were worshipped, whether they held a woman or a
skeleton. Later, families were brought out, virtue
and domestic honor gained the ascendancy, and inde-
cency slunk away and hid itself. Then the maiden
and spinster at the east were seized with a desire to
visit their aunt or sister and see California. Much
to their surprise, most of them found husbands shortly
after their arrival, never dreaming of such a possibil-
ity. Enterprising young men advertised for wives ;
but the demand being so much greater than the sup-
ply, this method was not the most successful. Fi'e-
quently, however, through the medium of a common
friend, likenesses of a very puny man in California
and a sorrowing damsel at the east would be ex-
changed, letters would follow, and then the wooer
would send on the passage-money, and the blushing
fair one hasten over the sea to her adorer. Old
sweethearts often came out to their lovers, who met
and married them on the steamer deck.
It needs nothing further to prove the influence of pure woman on those destined to receive happiness at her hand than to notice the behavior of one who is expecting a wife or sweetheart. Some time before the steamer is due, the greasy hat and checked shirt are thrown aside, and whitewashed of his past, with clean linen and shaven chin, the happy expectant is suddenly seized with a desire to attend church. He manifests, perhaps, a deep interest in the Sunday-school, and wishes to become a teacher; he sighs over the dese- crations of the sabbath, and the moral depravity of the country. As the hour for the steamer to arrive draws near, he becomes nervous, business seems irksome, he looks in the glass, pulls out a gray hair or two, brushes his new clothes, and walks up to the top of Telegraph hill, and then around to the Merchants' Exchange. Finally the steamer is telegraphed ; he rushes down to the wharf, piously curses the general slowness of things, springs on board before the plank is put out, elbows his way through the crowd, finds her, and clasps
