WORK FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN


in Copenhagen provided this opportunity. Some Swedish surgeons,
especially, went to their homes in Gothenburg full of enthusiasm,
and succeeded almost from the outset. The General Director of
Prisons in Sweden, Herr Wieselgren, made a speech which brought
in thirteen thousand kroner in less than a week, as a nest-egg for the
Gothenburg School-I wish there were space here to quote his
address, but suffice it to say that the subject was "A New Phase in
the History of the Love of Mankind," and that it aroused the whole
country, so that shortly afterward schools were started in all the large
cities of the (then) United Kingdom of Norway and Sweden.
   For every piece of work which the Gothenburg pupil accom-
plishes he receives payment, the cost of material only being deducted.
The making of hospital appliances, weaving, printing and book-
binding are among the industries taught. Pupils who have been
sufficiently helped physically to be able to work in their own homes
are provided with tools for all sorts of trades, even those requiring
such delicate and expensive apparatus as watch-making. These tools
are returned to the school in case of the pupil's death.
   The Government has aided the school in Gothenburg by allow-
ing so much per pupil for expenses. In reality this money comes
back to the Government by means of the ability to be self-supporting
of those who would otherwise be partly, at least, public charges.
Christiania, Norway, has also a very successful school to which was
given the entire donation presented to King Oscar in the Jubilee Year.
   The department for making orthopaedic appliances is important,
as it takes away from each school one of its greatest sources of expense.
Great skill is required in making orthopedic boots, for if they do not
fit exactly they are liable to prove a detriment rather than an aid.
Leather, artificially stiffened, is largely used instead of plaster for
bandages.
   Mrs. Humphrey Ward was the pioneer in advocating the education
of cripples in England and is known and loved by many hundreds
who never heard of "Robert Elsmere" or "The Marriage of William
Ashe." It was through her influence that the London School Board
decided to give financial aid, in an experimental way, to a few children
who met in eighteen hundred and ninety-eight in the Passmore-
Edwards Settlement in Tavistock Place. Here they led happy lives,
ate a dinner paid for by themselves at the rate of three and half pence,
and returned to their tenement homes at night with a new outlook
on life. Mrs. Ward advised the forming of local committees, and
also leagues for sending flowers to the school. She writes:
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