Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-07-24


journey through the unknown wilderness into which
they entering. What most impressed the
iowans was that the people did not seem to be
greatly out of heart They, had however, the habit
of stopping on high hills and looking steadily back
in the direction where they had last looked upon the
receding vision of their temple and It's gilt
terng spire. AT night singing was usual at the
camp. and the plaintve melody of human voices amid
the forest or on the prairie the unusual sound
which attracted the attention of many a hunter and
frontiersman who had penetrated the wilderness in
search OF game
AT WINTER QUARTERS
The main camp established itself at Winter
Quarters ON the west bank of the Missouri. partly
occupying bluffs which the Indians were
wont to hold their councils whence the later name
of Council Bluffs The houses were built of logs n
fertilization was erected, grst mill and log tab
ernacle put up, and schools established. This work
was done, in part at least simply to keep the men
at work since the place could be occupied for only
a year or two at most But the habit OF work WAS
innate with these pioneers. Col Kane relates that
IT was comfort to notice the readiness with which
they turned their hands to woodcraft one
would fell a tree, strip Off its bark cut and spt
UP the trunk in piles of plank scantling shingles
make posts pins, poles-everything wanted almost
to the branch esand his toll from first to last
with sportive flourish than a schoolbov whittl
ing his shnge."
TRIALS OF THE JOURNEY
But the winter was hard one and tbe iorn.,
Just completed had had its dark side Sickness
had been general Deaths had been SO FREQUENT that
burals had TO be performed without ceremony
Sorrow and lamentation had been daily visitors No
family had escaped; few but had buried one or
more Col Kane describes familiar scene one
of the patients, whose emaciated features were m
by candle pickering in the bleak air off the river
was dying of fever "over his head was something
like tent made of sheet two, and he rested
on a partially ripped old straw mattress with a
har SOFA cushion under his head for pillow His
gaping jaw and glazinp eye told how short a time
p1in
well-nght broken down physically by this time and
the miasnatc atmosphere that rose from extended
areas about them of at that time swampy forest
covered lands, brought disease Food was scare
The Indians had to be placated and closely watched
besides
THE MORMON BATTALION
In 1886 the war with Mexico had broken out The
authorities at Washington had learned that the Nor
mons We're on their way California or Oregon
then Mexican territory, decided to make use of
these colonists in winning this great area To aid
Gen Kearney, it was decided to call on 500 volun-
teers from the Mormons then encamped at Pisgah
and Council Bluffs. Capt Allen laid the proposition
before the people, who at first looked upon this call
as a stroke of their enemies destroy them ut
teily But Prest Young showed them that the nation
itself was not responsible for their expulsion from
Nauvoo. and urged the enlistment of the 500 vol
unteers thereafter to be known 1.-THE Mormon
Battalion" The people rose, with fine patriotism to
the occasion. Boys offered drive the teams that
elder brothers or fathers might enlist the wo-
men again faced the additional impending priva-
ton with quiet heroism, and urged the men to go
To distract the minds OF the people the awful
foreboding, of the and nameless fear that now
occupied the thoughts of many the evening before
the departure of this battalion for the long march
into Mexico appropriated to a farewell ball
"A more merry dancing party" writes Col Kane
Il have never SEEN" At close, a song in touch
ing melody to the words of the text by the river of
Babylon we sat down and wept," sung by a
young lady with fair face and dark eyes, to a
quartet accompaniment. The battalion, waving the
Stars and Stripes, passed St Joseph marching TO
the tune OF THE Girl Left Behind Me" But their
story cannot be told here.