Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1885 — REPAIRING THE VETERANS. [ARTICLE]

REPAIRING THE VETERANS.

The Man Who Deals Out Wooden Legs and Arms to the Maimed Soldiers* £ «$" * 1 1 “We have the names of about 18,000 veterans who have applied ifot repairs,” said Mr. Bamsey, who has charge of the artificial limb department of the Surgeon-general’s office. “You know we fit them pnt with new sets of legs, arms or other apparatus every five years. It is now getting toward the close of one of those periods, and we have repaired 14,000 veterans.” “Aren’t the one-legged men dying off?” asked the Star man. “Now that’s an interesting question. I guess they are. I presume many of those whose names we have have since died, but I can’t tell certainly. Now, as I've said, every five years we reconstruct the maimed veterans of the army, but they have their choice to take the repairs qr the moneyr The allowance for a leg is $76; for any thing less than a leg is SSO. From one period to-an-other many old veterans drop out. Some of them make one or two applications, and then we never hear from them again. Naturally, we .conclude when they don’t send for their money or legs they must be dead and have no more use lor them. But we don’t limit ourselves to men who have actually lost their limbs. The mau who has simply lost the use of his 1 mbs is entitled to a wooden leg or arm, as the case may be,' though he can’t wear them. So you see we can’t keep a record of all the one-legged men, but I guess there aren’t as many as there used to be. Yet there are lots of them, and many who haven’t any legs at all, and some with neither legs nor arms. Then there are many who have not lost their limbs, but who have nopower to move. There is one man who gets two arms and two legs allowance who cannot move any part of his body except the little finger on the left hand, which he can bend the least little bit. There is another, a Ne\<r England soldier, whose arms and legs are dead, and who is blind in both eyes. Not long ago a man came in here with no arms, and sat down at one end of the desk and wrote with his teeth. It was not particularly fine writing, but you could read it. I know of another man —he was in she sharp shooters’ service—who cah’tUe stood oh his feet because he is bent in the back, so that his head would strike the floor first. Think how inany years these men have suffered, as many of them are still living! Tr Wby, there’s hardly enough left of some of them to hold together. “But you asked if they were dying off. Now, here’s a roll we are just completing,” and he laid several immense tally sheets out on his desk. “You can see how they run. This is the fourth period, and here a man who has got lour legs, quite a number for one man, if he used them all at once. And here’s another who has got four legs and four arms. No, we don’t furnish heads, but we supply parts of heads, jaws and sections of skull aud eyes. Now here is a man who got one leg in the first period and has never got any since; he is probably dead. Bnt here is another, who came in for repairs just after the close of the war and was never heard from again until now, when he came up again. He didn’t wear out very f&|t. Some men wear well and don’t bother about getting repaired so often. Here’s another man, he added, pointing to another name on the list; “here’s a man who comes up nbw for the first time, having done without his limb all these years. It runs this way, you see, all the way through. These men who have not applied for their fourth leg, or whatever it is they want, we conclude must be dead. Some, I presume, will have to get five or six legs or as many arms.” “What are the legs made off?” asked, the scribe. “Willow wood, generally, and there are a variety, of styles. They can take their choice. Some take the straight stick and stump it through life. Some legs have rubber feet and rubber joints. There is one made with very fine ‘ball and socket’ joints at the foot. There are men with wooden legs whom you never suspect. We furnish limbs to some very brave and distinguished men. There are several officers of high rank who come here for arms and legs. There is a young lieutenapt we recently supplied with one arm, who is, I believe, the only survivor of the Custer massacre.” —Washington Star.