The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-09
HUNDREDS SEEK
BEDS IN VAIN
Conference Crowds More Than Fill
Hotels.
WOMEN HUNT FOR SHELTER
POLICE STATION HOUSES MEN
WHO CAME LONG DISTANCE.

A bent old farmer stepped from a
Rio Grande passenger train Saturday
evening. He stood a moment half be-
wildered. He had come more than
100 miles since evening began. That
day he had driven half the distance
across an alkali desert,
During his five hours ride he had
stood in the crowded aisle of the chair
car, holding his Bible with his rail-
road ticket between the pages. Take
it altogether he was well wearied.
He stood a moment beneath the
white glare of the arc lights looking
about him. He had not been in Zion
for thirty years. His last journey he
had made in d covered wagon. While
he stood the few who had come from
his little town. the only ones he knew
in the whole place. had found their
ways TO buses and street cars. He
followed slowly.
On the rear platform of an electric
car he stood the buffetings of hurrying
passengers and the blows from heavy
grip sacks thrown about by needless
hands, until he reached Main street.
There with the rest Of the crowd he
disembarked.
Came After Thirty Years.
The Zion he had known thirty years
before was gone; he found that out
before he had completed a weary
fruitless round of hotels and lodging
houses. He was in a strange place a
city larger than he had ever seen be-
fore. Its stone sidewalks and asphalt
pavements made his limbs ache. He
walked over them until morning-for
in all this great place there was no
shelter for him.
Yesterday he sat in the tabernacle
and the tears ran down his bronzed
cheeks while he listened to the head of
his church speak of his enemies. He
heard the great organ and the eloquent
voices of men whose names had been
household words among his people for
years.
Last evening he left. along with hun
dreds like him. Men and women had
come hundreds of miles, to find a
strange city that did not know them,
which they did not know, save only its
temple grounds And of these old peo-
pie nearly all were glad when the train
that bore them away began TO move
toward the homes they had left two
days before.
Found No Shelter in Zion.
More than 200 men and women with
money for hotel expenses walked Salt
Lake City's streets Saturday night The
conference rush had filled every room
in the business section of the city, and
beds were not to be had. Old men, girls
and women endured the cold rain and
wind for hours seeking shelter.
They slept in restaurant chairs. in
hotel Hobbies, and in the police station.
These were the more fortunate. The
others YEARLY walked the sidewalks
until morning.
At the Oregon Short Line and Rio
Grande waiting rooms long rows of
women sat. Some had little children
and one or two carried babies. One or
two found places through the efforts of
patrOlmen and hackmen. But many had
TO stick it out.
At the police station an old man and
his young daughter came in during the
hour after midnight. They asked for
shelter, and told d story of an all
nights hunt for a room. They were
given cot. Half an hour later four
men had come in and gotten places on
the long tables in the squad room. All
of these had money but could find no
place to use it, for room rent.
The hackmen and patrOlmen helped
more than one luckless Wanderer find
a room. But after midnight their re-
sources were used up. During the
hours from 1 o'clock until sunrise
groups of men from out of town, and
occasionally a woman who had been
unable to get housed, walked up and
down the streets waiting for the com
ing of daylight.
Other conferences have brought
great crowds to Salt Lake, but this
seems to have been the greatest, at
least in later years. They came from
all points. Among those who sought
shelter were men and women from Ari-
IONA, New Mexico, Idaho. Wyoming
and all parts of Utah.
Crowds Turn Toward Home.
The crowds began to thin yesterday
afternoon. From the temple
grounds to the Oregon Short Line and
Rio Grande stations two lines of
humanity stretched directly after seri
vices and maintained themselves
until evening. The Oregon Short Line
ran out a special passenger train to
the north at o'clock in the afternoon.
Long before that hour came the train
was filed every inch of it.
On the temple grounds during the
Open-air services a crowd of young salt
Lake roWdies. the Well-dressed sort OF
hoodlums who make themselves loved
In the community by insulting women
We're busy until the police hunted them
down Girls from the country were
the object of their attentions, and these
they msulted pTomiscuOusly. Eight OF
ten of them were taken from the
grounds by the officers.
Local restaurants had a constant rush
during Friday and Saturday This rush
kept up until yesterday morning