The Women of the West 55 



is the last to learn that the worshipper who has 

 decked her with diamonds is on the eve of bank- 

 ruptcy. But let it never be forgotten that when 

 adversity comes the idol steps quickly down from 

 her pedestal. The shrine is dismantled. The 

 divinity enters the kitchen. And you can wager 

 that she soon learns how to cook an excellent 

 dinner. 



Again, in early days the men were many, the 

 women were few, and, as a commodity in the 

 marriage mart, of extravagant value. It is unfair 

 to say that they went to the highest bidder, for 

 Western girls are not mercenary in the sense that 

 applies to the daughters of Mayfair, but naturally 

 they fell into the arms of the rich rather than the 

 poor. Indeed, a poor man, unable to give his wife 

 the luxuries of life, remained at the mines or on 

 the plains — a bachelor. 



Another reason : the last. At a time when vast 

 fortunes were made and lost in a few weeks or 

 months, it was part of the general scheme of things 

 to make hay while the sun of prosperity was shin- 

 ing. The man who had sold a big herd of fat 

 steers, who had struck a rich lead at the mines, 

 who held booming stocks, was not one to grudge 

 his wife a few diamonds or an extra dress or two. 

 Freely they had received, as freely they gave. 

 And so, petted and pampered, with not a caprice 

 left unsatisfied, the women of the West, touched 

 to the finest issues by poverty and hardship, were 

 by prosperity debased and discoloured. ISTot long 

 ago a friend of mine met a charming woman on 

 one of the big Atlantic liners. She confided to him 



