A MAN IN WOMAN'S CLOTHES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2136, 28 May 1889, Page 2

A MAN IN WOMAN'S CLOTHES.

The " New Tork Herald" contained a paragraph the other morning announcing the death at Taviatook Workhouae, under extraordinary olroumsUnoes, of an old penon named Mary Mudpe. It turns oat that through 85 yeara of « long life the person referred to had been known at Mary Madge, or Mlas Madge, and it was not till after death, as the body wai being prepared for burial, that It wae found to be that of a man. So many yean have slipped by slnoe Mary's ohlld* hood that It waedlffioult to obtain lnforma* tion of her early days, A.i Mary Madge the was alwayi known, at Buob she (■ still referred to by the villan ers. Not even the oldest inhabitants had "way recoHiotlon of Mtty's ohildhood, and there !■ no registration to be found. Nawton Abbot lies some aix or more roilei baok from Tavlstook, a&d is the village with which Mary Madge's life la aisooiated. The earliest recollection of her In the village Is as a full-groirn young woman, when she was then noticeable for her par loularly large b'z3. "That elrl ought to have been a boy" seems to have been a common saying at the time. Masy Mudge then lived with her sister, who worked m the village as a dressmaker, and It is supposed that Mary aisisted her from ohildhood. She had been dressed In pettlooatp, and In the village there was no suspicion that she was anything but what one seemed to be. The two lived together m one of the row. of cottages whloh duster around the ohnrob. When the sister died and Mary was left a'ooe, she fcheo retired from the »3tive life of the village and took a small house snd a pleoe of firtz'ag land, a mile and » half distant Two or throe cows comprised the stock of her small dairy, and Mary, having milked her cows and made her oream and batter, ttudged to market and dlsposod of them. She nasof a retiring deposition, and nevor mixed with neighbors. t 1 And what sort of person was she?" wan a question na' orally askod of an old villager. '' She seemed a very quiet, retiring sort," was the answer. " Wo never auspeoted anything. I waa never so struok m my life as when I heard of It a,fter hei death,." Had sbe ever seen Mary Madge at ohuroh f She did not remember that she had ; m faot, nobody deemed to have known muoh about Mary She had lived by herself eluoe her sister c death, shut up In her lonely house. The two or threa oowa snpplled her bodily needs, and the village dootor does not raflo ember ever giving her medicine ; buteiokneas entered her houae four pears ago, and found Mary Mudgo alone In hor lonely dwelling. She was reoommonded to the union Infirmary, where she entered m July m 1885, and baa since remained until her death. Such are all the materials obtainable of Mary Madge's histcrv. The workhouse doors are closed to enqnlreri, and the medical gentlemen of that establishment are very retloent over the nattier. Beyond admitting that it w»S undoubtedly a man, they decline to mako any statement. The grave has now oloaad over Mary Madge, her body having beeu taken baok to Newton Abbot village on Saturday if ternqoQ ao4 bwlo4 Iq tb« ohqcobyntd,