76 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



confounds means with ends. If a smattering of 

 book-learning is the be-all and end-all of education, 

 the mothers of the West are justified in sending 

 their little girls to school. If, on the other hand, 

 purity of mind, modesty, unselfishness, be deemed 

 a maiden's triple crown, she had better stay at 

 home till she is old enough to know evil when 

 she sees it, and, so knowing it, choose the good. 



When I first came to California, the girls, with 

 few exceptions, enjoyed unrestrained liberty. They 

 scoffed at apron-strings. They walked, and rode, 

 and drove alone with the man of their choice. The 

 mothers always stayed at home. They said proudly 

 that they could trust their girls. This trust was 

 a beautiful thing, quite ideal, but how often was it 

 betrayed ! You must ask the doctors, read the 

 records, and talk with the young men who take 

 the girls to the picnics and dances, and when you 

 have done all this you can answer the question for 

 yourself. 



In a country town, you will find the streets full 

 of girls. They are sent alone on errands ; they loaf 

 about the station and post-ofi&ce, they walk arm in 

 arm up and down the thoroughfares. They ought, 

 every one of them, to be at home ivorking, helping 

 their mothers, who — heaven knows ! — want all 

 the help they can get. And yet these same mothers 

 admit that their girls are a hindrance to them in 

 the kitchen, and the laundry. " Bless you," said 

 one hard-working farmer's wife to me, " my daughter 

 could n't cook a meal o' victuals to save her life." 

 From her tone I was left to infer that this inca- 

 pacity was greatly to the girl's credit. In the 



