The Worthington advance., 1900-01-05
An Interesting Letter.
WH1rr1ER, California.

have now been from sea to sea, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. We have
also been from "see to see," for ii
has been a succession of "sighte,' y
no two of them alike. 1t has also
been from &C to c." from Colorado
to California. l think that will an
swer for an introduction.
| The Merrill family with all their
"contraptions" left Silverton, Colo.
RADIO, Monday morning, Aug. 28th.
Instead of going around by train, we
hired team and went over by trail,
from Silverton to Ouray. The dis
tance is "a miles. For the first IL it
was up. up, up; the last IL it was
down, down, down, down. I have in
tentionally put more downs than
ups, for when we reached OuraY, al
though we were then 77OO feet above
sea-leve], we were 1900 feet lower
than when we started. Between the
two places, I suppose we were at one
point at an altitude of nearly $4,000
feet. But l think the preachers
family were never before quite so
throughly shaken mp as they were
on that trip. The IL miles down
from Red Mountains you might al
most call succession of stone steps.
down which we ratified, shake after
shake. A great deal of the way the
road simply wound around the side
of the mountain, and good share
OF the distance was just wide enough
for the. wagon to pass. You Can
easily imagine that it seemed "po-
kerish" to look down hundreds of
feet into the gorges and chasms be-
low, and think that if the brake
shonld give way, or the horses become
frightened, there was only step, |
and a very short one at that, between
us and eternity. l think Mrs Mer-
rllIs experience on that trip wuold
have led her to about the same con-
clusion that the man reached after
his first trip down toboggan slide,
he said he wouldn't have missed it !
for five dollars, and he wouldn't do
it again for five hundred. But there
is no use in attempting to describe
the indescribable, personal expert
ence is the only thing that can give
one correct idea of such A trip. |
There is one thing about mountain !
scenery unlike. the prairie, there is
nothing ~monotonous in it; you never
get two views of anything alike; it
seems almost as though every step
gives you new picture.
At Ouray we visited the famous
Box Canon. 1t is almost literally a
b. X worn out of the solid rock b,
the action of the stream flowing
through it. Undoubtedly millions
If years have been required to put it !
in It's present shape; but then the
Great Architect can afford to take
time for His work. At Ouray we |
transferred from the trail to the train
and began our long journey to the
coast. We met with no unusual ex-
perience till we reached Salt Lake
City, where we did have an expert
ence never realized in our lives be-
fore; we were met at the depot by
mormon relatives, of whom we had
heard much, but whom we had never
seen till that morning. l do not
suppose they had any thought of
proselyting, or inducing us to desert
our faith and settle in mormondom;
but if that Lad been their object
they certainly could not have done
more to make our stay in their city
agreeable and pleasant. Salt Lake
City, for place of $4,000 people
has an unusually large number of
points Of interest of national, and
even worldwide celebrity. The Nor
mon Temple we could see from the
outside, but were not permitted to
enter, only mormons can go inside,
and not all mormons at that, but
only good mormons. (To find out
what good mormon is, you will
have to consult some other authority
than a Gentle preacher.) But we
were allowed to go through the Nor
mon Tabernacle. It is said to seat
from $4,000 to 14,O00. 1 suppose
there is not another structure like it
in the world. It's acoustic proper
ties seem to be perfect. The attend
ant sent us to the farther side of the
room from himself, and then speak
ing in whisper, rubbing his hands
together, dropping a pin upon the
altar, we could distinctly hear all
these sounds. The great organ we
saw. but did not hear. In the after
noon we were taken out to the lake
IS miles from the city, and had the
privilege of bathing in the body of
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