[Twelve Mormon homes visited in succession on a journey through Utah to Arizona.]

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THE LtgRARY

' YOUNG UNIVERSITY

'ROVO. UTAH

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'^"^T TWELVE

M O R M O N HOMES

visiTi;;) ix succr:ssio.\ on a journey

UTAH TO ARIZONA.

HHILADELPHIA
I S74.

THE LmRA^V '^

BRIGHAM YOUN^ ' RSITY

PROVO, UTAH

PANDEMONIUM OR ARCADIA:
WHICH?

"As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I
lighted on a certain place where was a den."

The Pilgrim's Progress.

Brigham Young, " President of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," makes an
annual journey of inspection south, visiting the
settlements of his people from the Great Salt
Lake to the Arizona border.

My husband was invited to join his party
last winter, and I accompanied him with my two
children, bovs of eio-ht and ten.

We left Salt Lake City early one December
mornine, while the stars were still shinino- in the
frosty dawn. At the depot a crowd of Mormons
were assembled to see their leader off, and a
committee of them filled the special car, on the
Utah Southern Railroad, in which we made the
first stage of our journey. We ran down Salt
Lake \^allev while the mountains on our left
were still in shadow, but the golden sunrise was
resting on the tops of those on our right, and

gradually slanting down towards the plain.
The snow had melted from all but the highest
summits, and some of these were only veined
with it in their ravines.

Stepping to the rear of the car to look at a
trestle-work that was very long and very high .
for timberless Utah, we had a beautiful view of
the city we had left, nestling at the foot of the
mountain ; the blue Salt Lake, and Antelope
Island in the distance. The dreamy tranquillity
of the scene was succeeded by a busy one at
Sandy Station. We stopped to visit the newly-
established smeltinof works of an English com-
pany, managed by Germans. Outside, lay heaps
of ore, stacks of ingots of silver, and pigs of lead.
Entering, we found ourselves just in time to see
a stream of boiling metal run from one caldron
to another. It looked transparent, having a
black clearness like alcohol, and as I stood look-
ing- down into it I could scarcely believe that it
was lead. The works had only been in opera-
tion a fortnioht, but the foreman was in ereat
delight over the results obtained by a new pro-
cess, for the patent-right of which, he said, his
company had paid ^100,000.

'Tt is as pure as the Swansea Works, and
purer than we can obtain it in Germany," he
exclaimed. " Only two pennyweights of silver
to the ton of lead !" To my ignorance it seemed

that the more silver there was, the better; but I
found that he meant to express the complete
separation of the metals effected by the new pro-
cess. He wished to prove this on the spot by
an interesting test, but our engine was hooting
its impatience, and we were forced to resume our
seats in the train. Mine was beside a sweet-
looking elderly lady who, with her widowed
sister, w^as to leave us at the next station to
attend the meeting of a Female Relief Society.
She introduced the subject of polygamy abruptly,
tellinof me, amonof other things, that to her it
had been long known as revelation,'-" " Brother
Joseph" having revealed it to her thirty-six years
ago. She had proved its wisdom since ! I
learned that this woman had been one of Smith's
own wives; the first "plural wife" of the sect!
Since his death she had espoused another saintly
personage.

A few minutes' ride from Sandy Station
brought us opposite the gorge of the " Little
Cottonwood," It was hard to realize that thou-
sands of men were busy in the recesses of that
wild and desolate-looking ravine. Yet the
famous, or ///famous, Emma Mine is there ; and
opposite, across the sunny Jordan Valley, some

* Yet the Mormon publications denied polygamy as late
as 1852.

twelve or fifteen miles off — though seeming
scarcely three miles distant in the clear atmos-
phere— we saw Bingham Canon, another noted
mining locality. A little distance down the line,
clouds of smoke were pouring from the tall
chimneys of another smelting establishment.

So far we were still in " Gentile" country. The
Mormon president discourages mining among
his people, but I suspect that a great many of his
richer followers are interested in mining specula-
tions.

We left the train at Lehi. It was not an
attractive-looking place, and I went no far-
ther than the depot, where a crowd of stages,
baggage- wagons, and hurrying men intercepted
the view. As I sat warming myself at the ticket-
office stove, a young lady, chief telegrapher from
the Salt Lake office, with her dress neatly looped
over her balmoral skirt, tripped up to the table /
where sat the Lehi telegraph clerk, a woman,
too ; and, after an effusive greeting, the pair
subsided into business. The Lehi office was
thoroughly inspected ; satisfactorily, as it ap-
peared from the tones of both ladies ; the curt,
dry, question and answer of the catechism end-
ing in a pleasant chat, seasoned with adjectives
and girlish interjections. It was an example of
one of the contradictions of Mormonism. Thou-
sands of years behind us in some of their cus-

5

toms ; in others, you would think these people
the most forward children of the age. They
close no career on a woman in Utah by which
she can earn a livinor.

I strolled out on the platform afterwards, to
find President Young preparing- for our journey
— as he did every morning afterwards — by a
personal inspection of the condition of every
wheel, axle, horse and mule, and suit of harness
belonging to the party. He was peering like a
well-intentioned wizard into every nook and
cranny, pointing out a defect here and there
with his odd, six-sided staff engraved with the
hieroglyphs of many measures ; more useful,
though less romantic, than a Runic wand. He
wore a great surtout, reaching almost to his
feet, of dark-green cloth (Mahomet color?) lined
with fur, a fur collar, cap, and pair of sealskin
boots with the undyed fur outward. I was
amused at his odd appearance; but as he turned
to address me, he removed a hideous pair of
green goggles, and his keen, blue-gray eyes
met mine with their characteristic look of
shrewd and cunninor insig-ht. I felt no further
inclination to laugh. His photographs, accurate
enough in other respects, altogether fail to give
the expression of his eyes.

There were six bagfoaofe-wacrons to accom-
pany us. They had left Salt Lake City the day

before, and now rolled slowly off to precede us
to Provo. Under President Young's direction,
his part}' were told off to their respective vehi-
cles, and bade farewell to the friends who had
accompanied them so far. Our carriage drew
up first; and I was sorry to see that it was Mr.
Young's own luxurious cit>' coach, whose springs
he had devoted to be shattered over the lava
blocks in my invalid husband's service. Inside,
it was so piled up with cushions and fur robes,
that it was almost impossible to feel a jolt. Its
handsomely-varnished outside panels were pro-
tected by clean white canvas. What a red-
stained, shabbv coverinor reached the end of our
seven-hundred-miles' journey !

Behind us followed a carriage containing
one of Mr. Young's married daughters, a pale,
bronchitic-looking young lady, traveling for her
health under the care of a Mrs, Young, who was
returnincr to her home in a southern settlement.
Beside them rode Mrs. Young's fair-haired little
daughter, Mabel, and many a chorus she and my
boys sang from their respective perches as we
toiled on our journey afterwards.

Next followed the carriage of Lorenzo Dow
Young, a younger brother of the president, with
his bright-eyed, sunburnt wife, alert and erect as
a young woman, and a manly son of fourteen,
their perrectly-reliable driver. After theirs, came

various other vehicles, containing- the superin-
tendent of telegraphing- in Utah, with his pretty
wife ; a blue-eyed, white-headed bishop from
Pennsylvania — a Mormon bishop, I mean — and
three or four other gentlemen in their own car-
riages, who were to accompany President Young
for the remainder of the trip.

Not least, in his own estimation, followed a
" colored gemman," an importation to Utah
from Philadelphia, whose airs and ailments were
henceforward to engross to clistraction the time
of the kind-hearted elder who withdrew him
from the teamsters' company to give him a seat
In his own carriage.

When the last vehicle had started. President
Young stepped into his own light coupe, which
carried him at a brisk trot to his place at the
head of the line.

Our afternoon drive to Provo followed the
margin of Utah or Timpanogos Lake, a shining
sheet of fresh water, which came into view when
the exigencies of the landscape demanded. Near
its shore were several flourishing villages, ap-
pearing in the distance as large fruit-orchards,
with detached dwellingrs scattered through them.
Hardly any "clap-boarded" houses are to be
seen in Utah. The Mormons have an ugly, Eng-
lish-looking, burnt brick; but adobe ("dobies")
or unburnt brick is most commonly used. I

8

prefer the adobe — its general tint is of a soft
dove-color, which looks well under the trees.
Sometimes the Mormons coat the adobe walls
with plaster of Paris, which, in their dry climate,
seems to adhere permanently. Its dazzling
whiteness commends it to the housekeeper's, if
not to the artist's, eye. The walls of the best
houses in Provo were white or light-colored,
and, with their carved wooden window-dress-
ings and piazzas and corniced roofs, looked
trim as if fresh from the builder's hand.

We entered the grounds of one of the hand-
somest of them, a villa built in that American-
Italian style which Downing characterizes as
indicating "varied enjoyments, and a life of
refined leisure," On its broad piazza our hostess
stood ready to greet us ; a buxom, black-haired,
quick-eyed dame, who gave us a becoming
welcome, and hailed the rest of the party with
many a quip and merry jest as she led the way
into her large parlor. In two minutes she had
flitted up the stairway to show me my rooms ;
in two more she had committed my entertain-
ment, so far as talking to me went, to another
of her husband's wives, also a guest ; and in
about fifteen more she had all of our large party
seated at a table, which was so abundantly spread
that there was no more than room left for our
plates. To be sure — New England fashion —

we had, bier and litde, o-Jass and china, about
nine apiece.

We had a brave long grace before meat. I
noticed that before utterinof jt President Youno-'s
eye had wandered over the table, and seen every
cover lifted, even the glass top of the butter-
dish. The stoppers were taken from the de-
canters of home-made wine. (I once saw, at
a Mormon dinner-party in the city, the corks
drawn from the champagne-bottles, which effer-
vesced an accompaniment to the speaker !)

I don't know why the covers were taken off;
it would have made an epicure wish the grace —
a full-fledged prayer; — shorter, with such savory
viands coolinor.

What had we for dinner ? What had we not !
Turkey and beef, fresh salmon-trout from the
lake, wild duck, chicken-pie, apple-fritters, wild-
plum-, cranberry-, and currant-jellies, a profusion
of vegetables ; and then mince-pies (drawn from
the oven a//er the grace was said!), smoking
plum-puddings for 7iSy and wholesome plain ones
for the children (who preferred the nji\\'ho]e-
some !) ; pears, peaches, apples, and grapes,
pitchers of cream and scarcely less creamy
milk, cakes, preserves, and tarts numberless,
and tea and coffee. All were served and pressed
upon us by our active hostess, for whom a seat
was reserved at President Youno^'s ricrht hand —

lO

to which she was invited about once in five min-
utes, replying, "Immediately, Brother Young,"
" Directly, Sister Lucy," as she flew ofl^ to re-
appear with some fresh dainty.

Such a busy woman ! That she looked well to
the ways of her household, no one could doubt
who heard her prompt, cheery replies to the que-
ries addressed her from time to time by President
Young and her husband (he was also a guest, if
a man can be a guest under his wife's roof!) re-
specting the welfare of the cows, and calves, and
sheep, and hired boys, the winter's provision of
wood and coal, and the results of the summer's
husbandry. .

She conducted me over her house afterward,
with a justifiable pride in its exquisite neatness
and the well-planned convenience of its arrange-
ments. She showed me its porte-cochere for
stormy weather, its covered ways to barn and
wood-shed, and the never-failing stream of run-
ning- water that was conducted throuo^h kitchen
and dairy. I noticed the plump feather-beds in
the sleeping-rooms, the shining blackness of the
stoves (each with its tea-kettle of boiling water),
that no speck dimmed her mirrors, and not a
stray thread littered her carpets. It was not
only here, but everywhere else in Utah, that I
rejoiced in the absence of — well — spittoons, and
of the necessity for them. I saw neither smoking
nor chewing among the Mormons.

1 1

This Provo house was the very foppery of
cleanHness. Small wonder that, with but one
young girl to help her, its mistress had little
leisure for reading. I had asked for books,
meaning to judge of the character of the house-
hold by their aid. There was only the Bible,
the Book of Mormon, a photograph album, and
Worcester's Dictionar}' in all that big house —
except in a carefully-locked closet, where were
the story- and lesson-books of her one child,
a son, gone now to Salt Lake City to study a
profession. When she opened this door and
lovingly handled the volumes, speaking of her
loneliness without him, tears gathered in her
eyes. I thought myself of a home that I knew
of, not half so tidy it must be confessed, over-
flowing with books and music, playthings, and
children's happy voices, where boys and girls
gathered round their mother with their paint-
ings, drawing, and sewing, while their father read
aloud ; and my own tears came as I thought how
solitary her life must be when each day's work
was done ; how^ much more solitary it would be
when the evening of her life closed in. No
"John Anderson" to be her fireside companion,
none of the comfort that even a lonely widow
finds in the remembrance of former joys and
sorrows shared with the one to whom she has
been best and nearest. This woman would have

12

only her model house, so clean and so white,
so blank and vacant — even of memories !

However, my pity seemed for the present
uncalled for. My hostess was soon jesting with
her guests. I must admit that she appeared to
be a happy and contented woman.

Our evening passed very quietly. President
Young was suffering from a severe cold attended
with fever, and the household retired early.
While we were sitting in the long parlor he fell
asleep before the fire, and the traveling party
broke up into groups who chatted in low tones
with the visitors who came in. When I went
up-stairs after tea to put my boys safely to bed
in their unfamiliar quarters, I had to draw down
the window-blind to shut out the dazzling moon-
light which kept them awake.

The town seemed asleep, except in the direc-
tion of the red-lit windows of a great meeting-
house whither the elders of our company had
repaired, and whence I could hear distant sing-
inp^. The mountains which shelter the town
were distinctly visible : their snowy tops like
fixed white clouds ; the hill-terrace at their foot,
called Provo Bench, lying black in their shadow
above the town.

When I went down-stairs to take my leave
for the night, I remarked to a guest, who was
still lingering in the parlor, upon the extreme

beauty of the scene ; and she detained me until
she could narrate me a " nice story" to associate
with it when I returned to my moonlit rooms.

She said that in the early days of the settle-
ment, her brother-in-law, Charles Decker, came
there by appointment to " trade" with the great
Ute chief Wah-ker or Wakarra. Wah-ker w^as
the terror of the country, in his day, having un-
disputed range over the region : from Utah
through Arizona, into California. It pleased his
highness to declare that the Great Spirit had
ordered him to be friends with the Mormons.
To prove his friendship, he brought them prop-
erty for sale, which he could not dispose of to
other purchasers. His Utes would often take
infant captives from the weaker Indian tribes,
who were heavy stock upon their hands : and
these, Wah-ker would, with a mock-sober pre-
tence of generosity, insist upon the Mormons
buying.

When Wah-ker announced that he was com-
ing with his band to trade, the Mormons has-
tened to buy what they must and get rid of
their dangerous friend ; as in a neighborless
country-house the women hasten to buy, from
the boisterous drunken peddler, wares enough
to relieve them of his presence.

The Mormons were not allowed to buy Indian
children for slaves. Believine them to be La-

manites, fellow- descendants of Israel,* like them-
selves, though under a curse, they felt bound to
adopt them into then- families and treat them like
their own children. Therefore, it was a costly
purchase that VVah-ker invited them to make;
and on this occasion, Decker and his comrades
bought what the Indians had brought of other
wares, such as dressed skins and ponies and
Mexican saddles, but declined the human goods.
Wah-ker then produced a shivering little four-
year-old girl, whom he insisted on their buying.
He asked an extravagant price, " because he had
brought her so far ; away from the Santa Clara
country." Her " board" could not have cost
the hero much, for he used to picket his little
captives "to a stake by a rope around their
necks," and for days at a time they had literally
nothing to eat more than was afforded them by
" the run of their teeth" amoncr the undergrowth
within the leno-th of their tether.

*" Those are the ten tribe's, wliicli were carried avvay
prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea, the king;
whom Shahiianeser, the king of Assyria, led away captive.
And he carried them over the waters, and so came they into
another land. They took this counsel among themselves,
that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go
forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt.
That they might there keep their statutes, which they never
kept in their own land. Then dwelt they there until the
latter time." — II. Esdras, xiii. 40-46.

. 15

The Mormons were willing- to pay a rifle, and
even to throw in a blanket to boot, but explained
that they honestly had no more goods with them
than were left on the trading-ground. On this,
Wah-ker became enraged, and seizing the child
by her feet, whirled her in the air, dashed her
down, and then, as she lay quivering out her
life, he snatched his hatchet from his belt and
chopped her into five pieces. " Now, you can
have her at no price," he said.

The narrator considered her story ended here,
but I asked, "Well, what happened then?"

"Happened?" she echoed. " Why, nothing.
After Wah-ker's temper was spent, he went oft
quite pleasant and dignified."

"But Decker, — your brother-in-law! Did Mr.
Decker do nothing?"

" He did try to jump out of his wagon and
rush on Wah-ker, but his friends held him— held
his arms, till he came to himself and cooled
down. What co7tld four men do against two
hundred and fifty ?"

I did not reply. I suppose the Mormons could
have achieved nothing ; but I think the story of
the unpunished crime affected me more than it
would have done if the child's death had been
avenged.

The Indian stories I have heard, when they
are true, don't end prettily. No god in a ma-

i6

chine comes down to avert the stroke of fate.
The witnesses look on like the chorus in a
Greek tragedy. I suppose the ancients described
reality; but our modern novelists and play-
wrights must suit the taste of the day by bring-
ing every story to a happy end.

Wah-Rer himself died in the Pah-vant country,
and the Utes made great lamentation over him.
There is a narrow canon with steep rocky walls,
which we saw afterwards near Kanosh's village.
In one of its recesses they walled up the chief's
body with loose stones, that permitted the air
and some rays of light to penetrate. They
killed there in his honor seven head of cattle, a
Pi-ede squaw and child, captives, and then walled
up with him a live Pi-ede boy. The Pah-vants,
who are a race friendly to the whites, living
quietly on a little reservation near, were sorry
for the child. One half-breed went up at night
and talked with him, but dared not be seen in
daylight. After three days the little fellow could
no longer restrain his cries of terror, his horror
of the rottin'g corpse, his pangs of hunger and
thirst. The fourth night there was only a moan
in answer to the friendly voice ; and the fifth
night, silence.

rAYSON.

Looking from my window at Provo, that night,
I had remarked a great building that looked in

17

the distance like a fortress. We visited it next
morning and found it'-nothing more formidable
than a large woolen factory, not yet in opera-
tion. It is to run 270 spindles, and make a
variety of cloths. The superintendent proved
to be a nephew of the Brothers Kelly, of Kelly-
ville, in Pennsylvania, and I felt as if he were
quite an old acquaintance in this outlandish
corner of the world, though I only know his
relatives' Mills by sight when I am at home.

We left Provo that afternoon, in spite of Presi-
dent Young's evident indisposition. I asked a
lady of the party whether some one would not
urge his staying a day longer to recruit his
strength.

" No," she replied, stiffly ; " he will be inspired
to do right. If he oiLgJit to go, we will know it
by his going ; if not, he will be inspired to stay.
He is guided by the spirit in every action of his
life."

Payson was our next stage from Provo. The
very pretty daughter of our host here was the
child of an only wife. He admitted his single-
blessedness with the half-shamefaced laueh that
in our country might have followed the an-
nouncement that a lady was his third spouse.
Third, vertically, I mean, as L. M. used to say
of Bishop H.'s matrimonial series. I did not
think that Mrs. Angus seemed likely to urge a

i8

second wife upon her lord ; since, for anything
that I could see, he throve financially as well as
if he had fulfilled all the conditions of saintship.
He was one of the few Irish Mormons whom I
met (indeed, Sco^c/i-lnsh at that). His house
was a larofe adobe which had erown with his
prosperity, for it had been added to three times,
and included a flourishing- millinery establish-
ment conducted by Mrs, Angus. It had two
well-furnished parlors ; one in particular with a
conspicuously costly carpet. Fires were blazing
in both; but I think quite as comfortable a room
was a long kitchen where we ate our meals.
Like all Mormon living-rooms, it was virtuously
clean and well-aired. Trailing plants climbed
round the windows, and as the sunshine poured
in, a canary tried to outsing the tones of Brig-
ham Young's grace. He held his own, however ;
and would not have its cage covered, maintain-
inof that the bird's effusion of thankfulness mio-ht
be as acceptable to the Creator as his own.

At ever)' one of the places we stayed on
this journey, we had prayers immediately after
the dinner-supper, and prayers again before
breakfast. No one was excused ; wives, daugh-
ters, hired men and women, all shuffled in. The
Mormons do not read from the Bible, but kneel
at once, while the head of the household or an
honored guest prays aloud, beginning, as I

19

noticed on this occasion, instead of ending, " In
the name of Thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ,
Father, we ask," etc. I do not think they as
often say, " If it be Thy Will," as we do, but
simply pray for the blessings they want, expect-
ing they will be given or withheld, as God knows
best. Thougfh I do remember Brigrham Younsf's
once praying for the restoration and healing of
the sick " if not appointed unto death." They
spend very little time in ascriptions, but ask for
what they need and thank Him for what He has
given — with surprising fluency and detail.

It interested me and my children, too, though
they could scarcely repress a start and titter,
when they and their absent brother and sister
were alluded to by name. At home, when, for
no greater audience than my children, I venture
to extemporize the prayer at family worship. I
am sometimes puzzled whether to introduce the
names of individuals, or to adhere prudently
to generalities. But the Mormons take it for
granted that God knows our familiar names and
tides, and will ask a blessing on " Thy servant,
Colonel Jonathan P. Hitchcock, jr.," where I
would spend a minute or two in devising a peri-
phrasis. I liked this when I became used to it,
and could join in with some knowledge of the
circumstances of those we prayed for ; particu-
larly as the year drew on, and the whole people

20

were in suspense awaiting the action of Con-
gress affecting them.

After leaving Payson we rounded the head of
Utah Lake, and cHmbed slowly up the gentle
ascent between its basin and Juab Valley. The
ground over which we traveled was strewn with
cobble-stones, with here and there a deep pool
of clear water. Such pools abound in this part
of Utah, and many of them are considerably
larger than they appear to the passer-by. The
margin is overgrown by a coarse, strong grass,
whose roots mat together and gradually en-
croach upon the surface, forming, in time, a
floatinor edo-e, strongr enouorh to bear a man.
Cattle, however, coming down to drink, over-
weight it, and falling in, are frequently drowned.
My attention was called to three particularly,
stated by a sworn accuser of the Mormons to
have been selected by him for conducting certain
choice noyadcs ordered by Brigham Young. To
believe the story, the dead thrown into these
pools rose to the surface of the water, and rolled
round -and round for weeks !

My husband assured me that the Juab Valley
was a charming green plain in summer, and
pointed out that even now in December it was
dotted with herds of cattle amonor the saofe-brush.
But I could not imagine its possible loveliness at
any season.

21

At a doleful-looking ranch, Panyan Springs,
where we paused to let. our horses drink, a
group of teamsters had kindled a fire, and stood
warmine themselves over it. Amono- them was
our servant, his natural ebony turned clay-color
by the icy wind that came rushing down from
Mount Nebo's 12,000 feet of altitude. One of
my boys who is of a poetic turn, pointed it out
to John, meaning to say, " Grand !" " Yes, in-
deed," shivered John, ''Dreadful!" The snowy
peaks of this glorious mountain glistened on our
horizon day after day, until we crossed the Rim
of the Basin.

At another watering-place, Santaquin, I think,
somewhat above the general level of the plain,
we saw quite a number of white-topped wagons
slowly toiling along the dusty track below us.
Some lighter ones turned aside, as we ourselves
frequently did, to drive through the aromatic
sage-brush. It scarcely afforded more obstruc-
tion to the wheels than grass would have done.
But while we were standing at a watering-
trough, up rolled one of the coaches of the Gil-
more Stage line. I noticed the half-tipsy mirth
on the countenances of the driver and of the two
red-faced passengers, who were leaning out of
the window watching his movements. By a
skilfully-given pull of the reins, he steered his
heavy wagon right against the hub of our front

22

wheel, and then drove off laughing. Unfor-
tunately for the joke, however, the villagers
beyond stopped his team, and he came back,
crestfallen, to apologize. It was undoubtedly
meant as an insult to the Mormon leader, in
whose well-known carriage, however, the only
Gentiles of the party happened to be seated.
President Younof received his excuses with
dignity, instead of "blowing him up," as a more
impetuous friend of mine was ready to do. Our
carriage was examined, and pronounced still fit
for work; but it took some hours at our next
stopping -place to repair the damage. The
people of the village complained that this was a
favorite amusement of the coaches near this
point, where the Mormon travel coincides with
that of the Nevada mining regions.

Among the groups gathered around the car-
riages, many eagerly claimed T.'s recognition.
A sturdy yellow-haired man, thrusting both his
sinewy brown hands through the carriage win-
dow, shook T.'s hand and mine and the chil-
dren's, all at once, it seemed.

"My dear," says T. to me, "this is my old
friend. Lot Smith. You know Jum well by
name !"

I tried very hard to look as if I did ; but T.,
with all his virtues, sometimes puts me in an
embarrassing position by introducing me with

23

the same form of words to some " old friend,"
whose name he has clean forgotten, and trusts
I shall find out Incidentally for him. N'ozu, he
had the name ; but whether he remembered
anything more, I doubted. " Lot Smith, Lot
Smith?" Naturally, being in Utah, my thoughts
flew to the late Joseph, and I mentally enume-
rated the scions of that house, whose photo-
graphs had been brought us by his gigantic
young kinsman, Samuel. No ; there was no Lot
among them.

"And so you are content to be a quiet farmer
at ' Bountiful' ?" T. was saying, as I gave up my
researches amon^r the Smiths.

"And so yoic are contented to be a quiet
citizen since you came back from the wars ?"
retorted the other. " No, indeed. Colonel. I'm
just waitin' the word. I'm expectin' to hear of
that there expedition to the Arctics, and when
you're ready /am. We'll have real times like
you had in the snows out by Bridger in '58."

Oh, to be sure! Now I had him! In '57,
when the government army trains were stam-
peded and wagons burnt, it was Lot Smith who
was accused of being the hero of the attack.
And this thick-set, steady-looking farmer was
the same man of whom I had heard a story that
I could applaud more.

When he was a member of the Mormon bat-

24

talion in Mexico or Lower California, he put
down a bull-fight.

He told the Spaniards that it was an exhibi-
tion as cowardly as it was cruel, and that if they
wanted to show their pluck, they shouldn't kill
the bull, but ride it.

"No man may ride a maddened bull !" said
the Dons.

" One man will !" he retorted. And leaping
on the neck of a bellowing quadruped they had
just brought in, he rode it round the ring, hold-
ing on by its horns, until a favoring toss landed
him in the canopied box of the alcalde's family.

As we drove on, T. told me of other adven-
tures of Lot's; but I was weary and depressed,
and they made little impression on my mind.

The scattered settlements hereabout looked
poor, and more in the Irish mud-cabin style
than those we had passed before ; yet the wide,
unpaved streets were bordered with cotton-
woods, and each house was set in its ample
orchard of young fruit-trees, while water flowed
through irrigating channels, suggesting the ex-
penditure of much patient toil before the planta-
tions had been successful.

Each Mormon settlement has its open central
square ; in the later ones unfenced, but in the
earlier surrounded by a crumbling wall of adobe
and cobble-stone, the quondam "fort," or "cor-

25

ral," for protection against Indians. In the
poorer settlements their assemblages for re-
ligious or patriotic purposes (with the Mormons
convertible terms) are still held in great open
sheds, roofed only with woven boughs, called
"boweries," which stand in the midst of these
central squares. Even now, though the people
say they are safe from Indians, I noticed that the
tithing and farm-yards were enclosed by walls
or strono- wattled fences or stockades.

The hay-stacks in the dry, pure air had taken
a bright straw-color outside, but where they
were cut down into for the cattle, were of a
green almost as fresh as that of new-mown
grass. Sometimes the hay was not piled in stacks,
but laid upon a stout pole framework, so as to
form the roof and sides of a shelter for the cattle
against the wind,

I know — that is I have been told — that the
scenery between Payson and Nephi is tine, —
that mountains near and distant were keeping
up with us all the way. But I can't say that I
appreciated it. The behavior of the rude men
at Santaquin had put me out of temper ; my lot
in life having previously been cast where such
insolence in a lady's presence woulcb not have
escaped chastisement. And, as generally hap-
pens in such moods, I gave most attention to
the sights most immediately under our carriage

3

26

windows. Now the wheels ran noiselessly ; and
now they jolted roughly over coarse pebbles
and gravel. The sky clouded over, too ; and its
dull gray met the gray of the uninteresting plain,
with its unvarying shabby growth of wormwood,
no twig of which seems to have a natural termi-
nation, but to have been bent round and twisted
or bitten off.

Towards nightfall, as our weary horses
dragged us on to the close of the long day's
journey, hills we had seen in the distance ahead
began to tower up tall mountains ; hiding still
higher snowy peaks beyond. A cluster of
houses and fenced gardens lying in their shelter
was pointed out as Nephi. We saw smokes
away up on one of the heights above the town,
which T. said were probably Indian fires ; and
the children and I felt, with quickened pulse,
that we were nearing the pass into treacherous
"Tab-i-yuna's" country.

NEPHI.

I could see little of Nephi in the gathering
darkness : it was evidently smaller than Provo.
The carriages halted on entering the town, and
separated company. Ours was driven rapidly
up a cross-street to a plain adobe house, stand-
ing by itself. Lights shone from every door
and window ; the father of the family stood wait-

27

ing to help us out of the carriage, and the wives
and children greeted' us warmly as we crossed
the threshold.

We were first ushered into a large bedroom
on the ground floor, where a superb pitch-pine
fire was blazing ; and two well-cushioned rock-
ing-chairs were drawn forward for us, while half
a dozen hospitable children took off my boys'
wrappings, as the mother disembarrassed me of
mine.

Then we were left to rest, and begged to feel
ourselves at home.

Our present entertainers, the Steerforths,
were English people. There were two wives,
and a number of children, girls of all sizes down
to the smallest elf that ever walked, and one
sturdy open-faced boy, who speedily " fellow-
shipped" with my little lads, and carried them
off, after supper, to the great kitchen to see their
playmate, Lehi, the Indian boy.

After supper! — To this day, when we have
any special dainty at home, Evan and Will ex-
claim that it reminds them of the Steerforths',
and describe the cozy dining-room, with the
warm fire-light playing on the table-equipage,
and the various good things' that composed, in
Yorkshire style, the hungry little travelers'
"tea-dinner."

One of the wives sat down to table, and one

28

waited upon us, with the aid of the two elder
girls. There was a young schoolmaster there,
too, who had made his home with the Steerforths
since his parents died, and whose love of their
quiet domestic life was duly praised by the Mis-
tresses S. when he left the room. But I thought
that the sweet face of " our eldest" — " Noe," I
think they call her — might perhaps share the
credit of the long ten-mile ride on Friday even-
ing from his school to Nephi, and the starlight
journey back which it cost the youthful peda-
gogue on Monday morning.

My intercourse with the Steerforths made a
strong impression on me. We stayed longer at
their house than at any other on this tour, and
it was difficult not to be influenced by their
simple kindliness of heart and unaffected en-
thusiasm.

Our conversation the evening of our arrival
turned chiefly on our hostesses' experience of
pioneer life. Mrs. Mary was the chief speaker,
but Mrs. Sarah, a pale little lady, dark-haired
and black-eyed, put in a quiet word of acquies-
cence, or suggested an anecdote now and then.
She was from Yorkshire. Mrs, Mary was a
Herefordshire wo'man, tall, rosy, brown-haired,
and blue-eyed.

I wonder whether the Mormon men evince
any marked peculiarity of taste in the selection

29

of wives. Widowers with us are wont to profess
that they discern a resemblance in the lady upon
whom a second choice falls, to the dear departed.
I asked a Mormon woman at Salt Lake how it
was, and she answered that, in her opinion, men
had no taste. " In our case," she said, " there
2.r^ five of us unusually tall, and /z£^6> very short;
but the rest (she did not say how many there
were) are of an ordinary height, and we are
all different in looks, disposition, and age."

In the Steerforth menage, the wives were
exceedingly unlike each other. The husband
was of a Manx family, long resident in York-
shire. He had joined the Mormons in early
youth with hi^ mother, and they had been dis-
owned by his family, well-to-do English people.
He had prospered so well in Utah, however,
that the family had now made overtures of
reconciliation, and a bachelor "Uncle Lillivick"
was coming to make Nephi a visit.

The Steerforths were amonof the first Mor-
mons who came out to Utah. Only a select
band of one hundred and forty-three men,
headed by Brigham Young in person, had pre-
ceded them. These pioneers had planted posts
along their route with rough boxes nailed to
them, containing information regarding tlie
distances to wood, water, and grass ; and these
guide-posts were slowly tracked out and fol-

3*

30

lowed by the long train of ox-wagons, freighted
with the exiles from Nauvoo, women, children,
and invalids. There were a few men who drove
and acted as guards, but the teamsters were
principally women and young boys.

Our government had invited the Mormons,
as a test of their loyalty, Mrs. Mary said, to
furnish volunteers for the war then o^oino- on
with Mexico. The Mormons raised a battalion,
five hundred stroncr containing- most of the
young men who should have escorted the help-
less ones ; and they were gone twenty months,
reaching Salt Lake Valley, she told me, from the
then almost unknown California. Some found
that their wives and infants had»perished from
the sufferings they had undergone; others
found them established in tiny homes, long-
ingly awaiting him.

I asked Mrs. Mary whether the band of exiles
knew where they were to go. Had the pioneers
returned?

" No," she said ; "we heard from time to time
how they were faring, from the post-office boxes,
but that was all we knew."

" Were you long on the journey ?"

"Very long," she said; "but we kept cheerful,
knowing the Lord was our guide. But you
can think what we felt when we came into the
mountains, and word was passed one day from

31

wao;"on to wao-on, that Brother Younof and the
other pioneers were in sight, coming back to
meet us ! They brought news that they had
chosen the spot for us to settle, and planted
seed-corn there. It was beautiful weather, and
we had a dance, and prayers, and songs of
thankfulness that night, by the light of the
moon."

" Were you able to use the corn they had
planted ?" I asked.

" No ; we saved it for next year, as far as we
could. We brought some with us, and ground
it up at a rough little mill we had on City
Creek. I wore out five veils siftinor flour. At
first we set aside what would not pass through ;
but we were glad to use it all, with the bran,
lonor before the new harvest was orathered."

" Did you suffer from famine when you first
entered the Valley?" I inquired.

" No," she answered, '' not exactly. We
always had something to eat, though the poor
children used" to long for the time when they
might eat as hearty a meal as they wanted.
We had to reckon so closely how much we
could allow for each meal, that we never rose up
from one with our hungrer satisfied. But as there
was no variety of food, our appetites were less
tempted. Where the water was good, we drank
a orood deal of it ; where it was not, we boiled

32

it. With a little milk we could make cambric
tea, which was found to be one of the best of
remedies for hunger — taken hot, and with a
little spice or aromatic herbs to flavor it."

" I call that suffering."

" Not w^hat a Mormon would call by the
name," answered little Mrs. Sarah's quiet voice.
"Mary," she added, "tell Mrs. T. about the
dark days ; tell her of the winter before."

"I can never call them our dark days, sister,"
she rejoined. " We were starving, we were
dying, suffering was then consuming life itself;
but it was that which gave its brightness to the
flame. The flame of true reliction was burnino-
then. God was with this People. I would give
a thousand days of the present luxury and folly,
for one hour of that exalted life."

She said this and more, with a voice express-
ive of deep emotion. I did not understand what
wrong key I had struck ; but I turned back the
dialogue.

" When was it that you got enough at last ?"
I asked.

"Well," she said, "in August, i84cS, a year
after the pioneers came out, when the first
harvest of the Salt Lake farms was gathered in,
we made a great day of rejoicing before the
Lord. We had long tables set out in the open
air, under ' boweries ;' and all the women and

33

girls were busy baking, broiling, stewing, and
roasting. Every stranger in the settlement
(and there were a good many on their way to
California) was made welcome to. as much as
he could eat ; and then in the evenino- we had
dancincr and sinorincr that lasted all nigrht. We
dismissed all care for the time, and made it a
day of pure thanksgiving. We had to pinch
somewhat after that, but the worst was over.
Our family did not stay very long in the \^alley,
for Mr. Steerforth was one of the first appointed
to come down here to Salt Creek."

"Why do you call this place Salt Creek?" I
asked.

"Our creek water 7's salt. There is a salt
mountain up the canon, and there is a good
deal sold from here; and, of course, the Gentiles
don't like to use our names for places, when
they can use others and be understood."

I inquired about the smokes that we had seen
above Nephi as we approached, and Mrs. Mary
said that they zae/'e kindled by Indians. They
had been there two days.

"Are you not afraid?"

" Oh, no ; the Indians are perfectly friendly
now."

" How long is it since they harmed any one
belonging to your settlement ?"

" Well," she answered, tranquilly, " no one to

34

speak of, these three months, and then it was
only one man — Brother Hart — who was out
alone, against counsel. It was last October.
He went up the canon to haul down some fire-
wood, taking his little boy along. The valley
is very narrow, and in some places rocks over-
hang the road. The Indians fired riorht dow.n
upon him. They wounded the boy, too, but he
escaped. Probably they wanted the horses only,
for they could have caught Phineas if they had
tried."

** Do you suppose they had any special
motive," I inquired, " beyond coveting the
horses?"

" Brother Hart had had stock stolen, and was
known by the Indians to be vexed about* it.
He has left a widow, poor fellow, and young
children."

A visitor remarked that it was Tab-i-yuna
who was supposed to have killed Brother Hart,
and that Kanosh, the friendly Pah-vant chief,
accused Tab-i-yuna of it.

Mrs. Sarah said that their family had twice
been compelled to move off in former times by
the Indians, and often to "go into the Fort,"
but they felt perfectly safe, since the new San
Pete settlements intervened between them and
Tab-i-yuna. Now I had heard before 'leaving
Salt Lake, that Tab-i-yuna had threatened war

35

unless black-mail was paid; and from better
autliority than Mrs. Steerforth had access to,
that this had been refused. I had learned, too,
that there was an entirely undefended pass be-
tween his country and Nephi, but I thought it
kindest not to alarm my hostesses with my
fears.

Both women then went on to tell me of a visit
Tab-i-yuna had made Nephi in the summer with
his band.

We have heard our English friends with
country-places, complain of the gypsies strolling
through the country, camping here and there,
and pilfering from friend or foe. But their
grievance is a bagatelle compared to that the
Mormons endure, under the infliction of a visit
from a party of Indians. They have the appe-
tites of poor relations, and the touchiness of rich
ones with money to leave. They come in a
swarm ; their ponies eat down the golden grain-
stacks to their very centres ; the Mormon wo-
men are tired out baking for the masters, while
the squaws hang about the kitchens watching
for scraps like unpenned chickens.

" The women are glad enough, poor crea-
ures," cried pretty Noe, " of a chance to carry
vater or do any drudge work to repay us for
yentle treatment ; but the men — the insolent
'oung braves and warriors, who expect the

sisters to wait on them, and never thank us by
a look — I wonder how mother and the rest Can
stand it."

" They often mean better than they are able
to show," pleaded Mrs. Mary. " I had an old
Shoshone squaw, the wife of Baptiste, the Ute
medicine-man," she continued, turning- to me,
" who washed for us for several years, and was
as honest as the day. One morning she came
in from the mountains, kissed the children and
cried over them, and made signs that we must
all go, and seemed as if she was in terror of
being seen or overheard, yet anxious to make
us promise to leave. We did not understand
why she was so earnest, for the report was that
the Indians were quiet.

" We 'had had a regular guard out for some
time then, for there had been Indian alarms in
the summer ; but as we understood that no hos-
tile Indians were near, their vigilance had re-
laxed. Still, the men never went afield without
carrying their guns. The day before old Peggy
called, one had left his gun while he went to
drink at a brook. He had seen nobody either
going or coming back, but he found two arrows
had been fixed crosswise between the ramrod
^nd the barrel of his gun, to show how near
some one had crept to him. Such warnings
were often given by friendly Indians, to show us

37

how little we cruessed their nearness ; but half
the time our people did not understand their
meaning, and they dared not impart it to us
more plainly.

" It happened," she went on, " that the next
day was Sunday. I could not go to meeting,
having a bad headache. As I sat by the window
reading my Bible, I saw Indians come stealing
by until they completely surrounded the church.
They were all armed, and I was too much terri-
fied to leave my seat, either to hide myself or
to make an effort to warn the congregation.
Baptiste was leader of the band ; and after a few
minutes he stripped and danced into the church
naked."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, involuntarily, "what did
he do that for ?"

"I wondered, too," she answered; "but I
learned that it was done to banter them — that
is," she explained, replying to my look of inter-
rogation— " to insult them by indecent behavior,
and make them turn him out. That would have
ofiven him an excuse to work himself and his
band into a fighting rage. That's the way with
the poor creatures, you know. Some of their
grandest warriors seem to need to work them-
selves up into a kind of hysterical passion, before
they are brave enough to attack our people
when they affect not to mind them.

4

38

" Baptiste was disappointed. One of the
brethren sitting near a window bethought him-
self to look out, and seeing the Indians, warned
the rest. So they took no notice of Baptiste ;
but continued the services, only singing a little
louder in the hymn parts, perhaps ; and. Baptiste
stood awhile, then sat down, and then stole out,
and took his band away.

" Some say," she interrupted herself with a
smile, " that he thought that a great ' medicine'
was going on, and considering himself a brother
of the craft, withdrew from courtesy.

" Whatever his motive was, we took it as a
warning ; the settlers were all moved into the
Fort ; and three days after, the biggest Indian
war we ever had in the territory, broke out.
Some of our dearest friends were its earliest
victims."

I had heard in Salt Lake City of the power
of Baptiste's " medicine," and observing the in-
terest my questions evinced in the subject, the
Steerforths brought round to me a neighbor,
who had been an eye-witness of one of his per-
formances. I think I have from him a reliable
circumstantial account of the transaction of a
Ute pow-wow cure.'

According to this citizen's relation, he chanced
to be in Wah-ker's camp when a noted Indian
— I think he said Arrahpene — was taken alarm-

39

ingly ill. Wah-ker despatched a man and boy
to bring Baptiste. They took two ponies with
them, and left the camp at three in the morning
for Baptiste's lodge, fifty miles off. Half way
there the man halted with one of the ponies,
sending the boy on with the other. Baptiste
and his squaw, carrying a " bag of needments,"
made such good speed with the aid of the pony
relays that they reached Wah-ker's camp before
sunset.

Baptiste entered the sick man's lodge alone ;
but several persons, and among them my in-
formant, peeped in through the opening between
the skins ; and, after Baptiste's attention was
absorbed in his patient, they stole inside the
lodge. Arrahpene lay on the ground in a stupor,
seeming to take no notice of the conjuror.

Baptiste now took from his bag sundry non-
descript articles, which he hung solemnly upon
a pole, and kindled a fire of sticks in the centre
of the lodge, on which, from time to time, he
threw a powder from his pouch, which made a
noisome smell. He then be^an walking round
and round his patient, as the mesmerists are
said to do, always keeping his old witch's face
toward him. But, as if finding them of no avail,
he threw himself suddenly upon Arrahpene,
clasped him round the body, and rolled him from
side to side. At this exercise he persevered

40

until the spectators grew tired of watching
him.

At intervals he would jump up, chanting a
tuneless, windy song, and snatch at one of the
magic rags he had hung to the lodge -pole,
appearing not to notice that he stepped through
the burning fire to reach it. After this he stroked
his hands now down his own sides, and now
down Arrahpene's. Once more he threw himself
on the body, — this time as if he wanted to
squeeze the life out. Then he swallowed a bit
of thick, red flannel, and after each few minutes
spat it up, examined it as it lay in his palm,
swallowed it again, after shaking his head, and
resumed the rolling. Presently he divested
himself of all his clothing, both the sick man
and himself being bathed in perspiration, and
the invalid showing other signs that life was
coming back to him in force. Again and again
he swallowed and threw up the bit of red flan-
nel, and muttered over it, and again and again
rolled on the sick man, still singing his queer
song, and jumping up at intervals to fumble
with the " medicine" raofs.

At last it was over ; a final diagnosis of the
red flannel, changed to a repulsive, slimy mass,
satisfied him. He 'turned, angrily kicked aside
the ashes of the fire, scraped a hole in the ground
underneath, and there buried the flannel, into

41

which the evil spirit of the disease had passed.
All that remained was for him to rake the ashes
over the spot again, shake himself, and resume
his clothing. The tent-flap was thrown open,
the fresh air let in. The sick man thereupon
rose, and left the lodge with Baptiste, perfectly
restored to health.

I asked my informant if he was satisfied of
the genuineness of the cure. He jnsisted that
there could be no doubt of it. "The Indians," he
said, " are very superstitious, and help the efforts
of their medicine-man by implicit faith in his
power. But they have still more faith for our
real miracles. Even those who have not em-
braced the faith, think that oiw ' medicine,' as
they call ' the gifts,' is more powerful than theirs."

While I was at Nephi, I saw a Mormon "sister"
who had just returned from Tab-i-yuna's camp,
where she had spent several days and nights,
nursing a sick squaw of his band. She was
quite ill herself, from having been so long in
the close air and dirt of a little skin-lodge ; but
her countenance lit up, and she raised her voice
loud and hiorh in announcing the creature's
perfect cure to the members of the Female
Relief Society. She seemed to me unreason-
ably elated over it. I found that it was on
account of the moral effect her recovery was
expected to produce on the " Lamanites."

42

Hitherto, Tab-i-yuna had been a most " stub-
born Jew," and now, for the first time, and when
they were in dread of him, he had sent, of his
own accord, for the brethren, desiring them to
"lay hands upon" the squaw and "minister to
her." They had gladly complied, carrying the
good sister with them, and leaving her with the
squaw, who took a turn for the better, they said,
from the time the brethren laid hands upon her.

The effect of superstitious credulity upon her
mind did something, I suppose, and kind nursing
did something; and I presume the Mormons were
not altogether wrong in thinking that God's
blessing did most of all.

Even I felt free to admit that Mormon Chris-
tianity would be a better belief than Tab-i-yuna's
heathen superstition, or the moral law our
soldiers teach in their intercourse with the
Indians. Uo-h ! If I were a man how I would
speak out against the beasts !

The Steerforths had often seen both Wah-ker
and Arrahpene, his brother-in-law and successor.
Old Baptiste was a relative of Wah-ker's, too,
Mrs. Mary said; and then she took me into the
kitchen, to see the adopted son of the family,
" Lehi," one of the Pi-ede children whom Wah-
ker had captured in his infancy.

Lehi sat in the warmest corner of the ruddy
hearth, and the little Steerforths were coaxing

43

him to tell my boys about his days of slavery.
Like most of the Indians who have grown up in
the Mormon families, he was sickly. Rheumatism,
dyspepsia, and consumption seem to follow the
change of diet and more sedentary life. He
would not talk while I stayed there, although he
looked pleased when Mrs. Steerforth promised
him that T. would play for him on the violin he
had bought, but had not yet learned to use.
After I was gone he described to my boys how
Wah-ker's band used to amuse themselves in
terrifying him. Sometimes they buried the poor
child up to the chin in earth, and leaving food
and water just outside his reach, informed him
that the band were going to move away. On
other occasions, the young braves would send
for him, and, telling him that the time had come
to kill him, would take aim. When they found
that he did not flinch, they would say he might
go this time. The sweet little boys of the
band, too, were allowed to exercise their infant
skill in archery upon him, the game being to see
how near they could come to hitting, without
actually piercing, him. He showed the children
the scars on his back and legs and feet, where
they used to try his powers of endurance by
playfully branding him with a burning stick.

No wonder that Lehi used to hide under the
bed at Mrs. Steerforth's wheneveran Indian came

44

near, as the doe who has once been shot at hides
from a man approaching with a gun.

Another of Wah-ker's infant captives was
adopted into President Young's family. She
seemed to me a very respectable and sedate,
good woman, but was said to entertain a " mor-
bid" horror of Indians. I was told that when
she was sold, a young brother of hers, remaining
on hand after the rest of the captives were
disposed of, was thrown alive into the Boiling
Spring, a mile north of Salt Lake City. Presi-
dent Young himself, who ought to know, I
suppose, contradicts this story. He does not
think it was her brother, in the first place, and,
in the second, the lad was killed before he was
thrown in !

I found the Mormons disposed to justify and
excuse the Indians more than I thought the
hideous creatures deserved; and, if Wah-ker
didn't boil that boy alive, he committed enough
atrocities to justify the terror in which his name
was held amono- the subordinate Utes.

Mrs. Mary's Indian stories made me nervous ;
and on retiring to rest, after extinguishing my
candle, I observed, with small satisfaction, that
I was to see the Pi-ute fires distinctly through
the window at the foot of my bed if I should
wake at night. The thought itself kept me
watching them. I fancied I could see them

45

brio-hten from time to time, and felt sure that if
I fell asleep I would dream of Robinson Crusoe's
cannibals dancino- round their flaming- faofots.

Instead, I figured at two home-funerals as
chief mourner ! It was a relief to wake to the
peacefulness of a Sunday morning, with bright
sunshine streaming- throug-h the window.

After breakfast I attended a Mormon meeting
for the first time. I wondered whether Mr.
Steerforth would walk to church alone, or
between his wives. But they both accompanied
me, while their joint husband (!) formed one of
a group who escorted T. So there was no test
of preference like that which mocks the tomb
of Lord Burleigh. We soon ming:led with a
stream of neatly-dressed people all going the
same way ; my children undevoutly rambling
from one side of the road to the other. They
called my attention to a tamed magpie, whose
remarks the little Steerforths declared to be
worth hearing. But we paused in vain ; he
would not show off I had not known that the
magpie was a native of Utah ; I had supposed
him a peculiarly English bird.

We passed a heap of smouldering brands —
sticks and ragged strips of cedar-bark. I had
fancied that a fire of " cedarn-wood" would give
out a scent like sandal-wood. The perfume
resembled that of the fustiest of greasy woolen

46

clothes, and was strong enough to poison the
sweet air for quite a distance.

I got rid of more than one preconceived idea
that morning; of none more completely than
the prevailing error respecting the looks of a
congregation of Mormon women. I was so
placed that I had a good opportunity to look
around, and began at once to seek for the
" hopeless, dissatisfied, worn" expression trav-
elers' books had bidden me read on their
faces.

But I found that they wore very much the
same countenances as the American women of
any large rustic and village congregation.

As we grow older, most of us pass through
trials enough to score their marks upon cheek
and brow ; but ill-health and ill-temper plough
furrows quite as deep as guilt or misfortune.
Take your own congregation, the sad histories
of so many of whose members you know, and
see whether you can read the tragedies of their
lives beneath the composed Sunday expression
their faces wear. Happy or unhappy, / could
not read histories on the upturned faces at
Nephi. I looked on old women's sunburned
and wrinkled visages, half-hidden in their clean
sunbonnets ; decent, matronly countenances
framed in big old-fashioned bonnets ; bright,
young eyes and rosy cheeks under coquettish

47

round hats — you might see thousands of women
resembling them in our country churches.

The irrepressible baby was present in greater
force than with us, and the element young man
wonderfully largely represented. This is always
observable in Utah meetinijs.

The services differed from our own. They
followed a prescribed order — I judged from the
readiness with which the congregation adapted
itself to them ; but in a certain unceremonious
manner, not irreverent, but which somehow
seemed to be protesting against formalism. A
number of men, bishops and elders, I suppose,
sat on a large platform. On a table, covered with
a white cloth, w^ere a couple of jugs of water,
two plates of bread, and a common case-knife.
A small reading-desk held a plainly-bound
Bible, a hymn book, and a Book of Mormon.

There was a low buzz of conversation among
the crowded audience for some minutes after we
took our seats. The outer door being closed,
one of the bishops said, " Brethren and sisters
will please come to order." Then came a
prayer, then a very well-sung hymn, in which the
congregation was led by a choir of fourteen ;
and then three or four addresses, all of a moral
and practical character. There was no text
given out, but occasional allusions were made
to passages in either the Bible or the Book of

48

Mormon ; as, " If my memory serves me, the
Bible says : I guess it is somewhere in Isaiah,"
so and so. They gave the sense, but not the
Hteral rendering of the words of Scripture, as
far as my memory served me.

Different speakers, all men, shared the serv-
ices among them ; but I could not see whether
President Young arranged who should speak,
or whether one of the bishops, who seemed to
invite each orator to address the meeting, did
so of his own accord. There were no robes,
gowns, altars, flowers, or other devices to
attract attention to the performances, but it
seemed unnecessary. The audience seemed
gravely intent upon what was said, although I
noticed a distinct change of expression pass
over the assembly, as a man of winning and
beautiful countenance rose to speak. When
he turned, he was seen to be hump-backed.
We often heard him preach afterwards ; and
my children grew so fond of his quaint pictur-
esque eloquence, that they were eager to go
even to " week-day meeting," on the chance of
hearing Elder Potto.

He began by an allusion to his deformity as a
cross which he found hardest to bear when he
had to face an audience. But, he said, he knew
that he could not profit them if he spoke in the
spirit and person of William C. Potto, and he

49

hoped that the brethren and sisters would pray
for him, that the Spirit of God might descend
upon him, and speak through his feeble voice.
He paused some moments : the people prayed
in silence — or seemed to do so — before he went
on with his address.

I wish that I had taken notes of his sermon.
It turned chiefly upon the duties of children to
parents. It was replete with familiar illustration,
— often colloquial, and never wandering from
the precepts he designed to teach, — but be-
longed to the class of discourses it is hard to
report. He closed by a curious account of
his own spiritual conversion. It began like a
Methodist " experience" — became psychologi-
cal : afterwards touched on the miraculous. A
Mormon is never inconvenienced by his story
turning on a miracle. Other speakers followed
more briefly. When one of them was under
full headway, he paused abruptly — as if he had
been ordered to do so — and the bread was
blessed in the following words, which I found
afterwards were taken from the " Book of Mor-
mon, fourth chapter of Moroni:"

" Oh God, the Eternal Father, we ask Thee,
in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and
sanctify this bread to the souls of all who may
partake of it, that they may eat it in remem-
brance of the body of Thy Son, and witness unto

5

50

Thee, Oh God the Eternal Father, that they are
wilhng to take upon them the name of Thy Son,
and always remember Him, and keep His com-
mandments which He hath given them, that they
may always have His Spirit to be with them.
Amen."

The bread, already in slices, was then broken
and handed to every one, children included.
This occupied a long time, but the speaker had
resumed his address. Then the water was
blessed, thus :

" Oh God, the Eternal Father, we ask Thee,
in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless
and sanctify this water to the souls of all who
drink of it, that may do it in remembrance of
the blood of Thy Son, which was shed for them,
that they may witness unto Thee, Oh God the
Eternal Father, that they do always remember
Him, that they may have His Spirit to be with
them. Amen !"

While the water was being handed round,
another hymn was sung ; one of a set of beauti-
ful fugues of which the Mormons are particularly
fond. Then the services were concluded with a
blessing, and the congregation dispersed, inter-
changing greetings at the door.

I spent the afternoon with my two hostesses ;
but T. was taken to inspect a monster Sunday-
school, where he found the pupils well drilled in

51

the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The latter
is a production which sounds not unlike the his-
torical books of the Old Testament in the ears
of those who " read their chapters" in the me-
chanical way in which an ignorant Catholic tells
his beads.

While I talked with the Steerforth women
over the glowinor fire, I was idly wondering to
which of the wives the different children be-
longed. The wee nursling and Noe were easily
assigned to the little mother, but I puzzled
myself vainly over the others who gathered
about the pair with precisely the same caressing
-familiarity that we are accustomed to associate
with the true filial instinct one and undivided.
When I mentioned , my difficulty they smiled,
and asked me to point out those whom I thought
belonged to each. I did so ; and they laughed
outright, telling me that the seven children be-
lono-ed to the little mother. She had also lost
five. " Aunt Mary" was childless in name, but
I never saw a mother of whom children seemed
to be fonder, or who took more pride in the
promising future of her natural offspring.

It was she who followed me to my room the
first night, and, while she saw to my comfort,
gave me incidental anecdotes in praise of "our
girls." The bed-hangings were trimmed with
finely-knitted lace, and, assuming it to be her

52

own work, I had complimented her upon it in
the morning.

She disclaimed it : " Sister Sarah really is
wonderful handy, but I have no turn that way."
Next morning she apologized for her sister-wife's
absence from the breakfast-room: "The baby
breaks her rest so much at night, that the only
thing to preserve her health is to let her lie late
in the morning. The girls, particularly Mary,
are so useful ; they can prepare the meal with
very little assistance from, me."

Sunday afternoon, when the little mother
happened to be talking with unusual energy,
she brought little Mercy's head into violent
contact with the stove-pipe. She looked dis-
tressed, and tried vainly to soothe it for a few
minutes, but then laid the infant, without a word,
in Aunt Mary's offered arms, where it nestled
down in a way that showed it was used to being
cosseted there.

The pair then pointed out to me the comfort,
to a simple family, that there was in having two
wives to lighten the labors and duties of the
household, giving me a number of instances in
proof.

Mrs. Mary further spoke of the friendship
that existed between such sister-wives, as a
closer tie than could be maintained between the
most intimate friends living in different circum-

53

stances. " Even sisters by blood," she said,
" are parted, when they marry, by new interests
independent of each other ; and, fond as may
be the affection that remains, the bond of daily
habit and propinquity is broken. But, in our
home, each of us has a friend whose interests
are identical with her own, who can share all the
joys and troubles of the family, and to whom she
can impart her feelings regarding its head with-
out fear of violating that sacred confidence which
may not be shared with any outside friend."

Can you imagine anything sober — more
insane ? I listened with perfect composure. I
was under no temptation to laugh, with those
two poor ladies looking into my face inquiringly,
even when they spoke most confidently of their
solution of life's problems. — " The pity of it,
lag-o !"

The Steerforths were the first Mormon women
who awakened sympathy in my breast, disso-
ciated from an equally strong feeling of repul-
sion ; but afterwards, even when I was thrown
among the Mormon Doras and Mrs. Nicklebys,
in their absurd prattle about their family relations
some chord of nature would be struck which
moved anything but a smile.

One day, in Salt Lake City, I chanced to
remark to a visitor that I had just seen a funeral
pass my window.

5*

54

"Yes," she answered, "it was young Mrs.
R.'s. She was a sweet httle creature. Did you
know her?"

" No," I said ; " whose daughter was she ?"

Mrs. D, mentioned the name, — one well
known to me, — and continued : " She and her
husband grew up little boy- and girl - lovers ;
were engaged when she was thirteen, and mar-
ried when she was sixteen, and now she is dead
at seventeen, leaving a baby a few days old."

" Poor litde baby !" said I. " Who is there to
take care of it?"

" Oh, the baby will do very well," Mrs. D.
replied ; " her mother will clothe and tend it ;
and, fortunately, her father's second wife had a
baby the very day Mrs. R. died, and she has
undertaken to suckle both children. Yes, the
baby will do very well, — it's the husband I pity."

My heart not being very soft towards the
woes of Mormon widowers, I hinted that per-
haps the man would soon find consolation in
another marriage.

"Of course he will marry," she replied,
gravely ; " but that's not it. I think a man who
loses his partner is so much more helpless than
a woman. Of all the forlorn creatures, I think
a man that has lost a wife is the forlornest.
Like a hen with its head off, you know, Mrs. T.
He don't know what to do for himself, nor for

55

the children. There's my husband, now (a man
twenty-five years her senior), he's had three
bereavements since we were married, and I'm
sure you'd have pitied him ! He seemed so lost,
we {zoe meaning the other wives !) scarcely
knew how to comfort him. He had lost one
wife just before I married him. She left four
children, and I thought I never could love chil-
dren of my own more. But, dear me, I found
there was quite a new love for ^/lan when they
came. I brought up my own little brothers and
sisters, too, for mother died when I was thirteen,
and left them to me, baby and all ; and / {/o love
children so dearly. But when my own, ozc'7i first
baby was laid in my arms, I just laughed with
pleasure, — it was such a strange, sweet feeling.
Of course that is something different, — a feeling,
zy it is love, is one that yon caiit help, and deserve
no credit for havifig.

" He" (her Mr. D.) " has a wife now who is
childless, and she is so fond of my present baby
(my ninth, he is) that he loves her as much as
he does me ; all the difference is, he calls me
mamma, and her Katie. She says her feeling
is the same as if he were her own, but I say she
only hasn't experienced the other, I have left
him with her since morning."

This is but one instance of many where I
found women fosterine the children of their

56 •

husband's other wives ; but it was only at the
Steerforths that I was an inmate of the house-
hold long enough to see, as I said, the uncon-
scious tokens of a tender intimacy between the
wives themselves,

CHICKEN CREEK. THE SEVIER.

We parted from our friends at Nephi with
unfeigned regret. By six o'clock, of a frosty, star-
light morning, we T.'s were roaming about the
garden, punctual to the hour appointed for start-
ing,— our valises packed, breakfast and family
prayers long over. But we did not leave for
two good hours. Some one or other in so large
a party was sure to be unpunctual, and for our
mutual safety it was necessary to travel in
company, and, therefore, we always waited for
the laggards.

During the early part of our drive there was
little to interest us. On one side of the carriage
we had the window drawn up, and the sun had
not acquired power enough to thaw the rime off
the glass ; on the other, the plain spread out as
on the last afternoon's journey, —

" Wild and bare,
Wide, wild, and open to the air,
Which had built up everywhere
An under-roof of doleful gray."

57

There were no more teams for the Nevada
mines in sight. Far ahead of us a Hght cloud
of dust indicated President Young's carriage,
seen across the desert Hke the smoke of a
steamer at sea. A horseman rode back to bid
us close up, for the other carriages toiled equally
far behind us in the heavy sand. The children
began to tire of the journey before it was fairly
begun. As for me, I picked up a book that
some one had thrust into the carriao-e as we
were quitting Nephi. It was gayly bound,
printed in worn type, on coarse paper, much
thumbed, and was entitled :

" Brigham Young's Destroying Angel. Being
the Life, Confessions, and Startling Disclosures
of the Notorious Bill Hickman. Written by
Himself."

In the veracious pages of this work, I read
that my gentle-looking host at Nephi had united
with Mr. Hickman in murdering a party of six
men. He had been particularly aided, too, by
a demure gentleman who had pressed us to
dine with him the preceding day ; and whose
wife's savory fried chicken had been highly
extolled by those of our party who had accepted
his hospitality. Mr. Hickman avers that they
sank the bodies of two of their victims, with
stones tied to their feet, in one of those " bot-
tomless springs" we had noticed before coming

58

to Nephi. And our halt at the Sevier crossing
this day was to be made at the spot where two
others were killed! Mr, Hickman's account i,s
circumstantial, and he does not avoid blackening
himself in the effort to criminate others. It is
a curious commentary on the sanguinary char-
acter of the Mormons, as described by him, that
he is living among them still. He was at Nephi
only a few days before us.

It was a singular experience to read Hick-
man's book in the company of the man whom it
was written to accuse of being the head of a
band of Thugs, — a man who was at that very
time under bail for a heavier amount than was
exacted of Jeff Davis !

A cry of delight from the children caused
me to look up. We had come to Chicken
Creek, where there was a large pool, fed by
springs. The stream rushing out from it cut
its way round the side of a hill, leaping down
several feet between banks fringed with long
stalactites of ice. The sun pierced through
the clouds and sparkled on the water; little Ma-
bel and my boys, leaving the carriages, rushed
over the hilly ridge, wild with delight. We
took the opportunity, one and all, to warm our-
selves by a stroll, while the horses were being
watered.

Chicken Creek fiorures as the scene of a Q-rea.t

59

Danite massacre. I expected the subject would
be alluded to on our walk, but it was not.

Then we began to climb the ascent which
separates the Juab from the Sevier Valley, and
from the summit looked back over the now
sunlit plain, w'ith Nebo still towering over all
the other mountains on the horizon. Then,
down one long, slow descent after another, we
came to the Sevier River and halted at the
crossinor. The Sevier has no outlet ; it sinks in
the sands of the desert, not very far to the west
of Avhere we were. To the eastward it flows
through the San Pete country, where the Mor-
mons, under Joseph A. Young, are organizing
new settlements.

There being no facilities for irrigation, the
Mormons have made no settlement at the
Sevier crossing, although there is what the
children called " a cunning little plain" there,
which, by the way, is yearly overflowed. A few
huts, partly burrowed into the hillside, and a
shanty for the augmentation of the United
States revenues, in front of which some Pioche
teams had halted for refreshment, were planted
on the farther side of the stream. Our horses
were unharnessed to rest and feed, and I
rambled about with my boys.

Althoupfh I did not believe one word of Hick-
man's accusations, I felt myself color with a

6o

feeling- that I wronged the kind people about
me when I caught myself instinctively glancing
at the bushes that fringed the bank for the
place where Hickman had said the victims tried
to hide themselves ; and at the swift river, into
which, he said, the murderers threw three of
them. Then I returned to my carriage, and
shared in the bountiful lunch provided for us
by the Mistresses Steerforth, forgetful of Mr.
Hickman and his accusations of their g-oodman.

After dinner we toiled on steadily until dark-
ness set in, with no other adventure than that
of seeing the four horses of a great Pioche
wagon take fright, and dashing along the rocky
road, just missing President Young's carriage,
rush aside into a caiion, down which we could
hear them crashing on the rocks. We had
seen enough of our friend " Lo," to know who
would be the wreckers of that broken cargo.

It was dark when we reached our halting-
place for the night.

SCIPIO.

Round VALLEy, or Scipio, is the poorest and
newest of the settlements we stopped at, and
has been much troubled with the Indians. The
Mormons say " troubled with Indians," as we
might say " troubled with mosquitoes." No
one had been killed for four years back, though

6i

cattle had been driven off that year, we were
told.

The Bishop came riding out to meet us, a
handsome, kindly-faced man, mounted on a
horse that moved T.'s admiration. We were
taken to the house of his second wife, a little*
one-roomed log-cabin, with a lean-to behind, in
which the cooking was done. The living-room
was given up to us. Its main glory consisted
in a wide chimney-place, on whose hearth a fire
of great pine logs blazed, that sent a ruddy
glow over the whitewashed logs of the wall and
the canvas ceiling, and penetrated every corner
of the room with delicious light and warmth.
There was a substantial bedstead in one corner,
and curtains of old-fashioned chintz were tacked
from the ceiling- around it as if it had been a
four-poster, and a neat patchwork counterpane
covered the soft feather-bed. A good rag-
carpet was on the floor; clean white curtains
hung at the windows ; and clean white covers,
edged with knitted lace, covered the various
bracket-shelves that supported the housewife's
Bible, Book of Mormon, work-basket, looking-
glass, and a few simple ornaments. Two or
three pretty good colored prints hung on the
walls. Then there was a mahogany bureau, a
washstand, a rocking-chair, and half a dozen
wooden ones, with a large chest on which the

62

owner's name was painted (oddly enough it was
the same as that of the notorious " blonde"
leader of a shameless troupe). The small, round
table was already spread for our supper with
cakes, preserves, and pies ; and the fair Lydia
was busily engaged in bringing in hot rolls,
meat, tea, and other good things, while a minia-
ture of herself, still fairer and rosier, about two
years old, trotted beside her ; now endeavoring
to rearrange the table by upsetting plates, and
now making shy overtures of friendship to my
boys, with the assistance of a blue-ribboned
yellow kitten.

After our tea was over, the husband-bishop
came in from his other dwelling, and with wife
and baby withdrew to "go to meeting," leaving
us in sole possession of the house. We heard
no sound of their re-entering till morning, when
our host came in to rouse up the smouldering
fire.

I have given this minute description of the
furniture of the mansion of which I was house-
keeper for twelve hours, because it was a fair
specimen of many of the humbler homes I visited
in Utah. I have already remarked upon their
unusual cleanliness, and have now only to note
the absence of the colored prints of " Polly,"
" Nourmahal," etc., in " half-dress," common
elsewhere.

63

The next time I visited Scipio was just at the
breaking-up of winter. Snow lay deep on the
heights and in the narrow canons, and Round
Valley was an almost impassable quagmire of
half-frozen mud. Ao^ain and aeain the horses
stopped and stood with drooping heads, and an
air that said, " I really have taken the last step
I can make. Now I'm going to lie down ;" and
again and again they were coaxed forward at a
slower than funeral pace, before we finally halted
in front of Bishop Thompson's.

Our pretty hostess, "Aunt Lydia," was sick;
a little girl said, opening the gate into the en-
closure in which both houses stood, "and Mother
expected us this time,"

The door was opened to admit us, by a slen-
der, elegantly-dressed young lady.

" Mrs. Thompson ?" I inquired, hesitatingly.

" No," she answered, smiling and blushing,
" I am only a guest like yourself, Mrs, Thomp-
son will be here in a moment: Sister Lydia is
sick, and Mrs. Thompson thought some biscuits
she had been baking would tempt her appetite,
so she has run across with them. Here she
is!"

"Sister Loraina Thompson" looked like an
elder sister of Mrs. Lydia's, but was no relation.
She had a large family of children, but seemed
not in the least disconcerted by the addition to

64

her household of our fellow-guest, her husband
and baby, although she had to entertain Mr.
Staines and young Kimball also ; and to care
for the invalid next door.

My husband now entered with Mr. Joseph A.
Young and his brother Mahonri, who had joined
us the day before ; and taking a wee baby from
the arms of the lady who had opened the door,
and whom he introduced as his wife, Mr. Young
presented the infant to T. as his namesake.

They had come across from the San Pete
country to see us, and the baby was taking its
first journey in the open air. It was a bright
lively little thing, and lay on my knee basking
in the warmth of the fire as the elders sat talkinof
in one room, while Mrs. Thompson prepared
supper in the other. She had a young girl to
help her, but more than all, she had " faculty,"
and her meals were served with as much heat
in them and coolness in herself, as if she had not
both her rooms filled with guests and children.

When I recollected how many bowls and pans
and plates I use when I try to make cake, and
what a mess of sticky things I leave the cook to
clear away, I could not but express my wonder at
her deft ways. She came in after her tea-things
were washed up, and sat beside me with her
knitting. She laughed when I praised her, say-
ing that it was no wonder — she had " had a girl

65

to help her these three weeks" — but she never
found the children in her way ; they were a help.
And so they were, the little eldest unrobing the
younger ones for bed, or waiting at table with-
out needing directions. They were well-trained,
as well as healthy rosy children, and a little crea-
ture, who could scarcely speak plainly, sat on my
knee, and carolled like a lark, " Up in the morn-
ing early," and " Put me in my little bed ;" a still
younger baby nodding an accompaniment with
quite a good notion of the measure.

This Mrs. Thompson had grown up in the
Mormon faith, our friend P. told me. Her
mother died during the exodus, and she, then a
mere child, had taken care of her younger
brothers and sisters, and managed her father's
house — " wagon-hold," I suppose one should call
it — without aid from any one. Indeed, she
continued to be her father's right hand until her
marriage. Perhaps the rigorous training of cir-
cumstances in her youth made her consider
what I thought such hard work, easy when it
was done in her own home, working for her own
children and her pleasant-faced husband.

Ought I to despise that woman ? She cer-
tainly came up to Solomon's ideal of a virtuous
wife. Yojc would have despised her less, if you
had felt the difference between her household
and that of another woman at whose stronghold

6*

66

of freedom I halted the day afterwards. Above
her house was exalted a pole bearing a candle-
box lid, on which was painted,

"Old Boor-
-bun. Segars."

Upon the roof lay old boots and shoes reluctant
to be reduced to the rank of fertilizers, but
giving token of what was to be seen inside.
Entering the cabin, I found that the dirt-be-
grimed window prevented the household from
needing a curtain, and the smoke-blackened
logs of wall and ceiling were in keeping with
the unmade bed and its tattered hangings.
There was a very pretty baby here, too, which
lay in its cradle and looked at me in silent won-
der. The mother did no more. She never
offered me a seat, nor the draught of water I
had to ask for, and help myself to ; merely re-
marking that she " hadn't no kind of a place for
folks to come into. Her girl had left the place
three weeks ago, and she warn't going to stay
among the Mormons, if she could get her hus-
band to quit, and go among Christian folks,"

She supposed, of course, that she was rude to
a Mormon woman in me, and I confess that I
did not claim her as a Christian sister.

Of course it would be as unfair to select
such a wife as a specimen of " Gentile" pioneer

67

females, as the eneroretic and active Mrs.
Thompson of the average of Mormon women.
Ill-health or Indolence and cheerful activity, are
peculiar to neither orthodoxy nor heterodoxy.
But a religious faith that animates the whole
being, enabling a woman to be cheerful in spite
of adverse circumstances, industrious in spite of
sickness, loving God and her neighbor ; and
showing it by charity in word and deed ; this
faith above doctrine I have found quite as often
among Mormon as among other Christian wo-
men.

We parted with Mrs. Young at the crossing
of the river the morning after, and as we looked
back upon the group just setting out over the
snowy plain for their remote settlement, I felt
profoundly sad. The refined-looking young
creature, with her baby clasped in her arms,
seemed no less proud of it than her husband
was of her. Yet it seemed a desolate prospect
for her to journey over that lonely country to a
rough new settlement among the savages. Her
ladylike manner and quiet tones made the life
before her seem doubly incongruous. Poor
child, she has had to take her part in life de-
cidedly, too, and is isolated from her people and
kindred in more than mere geographical dis-
tance. Her father and mother have left the
church and Utah, and are among the most elo-

68

quent antagonists of Mormonism, while she
clings to the faith they taught her in her child-
hood.

She seemed entirely contented, and praised
her new home as much as if it lay in our green
forest land, instead of among the dreary valleys
of Utah. T. reminded me that our valleys, too,
were snow-covered at this season, and that the
plains of which she spoke would soon be a
grassy sea, abounding in beautiful flowers. But
what can atone for the absence of trees in a
landscape ?

CEDAR SPRINGS. FILLMORE.

When we emerged from Round Valley, before
descending into the Pah-vant country, we looked
back upon a grand view. The nearer mountains
were destitute of snow, and black and frowning;
but on the far. horizon the sun lit up a number
of snowy summits. Mount Nebo, still visible,
highest of all, and most beautiful. Here and
there were silvery threads of the Sevier passing
to its mysterious grave in the desert.

Then we came to Cedar Springs, a place on
the " Bench," looking out over a plain ; near us,
grassy enough to be entitled to be called ranch-
ground, but wasting away into the Sevier
Desert pure and simple. The little settlement
itself was buried in fruit-trees.

69-

Our day's journey carried us to Fillmore, die
county seat of Millard. Both names were trib-
utes of gratitude from the Mormons to a man
who treated them fairly when they risked being-
" improved off the face of creation." They had
then neither silver nor gold, nor shares in rail-
roads or other corporations to " tip" him with ;
but in those days American statesmen were not
all in the market, and the benefits they conferred
were sometimes given without an extended
palm. Millard Fillmore's town and county
represent no money value to him, but the re-
corded thankfulness of a people should be worth
something to the man, as the days draw near in
which he must reckon up his deeds as they will
appear in the light of heavenly wisdom.

From Cedar Springs we had an escort of
citizens, on horseback, all the way to Fillmore ;
and from this time L often noticed that we took
a mounted company from the night's halting-
place, until we met other horsemen coming out
to meet us from the next one.

An abrupt descent, into and out of the bed of
Chalk Creek, brought us to Fillmore.

I ought to have been impressed by Fillmore,
formerly the territorial capital; I ought to have
been reminded of the fact by the big, " red,
granite" building we passed where the terri-
torial legislature used to assemble ; I ought to

70

have some idea of the size and population of
the town ; its schools, manufactures, and trading
facilities.

Honestly, this is all I remember :

The place was on a rising ground above the
plain, and was backed by peaked mountains. I
remember that I was shown the great, red
building as we passed it ; I remember driving
through an orchard that clothed two hillsides,
sloping to a rivulet, with three neat cottages
embowered among the trees, the homes of
Bishop Collister. I noticed two cockney-look-
ing villas in process of erection ; having each its
tower, bay-window, bow-window, dormer-win-
dow, balcony-verandah, recessed-porch, and
pseudo-Gothic roof: features enough to jade the
eye without allowing it to rest upon a yard of un-
broken surface. I remarked the contrast to the
house opposite where we halted, whose windows
were a fleur de tete, and whose eaves projected
scarcely six inches beyond the dull, unpointed
brick walls ; the only attempt at ornament being
given by the impossible landscapes on the painted
window-shades. Some Indians lounged against
the fence, kicking up the dust lazily.

I am ashamed to confess that I remember no
more of the external appearance of Fillmore;
and there exists no " Murray" for Utah to make
up travelers' memories for them.

The mistress of the mansion showed herself
in the door-way ; a large, loosely-built matron,
" standing with reluctant feet" on the uninterest-
inor border-land between middle and old agfe.

She rather made way for us to enter, than
entreated us. We found her parlor in keeping
with the exterior of the house, and heated almost
to suffocation by a large sheet-iron stove. She
sat with us a few moments, lamenting that her
children were all married and gone ; lamenting
the trouble of housekeeping unaided ; and by
inference lamentingf the trouble of entertaininof
me. I condoled with her most sincerely, re-
gretting her latest trouble perhaps even more
than she did.

After she withdrew to prepare our meal, a
son of hers came in to call on T. This gentle-
man had frequently acted as sub Indian agent,
and a quintette of Indians, emboldened by his
presence, followed him into the room. When
Mrs. Q. called us to supper, these gentry rose
to accompany us. I looked helplessly at her.
She said a few words in their dialect, which
made them at once squat down again, huddling
their blankets round them, with a pleasanter
look on their dark faces than they had yet worn.

"What did your mother say to those men,
Mr. O. ?" I asked, curiously.

"She said 'These strangers came first, and I

72

have only cooked enough for them ; but your
meal is on the fire cooking now, and I will call
you as soon as it is ready.' "

"Will she really do that, or just give them
scraps at the kitchen-door?" I pursued, thinking
of "cold-victual" beggars at home.

" Our Pah-vants know how to behave," he
answered, with the pride of a Kirkbride in his
own lunatics. "Mother will serve them just as
she does you, and give them a place at her
table."

And so she did. I saw her placing clean plates,
knives, and forks for them, and waiting behind
their chairs, while they ate with perfect propriety.
She rose a hundred per cent, in my opinion.

After supper, Kanosh, chief of the Pah-vant
Indians, into whose country we had now en-
tered, came to pay a formal visit to T. with the
chiefs of his band.

There was something prepossessing in the
appearance of Kanosh and his younger brother
Hang-a-tah, but I cannot say as much for their
friends. Kanosh has bright penetrating eyes,
and a pleasant countenance. He cultivates a
white moustache, and carries himself with a sol-
dierly bearing. He wore a dark-blue uniform
coat with bright buttons, yellow buckskin leg-
gings, and moccasins, and had a black carriage-
blanket thrown over one shoulder.

7i

Hang-a-tah (the Red Blanket), a handsome,
aquihne-nosed Indian, sat half-asleep on a chair
near the stove, and coughed dismally from time
to time a plaintive accompaniment to Kanosh's
account of the decay of his band. Of Kanosh's
own family he is the last. Brothers and children,
he counted them up on his fingers ; " all gone,
all sick, no shoot, die sick."

Most of Kanosh's court squatted on the floor ;
but of those who occupied chairs, two attracted
my notice by their entire want of interest in the
proceedings and their intense unflagging inter-
est in themselves.

One evidently felt himself to be an exquisite.
This fellow kept stretching his legs and admir-
ing each alternately, yawning to show his white
teeth, affecting to go to sleep and awake with a
start — all in order to attract the attention of the
white squaws. The other who sat next the
beau, a very ugly young warrior, regarded him
with silent contempt, confident in the superior
attractiveness of his own person. This one's
role I perceived to be that of the cynic. He did
not glance towards us once, until just as he was
leaving. Then he loftily passed us in review
with the air of a Sim. Tappertit. The next
instant, however, his eye was caught by his own
imaee in the g-lass. He advanced to it at once

7

74

with undissembled admiration, and stood pos-
turing before it, and adjusting a strip of leather,
dotted with tin studs, that covered the parting
of his coarse, black locks, until the rest of the
party had filed out.

Kanosh, an old acquaintance of 1858, mourned
to my husband over the changes death had
caused in his band since then, and asked to be
told the truth : v^ere any gifts or annuities
allotted him by the government ; or was he
cheated out of them by the agents ; had he not
a right to stay on the farm his band cultivated
at Corn Creek ; why must he " be poked off
with oruns to Uintah ?"

I do not intend to report Kanosh's set speech,
although it struck me as decidedly clever. His
prejudice against Mr. Dodge, the agent, has
probably no greater foundation than most In-
dian complaints. How great that is, I reserve
my opinion ! My husband made Kanosh dictate
a statement in his own words, which I took
down in my pocket-diary. The astute old fox
made three persons read it to him to make sure
I was not cheating him, before he made his X
mark :

" One snow-time since, I got blankets ; no
flour, no beef, but a little last spring ; no flour,
no oats, no wheat, no corn, no bullets ; no see

75

nothing but Dodge ;* Dodge talk heap talk ;
weino pesharrony katz yak — good talk, but no
give." his

KAXOSH, X

mark.
Fillmore, Dec. 17, 1872.

I stayed at one of Bishop Collister's cottages
in the orchard the next time I visited Fillmore.

The Mormons say that frost after frost killed
the peach-trees and cut the apple-trees to the
ground when they first made a settlement in
the place, and did so year after year. Any
reasonable people would have given up tr}'ing
to produce fruit; but the Mormons are quite
7^;zreasonable in matters of faith, and some
brother or sister had had it revealed, or had a
vision, or " felt to prophesy" that it would yet
be noted among the towns of Utah for its fruits.
They persevered, and so I know what perfectly
delicious apples they now harvest. Our bed-
room at Fillmore had a great basket full of
them, golden and rosy, sweet and tart, pippins
and Spitzenbergs ; with which we amused our
palates between meals, and filled every nook in
the carriage next day.

My new hostess was, I believe, a daughter of
my first one. What a pretty creature she was !

* Mr. D. is said to have been a Baptist clergyman or mis-
sionary.

76

Tall and graceful ; with the loveliest of dark
eyes ! And she had three sweet little children
— " three left out of seven." Her husband had
lost eleven out of his twenty-eight children.
Wife Mary had borne him seven, Caroline
twelve, and Helen nine.

These numbers are not unusual in Utah, nor
were they among the Puritans, our ancestors.
But their past experience, at all events, gives
the Mormons no right to claim that the mothers
of families rear a greater number proportion-
ately than with us. More children may have
been born to each mother ; but in each new
settlement in Utah, the first stirring of the soil,
the chemical exhalations, the fierce, shadeless
heats of summer, caused many deaths. " Then
was there a voice heard in Ramah, Rachel
mou minor for her children refused to be com-
forted because they were not." Much as it has
improved of late years in salubrity, I am far
from sure that Utah is yet a very healthy land
for children. But as far as my experience goes,
I think they are very kindly, as well as carefully
nurtured. They are admitted very freely to
their parents' society, and are not always
" snubbed " when they proffer their small con-
tributions to the conversation going on among
their elders. Generally, too, they are well-
behaved. I think the tie between mother and

77

children is closer than that between them and
the father. Whether the fathers can love each
one of so many children, as much as they could
if there were -six or seven — or say fifteen — less,
I will not pretend to say.

I have seen a Mormon father pet and humor
a spoiled thirtyfifth child (a red-headed one,
too !) with as unreasonable fondness as the
youngest papa could show his first-born.

Two of the children my hostess at Fillmore
had lost were twin girls, and she lamented over
*' Ada and Ida" quite as rnuch as if they might
not have grown up to be thirteenth or four-
teenth wives to somebody. It had been one of
the accepted beliefs with which my mind was
stocked before entering Utah, that every mother
would be found to regfret the birthof adauorhter
as a misfortune. This is not so. They honestly
believe in the grand calling their theology assigns
to women ; " that of endowing souls with taber-
nacles that they may accept redemption." No-
where is the "■ sphe7'e' of women, according to
the gospel of Sarah Ellis, more fully recognized
than in Utah; nowhere her ''mission^' according
to Susan Anthony, more abhorred.

And yet they vote ? True ; but they do not
take more interest in general politics than you
do. If your husband, Charlotte, your father,
brothers, and all the clergymen you know.

78

approved of your voting, it would not strike
you as an un feminine proceeding. And if the
matter on which your vote was required was
one which might decide the question whether
you were your husband's wife, and your children
legitimate, you would be apt to entertain a
determined opinion on the subject.

Nobody thought us unfeminine for being
absorbingly interested in our national affairs
durincr the war. The Utah women take a
similar interest in the business of the world
outside that concerns them; and pray over
congressional debates as we prayed for our
armies.

COVE CREEK FORT.

From Fillmore we climbed to Cove Creek
Fort, a forty-eight miles' drive. About twelve
miles out of Fillmore we reached Corn Creek,
which we crossed at a small Mormon village,
near what Kanosh pompously called Jiis city.
The Pah-vants are settled on a farm by govern-
ment treaty.

I looked with areat interest at the surround-
ing mountains, as being the old haunts of Wah-
ker ; and the narrow canon was pointed out to
me which was his burial-place.

Kanosh had invited us to visit his city, but it
lay out of the direct road, and the length of our
day's journey permitted no excursions.

79

Kanosh Is a Mormon convert, and prides
himself on his " white ways." His favorite
wife — an Indian girl, brought up in a Mormon
family — persuaded him to let her keep house
" Mormone fashion" for him. The Mormons
had built her a nice little cottao^e, where she
had real doors and windows, six chairs ranged
round the room, a high-post bedstead in the
corner, and plates and dishes in a press. She
had her cows, — and made butter, — her poultry,
eggs, and vegetables ; and in her day Kanosh
proudly displayed a stiff clean shirt-front and
high collar every Sunday.

Naturally, the other squaws were jealous.
Kanosh went hunting, and on his return, three
weeks afterwards, the poor young wife had dis-
appeared. Kanosh was sure that his eldest
squaw had murdered her. What did he do ?
He told her that God had seen her do it; and
bade her die. And she gradually faded away ;
and in less than a year she died, confessing that
she had taken her victim by the hair as she
knelt among the plants in her garden, pulled
back her head, and cut her throat. Then she
had dragged the body away, and buried it in the
cornfield.

After the Christian wife's murder, Kanosh
mourned in a sincere way that deeply gratified
his Mormon friends. But he and the remain-

8o

ing squaws couldn't manage his affairs in her
fashion. He wore his shirts, however, faithfully
and honorably, till the buttons, the sleeves, and
collars all deserted him. As to the poultry,
when the eggs had accumulated to three
bushels, or thereabouts, his band made a grand
feast, and, Indian-like, ate up all the chickens, —
literally all except the feathers, — and all the
eggs, good and bad.

The house Kanosh still uses on grand occa-
sions, as the queen uses Buckingham Palace
when she holds a drawing-room. To gratify
him, Brigham Young paid him a visit there.
The president was on one of his journeys
south, and stopped in his carriage before the
door. No notice was taken of his arrival, and
when he sent a rider in to announce him, ex-
pecting Kanosh to come out, Kanosh sent
answer, that when he went to see " Bigham,
Bigham sat still in his house ; and what was
manners for Bigham, was manners for Kanosh,"
"He's right," said Brigham, and, leaving the
carriage, he went in to pay his respects to the
chief.

Kanosh was perched on the high four-posted
bed, sitting cross-legged "plump in the feathers."
He wore a heavy, pilot cloth great-coat, but-
toned to the chin, a pair of new cowhide boots,
and his finest red blanket over all. It was a

8i

very warm clay in May, and the window was
closed. The perspiration streamed down his
face, but he sat erect and motionless, feeline
that he "must do something for dignity."
President Young tried hard to maintain his
gravity, but it was completely upset when the
valance of the bed was cautiously lifted at one
side, and the youngest wife protruded her head,
and looked up to survey the general effect of
her lord's appearance.

We could not see the Kanosh mansion from
the road, and after leavinof Corn Creek, I do not
reme^iber passing any settlement that day. I
suppose the country had too little water, for I
remember that we carried water from Corn
Creek for the horses, to the sheltered little hol-
low in the hills where we " nooned." I know
our bottle of milk was frozen solid, and we had
to depend on the charity of our neighbors.
The Mormons all quaffed, with great apparent
relish, a horrible beverage called " composition,"
made of ginger, cayenne-pepper, cloves, and
bay berries ground to powder, sweetened, and
mixed wdth cream, diluted with boiling water.
This stuff had not frozen, and they drank it
cold.

The day itself was so cold that our picnic
was eaten in our closed carriages, instead of in
the usual social open-air fashion.

82

The sun was sinking- when we reached Cove
Creek Fort, and drove in under its archway.
T. soon called me outside to look at the land-
scape, and see how lonely a place we were in.
The fort lay in a volcanic basin, geologically
esteemed to be the crater of an extinct volcano.
All round it were oddly-peaked, ragged-looking
mountains glowing in purple and gold, looking
no more substantial than the cloud-mountains
of sunset with which they mingled. Farther on
the road we were to travel next day some
wagons were encamped, their supper -fires
already kindled. At the foot of a hill hard by,
a solitary thread of smoke beside a single
" wick- i- up," as the Utes call their lodges,
showed where a young Indian lay who had shot
himself while hunting the day before. Round
the fort were fields with unusually strong and
high fences ; outside it on the north was a very
large barn with a well-filled yard, surrounded
by a stockade. Our teams were being led in,
to the discomposure of some cows who had a
proprietary air as they moved sulkily aside to let
the intruders enter. The smoke of their warm
breath made a cloud in the frosty air.

There was a broad sheet of ice to cross be-
fore entering the fort, and I wondered whence
the water came, as I saw no water-course near.
The fort has gray stone walls about thirty feet

S3

high, adorned with tall chimneys north and
south, and with two great gateways opening
east and west. Over one is inscribed
" Cove Creek Fort Ranche,
1867."

Entering the large paved courtyard, we found
it filled with our vehicles. Six doors opened to
the north and as many to the south, giving ad-
mission to large and lofty rooms. I was not
sorry to see a magnificent pitch-pine fire blazing
on the hearth in mine, for the fort is — 6000? —
I forget how many ungenial feet above tide,
and the night was very cold. Our room was
nicely furnished, and looked very cozy as we
drew our chairs around the centre-table, which
had a number of well-chosen books upon it.
The children were pleased to recognize another
of the pretty pink-fringed, linen table-covers of
which so many had already greeted us on our
journey, and wondered whether the "Co-op"
had bought a large invoice from Claflin, that
we found them thus broadcast through the
territory. It made us feel New York quite
near us.

We were called to supper on the other side
of the fort, feeling our way over the icy ground,
guided by a stream of light from the open door
of a guard-room, where stacks of arms were

84

piled, and a group of stout fellows sat before a
blazincT fire.

We supped in the telegraph office, where the
ticking of the instrument insisted on being heard
as we all knelt down for prayers. — Prayers after
the patriarchal Hebrew manner ; a shot-proof
fort ; an electric battery clicking the latest New
York news ; armed men ; unarmed women with
little children ; a meal served with dainty pre-
cision in a refectory walled with rough-hewn
stone : this medley of antichronisms is Mormon
all over.

Here, too, was this fort, designed to serve the
same purpose, in the saints' eyes, as the inter-
preter's house of the Pilgrim's Progress. Both
were built " for the entertainment and comfort
of pilgrims, and their protection against ill-
favored ones." And surely Bunyan never
dreamed of more devilishly ugly Apollyons
than the red warriors of Utah.

Although it stands in the friendly Pah-vant
country, the fort commands a pass on the old
Spanish trail from California to New Mexico,
used still by the Navajoes, whose raids give the
Mormons much trouble and anxiety.

Our dinner-supper was excellent, but neither
" wave-breast" nor "heave-shoulder" decked the
board. Stewed chickens, clarified apples, and
cream furnished no texts for "profitable dis-

85

course" from our entertainers, thou eh I mar-
veled at the presence of such dainties in that
inhospitable-looking spot.

I saw but one woman in the fort, and she had
a group of children hanging to her skirts. I
thought she must have had her hands full to
provide bread and meat enough for her hungry
guests. The shining cleanliness of the table-
linen and glass was worthy of a Quakeress,
when she has "given her mind to it," yet I
found that every drop of water had to be
"packed;" i.e. carried a mile and a half. Cove
Creek is led into the fort in summer — though
its supply cannot be depended upon, as it
frequently dries up. But in winter they have
to turn its waters back to their natural channel,
as it " overflows the fort with ice" — a result
which had just followed an attempt to let it on
in our honor. Two wells had been dug, each
one hundred feet deep, but without striking
water. It seemed to me a foolish thingf to build
a fort where a besieged Qrarrison would suffer
so much from want of water. But I was an-
swered, when I hinted this, that the fort was
only meant to defend travelers and the family of
the ranche against Indian forays. It was too far
from any settlement for a single family to be
safe in the open country, and there was too little
water for irrigation to warrant the placing of a

u

86

settlement. I was reminded, when I called it a
dreary region, that we were now in the depth of
winter, and that the magnificent haystacks I had
seen were the produce of the ranche. They said,
indeed, that the soil was the richest in the world
when irrigated. I think, however, they admitted
that the climate was too Arctic for the apple-tree,
and where that cannot flourish, is, I respectfully
adhere to my opinion, no Garden of Eden.

The great Mormon crop — of children — thrives
at Cove Creek Ranche, however. As we left
the table, we noticed a little two-year-old girl,
whom I shall always maintain to be the loveliest
baby ever seen. The diminutive beauty accepted
the compliments of the party in a manner that
showed she was used to them. One remarked
her rosy cheek, clear blue eye, and golden hair ;
another her white skin ; another her tiny foot
and ankle, and the plump little leg that rose
above her white sock.

"This is the child you administered to. Brother
Brigham," said the gratified mother.

President Young had not been listening, but
seeing that he was appealed to, answered, "Oh !
ahem ? ay !" first interjectionally, then interroga-
tively, and then affirmatively — which appeared
to be entirely satisfactory ; for she went on :

" Yes, you laid hands on her when she was
only six days old, and she seemed as if she had
not an hour to live."

87

This was not the first time I had heard the
Mormons alkide to the laying-on of hands. It
was explained to be their revival of the early
Christian custom enjoined by the Apostle James :

" Is any sick among you ? Let him call for
the elders of the church ; and let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord : and the prayer of faith shall save the sick,
and the Lord shall raise him up."

As we crossed the court on our way back to
our rooms, I remarked to a lady near me,
" Mrs. Lucy, the orthodox Christian churches
no longer practice the custom (for the Roman
Catholic anointing of the dying is a different
one), because the days of miracles are over."

"Ah," she replied; "the orthodox churches,
as you call them, Mrs. T., only assert that, be-
cause their faith is so torpid that they cannot be
blessed with miracles. As our Saviour said,
they cannot do many mighty works because of
their tmbelief ; and again, the word preached
does not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that hear it. You Presbyterians," she
continued, "reject the traditions of the Church
and the authority of the early fathers, and rely
upon what the Bible says. Now, James's episde
is one of the very last printed in the New Testa-
ment. Where is your authority for considering
his injunction to have been abrogated subse-

88

quently? Don't you see it is a salve to your
consciences which you apply, because your faith
is so weak that you prefer to trust your sick to
the different human systems of doctoring rather
than to the hands of God ?"

What did I answer ? Oh, I said, loftily, that
T. did not wish me to enter into theological
arguments. I found this always a very safe
reply ; my Mormon friends thoroughly approv-
ing the teaching of St. Paul, that a woman
should refer all theological puzzles to her own
husband at home. Ah, St. Paul, little didst thou
foresee how busy our husbands would be all day
in Wall Street, how tired and cross every even-
ing at home ! Fancy our asking them to extract
roots- of doctrine for us !

Darkness had fallen by the time supper was
over ; but the great gates were left open later
than usual, as one of our baggage wagons had
not yet come up. T. took the little boys to see
the wounded Indian. The squaws had bitten the
flesh around the wound to stop the bleeding,
and had then erected the wick-i-up over him as
he lay, being afraid to let him be carried as far
as the friendly shelter of the fort.

I went to sit for half an hour with the ladies
of our party, and groping my way back in the
darkness came suddenly on the two squaws,
who had raised the sash of my window a little.

89

and were so absorbed in peeping into the lighted
splendors of the apartment, having lifted a cor-
ner of the blind to do so, that they did not hear
my approach. It would be hard to say whether
I or they were most startled. They contrived
by signs and repetitions of " Bigham's" name
to let me know they wanted to see him, so I
conducted them to where his family were still
seated round the fire, and then slipped away,
leaving them to dispose of their visitors as they
liked.

I found the chatelaine giving a few final
touches to the comfort of my room, when I re-
turned, and falling into conversation with her
about the loneliness of her position, her answer
was that she was seldom alone, but that, as it
happened, Mr. H. had been obliged to take his
other wife to Salt Lake City for her health, and
that the opportunity had been taken to send
" their" elder children there to school for the
winter, while they could enjoy the benefit of
maternal supervision. The night was stinging
cold ; but we did not rise next day till the fires
were blazing. The chimneys of Cove Creek
Fort, I can attest, draw superbly ; and the early
cup of hot coffee, I found most of our party will-
ing to admit, was more cheering to the spirit
than " composition" cold.

When we set out the sun was fully up, though
8*

90

It seemed to give no warmth ; the sky was in-
tensely blue, the air blue too, and sparkling with
ice dust. The horses' hoofs rang merrily on the
iron-bound ground. Looking back on the fort,
I watched the U. S. flag waving us farewell,
until it was no larger than a carnation flower, —
the loveliest possible bit of color to my home-
sick eyes.

I noticed in the daylight that the walls of the
fort were composed of dark blocks of lava, and
only reduced to a grayish tone by the whiteness
of the mortar cementing the courses of masonry.

PRAIRIE DOG HOLLOW. INDIAN CREEK.

Our day's journey was but twenty-four miles,
and lay through what might by courtesy be
called a wooded country. At the summit of
each little pass we found ourselves in a thicket
of cedars, so ragged and forlorn, and so evi-
dently small for their age, that they looked as
if a forest had been set out on the plain and
buried to the neck in drifting sand. The road
was rough, for the sand but partially concealed
the ledges of volcanic rock we were crossing —
" rocks full of bubbles," as the children called
them.

We were now not far east of the Nevada
mining district, and a halt was made on one of
the summits to let us see "where we were,"

91

Avhile the ttred horses took breath. On our left
a great ragged snow-streaked mountain was
pointed out as " Baldy," at whose foot lay the
Bullionville gold-mining region. On the right,
among a range of gravel mountains, rose up
one all cliffs and precipices "serrated deeply,
five-parted, conspicuous," as the manuals of bot-
any have it ; its top resembling the crater of a
volcano, which it probably was. This mountain
remained in sight all day, its hard features never
undistinguishable from the softer profiles of its
fellows. Below us lay the dusty plain, dotted
far with white-topped wagons, bound for Pioche.
Beyond, the horizon was crowded with range
after range of mountains ; and a depression in
the most distant faint blue outline was pointed
out as our goal — the pass of Kannarra.

At Kannarra we were to cross the rim of the
basin, and descend at once into warmer lands.
We had been crossing one minor basin after
another since leaving Salt Lake, but all were
contained in the trough of the great basin,
walled in on the east by the Wahsatch range.

The great basin is itself elevated thousands
of feet above tide, and the mountains that
looked down upon us claimed a height of from
ten to twelve thousand feet. No wonder that
the summit where we stood was cold in that
December weather, or that we looked longingly

92

towards Kannarra's distant gateway. By this
time we were half way from Salt Lake on our
journey. Each day had seemed to grow colder
and the wind to blow harder ; and now and then
snow squalls would come up and terrify us with
their petty tornadoes.

Brilliantly as the sun shone upon us, we were
glad to creep back into our carriages. Our
way led down Wild Cat Canon, a pass so narrow
and winding that it is not surprising that the
Mormons were long^ in findincr it. It now affords
them a natural easy descent into Prairie Dog
Hollow. Formerly they let their wagons down
here over the bluffs by ropes, the men and
teams scrambling down as best they might.

I do not know why it was necessary to go
down into Prairie Dog Hollow at all, like the
king of France in the adage. I am sure there
was nothing to see when we got there. A
circular sweep of the hills surrounded the little
glen, making it a delightfully warm and shel-
tered halting-place for our noonday rest. It
was treeless, shrubless, and destitute of water,
however ; and the dog-towns and ant-hills, with
which its surface was plentifully besprinkled,
showed no signs of life.

The little communist citizens were wrapped
in their winter sleep, and the children could not
elicit a remonstrant squeak as they ran among

93

the tiny domes, accompanied by their friend,
Elder Potteau. As for me, one of our company,
a dark-eyed, rosy little Welshwoman, who had
hitherto proceeded no further in making my
acquaintance than to exchange morning and
evening salutations, plucked up spirit enough —
it could scarcely be owing to the inspiration of
the cheering cup of composition — to join me in
a ramble before the horses were put to.

Her husband, one of the kindest of T.'s old
friends of '46, had been among the first to greet
us on our arrival in Salt Lake City. In answer
to T.'s inquries after his good wife, he had
produced her daguerreotype to show me. She
had " passed behind the veil" two years before,
but he spoke of her death with evident emo-
tion.

" Here, at least," I had thought, " is one man,
high in Mormon esteem, yet a monogamist."

It was a shock to me to recognize him on our
journey, accompanied by this other wife, and I
now learned from her that the fair>haired son
who was with them was not her offspring, nor
the offspring of " Helen," but that of a third
wife. Yet aeain the third wife did not claim
him, having "given him away," at his birth, to
Helen. " For all of Helen's children had grown
up by that time, and she brought Le Roy up as
her own."

94

Mistress Jane told me that the youngster
could not hear his adopted mother's death
spoken of without weeping ; and thereupon she
wept herself as she eulogized " Sister Helen's"
virtues. Helen was much older than the other
two wives, and they looked up to her as a
mother. She had taught their children entirely,
being a well-educated lady. She was very neat
and nice in her ways, although she wore home-
spun, like the rest of us. She regulated the
family affairs, deciding even such little matters
as whether Johnny should have his old boots
cobbled, or wear his new ones.

The house was well-ordered in Helen's time;
yet never so stirring, jocund, and cheerful.

Mrs. Jane spun and wove, and worked in the
dairy cheerfully. " That's what I'm fit for," she
said ; ' ■ but Sister Helen knew how everything
ought to be done ; and she was so sweet-
tempered that there never was any jealousy or
quarreling in the family while she lived."

" Mrs. Jane" herself was a born worker, —
never happier, as I afterwards found when I knew
her better, than in helping others ; and so fond
of children, that she used to smuggle my boys
away for a morning sometimes, always returning
them with their hair elaborately curled. I used
to wonder at this, but I found that she was
"homesick for the children" left behind in Salt

95

Lake City. "Her own children, of course?"
you say.

By no means. " The bigger ones could
manage very well without her ; but she yearned
for the little chaps," her own and the other
wife's, who were missing her, too, she was sure.
And when we returned to Salt Lake City, and
she brought a flock of children to see me, the
special pet who clung to her skirts, and who
seemed to have had every hair of his head curled
separately, was the third wife's child !

Jane had been one of the hand-cart pilgrims,
and had pushed her cart, and done all the cook-
ing for her father's family, sixteen in number, at
every halt they made for two months. Like
many of the younger women, she had not
" experienced conviction" at the time when her
elders joined the church, but had fallen into line
because the rest did. Her convictions seemed
certain now, and her reverence for her husband
was unbounded. He was a simple, sincere, and
upright old man, a real patriarch, for whom no
one could entertain a disrespectful feeling. He
joined us as we walked, and seemed pleased
with the subject of our conversation.

Mrs. Helen, they told me, was a sincere
Christian, a firm Presbyterian for more than six
years after her husband changed his faith.
After they were driven from Nauvoo the last

96

time, the trials of the journey and encampments
on the prairie softened her heart. Never a
murmur crossed her Hps, or as much as a word
against the decrees of Providence ; but her
favorite text of Scripture, often repeated on the
pilgrimage and in the early years of the settle-
ment, till it grew to be remembered as the motto
of her life, was, "All this way hath the Lord
thy God led thee, to humble thee and prove
thee, and to give thee peace in thy latter end."

Her husband only remembered one remark
escaping her that looked like dissatisfaction with
her lot. It was when they reached the promised
land and looked down on the Salt Lake Valley.
There were about six small cottonwood trees
then in all the valley, and Helen looked at them
a long time. Then said she to her husband,
" Father, we have come fifteen hundred miles
in wagons, and a thousand miles through the
sage-brush ; and I'd get into the wagon to-
morrow, and travel a thousand miles farther, to
see shade-trees instead of these rocks and
sands."

She was so fond of "growing things," her
husband said, that she languished in health in
the confinement for safety, and he petitioned
the brethren to let him establish himself outside
it, — on the hill where the. Lion House now
stands. It was thought a foolhardy thing to do.

97

and objection was made ; but wldi Helen's con-
sent, he solemnly took the responsibility upon
himself, and they placed dieir dwelling beside
City Creek.

Helen had brouo-ht a whole bushel of fruit-
tree kernels, and other seeds. " Now, mother,"
he told her, " I'll set every one of these out,
and you'll soon have shade-trees enough."

Helen took the greatest pride in her little
plantation. The trees were about a foot high,
when the grasshoppers ate them down to the
roots. They ate everything in the garden with
entire impartiality.

Great was Helen's disappointment; but after
a time many of her little trees threw up fresh
shoots. Shortly after, too, one of the brethren,
who had invested all his savings in the pur-
chase and transportadon of ten thousand young
fruit-trees, divided the few dozen of choice
varieties, which he had been able to save from
the grasshoppers, among the families, and
Helen secured some which she nursed and
petted as in other days she had tended her
roses and geraniums.

No one had money to repay the gardener for
his treasures, but they gave him bullets, axes,
flour, — very litde of that, — nails ; anything of
which they could spare a part, and almost every-
bod)' bought a few.

98

I asked Mr. whether they had ever been

maltreated by the Indians in consequence of
Hving outside the fort,

Helen was greatly affrighted once, he said,
but that was all. He had made his dwelling as
secure as he could with bolts and bars, and
bought a heavy watch-dog. Indians often came
to beg, but they behaved well, as he and the
dog were always on the premises. One day,
however, he was forced to go to the canon to
be absent all day. Helen felt so timid that she
called Tiger inside the house and shut him up
in the bedroom.

Noonday came, and she had forgotten her
terrors, when a malevolent-looking Indian came
boldly into the kitchen. He had probably
watched the house, and supposed the dog gone
as well as the man. He asked for bread. She
gave him some biscuit and four ounces of flour,
— all she had to give, — but he threw it down
and demanded more, working himself up on her
refusal until he felt angry enough to take aim at
her with his arrow. She sprang to the door of
the bedroom, threw it open, crying, " Tige, take
him !" The dog darted out and flew at the
ruffian's throat.

The attack was so unexpected that the Indian
went at once to the floor, and there man and
beast rolled over and over in a desperate

99

struggle. The dog conquered. The Indian
cried Hke a child for mercy ; and when she bade
the dog quit him, threw his bow and quiver at
her feet, and made signs imploring her pity for
his wounds. She was horribly frightened, but
she bade the dog watch him while she went for
warm water and bathed the bites, and tore some
of her scanty supply of linen into bandages.

He lay on her floor some time, and then
crawled away, and was never again seen near
the settlement.

Helen lived, said her husband, to see the
lonely house surrounded by beautiful villas, each
set like her own in an orchard of thriving trees,
and at her feet a fast-growing city, with no other
sign of danger threatening It than the presence
on the height above it of the white buildings of
Camp Douglas, under whose guns the city lies.

The gardener of whom Mr. had spoken

was my children's friend. Elder Potteau. I
mentioned the subject of his fruit-tree invest-
ment to him when we grathered round the
evening fire, asking him how he disposed of all
his "payments in kind."

He assured me that all had proved useful.

" Nails !" Why, he had sorted the nails into
separate kegs, till, by the time he was ready to
build, he had almost enough for the house he
began with.

lOO

Like all the Mormons of the first immigra-
tion, Elder P. spoke with deep feeling of the
sufferings they endured when the crops, whose
seed they had denied themselves bread to save,
were devoured by the " army of grasshoppers
sent to try their faith." All their feeble efforts
to burn or drown or kill them failed before the
presence of such vast numbers of the enemy.
"The land was as a Garden of Eden before
them, and a desolate wilderness behind them,"
he quoted, with rare appropriateness.

On a Sunday morning he walked sorrowfully
among his dying fruit-trees, too heartsick to
begin work again, but too much of a gardener
to refrain altogether from using the hoe in his
hand here and there. Elder John Taylor and
two others came up, and said to him, —

" Potteau, we can do nothing ourselves ; there
is no use in our working without God's bless-
ing. If he chooses to take pity on us, our
crops may be saved. He has commanded us
to keep holy the Sabbath day, and Brother
Brigham says we had better all come to meet-
ing and pray."

They did so. Then came the wind that
brought the snow-white gulls, and they con-
sumed the grasshoppers. The crops were
saved, " and God," said he, " restored to us the
years that the locust had eaten. And we know

lOI

that He Is in the midst of Israel, and is the Lord
our God, and none else ; and His people shall
never be ashamed."*

Why should not believers in special provi-
dences argue that the "keeping holy the Sab-
bath-day" prevented the gulls from being fright-
ened away by human noises, and permitted them
to do their work in peace ?

BEAVER.

I was quite sorry to part from Mrs. Jane,
when the horses were once more put to. Short
as our afternoon's drive was, it proved a tire-
some one : we were obliged to move so slowly,
and the children's usual chatter had to be hushed.
I had given my husband's place in the carriage
to a sick lady, and I feared that they might
arouse the beautiful pale creature from a sleep
into which she fell nearly as soon as the motion
of the carriaofe betran.

The barren hills and plains gave way to one
scene that reminded us of home : I think it was
" Indian Creek," where a shallow stream flowed
between gently- rising banks fringed with cotton-
wood trees. There were nicely-fenced-in fields
here, and a decent farmhouse, but the people
were all away. There had been an Indian alarm,

* Joel ii. 27. This is a great cliapter with the Mormons.
9*

I02

we were told, and the settlers had been warned
in from exposed points. The children begged
to stop a little longer to refresh their eyes with
the sight of " running water, and trees big enough
to look at," but after the horses had done drink-
ing we had to pass on to arrive at Beaver before
dusk.

We went on descending until we reached the
hard gravelly plain in which Beaver lies. Some
one told me that no mice existed there because
the soil was too hard for them to work. But
hard or not, the Mormons have picked out and
fenced some three thousand* acres fit for culti-
vation.

Although I must say that the fields / saw
looked as if the pebbly bed of some ancient
stream had been fenced in ! Moreover, it is
rather frosty: last summer there were only
seven weeks between the frosts. But Beaver
will flourish, because it has an abundant supply
of almost the only perfectly soft water in the
territory.

We entered the town. Something reminded
me of our own villages. Was it the unpainted
clap-board shanties ?

"No, mamma," cried Will, "they must be

* My informant was a woman. She is not to be held
responsible for accuracy within a thousand acres or so more
or less.

I03

going to have a railroad built here. Look at
the signs!" They were the signs which the
child had noticed at every railroad station from
Omaha to Ogden. There, were the familiar
letters, SALOON ; the red curtains behind win-
dows reading without spelling, — Rum-Hole;
and round the corner was BILLIARDS.

Our invalid companion had roused herself to
greet a boy -brother who came galloping up to
meet us, I asked her why there was this differ-
ence between Beaver and the other Mormon
settlements, and she replied with her usual
gentle brevity, and without the ghost of a smile,
"There is an Army- Post here."

I intended to remark that I did not see the
application of the reply, but Evy, with a flush of
shame on his face, quietly pointed out to me the
dear blue-coats that I would have been so glad
to greet in this out-of-the-way place, — anywhere
but on the backs of the tavern loungers, who
gazed at the Mormon procession as our carriages
went forward to Bishop Macbeth's house.

This gentleman's house was so large a one as
to accommodate almost the whole of our party,
but it was presided over only by his pretty
daughter, — his still prettier wife being so great
an invalid as to be unable to do more than make
an appearance in her easy-chair enveloped in
soft shawls for a short half-hour after supper.

I04

To spare her nerves, the roomy parlor adjoining
her chamber was left unoccupied, and the dining-
room was used as a sitting-room, while our meals
were served in the kitchen, whose dainty cleanli-
ness obviated all necessity for the excuses the
young hostess made for leading the way there
when we went to supper. She had several as-
sistants in her housekeeping labors, and I sup-
posed they were neighbors or servants. The
tone of the household appeared so thoroughly
monogamic, the illness of its female head so
manifestly forming the chief topic of concern to
husband and daughter, that it never occurred to
me, until after I had left Beaver, to inquire
whether Mr. Macbeth had more wives than one.

He had. Three. .

So that my diary with its notes of satisfaction
over finding myself " once more under a true
wife's roof" reads rather absurdly.

Bishop Macbeth and his wife and daughter
looked and talked like Virginians, F. F. V. Vir-
ginians, too ; and he rode like a Virginian-born,
which he was, — on a black horse that would
have made President Grant envious. The
pretty daughter in her gray dress, and purple
cloth jacket braided with black, was as much of
a little lady as any belle of the James or Rappa-
hannock River plantations, and as much of a
tart little copperhead, too ! The majority of the

I05

Amerlcan-bom women I met In Utah were
Northern in feeling.

Our party broke up soon after supper, most
of its members going" to meeting ; but as I found
that Miss Julia's hospitality^ had warmed the
large bed-room set apart for me, and provided
a plentiful supply of towels to relish the delicious
soft water of Beaver, I preferred giving the
children a thorough bathing before the brightly-
blazing fire, and then writing the valuable notes
I have referred to before seeking my own rest.
In the morninof I heard noises outside, and croinof
to the window saw about twenty Indian warriors
dismounting from their horses ; the leader con-
ferring with Bishop Macbeth, at whose order
the gates of the tithing-yard were dirown open,
and — shall I use the civilized phrase ? — a Com-
mittee of savage citizens proceeded to demolish
half a haystack, carrying out armfuls of hay, and
throwing it down before the horses of the band,
now picketed in front of the yard.

The summons to breakfast came, and the fair
Julia was just leading us into the sight of an
appetizingly-spread table. A woman (was she
a stepmother?) was placing a pot of steaming
coffee on it, and another woman (another step-
mother?) was withdrawing a pan of hot rolls
from the oven, when Miss Julia suddenly paused,
and saying, " I beg your pardon ; you will have

io6

to wait a few moments !" closed the door between
us and herself. Not, however, before I had
seen the outer door of the kitchen thrown open,
and Bishop Macbeth enter, followed by the
Indians, he saying to the women, " Now, good
people, you'll have to satisfy these folks first."

Sitting hungrily beside the parlor window, I
soon saw our copper-colored supplanters return-
ing to their horses' company with their hands
and mouths full of our good breakfast. Our
hostesses seemed to have taken it as a matter
of course, for in less than half an hour we were
demolishing more hot rolls, coffee, chickens, and
other good things, which were smilingly pressed
upon us from an apparently inexhaustible larder.

The Indians had come, I suppose, to see
President Young ; but, if so, they were disap-
pointed, for we started immediately after break-
fast.

BUCKHORN SPRING. RED CREEK.

The storm which had been followino- us so
long threatened to envelop us all the forenoon ;
occasionally snow-flakes falling from the low
clouds that had hidden the surrounding moun-
tain-tops. A party of men from Beaver rode
out some miles on the plain with us. Passing
a group of horses, closely fenced in with wattles,
we saw several Indians waiting for us, who
approached President Young's carriage, but as

I07

he did not stop they dropped behind in silence.
Their faces were painted up in their best style.
One represented an overdone Neapolitan sun-
set, and another flamed in metallic yellows like
a brazen idol. All wore showy Navajo blankets
— an incidental proof of the truth of Kanosh's
assertion that no blankets had been furnished
them by the United States. These Indians were
Pah-vants, the last we saw of Kanosh's band;
and I presume the reason that President Young
would not stop to hear their complaints, was
the same that made him decline so cavalierly to
receive Kanosh, at Fillmore ; dislike to being
supposed to be in league with disaffected Indians
while government had him under its frown.

Three or four unarmed bands of Navajoes
have been coming up as far as Beaver to trade
this year. They want horses, and will not take
money ; and talk of intending to steal no more ;
but the Mormons think these virtuous profes-
sions are the result of one of their bishops on
the Arizona frontier threatening to establish a
fortified ranche at the Colorado ford which they
must cross in returning from their raids on
Utah.

The Mormons, as practical a people as they
are daring, have gone to the expense of con-
structing a telegraph line down to the very
limit of Utah Territory.

io8

Look at Dore's "Wandering Jew," striding
along through forest and desert, always lonely,
and possessed of secret knowledge he cannot
impart. The artist makes the long perspective
of tree-tops simulate crosses to reproach Ahas-
uerus. The same weird effect is given by these
poles, and that endless slender wire, stretching
over sandy plain and volcano-blasted mountain.
The telegraph is protected from the Indians
only by their own superstition. They believe
it is charmed, and friendly Indians have come
many miles to inform the Mormons that poles
were down In some solitude they crossed. They
have not dared to touch the magic cordage
themselves.

The Navajoes would give their wits to know
the mystery of the " medicine" which frustrates
their best-laid plans, and posts Bishop WInsor
and his *' merry men" on guard at the Pass,
ready any hour to intercept the horses they may
have stolen two hundred miles away ! They
have been foiled so often that, for the present,
" the devil a monk would be."

One Indian of the Pah-vants rode for some
miles beside the Beaver horsemen, leaning far
forward on his saddle as he cantered along, his
gay blanket dropped on the crupper like a
riding-habit, his long, black hair and the fringes
of his leggings fluttering in the wind of his

I09

going. But our horsemen soon dropped behind,
waving courteous farewells to each carriage as
it passed them. The road was rough ; volcanic
rocks cropping out and jarring us unexpectedly.
The noonday halt was made at Buckhorn
Springs, where we found but one httle house,
and at a short distance from it a stockaded
enclosure for the animals. No garden, no trees,
nothing but rock and sand to look at till our
eyes rested on the mountains in the distance.
The house stood on a slight elevation above the
plain, and was inhabited by an aged pair who
were wearing out the evening ^of their days in
comfortless desolation. They had a fire burning
on the wide hearth in their mud-and-loof-walled
cabin, and we went in to warm ourselves. The
poor old wife's palsied head nodded so that we
could not understand her ; but a chance remark
of T.'s regarding the brilliantly-colored woodcut
of Beauregard and his Confederate generals
that adorned the room, led the old man to
overcome his repugnance to a Northern officer
sufficiently to lead him to ask eager ques-
tions about Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Every
answer that pleased him, he greeted like a
primitive Methodist with a long-drawn "Ah!"
or " Glory be to God !"

I listened to the wind which howled round
the cabin as if it were a ship in a gale, while my

no

husband good-humoredly gratified the old man's
curiosity.

When we left the house the sun had dispersed
the clouds, and the icy wind came from moun-
tains briofht with fresh-fallen snow. The sun-
shine was so brilliant, too, that the glare was
unbearable, and the absence of coloring, except
staring white and blue, increased the feeling I
had of being at sea with a brisk north-wester
blowing.

Hurrying into our carriages, we buried our-
selves in the furs and prepared for an uninter-
esting afternoon. But we were not done with
violent effects of color. There is no home-like
scenery in Utah ; a scene-painter's nightmare
would be tame to nature's productions herewith
rocks and sand. The afternoon was wearing
on to the sunset when we came to a blood-red
land, — cliffs, soil, and a crumbling old adobe fort,
all red. Beside it a rushing stream dashed
up wavelets of turbid red. Then came three
or four red adobe houses, and some stacks of
the brilliant straw-colored hay, with freshly-
opened green hearts. The dreary wind howled
and whistled among the walls and palings, and
shook our carriages when we halted for a few
minutes. Thankfulness overpowered me that,
wherever else my lot in life might be cast, it was
to be neither at Buckhorn Springs nor Red
Creek Village !

I II

Leaving the red cliffs behind, our carriages
crawled through heavy sand at the base of a
rocky wall which reminded me of Third Avenue,
New York, as I remember it before the days of
Central Park. It wanted only a street car,
some stray bits of straw and newspaper, three
Irish shanties, and a stencilled " Try Tarrant's
Effervescing," to make me feel at home. The
rendering of the wind-blown dust over the
smoothly-slanting rock was perfect.

"Hark!" cried Evan, suddenly. "There's
music. Listen !" We all laughed ; for I had
been saying this was like coming into New York,
and Willie said, with the air of superiority which
his nicer ear for music entitled him to assume
over Evan, " It's only a cow mooing," and he
pointed to a herd in the distance. But the gusts
of wind soon brought the sound plainly. It was
the brass band from Parowan come out to meet
us, escorted by a troop of many youths. The
horses danced and plunged as the band-wagon
fell into line, and we entered Parowan in great
state to the music of "John Brown's Body."

Our carriage. President Young's, and another
drew up in the courtyard of Bishop Norman's
low-roofed but wide-spreading home, and we
stood a few minutes on the piazza to listen to
the last strains of the band, and exult over the
promise of a fair day on the morrow. Over the

112

roofs of the town we could see that the snow-
clouds were caught by the skirts, and trailing
away over the mountains in the distance. The
last rays of sunset streamed up a red and glori-
ous background to the flag, which — forgive the
scream of the eagle ! — displayed its folds in the
evening breeze from a liberty pole in the court-
house yard.

PAROWAN.

Bishop Norman's comfortable house was one
of those in which you feel at home at once. The
very shepherd-dog on the piazza made friends
with the children when they first stepped on the
piazza, and " spoke" for a biscuit as if he had
known them all his life. The master and mis-
tress looked so like a Norfolkshire squire and
dame, that I was surprised to learn that they
were both from Massachusetts. Mrs. Norman
was short, stout, merry, and dimpled : a suitable
mate for Mr. Norman. She took me to my
room, and when I rejoined her In the parlor in-
troduced me to — Mrs. Norman. This one was
tall, thin, serious and high-cheek-boned, and the
two tosrether reminded me of Hood's

" For I am short and she is tall,
And that's the short and long of it."

To repress my inclination to smile, I plunged
into conversation, inquiring whether a young

113

woman who appeared in the doorway for a mo-
ment, vanishing at a summons from the kitchen,
was the tall wife's daughter. She replied, chid-
ingly, "Certainly not!" and the plump one an-
swered, merrily, " Oh, no. No, that's our Mr.
Norman's third !"

Of Parowan itself, I saw little. The principal
houses surround the court-house square, and
are shaded generously by double rows of cotton-
wood trees. These grow so fast that although
planted only twenty-one years ago, in the infancy
of the settlement, they give the town quite a
middle-aged look, their branches already over-
arching the streets.

When we reached the end of a day's journey,
after taking off our outer garments and wash-
ing off the dust, it was the custom of our party
to assemble before the fire in the sitting-room,
and the leading;- "brothers and sisters" of the
settlement would come in to pay their respects.
The front door generally opened directly from
the piazza into the parlor, and was always on
the latch, and the circle round the fire varied
constantly as the neighbors dropped in or went
away. At these informal audiences, reports,
complaints, and petitions were made ; and I
think I gathered more of the actual working of
Mormonism by listening to them than from any
other source. They talked away to Brigham

lO*

114

Young about ever}^ conceivable matter, from the
fluxing of an ore to the advantages of a Navajo
bit, and expected him to remember every child
in every cotter's family. And he really seemed
to do so, and to be at home, and be rightfully
deemed infallible on ever)' subject. I think he
must make fewer mistakes than most popes,
from his beingf in such constant intercourse with
his people. I noticed that he never seemed un-
interested, but gave an unforced attention to
the person addressing him, which suggested a
mind free from care. I used to fancy that he
wasted a great deal of power in this way ; but I
soon saw that he was accumulating it. Power,
I mean, at least as the driving-wheel of his
people's industry.

Among the callers who dropped in at Paro-
wan, my attention was drawn to a tiny old
woman, who seemed blown into the room with
a gust of wind, which was indeed so strong that
she could not latch the door again after enter-
ing. Elder Potteau sprang to her assistance,
and, looking up to thank him, she cried, "Oh,
you dear, blessed man ! Don't you remember
me?"

" Sister Ranforth," Mrs. Norman good-na-
turedly hinted in a stage-whisper, and the Elder
greeted her by that name.

" Yes ; here I am. Look at me, so strong

J

115

and hearty !" (She looked like a withered leaf.)
"Don't you remember in '57, at the meeting in
St. Mary Axe, when the brethren were all say-
ing I was too old and feeble to go out to join
the saints, that I said I wanted to start if I died
on the way, that the Lord might know I tried to
obey his words, and go to the gathering- in of
Zion ? And you said, ' Sister, you shall go. I
feel to promise you that you shall reach the
saints and see your children's children, and
peace upon Israel.' And I have," cried the
old creature, with joyful tears; "I have seen
my children's children, and it's not four weeks
sin' I held my first great-great-grandchild in
these arms. I wasn't quite ready to depart
before ; but I am now, and especially since I
have seen you again. The Lord bless you,
Elder Potteau, for the good words you spoke
that day !"

Some of the women took her into another
room to rest, for she was quite exhausted by
her emotion. Her life seemed to be fading
away with her color before our eyes.

The saints who are more used to his presence
take Brother Brigham's arrival at a village
tranquilly, but. new-comers in Utah greet him
much more deferentially than if he were the
President of the United States. There was a
bright-eyed woman at Parowan with snow-white

ii6

hair who tried to kiss his hand, and went round
to all the party shaking hands with both hands
and patting us. She had only been in Utah
three months, and had come out with a train of
indigent, almost destitute, converts. When such
persons arrive, the bishops of the different
wards provide them with homes and work, and
Bishop Norman had taken her to his own roof,
because her absolute deafness made her an un-
acceptable inmate to most people.

" But /can make you hear, can't I?" screamed
the jolly wife into her ear, growing purple with
the exertion.

The deaf woman nodded with a pleased look,
as she replied, " Never once yet," Fortunately
for Mrs. Norman's confusion, she went on to
tell me that " never once yet" had she regretted
leaving England. The saints were so good to
her, notwithstanding her infirmity. I thought
Mrs. Norman certainly was, when I saw how
much trouble she had to make the sufferer
understand anything. Mrs. Norman said she
always went to meeting, and seemed to enjoy
it as much as if she knew what was said there;
and I noticed that one of the wives remained at
home to take care of the house that evening to
let Priscilla go to meeting, " because it was one
of the few pleasures she seemed to have." She
had been aged by a domestic tragedy, which

117

whitened her hair in early youth, but her deaf-
ness had come on gradually.

She was a "servant" in the Normans' house,
but, in the southern Mormon settlements at
least, there is no distinction made between mis-
tress and servant. The younger " sisters"
think it no degradation to go to live in the
houses of the married ones and help them with
their work, and when work is over, they sit down
to meals or " go to parties" together. I am not
speaking of the rougher sort alone. I have met
a wealthy bishop's daughter at a dance, dressed
in white muslin, who has opened the door for
me next morning with arms fresh from the
wash-tub, when I went to call upon her mis-
tress. It did me no harm when she shook
hands on leaving me in the parlor, apologizing
for being unable to remain with me.

Such girls sometimes marr}^ their masters.
A nice possibility for the wife hiring " help" to
keep before her eyes ! I met one woman who
had claimed from her mistress the fulfillment of
a jesting promise, — that if she served her faith-
fully for seven years, she would give her to her
husband to wife. At the end of the seven
years, she jilted a man to whom she was
affianced, recalled the forgotten promise to her
mistress's mind, and became her master's plural
wife. There was no question of affection on

ii8

either side. I believe she merely wished to
share in his glory in heaven, with a modest
competence here below. I give her up to you,
father, to abuse to your heart's content. Appa-
rently, she angled for a rich man quite as much
as if she had not been a Saint. It is not for
such as she that I ask your pity and sympathy.
It is for those women who have become " plural
wives" from a sense of duty, and who think
their lot happy because they deem that God's
blessing rests upon its hard conditions. I
would have you pity Delia J., for instance,
the wife of a man double her age. Of her the
first wife said to me, " Delia is the blessing of
my life. It is true that she has had trouble in
polygamy. She could not bring her mind for a
long time to see it to be her duty. But she is
reconciled now. I thank the Lord every day
that now that I am infirm. Brother Samuel has
her at his side to watch over him, and see that
his health and comfort are attended to as he is
growing old."

Childless herself, this Delia is dearly loved by
all the other wives' children, some of them older
than she is. That first wife's eldest daughter
said to me unaffectedly one day, when we
happened to interrupt an earnest conference
between her mother and Delia, Mother loves
her better than any of us, and admits her into

119

her inmost confidence; "because, of course, she
is nearer to pa than we can be."

Pity her ! I pitied DeHa from the depths of
my soul ! I saw her wince once at an allusion
to her childlessness, and thought how happy that
devoted, affectionate nature might have made a
home where she ruled sole mistress of the heart
of a husband worthy of her.

Yet Delia was one of those who spoke most
earnestly to me of polygamy as of divine insti-
tution, and rejected with horror the solution of
the Mormon difficulty which I advocated : that
Congress should forbid any further polygamous
marriages, but legalize those that already ex-
isted, seemed to me both just and merciful.

" Secure my social position !" she once re-
peated after me. " How can that satisfy me !
I want to be assured of vty position in God's
estimation. If polygamy is the Lord's order, we
must carry it out in spite of human laws and
persecutions. If our marriages have been sins,
Congress is no vicegerent of God; it cannot
forgive sins, nor make what was wrong, right.
* Hard for me if polygamy were abolished, with-
out some provision for women situated as I am !'
Yes, but how much harder to bring myself to
accept such a law as you speak of, and admit,
as I should be admitting, that all I have sacri-
ficed has not been for God's sake ! I should feel

I20

as if I were agreeing to look upon my past life
as a — as a worthless woman's — upon which I
had never had His blessing. I'd rather die !"

How I detested her husband as she spoke !
I felt sure he could not believe that that was a
divine ordinance which sacrificed those women's
lives to his. I heard him say that when "Joseph"
first promulgated the Revelation of Polygamy
he " felt that the grave was sweet ! All that
winter, whenever a funeral passed, — 'and it
was a sickly season,' — I would stand and look
after the hearse, and wish I was in that coffin !
But that went over !"

I should think it Jiad gone over ! He has
had more than half a dozen wives.

PAROWAN TO CEDAR.

We had a serenade at Parowan as well as at
Nephi, but I was so tired that I fell asleep
before it was ended. T. praised the singing;
and, in answer to my inquiries, told me that four
babies, in arms, made their appearance with
their mammas, the female singers of the choir.

Next morning, too, the brass band made their
appearance as we took our departure ; some-
what to the discomposure of the nerves of one
of the horses, who broke away from the groom
who was harnessing him, and after careering
round the yard, leaped the fence, and galloped

121

off to the open country. The time occupied in
recapturing him enabled the band to give us a
number of airs, and superbly well they played
them.

Our morning drive to Cedar City was un-
interesting ; volcanic rocks, sage-brush, rabbit-
bush, and grease-wood ; on the plain the hills
dotted with unpicturesque stunted cedars.
Coming toward the city, we saw long fissures
in the earth, five to ten feet across, and ten to
fifteen feet deep, the result of drought. To
compare large things with small, the plain was
a grossly magnified representation of the un-
drained hollows on our country roads, where,
after the puddles have dried up in summer, the
clay is seamed with unpleasing cracks over
which the yellow butterflies delight to sport.

Next we came to a ruined foundry, where
the Mormons had made an attempt to flux the
ores of the neighborhood. Much money has
been made in Utah, but there are enough
evidences of abandoned enterprises to show
how faithfully the Mormons have endeavored
to utilize the resources of the country and not
dishonestly protect its manufactures. The best
of the people wear homespun, and use inferior
tools, and produce goods that return them but
one per cent, on the capital invested, rather
than look outside the promised land "for benefits

122

the Lord has given them in it ; if they could but
exercise faith strongly enough to work with
patience, and in spite of failure and disappoint-
ment, until mistakes are corrected by repeated
experiments, and perseverance attains its end."
Brigham Young is expected to put some of his
capital into every good work, and this seems
only fair. I believe that the foundry at Cedar
City is to be reconstructed now that they have
succeeded in finding: a- coal suitable for their
purpose within easy reach ; and I suppose that
the Mormons' efforts to make silk, and cot-
ton, and woolen goods, to work iron, produce
sugar and molasses, wine, prunes, raisins and
so forth, will finally be successful. They do not
selfishly aim to put on the general market of
the world an article which shall drive others out
because it is the best and cheapest of its kind.
Their ethics teach them simply to provide each
settlement with some industry which shall make
it self-supporting. The infant manufacture is
expected to be encouraged by the saints, in
spite of the temptations to purchase the cheaper
Gentile productions that penetrate everywhere
into the territory : in short, the manufacturers
and consumers are expected to show their faith
in Providence by flying in the face of Adam Smith.
It would have been ludicrous, if it had not been
pathetic, to hear the exhortations to saints who

123

had been told off to Southern settlements where
the desert had failed to blossom as the rose, and
the torrid sun had disordered their livers. They
were reminded that they looked upon their
prospects with jaundiced eyes, and assured that
it was only the weakness of their faith which
made them fail to see the means of subsistence
at their feet.

Had they tried the silk- worm faithfully? There
was Sister Murray in such a settlement who
had done so, and succeeded. Had they tried
making fuel of the tar of pitch-pine ? had they
examined practically all that might be made of
the pitch-pine of the canons ? Had they made
mattresses of the fibre of the soap-plant, or
dried it for exportation ? I recall now a san-
guine speaker running on with a dozen such
bootless illustrations of the " capabilities" of
the region in which we were, while I looked out
from the open window of the meeting-house
upon the barren, barren plain, which the poor
saints of the congregation were vainly trying to
improve. The plain sparkled in the sunshine.
It was white for miles with soda ! and the alkali
was the most discouraging feature of the leprous
landscape. But his hopeful disposition failed to
suggest the idea that I hear is now under con-
sideration at Washington. It is proposed that
such lands shall be sold to future settlers at a

124

higher price than ordinary government land ; to
wit, as if they contained coal and iron, silver or
gold — in Washington English, as mineral lands.
Had the preacher but thought of that !

CEDAR CITY.

When v^e fairly entered Cedar City I was
pleased with its many long rows of trees. It is
a (comparatively) old town, and they have had
time to attain a very large size. The street
where we halted was a shady avenue, and the
lids drooped of my homesick Evan's eyes as the
breeze rustled in the leafless branches arching
overhead.

Under foot was a she^t of ice. The person
whose duty it was to shut off the water at night
that flowed through the streets, had forgotten
to do so the nigfht before, and the channels had
frozen on the surface and overflowed and frozen
again. We drew up before a large brick house
in front of which a great bell swung. It had
been made at the foundry, and when I suggested
to our hostess that the noise it made must be
deafening, so close to the parlor window, she
answered with simplicity, " Oh, no ; there's
such a crack in it that it makes hardly any noise
at all."

Our host was a blind man. Hardly yet in
the prime of life, the terrible disease of the eyes

125

which is so prevalent in Southern Utah had

fallen upon him, and all the afflictions of Job, in

the way of losses of cattle and other property,

seemed to have followed. He would have been

absolutely helpless, but for the exertions of his

two brave little wives ; little hens that scratched

the barnyard faithfully for the support of the

brood. They turned the house into an inn, and

though it was but sparsely furnished, it was

spotlessly clean, as I know ; for I sat part of the

afternoon in the kitchen. The wife who was

busiest there had no children of her own, thouo-h

one of the other wife's had been given to and

reared by her; and she had the neat kitchen

strangely furnished. One end was carpeted

with oil-cloth, and in front of a window-full of

scarlet geraniums stood a table with a brightly

polished telegraph apparatus ; and she turned

from her stove and its pots and pans to her

battery and clicking needle-point without flurry

or embarrassment. I asked her whether it had

not been hard for her to learn, for she was no

longer young. She said " Yes ;" that her fingers

were inflexible, and that it had been very hard

to eyes unused to delicate sewing and ears un-

practiced to listen to fine differences of sound ;

but the Lord had helped her, knowing Mr.

Hunt's need.

She spoke of herself as a rough and unedu-
II*

126

cated woman, though I found she had an accur-
ate ear for music and a lovely voice in singing.
But she had mastered her profession well enough
to tell by ear what was going over the wires,
and I believe that is considered a tolerable test.
I like to see women telegraphing, it is dainty
work well suited to our sex ; and on our Eastern
roads the officers tell me that the women tele-
graphers are more steadily attentive to their
duties than men, and of course seldomer, I hope
I may say never, stupefied with the fumes of
tobacco or liquor. Their offices are cleaner, too,
and gay with flowers, and those who for their sins
are compelled to wait for a train at a wayside
station often appreciate this difference. Still,
women yield to one dissipation men are less apt
to indulge in, and it was a characteristic that be-
trayed the sex of the telegrapher at the place we
had left in the morning, when Mrs. Hunt re-
marked to her sister-wife that, evening that "Par-
owan has been called by St. George three times
without answering. She will go to meeting P'

Mr. Hunt did what he could to help, poor fel-
low, and poked his way about with a long stick,
as he directed his little boys in the barn and
garden. They had a garden behind the house
which must have been very pretty in summer,
the large beds having neat box edges, and the
main walk passing between fine peach trees.

127

His voice and manner, thougiT melancholy
and subdued, were those of a gendeman ; and
sitting apart beside the fire I overheard what
was probably not intended for my ears. His
little unkempt barefooted boys had followed
him into the room. He sat down with my Evan
on his knee, and passing his hand over the child's
curling locks, and the fine cloth of his jacket,
said to his own sons, —

" Lads, when I was your age I was dressed
like this, and a servant waited upon me. When
you grow to my age, remember I never grudged
what I have undergone for my faith."

In the morning when we assembled for prayers,
he was prayed for. Mormon-fashion, — "Bless his
lids that the swelling thereof may diminish; and
his eyeballs that the inflammation may cease ;
and the nerve of his eyes that its sensitiveness
may be restored ; and that he may see again the
beauty and the glory of Thy Kingdom."

After we rose, as the custom was in many
houses, the family sang a hymn ; and it touched
me to see him (although there were hvo wives
which present repelled me), standing with his
hand on the shoulder of one, the telegraph
operator, while the other had her little ones
grouped about her ; and singing,

" Mercy, oh thou Son of David,
Thus blind Bartimeus prayed."

128

Poor man ! His eyesight, I heard, did get a
httle better before we left Utah, and he became
able to "see men as trees walking," and for
even that cloudy vision he was thankful. As
he said after prayers that day, "It might be the
Lord's will to grant him sight, and if so his faith
should not be wanting to enable him to lay hold
of the blessing."

While I was acquainting myself with this
simple household, T. was pestered in the parlor
by some of the same class of mining speculators
who beset him at Salt Lake City.

There were also plain farmers who had come
to seek counsel of " Brother Brigham," whether
to sell their farms to speculators, or to go shares
with them in seeking minerals, or simply to plod
on, using their coal only for family purposes.
These gaped with open mouths at the glib, eager
man, who had his pocket full of specimens from
this and that neighboring mountain, and who
pressed upon T. a share in his enterprise in re-
turn for a loan of the capital his worn boots
showed his need of. These men had some
really fine specimens, though their value was
impaired to experienced eyes by their having
been "doctored." Still, I do not mean to say that
Cedar City has not a great future before it, pos-
sessing as it does, coal, lime, and iron ores in con-
venient proximity to each other. I hope Mr.

129

Hunt's boys may share the prosperity of their
birthplace !

T. presently made his escape to a more inter-
esting group. Outside the windows near the
big bell, stood all the winter afternoon a patient
cluster of Indians. One sat on a rough pony,
who stood motionless with drooping head, tired
apparently by a long journey. The rider had
his foot in a bloody bandage, and glanced from
time to time at the parlor window. Did he
hope the Great Medicine " Bigham" would come
out and cure him? He never said anything, and
rode quietly away at dusk. I knew " Bigham"
couldn't cure him, but felt half-provoked that
he didn't come out and make-believe to do so.
The leader, a well-built, and, for a Ute, rather
handsome man, could speak a few words of
Mexican-Spanish. He bore a name common
to many chiefs in Utah, but not then known to
fame. He was a, but not the Captain John,
Juan, or Jack. I transfer this mention of him
from my note-book here, solely because I have
a long story to tell of him, further on. He be-
came possessed with the notion that he was
divinely inspired, and did some frightfully queer
things. I have seen something of insane per-
sons, and a good deal more of religious enthu-
siasts ; but a red Indian crazy upon religion, is
the hardest character to understand I can con-

I30

ceive of. The belief of some of these characters
in their most ridiculous fancies is absolute. One
of them, for instance, who was recently an
esteemed friend of this very John, ordered his
followers to kill him, to prove how instantly he
would receive a new body. He laid his head
down: they chopped it off; and I visited his
grave.

KANNARRA.

Our next stage from Cedar City was to Kan-
narra.

" Wrap up the children well," Mrs. Jane said,
as we were about starting ; " you will need all the
warm clothing you have. We shall reach the
rim of the basin this evening."

We thanked her afterwards for the timely
warninof.

Our way lay along a level plain, forming an
avenue between mountains that gradually drew
closer together toward the south, where opened
the one wide pass of Kannarra.

Before sunset we caught sight of a great
mountain ablaze with color, which we called Mt.
Sinai. It stood apart on our left, half withdrawn
behind two gray masses which we christened the
Twin Friars : a natural rock portal revealing
the entrance to a gloomy canon at their feet.
Hard by, in the foreground, appeared some crum-

131

bling adobe walls, fast resolving themselves into
the red earth from which they had sprung, and
— emblem of desolation — an abandoned grave-
yard, where the gray tombstones were aslant,
and half-buried in the drifting sand that had be-
gun to wear them out of shape and efface the
lettering of the names engraved upon them.
The shrill wind was busy at its work of heaping
up the sand on them, and blew a steady blast
which penetrated all our mufflings. For the
gorge we were passing was Kannarra Canon,
the true name of the oreat mountain was the
peak of Kannarra, and the desolate ruins at
hand were the abandoned village of Kannarra,
from which the wind had driven the settlers.
Absolutely nothing, not even a potato, they told
us, could be grown there. The mere obstruc-
tion of a garden fence served to gather a moun-
tain of sand when the wind rose; and one day
the settlers were threatened with being buried
alive, and the next, perhaps, a still stronger wind
would sweep away sand, fences, roofs, and walls,
and leave the plain smooth and naked as a sea-
beach.

So they withdrew to a new " location," a little
more sheltered, but still in the pass; for the
Conference had decided it to be necessary to
hold the post against Indian incursions. We
reached this place shortly after. It was cheer-

132

less enouofh. Most of the houses were mere
adobe huts ; but there was one substantial
brick building, and in this we were quartered.
We had a spacious bedroom ; but the skill of all
the hospitable Roundhed family failed to induce
the fire to do anything but fill the room with
gusts of smoke ; and we gave up, thinking that
if the Roundheds could endure it all winter, we
certainly might for one day. Moreover, as Mrs.
Roundhed remarked philosophically, —

" It was a mercy it was this wind ; because,
if our stove drew, the fire in the sitting-room
on the other side of the house would have
smoked, and all the party had to sit there."

As it was, we were very comfortable beside
the great fire- that roared up the sitting-room
chimney ; and the children were amused by the
draught that lifted the heavy cocoa-matting on
the floor in waves. Whoever entered from out-
side came in with a surprising suddenness, and
the door slammed to indecorously behind the
indigenous visitor before he could get his breath
to gasp out, "A welcome to Kannarra!"

Our hostess was almost bent double with
sciatica, and appeared to be one of the saints
who feel

" Earth is a desert drear, Heaven is my home."

Not that she did not set before us a bountiful

^33

meal, well cooked, and seasoned widi hospitable
words; but she seemed to think she had not yet
found her abiding city, and that it was hardly
worth while for her to set her affections on any
place here below, — certainly not on Kannarra,
Her husband's father had been one of the
earliest of Joseph Smith's followers, and father
and son had adhered to the faith with the
tenacity of mastiffs. Every line of Round-
hed's weather-beaten face showed courage and
fidelity.

Those who are thoroughly trustworthy by
nature may be sure that society will give their
virtue full opportunity to develop itself. The
unselfish, dutiful child in a family is always
adequately " put upon." To the bravest soldier
is ever eiven the honor of leadino- the forlorn
hope. The Roundheds had been pioneers, I
learned, in divers- dismal settlements. They
were among the founders of that " Happy
Valley," in Nevada, where the dogs scratched
savagely in the sand for places to cool their
burning feet, and hens threw themselves on
their backs and waved their claws in the air
with the same end in view. I am not speaking
in jest ; I have the directest obtainable authority
for the anecdote that Sister Morris found a
young chicken on her parlor mantelpiece, which
had hatched out from the egg there. It was

134

one of three eggs, the first laid in the new settle-
ment, set up on the mantelpiece as a special
delicacy for her husband, and forgotten acci-
dentally when "Colin cam' hame."

That sister gave up raising chickens, because
the hot sand cooked the eggs nearly as fast as
the hens laid them ; and although the hens were
willing to sit on them till they boiled themselves,
nothing- came of their devotion. This was in
the charming Mormon " cotton settlement" on
the Muddy River, called Saint Thomas.

Mrs. Roundhed, bent with sciatica, in wind-
swept Kannarra, cherished tender thoughts of
St. Thomas, where her rheumatism would cer-
tainly have been " thawed out."

I thought her situation unenviable, but the
next time I came by Kannarra, when the snow
lay a foot deep on her doorstep, I pitied her
more. A month before, her husband had been
detailed to head that exploring mission among
the Indians near the San Francisco mountain,
in Arizona, which caused so much speculation
in our Eastern newspapers. She had been ever
since shut up in in Kannarra, not knowing
whether he was alive or destroyed by savages,
or starved to death, or frozen down some half-
mile-deep caiion of the awful Colorado. I had
the pleasure of giving her the first news of his
safety.

135

The messencjer who had broueht her hus-
band word that he was set apart for this mis-
sion, told me that he arrived in the middle of
the night. Mrs. Roundhed got up without a
murmur, kindled a fire, and prepared a meal for
him. As she watched her saucepan she heard
the conversation imperfectly. She raised her-
self from her stooping position at the fire, and
with one hand on her aching back, and the
other suppressing a yawn, said, as quietly as if
it were an everyday thing, " Well, Brother
Gunn, I suppose this means another move for
the saints ? The Lord knows /';;/ ready !"

I am sure I hope she will be detailed to some
settlement, on our own planet, where there are
green pastures beside still waters.

Of course I saw Kannarra at its worst.
Doubtless its winds are grateful in summer to
those who toil up from the hot plains. And I
am told that there is fine ranching ground only
five or six miles off, fine coal, too, near and
plentiful, and iron ore.

We spent Sunday at Kannarra. My husband
and children went to the little meeting-house,
whence the boys returned awed by their recol-
lections of the hideous painted faces of some
Pi-edes, who had flattened their noses against
the window-panes of the building, back of where
they sat. " Enough," Evy declared, " to give

136

him nightmares for a year." As for me, I had
found my first breath of k^en air more than
enough, and had withdrawn to the fireside,
where I was entertained for the remainder of the
day by one of the informal audiences I have
spoken of

One brother was " breathing fire and slaugh-
ter" against the Pi-edes ; and the bishop's ex-
hortations having failed to inspire charity in his
breast, he was brought to Brother Brigham to
be " counselled" into submissiveness. I was
told that he was a " rash man," venturing out
alone from the settlements, and had been re-
peatedly chased by the Indians ; and that " it
was his brothers who got into the bad scrape."

"What scrape was that?" I inquired, desiring
to hear some adventure with a triumphant end.

" Well, both his brothers and the wife of one
of them were pursued and killed. They were
not scalped ; but they were stripped and their
waoron robbed."

" By the Navajoes, I suppose?"

"Why, no," said my informant, sinking his
voice, and looking cautiously at the bereaved
brother ; " they were Pi-edes ; and unfortunately
he thinks he recognizes one of his sister's ear-
rings and a brooch of hers on one of them that
are round here to-day."

It is hard to keep the younger brethren from

avenging such wrongs promptly ; but unless the
case is clear to the criminal's tribe, punishment,
however condign, would lead to a regular ven-
detta. But I really think the patience of the
Mormons with the Indians surpasses anything
we read of the Quakers or Moravians. You
never hear the Mormon younkers boast of
prowess at the savages' expense ; their whole
tone is different from ours. They talk, for in-
stance, of the duty of avoiding temptijig them by
traveling alone or unarmed. The Mormon
elders will not hear of vengfeance on a tribe or
band for acts committed by individual members
of it. They think highly of the Indians' " sense
of justice," and unless an outrage committed can
be fully traced to some previous offense of a
white, for which it is a reprisal, they obstinately
attribute it to some " bad Indian," whom his
chief would be quite as willing to punish as we
would one of our white criminals.

Bishop Roundhed spoke of the bands of
Navajoes of whom we had heard at Beaver.
They had stated their case simply to him thus:
If he would trade, they would be friends, and
buy his horses with blankets ; if not, as they
wanted horses and must have them, he. Bishop
Roundhed, could watch the ranches his best, and
they would help themselves when and where
they could. Said the bishop, "/ had no horses,

138

but I thought It best for the safety of the Co-op.
herd to send up to the ranche for a lot of
' broncos.' They were some that we hadn't
been able to do anything with."

Brigham Young nodded acquiescence, and
I asked whether the Navajoes would buy un-
ruly " broncos."

" Yes, indeed," the bishop answered, " and in
a few hours they came riding back to Kannarra
on the worst ones we had, as quiet as you please.
The Navajoes are wonderful horse-tamers."

I asked whether their method was known.
He replied, that they carried the horses out of
the way to subdue them ; but he had seen them
rub a little of a red powder which they had with
them, on a headstrong horse's nose, and bring
it into instant subjection. They would not sell
him any of this powder, nor tell him what it was.

Then Roundhed was bidden to propose a
speculation to the next band of Navajoes that
came alone. The " church herd" on one of the
islands in the Salt Lake has multiplied fast, and
there are now a large number of wild horses
there. No one lives on th^ island, but a number
of wolves dispute its supremacy with the horses ;
and the horses have battled with the wolves for
life — the supplies of other food for the carnivora
being scanty — until they have grown so fierce
that no white man finds it pay to attempt tam-

139

ing them. The proposition to be made the
Navajoes was, that they should tame the church
herd on shares. They should receive one-half
the horses for their pains : the Mormons to
have first choice, however. Bishop Roundhed
seemed to think the Navajoes would embrace
the offer. He showed me seven fine blankets
which he had received in exchanofe for one small
mare. These Navajo blankets are said to be
waterproof, and many of them are of beautifully-
varied colors ; red, white, blue and black in the
same blanket. Some are woven with compli-
cated designs, evidently varying with the humor
of the weaver. Unlike the lazy Pi-edes and
Utes, there are Navajo men who think it not
beneath their dignity to work, and will sit pa-
tiently on their heels in the sunshine all day
twirling the spindle.

The different styles of Indian blanket vary
more than our own do, but a connoisseur can
tell the difference between a Moquis, an Apache,
or a Navajo blanket at a glance.

I have spoken of the " Co-op. herd." In Utah
they have carried the principle of co-operation
very far, and finding how well it pays are push-
ing it in every direction. Each settlement has
its herd, its dairy, its stores, its irrigating chan-
nels, and its fields managed on this basis ; and
the effort so far to restore the primitive Chris-

140

tian communism is entirely successful In settle-
ments where the brethren live alone, without
Gentiles to come in on them. One fence will
enclose the harvest-fields or cotton-grounds of
a whole settlement, each brother doing his share
of the labor and being credited with his portion
of the produce.

The excellent roads that carried us from one
end of the territory to the other are not main-
tained at the cost of the entire population. The
sums voted by the legislature are small, as the
nominal taxation of Utah is very light; but the
brethren from each settlement come out and
make the road as part of the tithing of their
labor. The bishops act as unpaid supervisors,
and Brigham Young praises or blames each
day's work as he comes to his journey's end
over it.

Of course the tithing is not exacted from the
Gentiles, and the Mormon roads are of great
service to our miners for the carriage of their
heavy freights. And, equally of course, the
Mormons feel a little like the elder brother in
the parable ; seeing the prodigal's caravan roll-
ing to the mines, where they cannot go.

SOUTHERN raM OF THE BASIN.

We were told to prepare for eighteen miles
of rough road when we left Kannarra, and we

141

certainly encountered them. We were fairly in
the rocks, and the lava blocks are' the flintiest
stones I ever heard rine against horse-shoe and
wheel-tire.

The air was so clear that every object stood
out in stereoscopic relief. The view was per-
petually changing as our horses brought us
abreast of openings in the gray mountain-wall
on our left, revealing glimpses of a crowded
world of red and yellow crags and peaks beyond.
More golden sunshine seemed to rest on them
than fell on us outside. For me to say that
they were unnaturally vivid in color and harsh
in their contrasts, would only signify that I was
used to the gentle outlines and soft hues of
Nature at home. Moses led his people forty
years through such scenery as this.

Afterwards, we seemed to have come upon a
great sloping down or moorland, sparsely stud-
ded with yuccas. Fairly tired out with gorgeous
landscape and the constant use of epithetic
adjectives, I had thrown myself back on the
cushions, thinking, " Now for an uninteresting
drive, I am glad of it," when the carriage ahead
of us stopped and the driver came back to us.

" Brother Young says, ' Please watch }on
crack, Mrs. T,' "

I lean out. There is nothing, surely, there.
The sloping plain seems to have a fold or wrinkle

142

in it, so that Its outline against the sky is broken,
by a " fault," as our coal-miners would say — and
resumes its slope, about fifteen feet lower.

For politeness' sake, however, I watch the
"fault." As we approach, altering our course,
I see that it is a crack in the earth, and that the
road runs towards it. A few minutes more, and
we are winding down a narrow road painfully
excavated along the side of what I now see to
be a chasm, sheer down which I can look hun-
dreds of feet — and I much prefer not looking !
But T. insists, and the children laugh at my
cowardice, and I gaze in fascinated terror. We
are so close to the edge that every now and
then a stone our wheel has dislodged goes
bounding down the precipice, hardly touching
the steep side once before it strikes the frozen
ice of the tiny stream below. We wind in and
out of the corners of the great chasm, making
short half-turns. President Young's coupe taking
the lead. He stops when he has rounded each ;
and we see him looking out opposite us, almost
within hand-shaking distance, it seems, until our
more unwieldy carriage has safely turned the
angle ; and then as we pursue our way we see
the remaininor vehicles crawling alongr the curves
we have just run. I am so glad to notice that
one of the Mormon women is as ereat a coward
as I am ! She is burying her face in her hands,

143

and her husband is rallying her as mine rallied
me three minutes ago at the same spot.

We are descending rapidly. I find I like
rounding the outer curve of the precipice even
less than taking the Inner. The stream still falls
more rapidly than the road, for I have made a
hurried mental calculation that my courage can
hold out until we have accomplished the five hun-
dred feet of descent we first looked down upon.
But we ought to have done that half a mile ago,
and we seem to be looking down from a greater
height still, " Oh me !" I exclaim ; " is there no
way of getting home In spring without coming
back this way?" No, only this; unless I like to
go down through the Apache country better.

At last we near the bottom. The stream, re-
leased from its icy fetters, dashes gayly at our
feet, and we are level with the top of a magnifi-
cent stone-pine, the one and only big tree I have
seen in Utah. No ; here is another, sheltered
by the great rock wall ; and now we are out of
Ash Creek Canon, and over the rim of the
basin !

We had descended a thousand feet, the Mor-
mons said. T. contradicted them ; which I
thought was a great shame.

The air was perceptibly warmer, A pool of
water near which we passed was not in the least
frost-bound.

144

The evening grew chill, however, before we
reached Bellevue, a place which belies its name,
being in a narrow valley between steep moun-
tains.

There had been some discussion at Kannarra
as to our remaining here for the night. Some
of the party were in favor of pushing on, if pos-
sible, to St. George. Little Mabel had inspired
my boys with an eager desire to stay at Belle-
vue, where she had spent a child's happy sum-
mer, and was positive that Mr. Dawes's barn
could accommodate all the horses, and Mrs.
Dawes's hospitality provide for all the travelers.
The decision was to halt at Bellevue, and the
female suffrage, I will not deny, was in favor of a
late start next mornino-.

o
BELLEVUE.

I had an impression that Mr. Dawes's farm-
house was a mere summer shelter for the family,
to which they retired when the heat made their
town house at St. George unbearable ; and at
best expected it to turn out an untenanted,
barn-like place. I forgot that a Mormon could
have as many housekeepers as he had houses.
It was dark when we drew up at the kitchen
door of the farm-house. A ruddy light streamed
out, and our new hostess stood on the threshold
to greet us. The kitchen was as neat as a par-

145

lor, and the aromatic scent of hot coffee came
pleasantly to our hungry senses — the proof that
we were expected. Another Mrs. Dawes, as
trim, pretty, and youthful-looking as the one
who received us, came from the stove, where
she was superintending some delicate cookery,
and the two conducted us to our rooms.

I had my choice of two equally comfortable
ones, and found them both brightly carpeted,
and well furnished. Summoned to supper, I
entered a large, pleasant room, with a blazing
fire, and a look of refinement about its arrange-
ment that was in delightful contrast to the wild
scenes I had been gazing on during the after-
noon. In an instant Arabia Deserta had blos-
somed into Arabia Felix.

All our companions seemed in the best of
spirits, and the mountains of rolls, the piled-up
dishes of steaming potatoes, the steaks and
chickens that our party made an end of before
the more fanciful edibles, the cakes, and pies,
and preserves were attacked, were enough to
have justified the debate whether it was fair to
come down on a Bellevue household on such
short notice as we were compelled to give. But
the little dames flitted about from parlor to
kitchen, smilingly pressing fresh supplies upon
us, and encouraging us to empty their great
glass pitchers of delicious cream * while we

146

could,' as the milk at St. George was affected
by the alkaline water and peculiar grasses.

After tea, the females, one and all, withdrew
into the kitchen to " help wash up," — a perform-
ance that was enacted to the tune of merry
laughter, and accomplished in an incredibly
short time. A lovely little baby girl tottered
into the parlor and signified her wish to be
lifted on my knee, to the delight of my boys,
with whom she began playing " bo-peep." The
women then came back, and we talked around
the fire till a late hour.

Outside I could see a light leaping up at the
foot of the mountain, and was told that the tele-
grapher who accompanied us had tapped the
wire and was taking down the news by the warm
blaze. Again the anomaly : in this lonely place,
in the mountain gorge, to hear read out, as I
presently did, the news that would not be pub-
lished in the great cities till the next morning,
of what had taken place this day in Congress,
and the latest European sensation.

This operator, a man of approved courage
and strength of character, rode on a strong-
limbed horse, never far from the President's
carriage. He was so quiet and reticent that I
did not discover his ofifice, or that he had any,
until we were half way on our journey.

The light of the telegrapher's fire drawing

H7

my attention to the window, I noticed that it,
and all the others in the rooms I had seen, were
shaded by lonsf curtains of knitted lace. Mrs.
Dawes had made them, she confessed with
smiling pride. She had had plenty of time ;
for sister Fan. (the other little wife) had spent
last summer with her, and, having been very
sick. Fan. grew nervous, and liked her to spend
the afternoon and evening sitting quietly by her
bedside knitting. " ' Fan.' did not live there,
then ?" " Oh, no ; Fan. had a real nice house in
St. George. She and Mr. Dawes had stopped
for dinner on their way to a two-day meeting at
Rockville, and the telegram came as they were
sitting down. So, of course, they stayed to see
us, and Fan, and she had been easily able to
cook our supper between them."

This was a good-hearted little woman. Baby
had evidently inherited her cordiality. My praise
of her handiwork quite won her heart ; and
when I passed Bellevue on my way home, she
had prepared a large tidy of the same lace,
knitted from cotton grown at Sl George, and
spun at the Washington Factory near there,
which she diffidently presented me with as a
souvenir.

I often asked Mormon women — whenever,
indeed, the question then before Congress was
discussed, and that was very often — whether

1 48

they would be satisfied if their present unions
were legaHzed and all fi.iture ones prohibited.
The teleoyaphic despatches of the evening-
having elicited a free conversation on the
subject, I asked Mrs. Dawes's opinion. She was
much embarrassed, being of a retiring disposi-
tion, and, I suppose, not a little afraid of an anti-
polygamist questioner. She said she would
rather not be asked. " Sister Dawes" (the
eldest wife, a woman twice as big and twice as
old, whom I afterwards met) " was a ver)- good
talker." (She was, indeed, a wonder in her way.)
"But I," said she, "am very ignorant. And
besides," she added, wath a blush that dyed her
cheek crimson, and a great effort to speak
plainly, " it is not fair for you to take me as a
sample of Mormon women, because I did not
join the Church from conviction, but because my
family — all my sisters — had embraced the faith,
and w^ere about leaving England. So I was
baptized, the last thing ; and therefore, as for
religion, I am not as strong in it as I ought to
be. But I have married a polygamist, and have
lived with his other wives eight years, and have
been very happy. I took the position of Mr.
Dawes's third wife ; and I feel I should have
no right to complain if he took another. But,
then, perhaps, I don't know, never having tried
being married your way. Sister D wining, at

149

St. George, where you are going to-morrow, —
if you would ask her. She was married twice
in the States before she joined."

At this there was a titter, I think, at the fair
ingenue's expense, but perhaps my own !

At prayers that nio^ht I was struck by the
unusual fervency of the petitions for the Laman-
ites (Indians), "that they might see visions and
dream dreams that would lead them to embrace
the truth."

I presume it was owing to a report two bro-
thers from " Tocquer" brought of the doings of
the prophet in the White Pine District.

TO ST. GEORGE.

Goinor into Bellevue kitchen in the mornine,
I surprised President Young aiding our rheu-
matic Philadelphia D'Orsay to complete his cos-
tume. It was amusing to see John accepting
every Civil Right " these yer Mormons" ad-
mitted him to as tributes to his monogamic
superiority. Never a word of those profuse
apologies which the natural politeness of col-
ored people under ordinary circumstances would
have prompted, on receiving such a courtesy
from a white man seventy years ot age, passed
his lips. He "stood severe in youthful beauty,"
and let the Mormon pontiff help him dress.

We left Bellevue under a cold gray cloud, in

15^

th.e^shadow of the cliffs that overhung the valley.
There was at first a gradual ascent to overcome.
When it was surmounted, we found the sun was
two hours high, and the view suddenly burst
upon us of a vast field of mountain-tops, — a
medley of shapes and colors. These were the
last of the Wahsatch Rancre. We were comino-
down to the Rio Virgin and Great Colorado
country, descending successive stages of levels,
and chansfinsf the ^reoloorical formation in which
we were as we did so. After this, I was to see
the supreme wonders of Arizona ; but I could
never again experience the bewildered admira-
tion I felt that day. No one had prepared me
for such a scene. The Mormons had kept it
back as a surprise for T., who, when he passed
up Utah from California, had come by the old
Mormon Trail, by way of the Vegas de Sta.
Clara, to Cedar City.

Far off in the east rose a chain of lofty
mountains, their sides striped with party-colored
bands, terrace on terrace, to what seemed a
great city ; its golden buildings crowning the
summit. Behind its palaces the white towers of
a cathedral appeared. The glowing colors were
heightened by the snowy covering of still more
distant peaks ; some so remote as to be only
faintly visible against the iridescent sky. The
sun was now shining upon them in full splendor.

151

We halted to feast our eyes, and a geologi-
cally-disposed Mormon approached the carriage
window to obscure our perceptions by explain-
ing the spectacle scientifically.

"These rocks," he said, "are considered to
be tertiary sedimentary strata ; more or less
horizontally disposed, with a tendency to cleave
or split down vertically — hundreds of feet to a
face. The strata uncovered are of different
colors, red and rose-pink sandstones, gray and
white-pink and tawny-yellow limestones and
free-stones, and they are variously stained and
striped by beds of ferriferous marl or marlite.
They are also of different hardnesses, and
weather down with varying degrees of rapidity.
Fragmentary pieces of an upper layer of harder
rock occasionally furnish water-proof roofs which
protect the softer rock immediately beneath
them. Elsewhere it wears down, and thus piers
are left standing, fanciful pillars and similar
resemblances. Hence arises the remarkable
variety of pseudo-architectural scenery which
regales your vision."

He ended with a concise little bow. I thanked
him for his information, and took it down ver-
batim in his presence, but would have been
better pleased to learn that I had looked at
a Fata Morgana that was soon to fade awa)\
There was something saddening in that distant

152

view, of great courts and domes, empty and
silent, with no human history or legend attached
to them.

We were now, as I have said, over the rim of
the basin, and rapidly descending ; but still at a
great elevation, with many summits to cross
before reaching the plain. In all our turnings
and windings, we saw from the top of each
eminence this great group, " the Navajo Blanket
series," as the children — bored with geology —
termed it, still mvinof the distinctive tone to less
marked ranges.

The foreground and middle distance were
crowded with harsh contrasts to this rainbow
beauty; the obliging geology of the region
providing us with counterfeits of another style of
human architecture, of anything but an urbane
character. The crround over which we traveled
was dislocated, disturbed on all sides by vol-
canic upheaval.

"Rocks on rocks confusedly hurled,
The remnants of ah earlier world."

Sometimes we crawled along the rim of an
extinct volcano, the vast hollow of whose crater
we had next to cross. Rounded blocks of lava,
smooth and shining, strewed the fire-burnt sands,
and our carriage was threatened with fracture
at every turning of the wheel. Then we would

153

begin to climb hills covered with similar blocks as
closely as if they had been thrown at a storming-
party in some Titanic fight in former days, from
the gray fortress frowning at the top. My eyes
assured me that the first one I saw was the
work of human hands, until we had toiled
upwards through the glazed stones for half an
hour, and saw the walls assume their full size,
and look down upon us as precipitous basaltic
cliffs. The younger men of the party had all
left the wagons, and hastened to help the horses,
sometimes putting their shoulders to the wheel,
sometimes blocking it with stones, when the
exhausted animals paused for breath. At some
turns in the narrow track, five or six would
stand on the upper side of the road, and cling
to each wagon as it passed, to keep it from
toppUng over. How frightened I was !

My geological friend reassured me, saying
that we were almost at the tgp of the " mesa."
The Spanish word was a novelty ; and I fancied
that it expressed the peculiar coping of the
escarpment, until I remembered that it simply
meant " table," and applied to the level above,
which was supported by this fortress-wall. In
a- few minutes we had penetrated a gap, and
were rolling smoothly along the sandy plain.
Not all the carriages, however. A halloo from
the men at the gap stopped us abruptly, as the

154

last vehicle emerged on the summit, canted
ludicrously to one side, its white canvas curtains
flapping at every jolt like the wings of a great
bird in distress. Poor Mrs. Jane's wagon was
the wounded albatross. The jarring of the
ascent had proved too much for it. While
wheelwright straps and bandages were put on
with Mormon ingenuity, — of course, precisely
as prescribed by Brigham Young, — we alighted
and walked ahead. Efforts were made to point
out to me, in the dreamland under the horizon,
the snowy peaks called Kolob. " Kolob" is the
Mormons' " Land of Beulah." Somewhere, much
nearer to us, but hidden by a black ridge, they
said, was an isolated hill, known to the Indians
as the Sacred Mountain. The Pi-edes tell that
God and his saints came down in the days of
their forefathers, more than a hundred years
ago, and encamped on the summit, whence they
descended to converse with men. To the dis-
gust of the Mormons, who liked the " Lamanite"
legend, I hinted that this might be an indistinct
tradition of the Spanish missions. Heroic Jesuits
and Dominicans penetrated much farther north
than this, centuries ago. The Sacred Mountain
may have been one of their Stations. I have been
informed that the names of several of them are
recorded in Rome as having undergone martyr-
dom in these supernatural lands.

155

Poor fellows! Dream never constructed, in
fevered brain, the image of a more hideous land
to die in !

After this, anything like well-regulated land-
scape was lost in mere sensation. Everything
erew red. The rock strata were of red sandstone:
this was generally of a bright brick-red. The
sands and earths, the result of their decomposi-
tion, over which we drove, were either a brick-
red, or a shade more trying, which glowed, when
seen under the sun's rays, a true flame-color.
Once or twice, when this orange blazed against
the black lava-blocks, we had the truly diabolic
livery of our Lord Sathanas, —

" Blood and fire and vapor of smoke."

We experienced a sense of physical relief when
we wound down from the last "mesa," and left
" the Red Planet Mars" for our own placid green
earth.

A black volcanic led^e shut out the last of the
terrible grandeurs from us, and we found our-
selves amongr flourishino- settlements of human
kind, chequered by squares of fields and regu-
larly-planted trees.

We paused at a pretty little village, Harris-
burg, I think, to water the horses at the stream
which flowed through vineyards and peach

IS6

orchards. A red mountain stood as a back-
ground, with a great arch in it which was con-
spicuous for many miles. Here it had been
intended that we should dine ; but we only-
watered the horses, and the two or three car-
riages that had come up rapidly followed us on.
No lunch, and no stopping to feed the teams,
and for the first time, no waiting for the slower
carriages to keep up with us !

I wondered at it, and grew anxious, for sev-
eral miles back my boys had begged to ride
with Elder Potteau, and his wagon was out of
sight. A little farther on we drove up a steep
ascent and entered a dark canon. There was
a sudden halt — a little bustle. I looked out.
By the president's carriage appeared half a
dozen horsemen surrounding one whose horse's
mouth was bloody, and who held a pistol in his
hand. His own arms were grasped by two of
the other horsemen, and his pale face wore a
forced, fixed smile. I saw a man peeping at us
from behind the rocks, who stole away un-
noticed, and then the riders galloped off with
the pale man among them.

What did it mean ? I didn't know then ; I
don't know now; I often wonder. But, "placid
earth !" Heigh ho !

Several other mounted men now appeared
and cantered alonor beside our carriag-es ; but

157

we had no further adventures. My boys had
been detained by another catastrophe to Mrs.
Jane's unlucky wagon ahead of them, and did
not reach St. George till late.

We now went on more soberly ; if there had
been any cause for alarm it was over.

For some time we had been noticing a change
in the flora. At first a general tone of green was
remarked ; attributed then to the effect of the
contrast in color of the rich, red soil ; but after-
wards not doubted. Sage-bush and grease-wood
gave way to cactuses like great shrubs, ilexes,
acacias, and myrtles. By the time we reached
the fields of Washington Factory, we saw green
grass and water-cresses along the irrigating
channels there. The carriage windows were let
down, and we threw aside one wrapping after
another, " marking how our garments were warm
when He quieted the earth by the south wind."
We were now fairly in the delicious climate with
which our winter was to be blessed.

One more ascent, leaving the gray stone fac-
tory behind, with its cottonwoods fringing the
dashing torrent, and we began the final descent
to St. George, seeing the Rio Virgen sparkle in
the distance under the last rays of sunset.

Twilight was falling, and the plain below us
was in shadow as we came to the end of our
journey. Smokes and trees softly intermingled

158

in the evening air as we looked clown from the
bluff upon the little town, and the gay voices of
children playing reached us clearly. We de-
scended, noticing a factory, a court-house, or
town-hall, wide, red, sandy streets, trees with
grapevines clinging to them on the sidewalks,
pretty rows of small but comfortable-looking
houses, each in its own vineyard among fig and
peach trees. We stopped before a large house,
where lights were already burning in our suite
of rooms ; and I uttered a cry of delight as I saw
on the table the first letters from home ! The
dear, familiar handwritings were our welcome to
Saint George on Christmas eve.

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