Excerpt from Old Mission Rhymes It is a sad commentary upon the endurance of things temporal that there now remains of that splendid prosperity built by the early Mission Fathers in California, only names and a few crumbling ruins. Attracted by the atmosphere of beauty; by the delicacy and affluence of color; by the fragrance and the freedom that attach to the scenes where lived and wrought, a century ago, these good and wise men, our historians have in the past invaded the silence which clings to the torn and dis mantled halls, and have forced them to speak of those gold'en morning hours. From the silent tongued travelers which come to us from across the river of time, we have gathered fragments of knowledge concerning these pioneers, which have served to illuminate the shadows through which the peoples, conditions and surroundings of one hundred years ago are dimly seen. The purpose of this little volume is to add a few strokes of the pen toward completing a picture which will ever possess for us a wondrous and never worn-out charm. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.