Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-11-08
SALT LAKE CITY.
xonIy PLANED, BUT NOW RUN
DOWN AT THE HEEL.
Tho NTucb Talked of Streams OIL
CRYSTAL Water are Dirty Ditcnes
- The Tithing House. an"
the Mormon Temple.

~
Times, writing from the capltai oil o'"h'
;ays: .,u
II is city nobly but inconvenienuy
PLANNED. The blocks of 600 feet square
seem interminably long. They are ho'
cut through by alleys, SO that TO 30
round the block" is long Journey
BRIGHAM Young was not considering 'ne
,,,ottor Of convenience to pedestrians when
he decreed that the blocks should oe 81
enormous, but was providing square IN
which there should be space enough wneh
subdived to give every occupant OF SUD
division land enough to provide him with
,ordon in which he could raise every
thing that his family could neea III 'iie
way of garden sass" If the greas ciss ~
sive element and feeling, they will be cut
in two twice. After having plotted the
city in blocks of magnificent size, and
planted an enormous number of trees
along the edges of the streets, the Nor
mons seem to have foregone all further
efforts at adornment.
Some of the writers who have made
glowing descriptions of Salt Lake have
fingered long in telling about the streams
of sparkling mountain water that roll and
babblc along the edges of its streets,
nourishing the trees and grass and impart-
ing GOODNESS and freshness to the atmos-
phere. The accounts may have been true
when they were written. They could not
be repeated now with any regard for
truth. 1t is true that the water from the
mountains, taken from City Creek, 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 cleats nailed across at inter
walls of six feet or more. When the
water supply is abundant, as it is not
now, these bitches may 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 accumulates wherever
building is going on, that gets into them
in many different ways that dirt will col
lect in cutters. Instead of "babbling"
through these open sewers, the water now
runs in stream so thin as to be insult
ficient to carry away even the bits of paper
that litter them. 1t is mere trickling
rill, and sometimes an infragrant one.
The great canal through the centre of
North Temple street, intended to carry
off the excess of water in City Creek, is
dusty and dry, and in places hidden from
sight by dead brush and grass.
When you have praised the broad
streets and the miles and miles of shade
trees that are the outcome of Brigham
Young's foresight, ,and have admitted that
nature never furnished a more beautiful
setting for any city than it has for Salt
Lake, you have said almost all that can
be said for the city as it is. There is one
little green spot within the high cement
wall that incloses the block occupied by
the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall and
the unfinished Temple of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But
it has every appearance of recent growth;
the trees are all saplings, and one can
not help thinking that this suggestion of
taste for the beautiful has been from one
permitted expression since the death of
the greatest man the Church has pro-
duced. If you climb the hill and walk
along the road that Brigham built, early
in the settlement of the city, to enable
his followers to get into the canons for
firewood, and you pass under the four
legged arch with a huge eagle resting
with outspread wings upon the keystone,
you are told that here, under the arch,
BriGhap took toll. of eachaaf IHs,yf,re(1
the money expended in making the
mountain highway. Then he removed
the tolls, leaving the toll gate and its
eagle to recall the story of early vicissi
tudes and his own enterprise.
By the side of the Eagle Gates is the
Bee Hive House, in which Brigham lived.
1t was at one time stately mansion, two
stories and half high, with ample
gables and an upper square structure and
square cupola. 1t has second-story
piazza all around the building, and
a corresponding covered way for the
ground floor. The grounds do not show
great care, and the glimpse you get of
the garden is not gratifying. At the
left of the house begins wall of cobble