Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-09-16

of this chapter of California his
tory. But is it the right view?
There certainly is another.
The colonization of California,
the historian tells us, was very
slow
ITO quote from Eldredge's i'm
L pOrtant work, published last
year, in 1890 the entire population.
not counting aborigines, was but
9S9. 1t is a fair question Why
was it that in country so blessed
as California with a fertile soil,
an agreeable climate, and all the
conditions that go to make life
easy and comfortable, the efforts
to colonize it should meet with
such difficulty? The author of the
Mission Play" might not admit
the answer, but is it not the true
one? The missions had become
possessed of enormous wealth. In
herds, in bursting granaries, they
were the swollen capitalists Of
their time And it was not to the
interest of the mission to promote
colonization.
The wrong done to the Indians
by the secularization of the mis-
sions is insisted upon in the play
with dramatic incisiveness. But
the historian does not acQUit the
padres OF a measure Of RESPONSE
bility for their condition. He de-
Clares that they had kept the In
dians in a condition of peonage
from which such results were
bound in due course to follow. The
missions had not fitted them, had
not tried to fit them, for any other
than a dependent position.
And on a broad view the opinion
of another historian, declared to be
a true friend Of the Catholic
Church, may be justified:
TO secure lands for farming
purposes it was, in former years,
necessary to get the written con-
sent of the missionaries under
whose control they were ere the
Government could give legitimate
possessions; therefore their acqui-
sitiOn depended entirely upon the
good will of the friars. 1t may be
justly supposed that by this re
striCtiOn the colonization of Cali
tOTnia was rather retarded. So il
was, for the immigrant was placed
at the mercy of preiudiced mis-
SlOnary who might be ayerse to
anything like secular improvement
At first the SecularizatiOn was con
sidered disastrous to the prosper-
lty of California, and the wantOn
destruction of property which fol
lowed seemed to warrant the CON
clusiOn; but the result proved to
be quite the contrary. Individual
enterprise has placed the country
In more f1Ourishing condition.
and the wealth, instead of being
confined to the monastic institu-
tons as before, has been distribut
ed among the people"
THE Mission Play" is stepped in
poetry. 1t is not only it's
phrases, sweet wales" kissed
hills" sunset wave" and the like.
used simply. naturally. sincerely.
without attitudinizing or bombast.
II is the feeling which runs through
it all. 1t is the spirit which nos.
sesses It. This is romancel 1t fs
such romance as, to many of MS
has seemed all our lives to belong
TO an unreal world, a world of
imagination and dream, at most a
world centuries dead and gone
which can never come to life again
But it is all real. And it is herel
Romance is in the air we breathe'
Mis- is a play for America. And
the turmoil of great cities.
where the strife of the markets IL
most incessant in sordid manu-
featuring towns, where tired men
and women live out their lives
beneath skies that seem a million
miles away from ours of heavenly
blue, this Mission Play" should
be performed, and they should
know what is the sweetness and
the glory of the Golden State
Some day they will come to see us.
Then in the morning they will say
Never a fairer day dawned upon
this earth" and in the evening
they will see a world transferred
in the light of setting suns. Then
this fact will break in surprise and
gladness on their souls:
This is not some foreign land of
which we have had &c read in
books, this land of the palm and
the pine with its Spanish names
and Italian airs, and Latin TO-
nance, and Greek delight in beauty
1t is America, And it is all orr
own. California is one of the stars
on our flag. Its growing greatness
is our strength. The gold in its
mountains and rivers is our wealth.
Its sinewy manhood and beautiful
entranChised wOmanhood are as
red blood in the veins of the Amer
lean Union. It's power today. its
promise of tomorrow, and the
pride and patriotism of its people