The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-25

uoi4nSf WINDOWS or great night on eaCn
SIDE. There is a battlemented porch at q
gaole end nearest the wall, and recllnir
lion, gold bronzed. turns q watchful eve
toward tne broad gate opposite. There is
no bell pull or knocker, but there is letter
drop cut through the solid plankIng. In
this house lived Brigham's wives. t1ve OF
his widows still occupy it.
You can look IN at an iron gateway that
opens UPON the Enclosure next to the home
OF the Mrs. YUungs. Again there are evil
dences of lack of care for appearances. Tho
grass has grown up in punches, and there
are sporadic wild sun1owers, Of which one
sees acres upon the uncnltivated fields Of
the valley. The battered c0bble a ID ce-
ment wall continues along the flock, IN
closing, at Main or East Temple street, the
Iithing house his is the treasury of the
Mormon church, the place where the au4
thoTized officer resolves the tenth Of every
thing that the devout Mormon
raises or acquires. 1t has a dowr=
at-the-heel look that suggests lack
of prosperity, or else an unwilingness 20
keep up the concern. The building is of
three stories, with a tumble-down two
stored porch across the front. stoop that
is falling to pieces, an untidy yard, and
everywhere q painful lack Of repair and
paint. The Dsseret Nel0s, the official
Mormon paper, has its Office in the build
ing, and uses the lower porch as storage
room for paper, old boxes, and the usual
litter of printing offica. Behind the Tith-
ing house, and still inclosed by the odd
wall, are the storehousss for the tithes
and the buildings from which distri-
button is made of meat, hay, and other
goods to the employees of the church out of
the contributions of the faithful Sitting
in the dust OF the Tithiag house yesterday
and watching the wagons that drove into it
with loads of luscious melons were three
very lazy and very sleepy Ute squaws, in
dirty blankets Of gaudy hue, thelr papoos9s
playing about their mOccasined feet and
the flies buzzng in clouds about their blue
black mops of hair. The squaws evidently
knew the place and were waiting to be
asked to share with the saints.
Over against the Tithing house is the
inclosure within which are the church
buildings. An old Mormon has set up a
photograph stand on the ledge of the wall,
and only waits for a purchaser to make him
voluable. lie was very anxious to sell some
pictures of infants, grouped to the number
of 200 or 800, and labeled, "a goou crop in
Utah. and intimated that it was the favor
ite GENTLE picture. | wanted him to tell
me what the Tithing house as for. had
made a purchase, and he had eagerly
grasped the silver to pay for it before lie
had wrapped and delivered the photographs.
But he was voluble.
'Do the Mormons always give up the
tenthF' | asked.
He looked at me with an express ion of
the most intense surprise.
IF they are true Mormons they do
That's a part of their faith. Some" he
added, by way of explanation, "deduc.s
more for necessary expenses than Others
It's usually thcm's as are richest as holds on
to the expense money"
The new temple, standing at the end of
the 2, 400-foot lot set apart for scored build
ingS, is imposing in size, but meaningless
in style to the GENTLE Its size dwarfs any
church building in New York. But it does
not look like a church,, with its three
square towers at the end of a nearly
square structure of four stories, with al
ternating rows Of oblong and circular win
dow openings. The towers are unfinished,
and scaffoldings of massive timbers reach
clear across them, supporting the cranes
with which the blocks Of granite are lifted
to their places The buttresses of the cen
trail structure rise above the cornice like
those of a battlemsnted castle wall, sug-
costing an arsenal rather than a church.
When completed the Central towers at
each end will be 800 feet high The build
ing is about 1856 by 80 feet in superficial
area. Il is cut up into small halls. There
is to oe no great auditorium. Mormon
temples are not for large audiences.
You are told that they are not de-
signed for public worship, but as places in
which the ordinances aud rites of the
church, baptisms, ordinations, and seaIings
are observed, and where prayer meetings
aud other solemn assemblies are held. Tue
very polite attendant at the gate shows YOU
through the famous tabernacle. He inter
ests you in exhibiting the wonderful acous-
tics, allows you to observe that the Door
trash mating in the aisles is dirty aad worn
and patched, and as he says THAT is all,
sir he invites you to give favorable CON
sideration to a book of photographic views
price 80 cents. There is no fee lor showing
the building.
Without the aid of guide one may stroll
about the wide streets, except where they
rise against the bench that lifts the eastern
part Of the town abov5 the western end,
and see what sort If houses the people live
in. They are nearly all small, TIE larger
part of them not exceeding a story and a
half in hight. Nearly all are of the plainest
pattern. Some, and not the Oldest Of them
are built of adobe, the large, sun-dried
brick of which the earlier houses were CON
structed. The grounds about most of them
would be considered ample. Orchards
are common. Glass plats arc rare. Every
where you find dnapidated fences, or no
fences at all, gates unhung or entirely miss
ing. Shutters hang by oae hinge or are
fallen to the ground. Occasionally there is
a heater house, with a wel-kept lawn of
richest close-shaven grass. l made inquiry
about these places. They were invarIa by
the houses Of Gentiles. l asked a polite
Mormon why his people did not give more
attention to appearances. He said the dor
mons were nearly all poor in money.
They we're too much occupied with works
of necessity to indulge in I'm
necessary decoration of themselves or their
houses or lands. Whatever the reason the
result must inevitably give the stranger the
impression that the Norm as are shiftless.
without taste, and utterly Indifferent to
the appearance of their homes. Yet l am
told that the Salt Lake Mormons are, in
this respect, far ahead Of their co-religfon-
lists of the rest of the territory.
There is such thing as g street too wide.
The Mormon authorities of Salt Lake must
haue concluded that their streets We're to
wide when they permitted the telegraph
companies to divide some of them with
lines of poles planted midway between the
CUTTERS furnishing an unpicturesque and
Understandable line Of masts aud wires
stretching out through the broad avenue
and It's borders of popular or cottonwood or
box-elder.
Cant stay home from church with
1-O,, no inst tO-dav2D r1Iaa1ad er,aU Ct, r,a.