irth
Within its bosom locked! What power can rend
The veil, and bid it speak--that spirit dumb,
Between two worlds, enthroned upon a Sphinx?
Guard well thine own, thou mystic spirit! Let
One place remain where Husbandry shall fear
To tread! One spot on earth inviolate,
As it was fashioned in eternity!
FRED EMERSON BROOKS,
in _Old Abe and Other Poems._
You ask for my picture. I have never had one taken. I have my reasons.
One is that a man always seems to me most of an ass when smirking on
cardboard.
GERTRUDE ATHERTON,
in _Rulers of Kings._
MAY 26.
INVITATION TO AN INDIAN FEAST IN YOSEMITE.
As the time of the feast drew near, runners were sent across the
mountains, carrying a bundle of willow sticks, or a sinew cord or leaf
of dried grass tied with knots, that the Monos might know how many
suns must cross the sky before they should go to Ah-wah-nee to share
the feast of venison with their neighbors. And the Monos gathered
together baskets of pinion nuts, and obsidian arrow-heads, and strings
of shells, to carry with them to give in return for acorns and
chinquapin nuts and basket willow.
BERTHA H. SMITH,
in _Yosemite Legends._
MAY 27.
It is owing to the ever active missionary spirit among the Friars
Minor (Franciscans) that millions upon millions of American Indians
have obtained the Christian faith. The children of St. Francis were,
indeed, the principal factors in the very discovery of America,
inasmuch as the persons most prominently connected with that event
belonged to the Seraphic Family. Fr. Juan Perez de Marchena, the
friend and counsellor of Christopher Columbus, was the guardian or
superior of the Franciscan monastery at La Rabida; * * * and the great
navigator likewise belonged to the Third Order.
FR. ZEPHYRIN,
in _Missions and Missionaries of California._
MAY 28.
JUNIPERO SERRA.
Not with the clash of arms or conquering fleet
He came, who first upon this kindly shore
Planted the Cross. No heralds walked before;
But, as the Master bade, with sandalled feet,
Weary and bleeding oft, he crossed the wild.
Carrying glad tidings to the untutored child
Of Nature; and that gracious mother smiled,
And made the dreary waste to bloom once more.
Silently, selflessly he went and came;
He sought to live and die unheard of men--
Praise made his pale cheek glow as if with shame.
A hundred years and more have passed since then.
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