CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA.
Showing original wall decorations prized by the Indians.]

[Illustration: ALTAR AND INTERIOR OF CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA,
AFTER REMOVAL OF WALL DECORATIONS PRIZED BY INDIANS.]

After this criticism was written I asked for the opinion of the learned
and courteous Father Zephyrin, the Franciscan historian. In reply the
following letter was received, which so clearly gives another side to
the matter that I am glad to quote it entire:

"I do not think your criticism from an artistic view is too
severe; but it would have been more just to judge the
decorations as you would the efforts of amateurs, and then to
have made sure as to their authors.

"You assume that they were produced by the padres themselves.
This is hardly demonstrable. They probably gave directions,
and some of them, in their efforts to make things plain to
the crude mind of the Indians, may have tried their hands at
work to which they were not trained any more than clerical
candidates or university students are at the present time;
but it is too much to assume that those decorations give
evidence even of the taste of the fathers. In that matter, as
in everything else that was not contrary to faith or morals,
they adapted themselves to the taste of their wards, or very
likely, too, to the humor of such stray 'artists' as might
happen upon the coast, or whom they might be able to import.
You must bear in mind that in all California down to 1854
there were no lay-brothers accompanying the fathers to
perform such work as is done by our lay-brothers now, who can
very well compete with the best of secular artisans. The
church of St. Boniface, San Francisco, and the church of St.
Joseph, Los Angeles, are proof of this. Hence the fathers
were left to their own wits in giving general directions, and
to the taste of white 'artists,' and allowed even Indians to
suit themselves. You will find this all through ancient
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Indians loved the gaudy,
loud, grotesque, and as it was the main thing for the fathers
to gain the Indians in any lawful way possible, the taste of
the latter was paramount.

"As your criticism stands, it cannot but throw a slur upon
the poor missionaries, who after all did not put up these
buildings and have them decorat