New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-14
COME OVER AND MARRY Us.
Cry from California-The Kind of
Women the state Wants-Wives and
Wa&es-The Migration of 1864.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 25.-California has
abundant gold, but, save in her cities, Nc
women. Any one acquainted with the
mining districts will bear testimony to this
In those forlorn, money digging fields, men
live in painfully primitive fashion. cooking,
mending and doing generally those little
domestic affairs which, when not done by
women, might as well be left undone.
There, cooking is horrible, and productive
of more dyspeptic horrors than all the
medicine and doctors in christendOm-c could
cure: while the Sabbath is generally pro-
famed, and all, or nearly ALL the aesthetic
and refining influences of civilized life ar g
wanting. California is now in immediate
communication with the outside world, and
her material resources are well developed,
considering her small population; but the
excess of males is still painfully apparent
One of the greatest wants of the State,
to-day, is more women; not city misses,
with delicate hands, who are strangers to
the kitchen, and who shine only in the
theatre or the ballroom. but honest, indus
triOus American girls, such as are to be
found acting AS walters in hotels in Iowa
and Illinois, or working in the factories of
the New England States.
A good American girl of this class, who is
passably skillful III homework, can obtain
a situation through the State Labor Ex-
change in San Francisco within forty-eight
hours of her arrival, even in such dull times
as we are now passing through The wages
range from $50 to $50 gold per month, and
if the girl goes into the country-tO a hotel
or private family-she can get S35 to $40.
Even the most worthless of Irish servants
earn $40 per month in the city, and the
Chinese $25 to $50. Any American girl can
get place in the city but her expenses
will be smaller and her chances of mar
riage greater in the country. Marriage is
one of the inducements which we hold out
to this class of girls. If they accept a sit
uation in the country, and are only passably
good-lOOking they may reckon on being
able to secure well to do husbands in year
or two at the furthest. Girls travelling
alone to the Pacific coast must be careful
on the journey to receive no favor of any
kind whatever from a stranger, male or fe-
male, but especially the former. In three
cases out of four the casual acquaintance
thus made are undesirable, TO use no
stronger term. Once here they are as safe
alone as they would be in any of the East
ern States. But they must show them
selves worthy of respect by maintaining
proper womanly reserve. In all my expe-
rience on this coast, on the steamers via
the Isthmus, and on the trans-continental
trip, which have made twice, have never
seen any one attempt to break down this
barrier.
The establishment here of the best univer
sity or college in the United States, and of
schools of medicine, science and philosophy
of the highest order, and the influx of an
army of ministers, doctors, poets, philoso-
phels, statesmen and men of science, great
and beneficial as their influence would I'M
doubleday be, are not nearly as desirable for
California at present as the advent OF 4 few
or thousands of American girls
who have been brought up to work with
their own hands. and Whe would be willing
to marry and settle here for life. | believe,
on the whole, the men of this State would
make good husbands. The girls that come
may be disappointed in marriage, but they
will certainly not he disappointed in finding
n place at 500 TO $50 per month and board. |
The readers OF the Tribune will probably |
that ii Mr.. Mercer brought "A ship |
load of girls from New England to Wash |
ington Territory in 1864. They sailed from |
New York in a special steamer-the Cont |
mental. There was much pickering and |
many complaints about the delay in start !
ing. and the provisions furnished on the |
passage; but. when the women reached |
their destination, complaints ceased. None |
Of them found any difficulty in obtaining
work as household servants, hotel walters,
or school teachers, at wages |
hat would have been considered munif.
cent in any part of the Atlantic States. |
lost of them have since married, the sup
posed object of many of them in elnigrat- |
ng. Mr.. Mercer was, | believe, their only |
male escort. let the East, with it's super
abundance Of women, come to the rescue of |
California, and supply and hunanize with
servants and wives