First Week at Great Salt Lake City.--Preliminaries.
Before entering upon the subject of the Mormons I would fain offer
to the reader a few words of warning. During my twenty-four days at
head-quarters, ample opportunities of surface observation were afforded
me. I saw, as will presently appear, specimens of every class, from the
Head of the Church down to the field-hand, and, being a stranger in
the land, could ask questions and receive replies upon subjects which
would have been forbidden to an American of the States, more especially
to an official. But there is in Mormondom, as in all other exclusive
faiths, whether Jewish, Hindoo, or other, an inner life into which I
can not flatter myself or deceive the reader with the idea of my having
penetrated. At the same time, it is only fair to state that no Gentile,
even the unprejudiced, who are _raræ aves_, however long he may live
or intimately he may be connected with Mormons, can expect to see any
thing but the superficies. The writings of the Faithful are necessarily
wholly presumed. And, finally, the accounts of Life in the City of
the Saints published by anti-Mormons and apostates are venomous, and,
as their serious discrepancies prove, thoroughly untrustworthy. I may
therefore still hope, by recounting honestly and truthfully as lies in
my power what I heard, and felt, and saw, and by allowing readers to
draw their own conclusions, to take new ground.
[BIBLIOLOGY.]
The Mormons have been represented, and are generally believed to be,
an intolerant race; I found the reverse far nearer the fact. The best
proof of this is that there is hardly one anti-Mormon publication,
however untruthful, violent, or scandalous, which I did not find in
Great Salt Lake City.[129] The extent of the subjoined bibliographical
list would deter me from a theme so used up by friend and foe, were
it not for these considerations. In the first place, I have found,
since my return to England, a prodigious general ignorance of the
“Mormon rule;” the mass of the public has heard of the Saints, but
even well-educated men hold theirs to be a kind of socialistic or
communist concern, where, as in the world to come, there is no marrying
nor giving in marriage. Even where this is not the case, the reader
of travels will not dislike to peruse something more of a theme with
which he is already perhaps familiar; for in this department of
literature, as in history and biography, the more we know of a subject,
the more we want to know. Moreover, since 1857, no book of general
interest has appeared, and the Mormons are a progressive people,
whose “go-a-headitiveness” in social growth is only to be compared
with their obstinate conservatism in adhering to institutions that
date from the days of Abraham. Secondly, the natural history of the
New Faith--for such it is--through the several periods of conception,
birth, and growth to vigorous youth, with fair promise of stalwart
manhood, is a subject of general and no small importance. It interests
the religionist, who looks upon it as the “scourge of corrupted
Christianity,” as much as the skeptic, that admires how, in these
days of steam-traveling, printing, and telegramming, when “many run to
and fro,” and when “knowledge” has been “increased,” human credulity
will display itself in the same glaring colors which it wore ere the
diffusion of knowledge became a part of social labor. The philosophic
observer will detect in it a notable example of how _mens agitat
molem_, the “powerful personal influence of personal character,” and
the “effect that may be produced by a single mind inflexibly applied
to the pursuit of a single object;” and another proof that “it is
easier to extend the belief of the multitude than to contract it--a
circumstance which proceeds from the false but prevalent notion that
too much belief is at least an error on the right side.” The statist
will consider it in its aspect as a new system of colonization.
In America the politician will look with curiosity at a despotism
thriving in the centre of a democracy, and perhaps with apprehension
at its future efforts, in case of war or other troubles, upon the
destinies of the whilom Great Republic. In England, which principally
supplies this number of souls, men, instead of regarding it as one of
many safety-valves, will be reminded of their obligations toward the
classes by which Mormonism is fed, and urged to the improvement of
education, religion, and justice. And I hope to make it appear that
the highly-colored social peculiarities of the New Faith have been
used as a tool by designing men to raise up enmity against a peaceful,
industrious, and law-abiding people, whose whole history has been a
course of cruel persecution, which, if man really believed in his own
improvement, would be a disgrace to a self-styled enlightened age.
The prejudice has naturally enough extended from America to England.
In 1845, when the Mormons petitioned for permission to retire to
Vancouver’s Island, they met with nothing but discouragement. And even
in 1860, I am told, when a report was raised that Mr. Brigham Young
would willingly have taken refuge with his adherents in the valley of
the Saskatchawan, the British minister was instructed to oppose the
useful emigration to the utmost of his power.
[129] A list of works published upon the subject of Mormonism may not
be uninteresting. They admit of a triple division--the Gentile, the
anti-Mormon, and the Mormon.
Of the Gentiles, by which I understand the comparatively unprejudiced
observer, the principal are,
1. The Exploration and Survey of the Great Salt Lake by Captain
Stansbury, who followed up Colonel Frémont’s flying survey in 1849,
or two years before the Mormons had settled in the basin, and found
the young colony about 2-3 years old. Anti-Mormons find fault with
Captain Stansbury for expending upon their adversaries too much of
the milk of human kindness.
2. The Mormons or Latter-Day Saints, by Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison,
of the U. S. Topographical Engineers. This officer was second in
command of the exploration under Captain Stansbury, and has recorded,
in unpretending style and with great impartiality, his opinions
concerning the “rise and progress, peculiar doctrines, personal
conditions and prospects” of the Mormons, “derived from personal
observation.” Like his commanding officer, Lieutenant Gunnison is
accused of having favored the New Faith, and yet, with all the
inconsistency of the odium theologicum, the Faithful are charged with
his subsequent murder; the only motive of the foul deed being that
the Saints dreaded future disclosures, and were determined, though
one of their number had been sent to accompany Captain Stansbury as
assistant, to prevent other expeditions. Upon Lieutenant Gunnison’s
volume is founded “Les Mormons” of M. Étourneau, first printed in the
“Presse,” and afterward republished, Paris, 1856.
3. The Mormons; a Discourse delivered before the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania, March 26th, 1850, by Colonel T. L. Kane (U. S.
Militia): this gentleman, an eye-witness, who has touchingly, and,
I believe, truthfully related the details of the Nauvoo Exodus, is
called by anti-Mormons an “apologist,” and is suspected of being
a Latter-Day Saint--baptized under the name of Dr. Osborne--in
Christian disguise. Arrived at Fort Bridger in 1857, he found
assembled there the three heads of departments, Governor Cumming,
Chief Justice Eccles, and General Johnston. According to the Saints,
he was watched, spied, treated as a Mormon emissary, and nearly shot
by a mistake made on purpose; he was, however, supported by the
governor against the general, and the result was a coolness most
favorable to the New Faith. Colonel Kane is said to have preserved an
affectionate and respectful remembrance of his friends the Mormons.
4. History of the Mormons, by Messrs. Chambers, Edinburgh.
5. An Excursion to California, over the Prairies, Rocky Mountains,
and Great Sierra Nevada, by W. Kelly, Esq., J.P. Mr. Kelly, whose
work shared at the time of its appearance the interest and admiration
of the public with Messrs. Hue and Gabet’s Travels in Tartary, Tibet,
and the Chinese Empire, visited Great Salt Lake City in 1849, an
important epoch in the annals of the infant colony, and leaves the
reader only to regret that he devoted so little of his time and of
his two volumes to the history of the Saints.
6. The Mormons or Latter-Day Saints, with Memoirs of the Life
of Joseph Smith, the American Mahomet. Office of the National
Illustrated Library, 198 Strand, London. This little compilation,
dealing with facts rather than theories, borrows from the polemics
of both parties, and displays the calmness of judgment which results
from studying the subject at a distance; though Gentile, it is
somewhat in favor with Mormons because it shows some desire to speak
the truth. This solid merit has won it the honor of an abridged
translation with the title “Les Mormons” (292 pages in 12mo, Messrs.
Hachette, Paris, 1854), by M. Amédée Pichot, and a brilliant review
by M. Prosper Mérimée in the “Moniteur,” and reprinted in “Les
Mélanges Historiques et Littéraires” (p. 1-58, Michel Levy, 1855).
7. A Visit to Salt Lake, and a Residence in the Mormon Settlements
at Utah, by William Chandless. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1857.
Mr. Chandless, about the middle of July, 1855, crossed the prairies
in the character of a “teamster for pay,” spent the end of the
year at Great Salt Lake City, and thence traveled _viâ_ Fillmore
and San Bernardino to California. The book is exceedingly lively
and picturesque, combining pleasant reading with just observation,
impartiality, and good sense.
8. Voyage au Pays des Mormons, par Jules Remy (2 vols., E. Dentu,
Paris, 1860). The author, accompanied by Mr. Brenchley, M.A.,
traveled in July and the autumn of 1855 from San Francisco along the
line of the Carson and Humboldt Rivers to Great Salt Lake City, and
returned, like Mr. Chandless, by the southern road. The two volumes
are more valuable for the observations on the natural history of the
little-known basin, than for the generalisms, more or less sound,
with which the subject of the New Faith is discussed.
Not a few anomalies appear in the judgments passed by M. Remy upon
the Saints: while in some places they are represented as fervent
and full of faith, we also read: “Le Mormonisme n’a pas caractère
de spontanéité des religions primitives, ce qui va, du reste, de
soi, ni la naïveté des religions qui suivirent, ni la sincérité des
révélations ou des réformes religieuses qui, durant les siècles
derniers, out pris place dans l’histoire;” and while Mr. Joseph Smith
is in parts tenderly treated, he is ruthlessly characterized in p. 24
as _un fourbe et un imposteur_, a “savage and gigantic Tartuffe.” An
excellent English translation of this work has lately appeared, under
the auspices of Mr. Jeffs, Burlington Arcade, but an account of Great
Salt Lake City in 1855 is as archæological as a study of London life
in A.D. 1800.
9. Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West, by M. Carvalho,
who accompanied Colonel Frémont in his last exploration. According to
anti-Mormons, the account of the Saints is far too favorable (1856).
10. Geological Survey of the Territory of Utah, by H. Englemann.
Washington, 1860.
The principal anti-Mormon works are the following, ranged in the
order of their respective dates. The _Cons_, it will be observed,
more than treble the _Pros_.
1. A brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints
(commonly called Mormons), including an Account of their Doctrine
and Discipline, with the reason of the Author for leaving the said
Church, by John Corrill, a member of the Legislature of Missouri (50
pages, 8vo, St. Louis, 1839). I know nothing beyond the name of this
little work, or of the nine following.
2. Addresses on Mormonism, by the Rev. Hays Douglas (Isle of Man,
1839).
3. Mormonism weighed in the Balances of the Sanctuary and found
Wanting, by Samuel Haining (66 pages, Douglas, Isle of Man, 1839).
4. The Latter-Day Saints and Book of Mormon. By W. J. Morrish,
Ledbury.
5. An Exposure of the Errors and Fallacies of the Self-named
Latter-Day Saints. By W. Hewitt, Staffordshire.
6. Tract on Mormonism. By Capt. D. L. St. Clair. (1840.)
7. Mormonism Unveiled. By E. D. Howe. (1841.)
8. Mormonism Exposed. By the Rev. L. Sunderland. (1841.)
9. Mormonism Portrayed; its Errors and Absurdities Exposed, and the
Spirit and Designs of its Author made Manifest. By W. Harris (64
pages, Warsaw, Illinois, 1841).
10. Mormonism in all Ages; or, the Rise, Progress, and Causes of
Mormonism; with the Biography of its Author and Founder, Joseph
Smith, junior. By Professor J. B. Turner, Illinois College,
Jacksonville. (304 pages, 12mo, New York, 1842.)
11. Gleanings by the Way. By the Rev. John A. Clark, D.D. (352 pages
in 12mo, Philadelphia, 1842), Minister at Palmyra in New York at the
time when the New Faith arose.
12. The History of the Saints, or an Exposé of Joe Smith and
Mormonism. By John C. Bennett (344 pages, 12mo, Boston, 1842).
This is the work of a celebrated apostate, who for a season took a
prominent propagandist part in the political history of Mormondom.
Defeated in his hopes of dominion, he has revenged himself by
a volume whose title declares the character of its contents,
and which wants nothing but the confidence of the reader to be
highly interesting. The Mormons speak of him as the Musaylimat el
Kazzáb--Musaylimat the Liar, who tried, and failed to enter into
partnership with Mohammed--of their religion.
The four following works were written by the Rev. Henry Caswall, a
violent anti-Mormon, who solemnly and apparently honestly believes
all the calumnies against the “worthless family” of the Prophet;
unhesitatingly adopts the Solomon Spaulding story, discovers
in Mormon Scripture as many “anachronisms, contradictions, and
grammatical errors” as ever Celsus and Porphyry detected in the
writings of the early Christians, and designates the faith in which
hundreds of thousands live and die as a “delusion in some respects
worse than paganism, and a system destined perhaps to act like
Mohammedanism (!) as a scourge upon corrupted Christianity” (sub. the
American?). The Mormons speak of this gentleman as of a 19th century
Torquemada: he appears by his own evidence to have combined with
the heart of the great inquisitor some of the head qualities of Mr.
Coroner W---- when insisting upon the unhappy Fire-king’s swallowing
his (Mr. W.’s) prussic acid instead of the pseudo-poison provided for
the edification of the public. Mr. Caswall went to Nauvoo holding
in his hand an ancient MS. of the Greek Psalter, and completely,
according to his account, puzzled the Prophet, who decided it to
be “reformed Egyptian.” Moreover, he convicted of falsehood the
“wretched old creature,” viz., the maternal parent of Mr. Joseph
Smith, called a mother in Israel, looked upon as one of the holiest
of women, and who, at any rate, was a good and kind-hearted mother,
that could not be reproached, like Luther’s, with “chastising her son
so severely about a nut that the blood came.” It is no light proof of
Mormon tolerance that so truculent a divine and opponent _par voie de
fait_ should have been allowed to depart from among a people whom he
had offended and insulted without loss of liberty or life.
13. The City of the Mormons, or three Days in Nauvoo in 1842 (87
pages, Messrs. Rivingtons, London, 1843).
14. The Prophet of the 19th Century; or, the Rise, Progress, and
Present State of the Mormons (277 pages, 8vo, published by the same,
London, 1843).
15. Joseph Smith and the Mormons. Chapter xiii. of America and the
American Church (John and Charles Mozley, Paternoster Row, London,
1851).
16. Mormonism and its Author; or, a Statement of the Doctrines of the
Latter-Day Saints. London: Tract Society, No. 866 (16 pages, 1858).
17. Narrative of some of the Proceedings of the Mormons, giving an
Account of their Iniquities, with Particulars concerning the Training
of the Indians by them; Descriptions of their Mode of Endowment,
Plurality of Wives, &c. By Catharine Lewis Lynn (24 pages, 8vo,
1848). As will presently appear, when the fair sex enters upon the
subject of polygamy, it apparently loses all self-control, not to say
its senses.
18. Friendly Warnings on the Subject of Mormonism. By a Country
Clergyman (London, 1850).
19. The Mormon Imposture: an Exposure of the Fraudulent Origin of the
Book of Mormon (8vo, Newbury, London, 1851).
20. Mormonism Exposed. By Mr. Bowes. (1851.)
21. Mormonism or the Bible; a Question for the Times. By a Cambridge
Clergyman (12mo, Cambridge and London, 1852). According to Mormon
view, the title should have been Mormonism _and_ the Bible.
22. History of Illinois. By Governor Ford (Chicago, 1854). The author
was a determined opponent of the New Faith, and gives his own version
of the massacres at Carthage and Nauvoo: it is valuable only on the
venerable principle “audi alteram partem.”
23. Mormonism. By J. W. Conybeare, first printed in the “Edinburgh
Review” (No. ccii., April, 1854, and reprinted in 112 pages, 12mo, by
Messrs. Longman, London, 1854).
24. Utah and the Mormons; the History, Government, Doctrines,
Customs, and Prospects of the Latter-Day Saints, from Personal
Observations during a Six-months’ Residence at Great Salt Lake
City. By Benjamin G. Ferris, late Secretary of Utah Territory (347
pages, 12mo, Messrs. Harper, New York, 1854). The author being
married, appears to have lived among them to as little purpose--for
observation--as possible. Every thing is considered from an
anti-Mormon point of view, and some of the accusations against the
Saints, as in the case of the Eldridges and the Howards, I know to be
not founded on fact. The calmness of the work, upon a highly exciting
subject, contrasts curiously with the feminine violence--the natural
result of contemplating polygamy--of another that issued under the
same name.
25. Mormonism Unveiled; or, a History of Mormonism to the Present
Time (235 pages, 8vo, London, 1855).
26. Mormonism Examined: a few Kind Words to a Mormon (8vo,
Birmingham, 1855).
27. Female Life among the Mormons, published anonymously for the
demand of the New York market, and especially intended for the
followers of Miss Lucy Stone and of the Rev. Miss Antoinette Brown,
but known to be by Mrs. Maria Ward, who subsequently edited another
work. The authoress, who professes to have escaped from the Mormons,
was manifestly never among them. This “tissu de mensonges et de
calomnies,” as M. Remy somewhat ungallantly, but very truthfully
styles it, has had extensive currency. M. Révoil has given a free
translation of it, under the name of “Les Harems du Nouveau Monde”
(308 pages, Paris, 1856). Its success was such that its writeress was
in 1858 induced to repeat the experiment.
28. The Mormons at Home; in a Series of Letters, by Mrs. Ferris,
wife of the late United States Secretary for Utah Territory (Dix
and Edwards, Broadway, New York, 1856). The reasons for this lady’s
rabid hate may be found in polygamy, which is calculated to astound,
perplex, and enrage fair woman in America even more than her
strong-opinioned English sister, and in the somewhat contemptuous
estimation of a sex--which is early taught and soon learns to
consider itself creation’s cream--conveyed in these words of Mr.
Brigham Young: “If I did not consider myself competent to transact
business without asking my wife, or any other woman’s counsel, I
think I ought to let _that_ business alone.”
Accordingly, Mrs. Ferris finds herself in the hands and of a “society
of fanatics,” controlled by a “gang of licentious villains”--an
unpleasant predicament _pour cette vertu_--in fact, for virtue at any
time of life--characterizes the land as a “Botany Bay” for society in
general, and a “region of moral pestilence;” and while she lavishes
the treasures of her pity upon the “poor, poor wife,” holds her
spiritual rival to be _tout bonnement_ a “concubine,” and consigns
the wretches assembled here (_scil._ in Zion on the tops of the
Mountains) to the “very hottest part of the infernal torrid zone.”
Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ?
The Mormons declare that they incurred this funny amount of feminine
wrath and suffered from its consequent pin-pricks by their not taking
sufficient interest in, or notice of the writer, especially by the
fact that on one occasion--it is made much of in the book--some
rude men actually did walk over a bridge before her. But coming
direct from the land of woman’s rights’ associations, lecturesses
on propagandism and voluntary celibatarians, whose “mission” it is
to reform, purify, and exalt the age, especially our wicked selves,
what else could be expected of outraged delicacy and self-esteem? Not
being “vivisectors,” we can not, however, quite join with Mrs. Ferris
in the complacency with which she relates her “probing the hearts” of
her Mormon guests and visitors “with ruthless questions” about their
domestic affairs; and we remark with pleasure that in more than one
place she has most unwillingly confessed the kindness and civility of
the Latter-Day Saints.
29. Adventures among the Mormons, by Elder Hawthornthwaite, an
Apostate Missionary. (1857.)
30. The Mormons, the Dream and the Reality; or, Leaves from the
Sketchbook of Experience. Edited by a Clergyman. W. B. F. (8vo,
London, 1857).
31. The Husband in Utah; or, Sights and Scenes among the Mormons. By
Austin N. Ward. Edited by Mrs. Maria Ward, Author of “Female Life
among the Mormons” (212 pages, 8vo, Derby and Jackson, Nassau Street,
New York, 1857). It is regretable that a respectable publisher should
lend his name to a volume like this. The authoress professes to
edit the MS. left by a nephew of her husband, who lived among the
Mormons en route to California, went on to the gold regions and died.
I can not but characterize it as a pure invention. The writer who
describes markets where not one ever existed, and “the tall spires
of the Mormon temples glittering in the rich sunlight” (p. 15),
there being no spires and no temples at Utah, can hardly expect to
be believed, even when, with all the eloquence of Mr. Potts, of the
“Eatanswill Gazette,” she dwells upon the “fanaticism and diabolism
that ever attends (?) the hideous and slimy course of Mormonism in
its progress over the world.” The imposture, too, is not “white;” it
is premeditatedly mischievous. Although Brother Underwood is a fancy
personage, Miss Eliza R. Snow, with whose name improper liberties are
taken, is no myth, but a well educated and highly respectable reality.
32. Fifteen Years among the Mormons, being the Narrative of Mrs. Mary
Ettie V. Smith, late of the Great Salt Lake City, a Sister of one
of the Mormon High-Priests, she having been personally acquainted
with most of the Mormon leaders, and long in the confidence of the
Prophet Brigham Young. By Nelson Winch Green. (Charles Scribner,
Broadway, New York, 1858, and unhappily republished by Messrs.
Routledge, London.) This work, whose exceedingly clap-trap title is
a key to the “popular” nature of the contents, is, _par excellence_,
_the_ most offensive publication of the kind, and bears within it
marks of an exceeding untruthfulness. The human sacrifices and the
abominable rites performed in the Endowment House are reproductions
of the accounts of hidden orgies in the Nauvoo Temple, invented
and promulgated by Mr. Bowes. The last words placed in the mouth
of Mr. Joseph Smith, “My God! my God! have mercy upon us, if there
is a God!”--a palpable plagiarism from Lord P----’s will--may be a
pious fraud to warn stray lambs from the fold of Mormonism, but as
a history shows, it is wholly destitute of fact. The murder in Mr.
Jones’, the butcher’s house, so circumstantially related, never took
place. Colonel Bridger, who is killed off by the Danites at the end
of the book, still lives; and a dream (ch. xxxviii.) seems to be the
only proof of Lieutenant Gunnison having been slaughtered by the
Latter-Day Saints, not, as is generally supposed, by the Indians.
“Milking the Gentiles,” coining “Bogus-money,” “whistling and
whittling” anti-Mormons out of the town, the dangers of competition
in love-matters with an apostle, and the imminent peril of being
scalped by white Indians, are stock accusations copied from book to
book, and rendered somewhat harmless by want of novelty. But nothing
will excuse the reckless accusations with which Mrs. Smith takes away
the characters of her Mormon sisters, and the abominations with which
she charges the wives of the highest dignitaries. Among those thus
foully defamed is Miss Snow, who also appears as a leading actress in
Mrs. Ward’s fiction. The “poetess of the Mormons,” now married to the
Prophet, has ever led a life of exceptional asceticism--cold in fact
as her name. The Latter-Day Saints retort upon Mrs. Smith, of course,
in kind, quoting Chaucer (but whether truthfully or not I can not
say):
“A woman she was the most discrete alive,
Husbandes at chirche-dore had she had five.”
33. Mormonism; its Leaders and Designs, by John Hyde, Jun.,
formerly a Mormon Elder, and resident of Great Salt Lake City.
(385 pages, 8vo, W. P. Fetridge & Co., Broadway, New York, 1857.)
This is the work of an apostate Mormon, now preaching, I believe,
Swedenborgianism in England: it has some pretensions to learning,
and it attacks the Mormons upon all their strongest grounds. It is
also satisfactory to see that in the circumstantial description of
the mysteries of the Endowment House, Mrs. Smith and Mr. Hyde, whose
account has apparently been borrowed by M. Remy, disagree, thus
justifying us in doubting both; and it is curious to remark, that
while the lady leans to the erotic, the gentleman dwells upon the
treasonous and mutinous tendency of the ceremony. According to Mr.
Hyde, he left the Mormons from conscientious motives. The Mormons,
who, however, never fail thoroughly to denigrate the character of
an enemy, especially of an apostate, declare that the author, when
a missionary at Havre de Grâce, proved useless, always shirking his
duty; and that, since dismissal from the ministry, he has left a wife
unprovided for at Great Salt Lake City.
The now almost forgotten polemical and anti-Mormon works are,
M. Favez. Fragments sur J. Smith et les Mormons. A methodistical
brochure.
Mr. Gray. Principles and Practices of Mormons.
M. Guers. L’Irvingisme et le Mormonisme jugés par la parole de Dieu.
Dr. Hurlburt’s Mormonism Unveiled. This work first set on foot the
story of “Solomon Spaulding” having composed the Book of Mormon,
concerning which more anon.
Mormonism a Delusion. By the Rev. E. B. Chalmers.
Mormonism Unmasked. By R. Clarke.
Mormonism, its History, Doctrine, etc. By the Rev. S. Simpson.
Mormonism an Imposture. By P. Drummond.
The Latter-Day Saints and their Spiritual Views. By H. S. J.
Tracts on Mormonism. A brochure by the Rev. Edmund Clay.
A Country Clergyman’s Warning to his Parishioners. (Wertheim &
M‘Intosh, London.)
The Materialism of the Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, Examined and
Exposed. By S. W. P. Taylder.
The Book of Mormon Examined, and its Claims to be a Revelation from
God proved to be False. (12mo, Anonymous.)
The principal notices of Mormonism in periodical literature are,
Archives du Christianisme: articles de MM. Agénor de Gasparin et
Monod sur le Mormonisme. Nos. of the 11th of December, 1852, and
14th of May, 1853, quoted in the “Bibliographie Universelle” of MM.
Ferdinand Denis, Pinçon et De Narbonne, under the article “Utah.”
Sectes religieuses au xix^{me} siècle; Les Irvingiens et les Saints
du Dernier Jour, par M. Alfred Maury. Revue des Deux-Mondes. Vol.
iii. of the 23d year (A.D. 1853), 1st of September, pages 961-995.
History and Ideas of the Mormons. “Westminster Review,” vol. iii.,
pages 196-230. (1853.)
Le Mormonisme et sa valeur morale--La Société et la Vie des Mormons,
by M. Émile Montégut, “Revue des Deux-Mondes,” vol. i. of the 26th
year, pages 689-725, 15th of February, 1856.
Visite aux Mormons du Lac Salé par Jules Remy. Articles in the “Echo
du Pacifique,” San Francisco, January and February, 1856.
L’Illustration, Journal Universel. Vols. xv. and xxi. Articles by M.
Depping, “Sur les Mormons” (1858).
Biographie Genérale du Dr. Hæfer, publiée chez MM. Didot frères: a
long article upon Mr. Brigham Young, by M. Isambert (1858).
Une Campagne des Américains contre les Mormons. By M. Auguste Laugel.
“Revue des Deux-Mondes,” 1er Septembre, 1859, pages 194-211.
Magasin Pittoresque. Several articles upon the Great Salt Lake, by M.
Ferdinand Denis. Vol. xxvii., pages 172-239. Vol. xxviii., page 207.
(1859-1860.)
Le Mormonisme et les Etats-Unis. “Revue des Deux-Mondes,” 15th April,
1861, signed by M. Elisée Reclus; an article formed chiefly upon
the work of M. Remy. It is an able article, but written by one who,
unfortunately, was never in the country--a _sine quâ non_ for correct
description. The “Revue” had already undertaken the subject in the
number of the 1st of September, 1853, the 15th of February, 1856, and
the 1st of September, 1859.
The foreign works omitted in the catalogue at the end of this note
are,
Mormonismen och Swedenborgianismen. Upsala (8vo, 1854).
Geschichte der Mormonen, oder Jüngsten-Tages-Heiligen in
Nord-Amerika, von Theodor Olshausen. (Göttingen, 244 pages, 8vo,
1856.)
Geographische Wanderungen. Die Mormonen und ihr Land, von Karl
Andree. Dresden, 1859.
The Mormons have published at their General Repository only one
purely laical book, “The Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake
Valley,” illustrated with steel engravings and wood-cuts, from
sketches made by Frederick Piercy. Edited by James Linworth. It is a
highly creditable volume, especially in the artistic department, but
the letter-press is uninteresting, and appears a mere peg upon which
to hang copious notes and official returns. The price varies from
£1 to £1 3_s._, and the three first parts, containing an accurate
history of the Latter-Day Saints’ emigration from Europe up to 1854,
may be had separately, 1_s._ each.
So good a theme for romance could not fail to fall into the hands
of Captain Mayne Reid, who is to Mormonism what Alexander Dumas
was to Mesmerism. In his pages the exaggerated anti-Mormon feeling
attains its acme; the explorer Stansbury, who spoke fairly of the
Saints, is thus qualified: “the captain is at best but a superficial
observer”--quite a glass-house stone-throwing critique. Mr. Brigham
Young is a “vulgar Alcibiades;” the City of the Saints is a “modern
Gomorrah,” and the Saints themselves are “sanctified _forbans_;” the
plurality wife is a “_femme entretenue_.” In the tale of the “Wild
Huntress,” a young person married by foul means to Josh. Stebbing,
the Mormon, and rescued mainly by a young hero--of course a Mexican
volunteer--we have a sound abuse of the many-wife-system, despotism,
theocracy, Danites, tithes, “plebbishness,” and the “vulgar ring
which smacks (!) of ignoble origin.” On the other hand, the rascal
Wakara, an ignoble sub-chief of the Yutas, known mainly as a
horse-thief, contrasts splendidly by his valor, by his “delicate
attentions” to the pretty half-caste, and by his chivalry and
hospitality, which make him a very “Rolla of the North!” And this is
“fact taught through fiction!”
The Mormon Scriptures, corresponding with the Old Testament, the
Evangels, and the epistles of Christianity, consist of the following
works: purely bibliographical notices are here given; the contents
will be the subject of a future page.
1. The Book of Mormon, an Account written by the hand of Mormon, upon
plates taken from the Plates of Mormon. Translated by Joseph Smith,
Jun. The first edition was printed in 1830, at Palmyra, New York,
and consisted of 5000 copies. Since that time it has frequently been
republished in England and America: it was translated into French in
1852 (Marc Ducloux, Rue Saint Benoît 7, Paris, 1852), and versions
have appeared in the German, Italian, Danish, Welsh, and Hawaïan
tongues.
2. The Book of Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus of
Latter-Day Saints, selected (!) from the Revelations of God. By
Joseph Smith, President (336 pages, 12mo). The first American edition
was printed in 1832, or ten years after the Book of Mormon, and was
published at Mr. Joseph Smith’s expense. Many translations of this
important work have appeared.
3. The Pearl of Great Price; being a Choice Selection from the
Revelations, Translations, and Narratives of Joseph Smith (56
pages, 8vo, Liverpool, first published in 1851). This little volume
contains the Book of Abraham, “translated from some records that have
fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt, purporting to be
the writings of Abraham while he was in Egypt, called the Book of
Abraham, written by his own hand on papyrus. With a fac-simile of
three papyri.”
4. The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star, begun in 1839, Manchester,
United States, and now published 42 Islington, Liverpool, every
Saturday. It has reached its 21st volume. The periodical is a single
sheet (16 pages), and the price is one penny. It is an important
publication, embracing the whole history of Mormonism; the hebdomadal
issue now contains polemical papers, vindications of the Faith, with
a kind of appendix, such as emigration reports, quarterly lists of
marriages and deaths, varieties, and money lists.
5. Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young and others. First published
in 1854 (8vo, Liverpool). It now appears in semi-monthly numbers,
1st and 15th, costing 2_d._, making up one volume per annum. The
above-mentioned and the writings of “Joseph the Seer and Parley P.
Pratt, wherever found,” are considered by the authorities of the
Church as direct revelations.
The Mormons do not hold the “Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith
the Prophet and his Progenitors, for many Generations, by Lucy Smith,
mother of the Prophet,” to be entirely trustworthy. Beyond its two
pages of preface by Orson Pratt, it is deep below criticism. This
work, 18mo, of 297 pages (including “Elegies” by Miss E. R. Snow),
was first printed in 1853.
The Controversialist works, not usually included in the London
catalogue, are the following. They are characterized by abundant
earnestness and enthusiasm, and are purposely written in a style
intelligible to the classes addressed:
The Word of our Lord to the Citizens of London, by H. C. Kimball and
W. Woodruff (1839).
The Millennium, and other Poems; to which is annexed a Treatise on
the Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter, by Parley P. Pratt,
New York, 1840.
A Cry out of the Wilderness, by Elder Hyde. This hook was first
published in Germany and in German (120 pages, in 1842).
Three Nights’ Public Discourse at Boulogne-sur-Mer, by Elder John
Taylor (46 pages in 8vo, Liverpool, 1850).
Three Letters to the “New York Herald,” of James Gordon Bennett,
Esq., from J. M. Grant (Mayor and President of the Quorum of
Seventies), of Utah, March, 1852. These epistles have been reprinted
in pamphlet form; they chiefly set forth Mormon grievances,
especially the injury done by the federal officials.
History of the Persecutions endured by the Church of Jesus of
Latter-Day Saints in America, compiled from Public Documents and
drawn from Authentic Sources, by C. W. Wandell, Minister of the
Gospel (without date, but subsequent to the 64 pp. 8vo edition,
printed at Sydney).
Journal of the House of Representatives, Council and Joint Sessions
of the First Annual Special Sessions of the Legislative Assembly
of the Territory of Utah, held at Great Salt Lake City, 1851-1852.
(Printed by Brigham Young, 175 pages 12mo, 1852.)
Defense of Polygamy, by a Lady of Utah (Mrs. Belinda Marden Pratt)
to her Sister in New Hampshire (11 pages, 8vo, first printed at
Great Salt Lake City in 1854, and subsequently republished in the
“Millennial Star” of the 29th of July in the same year). I shall
presently quote this curious work.
Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of
Utah, Great Salt Lake City, 40 pages, 12mo. First printed in 1854,
and now published for every Annual Session (that of ’60-’61 being the
10th) at Great Salt Lake City. Printed at the “Mountaineer” Office,
by John S. Davis, Public Printer.
Acts, Resolutions, and Memorials passed at the several Annual
Sessions (the 9th in 1859-60) of the Legislative Assembly of the
Territory of Utah. Published by virtue of an Act approved January
19th, 1855, Great Salt Lake City, Joseph Cain, afterward J. S.
Davis, Public Printer, 1855-1860. 460 pages, 12mo. It contains the
Territorial Code of Deserét, and is purely secular.
Report of the First General Festival of the Renowned Mormon
Battalion, Great Salt Lake City. 39 pages in 8vo.
Discourses delivered by Joseph Smith (30th of June, 1843) and Brigham
Young (18th of February, 1855) on the Relations of the Mormons to the
Government of the United States. Great Salt Lake City, 16 pages.
Marriage and Morals in Utah, by Parley P. Pratt. 8 pages, 8vo,
Liverpool, 1856.
Twenty-four Miracles, by O. Pratt. Liverpool, 16 pages, 8vo, 1857.
Latter-Day Kingdom; or, the Preparation for the Second Advent, by O.
Pratt. Liverpool, 16 pages, 8vo, 1857.
Spiritual Gifts, by Orson Pratt. Liverpool and London, 80 pages, 8vo,
1857.
Universal Apostasy; or, the Seventeen Centuries of Darkness, by O.
Pratt, Liverpool, 16 pages in 8vo, 1857.
Compendium of the Faith and Doctrines of the Church of Jesus of
Latter-Day Saints, compiled from the Bible, and also from the Book
of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, and other publications of the
Church; with an Appendix, by Franklin D. Richards, one of the Twelve
Apostles of said Church. 42 Islington, Liverpool, 243 pages, long
18mo. (1857.) A concordance and compilation of the chief doctrinal
works and seven sermons.
The following is the Catalogue of English Works published by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and for sale by Orson
Pratt, at their General Repository and “Millennial Star” Office, 42
Islington, Liverpool, and removed from 35 Jewin Street, City, to 30
Florence Street, Islington, London.
Hymn-Book, first edition in 1851. Morocco extra, 4_s._; calf, gilt
edges, 2_s._ 6_d._; calf grained, 2_s._; roan embossed, 1_s._ 6_d._
The Harp of Zion. Poems by John Lyon. Published for the benefit of
the Perpetual Emigrating Fund. First printed in 1853. Morocco extra,
6_s._ 6_d._; cloth, gilt extra, 3_s._ 6_d._; cloth embossed, 2_s._
6_d._
Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political. By Eliza R. Snow. Vol.
I. Morocco extra, 6_s._ 6_d._; calf gilt, 5_s._; cloth gilt, 3_s._
6_d._; cloth embossed, 2_s._ 6_d._
The Government of God, by John Taylor, one of the Twelve Apostles.
First printed in 1852. Stiff covers, 1_s._ 9_d._
Latter-Day Saints in Utah. Opinion of Judge Snow upon the Official
Course of His Excellency Gov. B. Young--Trial of Howard Egan on
Indictment, for the Murder of James Monroe, verdict--A Bill to
Establish a Territorial Government for Utah. The Territorial
Officers, etc. 9_d._
One Year in Scandinavia. Results of the Gospel in Denmark and Sweden,
by Erastus Snow, one of the Twelve Apostles. 3_d._
Reports of Three Nights’ Public Discussion in Bolton, between William
Gibson, H. P., Presiding Elder of the Manchester Conference of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the Rev. Woodville
Woodman, Minister of the New Jerusalem Church. First published in
1851. 6_d._
Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith; also a condensed History of
the Expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo, by Elder John S. Fullmer,
Pastor of the Manchester, Liverpool, and Preston Conferences. First
printed in 1856. 5_d._
Testimonies for the Truth; a Record of Manifestations of the Power
of God--miraculous and providential--witnessed in the travels and
experience of Benjamin Brown, H. P., Pastor of the London, Reading,
Kent, and Essex Conferences. It is a list of the Miracles performed
by the first Mormons. Printed in Liverpool, 1853. 4_d._
_Works by Parley P. Pratt, one of the Twelve Apostles._
Key to the Science of Theology; designed as an Introduction to
the First Principles of Spiritual Philosophy, Religion, Law, and
Government, as delivered by the Ancients, and as restored in this
Age, for the Final Development of Universal Peace, Truth, and
Knowledge. First published in 1855. It is a volume far superior in
matter and manner to the average run of Mormon composition. Morocco
extra, 5_s._ 6_d._; calf grained, 3_s._ 6_d._; cloth embossed, 2_s._
The Voice of Warning; or, an Introduction to the Faith and Doctrine
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This work has
been translated into French. Morocco extra, 4_s._; calf, gilt edges,
3_s._; calf grained, 2_s._ 6_d._; cloth embossed, 1_s._ 6_d._
_Works by Orson Pratt, A.M., one of the Twelve Apostles._
Absurdities of Immaterialism; or, a Reply to T. W. P. Taylder’s
Pamphlet, entitled “The Materialism of the Mormons, or Latter-Day
Saints, Examined and Exposed.” First edition in 1849. 4_d._
Great First Cause; or, the Self-moving Forces of the Universe. 2_d._
Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, in 6 parts. Each part 2_d._
Divine Authority, or the Question, was Joseph Smith sent of God?
First published in 1848. 2_d._
Remarkable Visions. First published in 1849. 2_d._
The Kingdom of God, in 4 parts. First edition in 1849. Parts 1, 2, 3,
each 1_d._ Part 4, 2_d._
Reply to a Pamphlet printed at Glasgow, with the approbation
of Clergymen of different denominations, entitled, “Remarks on
Mormonism.” First edition in 1849. 2_d._
New Jerusalem; or, the Fulfillment of Modern Prophecy. First
published in 1849. 3_d._
Title and Index to the above Works, ¹⁄₂_d._
The Seer. Vol. I., 12 numbers; II., 8 numbers. Each number 2_d._ The
two volumes bound in one, in half calf, 5_s._
A Series of Pamphlets, now being published on the first Principles of
the Gospel.
The following numbers are already out: Chap. 1, The True Faith. Chap.
2, True Repentance. Chap. 3, Water Baptism. Chap. 4, The Holy Spirit.
Chap. 5, Spiritual Gifts. First printed in 1857. Each number, 2_d._
_Works by Lorenzo Snow, one of the Twelve Apostles._
The Voice of Joseph. A brief Account of the Rise, Progress, and
Persecutions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, with
their present Position and Prospects in Utah Territory; together with
American Exiles’ Memorial to Congress. First published in 1852. 3_d._
The Only Way to be Saved. An Explanation of the First Principles of
the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. 1_d._
The Italian Mission, 4_d._
_Works by Elder Orson Spencer, A.B._
Letters exhibiting the most prominent Doctrines of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in reply to the Rev. William
Crowel, A.M., Boston, Mass., U. S. A. First printed in 1852. Morocco
extra, 4_s._; calf grained, 2_s._ 6_d._; cloth embossed, 1_s._ 6_d._
Patriarchal Order, or Plurality of Wives. (Being the Fifteenth Letter
in Correspondence with the Rev. William Crowel, A.M.) 2_d._
The Prussian Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints. Report of Elder Orson Spencer, A.B., to President Brigham
Young. 2_d._
_Works by Elder John Jacques._
Catechism for Children. Cloth, gilt edges, 10_d._; stiff covers, 6_d._
Exclusive Salvation, 1_d._
Salvation. A Dialogue in two parts. Each part 1_d._
I will conclude this long enumeration with Catalogue of the principal
Works in foreign languages.
_Works in French._
Le Livre de Mormon (Book of Mormon), 3_s._ 6_d._
Une Voix d’Avertissement (Voice of Warning). Par Parley P. Pratt.
Morocco, gilt edges, 4_s._; roan, 1_s._ 9_d._; cloth, 1_s._ 6_d._;
paper covers, 1_s._ 3_d._
Les Mormons et leurs Enemis (The Latter-Day Saints and their
Enemies). Par T. B. H. Stenhouse, President des Missions Suisse et
Italienne. 1_s._ 6_d._
Autorité Divine (Divine Authority). Par L. A. Bertrand, Elder. 4_d._
De la Nécessité de Nouvelles Révélations prouvée par la Bible. Par
John Taylor, un des Douze Apôtres. 4_d._
Aux Amis de la Vérité Religieuse. Par John Taylor, Elder. 2_d._
Epitre du President de la Mission Française à l’Eglise des Saints des
Derniers-jours en France et dans les Iles de la Manche (Epistle of
the President of the French Mission, etc.), 1¹⁄₂_d._
Traité sur le Baptême. Par John Taylor, un des Douze Apôtres. 2_d._
_Works in German._
Das Buch Mormon (The Book of Mormon), 3_s._ 6_d._
Eine Gottliche Offenbarung; und Belehrung uber den Ehestand
(Revelation on Marriage; and Patriarchal order or Plurality of
Wives). Stiff covers, 6_d._
Zion’s Panier (Zion’s Pioneer). No. 1, 3_d._
_Works in Italian._
Il Libro di Mormon (The Book of Mormon). Morocco extra, 6_s._ 6_d._;
grained roan, 4_s._ 6_d._
_Works in Danish._
Mormons Bog (The Book of Mormon). Grained roan, 4_s._
_Works in Welsh._
Llyfr Mormon (Book of Mormon). Grained roan, 4_s._; roan, gilt edges,
4_s._ 6_d._
Athrawiaeth a Chyfammodau (Doctrine and Covenants). Grained roan,
3_s._ 6_d._; roan, gilt edges, 3_s._ 6_d._
Llfyr Hymnau (Hymn Book). Marble calf, 2_s._; grained roan, 2_s._
3_d._; calf, gilt edges, 2_s._ 6_d._
Y Perl o Fawr Bris (Pearl of Great Price), 1_s._ 2_d._
Priodas a Moesau yn Utah, gan Parley P. Pratt (Marriage and Morals in
Utah, by Parley P. Pratt), 1_d._
Prophwyd y Jubili (The Millennial Prophet), Vol. III. unbound, 2_s._
0¹⁄₂_d._
_By Elder Dan Jones._
Yr Eurgrawn Ysgrythyrol (Casket, or Treatises on upward of 100
subjects). Half calf, 3_s._ 3_d._; unbound, 2_s._ 6_d._
Pwy yw Duw y Saint? (Who is the God of the Saints?), 2¹⁄₂_d._
Yr Hen Grefydd Newydd (The old Religion anew), 6_d._
Annerchiad i’r Peirch, etc. (Proclamation to the Reverends, etc.),
1¹⁄₂_d._
Gwrthbrofion i’r Spaulding Story am Lyfr Mormon (Spaulding Story,
etc., refuted), 2_d._
Anmhoblogrwydd Mormoniaeth (Unpopularity of Mormonism), 1_d._
Arweinydd i Seion (Guide to Zion), 1¹⁄₂_d._
Pa beth yw Mormoniaeth? (What is Mormonism?), ¹⁄₂_d._
Pa beth yw gras Cadwedigol? (What is saving Grace?), ¹⁄₂_d._
Dadi ar Mormoniaeth? (Discussion on Mormonism), 2_d._
Anffyddiaeth Sectyddiaeth (Skepticism of Sectarianism), 1_d._
Amddiffyniad rhag Cam-gyhuddiadau (Replies to False Charges), 1_d._
Y Lleidr ar y Groes (The Thief on the Cross), ¹⁄₂_d._
“Peidiwch a’u Gwrando” (“Don’t go to hear them”), ¹⁄₂_d._
Egwyddorion Cyntaf a Gwahoddiadau (First Principles and Invitations),
¹⁄₄_d._
Ai duw a Ddanfonodd Joseph Smith (Divinity of Joseph’s Mission), 1_d._
Llofruddiad Joseph a Hyrum Smith (Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum
Smith), 1_d._
Tarddiad Llfyr Mormon (Origin of the Book of Mormon), 1_d._
Dammeg y Pren Ffrwythlawn (Parable of the Fruitful Tree), ¹⁄₂_d._
Darlun o’r Byd Crefyddol (The Religious World Illustrated), ¹⁄₂_d._
Traethodau D. Jones, yn rhwyn mewn hanner croen llo (D. Jones’ Works
bound in half calf), 6_s._ 4_d._
_By Elder John Davies._
Yr hyn sydd o ran, etc. (That which is in part, etc.), 1_d._
Epistol Cyffredinol Cyntaf (First General Epistle of the first
Presidency), 1_d._
Traethawd ar Wyrthiau (Treatise on Miracles), 1_d._
Etto Adolygiad, etc., Chwech Rhifyn (Do. in reply to Anti-Mormon
Lectures). Six Nos. (Each No. 1_d._)
Pregethu i’r Ysbrydion yn Ngharchar, etc. (Preaching to the Spirits
in Prison, etc.), 1_d._
Ewch a Dysgwch (Go and Teach), ¹⁄₄_d._
Darlithiau ar Ffydd, gan Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith’s Lectures on
Faith), 4_d._
Y Doniau Ysbrydol yn Mrawdlys y Gelyn (The Spiritual Gifts before
their Enemies’ Tribunal), 2_d._
Traethawd ar Fedydd (Treatise on Baptism), 1_d._
Corff Crist, neu yr Eglwys (The Body or Church of Christ), 1_d._
Ffordd y Bywyd Tragywyddol (The Way of Eternal Life), 1_d._
Yr Achos Mawr Cyntaf, gan O. Pratt (Great First Cause, by O. Pratt),
2_d._
Profwch Bob Peth, etc. (Prove all things, etc.), ¹⁄₂_d._
Athrawiaeth Iachus (Sound Doctrine), ¹⁄₂_d._
Ymddyddanion yn Gymraeg a Saesonaeg (Dialogues in Welsh and English),
¹⁄₂_d._
Llythyron Capt. Jones o Ddyffryn y li. H. Mawr, yn desgrifio
arderchawgrwydd Seion (Beauties of Zion described by Captain Jones,
in a Series of Letters from Great Salt Lake Valley), 2_d._
[SAN FRANCISCO ROAD.]
On the evening of our arrival Lieutenant Dana and I proceeded to
the store of Messrs. Livingston, Bell, and Co.--formerly Livingston
and Kinkhead--the sutlers of Camp Floyd, and the most considerable
Gentile merchants in Great Salt Lake City; he to learn the readiest
way of reaching head-quarters, I to make inquiries about the San
Francisco road. We were cordially received by both these gentlemen,
who, during the whole period of my stay, did all in their power to
make the place pleasant. Governor Bell, as he is generally called,
presently introduced me to his wife, a very charming person, of English
descent, whose lively manners contrasted strongly and agreeably with
the almost monastic gloom which the _régime_ of the “lady-saints” casts
over society. Lieutenant Dana was offered seats in Mr. Livingston’s
trotting-wagon on the ensuing Monday. I was less fortunate. Captain
Miller, of Millersville, the principal agent and director at this end
of the road, informed me that he had lately ceased to run the wagon,
which had cost the company $15,000 a month, returning but $30,000 per
annum, and was sending the mails on mule-back. However, my informants
agreed that a party would probably be starting soon, and that, all
things failing, I could ride the road, though with some little risk of
scalp. We ended with a bottle of Heidseck, and with cigars which were
not unpleasant even after the excellent “gold-leaf tobacco” of the
States.
[GOVERNOR CUMMING.]
On the next day, Sunday, we walked up the main street northward, and
doubling three corners of Temple Block, reached the large adobe house,
with its neat garden, the abode of the then governor, Hon. Alfred
Cumming. This gentleman, a Georgian by birth, after a long public
service as Indian agent in the northern country, was, after several
refusals, persuaded by the then president, who knew his high honor
and tried intrepidity, to assume the supreme executive authority at
Great Salt Lake City. The conditions were that polygamy should not be
interfered with, nor forcible measures resorted to except in extremest
need. Governor Cumming, accompanied by his wife, and an escort of 600
dragoons, left the Mississippi in the autumn of 1857, at a time when
the Mormons were in arms against the federal authority, and ended his
journey only in April of the ensuing year. By firmness, prudence, and
conciliation, he not only prevented any collision between the local
militia and the United States army, which was burning to revenge
itself for the terrible hardships of the campaign, but succeeded in
restoring order and obedience throughout the Territory. He had been
told before entering that his life was in danger; he was not, however,
a man to be deterred from a settled purpose, and experiment showed
that, so far from being molested, he was received with a salute and
all the honors. Having been warned that he might share the fate of
Governor Boggs, who in 1843 was shot through the mouth when standing
at the window, he enlarged the casements of his house in order to give
the shooter a fair chance. His determination enabled him to issue, a
few days after his arrival, a proclamation offering protection to all
persons illegally restrained of their liberty in Utah. The scrupulous
and conscientious impartiality which he has brought to the discharge of
his difficult and delicate duties, and, more still, his resolution to
treat the Saints like Gentiles and citizens, not as Digger Indians or
felons, have won him scant favor from either party. The anti-Mormons
use very hard language, and declare him to be a Mormon in Christian
disguise. The Mormons, though more moderate, can never, by their very
organization, rest contented without the combination of the temporal
with the spiritual power. The governor does not meet his predecessor,
the ex-governor, Mr. Brigham Young, from prudential motives, except
on public duty. Mrs. Cumming visits Mrs. Young, and at the houses of
the principal dignitaries, this being nearly the only society in the
place. As, among Moslems, a Lady M. W. Montague can learn more of
domestic life in a week than a man can in a year, so it is among the
Mormons. I can not but express a hope that the amiable Mrs. Cumming
will favor us with the results of her observation and experience, and
that she will be as disinterested and unprejudiced as she is talented
and accomplished. The kindness and hospitality which I found at the
governor’s, and, indeed, at every place in New Zion, is “ungrateful to
omit,” and would be “tedious to repeat.”
We dined with his excellency at the usual hour, 2 P.M. On the way I
could dwell more observantly upon the main features of the city, which,
after the free use of the pocket-compass, were becoming familiar to me.
The first remark was, that every meridional street is traversed on both
sides by a streamlet of limpid water, verdure-fringed, and gurgling
with a murmur which would make a Persian Moollah long for improper
drinks. The supplies are brought in raised and hollowed water-courses
from City Creek, Red Buttes, and other kanyons lying north and east
of the settlement. The few wells are never less than forty-five feet
deep; artesians have been proposed for the benches, but the expense
has hitherto proved an obstacle. Citizens can now draw with scanty
trouble their drinking water in the morning, when it is purest, from
the clear and sparkling streams that flow over the pebbly beds before
their doors. The surplus is reserved for the purposes of irrigation,
without which, as the “distillation from above” will not suffice,
Deserét would still be a desert, and what is not wanted swells the City
Creek, and eventually the waves of the Jordan. The element, which flows
at about the rate of four miles an hour, is under a chief water-master
or commissioner, assisted by a water-master in each ward, and by a
deputy in each block, all sworn to see the fertilizing fluid fairly
distributed. At the corners of every ward there is a water-gate which
controls the supplies that branch off to the several blocks, and each
lot of one and a quarter acres is allowed about three hours’ irrigation
during the week. For repairs and other expenses a property tax of one
mill per dollar is raised, and the total of the impost in 1860 was
$1163 25. The system works like clock-work. “The Act to Incorporate the
Great Salt Lake City Water-works” was approved January 21, 1853.
[THE HOLY CITY.]
Walking in a northward direction up Main, otherwise called Whisky
Street, we could not but observe the “magnificent distances” of the
settlement, which, containing 9000-12,000 souls, covers an area of
three miles. This broadway is 132 feet wide, including the side-walks,
which are each twenty, and, like the rest of the principal avenues, is
planted with locust and other trees. There are twenty or twenty-one
wards or cantons, numbered from the S.E. “boustrophedon” to the N.W.
corner. They have a common fence and a bishop apiece. They are called
after the creeks, trees, people, or positions, as Mill-Creek Ward,
Little Cotton-wood, Denmark, and South Ward. Every ward contains about
nine blocks, each of which is forty rods square. The area of ten acres
is divided into four to eight lots, of two and a half to one and a
quarter acres each, 264 feet by 132. A city ordinance places the houses
twenty feet behind the front line of the lot, leaving an intermediate
place for shrubbery or trees. This rule, however, is not observed in
Main Street.
The streets are named from their direction to the Temple Block. Thus
Main Street is East Temple Street No. 1; that behind it is State Road,
or East Temple Street 2, and so forth, the ward being also generally
specified. Temple Block is also the point to which latitude and
longitude are referred. It lies in N. lat. 40° 45′ 44″, W. long. (G.)
112° 6′ 8″, and 4300 feet above sea level.
Main Street is rapidly becoming crowded. The western block, opposite
the hotel, contains about twenty houses of irregular shape and
size. The buildings are intended to supply the principal wants of
a far-Western settlement, as bakery, butchery, and blacksmithery,
hardware and crockery, paint and whip warehouse, a “fashionable
tailor”--and “fashionable” in one point, that his works are more
expensive than Poole’s--shoe-stores, tannery and curriery; the
Pantechnicon, on a more pretentious style than its neighbors, kept
by Mr. Gilbert Clements, Irishman and orator; dry-goods, groceries,
liquors, and furniture shops, Walker’s agency, and a kind of restaurant
for ice-cream, a luxury which costs 25 cents a glass; saddlers, dealers
in “food, flour, and provisions,” hats, shoes, clothing, sash laths,
shingles, timber, copper, tin, crockery-ware, carpenters’ tools, and
mouse-traps; a watch-maker and repairer, a gunsmith, locksmith, and
armorer, soap and candle maker, nail-maker, and venders of “Yankee
notions.” On the eastern side, where the same articles are sold on a
larger scale, live the principal Gentile merchants, Mr. Gilbert and
Mr. Nixon, an English Saint; Mr. R. Gill, a “physiological barber;”
Mr. Godbe’s “apothecary and drug stores;” Goddard’s confectionery;
Messrs. Hockaday and Burr, general dealers, who sell every thing, from
a bag of potatoes to a yard of gold lace; and various establishments,
Mormon and others. Crossing the street that runs east and west, we pass
on the right hand a small block, occupied by Messrs. Dyer and Co.,
sutlers to a regiment in Arizona, and next to it the stores of Messrs.
Hooper and Cronyn, with an ambrotype and daguerrean room behind. The
stores, I may remark, are far superior, in all points, to the shops in
an English country town that is not a regular watering-place. Beyond
this lies the adobe house, with its wooden Ionic stoop or piazza
(the portico is a favorite here), and well-timbered garden, occupied
by Bishop Hunter; and adjoining it the long tenement inhabited by
the several relicts of Mayor Jedediah M. Grant. Farther still, and
facing the Prophet’s Block, is the larger adobe house belonging to
General Wells and his family. Opposite, or on the western side, is
the well-known store of Livingston, Bell, and Co., and beyond it the
establishment now belonging to the nine widows and the son of the
murdered apostle, Parley P. Pratt. Still looking westward, the Globe
bakery and restaurant, and a shaving saloon, lead to the “Mountaineer
Office,” a conspicuous building, forty-five feet square, two storied,
on a foundation of cut stone stuccoed red to resemble sandstone, and
provided with a small green-balconied belvidere. The cost was $20,000.
It was formerly the Council House, and was used for church purposes.
When purchased by the Territory the Public Library was established in
the northern part; the office of the “Deserét News” on the first story,
and that of the “Mountaineer” on the ground floor. This brings us to
the 1st South Temple Street, which divides the “Mountaineer” office
from the consecrated ground. In this vicinity are the houses of most of
the apostles, Messrs. Taylor, Cannon, Woodruff, and O. Pratt.
Crowds were flocking into Temple Block for afternoon service; yet
I felt disappointed by the scene. I had expected to see traces of
“workmen in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all
manner of cunning men for every manner of work,” reposing from their
labors on the Sabbath. I thought, at any rate, to find
“pars ducere muros
Molirique arcem, et manibus subvolvere saxa.”
It seemed hardly in accordance with the energy and devotedness of a new
faith that a hole in the ground should represent the House of the Lord,
while Mr. Brigham Young, the Prophet, thinking of his own comfort
before the glory of God, is lodged, like Solomon of old, in what here
appears a palace. Nor, reflecting that without a Temple the dead can
not be baptized out of Purgatory, was I quite satisfied when reminded
of the fate of Nauvoo (according to Gentiles the Mormons believe that
they must build nine temples before they will be suffered to worship
in peace), and informed that the purely provisional works, which had
been interrupted by the arrival of the army in 1858, would shortly be
improved.
[THE TEMPLE BLOCK.]
The lines of Temple Block--which, as usual, is ten acres square =
forty rods each way--run toward the cardinal points. It stands clear
of all other buildings, and the locust-trees, especially those on
the sunny south side, which have now been planted seven years, will
greatly add to its beauties. It is surrounded with a foundation wall
of handsomely dressed red sandstone, raised to the height of ten feet
by adobe stuccoed over to resemble a richer material. Each facing has
thirty flat pilastres, without pedestal or entablature, but protected,
as the adobe always should be, by a sandstone coping. When finished,
the whole will be surmounted by an ornamental iron fence. There are
four gates, one to each side--of these, two, the northern and western,
are temporarily blocked up with dry stone walls, while the others are
left open--which in time will become carriage entrances, with two side
ways for foot passengers. According to accounts, the wall and the
foundations have already cost one million of dollars, or a larger sum
than that spent upon the entire Nauvoo Temple.
Temple Block--the only place of public and general worship in the
city--was consecrated and a Tabernacle was erected in September,
1847, immediately after the celebrated exodus from “Egypt on the
banks of the Mississippi,” on a spot revealed by the past to the
present Prophet and his adherents. Two sides of the wall having been
completed, ground was broken on the 14th of February, 1853, for the
foundation of the building. One part of the ceremony consisted of
planting a post at the central point, the main “stake for the curtains
of Zion:” every successive step in advance was commemorated by imposing
ceremonies, salvos of guns, bands playing, crowds attending, addresses
by the governor, Mr. Brigham Young, prayers and pious exercises. The
foundations of the Temple, which are sixteen feet deep, and composed of
hard gray granite, in color like that of Aberdeen or Quincy, are now
concealed from view; and the lumber huts erected for the workmen were,
when the Mormons made their minor Hegira to Provo City, removed to the
Sugar-house Ward, three miles southeast of the city.
The Temple Block is at present a mere waste. A central excavation,
which resembles a large oblong grave, is said by Gentiles to be the
beginning of a baptismal font twenty feet deep. The southwestern corner
is occupied by the Tabernacle, an adobe building 126 feet long from
N. to S., and 64 wide from E. to W.: its interior, ceilinged with an
elliptical arch--the width being its span--can accommodate 2000-3000
souls. It urgently requires enlarging. Over the entrances at the gable
ends, which open to the N. and S., is a wood-work representing the
sun, with his usual coiffure of yellow beams, like a Somali’s wig, or
the symbol of the Persian empire. The roof is of shingles: it shelters
under its projecting eaves a whole colony of swallows, and there are
four chimneys--a number insufficient for warmth at one season, or
for ventilation at the other. The speaker or preacher stands on the
west side of the building, which is reserved for the three highest
dignities, viz., the First Presidency, the “Twelve” (Apostles), and
the President of the State of Zion: distinguished strangers are also
admitted. Of late, as in the old Quaker meeting-houses at Philadelphia,
the brethren in the Tabernacle have been separated from the “sistern,”
who sit on the side opposite the preacher’s left; and, according to
Gentiles, it is proposed to separate the Christians from the Faithful,
that the “goats” may no longer mingle with the sheep.
Immediately north of the Tabernacle is the Bowery--in early spring
a canopy of green leafy branches, which are left to wither with the
year, supported on wooden posts. The interior will be described when we
attend the house of worship next Sunday.
In the extreme northwest angle of the block is the Endowment, here
pronounced _On-dewment House_, separated from the Tabernacle by a high
wooden paling. The building, of which I made a pen and ink sketch
from the west, is of adobe, with a pent roof and four windows, one
blocked up: the central and higher portion is flanked by two wings,
smaller erections of the same shape. The Endowment House is the place
of great medicine, and all appertaining to it is carefully concealed
from Gentile eyes and ears: the result is that human sacrifices are
said to be performed within its walls. Mrs. Smith and Mr. Hyde have
described the mysterious rites performed within these humble walls,
but, for reasons given before, there is reason to doubt the truth of
their descriptions; such orgies as they describe could not coexist with
the respectability which is the law of the land. M. Remy has detailed
the programme with all the exactitude of an eye-witness, which he was
not. The public declare that the ceremonies consist of some show,
which in the Middle Ages would be called a comedy or mystery--possibly
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained--and connect it with the working
of a mason’s lodge. The respectable Judge Phelps, because supposed to
take the place of the Father of Sin when tempting Adam and Eve, is
popularly known as “the Devil.” The two small wings are said to contain
fonts for the two sexes, where baptism by total immersion is performed.
According to Gentiles, the ceremony occupies eleven or twelve hours.
The neophyte, after bathing, is anointed with oil, and dressed in
clean white cotton garments, cap and shirt, of which the latter is
rarely removed--Dr. Richards saved his life at the Carthage massacre by
wearing it--and a small square masonic apron, with worked or painted
fig-leaves: he receives a new name and a distinguishing grip, and
is bound to secrecy by dreadful oaths. Moreover, it is said that,
as in all such societies, there are several successive degrees, all
of which are not laid open to initiation till the Temple shall be
finished. But--as every mason knows--the “red-hot poker” and other
ideas concerning masonic institutions have prevailed when juster
disclosures have been rejected. Similarly in the Mormonic mystery, it
is highly probable that, in consequence of the conscientious reserve of
the people upon a subject which it would be indelicate to broach, the
veriest fancies have taken the deepest root.
[Illustration: ENDOWMENT HOUSE AND TABERNACLE. (From the West.)]
[THE FUTURE TEMPLE.]
The other features of the inclosure are a well near the Tabernacle,
an arched sewer in the western wall for drainage, and at the eastern
entrance a small habitation for concierge and guards. The future Temple
was designed by an Anglo-Mormon architect, Mr. Truman O. Angell. The
plan is described at full length in the Latter-Day Saints’ “Millennial
Star,” December 2, 1854, and drawings, apparently copied from the
original in the historian’s office, have been published at Liverpool,
besides the small sketches in the works of Mr. Hyde and M. Remy. It is
hardly worth while here to trouble the general reader with a lengthy
description of a huge and complicated pile, a syncretism of Greek
and Roman, Gothic and Moorish, not revealed like that of Nauvoo, but
planned by man, which will probably never be completed. It has been
transferred to the Appendix (No. II.), for the benefit of students:
after briefly saying that the whole is symbolical, and that it is
intended to dazzle, by its ineffable majesty, the beholder’s sight, I
will repeat the architect’s concluding words, which are somewhat in the
style of Parr’s Life Pills advertisements: “For other particulars, wait
till the house is done, then come and see it.”
[MR. STENHOUSE.]
After dining with the governor, we sat under the stoop enjoying, as we
might in India, the cool of the evening. Several visitors dropped in,
among them Mr. and Mrs. Stenhouse. He--Elder T. B. H. Stenhouse--is
a Scotchman by birth, and has passed through the usual stages of
neophyte (larva), missionary (pupa), and elder or fully-developed
Saint (imago). Madame was from Jersey, spoke excellent French, talked
English without nasalization or cantalenation, and showed a highly
cultivated mind. She had traveled with her husband on a propagandist
tour to Switzerland and Italy, where, as president of the missions
for three years, he was a “diligent and faithful laborer in the great
work of the last dispensation.” He became a Saint in 1846, at the
age of 21; lived the usual life of poverty and privation, founded
the Southampton Conference, converted a lawyer among other great
achievements, and propagated the Faith successfully in Scotland as in
England. The conversation turned--somehow in Great Salt Lake City it
generally does--upon polygamy, or rather plurality, which here is the
polite word, and for the first time I heard that phase of the family
tie sensibly, nay, learnedly advocated on religious grounds by fair
lips. Mr. Stenhouse kindly offered to accompany me on the morrow, as
the first hand-cart train was expected to enter, and to point out what
might be interesting. I saw Elder and High-Priest Stenhouse almost
every day during my stay at Great Salt Lake City, and found in his
society both pleasure and profit. We of course avoided those mysterious
points, into which, as an outsider, I had no right to enter; the
elder was communicative enough upon all others, and freely gave me
leave to use his information. The reader, however, will kindly bear
in mind that, being a strict Mormon, Mr. Stenhouse could enlighten
me only upon one side of the subject; his statements were therefore
carefully referred to the “other part;” moreover, as he could never
see any but the perfections of his system, the blame of having pointed
out what I deem its imperfections is not to be charged upon him. His
power of faith struck me much. I had once asked him what became of the
Mormon Tables of the Law, the Golden Plates which, according to the
Gentiles, were removed by an angel after they had done their work. He
replied that he knew not; that his belief was independent of all such
accidents; that Mormonism is and must be true to the exclusion of all
other systems. I saw before me an instance how the brain or mind of man
can, by mere force of habit and application, imbue itself with any idea.
Long after dark I walked home alone. There were no lamps in any but
Main Street, yet the city is as safe as at St. James’s Square, London.
There are perhaps not more than twenty-five or thirty constables or
policemen in the whole place, under their captain, a Scotchman, Mr.
Sharp, “by name as well as nature so;” and the guard on public works
is merely nominal. Its excellent order must be referred to the perfect
system of private police, resulting from the constitution of Mormon
society, which in this point resembles the caste system of Hindooism.
There is no secret from the head of the Church and State; every
thing, from the highest to the lowest detail of private and public
life, must be brought to the ear and submitted to the judgment of the
father-confessor-in-chief. Gentiles often declare that the Prophet is
acquainted with their every word half an hour after it is spoken; and
from certain indices, into which I hardly need enter, my opinion is
that, allowing something for exaggeration, they are not very far wrong.
In London and Paris the foreigner is subjected, though perhaps he may
not know it, to the same surveillance, and till lately his letters were
liable to be opened at the Post-office. We can not, then, wonder that
at Great Salt Lake City, a stranger, before proving himself at the
least to be harmless, should begin by being an object of suspicion.
[A MURDER.--SAFETY OF THE CITY.]
On Monday, as the sun was sloping toward the east, Mr. Stenhouse called
to let me know that the train had already issued from Emigration
Kanyon; no time to spare. We set out together “down town” at once.
Near the angle of Main Street I was shown the place where a short
time before my arrival a curious murder was committed. Two men, named
Johnston and Brown, _mauvais sujets_, who had notoriously been guilty
of forgery and horse-stealing, were sauntering home one fine evening,
when both fell with a bullet to each, accurately placed under the
heart-arm. The bodies were carried to the court-house, which is here
the morgue or dead-house, to be exposed, as is the custom, for a time:
the citizens, when asked if they suspected who did the deed, invariably
replied, with a philosophical _sangfroid_, that, in the first place,
they didn’t know, and, secondly, that they didn’t care. Of course the
Gentiles hinted that life had been taken by “counsel”--that is to say,
by the secret orders of Mr. Brigham Young and his Vehm. But, even
had such been the case--of course it was the merest suspicion--such
a process would not have been very repugnant to that wild huntress,
the Themis of the Rocky Mountains. In a place where, among much that
is honest and respectable, there are notable exceptions, this wild,
unflinching, and unerring justice, secret and sudden, is the rod of
iron which protects the good. During my residence at the Mormon City
not a single murder was, to the best of my belief, committed: the three
days which I spent at Christian Carson City witnessed three. Moreover,
from the Mississippi to Great Salt Lake City, I noticed that the crimes
were for the most part of violence, openly and unskillfully committed;
the arsenic, strychnine, and other dastardly poisonings of Europe are
apparently unknown, although they might be used easily and efficiently
with scant chance of detection. That white emigrants have sometimes
wiped off the Indian, as the English settler settled with corrosive
sublimate the hapless denizen of the great Southern Continent, is
scarcely to be doubted; at the same time, it must be owned that they
have rarely tried that form of assassination upon one another.
As we issued from the city, we saw the smoke-like column which
announced that the emigrants were crossing the bench-land; and people
were hurrying from all sides to greet and to get news of friends.
Presently the carts came. All the new arrivals were in clean clothes,
the men washed and shaved, and the girls, who were singing hymns,
habited in Sunday dresses. The company was sunburned, but looked
well and thoroughly happy, and few, except the very young and the
very old, who suffer most on such journeys, troubled the wains. They
marched through clouds of dust over the sandy road leading up the
eastern portion of the town, accompanied by crowds, some on foot,
others on horseback, and a few in traps and other “locomotive doin’s,”
sulkies, and buckboards. A few youths of rather a rowdyish appearance
were mounted in all the tawdriness of Western trappings--Rocky
Mountain hats, tall and broad, or steeple-crowned felts, covering
their scalp-locks, embroidered buckskin garments, huge leggins, with
caterpillar or millepede fringes, red or rainbow-colored flannel
shirts, gigantic spurs, bright-hilted pistols, and queer-sheathed
knives stuck in red sashes with gracefully depending ends. The
_jeunesse dorée_ of the Valley Tan was easily distinguished from
imported goods by the perfect ease with which they sat and managed
their animals. Around me were all manner of familiar faces--heavy
English mechanics, discharged soldiers, clerks, and agricultural
laborers, a few German students, farmers, husbandmen, and peasants from
Scandinavia and Switzerland, and correspondents and editors, bishops,
apostles, and other dignitaries from the Eastern States. When the train
reached the public square--at Great Salt Lake City the “squares” are
hollow as in England, not solid as in the States--of the 8th ward, the
wagons were ranged in line for the final ceremony. Before the invasion
of the army the First President made a point of honoring the entrance
of hand-cart trains (but these only) by a greeting in person. Of late
he seldom leaves his house except for the Tabernacle: when inclined
for a picnic, the day and the hour are kept secret. It is said that
Mr. Brigham Young, despite his powerful will and high moral courage,
does not show the remarkable personal intrepidity of Mr. Joseph Smith:
his followers deny this, but it rests on the best and fairest Gentile
evidence. He has guards at his gates, and he never appears in public
unattended by friends and followers, who are of course armed. That such
a mental anomaly often exists, those familiar with the biographies
of the Brahmin officials at the courts of Poonah, Sattara, and other
places in India, well know: many a “Pant,” whose reckless audacity in
intrigue conducted under imminent danger of life argued the courage of
a Cœur de Lion, was personally fearful as Hobbes, and displayed at the
death the terrors of Robespierre. A moment of fear is recounted of St.
Peter; Erasmus was not the stuff of which martyrs are made, and even
the _beau sabreur_ once ran. However, in the case of the Prophet there
is an absolute necessity for precautions: as Gentiles have themselves
owned to me, many a ruffian, if he found an opportunity, would, from
pure love of notoriety, even without stronger incentive, try his
revolver or his bowie-knife upon the “Big Mormon.”
On this occasion the place of Mr. Brigham Young was taken by President
Bishop Hunter, a Pennsylvanian, whom even the most fanatic and
intentionally evil-speaking anti-Mormon must regard with respect.
Preceded by a brass band--“this people” delight in
“Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds”--
and accompanied by the City Marshal, he stood up in his conveyance,
and, calling up the Captains of Companies, shook hands with them and
proceeded forthwith to business. In a short time arrangements were
made to house and employ all who required work, whether men or women.
Having read certain offensive accounts about “girl-hunting elders,”
“gray-headed gallants,” and “ogling apostles,” I was somewhat surprised
to see that every thing was conducted with the greatest decorum.
The Gentiles, however, declare that Mr. Brigham Young and the high
dignitaries have issued an order against “pre-emption” on the part of
their followers, who escort and accompany the emigrant trains across
the prairies.
[SAINTS’ NAMES.]
Mr. Stenhouse circulated freely among the crowd, and introduced me
to many whose names I do not remember; in almost every case the
introduction was followed by some invitation. He now exchanged a word
with this “brother,” then a few sentences with that “sister,” carefully
suppressing the Mr. and Madam of the Eastern States. The fraternal
address gives a patriarchal and somewhat Oriental flavor to Mormon
converse; like other things, however, it is apt to run into extremes.
If a boy in the streets be asked, “What’s your name?” he will reply--if
he condescends to do so--“I’m brother such-and-such’s son.” In order
to distinguish children of different mothers, it is usual to prefix
the maternal to the paternal parent’s name, suppressing the given or
Christian name of monogamic lands. Thus, for instance, my sons by Miss
Brown, Miss Jones, and Miss Robinson, would call themselves Brother
Brown Burton, Brother Jones Burton, and so on. The Saints--even the
highest dignitaries--wave the Reverend and the ridiculous Esquire;
that “title much in use among vulgar people,” which in Old and New
England applies to every body, gentle or simple, has not yet extended
to Great Salt Lake City. The Mormon pontiff and the eminences around
him are simply Brother or Mister--they have the substance, and they
disdain the shadow of power. _En revanche_, among the crowd there
are as many colonels and majors--about ten being the proportion to
one captain--as in the days when Mrs. Trollope set the Mississippi
on fire. Sister is applied to women of all ages, thus avoiding the
difficulty of addressing a dowager, as in the Eastern States, Madam, in
contradistinction to Mrs., her daughter-in-law, or, what is worse, of
calling her after the English way, old Mrs. A., or, _Scotticè_, Mrs. A.
senior.
[A “GOWK.”]
The dress of the fair sex has, I observed, already become peculiar.
The article called in Cornwall a “gowk,” in other parts of England a
“cottage bonnet,” and in the United States a “sun-bonnet,” is here
universally used, with the difference, however, that the Mormons
provide it with a long thick veil behind, which acts like a cape or
shawl. A loose jacket and a petticoat, mostly of calico or of some
inexpensive stuff, compose the _tout visible_. The wealthier affect
silks, especially black. The merchants are careful to keep on hand a
large stock of fancy goods, millinery, and other feminine adornments.
Love of dress is no accident in the mental organization of that sex
which some one called ζωον φιλοκοσμον; the essential is a pleasing
foible, in which the semi-nude savage and the crinolined “civilizee,”
the nun and Quakeress, the sinner and the saint, the _biche_, the
_petite maîtresse_, and the _grande dame_, all meet for once in
their lives pretty much on a par, and on the same ground. Great Salt
Lake City contains three “millinery stores,” besides thirteen of dry
goods and two of fancy goods, or varieties; and some exchange their
merchandise for grain.
The contrast of _physique_ between the new arrivals and the older
colonists, especially those born in the vicinity of the prairies, was
salient. While the fresh importations were of that solid and sometimes
clumsy form and dimensions that characterize the English at home--where
“beauty is seldom found in cottages or workshops, even when no real
hardships are suffered”--the others had much of the delicacy of figure
and complexion which distinguishes the American women of the United
States. Physiologists may perhaps doubt so rapid and perceptible an
operation of climate, but India proves clearly enough that a very few
years suffice to deteriorate form and color, especially in the weaker
half of humanity; why, then, should we think it impossible that a
climate of extremes, an air of exceeding purity and tenuity, and an
arid position 4000 feet above sea level, can produce the opposite
results in as short a space of time? But, whether my theory stand or
fall, the fact remains the same. I remarked to my companion the change
from the lymphatic and the sanguine to the bilious-nervous and the
purely nervous temperament, and admired its results, the fining down
of redundancy in wrist, ankle, and waist, the superior placidness and
thoughtfulness of expression, and the general appearance of higher
caste blood. I could not but observe in those born hereabouts the noble
regular features, the lofty, thoughtful brow, the clear, transparent
complexion, the long silky hair, and, greatest charm of all, the soft
smile of the American woman when she does smile. He appeared surprised,
and said that most other Gentiles had explained the thinness of form
and reflective look by the perpetual fretting of the fair under the
starveling _régime_ of polygamy. The belle of the crowd was Miss Sally
A----, the daughter of a lawyer, and of course a _ci devant_ judge.
Strict Mormons, however, rather wag the head at this pretty person;
she is supposed to prefer Gentile and heathenish society, and it is
whispered against her that she has actually vowed never to marry a
Saint.
[AN ILLUSTRATION.]
I “queried” of my companion how the new arrivals usually behave at
Great Salt Lake City, when the civilization, or rather the humanization
of a voyage, a long journey, and the sense of helplessness caused
by new position, have somewhat mitigated their British bounce and
self-esteem. “Pretty well,” he replied; “all expect to be at the
top of the tree at once, and they find themselves in the wrong box;
no man gets on here by pushing; he begins at the lowest seat; a new
hand is not trusted; he is first sent on mission, then married, and
then allowed to rise higher if he shows himself useful.” This bore a
_cachet_ of truth:
Les sots sont un peuple nombreux,
Trouvant toutes choses faciles;
Il faut le leur passer; souvent ils sont heureux,
Grand motif de se croire habiles.
(_L’Ane et la Flûte._)
Many of these English emigrants have passed over the plains without
knowing that they are in the United States, and look upon Mr. Brigham
Young much as Roman Catholics of the last generation regarded the Pope.
The Welsh, Danes, and Swedes have been seen on the transit to throw
away their blankets and warm clothing, from a conviction that a gay
summer reigns throughout the year in Zion. The mismanagement of the
inexperienced travelers has become a matter of Joe Miller. An old but
favorite illustration, told from the Mississippi to California, is
this: A man rides up to a standing wagon, and seeing a wretched-looking
lad nursing a starving baby, asks him what the matter may be: “Wal,
now,” responds the youth, “guess I’m kinder streakt--ole dad’s
drunk, ole marm’s in hy-sterics, brother Jim be playing poker with
two gamblers, sister Sal’s down yonder a’ courtin’ with an in-tire
stranger, this ’ere baby’s got the diaree, the team’s clean guv out,
the wagon’s broke down, it’s twenty miles to the next water, I don’t
care a ---- if I never see Californy.”
[THEATRICALS.]
We returned homeward by the States Road, in which are two of the
principal buildings. On the left is the Council Hall of the Seventies,
an adobe tenement of the usual barn shape, fifty feet long by thirty
internally, used for the various purposes of deliberation, preaching,
and dancing; I looked through the windows, and saw that it was hung
with red. It is a provisional building, used until a larger can be
erected. A little beyond the Seventies’ Hall, and on the other side of
the road, was the Social Hall, the usual scene of Mormon festivities;
it resembled the former, but it was larger--73 × 33 feet--and better
furnished. The gay season had not arrived; I lost, therefore, an
opportunity of seeing the beauty and fashion of Great Salt Lake City
in ballroom toilette, but I heard enough to convince me that the
Saints, though grave and unjovial, are a highly sociable people. They
delight in sleighing and in private theatricals, and boast of some good
amateur actors, among whom Messrs. B. Snow, H. B. Clawson, and W. C.
Dunbar are particularly mentioned. Sir E. L. Bulwer will perhaps be
pleased to hear that the “Lady of Lyons” excited more furore here than
even in Europe. It is intended, as soon as funds can be collected,
to build a theatre which will vie with those of the Old Country.
Dancing seems to be considered an edifying exercise. The Prophet
dances, the Apostles dance, the Bishops dance. A professor of this
branch of the fine arts would thrive in Zion, where the most learned of
pedagogues would require to eke out a living after the fashion of one
Aristocles, surnamed the “broad-shouldered.” The saltation is not in
the languid, done-up style that polite Europe affects; as in the days
of our grandparents, “positions” are maintained, steps are elaborately
executed, and a somewhat severe muscular exercise is the result. I
confess to a prejudice against dancing after the certain, which we are
told is the uncertain, epoch of life, and have often joined in the
merriment excited among French folks by the aspect of some bald-headed
and stiff-jointed “Anglais” mingling crabbed age with joyful youth in
a public ball. Yet there is high authority for perseverance in the
practice: David danced, we are told, with all his might, and Scipio,
according to Seneca, was wont thus to exercise his heroic limbs.
Besides the grand fêtes at the Social Hall and other subscription
establishments, there are “Ward Parties,” and “Elders’ Weekly Cotillon
Parties,” where possibly the seniors dance together, as the Oxford
dons did drill--in private. Polkas, as at the court of St. James’s,
are disapproved of. It is generally asserted that to the New Faith
Terpsichore owes a fresh form of worship, the Mormon cotillon--alias
quadrille--in which the cavalier leads out, characteristically, two
dames. May I not be allowed to recommend the importation of this
decided improvement into Leamington and other watering-places, where
the proportion of the sexes at “hops” rarely exceeds one to seven?
The balls at the Social Hall are highly select, and are conducted on
an expensive scale; invitations are issued on embossed bordered and
gilt-edged white paper, say to 75-80 of the _élite_, including a few of
the chief Gentiles. The ticket is in this form and style:
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| PARTY AT SOCIAL HALL. |
| |
| Mr. ---- and Ladies are respectfully invited to attend a |
| Party at the SOCIAL HALL, |
| |
| ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1860. |
| |
| _Tickets_, $10 (£2) _per Couple_. |
| |
| Mayor A. O. SMOOT, } Managers. |
| Marshal J. C. LITTLE, } |
| |
| Committee of Arrangements. |
| |
| WILLIAM C. STAINES, | WILLIAM EDDINGTON, | JOHN T. CAINE, |
| H. B. CLAWSON, | ROBERT T. BURTON, | DAVID CANDLAND. |
| |
| _Great Salt Lake City_, |
| Feb. 1, 1860. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
The $10 tickets will admit only one lady with the gentleman; for all
extra $2 each must be paid. In the less splendid fêtes $2 50 would be
the total price. Premiums are offered when the time draws nigh, but
space is limited, and many a Jacob is shorn of his glory by appearing
with only Rachel for a follower, and without his train of Leahs,
Zilpahs, and Billahs.
[THE SUPPER.]
An account of the last ball may be abridged. The hall was tastefully
and elegantly decorated; the affecting motto, “Our Mountain Home,”
conspicuously placed among hangings and evergreens, was highly
effective. At 4 P.M. the Prophet and ex-President entered, and “order
was called.” (N.B.--Might not this be tried to a purpose in a London
ball-room?) Ascending a kind of platform, with uplifted hands he
blessed those present. Farther East I have heard of the reverse being
done, especially by the _maître du logis_. He then descended to the
boards and led off the first cotillon. At 8 P.M. supper was announced;
covers for 250 persons had been laid by Mr. Candland, “mine host”
of “The Globe.” On the following page will be found the list of the
somewhat substantial goodies that formed the _carte_.
It will be observed that the _cuisine_ in Utah Territory has some
novelties, such as bear and beaver. The former meat is a favorite
throughout the West, especially when the animal is fresh from feeding;
after hibernation it is hard and lean. In the Himalayas many a
sportsman, after mastering an artificial aversion to eat bear’s grease,
has enjoyed a grill of “cuffy.” The paws, which not a little resemble
the human hand, are excellent--_experto crede_. I can not pronounce _ex
cathedrâ_ upon beavers’ tails; there is no reason, however, why they
should be inferior to the appendage of a Cape sheep. “Slaw”--according
to my informants--is synonymous with sauer-kraut. Mountain, Pioneer,
and Snowballs are unknown to me, except by their names, which are
certainly patriotic, if not descriptive.
[DANCING.]
After supper dancing was resumed with spirit, and in its intervals
popular songs and duets were performed by the best musicians. The
“finest party of the season” ended as it began, with prayer and
benediction, at 5 A.M.--thirteen successive mortal hours--it shows a
solid power of enduring enjoyments! And, probably, the revelers wended
their way home chanting some kind of national hymn like this, to the
tune of the “Ole Kentucky shore:”
“Let the chorus still be sung,
Long live Brother Brigham Young.
And blessed be the Vale of Deserét--rét--rét!
And blessed be the Vale of Deserét.”
+--------------------------------------------------+
| |
| TERRITORIAL AND CIVIL BALL, |
| |
| SOCIAL HALL, FEBRUARY 7, 1860. |
| ---- |
| BILL OF FARE. |
| ---- |
| |
| First Course. |
| |
| SOUPS. |
| |
| Oyster, Vermicelli, |
| Ox-tail, Vegetable. |
| |
| Second Course. |
| |
| MEATS. |
| |
| _Roast._ _Boiled._ |
| |
| Beef, Sugar-corned beef, |
| Mutton, Mutton, |
| Mountain Mutton, Chickens, |
| Bear, Ducks, |
| Elk, Tripe, |
| Deer, Turkey, |
| Chickens, Ham, |
| Ducks, Trout, |
| Turkeys. Salmon. |
| |
| STEWS AND FRICASSEES. |
| |
| Oysters and Ox Tongues, Chickens, |
| Beaver Tails, Ducks, |
| Collard Head, Turkeys. |
| |
| VEGETABLES. |
| |
| _Boiled._ _Baked._ |
| |
| Potatoes, Potatoes, |
| Cabbage (_i. e._, greens), Parsnips, |
| Parsnips, Beans. |
| Cauliflower, |
| Slaw. |
| Hominy. |
| |
| Third Course. |
| |
| _Pastry._ _Puddings._ |
| |
| Mince Pies, Custards, |
| Green Apple Pie, Rice, |
| Pineapple Pie, English Plum, |
| Quince Jelly Pie, Apple Soufflé, |
| Peach Jelly Pie, Mountain, |
| Currant Jelly Pie. Pioneer. |
| Blancmange. Jellies. |
| |
| Fourth Course. |
| |
| _Cakes._ _Fruits._ |
| |
| Pound, Raisins, |
| Sponge, Grapes, |
| Gipsy, Apples, |
| Varieties. Snowballs. |
| Candies. Nuts. |
| Tea. Coffee. |
+--------------------------------------------------+
[RELIGIOUS ACRIMONY.]
Returning to the hotel, we found the justiciary and the official party
safely arrived; they had been delayed three days at Foot of Ridge
Station, but they could not complain of the pace at which they came
in. The judge was already in confab with a Pennsylvanian compatriot,
Colonel S. C. Stambaugh, of the Militia, Surveyor General of Utah
Territory. This gentleman is no great favorite with the Saints: they
accuse him of a too great skillfulness in “mixing”--cocktails, for
instance--and a degree of general joviality that swears (_qui jure_)
with the grave and reverend seigniory around him. His crime, it
appears to me, chiefly consists in holding a fat appointment. I need
hardly say that at Great Salt Lake City party feeling rises higher,
perhaps, than in any other small place, because religious acrimony is
superadded to the many conflicting interests. Every man’s concerns
are his neighbor’s; no one, apparently, ever heard of that person who
“became immensely rich”--to quote an Americanism--by “minding his
own business.” As often happens, religion is made, like slavery in
the Eastern States and opium in China, the _cheval de bataille_; the
root of the quarrel must be sought deeper; in other words, interest,
and interest only, is the Tisiphone that shakes the brand of war. As
Mormonism grows, its frame becomes more strongly knit. Thus the Gentile
merchants, who have made from 120 to 600 per cent. on capital, were,
at the time of my visit, preparing to sell off, because they found the
combination against them overpowering. For the most part they vowed
that there is no people with whom they would rather do business than
with the Mormons; praised their honesty and punctuality in payments,
and compared them advantageously in such matters with those of the
older faith. Yet they had resolved to remove. The total number of
Gentiles in the city is probably not more than 300, a small proportion
to a body of at least 9000.
[CLIQUISM.]
A stranger, especially an official, is kindly warned, on his first
arrival at Great Salt Lake City, of its inveterate cliquism, and is
amicably advised to steer a middle course, without turning to the right
or to the left, between the Scylla and Charybdis of Christianity and
Mormonism. This mezzo-termine may be possible in official matters;
in society it is not. I soon saw that, though a traveler on the wing
might sit alternately in the tents of Shem and Japhet, a resident
would soon be obliged to dwell exclusively in either one or the
other. When Gentile and Mormon meet, they either maintain a studied
or surly silence, or they enter into a dialogue which, on a closer
acquaintance with its formation, proves to be a conglomerate of “rile”
and “knagg”--an unpleasant predicament for those _en tiers_. Such, at
least, was my short experience, and I believe that of my companions.
Colonel Stambaugh, a day or two after the introduction, offered to
act cicerone through the settlement, and I was happy to accept his
kindness. One fine evening we drove along the Tooele Road westward,
and drank of the waters of the New Jordan, which, to the unregenerate
palate, tasted, I must say, somewhat brackish and ill-flavored. The
river is at this season about one hundred feet broad, and not too
deep below its banks to be useless for irrigation, which, as the
city increases, will doubtless be extended. It is spanned by a wooden
bridge so rickety that it shakes with a child’s tread--the governor has
urgently but unavailingly represented the necessity of reconstruction.
But, although the true Western, or rather Keltic recklessness of
human life--which contrasts so strongly with the sanctity attached
to it by the old Roman and the modern Anglo-Scandinavian--here still
displays itself, in some points there is no disregard for improvement.
Mr. Brigham Young has seen the evils of disforesting the land, and
the want of plantations; he has lately contracted for planting, near
Jordan and elsewhere, a million of young trees at the rate of one
cent each. On the way we saw several fine Durhams and Devons, which
are driven out every morning and back every evening under the charge
of a boy, who receives one and a half cent _per mensem_ a head. The
animals have been brought across the prairies at great trouble and
expense: stock-breeding is one of the Prophet’s useful hobbies, and the
difference between the cattle in Utah Territory and the old Spanish
herds still seen in the country parts of California is remarkable. The
land, as will presently appear, is better calculated for grazing than
for agriculture, and a settlement of 500 souls rarely has less than 500
head of cattle.
Returning from Jordan, we re-entered the city by the western road, and
drove through Mr. Brigham Young’s block toward the Northern Kanyon.
The gateway was surmounted by a plaster group, consisting of a huge
vulturine eagle, perched, with wings outspread, neck bended as if
snuffing the breeze of carrion from afar, and talons clinging upon a
yellow bee-hive--a most uncomfortable and unnatural position for the
poor animal. The device is doubtless highly symbolical, emblematical,
typical--in fact, every thing but appropriate and commonsensical. The
same, however, may be said of one of the most picturesque ensigns in
the civilized world--what have stars to do with stripes or stripes with
stars? It might be the device of the British or Austrian soldier--only
in their case, unlike the flag of the United States, the stripes
should be many and the stars few. _En passant_ we remarked a kind of
guard-room at the eastern doorway of the White House--a presidential
title which the house of prophecy in New Zion shares with the house of
politication[130] at Washington: my informants hinted that, in case of
an assault upon head-quarters by roughs, marshals, or other officials,
fifty rifles could at once be brought to bear upon the spot, and 1000
after the first hour. On the eastern side of the compound were the
stables; a lamb in effigy surmounted the entrance, and meekly reposed
under the humane injunction, “Take care of your flocks.” Beyond this
point lay a number of decrepit emigrant wagons, drawn up to form a
fence, a young plantation of fruitless peaches, and the remnants of the
falling wall.
[130] The Western press uses to “politicate,” _v. n._ to make a
trade of politics, and the participle politicating--why not, then,
politication?
[BRIGHAM’S KANYON.]
We then struck into “City,” usually known as “Brigham’s” Kanyon, the
Prophet having a saw-mill upon the upper course. It is the normal deep
narrow gorge, with a beautiful little stream, which is drawn off by
raised water-courses at different altitudes to supply the settlement.
The banks are margined with dwarf oaks and willows; limestone,
sandstone, and granite, all of fine building quality, lie scattered
about in profusion, while high above rise the acclivities of the gash,
thinly sprinkled with sage and sunflower. Artemisia in this part
improves like the population in appearance, nor is it always a sign of
sterility; in parts wheat grows well where the shrub has been uprooted.
The road along the little torrent was excellent; it would have cost
$100,000 in Pennsylvania, but here much is done by tithe-work;
moreover, the respect for the Prophet is such that men would rather
work for him on credit than take pay from others.
[UTAH LIBRARY.]
Being in want of local literature, after vainly ransacking the few
book-stalls which the city contains, I went to the Public Library,
and, by sending in a card, at once obtained admission. As usual in
the Territories of the United States, this institution is supported
by the federal government, which, besides $1500 for books, gave $5000
for the establishment, and $400 from the treasury of Utah is paid to
the Territorial librarian, Mr. John Lyon, who is also a poet. The
management is under the Secretary of the Territory, and the public
desire to see an extra grant of $500 per annum.[131] The volumes, about
1000 in number, are placed in a large room on the north side of the
“Mountaineer” office, and the librarian attends every Thursday, when
books are “loaned” to numerous applicants. The works are principally
those of reference, elementary, and intended for the general reader,
such as travels, popular histories, and novels. The “Woman in White”
had already found her way across the prairies, and she received the
honors and admiration which she deserved.
[131] An Act in relation to Utah Library:
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of
the Territory of Utah, That a librarian shall be elected by a joint
vote of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah, whose duty
it shall be to take charge of the library (known in law as the Utah
Library), as hereinafter prescribed.
Sec. 2. Said librarian shall hold his office during the term of two
years, or until his successor is appointed, and shall give bonds for
the faithful discharge of his duties in the sum of $6000, and file
the same in the office of Secretary of the Territory before entering
upon his duties, who may also appoint a deputy, as occasion requires,
to act in his stead, under the same restrictions as the principal
librarian.
Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the librarian to cause to be printed,
at as early a date as practicable, a full and accurate catalogue of
all books, maps, globes, charts, papers, apparatus, and valuable
specimens in any way belonging to said library; also to use diligent
efforts to preserve from waste, loss, or damage, any portion of said
library.
Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the librarian, for and in behalf of
the Territory of Utah, to plant suits, collect fines, prosecute,
or defend the interests of said library, or otherwise act as a
legal plaintiff or defendant in behalf of the Territory, where the
interests of the library are concerned.
Sec. 5. The location of the library shall be at the seat of
government of the Territory of Utah, and it shall be the duty of the
librarian to have all the books of the library orderly and properly
arranged within the library-room, for the use of such officers and
persons as are named in the fourteenth section of the Organic Act
for Utah Territory, during each session of the Legislative Assembly
of Utah; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall
debar the librarian, in vacation of the Legislative Assembly, from
permitting books, maps, and papers being drawn from said library,
for professional and scientific purposes, by officers of the United
States and of Utah Territory, and other citizens of Utah, where the
librarian shall judge the public good may justify.
Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the librarian to let out books for
a specified time, and call in the same when due, inflict fines for
damage or loss of books, and collect the same, and keep an accurate
account of all his official doings in a book kept for that purpose,
and make an annual report of the same to the Legislative Assembly of
Utah; provided that no fine shall be excessive, or more than four
times the purchase price of the book or books for the loss or damage
of which the fine may be inflicted.
Sec. 7. The librarian is hereby entitled to draw from the treasury of
Utah for the current year as compensation for his services the sum of
$400, not otherwise appropriated; also the sum of $200 to defray the
expenses of stationery, printing catalogue, and other contingencies.
Approved March 6, 1852.
[HARROWGATE WATERS.]
On the evening of the 30th of August, after dining with the governor,
I accompanied him to the Thermal Springs, one of the lions of the
place. We struck into the north road, and soon issued from the town. On
the right hand we passed a large tumble-down tenement which has seen
many vicissitudes. It began life as a bath-house and bathing-place,
to which the white sulphury waters of the Warm Springs,[132] issuing
from below Ensign Peak, were brought in pine-log pipes. It contained
also a ballroom, two parlors for clubs and supper-parties, and a double
kitchen. It afterward became a hotel and public house for emigrants
to California and Oregon. These, however, soon learned to prefer more
central quarters, and now it has subsided into a tannery of low degree.
About two and a half miles beyond the northern suburb are the Hot
Springs,[133] which issue from the western slope of the hills lying
behind Ensign Peak. A generous supply of water, gushing from the rock
into a basin below, drains off and forms a lakelet, varying according
to season from one to three miles in circumference. Where the water
first issues it will boil an egg; a little below it raises the mercury
to 128° F. Even at a distance from the source it preserves some heat,
and, accordingly, it is frequented throughout the winter by flights of
water-fowl and camping Indians, whose children sit in it to thaw their
half-frozen limbs. These springs, together with the fresh-water lake
and the Jordan, are held to be more purifying than Abana and Pharphar,
rivers of Damascus; and, being of the Harrowgate species, they will
doubtless be useful to the Valley people as soon as increased luxury
requires such appliances. When the wind sets in from the north, the
decided perfume of sulphureted hydrogen and saleratus is any thing but
eau de Cologne. An anti-Mormon writer, describing these springs and
other evidences of igneous and volcanic action, dwells with complacency
upon the probability that at some no distant time New Zion may find
herself in a quandary, and--like the Cities of the Plain, to which
she is thus insinuatingly compared--fuel for the flames. On our way
home the governor pointed out the remains of building and other works
upon a model farm, which had scarcely fared better than that of Niger
celebrity. The land around is hoar with salt, and bears nothing but
salsolæ and similar hopeless vegetation.
[132] The following is the analysis of the warm spring by Dr. L.
D. Gale, printed by Captain Stansbury in Appendix F. It dates from
1851, but apparently more detailed trials have not yet been made. One
hundred parts of the water (whose specific gravity was 1·0112) give
the following results:
Sulphureted hydrogen absorbed in the water 0·037454
„ „ combined with bases 0·000728
Carbonate of lime precipitated by boiling 0·075000
„ „ magnesia 0·022770
Chloride of calcium 0·005700
Sulphate of soda 0·064835
Chloride of sodium 0·861600
--------
1·023087
The usual temperature is laid down at 102° F.
[133] The water of the Hot Springs was found to have the specific
gravity of 1·0130, and 100 parts yielded solid contents 1·1454.
Chloride of sodium 0·8052
„ magnesia 0·0288
„ calcium 0·1096
Sulphate of lime 0·0806
Carbonate of lime 0·0180
Silica 0·0180
------
1·0602
The usual temperature is laid down at 128° F.