Year: 1872

The Latter Day Saints, with their intense
following of the Mosaic law, have not been
exempt from the ancient scourges Of that Pc
riod. The locust, with "a garden Of Eden
before him, and behind him desolate wilder
ness" makes periodical visit to the Nor
mon farmers, and reminds them of the old
times when the chosen of the Lord brought q
like visitation on the obdurate Egyptians.


The flights of these ravenous destroyers
were thus described to me by an eyewitness
and fellow-traveler:


81 was called out one morning." he began,
"while stopping at one of these settlements we
have just left behind, by my farmer host:
The locusts were coming, he said, and all
hands were engaged in endeavoring to save
the corn6elds. A man who had ridden in
great haste from a district some twenty miles
east, reported that the morcets were at work,
and mi ght be expected at our place next
morning. I hurried out and found every
man, woman and child in the place fortifying
their crop against the invader. Some were
digging bitches and turning the waters of the
nearest stream into the dyke, while others
were piling up dry brushwood, ready to be
ignited when the enemy approached. Again,
others brought sort of dralght machine on
the ground, fitted with revolving. fans, the
wind of which was supposed to be able to
check the flight of the locusts. And the ut
most dismay and CONSERVATION prevailed.


"The day passed in the utmost activity.
No lady in the village was disengaged. She
felt the danger, and, at the same time, GER
tain inability to combat with what the SUPER
stitious regarded (and all Mormons are su-
perstitious,) as visitation from the Lord.


"About noon the next day they perceived
a dark cloud in the east, and they knew that
the moment of trial was at hand. 1 could
give no idea of the number or voracity of the
locusts. Every blade of grass, every ear Of
corn every weed and leaf of verdure, disap-
peared like stubble in the fire before these
terrible gourmands. From about the height
of five feet to the ground the air was dense
with their masses They few in our faces
like hail, filled our pockets, and were piled in
heaps about our feet. The women and chill
dren and men formed rank before the corn
field and endeavored to beat them back, but
although the slain were piled up many feet
high, the locusts never wavered a moment
but pressed on, eating and dying and rotting
in disgusting charnel heaps. The water
courses we're full of them, and the survivors
crossed the stream over the dead bodies Of
their vanguard. The dry brush was lighted
and burned fercely, fed by clouds Of the de-
stroying armies; but in few hours the
throng extinguished the fame and crowded
on over the cinders to the doomed cornfelds
The hogs and chickens were let loose on the
destroyer, but they soon grew satiated with
the feast, and still the locusts pressed on.
And when at last the despairing farmers with
drew and gave up the fight, all that night the
locusts fell on their roofs like hailstones, and
crawled in through every nook and crevlce in
their dwellings.


"The next morning when they arose at day
light to inspect the extent Of their damages, a
woful sight presented itself. The country