The following article is taken from Hawthorne’s first newspaper, “The Oasis” on Sept. 8, 1881. It is indicative of the period when many men, working the outreaches of civilization, were bachelors or if they had wives, they were maintaining separate households. The only female company for many men were the “soiled doves” of the day and some poor hard working miners couldn’t even afford that or were miles from the opportunity. Their loneliness in the old mining camps frequently led to drink, gambling and deadly fights over the rare smile of a woman.
“To wit, the cry:
We want girls! Girls who can get themselves in good shape and go to a dance. The boys are getting tired of receiving invitations with a request to “bring the ladies”. They are like apples and oranges- – very scarce. We want girls who go to church and to bible class on Sunday, and the kind who can draw a congregation of the other sex, and who will take a buggy ride when lessons are over. This will help the livery business and will also hasten the sale of lots, for they are the vehicles in which homes are first thought of by many people. We want girls who can wait upon a table, who can smile us into an appetite when stomach bitters are impotent, and who will make the boarders regular at their meals. We want girls for sweethearts, so that when we get an arm shot off, or kicked by a mule, or thrown from a bucking horse and laid away for repairs, we may hear a gently voice and see the glitter of a crystal tear, spoken or dropped in unconscious sympathy for our pain. We want fat and funny girls to make us smile all over, and lean and fragile ones to hang on our arms, and petite blondes who show themselves on sunny days, and stately brunettes, so beautiful in the twilight.
We have mineral enough, and plenty of grub, and tobacco. The only lack of our resources is those potential civilizers of our pioneer brothers- – the girls.”
