Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-05

The first act Of the gallant and in
trepid band Of padres. soldiers and
families who in the autumn OF 1776
founded San Francisco was that of
religious worship and Thanksgiving.
On September ~, a few months later,
on the feast Of the Stigmata Of st.
Francis, with solemn ceremony the
Presidio was taken possession OF in the
name of Spain. On October 4, the feast
day OF st. Francis, the mission was
formally dedicated The cross was
raised, the Te Deum chanted, while
bells were rung and guns fired. This
was the founding of the celebrated
Mission dc los Dolores (the Mission
OF the Sorrows of Mary, part OF
which. still intact, escaped the ravages
OF the devastating fire and earthquake.
The mission was In a little fertile
valley. four miles from the Preside,
near a small creek now filled in. Hos
tile tribes from the south had fallen
upon the Indians OF the peninsula, fir
ing their ranches, numbering many Of
the inhabitants and terrorizing the rest
into flight And so IL was that the
savages proved scarce at first. Even
I'm 1902 the Indians at the mission num-
bered only about 800.
The mission regime, in dealing with
them, seems to have touched upon
some of the educational and sociologl-
cal thought Of our own time. II made
use of the wisdom Spain had learned
from her Roman conquerors, the
taking of the conquered into full
partnership; the idea of the daily con-
tact of the superior with the inferior;
of community in property and CO.
operation in labor; of the union Of
manual labor with mental drill.
The Mission Dolores grew after the
general plan of the scores of others
In California. 1t was built about an
open court, the place for work or
recreation. The chapel stood at one
end of the rectange; the living room,
storeroom and shops lined the other
sides. Only the chapel, thrice restored,
remains of the Dolores structure.
The barren, sand-swept, wind-driven
hills were not attractive to the Span
ish. Nevertheless the mission in 1925.
from a few head of stock and a few
sacks of seed, brought in 17T6, had ac-
cumulated $4,000 cattle, 10000 sheep,
10000 horses and 100000 in money and
products.
Mexico's jealousy of the sympathy
which the padres felt for Spain, from
whom Mexico had torn herself In 1922:
the clamoring of settlers for lands
held by the missions, quixotic pleas of
Mexico statesmen for Indian autocracy
and probably, underlying ALL an itch
ing for the Pious fund which had sup
ported the mission work, all led to the
secularization of the missions in 1886.
The Indian civilized only surface deep,
was unready for civilized self-govern
ment, and so he fell back to barbarism,
to which was added dissipation.
The Dolores Indians were especially
Incompetent and no attempt was made
to organize a pueblo for them. SO
Dolores, after secularization, dragged
out an anomalous existence as lapsed
mission, carried on by political rather
than ecclesiastical rule, with an alcalde
rather than a padre in charge.
Bonanza Kings
The Big Four of the Pacific railroad
were all born poor, and not one of
them had got rich when he went to
California-Collis P. Huntington and
Mark Hopkins in '49, Charles Crocker
Ill so and Leland Stanford in so. They
were all Misrepresentation a
grocer, Huntington and Hopkins in
hardware and Crocker in dry goods
when they shaped and carried out the
vast plan which with reference to all
other schemes of transportation stands
as the pyramids stand, which not only
made colossal fortunes, but was able
to adopt the national government in
loco PARENTS and to get for many
years into Uncle Sans debt to the tune
of something like a hundred millions.
Many stories are told of Mr. Hunt
ington's shrewdness. He was a
Connecticut peddler, and unquestion-
ably after he had achieved his great
success was the head of more rail-
roads than any other living man. He
made the isthmus pay him for the
privilege of letting him go across, and
it is said prevailed upon men to let
them work as deckhands to take his
schooner to Sacramento. aa
The origin of the big Four of the
Bonanzas was equally humble. Flood
and O'Brien were bartenders in their