Dear Sir. - I have just resumed reading your fascinating little paper as being out of England for two years. In those days I was a normal healthy young man who thoroughly enjoyed life.
About two years ago you used to publish letters by legless or one-legged readers. These letters always fascinated me. Now, through an accident, my right leg has been amputated at the hip, and so I have no possibility, they tell me, of ever using an artificial leg.
I walk with one crutch. First of all I used two, but after a little practice I found I could walk as fast as a normal person with one, and long distances, too. I do not like snow and ice, as I am always afraid of falling. I can ride a bicycle with a fixed wheel carrying my crutch strapped to the bike. In summer I swim in the sea. I have got quite used to people looking in curiosity.
If I am alone I take a special wooden crutch (no padded crosspiece) tied by a light cord to my waist, walk to the water and swim, pulling the crutch after me. Thus I have both arms and my leg free. I can swim two miles.
A girl with no feet sometimes bathes too. Her friends carry her into the water to swim. When she leaves the beach she walks with dainty shoes on. She has tiny artificial feet.
If any of my friends are bathing, even the girls will help me to get to the water, so I don't need the undignified crutch. I have noticed that girls like to make a fuss of a crippled boy such as myself.
I am 23 years old, work in an assurance office. You must have lots of legless or one-legged readers. Don't they write? I love to read their letters.
I do not mind my crutch so much now, though I thought I should die of shame when I first went out on crutches. The biggest blow was not being able to dance any more. I used to live for dancing, and even hearing a dance band makes me long for a dance.
Once, in a cafe, a dance band struck up a foax-trot, and I struggled crutchless from my seat; and not until I nearly fell and caught the table for support I did remember I had only one leg and that the substitute for the other was lying hidden on the floor.
When first crippled I forgot once or twice I couldn't walk without my crutch, more than once while in the house I tried to get up crutchless. Now, of course, I don't use a crutch so much in the house. I hop about.
Yours truly
One-Legged