Year: 1874




Aug. 18th, 1874.


Ed. Idrertiser After long in
terval | will again give YOU few o.
my observations in this land of saints
this new "kingdom of God" /,
used to be that the wicked grass.
hopper was the scourge of this coun,
try, as the locusts even were to the
Egyptians and other oriental coun.
tries in olden times. The fact is that
in years past the aforesaid grass
hopper has acted very "unpretty'
here, devouring every last vestige Of
crops and all other vegetation on top
Of the earth, except the sage brush,
grease wood and pine trees, in con-
sequence of which famine was
created throughout both and the peo-
pile compelled to live on roots and
such things as the grasshopper could
not get at. All this was said by the
prophet (spelled 'sproft" nowdays)
to be to try the faith and zeal Of this
people. should Judge from the
newspaper accounts that they are
giving you whack of the same ex-
pertinent in Iowa. 1t won't take
long on that line to bring You in
guilty.


THE TIMES


here are at present the most gloomy
| have ever known in Utah. The
mines are the only resource of the
people to furnish the money to pay
their debts. The mines are dong
extremely well, but the debts are too
great for them. Money is very
scarce and draws five per cent. per
month interest. On good real estate
city security it can occasionally he
had as low as per cent, but not
very often, and the length of loans
only by month. From this You can
see that the dull times that are COM
planned of in the east have culmina-
ted in Utah.


MINING MATTERS


never looked more hattering than
now. 1t is estimated that the bull
lion product alone, of the territory,
will reach sS,000,oo0 this year. This
item being all the item of credit in
the commercial ledger cannot square
the accounts. But then this item is
growing longer very rapidly. Three
years ago it was only a few thous
ands; two years ago less than a
million: one year ago less than FIVE
millions and now again doubles
itself, SO that in two years more we
can look for an export of bullion and
ore that will square the account and
leave large credit for Utah The
smelling of ores is becoming very
| important business and is rapidly in
creasing, and well it should, for no
legitimate business ally where can
pay better. A smelter with two
furnaces will cost $4,000 and then
with an additional capital of $4,000
to buy ores and carry on the busi-
ness it will yield profit of from
5000 to $1,000 per day. No guess
work about this, but figures taken
| from actual results. The mines are
doing well, being constantly increas-
ing in the producing capacity as they
are more fully developed. Let me
give you one instance. The Flavila
and Queen Of the Hill tore mines)
was bought few months ago for
$4,000. The purchasers have spent
about $4,000 working il and now
have on the claim over 500 tons of
ore, worth $50 per ton, and over
100000 worth of ore by estimate
standing between their shafts in the
mine. The same may be said of
several other mines, but perhaps not
to the same extent.


MORMON INSTITUTES.


But it is not mines nor grasshop-
pers that you care most about in
Utah. 1t is to hear of the people.
the mormons, Of. polygamy, of Enoch
and Brigham, but most Of polygamy,
for although your staid old folks in
Cedar are good and pious, yet I'll
bet when they take up newspaper
the first thing every last one of them
looks for is the Beecher-Tilton scan
dal. So too in a letter from Utah,
they will instinctively look for and
read that part Of it that is headed


PoLYGAMy,


which exists here with but trifling
difference from what it did when !
first entered these valleys. The diff
ference is that it is not quite SO fre-
quently entered into, and at present
some little secrecy about whom and
when it is being consumated. Young
girls are still advocates Of it and
willing to partake, but not so readily
nor to such an extent as formerly,
while it as an institution hourlshes
all around us in its pristine vigor.
The endowment house, where all
who enter polygamy are required to
be inducted in the holy mysteries Of
the church, still is doing regular
business weekly inveigling the young
and foolish girls, mostly foreigners,
into the miseries of plurality. A
part of the ceremony Of endowment,
preparatory to polygamous marriages,
consists of amounting the candidates
for matrimony with oil-holy OIL
hence the ungodly call the endow
ment house "the greasing shop" OF
course there are many new phases of
plurality that occasionally arise that
would not have been known in prior
times. For instance: One of the
high functioparies of the territory has
three wives, also substantial Danish
woman to do the house work. Mad
am Denmark wanted wages (unrea-
sonable) so the old buck settled her
bill by marrying her-worse and
worse-then she wanted dresses,
shoes and stockings and bonnets, and
to sit in the parlor. She was denied /;
she insisted; he undertook to reason
with her with his fists; it was her
best accomplishment; she went after
him rough, knocked him down, beat
him soundly and ran the other wo-
men out of the house. She held to
him until he came to terms and gave
her good sum of money if she
would leave, which she did, and he
went to Brigham and got a divorce.