St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-04
WOMEN IN MALE ATTIRE.
Females Who Won Glory Therein
They Took to the Army.
WIDOWS IN MASQUERADE.
Women Of the Royalty Who Have
Thus Distinguished Them
selves.


be called the obscure idiosy ncrasies OF
male attire; nor is the woman who thus
travesties herself necessarily in her
character yirago. Sometimes this sort
of masquerading takes an innocent and
even benefcent form. Nine. Ida
Pfeiffer, the famous traveller, was
| gentle and sympathetic a type of true
Womanhooda as ever lived; yet she tells
us in her autobiography that i'll her early
| glrlnood no restraints, no reprOofS and
no punishment could Wean her from at
| firing herself in boys clothing when
| ever she had an opportunity of so doing.
| A similar penehant for the garments of
| the opposite Sex was shown by Ouch
| ess de Berri, the mother of Count de
Chambourd. This youthful Neapolitan
| princess dreadfully scandaliZed the
| aged Charles X. when, after abdicating
the throne in 1880, he fled from st.
| Cloud, by presenting herself in his
travelling carriage in the complete
makeup of dandy of the period. The
| absurdity of this disguise, however, was
afterward fully compensated by the
| heroic conduct of the Duchess la Ven
dee. The Spanish princess, Donna
| Blanca, also distinguished herself in
| the last Carlist iISurrection by appear
| ing in knickerbockers and riding Ell
| cavalier; but such an exhibition must
be regarded as only fitful and tram
silent manifestation of eccentricity.
When we come to study the curiosi-
| ties of female history it will be found
that the chronicle in question makes
record of goodly number of women
who, in assuming the masculine garb,
seem to have been actuated by genuine
feeling of marital ardor, or, at least, by
a dare devil spirit of adventure: The
roaring grip of the old comedies has
had MANY corresponding types of real
| life; and Joan of Arc has found plenty
OF mitators as heroic, if not so devoutly
enthusiastic, as the Maid of Orleans.
Hannah Schnell flourished in the reign
of George II. Her grandfather was a
soldier who fought with MarlborOug h
at MaIplaquet; she married early
her husband being Dutch sailor. who
maltreated and deserted her, leaving
| her with baby which died, whereupOn-
Hannah appropriated suit of her
brother-in-law'S clothes, and, assuming
his name, which was Thomas Gray,
tramped to Coventry, where she enlisted
in Gen. Guise's regiment
After while she deserted, but sub
sequently re-enlisted in the navy as a
marine, in which capacity she served in
| dexterity in washing and mending for
the men, and from her being beardless,
| she acquired the nickname of "Miss
Molly" but her bravery in action
eventually caused her to be III
vested with the more honorable
| cognomen of Hearty Jenny" Being
| at last discharged from the service,
| Hannah Smell went on the stage and
| appeared with applause at the Royalty
theater, Wellcose square, as Bill Bob
stay, a sailor. and as FirelOck, a grena
| der. In consideration of the hardShips
| she had undergone in the service of her
country, which hardships comprised,
among other tribulations, 500 lashes that
| she got at the halberts of Carlisle, and
an almost equally barbarouS scourging
! at the gangWay on board Ship-the gov
eminent awarded Hannah pension of
EGO a year, on the strength of which she
| took public house in Mapping, with
the appropriate sign of ''Fhe Widow in
Masquerade; or, the Female Warrior"
Another female warrior. whose career
was even more remarkable than that of
| Hannah Smell, was Mary Ann Talbot,
better known as John Taylor, whose ex-
traordinary adventures are said to have
furnished the theme for the popular
ballad of BILLY Taylor" Mary Ann,
who was born in IT'S, is supposed to
have been the youngest of the sixteen
lIegitimate children OF Lord Talbot.
She seems to have run away from school
with military officer named Capt.
| Bowen, whom she followed to the West
Indies in male attire as a soldiers ser
want. Afterwards she enlisted as
| In nv CHI
with the Duke of York's army in Elan
ders. ard at the siege of Valenciennes
| she received two wounds, which she
carefully concealed, curing herself with
| the aid of lint, baSilicon and Dutch
| drops.
Then Mary Ann deserted, put on the
| dress of sailor and entered on board a
| French privateer, which was soon after
ward captured by the British fleet She
! was badly wounded in the leg by grape
| shot in action, but Oh her discharge
from hospital at Portsmouth she joined
another man-of-war, which was taken
by French ship, and the undaunted
! Mary Ann lay for many months priS-
oner of war at Dunkirk. Then she
! turned up in the United States,
through many other adventures.
|
very low water. so much so at one pc
| Rod as to have contemplated joining
Hanes. a notorious highWayman, in his
| excursions on Hounslow Heath. Fort
unately she stopped short after buying
a pair of buckskin breecheS and brace
of pistols, and declined to enter the
perilous partnership with HaineS. She,
too, went on the stage, her favorite
characters being Juliet and Irene, but
| her dramatic career was scarcely a tri-
umphant one, and she drifted into old
age. mainly supported by casual dona-
tons from persons OF quality.
Still does her name occupy a distin-
guished place on the roll of female war
| riors. to whom again must be added the
famous ChriStiana Davis, who served as
a bombardier at the battle of Blenheim
and afterWard married three husbands
in succession. She had pension at
| last of a shilling day from the crown,
and settled down peacefully at Chelsea
to be near her old comrades at the hos
pital. Then. again, there was Phebe
| Hessel, whose exploits as a soldier are
recited on her tombstone in the old
parish churchyard at Brighton. 1t
may, in fact, be said that, given
a war which lasts long enough and en-
braces a sufficiently wide area thor
oughly to stir the national patriotism
and love of adventure, there will sure
ly come to the front by no means in
considerable element of female galIan-
try and fortitude.
Evidently such gallantry and such
fortitude are most frequently and most
appropriately made manifest in the
beautiful achievements of Florence
/ Nightingale, but the eceentricities of
the female character occasionally assert
themselves. despite the thoroughly fem
inlne attributes of the nursing sister.
1t sometimes happens that the
lady who should be following
the ambulances under the neutral
orihamme of the Geneva cross yields to
an unaccountable propensity for DON
nmg doublet and hose, especially when
the doublet is of scarlet plentifully
adorned with lace, ane the hose have a
smart seam down the sides. Such a
valorous spirit of eecentricity only can
account for the occasional appearance
| of a naval or military 'sBilly Taylor"