Dear Sir, - I have read with great pleasure the stories by Wallace Stort in your interesting magazine, and trust that you will supply us with many more in the same vein.
A great deal has been said on behalf of the crippled girl who likes to be as she is, and I wonder if you could find space to print this letter from one who does not like to be a cripple.
To put the case in a nutshell, I have only one useful leg. The other is still with me but, as the result of a bad fall, the knee joint has contracted, and the lower half of my leg is fixed immovably at right angles.
I was engaged prior to the fall, but when it became known that I was to be a cripple the man thought it best for us both that we should part.
I am blessed with a fair share of the world's good things and am independent, and am also decidedly not bad looking; but the sight of my useless leg and crutches was sufficient to turn at least one man's love into dislike.
I have, of course, to wear two crutches, as the only alternatives are amputation or a "kneeling" leg, which, incidentally, I have tried.
The leg was a peg, with a kind of tray for the shin to rest in and was quite impossible to put up with, as it meant the use of a very full shirt - and even that was too revealing, even in these enlightened times, apart from the fact that it was hopelessly in the way whilst sitting, and it was far from comfortable, on account of the hip and thigh straps.
I have seriously contemplated amputation, as I am assured that I should be left with a long and useful stump; but such a step is, of course, quite final, and I should never be able to call the leg back again.
While I am siting there is absolutely nothing to call attention to my infirmity, as my leg is still quite healthy, but I understand that in the course of a few more years the leg will wither, as I am only able to use the muscles of the thigh.
I am, and always have been, fond of pretty clothes, and even though I am now a useless cripple I see no reason for giving up the things I like. I still wear, for instances, pretty shoes, even if one of them is never soiled, and spend a good deal of my time looking on the pleasures I once took part in - a thing which has caused a good deal of embarrassment at different times. I am often asked to take a turn on the dance floor or make one of a team at tennis, and I know that strangers often think that I am "stuck up," because I have to say "No;" and it is not till they see me move away that they realise that it is not altogether my fault, as I never keep my crutches in evidence when I am seated. I hate the sight of the things, and although I have been told by many people that they are my best friends, I have not been using them long enough to realise that.
Perhaps in time I shall get over my horror of being a cripple, but it seems very hard to be young and good looking and fairly well-off, and yet so useless.
Judging from my remarks, it may perhaps be thought that I do not think it possible for a girl to actually like being a cripple, but such I know not to be the case, as one of my oldest friends is herself one-legged, with only a very tiny scrap of leg left - a mere three inches, in fact - but she is one of the cheeriest souls imaginable, and she manages to get the best out of life.
She does all the work of her little bachelor flat, even scrubbing the floors and doing the washing, which she accomplishes by resting her tiny stump on the table of the wash-tub.
She wears a very elaborate artificial limb out of doors, and gets about quite gaily on it, but indoors she discards it for a single crutch.
I must further point out that it is decidedly expensive to be one-legged or crippled in such a way as to necessitate the use of a crutch, as the artificial limbs cost anything up to 40 Pounds, even a peg-leg costs 5 Pounds, and a really comfortable crutch costs 3 Pounds 10s. for the pair, as the cheap kind, costing only l5s. a pair, are a very false economy, as they are hard on one's clothes and chafe the armpits.
Crutches very quickly wear out one's clothes, and I have already found a way to obviate this to some extent, as I wear leather insets in my costumes, and wearing an overcoat, or a fur coat I wear the crutches inside the coat and grip the crutch through the specially widened pockets.
I cannot wear a single crutch, as the swing of my useless leg causes me to sway far too much.
Please keep Mr. Stort up to scratch and publish all the letters you can get.
Yours truly,
Dot And Carry One.