Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-12-18
WOMEN IN MEMS ATTIRE.
Some Reasons That Have Been Given
For Abandoning Skirts.

Some Reasons That Have Been Given
For Abandoning Skirts.
Cases Of women in male attire are
more frequent than may be supposed.
Numerous women have fought in bat
tie as common soldiers. The story OF
those who have for various reasons
donned civilian male attire may not
be so romantic, but it is equally ex-
traordinary.
Rosa Bonheur's case is, perhaps,
the most famous. This celebrated an
imal painter petitioned the French
government to allow her to wear male
dress at the horse fairs which she had
to attend in order to obtain material
for her pictures. The petition was
successful and for many years Nine.
Bonheur went about France univer-
sally respected in the gufse of man
woman"
Nor was Nine. Bonheur the only
lady to whom the privilege was grant
ed. At least three other women-a
sculptor, a scientist and a journal
ist-hold a like permission from the
French government, and utilize 1t to
the full.
1t is usual and permissible, for wo-
men to adopt male attire in certain
forms Of athletics and sport and in
such occupations as gardening, farm
ing, and colliery labor. We have had
women footballers in this country.
but the sight has not been edifying.
In hunting, cycling, mountaineering,
hockey, ETC., the wearing OF semi
masculine garb is almost a necessity.
The custom of riding astride Is
growing among horsewomen, and OF
course this cannot be done in skirts.
Lady Violet Greville informs us that
numbers Of ladies Of title are adopt
ing it, among the Duchess Of West
minister, Lady Castlereagh, Lady Con-
stance Stewart Richardson and the
Hon. Mrs. Fairbairn-to mention only
few.
The ladies of certain hunts-the
Exmoor hunt, for instance-long ago
took to the riding astride habit.
A few days ago lady even had the
courage to appear on horseback In
Regents Park, riding astride in a
three cornered hat, skirt coat, top
boots and breeches.
Male attire Is usually adopted by
women either for criminal purposes
or for the necessity Of earning a liv-
ing.
In the latter category come the
1851 females who work at the coal
pits of Great Britain, either above or
| below ground. A very large proper
tion of these, especially in Lancashire,
wear trousers at their work. Many
other examples of men-women work.
ers may be cited.
Lady Jack" the daughter of a dis
| tinguished naval officer, works on a
farm near st. Mary Cray, dressed in a
| neat Norfolk suit, with cap, leggins
and boots to match. Tall and muscu-
lar, she shares all the rough work
with the laborers.
A wagner who was knocked down
and killed at Colombes France, last
December, turned out to be woman.
She was noted for her feats of
strength, which gained for her the
nickname of Iron Arm. She could
use her fists with such skill that few
men cared to stand against her.
Capt. John Tweed" sailed the At
lantic for years as a male skipper,
the secret being revealed by post
mortem. Esther McEwan, a fifteen
year-old Scottish lassie, caused SEN
sation four year ago by dressing as a
| boy and working first in a coal mine
and then running away to sea as a
cabin boy. She successfully complet-
ed several voyages before her sex was
discovered.
With regard to criminal masquerade
ers, a Lo.. Lon detective asserts that
scores of women are wearing mems
clothes in London for nefarious rea-
sons.
Mabel Truelove was recently sent to
Jail for month for travelling on rail-
ways in made attire and defrauding
the com panleS. Gertrude chapman,
a siXteen-year- girl, was caught at
Downing" who was brought up at the
Mistley. riding on Il stolen bicycle in
a young mans cycling clothes. Paul
Mansion House in September last
year, proved to be a woman, although
dressed in a jacket suit, with brown
| leather leggins, white shirt and collar
and wideawake hat
The amazing adventures of the
| man woman" Catherine Coome were
| told at length by herself in 1904. She
was then aged sixty-eight years, fifty
of which she had lived strenuously az
man, i'm mems clothes. Dock la
boring, printing, seamanship, paint
ing and decorating were familiar oc-
cupatiOns to her. She married Perci-
val Coome at the age of fifteen
A female cab-driver named Billy
Seymour, held a. license I'm London for
three years. She looked a rather
short and stout cabby, but she earned
her livelihood with the best of the
fraternity ION the rank" Migrating
to Liverpool. she worked there for six
years without question as a licensed
hackney cab driver. Falling into the
hands of the police, her sex was dis
covered in Walton Jail. Afterward
she disappeared, but it is quite possi-
BILE that she may now be back in Lon
don, a respected elderly cabby perch
ed upon her hansom.-London Ex-
press.