The Masquerade Scandal of 1885
A Seattle man is arrested for cross-dressing at a public masquerade ball, leaving society columnists to offer their moralizing take on his 'vice.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
To see a woman disguised as a man is a vice, but in these modern days it is perhaps just as truly said that it is a vice for a lady that she is not her own husband. This was thought by Mrs. Singerston, of Seattle, at the masquerade ball last night. Yesterday, she-warded the girl back home, and came to this city to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Kalfus to the ball. After she left, Mr. Singerston assumed the idea of a masquerade ball, and he had no idea of there being any incentive of coming up. Hurriedly, he dressed himself up in one of the masquerade costumes, and it ought to be told to the police, for the disguise was so perfect that he mingled with the crowd, and nobody could have known the difference, had it not been for the fact that he was discovered.
“The disguise was so perfect that he mingled with the crowd, and nobody could have known the difference, had it not been for the fact that he was discovered.”
This 1885 report on a masquerade ball reflects the era's fixation on policing gender roles, framing the simple act of cross-dressing as a scandalous 'vice.' Today, masquerades are celebrated spaces for identity exploration, highlighting how much our social understanding of gender performance has shifted in the Pacific Northwest.
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