Dear Sir, - I have been meaning to write to you ever since one day last January when I bought a copy of "London Life" in a bookstall in Hongkong. It contained a story that caught my eye right away, a story about an armless and one-legged girl. To me, interested as I am in any limbless girl who is pretty and well educated, it was enthralling! I never got the beginning or ending of the story - much to my regret.
I do not suppose I am the only person who falls for limbless girls, so perhaps I may interest some other readers with a short summary of some of the legless and otherwise limbless girls I have met about the world. Far a start, knowing my girl-friend will not mind (as I understand from her that names and addresses are never published) I start with my friend. she is married, but she and her husband are friends of mine. I first saw her 4 months ago, being wheeled along in a bath chair by her Chinese servant. It was cold weather and she was clad in fur coat. No crutches were evident, so I did not think anything was the matter much, until I came abreast of her, then glancing down, I saw that she had only one leg. No covering was over her limb, which was clad in silk stocking and suede shoe. Seeing my interest, she gave a sort of half smile. She was more than pretty, her figure was perfect, her leg slim with a small foot. Her hair was red. I came to the conclusion that she had not yet learned to use crutches. Nor was I wrong as I found out afterwards. Neither was she married then, and did not get engaged until after she had been out on her crutches. In other words, she admits that if she hadn't been one-legged, she might have still been a bachelor girl. A few weeks later I met her at the flat of a mutual friend, getting around very unsteadily on a pair of slender black crutches. I expected her to be shy, in the presence of a stranger, but to my surprise she was rather the reverse. She told me how she was looking forward to getting about on her crutches in the big hotels, etc. She had not met her future hubby then, and we got quite pally. A month later I took her out to dinner, she being quite expert on her supports, but unsure of her balance without them. In fact, when she got up absently before her crutches were at hand once, she had to hop frantically else she would have fallen down! It was very amusing once, when, without meaning to, she gave everyone a thrill who saw it. She was standing supporting herself by leaning with her hands on a chair-back, having got up as usual before her crutches arrived, for the purpose of showing off her one-leggedness, as she cheerfully explained, knowing very well that every male eye was on her only shapely limb, and on her short skirt, utterly empty on one side. Then her crutches arriving she swung out on them and got into a rickshaw. Rickshaws were her favourite conveyance, she explained she disliked taxis - they were hard to get in and out of. But I think the real reason was that she knew a rickshaw emphasised her one-leggedness, as she was obliged to carry her crutches well in evidence. And a one-legged girl, in a short frock holding crutches beside her is certainly a pleasing sight. I can truthfully say that this girl is the only one I have known who flaunted her incomplete body, and who was really pleased to be a cripple. She wore the most daring evening gowns, too. One "creation" was just a brassiere and a skirt. The skirt was hung well below her hips, cut very fully, her one-legged condition was not noticeable until she sat down when she had a trick of flattening out the empty side of the gown. Her foot was always stockingless, and in evening dress always clad in the most inadequate of sandals. She never made the least effort to ape two-legged girls at dancing, etc., being content to sit down and watch, despite her 20 years. Anyhow, she got married and went to the Indies with her husband who was a planter.
Another case I remember well I saw several times at a native cabaret patronised by Europeans at Tahiti. The girl was a singer. She had but one leg, to which was attached a roughly-made bamboo peg-leg, which not only fitted so badly that she seemed in danger of losing it at every step, but so thin was it that it bent right over when her slender weight rested on it for a second. She had no hands, both were off at the wrist, this being not unusual in the Islands. Native girls diving naked for pearls often get caught by giant shell fish by the hands or feet, then another girl goes down and cuts off the trapped hands or feet, to release the victim. Such had happened to this girl. When a child, I was told, a giant shell fish had taken off her leg, then years later, she had lost her hands. She was about 19 when she was in the cabaret. She dressed the same as the other girls, simply in thin sparse grass brassiere and even sparer grass skirt that barely came to the thigh. In their last "turn" the girls sang and danced, and the cripple, I noticed, had taken off her leg (or rather, I expect one of the girls had for her) and was sitting on the floor. After the show the girls would come to the tables of patrons for a drink. I beckoned the pretty cripple to mine. To my surprise she hopped over on her one leg. She ordered a drink for herself, and to my further surprise managed to handle the glass with the remains of her wrists without spilling a drop. Not bothering about the fact that her skirt failed to be a skirt any longer, she casually smoked my cigarettes with her toes. In case I've shocked you, it would be as well to explain that there is no false modesty amongst Island girls. They swim like seals in their birthday suits in the lagoons - often whilst fishing in the lagoons from a sailing boat, the girls would swim after the craft and hold on to it, some of them climbing in and sitting around like so many sea nymphs. One just didn't bother about them.
Sometimes the little crippled girl of the cabaret would join them, and though I would try and sail away from the others for fun, I would wait for her, for being one-legged as well as handless, she could not swim as fast as the others. But she did quite well. Despite her limblessness she appeared to be quite able to do things for herself. Her dress about the beach and "town" was the same as the other girls, a single garment, a strip of "trade" cotton, gay in colour, wrapped around her from just below her arms and falling just short of her knee. On the beach she hopped about on her one leg gaily. In the street I often saw her hopping along supported by two friends, resting her handless arms around their shoulders. She was the only girl I saw without hands. I saw two or three without feet walking about quite casually. Never did I see crutches in evidence, if in need for support, a single staff appeared to suffice.
At a South American port, a friend who was aware of my "kink" for any girl helpless, asked if I would like to see a certain cabaret. It was a very unusual one. We went. After the usual dances by nearly nude damsels, the lights went very low, and into the cleared space in the centre of the tables, there came at a brisk run, a two-wheeled carriage. It was drawn by two lovely half-caste girls, their dusky skins and charms emphasised by the few silver straps which formed both harness and clothing. Their tapering legs ended in slender bare feet. Arms neither had. Both, though smiling, were looking fixedly ahead... I could not understand their apparent indifference until my friend told me. Then I wondered why I did not realise it before, both were blind! They were twins. Born without arms and sightless. I was told that they were only 17, and that this was their first public appearance and that their elder sister was their chaperon, nurse also. They were guided by reins attached to their armless shoulders, which by the way, were perfect. The driver, sitting high up on cushions, was a glorious blonde, who was legless. Having put her team through its paces, she drove amongst the tables, very skilfully, too, for neither of her blind steeds even touched a chair. If she thought she could not get through a space, she backed her team and turned through another way. During this manoeuvre, I noticed that the pony girls were decidedly nervous, often feeling about with their bare feet. Frequently the driver stopped to let somebody put a bon-ban into the mouths of the armless girls.
Having regained the cleared space again, the blonde swung herself to the floor, first having thrown some cushions down, she dropped on them. Then, supporting herself on her whip, she tottered to the ponies and climbing on a sort of step-ladder which a girl clad in a few bows of ribbon brought, she unharnessed her team. The same attendant brought in and fixed up a narrow plank of highly polished wood, and placed it about three feet from the floor. Along this each pony girl walked in turn guided by the legless girl. There were lots of other tricks of a similar nature. It was uncanny to watch.
Before I close this apology for a letter, I must tell you about an American I met about ten years ago. It was at a cocktail party. Everybody had been talking and laughing for about half an hour when somebody said, "Here's Celia and Tony, I think." We hard the lift stop and a wheel chair being stopped outside. The maid opened the door and a tall, athletic girl came in carrying a fair-haired, very good-looking (in a sort of way) young man of perhaps 23 years. It was her husband. He was born entirely legless, yet despite this they were, I was told, ideally happy. Having greeted everybody, the girl placed her helpless burden in a chair and he, swinging on his hands, settled himself to his satisfaction. They were evidently going on to dinner somewhere for both were in dinner dress. They bore wore the usual garb as far as his trunk was concerned, but instead of trousers his trunk, from the waist down, was enclosed in a sort of black silk cummerbund. I was told he could get about his own flat easily on his hands, though I never saw him do so.
Now Sir, I am really going to close and remain,
Yours sincerely,
Jason.