The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-03-25
OLD CHURCH BELLS
Those OF Southern California Mis-.
! sions.
scme OF Then, Have Toilcd for Almost N
Ccntury-HistorIo Roles or tho
Ancient Spanish Ro-
- Cirnc.

gtnc.
Many thousands of eastern tourists
in southern California have looked with
an awe inspired by their supposed an
tiQuity at the mission churches built bv
the Spaniards, when thcela which
now makes up this state was n de-
tendency OF That nation. These an
tiquc-looking buildings are interest
ing enough without any fictitious
attributes, and while they represent an
epoch that is past, and q rule that is
overthrown, they are not SO very an
cicnt. In fact" says Los Angeles
correspondent of the New York Tribune,
linen arc yet living hero who were
pranlish youngsters when the build
ings were begun. However, antiquities
are created very young sometimes. A
newspaper here recently commented on
the destruction of an historic building
in Redlands. That town is one of the
largest and busiest in southern Califor-
mia, but the building in question, as
well as the town. is only five years DID,
yet 1T was in way historic, us it was
the first house in the place
but to return to the matter of the
quaint Notwithstanding mission church.
es scattered through southern Califor-
MIA. They are somewhat primitive in
design, and look as il they might be
centuries in age. Another cause which
has led to considerable error as TO the
respective years in which they were
erected is the confounding Of the dates
of the founding of the missions and the
subsequent erection of the church build
ing itself.
"D. A. c. Stephens, of this city, has
been profound student of California.
and from him learn the following
facts: The mission church building ut
San Luis Rey was erected in 1902. BY
the way, this is the most interesting of
all of them, and is more nearly in the
condition and amid the SURROUNDINGS
which characterized these churches in
the Spanish regime than any other.
San Gabriel mission was built in 1904.
San Juan dc Capistiano and San
Fernando in 1906, San Buenavcntura in
1909, San Diego in 1919, and Santa Bar.
bara in 1920.
THUS the notwithstanding build
ing San Gabriel is only n little over
Lightweight years old. Recently cast
ern tourists in Los Angeles have been
attracted by some beautifully illumin-
atcd pictures of this building which
were sold as souvenirs in the stores in
} this city, and on which the date of cree
ton was printed US 1771. This serious
error married the value of the other
wlso finely executed pictures. The
year mentioned was the date of the cs-
adjustment of the mission of the Arch
angel Holy Gabriel, on the I'll Monte
iowlands, at what is now called the
old San Gabriel mission. This cold,
damp locality was productive of too
much maiarial fever among the priests,
AND several earthquakes damaged the
poorly constructed buildings, so that
three or four years afterward the holy
brothers moved several miles north
ward to the present beautiful site on
the warm, dry uplands. at what is now
known as San Gabriel. Here they first
erected an adobe church which in 1901
was replaced by the present stone and
rnbblc structure. In this building cx-
Gov. Pho Pico who is now, ut the age of
nearly ninety-thrce, n resident of West
Los Angeles, began his long public ca
reer first as an acolyte in tho year
1909. There are many others yet living
who were here when the San Gabriel
church was built.
Gwen the bells nrc of the present
generation. Mr.. Stephens tells me that
he recently climbed to the bclfry and
copied the inscriptions on them. So the
often written story about Spanish ladies
casting their jewels and golden orna-
ments into the melting pots to assist in
making the mission bells is not true as
to the one made by Mr. IIolbrools, and
probably not as to the other three.
The same tradition is associated with
the bells in every Spanish mission in
the Americas. Neither are the bells
ancient, as one was made in 1928 and
the other in 1890 The undated ones do
not seem to be any older than the ones
which bear the year in which they were
made.
"But the west knows and cares little
about time, and California particularly
has right to be contemptuous of the
slow rate of progress in other localities.
In less than fifty years it has developed
from Mexican province into great
state, and the growth in that time has
amounted to what it would have taken
centuries to accomplish elsewhere. The
missions arc not ancient in years, but
in what they represent sentimcntally
they are, in the language of the day,
out of sight "
Cheap Napkins.
Those gossamcr-lilse Japanese nap
hins used in some cheap restaurants
. cost rather less than quarter of n cent
each, and, all things considered, are