THE MORMONS' MECCA.
The new Mormon temple marks the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints from the day when Brigham Young and his few followers
first set foot in the new promised land. It is a work commenced in the
wilderness, and completed forty years afterward.
The laying of the cap-stone of the temple recorded the culmination of a
work the Mormon people have been eagerly anticipating for nearly two
generations. It recalls, too, many chapters of history abounding in
interest. It tells a tale of patience, industry, and unswerving devotion
to an object and a religious principle.
It is forty years ago since the corner-stones of this temple were laid,
and although there have been occasional lapses of time when nothing was
done, and often only a few men employed, the work has practically been
going on continuously.
Not more than a few days after the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the
Great Salt Lake Basin, the prophet, Brigham Young, was strolling about
in the vicinity of his camping-place in company with some of the
apostles of his church. The days previous had been employed in exploring
the valley to the north and south. These explorations satisfied them
that there was no more favorable location to commence the building of a
new city in the wilderness than the one on which they had first pitched
their tents. The night when Brigham took that stroll was at the end of a
perfect day in July. Looking to the south the valley stretched away
into magnificent distances and beautiful vistas as lovely as eye ever
beheld. Over in the west was the Great Salt Lake, with its huge islands
rising from the mirrored surface of its waters, and burying their
mountainous heads in the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. In
the east were the cold and rugged ranges of the Wasatch. To the north
were the brown hills that guarded the city in that direction. It was a
scene to inspire beautiful and poetic thoughts, and Brigham gazed about
him, apparently delighted with the sublimity of the glorious prospect.
Turning his eyes to the east he struck his cane into the earth and said,
"Here is where the temple of our God shall rise." Not a word of dissent
was heard to his proclamation. There were no suggestions that better
sites might be had. Brigham had issued his edict, and when he had spoken
it was law to his people, so solemn that all indorsed it. From that
moment the Temple Square was looked upon as sacred to the purpose to
which it had been dedicated.
Remembering with what matchless courage this great Mormon leader had
conducted his insignificant army across the desert from the Missouri
River, and through the mountain defiles into this then wilderness, it is
impossible to still the thought, "Did his imagination's eye peer through
the mist of years and see the gray and solemn pile which is now the
temple?"
But that July night when Brigham Young struck his cane on the ground was
in 1847, and nothing was done toward building the temple until six years
afterward. Still it is doubtful if the original intention had ever been
abandoned.
At first it was intended to build it of adobe, but when a mountain of
granite, fine in its quality and most beautiful in color, was found some
miles from the city, that material was substituted. On a panel just
above the second-story window of the east end of the temple is this
inscription:
HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
BUILT BY
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
OF
LATTER DAY SAINTS.
COMMENCED APRIL 6, 1853,
COMPLETED ---- ----
Below the word "completed" there is a blank line where, when the last
piece of stone has been chiseled and the frescoer has applied the last
touch of his brush, a date will be cut into the marble slab. That date
may not be inscribed for two or three years yet, for there is still very
much to do on the interior.
April 6, 1853, was a bright day in the history of Zion. Not only was the
semi-annual conference of the Mormon church in session, but the
corner-stone of the great temple was to be laid with imposing
ceremonies. The first company of Mormon pioneers to enter the Salt Lake
Valley only numbered 143, but six years afterward the city had a
population of nearly 6,000 people. It was a city, too, peculiar and
unique in its customs and the character of its residents. By that time
Utah had many large settlements, and from the most remote of these the
saints came to assemble at the center stake of Zion. They came wearing
their brightest and best garments and their happiest faces. Presumably
their souls were possessed of that sweet peace which passeth all
understanding. A grand procession was formed in honor of the ceremony
about to be celebrated.
An old program of that parade, and the exercises of the day, is yet in
existence, and it is notable that the church dignitaries were the most
conspicuous figures in the pageant. There were the presidents, apostles,
and bishops, the high priests, the counselors, the elders, and all the
lesser degrees of Mormon ecclesiastical authorities.
Flags were flying, bands were playing--there were two bands in Utah,
even then. Four corner-stones were laid, four dedicatory prayers
offered, in which the Almighty was invoked to bless the building then
begun, and four orations were delivered.
There are many conflicting stories in regard to the designer of the
temple. A man by the name of Truman C. Angell was the first architect,
and he drew the plans, but it was in the fertile genius of Brigham Young
that the ideas of form and arrangement were conceived. These he
submitted to Angell, who elaborated them. Doubtless Brigham had based
his conceptions on the descriptions he had read of Solomon's temple, but
however much of the plans he may have cribbed, to him belongs the
credit. He claimed the design of the temple, even to the smallest
detail, had been given him by a revelation from God.
Angell devoted his life to this building. After him two or three others
directed the construction, but for the past four or five years Don
Carlos Young, a son of Brigham's, has been the architect.
For many years the progress was exceedingly slow. The foundations were
sunk sixteen feet below the surface. There was a great yawning hole to
be filled with rock, every one of which had to be pulled by ox teams.
Many people remember how slowly the building rose. They say it was
several years before the walls could be seen above ground. But there was
no hurry and nothing was slighted, for the temple when completed was
intended to be as enduring as the mountains from which the stone it was
built of was quarried.
No better illustration of the infinite patience, the ceaseless industry,
and the religious zeal of the Mormon people could be given than they
have manifested in this work. It was a stupendous undertaking. They
possessed no modern mechanical appliances; everything had to be done by
the crudest methods. Considering these difficulties, and the immense
character of the work, it inspires wonder and admiration.
The temple quarries are in a mountain-walled cañon called Little
Cottonwood, twenty-two miles from the city. For many years, or until
1872, every stone had to be hauled that distance by ox teams. The wagons
were especially constructed for that purpose, and some of the stones
were so large that four or five yoke were required to pull the load. How
slow and expensive a building of this magnitude must have been, when
such methods were employed, can readily be appreciated. But in 1872 a
branch railroad was built from the Temple Square to the quarries; since
then the construction has been more rapid and less expensive.
Figures only give a suggestion of its gigantic proportions. It is only
when seen from a distance that its massiveness manifests itself. Then it
towers above the other tall buildings of the city like a mountain above
the level plain--it stands out solemn, grand, majestic, and alone. It is
99 feet wide and 200 feet long. The four corner towers are 188 feet
high; to the top of the central western tower is 204 feet. The main, or
eastern tower, is 211 feet to the top of the great granite globe, and on
that the statue of the angel Gabriel stands, the figure itself being 14
feet high. Above all these points are the supplementary spires, on which
the electric lights will be fixed. The lights on these sky-piercing
spires will be interesting, for they will be so powerful as to penetrate
the darkest corner of the valley, and will be like unto a beacon to a
watching mariner. That on the main, or eastern spire, will be placed
below the statue of the angel, and will be reflected upward, surrounding
the figure with a brilliant halo.
In the designing of the temple, no startling architectural innovations
seem to have been attempted. The exterior has a poverty of
ornamentation, yet perhaps that is the most attractive feature. But the
interior is exceedingly interesting. There are all manner of
eccentricities and queer unexpected places. In the four corner towers
are winding stone staircases reaching to the roof, each having 250
steps. These were all cut by hand at a cost of $100 apiece, and they are
anchored in walls of solid masonry. The largest room is in the top
story, and is 80 x 120 feet and 36 feet high. This is to be used as an
assembly hall, and will have a capacity to seat 1,000 people. The other
rooms are much smaller. There is the fount-room, where baptisms are
performed, for the Mormons, like the Baptists, believe in immersion.
They baptize for the remission of sins, and the living, acting as
proxies, are baptized for the dead.
As understood, if a person has some dear friend or relative who has
passed into the beyond without having had the saving rite of baptism
administered, the living can attend to that little formality so as to
insure the dead a peaceful sojourn in the agreeable climate of the
hereafter.
The uninitiated do not understand the purposes of Mormon temples. They
are not intended to be used for public worship. Services of that
character are never held in them. They are designed to be used for the
meeting of the priesthood and for the performances of ordinances and
ceremonies of marriage, baptisms, etc., and for the administering of
ecclesiastical rites--the conferring of priestly degrees.
Thousands of people have seen this great monument which has been built
by this peculiar people to their more peculiar religion, and have
described the impressions it made on them. Some, in a too-pronounced
enthusiasm, have declared it to be a wonder in architecture--a triumph
in its way--as something grand, almost marvelous in its conception. It
is not. There is little that is exceptionally remarkable about it. True,
there is much to impress one, but it is rather its bigness and general
appearance of solemnity than anything else. Then there is something in
its historical associations, the great difficulties overcome, and the
great zeal displayed in its construction that inspires admiration.
Rudyard Kipling, who once saw it, in a vein of his keenest satire
characterized it as "architecturally atrocious, ugly, villainously
discordant, contemptuously correct, altogether inartistic and
unpoetical," and other adjectives equally as forcible and
uncomplimentary. But he was probably more severe than just in his
criticism. There is nothing about it to shock the artistic eye, and
there are a few things to please.
A word about the statue that is perched on the topmost pinnacle.
Certainly that is pleasing to the artistic soul. It is the work of a
finished sculptor, who is even now not wholly unknown to fame. He is C.
E. Dallin, and was born in Salt Lake City not much over thirty years
ago. But the statue: It is not of marble, but of hammered copper,
covered with gold. To the eye it looks as if it were made entirely of
that metal. It is a very fascinating piece of work, and on its high
pedestal it glistens in the sunlight as if made of fire. One prominent
Mormon has said the statue is not intended to represent Gabriel, but the
angel Moroni proclaiming the gospel to all the world. It was the angel
Moroni, it will be remembered, who showed the golden plates to Joseph
Smith from which the Book of Mormon was written.
From Dallin's boyhood he began to display the artistic bent and
temperament of his nature. Before he ever had any instruction, he
modeled in clay with such success as to attract attention to his work.
Then he went abroad to study, and at the Paris Salon of 1888 he received
the medal of "Honorable Merit" for his "Peace Signal," that being a
full-sized figure of an Indian brave on horseback holding his lance in
such a manner as to be a signal to his fellow warriors at a distance
that all was well. He has also done other meritorious work, and is at
present engaged on a statue to be built on one of the corners of the
Temple Square in honor of Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers.
There have been many extravagant statements made concerning the cost of
this temple. Figures have been placed as high as $6,000,000, which is
nearly double its actual cost. As it stands to-day, $3,000,000 have
probably been expended, and not more than half a million will be
required to complete it.
The laying of this cap-stone practically completes the temple. There is
not another stone to be laid, all that remains to be done being confined
to the interior, and that is mostly in a decorative way. In its
fulfillment there is great rejoicing in the hearts of the Mormon people.
It has been a work requiring the toil of years, the manifestation of
much self-denial, and the display of religious earnestness and sincerity
almost without a parallel.