Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-03
JERSEYS WOMAN LAWYER.
Miss Mary Philbrools Admitted to the Ba
 After a Long Fight.


 After a Long Fight.
 After fight lasting IS months Miss Mary Philbrook of 154 Magnolia av. enue, Jersey City, has succeeded in get ting herself admitted to the bar of New Jersey. Miss Philbrook is the first wom- an to take the examination in that state, and before she could make even so much progress she had to fight the supreme court through the legislature and prac- tically force the justices of that court to grant the required permission. The ex- animation, though rigid, did not bother the young woman, and she passed with high honors and today is the only wom- an lawyer in the state of New Jersey.
 Miss Philbrook is the daughter of a lawyer and has a brother who is a law yer. She has been interested in all things pertaining to the law for years, and with the idea of studying for amuse- ment rather than for profit she entered the office of Corporation Attorney James F. Minturn of Hoboken several years ago. In addition to her regular work she read lawbooks and studied compli- cated cases that came into the office un- til she became so thoroughly conversant with law that on the advice of her en- ployers she decided to make application to the supreme court for admission to the bar.
 She made the application at Trenton in February, 1894, and Justice Depew promptly refused to allow her to take the examination on the ground that there was no law ill the state providing Eo,, &1r 0f NOfhinD daunted, Miss Philbrook started in sin gle handed to fight the supreme court If there was no law for the admission of women, she argued, there should be one, and she drew up bill herself covering the point, which bill she succeeded in having presented to the legislature
 She spent almost all her time in Tren ton working for her bill, and when the bill was turned over to legislative committee she obtained permission to appear before the commission and argue in its favor. She did go before tho con- mittee and made a speech the result of which was that the bill went through, and then Miss Phi1brook filed her ap- plication once more, and this time she was informed that she might take the examination.
 The young woman began the exami- nation on Tuesday and finished it on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morn ing it was announced that she had suc- cessfully passed both the oral and writ ten examinations, and shortly after noon she was sworn in.
 Miss Philbrook is tall, slim young woman, with black hair and sparkling hlani- C1,n is and xx-ha o reporter saw her yesterday afternoon she was not at all eager to talk about her case
 "I understand that am the first wo- man lawyer in the state of New Jersey" ! she said, land I am very proud of it; but, above all things, desire to avoid | publicity. I did not go into the thing with the idea of obtaining notoriety, but simply because I believed that it was my due, having studied law con- scientiously for several years. I found | plenty of obstacles in the way, but hay ing once started to get there I realized ! that it would never do to give up, and then, again, thought it would be good practice removing these obstacles, and I went at it i'll the best way knew how. ! Fortunately was successful
 ''I have not laid out any plans as yet, though will remain in the office where have been for some time. There will do all the legal work am called upon to do by my employers and shall at the same time handle as much business for myself as can get. am averse to do- | ing court work and will confine myself as much as possible to office practice. If it becomes necessary at any time, how I ever, for me to enter the courts, shall not hesitate to do so. For the present, though, shall probably go on in the same way that have for the past year. One thing about my victory makes me happier than anything else, and that is that it has been my lot to open up the field of law to women in the state of New Jersey. That regard as my great est triumph. '
 Miss Philbrook takes an interest in l all things pertaining to women and is a member of the State Suffrage associa- tion, which is now fighting for school suffrage in New Jersey. Her connection with woman's affairs, however, she will ! not discuss, as she says she has no de- sire to be prominent in woman's rights movements.-New York Sun.