SALE OF MINERAL LANDS. 441 
some awkward girl just entering her teens, without education 
or experience in society, and entirely incompetent to take 
charge of kitchen or nursery. The scarcity of wives and mar- 
ried women converts many men inte tempters, and they must 
cause much misery. And women, knowing that they are 
acarce, and therefore in demand, are incited to calculate the 
chances and the profits of fidelity and chastity as compared 
with infidelity and infamy. Family quarrels often ensue, and 
the state has a sad notoriety for the frequency of its separa- 
tions and divorces. A trustworthy gentleman informs me 
that, during a visit to a mining town in a remote part of the 
state, about seven years ago, he was informed that there were 
in the town one hundred and twenty-seven women, forty-nine 
of whom, though married, were living with men not their hus- 
bands. The case is certainly without a parallel, in the state or 
elsewhere ; but the condition of affairs in this respect has 
changed very much for the better since 1855. 
The want of families, and the comparative scarcity of intel- 
ligent and good women, deprive the community of many of the 
most wholesome pleasures and ennobling influences which are 
found in other states. The man who has no wife or sweet- 
heart to work for is improvident; and, unchecked by such 
public opinion as can reign only where well-regulated families 
are numerous and society permanent, he gives himself up to 
dissipation, feeling confident that none of his neighbors will 
cut his acquaintance on that account. 
As the people are among strangers, and do not expect to re- 
main among them long, reputation loses its value, and public 
opinion its power; and thus forces of great influence in pre- 
serving the good order of society elsewhere have compara- 
tively little influence in the mines. 
The scarcity of families and the consequent unstable state 
of society make servant-girls shy of the country, and the few 
here demand enormous wages—five and six times greater than 
in New York. This may at first sight appear to be a fact 
of little importance, but it hay really driven thousands of fam- 
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