Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1918-03-21
Men In Class One I.
Called To CoIors

THE LIVING FRACElfNTs OF.
THE WAR.
BY Gsorgs uchanan Fife.
Toc-toc-&oc-
The one new sound in tie streets
Of Paris.
The rumble Of havy wheels, the
rife-crack Of whips, tie purz Of rub
Der tires, the warning Of the motor
horn, the toy-tinkle of the tiacre
horse's bell, the scu6le Of footsteps-
AL these are The sssnds. It's only
the old sounds It's only the toe
toc-toc-that's new.
One hears It everywhere-toc-toc
-toc-the dull, unmistakable sound
Of the so,diers wooden leg, the plod-
ding on-march OF the Thousands who
have dropped, still living, through the
red fingers OF war.
For this conflict of high explosives
sends 50 pitably many men back into
the world with missing legs and arms,
yet, singularly enough, with calm, un-
flinching heart, often with pathetic
ally smiling face, and always with a
ribbon on the breast and the gratitude
Of France for their sacrifice.
Hundreds of them come into Paris
from the great base hospitals, seeking
in some new work, the livelihood they
must make. Many, particularly the
legless ones, who have been farmers
or field laborers, belive that their use
fulness as such is ut an end and that
the workshop alone is left to them.
Therefore they sees out the larger
cities-Paris, by preference-for en-
ployment which will provide a chair
or bench in a workroom where new
trade may be learned and life be be-
gun all over again.
It is to these unfortunates, these
"grands blesses," now no longer of
moment in the bitter struggle at the
front and even sent back by their Ger
man eaptors NJ useless and burden
some, that the American Red CrHs
has devoted one of the most important
of its many services-that Of provid-
ing these MANNED soldiers with the
bett type Of artificial leg that Amer
ican ingenuity of design can produce.
And already more than six hundred
mutihted Frenchmen have been equip
iped. But, more, even than thEt, the
American Red Cross has now estab-
lished at Saint Maurice, near Paris, a
factory where American artificial legs
are manufactured and supplied to the
French Government for issue to the
mutiles Of the army. The present
equipment of the plant is for the com
pletion of fifty legs month, but the
output is to be increased as rapidly
as possible.
This work has been undertaken fol
two fundamental and equally import
ant reasons.
The first is scientific. !, 1t has been
found that if long period elapses
between the amputation Of leg and
the employment of proper, weight
bearing device which approaches the
structure Of the normal leg, the mus
cles involved in the operation become
atrophid and the l.abit of balance and
of walking becomes markedly chang
ed. This interferes in considerable
degree with the effectiveness of q
subsequently supplied leg of adequate
design and mechanism. x
The second fundamental is psyche
logical. When man loses his leg
he naturally feels that his life hn,
come down in ruin. In some nature,
this brings a man to the point Of Civ.
ing up everything in despair at the
future, and what is to become of him
In other personalities it crystalizes
into the belief that as he has giver
fthe best of himself to the service o,
the State, the State owes him living
i Both of these are bad paths fol
him to 20 stumbling along in his new
life. The French Government know,
this full we'll, for it looks forward t.
the day when after peace has come t.
the land, all her man-power, all hel
man-spirit, all the heart of France viii
be needed in the task of setting hel
house in order.
i So the French Government and th'
American Red Cross are now work
ing together to aid the "mutile" Il
take his place in this great work O
4. the future, if possible, at the trad
which once occupied him, and to maxi
him feel that he has not been thrus
aside by those more fortunate but n,