The St. Johns herald., 1897-08-28

to old King Solomon would be the proper one here ''The half has not been told"
 There is but one church edi6ce in America
 larger than the Mormon mple--there is none
 grander -Tfiere is nothing in the world eousJ
 to the Mormon Tabernacle. It has the largest
 organ in the world, built nere of native woods
 and metals its organist Mormon from the soe
 of four years. There is no such choir in Amer.
 ica nor this side of Rome. They gave ns ra- eital one night and were good enough to wait until our night session was concluded s+ m o'clock There were 500 voices in the choir end there were 10, GOO listeners, who were t,pated +o the "HalIelujah Chorus "''Utah. Iora rrboo ,, 'America," and other choice selections ond to every one of that vast audience every word or5
 every note was as distinct IS would hsvo hoon
 the words of a soloist to single listener
 attended the exercises OIL Sunday last o,,,-
 to hear the music, and if Were to ramair ho..
 the balance of my life, every Sunday wouId fns
 me devout worshipper of that grand oroo-, a,i
 the choir.
 And this leads me to another remark
 strolled into the Tabernacle nearly an hour be-
 fore services began There were perhaps fifty people present. and not e tue large ploDor-
 hOn Of old people Old lael and women; very cid men and women spff IS the huge edifce ulled I'D the FsrePnrti9n o7 e1S people did not lessen. An old man took seat Hcsr- nc spoke to him aboutit. Hewas apparently sev- enty years of age; had lived here forty years, and was of course Mormon. He said: We are 8 temperate people of regular habits, temperate in all things, and thaIis why we live to greater
 age than some other people We have had to work hard and have endured many privations, Al, oIIg there are thirty seven living members of the pioneer band of about one hundred and fifty, who entered this solitary desert fifty years ago about one fourth of the stalwart manhood of 1S47--is conclusive evidence that steady habits, coupled with pure air, will lengthen life beyond the presumed limit of three score and ten. President Woodruff is in his ninety first year I saw him in the Tabernacle on Sunday and again yesterday, when he unveiled the statue of Brig ham Young, his predecessor.
 Now, don't think that I have become Q Mor- mon, for I have not Polygamy has been re- nounced by the head of the church. so that what might seem it's chief attraction Is gone; but with thousands and tens of thousands of others who have visite6 these people and studied them in a quiet manner, have learned to have great re- spect for the Mormon people, and will willingly record my belief that Brigham Young was one of the greatest leaders of men of the Nineteenth century He has been charged with many of lenses, perhaps he was guilty of some He has gone to his reward or his punishment, but the church he established, the people he led, like Moses from bondage and persecution. are four ishing, and this noble city with its 10000 inhab itants this gTea commonwealth of 25CO 600 souls, with it's foundation laid in desert sands, is an enduring monument that needs no sculptures inscription to tell the world that he was greater than Moses.
 I have drawn this letter out too long, and had better stop; but before closing let me say to ey cry man and woman in North America, who is able to make tour of pleasure, don't go to Eu- rope until you have studied America. There is more of interest west of the one hundredth me- ridian, of mountain and plain, than can be inn agined, Take Horace Greeley's advice, and Go West young man and old man. old woman and woman By guide book, read it snd be- Iieye it I didn't believe them three weeks ago, ! but do now, only that they don't hali dcs ribe what they -l. ap "''a- 9 won T turn aud happen t. pass through New Aesteo. . as you go by my Title lakeside homo along alout sunrise. you may lock across the iuteTv,ning DTS .rtc ard lake snd say "Old man. you told us the truth, but not all Of It." |