Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-12

wrunG; but your doctrines are so
dangerous. and the modification to
the younger members of the family
Is so great that our associations had
better cease, and you need not visit
us until you give up your delusion.
and 1t Is our duty to say that II you
continue Mormon. We must disinherit
you. Hero and there silent tears are
dropping on the parohed earth. But
soon the call of evening vesper Is
hoard. Some one starts the hymn:
We'll find the place which God for
us prepared. far away in the West"
Voice after voice joins In. until
an anthem as touching and sublime
as ever voiced by Beethoven or Mozart
browns the howl of the coyote and
seems to hush all nature to rever-
cnt silence.
THE next morning. the wheeled
ships of the camp that had plowed
the sand of the desert and Jared over
natures roads. unsmoothed by mans
hand. were cleared for action
Logs for lumber. logs for house.
poles and the corrals, must be had
from roadless gulches. Some pathetic.
some comic. scenes were witnessed:
former-time professors. merchants.
literary men, scaling the hills with an
AK and a lariat. improvising them
selves into draft-mules. pulling down
pittance of wood and timber till they
got sufficient to their wagons to make
a load.
There were among us mon who
averaged IS hours work a day during
that fall There were men who, for
some years, by their records, show
that they averaged 16 hours a day. I
knew men who followed the canyons
for two or three consecutive winters.
thr0n In ha
Thirteenth ward) and used to be at
the mouth of Emigration canyon with
their OK team at daylight During tho
day, the snow crust on the hillside
would soften. and often a man would
drop down In the snow. 1t would melt
on him and by night he WAS as wet
as though dragged in a river, and was
forced to walk home to keep from
freezing. When he tried to take his
clothes off they would be n solid mass
of ice.
After all the companies arrived, a
census Of the people and food supply
was taken. l think 1t gave two ounces
of flour day per capita until reasona-
bly, expected harvest time. This food
supply was left in the housekeeping of
the people l knew families who went
on this fasting ration for eight months,
and during the time gave to their
brethren one-half a ton of flour. while
they themselves kept one man digging
the luXuries of thistle roots, segoes.
etc, for dessert to go with this two
ounces OF -four. This eight months
fast was of the most aggravatlng kind.
At any time they could have put their
hands on plenty. When I find one of
their descendants vince under few
hours fast. once a month, l vince, too,
but from a different cause. / saw
stalwart men who had divided their
rations among their little ones who
cried for more bread. go reeling to
their labors from the lack OF enough
to cat.
Il remained in these valleys until the
spring of 1850, when l took a three
and a half years mission to Europe.
I'VE were awful Mormons then; no
'regeneroting grace to purify, elevate
or Amerlcanize us. and yet / bear
solemn testimony that up to 1850. 1
never heard the name of God taken in
valn-never saw a man intoxicated
ISOLATION among the sexes in the set
tlement
To-day most of those who are the
founders of this commonwealth lie on
the hillsides between Mexico on the
south and Canada on the north. A few
have dropped In the gospel harness
and sleep in foreign soil. Now and then
one can still be found in a ward of
some of the stakes, perchance worry
Ing that he Is not doing enough for the
work. He Is trying to save n pIttance
each month to purchase little OF the
finest linen. that when he lies down to
his last sleep he may have that decency
Of shroudlng that has marked his
whole decent life, and preserve the
jewel of independence to the last
when the books of the life's history
Of some of these pioneer men and
a .rantnnl Ihor.-- L.