Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-03-27
NO. IA.
BELYA LOCKWOOD ESQ.
M0maR'S Description of the Woman
Lawyer of Washington.

J
Lawyer Of Washington.
Mary Clemmer: Belva Lockwood, in
the face of every mans prejudice, save
| Lawyer Riddles, ON Monday admitted
20 the bar of the supreme court, to-day
was admitted to practice law before the
| United States court of claims Belva
| Lockwood is tall, rather nobly built
woman, serenely moving on toward fff-
ty, | should say, if one may Judge by
aspect. She is certainly not a sensitive
looking woman,nor does she look coarse.
Her hair is turning gray, her brow is
broad and high, her eyes dark, her skin
ruddy. She dresses rather richly, and
In a salt of black velvet, which softens
and retines her tone, looks handsome.
She was an honofed and beloved wife
till her husband, DIR. Lockwood, died
year or two ago. She is the mother of
at least one son. She lives in a sub
stantial brick block on T street, and no
house In the row looks more thrifty and
homehke than the one whose curtained
windows, full of plants; bears conspicu-
ously this sign: 'Belva Lockwood, At
torney and Counselor at Law"
Whatever you may think of her taste.
you will own that she is a brave woman.
Who but brave woman would have
carried her briefs into the presence of
those bald, begowned "old fogies" of
supreme judges-the bravest of women,
who, when the man with the tremend-
Gus neck and the alimentive jaw-the
chief justice said: "You are a woman:
you can't come in here with as as a
lawyer" calmly said, II will" In Just
one year she did. Well, am glad she
did. L couldn't be a lawyer if I tried.
A woman with a bag full of "briefs" sit
ting among men lawyers is a sufficient
marvel to me to maintain my patent
for femininity, but if she Is a lawyer,
and Belva Lockwood is a very highly
educated and successful one, why should
man with big ears, big neck and Il
tremendous jaw tell her that she cannot
come IN, solely because she is a woman.
He did not this time, because he could
not. Belva Lockwood elsewhere had
encountered men whose necks and
jaws were less troublesome, whose
larger, more enlightened franchise had
opened to the lady with her bag of briefs
the inexOrable "bar" of the supreme
court ...'-. .....,
1t seems to me that big Jaws have
gobbled little ones, that precedent has
blocked the way of progress quite long
enough; and as the old eartn at the last
Is doomed to fly apart into ten thousand
meteors, according to Professor Vaughn,
let us make the most OF ourselves,
though we happen to be worms, while
1t lasts, and let no big jaw bow-wow and
try TO hinder. You aren't very much,
though you happen 10 be man. e..
Just now Belva Lockwood probably
Tee.s as complacent as the Boston dam
sci who recently under very wise and
proper restrictions, has become Har-
ward student at last, after waiting 240
years. ...
George Downing's sister is avenged.
Harvard College was founded because
Lucy Downing wanted to educate her
son. To do so she put her daughters
out to service, and took their wages to
help educate their brother. She lived
poorly aid meanly herself for the same
end. Through her influence with her
brother, Gov. Winthrop, the General
Court Of sBoston, voted 9400 to estab-
lish college at Cambridge In 1910
second on the list of its first graduating
class Was the name of George Downing,
nephew of Gov. Winthrop and son of
Lucy Downing.
This youth will be baronet-a great
man to fight under Cromwell, to be a
"turncoat" under the Stuarts. Yet,
when his mother, who had pinched her.
self and made his sisters servants to ed
ucate him, when at the age of seventy
three, she asked him for money ne
snubbed her and refused it, Then she
wrote to the sister whom she put out to
service for her sake: "Your brother
George has bought another to,on, but
more your brother George will not
hear of for me. He says that it is only
covetousness that makes me ask for
more"
On the whole we may conclude that
George Downing was not worth all that
it cost several women of life and nerve
to educate him. Yet even Lucy Down
ing, slave though she was to the caste of
sex, that distant day builded better than
she knew