Dear Sir, - Thank you very much for publishing my first letter to "London Life". I must say that the issue in which it appeared was of a most varied and interesting character, and one of the best numbers I have yet had the good fortune to come across.
I was most interested to read "A. M. F.'s" contribution regarding the "Perfect Monopede," for his letter and mine had much in common and showed that our minds were running along similar lines in this respect. He made out a good case for "Hopper" being the "100 per cent Monopede," and, like himself, I wish she would favour us with a photograph, which would be most welcome. But much of the correspondence relating to monopedes seems to be devoted to imploring your monopede readers to come "into the open" with photographs and descriptions of themselves, an invitation which, it is to be regretted, they more often than not coyly refuse to accept. Still, we keep on asking them, in the hope that our persuasiveness will eventually overcome their natural modesty and reticence.
Regarding monopedes who are happily married or brides-to-be, I came across the other day an interesting piece in a book by a well-known American doctor and psychologist dealing with America's marriage problems. Discussing a number of cases of women who had never married, and the reasons, he states that in one case the woman when a girl, had fallen from a carriage, and had had a high amputation of the leg, and no suitor had ever come along. Men, the doctor asserts, are adverse marrying a woman with an artificial leg, although, he adds, that does not mean that women who have lost a limb never marry. The doctor's statement, I think, entirely justifies the attitude of the many monopedes who decline to resort to an artificial limb. The experiences recorded of most of "London Life's" monopede readers in their letters suggests that their loss of a limb has actually enhanced their chances of marriage, whereas the use of an artificial limb would have had the opposite effect.
The summary of Mr. Wallace Start's story was very acceptable. Tina is presumable the armless and one-legged girl he mentioned in the reminiscences he wrote in "London Life" earlier this year She recalls to my mind an armless and one-legged lady whom I saw at a fair in the west country many years ago. She was actually billed as being entirely without limbs, but she had her left leg although it appeared withered and useless, and she was quite unable to walk. She had the tiny remains of her right arm and this she used in conjunction with her teeth to knit and do other things. I clearly recollect this cheerfully lady is brilliant smile, and have sometimes wondered what became of her. She was certainly not downhearted.
I also remember an armless and one-legged girl when I was living on the South Coast some ten or twelve years ago. She was born without arms from the elbows, and had had her right leg amputated through some disease. She died at the age of twelve or thirteen, but not before she had won widespread admiration for her courage, skill, and charming disposition. She belonged to the Girl Guides, and did some extremely clever little paintings with the brush between her teeth, and I treasured for a long time one which her mother gave me. When she died there was quite a lot about her in the local paper. She used an artificial leg, by the way.
I have sometimes wondered if other monopedes I have seen from time to time are readers of "London Life;" for instance, the lady I used to see in Balham pushing a pram. She had lost her right leg and used a single crutch, pushing her pram with her free hand. Another young lady whom I used to notice in the Camden Town - Kentish Town area had also lost her right leg, and used a pair of what might be double crutches, with curved wood at the bottoms instead of the usual form of tip. I have rarely seen these used.
I had intended to write on the subject of eyewear this time, but I am afraid these remarks about my first favourite subject have taken up enough space, and I must defer the other until another occasion.
Yours sincerely,
Autolycus.
P.S. Mr. Stort's heroine in his story was a young lady who was "born with one leg." Has he ever known such a case in real life? I have never heard of one.