Dear Sir. - The interest of your readers in monopedes seems to have reached a pitch never before attained, and the only thing needed to complete matters, is another story by Wallace Stort. Personally, I should like to have another adventure of that old favourite, "La Belle Monopede." Your old readers would like to read of the beautiful one-legged dancer again, and I am sure she would be a favourite with new readers, the more so because of the recent mention of a real life monopede dancer in the person of Miss Olive Kent. Miss Stanton could give us some of her illustrations, but may I say that charming as they are in most respects, yet in two they are open to improvement. Sometimes she had made it impossible for us to see that the ladies she draws are, in fact, one-legged. The shapely single leg should never be hidden under a long skirt. Again, I have never seen crutches of the type she draws, but perhaps the neat crutches of "Dorree" will prove an inspiration. While on this subject, I should like to congratulate "Captain" on his excellent sketch of a monopede.
In the pre-war days there used to be quite a few one-legged girls in the district at the back of Oxford Street, where they found employment in the gown trade. I knew of at least six who were to be seen regularly in that vicinity, and of these, three used a pair of crutches, two single crutches and one a peg leg. Two of the girls were quite exceptional in point of beauty of face and figure, and possibly some description may be of interest.
The first was a fascinating brunette, aged about twenty. She invariably used a single crutch held very close to the body, and 1 found her easy swing most alluring. Other men, besides myself, betrayed their interest in her and from my frequent and close observation of her, I am sure that she was quite well aware of their interest and did not find it displeasing. However, she gave us no encouragement, probably she was engaged as the ring or her engagement finger indicated.
The other girl was also a brunette, equally attractive, although a little older, but in her case the left leg was missing, and she always used a pair of crutches. I first saw her walking in front of me in the late Spring before the War. From the back it was clear that she was fashionably dressed and her single shapely leg was well displayed beneath her short skirt. I learned afterwards that my backward glances aroused her suspicions, which were confirmed when I stopped at the corner and I looked straight at her.
Later we became acquainted and good friends.
I took her out on quite a few occasions, but her missing leg was not mentioned although I was acutely conscious of it, and she was aware of the fact. One Saturday afternoon, I met her to assist her with some shopping and to my surprise and horror she was wearing an artificial leg. I am afraid that while my companion was in a very cheerful mood, I was silent and disgruntled. At the Corner House at tea she banished my depression by telling me that she seldom wore the artificial leg, and had only worn it then to see my reaction. She also promised me to discard it before coming out that evening, and to resume her crutches.
For the purpose of this letter I shall call my friend (and soon she may be more), "Olive." Olive lost her leg when she was only four years old and consequently she simply does not know what it is like to have two legs. A school she did most things normal girls do, although debarred from the more strenuous sports. She learned to become equally at home on one or two crutches, but she will not use one crutch only, if she has to walk any distance.
By the time she was seventeen, she was quite a young lady, and no doubt a most attractive one. She became used to the attention she inevitably attracted, and felt a little sad only when she heard people remark what a pity it was that such a pretty girl should be a cripple. At this age, at her own wish, she obtained employment in the gown industry, and her cheerful personality soon made her a great favourite with her colleagues.
Her new job was noteworthy, inasmuch as her immediate chief was herself one-legged. Olive was puzzled by the fact that her chief wore an artificial leg, except on Wednesdays and Saturdays when she used crutches. Eventually however, she discovered that on these days the chief always met a gentleman friend.
She changed her job again, and in this firm worked with another one-legged girl, named Edna, with whom Olive became very friendly. Edna was an attractive blonde, fairly plump, but not too much so, who had lost her right leg at the same point as Olive had lost her left. They used to catch the same homeward bus, and with Edna using one crutch and Olive two, they attracted much attention. Edna was about two years older than Olive.
Not all their admirers were content to remain at a distance, and both girls had several flirtations, some serious, at any rate on the part of the men. In fact, their association was eventually ended when Edna left work to marry one of her admirers.
This concludes my short account of Olive's lifer but I ought not to conclude without mentioning two other matters. First, I noticed that when I was in public with her, Olive always kept her shortened limb concealed as much as possible, although, of course, she could not prevent its plumpness outlining itself beneath her dress particularly when sitting. She has the habit, mentioned by other of your one-legged lady correspondents, of resting her stump on the handgrip of her crutch, of frequently pressing it with her hand, and of raising it and placing it across her remaining leg, as though she were a normal girl crossing her legs.
The other matter concerns the stories of Wallace Stort, and the correspondence on the subject which appears in your journal, of which Olive is a constant reader. She agrees that Wallace Stort knows all there is to know about the limbless complex, but she feels doubtful about limblessness other than one-leggedness. Again, she does not altogether agree with him on the subject of crutches. Wallace Stort rather likes his heroines to dispense with crutches altogether, or alternatively to use elbow crutches. Olive's experience has been that her friends have always liked her to have her crutches about, and at some time or another, most have asked for a photograph, and invariably asked that she should be taken on crutches. Elbow crutches again were much disliked, and Olive herself prefers the armpit type particularly for negotiating stairs. She very much dislikes elbow crutches for climbing on and off buses.
I really must conclude now, but perhaps I may sum up by saying that Olive is perfectly content. Even she, however, cannot deny that she owes something to that Providence, which, while it deprived her of a leg, gave her such charming looks, and such a sublime figure.
Yours truly,
Disciple.