The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-08-07
CALIFORNIA; DILEMMA.

a San Francisco lady correspondent
of the Salt Lake Woma,fs Exponent
gives this very accurate account Of the
condition Of society in the Golden State:
It is said there is rivalry existing between
Chicago and 81. Louis as 10 which can get
ahead In crime or population, but California
VIII carry the palm OF the world. Here we
treat all men as rogues until we prove them
good, and just as we think we have proved
them good, they prove themselves rugues.
Confidence has fed, and people are cropping in
the dark for money aud happiness; a few md
the former, and fewer stll md the latter.
There Is an unjust feeling pervading all classes
OF society. In the palace or 10 the laborng
mans cot, there is want felt, and 10 is conf.
dence. Il has gone, and an are seeking Ia
ind it,
This condition Of the community is
due to stock-gambling. The doings OF
dishonest manipulators gave opportu-
nifty for such "leaders" as Kearney to
spring into existence. Rival newspa-
pers boosted them up in the hope OF
bettering their business. He and bis
henchmen, by their wholesale denun-
citation Of everything and every body,
have caused the feeling Of unrest which
pervades San Francisco in particular
and California in general. It is the be
lief Of 4 majority OF the transient resi-
dents Of the western city, that all the
men they meet are swindling "opera-
tors" Of some description. The con-
stantly appearing accounts Of fraud aud
peculation in both public and private
impress this vividly upon the careful
observer. California needs prOhibitory
stock-gambling laws. The new Constl-
tuition is not severe enough on this point.
In the course of few years the State
will recover from the first effects Of a
suppression Of the practice. Rid Of the
leeches who, stationed in stock boards
and mining offices, suck the life-blood
of the State, its prosperity will shortly
return. The consciousness Of the insta-
bility Of affairs and Of the lack Of hon.
esty in the dealings Of San Franciscans
will give place to an honest public sem
timent.
The excitement incident to stock
gambling has been the chief cause for
establishing San Francisco's reputation
for licentiousness. Recklessness in
gambling leads to recklessness in other
directions. Despair and Indifference to
the future have caused some women aud
many men who have lost their ali to
rush into dissipation.
The women Of San Francisco indulge
to some extent in the transfer of mining
stocks; but by far the larger proportion
abhor the practice. Woman's intuitive
nature will prevent her investing to any
great extent in fiuctusting securities.
II woman had the ballot in san Fran
cisco, stOck-gambling would be pro-
hibited. The city never will have an
honest, substantial growth until the
women are enfranchised, and by proper
legislation establish the confidence for
which everybody is seeking. The men
are too infatuated with the vice which
is destroying them to ever entirely pro-
hibit it. San Francisco can never rank
as a great city until it gets rid OF the
thousands upon thousands who subsist
by levying assessments on mining
stocks-a system Of piracy upon the la
bOrs of its mechanics and artisans.