Page:Autobiography of an Androgyne 1918 book scan.djvu/37

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"Fairie" Defined.
7

12th edition of his work: "There is yet wanting a sufficient record of cases belonging to this interesting group of women in masculine attire with masculine genitals."

The present work discloses not only the life of an androgyne per se, but that of a "fairie" or "petit-jesus," the life of which rare human "sport" (in the biological sense) your author was apparently also predestined to live out in a way immeasurably more varied than falls to the lot of the ordinary fairie, having had a limited experience in this vocation in Berlin and Paris and other great European cities, in addition to his extensive experience in New York.

The "fairie" is a youthful androgyne or other passive invert (for they are perhaps not all members of the extreme class of androgynes) whom natural predestination or other circumstances led to adopt the profession of the fille de joie. The term "fairie" is widely used in the United States by those who are in touch with the underworld. It probably originated on sailing vessels of olden times when voyages often lasted for months. While the crew was either actually or prospectively suffering acutely from the absence of the female of the species, one of their number would unexpectedly betray an inclination to supply her place. Looked upon as a fairy gift or godsend, such individual would be referred to as "the fairy." As the author is one of the first users of the printed word in this derived sense, he has elected to adopt a distinctive spelling.

It is hardly necessary to explain that the sacrilegious