Woman Lived 60 Years As A Man

1908

Double Life — Married One of Her Own Sex

Trinidad, Colorado — Katherine Vosbaugh, an eccentric Frenchwoman of brilliant attainments, died here the other day at the age of 83, after masquerading for 60 years as a man. The woman donned trousers when a girl and had a horror of skirts up to the time of her death. She filled a score of responsible positions, and her true sex was never suspected.

Just twice during her entire life was the fact that Katherine Vosbaugh was a woman made known. The first time was when, at 30 years of age, she revealed it to the young woman she married in St. Joseph, Mo. The next and last time when she was convinced she was dying, and was compelled to inform the hospital physician.

During her long life she had been a bank clerk, a sheep herder, a bookkeeper, a restaurant-keeper and a mining camp cook. Although she spoke several languages and had been brought up in refinement, she seemed never so happy as when she was clad in rough overalls and heavy shoes, doing the most laborious work.

She wandered all over the world, and although often compelled to associate with the roughest men, she was never suspected of being a woman, and on more than one occasion proved herself more of a manly man than her associates. She came to America in 1842 at the age of 18, shortly after her father's death. She decided that she could make her way as a man, but not as a woman. She donned trousers and settled in Joplin, Mo., as a bookkeeper.

For nine years she remained in Joplin and was esteemed a fine young man and one whom more than one young woman considered a most eligible partner. Her excellent record, education and steadiness procured her a position as clerk at a St. Joseph bank. It was shortly after she accepted this position that she learned of the trouble of the young woman whom she afterward married.

When Miss Vosbaugh's "wife's" baby was born the oddly attached people removed to Trinidad and opened up a French restaurant. The town people thought them a model couple. The baby died a few months later. Shortly after the mother disappeared, and the "husband" refused to make a search for her. The people of Trinidad were profuse in their expressions of sympathy for the deserted "man."

Forty years ago Miss Vosbaugh obtained employment at the Sam Brown ranch, near Trinchera, as a sheep herder. Later when she saw that her sex could not be discovered except through unusual accident, she accepted work as a camp cook, and remained in that capacity up to two years ago. Some of the roughest characters known to the west associated with her without ever suspecting her sex. In many stirring scenes when men revealed fear and nervousness she kept her poise.

Two years ago her infirmities compelled her removal to San Raphael hospital. Even then the men of the camp bade her good-bye affectionately as "Grandpa" and "Old Man Frenchy." For many weeks she refused to bathe unless she could do so without attendants being present, to the great amusement of the sisters, who joked about the old man's overmodesty. Shortly after she was seized with a severe cold, which led to the physician's examination laying bare her life secret.

When her sex was revealed the hospital authorities at first insisted that she wear the proper garb of her sex. The garments proved so irksome to her, however, that she was finally permitted to return to overalls. She pottered around the hospital working for the sisters up to the time of her death.

Objects To Boys Sewing In School

Illinois, 1910

We received a very strong letter this week from a mother protesting against her boy being taught sewing in school when the time is needed to each branches more suitable for the scholars, at least the boys.

She says: "I think it's a shame. My son has to put two and three hours a week at sewing when they don't half know their arithmetic. John forgot to bring something to sew on this morning, so his teacher sent him home at 11:15 a.m. to get something to sew on, and as I was not at home he couldn't find anything, and when he went back to school again he forgot it. Well, his teacher got angry and shook him and sent him down to the principal. The principal sent him home, with a note and told him he couldn't come back to school again until his father came with him.

"I think it's an outrage in these civilized times to waste two and three hours a week at something they will never have any use for. I think every mother ought to sign a petition to have such nonsense stopped and to have that time devoted to the need of the times, which is business. I think it a shame taxpayers have to pay for such nonsense."

—Suburbanite Economist, Chicago, Oct. 28, 1910.


His Accent

An American-born girl was boasting of her English ancestry in public, and said: "Grandpa has lived in this country over 40 years, but he's just as English in his accent as when he went to Oxford; for instance," she added, "he still says horanges!" — Harper's Magazine.

Long Wars Due to Whiskers

1910

Trivial Incident Led to Three Hundred Years of Fighting

For ages beards were the delight of ancient beauties. The sight of a shaved chin excited sentiments of horror and aversion.

To obey the injunctions of his bishops, Louis VII of France cropped his hair a la pompadour and shaved off his luxuriant whiskers. Eleanor of Aquitane, his consort, found him with this uncommon appearance very ridiculous and very contemptible. She revenged herself by becoming something more than a coquette. The king obtained a divorce.

She then married the count of Anjou, who shortly afterward ascended the French throne, and gave him as her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poiton and Guienne; and this was the origin of those wars which for 300 years ravaged France and which cost the French nation 3,000,000 men.

All of which, probably, would have never taken place if Louis VII had not been so rash as to shave off his whiskers, by which he made himself so disgusting to the fair Eleanor.


Love Affairs of the Sexes

It is only her first love affair that a woman cherishes and remembers. Man is so lacking in originality that all the others are merely duplicates.

No Equal Suffrage Movement in France After the American Fashion

1920

By Mme. Clemenceau-Jacquemaire, in New York Times

So far as I have been able to observe, there is no equal suffrage movement in France in the sense that you in America regard a movement. From earliest times the women in France have always held a high position in the community. They have taken an active part in business projects, and the professions have always been open to them. They have been prominent in literature, science, and art. Indirectly they have exerted great influence on the political life of the country. Consequently there has been no pronounced movement for equal rights in France such as has been started elsewhere.

The women of France are not anxious to vote or to be elected to office. Therefore I am not of the opinion that suffrage will gain headway in my country. Nevertheless I am watching with great interest the progress of the women of other countries. We admire your progressiveness and are interested in the experiment of sending women to congress, of giving them seats on the bench. This is, of course, in line with your advancement and liberal ideas. But our own traditions, our social and racial conditions, are very different.

I find no cause for anxiety regarding the competition of the sexes in business. Women who had taken men's jobs on the outbreak of the war are gladly relinquishing them, and peace adjustment is coming without bitterness.

Was it not Ellen Key who avowed that even if the suffragist was striving to be free she was making a mistake if she thought the vote would free her from the limitation of nature? Women cannot pass beyond those limits without interfering with the rights of nature and the potential child. Woman, of course, has a right to avoid marriage, and to allow herself to be turned into a third sex, provided she finds in this her greatest happiness. But when all is told, motherhood is the central factor of existence for most women.

Frills for Gentlemen

1914

Dr. Montessori, the famous woman educator, in discussing the injustices imposed upon her sex by man, says: "It enrages me to see how men sacrifice beauty to comfort in their dress. They make no sacrifices that they may be beautiful to us, but we abandon all comfort that we may be beautiful in their eyes."

The important question here is not one of deed but of purpose. Dr. Montessori, a most learned and representative woman, says that women dress for men. While man would not flatter himself to make such a statement without high authority, his failure to appreciate the complimentary feminine attitude is undoubtedly due rather to ignorance than to contempt of woman. Surely we are all sorry that Dr. Montessori is enraged at us and would hate to see a general strike on the part of those who furnish us with most of the joys of life.

What can we do. then, if we are to appease Madame Montessori? Must we grow long hair, dress in knee breeches, silks and laces, wear tickly plumes and stickly hatpins, carry vanity bags and powder our noses?

Of course we would rather do a great deal than to permit the milk of feminine love to sour against us, but there seems to be a crossed wire somewhere. Can it be possible that men have been buying big hats, fine apparel, cruel hatpins and scratchy quills to please themselves rather than their wives? If so, what extravagant fools we masculine mortals be!

—Waterloo Evening Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, Jan. 1, 1914, p. 4.

Women Becoming Manly, Men Effeminate, Foppish

1910

Woman Developing Strong Arm

While Men Are Changing to Effeminate, Foppish Persons

Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 28 — Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, a celebrated authority on physical development, declares that woman is fast assuming the physical proportions and mental characteristics of man. Dr. Sargent is director of the Harvard and Sargent gymnasiums in this city. He cites from a model of a composite woman, molded from measurements made from 10,000 women, all taken prior to the year 1890. On the other hand, he avers that man is inclining toward effeminacy.

"Although I've no actual figures to verify the statement," Dr. Sargent says, "I know for a fact that the women of today are more mannish than the women of that time. Women, in the savage state, are so like men in form that it is well nigh impossible to tell them apart. Then, as civilization progressed, their especially feminine characteristics became accentuated, until the exaggeration was almost painful to look at.

"Then the pendulum began to swing the other way. Women are again beginning to look and be more like men. Great changes in this direction have been made since the molding of that statue. The women from whom the measurements for it were taken were different in conformation compared with those of today. The composite was the extreme type of femininity. She was woman overwomanized. Her hips and all the pelvic portion were overlarge. Her waist was oversmall. Her feet were undeveloped. So were her back and neck.

"Since that time her physique has been thoroughly made over. It is approaching that of man. The sloping shoulders of her grandmother's time have disappeared. They are no longer in fashion. In their place we find well-knit, athletic shoulders, broad ones. Her back, likewise, is better developed. Her hips are not so large as they once were. The entire pelvic region has decreased in size and the result has been an enlargement of the waist. The small waist is a thing of the past. Her neck is thicker and more muscular; her limbs more smoothly developed; her hands and feet are larger in every respect. Her chest has been said to be flatter. I should hardly wish to endorse that last opinion. It is true, however, that her chest may appear flatter, because I am glad to say the corset, which formerly forced it upward, has of late, been somewhat modified.

"Another reason for the change in woman's physique is that within the past 10 years women have done a great deal more in the way of athletics than they did formerly. Golf, tennis, running and swimming have done much to improve woman's physical development.

"It is a rule that one may take few exceptions to, that if a woman devotes herself to the activities of a man, there is bound to be a loss of sex. This approximation of man's physique is, from an anthropological point of view, a bad thing. It is to be hoped that men and women do not grow to be more alike than they are today. The same may be said of men. From the overdeveloped Sandow, man has changed to the effeminate and the foppish being. The assimilating of the sexes by each other is a possibility to be decried."

—Olean Evening Times, Olean, NY, Nov. 29, 1910, p. 2.

Tactful Way a Girl May Refuse a Man Proposing Marriage

1908

No girl is likely to need any suggestions as to how to receive a proposal of marriage it she intends to accept the man. But to refuse, kindly and with consideration, sometimes requires tact only possessed by a genius or an experienced woman of the world, because when a man's heart is set upon a girl he is not always willing to take "no" for an answer, or accept the hint that is given which should prevent him from asking the question.

Every one agrees that a girl always knows, even before the man, whether or not he cares for her, and the situation rests largely with her. If she wishes to encourage him there are many ways of accomplishing it, which every daughter of Eve knows instinctively. But to discourage, and not at the same time be rude, is quite another matter. A girl's own kindness of heart, I should say, would aid her in the difficulty, for, unless she is obtuse, she is quick to see when she wounds his feelings, and may salve them without the risk of being called a coquette.

It is a very narrow course to steer, this one between overkindness and brusqueness, and sometimes a girl's considerate manner makes a man hope, even against the doubt he may have. If finally, in spite of her efforts to prevent, he proposes and is refused he occasionally accuses her of unkindness in having flirted with him, even though such has not been the case.

When this happens the girl must merely exercise self-control not to lose her temper and remember that the man is going through real suffering. It is extremely improbable that his future will be blighted because of her refusal, but life is overcast for a time and it does not help him at the moment to know that a hundred years from then nothing will matter. Patience and toleration from a girl at such a time will sometimes result in his becoming a good friend whose companionship she may have for the rest of her life, whereas a quick rejoinder and a general attitude of indifference will make a breach never to be healed.

A girl with tact can often put off an impending refusal so that a man becomes conscious that she does not wish him to speak of marriage and drops it without further hint. She accomplishes this usually by refusing the opportunities for being alone with him, when he might speak of personal matters. She does not accept his invitations to dinner or the theater, and if she is at home when he comes to call takes care that some member of the family shall be present all the time. Her whole attitude toward him is that of friendliness, largely mixed with impersonality, by which is meant that she is reserved, holding herself aloof, and yet is not rude. This is difficult to do.

Should one for whom she does not care insist upon proposing to her she must try to be kind but emphatic in her refusal. There is no greater injustice to a man than to let him think there is hope that she may some time care, when he has the belief simply because she hates to hurt his feelings. If this is the motive that prompts her she will hurt him infinitely worse after a time, for he will have buoyed himself in the interval with false hopes that are hard to let go.

There is much humor but a certain amount of sadness in the "I-will-be-a-sister-to-you" jokes. Nothing could be more tactless than an expression of this sort from a girl when a man is being refused by her. Nothing less than accepting him will bring any joy, and to throw out the unsatisfactory, if well meant, "sister" idea is simply galling. The future intercourse of a man and the girl who has rejected him depends largely upon propinquity and the girl. She need not express kindly intentions, but if they are thrown together afterward she may show friendliness without raising false hopes.

— CARRIE KUTE.

Reflections of a Bachelor

1903

Not all men are bad, not all women good.

The greatest passion in the world is vanity; the most powerful weapon flattery.

There is no age at which a woman's heart will not melt to the man who smiles upon her.

Beware the man who approaches you with the promise that he has come to do you a favor.

It is the little things that tell. A man who is facing bankruptcy and dishonor with a courageous smile will fly into hysterics when he can't get his collar buttoned.

There will be some way of understanding women when some one can explain how a woman will think a matinee hero is like a god, and yet have her blood run cold at the thought of her son being like him.

Most people want to make money so as to spend it, but those who make money do it by not spending it.

Some women with good figures understand how to dress so that a blind man would know it.

Even a man who knows enough to swap horses and get the best of it doesn't always know enough not to get married.

It is no use trying to make a woman understand that a man never knows why he loves a woman and never cares why.

If nobody else had the sense when a woman is pretty to tell her, she would have the sense to talk it in a phonograph and then listen to it. — New York Press.

Dean of Women: 'Love-Making Rooms Not Needed in Homes'

1921

"Courting Parlors" Not Needed Says Wisconsin University Dean

Room Fitted for Love-Making Would Drive Away Average Young People; Old Time Courting Out of Date

By MERLE SHAW

"The establishing of courting parlors in homes, where the young people can make love under mother's supervision, may be necessary in England, but not in Wisconsin," declared Mrs. M. H. Mendenhall, assistant dean of women at the University of Wisconsin. Most American homes are of such an informal nature that the old time courting days are decidedly out-of-date anyway."

Mrs. Mendenhall believes that in the larger cities where many homes are crowded and disorderly and where lovers are rushed out into the street to do their courting, such rooms might be necessary. Much of the public courting that goes on in parks, theaters, and trolleys in the large cities is, however, due to the foreign population.

"The time has not yet come in Wisconsin when a so-called 'courting parlor' is needed in the average substantial home," said Mrs. Mendenhall. "Besides," she added with a twinkle in her eye, "a room fitted out for love-making purposes is more liable to drive out the young people rather than serve a means to keep them at home."

—The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 1921, page 3.

Girl's Dainty Figure in Split Skirt Draws Attention

Beacon, New York, 1913

SPLIT SKIRT UPSETS SCHOOL AT BEACON

Beacon, Nov. 21 — On Wednesday morning Miss Anna McCabe, a pupil in the eighth grade of the South Avenue School, Beacon, arrived at school with one of the latest model slit skirts and was the object of the envy of all the girls of the class, while the attention of the boy members of the class was also concentrated on her dainty figure. Miss Weller, the teacher, curious to know the point of interest in Miss McCabe's direction, inspected her section of the room and observed a generous display of hosiery caused by an indiscreet slit in the garment of Miss McCabe. Immediately the student was informed that her presence in the room after school was essential.

Then the scholars began to stimulate the spirit of defiance in the classroom and before long the air was full of presumably sincere threats: "If she does anything to her, we'll all wear slit skirts tomorrow." This, of course, only applied to the girls. The boys said nothing.

That the students meant trouble was soon conveyed to Miss Weller, but a few remarks from her intimidated them to such an extent that — well, there were not any slit skirts visible in the classroom yesterday.

Miss McCabe was kept after school and asked to change her costume before returning. She said she would. The rebellious pupils filed from the room as meek as lambs, instead of with the fiery aspect which was evident upon the first intimation of the punishment of Miss McCabe.

—Orange County Times-Press, Middletown, New York, November 25, 1913, page 6.

Wife Offers to Pay Alimony to Husband

1920—

Wife Offers to Pay Alimony to Husband

All She Asks Is Divorce and Custody of Children

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., May 20. – Mrs. Ida May Harp, of this city, established a precedent in local divorce courts when she filed suit against Arthur E. Harp, an insurance adjuster, and offered in her complaint to pay him $25 a month alimony.

Mrs. Harp charges that Harp has been cruel to her. They were married in Napa in 1905 and separated recently when, says Mrs. Harp, he told her he was sorry he married her and that he wished himself in the "hot place" instead.

Harp also is jealous, she says, and refused to let her attend church, saying if she did she might flirt with the minister. He also was jealous of tradesmen.

Mrs. Harp asks for a divorce and the custody of their two children.


Women Are Inferior, Avers One of Them

LONDON, England, May 20. – "Women do not excel in any art. I do not personally know of any woman qualified to be an associate of the Royal Academy of Arts. Women have never been good in any art."

That is the opinion of Lady Scott, the sculptress and widow of the explorer, in discussing the fact that it is more than 150 years since a woman became a member of the academy.

Asked why she thought women fail at art, Lady Scott said:

"I don't know. We are an inferior race, I suppose."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 4.

After World War I, Battle of the Sexes Predicted

1916
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WARFARE OF THE SEXES PREDICTED BY PROF. PHILLIPS

Says Clash Will Come After War and Will Be Epochal

CONFLICT TO BE BITTER

Will Equal in Severity Anything Known Since Days of Mythological Amazons - Independent Women Basis for Gloomy Forecast

London, Jan. 7.-Warfare between the sexes such as has been unknown since the days of the mythological Amazons, is predicted for England after the war by Prof. Marion Phillips, D. Sc.

Prof. Phillips bases this gloomy prediction upon the great mass of women who will be independent. A mighty commercial war is expected to follow the conflict of arms, in which unprecedented competition will be the chief factor.

The war has already opened numberless positions in the working world to women, and the contention is that they will fight against giving them up when peace is declared.

The prediction is made that suffragette militantism on an enormous scale will follow, and there will be bloodshed if attempts are made to force women back into the niche they formerly occupied.

The remedy suggested by Prof. Phillips is absolute equality:

The same work and the same wages for men and women; the same responsibilities and the same competitions.

"The scene which confronts us is a gloomy one," says Prof. Phillips. "A horde of men and women, many wasted by the hard work of these years of trial, trade depression, and a wave of poverty and exhaustion, are all held by the future years. Men will return from the war to find their places taken by women, and women will be displaced because work has ceased.

"In this scene are all the elements of sex warfare of a very terrible nature - sex warfare in which the male workers and the women dependent upon them are ranked against women who must work or die."

--The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, January 7, 1916, page 2.