Dear Sir, - I have from time to time seen letters in your paper from monopedes and other girls who have had one or more limbs removed, stating that they wear short skirts slit up the sides, and long silk hose and high heels, in order to add allure to their one-leggedness.
As a lame girl myself, one with a withered leg, I feel that I'm empowered to criticise my fellow-sufferers; and much as I sympathise with their infirmity, I fear that the criticism may not be kind.
As a cripple myself, I know that any from of lameness is not attractive, but only abhorrent to the world at large, and to make a parade of our unfortunate crippled limbs alienates us from all that sympathy which alone makes our lot bearable.
In the schools for crippled children we are taught two important things. One is, Do not dwell upon your infirmity. disregard it as much as possible, and refrain from talking about the matter or attracting public attention to your defects.
May I, through the columns of your paper, pass on this good advice to monopedes and others who seek, by a display of their crippled limbs, to attract admiration?
Monopedes should dress prettily and attractively, but in such a way as to disguise, not to reveal, their unfortunate condition. Short, split skirts that reveal details of the surgeon's art are hideous and abhorrent. Oh, yes, there will be plenty of glances from the public, but they will nor be glances of admiration.
As a crippled girl myself, I know that strange, perverse kink in cripples that makes them want to shock their more fortunate brothers and sisters by a parade of our misfortune, but such an attitude never plays, and heaven alone knows that our lot is hard enough without us making it all the more difficult by setting ourselves out to be precise and trying to make a glory out of what we know is only a hideous misfortune.
This unhealthy cult of short-skirted defiance by monopedes and cripples will only add more to the great burden that we must already carry.
Sweet personal daintiness, and graceful, becoming gowns which hide our misfortunes, will do far more to make us acceptable to the opposite sex than all the perverse parading of our ills in the world. Let us try to adopt a mare healthy attitude than those of the monopede readers whose letters I see printed in your columns.
Yours truly
Crippled Girl