THE YOUNG AUSTRLIAN IN CALIFORNIA.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1192, 8 November 1882, Page 2

THE YOUNG AUSTRLIAN IN CALIFORNIA.

Mr Thorpe Talbot writes from San ! Francisco to the Melbourne ' Leader ,: ; — One of the most noticeable features ■of this city is tho perfect liberty of I action allowed to everybody, a liberty, ■. affording too much facility for promiscuous acquaintance-making, must, I think, act detrimentally upon society and especially upon youth. People come and go, and do as they like, in no country in the world, I imagine is the principle of ' doing as you darn please' so thoroughly carried out. Domestic life, as we understand it, is unknown to most people here. Housekeeping is unpopular. Everybody ' boards ' and ' rooms ' out. Fashions here are in marked contrast to those we left behind us. San Francisco ladies are decidly dressy, and very good figures as a rule. Bright colors prevail, and bouffant, very bouffant, draperies. Bustles and crinolettes have got a firm hold, and I fear me, oh, I fear me, that hoop-skirts are iminent. The reprehensible, and generally disfiguring practice of face-painting and powdering is painfully prevalent. Very pretty women spoil themselves, aud ruin their naturally good complexions with this custom, while elderly and ugly ones merely emphasize their defects with it. Ten per cent, of advertisements are in laudation of popular pigments for improving (?) the complexion. Some faces that one sees are really works of art, but the majority are ghastly to the last degree, with the paint and whitewash laid on an inch thick, and not even a pretence of reality about them. General provisions do not differ much in price or quality from those of the colonies. Fish, fruit and vegetables are remarkably fine and cheap. Tea and coffee are superior. You can have the smallest quantity of coffee fresh roasted and ground before your very eyes. If you want chicory adulteration you have to ask for it. Butchers meat ie dear and inferior. The beef is wretchedly poor. Mutton is an improvement, and is, I think, real merino ; but after the meat of Australia, and especially that of Yew Zealand, that of Oalifornir is very unsatisfactory.