Dear Sir, - It is apparent to me, from personal experience and the variety of letters received from limbless girls and admirers, that the generally used term "monopede" could be usefully defined and sub-divided. The word now seems to cover too wide a note, as the types of monopedes are many and varied.
The following definitions are based on the assumption that a monopede is a girl who has lost all or part of a leg. The physical condition is the first essential to the title coupled with a particular state of mind in regard to the lost limb. Then spiritual difference as to one monopede and another can be broadly illustrated by the divergent approach to the subject by your well known contributors, Joan Roper and Wallace Stort. In my view, the latter depicts the true monopede; the former a monopede with a biped outlook. Both these types are poles apart spiritually, though physically the same.
Therefore a "true monopede" is a girl who has lost all or part of a leg and uses as her method of progression in public one or two crutches without in any way trying to divert attention from or disguise her loss.
Having suggested the above as a basic definition, the various sub-divisions can be made as follows:
Peg-legged Monopede. - A girl who wears a peg or pin leg in place of the absent limb. In so doing she does not attempt to disguise her loss, and is entitled to be classed as a monopede.
Wooden-legged Monopede. - One who chooses to wear an artificial limb where the amputation has taken place above the knee. I say specifically above the knee, as the resultant gait on a wooden or metal leg cannot possibly conceal its artificiality either when in motion or at rest.
To cover those whose knee joint remains and whose walk with a false leg is very normal, making the loss hard to detect, another classification is needed. I would suggest "Artificial Bipede" in the case of such girls, on the grounds that the required mental outlook is generally absent in such cases.
It would be a serious omission to fail to include a very brave section of cripples - the legless, particularly the "legless monopedes" who, minus limbs, get about on crutches with the aid of a single artificial leg, or the "active legless bipedes" who move with sticks, unaided by anyone, on a pair of false legs. Though the appeal of the latter is not great, their courage is undoubted.
A final class, the "immobile legless bipedes" who live in the past, lacking the mental attributes of the true monopedes, which fact is proved conclusively by their wearing of "disguise or cosmetic" legs, the employment of which their own physical condition makes impossible.
As regards to one-armed girls, their special appeal on that account alone is small, though when this is accompanied by the loss of a leg it vastly increases the appeal of the latter. Where a wooden arm is worn, the wearer becomes one of a multitude of normal people and with therefore no special distinction.
The entirely armless have a vital and powerful attraction immeasurably heightened when they rise above their terrible loss to be independent of others With use of their legs and toes.
I should like to say that many of the above defined monopedes change within the confines of their own homes, shedding their artificial supports, aids and devices to become their own selves. From the point of view of the foregoing definitions it is impossible to account of private lives. The only safe way is to class a monopede by her appearance and actions in public.
I have made a list of the various types of monopedes which, in my opinion, have the greatest attraction or "thrill value."
Before closing this letter, I may express my appreciation to all one-legged readers and admirers who have written the many interesting letters to "London Life"? Keep up the good work. Let us hear more from you, and new recruits as well. Special thanks to "Dorree," "Hoppy," "A. H." and Miss Olive Kent (via "Zenophon") for the photos - which, incidentally, make the letters ten time more interesting.
Couldn't you persuade Miss Kent to accede to the many requests for details and photos of herself, "Zenophon"? They would be greatly appreciated by all and prepare the way for her stage debut. I shall be there.
Yours truly,
A. M. F.