The Gypsy Woman

1901

The gypsy woman
Lives on the moor;
She sleeps in a tent,
With a curtained door.

Low is her dwelling
And hard her bed,
But the stars at night
Are a crown for her head.

Rough is her greeting:
From all that's human,
But the morning smiles
At the gypsy woman.

The wind is her harper
And brings from far
His sons of wooing
And shouts of war.

On the printed page
She need never look;
The changing sky
Is her holy book.

She knows not the call
Of church bells ringing;
The falling rain
Makes sweeter singing.

And the voice of the lark
At morn and even
Is a key to open
The gate of heaven.

—Westminster Gazette.

Girl Artist Captures Intruder in Cabin

1919

Finds Queer Young Man Attired in Her Pet Toggery.

PITTSBURGH, Pennysylvania — At the point of a revolver Miss Gertrude Zeigler, an artist and decorator residing in a rustic log cabin in the woods, near West View, marched a male intruder whom she discovered in her home, over a mile through the snow to the office of Herman P. Brandt, justice of the peace of Perrysville.

Miss Zeigler discovered the young man, Ralph Rutledge, 21 years old, of Mount Pleasant, Pa., busy preparing his breakfast.

Rutledge had eaten of the best while in the Zeigler home and when caught was attired in a ladies' golf sweater, silk hose and a pair of pink pumps belonging to Miss Zeigler.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Woman and the Pin

1910

It was in a deductive way that the captain found out that Ethel Clare Le Neve, the supposed accomplice of Dr. Crippen, was a girl though she was dressed in boy's togs. She had applied a missing trouser's button with a safety pin. The method was entirely feminine, says the Cleveland Leader. A boy would have borrowed a marline spike or a nail, or whittled a wooden peg.

This dramatic use of the safety pin again focuses the attention on woman's marvelous capacity as a pinster. Give her a hat pin and she can affright a footpad or lure olives from a long-necked bottle, with equal ease. She makes it decorative, too, and deadly. In a crowded street car it is as fearsome a weapon as the cries of a Malay running a-muck.

But her chief record is made with the common or garden pin. She fastens buttons or shoes with it and when baby swallows the rattle, harpoons it out with a pin. If a tornado blows and the shingles are threatened she crawls out on the roof and pins them down.

Writers of those fascinating summer stories in which a man and a lovely girl are cast away on a South sea island miss the chance of their lives when they do not provide the heroine with a paper of pins as her salvage from the wreck.

"Miss Santa Claus" Suicide

Aug. 1909

Had Letters to "Kris Kringle" from Children Sent to Her and Sent Gifts

Philadelphia. — Miss Elizabeth A. Phillips, known widely as "Miss Santa Claus," committed suicide by inhaling illuminating gas. She was found in a room at her home with a gas tube in her mouth.

Friends of the woman say that her own tender heart killed her. Miss Phillips had been despondent since a young man whom she took from a prison cell stole the meager funds which she had reserved for her festivals for the children and then used her name to defraud trades people.

That the suicide was premeditated was shown by the fact that the cracks of the door and windows of the room had been carefully stopped by bed clothing. Pinned to the woman's clothing was a note which read:

"I have been in failing health for some time. I have always tried to do my best for mankind."

Miss Phillips enjoyed almost a national reputation by reason of her work at Christmas time among the poor children. For weeks prior to Christmas of each year she collected funds which she expended for toys and clothing for the needy and on Christmas eve she visited the homes of the children in a big automobile.

Two years ago, at her request, all the letters written by children and mailed to Santa Claus were delivered to her and the requests of the children, as far as possible, were complied with.

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.

Woman Fought for Liberty

Woman Fought for Liberty

1900

Deborah Sampson, who enlisted in the continental army as Robert Shurtleff, was one of the most dashing and bravest fighters for the cause of liberty. She enlisted in a Massachusetts regiment and served three years before it was known that the brave soldier was a woman.

She was taken ill in Philadelphia and the hospital nurse had pronounced her dead, but a slight gurgling attracted the doctor's attention. He placed his hand over her heart, and finding, to his surprise, an inner waistcoat tightly compressing her breast, ripped it open. She was immediately removed to the matron's apartments, where everything was done for her comfort.

The commanding officer, upon learning that his aid was a woman, granted her an honorable discharge and presented her with a letter from Washington commending her services. The humble soldier stood before him with shining eyes filled with tears and thanked him many times, begging him to ask that her fellow soldiers be told and that he ask them to tell him if she had done aught that was unbecoming a woman. This was done and her comrades and officers declared their respect for her was unbounded.

Upon her honorable discharge from the army she returned to her mother's home, striving to escape the calumny which followed her singular career. After Gen. Washington became president he wrote a most cordial letter to Mrs. Gannett (Deborah Sampson — she having married in the meantime), inviting "Robert Shurtleff" to visit him. She accepted and was treated with the greatest honors by the president and residents of Washington. — Ladies' Home Journal.


Too Early In The Day

When Sir Frederick Carrington was in South Africa before with the Bechanaland border police a new recruit wanted to join. He was questioned with martial-like severity, winding up with the question: "Do you drink?" As there was a syphon of soda and something suspiciously like whisky near it, the would-be recruit conceived the idea that he had been invited to partake. Nevertheless he answered the colonel's question with a modest, "No, thank you, sir; It's rather too early in the day for me."

She Stops Traffic To Light Her "Fag"

March 1920

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Street car traffic on a busy street was tied up while a young woman smoked a cigarette. It wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't chosen to sit down on the street car track and light her "fag." She made matters worse when, after an argument with an angry motorman, she blandly asked him for a match to light a second cigarette.

Dick Allen, former policeman, removed the young woman from the track and escorted her to the police station.

"You're stewed," remarked the booking clerk.

"You tell 'em; I stutter," she said, as she was led away to the matron's room to sober up.


Inmates of Jail Escape

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — Sheriff W. T. Baker woke on a recent morning to find the county jail empty. Some time after midnight the eight prisoners sawed and cut their way to liberty.


New Electric Dental Engine

A new electric dental engine runs on either direct or alternating current or on that supplied by dry batteries where no other supple of electricity is available.

Fighters Seek to Settle Grudge Over Woman in Ring

1896

Britt and Lawler Indulge in a Fist Fight All on Account of a Woman

San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 18. — It took twenty-eight rounds of desperate bare knuckle slugging to settle the grudge that has existed for a long time between Jimmy Britt, once the champion bantamweight of the coast, and Frank Lawler, another well known athlete whose doings in the fistic arena have made him quite prominent.

Britt and Lawler were formerly friends but had a falling out over a member of the fair sex and decided to settle the controversy in a bare knuckle finish fight. Both being members of a well known athletic club that has turned out a great many good boxers, it was decided to hold the match there. The location of the ring was kept a secret until the last minute and while the fighters were in training, no one except a favored few knew where the mill was to take place.

These few selected a well known sporting man as referee and the combatants stripped and went to work. The first three rounds consisted of hot give and take work with the result that both showed signs of distress when the fourth round was called. From the fifth to the twelfth, however, the fighting was fast with honors about even. They took things easy until the twentieth when another fierce rally, nearly resulted in Britt going out from a right hand swing that landed on his neck. He recovered in the next round and from that to the twenty-eighth round had a shade the best of the argument, Lawler being tired. As there seemed to be little chance of a finish and both men were terribly punished the referee called the match a draw.

40 Year-Old Wife Of Boy Husband Will Fight Divorce

1914

Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 14. — Mrs. Maude Kinney-Patrick-Bates, through attorneys has signified her intention of contesting the application of Charles Bates, her 16-year-old husband, to have the marriage to his 40-year-old wife set aside.

The case was to have been heard yesterday by Judge Hugh Brennan of the district court. Until yesterday Mrs. Patrick has remained silent and it was presumed young Bates would secure the annulment by default.

Attorneys C. C. Dowell and John McLennan have entered their appearances in the case and Bates was denied the chance to secure the annulment without a fight.

The case attracted considerable attention some time ago when Bates alleged he had been lured into marrying a woman twice his age through continued protestations of love on her part. They went to Chicago and were married under assumed names; he as Charles Buford and she as Frances Kinney. Since their return to Des Moines they have not lived together.

With the entrance of the two attorneys into the case it is probable Mrs. Patrick will file her answer to the charges made by her boy husband in a short time.

New Orleans Woman Honored for Work in Education

1904

A Noble Woman

An unusual ceremony took place in New Orleans on the afternoon and evening of April 30th, when many thousand persons from every walk of life gathered to do honor to a woman. A loving-cup was presented to Miss Sophie Wright, whom her fellow townsmen love to call "The First Citizen of New Orleans," and the presentation was made the occasion for a public demonstration of affection.

Miss Wright is a little, crippled woman, white-haired and sweet-faced. All her life she has been struggling against poverty and against the never-ceasing pain of a spinal trouble. Able to go about only with the aid of a steel harness and a cane, she still has the strength of a multitude in doing good works.

Twenty years ago she was but a girl of eighteen, yet she had already established a prosperous and growing boarding school, and was beginning to see ahead an end to poverty. One day a young mechanic asked her to teach him to read and write. Suddenly brought face to face with the fact that thousands of boys were growing up in New Orleans untaught and without hope of advancement, she threw her school open to them in the evening, and called for volunteer teachers from among her girl pupils. This was established a free night- school to which thousands of men to-day owe all their education. This year it enrolled fifteen hundred pupils, and three hundred were turned away for lack of room.

Fighting weakness and pain which would render another a helpless burden, she spends her days earning money to support herself and her charity, and her evenings teaching her "boys." Yet with it all she finds time for the countless other demands on her. There is scarcely a charity in the city but feels the inspiration of her aid. Last winter she engineered the raising of seventeen thousand dollars to build a home for crippled children. Her reward is in a love from the people of New Orleans such as few have earned. Her life is an example of what a noble woman can accomplish. — Youth's Companion.

Starts for Money But Never Returns

California, 1917

A Mariposa street shoe store is short just one pair of $9 shoes and an attractive dark haired woman weighing about 170 pounds and standing five feet eight inches, is ahead one pair of $9 shoes.

According to a report made to the police department yesterday by the shoe store, the fashionably dressed woman, said to be strikingly attractive, entered the store Saturday night and after trying on many different shades and heights, finally selected a pair, and said she would wear them at once, and would the clerk please have the old ones wrapped up.

She said her brother was waiting for her outside and she would get the money from him, but she never returned, according to the report. The clerk was able to give an excellent description of the woman.

—Fresno Morning Republican, Fresno, CA, Sept. 10, 1917, p. 3.

Pretty Girl Serves as Rent Deposit

1920

Legal tender — one pretty girl.

Mrs. J. H. Harrison and her pretty daughter finally found just the right flat in Chicago the other day. The agent demanded a deposit. Hurried search disclosed no cash in two pocketbooks.

"Will I be a suitable deposit?" the girl asked.

She was a deposit for two hours, until relieved as such by a double eagle.



WHITE SLAVE LAW HITS AUTOS

Supreme Court Refuses to Review Case of Convicted Woman

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 18. — By refusal of the Supreme Court to review the case, Federal court decisions holding that the transportation of women from one State to another for immoral purposes comes within the provisions of the white slave act and will stand. The case reached the Supreme Court on appeals from conviction of Ada Griffith of Duluth, Minn.

Crowded Mass Transit Train — The Fat Man and The Spinster

1905

ON STRANGER'S LAP SPINSTER RODE IN CROWDED ELEVATED TRAIN

Situation Enjoyed by the Other Passengers, but Decidedly Distasteful to the Principals — Fat Man Finally Succumbs to Fate

The elevated train was chock full when the very stout man got on at Thirty-third street. There wasn't room between platform and platform for a famine victim; but the stout man, like all stout men, didn't see how he could make any difference. He stepped upon the platform buoyantly, mashing a messenger boy flat against the door and spreading a lemon-faced little spinster all over the window like jam or butter.

At Twenty-eighth street half a dozen people got out. Instantly there was a rush for seats and standing room left inside the car. But alas! when a fat man gets wedged in a doorway, who else can penetrate it? Again, like all fat men, the fat man was lucky, and, strange as it may appear, he managed to get one of the seats recently vacated.

When he had sat down the little spinster gathered herself together and found a foothold in front of him, and the others, with some new passengers just taken on, crowded in after her and packed themselves like sardines. They were squeezed so tight that the spinster reached for a strap to keep from being pushed over on the fat man's head and shoulders. But just as she made a grasp somebody else caught the only remaining strap. The bell rang sharply and the train started with a jerk. The little spinster lost her breath and balance, toppled for a moment on her toes and then sank struggling down upon the fat man's lap.

The fat man gasped and the spinster gave an awful cry of consternation and reached for the floor. But there was no floor! Every inch of space was covered by the feet of the determined passengers. The moment she sat down they had spread out over her space. Then she blushed. Some people looked her way and laughed, but nobody moved. She couldn't wedge her knees down from the altitude they had assumed at the first lurch.

She continued to struggle and strain to reach a strap, while the fat man sat helpless with that energetic mite of femininity going through the jiu jitsu exercises on his knees. At the next station more people got on and the fight of the lone spinster became more difficult and desperate.

Flesh and blood, even 300 pounds strong, could stand it no longer. Like a mountain rising and casting off the small cities on its surface, the ponderous one rose and pushed the sardine-like passengers out of his magic circle. The spinster slid off his knee like a drop of water off a duck.

"Madam," said the fat man, lifting his hat gravely, "will you do me the honor to take my seat?"

"Well, it's about time!" snapped the ruffled little spinster ungratefully. — New York Press.

A Traveling Man Does An Indecent Thing

Wisconsin, 1920

A Traveling Man Gets Into Trouble

Plymouth Review — A young lady, whose name we shall withhold because she was entirely innocent of the slightest wrong-doing, was accosted by a traveling man from Milwaukee, on the highway between this city and Greenbush one day last week.

She was driving towards her home while the Milwaukee traveling man was just ahead of her in an automobile. He stopped the machine and got out of it as if to make some adjustment. As she drove up, he asked the young lady whether she was going to Greenbush. Thinking that the question was impertinent she did not reply, when he stepped away from his auto and did an indecent thing.

At this the young lady turned her horse around and started back towards Plymouth. She stopped at a house and reported what had happened and a gentleman went in pursuit of the malefactor. The young lady accompanied him as she had taken the number of his auto. The auto was standing in front of the Stannard store at the village of Greenbush. While someone went after the young lady's father the traveling man drove to Glenbeulah. Here an officer got into the car with him and they came to Plymouth. The only justice of the peace was out of the city and the police justice has no jurisdiction over a criminal act committed outside the city. The parties went before some attorney and the traveling man paid a certain sum.

We have failed to state that the young lady was accosted twice by the traveling man.

If the story is true and there seems to be no reason to doubt it, the miscreant got off rather lightly. He is said to be a young man about twenty-five years of age, and his experience may be sufficient to deter him from repeating an act of that kind.

—The Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, WI, Sept. 25, 1920, p. 4.

Now That We Have Caught Your Eye

Advertisement, 1913

NOW
that we have caught your eye

We want to tell you about that new
Electric Iron

Just the thing for hot weather,
no red hot stove on a red hot
day — no walking, no lifting,
easy to regulate. Try one.

ADA ELECTRIC AND GAS COMPANY
Phone No. 78 — 209 W. Main

—The Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, July 17, 1913, p. 3.

The Queen of Tramps

1878

The Bangor (Me.) Commercial says: Mrs. Mary Merriman is a respectable appearing woman of thirty, is not bad-looking, and has every appearance of being upright and of good character. She is, however, without doubt, the queen of female tramps, and can discount the great majority of male tramps.

She was born in St. Albans, in this state, and her folks were farmers. She has since lived in Hermon with her brother, Joseph Merriman, who does a good deal of trading in this city. Three years ago this fall she took it into her head to see the country, and started out with neither scrip nor staff, but a good pair of thick shoes. She walked across the country, braving all kinds of weather, and finally brought up in Clinton, Iowa, when she took the back track and returned to this city.

Two years ago she decided to start out again, and this time selected a long tour. She walked through portions of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and on to Washington, where she remained a few days, and "did the capital," and then made a bolt for Savannah, Ga., where she remained a short time. Then on she went again, doing the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Indiana, and finally got round to Kansas City. Here she stopped awhile and earned a new tramping outfit. Again she started, this time with the intention Of crossing the plains to California, but finally stopped when told by many persons that it would be very unsafe for her to think of attempting it alone. She then started on a return trip, walking from Kansas City to Chicago, thence to Detroit, doing Niagara Falls, and crossing to Canada, thence to New York and through Massachusetts, arriving at her home in Hermon a little more than a week ago.

She says she averages twenty-six miles a day. She says when she gets tired and out of clothes she finds no trouble in getting a few days' work, and in this manner enjoys her life.

Court Interrupts Founder of "Perfect Woman" Cult

Chicago, 1922

Court Interrupts Founder of Cult

Mrs. Rachael Marie Riggs was reigning on her throne in her home, surrounded by mystic symbols, weird pictures and curious charms, when Chicago police interrupted her reign to ask her to appear in court to answer a charge of contributing to the delinquency of two wards of the court. She claims to see the coming of the perfect woman.

—The Coshocton Tribune, Coshocton, OH, Jan. 18, 1922, p. 1.

Note: I've seen three different publications of this article. They're all from a common source, of course, but each one says she claims to "see" the coming of the perfect woman, not "be" the perfect woman, so apparently there is no typo.

Girl Tramp Likes Road's Philosophy

1915

Pretty, Convent Bred and of Good Family, Irene Lane Prefers "Freedom"

St. Louis, Mo., (special) — An attractive girl with every indication of education, but with hair cut close to her head and a strange masculine carriage and manner of speaking has provided an interesting study for the police of this city. She gives her name as Irene Lane, admits that her real name, if known would "astonish the east" and boasts of the fact that she is and has been for more than a year a "tramp." Not a common tramp, but an associate of the leaders of the tramp world.

"Miss Lane" was arrested on Monday by a policeman who saw her running near the railroad tracks. She was dressed in feminine attire for the first time in many months, and as she jumped over the railroad ties, ran up a coal pile and dragged herself quickly up by the handles of a freight car the policeman decided that there was something strange about the matter and decided to investigate.

"Miss Lane" went to police headquarters without complaint, and when there amazed the police officials with her description of the life she had been living and of the philosophy which she had developed in her contact with "the road."

She explained that she was a convent graduate and readily convinced her questioners of it. Tired of teaching school and instructing class after class of foreign pupils in the use of English she said, she had made an arrangement with a young man of her acquaintance who was in ill health to take "a fling about the country in the open." He became discouraged after a few weeks, she explained.

—The Bayard Advocate, Bayard, Iowa, January 7, 1915, page 7.

What A Mistake — She Had the Wrong Pocket

1903

Awful Mistake of the Pretty Girl In the Automobile Coat

A pretty girl wearing an automobile coat that reached to her heels, stepped aboard an Indiana avenue electric car at Thirty-first street the other day and took the only remaining seat, which was next to a man bundled in a great ulster. The atmosphere in the car was rather frigid, and the young woman felt about for her coat pockets, and finally shoved her hands deep down into the folds of the garment.

An instant later she felt a large gloved hand steal inside the pocket. It closed upon her own hand and gently pressed it. The pretty girl was enraged and turned upon the man at her side. The car was crowded with passengers and she did not wish to create a scene. She bit her lip, straightened up and looked directly ahead. Again the hand closed gently upon her own. She gave her arm a quick jerk and withdrew her hand from the pocket. The man, not the least abashed, also withdrew his hand.

Her fingers soon began tingling with cold and she slipped her hand into the pocket again. While she sat shivering she again felt a large gloved hand steal into the pocket. For a moment she sat quietly, and then the hand once more pressed her own. She would endure such a flirtation no longer. She thrust her hand deeper into the pocket and faced the man.

"Take your hand out of my pocket, sir," she said, in a fierce voice.

"Pardon me, miss," said the man, "but will you be so kind as to take your hand out of my pocket?

The young woman looked surprised, and with a jerk withdrew her hand. When she saw she had confused the folds of the two coats she blushed, signaled the conductor to stop the car, and fled toward the door. When the car stopped she stepped to the street, without, even turning to give the man an apologetic glance. — Chicago Inter-Ocean.

Woman Coughs Up Bullet

1920

Injured While Listening to Ellwood City Celebration

Ellwood City, Pa.—As Lucinda Capano put her head out of the window at her home New Year's eve, to listen to the whistles, bells and shooting which ushered in the new year, a bullet struck her in the face. It penetrated near the right eye, went through her cheek and penetrated the roof of the mouth and finally lodged in her throat. She coughed it up. The police were notified.

A celebrator is believed responsible for the shooting. The bullet first struck the edge of the roof of the house and then took a downward course, striking Mrs. Capano. Dr. H, E. Helling declares the wound is not serious.


$200,000 Subscribed for Children

Philadelphia. — More than $200,000 for the needy children of Europe was subscribed here at a mass meeting under the auspices of the European relief committee. Gen. John J. Pershing was the principal speaker. The largest subscription was a check for $100,000 given by an anonymous donor. "More than 3,000,000 children are facing death unless they receive aid," said General Pershing. "One dollar per month a child is needed for the next 10 months."

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.