The day book. [volume], May 13, 1914, NOON EDITION, Image 2

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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After heaivng many more wit
nesses Judge Page could not find the
charge .sustained and -this "girl-man"
who sat so composedly through the
trial' was allowed to go free witb'the
command that she should resume her
woman's dress in the future
This is the end of one of the
strangest cases of double life that has
ever been written.
Thirteen years ago two girls who
had studied to be nurses at the Provi
dent Hospitaf, Chicago, found out
how hard it was for a woman (es
pecially a woman with a dark skin)
to make an honest living, and decided
to double up and form a home. Cora
Anderson, looking the Indian she
says she is, thin, straight, was to pose
as the husband and Marie White,
plump, pretty and feminine, was to
be the wife.
"We did this," says Cora Anderson,
the husband, "for financial as well as
moral reasons.
"As girls working outside the home
we had been subjected 'to all sorts of
overtures from all kinds and condi
tions of men. If I assumed men's
clothes I would be better able to ob
tain work and as a 'man' ! could pro
tect my 'wife' from insult.
"The compact was entered into as
unthinkingly as most marriages are.
"We wanted to live honest hves
and become respected citizens of the
community.
"We started this masquerade in
Cleveland, O., and for a while I was
bellboy at the Hollenden Hotel Then
we came to Milwaukee and I entered
the Plankington as bellboy. We fur
nished a little flat, and to the world
we were Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Ker
winieb. "No one.at the hotels ever suspect
ed me.
"In, a short time I thought of my
self as a man, and it never entered
my mind that I was any different
than the men about me with whom I
laughed, joked, worked and played
my part. i
"It was love a? first sight on my
part and we became engaged. I
grew tired Qf life at home and told
'Ralph he must marry me at once
or it was all off. 'He" told me he
had a -secret he w.ould tell me
after marriage and he went out
and procured thi. certificate re-
quired by the eugenic law, and on
the 24th of March we were mar-
ried- I did not Tmow until just
before 'Ralph' was arrested that
he was pot a man and it almost
broke my heart, but I determined
to stand by 'him' and be 'his
chum if I couldn't be his wife."
Statement of Dorothy Klenowsky,
child bride, wooed and won by the
man-woman.
"I have always done a man's
work, arid I think in most cases I
have done it better than the men
about me."
This statement. waB confirmed by
all "Ralph's" different employers.
Manufacturer Cutler said:
"Ralph vas the best MAN I ever
had at work for me. And the men
with whom 'he' worked at this store
made up a purse of $65 for 'him' and
one of them went on 'his' bail when
'he' got into trouble."
How did the secret leak "out after
all these years Z
The "marriage" began to grow a
little irksome to both the young wo
men. Marie White thought she saw her
"husband" growing coarse.
"I felt it was time she had again
the refining influence of -skirts," she
said.
Cora Anderson (Ralph Kerfinieo),
on the contrary, become mbre and
morp mannish. ,She frequented the
poolrooms and barber shops and
other places where men congregate.
It was whispered that "Ralph" had
a flirtation now and then.
About six months ago things camq
to a climax,, and after a bitter qiwr-
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