The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-10
Strange Life of Catherine coome-she
MARRIED Thrice, Once to a Husband
and Twice to Wives-clinss
. to Her Garb.

and twice to Wives-Clings
to Her Garb.
1t is doubted here if IN wonlan mas
auerading asa man ever had a more
extraordinary career than Catherine
iGoome. Shetit is whose arrest the
other day brought out the fact that
for the last so years she has worn
manufacturing, done mans work and
eyeryWhereSpassed as a man, says a
London dispatch in the Atlanta Con
stitution. She is devoted to her pipe.
toe, in which h smokes the strongest
kind#of tobacco. Strangest of all, how
eyer.ICatherine Coome has been twice
married as a member OF the sterner
s~eS.'Three times in all has she en-
tered h bonds of wedlock, but on the
first occasion. as a maid OF Is, she
welded a man. That marriage turned
out nnhappily and h resolved never
to repeat the experiment. The second
time, in the role of a man, h mar
ried a woman and for twenty-five years
this TRANCE but happy matrimonial
partnership was maintained, until the
death of her wife made her once
more-should one say. widow" or
'widower?" Only once before her re-
cent arrest, she declares, was her sex
detected: She had been a captains
clerk and in hat capacity and subse-
Guently as painter and decorator on
the Pennsylvania and Ohio Company's
steamers a sailed over many seas
and seen much of the world. On shore
8aFGtrn nj oil n ~ IooJ# I.n,calf nh tJa >,1-t,rc~
other Joys and sorrows for many years
a a house painter. And finally as a
fitting climax to her career she ELECTED
from4a magistrate the statement that
f%here#is no law in England under which
a woman a be restricted from don
ming masculine attire.
She comes of a good family. Her
father was a man OF some means and
well known member of the Somerset
and Devon Hunt She vas educated at
o young ladies' seminary" in Chelten-
nam, land before she was sixteen she
married. her first cousin, Percival
Coome- He was twenty-five years older
than herself and, according to her de-
scription of him, a thorough going
scamp. He cruelty i'll used her. kept
her under lock and key and V e cut
of hsrshair and sold it. She vowed
after that she would never let it grow
long again, 0 did She. Several times
she ran away from him, but he always
caught her and made her suffer for it.
1T was. after one OF these experiences
that she hit upo the idea of disSuis-
ing herself in male attire that she
mightthe better hide from him. She
was eighteen then, and the change of
costume made her look like a bright
and handsome lad. 1t was before the
days&o pursers and she readily OBJ
tained a position as a captains clerk, a
billet which insured her safety from
her husbands pursuit. For three and
a half years she held this position on
the anne ship. and no one suspected
her secret. The only embarrassment
she suffered, she says, was from the
attention of feminine passengers who
persisted in falling in love with her.
One of them. an actress, and a famous
one in e time, actually, she declares,
6esaugnt her on Blended knee to be-
come her husband. My legs were then
scarcely used to trousers" h says.
sand was so worried and ashamed
that I told her l was only a girl. Her
love then changed to friendship and
my staunch friend she remained until
she died.
On her last voyag on the ship. &C
cording to her story, q girl fell so des-
perately in love with her that when
port was cache she refused to go
home. BY this time Catherine had
grown accustomed to her man role and
such a trifling matter as the love OF a
maid no longer upset her. She got rid
of the girl by sending a telegram to
her father, a country rector. asking
him to take his too susceptible daueh-
ter home.
After leaving the sea, still disguised
as a man, she apprenticed herself TO a
house painter and in five years mas
tered the trade and went 10 work at it
on her own account. In my prentice
days." she relates, my love affairs
We're many, and when I had Won Il
home Of my own the of them
set me thinking. l loved home life and
I wanted my home kept nice. I couldn't
myself do both man and woman's work