Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-08
A GLANCE
AT WONDERFUL COUNTRY AND A
STRANGE COMMUNITY.
The Mormons and the Gentiles-Fertile
Lands-Richness of Utah-Game--
Produes-Business Prosperity.
SALT LAKE. October 5. 1881.

SALT LAKE, October 5, 1881.
The first impression one gets from this
country comes from the immensity of the
mountains which lie east of the valley of
Salt Lake. The valley, it may be roughly
estimated, is 300 or 400 miles in length,
and varying from 10 to 80 miles wide.
In clear day these tremendous peaks ap-
pear to move up closer to the city, as it
| were, SO that tourist, looking out from
his hotel window, imagines that walk of
an hour would bring him to the top of any
one of them. Such stroll, however,
usually terminates when one reaches the
limits of the city, and he begins for the
| first time to reahzs that the task requires
a getting out of bed at in the morning
and pack-mule as motive power. In
hazy, heavy weather
THESE MOUNTAINS
Seem to retreat fifty or sixty miles, as if
disguised with the climate and with their
tops covered with snow or muflled in clouds,
give the beholder realizing sense of his
own httleness and insiguifcance such as
| conld only be acquired elsewhere by serv-
ing couple of terms in Nevada or Cali
fornia Legislature for the purpose of carry
ing ou5 the wishes of clamoring constitu-
ents on a pledged platform.
One is naturally influenced by the gen.
eral appearance OF the depot and its sur
roundings on being suddenly bundled down
IN new town. The smallest way station
along the line of the Central Pacific Rail.
road has much better equipped depot
than Salt Lake. The passengers reach an
open platform, and at the lefs is an old
wood. shed where tickets are sold and bag
gage checked. A rough board fence hides
the hideousness of the place from the outer
world, beyond which you are brought to
standstill by the sight OF gorgeouslY
caparisoned omnibus, which looks like u
flying art gallery. This takes you TO the
various hotels, none of which are here
named from the fact that the landlords all
expect it. | have every reason to believe
that the bus above described cogt more
actual money than the depot and grounds
surrounding it.
| THE CITY.
When one iswhirled through the city, the
disagreeable impression made by the depot
is soon forgotten. 1t is laid out in i'm
mense blocks 700 feet square, and the
streets are, I should think, about sixty or
seventy yards wide. A man would
/ hardly be able to hit another across the
street with six-shooter with any cer-
tainty, unless the party of the first part
was raised IN Lower California, or had
moved in Amador county. Streams of
clear water bubble along the cutters, and
drinking fountains are to be found i'll every
block. Water seems TO be a drug in the
market with Salt Lakers, and runs TO
waste all the year rcund. do not know
| where it comes from, and no one appears
to care from whence it comes or where 1t
goes. 1t is not so rich as the Sacramento
water, and lacks in the slickeas, gold-dust,
river mud and other substantial in
gradients which make Sacramento water
respected and popular.
l SEWERS AND HOLY OIL.
With all this inexhaustible water flow,
there is no system of sewerage in the city,
nor is there likely to be for some time to
come. The Mormon city authorities op-
pose it, and are determined not to regard
it as a sanitary measure The Gentiles
throw the refuse of the kitchen into the
waters of the gutter, when it is carried
rapidly away, but the Mormons cast all
refuse matter in their back yards, where
it gives rise to malarial gases, which in the
summer breeds sickness on every side. In
August last the death rate of children was
nearly 100, and these were almost en-
tirely Mormon children. For some years
past the orthodox believers would not
allow Gentle physicians to attend their
sick, but conten5ed themselves with the
medicinal properties supposed to exist
in the "holy oil furnished by the
Elders of the Tabernacle. 1t is only
recently that the Saints have begun to
realize the fact that the use of the oil is
preliminary to funeral, and that the ma
teria medica of the Gentiles contains many
things which discount oil as healer OF
diseases. Oil, as general medicine, is
fast losing caste in this country.
BUSINESS.
1t is hardly possible to imagine town
with more present prosperity or glowing
commercial prospect than Salt Lake. The
Denver and Rio Grande road will soon
reach the city, and as it owners are hostile
to the Union Pacific, they say that they
will run parallel line wherever the Union
Pacific extensions show themselves. Jay
Gould's new road to San Francisco is not
regarded as a certainty but there is gen.
eral feeling that it will be built. But even
if there was no fresh extension of rail
road lines, the city would still be
splendidly situated commercially. To
| get an idea of the prosperity. and
constant influx Of population, one has but
to be informed of the fact that over one
thousand buildings, including various
houses and private residences, are now in
process of construction; and the demand is
far from being supplied. 1t is almost i'm
possible to get rented house in this city at
present, yet building has been going ON all
summer. The city is lighted with the
Brush electric light. Business of all de-
scriptions is booming and the currents of
trade flow along legitimate channels with a
regular rush and roar.
MINING.
Here active mining takes the place of
stock speculation. Mines lie about the
Territory almost everywhere no big lodges
like the Comstock, but here mine and
there mine, worth from few hundred
thousand to few million OF dollars. East
ern nen are investing literally, and men
discover, locate and sell mines without CIV
ing thought to the swindling, purse. col
lapsing Stock Boards of Pine street, with
their unmerited deals and unnecessary as
sessments. Coal is found in great abund-
ance, and laid down at your door at prices
varying from S. to So per ton. All the
poor coal is shipped west. When the
Denver and Rio Grande road reaches Salt
Lake coal will be s3 and 81 per ton and of
the best quality.
THE DOMESTIC MARKET.
All sorts of produce rate very low.
Meat, game, vegetables and the like are