PETTICOATED MEN.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 699, 18 August 1870, Page 3

PETTICOATED MEN.

The London correspondent of the Melbourne " Argus," gives the following additional particulars respecting the two young men Boulton and Park, who are charged with having frequented public places in women's attire:— It was at first thought they had been guilty only of a piece of masquerading folly, but as the investigation proceeded at the police court, the case assumed a much more serious aspect. Remand followed remand, and the evidence produced revealed a condition of things which surprised even those familiar with the dissipations of London life. No greater scandal has arisen for many years. These two young men are now committed for trial

at the Old Bailey, on a charge of felony, and true bills have also been found by the grand jury against Lord Arthur Clinton, Mr Eisk, the United States consul at Leith, and four others, for felony or misdemeanour in connection with them. Lord Arthur Clinton, and one or two of the others, have gone out of reach ; Eisk has been apprehended, also one Louis Hurt, of Edinburgh ; but both are admitted to bail on large recognisances. The names of some 40 persons are known to the police as having been mixed up in the discreditable transactions out of which these proceedings have sprung ; and some of them are of high social standing. There are facts which point to the commission of abominable crimes, but the public will be immensely relieved if it is found possible to put another construction upon them. The prisoners have for a long time past been in the habit of personating women, and they dressed not only in petticoats, but with every article of underclothing to correspond. At their lodgings the police captured more than £2OO worth of women's attire, and £3O worth of chignons alone. Numerous letters were also seized, couched in the most impassioned and voluptuous strain, and with allusions which make it difficult to believe in the innocence of the parties who wrote them.