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THE 
 
 MORMON COUNTRY 
 
 A SUMMER 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 "LATTER-DAY SAINTS/ 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN CODMAN. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 UNITED STATES PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 13 UNIVERSITY PLACE. 
 
 1874. 
 
F\ 
 
 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the 
 
 UNITED STATES PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 
 
 JOHN F. TROW & SON, 
 
 PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS, 
 
 205-213 East \-2th St., 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
IT would be affectation studiously to avoid, or to apologize 
 for the frequent use of a personal pronoun in a personal 
 narrative. It is a necessity. 
 
 The manuscript was first offered to a prominent literary 
 magazine. It was returned with the objection that it was too 
 impartial. No higher praise is asked for the book. 
 
 When I parted from my old school-mate, HORACE F. 
 CLARK, at Ogden, I said : " If I write a book I shall dedi- 
 cate it to you." 
 
 It was his laudable ambition to control the great 
 trans-continental railway lines of the United States. Had he 
 lived, he would have succeeded ; and his honest and saga- 
 cious administration, would have maintained the value of the 
 roads, and developed the resources of the Great West to 
 their most available capacity. 
 
 His death occasioned a loss to the material interests of 
 his country, and is sincerely mourned by his numerous friends, 
 one of whom 
 
 Inscribes tl)is little bohune 
 
 &* fcrftutt 
 
 o 1)10 fttcmorj). 
 
THE MORMON COUNTRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Overland Trip. Experience of Hasty Travellers. Arrival at 
 Salt Lake City. Reception by Brigham Young. Excursion on the 
 Utah Southern Railroad. Meeting at the Tabernacle. Leaving 
 Salt Lake for California. Return to Salt Lake. 
 
 THE overland trip is becoming a fashionable re- 
 laxation. Improvements in railroad locomotion, 
 by which nervous persons may spend days and nights 
 in rapid motion and fancied security, decide the di- 
 rection of their summer travel. Those who but for the 
 wreck of the Atlantic, and the sinking of the Ville du 
 Havre, might have " gone abr.oad," now discover that 
 their own country has unsurpassed attractions. The 
 Yosemite supplants Switzerland for romantic tourists, 
 and Santa Barbara on the Pacific shore offers a cure 
 for the clergyman's sore-throat equal to that of a 
 voyage to Europe. 
 
 But in the haste with which our people generally 
 congratulate themselves upon having "done" the 
 overland journey, they are content to be whisked 
 
 over the rails to their destination, making notes on 
 
 i 
 
2 THE OVERLAND TRIP. 
 
 the way of what they see from the windows of the 
 cars, or at the restaurants where they are allowed 
 twenty minutes for refreshments. A maudlin curi- 
 osity induces many travellers to time their arrival at 
 Ogden on Saturday, so that they may branch off and 
 spend Sunday at Salt Lake City, take a drive of an 
 hour or two there, go to the Tabernacle meeting, see 
 Brigham Young's house, if not Brigham himself, peep 
 into some dwelling where a man is supposed to have 
 more than one wife, and return in time to take the 
 Sunday evening train for the West. They buy a big 
 book written by Mr. Stenhouse, a small book by 
 Mrs. Stenhouse, and the " Life of Bill Hickman, the 
 Destroying Angel," and, having read up thoroughly, 
 fill the cavities of their minds with details from these 
 to supply what they did not learn from their extended 
 visit of half a day. Thus they become perfectly in- 
 formed as to the character and social status of the 
 Mormon people. 
 
 I have varied somewhat from this usual routine, 
 having passed three months chiefly among the Mor- 
 mons, and have neglected reading the books referred 
 to, with the exception of that of Mrs. Stenhouse, 
 which came accidentally in my way. I stayed some 
 weeks in Salt Lake City, and passed others in 
 wagon and horseback journeys through the valleys 
 and mountains, indebted to the hospitality of Mor- 
 
PRESIDENT YOUNG. 3 
 
 mon and Gentile alike, and am somewhat prepared to 
 give an account of things that I saw, not of things as 
 they ought or ought not to be. 
 
 Just before leaving I waited on President Young 
 to pay a parting call. Expressing to him my obliga- 
 tions for the polite attentions of himself and of 
 several members of his family, he said, "I am glad 
 you have been civilly treated, but, don't let that pre- 
 judice you in our favor. If you say anything about 
 us, tell the truth." This is what I propose to do, in a 
 running account of travel, with some comments on 
 the social condition of the people and the agricultural 
 and mineral resources of the country. 
 
 It will perhaps be remembered that in May last 
 the late Hon. Horace F. Clark, President of the Union 
 Pacific Railroad, visited Salt Lake City, in company 
 with Speaker Elaine, and a party of other gentlemen 
 and some ladies. The newspapers gave full accounts 
 of their reception and of the impressions made by it. 
 I was fortunate enough to arrive with them at Ogden, 
 and there joining the party, participated in the atten- 
 tions bestowed upon them. 
 
 At Ogden, which is also the junction of the Union 
 and Central Pacific Railroads, the Utah Central, a 
 profitable branch thirty-eight miles long, built and 
 owned almost exclusively by Mormons, connects with 
 Salt Lake City. It may here be remarked that the 
 
4 RAILROADS. 
 
 former policy of this people was seclusive, and con- 
 sequently strongly opposed to all railroad enterprises. 
 But when inevitable fate pushed the Union Pacific 
 and Central Pacific lines across the continent directly 
 through their territory, they wisely concluded to make 
 the innovation profitable as it was unavoidable. 
 
 As will be seen in the course of this narrative, the 
 rapid development of the mines of Utah has made 
 not only this road highly remunerative, but is already 
 extending it north and south, while other lines from 
 the various mining canons are being constructed to 
 connect with it at Salt Lake City. 
 
 Our track lay for some distance along the borders 
 of the lake itself, which extends to within fifteen miles 
 of the town. 
 
 We arrived in a pouring rain, that continued for 
 most of the time we were there. Had this been all 
 that we could have seen of the city, most certainly 
 our impressions of it would not have been very 
 favorable. 
 
 On the next day Brigham Young, who was " unre- 
 mitting in his attentions," gave us an excursion on 
 the Utah Southern Railroad, intending to show us 
 some of the mining districts in the canons ; but it 
 rained so hard that we were obliged to return, after 
 going out thirty miles Brigham jocosely remarking 
 that " Utah was always under a cloud when viewed 
 

 INTRODUCTIONS. 5 
 
 by congressional eyes, although everything was serene 
 when the people were left to themselves." 
 
 We were accompanied by several of his small 
 family, to whom, as well as to himself, the ladies of 
 our party were introduced, their curiosity overcoming 
 the indignation with which they regarded his over- 
 doing the practice of matrimony. They admitted that 
 he was certainly a very polite old gentleman, and they 
 drew an argument in favor of their own sex from the 
 consideration that a man who had been so very re- 
 peatedly and continually married, had arrived at the 
 age of seventy-three in such a good state of preser- 
 vation, without any appearance of having been hen- 
 pecked. They reasoned very adroitly that if a man 
 in Utah could stand against the aggregated temper of 
 seventeen women, a man anywhere should not com- 
 plain of the violence of one. 
 
 On the next day, Sunday, we attended church at 
 the Tabernacle, an immense edifice capable of con- 
 taining twelve thousand people, all of whom were 
 present ; for a large part of the population of the city 
 and many from the adjoining country had turned out 
 in honor of the occasion. 
 
 The order of exercises was much the same as in a 
 
 % 
 
 Congregational Church, with the exception that there 
 was an economy of time in the administration of the 
 sacrament while the preaching was going on, and a 
 
'6 TABERNACLE SERVICES. 
 
 change in the substitution of water for wine. Nor 
 did I notice in the hymns or prayers, or in the re- 
 marks of the first preacher, any peculiarity of doc- 
 trine which would have surprised me in one of our 
 churches. This only appeared when Brigham fol- 
 lowed the sermon with a few remarks of his own, 
 evidently intended for Speaker Elaine, wherein he 
 proved from the Bible conclusively to himself, if not 
 to Mr. Blaine and the rest of us, that in their preach- 
 ing the Mormons were in accordance with the teach- 
 ings of Scripture, whereas he said all other denomi- 
 nations of Christians repudiated them. 
 
 Behind the pulpit were seated the choir, males on 
 one side and females on the other, with a splendid 
 organ at the end, said to be the largest in the 
 country, with the exception of that in Boston. It 
 is entirely of domestic workmanship,' and in appear- 
 ance and tone is a credit to the builder. 
 
 Brigham is an ultra-protectionist, and, as a worldly 
 idol, would be worshipped in Pennsylvania. His 
 great idea, before the advent of railroads, was to 
 make Utah entirely independent of the outer world. 
 He was on the high road to success, as proved by 
 the specimens we saw in the museum. Utah can, 
 if need be, provide every article of food and cloth- 
 ing that its people require, and in addition to these 
 almost every luxury, including tobacco (the use of 
 
THE CONGREGATION. 7 
 
 which is, however, discouraged), wines, silk, and 
 possibly tea. Mills of every description abound in 
 the territory, and almost every grain and fruit is 
 indigenous to some part of the soil. All was to be 
 of domestic production food, clothing, and literature 
 as well as religion, and so the organ was built here 
 as an adjunct of the last. 
 
 On each side of the desk were seated the apostles 
 and elders, men generally of advanced age. The con- 
 gregation was neatly though not expensively dressed, 
 and saving that the women, except in rare instances, 
 were not disfigured by false hair and artificial humps, 
 there was nothing particularly remarkable in the ap- 
 pearance of the crowd. Brigham bestowed his apos- 
 tolic benediction alike on Mormon and Gentile,* and 
 then we took the train for Ogden. From thence 
 several of our party, including Mr. Elaine and Mr. 
 Pullman, with their families, and the charmingly viva- 
 cious " Gail Hamilton," went on 9 our way to Cali- 
 fornia, it being the intention, afterwards realized by 
 some of us, to return to Salt Lake. 
 
 Long will memory cherish the beauties of the great 
 West beyond Utah ; the crossing of the Sierra Neva- 
 das, so much more grand and picturesque than the 
 Rocky Mountains ; the descent from their snowy sum- 
 mits to the luxuriant plains of the Pacific slope, waving 
 
 * In Utah every one not a Mormon is styled a " Gentile." 
 
8 TO CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 
 
 with grain and dotted with clumps of live-oak ; the 
 inhaling of the balmy and delicious air where every 
 breath was health ; the great city of San Francisco and 
 its pleasant surroundings; and then, on our return, the 
 visit to the Yosemite, that wonder of wonders, while 
 the " Big Trees" we passed on our approach to it still 
 loom up in the vista of pleasing remembrance, each 
 tree a forest of itself. 
 
 Nor did we forget to linger a few days at Lake 
 Tahoe, on the western side of the Sierras, six thou- 
 sand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
 thirty-five miles in length, fringed by mountains of 
 everlasting snow, of clear, transparent depths, full of 
 great salmon-trout that came so readily to our hooks. 
 And then we returned to Salt Lake City, for we had 
 promised Mr. John W. Young that we should be 
 there on the last of June. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Appearance of the City in Sicmmer. Fourth of July. Departure for 
 the North. Utah Northern Railroad. Enterprise of Mr. Rich- 
 ardson. Resources of the Road. Towns on the Route. Brigham 
 Young, Jr., and Family. Hospitality of Bishop Hatch. John- 
 soit's Ranch. Arrival at Soda Springs. 
 
 FAR different was the appearance of the city from 
 that presented to us in the rain-storms of May. 
 Now the weather was settled and bright, the harvests 
 were ripe for the sickle, the trees were loaded with 
 fruit, and all things wore faces of smiles. 
 
 Imagine a city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, 
 each dwelling-house in a garden enclosure of one and a 
 quarter acre, full of trees and vines ; all the streets wide, 
 and intersecting each other as they run from north to 
 south and east to west ; on both sides of every one of 
 them a clear running stream of water supplied from 
 the hills, so that every man may irrigate his land 
 with the least possible trouble and expense. Thus is 
 Salt Lake City and every town in the territory laid 
 
 g 
 
 out. The soil, when not watered, is a barren, alkaline 
 desert ; when it is watered it is a lovely garden. 
 
10 IRRIGATION HOTELS. 
 
 Nature has been conquered by the hand of man, and 
 accepts her defeat with smiles. 
 
 Nor is it only in the towns that the system of irri- 
 gation prevails. Thousands and tens of thousands 
 of acres of farm-land are thus rescued from inac- 
 tivity, and now produce fifty bushels of wheat to the 
 acre where nothing but wild sage-brush would formerly 
 grow. When the recent foundation of the city is con- 
 sidered, it will not seem surprising that many of the 
 houses are still small and unpretentious, some of the old 
 adobe shanties yet remaining. But these are rapidly 
 giving place to large and expensive houses of brick 
 and stone. There are several first-class hotels which 
 would do credit to any eastern city. Among the 
 public buildings most worthy of mention is the Taber- 
 nacle chiefly remarkable for its size, for it has no 
 beauty the city hall, and the theatre, recently reno- 
 vated and always well attended. The city is remark- 
 ably clean and healthy. This is owing not only to the 
 salubrity of the air, but to the running waters in the 
 streets. The domains of Brigham Young are secluded 
 behind high walls. Although he is the wealthiest 
 man in the place, his house is simple in its architec- 
 ture and far less costly than many others belonging 
 to rich Mormons and Gentiles. 
 
 We happened to be in town on the Fourth of July. 
 The day was celebrated in the usual style by orations 
 
MORMON PATRIOTISM. II 
 
 and fire-crackers. There were also excursions to the 
 canons, and on the only steamboat on Salt Lake. 
 But the 24th of July is the special Mormon holi- 
 day, that being the anniversary of the arrival of 
 the Saints upon these plains. On the 24th I was 
 away in the mountains, and do not know how much 
 general patriotism was mingled with territorial rights ; 
 but on the day of national independence, whatever 
 may have been the former antagonism of the people 
 to the United States authorities, there was nothing 
 of the kind apparent now. The star-spangled banner 
 was waved as exultingly by them as by any people 
 of this broad land, and they were as loud as any of 
 us in their protestations of allegiance. 
 
 On the 5th of July I left the city with Mr. John 
 W. Young, at his invitation, for a tour to the North. 
 Again passing over the Utah Central Railroad to 
 Ogden, we were taken on the Central Pacific to the 
 westward for twenty-four miles to Corinne, where 
 we took the narrow-gauge railroad, then completed 
 for forty miles north to Logan. 
 
 This road is now the pet scheme of my friend, John 
 W. Young, but it owes its inception and construction 
 chiefly to the enterprise of a single eastern capitalist, 
 Joseph Richardson, Esq., of New York. That gen- 
 tleman surveyed the whole of its route by patient foot- 
 journeys, and became so well satisfied of its feasibility 
 
12 RAILROAD CONNECTIONS. 
 
 that he invested a fortune in its stock, and is now fur- 
 nishing its iron, engines, cars, and equipments. Be- 
 sides the branch on which we started from Corinne, its 
 main trunk is already finished. This diverges from 
 Ogden, thus connecting with the Utah Central by 
 crossing the junction of the Union Pacific and Central 
 Pacific Railroads. Its first support in the line of trade 
 comes from the iron mines at Willard's, fifteen miles 
 north of Ogden. Thirty tons of this ore have been 
 hauled daily by tedious wagon-trains, destined for 
 the smelting-works at Sandy, and now the railroad 
 facilities will largely increase the production, especially 
 
 
 
 as a Pittsburgh company is putting up iron- works at 
 Ogden itself. 
 
 Seven miles north of Willard's the road reaches 
 Brigham City, one of the largest and most thriving 
 Mormon settlements, to which I shall have occasion 
 to refer again. At this place are the extensive co- 
 operative woollen factories and tanneries, giving em- 
 ployment to a large number of hands, and finding a 
 home-market in the territory as well as a large sale 
 for their products abroad. 
 
 The next place of interest is Hampton, twenty miles 
 still further north. Here are the stone-quarries, pro- 
 ducing an excellent building-material, used by the 
 Mormons for the construction of many of their pub- 
 lic and private edifices. 
 
MR. RICHARDSON'S ROAD. 13 
 
 It may be mentioned that while our enterprising 
 friend, Mr. Richardson, has such intimate business 
 relations with this people, he is himself a devout Epis- 
 copalian, and that he has followed the suggestions of 
 Bishop Tuttle, of Utah, by commencing to build a 
 church of his order at Logan, where the Mormons 
 have presented him with the most eligible site in their 
 town for its location. 
 
 Assuredly, this manifests a kindly feeling between 
 those who differ so widely in form and belief. It is a 
 liberality that will astonish people who have credited 
 all the stories of Mormon exclusiveness and tyranny. 
 So the stone-quarry furnishes material for the worship 
 of God to Mormon and Gentile alike. 
 
 Among the prominent Mormons interested in the 
 road are Bishops Hatch, Sharp, Preston, and Shaw. 
 Hon. Mpses Thatcher, and Judge Smith. The latter 
 gentleman, who resides in Brigham City, has thirty 
 sons employed in its construction. 
 
 At this flourishing town of Hampton is also the 
 dairy, established by Brigham Young. Last year it 
 produced over one hundred and fifty tons of some of 
 the best cheese in the world. Seventeen miles fur- 
 ther north is Mendon. Between this and the adjoin- 
 ing town of Logan, Brigham Young owns one of the 
 finest farms of the West, comprising ten thousand 
 acres of very superior land, and stocked at the pres- 
 
14 CACHE VALLEY. 
 
 cut time with six hundred head of cattle and large 
 flocks of sheep, selected from the choicest breeds. 
 
 The population of this beautiful valley is nearly 
 twenty thousand. The main product is grain, of 
 which seven hundred and fifty thousand bushels were 
 harvested last year. Most of the wheat has been 
 shipped to San Francisco, and thence around Cape 
 Horn to England. The farmers have realized one 
 dollar per bushel, and, with the expectation of a 
 greater ratio of profit, double the amount will be 
 raised in the ensuing year. 
 
 From Logan the road is by this time running 
 twenty miles beyond, through several small towns, to 
 Franklin. Fifteen miles still further north, on its pro- 
 posed continuation, a coal-mine has been recently 
 opened. Timber is abundant in the canons a few 
 miles from the track. With all these advantages, 
 present and prospective, the success of the " Utah 
 Northern " is assured. As the government directors 
 of the " Union Pacific" have stated in their official 
 report, it will be one of the most important feeders of 
 that great and prosperous national highway. It will 
 eventually extend through Idaho and reach Montana, 
 thus saving the present tedious stage-travel of five 
 hundred miles. 
 
 Cache Valley, through which our route now lay, 
 is, like that of Salt Lake, bounded on the east and 
 
BRIGHAM YOUNG, JR., AND FAMILY. 15 
 
 west by high ranges of snow-topped mountains, and 
 about the same width of twenty-five miles. Bear 
 River runs through its entire length and empties itself 
 into Great Salt Lake. Logan, a town of three thou- 
 sand inhabitants, is the capital of this county. 
 
 We arrived there in the evening, and were con- 
 ducted in a carriage to the comfortable and well- 
 furnished house of Brigham Young, Jr., the elder 
 brother of my companion, and met with a very cor- 
 dial reception. The Logan wife of our host is a 
 handsome and agreeable lady, as is also another of 
 his wives whom I afterwards met at "Salt Lake. A 
 daughter of the latter, a charming and accomplished 
 girl of seventeen, was just now staying with her 
 "aunt" at Logan. This was my first night beneath 
 a Mormon roof. I was struck by the exact obser- 
 vance of religious forms which I afterwards found 
 everywhere prevalent. In all their houses-, among the 
 rich and the poor, and in the country hotels, a bless- 
 ing always precedes each meal, and there are always 
 morning and evening prayers. When I retired to my 
 room, instead of the prayer-book accompanying the 
 Bible* which I often see in the houses of my Epis- 
 copalian friends, I found the Book of Mormon placed 
 upon it. I do not think, however, that the Mormons 
 themselves read this book very much. But they are 
 astonishing biblical students. They can quote Scrip- 
 
16 CHARACTER OF BRIGHAM YOUNG, JR. 
 
 ture from end to end. They did this in a way that 
 amazed the Rev. Dr. Newman, and they are per- 
 petually flinging texts at your head, especially such as 
 they claim confirmatory of their peculiar doctrines. 
 
 Brigham Young, Jr., is a portly gentleman of about 
 forty years. He is already one of the twelve apostles, 
 and is aspiring, on the death of his father, to succeed 
 to the presidency of the Church. The elder Brigham 
 is known to favor his claims. It is natural that he 
 should desire to perpetuate the priesthood in his own 
 line. As his wishes are laws with his people, the am- 
 bition of his son will doubtless be gratified, although 
 there are many abler and more experienced men who 
 might be selected. 
 
 Young Brigham has had the character of being 
 rather " fast" in his earlier days, but, as matrimony 
 is said to sober a man down, he has already had 
 enough of it to bring him down to -a fair standard of 
 sobriety. The changes which will soon come over 
 the Church, in the abolition of polygamy and in the 
 modification of other peculiar doctrines, will probably 
 render the task of governing lighter for the son than 
 it has been for his father. 
 
 On the next day Mr. J. W. Young and I left Logan 
 in a wagon for Franklin, a distance of twenty miles 
 north. Our road was bordered by well-cultivated 
 farms, all under the system of irrigation and ex- 
 
BISHOPS INDIANS. I/ 
 
 ceedingly productive. Every little settlement is a 
 bishopric, and Franklin, a town of one thousand 
 inhabitants, is under the keeping of Bishop Hatch, to 
 whose house we drove on arrival, and were kindly 
 received. This bishop is the husband of three wives. 
 He construes the Scripture injunction that a " bishop 
 shall be the husband of one wife," as an unfinished 
 command, the words " at least " having been omitted 
 or implied. As it takes two houses to hol.d his large 
 family, I was not surprised that my friend and myself 
 were assigned the same room ; but the occupancy of 
 the same bed was a phase of civilization to which our 
 eastern ideas are not much accustomed. 
 
 In the night we were awakened by a cry that the 
 Indians were stealing the horses on the prairies, and 
 this made quite an excitement, all the settlement 
 turning out except Mr. Young and myself, who were 
 guests ; and, moreover, our horses were safe under 
 the sheds. The Indians got off with half a dozen 
 animals, and made good their escape. These fellows 
 are getting to be very troublesome. The other day 
 they killed the driver of a Montana stage, not far 
 from here, and robbed the passengers and express. 
 
 In the morning I went on a survey with Mr. Young 
 and our host, to the ground where it is proposed to 
 continue the Utah Northern Railroad, now terminat- 
 ing at Logan. Coming to a spot by the banks of 
 
1 8 THE BISHOP'S BLESSING A MISSIONARY. 
 
 Bear River that could be traversed only on foot, a lad 
 and I were left to guard the animals. We accord- 
 ingly picketed them, and, placing our guns within 
 reach, amused ourselves by trying to catch some 
 trout ; but we caught no fish, and shot no Indians. 
 
 We all returned at evening to spend another night 
 with the bishop, who gave me a parting benediction 
 in his morning prayer, when he implored " that the 
 eyes of thy servant who is providentially with us may 
 be opened to the light of thy salvation." Then saying 
 good-by to him and to my pleasant companion, Mr. 
 Young, whose business called him back to Salt Lake, 
 I proceeded up the valley, driven by one of his men, 
 to Soda Springs. 
 
 The road was varied by hill and dale, though 
 generally in the bottom of the Cache Valley. We 
 passed the first night at Johnson's ranch. Johnson is 
 a queer old Mormon. He is not a practical poly- 
 gamist. His means would not warrant it. He has 
 been a missionary to Australia and the Sandwich 
 Islands, where he professed to have made many con- 
 verts to the faith, and now has retired to this lonely 
 spot, where he seems to do nothing but raise a few 
 cattle and drink a good deal of whiskey. He made 
 us comfortable after the manner of Bishop Hatch, but 
 I fancied still less turning in with a wagon-driver 
 than with a gentleman. There is a large, warm sul- 
 
RATTLESNAKES SODA VALLEY. ig 
 
 phur spring close by the cabin, in which we both 
 bathed before retiring, and this partially reconciled 
 me to the arrangement. Mr. Johnson's neighbor- 
 hood is infested by rattlesnakes, which form the only 
 excitement of the place. Soon after we left, on the 
 next morning, we killed two of the reptiles and heard 
 the music of a dozen of them in the bushes. 
 
 Passing two or three large cattle ranches on our 
 way, it was just at sunset when, leaving an extinct 
 volcano on our left, we turned the base of the eastern 
 mountains in a gorge where the Bear River makes its 
 exit, and our path wound round into the beautiful 
 Soda Valley that here begins its northerly inclined 
 plane, and follows it up for fifty miles. 
 
 While the seasons are so mild in the lower valleys, 
 here there is a snow embargo for four or five months, 
 and often for weeks at a time there is no communica- 
 tion with the outside world, excepting on snow-shoes. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Soda Springs. A Magnificent Hotel. Virtue of the Waters. Hunt- 
 ing and Fishing. Ptir chase of "Little Dick." Directions for the 
 Journey from New York to the Springs. 
 
 THE little village of Soda Springs is eighty-five 
 miles from the terminus of the railroad at Logan, 
 and about two hundred miles in a direct line from Salt 
 Lake City. Although a Mormon settlement, it is 
 within the limits of Idaho. One of these days, when 
 the railroad is completed, its mineral waters will in- 
 fallibly make it a place of great resort, but now it is 
 simply a collection of twenty log-houses, one of which 
 is termed a hotel. 
 
 Some u hotels " I have seen in the wilds of Africa, 
 the plains of India, the slums of Constantinople ; but 
 the " Hotel Sterrit " of Soda Springs is the meanest 
 building of that description into which I ever crept. 
 Sterrit himself is a Mormon, and his energies seem to 
 be directed to raising a numerous family, and making 
 his boarders pay for it by getting nothing in return 
 for their money. Nevertheless, I spent a fortnight 
 there, and I know that I can attribute my health to 
 
MINERAL WATERS. 21 
 
 the waters, for food, of which there was none, could 
 have had nothing to do with it. 
 
 Of these springs I cannot speak too highly. After 
 having visited Saratoga, Carlsbad, Kissingen, and 
 Vichy, I can honestly say that there is more virtue 
 in these springs than in all of the others. What is 
 wanting to the invalid is the excitement always found 
 iri the music and the company at fashionable watering- 
 places ; but these deficiencies are counterbalanced by 
 the pure air, and the abundant amusement of hunting 
 and fishing. These two are pleasurable means of 
 supporting life. 
 
 There are some warm springs that may be used ad- 
 vantageously for bathing, but the most remarkable 
 are the cool soda-fountains, of which there are several. 
 These come bubbling up clear as crystal from the 
 ground in great pools, and are delicious to the taste, 
 and full of carbonic-acid gas as the soda drawn from 
 the druggists' siphons. Soda, magnesia, and iron 
 are their principal ingredients, and I do not know of 
 an individual having tried them for digestive difficul- 
 ties who has not been benefited by their use. By and 
 by they will surely find their way, like Congress water, 
 all over the world, and will meet with equal favor. 
 
 The climate is variable, yet healthy : an elevation of 
 eight thousand feet above the level of the sea renders 
 it very cool in the morning. The glass at an early hour 
 
22 CLIMATE HOTEL STERRIT. 
 
 often indicates forty degrees, rising till the hottest part 
 of the day this is at four in the afternoon when it 
 frequently stands at ninety degrees, and then the air 
 grows cool again in the evening. The atmosphere 
 is so rarefied that we at first found breathing difficult 
 after slight exercise ; but one gradually becomes 
 accustomed to this. High as we were, there were 
 mountains all around two or three thousand feet 
 higher, and covered with perpetual snow. 
 
 There were very few guests at the Hotel Sterrit, 
 as most people who come prefer to camp out 
 and do their housekeeping out-of-doors. Several 
 members of Brigham Young's family were passing 
 their summer here, among others the lady who is 
 supposed to be his favorite wife, Mrs. Amelia. She is 
 a very pleasant, agreeable, and rather pretty woman, 
 of perhaps thirty-five years, and it is said that she has 
 a greater influence over her husband than all the other 
 sixteen ladies combined. He is now building for her 
 a magnificent house in Salt Lake City ; that is more 
 than he has done for any of the others, and this par- 
 tiality seems to justify what is said of her power. 
 
 To make time pass pleasantly while " undergoing a 
 course of the waters," I bought an Indian pony with 
 his accoutrements of saddle, bridle, cantinas or saddle- 
 bags, etc., for the sum of sixty-five dollars. Little 
 Dick was a good purchase, for I not only rode him 
 
LITTLE DICK SODA SPRINGS. 23 
 
 here daily on hunting and fishing excursions, but 
 afterwards hundreds of miles over the plains and 
 mountains of Utah. The untiring beast would make 
 his sixty miles, and in one instance eighty miles, in a 
 day, and be always fresh for the morrow. The six- 
 hundred-dollar thoroughbred that I ride in the Park 
 is not worth half the money at which I valued little 
 Dick, who finally was sold for forty dollars when I 
 came away. 
 
 The Utah Northern Railroad being now completed 
 to Franklin from its new starting-point at Ogden, 
 Soda Springs is within an easy journey of a week 
 from New York, by the New York Central, Lake 
 Shore, Chicago and North-western, Union Pacific, 
 and Utah Northern Railroads. The whole cost of 
 travel over these various roads, including sleeping- 
 car comforts, need not exceed one hundred and fifty 
 dollars. A new and comparatively comfortable hotel 
 will be completed next spring, and doubtless there 
 will then be more " society." But if any reader can 
 be induced by my experience to take his rebellious 
 liver there for satisfactory repairs, and by that of 
 others to have his rheumatic joints made supple, let 
 him not forget his fowling-piece and fishing-rod. 
 He can buy a pony on the spot. These are powerful 
 supplements to the unquestionable virtues of the 
 waters of Soda Springs. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Excursion to Fort Hall. Scenery on the Road. Kind Reception by 
 the Officers. Their Indian Policy. Camping Out among Mosqui- 
 toes. A Small Drove of Horses. Arrival at " Hotel Sterrit. " 
 
 SODA SPRINGS, August 4. 
 
 I HAVE just returned from a very pleasant wagon- 
 trip to Fort Hall. 
 
 This post is on the Indian Reservation in Idaho 
 Territory, fifty-five miles west from Soda Springs. 
 In company with Mr. Mansfield, a gentleman who 
 was on his way to Montana, and a driver, I left here 
 after breakfast on Saturday morning, in a double- 
 spring wagon. It was a very cool day at the com- 
 mencement, the mercury standing at thirty-eight 
 degrees, and we found our overcoats quite comfort- 
 able ; but before the afternoon had passed we dis- 
 pensed with them, and would have been glad to " sit 
 in our bones." 
 
 The first part of the journey was over a wide plain 
 with high ranges of mountains on each side, the 
 snow still resting on their summits. It was much like 
 the valley of Salt Lake. During the forenoon we shot 
 

 CATTLE-DROVERS THE SUMMIT. 2$ 
 
 half a dozen grouse and some pigeons, and at noon, 
 when about half the distance, camped by the side of a 
 stream where the willows made a pleasant shade, and, 
 turning our horses loose, lighted a fire, picked some 
 of our birds and fried and roasted them, having good 
 appetites for our meal. Near by were camped some 
 drovers, with a herd of five hundred cattle, bound up 
 to Montana. The men were a rough but lively set, 
 not choice in language or manners. 
 
 In the afternoon we started again, when the road 
 began to ascend through a canon to the "Sum- 
 mit." It was very pretty, although entirely devoid 
 of trees, of which there were Jione upon the whole 
 road excepting the willows on the side of the brooks, 
 and an occasional dwarf cedar. Neither was there a 
 single habitation of any kind. Our course was nearly 
 due west. Just before sunset we reached the sum- 
 mit, and then came upon a magnificent view, as we 
 looked down over a lot of small mountains and val- 
 leys upon the immense plain through which run the 
 Blackfoot and Snake Rivers. There was a light mist 
 rising from the waters, which gave the appearance of 
 a wide blue sea, and the little hills intervening looked 
 like islands on its bosom. The high, distant mountains 
 beyond were clearly defined, and were of a lapis-lazuli 
 blue, so beautiful that it cannot be described. It was 
 a view, in many respects, like that of the bay of Rio 
 
26 FORT HALL. 
 
 from the Serra of Petropolis. It was still before our 
 eyes as we drove rapidly down into the valley, and we 
 lied the changing hues of the skies and of the 
 landscape till evening covered them from our sight. 
 
 Soon after dark we arrived at the fort. There is, 
 properly, no fort : there is a parade-ground enclosed 
 by the buildings serving for quarters. At the upper 
 end are three neat cottages, one occupied by the 
 captain and doctor, who mess together, another as an 
 office, and the largest by Lieut. King and his family. 
 \\V had a note of introduction to the latter gentleman. 
 At the opposite end of the parade are the stables and 
 sutler's shop. On one side of the square are the 
 soldiers' barracks and wash-houses ; on the other the 
 commissary stores and hospital. In the middle is the 
 flag-staff, from which "The Star-Spangled Banner 
 for ever shall wave," to the terror of evil-doers, 
 whites, Indians, and half-breeds. That is Fort Hall. 
 
 The post is maintained not so much by way of 
 precaution in case of trouble with the Indians, as for 
 protection of them against the encroachments of the 
 whites. It may be assumed that in nine cases out of 
 ten, as has been clearly proved even in the Modoc 
 war, hostilities are commenced by the settlers, trap- 
 pers, or miners. On this Reservation are one thousand 
 five hundred of the Bannock tribe. They are a lazy, 
 inoffensive set of beings. They are fed and cared for 
 
THE OFFICERS AND THE LADIES. 2/ 
 
 by the government on the economical principle that it 
 is cheaper to feed them than to fight them. Lieut. 
 King, who has had a long experience on the frontier, 
 understands their character perfectly, and has admi- 
 rably succeeded in making the government feared 
 and respected not only by the Indians, but by those 
 wretches among the whites who would rob and other- 
 wise maltreat them if they were not thus restrained. 
 
 As we drove to the door of Mr. King it was 
 pleasant to see two ladies, neatly dressed, sitting 
 upon the piazza. We received a hearty welcome 
 from the lieutenant, and were at once introduced 
 to his wife and her friend, Miss McCrea. They 
 we're young and pleasing, refined and intellectual 
 women. We felt the contrast of this society as 
 compared with that of Soda Springs. It is so sel- 
 dom that a visitor comes along, that Lieut. King 
 and his family, Gapt. Vivian and Dr. Boone, seemed 
 as glad to see us as we were to see them. We 
 declined their offer of supper, as we had just made 
 a meal of the remains of our dinner ; and, after 
 sitting with them an hour or two, were shown to 
 a large airy room with two beds, faultless linen, and 
 everything as neat as wax, Lieut. King apologizing 
 because he could do no better than to put us in 
 one room. An apology to people who had been 
 living at Sterrit's Hotel ! We slept soundly, of 
 
28 COMFORTS AT FORT HALL. 
 
 course. In the morning we had a superb breakfast, 
 French coffee, cream, muffins, eggs, trout, chicken, 
 etc., etc. Well, that was another contrast to Sterrit's 
 fried bacon and Japan tea. 
 
 After that we were shown around, visiting all the 
 buildings and stables. The Doctor was very proud 
 of his hospital and dispensary. He said they were 
 in such perfect order because he never had any use 
 for either of them. Altogether, including the soldiers 
 and hangers-on, there are only eighty people at the 
 fort. The ladies seem quite contented. Mrs. King 
 has a little girl four years old, and one of the soldiers 
 is its nurse. The Corinne and Montana daily stage 
 passes within twelve miles of the fort, and they send 
 over every day for the mail. I found on their tables 
 all the magazines and daily New York papers, and 
 read a Herald a week old. When I left, Lieut. King 
 and the Doctor gave me a lot of them, including June 
 and July Atlantic. What prizes to bring back to 
 Soda Springs ! 
 
 Mr. Mansfield being bound up to Montana, Lieut. 
 King sent him over to meet the stage, in the fore- 
 noon. They would have kept us both a week if we 
 could have stayed. I never met more hospitable peo- 
 ple ; but I wanted to be on the best shooting-ground 
 in the morning early, and so, after an excellent lunch, 
 bade them good-by. In September, Lieut. King and 
 
RETURN TO SODA SPRINGS. 29 
 
 the Doctor, with ten men, are going on a scouting 
 expedition to Soshone Falls on Snake River, some 
 four hundred miles hence. These falls are said to be 
 superior to Niagara. They urged us to join them 
 most enticingly. It would be a horseback journey, 
 and if they were to go now I should most certainly 
 accept the invitation. 
 
 We left on our return at three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, and after passing over the summit, where we 
 had another view like that of the preceding day, 
 descended on this side to the banks of the Port Neuf, 
 a little stream, where we camped for the night, 
 having shot two grouse on the way, from which we 
 made our supper. Here we lay down under the 
 wagon, turned our horses loose, and hauled our rugs 
 over us, anticipating sleep. But this was sadly dis- 
 turbed by millions of mosquitoes. They got in under 
 the shawls and bit ; but the worst of it was their cease- 
 less music. However, they bit and sung us to sleep 
 at last. At five this morning we harnessed our ani- 
 mals and started. Soon after sunrise we shot eight 
 grouse, and then it began to rain ; but we covered our- 
 selves up as well as we could and drove rapidly along, 
 reaching Soda Springs at noon. 
 
 Just before arrival we passed the camp of Mr. Shirley, 
 who was on one of his trips from the West to "the 
 East," as he calls Laramie, Cheyenne, and the towns 
 
30 HORSE- TALK. 
 
 along the U. P. railroad. He was driving a herd of 
 twelve hundred horses in that direction. We stopped for 
 a few minutes to " talk horse " with him. " Big busi- 
 ness and small profits " is my motto, said Shirley. 
 That means, small profits are the biggest. " Now one 
 of you Down-Easters will buy a hoss and trade him 
 for another, and keep on one-hoss trading and make 
 fifty dollars out of it. Well, I'm content to make ten 
 dollars a head, and that's $12,000 for my trip. It will 
 take me three months, and then I'll try it over again." 
 On my way home I met Shirley at a railroad station 
 some eight hundred miles east of where I met him 
 here. He had but a hundred horses left and had done 
 better than he had hoped, for his twelve thousand 
 dollars profit had already accrued to him. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Drive to Cariboo. " Cussedness" of a Mule. Too muck Whiskey 
 and Profanity. Approach under Difficulties. Meeting a Grizzly. 
 Hard Sleeping Accommodations. Keenan City. Jeff Davis. 
 Placer-Mining. Ascent of the Mountain. Dinner on the Summit. 
 Discoveries of Quartz- Gold. Corraling a Mule. Jeff on a 
 Bucking Horse. 
 
 IT was my intention to have waited a few days and 
 then to have gone to Cariboo on my pony, but the 
 next morning a party of three men came up from 
 Logan, and so urged me to take a seat with them in 
 their wagon that I accepted their invitation. 
 
 Having exchanged their horses for a mule-team, we 
 left Soda Springs at ten in the morning. We soon found 
 that the mules were wretched substitutes for the horses, 
 but as the ground to Warmack's ranche, fifteen miles 
 distant, on the Blackfoot, was quite level, we cudgelled 
 them along till we arrived there and dined. After din- 
 ner we caught a few trout, and then started to com- 
 plete the remaining thirty-five miles. We got on over 
 the first half of the distance, which was on a level road, 
 tolerably well. Then* our real troubles began. The 
 
32 MOSQUITOES MULES A GRIZZLY. 
 
 mosquitoes attacked us in swarms, the ground mired, 
 the mules balked, we got set in the sloughs, and it 
 .11 to rain in torrents. 
 
 The road was now all up-hill through a dark-wooded 
 cafion, the moon only occasionally breaking through 
 the clouds. So we travelled along, sometimes by her 
 light, and at others by the aid of lightning flashes, often 
 stopping in utter bewilderment, and unwilling to camp 
 in the rain, especially as my companions had a positive 
 engagement to arrive in the morning. One of the 
 mules was particularly lazy and obstinate, continually 
 lying down in the road, and obliging us to club him 
 to get him on his feet. 
 
 Fortunately our driver was an energetic fellow. He 
 whipped, clubbed, swore, and yelled steadily at the 
 " cussed " team. ^His swearing was something stu- 
 pendous and perfectly exhaustive of Heaven, Earth, 
 and Hell, and of all their inhabitants. No words could 
 do it justice. But the climax was reached when it 
 began to snow thickly, and some of us were straying 
 along ahead of the wagon through a deep gorge in the 
 hills. All at once, within ten rods of us, a grizzly set 
 up a tremendous growl that drowned out the swearing 
 of our driver. We just dropped on all fours and 
 crawled back to the wagon, into which we tumbled 
 rather quickly. We had only a double-barrelled shot- 
 gun with us, and all of us, of course, had pistols ; but 
 
ARRIVAL AT CARIBOO. 33 
 
 these small-arms were not much against a grizzly, and 
 we did not intend to use them unless he attacked us. 
 So we drove along until we came to the place where 
 he was. 
 
 When he heard the wagon coming he trotted out 
 within two or three rods of us. Then our driver set 
 up a yell and commenced to swear in a style that ex- 
 ceeded all his previous efforts, and actually scared the 
 grizzly so that it fairly made him turn tail and put for 
 the woods. Well, we were glad ! 
 
 Onward we staggered in the rain, mud, and dark- 
 nesssometimes getting out to belabor the mule, 
 sometimes steadying the wagon from capsizing, until 
 at length, at half-past one o'clock, we came to a log- 
 house, which we were told was " Cariboo." The 
 real name of the town is Keenan City. It contains 
 about a dozen log-houses, including a " saloon," lodg- 
 ing-house, and restaurant, entertainment being fur- 
 nished on the " European plan." 
 
 My companions were not satisfied with having 
 emptied a two-gallon jug of whiskey during the day, 
 it having given out soon after midnight. So they 
 routed out the saloon-keeper, who was also the pro- 
 prietor of the lodging-house, and took several more 
 drinks. It was consequently after 2 A.M. when 
 we were shown to our " apartment." This was a log- 
 house of one room, twenty by fifteen feet, in which 
 
 2* 
 
34 HARD ACCOMMODATIONS. 
 
 t\vo gentlemen were already sleeping on a shelf under 
 a blanket. Two other double shelves were provided 
 for us. Neither of them had a mattress upon it, but 
 they were furnished with horse-blankets, and pillows 
 wu-e not. I selected the least inebriated of my fellow- 
 passengers for a bedfellow, and turned in after placing 
 my coat and pantaloons on an empty box, using my 
 monkey-jacket for a pillow, and walking to my shelf 
 over the bare ground, for the apartment had no floor. 
 But we were all tired enough to sleep until seven 
 o'clock, when I awoke first and got out of doors. 
 
 It was a lovely morning after the storm, and the air 
 was delightfully cool and invigorating. But the wretch- 
 ed, woebegone look of Keenan City ! The street 
 was nearly knee-deep with mud, and the miners were 
 already wading through it to their work, with their 
 picks, shovels, and pans on their backs. I went to the 
 restaurant and found it was kept by a Scotchman and 
 his wife, an Englishwoman. It was an agreeable dis- 
 appointment to find it very neatly arranged, and my 
 breakfast of toast and fresh butter, and a tender beef- 
 steak with potatoes, was well cooked, and served. It 
 was far better than anything I had had at Soda 
 Springs. 
 
 I met Jeff Davis at the table not Jeff the rebel, but 
 
 ;lu teamster whom I knew at Soda Springs, and 
 
 who is well known all over this country. After break- 
 
PLACER-MINING. . 35 
 
 fast, Jeff, who has somehow taken a great fancy to me, 
 proposed a walk to the placer diggings, a mile or two 
 outside the city limits. I was very glad to go with 
 him, as he is a very intelligent man ; and was able to 
 explain all about the working of the placers. 
 
 The men were busily employed in the gulch when 
 we arrived. This gulch is away back in the pine for- 
 est, and the sight is very romantic. The men were at 
 their work, and near by among the trees several log- 
 cabins, tastily decorated with spruce boughs, and some 
 very spruce young women too, the wives and daugh- 
 ters of the miners, around them. 
 
 The process of placer-mining is hydraulic, a strong 
 stream of water being turned on to wash away the 
 banks of dirt and then running through wooden flumes, 
 in the bottom of which the gold settles and is after- 
 wards removed. 
 
 Besides these works there are some owned by poor 
 men and Chinamen, who "pan out" the gold in the 
 primitive way. I borrowed a pan and was not very 
 successful, getting only a few specks of dust for my 
 trouble. Indeed, little is done by this method now, 
 those who simply " pan " rarely getting more than 
 two or three dollars per day. 
 
 In the afternoon Mr. Brown, my landlord, invited 
 me to go with him to the top of the mountain and see 
 the place where he had been successfully prospecting 
 
36 ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 for quartz-gold. My friend Jeff o fife red me the use of 
 one of his mules. Brown and I accordingly started 
 at two o'clock, and ascended towards the mountain 
 through what would have been a magnificent forest if 
 a recent fire had not sadly marred its beauty. Still 
 there was a great deal of beauty left. There was no 
 trail, and we were obliged to pick our way through 
 thick underbrush and over hundreds of fallen trees. 
 Cariboo is about two thousand feet higher than Soda, 
 so that it is some ten thousand feet above the level of 
 the sea. The mountain is fifteen hundred feet above 
 the level of the town. 
 
 After ascending five hundred feet we came to patches 
 of snow. Above them it was beautifully green with 
 pines and grass, and just where gold was " struck," 
 halfway to the summit, there was a great, wide, grassy 
 lawn, looking as if it had been laid out by a landscape- 
 gardener. On the edge of this, among the pines, were 
 the huts of the prospecters, made of bark and pine- 
 boughs, and having a very tasty appearance. 
 
 It was only three weeks since these quartz-mines 
 were discovered, and the ore had not yet been thor- 
 oughly assayed. But they are probably very rich, 
 and are likely to be the original source of the deposits 
 found in the gulches. Very little work has been done 
 in them as yet AfUr looking a t the specks of gold 
 in the broken quartz, and wishing that I owned the 
 
VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAIN. 37 
 
 mountain, I determined to get upon the top of it and 
 tread all its gold under my feet. I found a very 
 intelligent young Scotchman, a Glasgow lad, among 
 the prospecters, and he went with me. It was te- 
 dious climbing over loose rocks, and through deep 
 snow ; but we accomplished it at last, and were amply 
 rewarded by such a view as no pen can describe. 
 We were on the highest peak of the range, and looked 
 down upon lesser mountains of snowy summits, and 
 over them all beyond the valleys near us, into valleys 
 in the far distance, tracing the Snake and Blackfoot 
 Rivers for at least a hundred miles, and taking in on 
 all sides everything that could be seen without let or 
 hindrance from intervening objects as far as the eye 
 could reach in the clear atmosphere on this brilliant 
 afternoon. The extent was so great that even the 
 beauties and grandeur of the Yosemite were eclipsed 
 by the magnificent panorama. We descended rapidly, 
 sliding over the snow-patches down to the green, where 
 Mr. Brown was waiting with the mules ; and bidding 
 my friendly Scotchman good-by, we started for the 
 town below. It was nearly dark before we arrived, 
 but our faithful animals carried us safely down. 
 
 Thursday, M., Aug. 6th. Early this morning Jeff 
 turned me out, saying, " Hurry up with your break- 
 fast ; the mules are all ready, and you must go with 
 us over beyond the mountain and see some of the 
 
38 SURE-FOOTED MULES. 
 
 >thcr quartz-leads; it is a pretty rough ride and it 
 will take all day." 
 
 My toilet was made in something less than three 
 minutes, and after breakfast we trotted out of the val- 
 ley and took the mountain-trail, which soon was lost in 
 the thick copses and fallen trees. Our way was longer 
 and even rougher than that of yesterday. There 
 were almost perpendicular descents into ravines, and 
 a\vay up more than a thousand feet above the valley, 
 we crawled along on the side-hill like flies on the 
 edge of a teacup. Horses could not have held on ; 
 but these sure-footed mules, bracing themselves up- 
 wards, picked their way in a most wonderful manner. 
 It was far safer to remain on their backs than it would 
 have been to dismount, for a single misstep would 
 have sent one down below without stopping for 
 breath. 
 
 '"Your mule is responsible for you," said Jeff. 
 " Just don't touch the reins, but look at the prospect " 
 and so I did and soon forgot all care for myself in 
 the contemplation of the beautiful and sublime 
 scenery. Below us was an immense basin-shaped 
 valley, carpeted with the greenest grass, and figured 
 with patches of giant pines, looking like shrubs, 
 tth us. Over beyond, range upon range, were 
 clearly-defined mountains of different shades of dark 
 granite to the faintest blue in the far distance. 
 
DINNER WITH THE PROSPECTERS. 39 
 
 In this way we rode fifteen miles in six hours, 
 when we came upon a party of prospecters known to 
 Jeff and Mr. Perkins, my other companion. In the 
 early part of our ride we had come through flocks of 
 mountain-grouse. They were so tame that we shot 
 them with our pistols from the saddle, and brought 
 along a lot of young chickens with us. We camped 
 at I P.M. with Thompson and Graham and another 
 man, the prospecters who had just discovered a new 
 quartz-lead, from which they expect of course to make 
 their fortunes. 
 
 Introduction and drinks were in order as necessary 
 accompaniments, and it is only by* falling back on 
 absolute temperance or rather total abstinence that I 
 have escaped being drunk half the time, and being 
 poisoned for life, since I have been in Cariboo. 
 Messrs. Thompson and Co. made us welcome, and 
 offered us all their hospitalities. 
 
 They admitted that they were not so well " fixed " as 
 they might be. They had been living there a week, 
 but had not even a tent for a covering, and had lost 
 their axe, so that they could not cut pine-boughs to 
 make a hut ; but they had chosen a romantic spot 
 among the thick evergreens. Within a few rods of 
 them was a large snow-bank from which water enough 
 melted for their supply, and deliciously cool it was. 
 But they had plenty of flour, bacon, and whiskey for 
 
4O WHISKEY AND HOPE. 
 
 food and stimulant and of blankets for sleep. They 
 were as healthy-looking a set of men as I ever saw, 
 notwithstanding their coarse diet and bad liquor ; for 
 it was seasoned with hope and bright anticipations. 
 
 If I was asked what miners lived upon I should 
 answer, "Whiskey and hope." As to the former, I 
 would prefer having the value of what is drunk, to 
 having all the gold that is panned in Cariboo ; for the 
 miners spend all their gold-dust for whiskey, and are 
 still in debt for it. As to hope, they are always living, 
 and that joyfully, on "great expectations." So now 
 the bottle went round, and then we made a fire and 
 picked our chickens. 
 
 In the meantime one of Thompson's men " start- 
 ed a bake." Having the yeast already prepared from 
 a powder, he mixed the flour in a frying-pan, and 
 in less than fifteen minutes turned out a great cake of 
 bread that any epicure would have pronounced most 
 excellent. By this time we had prepared half a dozen 
 grouse and cut them up for "a fry " with bacon. Our 
 entertainers gave us some tea, and we all sat down 
 under a great fir-tree and made a hearty and sociable 
 meal. Mr. Morgan was an old salt, and had been a 
 mate in the Black Ball line. We had sea-yarns for our 
 dessert, and laughing for nuts and raisins. 
 
 After they had all " had a smoke" and some more 
 whiskey, we went to see the new quartz-lead near by. 
 
QUARTZ-MINING. 41 
 
 Some of it was decayed mineral which yielded on 
 being washed in a pan about thirty cents' worth of 
 gold in ten minutes. By this rough process, however, 
 half of it was lost. I was quite satisfied that they had 
 " struck a good thing," if the vein is not all surface. 
 But it may go to a great depth and may not. From 
 each side of the great mountain already described runs 
 a stream through valleys into the plain below. In 
 these valleys, one of which holds Cariboo, are the 
 placer diggings, all along by the side of the streams 
 washing down the gold. 
 
 The miners have heretofore been contented with 
 these deposits, for they are rich and sure. But they 
 naturally supposed that the particles of gold came from 
 a quartz source, and that this source could not be else- 
 where than in the mountains whence the streams 
 take their rise. Hence all the present excitement and 
 prospecting for quartz-gold. The quartz-mines, if rich, 
 are generally immensely so, but they are much more 
 uncertain than the placers, and require a great deal 
 more capital to work them. I should rather take my 
 chance with tfye placers. 
 
 We " packed in" a lot of quartz on a mule, which 
 Thompson .sent back. While saddling our animals one 
 of them got loose and took the mountain to himself. 
 Jeff and another man "put for him" on muleback, 
 and the rest of us "corraled" him on foot. It was a 
 
42 A RUNAWAY MULE. 
 
 most exciting chase, and I never saw such riding as 
 this. The runaway and his pursuers galloped and 
 wheeled on the edge of precipices, among bushes, 
 trees, rocks, and over loose stones which rolled from 
 under their feet into the chasms below, the riders 
 shouting, yelling, and swearing at the chase in the 
 wildest and most horrible style, keeping it up for 
 nearly a half-hour. By that time we had surrounded 
 the mule and corraled him. Then bidding adieu to 
 our hospitable friends, we started on our way home, 
 travelling over the same ground on which we had 
 come, and shooting some more grouse. 
 
 As we came over the divide we witnessed a most 
 glorious sunset, the last rays shooting up through the 
 valleys, and brightening with gold the clouds that 
 hung between the mountains, making a splendid con- 
 trast with the cold gray peaks. We were at home at 
 eight o'clock. 
 
 Mr. Perkins, who I should have said is the mer- 
 chant of Cariboo, invited Jeff and myself to take tea 
 with him. His log-cabin on the outside is like all the 
 rest, but on entering there was an air of neatness of 
 which certainly none of the others could boast. In 
 fact, there was a woman in the house, and a very 
 lady-like young woman is Mrs. Perkins. She had 
 muslin curtains for her windows. She had a sewing- 
 machine in one corner of the room, and in the middle 
 
THE BUCKING HORSE. 43 
 
 of it she had a table set for herself and husband, on 
 which she. speedily put two more plates. It was 
 spread with a spotlessly clean cloth, clean napkins in 
 rings, a nice stoneware tea-equipage, with plated-forks 
 and teaspoons, and even a butter-knife ! After a 
 good supper, the gentlemen adjourned to the saloon, 
 where we played high-low-jack, the favorite game in 
 these parts. 
 
 I had a bed, or rather a board, to myself last night, 
 and thought this fortunate, as indeed it was. After 
 breakfast, the order of the day was for Jeff to break 
 in a bucking horse. Before he was fairly seated, the 
 first buck threw him " higher than a kite ; " but he 
 calls himself " a wiry old cuss," and he was not 
 much hurt. He was on the horse again in a minute, 
 and then commenced an equestrian exhibition that 
 would have astonished Rarey. Such mad leaping 
 and plunging is not often seen. The animal stood on 
 his hind legs one moment, and at the next his tail 
 pointed to the zenith, but Jeff sat as if glued to the 
 saddle. Then down he went on his side and rolled 
 over on his back, Jeff sliding off as he went down, 
 and jumping on again as he rose. Down again and 
 over and over went the horse, his rider always avoid- 
 ing being rolled upon, and while he plunged never 
 starting his trousers from the saddle. 
 
 For two hours at least this game was kept up, till 
 
44 THE HORSE SUBDUED. 
 
 the horse had fairly bucked himself out and had 
 sweated himself weak. Then Jeff took off. the saddle 
 and bridle, and putting on the halter, jumped upon his 
 back and rode him up and down the street. After a 
 while he dismounted, faced his conquest, and looking 
 him in the eye, remarked, with considerable expletive 
 earnestness, "You may buck some other fellow, but 
 I don't calculate you will ever buck me again ! " We 
 were to have gone to " Iowa Valley" to see a new 
 placer claim on this day, but Jeff owned himself too 
 much used up with the exercise he had had, to take a 
 twenty-mile ride. So we postponed it till the mor- 
 row. 
 
 After dinner, Mr. Perkins invited me to take a ride 
 with his wife down the canon. He put her on a quiet, 
 ambling pony, and gave me an elegant gray horse he 
 had just purchased and which he did not think would 
 buck. After what I had seen this morning, I clinched 
 my knees to the saddle in anticipation of a contin- 
 gency, but was agreeably disappointed, and we had a 
 very pleasant ride of about twenty miles, partly on 
 the road and partly over the hills on bridle-paths, 
 coming down at sunset, enjoying a view like that of 
 the evening before. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ride to Iowa Valley. Mr. Gallagher's Welcome. Arrival of Emi- 
 grants. Sunday at Cariboo. Facing a Catamount. Return to 
 the Springs. Indians. Inducements to Visit this Country. 
 
 ON the morning of August Qth there was a lively 
 time corraling the animals, but they were final- 
 ly roped in, and we started for " Iowa City." This im- 
 portant town is situated in a valley on the other side 
 of the mountain, distant from Cariboo seven or eight 
 miles. There is nominally a wagon-road for all the 
 distance, but at least one-half of it is merely a 
 trail. 
 
 Jeff was mounted on his wild horse of yesterday's 
 performance ; but to-day he was gentle as a kitten. I 
 had the same horse I had ridden the day before. 
 The road was principally through the "burnt district" 
 of the pine forest, and had a gloomy look about it ; 
 but as we began to ascend the canon, we rode among 
 groves of green pines, pleasingly contrasting with the 
 first part of the route. All along the banks of the 
 stream were the different placer claims being worked 
 by gangs of miners. Some of them were operated by 
 
46 MR. GALLAGHER'S WELCOME. 
 
 hydraulic pressure, but most of them were worked 
 on a very small scale. 
 
 We stopped at the residence of Patrick Gallagher, 
 Esq., and found that gentleman about to dine with 
 his family, consisting of a large dog, a small cat, and 
 a pig. " Bedad, but ye're wilcome, and so is the 
 gintleman wid ye, Misther Jeff," exclaimed Mr. 
 Gallagher; " me dinner is jist ready, and here's a 
 chair apace." With that he shoved two empty boxes 
 towards the shelf serving for a table. " Divil a dhrop 
 of whiskey have I," said our entertainer, and I. was 
 not sorry to hear it, because it was such a rare thing 
 to get an introduction to a gentleman without a 
 drink. " But here's an. illigant pace of boiled beef, 
 and potaties and bread for ye, and there's wather 
 for ye, if ye know the taste of it." 
 
 Mr. Gallagher had two knives and one fork for his 
 table service. "The fork is aisy divided," he said, 
 " for there's three prongs to it, and that's one apace, 
 but be me sowl it bothers me to share round the 
 knives ! " However, we managed to make a very 
 hearty meal, notwithstanding deficiencies of table 
 service. As nearly as I could measure the one- 
 roomed house by the eye, it was ten feet by six. 
 This, of course, included eating-room, sleeping-room, 
 kitchen, and hall. 
 
 After dinner we went out to see his claim, which 
 
IOWA CITY. 47 
 
 he, in connection with three partners, worked with 
 hydraulics. He said they had averaged ten dollars a 
 day apiece this summer, and expressed himself as 
 " continted." Well he might be. 
 
 I really could not find " Iowa City," although I was 
 assured that we had been there. Here and there, 
 within the distance of half a mile, there were some 
 log-cabins, in all perhaps half a dozen, and these 
 must have been in the different wards of Iowa City. 
 The last place to which we came was the residence 
 of William Clemens, Esq., the head man of the 
 place ; there we alighted, tied our horses to trees, 
 and then went with Mr. Clemens to see his claim. 
 To arrive at it one must go on foot, by a wild, shaded 
 path through the pine woods. On the way we 
 gathered a great many whortleberries, as they are 
 called here, but they are only so in the appearance of 
 the bushes, the berries growing larger than the east- 
 ern whortleberries, of a dark purple color, and being 
 slightly acid, very pleasant to the taste. 
 
 The claim of Mr. Clemens is in the bed of what 
 was a stream some thousands of years ago, and the 
 developments thus far have equalled his expectations. 
 To judge from the soil around it, no one unacquainted 
 with mining would have imagined that below it had 
 ever been a river-course. The intuitive perception 
 of these otherwise ignorant men, which enables them 
 
48 ARRIVAL OF EMIGRANTS. 
 
 to prospect successfully, is a mystery to me. They 
 are not scientific, but they are very practical mineral- 
 ogists. 
 
 Returning to the cabin of Mr. Clemens and resting 
 awhile, we mounted our horses, and came back to 
 Cariboo. 
 
 It was Saturday night, and the little " camp" was 
 somewhat more than ordinarily noisy, profane, and 
 drunk. Several wagons had arrived and completed a 
 journey of many weeks, perhaps months, from the 
 "States." The women were busy around their camp- 
 fires preparing their meals, while their husbands were 
 carousing in the " saloon," and they all felt happy in 
 their different ways. In a day or two they will have 
 prospected and selected claims, living in the mean- 
 while in and under their wagons, as they have done 
 on their journey, and in a week or two they will have 
 built and furnished their future homes future till in 
 a future more remote some of them will occupy 
 brown-stone fronts in Chicago and New York. Will 
 they be happier then, when dizzy at the summit of 
 their ambition, than they now are at the base of the 
 mountain, toiling cheerfully in the ascent, and for- 
 tunately ignorant how bleak and barren is the pin- 
 nacle beyond which they cannot go ? 
 
 What would this life of ours be without the future 
 that is in it, even in this world ? As we advance in 
 
SUNDAY AT CARIBOO. 49 
 
 years this future becomes more contracted, but still 
 there is always till death a little of it, and it is in the 
 contemplation and magnifying of this little that we 
 have our chief stimulus for exertion. It seems to me 
 that people are most happy when about half-way up 
 the mountain. They have then plenty of anticipa- 
 tions for the future, and a pleasing remembrance of 
 the past, while they are not too high for the beautiful 
 things around them to be dimmed by distance. 
 
 A Sabbatarian would have been disgusted with 
 the manner the Sunday has been observed in Cari- 
 boo. There is not a Bible or Prayer-book, or even 
 a Book of Mormon, in the place. Here we are out- 
 side the pale of the Mormon and all other churches. 
 But the people do not forsake the assembling of 
 themselves together for the enjoyment of Sunday 
 after their own style. The grand drunk of last night 
 has been continued and intensified since morning. 
 To-day even the Chinamen, who are the soberest 
 and best-behaved of the population, come to the bar 
 with their bottles for " lilly whiskey." In this respect 
 they have on Sunday embraced Cariboo Christianity. 
 On the first day of the week the faro-table is more 
 patronized than on any other. 
 
 I suppose the services were continued in the after- 
 part of the day as in the forenoon, but I was not a 
 witness, for I got on horseback after dinner and crept 
 3 
 
.52 HOTEL STERRIT AGAIN. 
 
 right as the law directs," which he obeyed, as soon as 
 he saw that I complied with it. 
 
 After a sufficient detour to avoid him, in case he 
 should change his pacific determination, I came into 
 the road again, keeping a bright lookout ahead dur- 
 ing the rest of the journey for any intrusive beast. I 
 stopped at Warmack's ranch, on the Blackfoot River, 
 the only house, and consequently the only place on 
 the road for refreshments for man and beast. I had 
 trout, and the horse had oats, and we both dined 
 well. I left Cariboo at 10 A.M., passed an hour 
 and three quarters at Blackfoot, and arrived here at 
 5 P.M., so that I was but a trifle more than five 
 hoars on the road. I was now again at the " Hotel 
 Sterrit," and this writing closes the account of nearly 
 a week's absence pleasantly passed in a trip to 
 Cariboo. 
 
 There are but few Mormons engaged in the mining 
 operations at Cariboo. The genius of the people 
 does not lie in that direction. They are almost strict- 
 ly addicted to agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Thus 
 wealth, or rather comfortable independence, is more 
 equally distributed among them than in most com- 
 munities. It is this inculcation by the Mormon 
 religion, rather than the religion itself, that makes 
 them a happy and a virtuous people. There is great 
 wisdom in the advice given them by Brigham Young, 
 
BANNOCK INDIANS. 53 
 
 to be contented with their crops, their flocks, and 
 their herds. They follow it faithfully, and so they do 
 not go to Cariboo. 
 
 There are many pretty rides in the neighborhood 
 of Soda Springs. One is well repaid for a visit to the 
 volcano, to the mines, and sulphur lakes, to the moun- 
 tain canons, all within easy reach from the village. 
 There are always camps of the Bannock Indians not 
 far from the town, to which these wild, dirty, but 
 harmless vagabonds resort for trade. 
 
 Notwithstanding the enactment of strict laws, they 
 do obtain whiskey from the traders in barter for skins 
 and game. 
 
 The management of the Utah tribes by the Mormon 
 government while it had supreme control, was greatly 
 to its credit. The Mormons imitated the humane 
 policy of the Pennsylvania Quakers, rather than such 
 a war of extermination as is advocated by Phil Sheri- 
 dan. This is the General's logic : " They are a miser- 
 able set of wretches who must inevitably disappear 
 before the progress of civilization. In the meantime 
 they stand in its way. Therefore, for their own bene- 
 fit and for that of civilization, the sooner they are 
 cleared out the better." 
 
 True enough, all attempts to domesticate and 
 elevate them have been failures. It has been thus 
 from the first settlement of New England, when the 
 
54 INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 enthusiastic Elliot, after spending years in acquir- 
 ing the language of some of the Massachusetts tribes, 
 devoted other years to translating the Bible into 
 their tongue. When the task was accomplished and 
 the book was printed, nearly all the Indians had 
 passed away, so that there was never a demand for 
 the second edition. 
 
 The Indian policy of the government is indeed sur- 
 rounded by difficulties. Perhaps Sheridan's logic, 
 though cruel, is correct ; but the work will be better 
 accomplished without a resort to wholesale butchery. 
 The moral force alone of a strong race will overcome 
 a weak one, unless the weaker is in a condition of 
 protection amounting to slavery. Thus the negroes 
 who increased when they were really cared for, however 
 unjust the system holding them in bondage, now that 
 they have to fight the battle of life side by side 
 with white men, must inevitably succumb and disap- 
 pear. Laziness and carelessness of the future belong 
 to them and the Indians alike. But they have been 
 domesticated by slavery, are more congregated, more 
 attached to localities, and, above all, they are Chris- 
 tianized. So they will last longer than the Indians. 
 
 What, then, shall be our policy ? It seems to me 
 that Lieut. King at Fort Hall expressed it correctly : 
 " It is cheaper to feed them than to fight them." That 
 is true, unless we mean by fighting them to extermi- 
 
MORMON JACK. 55 
 
 nate them at once. Humanity forbids this. All that 
 we have to do is to nurse them along until they die 
 a natural death. * 
 
 If we wish to hasten this, let us encourage the traders, 
 who will bring it about more speedily by the adminis- 
 tration of poisonous whiskey. Perhaps those philan- 
 thropic gentlemen think they are doing God service 
 by clearing out these Canaanites with a more potent 
 weapon than was put into the hands of Israel. It 
 is well for them to remember that " it must needs be 
 that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom 
 the offence cometh ! " 
 
 The craving of Indians for spirituous liquors is insa- 
 tiable. It is impossible to repress their devilish ap- 
 petite. The most harmless creatures in the world 
 without whiskey, when it comes in their way they 
 invariably get drunk, not as white men do with dif- 
 ferent results, but always to quarrel. " Mormon 
 Jack," as they called him, because he was a supposed 
 convert to Mormon Christianity, was a splendidly 
 formed Bannock. He was not only remarkably hand- 
 some, but very intelligent. He used to point out the 
 best " trout-holes" and hunting-grounds, and be- 
 came for me a pleasant companion. One day I 
 missed him. Asking his squaw what had become of 
 him, she replied, "Too much whiskey too much 
 fight too much kill." Some scoundrel-trader had 
 
56 WHITES AND INDIANS. 
 
 sold to Jack and another Indian each a bottle of 
 whiskey. They sat down in a friendly way to drink 
 their liquor. Both* of course, finished their bottles, 
 and then they used them for beating out each other's 
 brains. Nobody thought much of it, for they were 
 only Indians ! But I fancied that Mormon Jack had 
 a soul. 
 
 On one of my rides in the direction of Bear Lake, 
 I met 'a caravan of wagons going west. They were 
 filled with Indians, most of them women, and all of 
 them old or diseased. Asking the white men in 
 charge where they were going, they replied, " To 
 the Reservation. These thieving devils can't sup- 
 port themselves in the settlements, and so we are 
 going to take them there." " What, all the way to 
 Fort Hall? " " Not a bit of it," replied one of the 
 teamsters; "we are only going to carry 'em far 
 enough so they can't get back, and then dump 
 'em ! " 
 
 If the poor wretches ever pressed their way to 
 our kind friends at the Post, I am sure they were well 
 cared for ; but they were not in a condition to walk 
 fifty miles. 
 
 The whites almost universally looking upon the 
 Indians as only troublesome wild beasts to be gotten 
 rid of, we may well believe that their end is not 
 far distant. By the direct agency of the whites they 
 
ATTRACTIONS OF SODA SPRINGS. 57 
 
 are sunk to such a depth of moral degradation, that 
 intemperance is trivial compared to other vice. No 
 ingenuity of words can soften a description of their 
 loathsome and avaricious sensuality. Their wives 
 and daughters are always in the market for a bottle of 
 whiskey. I sometimes think that Phil Sheridan is 
 right, after all. Decidedly the Indian element is not 
 one of the pleasurable attractions of Soda Springs. 
 
 There are enough of other inducements to visit the 
 place. The really wonderful virtue of the waters, the 
 pure, unadulterated air, the magnificent mountain sce- 
 nery, the rides and drives, the hunting and fishing, all 
 conduce to pleasant pastime and restoration of health. 
 At only a few hours' journey to the east may be seen 
 the beautiful Bear Lake, surrounded by pretty villa- 
 ges and fertile farms all this region destined, before 
 many years have elapsed, to become valuable to the 
 outer world by the means of contemplated railroads. 
 The summer sojourner need never to be at a loss for 
 recreation. 
 
 I do not agree that the Old World is " played out," 
 and that it is entirely superseded by the New ; but, if 
 I may judge from my own experience, there is a cer- 
 tain freshness about this simple normal Western life, 
 this communion with untamed nature, this study of 
 mankind as it develops itself indigenously, not arti- 
 ficially, that far exceeds all that we see in Europe of 
 3* 
 
58 THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 polished society, cultivated parks and gardens, old 
 cloisters and musty universities. 
 
 And yet, if life be long enough, it is pleasant to see 
 the old and the new of our world. This may be more 
 nearly accomplished now by any one who has the 
 taste, the means, and the time. Time ! alas that it is 
 so short ! One of the greatest mysteries is that in the 
 old days men lived long when there was so little to 
 see, and that we live so short a life when there is so 
 much before us that we cannot reach ! Why, in that 
 little fragment of Asia, when the horizon of the known 
 earth was bounded by a span, did Methuselah live to 
 the age of nearly a thousand years, and why are we 
 now that this great, beautiful, glorious world is ever 
 opening to our view why are we cut down to three- 
 score years and ten ? . . Come, little Dick, time is 
 short, and we can stay no longer at Soda Springs. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Leaving Soda Springs. Jeff Davis again. Mr. and Mrs. King and 
 Tilly. Mrs. Collins. Johnson's Deserted Ranch. The Small 
 Family of Mr. Robbins. Bear Stories. The Dead Sell on Jeff. 
 Western Side of Cache Valley. A Night with Bishop Smith. 
 Plan for Irrigating a Desert. Arrival at Corinne. 
 
 I INTENDED to have left Soda Springs earlier in 
 the day, but it was so excessively warm that I 
 deferred my departure until four o'clock in the after- 
 noon. In one hour I was out of the valley of Soda 
 and on the great plain. With the intervention of a 
 few small hills this is a vast level, running all the 
 way down to Salt Lake, where is contained what 
 water there is left of a once large inland sea. 
 
 For most of the way the valley is about twenty 
 miles wide. When I came up, we took the road by 
 the base of the eastern mountains that bound it, and 
 now, as I went down, I took that to the west. In 
 either case the route is very beautiful, mountains 
 towering overhead on one side, and clearly outlined 
 and continually changing their colors and shadows on 
 the other. 
 
60 JEFF'S WAGON-TRAIN. 
 
 The pony jogged along very gayly, considering the 
 load of accoutrements which he was obliged to carry 
 most of the way. I missed my gun greatly, for the 
 grouse were starting up in all directions as evening 
 came on, but they were always just out of pistol- 
 shot. So I could only watch them whirring about, 
 and think what a good supper one or two of them 
 would make. 
 
 The sunsets are always magnificent in this country. 
 Equally to be admired are the western mountains, 
 when seen from the eastward as the sun drops over 
 them and leaves the clouds upon their summits 
 gilded with silver and gold, and the eastern ranges 
 that then fade into such a lovely blue background. 
 
 After proceeding twenty-five miles, I came up with 
 the company and teams of my friend Jeff. They 
 were all camped near Burton's ranch, in a shady 
 spot. Their fires were lighted, and half a dozen men 
 were sitting around preparing supper, while the mules 
 were grazing on the meadow, the long range of 
 covered wagons resembling a military camp. I had 
 hoped that the train had made better progress, as on 
 board of one of the wagons was my sample-bag of 
 mineral which I was anxious should be delivered at 
 Corinne as soon as I arrived there. 
 
 "Well, Captain," said Jeff, "I'll tell you what I'll 
 do. I want to go pretty quick myself. I'll let the 
 
MR. KING'S FAMILY. 6l 
 
 boys drive the teams along, and as I have got a horse 
 here I am taking down to Corinne, I'll borrow a sad- 
 dle from Burton, and then we'll pack the rocks on 
 our two horses, and go right along to-morrow morn- 
 ing." 
 
 It may readily be believed that the proposal was 
 gratefully accepted, especially as it would give me the 
 companionship of Jeff, who knew every ranch and 
 almost every sage-brush along the road, and more- 
 over is one of the most good-natured fellows in the 
 world. 
 
 " Now, if you like," he said, " you can stop and 
 camp with us ; but, as it looks like rain, you had 
 better go on to King's, a mile beyond, where they'll 
 treat you first-rate. King used to be a Mormon, but 
 he ain't now. Mrs. King is a nice kind o' woman, 
 and Tilly, her sister, is a pretty gal. Yes, you'll 
 like things there under cover, considerable better than 
 you will here in the rain ; so you go 'long, and I'll 
 fetch the bag and pack, after you get your breakfast." 
 
 Acting on this good advice, I pushed on a mile 
 further to King's, and found him and his family what 
 Jeff had represented them to be. Mr. King took 
 care of Dick and gave him plenty of oats. Mrs. 
 King and Tilly were anxious to get me a " square 
 meal ; " but as I preferred bread and milk, they placed 
 before me some excellent bread and fresh butter, and 
 
62 TILLY'S MATRIMONIAL IDEAS. 
 
 a large bowl of cream. That was surely a supper for 
 anybody. 
 
 Mr. King is an Englishman. I believe he had been 
 a Mormon conscientiously ; certainly it was not for 
 'the sake of polygamy. When he was a Mormon he 
 was a bachelor ; and now that he is one no longer, he 
 ought to be contented with the one wife that he has. 
 Mrs. King, too, was a Mormoness, or rather, her 
 father was a Mormon. But he and his daughter are 
 now apostates. Tilly says she "don't care nothing 
 about it noways. I'd just as lief marry a Mormon as 
 any other feller ; but if I should, and he should open 
 on gitting another wife, that feller or I would have to 
 quit the ranch, and I reckon it would be him that 
 would go ! " 
 
 In the evening we had a game of high-low-jack 
 the favorite game alike of Mormon and Gentile Mr. 
 King and Tilly against Mrs. King and myself, in 
 which our side was whipped, for which I was glad, 
 as it made Tilly so happy. King's house was like 
 all the rest in this country, of logs, and it was small 
 at that, so that they made a bed for me on the floor 
 of the principal room. But it was very comfortable, 
 the sheets were clean, and experience had taught me 
 to sleep anywhere. 
 
 In the morning I arose quite early, as I did not 
 wish to put the family to inconvenience. It had 
 
PACKING AND STARTING. 63 
 
 rained very -hard in the night, but the weather had 
 partially cleared. The sun was climbing up through 
 broken clouds, and making his way over the eastern 
 range. The little household was soon busy, the table 
 was spread with a faultlessly clean cloth, genuine 
 coffee was ground in the mill, hot cakes were bak- 
 ing in the oven, and veal cutlets were snapping in the 
 pan. That was our breakfast, and with the addition 
 of fresh butter and cream, it was "good enough." 
 
 By and by Jeff came along with his horse and the 
 bag of mineral. This we divided in two parts, each 
 of us packing about twenty-five pounds. Although I 
 am light enough myself, my cantinas, containing 
 clothes and pistol-holster, and my blankets and over- 
 coat, with the addition of twenty-five pounds of dead 
 weight, were as much as one horse ought to carry. 
 Jeff's animal, however, had more on his back, for Jeff 
 was a heavy man. It was nine o'clock before we 
 started, the teams coming along at the same time. 
 Bidding adieu to my kind hosts, we galloped off and 
 soon left the mules far behind. 
 
 We stopped at a house where Jeff had some busi- 
 ness with the owner, who, like King, was an apos- 
 tate. Mrs. Collins, the lady of the mansion, wore 
 no shoes, for absence of which she apologized on the 
 score of poverty. "However," she added, "we're 
 better off now than when we was Mormons ; we have 
 
64 MRS. COLLINS ON TITHING. 
 
 got clear of tithing, and that gives a little more 
 money to us, instead of to old Brig." 
 
 There was much of truth in that remark. It is a 
 truth that will eventually help to overthrow a great deal 
 of Brigham Young's influence. These apostates are on 
 the confines of Gentile territory. They are apostates 
 because their eyes are opened by their neighbors. 
 When they see them husbanding all their labor for 
 themselves, they soon become averse to giving one- 
 tenth of theirs nominally to the Church of the Latter- 
 day Saints, but really to enrich its leaders. " We did 
 not mind paying tithes," said Mrs. Collins, " so long 
 as we was poor, and didn't have nothin' to pay on. 
 But when we come to have twenty-five cows, I says 
 to Collins, says I, how be we going to give the 
 Church one-tenth of 'em ? that's two cows and a half." 
 This arithmetical problem apparently caused them to 
 abandon the faith. If the question had not been pro- 
 posed until they had owned thirty cows, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Collins might have been yet in the fold. 
 
 In answer to the inquiry of Mrs. Collins as to 
 where we proposed to stop for dinner, I said, " at 
 Johnson's ranch," where we passed the night on the 
 upward journey. "Well," she replied, "you won't 
 find nobody to home; Miss Johnson, she's quit." 
 " How is that? " I asked. " Why, she was kind o' 
 discontented like on the whole, what with old John- 
 
JOHNSON'S RANCH ABANDONED. 65 
 
 son's getting full o' whiskey, and lickin' her " (be it 
 remembered Johnson had been a Mormon missionary) 
 "when he was 'round, and when he wan't 'round the 
 Indians gittin' in and threatenin' to scalp her and the 
 children, and the plaguyrattlesnakes that was allers 
 under foot, she had a pretty hard time ; but then I 
 suppose she might have got along if there had been 
 any neighbors, but you know there ain't nobody 
 within twenty miles of 'em. Anyway, she quit, and 
 so Johnson he quit too, and they've moved to Frank- 
 lin." " You are quite sure of that?" I inquired. 
 " Oh, yes," she answered, " I know it, for no 
 longer ago 'n last night two men stopped here ; 
 they was going to put up there, but- they found the 
 house shot, and when they looked into the winders 
 they see three or four rattlesnakes kiled up on the 
 floor, so they concluded to come along ! " 
 
 In two hours' time the heavy clouds that had been 
 gathering at the south burst upon us. As there was 
 no shelter, we had only to put on our overcoats, wrap 
 our blankets about our legs, and "to do as they do 
 in Spain." But it did not last long. As soon as we 
 got through the canon where the squall came upon 
 us, the weather cleared up, the dust was laid, the 
 air freshened, and we dispensed with our overcoats 
 and jogged merrily on. 
 
 Our course lay along the western bank of Bear 
 
66 THE ROBBINS FAMILY. 
 
 River, upon the " bench " above it, and the view was 
 very picturesque of herds of horses and cattle feeding 
 in the meadows below. In one of the droves there 
 were hundreds of horses of all ages and sizes. They 
 were racing about for their own pastime, and seemed 
 to be enjoying themselves amazingly. 
 
 Soon after noon we came to Robbins's ranch. 
 We were now in full Mormondom, although scarcely 
 on the confines of Utah. 
 
 Mr. Robbins is a family man, and a very good, 
 hospitable man we found him. He and his boys, of 
 whom there was quite a number, took care of our 
 horses, and when we entered the house, his wives and 
 his daughters, of whom there was another number, 
 amply provided for us. Two of the Mrs. Robbins 
 were nursing babies of about the same age. Each 
 Mrs. Robbins was dressed exactly like the other. A 
 third Mrs. Robbins, who did not appear to be troub- 
 led with a baby just then, cooked the dinner. Several 
 young Robbins, of ages intermediate between baby- 
 hood and youth, were chirping about, roosting on 
 beds inside and on fences without, and Robbins him- 
 self strutted about among them all, with the air of a 
 happy husband and father. 
 
 He came here from Texas at the time of the rebel- 
 lion. He is a well-educated and gentlemanly man, 
 and seems to enjoy being a Mormon. He keeps 
 
MR. ROBBINS'S HOSPITALITY. 6/ 
 
 what is called a cattle ranch, and has been very suc- 
 cessful in raising cattle and children. His cattle lie 
 down peacefully in green pastures beside the still 
 waters, and his family lie down peacefully all over the 
 house on beds and on the floor. To all appearance, 
 Robbins, his wives, his children, and his cattle, are all 
 happy. We had a good dinner, clean and well 
 served. There was little of meat, in which Mormons 
 do not much indulge, but there was an abundance of 
 milk, cream, butter, eggs, and vegetables, on which 
 they mostly live, and live \\nell. Nothing could in- 
 duce Mr. Robbins to accept any remuneration, but 
 if I return, I shall remember the children, supposing 
 my cantinas to hold enough to carry each a stick of 
 candy ! 
 
 Mounting our horses again, we went on in the cool 
 afternoon. As we rode along, Jeff enlivened the jour- 
 ney by his inexhaustible stories of personal adven- 
 ture and border life. 
 
 " I never tried to get married but once," he said, 
 " and that was to a Mormon gal up here to Logan. 
 She was jest about the slickest little creetur ever you 
 see. Fust time I come acrost her was where her folks 
 and I camped out one night right about here. I 
 follered on her trail pretty close for six months, and 
 thought I was going to trap her, sure. She wanted 
 me to be a Mormon. I wan't partic'ler about that, 
 
68 JEFF'S COURTSHIP. 
 
 but I didn't like to jine any cliurch. I never did be- 
 long to a church or an engine company in the States. 
 However, I told her finally, as she crowded me, that 
 I'd swaller Brigham, Tabernacle, and all, for love of 
 her. So we got things about fixed, and if she hadn't 
 gone too fur I might have been a bishop by this 
 time. 
 
 " But she had an old-maid sister, and she wanted 
 me to marry that Susan Jane too that durned, dried- 
 up, old Susan Jane ! ' Emmy,' says I, ' I can't and 
 I won't ! ' So I sot my foot down, and there's where 
 we split. You see the old man was kind o' sickly, 
 and jest as sure as I'd agreed to take Susan Jane, 
 when he died I would have had to marry the old 
 woman too ! I hain't hunted after a wife sence. I've 
 seen some tol'ble good-lookin' gals down to Salt 
 Lake, and a good many likely squaws on the Reserva- 
 tion ; but the Salt Lake gals are too dressy, and the 
 squaws ain't dressy enough. I shan't see nobody 
 agin like Emmy. I'd have been a Mormon for her, 
 but not so much of a one as she wanted me to be. 
 
 "Say what they will about the Mormon gals, I'd 
 rather have one of ? em than a Gentile. They ain't 
 thoroughbreds, I know ; but, as a general thing, 
 they are honest, kind, and true. They are brought 
 up to hard work, and they are willing to do their share 
 on the road. Take some teams and harness a horse 
 
JEFF'S PREFERENCE FOR MORMON "GALS." 69 
 
 up with a mare, the mare'll kick up her heels and 
 buck, or else she'll lay back and let the horse do all 
 the work. That's about the way with gals in the States. 
 They're awful pretty there, and they put a nice har- 
 ness on 'em, but that's no account. They ain't good 
 for nothin' on a drag. Agin, you put some mares in 
 and they'll take their share of the draught right along. 
 These Mormon gals do that. They've read the first 
 chapter of Adam " (Jeff meant Genesis, and was in 
 error also about the chapter) " and they know what 
 they was made for. Gals in the States think they was 
 made for playthings, or something worse. They are 
 expensive luxuries, anyway. 
 
 " There, you don't ask the old woman if the gal can 
 help support you ; the old man asks you if you can 
 support his darter. So if a feller falls in love with a 
 gal he's got to buy her, and what's she good for to 
 him after he gits her ? What do you call that sort of 
 business but jest what they pitch into the Mormons 
 for? Only it's worse, though 'tis only retail, while 
 theirs is wholesale. I s'pose 'tis kind o' degradin' 
 the way they herd women as they do out here, but 
 it looks to me degradin' for men to jest worship petti- 
 coats the way they do in the States." 
 
 I had noticed that the back of Jeff's head was 
 marked by a peculiar up-and-down bald spot, while 
 the rest of his skull was covered by a thick crop of 
 
70 HOW JEFF WAS SCALPED. 
 
 red, bushy hair. Emboldened by a companionship 
 that had assumed so much familiarity, I asked him 
 how this singular want of covering was to be ac- 
 counted for. 
 
 " Why, that," he replied, " is where I was scalped 
 by a bar ; and that ain't all, he scalped me half-way 
 down my back, as I'll show you to-night. It was 
 le' me see six years ago last fall. I was out huntin' 
 deer away to the eastward of Fort Bridger. 
 
 " I left camp early one mornin' and tramped pretty 
 much all day without seein' any game, when late in 
 the arternoon I see a big grizzly down in a holler 
 close by. I drawed on him right off, and as I was so 
 close to, I couldn't miss him ; so he dropped like a 
 log. I was the durndest fool I ever was in my life, 
 for I walked right up to him without waitin' a minute. 
 But that bar wan't dead. Jest as soon as I touched 
 htm he riz right up on his hind legs, and, before I 
 could go for a tree, he put his paw on the top of my 
 head and took har, skin, and all off pretty near clean 
 down to the bone ! I had my knife in my hand, for I 
 had drawed it as I went up to him, and I jest had life 
 enough left in me to turn round and jab it into him. 
 I got it straight into his heart, and what with the shot 
 and this lick he was dead then, sure. 
 
 " But the worst of it was, I was most dead too. I 
 got some mud and plastered over my head and back, 
 
A GERMAN'S BEAR-STORY. 7 1 
 
 and laid down alongside of that bar and stayed there 
 all night and the next day. Then I got up and 
 started for camp ; but the boys thought I had gone 
 along ahead, and they'd broke camp and left. So I 
 had nothin' to do but to tramp all the way to the Post, 
 forty miles or more, where I found the doctor who 
 fixed me up as well as he could. I fetched the piece 
 of scalp the bar took off along with me, but the 
 doctor said it had got dried up, so it wan't no good 
 to put on agin." 
 
 This was a thrilling bear-story ; but I listened to 
 one a few weeks before from a German at Lake Tahoe 
 that promised a more tragic denouement. " It was 
 yoost a year ago last vinter," said Hans, " ven I vas 
 comin' home from cuttin' wood mit mine axe on one 
 sholer and mine rifle on the oder. I vasn't thinkin' of 
 notin' but mine supper, ven yoost as I vas comin' 
 down a hill vere dere vas big hole in the side, I sees 
 big grizzly richt front of the hole. I never vas so 
 froyht ! Mine knees vas shake and mine hair vas 
 stand straight. I vas tremble all over. But I says to 
 mineself, 'Hans,' says I, 'that bear kill you or you 
 kill the bear.' I know if I miss him I coont run for 
 tree, because there wunt no tree there. So I steadied 
 mineself little, and then I vant to make sure. So I 
 crawls up to get round sage-brush so notings come in 
 the vay. I takes up mine rifle, and yoost as I vas 
 
72 INDIAN BATTLE DEATH OF GUS HELLISH. 
 
 goin' to fire, I looks again, and it vas tarn log ! " 
 Evidently it was no log that scalped Jeff". 
 
 Our road had been for the first part of the afternoon 
 mostly on level ground, but we now reached a district 
 of broken ridges. Passing over one of these eleva- 
 tions, my companion pointed out on our left a narrow 
 valley, through which ran a sluggish stream among 
 the thick willow-brush. 
 
 "That is a place," said he, " I shall never forget; 
 for there it was we fit the Injuns in the biggest kind 
 of a fight. They ambushed us in them willows. 
 Every shot of them told on some of us, and we 
 couldn't git at 'em, they was stowed away so close in 
 the brush. We lost twenty men, but we .finally 
 drove 'em. I tell you 'twas worse than fighting with 
 bars ! 
 
 11 Jest as the scrimmage was about over, poor Gus 
 Hellish was shot down close by me. I knowed Gus 
 well. We'd been pardners in Californy. He was one 
 of the best fellers I ever knowed, and we wus always 
 gettin' sells on one another. But Gus got the heavi- 
 est thing on me when he died ! 
 
 " As soon as he was shot, I see he was a goner. I 
 helped him up on the bank, and eased him off all I 
 could, sayin' over all the Bible I knowed, and pro- 
 misin' to give his watch and his gun to his folks. 
 But Gus wanted me to agree to send him to Frisco, 
 
THE TRICK PLAYED BY GUS. 73 
 
 where his folks lived. So I promised, and he died 
 happy. 
 
 "Well, I buried him on the spot temporary. Three 
 years after, when I cal'lated he was about eat up, I 
 went for his bones. Now what do you think Gus had 
 been and gone and done ? Why, as he was buried in 
 alkali, he'd gone and turned himself into solid stone, 
 and then he expected me to pay freight on him all the 
 way to Frisco ! I did it, though, but that was the last 
 load Gus ever got on me ! " When Jeff had concluded 
 this touching reminiscence of his departed friend, he 
 stopped his horse and took a drink to his memory. 
 
 At five o'clock we reached the little settlement of 
 Weston, having, like all the others, its presiding 
 bishop. Jeff had some accounts to settle with Bishop 
 Moone. This prelate has only one wife, and conse- 
 quently his family is not so large as that of Mr. Rob- 
 bins. A pretty girl of sixteen gracefully offered us 
 goblets of cream, and then we moved along. 
 
 Ten miles beyond was the village of Clarkson, 
 where Jeff proposed to spend the night, as by the 
 time we should arrive there our horses would have 
 accomplished more than fifty miles on that day ; and 
 this, considering their heavy pack, would be enough 
 for them. As for ourselves, the air was so exhilara- 
 ting that we could easily have ridden on to Corinne, 
 thirty-five miles farther. 
 
74 BISHOP SMITH AND HIS WIVES. 
 
 Just before arriving at Clarkson we passed an ox- 
 wagon. " How are you, Bishop? " exclaimed Jeff to 
 the man driving the team ; " we are going to quarter 
 on you to-night." " All right, Jeff," said the Bishop, 
 " ride on, and tell my folks to get supper, and not 
 wait for me." We arrived at Clarkson at seven 
 o'clock. One Mrs. Smith and the other Mrs. Smith 
 received us very pleasantly, and set about the prepa- 
 ration ordered by the head that belongs to them both. 
 
 The Bishop arrived in time to say grace over some 
 good milk, bread, butter, and stewed gooseberries, 
 all of which were very appetizing. Our horses were 
 turned out in the corral with plenty of oats and hay 
 before them, and in the evening I played on a tin 
 whistle and told stones to the young Mormon Smiths. 
 A "brother" came in and informed the Bishop that 
 there was to be " a special meeting of the greatest 
 importance ; " so he was obliged to bid us good-night. 
 
 As we proposed to leave at an early hour, I wished 
 to settle our little bill, but neither the Bishop nor the 
 Bishopesses would hear of it. They made us a bed 
 on the floor, into which Jeff and I turned together, 
 and then all was still in the Episcopal domain for the 
 night, with the exception of occasional squalls from 
 different babies in different corners of the log-cabin. 
 
 Bright and early we arose from our literally down 
 bed of straw, caught our horses, saddled and packed, 
 
BISHOP LITTLEWOOD AND FAMILY. 75 
 
 and were off and away before five o'clock. We 
 passed through another settlement an hour after- 
 wards. The Bishop of that diocese was just coming 
 out, economizing time by buttoning his suspenders 
 on his way to his daily labor. 
 
 "That Bishop Littlewood," said Jeff, "has got 
 four wives, and as many children as you see chickens 
 running 'round here ; how he packs them all in that 
 house" it was a small, one-story log-cabin "is 
 what I can't understand myself. I would try to go 
 in and see how he fixes things some time, if I 
 thought there was room to get inside the door 
 amongst the crowd." 
 
 After passing this little village, the Bear River 
 takes a sudden turn from Cache Valley to the right, 
 and makes its way through a deep canon, the sides of 
 which are so precipitous and rocky that there is no 
 room for a road by the border of the stream. I was 
 especially sorry for this, as we were obliged to make 
 a detour, and that prevented us from seeing the cata- 
 ract we could hear leaping and roaring through the 
 chasm. 
 
 Below the cascade is an immense alkaline plain of 
 more than two hundred thousand acres. It is now 
 valueless, for no one cares to pre-empt a homestead or 
 to buy of the government one hundred and sixty 
 acres of such land, even at the price of one dollar 
 
76 PLAN FOR IRRIGATION. 
 
 and a quarter per acre all that one individual can 
 purchase. But if the government would sell the 
 whole to a company, one would be speedily organized 
 to take it ; and diverting Bear River from its channel 
 above the falls, this great desert could all be irrigated, 
 and would speedily increase fifty times in value by 
 being able to produce forty or fifty bushels of wheat 
 to the acre. The whole expense attending such an 
 operation has been estimated to be less than one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. It is a magnificent scheme, 
 and to accomplish it there is only required a judicious 
 outlay of money at Washington, " where it will do 
 the most good." 
 
 As we descended into the valley through which the 
 river glides down to Corinne on its course into 
 Great Salt Lake, the sun threw our long shadows 
 over the plain, making us like very important coming 
 events. It now began to grow quite warm, even 
 before we reached the Montana stage-station at seven 
 o'clock for breakfast. This is a small frame building 
 belonging to the company, and is the first house not 
 built of logs that I had seen for a long time. 
 
 After feeding ourselves and our animals, we gal- 
 loped on rapidly in order to arrive before the intense 
 heat of the day should overpower us, and soon saw 
 the City of Corinne starting up on the plain, and re- 
 sembling Cuxhaven as it is made from the North Sea. 
 
ARRIVAL AT CORINNE. 77 
 
 It was nearly ten o'clock when we reached the town 
 and rode at once to the photograph saloon, where the 
 artist speedily made a picture of Jeff and myself as 
 we arrived from Cariboo. This performance having 
 been accomplished, we rode over to the " Bear River 
 Hotel/' sent our horses out into the herd, washed, 
 dressed, shaved, dined, and rested for the remainder 
 of the day. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The City of Corinne. Its Commercial Importance. Its R&le as a 
 Mission Settlement. Unsuccessful Search for Religious Instruc- 
 tion. Murder of Jeff Davis. A Mormon Town Contrasted with 
 Corinne. Ride to Ogden and Salt Lake, Pleasant Breakfast and 
 Garden. Story of an Early Settler. The Union Pacific as a 
 Missionary. 
 
 THE city of Corinne is a village of some three 
 hundred and fifty men perhaps one thousand 
 people, including women and children. It was founded 
 from motives partly mercenary, partly religious and 
 moral. It is twenty-four miles west of Ogden, the 
 iunction of the Central and Union Pacific Railroads, 
 and is the nearest available point to Montana. 
 
 That great mining district receives its principal 
 supplies from Corinne, from whence also there is daily 
 stage communication over a route of five hundred 
 miles through sage-brush deserts, steep canons, and 
 over bare mountains. It is a pleasant drive for those 
 who like these things seasoned with plenty of dust. 
 The freighting business is very brisk. 
 
 On the latter part of our route touching upon the 
 Montana trail, we met and passed dozens of mule 
 
ORIGIN OF CORINNE. 79 
 
 caravans going and returning. This trade, now being 
 transferred to the Utah Northern Railroad, will con- 
 tinue until the completion of the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad. When, if ever, that is accomplished, the 
 people of Montana will dispense with Corinne, and 
 its value as a trading mart will fall to zero. 
 
 Saints combined with sinners in the endeavor to 
 build up Corinne not "Latter-Day Saints," but all 
 other kinds of saints who regard Mormonism as the 
 abomination of desolation, Anti-Christ, the scarlet 
 woman, and the beast of the Apocalypse. 
 
 They meant to plant a Christian landmark in its 
 midst ; to set up a bright and shining light that 
 should throw its pure rays far and wide to scatter the 
 darkness in which the " twin relic of barbarism " had 
 shrouded the land. For this purpose churches and 
 grog-shops were to act in harmony. Therefore there 
 had been opened three of the former and twenty of 
 the latter. The churches are supported by home mis- 
 sionary societies ; the grog-shops are maintained by 
 the voluntary system. 
 
 It was a sultry Sunday morning, and, after having 
 slept and breakfasted at the shanty styled the " Bear 
 River Hotel," I strayed about the town. My friend 
 Jeff had introduced me to most of the three hundred 
 and fifty resident gentlemen, and so I received nearly 
 that number of invitations to take a drink, all of 
 
80 GOING TO CHURCH. 
 
 which were respectfully declined on the temperance 
 stand-point. That is the only safe support to fall back 
 upon with these hospitable gentlemen. 
 
 It was an unusually lively day. A great many 
 teams happened to be in town, and the drivers and 
 traders made the holiday uproarious. The order of 
 exercises alternated with swearing and drinking all 
 day long, and the evening must have been something 
 fearful, for then the dance-houses would be in active 
 operation. 
 
 Soon after eleven o'clock I made my way to the 
 nearest church. I was told that it was Presbyterian. 
 On approaching I heard the music of a psalm-tune, 
 from which I inferred that the services had already 
 commenced. On entering, however, I found the 
 solitary musician seated at one of those sewing- 
 machine " melodeons," and grinding out the Mis- 
 sionary Hymn. 
 
 He stopped on noticing the unexpected addition 
 to the congregation, and entered into conversation. 
 "There would be no meeting to-day." "In fact," 
 he added, " we don't have any stated preaching ; we 
 have to get along as well as we can with what we 
 pick up." In answer to further inquiries, he said 
 that there were three societies, which he thus enu-* 
 merated on the rising scale: "The Episcopal, they 
 have one member to their church ; the Methodist, 
 
SECTIONAL DIFFICULTIES. 8l 
 
 they have two ; but we have eleven communicants." 
 There was no little pride in the emphasis given to the 
 preponderance of Presbyterianism. 
 
 I ventured to make two suggestions for the better 
 maintenance of religious worship. One was that the 
 fourteen church-members should club together, and, 
 with the assistance of moral sinners outside the pale 
 of the church and the different home-missionary 
 societies, support one good minister in one meeting- 
 house, and rent out the other two to help pay ex- 
 penses. " Why not? " 
 
 "That wouldn't do," he said ; " we couldn't agree 
 on doctrine nor form." "Well, then," I proposed, 
 " get some minister more liberal than you are, who 
 for the sake of spreading the gospel would be willing 
 to be like St. Paul, ' all things to all men ' an Epis- 
 copalian one Sunday, a Methodist the next, and a 
 Presbyterian on a third. How would that do?" 
 "Oh, pshaw!" replied the organist, "such a fellow 
 would be a hypocrite." 
 
 So I shook off the dust from my shoes, and would 
 gladly have shaken off the dust from my clothes, and 
 left Corinne. I bade a warm adieu to my friend Jeff, 
 whose services as a guide up through Montana to 
 -the Yellowstone Park I had partially engaged for the 
 next season, when, with tent-equipages, mules, and 
 horses, I propose, with such ladies and gentlemen 
 
 4* 
 
82 BRIGHAM CITY. 
 
 as fancy the enjoyments of fine air, mountain scen- 
 ery, fishing, shooting, and camping out, to make a 
 summer excursion.* 
 
 This Sunday was a blazing hot day at Corinne, in 
 very unpleasant contrast to the weather experienced 
 at Soda Springs and Cariboo. I waited till four of 
 the afternoon, in the vain hope that the mercury 
 would fall below ninety degrees, and then started on 
 my pony for Ogden, a distance of thirty miles by the 
 travelled road. For most of the route this lies north 
 of the railway under the base of the mountains, and 
 passes through several thriving Mormon settlements. 
 The chief one is Brigham City, five miles east of 
 Corinne. In all these towns the streets are wide, and 
 shaded by lime or locust trees, streams of water 
 from the public irrigating ditch running by the side- 
 walks on each side. All the house-lots, like those of 
 Salt Lake City, are supposed to contain one and a 
 
 * Since writing this, I have received the following from Cariboo : 
 "Your friend, Jeff Davis, was murdered here on Thursday, the iSth 
 instant, by Jim Waters. We shall hang Jim, of course, for it was a 
 clean, clear case of murder. We are only waiting for Perkins to get 
 his liquor-bill settled up first. Jeff was sitting in the saloon, with his 
 feet cocked up on a chair ; Waters came in, and without a word walked 
 up and stabbed him twice near the heart. Jeff died in about seven 
 hours, and has been decently buried at Soda Springs. I was not present 
 when the unpleasantness occurred, or there might have been further 
 interesting particulars." Alas, poor Jeff! 
 
A MORMON SUNDAY. 83 
 
 quarter acres of land each, which is invariably taste- 
 fully laid out as a garden ; thus, though the houses are 
 often poor and only of logs, they have an air of comfort 
 and beauty which is lacking in many more pretending 
 edifices. 
 
 In strange contrast to Corinne, here reigned the 
 peaceful quiet of the Sabbath day. Among its two 
 thousand inhabitants there is not one grog-shop or 
 disreputable house. Alas, how little has been the in- 
 fluence of the missionary city of Corinne on the be- 
 nighted people of Brigham City ! 
 
 They were on their way to worship in their large 
 and very pretty " temple," most of them on foot, but 
 many coming from a distance in wagons all decently 
 but not luxuriously dressed, the faces of the men sun- 
 burnt, but not whiskey-fired, and those of the women 
 certainly wearing no appearance of slavery or discon- 
 tent. Many of the young girls and children were 
 uncommonly pretty. Had I not been pressed for 
 time, and had not my travelling costume been so out 
 of place among the well-dressed crowd, I should cer- 
 tainly have stopped to worship with them, and should 
 doubtless have been as much edified as I was in 
 conversing with the organist in the conventicle at 
 Corinne. 
 
 I rode on, the sun pouring downwards and up- 
 wards too, with remorseless fierceness. There was 
 
84 ELDER CANNON. 
 
 not a breath of air, and the reflection from the glassy 
 surface of the Salt Lake on my right and from the 
 heated rocks of the mountains on my left, made the 
 next hour almost insupportable for rider and horse. 
 
 Soon after six the air cooled somewhat, and a 
 breeze from the south came over the waters of the 
 lake, and brought a salty smell like the sea-breeze of 
 the ocean. 
 
 Elder Geo. Q. Cannon, now the delegate to Wash- 
 ington, and a man of sterling worth and talent, had 
 been preaching at Ogden, and I met several wagon- 
 loads of men, women, and children on their return. I 
 stopped at the door of a house just as the owner ar- 
 rived. He was quite delighted with the Elder's ser- 
 mon, and was generally jubilant on the subject of re- 
 ligion, which he exemplified by urging me to spend 
 the night, and on my declining to do so, in presenting 
 me with a tumbler of rich cream, in which offer there 
 was a more acceptable act of Christianity than in a 
 simple " cup of cold water." 
 
 Eight miles west of Ogden are some hot salt 
 springs, coming from a rock near the road, and form- 
 ing quite a large basin of water, Dick, the pony, 
 here amused me by his astonishment. The little 
 rascal was always as "dry" as a Corinne Christian., 
 and always making excuses to stop and take a drink. 
 When he came in sight of this clear-looking pool he 
 
GENTILE AND MORMON OGDEN. 85 
 
 went for it incontinently, and when his forelegs were 
 immersed to the knees by the jump which he made 
 into the hot water, he gave a sudden squeal of pain, 
 and executed a pirouette which would have unseated 
 me if I had not anticipated it. It was curious to 
 notice how daintily he approached the next stream 
 crossing the road. 
 
 The railroad-traveller gets a very wrong impression 
 of Ogden. He sees nothing but the Gentile part of 
 the town, the stations of the U. P. and C. P. Rail- 
 roads, their offices and engine-houses, and a dozen or 
 two shanties occupied as restaurants, grog-shops, and 
 gambling-houses. The " city" is a mile above, under 
 the base of the range of mountains, watered, as all the 
 country is watered between it and Corinne, by moun- 
 tain streams diverted from their courses by canals. 
 I have already described Salt Lake City and Brigham 
 City ; all Mormon towns are alike excepting in size, 
 and of course in the style of architecture, which varies 
 according to the time of settlement ; the more remote 
 consisting exclusively of log-cabins. Salt Lake City, 
 and those in .its neighborhood, have substantial frame 
 and brick buildings. 
 
 Ogden is a pretty and quiet town, somewhat larger 
 than Brigham City. It was late when I arrived and 
 found comfortable quarters at the Ogden Hotel. 
 
 At five o'clock punctually, on Monday morning, 
 
86 OUT-OF-DOOR SLEEPING. 
 
 little Dick stood saddled at the door of the hotel, and 
 we proceeded on our journey to Salt Lake City. In 
 this country people sleep out of doors when they can, 
 within their houses if they must. As I passed 
 through the village, I noticed that all the piazzas and 
 stoops had their sleeping occupants, and in some 
 cases they lay about on the ground. It is fortunate 
 that the climate thus allows a part of the inconve- 
 nience of a large family to be overcome. 
 
 The people were soon astir and the cows were 
 being driven from their corrals after milking. In the 
 daytime they are generally herded, the people of each 
 settlement contributing to pay a man to collect them 
 all, drive them to the plains outside, and return them 
 at evening. The animals become so accustomed to 
 their daily routine that on the sound of the horn they 
 form into line, and go out and come home with very 
 little trouble to the herdsman. 
 
 A young milkmaid filled my -tin cup with fresh 
 morning milk, a better " eye-opener " than any tonic 
 bitters, and then I went on my way to the outskirts 
 of the settlement. There I was led astray by the 
 ignorance of a stupid son of one father and many 
 mothers, who told me to keep to the right when out 
 on the prairie. I did so, and after plodding along 
 through the sage-brush for two or three miles, found 
 that the trail led to the borders of the lake. So, re- 
 
BREAKFAST AT MR. ENHART'S. 8/ 
 
 tracing my steps, I got back to the wagon-road with 
 no pleasant feelings towards the youngster who had 
 lengthened my journey at least five miles on this hot 
 day. 
 
 Sixteen miles from Ogden is the little village of 
 Kaysville. Twenty-one miles it was for Dick and me. 
 Selecting the most attractive house, near which a 
 farmer with six or eight stalwart sons was threshing 
 out his wheat, I approached and asked if my horse 
 could be fed. 
 
 " Of course he can," said Mr. Enhart, " and don't 
 you want something to eat, too ? " Most certainly he 
 surmised the truth. So one of the young men took 
 charge of Dick, and I walked into the house, which 
 more resembled a Hollander's cottage for scrupulous 
 cleanliness than anything I ever saw in our country. 
 
 There were two matrons, evidently sisters, and two 
 younger ladies, all about their household duties. 
 There were children belonging to them collectively, 
 besides the great lads outside, girls of sixteen to 
 twenty years and young ones of a more tender age, 
 and babies of scarcely any age at all. A bountiful 
 repast of bread and butter, milk and honey, was 
 spread before me, and while I sat at the table two 
 gentle young Mormonesses kept the flies away, grace- 
 fully moving green switches over my head. What 
 captivating addenda to a breakfast ! 
 
88 FAMILY PECULIARITIES. 
 
 I have noticed these peculiarities in all Mormon 
 families : the young people never speak unless spoken 
 to, in presence of their elders, and when address- 
 ing one wife, I always got replies from all, or as 
 many of them as were present. And they all, too, 
 seemed to possess the faculty of propounding to me the 
 same question at the same time. I spoke in terms of 
 admiration of the house and garden. " Yes," they all 
 replied, " Mr. Enhart has a nice place." They 
 seemed to think all things, including themselves, 
 were Mr. Enhart's ; they had no possessive right in 
 anything but in children, and those were " ours." 
 
 Babies are the great delight, and to bear them is 
 the great ambition of Mormon women. Child-mur- 
 der, the barbarous custom of civilized life, practised 
 to an almost incredible extent in our large cities, 
 where it is found " too expensive to have a family," 
 cannot at any rate be laid to the charge of the " twin 
 relic of barbarism " in Utah. 
 
 Here, at least among the country people, it is econ- 
 omy to have a large family. They all work ; the 
 little busy bee is not more active than a Mormon 
 child. One of the Mrs. Enharts showed me a very 
 neatly-sewed patchwork quilt made by ' ' Vinny " at the 
 age of nine. "Yes," exclaimed another Mrs. En- 
 hart, " my Josie made one of them when she was only 
 seven ! " I did not like to inquire how many children 
 
A NEW GARDEN OF EDEN. 89 
 
 each lady had, lest I might wound the feelings of 
 some wife less fortunate than the others. But the 
 children were all general sto'ck they were all " ours " 
 the only articles of property, and those of priceless 
 value, which were not exclusively Mr. Enhart's. 
 
 After breakfast I strolled in the garden, where two 
 of the young Hebes were picking gooseberries. So 
 I picked gooseberries; and when I talked with one 
 young lady they both answered, as their mothers did, 
 and they both asked me the same questions simul- 
 taneously. They knew little of the outside world, 
 nor did they care to know. They were happy in 
 their ignorance of it. 
 
 The garden I could not help thinking of the 
 garden of Eden, only there were two Eves instead of 
 one in it was an acre in extent, and was full of most 
 delicious fruit : gooseberries, currants, blackberries, 
 apricots, pears, apples, peaches, and grapes, all but 
 the latter quite ripe, and of larger size and more 
 abundant on the trees and vines than we ever have 
 them at home. These women "tempted me, and I 
 did eat," and the good Lord did not take offence ; at 
 any rate, He did not send any angel with a two-edged 
 sword after us. 
 
 The eldest Mrs. Enhart gave me a most interesting 
 account of their early experiences in Utah. She was 
 in the first band that came after the pioneers. The 
 
9O THE MORMON EXODUS. 
 
 story of the Plymouth pilgrims is not more replete 
 with the memories of hardship and danger. What a 
 long tramp those zealous Mormons had over a trackless 
 desert, sterile plains, and rocky mountains worse to 
 endure, surrounded as they were not only by natural 
 obstacles, but by mortal foes, a thousand times worse 
 than the Atlantic storms that beat upon the " May- 
 flower ! " 
 
 Like those old pilgrims, they were sustained by a 
 great idea. They lived on that idea, and they were 
 willing to die for it. In neither case was it " for the 
 right of every man to worship God according to the 
 dictates of his own conscience." That would have 
 been a nobler cause than ever was maintained by 
 either Puritan or Mormon. They both fled from 
 religious persecution, to find a land which they might 
 appropriate to themselves for their own system of 
 worship, and for that alone. 
 
 Exactly parallel have been the cases thus far, and 
 parallel they will continue. When the Quakers and 
 the Baptists endeavored to maintain their religious 
 tenets among the Puritans, they were told to "go 
 away from their midst," and if they refused to go 
 they were persecuted. By-and-by New England 
 became settled by all denominations in spite of 
 intolerant edicts, and now bigotry has no power. 
 
 Precisely in this spirit did the Mormons endeavor 
 
FAITH IN BROTHER BRIGHAM. 91 
 
 to warn off the Gentiles who came to Utah. They 
 refused to leave. Then they persecuted them, as 
 they themselves had been persecuted. But that great 
 missionary, the Union Pacific Railroad, came along 
 step by step, and when the last rail was spiked in 
 Utah, universal toleration echoed to the sound of 
 the hammer ; and now all past bickerings and persecu- 
 tions should be forgotten, and different Christianities 
 and civilizations allowed to work themselves out 
 side by side. 
 
 Mrs. Enhart said, that as they toiled along the 
 road they all supposed that as soon as they arrived 
 they would find rich prairies and green meadows 
 everything ready to plant their seed and to commence 
 raising their herds. 
 
 " And lucky it was we did not know what was 
 before us," she added, "for when we got through 
 Emigration Canon and saw nothing but sage-brush, 
 sand, and alkali, if we had not had faith we should 
 have died. But Brother Brigham told us it was all 
 right this was the place. It was a desert, but God 
 would make it ' blossom as the rose ; ' and thanks 
 be to Him, He has. He has blessed us as he never 
 blessed any people before ! 
 
 "Anyway, I am happy, when I think what we have 
 been through. The first year we planted our seed, 
 nothing came of it ; the second, the crickets de- 
 
92 THE ROAD TO SALT LAKE. 
 
 stroyed everything ; then came the grasshopper 
 plague. In that year, in one day, our boys shoveled 
 them into sacks and buried over fifty bushels of them 
 in a hole. The air was full of the horrid smell of the 
 dead insects, and we all feared a plague in addition to 
 the loss of the crop. But look at things now. Wasn't 
 President Young right ? We have always found his 
 advice right, because he has revelations from God, 
 and what you see all round here proves it." 
 
 Far was it from me to dispute with the good lady, 
 or to attempt to weaken her faith in the divine mis- 
 sion of Brigham Young, because she could not dis- 
 connect it from faith in God. I thanked her for her 
 story, and thanked them all, old and young, for their 
 kindness and hospitality ; and Dick then jogged along 
 with his paunch filled with oats, and I had as many 
 apricots and gooseberries as my pockets would hold. 
 
 For the remainder of the way to Salt Lake City, a 
 distance of twenty-five miles, there is an almost con- 
 stant succession of little hamlets and single farm- 
 houses, surrounded by gardens, and often with shade- 
 trees planted upon the street. On this hot day a 
 few more of them would have made me grateful, but 
 as they, like all other green things here, require irri- 
 gation, they are only seen in the neighborhood of 
 dwellings. 
 
 At noon I reached Sessions, a large town distant 
 
ARRIVAL AT THE CITY. 93 
 
 ten miles from Salt Lake City. Resting here awhile, 
 and having dined at the hotel, I attained my destina- 
 tion early in the afternoon, having accomplished 
 eighty miles in the last twenty-four hours. The 
 whole ride from Cariboo is two hundred and fifty 
 miles, and the time occupied on the road was five 
 days. 
 
 It had been a delightful journey, and it gave me 
 an insight of the domestic life and character of the 
 people not easily attained by any other mode of travel, 
 besides affording the best opportunities of viewing 
 the fine scenery and estimating the agricultural value 
 of the land. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Ride to Little Cottonwood. Apostates and Believers. Breakfast with 
 a Polygamic Apostate. The "Bench." Scenery in the Canon. 
 The Persevering Railroad. Granite City. The Snow-Slide. 
 Story of an Early Settler. Past Animosity and Present Concord. 
 
 LITTLE Cottonwood Canon is the location of the 
 principal silver mines of Utah. They are by no 
 means, however, confined to it, but are to be found 
 in almost every mountain of the Wasatch and Western 
 ranges which enclose the Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 The easiest way to approach this district is by the 
 Utah Southern Railroad, as far as Sandy, and then 
 by the narrow-gauge railroad, a marvel of engineer- 
 ing skill, to Granite City, its present terminus. This 
 little road has overcome a grade of two hundred feet 
 to the mile, and if it is continued to Alta, the head 
 of the canon, the ascent will be much greater and 
 seemingly impossible. The whole distance of rail to 
 Granite City from Salt Lake City is eighteen miles, 
 and thence the trip is generally made on horseback, 
 over a very rough wagon-freight road of ten miles. 
 
RIDE TO LITTLE COTTON WOOD. 95 
 
 Being still the owner of little Dick, and having a 
 greater liking at all times for the comfortable Mexican 
 saddle and the fresh air than for a railroad-car with 
 its atmosphere of many breaths, I found it more 
 agreeable to accomplish the whole distance of twenty- 
 eight miles on horseback. 
 
 I left the town at an early hour on Sunday, August 
 24th, before many people were astir. The shadows 
 of the eastern mountains, beneath which was my path, 
 were thrown over the road, while the western range 
 was glowing in the sunlight, gradually extending 
 into the valley at their base, until suddenly, as I 
 passed the mouth of Emigration Canon, the dazzling 
 sun-blaze broke through it upon the whole plain. 
 
 I had promised to breakfast with an "apostate" 
 gentleman, who lived five miles from the city. Before 
 describing my arrival at his comfortable farm-house, 
 I will state, from the most reliable authority, that in 
 the city of Salt Lake the Gentile population may be 
 considered one-sixth, and in the territory generally, 
 one-tenth of the whole. Besides the Mormons and the 
 Gentiles, there is at present a small but rapidly in- 
 creasing percentage of apostates people who have 
 been Mormons, but are Mormons no longer. My 
 friend Simmons is one of these. 
 
 An apostate is a man who asserts that he has 
 seen the error of his ways, and has accordingly re- 
 
96 BELIEVERS AND APOSTATES. 
 
 nounced the Mormon faith. Sometimes you will find 
 them sincere, sometimes not. 
 
 I find it hard to believe that, in this age of the 
 world, any educated man can have, or have had, a real 
 faith in the inspiration of Joe Smith or of Brigham 
 Young, while I am not surprised that those who were 
 taught it in their infancy should remain conscientious 
 believers. It is no more strange that they should 
 implicitly credit the story of Joe Smith's receiving 
 heavenly revelations on golden plates than it is that 
 we should believe that Moses talked with God and 
 received the divine commandments on stone tablets. 
 I apprehend that most people believe in their 
 various religions because they were taught them by 
 their parents, and I do not know why young Mor- 
 mons should be exceptions. But I do not understand 
 how a man of fair education can embrace Mormonism 
 de novo with sincerity. 
 
 Therefore it is that the apostates here are not gen- 
 erally the young men and women, but they are found 
 among those who originally " came out from the 
 world." It is not fair to say that every educated 
 person who thus joined the church was a hypocrite, 
 nor that every uneducated person who joined it was a 
 fool. Nevertheless, it is true that most of the hypo- 
 crites are among the former class, and most of the 
 fools are among the latter. There are apostates from 
 
AN APOSTATE FAMILY. 97 
 
 both these divisions : from the first, because they find 
 that the religion no longer " pays;" and from the last, 
 because they become educated by association with 
 Gentiles, and are really convinced of their error. 
 
 Besides the out-and-out apostates there are secta- 
 rians, such as the Godbeites and the Morrisites, who 
 accept most of the Mormon faith, ruling out the 
 practice of polygamy ; but these are few in number. 
 
 Among the apostates polygamy is of course sup- 
 posed to be at once discarded, and so when I rode up 
 to my friend Simmons's door, I anticipated the wel- 
 come of a quiet little Gentile Christian family. What 
 was my surprise, then, at beholding a perfect bee- 
 hive ! 
 
 I was first introduced to Mrs. S. No. I, and then to 
 Mrs. S. No. 3, the intermediate lady having been 
 lost to the family a year or two since. Then there 
 were a number of boys and girls approaching the 
 innumerable. Mr. S., who takes count of them occa- 
 sionally, said the last census gave eleven boys and 
 twelve girls. 
 
 "Good gracious, Simmons!" I exclaimed, "I 
 thought you had been an apostate for sixteen years. 
 Whose little four-year-old is this ? " " Why, he's mine, 
 of course," he replied, " and that's his mother," point- 
 ing to a comely, smiling young woman who stood lean- 
 ing affectionately on the shoulder of the elder Mrs. S. 
 5 
 
98 WHAT COULD SIMMONS DO? 
 
 "You see how it was," continued the head of the 
 family; "when I apostatized I had three wives. 
 What was I going to do ? Were we going to turn two 
 of 'em adrift on the cold charity of the world ? Could 
 we do that, my dear? " The elder Mrs. S., who was 
 thus appealed to, said, " Certainly not," and the 
 younger Mrs. S. just had the merriest twinkle in her 
 eye, and they all laughed, and I laughed too. (t Well, 
 of course," continued Mr. S., "we all had to live 
 together and more children would come." "Na- 
 turally,"! observed. "Yes, naturally," echoed my 
 host, " we could not help that, you know." Well, as 
 Mr. Simmons was contented, and the two Mrs. S. 
 were contented, and the twenty-three children were 
 contented, I did not think their little family arrange- 
 ment was any business of mine. Simmons did not 
 say so, but his circumstances and surroundings clearly 
 evinced that, so far from considering polygamy as the 
 damning spot in the texture of his former religion, he 
 thought it the only piece of the whole cloth worth 
 saving. 
 
 After breakfast I pursued my way for a short dis- 
 tance on the plain, which is everywhere well cultivated, 
 and then mounted a few feet on to the level " bench " 
 where the land is principally used for pasture. 
 
 The great Salt Lake Valley, besides enclosing the 
 lake itself, a sheet of water ninety miles long by 
 
BENCHES IRRIGATION. 99 
 
 forty wide, consists of low levels for fifty miles north 
 and south, bordered on the east by the Wasatch 
 range of mountains, whither I was bound, and on the 
 west by the Oquirrh range. 
 
 Both ranges are intersected by various canons or 
 valleys of sharp descent, whence the mountain- 
 streams pour with great velocity and abundance into 
 the River Jordan, which, taking its rise at the southern' 
 limit of the valley in a fresh-water lake, terminates 
 in the great Salt Lake at the north. 
 
 All along the foot-hills, at various elevations 
 from the. plain, are clearly defined terraces, called 
 " benches," that were at different epochs the shores 
 of an immense lake which gradually dwindled down 
 from its highest elevation to its present level, and in 
 the course of ages, as is evident from the landmarks 
 of even the last thirty years, will disappear alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Cache Valley and the other valleys of the north, 
 through which I have recently travelled, have pre- 
 cisely the same formation. Every one of them, like 
 this of Salt Lake, when left by the waters, became an 
 alkaline desert. Every one of them, like this, if the 
 same simple system of irrigation is pursued, may 
 become a garden. 
 
 All that is done here is to dig wide and deep 
 ditches across the mouths of the streams at the 
 
98 WHAT COULD SIMMONS DO ? 
 
 "You see how it was," continued the head of the 
 family; "when I apostatized I had three wives. 
 What was I going to do ? Were we going to turn two 
 of 'em adrift on the cold charity of the world ? Could 
 we do that, my dear? " The elder Mrs. S., who was 
 thus appealed to, said, " Certainly not," and the 
 younger Mrs. S. just had the merriest twinkle in her 
 eye, and they all laughed, and I laughed too. " Well, 
 of course," continued Mr. S., "we all had to live 
 together and more children would come." "Na- 
 turally," I observed. "Yes, naturally," echoed my 
 host, " we could not help that, you know." Well, as 
 Mr. Simmons was contented, and the two Mrs. S. 
 were contented, and the twenty-three children were 
 contented, I did not think their little family arrange- 
 ment was any business of mine. Simmons did not 
 say so, but his circumstances and surroundings clearly 
 evinced that, so far from considering polygamy as the 
 damning spot in the texture of his former religion, he 
 thought it the only piece of the whole cloth worth 
 saving. 
 
 After breakfast I pursued my way for a short dis- 
 tance on the plain, which is everywhere well cultivated, 
 and then mounted a few feet on to the level " bench " 
 where the land is principally used for pasture. 
 
 The great Salt Lake Valley, besides enclosing the 
 lake itself, a sheet of water ninety miles long by 
 
BENCHES IRRIGATION. 99 
 
 forty wide, consists of low levels for fifty miles north 
 and south, bordered on the east by the Wasatch 
 range of mountains, whither I was bound, and on the 
 west by the Oquirrh range. 
 
 Both ranges are intersected by various canons or 
 valleys of sharp descent, whence the mountain- 
 streams pour with great velocity and abundance into 
 the River Jordan, which, taking its rise at the southern" 
 limit of the valley in a fresh-water lake, terminates 
 in the great Salt Lake at the north. 
 
 All along the foot-hills, at various elevations 
 from the. plain, are clearly defined terraces, called 
 " benches," that were at different epochs the shores 
 of an immense lake which gradually dwindled down 
 from its highest elevation to its present level, and in 
 the course of ages, as is evident from the landmarks 
 of even the last thirty years, will disappear alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Cache Valley and the other valleys of the north, 
 through which I have recently travelled, have pre- 
 cisely the same formation. Every one of them, like 
 this of Salt Lake, when left by the waters, became an 
 alkaline desert. Every one of them, like this, if the 
 same simple system of irrigation is pursued, may 
 become a garden. 
 
 All that is done here is to dig wide and deep 
 ditches across the mouths of the streams at the 
 
100 THE TWO COTTONWOODS. 
 
 various foot-hills from north to south, from which the 
 water is let off at convenient distances by sluices into 
 the low grounds. 
 
 It matters not to this people if no drop of rain falls 
 in the summer. Plenty of snow falls on the moun- 
 tains in the winter ; some of it yet remains there, 
 though it gradually melts and runs off in copious 
 streams. The old alkali of the plains, saturated by 
 the artificial overplus of the waters, becomes a ferti- 
 lizer. No manure is or will be required. Thirty, 
 forty, sometimes fifty, and occasionally seventy bushels 
 of wheat are produced to the acre by this cheap pro- 
 cess of agriculture. 
 
 Now, as I ride along the bench, what a different 
 view is on either side ! how sharply does this bench 
 divide the grand and the beautiful ! Towering snow- 
 clad cliffs two thousand feet above me, on the left ; 
 thousands of acres of grain-covered and garden- 
 spotted plains just below on my right ; and thus I go 
 on till the canon of Big Cottonwood opens most 
 grandly. 
 
 But there is not my road. A mile or two beyond 
 for the ridge between them, though two thousand 
 feet high, comes to a sharp dividing point I enter 
 what is called " Little Cottonwood Canon," although 
 it is by far the deeper cut of the two. Its littleness 
 of width is its beauty, for it is so narrow that the cliffs 
 
GRANITE CITY. ' IOI 
 
 on either side are almost perpendicular. In the hol- 
 low a wide, rushing stream thunders noisily along, 
 always on the descent, and sometimes leaping in steep 
 cascades. By its side is the wagon-road and the nar- 
 row-gauge railroad, over which a train of cars was 
 slowly struggling up the hill. 
 
 We arrived together at Granite City. This city 
 owes its present importance to the fact that here the 
 railroad terminates just now, and the wagon-traffic 
 begins. When the road is completed farther up, 
 Granite City will move up too. This will be easily 
 effected by drinking all the whiskey in it and pulling 
 down the houses and putting them up again, .and re- 
 stocking them with whiskey. The whole process of 
 changing the base of this city can be effected in two 
 days. 
 
 The remaining ten miles to Alta City is often diffi- 
 cult to accomplish on account of the vast number of 
 loaded teams descending with ore from the upper 
 mines. This is brought by wagons, in strong bags, 
 containing each eighty to one hundred pounds, and 
 being transferred to the railroad at Granite City, is 
 carried to the smelting-works in the valley. 
 
 The passenger-train had just discharged its travel- 
 lers, who here procured horses, and I thus found my- 
 self in a large company. It was lively work, dodging 
 the descending teams and passing slow horsemen ; 
 
102 THE AVALANCHE. 
 
 and all this travel raised a cloud of dust so blinding 
 that there was some little danger of pitching headlong 
 into the torrent below. Occasionally the dusty cloud 
 would clear up, and then we had magnificent views 
 all around us, while almost constantly at our sides 
 were those perpendicular granite walls. As we pro- 
 gressed, the mountains were found well timbered. It 
 was curious to be able to estimate the depth of the 
 snow in winter, for in that leisure season most of the 
 wood-felling is done. The stumps were mostly from 
 ten to twelve feet high, that being the level of the 
 snow from which the trees were cut. 
 
 Four or five miles above Granite City, and about 
 the same distance from Alta, the marks of the great 
 avalanche of last winter were pointed out to us. 
 Seven men with twelve mules were drawing ore on 
 sleds, when suddenly an immense body of snow, a quar- 
 ter of a mile in extent, came down from the mountain 
 on our left from a height of fifteen hundred feet, 
 crushing trees and boulders of rock on its way, and 
 sweeping along far across the river the unfortunate 
 teamsters and all the mules but one, which in some 
 way made its escape. For all the rest of the winter, 
 the spring, and most of the summer, they lay buried 
 in the snow, and but recently were discovered, stiffly 
 frozen in their icy shrouds. Long will the spot be 
 remembered, and many an anxious glance will be 
 
ARRIVAL AT ALTA. 103 
 
 cast aloft as men in winter pass hurriedly along this 
 part of the trail. 
 
 At noon we arrived at Alta City, the head of the 
 canon, and situated directly under the celebrated 
 Emma Mine. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Alta City . Attacked by Speculators. " Prospects'" and Richly De- 
 veloped Mines. Tom Sweeney. History of the Emma Mine. 
 A Multitude of other Mines. Unsafe and Safe Speculations. 
 
 I HAD scarcely deposited my cantinas on the stoop 
 of the hotel, when I was approached by at least a 
 dozen mining speculators or brokers with offers of 
 " valuable prospects" and " richly developed mines." 
 Let me here explain that "prospects" are small ex- 
 cavations, not much larger than badger-holes, in the 
 sides of the mountains. There are tens of thousands of 
 them in this and other canons. The hills are honey- 
 combed with them. "Richly developed mines" are 
 likewise plentiful, but most of the riches are put in, 
 and too often little in return is taken out. Now and 
 then, as in the case of the " Emma," the " Flagstaff," 
 and some few others, more is taken out than is put 
 in. But it is doubtful if the English capitalists who 
 buried five million pounds sterling in the Emma will 
 be able to dig one million of it out. I secured a seat 
 at the table as far as possible from the crowd that 
 
SWEENEY'S HISTORY OF THE EMMA. 105 
 
 had assaulted me, so that I might peacefully enjoy 
 my dinner, which was a very good one ; and it may 
 be added that Mr. Fuller's hotel is in all respects a 
 remarkably excellent house, considering its locality. 
 
 In the afternoon I made the acquaintance of Mr. 
 Thomas Sweeney, who assured me that the New York 
 Alderman of the same name was no relative of his. 
 So I trusted more readily to his guidance and informa- 
 tion. We first walked up to the Emma Mine. 
 
 " Now, "says Mr. Sweeney, "I'll tell you what, 
 there's some queer capers going on, as there have 
 always been going on, about that Emma." There- 
 upon he went back into its early history, and from 
 his statements, corroborated by those of others, this 
 is it : The actual discovery of the mine, like that of 
 great continents and inventions, is somewhat involved 
 in obscurity. A certain Mr. Smith first stumbled on 
 it, but Mr. Woodman, whom I afterwards met, as- 
 sured me that he made the first practical exploration 
 in the year 1865. In 1868 Mr. Woodman and his 
 partner offered one-quarter of the mine for $3,000, 
 and could not find a purchaser. They had then 
 worked down eighty-five feet, and commenced ship- 
 ping and selling their ore. Before that, they were so 
 reduced that in their log-cabin they actually suffered 
 for want of food. 
 
 After they had proved the value of the mine to 
 
IO6 THE EMMA FINANCIERS. 
 
 some extent, Walker Brothers, of Salt Lake, paid 
 them $25,000 for one-sixth, and then Mr. Hussey 
 paid them $25,000 for one-quarter of it. These par- 
 ties thereupon altogether sold the whole to Parks and 
 Baxter for $750,000, which large sum these gentle- 
 men actually realized from the products of the mine. 
 
 Then came in a great deal of dark financial manage- 
 ment, in which Mr. Sam Ten Eyck, whom I saw at 
 Parley Park where he is now operating on a new min- 
 ing scheme, claims to have borne a conspicuous part. 
 Senator Stewart, of Nevada, in some way or other, is 
 said to have made $100,000 out of these manoeuvres. 
 Whether Mr. Schenck, our Minister to London, made 
 any money or not is not positively known, but that he 
 lost a great deal of reputation is notorious. Finally, 
 through the instrumentality, direct or indirect, of all 
 these parties, the Emma Mine was "stocked" in the 
 English market for ^"1,000,000, in 50,000 shares of 
 20 each. The mine had paid for itself to its previous 
 owners. This immense sum was all clear profit, less 
 undiscovered brokers' commissions. 
 
 Eighteen per cent, dividend was guaranteed to the 
 stockholders for the first year nothing was said about 
 the second year ; but poor gullible John Bull was led 
 to suppose that the dividend would be yet more abun- 
 dant. The price of shares rushed rapidly up to ^33. 
 The eighteen per cent, was punctually paid out of the 
 
ENGLISH MANAGEMENT. IO/ 
 
 sale of ore which had been reserved for that purpose. 
 The sellers could well have afforded to pay it even if 
 none had been produced. In the second year the 
 dividend was nothing. The stock fell to 2.1 os., is 
 now about 4, and what it will be in the future is a 
 mystery. 
 
 There are two theories in Alta. One is that the 
 vein has actually given out and the mine is worth 
 nothing ; the other is that there is a rich deposit in 
 sight, capable of producing 100 tons per day, whereas 
 the policy now is to turn out only fifteen tons, in order 
 to " bear down " and buy in the stock. One suppo- 
 sition or the other is likely to be true, but I would not 
 like to speculate on either. 
 
 It is some satisfaction that, whatever may have been 
 the sharp practice of Americans in the first place, the 
 present " devilish sly" trick and secrecy is being per- 
 formed and maintained by Englishmen, who now con- 
 trol the affairs of the mine. 
 
 At the entrance of the shaft are various stagings, 
 buildings, and offices connected with its operations. 
 We applied to the proper person for liberty to enter 
 the bowels of the precious earth, and met with a de- 
 cided though courteous refusal. There were then evi- 
 dently secrets down there, and secrecy was to be 
 maintained for the speculative purposes already indi- 
 cated. This stamps the present as well as the past 
 
108 A STOCK-JOBBING FRAUD. 
 
 management a swindle. The stock of the Emma 
 Mine is on the open market, and if it is the desire of 
 those who control it that the public should know its 
 real value, there should be no concealment of this 
 kind. Surely, then, be the mine valuable or valueless, 
 it is a stock-jobbing fraud. 
 
 I was once refused admittance to a pin-factory in 
 Birmingham, lest I should steal the trade, and now 
 was refused admittance to a British mine, lest the pub- 
 lic should know the value of their own property. 
 
 Some little statistical data were, however, afforded. 
 The tunnel is 375 feet long ; the shaft, 400 feet deep ; 
 150 men are daily employed. The average value of 
 the ore is from $150 to $200 per ton, 42 per cent, of 
 which is lead, and 100 ounces of it to the ton is silver 
 and that is all that could be learned from the clerk of 
 the office ; and so we descended to the hotel. 
 
 Seated around the bar-room stove for it is always 
 cold at night in Alta I asked of several miners how 
 many mines they supposed there might be within fifty 
 miles of Salt Lake City. 
 
 "Well, in the first place," replied a pretty thorough- 
 ly informed man, "let me tell you the chief mining 
 districts. These are : Little Cotton wood, Big Cotton- 
 wood, American Fork, Parley Park, Argenta, Snake 
 Creek, Bingham, Rush Valley, Dry Canon, Ophir, 
 Columbia, Lake Side, Tintic, Camp Floyd, North 
 
A FEW MINES. IOQ 
 
 Star, West Star, East Star, South Star, Mount Nebo, 
 and several more." 
 
 Then my informant, with the interpolation of others, 
 began to enumerate the best mines in these various 
 districts, after this manner: " Emma, Vallejo, South 
 Star, Flagstaff, Illinois Tunnel, Ohio, Savage, Gray 
 Rock, Montezuma, Last Chance, Highland Chief, 
 Reed & Benson, Monitor, Magnet, Titus, Western 
 Star, Belle, Hiawatha, Lilliwah, Gophir, Revolution, 
 Hidden Treasure, Crcesus, Pioneer, Idaho, McHenry, 
 McKay, Home Ticket, Rockford, Emma Dagmar, 
 Davenport, Mary, Excelsior, Amy May, Imperial 
 Tunnel, White Cloud, Grizzly, Pocahontas, Baltic, 
 Lavinia, Regulation, Darlington, City Rock, Cedar, 
 Royal George, Roxford, Pleasant View, Fuller, Fred- 
 erick, Enterprise, Superior, Buckeye, Golden Gate, 
 Hershell, Gladiator, Wellington, Webster, Peruvian, 
 Skipper, Oxford, Geneva, Clipper, Daisy, Jacob As- 
 tor, Ida, Emily, Louisa, Sedan, Lexington, Little 
 Giant " Stop ! stop ! gentlemen," I exclaimed, 
 " these surely cannot be all productive mines ? " " Oh 
 yes they are, and there are lots more, to say nothing 
 of prospects." In short, and not to weary the reader 
 with more of this, these miners and others whom I 
 met in other districts agreed on the average with this 
 broad statement. There are around Salt Lake more 
 than 30,000 locations, including working mines and 
 
1 10 MINING WEALTH. 
 
 prospects, of which over a thousand are in operation, 
 employing more than twenty first-class and several 
 small furnaces, and ten thousand men in operating the 
 whole. 
 
 The value of production is over $6,000,000 an- 
 nually. To whose benefit does this enormous wealth 
 accrue ? Not to the working miners, who are always 
 " prospecting" and always poor, but to rich capital- 
 ists and thriving speculators. Doubtless the moun- 
 tains are full of silver and lead, and if capital could be 
 obtained to work all these thirty thousand prospects 
 and a hundred thousand more which might be found, 
 silver would so glut the world's markets that its pur- 
 chasing value would be materially reduced. But only 
 a few of the largest mines are worked to their full 
 capacity, while ntost of even those are used simply for 
 stock -jobbing purposes. 
 
 The proceedings cited in regard to the Emma ap- 
 ply to many of the rest. A mine is bought for a few 
 thousand dollars, and by trickery or false representa- 
 tions is "put on the market" for hundreds of thou- 
 sands or millions, which, if operated on the basis of its 
 true value, would yield paying dividends. With the 
 present fraudulent system it pays nothing to the de- 
 luded purchasers. But the mines will all contribute 
 largely to the prosperity of Utah and especially to 
 that of Salt Lake City, by bringing in population and 
 
Ill 
 
 capital, and enhancing the value of real-estate. The 
 safest speculation is not in mines, but in houses and 
 lands. 
 
 On the next day, under the pilotage of Mr. Sweeney, 
 I climbed the hills, looked into a hundred small holes 
 or " prospects," talked with the miners, who in their 
 poverty were living on rich hopes for the future, and 
 then, my previous experience in gold mines at Cariboo 
 serving as a warning to be careful, prepared to leave 
 Little Cottonwood without yielding to the temptation 
 of silver. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Alta City. Combination of Church, Prison, and Court-house. Sunday 
 Services. Dignified Legal Proceedings. Crossing the " Divide. " 
 A Scotch Mormon's Retreat. If is clear Directions. 
 
 OF Alta City itself there is little to be said. It is 
 a small mining camp that is dignified by this 
 high-sounding name, and a mining camp anywhere in 
 this region is simply a collection of rough cabins and 
 drinking " saloons." 
 
 A little half-finished shanty among the grog-shops 
 and team-stables "of Alta serves for a house of Metho- 
 dist worship on Sundays, and for a court-house on 
 days when justice is to be administered. 
 
 On Sunday evening, as is my wont among Mor- 
 mons or Gentiles, I directed my steps to the house 
 of worship. Alas for the Christianity of this mining 
 camp ! All the denominations could number only 
 two hearers thus far. The minister, who sat patiently 
 behind the rough deal pulpit-stand, waiting for more 
 to come, rose with a smile of satisfaction on his coun- 
 tenance when I entered, and shouted, " Welcome, my 
 brother, you make three, and the Lord hath said that 
 
METHODIST SERVICES. 113 
 
 wherever two or three are gathered together in His 
 name, He will be with them and bless them. I was 
 going to start on two, but now I have got the full 
 number, I feel still more encouraged." 
 
 So he started and bellowed as if he had been 
 preaching in the open, fields to an audience as numer- 
 ous as one of those preached to by Wesley or Whit- 
 field. One by one the congregation increased, each 
 addition giving him encouragement to scream louder, 
 until before the services closed the assembly amounted 
 to eight and a half, including a woman and a nursing 
 baby. 
 
 The cellar of the building is used as a prison, and 
 a few gentlemen who were confined beneath for va- 
 rious infringements of the law, such as stealing, shoot- 
 ing, and stabbing, occasionally interrupted the exer- 
 cises with their cat-calls and imprecations. These 
 only caused our Boanerges to exert his lungs the 
 more to overcome the disturbance. 
 
 There is a greater semblance of judicial form here 
 than in some of the more distant camps and settle- 
 ments. Where there is least of it there is really a 
 greater security of property and life. Where a man 
 can reasonably expect to hang on the nearest tree a 
 few moments after discovery, he is not so apt to steal 
 as he would be if his punishment were less ; and fre- 
 quent as personal encounters are, murderers have not 
 
114 ATTENDING COURT. 
 
 the encouraging hopes of Stokes, that trial after trial 
 can be had, and that the chance of hanging is, after 
 all, very remote. 
 
 Religion of any kind, I am sorry to say, is at a low 
 ebb in Alta ; while bar-rooms, faro-tables, and licen- 
 tiousness are in the full tide of prosperity. 
 
 On the next day court was held in the same build- 
 ing. The judge, a miner clothed in imaginary ermine 
 for the occasion, occupied the pulpit of yesterday, 
 which was a literal bench then, and now besides it 
 was a judicial one. The ermine was truly metaphori- 
 cal, for he sat with no dress over his shirt-sleeves, 
 cigar in mouth, his feet resting upon the desk. 
 The lawyers, one of whom was a teamster and the 
 other a miner, were in the same loose attire, and paid 
 this deference to the Court, that they smoked pipes 
 instead of Havanas. 
 
 The case was one of larceny. A Chinese cook of a 
 restaurant had been accused by his employer of giving 
 away provisions, notably cucumbers, to some of his 
 countrymen outside. To every point of the direct 
 examination of witnesses, the defendant's lawyer 
 cried, "Your honor, I object." And to every item 
 brought out by the cross-examination the plaintiff's 
 lawyer shouted the same words. 
 
 The defence admitted that his client held the 
 master's cucumbers in his hands, but his hands were 
 
DECISION OF THE COURT. 115 
 
 not out of the window when the cucumbers left them. 
 "They were inside the window, and the outside 
 Chinamen reached in and took them. Therefore 
 they, if they could be found, should be declared 
 guilty, not my client." 
 
 The plaintiff's counsel argued in this wise: "Was 
 his hands clinched on the cowcumbers when t'other 
 Chinamen come for 'em, or was they open? Why 
 the didn't he hold on to 'em ? " 
 
 His Honor by this time had finished his cigar. 
 Then he rose from the bench and commanded silence 
 by striking his fist on the desk. " This here case is 
 dismissed," he said. " It's too thin ; thinner'n ary 
 slice of cowcumber ever I see. The time of the Court 
 
 is too valooable to be took up with any such 
 
 nonsense ! " So the Court, the lawyers, the plaintiff, 
 and defendant all adjourned to the saloon where .the 
 larceny had been committed, and " took a drink all 
 round." 
 
 On Tuesday afternoon, August 26, I mounted little 
 Dick and wended my way up to the " divide " on the 
 mountain-top which separates this canon from the 
 head of Big Cottonwood, passing Grizzly Flat, another 
 mining camp, two miles above Alta. 
 
 After an ascent of two miles more, I reached the 
 summit at an elevation of eleven thousand feet above 
 the level of the sea, wading through the snow, and 
 
ii6 MR. BRIGHTON'S RESIDENCE. 
 
 facing a wind cold as a winter's blast. But the air was 
 clear of clouds or mist, and the view down the two 
 canons which lay before me was magnificent, totally 
 beyond my powers of description. 
 
 Crossing over, I began the steep descent, and came 
 into a thick and high forest of pines. Following the 
 trail for an hour longer, I came down to a lovely 
 meadow, perched still high in the mountains by which 
 it was surrounded. In its centre was a little clear, 
 transparent lake, and by its side the rude but taste- 
 fully built log-cabin of Mr. Brighton, a Mormon gen- 
 tleman, who for health, and also for mining purposes, 
 makes this romantic spot his summer residence. 
 
 Here I received a cheerful welcome, and while I 
 dined from trout just caught from the lake, Dick was 
 turned loose to enjoy the feed on the broad lawn, 
 with the horses and cattle of my host. 
 
 " Aye, it is a sweet spot," said Mr. Brighton, as we 
 watched the sunset creeping of the high mountain 
 shadows over the plain ; "it 'minds me of my ain 
 hame in the Hielands." And I, too, thought of many 
 a Highland hill and dale, seen long ago, though no 
 Scottish mountain or glen could equal the scene 
 before us. 
 
 Rising early in the morning after refreshing sleep, 
 and then enjoying a hearty breakfast, of which " oat- 
 meal parritch " formed a welcome part, I took leave 
 
HOW TO GET TO KIMBALL'S. 1 1/ 
 
 of my kind entertainer and his family, receiving his 
 directions for Parley Park. 
 
 " Ye'll gang doon a mile or twa to the sa'-mill, and 
 then ye'll tak the trail to the richt, and keep alang till 
 ye come to anither trail, a sma' bit awa' to the left, 
 gin ye come to a bit wood, where ye gang to the 
 richt, then to the left ; then ye'll circle the mountain, 
 and ye canna gang wrang." He added to these clear 
 directions the information that " Kimball's," at Parley 
 Park, lay at a distance of twelve miles. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Lost in the Mountains. Arrival at One of Mr. Snyder^s Houses. 
 The A/ectionate Couple. U. S. Encampment. Parley Park.- 
 Emigration Canon. The Faith, Courage, and Perseverance of the 
 Saints. 
 
 I STARTED at 7 o'clock, and reached the saw-mill 
 without much difficulty, and there, of course, re- 
 membrance failed me. Out of all the trails that pre- 
 sented themselves, Dick was allowed to make a selec- 
 tion, and the result was that Dick and his rider were 
 lost in the wilds of the Wasatch Mountains. 
 
 All that I knew was that Parley Park bore about N. 
 W. , and in so far as mountains, rocks, and precipices 
 allowed, I endeavored to steer that course, with the 
 sun for my guide. After wandering for four hours 
 in this way, I came upon a wagon-road, which trended 
 to a valley, and far in the distance below lay a town. 
 Descending towards it, totally uncertain of what it 
 might be, to my unutterable joy I at last met a man 
 on horseback. 
 
 " Where is Parley Park ? " I asked. " Parley Park ! 
 Why, as near as may be, it is right over your horse's 
 
SNYDER AND HIS FAMILIES. 1 19 
 
 tail!" "How far is it?" "Well, about twelve 
 miles. Turn round, keep up the hill with me, and I 
 will show you where to turn into the trail." 
 
 Guided by clearer directions than those of Mr. 
 Brighton, I soon left my companion, and, crossing over 
 Flagstaff peak, enjoyed such an extensive view of 
 Provo Valley and Southern Utah, that I was not sorry 
 for all my long deviation, as these are portions of the 
 Territory which I did not subsequently visit. 
 
 I stood now like Moses on Mount Pisgah, satisfied, 
 like him, to see the promised land, even if my foot 
 should not press its soil. This journal would be 
 more complete if it touched upon all points of Utah. 
 Over the whole Territory, the mountains, canons, and 
 prairies are of the same character, and probably Provo, 
 and other towns far away on the plain below me, are 
 not unlike those I have already seen and propose yet 
 to visit. I will forgive and even thank Mr. Brighton 
 for having made me spend nearly a day on horseback 
 to accomplish twelve miles, that I might see them in 
 the distance. 
 
 Now keeping along on a well-defined trail, I reached 
 the ranch of Mr. Snyder at two o'clock, and dined. 
 
 Snyder keeps a semi-hotel. He was away from 
 home from that home, I mean, for Snyder has three 
 ranches and three families ; but the Mrs. Snyder of 
 this ranch, who has half a dozen children what the 
 
120 SNYDER'S WELCOME HOME. 
 
 other Mrs. Snyders may have I do not know pro- 
 vided me with an excellent dinner. 
 
 While I was at the table, Snydercame to this home, 
 fresh from the visit of a week to another wife. At 
 the sound of his horse's hoofs, up jumps the present 
 Mrs. S., lays the baby in the cradle, cries, " Here 
 comes father ! " and rushes out to fall upon his neck, 
 and kisses him. Queer people, these Mormons ! 
 
 After dinner I rode on six miles farther to Kim- 
 ball's, passing on the way a summer encampment 
 from Fort Douglas. Captain Ellis had pitched his 
 tents in a romantic glen, and it was a pleasant sight 
 to behold some ladies playing croquet on the green 
 sward, the wagons drawn up in military order, the 
 soldiers forming for evening parade, and the animals 
 picketed on the rich grass. 
 
 Passing over the last divide, Parley Park lay be- 
 neath me. It is well named a park, for nature has 
 done all its own work for it with that of art made to 
 her hand. 
 
 It is like the plateau of Brighton's, only vastly en- 
 larged. Mountains are all around a meadow-plain of 
 five thousand acres of grass, through which a beauti- 
 ful trout-stream meanders along. Fronting the centre 
 of this level is the Kimball Hotel, the favorite 
 summer retreat, as well it may be, of the people of 
 Salt Lake, who have the leisure and the means to 
 
KIMB ALL'S HOTEL. 121 
 
 spend a few days or weeks in this invigorating atmos- 
 phere of the hills. 
 
 The landlord of the hotel is a son of the late Heber 
 C. Kimball, whom Artemus Ward particularized as 
 "the most married man .1 Utah." His descendants 
 already number four hundred and forty-nine. His 
 son, " Bill," whom he christened William, after using 
 up all the Old Testament names, is more moderate 
 than his father in his conjugality, having only three 
 wives. As he resides two-thirds of the time at Parley 
 Park, and the other third of it at Salt Lake, he keeps 
 two wives here and one there. 
 
 The public are satisfied with this arrangement, for 
 the two ladies of this establishment are most excel- 
 lent housekeepers and cooks, and this is what chiefly 
 concerns us. Cleaner linen can nowhere be found on 
 beds, and a better table was never spread; and all 
 this comfort and luxury is to be had for the very 
 moderate price of ten dollars per week. Mr. Kimball 
 is also a large farmer, and raises a great deal of other 
 stock besides the family kind. 
 
 Mormonism has great advantages for taking up 
 government land. No man can pre-empt more than 
 one hundred and sixty acres for himself; but each 
 child can do likewise, and thus the Kimball family, as 
 they increase, are becoming the owners of this rich 
 plain. By and by they will have two thousand head 
 
122 EMIGRATION CAfiON. 
 
 of cattle, and will cut two thousand tons of hay, for 
 which the City of Salt Lake will afford a ready 
 market. 
 
 There is plenty of fishing and shooting in the 
 neighborhood, although not so abundant as I found it 
 at the north, the ground being more ranged by 
 sportsmen. Still there was enough to afford ample 
 occupation for the next two days for the little party 
 of friends who joined us from town. 
 
 On Saturday I left this charming spot, and rode on 
 for twenty-five miles to Salt Lake, avoiding the tra- 
 velled and more level road, and passing down through 
 Emigration Canon, by which gate the first band of 
 Mormon settlers, under the leadership of Brigham 
 Young, entered upon their new home in 1847, after 
 their long, tedious, patient journey of four months 
 across the desert. 
 
 And now, twenty-six years later, I was riding over 
 a good macadamized road, which led me out upon 
 fruitful fields into the view of a large and thriving 
 city, over the same route by which they arrived at 
 these once barren plains. 
 
 As I turned around each succeeding rocky point, I 
 could well imagine how it was gazed upon by them 
 as they hoped it was the last, and when the last was 
 actually reached and passed, and the full view of the 
 valley burst upon my sight, the picture of that de- 
 
SINCERITY OF THE MORMONS. 12$ 
 
 voted band was as clearly present to me as if it had 
 been depicted on canvas like that life-like painting of 
 the Western emigrants that is seen in the Capitol at 
 Washington. It seemed that as I listened I might 
 yet catch the echo of their glad hosannas ringing 
 through those Rocky Mountains safely passed at last ! 
 
 I believe in the utter absurdity and imposture of 
 the Mormon faith, so far as it differs from the recog- 
 nized tenets of Christianity ; but I believe in the sin- 
 cerity of the great majority of its adherents, and I 
 want no better proof of this than their history. 
 
 The persecutions endured by the Israelites at the 
 hands of the Egyptians were as nothing in com- 
 parison with those suffered by the Mormon people at 
 the hands of their nominally Christian countrymen, 
 who drove them from one settlement and State to 
 another, until they formed a resolution to put them- 
 selves, as they fondly hoped, forever beyond their 
 reach. 
 
 Brigham Young, with all his prophetic instinct, 
 never dreamed that they could be molested here. 
 On his dreary journey, and shortly before his arrival, 
 he was met by a Mormon missionary returning from 
 California. He depicted in glowing colors the beau- 
 ties of that region, its lovely climate, its fertile soil, 
 its claim to be what it has since so amply proved, 
 a second paradise. Brigham listened patiently to 
 
124 ARRIVAL OF THE MORMONS. 
 
 his report, and then replied, " All that shows that it 
 is no place for us the Gentiles would rout us out." 
 
 He had never yet seen the Salt Lake Valley, but 
 he knew that it was a desert. He had an inspiration, 
 however, which he chose to call a " revelation," that 
 this was the destination of his people, and that the 
 Almighty would change the desert to a garden for 
 them. 
 
 It must be remembered, moreover, that at this time 
 Utah was Mexican Territory. Once settled there, 
 the Mormons would owe no allegiance to the United 
 States government, and as to the Mexicans, they had 
 no fear of them. In their eyes they were merely 
 Canaanites, and "the sword of the Lord and of 
 Gideon " would be the arbiter of any controversy 
 with them that they might have. 
 
 The "revelation" given to Brigham Young desig- 
 nated the precise spot where the city of the New 
 Jerusalem should be located. As they came out 
 through Emigration Canon, the little army of be- 
 lievers turned to the right, obedient to the direction 
 of their leader, and marched four miles, before he 
 cried "Halt!" Every individual came to a stand- 
 still. A fervent prayer of thanksgiving to Almighty 
 God, their preserver, was offered, and ended with a 
 loud and joyful " Amen ! " 
 
 After this act of faith there followed immediately 
 
MORMON DEVOTIONS. 12$ 
 
 one of the grandest acts of works on record, and these 
 two great ideas of faith and works have been ever 
 since the guiding stars of their eminently practical 
 religion. 
 
 Before a moment's rest was allowed to man or 
 beast, other than the time occupied by the prayer 
 before a mouthful of food could be eaten, the animals 
 were unhitched from the wagons and yoked to the 
 ploughs, the furrows were turned, an irrigating ditch 
 was dug, the seed planted ; and then they rested from 
 their labors, and now their works do follow them. 
 
 History has no parallel to the energy and perse- 
 verance of this people. They were nurtured and 
 made robust by the fillip of persecution, so that when 
 they left the banks of the Missouri they were har- 
 dened to the work before them. 
 
 The journey of Moses and the Israelites, even with 
 its pillar of fire before them, pales into insignificance 
 compared with this. Let us accept our own revela- 
 tion, while we ridicule that of the Mormons. Then 
 we see God on the side of Israel, tormenting their 
 persecutors with plague, pestilence, and famine ; 
 opening seas and rivers for them that they might pass 
 dry-shod ; making water to gush from the rock ; rain- 
 ing down vegetable and animal food ; helping them 
 when they were too lazy to help themselves, and 
 fighting their battles for them; they all the time 
 
126 MORMON SINCERITY. 
 
 repining, growling, and apostatizing, and, after all, 
 accomplishing in forty years what they should have 
 done in a month. 
 
 Look now at these Latter-Day Saints ! not only 
 at this company of pioneers, but at each succeeding 
 host ; more especially the hand-cart expedition of 
 1856, when six hundred men, women, and children 
 started from Iowa, in July, dragging their babies, 
 their property and provisions ; crossing the Rocky 
 Mountains in the snows of November ; losing two 
 hundred of their number on the road by death ; yet 
 never murmuring, but every morning and night 
 thanking the Lord who had brought them thus far on 
 their way. 
 
 Did not He know their sincerity, it must have 
 sounded like irony in his ears ! The " devil," we are 
 told, "is good to his own." Surely, if these were 
 his children, he showed his kindness strangely. Ah ! 
 they were no children of his ; but they were ful- 
 filling a mission of the same Almighty Father who 
 rules the universe and every creature therein ; who 
 has a work for all to do, the object of which we shall 
 better know by and by. Till that time comes, we 
 will never doubt that these martyrs of religious en- 
 thusiasm suffered in a cause that was in some way 
 acceptable to Him. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The New Railroad to Pioche. Staging to the Western Mining Dis- 
 tricts. Great Salt Lake. Bathing. Tooele. Thunder- Storm. 
 OpJdr Canon. A Restaurant du Palais Royal. Some of the 
 Mines. Colonel Kellcfs Enterprise. A crazy Miner. Dry Canon 
 
 and B ing ham Cation Mines. A respectable Cemetery. Bingham 
 
 Railroad. Resemblance to Palestine. 
 
 THE Wasatch range, bounding Salt Lake Valley 
 on the east, recently traversed, contains the first 
 discovered silver-mines of Utah. But the Oquirrh or 
 Western range, likewise running north and south on 
 the opposite side of the basin, is now competing with 
 it in rich production. 
 
 The description already given of Little Cottonwood 
 applies in many respects to the Canons of the Western 
 mountains. The scenery is alike grand and impres- 
 sive, and the mining-camps embrace the same pecu- 
 liarities of a distinct civilization or barbarism, accord- 
 ing as the reader's option may define such a condition 
 of society. 
 
 The " Salt Lake, Sevier Valley and Pioche Rail- 
 road " is another illustration of the enterprises already 
 
128 RAILROADS. 
 
 undertaken and rapidly progressing in Utah. This 
 work is intended to open some of the most important 
 silver, coal, and iron mining, as well as the rich agri- 
 cultural districts in the western and southern parts of 
 the Territory, of which I shall say more in a subse- 
 quent chapter. Like the Utah " Northern," " Cen- 
 tral," and " Southern," this road will not only be a 
 good investment for its stockholders, but will event- 
 ually contribute largely to the profit of the great trunk 
 lines of the " Union" and " Central" Pacific. 
 
 The whole distance from Salt Lake City to the point 
 of its completion will be three hundred and thirty-six 
 miles, and its cost is estimated at less than six millions 
 of dollars. It is neither an exclusively Mormon nor 
 a Gentile undertaking. Its chief projector is H. S. 
 Jacobs, Esq., who, though a Gentile, has long resided 
 in Salt Lake City. He and his eastern associates are 
 working harmoniously with the Saints for the develop- 
 ment of the country, irrespective of religious preju- 
 dices. What wonderful peacemakers and civilizers 
 are railroads ! How they give the lie to that party 
 clamor which, in the name of philanthropy, would de- 
 stroy the prosperity of this community ! 
 
 Since I passed over the ground about to be de- 
 scribed, twenty-two miles of this railroad have been 
 finished and equipped. The stage-line will soon be 
 entirely superseded. 
 
DRIVE TO OPHIR. 1 29 
 
 We drove to Ophir on the stage-coach, along the 
 line of the new railroad, leaving Salt Lake City at an 
 early hour in the morning, passing through a well- 
 cultivated region for a few miles, and then crossing 
 the sage-brush desert until we reached the northern 
 limit of the Oquirrh Mountains, where the Great Salt 
 Lake washes their base. A road has been cut around 
 the cliff at this point with much ingenuity. 
 
 We were now in another valley the Tooele 
 bounded still by another range, the Ophir, on the 
 west, and on the north by the lake, along the bor- 
 ders of which our road now lav. A fresh northerly 
 breeze had ruffled its surface, the rollers were combing 
 and dashing their spray upon the beach ; the salty 
 breath of the wind was on our faces, and altogether, 
 with the sandy plain at our feet and the northern view 
 bounded by the horizon of the waters, the illusion 
 was so complete that it was difficult to believe that we 
 were not upon the shores of the ocean. 
 
 Rocky Point is a favorite place of summer resort 
 for the citizens of the metropolis, and there is, to all 
 appearance, a well-kept hotel and good bathing ac- 
 commodation at this place. A steamer of 300 tons, 
 originally intended for business now taken away by 
 the railroad, makes occasional excursion trips. 
 
 Some weeks previously I embraced the opportunity 
 of the Fourth-of-July holiday to take a cruise. Un~ 
 
130 BATHING IN THE LAKE. 
 
 fortunately it was not very extended, as we lost our 
 rudder soon after starting, and so, having described a 
 great many small circles, were obliged to return with- 
 out seeing much variety. The lake extends nearly 
 one hundred miles from north to south, with an 
 average of forty miles from east to west. It is so 
 intensely salt that nothing excepting a sort of small 
 winged shrimp can live in it. 
 
 For bathing it is perfectly safe. One cannot drown 
 in it. The water is so dense that I have tried in vain 
 to reach the bottom, where the depth was only two 
 fathoms. On coming out, the body is so completely 
 encrusted with salt that the sensation is like that which 
 may be supposed to be produced from rolling in net- 
 tles. Fresh-water ablution after a bath is a necessity. 
 
 Nearly half-way across the valley, at a distance of 
 ten miles from either range, the Oquirrh and the 
 Ophir, is the city of Tooele. It is literally an oasis in 
 the desert. From far away it seems like a little green 
 patch of grass. As we approach it its proportions 
 are enlarged, and when we enter it we find a minia- 
 ture Salt Lake City, like it in its wide streets, with 
 streams of water, and houses and gardens on each 
 side, and, like all the Mormon cities, exceedingly quiet 
 and neat. 
 
 While we were changing horses I strayed into the 
 grounds of a house near by. The proprietor was 
 
OPHIR CANON. 131 
 
 an Englishman, the lady she might have been one by 
 herself, or one of many was a rosy-cheeked English- 
 woman. They gave me some fine peaches and plums, 
 and as they were sociably inclined, they gave me also 
 some of their religious " experience." They were 
 fully impressed with the divine character of what they 
 termed their "blessed religion," and, like all other 
 Mormons, they had the most implicit faith in Brigham 
 Young. 
 
 A few miles beyond, we came to the small town of 
 Stockton, which derives its subsistence from smelting 
 the ore brought to it from the mines. After experi- 
 encing a tremendous thunder-storm of a grandness we 
 could not but admire, although by it we were soaked 
 with rain and pelted with hail and almost blinded by 
 lightning, we were right glad to dry our clothes at the 
 fire of the hotel-kitchen, and to abandon our temper- 
 ance principles at the bar. 
 
 It was late when we entered the narrow Ophir 
 Canon, and wound up its steep and tortuous ascent, 
 with perpendicular precipices of two thousand feet on 
 either side. We were not sorry to reach a wooden 
 shanty, which in reality was all it pretended to be with its 
 French sign, in this wilderness, "Cafe et Hotel Restau- 
 rant," kept by Monsieur Simon. He, with Madame 
 Simon and the little belle-sceur Elise, were fresh from 
 Paris, and were trying to keep up Parisian style in the 
 
132 THE OP1IIR MINKS. 
 
 mountains of Utah, menu, white apron, white cap and 
 all, not forgetting what can never be had out of France, 
 excepting at the hands of a Frenchman, a good cup 
 of coffee. 
 
 On the following day, crossing over to Dry Canon 
 with a guide, I ascended the mountains and travelled 
 diligently from daylight till dark like a chamois, over 
 the ledges and steeps, admiring the wonderfully grand 
 scenery, and looking into the various mines. 
 
 Some of them are the Tiger, the Silver Chief, the 
 Zella, the Lion, Defiance, Sunny Side, Miner's De- 
 light, Hidden Treasure, Poor Man's Friend, Utah 
 Queen. But the most productive and most celebra- 
 ted are the Mono and Chicago. 
 
 One of the most promising of the new investments 
 is the " Kelley Consolidated Mining and Smelting 
 Company." This mine, with a well-defined vein of 
 six feet, has a shaft and three tunnels already in opera- 
 tion, and the smelting furnaces are about commencing 
 work. It is principally owned and managed by Col. 
 Kelley, a New York gentleman of much practical ex- 
 perience, who is fairly counting on splendid results. 
 
 This mine was discovered several years ago by a 
 poor German named Hirsch. He worked away at it, 
 starving himself to employ necessary assistance, and 
 then selling his ore to develop still further with the 
 proceeds. At last he sold his property to Col. Kelley 
 
BINGHAM CITY. 133 
 
 for a very high price, which would enable him to live 
 in luxury for all his remaining days. 
 
 But now he insists that the little hut, half stone, half 
 log, in which he has lived the life of a hermit for so 
 many winters and summers, shall remain his property, 
 for he cannot live anywhere else ! Here then he 
 will remain, prospecting for another mine. He has 
 mining upon the brain. He can think or talk of 
 nothing else. Mines are the idols to which he is joined, 
 and he prefers to be let alone. 
 
 Coming out of Ophir Canon and pursuing the same 
 route by which we had entered through Tooele Valley 
 as far as the lake, we rounded the mountain point and 
 kept along the eastern base of the Oquirrh range until 
 we came to the opening of Bingham Canon. 
 
 This is a comparatively new mining district, bid- 
 ding fair to rival any of the others in production of 
 large quantities of ore. The quality is generally not 
 so rich as in the Cottonwood district, but this is 
 compensated for by its abundance. The average assay 
 may be calculated at forty per cent, lead and forty 
 ounces of silver to'the ton. It is generally considered 
 that this percentage of lead pays all expenses of what- 
 ever kind in mining, freight, and smelting ; and thus 
 that all the silver extracted is clear profit. 
 
 The " Last Chance " is one of the most productive 
 mines, paying an annual dividend of twenty per cent. 
 
134 FAMILY DIFFICULTY. 
 
 on $250,000, the sum for which it was sold ; and the 
 "Croesus" and "Jerry" in the same neighborhood 
 are likely soon to rival it. 
 
 The village of Bingham, five miles within the canon, 
 is remarkable for nothing especially different from 
 other mining camps already described, excepting that 
 murders are rather more common. A few days before 
 our arrival there was a lively family difficulty, in which 
 a father and his three sons were killed. Their relations 
 contemplate shooting the murderer when they catch 
 him, and as in that case the murderer's friends will 
 "go for" them, and as that "going for" will be 
 avenged, there is likely to be a diminution of the popu- 
 lation of the camp. 
 
 Bingham is a healthy locality as to climate, but 
 there are other influences which make life quite as 
 insecure as where yellow fever and cholera prevail. 
 Whiskey kills a great many people, not accounted 
 for, in the little cemetery, as murdered. The number 
 of headstones telling of violent death by the pistol 
 and knife is quite appalling. " The burying-ground 
 is getting to be a little respectable now. There's two 
 fellers in there," said my informant, " who died a 
 nat'ral death all the rest of 'em would have been 
 alive now if they'd kept clear of whiskey and lived 
 peaceable." 
 
 The scenery of this canon is very picturesque, 
 
BINGHAM RAILROAD. 135 
 
 although it can scarcely compare with that of the 
 valleys of the opposite range. The railroad being 
 graded from Bingham Canon to Sandy has now been 
 completed and is in running order. It is on the 
 narrow-gauge or three-feet pattern, like the Utah 
 Northern. Its heaviest grade where it mounts the 
 canon is 230 feet to the mile. Had it been desirable, 
 the distance from Bingham to Salt Lake City might 
 have been materially shortened ; but it was for the 
 advantage of the mining interest to have it intersect 
 the Utah Southern at a point twelve miles south of 
 the city : thus the mining and smelting works are 
 brought ^into close relations. Its entire length- is 
 eighteen miles, and, as most of the track is on a level 
 plain, the cost of the work is small. Especially is it 
 so, in comparison with the large business reasonably 
 anticipated. The company was organized under the 
 laws of Utah in the autumn of 1872 ; the road was 
 commenced in the spring of 1873, and opened for busi- 
 ness on the ist of December last. Its present equip- 
 ment consists of two locomotives and ninety-two cars. 
 The whole cost of the road and rolling-stock is not 
 far from $400,000. 
 
 For the three winter months $2 1,000 have been the 
 gross receipts, and of course a large and increasing 
 business is anticipated in the summer season. 
 
 Bingham Canon has this advantage over Little Cot- 
 
136 THE NEW JERUSALEM. 
 
 tonwood the region of the Emma and other valuable 
 mines on the Wasatch range, that the operation of 
 the mines is not impeded by snow. 
 
 The entrance of the canon is twenty-five miles from 
 Salt Lake City. Distances are so deceptive in this 
 rarefied atmosphere, that on emerging at the plain it 
 seemed that only a few miles were before us until we 
 should reach the beautiful city so clearly distinguished 
 nestling under the Wasatch Mountains. 
 
 Surrounded as every dwelling is by garden-trees, 
 the appearance was rather that of a forest dotted here 
 and there with white houses. Certainly Salt Lake 
 City from any point is beautiful, and it never looked 
 more lovely than as we approached it on this bright 
 September afternoon. 
 
 I have often wondered why a more euphonious 
 name was not selected by its founder. He has called 
 the river running through the plains the Jordan, 
 and has rechristened many other localities from the 
 Bible. Why did he not call the capital of his Zion 
 the New Jerusalem ? He might well have named the 
 Utah fresh-water lake, from which the Jordan takes its 
 rise the Sea of Galilee, and the Great Salt Lake into 
 which it flows the Dead Sea ; for the geographical 
 similarity is exact. Perhaps, if it is not too late, he 
 may take the hint even from an unbelieving Gentile. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Mormon Religion History of Joseph Smith. The Book of 
 Mormon. Mormon Migrations. Brigham Young. His Enter- 
 prises and his Character. 
 
 THE religion of the " Latter-Day Saints " maybe 
 defined as a compound of Judaism and Christian- 
 ity, with additions and subtractions. It is an attempt 
 to roll the world back to the days of that barbarism 
 styled " primitive simplicity," and to work up civiliza- 
 tion from the Mosaic basis with the help of the Gospel 
 of Christ, arrogating for the new church another mo- 
 nopoly of the Divine protection. 
 
 Since the Christian era many false prophets have 
 appeared upon the stage, Mahomet the most success- 
 ful of them all. In these last days Joseph Smith has 
 endeavored to emulate him, and, like him, has started 
 his new religion with dreams, adopting, moreover, 
 one of the practical doctrines of Mahometanism. 
 
 The history of the first Mormon Apostle was de- 
 veloped in fanaticism, and culminated in imposture. 
 In 1820, Smith, then a boy of fifteen years of age, 
 became the subject of a religious revival, was half- 
 
138 SMITH'S REVELATION. 
 
 crazed with solicitude for his salvation, and in one 
 of his seasons of insane excitement actually supposed 
 himself the recipient of angelic visits. 
 
 He was doubtless sincere for a time, but afterwards 
 concluded to make the reputation of a prophet that 
 he had gained, available for business purposes. In 
 1823 this precocious youth had another vision, in 
 which he was directed to proceed to the top of a hill 
 in Ontario County, New York, where he would find 
 buried a box of golden plates, with a new revelation 
 engraved upon them. He went as divinely directed, 
 found the plates, and was about to remove them, 
 when the angel appeared and told him to leave them 
 there for four years, and then to come and take them. 
 
 Joseph says that he waited patiently until the "set 
 time " came round, working on a farm and getting 
 married to his first wife. When this set time had 
 come he went to the hill again, and the angel was 
 kind enough to dig up the plates and to place them 
 in his hands. 
 
 These golden slabs were inscribed with unknown 
 characters, but, with the assistance of the angel and a 
 confederate, Joseph translated them into the English 
 of the time of King James, in which language, by- 
 the-by, all Mormon revelations have been and are 
 still given. 
 
 I asked a Mormon gentleman, who should be a 
 
THE ANGEL'S ENGLISH. 139 
 
 man of intelligence, for he is a librarian in Salt 
 Lake City, how it happened that the angel's English 
 was so antique ? "Of course," he replied, " it was 
 natural that it should be so. That is the kind of lan- 
 guage in which God revealed himself to his ancient 
 people ! " I remember once hearing a good scrip- 
 tural New England lady trying to prove her favorite 
 doctrines of original sin and total depravity from St. 
 Paul's assertion that "by one man's disobedience 
 many were made sinners;" and when I ventured to 
 suggest that " made " did not mean created, referring 
 to the original for evidence, she cut me short by ex- 
 claiming, " I don't want to hear anything about your 
 Hebrew or Greek ; the good old English Bible is good 
 enough for me ! " 
 
 Joe Smith was well aware of the reverence attached 
 to such phrases as " Verily, verily," and "Behold, 
 it came to pass." The translation of these supposed 
 plates is "The Book of Mormon." It purports to be 
 chiefly a history of the lost tribes of Israel, who are 
 found to have drifted over to America when separated 
 from the tribes of Judah, and it is, besides, an expo- 
 sition of the new doctrine of the church. 
 
 There are two theories accounting for this produc- 
 tion. One is, that it was a religious novel written 
 for his own amusement by a retired clergyman named 
 Solomon Spalding, of which Smith the prophet be- 
 
140 PLAGIARISM OR CLAIRVOYANCE. 
 
 came feloniously possessed ; and the other is, that 
 Smith, whose mind was stored with Scripture phrases, 
 being still under the delusion that he was divinely 
 inspired, actually wrote and dictated the book in a 
 condition of clairvoyant insanity. 
 
 Without any pretence of clairvoyance or of spirit- 
 ual communication, Mr. Dickens has declared that 
 every word put in the mouths of his characters was 
 mysteriously but distinctly heard by him. In such a 
 case of clairvoyant manifestation as this, Smith may 
 have really found the plates as he professed he did, 
 which is not impossible, similar ancient and unde- 
 ciphered tablets having been more recently discovered 
 in the mounds of Ohio. Although it is very nearly 
 certain that Spalding was the author of the book, yet, 
 in the absence of positive proof, Joe Smith is entitled 
 to the benefit of this construction. 
 
 At any rate, Smith maintained his assertion that he 
 had received the plates from the angel till the day of 
 his death, and imagined himself to be a prophet and 
 a martyr. But his revelations received from time to 
 time suited his own convenience most wonderfully. 
 
 Polyg-amy was not an original doctrine of Mormon- 
 ism, but was revealed to Smith to meet some difficul- 
 ties of a social character with which he found himself 
 embarrassed. 
 
 The " Church of the Latter-Day Saints " was organ- 
 
DEATH OF JOE SMITH. 141 
 
 ized in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, April 6, 
 1830, and consisted of six members, who laid their 
 hands upon each other and gave themselves the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost. A new revelation commanded 
 the church soon afterwards, to remove to Kirtland, 
 Ohio. Thence they were ordered to Missouri, where 
 Jackson County was designated as the promised land. 
 Here they suffered all manner of persecutions, and 
 were finally driven out. 
 
 They took refuge in Illinois, where they founded 
 the city of Nauvoo. They had scarcely finished their 
 magnificent temple there, when, after repeated troubles 
 with their neighbors, in which, as in Missouri, they 
 were undeniably in the right, they were finally ex- 
 pelled, the prophet and his brother being killed by 
 the mob. He foretold his own death, and whatever 
 may have been the inconsistencies of his life, he met 
 his end heroically, and died in the full conviction of 
 his divine mission. This was in 1844. 
 
 Brigham Young became his successor, and, in obe- 
 dience to the order of the murdered prophet, led the 
 Mormon hosts, when driven from Nauvoo, to the far 
 West, advancing step by step till they reached Coun- 
 cil Bluffs on the Missouri River, and thence making 
 their great exodus to Salt Lake Valley, where, as has 
 been stated, they finally arrived on the 24th of July, 
 1847- 
 
142 BRIGHAM YOUNG'S CONVERSION. 
 
 Joseph Smith was a half-crazed boy Methodist 
 when he imagined himself to be divinely inspired. 
 Brigham Young was in the prime of manhood when 
 at the age of thirty-two he determined to enlist under 
 the banner of the prophet. He was a sharp, clear- 
 headed Yankee. He originally " went in for a good 
 thing," and he has proved himself a man of most 
 consummate tact and business ability, fertile in con- 
 ception, ready in expedients, and successful in carrying 
 out almost every enterprise he has undertaken. 
 
 Joseph Smith was regarded by his followers as a 
 prophet of the Lord, pure and simple, and, in the 
 earlier part of his career, a dispenser of heavenly 
 mysteries alone. Brigham Young, who is wise as 
 a serpent if not quite as harmless as a dove, has their 
 confidence not only in everything pertaining to 
 heaven above, but on the earth beneath. 
 
 He is a priest and king, bishop and farmer, minister 
 and manufacturer theoretical in religion and practical 
 in all the affairs of life. When he has a revelation of 
 a new doctrine, the people believe it. When he coun- 
 sels a new mode of irrigation, they dig the ditch. 
 When he preaches morality, they practise it, and when 
 he wants woollen-mills and railroads, they build them. 
 
 It is true they complain of the burden of tithes, 
 but they pay or apostatize. Almost all the apostacy 
 can be traced to this source, and it is wonderful that 
 
BRIGHAM YOUNG'S CHARACTER. 143 
 
 there is no more, and that despite this great incen- 
 tive to rebel against his authority, this authority is so 
 little questioned by nine-tenths of the population of 
 Utah. 
 
 There is about him a certain magnetism of person 
 and character which commands respect and love from 
 all classes of his people, notwithstanding his occa- 
 sional coarseness and vulgarity. He is a man of very 
 limited education, deficient in grammatical speech and 
 orthography, but of the most varied information on 
 all subjects of practical importance. He is a close 
 and successful student of human nature, and does not 
 neglect books. 
 
 In his choice and excellent library I saw many vol- 
 umes of history and political economy, of English 
 classics, and works of the best American writers ; but I 
 looked in vain for Hebrew and Greek literature, to 
 which, although it is pretended that he sometimes 
 " speaks in unknown tongues," he has not directed his 
 attention. 
 
 He would fain have isolated Utah from the rest of 
 the world, but when he found that to be impossible, 
 he manfully accepted the situation, and made the 
 world pay him for its intrusion. " Let jthe Gentiles 
 work the mines," he tells his people, " they are uncer- 
 tain investments ; but we will build railroads to carry 
 coal, lumber, and food to them, and to transport their 
 
144 BRIGHAM YOUNG'S PREACHING. 
 
 ore, and we will raise wheat to feed them. This is 
 certain profit." 
 
 He has established a co-operative system of trade un- 
 equalled in skilful working and beneficial results. The 
 headquarters of the " Zion's Co-operative Mercantile 
 Institution," with its great sign, " Holiness to the 
 Lord," is in Salt Lake City, and its branches shoot 
 out into every settlement of the Territory. By pru- 
 dent and honest management it is made not only to 
 afford articles of every description more cheaply to the 
 people at large than they can be purchased elsewhere, 
 but to pay an annual dividend to the stockholders of 
 fifteen to twenty per cent. It is no monopoly, for 
 single shares are distributed generally. He superin- 
 tends it himself, as he likewise looks after the banking 
 interests of the church. 
 
 While his promise to the faithful of blessings in the 
 other world are of an extraordinary and doubtful char- 
 acter, he is evidently instructing them how they can 
 make this world turn to their advantage. On one 
 Sunday he may tell them how they can get a greater 
 " exaltation" in heaven, but on ten Sundays he will 
 tell them how to irrigate and drain land, harvest crops, 
 
 build fences, set out trees, beautify their grounds, 
 
 i 
 raise cattle, saw lumber, and manufacture cloth ; and 
 
 this is the character of the sermons most frequently 
 preached by the clergy. 
 
BRIGHAM YOUNG'S REVELATIONS. 145 
 
 I am, perhaps, wrong in using this word. The 
 Mormons have no clergy, as distinct from the people. 
 The highest apostle among them, like St. Paul, works 
 at his trade. It would be a novelty to see a Catholic 
 or an Anglican bishop hoeing his corn or driving 
 his ox-team ; but this is not unusual for the Mor- 
 mon bishops, and Brigham Young has set them the 
 example. 
 
 I have intimated a doubt of his sincerity in first 
 joining the church, for I think he should have been 
 too shrewd a man to believe in the miracles or divine 
 mission of Joe Smith ; but however that may be, I am 
 half inclined to think that he has convinced himself 
 that he is inspired. He may have vivid dreams, which 
 he honestly supposes to be revelations. It must be 
 admitted, however, that these revelations are, like 
 those of Smith, very convenient and well adapted to 
 the policy of the occasion. 
 
 In Utah he is generally called a good man. Else- 
 where he is almost invariably called bad. In review- 
 ing his history we cannot touch upon his motives. 
 These are known only to God and to himself, but he 
 must be judged by his acts and their consequences. 
 These are both bad and good. He has retaliated 
 upon his enemies by treating them harshly and per- 
 haps with cruelty, but the provocation should be taken 
 into account. On the other hand, he has done much 
 
146 BRIGHAM YOUNG AS A RELIGIOUS LEADER. 
 
 good for his own people. He has been accused of 
 instigating, if not of absolutely perpetrating, brutal 
 murders in years past ; but there is no warrant for 
 believing this, while it is undoubtedly true that he 
 would not allow the interests of the church to suffer 
 by bringing the offenders to justice. 
 
 Is he an out-and-out hypocrite ? By no means. 
 Is he always sincere ? Facts are rather adverse to 
 this supposition. Is he a great man ? Yes, he is ; 
 and history will one day record that among all im- 
 postors or leaders of new sects, Brigham Young 
 has been one of the most successful, if not in pointing 
 out the true road to heaven, at least in heading a new 
 civilization, which, with all its errors in practice and 
 they will soon disappear has drawn together tens of 
 thousands of people and made them happier and more 
 prosperous on this earth than they ever were before. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The original Confession of Faith. Its unfortunate Article Ninth. 
 Some Doctrines Harmless and some Atrocious. Baptism and Mar- 
 riage for the Dead. Strange Ideas of the Divine Nature. Blood 
 ''Atonement " now Obsolete. 
 
 OF the Mormon sect it may be truly said, as of 
 every other Christian organization, and of 
 Christianity itself, that "the blood of the Martyrs is 
 the seed of the Church." If Mormonism had been left 
 to itself, it would have died like thousands of other 
 wild extravagances that have cropped out in the ages, 
 expiring from want of the air stirred up by the fan 
 of persecution. 
 
 It was a harmless little beast in its infancy, but its 
 enemies evoked the spirit of the devil wherewith to 
 defend itself. 
 
 What could be more simple and inoffensive than 
 the creed promulgated by Joe Smith in 1842 ? 
 
 1. We believe in God, the eternal Father, and in 
 His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. We believe that men will be punished for their 
 own sins, and not for Adam's transgression. 
 
 3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ 
 
148 THE MORMON CREED. 
 
 all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws 
 and ordinances of the Gospel. 
 
 4. We believe that these ordinances are : first, 
 Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; second, Repentance ; 
 third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of 
 sins ; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 5. We believe that a man must be called of God 
 by " prophecy and by laying on of hands " by those 
 who are in authority to preach the Gospel, and ad- 
 minister in the ordinances thereof. 
 
 6. We believe in the same organization that existed 
 in the primitive church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pas- 
 tors, teachers, evangelists, etc., etc. 
 
 7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, 
 revelation, visions, healing, interpretations of tongues, 
 etc. 
 
 8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as 
 far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the 
 Book of Mormon to be the word of God. 
 
 9. We believe all that God has revealed, and that 
 He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet 
 reveal many great and important things pertaining to 
 the Kingdom of God. 
 
 10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel 
 and of the restoration of the Ten Tribes ; that Zion 
 will be built upon this continent ; that Christ will 
 reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth 
 will be renewed and receive its Paradisiac glory. 
 
 1 1 . We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty 
 God according to the dictates of our conscience, and 
 allow all men the same privilege, let them worship 
 how, where, or what they may. 
 
 12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, 
 rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and 
 sustaining the law. 
 
 13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benev- 
 
ARTICLE NINTH. 1 49 
 
 olent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men ; in- 
 deed we may say that we follow the admonition of 
 Paul, " We believe all things, hope all things." We 
 have endured many things, and hope to be able to 
 endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, 
 lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek 
 after these things. JOSEPH SMITH. 
 
 Why, even the Evangelical Alliance, that refused to 
 spread its holy skirts over Roman Catholics, because 
 they believe too much, and over Unitarians because 
 they believe too little, could scarcely have objected to 
 receive the Mormons into their fold ! 
 
 The ninth article is the only one which really means 
 mischief to society. This has opened the door to in- 
 novations which have pushed Mormonism into such a 
 remote corner of Christ's vineyard that it is unknown 
 as still a part of it to those who walk in its beaten 
 paths. 
 
 In accordance with the faith expressed in Article 
 9, " Many great and important things pertaining to 
 the kingdom of God " have been since revealed, and 
 there is still room for more revelations. 
 
 Some of the new doctrines are harmless enough, 
 and the only ones which really clash with outside 
 civilization, and come in contact with the laws of 
 the land, are those of " blood-atonement " and poly- 
 gamy. 
 
 One of the most absurd on which I heard a most 
 
ISO BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD. 
 
 elaborate sermon preached is that of "baptism for 
 the dead." The text was 1st Corinthians, xv. 29 : 
 " Else what shall they do, which are baptized for the 
 dead, if the dead rise not at all ? Why, are they then 
 baptized for the dead ? " 
 
 As this text has always been a puzzle for theologians 
 of every stripe, it was for the Mormons to have a 
 "revelation" which should unravel it. So it was 
 revealed that all baptisms since the time of the 
 apostles until the advent of Joe Smith being null and 
 void, the only way in which the intervening genera- 
 tions could inherit salvation is by the proxy baptism 
 of their descendants. 
 
 Devout Mormons accordingly are critical students 
 of genealogy, hunting up their ancestors as far back 
 as possible, and getting repeatedly immersed to save 
 their souls. 
 
 Alas, how few can trace beyond their grandparents ! 
 Many cannot go into antiquity beyond their fathers, 
 and there are unfortunate people who cannot look 
 backwards even so far as that. At best, some proud 
 Briton is able to prove that his progenitors " came 
 over with William the Conqueror." 
 
 In such a family an extraordinary number of souls 
 may be rescued from purgatory by the repeated im- 
 mersions of their descendants. But even in these 
 cases the intervening generations for many hundred 
 
MARRIAGE FOR THE DEAD. !$! 
 
 years must perish. How much more sad is the fate 
 of the great average of Mormon ancestry ! 
 
 The next doctrine in the order of absurdity, and 
 one closely allied to the foregoing, is that of proxy- 
 marriage for the dead. The marriage ceremony, 
 since the days of the apostles, having been performed 
 by priests who had not received the proper " laying- 
 on of hands," is considered invalid, and consequently 
 all the progeny of the people so united is illegitimate 
 in the eye of Heaven. 
 
 But this reproach is to be taken away by a process 
 somewhat similar to the baptism for the dead. The 
 Mormon of the present is to stand up and be married 
 for his ancestors, and thus make their marriages legal. 
 The confused condition of society which has hereto- 
 fore existed in the spirit-world will be brought into 
 order. Husbands and wives who have been separa- 
 ted for fifteen or sixteen centuries will be reunited, 
 and will again beget children in heaven ; for it is a 
 Mormon tenet that marriages contracted by Latter- 
 Day Saints on earth, or those thus legalized above, 
 are eternally continuous that men and women there 
 have the same flesh and blood of which they are here 
 made, and are possessed of the same animal natures. 
 
 Consequently the propagation of the human race 
 will be continued, and as myriads of new beings are 
 thus called into existence, new worlds upon worlds 
 
152 MORMON IDEA OF GOD. 
 
 will be created for their occupation, and this repro- 
 duction of men and worlds will continue throughout 
 eternity. 
 
 There are innumerable vagaries besides these into 
 which run the crazy imaginations of the prophets, in- 
 duced by dreams, begotten perhaps by indigestion, 
 but which they call visions or revelations. 
 
 Many of their doctrines are so materialistic that 
 they seem blasphemous to us. Founding their belief 
 on the declaration of the Almighty that He would 
 make men " after His own image," they say that 
 the great First Cause is Himself a being of flesh and 
 blood ; so is Christ, and so is the Holy Ghost ; so are 
 all the Angels, and so are all the redeemed among 
 men. 
 
 " God," they say, was literally " the father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." Christ himself was, although a 
 divine teing, a married man and Martha and Mary 
 were His wives because l< He loved them " and He 
 must have had children ; "for who shall declare His 
 generation ? " 
 
 These and other wild extravagances are the results 
 of that pernicious article ninth of Joe Smith's creed, 
 which allows future revelations to instil new doctrines. 
 The Book of Mormon, chiefly purporting to be a 
 history, does not authorize them. They are all 
 modern improvements. 
 
BLOOD- ATONEMENT. 153 
 
 Now, I do not suppose that it is of the least possi- 
 ble consequence to other people whether the Mor- 
 mons continue to believe or renounce them. It is 
 no man's business what another man believes, so 
 long as that belief is not practically injurious to so- 
 ciety. The only thing which concerns us is that the 
 life and property of every man, woman, and child, 
 so far as the laws of the United States can control 
 them, shall be as secure in Utah as in any other State 
 or Territory of the Union, and they are. 
 . The "blood-atonement" is no more advocated as 
 it once was in the Mormon pulpit. When it was 
 preached and practised to such a fearful extent as for- 
 merly, it was a barbarism worse than slavery or poly- 
 gamy. No man's life was safe under its rule. It was 
 held justifiable to slay an apostate not, remember, 
 from revenge, but for the good of his own soul ! 
 Nay, more, apostates who desired to return to the 
 church, and others who had committed deadly offen- 
 ces, often had upon their consciences such weights of 
 unforgiven sin, that despairing of heaven without the 
 " remission by the shedding of blood," they have sur- 
 rendered themselves to be sacrificed by their friends ; 
 and these wretched fanatics have murdered their 
 brothers to save their souls ! 
 
 A most horrible, and I fear too true a story, is told 
 of a refined and beautiful woman in Salt Lake City 
 7* 
 
154 GAINING AN 
 
 who had been unfaithful to her husband, and who 
 came to him confessing her sin, obtained his forgive- 
 ness, gave and received a farewell kiss, and then he 
 coolly cut her throat in order that the blood-atone- 
 ment might procure for her " an exaltation," and 
 that they might be again united in heaven ! 
 
 Fortunately, this horrible doctrine, having escaped 
 the notice of politicians and newspapers in their 
 attention to polygamy, is dying a natural death. In 
 years gone by it has been the instigator of great 
 wrong and suffering. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Mountain Meadows Massacre. The Battle with the Morrisites, 
 " Let us have peace " 
 
 Mormon nature, like that of a -hound which 
 has once tasted blood, has been on occasions 
 ferocious. The "Mountain Meadows Massacre " of 
 1857 is one of tne saddest recorded instances of bar- 
 barous fanaticism. 
 
 A company of emigrants of one hundred and 
 twenty men, women, and children, on their way to 
 California, were passing through Utah. Heretofore, 
 and generally afterwards, the emigrants were kindly 
 treated by the Mormons, whose interest it was to ex- 
 change with them provisions for money and articles 
 of trade. But in this case, merely because it was 
 conjectured that among their number there were two 
 or three individuals who had persecuted the Saints 
 while they were settled in Missouri, vengeance was 
 taken on the whole company. 
 
 Brigham Young then held the commission of 
 Governor from the President of the United States. 
 
156 THE MASSACRE. 
 
 
 
 It is said, and I do not know that it has been denied 
 by him, that he sent orders to all the settlements to 
 \vithhold supplies from this company, and to have no 
 intercourse with them whatever. If this be true, it 
 should have been the cause of his instant removal 
 from office ; for it was equivalent to an attempt to 
 starve them, and was in any point of view a criminal 
 offence in an officer of the government. 
 
 After unsuccessful attempts to procure provisions, 
 the company moved on to the West ; but before they 
 had got beyond the confines of Utah, they were at- 
 tacked by a large force of Indians and Mormons 
 disguised as Indians, and every individual, with the 
 exception of seventeen little children, was murdered 
 in cold blood ! 
 
 It is scarcely pretended that Brigham Young gave 
 the order for this massacre, but it is a fact that he 
 took no steps to bring the perpetrators to punishment. 
 The band of murderers was undoubtedly made up of 
 savages, thieves, and zealots, and the crime may be 
 imputed to them all. But no one can deny that Mor- 
 monism is entitled to its share. This is the most 
 horrid story in all the annals of Utah. 
 
 Next in order is the butchery of the Morrisites in 
 1862. Morris was a fanatic who had the audacity to 
 have revelations at variance with those given by the 
 Lord to Brigham Young. He was instructed by the 
 
MURDER OF THE MORRISITES. 157 
 
 Lord to warn Brigham himself that he was going to 
 too great an excess in matrimony. 
 
 The prophet, of course, did not credit the divine 
 mission of Morris, nor did he like to be instructed by 
 him ; but he treated him with sublime indifference. 
 At last Morris, growing bold, rendered himself ame- 
 nable to the civil law, and, after many disputes, he and 
 his followers took up arms and entrenched themselves 
 in their fortified settlement. 
 
 Here they were attacked by the Mormon forces, 
 and their surrender demanded. Retiring into their 
 " bowery," the summer meeting-house in general use, 
 they commenced praying to the Lord for counsel. 
 Then the Mormons fired on them, killing several 
 persons and severely wounding others. Among them 
 was a little girl whom I afterwards met at Soda Springs. 
 She is now a married woman, and her scarred face 
 is a memorial of that day. From herself and her hus- 
 band, who was also present, I received this account. 
 
 The men rushed to their arms, and defended 
 themselves, their families, and their property for three 
 days, when their ammunition was exhausted. Then, 
 under the protection of a white flag, they surrendered 
 and Burton, the leader of the attacking party, riding 
 up to Morris, shot him dead, and when two women 
 thereupon called him a bloodthirsty wretch, this 
 modern Claverhouse shot them dead likewise ! Thus 
 
158 AN END OF THESE ATROCITIES. 
 
 did he make a " blood-atonement" for the wretched 
 Morrisites and saved their souls ! 
 
 Happily, these atrocities are things of the past. 
 They proceeded from a curious mixture of human 
 passion and religious fanaticism, superinduced by re- 
 membrance of the persecutions which they them- 
 selves had suffered. " Vengeance is mine, saith the 
 Lord," but the Mormons, supposing that they, like 
 the Israelites, were his peculiar people, considered 
 themselves deputed by him to carry out his behests. 
 In their view, all who interfered with them were 
 Canaanites, Jebusites, Hittites, and Amalekites, and 
 if Joshua and the armies of Israel smote these trouble- 
 some neighbors by tens of thousands at a time, they 
 really did not think they had done anything wrong in 
 killing a few Gentiles and heretics, especially when 
 what never entered into Joshua's plans their souls 
 were to be saved by " the shedding of -blood ! " 
 
 I do not remember the name of the Federal officer 
 to whom some deputation recently came with a long 
 string of grievances and an enumeration of outrages 
 committed by the Mormons. " Have any of these 
 things been done within a year ? " he asked. " No." 
 "Within two, three, four, or five years?" " No." 
 " Well," he replied, " if they have kept the peace so 
 long, we can trust them now without looking into the 
 past." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Polygamy. Orson Prates Discourse on Marriage. Mormon Argu- 
 ments in favor of Polygamy. 
 
 THE bete noir now agitating the public mind is poly- 
 gamy, which is still prevalent in Utah, although 
 it does not exist to the extent generally supposed. 
 Probably through the territory one man out of five or 
 six may have more than one wife. In some settle- 
 ments a polygamic family cannot be found at all. 
 
 When, as is seen by the last census, there are more 
 males than females in the Territory, it must be admit- 
 ted that the natural tendencies are against it. 
 
 It is well enough to make a distinction, which is not 
 always allowed, between sin and crime. If I remember 
 aright my old Assembly's Catechism, " Sin is any 
 want of conformity to, or transgression of, the Law of 
 God." Now the Law of God is imprinted differently 
 on different consciences ; whereas crime, which is an of- 
 fence against the law of the land, is printed clearly and 
 distinctly, so that the characters are legible to all alike. 
 Polygamy to those of us who pin our faith on the New 
 Testament is a sin ; to the Latter-Day Saints, who 
 
160 WHAT IS SIN? 
 
 irmgine their church a reproduction of Judaism to a 
 
 great extent, and who consequently rely quite as 
 
 
 much on the Old Testament as on the New, it may be 
 
 no sin, but for them as well as for us it is. a crime, 
 because bigamy is an offence against the common 
 law. 
 
 " Sin," says Shenstone, " does not consist in any 
 deviation from received opinion ; it does not depend 
 upon the understanding, but the will. Now, if it ap- 
 pear that a man's opinion has happened to misplace 
 his duty, and this opinion has not been owing to any 
 vicious desire of indulging his appetites in short, if 
 his own reason, liable to err, has biased his will, rather 
 than his will contributed to bias and deprave his 
 reason, he will perhaps appear guilty before none be- 
 side an earthly tribunal." I commend the casuistry 
 of this old essayist to the candid consideration of my 
 Mormon friends. If any one of them can truly say 
 that he is a polygamist not "owing to any vicious 
 desire of indulging his appetites," then he is merely 
 a criminal, not a sinner. 
 
 Orson Pratt preached a discourse on marriage while 
 I was at Salt Lake, and fortunately on that day I 
 happened to be present at the Tabernacle. This 
 apostle is the most eloquent of all the brotherhood. 
 He is a man of fine appearance and of such a logical 
 turn of mind that he was selected to enter the lists 
 
ORSON PRATT'S LOGIC. l6l 
 
 against the Rev. Dr. Newman when he came to Salt 
 Lake for the purpose of showing the Mormons the 
 error of their ways. 
 
 In this sermon he laid down these propositions : 
 " Baptism is a religious sacrament ; marriage is a re- 
 ligious sacrament. Congress will not pretend to 
 legislate for baptism. It will not ordain how a man 
 shall be baptized, whether he shall be sprinkled or 
 immersed, or how much he shall be sprinkled or im- 
 mersed. What right, then, has Congress to legislate 
 about marriage ? What right has it to say how we 
 shall be married, or how much we shall be married ? " 
 
 He then went on to the threadbare argument of 
 patriarchal polygamy, showing how it was practised 
 by those holy men who are supposed to have been 
 especial favorites with the Almighty. 
 
 "Now," said he, " I will suppose myself to be a 
 Gentile, and at my death in some way I have attained 
 heaven the heaven all Christians desire when they 
 talk of ' sitting down with Abraham and Isaac and 
 Jacob in the Kingdom of God.' Well, the angel 
 opens for me one of the pearly gates of Paradise, and 
 I am about to walk in and take my place, when my 
 eye rests upon Jacob sitting there with his four wives, 
 Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah, with all their chil- 
 dren. I draw back in disgust, and tell the angel that I 
 cannot sit down near that old polygamist ! 
 
1 62 LITERAL SCRIPTURE. 
 
 "Well, the angel kindly shows me in at another gate. 
 But there I see David, ' the man after God's own 
 heart/ and Solomon, the man whom He endowed 
 with celestial wisdom ; I see them with crowds of wives 
 and hundreds of children. ' Worse and worse,' I tell 
 the angel ; * I won't go in there. Is there no other 
 place for me ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh yes,' replies my divine conductor, ' there is 
 plenty of room for you outside, " for without are dogs, 
 and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and 
 idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." 
 I think that is the place that will just suit such par- 
 ticular people as you ! ' And so I am obliged to put 
 up with the society of God's favorites, or with that 
 of the devil's imps ! " 
 
 "What do you think of the sermon?" asked a 
 Mormon gentleman, as we walked home from the 
 Tabernacle. " Wasn't it all scriptural ? " 
 
 " Yes," I replied, " it was ; and so if Mr. Pratt had 
 told you to sacrifice your son, as Abraham proposed 
 to do, or to immolate your daughter, as Jephtha actu- 
 ally did, would you feel justified in obeying ? " " Yes, 
 I suppose so," he replied, after a little hesitation, " if 
 it's Scripture." "Well, it is Scripture," I answered 
 " Old Testament Scripture good enough Scripture 
 for those times, but which will not stand the test of 
 modern civilization. If Abraham lived in these days, 
 
MERIT CLAIMED FOR POLYGAMY. 163 
 
 and sharpened his knife to slay his son, we would put 
 him in a kinatic asylum ; and as to Jephtha, we would 
 hang him if the jury did not disagree, or find him 
 guilty of forgery or petit larceny. Just so with your 
 polygamy. The law of the land is against it. Any- 
 where else you would be convicted of bigamy. Only 
 here, fortunately for you, no jury would bring in such 
 a verdict." 
 
 Rev. Dr. Newman, and all such men, make a great 
 mistake in discussing polygamy on its religious merits, 
 unless they are willing to throw the Old Testament 
 overboard altogether at least that part of it which 
 they cannot disprove. 
 
 While advocating its abolition as soon as natural 
 causes will bring it about, without detriment to the 
 happiness and welfare of families, the good of society, 
 and the peace of the country, I am forced to admit 
 that its consequences are not altogether so horrible 
 as they are often represented to be. 
 
 There is nothing so good that it may not be abused, 
 neither is there anything so bad that it may not be of 
 some use. Polygamy is surely bad enough, but the 
 Mormons claim for it this merit : it annihilates what is 
 called the " social evil," by making comparatively 
 respectable women of girls who might otherwise be 
 prostitutes. This vice, excepting in communities 
 largely composed of Gentiles, does not exist in Utah, 
 
1 64 MR. AND MRS. STENHOUSE. 
 
 
 and even there it is kept down by Mormon territorial 
 
 and municipal law. 
 
 The women themselves are not averse to polygamy. 
 Among the working classes in the country they say it 
 promotes a division of labor. The Utah farmer's 
 wives do not have the over-worked air of the women 
 of our country districts, who are obliged singly to 
 bear all the children and to do all the work of the 
 family. 
 
 And yet Mrs. Stenhouse would have us understand 
 that the doctrine is universally execrated by her sex. 
 Doubtless there are many women who are living in its 
 practice with continual abhorrence and disgust. But 
 it must be remembered that Mrs. Stenhouse and her 
 husband are apostates. Like all apostates, they are in- 
 clined to unmeritedly abuse the faith they once pro- 
 fessed. Mr. and Mrs. Stenhouse are regarded in Salt 
 Lake City with aversion alike by Gentiles and Mormons. 
 By their own confession they believed in the divine 
 revelation of Mormonism, polygamy and all, with very 
 little scruple or hesitation, until Brigham Young gave 
 them an order to remove to Ogden for the benefit 
 of the church, and thus to sacrifice a lucrative busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Then all at once their eyes became opened to th 2 
 enormities of a religion they had professed and 
 practised for so manv years. They found that they 
 
LADIES FAVOR POLYGAMY. 165 
 
 
 could gain more money by abandoning and vilifying 
 
 it than by remaining its disciples. They have proved 
 that they were either insincere throughout all their 
 Mormon experience, or that they are insincere now. 
 
 I was astonished to hear polygamy advocated by 
 ladies of education and refinement, among them a 
 school-teacher who strongly favored it, perhaps be- 
 cause she was no longer young. At a hotel where I 
 was staying I met a young married lady of one of 
 the first families of Salt Lake. Two of her intimate 
 friends were with her. One day, when they were out 
 of the room, she asked me, " What do you think of 
 A ?" " She is a charming girl," I replied. "In- 
 deed she is," exclaimed Mrs. B . " I do wish 
 
 B (her husband) would marry her. I should so 
 
 like to have her with me all the time ! " 
 
 The Mormon ladies believe that in the other world 
 a married woman arrives at a higher sphere than an 
 unmarried one, and that one who is willing that her hus- 
 band should have another wife has a still higher place. 
 The men share in the same belief, and think that the 
 more wives they have the happier they will be in the 
 future. 
 
 I know a bishop who said that he really did not 
 want to take a second wife, and his wife did not wish 
 him to marry again, until they both prayed often and 
 fervently over it, and at last became convinced that 
 
1 66 A CONSCIENTIOUS BISHOP. 
 
 their eternal welfare would be promoted by the 
 process, and then they concluded to have another 
 woman in the family. I noticed, however, that the 
 conscientious bishop mitigated his reluctance by select- 
 ing a young and pretty girl for his self-sacrifice and 
 spiritual good. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the arrangement appears 
 to work better when the wives are sisters. It is not 
 uncommon for a man to marry several of them. Per- 
 haps it is for the sake of having only one mother-in- 
 law. Unless a visitor takes up his residence in a 
 family for some time, he cannot be a judge of its 
 domestic happiness or misery. Even when there is 
 only one husband and one wife, in any community 
 "good faces are always put on before company." 
 Most people are sensible enough to keep their private 
 quarrels out of sight. 
 
 A henpecked Mormon may have this advantage 
 over a Gentile. He may escape from one wife who 
 happens to be in a bad temper to the society of 
 another, who, for the time being, is more amiably 
 disposed ; but on the whole, he must have a hard 
 time, for occasionally he will be obliged to stand the 
 ^extraordinary pressure of them all. As to the women 
 who elsewhere complain of having a man about them 
 continually to torment them, they have the satisfac- 
 tion of dividing his ill-nature as well as his attentions. 
 
MORMON ARGUMENTS. l6/ 
 
 I was never inquisitive when visiting Mormon 
 families. Sometimes conversation was volunteered. 
 A very respectable gentleman in Salt Lake City re- 
 marked : "The only difference between our people 
 and yours, is that we marry our concubines you 
 don't." 
 
 One argued against Gentiles, that there were 
 many unmarried young men in Utah and yet no 
 houses of prostitution there, while in other communi- 
 ties, where the same proportion of married and unmar- 
 ried men existed, all of them were infested by broth- 
 els, therefore those houses must be mainly supported by 
 the married. 
 
 A Gentile lady asked a Mormon lady, with whom 
 she was on intimate terms, how she could bear the 
 knowledge that her husband was passing his time 
 with another woman? She replied, "Certainly it is 
 not pleasant to think of, but we have this advantage 
 over you, we know where our husbands are you 
 don't ! " The other might have well retorted that in 
 such a case " ignorance is bliss ! " 
 
 A gentleman catechised me in this way : " What do 
 you think of the majority of the women in Salt Lake 
 City do you think they are virtuous or not, it being 
 understood that polygamy is justifiable ? " 
 
 " With that exception, I believe there is no city in 
 the world where they are more so." 
 
168 COMPARATIVE MORALITY. 
 
 " How does it compare in this respect with New 
 York or Boston ? " 
 
 "Most favorably." 
 
 " What are the average wages of shop-girls in those 
 cities ? " 
 
 " I believe about five dollars per week." 
 
 " Doesn't it cost them about that for board and 
 lodging ? " 
 
 " I should suppose it might." 
 
 " Where do they get their silk dresses, then ? " 
 
 " Well, there are many of them who don't have 
 silk dresses ; and some of them who do have them 
 get them honestly. A great many of them undoubt- 
 edly do what they ought not to do." 
 
 " Yes, and wouldn't it be better for them to be No. 
 2, 3, or 4 in a good family here than to earn money 
 in that way ? " 
 
 " That's a matter of taste for those young women 
 to consider. I don't think it is polygamy that keeps 
 your women virtuous. It is their simple habit of 
 dress ; when fashion asserts its authority in Salt Lake 
 and takes charge of your decks, look out for breakers 
 ahead ! " 
 
 I have spoken of polygamy sometimes lightly, for I 
 have seen it chiefly in its comical aspects. But to 
 treat it seriously, let us meet the Mormon arguments 
 squarely. " It has the example of the patriarchs," they 
 
CONDEMNATION OF POLYGAMY. 1 69 
 
 say. We repudiate the practices of those too much 
 venerated men, and fall back on the pure precepts of 
 Christianity. 
 
 " It prevents the prostitution of women." Allow- 
 ing this argument all the force it deserves, we have 
 already hinted that simplicity of dress is a greater safe- 
 guard for virtue. 
 
 " It divides the labor of the household ! " Most 
 women would prefer all the labor and all the husband. 
 If woman-nature is the same that it is elsewhere, 
 even the hopes of a greater " exaltation " in the 
 other world can hardly pay for the heart-burnings 
 and jealousies that, despite all denial, must infallibly 
 torment a family of many women and one man ! 
 
 It is idle to extenuate the evils of a system that 
 must be condemned in toto as a blot upon civiliza- 
 tion, a degradation of women, and a monstrosity too 
 abnormal to live. 
 8 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Future of the Mormon Religion. 
 
 POLYGAMY cannot much longer survive. There 
 are causes at work which will bring about its 
 speedy extinction. The Congress of the United States 
 has firmly resolved that whatever may be the increase 
 of the population of Utah, it shall not be admitted as a 
 State until polygamy is abolished. 
 
 Brigham Young and all those in authority are ex- 
 tremely desirous, for the perpetuation of their own 
 power, that a State government shall be established. 
 The people are already exceedingly restive under the 
 tithing system. The ten-per-cent. income-tax for the 
 church is becoming yearly more difficult to collect. 
 " Pay your tithes or you cannot inherit the kingdom," 
 has been the refrain of many sermons that I have 
 heard. 
 
 Once a State, Utah will be more free of Federal 
 control than it now is as a Territory, and then taxes, 
 nominally for the State, but in some way made ad- 
 vantageous for the church, can be colhected by law, 
 and these not only from apostate Mormons but from 
 
UTAH AS A STATE. I/I 
 
 Gentiles as well. Every State, county, municipal, and 
 town officer will be a Mormon. The judiciary will be 
 Mormon. The public schools will be, if possible, 
 more under Mormon influence than they now are, and 
 the Book of Mormon will be their text-book. There 
 is nothing in the Constitution of the United States 
 to prevent such an exercise of State rights. 
 
 Congress having refused to admit Utah as a State 
 to the Union until polygamy is discontinued, has 
 virtually declared that with its abolition no objection 
 to her admission will be offered. Naturally, the Gen- 
 tile part of the population do not desire it, for they 
 know that they will have no power or voice in the 
 management of State affairs. The Mormons pray for 
 it "continually, and their prayers will soon be heard, 
 for Brigham Young will ere long have another revela- 
 tion. Some angel is probably already on the way 
 to him with a new "Thus saith the Lord." In short, 
 although he would dislike extremely to yield up a 
 favorite doctrine, the preservation of his power and 
 the collection of tithes are of more importance to 
 him than the continuance of one practice alone stand- 
 ing in the way, and which has not the attractions for 
 him that it once had. 
 
 Moreover, he is aware that there are other influences 
 aiding to accomplish its overthrow. A few small 
 sects of the Mormons in Utah are opposed to it, and 
 
172 DRESSMAKERS' GOSPELS. 
 
 on the banks of the Missouri the church of the Latter- 
 Day Saints is being revived in its original purity by 
 the son of its founder. This society is sending its 
 missionaries into the country, and their influence is 
 widely felt. 
 
 There are Gentile missionaries, too, earnestly at 
 work, not of the "American Board," or of the 
 proselyting sect of the Rev. Dr. Newman, but more 
 mighty than these, the priestesses of fashion milli- 
 ners and dressmakers. 
 
 These come to Salt Lake City, and display their 
 gospels in the shop windows, and conversions are 
 miraculous. Despite all the anathemas of Brigham 
 Young, the Mormon women are becoming fond of 
 jaunty hats, ribbons, and expensive silks. His own 
 wives and daughters indulge in those worldly vanities 
 to an alarming extent. Powerful as he is in council 
 and in all else, he cannot control a woman's love of 
 finery and extravagance. 
 
 So far as he is concerned it does not matter. He is 
 rich and can afford it. But alas for the man of mode- 
 rate means ! When woman ceases to be a help-meet 
 for him, and becomes only an expensive toy to be kept 
 in ornamental repair, how shall he support more than 
 one wife ? I say it seriously, this solves the question 
 of polygamy. 
 
 But what of Mormonism when this stain upon it: is 
 
WHAT MORMONISM HAS ACCOMPLISHED. 1/3 
 
 erased? It will be stronger than ever. No other 
 sects of Christians can populate this territory in the 
 same ratio. The miners and traders, who come here 
 with little enthusiasm for religion of any kind, are 
 comparatively few in number, are without families, 
 and seldom remain permanently. 
 
 Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand Mormons 
 are already in Utah and the adjoining territories. 
 Missionaries are spreading their faith in all directions, 
 and a union will probably soon be formed with the fol- 
 lowers of the younger Smith. The immigration from 
 the Eastern continent, now coming in by thousands, 
 will be increased immeasurably. 
 
 When I remember what I have seen in the North of 
 Europe, among the Scandinavian nations from whom 
 the Saints are so largely recruited, how wretchedly 
 ignorant, enslaved, and brutalized they are in their old 
 homes ; and compare this with what I have witnessed of 
 the intelligent freedom, industry, sobriety and happi- 
 ness of those who have emigrated to Utah ; when I see 
 how, notwithstanding all its defects and even barbar- 
 isms, the Mormon faith, where it has supreme control, 
 has utterly abolished intemperance, gambling, licen- 
 tiousness, and general immorality, I cannot regret the 
 existence of a religion that has conferred such benefits 
 upon humanity. 
 
 In due time, if their growth is not encouraged by 
 
1/4 A PURIFIED RELIGION. 
 
 the stimulus of persecution and political agitation, all 
 the excrescences of Mormonism will be lopped off, the 
 poisonous vines that still cling to it will die a natural 
 death, and the tree itself will live with others " to 
 bear the peaceable fruits of righteousness " in the 
 garden of God. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Inspection of the Ger mania Smelting Works. Interest of the Ladies 
 In the Processes and the Manager. The beautiful " TestS" 1 Diffi- 
 culty of obtaining Coke. The Southern Utah Railroad. 
 
 AT present a great deal of the ore as it comes 
 roughly from the silver mines is shipped over 
 the Utah Central and Union Pacific Roads, to the East, 
 and some of it finds its way to New York, where it is 
 refined, or whence it is shipped to England. Much of 
 the coarser kind is shipped by the Central Pacific to 
 San Francisco, and thence by sailing-vessels to Europe, 
 the shorter distance by rail making a lesser freight 
 counterbalance the loss of time. A very large por- 
 tion of the ore, however, goes East, and is delivered 
 at Pittsburgh, where the cheapness of coal and coke 
 converts it into bullion on the most favorable terms. 
 But there are several small establishments for smelting 
 in Utah Territory, most of which are at Sandy, a few 
 miles from the Cottonwood Canons. There are others 
 among the Western mining districts in Bingham, Dry, 
 and Ophir Caftons. 
 
 That which I am about to describe is conducted on 
 
176 EXCURSION WITH BRIGHAM YOUNG. 
 
 the most scientific and economical plan. It embraces 
 all recent improvements, by which a large waste of 
 mineral is prevented, and consequently it yields a good 
 revenue to the proprietors. 
 
 As it is not a stock-jobbing concern, and there is not 
 a disposition on the part of the owners to sell it, I did 
 not find such difficulty in obtaining information there as 
 I experienced on making inquiries at the Emma Mine. 
 
 On the occasion of our first visit to Salt Lake, when 
 Brigham Young gave us an excursion on the " Utah 
 Southern," although we were prevented by the rain 
 from a full enjoyment of the entertainment, the scien- 
 tific portion of our party were highly delighted with 
 the inspection of the Germania Smelting and Refining 
 Works, eight miles from the city, where the train 
 stopped for an hour. We had time to go through the 
 buildings, which are quite extensive, and to examine 
 the curious processes by which the mineral is refined 
 from its dross and becomes pure silver. The irrepres- 
 sible Gail Hamilton, who always wants to see every- 
 thing, and always sees everything to a good purpose, 
 was especially interested, as it was quite in her line. 
 No one can eliminate such pure shining thought from 
 dull matters of fact as can this gifted lady. " Now just 
 tell us all about it, every bit about it," she said to the 
 handsome young German who superintended the es- 
 tablishment. I thought the other ladies were more 
 
FLACH'S INVENTION. 1/7 
 
 interested in the narrator than in the processes he de- 
 scribed. 
 
 He said that Flach, one of his countrymen, was 
 the inventor, modestly disclaiming any merit for 
 himself, although the company owes much to the inge- 
 nuity of his brain. It would obviously be impossible 
 .to remember all the description given by Mr. Billing, 
 but from some notes which he kindly gave me after- 
 wards I will endeavor to condense as much as may 
 be of interest, without tiring the patience of general 
 readers. 
 
 We were shown five large pots, each one capable of 
 holding over twenty tons of base bullion. This is 
 thrown into one of them as it is received from the 
 various smelting works where it has been extracted 
 from the ore. An intense heat is kept up by the 
 furnaces until the temperature is reached at which zinc 
 will melt. 
 
 Zinc is used for the separation of gold, silver, and cop- 
 per from lead, because it has a greater affinity for these 
 and other metals than it has for lead. When base bullion 
 contains from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 ounces of silver per ton, two or three per cent, of zinc 
 is sufficient to separate it completely. After there is 
 sufficient heat the zinc is gradually stirred in, and 
 when the mass has somewhat cooled off it is found that 
 
 the zinc being thoroughly mixed with the lead takes up 
 8* 
 
1/8 COST OF COAL AND COKE. 
 
 the gold and copper with much of the silver, and rises to 
 the surface. After a while this scum is taken off and 
 put into another pot, when the process is renewed, 
 and afterwards into another, renewing it again until 
 the separation is complete ; and by means of tapping 
 the pot the lead runs out and the pure metal remains. 
 The whole time consumed in the operation is about 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 The capacity of the works is forty tons per day. 
 The fuel used is coal and coke. The latter is now 
 very expensive, as it is brought from Pittsburgh, Pa., 
 at a cost of $30 per ton. When the mines of coal in 
 Southern Utah are developed these prices will be 
 materially reduced. The fluxes used are hematite 
 iron ore costing $15 per ton, and lead slag which 
 costs very little, as it is to be had on the spot. What 
 is called the "test," by which, at the termination of 
 all these processes, the pure silver is brought out, was 
 by far the most interesting to us. As soon as the 
 " cupellation " had terminated, there was what may 
 be really styled a beautiful phenomenon of "bright- 
 ening." As soon as the last trace of lead cleared 
 itself from the silver, an instantaneous vivid flash 
 covered the little silver sea and threw out a wonderfully 
 pure and peculiar light. The ladies were in ecstasies 
 over this and begged for a repetition of it, but as 
 another twenty-four hours must have elapsed before 
 
THE SAN PETE MINES. 1/9 
 
 they could be gratified, they were forced to be con- 
 tented with this one beautiful exhibition . Each of them 
 was presented with a bit of the silver, from which 
 they proposed to have made some little ornament, in 
 token of their appreciation of the interesting practical 
 lecture we had received from the courteous young 
 manager. 
 
 If the weather had permitted, we intended to have 
 not only taken a peep at Cottonwood Canon on this 
 occasion, but also to have gone as far as the " Utah 
 Southern," for it is now completed, forty-two miles. 
 This road is intended to go to St. George, more than 
 two hundred miles further, and in the extreme south 
 of the Territory. As it runs through a rich agricultural 
 district it will doubtless prove a valuable property, 
 and of great importance in adding to the general 
 wealth. One great branch of its business will be the 
 transportation of coal from the San Pete mines, which 
 are very nearly on its track, and to which a branch 
 road will be constructed. These mines are really in- 
 exhaustible, and if all reports are true, as I am assured 
 by experts that they are, they possess the inestimable 
 advantage of producing coke from their coal. The 
 great want of all the smelting works is this kind of 
 fuel, which heretofore has been brought all the way 
 from Pennsylvania, at a cost of thirty dollars or more 
 per ton. . Charcoal, in view of the expense of coke, is 
 
ISO SCARCITY OF WOOD. 
 
 much used for smelting purposes. But as wood at best 
 is scarce in Utah, and is becoming more so every day, 
 the price of charcoal is much enhanced. It will, 
 therefore, be very well understood that if coke can be 
 delivered at the works for one-quarter of the present 
 price, an immense impetus will be given to the great 
 mining interests of the Territory. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Iron and Coal more valuable than Silver. Discoveries of Iron Mines 
 and Coal Beds. Need of Capital to operate them. Their future 
 assured Development. 
 
 "\ 7 ALUABLE as are the silver mines of Utah, they 
 V form but a small part of its mineral wealth, The 
 country abounds in coal and iron. These are tangible 
 minerals at all times. They yield a profit to all con- 
 cerned in them. The owner, the laborer, and the car- 
 rier, each with comparatively little risk, enjoys a certain 
 gain. Mines of silver and gold are lotteries, after all, 
 in which vastly more blanks than prizes are drawn. 
 Many are ruined, and a few individuals made rich by 
 speculating in them. They are like stock operations 
 in Wall street. 
 
 Mines of coal and iron may be compared to the le- 
 gitimate commerce of these United States that ex- 
 isted for the benefit of the whole people before 
 ruinous legislation and a depreciated currency en- 
 riched a few, impoverished the many, and made gam- 
 blers of us all. 
 
1 82 IRON AND COAL. 
 
 The southern portion of Utah, in which direction 
 the Utah Southern and the Salt Lake Sevier Valley 
 and Pioche Railroads, already mentioned, are rapidly 
 extending, presents great inducements to iron manufac- 
 turers. Probably nowhere in this country can a 
 similar extent of territory be found containing such im- 
 mense deposits of iron-ore, and coal suitable in its 
 natural condition or without coking for blast-furnace 
 use, and limestone of the greatest purity, in juxtapo- 
 sition. 
 
 The time cannot be far distant when capital will be 
 attracted to the iron and coal mining interests. Then, 
 instead of Utah importing railroad iron, iron castings, 
 tools and machinery from distant parts of the country 
 on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, steel and iron rails 
 will be rolled in the southern counties and all articles 
 manufactured from iron will be furnished, not only 
 for the requirements of the Territory, but to an extent 
 that might supply the entire country between the two 
 oceans. 
 
 The iron-ore is both magnetic and hematite, and re- 
 markably rich in metallic iron, little ore being less 
 than fifty per cent, of pure iron, while the largest pro- 
 portion of all the deposits yet opened will average 
 nearly seventy per cent. 
 
 The great complaint of iron-masters in other parts 
 of this country and in England is, not so much of the 
 
IMPURITIES OF IRON. 183 
 
 leanness of the ore, as of the impurities found in it. 
 Sulphur is often combined with the iron at a large 
 percentage of the whole, and phosphorus, the greatest 
 of all objectionable matter, is in nearly all iron-ore. 
 
 The former can be burnt out by calcining the ore 
 before it is used in the blast-furnace, by which process, 
 however, the cost of the ore is considerably enhanced ; 
 but phosphorus to the present time defies all attempts 
 to remove it entirely. Bessemer steel, or ordinary 
 description of steel of good quality, cannot be made 
 from iron containing even less than half of one per 
 cent, of phosphorus. 
 
 But in Utah it is claimed the iron-ore is found, not 
 in veins, but in immense deposits, of such a character 
 that the laboratory tests show it to be free entirely from 
 both sulphur and phosphorus. It is found in quan- 
 tities heretofore unknown anywhere on our continent. 
 It may also safely be said that, excepting in Wyo- 
 ming, these iron-ore and coal deposits are the only ones 
 of magnitude between the boundaries of Canada and 
 Mexico, and from the Mississippi River to the Pacific. 
 
 At present, with few exceptions, the deposits are 
 almost exclusively claimed and held by parties who 
 are too poor to go even to the expense of survey and 
 purchase from the United States. What is required, in 
 order to bring these deposits now before persons who 
 are engaged in iron manufacture and mining coal, is 
 
1 84 SELECTION OF LANDS. 
 
 some little amount of capital to aid the claimants on 
 shares to procure the titles .from the Government. 
 Some claimants have offered to convey half of their 
 claims to any one who will procure a title, and 
 others will do even better than this in order to attain 
 the same result. 
 
 By the existing laws of Congress, as understood by 
 the Commissioner of the Land Office, large tracts of 
 iron and coal lands can be procured for a small outlay 
 of capital. The future value of these will depend upon 
 their judicious selection, not as to the quantity or 
 quality of the iron-ore and coal, but entirely as to pres- 
 ent and future routes of transportation, settlements, 
 desirability of position for furnaces and large manu- 
 facturing establishments. 
 
 It is hardly possible to go much amiss, however, in 
 selection of the location of iron-ore and coal deposits. 
 The Territory will be soon opened up in various direc- 
 tions by railroads, and no portion of it at an earlier 
 date than in the southern part. 
 
 The project of establishing blast-furnaces, puddling- 
 furnaces, and rolling-mills for manufacture of Besse- 
 mer steel rails, has already been agitated at Salt Lake 
 City. The plan proposed was to locate extensive 
 works in the iron country, about two hundred and 
 fifty miles south of Salt Lake City, for the purpose of 
 supplying the railroad wants of Utah and Nevada, 
 
WANT OF CAPITAL. 185 
 
 as well as the Southern Pacific Railroad, with iron- 
 rails and other material. 
 
 The absolute necessity of such an establishment, the 
 immense advantages presented in iron-ore, coal, and 
 limestone over any other portion of the country to 
 make it extremely profitable, has been discussed by 
 the press and people of the Territory ; but lack of 
 necessary capital, and of men skilled in irpn manufac- 
 turing commencing from the ore-bed, have prevented 
 the undertaking to the present time. 
 
 The coal-fields in San Pete county and Iron county 
 have in many cases been surveyed and taken up. In 
 the former county coal to some extent has been mined, 
 and excellent coke made from the coal has been ex- 
 hibited. 
 
 At present, however, the coke used by the smelting 
 works near Salt Lake is brought all the way by rail- 
 road from beyond Pittsburgh, and sells, as has been 
 stated, at thirty to thirty-five dollars per ton. At times 
 the works are short of this kind of fuel, and occasionally 
 have had to stop work for several days before securing 
 a supply. Of wood and timber the whole Territory is 
 so sparsely supplied, that coal and coke must always 
 be the fuel for all uses. 
 
 The line of the proposed Salt Lake Sevier Valley 
 and Pioche Railroad will open up both the iron-ore 
 and coal deposits, by affording means of transporta- 
 
1 86 GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. 
 
 tion at Summit Creek Canon in Iron county, within 
 twelve miles of the proposed road. Quite a large force 
 of men has been at work on several locations, held 
 by Salt Lake mining operators. Here veins of bitu- 
 minous coal, from six to eight feet wide, have been 
 opened. Specimens from the croppings down to six 
 feet have been exhibited, and pronounced by experts 
 very superior in quality, and free from sulphur and 
 impurities. The geological formation at Summit 
 Creek is sandstone and slate, similar to that in all 
 parts of the county where coal exists ; and elsewhere 
 in the Territory where coal and iron-ore are found, the 
 formation clearly shows them to be of the character 
 of the coal and iron fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 Missouri, and the Lake Superior region. 
 
 Fire-clay, and other clay, suited to building purpo- 
 ses and for manufacture of ware, is abundant through 
 the Territory wherever coal and iron-ore are found. Of 
 manganese and manganesian iron-ore there is more in 
 quantity, and so situated as to be more cheaply mined 
 than in any other part of the world. Speigeliesen made 
 from the manganesian iron-ore, used in combination 
 for smelting, and bleaching-powders from manganese, 
 can here be manufactured in sufficient quantity to meet 
 the wants of the entire country. 
 
 At the date of writing this work, several persons 
 are in England with the surveys and reports on the 
 
ENORMOUS PRICES. l8/ 
 
 mineral deposits of Southern Utah, endeavoring to 
 raise capital there to open up the great interests that 
 have been named. 
 
 Iron-ore and coal deposits, as located by dis- 
 coverers, are offered for sale, or as pledges for loans to 
 be made on them ; the money obtained is to be entirely 
 invested in improvements and in the necessary works 
 to develop the properties. Little success has as yet 
 attended these efforts, for two reasons : first, in pre- 
 senting the properties for sale, enormous prices have 
 been asked ; and secondly, in proposals made for bor- 
 rowing money it was seen at a glance that the parties 
 who had the matter in hand, possessed neither the 
 knowledge nor educated skill to manage such enter- 
 prises. 
 
 The prices asked for the properties are not near the 
 actual values, but those who are interested in the sale 
 should remember that one hundred dollars per acre 
 (which has been asked) for coal and iron-ore lands 
 situated in Southern Utah, away from not only trans- 
 portation, but remote from settlements of any kind, 
 will not be likely to attract purchasers in England. 
 If, on the other hand, owners had offered half their 
 land at a mere nominal price, or even given a deed of 
 the same free of cost, on condition that it be improved, 
 the mines opened, and furnaces and mills established, 
 it would have made for the half held by the owners 
 
1 88 FUTURE VALUE OF MINES. 
 
 a value ten times greater than is likely to be obtained 
 for the whole in event of sale even at prices now 
 asked. 
 
 In fact, in all mining communities enormous prices 
 are asked for what are but mere discoveries or pros- 
 pects. As is often said, a man for a mere showing of 
 mineral on the surface and a hole dug a few feet in the 
 ground, and absolutely nothing more, will ask, un- 
 blushingly, a hundred or two hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Utah, in the large prices asked heretofore for the coal 
 and iron-ore discoveries and locations, has been 
 particularly unfortunate. Both coal and iron-ore are 
 articles of small market value when mined ready for 
 use. The most extensive deposits of the greatest rich- 
 ness and pureness in character, away from transporta- 
 tion and remote from settlements, actually have no 
 immediate value. These possess only a future value, 
 a value when roads shall be made and people shall live 
 along their lines. 
 
 To lead to construction of roads and to induce 
 settlements, coal and iron properties must be presented 
 to the public, at first, at mere nominal prices : not 
 with the idea of obtaining purchasers at prices that 
 will more than pay expenses incurred in locating and 
 obtaining the government patent ; but rather to en- 
 deavor to attract buyers by low prices, and exhibits 
 
IRON AND COAL versus SILVER AND GOLD. 189 
 
 as to what the future will give in return for the large 
 outlay that must be made, outside of the purchase of 
 the fee of the land. One or two successful coal or 
 iron mines operated on a large scale near the line of 
 roads under process of construction, would lead to 
 other developments, and so on, until roads would be 
 specially built, and people go to live near the mines. 
 
 The small iron furnaces now in operation in Utah 
 Territory make large returns to the owners. There is 
 no question but that future results will show that the 
 iron and coal interests of Utah far exceed in value 
 its mines of silver, rich as they are. The actual 
 " out-turn " and result in money profit, will be greater 
 than from all the mines and reduction works of the 
 precious metals. 
 
 Utah Territory, those territories adjacent, the whole 
 country from the Mississippi to California, will be in- 
 tersected by railroads, and settled up by a numerous 
 and thriving population. The iron and coal to pro- 
 duce all this will not be brought from afar, but will be 
 mined and manufactured, to supply the demand, from 
 the deposits in Utah. There are already two small 
 iron furnaces in operation in the southern part of the 
 Territory, where coal is mined in a small way, and 
 though carted some distance, yet pays the parties 
 interested a handsome return. 
 
 Coal in San Pete county has been worked on a 
 
 
COST OF TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 moderate scale for some time, and has found its way of 
 late to Salt Lake City. Iron-ore has been brought by 
 the Union Pacific Railroad from some distance, to be 
 used for flux in reduction of other ores. The cost of 
 transportation, in both cases, interferes with or re- 
 stricts the consumption. All this will be changed by 
 and by, for the immense sources of wealth and profit 
 pointed out as found throughout that portion of Utah, 
 will not long remain undeveloped. The present year, 
 I am led to believe, will not end before action will be 
 taken directly for the working of the coal deposits, 
 and for opening and developing the iron-ore beds. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Evanston Coal Mines. Other Coal Mines along the Line of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad. Oil-bearing Rock. Deposits of Soda and 
 Sulphur. Various Mineral Resources. 7'he Work of Oakes Ames. 
 
 ON the way home I stayed for a few hours at 
 the Evanston coal mine, situated in the east- 
 ern part of the Territory, six miles beyond Echo 
 Canon. 
 
 My stay was necessarily too short to admit of a 
 visit to the dark regions below-ground, but I for- 
 tunately met at the works Mr. T. E. Sickles, the 
 efficient superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad, 
 who very kindly answered all inquiries in regard 
 to the Evanston mines, and gave me some valuable 
 memoranda relating to the mineral products not only 
 in this immediate neighborhood, but all along the line 
 of that road. As they are intimately connected with 
 the prosperity of Utah, mention of them will not 
 be considered out of place. Mr. Sickles says that 
 the Evanston and other mines, scattered along by 
 the side of the track for a distance of four hundred 
 miles extending to Wyoming station, are inex- 
 
I Q2 STRATA OF COAL. 
 
 haustible treasuries of bituminous coal. All these 
 discoveries have been made since the road was pro- 
 jected, arid they are consequently unexpected but 
 welcome additions to its property value. 
 
 Coal mines have been opened at Carbon, Rock 
 Springs, and Evanston, and at other points on the 
 Union Pacific Railroad, from which were mined dur- 
 ing the year 1873 an aggregate of three hundred and 
 fifty thousand tons for the use of the Pacific and Utah 
 Railroads, and also for domestic consumption at all the 
 towns along the line of railroad between Omaha and 
 Sacramento. 
 
 The coal is found in strata, either horizontal or with 
 slight inclination, varying in thickness from a few 
 inches to twenty-eight feet, which latter is the thickest 
 vein developed up to this time. It has furnished 
 about one half of all the coal taken out during the 
 year. 
 
 The quality of the coal for domestic use, or for use 
 of locomotives, is known to be unsurpassed by any 
 bituminous coal in this country. No experiments 
 have been made in the manufacture of iron by the use 
 of this coal, and its value therefore, for this purpose, 
 is unknown. 
 
 Within a belt of four hundred miles long and forty 
 miles wide, the Union Pacific Railroad Company owns 
 five million one hundred and twenty thousand acres 
 
IRON MINES AND MINERAL PAINT. 193 
 
 of land, embracing a greater area of coal-fields than 
 is contained in the entire anthracite region of Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 There are numerous deposits of iron-ore near the line 
 of the railroad, extending from Cheyenne to Ogden, a 
 distance of five hundred and sixteen miles. Several of 
 these ores have been analyzed, but none have been used 
 for the manufacture of iron. An extensive deposit of 
 magnetic ore, which is found near Rawlins, is used in 
 the silver-reducing furnaces in Utah as a flux. About 
 thirty tons a day are now shipped for that service. 
 The ore in its natural state is ground at Rawlins and 
 sold as a mineral paint. 
 
 For this purpose it is used on the Union Pacific 
 Railroad for painting its cars and buildings, and has 
 proved preferable to any other mineral paint. During 
 the present year a furnace will be built at Evanston, 
 the value of the iron-ores and coal, for the manufac- 
 ture of iron and Bessemer steel, having been practically 
 determined. 
 
 On the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, near 
 Green River, is found an inexhaustible quantity of oil- 
 bearing rock, similar in appearance to the shale in 
 Scotland, from which, last year, were obtained over 
 twenty-one million gallons of lubricating and burn^ 
 ing oil. The Green River shale yields an average 
 of thirty gallons of oil to the ton of rock, of which 
 9 
 
194 OIL-BEARING ROCK. 
 
 quantity fourteen gallons are lubricating oil, and six- 
 teen gallons are of light gravity or burning oil. 
 
 Repeated tests of the rock have been made by 
 means of a retort built for the purpose, which holds 
 five hundred pounds of shale, and the results were 
 singularly uniform. Ten tons of the shale have been 
 treated in this manner, and the resultant oils have 
 been subjected to repeated and exhaustive tests. As 
 a lubricator, which is the chief value of the oil, it is 
 equal to the best that has been purchased for use on 
 the Union Pacific Railroad at a cost of thirty-three 
 cents per gallon. The cost of producing the oils from 
 rock does not exceed fifteen cents per gallon. During 
 the year 1873 the Union Pacific Railroad Company 
 paid thirty-six thousand dollars for oils used on their 
 line for lubricating and burning. The same quality 
 and quantity of oils can be made from the rock for fif- 
 teen thousand dollars. 
 
 Oils made from this shale can be manufactured and 
 sold at a handsome profit for the supply of the Pacific 
 slope, which has hitherto obtained all its kerosene and 
 lubricating oils from Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Virginia. 
 During 1872 the quantity of oil sent to California from 
 New York or Cleveland by ocean and by rail amounted 
 to one million five hundred thousand gallons. Lubri- 
 cating oil can also be manufactured from Green River 
 shale, and delivered with fair profit at Pittsburgh for 
 
SODA DEPOSITS. IQ5 
 
 a less price than it now brings at the West Virginia 
 wells. 
 
 There would therefore be a market for the lubri- 
 cating oil made from shale throughout the United 
 States. The transportation of it over the Union 
 Pacific Railroad would add largely to its revenues, 
 which would be still further increased by the develop- 
 ment of the distillery works established near Green 
 River for the manufacture of the oils. 
 
 The alkaline character of the soil for several hun- 
 dred miles along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad 
 led to the belief that deposits of soda in large quanti- 
 ties would eventually be discovered. Recently two 
 soda lakes have been found about fifty miles north of 
 the line of the railroad, which have been carefully 
 examined and the quality of the soda determined by 
 repeated analyses. 
 
 From one lake the water evaporated to such an 
 extent as to leave a deposit of soda six feet in depth 
 along its shores. This soda is entirely free from any 
 earthy admixture. In an adjoining lake, which is 
 much the largest, the water is a saturated solution, 
 one-tenth of its weight being soda. The soda has 
 a larger percentage of carbonate than the salsoda 
 of commerce, and is therefore worth more per 
 pound. 
 
 The report of commercial statistics of the United 
 
196 SULPHUR DEPOSITS. 
 
 States, made to Congress by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury for 1872, states that there were imported 
 into the United States, during that year, one hun- 
 dred and eighteen thousand tons of soda, of the value 
 of four million nine hundred and forty-five thousand 
 seven hundred and twenty dollars, and that there 
 were manufactured in this country soda of the value 
 only of two hundred thirty-one thousand six hundred 
 and forty-seven dollars, showing that ninety-five per 
 cent, of all the soda used in this country is imported. 
 
 Soda from the line of the Union Pacific Railroad can 
 be delivered at the Atlantic ports for ten dollars less 
 per ton than the present selling price, while for the 
 supply of the interior States it could be delivered for 
 from ten to twenty dollars less per ton. 
 
 The transportation over the Union Pacific Railroad 
 of the soda used in this country would add a very 
 large sum annually to the earnings of the Union Pacific 
 Railroad Company. 
 
 In Utah Territory, at a point about thirty miles 
 south of the railroad, there was discovered last year a 
 large deposit of sulphur. 
 
 It has been visited by several persons, who agree in 
 the statement that the quantity is practically inex- 
 haustible. 
 
 The discoverer of this deposit, after numerous ana- 
 lyses to ascertain its quality, went to Europe and 
 
GENERAL MINERAL RESOURCES. 1 97 
 
 visited all the localities from which the sulphur used 
 in this country is obtained, to determine whether he 
 could successfully compete with the foreign article. 
 He found that the deposit in Utah is twenty per cent, 
 purer than any in Europe ; and, after careful investi- 
 gation of all the facts, he asserts that he can deliver 
 sulphur at the Atlantic cities to exclude all sulphur of 
 importation. If this statement be correct, the earn- 
 ings from the transportation of sulphur over the rail- 
 road would be at least three hundred thousand dollars 
 per annum. 
 
 Such as I have enumerated are the inexhaustible 
 and rapidly developing mineral resources not only of 
 Utah, but of the approaches to it along the line of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad. But a few years ago they 
 were not even dreamed of. The most sanguine ima- 
 ginations did not entertain the remotest idea of their 
 value. 
 
 The active promoter of this road, when, in the face 
 of every discouragement, he undertook its comple- 
 tion, looked chiefly at its value as a national thorough- 
 fare, and was totally ignorant of the mineral products 
 that would be found in the vicinity of almost every 
 station along its line. 
 
 The country will remember, if history is read aright, 
 that it is mainly indebted to Oakes Ames for its Union 
 Pacific Railroad. He organized the Credit Mobilier, 
 
198 OAKES AMES. 
 
 without which the road could not have been con- 
 structed. He undertook the enterprise when no one 
 else dared to embark in a scheme fraught with so many 
 dangers and uncertainties. He was a plain business 
 man, but he was ambitious withal. His ambition was 
 to earn the credit of accomplishing this great national 
 work. I had it from his own lips that he would have 
 been a richer man if he had never undertaken it. 
 
 He never dreamed of doing wrong in the distribu- 
 tion of the stock. The hands of Oakes Ames were 
 never soiled by any dirty lobby transactions. His 
 great object was to build a railroad that has united 
 the East and the West and made our country one and 
 indivisible. To effect this he did not hesitate to 
 directly approach members of Congress in the most 
 approachable way. He knew that " where the treas- 
 ure was there would the heart be also." 
 
 He finished his work, and now lies beneath a simple 
 tombstone in the churchyard of a New England vil- 
 lage ; but the people of the great country that he has 
 strapped together with his iron bars, may behold his 
 monument at every point of their journey from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Utah Commercially. Traffic in the Olden Times. Prominent Mer- 
 chants. Zioii's Co-operative Mercantile Institution. Business 
 tiniversally profitable. High Rates of Interest. Opportunities for 
 Investment. 
 
 IN the olden times, before railroads or even daily 
 mails by stage-coach were known in Utah, 
 "merchandizing" was a very profitable business. 
 The principal merchants were Gentiles, and they 
 made money rapidly. Only once each year could 
 their stocks of goods be renewed. Every spring they 
 would go East to buy, and every autumn their long 
 trains of loaded ox-wagons would reach the valley 
 with the new stock. There was always a great strife 
 among the tradesmen to be first in the market. 
 
 If a merchant failed to have his goods on the 
 shelves by "Conference" the first week in Octo- 
 ber he suffered severely, and was certain to be be- 
 hind in his affairs the whole year. The " Fall Con- 
 ference " was the great purchasing season for all 
 classes. Then such of the necessaries of life as the 
 soil of Utah failed to produce must be secured, or the 
 
200 "CONFERENCE TIME." 
 
 long winter must pass without them. The snow laid 
 an embargo upon anything like free intercourse be- 
 tween remote sections. So at " Conference time " 
 thousands of families flocked into the chief city, to 
 hear words of practical wisdom from their leaders, and 
 to exchange their agricultural products and their sav- 
 ings for the contents of the stores. This was the har- 
 vest-time for the storekeepers. Their stocks were 
 considered " fresh," for they were bought in April or 
 May, and had been but three or four months on the 
 journey. 
 
 The question with the tradesmen was, how to 
 deliver the goods as fast as they were called for. 
 Behind the counters were clerks standing close as an 
 army file, working with might and main for twenty 
 hours out of each twenty-four to supply the never- 
 diminishing crowd which surged and struggled and 
 fought good-naturedly for the foremost place. Men and 
 women, when tired of waiting, or hopeless of reaching 
 the counter, would wrap their money in a paper, and 
 securing the momentary attention of some clerk, would 
 toss the precious package over the heads "of the peo- 
 ple, to be caught by the attendant, scream out the 
 order for tea, or sugar, or " domestics," and catch 
 the bundle deftly when it came. 
 
 Those were great days for the people and greater 
 for the merchants. Prices were enormous and the 
 
MERCHANTS OF UTAH. 2OI 
 
 profits were great. A pound of nails, costing four 
 cents in Massachusetts, were cheap at thirty cents in 
 Salt Lake City, as late as 1864. The freight was the 
 principal item. Merchants in that far-off country 
 must pay cash for their goods. It would have been 
 folly to solicit credit from wholesale dealers in the 
 great cities on goods designed for the heart of the 
 wilderness and the home of the Indian. 
 
 It required capital to do business, and that capital 
 must be idle for the months elapsing between the 
 time of purchase and the date of sale. Money in 
 those days would bring almost any. price asked ; 
 five per cent, a month was looked upon as about 
 fair ! Of course, those who had money made money 
 very rapidly, in whatever way they employed it. 
 For years the great merchants were Livingston & 
 Bell, Gilbert & Gerrish, and John Kimball, all Gen- 
 tiles. Their gains were enormous. Then a young 
 firm, composed of four brothers, the Walkers, went 
 into trade. They were Mormons, and excellent busi- 
 ness men. In 1862 they quietly opened a route 
 through Utah, southward to the Pacific coast, and 
 thence to San Francisco, and thus brought in trains 
 of goods in the dead of winter. This enterprise gave 
 them a great trade, and placed them far in advance 
 of their long-established competitors. 
 
 The prominent houses soon after gave up business, 
 9* 
 
202 CO-OPERATIVE MERCANTILE INSTITUTION. 
 
 and Walker Brothers held the trade. Kimball took 
 in young Lawrence, a Mormon ; Jennings, also a 
 Mormon, who had been engaged in tanning, went 
 into " merchandizing," and was successful. Hooper 
 & Eldridge, Mormons, put their capital together and 
 started out in the same line. Godbe, another 
 " Saint," added groceries to his drug-store, and for a 
 time the trade was entirely in Mormon hands. 
 
 Then a co-operative store was organized at the in- 
 stance of Brigham Young, and all the traders were in- 
 vited to consolidate their stocks of goods in this enter- 
 prise. Walker Brothers declined, and were ultimately 
 cut off from the church for this and other rebellious 
 acts. Godbe refused, and the church cut him off also. 
 Jennings and the rest reluctantly fell into the co-opera- 
 tive ranks. Kimball, not being a Mormon, held out 
 till he died, and a year or two later, Lawrence, the 
 surviving partner, though scarcely longer affiliating 
 with the church, closed out the business. Walker Bro- 
 thers continued in trade extended their great stores, 
 added new and important features, made their es- 
 tablishment the most metropolitan in character and 
 the most attractive in appearance of any in Utah, and 
 to-day they divide the business of the Territory with 
 "Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution." 
 
 The last-named establishment deserves more than a 
 passing remark. It is the great business concern of 
 
THE ADVENT OF RAILROADS. 2O3 
 
 the West, and has not less than one hundred thousand 
 regular customers. As a wholesale house it supplies 
 all the Mormon stores in all parts of Utah. Its retail 
 stores at various points do a heavy trade with saints 
 and sinners alike. Its total receipts reach about six 
 million dollars a year. Its paid-up capital amounts to 
 nearly one million dollars, and new stock is always for 
 sale at one hundred dollars per share. Its dividends 
 average fully twenty per cent, per annum, besides a 
 large and constantly increasing reserve. 
 
 Generally its management has been good, and its 
 credit high. The great New York house of H. B. 
 Claflin & Co. ships to it more than two million dollars 
 worth of drygoods annually, and Benedict, Hall & Co. 
 send to it every year hundreds of thousands in boots 
 and shoes. All who supply the " Co-op," as it is la- 
 conically termed, express satisfaction with its prompt- 
 ness in paying its debts. 
 
 Of course, the advent of railroads has greatly 
 changed the currents of trade in Utah. The freight 
 on the pound of nails is no longer twenty cents, but is 
 reduced to six cents ; and the time of its transit from 
 the factory to its place of consumption has fallen from 
 four months to fifteen days. As all other things lessen, 
 so do profits. Money drops with the rest. One and 
 a half per cent, per month is still considered a cheap 
 rate for currency, and a large proportion of all loans 
 
204 PROFITS OF BANKERS. 
 
 bear interest at the rate of two per cent, per month, 
 payable in advance. 
 
 The Legislature has had the good sense to enact 
 no usury laws, which are a dead letter everywhere, 
 and exist only to be evaded. Money earns good 
 wages in Utah, and borrowers are able to pay large 
 interest and still realize a profit. All kind of business 
 is profitable. The merchants, small and great, make 
 money, without an exception. Bankers realize splen- 
 did profits. The First National Bank of Salt Lake 
 City, with a capital of one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars, regularly announces an annual dividend 
 of fifty per cent., besides constant additions to its 
 reserve. 
 
 Its banking-house is as fine as anything in America, 
 its interior being as elegant as marble, and gilding, 
 and mirrors, and carving, and frescoes and polished 
 wood can make it. Railroads are constructed and run 
 at great profit. The Utah Central, extending from 
 Ogden to Salt Lake City, is thirty-eight miles long, 
 and cost about one million two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars. Its capital stock is one million 
 five hundred thousand dollars, and its bonded debt 
 one million dollars. It promptly pays sixty thou- 
 sand dollars a year in gold as interest on its bond- 
 ed debt, and then hands over to its stockholders 
 one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in cur- 
 
DIFFERENT ENTERPRISES. 2O5 
 
 rency, being twelve per cent, on the par value of 
 its stock. At the same time it is constantly adding 
 to its side-tracks, its lands and buildings, and its 
 rolling-stock. 
 
 It is as good a railroad as any in the country of 
 the same length, and probably as profitable. Yet its 
 stock and bonds are hardly known in the East, and 
 can be bought in Salt Lake City when offered for 
 sale at about sixty-five or seventy per cent, of their 
 par value. This railroad enterprise shows what can 
 be done with capital thus employed. Its builders net 
 twenty per cent, per annum in cash on the invest- 
 ment, and their property is annually increased in value 
 not less than ten per cent. 
 
 The success of this enterprise finds a constant par- 
 allel in such other branches of business as are entered 
 upon with adequate capital. Mills for the conversion 
 of the native wool into cloth, of the cereals into flour, 
 of timber into building-material, all pay handsomely. 
 The mines of lead, containing silver, have proved ex- 
 ceptional in magnitude, although affording less pre- 
 cious metal to the ton than the ores of some other 
 mining countries. In this branch of industry fortunes 
 are made every year by those who have the means to 
 follow up intelligently the indications which crop out 
 upon the surface of the hills and are half-buried be- 
 neath the accumulations and upheavals of ages. As 
 
2O6 RATES OF INTEREST. 
 
 I said before, everything pays, and I may add that 
 money-lending pays about as well as anything to 
 those who have money to lend. 
 
 A New York or Boston man would consider him- 
 self on the high road to ruin if he had to pay two 
 per cent, a month for money. He could not pay 
 that rate and compete with his neighbors who traded 
 on their own capital. But in Utah the same man 
 would turn the borrowed capital over, and realize for 
 himself one or two per cent, per month after paying 
 the high rate of interest. If a business man of 
 large experience and extended acquaintance in Utah 
 could borrow one million dollars in New York or 
 any cheap money market, at ten per cent, per annum, 
 for use in Salt Lake City and vicinity, he could lend 
 it there on first-class security, and clear for himself 
 ten or fifteen per cent, yearly on the whole sum. 
 
 I made the acquaintance of a Gentile who has 
 established relations with a few capitalists in Boston, 
 New York, San Francisco, and London. He loaned 
 money on valuable real-estate, and on the railroad 
 securities, at the rates of interest which I have 
 mentioned. His transactions were large, and he 
 assured me that he had never lost a dollar of 
 principal or interest. The funds loaned by him be- 
 longed chiefly to Gentiles, non-residents, while the 
 borrowers were generally Mormons. He bore the 
 
MONEY-LENDING. 2O/ 
 
 most unqualified and earnest testimony to the 
 honesty, promptness, and good-faith of the Mor- 
 mons as a class in all business affairs. He con- 
 sidered Utah the safest and best place for business on 
 the continent. 
 
 He admitted, however, that he found it difficult to 
 make capitalists comprehend the facts. When he 
 asked for a million dollars, they timidly sent him fifty 
 or a hundred thousand. With safe, thrifty applicants 
 for five millions, on security vastly in excess of that 
 amount, and as good as any in the world, he was 
 barely able to accommodate ten per cent, of those 
 who applied for loans in 1873. He predicted that a 
 high rate of interest would continue just as long as 
 every enterprise entered upon proved, as now, a source 
 of great profit. 
 
 With large competition, all this would change ; but 
 the almost boundless resources of the Territory must 
 be developed before competition can become effect- 
 ive in this direction. A thousand miles of railroad 
 would be demanded and would be paid for, in three or 
 four years from completion, out of the profits of the 
 traffic. The mountains of iron and coal must be 
 penetrated and utilized to meet the home demand. 
 The hills must give forth their precious deposits until 
 their annual product reaches a hundred millions in 
 silver. A multitude of enterprises await the magic 
 
208 FUTURE RATES OF INTEREST. 
 
 touch of capital, and would employ that capital at 
 enormous profit in the future as in the past. 
 
 In view of all this, who shall say that money will 
 not be worth two per cent, per month in Utah for a 
 decade or two to come ? 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Review. Table of Distances and Time. Gold and Paper Money. 
 The best Disposal of Congress. Hints to Travellers. Comforts of 
 a Railroad Journey. Saddles and Boots. 
 
 IN a somewhat desultory manner I have sketched a 
 few of the scenes in the Mormon country over 
 which I have rambled. Some of the characteristics 
 of the people have been portrayed ; not a little has 
 been said about their religion, and as much as was 
 consistent with the effort to make a small book has 
 been introduced to show the vast agricultural, mining, 
 and commercial resources of the Territory and its 
 neighborhood. 
 
 To the scenery no pen but that of an artist can do 
 adequate justice. The reader should avail himself of 
 that wonderful invention which performs the miracle 
 of removing mountains to our firesides, and after he 
 has welcomed them there, he should return the visit 
 and in the pure atmosphere not susceptible of impor- 
 tation by photography, behold the towering mountains 
 from their base and the lovely valleys from peaks 
 above them. 
 
210 TABLE OF DISTANCES. 
 
 If in search of health, he should not neglect the 
 wonderful Soda Springs where his ailments will disap- 
 pear if he does not forget them before his arrival. I 
 cannot too strongly impress upon men of weak 
 stomachs and weak lungs the salubrity of the climate ; 
 and, if invalids of the gentler sex can be induced to 
 " rough it " for one summer in the wilds of Utah and 
 of Idaho, let them be assured that they can better 
 stand the winter's campaign. Their step in the ball- 
 room will be more elastic, their lungs can better with- 
 stand the close air of the theatre, and the poisonous 
 combinations of lobster-salad and ice-cream in which 
 some of them nightly indulge will have had a partial 
 antidote. 
 
 Some reference has been made to the route from 
 New York to Soda Springs. This little table of dis- 
 tances and time may still be of service : 
 
 N. Y. to -Buffalo by N. Y. Central R.R. 44O miles. 
 
 Buffalo to Chicago by Lake Shore R.R. . 539 " 
 Chicago to Omaha by Chicago & N. W. 
 
 R.R 490 " 
 
 Omaha to Ogden by Union Pacific R.R. 1029 " 
 Ogden to Salt Lake City by Utah Central 
 
 R.R 38 " 
 
 Distance from New York to Salt Lake. . 2536 " 
 
 The time occupied, if the connections are made, is 
 four days twenty hours fifteen minutes, from New 
 York to Ogden. If the journey is then continued to 
 
RAILROAD FARES CURRENCY. 211 
 
 San Francisco by the Central Pacific Railroad, there 
 is a further distance of eight hundred and seventy- 
 eight miles to be accomplished in two days two hours 
 and twenty minutes. Thus the whole distance from 
 New York to San Francisco is three thousand four 
 hundred and fourteen miles, and the whole time oc- 
 cupied, six days twenty-two hours and thirty-five 
 minutes. As the time-tables are not more exact, I 
 cannot give the odd seconds. 
 
 The fare is, from New York to San Francisco, 
 $ * 39- 5 currency ; New York to Ogden, $117 currency, 
 and on the branch road from Ogden to Salt Lake 
 City, $2. 
 
 It may be remembered that as Utah is on a line of 
 "distinct civilization" in religion, so it is also in 
 currency. Unfortunately paper-money is the currency 
 of the Saints. They have a holy horror of it, too. 
 
 While they admit that it gives an enhanced value to 
 their products, they regret that it gives it also to what 
 they are obliged to purchase. The business men 
 generally concede that their condition would have 
 been greatly improved if the gold currency, which 
 ceases to be a medium of circulation on reaching their 
 Western border, extended throughout their Territory. 
 
 If Congress would appropriate money enough to 
 transport all its members over the Union Pacific and 
 Central Pacific roads to California, that they might see 
 
212 SLOW OR RAPID TRANSIT. 
 
 how a steady currency redounds to the prosperity of 
 that section, the Treasury could well afford the outlay. 
 No appropriation is advocated for bringing them 
 back. 
 
 I have outlined the routes, and the time in which 
 the journey can be accomplished, if necessary. Most 
 people would prefer to loiter by the way. They can 
 do this with their through tickets, if they are inclined 
 to stop at any or all of the stations on the road. 
 
 Still, if one wishes to rush through, he need not be 
 deterred by a fear of fatigue. Railroad travelling is 
 an anomaly. You become rested by being tired. 
 Nine hours from New York* to Boston, or Washington, 
 is a very irksome journey. To one who has been 
 obliged to take it, its frequency does not overcome 
 its dread. 
 
 The same sort of feeling is experienced for the first 
 day of a journey to the West. Afterwards you become 
 accustomed to it, and soon the splendid and com- 
 fortable Pullman car comes to be regarded as a home. 
 You feel no further fatigue during the journey. 
 
 You are obliged to keep regular hours, retiring and 
 rising when other people do. That is better for 
 you than late and uncertain hours in New York. 
 You are generally well entertained at the restaurants. 
 These are not of the best, but every year they are 
 improving. If you are a teetotaller, you do not need 
 
AMUSEMENTS ON THE ROAD. 213 
 
 the advice which is worthy the attention of those who, 
 if they are of opposite principles, may thank me for it. 
 
 It is, to be provided with your own wine and spirits. 
 Everything of this kind on the road is abominable 
 more so even than the sloppy tea and weak imitations 
 of coffee at the temperance restaurants. 
 
 You cannot fail to make pleasant acquaintances in 
 your constantly, moving house. The practice of whist 
 and euchre will make you perfect in these games. 
 But never dare to play with a stranger in the filthy 
 smoking-car. Beware of the " Three Card Monte" 
 man ! You will be all the better for ignorance of this 
 pretty little amusement. 
 
 Yes, indeed, you may pass away your time most 
 agreeably on the road ; for, of course, you will have 
 a portable library, and the guide-books will occupy 
 much of your mental digestion. 
 
 The rate of speed not being very great, reading is 
 easy, especially on the Union Pacific, where the line 
 runs for hundreds of miles over a level prairie, and, 
 whether owing to this cause or to its solid construc- 
 tion I know not, it is one of the smoothest roads 
 that I ever travelled upon in any part of the world. 
 
 Thus much for the railroad journey. But when 
 once in Utah or in any part of the West that you have 
 time to explore, go where the railroad has not yet 
 penetrated. Alas for the lover of nature, he will find 
 
214 RIDING AND WALKING. 
 
 that iron monster chasing him everywhere ! Its march 
 is onward, over and under mountains, crossing mighty 
 rivers, winding through the loveliest valleys, the mad 
 devil on its track waking the dreamy solitudes of the 
 wilderness from the repose of ages into the activity of 
 business life. 
 
 Then, before this terrible railroad is omnipresent 
 before saddles and even walking-boots- become things 
 of the past ride and tramp ! for that is the way to see 
 that best part of the world which nature still claims 
 for her own. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The G'ood accomplished by Mormonism. Gentile and Mormon Petitions 
 to Congress. Letter from Hon. Geo. Q. Cannon. Justice to the 
 Mormons. Conclusion. 
 
 IN my wanderings among the Mormon people I 
 may have been too much attracted by the poetry 
 of their primitive and pastoral life, and too grateful for 
 their hospitality, to criticise them severely. 
 
 Why should I ? I don't believe in their revelations ; 
 and God forbid that I should be understood as at- 
 tempting to justify polygamy. Mormonism is not my 
 religion, nor polygamy my practice. But for all that, 
 if I knew that the press, supposing it to notice this 
 little book, would abuse me unmercifully, and if the 
 " forty-thousand parson-power" of all the pulpits 
 should come down with its anathemas, I will say 
 this : in all my voyages and travels about the world, 
 I never before passed three months in a community 
 more industrious, upright, honest in dealing among 
 themselves and with others, quiet, inoffensive, loyal 
 to government, temperate, virtuous, and religious, 
 than these Mormons. 
 
2l6 THE GENTILES. 
 
 With all its impositions and absurdities, a religion 
 that will produce results like these must have in it of 
 good, something. Yes, a great deal ! 
 
 Lest injustice should be done to the Gentile popula- 
 tion of the Territory, let me explain, if I have not 
 already done so by implication, that this small outside 
 element does not fairly represent Eastern civilization. 
 
 Most of the non-Mormons whom I have styled 
 Gentiles in accordance with the general acceptation 
 of the term, are those who come for temporary pur- 
 poses of trading, mining, and other speculations. 
 The greater part of them are without families, and 
 frequently they are from the lowest walks of life. 
 
 In his tales of Mining Camps, Bret Harte has aptly 
 described this class. He can scarcely be said to have 
 exaggerated. I found there just such men. 
 
 In the City of Salt Lake the Gentile population is 
 different. There are two classes of them. One is of 
 ladies and gentlemen fitted to adorn society any- 
 where, families who chiefly from considerations of per- 
 manent business take up their residence in the Terri- 
 tory. There is another set of Gentiles in the same 
 town who would like to introduce gambling-houses, 
 drinking-saloons, and brothels, to civilize the Mormons. 
 
 The respectable people first mentioned rarely have 
 any difficulty with the dominant sect. Although 
 they are more or less exclusive, they frequently meet 
 
UTAH " BEARS" AND POLITICIANS. 2i; 
 
 the Mormon ladies and gentlemen in society as do 
 likewise the officers of Camp Douglas and their wives. 
 
 It may be said with truth that if the Gentile 
 inhabitants of Utah were all such as these, there 
 would be scarcely a word of complaint against the 
 Mormons, and no petitions to Congress for relief from 
 the tyranny of the Church. 
 
 These petitions come mostly from recusant disci- 
 ples, people of no especial standing in the commu- 
 nity, and small politicians. 
 
 That some very worthy men are induced to sign 
 them is undoubtedly true, but the proportion is very 
 small. Every year the petitions accumulate at 
 Washington, and serve the turn of some virtuous 
 statesman in framing a bill of extermination. 
 
 At present, another strong effort is being made to 
 induce Congress to legislate so that the individual in- 
 terests of these malcontents may be benefited. Their 
 shafts are generally aimed at the target of poly- 
 gamy, about which most of the petitioners do not care 
 a straw. 
 
 A great many of them would like to see real-estate 
 and other securities depressed. There are "bears" 
 in Salt Lake as well as in Wall street. There are 
 politicians there as well as in Washington. These 
 would like to wrest political power from the Mormons 
 to appropriate it to themselves. 
 
2l8 NON-MORMON MEMORIAL. 
 
 At my request Hon. Geo. Q. Cannon, the Utah 
 delegate to Congress, has forwarded me their last 
 memorial, with a counter-memorial from the legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 The first commences as follows : 
 
 NON-MORMON CITIZENS OF UTAH. 
 
 " Memorial of a Committee of forty-five gentlemen, 
 selected at a Public meeting of non-Mormon residents 
 and voters of Salt Lake City, in the Territory of Utah, 
 held on the iQth of January, 1874, to prepare a memo- 
 rial to Congress, setting forth the grievances of the non- 
 Mormon people of said Territory, and for such legis- 
 lation by Congress as is needed for the full protection 
 of all classes of people residing in said Territory. 
 February 9, 1874. Referred to the Committee on the 
 Territories and ordered to be printed. 
 
 " To the Senate and House of Representatives in Con- 
 gress assembled : We, the undersigned committee, 
 selected at a public meeting of the non-Mormon voters 
 of Salt Lake City, held on the iQth of January, 1874, 
 in pursuance of the following resolution passed at said 
 meeting, to wit 
 
 " Resolved, That the committee of forty-five appoint- 
 ed by this meeting are hereby instructed to prepare, 
 at their earliest convenience, a memorial to Congress, 
 setting forth the grievances of the non-Mormons of 
 Utah, and requesting such legislation by Congress as 
 is needed for the full protection of all classes of people 
 residing in this Territory 
 " Respectfully represent : 
 
 " That the political status of the Territory of Utah is 
 anomalous in this, that five-sixths or more of the 
 entire population are members of an organization, the 
 adherents of which claim that it is religious in its char- 
 
MEMORIAL. 219 
 
 acter, while in fact it enjoins, both as to faith and 
 practice, the commission of the highest crimes. 
 
 " Polygamy is openly and defiantly practised in the 
 face of the law of Congress, and the doctrine of the 
 shedding of blood for the remission of sins has been 
 preached from the Mormon pulpit, and deliberately 
 published in the official organs of the church. See 
 the following discourse of Brigham Young, delivered 
 in the Tabernacle and published in the "Journal of 
 Discourses," vol. L, p. 82, which book is in the Public 
 Library at the Capitol." 
 
 It is chiefly filled with quotations from Brigham 
 Young's sermons on " blood atonement," none of 
 them of a later date than 1856, since which time it is 
 well known that the doctrine has not been publicly 
 advocated. 
 
 It closes in this way : 
 
 " Thus, by an abuse and perversion of the powers 
 granted in the organic act, a theocracy most despotic 
 in its character has been kept in actual operation for 
 twenty years, and will continue for many more, un- 
 less Congress shall sooner enact such laws as will 
 place it beyond the power of the Mormon Church to 
 call to its aid the forms of law in the administration 
 of its government. 
 
 *' As long as Brigham Young, as the head of the 
 church, is permitted to retain his power, to execute 
 or defeat the execution of the laws according to his 
 will, his misguided and credulous adherents will con- 
 tinue to implicitly obey and believe him, and that his 
 mission is divine and his authority paramount to and 
 beyond the reach of human laws. But, once take 
 away from him the form of law under which he has 
 so cunningly acquired and exercised theocratic rule, 
 
220 MEMORIAL OF THE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 and then the mission of the Mormon Church, as a 
 governing power in municipal affairs, will, as it 
 should, soon come to an end. 
 
 " Therefore, the affairs of this Territory being ano- 
 malous, we respectfully submit that special legislation 
 is right and proper, and ask your honorable body to 
 pass at an early day such legislation as will remedy 
 the existing evils ; and we give it as our opinion that 
 the bills introduced by Senators Logan and Freling- 
 huysen would either of them effectually accomplish 
 that end." JOSEPH R. WALKER AND OTHERS. 
 
 The counter-memorial is as follows : 
 
 MEMORIAL OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF UTAH, 
 
 Asking for a commission of investigation to be sent 
 to Utah to inquire into all alleged abuses in affairs 
 there. February 16, 1874. Referred to the Com- 
 mittee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed. 
 
 To the honorable the Senate and House of Re- 
 presentatives of the United States in Congress as- 
 sembled. GENTLEMEN : We, your memorialists, the 
 legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah, respect- 
 fully represent that whereas a large majority of the 
 people of this Territory are accused of disloyalty, 
 insubordination, and other violations of the Constitu- 
 tion and laws of the United States ; and whereas 
 these accusations are absolutely untrue, and are majde 
 with malicious intent to procure proscriptive legisla- 
 tion by Congress : Therefore, being anxious that 
 legislation, if upon thorough investigation any should 
 be deemed necessary, should be such as will con- 
 duce to the greatest good of all, we respectfully and 
 earnestly solicit your honorable body to send to Utah 
 a commission of investigation, with instructions to 
 inquire into ah 1 alleged abuses in our territorial affairs, 
 and with authority to send for persons and papers 
 
LETTER OF HON. GEORGE Q. CANNON. 221 
 
 needed in the prosecution of their inquiries. And 
 we further respectfully ask your honorable body, for 
 the protection of what we deem the best interests of 
 the whole people of the Territory, to suspend all 
 action, so far as special legislation for Utah is con- 
 cerned, until such time as said commission shall have 
 had opportunity to investigate and report ; and for a 
 course so conducive to wise and consequently bene- 
 ficial legislative action, we, your memorialists, will 
 ever pray. LORENZO SNOW, 
 
 President of the Council , 
 and the other members of the Legislature. 
 
 With the documents I received the following note : 
 
 DEAR SIR : I send you herewith the memorials sent 
 down from Utah, also an argument by Hon. Thos. 
 Fitch made last year. From these you may get 
 some ideas and save me from dwelling at length on the 
 features of the recent memorial. You will perceive 
 that they (the memorialists) complain of the murders 
 which have been committed and the murderers un- 
 punished, and yet they say the Courts have had full 
 power to try such cases, but have not exerted it. If 
 there are murderers at large the Mormons are not to 
 blame. The Probate Courts have punished crime 
 whenever evidence has warranted, whether its perpe- 
 trators have been Mormons or non-Mormons. 
 
 In many instances, as if to thwart the Probate 
 Courts, the Judges of District Courts, particularly 
 Judge McKean, have released criminals on writs of 
 habeas corpus. As far as the murder of Dr. Robinson 
 is concerned, every effort has been made to fasten that 
 upon the Mormons, a man going so far as to perjure 
 himself (as he afterwards swore) to implicate certain 
 reputable citizens of Salt Lake City. This man's 
 name was Baker. But though ex-Gov. Weller, of 
 
222 CONFLICT OF THE COURTS. 
 
 Cal., spent a considerable time after that murder in in- 
 vestigating it, no clue could be obtained that led to 
 the implication of any Mormon ; and it was charged, 
 at that time, in the public prints of Salt Lake City, 
 that when Weller found that the investigation was 
 likely to lead away from the Mormons and to fasten 
 the crime elsewhere, he closed it. 
 
 As for the Mountain Meadows affair, ex-Gov. 
 Young did proffer to go with the Judges to the South 
 and promote by his influence the full investigation of 
 that slaughter. It would have been too good an evi- 
 dence in favor of Mormon disposition to do right to 
 be accepted, and would have spoiled an excellent tale 
 of Mormon atrocities. So it has stood. But I need 
 not go through with all these charges. I am confident 
 that in no Territory of the United States have there 
 been so few murders unpunished, or where life and 
 property have been so safe, as in Utah. That the 
 people are patient and forbearing, is evidenced by the 
 fact that such men as those who have for years per- 
 sistently and malignantly slandered them, are per- 
 mitted to walk undisturbed in the Territory. 
 
 While I may not agree with many of your views 
 and deductions, I think your book, as the result of 
 personal observation, in so far as I understand its 
 spirit, cannot fail to do good. Differences of opinion, 
 honestly entertained and frankly stated, should always 
 be tolerated and respected. No one ought to fear them. 
 With kind regards, I am, 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 GEO. Q. CANNON. 
 
 Whatever grounds the non-Mormons may have for 
 complaint, it cannot but seem reasonable to any un- 
 prejudiced mind that the investigation asked for by 
 the Legislature, should be had before any decided 
 
MAJORITIES AND MINORITIES. 223 
 
 steps are taken by Congress, especially if the Consti- 
 tution has to be invaded to meet the supposed exigen- 
 cy of the case. 
 
 If, as the non-Mormons say, a majority of six to 
 one make oppressive laws to operate against the 
 small minority, it would seem still more unjust if Con- 
 gress should put a law-making and law-enforcing pow- 
 er into the hands of this small minority, to be exer- 
 cised against the great majority ! 
 
 I have heard the majority computed to be much 
 larger than these gentlemen estimate it. It is supposed 
 to be nine to one. They probably refer to the popula- 
 tion of Salt Lake City. 
 
 It would come to this : that one-tenth of the popu- 
 lation of the Territory, and that by no means the most 
 reputable, composed of men who have for the most 
 part taken up a temporary residence there, are to hold 
 in subjection the lives and property of the other nine- 
 tenths of the men whose Jathers and many of them- 
 selves took possession of this waste land when it was 
 Mexican territory, and with hardship, toil, and priva- 
 tion reclaimed it from a desert waste, developed its 
 resources, and made it such a rich addition to the 
 Union. 
 
 We should not attempt to excuse ourselves for this 
 gross injustice by the plea that courts and juries of 
 Mormons do not punish for polygamy, a crime we 
 
224 JUSTICE TO THE MORMONS. 
 
 hold in abhorrence. While our courts at home do 
 punish bigamists, let us acknowledge that they do 
 not adequately deal with gambling, drunkenness, and 
 prostitution ; crimes which the Mormons hold in ab- 
 horrence, for they never fail to take cognizance of 
 them. 
 
 Remembering that we are not immaculate ourselves, 
 reflecting that if we were to undertake summarily to 
 punish criminal immorality at home, we should stir 
 up riot and murder in our streets let us consider well 
 before taking violent and unconstitutional measures 
 against the Mormons which would surely antagonize a 
 people now thoroughly loyal to Government, would 
 check enterprise, reduce the value of property, and in 
 no sense whatever could be productive of good. 
 
 By the treaty with Mexico, when the Territory em- 
 bracing Utah was ceded to this country, it was stipu- 
 lated that as soon as a portion of it contained the re- 
 quisite number of inhabitants, States should be formed 
 and admitted to the Union. 
 
 This compact has been carried out with other com- 
 munities of much smaller populations than Utah pos- 
 sesses. We are keeping her out in the cold until po- 
 lygamy is discarded, notwithstanding her persistent 
 knocking at our doors. That is punishment enough. 
 Utah cannot stand there long with this heavy burden 
 on her shoulders, while all her neighboring sisters are 
 
THE PROOFS OF IMPARTIALITY. 225 
 
 welcomed into our family. The religion of these Lat- 
 ter-Day Saints is a very heavenly one in theory, but a 
 very worldly one in practice. They well know the ad- 
 vantages of State organization. Their desire to obtain 
 it will speedily cause them to abandon their cherished 
 institution. This inducement, united with other influ- 
 ences already mentioned, will give a death-blow to 
 polygamy, without the intervention of Congress. 
 Caustic is not the remedy for this sore. 
 
 In closing, I may venture to express the hope that 
 some little instruction as well as amusement may have 
 been derived from a perusal of these pages. My 
 Mormon friends will say that their kindness is ill-re- 
 quited by adverse criticism of their doctrines and 
 practices. My Gentile readers will say that I have 
 been so fascinated with the country and the people of 
 Utah that I have given them unmerited praise. Both 
 verdicts will be gratefully accepted as proofs of the 
 impartiality claimed for the book. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 10' 
 
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