Dear Sir, - I am reminded by a letter that you published in a recent treble number of "London Life" that, long ago, I expressed my intention of commenting on certain points raised in Wallace Stort's and "Psychologist's" letters in the issue of April 27. Well, soon after there appeared a letter from "Disciple", whose views coincide so nearly with my own that I thought the last word had been said on the mutual reactions of male human being and attractive monopede.
However, the publication of "Predilected's" quaintly worded letter, wherein unexceptional arguments are set forth in about the oddest language that it's ever been my luck to see in print, gives me thought to think that a resume of a not inexperienced observer's impression of the real status of the monopede may be of interest.
In the first place, of course, everything depends, even more than on the girl's personality itself, on contacts and environment. As "Predilected" says, many a monopede who might have been a striking figure in a lively social circle, has been lost to possible admirers and condemned to a life of near misery by the folly of her own relations.
Thus my own original girl friend, of whom I wrote on a previous occasion, though by no means beautiful, was big, athletic, naturally high-spirited, and anything but brainless, and would certainly have been a leading spirit in any ordinarily constituted society. But alas, her parents belonged to one of the narrower Nonconformist sects, and firmly believed that her daughter's loss (her leg had to come off quite unexpectedly through the sudden onset of a rare bone disease) was a direct mark of divine displeasure, not so much with the girl herself as with the family as a whole and themselves in particular! What marvel, then, that amid such influences she lapsed so far herself in religiosity that after several years of a pleasant friendship she became an impossible companion and we lost sight of one another?
But such a state of things, we'll hope, is nowadays exceptional. Save in the most cramped provincial circles, where mentalities have hardly changed at all in the last half century, I very much doubt whether any considerable proportion of one-legged girls to-day think of themselves or are thought of by their friends and associates, as Mr. Stort and "Psychologist" appeared to maintain, as "unfortunate cripples," and unlikely on that account to make a match with a normally minded young man.
After all, what is a "cripple?" Surely some incapacitated from taking their proper place in the active world by reason of some physical handicap or other. And that, I maintain, is just what the ordinary monopede is not! Some whose letters have appeared in "London Life" of late, is true, must be girl of the well-to-do class who need not bother whether they be self-supporting or no. But to such, social eligibly is doubly important, and none seem to be in the least doubt as to their presentability on that score!
Others - e.g., "Miss One Leg and a Crutch" and "Colleen on Crutches" (whose extraordinarily moving letters I have read in recently acquired bimonthly volumes), earn their own living, presumably in the open employment market, and seem well able to enjoy themselves normally and naturally in their spare time withal.
Think, too, of the immense range of trades and professions that lie open to the monopede to any other girl! Though undoubtedly debarred from some form of sport and exercise, the monopede can yet take her pick of quite an extensive selection. A one-legged girl can drive a motor car, and I have myself seen one riding behind a young man on a no doubt specially built tandem motor cycle, with her crutches in a carrier at the side. Dancing, too, with intelligently applied support from a partner in whom our monopede has entire confidence, is quite feasible so long as no indulged in for too long at a stretch.
Nor need she be obsessed with the idea that her choice of a husband need be confined within the minority of men - be it large or small - possessed of the "monopede complex" - i.e., a specific interest in one-legged girls as such.
If hard enough hit, the suitor will swear that he likes her best just exactly as she was when she first aroused his love and would not have her otherwise at any price! If she is a monopede, then he becomes a monopede admirer - at least as far as she is concerned - for evermore. (Unfortunately, this last process of reasoning can at times work the other way about, disastrously! I've known a middle-aged man so "peeved" at his very attractive wife losing a leg through a sudden mishap that he would not be seen in public with her on crutches! Result: An estrangement she, developing a large new circle of admiring acquaintances, attracted by the gallant way she carried off her new condition; he, lapsing further and further into misanthropy!)
Yes, I fully agree with "Predilected" that "Admirer of Monopedes" was lucky indeed to have known Elsie - and unluckier still to have lost her! Incidentally, can she be the same as the young lady whose letter appeared in the last year's August Treble Number over the somewhat unpleasing subscription, "Amputated Girl?" It sounds very much like it! If so, then photographs of her appeared at an earlier date still; when, and whether the number wherein they appear is obtainable, I should, Mr. Editor, very much like to know!
Yours truly,
C. D. B.