Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-17
s1AnnEaous STRANGERS.

whom he has been surrounded since he |
came to California, for he certainly can |
possess no knowledge of his own on the
subject It is indeed worth recording that |
the revival movement which has been
going on of late in this city has been as
sociated With quite general attack upon
the mental and moral qualities OF the
people Of California. First Mr.. Brier de-
clared that Californians were too Ignorant
and stupid to be intellectual skeptics, and
then Mr.. Whittle flung an insult into the
faces of all the women of the Pacific
coast. This is novel mode of winning
popular confidence and recommending the
gospel to the community, and it deserves
to be inquired into. What did MIR. Whit
tie mean when he said that this coast had
been cursed by bad women? Who are
the bad women to whom he referred, and
how, when and where have they "cursed"
the coast? In the early times there were
few or no women here at all. In the days
of the gold fever there were no doubt
some female adventurers in California, and
there have always been perhaps as many
abandoned women as can be found IN other
parts of the world. But if Mr.. Whlttle
meant to say that there were at this pres
ent time, or had been for twenty years
past, more bad women on the Pacific coast
than are to be found on the Atlantic
coast, he has foully aspersed us, and ne
ought to make an apology as public as the
insult.
The probability is that this man has
come here full of the foolish lies which |
ignorant people in the Eastern States are
in the habit of fabricating about Califor-
MIA. 1t is unfortunately still true that
large proportion of our Eastern friends
believe that all Californians wear red
shirts, tuck their pantaloons into their |
boots, sling couple of navy revolvers
and large.sized bowie-knife at their
waists, and demand imam for break
" fast" every morning of their lives. 1t is
possible that to make the picture thoroughly
harmonious our women are supposed to be
mostly female gamblers and the mistresses
or wives of high1 aymen and "cow-
&" boys" and that the feminine sentiment |
favors powerful cocktails, profuse slang, |
horse-riding in the Sandwich Island fash
ion, shooting matches on Sunday mornings, |
and balls on Sunday evenings. This prob
ably is the kind of picture of California |
which Mr. Whittle painted for himself,
and we can only hope, for the credit of
his associates here, that he did not obtain |
any of his false and slanderous notions
from them. Even if this be the explana. |
ton of his misrepresentation, however, it |
cannot be regarded as excusing him. For
a man in his position is peculiarly bound
to speak the truth, and to avoid false |
statements of all kinds, and it is very Ger.
tain that he might have ascertained by a
very little inquiry that he was not justi-
fed in asserting what he did.
And it will naturally suggest itself to
the rejecting mind that person whose
statements of matters of fact are SO utterly
untrustworthy can scarcely be the re.
cipient of implicit confidence in regard
to deeper and more difficult questions. A
man so prone to make loose and erroneous
assertions even respecting matters which
he could ascertain the truth concerning
easily, may be suspected of jumping to
conclusions with equal haste and bad
Judgment in other particulars. a man, too,
who processes to be an exponent of
Christian doctrine, and who has at the
very outset of his missionary work com.
mitted SO gross and fragrant violation OF
that doctrine as expounded by st. Paul in
the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians,
stands discredited as teacher and guide.
1t seems to have struck him as of little
account that he should fasten wicked
and base libel upon the women of the
Pacific coast, so long as the perpetration of
this calumny furnished an excuse or pal
liation for the fruitlessness of the labors of
his kind 1t is indeed not uncommon for
those who preach doctrines against which
the sense of the public is beginning to
rebel, to account to themselves for their
failure by impeaching the intelligence or the
morals of the community. 1t is not un.
usual, but it has never yet been productive
of fortunate results for the cause SO sought
to be assisted.
The women of California are in all re-
spects the peers of any women within the
sphere of Mr.. Whittle's acquaintance, but
they are perhaps less inclined to take every
thing on trust. The intellectual atmos
phere of this coast is stimulating, and
women as well as men are set upon inquiry
in regard to many things which their more
phlegmatic sisters at the East accept with
out thinking. 1t is possible that this
tendency, which is no doubt embarrassing
to those who have propositions to offer
which will not bear examination, may have
offended Mr.. Whittle and some of his
reverend friends. But this could not give
him the right to libel all our women as he
has done, and in fact nothing can justify
such sweeping and injurious language as
he employed. Assuredly it is not by such
methods that the people of California can
be persuaded into accepting the hysterical
sensationalism of travelling revivalists as
the last word on religion. The only result
of such unworthy aspersions can be to
stiffen unbelief, and to disgust even those
who have been professors of Christianity
previously. Mr.. Whittle in short has
made very serious mistake in this matter.
TYPICAL CASE.
The case of Nearny, who is charged