There is, in this play, a glance at a disgraceful episode in American history,--the technically legal, but outrageously unjust and brutally tyrannical, seizure of the estates of Spaniards in California, after the Mexican War; but the purpose was not so much to relumine a remote and half-forgotten rascality as to display the incidents of a romantic love story associated with the nefarious proceedings of that distressful and turbulent time and place. That purpose Belasco accomplished in pictorial settings of uncommon beauty. The scenery of Southern California is inexpressibly charming, because it combines tranquil loveliness with awful grandeur and is everywhere invested with poetic mystery. The stupendous and austere mountains, the boundless, lonely plains, the balmy orange groves, the graceful palm trees, the fragrant magnolias, the abundance of wild flowers, the glorious blue skies and the pure, sweet air,--these and many other beauties unite to make that region a paradise. It is in Southern California that the _Rose of the Rancho_ blooms, and Belasco, who knows and loves that country well, made his stage a garden of luxury and a dream of splendor to convey that charm--presenting a series of pictures which have never been excelled and seldom equalled. The investiture of this play, indeed, blending old Spanish architecture with a semi-tropical wealth of natural beauty, was literally magnificent and considerably excelled the worth of the play itself. This is a synopsis[2] of that fabric,--from which it will be seen that the theme is, to some extent, the same as that treated in Helen Hunt Jackson’s prolix and tedious novel of “Ramona”: The scene is laid amid the sleepy, picturesque Spanish missions of Southern California. The plot deals with the great tragedy that underlies California history--the taking of the Spanish inhabitants’ homes by land-jumping Americans. _The Rose of the Rancho_ is _Juanita_, the youngest daughter of the _Castro_ family. Through pride and indolence the _Castros_ have neglected to make their property secure to them by filing an entry with the American land agent, and things have come to a serious pass with them. One of the most notorious land-jumpers in the state, _Kinkaid_, of Beaver, Neb., has come to San Juan, with his outfit, to take the whole valley. At the same time another American has appeared on the scene,--_Mr. Kearney_, of Washington,--a government agent sent to investigate the land disputes.