The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 28, 1897, Page 13

SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 28 Association for the “restoration” th's has two sides, and both are i 1t you're & patr: be asked to large ich of not a il soon warm-hearted nol Angus have es of secretar d for San Jose. but one for for strange have read some of her ies and adwired them, for a style all her own and is lish diction despite a long that the subject is of the greate:t importancz. As there is a movement on foot to start a Central California & tion of those landma of the old missions, it is apparent Like all subjects, here presented. g the flash, but often in the Spanish a true Arragonese, si usted evidentlv a theme with genuine en- the plans of the | nulated. said Mrs. Angus, that 1 should do ¢verything in my | rower to heiv people better to appreciate th old padres and the work tney did. | “Superficiaily thinking we are notapt to link the iove of those old missions with patriotism, but it has always vividly impressed me that, while Washington was raising the stars and stripes in the st they were carrying the cross in the West. And the old Spanish families, we cer- owe som-thing to them; for, had llegiance not been w ng, General remont have feund it a much more ditficolt task to plant the American | laz on California soil. | “And about our project? Well, ice last April. Mrs. Carrie Stevens Walter, elitor of the Santa Ciara Maga- \.Vl“W\w,]m would zine, and I visiied Monte Of course, we went to Carmelo and, while standing i within the mission church, it seemed it has been under consideration | | borne in upon me that now the time wa ripe to carry out the plans for the restora- s so full of inter est 10 those conversant with early Spanish- California history. “To begin with our plans ara definite. The mission of San Carlos de Carmel shall | constitute the first object of our care. “You know, of course, that it was founded June 3, 1770, by Father Junivero Serra, the founder of so many of the early missions and first president of the Cali- fornia missions. It was there he died in 1784, and was entombed in the sanctuary. “This photograph shows the condition in which it was found by Rev. Father | Cassanova in 1868 He at once set about restoring it, spending all his private for- tune and money solicited from friends, with the result that on the centennial an- niversary of Father Serra’'s death, in 1834, service was held in the restored edifice as it now stands. “Besides the tomb of Serra there iie | buried in Carmelo the remains of his a: sistants and successors, among them Rev. Fathers Juan Crespi cisco Laruan. “But there is much yet to do. We wart to replace the barn-like shingle roof with one of light-weight tiling—on the Spanish Mission style—and we wish to restore the interior to what it was in foimer days, for it is still bare and de- | serted looking. | *There are about twenty-five acres of | land adjoining the mis-ion that ought to be purchased, | for cattie are grazing where Father Seira breathed his last, although his staiue, | the generous gift of Mrs. Stanford, stands Lopez and Fran- | the five acres belonging to | CARMEL MI3I0N ARTER terey. “And to think of it; the incense bowl, probably Father Serra’s, graces the ‘what- } | not’ of a neighboring rancher’s test room, while the candelabra have gone to swell the collection of an omnivorous Boston touris And Mrs. Angus’ features and voice exvressed disgust commensurate with the enormity of the outrage. in the future. make but a begzinning. Wherever restorer is needed there we want to be. “] am coming to San Francisco soo as soon as we have our initial here—and I want to talk to the people and tell them our plans, for necessarily it is from there tbat our association must draw its great strength. “We must make 1t a success and 1 feel that it is going to be so.” This in a tone | of enthusiasm. “I may be oversaneuine— they tell me I am; but resuits w:ll show for themselve:, so we must not wait and see, but work and -ee what wiil come 0! our effort.” M. D. R. the it For the purpose of sscertaining how the artists of >an Francisco stand on this sub- | ject THE Carn secured interviews with a number oi the best-known men in the citv. There was practically but one opin- fon—all thought the mission should be let alone. The interviewed artists were all shown the comparative pnotographs of Carmel Mission that are reproduced on | th's page. As the interviews were some- what similarat “But you can realiz> what there is to do | With El Carmelo we shall | —— looking across the beautiful bay of Mon- | them all here, so only the most repre- sentative ones follow. o AR & HOR_RIBLE." What William Keith Thidks of Restoring the Missions. When William Keith was shown the comparative pictures of Carmel Mission he glanced at them a moment and then threw up his hands. “Horrible!” he cried. “Don’t you approve of the 1dea?”’ was | asked. association | | | WHAT ARTISTS THINK | | is unnecessary to rroduce | is far beyond my comprehensios. No, inaeed, I do nof,” answered the artist. I think it is about the worst ccheme that I ever heard of. Restore, indeed. They must mean destroy. Why, left. I would never recognize it. they want to ireat the other missions the same way. For my part I think the plan should be discouraged and the missions iet alone.” |STOP THE SCHEME. Arthur Mathews Does Not Ap-| prove of Restoring Missions. “I nave seen Carmel Mission since it bas been restored and I never wish to see it again,” said Art ur Mathews when spoken to on the subject. “I went over there from Monterey a year or so ago, in- tending to paint the oid structure, but [ dian’t. “Just what these people mean by plas- tering over these beautifal old buildings They i1 o say that if the old ruin will soon disappear. the restoring is not done | should be hastened by the woek of restorer. “Wtien you look at it properly the re- the existence. a beautiful, arustic old ruin like Carmel barn, as it is at present. I don’t see it. *The same thing has been done all over loss can never be replaced. | Santa Barbara Mission. A few years ago | it was a thing of beauty, both in form and color. Now it isa nightmare. The beau- | vful, soft walis, chipped by the hand of | there is nothing of old Carmel Mission And so | time, and colored with the most beautiful browns and greens, have been covered with a hard gray cement. smoothed out with mathematical exact- nizable. Icannotsee what has been ac- complished by the restorer in tiis case. “1f certain people wish to do honor to the old padres of a certain church why not build a new structure near the old mission? This would accomplish the de- sired result and we would still have the beautiful o/d ruin to feast our eyes on. “But I might as well say that it is pos- sible to ‘preserve’ without ‘restoring.’ There are methods of taking care of old ruins so that the passage of time nas lit- | tle effect on them. This could pe done | { with the old missions, Of course they | wou'd disappear in the course of a few | bundred years, but we could admire them | as long as there was a bandful of dus: All of! | which seems rational enough, but I do| | notsee why the vrocess of disapvearance | | once was and turning it into a hideous | the southern part of the State, and the | There is the | Each corner is | ness and the old ruin is no longer recog- | i | storer realiy wipes the old building out of | Where is the object of tak.ng | left. This is certainly better than to allow the restorer to wipe them out from in front of our eves. **Were such work as has been done to the California missions done to the ruins of Italy or Greece a howl would go up that we could hear on the Pacific Coast. Fancy vutting a roof oa the ruins of the Roman Forum. What would we say if the Temple | of Pestum was plastered over and made | | | horrible front door. nhabitable? Or the Temple of Thebes ‘restored’ by a band of stonemasons and plasterers. What has been done to the old missions is on a par with these and 1 hope the few still leit untouched will for- ever escape (he restorer’s hands.” SRR = IT IS PAINFUL. What Otto Dobbertin Says on the Subject of Restoring. ©Oh, that's awful,”” said Dr. Dobbertin when shown the comparative pictures of | Carmel Mission. “Look at that ugly rooi. Look at that Look at the tower. On, it is terrible, terrible. ~That's the worst I ever saw. It iscruel, painful, almost criminal. I had heard the old miss.on was restored some years ago, but never had time to go and see it. But I never thought it could be as bad as this. , emphatically no; I do notthink the ohl mission should be restored. L:t us have the beautiful o'd walls as long as they will stand, and not something else thatis on a par with a modern fire-engine Louse.” THE 1ONG STRUGGLE FOR THE POSSESSION OF PARIS spay Cawnr, a f\.'LL~ investment the 1l defense had es which were how Fourth Ger- enerai von command o! = later of General von red 1o operate t ny of the north, Fa latter general was e tc stully =ith his raw > 1s, and mpletely e northern theless of cause, force from as ipating in 1ts farther south. d the end of November, Gambetta from Paris that Ducrot, would attempt gh the German lines, and that Loire army was expected to att the ns in the rear, so that Ducrot have no trouble 10 make a con- 1 with the outside forc: General crot actually succeeded breaking zh the thin German lines, and was for two days outside of Paris, on b 1 and 2, but was driven back great loss as soon as the Germans at and Champigny reczived support n other detachments of the investing of course, Gambetta 1d he ordered D’ Aurelles Germans at once. This e second battle of Orleans, ench outnumbered the 1 two to one. The had foreseen that they able to achieve a success if of the enemy in ne ),000, nrou Germ in 1 most po iiion that they would ao sc. their opposition with the hunger, and will starve ion"t go ahead,” and insisted tnat s be complied with az onc The 1 tremendous defeat for the -5, was driven apart in three nt directions, and remained for a able to undertake a concerted | loss of the Germans in the witle was comparatively small 12 ana 1728 men. The French lost 4700 kilied and wounded, and 20,000 pris- uners 1t is now necessary to return to Paris, diffe longt After ! 1ate | important | 1o force his | D cmber 3 and 4, and feil once mpore and for good | hands of the Germans. The my of the Loire, on which snch people had built all where, a5 mentioned before, the news of he victory of Coulommiers had restor d | the hop=s of the disheartened inhabitant-. | © took it for granted that the siege would now be raised and made prepara- | s he army of the Loire. The | in Paris at this time numberel 100,000 men and were divided | three separate armies. The firstof these, commanded by General Clement Thomas, consisted o battalions of the national in all 120,000 men. These were in- tended orderin the city. The second srmy com- vrised by far the best material and was most entirely composed of the rem- nts of the famous Thirteenth Fourteenth corps. It was di- vided in three corps and one cav- | alry division and 300 field guns. Tuis | army, numbering 110.000 men, was com- manded by General Ducrot and destined for field service and operations against the investing lines. The 70,000 men of | the third army, commanded by Vinoy, | were intended to make sham attacks on | the side fronis and thereby to contribute | 10 the success of the main sorties. Eighty | thousand mobile guards and 35,000 men were under Admiral de la Ronciere cun- stituted the reserves. On November 18 Gambetta sent a miess sa from Tours to General Trochu de- manding a sortie en force 10 meet the ad- vance of the Loire army. = As at that time | the latter was in no condition to take the offensive the demand was entirelv out of pia but was, nevertheless, conceded to by Trochu. Turee proclamations were is- sued to the Parisians on that one| day, the first by the Government, the second by Trochu alone and the 1.tt by General Ducrot. This last proclamation, which became famous, concluded with the sensational werds: “In regard to myself Iam determined and swear to you before the whole nation | to return to Paris either as a corpse or as | and had notified | Bat the victor. You may <e2 me fall, but you will not see me retreat. In tne first altern tive do no: stop, but revenge me. E avant, enavant! God be with you. A. | Ducrot.” Poor Ducrot afterward sui- | fered much ridicule on account of these words, but it must surely be acknowledgzed that Ducrot was by no means lacking in versonal courage and that it was not his | fault that he was only wourded and not ikuled in the fight of November 30, in whick no less than ten officers of his staff remained on the battlefield. Alter some sham attacks had been made by Vinoy’s forces in different places so as to turn the attention of the besiegers to other points not chosen for the sortie, Ducrot sallied forth from Paris with 1‘30000 men toward Villiers and Cham- pigny, where the Wurtemburg division had just been relieved by Saxon troops in | to defend the walls and 1o keep | i { | who were not acjuain ed with the geo- eraphical and territorial advantages of their new position, and were forced to re- v(re;\t before the overwhelming numbers | | of tie French. leaving Champigny in the | latter’s nands. Ducrot now tried io force his way fartner north, but the Saxons had | meanwhile been re-enforced by the Sua. vians, and repulsed the French each time | tae latter advanced. In the afternoon Ducrot received considerable re-enforce- | ments and made another attempt to force | bis way through the comparatively small force of Sazons and Suavians, but these resiste { with the utmost bravery, and their | artiliery worked with such tremendous execation on the French lines that these were obliged to desist from any further advances and broke off the fight when darkness set in. News of Ducrot’s sortie had been tele- graphed to the Versailles headquarters, and in the course of the night from Novem- | ber 30 to December 1 the Second and Sixih German corps were ordered to the most threatened points of the investment lire. 1 Only a few skirmishes took place on | December 1. By order of the Prussian King ail the troops opposed to Ducrot’s army had been placed under the command of General Fransecky, who was instructead to take the offensive on Decemuver 2. This | defeat of the French, who lost ali the ad- vantages they had gained on November 30. The Germans lost 268 officers and 5320 men, and thie French 500 officers and 12,500 men in the engagements of November 30 and December 2. During the battle of the 2d Ducrot re- ceived news that the Loire army was marching on Fontainebleau, and he there- was done, and the result was a coraplete | { { fore decided to try and hold his position outside of the Paris fortihcations. He caused provisions and fresh horses to be b ought to his army, but when he rode to inspect his <ol iiers early the next morn- ing he found them completely exhausted and shivering with cold and hunger. The soldiers had fought with bravery and ani- mation on the previous days, but their strengith was now broken and they ap- peared to be on the point of demoraliza- tion. Under thess circumstances, and as nothing further was heara of the Loire army, Dacrot ook the responsibility oa himself to lead his army back to Paris, so that when the Germans tried to surprise him early on the morning of December 4 they f und that his entire army was al- ready well inside the fortification lines, and the blood of many thousand brave soldiers had been spilt uselessly. The next sortie was underfaken by Du- crot on December 21, and on the same day Viney and the Third Parisian Army at- tacked the position of the Saxons, while De la Ronciere received orders to take the village of Le Bourgst. The attack on Le Bourget by the brave French marine in- fantry was executed with such brilliancy that they really succeeded in canturing the northern portion of the place, but part of the Prussian guards which occupied the village received re-enforcement of other uvard-troops and after some very desper- ate fighting regainea possession of the piace in the afiernoon. Ducrot now re- ceived orders to retreat an Paris, and the great sortie ended with a general cannon- nade of the forts which did no harm what- ever. The stham attacks of Vinoy's army did not amount to much and were easily repulsed by the Saxons, | increased in proportion. The rations for the troops in Paris now became smaller from day to day, while the sufferings of the poorer inhabitants Sull nobody in Paris dared to speak of capitulation, and the Government issued the most unheard of proclamations, telling the inhabitants of victories of the French ‘provincial armies that bad never occurred, so that the Parisians expected from day to day that the siege would be raised, while in reality the necessity of a surrender be- came more and more evident. When at last several of the forts had been taken by the Germans and when siege-guus had arrived irom Germany and commenced to bombard Paris the Govern- ment had the effrontery to proclaim to the inbabitants that the Prussian King was now satisfied that he could not hold his position before Paris another week, and had, therefore, determined to throw a few shells into the city before retreating to the other side of the Rhine. Most of the people were credulous enough to believe this ridiculous statement, and, in fact, throughout the siege every false report of French victories was accepted as true, while reports of French defeats were con« sidered base lies. ‘We are now approaching the most mo- mentous time in the history of Germany, namely, the re-establishment of the em- pire. Germany, which had always been powerfui and respected when united, had sor centuries been divided in a large num- ber of independen: kingdoms and princi- palities, whose rulers were frequently in | discord with the rulers of the neighbor- ing countries, and often even went so far as to take sides with foreign invaders against their own countrymen. The events of the Prusso-Avstrian war of 1866, and still more so of the war we are de:cribing, had opened the eyes of the German people and princes to the neces- sity of re-establishing the German unity. King William of Prussia was considered by all the most fitting person to wear the glorious crown of the German empire, which was cffered to him by a unani- mous vote of all the princes amidst the joyous acclamation of the entire German people. It so happened that the act of the proc- lamation took plece in the palace of the Great Louis at Versailles, so closely con- nected with some of the most glorious events in the history of France, the coun- try which had so often and wantonly de- clared war against Germany. . But of this we shall speak in our article in next Sun- day’s CALL 2nd at the same time conclude our condensed story of the most importe ! ant events of the great historical episode which led 1o the results so much desired by all true Germans. WitLiax LopTaax.