The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-10-13
Cor. Washington Star.
Army Life in Utah.
SALT LAKE CRY, u. T., Aug. 81.

oaL4 LAM Ill
DEAR SIR: Will you have a little
news4from this famous place; a little
Army gossip, and a little gossip about
the saints
Col. Waite, who has been in com
mapd of the Fifth Regiment, has just
been relieved by the arrival Of another
officer, and has gone to New York State.
| DR.. Bailey went with him. The Teuth
Regiment and the Fifth are encamped
near each other. They are having a
dull time, drilling their men, and wish
ing the Mormous were-well, no matter
where. Living is very high aid very
poor with our Utah army at present.
Butter IS cents a pound, milk 80 cents
a quart, potatoes 40 cents a bushel, on
ions and beets 8 cents apiece. So the
military are not to be envied. There
are acting policemen just now. They
were sent out to punish traitors, but
they are receiving all the punishment
themselves.
On the 25th of August, the two
judges appointed by MIR. Buchanan left
the Army camp to GO to the tow of Fill
more. They called on Gen. johnson
for an escort; he gave them two Com
panies of Dragons.
The Army camp is about to be moved
a few miles, to a point where prepara-
tions are being made for the Winter.
Huts are being built there of clay, in
the shape of large sized bricks and dried
in the sun (adobe.) Each officer is to
have a room Is feet square, with walls
7 feet high-the earth for a floor and
perhaps heaven for a ceiling, in part, at
least, for though a sort of roof will be
made, it will be a holy one. The Nor
mons are at work making the adobes; at
least one hundred Mormons are now at
work, and they have contracted to make
one million and a half of them. After
they are completed the troops will move,
and it will take the soldiers a month to
make their preparations for winter.
This war is a capital thing for the
Mormons they sell their vegetables, Sc.
at their own price pretty generally,
(though every day an officer is detailed
to attend to the prices of things brought
to camp to sell, J then they require Nor
mons prices for their labor in short,
it is a fine thing for the Mormons to
have the troops out here to eat all they
want to sell.
AS to Brigham, he fares sumptuously
every day. His house is very Gne it
is said to have cost sixty thousand dol
lars. On the cupola is a bee hive, beau
tifullv carved in wood. In this house
he attends to business, receives visitors
aud here resides Mrs. Brigham, No. 1.
La The house next to this all the other
| Mrs. Brighams livc-say fifty or sixty,
and over the portico of this house is a
large lion carved from stone. The lion
is finely done, and is in a ~recumbent po-
sition. Around these two houses is an
immense wall, built of stone, enclosing
the entire square (about as large as
one of our Washington Squares.) The
gates are heavy and strong, like the sal
Imports of a fort Within this wall are
always forty or fifty armed men. Brig
ham is quite a domestic man perhaps
be is a little afraid to 60 at large, and
then he has, no doubt, "a fine society at
home. He must be literally a lion at
one of his wives %soirees.
Salt Lake City is beautifully laid out,
and the approach to it is very fine. 1t
is laid out in large Squares, aud the
SIreetS are very "luei duu e'eIJ nouSo
has an acre of ground about it which
is we'll cultivated, The houses are all
built of adobe. Every street has water
running through it-cool spring water
brought from the mountains.
One of the officers met in Salt Lake
City an old acquaintance, turned Nor
mon. The Mormon received the officer
kindly, invited him to his house, was
anxious to renew the old acquaintance,
and even bore kindly the officers laugh
at the pile of stones as the officer called
the celebrated Echo canon defence of
the Mormons, raised to prevent the ap-
proach of troops to the city. These de-
fences could have been easily taken,
without the loss of a man.
The view of Lake Utah from the Ar
my camp, is very fine; but this is a mis-
cradle country, worthless without irri-
CATION. Iu short, it is only fit for Nor
mons. In passing Brigham's establish
ment to-day, from every window of the
house with the lion on it a female face
looked out. Ilonged to step in aud ask
those ladies what they thought of Utah;
but the armed Danites restrained my
curiosity.
Yours, PEREGR1NA.