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The Green Bag.

Todd, is stated by me to have graduated at the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, when the fact is that though she studied two years in that school, she did not remain the third year for gradua tion, but applied for and obtained her license to practise upon examination by the Supreme -Court. By her request I make this correction, and the fur ther statement also that her work for the Knights of Labor has been of minor importance compared to her labors in the field of politics generally. Mrs. Todd has left Michigan, and is now located at Chicago, I11., where she has accepted a position on the editorial staff of the "Express" of that city. With all my endeavors to gain full information concerning the States where women are admitted to practise law, I did not learn of Montana, where a bill to that effect was passing the Legislature at the very time when I was writing my article. The bill became a law; and Miss Ella J. Knowles, of Helena, immediately took the bar examination and was ad mitted. I understand that Miss Knowles is a New Hampshire woman. She graduated from the Suite Normal School of New Hampshire, and in 1884 from Bates College, in Lewiston, Me. She studied law in an office in Manchester, N. H., and after ward continued her legal studies for two years in the office of J. W. Kinsley, Esq.. of Montana. The "Helena Independent" says of her: "Miss Knowles passed a very severe and most creditable examination. Her examiners say that not one question was missed in her answers." Mrs. Martha Strickland, of Detroit, Mich., has recently won a case in the Supreme Court of her State which has been sharply contested for two years, and her able handling of it has attracted much attention to her. She has been in practice about seven years, during three of which she was assistant prosecuting attorney of Clinton County, and actively engaged in all the criminal prosecu tions, at the same time carrying on with the prose cuting attorney a good civil business in law and chancery. In 1887 Mrs. Strickland was chairman of the committee for examining candidates for the bar in Detroit. The Legislature of Virginia has refused to pass the bill to allow women to practise law in that State, the Senate killing it on the final vote by a small majority. If I remember rightly, Virginia is the only State except Pennsylvania which has not passed such a law when requested. There is talk of passing a private bill for the exclusive benefit of Mrs. Annie Smith, of Danville, who is seeking admission. In a newspaper interview with Mr. P. A. L. Smith, himself an attorney and husband of the lady, he is reported to have said concerning the argument that the admission of women to the legal fraternity will seriously interfere with woman's domestic af

fairs : " This is all bosh, - for in the first place, she may not have any domestic affairs to look after; and in the second place, she herself is the best judge as to whether it pays her better or suits her better to look after other business and pay some one to keep an eye on domestic affairs. One or two little domestic affairs," remarked Mr. Smith with a smile, " are not expected to occupy all of a smart woman's attention, and in the mean time why should n"t she be allowed to practise law if she wants to? My wife has studied hard, prepared herself for the bar, and is fully competent to stand the legal examination required of men; and 1 see no reason convincing to me why she should not practise. She has studied at my request, and anything I can do to secure her admission to the bar will be done." Who would not be willing to stand up in a horsecar when this new nineteenth-century gallantry is given us in exchange for the old superficial kind! Mrs. Kilgore, of Philadelphia, has been admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court since the date of my article, making the fourth woman to receive this honor. Miss Alice Parker, of Lowell, recently of the San Francisco Bar, has been admitted to the bar of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of making the motion for her admission. She is the third woman to be admitted in Massachu setts, and the first in Middlesex. In the face of all the facts concerning women lawyers in this country, what do you suppose, dear "Green Bag," that I read in my last letter just re ceived from Mile. Marie Popelin, Docteur en droit, of Brussels, who having been finally refused admis sion to the order of advocates by the Supreme Court on appeal from the decision of the lower court, is now working to gain recognition through the legislature Mademoiselle Popelin says that a fr'end of hers, wife of an eminent member of the Chamber of Rep resentatives, and herself much interested in " la cause de la femme," while travelling last fall in Italy and Greece, met an American lady who said to her : "Mais il n'y a pas de femmes avocats aux EtatsUnis. Ce que vous me dites est inexact, puisque, moi, Americaine, je n'en ai jamais entendu parler de femme avocat." Lelia Josephine Robinson.

LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. An amusing method of trial, common through out Christian countries in early times, was called judicium cruris. Each party, or his champion, stretched out his arms before a cru cifix; and the one soonest wearied dropped his

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