222 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



stood that office-seekers, irrespective of party preju- 

 dice, must make good their claims to be elected. 

 Civil service reform is tickling the ears of both 

 Republicans and Democrats, and the Auditors, the 

 Recorders, the Postmasters, and the like, are being 

 chosen because they possess qualifications other 

 than impudence and a capacity for absorbing un- 

 limited whisky. I can well remember a contest 

 between a Republican and a Democrat for one of 

 the most important state offices, an office highly 

 paid, but involving great financial responsibilities. 

 The Democrat was a Catholic and in possession of 

 the Irish vote ; he was a man of great personal 

 charm, widely known, and very popular. He was 

 also a saloon-keeper, a gambler, and a profligate. 

 The Republican, on the other hand, was unknown, 

 but his record as man and politician was clean. 

 The politicians predicted an overwhelming majority 

 for the Democrat ; but, by virtue of that change in 

 public opinion of which I have spoken, the Repub- 

 lican was elected, and morality vindicated. I could 

 cite a score of similar cases. 



Public Opinion, in a new country, is a slippery 

 customer, a chameleon whose exact colour varies 

 from hour to hour, a lightning-change artist : yes- 

 terday, the apostle of the Monroe Doctrine ; to-day, 

 an ardent Imperialist; to-morrow, what? How- 

 ever, despite this Protean faculty (perhaps because 

 of it). Public Opinion in the West, while it has 

 tolerated and even cherished a certain absolutism 

 verging on tyranny in regard to the conduct of 

 Western affairs, has also been quick to profit by 



