In the year 1835, when but twenty years old, Mr. Brady was admitted to the bar.  “There were giants in those days” at the New York bar, and the young man was now entering an arena in which his powers were to be tested to the utmost.  His native eloquence was well known to his friends, and naturally he was not ignorant of it; but he did not, like so many young men in his calling, trust entirely to his powers of pleading.  He had long since recognized the truth of Lord Erskine’s declaration that “no man can be a great advocate who is no lawyer,” and had stored his mind with a knowledge of the theories of his profession which few men in coming to the bar have ever equaled.

In his first important case he was opposed to Charles O’Conor, and was unsuccessful.  He was engaged in a suit to recover a certain sum of money from an insurance company, which his client claimed was due him for certain goods which had been destroyed by fire.  As Brady himself saw, he had a very weak case, and Mr. O’Conor had no trouble in demolishing it; yet the young counsel conducted it with a skill and an eloquence which made him from that hour a marked man in his profession.  Yet he had to contend against that obstacle which meets most public men at the outset of their careers—­the feeling which actors call “stage fright.”  He said that on this occasion every thing around him grew suddenly black, and he could not even see the jury.  By steadying himself against his table, and keeping his eyes in the direction of the jury, he continued to speak until he had recovered his self-control.

The case which brought him most prominently before the public, and which may be said to have established his fame as a lawyer, was a peculiar one.  Some newsboys had been arrested for selling the “Sunday Morning News” on the morning of the Sabbath day.  It was claimed that the selling of the paper on the streets on Sunday was contrary to law, and that the boys disturbed the congregations in the churches by their cries.  One of these boys had been arrested at the instance of Mr. Gerard, and this brought on a suit to determine the rights of the lads, in which Mr. Brady appeared for the newsboys.  Considerable feeling was manifested on the subject, and when the trial came on the court-room was crowded.  The verdict of the jury was against him, but Mr. Brady won a remarkable triumph by his management of the case, and the whole city rang with his eloquence.  So great was the effect of his speech upon the audience, that many of them who were total strangers to him crowded around him as he left the court-house to congratulate him.  Though defeated in the verdict of the jury, this case was a great triumph for Mr. Brady.  It established his fame as an advocate, and advanced him at once to a foremost place at the bar.  Business flowed in upon him more rapidly than he could attend to it, and from this time to the close of his labors he was always in the possession of a large and lucrative practice.