WOMEN IN MEN'S CLOTHES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9354, 25 April 1893, Page 3

WOMEN IN MEN'S CLOTHES.

That rather erratic genius and decidedly "mannish" woman, Lady Florence Dixie, stated recently that she knew several cases in which women had donned male attire, for the purpose of gaining a livelihood which would have been closed to them had they applied for it as women. For instance, she declared, she knew of a ship's captain and a couple of pilots who were really women in disguise. Some people seemed disposed to question this statement, but there is little doubt that such things do occur. The Daily Ncxvs of a recent date, for example, reports that in Vienna a '•young man," who was arrested for not being able to give a satisfactory explanation as to where he got a cask that he was rolling along, turned out to be really a woman — Mary Gundinger by name, aged 34. She confessed that when her brother died fourteen years ago she changed clothes with him, gave her own documents up as those of the dead, and with his jiaporo, oalliug herself Josepn, managed to get more work and a better living than would have been possible had she continued her career as a woman. It is much to be regretted that any woman should find it necessary to resort to such artifices in order to gain a livelihood. We have the consolation of knowing, however, that if certain reformers have their way there will shortly be little, if any, difference of attire between the sexes, who will therefore be on an equality in this respect at any rate.