THE MORMON CAPITAL
I think it was in Kansas City that I first became conscious of the fact
that, without my knowing it, my mind had made, in advance, imaginary
pictures of certain sections of the country, and that, in almost every
instance, these pictures were remarkable for their untruthfulness.
Kansas City itself surprised me with its hills, for I had been thinking
of it in connection with the prairies. With Denver it was the other way
about. Thinking of Denver as a mountain city, instead of a city near the
mountains, I expected hills, but did not find them. And when I crossed
the Rockies, they too afforded a surprise, not because of their height,
but because of their width. Evidently I must have had some vague idea
that a train, traveling west from Denver, would climb very definitely up
the Rocky Mountains, cross the Great Divide, and proceed very definitely
down again, upon the other side, whither a sort of long, sloping plain
would lead to California. Denver itself I thought of as being placed
further west upon the continent than is, in reality, the case. I did not
realize at all that the city is, in fact, only a few hundred miles west
of the halfway point on an imaginary line drawn from coast to coast;
nor was I aware that, instead of being for the most part sloping plain,
the thousand miles that intervenes between Denver and the Pacific Ocean,
is made up of series after series of mountain ranges and valleys, their
successive crests and hollows following one another like the waves of
the sea.
In short, I had imagined that the Rockies were the whole show. I had not
the faintest recollection of the Cordilleran System (of which the
Rockies and all these other ranges are but a part), while as for the
Sierra Nevadas, I remembered them only when I came to them and then much
as one will recall a slight acquaintance who has been in jail for many
years.
Are you shocked by my ignorance--or my confession of it? Then let me ask
you if you know that the Uintah Mountain Range, in Utah, is the only
range in the entire country which runs east and west? And have you ever
heard of the Pequop Mountains, or the Cedar Mountains, or the Santa
Roasas, or the Egans, or the Humboldts, or the Washoes, or the Gosiutes,
or the Toyales, or the Toquimas, or the Hot Creek Mountains? And did you
know that in California as well as in New Hampshire there are the White
Mountains? And what do you know of the Wahsatch and Oquirrh Ranges?
Not wishing to keep the class in geography after school, I shall not
tell you about all these mountains, but will satisfy myself with the
statement that, in an amphitheater formed between the two last mentioned
ranges, at the head of a broad, irrigated valley, is situated Salt Lake
City.
The very name of Salt Lake City had a flat sound in my ears; and in that
mental album of imaginary photographs of cities, to which I have
referred, I saw the Mormon capital as on a sandy plain, with the Great
Salt Lake on one side and the Great Salt Desert on the other. Therefore,
upon arriving, I was surprised again, for the lake is not visible at
all, being a dozen miles distant, and the desert is removed still
farther, while instead of sandy plains the mountains rise abruptly on
three sides of the city, and on the fourth is the sweet valley, covered
with rich farms and orchards, and dotted here and there with minor
Mormon settlements.
Like Mark Twain, who visited Salt Lake many years ago, before the
railroad went there, I managed to forget the lake entirely after I had
been there for a little while. I made no excursion to Saltair Beach, the
playground of the neighborhood, and only saw the lake when our train
crossed a portion of it after leaving the city.
I do not know that the great pavilion at Saltair Beach, of which every
one has seen pictures, is a Mormon property, but it well may be, for the
Mormons have never been a narrow-minded sect with regard to decent
gaieties. They approve of dancing, and the ragtime craze has reached
them, for, as I was walking past the Lion House, one evening, I heard
the music and saw a lot of young people "trotting" gaily, in the place
where formerly resided most of the twenty odd known wives of the late
Brigham Young. Later a Mormon told me that dances are held in Mormon
meeting-houses and that they are always opened with prayer.
Also in the cafe of the Hotel Utah there was dancing every night, and
when the members of the "Honeymoon Express" Company put in an appearance
there one night, we might have been on Broadway. The hotel, I was
informed, is owned by Mormons; it is an excellent establishment. They do
not stare at you as though they thought you an eccentric if you ask for
tea at five o'clock, but bring it to you in the most approved fashion,
with a kettle and a lamp, and the neatest silver tea service I have ever
seen in an American hotel. But that is by the way, for I was speaking of
the frivolities of Mormondom, and afternoon tea is, with me at least, a
serious matter.
Salt Lake City was, until a few years ago, a "wide open town." The
"stockade" was famous among the red-light institutions of the country.
But that is gone, having been washed away by our national "wave of
reform," and the town has now a rather orderly appearance, although it
is not without its night cafes, one of them being the inevitable
"Maxim's," without which, it would appear, no American city is now
complete.
One of the first things the Mormons did, on establishing their city, was
to build an amusement hall, and as long as fifty years ago, this was
superseded by the Salt Lake Theatre, a picturesque old playhouse which
is still standing, and which looks, inside and out, like an old wartime
wood-cut of Ford's Theatre in Washington. Even before the railroads came
the best actors and actresses in the country played in this theater,
drawn there by the strong financial inducements which the Mormons
offered, and it is interesting to note that many stage favorites of
to-day made their first appearances in this playhouse. If I am not
mistaken, Edwin Milton Royle made his debut as an actor there, and both
Maude Adams and Ada Dwyer were born in Salt Lake City, and appeared upon
the stage for the first time at the Salt Lake Theatre. Yes, it is an
interesting and historic playhouse, and I hope that when it burns up, as
I have no doubt it ultimately will, no audience will be present, for I
think that it will go like tinder. And although I still bemoan the money
which I spent to see there, a maudlin entertainment called "The
Honeymoon Express," direct from that home of banal vulgarities, the New
York Winter Garden, I cannot quite bring myself to hope that when the
Salt Lake Theatre burns, the man who wrote "The Honeymoon Express," the
manager who produced it, and the company which played it, will be
rehearsing there. For all their sins, I should not like to see them
burned, though as to being roasted--well, that is a different thing.
Whatever may be one's opinion of the matrimonial industry of Brigham
Young, the visitor to Salt Lake City will not dispute that the late
leader of the Mormons knew, far better than most men of his day, how a
town should be laid out. The blocks of Salt Lake City are rectangular;
the lots are large, the streets wide and admirably paved with asphalt,
almost all the houses are low, and stand in their own green grounds, and
perhaps the most characteristic note of all is given by the poplars and
box elders which grow everywhere, not only in the city, but throughout
the valley.
Besides my preconceptions as to the city, I arrived in Salt Lake City
with certain preconceptions as to Mormons. I expected them to be
radically different, somehow, from all other people I had met. I
anticipated finding them deceitful and evasive: furtive people,
wandering in devious ways and disappearing into mysterious houses, at
dead of night. I wanted to see them, I wanted to talk with them, but I
wondered, nervously, whether one might speak to them about themselves
and their religion, and more especially, whether one might use the words
"Mormon" and "polygamy" without giving offense.
It was not without misgivings, therefore, that my companion and I went
to keep an appointment with Joseph F. Smith, head of the Mormon
Church--or, to give it its official title, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. We found the President, with several high officials
of the church, in his office at the Lion House--the large adobe building
in which, as I have said, formerly resided the rank and file of Brigham
Young's wives; although Amelia lived by herself, in the so called
"Amelia Palace," across the street.
Mr. Smith is a tall, dignified man who comes far from looking his full
seventy-six years. The nose upon which he wears his gold rimmed
spectacles is the dominant feature of his face, being one of those
great, strong, mountainous, indomitable noses. His eyes are dark, large
and keen, and he wears a flowing gray beard and dresses in a black
frock-coat. He and the men around him looked like a group of strong,
prosperous, dogmatically religious New Englanders, such as one might
find at a directors' meeting in the back room of some very solid old
bank in Maine or Massachusetts. Clearly they were executives and men of
wealth. As for religion, had I not known that they were Mormons, I
should have judged them to be either Baptists, Methodists or
Presbyterians.
The occasion did not prove to be a gay one. I tried to explain to the
Mormons that I was writing impressions of my travels and that I had
desired to meet them because, in Salt Lake City, the Mormons seemed to
supply the greatest interest.
But even after I had explained my mission, a frigid air prevailed, and I
felt that here, at least, I would get but scant material. Their attitude
perplexed me. I could not believe they were embarrassed, although I knew
that I was.
Then presently the mystery was cleared up, for President Smith launched
out upon a statement of his opinion regarding "Collier's Weekly"--the
paper in which many of these chapters first appeared--and I became
suddenly and painfully aware that I was being mistaken for a
muckraker.
The President's opinion of "Collier's" was more frank than flattering,
and though one or two of the other Mormons, who seemed to understand our
aims, tried to smooth matters over in the interests of harmony, he would
not be mollified, but insisted vigorously that "Collier's" had printed
outrageous lies about him. This was all news to me, for, as it happened,
I had not read the articles to which he referred, and for which, as a
representative of "Collier's," I was now, apparently, being held
responsible. I explained that to the President of the Church, whereupon
he simmered down somewhat, but I think he still regarded my companion
and me with suspicion, and was glad to see us go.
Thus did we suffer for the sins of Sarah Comstock.
It may not seem necessary to add that the subject of polygamy was not
mentioned in that conversation.
In thinking over our encounter with these leading Mormons I could not
feel surprised, for all that I have read about this sect has been in the
nature of attacks. Mark Twain tells about what was called a "Destroying
Angel" of the Mormon Church, stating that, "as I understand it, they are
Latter Day Saints who are set apart by the Church to conduct permanent
disappearances of obnoxious citizens." He characterizes the one he met
as "a loud, profane, offensive old blackguard." But Mormon Destroying
Angels are things of the past, as, I believe, are Mormon visions of
Empire, and Mormon aggressions of all kinds. Another book, Harry Leon
Wilson's novel, "The Lions of the Lord," was not calculated to soothe
the Mormon sensibilities, and of the numerous articles in magazines and
newspapers which I have read--most of them with regard to polygamy--I
recall none that has not dealt with them severely.
Now, remembering that whatever we may believe, the Mormons believe
devoutly in their religion, what must be their point of view about all
this? Their story is not different from any other in that it has two
sides. If they did commit aggressions in the early days, which seems to
have been the case, they were also the victims of persecution from the
very start, and it is difficult to determine, at this late day, whether
they, or those who made their lives in the East unbearable, were most at
fault.
According to Mormon history the church had its very beginnings in
religious dissension. It is recounted by the Mormons that Joseph Smith,
Jr., founder of the church (he was the uncle of the present President),
attended revival meetings in Manchester, Vermont, and was so confused by
the differences of opinion and the ill-feeling between different sects
that he prayed to the Lord to tell him which was the true religion. In
regard to this, Smith wrote that after his prayer, "a mysterious power
of darkness overcame me. I could not speak and I felt myself in the
grasp of an unseen personage of darkness. My soul went up in an
unuttered prayer for deliverance, and as I was about despairing, the
gloom rolled away and I saw a pillar of light descending from heaven,
approaching me."
Smith then tells of a vision of a Glorious Being, who informed him that
none of the warring religious sects had the right version. Then: "The
light vanished, the personages withdrew and recovering myself, I found
myself lying on my back gazing up into heaven."
Apropos of this, and of other similar visions which Smith said he had,
it is interesting to note that there is a theory, founded upon a
considerable investigation, that Smith was an epileptic.
After his first vision Smith had others, and according to the Mormon
belief, he finally had revealed to him the Hill Cumorah (twenty-five
miles southwest of Rochester, N. Y.) where he ultimately found, with the
aid of the Angel Moroni, the gold plates containing the Book of Mormon,
together with the Urim and Thummim, the stone spectacles through which
he read the plates and translated them. After making his translation,
Smith returned the plates to the angel, but before doing so, showed them
to eight witnesses who certified to having seen them.
As time went on Smith had more visions until at last the Mormon Church
was organized in 1830. Revelations continued. The church grew. Branches
were established in various places, but according to their history, the
Mormons were persecuted by members of other religious sects and driven
from place to place. For a time they were in Kirtland, Ohio. Later they
went to Jackson County, Mo., but their houses were burned and they were
driven on again. In 1838 "the Lord made known to him (Smith) that Adam
had dwelt in America, and that the Garden of Eden was located in Jackson
County, Mo." For a time they were in Nauvoo, Ill., where it seems their
political activities got them into trouble, and at last Joseph Smith and
his brother Hiram were shot and killed by a mob, at Carthage, Ill. That
was in 1844. There were then 10,000 Mormons, over whom Brigham Young
became the leading power. Soon after this the westward movement began.
They established various settlements in Iowa, and in 1847 Young and his
pioneer band of 143 men, 3 women and 2 children, entered the valley of
Salt Lake, where they immediately set up tents and cabins and began to
plow and plant, and where they started what the Mormons say was the
first irrigation system in the United States.
Certainly there were good engineers among them. Their early buildings
show it--especially the famous Tabernacle in the great square they own
at the center of the city. The vast arched roof of the Tabernacle is
supported by wooden beams which were lashed together, no nails having
been used. This building is not beautiful, but is very interesting. It
contains among other things a large pipe organ which was, in its day,
probably the finest in this country, although there are better organs
elsewhere, now. The Mormon Trails are also recognized in the West as the
best trails, with the lowest levels, and there are many other evidences
of unusual engineering and mechanical skill on the part of the early
settlers, including a curious wooden odometer (now in the museum at Salt
Lake City) which worked in connection with the wheel of a prairie
schooner, and which was marvelously accurate.
The revelation as to the practice of polygamy was made to Brigham Young,
and was promulgated in Utah in 1852, soon becoming a subject of
contention between the Mormons and the Government. The practice was
finally suspended by a manifesto issued by President Wilford Woodruff,
in 1890, and the "History of the Church," written by Edward H. Anderson,
declares that "a plurality of wives is now neither taught nor
practised."
Speaking of polygamy I was informed by Prof. Levi Edgar Young, a nephew
of Brigham Young, a Harvard graduate and an authority on Mormon History,
that not over 3 per cent. of men claiming membership in the Mormon
Church ever had practised it. These figures surprised me, as I had
imagined polygamy to be the rule, rather than the exception. Professor
Young, however, assured me that a great many leading Mormons had refused
from the first to accept the practice.
It must be remembered that the day of Brigham Young was not this day. He
was a powerful, far-seeing and very able man, and it does seem probable
that he had the idea of founding an Empire in the West. However the
discovery of gold in '48, flooded the West with settlers and brought a
preponderance of "gentiles" (as the Mormons call those who are not
members of their church) into all that country, making the realization
of Young's dream impossible. What the Mormon Church needed, in those
early times, was increase--more men to do its work, more women to bear
children--and viewed entirely from a practical standpoint, polygamy was
a practice calculated to bring about this end. I met, in Salt Lake City
men whose fathers had married anywhere from five or six to a dozen
wives, and so far as sturdiness goes, I may say that I am convinced that
plural marriages brought about no deterioration in the stock.
I am informed that the membership of the church, to-day, is between
500,000 and 600,000, and that less than 1 per cent. of the Mormon
families are at present polygamous. It is not denied that some few
polygamous marriages have been performed since the issuance of the
manifesto against the practice, but these have been secret marriages
without the sanction of the church, and priests who have performed such
marriages have, when detected, been excommunicated.
I was told in Salt Lake City that, in the cases of some of the older
Mormons, who had plural wives long before the manifesto, there was
little doubt that polygamy was still being practised. Some of these men
are the highest in the church, and it was explained to me that, having
married their wives in good faith, they proposed to carry out what they
regard as their obligations to those wives. However, these are old men,
and with the rise of another generation there can be little doubt that
these last remnants of polygamy will have been finally stamped out.
The modern young Mormon man or woman seems to be a perfectly normal
human being with a normal point of view concerning marriage.
Furthermore, the Mormons believe in education. The school buildings
scattered everywhere throughout the valley are very fine, and I was
informed that 80 per cent. of the whole tax income of the State of Utah
was expended upon education, and that in educational percentages Utah
compares favorably with Massachusetts.
What effect a broad education might have upon succeeding generations of
Mormons it is difficult to say. From a literary point of view, the Book
of Mormon will not bear close scrutiny. Mark Twain described it
accurately when he said, in "Roughing It":
The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history,
with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious
plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his
words and phrases the quaint old-fashioned sound and structure of
our King James's translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a
mongrel--half modern glibness and half ancient simplicity and
gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural,
but grotesque by contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too
modern--which was about every sentence or two--he ladled in a few
such Scriptural phrases as "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass,"
etc., and made things satisfactory again.... The Mormon Bible is
rather stupid and tiresome to read, but there is nothing vicious in
its teachings. Its code of morals is unobjectionable--it is
"smouched" from the New Testament and no credit given.
[Illustration: We were invited to meet the President of the Mormon
Church and some members of his family at the Beehive House, his official
residence]
Certainly there is no need to prove that education is death on dogma.
That fact has been proving itself as scientific research has come more
and more into play upon various dogmatic creeds. I was told, however,
that the Mormon Church schools were liberal; that instead of restricting
knowledge to conform to the teachings of the church, the church was
showing a tendency to adapt itself to meet new conditions.
If it is doing that it is cleverer than some other churches.