where they gathered around the tables and sewed or read, wrote and studied. It seems a wonder to look back upon it and see how they accomplished so much as they did in their limited allowance of time. They made and mended their own clothing, often doing a good deal of unnecessary fancy work besides; they subscribed for periodicals, took books from the libraries, went to singing school, conference meetings, concerts and lectures, watched at night beside a sick girl's bedside, and did double work for her in the mill if necessary; and on Sundays they were at church, not differing in appearance from other well-dressed and decorous young women. Strangers who had been sitting beside them in a house of worship were often heard to ask, on coming out: 'But where were the factory girls?'"

Lucy Larcom was a factory girl when she wrote the beautiful pathetic poem which first brought her to the notice of the public, and which we publish elsewhere. It is a labor song, one of the plain, homely occupations which are now controlled principally by machinery which neither suffers nor thinks.

CHAPTER V.

The Profession of Law.

It often falls in course of common life,

That right long time is overborne of wrong,
Through avarice, or power, or guile, or strife
That weakens her and makes her party strong,
But justice, though her doom she do prolong.
Yet at the last she will her own cause right.

HERE are some ninety practicing women lawyers in the United States, a large majority of whom are graduates of the University of Michigan, which was the first university in the

United States to open its law department to women, placing them on an equal plane with men. Nearly all law schools in the United States have now women matriculates. There are two lady lawyers in Tiffin, O., but none in Cincinnati. Half a dozen ladies have been admitted to practice in the United States Circuit Court, and among these Mrs. Belva Lockwood stands the highest for real legal acumen and ability. The newspapers thus describe Mrs. Lockwood's appearance and characteristics when she was admitted to the bar: "Supported on either side by

Judge Shellabarger and Hon. Jeremiah Wilson, and accompanied by friends and admirers outside of the legal profession, sat Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood within the sacred precincts of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, from high noon Monday until after 4 o'clock, waiting, not for a verdict, but for an opportunity to present herself, under the new law for admission to the bar. She was dressed neatly in a plain black velvet dress, with satin vest and cloth coat, cut à l'homme, and with gold buttons, a neat white ruffle round the neck and cuffs, black kid gloves, a tiny bouquet on the right lapel of the coat, the well-known gold thimble, with the addition of a miniature pair of scissors in gold, suspended at the throat, completed the costume; the head was uncovered, the hair being rolled back from the face and fastened in a knot by a comb at the back." Mrs. Lockwood was duly admitted, and has won a large and successful practice.

Miss Kate Kane has the honor of being the first lady lawyer to whom permission has been granted to practice in a Milwaukee court. The lady studied at the Ann Arbor University of Michigan, and completed her legal education at a law office at Janesville, Wis. It is said of her that she is a bright, spirited, and fine looking woman of unimpeachable moral character and indomitable will. Her reception in court almost partook of an ovation, being invited inside of the bar and introduced to the judge, sheriff, clerk, and principal lawyers, by all of whom she was warmly welcomed.

Judge Albion W. Tourgee, the accomplished jurist and author, bestowed a legal diploma at Raleigh, North