The Women of the West 69 



marking that in my opinion he was likely to spend 

 it on " a bite of something to drink." As he moved 

 away, ragged and forlorn, my father-in-law, who 

 was with me, said soberly : " You should not cut 

 jokes with free-born American citizens. That fel- 

 low may live to be senator of this State." 



The balance must be adjusted between the woman 

 who does not work at all and the woman who works 

 too hard. I am of opinion that a radical change 

 is taking place in the hearts and heads of the women 

 themselves. I have already said that adversity 

 brings out and develops what is best in the Western 

 woman. The hard times have given them a clearer 

 perception of values, a saner common sense. En- 

 vironment is more potent than heredity. The New 

 England women, for instance, bring with them to 

 the West the qualities that distinguish them, — a 

 love of truth and duty and renunciation ; and as a 

 rule these good gifts abide with them till they die. 

 But their daughters born in the West will be of the 

 West; and as the West changes, sloughing its skin, 

 so will they change, in obedience to the laws of 

 evolution, till they stand at length, strong and tri- 

 umphant upon the pyramid of experience, not what 

 they are to-day, but what they ought to be — 

 to-morrow. 



