon have an artifi-
 cial leg and foot as not. There is one
 advantage, he says. He never has
 rheumatism, and he never suffers with
 corns or chilblains. He can quit a
 poker game at any stage without be-
 ing accused of having 'cold feet" He is as happy as a grig, though just
 why a grig should be happy is one of
 the things no fellow can find out.
 ''The making of artificial limbs," said
 one of the makers as he stood with a piece of willow tree in his hands and looked at it with a critical eye, lis an art Every Tom, Dick and Harry who bangs out a shingle can not make arti- ficial limbs properly. If they did some of us would go out of business. You see, they go at the business in a blum dering way, and try to turn out legs as cheaply as possible, and the result is they turn out bad ones. Everything lies in the fitting of the stump. The making of the leg itself is almost sec ondary to its fitting in such a way that it will not bother the man who wears it. The making of bad legs is what keeps the business of us who make good legs going" Here the limb-mak- CT paused a moment to see whether that shot had found a target
 There are plenty of limbs demand ed" he went on, towing to accidents and amputations for one reason and but if all the legs made and sold were fit to wear permanently the business would be pretty slack. The fact is that two-thirds of the false limbs turned out by some houses are unsatisfactory and their purchasers come here and throw them away when they get new ones See''-and he opened the door of closet and showed a score of artificial legs of all makes, patents and weights. They were all second hand, but some of them had ev- identity been worn but a short time.
 Feel the weight of that" he said, handing out ponderous thing of leath- er and wood and metal It fell to the floor with clank like that of a bushel of coal.
 What do you think of a man trying to wear a thing like that?" he asked. Now in here I'll show you the lightest limb ever made"
 He led the way to an inner room, where in a cabinet were half a dozen lew limbs, all of the queer pink, which g supposed to resemble flesh tnts. l But they certainly were light. A limb | " around the hip for an amputation lbove the knee was as light as bas- 1et of chips. It was made of willow, i pared very thin, covered with rawhide, | md then painted with waterproof ena- nel The foot was of rubber, firm but | leXibe, and the knee and ankle joints | worked as well as metal joints can work
 That is the leg that I got that cer- ificate for" said the limb-maker pointing to framed certificate from he worlds fair, which set forth that he artificial limbs made by this manu- acturer were the real thing.
 Very few of the old-fashioned wood n stumps are made now" he went on. Of course, some people who are too ,oor to get an artificial limb make hem themselves. They take a couple If pieces of wood and chop them out ome way to support their weight. A ood leg, one of the kind I showed you n there, is worth about one hundred IollarS Of course this price keeps many people from getting them but hey are worth it. They must be fitted Iith a care and skill which come only rom experience, and it is worth money O get the right thing the first tune. There has been a great advance made n the making of artificial limbs in the ast decade. One improvement has fol- owed another until now it is almost npossible to detect the presence of a rst-class artificial limb. They are laking feet of rubber and of aluminium nd of wood, but l think the rubber eet are the only perfect ones made. hey bend and give to the steps of a nan walking, which aluminium does ot.
 "A funny thing about false legs" 1ent on the builder of underpinning, is the prevalence of the term cork eg. Now, as a matter of fact, there is o such thing as a cork leg and there ever was. Cork would not do for a git would crumble away. It was ever used for the purpose, and I can ot imagine how that expression origi- ated, but right along you hear people llking about somebody with a cork g.. The legs are made of willow, be- ause it is light and very strong. We ct it in blocks, as you see. and make very leg to order It must be much lore carefully fitted and measured nan a pair of shoes or a suit of othes, for the least thing out of the ay will irritate the stump. Again, t often nave to deal With pad ampu- tbn surgical work was