---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Kleinman, Bertha A.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 12
number: 10
published: 1909-08
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Bertha A. Kleinman, "Obscurity," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 10 (August 1909): 818.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera12010unse
  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: improvementera12010unse
start_page: 818
end_page: 818
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-08)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera12010unse
  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.
---

# Obscurity

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—                        —

number were assisted by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, as the
Saints in Zion this year put forth an extraordinary effort to gather
out the Saints who had been faithful for longer periods of time.
The last company of Scandinavian Saints which crossed the Atlan-
tic with a sailing vessel this year suffered much on the voyage and

many     died; this year         also closed the crossing of the plains with
oxen and wagons.              During the year two new elders from Zion ar-
rived and 1,017 were baptized.

Copenhagen, Denmark.
                          [to be concluded in next number.]

                                     OBSCURITY.
                                 (For the Improvement Era.)

      Prize of earth, ye fields of springtime,   acre-builders of the plain,
      Ye of kingly trust and stronghold, armied deep with hosts of grain —
           Thine a kingdom's wealth in keeping,
           But no less thy own fair reaping,
      Are the bloom among the furrows, straining upward thro' the rain.

      Riches of the hills, ye harvests, triumphs of the Autumn days,
      Cradled in the pride of monarchs as thy sheaves amid the haze
           Thine the worth, yet 'mid thy teeming,
           One who utters not the meaning,
      Turns to gold the frailest tendrils 'mong the tassels of the maize.

      Giants of the timbers rearing, chieftains ye of primal birth,
      Lifting your coeval ensign 'mid the forests of the earth.
           Thine the might that storms may sever,
           But enduring and forever,
      Are the creeping, spreading lichens, clinging to thy fallen worth.

      Martyrs, 'mid the world's vast tumult, heroes of mediaeval lore,
      Beacons ye that gild the causeways for a million hosts and more;
           Ye the light on fame's broad pages,
           But the breath that moves the ages,
      Is the   echo of a faith-note tuned forever to endure.
                                                          Bertha A. Kleinman.
Salt Lake City, Utah.