--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 9 published: 1903-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "George Cannon Lambert," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 9 (July 1903): 671–675.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0609unse 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: improvementera0609unse start_page: 671 end_page: 675 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0609unse publication_year: 1903 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 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # George Cannon Lambert GEORGE CANNON LAMBERT. The fourth general secretary of Y. M. M. I. A. was George Cannon Lambert. He was one of the earliest workers in the Mutual Improvement Associations; in fact, his labors among the young people, like those of many others prominent in the cause, antedates the regular organization several years. He was a mem- ber and officer of a society of young people organized for mutual improvement in the Seventh ward, as early as 1869. When, some years later, the organization of the associations under President Brigham Young became general, he labored energetically under the direction of the Central Committee, traveling and encourag- ing the associations in the introduction of systematic exercises in their work. When the Salt Lake stake organization was effected, he became first assistant to Superintendent Joseph H. Felt. He continued until he was sent on a mission to Great Britain, in Oc- tober, 1882. On his return, in 1885, he was sustained as a mem- ber of the special committee on manual of instructions, the first used by the associations, the special subject allotted to him being Church History. On October 6, 1887, he was sustained general secretary, which position he held until the close of the year 1888, when he resigned this office, as well as that of assistant superin- tendent in the Salt Lake stake, because of his being required to act as business manager of the Deseret News Company, a position that required his entire attention. Since then, although still greatly interested in the work of Mutual Improvement among the young people, his time has been entirely taken up in other mat- ters, he being at present the president and manager of the Lam- bert Paper Company. George Cannon Lambert is the second son of Charles Lam- bert, and Mary Alice Cannon, and was born at Winter Quarters, 674 IMPROVEMENT ERA Nebraska, 'April 11, 1848. He was one and a-half years old when the family reached Utah, in October, 1849. He has made his home entirely in Salt Lake City since that time. His early years were spent amid the hardships characteristic of the settlement of Utah; he recollects the digging of roots and gathering of weeds for the sustenance of the family during the famine which resulted from the ravages of grasshoppers in the early fifties. Herding cows, working on the farm, hauling wood from the mountains, were among the vocations which he early pursued. In those days educational advantages were not very good, and his only oppor- tunity for education was the brief yearly attendance at school when the weather was unfavorable for outdoor work; and after the age of fifteen, he never attended school. When eighteen years of age, he served in the Indian expeditions in Sanpete county, 1866, and was one of the young men who figured con- spicuously in the Thistle Valley fight. One year after the establishment of the Juvenile Instructory which was in 1866, he began working at the printing business on this publication, and later, on the Deseret News, serving his ap- prenticeship in all the departments, and alternated office work with making business trips through the country, also superintend- ing the first paper mill, which was then owned by the JS/ews. He managed the farm and attended to the outdoor business of his uncle, President George Q. Cannon, and for a number of years was a partner with him in the publishing business, being of great assistance, both in the editorial and mechanical work of the busi- ness. The idea of the publication of home works, if not original with him, received at least its first practical application from him in the publication of the "Faith Promoting Series," and he was largely instrumental in the establishment of the book publishing house of Cannon & Sons, which recently passed into the hands of the Deseret News. In the fall of 1882, he sold all his interest to President Cannon, and departed on a mission to England. Here he served over two years, all of which time, except one month, was spent in the mission headquarters in Liverpool, first in the business department, and afterwards in the editorial department of the Church publishing house there. During the time he was GEORGE CANNON LAMBERT. 675 in England, he found time for considerable outside missionary work, and also for extensive travel throughout the isles, visiting also France, Denmark and Sweden. Among his literary works which he there produced was "Ready References," a book which has become extremely popular with the missionaries in the field. In the latter part of December, 1884, he was called by President John Taylor to labor with the Deseret News, having his selection between the business and the editorial departments. Feeling that he was better fitted for the former than the latter, he took hold of the business. About this time the crusade, so called, began. The editor of the News having to absent himself, Elder Lambert found that his services were necessary in the editorial department, in which he continued to labor for sixteen months, until May 11, 1886, when he also, having been convicted on the going charge, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of three hundred dollars for having more wives than one. He was, therefore, transferred from the News office to the penitentiary. It was only a day or two after his arrival at this institution when the governor of Utah, Hon. Caleb W. West, visited the penitentiary, and appealed to all the Latter-day Saints who were there to abandon their plural wives, and 'promise to obey the law in the future as to their marriage relations, promising that if they would so consent, he would secure their pardon. President Lorenzo Snow and forty-seven other brethren were there imprisoned, and Elder Lambert was selected by them to indite a reply declining the offer, which was done, and signed by all who were present, and forwarded to the governor. On obtaining his liberty, November 11, 1886, he resumed his labors in the business department of the Deseret News as assistant manager, and afterwards, for several years, as superintendent, till October, 1892, when the business was leased to Cannon & Sons. He then took the management of the Granite Paper Mill, a cor- poration of which he was a member. The mill was accidentally destroyed by fire, months thereafter, entailing a heavy loss. six He purchased the remainder of the stock, and organized himself and his sons in the name of the Lambert Paper Co., in which his whole business attention has been concentrated ever since. Elder Lambert has held the office of Seventy the greater part — ; 676 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of his life, having been ordained a member of the Twenty-third quorum, of which he has been the senior president since the year 1892. Elder Lambert is a man of excellent character, devoted to principle, firm in conviction, untiring in energy, possessing a dogged perseverance in accomplishing that which he undertakes to do, and is a splendid example of the strenuous life.— Edward H. Anderson. TO THE VICTORS. BY JOSEPHINE SPENCER. No blazoned sign of flag or flute made martial notice of their way; The desert air about was mute —the trappings of the hosts were gray. Yet, routed by their onward tread, the desert's hundred threatening fears Went down where e'er behind them led the tent-flags of the pioneers. Each roadway's bend and hillock's curve sheltered the plain's red denizens; In every hidden thicket's swerve,lurked near,and dread,the wild beast's dens Yet never in the fear-hushed nights the dreaded war-cry sounded near. No blood ensanguined picture blights the pathway of the pioneer. In vain the red man's yearning burned; Fate gave the victor's march to those Whose peaceful ploughshares soon had turned his desert acres to the rose. His futile glances, searching back the hunting ground of wolf and deer Saw, fateful, shine along his track the campfires of the pioneer. Dark danger, like a mist-cloud hung above the hill top's morning crest Shredded to tatters by the sun —melted upon the desert's breast. The lair of beast, the lure of men, whose bones lay bleaching on its sere It saw, rise fateful in its ken, the cottage of the pioneer. But yesterday, the wayworn train through dust and danger led by fate; To-day, upon the sage-shorn plain, the swift-wheeled chariot of the State. It's path an upward-leading way, with laurelled milestones in each year; Its race the triumph of a day lived nobly by the pioneer. a THE DEFIANCE OF JACKSON BARRY. A STORY OF PIONEER DAY. BY GEO. E. BLAIR. CHAPTER I. — PARTING. The mob went singing and clanking through the woods — — company of masked demons cursing, swearing, booted, spurred and armored. Filled with the spirit of hate — impervious to any- human feeling, they had been burning houses and outbuildings and warning the "Mormon" settlers on Bear Creek, and the sur- rounding country, to leave. Some of those who had not already heeded the warning were mercilessly burned out. They dashed on to a town in the road, just after the crossing of Bear Creek, and most of the horsemen had gone by before a gruff voice among them shouted: "Halt! H-a-l-t! There's a 'Mormon' lives up the lane." The company halted, and the leader rode back, lifted his black mask and gazed sharply up the narrow lane. He showed a face half covered with a dark, stubby beard, little, ferrety, black eyes, and a beefy, blunt noae. A face of cruelty; a look of cunning and hate settled in every line. But for all the cruelty and cunning, there was the look of the leader, and the voice of the bully. "Here, six of yeh come with me, the rest of yeh go home. Forward." Off they galloped up the lane, and some rode in a disorderly