Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-09-07
Salt Lake and The West.
AS SEEN BY A BUTLER CO., BOY.

SAN JOSE, CAL AUG. god, '89.
EDS CITIZEN: - In "doing the
town" of Salt Lake we find many
things that are interesting and to
speak of all of them would be too long
for this sketch of our westward trip,
so we content ourself with reference
to few of the most interesting points
in and around the city of the Saints.
After good nights rest, free from
the noise and rolling of the train, and
a breakfast on the fruits of the valley,
we are ready for the sights most wis.,
tied by tourists. We first make a
trip to spur of the Wasatch mount
aims within about one half miles of
the city as once there you can get a
fine view of the city, and the valley
for fifty miles around including the
Salt Lake, some five miles west of
city. With the aid of a good field
glass, we can see before US fne val,
ley for grazing, and with the system.
of irrigation they now have, it is very
fertile aid productive, raising grain
of various kinds and fruits in abund.
ance-a desert made to bud and BIOS
som like fine farm in the East.
Here it was that the Mormon leaders
in the summer of 1847, when they
emerged from the canon in the noun
tains looked down on the plain before
them, and upon further exploration
determined to plant their "Zion," :"
where they would for all time, as
they supposed, be free to practice
their peculiar religion, without the
interference of the outside world. 1t
must certainly have tried their faith
to locate in this barren plain where
all was bleak and bare, as is shown
by localities not yet farmed or irrigat-
ed, but the same energy that started
the whole party out on their long
long journey over the great Ameri-
can DESERT" among hostile Indians,
served their purpose, and enabled
these Norman people through irriga-
tion to clothe the former desert land
with fine crops of wheat and bar
ley. fruits and vegetables, in great
variety. They saw the only way
to farm in this locality was by using
the mountain streams, so marshalled
their forces, went to the first hills and
began what is now the largest sys-
tenn of irrigation in the world, as they
haye now over 5000 miles of bitches,
large and small, in the territory
through which the water is distribu-
ted over the farms in the valleys
This may seem little large when
you consider that the length of the
bitches would reach more than twice
across the country from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, but as the bitches are
all owned by the church, record is
kept and they know just what they
have and use it as lever to keep the
people faithful to the church. If they
amt faithful they are liable to have
their water shut off and of course
their crops fail, their land is worth
less, and they have to 90 to other
quarters. For that reason you find
no "Gentiles" farming where the
church owns the ditchs and controls
the waters and the reason is obvious.
We visit the tabernacle, the house
where all the faithful" in and around
the city worship on Sunday. 1t is
25O feet long by $50 feet wide, is 10
feet high with a seating capacity of
about 10000, including the gallery.
Here is one of the lagest, if not the
largest, and finest organ in the world,
that uncer manipulation of a fine
performer, sends forth notes, from
that of the softest flute to that of the
roll of distant thunder-a very wide
range of capacity indeed The "Tem-
ple," large building just east of the
tabernacle is in construction, the corner
stone was laid April 9th, 1853. Work
has been going on constantly ever
since, and it is estimated it will re-
quire ten years more to finish it.
The building is of fine granite, very
substantially built and if not destroy
ed by earthquake is liable to stand
thousands of years. 1t is over 100
by 200 feet, the walls are leo feet
high. Here will be the headquarters
or the Offices of the church authori-
ties, where all the records are to be
stored away to be sent down the ages
to the faithful" !" for their information
thousands of years hence, when all
other churches. es they say, will be
dissolved, and theirs will be the only