[Ads-l] On so-far-earliest uses of "basket cases"

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was completely unaware of the original
meaning of "basket case," which OED describes as "[a] person, esp. a
soldier, who has lost all four limbs. Now historical and usually considered
offensive."

And now I'm fascinated.

I was getting ready to post some examples that precede the OED's earliest
(18 January 1919), but now I see that Pascal Tréguer has already done so.

https://wordhistories.net/2019/03/22/basket-case-origin/

Importantly, however, Patricia O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman have an 2014
entry on "basket case" at
https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/08/basket-case.html in which they
mention that "[a]ccording to newspaper accounts of the time, only one
Allied combatant, a Canadian soldier, is known to have survived the war
after a quadruple amputation" and go on to note that Ethelbert "Curley"
Christian had been wounded in France in April 1917 and lost his limbs
because of his injuries. (As you may recall, the U.S. military, in looking
into rumors about "basket cases," could not locate an instance of an
American soldier losing all limbs. This was used in subsequent debunkings
of some of the more outrageous stories that circulated in the States after
the war.)


Mr. Christian's Wikipedia page mentions that he returned to Canada in
September, 1917 and was treated in Toronto, where he received prosthetic
limbs. He then became a productive resident of the city.

Interestingly, the so-far-earliest (7 July 1918) use of "basket cases" is
linked to Toronto. (See excerpt below. A shorter version of this article is
in Pascal Tréguer's blog post.)

The English reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer presented scenes at a
solemn Toronto rail platform of returning wounded and ill soldiers being
greeted by family. But the reporter also mentions "a corps of white robed
nurses and doctors [coming] forward" to meet the, well, "basket cases"
still on the train. "Basket cases" are described as men "who will never
walk again, never talk, never hear the sound of a human voice, never see
the sunlight," which implies that these severely wounded were not
specifically or only amputees.

But by the summer of 1918, Mr. Christian was already receiving treatment in
Toronto and -- as a quadruple amputee -- may have already been the most
notable wounded soldier to have disembarked in a wicker basket there.

Until someone finds a still-earlier usage, I think it's at least possible
that the term may have been coined in Toronto or at least its association
with quadruple amputees may stem specifically from Mr. Christian's
misfortune.

If anyone has or can find earlier examples, I'm all ears.

-- Bonnie

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Quickly the crowd melted, but the train remained at the platform. And then
when the station was almost deserted a corps of white-robed nurses and
doctors came forward and entered the train. A few minutes later long wicker
baskets were tenderly lifted down the steps and hurried into waiting
ambulances.

Toronto knows all about the "basket cases." The people know they will come
with each train load of wounded. They know that these wicker baskets hold
poor fellows who will never walk again, never talk, never hear the sound of
a human voice, never see the sunlight.

Some will be patched up. Skilled surgeons and devoted nurses are working
miracles in Toronto's military hospitals, but there are "basket cases" for
whom the summons of the Great Reaper will come as a merciful release.

It isn't want of sympathy that causes the crowd to disperse before the
"basket cases" are removed from the trains. It isn't because Toronto is
afraid to learn the worst that the doctors and nurses stay out of sight
until the crowds have gone. This way it saves a few needless heartaches.

[From E. Arthur Roberts, "Canada Pays the Price of War and Talks Not of
Peace," Cleveland Plain Dealer, Feature Section, 7 July 1918. Databases
list that as appearing on page 67, but the printed page may actually be the
ninth in that feature section. This article is accompanied by an inked
illustration of nurses and doctors waiting to meet these most severely
wounded.]

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