did
get in, she had become a cynic. Everybody remembers, of course, how at
the end of his last term Judge Oldwigg announced his intention to retire
into private life and decline a reelection, and how the managers of the
party in power chose Judge Measy as their candidate for the vacant
place. The prospective judge was waited on privately by a deputation of
Mrs. Tarbell's friends, headed by Mrs. Pegley, and asked to define his
position on the Tarbell question. The deputation did not contain many
voters, and no bargain which Mr. Measy, as he then was, could have made
with it would have increased his majority very largely: as he was pretty
sure of a majority, he must be cleared of all suspicion of making a
bargain. But he did deliver to Mrs. Pegley an oracular answer, which was
in course of time interpreted in Mrs. Tarbell's favor. She came up
before him; Mr. Juddson made the motion which he had so often made
before, and made it, I regret to say, in rather hurried tones, when, to
everybody's surprise, Judge Measy produced a manuscript and read it out,
and proved that a lawyer was a person who practiced law, and that
therefore, as a woman was a person, she could be a lawyer, interspersing
his remarks with graceful historical allusions and several profound
reflections upon the design of Nature in creating the female sex. Then,
acting as man, not judge, he descended to the side-bar, beckoned to Mrs.
Tarbell, grasped her by the hand, and made her a speech. "Madam," said
the courtly judge, "Mrs. Tarbell, I congratulate you,"--which was one
for himself as well,--"and let me add that it gives me the sincerest
satisfaction to be able to testify in this manner to the veneration
which I have always entertained for woman; and I am quite sure that in
no long space of time you will have proved to us that the law cannot say
it has nothing to gain from her refining influence. For I remember my
_own_ mother, Mrs. Tarbell," said Judge Measy. The bar listened in awed
admiration. Mrs. Tarbell bit her lips, bowed, and thanked his honor as
best she could. The idea of suggesting that she was anybody's mother, or
that even if she had a family that was any reason for permitting her to
be a barrister! But from the other side of the court-room was heard an
expressive rustling, and audible whispers of satisfaction were wafted
across the lawyers on their chairs. Mrs. Pegley and her train were
sitting by, radiant, triumphant, majestic. The dignity of m