Dear Sir, - I was much interested in the letter and charming little snap of his one-legged girlfriend from "A.H." recently, and also the correspondence between Miss Joan Roper and and Mr. Wallace Stort. I think, however, that some of the sketches illustrating these articles, to say the least of it, crude.
It is a subject that greatly interests me, and I was once fortunate enough to enjoy the friendship of a charming little amputee who was minus her left leg. Until we met, she was very shy about her amputation and looked on it as a great loss; but when she found I admired her for her one-leggedness, she soon changed her outlook and gradually got quite proud of it.
We used to go out a great deal together, and I was proud of the attention she excited as she swung along on her slender French crutches beside me. At first she used to hate people's stares, but in the end she revelled in them and would say to me: "My crutches feel so lovely; I am glad I have only one foot."
It used to be my job to keep her slender crutches well polished and her little French slipper well shined. When we had an evening alone I would sometimes take her crutches away, and she would pretend to be very helpless and call me a heartless boy for being so cruel to a poor one-legged girl, but would generally end by hopping off on her one little foot and telling me I could keep her crutches.
I used to love to see her go upstairs with a single crutch, and her girl friends used to call her "Birdie" because of her clever hopping.
She certainly was the smartest monopede I have ever seen, and I felt desolate when she had to go home to Ontario.
I quite agree with Wallace Stort that an amputee should not try to hide her condition, but should realise how very attractive she can be to some men. I do hope readers do send snaps like "A. H." of any one-legged girlfriends they may have. Unfortunately, I never had a snap of Elsie, or I would send it. As regards costume, she generally wore a short, tight-fitting skirt out of doors. I ought also to add that, on my persuasion, she was measured far a slender pin leg, and often wore it out of doors.
She would say, "Well, dear, am I to wear my little wooden leg to-night?" And if I agreed, she would hop off, and come downstairs with its rubber tip tapping on the floor and asked me if it looked smart, and would I be ashamed to be seen with a girl with a wooden leg.
Yours truly,
Admirer Of Monopedes.