The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-30

without a guide, without Il knowledge
OF the country, without reading the notes
of any traveller upon this Garth. or seeing
the face Of living being who ever set set
hand of God through his servant Brig
ham, through the difficult passes of
these until we Ss Sst ioo upon
Smith. second counselor to President
Brigham Young, in tabernacle, July "a,
1852.
Annually. on each recurring oath day
of July, hundreds of orations landatory
of the pioneers Of Utah arc delivered
by chosen representatives of the saints
wherever there are enough of them to
celebrate Pioneer day The observance
of the day is entirely laudable, and too
much can hardly be said in praise of
the achievements Of those virlle men
and women of 1s47. The only objection
them is more or less saturated with
falsehoods for the purpose of 'ebuild~
ing up the faith of the young in the
divine mission of MormonIsm, And the
above excerpt from President Smith IS
Grafton is "A sample of Mormon false
hoods told in Gath of July orations,
To the young Mormons who never
Of history except from Mormon sources,
the country between the Missouri river
and Salt Lake City was trackless
wilderness occupied by marauding say
ages and wild beasts.
Passing the fact that Lewis and Clark
in 1904 1905; and the expedition under
Wilson Price Hunt III 1910, went from
the Missouri river to the mouth of the
Columbia river in Oregon, thus prov
feasible, young Mormons, those who
have the privilege of reading The Trib-
une, are Informed that as early as 1923.
General Ashley of Missouri established
hunting, trapping and trading post on
Green river. near the mouth Of Ashley
Fork, IN northeastern Utah. In 1880
General Ashley sold out his business to
William Sublette and James Bridger.
The latter built stockade fort on
Ham, Fork and it was we'll known as
| the last frontier settlement west Of the
Missouri during the years Of pioneer
travel
From 1923 to 1880 welI-beaten pack
trail existed between the Missouri and
Green rivers.
In 1881 Sublette conveyed small
train of wagons from the Missouri as
| owing TO the dryness of the climate, the
wagons fell to pieces and were aban-
| doned
| On May l, 1882, Captain Bonneville
left Fort Usage, on the Missouri, with
twenty wagons loaded with mcrchan-
disc, and on the Goth of Nav reached
the confluence of Laramie fork with
the Platte river, whore. subsequently
an army post was established On July
q Captain Bonneville's train forded
Green river and camped on the large
meadows known as Pierre's Hole. IT
was the first train of wagons to enter
Utah, and preceded the pioneer train
under President Young just fifteen
years.
Suppose some hair Drained fanatic
were to claim for Captain Bonneville g
magnificent achievement that, "With-
out guide etc, Hhe was led by the
hand of God" etc, would not the Lat
ter"day Saints charge him with being
a lunutic? The only difference between
the achievement of Bonneville and Brig
ham Young was that the formers jour
ney was about ESQ miles shorter than
that of President Young, and that the
latter, at least from Fort Laramie, had
a plain wagon road to travel made by
Oregon emigrants who followed Bonne
vile IS route. And some of those wag
on tracks reached as far as the head OF
| Emigration canyon, less than fifteen
miles from the present site of Salt Lake
City If God led Brigham Fthrougf
the difficult passes of these mountains
then the Almighty must be credited
with making those wagon tracks tC
the head of Emigration canyon.
The Mormon Battalion Fake.
Another of the Mormon prophets pet
canards is their pretense that the gov
ernment of the United States demanded
500 men of the Mormon refugees from
Nauvoo. and while they were en- route
to the Missouri river.
The suggestion to send this communi
cation to The Tribune was made by Ell
der Charles II. Hart, one of the ''sever
presidents of the seventy in his tall
on the pioneers in the tabernacle las
Sunday, July "a. Elder Hart is in
of the enlistment of tho Mormon bat
TALON or he, like his superiors in The
priesthood, is willful dispenser Of
falsehoods. In his ignorant, or willfully
false haranguc of last Sunday Eide
Hart read from "Bancroft IS History o.
Utah, in which it is alleged that 18th,
draft of 500 men for the Mexican wa
was a severe test Of the patriotism Of
the Mormon people.
HTo the law and the testimony i
ever the PROSECUTING cry Of the Mormon
prophets and their ignorant representa-
tiycs who fcarry the gospel TO foreigl
lands,' y and 1T is with real pleasure tina
the prophets and saints arc respect
fully referred to their own prophets 70
the evidence that brands such creatures
as Joseph +, Smith, Reed Smoot, Charlie
II. Hart, ct al, as the greatest aggrega
tion Of ignoramuses since the stone age
; or the most unsavory bunch of Gin
spired' prevaricators that ever lied IL
) the name, and "by the authority o
God -
The effort of every cath of July ora
tor is to impress on the minds of youn!
Mormons that Joseph Smith, the proph
ct. saw in vision the Salt Lake valley
and that had he lived, he would hav
led his people into the Businesses o
the mountains" where ga city woul'
be built in a day and where tn
" devil could not dig them out; - AM
that Brigham Young was the successo
of Joseph Smith IS mission and visions
In the borrowed language of tn
i "Prophet' - Joseph T.. Smith. " Let fact
! be submitted TO candid worldl' il
4 a circular letter issued by the Mormon
c high council of Nauvoo we find the fo
lowing.
:. ''To the members of the churc
4 4 IL III, In