WAS ANNIE JONES A FAKE?

Barnum's original bearded lady was Mme. Fortune Clofullia - "The Bearded Lady of Geneva"  His next famous protege was Annie Jones who started with P.T. at the tender age of seven as "The Infant Esau".  I've seen many photos of Annie in her later years and have always been bothered by the length and "perfectness" of her beard. I'm becoming more and more convinced that as competition grew and loathe to give up her place as the preeminent attraction in her field, Annie decided to fudge things a bit and added a phoney beard to her own and probably did the same with her hair. Take a look at the pictures below and see what you think.

Photo courtesy "P.T. Barnum" by Kunhardt

See what I mean? The photo on the left looks real. A bearded lady's beard should be sparse and scraggly not long, thick and perfect-looking like Annie on the right. Granted the photos were taken years apart, I don't think that accounts for the luxuriant beard growth however.    And what's going on with the picure (on the right) below?  The seller sold them as a pair and believed that's Annie dressed like a man.  But why would she dress as a man? Was she a would be actress or..... really a man?  But if she were a man why chance ruining her livelihood but having her photo taken in trousers? Or maybe the photo was not intended for public distribution?    A writer for "The (London) Times" had this to say about "Annie" when the Barnum & Bailey circus came to Europe in 1889 : "... but for Mr. Barnum's professional rectitude (she) might be taken for a young man of somewhat effiminate cast."    What the writer didn't know was this was not a matter of Barnum's morality but about his showmanship.  For instance, for twelve years the Barnum circus had a bearded lady upon whose death in 1903, it was revealed, was actually a man named Joseph Prairie who had amassed a considerable fortune.