---
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: 8
number: 10
published: 1905-08
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "It Matters Much," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 10 (August 1905): 754.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0810unse
  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: improvementera0810unse
start_page: 754
end_page: 754
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-08)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0810unse
  publication_year: 1905
  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 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# It Matters Much

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"What is your plea     — guilty or not guilty?" said the court.
      "Guilty," said the defendant.
      "Very well, in consideration of your candor and your circumstances, as related by your attorney, the court is disposed to overlook in some measure the enormity of your offense, and leave the
moral phases of it to the agitators and reformers of the day.            Believing that your experiences have been a lesson to you, and that
the court will not again have occasion to pronounce punishment
upon you, but that the severity of this example [I began to wince]
will always be before you,         you are hereby sentenced to pay a fine
of six cents I"
      The rest of the cases went in like manner.
Salt Lake City, Utah,
                           IT     MATTERS MUCH.
              It matters little where I     was born,
                Or if my parents were rich or poor;
              Whether they shrank from the cold world's scorn,
                Or walked in the pride of wealth secure;
              But whether I live an honest man.
                  And hold my integrity firm in my clutch,
              I tell   you, my brothers, as plain as I can,
                             It   matters much!
              It matters little how long I stay
                  In a world of sorrow, sin and care;
              Whether in youth I am called away,
                Or live till my bones and pate are bare;
              But whetLer I do the best I can
                To soften the weight of adversity's touch,
              On the faded cheek of my fellowman.
                            It    matters much!
             It matters little where be      my grave,
                  Or on the land or on the sea.
             By purling brook or 'neath stormy wave.
               It matters little or naught to me;
             But whether the Angel of Death comes down,
               And marks my brow with his loving touch.
             As one that shall wear the victor's crown.
                            It    matters much!     —From the Swedish.