Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-01-03
FRIDAY MORNING, JAN. 8. 1890.
WOMEN LAWYERS.

WOMEN LAWYERS.
Mr.. P. A. L. Smith of Danville. in this
State, is a lawyer, and of good standing at
the bar of his town. His wife is a clever
woman who is des1rous of assisting her hus-
band in his profession, a task for which she
has fitted herself. She applied to Judge
Aiken of the corporation court of that
town, for certificate that she was
proper person to practice law, preparatory
to a legal examination by three judges, as
the law requires, The Judge after exam
ming the law on the subject, decided that
woman was not the ''person" contempla-
ted by the statute as proper person to prac
tice law and declined to give the certificate
On this, Mrs. Smith who already shows
an admirable quality for a laWyer-persis-
tence-has bill prepared and introduced
in the Virginia Senate, declaring that
woman may practice law in the courts of
this Commonwealth on the same conditions
as men.
1t would be q grave wrong to close any
s.vocation by which a livelihood can be
made, to any reputable person, male OF
female But in the case of women there
would be cruelty added to the wrong.
The superior physical strength of man bars
them from competition in the general field
of labor and leaves them but two points at
which they may compete with them on
equal terms-brains and the dizziness
of their fingers. That there should exist a
single sincere objection to woman practic-
ing law, based solely on account Of her sex
is absurd We see that some members Of
the legislature hesitate about voting for the
bill because they shrink from placing women
in positions where their modesty and self
respect would suffer. Now as matter of
fact about all the modesty men get in youth
is given them by their mothers and rein
forced for them later on by association with
self-respecting women. 1t would be strange
indeed if this borrowed mOdesty should set
itself up later in life in judgment on the
lender. But there IS really nothing in this
objection. No self-respecting female law
yer is any more obliged to undertake a law
case of doubtful decency than is the refined
lawyer Of the other sex, who refuses, as he
often does, to accept retainer in cases of
which the chief staple is dirt.
What is called the ''sphere' of woman
has proved stumbling block in her path
through misconception and misuse. The
s'sphere' Of woman is any reputable vo-
cation which she has the strength to follow
To most men, when they hear the word
'.sphere'' used in connection with women
they see the woman married, the mother OF
children, a husband comfortably supporting
the family, and the woman with little time
to devote to other calls than that of the
home. 1t is but natural that when prop
osition is made to take that ideal woman
from this well rounded sphere and set her
up at the attorneys bar OIL in the doctor s
gig, man should hesitate. But there are
millions Of women who never marry and
don't wish to marry; OF who marry and in
stead of finding well rounded sphere, find
it made angular by want, by widowhood,
by the necessity of work. 1t is to these
that man owes a high duty-the duty of
opening to them every honorable vocation
in life at which they may earn support.
This is a matter that appeals to all the
chivalry there is in a man, and to something
infinitely superior-tO his conscience. 1t
puts the alternative squarely before him,
whether he will help OF hinder the helpless,
and the best side of his nature can give but
one response to it. Women in this free
country now fill the places of telegraph ope-
rators, clerks, saleswomen, teachers, minis
ters, authors, professors, printers, editors,
lawyers clerks, physicians, type writers
and commercial travellers, and fill them
well. Who shall say that the profession of
the law shall be closed to sex that sue
cessfully enters and holds its own in the
other professions? If there are any such
they can only be men whose systems are
impregnated with the virus of Bourbonism
and whose minds are capable of he stolid
selfish cruelty of the Bourbon, without the
mental ability to comprehend that it is
cruelty, or those women who in a comfor-
table and happy ''sphere'' have not the
humanity to look out beyond it into the
wider world and see and pity the struggles
of their sisters.
If women want to practice law throw
down the bars and let them enter =! 1t will
be better for the law in the end Custom is
but a pebble under the foot of Justice, and
if it come in its path can only expect to be
crushed.