MAN-IMPERSONATORS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 114, 6 December 1879, Page 3

MAN-IMPERSONATORS.

«. Tho man-impersonation case recently discovered at Sandhurst, it. seems, is not altogether unique. A case very similar, in many of the circumstances, wis reported in England about 20 years since. In that case the impersonator passed as a man for no less than 40 years, and married a woman once ; but the so called " wife." soon discovered the fraud. Tho particulars are given in the following extract, published about the year 1848, the names and places being perfectly authentic, as mauy persons in the colony are aware:— On a recnt morning tin.' district coroner, Mr. Iltittcr, received information .that a man had been found drowned at Mode Wheel, on the River Irwell, in the township of Pehdlebnry, in the borough of Salford. On going to take tho inquest., in the afterunoon, tho body appeared to be that of a man of ;">0 or GO years of age. From the evidence it appeared that a man of the namo of Yates, employed at the Mode Wheel Works, discovered the body in a nearly erect pi - sition at half-past C that morning, in the sluice leading from tho Irwell. With the assistance of a man named James Ifoyles, ho got the body out of the water, and conveyed it to the Swan Inn, Pendlebury, where it lay until tho same night. Mary Gorton, who keeps a beer shop noar the Swan Inn, utated that on tho previous afternoon he came to her house, and remained there from .1 o'clock until 5. Hu appeared perfectly sober. During the timo he remained he asked for a glass of beer and a pipe of tobacco, and had four glasses in ail, for which ho paid lid. Jloforo leaving ho inquired what timo the gates of tho lodge leading to Mode Wheel were closed for tho night. She inquired if ho were going to Manchester, when he replied, " No, to Throstle Xest." The witness said, "Ho appeared to bo upset in his mind," and Fhe had no further conversation with him. Ho was a perfect Stranger, to her before this. One of the jury remarked that if it was the person ho supposed, he know him well. His namo was Henry Stokes; but though ho was known by this name tto was not a man, and liia proper namo was Harriet Stokes. She had assumed tho namo and garb of a man fpr a great many years, and had served an apprenticeship as a bricksetter, after working as a journeyman, and then for several years in busines, having constructed many of tho warehouses, chapels, and dwelling houses in tho neighbourhood of Manchester, tho last work being the erection of a factory <'himney for Mr. Simpson. Tho coronor then directed two inen to examine the body, who catne back tittering, saying it was true—it was the body of a woman. Harriot Taylor, who KVes in "tho neighbourhood, said she know Stokes well. He war u bricksetter. The proper name wax Harriet Stokes, but she went by the namo of Harry Stokes. Soino yoars ago she married a woman in Manchester. They lived together as man and wifo, and kept a beershop in Quay-street, Manchester. Tho woman made complaint that her husband was not a man, and left her in consequence. Several of tho jury recollected tho case, and that ballads worn composed anil nunc in tho streets on its Iwmg known that tho sUppoud man wna a woman.' Tho vordict was ' Found drowned—luprojitl suioitle."

A writer in the Castlomaine Representative tells the following stories:— During the week the common topic of conversational interest- has Lceu the manwonian, or rather the woman-man. The case is exceptionally interesting, not merely because of the long period duriug which a female has worn men's clothing and done men's work though these indicate what Rosalind would describe as 'more than common endurance,' but because the woman-man has married not less than three times, and has assumed tho honours of paternity. These lattor faots form the exceptional interest in the affair, because tbero are plenty of others on record where women have donned men's attire and worked as well as any of thpso surrounding them. Here is a case. A friend of mine—who has now gone over to the majority, but who told me the story when he was a fine hale old man of over 70, was captain of a ship trading between Loudon and Kingstown, Jamaica. He was part owner of the vessel, and commanded her for 35 years. During all that time he had been accompanied by a seaman, who, if the merohant service then had been organised as now would have been described as an A.B. Tho man began as a sort of knock-about on board, but gradually worked his way up to full wages and regular employment. He was not peculiar in any way, except that he was excessively dean and orderly aud rather a ' swell' sailor, for the kind service, and was never known to bo inebriated at home or at sea, aud at the time that was a remarkable peculiarity. On the last voyage that my old friend made, before taking his honourable leisure on shore, this sailor—l'll call him ' Jack Brown '—was aloft in rather roughish weather, hauling in a refractory sail with as much force ot' muscle aud as much expenditure of lung powers as the biggest and brownest of his mates. The next moment he lay a quivering, dying, panting mass of humanity on the wave-washed deck. As my friend stooped over him, he murmured, ' Don't tell.' Then tho lips closed in the silence of death. Then no one know what' don't tell meant. Before the bodywas lowered into tho deep—with that most pathetic of ceronionies—a funeral at sea, the captain knew that for 35 years he had had a woman for one of his best and staunchest sailors aud most trust worthy followers. Part of the crew, nay all, probably knew so much—but none will kuow—till ' the sea gives up her dead,' for the secret of the disguiso died with its wearer. " One other instance. I thiuk them a few—a very fuw now—can recall the ' talk ' the circumstance occasioned the time. The laiu Dr. Prushaw new of the facts. In the early days of the diggings —when Forest Greek was thick with small white tents, when at night the hill-sides were bright with fires—when later on the echoes revebcratcd pistol shots, by lucky miners prepared to Jpn - toct their hard-won gold, when shanties and stores were busy with men who scattered money with improvidontly reckless hand—when champagne was drunk out of pannikins and billyeans—and, let it be added, when men, if they got drunk, did so on better liquor than can bo now obtained for love or for monoy ; when now and then men, gentlemen, were chased like wiM animals for the 80s license fee; when they were chained to logs like so many Toulon convicts, the circumstance I am about to narrate happened. On the eastern hillside that overlooks Moonlight Flat there was n small tent. There dwelt a young, deli-cate-looking offeiniuate man, or rather boy. He worked as mate with a coarse, red-headed, savage looking man, who had a tent further up the Hat, but each lived separately. One dny the troopers Came to hunt tho diggers. The younger of the two men hail not a license, anil, as soon as the troopers came in sight, he set off at a run up tho hill dodging behind the trees that then clothed the slopes. After.a smart run, he lay down behind a fallen log, and there remained through the dewy night. Next morning he got to his tent, and lay down on the sheet of hark that, with a blanket, served for his bed. There he lay for two days, and then died. Died and made no sign, and when his rough mate and tho kindly doctor—who was to read tho burial servico —porformed the last sad rites, they found —a woman. A woman sleeps in a nameless grave, where not even a cross marks tho resting place. A woman who was young, and had boon pretty, aud probably whoso chiof misfortune had been that she loved, ' not wisely but too well.'"