Taxonomy of Bums

Later I saw many such women on the road, but never have I known so many of them together in one place, off guard, as I did that day in Devine’s speakeasy. Some were actually blind (blinkies), some deaf (deafies), some dumb (dummies). The deaf and dumb ones my informer called “D and D’s.” The armless ones were known as “wingies,” the legless as “Peggy’s,” the feeble-minded or insane as “nuts,” those with pronounced tremors (drunk-palsied) “shakies,” and the epilepsies “fitzies.” Those who’ve had their legs cut off near the hips and who ride around on a low wheel-chair are called “wheels.”

BOXCAR BERTHA: An Autobiography by Dr. Ben L. Reitman