Dear Sir, - I was about to start this letter to you several days ago, but was delayed from doing so, and I have now time to look through this week's Spring Number and must start by expressing my appreciation for a splendid production.
One thing only mars this edition - the fact that once again you have forgotten your monopede readers and have provided no story for us either by "Lawless" or W. Stort.
Also where are the limbless correspondents? No letters from these have appeared since early in February, with he exception of the interesting letter form "Cripplegate." It is very interesting to compare the letters of ten years ago with the topics discussed to-day, and to notice that you have included two letters re monopedes in this series.
I hope that you will do something similar in your Summer Number, and please let us have more letters from limbless readers, for I know that during the eight years that I have been a reader there must have been scores of these letters.
Perhaps your readers would be interested in an account of a young girl who has recently come to live near to us.
I had noticed this girl going up and down the road for several days, by the fact that she walked with the aid of a crutch and wore a very thick boot (I learned later that her right leg was 12 inches shorter than her left), and a few days later, while I was waiting for the 'bus to town, this girl came and waited too; and I suppose being mutually attracted to one another, we smiled, then spoke, and then travelled up together.
This happened on several occasions, and a few weeks later we were coming from town together on the 'bus, and I asked her if she would come in to tea with me, as I was alone. She did, and I enjoyed her company very much, she being an excellent conversationalist. She told me that her leg ceased to grow when she was about eight years old, so that now she was fully grown (she was 21 and had a lovely figure), her leg was practically useless and more than 12 inches short, so that she wore a boot very similar to No. 3 described by your correspondent, the sole being 10 inches thick and the heel 15 inches high. (How's that for some of your high heelers?)
She dressed very smartly and that particular afternoon, she was wearing a two-piece in navy, with red and white buttons and ornament, a chic little hat, and her shoe was an instep-tie model in blue glace kid, with a high Spanish heel, her high boot also being in blue leather and very smart design, and her crutch was the armpit type in ebony, and very slender. I was very surprised to find how light her club foot was. She took it off to show me, and it was no heavier than an ordinary leather brogue shoe, the thick sole being merely a hollow shell. I found that she was very particular over her footwear, and always had her high boot designed in the same leather and colour as her other shoe, the style being as near as was possible.
She told me that she had no less than eight "pairs," including one in white kid and one in black satin for evening wear.
Since that day we have seen quite a lot of one another, and she often pops in for a chat, and the other day she called with a very serious look on her face and asked if I would give her my advice, as she would very much appreciate it.
It appeared that her father, who was very fond of her, hated the thought that she was burdened and her appearance spoiled by what he called her ugly foot, and had been to an eminent orthopaedic surgeon to seek his opinion with a view to having the leg removed completely, the ultimate idea being for Elsie to have an artificial leg.
So she had come to me, being a monopede, for my opinion on the matter which, frankly, I hesitated to give; for, as I explained to her, our cases were so entirely different, my leg being amputated through an accident and so badly damaged in the bone that I cannot wear an artificial leg, although I have persevered as I told you in a previous letter. I advised her, therefore, to stress that point with the doctor when it came to an examination that he could assure her of the ability to wear a leg at a future date.
However, she has had now both an examination and x-ray, and the great man assures her father and Elsie that she will be far better in health, both physically and mentally, through the leg being removed, and she is now preparing to enter a nursing home shortly for the operation. I have introduced her to "London Life", and she is now taking a copy regularly. She was simply amazed to read of the many limbless and crippled lady correspondents in some of the back numbers which I loaned to her, and possibly later on I may persuade her to write to you herself.
My husband and I paid a visit to my friend Joan this Easter, and she is getting marvellously agile on her two artificial legs being able to get about the house without any support at all and using only a walking stick in the street. The legs themselves are a wonderful contraption. Joan showed them to me at night when she removed them. They are made almost entirely of polished aluminium, and remarkably light in weight. Of course I could see that the workmanship was of the best, but was surprised when Joan told me that the pair of legs cost her over 70 Pounds, my husband's observation being that "he was glad that I had a leg to stand on."
Joan asserts that, despite her fine equipment, she would really change places with me and be content to walk on a single leg and crutches.
Trusting that I have not taken too much of your valuable space
Yours truly,
Single High Heel.