The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-25
DUSTY SALT LAKE CITY.
MOLLY PLANNED, BUT RUN DOWN
AT TIE HEEL

ows, the Tithing house, and the
Great Temple.
From the Netc York. Times.
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. elf the reader
of this letter happens TO have obtained the
impression from descriptions of Salt Lake
that it is a beautiful city, and he prefers to
Keep that impre sion, my advice to him
would be, Don't 60 to Salt Lake" unless
voa are prepared to be interested in some
thing besides the streets, tie buildings, the
trees. and the general view. Salt Lake
Civ can better rest It's reputation for
beauty upon the photographer than
IN invite a close inspection just
now. When they tell you that the
SIN shines there 1856 days in the year
YOU will easily believe it. There may be
dustier cities in the country, but they
would be hard to find. The streets, with
their 100 feet of dirt roadway between side
walls. are nobly planned. When the citi-
yens come to pay for paving them with
granite blocks or macadam or phaltum
thew will learn it to their cost. Once paved,
however. and guttere3, there will be
MITIGATION of the dreadful business.
some of the principal business
straats are sprinkled, but there
are acres and acres of the broad avenues
over which the breezes from the Wahsatch
or Oouirrh mountains play with such force
as t. take the dust up in dense clouds,
tbrongh which you ride from the station to
tbe hotel. Of which you breathe until you
smell nothing but dust, aud which YOU can
easily belive to be the cause of the haze that
almost constantly shuts out from your view
tfemountains that almost encircle the city,
and from thai form for it so admirable a
background and protection.
is a city nobly but inconveniently
MANNED. The blocks of 600 feet square
seem Unfortunately long. They are lot cut
through by alleys, so that to Ego round the
bock' is d long journey. Brigham Young
was not considering the matter of c0nven-
lsnca to PEDESTRIANS when he decreed that
tie blocks should be so enormous, but was
uovidiug a square in which there should be
svace enough when subdivided to give
every occupant of a subdivision land
enough to provide him with a garden in
which he could raise everything that his
family could need in the way of
garden sass" II the great city blocks
are found to be too large, it is probable,
with an increase of the progressive element
and feeling, they will be cut in two twice.
i"Liberals" ask it, however, there is some
danger that the "People' will conserva-
lively resist. If the People" as the Nor
mons call themselves politically, find that
lis advisable to make such a change, they
have it in their power to do it. They are
The rulers here yet, and ara likely to remain
rulers for years, although the reports of the
recent election here have given the impress
sion that the Liberal party
Composed of the Gentle popu-
hion, had grown so fast as to
Nerwhelm them. After having plotted
the city in blocks Of magnificent size
and planted an enormous number of
trees along the edges of the streets, the
Aormons seem to have foregone all further
Efforts at adornment. The favorite tres in
Sal. Lake and other cities of Utah is the
poplar. 1t grows rapidly and seems TO
thrive. But it is spindling thing when it
grown and makes little more than a
Straight liue of shade. Just now the pop
lars OF Salt Lake seem to be reduced TO
Wretchedness through lack of water, excess
Of dust and persistent winds.
Some of the writers who have made
glowing descriptions Of Salt Lake have ling
eered long in telling about the streams of
sparkling mountain water that roll and
babble along the edges of its streets, nour-
ishing the trees and grass and imparting
coolness and freshness to the atmosphere
the accounts may have been true when
they were written. They could not be re-
peated now with any regard for truth.
IL is true that the water from the noun
ains, taken from City greek, does flow
through the streets. 1t is carried in little
bitches, about two feet wide, planked at
the sides, the planks being STAYED up
by oleats nailed across at intervals of 6 feet
Or more. When the water supply is album
dant, as it is not now, these bitches NAV
not be nuisances. 1t is difficult to imagine
the flow of water to be so strong as to rid
these little ''catch-alls" from refuse Of all
kinds that is thrown into them, that is
blown in by the wind, that accumuIates
wherever building is going on, that gets
into them In the many different ways that
DIRT will collect in cutters. Instead of
"babbling" through these open Sc wers, the
water now runs in a stream so thin as to
be Insufficient to carry away even
the soltS of paper that litter them.
It's mere trickling rill, and sometimes
an infragrant one. The great canal through
the center Of North Temple street, intended
carry of the excess of water in City
creek, Is dusty and dry, and in places hid
len from sight by dead brush and grass.
VI the main street the little rivulets in the
noe bitches are lost to sight under mats of
grass that have never been cut or trimmed.
nile most Of the shade trees are in fair
condition, there are many dead ones that
WITH watchful ana tasteful city govern
nent would be replaced by young trees.
When you have praised the broad streets
and the miles and miles of shade trees that
are the outcome of Brigham Young's fore
Sght, and have admitted that nature never
FURNISHED q more beautiful setting for any
CITY than it has for Salt Lake, you have
sad almost all that can be said for the city
as IL Is There is one little green spot within
1ne hlgn cement wall that incloses the block
occupied by the tabernacle, the assembly
nan and the unfinished temple of the
Onurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
sAllUs' But 1t has every appearance of re-
cent growth; the trees are all sapplings.
anu one cannot help thinking that this sug-
sesIloh OF taste for the beautiful has been
ION one permitted expression since the
Heayn OF the greatest man the church has
piouuced. If you climb the hill and walk
atiohg tae road that Brigham built, early in
f fnT settlement Of the city, to enable his
1 80 TO get into the canyons for fire
l noou and you pass under the curl Jus four
esea arch, with huge eagle resting with
~ spread wings upon tue keystone, you
6a ~lu mat here, under the arch, Brig
So oG toll, of each of his fuel-hunting
ay ,lo"ers until he had recovered the money
TfoAIeu IN making the mountain highway.
cat ne removed the tolls, leaving the toll
co. ana its eagle to recall the story of
4 =! yIclssltudes and his own enterprise.
n Hiy! sle side OF the Eagle Gates is the Bee
4 was -. 4t'use, IN which Brigham lived. 1t