Odd, Old News: ‘Escapade in Man’s Garb’ Leads to Arrest… and Marriage

Bellhop [Image 1940’s origin unknown]

At the turn of the 20th century it was estimated that it took $600 per year for a person to make ends meet, industrial workers made about $1.50 per day, putting in 10 hour days/ 6 days per week. Survival often dictated that women and children had to find work.

By 1900, 1.7 million children were working an average of 60 hours per week, and getting paid about a third of an adult male’s wages. Only about 5% of married women held jobs outside of the home. Jobs in garment and textile sweat shops, food processing, and domestic services were common occupations, with a smaller percentage of women employed in “white collar” jobs such as secretaries, typists, and bookkeepers. The richest 9% of Americans held nearly 75% of the wealth by 1890, and in 1900, nearly 10 million people, or one in eight Americans lived below the poverty line. A minimum wage of 25 cents an hour wasn’t established until 1938. Times were hard.

In this week’s human interest story, Odd Old News depicts the plight of a young Humboldt County woman competing to survive in a man’s world, and takes a look at how she navigated gender inequality, virtue defiling comments, dress codes (there were laws against women wearing men’s clothing), and the matrimonial agencies of a century ago.

Blue Lake Advocate

Saturday, July 5, 1913

GIRL WINS IN MAN’S WORLD

Full particulars of the queer romance of Miss Aileen Shaw of Eureka, who was arrested in San Francisco last week for wearing boy’s clothes, are contained in the Bulletin. Miss Shaw, it will be remembered, figured in the double murder tragedy at Jacoby Creek a year ago when George Clark, her sweetheart, murdered Mr. and Mrs. Baxter to avenge a fancied insult to the girl.

Pretty 19-year old Aileen Shaw, & as sweet as she is pretty, even with her auburn hair closely cropped & still dressed in boy’s clothes, said as she sat tearfully in the matron’s quarters at the San Francisco city prison this morning:

“I was afraid. They did not seem to want to allow me to remain good as long as I was a girl. There seemed to be no way for a girl to get a living wage & keep her womanhood. So I put on this suit of clothes, cropped my hair & secured the position of elevator boy at the Alma hotel, where I was working when they found me last night.”

But in the finding of Aileen Shaw there may come an end to all her difficulties. For the man who found her wants to make her his wife, & it only remains for her to say the word to get husband protection & a home. Her answer to that direct question this morning was the one that is almost as old as matrimony.

“Oh, this is so sudden! You must give me a little time.”

Joseph Stergel, young mechanic employed by a local automobile agency, is the young man who found Aileen Shaw last night, & he does not regret his find, even though it did come through the channels of a matrimonial agency, & he was finally compelled to seek police aid.

Last night Stergel visited police headquarters & told Detective Ryan that he believed he had been imposed upon. He stated that he has been seeking a wife & had visited a matrimonial agency conducted by Mrs. G.M. Hyde. She sent him to the Alma to see “Miss Shaw”.

But Stergel failed to find any “Miss Shaw” in the place, & believing that he had been bunkoed he decided to tell the police about it. Captain Ryan detailed Detective Fran Lord on the case & the officer accompanied Stergel to the Alma Hotel. There Detective Lord got the same information as had been given Stergel, but was told the elevator boy might give him some information as he had been receiving mail for “Miss Shaw”.

As soon as the Detective saw the new elevator boy he knew who “Miss Shaw” was. She readily admitted her identity & told the officer just why she was masquerading. She was booked into the city prison & this morning Stergel was her first visitor.

“I am a native daughter,” said Miss Shaw this morning. “& my home is in Humboldt county, but I am not going to tell just where, as I do not want my folks to know of my difficulty. I left home three years ago & went directly to Portland, where I lived & worked up to two months ago.

“I came to San Francisco then & went to an employment agency of Market Street to make an application of a place in a hotel. I was offered a place, but was told the wage would be $20 a month, & I would have to provide my own room & board myself.

“I said no one could live on that money, & the agent, jeering at me, said: “Ah, you’re a good looker. You can do business on that side and make good money. They all do that.”

“I was too much hurt to make an answer, & I decided then & there that I would do something that would protect me from further insults, I had masqueraded at a ball in Portland & still had my boy’s clothes in my trunk. It was then I went to my room, cut my hair, put on the suit, secured a place, & have worked faithfully ever since.

“As a boy they paid me $25 per month & my room & my board, & I was happy for a time, but then I soon wearied of it all & thinking that marriage might possibly furnish a way out, I went to the matrimonial agency. I got lots of letters & saw several men that were sent to me by the agent but none suited me &I did not disclose my identity to any of them.”

It was just at the close of the story of this splendid girl that Stergel called upon her at the prison. It was plain that the man was convinced that he had found a prize in this plucky little woman. They were engaged in earnest conversation when her interviewer left them together & in answer to the last question he was the spokesman:

It is too early to talk of the wedding, for publication”, he said. “But both of believe that it will come out all right, don’t we?”

As he turned to face the little woman sitting beside him she smiled her answer to his question as she said: “Yes, we do.”

——By the time that this Blue Lake Advocate article came out, the Humboldt Times of June 27, 1913 had already reported:—–

Miss Aileen Shaw of Eureka was married today to Joseph Sturgi(l?), who caused her arrest for wearing boy’s clothes as a result of trying to find the woman who had advertised at a matrimonial agency for a husband. In view of the happy culmination of the romance the authorities will not prosecute the bride for her escapade in masculine garb.

Earlier Odd and Old News:

There are many more, but here are the most recent:

• The East Branch Oil Well Story
• Coal in Humboldt County
• Dinner Was Served and Astor Won his Wager
• Old Jack to the Rescue in Briceland
• “Bible” Studies at the Buhne Building in Eureka
• Justice for Garberville Cowboys in 1892