--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Waterman, Nixon collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 4 number: 5 published: 1901-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Nixon Waterman, "Pure Thoughts: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 4, no. 5 (March 1901): 367.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0405unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0405unse start_page: 367 end_page: 367 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1901-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0405unse publication_year: 1901 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1901, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Pure Thoughts: A Poem ; — MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE. 867 was no other than the supreme authority in England of the "Mormonites," and the subject upon which he was giving information was the mode in which the emigration to Utah— Great Salt Lake—is conducted. This curious personage is named Richards; he is an American by birth; is a dark, rather good-looking man; I should judge of fair education, and certainly of more than average intelligence. He gave himself no airs, but was so respectful in his demeanor, and ready in his answers, that, at the close of his examination, he received the thanks of the committee in rather a marked manner. * * * Questions from Mr. F. Peel elicited many interesting facts relative to the sect; but I will only stop to notice generally, that, according to Mr. Richards, the great hope of the "Mormons" is to form a nation by the Great Salt Lake. At any rate, there is one thing which, in the opinion of the emigration committee of the House of Commons, they can do; viz: teach Christian shipowners how to send poor people decently, cheaply and heathfully across the Atlantic. In closing, I will say that before the report of this committee was sent to the House of Commons for their action, it was forwarded to me, at my office in Liverpool, for examination, that every word might be as I would wish to have it reported, which I considered a very unusual compliment, in view of so many questions having been asked entirely irrelevant to the matter under consideration, by the committee. Among all of my experiences in missionary life, as varied, perhaps, as those of any other man living at the present time, I place this as among the most interesting and satisfactory of them all. PURE THOUGHTS. The lily's lips are pure and white, Without a touch of fire The rose's heart is warm and red, And sweetened with desire; In earth's broad field of deathless bloom. The gladdest lives are those Whose thoughts are as the lily. And whose hearts are like the rose. ^Nixon Waterman.