MISS WILSON'S LEG.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 305, 26 December 1877, Page 4

MISS WILSON'S LEG.

[New York Times.}

Twenty-seven years ago Miss "Wilson, ofPinevilie, Jforth Carolina, lost her right leg. She was then young and pretty, and had she merely mislaid her leg, every chivalrous Carolinian in the country would have searched for n. Unfortunately, her loss was an irrevocable one. Having unintentionally inserted her leg under the wheel of a heavily loaded wagon, she found that the once shapely limb was so completely ruined that she consented to have it cut off and thrown away. Its place was in time supplied with a cork leg, and Masa "Wilson sorrowfully resigned herself to limping through a loveless life to a solitary grave.

There never has been any active demand for women with wooden legs. A man with a wooden leg suffers a certain amount of inconvenience, but he loses (nothing in character or popularity, whereas a >vooden-legged woman is, whether justly or unjustly, under a social ban. In fact, for a woman to lose a le^:, is ordinarily to lose all hope of marriage. A tuau who is about to be married cannot be blamed for preferring a whole wife to one partially made of cork - especially as the former costs no more than the latter. A superficial thinker might, perhaps, fancy that a husband whose wife had but one original leg would save 50 per cent, the price of striped stockiugs aod kid shoes; but a little reflection will show that a cork leg requires just as much clothing as the usual style of leg, and hence is not an eeonotmeal contrivance. Of course, it is mean and selfish in a man to permit tbe presence or absence of a mere trifle of a leg to affect his feelings towards an estimable woman ; but human nature is weak, and he would be a bold man who could look calmly forward to marrying a woman who might some morning interrupt him while shaving by asking, " James, would jou mine handing me my leg? I think you'll find it behind the rocking chair."

It in alleged by Miss Wilson's neighbors that as ehe yrew hard aud cyDieul. Tbis was, perhaps, to have beea expected. She flaw herself ignored by all marrying meo, while girls with hall her beuuty, and whose sole (superiority consisted in a larger number of legs, captured husbands without any difficulty. Gradually ehe becume embittered against her bipe>iul fellow creatures, and the local Baptist minister was probably right when he characterised her as a hard-hearted worldly woman. One day, however, Miss Wilson attended a camp-meeting, and was softened by the eloquence of tjje .preacher and the shouts of the worshippers. And soon after Pioeville wua surprised and pleased by the announce-

ment thafe on nest Sunday Sister Wilson would be baptised. Now the public performance of the rite of baptism by the Rev, Mr. Waters, of the Pineville Eleventh-day Baptist Church, always drew a large audience. That powerful and agile preacher was admitted to be without a rival as a rapid and efiective baptieer. On one occasion when a Presbyterian Minister, preaching against baptism by immersion, showed that St. John the Baptist had once baptised a multitude of persons at the rate of two men and a half per minute, and that hence he could not have immersed them. Mr Waters publicly baptised twenty-five persons in eight minutes, thua beating St. John best time by two full minutes, and completely overthrowing the Presbyterian argument. With all his unequlled rapidity of execution, he was never careless or inconsiderate. There was a rival Baptist minister in the next county who would sometimes become carried away by hia emotions, and would sing an entire verse of a long-metre hymn while helding a oonverfc under water ; and although a stalwart teamster who was thus treated once fell from grace, and, upsetting his minister in the waier, held him under until he was nearly drowned, the reverend enthusiast was not cured of his careless habit. When, therefore, Miss Wilson consented to be baptised by the Piueville minister, she knew that she would be treated in in a considerate and skilful manner, and the public knew that the spectacle would be well worth witnessing. So long as the water was only two feet deep, Miss Wilao*, who weighed fully two hundred pouuds, managed to wade toward the minister, but bo soon as the latter took her by the hand and led her into deeper water, the cork aeserted its buoyancy, and Miss Wilson was suddenly reversed. The minister, with difficulty, placed ber on her feet agaiu, and rather surlily requested her not to do that again, began to make a brief and formal address. Before he bad spoken ten words, Miss Wilson, with a wild shriek, iell backward, and her cork leg shot swiftly upon ihe surface. Perhaps this is the point where a veil should be dropped. To finish the narrative in as few words as possible it may be said that after half-a-dozen futile efforts the attempt to baptise Miss Wilson, waß abandoned. With all his skill and strength the minister could not counteract the efforts of the cork leg, and could not keep the convert right side up long enough to baptise her. She bo:-e it with patience until the minister called for a fifty-six pound weight, with a view to ballasting her when she indignantly scrambled ashore, hastening home, and subsequently joined the Presbyterians. We thus learn that there are iiraea when cork legs conflict with the moat important duties. The leg maKera should take a hint from this suggestive incident and devise a light metallic leg wherewith to supply the Baptism market.