ROUGH RAMOMS COUNTRY EORGE WHARTON JAMES Books by George Wharh IN AND AROUND THE GRAND CAI> _ COLORADO RIVER IN ARIZONA. plates and 77 illustrations in the text. Crown The volume, crowded with pictures of the marvels and bea_ _ absorbing interest. Dramatic narratives of hairbreadth escapes v- stories of Indians, their legends and customs, and Mr. James' ( give a wonderful personal interest in these pages of graphic stupendous natural wonder on the American Continent. Phi THE INDIANS OF THE PAINTED DESER^ 16 full-page pictures and 50 half-page illustr""^ graphs. Crown 8vo. $2.00 net. " Interesting as a fairy tale and valuable for its accuracy as and "a distinct and extremely interesting contribution to topog knowledge" (Buffalo Commercial), is this book by Mr. Jam describes the Navaho, Hopi, Wallapai, and Havasupai Indians IN AND OUT OF THE OLD MISSIONS O An Historical and Pictorial Account of the Fi With 142 illustrations from photographs showi tjjcrTnterior decorations, furniture, pulpits, c: sticks of the Missions, pictures of the Saints, < The best book on the missions and the Mission Indians. - Stands as the authority on the old missions of California. material. San Francisco Argonaut. THE WONDERS OF THE COLORADO D California). Its River and its Mountains, 11 Springs, its Life and its History pictured a* eluding an account of a recent journey made \ of the Colorado River to the mysterious Si colored frontispiece, 32 full-page plates, and and ink sketches by Carl Eytel. 2 vols. 8vo. Will long remain the standard work on the Colorado Chronicle. A remarkable and valuable work. The Dial t Chicago. THE STORY OF SCRAGGLES. An Autobi Sparrow. Illustrated by Sears Gallagher and I2mo. Cloth, $1.00. A tender story of a rare friendship between a man and a 15 creation. Seldom has so pleasing and satisfying a bird story bet Herald. ts LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Pub. THROUGH RAMON A'S COUNTRY THE UNIVERSITY f ^ fl II 6 - THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY BY GEORGE WHARTON JAMES AUTHOR OF " IN AND AROUND THE GRAND CANYON," " THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA, " " THE WONDERS OF THE COLORADO DESERT " ETC. WITH MORE THAN 100 ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1909 T35- BEICHIR Copyright, 1908, BY EDITH E. FARNSWORTH. All rights reserved. Published November, 1908. Cite (Tutor $3refis; BOSTON, U. S. A. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN . . 1 II. THE FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA . . 22 III. WAS THERE A REAL RAMONA ... 63 IV. WAS THERE A REAL ALESSANDRO . . 76 V. ARE THE CHARACTERS OP RAMONA AND ALES- SANDRO TOO IDEAL .... 83 VI. THE HOME OF RAMONA . . . . 94 VII. SAN GABRIEL, THE BIRTHPLACE OF RAMONA . 116 VIII. THE RAMONA JEWELS .... 126 IX. THE ORIGINAL OF JIM FARRAR . . . 132 X. THE ORIGINAL OF AUNT Ri 141 XI. THE VILLAGE OF SABOBA AND RAMONA . 145 XII. THE CAHUILLA RAMONA AND HER STORY . 153 XIII. RAMONA'S STAR BASKET .... 167 XIV. AN INDIAN'S FUNERAL IN RAMONA'S GRAVE YARD 173 XV. THE INDIANS OF RAMONA'S COUNTRY . . 178 XVI. THREE TRUE STORIES OF INDIANS IN RA MONA'S COUNTRY .... 191 XVII. BASKET- WEAVING AMONG RAMONA'S INDIANS 215 XVIII. INDIAN EVICTIONS IN RAMONA'S COUNTRY . 229 XIX. MOUNT SAN JACINTO AND ITS LEGENDS. . 237 X X . THE LEGEND OF THE ADVENT OF THE SABOB AS 254 XXI. THE STUDY OF FOLK LORE IN RAMONA'S COUNTRY . . . 263 XXII. RAMONA AND THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONS . 273 XXIII. THE INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE OF RAMONA'S COUNTRY . . 305 XXIV. THE CORONELS AND THE AUTHOR OF RAMONA 309 XXV. MRS. JACKSON AND ABBOTT KINNEY . . 314 180890 vi THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY XXVI. A FEW LETTERS BY THE AUTHOR OP RAMONA 328 XXVII. THE STAGING OF RAMONA .... 348 XXVIII. RAMONA'S COUNTRY IN RAMONA'S DAY . 357 XXIX. RAMONA'S COUNTRY TO-DAY . . . 374 XXX. A CLIMATIC WONDERLAND . 380 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The City of Pasadena, from Mt. Wilson . . Frontispiece Facing Page Helen Hunt Jackson, from painting made while studying the conditions of the Indians of Southern California . xii Don Antonio Franco Coronel . . . . . 18 Dona Mariana F. Coronel . . . . . 18 Father Ubach, of San Diego, the Father Gaspara of Ramona ... . . . . . 19 Mission chair at San Buenaventura . . . . 19 The Rancho Camulos and the Santa Clara Valley . . 24 The washing place under the old Willows at Guajome, Southern California . . . . . ., ' The torn altar cloth at Camulos, from which Mrs. Jackson made an interesting part of her story . , . . 25 The altar at Camulos, showing the torn altar cloth . 25 A flock of sheep in Ramona's country . . . 36 Branding cattle in Ramona's country . . . 36 Indian granary for acorns . . . . . . 37 Moss-covered live oaks in Ramona's country ... 37 Manzanita bush in blossom, January, 1906 ... 52 The blossoms of the" Candlestick of Our Lord," or Yucca Whipplei 52 The entrance to one of the canyons of Southern California 53 The Mountain White Lilac in bloom, June, 1907 . 53 A Cahuilla Indian carrying a load in her red, or net . . 56 An Indian at San Gabriel, Ramona's birthplace . 56 A Cahuilla woman making acorn flour in mortar, with basket hopper ..... 56 The Home of Father Ubach (Father Gaspara) at old San Diego ..... .57 The altar in the old San Diego Chapel , .57 vii viii THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY Facing Page Title page of .marriage register of San Luis Obispo, in Junipero Serra's handwriting .... 60 Ruins of adobe house at Saboba that fell and killed several Indians ........ 61 El Monte and the Puente Hills, in the San Gabriel Valley 61 Hotel at Idylwild, Strawberry Valley, in the San Jacinto Mountains ....... 78 Indian homes on the Pachanga Reservation ... 78 The Inner Veranda at Guajome ..... 79 The Grape Arbor at Guajome ...... 79 Snow on the mountains of the Sierra Madre Range, while the valley is in the dress of perpetual summer . . 98 In the courtyard at Guajome, Southern California . . . 99 The sheep-shearing place at Guajome .... 99 Indian women winnowing grain and pounding it in granite mortars ....... 102 El Recreo, Don Antonio Coronel's home, in Los Angeles, where Mrs. Jackson used to visit . . 102 South Veranda and Garden at Camulos . . . 103 San Gabriel Mission, near where Ramona is said to have been born 103 Entrance to the chapel at Camulos . . . .112 The bells at the old San Diego Chapel . . . . 112 The old bells at Camulos 113 Weaving the Franciscan waist-cord at Santa Barbara . 113 The balcony at Camulos . . . . . . 116 The barred window at Camulos, pointed out as the room in which Ramona was confined . . . . 116 An old olive oil mill of Ramona' s day . . . . 117 Six-ox team drawing a load of hay in Ramona' s day . 117 Sam Temple, the slayer of Juan Diego, hauling lumber down the San Jacinto Mountains . . . . . 134 Judge Tripp (Wells) and Jim Farrar (Sam Temple) at the house where the latter was tried for the murder of Juan Diego . . Mrs. Jordan, the original of Aunt Ri . . 135 An Indian home at Pachanga, Southern California . . 135 An Indian kish at Saboba .... 144 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix Facing Page A Cahuilla kish, built in the style found when the padres first came to California . . . . 144 The Cahuilla Ramona at the Ramada of her brother 145 Ramona weeping at the grave of Alessandro (Juan Diego) 145 The Cahuilla Ramona leaving the grave of her murdered husband ........ 145 A Southern California Indian of to-day . . . 154 Sam Temple, the Jim Farrar of Ramona . . . 154 The Cahuilla Ramona 154 The peach trees planted by Juan Diego . . . 155 In Juan Diego Valley, near Mt. San Jacinto, where Alessandro took Ramona ..... 155 Ruins of the house occupied by Ramona and Juan Diego, and where the latter was killed .... 155 The wild roses near Ramona's cottage, where Majella was born, in the San Jacinto Mountains . . . 155 A glimpse of the Cahuilla Valley, near where Ramona now lives ........ 158 The path up which Ramona fled to Cahuilla ... 158 The Cahuilla Ramona pointing out the grave of her mur dered husband ....... 158 The jail at Cahuilla, with Condino, Ramona's son, and a boy playmate inside ...... 158 The Thomas Ranch, where lived the nearest friendly whites to Ramona and Juan Diego . . . 159 An Indian funeral in the graveyard in Cahuilla where Alessandro (Juan Diego) is buried .... 159 The Cahuilla Ramona and her star basket . . . 168 The Cahuilla Ramona telling her story into the grapho- phone 168 A Saboba Indian basket weaver and her " bat " basket . 168 The Hartsell (Wolf) Store, near Temecula ... 168 A Southern California Indian of to-day, at the San Diego Mission school ...... 169 Ocha and her husband ....... 169 Old Dox, the grandmother of the Mohave Ramona . . 169 Jose Pedro Lucero, a story-teller of the Saboba Indians . 192 Jose Pedro Lucero and his wife at their home in Saboba . 192 x THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY Facing Page Two of the Indians that were evicted from Warner's Ranch 192 One of the evicted Indians at her basket work . . 193 An evicted Indian from Warner's Ranch . . . 193 Leonardo Owlinguwish, a Palatingwa Indian, who was a scout for General Kearny, in 1847 . . . 193 Mrs. Babbitt's collection of baskets, made by the Indians of Ramona's country ...... 218 A Palatingwa Basket . > . . . . 219 The Burro and Trough Design 219 Mrs. Babbitt's celebrated Rattlesnake Basket . . 219 Palatingwa Design 219 Ruins of the Indians' Church at San Pasquale . . 232 Indians at Agua Caliente spinning yucca fibre to make door-mats, etc. ....... 232 The Hot Springs on Warner's Ranch, San Diego County, California 233 The village of Palatingwa, Warner's Ranch, from which the Indians were evicted ..... 233 The author and friends on the way to the summit of Mt. Sanjacinto 238 Camping below Lily Peak in the San Jacinto Mountains . 238 Don Antonio Coronel and his wife, at their home in Los Angeles 239 Franciscans ploughing at Santa Barbara . . . 290 Bringing in the cows at Santa Barbara .... 290 Franciscans shelling peas at Santa Barbara . . . 291 Feeding the chickens at Santa Barbara . . . . 291 Brother Eugene and some of his wood-carving at Santa Barbara 296 Securing a swarm of bees at Santa Barbara . . . 297 Recreation hour for the monks at Santa Barbara . . 297 Cultivating in the Santa Barbara Mission garden . . 300 In the vegetable garden, Santa Barbara Mission . . 300 In the blacksmith shop at Santa Barbara . . . 301 A monk's bedroom at Santa Barbara . . . .301 A group of Mission Indian children at the Sisters' School, San Diego Mission 304 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi Facing Page A group of Southern California Indian children, after taking a ride in an automobile with the author . 304 Some of the buildings of the Sherman Institute, Indian School, Riverside, California . . . . 305 Indian girls and their teachers at the Ramona Home, Indian School, Riverside, California . . . 305 Mt. San Antonio in the snow, from Wilson's Peak . 316 Looking from Mt. Wilson towards Mt. San Antonio, after sunrise in summer . . . . . . 317 In the snow on Mt. Wilson on New Year's Day . . 317 The Franciscan monastery at Santa Barbara, the towers of the old Mission at the right .... 358 The Franciscan priests, clerics, and lay brothers, at Santa Barbara 358 Franciscan making baskets at San ta Barbara Mission . 359 An old California carreta the carriage of Ramona's day 359 The electric lights of Pasadena, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica, seen from Mt. Wilson .... 376 A Southern California Orange Grove .... 377 A modern hotel in Mission style, Riverside, California . 377 A patch of Lupines in blossom in Southern California . 380 On the beach after a New Year's Day swim in the Pacific Ocean 380 Looking from Mt. Wilson to Mt. San Antonio in winter . 381 An ocean of fog, looking towards Pasadena from Mt. Wilson 381 The Hotel at Mt. Wilson after the first snow . . . 392 The Hotel at Mt. Wilson after several snow-storms . . 392 Lambert (Sugar) Pine, with cones, on Mt. Wilson . . 393 The Yucca Whipplei in bloom above Pasadena, in June and July, 1907 393 One of the flower-embowered carriages at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses . . . . . 398 A school turnout at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses . 398 A float at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses . . 399 One of the floats at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses , 399 Helen Hunt Jackson, from painting made while studying the conditions of the Indians of Southern California By A. F. Harmer Page xii HE UN! VERS1TY or HELEN HUNT JACKSON BY INA COOLBRITH What songs found voice upon those lips, What magic dwelt within the pen, Whose music into silence slips, Whose spell lives not again ! For her the clamorous to-day The dreamful yesterday became; The brands upon dead hearths that lay Leaped into living flame. Clear ring the silvery Mission bells Their calls to vesper and to mass; O'er vineyard slopes, thro' fruited dells The long processions pass; The pale Franciscan lifts in air The Cross above the kneeling throng: Their simple world how sweet with prayer , With chant and matin song! There, with her dimpled, lifted hands, Parting the mustard's golden plumes, The dusky maid, Ramona, stands Amid the sea of blooms. And Alessandro, type of all His broken tribe, for ever more An exile, hears the stranger call i Within his father's door. The -visions -vanish and are not, Still are the sounds of peace and strife, Passed with the earnest heart and thought Which lured them back to life. O Sunset land! O land of -vine, And rose, and bay! In silence here Let fall one little leaf of thine, With lo-ve, upon her bier. FOREWORD At the outset it cannot be too clearly and positively stated that the story of Ramona is a wonderful mosaic of fact and fiction. Just as the detached and dis similar pieces of mosaic, of different color, of different origin, perhaps, and gathered from various sources are fitted together and held to each other in one co herent mass in the matrix of binding cement, so the isolated, unrelated, and different facts in the story of Ramona are held together in one coherent mass by the binding fiction of the author's genius. As I shall show later there is scarcely a statement of fact relating to the country, the Spanish home life, of description, of the treatment of the Indians, etc., in the whole book that is not literally true, but it is not true as related to the fictitious hero and heroine of the book, who are pure creations of the author's brain. Yet even here she was aided by what she saw, and, as we shall see, facts that actually occurred were woven into the lives of her fictitious hero and heroine. As one well-known Southern California writer has well said: "The story of Ramona is, one ought not to need to say, pure fiction. ' Ramona ' never lived, nor ' Alessandro,' nor the ' Senora Moreno,' nor any one else in the book, The commonest and cheapest xv xvi FOREWORD lies told in California are perhaps those of people who ' knew the original Ramona ' or ' the half-breed Indian, Alessandro, who was killed for horse-stealing,' and all the rest of this silly basking of the small in the sun shine of greatness." Susan Coolidge in her Introduction, says: " On her (Mrs. Jackson's) desk that winter stood an unframed photograph, after Dante Rossetti, two heads, a man's and a woman's, set in a nimbus of cloud, with a strange beautiful regard and meaning in their eyes. They were exactly her idea of what Ramona and Alessandro looked like, she said. The characters of the novel never, I think, came so near to materializa tion in her eyes as in this photograph. It was a purely ideal story. ... I have no reason to suppose, from anything said by her, that she intentionally described any exact place or person." Let it never be forgotten, then, that Ramona is a structure composed of fact and fiction; that while the story as a whole, the hero, and heroine are fictions, many of the isolated facts of the romance had their absolute origin in the life history of this unfortunate people. The descriptions of the Missions of Southern California, of the habits of the Spaniards, Mexicans, and earlier Americans, and of the life and condition of the Indians, are no less historically true than graphic and powerful. Hence the book is more than a novel. It is more than a history. It is more true than fact, for it is no less true than paradoxical that " there are many things more true than fact." It is a contribution FOREWORD xvii to the history of our treatment of the Indians that is worth more to the American people than all the official reports of a score of Indian bureaus. It has awak ened public sentiment and the public conscience on behalf of the Indians, and one result of its publication has been a decided change in the attitude of the better class of politicians towards these, their helpless wards. There is no denying the statement that Ramona has done more to arouse sympathy in the minds of the American people for the Indian than all other causes put together. The sweet, tender pathos of the story, Mrs. Jackson's profound oneness with the love-stricken hero and heroine and their afflicted people, her ex quisite touches of description, her keen appreciation of all good in the Indian and the strong points in their character, her consummate literary skill, all com bined to make Ramona a power in the land. It is to further contribute to the good work begun and carried on in so masterly a manner and to give to the people at large many facts that nearly thirty years of gleaning have gathered that I have presumed to write the following pages. If they aid in deepening the practical sympathy of the American people for an unfortunate and dying race I shall be gratified and satisfied. Pasadena, California, August, 1908- THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY CHAPTER I WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN THE novel with a purpose is generally con demned by the critics as inartistic, and there fore " not literature." There are more foolish opinions recorded as the judgments and decisions of " critics " than can ever be numbered. Artistic work litera ture is not to be lightly cast aside upon the mere ipse dixit of some fancied authority. Authorities are made by literature, not literature by authorities. There would never have been a grammar of the Eng lish language written had there not first been a lan guage to write about. Yet the makers of grammars have ever deemed themselves important enough and possessed of critical judgment sufficient to point out the " errors " of the men and women who have made the language. I would far rather follow the English of George Eliot, Sir Walter Scott, Thackeray, Carlyle, Ruskin, Cardinal Newman, ay, and even Charles Dickens, than that of critic-purists and grammarians. And I wish to go further and acknowledge that I pre fer the living, palpitant language in its formative 2 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY stages, when men like Kipling are remoulding it, to the formal, rhetorical language of the days of Addison, Burke, Johnson and Edward Everett. Lincoln's pure simple-hearted genuine utterances at Gettysburg live and forever will live, so long as the human heart re sponds to human emotions, while the " brilliant rhetoric," the " grand oration " of the distinguished and learned scholar who preceded him with the " oration of the day," are forgotten save in the gram mar books of men who prefer high sounding words and bombastic phrases to pure, heartfelt, sincere thought and emotion. The day of the " orator " is dying. The day of the simple user of words, whose yea is yea, and nay, nay, is dawning bright and clear. It will be a day of blessing to the human race, for language then will not be a vehicle for the hiding of thought and feeling, but of sincere, pure, true, simple expression. Herein is one secret of the power of the story of Ramona. Its author had a pure, deep, strong pur pose. She was not afraid to pour out her heart's inner feelings; she had no dread of being enthusiastic. To her enthusiasm in the cause to which her life was devoted was good. It was en theos in God God in and she wished to be full of the God, the good as she sought to reach the hearts of the Ameri can people in behalf of the Indian whom their unprin cipled politicians had so cruelly wronged. She had seen for herself, felt for herself, the injuries that our political system had forced upon the Indian. Men who originally had no desire co harm or defraud WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 3 the Indian, were dragged into the political machine and compelled to share in the common attack (arid incident ally reap some of the financial emoluments), or go down into political oblivion. The pass-word of the gang of harpies and vultures of her day was: " The only good Indian is a dead Indian." We wanted the land the Indians roamed over, we wanted the forests they lived in during the summer, we wanted the game they hunted for food, we wanted the streams in which they fished, we wanted springs, especially in the desert and arid regions, from which they secured water for themselves and their flocks and herds; indeed we wanted everything they possessed that we thought we could use, for were we not " the superior race," and had not God given to us this great country to use simply and solely for our own benefit? What to us was the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God? What cared we about the brotherhood of man? Those doctrines applied only to our own race, our own people; and these Indians were bronze-skinned and only " savages." Because they were bronze- skinned and wore the rude robes of their forefathers, the dressed pelts of animals; because they did not herd themselves in cities, in crowded streets and tene ment and apartment houses, and build hotels and court-houses and churches in which to live and practice " law " one upon another, and have some one teach them " religion," they were necessarily " heathen " and lawless and religionless. Hence why spare them? They were dreadfully insistent at times that they had 4 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY " rights." They didn't like to have their springs taken away; they resented being told that they must no longer hunt over the plains where their ancestors had hunted before ever a white man trod the Continent; they resisted when they were driven from their corn fields by civilized white men. They had the impu dence to be angry when members of this great, noble, and Christian white race assaulted their wives and daughters and perforce made harlots of them. They were foolish and simple-hearted enough to expect white men especially officers of the army and government to speak the truth when they pledged their words of honor, even in solemn treaty, that they the Indians should be protected in all the rights they had enjoyed from time immemorial. Their old men thought they were patriotic when they pleaded with the representatives of the white race to prohibit the selling of alcoholic liquors to their young men and their women; they saw the havoc the deadly fire water was causing and wished to stay its insidious influence; but we were a great commercial nation and could not interfere with the vested interests of our brewers and whiskey distillers, simply to please a few " brutal, ignorant savages." What did the damnation of the bodies never mind the souls of a few thousands of Indians amount to compared with the commercial interests of " our great and wonderful country? " The Indians had a kind of an idea that the land they had used for centuries belonged to them, but it was left for a California court of justice, WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 5 confirmed by the Supreme Court of the State and afterwards by the Supreme Court of the United States, to show them the foolishness of such an idea. How ridiculous that they could have any rights in land that white men wanted. WHITE men, mind you, white men! It didn't matter that these particular white men were thieves, liars, drunkards, sensualists, mur derers, all-round criminals, they were white ! And any white man was better than all Indians. Nay, did not some of our distinguished army generals and officers repeat constantly in our hearing that " the only good Indian was a dead Indian," and when we wanted the Indian's land and springs and forests didn't we see the perfect truth of this humane and Christian (!) statement. Helen Hunt Jackson saw all these things, and being a good and noble woman (even though her skin was white), with red blood coursing through her heart, and ability to use her own brain, regardless of what others said, she came to the conclusion that no matter what we called ourselves, or the Indians, our conduct towards them was not Christian, was not honest, was not true, was not civilized, was not anything, in fact, that was good, decent, honorable and commendable, but, on the other hand, was fiendish, monstrous, and cruel in the extreme. But, being a woman of wisdom and tact, and knowing the men she had to deal with, she went to work to help ameliorate the awful conditions that she saw around her on every hand in relation to our treatment of the Indians of the country. 6 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY Only under such circumstances could so powerful and sympathetic a story have been written. Mrs. Jackson wrote herself into her book, as well as the Indians she depicted. It is a book of self revelation, as well as a pathetic story of wrongs done to a helpless and inferior people by a powerful and so-called superior race. In it we see the author's sympathetic nature pleading for justice, for right, for helpfulness for those who were unable to plead for themselves. It is a sublime plea, revealing a God-touched nature, bravely and fearlessly speaking unpleasant truth, even as Christ spake. She herself said on her death bed : " I did not write ' Ramona ' ; it was written through me. My life-blood went into it all I had thought, felt, and suffered for five years on the Indian question." During these five years the idea of writing Ramona was bubbling in her brain. Little by little it assumed shape. Mrs. Jackson had seen enough of Southern California to have absorbed its spirit, its sunshine, its glowing atmosphere, and now, filled with facts about the Indians over which she had deeply brooded, until they had become vivid pictures engraved upon her very soul, she began to write. Once the pen was in her hands, a divine frenzy seized her. She wrote as one possessed. Indeed she wrote to her publisher that it was only the physical impos sibility that prevented her from finishing it at a sit ting, for, said she, " I have the whole story at my finger ends." Its publication formed an epoch. When it appeared. WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 7 in 1884, many critics hailed it " the great American novel." Throbbing with emotion, palpitant with life, vivid in its picturing of all the scenes, whether of inanimate or animate nature, realistic in its delinea tions of human character, sympathetic in its dealings with the despised and downtrodden Indians, outspoken in its denunciation of the wrongs perpetrated upon them; recognized at once as an authoritative picture of the Spanish California life of the time, it sprang with a bound into public favor. It was not widely heralded by advertising as a great novel, but it won its way by its own power. Few, indeed, of the popular novels that are " the greatest sellers " for a few weeks or months are remembered after a year or two are gone, but Ramona is as widely read, and almost as widely purchased to-day, as when it was in the full dawn of its first popularity. Only the other day I stood by the desk of a " baggage smasher " in one of the baggage rooms of a railway depot. In one of the pigeonholes, ready at hand for a spare moment or at lunchtime, was a well-worn copy of " Ramona." " That's the bulliest story I ever read in my life," said the rude-handed son of toil, in response to my comment. And I could not help but feel: How is it possible for one to read this story and not feel its humanizing influence. Thus the good work goes on. The book is a constant missionary, ever silently, but potently, preaching the beautiful doctrine of the humanity of all men, regardless of the color of their skin, and the Universal Fatherhood of God. Hence 8 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY its circle of friends is constantly increasing. The chief reason for this perennial youth of the book is its essential truth. Calling a book a history doesn't make it true, any more than calling it a novel declares it to be false. This is one of the "novels" that is " truer than fact," for it puts life into facts and makes them real, vivid, convincing. There is decided difficulty in determining when Helen Hunt's interest in Indians began. "Susan Coolidge," in her Introduction to the Pasadena Edi tion of Ramona, says that " it was in 1880 that during a visit to Boston she encountered the Poncas, Standing Bear and Bright Byes, and heard them, at a public lecture, tell the story of the cruel eviction of their tribe. " She was the last woman in the world of whom it could have been predicted that she would lay all other things aside to serve a moral purpose, but that was what, thenceforth, she did. " ' I have now done, I believe,' she wrote to a friend at this period, ' the last of the things I have said I never would do. I have become what I have said a thousand times was the most odious thing in the world, ' a woman with a hobby ! ' But I cannot help it. I cannot think of anything else from night to morning, and from morning to night.' ' The quotation from her letter seems to fix the date clearly enough, and yet from her Century of Dishonor we find that early in January (the ninth), 1880, she was writing letters to Carl Schurz, then the Secretary of the Interior, in regard to the condition of the Poncas. WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 9 She also wrote under the signature " H. H.," letters to the New York Tribune about the Sand Creek (Colorado) Massacre of 1864. Hence, it was most probably in 1879 that her interest was so intensely aroused. Pos sibly hearing the Poncas fired her to an immediate purpose to devote her energies to the amelioration of their wretched condition. What a vivid light this impulsive, sudden, thorough action throws upon her character. Emotional to a degree she must have been, to have felt the movings of her own soul so strongly at the recital of the wrongs of these defenceless and generally friendless red-skins. And how Divine the humanity within her that at once made her responsible for the attempt to do something to help them. She did not consider the obstacles; she did not ask what the opinions of others were or might be; she did not even consult those nearest and dearest to her. A clear call as from God Himself entered her soul, and she immediately obeyed it. Henceforth all minor matters must shape themselves, or be shaped to fit the one great purpose. The cool, deliberate, cold-blooded, careful woman would have seen the objections; would have asked herself if it was " the proper thing for a society woman to do "; would have thought of the ridicule she would bring upon herself, of the opposition she would undoubtedly arouse, of the hatred she would possibly provoke. She would not have dared to censure generals, and governors, and Indian departments, and Indian agents. But Mrs. Jackson, with sympathies divinely quickened io THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY to realize that a wrong to one was a wrong to all, and that all wrongs perpetrated unfailingly injure the wrongdoer, disregarded all minor considerations in the overwhelming conviction of her personal duty. Thenceforward, to the end of her life, nothing turned her, even for a moment, from her mission. Little by little it had been dawning upon the Ameri can people that the Indians were not being properly treated. Now and again a voice was heard, loud and clear, in protest. But politics were played then, as now, for the financial benefit of a few, and the Voice was either hushed, or its words drowned in a rival clamor gotten up for the purpose. The national dispute upon the question of slavery, however, with the humanitarian pleas of good men and women both in the North and the South for the more kindly treatment of all human beings; the fervid eloquence of William Lloyd Garrison, Whittier, Lowell, Wendell Phillips, Thomas Starr King, Lovejoy, John Brown and many others, and the powerfully pathetic story of Uncle Tom's Cabin, whatever they may have done to help on the inevitable Civil War, were wonderful educators of the emotions of men in the right direction. Children were taught, as never before, that cruelties to the helpless were abominable, and all this had its effect in the popular thought about our national treatment of the Indian, as well as of the negro. The country, therefore, was ready to listen to what she had to say when Mrs. Jackson began to speak in clear, womanly tones, yet insistently, forcefully, and WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 11 relentlessly. Her mind was keenly logical; she was an indefatigable and tireless worker; she saw what the people ought to know, and her literary gift enabled her to so set things forth that she had the open sesame to many powerful and influential papers. Her en thusiasm was unbounded, and she compelled atten tion, by the seriousness of her charges, the logical ability with which she prepared them, and the per sistence with which she pressed them. Evaded on a point, -she brought the evader's attention to it from another standpoint. She compelled a complete reve lation of the hands of the officials; they shuffled and quibbled, shirked and tried to elude, but, with a power no one ever dreamed her to possess, she led them on to unmask their batteries, disclose their secret pol icies, and either defend or abandon them. Her con troversy with Carl Schurz is as interesting as to listen to the combat between an able lawyer and an equally able witness; and when she had forced him clearly to declare his attitude, she did not hesitate, with equal clearness, either to condemn or have it condemned by the leaders of the New York press. Here, then, is the woman, who, in 1882, came to Southern California to study on the ground itself the Franciscan Missions and the Indians for whom they had been founded. Her careful researches made in the Astor Library, New York, in 1880, had informed her of some of the wrongs perpetrated upon them, and with a heart fired by the constant injustices done to Indians generally, who were denied by " the powers 12 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY that be " any standing in Court, and were therefore at the mercy of all the hangers-on and politician- vultures who sought to fatten on their very flesh and blood, she was ready to take up their case just as soon as its urgency was made clear to her. The Century Magazine had given her a commission to write a series of articles, what, they hardly knew, save that they were to be on the Missions and the Indians of California, and with characteristic energy she began to go right to the heart of the subject. She secured letters to the Catholic bishop and priests who might be able to help her; she made friends with old Spanish families and sought their aid; she visited the Missions themselves, and in the spell of their presence sought to live again in the time of their greatest activities. She consulted original records and gathered a vast fund of information, which she transmitted into delightfully interesting literature in her Century articles. First she wrote about Junipero Serra and the Missions he and his successors founded and conducted. Then she took up the existent con ditions of the Mission Indians. What she then saw led her to resolve to attempt to move the government to do something, honestly and really, not by mere resolutions and reports and red tape and verbal flimflam, but by action, to preserve to these poor creatures some portion of the homes that were " legally " being wrested from them. Accordingly, on July 7, 1882, she was instructed by the Indian Department, " to visit the Mission WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 13 Indians of California, and ascertain the location and condition of the various bands; whether suitable land in their vicinity, belonging to the public domain, could be made available as a permanent home for such of those Indians as were not established upon reservations, and what, if any, lands should be pur chased for their use." She had already visited Temecula, Pachanga, Pala, Cahuilla, Saboba, Potrero, Rincon, and Pauma, as well as all the Indians' homes that she could find near the old Franciscan Missions, so that she had a fairly good idea as to what she wished to do. The following letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shows how definitely she had outlined in her own mind the work she wished to perform: " To the Commissioner of Indian Affairs: " Dear Sir: I thank you for the expressions of con fidence in your letter of the . I hope the results of my work may not disappoint you. I do not under take the mission without misgivings; but I trust that my earnest intent in the matter will stand me instead of knowledge, and familiarity with the region will be an invaluable assistance. " Since the receipt of your letter, I have given the subject much thought, and will now outline to you what I understand to be the scope and intent of our investigations : " i. To ascertain the present number of Mission Indians, where they are living, and how. 14 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY "2. What, if any, Government lands remain in Southern California which would be available for homes for them. "3. If there is no longer left enough Government land fit for the purpose, which I strongly suspect, what land or lands can be bought, and at what prices? " 4. What the Indians' own feelings are in regard to being moved onto reservations. " So far as I can judge from what I saw and heard last winter, I believe that those Indians now living in villages would almost rather die than be removed. Yet, in many instances, the lands on which the vil lages stood have been already patented to white men, and I understand that, in such cases, there is no pos sible redress for the Indians. " Again, I am entirely sure that, to propose to those self-supporting farmers that they should be sub jected to the ordinary reservation laws and restric tions, would be not only futile, but insulting. There is no more right or reason in an Indian agent, with the Indian agent's usual authority, being set over them, than there would be in attempting to bring the white farmers in Anaheim or Riverside under such authority. " If this statement of what we are to do meets your views, will you kindly have it put into shape in form of a letter of specific instructions, such a letter as will give me full authorization under all circumstances, both with the Indians and at the land-offices of the different counties? There should be also a separate letter, authorizing Mr. Kinney joining me in the work, WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 15 / and guaranteeing his expenses. One item of expense has occurred to me since my letter to Mr. Teller, and that is of an interpreter. In visiting the Indian vil lages we should be obliged to take an interpreter with us. This should be provided for. My own expenses I will rate, as I told Mr. Teller, at twelve hundred dollars. This will cover my going out and returning. If it takes longer and costs more, I will defray the remainder myself. " I would like these letters in duplicate, to guard against accidents." , The Indian Commissioner accordingly authorized Mr. Abbott Kinney to assist in the work, and the final arid full instructions were issued in letters dated November 28, 1882, and January 12, 1883. In April, 1883 the start was made from Anaheim. The party comprised Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Kinney, Mr. Henry Sandham, the artist, of Boston, and they were driven in a double-seated two-horse carriage by N. H. Mitchell, then the proprietor of the Planter's Hotel in Anaheim, and afterwards of Hotel Mitchell in Pasadena. The tour occupied five weeks. The report was written and dated from Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13, 1883, and is published in full as an appendix in later editions of the Century of Dishonor. This book was written in 1880. Bishop Whipple, in November of that year, had written the Preface, and President Seelye, of Amherst College, Amherst, 1 6 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY Mass, (her natal home), in December, the Introduction. The book had been published and a small number sold. It was a startling arraignment of the United States for its dealings towards its helpless wards. It dealt, not with woman's sentiment, but with facts and fig ures. It abounded with quotations from government reports. Its title reveals its purport and the trend of its sympathy. The comment on the awful facts was restrained and careful. There were no rhetorical outbursts. It was a wonderful book that should have caused a tremendous arousing of the national conscience and as a consequence a political upheaval. Instead, it scarcely caused a ripple on the surface of the great deep it was hoped it might move to its bed. It was possibly Mrs. Jackson's first experience with the " national conscience." She could not understand it. She brooded and pondered over it, and while in this state of wonderment at the national apathy came to Southern California. The Century series of articles was doubtless another effort at the arousing of the American public, but she felt unconsciously their inadequacy. More must be done. Then, possibly, like an inspiration, the idea of the novel entered her mind. Here, here, was the solution. What Uncle* Tom's Cabin had been to the cause of slavery, her novel should be to the cause of the Indians. All unite in saying that when once this thought had entered her mind, she was totally ab sorbed by it. Every energy was bent towards its ac complishment. All her fervor, literary ability, powers WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 17 of research, observation and enthusiasm were har nessed in the one cause. Her researches had given her a wonderful familiarity with all the details, so pictur esque, so unusual, so pathetic, so romantic, for the details of the book, and her life of travel and writing about what she had seen rendered her peculiarly fitted to set forth the exquisite beauty arid grandeur of Southern California as the background of her story. Then, too, so many real incidents were ready to her hand to fit into the novel. These she gathered from every available source. Don Antonio Coronel and his noble wife opened up the rich treasure-house of their well-stored minds, and revealed the deep and loving sympathies of their profound natures and poured forth facts and suggestions innumerable. From Miss Sheriff, who had for years been a teacher at vSaboba, Mrs. Jackson heard the story of the slaying of the Indian, Juan Diego, in the mountains near by, by Sam Temple, who accused him of stealing his horse. Mrs. Sheriff, now Mrs. Fowler, still lives at San Jacinto. From Mrs. Jordan, who still lives at Old San Jacinto, she heard the corroboration of the story, learned the ab solute facts of Juan Diego's attacks of "loco," the taking of Temple's horse, and gained the character of Aunt. Ri. From Juan Diego's wife, whose actual name is Ramona Lubo, she heard how Temple came and shot down her husband at close range as he came out of their little cabin, and of Ratnona's flight to Cahuilla. From Don Antonio and certain Los Angeles lawyers who were interested in the Indians, as well as from 1 8 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY the government records and the lips of the Indians themselves, she heard of the evictions at Temecula and San Pasquale. With her literary friends, chiefly Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr, of Pasadena, she consulted freely about the story, and no one will ever be able to estimate the influence Mrs. Carr's clear mind, artistic conceptions, and deep loving nature, fully given over to the In dians, exercised upon the growing novel. All that was now needed was the framework, the skeleton of the story, the plot. She had studied the Missions, the old Spanish days, the Indians in their humble homes, Southern California in general, as no other person had ever done. It was what she saw and heard and felt while visit ing the Indians in person that burned the story of their wrongs so deeply into her heart that she was compelled to become their apostle, their defender, the one to fling dofn the gauntlet on their behalf. The following letter, to Mr. and Mrs. Coronel, more clearly than any ottier statement tells how the thought of the novel grew in her heart. It shows her fondness for works of Indian art and relics pertaining to their life. It tells a little of how the report to the government was received, and, better than all, how she proceeded to gather the necessary material for the story, "COLORADO SPRINGS, Nov. 8, 1883. "My Dear Friends, Mr. and Mrs, Coronel: I send you herewith the very bad picture of myself, which I g 1 QQ a i ^ I "* 1 3 o s 1 1st II WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 19 think you will wish you had never seen. If you do, you are quite at liberty to burn it up. " I had forgotten that I paid you the five dollars for the work done by the Indian woman. Keep it, if you please; there may be something to come from Father Ubach to pay expressage on, or there may be a box to be made to hold all my stone mortars, etc., which Mr. Bliss is going to get for me one of these years. It may be well for you to have a little money of mine on hand to meet these possible charges. I have asked Father Ubach to send to me to your care the old looking-glass frame which I forgot to put into the box he sent here; it was really one of the things I cared most for of all the relics promised me, and I was ex ceedingly sorry to forget it. He, however, did much to atone for this by putting into the box a piece of one of the old olive trees from the San Diego Mission. I shall present part of it to Archbishop Corrigan. I think he will value a piece of one of the fruit trees planted by Father Junipero. I am sure you will have rejoiced at the removal of Law son from the agency of the Mission Indians. I hope the new man will prove better; he hardly can prove worse. I wish we could have selected the new agent ourselves; but it was a political appointment, of which we knew nothing until it was all settled. Our report has been favorably received, and its recommendations will be incorporated in a bill before Congress this winter. I hope the bill will pass. But I know too much of Washington to be sanguine. However, if we had accomplished nothing 20 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY more than the securing the appointment of Brunson & Wells, Los Angeles, as United States attorneys, to protect the Indians' rights to lands, that would be matter of gratitude. I suppose you have heard of that appointment. I hope through their means to save the Saboba village, San Jacinto, from being turned out of their home. Now, I am as usual asking help. I will tell you what my next work for the In dians is to be. " I am going to write a novel, in which will be set forth some Indian experiences in a way to move people's hearts. People will read a novel when they will not read serious books. The scenes of the novel will be in Southern California, and I shall introduce enough of Mexicans and Americans to give it variety. The thing I want most, in the way of help, from you, is this : I would like an account, written in as much detail as you remember of the time when you, dear Mr. Coronel, went to Temecula and marked off the boundaries of the Indians' land there. How many Indians were living there then? What crops had they? Had they a chapel? etc. Was Pablo Assis, their chief, alive? I would like to know his whole history, life, death, and ' all, minutely. The Temecula ejectment will be one of the episodes in my story, and any and every detail in connection with it will be of value to me. I shall also use the * San Pasquale Pueblo History,' and I have written to Father Ubach and to Mr. Morse, of San Diego, for their reminiscences. You and they are the only persons to whom I have spoken of my WHY RAMONA WAS WRITTEN 21 purpose of writing the novel, and I do not wish anything said about it. I shall keep it a secret until the book is about done. " I hope very much that I can succeed in writ ing a story which will help to increase the interest already so much aroused at the East in the Indian question. " If you think of any romantic incidents, either Mexican or Indian, which you think would work in well into a story of Southern California life, please write them out for me. I wish I had had this plan in my mind last year when I was in Los Angeles. I would have taken notes of many interesting things you told me. But it is only recently, since writing out for our report the full accounts of the different bands of Indians there, that I have felt that I dared undertake the writing of a long story. " I am going to New York in a few days, and shall be busily at work there all winter on my story. My address will be, ' The Berkeley,' corner Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street. " I hope you are all well, and enjoying the same sunshine as last year. Mr. Jackson is well, and would send his regards if he were at home. " Yours, always cordially, JACKSON." CHAPTER II THE FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA are those in Ramonaland who will tell you *- that Ramona is fiction from beginning to end. They will go further. They will denounce the story as untrue to fact, in that it gives too highly colored descrip tions of the scenery and too exalted a conception of the Indians. With these critics I take decided issue. As I have shown in the chapter, "A Climatic Wonder land," it is not possible for any one to over-color the descriptions of the natural scenic conditions. And as for the Indians, criticism of them is more often based upon imperfect than adequate knowledge. Leaving these two great points of Ramona out of the question, however, there are many facts of detail, which the gifted author most ingeniously wove into her story. Let us, in this chapter, take a survey of these facts, and see how they have been applied. The description of life in an old time California ranch-house given in the first chapter is the presenta tion of an eye witness. While the scene is laid at Camu- los, it is well known that Mrs. Jackson was there only two hours, while she visited for days at a time at Gua- jome, the home of Lieutenant Cave J. Couts, where FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 23 there was just such a retinue of Indians and Mexicans as she so vividly pictures. Mrs. Couts's son, Cave, who now owns Guajome, repeats the story, and thus becomes authority for it, that when his father was a young dashing lieutenant in the First Dragoons, and his regiment was ordered to California from Chihuahua, Mexico, on September 1, 1848, he little dreamed that his fate awaited him in the person of a young and beautiful Spanish lady in the land to which he rode. On the first of April, 1849, he arrived at San Luis Rey. One day a party of San Diegans came to visit the old Mission, and among others was Miss Bandini, the charming, bright, vivacious daughter of Don Juan Bandini, one of the best known dons of Alta California. As the girl and her friends wandered about the building, they climbed upon the parapet over the corridors, and, gaily chatting and laughing, enjoyed themselves as young people will, until, horror of horrors, Miss Bandini slipped and fell headlong to the ground below. Death or a severe injury seemed inevitable, but the young lieutenant, observant of the maid, the glances of whose bright eyes had already penetrated his heart, dashed forward and caught her, thus averting the catastrophe. It was a double fall, how r ever, for both of them, for they then and there fell mutually in love, and, despite all opposition, married. Guajome was built as their home, and there Mrs. Jackson visited Mrs. Couts and saw and learned much of the real life of a California ranch -house. Cave also tells an interesting story that, one day, 24 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY he had gone out to see how a band of Indians, who lived on and were dependents of the ranch, had done some work he had allotted to them. They had been both indifferent and lazy, and he was angry with them. Raising his voice he forcefully and roundly abused them for their laziness, and used language with which they were doubtless familiar enough, but which, to a lady of refined temperament, would sound coarse, vulgar, and brutal. Mrs. Jackson happened at that very moment to be coming towards the Indians unper- ceived by Cave, and she heard much or all of his abus ive tirade. Her anger and indignation were as keen as his, but he was the object of them. Roundly she took him to task for swearing at the willing and docile Indians. Firmly and decidedly Cave defended him self, and the result was as near to a quarrel as a lady and gentleman can come. Mrs. Jackson recited the whole circumstances to Mrs. Couts on her return to the ranch, and Cave grimly confesses that his mother sided with her guest, but, nevertheless, he sticks to it that the Indians were lazy and careless and deserved all the " cussing " he gave them on that memorable occasion. Several other ranches in the neighborhood were visited by Mrs. Jackson at this time, one in particular being historic and famous. Near to Guajome was the Santa Margarita, which, in its palmy days, comprised over a quarter of a million acres. There she saw sheep shearing by the Indians on a large scale, as described in the first chapters of Ramona. The Ifancho Camuios and the Santa Clara Valle}/ Page 25 The icashina place -under the old Willoicsat Guajome, Southern California Page 26 The altar at Camulos, showing the torn altar cloth Page 33 The torn altar cloth at Carmtlos, from which Mrs. Jackson made an tnterestino part of her story Page 33 FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 25 Her pictures of Camulos have already been com mented upon. They are historic. Their accuracy is remarkable. Indeed Chapter II contains much valuable information, and more valuable suggestion. The criticisms on the United States Land Commission which, " after the surrender of California, undertook to sift and adjust Mexican land titles " seem to be just. There is no question whatever but that, in many in stances, truthful and worthy families were ousted from their legal possession of lands, and that, in other cases, land grabbers and thieves of the worst type were given possession where they had no legal or moral claim. It is in her remarkable use of such facts as these as motives in the minds of her characters that the genius of Mrs. Jackson displayed itself, as well as in her keen observation of other facts which she used in the same manner. For instance, it is true that the Santa Clara Valley road passes at the back of the Camulos ranch- house instead of the front, and that on the hills near-by are crosses. See how these are used in Chapter II to bring out the indignation of the Senora Moreno towards the hated Americans. The house " turned its back on them. She would like always to be able to do the same herself." As for the crosses, how they are made to reveal character: " That the heretics (the Americans) may know, when they go by, that they are on the estate of a good Catholic and that the faithful may be reminded to pray." Here are fact and fiction, fact in the statement 26 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY as to what exists; fiction in the attribution of motive in regard to the existence of the fact. The Indian bowls, described in Chapter 1 1, were made of the soapstone (steatite) or serpentine, found on Santa Catalina Island. The native quarry is still to be seen as left by the aborigines. Unfinished vessels, partially quarried by rude flint tools, remain in the solid rock. As Charles Frederick Holder says: " Here is the old workshop under the blue sky, with its unfinished work, its broken chips and pieces strewn about, the flint tools of the workmen here and there, telling a fascinating story of the possibilities of the human savage when thrown entirely upon the natural resources of a land where the only metals are gold and silver, and where in place of iron shell, stone, and wood were used for all purposes." The trellis work covering the garden walk and the willow trees at the washing place are to be found both at Camulos and Guajome, as, doubtless, at a score of old time ranch-houses in Southern California. The " carved oaken chairs and benches " (Chapters II and XIX) are a slight stretch of the imagination, or, at least, the reader most probably will deceive himself into imagining them more beautiful and elab orate than any that I have ever found at either Missions or ranch-houses. By the catchword of a clever com mercial advertiser, the American people have been led to imagine that the " Missions " originated a dis tinctive style of furniture. I have photographed every piece of old furniture now known to exist in the whole FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 27 chain of Missions from San Diego to Sonoma, and think I know every representative piece. The engraving show ing a mission chair is as good as any, except pieces that are avowedly Oriental or European. They are all crude and solid, and such carvings as they bear are rude and of slight artistic merit. Hence it will be seen that the term "Mission, "as applied to modern furniture, is a misnomer. It should be called " Craftsman," after its original de signer and inventor, Gustav Stickley, the founder and editor of that useful magazine of democratic American art, The Craftsman. In Chapter II the occupation of San Luis Rey Mis sion by United States troops is referred to. This is an historic fact. In 1847 the Mormon Battalion, a branch of Kearny's Army of the West under the command of Colonel St. George Cooke, was estab lished there for two months, and later on a re-enlisted company occupied it for a short time. The removal of the statues, etc., by the faithful sac ristan here applies to the house at Guajome, though there is every reason to believe that in all of the pillaged Missions some faithful soul was found who did the same thing. The dilapidation of the figures is true to fact. Many are to be found at the various Missions that vividly reveal the rough handling they have suffered. Others have been restored. Here again fact and fiction are skilfully blended, fact as to the shabby figures of the saints, fiction as to the Sefiora Moreno's feelings about them: " That one had lost an eye, another an arm, that the once brilliant colors of 28 THROUGH RAMGNA'S COUNTRY the drapery were now faded and shabby, only enhanced the tender reverence with which the Senora knelt before them, her eyes filling with indignant tears at the thought of the heretic hands which had wrought such defilement." The jealousy that existed between the Franciscans and the Catalan priests (see Chapter II) is no fiction, and the possibility of an order being issued forbidding the monks going to and fro in California became an actual fact. The reason is clear to those familiar with this phase of California history. The Franciscans were mainly devout adherents to the throne of Spain. When Mexico threw off her allegiance to Spain, and California became a province of Mexico, the Franciscan priests, (as well as all others), were required to swear allegiance to the new powers. Few of them did so. Some were banished and forcefully removed. Others were allowed to remain on sufferance, though the order of banishment might at any time have been enforced, and, now and again, was threatened, as Mrs. Jackson states. Then, too, it should be noted that most of the large California ranch-houses belonging to devout Catholics had their own private chapels, where the traveling priests held services as often as they came. This devotion to Mother Church is too apt to be overlooked or forgotten, and in this money-loving and materialistic age it is well to consider the habits of an age that had much good in it we could wish we had not lost. The description of the Senora's wedding (Chapter II) FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 29 is a truthful portrayal of such an event, and the beauti ful ceremony at the Santa Barbara Mission was seen by many, a few of whom are still living. What a pretty scene, and impressive, when, " on the third day, still in their wedding attire, and bearing lighted candles in their hands, they walked with the monks in a proces sion, round and round the new tower, the monks chanting, and sprinkling incense and holy water on its walls, the ceremony seeming to all devout beholders to give a blessed consecration to the union of the young pair, as well as to the newly completed tower." The procession at San Luis Obispo, described in this chapter, is said actually to have occurred. Padre Luis Antonio Martinez was one of the most beloved and well known of the Franciscans. For thirty- two years he labored at San Luis Obispo, commencing his service in 1798, and the cloth of his Indian looms, the flour from his Indian mills, and the mules and horses bred by his Indian vaqueros were the best in 'the territory. Several of the early American traders tell of their dealings with him, and always speak highly of his jolly good nature, and his generosity in trade. He was undoubtedly a bluff, hearty, outspoken man, free in his criticisms of men and affairs, and this led to his banishment. In my In and Out of the Old Missions I state that this was for smuggling. While this was one of the charges brought against him, further study has shown that he was tried before a military court on various charges, mainly bearing upon his fidelity to the Spanish throne, and on his open avowal that he jo THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY was still faithful, and that he had supplied food to the Spanish soldiers when they demanded it of him, he was condemned to exile, placed on board an English vessel, sent to Callao and finally returned to Spain. The description of the padre's procession of poultry is characteristic of the man, and is one of the finest bits of genre in words in Californian (or any other) literature. The distress and activity of the Senora Moreno (Chapter II) " during the height of the despoiling and plundering of the Missions, under the Secularization Act," were very real facts in several lives. Protestants as a rule are not aware of the deep devotion felt for their church by Catholic women, and to many, in those days, it seemed as if death would be preferable to seeing the ruin of the Missions they had learned to love so well. In Chapter III the story of Ramona's birth is related and how she came into the Senora's hand, and I have shown in the chapter "Was there a real Ramona " the original of Angus Phail. San Gabriel is described in its own chapter, as is also the subject of the Jewels. The statement that the fictitious Ramona was sent to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Los Angeles, has led to the distribution of a photograph of the crude wooden building used in the early days as the home of this Convent with a legend to the effect that this is the " School attended by Ramona in Los Angeles." In Chapter VIII it is said she had one year at school with the nuns, and the sweet simplicity of her life is FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 31 attributed largely to the early teachings that she had received from the lips of these devoted women. After the Sefiora had made the discovery, to her so terrrible, that Ramona and Alessandro loved each other, she thought of nothing else at first than sending " the shameless hussy " to the nuns for safe keeping and further instruction, and nothing shocked and astounded her more during that heated interview she had with her adopted daughter (Chapter XI) than Ramona's defiance of her when she declared " I can shut you up in the nunnery to-morrow, if I choose." The vision of the restoration of the Missions seen by Father Salvierderra (see Chapter IV) was shared by many of the monks. It seemed to them incredible that the system they had labored for so many arduous years to build up should be allowed to crumble to pieces so easily, and especially when the awful effect of the change upon the Indians was observed. But things inexplicable are often allowed to go on in this world, and the utter demolition of the Mission system was one of them. When Mrs. Jackson makes the good old monk reply to Ramona's loving watchfulness (Chapter IV) that he should ride and not walk, " It was the rule of our order to go on foot," -she refers to St. Francis's rule; "they (the friars) shall not ride unless compelled through necessity." A California Franciscan friar thus comments on these words, showing how the order in terprets the rule as conditions change. "That is all St. Francis says on the subject. We vow this rule, 32 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY hence it is a great obligation. The term St. Francis uses in Latin means riding on horseback. By implica tion, because St. Francis insisted that his friars should pass ' through the world in humility and modesty ' and above all, because he would have nothing to do with money and forbade his sons to have anything to do with it, the Popes have declared that any kind of conveyance is forbidden save in case of necessity. What degree of necessity is required, is another question. There is a graver necessity required for horseback-riding, as a matter of course. For travelling in wagon, or cars, or ship, no such grave necessity is demanded, as is plain. St. Francis travelled by ship. He was placed on mule- back when ill. The circumstances must decide the matter, the circumstance of time, which may be press ing, and at our time always is. Father Serra, like his brethren, walked, since they had time; but Serra, in illness, travelled from Cape San Lucas in Lower Cali fornia to San Diego on horseback or muleback, as is plain, from Palou. It was well said by an old father now dead : ' The first rule of a Franciscan is obedience, the second is common sense.' Hence the rule still stands and is observed literally where possible, and in other cases is regarded as time and other circumstances permit." The habit of Junipero Serra, the founder of the California Missions, is well known, his refusal to ride, even when an animal was provided, from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico; his walking with a dis eased leg from La Paz to San Diego up the long weary FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 33 miles of the peninsula, and his habit of walking, even up to the day of his death. The description of the wild mustard (Chapter IV) is one of the most realistic, vivid and beautiful pictures in Californian literature, and only those who saw Ramonaland before the country was cut up into small farms and cultivated can imagine how exquisite a sight it was. To farmers the mustard is a great pest, and they do their best to exterminate it, for it seriously injures their grain crops, but to the outsider, who sees it only from the esthetic standpoint, it is as the lilies of the field which surpassed in gorgeous array even Solomon in all his glory. The pretty custom of dropping down on the knees, referred to in this same chapter, is still observed by many devout Mexicans and Indians. The reverence to the priest, as an ambassador of God, and the implied request for a blessing is the acknowledgment of a simple soul that he relies upon God and is thankful for all help that can be given. How often has the man and woman of other faiths and no faiths felt an instinctive desire to bow or kneel in the presence of certain men (and women) and crave a blessing at their hands. In the strong pictures of Margarita's trouble (Chap ter IV) over the torn altar cloth, is another fine exam ple of the blending of fact and fiction. The altar cloth at Camulos is torn, was torn when Mrs. Jackson saw it in the chapel. The photograph herewith reveals it. But all the story about its having been torn by the 34 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY dog in the artichoke patch, owing to Margarita's dis obedience in placing it on the fence to dry, from whence the wind tossed it, is pure fiction. And the artichoke patch. Many people think the artichoke a French importation of recent date, but the Spaniards and Mexicans of almost a century ago used this delicacy for food in California. To Mrs. Jackson the sight of a patch of these thistle-like growths would naturally be novel and interesting, and hence she could not refuse to use such good descriptive material when placed in her hands. The old seed-vessels of the artichokes are just as beautiful as described in Chapter IX, and I have seen them used as wreaths for the statues of saints in several places. At more than one California ranch-house the same inconvenient arrangement (described in Chapter IV) exists as at Camulos, where the dining-room and kitchen are on opposite sides of the courtyard. In those old days, when land and Indians to help were plentiful, no one seemed to give a thought to either conservation of room or energy. " Convenience " was a word not thought of in connection with a house of quality. It was reserved for gringos to introduce it, with other of their accursed customs, and apply it to their flats and apartment houses where a score of families herd together in a way unthinkable to the old time Senors and Sefioras of Ramona's day. The beautiful custom of singing a morning hymn was not uncommon in Catholic households (Chapter V) FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 35 and only those who have been awakened from a sound and healthy sleep by its sweet and solemn strains can know the wonderful impression it makes upon both mind and soul. To me it brought back the days of my childhood when, as soon as breakfast was over, the whole family sat around the old-fashioned English fireplace, and sang " psalms and hymns and spiritual" as well as other songs, before the reading of the Word, and prayer. We may have progressed (!!) in many and material things, but in these means of educating and guarding the soul I am free to con fess I am a reactionary and prefer the days that are gone by. Some express surprise that Mrs. Jackson made of Alessandro a good singer. It was the most natural thing in the world for her to do, for many Indians men, women, youths, maidens and young children are fine singers, Miss Natalie Curtis, in her won derful Indian's Book, gives a number of Indian songs, and she and I have listened a hundred times to Indian voices, untutored and uncultured, but rich, sweet, controlled and sensitive to a degree. Several times I have been touched to tears at hearing the Indians sing the songs taught them or their parents by the old padres, and none who have ever heard the Acoma Indians, of New Mexico, sing their native thanksgiving songs to Those Above will wonder at Mrs. Jackson's conferring upon her hero a rich, penetrating voice of sweetness and power. Hence it was nothing out of place to make Alessandro 36 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY a good singer, with so sweet and restful a voice that he soothed Felipe during his illness (Chapter VI) . At most of the Missions Indian choirs were organized and it was found that men, women, and children speedily learned the European methods of singing. At San Juan Bautista and several other places, orches tras, with violins, violas, etc., were organized, and the Indians taught to use the musical instruments of civilization, upon which many of them became expert performers. In the choir gallery of each Mission always in the rear of the church the choristers and orchestra (one or both) met at each service. The music book was a tremendous folio there are five of them now at the San Luis Rey Mission large enough to be seen by twenty or more singers standing around it (Chapter XIX). One of the fathers took his place as precentor, in front of the book, which was laid out on a large revolving stand, and thus, with his dusky choir around him, he directed the musical ser vices of the church. Personally I have known several old Indians who were thus honored by being in the choirs under the padres, and they could never speak of the joy of those days without tears welling up into their eyes. Mrs. Jackson refers to the use of the musical instru ments in several places, in Ramona, and Felipe informs Ramona (Chapter V) that Alessandro " plays the violin beautifully . . . the old San Luis Rey music. His father was band-master there." Hence it would not be unreasonable to infer that he owned an old flock of sheep in Ramona's country Page 37 Branding cattle in Ramona's country Page Indian granary for acorns Page 55 Moss-corered live oaks in /Pomona's country Page 55 FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 37 violin, given to him by Pablo, his father, for several of the padres were themselves accomplished violinists, and there is every reason to believe they brought their instruments with them from Spain. This would lay the foundation for the supposed " pawning " of the violin by Alessandro at the Hartsel store, as told in Chapter XVII. Another surprise to many readers is that the author makes Pablo (Chapter V) " Father Peyris' right- hand man at the Mission; he kept all the accounts about the cattle; paid the wages; handled thousands of dollars of gold every month." Yet many Indians were made mayor-domos at the various Missions during the old regime, and not one is known to have defalcated or in any way violated his trust. Pablo also managed (Chapter VII) " the Mission flocks and herds at San Luis Rey for twenty years, and few were as skilful as he." There was no limit to the trust placed in these superior Indians by the old padres, and men never lived who were more worthy of trust than they. Therefore, with this in view, it is natural that Alessandro is made to have had great experience with- sheep. Juan Can tells the Sefiora (Chapter VIII), " I do marvel where the lad got so much knowledge, at his age. He is like an old hand at the sheep business. He knows more than any shepherd I have, a deal more; and it is not only of sheep. He has had experience, too, in the handling of cattle. Juan Jose has been beholden to him more than once, already, for a remedy of which he knew not." 38 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY All this may be said truthfully to-day of the sheep- keeping Indians, such as the Navahos. They will herd sheep, and keep them in good condition, under adverse circumstances that would discourage and dis hearten white men. Many Navahos own flocks run ning up into the hundreds, and there are not a few who own thousands. Horses and cattle, too, are owned in large herds. In regard to the evictions, they have been treated of in another chapter. As Mrs. Jackson says in one of her letters to Mr. Kinney, she placed the Temecula eviction wrongly in point of time, for dramatic effect. Otherwise every slight detail in Ramona is based upon actual occurrences, and few things in the annals of Irish evictions can surpass some of these details in their hideous cruelty. In Chapter V the sheep -shearing has actually com menced. Many Indian bands of sheep-shearers used to roam the country, exactly as described in Ramona, and each one elected its captain. They were generally expert shearers, not to be outdone by Spaniard or Mexican. Baling machines were unknown in those days, and the baling of the fleeces was done as described in this , chapter. No wonder that the heat, dust and stench 1 overpowered the half -sick Felipe, so that he fainted, brought back his illness and thus made it possible for Alessandro, through his singing and playing, to be brought and kept in close association with Ramona. Then Juan Canito had to break his leg (Chapter VI). FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 39 I wonder if Mrs. Jackson dreamed that in describing his sensations she was picturing what she herself was to suffer so soon, as her letters reveal. All through the pages of Ramona are statements that surprise those who are unfamiliar with the real Indian as he was in the days of the padres. Take the faithful watching of Alessandro (Chapter VI) when Felipe was so ill. " Faithful as a dog," may well be paraphrased into " faithful as an Indian," to those who know. Never shall I forget the look of sweet tenderness and anxiety that shone in the eyes and face of an old Hava- supai Indian, as I stood on the edge of a three thousand foot high precipice and looked down into the gorge at the junction of the Grand and Havasu Canyons. As he put one arm around me, holding onto a rock with the other, he said: " You are aico my white friend and it makes me cold at the heart to see you run such a risk." And when, afterwards, I talked to him about it, he said: " I love you, my fend," and putting his hand over his heart, he said, " You my fend, I your fend; I feel bad when you put yourself in danger." The references to the fetes on the Saints' Days (Chapter VI) are interesting. Every Indian village has its patron saint, San Juan (Saint John) San Este- ban (St. Stephen), San Pedro (St. Peter), or some other, and 'each saint has his own feast day. On the feast day of their particular saint the villages have their great annual fiesta, and if one could have seen these fiestas in the old days, before the Indians were so spoiled by the evils of our civilization, he certainly would have enjoyed a 40 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY wonderful experience. In Arizona and New Mexico, in less accessible regions, and where white influences have not so thoroughly penetrated, these fiestas could have been witnessed ten, twenty years ago, and I have seen many of them. A service is held in the church mass, if the priest is there then the figure of the patron saint is taken down from over the altar, put into a convenient cabinet for carrying, over which a rich canopy is placed, and two or four sturdy Indians carry it aloft, preceded by an acolyte bearing the cross, at the head of the procession. Then come the singers and the great mass of the people. Round the village they go, finally depositing the statue in a temporary shrine near where the rest of the day's events occur. These consist of making thank-offerings to the gods at the shrine, dances (which are always sacred), singing, dramatic representations, racing, feats of horseman ship, the gallo race, where a rooster is buried up to the neck in the sand, and a hundred horsemen ride one after another at the highest speed, each leaning from his saddle and trying to pick up the wretched bird by the neck. The successful contestant is then followed by all the rest, laughing, shouting, shrieking, each trying to catch him and wrest the bird, in whole or ,in part, from him, while the eager spectators climb to the house tops, or any other point of vantage to watch how the good-natured conflict ends. And one has but to read the annual reports of the Indian agents to the Commissioner of Indian affairs to see how true is the charge that " disorderly whites took FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 41 advantage of these occasions to sell whiskey and en courage all sorts of license and disturbance." I have been at a Southern California fiesta where white men and Mexicans (the latter are just as bad, but no worse, than the former) have sold so much whiskey to the Indians that every man, woman and child was more or less under the influence of liquor, many of them beastly drunk, lying around in their ramadas (tempo rary brush shacks erected for the occasion) and yielding to the grossest sensuality. There is no denying the fact that when Indians begin to drink they do not know where to stop, and, while I am a firm believer in and upholder of all just and righteous laws, I am free to confess that it often seems to me that a coat of tar and feathers and being ridden out on a rail would be an impartial and just punishment for the wretches who, for the sake of paltry pelf, debauch the Indians with liquor. The statues of the saints, referred to above, are sev eral times spoken of by Mrs. Jackson in Ramona. The Indians regarded them with great veneration and could not bear to see them treated with disrespect. Alessandro is said once to have gone to San Fernando and " there he had seen in a room a dozen statues of saints huddled in dusty confusion." This used to be the fact at San Juan Capistrano before more apprecia tive priests in a later day took care of them. Mrs. Jackson undoubtedly saw these figures at San Juan and that suggested to her the idea that, in the story, Ramona would be delighted by Alessandro's obtaining 42 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY one of these neglected statues. This was done and the " saint " brought and placed in their humble Indian home. When Alessandro was prevailed upon to remain to help take care of Felipe, the band of sheep shearers of which he was the captain decided to vote for the elec tion of a new one. This is the universal habit of election to office, whether a minor and voluntary chief - tanship, as in this case, or in the case of the captainship of the village. Bach village has its capitan, alcalde, (or judge), and sheriff. All are elected subject to the approval of the Indian agent, who, if he is not satis fied with the elected one, either appoints a new officer or orders a new election. Where there is a faction of the Indians opposed to the white man's methods, his schools, his churches, etc., hostiles, as they are termed, and the hostiles outnumber the friendlies, this vetoing power of the agent is often called upon. In some cases, as for instance among the Yumas, the line of demarcation has been so clearly outlined that the two factions would have nothing to do with each other, and a state of open and avowed war has existed. The same has been even more strongly marked in some of the Hopi pueblos of northern Arizona, where United States troops have several times been called upon to aid the agent to quell the disturbances caused by the enmities of the friendly and hostile factions. At Yuma, the hostiles, for years, refused to have any doings with the friendlies. Their powwows or councils were held separately, and whatever the FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 43 friendlies did was sure to be opposed and criticized by the ho stiles. At one time all the villages of one language or stock in Southern California elected a head chief, or general, but this was found to work disadvantageously to the plans of the agents, so it was discouraged and finally forbidden. The General, by uniting all the forces of his people, could often circumvent the action of white people of some influence, or could prevail upon the whole tribe to follow some prescribed course of action. Now, there is no head chief. Mrs. Jackson refers to this in Chapter VII. In my book What the White Race may Learn from the Indian I have told of some of the things wherein the Indian race may teach us. Most of these things Mrs. Jackson has presented in the pages of Ramona. Felipe was a highly cultured gentleman, yet we read (Chapter VII) : " If Juan had been told that the Sefior Felipe himself had not been more carefully trained in all precepts of kindness, honorable dealing, and polite usage, by the Sefiora, his mother, than had Alessandro by his father, he would have opened his eyes wide. The standards of the two parents were different, to be sure; but the advantage could not be shown to be en tirely on the Senora's side. There were many things that Felipe knew, of which Alessandro was profoundly ignorant; but there were others in which Alessandro could have taught Felipe; and when it came to the things of the soul, and of honor, Alessandro's plane was the higher of the two." 44 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY There is nothing in our national treatment of the Indians that has cut them more to the quick than our assumption that they had no honor, no character, no truth. It was bad enough to rob them of their lands, their homes, their hunting grounds, but to rob them of their character and to let it go on record that they were without honor or any spiritual development was an injustice as cruel as it was criminal. In the finer instincts there are many Indians who are far ahead of most white people. In Chapter VII Mrs. Jackson shows Alessandro to be offended when Ramona offered to pay for the messenger that he had sent for his violin, and Felipe exclaims: [e You couldn't have offended him more. What a pity! He is as proud as Lucifer himself, that Alessandro." Yet even Felipe did not understand when (Chapter VII) commenting on the hospitality of Pablo, who " feeds and supports half his village " and who will never see one of his Indians go hungry so long as he has anything," he says: " Of course they have learned it partly from us." The Indians have a standard of generosity or hospitality so far above that of the white man that it cannot be placed in comparison, it is beyond compare and it was theirs long before a Spaniard had even trodden the shores of this Continent. In Chapter VIII is a remark that few white readers of Ramona would value at its full significance. Ales sandro is talking to Juan Canito and says : " My father is many years older than you are, and he rules our people to-day as firmly as ever. I myself obey him, FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 45 as if I were a lad still." In that truthful statement is an exaltation of the Indian race and a rebuke to our own. We forget that age entitles to reverence. Our youth care nothing for gray hairs and the experience of age, and their irreverence is ghastly and horrible to a truly thoughtful soul. Yet with every Indian, in his natural state, the aged are treated with reverence and respect. Young men and maidens do not flip pantly pass by their counsel and advice, nor laugh at their warnings and suggestions. When it comes to a recognition of the simple and natural laws of health, Mrs. Jackson shows her keen appreciation of the Indians' actual superiority over the white race. Alessandro, desirous of helping Felipe back to health, " meditated a bold stroke." He knew that nowhere, indoors, no matter how well ven tilated a room might be, was the air as pure and health- giving as it was outside, where it was vitalized and vivified by the sun and wind. " I should be as ill as the Senor Felipe," he says, " if I had to stay in that room, and a bed is a weakening thing enough to pull the strongest man down. Do you think I should anger them if I asked them to let me bring Senor Felipe out to the veranda and put him on a bed of my making? I'd wager my head I'd put him on his feet in a week." That is it ! The real apostle of the out-of-doors and the healthy life is the Indian. He has lived it for cen turies and knows, and we are jurt beginning, with our open-air sleeping porches, our outdoor sleeping places 46 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY for consumptives, our outdoor athletics and the like to understand that the Indian knows a great deal more about health and how to maintain it than we do. Languishing for lack of air and the sun though he was, even the keen and loving eyes of the Senora were blind to Felipe's needs, and when Alessandro boldly asked her if he might remove Felipe out of doors for : " With us, it is thought death to be shut up in walls, as he has been so long. Not till we are sure to die, do we go into the dark like that," she hesitated. " She did not share Alessandro's prejudice in favor of fresh air." She even exclaimed the senseless and universal cry of white people, " Surely it is not well to sleep out in the night? " and I doubt not that thousands of readers of Ramona could not swallow the statement of Alessandro when he replied and told the strict truth: ''That is the best of all, Senora. I beg the Senora try it. If Sefior Felipe have not mended greatly after the first night he have so slept, then Alessandro will be a liar." And Felipe but responded naturally to the pure instinct within him when he cried out: " That is just what I needed. This cursed bed racks every bone in my body, and I have longed for the sun more than ever a thirsty man longed for water. Bless you, Alessandro. Come here, and take me up in those long arms of yours, and carry me quick. Already I feel myself better." And better he quickly became. Indeed he was soon himself again. The time will come when sensible people will look back upon our civilized (!) FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 4? sleeping and living habits of to-day with blank amaze. They will be unable to comprehend how we could exist and remain indoors, and especially how we could deprive ourselves of the joy of outdoor sleeping. A house without a place for outdoor sleeping of all its inmates is incomplete, and a hospital without outdoor places for the beds of every patient is a crime and a cruelty. At the St. Helena Sanitarium the hospital bedrooms are connected with large, wide porches by sliding windows, so that every patient's bed, without any trouble, and at a moment's notice, can be wheeled out into the sun and air. These are God's remedial and health agents, more than surgeons, physicians, nurses and all the drugs and nostrums of the pharmacy. Yet we have had to learn the lesson from the despised Indians, and we are so obstinate that millions of us in the great United States haven't learned it yet. Those who continue to remain obstinate, however, will soon die off, and then, perhaps, the new generation will see a little more clearly. As for the rawhide bed, Alessandro does not over estimate its virtues as compared with the ordinary bed, especially those that sag in the middle after the fashion of a hammock. The harder the bed, in reason, the more comfortable, after a little while to get used to it, and always the more healthful. In Chapter VII Alessandro tells of the speed and strength of the Indian pony or bronco: " They can go a hundred miles in a day, and not suffer." This fact has been a source of surprise to many familiar with the 48 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY limitations of horses in the Eastern climate. These creatures are so tough that they seem tireless, and their achievements are almost beyond the belief of those who do not know them. With her ready sympathy with all nature it would not have been possible for Mrs. Jackson to neglect the dove of Southern California. In Ramona's day they were to be found in vast numbers. The sportsman and pot-hunter of the civilized race are rapidly exter minating them. Exquisitely and beautifully' the dove is woven into the story. Alessandro, heart- hungry and sick for Ramona, who was locked up by the hard-hearted Senora, was comforted (Chapter X) by Felipe and " the notes of two wood-doves, that at intervals he heard, cooing to each other; just the two notes, the call and the answer, ' Love? ' * Here.' ' Love? ' 'Here,' and long intervals of silence between. That is what my Ramona is like, the gentle wood-dove. If she is my wife my people will call her Majel, the Wood-Dove." When (Chapter XV) Ramona is trying to get Ales sandro to call her by her long used name he finally tells her, at her questioning, why he gave her the name Majella pronounced Mah-yhel-la, with a soft em phasis on the second syllable and continues: " The wood-dove's voice is low like yours, and sweeter than any other sound in the earth; and the wood-dove is true to one mate always." Again, when Ramona was asleep in the solitude of the canyon, and Alessandro sat watching her, the doves FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 49 sing their sweet messages of comfort to him (Chapter XV). Joaquin Miller, in one of his sweetest poems gives us THE VOICE OF THE DOVE. Come, listen, O Love, to the voice of the dove, Come, harken and hear him say There are many To-morrows, my Love, my Love, There is only one To-day. And all day long you can hear him say This day in purple is rolled, And the baby stars of the milky way They are cradled in cradles of gold. Now what is thy secret, serene gray dove Of singing so sweetly alway? " There are many To-morrows, my Love, my Love, There is only one To-day." Alessandro (Chapter XIX) introduces Ramoria to his people at the village of San Pasquale as Majel, the wood-dove, and with a stroke of finesse that is wonderfully Indian, he commends her by saying: " She is glad to lay down her old name forever, to bear this new name in our tongue." Even on the last page of the book Mrs. Jackson lov ingly dwells upon the call of the wood-dove and Ramona's name, Majella, associating it in Ramona's mind with the loving devotion she gave to her dead Alessandro. Nothing in the pages of Ramona is more truthful to 50 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY fact than the running away of Ramona and Alessandro to be married, their childlike and simple acceptance of each other. They had no thought of being " com promised " or of any person being so unclean-minded as to think evil of them. Had the novelist been writing of white people such an act would have been construed into a proof of vilest evil. George Eliot, in her Mill on the Floss, makes Stephen Guest and Maggie Tulliver, out for a boat-ride, glide so far away en an outgoing tide that they cannot return home, and Stephen, who has long loved Maggie, urges her to go on further and marry him. Maggie yields, but finally decides that a marriage with Stephen would bring much misery to others and she will return home. When she declares this Stephen shows her that by their act the world will believe they are already married, and if they dare to return and say they are unmarried, " you don't know what will be said." And Maggie's brother sees in this act that which is worse than death, disgrace, so that when he sees Maggie he greets her: " You will find no home with me. You have disgraced us all. You have disgraced my father's name. You have been a curse to your best friends. You have been base deceitful ; no motives are strong enough to restrain you. I wash my hands of you for ever. You don't belong to me! " And Tom Tulliver's standard is the generally ac cepted one of the white race. Think of it. What a conception we have of the honor and purity of our sons and daughters that we assume the whole race takes FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 51 it as a matter of course that, given the opportunity to be impure, the crime is as good as committed. As for me, give me the standard of the Indian, as indicated in the story. I do not want to believe evil of even my enemies, much less my friends, unless I am compelled to do so, and I am grateful to Mrs. Jackson for the lesson thus forcefully read to the white race in the beautiful, simple, exquisite way she treated the elopement of her hero and heroine. Another touching and beautiful scene in Ramona is where the oldest woman of San Pasquale is brought to see the new-comer (Ramona) and pass judgment upon her (Chapter XIX). This scene reveals much of Indian character, and Mrs. Jackson's sympathetic and intuitive comprehension of it. Without this com prehension she could not have written as she did. I have seen just such old women, women so withered and shriveled as to be scarcely human, yet when they spoke they uttered words of wisdom, words of serene judgment that were listened to with great respect by their fellow villagers. When Ramona fled from Camulos she had two of the " large nets which the Indian women use for carrying all sorts of burdens. They are woven out of the fibres of a flax-like plant, and are as strong as iron. The meshes being large, they are very light; are gathered at each end, and fastened to a band which goes around the forehead. In these can be carried on the back, with comparative ease, heavier loads than could be lifted in any other way." The photogVaph shows one 52 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY of the Cahuilla Indians carrying one of these nets, to which they give the Spanish name of red (pronounced, however, rayd'-ah). Into these Ramona placed Ales- sandro's violin, her own clothes, food, wine and milk for the journey, and when Alessandro brought her to her horse, Baba, he arranged these, one on each side of the saddle, before Ramona mounted. There are several canyons which might have been the one Mrs. Jackson had in mind where she made the lovers sleep. In the accompanying illustration is a glimpse of one of scores of Southern California canyons. Out-of-door sleeping in these places is growing more common each year. In the canyons and on the foothills often grow profusely the yucca vuhipplei, described in Chapter XVI, and which the old Spanish padres used to call " Candlesticks of our Lord," because of their exquisite radiance of light and beauty. The description of Ramona's out-door bed (Chapter XVI) is so much like what Indians have prepared for me in Southern California that I am sure Mrs. Jackson must, at some time during her own trips to the Indians, have had a similar bed for herself. " Before nightfall of this, their first day in the wilderness, Alessandro had prepared for Ramona a bed of finely broken twigs of the manzanita and ceanothus, both of which grew in abundance all through the canyon. Above these he spread layers of glossy ferns, five and six feet long; when it was done, it was a couch no queen need have scorned." The manzanita is one of the best known shrubs of Manzanita bush in blossom, January, 1936 Photo by Ferdinand E!llerman Page 52 The blossoms of the " Candlestick of Our Lord," or Yucca Whipplei Photo by Ferdinand Ellerman Page 52 The entrance to one of the canyons of Southern California Page 52 The Mountain White Lilac in bloom, June, 1907 Photo by Ferdinand Kllerman Page 54 FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 53 California. It is plentiful everywhere. With its rich purple brown stems, delicately green leaves and crown of pale foliage, it is exquisitely beautiful, but when, in addition, it is dotted here and there with its clusters of fragrant waxen flowers, like tiny fairy bells, it becomes enchanting. Sometimes it blooms before Christmas, and thus gives to the mountains and canyons the earliest tastes of spring's exuberant beauty. The name is Spanish manzana, apple, and the diminutive ita, thus, little apple, so called because of the resem blance its berries have to tiny apples. These red berries give the shrub its botanic name arctostaphylos or Englished " bearberry." The bears are very fond of them and eat them ravenously, though to our taste they are dry, fibrous and " not worth the trouble of eating." The Indians, however, like them, and eat them both raw and pounded into a flour, from which they make mush. The flavor is pleasantly acid, and they make excellent jelly. On my last visit to the Thomas Ranch, before my good old friend, Charles Thomas, left it to go to reside in Redlands, his daugh ter, Emma, known and beloved alike by Spaniards, Mexicans, Indians, cowboys, miners, visitors, tourists and residents, gave me a jar of it to bring home. It is a delicious jelly, with a distinctive flavor of the wild mountains and canyons. It was the ceanothus that Alessandro placed " at the head for Majella's pillow," for it is rich and spicy in odor, and is often called spice- wood. The children also call it ' ' old man . ' ' There are a number of varieties 54 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY of ceanothus, a common one, integerrimus, sometimes covering the lower slopes of the Southern California ranges with its white bloom almost like drifted snow. Others grow somewhat taller and have a lilac-tinted bloom, while the commonest of all, perhaps, the divari- catus, have a light-blue flower sometimes toned down to almost pure white. The leaves of these shrubs all have the useful quality of saponacity. If one takes a handful of them down to a mountain stream, and there rubs them vigorously as though they were soap, he will find his hands soon covered with a plentiful lather sweetly fragrant like wintergreen. The Indians use it largely, both for themselves and for washing their clothes, and it leaves the hands soft and fragrant, and gives to linen a snowy white appearance. Capitan, the faithful dog, helped Alessandro watch the sleeping Ramona, and " more than once, spite of all Alessandro could do to quiet him, made the canyon echo with sharp, quick notes of warning, as he heard the stealthy steps of wild creatures in the chaparral." Chaparral seems to be a general term used in Cali fornia to describe any thick underbrush. For instance Theodore S. Van Dyke, in one of his books, says of the mountain brooks: " Farther up it divides into smaller brooks, that hiss with speed through winding glens, along whose sides the wild lilac pours forth a rich per fume from panicles of lavender and white; where the mountain mimulus hangs full of golden trumpets; where the manzanita outstretches its red arms full- hung with its little green apple-shaped berries, and the FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 55 wild mahogany, aglow with a bloom of white or blue, unites with the bright-green cherry to form an almost impenetrable chaparral." In another place he speaks of " a wall of bright-green chaparral higher than one's head and almost impene trable," and still again: "The velvet hue that this chaparral gives the hills changes with the sunlight through a dozen shades from pea -green on the sunlit slopes at mid-day to the darkest blue on the shady ones at evening, and is a most restful change for the eye from the brown shimmering plains or bare red hills." The hill on which the oak trees grew (Chapter XVII) not far from Hartsel's store, was a place well known to Mrs. Jackson. There are many fine live-oak trees covered with acorns and all people familiar with Indians know how large a place the acorn has in their diet. Pounded in a mortar until it is reduced to flour, it is mixed with water, and certain herbs and the bitter taste leached out. A bowl-shaped depression is made and covered or lined with muslin. Into this is poured the acorn flour-mixture. As the water steeps away, a mushy substance is left which is allowed partially to dry. It is then cut into strips and laid out on canvas or on the rocks to dry in the sun. When dry it is either stored away for future use, or pounded up again into flour to be made into mush, acorn-bread, tortillas or other forms of food. The mountain lion, which Alessandro heard with some fear, while Ramona slept (Chapter XVI) is the Felis Concolor, the puma, or panther. It is a member 56 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY of the cat family, and has all of the feline qualities. Hence the care with which Alessandro loaded his gun and watched the couch of his beloved senorita through out the night. I have already referred to the Hartsel store, and its owners. The descriptions given in Ramona, in Chap ter XVII, are true to life. On leaving Temecula, Ramona and Alessandro came out of the canyon of that name and got their first whiff of the sea, and Alessandro describes the charm of it to his Majella (Chapter XVIII). Mrs. Jackson was here re citing her own experience as she rode out of Temecula Canyon, and her own great fondness for the Pacific. The lighthouse (Chapter XVIII) is on Point Loma, the point that shuts in the harbor of San Diego. It is a prominent landmark as well as a guide to the sailors. Seen from San Diego, Hotel del Coronado and all the surrounding country, it is a well-known object. Point Loma is where the theosophical headquarters, presided over by Katherine Tingley, are located, and the exten sive and elaborate buildings of the brotherhood make of it a most noted place to members throughout the world. There is little question but that Father A. D. Ubach, was the original of the Father Gaspara of Raniona, the San Diego priest who married the hero and heroine. In spite of his German name, he was of Spanish birth, for he was born in Barcelona, seventy-three years ago. He belonged to an old and distinguished Catalonian family. When about twenty- three years of age he came to this country and in Missouri continued the The home of Father Ubach (Father Gaspara), at old San Diego, where Ramona is said to have been married Page 56 The altar in the old San Diego Chapel Page 57 FACTS AND FICTIONS OF RAMONA 57 studies, begun in youth, for the Catholic ministry. In 1 860 he was ordained and came to California, his first pastorates being San Luis Obispo and Watsonville. In 1 868 he moved to San Diego and took up his residence in Old Town, in the house before referred to. When the present San Diego was built Father Ubach raised funds and erected a church, part of which stands in the present Catholic church. He also started to build a church in old San Diego but got little further than the foundations, just as related in Chapter XVIII. Mrs. Jackson dealt with this fact in a most sympathetic manner. She wrote, "A few paces off from his door stood the first begun walls of a fine church, which it had been the dream and pride of his heart to see builded, and full of worshippers. This, too, had failed. With San Diego's repeatedly vanishing hopes and dreams of prosperity had gone this hope and dream of Father Gaspara's. It looked now as if it would be indeed a waste of money to build a costly church on this site. Sentiment, however sacred arid loving towards the dead, must yield to the demands of the living. To build a church on the ground where Father Junipero first trod and labored, would be a work to which no Catholic could be indifferent ; but there were other and more pressing claims to be met first. This was right. Yet the sight of these silent walls, only a few feet high, was a sore one to Father Gaspara, a daily cross, which he did not find grow lighter as he paced up and down his veranda, year in and year out, in the balmy winter and cool summer of that magic climate." 58 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY His faithfulness, unselfishness and devotion to the good of the Indians so commended him to them that in a few short years they gave to him a reverence and obedience little short of hero worship. His word was law among them. They came from as far south as San Rafael on the Peninsula, and from San Juan Capistrano on the north, for in the early years of his pastorate there was no priest at San Luis Rey. He had a peculiar " faculty " in handling even the most tur bulent and troublous of the Indians. One secret of his power was that, while slow to make up his mind, he never altered a determination when once arrived at. This gives to any man, who in other things meets their approval, great power, and such, undoubtedly, Father Ubach possessed over the whole of the Indians of his large jurisdiction. Never making his work a burden to their pockets, his parishioners soon came to under stand it was their highest good he was seeking and they revered him accordingly. He died in San Diego, in March, 1908, beloved and mourned of all who knew him. Mrs. Jackson's description of him was real and true to life : " Father Gaspara had been for many years at San Diego. Although not a Franciscan, having, indeed, no especial love for the order, he had been from the first deeply impressed by the holy associations of the place. He had a nature at once fiery and poetic; there were but three things that he could have been a soldier, a poet, or a priest. Circumstances had made him a priest, and the fire and poetry which would have wielded a sword or kindled a verse, had he found FACTS AND FICTIONS OF. RAMON A 59 himself set either to fight or to sing, had all gathered into added force in his priestly vocation. " The look of a soldier he had never quite lost neither the look nor the tread, and his flashing, dark eyes, heavy black hair and beard, and quick, elastic step seemed sometimes out of harmony with his priest's gown. Among the Mission Indians his word was law and their love for him was little short of worship." The house at old San Diego, described in Chapter XVIII, is the one occupied by the priest on his visits there, and thousands of photographs of it have been sold as " the house where Ramona was married," and likewise, similar thousands have been marked and sold of " the chapel where Ramona was married," and of ' ' the bells that rang when Ramona was married . ' ' The old house is there, the chapel is there, and the bells are there, so why not make use of them ? So the photog rapher has utilized them to his profit. But the pur chaser of the pictures seems to have forgotten that Ramona was married only in the brain of Mrs. Jackson, and that therefore these real bells can scarcely have rung at a fictitious marriage of a fictitious Ramona to a fictitious Alessandro by a fictitious priest after a fictitious elopement from a fictitious home of a fictitious* Senora Moreno. But, all the same, we reproduce the photographs of the house, the chapel, the bells, and the olive trees and palms, all of them at old San Diego, and made of interest to us by their introduction into the story of Ramona. A reason for the error of the state- 60 THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY ment that Ramonawas married at thehouseof the priest is found in Chapter XVIII. At several of the Missions the old registers (Chapter XVIII) are to be found, and in all of those where the Missions were founded by Padre Junipero Serra, the revered president of the California Missions, the title page is always in his own hand. It is a striking and distinctive handwriting, and at the close of his signa ture will be observed his rubric. This rubric is found after the signature of all men of his race and day, each one distinctive and individualistic. It acted as a kind of seal, a personal confirmation of the signature. The loving power the Franciscans held over the Indians was well understood by Mrs. Jackson, and she makes Father Gaspara, not a Franciscan, comment upon it (Chapter XX). The sorrow of Ramona over the death of Father Salvierderra is not at all overdrawn. When Felipe goes off in search of Ramona he is made to hear many tales of the devotion of the Indians to their old padres (Chapter XXV), and it is an historic fact that Father Sarria died at Soledad of starvation, refusing to leave his Indians to the wolves of seculari zation. The devotion of the San Luis Rey Indians to Padre Peyri is truthfully told in Ramona (Chapter XVIII). They would do anything for him, and the true story of their swimming out to the vessel that was to re move him from their sight forever is a pathetic proof of their deep affection. That Mrs. Jackson viewed the Indians with a calm .,/ //>, -fot * (JClft itiiJ UbtMQ ' -it t'ji* r It ' it n w&k ^wwirdaj, bpcUuft G*w. afa $*%?& %f*$ $*eiSf4 *CV @CYI>W r&W,y(&j&&: $efc *** ^o^l^^^S^wf^^^ J^^S ^oe/f/^ ybijticF&to($dl* Zbtto&x&T^ ? ^*t* d IT ^ Y i^Ak c ^s$*^^ ^^a ^$? * j f ****** W #**& Wuc&tl/$fovSt*& ^f^^3B jlfy Ji.fy cvtttej, Kutw Swutv, sw$'.(fa fY,\