Year: 1859

Man-WOman.


History of her Extraordinary Career.
The most remarkable woman of this
country was Harry" Stokes, the brick
setter, who committed suicide in the sulice
of the river Irwell, at Mode Wheel last
night. For about thirty years this ex-
traordinary person had lived in Manches-
ter and Stafford, as a journeyman and
master bricksetter; had been twice mar
ried to other women; had kept beer-houses
and served customers at the tap as a
"jolly landlord" had worked at her trade
as bricksetter, and erected many impor-
tant buildings in both towns, and had OBJ
tanned the reputation of being the most
skillful fire CRATE setter, and "chimney
DOCTOR in the neighborhood. She always
dressed as a man, in the clothing peculiar
to her trade; invariably superintended the
men in her employment; and could lift a
weight, spread the mortar, and set brick
with the best of them. She attended a
daily ordinary in the town along with
other bricksetters, drank smoked and iok
ed with the hardest, and joined in the eve
ming carousals. Yet, with all this constant
and close intimacy with the opposite sex,
this strongminded woman contrived to
keep her own great secret; and there is
every reason to believe that she has gone
down into the grave at the advanced age
of 60, or thereabouts, having throughout
the whole of her remarkable life maintain
ed an unbroken check upon those passions
which crowd the streets Of every large
town with the unfortunate of her sex. Her
great endeavor was on all occasions to
keep up the manly character she had as
sumed. From child she had been ac-
customed TO the severe work of one of the
most laborious occupations in which man
is engaged, and the skill she had attained
in trade reveals an amount of persevering
energy which made her worthy of a
better fate than that of q wretched sui
eide.


1t is curious to know what first induced
her to assume the garb and occupation of
a man, and what powerful agency it was
that enabled her to remain faithful to the
line of duty she had thus marked out for
herself. There are instances innumerable
where the influence of love or a romantic
disposition has clothed the form of woman
with male attire, and sustained her am,d
the perils of the battle field, in the dangers
of the deep, or in wild adventures in for
eign lands; but we know of no other case
in history tradition where woman
has wonderfully repressed her own feelings
and natural disposition, SO completely as
sumed the habits Of man, and been so
successful in evading the prying curiosity
of the world. "Harry" Stokes has in
deed played her part so cleverly that it is
with the greatest difficulty we have been
able to CLEAN the following facts, which,
meagre as they are, throw some little light
on her past history.


HER EARLY LIFE-ILL-TREATMENT BY PAR


ENTS.


She was the daughter of a bricklayer
in village in the neighborhood of Don
caster Before she could we'll balance her
own little body she was made "useful' in
the house; and ere many years had passed
over her head she was brought into ac-
quaintapce with some of the roughest and
toughest work in those hard wrought
days. Little Harry Stokes line had not
been laid in pleasant places. She was so
ground down by the iron hand at home
that, when she was but about eight years
old, she put on a tattered suit Of boys
clothing, and walked forth into the "wide,
wide world" Arriving at the village of
Whitby, she looked about for work. She
had not run away from her fathers house
because she did not like work and prefer
red to eat the bread of idleness. The
hard treatment of parents, ignorant Of
their responsibility, had driven her from
the protection of home and from all the
associations which should enchan the
young mind at home. That she was not
afraid of hard work was apparent when she
offered her services to bricksetter in
Whitby. Though somwhat undersized,
she appeared broad set, active, useful
lad, and was speedily set to work. Her
first efforts to please were attended with
success, and she was soon taken as an ap-
prentice.


AT THE HEAD OF FAMILY.


From this point we must drop the fem
mime appellative, and speak of Harry
Stokes as boy who had worked his way
to the dignity Of ajourneyman bricksetter.
For something like twenty years from this
point, we lose the collecting links which
join this Yorkshire experience to his Man
chester life. About twenty five years ago
he was brought prominently under the no.
tice of the public by the consequence of
an eccentric excursion which he had taken
into the domains of matrimony. Harry
Stokes, wanting a companion in life, exc
cuted a matrimonial contreten,ps. True
to his sole as man-for be had reached
the age when the average Of bricksetters
are fathers as we'll as journeymen--he cast
about, and fixed his choice upon plump
little widow, who kept beer house in
Cupid's Alley, off Deansgate, Manchester.
He had been accustomed to take his pot of
beer and smoke his short pipe under Bet
sy's roof. and had at last taken decided
ID