Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-12-04
THE "HALL OF Relics
To the Editor:

To the Editor:
This transient repository for tho
heirlooms and relies Of the Pioneers
Is now being denuded OF its decora-
lions. The questionable "grihins' have
sold and moved the eagle has gone
from above the graceful pedIment, and
it is said that the fine replication Of
Dalln's famous statue of 1.-THE
Signal of Peace" is to grace the in
terror of the city and county building,
where for a few decades II may charm
the student of Indian character, until
some other artistic creation may secure
more worthy prominence.
1t seems pity that the city is not
in a position to remove and rc-erect
this structure In Liberty Park, which
should be the gathering place for all
our schools, high district or Sabbath,
as the case might be, There is need
for Hiding In the park, for the ex-
ercises usual at all such times, and to
have placed this one there under
proper care and with some improve
ments Ut being already a reminder
and a relic might have remained fol
generation or two. Public opinion
would have favored ii, and properly
presented petition might perchance
have secured 1t from the commission
at nominal figure, But alas, what Is
"everybody's business is nobody's,"
and the graceful COR as some would
say, fiimsy) fabric will speedily
be no more.
Still more fateful is the distribution
now begun from the Interior, Somehow
there seems to he lack of public
method of permanent retention by the
State: the Historical society, or one of
the museums might have been de-
vised by which the utensils and relies
of the Pioneers could have been kept
intact as memento of the public APP
probation of that band of nearly two
thousand 4Ters. TO whom we nre all
more or less indebted. with some suit
able locality, II is believed that the coll
lection could have been. not only kept,
but very much enlarged. and more
enough for It's maintenance and ex-
tension. The Brigham Young Lion
House could be made into an admira-
BILE central repository for that purpose,
and some combinations might be suE
gested that would convert that historic
building into an educational center for
"all ages and sexes" and for strangers
and tourists ms well MS for the people
of this city and State. But organized
society Is poor. individuals are poor,
and when everybody feels poor they
are poor indeed" In the years gone by
we Attempted great things" we Eek
pected great things" II our souls have
shrlveled from two or three years de-
preston. what kind of souls must our
Pioneers have been for their prospects
and hopes in spite of persecution and
travail. are unrealized as yet by their
far more thrifty and able coreligion-
lists. or perchance the current has be-
come turned and overflows in other
channels.
a truce to moralizing and back to
the sltuationl II is evidently the in
tent of the commission, as II was
their promise. to deliver all things
committed to their care Mt the place
from whence they camel but 1t is seen
that closely persons are moving their
own on presentation of their receipts to
those in charge. A very few days and
the dream Of perpetuitv MS well as the
reality OF the past and present, will
all have vanished save as n memory
or rs handed down 10 tho vet distant
centenary by the skill Of the photog-
rnpher and the page Of history ''vive
IL" Jubilee. and its wonderful adjunct.
the notable, If vanishing. Hail Of Re-
lics!" II.