Familiar Characters

Mrs. Belva Lockwood and Her New Tricycle

Among the objects of greatet interest to the visiting stranger and curiosity seeker in this beautiful metropolis may be mentioned the Capitol, the Washington Monument, Dr. Mary Walker, Mt. Vernon, Gen. Washington's breeches in the Patent Office, the Corcoran Art Gallery, Ford's Theatre, the scene of Lincoln's assassination; Guiteau, Franklin's printing press, Tucker Blake, the Long Bridge, The Post's electric light, the money vaults at the Treasury, the President, Potomac shad and Mrs. Lawyer Lockwood.

The fact of Mrs. Lockwood being placed last on the list doesn't signify that she is the least of the manifold attractions offered the “stranger within our gates,” by any manner of means. Indeed, were strict propriety, together with the eternal fitness of things, consulted, her name would appear much higher in the list—say between the Washington Monument and and Dr. Mary Walker. And again, by way of explanation, it is necessary to state that by sandwiching the able lawyeress between two subjects so diametrically opposed, it is not done as a suggestion that she is either unfinished or wears the—gentleman's dress. Mrs. Lockwood, on the contrary, is a finished scholar. Neither is she at a standstill, but possessed of an activity unknown in the history of that great piece of masonry. On the other hand, neither does this lady of the bar affect a cane of the bifurcated garment peculiar to man. But she nevertheless asserts her independence in battling the world unaided and alone and riding a tricycle. In sunshine or in storm may her familiar form be seen flying up the Avenue on her three footed nag, he cargo a bag of briefs for the Supreme Court or a batch of “original invalids” for the Pension Office.

Miss Anthony—the lady who has for so many generations past told how she has suffered at the hands of man. yet loudly clamors for man's suffrage—assumes the role of biographer and gives us an insight into the life and career of Washington's noted female lawyer.

“Mrs Lockwood,” says she, “was born at Rochester, N.Y., October 24, 1830. Educated in a district school, she commenced teaching school at age fifteen, for $5 per month and ‘boarded round.’” In “boarding round” it is inferred that she occasionally got a square meal, for she grew and prospered and at eighteen was married. The following year she lost her husband. For a considerable length of time thereafter—just how long deponent saith not—she wrote for newspapers, magazines and waste-baskets, most of her best articles appearing in the latter. Graduating at Genesee College, Lima N.Y., she again essayed to “teach the young idea how to shoot.” Mrs. Lockwood, at this time, says Miss Anthony, was twenty-seven years of age—for which indiscretion Miss Anthony runs the imminent risk of having her subject take down the “History of the Early Settlement of America” and give to an anxious public her own exact age, by way of retaliation.

Mrs. Lockwood, to resume, after graduating again taught school for eleven years. In 1868 she married Dr. E. Lockwood. Commencing the study of law, she received her parchment from the National University and commenced its practice in this city in 1873. She was the first lady admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, being admitted upon motion of Hon. A. G. Riddle.