“No one can question their motives, nor may one doubt that their intentions were not only formally pious but truly humane.  For the more fatal diseases that so-called civilization introduced among the Indians, only the soldiers and colonists of the presidios and pueblos were to blame; and the Fathers, well knowing the evil results of a mixed population, did their best to prevent these consequences, but in vain; since the neighborhood of a presidio was often necessary for the safety of a mission, and the introduction of a white colonist was an important part of the intentions of the home government.  But, after all, upon this whole toil of the missions, considered in itself, one looks back with regret, as upon one of the most devout and praiseworthy of mortal efforts; and, in view of its avowed intentions, one of the most complete and fruitless of human failures.  The missions have meant, for modern American California, little more than a memory, which now indeed is lighted up by poetical legends of many sorts.  But the chief significance of the missions is simply that they first began the colonization of California.”

The old mission church as I knew it four and forty years ago is still standing and still an object of pious interest.  The first families of the faithful lie under its eaves in their long and peaceful sleep, happily unmindful of the great changes that have come over the spirit of all our dreams.  The old adobes have returned to dust, even as the hands of those who fashioned them more than a century ago.  Very modern houses have crowded upon the old church and churchyard, and they seem to have become the merest shadows of their former selves; while the roof-tree of the new church soars into space, and its wide walls—­out of all proportion with the Dolores of departed days—­are but emblematic of the new spirit of the age.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 1:  In “California,” 1886,—­one of the admirable American Commonwealths Series.]

IX.

SOCIAL SAN FRANCISCO

Social San Francisco during the early Fifties seems to have been a conglomeration of unexpected externals and surprising interiors.  It was heterogeneous to the last degree.  It was hail-fellow-well-met, with a reservation; it asked no questions for conscience’s sake; it would not have been safe to do so.  There were too many pasts in the first families and too many possible futures to permit one to cast a shadow upon the other.  And after all is said, if sins may be forgiven and atoned for, why should the memory of a shady past imperil the happiness and prosperity of the future?  All futures should be hopeful; they were “promise-crammed” in that healthy and hearty city by the sea.

It was impossible, not to say impolite, to inquire into your neighbors’ antecedents.  It was currently believed that the mines were filled with broken-down “divines,” as if it were but a step from the pulpit to the pickaxe.  As for one’s family, it was far better off in the old home so long as the salary of a servant was seventy dollars a month, fresh eggs a dollar and a quarter a dozen, turkeys ten dollars apiece, and coal fifty dollars a ton.