--- 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: 12 published: 1903-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Talks to Young Men. XII—Called on a Mission", *Improvement Era* 6, no. 12 (October 1903): 926–928.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0612unse 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: improvementera0612unse start_page: 926 end_page: 928 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0612unse 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. --- # Talks to Young Men. XII—Called on a Mission 920 IMPROVEMENT Ed A. away to work, and one little fellow was drowned, while bathing in the treacherous Spring Lake, until at last there was only the father and the baby, now three years old, left at home. Once, when he had no one with whom to leave the child, while he went into the hills to hunt his team, he thought he would give him something to interest him and slip away, leaving him for a . little But the little laddie had been served that way while alone. once or twice before, and was on the lookout, so that he found it impossible to get away without his knowledge. At last he told him he must stay and be good while papa went to hunt the oxen. The little fellow cried bitterly, and finding it impossible to pacify him, the father was forced to tear himself rudely from the chubby clinging fingers, and, with a final charge not to wander off, started on his quest. For a long time the sound of his baby's sobbing followed him, but at last it ceased. He had gone perhaps a dis- tance of two miles when he chanced to glance down, and lo! at his side, looking up at him with a most pathetic expression of fear f joy, and pleading, was his little lad. "Ah, my Joe, what am I to do with you now?" the father ex- claimed. "You cannot walk, and I cannot carry you far, for I may have miles to go. You must go back." But finding himself unable to prevail on him to go back by kind means — and harsh- ness to his motherless babe was out of the question —he upon hit another expedient. Unfastening one of his home-made leather suspenders, he proceeded to tether him to a sagebrush. The baby watched the proceedings with wonder, then with consternation, and when his father said, "If papa's laddie won't go back, I shall have to tie him here so I will know where to find him after I have found the oxen," and actually started off leaving him there; his wailing broke out afresh. "Oh, papa, I'll do home. Untie me, papa, an' I'll do home." With quivering lip the father returned, untied him, kissed the flushed, tear-stained little face, and set his feet on the homeward path. Bravely the little fellow trudged away, never once looking backward, till a bend in the road hid him from sight. "You may think it a trifling incident," said the father, once when speaking of it, "but it had the elements of tragedy in it for A LIFE SKETCH. 921 us, didn't tears." ***** it, little Joe; and for miles I could not see my One day, while taking dinner with Bishop Henson Walker and family, of Pleasant Grove, the bishop jocularly remarked, "Brother way for Staker, there is the wife for you," indicating an estimable English lady, a widow, who, with her two children, had recently arrived with the handcart company, and who sat at the table with them. And so it proved to be. They made each other's acquaintance, married, and moved into Sanpete county, where they made a com- fortable home, reared more babies to sit on his knees and lullaby to his favorite Methodist hymn tune of "Poor, mourning soul," and where, at the ripe age of eighty-four, he passed to his reward. His mother came to him from the east to spend her few remaining years at his side, and it was his joy to convert her to "Mormonism." She lived to be one hundred and one, outliving her son one year. He had inherited a constitutional dread of death, but many years before, at his prayerful solicitation, the manner of his death had been shown him in vision, and he dreaded it no more. And truly, it was the ideal death of a pacriarch after a well-spent life — his surroundings comfortable and peaceful, himself free from pain, with a heart full of love and blessing for neighbors, friends, and family, and retaining his consciousness until the last moment, when he fell asleep. Truly, "blessed are they who die in the Lord, for their death shall be made sweet to them." Such are the annals of the poor and meek of the earth — not short and simple, as the poet says, but varied, and complex with the mystery and pathos of life. PRESIDENT LYMAN'S TRAVELS AND MINISTRY. BY JOSEPH J. CANNON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE "MILLENNIAL STAR," LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND. There are many missions that may be given an Elder of Israel. The one that President Francis M. Lyman is now filling may be characterized as a mission of prayer, though naturally prayer is not the only matter that has occupied his time and attention. The central event of his recent journey through the European mission was the dedication of the chapel house at Chris- tiania, Norway. [July 24, 1903, there were one hundred and forty-eight missionaries from all parts of the mission present.] When the meetings of that great gathering of the Priesthood were over, he traveled by rail to Stockholm, and there on Sunday attended two meetings and a Sunday school. President Lyman occupied most of the evening meeting, his discourse being inter- preted into the Swedish tongue. Both Presidents Lyman and Skanchy promised the people that if all went well, Stockholm, like Christiana and Copenhagen, should have a suitable house of wor- ship. This was naturally very pleasing to the Saints, who are earnestly seeking to find a suitable location for the erection of such a building. None has yet been chosen. Stockholm should really be a profitable field for our labors. The beautiful city is growing fast, and few cities in the world are indulging such a well-planned and thoroughly executed system of improvement. Where mountains of granite rock stand to hinder the opening of a street, they are blasted away and the hollows are filled with the debris. The city buys, as fast as possible, all prop- erty along crooked or narrow streets, tears down the houses, and