The word "cripple" is a word that hurts, and in Germany when one
speaks of the men who have lost arms, legs, or eyes, they say
_Kriegsbeschädigte_, which means hurt or damaged by the war. It has a
softer sound.
Even now, with the war not over, plans have been carried out for these
men and many more plans are being made. Skilful doctors and makers of
artificial limbs are contriving all sorts of ways to make various kinds
of arms and legs that are suited for all kinds of work that a crippled
man might wish to do.
For instance, a man who wishes to be a carpenter must have a different
kind of a hook on his new hand from that of the man who wishes to be
a blacksmith. The man who has lost his arm at the shoulder must have a
different hook from the man who has lost his at the elbow.
[Illustration: _One-Armed and One-Legged Soldiers Learning Farming._]
[Illustration: _Crippled German Soldiers Learning to Letter._]
All this means much experimenting as there are so many different trades
in the world, and the crippled man wishes if possible to follow the
same trade he had before the war. In many cases it is not possible to
do this, and there have been mapped out fifty-one new trades at which
crippled men can work. The government has established schools where
these trades can be learned without any charge to the soldier.
[Illustration: _Factory for Making Artificial Limbs in Berlin._]
[Illustration: _Armless Soldier Learning a New Trade._]
One of the most famous of these schools is in Berlin, the
Oscar-Helene-Heim. Before the war this was a hospital for crippled
children with a school for them where they could learn trades. Since
the war they have made additions to the place, and soldiers can go here
to learn a trade. The head of this institution is Professor Biesalski,
the man who has invented many of the different kinds of arms and legs.
The Biesalski arm is very simple and is made out of nickel, and tools
fasten into the holder with screws.
[Illustration: _Riding the Bicycle Before Receiving the New Leg._]
I went all through this home. They have a carpentry department, a
shoe-making department, a basket-weaving department, and a gardening
department. There were a number of soldiers here without legs, but the
home makes a specialty of helping soldiers without arms, and this is
the far more difficult task. I saw some men with both arms gone, and
in these sad cases they have implements for holding everything, tools,
knives, forks, spoons, cups, cigars and indeed everything that a man
would want to hold.
[Illustration: _After Receiving the New Leg._]
The artificial legs are also most wonderful. One army captain who had
lost his leg at the thigh was able to mount his horse nine weeks after
his leg had been amputated, and two weeks later he joined his regiment
in the field. Another chap just nineteen years of age and who had lost
his leg, enlisted in the aviation squad, and now he is one of the best
flyers in the German army.
[Illustration: _A Legless Soldier Learning to Walk._]
However, most of the men do not return to war but settle down to
peaceful labors. One soldier, a shoemaker by trade, found that he
could make just as good shoes with one foot as with two. Another
case was that of a soldier who had lost both legs at Liège. He was an
engineer by trade and now he is running the fast train between Cologne
and Brussels. A tailor had both feet cut off. The new feet made for
him were very big and now he can tread the sewing machine as well as
before.
[Illustration: _Armless Soldier Learning to be a Carpenter._]
The most successful hand made since the war was not "Made in Germany"
but "Made in America." A famous Berlin surgeon, Dr. Max Cohen, became
infected from the wound of a soldier whom he was dressing at the
beginning of the war. The infection became so bad that it was necessary
to amputate his left hand. He sent to America for a new hand. It is
made so that the fingers have joints like a real hand, and these joints
bend and work like the joints of a real hand. The joints are operated
by pulleys fastened at the shoulder. The hand can not only hold
things, but can lift a fifty-pound article and can carry lighter weight
articles. With his good right hand and the aid of this left hand, Dr.
Cohen can still carry on his operations, and they are as successful as
before.
[Illustration: _Dr. Cohen Lifts 50 Pounds with Artificial Hand Made in
America._]
All over Germany they have exhibitions of dummies with artificial arms
and legs to show their workings. One dummy was a figure at a sewing
machine, and it showed how artificial legs could do the treading. The
men can go to these exhibitions and pick out the kind of an arm or leg
that suits them.
[Illustration: _Dr. Max Cohen. He is Able to Hold a Newspaper._]
Perhaps the hardest task of the war is the educating of the blind
soldiers, for they are more or less helpless, and they are apt to
become despondent. In Berlin they have established a hospital and
a school for blind soldiers. It is called the St. Maria Victoria
Hospital. The whole inspiration of this school is a blind woman,
Fräulein Betty Hirsch. When the war broke out she was in England
studying the English methods of dealing with the blind, and she has
charge of all the training of the soldiers.
From the very beginning it was Fräulein Hirsch's ambition that
her blind soldiers should not have the old monotonous trades of
basket-making and broom-making. She wanted them to have a broader
field of activity in the world, and so she visited all the factories in
Berlin to find out what work a blind man can do. She has her soldiers
trained to fill these positions. Now she has forty-five blind men
in good munition factory positions, and they work from six to eight
hours a day. At first they received 45 pfennigs an hour wages, but
this was increased to fifty-five pfennigs an hour. Some of the men put
cartridges into frames, and others fill cartridges into pockets. Every
night the workers come home to the hospital where they are housed and
cared for free.
Every morning from eleven to twelve o'clock the men are given their
lessons, and the rest of the day they spend practising them. They learn
typewriting and how to become telephone centrals. I saw one young
fellow there who had lost both eyes at Verdun. He had been studying
typewriting four months and he could take a dictation like a person
with sight.
It is forbidden to use a dictagraph in Germany, but Fräulein Hirsch got
permission to use it for the blind people. As they had none of these
instruments in Germany, Fräulein Hirsch copied the English model and
had them made at her dictation.
One of the blind soldiers here has invented an attachment to the
typewriter that holds the machine fast when the end of the paper is
reached. It is very hard for a blind person to tell when the end of the
paper is reached, and they are very apt to go on ticking after the page
is done. This invention is a rod with a screw in the front and will
undoubtedly be used by the blind typists all over the world.
Another trade the soldiers are taught is cigarette making. German
cigarettes are not rolled but the tobacco is stuffed into papers that
come already fastened together. The blind men learn this very quickly.
Every province in Germany now issues a pamphlet each week to help the
crippled men. These pamphlets are called "From War to Work in Peace,"
and they contain everything that would interest a crippled man, trades
they can pursue, things that they can make if they prefer to stay
at home, and where they can sell what they make. They also contain
advertisements for employment for crippled men.
Near Berlin they have a farm for one-legged men, and here the
one-legged soldiers can go to live and farm. Most of the farmers are
men without families, and they intend to live on the farm all the rest
of their days.
The German government has drawn up plans to build houses for the
crippled men. Sites have been selected and plans have been completed.
The houses are to be built near factories where work will be carried
on that a crippled man can do. The plans for these houses are very
attractive. Some of the houses are single houses, cottage effects with
slanting roofs and a little garden. In each settlement there will be a
number of large apartment houses, and then one very large house like a
hotel where the unmarried men can live.
The rental of these houses will be astonishingly low. For instance
a room for a bachelor in the large house will cost from twenty to
thirty dollars a year. This includes light and heat, and in some cases
furniture. An apartment in the large apartment house will cost from
seventy-five to one hundred dollars a year with light and heat. The
single houses will be more expensive and will cost about one hundred
and fifty dollars a year. Each apartment in the large house will have a
little garden, and there will be cafés and libraries where the men and
their families can enjoy themselves.
No man is happy unless he has work to do, and the Germans are doing
everything that is possible, so that the future will not look too black
to the crippled German soldier when he comes home from war.