Difference between revisions of "Havelock Ellis: Bill; St. Louis, Missouri, 1909"

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Two short summaries of the life and death of "Nicholai [or "Nicholas"] de Ray/an" each add details about this Lesbian transvestite. The first account is by Havelock Ellis.
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A quaint and, indeed, somewhat fanciful-sounding tale of what seems to have been Lesbian transvestism is recounted by Havelock Ellis. This report's charm arises partly from the contrast between the attitudes of 1909 and 1976 toward women engaging in such activities as drinking, swearing, fishing, and camping. Such behavior, found so utterly peculiar for a woman in 1909, is now quite ordinary; the present quality of this story is thus intimately tied to the historical change in the situation of women. The story of "Bill" also brings out that farcical potential in the situation created by tranvestite disguise, that doubling which has for so long been an element in theatrical comedy, humor arising from the transposition to one sex of that activity customarily assigned to the other. This example shows how particular activities in a sex-polarized society become sex-linked in an apparently essential way; viewing this behavior in historical perspective makes clear the social relativity of its "masculine" or "feminine" character.
  
  
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:In Chicago in 1906 much attention was attracted to the case of "Nicholai de Raylan," confidential secretary to the Russian Consul, who at death (of tuberculosis) at the age of 33 was found to be a woman. She was born in Russia and was in many respects very feminine, small and slight in build, but was regarded as a man, and even as very "manly," by both men and women who knew her intimately. She was always very neat in dress, fastidious in regard to shirts and ties, and wore a long-waisted coat to disguise the lines of her figure. She was married twice in America, being divorced by the first wife, after a union lasting ten years, on the ground of cruelty and misconduct with chorus girls. The second wife, a chorus girl who had been previously married arid had a child, was devoted to her "husband." Both wives were firmly convinced that their husband was a man and ridiculed the idea that "he" could be a woman. I am informed that De Raylan wore a very elaborately constructed artificial penis. In her will she made careful arrangements to prevent detection of sex after death, but these were frustrated, as she died in a hospital."<ref>Havelock Ellis, ''Studies in the Psychology of Sex,'' 4 vols. (N.Y.: Random House, 1936), vol. 2, part 2, ''Sexual Inversion,'' "3rd ed." (1915), p. 248.</ref>
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:In St. Louis, in 1909, the case was brought forward of a young woman of 22, who had posed as a man for nine years. Her masculine career began at the age of 13 after the Galveston flood which swept away all her family. She was saved and left Texas dressed as a boy. She worked in livery stables, in a plough factory, and as a bill-poster. At one time she was the adopted son of the family in which she lived and had no difficulty in deceiving her sisters by adoption as to her sex. On coming to St. Louis in 1902 she made chairs and baskets at the American Rattan Works, associating with fellow-workmen on a footing of masculine equality. One day a workman noticed the extreme smallness and dexterity of her hands. "Gee, Bill, you should have been a girl." "How do you know I'm not?" she retorted. In such ways her ready wit and good humor always disarmed suspicion as to her sex. She shunned no difficulties in her work or in her sports, we are told, and never avoided the severest tests. "She drank, she swore, she courted girls, she worked as hard as her fellows, she fished and camped; she told stories with the best of them, and she did not flinch when the talk grew strong. She even chewed tobacco." Girls began to fall in love with the good-looking boy at an early period, and she frequently boasted of her feminine conquests; with one girl who worshipped her there was a question of marriage. On account of lack of education she was restricted to manual labor, and she often chose hard work. At one time she became a boilermaker's apprentice, wielding a hammer and driving in .hot rivets. Here she was very popular and became local secretary of the International Brotherhood of Boiler-makers. In physical development she was now somewhat of an athlete. "She could outrun any of her friends on a sprint; she could kick higher, play baseball, and throw die ball overhand like a man, and she was fond of football. As a wrestler she could throw most of the club members." The physician who examined her for an insurance policy remarked: "You are a fine specimen of physical manhood, young fellow. Take good care of yourself." Finally, in a moment of weakness, she admitted her sex and returned to the garments of womanhood.<ref>Ellis (1936), p. 248-49.
  
  
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In 1958, Dr. Eugene de Savitsch, in a book on homosexuality and "transsexualism," still speaks of homosexuals as those whose
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Bram Stoker's ''Famous Imposters'' (N.Y.: Sturgis and Walton, 1910) contains a chapter on female transvestites titled "Women As Men." Although female-female intimacy characterizes some of the lives described, Stoker emphasizes the heterosexual aspects of most of the life histories discussed. His interpretation of female cross-dressing combines a mild feminism and a totally traditional notion of women (see espec. p. 227-28, 230, 236-39 [on the original ''La Maupin''], 241-46 [on Mary East/James Howe]) . Stoker's own sexual orientation merits investigation. In the early 1870s, Stoker was one of those young men who wrote what a conservative "expert" on Walt Whitman calls "semi-love letters" to the American poet (Gay Wilson Allen, ''Solitary Singer'' [N.Y.: N. Y. University, 1955], p. 467, 516). In 1878, the Irish-born Stoker became the manager and traveling companion of the famous English actor Henry Irving, a post Stoker occupied for twenty-seven years, until Irving's death. In 1884, Stoker and Irving visited Whitman. Stoker is now best known as author of Dracula, a work not without sexual undertones meriting analysis. see Stoker's brief biography in ''Twentieth Century Authors'' (1942), p. 1351.
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</ref>
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:body may be essentially that of the male but the sexual impulse predominantly that of the female, and vice versa.
 
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:A startling example of that kind has been reported…in the case of a woman who led the life of a man. The individual, known under the name of Nicholas de Raylan and former secretary of Baron von Schlippenbach, the Russian Consul in Chicago, declared himself to be the son of a Russian admiral. He had been twice married, but at his death on December 18th, 1906, in Phoenix, Arizona, was declared to be a woman. Investigation resolved the mystery into the following tangled contradictions: Declaration of the hospital physicians at Phoenix, Arizona, that de Raylan was a woman; declaration of his first wife, and of his second wife, that he was a man; records of the Superior Court, which show that the first Mrs. De Raylan was given a divorce on the ground of infidelity; records of the War Department, which show that he enlisted as a soldier during the Spanish-American War; testimony of friends and neighbours that he led a gay life, drank, smoked and was well known to chorus girls.
 
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:He was well educated, and was evidently a graduate of one of the Russian universities.
 
  
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:For two years he suffered from tuberculosis and went to Phoenix where he hoped to recover his health. No news was received of him until telegrams were sent out announcing his death, coupled with the declaration that he was a woman who had lived all her life as a man, married, fought as a soldier and worked in the office of the Russian Consul. De Raylan's first wife, who secured a divorce for infidelity, said the trouble was his fondness for chorus girls. His second wife, a member of the chorus, wept on learning of de Raylan's death, declaring that talk of his being a woman was nonsense'. The post-mortem examination showed a female with an imperforate hymen, undoubtedly a virgin, with uterus, tubes, ovaries and vagina present and in the normal position. An imitation penis and testicles made of chamois skin and stuffed with down were suspended in the right place by means of a band around the waist.
 
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:One of the most incredible parts of the story is the Spanish-American War episode. We can only presume that the examination of recruits was a bit more sketchy then than it is nowadays. It is still more incredible that the individual was apparently a well-integrated personality who led a useful life until the last two years, when tuberculosis put an end to his unique career.
 
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:It was suggested by the experts that there might have been some glandular deficiency, but this was very difficult to establish because the autopsy technique in Phoenix, Arizona, in .I 906, was probably not much more thorough than' was the examination of recruits. The essential facts, however, are there, confirmed by the legal and medical authorities."<ref>Eugene de Savitsch, ''Homosexuality, Transvestism, and Change of Sex'' (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1958), p. 6-7. Savitsch cites his source as H. H. Young, ''Genital Abnormalities, Hermaphroditism and Related Adrenal Diseases'' (Baltimore Md.: Williams and Wilkins, 1937), but I find no mention of Nicholas de Raylan in this book. The problem of the reliability of these early reports of Lesbian transvestism is raised by the following case cited by Havelock Ellis: "In New York in 1905 a retired sailor, 'Captain John Weed,' who had commanded transatlantic vessels for many years, was admitted to a Home for old sailors and shortly after became ill and despondent, and cut his throat. It was then found that 'Captain Weed' was really a woman. I am informed that the old sailor's despondency and suicide were due to enforced separation from a female companion" (Ellis [1936], p. 202).
 
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The New York ''Daily Tribune'' in three December issues of 1905 carries news items concerning the death of a textile merchant named John Weed, said to have been caused by "a broken heart" after a dispute with a brother and co-partner, H. Frank Weed, who had the month before committed suicide. There is absolutely no indication in any of these printed news reports that either of the Weed brothers might have been a woman in disguise, and the details of John Weed's life do ''not'' match the details of the life of the "Captain John Weed" cited by Ellis. It is possible that Ellis's informant had access to information about an individual whose name and history somehow became confused with that of the John Weed who died in December, 1905 (New York ''Daily Tribune'', Dec. 21, 1905, p. 12, col. 3; Dec, 22, 1905, p. 14, col. I; Dec. 30, 1905, p. 7, col. 5)•
 
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Ellis's case of "Captain john Weed" illustrates the importance of substantiating evidence. Another case of 1905 cited by Havelock Ellis follows: "Ellen Glenn, ''alias'' Ellis Glenn, a notorious swindler, who came prominently before the public in Chicago during 1905, was another 'man-woman,' of large and masculine type. She preferred to dress as a man and had many love escapades with women. 'She can fiddle as. well as anyone in the State,' said a man who knew her, 'can box like a pugilist, and can dance and play cards'" (Ellis [1936], p. 242). Unfortunately, Ellis cites no sources, and no further information has been found on Ellen Glenn.
 
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<div style="text-align: right; direction: ltr; margin-left: 1em;">• Go to [[Day_Book:_Cora_Anderson/Ralph_Kerwinieo,"_May_15-16,_1914 | Next Article]]</div>

Latest revision as of 19:20, 17 December 2008

"She drank, she swore, she courted girls"

by Jonathan Ned Katz. Copyright (c) by Jonathan Ned Katz. All rights reserved.


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A quaint and, indeed, somewhat fanciful-sounding tale of what seems to have been Lesbian transvestism is recounted by Havelock Ellis. This report's charm arises partly from the contrast between the attitudes of 1909 and 1976 toward women engaging in such activities as drinking, swearing, fishing, and camping. Such behavior, found so utterly peculiar for a woman in 1909, is now quite ordinary; the present quality of this story is thus intimately tied to the historical change in the situation of women. The story of "Bill" also brings out that farcical potential in the situation created by tranvestite disguise, that doubling which has for so long been an element in theatrical comedy, humor arising from the transposition to one sex of that activity customarily assigned to the other. This example shows how particular activities in a sex-polarized society become sex-linked in an apparently essential way; viewing this behavior in historical perspective makes clear the social relativity of its "masculine" or "feminine" character.


In St. Louis, in 1909, the case was brought forward of a young woman of 22, who had posed as a man for nine years. Her masculine career began at the age of 13 after the Galveston flood which swept away all her family. She was saved and left Texas dressed as a boy. She worked in livery stables, in a plough factory, and as a bill-poster. At one time she was the adopted son of the family in which she lived and had no difficulty in deceiving her sisters by adoption as to her sex. On coming to St. Louis in 1902 she made chairs and baskets at the American Rattan Works, associating with fellow-workmen on a footing of masculine equality. One day a workman noticed the extreme smallness and dexterity of her hands. "Gee, Bill, you should have been a girl." "How do you know I'm not?" she retorted. In such ways her ready wit and good humor always disarmed suspicion as to her sex. She shunned no difficulties in her work or in her sports, we are told, and never avoided the severest tests. "She drank, she swore, she courted girls, she worked as hard as her fellows, she fished and camped; she told stories with the best of them, and she did not flinch when the talk grew strong. She even chewed tobacco." Girls began to fall in love with the good-looking boy at an early period, and she frequently boasted of her feminine conquests; with one girl who worshipped her there was a question of marriage. On account of lack of education she was restricted to manual labor, and she often chose hard work. At one time she became a boilermaker's apprentice, wielding a hammer and driving in .hot rivets. Here she was very popular and became local secretary of the International Brotherhood of Boiler-makers. In physical development she was now somewhat of an athlete. "She could outrun any of her friends on a sprint; she could kick higher, play baseball, and throw die ball overhand like a man, and she was fond of football. As a wrestler she could throw most of the club members." The physician who examined her for an insurance policy remarked: "You are a fine specimen of physical manhood, young fellow. Take good care of yourself." Finally, in a moment of weakness, she admitted her sex and returned to the garments of womanhood.[1]




References

  1. ↑ Ellis (1936), p. 248-49. Bram Stoker's Famous Imposters (N.Y.: Sturgis and Walton, 1910) contains a chapter on female transvestites titled "Women As Men." Although female-female intimacy characterizes some of the lives described, Stoker emphasizes the heterosexual aspects of most of the life histories discussed. His interpretation of female cross-dressing combines a mild feminism and a totally traditional notion of women (see espec. p. 227-28, 230, 236-39 [on the original La Maupin], 241-46 [on Mary East/James Howe]) . Stoker's own sexual orientation merits investigation. In the early 1870s, Stoker was one of those young men who wrote what a conservative "expert" on Walt Whitman calls "semi-love letters" to the American poet (Gay Wilson Allen, Solitary Singer [N.Y.: N. Y. University, 1955], p. 467, 516). In 1878, the Irish-born Stoker became the manager and traveling companion of the famous English actor Henry Irving, a post Stoker occupied for twenty-seven years, until Irving's death. In 1884, Stoker and Irving visited Whitman. Stoker is now best known as author of Dracula, a work not without sexual undertones meriting analysis. see Stoker's brief biography in Twentieth Century Authors (1942), p. 1351.


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