Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1906-04-12

|
Disease has about wiped the race off
the California map. The indolent
Indian has disappeared and the adobe
hut has about become relic, but
cit les and transformed country
| filled with homes of the conQuering
white man, who is making the land
garden, nave taken their places and
1t has required only about half Gen.
tury to do 1t all.
Besides convenient harbor for
ocean traffic, the other consideration
| for the location of the old mission
was water. Streams in the valleys
were as necessary as ports by the
shore and so wherever mission was
esta ablished was then il not now
stream from some mountain lake. IT.
rigation has since made residents in
dependent of natural streams but the
priests Of the 18th century had not
then brought water from long dlstan-
ces and conducted it thru the fields
to give life to fruit and flower.
The main grain crop there was bar
ley raised on the hill sides and in the
fertile valleys and numerous wealthy
rancherS owned their own vessels and
shipped the grain to the old world.
1t is an interesting fact that consi-
derable barley is still grown on some
of these old fields without irrigation.
But the hills are che grazing pastures
of the cattle and sheep, in the main.
The sloping sides are unadorned by
tree OF shrub and shaded only by the
heeting shadow. Of the buzzards wing
as he flaps along looking for victim
from the herds.
! One of the most romantic of the
old missions is that of San Juan Cap
istrano, between Santa Ana and San
Diego on the Santa Fe road. Nearby
is Cne Of those high promontories
that push out into the sea at whose
foot lie rocks. and huge breakers. The
10 ission is short distance from the
shore and the old Buildings plainly
seen from the depot, indicate what
was once very large establishment
built in the Spanish Moorish style of
architecture, OF the general design as
all the other missions,
The reliable writer of the interest
ing volume. "Two years before the
Mast" tells of the lonely and almost
solemn grandeur of the place, where.
is located the old mission. And prdc-
tically it is the same today as it was
10 years ago. No large busy town
has grown Up along side, as in other
10 ission localities. The houses of a
few shepherds and pretty flower
embowered station house are about
all that have been added. The old
mission buildings are in bad state
of decay. altho the resistance to Ghe
weather, as we'll as other destructive
forces, of the sun dried bricks, is
remarkable. In 1872 an earthquake
shook down some OF the walls and
soldiers encamped there later and
added to the natural shock by still
further demolishing the buildings.
1t is peaceful. ,..quiet romantic spot,
with cattle ard sheep browsing on
the mountain sides and the mono
tone of the sea family sounding
dull and sleepy refrain to completely
charm the senses. The hoarse whistle
Of the engine is desecrating noise
to wake the echoes in that sumber-
ing vale, long used to the pious pray
ers and solemn chants of the mission
fathers.
Volumes can and have been writ
ten about the singular mission estab-
lishments Of California. Arizona and
New Mexico. Romance has claimed
each mission for its own. The tory
writer, the poet. the dreamer OF
dreams, the religionist, the philoso-
pher, the student and historian have
seen these cr1mbling ruins in person
or in fancy, and their fame is world
wide. The novel of Romona has in
troduced the mission and it's life to
many thousands, and every day the
tourist enthusiast goes on little
excursion to Old Town near San Die
'go and visits the old home or we'd
ding place Of the,heroine of.the novel.
The guide tells about it IN conf
dent fashion, and it Is pleasanter to
believe, than doubt. The old house
is an open ruin into which run the
pigs and chickens, the rain makes
puddles on the floor, and there is
nothing attractive about the spot.
But romance and tradition and the
! spell Of the we'll told story gilds the
mud walls with coloring that no
sunshine Of fact, ..or exposure Of real
ity can change.
| Lost One pointer about year
and a half old white and dark brown,
q - -