Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-12-17
.sRLTLAKE CITY.
The Kingdom Of Old Brigham Young
a Verltable Garden.
A Pen-Picture ofthe Town-Habits OF the
-Mormonism- Business En-
terprise-Judge Foreman, a
Brother Of Our Ex- Cover
nor-Wealth of Utah.

EditoriaI Correspondence ofthe Sunday Register
SALT LAKE CRY, UTAH, December To-
Before leaving Wheeling's delightful
suburb, Elm Grove, the other morning, my
good neighbor, Robert Woods, Esq, said to
me: ION your way to California don fail
10 stop at Salt Lake City, and tell me when
Won come back what it looks like. When
went overland to California in '4s
stopped several days at Salt Lake. a small
band of Mornons in tears, poverty and
suffering, under the lead OF Brigham
Young. had arrived there but two years be-
fore, having been driven by mob violence
from the State of Illinois. They were just
laying out their future City OF the Saints
at the time. / was there, and learning thaI
| / was a surveyor, the engineer VINO was
| plotting the city, called and exhloitea 70
| me his plans, desiring suggestions OIL I'M
| movements IL could offer any. was
pleased with his plans and approved them;
| am told Salt Lake is now beautitul
city" ,... .h0
Union Pacific road at Ogden, Friday even
! ing. and ran down here, distance OF ~
miles, over the Utah Central road. On the
way we got
A Glimpse OF Salt Lake,
pass the warm springs and are carried
through an agricultural region under a
high state of cultivation. BY patient in
dustry, skill and irrigation this desert
which nv friend Woods saw is now verit'
able garden yielding abundantly OF grains,
| vegetables fruits and flowers. Inc city Is
| laid out with the regularity OF Penn
| Quaker City, the streets running TO the
| four points of the compass; ana IL Is
as fair and beautiful as the
most complimentary pencil has ever
painted it. 1t is hard to conceive now tnis
| blooming garden has reared itself from the
heart of the desolatiOn--how this oasis was
| evolved out of an alkali desert. The city
| lies deep down in a wide valley bounded,
so far as one can see, by the kingly range OF
| the WahsCtch mountains and its many
| spurs, which lift their glistening snow-clad
| heads far into the clouds, their rugged
stony feet stretching away toward the west
where the Great Salt Lake unrollS ITS dark
waters The streets are broad and clean
yeritable bouleyards, one hundred ana
thirty feet in width, including sidewalks
| twenty feet wide-with rows OF magnll-
cent shade trees on either side, forming
| in the summer season delicious protection
| from the RAYS of the sun. Streams
! of pure mountain water run gurgling down
! the long streets on either side, carrying
| AWAY ali uncleanness to the river beyond.
J Each block. or square, is composed OF ten
| acres, divided-the residence part-into
! EIGHT lots of one and one-fourth acres each.
| The ample grounds about the houses are
| carefully cultivated in grass,
Flowers and Fruits,
and the residences are, many OF them
handsome and varied in architectural de
sign. Comfort and contentment are evil
denced on every hand There are no very
Door people, while there may be few who
are rich. Among the Mormons wealth is
well distributed; everybody works
and everybody has the comforts
| of life. Here is equality with
out Communism, Every man and every
woman must contribute according TO their
special abilities to the prosperity OF the
whole, There is no rank, no Idle drOnes to
consume the substance OF the industrious.
All dress well and are well fed. Children
swarm the streets, the pictures OF health
and ruggcdnesS; and the best OF care is
given to their education. The women are
fair to look upon, and carry their cross, II
cross it be, with patience and apparent
cheerfulness. Sobriety and frugality rules.
Saloons are few and gambling has no foot
hold amoInlS} ,r the MNt4Tmons In the two
night, l saw no sign Of intoxication or
rude behavior; yet this is not Utopia.
The inhabitants, whether Mormon
or Gentle, are all human beings, possessed
OF all the passions, preiudices and fanati-
cisms common to poor, weak humanity
everywhere. Although four-tifths of the
population are Saints Of the Lord, and are
doubtless more tolerant than the Saints of
Puritanism who came over in the May
flower, from whom these are directly de-
scended-fOr you must remember that
Brigham Young and his ablest compeers
came from the land where
Quakers Were Burned
and Baptists maSsacred for the glory of the
Lord-yet they are not without sin. New
England stole Indians and swepped them
into slavery for rum-twins in yileness;
she stole negroes in Africa and sold them to
Virginia task-masters as long as it gratified
her greed and satisfied her avarice; but when
il became improbable her conscience told
her that slavery was the vilest OF sins.
Likewise, Senator Edmunds, who repre-
sents the State of Brigham Young's ma
tivity, with all of New England, is horri-
fed and sCandalized at MormOnism-not
polygamy, but Mormonism-for the lead
ing Gen:iles here tell me that it is the
church and its theocratiC government that
must 60. Polygamy is dying out. Rail
roads, travel, the expense OF living, public
sentiment many things, Conspire to its
extinction; but Mormonlsm is strong, and
like Calvinism and all other forms OF
Protestant religion, it tlourishes under per
secutiOn. What is religion? Ihave been
taught by Calvinists and Methodists alike,
| that faith is a corner stone. And what re-
| ligion teaches faith in the atOning blood
Of Jesus Christ more tenaciously than the
| Mormon?
The city contains
$4,000 Inhabitants,
| and its streets are thronged with business.
There is one store-the Zion Cooperative
Store-owned by 700 stockholders (all
Mormons) and managed by William Jen.
nings, a shrewd business man, which does a
business OF 100000 per annum; and
there are several other large mercantile
houses here. Mr.. Jennings told me that he
| paid in freight TO the Union Pacific road
alone $500, 600 annually; that he imports
| his teas from Japsn, and his laces, linens,
&C., from Europe; manufactures his own
| boots and shoeS-employing 200 persons in
| that work alone-his blankets, out of L tab
| grown wool; and some species Of the cloth
| ing which he sells. He politely showed ME
through his vast establishment, which is
| packed from basement to garnet with every
| conceivable article of family necessity.
Mr.. Henry Wood, of the Denver and Rio
| Grande railroad, who drove me over
the city, and to whom l am
under obligations for courtesies and
much valuable information, predicts
\ for this city brilliant future. It's growth
in the last two years has been quite rapid,
and he sees no reason why ten years hence
may not find a city Of 10000 population
in this picturesque valley. The Denver
and Rio Grande will be completed as q
| through line to the East, an active COM
| petition with the Union Pacific, by the
| Arst Of March next, and with its opening
will come boom in real estate and bus
| mess among this unique people.
Judge Foreman, An Old West VIr.
| gilman,