“The whole of the proceedings passed off most agreeably and pleasantly, and we regard the affair as the very highest compliment that could have been paid to those in whose honor it was gotten up.” FOOTNOTES: [1] From _Seneca County Courier_, Dec. 1853. CHAPTER SEVENTH. AN ASSISTANT EDITOR. On taking up her residence in Mount Vernon, Mrs. Bloomer became assistant editor of the _Western 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 also her 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 the _Visitor_. 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 the _Visitor_ anything particularly obnoxious on those subjects; yet I may frequently come in contact with old prejudices and 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 the _Visitor_ one 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.”