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nessed; that drunken Mormons never stagger along the pavement, and that the female harpies, of whom drunkards are the natural victims, are unknown curses. There are four bars at which liquor is sold, and of these the Gentiles are said to be the patrons. Temperance is enjoined by President Young, and he has the credit of practising what he preaches. He can do this the more easily, if report speak truly. Avarice and lust are the vices which master him to the exclusion of all others. It is not surprising, then, if he has no love for strong drinks. But I cannot give his followers credit for being as abstemious as himself. Not all of them are over mastered by avarice and lust. Neither is it credible that all the persons daily fined for drunkenness, are ostracised and calumniated Gentiles. It is not strange that, apart from other considerations, in a city destitute of lamps, nocturnal vice should not flaunt in the streets. Put out the lights in the Haymarket or in Broadway, and the leprosy of great cities would be concealed, though not extirpated. On the other hand, the darkness which prevails in Salt Lake City by night furnishes a convenient cloak for the enforcement of what the Mormon leaders eulogise as righteous retribution and the horrified Gentiles denounce as brutal murder.

I neither accept without reservation all the harsh things said by the Mormons and the Gentiles respecting each other, nor do I doubt that there may be some foundation for their mutual dislike and recrimination. The eagerness of the Mormons to extort praise from the visitors to their Zion is very noteworthy. They are ready to trumpet forth their own merits, and to charge all alleged, or demonstrated shortcomings upon the Gentiles. The Gentiles, in turn, do not hesitate to sing their own praises. Which of the two is in the right constitutes the problem that has been the subject of warm controversy, and of which the desired solution has not yet been discovered.

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VIII.

THE MORMONS AT HOME.

THE MORMONS have been highly praised for their industry and skill in converting the desolate Salt Lake Valley into a region of fruit trees and cornfields. This praise is subject to qualification. It is true that they have planted trees and sown grain where rank herbage seemed the natural product of the soil; that their peaches and apples are well flavoured; that their corn is excellent in quality. But it is likewise true that the soil and climate of Salt Lake Valley combine to render gardening and farming easy and profitable occupations. Irrigation is the one thing needful, and to irrigate the thirsty land is here the merest child's play. The country is intersected with streams of fresh water descending from their sources among the mountains to fill the lakes in the lower ground. On the borders of these streams a vegetation far more luxuriant than that of the parched plains indicates the course to be adopted by him who would till the soil in the hope of reaping a harvest. Of these hints the first settlers took full

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advantage, and the result is seen to-day in the acacias which line the streets of the city, and the orchards which surround the houses. No miracle has been wrought here. They only will marvel at the spectacle who are unaware of the simplicity of the process. Yet there is a valid excuse for the exaggerated eulogiums which certain visitors to Salt Lake have passed upon Mormon intelligence, foresight, and perseverance. Before the railway made the journey comparatively easy, the visitor who crossed the plains underwent so many hardships and passed through a country so sterile in appearance that, on reaching Salt Lake City, he overrated the achievements of the Saints, because he argued that the country with which they had to deal resembled in reality, as well as in look, that through which he had toiled. Hence it was, that when the Saints bound for their terrestrial Zion arrived at Emigrant's Gap, from which they saw the neat houses of their brethren in the faith on the slope at their feet, and beheld the Great Lake towards which hundreds of streams meandered through the pleasant fields, they were so overcome with the unwonted sight as to fall on their knees in an ecstacy of admiration and shed tears of joy. I have not heard of one among the thousands who have arrived here since the opening of the Pacific Railway, and who have

entered the city by the road which I have described, manifesting a particle of the like enthusiasm. The first impression made by any city depends altogether on the point of view. Now that Salt Lake City can be seen under a new aspect, it is less fascinating in appearance, and is far less remarkable as an example of a great work accomplished under difficulties, than when it was the haven of the dispirited emigrant and wearied traveller. Thousands who never heard of Joseph Smith, and who would scout the pretensions of Brigham Young, have overcome quite as many obstacles, and performed as great feats of courage and endurance when founding and erecting cities in the Western States and Territories of the American Union, as the enthusiasts who have made for themselves homes in this splendid and fruitful Valley. The history and progress of Chicago and San Francisco approach the miraculous far more closely than the building of Salt Lake City.

It has suited the purposes of the Mormon leaders to make the most of the persecution to which they have been subjected, and of the triumphs they have achieved. By magnifying their work they have instilled into the minds of their ignorant followers a confidence in their power to vanquish any dangers which may again menace the Church of the Latter

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