Mrs. Tarbell sat in her office, pretending to read a law-journal, but really looking at her name on the office door; and she was not without justification, perhaps, seeing that it had taken her six years to get it there.  Furthermore, though it was six weeks since it had been lettered upon the glass panel, she had as yet found nothing to do but look at it.  She was at last a lawyer; she had triumphed over prejudice and ridicule; and a young lawyer has three privileges,—­he may write Esquire after his name, he is exempt from jury duty, and he can wait for clients.  Mrs. Tarbell had always been exempt from jury duty, and her brother told her that, historically speaking, she ought to be called equestrienne, if she was to have any title:  so it seemed that it was only left to her to wait for clients and contemplate her sign.  The sign read,—­

Ellen G. Tarbell,
Alex.  H. Juddson,
Attorneys-at-Law. 
Commissioner for Colorado.

Mrs. Tarbell had been a Miss Juddson before her marriage with ——­ Tarbell, Esq. (of Hinson & Tarbell, mourning goods), and Mr. Alexander H. Juddson was her brother.  When Mr. Tarbell died, his widow told her family and friends that she was going to read law.

Mrs. Tarbell had always been a woman of progressive notions, but this was going too far.  Her family and some of her friends were short-sighted enough to attempt to argue the general question,—­namely, ought women to have Rights?  When Mrs. Tarbell proved to them that they were both unfair and illogical, they then said that, though they had no objection to other women making lawyers of themselves, they did not see the necessity in her case.

Mrs. Tarbell replied that she must get a living; and it was quite true that the late Tarbell had failed a few months before his death, leaving his widow rather poorly off; for he had not put his property in her name before making an assignment.  And Mrs. Tarbell went on to say that, as she could not be a nurse, and would not be a governess or keep a boarding-house, she would read law.  It was reported at the time that Mr. Juddson said he hoped his sister would go and read law, if anywhere, in Colorado, for which State it was he, of course, who was the commissioner; but, whether this report were true or not, Mrs. Tarbell stayed at home and pursued her studies under his direction.

After going through all sorts of examinations, at which she flung herself determinedly, and which she kept on passing with the greatest credit, after meeting with innumerable disappointments and delays, after being politely told by one judge after another that she was a woman, and therefore could not be a man,—­hence, a fortiori, she could not be a lawyer,—­after six years, I say, Mrs. Tarbell succeeded.  Her name went on the list of attorneys.  The court-clerk gave her a certificate, and received two dollars and sixty cents.  The newspapers chronicled the circumstance.  Her friends were triumphant.  Judge Measy, who admitted her to the bar, was compared to Lord Mansfield and to Mr. Lincoln.