St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-08
WOMEN AS MEN.
Romantic Adventures of Venture
some Females.

Romantic Adventures Of Venture
some Females.
st. James Gazette.
The case of the poor little sea appren-
| tice "Hans Brandt" who the other day
| Pensacola, at West Hartlerool, and was
killed, adds one more name to the long
list of women who, for one reason or
another, have put aside the garments
| of their sex and have donned the habits
| and initiated the ways of men. Not
| until "Hans Brandt's" body was being
prepared for burial was it discovered
| that the Ida's apprentice was girl.
| Why she disguised herself and why she
| shipped are questions to which no sure
answer can be given. An uncomfortable
| home or possibly nothing worse than a
| craving for adventure may supply the
explanation. Both causes, it is we'll
known. have operated in the past, but
although domestic trouble has undoubt
! eddy led many women thus to disguise
| themselves, the commoner stimulus, it
would appear, is provided by that love
| of change aud excitement which at one
I period of life takes possession Of almost
every one.
Romantic ideas were VIGOROUSLY the
disposing causes in the celebrated case
of Anne Jane Thornton. Her father,
who was comfortably off, was very kind
to her, but at the impresslonable age of
thirteen she met Alexander Burke, an
American sea captain, and when he
went to New York she determined to
leave her home in Donegal and follow
him. She succeeded in shipping as
cabin boy and in reaching America,
but she there discovered that Capt.
ma
return as she had come. She shipped
as cook and steward, first in the AIDE
laide, then in the Rover. and finally in
the Surah. Capt. McEntire, and was re-
turning in the last-named ship to Lon
don in 1884 when her sex was by acct
dent discovered. She had then been
for nearly three years absent from
home. Upon reaching England she ap-
peared before the lord mayor. to whom
Capt McEntlre stated in court that
Miss Thornton had done duty as sea-
man in most admirable way, and that
she had behaved herself with the ut
most propriety. A few kindly people
undertook to send her home. What aft
erward befell her is unknown.
About forty years ago far more eX-
traordinary instance of successful dis
guiSe was current topic of gossip in
the army. An army surgeon served
successfully at the Cape, at Malta. and
at Barbados. This person was a small,
thin, wrinkled individual, with little
voice, an effeminate aspect, and strong
vegetarian opinions. At the Cape he
actually fought duel with an officer
who, at the mess table. had called him
woman; yet in spite of that she" was
woman, though the fact was not diScOv-
cred until, having reached high rank in
his profession, he died in London, en-
joying the honOrS of surgeon general to
the army. DR.. James Barry. as this lady
was called, was we'll known in military
circles. Many officers who can remem-
Der here are still alive.
Among other examples are the cases
of Ann Bonny and Mary Read, who,
dressed as men, we're fearsome buc-
cancers on the Spanish main in their
day. Hannah Smell is another example.
Born in 1928. she married a Dutch
sailor, who deserted her. Hannah went
in pursuit, first as soldier and then as
marine. She was several times
wounded, but always managed to con-
ceal her sex, and might, perhaps, have
concealed it for many years longer had
she so desired. But, having learned
that her faithless spouse had been exc
cuted for murder, she proclaimed her
self and returned to England. Yet an
other female sailor began her false
age of thirteen, in the year 1852,
with her sweetheart. To avoid
discovery she started as a boy,
and, liking the disguise, she afterwards
went to sea in it. Returning. she OBJ
tanned articles of apprenticeship with
one Angel, of Southwark, and secured
the affections of girl named Mary Par
lour, whom she went so far as to marry.
When Mary, upon. discovering the i'm
position, was indignant, Samuel Bundy,
as the other called herself, Joined a
| man-of-war. She subsequently, how
ever, returned to her ''wife," who for
gave her, and the pair appear to have
Lived happily ever after' as small
tradespeople in the borough. Similar
cases might be multiplied to great eX-
tent, but one more will suffice. On the
goth of January, 1867, an only daughter,
Anne, was born to London lawyer,
DR.. Edward Chamberlayne. Inclined
to adventure, the girl, probably with
the knowledge of her brother Clifford,
seems to have entered as man on board
his ship, the Griffin, which was engaged
in the action with the French of Beachy
Head in 1890, of which vessel the brother
was commander. She fought bravely;
and soon after her return married a
John Spragg, but died in childb firth on
the 9th of November, 1891, and was
buried in Chelsea church, where
monument, upon which some of the
facts are set forth. was erected to her
memory. Mr.. Spragg. or Spragge, is
believed to have been near relation
probably sQn-of the gallant Admiral
Sir Edward 'Spragge who fell in action
with the Dutch in 1878, and there are
grounds for suspectlng that the child.
which cost its mother her life, was Capt.
Edward Spragge, who commanded the
Princess Amelia in TIA, who died in