MEN IN WOMEN'S GUISE

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 9

MEN IN WOMEN'S GUISE

SftHE STRANGE GASES One of the first was Achilles, handsomest and bravest of the Greeks. His mother, not wishing him to join the fatal expedition to Troy, disguised him as a girl at the court of Skyros, but Ulysses discovered the stratagem. Dressed as a pedlar be came selling his wares, but, whereas_ the girls showed their usual interest in dross and ornaments, the young Achilles gave all his attention to the weapons of war.It is a singular fact that many of the extraordinary and unbelievable escapades of the kind have had + heir beginning in some whim or lolly on the part of the mother. History records the strange exploits of several men who dressed and lived their lives us women, and, , while hasty judgment would set down such a proceeding to immoral motives, cases can be quoted in which there was quite a dilierent explanation. Men of apparently sound mind and normal in all other respects somehow came to assume not merely woman’s attire, but _ also woman’s nature. The psychological transformation is curious in the highest degree. A group of such persons presents itself for study (says tho ‘Age’) in a volume ‘ Mon in 'Women’s Guise,’ just published in French by M. Gilbert, and now appearing in a translation by 11. B. Douglas. The first character described is the Abbe do Choisy, whose mother was more than forty-three years of ago when ho was born. By a strange caprice she did not allow him to be put into trousers at the usual ago. Sim treated him like a doll, to bo dressed, undressed, and have his hair done. He bad his curs pierced, diamonds, patches, and all th© other little fopperies given him. His mother and her woman friends took off his coat and put on him a woman’s mantle and petticoats. Up to the age of eighteen Choisy had no other costume than that_ of a girl. His waist was spanned by. tight-fitting corses, which made bis. loins, hips, and bust more prominent. Following the custom of the , times, ho was made an ahhe, a religious office which did not usually mean more than drawing tho salary. Strange to say, about this time ho appeared as an actress in a theatre for five months. He had lovers in abundance, and enjoyed the life. Later he bought a house in Paris, dressed daily as , a woman, talked constantly about his toilet, allowed, tho woman guests to kiss him on leaving, and all tho while attended church as, a woman, called himself Madame do Sancy, and acquired the quiet domestic habits. Of course, there were situations and precipices. He persuaded a young girl to dress as a boy, and went through with her tho form of ‘‘ a marriage of conscience.” When the honeymoon waned they began to weary of each other. Tho alliance was broken off, the young girl was married, and the two never met again. The desire to look pretty mastered Choisy, and swept away all other considerations. When his relatives complained, he left all his foolery, went to Italy, and took to gambling. Finally he abandoned his gowgaks, petticoats, and patches, turned very religious, and died at Paris in 1724, aged eighty-one. Another man who posed for years as a woman was the Chevalier d’Eon. In infancy he had a girlish look, which increased as ho grew up. His arms and neck had the grace and delicacy of a woman’s, and no lady had oven smaller or neater foot. Ho first appeared as a woman at a masked ball, when even Louis X\ 7 . showed his admiration for tho “young beauty.” He was sent on diplomatic missions to Russia and to England. The purpose of tho visit to England was to study tho possibilities of a French invasion, and d’Eon was in reality the pioneer of the secret service system now practised by all the Governments of Europe. For seven years ho remained in England, and sent valuable information to Versailles, hut his pension was not paid _ regularly. Rumors began to fly about in London that the choralior was a woman in disguise. His delicate figure and features and beardless chin lent color to the assertion. All London began betting about his sex. 'The chevalier caned a banker and assaulted two noble lords who had made bets about him, hut hearing that he was to he seized and stripped to settle tho question lie left London for tho country. The chevalier was ready to prove with sword in hand that ho was not only a man, but a captain of dragoons. Finally, it is said that, tn save tho honor of Sophie Charlotte, the chevalier consented to obey the orders of Louis XV., and confess himself to be a woman. Ho did so, and confessed that his parents, who desired a man child, had compelled him to assume the disguise. She was now officially a woman. For Rome time sho lived in a convent, but ns it bored her terribly she was placed among iho women servanis at Versailles. Tho old war spirit broke out in her breast when Franco was going to help America, tn .establish her independence. Permission was refused. Sho spent her last days in England giving fencing lessons, and she (lied in poverty. A post mortem examination showed that she was a man. One may also add that she was a measureless liar.

Jenny do Snvaloite do Lange, who died at Versailles in IHbS, had always lived ns a woman, and no one over suspected her real sex. Whether she was forced to - adopt a woman’s dress or assumed it of her own free will is not known, but she sustained the character so well that she ended by liking tbo part. Avarice was her besetting sin, and her disguise assisted her to satisfy tho good okl-gontleinanly vice. Site was always trying, or pretending: to try, to find a husband, and she certainly entered into many engagements. For more than half a century she passed herself of' as a woman, and one might 'suppose she was attractive. On tho contrary, she was tall, thin, lopsided, her features wore hard, and her voice shrill and cracked. Perhaps tho description is that given by one whom she jilted. She who had so many admirers could not have been mannish. She had a small pension and a room free in tho Chateau of Versailles, but she was always pestering friends for money. When they refused she became scurrilous. In Iho course of her career she had occupied fifty different houses. She died after a short illness, and the two women who laid her out found that the so-called Jenny was a, man. The civil authorities were informed and the sox officially recorded. The cause of her disguise, has never been ascertained. Probably ho was brought up and educated as a girl, and when he arrived at man’s estate lacked the inclination through force of habit to assume the costume of his sex. Cases have been known in Australia of disguises on the part of both sexes, disguises maintained successfully for years and never detected till death came!. In some oases a hoy’s reserabjance to a girl nur have suggested the dress and' the lile, or the desire of a mother, for a. daughter may have led her to treat tho hoy ns a girl; but it is difficult to realist how, through the whole of school life and the upheaval of adolescence, the secret of sex could be kept. In some cases mentioned by M. Gilbert the physical build of the man resembled that of a woman, and may have suggested tho deception. Tho individuality seems to pass over from one sex to the other. A double personality must surely mean a mental squint or mental anguish. To bo born of one sex and long to be of tho other ia very like a disease. The photos furnished of those men who lived as women show remarkable resemblances of the gentler sex. Perhaps unconscious sex tendencies have not yet been sufficiently studied.