Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1876 — A Girl’s Adventures in Male Attire. [ARTICLE]

A Girl’s Adventures in Male Attire.

In Recorder Parsells’ court-room, in Astoria, yesterday, sat a rosy young woman of eighteen, the picture of health, wearing a rough suit of men’s clothes and looking like a nice boy. She was arrested in Long Island City Saturday evening, and yesterday she told her story with composure. Her maiden name is Alice Holmes, but she has borne several aliases, among them Jennie M. Doten. She was born in Wareham. Mass., although her relatives now live at Mario*, Mass. Her father was English, while her mother was a ndtive of Massachusetts. Up to the time she was fourteen years old she remained at home and. attended school. During a vacation she made a visit to the West, where she made the acquaintance of a telegraph-operator named Bastable. The acquaintance ripened into intimacy, and they concluded to get married clandestinely, she being in her fifteenth year and he in his sixteenth. After a brief experience of married life, however, they separated, and she retarded home, while he remained in the West. The fruit of this marriage was a child which is now in its third year. Alice got employment as a book-keeper for Messrs. J. E. Luscombe & Co., at Plymouth, Mass., where she was known as Nellie Archer; her child, meantime, being placed with her brother, with whom it still remains. Her father dying left considerable property, of which her brother has persistently refused to give her any portion. She finally had some serious difficulty with him, and had, as she expressed it, “a chbice of ,M*ving the State for a few months or being placed in confinement.” She accordingly left home on the 13th of February last, wait to Attleboro, Mass., and worked at the straw business. Here the idea struck her that she would adopt men’s attire, and, donning a suit, she went to Providence, where she was engaged in the coal yard of Hopkins & Pomeroy. Tiring of this, on the 17th of April she went to Clark's Falls, Conn., where she was gaged on a farm, ana remained until the last Monday in June, when she returned to Providence, and found employment

.upon a small river steamer called the Shtiltz. After a few days, becoming dissatisfied, she went to Newport, where she shipped on board the United States steam frigate Powhattan, being enabled to pass examination by the surgeon, as she alleges, by the connivance of two young fellows of her acquaintance who shipped with her, who knew of her sex, and who each paid the surgeon twenty-five dollars to pass her. She shipped under the name of Albert B. Clifton. The Powhattan went to New London, and subsequently came to the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. Orders coming for the Powhattan to proceed to Port-au-Prince, and not desiring to go so far away from home, “ Albert” deserted and made her way to New London,-where she shipped on board the wood-scliooner Jamestown, running to Virginia. She made two trips, when she returned to New London ami shipped on board a coalschooner, the William H. Baker, Charles B. Baker, commander. After two trips she left this vessel at New London and, being short of money, smuggled herself on board the steamer City of Boston, and arrived in New York on the 7th of No, vember. TTie next day she shipped on board the coasting-schooner Czar, Capt. D. W. Hammond, running between Boston and New York. At the end of a month she left this vessel in New Fork and went across the river to Long Island City, where she was employed by Mr. Pirz, proprietor, of the Camdia Chemical Works at Dutch Kills, who agreed to pay her $8 a week,' with board and clothing, until spring.She boarded with Alfred Hahn for a week, when she- left, as she alleges, on account of the bad order in which the house was kept, and went to board at the company’s boarding-house. While at Hahn’s there was a suspicion that she was a woman. She’was detained and taken to the First Precinct -Station-House at Astoria. Site had an examination before Recorder Parsells, who decided'’to discharge her on her promise to resume her propfir attire and to leave the city. She says she likes the sea, is never sea sick, and prefers men’s clothing because she can see more and learn more as a man than hs a woman.— N. Y. 'World.