New-York tribune., 1910-01-21
"HE'' WAS A WOMAN
AND, WHAT OF IT?"
SHE ASKED.
Tale Of a Girl Who Wore
Mans Clothes and Fkrted
scith a Jealous Dame.

when Detectives McKenna and Casassa,
of Police Headquarters, arrested a
young woman at Eighth avenue and
10Th street for violation of the ordi-
nance that forbids a young woman TO
masquerade in male attire. The ad-
ventures of the principal performer occur
in places as widely separated as the
Thousand Islands and Watertown, n. Y.
and Ferozopoor. India. A woman's jeal-
Cusy is important in the unravelling of
the threads of the plot
Chapter I begins with the visit, about
a week ago, of dapper young man TO
the headquarters of the st. George Soci-
ETY.. at No. 1OS Broad street He told
z. D. Langley, who is in charge there,
that he was a son of Lord Hamilton
Gray, a British army officer. who had
seen years of service in India, and had
recently died there Burke's Peera ge,
incidentally, does not contain Lord
Hamilton-Gray. Aside from his grief
at the death of his father. the
young man said he was also embar-
rassed financially. His annual remit
tance OF $1,000 would be tied up for at
least a year, until the estate was set
led, and meanwhile he was in a strange
land without funds
TAKEN TO HOTEL.
Mr.. Langley took him to the Hotel
Latham. in East 2Sth street, obtained a
room for him and paid a weeks rent in
advance. At the end of the week the
young man announced that he was going
TO move into a furnished room house
and left the hotel Mr.. Langley losing
all trace of him.
A few days later the latter was sur
prised to receive a visit from detectives,
who asked him if he had seen a young
man who said he was the son Of Lord
Hamilton-Gray. He was an impostor,
the detectives said, and they showed a
clipping from THE Watertown Stand
ard" in which an exposure of the young
man was made under the caption THE
Marquis Gray an Impostor.'
The detectives then tried TO get some
trace of the young man at the Latham,
but without success. AS a last resort
they decided TO run over the furnished
room area, and last night their travels
brought them to Eighth avenue and 25th
street just as a young man answering
the description furnished 10 them ap-
peared. Walking closer to the suspect,
McKenna took nearer view and said TO
his partner:
why, it's woman;
Yes, it is" replied the cause Of the
detectives ejaculation. What of it?"
OFF TO HEADQUARTERS
The answer was brief and in another
moment the trio was on its way to Head
quarters There the party greeted cor
daily by Lieutenant Funston, who lis
tened to the charge and then began to
take down the prisoners pedigree. He
and the detectives were thunderstruck
when the prisoner said that her name
was Marion Hamilton Gray. The clip
ping from the upstate journal was pro-
duced and shown to the prisoner
She recognized it, she said, but added
that 1t was q gross exaggerat ton of the
facts and was inspired by the jealousy
of woman whom she had Tilted, while
masquerading as the son of q peer, in
the Thousand Islands. She seemed to
enjoy the recollection of the incidents Of
the courtship, and laughed and made
eyes at the lieutenant and the detectives
III such fashion that they were ready to
admit there might have been cause for
jealousy.
Briefly the young woman told the in
cidents that had brought her into the
clutches of the police of New York. She
was born in Feroyopoor, East India.
rineteen years ago, she said. When she
was four years old her parents died. and
since then she had shifted for herself.
For the last ten years she had worn
male attire, because it was so much
easier for a man TO get along than for a
woman. She denied posing as a son of
Lord Hamilton-Gray, and until the po-
lice find Mr.. Langley and get him TO
identify their prisoner as the person
whose room rent he paid the only charge
they have against her is for violation of
the ordinance prohibiting the wearing of
mems clothing by woman.
After she had been arraigned before
Lieutenant Funston she was taken to
the Mercer street station, where there is
a matron, prior to her appearance in the
night court.
Detective Mckenna appeared in the
night court with the Watertown news
paper clipping and ready to relate the
story told by Langley, of the ST. George
Society. Magistrate Kernochan heard a
reading of the clipping and all Detective
McKenna had 10 tell about the prisoner.
Didn't you realize the difference De
tween a man and woman was reason
enough for you not to wear mems
clothes?"
No, your honor"
Il have sense enough not 10 go about
dressed in petticoats. Common sense
should dictate that you should dress in
the garb of women"
II never realized until now that it was
wrong for me to dress as I have been
dressing. 1t has been for no wrong pur-
pose, your honor
Magistrate Kernochan said the case
presented no violation of a penal statute.
and that in view OF the fact that Miss
Hamilton Gray had not been masked or
PAINTED he would impose no penalty
upon the prisoner II she would promise
TO assume the dress OF a. conventional
woman. Miss Hamilton-Gra promised
and thanked the magistrate. leaving the
courtroom in company with Detective
McKenna.