Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-06-16
Trousers Good Enough

A dispatch from st. Louis to the
New York Globe announces that
Augusta sieb, the most gentleman,
woman In the country, has been sent
to jail again because she fatty refuses
to give up wearing mems clothes-to
which attire she has been addicted
for eighteen years. She first donned
trousers to track her husband, who de-
serted her in Newark, N. y.
In sentencing her 70 jail for hfsy-
six days. Judge Karl Kimmel of st.
Louis, where Mrs. Seth now lives, said
that the deserving husband was not
worth the sacrifice the wife had made
for him.
81 don't look upon 1t as a sacrifice
now" said the woman. II have livei
among men for nearly twenty years.
and have acquired the habits and
manners Of men. Skirts hamper me
and make me uncomfortable. can't
find work as a,wotnan. have tried II,
and know how hard 1t is for women
to get on. Any man can get work II
he tries, and l am strong and able.
made money when I was a waiter in
New York, and I have worked as
and q driver Of o delivery wagon.
could keep my jobs. too. never drank
much, but smoke. and can play bail
as well as any man"
Gus" Seib, as the woman was
known for many years in New York,
ran q restaurant at GAL Sixth avenue.
1t was a clean little place. and the
woman in mans clothes did all the
work of the place with the assistance
of Ter sisterin-iaw, Mrs. Clark, who
the customers took 1t for granted was
the good looking, energetic young pro-
prietor's wife. "Gus' had been
waiter at the Waldorf and the Hotel
He was smooth-faced.
HE" raked in a goodly
sum every day In tips, and when "he"
had saved enough che" fitted up the
little restaurant in Sixth avenue and
was In fair way to prosperity when
he" was overcome by heat one dav,
tell unconscious on the street, and
was taken to Bellevue and thence 20
the island for Ave days. At the end Of
he five days the prisoner promised
70 don skirts and was released. She
used to rustic stiffE about her res
.aurant waiting on customers-alert,
business and obliging. but somewhat
sad.
'It isn't the same at ALL" she said
Men come in now and try to make
owe to me instead Of paying their
checks. And skirts are no good 'oI
cook in. am always catching IN
hings. They are all right for ladies
If leisure, but no good at all to work
n. If I should give up this place and
disappear people would say l was q
coward, and am not. I am not afraid
Of anyone. want just q chance to
earn a good living, and it's ten times
easier to do IL as a man than as
But In spite Of her grit she was f.
naIly logged out Of her business BY
the notoriety her arrest had caused.
People from far and near came to the
little restaurant, not to eat and pay
put to stare at and question the WON
IN who for so many years had waged
her battle for bread successfully be
cause the world thought she was a
man. One day the door of the place
was found locked and a sign In the
told that the shop was to iei.
That was three years ago.
When Augusta Seib came to Amer
lea from her German village home
she was a young girl, blond. blue
eyed, and pretty. She left her old
mother behind In the fatherland and
her one ambition was to earn enough
money to make the old lady's life
She worked as a servant
md as a drygoods clerk until she met
4 man calling himself George INFER
.agt, whom she afterward said she |
believed was Johann Hoch, the motor |
GUS bigamist. She and UnferzaSt
we're married.