Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-16

fetal; but how many realize the number OF
people who are partly SO as well' The man
who IS your neighbor in the restaurant or
car, or who passes you in the street, may be
partly wooden or rubber in his makeup.
Although his movements are natural and his
costume faultless, the carefully pressed trou
sers may cover part of his body that is an
autonaton from thigh to toe. Artificial
hands are not always gloved IN black, nor
are they mere blocks of wood rounded into
human shape. The fingers may grasp cane
or an umbrella in lifelike manner: though
they have no feeling. The gait of the pedes
trian may be easy and elastic, and the foot
bend at the instep as he walks, with the mo-
ton that Nature gives, yet the foot be of
wood or paper and the muscles of rubber and
leather.
One does not care to go through life with
an empty sleeve or trouser sewed up at the
knee or thigh; though ones appearance even
then is less unsightly than when carrying a
stick of wood strapped to the amputated
part and protruding from his clothing. Such
was the substitute the American govern
ment provided for it's disabled soldiers
after the Civil War They were made by
contractors by the thousand at a cost of
about fifty cents each and sold to Uncle
Sam for FIVE times that price. During the
COS a sawmill in one OF the Western
States was built specially to turn out hick
orv for legs Many of the victims of the
bullet and round shot declined the official
exchange for their hesh-and- blood member,
and sought a substitute less dishguring.
The demand for some improvement in such
appliances created several inventions in the
way of artificial limbs; but most OF them
were crude and cumbersome. They fur
nished an idea, however, which was gradu-
ally improved upon, until mechanical legs
and arms are now made that bear really
wonderful resemblance to Nature in shape,
size, and movement, and even the flesh tlnts
are reproduced in finishing them.
THOUGH steel, cork, and papier mache
have been fashioned into limbs, wood re-
mains the favorlte material. In the swamps
Of the Southern States grows what IS known
as the marsh willow, and every autumn
hundreds of men with axes go hunting for
big trees of this species They must be at
least fifteen inches in diameter; and the
larger the better, for the willow is curious
wood Its heart is not always in the right
place, and its veins are in the shape of cir
Gle instead of straight, as in other trees. The
heart is too soft to be used. If the trunk is
large enough it IS split into four pieces, the
heart carefully shaved off, and the quarters
SOlQ 10 the leg 1ldkeT, DuI IL Is q Dig Tree
that has a trunk of such diameter, and few
even of the ones that come up to the meas
urements are without decayed spots. The
wood hunters have no easy task, and the ten
or fifteen dollars they may get for tree that
will cut in quarters IS well earned. An ex-
posture of weeks in warm room is needed to
absorb the sap from the wood, and the dry
ing process hardens its fiber until a piece
ready for the shaping is as strong as hickory
or oak, but much lighter; in fact, leg or a
foot complete weighs several pounds less
than the real members.
The man who works upon the willow is a
sculptor in his way, cutting the human SEM
blance from wood instead of marble. The
chisel and nlallet must first reduce the mass
into a rude formation of the limb it is to re-
place. True, the worker has measurements
of the girth of its fellow at the knee the calf,
and other points, as well as the exact length,
for the artificial must be as long as its human
companion or its wearer cannot walk with
out a slight limp; but he must depend on his
knowledge of anatomical proportions and
his perception of human curves to certain
extent, as he cuts away bit by bit. No ma
chinery has yet been designed for mo1ding
the limb on turning lathe, and most of the
work must be done with the chisel More
and more it assumes the human form, and
perhaps at the end of a week it is ready for
the rubbing with SandnaDer that DrenaraS If