Dear Sir, - The interesting letter and sketches from Miss "B. W." in your last week's number came very welcome. I was beginning to wonder what had become of the monopedes, and to feel just a little bit apprehensive as to whether they hadn't all been scared off by the unkind comments of such writers as "G. F." and "Honesty."
Miss "M. D." (of your "bombed out" number) has not yet redeemed her promise to send further accounts of her doings. Where, too, are "Autolycus," "Captain" and "A. M. F.", whose contributions loomed so large last autumn? Surely they haven't all fallen on the field of honour or, worse, lost their interest in monopody! If not, more sketches in particular, "Captain," please. Some more philosophy from "Predilected," "Rotto" and their interesting girl friend "Happy," would also be acceptable. Correspondence on eye-wear, too, has been conspicuous by its absence of late. I wonder why, with the hot weather bringing out its display of coloured spectacle frames, etc., to match summer frocks!
Then, again, when is the first of Miss "Really Helpless's" promised chronicles likely to appear? As she says an invalid is often made the recipient of all sorts of confidences, so they may well be thrilling.
By way of stimulus, then, I enclose a sketch of my rather beautiful friend, Hilda, as I first saw her some years ago, in the days when "eye-veils" and snakeskin shoes and bags were the latest fashion - not long, in fact, before her wedding, which accounts for the interest in the furniture shop!
Since writing the above, I have seen your issue dated July 19th, including the remarkable sketch of a group of limbless ladies sent in by your correspondent "A. H." It's good to hear, after so long, that his one-legged girl friend is actually happily married. What a coincidence that her name should also be Hilda! She appears by no mean dissimilar in type to the Hilda I have mentioned above.
As for "Short Leg Admirer's" interesting note, I quite agree that a really smart high boot worn by the right sort of girl can be very attractive - an asset, in fact, rather than a handicap but that at all an accentuated limp is fatal to the effect. In the later case crutches are best used out of doors, and if of exactly the same colour and degree of polish as the boots, the result can be decidedly "fetching." I enclose a sketch of a girl I met many years ago - in 1925, to be exact - as the fashion of the hat and some other details may testify. Though too stockily-built to be really graceful, the young lady's agility she had been on crutches all her life - as she swung herself along on her smart brown crutches, matched by her polished boots and a predominantly fawn costume, produced an effect undeniably good.
Yours truly,
"C. D. B."