The Newtown bee., 1904-08-05
Santa Barbara, Cal,


 but did not get at it. We have been to church this morning, up to the old Santa Barbara Mission, where we heard mass, and staid through the service. The Mission was founded about 1780, and is now in the best state of preser- vation of any of the old California Missions. The present church is now almost just as it was in the early days, a high, long room, with quaint old pictures painted by the old Fathers, many of them dimmed by age but still with much of beauty, remaining, es- pecially in some of the faces.
 The service was very beautiful and impressive. The mass was celebrated by three priests, each in the full vest ments suitable for the occasion, and the voice of one of them was the finest I have ever heard, and have heard several of New York's best, His voice was exceedingly rich and musical, and in the higher notes rang out with a clearness that was bell like. When mass was done they retired, and sud- den hush, so deep as to be felt, came over the church, as the old "Padre" stood before us, his hand lifted in blessing. He was a small, dark haired man, his face tanned and darkened, as tho thro' constant exposure to sun and wind, and his eyes singularly keen and piercing. He was dressed, (as al- ways) in the simple robe of his order, 8 dark dull brown, confined at the waist with cord of white. Except for the crucitix that hung at his side he wore no ornament. have never heard more impressive sermon than the one he gave, on the sighifigance of the holy season, on the meaning of the crucifx on the altar yelled with a pur. pie veil, and the saints on their pedes- tals, hooded and hidden by crimson shrouds, a reminder of the holy passion and suffering of the Lord for the sins of humanity. Long before he was through a woman here and there was sobbing softly.
 l Iwould like to be there next Sun day, Palm Sunday, still on the whole I was pleased that it happened just as it did, for we had chance to contrib ute toward the new organ. They have never had an organ, and now it has been decided that one shall be put up, and they were raising the amount to- day. In the future I shall rather en- joy thinking that I helped, if only a little, towards the organ that is to go into that old building. It is a very sad thing to see, that with this one ex- ception the old missions of California are being allowed to tumble in ruins, without the slightest effort toward preservation. They have 8 glorious history, of which any religious body might be proud, being as they are the outward expression, of the lives and deaths of those early Spanish Padres, who took their lives in their hands and came here to live in this new, unex- plored, and unknown country, in the hope that they might win the Indians to desert their spirit and idol worship, and believe in Christ. Many of them were slain, some of them were tortured, all of them gave up everything of com fort, and ease, to follow their work. Saint Patrick's Cathedral in N. Y. is the finest of this country's cathedrals. admire it's beautiful architecture, it's glorious organ, and its fine statues and paintings, but it would seem to me (whose opinion is of but little value, I admit).that the Catholic church could better afford to lose this beautiful and all that it contains, than to permit these old missions of California, baptised as they are by the blood of many an unnamed saint and martyr, to fall into ruin. There are some things of interest about this San ta Barbara mission, besides the Chap el, and the monks are very kind and courteous to all visitors. But one thing is denied, and that is their gar den, within the central court. Since the founding of the mission but two women have ever set foot within it's sacred precincts, and I, alas, belong to the forbidden sex.
 H~1