Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/325

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from confcinuing to solicit in their publications the fair sex to come. "What does it matter about money," they said, "that is the last consideration of a gentleman among us." "The young person who loves the world and its pleasures," says one of them, "will find here partners ready to procure her every enjoyment; while she who is inclined to domestic comfort will meet quiet and steady men whose doors will open to welcome her."

Of the wrecked hopes of men in California many speak; of the wasted sympathy of woman, of her vain yearning for the promised tenderness, of her faith among the faithless, her constancy after all affection had been withdrawn from her, her deep sorrows and sufferings as the reward of a devoted life—none at all. What are the blows of battle to him who engages in the conflict in comparison to the helpless agony of an eye-witness? All things will a man give for his life. Woman gives all for love; deny her this and she is dead indeed. A catalogue of Californian infidelities, broken vows, brutal treatment, failure to provide on the part of him who took from a happy home a tender loving heart under promise of eternal love and protection, would make one blush for the race. Men came hither to rough it, and it did them no harm, but added to their manliness. For woman, a life in California in early times was probably one of the most trying positions she could be called upon to endure, her love, her pride, her health, and strength, her honor and religion, all being brought under the crucial test. If she could drudge by day, and withstand discomforts by night, and live under it, she could manage to get along; but with want and unkindness this could not always be. Too often her weary life was soulless duty, and death the only recompense; and thus was her gentle spirit crushed and made ripe for heaven.

Content is godliness; but for a woman to have content, she must have something beside wealth; her