The Women of the West 67 



And in the past seventeen years I have seen so 

 many seemingly sound apples drop rotten from 

 the tree — gin-sodden and worthless. In England 

 drunkenness is confined to a certain class ; the 

 drunkards of the West are ubiquitous. You find 

 them everywhere — except, be it said, in the pulpit. 

 The doctors, the lawyers, the business men are 

 the worst offenders, for they nip, nip, nip, all day 

 long, till they become — as they are called — 

 whisky-tanks, and cease, for the practical purposes 

 of life, to be men at all. What has been done to 

 check the growth of this monstrous tumour has 

 been done by the women, and to them be the 

 credit. 



There are some public positions which women 

 fill with genuine dignity. At the outbreak of the 

 late war, a Eed Cross Society was organised in San 

 Francisco (I think), with branches all over the 

 Pacific Slope. The Society concerned itself with 

 the welfare of the American soldier, and in particu- 

 lar the American volunteer, for whose comfort those 

 in authority had made inadequate provision. One 

 regiment arrived in San Francisco to find itself with- 

 out rations. It is true that a banquet was prepared 

 for the officers at the Palace Hotel, but the men 

 would have gone without food for twenty-four hours 

 had it not been for the Eed Cross Society. It was a 

 flagrant case of Eed Tape versus Eed Cross, and the 

 Eed Cross was not found wanting. 



I have found in country-bred girls an air, a grace, 

 a charm quite irresistible. And you cannot classify 

 them collectively. The typical Western girl does 

 not exist. Each is unique, a study in white, or red, 



