---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Curtis, Theo. E.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 12
number: 4
published: 1909-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Curtis, Theo. E., \"'Tis What We Are,\" *Improvement Era* 12, no. 4 (February 1909): 269."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1204unse
  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: improvementera1204unse
start_page: 269
end_page: 269
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1204unse
  publication_year: 1909
  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 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# 'Tis What We Are

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'TIS WHAT WE ARE.
'Tis what we are, not what we claim to be,
That helps to shape the common destiny.
'Tis what we are that speaks the loudest through
Not what we say, but rather what we do.
Theo. E. Curtis.