364 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



In no part of the world is the individual more free from re- 

 straint. Men, women, and cliildren are permitted to do near- 

 ly as they please. High wages, migratory habits, and bache- 

 lor life, are not favorable to the maintenance of stiiF social 

 rules among men, and the tone of society among women must 

 partake, to a considerable extent, of that among men, especi- 

 ally in a country where the women are in a small minority, 

 and therefore are much courted. Public opinion, which as a 

 guardian of pubhc morals is more powerful than the forms of 

 law, loses much of its power in a community where the inhab- 

 itants are not permanent residents. A large portion of the 

 men in California live alone, either in cabins or in hotels, re- 

 mote from women relatives, and therefore uninfluenced by the 

 powers of a " home." It is not uncommon for married women 

 to go to parties and balls in company with young bachelor 

 friends. The girls commence going into " society " about fif- 

 teen, and then receive company alone, and go out alone with 

 young men to dances and other places of amusement. In this 

 there is a great error ; too much liberty is allowed to the girls 

 in the states on the Atlantic slope, and still greater liberty is 

 given here, where, as they ripen earlier, they should be more 

 guarded. 



The absence of restraint in society, the exciting character of 

 business, the mildness of the climate, the interesting associa- 

 tions of hfe, in a state where a man lives more and sees more 

 in a year than he would see in a lustrum in older countries, 

 have given the people who have resided here an attachment 

 for California. It has been observed that a large proportion 

 of those who have left the state, intending to spend the remain- 

 der of their lives in their native places, have returned, declar- 

 ing that they could not accommodate themselves to the slow, 

 quiet, dull ways of more antiquated states. 



§255. Publicity of Life. — Life in California is very public. 

 Many of the people live in hotels and at large boarding-houses. 

 Travellers are numerous ; theatres and balls are abundant and 

 well attended; celebrations and festivals are frequent; the 



