The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-03-09

~ @ back at last we see
that hour distinct as
HsAsH a ships spar thrust
up into the dawn, and how it shot shadow
or beam of light through all the bubble
hours that one By one rose after it.
To Paul Elchard. though he did not know
it. such an hour had come Riding along a
mountain road where the world, Just back
of the peaks that face Great Salt Lake. rolls
eastward fold on fold toward the Weber
river, he was overtaken by the sunset In
a great flush it lay over the ridge-tops and
vast shelves of land. while among the
Wasatch peaks to the west where 1t seemed
falling the royal colors were splashed half
way up 60 the zenith He touched his horse
with the spur to quicken him, but the sum-
mer light fingers a long time in the lumi-
nous Utah air after the sun sinks, and in q
moment the impulse of haste lapsed from
his consciousness and he went forward
looking soberly and half dreamily about
him.
On all sides and near and far the land
scape seemed to rise and pile away with
ridge, and spur, and mountain-h heaps, lone
ly. desoiate, and still. On the left the land
dipped downward, and. letting his horse
follow the rugged road, in moment he was
riding toward a valley with here and there
little farm on either hand. Poor patches
of four or five acres of sand and gravel
they We're, where the sage hSush had been
cleared away, with nut in the midst, and
sparingly fed with water from unreliable
rivulets. Dirty. half-clad children swarmed
about the doors, with one and two and some
times three wives at every threshold. or
digging in the sterile garden patches: an
old cart. pig-pen. mule dragging pillow
among the stones or browsing in the brush,
and over all the spirit of want, of penury,
and isolation.
Il can not conceive unused the Young
horseman. with a look that was half CEN
sure and half pity on his comely face, why
these people should try to wiring liveli-
hood from such a wretched region. Surely
they must starve in soul and body from the
years beginning TO its endr'
The query was a natural one, and the i'm
preston touching this peoples fate borne
out thousand fold by bitter fact. But he
could not know, nor can any other single
soul save that Fountain of Sense who is the
Soul of all. the material poverty of these
Mormon homes. the shriveled hearts, the
numbed. and dwarfed. and want-pinched
lives among these mountain wastes. BIT
Church. structure Of tyranny not often
equaled in the worlds long life, had sent
them thither; had allotted them these
grabbed strips Of Zion whereon to toll,
pay tithes. and die in every sense, that the
valleys might be filled with voters, the
lands kept out of unbeliever's hands, and
that men in the forefront and at the
centers of this huge infamy might hold
rsos,,jop and live in aff3ueuce
Presently, as he passed down the slope,
the settle ment thickened a little with a sort
of descending graduation in the scale of OBJ
vious poverty, until at the heart of the little
valley, where water seemed more abundant,
there were small sweeps of vivid green,
here and there a Stunted orchard with q
log house among the trees, and by times
almost suggestion of thrift. But over it
all still brooded the atmosphere of isolation,
and all the human figures and surround
ings bespoke cowed and blighted race Of
women. ignorant children and a coarse and
lumpish community of men. Lifting his
eyes the young man saw half-mile farther
down the valley sort of village about q
Mormon meeting house. the Bishops rather
pretentious residence, and few long low
stores built of sun-drled brick. The stray
cling dwellings were mainly of hewn logs,
with an occasional one constructed of adobe
and plastered on the outside or painted red
and striped with white in imitation of brick,
but all mean of size, and always beside
or surrounded by a sort Of garden or mimic
farm. These the wife or wives worked,
with babes about them, while the older chill
~dren herded sheepupon the mountain sides
or watched the cattle browsing in the hol-
lows. The men in large part were simply
human drones: some were Industrious,
many were well-meaning, but most Of them
had /. drained the numbing upas-cup of pO-
iygamy and were morally and ply sically de-
bauched and undone.
Just at the skirt of the village cool
mouthed canyon opened gradually into the
valley. Through it a creek OF water, clear
and cold from chasm-springs and melting
snow upon the peaks, came leaping and
tumbling forward from the mountains.
Crossing the bridge that spanned it the
road became two, one turning across the
valley, the other making downward through
the town. Pausing there with indecision
our rider at last dismounted, sprang over
the fence. and crossed a tiny meadow to
house that stood among the trees. He was
a tall fellow, blond-headed: with q mobile,
pleasant face and clear decisive step.
The place was such pretty one he could
not choose but look about him. On the
right lay a garden and on the left a little
orchard. while in front were rows Of cotton
wood and locust trees. Close in front Of the
house, which was Of hewn logs and rather
large, were walks and beds Of flowers, and
blooming vires ciambered round and over
the doors and made green net Of the mar
row porch that ran along the structure.
A plot of ground of perhaps a dozen acres,
belonging to the valley but seemingly
driven part way into the canyon. comprised
the farm that surrounded it. A hundred
acres more of sand and stony hillside, to be
sure. belonged to it. as with most Of these
poor places among the mountains. but only
the ground the creek had made through
centuries of silent toll could bear the plow.
That much was fat indeed and exceedingly
productive. being quickened by the power
full light of these high attitudes and watered
daily by irrigating streams
When Paul Elchard came up the walk
among the flowers their many doors met
him like heart-easing balm. Away in the
west the sun had sunk far down in mount
ain notch and was sending it, last long
rays across the valley and among and under
the trees, spotting and SCATTERING the leaves
and log walls and very ground with gold.
All his life, not knowing, he had been max
ing his way toward that hour, which, look
ing back, he should see standing out from
its sisters like Q span against the dawn;
but he felt no prsscient thrill; only the
beauty Of the flowers and the vine-wound
house spattered with sunset gold sttracted
him
Approaching the open door, but looking ut
<la hiossous the sound of 4 football touched
his ear and he looked up. A young woman was
pausing on the threshold - il she bad come
to mset him. :nvoluntaxily she had put out