pretense to virtue is the one vice that is not forgiven. If a man be not
a liar, few questions are asked, least of all the delicate one as to the
"name he went by in the states." What we commonly call public opinion -
the cut and dried decision on social and civic questions - is made up in
the house. It is essentially feminine in its origin, the opinion of the
home circle as to how men should behave. In California there is little
which corresponds to the social atmosphere pervading the snug,
white-painted, green-blinded New England villages, and this little
exists chiefly in the southern counties, in communities of people
transported in block - traditions, conventionalities, prejudices, and
all. There is, in general, no merit attached to conformity, and one may
take a wide range of rope without necessarily arousing distrust.
Speaking broadly, in California the virtues of life spring from within,
and are not prescribed from without. The young man who is decent only
because he thinks that some one is looking, would do well to stay away.
The stern law of individual responsibility turns the fool over to the
fool-killer without a preliminary trial. No finer type of man can be
found in the world than the sober Californian; and yet no coast is
strewn with wrecks more pitiful.

There are some advantages in the absence of a compelling force of public
opinion. One of them is found in the strong self-reliance of men and
women who have made and enforced their own moral standards. With very
many men, life in California brings a decided strengthening of the moral
fibre. They must reconsider, justify, and fight for their standards of
action; and by so doing they become masters of themselves. With men of
weak nature the result is not so encouraging. The disadvantage is shown
in lax business methods, official carelessness and corruption, the
widespread corrosion of vulgar vices, and the general lack of pride in
their work shown by artisans and craftsmen.