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THE DISABLED.
In this chapter I want to speak of those who suffer from physical disabilities, either from birth, the result of accident, or disease.
If this great army of homeless afflicted humanity were made to pass in procession before us, it would, I venture to say, so touch our hearts that we should not want the procession repeated.
Nothing gives us more pleasure than the sight of a number of people who, suffering from some one or other physical deprivation, are being taught some handicraft by which they will be able to earn a modest living.
Probably nothing causes us greater sadness than the sight of deformed and crippled men and women who are utterly unable to render any useful service to the community, and who consequently have to depend upon their wits for a miserable living.

It is a very remarkable thing that an accident which deprives a man of a leg, of an arm, or of eyesight, not only deprives him of his living, but also frequently produces a psychological change.

And unless some counterbalancing conditions serve to influence in an opposite direction he may become dangerous.

It was not without reason that our older novelists made dwarfs and hunchbacks to be inhuman fiends.