The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-20

Special Foreign Service.
PARIS, March 20.@One enjoying the
entree >toN exclusive salons or erudite
circles in Paris is apt to meet at any
time couple before whom everybody
gives way. and whose appearance will
profoundly impress the newcomer,
"Profssand Nine. Dieulafoy," the word
Is passed round. Surely, there must
be some mistake! That tall, we'll built,
f1ne-looking man, with the gray mus
tache and beard, may be Prof. Dieula-
foy but his frail. beardless companion,
dressed in an irreproachable frock-
coat and faultless trousers, cannot be
his wife! And yet a more searching
look into the refined and sensitive face,
a single glance at the delicate tapering
hands, suffice to dispel the Illusion Gre
ated by clothes; 1t Is not only worn-
an, but the most womanly Of women.
Perhaps what causes Nine. Dieula-
foy to be often taken for man by
those who do not know her. is that she
wears her masculine garb without
either affection or false modesty. She
wears mems clothes, not only because
she considers them rational and con-
venient, but because she Is thoroughly
accustomed to wearing them and ac-
quired the habit in exceptional cir
cumstances. Consequently short hair
and ties and coats and trousers seem
quite natural for her, because she Is
perfectly at ease with them.
The first time that Nine. Dieulafoy
dressed as a man, she was far from In
tending to renounce feminine garments
for ever. In 1881 the French govern
ment had intrusted Marcel Dieulafoy
with an important archaeological mis-
ison to Persia and Susiana, and Nine.
Dieulafoy, whose tastes were literary
and who has always taken keen inter-
est in archaeological questions, decid-
ed to follow her husband. The results
Of their joint labors were to be of in
estimable value to lovers of the an
tique, for they found the sites Of the
palaces Of Darius and of ArtaxerXes,
and after five years of toll brought the
principal vestiges back to the Louvre
museum in Paris. The work was filled
with fatigues, difficulties and dangers,
and Nine. Dieulafoy, after tearing her
skirts on prehistoric stones and trip
ping over her petticoats in Persian
fields, decided that womans dress was
suits. She envied the ease and immu-
nifty with which her husband moved
about and presently it occurred to her
that if she initiated him in the wilds
of the Orient no one would be the wiser
when she returned to Paris. So one
fine day, not suspecting that she was
preparing a great decision in life. she
cut her hair. donned a suit of mans
clothes and went to her work For the
first time she was free and happy, and
accomplished so much that she decided
to continue dressing as man so long
as she remained in Persia.
But when she was finally ready to
return to her Paris home, she lacked
the courage to resume what she had
come to consider as the slavery of
woman's dress. To face bubble criti-
cism was far less trying an ordeal
For five years she had dressed as
man, and to dress as a woman seemed
as antiquated and absurd to her as 1t
would be for New York stock broker
to parade Wall street in Roman toga.
And she, therefore, filed formal petit
ton to the French government asking
official authorization to wear mems
clothes in the future.
The question OF. dress is one of the
many little details of life regulated by
French law, and the man caught In the
streets wearing woman's clothes or the
woman in mans clothes. is promptly
arrested, tried and fined. This does not
mean that such cases are exceptional;
indeed, there are in Paris many women
wearing mems clothes not as a habit
ual thing, perhaps, but on frequent oc-
casions, either as joke. or from con-
venience, or, some of the fair sex al
lege, to avoid too much attention from
men. Yet there is always risk of scan.
dial involved in such instances, and
anyone making fixed practice Of out
wardly changing sexes, had better face