The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-11-17


place; they wish to have them attend
the services and go away with the i'm
preston that the saints are the gentlest,
the meekest, the most innocent and
down-trodden of mankind: terribly
abused creatures, who would not do q
wrong thing if they could. 1t might eff
feet some, but not those who recall the
Mountain Meadow massacre, and various
dOings of the saints. POlygamy may be
dead. but what heard and saw did not
make me believe it was. although it lives
mostly outside the cities. 1t speaks
well for those III charge of the territorial
government, that in those places at least
it is dangerous. One bishop had to put
away three of his four wives, and when
No. died he should, by law, have mar
ried No. 2, but he loved No. best of all,
so he poses as a widOwer, and NJ. as
a widow, but she resides next to him,
the house having common yard.
Polygamy will be hard to kill as long as
the leaders can work ON the superstitions
of lot of wofully ignorant women; but
woe to the party that makes Utah state.
We had good look at the high officials
after the services; they were showing
great attentions to party of tourists;
the preacher carries face that few
would consider that of man to be
trusted very far. The Assembly Hall
was built of the st ne left over from the
great temple, and is about One-fuurth
the size pf the tabernacle. but has two
stories and is used for various meetings.
The temple is the idol of the Mormon
heart: forty years in building, lust April
saw its completion. 1t is a massive
structure of granite, peculiar in appear
ance on account of its great height com
pared with its width and length. 1t has
three towers at each end, the middle
ones, the higher being 225 feet, the other
four 200 feet; while the walls are 10
feet above ground yet the building is
only lO0x20O feet in size. The fOunda-
tiOn wall is l6 feet thick, while the walls
proper are rire feet at the base and six
at the top. On top of the highest pima
Gle stands tie Angel MarOni with his
face to the east, blowing his long trum-
pet The building arose very slowly for
many years, as all the. great stones had
to be quarIied in the mountains 20 miles
away, and brought to the city by OK
teams With the advent of railroads the
work became easter and progressed more
rapidly. The temple is not used for
large gathering, but has several floors,
all divided into rIOms, which are said to
be mlgniticently furnished. The largest
assembly room seats 1000 people, Occu-
pying the whole upper floor. The build
ing is furnished with two elevators,
lighted by electricity, heated by hot wa.
ter, electricity runs the elevators and
ventilating fans. Here all the secret
rites take place, hut no Gentle, not even
the governor, can enter the sacred pre-
cincts.
The leading Gentiles Of the city were
almost paralyzed with aStOnishment
the temple on the dedication W, but
since then it is sealed to all except saints
Across the street from the temple square
is large space enclosed by curious
looking wall, and containing several
buildings. This was the original settle
ment, or fort; the wall is of cobble
stones with queer round towers at the
sides of the various gates. Here is the
tithing house, still used for the purpose,
where the working saints or bees, leave
a tenth or more of their hard earned
crops for the benefit of the non-wOrking
leaders, or drones. Beyond this enclos-
IRE is the Bee Hive" the former resi-
hNhNO WI OuuS, IL
old-fashioned mansion on q corner, with
a number of wings extending out from it
on one side, in each of which lived one
wife and her family. 1t is so called be-
canse of a gilt bee hive over the door: this
building was unoccupied at the time of
our visit. Across the street in front is "A
large gold eagle supported by stone pill
lars, forming the Eagle Gateway" an
nthnr hu cnpnatHrhaf 81 l.,
called the Lion Gateway" Across the
street on the opposite corner is large
handsome mansion of the IN lnsard roof
period; the "Amelil Palace,' named
from the last and favorite wife of b.
Young, Esq, the previous style of living
in wings WAS not good enough for her.
How the other wives enjoyed gazing out
of their humble quarters at this palItial
home, did not transpire: it is now Occu-
pied as gold cure establishment. The
great store of the "Zion's Co operative
Mercantile Association" as the saints
business is called, is somewhat like one
of our large department. stores, only in
the four five-story bri k buildings of the
block are kept everything, from a needle
to self binder, and from soap to silks
and diamonds: one OF two departments
like drugs, have separate stores near by.
There are TWO great Gentle dry goods
stores, however, that are far ahead of
the u. G. NJ A. Salt Lake City ought to
do great business, with no large cities
nearer than Denver and San Francisco,
each nearly 800 miles distant; Denver has
the same position between Salt Lake
City and Omaha, or Kansas City, Two
of the numerous lines of electric cars
run to Camp Douglass, which il situated
high up on the mountain side two miles
east of the city, cllse by the mouth of
the canon through which Brigham
Young aud his followers passed, where
they had their first view of the great
valley and lake: vastly different pic
ture then from what it is now; for what
ever the faults of the Norman may be, he
is wonderful hand at making the desert
blossom as the rose. The camp is
strong military post, although without
of any sort, as a large
force of regulars is always stationed
there: Uncle Sam evidently thinks that
the saints will bear watching: lin fact,
the guns of the post trained on the city
were all that prevented open rebellion
once upon time. 1t occupies broad,
level plateau, with gentle slope toward
the city; the great parade ground is
partly surrounded by large buildings in
which the men are quartered; the Off
GERS occupy double row of nice dwell
ings, built on a crescent, with a pretty
little park in front. The melting snow
from the mountains ripples down through
the ground in many little streams, max
inc Dlaasaut music and Transforming