American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1855-08-25
FROM UTAH.
From the Chicago Press, Augusta.
A Prospect Of Famine at Salt Lake. Possible
Dispersion of the MormOnS.


Dispersion Of the MormOns.
The several accounts which we have
published of the ravages of grasshop.
pers and crickets at Salt Lake Valley,
point to the strong probability Of fam.
inc among the saints during tho coming
winter. Surprising those accounts to
be correct, a very large proportion of
all kinds of crops will be cut off, and
not near enough of any thing left to
feed the inhabitants.
1t has been stated that San Barnardi-
no, a Mormon settlement. eight hundred
miles from Salt Lake City. was the nca-
rest point at which a supply could DO
obtained. But hope of assistance from
that quarter cannot now be entertained.
We see by letter in the Mormon from
San Barnardino, under date of May 20,
that the wheat crop there had been ma
terially injured by rust and smut, and
that there would not probably be more
than sufficient to supply the wants ofthe
settlement.
This is not the first instance in which
the Mormons have had their crops des.
troyed by these all-devouring insccts.--
The crops put into the ground in the
Salt LakaW Valley by advanced parties
at the time of their forced exodus from
this State, and upon which the main boz
dy in the rear relied for subsistence du-
ring the following winter, were assailod
by the crickets great google. eyed-
crook.legged, bottled-boded monsters =
eating the green fields to the ground, e.
leaving a track behind them as blank us
if wasted by fire.
But just when the saints were in des-
pair these crickets were discovered
by the little white gulls which breed a,
mong the islands of the lake, and they
made such e!lectual war upon them that
the crops were saved. This natural in
terpostion of the Mormons afterwards
spoke of as special providence by
which, like the Jews Of old, they were
saved from starvation. From that time
till now, they have not been troubled
seriously by grasshoppers and crickets,
andthey were congratulating themselves
upon unexampled abundance when the
insect came and swept their crops and
hopes away together.
The observations of Col. Fremont
in the Salt Lake Valley in 1914, indi.
cate that these crickets and grasshop-
pers are likely to prove chronic plague
to the Mormons. He states that, from
time immemorial, tho natives have been
accustomed to regard them as part Of
their subsistence. They made cakes of
grasshoppers and crickcts. They drive
them into trenches with hot fire at the
bottom, where their wings and legs are
burned off, and they are roasted after
the fashion of the locusts of Ahica.-
These American insects thus bear tho
poses to the wild native tribes as the To-
Gusts of the desert of Asia and Africa
in their respective localities. They are
bar to the cultivation of the soil; they
exist where there is no soil for cultiva-
ton, and where animal life is limited to
insects and reptiles, and they are all ca.
ten from necessity. The Utah grass.
hopper is the African locust Of small
CT size, and the Digger Indian is but a
lower type Of the desert Arab.
In view of the above facts, it is not
impossible that these insects may prove
a providenlial agency for the dispersion
of the Mormons, and possibly the brea.
king up of the corrupt hierarchy which
now sets Heaven at defiance, and out.
RACES the highest moral and religious
sentiments of Christendom. If theil
crops are as badly cut off as the pub.
lished account would indicate, they
must either disperso before winter or
slarve when winter comes.