The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-03-18
Crippled Soldiers of France Limp
Bravely Back to Learn New Trades
fragments Of War" Helped
by Red Cross to Take Up
Work Back of Lines After
Their Discharge.
ey George Buchanan Fife.

~ George Buchanan Fife.
Toc-toc-toc-
The one new sound in the streets of
Paris.
The rumble Of heavy wheels, the
rifle crack Of whips, the purr Of rub
Der tires. the warning of the motor
horn. the toy-tinkle of the fiacre
horses bell, the scuffle Of footsteps
all these are the old sounds. It's only
the Observation-Disclosures new.
One hears It verywhere-toc-toc-
toc--the dull, unmistakable sound of
the soldiers wooden leg, the plodding
on-rnarch Of the thousands who have
dropped, still living. through the red
fingers OF war.
For this conflict Of high explosives
sends 40 pitiably many men back into
the world with missing legs and arms.
yet, singularly enough, with calm, UNI
flinching heart, often with a pathetic
ally smiling face, and always with a
ribbon on the breast and the gratitude
OF France for their sacrifice.
Searching for Employment.
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, believe that their use
1ulness as such is at an end and that
the work shop alone Is left to them.
Therefore they seek out the larger
cities-Paris, by preference-for en-
ployfllent which will provide chair
or bench In q workroom where new
trade many be learned and life be be-
rum all over again.
Fitting Men for Work.
It 10 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 captors as useless and burden
some, that the American Red Cross
has devoted one Of the most important
Of its many services-that of provide
ing these MANNED soldiers with the
best type Of artificial leg that Amer
lean ingenuity OF design can produce.
And already more than 600 mutilateu
Frenchmen have been equipped. But.
more even than that, the American
Red Cross has now established at
where American artificial legs are
manufactured and supplied to the
French government for issue to the
mutlies OF the army. The present
equipment Of the plant Is for the COM
pletion Of fifty legs month, but the
output II to be increased as rapidly as
possible.
This work has been undertaken for
two fundamental and equally i'm
portant reasons.
Prompt Action 10 Necessary.
The first is scientific. 1t has been
found that II long period elapses be-
tween the amputatlon OF a leg and
the employment Of proper. weight
bearing device which approaches the
structure of the normal leg, the mus
clss involved, in the operation become
atrOpnied and the habit or balance
and Of walking becomes markedly
changed. This interteres in consider
able degree with the effectiveness of
q subsequently applied leg of adequate
design and mechanism.
Tho second fundamental Is psyche
logical When a man loses his leg he
naturally feels that his life has come
down to ruin. In some natures this
brings q man to the pont of giving up
everything in despair at the future
and what Is to become of him. In
other personalities 1t crystalizes into
tho belief that as he has given the
best of himself to the service of the
state. the state owes him a living.
Both of these are bad paths for
him to go stumbling along In his new
life. The French government knows
this full well, for 1t looks forward to
the day when after peace has come to
the land. all her man power, all her
man-spirit. all the heart of France will
be needed in the task of setting her
house In order
So the French government and the
American Red Cross are now working
together to aid the ''mutile" to take
his place in this great work Of the fu-
ture. II possible at the trade which
once occupied him, and to make him
feel that he has not been thrust aside
by those more fortunate but no more
deserving.
Specialists Give Advice.
To this end, a thorough investiga-
tAoH VI the MANUFACTURE OF drtlIlCldl
limbs, in America, France and Eng
land was made and the professional
advice of such skilled orthopaedic
surgeons as Major Osgood and Major
Allison, of the United States army;
Professor Amar of Paris and Sir Rob-
ert Jones, of London, was sought, and
the establishment Of the American Red
Cross mandatory at Saint Maurice
was the result. The limbs turned out
there are constructed upon the best
principles of all available models and
are held to be as close an approach to
a human member as mechanical skill
and provision can produce.
In the American Red Cross head
quarters in Paris there is a bureau
OF the military affairs department
which devotes itself entirely to the
equipment of the "mutiles" with
American artificial legs and arms. And
there Is not a day in the week that this
bureau is not busy over the task of
literally putting these unfortunates on
their feet again.
As soon as the buerau is opened at
. O'clock In the morning the uniformed
~mutiles begin coming-toc-toc--t
through the echoing archway of the
headquarters entrance and across the
cobbled court to the bureau door
RnYsaa s,nsu0 with slnw ,,puto od,, ,to,,.