The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-12-30
In MALE ATTIRE.
A Woman who for Twenty Years Played
a Mans Part and Was Married as q
Man.

Extraordinary disclosures have been made
regarding the female lunatic discovered in
male attire. Il appears that the woman, who
for the past twenty years has passed as a man
under the name of Edward DeLacy Evans,
has married three different women. The
secret of her disguised sex has never even
been suspected, although she worked contin-
uously as a miner for many years, and had
been following that occupation in ~Sandhurst,
where she was an ordinary "wages man,"
breaking quartz and doing her work with the
best of the workmen at several mines. She
might possibly have carried on the fraud I'M
suspected to the end of her days, but for the
fact that a few weeks ago she began to show
symptoms of insanity, which gradually be-
came more pronounced. Some fifteen months
ago the woman between whom and the sup
posed man the form of marriage had been
gone through, gave birth to a child. This is
strange, as the statement undoubtedly is that
this woman, passing as Evans wife, stoutly
maintained that she never knew the secret OF
her presumed husbands sex. Since the
child's birth, Evans has lapsed into an absent
minded and lethargic condition, and seems to
have lost all heart for work. On July ~
Evans was admitted to a hospital as d lunatic.
The hospital records run as follows: edward
DeLacy Evans, male, married, admitted July
%; native OF Kilkenny, Ireland; religion,
Church of England; dangerous to others;
demented." On the day of admission, the
attendants, as usual, proceeded to give shin"
a bath. Evans struggled violently, and finally
cot away from the place. "He" was recap
tured and brought back next day. che" re-
manned in the hospital six weeks, during
which a warden slept in the room every night
without discovering the secret. She says she
was born at Paris, others say she is a native
of Jersey, while the hospital record gives Kill
1-o>-,- -, 1,a hirtG nao Sln SnnaEc with an
Irish accent, and claimed to be a nephew of
the late General Sir Charles DeLacy Evans.
DR.. Poland, resident surgeon at the hospital,
having examined Evans, states that she herself
has had one or more children. 1t is rumored
that Evans was married several years ago in
Melbourne, but, aagarding this, evidence is
not complete. One of the nurses at present
at Bendigo Hospital says she can almost posi-
lively identify Evans as a passenger who came
out in the ship Ocean Monarch twenty years
ago. The GIRL, for this interesting character
vas then of gillish appearance, went under
ne name of Ellen Germaine. A singular
feature of the story is that the nurse in ques-
ton states that the girl had with her on the
ship a box bearing the lame of "Edward De
Lacy" The girl, on her arrival i'll Victoria,
Wen up the country, and the next the nurse
heard was that she had sent for the box and
had married a fellow passenger. The second
marriage was celebrated eighteen years ago,
but no record of the event has been found.
The wife's name was Sarah Moore, who, sin
gularly enough, had two children, both of
whom died. She breathed not a word about
the imposition. The marriage between Evans
and '!his' present wife was celebrated at Bal
larat on the 18th of September, 1868, by the
Rev. W. Henderson, at the Presbyterian
church. On the latter occasion Evans put
her age down at %. Accepting this as correct
she is now about 80. The certificate shows
that the bridegroom's father was Edward j.
De Lacy Fans, police magistrate, and that
''his' mothers name was Ann Dora Vaughn,
a Welsh woman. The nader name of
Evans present wife was julia Marqual.d.
She states that she was % years of age when
the marriage ceremony was performed, and
first became acquainted with Evans through
her sister having been a friend Of '.his' former
wife. Evans proposed marriage, but Vaughn's
parents opposed the match. Evans, however,
induced her to go to Ballarat with "him."
The marriage took place there. For a fort
night after they were married they lived sep
a1ately, she residing al "a hotel subsequently
they lived together.
In appearance the man ~personated is femi-
nine as regards the formation OF features, but
carries a decidedly masculine expression,
though her face is as devoid of hair as an
IuldlI ;. Sle IS ldlucT SilOIU VI StdtulG,
garded as a man, being about five feet four
inches or five feet five inches. Her hair, since
her confinement in the hospital, has grown
almost to her shoulders. Son time ago she
met with an accident in the mine in which she
was working, and thereby sustained a severe
wound on the head. The doctors who attended
her never had the slightest suspicion Of her
sex. The same gentlemen were afterwards
called in to attend Evans while she was suf-
fering from a dangerous attack of fever, but
then again the imposition escaped detection.
Miss Marquand, the young l.ay with whom
one marriage was celebrated, says that Evans
represented to her that che" had two children
by his former wife in Fran ce, and that these
had been sent to Ireland. Two gentlemen
visited her soon after the case was made
now at Sandhurst. To them she SAID in
reply to interrogations: "Oh, its all over
now; you may as well finish me at once"