Litchfield enquirer., 1869-10-07
A VACATION TRIP TO THE PACIFIC.
4 DAY AMONG THE HORIZONS.

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 4 DAY AMONG THE HORIZONS.
 dzg e}I THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE.
 .Isq4 From the Hartford Post. nfsaesa
 1 don't quite make out this people Tw,
 days is hardly time enough to learn lmucl
 about them. certainly not enough te mak, ,up correct judgment as to their real ob ) ]ects or their sincerity and earnestness I The subJecs has been written to death b, q devery body who has visited the territory aud l suppose l need not undertake it. :
 shall touch 1t very lightly as among tn
 things we saw ard wondered at in this va
 The great merit of the people is thei findustry, sobriety and frugality. It i
 tneIr boast that the vices of intem perance
 ldleness and hcentiousness, are unknown
 among them. Their freedom from then
 Is accounted for by the fact that wine ant
 aud spirits are proscribed by the church
 industry Is enjoined upon them by the
 same authority, on pain of expulsion, and
 the pOiyganlouSA practices of the people Il leave no excuse for llcen tiousness. They
 seem honest and sincere in their belief and the mass of them more sinned against than shining. I cannot help thinking thai
 their taitn iscbedded in ignorance, and vel some of tlem with whom talked are as 1ntelllgent as any men of the same class telsewhere. Itis not easy to understand 1 how these men can be the victims of such q deluslon, ,themselves-the easiest way out
 of that mystery Is to credit their intelli. gence at the expense of their honesty, ,and Say at once that they are hypocrites and 5Fimpostors. But talk with them upon the subject of their religion-and they seem for the most part willing to talk freely about it-and you find such apparent ear.
 nestness and faith in them that you don't quite hke to commit the uncLa-ity of tax. ing them with hypocrisy. Ii there is such 8 thing as intelligent men taking up plain and transparent deception, and turning it over and examining it, and fooling with it
 until they come to believe it as completely as they ever did the plainest truth, these men have done it. They have deluded themselves. There must be some of them,
 however, who are under no delusion at all : who arehere as deceivers and impostors.
 because they can make money by it.
 A very. intelligent Mormon elder has a news stand in the porch of the hotel. where he sells newspapers, periodicals, photo graphs, stereoscopic views and Mormon publications. The second day of our stay in the city, while the Governor and others of the party were calling upon soms of the government officials and hearing from them the Gentle side of the question, stayed behind and had long talk with the elder.
 He was quite communicative and gave me decidedly rose-colored view of Mormon l Ism. Twas so attentive listener that I think he had hopes of makines.sf .z <, me. He was We'll posted nrx his antbor- Iefeg mep E Bles sPa all ahaer He gave me in b.ief history of the church, and of the discovery of the book of Mormon by Joe Smith, a statement of their leading doctrines, and an account of the persecu- Ftions they had suffered, answering all my questions courteously and intelligently, l aud showing himself a gentleman as well as Q Mormon elder. l cannot begin to give you an idea of the queer things he said, and the strange mixed up way in
 winch he presented history, mythology, doctrine and fable. It was 8 shaking up ] of all sorts of delusions with some grains ley he made of it. s.,,. s4 .fi 5lGA .s'8
 He knew that the Bible was true., be- cause the Book of Mormon corroborated it. "The Book of Mormon corroborates the Bible aud the BlDls corroborates the | Book of Mormon. We believe both of tnem," he said, with a perfectly confident 1 auu satisfied manner. The Mormon theo- ry that Christ appeared after the resurrec- tion, to the people then inhabiting this con fluent, he said, was supported by the words of the Saviour when lie says, -"Oth-
 CT sheep have which are not of thls fold, " Sc. The chosen people were the aborigin- ees of this contluent. Here We're apostles and priests,h haad here the true church was established. of which the Mormon is the I iegltl.nAte successQr.aqs 1S, OK 2y-a x
 The Mormons, he, said, were the only church or peOple who knew precisely where the lost tribes of Israel were. Iu reply to my question as to their whereabouts, he I said they We're ''ln tue north country'- that they 'sIid off and the land went with them.t hs |
 "But where is the north country" said I "North of tue Pole," he replied With perfect seriousness. -!o.t,r rIdaa I The absurdily of the thing was so comi T cal, that looked in the mans face to Set if he was joking. Not bit eofsie. It was I part o. hi, b, lief. And yet he was intelli Il gent and sane upon all oth 1T topics. @..s Il I g.vetyou this as specimen of some T portions ofa hls talk, it. was such a queer mixture of sense and nonsense. #ss11 as 4 The Garden of Elen,e he said, was or 't this continent, beyond a doubt. It was susceptible. of proof that it Was located ia Jackson county, Missouri. Some Mormon seer-L forgot who-had airevelation abou 'Ilt and the exact location was ,pointed1ont 2 It answered in all respects the Old Testa ment description, and had been bought uI by Mormons, who still held it, and expect { ed some time during the present centur, 'I to build temple there, answering the de scription given by St. John in hls apoca iyptlc vision. The foundations for it were | laid somefyears ago, but thea Saints iwer' driven out by persecution, and the build ing is yet to be erected. .a4, Fl ,;f That Noah s ark was built in this coun ] try, was evident from the account in th' old Testament, which says was followed ll by a west wind," and afterward that it rest } ed on Mount Ararato in Arabia. ;" 0 | Icourse," he says, tiff it was followed by n west wind all the time, and rested finall.
 on Mount Ararat, it must have started iron l this side.'''Hf . sdi35A5 sa sI All this, with as sober 2 countenance a } you ever saw, and such apparent sincerit. ,| of manner that I couldn't doubt he believ .l ed it. At length I said to him bluntly , e But do you believe all these things your } self?' He replied very promptly, '" Be } Ilieve them? Why, I kaoso they're true. | r-E.aAx. h,o;p acc ho ~