The Portland daily press., 1884-04-02
CHAPTER ".
4 DAN on SUSPENSE


and dismay would they proceed9 BY what
cruel cat-and-mouse means would they pro-
coed to teach their terrible lesson of the
vengeance and the power of Dan, "a ser
pent by the way" "an adder in the PATH?
When the sun shines hot and clear,
photograph is taken almost instantly which
will endure long, long time.
And SO it is in apd with scenes like this
The blood was at fever heat The magma
ton was like fame. Terror of what was
to happen fastened all things there firmly
as if tn world stood still forever. The
heart after little time almost ceased to
beat.
Before us to the south and far away
cleaned the great sea of salt in the morning
sun. green island of trees where thou.
sand cattle fed, Improperly of the Mormon
church, lay far away toward the other side.
1t was but dimly visible, yet beautiful,
peaceful in its far tranquility as a picture
of Paradise.
As the eyes strained and swept across the
cleaning sea of salt and rested on this
beautiful island they seemed to want to re-
main there. You could not turn your head
away or withdraw your gaze. There was a
fiercefascination that kept the strained eyes
looking down land out steadily toward that
dim and distant isle of peace and beauty,
which was irresistible. The tired eyes wanted
to rest there forever. Or did the eyes so desire
remain there, far away in fields of beauty
and of peace, to escape the threatened scene
of blood and peril at our feet?
Beyond the broad and cleaning levels of
this sea of salt, still beyond the verdaut
few scattered fields aud farmhouses on the
near shore, shot the snow-topped towers of
the Wahsatch. These magnificent noun
tains drew an impossible wall, a crescent to
the east and north, around the incipent
Mormon city. These mighty towers of
subject of religion, called their showers of
strength" They likened them to the white
towers that were above the mighty walls of
Jerusalem of old. Everywhere, in all
things around them, they read the fulfil
ment ofprophecies, Bible traditions and BIZ
BILE truths. The deserts and the wells in
the deserts, the balm-of-gilead trees, even
the locusts that sometimes devoured the
land-in all these they read, imagined, be-
lieVed implicitly, that they had here, thou
sands of miles away from all the world,
found new Jerusalem; that they were in
deed the children of the lost tribes-the
children of Dan indeed, that should judge
the people of the earth as they passed, and
be as ''a serpent by the way" Gan adder in
the PATH
To the east of this remnant of a dried-up
sea, and close upon the salt-white shore of
it, there gushed from the rocky hillside a
little river of boiling water which sent forth
Its steam in the early morning in perpetu-
al drift of snowy clouds These beautiful
white clouds rose to the mounlain-fop 10
the east, and there rested lazily in the sun
or Graded to and fro above the Mormon
city.
Beneath these Graded clouds, far below
them, and yet far above the city, and to the
east an ] to the north, and above our camp,
there was drawn in precise level the def
mite and unmistakable shore and surf-line
of great dried-up sea. Hundreds of feet
above the black and heavy waters of Salt
Lake, you can see where the surf roared in
storm and tempest when the world was
young, tore the rocks to splinters, fashioned
caverns, and washed a pebbled strand
These marks will remain while the noun
tains remain. All around, high up on the
hilltop, you pick up sea-washed pebbles.
Eod -6ch Of
with sea moss and sea shells encased
in them, and endless evidence that the ships
of Solomon might have sailed these noun
tain tops, seeking the land of Opir.
And here was pitful man, in the heart of
all this mystery, in the presense of ever
patient and industrious Nature, as she tried
to fashion home for him glorious and
beautiful, cutting his fellow mans throat
before.h he had yet fairly sat down to the pos
session of it all. Was there not sorrow
enough here?
Why, these Mormons had been riding,
racing, dashing about for days and days to
find single victim to murder. And now
they had found their victim. She must die.
She was already in some sense dead.
Some one had seen the hand of the giant
shoot high and straight and perpendicular
in the air as the Danites rode down from the
hill. They answered with the same en-
phatic and silent sign. What did it mean?
AS they approached the camp, he also ap-
preached. He came with heavy, massive,
and deliberate tread, as if he. Kowned the
earth. He took possession OF the place.
They entered the camp together. The men
looked at the giant for sheir orders. He
motioned them to dismount. They did so,
and stood little apart, holding their hun
CRY and tired horses by long, rawhide teth-
ers as they bent their sleek necks to the
ground, ratified their steel bits in their teeth,
and ate of the green and abundant grass as
if it never had been or should be stained
with blood.
know you are clutching your hand here
with ferocity toward the one party, and
shame and pity for the other. You would
have fought, died then and there, or des-
troyed these destroying angels, would you?
Not so. Drawer men never were known
than the pioneers of these days. But there
somehow fell fascination on all and al
ways from these swift and silent fanatics
the fascination of the serpent when it looks
in birds eyes-that paralyzed the worn
and weary pilgrims in these early days.
And you search the chronicles in vain fol
one single act of successful defence. MOI
one of a thousand murders ever met with
any real resistance.
Some believed that this new religion
would cover the earth. Men who abhorred
1t had seen its audacity and power SO sud-
denly and wonderfully developed here in
these mountains OF Mexico, that no wonder
they were appalled, and silent before its ex.
ecutioners. 1t had its believers, too, in ev.
cry camp. No one dared complain to hi,
neighbor, not even to his own brother, OF
build up plans of escape, punishment or re.
venge. A man did not trust his own wife,
There was bnt one course to take-bear al
In silence.
Our party had already unyoked their oxen