The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-27
PAP H0NEYMAN'S LOST LEG.
A PUZZLE MET WITH BY A SALES
MAN OF ARTIFICIAL LIMBS.
The Leg Vanished After "a Train Cut
1t Off-Surmiscs of the Neighbors
as TO Its Fate--Ilnilroad's Vain De-
fence In Damage Suit.


my hand at something new" said the man
of experience. Il went on the road for a
New York man who manufactured arti-
fetal limbs. Eastern territory was pretty
we'll covered at the time and 1 was sent
down into Ohio and Indiana TO try to
drum up trade. Selling made-to-order
arms and legs was rather uphill work
in that part of the United States for SO
far as anatomical extremities were con-
cerned, Providence had been very kind TO
the Inhabitants thereof. Judging by the
statistics I collected in the course of my
unsuccessful tour it would appear that not
more than 100 people out of the combined
population of these two states had ever
suffered a mishap to their natural men,
bers, and reckoning by the scales l made
1 was ready to believe that fully 70 per
cent of this small force of MANNED and
wounded were content to shift along dur
ing the remainder of their lives minus
prop or pillar.
"By this time 1 had worked my way
back to Cincinnati on the return trip l
was pretty badly discouraged. One even
ing as l sat in the lobby of the Gibson
House trying to figure out how on earth
l was ever going TO make expenses, my
old friend, Homer Kahn, of Batavia came
in.
Hello, Jackson, said he. Glad to see
you. How're you getting along? / hear
you are In the artificial limb business
now. Is that SOP
Yes, said I. that's right
Well said he, it's good thing /
came across you. / think l can put you
in the way of something. A man up in
our neighborhcod had his leg cut off by
the cars the other day You'd better go
In az no
your while. This is going to be a famous
case before we're through with II, and
will furnish excellent advertising for you
and your legs. I'm going to be in it. Pap
III was old Pap Honeyman who was in
1ured-is going 10 sue the railroad for sew
eral thousand dollars. The road will fight
TO the very last ditch and I'm going to
work 1t so as to be engaged as counsel
for one side or the other. I'm going over
to Pap's tomorrow TO look around. You'd
better come along
Il explained to Kain that Ii was not a
part of my plans to make house-to-
house canvass of the State of Ohio in the
hope of selling individual limbs, but when
Kahn intimated that ID was better to sell
an individual leg than none at all, l
tacitly agreed with him, and consented to
go up into the country and interview
Pap Honeyman.
Pap lived near Wiltsees station on
His house was a story and a half frame
building situated on the slope of a yellow
clayey hill. 1t was summer time, and
through the wide-open doors and win
dows currents of warm air and swarms
of flies passed to and from on terms of
intimacy and equality. Pap lay stretched
out on a big, high-posted bedstead in the
middle of the front room. His daughter
Lucinda, sat beside him and brushed the
flies from his face with an imitation drum
majors pompon made of crinkled red,
white and blue tissue paper fastened to
an old umbrella handle. There was
group of women in the kitchen beyond,
but Lucinda closed the middle door soon
after we came in and thenceforward their
chatter sounded subdued and PARKWAY.
Lucinda resumed her seat at her fathers
bidside and continued industriously to
fight flies. Kahn sat down at the opposite
side of the bed and stretched out his long
arms lazily.
Well. Mr.. Honeyman.' he said, these
are pretty hard lines you've fallen into
in your old age, arn't they?"
For while Pap's brow was wrinkled
and his lips were puckered up as ik from
pain. AT length his face cleared little
and. Yes, they be- he said glumly.
They do be for a fact. But somebody's
got to pay for It. / ain't going to be
hacked into mincemeat before my time
without gettin' the full worth Of the parts
destroyed from them t did the damage.
Them railroad peoples got money, and
they've got to pay me up for value re-
ceived, every cent of it.
"'What do you consider proper equiv
alsnt for your lost limb Mr.. Honeyman?
asked Kahn tentatively
THE old man reflected a moment.
'Well,' he said at length a legs leg.
and moneys money. and it's hard TO
reckon value of that kind in figures There
- Nznt
pensate a man for the loss of limb,
but I'm going TO strike EN- for S25, 000.'
Kahn repeated the figures slowly.
'Whew-ew- he whlstled. Isn't that
mighty big price?
"'WeIl,' admitted Honeymau, 'mebbe
It is. But then he added in explanation.
I had a mighty big leg. You must take
that into account. Things IL have to be
kept in proportion
Lucinda shooed at the flies with extra
vigor then and SAID, oh, Pap deprecat-
ingly.
How old the accident happenT asked
Kahn, veering round in another direction.
Pap put In Lucinda, be careful. You
know what the doctor said. You're not TO
talk any more'n you can help
=" You keep STILL said her father, testify.
Who's running this thing, you or me? 1t
amt hurtin' me to talk. Besides. / can't
help sayin' this. It's necessary that facts
should be- told. j was comm from the
postoffice at Mount Holly the other night
about O'Clock, he continued. turning to
Kaiu i cut acrost the fields TO save time.
and just as ] was crossin' the tracks at
WI tsee's pasture below the station my
ankle twisted under me and down come.
sprawlin all over the ties. The train had
whistled at Hamlet about three minutes
tesore that. could hear the thing rushin'.
and rumblin' through the woods below
and realized that / had just about two
seconds left to gather myself toge her and
crawl away out OF danger. If ia been a
littler man I could have managed 1t all
right but beiH powerful hefty, nigh onto
25O p7unds-'
:" Two hundred and ffty-two Pap cor
rected Lucinda. You was weighed at the
store the day before you was hurt
"'You keep STILL commanded her father
again. This Is my business. not yourn.
Nigh onto $50 pounds he went OIL picking
up the thread Of his story; 1t want an
easy matter TO move all that bulk, espe-
eially when II was spread cut over rail
road track wrigged and squirmed
o,-nupA bomavar Iiufft onlV NV RIGHT Loo