CHAPTER SEVENTH.

On taking up her residence in Mount Vernon, Mrs. Bloomer became assistant editor of theWestern Home Visitor, of which her husband was editor and one of the proprietors. This was a weekly family paper, having a large circulation and printed in folio form on a large sheet. It was devoted to educational progress and all reformatory questions designed to advance the interests of the community in which it circulated. It advocated temperance and sound morality, and its columns were filled weekly with matter appropriate to be read in the family circle. Its columns contained no advertisements, and it depended for its support solely on its patrons’ yearly subscriptions. We give below Mrs. Bloomer’s salutatory, and alsoher first additional article on assuming her position as assistant editor:

“Salutatory.Following the custom set to me by my husband, I make my editorial bow to the readers of theVisitor. I suppose it is not necessary for me to enter into any detailed account of myself, as the papers have already done that for me. Neither do I suppose it necessary to make any statements in regard to my sentiments and principles, as they are already generally well known to the public. What I have been in the past, I expect to be in the future,—an uncompromising opponent of wrong and oppression in every form, and a sustainer of the right and the true, with whatever subject it may be connected. I have no promises to make, preferring to stand uncommitted and at liberty to write as the spirit moves me, or as the circumstances of the case may require. Having a separate organ of my own independent of any other paper or person through which I can speak forth my sentiments on the great reform questions of the day, freely and independently, I probably shall not introduce into the columns of theVisitoranything particularly obnoxious on those subjects; yet I may frequently come in contact with old prejudicesand bigoted notions, for it is impossible for the free progressive spirit of the present day to be bound by the opinion and prejudices of a former age. I trust, however, that my readers will bear with me and listen to me even though they do not approve, and if I say anything very bad, attribute it to my womanly folly or ignorance. And, as it is but right that I should bear whatever censure my doings may deserve, I shall write over my own initials in all matters of any moment. With this much for an introduction I extend to you, readers of theVisitorone and all, a cordial greeting, and wish you not only a ‘Happy New-Year’ but that it may prove happy and prosperous to you to its close.”“Woman’s Right to Employment.To woman equally with man has been given the right to labor, the right to employment for both mind and body; and such employment is as necessary to her health and happiness, to her mental and physical development, as to his. All women need employment, active, useful employment; and if they do not have it, they sink down into a state of listlessness and insipidity and become enfeebled in health and prematurely old simply because denied this great want of their nature. Nothing has tended more to the physical and moral degradation of the race than the erroneousand silly idea that woman is too weak, too delicate a creature to have imposed upon her the more active duties of life,—that it is not respectable or praiseworthy for her to earn a support or competence for herself.“We see no reason why it should be considered disreputable for a woman to be usefully employed, while it is so highly respectable for her brother; why it is so much more commendable for her to be a drone, dependent on the labors of others, than for her to make for herself a name and fortune by her own energy and enterprise. A great wrong is committed by parents toward their daughters in this respect. While their sons as they come to manhood are given some kind of occupation that will afford not only healthy exercise of the body and mind but also the means of an honorable independence, the daughters are kept at home in inactivity and indolence, with no higher object in life than to dress, dance, read novels, gossip, flirt and ‘set their caps’ for husbands. How well the majority of them are fitted to be the companions and mothers of men, every day’s history will tell.“Certainly, our girls would be far better and happier than now if they were educated and encouraged to occupy their hands and mindsin some useful business occupation; and parents do a great injustice to their daughters when they doom them to a life of idleness or, what is worse, to a life of frivolity and fashionable dissipation.“It was said by a distinguished clergyman of one who had passed away from earth, ‘She ate, she drank, she slept, she dressed, she danced and she died.’ Such may be truly said to be the history of many women of the present day. They eat, they drink, they sleep, they dress, they dance and at last die, without having accomplished the great purposes of their creation. Can woman be content with this aimless, frivolous life? Is she satisfied to lead a mere butterfly existence, to stifle and crush all aspirations for a nobler destiny, to dwarf the intellect, deform the body, sacrifice the health and desecrate all the faculties which the Almighty Father has given her and which He requires her to put to good use and give an account thereof to Him? While all other created things both animal and vegetable perform their allotted parts in the universe of being, shall woman, a being created in God’s own image, endowed with reason and intellect, capable of the highest attainments and destined to an immortal existence, alone be anidler, a drone, and pervert the noble faculties of her being from the great purposes for which they were given?“It will not always be thus; the public mind is undergoing a rapid change in its opinion of woman and is beginning to regard her sphere, rights and duties in altogether a different light from that in which she has been viewed in past ages. Woman herself is doing much to rend asunder the dark veil of error and prejudice which has so long blinded the world in regard to her true position; and we feel assured that, when a more thorough education is given to her and she is recognized as an intelligent being capable of self-government, and in all rights, responsibilities and duties man’s equal, we shall have a generation of women who will blush over the ignorance and folly of the present day.“A. B.”

“Woman’s Right to Employment.To woman equally with man has been given the right to labor, the right to employment for both mind and body; and such employment is as necessary to her health and happiness, to her mental and physical development, as to his. All women need employment, active, useful employment; and if they do not have it, they sink down into a state of listlessness and insipidity and become enfeebled in health and prematurely old simply because denied this great want of their nature. Nothing has tended more to the physical and moral degradation of the race than the erroneousand silly idea that woman is too weak, too delicate a creature to have imposed upon her the more active duties of life,—that it is not respectable or praiseworthy for her to earn a support or competence for herself.

“We see no reason why it should be considered disreputable for a woman to be usefully employed, while it is so highly respectable for her brother; why it is so much more commendable for her to be a drone, dependent on the labors of others, than for her to make for herself a name and fortune by her own energy and enterprise. A great wrong is committed by parents toward their daughters in this respect. While their sons as they come to manhood are given some kind of occupation that will afford not only healthy exercise of the body and mind but also the means of an honorable independence, the daughters are kept at home in inactivity and indolence, with no higher object in life than to dress, dance, read novels, gossip, flirt and ‘set their caps’ for husbands. How well the majority of them are fitted to be the companions and mothers of men, every day’s history will tell.

“Certainly, our girls would be far better and happier than now if they were educated and encouraged to occupy their hands and mindsin some useful business occupation; and parents do a great injustice to their daughters when they doom them to a life of idleness or, what is worse, to a life of frivolity and fashionable dissipation.

“It was said by a distinguished clergyman of one who had passed away from earth, ‘She ate, she drank, she slept, she dressed, she danced and she died.’ Such may be truly said to be the history of many women of the present day. They eat, they drink, they sleep, they dress, they dance and at last die, without having accomplished the great purposes of their creation. Can woman be content with this aimless, frivolous life? Is she satisfied to lead a mere butterfly existence, to stifle and crush all aspirations for a nobler destiny, to dwarf the intellect, deform the body, sacrifice the health and desecrate all the faculties which the Almighty Father has given her and which He requires her to put to good use and give an account thereof to Him? While all other created things both animal and vegetable perform their allotted parts in the universe of being, shall woman, a being created in God’s own image, endowed with reason and intellect, capable of the highest attainments and destined to an immortal existence, alone be anidler, a drone, and pervert the noble faculties of her being from the great purposes for which they were given?

“It will not always be thus; the public mind is undergoing a rapid change in its opinion of woman and is beginning to regard her sphere, rights and duties in altogether a different light from that in which she has been viewed in past ages. Woman herself is doing much to rend asunder the dark veil of error and prejudice which has so long blinded the world in regard to her true position; and we feel assured that, when a more thorough education is given to her and she is recognized as an intelligent being capable of self-government, and in all rights, responsibilities and duties man’s equal, we shall have a generation of women who will blush over the ignorance and folly of the present day.

“A. B.”

And for six months thereafter, theVisitorcontained nearly every week one or more articles from her pen. Some were on temperance, some on woman’s “fads” and foibles of that day. She aimed to sustain every goodword and deed and to rebuke vice in all its forms.

Of course she did not escape criticism in prosecuting her work. Especially, people at that early day would not listen quietly to her severe analysis of the laws bearing upon the legal rights of women. They sometimes denied her positions, and at other times doubted the wisdom of the changes which she advocated. Between her and the editor of another paper published in the city, quite an extended controversy arose which ran through several numbers of their respective papers, Mrs. Bloomer sustained her side of the debate with numerous quotations from legal writers, and she had the satisfaction of seeing her position substantially admitted by her opponents.

But Mrs. Bloomer’s attention and time were given chiefly to theLily, the publication of which in her new home was commenced on the first of January. Printed in new type on a steam press, it presented a very neat andhandsome appearance. The people of the state were greatly pleased with its removal to their limits and new subscriptions came in with surprising rapidity; its semi-monthly issue soon reached over six thousand copies. Mrs. Bloomer was greatly encouraged by these signs of approval and renewed her exertions and labors to make theLilyin all respects acceptable to its many friends. She wrote from one to three pages each week of original matter for its pages, and was aided at the same time by numerous correspondents. She continued to write continuously in advocacy of temperance, making that the leading object of her work, but she also wrote for woman’s advancement in all the fields of honest endeavor. She asked for her plenty of work and good pay; she insisted that to her should be opened every educational institution; and she demanded for her also the right of suffrage as her inalienable right. Some extracts from her editorials will follow.

Replying to and commenting upon an article on an alleged corruption in the state legislature, Mrs. Bloomer wrote as follows:

“Where then shall the remedy for purifying and healing the nation be found? We answer, in the education and enfranchisement of woman! Loose the chains that bind her to the condition of a dependent, a slave to passion and the caprices of men. Open for her the doors of our colleges and universities and bid her enter. Hold up before her a pattern for womanly greatness and excellence, and bid her to occupy the same high positions held by her brothers. Teach her to aspire to that true knowledge that should fit her to become the future mother and teacher of statesmen and rulers. Resign to her control the children committed to her care, and bid her guard them from all temptation and danger that threaten to assail them both at home and abroad. Restore to her her heaven-born right of self-government, and give her a voice in making the laws which are to govern for good or evil the actions and sentiments of society at large. Lethersaywhether the grogshop, the gaming house and the brothel shall be suffered to open wide their doors to entice her sons to ruin. Let her say whether man shall have power to override virtue and sobriety and send the minions of evil into our halls of legislation to make laws for the people. Let her say whether we shall have a Maine Law, and whether such a law shall be observed and enforced——Do this, and we shall soon see a great change wrought in society and in the character of our rulers! Our only hope for the future of our country lies in the elevation of woman physically, mentally, socially and politically, and in the triumph of the principles which lie at the foundation of the so-called ‘Woman’s Rights’ reform.”

“Womanhasa right to vote for civil officers, to hold offices, and so rule over men. If any law against it exists in the Bible, it has been overruled by divine sanction. Deborah ruled Israel forty years and, instead of being told she was out of her sphere, that she had usurped authority over men, we are assured that she was highly approved and that she ruled wiselyand well. No one calls in question the right of Queen Victoria to rule over her kingdom notwithstanding there are some men in it; nor do we believe, if she is a wise and faithful sovereign, that she will be condemned at the last great day for thus ruling over men. What was right for Deborah was right for Queen Victoria. If it is right for Victoria to sit on the throne of England it is right for any American Woman to occupy the Presidential Chair at Washington. All that is needed is votes enough to elevate her to that post of honor and of trust and sufficient ability to discharge its duties. Of the latter requisite, judging from some of those who have already occupied that seat, no great amount is demanded.”WOMAN’S CLAIM.“A correspondent asks what it is that we and other advocates of woman’s rights want?“We answer, we claim all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States to the citizens of the republic. We claim to be one-half of the people of the United States, and we deny the right of the other half to disfranchise us.”DESTROYING LIQUOR.“We hold in all honor the names of those noble women of Mount Vernon who, a few years ago, boldly entered the rumshop and gambling house and poured out the liquors and destroyed the implements wherewith their husbands and brothers had been at once robbed of their reason and their money, and converted into dupes and madmen. And we believe, if the same spirit now dwelt in the hearts of all the women of this beautiful city, that every rumshop would soon be closed, no matter whether legislators or councilmen passed ordinances or not. Woman has neither made nor consented to laws which leave her, and her children, at the mercy of heartless rumsellers and she should never submit to them. She has a right—nay, it is her duty—to arise in her own defense and in the defense of the souls entrusted to her keeping and insist that, either with or without law, the destroyer shall be driven from the land. And if men have not the courage to boldly attack the foe, then let woman meet him face to face and never retire from the contest till she can do so as a victor. Horace Mann tells that woman may with propriety go into the dark lanes and alleys of our greatcities and endeavor to conquer men to virtue. If it be proper for her to visit such haunts of iniquity on such an errand, it would be far more praiseworthy for her to apply her efforts to remove the cause which produces vice and crime.”GOLDEN RULES FOR WIVES.“Faugh, on such twaddle! ‘Golden rules for wives’—‘duty of wives’—how sick we are at the sight of such paragraphs! Why don’t our wise editors give us now and then some ‘golden rules’ for husbands, by way of variety? Why not tell us of the promises men make at the altar, and of the injunction ‘Husbands, love your wives as your own selves’? ‘Implicit submission of a man to his wife is disgraceful to both, but implicit obedience of the wife to the will of the husband is what she promised at the altar.’ So you say! What nonsense! what absurdity! what downright injustice! A disgrace for a man to yield to the wishes of his wife, but an honor for a wife to yield implicit obedience to the commands of her husband, be he good or bad, just or unjust, a kind husband or a tyrannical master! Oh! how much of sorrow, of shame and unhappiness have suchteachings occasioned. Master and slave! Such they make the relationship existing between husband and wife; and oh, how fearfully has woman been made to feel that he who promised at the altar to love, cherish and protect her is but a legalized master and tyrant! We deny that it is any more her duty to make her husband’s happiness her study than it is his business to study her happiness. We deny that it is woman’s duty to love and obey her husband, unless he prove himself worthy of her love and unless his requirements are just and reasonable. Marriage is a union of two intelligent, immortal beings in a life partnership, in which each should study the pleasure and the happiness of the other and they should mutually share the joys and bear the burdens of life.”THE CLERGY.“It is too true that the majority of this class of men stand aloof from the humanitarian questions of the day, and exert their influence to prejudice their people against them and to prevent their hearing the truth; yet it is not less true that there are among them many warm-hearted, earnest and true men; and for this reason the charges brought by reformersshould be limited. We find that it is with clergymen as with other people; there are some very open and liberal, and others very conservative and bigoted. Some would think it a desecration to allow a woman to lecture in their church, while others not only freely offer their church for temperance, but also for woman’s-rights lectures. Some think it an abomination for women to speak in public on any subject, while others wish that there were a hundred to take the platform in behalf of temperance where there is but one now. We have discussed temperance and woman’s rights in numerous churches and have had clergymen for our listeners. While we would by no means excuse those who so coldly and scornfully turn away from the woman question and its discussion, yet we feel unwilling to see the more liberal classed with them and subjected to censure. We know of no other course for reformers to pursue, but to be sure they are right and then ‘go ahead’ without regard to the opposition of the clergy or any other class of men.”MALE BLOOMERS.“Under this head, many of our brother editors are aiming their wit and ridicule atthose gentlemen who have donned theshawlas a comfortable article of wearing apparel in cold weather. There is a class of men who seem to think it their especial business to superintend the wardrobes of both men and women, and if any dare to depart from their ideas of propriety they forthwith launch out all sorts of witticisms and hard names, and proclaim their opinions, their likes and dislikes, with all the importance of authorized dictators. As to the shawl, it would be well if it could be banished from use entirely, as it is an inconvenient and injurious article of apparel, owing to its requiring both hands to keep it on and thereby tending to contract the chest and cause stooping shoulders. But, if worn at all, men have the same right to it that women have. If they find it convenient that is enough, and no one has a right to object to their wearing it because women wear shawls. Indeed, we think the shawl of right belongs to men as it answers so well to the description of the garment prescribed for them in Deut., xxii. 12: ‘Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture wherewith thou coverest thyself.’ True, men have departed from this injunction in former years, and resigned to women the dress prescribed for themselves and worn bytheir fathers in olden times. But that is no reason why they should not resume it.”

“A correspondent asks what it is that we and other advocates of woman’s rights want?

“We answer, we claim all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States to the citizens of the republic. We claim to be one-half of the people of the United States, and we deny the right of the other half to disfranchise us.”

“We hold in all honor the names of those noble women of Mount Vernon who, a few years ago, boldly entered the rumshop and gambling house and poured out the liquors and destroyed the implements wherewith their husbands and brothers had been at once robbed of their reason and their money, and converted into dupes and madmen. And we believe, if the same spirit now dwelt in the hearts of all the women of this beautiful city, that every rumshop would soon be closed, no matter whether legislators or councilmen passed ordinances or not. Woman has neither made nor consented to laws which leave her, and her children, at the mercy of heartless rumsellers and she should never submit to them. She has a right—nay, it is her duty—to arise in her own defense and in the defense of the souls entrusted to her keeping and insist that, either with or without law, the destroyer shall be driven from the land. And if men have not the courage to boldly attack the foe, then let woman meet him face to face and never retire from the contest till she can do so as a victor. Horace Mann tells that woman may with propriety go into the dark lanes and alleys of our greatcities and endeavor to conquer men to virtue. If it be proper for her to visit such haunts of iniquity on such an errand, it would be far more praiseworthy for her to apply her efforts to remove the cause which produces vice and crime.”

“Faugh, on such twaddle! ‘Golden rules for wives’—‘duty of wives’—how sick we are at the sight of such paragraphs! Why don’t our wise editors give us now and then some ‘golden rules’ for husbands, by way of variety? Why not tell us of the promises men make at the altar, and of the injunction ‘Husbands, love your wives as your own selves’? ‘Implicit submission of a man to his wife is disgraceful to both, but implicit obedience of the wife to the will of the husband is what she promised at the altar.’ So you say! What nonsense! what absurdity! what downright injustice! A disgrace for a man to yield to the wishes of his wife, but an honor for a wife to yield implicit obedience to the commands of her husband, be he good or bad, just or unjust, a kind husband or a tyrannical master! Oh! how much of sorrow, of shame and unhappiness have suchteachings occasioned. Master and slave! Such they make the relationship existing between husband and wife; and oh, how fearfully has woman been made to feel that he who promised at the altar to love, cherish and protect her is but a legalized master and tyrant! We deny that it is any more her duty to make her husband’s happiness her study than it is his business to study her happiness. We deny that it is woman’s duty to love and obey her husband, unless he prove himself worthy of her love and unless his requirements are just and reasonable. Marriage is a union of two intelligent, immortal beings in a life partnership, in which each should study the pleasure and the happiness of the other and they should mutually share the joys and bear the burdens of life.”

“It is too true that the majority of this class of men stand aloof from the humanitarian questions of the day, and exert their influence to prejudice their people against them and to prevent their hearing the truth; yet it is not less true that there are among them many warm-hearted, earnest and true men; and for this reason the charges brought by reformersshould be limited. We find that it is with clergymen as with other people; there are some very open and liberal, and others very conservative and bigoted. Some would think it a desecration to allow a woman to lecture in their church, while others not only freely offer their church for temperance, but also for woman’s-rights lectures. Some think it an abomination for women to speak in public on any subject, while others wish that there were a hundred to take the platform in behalf of temperance where there is but one now. We have discussed temperance and woman’s rights in numerous churches and have had clergymen for our listeners. While we would by no means excuse those who so coldly and scornfully turn away from the woman question and its discussion, yet we feel unwilling to see the more liberal classed with them and subjected to censure. We know of no other course for reformers to pursue, but to be sure they are right and then ‘go ahead’ without regard to the opposition of the clergy or any other class of men.”

“Under this head, many of our brother editors are aiming their wit and ridicule atthose gentlemen who have donned theshawlas a comfortable article of wearing apparel in cold weather. There is a class of men who seem to think it their especial business to superintend the wardrobes of both men and women, and if any dare to depart from their ideas of propriety they forthwith launch out all sorts of witticisms and hard names, and proclaim their opinions, their likes and dislikes, with all the importance of authorized dictators. As to the shawl, it would be well if it could be banished from use entirely, as it is an inconvenient and injurious article of apparel, owing to its requiring both hands to keep it on and thereby tending to contract the chest and cause stooping shoulders. But, if worn at all, men have the same right to it that women have. If they find it convenient that is enough, and no one has a right to object to their wearing it because women wear shawls. Indeed, we think the shawl of right belongs to men as it answers so well to the description of the garment prescribed for them in Deut., xxii. 12: ‘Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture wherewith thou coverest thyself.’ True, men have departed from this injunction in former years, and resigned to women the dress prescribed for themselves and worn bytheir fathers in olden times. But that is no reason why they should not resume it.”

It having been stated that a woman in New Jersey had made a carriage, Mrs. Bloomer comments as follows:

“This is told as though it were something wonderful for women to have mechanical genius when, in fact, there are thousands all over the country who could make as good mechanics and handle tools with as much skill and dexterity as men, if they were only allowed to manifest their skill and ingenuity. A girl’s hands and head are formed very much like those of a boy; and, if put to a trade at the age when boys are usually apprenticed, our word for it she will master her business quite as soon as the boy at the same trade, be the trade what it may. Women have taste and ingenuity for something besides washing dishes and sewing on buttons, and so people will find out some day, hard as it is now to believe it.”

“Our counsel to every woman is, wear what pleases you best. Pursue a quiet and independent course in the matter, turning neither to the right nor the left to enquire who is pleased or displeased; and, if others do not see fit to keep you company by patterning their dress after yours, you will at least be left in the peaceable enjoyment of your own comfortable attire, and real friends will value you according to your worth, and not according to the length of your train.”

“Pity the law couldn’t be brought to bear upon a few more respectable lady drunkards—and respectable gentlemen drunkards, too—and shut them in a dungeon till they could learn in what real respectability consists! The so-called ‘respectable ladies,’ the upper-ten drunkards, are in our view decidedly vulgar, and should be classed in public estimation with the drunken occupant of the shanty or the frequenter of the low drunkery. They are even worse than these, for their influence is much greater.”

“The signs of the times cheer on the honest true-hearted laborers in this cause to greater devotion in the work in which they are engaged. They point to a triumph in the future, to the coming of that brighter day when the mists of ignorance and barbarism that have so long rested upon the life and hopes of women will be dispelled, and when justice and right will bear sway. For be it remembered that these things point, as unerringly as does the needle to the pole, to the wider and fuller emancipation yet in store for our sex, to the acknowledgment of her civil as well as her social and legal rights. And that this end will be achieved we believe to be as certain as that time will continue to roll on in its course and humanity continue to struggle against selfishness, bigotry and wrong in whatever form they may present themselves.”

The question having been asked Mrs. Bloomer, What will women do now sewing machines are coming into use? she replied as follows:

“It will be no strange thing to see, within a few years, women merchants, women bookkeepers, women shoemakers, women cabinetmakers, women jewelers, women booksellers, typesetters, editors, publishers, farmers, physicians, preachers, lawyers. Already there are some engaged in nearly or quite all these occupations and professions; and, as men crowd them out of their old places, the numbers will increase. It is well that it is so. Woman has long enough stitched her health and life away, and it is merciful to her that sewing machines have been invented to relieve her of her toilsome, ill-paid labor, and to send her forth into more active and more lucrative pursuits where both body and mind may have the exercise necessary to health and happiness. Men are aiding to forward the woman’s-rights movement by crowding women out of their old places. Women will be the gainers by the change, and we are glad to see them forced to do what their false education and false delicacy have prevented their doing in the past.”

A Maine Law, having passed the NewYork legislature, was vetoed by the governor; on which Mrs. Bloomer commented as follows:

“The news of this treacherous act on the part of the governor was celebrated by the liquor party with firing of cannon, bonfires and illuminations, with shouts of rejoicing and drunken revelry. The devils in hell must have rejoiced, while the angels in heaven must have wept, over the scene. And how was it in the home of the drunkard? Ah, who can picture the agony and despair, the wailing and agonizing prayers that went forth from the hearts of the poor stricken women who saw all their hopes of deliverance thus dashed to the earth and themselves and famishing babes consigned to hopeless degradation and misery! While those who are called their protectors, and those who are heaping upon them every injury and killing them inch by inch, are enjoying their fiendish orgies, those poor sorrowing ones sit desolate and heart-broken in their dreary cellar and garret homes bowed with shame and anguish. Would that the man who has wrought all this sorrow and wretchedness could be made to behold the work!”

Referring to a strike in a Philadelphia printing office because two women had been employed as typesetters, Mrs. Bloomer wrote:

“Thus we see that woman has to fight her way as it were at every step. Her right to employment is denied, no matter how great her wants, unless she find it in the limited sphere prescribed to our sex by custom and prejudice. Yet we rejoice that there are men who are sufficiently liberal to open to her, here and there, a wider field for her industry, and who will see justice done her even though themselves are for a time inconvenienced thereby. Let not women be discouraged by such hostile manifestations on the part of men, but rather let them press forward until they break down every barrier which is raised to obstruct their advancement; and if they are but true to themselves, they will come off victorious and thenceforth find their way to every lucrative employment clear before them.”

During Mrs. Bloomer’s year of residencein Ohio, she received a great many invitations to deliver her lectures. Some of these she accepted. The first one was at Zanesville; and, although she stated in giving a report of it that she had been told she would meet with only a cold reception, yet she declared she had never found warmer friends or was treated with greater respect than at that place. “My lecture was listened to by a very large and attentive audience; indeed, all who came were not able to get within the doors. Judging from the expressions after the meeting, people were well satisfied with the lecture on woman’s rights. I was earnestly requested to lecture again in the evening; but as I had made an appointment in Columbus to-night, I was under the necessity of declining.” And substantially the same report might have been made as to all lectures delivered in different parts of the state. But she did not confine her work on the platform to Ohio only. During the summer she visited Indiana, also, and was listened to by large meetings held in Richmond and other towns.

Of some of her experiences in her lecture tours, Mrs. Bloomer gave the following report:

“At M. I lectured by Invitation before a young men’s literary society. No price was fixed upon in advance, and I expected but little; but having been told that no lecturer, unless it was Horace Mann who preceded me, had drawn so large a house and put so much money in the treasury, when they asked me how much they should pay me I said, ‘You say I have done as well for you, and even better than did Horace Mann, pay me what you paid him and it will be right.’ I think they were a little surprised that a woman should ask as much as a man; but seeing the justice of my demand, they paid it without a word. At that day lecturers were more poorly paid than since, and for a woman to have the same pay for the same work as a man was no doubt a new idea to them. At Z. a gentleman invited me and made all other arrangements. On my arrival there he called on me and said that some society, thinking that money would be made by my lecture, were talking of seeing me on my arrival and arranging with me for a certain sum and they would take the balance.He advised me to have nothing to do with them if they should propose it, as I could just as well have the whole. Men were so accustomed to getting the services of women for little or nothing, that they seemed jealous when one got anything like the money that would cheerfully be paid to men for the same service.”

Mrs. Bloomer attended the meeting of the Ohio Woman’s State-Temperance Society, held at Columbus early in January, and took an active part in its proceedings. She was elected its corresponding secretary, and was a member of the committee which proceeded to the State Capitol and presented a petition to each branch of the legislature then in session asking for the enactment of stringent prohibitory laws. Not being entirely satisfied with the regular report of the committee on resolutions, she offered a series on her own responsibility. These declared in substance, that the redemption of our race from the manifold evils of intemperance is of greater importance than the triumph ofany political party; that the question must go to the ballot-box for final settlement; that, as men regard women as weak and dependent beings, women ask protection at their hands; and that it should be their duty to make themselves acquainted with woman’s sentiments on this great question, and honestly carry them out. In support of the resolutions, she said she considered many of the temperance men really responsible for the protracted rum interest. They were so wedded to party that they heeded not their duty to the welfare and morals of society. In spite of all that had been done, the cause lingers and the rumsellers and manufacturers triumph. The temperance men are to blame for not acting consistently or independently for the cause. They will not act together as for a paramount interest; they do not strike the nail on the head. It is useless to dally thus from year to year and not strike a blow to tell upon the evil and the curse. The resolutions, after discussion, were unanimously adopted.

Fully believing that she should carry out in practice what she advocated in theory, Mrs. Bloomer secured early in the spring the services of Mrs. C. W. Lundy, of New York, as typesetter; previously to coming to Mount Vernon, she had had three months’ experience in the work. The fact of her employment and coming into the office was freely talked of in the presence of the employees, all of whom were men, and no word of dissent or disapproval, to Mrs. Bloomer’s knowledge, was expressed. It was agreed that her employee should receive all necessary instructions from Mr. Higgins himself, he being a practical printer, or from the men engaged in the office. It was soon seen that the men employed in typesetting, and especially the foreman, looked with disfavor on the movement and by various uncourteous acts and remarks endeavored to make the situation an unpleasant one.

Mrs. Bloomer herself gave the following report of this strike of the male typesetters. After alluding to the employment of Mrs. Lundy and her introduction into the printing office of theHome Visitor, she proceeds:

“Nothing, however, occurred of sufficient magnitude for us to notice till the fourteenth of last month. On that day, in the absence of both Mr. Bloomer and Mr. Higgins, Mrs. Lundy asked our opinion in relation to the proper indention of a piece of poetry which she was at work upon. As we are not a printer, we could only give a guess at its correctness; so we advised her to step into the other room and ask one of the men about it. She did so, and directly returned saying they refused to give the desired information. We went directly in and asked an explanation of their conduct; when all hands, with the foreman of the office as leader, avowed their determination not to work in an office with or give instruction to awoman. And, further, they said they had drawn up a paper to that effect which had been signed by all the printers in town. The foremanalso defied us to find a printer in Ohio who would give instructions to a woman.“This was placing us in a ‘fix,’ truly. We must do one of two things: either break our word with Mrs. L. and sacrifice our preferences and principles, or else the place of these men must be supplied by others who were more gentlemanly and who did not despise the efforts of woman to place herself in a position where by her own talents and industry she could earn for herself an honorable independence. The question was at once decided in our mind, and we knew well that in their decision we should be sustained by the proprietors of theVisitor. We took the first opportunity to acquaint Mr. Higgins with the state of affairs; and, on Mr. Bloomer’s return the next day, we also informed him how things stood. They then repaired to theVisitoroffice and held a long conference with their workmen, telling them it was not their intention to employ women to set the type of theVisitor, but that Mrs. L. would remain and work on theLily, and that they should expect of them that they should give her all the instructions she might need in her work. If they would do this willingly and cheerfully, well; if not, they might consider themselves discharged. Theywould not yield to such an arbitrary rule on the part of those in their employ. To this, the printers replied that they were firm in their resolutions and would not depart from them; whereupon all hands took up their march out of the office.“This action on the part of the printers has resulted in the employment of women to set the type for theVisitor. Three women were at once engaged for that purpose. A journeyman was immediately procured from Columbus, and other help has since been engaged; so that the proprietors have been enabled to get out their paper regularly, without acceding to the unreasonable demands of the printers of Mount Vernon.“We have removed ourLilycases into theVisitoroffice, and now the work on both papers is done in the same room, four women and three men working together peaceably and harmoniously. It does our heart good to see the happy change which has been wrought in the office by the attempt to crush woman’s efforts in her own behalf. The moral atmosphere has been purified, and superciliousness has given place to friendly and cheerful intercourse.”

“This was placing us in a ‘fix,’ truly. We must do one of two things: either break our word with Mrs. L. and sacrifice our preferences and principles, or else the place of these men must be supplied by others who were more gentlemanly and who did not despise the efforts of woman to place herself in a position where by her own talents and industry she could earn for herself an honorable independence. The question was at once decided in our mind, and we knew well that in their decision we should be sustained by the proprietors of theVisitor. We took the first opportunity to acquaint Mr. Higgins with the state of affairs; and, on Mr. Bloomer’s return the next day, we also informed him how things stood. They then repaired to theVisitoroffice and held a long conference with their workmen, telling them it was not their intention to employ women to set the type of theVisitor, but that Mrs. L. would remain and work on theLily, and that they should expect of them that they should give her all the instructions she might need in her work. If they would do this willingly and cheerfully, well; if not, they might consider themselves discharged. Theywould not yield to such an arbitrary rule on the part of those in their employ. To this, the printers replied that they were firm in their resolutions and would not depart from them; whereupon all hands took up their march out of the office.

“This action on the part of the printers has resulted in the employment of women to set the type for theVisitor. Three women were at once engaged for that purpose. A journeyman was immediately procured from Columbus, and other help has since been engaged; so that the proprietors have been enabled to get out their paper regularly, without acceding to the unreasonable demands of the printers of Mount Vernon.

“We have removed ourLilycases into theVisitoroffice, and now the work on both papers is done in the same room, four women and three men working together peaceably and harmoniously. It does our heart good to see the happy change which has been wrought in the office by the attempt to crush woman’s efforts in her own behalf. The moral atmosphere has been purified, and superciliousness has given place to friendly and cheerful intercourse.”

While Mrs. Bloomer’s troubles with her printers were under way, Miss Lucy Stone visited the city and gave an address on “Woman and Her Employment.” Mrs. Bloomer says:

“This happened most fortunately in the midst of the excitement about our difficulties in our office, and her words were like soothing oil on the troubled waters. It seemed as though an overruling Providence had directed her steps hitherward to allay the excitement and to subdue the angry feelings, to plead the cause of womanhood, to proclaim the eternal principles of justice and right; and she was in a great degree successful. We have heard no word of dissatisfaction or disapproval, but on the contrary all were highly pleased with her remarks, and we trust those who heard her are wiser and better for having listened to her.”

During the summer, Mrs. Bloomer visited her former home at Seneca Falls, N. Y., where she received a very warm welcome from hermany co-workers and friends of former days. Writing home to theVisitor, she says:

“Seneca Falls! There is a charm in that word, D——, that will ever arrest our attention and awaken an interest whenever and wherever we may see or hear it. So many years of our lives have been spent here, and so intimate and dear are many associations connected with the place and the people, that they can never be forgotten however attractive or absorbing may be the future events and associations of life’s journey. You will feel a thrill of pleasure, not unmixed with sadness, when you know that I am again on the spot thus endeared to memory, and again surrounded by those with whom we have long held social and business intercourse. Would that you were with me here for a little time, would that you could walk with me again the streets so often trod by us, and note with me the changes that a few months have wrought! Would that you could see face to face the friends of old, and receive the hearty grasp of the hand which would meet you at almost every step, and above all that you could gaze with me upon our dear cottage home which we took so much pleasure in improving and beautifying and in which we found so muchreal enjoyment! I can hardly realize that it is not my home still, that I should not if I passed within find everything as of old, and you to welcome my return.—A. B.”

While in New York, Mrs. Bloomer went to the second annual meeting of the Woman’s State-Temperance Society held at Utica on the 7th day of June. It was largely attended, and was presided over by Mrs. Mary C. Vaughan who made an able and eloquent opening address. Great interest prevailed among the temperance workers in the state at that time, owing to the veto by Gov. Seymour of a prohibitory liquor law which had passed the legislature. Various resolutions bearing upon this subject, and upon the reasons assigned by the governor for his action, were offered and discussed. One resolution, aimed at the use of tobacco as a fruitful cause of drunkenness and of injury to the boys and young men of the country, was also offered; on this, Mrs. Bloomer took the floor and spoke as follows:

“She said the resolution under consideration seemed to her one of great importance. The tendency to this vice in the young boys of the day cannot escape the attention of any observing mind; if one may believe the statements of some of the best physicians of the country in relation to the use of tobacco, it is a fruitful source of disease and crime. That it creates a thirst, is admitted by those who use it; and that thousands are led to quench that thirst in the intoxicating bowl, is a truth that cannot be denied. One of these poisons seems to imply and call for the other. Tobacco comes first in order, alcohol follows.“In view of these facts, what must we anticipate from the boys of our country who have so early become addicted to the use of the weed? Is there not fear that their future career will be an inglorious one, and that they will be led to slake the unnatural thirst which tobacco has occasioned in the cup? Does not this thought call loudly to the parents to look well to the habits of their sons, to fathers to set them an example of virtue and sobriety by themselves abstaining from the use of the filthy weed, and to both fathers and mothers by their wise commands and counsels to leadthem to hate and shun the vice as they would that of its twin brother, drunkenness?“It is a mournful truth that too many parents regard the tendency to evil on the part of their sons with indifference, as an innocent harmless habit. They seem to think it a matter of course that they should grow up filthy tobacco chewers and smokers; and hence we see little fellows who have hardly escaped from their frocks smoking the cigar or long pipe in perfect imitation of their elders, and this, too, without reproach or warning from those who should teach them better. The practice if followed will prove ruinous to health, if no more terrible results follow. Parents should take this into consideration and act accordingly, as they value the future happiness of their children.”

“In view of these facts, what must we anticipate from the boys of our country who have so early become addicted to the use of the weed? Is there not fear that their future career will be an inglorious one, and that they will be led to slake the unnatural thirst which tobacco has occasioned in the cup? Does not this thought call loudly to the parents to look well to the habits of their sons, to fathers to set them an example of virtue and sobriety by themselves abstaining from the use of the filthy weed, and to both fathers and mothers by their wise commands and counsels to leadthem to hate and shun the vice as they would that of its twin brother, drunkenness?

“It is a mournful truth that too many parents regard the tendency to evil on the part of their sons with indifference, as an innocent harmless habit. They seem to think it a matter of course that they should grow up filthy tobacco chewers and smokers; and hence we see little fellows who have hardly escaped from their frocks smoking the cigar or long pipe in perfect imitation of their elders, and this, too, without reproach or warning from those who should teach them better. The practice if followed will prove ruinous to health, if no more terrible results follow. Parents should take this into consideration and act accordingly, as they value the future happiness of their children.”

Of this New York Convention, Mrs. Bloomer on returning home wrote for theLilyas follows:

“The meeting passed off most happily and we trust it will be productive of great good to the cause. The officers and agents of the society, with one or two exceptions, were present. The report of the executive committee and the treasurer show the society to be in asprosperous a condition, if not even more prosperous than at its annual meeting one year ago. A determination was manifested on the part of all to go forward in the work so long as their efforts were needed. Five or six agents have been in the field during the year, and their collections have amounted to nearly two thousand dollars. This money has been expended for the good of the cause. One of the agents told us that she had lectured one hundred and fourteen times since last October. This shows an amount of labor expended in the cause equal to, if not exceeding, that given by any man in the state. Altogether, the convention was highly interesting and pleasant and it afforded us much pleasure to be present at its meetings.”

During the year the temperance order of Good Templars was introduced into the state and its lodges established in several of its cities and villages, so that towards the close of the year a state grand-lodge was organized at Alliance. The first lodge was instituted at Conneat, and the second at Mount Vernon.

This latter lodge was called Star of Hopelodge, and soon numbered among its members many of the leading Temperance men and women of the city. Mrs. Bloomer, for reasons already given, took great interest in the spread of this order. For that purpose she visited different parts of the state, and also several towns in Indiana, in some of which she instituted lodges, special authority having been given her for that purpose. She also occupied a prominent position in her home lodge, and had the pleasure as presiding officer of assisting to initiate into its mysteries Hon. William Windom, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury, and Hon. William F. Sapp, both of whom were residents of Mount Vernon, together with other prominent citizens. It cannot be doubted that the institution of this lodge, together with Mrs. Bloomer’s labors in the cause, had a controlling influence in the temperance work in Mount Vernon during the year 1854.

On leaving Mount Vernon, in December, Mrs. Bloomer published the following card:

“Star of Hope lodge in this city continues to prosper. Its members now exceed 150 and are constantly increasing. Its weekly meetings, which are very fully attended, are deeply interesting and we hope are productive of great good to the cause. Our association with the members of this lodge has been pleasant and agreeable, and we shall part with them with real regret. Our wish and prayer is that Star of Hope lodge may long continue to hold its weekly meetings, and that its members may never falter in unwavering fidelity to their pledges. When far away we shall often refer to hours spent in their lodge-room during the last year as among the pleasantest passed in Mount Vernon.”

But another change now came to Mrs. Bloomer. Her husband in July had sold out his interest in theWestern Home Visitorto his partner, Mr. E. A. Higgins, and both his connection and that of Mrs. Bloomer with theVisitorthen ceased, except that the former continued to aid Mr. Higgins for a few months in its editorial management. This, of course, made no change in the publication of theLily.In September, Mr. Bloomer made an extensive tour in the West proceeding as far as western Iowa and Nebraska. After looking the ground carefully over, he determined to locate at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River, in Iowa, and made purchases of property at that place. In relation to this change of residence and the disposition of theLily, Mrs. Bloomer in reply to a statement that her paper had died of “fun poked at it” wrote in 1890 as follows:

“My husband after leaving theVisitordetermined on locating in this far-away city (Council Bluffs), then three hundred miles beyond a railroad. There were no facilities for printing and mailing a paper with so large a circulation as mine, except a hand press and a stagecoach, and so it seemed best for me to part with theLily. Finding a purchaser in Mrs. Mary A. Birdsall, of Richmond, Indiana, I disposed of the paper to her and it was removed to that city. Mrs. Birdsall published it for two or three years and then suffered it to go down, from what cause I never knew. But this much is true, it did not die of ‘fun poked at it.’ It had long outlived fun and ridiculeand was highly respected and appreciated by its thousands of readers. It had done its work, it had scattered seed that had sprung up and borne fruit a thousandfold. Its work can never die. You say rightly that theLilywas the pioneer journal in the Northwest for woman’s enfranchisement. Other journals have taken its place, and the movement has gone steadily forward and nears its final triumph.”

The above was written about 1890.

In announcing the change in her residence and the transfer of theLilyto Mrs. Birdsall, at Richmond, Ind., Mrs. Bloomer wrote among other matters connected with the change as follows:

“We have deeply cherishedThe Lily, and we have been greatly cheered by the daily evidence we have had of the good it was doing. This has encouraged us to go forward even when we were nearly fainting under our self-imposed task, and did circumstances favor it we should probably labor on, weary as we have sometimes felt and great as has often been theeffort necessary to the discharge of duty. But theLily, being as we conceive of secondary importance, must not stand in the way of what we believe our interest. Home and husband being dearer to us than all beside, we cannot hesitate to sacrifice all for them; and so we cheerfully resign our pet to the care of its foster-mother, feeling well assured that our readers will lose nothing by the change, if they will only put forth their hands to strengthen her in her undertaking.“As will be seen by the prospectus, we do not entirely sunder our connection with theLily, but only throw off its greater burdens. As Corresponding Editor, we shall hold frequent chats with our old friends and readers provided they will listen to us and welcome it to their homes as of old. We have no idea of retiring into obscurity, but shall keep the public posted as to our whereabouts, and tell them of the events occurring in our far-distant home amid the Bluffs of the Missouri.”

“As will be seen by the prospectus, we do not entirely sunder our connection with theLily, but only throw off its greater burdens. As Corresponding Editor, we shall hold frequent chats with our old friends and readers provided they will listen to us and welcome it to their homes as of old. We have no idea of retiring into obscurity, but shall keep the public posted as to our whereabouts, and tell them of the events occurring in our far-distant home amid the Bluffs of the Missouri.”

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