The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-03-05


supposedto reap rich harvest from the
passing gold-seekers, as the halfway
mouse, yet Denver and other younger
cities have eclipsed her in metropolitan
prosperity. The self-isolation of the Nor
mons, alone can account for it. Though
the eye accustomed to Western growth
marks the absence of brown-stone fronts
and big business blocks, yet Salt Lake is a
comfortable, home-like city. neat and
well to do. There does not seem to
pea squalld abode within the city limits and
the poor in each ward (of which there are
tWenty-one) are carefully looked after by
the bishops and their councillors. The
dwellings of those least prospered in world
goods are built of adobe brick, and each
has It's trim yard and fruit and shade trees.
salt Lake boasts nearly 100 miles of
streets, and each street is 100 feet WIDE
Each block contains ten acres. There is
a gradual descent from the North to the
South of the city, which makes irrigation
easy, and the clear waters of the mountain
streams are conducted through bitches.
paved with stone. The majority of dwell
houses are built after the styles the
Mormons brought with them from
the East, forty years ago. They are
the roomy, wide-gabled buildings, with
great, pillared porches, one above another.
thanking the two stories, which one sees in
New England and near Richmond. They
are constructed of adobe brick, frequently
overlaid with stucco. Each is uncovered
III trees, and many q property-holder has
converted his front yard into an orchard.
Others have old-fashioned gardens primly
laid in beds, and fragrant with the old
time posies our grandmothers cultivated
and culled. There is such wealth and love
OF flowers among the Mormon people.
Others are surrounded with lawns, the grass
Of which shows by it's emerald green and
close growth,a half century of care and be-
dewed with the spray of fountains. AS I
write | remember Rose Bank Cottage =
asmall, low house, embosomed in beauty.
Thick ropes of vine, large as man s body,
stretch from It's piazzas across to the
boughs of the trees, and make an arbor of
the grounds. Its fine close sward looks as
ii it were daily swept, and solid banks of
bloom are hemmed in by prim rows of box. !
The residence of VIM. Jennings, the
mayor, and those of the Walker Bros.
three palatial structures occupying q block !!
and surrounded by beautiful grounds) are
perhaps the finest residences in Salt Lake. |
AS the city slopes southwark. beyond
Liberty Park''-laid out by President
Young and abundantly shaded-the build |
ings become scattered, and the traveller
finds himself in region Of farms and fields. |
golden with wheat, sweet with clover, par
titioned by orchards with loads OF purple |
plums and rosy apples. There are also
wide tracts of alfalfa, and l do not think |
any agricultural growth richer and more
beautiful in a landscape than alfalfa,
wildly emerald, with long yine-like sprays
and bearing a small purple flower like a
vetch. In Utah, four or five crops q sea-
son are cut from one field. The long roads
which stretch across the valley are shaded
lines OF trees, and above the levels of grass
and grain are stiff rows Of Lombardy poplar
and clumps Of box-elder. AS soon as the
Mormons established themselves in their
new home, they sent back for seeds, and |
were at once established, in
which were grown the trees which to-day |
make the Salt Lake streets worthy rivals
of Temple street. in New Haven. The
locust is prime favorite, but elm, alan
thus and boxelder vie with it in conceal
ing the dwellings in heavy masses of green.
M. V. d.