The California Birthday Book Part 19

The white man calls it Bridal Veil. To the Indian it is Po-ho-no, Spirit of the Evil Wind.

The white man, in pa.s.sing, pauses to watch the filmy cloud that hangs there like a thousand yards of tulle flung from the crest of the rocky precipice, wafted outward by the breeze that blows ever and always across the Bridal Veil Meadows. By the light of the mid-afternoon the veil seems caught half-way with a clasp of bridal gems, seven-hued, evanescent; now glowing with color, now fading to clear white sun rays before the eye.

BERTHA H. SMITH, in _Yosemite Legends._

MAY 25.

MATCHLESS YOSEMITE.

High on Cloud's Rest, behind the misty screen, Thy Genius sits! The secrets of thy birth 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 fas.h.i.+oned 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 a.s.s 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 gra.s.s 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 sh.e.l.ls, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sed since then.

And yet the imprint of his feet today Is traced in flowers from here to Monterey.

MARY E. MANNIX.

MAY 29.

San Gabriel!

I stand and wonder at thy walls So old, so quaint; a glory falls Upon them as I view the past.

And read the story which thou hast Preserved so well.

San Gabriel!

What souls were they who fas.h.i.+oned thee To be a blessed charity!

What faith was theirs who bore the cross, And counted wealth and ease but loss, Of Christ to tell!

San Gabriel!

A glamour of the ancient time Remains with thee! Thou hast the rhyme Of some old poem, and the scent Of some old rose's ravishment Naught can dispel!

LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN, in _A Parable of the Rose._

MAY 30.

Wherever a green blade looks up, A leaf lisps mystery, Whereso a blossom holds its cup A mist rings land or sea, Wherever voice doth utter sound Or silence make her round-- There wors.h.i.+p; it is holy ground.

JOHN VANCE CHENEY, _The Grace of the Ground_, in _Poems._

MAY 31.

TO MOUNT WILSON.