Imperial Valley press., 1919-01-07
SLACK + From
THIS CO(jN I !
DISCOVERED
TO Be WOMAN
''yEohn Bauer" Former Res
ident of Valley, Is Center
of a Remarkable Situa-
ton in Los Angeles.

The following remarkable story
about "John. Bauer" draft Stacker
from Imperial county, appears in this
mornings Los Angeles papers:
"After passing as man for eight
years and feeling to the desert near
here to evade the physical examina-
tion incident to the military draft,
John Bauer "a years of age, was
found to be woman yesterday when
she refused to submit to the minis
trations of male nurse at the state
hospital at Patton.
"'Bauer,' who refused to give any
other name, was apprehended in
Death Valley, where she had lived
in cave for the past year and was
believed to have become unbalanced
from solitude. II was said yester-
day that she would now be given an
other mental test. Physicians said
her conduct was normal for wom-
an. but was sufficiently strange, when
attributed to a man, to warrant her
detention.
"The woman told the hospital au-
thorities she had lived in the Impe-
rial Valley for seven years, working
as man and wearing mems clothes,
before she fled, according to her
statement, to evade the draft.
"The remarkable situation in re-
gard to Bauer developed when she
refused to permit male nurses to ad-
minister bath. At the Southern
California State Hospital a bath is
compulsory on the arrival of patients
and it is not unusual for them to re-
fuse to take it.
AS the nurse insisted, the patient
broke down and sobbed out, Let me
talk to a woman The woman nurse
on the ward was summoned, and then
the woman revealed her secret. She
was Immediately transferred to the
woman's ward and there a woman
physician confirmed her declaration.
For thirty-one days the woman had
been in a prison tank in the county
iail with prisoners who declared there
was never the slightest suspicion
"When the war broke out, John
Bauer was in Imperial county, so
the Federal government learned at
the time of the arrest thirty-one days
ago. She could not 60 to war, for
that would reveal her secret. When
the taunts of men, who viewed his
age became unbearable, Bauer fled
to the 'no-man's land fringing on
Death Valley and there for year
lived in a cave. For eleven months
Bauer heard not a human voice.
Only once was living being sight
ed. During the long hot months Of
summer in the Death Valley, Bauer
lived by raiding prospectors' huts.
Finally a cattle puncher sighted the
figure against the horizon and two
days later Contable Dick Bright of
Yermo and a federal agent trapped
the Stacker who fought viciously
but was subdued.
"Then in the county Jail, the sup
posed military Stacker cried out that
the roar of the cannon would be far
better than the terrific silence that
had nearly driven him insane in
Death Valley. The Stacker was told
~ war was over.
THAT the woman is not insane was
the belief expressed last night by
DR.. John A. Reilly, superintendent at
Patton.
ait may be that her actions,
thought by the examining physicians
to indicate insanity, were merely
caused because she was woman in
mans clothes,' he said.
"Her commitment is illegal, prob
ably, for the reason She was COM
mitted as a man. The woman will
be held at Patton pending an order
of the court. She refuses to divulge
her identity, except to say. that she
is "a years of age and for eight years
hac drassed as a man."