IN NEW YORK CITY.
We now quote from Mrs. Bloomer’s personal reminiscences:
“In February, 1853, in company with Miss Susan B. Anthony, Rev. Antoinette L. Brown, and Mrs. L. N. Fowler, I held three meetings in the city of New York. We had been attending a Temperance mass meeting in the city of Albany, where we had both day and evening been addressing the assembled temperance hosts that had come together from all parts of the state in response to a call for that purpose. At these meetings we were met by parties from New York, who invited us to visit that city and hold a series of meetings, assuring us that every preparation would be made and we should be received by good audiences. We accepted the invitation and in a few days went to New York to fill the engagement. Full notice had been given and all things put in readiness for us. These meetings were held in Metropolitan Hall, where Jennie Lind made her début on arriving in this country, which has since been burned down; and in the old Broadway Tabernacle; and in Knickerbocker Hall.
“That was in the early days of the woman’s movement, and women speaking in public was a new thing outside of a Quaker meeting-house. We were the first to address an audience of New Yorkers from a public platform; and much curiosity was excited to hear and see the wonderful women who had outstepped their sphere and were turning the world upside down by preaching a new doctrine which claimed that women were human beings, endowed with inalienable rights, among which was the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
“The halls at each of these meetings were filled to their utmost capacity, from 3,000 to 5,000 persons being the estimated number in attendance. At the Metropolitan, Horace Greeley and wife, Dr. S. P. Townsend, Colonel Snow, and a number of others were seated with us on the platform; and in all the after meetings, Mr. Greeley was present and manifested much interest in our work, taking copious notes and giving columns of the Tribune to reports of our speeches. While in the city we were guests of the great phrenologist, L. N. Fowler, one of the editors of the Phrenological Journal, and his wife, and Mrs. S. P. Townsend; and the evening was spent at the home of the Greeleys.