Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-10
THE OLD HOMESTEADs
nj SOUTHERN cALIFoRN1A-soM OF
THE OLD MISSIONS,
The Approaching Centennial of Los An
geles-Tns Advance of the New,
the Retreat of the old.
PASADENA, August IS, 1881.

stances and conditions incident TO tnis cen
,ennial of Los Angeles brings also stirring
IF many new unspent forces. The narrow
gauge railroad project Is developing into
reconnaissance having Just
been completed from Pasadena to Gan
Mr. Crocker's purchase from
Lucky Baldwin of a large portion of Rancho
La Puente is the heaviest land sale that has
ever been recorded in this county, and is
understood to mean business in the way OF |
preparing homesteads for coming thou
sands. l have no quarrel with the power
we call the spirit of the age, and yet l am
glad to get out of the noise Of it, between
the thick adobe walls of some of the old
Californian homes. Europeans would &C
cuse us of manufacturing sentiment over
the few historic ruins we possess, but 1t Is
genuine, and so is our admiration OF the
brave, hospital, chivalrous character OF
most of the early PATRONS. 1t Will be
loss OF the peculiar charm which has
brought SO many here to stay, when the
palatial residence of a successful Spectator
takes the place of such ranch houses as
belong to
THE OLD NOBILITY
OF Ventura, or the more modern Ger
vitos in this county. Surrounded by an
English park, Laguna, the country seat OF
Mrs. Stearns Baker, would be sufficiently
modernized. The old seats ask for adapta-
ton to modern wants, but they ought to
be carefully preserved, and such occasions
as our centennial tend to bring this feeling
into activity. There is a five days festival
now in progress at San Luis Key, and an
other at Pala Mission, and during those
few days one may overlook the coming
railroad and all modern innovations and
keep company in Imagination with good
Father Antonio, who lived more like
prince than priest in this most royal seat
of his order-he who loved the horse race
and the bull fight without discrimination.
prefguring the muscular Christianity OF
our own times who entertained the stran-
ger. and made the place of his habit alton
glorious with fruits and flowers. San LUIS
was the last but one, and the mostsplendldly
executed of that series of sacred structures
which extended from San Diego into the
Sonoma valley. 1t was not finished until
the wear 1898. | saw it first under the full
moon of September, 1876, and nothing IN
that year of sight seeing will Inger IN my
memory like view through the open and
still perfect arches of the great court, into
the still, deserted cloisters, the sanctuary,
and the Campo Santo. There was not
cloud in the sky. l could read the names
of "Pico," and others familiar in our MIS-
tory. upon the headstones. There was not
a sound in the air, and sat awhile on the
broken coping of fountain, wishing that
the shadows Of the overhanging pepper tree
would move it was so fearfully silent and
spiritual and desolate. Then l went inside
the church, and pushing away
ROUGH CURTAIN
Which divides what was the chapel OF st.
Louis from the nave, recalled what l had
read of Father Peyri who built it. He
asked for few cattle and Indians for his
mission, and the request was granted. He
dwelt there thirty-four years, when the
blow came which broke his heart-the Sc
uuestration of the missions. He took with
him only what was sufficient to enable him
to reach the City of Mexico, where he
threw himself upon the charity OF his
Order" There were so, 900 head of cattle,
10000 horses, 100000 sheep and goats,
belonging to the mission in 1884
there was $4,000 bushels of wheat in
It's granaries there was oil and wine
cloth and leather, sufficient food
and clothing for Father Peyri's $500
Indian communicates. Among these were
several blacksmiths and others skilled IL
useful arts. Under the civil rule which
followed, there was in eight years only
$50 Indians living on the mission lands
about four per cent. only of the live stock
and nothing whatever in the store-houses
These are in utter ruin the piles of adob'
cover or rather inclose a space of ten o.
twelve acres. The finest piece Of archi
lecture in California, with surrounding
which barbarians might have been prouC
of, was not only neglected but despoiled
The cloisters of burnt brick were pulled
down and carted away. a garden incloset
with high adobe wall, which is in toler
able preservation, covered eight acres
the beautiful arched entrance, pavements
and terraces, which yet remain, show wha
lovely spot it must have been with it
fountains and palm trees. One SOLITARY
palm illustrates the survival of the tittest
a clear spring bubbles out near its roots
and leaves ribbon of verdure in its tract
as its waters trickle down to the farm
below.
THE SITUATION
OF this Mission was unrivaled. Not com
handing the sea view like Carmel, it is Sc
nobly upon hill, and from the towers or
has an enchanting panorama OF plains, val
leys and distant mountains. The day fol
lowing nv moonlight visit / spent i
sketching the interior of the church, an
some parts OF the cloisters and ruins. Up
the bell tower found white owl. ASLEEP
whose ehostly presence had disturbed m
meditations of Father Peyri and his CON
patriots the previous evening. When
raped on the rim of the one silver bel
which is left of the chime, he blinked a
me. and went off to sleep again, symbo
Of the shirt which seems to have bee
brooding over this region for forty years
But the spell is broken; not because tn
fiesta brings from all the hidden homestead
of these mountains 4 swarm of mountain
people, to see the troops of gay horsemel
racing and curvetting on the plain, o
plucking the buried chicken from beneath
their mustangs feet; not because tn
SCARED disgrace of ruin is covered to-da,
with cvergreens and wreaths OF flowers
and the priest is here to hold solemn mas
in the ancient, deserted sanctuary bu
because San Luis Rey is now in the irol
path over which great home-seeking i'm
migration is sure to come. The grea
ranches are rapidly undergoing segrega
ton, and the poetic, pastoral life, in which
even refined and high-bred people wer
content, no longer satisfies. Fewer acres
more neighbors. Already one sees NOR
houses-morc life in the immediate neigh
borhood Of the Mission. The Couts prop
erty near San Luis, if not the finest of
THE OLD HoMEsTEADs,
Has been the most intelligently and con
stantly improved by its owners since tn
fall OF the mission, and is exceedingly val
uable. Santa Margarita, the princel
estate of Don Juan Foster, is reporte
among the estates to be in the market er
many years. This will not be i'll news t
travellers by stage from San Diego to 10
Angeles, who remember those weary hour
spent in traversing the thirty or fort
miles of the Foster possessions. With tn
railroad will come villages, pretty station
houses, and for the emigrants from north
ern climates, such abundance OF fruits an
flowers as exceeds expectation or belle
1t is only by degrees that one can take i
the full sense of the profusion and variet
of products which nature displays here.
PALA