Cripple

When Thomas Allan Dwyer gained admittance to Fordham University in New York this autumn, he was a problem that deans of practically every U. S. college have encountered. Cripples are usually excellent students. Their will to learn and their abstinence from extra-curriculum work tends to make them so. Yet they are apt to be painful to physically normal undergraduates. Father Charles J. Deane, dean at Fordham, had urged against Student Dwyer's enrollment.

The boy (he was 21) could not walk without help; he could only teeter on his toes. He could not hold pen, pencil or eating utensils; fellow students were obliged to write his notes and to feed him in the college dining-room. Although his mind was keen and he formed ideas clearly, he expressed himself with greatest difficulty. For studying his lessons (he was good in Greek, Latin, French), he had an apparatus built to hold his books.

Lusty young men abhor the abnormal. A few weeks of Thomas Dwyer's attendance at Fordham and the kindness of fellow students abated. When he was fed, they (to escape nausea) kept their eyes away. They complained to Dean Deane. The student who voluntarily helped the crippled boy with his personal needs became a nervous wreck. So the dean last week wrote to Student Dwyer's father, a New York doctor, saying that the boy must be withdrawn and advising private tutors.

"My last hope is gone. What can I do now?" asked the boy when told of the decision. He moped at home. His father tried to cheer him until calls from patients took him away. The mother tried to comfort her boy but was obliged to leave for an appointment. Alone, he drank a bathroom germicide and died quickly.