fe--or property accumulated
during marriage by their joint earnings and savings. Such
property, whether real or personal, is generally held in the name
of the husband--no matter how much his wife may have helped to
accumulate it. If the wife dies, the husband still holds it all,
and neither law nor lawyers can molest him, or question his right
to it. But if the husband dies, the case is very different.
Instead of being left in quiet possession of what is rightfully
her own, to use and guard with all a mother's care and
watchfulness for the benefit of her children, the law comes in
and claims the right to appoint administrators and guardians--to
require bonds and a strict accountability from her, and to set
off to her a certain share of what should be as wholly hers as it
is the husband's when the wife dies.

This is the old common law, that has come down to us from
barbarous times, and the light of the nineteenth century has not
yet been sufficient to so illumine the minds of Iowa legislators
as to enable them to render exact justice to woman.

FOOTNOTES:

[395] In 1849 her husband was, appointed post-master, she became
his deputy, was duly sworn in, and during the administration of
Taylor and Fillmore served in that capacity. When she assumed her
duties the improvement in the appearance and conduct of the office
was generally acknowledged. A neat little room adjoining became a
kind of ladies' exchange where those coming from different parts of
the town could meet to talk over the contents of the last _Lily_
and the progress of the woman suffrage movement in general. Those
who enjoyed the brief interregnum of a woman in the post-office,
can readily testify to the loss to the ladies of the village and
the void felt by all when Mrs. Bloomer and the _Lily_ left for the
West and men again reigned supreme.

Mr. and Mrs. Bloomer removed to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in 1853, and the
publication of the _Lily_ was continued; she was also the associate
editor of the _Western Home Visitor_. Mrs. Bloomer lectured in the
principal cities of Ohio and throughout the north-west, and was one
of a committee of five appointed to memorialize the legislature of
Ohio for a prohibitory law, and assisted in the formation of
several lodges of Good Templars.

[396] The officers were: _President_, Mrs. D. S. Wilson;
_Vice-President_, Mrs. W. P. Sage; _Secretary_