A man wearing makeup and a dress rode into Sheridan, Arkansas, back in 1909 and caused quite the stir. The town had no idea what to make of the scene.
Name This Thing Seen At Sheridan
Sheriff Gean is searching for a mysterious man, who, masquerading in woman’s clothing, was observed wandering about the country north of here.
The man, whose face was painted and who wore a dress, drove along the road in a buggy. He turned his horse into a field belonging to a farmer named Swayne, hitched it to a tree near the road, fed it, and then disappeared through the woods.
Later in the day other residents of that district encountered the mysterious man wandering through the woods. They say his face was daubed with paint and his trouser legs could be seen beneath the skirt of his short dress.
Later in the day he stopped at the residence of a man named Wakefield and inquired the way to Sheridan. Mr. Wakefield was convinced that the stranger was a man in woman’s clothing and notified Sheriff Gean. The latter went out and brought the horse and buggy to town and then returned to the place where they had been left. He remained there all night in the hope of capturing the mysterious man, but he failed to appear.
The horse is rather thin and the buggy old and worn. Nothing more has been heard from the mysterious man, who seems to have disappeared in the woods.
Source: Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.), 03 Oct. 1909.
