PRECURSORS OF AMY BOCK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3179, 3 May 1909, Page 3

PRECURSORS OF AMY BOCK.

WONDERFUL WOMEN WHO,' HAVE LIVED AS MEN. (By J. T. P., in the "Otago Daily Times.") Amy Bock is the most-talked-of person in the Dominion at this moment. Every other single individual tnkes second place, far in the rear. Amy Bock's case is of great public interest, but alongside historic parallels of women who have sighed and tried to be men her performance is a very poor one. The ruling factor in Amy Bock's escapade was gain. In that of some of her predecessors it was ambition to hold a bigger place in the world than is usually allotted to women. Times have changed, and if genius is implanted in one of the weaker sex here is now an ample field to display it. Amy Bock's case is receiving full notice. It is with her most wonderful-, and. in most cases, more worthy precursors I propose to deal. For years I lived in a city where two women chose to wear trousers and act a man's part. One of these I knewj Most readers have read stories of ancient women who have acted men's parts. But these exist mostly on sufferance. Perhaps the myth ical story of the contingent of Amazons, led by the "Lady with the Gold Legs" (so called because of her gilded buskins,) which is said to have taken part in the second Crusade, taxes our credulity too much. The Countess of March ("Black Agnes") is credited with having kept Dunbar for five months against the Earl of Salisbury in the reign of Edward 111. This is, too, perhaps a t«x to belisva. There are other hazy legends, such as that of the Scottish maiden who is credited with having fourth in the Battle of Otterburn in 1338, and continued fighting on her stumps when her legs had been cut off. According to one authority, authenicated cases of woman who have ived as tnen range from Joan of Arc to the Maid of Saragossa;, from De Foe's "Mother Ross," who fought at Blenheim and Ramillies, and kept the secret of her sex in spite of a dozen wounds and as many campaigns, down to De Quincey's "Spanish Military Nun," who the quoted authority says regrets to say was not in the least the chivalrous figure whom De Quincey's prcse has, made immortal, but a mere virago, who gambled, drank, robbed, assassinated, cursed, and swore, and was a mere Alsatian she-bully, but, through it all kept the secret of her sex. The list of female soldiers in disguise is of amazing length, and it includes all nationalities and armies. The First Napoleon gave the Cross of the Legion of Honour to one shesoldier of this type, Mary Schclietick, who fought at Jenapoes. A monument stands in Beauvais to the j memory of Jeanne Hacbette, who, in | 1454, defended that, town against j the gnndians. The shot which des- I troyed Nelson's eye at San Juan is said to have been fired by a Spanish girl, who received, by royal decree, as a reward for the feat, I the brevet of captian on active service. Every great popular war somehovv impels many women to seize the musket and disguise themselves in breeches. It was so ' in the American War of Independence, in the French Revolutionary wars, and again in the great American Civil War. No less than 150 | women were fond in 1864 to be servi ing in the army of the Potoamc. So lately indeed, as 1870, when the Franco-Prussian war broke out, a German dame, Fraulein Hansel,raised a corps of Amazon", and appealed to that grim veteran, General Von Falkenstein, to know where they could best s~rve the fatherland. The German Amazons, however, were called upon to face i:o more alarming weapons than universal laughter. A

sergeant in the 15th Light Drsgoons, who had seen 21 years' military service, including the campaign in Egypt, turned out to ! be a woman. Another classic case is that of Mary Anne Talbot, # who was a soldier in Flanders under the Duke of York, a cabin boy on board a privateer, and a middy on board the Brunswick, and all without suspicion of her sex. Among more modern authentic cases of women successfully acting the nart of men is that of "Dr. James Barry." In 1859 "he" held the post of inspector-general of the medical department of the British army. This wonderful woman hegan "his" service as hospital assistant in 1813. "He" passed through all the grades of assistant surgeon, surgeon major, deputy inspectorgeneral, and inspector-general, retiring on halt pay in 1859. Barry was a skilful surgeon, and excellent administrator, as "his" official career proves; but he was quarrelsome and contentious. On one occasion "he" fought a duel, and was repeatedly under arrest. When "he" died in Lodnon in 1865 it was discovered that the ex-inspector-general was a woman. This is one of the most wonderful cases on record. Barry played this amazing part to perfection. "He" was at home at mess tables and in hospital wards and through a long life deceived the whole medical profession and all the British military authorities. The "lady" floctor is not, therefore, a recent product. Australia has had at least three famous women who have for years successfully masqueraded as men. Two lived in one place at the same time —the Victorian mining city of Bendigo. One of these was the I famous Ellen Tremayne, known in history as Edward De Latcy Evans. Thia lemarknble woman acted a wonderful part for many years, and doubtful would have kept her secret to the end but for a misfortune. For long years she worked in a Bendigo mine as a miner. Later she tjok up farm work of the hardest description, wood-carting and chopping. After a few years of this her reason was impaired, and she was brought before a bench of justices and remanded to the lunacy ward of the Bendigo Hospital. Eventually she was committed to the Kew Asylum. Up to this point she successfully concealed her secret. She had been thrown into close company with hundreds of men, and came through the ordjal without exciting suspicion. And, most wonderful of all, this remarkable woman was married three times, and lived with each of the women ao

a husband one or them having a child. This is more amazing than fiction, but it is a thoroughly reliably fact. Poor De Lacy Evan's secret was discovered at last. "He" was committed to the Kew Asylum, and the asylum authorities were commanded, with the usual red tapeism and exactness, to keep the body of a "man" named Edward De Lacy Evans, 42 years of age, in safe custody. The asylum authorities discovered the secret, but the warrant commanded them to keep a "man", and they had been Riven custody of a woman. The woman for her secret was out was iet back to the Uendigo Hospital as a way out of thd difficulty. With rest and good food she quickiy recovered, and in course of timew was liberated. Some show men engaged her and she drew large houses. Later she dropped completely out of the public gaze, and was supposed to have ended her days in the Melbourne Immigrants',:, Home. The time ot her romance was the late seventies.

Fourteen years later—lß93—Uendigo experienced a second sensation. Jack Jorgensen—farm labourer, bullock driver, threshing mill hand, and member of the Mounted Rifles—died, and the doctor making the post mortem examination had discovered that Jack Jorgensen was a woman. "Jack" had no matrimonial escapades —she had wooed maids, but they had all proved fickle. She left behind her a record for honesty and thoroughness as a farm worker. As a vounteer she was a success. On her resignation Colonel Tom Price expressed great regret. He said she had proved a keen soldier, and was always ready to volunteer for any hard work. At one of the camps Colonel Price told how some navvies tried to rush the canteen. "Jack" was one of those who volunteered to displace the thirsty navvies, and did it. Altogether the life of Jack Jorgensen was a worthy one. After her death the reason for her adoption of the male attire came cut. She had been kicked in the face by a ro.se at the age of 16, when a pretty girl. Her story was that a bursting shell in the Schleswig-Holstein war had done the damage. The result, however, was that she was most unprepossessing as a woman. For a man, doing a man's work, good looks were not indispensable. She had been amployed in domestic service for years, and increasing years made her even less comely. Children were reported to have shuddered at the sight of her face. In desperation she donned, trousers, ar.d acted her part with heroism and success until the time of her death. "Jack" Jorgensen was made of heroic stuff. Necessity, the mother of invention, was the impelling power. She made the best of her life, handicapped as she was. She did her share of the rough work of-the world, and was; respected by those who knew her in the' days when "she" was "he." There was no sordid motive of greed of gain or fraudulent impulse such as impelled Amy Bock in her unsuccessful escapade. And, if the true art be that which conceals itself, then "Jack" Jorgensen was a successful artist. Her real name was Johanna," and she

in Berlin in 1842. ;

The gmost modem]|case of Jhe unusual yearning of a woman to be a man is that of Marion Edwards, known in Australia as "Bill" Edwards. She is now 28 years old. Miss Beatrix Tracey wrote her up for the Lone Hand recently. The reason for Johanna Jorgensen'a change of sex is explainable and excusable. At 16 Marion became enamoured with the idea that she would be happier as "Bill." She hecame "Bill" Edwards, wo*ked as a rouseabout on a Rivcrina station, and later in many States in the Commonwealth. She was in turn a storeman, French polisher, horse dealer, and trainer, house painter, and narman. The she ("she" was really "he"' at he time) sorted wool on a station in the outback. In Melbourne in 1904 she was a "sport" who raced ponies and made money. Miss Tracy says: "Bill" committed an iudi3cretio»n which led to her arrest. Absconding from bail "Bill" enjoyed freedom until 1906, when the Queensland police interlered with it. The result was acquittal, but "Bill" had to give place to "Marion." Marion then decided to exploit "Bill" in a circus for profit for herself and the circus proprietor. Her previous experience stood to her. She had learned to shoot—had, indeed, won trophies at pigeon-shooting. She could wrestle, and had learned to fight. Whether Marion remained in the circus or where she is I do not know; She was not a normal type. Tracy says that Marion "cannot imagine that celestial choir" may be heard through a little baby's cooing. She is a rebel, bitterly railing against the government of man as applied to woman; because she cannot grasp that when a man relinquishes her individuality and submerges herself in husband and child love she has attained the best happiness a daughter of Eve can hope for," But Marion sees another side: "I don't think the world's much of a place for most women. They have the same tiresome graft day after day; the same tucker (what the old man and kids can't eat!); the same interests (washing the baby often, and getting the keep of six people out of the wages ot one); and no amusements. That sort of thing would have killed me if I'd fallen into it. I've worked, like a navvy or a nigger; but it didn't seem such hardship when I remembered that I had my freedom. Why, look here, if I'd stayed in slip bodices at best I might have become a clerk, working eight hours a day to earn £1 per week, and the privilege of spending my spare time in the back room of a cheap boardinghnuse. I could have remained a seivant —sweated and bullied day and night. Instead I've managed to make a decent living at men's work of one kind or another. I earned £2 10s a week as a French polisher—and never a breath of scandal about me! Which is a dashed sight better than what lots of decent, hard-working girls can say for themselves."

And so here are some of the historical records of the precursors of Amy Bock. A study of the compelling torces which deeidtd these women towards the emulation of a man in everyday life does not come under review here. In some cases, as I have pointed out, the motive is clear. But I leave that vast field of speculation for those who are inclined explore it. It may bo merely am-

bition in some cases, as that of Dr. Barry. Women were hedged round with disabilities, and this unique woman set about overcoming all of them in her own way. It may be sheer desperation, as in the case r>f Johanna jorgensen. It may be from a feeling that for women the world is out of joint, as in Marion Edward's case. Or it may be a mere temporary expediency to escape detection, as was the motive in our own famous case. Certain it appears that Amy Bock's programme was not fully mapped out when she first donned trousers.