of course, and yet they develop
greatly when a catastrophe arrives and the man of many millions goes up
or goes down, and his daughters take to stenography or typewriting. I
have heard many tales of heroism from the lips of girls who counted the
principals among their friends. The crash came, Mamie, or Hattie, or
Sadie, gave up their maid, their carriages and candy, and with a No. 2
Remington and a stout heart set about earning their daily bread.

"And did I drop her from the list of my friends? No, sir," said a
scarlet-lipped vision in white lace; "that might happen to us any day."

It may be this sense of possible disaster in the air that makes San
Francisco society go with so captivating a rush and whirl. Recklessness
is in the air. I can't explain where it comes from, but there it is.
The roaring winds of the Pacific make you drunk to begin with. The
aggressive luxury on all sides helps out the intoxication, and you spin
forever "down the ringing grooves of change" (there is no small change,
by the way, west of the Rockies) as long as money lasts. They make
greatly and they spend lavishly; not only the rich, but the artisans,
who pay nearly five pounds for a suit of clothes, and for other luxuries
in proportion.

The young men rejoice in the days of their youth. They gamble, yacht,
race, enjoy prize-fights and cock-fights, the one openly, the other
in secret; they establish luxurious clubs; they break themselves over
horse-flesh and other things, and they are instant in a quarrel. At
twenty they are experienced in business, embark in vast enterprises,
take partners as experienced as themselves, and go to pieces with as
much splendor as their neighbors. Remember that the men who stocked
California in the fifties were physically, and, as far as regards
certain tough virtues, the pick of the earth. The inept and the weakly
died en route, or went under in the days of construction. To this
nucleus were added all the races of the Continent--French, Italian,
German, and, of course, the Jew.

The result you can see in the large-boned, deep-chested, delicate-handed
women, and long, elastic, well-built boys. It needs no little golden
badge swinging from the watch-chain to mark the native son of the golden
West, the country-bred of California.

Him I love because he is devoid of fear, carries himself like a man, and
has a heart as big as his books. I fancy, too, he knows how to enjoy the
blessings of life that his provin