Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-06-03
S,1rT,,xp Crrv Jnpa Ri 1885

SALT LAKE CITY, June Sd. 1885.
DEAE MARY:-After two days in the cars
we have at last arrived in the Mormon city
of Salt Lake. We left the c.. z. cars at a
! place called Ogden, and it is worse place
/ than Chinatown; in fact. it is so bad that
/ Tom Martineau said this was the place the
new Old Testament meant when ii spoke of
"sheol." Tom is a much nicer fellow than
/ | thought he was, and he has been the
masher ever since we left San Francisco.
/ But talk about Washers, the Ogden Washers
are the worst [ ever saw. As we girls We're
! going to the little harrow guage road, the
Denver Grand, or the Grand Rio Denver.
/ or some such name, these Ogden Washers
! kept insisting ON carrying our valises to the
| cars, but we all gave them the left shoulder
except Miss Maria J. M, whom all of us
| girls call ''Old Social Problems" and she
was just too polite for anything. [ felt
sorry for the masher who got into her
clutches. I'll bet she squeezed his hand when
she thanked him, for she hasn't had a
chance for many a long year to squeeze
mans hand. l wonder if that masher was
a poiygamiSt? We'll, don't think he would
want over two wives ike LADY Maria if he
knew her.
At last we got here, and [ am neither
married nor murdered yet, though [ may be
both before l leave. On our way down we
passed place called the Hot Springs, which
some one in Salt Lake is going 20 make into
mineral springs resort. Everyone agreed
that it would be an immense success. as it
smelt worse than anything We ever heard Of
If a sick person can stand the first smell
the physicians can cure him; and should
think they might, for 1t must take a good
constitution to stand even one smell. First
| viii tell you about the town, then about
the people, and then about myself. The CITY
is lald out IN squares or blocks of ten acres
and the streets are about eight rods wide
There are some very nice residences and a
lew respectable public buildings. The Nor
mon temple when completed will be lovely
building, and think its Just too bad that
the Mormons are only going to use it to
marry more wives in. The Big Tabernacle
would make splendid skating rink. These
are all the places | know anything about.
But the streetsi You never saw ANYTHING
like them in your Life. The Mormons say
that this is the New Jerusalem, and that
some day the streets will be paved with gold.
If | lived in Salt Lake | should want the
Lord to hurry up the paving business, for
now the streets are filled up with dust and
children and bad smells. But the people
here are so good that their faces are all
turned toward heaven and they don't notice
these things.
Now for the people. 4 lot of us girls went
ont to see what the Mormons looked like
and for the life of Us we could not tell
Mormon from a Gentle. We were bound to
see real, live Mormon, so we decided that
Nellie Brown should ask the next man we
met if he was Mormon. Nellie didn't want
TO do 1t, but we made her. Pretty soon we
met great, big, dignifed man, who looked
as though he might be bishop: and we all
stopped as he came near us. We pushed
Nellie out, and she sald
IL beg your pardon, but we are tourists,
and we wish to see a Mormon. Please, sir,
are you oneY"
You ought to have seen how that man
looked! We ali tried to get behind each
other, and when we were half scared to
death he said:
Miss Il thought Nellie would faint when
he spoke), you had better learn manners
first, and next that am an AUleficaR."