Dear Sir. - This is really an answer to "One-legged Ursula" who wrote in the August Double Number.
I have been a regular reader of "London Life" for the past five years, and was first attracted to it by an article I saw by Wallace Stort, and since then I have seen very many letters from one-legged - or should I say from people who say that they are one-legged?
I have seen her request that we should have a one-legged number many times, too, but have at last given up all hope of ever seeing a one-legged number in this or any other paper.
There have been very many promises, also from one-legged writers, to send there photos if only somebody else would send theirs in first.
We have had three such photos in the past from "Single High Heel," "A Happy Monopede," and the last from "Happy With One," but the person who asked for photos, in return for which she promised to send her own - her name was Edith- has just died at death common to so may of your correspondents.
Is Wallace Stort dead also?
Many thanks are due to "Lawless" for his first story, but it would have been ever so much more probable, if he had left Pixie with one leg.
Still, more power to his elbow, and may we have another of his stories in the very near future.
I had better explain my interest in this type of story now, I suppose.
I am myself a cripple of some ten years' standing.
My left leg was taken off in August 1925 as the result of a pillion smash. The rider of the cycle, to whom I was engaged, soon let me see that he was in no way interested in a one-legged woman, and the engagement was ended.
I see no compensation at all in the 9 inch stump that is all I have for a left leg, and as I am not wealthy enough to spend 30 pounds on an artificial limb I have just made the most of a crutch; but it is a very poor substitute for the flesh-and-blood leg that I lost.
I am stared at wherever I go, and some of the comments are not at all flattering, as I still think that I should dress as well as I can afford, and although I am a cripple I do not see any reason for being dowdy or old-fashioned and keep abreast of the fashions.
I have worn the split skirt that "One-legged Ursula" mentions, and it is really a great help in both walking and going upstairs, and also in boarding public vehicles.
Yours truly
R. A. D.