Dear Sir, - I was pleased and flattered to see in the last Double Number of "London Life" the open letter addressed to me by a reader who was pleased to think me a "sweet-natured cripple."
Strangely enough, I can't take that as a personal compliment to myself alone, for after the accident which robbed me of one leg I attended a crippled school where half the treatment consisted in persuading cripples not to be bitter about the state.
I wonder if other lame readers have ever had to contend with the heart-breaking mockery and baiting that goes on? The people who aren't crippled seem to imagine that we who are have no finer feelings and, among the lower classes, the life as a cripple is hard indeed, due to nothing more than the mockery and shameless baiting of them by young louts and women who ought to know better. It was to treat this mockery as the worthless thing it really was that our crippled school had its psychology class.
There are always sadistic people whose one ambition is to torment those in a weaker position than themselves. The cripple comes in for a lot of this baiting, and is prevented from punishing the preparatory by the crippled state. To make up for all this, we cripples are taught three things.
First, to make the best of ourselves. Hence, by this, I can answer that reader who begs me not to forget that I am feminine, and to dress daintily. Of course I don't forget that. The accident which robbed me of my leg didn't rob me of my woman's vanity, my dear fellow reader! I use a slender steel crutch, wear a high heeled shoe on my perfect leg, and keep up to the mark as far as fashion and make-up are concerned. In fact, because I am always conscious of my crippled state, I go a step further and try to make up in personal daintiness for the lack of my missing leg.
If my last letter gave a hint that I disapproved of cripples making the best of themselves, I conveyed a wrong impression. What I really meant (and am sure what I said) was that some crippled girls mistook kindness and consideration of their crippled state for a kind of perverse admiration for it. I don't do that. I know that in my attractiveness I am going to fall far short of the girl with two whole legs; and moreover, I don't see the sense of making a kind of fetish out of my crippled state (which so many cripples do for sheer perversity and naughtiness).
Therefore I don't wear ultra-short skirts or too provocative clothes.
The second thing I was taught at the crippled school was to be a creator. It was pointed out to us that very few of us would ever marry. Therefore we must turn our creative efforts to something else - either write, paint, make flowers, dresses, or any other artistic occupation. I happen to be a dress designer, and my work brings me in contact with a lot of people I should otherwise never meet. Incidentally, clothes designing for cripples is one of the most interesting tasks.
The third thing school taught me was to keep an open mind, not get bitter, and to excuse others who had no handicaps. That is why
I sign myself as a happy reader, though crippled.
Yours truly,
Dawn