SPLENDID CITY BUILT “FROM NOTHING”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 176, 15 October 1927, Page 26 (Supplement)

SPLENDID CITY BUILT “FROM NOTHING”

Th© Romanic© of Salt Lak©

City o o o Th© Visloo, of Brigham Y©umgo o „ Pr©sp©rouns Utah State

(Written for THE SUN by

W. D. OWEN)

■ EARING so much, and seeing so many pictures of Salt Lake City, its -wonderful Temple, its Tabernacle, and Great Organ, its great " Salt Lake, its valley, and its surrounding mountains, I had, for many years, expressed a wish to see this part of the world. In the fullness of time, as the novelists say, my wish was gratified and I arrived to find the city filled with visitors from all over the United States. The Mormon Church was holding its annual three days’ festival. It was very interesting to see the huge crowds leaving the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall, Museum, and College buildings at the end of each session, and congregate on the 10-acre Temple grounds, or, in the streets, making their way to their hotels for the next meal, all pilgrims from New York, San Francisco, and the various centres to the centre of the Mormon Church —Salt Lake City. The friend with whom I was staying wished, naturally, that I should see as much as possible in my limited stay, and I was first taken to the Museum. This building is one of the many standing in the 10-acre Temple grounds. Here I was introduced to the curator, a man of over 70 years of age, and a nephew of Brigham Young, the founder of Salt Lake City. The exhibits demonstrated the character and tenacity of the people who suffered untold agony in their march West, to an unknown wilderness, for the sake of the faith they professed. The Museum contains the first log house built in Salt Lake, taken to pieces from its original site and reconstructed in the Museum, to be shown to the generations to come as the work of the pioneers in 1547, and as a comparison to the present magnificent buildings—only SO years intervening. Here also we see the

spinning wheel, brought on the long march; chairs and crude pieces of furniture, all cut from the trees in the then wilderness. From the Museum we toured the Temple grounds. The buildings are contained in a square of 10 acres, surrounded by a four-square wall, 12ft high and 3ft thick. This is the original wall built in the early days to contain Mormon places of worship, and at the same time to protect followers from the Indians. On their first arrival, they built, a few crude shelters, and the story is told that, on the actual first day of arrival, they planted a six-acre crop with potato seed, and constructed a channel from a mountain stream to this plot to irrigate it. With Brigham Young as their leader, all that was left of the original party were 87 men, two women, three children, and two or three coloured servants. The Auditorium, or Tabernacle, is a huge building with a seating capacity

of 13,000; the roof is oval shaped and secured to the sides of the building by internal piers; there is not one nail in the building, as in the pioneer days transportation was a difficult and expensive problem. This building stands to-day, as it was built, of local stone and timber, the whole secured by leather thongs and wooden pins. The Tabernacle Choir is 500 strong, and during its long career it has had three Welsh conductors—John Parry, Charles Thomas, and Professor Evan Stephens, who held the appointment for 40 years. He recently retired through old age. In the grounds of the Assembly Hall is a beautiful monument to the seagull. The story is told that just previous to the pioneers’ first harvest, a plague of crickets rolled down the mountain side and attacked the fields of grain; men, women and children fought the foe, but with no success. W T hen all appeared black, a swarm of seagulls came and made short work of the crickets, whereby the crops were saved. To commemorate this, the seagull monument was erected. Of course, no visit to Utah would be complete without a glimpse of the two houses built by Brigham Young for his personal use—Lion House, and the Bee Hive. To show that the Mormon of to-day has a sense of humour, my guide informed me he did not quite know where all the Mrs. Youngs resided, but he fancied it must have been the “Beehive,” as it was an appropriate name. These houses are now placed at the disposal of the President, but the present head of the Church (President Grant) prefers to live in his own home. On the evening of my first day, we motored to Saltair —a lakeside resort, some 12 miles or so from the city. Saltair is a miniature Coney Island, bdilt upon piles driven into the lake itself, so that once you have passed through the main entrance you are actually standing over the lake; the prinpical building is used for concerts, and the floor is said to be the finest in the world for dancing. One feature of Saltair is its bathing; Salt Lake itself contains lib of salt to every 51b of water, so bathing is quite safe, even to the most inexperienced. Early one morning my guide drove me to the canyon where Brigham Young and his pioneers saw Salt Lake Valley for the first time. A plain, simple monument stands where Brigham Young stood and pointed out the “chosen place.” Here I would mention, that although Brigham Young and a few of his elders believed in, and practised, polygamy, yet the principal part of the followers did not believe in it, and it is a wellknown fact a law was passed by the Salt Lake people themselves forbidding polygamy long before the United States Government passed its Federal law at Washington. This fact should be made more generally known to the outside world by visitors and tourists, as the Mormon people themselves will not trouble to do so. As this day was “the” busy day of the festival, we lunched at the Hotel Utah after the organ recital; this hotel is one of the finest and most magnificent one could find in the whole gf the United States. It is said that the Mormon Church has a big voice in the administration of this hotel, and rightly so, seeing the city was built up from a wilderness by a small band of people, driven from one place to another until there was no place to settle outside of a wilderness practically at the foot of the Rockies. The youth of Salt Lake, both boys and girls, are a credit to the United States, and they hold the record of being 100 per cent. fit. I saw no C 3 type at all, neither did I see anyone poorly dressed. I saw no women or girls artificially painted up, excepting some of the tourists passing through. Our General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, after he placed the Boy Scout movement on its feet in England, wrote the United States Government asking them to start the movement in that country, and the Mormons of Utah were the first to respond. To-day, they have the finest of all troops in the United States.

I mentioned to several of tho 1 ing Mormons what 1 had read in r lish papers about the Mormon sionarv and his method of converts. Each and every me that the instructions of the rhnVSl to its missionaries were to m.'Jt cS o C , W a’;, k ,he SalTe lines* ms? Paul did: that no missionary hS T structions to make a house res call in the absence of the maT’orn? house, and no authority to i„„people to Salt Lake City. Any I"* sionarv that does anything outside) opening a church or mission hall inviting people to that hall i. (A carrying out his orders from Church. a

When the pioneers marched »■„ suffering untold agony, the band i creasing daily and wandering if would ever reach its goal. Brirh,» Y oung asked if anyone would com»S a few lines and set to music. soT they could cheer themselves singing. This was dene, and it h. a wonderful effect on the marcher? likewise when dancing was sugcesrJ The Mormon believes in good draS at the theatre, and in 1861, Brigha-? Young built a theatre, a well-appoinuS structure with a seating capacitv Z 1,800. This building stands Vdav As Salt Lake City in its early dan was a thousand miles from the nearest trading station—the Missouri River-, merchandise was carried bv ox teams and journeys occupied three tom months. Under these conditions ternporary scarcities of goods would’arise and exorbitant prices would be charged. Brigham Young decided ■» organise a co-operative institution. K as to regulate the trade and prevent the enrichment of the few. Re instituted the Zion’s Co-operative Mercantile Institution, the first departmental store in the United States It is interesting to know that a quarter of a million dollars was subscribed before the commencement of business, and the first year's sales (18691 amounted to a million and a-quarter dollars. To-day, the same store has an annual turnover of 13 million dollars. Being the first store of its kind, its motto is: “Live and Help to Live” Brigham Young undoubtedly was s genius. He not only reached his objective after a long, wearisome march, but he was the leading spirit in the de velopment of a city from a barren valley. In the Temple grounds stands a life like statue in bronze to Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. They were both killed at Carthage. Illinois, on June 27, 1844. The friendship of the brothers Hyrum and Joseph Smith is foremost among the few great friendships of the world’s history; thennames will be classed among the martyrs for religion. In life they were not divided; in death they were not separated. The Utah pioneers had been tossed out of civilisation into the wilderness, and on the outer gate of civilisation a flaming sword of hate had been placed which was turned every way against them. All ties of the past had beet surrendered. They were so poor thit they were unable to secure the necessities of life. Such was their condition as they took up their Western march. Dsv by day there was the same limitless expanse of wilderness around them. In sunshine and storm they pressed onwards; they learnt to economise food and clothing, and to smile at hardships and fatigue. They were nearing no land of vine and flowers; only the desert awaited them. They reached it at last; and when their leader told them they had reached their chosen place, they raised their voices in thanksgiving, as their forefathers did on the shores of New Enl land. Whatever the future holds for Utah, the story of toil and suffering and final triumph should be held as sacred history. It should be taught to the children in school that these pioneers went there in despair, and yet, by *#• cessant toil, laid the foundation of » [State.