San Andreas independent., 1858-03-13
-' down on her knees,

-' down on her knees
And thank Heaven, fasting for good mans love-"
One Of those events that so bitterly H.
lustrate the frailty and wickedness of man
has transpired in our midst Is it to pass
us by as nine days wonder, startling us
for time, then to be forgotten without
having taught us great and serious les
son! We stand aloof, gazing with aston
ishment at the affair, conscious that our
eye glanced not along the fatal tube as
it hurled destruction into the heart of a
fellow-man, and congratulate ourselves on
our superior prudence and morality. But
trace this awful tragedy up to it's remote
cause, and many of us who now shudder
at the denoument, will be surprised at our
completely in this drama-surprised to
find that IN the by-play, or main business
OF the first act, we have enacted part
that will be difficult to reconcile with the
strictest rules of propriety Have we not
by indifference, if not actual encourage
ment, fostered the low and degraded stan
dard of morality that prevails in this noun
tain land of ours? Have we not extended
the hand of welcome to disreuptable char
acters, and taken them into our own fam
lily circle; quieting our migivines with,
" Well, well, it is the free and easy land
of California !"
Have we not time and again participa-
ted In the frivolities and improprieties of
the California Ball." that most glaring
landmark of our immortality? Have we
not seen our wives, sisters and daughters
taken into the mazes of the giddy dance,
and whlred through its exciting gyrations
In the arms of known frequenters of the
brothel-clasped in the lewd embrace of
men reeking with the fumes of brandy !?
Ayel Every man and woman of us has
seen this repeatedly and can ace then that
have 1" free souls stand up and wonder
that men are vile, and woman frail?
Where do these intimacies commence
that end so disastrously? Clear-toned
candor compels us to answer, here Ia
these same giddy, frivolous and promis-
cuous dances. That noble, excellent and
true-hearted women frequent these affairs,
women against whose fame and reputa-
tion the foul-mouthed slanderer dare not
for his life aspirate breath, no one will
for moment deny. But we ask them
earnestly if their very presence there is
not to considerable degree conducive to
the results we so much deprecate You
cannot be ignorant of the associations of
many who attend such places, and pollute
the atmosphere you breathe. Although
you can move through these contamina-
ting influences unscathed, are you all in
vulnerable? May not some weak sister,
with less firmness, less strength of mind
than yourselves, suffer the seeds of deg
radiation to be sewn in her heart under
the impression that your presence sancti-
fes everything? that her misgivings ere
lmproprlety has succeeded caution-are
erroneous, the countenance you lend to
these proceedings being an ample guar
antee of the propriety of all their associa-
tions? All little do you think that while
you by your participation are elevating
these wretched affairs into partial respect
ability, the moral leper is exerting his
baleful acts in theimmediate light of your
unsuspecting smiles.
Destroy the enamel of the tooth, and
decay commences; as the enamel to the
tooth, so is modesty to woman; and let
me ask you, can modesty forever resist the
assaults it is exposed to in these 'sfree
and easys p No. you cannot retain that