The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1859-09-15
LIFE IN UTAH.

LIFE IN UTAH.
These Mormons are in the main an
industrious, frugal, Woodworking peo-
pie. Few of them are habitual idlers /:
few live by professions or pursuits that
require no physical exertion. They
make work for but few lawyers-I
know but four among them-their diff
erences and disputes are usually set
tied in and by the Church; they have
no female outcasts, few doctors, and
pay no salaries to their preachers-at
least the leaders say so. But d small
portion of them use tea and coffee
Formerly they drank little or no liquor;
but, since the army came in last year
money and whisky have both been
more abundant, and now they drink
considerably. More than a thousand
barrels of whisky have been sold in
this city within the last year, at an
average of not less than So p $780,
900, whereof the Mormons have paid
at least half. If they had thrown in
stead Sl5O,0oO in hard cash into the
deepest part of Salt Lake, it would
have been far better for them. The
appetite they are requiring or renew
ingiwill cling to thew after the Army and
its influx of cash shall have departed; !;
and Saints who now drink little will
find themselves as thirsty as their Val
ley, before they suspect that they care
anything for liquor. As yet, I believe
they have few or no drunkards; but
there is nothing more deceitful than the
appetite for liquor. AS yet, Utah has
not a single export of any kind; the
Army supplies her with cash /; when
that is gone, her people will see harder
times. She ought to manufacture al
most everything she consumes, or for
eign debt will overwhelm her. Yet,
up to this hour her manufacturing en-
ergies have been most unhappily direc-
ted. Some 100000 was expended for
Ironmaking at place called Cedar
City; but the ore, though rich, would
not fux, and the enterprise had to be
totally abandoned, leaving the capital
dead loss. Wool and Flax can be
grown here cheaply and abundantly (;
yet owing to the troubles last year, no
spinning and weaving machinery has
yet been put in operation believe
some is now coming up from St. Louis.
An attempt to grow cotton is likely to
prove failure, as might have been
predicted. The Winters are long and
cold here for the latitude, and the
Saints must make cloth or shiver.
trust they will soon be able TO clothe
themselves.
Sugar is another necessary of life
which they have had bad luck with.
They can grow the Beet very well, but
it is said to yield little or.no sugar-be-
cause, it is supposed, of an excess OF
alkali in the soil. The Sorghum has
not yet been turned to much account,
but it is to be. Common Brown SUI
gar sells at zoe per lb; coffee about the
same; in the newer settlements, they
are of course still higher. All sorts of
imported goods costs twice to six or
eight times their prices in the States
even quack medicines $50 called) and
yellow-covered novels are sold at doub-
lie the prices on their labels and covers.
Consider that the people came hither
over thousand miles mainly of desert,
after reaching the Missouri, which was
many hundreds if not thousands OF
miles from their former homes-that
they generally reached these valleys in
the Fall, which afforded them excellent
chances of starvation before they could
raise a crop-that they have been CON
stantly infested and begged or stolen
from by the Indians whose game they
had killed or scared away, and who
feel that they have right to live here
so long as there are cattle or crops to
live on-that these valleys are lofty,
narrow and parched by intense drouth
from May to November-that imple.
ments and seeds are scarcely to be OBJ
tanned short of three months journey
and then at an enormous cost-tha'
they have had one year of virtual ant
costly hostilities with the federal GOV