“At the Marlow Regatta an extremely pretty girl in navy serge, built
Eton fashion, was a Miss ——, who wore as an under-bodice a full vest
of shaded yellow Indian silk. Her prowess with the oar is the cause of
daily admiration to the Marlowites.”
Again, on August 15th, 1892, the _Manchester Evening Mail_ has the
following:—
“An ailing ‘navvy,’ who has been engaged in some works near
Versailles, was a few days ago admitted to a hospital in that town.
Before the sick person had long been in the institution it was
discovered that the apparent ‘navvy’ was a woman. The superintendent
of the hospital was not in the least surprised on hearing of the
transformation scene, for it appears that he is accustomed to deal
with many woman patients who enter the hospital in male attire. It is
common in the district (says a Paris correspondent) for robust women
to don men’s garb in order to obtain remunerative employment as
navvies, porters, farm labourers, road menders, or assistants to
bricklayers, masons, and builders. It has long been established that
the average Frenchwoman of town or country has as great a capacity for
work either in counting-houses, shops, fields, or farms as her lord
and master has for laziness and lolling in the cafés, playing
dominoes, and smoking cigarettes.”
On the preceding day, August 14th, 1892, the St. Petersburg journals
reported that:—
“Ces jours-ci sera érigé à Sébastopol le monument élevé en l’honneur
des Femmes de cette ville qui, en 1854, ont construit seules une
batterie contre les troupes alliées. C’est une pyramide taillée en
granit d’une hauteur de cinquante pieds. Sur un côté est écrit en
lettres d’or: ‘C’est ici que se trouvait la batterie des Femmes’; sur
l’autre face les mots suivants sont gravés: ‘A cet endroit, en 1854,
les Femmes de Sébastopol ont construit une batterie.’ Le jour de
l’inauguration de ce monument n’est pas encore fixé. L’impératrice se
fera représenter à l’inauguration par un grand-duc.”