Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1856-09-18
Matters in the salt Lake valley,

- THERE'S every reason to fear that the ter
rors of famine are close upon the Mormons
at Salt Lake city. The Deseret .Ne~s Of
July 9th contains an edict from Brigham
Young, Commanding the owners of fields
and garners TO be very careful in Their
harvesting, and ordering that in the fields
of small grains, gobleaners shall be per
united to CLEAN without charge.
In the Neps of July 23d we find the
following: .r.
1t is presumable that every man, woman
and child in Utah, over four years of age, is
! fully aware that almost the entire popula-
ton has been on short rations for many
months, carefully outstanding their seant
allowance in hopes of relief from an carly
| harvest.
Let another scarce year succeed the last,
and the situation of those misguided peo-
pile will be sad indeed. A frost Oh the
night of the Goth and 21st cut down the
vines and Injured corn aud potatoes.
Brigham Young, in an Grafton delivered
on the 4th of July last, in Salt Lake CITY,
gives very forbidding view of the country.
He says:
We are occupying region well known
as being peculiarly undesirable, and one
hitherto unsettled by the whites, since the
days of Christopher Columbus. We are
almost a thousand miles from the nearest
seaport. We are hemmed in bv lofty
mountains on nearly every side, while nu-
mersous isolated ranges, and barren, arid
plains so crowd our surface that but a small
portion is at all suited to the purposes of
settlement. In even those narrow locali-
ties bitches and canals have to be made bv
much labor, in order to irrigatc soil where
on rain seldom falls from early in spring
until late in autumn. And when all has
been done, that as yet could be, towards
supplying the thirsty crops, the husband
men is oft compelled to witness the pro
ducts of his toll droop and die ere maturity,
through the failure of the few small streams
so laboriously brought under control
Grasshoppers and other insects, swarm in
myriads to devour what may have escaped
the drouth, and the severe storms ofwinter
complete the destruction of animals strug
Cling to sllbsist upon berbage which has
been so effectually cut off. But amid all
these disadvantages, uncomfortable by any
other people, we are, stillstriying TO extend
the area Of freedom, and to gladden. the
most uninviting domain of a great nation
with the blessings and privileges of her free
institutions. HH
1t is obvious that no person comes here
because he prefers this country. None but
sinister or pecuniary motives can prompt
those who are not of us to abide in our
midst. All other localities have more tenn
pting facilities for the pursuit of the agri-
culturist, the artisan, the trader, and, more
especially, the lawyer and politician.
If this people should leave these seques-
tered wales, they would soon revert to their
former waste Iconditioll; silence would
again assert her supremacy. The country
suits us merely because no other well in.
formed people can covert its possession
If they do, it is because they grudge us an
existance upon any part Of Gods footstool.
There is nothing here, except what is pro-
duced by the most arduous toll, and that
often unrequited, to tempt the avarice or
cupidity of any reasonable creatures.