Dear Sir, - May I first congratulate "Hopper" on her excellent first letter and at the same time express to her my thanks for its publication at a very opportune moment? It has instantly solved a problem which has caused me a great deal of thought.
In brief, I have been reading correspondence from one-legged girls to your paper, to find the "perfect monopede." Like an answer to a prayer "Hopper" enters the lists and carries of the title on her first appearance.
"Hopper" is psychologically a 100 per cent monopede in her attitude to her loss, which she neither tries to mitigate nor disguise. On the contrary she scorns to wear anything but the latest in clothes, though accentuating her one-legged condition thereby and inevitably displaying the remains of her amputated leg below her fashionable short skirt.
Moreover, with the disarticulation at the knee-joint it would be a simple matter to have an artificial leg fitted, which would be impossible to distinguish from the real one. It would be incorrect to say she resists to mitigate her loss at little discomfort, as most girls with such an amputation would do, because for "Hopper" there is no temptation. She recognises the added attraction of one-leggedness as a trump card and plays her hand accordingly.
What a thrill it must be to know a monopede of such fine spirit, one unconcerned with pretty conventions to wear slacks, cycle, and hop about crutchless in public. Truly her fiance is to be envied.
But after arousing our interest and admiration by her letter, could my self-styled "Perfect Monopede" not be persuaded by the appeals of other one-legged girls and admirers to favour us with some photos of herself, at the same time informing us what kind of sock she wears on her abbreviated limb, and the secret of her success to keep it up.
Actually I considered Miss Olive Kent a close runner-up for the "title"; but with the lack of exact detail of her personal feelings and actions her claims could not be adequately judged.
Where letters on monopody fail to achieve continuity and sustained interest, lies with the correspondents themselves. Generally speaking we are all too selfish in our outlook, only interested in ourselves as is born out in the numbers of letters from new correspondence and novice monopedes who only write once.
Their letters and experiences are thoroughly appreciated by readers, who, unfortunately, are content to read them and piously hope they will continue to write, with the result that, receiving no encouragement from anybody, these new contributors promptly cease to write any more.
It is up to us all, old fans and new, experienced monopedes and novices in our own interests, to acknowledge letters which appreciated, to assist in others' problems, to give advice freely from our own store of experience, and to encourage, enthuse, discuss, criticise - in fact to anything but to display the awful apathy we have shown for some time past.
You, Mr. Editor, could assist. You favour us with many photos of bathing girls, film stars, etc. Why not organise a competition for our one-legged readers to select "Miss Monopede of London Life?" I realise it would be futile to even start without a certain amount of support promised in advance, so what about it, all our one-legged readers?
Perhaps, too, Mr. Editor, you could find space to reprint some of the past contributions of Mr. Wallace Stort's for the benefit of old readers and new alike. As many of our correspondents, such as "One legged Bride-to-Be," "Happy monopede," "Peggy," "Elizabeth" and "Hopper" have fiances, would not "Confessions of a One-legged Bride" be particularly apt and appreciated.
Yours truly,
A. M. F.