Dear Sir, - May I thank you very much for the very generous "amende" you inserted at the conclusion of my story in the New Year's Eve Number of "London Life." I am afraid I was rather outspoken in my letter about "cuts" in the story, but apparently you took it all in good part; and for that, and your nice footnote, I am very grateful. On the whole you did the best you could with the story in the circumstances. I can, however, unreservedly thank Miss Stanton for her very charming illustrations throughout, most of which were delightfully "in character", particularly those of "Tina".
I was very interested in your reference to possible future book publication of the story. Do I understand that you are contemplating its publication in book form? I sincerely hope so; and, if so, I shall very much look forward to its appearance. If you are entering this field, you could follow with another "Stort" book, containing the three stories featuring the adventure of "La Belle Monopede," "The Tattooed Butterfly," "At the Moignon D'Or," "Dr. Nicholas." Other books could feature the stories, "The Strange Quest of Anthony Drew," and "The Strange Adventures of a Lover," both of which ran seriously through your columns some years ago. I hope you will venture into this field, as, apart from my own work, there is a good deal of other material, notably the correspondence, that could be reissued in book form.
As for the story that has just concluded in your columns, I wonder, as I always do, how it was received by the mass of your readers. I know that many readers regard as a nonsense anything not connected with their own particular fads. But others are broader in their views, and will perhaps welcome a fantastic story for its own unusual quality. I hope they at least liked the "Purple Heart." Nobody realises, more than I do that these stories of mine deal with a world of fantasy, very far removed from ordinary everyday life. But at the same time they do actually have some relation to reality, or, at any rate, to a queer sub-section of it. One realises this when reading the letters appearing at regular intervals from "monopede" lady readers and from monopede lovers. And it is particularly brought home to myself at periods like the Christmas season we have just left behind us.
It is then that I receive, as I did as usual this year's cards and photographs and cordial messages from my many friends of the show world of Europe and America. And believe me, my show of cards this year would suggest to readers, could they see them, capital illustrations for one or other of my stories. I have had cards - with photographs, always with photographs, by the way, for these side-show stars are very vain of their charms - from "Armless Beauties" and "Legless Halfbodies;" one from a German "sister" act now in the states - two charming girls, who are not sisters, of course, each with only one leg. And who do a clever contortion, balancing and jumping act; one very special one from one of the most attractive girls, you could wish to meet, but who is, as she was born, as totally without arms and legs as the "Princess Ottilie" of my recent story - and many others.
And a little while before Christmas I received the following interesting and extraordinary cutting from an American show weekly, sent by an American friend of mine who shares my interest in the show world, and keeps me posted about interesting and out-of-the-way items. It is taken from a kind of gossip feature, edited from a member of staff of the paper, and made of items sent in by showfolk readers. The style in this, and throughout the paper, is amusingly colloquial, as you will see.
(Note: The words in brackets are my own explanations and comments on the text.)
"Zita," former, attractive and popular side-show feature, widely known as the "Armless Venus", infoes (i.e. informed reports) from Tacoma, Texas, per her manager, Ed. Gruden, that she is back in the midway show-booths ("midway" - the main avenue in a carnival or fair ground, where the most popular shows are to be found and the crowd is thickest) after an absence of over three years. She tells me that her many friends and admirers among the public will be agreeably surprised )"agreeably" is an odd word in this particular context!) to find that she is now legless as well as armless. As "Zita" reminds me, she left the shows in order to have her lower limbs removed, as the same trouble was developing in them that was responsible for the amputation of her arms when she was a four-year old toddler. She is delighted to be back in harness again, and pardonably proud to have become one of the very select band of completely limbless ladies now before the public.
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She is already very much in demand by exhibitors and is cashing in heavily on her new status as a star side-show attraction. Her new billing, described her as "The Beautiful Living Torso, Zita, Peerless Armless and Legless Venus," will make her rivals sit up and take notice. But she can get away with it, with bells, as she is, as this scribe can testify, a stunning blonde, very easy on the eye and only a year or two out of her 'teens. She hands a large bouquet to her surgeon, Herman ("Doc") Marks, widely known and well liked by show folk, many of whom he had operated on, for his sympathetic and skilful work in connection with her case. He performed the ticklish double hip amputation with little or no troublesome after-effects to his patient, and left the plucky little lady a neat, attractive torso, with no unsightly stumps. She is naturally delighted with the results, as her appearance on the pedestal, in her silk fleshings, has the real, genuine professional "limbless lady" effect of a girl born entirely without either arms or legs.
* * * *
"Zita" confesses coyly that she took the opportunity, during her enforced absence from the shows, to get hitched up in holy matrimony, on which this scribe and her host of admirers offer heartiest congrats. The lucky man is not connected with showland, but is in real estate on his own and doing very nicely, thank you. The ceremony took place in the groom's home town, by special license, a couple of months back, and by way of a joke, the fact that the little lady in the case had nary a hand to shake or a leg to stand on was kept a dead secret from the church people. The happy pair and their friends got a big laugh when the preacher-man's chin dropped at first sight of the blushing and beauteous bride being carried in like a cute little baby in arms. And the fun became furious when the poor unfortunate reverend had to decide where exactly to place the wedding ring!
S'matter of fact, thought the lady insisted on her groom presenting her, for luck, with an ordinary sized wedding ring, and a magnificent - and consequently expensive - engagement ring - though where she'll wear them is nobody's business! - a special plain gold bracelet was used for the actual ceremony, this being slipped, at the proper moment, over the bride's left shoulder stump. The register was signed in a bold, flowing "hand" by the bride, holding the pen in her mouth. It is fortunate, as she points out, that she trained herself to use both her mouth and her feet, during her armless days, no doubt in anticipation of the time when she might find herself, as she is to-day, legless as well as armless. She says in conclusion, that she is on the top of the world, happy as the day is long, with no regrets and better in health than she has been for years, now that she has at last got rid of limbs that were becoming a growing handicap and danger.
Atta girl, "Zita," 'at's the spirit! Mighty glad to know you are back where you belong, though minus a few more limbs - but what are a couple of legs between friends? Pleased to learn, too, that you packing them in on the lot ("packing them in on the lot" - getting crowded audiences in her fair shows on the fair grounds) and heading for greater success than ever. Drop us a line when you are showing anywhere round this neck of the woods and this scribe will be happy to pay his personal respects. Regards from all here."
This remarkable effusion is very typical of life in showland. It is quite obvious that the people concerned live in a world of their own, a completely fantastic world from the normal individual's standpoint. Even the "scribe" himself, though an onlooker, is very evidently in harmony with their ideas. He accepts with complete complacency, as a quite normal item of news, the extraordinary fact that a young and pretty girl, already entirely armless, can retire from the shows in order to have both her legs removed from the hips and then return, obviously immensely pleased with herself and excited at the prospect of showing herself to the public as a completely limbless torso and "cashing in heavily" on her new status as a star side show attraction.
You have to know these people personally to understand them and their strange points of view. They regard themselves as something rather wonderful and set apart, "artistes" in their own particular line, and anything that can add to their "status as a side-show attraction" they welcome with avidity.
I do not know and have never seen, to my knowledge, this particular girl "Zita," at any rate, under the name - these people use a variety of "professional" names. But reading between the lines of the above account, I shouldn't be one bit surprised to discover that, though the removal of her legs had become necessary because of some progressive bone or blood trouble, it was not actually necessary to amputate completely from the hips.
Usually in trouble of this kind, a much lower amputation will suffice to halt the progress of the poison or whatever it is. At any rate, it is usual to try such an amputation first of all. But "Zita" had her "professional" career and particularly her appearance in the show booth to think of. And I have no doubt that an understanding was arrived at between herself and her surgeon (who would obviously understand the situation).
Otherwise the operation appears to have been terribly drastic, and one that is only resorted to in the most unusual and desperate circumstances. Odd as it may seem, I have heard whispers of cases somewhat similar, though not so drastic.
In any case, examples of this kind and others, to be encountered in showland, illustrate my point about there being some relation to reality about my stories, fantastic and out of the ordinary though they be.
But I have gone on to such length that I had better stop before the Editor gets uneasy, if he isn't that already!
May I thank you once again and offer my belated wishes for a very prosperous New Year for the paper and the staff?
Yours very sincerely,
Wallace Stort.