Why Is It?

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 19, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 44.

THIS is what a correspondent of the Oakland daily Express asks, in view of the number of young ladies that are seen on the streets of this city every evening. He says:—

"They do not appear to be shopping, or going to any place in particular; for when they arrive at that point where the crowds on the street grow thin, they 'right about face,' and march back to the further end of the street. I have also noticed 'mashers,' as they passed, lift their hats, and, in many cases, the girls would recognize the compliment(?), and after they were by, I have heard one 'masher' say to the other, 'How are those for chippies?'"

This practice is not peculiar to Oakland, but is even more prevalent in some Eastern cities. The question is therefore pertinent, "Do the parents know that their loved ones are in this way forming the acquaintance of persons whose characters are, in many cases, questionable?" Two more questions might be asked: Whose duty is it to know the whereabouts of these "young ladies"? and, If they are ruined, who will be responsible?