Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 63

I JI RAILROAD LABORER WOMEN LAWYERS DETROIT Poorest Member of the British Man of Oh ZTTfj: HERBIE ft ABBOTT MARY J7VART COIN said 0 d6 4 one COLLEGE THROUGH WORKED THEIR WAY I i the in OICERS MONROE CHAPTER ROYAL ARCH MASONS i a the than he 't and the 4 4 himself gool for i another than an that rot 1 a life work and aban of civil engineer which the primary impulse of began over wit Ii and A i happiest woman business woman in life I feel misery they do all the He became an agent defended tbelr declared and could many forci so that noble I have worked In the empire and Striking Salary Week It is a gracious thing that the peo ple in a college region help the young strugglers with readiness and cheer But no really spirited young man or woman will rely upon good nature in making a living In all dealings the purpose is to give value received or a little better A young man decided to furnish his mind by selling en graved cards He worked up such a business in this Una that the end Mrs Merrle (H Abbott who with her husband Charles Abbott comprises the flrm of Abbott Abbott in tho Majestic building igured in Political Brama You would never dream to meet Mrs Abbott a young and pretty wo man with soft voice and gentle retir ing ways that she had been the cen April 12 (Special Cor There was a lo S1 to the Plucky ellows With Now and Then Who Earned Lheir Book of Inspiration Mrs Mary Stewart Coflin has the distinction of being the only woman lawyer who ever opened and main tained a law ofllce in Detroit Al most every day sees her in the court She is the type of woman that is instinctively described as charming is not a touch of masculinity about her Indeed her gentlness her very low voice of manner all ingly feminine studied law in took up a post graduate Detroit did newspaper work that held tho eyes' of all Michigan a few years ago That was in the Octo ber of 1898 when Mrs Abbott then a resident of West Branch was nomi nated for prosecuting attorney' of Oge maw county The young woman had been graduated from the law depart ment of Michigan university the pre vlous June with high honors among them the fact that she was chosen class historian by the men of her class argued much for her popularity among them Her friends persuaded her to enter the political arena She did and came out victorious for she was elect ed prosecuting attorney by a majority of four votes (But in the words of a Chicago paper recounting tho affair at the time man wouldn't stand for being beaten by a too clever wo and the question of the legality of a woman filling the office pros ecuting attorney was raised and brought intq court It was Quoted feat the ablest rulers were women like Elizabeth Victoria and Catherine of Russia that once upon a time Ann Countess of (Pembroke was sheriff of LIZZIE iS SWEENEY ture to help their friends along This makes it hard for professional barbers in the college towns Other barber students do the work for the financed students in the rooms of the latter A novel might be written about the struggles of a sturdy young man who grew into maturity among the pine stumps of a northern Michigan clearing His father was a poor cob bler and the youth in question al though the eldest son not his last By the time that the ambitious boy had finished a precarious course at the little red schoolhouse the fath er took him into the musty cobbler shop and said you sit down here for a spell! I need Jim per ceived that there was a new leathern seat beside the one his father had and a certain modesty contribute to a strik make up Mrs Coffin Ann Aibor and later course in a book rack and carved his road up the hard hills of law and lit by mend ing the shoes of his fellow students He had enough left when he was done to start a law office and release a younger brother from the bench at the side of his father These are only a few of the hundred ways which" Mr Moran sets forth in his interesting little book The work is exceedingly instructive because it points out the path to the younger generation It is more because be hind Mr unadorped state ments of facts there is a vital clus ter of stories big clean stories be cause they deal with sacrifice suc cess and dqgged determination to win The is still more because it the laurels one could become a education and rc the midst of men in a way that no understand When at night I to reach the of my home their way lies in waiting the college boarding houses who recoils from this work lege town must number among the few who are too ordinary roles of life Many of the best students today thus serving and some of the best men of our time look back upon the time when they earned their food by carrying food others Mr Moran cites an instance wherein a plucky voung woman sold breakfast foods in the country surrounding her college (kept her territory so welt ana so profitably worked up that toy the time she had finished her couege course her younger sister fell into the business a well cultivated trade and profited (by the energy of the pioneer in the family If you enter the suite of offices oc cupied by Washington I Robinson in the Buhl block you instinctively turn to a pretty little room which somehow or other doesn't look as though a man worked there It has a certain inde finable air of cosiness and daintiness about it which you interpret as being feminine And so it is the legal sanctum of Miss (Lizzie McSweeney one of the most brilliant women in the city and a lawyer who stands high among the members of the profession Miss 'McSweeney was graduated from the Detroit College of Law in 1893 It Twelve book left Ties and to his own word he was not acquaint ed with a person within a thousand miles of the city where his college was located He had less than ten dollars when he arrived but he made good got his degree in the usual period of time and has since added to his own experiences the experiences of many hence the book Perhaps the most common young arable of gasoline A line mu sician a skilled artist this all round woman is also in intimate touch with Hie OXDON I respondence striking scene in the house of commons the' other day highly signi ficant of the change that has taken place in what used to be called finest club in A navvy and the heir to a dukedom crossed swords in debate and the navvy triumphed The navvy was John Ward the poor est member of parliament who has to support himself a wife four children andean old mother on $12 50 a weekthe salary he inceives as secretary vv union which he founded was I'J irl Bercy who will duke of Northumberland of many thousands of The subject under dis Chinese labor in South As the representative of the a Girl Them A Little Royal Perquisites At the Austrian court perishable articles never appear twice on the imperial table Thus there are large perquisites for the various attendants To one man fallsi all the uncorked bottles to another' the wine left In the glasses to another the joints and to another the game or the sweets literature of her day In this she compares the society woman the woman in business: believe that the in the world is the with a distinct aim sure that lots heppier than the society woman who tiles to kill time at bridge and the other amusements that are in vogue To feel that accomplishing some good work that you are a part of the universal energy a fine 'feeling Now by this I for a moment mean to imply that the home woman the 'best of us all I'm an enthusiastic sup porter of that old fashioned theory In the photograph are the portraits of the officers of3Ionroe Chapter No 1 one of the oldest Royal Arch Mason chapters ln the country Monroe Chapter was granted a dis pensation by De Witt Clinton grand high priest of the General Grand Chapter on ebruary 3 1818 Its first regular annual meeting was held in June of the year It has been active ever since and has enjoyed continued prosperity There are about 900 active members on its rolls at present In its list of members are found names of many men who have become famous in the history of the state and the nation The present corps of officers are enthusiastic Masons and the fame of Monroe Chapter will not suffer at their hands Its social gatherings are among the most enjoyable events given by any Masonic body in the temple The gentlemen in the picture reading from the left are: Top A Billings John Nagle Second John Watson Seymour Samuel Lenzner George Austin Sawtell Cox George Leckie Bottom row Hopson Beecher Wm Krug Walter Tidswell Wm Mayer Olin Knott way adopted by students who have to make on tabic in Any one ated his mental chamber he was earning more fore In entering college st er had little more mind' nnd a knowIedEC stoves He tried to adjust himself tone of the hardware stores in the vi cinity of his college but they were all crowded with help This young fellow couldn't be daunted and in the few days following he called upon every householder within a mile of his hall bedroom announcing that he would stand for night and day calls on all indispositions of gasoline stoves and lamps and agreed to doctor the same for thirty cents an hour The result was that the hardware stores pres ently found that there was no need to keep a gasoline burner specialist as the trust had looted all the business The trust studied Greek and poly tech under a gasoline lamp of his own between times Resourceful A young general with everything but money for college determined to make the latter as a side issue of his stud ies He found everything in a com irronpdace way covered in the college town and so had to devise a new plan or that it detracts some of those who use that phrase (have not I've risked my life for It was a matter of knowledge to him that retail grocOrs made a living He did not have time to start a grocery but was willing to give enough re fined labor to bring him in a grocer's profits He made arrangements with a number of boarding houses in the college town to supply them with their provisions at a fraction lower fate than the retail grocer could do it Each morning he took large orders however 'from these 'boarding houses and mail! a lump purchase at a wholesale mar ket covering tho wants of all The goods were delivered and the difference in price fell to the student At the end of four years the enterprising one was graduated and sold out his busi ness for enough to take him abroad for a year He returned with a doc some one offered to Introduce you to a group of women lawyers you would no doubt prepare yourself to meet this picture: masculine costume consisting of severe short skirt and plain short coat uncompromising lit tle black hat set over cropped hair or tightly drawn back Into a wad the size of a nut biff heavy shoes thickv clfljtses set over Jon pointed nose peering eyes deep masculine voice ad tral figure of a little political drama a manner whose business like brevity would frighten all pretty speeches out of your head This is the picture for which Impov erished jokesmiths and years of harp ing on the frightful new woman are responsible But a picture that would vanish like the mist before the run jf over you should be introduced to the women lawyers of Detroit' There are three women in this city who gain their livelihood from the practice of the law No three women in any sphere of life could be chosen to more eloquently repudiate the pre conceived notions about the 'mascu line professional Soft of voice gentle in manner as dainty and feminine in dress as the crustiest old bachelor could demand loving all those things that the ideal woman is sup posed to love you would get a severe shock of surprise if you approached these lawyers with the idea that they were necessarily Amazons They are Mrs Mary Stuart Coffin who maintains a law ofllce alone Miss Lizzie McSweeney who is associa ted with Washington I Robinson and of four years he was strangely tempt ed to make it don the career had generated education He in the real life work and has now passed up among It is doubtful if coachman for an main a man while engaged in such a work outside of democratic America The thing has been done again and again here with fine college fruits Other gallant souls have washed dishes for their mental equipment hauled garden fertilizers become hospital orderlies peeled po tatoes administered massage treat ments to their luckier fellows and needful citizens played the weary game of night watchman wrestled with furnaces and ash ptles and run street cars There is a tangible value to college culture resulting from such labors Pleased the Professor A young man once was engaged in hanging wallpaper in the study of a college professor He worked with such neatness and silence that the professor was enabled to remain at his desk while the decorator worked The elder man found occasion finally tj compliment the other on the man ner in which he plied his trade The young man replied that he would much prefer to ply some other but that he had been unable to enter college on account of the needs of his services in the family The professor related many instances in which young men had gone to col lege and made money besides 1 he lesult was that the decorator matricu lated and hung papers as well His work increased into a profitable busi ness and presently he was hiring men to care for the rooms while he decor Meanwhile did be facts who that the professions trary woman is best friend I've studied the question carefully and that is my sincere opinion utterly ridiculous to say that getting down in an office makes women nnnrco catlrl i one iota from their femininity Of course the professional woman knows of things that her more sheltered sis ter dream exist but look around this city and study the big army of women in the professions and in business Tht re are among them hundreds of the best bred finest and most lovable women that ever graced any salon in any appears that health cheerfulness a reasonable mental capacity and no doubtful capacity for work are all that a young man needs to work his way through college In every community there are many young men and women annually who despair of obtaining a higher education and settle down to more commonplace lives because they have no one at the helm to guide them through college Many others bolder spirits perhaps set out to compel a scholarship by working for their bed board and sometimes for the maintenance of oth ers while carrying on their studies That this admirable spirit of reli ance does not require tremendous physical energy and signal mental en dowment is nicely brought out by a really admirable book issued from the University (Press Ann Arbor by Mr Selby A 'Moran The work is entitled a 'Hundred Ways to Work Way Through Apart from the value of the mere suggestions the ways are in cases the actual experiences of bie young men and women there is vltalify and human interest In the little narratives Chapters of success are very good reading Did It Himself years ago the author of his home on the lawa prai entered college According Westmoreland that women since thebeginnings of time had helped to make the wheels go round smoothly can be no said Judge Moore the mind of any one who heard the very able argument made by 'her in this case about the compe tency of (Mrs Abbott to discharge the duties of this But in spite of precedent in spite of argument and obvious merit Mrs Abbott lost her case her husband came opened their offices in' the (Majestic building 'I larger part of the office work except when some especially tempting induce She Ciin claim connection inent offers to go Into court as In the case of Rose Barron whom she helped to defend so eloquently that she caused the jury to disagree was the same class that sent out Judge (Murphy and Warren to careers of honor She was the only woman in her class fellow stulents never let me feel that I was in any way an in truder because of my says Miss iMCo'weonev sli 11 always remem ber With what courtesy and considera tion I was treated during my studies at the Miss McSweeney came from a family she and of lawyers: John McSweeney the ceie to Detroit and brated Ohio jurist who died only a in the practice of law covers a wide few rears' ago was a relative and field Men come to her for advice There Mrs Abbott docs the way back in (English history there "and of course women take advantage House of Commons Badly Worsts Earl Percy One of the Richest in Debate Great Ability and Personality Whose Is Only $1250 a his shop in company with and had a ino nouse yyaicji ieweler missed a diamond of value and ran after him complaining of the theft the Jewelers' Weekly The king not willing publicly to disgrace any of his attendants com manded a large basin of sand to ibe brought him into which he di rected each person to put in the hand clenched and draw it out flat By this means 'the diamond was left in the sand and the identity of would be thief remained unknown become razor artists after school hours and Saturdays Good natured students who do not have to work their way i wrvi i fr (a 1 1 1 1 1 a nr HP rn from the Unlversitv of He engaged a room maae a oencn ana Leipzig Another youth elerking in a shoe store for five dollars a week? deter mined to add unto his mind the polish of higher education The source of his inspiration was nothing more than a circular from a well known shoe manufacturer soliciting agents to sell shoes direct and made two or three dollars a day with plenty of time left for his stud ies and athletics Another sold wire fence to the farmers on Saturdays and during vacation still others sold musi cal instruments and publications dress skirts snaps household articles can ned goods and life insurance "Many students find profit in the barbej shops of a college town They are brilliant legal names with which of their opportunity to find hardriegal tempered by sympathy irom ono understands their needs i don't believe that trite saying woman is worst ene said Mrs Coffin the' con JOHN WARD I A rattling chorus of Hon or party in this it cheers greeted this and ward wound longs to all The overwhelming up a most telling speech by saying jorlty returned to this house was that he had seen mothers parting from a we EM IO Ulltj iiwuu "those women did not think that their (boys would leave their bones bleach ing on the veldt in order to introduce Chinese labor! The flag has been mentioned in this marched under that flag I would not (allow it to be used in my election be cause it docs not belong to any sec polished for forty years heart shows the best of bone blood sank but he sat down and for a long grit in (the national youth of time' all the rose tints of the future time changed to twisted and muddy boots in liis mind It was a late summer Clever Ruse of a King rinv that the thought occurred to him Alfonso king of Aragon was that the college students must wear day examining the different articles in shoes and that the shoes must wear out His father agreed that this was many ladies of his court possibly true and tossed his son a scarcely left couple of boots that needed calking Jim slipped away in the dark to col lege and (found that it was even so that sphere is the home And AT the woman who by her personality I Bcr 9 her virtues and her talents knows 4y how to make home a restful haven for her husband and children is the noblest woman of them 'all My con tention is simply this: That wo bread winners who love our work and make a success of it are far far happier than the women who have no higher aim in life than dressing up in ex pensive clothes and running from one entertainment to another often thought' that society women miss a opportunity Think what exquisite enjoyment for the woman with means and leisure in going among poor studying their conditions at first hand and earnestly striving to alleviate their a happiness that grow stale And yet how reach out after new joys time because they outlive the possi bilities of each so soon women who spend our days in the whirl of iho business world ap preciate home life other woman can I leave my office hurry fast enough ncss and seclusion yes confess eager for work when the morning comes because my 1 a I 4 WU1A is uiv utaiLSL Luuo is opponent some dav be jliMany Seek Her Counsel and owner cushion was Africa class that profits most by cheap la bor Efarl Percy had employment and hud white men would not work in the mines can tell the John Ward different plants of there is no work nuder tho sun that a Briton cannot do it is always a 'question of how much wages you of fer him If British workers went to ulin TtsinA tliev would demand decent Before passing the bar she Tafireg proper' mine regulations trade Her experience organizations and a hundred and one other things of that sort and it is be cause our friends here (pointing to the ii'ttle pro Cliinese group) know this that tli ey object Telling Points have been dubbed a little Eng he exclaimed after some al lussion to the war standing erect with their sons wtho broad shoulders looking a man every of his six feet and more cried the astonished member I have been called a Little Eng he went on a pretty good specimen arid done what Zhk vu here to put an end to this system i Chinese labor at the earliest possif moment and there must be no 1 ing it on ai And so ended one of the most 4 fective speeches the house has he for many a "a saw i who was present made proud of the country that could duce a navvy who could capture attention and earn the respect of house of commons in a mall uisringnisnca Appearance John Ward disproves the popular tion that it is blue blood which nnll4 I 4 I tion He a drop of blue bkl" but he is the most distinguishedIo ing man in the house K'nnn of I many scions of aristocracy "there' great hold a candle to him in that resTt He is tho sort of man one Instinct) ly singles out in a crowd as a leH of men He has the face of an at and the frame of a LifeguardsrJ There is not an ounce of superflyj flesh on his' well knit and well tra body He has served in the swei Ing Soudan and bears the Egjp Star and the medal of the Siu4 Berber expedition of desji ate race against time when the wiy Construction corps had to the raids of Osman downs with their shovel headed spela in the middle of the work of lajjf the ties He showed courage otii finer and rarer quality when yf laiter he made speeches denoun(4 the Boer war before crowds ot furiated Jirigoists Began Very Young He was born dn 1866 went to when he was 7 and has been ever since He has served in13 army lie has wielded the pick spade in many lands lie lias charge of the gentle coolie in tr climes lie speaks calmly directly out of the depths of an rience far more versatile thantHl tile average university bred so pampered legislator (Because he could not bring hie to surrender his right of indepeyj action and expression of opiniorp refused to sign the Labor rcpresrg lion constitution aigg cut himself off from the $1009 ae Which most of the Iabor memb the house receive from that But he confesses he finds it 1 4 sible as a member of parliament make both ends meet on the $1 week he gets from his unionjill some (friends are raising a furs help him out The Labor Leaden People have been astonished high standard of intellectual displayed by the labor members of whom 'have taken their the house for the first time Bv explanation is simple ThcyuiojiP men Their selection is the a sifting process far more severe is applied to the representative' any other class Before they ben labor members they Have to be leaders and to attain such can rely on no other inliueiy than their own abilities and force character They begin their strugj in a republic where all count as equals and they get to the demonstrating that they are qualified for such positions than fellows There they Have hard taskmasters for life harshly with working men them lenient to others and leader who does not rise to a standard of duty and work is tumbled down from his giddy nonce Such men after ruling wild diit racies for many years enter thy 1' of commons without any 01 UOU' frighting superstitions that awe 1 members of other sections They cj nothing for its conventionalities are unabashed and self They have convictions ihey are ly in earnest they have beer there for a purpose and that thnv on achieving thev have Introduced into the h'fin entirely new spirit It is no Ioai excellent club where men mner nf thiur tinm smoking I loafing and dining The old things nas cusaPDeuaea turn I i i1 1 'Ii lx a ffj J' T1 6 Qe A 1 1 1 Ha ix A 4 Ags a fl tv 1 a ft mi ii IWJILIIM aE 1 'll 1 7 1 1 i I I I I 1 0 At I 3 (gJ tgl tXo tgi 1 MB lIBgO ISwIhH i tgi sg? go I tn? 1 'x A 1 v' I 4 4ft I 1 Ho zKJ tg4 tgJ Iwiio.