The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-12-14
BALDWIN, IOWA, HAS A UNIQUE
CHARACTER WHO WEARS
1REECHES.
She DisIiked Wonan's work anu
prifted Into Labor Performed
by the Men.

DIES MONIES, Ia, Dec. 14.-Trav-
elers alighting from trains at the STA
,;on in the little town of Baldwin are
approached by a person OF huge ouik
wearing mans hat or cap, stout raw
hide boots or shoes, such as are COM
monty worn by workingman, ana
dress of very cheap material scarcely
to the ankle and belted at the waist
with a rope or leather. They are
promptly relieved Of their grips
hustled into an omnibus and driven
to the hotel in the main street.
OF Huge Bulk.
On their arrival they are unceri-
moniously hurried out of the omnibus
and into the hotel by the person OF
hinge bulk and asked to pay their
fares.
Maria is the Christian name of the
hotel runner and omnibus driver.
Perhaps not elsewhere in the wide
world is there to be met another per-
son resembling her in physical as
pect, dress and habits.
She weighs about $50 pounds, has
the strength of half a dozen women,
and has SO unsexed herself by dress,
habits and associations that the
stranger gets the impression that he
behoIds a man, and has difficulty in
getting rid of his first impression.
Strange History.
Maria has a strange history. Her
parents, when she was child llveo
near Clinton, Iowa, and were in COM
Portable circumstances. Her mother
was a woman of large frame, and her
father was very small. In time the
mother took on flesh until she weighed
500 pounds. or Whereabouts, while the
father lost flesh until he weighed less
than 100 pounds. P. T. Barnum heard
of the couple and engaged their SER
vices They were exhibited as the
greatest show on earth as the fat
woman and the lean man." and at
tracted much attention.
While her parents were with the
show, Maria, the daughter, was left
to shift for herself. She had dis
like for the work of a woman and liked
the work of a man. In time the
young woman drifted to Baldwin, and
there she obtained work as hostfer in
livery stable. She loved horses
passionately, and handled them with
skill as yell as kindness.
Worked In a Stable.
When she went to work in the stable
she made up her mind that it was i'm
practicable to wear feminine attire,
and declared that she was going to
wear masculine dress. Her employer
argued that it would excite scandal,
so she compromised by wearing a
mans headgear and footwear and a
woman's dress, and these she has worn
since.
For a time Maria curried, fed and
took care of the horses in the stable,
but by and by her work broadened
to include the driving Of travelling
statesmen to neighboring towns with
their samples.
70 Doll
win came to know her. Later she be-
gan to drive the omnibus to and from
the railway station.
Regard as Man.
During the years Maria has worked
in the stable and driven the omnibus
she has been regarded as a man rather
than a woman and treated as such.
She smokes a pipe and cigars, chews
plug tobacco, plays cards, pool and
billiards, and takes a drink when a
male friend asks her to. She looks
like a man or would if she did not
wear a dress. She wears her brown
hair cropped close, her hands are
broad and work-korn and her voice
is decidedly masculine.
Every travelling man who goes to
Baldwin likes and respects Maria and
so do the people of the town. The
women often invite her to their homes
Occasionally she goes but she prefers
the stable, the hotel Office or the bill
lard hall to a parlor.