But, indeed, how could it be expected that these administrators would be efficient and honorable when we consider the system under which they were appointed and did their work? No civil service rules were applied. Men were generally appointed, not because of special fitness either through natural aptitude or through administrative training, but because of political partisanship and at the demand of some Senator or Representative; or, later, they were appointed because of religious affiliations at the suggestion of some religious body. No national tests were applied, nor was there a sustaining esprit d' corps. There could be no right spirit, indeed, when many government officials considered that the agency system was merely a cheap way of keeping the Indians quiet, and when the western population in general was profoundly skeptical as to the possibility of civilizing the Indian.[44] The outlook was the more discouraging since the great American panacea--education--seemed a dismal failure when applied to these Indians according to forms then in vogue. There might be quite a furore when a reservation school was opened and the novelty was unworn; but the white child's spelling book or reader soon proved very tame to the young Indian, the more so because of the difficulties of pronunciation. But the principal cause of failure of the day schools was the nomadic habits of the parents; hardly had the Indian child started to school, when away would go the family to the fishing or hunting grounds or to the camass fields. Teachers who were in earnest met this difficulty by establishing boarding schools, where the children could be kept removed from the parental impulsiveness. The next step was natural. These schools emphasized practical training, particularly agriculture for the boys and housekeeping for the girls. This step, taken at a time when in American educational methods, comparatively little attention had been paid seriously to this phase of education, was significant and produced good results.[45] Whatever the shortcomings of the American method of dealing with the Indians in contrast to that of British Columbia, in respect to education, at least, the American system appears to advantage; for the colonial government of British Columbia did practically nothing for the education of the natives. There were two terrible evils, prevalent both in British Columbia and in the territories, which weakened and degraded the Indians and hindered efforts of every sort for improvement. These were prostitution and the use of liquor.