favorite resort of the citizens of San Francisco; yet it most likely
would not have been were the church the sole attraction. Here, in
appropriate enclosures, there were bull-fighting, bear-baiting, and
horse-racing. Many duels were fought here, and some of them were so well
advertised that they drew almost as well as a cock-fight. Cock-fighting
was a special Sunday diversion. Through the mission ran the highway to
the pleasant city of San José; it ran through a country unsurpassed in
beauty and fertility. Above the mission towered the mission peaks, and
about it the hillslopes were mantled with myriads of wild flowers, the
splendor and variety of which have added to the fame of California.

The mission church was never handsome; but the facade with the old bells
hanging in their niches, and the almost naive simplicity of its
architectural adornment, are extremely pleasing. It is a long, narrow,
dingy nave one enters. Its walls of adobe do not retain their coats of
whitewash for any length of time; in the rainy season they are damp and
almost clammy. The floor is of beaten earth; the Stations upon the walls
of the rudest description; the narrow windows but dimly light the
interior, and rather add to than dispel the gloom that has been
gathering there for ages. The high altar is, of course, in striking
contrast with all that dark interior: it is over-decorated in the
Mexican manner--flowers, feathers, tinsel ornaments, tall candlesticks
elaborately gilded; all the statues examples of the primitive art that
appealed strongly to the uncultivated eye; and all the adornments gay,
gaudy, if not garish. Do you wonder at this? When you enter the old
church at the Mission Dolores you should recall its history, and picture
in your imagination the people for whom the mission was established.

The Franciscans founded their first mission in California at San Diego
in 1769. The Mission Dolores was founded on St. Francis' Day, 1776. To