The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-18
RAIN DIDN'T STOP
CRIPPLES' GAMES
Red Cross Institute Boys
Show Wonderful Skill in
Field Sports.
LEGLESS ONES IN RACE
Physical Rehabilitation Makes
Them Self-Reliant and
Optimistic.

The kneesprung. spawned, armless,
legless-kneesprung despite the fact that
he Is legless-poorly clad. raggedy gen.
tleman, who undoubtedly had a great
deal TO do with founding the Red Cross
Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men.
was on the job yesterday afternoon when
the crippled men and boys held their first
field day Of athletic events.
He's never present in the flesh, the old
gentleman isn't, because he hasn't any
flesh. But he was there. His name Is
John ]. Optimism, or words to that
effect
law. wotell Let 'er rain" cried Old
John j. when the legless and the arm
less to the number of about 200 had
gathered in the secluded athletic field
which is hidden among high office build
ings back of the Red Cross training
school for cripples on the northeast cor
ner of Twenty-thlrd street and Fourth
avenue.
Three o'clock was the hour set for
the beginning OF q set of games" as
the sporting page writers say, in which
no one was to have an active part I'M
less he had lost q leg, or maybe both
legs, an arm, or both arms. or both legs
and an arm, both hands and a les-'un-
less, KID" as Louis Young. the armless
newspaper wonder Of Union Square, who
has almost no right arm and less Of the
left. put Il, unless he's lost everything
but his common sense. II q cripple has
any common sense left he'll be out on
the field to-day. playing in the basket
ball and the baseball games. the sprints
and the rest Of the events.
No Rain Check Needed Here.
Let me tell you something" conclud-
ed Looie. who lost most OF his hands
and arms in an explosion In Newark
when he was about thirteen years old,
land this goes for all the wounded sol-
diers who have come back TO America.
Listen p'-and Looie in sentence, in
elegantly, told the whole story OF re-
construction-"the cripple who has CUTS
Is as good as anybody else"
There was Mr.. Looie Young. armless
expert baseball player. on the Job to
prove his assertion.
Three o'clock, the starting hour. and
the rain began to come down in torrents.
Spectators who had been provided with
comfortable seats, scattered. The
youths and boys on crutches or stand
ing upright on artificial legs-all rugged
out in athletic Jerseys that sometimes
accumulated the fact that they had only
stumps of arms-did not scatter. But
there were particularly three persons OF
the glorious Red Cross who give their
days and nights. their beings, to the
cripples and the three evidently were
worried when the black storm clouds
wished eastward from the thunder
storm factories Of Jersey.
The three were Douglas G. McMurtrte,
director of the Red Cross training school
for the cripples; Henry Braxton. his as
sistant, and the delightfully."- plump and
wholesome and jolly Miss Florence 8.
Sullivan, who does field work for the
Red Cross goes out into the greater city
and tells the cripples the way TO be
happy again, to wipe their eyes and
climb up into the lap OF the Great
Mother who will teach them and make
them men again.
Boys" said Miss Sullivan, as the FIRST
great rain splashes made deep brown
freckles on the yellow athletic ncld,
well have to go indoors and Just drink
the lemonade and eat the ice cream
! and have our races and games some
other day"
Tell we will" doomed Old John J.
| Optimism, theoretical founder OF the In
stitute, who uses awful rough language
Let 'er rain. Well hold the meet in
doors"
And Miss Sullivan and the Messrs
| McMurtrie and Braxton fell into the
spirit of Old Dub Optimism and the Grip
pies. They all got together indoors and
until after o'clock p. NJ. held the dod-
gasted, slambangest indoor athletic meet
ever held anywhere. There were moments
between 3 40 O'Clock and p. NJ. when
the family living in the fat downstairs
could not have been blamed in the slight
est II It had called a cop.
1t may or may not be OF interes' -
! the athletic world that Joe Bortoit, e.
years old, won the potato race at the in
door games in remarkably fast time and
| that Felix Petrowski-a Polish Catholic
| who entered the race wearing on his jer-
sey a little gold medal of the Virgin
Mary and added an athletic medal to his
decorations before tho day was over
came in second.
| As Joe and Felix lined up at the
! starting mark, eagerly awaiting the
! starting gun about TO be fired by Starter
Braxton. they seemed like other boys In
their team. except that each wore the
mechanically tight kid glove on the
right side which showed that their right
| "arms' were artificial. But there was
| nothing artificial about the leg movement
they put into play the minute the start
ing gun had been fired. rhey ran with
the speed OF any boy Of their ages
The right and left legs OF both Joe
and Felix and their right arms were
cut off by car wheels when they were
children. They we're running speedily
on the same sort of articulated wooden
| legs that they and their contestants
learn to build in the Red Cross Institute.
They wouldn't be running (both skate
beautifully also) yesterday II II were
not for the institute. Take Felix. for
| instance.