The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-31
,r,,s remaIe Lawyer idea.

no m great harm in passing
the bill which Miss Philbrook so eagerly
desires There is no likelihood that any
-. nr,,her of women will try to take
.avan+ae ore of it. The unfortunate youhs
ladies' in whose interest the Dill Is
will remain in a sad and lonely cuflo a.
the New Jersey bar for many Yeas
80 Mrs Carrie B. Kilgore is the
only specimen in Pennsylvania uesp
her alleged success.
THE logic used in Tuesdays hearihs
+ba hill was of the strangest KIND
The plea that women are in neeo
uoman to represent them at the oar
was one of the s~trangest. This was ehe
o,a. are,,ment for women doctors-that
their sex needed them. Now .here
n,entv of them and ninety per cent u
women do not consult them, haNe ~
confidence in them n would not nave
them on any terms. Mr.. Oicot' A'
the silly remark that they had come 70
excel male rSysicians. The fact Is ho'
SAN%A
one woman has yet achieved even 'e
smallest eminence in medicine. MOI ONE
has written a book or attained repu'e
as a specialist. Not one is ever quo'e'
an suthoritv on any professional
matter. Another fact is that the great
n,s5oritv of female practitioners harois
make bread and salt out of the pursuit
of medicine. But, whatever might De
said of the need of women doctors .
women, the same arguments can haraiy
anply to women lawyers. Where there
- e.b+ing 70 he done. woman is apt to
rely on masculine aid. Women VINO are
assailed or injured are far more hkeiy
to rely on the generosity of men tnah
on the cool suspicion of their own SEX
and upon masculine chivalry thah On
feminine consciousness.
Miss Philbrook's own plea was as easy
and entertaining in style as it was amaz-
ing in its logic and in its assumpliohs
of fact. It was a plea for equality lot
woman for the removal of restrlctioh
"oA4
upon her fright to earn a livelihood.
Goodness knows there are callings enough
omen to women. Miss Philbrook IN the
next breath rhymed off physicians art
,e+S ministers. educators, inanciers
and editors. 1t was characteristic ina.
she omitted all the distinctively feminine
sess and ask no equivalents. The controi
It is an argument of no meaning to her
that the practice of law by women Is
unnatural and therefore degrading, just
as washing dishes, sewing dresses ana
nursing babies are unnatural and de-
grading to man. Nature does not count
with the woman, who, as Dr. Parkhurst
puts it, has become an .'andromaniac.
Neither does it seem to strike MISS Fhl-
brook that the tendency of legislation IS
not precisely towards equality of sexes.
On the contrary. one state after another
has erected about women projections of
one sort or another for which men pos
sess and ask no equivalents. The control
of separate estate, the right of dover
the right of support from her husband
are special privileges of fwomanklnd,
which are based upon the assumption
that, whatever her rights may be, she
has not the ability to earn her
livelihood, that on the contrary her des-
tiny in the world is such that she must
rely on man for support while she per-
forms the duties which nature has al
lotted to her.
Probably Miss Philbrook's reply to this
would be that it was all old. So it is.
1t is as old as the Garden of Eden. 1t
is the truth of all time.
Much harm is done by the New York
papers in their maudlin praise of women
who take up freak attitudes. The plucky
girl. beautiful as she is intellectual, eour-
ageous and studious! 1t is all wrong.
When a woman does a feminine thing
well, let us bow down and do her hon.
age. When a woman advances her sex
nv eIevating the natural relations OF
womanhood, by developing its natural
gifts, by bestowing on the world the
highest products of natural female effort,
let us hail her as heroine. Let US, above
all things, give every aid sto women
who are pursuing this path. But when
courage, intellect and energy are dis
played in the p~erverse effort to cross
the barriers of nature, reason and social
order, we can only lament such mis-
direction, and the best feeling we car
bestow upon the victim is pity.
At the same time, we repeat, the best
way to- check such impulses as Miss
Philbrook represents is to give them FREQ
rein. There is always an itching to dc
the thing tliat is forbidden. The way
to check the growth Of the female law
yer is to give her sIl the opportunity