Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-08-23
Mi5eellanrpus Readina.
WOMEN IN MEMS CLOTHES.
Feminine Masqueraders Have Been
Numerous.

Numerous.
How many women are there mas
querading as men in your locality ?
Maybe the question is not so foolish
as it looks. For before suffragettes
came to trouble the world women often
found ways to gain equality with men.
There was Harry Lloyd" for in
stance, who has just died on the out
skirts Of London. The mystery Of this
woman, who for over twenty five years
worked and lived as man, has reused
tremendous interest So we'll did she
carry her masculine clothes that no.
body suspected her secret.
When a doctor was called to the
house in Alma road, Enfield, on the
northeastern fringe of the metropolis,
to attend Harry Lloyd" in his last
moments, he presently came down.
stairs and said to Miss Lloyd, who be-
lieved herself to be the daughter:
Il thought it was a man l was call
ed to see?"
Yes, it is so." she replied; that is
my father" Then she was shocked to
hear that the dead body upstairs was
that of a woman.
Inquiries established the fact that
the woman's real name was Marie LIE
Roy, the daughter Of a French officer
whose widow resided in Brussels some
time about 1872 Well educated and
full of the joy Of life, the little French
woman used to attend the Hall Of
Science in Old street in the days when
Robert Ingersoll, Charles Bradlaugh
ard Austin Holyoake, his publisher,
lectured there. Why this well-educat-
ed woman cut herself off from all her
friends and lived the latter half of her
life as a man is a mystery which she
has carried with her to the grave.
Probably, however, it was due to
wish to protect the good name of the
This theory has recalled similar acts
Of devotion disclosed from time to time
in the life histories of other women
who have posed as men. More often,
however, women have adopted mems
attire through sheer love of adventure
and a dislike of the limitations and
restraints imposed on their own sex.
Of this the most notable example was
the famous Nine. VelasqueZ, who took
so active a part in the war between the
north and south. She organized
company of recruits, and. to the in
tense surprise of her husband, who
was an officer in the Confederate army,
she one day presented herself before
him in camp, and he was in the extra
ordinary position of having to accept
the services of his own wife as lieu
tenant. Soon after she joined him,
however, he was killed by the acci-
dental discharge of a carbine. Nine.
Velasuuez had many exciting adven-
lures in the war. She fought through
the battle of Bull Run. and was badly
wounded at the fall Of Ft. Donelson.
After giving up service as a soldier
d
ates. and when the war was nearing its
end she took hand in blockade rum
ming.
In keeping with her adventurous
nature, she married three times, and
had three children, but the cares OF
motherhood do not appear to have IN
duced her to settle down. for in later
life she Joined a miners camp as a
man, and made extensive tours through
Europe. At the beginning of her mas
culine career. she went to great pains
to conceal her form, and had made
for her half dozen fine wire net
shields which she wore next the SKIN.
Over these she wore an undershirt OF
silk or Isle thread which fitted closely,
and was held in place by straps across
the chest and shoulders. These under
shirts could be rolled up into the small
compass of a collar box. Around the
waist of each of the undershirts was
u band with eyelet holes, arranged LOT
the purpose of making the walstbahds
of the pantaloons stand out to the
proper number of inches.
An ambitious imitator of Nine. We
1asnuez came to the front as lately as
the South African war Among the
host of strange offers that poured into
the office of q London daily nrwspa-
per was one from a young woman EN-
cared i'm business in a south coast wa
tering place, asking for advice to eha-
ble her to go out to the war as prl-
vate, The sage counsel which was
given to Mabel had little effect, now
ever for shortly afterward, in the kha-
ki uniform of a young recruit, she ieH
into the hands of the authorities,
whose unsympathetic conduct hlppeu
in the bud her patriotism at the very
moment when it was on the point OF
blOssoming.
One of the most successful and ad-
venturous of women masqueraders
was Hannah Smell, the woman sailor
who ended her romantic career IN BED
lam asylum, London. She had married
a Dutch seaman, who robbed her OIL
her savings and disappeared, leaving
her with an infant daughter. on the
death of the child Hannah dressed her
self i'm a suit of her brCther-in-law s
clothes, assumed his name, and set out
to wander over the face of the earth IN
search of her husband.
She enlisted, and at the siege "t Pom
dicherry was the first in party Oh
English foot soldiers To ford the river
breast high under an incessant IRE
from a French battery. She received
a dangerous wound in the leg, but a
negress to whom she contided the Sc
cret of her sex assisted her III extract
ing the bullet and healing the wound
Equally varied and exciting was the
career of Mary Ann Talbot, the young
est Of sixteen natural children of an
earl. AS John Taylor" she was taken
to sea by scoundrel named Captain
Bowen, who kept the maintenance
money allowed for her support. she
was wounded i'm engagements, taken