Masquerading in Male Attire by Kerry Segrave

Author:Kerry Segrave
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2018-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

This 1911 photograph depicted Mrs. Anna Godfrey, who was in despair because she could not make enough money to feed her four young children. After adopting male garb, she set out to try and find work as a farmhand but after walking for 10 miles with no success, her strength gave out.

Aileen Shaw was a 21-year-old elevator boy who was held in custody by the San Francisco police as of June 1913 for masquerading as a male. Shaw declared, “A girl in a strange city hasn’t much chance to keep straight. My masquerade in man’s clothes kept me on the straight path.” She was reportedly engaged to an auto mechanic named J. F. Stuger. The police were not then holding her on a specific charge but, said a reporter, “Certain formalities have to be observed before she can be released.” Stuger had been corresponding by mail with his girlfriend and had not actually met her in person. When he went to the place where she lived, he was told by other residents there that no one of that name lived there. They did tell him that an elevator boy known to them as Herbert Emory lived there and that Emory took in all the mail that arrived for Shaw. Stuger, thinking somebody was stealing Shaw’s mail or that Emory was her lover, called the police and had Emory arrested. When Emory was subsequently taken into custody it was discovered that he was a she. When she told her story to the police she said Aileen Shaw was her real name and that she was born in Humboldt County, California, although she would not name the specific place. For the previous three years she had been away from home earning her own living. First she worked as a chambermaid in a hotel in Portland, Oregon. Two months ago she reached San Francisco and sought employment. Aileen went to an employment agency in that city and the main in charge offered her a position at $20 a month out of which she would have to pay for her room and board. To that offer Shaw told the agent that she could not support herself on such a small sum of money.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.