Life and writings of Amelia Bloomer

by D. C. Bloomer

On returning home from one of her tours, Mrs. Bloomer wrote as follows:

“After an absence of two weeks, we again find ourselves in our own loved home, where we meet with a hearty welcome. Most forcibly do the words of the poet come before our mind as we enter our quiet sanctum, and from the depths of our heart we endorse them: ‘Home, sweet home! be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.’

“During the two weeks spent in jaunting through some of the cities and villages of the beautiful Hudson, we have seen much of the grand and beautiful in nature and made the acquaintance of some of the choice spirits of that section of the state. It has been a relaxation from cares we much needed, and we trust will prove time profitably spent both to us and to those who listened to the message we bore them.”

HATING THE MEN.

The editor of the Utica Telegraph having charged Mrs. Bloomer with “hating the men,” she replied to the insinuation as follows:

“Bless your soul, Mr. Telegraph! we dearly love them all—except rumsellers and those editors who patronize and sustain them in their ruin-and-death-dealing business. Hate the men? Why, such an idea never entered our head and we are sure our tongue never gave expression to such a thought! You must have had a curtain lecture before going to the meeting that night, Mr. Telegraph, which soured your feelings toward all womankind so that you saw through green glasses and heard through a cracked ear-tube; or else you must be a devotee to the wine cup, and are frightened lest the women are going to adopt some measure to make it unlawful and disreputable for you to gratify your low appetite. Oh, dear! how people are worried about our domestic relations. How much sympathy our ‘bigger half’ receives because of his sore domestic troubles! Strange that the Telegraph forgot to speak of our ‘five neglected children’! They have met with great sympathy from many people, but are entirely overlooked by this student of the ‘Natural Sciences.’ We do wish those editors who are so much interested in our domestic affairs would appoint a committee to investigate the matter and devise some plan of relief for our poor suffering husband and ‘five children.’ Ha, ha! we should like to see the workings of our ‘gude man’s’ face as they offered words of condolence and sympathy, and hear the kind and unruffled tones in which he would thank them for their tender solicitude and politely bid them return and bestow equal care on their own domestic relations.”

GOOD TEMPLARS.

Up to 1852-3 women were excluded from the several temperance secret fraternities which had come into existence, such as the “Sons of Temperance” and similar societies. To give to women a chance to work for the cause in the same way the order of the “Daughters of Temperance” was organized, but Mrs. Bloomer persistently refused to connect herself with them for the reason that she believed that women and men should be admitted to all such societies on a footing of perfect equality. The church opened its doors to both alike; so she insisted the secret societies should do the same. But in the latter part of 1852, the order of “Good Templars” was organized in Onondaga County, and soon spread out over the adjacent counties. It admitted women to membership and to all offices on an entire equality with men. Mrs. Bloomer was greatly pleased with the idea, and when a lodge of the new order was established in the village she soon became an active member, took great interest in its work, and held various positions in the lodge. She believed that it furnished an opening for women’s work in the Temperance cause which should not be neglected. In a notice of this new temperance organization, in the July number of the Lily, Mrs. Bloomer says:

“Of course, to those who believe that women should not work together with the men in the Temperance Cause this organization presents insuperable objections. No man who is not willing to admit woman to entire equality with himself in labors, duties, honors and offices, who is not willing that her vote should be deposited with his in the same ballot-box, and her voice be raised with his on all questions relating to its affairs, need apply for membership in this order. But the number of such men is small, indeed, and is daily growing beautifully less. It has long been the desire of many Sons of Temperance to admit women into their doors, and the recent omission of the National Division of that order to comply with that desire has sadly disappointed many of its best members. But what the Sons of Temperance have refused to do, the Good Templars amply provided for, and this feature we believe to be one of its chief excellencies, and which more than any other will commend the order to the hearty approval of the high-minded and right-thinking portion of the temperance community.”

The first State gathering of the new order was held in Ithaca, in June, 1853. Mrs. Bloomer was appointed a delegate to it from her local lodge, along with her husband, and when the state grand-lodge was organized she was admitted to that, also. A Rev. Mr. Wilson had been engaged to deliver the address, but he failed to attend. Mrs. Bloomer described the result as follows: