The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-01-22
Many Things Of Human interest to the
Traveller Who is of an OBJ
serving Turn of
Mind.
SOME OF THE INCIDENTS
Ore is Recorded Abou. a Man Who
Formerly Lived In keokuk and
Worked For the Gov
eminent.
IBy F. L. vi

10y r. l.. W
ALBUQUERQUE, N. NJ, ia. 22-In
long journey by Pullman car. if he
be of an observing turn OF mind, the
traveller runs across many odd things
of human interest In the west. ordi-
nariiy, there are pioneers, old plains
men, Indian fighters. explorers and the
like, and their tales are always inter-
estlng to the stranger in these parts,
but commonplace to the rest of US.
However. sometimes one meets a fell
low traveller who tells him something
entirely new, and such was the expert
ence of F. L. Vandegrift, formerly of
keokuk, editor of the Santa Fe rail-
ways publication, The Earth" in a
recent journey through New Mexico
and Arizona. Indeed it was the Sec
ond time Mr.. Vandegrift has fallen
in with this man, and in the same Sec
ton of country. He was no less an
oddly than woodenlegged man who
travels for an English trade journal,
called The Woodenleg." He writes
of the incident to an old friend in this
city, as follows:
"An added interest in the man this
time was that he said he formerly
lived in Keokuk. and, while working
in the Mississippi river government
service, twenty odd years ago, sus-
tanned an injury, which some years
later made necessary the amputation
of his leg below the knee This en-
listed him in the great army of the
worlds woodenlegged. He has moth
ing to complain of, however, for the
loss of his leg steadied and brought
him to a right sense of living and ulti-
mately to good job.
When he left the charity hospital
in San Francisco, he had the bare
price of cheap stump of leg upon
which he started out to make his way
in the world He had been hayward
and Indifferent of the future but now
he was up against the real thing. No
more would he ride the blind baggage,
or tramp the highway. However, he
was a high school graduate and ca
pable, and soon he began to make
headway First, he found work in the
Office of a coastwise steamship COM
pany. This gave him an acquaintance
with seafaring men, and one day on
board ship he picked UP monthly pa
ger, called THE Woodenleg,' pub
lished at Hull England.
The oddity of it struck him, of
course, but greater interest was
that it contained advertisements of
artificial limbs, and he slipped it into
his pocket. Woodenlegged people al
ways are interested in others who are
likewise afflicted. They not only are
interested in each others artificial
legs, but IN their life's stories, and
they talk by the yard together upon
the one subject. Let man be ever
so well informed ever so talented, If,
in the midst of life by misfortune. he
be given a wooden leg. thereafter he
Will seek the company of woodenlegged
people Let there be reunion of old
soldiers. privates and officers. and they
will drift together away from the
main crowd and talk about their wood
en- legs. They may not be congenial,
intellectually, but that is forgotten in
the bond of sympathy created by their
wooden legs.
so when Hoard tfor that is the
mans name) found this copy of The
WcodenLeg, he made night of read
ing it. Especially was he interested
in three or four pages devoted to the
'Woodenleg Exchange These pages
contained advertisements of wooden
legs for exchange. Nobody is ever sat
isfied with his own wooden leg. All
want to trade with somebody else, and
The Woodenleg' is a great medium of
exchange. Hoard says there are many
varieties of wooden legs-stumps,
corks, shod, peg, stiff, adjustable-bu
even the most expensive never are sat
isfactory, and SO to The Woodenleg'
these restless people go with their
griefs and offer exchange. Often, by
the hands of friendly sailors exchanges
are made between woodenlegged per-
sons who live half the circumference Of
the earth apart; but usually the local
express service Is sufficient.
The Woodenleg Exchange, more
often than an exchange Of legs, leads
to a correspondence between wooden
legged people. Occasionally, there are
woodenlegged women who have found
husbands by the medium of the Wood
enleg Exchange Originally, trade
journal only, lately it has become, in
addition, a news and literary journal
for woodenlegged people, and now 1t
has circulation of about 100000 in
the English-speaking world. Origin
ally, also, its principal circulation was
among English sailors, and 1t followed
ships from port to port around the
vorld. So many English sailors, es-