CRIPPLES AS SPORTSMEN. 



BY MORKIS GIBBS, M. D. 



You cannot change the spots on a 

 leopard, and neither can you change 

 the sentiments and tendencies in the 

 nature of a true blue sportsman. Mind 

 you, I do not speak of the sporting man, 

 the follower of dog and chicken fights, 

 and the market hunter who only looks 

 for the money there is in it. Neither 

 do I refer to the spasmodic rodster and 

 gunner, who shoots and angles because 

 "it is the style, you know." I am 

 writing, as I always do, of the true blue 

 sportsinan, and not of the " dead-game 

 sport," so-called, who is too often con- 

 founded with the disciple of revered 

 Walton. I allude to the quite common 

 "gentleman sportsman," if yQVi wish to 

 call him so. Not necessarily the anglers 

 and gunners who dress as gentlemen 

 and carry the best rods and guns, but 

 rather the sentimental and upright 

 members of our honored, but often as. 

 sailed, craft. At a future time we will 

 discuss that noble class, the gentlemen 

 sportsmen, as too much cannot be said 

 in his favor. 



In years of experience in the field 

 and forest, and on lake and stream, and 

 in much travel within our boundaries, 

 both north and south, east and west, I 

 have carefully noted the various classes 

 of people engaged in angling and hunt- 

 ing for pleasure, and can say that wher- 

 ever I have been that enthusiastic crip- 

 ples have been observed hunting and 

 fishing. 



Now, strictly speaking, there is no 

 line of demarcation between a condition 

 where a man has a wart on his nose or 

 but one eye, and a man with both legs 

 and one arm amputated. According to 

 accepted rulings, about any variation 

 from a normal standard in the human 



form divine stigmatizes the cripple ; 

 and, therefore, a girl with a freckled 

 face is a cripple, but she is to be re- 

 spected, yes, and admired, if she can 

 catch fish. It doesn't prove the lack of 

 spirit or manhood if a man goes about 

 in a wheel chair, nor is it a proof of 

 poverty if he can't ride a wheel. He 

 may not have any hands, and yet be 

 able to draw a check for thousands by a 

 pen held in his toes. I know one of 

 this description. , He can play poker, 

 too, but we'll excuse that when we 

 know that he can paint pictures of 

 merit, and beat nine out of ten con- 

 ceited daubers who have two good 

 hands. 



It is not very hard for you to under- 

 stand that a one-armed man may cast a 

 fly in a style to capture more fish than 

 a score of poor rodsters could catch, or 

 that a one-legged expert gunner can sit 

 in a blind and kill more ducks than a 

 dozen beginners. But it is intended to 

 show that some cripples can shoot and 

 fish and stand rough usage and travel, 

 too. 



I have in mind the case of a one- 

 armed old codger who hunts deer up 

 north as regularly as the open season 

 returns, and his family does not go 

 without meat, either. He learned to 

 shoot with a muzzle-loading rifle, and 

 few could load it quicker than he, or 

 throw it to the shoulder and fire it with 

 a truer aim. Deer escaped him, as they 

 will get away from any hunter, but he 

 was about as sure a shot at a running 

 deer as there was to be found in his 

 section. He finally purchased a re- 

 peater, pump-gun, as he called it, and 

 could manage to work the thing with 

 his stub and good arm. In nearly every 



