# MRM Library — full text (Improvement Era, 1910) > Concatenation of sections. Per-work source, citation and rights are given before each work. Index: https://library.mrm.org/index.json. MCP server: https://library.mrm.org/mcp --- ## Work: Improvement Era - Author: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations - Published: 1897 (Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, Salt Lake City) - Language: en - Source: https://archive.org/search?query=improvementera+unse - Rights: public-domain: US publication 1930 or earlier; each issue records its own publication month, source and basis (https://archive.org/search?query=improvementera+unse) # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 13, no. 3. January 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Dummelow, J. R., “Belief in God.” - Tain, C. E. R., “Battle Hymn.” - Cannon, Elizabeth R., “Ruins of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality. III.—At the Turn of the Road.” - Kohlberg, William J., “Keep Groping.” - Kenner, S. A., “The “Golden Bible”.” - Parker, Aubray, “Mother’s Love.” - Field, Eugene, “The Little Peach.” - Ramseyer, A. Adolph, “The Rock Foundation of the Church.” - Curtis, Theo. E., “The Dream of Wealth.” - Pectol, E. P., “New Zealand—the Missionary’s Wonderland.” - Kirby, George D., “Slander.” - Lambourne, Alfred, “Extract from “The Old Journey”.” - Brookbank, Thomas W., “Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. II.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Thrift, Thrift, Horatio.” - May, J. P., “The Purpose of Education.” - Smith, Joseph F., Jr., “Salvation Universal. III.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Rapid Transit.” - AtteRa, “Dan Hudson’s Sacrifice.” - Whitney, Orson F., “The Higher View.” - Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things. III.—Evan Stephens.” - Smith, Joseph F., “Editor’s Table: A Mother’s Love—If Thy Brother Offend Thee.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Messages from the Missions.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 193–288. # Belief in God — IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. JANUARY, 1910. No 3. Belief in God.* BY REV. J. R. DUMMELOW, M. A. [The following article is published by permission of the MacMillan Company, Publishers, No. 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York. It is taken from A Commentary on the Holy Bible, by various writers, edited by the Rev. J. R. Dummelow, M. A., Queen's College, Cambridge. The article, "Belief in God," is a number of times quoted by the editor and compiler of the Seventy's Year Book for 1910, Elder B. H. Roberts, who recom- mends the above named work to the Seventies as one of the best one- volume and up-to-date commentaries published. He was anxious that the following article should appear in full in the Era, and upon applica- tion being made to the above named publishers, who hold the copyright to the work, permission was given, and the valuable article accordingly is presented to our readers. Editors.] The central subject of the Bible is God. The book opens with an account of his creation of the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1), and concludes with a description of the new heavens and earth (Rev. 21) — the ideal to which creation is moving, and wherein God himself shall be the immediate source of illumination and the object of worship. Throughout the Bible God is referred to as almighty, all- * Copyright by the MacMillan Co., New York, 1908, 1909. 194 • IMPROVEMENT ERA. wise, and all-holy, the eternal creator, sustainer, and moral governor of the universe. He is represented as entering into special rela- tions with his highest creature, man, who is created in his image, after his likeness (Gen. 1: 26, 27), to be his vicegerent upon earth (Gen. 1: 26-28), and to increase in sympathy and fellowship with himself. Man has, however, abused his highest gift of free-will, and so introduced sin into the world, a blot upon the fair creation, and a hereditary taint upon his own stock. Henceforth God's relation to man is changed. The glad love of pure beneficence becomes the wistful love of redemptive purpose. And in due time is chosen out for specially intimate relations with God, a single tribe — the "seed of Abraham." Israel is "elected," i. e., chosen out for special privilege and guidance, not from any motives of favoritism, but in order that he may be the vehicle of blessing to all mankind. To Israel — and through Israel to all men — is given an even deeper and clearer revelation of the character and will of God — that revelation which we see running through all the Old Testament, and reaching its climax in Jesus Christ (cp. Heb. 1: 1- 5f). Different misconceptions are successfully purged away as opportunity occurs. At Sinai any lingering taint of idolatry and crude anthropomorphism is purged by the revelation of the ten commandments, and the natural tendency to irreverent, easy- going approach to the Almighty is met by the elaborate system of strict ceremonial. The prophets of the eighth century B. C. point out the futility of ceremonial reformation apart from righteousness of character, and go far towards removing the still prevailing misconceptions by which the Lord was regarded as the tribal God of Israel, pledged to protect and support them, irre- spective of their deserts. The Lord is "exalted in judgment" (Isaiah 5: 16), and no respecter of persons. Special closeness involves special responsibility (Amos 3: 2). Side by side with this comes a universalizing tendency, a growing realization of the one God's equal rule and care of all mankind (Amos 9:7; Isaiah 2: 2, 3; 19: 18-25), which finds strong emphasis in some of the later Psalms (cp. e. g. Ps. 96, 100, 117), and in the book of Jonah. Meanwhile the discipline of perplexity, which had its effect upon the Hebrew people throughout their history, but most arkedly during the Babylonian exile, purified and spiritualized . BELIEF IN GOD. 195 the conception of the meaning of religion and of life; carried for- ward the thoughts of the faithful more and more wistfully to a future life, in which righteousness should be vindicated and the balance of happiness redressed; and while it brought home to them the weakness and impurity of human nature, intensified the desire for personal holiness and communion with God; and, finally, gave occasion for the portrayal of the "Suffering Servant of the Lord" (Isaiah 41-53) gathering up into himself at once human penitence and divine redemption — that most wonderful figure in all the Old Testament, which is strikingly typical of the central figure of the New Testament. The statements about God in holy scripture are uttered with an air of authority, dogmatically; not as the result of a long chain of reasoning: "The Lord said" this — "did" that or — more emphatically, in the form of a message, "Thus saith the Lord." The teaching of the Bible is not the result of deductive or induc- tive reasoning. No direct arguments are adduced to prove the existence of God— that is assumed throughout. His attributes may be the subject of argument; his existence, never. His just- ice, his wisdom, his power may be momentarily obscured by the mystery of evil in the world — as in the book of Job. Incidentally we may get arguments dealing with the nature of the Deity, as e. g. the interesting a fortiori argument from creature to Creator in Ps. 94, "He that made the eye, shall he not see?" etc., which, logically carried out becomes an inference of Personality in God from man's personality - there are arguments such as these either stated or suggested in Holy Scripture, but the existence of God never comes within their scope. It lies behind all else; it is the fundamental conception in the light of which all else is viewed. Not only in the Pentateuch and the Prophets and the Psalms, but in the historical 'narratives — in the brief and apparently barren records of the accession, regnal years, and death of the various kings, it is made clear that God's hand is at work throughout guiding the course of events, and that he is the ever-present Judge by whom the actions of king and subject alike are weighed Even in the book of Esther, in which the divine name never once occurs, no doubt is left upon the mind as to the providential over- ruling of events both great and small. Nay, in those books 196 IMPROVEMENT ERA. which are least formally theological —Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesi- astes, the work of the "wise men," the humanists or philosophers of Israel — the thought of God is present from first to last. They do not grope and search after him like the great pagan thinkers. They set out, not to discover, but to recognize him; to learn from his dealing with nature and human nature more about that divine personality who is the primary presupposition of all their sys- tem, and with whom their heart holds sacred communion even while the intellect stands baffled before the insoluble problems involved in his permission of evil in the world he rules. The Bible, as we have said, does not offer arguments to prove the existence of the Deity, but it offers something which is far more valuable to most of us than any abstract proof. It gives us a concrete, experimental, descriptive theology. It shows us a pic- ture of the world with God at work in it, which the devout, appre- ciative soul instinctively recognizes as true. It offers us, largely in the concrete form of narrative and history, a theory of the uni- verse which, rightly understood, is found to meet the demands of hearts and minds alike: revealing a God whose character is such and whose relation to man is such that in him both our needs and our aspirations find satisfaction. At the same time it inci- dentally provides a theory of human nature (see especially Gen. 1-3) that affords the only satisfactory key to the raison d'etre of those needs and aspirations — the explanation of man's actual littleness and his potential greatness. We will consider first the message of the Bible to man's heart, and then its message to his understanding. The needs and aspirations of heart and spirit can only be satisfied by personal communion with the Deity, such as the Psalter so wonderfully delineates, (see especially Ps. 16, 17, 63, 73,) a communion which attains its fullest expression in the religion of the New Testament. This heart-knowledge is after all, to each individual who has it, the most direct form of evidence for the existence of God — the personal intercourse with him of our personal spirit — the communion in virtue of which we can say, "I know that there is a God because I know him. I experience in prayer and sacrament and meditation a conviction of his reality and his presence which is quite as real to BELIEF IN GOD. 197 me as is the conviction that those things exist which I can touch and see. This conviction is clearest and strongest when I am at my best, and I attribute all that is best and highest in my character to such communion, as thousands have done before me." This is the kind of "knowledge of God" that cries aloud to us from the Psalms and Prophecies, and underlies the other writings of the Old Testament. And the perfection of this communion is to be found in Jesus Christ, as portrayed for us in the Synoptic Gos- pels (Luke 10: 22; cp. Mark 13: 22), but especially in St. John (5: 19f. 10: 15, 30; 14: 11, etc.), and reaches its climax in the great high priestly prayer of John 17. After our Lord's ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit, it takes the form, for Christ's members, of a fellowship with the blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (II Cor. 13: 14; cp. I John 1: 3). Being, however, in one sense, a purely personal and individual matter, this sense of communion is commonly thought to be too subjective to be adduced as an argument for the existence of God. It is always open to an objector to say, "You assert that you have this feeling; I am willing to admit your sincerity, but you may be the victim of illusion. All I can say is that I have no such feeling myself." To such an assertion it seems perhaps inadequate to reply, "If you will but assume first provisionally (as we have to assume many things in practical life) that existence which you can- not demonstrate, and then act upon the assumption, conviction will come with experience." Yet such a reply may be enforced and corroborated with all the weight of more than nineteen centuries of personal experience. Generation after generation of martyrs and Saints have testified in the strongest possible manner to their conviction that "God is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11: 6), and have been ready to seal the convic- tion with their life's blood. That such evidence is not without scientific value, is very strongly argued by no less a scientist than the late G. J. Romanes, who speaks of those who would ignore it as untrue to the principles of an impartial agnosticism. Still it fails to appeal to a large class of enquirers, who look for a more definitely intellectual proof and one less intimately associated with personal feeling and emotion. 198 IMPROVEMENT ERA. There are such arguments for the being and character of God, and some of them have come down to us from very ancient times. It may be admitted that they do not — either singly or even in combination —amount to demonstrative proof; yet they form, as we shall see, a very strong presumption in favor of belief in just such a God as the Bible claims to reveal. We will now briefly sketch the more important of these types of argument, and then we may be better able to estimate the extent to which the Biblical revelation corresponds to, and com- pletes,man's intellectual search after God. We must remember, however, at the outset that these traditional arguments are not the originating cause of man's belief, even where belief is found outside the influence of revelation, rather, they represent an intel- lectual analysis or justification of a belief already existing. As far back as Cicero in the first century B. C., or even earlier, pagan thinkers had observed that religion in some form or other is a universal trait in human nature. And though in modern days apparent exception of "atheistical tribes" have been adduced to prove the contrary, the trend of anthropological science may be said on the whole to support the judgment of antiquity. There may indeed be savages (though the point has not been proved) among whom no definite trace of religious observance can be dis- cerned; but are they normal representatives even of undeveloped humanity? Is there no such thing as degradation? And have not even these poor savages some vestige at least of the religious faculty? For that is all our argument really requires. The world- wide progress of Christian missions to the heathen seems to testify quite triumphantly that no race or tribe of men, however de- graded and apparently atheistic, lacks that spark of religious capacity which may be fanned and fed into a mighty flame. Granted, then, that the religious faculty is practically uni- versal among mankind, what is the significance of this fact? From ancient times it has been regarded as an argument— often (wrongly) as a proof— that God exists. It is called the argu- ment "from the general consent of mankind" in Latin, argumen- tum e consensu gentium. The whole world, it is urged, must surely be right— securus judical orbisterrarum. Of a truth it is exceedingly unlikely, if (as we must presume) — BELIEF IN GOD. 199 the world is rational, that a phenomenon so universal as religion, so intimately and intricately interwoven with the central facts of human life and progress, should be founded on illusion. But the outward expression of the religious principle in different ages and climes exhibits so much variety, inconsistency, and vagueness, that we ought not perhaps to speak of this argument (at least in this its broader and vaguer form) as directly evidencing the existence and character of God. What it really amounts to is, as has been well said, "an evidence that there are evidences." If the religious instinct is observed to be practically universal, it will be worth while to see whether it is not essential to human nature. And this quest leads us to the formal arguments for God's existence. The grounds of this religious instinct will be found to lie partly in man's relation to the external world, partly in the constitution of human nature itself. The consideration of the external world around him, even in its broadest aspect, leads man up to the thought of an Eternal Cause; the study of its phenomena in detail with its marvoleus intricacy of harmonious intersection produces the impression of design, and leads to the thought of a Designer i. e, of an Eternal Cause that is intelligent and free. Reflection on his own con- sciousness and the fact that the external world corresponds in a mysterious way to his own thought leads to the idea of primal and Universal Consciousness embracing all reality and forming, as it were, a meeting place between Thought and Things. Lastly his own moral nature-conscience, with its authoritative voice, clear- ly distinguishable from mere wish, taste, desire, and self-interest — speaks to him of a Universal Lawgiver, supreme and perfect, to whom alone the "categorical imperative" of the inner monitor can be adequately referred. The Eternal Cause is thus found to be endowed with all the attributes characteristic of personality as seen in man. Of the first of these arguments little further need be said. Man finds in himself a principle of causality in the light of which he interprets the external world. He cannot help regarding the succession of phenomena which he observes as effects — attributing each to some cause. When he examines that again he discovers it to be no true or absolute cause, but itself the effect of some- — 200 IMPROVEMENT ERA. thing further back, and so on. He finds in himself the nearest approach to vera causa: yet he would recognize the absurdity of calling himself self -caused. And the mind cannot rest in an end- less chain of cause-effects. There must be, it feels, if you go far enough back, a real Cause, akin, in someway, to man's own power of origination, yet transcending it — a cause that owns no cause no source of being — but itself. And to this Eternal Cause all things, including man himself, must be ultimately referable. The third argument, again, in favor of a Universal Conscious- ness, which has several different forms, is too abstruse for the ordinary reader, requiring for its appreciation some degree of metaphysical training. The second and the fourth the "Design" — and "Conscience" arguments — demand a somewhat fuller treat- ment here, being specially important in view of the light thrown on them by recent scientific theory. The Design-argument is perhaps the most ancient and the most popular of all. It is never actually formulated in the Bible, for the Bible, as we have seen, never treats God's existence as the subject of argument. But its basis, the marvelous harmony of the created world, is the theme of more than one of the Psalms (cp. e. g. Ps. 19, 104, 147, 148); and St. Paul comes very near to stating the argument in so many words, when he says (Rom. 1: 20) in depreciation of pagan superstitions and immorality, that the "everlasting power and divinity" of the Creator are clearly discernible from his works. Granted that the very existence of the world implies an Eternal Cause, what can we learn about that Cause? The nearest thing to a true first Cause of which I have experience, is my own personality: hence there is a presumption that the world's first Cause will be at least what we know as personal. But that pre- sumption is not all we have to go upon. There are definite indi- cations in nature, when more closely observed, that make it im- possible to regard the Eternal Cause as a merely mechanical originator of the world process, that stamp it — or rather him — as intelligent and free, a nature like my own rational nature, only far above and beyond it. Everywhere in nature we see the teleological principle (as it is work, i. e. we see means adapted to ends, and the called) at BELIEF IN GOD. 201 present subordinated to the future. This adaptation of means to ends manifests itself in a bewilderingly complex way — in each individual member of the great organism, in the lesser and greater groups, and in the whole. Everywhere, in fact, I see traces of purpose and design — for such adaptation speaks to me irresistibly of these. My only direct experience of like phenomena is my own personality, and so I am led to infer a Designer. Some, however, have thought that this inference is invali- dated by a closer scrutiny of those means by which the evolution of physical organisms is effected, according to modern scientific theory. Evolution, they say, has upset the Design-argument altogether. The marvelously adjusted interaction of forces and interests which we observe in nature is not, as we have hitherto supposed, a perfect piece of elaborate machinery fresh from the Designer's hand. It has a history behind it, and a history which we have only just begun to trace aright. The present state of things is not the result of a serene and orderly procession wherein ervey member has found its due and rightful place. On the con- trary, it is the result in every department of a struggle for exist- ence fierce and unintermitted, in which only a small portion — "the fittest" — have survived. Nature's waste products, far outweighing her successes — how do they affect the Design-argument? Again, we can see in part the actual -means by which this relative progress in evolution has been made. On the one hand, that is the principle of Variation, whereby the offspring always varies in some degree from the parent, and, on the other hand, that of Natural Selection, which results in the survival of the type best fitted to survive. Where, then, is there room for Design and a Designer? The answer seems to be that the origin or root-principle of evolution has not yet been disclosed. What is it that produces the Variation which Natural Selection fixes and makes the basis of an upward step? The choice seems to lie between God and chance. — That chance, or some non-rational force, could work on such definitely "teleological" lines, could produce such ordered and systematic results, is a theory harder to believe than the theistic theory. And the difficulty of it is rather enhanced than otherwise by recent scientific discovery. For if a mechanically regular world in which neither failure nor waste Citation: Dummelow, J. R., "Belief in God," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 193–201. # Battle Hymn — 202 IMPROVEMENT ERA. products had place, would produce the impression of design and purpose, much more forcibly are we driven to the same conclusion when we see order growing out of chaos, peace out of strife, and apparently intractable material moulded to artistic perfection. The background of struggle, pain, decay and seeming waste may be in itself difficult to account for; but the result shows that behind the working of the principles of Variation and Natural Selection there must be intelligence, will, purpose. The Design-argument may have been stated in the past, in such a way as to expose it to the criticism of scientists; but the argument itself — especially when broadly and generally treated has only gained strength and illumination from the modern view of nature's working methods; for "Evolution," as Asa Gray said to Darwin, "has brought back teleology to science." [TO BE CONCLUDED IN FEBRUARY NUMBER] Battle Hymn. (For the Improvement Era.) God save Columbia free, Let then each bosom be Bright home of liberty, Bulwark of liberty, Guard her high destiny, Owning its majesty, Hedge it with peace. Guarding its fame. But, should an alien host Dealing on land or waves, Dare sully Freedom's coast, Death to the tyrant slaves, Let war then meet their boast Heaping their ready graves With full surcease. High with their shame. Let, then, grim battle roar, God grant Columbia fair, Bathing our steel in gore, Brave sons to do and dare, Hurling swift vengeance o'er Daughters that virtue wear Glory's red field; As a bright crown. Sharp be our eagle's claws may they ever be, Striking in Freedom's cause, Worthy of liberty, Fearless of foes, because Worthy of victory, Right is our shield. And wide renown. C. E. R. Tain. Col. Diaz, Mexico. Citation: Tain, C. E. R., "Battle Hymn," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 202. # Ruins of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico Ruins of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico. BY ELIZABETH R. CANNON. The old town of Casas Grandes (big houses) was built three hundred years ago on the ruins of the Aztecs. Whether you pass through there in the full glare of the noonday sun, when the Mexicans loaf in the plaza and the old priest sounds the church bell by striking it with a hammer, or at night when the adobe walls cast weird shadows in the moonlight, you cannot help ON THE SITE OF CASAS GRANDES. Beneath the tumbledown huts where the peons still live lies the sleeping city of Casas Grandes, sacred to the dead, and its gold. 204 IMPROVEMENT ERA. feeling the influence of the sleeping dead beneath the city. The dead sleep peacefully, for the Mexicans defend them against enterprising American archaeologists, claiming that they hold the graves of their ancestors sacred. Perhaps a better reason is that they believe there are vast quantities of gold hidden there, and some day, .manana, (tomorrow) they will themselves dig it up. Casas Grandes was the main city of this region, and it was surrounded by smaller villages which probably served as outposts THE GREAT OLLA. The great olla is twelve feet high, the interior lined with rope, In it the inhabitants of Cave Valley stored their maize. for protection. One of these had a well developed copper mine where they obtained the precious metal for the heads of arrows and spears. The villages are now, in appearance, nothing but grass- covered mounds. Some terrible catastrophe came upon this country and destroyed all the inhabitants and their homes in some mysterious manner. Many are the conjectures as to whether the dread calam- ity were earthquake, pestilence, famine or war, as bodies are found unburied near the fireplaces and along the walls, as if the people had lain down and died. RUINS OF THE CASAS GRANDE S REGION. 20E On digging into a mound one finds that it is composed of — many rooms a village in one house. The walls have been white- washed three or four times. Near the earthen fireplaces are pieces of broken ollas and cooking utensils. On digging several feet beneath the floor one finds the graves covered with charred wood. They probab- ly burned their wood so it would last long- er, and prevent odors from coming into the rooms of the living from the decayed bodies. OLD RUINS AT CASAS GRANDES, MEXICO. A skeleton's rank is determined by the number of ollas buried with it These ollas are the highly colored pottery of the Indians, and after being buried several centuries their decorations are still fresh and brilliant. Some bodies have been surrounded by as many as nine, while others have only one plain one at the head of the grave. These vessels were most likely filled with food, so the spirit would not get hungry on its long journey. The Indians probably buried their dead under the floor only in time of siege, as there are not enough bodies to prove that they made cemeteries of their houses. The wide facial angle of the skull of the Casas Grandian shows a high order of intelligence. Their reservoirs, connected with the city by canals three miles long, showed more engineering skill than is exhibited by their lazy successors. Not far from Casas Grandes stands the Mount of the King- It well deserves the name, for it looms high above the surrounding peaks. As our horse picks his way along the trail that leads to the summit, where the wind is never still, we cannot help thinking that this would make an ideal summer home for a king, who from 206 IMPROVEMENT ERA. this exalted altitude could survey his vast domains. As we near the summit we notice broad stone steps, above which are the ruins of several lava rock buildings, circular in shape: The summit of the peak is enclosed by a high wall built of lava stone, and still higher is another inclosing a small, circular building on the very top of the hill. On account of the protection afforded this ruin it was thought to be a fort, but the smallness of the place disproves this, for it could hold very few people. The BURROS LOADED WITH WOOD -CAS AS GR ANDES, MEXICO. Indians say there is a secret tunnel leading from here to the old town, but it has never been found. A better theory is that this was a temple built for the worship, high up among the clouds, of the "Unknown God." Down the side of the mountain leading into the earth towards the temple is a passage that the settlers call a mine, although there are no signs of ore. It was perhaps a secret passage leading to the temple, or possibly was dug later in a fruitless search for hid- den gold. There is a legend that one of the last Montezumas came RUINS OF THE CASAS GRANDE S REGION. 207 from Casas Grandes, and certain it is the cruel Spaniards crushed the Aztecs only to find that most of their vast treasure had mysteriously disappeared. Very different from their advanced Casas Grandes neighbors were the strange little dwell- ers of the caves, who perched their aeries on the highest cliffs of the Sierra Madre Mountains. They were little better than the missing link. Their small, dark habitations were made by plastering sun- dried adobes on the outer wall of the natural limestone caves. That they lived in mortal terror of some deadly enemy is evident from the The MountainLion — An Omnipresent fact that they got in and out Beast, Mexico. of their dwellings by means of rope ladders, crawling in and out of tiny holes, like rats. Their implements, pottery, and fireplaces are of the rudest description. Men who live in constant fear of death have no time to cultivate the arts. Perhaps they were one of the tribes conquered by the dominating Aztecs in their march to the south. At the entrance to the main cave stands the great mud olla twelve feet high and twelve feet in diameter, used for a granary, for it still contains a few grains of corn. Not far from here are the terraced gardens where the maize was grown. They are liter- ally''hand-made," for the Cave-dwellers carried every particle of soil upfrom the valley below and plastered it on the cliffs, for they dared not plant their crops on the fertile plains. No wonder an eternal gloom envelops Cave, Valley! Below, on the rocks, amidst tangled grape-vines and the poison ivy, are the hieroglyphics— picture-stories of this strange people in happier times before they were so close pressed by their implac- able enemies. There are two persons holding hands, perhaps tell- ing the story of a peace treaty or royal marriage. There is a clumsy>nimal, "and'byfitXbear's paw, telling'the [tale of a great : ; 208 IMPROVEMENT ERA. hunt and perhaps some deed of bravery. Besides these are numer- ous symbols unintelligible to us. A better story than any of these rock carvings was told in the caves themselves by a skeleton lying through a doorway, with a stone hatchet cleaving its skull. • A few years ago some hunters, while exploring the cavea, came upon a false wall, which they promptly knocked in. They beheld the mummified body of a woman seated upright on a stone chair. The body, which was well preserved, was covered with shreds of cotton cloth. At first the hunters thought that the Indians, like the Egyptians, understood the art of embalming; but the body had been preserved by the peculiar atmosphere of the cave. Perhaps this was a hostage that the fierce little men thus walled in alive. Perhaps she was a beloved princess who, in the last days of siege, was brought here that her body might not fall into the hands of her enemies. Was she a barbarous Helen of Troy that brought warfare and destruction in her wake? Who can say? What a story those blackened lips might tell if they could only speak! Salt Lake City, Utah. The Family Meeting. (Selected.) We are all here Father, mother, Sister, brother, All who hold each other dear, Each chair is filled, we are all at home, Tonight let no cold stranger come; It is not often thus around Our old familiar hearth we're found. Bless, then, the meeting and the spot, For once be every care forgot Let gentle peace assert her power, And kind affection rule the hour. We're all — all here. Charles Sprague. Citation: Cannon, Elizabeth R., "Ruins of the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 203–208. # The Crown of Individuality. III.—At the Turn of the Road The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. III.— At the Turn of the Road. In walking along a mountain road there is sometimes a sudden, sharp turn where, by seeming magic, the narrow path is transformed into the entrance of a vast panorama of Nature. We seem stunned as we involuntarily stop short, rest and surrender to its majesty. The view exalts us, glorifies us, inspires us. We have a new, high, restful ground of contemplation. We have a new test of values, a new base of interpretation, a new relation to life. The hamlets and villages in the valley bear a new, strange dignity— they have become integral parts of a great picture. The colors of trees and flowers blend from mere single effect into a wondrous harmony. We are seeing the birth, life and death of a river as an eagle might watch it from his nest on the crags. The fields of a hundred farmers become one great farm. And far be- yond, we can see the great ocean — whitening the shore with its billows leagues away. The complex has become simple; the absolute has now become relative; the isolated has become associated; the trifling great, and the great greater; the detail losing none of its individuality has an added value like a jewel set in a crown. There is a finer sense of justice in our judgment, the ozone of the higher levels seems tonic to our soul, a sweet peace fills our heart. As we look backward tlfe narrow path, doled out to us in * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Re veil Company. WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN, Author of "Self-Control; its Kingship and Majesty," "The Crown of Individuality," etc. THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 211 installments as our weary feet toiled up the long ascent, now stands out clear— for its entire length. We begin to see it as a type of our whole life, as the angels must view it with greater charity from the higher wisdom of their truer perspective. Rest, retrospection, reflection, realization, and revelation are giving us a fine new view-point, a new chance to get our moral bearings, to tune our life to bring out its highest, purest notes— at the turn of the road. Humanity tends to take narrow views of life and its prob- lems instead of occasional great, broad sweeps. It is nearsighted- ness of the soul that permits the unworthy to throw the really big things into the shadow. We hold some trifle of care or worry close to our vision as a jeweler with an awning over his eye peers into a watch. We let one sorrow be the grave of many joys, one ingratitude smother many of our kindnesses struggling for expres- sion, one weakness within us sap the strength from many virtues. We need the' bracing inspiration, the revealing illumination of the larger vision. The turn of the road, in its highest sense, is not a place to stay— we have to fight the battle of life. It is only an arsenal of supply — not a battlefield of action. The beginning of the new year is a natural, sharp turn in the road of time. Here we may wisely rest awhile, and in the peace and quiet and calm of self-communion see the long stretch of the road of a single twelvemonth. It is built imperishably of short steps of living — from moment to moment. Many of the purposes for which we labored and struggled in our narrow, close, selfish absorption, seem poor, petty and puny when seen from the turn of the road. The structure of some effort we thought marble, now is shown in its sickening sham as a hasty affair of show and pretense, made of staff that could not stand the wear and tear and test of time. It was not built on square lines of character, of the best that was in us. It lacked strength, sincerity, simplicity. The material was made up of policy and selfishness put together on hurried plans. It was a failure; it cannot be rebuilt, but it is worth only a passing regret and a real- ization of the lesson of its non-success— at the turn of the road. We now see how many times the paralyzing hand of procrasti- nation touched the good deeds we meant to do, the roseate dreams 212 IMPROVEMENT ERA. we longed to transform into actualities. We wished to do, and we wanted to do, but we did not will to do. The fault was not in conditions but in us. — We were not equal to opportunities. It is a false philosophy that teaches that opportunity calls only once at any man's house. It comes with the persistency of an importu- nate creditor, always in a new guise, and clamors for admission, but we may be — too busy to answer the bell. Habits that we had determined to master, to bring into sweet harmony with our highest self, may still stalk large and insolent before us. They may seem to taunt us that they are stronger than we. They were never made in a day and cannot be mastered in a day. An hour may begin the making of a habit; an hour may be- gin its breaking. Time, with heart and mind united in determin- ation, can conquer any evil habit or create and confirm any good one. The look backward from the turn of the road should inspire us by making vivid to us how much of what we feared never came to pass. The tyranny of worry, that dominated us and held us for months trembling slaves to a weak fear, that dissipated our energy, dulled our thinking, and darkened our mental vision, at the very hours that should have given us fullest control of our best, is now seen as an enemy to true individual growth. It means a harder fight in the unending battle against worry and grief. The broader view of life reveals that the only great things in life are trifles; that what pained us most, saddened our hearts, and turned our hopes to ashes were only trifles — cumulat- ing into overwhelming importance. A cruel word, an unkindness, a little misunderstandingmay darken a day and separate us from one we love, or may petrify us into a mood of doubt and despair. The most joyous moments of life, the high lights in the pictures of memory, may, too, be only trifles of kindness, fine expressions of love, simple tributes of confidence and trust that make the heart smile — as we remember. Knowing the right is useless unless— we practice it. Realiz- ing our weakness is profitless unless — we seek to change. We may even grow so comfortably reconciled to faults and failings as to accept them as finalities, to confess them and even boast Citation: Jordan, William George, "The Crown of Individuality. III.—At the Turn of the Road," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 209–212. # Keep Groping — THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 213 about them. It is unjust to ourselves and unjust to others. Some people treat their faults as though they were flaws in the Portland vase of a noble nature, and as if — pointing them out were practi- cally banishing them forever. — Nature is constantly giving us new turns of the road. It may be a birthday or some general anniversary in the cycle of the year. It may be some red-letter day in the private calendar of our emotions, or some date eloquent to us as telling of some joyous "first'' or some pathetic "last" time in the sacred diary of the heart. It may be a supreme sorrow, an agonizing sense of loss, the coming of a great joy, the closing of some epoch in our lives, the proving of the actuality of something too awful for us even to have feared, some exultant half -hour that changes irrevocably all our living. These and numberless other days, hours or single moments, may bring us alone to — the turn of the road. Then may come one of those rare moments of life, of fine spiritual discernment, of luminous revelation, of coming to one's highest self, when the sordid, the mean, the temporary, the selfish are stripped in an instant of their garish shams and tinsel. Then the real, the true, the eternal stand out in their majesty, bathed in the splendor and glow of the revealing of truth. In such a spirit the very tingle of the inspiration of the infinite fills us. We seem born again to new, better and greater things, for we have seen the divine vision — at the turn of the road. (The next article in this series, "Facing the Mistakes of Life," will appear in the February Era.) Keep Groping. {For the Improvement Era.) A dreamer in thought's vastness cries: "Alight! alight! for my blind eyes, Bring forth a light— God hear my sighs Before my soul in darkness dies!" A voice then answers mild and low: "Be still, my child, and you shall know Great light doth from great efforts flow, Keep groping, and thy soul shall glow!" Salt Lake City, Utah. William J. Kohlberg. Citation: Kohlberg, William J., "Keep Groping," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 213. # The “Golden Bible” The "Golden Bible." BY S. A. KENNER. To the making of books there is no end. I don't know who wrote this originally, nor does it matter. It is strikingly true, and the truthfulness of it must occasionally appeal to those who have handled books all their lives, as well as to those who only look at them now and then. The writer of these lines has done some little reading of a rather diversified character; and while by no means among those who are properly classed as well read, and while no doubt behind many in the scope and magnitude of reading, he has still, for in- stance, done enough in the line indicated to know that Pilgrim's Progress and Innocents Abroad are not by the same author, nor even by contemporaneous authors; also that Baxter's Saints' Rest is not a humorous production, nor much of anything else that is interesting. All this is thrown in to let the reader know that with all the reading that can be done, going, or trying to go, through the great mass of lex scriptce produced by the human family, or any considerable part of it, is too much like trying to fix the limit of the stars in the firmament or the number of people who have ap- peared upon the earth since Adam and Eve went into and out of the Garden of Eden. The effort would be futile, the time spent upon it worse than wasted. Finding myself in the reading department of an old-time friend I noticed a little red book on the table, and on picking it up found it to be entitled The Golden Bible. The name, but not the volume, had previously been seen and some surprise was expressed thereat, which was increased upon receiving the information that it had been extant for several years and had been quite extensively read. It was by Rev. M. T. Lamb, and dealt exclusively with the Book of Mormon. It was looked over as carefully and extensively — THE "GOLDEN BIBLE." 215 as time and circumstances would permit. In his preface the author avers, with apparent earnestness, that he sets about his task devoid of rancor or prejudice, but with a due regard for the performance of a conscientious duty. He then sails in and says things, quoting copiously from and commenting freely upon the contents of the said book, his quotations, however, being carefully selected, wrenched from the contexts, and discussed as though standing alone and having little or no connection with antecedent or succeeding subject matter. You could play the deuce with almost any book in that way, even with the Holy Bible, to which loving reference is frequently made by the author of the Golden one, in endeavoring to show the contrast between the former and the Book of Mormon. The alleged bad grammar, illogical deduc- tion and pointless assertion, which he seeks to 'make plain as char- acteristic of the latter volume, and treats with ridicule, or what to his mind doubtless does duty as such, are not only invidiously presented but in places disingenuously so. Referring to the inci- dent of Lehi, for example, going in quest of game and obtaining which he returned to camp, the auriferous volume asks what he would naturally do, having obtained the object of his hunt, but return to camp. Sure enough! But where is the point? Would it have made the story more acceptable had the hunter returned empty-handed, or succeeding in his quest have gone off somewhere else with the game? The author seems to regard this incident as too trivial to be worthy of mention; but if so, what does it become by repetition? If the ancient scriptorian had such poor judgment in the matter of compiling sentences as to permit one to be borne into the record here and there that had no special importance per se, what excuse has the modern writer whose attack is ostensibly aimed at the whole fabric to which such sentences relate, for pick- ing them out and devoting considerable space to them? There is much else in the same connection that he wholly misses. Why? Because they are not so easily disposed of? Whether so or not, he justifies one in believing that such is the case, and "one" at least does so believe. Of like tenor and effect are several more I might as well say most, and in fact all, that were perused of the gentleman's slings and arrows; they incite to the antagonism which is created and are ^distinctly reacting. * 216 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Before proceeding further with this little review, let us give Rev. Lamb the benefit of some of his own language: The first objection to the book [of Mormon] to be considered is this: It has no trace of God's hand upon it. No divine stamp. Everything is * human, very human. When he [God] paints a flower or tints the rainbow He does not daub. Look at the discourses of our Lord, any one of them. And then the inspired writer of the Golden Bible proceeds at length to draw a sharp contrast between the language of the Bible and that of the Book of Mormon, showing that the latter is in- sufferably verbose, reiterative, turgid and pointless, the other book, of course, being the opposite in these respects.He makes numerous citations from the former and then rewrites them in fewer words and, according to modern methods, in less faulty dic- tion. Any of us could do that, and we don't have to confine our- selves to the Mormon book either; the Bible itself as well as any ancient or even mediaeval, and some few of the modern standard productions, may be so treated. Let us try a sample or two, this taken without selection from the Bible: And Jehosaphat waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah 12. castles and cities of stone.13. And he had much business in the cities of Judah; and the men of war, mighty men of valor, were in Jerusalem. 14. And these are the numbers of them, according to the house of their fathers: Of Judah, the captain of thousands; Adnah, the chief, and with him mighty men of valor, three hundred thousand. 15. And next to him was Jehohanan, the captain, and with him two hundred and four- score thousand. 16. And next him was Amasiah, the son of Zichri, and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor. 17. And of Benjamin; Eliada, a mighty man of valor, and with him armed men with bow and shield, two hundred thousand. 18. And next him was Jehozabad and with him a hundred and fourscore thousand ready prepared for the war.— II Chronicles, 17. Abridged to the Lambsonian standard, these might be stated thus: Jehosaphat became wealthy and built castles and storehouses, his traffic extending to Jewish cities. A great army was in Jerusalem, there * The reader will please observe that in this there is no disposition to make light of or in any manner revise the scriptural text, only a de- sire to show the inadequacy and injustice of Rev. Lamb's methods. : THE "GOLDEN BIBLE." 217 — being Of Judean generals: Adnah, in command, with 300,000 brave men; Jehohanan, with 280,000; Amasiah, the son of Zichri, with 200,000 splendid troops. Of Benjamin, there was Eliada, a valorous leader, with 200,000, armed with bows and shields; and Jehozabad with 180,000, all ready for business. Here is a selection taken at random from Shakespeare: They say this town is full of cozenage; As nimble jugglers that deceive the eye; Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind; Soul-killing witches that deform the body; Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks. And many such like liberties of sin If it prove so I will be gone the sooner. I'll to the Centaur to seek this slave. I greatly fear my money is not safe. Comedy of Errors, Act 1, Scene 2. Why blank verse to detail so prosaic a circumstance? The mod- ern reportorial method,. with its incidental slang — which Rev. Lamb uses quite freely — applied to the quotation would simplify thus: it It is reported this town is full of cheating. Thimble-riggers, hypno- tists, even impossible witches, bunco-steerers, sure-thing men and others of like ilk, are said to haunt the place. So I'll take good advice and hike before my money is gone. This "translation" may seem a little strained and far-fetched to the reader; but it is not a whit more so than are many of the "reductions" from the text of the Book of Mormon made by Mr. Lamb. There is not space enough at my disposal to give any of — — them the briefest being somewhat lengthy so, for once, wall the reader kindly receive the unprejudiced judgment and carefully considered word of this writer for it? As to the quotations from the "Golden" author, which had sequence been observed herein would have received consideration before the immediately preceding matter, there is a good deal that might be said and some little that will be. The first objection to the Book of Mormon is that it has not the trace of God's hand upon it, according to the "Golden" critic. The extreme arrogance of this, so apparent to even the casual observer, will become more striking the more it is considered, and here the "divine" becomes 218 IMPROVEMENT ERA. a victim of his own favorite practice of comparison. The Book of Mormon puts forth the claim that those who really want to know regarding its divine authenticity may be gratified by other means than the solemn and unforced statements of sane and living wit- nesses as to the origin of the book; but Mr. Lamb, rushing in where angels would fear to, or at least do not, tread, announces without reserve that God's hand is not there! How does he know? Has the Deity ever shown him his hand? By what right does he assume so much familiarity with the Great Author as to be able to know where His hand is, regarding any mortal production, and where it is not? Mr. Lamb is estopped from saying that he was inspired or that it was revealed to him, because he especially repudiates divine inspiration and denies that there is such a thing as modern revelation from on high; so that the question put by the New York World to the Tammany leaders, "where did you get it?" is clearly applicable. The only refuge the gentleman can have is that he is convinced of it, that it is a fixed conviction de- rived from a thorough consideration of the subject in all its bear- ings, and in the light of educated human understanding. But the refuge so cheerfully and voluntarily herein extended, is by no means a strengthening, but works a complete abandonment, of his position; because, as will be observed, he makes an unqualified statement, an absolute assertion of correctness, and any modifica- tion thereof is so much in the direction of a retreat. It is a fact too apparent to permit of controversy that he knows nothing what- ever about it — that the impress of the Almighty might or might not be upon every line of the Book of Mormon, and so far as actual knowledge is concerned Mr. Lamb would be as ignorant of the situation as a Senegambian. Now, of course, we are not always able to prove to a demonstration things that impress us so strongly as to amount to a conviction, and so long as we state the case that way we are on the safe side; but when we cut loose from all res- traint and say without reservation that things are thus and so and not otherwise, we ought to be prepared with better evidence than Rev. Lamb possesses regarding his bald, blatant assertion in rela- tion to the hand of the Almighty — no, not better evidence, but just evidence, for he has given none and manifestly has none to give. [to be concluded in next number] Salt Lake City, Utah. Citation: Kenner, S. A., "The “Golden Bible”," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 214–218. # Mother’s Love A Mother's Love. BY AUBRAY PARKER. Who can guess the greatness of a mother's love? The depths of it no one can plumb. The young mother is conscious of a strange stir in her heart which makes it pulse with gladness. It is the birth of the mother-love; and that love is as lasting as life: it is eternal. If, in the course of a mother's life, one of her loved ones is laid at rest, and she has to leave it there in the little churchyard, no matter how far from that place she may wander, even to earth's farthest point, that little mound which marks the resting-place of her dear one will prove an unfailing magnet to draw her heart to that spot; because the tendrils of that life departed are still wound rouud her mother heart, and are vital bonds. How powerful is a mother's love! Many a young man has held in his heart the knowledge of his mother's love, and it has been that and that alone, which has kept his feet in the path of right. Mothers are the makers of the world's heroes. We are often discovering new genius and greatness in un- thought of circles. But it is not new genius or new greatness that we find, but obscure greatness and genius which is not new because it is just found out. Greatness has been the cherished ambition of many a mother's heart, not for herself, but for her children. A mother, when on her way from England to America, was asked her reason for going, and she answered, "To raise gov- ernors for them." She prophesied truly, for three of her sons were indeed governors. When Napoleon was exiled in St. Helena he declared: "My Citation: Parker, Aubray, "Mother’s Love," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 219. # The Little Peach —— 220 IMPROVEMENT ERA. mother loves me. She is capable of selling everything for me, even to her last article of clothing." Do you marvel that he attained greatness with such a mother's love behind him? The greatness of a nation lies in the goodness of its mothers; for in the goodness of its mothers lies the greatness of its sons. The greatest greatness is the greatness of love; and mother's love is the greatest of human loves. It is sacrifical love. It is a phase of that greater love displayed by the All-Father in the gift of his Son as a vicarious sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary. Mothers have been known to suffer for that which they have not been guilty, in order to shield their sons from shame. How great a word is mother! And the greatest of our great men have not failed to do homage to They have added it. their testimony to the sanctity of the union of mother and child. In the two pure loves of child and mother, Two human lives make one divine. Gateshead, England. The Little Peach. {Selected.) A little peach in the orchard grew A little peach of emerald hue; Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew It grew. One day, passing that orchard through, That little peach dawned on the view Of Johnny Jones and his sister Sue— Them two. Up at that peach a club they threw Down from the stem on which it grew Fell that peach of emerald hue. Mon dieu! John took a bite and Sue a chew, And then the trouble began to brew Trouble the doctor couldn't subdue, Too true! What of the peach of the emerald hue, Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew? Oh, well, its mission on earth is through, Adieu! Eugene Field. Citation: Field, Eugene, "The Little Peach," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 220. # The Rock Foundation of the Church The Rock Foundation of the Church. BY A. ADOLPH RAMSEYER. whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and But said,Thou art Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church : and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This passage, which is frequently quoted by our elders, (Matt. 16: 15-19) in order to prove the necessity of revelation in the Church, is full, I believe,of much wider significance. It is indeed true that each one who repents and is baptized into the Church of Christ receives by revelation a testimony of the divinity of the work of the Lord. But this is not all: Peter being asked his individual opinion of Jesus, answers, Thou art Christ, viz., the Anointed, the Messiah. In antithesis to this testimony of Simon Peter, Jesus proclaims Peter to be a rock (Petros, or Petra in Greek, Cephas in Syriac, the mother tongue of our Lord and his disciples, see John 1: 40) upon which Christ's Church was to be built; not upon Peter alone, but upon Peter and the other eleven apostles, as Paul says, when writing to the Ephesians: Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (2: 20). This promise of our Lord began to be fulfiled on the day of Pentecost, when, through the preach- ing of Peter and the eleven, three thousand souls were baptized and added to the Church. But the word rock has yet another meaning in connection 222 IMPROVEMENT ERA. with Christ and his apostles. What are apostles and prophets if not messengers sent of God with a message to their contempo- raries? The prophets before Christ, the Lord himself, and his apostles after him, being moved by the Holy Ghost (II Peter 1: 21) spoke for the edification of the Church in all ages. Hence the Savior's warning: "Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: . . . And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sands, " with the two well known results. The Book of Mormon, too, is likened to a rock: "For, behold, saith the Lord, I will manifest myself with thy [Nephi's] seed, that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious. And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock, and my salvation" (Nephi 13: 35, 36). This passage is corroborated also by the following one: "Behold, I give you a commandment, that you rely upon the things which are written, for in them are all things written concerning the foundation of my Church, my gospel, and my rock; wherefore, if you shall build up my Church upon the foundation of my gospel and my rock, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you" (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 18: 3-5), and thus we get a lucid and beautiful explanation of the much debated passage of Matthew. Have the gates of hell prevailed against the Church of Christ? What emotions were stirred up in our Savior's breast while speak- ing these words, when, with prophetic eye, he foresaw his own crucifixion, the persecution and martyrdom of his Saints by the Jews, by the Romans, and finally by that most abominable church "which slayeth the Saints of God, yea, and tortureth them, and bindeth them down; and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity" (I Nephi 13: 5). The gates of hell not prevail against him, nor against his Church, did for he broke asunder the gates of hell, visited and delivered the captives, and afterwards ascended to heaven, and prepared a place in the wilderness where his Church might flee and remain for a season to come forth again in the last days (Rev. 12: 6-14). To claim that Christ's Church remained in the world during THE ROCK FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH. 223 the eighteen centuries which elapsed since the collection of books forming the Bible was compiled would be to insult the wisdom and the power of the Almighty. A single look at the babel of religious systems ought to convince any sane mind that they do not enjoy the Spirit of God; for "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Ephesians 5: 22, 23); while the works of the flesh (Ephesians 5: 19, 20, 21) "adultery, fornication, murders, revellings," etc, abound, and have been abounding in the world during the last eighteen centuries. But, though an apostasy from primitive Christianity was plainly apparent, it must not be forgotten that the rays of living light, which for a brief period emanated from the Church of Christ, have accomplished wonderful results. Who would exchange the condition of things in Europe or America dur- ing the past two or three centuries, for the conditions that existed when imperial Rome governed the world? Christianity has abol- ished slavery, given the toiler one day of rest out of the seven, provided places and opportunity for the soul to be lifted up to the Creator in prayer and song of thanksgiving; hospitals were built and endowed, schools established; philanthropists have taught the masses to help themselves; rulers -have learned to respect the rights of their subjects, their brethren in Christ; while the com- mon man, by keeping the laws of God, has learned to rise above the law of man, thus gaining an independence of thought and unknown to previous ages. nobility of character The pages of Holy Writ furnished exalted themes for poetry, music, sculpture or painting, giving the humblest ones lofty ideals for the improve- ment of morals; ideals which pagan philosophers never dreamed of. These very things, being disseminated as the word of God among our forefathers, have been "of great worth unto the Gentiles" (I Nephi 13; 23) for their spiritual and social development; and thus the word of the Lord, given to the world by his apostles eighteen centuries ago, has been of inestimable value to mankind. The great truths of Christianity are today believed and practiced, not always properly, it is true, in every land and clime. The divine birth of Christ, his miracles, his atoning death, and his triumph over the grave, are implicitly believed by millions of hon- est souls, and millions have been and are being benefited by his Citation: Ramseyer, A. Adolph, "The Rock Foundation of the Church," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 221–223. # The Dream of Wealth . 224 IMPRO VEMENT ERA exemplary life and his gracious words. True, there are disagree- ments about dogmas, and practices, yet those nations which have come nearest to the ideals of Christianity have made -the most wondrous achievements, notwithstanding the drawbacks of apos- tasy. And if so much has been accomplished by the world in its what wonders cannot be expected when millions shall fallen state, have become members of the Church of Christ, which has now returned from the wilderness? Forest Dale, Utah. The Dream of Wealth. {For the Improvement Era.) 'Twas only a dream of a yesternight, But a warning dream in the dawn of light: I sat in the halls of fame, endowed With a hand that ruled and a host that bowed. My right hand grasped my wealth untold, My left, my faith new-born, but old. But my soul grew faint in that regal chair, For the burden was greater than I could bear. So I flung my faith at my feet, at length, For my gold cried out for all my strength; And the voice of greed rang loud in my ear, With a tone of pride and a touch of fear: "What would you do, if you lost your gold, With its train of attendants manifold, The pomp of power, the smile of fate, The homage of penury and the state?" But an answer came to that voice of greed: ' 'So many and many a noble deed Not done; if the heart, a slave, were freed, You could serve your God, a still voice saith. But, oh, what would you do if you lost your faith?" Theo. E. Curtis. Salt Lake City, Utah. Citation: Curtis, Theo. E., "The Dream of Wealth," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 224. # New Zealand—the Missionary’s Wonderland New Zealand— the Missionary's Wonder- land. BY ELDER E. P. PECTOL. The cut herewith shows all but two of the elders who were laboring in the Wairarapa Conference last August. ELDERS OF THE WAIRARAPA CONFERENCE, NEW ZEALAND. Back row: W. C. Harper, J. A. Erickson, A. E. Anderson. Front row: H. H. Crouch, E. P. Pectol, J. J. Godfrey. I wish to briefly explain a few of the many good features of New Zealand, showing it to be a field of labor to be desired by earnest missionaries. 226 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The Wairarapa is one of the beautiful valleys of New Zea- land, situated in the southern part of the North Island, stretching northward from Cook's Strait, a distance of sixty or seventy miles, and contains many beautiful streams and woodland scenes, and a lake on which countless numbers of ducks and swans may be seen the whole year round. In width the valley proper is about four miles, and is bounded on the west by the beautiful and densely wooded Rimutaker range, whose noble forests lie majes- tically mirrored in the calm lake at its foot, and on the east by the low coast range. Attached to the valley and lake is this Maori legend: You will observe that the North Island is fish-like in appear- ance. As the legend goes, while out fishing, Maui's hook became fastened to some very large object. Being a very strong man, he succeeded in bringing to the immense fish— the surface an North Island, as we now have it. Wairarapa valley, situated in the extreme southern part, between two mountain heads that fall sheer into the ocean, and the lake, twenty miles long, is directly connected with the sea from the fish's head and open mouth, in which Maui's hook became fastened. Cape Kidnapper, the southern point of Hawke's Bay, represents the hook Maui used in bringing up New Zealand. This is only one among the many beautiful valleys in New Zealand. The mountain scenery, for its kind, cannot be surpassed elsewhere. It has no eternal snow-clad peaks, like the Rockies or Himalayas, nor has it an abundance of precipitous, rugged, glaring, weird scenery, which is so fascinating to some; but it is that beautiful, green, picturesque, wooded and vineclad scenery, en- livened by the sounds of the laughing rills and the songs of birds, that awes one into admiration; and that causes one to exclaim, with a new inspiration, "Chance cannot be the author of such beauty! It required a master mind, with a complete knowledge of the forces of nature, to produce in reality this beauty that skilled artistshave only succeeded in feebly portraying upon canvas." Do elders enjoy legends or scenery, there is no better place than New Zealand to gratify their feelings. In size, Wairarapa district is thirty-five miles wide and one hundred miles long. To enhance its value, eight cities and many NEW ZEALAND— THE MISSIONARY'S WONDERLAND. 227 small towns dot the land. In all, about thirty-five thousand Europeans, and one thousand Maoris, find homes and shelter within these boundaries, with but four elders to proclaim to them the gospel's message. There are many such districts. You ask, what kind of people? As good as in any land. People with souls to save. All are God's people, and he values one soul not less than another. Do elders have in their hearts, first and foremost, their missionary work? There is no better field than New Zealand. "But," says one, "I want to come in contact with the best in the world, — the educated, the learned, the scientific. I prefer England or Germany." Let me say here: this government has a splendid educational system of her own, and one can do well to study it. Does it oppose your theoretical idea of an educational system? You, then, are better off for having met its opposition. You may become an originator, instead of an imitator. Do you wish to develop your psychological study? Do you wish to become a leader and an organ- izer? If so, no better oppor- tunities offer elsewhere than in New Zealand. Four na- tive schools are now in ses- sion, and one more is soon to be established. Then, plans for the building of a college are being executed as fast as possible. The New Zealand Mission is coming to the front. All we need is more good elders. We often hear at home that the climate of New Zealand is very unhealthful. This is not so. It is true that The Writer in his Garden, with a few of his Maori School Children elders occasionally get sick in the Background. here, but is this not the case in every mission field? 'Tis true we are subject to very sudden changes, yet there are no great extremes to fear. The temperature ranges betwee 228 IMPROVEMENT ERA. twenty degrees Fahrenheit in winter, to ninety degrees in summer. Snow seldom falls except on the tops of the mountains. I wish to say here that I am writing about the North Island only; the South Island being subject to heavy snow- falls and, naturally, a lower N*~ rt ; m-i »»c. — -alt temperature. While I think proPv. due caution should be used and the physical condition of ute the elders well understood ;i-''jj^5l before assigning them to their fields of labor, yet B I believe the call is the main > lb : thing to heed, and trust to H the One whose work we ara doing. People affected with asthma, bronchitis, consump- tion and various other lung Milking Force at the Taumata Sheds and throat troubles, have been greatly benefited here, while others, not affected, have contracted these maladies. Disease exists everywhere. Have faith in the work we go out to perform; and remember the promises that Jesus made to his seven- ties and apostles are in full force today. New Zealand is noted for its dairy products. Large dairy farms and milking sheds are seen on every hand, and our Saints are not behind in this industry, one family milking one hundred and twenty-five cows through the summer, and seventy-five in winter. The above cut shows a group of milkers at one of the many farms where our elders find a home, warm friends and loyal Saints. The one who represents himself as foreman, takes a leading part as general roust-about in the shed, among the pails, and at the churn, and is one of our good "Mormon" boys. If elders have hesitated, in deciding where they should like to go, let them do so no longer. Swing the battle ax aloft and shout, "New Zealand for me!" Masterton, New Zealand. Citation: Pectol, E. P., "New Zealand—the Missionary’s Wonderland," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 225–228. # Slander Slander. BY GEORGE D. KIRBY. It has became a habit with me, when assigned a subject for discussion, to go to my Bible for a text; so, on the subject of "Gossip," I followed my usual course, and my surprise was great when, looking through the "word-book," I failed to find any refer- ence the word "gossip." in the scriptures to My next step, then, was to look up the dictionary, and see what explanation Mr. Webster attached to the word, and I found, "Gossip, a tale- bearer. Not until then did it occur to me that a gossip was a ' ' bearer of tales, a scandal-monger, or one addicted to slander. I was not longer at a loss for a text, for the Good Book contains many references to that word, "slander." I took the first I came to: Exodus 23: 1, "Thou shalt not raise a false report; put not thine hand with the wicked, to be an unrighteous witness." The prevalence of this fault is amazing, when one stops to think for a moment. Very few people, if any, are exempt from it. Men are as great gossipers as women. There is nothing some men like better than a scandal, and if this is not forthcoming, they enjoy talking about other folk's affairs. Get a man at a social gathering, and gossip will not be lacking for a minute. But the men do not do it all. It is a deplorable fact that much of the conversation indulged in by our women folks is in the nature of criticism, sometimes of their very best friends. But it is not done in a spirit of malice: it seems to be simply the universal method of keeping up an interesting discussion. Since the days of Noah, the way in which some people have talked about their neighbors has made the more judicious grieve, and before the tower of Babel was completed, no doubt the spice of conversation was that which 230 IMI'ROVE.UE.VT ERA. related to the latest scandal. Threats have been made, laws passed, and we read in our early history that scolds and gossips were ducked in the river, in order to check the bearing of scandal, but all to no avail. Like the poor, the gossip "is always with us." Now, it is a positive fact that no good comes of this habit. The man, in whatever field he may be engaged, should always bear in mind that it never pays to criticize any person unjustly. No one helps himself by slurring another. Such conduct tends to raise, in the mind of the listener, a question about the man who is trying to depreciate another. The "hammer" is a weapon dan- gerous to the man who uses it, as he is quite as likely to smash his own fingers as to drive his purpose home. It is a critical habit to drift into. When we come to judge people, we must remember that we see so very little of what they really are. Life does not consist of one intense joy, nor of one great sorrow; it is the accumulation of the little things that con- stitutes living, so do not be critical of the little faults, and, per contra, be quick to find the little virtues and to praise them. If a person's heart is impure, his life will be impure. Solomon said,"As a man thinketh in himself, so he is;" and the same wise man said, "Keep the heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."Evil deeds spring from evil thoughts. A person whose thoughts are pure, need not be afraid that his actions will be impure; they cannot be, because, as Solomon said, "The issues of life proceed from the heart." A man because he sees the defi. ciencies of others, fancies himself to be enlightened when in reality he is ignorant, because he has never stopped to reflect on his own shortcomings. "Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." If you expect a harvest of joy, you must sow joy; if you expect hope, peace, love, the seeds of these must be abundantly scattered. In the eastern countries there is one great rule which guverns all relations between man and man, a rule which is so simple as to be within the reach of all; the disciple is bidden to never give pain to another creature. We also are taught the same, but there are so many demands made by our false personality, under the names SLANDER. 231 of righteous indignation, proper pride, self-respect, just anger and the various forms of criticism and judgment, that the pain we are causing by our word is lost sight of. Milton says: "Goodness thinks no ill, where no ill seems." Never did any soul do good, but it became readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love or gratitude or bounty practiced, but with increased joy, which made the practicer still more in love with the fair act. We may scatter the seeds of courtesy and kindness about us at little expense. Some of them will fall on good ground and grow up into benevolence in the minds of others, and all of them will bear fruit of happiness in the bosom whence they spring. Once blest are all the virtues; twice blest, sometimes. If we enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost our disposi- tion will be made better, our hearts will be filled with love for our fellow creatures, we will become more charitably disposed, and harsh- ness will disappear, because our hearts will be in a condition good and lovely. The gospel will not only affect our minds and our souls for good, but soften the harsh, rugged features, mellow the feelings, and plant love in the heart where hate once dwelt, and we will then become a delightsome people. Sugar City, Idaho. The Blessing of Them that Fear the Lord. "Blessed is the soul of him that feareth the Lord: to whom doth he look? and who is his strength? For the eyes of the Lord are upon them that love him, he is their mighty protection and strong stay, a de- fense from heat, and a cover from the sun at noon, a preservation from stumbling, and a help from falling. He raiseth up the soul, and lighteneth the eyes: he giveth health, life, and blessing." — Ecclesiasticus 34: 15-17. Citation: Kirby, George D., "Slander," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 229–231. # Extract from “The Old Journey” EXTRACT FROM "THE OLD JOURNEY." BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE, Author of "Our Inland Sea," etc. "Far in the West there lies a des°rt land, where the moun- tains Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and luminous summits." Joyfully we burst into song. "All hail ye snow- capped mountains" — there they were at last. O what a time of gaiety followed, when the evening meal was over, and the sweet-toned clarionet assembled all in the open corral. The young men and women, and the older ones, too, danced the hours away, forgetful, in the merriment of the time, of the fatigues that were past, and those that were to come. It was such hours as these that atoned for those which had been sad. Small need to tell how expectancy grew upon us as the number of miles ahead grew less and less. Even those who had grown apathetic and trudged silently along, or sat questionless in the wagons, began to manifest the same eager inter- est which had marked the day of our starting out. Wake up! wake up! wake up! One who was ever brimming over with fun and frolic beat together two old tin pans, and roused all laggards and stay-a-beds. The Golden West, the Valley, was our goal! Has not the dream of the Pioneer been realized? TOWARD THE GOLDEN WEST. From "a rough sketcbTby? Alfred Lambourne. LARAMIE PEAK — FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE HEIGHTS. From a rough sketch by Alfred Lambourne. Citation: Lambourne, Alfred, "Extract from “The Old Journey”," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 232–233. # Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. II : Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. BY THOMAS W. BROOKBANK. II. These instances in which the principles of enallage have been applied, are not the only ones that occur in the Book of Mormon, and a few additional ones, without accompanying remarks, shall now be given, in connection with certain Biblical texts, in order that the correspondence of the two records upon the point in question may be perceived at a glance BIBLE. BOOK OF MORMON. Ye shall not afflict any widow We knew that ye could not or fatherless child. If thou afflict construct a ship, for we knew that them in any wise, and they cry at ye were lacking in judgment; where- all unto me, I will surely hear fore, thou canst not accomplish so their cry (Ex. 22: 22, 23.) great a work (I NephilT: 19). And it shall be if thou do at For the Lord had not hitherto all forget the Lord thy God, and suffered that we should make much walk after other gods, and serve fire, as we journeyed in the wilder- them and worship them, I testify ness; for he said, I will make thy against you this day, that ye shall food become sweet, that ye cook surely perish (Deut. 8: 19.) it not (INephi 17: 12). Remember and forget not how And I said unto him, Belie v- thou provokest the Lord thy God est thou the scriptures? And he to wrath in the wilderness: for said, Yes. And I said unto him, from the day that thou didst de- Then ye do not understand them part out of the land of Egypt, (Jacob 7: 10, 11), until ye came into this place, ye Now Amulek said, thou child have been rebellious against the of hell, why tempt ye me. Know- Lord (Deut. 9:7). est thou that the righteous yieldeth And thou shalt write them to no such temptation? (Alma upon the door-posts of thine house, 11: 23). HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 235 BIBLE. BOOK OF MORMOM. and upon thy gates: that your days Now I would that ye should may be multiplied, and the days of remember that what I say unto your children (Deut. 11: 20, 21). thee, I say unto all (Alma 12: 5). Notwithstanding thou mayst Behold my sons and my daugh- kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, ters, who are the sons and daugh- whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, ters of my second son, behold I according to the blessings of the leave unto you the same blessing Lord thy God which he hath given which I left unto the sons and thee * * * only ye shall not daughters of Laman; wherefore eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon thou shalt not utterly be destroyed; the earth as water. Thou mayst but in the end thy seed shall be not eat within thy gates, etc. saved (II Nephi 4: 9). (Deut. 12: 15-17.) These Hebraisms are thus demonstrated to be fully as charac- teristic of the language of the Book of Mormon as they are of that of the Bible, and some of the grammatical errors in the former, to which our attention is sometimes called by our opponents, are also found in the Bible, which is a model of correct English; and they should not be regavded by any one as fit matters for ridicule, but be viewed in their true light, as peculiarities necessarily asso- ciated with the use of a Hebrew idiom, and hence as affording unim- peachable evidence that the Book of Mormon was not written by Joseph Smith, nor by any other man who was not thoroughly familiar with some peculiar principles of the Jewish language. If those who peruse these remarks will turn to Christ's ser- mon on the mount, and read especially Matt. 5: 39; 6: 1, 2 and 6, 7, and 16, 17, and 7: 1-5, they will find that, if there is any ground for charging illiteracy against the Book of Mormon writers because of the peculiarities in the use of language just passed upon, an identical charge of illiteracy can be sustained against the writers of the Bible. Remarks relative to the Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon will be closed, for the present, with a few observations respecting the use of we in the text where Nephi says, " We are a descendant of Joseph'' (I Nephi 6: 2). Writers of these times frequently use we instead of the singular /, as it seems to savor less of egotism, and Nephi 's substitution of we for / in the cited text, suggests to 286 IMPROVEMENT ERA, some minds grounds for the charge of modernism against his writ- ings; but his language is fully sustained as proper by examples already produced, where a plural form is used for the singular to imply that the person or thing contains within himself or itself what is to be divided amongst many. In this case, Nephi could not alone claim the honor of being a descendant of Joseph, for his illustrious descent was necessarily shared with all the other mem- bers of his family. Thus this alleged mistake, or error, on the part of Nephi is, when rightly viewed, simply another evidence of the authenticity of his writings. Passing now to another phase of our general subject, it becomes necessary to quote again some recognized authority as the foundation for our remarks. Turning, therefore, once again to Greene's Hebrew Grammar, paragraph 69, welearn that the ' 'formation of words and their inflections are accomplished partly by internal changes and partly by external additions. * * * The external additions are significant syllables welded to the root or to the word, either at the beginning or the end.'' This state- ment of the principles upon which Jewish words are built up, shall be supplemented with a part of paragraph 181, as follows: "All nouns are, with respect to their formation, reducable to cer- tain leading types or classes of words, each having a primary and proper import of its own. The derivation of nouns, as of the verbal species, from their respective roots and themes, calls into requisitionall the expedients, whether of internal or of external changes, known to the language.'' A general exhibit, illustrating the application of some of these principles in the formation of many of the Nephite proper names, is to be submitted; but before presenting it, there is one Nephite name that deserves special consideration, together with the meaning given to it in the Book of Mormon. The one thus singled out is Rabbanah (Alma 18: 13)). The termination in ah is a very common one among Jewish proper names, and almost invariably carries with it the idea of some kind of relationship to Jehov-ah. For example: Abij-ah,means him to whom Jehov-ah is a father. Azari-ah signifies helped of the Lord, and Hezeki-ah, strength of the Lord. Further the meaning of the Hebrew name Rabbi is, ''' generally, "teacher but — HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 237 it also has the meaning of "master," or Lord, as we readily gather from the context of Matt. 23: 7, 8. A few relative remarks from the able pen of Dr. Adam Clarke in his notes on the text just cited now follow, and the special attention of our readers is requested to the points that he presents for our consideration. He says: "There are three words used among the Jews as titles of dignity, which they apply to their doctors — Rabh, Rabbi and Rab- ban, each of these has its particular meaning: Rabban implies much more than Rabbi, and Rabbi much more than Rabh. They may be regarded as three degrees of comparison: Rabh great, Rabbi greater, and Rabban greatest." Now it is evident, from all the facts which bear upon this matter, that Rabban-ah must have some meaning that is associated with the highest of earthly dig- nities on one hand, and with the power, wisdom, or other attri- butes of Jehovah on the other, — with those of Him who is King of all kings. The Book of Mormon, therefore, in giving to the nam e Rabban-ah the meaning of "powerful or great king," is correct to the last degree. From the context of Alma 18: 13, where the name occurs, we learn that Lamoni, a Lamanitish king, and his people did not think the appellation beneath the dignity of the Great Spirit, whom they imagined they saw in their presence clothed upon with a body of flesh and bones. Not only is the meaning of this word correctly interpreted by the Book of Mormon writer, but it is built up upon unquestioned principles for the form- ation of names in the Hebrew. No mistake of any character has been made. It is derived from the proper root. The proper modification of that root is selected in order that its whole force allthe force and meaning that it was capable of being made to express— might appear in the new name, and, finally, the proper termination is added to associate it with the Almighty, or the Great Spirit, as he was known to the Lamanites. The evidence which other Nephite names afford in favor of the Jewish origin of the Book of Mormon is very valuable; and some of the characteristics, by which they are distinguished as Hebraic, shall now be made apparent by means of the promised exhibit, which is of a comparative nature, showing at a glance the correspondence that exists between many Biblical names and others that are of Nephite formation. By means of this exhibit, our 288 IMPROVEMENT ERA. readers will also get a view of the prefixes and suffixes, and other modifications that have been applied or effected in the formation of these Nephite names, which have been constructed according to the principles last quoted from Greene's Hebrew Grammar: BIBLE. BOOK OF MORMON BIBLE. BOOK OF MORMON f Abinad-i f Gid Abinad-ab ( Abinad-om I Gid-don-ah Abish-ag Abish Gid-eon { Gid-ianhi Gosh-en A-gosh I Gid-gid-doni f A-kish I Am-gid Eish \ Eish-cumen f Mori-ancumer Riblah ( Ripla-kish Mori-ah \ Mori-anton Aminad-ab Aminod-i ( Mori-antum Gola-n An-gola Zer-ah Zer-ah-emn-ah Car-chemish Chemish Gaz-ara Gaz-elem \ Math-on-i Hesh-bon Hesh-lon Math-u-sala / Math-on-ih-ah Jacob It, Jacob-u-gath Mil-com Com Gath j- Gim-zo Gim-gim-no Josh-u-a Josh Hag-gai Hag-oth Gath O-gath Jeho-ash Jeho-cab f Shem-non Eim Shem j I Shem-lon Eli-a-kim 1 Eim-nor Shim-nil-on Shim-ron 1 Shiz-a Shiz I Shim Tubal Tubal-oth f Nephi-h-ah Nephi Zara / ( Ze-nephi Zara-hem-la Hem-dan f Enoch Z-enock f Amni-gad-d-ah Enos Z-enos Gad j Gad-iandi Ammon Ammon-ih-a ] Gad-iant-on Par- ah Anti-par-ahh L Gad-iomn-ah Sar-ah Sar-i-ah Amal-ek Amal-icki-ah Nim-rod Nimrah Jon-ah Ant-(j)i-on-ah Nahor Nehor Gil-gal Gil-g-ah Jared Shared Shilo Shilo-m Shillem Shilem Elam He-lam-an Sidon Sidom Hem-dan Hem Zorab Zoram Nahum Nahom Onam Ante-onum Shur j Shurr Emmer Emer 1 Sher-riz-ah Etham Ethem Ah-i-ah Ah-ah Ezra Ezrom Ah-i Ah-a Jacob Jacom Rib-blah Rip-l-ah Mosol-lamon Laman Ab-(sa)-lom Ab-lom Omar Omer j Am-aron Shiz-a Shez Aaron i. Amm-aron Shulam Shule Amnon Amnor Zera Zeram Melech Melek Jashen Jashon Jordan Jordon Citation: Brookbank, Thomas W., "Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. II," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 234–238. # Thrift, Thrift, Horatio — HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 239 The names that appear in the foregoing lists, from Zara to the close, comprise a class in which it appears very probable that most of the variations from the Biblical standard are due to modi- fications in their orthography by the Nephites, and when we con- sider that these people were cut off entirely from communication with their brethren in Palestine during the whole period while the Book of Mormon history was making, it is not strange that such changes in some of the Jewish names were made. Their occur- rence was inevitable under the circumstances; and they are just as necessary and valuable as evidence to sustain the authenticity of the Book of Mormon record, as the remarkable features of cor- respondence connected with the names in the first part of the exhibit are. Our case would be very defective without these vari- ations. Taking the names that have been given above as of Jewish origin, and this course seems fully justified, and adding them to those in the Book of Mormon that are identical in every way with Biblical names, there are fully sixty per cent of all that occur in the former work that are Hebraic on their face — about thirty per cent in the foregoing lists alone. (to be continued.) Flagstaff, Ariz. Thrift, Thrift, Horatio. John D. Rockefeller never wearies of impressing on the young the folly of mean and parsimonious habits. In one of his most recent inter- views he said: "These miserly people reap nothing but discomfort from their false economies. Take, for example, the case of Mrs. Silas Long of Sussex. " 'Martha,' said old Silas one fall day, T think I'll go and get a few apples from the orchard.' "He looked at her timidly. She said: ' 'Well, be careful now, Si, only to pick the bad ones.' "Suppose there ain't no bad ones, Martha?' " 'Then ye'll have to wait till some goes bad, of course,' the old lady snapt. 'We can't afford to eat good, sound fruit wuth three cents a bushel." St. Louis Globe- Democrat. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Thrift, Thrift, Horatio," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 239. # The Purpose of Education The Purpose of Education. BY J. P. MAY. All people are agreed that man should be educated, but just what education should consist of is perhaps a mooted question. Very disagreement is found, however, regarding the found- little ation,which is the common school course; this is recognized as necessary for the foundation of every child's training. The gen- eral tendency of the times is towards the plan of giving to each student that class of knowledge for which nature has best fitted him, in order that he may be of most use to society, and to him- self. After the common school course is completed, all additional training should be given with the aim in view of developing the pupil along those which he is adapted, and, at the same lines for time, make a normal man of him, with the greatest degree of efficiency compatible with such normality. That such is recog- nized as a good standard, is evident wherever education is an issue. If this standard could be followed more closely, we should have a better class of graduates from our high schools than those usually turned out, and college education would be less of a prob- lem. To give a boy a thorough course in classics, when he is a natural mechanic, is quite contrary to the theories of proper development. Knowledge is becoming too complex for one per- son to be a master of more than one subject or department, hence the all-important question is, what shall be best for my boy? Whose is the duty of determining just what course the young man shall take? Teachers find that the parent ofttimes knows about the real genius of the child. little On the other hand, many teachers are incompetent to advise the youth properly. It THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION. 241 is evident that the co-operation of student, parent and teacher is the only successful method. Mainly as a result of improper development, we see on all sides young men who have studied their sciences and their arts, and still are not that which they wished themselves to be, and not the class of trained citizens which the state and nation needs most. Perhaps our commercial spirit is partly responsible for the produc- tion of young people trained, but still unfitted, for practical life. "How much money can I earn?" is the ever-present problem before the average young man. In order to get students, the monetary side of an education has been made too prominent by various schools, the result being that young people go to school mainly for the purpose of finding a way, in order that they may get along with less work and more money. The fact that all earth-creatures were adapted for activity, and that man must actually labor, both with his hands and with his brain, is almost lost sight of in many schools. Idleness has killed far more people than war, disease and natural calamities ever killed. Work, good, honest toil, is the maker of men, without which no man can properly develop or evolve. There are other results of faulty or wrongly directed education, chief among which is the production of arrogance and vanity. If education does not prove a sure cure for conceit, then there is something wrong with the system or methods. Educators generally agree that to train a youth properly due attention must be given to the spiritual, the intellectual and the physical. Accepting this self-evident proposition, it is quite remarkable how unbalanced some training really appears. It is not enough that students be taught that every cause has its effect, and that each effect is the result of a definite cause. In training the young man, he should at all times be instructed to classify and correlate his knowledge. Leaving aside the improve- ment of the physical, let us look into the results of the lack of correlation between the intellectual and the spiritual instruction. The writer has met hundreds of young men who have received high school and college training, and yet are very deficient in spirituality. Having taken the best that good parents have accu- mulated; having been given all the love that fond parents can bestow, still there are those who scoff at the ideas and modes of 242 IMPROVEMENT ERA. life of "father and mother." One can often hear the young man say, "0 I have learned more than they. I find that all religions are man-made, and that all men are working for their own wel- fares. If I live a good life, pay my debts, and help the poor, I shall get along about as well as my forefathers." For such reasons as these he quits his church, or allows his name to remain on the record while he does nothing for the advancement of the faith of his fathers. The cause of such conclusions is a lack of assimilation of truths. Harmonization of all facts is not suffi- ciently prominent in education. If such correlation and harmo- nization of truths, for the purpose of solving life's secrets, were given due attention, a remedy for low spirituality would soon be disclosed. Our young men study sociology, and yet fail to apply the truth that the grade of a society can be found from the degree in which people unite to form co-operative assemblages. Instead of getting out of all church work, because he does not agree with every detail of doctrine, the broad-minded man will endeavor to improve the weak places and harmonize the apparent discords. There are many who wear a sure sign of superficiality and lack of proper reasoning by claiming they need no religion, and acting as though they really require no assistance from anyone. The interde- pendence of social units is lost sight of in the mist which improp- erly correlated truths have cast over the sight.Many forget that men were like themselves, there would be no religions and no if all governments— no civilization. The fact that all men are trying to follow the line of least resistance means too much to our young people. They forget that Old Earth was specially created for just such a class of creatures; that one who slumbers too long must lose his identity, his name passing away from among men. Only three generations from "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves" still rules in the families of the aristocrats. The rich father sel- dom has a son like the sire, because improper education over-bal- anced the youth. The heart of religion is brotherhood. The man who fails to do all in his power to assist the spirit of brotherly love has received wrong education. One can see many men who refuse to have anything to do with religion because they cannot understand all its principles. Of THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION. 243 course when a doctrine is proved to be wrong it should be cast aside, but because an idea is not understood, is no indication of its being illogical. Because he cannot grasp the whole, and understand every detail, the young man leaves the church. One can see the same person relying on his arithmetic, and yet, perhaps, he never did master its principles; he may use and enjoy an elec- tric light without knowing the secrets of electricity; survey with the transit, without knowing much about magnetism, or get mar- ried on slight acquaintance. Is he consistent in demanding that religion be entirely explained? President Eliot recently spoke about a new religion. Judg- ing from the records of the past, this new religion will contain all the essentials of true religion as we have it, and have added to it a constant stream of truth, correlated and arranged about the same. This great educator recognized the fact that we need religion and must ever have it. Man has developed far enough to prove as true the fundamentals of religion. The duality of man demands religion. Science is a real brother to religion, and in no case has she weakened the faith, of the properly educated man, in God. We have dreamed a greater God, that is all. To him who has been blinded by superficial facts, "God is lost amid his stars." Science tends to prove that matter is becoming crystallized. There is some good evidence to show that the moon is gradually becoming purified by crystallization. Judging from the luxuriant growth of vegetation and varied and huge animals that once grew on this globe, compared with present flora and fauna, our sphere is traveling towards a state of freedom through being crystallized. The sea of glass, which John the Revelator saw, may actually yet be seen. Any man who is broadly and properly educated must surely be- come humble and prayerful - there is no knowledge, properly corre- lated, that should make him otherwise. True humility is a sign of pro- gress, especially when the humble man possesses a good store of knowledge, gleaned from life's many sources. There is no ground on which any argument against spiritual education can rest; on the contrary we have a thousand facts to justify faith in the dictates of the inner man. Milford, Utah. Citation: May, J. P., "The Purpose of Education," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 240–243. # Salvation Universal. III Salvation Universal. BY JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR., ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN. III. Salvation for the dead was understood in the days of the primitive Christian Church, and to some extent baptisms for the dead continued to be performed until A. D. 379, when the Council of Carthage forbade any longer the administration of this ordi- nance and "holy communion" for the dead. Paul uses baptism for the dead as an argument against the Corinthian Saints, who, even in that day, were falling away from the true gospel. These saints understood the doctrine of baptism for the dead, yet they doubted the general resurrection. Paul argues with them thus: Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurreetion of the dead, then is Christ not risen . And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain- Yea, and we are found false witnesess of God; because we have testi- fied of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resur- rection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. '. . . Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? and why stand we in jeopardy every hour":* *I Cor. 15: 12-30. t SALVA T10N UNIVERSAL. 245 Joseph Smith, the prophet, informs us that salvation for the dead was introduced in the days of Christ who had reference to this subject when, in addressing the Jews, he said: "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this gener- ation."* Commenting on this, the prophet said the reason that generation would have to answer for the blood of the righteous from Abel to Zacharias, was that in their day the privilege of per- forming the ordinances in behalf of the dead, was within their power, while it had been denied anciently. "Hence," said he, "as they possessed greater privileges than any other generation, not only pertaining to themselves, but to their dead, their sin was greater, as they not only neglected their own salvation, but that of their progenitors, and hence their blood was required at their hands. In this same article the prophet declared that Obediah was speaking of salvation for the dead when he said, "And saviors shall come upon Mount Zion, to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. "$ The work of saving the dead has practically been reserved for the dispensation of the fulness of times, when the Lord shall restore all things. It is, therefore, the duty of the Latter-day Saints to see that it is accomplished. We cannot do it all at once, but will have the thousand years of the Millennium to do it in. In that time the work must be done in behalf of the dead of the previous six thousand years for all who need it. Temples will be built for this purpose, and the labor in them will occupy most of the time of the Saints. One of the most important prophecies, pertaining to the dead, is thatof Malachi. He prophesied that the Lord would send Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, for the purpose of turning the hearts of the fathers to * Matt. 23: 35, 36. f Times and Seasons 3: 761. X Obediah 21. 246 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest the earth be smitten with a curse, when the Lord should come. This prophecy, which is not understood by the world, has come to pass. When the Angel Moroni appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, September 21, 1823, among the passages of scripture he quoted that were about to be fulfiled, was this prophecy of Malachi's- but he quoted it with this variation: "Behold, I will reveal unto you the priesthood by the hand of Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promise made to the fath- ers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.''* From this, we see that Elijah's mission was to restore that priesthood which would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, according to a promise that had been made to the fathers. That it was extremely important and necessary, is shown in the fact that the whole earth would be utterly wasted at the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, if this priesthood were not restored. This quotation deeply impressed the prophet at that time, although he could not understand it. Three times that night it was repeated, and again on the following day. Gradually, as link after link of the gospel chain was revealed, and the keys and powers were bestowed, the prophet increased in wis- dom and knowledge. In time, a temple was built in Kirtland, but in it there was no baptismal font, or any ot-her provision made for ordinance work for the dead. The reason is that the doctrine had not been fully revealed. This temple, however, served the purpose for which it was erected, a house of the Lord, where he could come, and send his angels to bestow keys and authority necessary in this dispensation. In this temple, April 3, 1836, the Savior and many of the ancient prophets appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and bestowed upon their heads the keys of the several dispensations. Among these heavenly visitors came Elijah, who placed his hands on the heads of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and gave them the priesthood spoken of by Mala- *Hhtory of the Church. Vol. 1: 12. SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 247 chi. "Therefore," said he, "the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors.* What was the promise made to the fathers that was to be ful- filed in the latter-days by the turning of the hearts of the child- ren to their fathers? It was the promise of the Lord made through Enoch, Isaiah, and the prophets, to the nations of the earth, that the time should come when the dead should be redeemed. And the turning of the hearts of the children is fulfiled in the performing of the vicarious temple work and in the prep- aration of their genealogies. Up to the time of Elijah's visit, there had been nothing done for the dead. The doctrine was not understood by the Saints, and there was no temple built where the ordinances could be performed. But as soon as this priesthood was restored, the hearts of the children commenced turning to- ward their fathers. The knowledge of temple building and temple work was made known to the prophet from time to time subsequently to the 3rd of April, 1836, and he commenced to reveal these things to the Saints. In Nauvoo they were commanded to build a temple to the Lord, for only in temples can these ordinances be performed, excepting in times of extreme poverty, when they cannot build temples for that purpose. "For this ordinance belongeth to my house," says the Lord, "and cannot be acceptable to me (i. e. out- side of the Lord's house) only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not 'able to bifild a house unto me."t As the Latter-day Saints were in this poverty-stricken condition when they settled at Nauvoo, the Lord granted them the privilege of baptizing for the dead in the Mississippi river, until a place could be prepared for the ordinance in the temple. Just as soon as a font could be pre- pared in the temple, the Lord, by revelation, discontinued baptisms for the dead in any other place. It was October 3, 1841, when this revelation was given, and on the 8th of the following month, the font in the temple at Nauvoo was dedicated, and from that day, until the Saints were driven from Illinois, that ordinance con- * Doc. and Cov. 110: 16. t Doc. and Cov. 124: 30. 248 IMPROVEMENT ERA. tinued to be performed by them in that house in behalf of their dead.* After arriving in Salt Lake valley, the first commandment * Some of those who would destroy the work of God, have declared that the Church was rejected, with its dead, because the temple at Nau- voo was not finished; and, say they, the Lord, in this revelation, declared that he would give the Saints sufficient time to build a house (temple) unto him, and if they failed to build it in the sufficient time, they would be rejected with their dead. The fact is, that the Nauvoo Temple was built, and many of the Saints received their endowments in it, and labored for their dead before they were finally driven from Nauvoo by their enemies. But the meaning of this revelation is perverted; the Lord did not say he would reject the Church, with its dead, if they failed to build the temple, but that they would be rejected if they did not perform the ordinances for their dead in the temple when it was prepared for that purpose. Here is the commandment in question (sec. 124: 31-35): "But I command you, all ye my Saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me, and dur- ing this time your baptisms [i. e. outside of a temple] shall be accept- able unto me. "But, behold, at the end of this appointment [i. e. the sufficient time] your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me [i. e. out- side of a temple] and if ye do not these things at the end of the appointment, [?'. e. temple work] ye shall be rejected as a Church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God. "For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinances of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead [i. e. in any other place than in a temple] cannot be acceptable unto me, for therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained that you may receive honor and glory. "And after this time [when a house is prepared] your baptism for the dead, by those who are scattered abroad, are not acceplable unto me, saith the Lord," [Italics and brackets are mine. J. F. S., Jr.] And if ye do not these things at the end of the appointment, obviously does not mean "if you do not build a temple at the end of the appoint- ment," as our critics claim it does, but it refers to the ordinances that were to be performed in the temple, and the failure on the part of the Saints to perform these ordinances for their dead was the thing that would cause their rejection with their dead, and not the failure to build SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 249 President Young received from the Lord was to commence to build a temple where this work could be continued. The members of the Church responded, and four temples have been built, where the living now go to officiate for the dead. The restoration of Elijah's priesthood accomplished more than the turning of the hearts of the members of the Church to their fathers, for the spirit of his mission spread forth and took hold of the hearts of the honorable men and women in the world who have been directed, they know not why, to spend their time and means in preparing genealogies, vital records and various other genealogical data, which they are publishing at great labor and expense. It is a curious and interesting fact that the year following the coming of Elijah, the British government passed laws requir- ing the proper recording of records, and the filing of them in one central place. In the year 1844, the New England Historical and Genealogical Society was organized in Boston; in 1869 the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society was incorporated in New York. Other societies have been organized from time to time in America, principally in the New England States, and they are publishing quarterly genealogical magazines and registers, family records, etc.: disseminating information continually regard- ing our ancestors, that is useful to the Latter-day Saints. The New England Society is publishing, as they express it in their magazine, "by a fund set apart from the bequest of Robert the temple, which was merely the edifice in which the saving principles were to be performed. This is in harmony with the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who said that if we neglect the salvation of our dead "we do it at the peril of our own salvation! Why? Because we with- out them cannot be made perfect" (Doc. and Cov. sec. 28: 15). The virtue of salvation for the dead is not in the structure of the temple, but in the ordinances which are performed in the temple. The temple is to the ordinances just what the vessel is to the life-giving nourishment it contains. Those who would reject us on a technicality, because, as they say, "we did not finish the temple," neither build templesn or perform the ordinances for the dead, wherein they prove their rejection by the Lord, according to the revelations of Joseph Smith, the prophet. 250 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Henry Eddy," to the society, the vital records (births, marriages and deaths) of towns in Massachusetts, whose records are not already printed from the beginning to the year 1850. This is a tremendous work, many volumes of these records have been pub-, lished, and others are in course of preparation.* Eventually they will be printed by this and other similar societies in Massachusetts, a state that has set the pace for her sister states to follow. There, and in other parts, these societies are protected and encouraged by legislative enactment. Besides these numerous societies engaged in this noble work, there are multitudes of individual laborers who are publishing at their own expense family geneal- ogies and vital records that extend back for hundreds of years. In Great Britain the work is carried on by the Harlian Society, the Genealogist Society, Phillimore & Company, the Lancashire Parish Register Society, the Yorkshire Parish Register Society, and similar societies in nearly all of the countries of Great Britain. These societies publish the parish registers of the several parishes in England, and to an extent in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. *Other societies in Massachusetts are also preparing vital records, among them are the Topsfield Historical Society, the Essex Antiquarian Society, the "Systematic History Fund," Franklin P. Rice, trustee. Of this work Mr. Rice, who is a pioneer in genealogical research, says: "I hope sometime to give in detail an account of the various under- takings in the line of record preservation with which I have been connected since I began, in the early seventies, with the idea, crude and imper- fect, of subjecting to classification, for easy reference, manu- script materials in public dopositories, many of which were then hidden or unknown, and in many places practically inaccessible. * * * Thirty-five years ago the interest in such matters was mainly antiquarian, and the few examples in print in this line had been inspired from that standpoint. Genealogical research was not the powerful factor it is today. As the idea expanded and developed, I came to regard the work chiefly in its practical and scientific aspects, and I applied the term "Systematic History" as best explaining its purpose, to meet the neces- sities of all enquirers and investigators. * * I formulated a plan sometime before 1890 to require the towns in Massachusetts to print their records, but this met with little favor. Its substantial features are embodied in the Act of 1902. * * * Pursuing the work since 1898 under the operation of the Systematic History Fund, I have been able to secure copies and to print the vital records of more than thirty towns in central Massachusetts.'' Citation: Smith, Joseph F., Jr., "Salvation Universal. III," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 244–250. # Rapid Transit — SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 251 There is also in Great Britain Lodge's, Debritt's and Burkes' Peerages and Visitations which are invaluable to the searcher of genealogical information in those lands. These numerous societies and individuals in the world, upon whom the spirit of Elijah has fallen to this extent at least, are compiling, printing and distrib- uting these records of the dead, faster than the Saints can, with their present facilities and understanding of the work, obtain them: In fact, they have far outstripped us in the race, and while we sometimes are given to boasting of the great work we are doing for the dead, it is as nothing, a mere drop in the bucket. These people and societies are helping us, should we not take every advantage of their labors and stand in the forefront, mag- nifying our calling and proving our birthright as the children of Ephraim? Thus the hearts of the children are gradually, but surely, turning towards their fathers. The spirit of this work is now taking hold of the hearts of the people of Germany, Scandinavia and the continent of Europe. And why are they doing this? Because their hearts have been drawn out to their fathers, through the restoration of the keys of salvation for the dead, and they are energetically and faithfully laboring, but all the while uncon- scious of the full significance and worth of their labors, simply because the work appeals to them and they are fascinated by it. Surely they shall receive their reward! [to be continued.] Salt Lake City, Utah. Rapid Transit. In response to growing demands in his home, Henry Kitchell Web- ster, author of The Sky Man, once went to his father's house, borrowed the family high-chair and started taking it home by hand. Not only did he have to wait long for his car, but when it finally came its conductor was a humorist. "Aren't you pretty big for that chair?" that official ventured. "Yes," admitted Webster, wearily, "I grew up while waiting for ' the car. ' Success. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Rapid Transit," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 251. # Dan Hudson’s Sacrifice Dan Hudson's Sacrifice. A Story for Christmastide. BY ATTE RA. I. The brief tale I am about to tell, has not sweet scented mists of a romantic "long ago" for its setting. Indeed, but twenty years have Christmas chimes been rung and Christmas prayers been said since its happening. And, Christmas story though it is, the curtain does not once rise to reveal a bright array of candle lights, and the delightful odor of hemlock and spruce — hallowed incense of our childhood day. And more— the place is not verdant hillsides, "where shepherds watched," but a wilderness of sand and stone, belonging to that unknown and unknowable desert of our western wonderland, the Colorado Plateau. And, again, the time is not December, but August — burning, blighting August. Not- withstanding, I would have you listen, and at Christmastide. Fourteen years before the August of which I write, a pros- pector, known in eastern parlance as mountaineer, drifting slowly westward, found a desert of stone, cut and creased with canyons, the most wonderful in all the world. In one little canyon, or gorge, fifty miles from any human habitation, he found a stream and a stretch of land. In this little valley, or vale, (where was rich soil and bright verdure) he built a home, which on all sides, save an opening to the west, was walled in by cliffs of sand- stone, red and treeless. Thither, from far-off new England hills, he brought his young wife and three toddling babes. — DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 253 It was now the thirteenth anniversary of that home-coming, and the white heat, in which all nature swooned, was typical. Great masses of blue-gray clouds shifted, and, as if impelled by some power above and beyond, slowly rose from the horizon line. Their rifts and borders dashed with glints from the setting sun, quivered and glowed like living flame. "Ah, a dark cloud with a bright lining!" The exclamation came from a youth, who stood upon the brow of a rockbound ridge, beside the ruins of a mighty cliff, and dreamed a dream of the future. For more than an hour loving eyes —the eyes of a mother— had watched him there, as the twilight cut a silhouette of his lithe young form against the amber of the sky. "An artist," she murmured. "I know, I know, it was in my father's blood, it was my heritage, it is his— thank God?" She knew not that her son's gaze was far beyond the band of clouds, and that the burst of light had but that moment called him from his dream. A harsh voice shouting, "Whoa, there, you black beast!" startled the woman, and she hastened from the boulder on which she leaned, down rugged, stony steps, through a tangle of brush to the garden path, where she met a broad, stalwart man, the master of her mountain home. "Get the milk buckets, Annie," was his only greeting, after a day's absence. "That blamed boy has gone daft, I 'spose stands there on the ledge watchin' for the cows that's bin in cor- ral since sun. I'll have 'em to milk, tired as I am, unless you'll give a hand." Not tonight, Abraham. I've been ill all day, and came out only for a fresh breath. "Sick, are you!" returned the husband gruffly. "Well, then, why in thunder don't yu' go to bed, instead of whinin' 'round here?" With this angry remark he grabbed her arm, and pushed her rudely from the path. The same instant he felt a powerful hand grasp his collar, and before resistance could be made, he was whirled around and left sitting upon the ground. Over him tow- ered an angry man; a man of six feet and broad chest; a man 254 IMPROVEMENT ERA. whose brown, mobile face had suddenly turned to stone; a man whose eyes flashed fire from the passion that burned within; a man — his son Dan, the "boy who had gone daft." In an instant the startled, breathless man was on his feet, and the two, father and son, glared at each other with fists clenched and bestial eyes. The young man first relaxed. "Father," he cried out, with a fearless voice, "for twenty years you have kept me in the traces; but henceforth I am a man, and shall take the part of a man, as I now perform the labor of one; and if you ever again, to my knowing, either by word or by touch, offer my mother an insult, to a man, sir, you shall answer — God witness between us." A low moan from the woman, who had fallen prostrate, with a pallor as of death upon her face, arrested the attention of the men. The son, with a spring swift and agile as a cat's, reached the mother's side, and with strong arms bore her tenderly to a place of rest. At that moment the canyon rang with the vibrant echoes of loud halloos. Dogs barked; horses whinnied; and the moun- taineer hastened to the broad lane, where he swung apart heavy gates that opened from the white, dusty canyon road below, to his verdant home. Dan and Dan's mother, (just awakened from her faint) knew by the hearty, ringing, "Ho, ho, friends, welcome to the hermitage!" that Abraham Hudson, the master, would make good his reputation for hospitality, and do credit to his moun- tain appellation, "prospector's pard." II. A week had passed since the altercation in the garden path. Hudson had been genial, as usnal, to his visiting friends, prospec- tors from the river eighty miles away; but to his family glum and morose. With a gruff "good bye," called out as he released the creaking brake to his wagon, he started off on one of his two week trips to "the towns." Ah, that two weeks! To the mother, in her after years, as she looked back over the pathway of her woman's life, it was the hour of her heart's sweetest triumph. There she was, in the great silence of thewilder- ness,shut in by walls towering and omnious,but with a gladsome, ca- DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 255 ressing child (her little girl Elin — her rose of the desert) clasped in her arms, and, protectingly at her side, her boy, her first-born, now a man; and to her came the solace for a mother's long anxiety. For twenty years she had watched her boy, a divine mystery of budding, growing, blossoming manhood. What a stretch of uncertainty, what a record of watching, waiting, praying! was all before It her, a picture that could fade only with the light of life. The first sharp wail that announced the little one's arrival from a great unknown; the first glimpse of a tiny face that fancy had long por- trayed; the first touch of eager lips; the first thrill from the quivering baby form that seemed to struggle for protection and for love. Yes, the helpless infant, the gladsome child, the quiet, dreaming youth, she had watched them all in him, and now — the man Much had come into that stretch of twenty years' time. Three of the little ones who had found in that mother's arms a cradle of rest, had grown strangely cold and quiet beneath her watch care. Death had found that home in the rocks. Three times the strong man and the fragile woman, husband and wife, had bowed together in the presence of the grim reaper. Three times were their souls laid bare in grief; and drawing near to mourn their common loss, they had seemed to understand and to thank God for each other. Silently, and none knew whence -per- chance in the noon-day glare and heat of toil -perchance in the quiet hours when shadows crept, unseen powers had parted those human hearts, drawn closer by the hand of sorrow than by the bonds of love. And yet, the woman toiled on, a loneliness in her soul more vast, and more terrible, than that in the silent, lifeless rocks. He, who should have been her refuge, drew ever nearer to the worship of hidden gold, ever farther from humankind, and ever farther from his God. There, during the master's absence, in the long twilights, and in the glory of desert moonlight, those two, mother and son, held communion; and found that sweetest comradship the world affords, the sympathy of souls. As the mother sat, one bright evening, with Elin's head pil- lowed in her lap, Dan listened till the child slumbered, and the lullabys were hushed; when, suddenly, he began to talk with an earnest vehemence she had never heard before from him. — 256 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Mother," he said, "it seems strange to me in what utter blindness human beings can live. Do you know, mother, what my six months away at school did for me? To be sure I learned but little of grammar and arithmetic in that time, but in some miracu- lous way, everybody and everything I had known, myself included, had their masks pulled off; and the world became a different place. I learned that I was not quite like other boys from ranch homes. I could read and write with ease; and, to my own surprise, possessed quite a treasury of historical knowledge —the tales you had so often told, and encouraged me to retell. My knowledge of the Bible, too, you think me dull in that, but my teacher thought it did me credit. That teacher taught us other and better things, mother, than our books contained; and I feel, somehow, that he opened for me the doors to another sphere where —where — well, I don't exactly know where, or what, God has given me only this: talents and powers, and I mean to use them for my own betterment and to his glory. I'm not content to be a cunning fox with a hole in the rocks of this desert." Dan's eyes flashed, but his voice grew strangely low and musical, vibrant with boyish passions long pent up. "Mother, my jnother,' 1 and he took a step nearer in reveren- tial attitude, then, bending low, he touched the soft waves of her hair with his lips. "Mother," again he said, "do you know, I can't help but think that your companion — your husband, I mean should have been like that man, that teacher I adore." • The mother started, her lips moved, but she made no sound, and her son went on: know that my father took you when you were a young, "I homeless orphan, and made you his wife. You were grateful, you even loved him, for he was a hero in your eyes. Your love and gratitude, I know, also, will end in a life-long constancy, in unend- ing devotion, and what does he give, what will he give in return? He promised protection, to love and cherish. You believed, rough and uncouth though he seemed, that he would always be gentle with you; that you would be his helpmeet, his wife, his queen! And now, how is it? He desired gold, not the gold of honest toil, and great achievement, but gold that waits far off in the pockets of the earth, for the grasp of the adventurer. His manly endur- " DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 257 ance, his fearless exploits were, I grant, from the hero's soul, but to what end did he so desire weal ill? Did he ever strive for the welfare of mankind, for the betterment of the world, or was his hunger but the miser's greed? In his efforts to gratify the appe- tite for adventure and for gain, did he ever pause for one moment to consider what wilderness life would mean to his frail, young wife? I think not. She was dragged from pillar to post, to live in tents, in hovels, in unsheltered wilderness camps. Every craving of his restless, roving nature he has pampered and fed, while her heart has gone forever hungry. Three of her babes, snatched by the hand of death from her warm breast, are laid where the wolf will forever howl, and the viper forever find his home. Abram Hudson's wife, his gentle, loving wife — my mother, is a bond woman; and it breaks the heart of her son. My father has gold now, sufficient for a home in civilized lands, with rest for his wife and education for his children. Will he leave this place, think you, where, among his fellows, (self-made outcasts of society) he is a chieftain, a 'hale fellow well met?' Never, unless help comes from One greater than man; which, for his sake and for ours, may the Father above grant. Do you know, mother, that already he entices me with gold to give up my school, my ambition, all that would make me worthy of companionship with noble men, men of action, men of culture, that he may have my service here? "Once he was, to my childish mind, what he is now to my little sister's, a great man, a hero of many daring deeds, and my self-sacrificing mother helped to keep up the illusion; hut his boasts — "Dan, Dan, my boy!" interrupted the mother, with pleading exclamation; but, with impulsive gesture, the lad went on, his words quick, his voice tense from the train of thought bursting from a long silence: "I know, I know, mother — 'children should honor and obey, that their days may be long,' and all that. I should pray for my days to be short in this land which the Lord giveth to howling beasts and creeping reptiles. Poor honor, it seems to me, is that a parent might gain through a child's greed, and not his love; and, oh, how bitter for a loving child to learn that honor is undeserved! To Elin, father is now as great as the kings in her story little — 258 IMPROVEMENT ERA. books, but to father, what is little Elin? A princess deserving all that he can bestow, or a child born to serfdom, whom he has the right to imprison here in this cage of scorching, blistering rock? "Hear me, mother, for this once I must speak the bitter truth that eats at my heart.I must tell you— he— is— a hard — man— a— grim —jailor! whose passions have been his highest law; and yet, according to his own code, my father, thank God, is a man of high honor, and, psrchance, in his stony heart may yet be found a crevice of untarnished gold. Listen, mother!" Dan's voice was low and sweet again, "listen — have vowed to rescue I you and Elin, and perchance the grim jailor, too, from this prison house! How, I know not, but my faith is great, and the Lord will be my support." Together, that night, Dan and his mother prayed as they had never prayed before, for divine guidance. The next day was one of earnest fasting and petition. Dan decided to help his father for a few months longer, when the freighting season would be over and contracts with the miners would be fulfiled; then, at the begin- ning of the new year, to set out for school and for a new life." "I have," he said, "a little means of my own, and on Decem- ber 25, I shall be what the law calls of age. That, mother, will be my second real birthday: but I shall wish you still to feel that I am yours —your Christmas child grown to manhood; and may the day come when you will feel that this great world of evil and of good, is a little better because your child has lived." Mrs. Hudson listened to her son with infinite pride and with infinite pain in her face. Did the thought of parting with her son bring with it a premonition of ill? or had she in that thought come very near in sympathy to the mother of sorrows, whose Son was a sacrifice for the whole world? Tenderly Dan kissed her white, pain-stricken face. "Don't grieve, mother," he said; "I have looked forward for years and years to the birthday when it will be my right to choose. Not for myself alone have I wished it; but that I may go from this place, which has never once seemad to me a right place in which to live; for, even when a child, I caught the spirit of your loneli- ness and my own; and I resolved some day to go forth and build a home, a real home, for you, and for father, too, should he wish. DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 259 Every time I heard a wolf howl, something in my heart would say, 'This is his home and not yours, go! go! and leave the wilderness to him.' "Mother," again Dan pleaded, "think not of that dear Christ- mas with a heart of dread; for on that day I shall be more to you than I have ever been, and I feel in my very soul that the Lord will make it for us all the beginning of a new life." III. August heat, white, sifting, penetrating, had burned for nearly thirty days. The scant vegetation of the desert had turned gray and crisp; but the sandstone wilds, though submitted for thous- ands of times to that furnace heat had not yet turned molten. The silence was so vast it seemed to bound the very earth, and to stifle every breath of air; and yet this silence was one day broken. Living, moving specks, men with their beasts of burden, threaded a pathway through the rock-bound sands. Abram Hudson and his son, for they it was who traveled the desert through the August heat, were on their way with food and supplies for a prospector's store or cache, whence miners would fetch them to their camps. Though but the fulfilment of a con- tract, that meant to the two men a dangerous trip for a handful of gold, its non-fulfilment would have been dishonor to themselves, suffering and, perchance, death to their fellows. The travelers had made use of the long, shadowy, but not cool hours before daybreak, hoping to find some sort of shelter and rest during the noontime heat. To save three days of travel, and to insure, as they believed, water for man and beast, the freighters had left the circuitous mountain trail for a cut-off leading through a rock chasm which was, at flood time, a river bed. Like the walls of Colorado's grand canyon, the cliffs on either side of the wash were, for hundreds of feet, perpendicular and impenetrable; in truth, a sixty mile crack or crevice in the solid rock. In these great walls, though often miles apart, were huge, hollow, basin-like shelves, known as water pock- ets. The spring rains filled these pockets making reservoirs of water that lasted for months; and to their existence many travel- 260 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ing prospectors owed their lives. The Hudsons planned to water at the fifteen-mile pocket soon after sunrise, and at the twenty- mile pocket to pitch camp. At this pocket was a cross-cut crevice in the cliffs, which afforded a steep and rugged pathway to the heights abov^e, the only outlet for human feet within a forty-mile stretch; and, in case of cloudburst storms, the only place of escape from the torrent that sometimes filled the wash. The trip from Muddy Springs, had been a rough ride, long and dry; and as the little party neared the first pockets the horses sniffed and whinnied, and the men wet their lips and parched throats with the last insipid drops from their canteens. To their dismay they found the pockets, large and always before well filled, nearly dry. The horses rubbed their noses in the basins of mud while the men climbed to the shelves above. No water was found. Would another stretch of five miles bring them relief? To return to the springs they had left behind, in that more than tropic heat, seemed impossible; while to push on to the next pockets, and find no water, they knew meant cer- tain death. The men looked at each other in silence. "God have mercy!" muttered the elder! Dan's answer was a long and searching look at the clouds above. Men had been rescued from that furnace by sudden rains, and men, he knew, had died in that pitiless heat. Both men, without a word, took from their empty canteens a mouthful of damp coffee grounds, and mounting their jaded beasts urged them slowly on. They had dropped the loads from the pack animals, and one was left to die. Abram Hudson's .face soon grew purple, and his tongue swelled. Dan pushed ahead at a slightly quicker pace, found water, and hastened on the return track, to find his father fallen from his horse, unconscious. At sunset that day both men and animals were in camp, refreshed and rested; but the supply of water from the lower pockets was nearly exhausted, and preparations were made for a climb in the cross-crevice to the basins above. When half way up the cliff, and the men believed within short distance of water, they both rested themselves upon a flat shelf projecting from the cliff. At the shelf's further end a slen- DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 261 der pine shot upward, apparently grown from the solid rock. Back of this,ard running the entire length of the shelf, was a cave, whether deep or shallow the uncertain light failed to reveal. "Rest here, father, the climb on up is very steep and will be too much for you. I'll fill my canteens, if I find water, alone, and then come for yours." The father, still weak from the collapse of the morning, threw himself at full length upon the floor of the shelf, while Dan climbed slowly and cautiously on. Each shelf grew narrower, and the loose pieces of rock at their basements more frequent. Seventy feet above his father's resting place, Dan found water. While filling his canteen he was startled by a fierce and tremend- ous growl that seemed to end in a base ruar, as it echoed from cliff to cliff; while above the awful noise, he heard his father's ter- rified voice calling for help! Springing quickly to an overhanging shelf, Dan stretched himself in position to get a view of the shelf below. There, in the top of the pine, which swung far out over the gulf below, was his father, huddled, and crying out hoarsely for help. At the tree's base floundered and panted a great grizzly bear! With bristling mane and gnashing teeth, he alternately pawed at the cliff and the trunk of the tree. Splinters of bark and twigs flew far out into the air, and dropped to the depths below. For a moment the bear would rise to his haunches, sniff the air, and again return to his clawing and his fierce belching growls. His angtr was furious, and yet he seemed loth to risk his wf ight upon the slender, swinging tree. To reach the bed of the wash below, where were guns and ammunition, Dan would be obliged to cross the entire length of the ledge on which the angry animal puffed and bellowed, and, were that possible, he would' doubtless be too late to rescue his father, whose position seemed to grow every instant more perilous, as the tree bent with his weight and limbs broke beneath his feet. For two full minutes, which seemed a time unpardonable, Dan lay and watched, his whole being surprised and paralyzed. Then, with a loud shout, he bade his father try to swing his weight towards the face of the cliff, and to keep tight his hold. Hastily, then, the lad threw aside canteens, coat and boots. From a little 262 IMPROVEMENT ERA. leather breast-pouch he hastily withdrew a small packet, which he slipped beneath his hat-band; and from his trousers pocket he drew a large, strong-bladed knife, the only weapon in his reach. With quick steps he descended the rugged pathway of the cliff. When near his father, and directly above the wide shelf, he shouted, with clear, unfaltering voice: "Father, hold steady — tell mother good-bye — God be with you!" Lightly he swung to the shelf's edge and paused. The great maddened beast whirled around, glared at his slender antagonist, and made a rush. Twice Dan thrust with his knife, and twice the beast struck back; though fearing, apparently, to get near the brink where the boy stood to lure him. A moment the bear paused, then with a fierce gnashing sound of teeth and throat, and a sideward, swinging rush, he rose to his haunches, extended his great claws and grabbed at the youth. Dan stepped back. A terrible cry of protest and of human anguish at that instant reached his ear. Without seeming to hear, he sprang forward with a mighty thrust, throwing his lithe form upon the panting breast of the furious brute. They grappled — man and beast— struggled, swayed, and plunged to the depths below! IV. Two weeks had passed. The freighters, father and son, were expected home in twelve days. Anxiously Mrs. Hudson waited, her only companion the seven-year-old Elin, and a hired boy. On the fifteenth day Mr. Hudson drove slowly through the home gates, with but three of the seven horses he had taken away, Dan's horse was saddled and riderless. The father was pale and emaciated, his voice husky, his words of greeting inarticulate. With trembling limbs he tried to dismount, but fell in an unconscious heap to the ground. For seven days he writhed and tossed in fever and delirium. Often he muttered Dan's name and something about Christmas, but there seemed no connection. On the eighth day he wakened suddenly and sat up. To his wife's pitiful pleadings for Dan — for her boy — he said abruptly: DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 263 "Dan! our boy, Dan, oh, yes, Annie, Dan is dead; on Christ- mas day we will bury him." Again he relapsed into delirium, and muttered something about the cliff, the awful gnashing noise, and that terrible, bleed- ing" wound. These were the only articulate words the eager, listening woman ever caught. Slowly the sick man recovered, but was very silent, and the look of pain ever present in his face hushed the questions of his wife, and chilled her very soul. Once her husband put out his hand, as if to touch hers, but quickly drew it back again, and turned his face to the wall. When at length he walked about, he avoided his wife and child, and seemed ever loth to touch things that had belonged to Dan. Once she caught him intently watching Elin as she slept; and then, throwing his hands upward as if in dumb, frenzied suppli- cation, he rushed from the room into the midnight darkness, whence he returned not until morning. Once, only once, she saw him lead Dan's horse to water and caress the animal as it drank. Then he sat down upon the creek bank and intently eyed his hands. With a sickening shudder she recalled, now, that he avoided touching or being alone with her; and that he had ceased to fondle little Elin, the only being whom he had treated, always, with tenderness. She recalled, also, in face of all this, that he had returned from his trip with but scant clothing, and that ter- ribly begrimed— perhaps stained! Like a two-edged sword, a great pain entered her heart. Was he — her husband — a — man— of — guilt? Her whole being was smitten; but she rose above her stricken self, determined to find the truth, yet how, God alone could tell! Her very look of fear, and distress had driven her husband, she felt, to silence. An attempt to force him, she knew would be as useless as to seek confession of the hard, unyielding desert cliffs. Hudson noticed the forced courage, the determination that had come to her, and grew solicitous, almost tender in his help- lessness. Nothing was forgotten that would relieve her from labor or care — no harsh words now, no angry acts, but of Dan he never spoke. " — 264 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Three months thus passed. December weather had come, with cutting winds, but no snow; and the sun was still bright with a sort of winter glare. The fall work was finished, and Hudson now grew restless. For hours, through the day and far into the night, he tramped the garden walk. Two trips he made to distant towns, and preparations for an unnamed journey seemed under way. One evening, the twenty-first of December, his tramp, tramp, on the garden path was quick and impulsive. Finally it stopped short, and he abruptly entered the room where his wife sat. "Annie," he said, in a strange, choking voice, "I have sold sold the place. I'm going to take you and Elin where people live — where you'll be happy." For a moment the gruff man paused, and stifled a sob. "Annie, wife," he went on, "will you go with me, first, to bury him? It will be a hard trip; but Dan wished it —on Christmas — his last words. When we get with Dan, I'll try to tell you all about it— how he — With frightened eyes, Annie sprang to her feet, and stared into her husband's blanched face; and, for answer she sprang into his outstretched arms. Upon his heaving breast she sobbed out the pent up agony, the doubt and distrust of all those cruel weeks. On December 25, 18 — a funeral was held in Big Pocket , Wash, of the Colorado plateaus. Six men had preceded the par- ents and sister of Dan Hudson, and with strong, tender hands had made all things ready. For a little time the friends withdrew; and there, beside an open grave, in which stood a coffin of strong wood — Dan's last resting place — Abram Hudson told his wife of his son's sacrifice; and how he had found the unconscious boy, his flesh mangled and torn, in the embrace of the dead brute; how Dan had revived before his death, and had sent to his mother a message of love. He had wished to be buried there in the wash, and on Christmas day. "I have promised," he said, "to spend Christmas with my mother. She will come, and the promise will be fulfiled — her boy will be near." "I stripped off my clothing, Annie, to bind his bleeding wounds, and my blankets were his shroud. In the little cave, there, under the cliff, his body waited for burial; but of his suffer- — DAN HUDSON'S SACRIFICE. 265 ing, Annie — my wife — do not ask. In his hatband I found this a tress of his mother's hair, turned round one of his own black curls; but better than all else were his last dear words— 'As my mother loves you, and is true, love and cherish her; and forget not, my father, that the Son of God was sacrificed to save us all.'" * * * * * * * Ten years after the funeral in Big Pocket Wash, of the Colo- rado plateaus, Abram Hudson, a rugged old man with whitened hair,was seen to enter a cosy cottage home— his home and Annie's— in one of Utah's thrifty towns. "Little mother," he said, (that was his form of tenderest greeting) "little mother, I have bought Tom Brown's carriage don't look frightened, I'm not fixin' to runoff. The rig is strong and easy -riding, and has a warm, thick cover. It is Christmas next week, you know, and I thought you and me and Elin would just go and spend it in the wash — a sort of thanksgiving Christmas, Annie. I'd like to spend a day near Dan, again, and I'd like to tell the Lord, while I'm there, that we know our blessings are from him, and are worth more than the gold of the whole world." Annie Hudson's answer was a sob of unspeakable joy. Provo, Utah. The British Budget was rejected by the House of Lords on November 30, by a vote of 350 to 75. The action was taken against the advice of many of the peers who warned the Lords of the danger of the policy adopted. By this action of the Lords a new issue is intro- duced into British politics, which in importance far transcends the ques- tion of the budget. The House of Lords is almost entirely a hereditary body, and the question is whether they have the right to overrule the House of Commons, which is a representative body, on the questions of finance. It has never before happened that a budget providing the rev- enues for the year, duly passed by the House of Commons, has failed to receive the consent of the House of Lords, and on December 2, the House of Commdns, by a vote of 349 to 134 adopted a resolution declaring that the action of the House of Lords was "a breech of the constitution and a usurpation of the rights of the House of Commons," and on the fol- lowing day the King prorogued the Parliament until January 17, 1910. The question now goes to the people. Citation: AtteRa, "Dan Hudson’s Sacrifice," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 252–265. # The Higher View THE HIGHER VIEW. "Where, where are the men for the on-coming years?" A graybeard's disconsolate cry; For he lives in the pas!, and verily fears All greatness is dead, or will die. "Gone, gone are the sires, and the sons are swift passing; The giants are under the sod. Where, where are the armies of Israel massing— The hope of the Kingdom of God? "Yea, where are the prophets, the songsters, the sages, God's rulers, through whom he hath reigned Since Chaos was quickened, and, launched on the ages- A new world, to glory ordained? " They are not, they are not, and the fountains are sealed- Brass above and iron beneath. Truth's fulness is past, and the portion revealed Now sleeps as a sword in its sheath." So the pessimist sang, and his doleful refrain Smote my ear with sorrowful sound. Then straightway the spirit within me made plain A vision from loftier ground: Not true, said my soul, that the mighty have ceased; That all greatness is passing away; Or more precious the knowledge at yesterday's feasl Than the banquet provided today. In the wide human fores!:, by Providence planted, Great trees are yet growing sublime. When a worn beam shall break—when a new helve is wanted, 'Twill be found in its season and time. What though, summoned hence by the Chieftain com- manding, Hosts vanish, death-conquered in vain. On time's stormy shore other legions are landing, From triumphs on life's spirit plain. The pasl is the parent— today, a descendant, Whose heirs are the ages unborn; Like springing from like, in a scale still ascendant. Then how shall the future be shorn? Deem not the all-wise and almighty Creator Of stars, suns, and systems untold, A bankrupt to Fate, an apprentice to Nature; He is God— the same God as of old. Can the glory now pale— the intelligence perish, That founded eternity's throne? When failed the Good Shepherd his chosen to cherish? Fear not— he will care for his own. Orson F. Whitney. Citation: Whitney, Orson F., "The Higher View," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 266–267. # Some Men Who Have Done Things. III.—Evan Stephens Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY III. — Evan Stephens. THE GREAT COMMONER IN MUSIC. Thirty odd years ago two missionaries from Ogden preached one afternoon in Willard. Now it happened that a beardless youth of seventeen led the choir there and played the organ, using hands and feet for the instru- ment and head for the sing- ers. After the services, one of the men said to the other: "Here's a musical genius, but he won't stay long in Willard." And he didn't. About the same time another preacher audaciously told a Willard congregation that they were harboring a genius in their choir leader, and that presently somebody would come and take him away from them. Immedi- ately the Willardites were inconsolable. They acted as if their singing master had EVAN STEPHENS. just received a hundred of- Director Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir. fers, and was on the point of SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 269 accepting themall. "Don't you leave us, my boy," they expos- tulated;"you won't find anyone that will love you more than we do." But the young genius did leave' them, notwithstanding, and though he found none to give him greater love, he widened beyond all reckoning the circle of his admiring friends. That man was Evan Stephens. The very name got to be a name to conjure with in after years. It became associated with big things in music. Over all "Mormondom" was it known. Over all America, too; for "Evan Stephens" and the " 'Mormon' tabernacle choir" have become familiar to tens of thousands who know noth- ing else about the Saints and their faith. Indeed, the writer has met obscure persons in far-off England and Wales, whose notions of the West were dismal as three rainy days, but whose musical recollections included the name, Evan Stephens. But we are getting ahead of our story. Three and forty years have now elapsed since the Stephens family reached Willard, fresh from Wales, and a bedraggled trip across the plains with an ox team. There is a fine story con- nected with this journey, but it is too long to set down here. The family purse had sadly dwindled to an American quarter, two dimes, and a nickel. Luckily, however, a son and a daughter lived there, having immigrated to Utah some years before. Evan was now twelve years old, and as untouched by the divine fire as if he had hailed from a land where music was unknown. Young Stephens' first job in the new home was herding sheep. He husked corn at the same time, going up now and then to the top of an old shed to see that his flock did not stray where his broken English would have to be brought into too violent a requi- sition. For this toilsome vigilance he received nothing but the privilege of herding sheep and husking corn, and the prospects of a scolding if any of the sheep went astray. Presently he got another place at an advanced wage; he got his board, and at the end of the year, a suit of clothes to boot for good service. Like the other, it was farm work, only more so. But he gave satisfaction, which proved that the future musician was getting on in the world. From seventeen to twenty he was still on the farm, getting by now a small pittance. This meant extremely hard work and long hours, in consequence of which he had scant time for unbending. Four- 270 IMPROVEMENT ERA. teen hours a day the work beckoned him insistently —plowing and sowing and reaping and a thousand and one things that cry out to be done on the farm. And then there were the chores. Meantime the Utah and Northern Railroad was under way, and so, like many others along the line, he worked on it for some ready cash. Whether it was this that gave him a taste for railroading, I do not know. Maybe, it was the need for ready cash. Anyhow, his twentieth year found him a section hand on the newly-completed railway at a dollar and thirty-seven cents a day. It should also be known that during these early years when work was slack on the farm, he had helped to build some of the best houses in Willard. That is the way Evan Stephens puts it. But between you and me, his part of this "building" process was carrying the hod! A refreshing passage in this first record tells us that the boy liked every sort of work on the farm — except threshing, and the threshing he disliked merely because the dust had a nasty habit of getting into his throat, as, indeed, it has with all boys. So, you see, this was not a case of genius pining under the lash of manual labor, and waiting for some fairy prince to carry him off to free- dom and a higher work. Not at all. Evan Stephens did not know that he was a genius. Only his friends from a distance knew that. He was too modest even to suspect it. And so he took the world as it came, plodding along as if he were made of the same inner stuff with his fellows. No; that is not quite correct, either. He only appeared to be going on in that way. In reality he was leading an altogether different sort of life. For one evening something happened. It was the first year after his arrival at Willard, while he worked for his board. The choir came to the house for practice. Now, whenever this body of singers came to your house in those days you just had to sing, that was all; and so young Evan was induced to join the choir. That marked a distinct epoch in his life. He discovered himself there and then. It was like suddenly finding yourself in love. The world all at once took on a new look. The face of things changed. Instantly there was rhythm in the soughing of the wind, in the rustling of the leaves, in the grass and the trees and the flowers, in whatever lived and moved and had its being. And the boy's foot- SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 271 steps unconsciously took on a rhythmic swing as he trod his way, high-spirited,to and from the field. It was a great moment for Evan Stephens, and for the whole of "Mormondom," that evening with the choir in the little town that nestled, and still nestles, under the protecting brows of that rough old mountain up there in Box Elder county. The musical impulse thus received grew into an abiding passion. John Stephens, Evan's brother, loved music and had an organ in his home — an incredibly small organ— which he let young Evan play. The rest of the family wanted it distinctly understood that they would not be responsible for anything that might happen to the valued instrument — which shows what they thought of his musical talents.Very likely though, they had never heard of that evening with the choir. Well, nothing at all happened to the — organ, but something befel the young musician he learned to play with incredible rapidity and skill. Afterwards, in his insati- able hunt for compositions, he stumbled upon a book of music. Eureka! He pocketed it forthwith as a pearl of great price, which it was, for printed music was rare, in Willard, as Lowell's day in June. Not that the boy knew how to read music, but he meant to learn, and that, in him, was like knowing. So whenever he got a spare moment, out came the book for a fresh reading, or rather, singing. Now, as it happened, it contained "Jerusalem, my Glorious Home," and one or two more which he knew. He therefore picked out others from these, and in that way learned the musical scale and the meaning of the hundred odd little marks out of which the song birds get such melody. As for the rest, it came easy enough. He borrowed what- ever he could of music, in print or manuscript, ate everything whole, so to speak, and looked about hungrily for more. Once he came upon a soiled copy of the Messiah. We need no higher proof of his musical ability than the fact that he, a stripling of thirteen or fourteen, newly awakened, could even understand this great classic, let alone being profoundly moved by its great har- monies. From now on he was constantly associated with every- thing musical and dramatic in the town. When the ward purchased an organ, Evan was made organist, and later choir leader, though without resigning his place at the instrument. It was at 272 IMPROVEMENT ERA. this time the missionaries discovered the genius lurking in Willard. Meantime, Stephens had become, by natural gravitation, the musical nucleus of the town. The young people gathered about him. Feeling the need of education — for Evan had only one or — two short winters of schooling the young men of the town met for the purpose of studying. They had no teacher, but the more advanced taught the others. It was a sort of mutual improve- 1 ment association. Stephens example in joining the choir was fol- lowed by every other young man in Willard. When Evan went to work on the railroad as section hand, he bought a house and lot — a two-room, adobe structure with dirt roof — for which he agreed to pay five hundred dollars. Here he batched it, drawing around him all the music-lovers of the town. And here they met to practice for glee club, choir, and dramatic presentations. To facilitate this work, Evan invested in a small organ, which could be carried about from place to place wherever they went. Meanwhile, too, he yearned for some adequate means of self- expression, not only in the composition of songs, hymns, and musical plays, but likewise in the better sense of reaching a wider public, in uplifting as many as possible to the delights of the divine art. Some of his compositions were published in the Juvenile Instructor, and two operatics were played, not only at Willard, but at Logan. It was at this time that Stephens took up first with the training of children, the thing that brought him into prominence. "Throughout my life," said he in explanation of this work with others, when he got nothing for it, "I have found my greatest joy and my greatest usefulness to others to be one and the same thing." The instinct of the genuine artist, this, which impels him to give rather than to be always receiving. And this is the cen- tral fact in Evan Steptens' life, the fact that will best explain what he has done. In his twenty-fourth year he was on the gravel train, which ran north, and sometimes stayed between Willard and Logan for days. At such times Evan amused and instructed himself, when he was not working, by playing on the organ, — for he carried the instrument with him. Often the young people came from Willard, and then how all the unpopulous region became alive with song! SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 273 Another thing happened on one of these occasions. Alex. Lewis, of Logan, leader of the choir there, came into camp one day. Now the organist in the temple city had gone on a mission, and they wanted his place filled. "This youth on the gravel train is my man," thought Lewis. And so an offer was made him. But Evan, remembering how he was loved at Willard, said he would go if they found him a place with more money than he was getting. Thus he thought to throw discouragement in the way. First thing he knew, however, they sent him word that they had got him a place at fifty cents a day more than his present wage. Afterwards he learned that the "place" was not what he thought it was — it was striker at the Logan shops —but he had given his word, and that ended it. At Logan he created a sensation. But the job at the depot stuck in his throat. And after a reasonable time he returned to the gravel train among his old friends. The Loganites, though, had got a taste of his genius and would not give up so easily. And so we find him presently back at Logan devoting his whole time to the training of children's choruses and giving private lessons in music. These choruses attracted the attention of some Salt Lake people during the quarterly conferences, and so it was not long before Evan Stephens was induced to come to the city. Partly he came to study, but partly he came to take up his work among the children. He met with instant success. Two hundred chil- dren came under his training. He had besides a glee club, which afterwards became a choral society, A couple of concerts in the theatre had such an effect as to bring him immediately two hundred more children for his chorus. He was now in his twenty-eighth year. A concert in the tabernacle sent his name through "Mor- mondom." New demands came thick and fast. Ogden wanted him one day a week. He accepted and trained five hundred child- ren there. Springville wanted him, and he had another giant class in that place. The University of Utah wanted him. At this request, however, he balked. "My language is too poor, I make too many mistakes in grammar," he said modestly to Dr. Park, when he got his breath. The Doctor had been an attentive listener at his training classes in the old Council House. "I don't want you for — 274 IMPROVEMENT ERA. grammar," explained the president, "1 want you to teach music." And he accepted. Of Evan Stephens' successes after that I need not speak. They are too well known to require it. He has been an uplifting influ- ence in our music. He has trained some of our best singers. He has done more than any other person to raise the tone of our musical numbers from "Jerusalem, my Glorious Home," and "Hard Times, Come Again no More," to classics. He has in- creased our tabernacle choir from seventy-five members to five hundred odd. A glance at the musical programs given by Evan Stephens during the last twenty-five years reveals the immense range of the numbers. There is nothing small about Stephens, except his stature. The sweep of his musical range is tremendous, including the best of the past as well as the best of the present and the significant music of all nations. He has had the signal credit for it is one — to be singing selections from new men at a time when they were decried in the East, and then to see those men come into high prominence and musical favor —which speaks well for his judg- ment and independence. And he has done everything on a large scale. He believes in centralization, rather than individualism. Of course, he believes in ward choirs, choral societies, and so on, but he believes that in any town where there are several wards and much music there ought to be a union of singers into one central body, and for these reasons: first, only large bodies can produce the massive effects in music, can sing the big things. "You may pile up rocks and earth here to make the heap look like a mountain," is the way he puts it, "but it does not lift the soul like the Wasatch." And then it provides a center for the musical interest. In music, as in everything else, union gives strength and power. Evan Stephens is the true type of the musical man in the Church. His music breathes the spirit and genius of "Mormonism." It is distinctly "Mormon." This is seen in his ideas about what a "Mormon" musician ought to be. First, he should tingle to his finger tips with a passion for music. He should be saturated with music, without losing the spirit of the gospel. Then he should have an intense love for the community — have a desire to give to them the best he can gather. He ought to be endowed abundantly SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 275 "with that all-pervading love to control him so that he will desire to get only in order to give out again —to want all merely to impart." He, therefore, has not much patience with the craving in young musical persons hereabouts for hurrying off to Boston or New York, London or Germany or Paris. In the first place, he thinks that rush- ing off to places where you spend fifteen to twenty-five hundred dol- lars a year of borrowed money impairs your sense of obligation, crush- es to a considerable extent those finer sensibilities so indispensable in music. And in the next place going away to study for individual work disqualifies most persons for usefulness to anyone but them- selves. The tendency in the world is the very opposite of what it must necessarily be among the Saints. The measure of a musician in "Mormondom" is the amount of good he is doing, and can do, in the community, in the world, the height he attains in his selfishly individual work. These are high ideas, and amply justify the title we have given Evan Stephens, the Great Commoner in Music. Salt Lake City, Utah. The seals in Bering sea will form a subject for Congressional dis- cussion and action this winter. In April of this year the contract made in 1890, to last for 20 years between the government and the North American Commercial company, will expire. This contract provided that the company should have a monopoly of seal killing on the Pribilof islands, for which it agreed to pay the government about $10 for each skin. The company agreed to kill only young male seals, and only on land. The company hires natives to do the killing at 75 cents a skin; these skins are sold in London for $30 each. When our country pur- chased Alaska, and the islands along with it, the seal herd numbered mil- lions: now the number is estimated at 150,000. It seems impossible for the government to control the sealing industry, as the seals remain on Pribilof islands only for the breeding season. On going and coming from the islands, Japanese and Canadian "poachers" intercept the seals, killing both male and female, and so the herd is in danger of extinction. The government is trying to avoid international trouble, and to get the powers to aid in protecting the herd when feeding at sea. Citation: Evans, John Henry, "Some Men Who Have Done Things. III.—Evan Stephens," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 268–275. # Editor’s Table: A Mother’s Love—If Thy Brother Offend Thee Editor's Table. The Love of Mother. The Granite stake of Zion has set aside Tuesday evening of each week for a "Home Evening." Every family in the stake is asked to be at home, and the time is to be spent for the use and benefit of the home. The parents are to teach their children the gospel, there are to be songs, hymns, music, scripture readings, instructions, games, refreshments and counsel — a getting nearer together, in the family circle.The movement was 'started by a large meeting of parents in the stake tabernacle recently. At this meeting President Joseph F. Smith delivered a stirring ser- mon on "Family Government," and from his remarks on this occa- sion are selected these beautiful and instructive sentiments on "The Love of Mother:" I learned in my childhood, as most children, probably, have learned, more or less at least, that no love in all the world can equal the love of a true mother. I did not think in those days and still I am at a loss to know how it would be possible for anyone to love her children more truly than did my mother. I have felt sometimes how could even the Father love his children more than my mother loved her children? It was life to me; it was strength; it was encourage- ment; it was love that begot love or likeness in myself. I knew she loved me with all her heart. She loved her children with all her soul. She would toil and labor and sacrifice herself day and night, for the temporal comforts and blessings that she could meagerly give, through the results of her own labors, to her children. There was no sacrifice of self — of her own time, of her leisure, or pleasure, or opportunities for rest — that was considered for a moment, when it came in comparison with her duty and her love to her children. , EDITOR'S TABLE. 277 When I was fifteen years of age, and called to go to a foreign country to preach the gospel — or to learn how, and to learn it for myself — the strongest anchor that was fixed in my life and that helped to hold my ambition and my desire steady, to bring me upon a level and keep me straight, was that love which I knew she had for me, who bore me into the world. Only a little boy, not matured at all in judgment, without the advantage of education, thrown in the midst of the greatest allurements and temptations that it was possible for any boy or any man to be subjected to, — and yet, whenever those temptations became most alluring and most tempting to me, the first thought that rose in my soul was this: "Remember the love of your mother. Remember how she strove for your welfare. Remember how wil- ing she was to sacrifice her life for your good. Remember what she taught you in your childhood, and how she insisted upon your read- ing the New Testament — the only book, except a few little school books, that we had in the family, or that was within reach of us at that time. This feeling toward my mother became a defense, a barrier between me and temptation, so that I could turn aside from temptation and sin by the help of the Lord and the love begotten in my soul, toward her whom I knew loved me more than anybody else in all the world, and more than any other living being could love me. A wife may love her husband, but it is different to that of the love of mother to her child. The true mother, the mother who has the fear of God and the love of truth in her soul, would never hide from danger or evil and leave her child exposed to it. But as natural as it is for the sparks to fly upward, as natural as it is to breathe the breath of life, if there were danger coming to her child, t he would step between the child and that danger; she would defend her child to the uttermost. Her life would be nothing in the balance, in comparison with the life of her child. That is the love of true motherhood —for children. Her love for her husband would be different, for if danger should come to him, as natural as it would be for her to step between her child and danger, instead her disposition would be to step behind her husband for protection; and that is the differ- ence between the love of mother for children and the love of wife for husband — there is a great difference between the two. 278 IMPROVEMENT ERA. I have learned to place a high estimate upon the love of mother. I have often said, and will repeat it, that the love of a true mother comes nearer being like the love of God than any other kind of love. The father may love his children, too; and next to the love that the mother feels for her child, unquestion- ably and rightfully, too, comes the love that the father feels for his child. But, as it has been illustrated here by Brother Ander- son, the love of the father is of a different character, or degree, to the love of the mother for her child: illustrated by the fact he related here of having the privilege of working with his boy, having him in his presence, becoming more intimate with him, learning his characteristics more clearly; becoming more familiar and more closely related to him; the result of which was that his love for his boy increased, and the love of the boy increased for his father, for thesame reason, merely because of that closer association. So the child learns to love its mother best, as a rule, when the mother is good, wise, prudent, and intelligent, because the child is with her more, they are more familiar with each other and understand each other better. Now, this is the thought that I desire to express: Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to love the truth and understand it, if you wish them to be obedient to and united with you, love them! and prove to them that you do love them, by your every word or act to them. For your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and your boys— however wayward they might be, or one or the other might be, when you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger; do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit. Speak to them kindly: get down and weep with them, if necessary, and get them to shed tears with you if possible. Soften their hearts; get them to feel tenderly towards you. Use no lash and no violence, but argue, or rather reason — approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned. With these means, if you cannot gain your boys and your girls, they will prove to be reprobate to you; and there will be no means left in the world by which you can win them to yourselves. But, get them to feel as you feel, have interest in the things in which you take interest, to love the gospel as you love it, to love one another as you love them; to love their parents as — EDITOR'S TABLE. 279 the parents love the children. You can't do it any other way. You can't do it by unkindness; you cannot do it by driving our — children are like we are: we couldn't be driven; we can't be driven now. We are like some other animals that we know of in the world: You can coax them; you can lead them, by holding out in- ducements to them and by speaking kindly to them, but you can't drive them; they won't be driven. We won't be driven. Men are not in the habit of being driven; they are not made that way. That is not the way that God intended, in the beginning, to deal with his children— by force. It is all free love, free grace. The poet expressed it in these words: "Know this that every soul is free, To choose his course and what he'll be; For this eternal truth is given, That God will force no man to heaven." You can't force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. You may force them to hell — by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be. The man that will be angry at his boy, and try to cor- rect him while he is in anger, is in the greatest fault; he is more to be pitied and more to be condemned than the child who has done wrong. You can only correct your children in love, in kindness by love unfeigned, by persuasion and reason. When I was a child, sometimes a wayward, disobedient little boy — not that was wilfully disobedient, but I I would forget what I ought to do; I would go off with playful boys and be absent when I should have been at home, and I would forget to do things I was asked to do. Then I would go home, feel guilty, know that I was guilty, that I had neglected my duty and that I deserved punishment. On one occasion I had done something that was not just right, and my mother said to me: "Now, Joseph, if you do that again I shall have to whip you." Well, time went on, and by and by I forgot it, and I did something similar again; and this is the one thing that I admired more, perhaps, than any secondary thing in her; it was that when she made a promise she kept it. She never made a promise, that I know of, that she did not keep. Well, I was called to account. She said: "Now, I told you. You knew that if you did this I would have to whip you, for I said 280 IMPROVEMENT ERA. I would. I must do it. I do not want to do it. It hurts me worse than it does you, but I must whip you." Well, she had a little rawhide, already there, and while she was talking or reasoning with me, showing me how much I de- served it and how painful it was to her to inflict the punishment I — deserved I had only one thought and that was: "For goodness sake, whip me; do not reason with me;" for I felt the lash of her just criticism and admonition a thousand fold worse than I did the switch. I when she laid the lash on me, I had at least felt as if, partly paid my debt and had answered for my wrong doing. Her reasoning cut me down into the quick; it made me feel sorry to the very core. I could have endured a hundred lashes with the rawhide bet- ter than I could endure a ten minutes talk in which I felt and was made to feel that the punishment inflicted upon me was painful to — her that I loved punishment upon my own mother! (During the time the President was relating these incidents, he spoke with great feeling, and at this point was obliged to stop his discourse for a time, to calm his feelings; then he continued:) You must excuse me. There are two divine personages that I can scarcely think or talk about without it softens my spirit and brings me down to the similitude of a little child; and those two beings are my mother and my Redeemer! My Redeemer, the Savior of my soul, my Redeemer from sin — Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God, he who restored the fulness of his gospel and the plan of life and salvation, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, in the dispensation in which we live. I cannot read the New Testament about the Lord but it softens my soul. When I think of him and of the humiliation that he passed through, the death that he suffered for the redemption of man, I am captured and captivated, and I can't help myself. I thank the Lord that this is so. If Thy Brother Offend Thee. You are reconciled to your brother? You have done well. For much difficulty could be avoided if brethren would observe this law EDITOR'S TABLE. 281 of the Lord. And by this means, too, the kindly and upbuilding spirit of the community would be largely increased and spread abroad. In questions of public policy men may differ. In the debates of political campaigns that precede and follow elections there is often much ill temper displayed. Some brethren are so unwise as to get over-excited, and work themselves up to believing that un- less their policies prevail, ruin will corns upon land and people. Those who think otherwise are sometimes abused, and called bad names. They are even pictured in public prints in the vilest terms. Men call each other liars, deceivers and reprobates, and impugn each other's motives in every action. Enmities are thus formed that last between brethren through life, and that mar the success of their public services, and make their private lives un- happy. Others take umbrage at the actions of their brethren who are in the public service, and without understanding their motives, ignorantly condemn their policies. They often work themselves up into a fever of excitement that would be as ridiculous and un- praiseworthy in their own eyes as it is in the eyes of their breth- ren, if they themselves would only approach and look at the sub- ject from the viewpoint of justice and right. A man has no right to unjustly condemn tha actions of his brother, or to abuse him; and, if in the heat of excitement he unwisely and foolishly shall say things that are evil, unjust, and that traduce the character of his brother, he should be man enough when he learns better, and finds that he has actually sinned against his brother, to ask his brother's forgiveness. He should go in humility, recognizing the requirements of the law of reconciliation which the Lord has revealed to his people, and ask the pardon and forgiveness of his offended brother. He sins grievously in the sight of his Father in heaven as well as before the Saints in con- tinuing to bear enmity and to cherish evil in his heart. The simple law requires that, if thy brother offend thee, take him between him and thee alone, and if he confess, thou shalt be reconciled. If he confess not, thou shalt deliver him up to the elders of the Church. But one says, "I am right, and my brother should therefore 282 IMPROVEMENT ERA. come to me." And the other, of course, declares he also is right, and that his brother should come to him. Who shall begin the reconciliation? Both; it is as much one's duty as the other's to have the difficulty settled. Then, if they cannot adjust the differences between themselves, they should agree to call the elders of the Church, and never rest until the hour of reconciliation comes. Any other course, and especially one that harbors continued ill feelings without effort or desire towards reconciliation, is wrong in the sight of the Lord. It is detrimental not only to the indi- viduals concerned, in that it stifles the feelings of brotherhood that should exist between members of the Church, but it is a hindrance to the progress and growth of the Church, and a grievous stum- bling block to its members. In case the offending brethren cannot become reconciled to each other, the officers of the Church should be called to aid, and when an offender persists in slander, lies, and in vituperating his brother or brethren, and refuses to listen to reason or to become reconciled, he should be dealt with for his fellowship. The Church should be freed from such as wilfully refuse to obey the law of the Lord in these matters. But, as prevention is better than cure, would it not be best, by the exercise of a little forethought, to forestall the evil by not flying into a passion at the least provocation; and to seriously con- sider the fact that there are few if any reasons that are of inter- est and value enough to warrant the setting of friends and brethren at enmity? And political differences figure as the most insignificant of these. Let every man seek to hold his temper in subjection to rea- son and justice, and before he passes judgment upon his brother weigh carefully the facts. If then it is necessary to pass re- strictions or utter contrary views, let that be done in reason, calmly, with deliberate judgment, and with a desire for the best good of all concerned. If your views are not finally adopted, it is neither sensible nor right to abuse and slander brethren who differ from you in matters of public policy. He who persists in it after due warning should answer for his folly before the elders of the Church. Joseph F. Smith. Citation: Smith, Joseph F., "Editor’s Table: A Mother’s Love—If Thy Brother Offend Thee," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 276–282. # Messages from the Missions Messages from the Missions. The Ministers Association of Laconia, New Hampshire, early in October, printed an open letter in the Laconia Democrat warning the community against "Mormon" workers "whose system of religious faith isfounded on the Book of Mormon and revelations." They regard the success of these missionaries as detrimental to the best interests of the community, and have no faith in their claims to "receive directions and policies supernaturally." They complain also that the "Mormon" insti- tution was long in rebellion against the United States, and warn those who have patriotic love for their country, and who hold dear the church and the home, as the ministers enjoy them in their enlightened section, to have no interest in, nor to extend nor increase the power and influence of, this religious system. "For," they say, "any success that may attend the efforts of these representatives in the 'Mormon' Church means so much a detriment to our dearest domestic and religious institu- tions," and they close with the wish that "the sooner they depart from our midst, the better it will be for all our people." This open letter was printed on the 15th of October, in the Democrat, and on the 29th of October, President Ben E. Rich wrote a reply which the Laconia Democrat cheerfully gave space to. President Rich asks whether the ministers drew their inspiration from that part of ancient history which refers to the fashionable high priests of Jerusalem, who he thinks, no doubt, passed similar resolutions against the Church of Jesus Christ of Former-day Saints. He calls attention to the fact that he is a descend- ant, both on the part of father and mother, of Revolutionary soldiers, and that a part of their work consisted in having one government upon the earth that would not be controlled by bigoted ministers, but would be a land of religious liberty; and then he says: "If I want to believe that the gospel taught by Christ and his apos- tles was to be an everlasting gospel, that is none of your business. If you want to believe that it was an everlastingly changeable gospel, that is none of my business. If I want to believe the doctrine of 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism,' as taught by Paul, that is none of your business; if you want to believe in a gospel made up of different kinds of faiths and different kinds of baptisms, that is none of my business. I enclose you our Articles of Faith. If you do not like them, you do not have to accept them. If I do not like yours, I do not have to accept them. But how thankful all men should be that such men as you are not running the government of the United -States. We would have a return of the old-fashioned fireworks which surrounded the stakes in the days of witchery, when one man's life was in danger if he believed a little . 284 IMPRO VEMENT ERA different than some other man. God bless the United States of America and protect it from bigotry." On the 3rd of November the News and Critic took up the discussion and suggested that before the "Mormons 1 ' are given full blast, there ought to be a commission chosen to look into their articles of faith and to decide if it is safe and sensible. The article closes in this fashion: "If these Mormons are going around telling the easily worked that they will have 'to take 'ours' or hell awaits, they might get a whole lot of people who could be just as well accommodated by the religious insti- tutions we have with us." In the reply to the News and Critic, which, by the by, the paper returned unprinted, President Rich wrote in part: "I am afraid you are going to have a hard job in gathering together a suitable committee out of this babel of religious and irreligious con- fusion. Furthermore, Mr. Critic, how do you think the Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists, or others doing missionary work among the 'Mormons' would like to have their religion investigated before a 'Mormon' committee to see whether it would be suitable for the people or not? Don't you think it would be just as reasonable for the 'Mormons' to make this demand? This brings us back to your original recommendation, that a 'consolidation rather than an increase of churches, is really necessary. I will recommend that our united prayer be for a return of primitive Christianity, with all its ancient gifts, bless- ings and promises. I am willing to appear before your committee with such a gospel just as soon as your committee is ready to receive me. Please let me know when the just and impartial committee— unbiased, — and not tinctured with prejudice will be ready to receive me, and I will be on hand to present my claims that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth in fulfilment of prophecy, that its mission aims to consolidate all churches into primitive Christianity, bringing men to a knowledge of God and giving them a testimony for themselves that the work we represent is true. Yours very truly." Elder T. L. Hatch writes from Cork, Ireland, November 27, 1909, making a correction which we cheerfully print: "In connection with the the article, 'The South of Ireland, 'in the Novem- ber number of the Era, you incorrectly gave me the honor of being president of the Irish conference.' At the time I wrote, Elder T. J. Bennett wi.s pre- siding over the work Ireland, (see names and explanations accom- in panying pictures of 'Irish farm house,' also second picture of 'Blarney Castle, ' where I mention Elder Bennett as 'president of the Irish con- ference.' Elder Bennett has now been released, and is on his way home. Elder William W. Osborn is now presiding over the Irish conference. .1 have no desire to be given the honor which belongs to my esteemed brethren, Elders Bennett and Osborn. I beg to remain, yours faithfully, T. L. Hatch." Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Messages from the Missions," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 283–284. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. Priesthood Quorums Studies.— In reply to a number of questions, the Committee on Priesthood Quorums Study announce that the following subjects will be taken up for the year 1910: Seventies, "The Doctrine of Deity;'' High Priests, "History of the Gospel:" Elders, "Duties and Principles from the Doctrine and Covenants and Modern Revelation; 1 ' Priests, "Divine Mission of the Savior;" Teachers, "Life of Christ;'' Deacons, "Book of Mormon." The manuals, it is believed, will be ready early in January for distribution. They were placed in the hands of the printers December 15, and orders may be sent now to the Improvement Era, 20-22 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, and will re- ceive prompt attention and as soon as outlines are ready, in the order in which received. Meetings of Seventies at each Stake Conference. —The First Council feel constrained to offer the following items of instruction, to the local councils of the various quorums of Seventy: The work of the Lord is constantly expanding, and necessarily de- mands more and more of the time of the presiding authorities, to regu- late, and set in order its various departments. In order to meet the re- quirements made upon them, the leading brethren are compelled to crowd their many labors into as small a period of time as is consistent with the importance of the various matters that come under their jurisdiction. There are sixty organized stakes in Zion, each holding four stake confer- ences yearly, making two hundred and forty conferences every year. When the weeks are eliminated during which the general conferences of the Church are held, and during which some of the most general, and im- portant holdings occur, every other week throughout the year has some six stake conference appointments, nearly all of which the Council of the Twelve undertake to atttend. This great demand made upon the time of the Twelve, in addition to their many other important labors, has made itnecessary for them to call upon the First Council of Seventy to assist them in attending stake conferences. The First Council has been instructed to refrain as much as is con- sistent with the welfare of the quorums of Seventy, from making appoint- ments with the quorums, that would prevent them from responding to the calls that are made upon them by the Twelve, to attend stake confer- ences. There are one hundred and fifty-six quorums of Seventy in the Church at the present time; very little thought is necessary on the part of those 286 IMPROVEMENT ERA. who have the management of the various quorums in hand, to make plain to them the utter impossibility of the First Council making special visits to each quorum, every time that changes occur and attention becomes necessary. The work required can be accomplished, if the presidents of quorums of Seventy in each stake will be on the alert to bring all essen- tial business before the members of the First Council as they visit the stakes in attendance upon quartery conferences. The councils of quorums throughout the Church are urged to give careful attention to the needs of the quorums, and always be ready to aid the First Council in the accomplishment of the work that is required of them. If local councils will be prepared to bring to the attention of visiting members of the First Council, matters that affect the welfare of the quorums, much good work can be performed in the interest of the Seventies, during the time of holding stake conferences. Whenever there is business of more than ordinary importance to be attended to, such as increasing the membership of a quorum by ordaining new members, installing new presidents, etc., the First Council should be notified at least two weeks prior to the holding of the conference at which such matters are to receive attention. The giving of a timely notice will enable the presiding council to make such appointments as will insure attention to all important matters, expedite business, and avoid disappointments. Presidents of quorums are expected to have all the members under- stand that a meeting of the seventies will be held in connection with each stake conference. Every seventy should be made to feel the necessity of attending these special meetings, also the advantage and blessing of being present at all stake conferences. Special appointments will be made in the interest of the quorums of Seventy as often as circumstances will permit, or the necessities of the quorums may demand. In addition to these appointments, much work must be attended to during the time of holding the various conferences, in order to keep the quorums in good working condition. "Wherefore now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office to which he is appointed, in all diligence. "He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved, shall not be counted worthy to stand." The New Course of Study.— The Committee on Course of Study make the following statements and suggestions in the Preface of the Outlines for 1910, in which class teachers as well as members will be deeply interested: "In sending out the second series of outlines for the quorums of PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 287 the Priesthood, we desire to express gratification' at the impetus the Priesthood movement took upon itself last year. It was not only a step towards the destined prominence of the quorums in the Church — was a it bound. "Expressions of appreciation of the interest manifested in Priest- hood meetings came from every stake, and the increased activity among individuals and quorums is indeed commendable. "But favorable as the general improvement was, after all, it was only a beginning, and inconveniences and were met that difficulties tended to slacken interest and retard progress. One of these was the length of the lessons. The purpose of Part Two in the course last year was not accomplished. Many spent so much time of the class reci- tation considering Part One that no opportunity was left to give suffi- cient thought to the assignment of duties. Others failed to consider at all the practical suggestions in Part Two. "In these lessons, greater care has heen taken to emphasize a thought in each lesson that will be applicable to the members of the class, and the presidents of quorums and class instructors are urged to make the application. Some suggestions appear at the end of every les- son, but they are, of course, only suggestive; and it is expected that quorums everywhere will introduce into their daily lives the suggestions and truths developed in these courses of study. " 'To him who knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' 'Not every one that sayeth Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. "Give members something to do every week. Let them work; all have them work; help them work. "Another difficulty was met in keeping up the attendance and inter- est during the summer months. Some of the stakes succeeded in carry- ing out the course just as it was recommended one year ago, and some of the wards did excellent work, even during the busiest season of the year. But many adjourned, some for one reason, and some for another. Now there are thirty-six lessons this year, as there were last ; and it is again suggested that those who continue for twelve months take up three les- sons each month, one day each month being occupied with special instruc- tions to ward teachers and other matters arranged by the local and stake officers. Others who feel that they are compelled to adjourn, must arrange as best they can to complete the course of thirty-six lessons, and have their local monthly priesthood meetings as well. "Perhaps the greatest difficulty in the way of success was the lack of preparation on the part of class instructors. None-preparation is inex- cusable. To aid president and teacher Wilful non-preparation is sinful. in the preparing of their lessons, each quorum should receive help from 288 IMPROVEMENT ERA. stake authorities specially appointed to give instructions to the represen- tatives of the various quorums and classes in the stake priesthood meet- ing. After the general instructions from the stake presidency and high council are given, quorums could adjourn to different rooms or parts in the same room, and there receive suggestions on lessons and duties for the next month. "Now, hrethren, may the Lord bless you with the spirit of this great work! May every man feel a desire to do his part in making the quo- rums of Priesthood in very deed the power of the Church, the strength of Zion. Let the movement so well begun last year be accelerated in this, and so continue until the purposes of the Almighty are accomplished.'' The General Committee. ELDERS OF THE SOUTH TEXAS CONFERENCE. Left to right: Niels Christiansen, J. C. Qualman, G. M. Smith, J. F. Mitchell, W. A. Lougy, J. S. Martin. Middle row: W. A. Bishop, J. D. Pratt, S.O. Bennion, (Mission President) ; M. F. Hixson (Conference President); P. D. McArthur. Bottom row: W. B. Stoddard, M. A, Niel- son. R. W. Seaman, A. H. West. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 3 (January 1910): 285–288. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 13, no. 4. February 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Dummelow, J. R., “Belief in God. II.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Northern States Mission.” - Kleinman, Bertha A., “A Tribute.” - Hewlett, Frank J., “Peoples and Places in the Orient. VII.—Nagasaki and the Inland Sea of Japan.” - Ottinger, George M., “Quien Sabe?—“Who Knows?”.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality. IV.—Facing the Mistakes of Life.” - Riser, S. E., “Uncle Hyrum on City Life.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Portrait of S. W. Richards.” - Young, Richard W., Jr., “Shipton Castle.” - Kenner, S. A., “The “Golden Bible.” II.” - Lancaster, Florence L., “The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea. I.” - Lind, Carl P., “Hope On.” - Brookbank, Thomas W., “Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. III.” - Richards, L. L. Greene, “Wishes for “Utah”.” - Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things. IV.—Edwin Evans.” - Curtis, Theodore E., “Hardship—Through an Optimistic Eye.” - Smith, Joseph F., Jr., “Salvation Universal. IV.” - Anderson, Nephi, “Out of the Abundance of the Heart.” - Jenson, Andrew, “Singing as a Means of Preaching the Gospel.” - Smith, Joseph F., “Editor’s Table: The Spiritists’ Heaven.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “The Genealogical Society of Utah.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Men and Missions.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Messages from the Missions.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work: Deseret Gymnasium—Questions.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 289–384. # Belief in God. II IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. FEBRUARY, 1910. No 4. Belief in God.* BY REV. J. R. DUMMELOW, M. A. II. — The Moral argument that drawn from the phenomena of — Conscience has been similarly assailed, but with no better suc- cess. Attempts have been made to discredit the authoritative character of conscience by claiming for it a non-moral origin. Conscience, it is urged, is the result of a long and complicated process of evolution, and really represents, not the divine voice of an inward monitor, but the outcome of ages and ages of racial self-interest. To reduce it to a principle of individual self-inter- est is obviously absurd considering how frequently conscience and immediate self-interest are found to be ranged on opposite sides. But the interest of the community or the race is a different thing. Generation after generation has, as it were, mechanically impressed upon its members the tendency to act in a direction salutary to the race, so that at last this unselfish or "altruistic" principle has become a sort of instinct or second nature, varying indeed in its range, intensity, and degree of enlightenment^ but a constant characteristic of man as man. * Copyright by the MacMillan Co., New York, 1908. 1909. Pub- lished by permission. 290 IMPROVEMENT ERA. This line of argument is supported by the consideration that there are traces of apparently conscientious action in animals customarily regarded as irrational, and that conscience in mankind exhibits extremely various and inconsistent results in different circumstances and stages of civilization. But to treat conscience and the moral argument on these lines involves a misconception of the scope of Natural Science. The scope of Natural Science, properly so called, does not include the origin of things nor the purpose and end of their being. It is merely concerned with a description of their present state and the discovery and analysis of the process by which they arrived there- at. Conscience is what it is, quite independently of the process by which it may have been evolved; just as man is man — an intelli- gent, rational, moral, spiritual being, whatever may have been the stages whereby the physical side of him climbed up from the hum- blest places of the realms of organic life. Undoubtedly the truer view of things is the teleological —that which sees in the humble beginning the germ of a great future —and not the view which refuses to man and conscience their proper names because there may have been a time when they were far removed from their present stage of development. As for the startlingly inconsistent ways in which conscience vents itself in action, that only emphasizes the one underlying principle, the principle expressed in the words "I ought." The subject matter of conscience and its practical range of influence may vary infinitely according to the surroundings, circumstances, and moral attainment of its particular possessor, and it is on this side that we speak of conscience as capable of education and en- lightenment; but the form of conscience remains constant. It may be stronger or weaker according to the measure of its use, but it remains in essence ever the same; a principle of moral constraint, recognizing in extreme cases no human tribunal whatever —not even the expressed will or the obvious immediate interest of society, in general, and witnessing to an obligation that can only have reference to a Universal Moral Ruler and Lawgiver, whose will is regarded as at once morally perfect and absolutely without appeal. Whatever, then, may be the history of the evolution of con- science, the testimony of man's moral nature would seem to be BELIEF IN GOD. 291 direct and unmistakable. It points to an Eternal Cause of the Universe and of mankind characterized not merely by creative power and wisdom, but also by moral holinesss. Is it corroborated by the testimony of history? for if the actual ordering of the world of mankind clearly contradicts the testimony of conscience, we may still be tempted to treat that testimony as illusory. Bishop Butler has shown convincingly that though the gov- ernment of the world represents a scheme imperfectly compre- hensible to us, yet there exist quite undeniable marks of moral rule — tokens that the Power which guides the world is, in more modern phrase, something —not itself which makes for right- — eousness. The rise and fall and the succession of empires; he t advance and decadence of races, tribes, families; the fortunes of individual men — all these, while they present many puzzling and inexplicable features, about which we shall have more to say later on —bear witness on the whole to the righteousness of him who sits on the world's throne. On the physical side of human nature, where we should ex- pect things to work themselves out most mechanically, the moral law is perhaps most clearly vindicated. Immoral conduct pro- duces its own punishment in so large a number of cases that sin and suffering have sometimes been regarded as simply and in every case, cause and effect. Experienze teaches us, however -and the Bible teaches it too, in the Book of Job— that not all which we commonly regard as evil —all pain, suffering or material loss - is the direct consequence of moral wrong-doing in the individual who suffers. And Christ himself expressly discountenances this attribution of suffering to sin, as its necessary cause (Luke 13: 2, 3, 4). Indeed, suffering is not always an evil, as things are now, though we rightly look upon it as belonging to an imperfect state of exist- ence. Sometimes it seems to be the consequence of virtue and intended to stimulate the aspiring soul to still higher ideals. In history, the most striking picture of moral government is to be found in the fortunes of Israel. Here we are leaving Natural Religion and bordering upon Revelation. But if the Bible picture of Hebrew history be taken as substantially true, it will be found to supply a'key^to historyin general, and to justify the believer's 292 IMPROVEMENT ERA. conviction that Old Testament history differs from secular history not so much in its subject matter as its treatment — that it is unique not mainly because the Chosen People were uniquely nurtured, guided and disciplined, but because here alone the veil is lifted and the true issues of personal and national conduct are made plain as they appear to him whose hand has guided the history of mankind from its beginning until now. For this reason, in spite of our enormous advance in historical method, and of the advan- tage that comes from an indefinitely wider horizon, it may be boldly said that the historians of today can never hope to surpass or even to equal the fundamental grasp of truth achieved in the early and unscientific efforts of the inspired historians of Israel. Revelation. "Natural Religion," as it is called i. e., the witness of human nature to God — needs Revealed Religion to com- plete it. Man's mind, dwelling on external nature, is led up to the thought of an immensely wise, mighty and beneficent Creator and Ruler. But there are many considerations which tend to depreci- ate the design-argument and rob it of its force. Man needs some direct assurance from outside the circle of his ordinary thought, to combat the problems raised by the presence of anomaly, failure, and waste, to say nothing of pain. Again, man's nature bears on it the impress of moral law, and would lead him up to belief in an all-holy Universal Lawgiver. Yet there is much in the facts of human society that would draw him in a quite opposite direction. No one can read the Psalms or the Book of Job, no one can face honestly the facts of human society around him today, without feeling something of the almost overwhelming difficulty that is involved in the spectacle of human wickedness, unpunished oppression, and unmerited suffering. We need some more direct assurance than conscience itself can give us if we are to exclaim with real conviction: God's in his heaven; All's right with the world. And it is natural to ask: If there be a God such as human nature seems to suggest or demand, could he not — would he not find some means of making himself known to his rational creatures? BELIEF IN GOD. 293 The presupposition of the Bible is that he has found such means, and supplemented and completed Natural Religion by direct Revelation. This revelation is focussed in the divine-human fig- ure of Jesus Christ, foretold and expected in the Old Testament, present to teach and work in the New, and ever abiding by his Spirit in the Church. The fact of divine revelation is, of course, denied by Atheism: but apart from revelation altogether, Atheism is self -condemned by its presumption. To prove a negative is confessedly a difficult task in any field, and the Atheist claims to have proved it in the widest field of all — the Universe — and in face of the many-sided testimony of Nature and Human Nature. To be justified in a flat and categorical denial of the existence of a deity I must be furnished with a full knowledge of the universe both as a whole and in its details, so as to be competent to declare that nowhere in all the realm of things existing is there any trace of evidence which might even probably tell in favor of Theism. None but a mind practically infinite, omnipresent, and all-knowing could com- pass this. And so it might be suggested that the Atheist really claims for himself the divine qualities and attributes of which he denies the existence in a God. Another line of thought antagonistic to revelation goes by the name of Agnosticism. It dwells on the obvious limitations of our mental powers, which find themselves baffled in every department when they attempt to pass beyond a certain point; and says that the circumscribed human mind, excellent as it is in its own sphere, can never hope to comprehend the Infinite, the Absolute. "The Power," it says, "which the universe manifests to us, is inscrut- able." It dwells also on the difficulties and anomalies in nature; on the darker side of evolution — its aspect of failure, struggle and decay; on the darker side of human nature -the presence of evil, especially of moral evil, in the world; and says these so far bal- ance the tokens of goodness observable, that we cannot be sure, if there be a government of the world, whether it is one that really "makes for righteousness." There is considerable justification for the emphasis laid by Agnosticism on th^ss two factors in human life; but it is just in regard to them th Revelation is our greatest help. The prob- 294 nWltOVEMENT ERA. lem of evil scarcely falls to be discussed here: but it may be remarked that, while a very real and pressing problem, it can be seen, in the light of Revelation, to be no insuperable obstacle to faith. With regard to the other point, the inadequacy of our fac- ulties, it may be said at once that Natural Religion does fall short of certainty and completeness, and that this is fully admitted in the Bible. There is a sense in which the God of the Bible is "incomprehensible," "inscrutable." He is as high above man in his ways and thoughts as heaven is above earth (Isaiah 55: 9). His essential inaccessibility is expressed as a ' dwelling in the thick darkness" (1 K. 8: 12), or in "light inapproachable" (I Tim. 6: 16). "No man hath seen God at any time' (John . . . 1: 18). "No man kioweth who the Father is save the Son'' (Luke 10: 22). Again, man as we know him is, of himself, utterly incapable of any true knowledge of God: the natural man is incap- able of discerning the things of the Spirit (I Cor. 2: 14). At the same time no duty more persistently impressed on is their hearers by the prophets than "to know the Lord." To its neglect are ascribed the woe and failures of the Chosen People (Isaiah 1: 3; 5: 13; Hos. 4: 6), and its presence is a guarantee of righteous conduct. In the New Testament the knowledge of the Father and the Son is identified with "everlasting life" (, John 17: 3). What is the meaning of this apparent contradiction? Fallen man, though sin has blurred in him the image of his Creator, retains still the potentiality of that communion for which he was created; and though he cannot of his own initiative "by searching find out God" (Job 11: 7), he can still, by penitent co-operation with Divine grace, attain to a true knowledge of One who has been seeking him ever since the first days of alienation in Paradise (Gen. 3:9), and has revealed himself to receptive hearts in times past "by divers portions and in divers manners" (Heb. 1:1). In himself essentially inscrutable, God wills to be known with the knowledge of personal communion. He has given man the capacity for such communion, and though man has rejected him, God has devised means that his banished be not outcast from him (cp. 2 S 14: 14). The greatest prophet of the Old Testament porbrays in wonderful words this paradox of divine condescension (Isa. 57: 15). The New Testament presents it to us in concrete form in the Messiah BELIEF IN GOD. 29f> on whom the wistful gaze of prophet and Psalmist had for centu- ries been lixed. Then was given once and for all a revelation of God and of man together in a single life. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ has stood the test of many generations as corresponding to the highest aspirations and most urgent demands of human nature. Consideration of its characteristics shows it is just the revelation that man needs. On the one hand, it is a revelation of the character of Almighty God, as in the highest and supremest sense "our Father." On the other hand, it is a revelation of Ideal Manhood: the bewildered question of ages about the meaning, purpose, and destiny of the human life is cleared up in the New Testament. What he tells us, in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere, about our duty and our hopes in this life and beyond the grave— what he shows us in his own person of communion with the Heavenly Father, and successful resistance of temptation in the strength of that com- munion — what he shows us of absolute self-surrender, even to the point of death, of triumph through suffering, and of new life and glory after the grave — all these are essential parts of his Revela- tion. But the Revelation is no bare presentation of truth and of an ideal utterly inaccessible to weak and fallen man. Grace as well as Truth came by Jesus Christ (J )hn 1: 17). And what differ- entiates this from all other so-called Revelation is that, while the ideal it holds up before man is uniquely lofty — nothing less than perfection (Mat. 5: 48) — it supplies at the same time the motive force necessary for arriving at the ideal. The Revelation of Truth by itself might well generate despair. Its most characteristic effect has always been the production of a sense of sin: resulting from the felt contrast between the absolute holiness of Almighty God, required by him in man, and exhibited actually in the Man Christ Jesus, and the tale that conscience tells us of our own impurity and pollution. This terrible contrast —viewed in the light of God's revealed Love — would by itself pro- duce an unspeakably bitter remorse; but that remorse is trans- formed into penitence by the further revelation of Grace i. e., of the means which Divine Love has devised for man's restoration. And so the sense of sin leads to "Conversion." In the Bible teaching about Atonement — culminating in the self-offering of 296 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Christ — we see the true Representative of Mankind removing the barrier set up by sin, opening once more the avenue of access to God, and so rendering possible to man a sacramental sharing of the divine life and strength. Here find their satisfaction that instinct and yearning that led to the primitive institution of sacri- fice, as old apparently and as universal as the human race. In the teaching about the Incarnation— "theWord made flesh" the Son — of God taking upon him not an isolated individual human person- ality, but our nature in a universal way, so as to become true rep- resentative man; we find the fulfilment of the true idea underlying those strange dreams, clothed often in unworthy guise, which find expression in the "Incarnation Myth" of Hindoo and other religions. While in the outcome of the Incarnation — the incorporation of human personalities one by one as members into the body of Christ, that incorporation which renders the atoning sacrifice effectual in each one — we see realized the ideal of the social instinct: all other social"membership" being but a poor metaphor beside the living membership in the Church, "which is His Body." Finally, the Revelation in both its sides receives a magnificent corroboration, when we see the life of Christ reproduced really, if not completely, in the thousands of his followers who, conscious of their own shortcomings, have yet been able to say with lips and life at once, "I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20). "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me." [the end.] Facts. The man who fell was climbing. Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character at the New Year. The workshop of character is every-day life. The un- eventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is lost or won. An expert commission appointed by the government has reported that strong drink is responsible for ninety per cent of our crime and for most of our poverty, and that alcohol, instead of being necessary to life and comfort, is inimical to both. Farm. Journal. Citation: Dummelow, J. R., "Belief in God. II," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 289–296. # Northern States Mission Northern States Mission. Under German E. Ellsworth, president, 149 South Paulina St., Chicago, 111., this mission made a splendid record in 1909, in bap- tisms, in preaching the gospel, and in distributing the Book of Mormon. t m * - W - IS ' -ft 1 -" ELDERS OF THE MANITOBA CONFERENCE. Top row, left to right: A. J. Banks, Logan; Perry Gillett, Tooele; P. L. Brunson, Fillmore, all of Utah. Lower row: Mission President G. E. Ellsworth; Conference President H. W. Henderson, Oneida, Bannock county, Idaho. c • P g r^ T3 cp o:^s ^«S&> S <-> c^ 53 -+° v: oW O w -g.S-M -g > W ^ S '/. 212 oi i** 'i BS T- R «8 "" 56 W W .2 fe 03 += ^Sh CQ .so § (3 -«-S-§ O P ^ P CD H Z -S Oh® w c— SS CO !-. E CD p 03 S3 > WE* C3 o> o 'p *5 • r-K # A Tribute ELDERS OF THE MICHIGAN CONFERENCE. Top row, left to right:I H. Tippstts, Lovell, Wyo.; A. W. Fergu- . son, Rigby, Idaho; G. D. Goulding, Panguitch, Utah; A. P. Guerber, Detroit, Mich, (local); Jas. M. Lay ton, Cardston, Alta, Canada; S. L. Baker, Leavitt, Alta, Canada; R. 8. Nelson, Smithfield Utah. Second row: Brother Crosby, St. Johns, Ariz., (Ann Arbor student); A. S. Car- lile, Heber City, Utah; A. R. Kennington, Fairview, Wyoming; Presi- dent G. E. Ellsworth: Conference President C. L. Sorensen, Hyrum, Utah; B. W. Dalton, Manassa, Colo.; M. J. Flake, Snowflake Arizona. Third row: George Swenson, Spanish Fork, E. W. Irwin, Laketown, E. E. Nelson, Thatcher, allot' Utah; E. H. Scovil, Raymond, Alta, Canada; '0. M. Call, Rigby, Idaho. A Tribute. (For the Improvement Era.) Stand by, Old Time, with your measured tread and your shadowed wings of gray, For I, with my feeble pow'rs to do, would paint you anew today. I would sweep from your true old visage the lowering man-made guise. And make it kind as an angel's, with love in your old, dim eyes. 1 would take from your knotted fingers the scythe with its blade all bare, And cast it back to the idle hands that placed its cold gleam there. 3C0 IMPROVEMENT ERA. I would take from your hold the wheels of war whose clangings never cease, And plant in its stead the scrolls of light, and the olive branch of peace. Benign Old Friend, with your frost-hung wings and your grizzled strands of hair 'Tis men who wind up the wheels of strife and cast them everywhere. From your sun-lit dial the years of life fall quietly down as dew, And only the sons of earth fling forth the ruin ascribed to you. The snows of age from your whitened hands heap silently year by year, But men's deceits blanch the hairs of youth, in a single day of fear. 'Tis men who hew down the cities' pride that gladdens the lonely plain, Who pillage the holy templed heights, and scatter the altar flame. 'Tis men who stamp out the prints of art 'neath the engine wheels of war, Who hide in the marble dust of blight the flowers of golden lore; Who plunge thro' the vestal halls of peace in the groves of Elysian shade, Who sow the tares of desolate waste where the fields of grain are laid. 'Tis men who dash, in their seething rage, at the steadfast forts of truth, Who batter the walls of sanctity, and sever the years of youth; Who crush and blight, who fell and slay, with the scythe of their own decline, And, hiding their guilty hands, would stay thy holy advance, Old Time! Bertha A. Kleinman. Salt Lake City, Utah. Citation: Kleinman, Bertha A., "A Tribute," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 299–300. # Peoples and Places in the Orient. VII.—Nagasaki and the Inland Sea of Japan Peoples and Places in the Orient. BY FRANK J. HEWLETT, DIRECTOR OF THE UTAH STATE FAIR AND PRESIDENT OF HEWLETT BROS. COMPANY. VII.— Nagasaki and the Inland Sea of Japan. With the exception of a slight collision with a barge just out- side of the harbor, the return voyage to Hongkong was delightful. Father Neptune was on his best behavior. It was amusing to hear some passengers relate some "tipping" experiences, on the other fellow. The habit is not as bad in Asia as in Europe, the tips, as a rule, aremuch smaller. The American tourists, how- ever, have gained the reputation of rapidly spoiling the Asiatic servants. To the unsophisticated tourist the natives in the hotels, being dressed alike, on short acquaintance strikingly resemble each other. A Yankee banker, noted for his generosity, after partaking of the last meal, jingled the silver in his pocket, which caused the Chinese waiter boy's stolid countenance to be wreathed in one huge smile. "What is the largest tip you ever received?" asked the American. "Twenty Mexee," replied China, still grinning. The man of means handed him thirty Mex,— fifteen dollars — thinking to outdo the other fellow in generosity. The "tip was ' accepted with a bow. As he was leaving the dining room, the American called him back and said, "Who gave you the large tip?" The almond-eyed boy looked at him curiously, and hesitated to answer. 302 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Now, who was it?" in a sharp tone. "You samee man, sir, when here last time." Another one. An English business man, stopping at the King Edward Hotel, Hongkong, was so very economical with his tips that his friends delighted to jolly him, especially so, as, through a blunder, he had tipped the wrong coolies at Singapore. Entering the lavatory, his glance caught a sign reading, "Please tip the washbowl." "Blarst it, if I do," said the irate Brit- on, leaving the room in a rage. Once more we board the big mail ship with her bow pointed to the realm of the Mikado. Our first sight of Japan from the Western side is the Island of Goto, precip- itous and craggy. As it fades in the distance, there rises, far away, the high and jagged coastlines of Japan. Skirting islets and fantastic pinnacles of rock, the vessel glides under a wild sky of violet and flaming orange, into the harbor of Nagasaki. The Tax Administration Bureau, Na- The harbor is a dream of gasaki. loveliness, on this early morn- ing in June. It is known everywhere as cne of the most picturesque in the world.Green mountains, terraced and wooded to their very summits, have parted far enough to let an arm of the sea cleave its way inland. Chains of islands, with precipitious shores, guard the entrance of this haven of rest. The city of Nagasaki seems to have emerged from the ravines and spread itself out at the end of the inlet. Temples, tea-houses, and typical Japanese homes, with high, ivy-clad stone walls, formed a sub- stantial background to the clean streets and lanes. Handsome PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 803 villas of foreign residents cling to the hillside, or dot the groves on the heights. Nagasaki lost some commercial importance after the opening of the port of Kobe, which took the tea trade to the opposite side of the Inland Sea, around which cluster the great tea districts JAPANESE WOMEN COALING A SHIP AT NAGASAKI. of Japan. Its coal mines and immense dry docks make it a har- bor which no ship passes without a call. The Takashima mines are only a few miles away. These furnish the only coal used by many of the big steamships. These vast coal deposits are owned by the Mitsu-Bishi Co., the Rockefellers of Japan. This company retained the coal properties when they sold their steamship line to the Japanese government. Considerable of the coal has been shipped to San Francisco with profit. Although soft and dirty, it is much inferior as fuel to the Australian and much of the American coal. The Mitsu-Bishi Company clear over a mil- lion dollars yearly from the mine.The deepest shaft is over three hundred feet. Barges carry the coal from the mouth of the shaft to the waiting ships in harbor. The coal is weighed as it goes aboard, and brings from two to four dollars a ton, according to quality. 304 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Look at the string of barges coming toward the ship! They are drawn by puffing gasoline launches. Some are loaded with coal, others are covered with men, women and children. The barges are soon alongside and made fast to the big liner. The men and women are laughing and chatting like a lot of school children on a picnic. Rope ladders, with wooden steps, are quickly fastened on both sides of the ship. The women, many of them with babes strapped on their backs, take their places on the steps, forming a human elevator. The men remain in the barges to fill the half -bushel baskets with coal. The baskets are then tossed from one woman to the other, until they reach the hold of the ship. They worked like a colony of ants. In seven hours, three thousand tons of coal were safely loaded aboard, without an acci- dent. When we returned, at dusk, the canvas had been removed, MARKET OF TSUKIMADIX AT NAGASAKI. and the decks of the vessel carefully scrubbed. The men earn forty sen, twenty cents, and the women thirty sen, per day. -We were told that the coaling station at Nagasaki is the only one in the world where ships are coaled without the aid of machinery. Let us go ashore and view the reputed home of Madame PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 305 Butterfly. We will walk along the paths lined by moss, shrubs and flowers, so naturally painted by our American artists. A few min- utes ride on the launch, and we are at the Hotobo, where are scores of Japanese jinrikisha-men waiting to receive us. The purser informs us that the coolies of Nagasaki are the most ignor- ant and the boldest in the empire. Every few days the little brown policemen beat them with the flat side of their swords, to teach them to remember for a brief period the need of being civil to strangers. We are surrounded^ by then. They are worse VIEW OF HONGOCHI AT NAGASAKI. than a bunch of San Francisco hack-drivers. Cries of rikisha, rikisha, English, English! greet our ears. We prefer to take a short walk first and a ride afterwards. Though they all pretend to have a perfect knowledge of the English language, not one of them seemed to have learned the meaning of the little word "no." There is a good pavement leading to the shopping districts. Long, narrow, red banners, covered with Japanese characters abound everywhere. We happened to arrive on a day celebrated as the Feast of Buddah. Nagasaki is noted for its large tortoise- shell factories and shops. Here one can buy tortoise-shell combs, toys, miniature sampans and jinrikishas, — typical' "souvenirs. 306 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Hundreds of merchants display, in their tiny shops, shells beauti- fully carved, artificial dragons, hideous idols, cups and bowls, both in chim and lacquer, books, purses, pouches with knobs of carved ivory, sweets, cakes of all colors, and many-tailed fishes.in globes. There are lanterns plain, and lanterns painted, in every conceivable shape. One passes shops heaped high with china for common use, whose blues and whites make a picture of attrac- tion, fruit-shops, where scores of kinds are stacked up in dainty piles, and mostly sold by the single piece. All tourists enjoy shopping in Japan. P.oto by F. J. Hewlett. There is something fascinating about Passengers dickering with na- it that one cannot resist. tive curio sellers on S. S. Korea. Japanese clerks, whether male or female, are polite and patient. Half of tne shops of Japan are regular "old curiosity shops." There are bronzed figures, curios, all kinds of pictures, oil paintings and water colors, kimonas, fantastic scenes on shield and screen, swords and dag- gers that look to be a thousand years old. Clocks of all kinds abound, for the Japanese love plenty of time pieces, but very few of them keep correct time. We enter one of the largest shops and are met by the proprietor, who politely bows, leaves the room, but soon returns with cakes and tea on a dainty little tray. We point to a beautiful hammered brass vase. A price is asked; Oriental fashion, about one half of the price is offered. Much genial courtesy, bowing, smiles and compliments accompany the first half of when both parties have reached the negotiation; but the limit of their concessions, a stern war begins on the debated grounds. Every device is employed, groans, protests, anger, contempt, and several feigned departures, on the part of the pur- chaser. Finally one stretches and the other retracts his price until a common figure is reached; in truth, it is the one that should have been asked in the beginning. Then sweet peace once more prevails. The vendor assumes an air of one who has spent his last cent for the benefit of another, and is flushed with the joy PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 307 of his own excellence. We rise, amid many bows and cheerful soyonarras, good-byes, and depart bearing our treasure. Our rikisha-boy takes the package, and stows it carefully away. We are now ready to saunter once more. Japan is thronging around us most of the time. Babies in orange, red, green and purple dress, play about the narrow streets _ They are strapped to their brothers' or sisters' backs. In most cases it looks like a child carrying a child. Women of the lower class brown and tousled, with fat, red cheeks and almond eyes, Fishing Boat, Inland Sea of Japan. go slowly about their market- ing. Coolies and workmen amble up and down dressed in their tights, and doublets of blue, figured with white, fantastic char- acters. Ladies and gentlemen of the better class, dressed in their quiet gray or black kimonas, pass slowly by, while ladies of quality are borne through the crowd in their own handsomely carved jinrikishas. The ride to Mogi is the star attraction of Nagasaki. It lies six miles distant. Being hilly, you need two boys, tandem fash- ion, to pull your rikisha. Mogi is a typical fishing village. The road thither is cele- brated for fine scenery. We pass the famous Nagasaki reservoirs that supply the city with sparkling spring water. The terraced hills, on either side of the macadam road, are planted with tea, rice and vegetables. All is cultivated. The whole country is divided up into tiny farms, varying in size from patches not much bigger than a bed quilt to tracts of nearly an acre. No weeds are permitted to grow, the whole being as clean as an 0. S. L. flower bed. There are no fences. As one goes along the side hills, they remind him of a big crazy quilt, made up of patches of many-colored crops, bound together with green grass, or a ridge of soil to denote the boundaries of each tiny farm. All is carefully watered, through an almost perfect system of irrigation. 308 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Where the water does not flow by gravity, or the farmers are too poor to invest in a pumping-plant, it is carried by means of a stick across the shoulders, to each end of which is fastened a five gal- lon oil can. The Japanese farmers seldom live on their farms. They dwell in little villages located at a distance of every mile or so, and live in wooden houses thatched with rice straw. The father, mother, brothers and sisters all work in harmony together in the fields. With them, work seems a pleasure. You can see them chatting and laughing together, as they toil from dawn to dark. We passed an old lady who must have been between seventy and eighty years of age. Her head had been shaved clean as a babe's, and was now protected by a paper Passengers Viewing the Charms of the pa rasol. With bamboo staff Inland Sea. , , , , m hand, she was bravely , trudging along the road to Mogi. We arrived at Mogi just in time for a nice fish-tiffin. After a rest, we went for a walk along a narrow path that led around the hill to the ocean. Just ahead of us was the same aged woman. We followed until she stopped in front of a plain temple in a small grove of trees. . She entered. At either side of the doorwas a square box, with narrow slats across the top. From a pocket in the sleeve of her kimona she took a handful of rice and gently dropped it into the box. From the pocket in the other sleeve she took a copper coin which she deposited in the receptacle opposite. The devout soul then proceeded to a hideously carved image at the rear end of the temple. Clapping her hands three times, she held them up as if in supplication, and mumbled a prayer to her God. This was repeated a second time. What she said we could not understand, but if sincerity, patience, and hard toil are to be rewarded, surely she is entitled to the blessing. Once more we board our ship which soon gently churns her way through the beautiful inland sea of Japan This land-locked PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 309 Japanese water is a broad lake over two hundred miles long, filled with islands and sheltered by uneven shores, the jagged mountains of intense green, nowhere become wild enough to disturb the green-like color. The sea's verdant islands lie in groups. The channel is always broad and plain. All the shallow places are marked with buoys, but it is a difficult task for the pilot to steer the liner and at the same lime keep clear of the hundreds of fishing boats. Besides the danger to life, there is a heavy fine imposed for running down one of these boats. The day is beautiful. The passen- gers are all on deck with their kodaks Island in'Jthe Inland Sea of Japan. taking pictures of one of the most picturesque and delightful spots injthe world. We seemed to be gliding by enchanted islands. Light- houses, perched on the highest points, flashed brilliant, revolving lights, to guide the faithful pilot after dark. Along the shores are chains of villages, protected by stone sea-walls, with castles and temples rising above the clustered roofs, or peeping from wooded slopes. Huge stone lanterns marked the way to the temple groves. Cemeteries were there with ancient Buddahs of granite and bronze to attest that they are centuries old. Junks and sampans : lie anchored in fleets, or creep idly across the waters, and small coast- ing steamers thread their way in and out among the islands. At Shimonsiki the Inland Sea ends, and ships pass out by the narrow- est of the channels— one that boils with rips and cross-currents. Bright and early next morning we arrive at Kobe, the second important seaport of Japan. It has been open to foreign trade since 1868. It is the capital of the Hyogo prefecture, has 285,- 000 inhabitants, and is one of the live trade-centers of the empire There are many pretty walks in the neighborhood, and among the hills. The Nunobiki Falls and their picturesque surroundings are well worth seeing. On the side of one of the largest hills, an immense, green anchor, made from shrubs, dotted with flowers, attracts the eye, as you sail into the magnificent harbor. Nagasaki, Japan. Citation: Hewlett, Frank J., "Peoples and Places in the Orient. VII.—Nagasaki and the Inland Sea of Japan," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 301–309. # Quien Sabe?—“Who Knows?” QUIEX SABE? "WHO KNOWS?"' From a Painting by George M. Ottinger. QUIEN SABE?— "WHO KNOWS?" In the western part of Honduras, Central America, shrouded in an immense forest, and in dark and impen- etrable mystery, slumbers the ruins of an ancient city, to modern antiquarians and travelers known as Copan. Next to the crumbling temple in importance, or per- haps before it, as an indication of the artistic skill of its builders, are the carved statues or obelisks, remarkable for their size and well-executed sculpture. The sides and backs are covered with hieroglyphics, arranged in square tablets which probably contain the names, titles, and per- haps history of the beings whose images in stone they serve to decorate. Standing in front of some of the statues are found sculptural blocks of stone. The obelisk represented in the painting stands in the court of the temple. In appearance and in character, it is tasteful and pleasing. It represents a queen who, ages ago, by virtue and good deeds, endeared her mem- ory in the hearts of her subjects. As the years rolled on, their love became worship. Christianized as the nations of Honduras of the present day are presumed to be, they still cling and secretly pay reverence to their sacred statues. A young girl, her water jar and bundle of fagots at her feet, has placed her floral offering on the altar, on which she reclines, gazing up at the mute stone face, and Who Knows? She may be a lineal descendant of this deified queen. Time and its vicissitudes have robbed her of royalty, and left her a poor "hewer of wood and car- rier of water" — who knows? who knows? George M. Ottinger. Citation: Ottinger, George M., "Quien Sabe?—“Who Knows?”," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 310–311. # The Crown of Individuality. IV.—Facing the Mistakes of Life The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. IV. —Facing the Mistakes of Life. There are only two classes of people who never make mis- takes, — they are the dead and the unborn. Mistakes are the inevitable accompaniment of the greatest gift given to man,— indi- vidual freedom of action. If he were only a pawn in the fingers of Omnipotence, with no self -moving power, man would never make a mistake, but his very immunity would degrade him to the ranks of the lower animals and the plants. An oyster never makes a mistake, — it has not the mind that would permit it to forsake an instinct. Let us be glad of the dignity of our privilege to make mis- takes, glad of the wisdom that enables us to recognize them, glad of the power that permits us to turn their light as a glow- ing illumination along the pathway of our future. Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom, the assessments we pay on our stock of experience, the raw material of error to be transformed into higher living. Without them there would be no individual growth, no progress, no conquest. Mistakes are the knots, the tangles, the broken threads, the dropped stitches in the web of our living. They are the misdeals in judgment, our unwise investment in morals, and profit and loss account of wisdom. They are the misleading by-paths from the straight road of truth— and truth in our highest living is but the accuracy of the soul. Human fallibility, weakness, pettiness, folly and sin are all * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Revell Company. THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 813 —mistakes. They are to be accepted as mortgages of error, to be redeemed by higher living. They should never be taken as justifying bankruptcy of effort. Even a great mistake is only an episode —never a whole life. Life is simply time given to man to learn how to live. Mis- takes are always part of learning. The real dignity of life con- sists in cultivating a fine attitude towards our own mistakes and those of others. It is the fine tolerance of a fine soul. Man becomes great, not through never making mistakes, but by profit- ing by those he does make; by being satisfied by a single rendition of a mistake, not encoring it into a continuous performance; by getting from it the honey of new, regenerating inspiration with no irritating sting of morbid regret; by building better today because of his poor yesterday; and by rising with renewed strength, finer purpose and freshened courage every time he falls. In great chain factories power machines are specially built to test chains — to make them fail, to show their weakness, to reveal the mistakes of workmanship. Let us thank God when a mistake shows us the weak link in the chain of our living. It is a new revelation of how to live. It means the rich red blood of a new inspiration. If we have made an error, done a wrong, been unjust to another or to ourselves, or, like the Pharisee, passed by some opportunity for good, we should have the courage to face our mistake squarely, to call it boldly by its right name, to acknowl- edge it frankly, and to put in no flimsy alibis of excuse to protect an anaemic self-esteem. If we have been selfish, unselfishness should atone; if we have wronged, we should right; if we have hurt, we should heal; if we have taken unjustly, we should restore; if we have been unfair, we should become just. Regret without regeneration is —an emotional gold-brick. Every possible reparation should be made. If confession of regret for the wrong and for our inability to set it right be the maximum of our power, let us at least do that. A quick atonement sometimes almost effaces the memory. If fool- ish pride stands in our way we are aggravating the first mistake by anew one. Soma people's mistakes are never born singly — they come in litters 314 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Those who waken to the realization of their wrong act, weeks, months or years later, somstimes feel it is better to let confession or reparation lapse, that it is too late to open a closed account; but men rarely feel deeply wounded if asked to accept payment on an old promissory note —outlawed for years. Some people like to wander in the cemetery of their past errors, to reread the old epitaphs and to spend hours in mourning over the grave of a wrong. This new mistake does not antidote the old one. The remorse that paralyzes hope, corrodes purpose, and deadens energy is not moral health, it is —an indigestion of the soul that cannot assimilate an act. It is selfish, cowardly sur- render to the dominance of the past. It is lost motion in morals; it does no good to the individual, to the injured, to others, or to the world. If the past be unworthy, live it down; if it be worthy live up to it and- surpass it. Omnipotence cannot change the past, so why should wz try? Our duty is to compel that past to vitalize our future with new- courage and purpose, making it a larger, greater future than would have been possible without the past that has so grieved us. If we can get real, fine, appetizing dividend? from our mistakes they prove themselves not losses but — wise investments. They seem like old mining shares, laid aside in the lavender of memory of our optimism and now, by some sudden change in the market of speculation, proved to be of real value. Realizing mistakes is good; realizing on them is better. When a captain finds his vessel is out of the right channel, car- ried, by negligence, by adverse winds or by blundering through a fog, from the true course, he wastes no time in bemoaning his mistake, but at the first sunburst takes new bearings, changes his course, steers bravely towards his harbor with renewed courage to make up the time he has lost. The mistake means — increased care and greater speed. Musing over the dreams of youth, the golden hopes that have not blossomed into deeds, is a dangerous mental dissipation. In very small doses it may stimulate; in large ones it weakens effort. It over-emphasizes the past at the expense of the present; it adds weights, not wings, to purpose. "It might have been" is the lullaby of regret with which man often puts to sleep the mighty THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 315 courage and confidence that should inspire him. We do not need narcotics in life so much as we need tonics. We may try some- times, sadly and speculatively, to reconstruct our life from some date in the past when we might have taken a different course. We build on a dead "if." This is the most unwise brand of air- castle. We go back in memory to some fork in the road in life, and think what would have happened, and how wondrously better it would have been had we taken the other turning of the road. '"If we had learned some other business;" "If we had gone West in 1884," "If we had married the other one; "If we had bought ' telephone stock when it was at 35; "If *ve had taken a different ' course in education;" "If we had only spent certain money in some other way," — and so we run uselessly our empty train of thought over these slippery "ifs." Even if these courses might have been wiser, and w c do not really know,it is now as impossible to change back to them as for the human race to go back to the original bit of protoplasm from which science declares we are evolved. The past does not belong to us to change or to modify; it is only the golden present that is ours to make as we would wish. The present is raw material; the past is finished product, — finished forever for good or ill. No regret will ever enable us to relieve it. • The other road always looks attractive. Distant sails are always white, far-off hills always green. It may perhaps have been the poorer road after all, could our imagination, through some magic, see with perfect vision the finality of its possibility. The other road might have meant wealth, but less happiness; fame might have charmed our ears with the sweet music of praise, but the little hand of love that rests so trustingly in ours might have been denied us. Death itself might have come earlier to us, or his touch have stilled the beatings of a heart we hold dearer than our own. What the other road might have meant no eternity of conjecture could ever reveal; no omnipotence could enable us now to walk therein even if we wished. We cannot re-live our old mistakes, but we can make them the means of future immunity from the folly that caused them. If we were impatient yesterday, it should inspire us to be patient today. 316 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Yesterday's anger may be the seed of today's sweetness. Today's kindness should be the form assumed by our regret at yesterday's cruelty. Our unfairness to one may open our eyes to the possibility of greater fairness to hundreds. Injustice to one that may seem to have cost us much may really have cost us little if it make us more kind, tender, and thoughtful for long years. It is a greater mistake to err in purpose, in aim, in principle, than in our method of attaining them. . The method may readily be modified; to change the purpose may upset the whole plan of our life. It is easier in mid-ocean to vary the course of the ship than to change the cargo. Right principles are vital and primary. They bring the max- imum of profit from to a minimum. mistakes, reduce the loss False pride perpetuates our mistakes, deters us from confessing them, debars us from repairing them. Man's attitude towards his mistakes is various and peculiar; some do not see them, some will not see them; some see without changing; some see and deplore, but keep on. Some make the same mistakes over and over again, in principle not in form; some blame others for their own mistakes; some condemn others for mistakes, seemingly unconscious that they themselves are commit- ing similar ones; some excuse their mistakes by saying that others do the same things, as though a disease were less dangerous when it becomes — epidemic in a community. Failure does not necessarily imply a mistake. If we have held our standard high, bravely fought a good fight for the right, held our part courageously against heavy opposition and have finally seen the citadel of our great hope taken by superior force, by overwhelming conditions, or sapped and undermined by jealousy, envy or treachery we have met with failure, it is true, but — we have not made a mistake. The world may condemn us for this non-success. What does the silly, babbling, unthinking world, that has not seen our heroic efforts know about it? What does it matter what the world thinks, or says, if we know we have done our best? Sometimes men fail nobly because they have the courage to forego triumph at the cost of character, honor, truth and justice. Let us never accept mistakes as final; let us organize victory Citation: Jordan, William George, "The Crown of Individuality. IV.—Facing the Mistakes of Life," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 312–316. # Uncle Hyrum on City Life THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 317 out of the broken ranks of failure, and, despite all odds, fight on calmly, courageously, unflinchingly, serenely confident that, in the end, right living and right doing — must triumph. (The next article in this series,"The Sculptural Figures of Society," will appear in the March number of the Era.) Uncle Hiram on City Life. Yes, it's lively in the city where they've got their 'lectric lights, And the people soon have wrinkles from their stay in' out o' nights; They've got shows and things to keep 'em from a-gittin' lonesome there, And they look all-fired stylish in the costly clo's they wear; But I guess they have their troubles just the same as me and you, And I reckon that they're often ruther worse'n ours, too. We've got wood piled in the woodshed that'll last a year er so, And there's more out where that come from and more saplin's still to grow; We ain't worried over coal strikes, let the cold winds blow away, We can carry in the billets and not have a cent to pay; While they're shiverin' up yonder where they've got so much to see, We can heat up fer the babies that the Lord sent you and me. There is always somethin' doin' to make city people sad; If it ain't a sausage famine, why you'll hear the water's bad; When the strikers stop the street cars then the mischief is to pay, And the people have to foot it, gettin' clubbed along the way; And the fever epidemics and the small-pox every year Keep the city people stewin', and I'm glad to live out here. Oh, it's quiet in the country and there's few uncommon sights, And God's moon and stars up yonder have to do for 'lectric lights; But with 'taters in the cellar and with wood piled in the shed, When there's hay stacked in the hay-mows for the stock that must be fed, They can have their noisy city, with the sights up there to see, And the kind old quiet country will be good enough for me. — S. E. Kiser, in Chicago Record-Herald Citation: Riser, S. E., "Uncle Hyrum on City Life," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 317. # Portrait of S. W. Richards SAMUEL W. RICHARDS. Born, Richmond, Berkshire Co., Mass., August 19, 1824; died, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 26/1909. Hejwas the son of Phineas Rich- ards and Wealthy Dewey, and a brother of. Franklin D. Richards. Few men have had a more varied experience in Church work, pioneering, writing, legislating, temple and missionary work, than Elder Richards. He joined the Church in 1838. His life was as long and useful as his service to the Church was zealous and true. A genial disposition, a high character and an unfaltering faith distinguished his career. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Portrait of S. W. Richards," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 318. # Shipton Castle Shipton Castle. BY RICHARD W. YOUNG, JR. Me thinks I hear the sound of time long passed Still murmuring o'er us, in the lofty void Of these dark arches, like the lingering voices Of those who long within their graves have slept. Orra, A Tragedy. The poet has expressed the sentiments of the lover of English history in the following lines: I do love these ancient ruins, We never tread upon them but we set Our foot upon some reverent history. I believe that every person, no matter how slightly convers- ant he may be with historical events and personages, has expe- rienced the quickening of the pulse and the fevered gallop of the imagination when he first treads upon some spot inseparably con- nected with ancient history. His soul and finer sensibilities must be calloused if such were not the case. There are many spots in England in connection with which history has been made, but I am inclined to an honest belief that there are but few which have had as conspicuous and glorious a connection as has Shipton Castle, situated in Yorkshire. But in order to appreciate it to the highest degree, an acquaintance with the history surrounding it is a priori necessary. In the great Doomsday Book, a general survey and census of England, ordered by William the Conqueror, that he might have a knowledge of the country which he had subjugated, is a detailed mention of the country around Shipton, and entitled there Terra 320 IMPROVEMENT ERA,. Regis, or King's Land. Subsequently the) Conqueror bestowed this particular part of his domain upon Robert de Romillie, one of his noblemen. The land thus given to Romillie was in utter waste and desolation, having been burned and scourged by the Danes. Romillie, on taking possession, began the work of rejuvenation by moving in tenants, and to protect them began the erection of Shipton castle. The castle was partially destroyed by the Scotch in 1138, but as Hobrished, the chronicler, us, was rebuilt in tells 1179. Through intermarriage, it and the surrounding feudatory holdings passed into the hands of the Earl of Albemarle and from his line, by marriage to the Plantagenet family, into the hands of the crown as Terra Regis. The royal family continued in possess- ion until Edward II bestowed it upon Robert de Clifford, the head of the noble Clifford family, and in whose possession it became one of the prominent knightly seats in England. The Clifford family was, from all we can learn from history, a most prominent and distinguished one. Robert, the first owner, was one of the four guardians of Edward the Second's son and heir, and was, during his later years, Admiral of England. He enlarged the old castle of Romillie, and strengthened it as a place of power. The de Cliffords remained in possession for some three hundred and thirty-two years, subjected to one or two of the vicissitudes of fortune which followed as the results of their monarchs' changeable and Through these long fickle natures. years the family plays in the making of an unfortunate part English history. One of them followed the banner of St. George in France, and did his monarch invaluable service at Orecy and Poictiers. Others of the family fulfilled important embassies abroad; one was the boon companion of Richard II, and still another of Henry VIII. Around the castle were fought many of the battles of the Wars of the Roses, when England was turned into a scene of carnage and baptized in blood, that the ambitions of men might be gratified. The army of Parliament, under the command of General Lambert, camped before its walls for three years, while the finest artillery of the kingdom hurled its tons of lead against the solid masonry. But from 1643 to 1645 it withstood the assaults of Cromwell's Roundheads and were it not for the indom- SHIP TON CASTLE. 321 itable perseverance of the Old Commoner and his army, the Lord of Shipton might have successfully cried: Hang out the banners on the outward walls, The cry is still "They come;" our castle's strength Will laugh a seige to scorn: here let them lie, Till famine and ague eat them up. But it finally succumbed, the last of the nobles' castles to bow in subjection to the humbler of England's nobility. The male line of the Cliffords died out in 1643, while the castle was under siege, and the family seat came into possession of Anne, Duchess of Pembroke. Under the management of this woman the damage done by Cromwell's army was repaired and the castle finished, as it stands today, in 1658. From 1658 to the present, it has degenerated from one of the important feudal seats of England, to the occasional retreat of its present owner, Lord Hotchfield. Now to the castle itself. A guide admitted us through a small man-door in the fourteen-foot oaken and iron-bound doors set between two bastions of massive build. Passing through a corridor opening into rooms on either side, where in olden days the gatekeeper and men at arms lodged, and through a second gateway, we entered the outside courtyard, now kept in grass and flowers, but in days of yore used as foresting grounds and for the assembling of the sortie party. We followed the guide through a grove of yew trees, past the outstanding buildings, where once the porter and under-servants lived, up a flight of stone steps which were hollowed and worn by the tread of many generations, and into the dark, narrow entrance leading into the interior courtyard. This is the old, original part of the castle which had been built during the time of the Conqueror. The walls were moss-covered and crumbling, and the flag-stones worn. Leading from this small entrance was a low, wide door set in a triple Norman arch. The solid oaken door, now in the stages of decay, has swung open to many an imposing pageant of Norman and English chivalry. It had withstood the assaults of Scottish marauders and had been battered by the sol- diers of Parliament. Through it the knights had passed in the 322 IMPROVEMENT ERA. splendor of new and shining armor to engage in the wars, and through them they had victoriously returned, their armor battered and stained, or probably they, themselves, stretched upon the shield which had not parried in time the fatal blow. We passed through the old arch and entered the interior courtyard, said to be one of the most perfect of its type extant. It was a masterpiece of architectural design, built in the Norman style, with the dainty and exquisite windows of the later Elizabethan architecture admitting light into the interior living apartments. In the center rose a hoary old yew tree, whose age went back five hundred years, and whose branches, forming a shelter to the other- wise open courtyard, made it into a perfect bower. Its massive trunk was moss-covered and gnarled, and it reared its majestic head in regal splendor above the walls of its prison — the silent sentinel of what now remains of bygone power and magnificence. Seven doors on the ground floor opened into the various apart- ments, while an eighth, approached by an artistic flight of steps, led us into the banqueting apartment on the second floor. The hall would seat probably seventy-five or a hundred ban- queters. Its pristine significance had been obliterated to a great extent by the ruthless touch of the modern architect, who had transformed it into a room where the present tenants of Lord Hotchfield partake of his Yuletide bounty. To admit more light, a skylight had been cut in the roof, and the walls had been plas- tered recently, but notwithstanding the modern improvement, the ghosts of the old revelers still haunted the place, and the walls seemed to give back the bacchanalian shouts and rancorous laugh- ter of the earls and their men, as they carved the roasted ox, quaffed the Rhenish wines and retold the adventures of the late war. The kitchen lay immediately behind, and was a spacious room. From here issued the dishes that delighted the epicurean tastes of the lordly owners. An open fireplace, nine feet in length, flanked one end, and was used to roast the ox, served whole on state occasions. Opposite were the bake ovens, capacious openings in the wall. The process of baking was unique in those days. The stones of the oven were heated by burning fagots, the fagots then removed, and the dough placed in the oven was baked by the heat exhaled by the heated stones. The bread thus baked was SHIP TON CASTLE. 323 delicious — browned to a nicety, and the crust as tender as the inside of the loaf. Leading into the kitchens were the larders, large and roomy, as they needs must have been in those days to hold supplies for the hundreds of retainers necessary to maintain the dignity of one of the first families of the realm. We retraced our steps through the banquet hall into the drawing room, whose walls were wont to be covered with rare tapes- tries from Brussels and Spain, and the oaken floors with the soft carpets of the East. It was a low, dark room, with its only day- light coming through the small windows opening to the north and allowing vision of the heavy woods surrounding the river which flowed at the foot of the embattlements some hundred feet below. We entered the guard room, a semi-circular apartment in the top of the round tower. Modern architecture had robbed this room of some of its original interest in transforming many of the opening, cross-shaped slits into windows to admit light. But there still remained one or two of the original openings, a yard in length and a few inches in width, through which the arch- er's shot their death bolts. A winding stairway led us to the ramparts, and a glorious view burst upon us as we emerged. To the south, and at the foot of the castle, lay the town of Shipton, huddling like a frightened hound at its master's feet. Beyond ran the silvery Aire, winding in and out, here reflecting the sunlight in dazzling splendor, and there losing itself in the heavy woods, from which in past times predatory bands of robbers, the Robin Hoods of the north, issued to terrorize the villagers and at times try a daring assault upon the castle itself. The first builder of the castle had selected its position with an engineering foresight which was admirable. Its base was solid rock. On the northern side was a drop of eighty feet to a river which* was utilized as a natural moat. No access by human means was possible from this side. To the east, south, and west, the ground sloped, in some places percipitately, in others gradually. There were no woods within a radius of several hundred yards to obstruct the view, and an opposing army could well nigh be annihilated before it reached the walls of the castle. It seemed to be im- 324 IMPROVEMENT ERA. pregnable, and was considered one of the strongholds of England. From the sunlight and freedom of the open air we descended winding turret stairs, passed through dark and foul smelling cor- ridors, emerged once again into the courtyard, only to enter again a doorway leading into a passage where no light was admit- ted but through the door itself. We passed through a second door- way, the walls of which were six feet in thickness, then descended a narrow, cramped stairway, whose low roof of jagged stone forced us to bend. We reached a small landing, turned and entered a room, or better a hole, in the pitchy blackness of which the small, flickering lamp of the guide was of but little use. This was the dungeon. measured nine by eighteen feet and the floor was It the cold country rock. The atmosphere smelled earthy and damp. It was below the river, and the moisture seeped through the rock and stood in glistening beads on the walls. The light was extin- guished to give us an idea of the terrors of the place, and in spite of the presence of others, one shivered in appreciation of its awfulness. The darkness felt heavy, as if it were closing around in suffocating folds. The over-wrought imagination heard the dull clanking of chains, the moans and prayers of some unfortunate wretch, or the imbecile ravings of a madman, driven mad by the terrors of the blackness preying upon him. The story goes that the intrigante, the fascinating and beauti- ful Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in this foul hole for three days and nights, but history fails to authenticate the tale. Again, it is said that the dungeon was no dungeon, but merely a wine cellar. But historical evidence and the opinions of author- ities point the other way. We are prone to cling to the romantic, and while the question may admit of a doubt, we still instinctively refuse to uproot the romantic sympathies which demand that every old castle shall have its "dungeon keeps and loophole grates where captives weep." Such, in brief, is the old castle of Shipton, as it stands today —a relic of past ages, and a center round which brewed some of the events which have made the English speaking race today the most enlightened and cultured and the finest governed people on the face of the' earth. Nelson, England. Citation: Young, Richard W., Jr., "Shipton Castle," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 319–324. # The “Golden Bible.” II The "Golden Bible." BY S. A. KENNER. II. The rest of the quotations following that considered, and which are thrown in as a kind of explanation of his first assertion, in order to be fair, are of a piece with it. Unquestionably the gentleman is a better judge of human work than of divine work. There is no denial of the fact that the Book of Mormon was brought forth by human agencies, and thereby the human stamp must in corresponding measure be upon it. He is also on safe ground regarding rainbow tints and the Lord's discourses, the rel- evancy of which matter might but will not be questioned He will merely be asked to consider whether or not all the painting accomplished by Divinity is rainbow tinted, or all the verbal ema- nations from that source were soothing to the ears of those who heard them. How about the thunder clouds which precede the rainbow, darken the landscape and diffuse gloom among the peo- ple? What of lightning, which is so glowingly, flashily colored that mortality cannot imitate it, and which strikes without warn- ing, leaving death and destruction in its field of operations? Do not these come from the same hand as that which imparted the beautiful and hope-inspiring hues to the rainbow, and even painted the modest lilies of the field? Nothing in the way of language could be more full of native grandeur and wise admonition than the sayings of the Master to those he sought and died to save; but his words sometimes were terrible to evil-doers, and none of these were considered more evil than those who used his name without reverence or took it upon themselves to say where he was 326 IMPROVEMENT ERA. or where he was not without having knowledge and authority thereto, an offense which Mr. Lamb, as shown above, has come painfully close to sharing in. The "Golden" writer, however, does not even remotely ap- proach the "top blossom and culmination" of irreverent and in- considerate reference to Deity in any of the language previously referred to when the same is compared with what follows. Before reading it the reader will please remember that the author of it is professedly a man w ho lives in both fear and adoration of his T Maker and who therefore presumably would not and could not speak to or of him in language other than that of devotion and reverence Does the Lord himself come out of this affair entirely unscathed? Either he made a mistake in the first instance and had to back out and do his work over again — or he perpetrated a fraud in the second case; a trick, a silly trick, that has not even the merit of being a sharp one, so "thin," in fact, that no special acuteness is needed to see through it. This will be passed without comment. It is so shocking even to one who makes few professions of righteousness-, that a feel- ing akin to guiltiness exists for having used it at all. To what desperate resorts does the one who opposes just for opposition's sake sometimes betake himself! What frail fancies he weaves into showy fabrics having no substance or form, and what a flimsy, pointless affair is his polemical lance shown to be when once it is thrust against the shield of reason or the armor of truth! How lacking in system, devoid of consistency, and empty of substance is the whole of any extended "argument" like that of Mr. Lamb, which, even had he maintained his position and es- tablished every point for which he contends, would still have re- sulted in absolutely nothing that is beneficial or helpful to the human mind or soul. The labor of the iconoclast is generally futile enough and bad enough when it is conducted with skill and pre- cision; but when it is merely an inartistically arranged collation of vapid denunciation, threadbare accusation, and jumbled buffoonery -neither satisfying, entertaining, nor instructive — it is intoler- able, inexcusable, and altogether vile. If one had but the time and space, together with the inclination, a review seriatim of THE "GOLDEN BIBLE:' 327 such books as the "Golden Bible" would be a fine diversion for rainy days. I could scarcely let this opportunity pass without a few words regarding Mr. Lamb's professions of friendly feeling for those whose religious convictions he so ruthlessly assails, disclaiming rancor, prejudice, and everything in that line. Reading these statements and what follows reminds me somewhat of an incident of the same kind occurring in the career of a certain Federal judge of Utah in the early days. A man was before him for sentence, and before pronouncing the formal decree of the court the judge took occasion to tell the prisoner that he was sorry for him — very sorry, indeed, his words of compassion being so pronounced that the convictecl man no doubt began to entertain hopes that he would get off easy. But he didn't. He got very nearly if not quite the full measure of punishment permitted by the statute in such case made and provided. This gave rise to a question, that if the man got such a hard deal when the magistrate was sorry for him, what on earth would or could he have got if the judge had been hostile and unfeeling? Now, Mr. Lamb is evidently not a judge — not even of logic, literature or correct controversialism; but on the bench, imposing a penalty upon some one he didn't like because of differing opinions, he could certainly fill the bill in the manner and form last indicated to a nicety. In the matter of physical demonstration and actual results, and without assuming to speak authoritatively, but rather as an observer who believes in a "square deal" to all, it is proper to say that the "Mormon" Church has accomplished such things in the way of subduing natural conditions and supplanting barrenness with fertility, dreariness with loveliness and savagery with civil- ization as no other church has ever attempted or perhaps ever thought of; and all of these achievements have been worked out by a people who must themselves have failed but for confidence in their leaders and faith in the work which they were led to per- form. Those people and the leaders themselves were not engaged in speculative enterprises, or buoyed up by the hope of "great worldly gain, otherwise their time, effort and talent might and doubtless would have been spent upon more inviting fields where the rewards would have been greater and not so far off. Un- 328 IMPROVEMENT ERA. doubtedly they were animated and upheld by something above and beyond the contemplation of work done for its own sake alone, and we do not have to go far to find out what that something was, it being a reliance upon and the advocacy of a development of Christianity— a plan of salvation — partly yet largely disclosed by the very book which Rev. Lamb endeavors so strenuously to be- little and make of no avail. Judging a tree by its fruit ought to be considered a righteous judgment; therefore, as so much that is good and desirable and advantageous are shown as the fruits of the Book of Mormon, we are forced to the conclusion that the judge himself is unrighteous; a conclusion that occurs spontane- ously without the slightest strain on the mental faculties. There are other circumstances worthy of citation in the same line. The "Mormon" missionary, for instance, is rarely a graduate of a high institute of learning; while by no means uneducated or uninformed, he seldom carries a degree, and never one relating to the ecclesiastical department of a college or university. Religion with him is not a matter of secular training; it does not occur in his curriculum, and yet is a matter which enters into and forms a part of his daily life. Without making a business of it, or follow- ing it as a profession to acquire means, still religious thought, precept and practice are inseparable from his secular pursuits. His education in that behalf, while largely aided by books and in- struction, is not wholly dependent upon either or both, but is de- rived largely from the faith that is in him and the soulful devout- ness with which he walks in the path marked out by the Master. He receives no pay for such labors as he performs in the ministry, at home or abroad, in public or in private. He goes forth on an appointed errand to the peopbs of the earth filled with his calling and realizing in every tissue of his mortal fibre the importance, the responsibility of his mission as an ambassador of the Most High. He stands up in public places, beset sometimes by riotous disturbers, scoffers and blackguards, is subjected to interruption- insult and occasionally violence, yet he maintains the dignity of momentous message to the willing and his station and delivers his the unwilling hearer. No amount of money that could be raised for such purpose would for a moment tempt him to endure some of the ordeals or undergo the hardships frequently attendant upon THE " GOLDEN BIBLE." 329 the performance of his labors, while the honors are not of the kind that the people of the earth as a whole esteem or care to have. He tells them without hesitancy or fear that the testimony he bears is true and cannot be shaken by the machinations or per- versions of man. Why? In order that those who hear h'm may be misled? That they may take upon themselves the vestments of a gospel which has no foundation but error and no outcome but de- ception? Would he dare to tell them how to test the Book of Mormon if he knew or even believed the test must fail? The length of this article so far makes it necessary to come to an abrupt close. There are some other citations from the "Golden Bible" which might be used to advantage in this connec- tion, but only two more will be referred to and briefly. Mr. Lamb says in the early part of his work that "the most serious objec- tionto the Book of Mormon is that it undermines faith in the Word of God." As an admission of the tremendous and far-reach- ing potency of a volume which the reverend gentleman labors through several hundred pages to show is an empty imposture a palpable fraud, an unskillful humbug, the foregoing assertion is one of the most singular in all his array of very singular expressions. It might be pronounced a solecism, only that something as near to fervor as cold type can convey seems to characterize the sentence, and make it to appear that he has given b'rth to one honest ex- pression even though it be at the expense of all his other expres- sions. Of course the statement is a non sequitur, wholly falla- cious, but that he meant it with all that it implies, is beyond a doubt —an involuntary and misleading but powerful tribute. This chapter will conclude with what forms part of the other writer's beginning, and in this meeting of extremes we also are brought together and caused to agree for the first, last and only time. He says in his preface (speaking of his work), "there is no other book just like it." That is not to be denied. And to this self-evident and cheerfully conceded distinction, let us add the hope that it may endure so long as we endure at least. Salt Lake City, Utah. Citation: Kenner, S. A., "The “Golden Bible.” II," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 325–329. # The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea. I The Carlyles and their House at Chelsea. BY FLORENCE L. LANCASTER. I. A plain, substantial dwelling in the Qieen Ann style, with little to" distinguish it from its neighbors, save that it lacks some touches of modern improvement proclaiming the latter still inhab- ited. But our eye falls on the mural portrait which marks the older-looking house, and we must needs pause in reverence, realiz- ing as we tread the well-worn steps, in what manner the place is haunted. Here, in this unpretentious house, were written "glowingly, from the heart of a living man,'' Carlyles own words as he handed his wife the com- pleted manuscript of The French Revolution, books that will be hailed by thinkers while the English tongue endures. Here passed, with its travail, its pang of endur- ance, its potent integrity and achievement, the daily life Carlyle's House. Chelsea, S. W. of two of the most remark THE CARLYLES AND THlIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA. 331 able people in the annals of English literature. Everyone, per- haps, for whom the name Carlyle stands for anything, either has read, or intends to read, Hero arid Hero Worship and Sartor Resar- tus. If our chief association with Jane Welsh Carlyle is in the relation in which she stood to the great man, her husband, how much of her distinctive personality is revealed — in a psychic sense, more or less tragic— in her Memoirs, or suggested in the single published poem by her, To a Swallow Building Under Our Eaves. Carlyle being inwardly one of the most sincere and out- wardly one of the simplest of men, we cannot read a single page of Hero Worship without a vibrant realization of that truth-seeing mind and flaming heart. We cannot walk through these rooms, dismantled as they are now, but with several relics telling eloquently CARLYLE'S HOUSE —THE GARRET STUDY, CHELSEA, S. W. of their past uses, without gaining a more intimate sense of the personalities of the two who dwelt here for half their liv^s. It was in 1834, he being thirty-nine and she thirty-three, that Carlyle and his wife came to this house, eight years after their marriage. The house was therefore the home of Mrs. Carlyle for thirty-two years; of Carlyle, who remained through the sad eventide of bereft old age, for fifteen years longer. 332 IMPROVEMENT ERA. It will perhaps be well to take a glance backward at the chief events of Carlyle's life prior to coming here. Also to consider some relative conditions in the tenor of a married life which, though not altogether happy, was not — in Carlyle's own sense that there is "something higher than happiness,"— essentially a failure in the sum of things. Thomas Carlyle was born in a hamlet of rural Scotland, his ancestors being of the yeoman class. A picture of his early home suggests conditions where everything breathed a simple dignity and solid comfort, the result of daily toil; but without the super- fluous touch of luxury. There are evidences that his parents, sim- ple, too, and unpolished in exterior, were people of "character," imbued with the intense, stern religion of Calvin, and desiring to do the best they could for their children. To Carlyle, therefore^ fell the heritage of sterling psychic qualities. Perhaps, too, he early felt a sense of responsibility in being the eldest of a family of nine. As was the case with a lad of another calibre, Shelly, when at Eton, the young Carlyle was persecuted by his school- fellows. Was it because in each of these boys was an intensity of temperament, a depth of thought, which his rough associates vaguely recognized but could not understand? This bully pro- voked in Thomas such a passionate outburst of resentment, that his mother made him promise "never to return a blow.' At school, however, his aptitude for learning was such that his par- ents resolved to send him to Edinburgh University, and to have him trained for the ministry. So, his trials and achievements of childhood behind him, he set off for Edinburgh on foot, a distance of a hundred miles. At the university he found himself among congenial compan- ions, and he became the leading spirit of a circle who took "re- markable interest in literary matters." Launched upon the tide of young manhood, Carlyle found stormy waters and little plain sailing at first. Though at a probationary period on leaving col- lege he preached what was pronounced as "a weak, flowery and sentimental sermon." Carlyle discovered in himself that his voca- tion was not for the ministry. Albeit, one has only to read Carlyle at almost any page to realize his essential religiousness of soul. "As soon as printing was discovered, books became the true THE CARLYLES AND THEIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA. 333 medium of the preacher," he says in his own way, in Hero Wor- ship. On leaving college, therefore, he devoted his first ener- gies to teaching, being fortunate enough to obtain a mathematical tutorship at a place called Annan. It was in the capacity of tutor that Carlyle first met Edward Irving— also a tutor and afterwards a minister— who was at many points the connecting link of Carlyle's destiny. This Edward Irving ap- pears to have been a man of rare loyalty. Carlyle says he was indebted to him at this period for "the bond of hu- man fellowship." Though Carlyle was in two senses his rival — in the mathematical appointment and in another sense that was to appear later — their fellowship re- mained unbroken, and the good offices of Irving con- tinued. Carlyle had access to his library, and read the books that we may be sure were now shaping his thoughts. Subsequently Statue of Thomas Carlyle by Bochus recommended Carlyle Irving to the editor of the London Magazine which lead to the acceptance of some of his first manu- scripts. And during the period of struggle and uncertainty of action in the few years that followed, Irving was Carlyle's good angel at a financial crisis by introducing him to some young men of wealthy parentage, who engaged his services to coach them for the university. Meanwhile Carlyle was profoundly under the influence of German thought. He found leisure, in the intervals of teaching these young men, to pursue literary work, one of his first achievements being a translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister This in due course led to an acknowledgment from Goethe, and 334 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the beginning of that intercourse which was perhaps to Carlyle well-nigh life's crowning recompense. Goethe was to Carlyle the supreme ideal of the "Hero as Man of Letters;'' and their inti- macy continued till the great German's death. A word here must be said about the large-hearted generosity — almost amounting to recklessness— of Carlyle when essentials were concerned, while it has been hinted that he was disastrously neglectful sometimes over "trifles" in his personal relationships. At the time when he was earning a livelihood as private tutor, and paid moderate sums for his arduous literary labors, he defrayed the expenses of an invalid brother during a medical career, and lent to another brother a substantial sum to stock a farm, though his own future was by no means assured. But we now come to the effect of Irving's friendship in another capacity. It was at Irving's rooms that Carlyle was intro- duced to Jane Baillie Welsh, known among her circle as "the Flower of Haddington," her father being a doctor at that town. She was a delicately-nurtured only child, beautiful, as her por- traits tell; and there are proofs that while she was an essentially feminine woman, full of grace, she was mentally endowed far above the sampler-working, water-color dabbling ladies of the Britain of those days who were termed "accomplished." The relations between Miss Welsh and Irving were somewhat compli- cated. Irving had been her tutor, and she had cherished for him a girlish affection, which perhaps was a form of hero worship. He appears to have gone away and forgotten her, becoming engaged meanwhile to another lady, but returning after an interval to re- gard his old pupil in a new light. Some passage of courtship passed between them; but the "flower of Haddington" was no doubt told of "the other lady." Though Irving was perhaps the man of her heart, the conditional proposal did not culminate, and Irving fulfiled his former troth by marriage. Oblivious of this, Carlyle appeared on the scene as Miss Welsh's suitor, he himself having proposed to and been rejected by a lady who, it has been conjectured, was the original of the "Blumine" of Sartor Resartus, (Carlyle himself being the prototype of the somewhat Hamlet reminiscent Teufelsdrockh.) Miss Welsh — no doubt with experiences of more dapper and Citation: Lancaster, Florence L., "The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea. I," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 330–334. # Hope On THE CARLYLES AND THEIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA. 335 commonplace suitors — did not at first respond to the wooing of the strenuous-tongued German scholar, whose mind was now fo- menting to produce the said Teufelsdrockh. But further acquaint- ance seeming to impress her with the great intellectual qualities and the makings of the man — whom she knew to be poor — and Carlyle pressing his suit, they were ultimately married. London, England. [to be concluded.] Hope On. (Selected by Carl P. Lind.) Though black and angry clouds may rise,' To hide the blue of summer skies From strained and weary waiting eyes, The sun will shine when clouds are gone. And, when God's hand dispels the gloom, The birds will sing, the flowers will bloom, Cheer up, faint heart, "hope on.'' Though steep the way and dark the night, With ne'er a friendly ray of light, And dim and feeble be the sight, Yet happiness waits in the dawn. There, just beyond the darkness, lies That sweet, sunlighted Paradise. Be brave, poor heart, 'hope on." For every heartache, every tear, For every patient, struggling year, For every sacrifice made here, When heaven's mystic veil is drawn, A rich reward, ten thousand fold, Will come with happiness untold. "Hope on, dear heart, hope on." Citation: Lind, Carl P., "Hope On," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 335. # Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. III Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. BY THOMAS W. BROOKBANK. III. The different terminations of the Nephite proper names, excluding those applied to God, Christ and the Holy Spirit — many of which are translatable terms — number over sixty; but more than forty of them belong to names that are found in identical form in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and hence this large number is accounted for at once as certainly Jewish. Of the remainder we find all but two of them among Biblical names as follows: TERMINATION OF TERMINATION OF BIBLE NAMES BIBLE NAMI NEPHITE NAMES NEPHITE NAMES osh Rosh ib Chezib or Beth-peor ag Abishag hu Elihu ez Bozez f Rheum iz Ziz um 1 Shallum f Zif no Adino et Eliphalet oth Aloth ne Mene ath Gath la Bethhogla le Baale The termination of Nephite proper names not found in any Biblical ones that the writer has examined, are r without a preced- ing vowel, as in Coriantumr, and ts in Hermounts. More than one example of the use of names with these terminations by the sacred writers of the Bible might be supplied, but it is not considered neces- HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 337 sary as most of them would be readily recognized by students of the Jewish scriptures. Two names ending in um have been given, for, at first thought, some assume that this termination is Latin only. Most of the suffixes that the Nephites welded to the base were so common and familiarly Jewish that no special attention need be directed to more than a few of them — one of which is hah, evidently instead of ah. This form, however, is authorized by the terminal ending in Janohah, apparently from the same base as Jano-ah — both Bible names. The combination hah is found in the Nephite names Nephi-hah, Moroni-hah, Ammoni-hah, and Cameni-hah. Sometimes ah, when added to a base, was preceded by a vowel sound as Ahaz-i-ah from Ahaz. Among the Nephite names we find analogically formed those of Amalick-i-ah, Sar-i-ah and Mos-i-ah. Again, oiii was a musical termination to which the Jews seemed somewhat partial. We find it in Ben-oni, from Ben, and in Rabb-oni, from Rabh. The Nephites used this ending in Gidgidd-oni, Math-oni, and in Math-oni-hah they welded the two suffixes to the same base. It is not necessary to prolong these observations in order to call further attention to the fact that in the matter of forming new names by addition of suffixes, the Nephites were orthodox Jews. Those who wish to pursue this inquiry at greater length can readily find examples in the comparative exhibit that is given on preceding pages, or in the general list of names that is to fol- low. Coming now to an examination of the prefixes that were used by the Nephites in the formation of their proper names, we find that they are about all included in the following enumeration: Te, Pa, Z, Ze, H, See, A, Am, 0, and Ab. The first, or Te, with Omner, gives Teomner; Pa and Cumeni occur together in the name Pacumeni; Z and Enock form Zenock; Ze and Nephi welds into Zenephi; H and Elam-an makes Helaman; See and Zoram com- bines into Seezoram; A and Kish gives Akish; Am and Moron appears in Ammoron; and Gath in Ogath and kh and Lorn weids into Ablom — all of them being genuine Nephite names, as an examination of the general list will disclose. Considering the limited number of proper names in the Book of Mormon— about three hundred different ones altogether — it will be observed that 338 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the Nephites were very liberal in the use of prefixes in forming them. We have seen how these prefixes were joined with certain roots or bases in order to form new names; but a question of greater interest and importance now claims our attention as to whether these particular prefixes are sanctioned by ancient Jewish usage as disclosed from lists of Bible names. That they are strictly Hebraic and properly used is evident from the illustrations that soon follow. The first column gives the prefixes that were applied by the Nephites in compounding some of their own names. In the second column there is entered base names taken from the Bible. In the third column will be found other Bible names, and of course Jewish; but which might just as well be formed by welding the Nephite prefix to the Hebrew base of the second column. Stronger proof than this that the Jews and the Nephites were of the same race, and understood alike the principles of the same language, can scarcely be expected or needed: NEPHITE BIBLE BIBLE NAME NEPHITE BIBLE BIBLE NAME PREFIX BASE COMPOUNDED PREFIX BASE COMPOUNDED [Beth Tebeth fElah Selah* Se Koa Tekoa(h) Machi Semachi Te I or J j Mani Temani ]Ephar tSeph(a)er* See I Resh Teresh 1Eron fSera(o)n* \ Beth Obeth Gar Agar Zorah Ozorah Hiram Ahiram / Padan A Ner Aner fDan Pa j Shur Pashur I Rumah Arumah | Rosh Parosh | Asa Amasa Arah Parah * Azia Amazia(h) Am I j Bui Zebul Ittai Amittai Ze I Resh Zeresh [ Ram Amram f Enan Zenan ( Iram Abiram Ethan Zethan Iron Abiron Z j Immah Ab | j Zimmah 1 Ner Abner Uriel Zuriel I Raham Abraham In order that it may be demonstrated still further by visual evidence that the Nephite proper names are genuinely Hebraic, it will be necessary in the first place to give the names and powers * One vowel dropped, f Substitution of one vowel sound for anoth- er, not unusual in Jewish proper names. HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 339 of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and afterward a complete list of all proper names Book of Mormon that occur in the together with some untranslated terms that are also to be sub- jected to our inspection, and for convenience they shall be divided into several different groups. Taking these matters up in the order thus indicated we find that the names and powers of the Hebrew letters are: NO. NAME POWER NO. NAME POWER 1 Aleph 12 Lamedh L 2 Beth Bh, B 13 Mem M 3 Gimel Gh, G 14 Nun N 4 Daleth Dh, D 15 Samekh S 5 He H 16 Ayin 6 Vav V 17 Pe Ph, P 7 Zayin Z 18 Tsadhe Ts 8 Hheth Hh 19 Koph K 9 Teth T 20 Resh R 10 Yodh Y 21 Shin Sh, S 11 Kaph Kh, K 22 Tav Th, T No English equivalents have been written for the first or the sixteenth of these letters — the powers for all of which have been given as Greene's Hebrew Grammar illustrates them. It is diffi- cult to represent equivalents for the two just numbered without some accompanying explanation. Aleph is regarded as the weak- est of the letters and its value is likened to the English silent h in hour. The power of Ayin is uncertain; but some modern Jews give it the sound of ng, or of French gn in champagne. Though the power of Yodh is given above as English y others of equal authority with, Greene give it the sound of j or i. This letter, Yodh, is the first one name Jehovah, which is va- in the original riously pronounced as just written, or as Yehovah. Now, looking the Hebrew alphabet over very carefully, we find that it has no equivalent for the English q, x or w, and, as a consequence, any word or name that has one or more of these letters in it, is not a genuinely Jewish word or name. Even the familiar names Jew and Hebrew, as here spelled, must be excluded. They are not in the proper form for Hebraic names. Their orthography condemns them as foreign to the language of Israel. To be orthographically 340 IMPROVEMENT ERA. correct, if Jewish, they should be spelled Ju and Hebru; but more respecting them hereafter. Now, in order to ascertain whether the Book of Mormon conforms its orthography to these limitations of the Hebrew alphabet, we must not examine foreign words or names, nor any terms that are English signs for Jewish words, which were not spelled as the translation is; but we can take the proper names in that book, and which are known to be of Nephite origin, for they are not translated, but have been, as it were, transferred bodily from the Nephites down to us, and determine this question by the showing thus made. Proceeding, then, on this basis, to examine all the proper names (and untranslated terms) that occur in the Book of Mormon, there is not found a single one of them that has a q, x or w in it. That is to say, so far as the names in question can be traced to a purely Nephite origin, they do conform in their orthography to the limitations of the Hebrew alphabet, and this remarkable consistency is especially forced upon our attention by the spelling of the Nephite name "Amnihu" as here given, instead of "Amnihew" or "Amnihugh," according to some of the English methods of representing the long sound of u. GENERAL LISTS. (Class No. 1.) A aron Ammah Antiomno Comnor Abel Ammaron Antionum Corianton Abinadi Ammon Antionah Coriantor Abinadom Ammonihah Antiparah Coriantum Abish Amnigaddah Antipas Coriantumr Ablom Ammoron Antipus Corihor Abraham Amnor Antum Corom Adam Amnihu Archeantus Coram Aha Amoron Babylon Cumeni Ahah Amos Bashan Cumorah Agosh Amulek Benjamin David Akish Amulon Bethabary Eden Alma Angola Boaz Egypt_ Amaleki Ani-Anti Cain Egyptians Amalickiah Anteonum Camenihah Elijah Amaron Anteum Cezoram Emer Amgid Anti-Christ Chemish Emnon Aminadab Anti-Lehi- Christians Emron Aminadi Nephi Cohor Enos Amlici Antiomni Com Ephraim HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 341 Ezroni Jesus Mocum Satan Ethem John Moriancumer Seantum Ether Jonas Morianton Sebus Eve Joneam Moriantum Sezoram Ezias Josh Mormon Seth Gad Joshua Moron Shared Gaddiandi Jordan Moroni Shazer Gadianton Jordon Moronihah Shem Gadiomnah Joseph Moses Shemlon Gazelem Judah Mosiah Shemnon Gid Judea Mulek Sherem Giddianhi Kib Mnloki Sherrizah Giddonah Kim Nahom Sheum Gideon Kimnor Nazareth Shez Gidgiddoni Kish Nehor Shiz Gilead Kishkumen Nephi Shule Gilgal Korihor Nephihah Shur Gilgah Kumen Neum Shiblom Gimgimno Kumenonhi Nimrah Shiblon Hagoth Laban Nimrod Shilem Hearthom Lachoneus Noah Shilom Helam Laman Ogath Shim Helaman Lamanitish Omer Shimnilon Helem Lamah Omner Sidom Helorum Lamoni Omni Sidon Hem Lebanon Onhah Sinai Hermounts Lehi Onidah Siron Heshlon Lehonti Ontah Solomon Heth Lemuel Oreb Teancum Himni Levi Orihah Teomner Isaac Lib Paanchi Timothy Isabel Limhah Pachus Tubaloth Isaiah Limher Pacumeni Zarahemla Ishmael Limhi Pagag Zedekiah Israel Luram Pahoran Zeezrom Jacob Mahah Pharaoh Zemnarihah Jacobugath Malachi Philistines Zemnariah Jacom Manti Ramah Zenephi Jared Manasseh Riplah Zeniff Jarom Mathoni Riplakish Zenock Jasher Mathonihah Ripliancum Zenos Jashon Melchizedek Sabbath Zerahemnah Jehocab Melek Salem Zeram Jehovah Middoni Sam Zerin Jerusalem Midian Samuel Zion Jeremiah Minon Sariah Zoramites Jershon The next list is composed of Nephite terms that in general have not been translated: and all of them have been handed down to us without alteration phonetically: Citation: Brookbank, Thomas W., "Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. III," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 336–341. # Wishes for “Utah” 342 IMPROVEMENT ERA. (Class No. 2.) Amnor Irreantum Rabbanah Shum Antion Leah Rameumpton Shiblon Cumoms Liahona Senine Shiblum Cureloms Limnah Seum Shublon Deseret Neas Seon Ziff Ezrom Onti Sheum The names now given include all those of Nephite origin that we should expect to conform orthographically to the power of the Hebrew alphabet. (to be continued.) Flagstaff, Ariz. €EOS) Wishes for "Utah." (For the Improvement Era.) I would the Utah had been fashioned for A barge of peace and friendship, not for war! When Alice stood, the star of that grand scene, Royal and beauteous as a free born queen, To name the ship for her own native state A thing so splendid, wonderful and great — I would have had the glass she broke contain Pure, sparkling water, not the bright champagne. "Peace! Peace!" we hear the nations cry, and still There is no peace. The scriptures they fulfil. But if we still must hear of strife and war, The Utah do the work she's fashioned for; May she e'er sail courageous for the right, True honor gain, and vict'ry in each fight, Till tranquil seas she may bear swiftly o'er, Brave messengers of peace, from shore to shore. L. L. Greene Richards. Salt Lake City, Utah. Q/ Citation: Richards, L. L. Greene, "Wishes for “Utah”," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 342. # Some Men Who Have Done Things. IV.—Edwin Evans Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. IV. — Edwin Evans. HOW A FARM BOY BECAME PROFESSOR OF ART IN ONE OF THE LARGEST UNIVERSITIES OF THE WEST. One cannot know the facts in Edwin Evans's life without wondering about the value of a good many things that come into one's early life and that come there in apparently the most acci- dental manner. For here is a man who did now this and now that till he was thirty without ever having a distinct no- tion that art was to be a profession with him for the rest of his days. And yet what he did during those years, though as different as can be imagined from what one would think it ought to be, seems ex- actly the thing that was necessary to bring Young men out the man's gift. who appear slow in maturing may there- fore take hope from this fact— if they have any thing to mature. EDWIN EVANS. Edwin's early environment was far from artistic, far from encouraging a passion for art. There are lovelier spots on the earth than the ribbed country that in those days tried to lift itself up to a level with the ridge of hills to Which shows that everything the, east and the west. depends, not what you see, but on what you see with. on Besides, he worked on the farm and herded cows. And one fails 344 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to see how this contributes directly to the artistic. For four months every winter till he was fourteen he attended school. After that he learned telegraphy. The Lehi office of the old Des- eret Telegraph line was in the Evans home, and one of the older girls in the family operated the machine. So young Edwin got his knowl- edge of this business between whiles. Also he served as clerk in the co-operative store in the town. Presently, however, we find him at various telegraph offices along the line between Salt Lake and Provo. It is by reason of this service that he obtains his membership in the Old Telegrapher's Asssociation, a national organization. One time during these days there suddenly came a fresh gleam into his life. It was midnight in the old depot. The waiting room was full of passengers eager for the arrival of the delayed express. — One of these A. E. Hyde— strayed into the operator's room with a weary expression on his face. The tele- grapher was intent upon the strange task of perfecting a drawing which he had evidently been working on fcr a long time. Mr. Hyde quietly surveyed the picture over the shoulder of the silent worker, watching interestedly the deft hand of the artist as he added a final touch here and there, now and then holding it away from him to see the effect. This noiseless working and watching went on for a good while, till the observer broke in with "Young man, what are you doing in a telegraph office? You ought to be at Paris studying art!" The artist looked up and colored. I The up- need not detail the conversation that occurred. shot of was an offer on the part of Mr. Hyde to furnish the it young man the means with which to pursue his studies. Those were the days when A. E. Hyde and John Beck were associated in the mining business. Mr. Beck, when he heard of his partner's offer of assistance, generously agreed to the proposal. And so to these two men is the credit due of giving Professor Evans the opportu- nity to develop under more favorable circumstances his artistic genius. It must not be understood, however, that Edwin's love of art and skill in drawing were of spontaneous generation. On the con- trary, they were of long and gradual growth. During the years of his farm life, his schooling, and his telegraphic labors, he had SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 345 insistently used the pencil at every odd moment. The beginning is worth noting here, not only because of its connection with Evans's career, but also on account of its apparently accidental character. His mother took him, when he was six, on a visit to a friend's in Sanpete valley. Here he saw a Scandinavian boy older than himself, cutting The paper animals and coloring them. moment he returned home, Edwin fell to cutting animals as if to make up for lost time. But there were no colors to put on them! Not till three years had gone by did he get a box of colors, at Christmas. Certainly this was the greatest Christmas gift Edwin has ever received. From now on art occupied his thoughts mainly, though he did not dream of making it more than a pastime. He penciled, penned or painted everything in sight. Odd moments, as while waiting for trains at the telegraph office, found him bent over a drawing of some sort. He had no teacher but his own eye and natural taste. Yet he acquired a skill that soon won him local fame and, as we have seen, attracted the attention of strangers who saw his work. That night in the operator's office marked an epoch in his career. It put hope and purpose into his efforts to get something out of life. By this time he was a husband and a father. For a whole year afterward he put by every spare cent towards paying his way in France and taking care of his family. An arduous year that was, and a gigantic task he had set himself. Surely it speaks well for a married man of thirty and past to put forth such unusual effort in such an unusual direction! But what will high hope not accomplish, once it has set its face? His first intention seems to have been to study art for a time at the University of Utah. But this is not clear. Anyhow, one fine morning saw him, during this year, going University- wards with a portfolio of his drawings under his arm. The teacher of art there must have been favorably impressed by his work, for he told him that he would best go to Paris. And to Paris he went. It is one thing to have high hopes, plenty of energy, and mon- eyed friends, but quite another thing to be a young man without education and experience in the right things trying to enter the 346 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Julien Academy of Fine Arts in a country whose tongue you can- not understand. This, Evans found out, quite to his embarrassment. Luckily, though, the head man at the Academy was away, and Edwin was allowed to enter. With characteristic push he got himself into the "life class," because he could not endure the cast-work. The reckoning time came, however, when he exhibited his first picture to the teacher in charge. Maybe it was a good thing, after all, that the aspirant for artistic fame could not, at that IN THE STUDIO. time, understand French, in which language the worthy old pro- fessor sought to ease his feelings over the drawing. But "Ed" had studied facial expressions to enough purpose, at least, to know that the countenance he was now watching foreboded ill to him, especially as the lips uttered quick, angry exclamations. But the fact that the new-comer was permitted to continue meant some- thing favorable, which gave hope. And so Evans set to work with unconquerable will, as became SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 347 a man who had a family in Utah to support and who was in Paris on borrowed money and large expense. From early in the morn- ing till late in the afternoon he sat at his easel with dogged pa- tience, adding line after line, till his teacher cried out against it. "You'll break down! you'll break down! Take a cigar once in a while and walk up and down the studio. It'll relieve the strain!" But "Ed'' didn't smoke, and therefore he remained at his easel. Here is where that farm life at Lehi and the mountain air and the moral habits of his life told with salutary effect. The old professor would have been shocked incredibly had he known that Evans's robust constitution — for Edwin Evans is not one of your consumptive artists pining away for lack of flesh and lung- space —was enduring the additional strain of several studies pur- sued at a night school. And this amazing power for work had its effect. He made rapid headway. Two years he stayed there, and then went out into the country for three months, under another instructor. In the end he received honorable mention in drawing from the Academy — a very high honor. Beyond all doubt, the thing that kept Edwin at the art school, after the time when the professor talked so jerkily in French over his first drawing, was what artists call ensemble, which, being inter- preted, means the parts of a picture viewed as a whole, the total effect of a work of art. And here Evans has a lesson for young artists which by itself would make his life worth the telling, A few years ago, not only in the United States but in Europe as well, the method of teaching art that most prevailed was one which required the student to do the parts first and then the whole. If, for example, it were a human figure that was to be drawn, the beginner would be put into a "cast-class" where he was expected to draw the face, the head, the hand, the foot, till he could do these perfectly. Then he would be set to work on the whole figure. Now, Evans, never having had a teacher, knew nothing of .methods, before he went to Paris. And so he drew in the most natural way — outlined the whole first, and filled in the parts afterwards. This taught him proportion, which is a fundamental law of all art. As a result he found, when he got 348 IMPR VEMENT ERA somewhat along at the Academy, that whereas he did the wholes better than the separate parts, the parts in the other stu- dents' work did not pull together so well, the parts were better than the wholes. The ensemble, everyone knows, is harder to do, and is greater than particular parts. So what Edwin Evans had to spend his time upon was the comparatively easier work of perfec- tion in the parts, and this accounts to some degree, for his rapid progress while at Paris. We now know, of course, that this method which Evans had unconsciously stumbled upon in his boy- hood is not only the natural but, for that very reason, the only proper method of teaching and learning art. Returning to Utah, he did some painting in the Salt Lake Temple for three months. The next three years he spent partly in giving private lessons, but mainly in work on his landscape pictures and representation of animal life. A Utah harvest scene, which he painted shortly after his return, has won deserved recog- nition. While was on exhibition at the World's Fair in 1893, it he was offered five hundred dollars for it, which he refused, how- ever, in order to dispose of it to better advantage at home. Later, namely in 1895, it was exhibited at Iowa. "There was more said about this one," said C. E. Baldwin, the president of the Iowa Society of Fine Arts, in a letter to Mr. Evans, "than any other in the exhibit and it formed a lasting impression." Later still it was reproduced in the Midland Monthly with a brief account of the artist. For a time he taught art at the L. D. S. College, and not long afterwards accepted the professorship of art at the Uni- versity of Utah, which place he occupies at present. He was president of the Society of Utah Artists 1895 to 1907. During these years he has sketched continually, as his work in the University would permit. Not so prolific as some other Utah artists, he has nevertheless had a large output, with no difficulty in disposing of his work to advantage. Commercially Utah is not so advantageous a place for an artist as some other states, New York, for instance; and for this reason some friends expressed surprise when he came back to Utah instead of going where he could do better in his art, financially. But Edwin Evans is a Latter-day Saint; his interests are wholly with his people; and hence he remains here. SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 349 This last fact induced me oo ask him what effect the teach- ings of our religion have, and will be likely to have, on art. "Well," he replied, "it is not easy to answer that question. Some would seem to think, to jadge by their general attitude, that the influence of 'Mormonism' on all forms of art is dis- couraging, except when it is modified by contact with non- 'Mormon' ideas. For instance, I once heard a prominent woman •point to the fact that several Utah boys were students at the Julien Academy, in Paris, as an evidenc e of 'Gentile' influence on the 'Mormons.' I do not regard it so. The Saints have had a long and hard battle to wage with nature in a new country. But such encouragement as they could lend to artistic expression they have cheerfully given from the first. There is just as much encourage- ment given it by the Saints in Utah, to say the least, as there is by the people in any other state of similar age and conditions in the Union. "As for the influence of our faith on art, necessarily it would be good. For one thing, it would naturally limit the subject matter of art. Take a figure painter, for instance. Elsewhere there is no objection among artists to painting the nude. A Latter-day Saint artist would hesitate before choosing this form of expression. Other subjects with immoral snggestion he would proscribe from his artistic domain. There are negative effects acting as a sort of limitation upon the artist. "But there are positive effects also. Art expresses character, necessarily. 'Mormonism' tends to purify character. Hence, our faith would act in this way upon art and would thus show itself in the artist's work. On the whole, therefore, I should say that the in- fluence of our religion on art would be wholesome and encouraging." I asked him if he had any word for young men and women anxious to take up art. "Two things," he said. "First, they should take up the study as early as possible and develop character. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on this point. I believe that art manifests itself early in life. There are always indications in the child of the bent of mind in the man or the woman, and these should be fol- lowed. But character is necessary. A clean, wholesome life is essential as a basis. What does art amount to, anyway, without Citation: Evans, John Henry, "Some Men Who Have Done Things. IV.—Edwin Evans," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 343–349. # Hardship—Through an Optimistic Eye 350 IMPROVEMENT ERA. character — something to hold up the standard of conduct to what is of real worth in life? "Next, if they believe themselves to have an artistic temper- ament, it would be unwise for them to rush off at once to New York or Paris. Let them stay at home awhile till they have manifested their ability or lack of ability in art. In the past, young persons here and in other states have gone away to study, at vast expense, only to find that they do not possess enough of the artistic sense to rise above the merest mediocrity in the profession. Lack of talent in art can be determined at home as well as abroad, and at a good deal less expense. "And then, too, the time spent at home in ascertaining whether there is any artistic talent to cultivate, and how much, goes also towards developing character. It is incredible the amount of temptation young artists meet with, and often succumb to, abroad. I mean, of course, temptation in a moral way. Hence the absolute necessity of developing the sense of moral upright- ness and integrity and strength before subjecting oneself to the strain that will necessarily be put upon one at such a place as Paris." Salt Lake City, Utah. Hardship —Through an Optimistic Eye. (For the Improvement Era.) Hardship's a blessing sent down in disguise, A staff for the weak and a scourge for the wise, And is scattered afar with her tongue of complaints, But is mostly reserved for the faith and the Saints. I know of no mortal she deigneth to slight, But, lo, should there be, here's a path and a light, Be a Latter-day Saint and you'll get a full share, For we have quite enough to go around and to spare. Theodore E. Curtis. Salt Lake City, Utah. Citation: Curtis, Theodore E., "Hardship—Through an Optimistic Eye," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 350. # Salvation Universal. IV Salvation Universal. BY JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR,, ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN. IV. While many honorable men and women in the world are accomplishing a great work in searching out and compiling geneal- ogical data, their labors serve only as the means to the end. The greatest work, after all, devolves on the members of the Church who have the priesthood, power and privilege, to go into the tem- ples, taking the names from these compiled records and from all other authentic sources and performing the ordinances in behalf of their dead. We live in the greatest dispensation of the world's history, that of the fulness of times, when all things are to be gathered and restored to their proper order, ushering in the mil- lennial reign of the Redeemer and the righteous. Do Latter-day Saints fully realize the importance of the mighty responsibility placed upon us in relation to the salvation of the world? We are doing a great deal in the attempt to convert and save a perverse and wicked generation; we are sending hundreds of missionaries into all parts of the earth, and are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in this very necessary labor, with results that are not so very startling. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the building of meetinghouses, Church schools and other buildings, and in the education of the youth of Israel, in developing and improving our lands, building cities and increas- ing our communities, publishing periodicals and magazines, and in every way diligently striving to improve our own people, and dis- seminate knowledge that will convert the world to the gospel; but what are we doing for the salvation of our dead? Many there are, it is true, who comprehend this greater work, and are faithfullv 352 IMPROVEMENT ERA. discharging their duties in the temples of the Lord, but of others this The temple in Salt Lake City has for many cannot be said. months been so crowded with anxious, earnest workers, that it has been necessary many times to turn large numbers away because there was not sufficient room. This is a good sign, showing the willingness and activity of the Saints. But this condition does not relieve the inactive, dilatory members, who are doing nothing for their dead. These persons cannot expect to receive credit for what others may be doing, the responsibility rests with equal force on all according to' our individual ability and opportunities. It matters not what else we have been called to do, or what position we may occupy, or how faithfully in other ways we have labored in the Church, none are exempt from this great obligation. It is required of the apostle as well as the humblest elder. Place or distinction, or long service in the cause of Zion in the mission field, the stakes of Zion, or where or how else it may have been, will not entitle one to disregard the salvation of one's dead. Some may feel that if they pay their tithing, attend their regular meetings and other duties, give of their substance to the poor, perchance spend one, two or more years preaching in the world, that they are absolved from further duty. But the greatest and grandest duty of all is to labor for the dead. We may and should do all these other things, for which reward will be given, but if we neglect the weightier privilege and commandment, notwith- standing all other good works, we shall find ourselves under severe condemnation. And why such condemnation? Because ''the great- est responsibility in this world thatGod has laid upon us, is to seek after our dead."* Because we cannot be saved without them, "It is necessary that those who have gone before and those who come after us should have salvation in common with us, and thus hath God made it obligatory to man,"f says the Prophet Joseph Smith. From this, then, we see that while it is necessary to preach the gospel in the nations of the earth, and to do all other good works in the Church, yet the greatest commandment * Joseph Smith in Times and Seasons 6: 616. t Ibid. SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 353 given us, and made obligatory,, is temple work in our own behalf and in behalf of our dead. Again the Prophet says: "Baptism for the dead is the only way that men can appear as saviors upon Mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the gospel was a means of salvation to man individually, but men, by actively engaging in rites of salvation substitutional^,become instrumental in bringing multitudes of their kin into the kingdom of God. This . . . doctrine appears glorious inasmuch as it exhibits the greatness of divine compassion and benevolence in the extent of the plan of human salvation. This glorious truth is well calculated to enlarge the understanding, and to sustain the soul under troubles, difficul- ties, and distresses. . . . This doctrine presents in a clear light the wisdom and mercy of God, in preparing an ordinance for the salvation of the dead, being baptized by proxy, their names recorded in heaven, and they judged according to the deeds done in the body. This doctrine was the burden of the scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it, in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation."* The reason our own salvation stands in jeopardy is because it is necessary that the parents and children not only receive the ordinance of baptism, but they must be joined together from gen- eration to generation. It is necessary for us to go into the tem- ples, be baptized, confirmed, and receive all the ordinances for our dead, just as we receive them for ourselves. f "It is sufficient to know," we read in the revelation, "that the earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children upon some subject or other, and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union and welding together of dis- * Times and Seasons 2: 545-6. t History of the Church, May 12, 1844. 354 IMPROVEMENT ERA. pensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed, from the days of Adam even to the present time; and not only this, but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in * this dispensation of the fulness of times." Again, quoting from the prophet: "The Bible says, I wil send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the hearts of the fath- ers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. "Now, the word turn here should be translated bind or seal. But what is the object of this important mission? or how is it to be fulfiled? The keys are to be delivered, the spirit of Elijah is to come, the gospel to be established, the Saints of God to be gath- ered, Zion built up, and the Saints to come up as saviors on Mount Zion. "But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them, and herein is the chain that binds the hearts of the fathers to the children, and children to And I would to the fathers, which fulfils the mission of Elijah. God this temple was now done, that we might go into it, and go to work and improve our time, and make use of the seals while they are on earth. "The Saints have not too much time to save and redeem their dead, and gather together their living relatives, that they may be saved also, before the earth will be smitten, and the consummation decreed falls upon the world. "f These passages emphasize the importance of the work for the dead, for we cannot be saved without them, nor can they be saved *Doc. and Cov, 128: 18. t History of the Church, Jan. 20, 1844. SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 355 without us. Our salvation cannot be accomplished unless the fathers and the children are joined together, bound, sealed in per- fect family order. Husbands must be united by authority with their wives; children to their parents, until their is one grand fam- ily composed of all the faithful from the beginning to the end of time, with Adam, our progenitor standing in his calling as the father of us all. [to be concluded in next number] Salt Lake City, Utah. Passing Events. The battleship "Utah" the fifth ship of the "all-big-gun' ' type to be added to the United States Navy, since 1905, and the most power- ful warship yet built in the United States, was launched at Camden, New Jersey, on the 23rd day of December, 1909. It was christened by Miss Mary Alice Spry, daughter of Governor William Spry, who, with a large number of other Utah people, was present at the launching. The Utah is one of the world's largest battleships, is 510 feet in length, 88 feet in breadth, with a normal displacement of 21,825 tons. Her bat- tery includes ten 12-inch and sixteen 5-inch guns. She has two 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes, a displacement 2000 tons greater than the Delaware and North Dakota, and is expected to develop a speed of 20| knots per hour. The Agricultural College of Utah began several short winter courses — dairying, horticultural inspection, poultry management, house- keeping, the farmer's roundup, forestry, commerce, and mechanic arts, etc., in January. These courses are offered primarily for the benefit of the farmer, business man, and housewife, who can be absent from home only a short time. They are arranged to enable any one interested in a special subject to get in touch with the latest developments and the best and most up-to-date methods in as short a time as possible. The splendid equipment of the college is a guarantee of the best results to be obtained Those who have attended the farmer's round-ups in the past are unani- mous in their statement that they have received several times the worth of their money in the instructions received, and this phase of the college work is becoming increasingly popular. The farmer's round-ups are especially intended for young men who'can spend only a few months in school. Citation: Smith, Joseph F., Jr., "Salvation Universal. IV," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 351–355. # Out of the Abundance of the Heart \ 'Out of the Abundance of the Heart. BY NEPHI ANDERSON, AUTHOR OF THE "CASTLE BUILDER," "ADDED UPON," ETC., AND EDITOR OF "LIAHONA THE "ELDERS' JOURNAL." I. In Camp Near Black Creek, May 15, 190—. Dear Myra: —The sheep are taking their noon rest, and that gives me a little time in which to begin my long-contemplated let- ter to you. I am going to take my time about it, however, and if 1 do not complete it today, I shall take tomorrow, or as many days as are required. The sun is getting hot, and the grass is not so good as it was; so if this dry weather continues very much longer, I shall have to drive the sheep to the hills. I think that you told me you have never been out here on the desert; therefore you can hardly real- ize what a peculiar place it is. Before I went on my mission, I could see in this region nothing but a dreary waste, but now cer- tain aspects of the country appeal strongly to me. I am reminded that our ancient forefathers, when they were called Israelites, wandered about in a desert for forty years. In fact, those lands that we read about in the Bible were very much like this; and many of the prophets and warriors of olden time spent much of their time amid dry and lonely wildernesses. And then I am re- minded that many of them were shepherds that sounds better — than sheep-herders. Moses wandered with his sheep among the hills of Arabia, and there he drew near to God. David, also, was a tender of sheep. He had no such large flocks as the modern herder has to care for, because he had time, it seems, to compose songs, and then to sing them to the music of his harp. And then I recall that some thousand years after David, "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night," when there came to them that wonderful "OUT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HEART" 357 proclamation of the birth of Christ — but there, I am talking Bible, and I fear that is tiresome to you. I hope, however, that you will be patient with me this once, no matter how much I ser- monize, as this, very likely, will be the last time I shall tax your patience in this manner. Let me make a little review. I had been a sheep-herder for two years prior to my receiving my call to go on a mission. I had saved a little money, and we had planned what school I should at- tend, and then what we should do after that. When the call came, our immediate plans had to be changed; but we purposed, you remember, to carry them to a completion after I should return. Well, I went away, taking you and your love with me. And, Myra, you and that love remained with me during the twenty-six months of my mission, and proved a source of strength and comfort to me all the time.The memory of those days just previous to my leav- ing for my mission was with me always, is with me yet— I fear I can never forget them. * * * * May 16. There was some disturbance among the sheep yesterday as I was writing, so I had to stop. It was nothing serious, however. Today they are unusually quiet, so I shall write a little more. Out in the mission field we boys used to tease each other about "our girls" at home. Every now and then one of the missionaries would get a letter telling him that it was "all off" with him. His girl had become tired waiting for him, and was keeping company with somebody else. One poor fellow, I remember, received word that his young lady, whom he had trusted implicitly, was about to get married. It broke him all up for a t'me. I said to myself: how thankful I am that my girl wouldn't do that— and she didn't either —no; and have been wondering I lately whether it was not best for me that she kept me in entire ignorance of what I sus- pect was going on within her heart all the time. I had no worries on her account, so I went about my work cheerfully and finished my mission. And then when I came home! The steamer was so slow, it seemed to me, and the train dragged along, making aggravatingly long stops. When the mountains came into view, I felt that I was at last nearing home— and you. I saw the snow glistening on 358 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the highest peaks, and then I thought again of you— not because of its coldness, but because of its constancy. The evening I came home I was eager to call on you, but my mother told me not to be in such a hurry. She, dear soul, had a hint of the truth, but only a hint. You had been away from home much, and she did not know. Well, you tried your best to let me down easy. There was no need of your saying much, as I could feel the change in your spirit— I hope,Myra, you will pardon my blunt words; am going this once to be plain and open and tell I you what is in my heart. You tried at first to act as if everything wa3 all right, bit you could not deceive me— your true self shone through every de^d and word of yours, and when I saw that true self, and came to realize what it meant to me, my heart ached as I hope it will never ache again. * * * I can't write any more today. May 18. I tried to add another chapter to this epistle yesterday, but it was a failure. I tore up what I wrote. It is now ten o'clock in the evening. I have been sitting for an hour on the wagon tongue, looking at the stars and listening to the night noises. The sheep are still, and save for an occasional clang of a bell, they are very quiet. Out on the desert to the north, some coyotes are yelp- ing. Yesterday I shot one that came audaciously near. The stars are uncommonly bright tonight, and the breeze is cool and soft. I can't say that it plays with the tree tops, because there is no growth out here larger than sage-brush and grease-wood. I am writing this by the light of a lantern in my wagon. You would be interested in a sheep wagon, I know, as it contains all the comforts of home in miniature. Our friend, Jack Thompson, visited with me yesterday and remained to dinner. He praised my cooking, but I rather think that it was his "sage-brush appetite" that furnished the sauce. Well, Myra— but I don't think lean write any more this evening. I'll go out again and look at the stars. May 20. I am moving my sheep towards the mountains. We traveled nearly all day yesterday, and today we are on the foothills from which I can see the desert stretch, broad and silent, to the hori- "OUT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HEART." 359 zon. Usually, I am glad enough to leave the desert, but some- thing holds me to it this time. Is there not something sacred in the places where we lay our grievous burdens down? While I am a sheep-herder I am trying to be a good one, and care for my sheep. So far this season I have not lost many. Yes- terday, one poor, little lamb fell so far behind that it became lost in the brush. I heard it bleating, and went back for it; and as I my arms, I remembered the Savior's parable of the lifted it into one sheep that went estray. "And when he [the shepherd] hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, say- ing unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." * * * Well, some sheep are never found, much to the sorrow of the shepherd — sheep-herder. I have been home now nearly a year. It has been a year of ups and downs wiih me, and especially the latter as regards our affairs. I thought once that time would readjust us to the con- dition of heart and mind that we were in three years ago, but I have about given up hope of that now. I have struggled for a whole year to let you go, and now I find that I must give up my illusions and get them from me, and face the stern, heart-break- ing reality. I have been nearly a week in coming to this point in — my letter that which I started out to tell you— and now when I have come to it— well, I shall try to tell just what is in my heart-. You might think it strange that I should pray to God about my love affairs; but I have done so continually. The fervor of my soul has gone out to God for you; I have asked him to touch your heart and to make you love me as I love you. I have pleaded with him night and day to do this, because it has seemed to me that I could not endure life without you. Last week, as I sat watching the sheep, with my heart like lead, I had a peculiar experience: the desert and the sheep faded from my sight, and I was again in the mission field. I thought I was holding a cottage meeting, and I was speaking to the Saints on the subject of prayer, telling them, as I have often done, that Jesus should be the great ex- ample in our supplications to the Father. When he was in the sorest straights, pouring out in anguish his soul to God, pleading witn his Father to let the cup fif bitterness pass from him, he yet always added, "nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done." 360 IMPROVEMENT ERA. And so we should always do, I was saying — do the best, and leave the rest with God. Then, suddenly, the vision vanished and be- fore me were the desert and the sheep. Then I knew what it all meant. I had not practiced what I had preached. Not once had I "Thy will be done,*' when pleading for you, because I felt said, that I could not give you up. I wanted my will, and was not will- i.ig that God should decide for me. As my true condition came to me, I had the biggest struggle of my life. Night and day the fight went on. Oh, the agony and stress and awfulness of those days and nights! I wonder the sheep did not all scatter to the four winds. * * * With the Lord's help I have conquered my stub- born self so far that now I have placed myself entirely in God's hands and am willing, if it is his will, to let you go. Yes, Myra, go your way in peace, and I shall go mine. You are released from all bonds which any promise of yours might have made binding. She who becomes my wife must do so without any reservations. There must be no danger of change or regret. My wife must be as constant as the stars; yes, more, for they say that stars sometimes pass away. The sun may cease to shine someday, but not so the light of love. And the love that binds husband and wife together must be of the kind that reaches to the uttermost of time and space, beyond the sun or stars or worlds yet uncreated. The husbands and wives who are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise will come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, and begin again the journey where they left it off. Hand in hand, they will travel on from truth to truth, from light to light, from power to power, increasing in the knowledge of the Lord, and clothed with a glory which shall be their passport into the limit- less realms of celestial worlds. To live with you forever! How I had planned, how I had lived in the spirit: with you, Myra, I have trod the sweet paths of Paradise, and eaten of its fruits; with you I have gone on to con- quer all heights, and to share with our Eternal Father '"all things." Nothing was withheld from us, Myra, whether "things present or things to come*' — all were ours. Oh, how I have lived and loved in the spirit! * * * But, Father, "not as I will, but as thou wilt." May 22. The stage which carries the mail will shortly go past my camp. ''OUT OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HEART." 361 I shall, therefore, close this long letter, and send it off. God bless you. * * * The sky is full of gathering clouds. There is a storm coming, and I must be out looking after my sheep. Goodby. Sincerely yours, Winslow James. II. June 1, 190—. — Dear Winslow: I am sending you by this mail a package of papers and a box of candy. The candy is home-made one of my — "girl friends" helped mc make it. She brought her skill from the domestic science department of the college. I hope you will like the candy. * * * And now that I have told you the "gossipy" news, I am strongly impressed to write you something about Myra. I am not doing this on the impulse of the moment, nor because I like to tell unpleasant tales, but because I think you ought to know. You have not told me much of what has taken place between you and Myra, but I have seen enough to know that your feelings for each other are not the same as they were before you went on your mis- sion. And Myra is not the same girl— but I shall not pre-judge her. The other evening I had an errand over to Myra's house. As usual, I went into the kitchen to see her mother, but I did not find her there. The house was open, but there was no one at home. I sat by the kitchen window to wait a few minutes, when, pres- ently, I heard voices, and Myra and Tom Cuttman came into the parlor by the front door. They were talking and laughing so loudly that I couldn't help hearing what they said. Perhaps I should not have heard, but the fact is that I was so rooted to the spot by their very first words that I could not get away. Myra read to Tom from a letter which she said she had received from you, and as they read, they laughed uproariously over its contents. I listened attentively after that, because I wanted to be sure I was not deceived. It was true enough, Winslow, though I could hardly believe my senses. They made fun of something you had written about praying to God about your love affairs. "Quite a preacher, yet, isn't he?" I heard her say; and he replied, "Yes, and he a sheep- herder — he ought to be in the pulpit,'" then they laughed again. I slipped out unseen, unheard, and sped homeward without completing my errand. 362 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Now I have told you. You may think it a small thing, but it did not impress me as being unimportant. If what is said, and especially the spirit which is used in the saying, is any indication of the heart's condition, then Myra is not the girl for you. But I do not wish to be the judge, and so I shall say no more about it. May the Lord bless you and give you wisdom to know and strength to bear all that the Lord has for you. Your loving Mother. III. Near Pine Ridge, June 5, 190 — My Dear Mother: — I received your letter, papers, and candy today. Thank you for them all. The candy was delicious— I should have said is because I have not eaten it all; I shall nibble at it each day for a week. * * * * As for Myra, dear mother, I am not so surprised as you might think. No; don't you worry about her and me. I wrote that letter, all right, that you heard ridiculed, aud there is nothing in it that I am ashamed of, even if it were to be read from the house- tops. am glad you told me what you did, for, though it made I my heart ache, it cleared my head, and drove from me the last, lingering hope which persisted in clinging to me. Myra is not for me— that is now settled for good, and there is some comfort even in that definiteness. I am drilling myself to get used to the thought, and for practice in this disciplinary process I sing to the desert and the sheep, "All is well, all is well." After all, the Lord has been good to me; for how splendid it is to be able to ac- knowledge his hand even in pain and suffering. This mcrning we had a glorious rain. While the clouds were clearing away, a mist lay spread over the plain, and as I looked down on it from the hill-side, it appeared as a sea of shining water, stretching away to the horizon. The great valley was covered — the valley of doubt and despair out of which I had just come; and the peace of God lay as a coverlet over it, and I above it all, still looking upward and able to return the smiling greeting of the sun. Your loving son, WlNSLOW. Citation: Anderson, Nephi, "Out of the Abundance of the Heart," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 356–362. # Singing as a Means of Preaching the Gospel Singing as a Means of Preaching the Gospel. BY ANDREW JENSON, PRESIDENT OF THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION. Good singing has always been an essential feature of the Latter-day Saints' worship. Next to the preaching of the gospel by the elders of the Church, impressive singing, especially by organized choirs, has everywhere been the chief factor in soften- ing the hearts of mankind towards the truths of heaven and pre- paring men to receive the plan of salvation. Singing has often impressed people, when preaching has entirely failed. It has been proved repeatedly that the elder who can sing has a decided advantage over him who cannot. This- rule holds good among all classes of people, and in all countries and climes, and might serve as an admonition to all young men to cultivate early in life their talents for singing. In the Scandinavian mission the majority of our elders are able name of the Lord in song, which goes far to praise the toward making them efficient and successful missionaries. In our larger branches, where we have well-trained choirs, the whole- some effects of good singing is especially noticed. The saying has become general that the " 'Mormons' have most excellent sing- ing in their meetings," and it is not unusual to hear one compan- ion say to another, "Come, let us go and hear the 'Mormons' sing." Under this impression, they come to our meetings the first time, and then often hear more than they expected. For besides the inspired strains of music, they listen to the preaching, which often proves a great surprise to them, since, instead of hearing ridiculous dogmas and false doctrines, as perhaps they had been 36 4 IMPRO VEMENT ERA led to expect, they listen, it may be for the first time in their lives, to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The next time they conclude to visit, they come to hear the preaching as well as the singing. In such manner hundreds of people in these countries have been converted to "Mormonism." The largest and best trained choir in the Scandinavian Mission is perhaps the Christiania choir, in Norway. We think it second to none in the Church, outside of the stakes of Zion. It has about seventy voices now, led by Elder George W. Christophersen, of Salt Lake City. Our excellent choir in Copenhagen consists of nearly fifty voices, under the tutorship of Elder Lauritz M. Soren- sen, of Big Horn Basin, Wyoming. The choir of tue Aarhus branch, 1 under the leadership of Elder Christian H Johnson of Bear River City, and that of the Aalborg branch, led by Elder Charles H. Soren- sen, of Salt Lake City, are also rendering efficient service. In the cities mentioned, the Church owns large and commodious meeting halls and mission houses, which fact gives us every opportunity for preaching the gospel. In a few other cities of Denmark and Norway, where halls are rented, we also have good, well-trained choirs. Thus a choir of forty voices, with Elder Wilford H. Wilde, of Brigham City, as chorister, enlivens the well attended meetings in the quaint and historic city of Bergen, on the Western coast of Norway. In Trondhjem, the old Cathedral city of Norway, we have a flourish- ing branch of the Church, with Elder Alvin E. Olsen, of Salt Lake City, leading a choir of twenty voices. In Drammen (Norway) and Randers, (Denmark) and in a few other places, we have small choirs led by elders from Zion. The leaders often teach the members of their respective choirs to sing the songs of Zion in the language of the great Anglo Saxon world, as well as in the native tongue; and I have often been a most interested and enraptured listener to the sweet songs of Zion sung in English, in the spirit of Zion, by the sons and daughters of Denmark and Norway. The brogue, un avoidably associated with their attempt to pronounce the foreign words, only adds to the beauty of the text. The "Song of the Redeemed' and other kindred masterpieces thus sung thrills the souls of the elders, calling forth memories of home and dear ones, or a suppressed tear, and fills the heart with increased love for the SINGING AS A MEANS OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL. 365 great cause that has taken them so far from home. I may add that our best poetical English Church literature has been trans- lated into the Danish-Norwegian language. AALBORG BRANCH CHOIR, DENMARK. The accompanying photograph of the choir in Aalborg was taken at our semi-annual conference, October last. The young chorister is easily recognized by the baton in his hand. On his right sit the presidents of the mission and of the Aalborg confer- ence, respectively, who, by special request, were photographed with the choir as honorary members. The others are local Saints. Copenhagen, Denmark. . ' A- postal deficit of nearly $17,500,000 is reported by the postmaster general. The chief sources of the loss are in the rural free delivery, and in second-class mail matter. The postmaster general rec- ommends an increase in the rate of second-class mail, fast regular mail service to South America and Australia, and the establishment of postal savings banks. Citation: Jenson, Andrew, "Singing as a Means of Preaching the Gospel," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 363–365. # Editor’s Table: The Spiritists’ Heaven Editor's Table. The Spiritists' Heaven. Seeking the occult is unprofitable. Spiritual light comes b means of the Spirit of God, through messengers of the Lord, and through the Holy Ghost who measure upon is conferred in full those who obey the commandments The truth is not of God. whispered through veils of necromancy, nor has any message of light ever yet been revealed through so-called spiritualistic mediums. When spirits of just men made perfect are sent with a message from on high, they come in glory, for that is the only way they can appear; and it is contrary to the order of heaven for them to deceive. They deliver their message in light, and that message tends to the practical uplifting, progress and advancement of men. It is not given to satisfy the cravings of morbid curiosity. On this subject the following editorial re- cently appeared in the Portland Oregonian: It is wrong to discourage the pursuit of truth, even when there is no prospect of its attaining anything else, and small prospect of attaining even truth. Upon the whole, no species of intellectual athletics is so profitable all around as the investigation of the unknown. It is so immeasurably beneficial, both to him who investigates and to those who merely stand and look on, that few feel much like blaming an eager speaker when he diverges from the realm of the unknown to the unknow- able. Still it is sad to see an earnest prospector squander his time, strength and grub following up leads which are sure to end in nothing. We do not, of course, mean to assert positively that the leads which our va- rious psychical researchers have been following for the last fifty years have been absolutely barren, but, aside from some facts of mere terres- trial psychology, what have they yielded? To say nothing of material EDITOR'S TABLE. 367 advantages, leaving increased health, happiness and longevity out of the question entirely, what is the harvest of pure truth that the spiritists have reaped? It is doubtful if fifty years of effort, as sincere and zeal- ous, in any other field of research have ever proved so nearly fruitless. In deriding psychial research, therefore, one would not necessarily be discouraging the pursuit of truth, since it is highly questionable whether that radiant angel lies concealed anywhere in the country the lovers of the occult have invaded. But we do not wish to deride it. Our sole purpose is to point out how little it has accomplished, and this is done not by any means with unholy hilarity, but rather with melancholy reverence. Although thousands of people, including such men as W. T. Stead, Professor William James, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Sir Oliver Lodge, have held more or less constant converse with spirits for many years, it is safe to say that they have not elicited from their celestial visitants a any particular importance concerning either single fact of this world or the other. As the Independent observes, in commenting upon this subject, "We would have learned more by the discovery of a new tribe of South Sea Islanders than we have by getting into communi- tion with the spirits of the mighty dead." From all this fuss and parade neither literature, science, philosophy nor religion has profited one atom. The so-called poetry which the spirits sometimes vouchsafe to trans, mit through the mediums is always the most depressing gibberish. Not a single line of it has ever been worth remembering. Although spirits are supposed to live a larger and freer life than we, and are said to know all the facts of nature by intuition, nevertheless they have not told us one truth about electricity, aviation, or any other significant subject of human interest. Philosophy stands exactly where it would if the spirits had never been heard of, while religion they have seriously injured. They have harmed it by making the future life repulsive, and to many people ridiculous. Granting the untenable proposition that spirit com- munications prove there is a future life, who would want to live it if we must become the half-witted creatures the returning ghosts invariably seem to be? If we are doomed to lose our intelligence when we become discarnate souls, would not annihilation be preferable? Who wants to spend eternity as a chattering idiot? The Christian belief is that all our faculties will be brightened when we get to heaven. The spirits who deliver themselves through Eusapia,Paladino,and the other mediums, are said to come from heaven for that purpose. They must represent the average intelligence of that blest abode. Have their faculties been brightened much? Shakespeare Citation: Smith, Joseph F., "Editor’s Table: The Spiritists’ Heaven," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 366–367. # The Genealogical Society of Utah 368 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . appears among these visitants once in a while, but who would ever know him as the author of ''Hamlet?" He does not exhibit decent common sense, to say nothing of genius. Bacon , Gladstone and everybody else suffers the same fearful eclipse. There must be something in the atmos- phere of the evergreen shore fatal to intelligence. George Washington and Little Bright Eyes both gibber nonsense. If anything Bright Eyes has the best of it. By making heaven out to be a sort of vast asylum for the simple-minded spiritism has injured religion incalculably. At best, celestial joys are none too alluring. Few people whom we have ever seen really prefer them to terrestrial satisfaction. But when to perpetual harp-playing and dancing the decay of the intelligence is added, the place becomes positively repulsive. The Genealogical Society of Utah. The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, No 1, Volume 1, made its appearance on January 1, 1910, with an inter- esting table of contents. This is a quarterly of 48 pages, pub- lished by the Genealogical Society of Utah, and exclusively devoted, as its name implies, to genealogical and historical matter. The society was first decided upon November 13, 1894, and on November 21 incorporated, Franklin Dewey Richards, president. Since that time, and mostly in the past two years, the society has grown to 257 life and 410 annual memberships, with a library of 1,600 volumes. Officers for 1910 are: Anthon H. Lund, presi- dent; Charles W. Penrose, vice-president; Joseph F. Smith, Jr., secretary-treasurerand librarian; Joseph Christenson, Anthony W. Ivins, Duncan M. McAllister, and Heber J. Grant, directors. The new magazine is the organ of this society and fills a place hitherto vacant, in the western part of the United States. Its work will not only cover Utah, but the whole intermountain coun- try, "and more if necessary." President Anthon H. Lund is the editor, and Joseph F. Smith, Jr., associate editor. In the salu- tatory editorial President Lund says of the mission of the magazine: We are not publishing the magazine with the idea of furnishing the Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "The Genealogical Society of Utah," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 368. # Men and Missions EDITOR'S TABLE. 369 general public with something to while away a few idle hours, a means of amusement, something to be read and soon forgotten: but with the idea of giving them a periodical of permanent usefulness: that will not only entertain, but also instruct and aid in the gathering of the records of their dead, so that they can prepare themselves in the ' 'most glo- rious of all subjects," the work for the dead. Family records and genealogies, historical information, biog- raphies, manuscripts, old documents and publication, are solicited, and will appear in the magazine, or be filed with the society. This is a splendid aim, and the Era welcomes the new publication, with a recommendation to all who are interested in this laudable work to support it with their subscriptions, as well as with valu- able information. Price $1.50 per annum. JosephF. Smith, Jr., manager, Salt Lake City, Utah. "Men and Missions." This is a book of 215 pages published by the Sunday School Times Company, 1831 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa., and written by Mr. William T. Ellis, a secular journalist, who has looked into the entire missionary enterprise, both as a principle and in practical operation. His investigations led him entirely around the world, and over the main mission fields. He critically examined every aspect of the work, and in his book has sought to give an unbiased and fair judgment upon the missionary and his labors, telling the truth as he discovered it. He gives, besides, a vivid interpretation of present world-currents, and especially the marvelous awaking of the sleeping Oriental nations from the torpor of ages, to the morning sunlight of the gospel. From the sleep of millenniums, new Korea, new Japan, new China, new India, new Turkey, new Persia, with their uncounted millions, are reaching out groping hands for some new sovereign specific that will bring peace to the hearts of their aspiring, dissatisfied people. Every fibre of their being, he points out, is a-tingle with new life: All these varied signs of the whole world's awaking which chord so signally with the enlarging vision of the men of the Christian Church, betoken a timeliness which argues a sovereign design. Reasoning from Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Men and Missions," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 369. # Messages from the Missions 370 IMPROVEMENT ERA. history alone, it is patent that there is such a thing as 'the fulness of time.' The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and he has his own purposes, which when his clock strikes, come to fulfilment. * * * No man with eyes to see can look upon this marvelously awakened world today especially if he look closely and deeply — without perceiving that all the clamorous voices of the nations may be interpreted as a call for the truth which sets men free. The world's wants are many; its need is one. In all careful thoughtfulness, it must be declared that the under- lying, abiding, all-embracing need of the world is for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone imparts new life, new liberty and new brotherliness. In the appendix are presented actual working missionary methods. On the whole the viewpoint of the book is strikingly sensible and independent, soundly constructive, free from the namby-pamby so usual in many ministerial works on the subject. Messages from the Missions. Elder Alma 0. Taylor, president of the Japan mission, in writing to his father, December 20, 1909, after stating that he had forwarded to each of the high officials of Japan a neatly bound volume of the Book of Mormon, says further: "The mission has certainly grown; we are becom- ing better known; our name is being spoken more and more each day. The plodding work is leaving a trail behind, and the unresponsive soil is little by little changing from barrenness to fertility, and the flower that grows here and there is an inspiration to the tiller's heart to work on un- til the plains and hills teem with the fruits of faithful husbandry. " He tells of the receipt of a letter from the First Presidency, dated November 23, 1909, which contained his release, also that of Elder Fred Caine, his able assistant in the work of translating the Book of Mormon. On Christmas day they held a very successful Christmas gathering. Brother Caine assumed the role of Santa Claus, he presumed, for the last time in that land. The naming of a president pro tern from among the mission- aries now laboring there being left for President Taylor, he named Elder Elbert D. Thomas on December 25 for this position. He had sent a let- ter to each one of the missionaries — it not being practicable to convene them at any given point, in consequence of the great distances in some instances, coupled with considerable expense — asking them for their ac- ceptance or otherwise. Answers to these agreeing, unanimously to the appointment, came in time to enable him and Elder Caine to leave Japan January 10, 1910, on which date they proposed to start for Korea, S'O cd a ~^*^ >3 S H sr-«i ^ r- OS H O " l-H . son. aine, Harr -«r*?i o W . . So' , *2 lliot i-3 ^ront Joh O go 3 • e-< ^2 p ^ ffi !> .•in • *Tj > ^2 %< "* • *-" • £° o 2 • CO Sa| ^flf i^ >-J v. £«2 en- -<5 o - O 3 Oo§ pi 3 en- O cT3. h " JZ! K" CD t=< 372 IMPROVEMENT ERA. thence to China; this journey being taken according to further instruc- tions from the First Presidency, to investigate conditions in these nations and ascertain if they are at all favorable to the introduction of the gos- pel among these peoples. Also upon their return homeward to disembark and visit the Sandwich Islands for a sh^rt time among the Saints there, and also to perform a short missionary labor with the Japanese whom President S. E. Woolley reports are there in considerable numbers. The time of the arrival of Elders Taylor and Caine in Zion is best ex- pressed in Elder Taylor's closing words in his letter: "Do not appropri- ate all your beds at conference time, in April next, as we anticipate through the blessing of the Lord to be home for conference." Elder Taylor left for Japan July 24, 1901, eight and a half years ago; Elder Caine started one year later. Elder James G. Wood, lately returned from a mission to Virginia, • writes to President Joseph H. Grant, Woods Cross, concerning the labors of Elder Jedediah M. Grant in that country many years ago. In sending th^e letter to the Era, President Heber J. Grant says: "It is remarkable, after father has been dead 53 years, on the first of December, 1909, that the fruits of his work as a missionary should so recently have been gathered." Eider Wood says: "Inasmuch as I have just returned from the land where your dear father labored as a missionary in the cause of truth so many years ago, and still not forgotten by them, I feel confi- dent that a few lines would be of interest to you. In my last letter to you, while at Grundy, Virginia, I mentioned about a man 92 years old who died last May, who bore his testimony to his children, that Elder Jedediah M. Grant preached the true gospel of Christ, and he wished them to obey it. He told them that he was at the meeting at Jefferson- at the courthouse, when they chose Elder Grant a ville, Tazewell county, blank text to speak from, and how humiliated the minister was when he was asked to pass the hat, and how cheerfully the people put in their change. After writing you, and at our last meeting, held in Virginia by the sanction of President Callis, I baptized this man's son, 62 years old, and his two grandsons and their wives, and another gentleman 70 years old. them are among the leading citizens of the place. All of The - leading men of Buchanan county are still our best friends, the county clerk is among them. In \isiting him at the county courthouse (which, by "the way, cost $52,000) he and others stated that it was open for us to hold services in. I made them a present of a picture of my mountain home, in its true colors, also a large apple from Utah, for which they ~ kirrdiythanked me.'' " " EDITOR'S TABLE. 373 Under date of January 3, 1910, President German E. Ellsworth, of the Northern States Mission, writes to President Joseph F. Smith: "Dear Brother: We rejoice in the blessings of the Lord we have received dur- ing the past year, and in the goodly condition we find the elders and Saints of this mission in at the close of the year 1909. It has also been a genuine satisfaction to feel the strong support given the work by our students and the Western Saints living in the mission field. The hearts of the people are more softened than at the beginning of the year. The officials of both state and city grant more liberty, and in many places extend us hearty welcomes. Comparing conditions with those of five or six years ago there is a very marked change in favor of the doctrine and people of the Latter-day Saints. In this connection, we listened only yesterday to a very strong sermon from Dr. Russell of the People's Pulpit of the Brooklyn Tabernacle; his subjects being "The Rich Man in Hell," "Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom," and "The Thief in Paradise.'' The big Auditorium was filled to the last seat, and they listened with marked at- tention for two hours. It bore strong marks of the influence of our teachings and the audience said "Amen," We all wished, however, one of our brethren could have had one hour before the same audience on kindred subjects— the truth would have been less clouded had such been the case. While our yearly reports will follow in a week or so, we say in advance that we are pleased with our tract and book distribution, with the number of meetings held, with our baptisms and with our tithing record. In the matter of tithing we are pleased to report that notwith- standing we have had a goodly number of tithepayers move to the stakes of Zion, our tithing will be better than last year. Our baptisms will be materially increased, but our Book of Mormon distribution by the elders will not be as large, on account of revisiting those places that have already purchased Books of Mormon. The distribution of Books of Mormon through book stores, however, is better than last year. From our mission resources we have been able to take care of the running expenses of the mission as well as keep a stock of books and tracts on hand for our own use, and from which several of the less fortunate missions have drawn on account. We are pleased with the prospect of getting a new book for mission work. The Great Apostasy, which we are privileged to > publish, will fill a long felt want. We have read the proof and the plates are being made. The first twenty thousand will cost us one thousand dollars, subsequent editions will come same as Voice of Warning. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Messages from the Missions," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 370–373. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. The Course of Study. — All the outlines for the course of study for 1910 were ready for delivery, January 18; orders sent in now will be promptly filled as long as the editions last. The price for each of the outlines this year is 15 cents. The five books are of uniform size and each contains about 100 pages. Orders should be sent to Improvement Em, 20-22 Bishop's Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. Respect for the Holy Priesthood. — Who can estimate the value of the Holy priesthood, who can comprehend its meaning; who can ap- preciate its power and magnitude? Who would sell his priesthood for worldly wealth or fame, or for any earthly titles or kingdoms? Who would sell his birthright for a mess of pottage? Do we properly re- vere this divine pewer of God bestowed upon man, or do we lightly value it and trample it under our feet? Can the princes of the earth drive out the destroyer? Are the great men of the earth secure from destruc- tion? Can the kings of the earth bring salvation and exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God? Can worldly accumulations bring peace and happiness, or can money purchase the gifts of the gospel? The holy priesthood is the authority of God to act in his name. Can a man have power with God and at the same time blaspheme his holy name? Or can men speak evil of his servants and retain the Holy Spirit? "Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson — that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be con- trolled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness." Thus we see what great benefit and blessing can be obtained through the wise and legitimate use of that power. It is said in the Book of Mormon that the priesthood became so united that the very trees obeyed them. I once heard a man who had been called to present a copy of the Book of Mor- mon to one of earth's dignitaries. Now this man held the priesthood, PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 375 yet I heard him say that he feared and trembled in his majesty's pres- ence. We read that Jacob blessed the ancient King Pharaoh by that power, and he became abundantly prospered. Oh, that every deacon, teacher, priest, elder, seventy and high priest could realize the great gift bestowed upon him, and seek to honor his holy calling, and to magnify it before the Lord by seeking to fulfil all the requirements in that priest- hood, by keeping the commandments of God, and by seeking to uphold and sustain the brethren in their different positions and callings in the Church, thus becoming united in defending the cause of Christ. Our Church has been fittingly compared, in the completeness of its organiza- tion, to the German army, having all grades of officers from captain down to private soldiers. Now, if every command of Christ, our Cap- tain, were to be as strictly obeyed, and as harmoniously carried out; if each one could pay as much attention on first signal, if each man would show as much respect to his superior officers, if each were as loyal to the cause and as determined for its successful outcome, as are the sol- diers of the German army, what a splendid and triumphant victory would be ours!— A. G. L. The Elders and Their Study.— A brother, an active elder, com- plains that much is found in the Era on the special work of the seventies, but nothing bearing directly on the work of the elders. The same writer says: "We feel very much in need of a work devoted to the duties of elders." The elders are perhaps the largest body of priesthood in the Church, and the Committee will be glad to say or do any good thing to promote their welfare. They are especially under the direction of the Stake - Presidencies, and this department is open for instruction and explana tions, from them or any of the elders, tending to the enlightenment and advantage of the elders. To begin with, dear brother, read carefully these words, from the introduction to the 1910 elders' course of study which, it may be said in passing, treats of just what our correspondent is anxious to have them learn — the duties of elders. We believe it meets many of the wants of the brethren, in this respect, and will besides sug- gest a vast field yet to be found in the Doctrine and Covenants, the best work in the world from which the elder may learn his duties: The Elders' Course for 1910 does not purport to be a study of the Doctrine and Covenants as a book, nor even to name, not to say explain, all the principles revealed in that work. The course is just what the title implies, viz., "Duties and Principles from the Doctrine and Cove- nants and Modern Revelation." The first two lessons are devoted to inspiration and revelation as 376 IMPROVEMENT ERA. fundamental principles of Christianity; in fact as principles at the very- heart of the Christian religion. Notice especially the thought empha- sized in lesson two, that "Harmony is a necessary condition to inspira- tion." In lesson three, note that the Prophet Joseph Smith conformed to the conditions of harmony. It is not unreasonable, then, to accept what follows as truths revealed to the boy prophet through the gift of inspiration. Hundreds of thousands have testified that they know that the revelations are from God. Every elder should be convinced of the same truth. With this end in view, take up this short course of study, apply the principles taught therein, live a prayerful, virtuous life, per- forming faithfully your duties, and you shall have a testimony of the divinity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, brethren, to know this, you must study; you must serve. Part One comprises twelve lessons on duties pertaining to the indi- vidual life and acts of the elder. Part Two comprises twelve lessons pertaining to duties and princi- ples that may be applied not only as individuals, but as quorums as well. Part Three comprises eleven lessons, on general principles of the gos- pel. The last lesson is one on the Prophet Joseph Smith, and should be a kind of comprehensive summary of his life and work. Only a few references to the Doctrine and Covenants are printed in the outline; so each member should provide himself with a copy of this book, and also with the first two volumes of Church History. Now, fellow workers, the success of this year depends upon our- selves; each one must do something. Remember We must study; we must serve. Important Instructions on Filling up Quorums of Seventy. — There are at present one hundred and fifty-six quorums of seventy in the Church. If all these quorums were complete, with seventy men in each quorum, there would be a company of ten thousand nine hundred and twenty men. The statistics of the Church indicate that the quorums of seventy are not complete. At the close of the year 1908 the records in the office of the Presiding Bishopric gave the total number of seventies as eight thousand eight hundred and fifty-five; thus showing that many of the quorums do not have the seventy men necessary to a complete quorum. The First Council of Seventy are anxious to make all the quorums conform to the word of the Lord regarding the number required to make a full quorum. Wherever suitable men can be found, proper steps should be taken to fill up all vacancies existing in the quorums of the seventy. The welfare of other quorums from which men are drawn to fill up the ranks of the seventies must be considered, and such requisitions be made as the quorums can meet, without doing them serious injury. It has been repeatedly impressed upon the presiding seventies, that many of the brethren who are sent out as missionaries, are the very class PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS TABLE. 377 of men to satisfactorily fill the vacancies existing in the various quorums of seventy. The propriety of filling up these quorums is set forth in the following forceful manner by President Joseph F. Smith: "I feel like blessing the quorums of the priesthood, every one of them, from the high priests to the deacons. I pray God, my heavenly Father, to remember them in their organizations, to help them, that they may magnify the priesthood they hold, and do the will of the Father; that the seventies may be minute men, instant in season and out of sea- son, ready and willing to respond to the calls that are made upon them to go and preach the gospel to the world. Gather in from the elders' quorums those who have proven themselves worthy, and who have gained experience, and make seventies of them, so that the quorums of the seventies may be replenished; and the aged ones, whose physical condition will not permit them any longer to do missionary duty in the world, let them be ordained high priests and patriarchs, to bless the people and to minister at home. Gather in the strong, the vigorous, the young, the able-bodied, who have the spirit of the gospel in their hearts, to fill up the ranks of the seventies, that we may have ministers to preach the gospel to the world. They are needed. We cannot now meet the de- mand.''* The instructions given above were imparted under a most remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God, those who heard President Smith were impressed with the feeling that the word of God had been spoken. The presidents of the various quorums are instructed to increase the member- ship of the quorums by making requisitions, as heretofore, and also in the following manner:Whenever selections of young men for missionary work are made by the bishoprics in a quorum district, presidents should consult together over their qualifications and their worthiness for ad- vancement. Whenever their character, and ability, are such as is set forth in the quotation from the remarks made by President Smith, let the necessary steps be taken to have them come to Salt Lake recommended for ordination to the office of seventy. This can be accomplished by respectfully calling the attention of bishops to the natural qualifications of those who fill the requirements. Then ask that they be recommended to stake presidents, in time to have their names come before the High Council, and stake priesthood meeting, for endorsement, before they leave home enroute to the mission field. All elders who have been thus approved according to the rules obtaining in the Church, and who bring a written recommend certifying to the fact that they have been properly endorsed, can be ordained under the hands of members of the First Coun- cil when they arrive in Salt Lake City. The presidents of seventy throughout the Church will give careful * Conference Report October, 1905, page 95. 378 IMPROVEMENT ERA. attention to the instructions herein outlined, co-operating in the spirit of the gospel, with bishops and other local authorities, in selecting from proposed missionaries, such as give evidence of being worthy of advance- ment to the quorums of seventy, a constant stream of men can be brought into our ranks, eminently qualified for the special work of the seventy, without injury being done to any other priesthood organization. Presidents of quorums should not only be anxious to fill up the quo- rums, but they should also teach the member to understand the character of the responsibility that rests upon them, and the necessity of cultivat- ing a spirit of willingness to respond to the calls that may be made upon them for the carrying of the go3pel abroad among the nations. President Joseph F. Smith in speaking of the calling of the seventy, at a general conference of the Church, said: "They are minute men. It is expected that they will be ready, whenever they are called, to go out in the world, or to go out to the various organizations of the Church to fulfil missions and to perform such duties as shall be required of them, in order that the word of the Lord and the work of the ministry may be upheld and sustained and carried on in the Church and throughout the world. * * * * They are called to an apostolic calling. They are required to be especial witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is expected of this body of men that they will have burning in their souls the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy; that they will be full of light and of the knowledge of the truth; that they will be enthusiastic in their calling, and in the cause of Zion, and that they will be ready at any moment, when required, to go out into the world, or anywhere throughout the Church and bear testimony of the truth, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and set ex- amples before the world of purity, love, honesty, uprightness and integri- ty to the truth."* Once again presidents are earnestly instructed to be watchful and prayerful, in seeking to fill up the quorums, that men may be secured who will respond to the calls made upon them with the promptness and faith outlined in the above quotation. There are numbers of young men in every stake of the caliber named, seek them out, and bring them into the quorums that "the gifts and call- ings of God unto them" indicate as their proper place. * General Conference Report, October, 6, 1904, page 3. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 374–378. # Mutual Work: Deseret Gymnasium—Questions Mutual Work. The Deseret Gymnasium. This is one of the most notable buildings now nearing completion. The actual work of construction was commenced very late in the fall of 1908, and the prospects are that it will be fin- ished early this year. The building covers a ground area of approximately 90x150 feet, and is in height pretty near the equal of a five-story building, with a base- ment below. Beginning at the bottom, the gymnasium contains as follows: Basementfloor: — Bowling alleys, large locker room with two- team room suites, one on either side, each containing team room, rubbing room and shower and toilet rooms, also steam room, drying room, room for the machinery and filters, and a room which may later be used as a barber shop. Main floor:— Main entrance hallway with an ample stairway in either side leading both up and down; main locker room with ceiling 18 feet high, centrally located and well lighted, and with space isolated there- from, on the one side for private dressing rooms, and on the other side for twelve shower and two tub baths, one large toilet room, an instruc- tion room, and a ladies' hair drying room; two large exercise rooms or hand ball courts with hallway between leading to south entrance; a large swimming pool room at the north end; on the north side of the main entrance hallway, a ladies' locker room with a similar room below; on the south side of the same hallway the reception room and the office of the Physical Director. The Mezzanine floor contains on the south of the entrance hallway a fairly large athletic association room, and on the north a rowing room; also a gallery running entirely around the swimming pool; and a room over the hallway leading to the south entrance to be used for the appa- ratus required for ventilating the building. The main gymnasium floor contains the main gymnasium room, with two smaller rooms on either side of the hallway. 38 ) IMPRO VEMENT ERA. Are there any conditions in your ward that make the work in any of the departments of the M.I. A. more difficult than it should be? Of the main floor the swimming pool is perhaps the most attractive, indeed, it is a question if it will not be the best room in the building. The pool itself is 30 by 60 feet, with a five-foot tiled promenade running all around, the depth of water varies from four and a half feet at the east end, to seven feet at the other; but it is so arranged that a less depth of water can be maintained. The pool will be equipped with slate steps and brass ladders leading down into it, and a springboard at the deep end. The walls of the room containing the pool, as also those of the pool itself, will be glazed with white enameled brick, together with the numer- ous windows, which should make this room a beautiful and most attractive one. In order to increase as much as possible its attractiveness, all the water in the pool is first to be filtered, so that it, too, should be crystal clear. Entrance to the pool room is obtained only through the shower room; all who use the pool must first take a shower bath. By an arrangement of plan which can only be alluded to here, it is possible to shut and lock two doors and thereby isolate the pool and the two ladies-locker rooms from the balance of the building. This will per- mit the ladies to have reserved to them the swimming pool at certain intervals, without interfering with the regular work in the remainder of the building. The visitors gallery above the pool can be enterered only from the main entrance hallway. Another room which will compete with the swimming pool as being the best in the building, is the main gymnasium on the top floor. This is certainly a splendid room. Its size is 71 by 146 feet, and it is 32 feet from floor to underside of trusses. It will have a polished maple floor, so that it should be as ideal for dancing as for gymnastics. The room will be amply lighted by large windows on all sides and by an extensive skylight above; and at night by a plentiful array of electric light bulbs. Other distinguishing features of this room are: first, the permanent seating gallery nine feet above the floor, providing accommodations for about a thousand people, and supported from the wall columns on the cantilever principle; and second, the running track, above the seating gallery, having fourteen and one-half laps to the mile. Besides the main entrance stairways, other stairways have been provided as follows: a tower staircase on the west side of the building with landings at all floors —this is to afford easy and private communica- tion for the athletes to all parts of the building, and two iron circular MUTUAL WORK. 381 staircases leading from the northwest and southwest corners of the main gymnasiums to the seating gallery and running-track above. For quick decent from the running-track, two brass sliding poles have been installed, terminating at the main gymnasium floor. The building is practically fireproof, being built almost entirely of concrete, steel and masonry. It will cost approximately $175,000. Those who have had charge of the design and erection of the build- ing are Lewis Telle Cannon and Ramm Hanson, architects, and A. P. Merrill, engineer. Before perfecting their plans, they visited all the newest and best gymnasiums throughout the United States, in order that they might embody in this one, all that was best. The public will soon have an opportunity of passing judgment on the completed structure. Questions for Officers. — Presidents of wards and stake officers will do well to question themselves as to their work, and the condition of their associations. Have you organized your committees on study, athletics, field sports, music and drama, and social affairs, library and reading course, confer- ences and conventions; missionary work; and on reading, debates, con- tests and lectures? If not, what are you going to do about the matter? If so, how are they working? What results? Have your teachers good attention? Is the order in your associ- ation good? What are you doing to make it better? Is your association a factor in the life of your ward? In what respect? Have you any suggestions to offer for the next season? Do you know who the chairmen of the committees of the General Board are who have the different divisions of work in charge? Have you written to them for suggestions? Have you any suggestions to offer? Have you any criticisms of the manual? Do you have plenty of them in the classes? Have you canvassed your ward for the Era? Have you appointed an agent, and is he doing his duty? Do the priesthood quorums support you in getting subscribers? Have you a committee on athletics? How are you prepared to give athletic exercises? Do the games bring you a greater enrollment? What effect have they on the order, lessons, interest? Have you a committee to take charge of the debating, oration and lecture department? How did you succeed with your efforts to have a debate? Have you had any readings in the Junior Class? Is your organization properly graded? Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work: Deseret Gymnasium—Questions," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 379–381. # Passing Events Passing Events. Jose Madriz was inaugurated president of Nicaragua, December 21, and former president Zelaya has fled to Mexico, where he has been ordered to keep quiet. Madriz was said early in January to be tired of his charge, and to wish to leave. The University of Copenhagen announced on December 21, 1909, that the records and observations of the "Dash to the North Pole" sub- mitted by Dr. Cook, fail to establish his claim to the discovery of the Pole. Dr. Cook has disappeared under the scorching criticism and bitter shame that has come to him. Some are generous enough to state that he might have believed honestly that he discovered the Pole, but was self-deceived. Frederick Remington, an American painter and sculptor, and author of several volumes of sketches and fiction, died on the 26th of December, age 48 years. He was a well-known contributor for Harper's Weekly, Colliers, Youth's Companion, and other publications, and his sketches reproduced, both in picture and sculpture, types of the wild- west, including Indians, cowboys and wild scenery, all of which he interpreted for the people of the East. King Leopold II of Belgium died December 17, 1909. He wa s buried in Brussels, Dec. 22. Born April 8, 1835, he ascended the throne December 10, 1865, at the death of his father, Leopold I, the uncle and trusted counselor of Queen Victoria, of England. He has become famous, or shall we say infamous, through his founding, in 1882, the Kongo Independent state where the slave trade was freely carried on in later years. In the absence of any direct male heir, Leopold's nephew, Prince Albert I, succeeded to the throne as king of the Belgians, Decem- ber 23. This young prince is 34 years old and is very popular. The Nobel prizes this year, which prizes are given as rewards to those who from year to year are thought to have attained the greatest results in various fields of activity for 1909, were awarded in Physics PASSING EVENTS. 383 to William Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy, and Prof. Ferdinand Braum, director of Physics at the University of Strausberg; in Chem- istry, to William Ostwald, professor of Chemistry at Leipzig; for Physiology and Medicine, to Professor Emil Theodore Kocher of the University of Berne; for literature, to Selma Lagerlof, a Swedish author. The peace prize is divided between Baron Constant of France, and Beer- nert of Belgium. Each prize amounts to $38,672. The present site of Manti, the Temple City, writes Peter A Paulson to the Era, was located August 20, 1849, by an exploring party, Joseph Home, W. W. Philips, Ira Willis, and D. B. Huntington, with Chief Walker as guide. They entered the valley through Salt Creek canyon, and were entertained in a most friendly manner by the Indians or Lamanites, numerous at the time. Within a few days the exploring party returned to Salt Lake City, reporting to President Brigham Young most favorably for the founding of a colony. A company of about fifty families from Salt Lake City and Center- ville organized, and proceeded south that fall, under command of Isaac Morley, Seth Taft, Charles Shumway and Nelson Higgins. Manti was selected by them as the site of the first frontier settlement in Central and Southern Utah. President Young visited the little band, in 1850, and christened their city Manti, in honor of one of the cities mentioned in the Book of Mormon. He also named the county "Sanpete," after the Indian Chief Sanpitch, a prominent character among his tribe at that time. Manti City was incorporated by act of the legislature, in 1851, and Dan Jones was elected the first mayor. In 1853, Manti claimed 647 souls out of a population of 765 in the entire county. Since that time the Temple City has steadily pressed onward through numerous difficulties, until she has now a population of three thousand. Her beautiful temple was dedicated to the Lord in May, 1888. Since then Saints from all parts of the earth have enjoyed the peaceful influence prevailing there, and received blessings for them- selves and for departed relatives and friends by the thousands. The sixtieth anniversary of the settlement of Manti, claimed by some to be August 19, 1849, was celebrated November 22, 23 and 24, 1909, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. More than five hun- dred people attended from various parts of the Union: Boston, Mass., Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and other states, and Canada. Rep- resentatives, besides, from many of the cities and towns in Utah made up the happy gathering on "Home Coming Day." All the living pio- neers of Manti, during the first ten years of her existence, were the guests of the city during the three days' celebration. A bureau of 384 IMPROVEMENT ERA. information was established, writes Peter A. Paulson to the Era, where all pioneers and visitors were invited to register and to gather. Every convenience within the reach of the efficient committees having the mammoth undertaking in charge was supplied. One hundred and ninety-six badges of honor were distributed to those persons who were residents of Manti during the ten years from 1849 to 1859. The veterans impressed the youth of the land with the faith they must have possessed to enable them to endure the trials of these early days of sixty years ago — yet blessed days of unity they were. Monday, November 22, was "Home Coming Day;" given over to the entertaiament of the pioneers and visitors, to renew old acquaintance and to see the sights. A splendid concert in the tabernacle in the evening was attended by more than twelve hundred people. Tuesday was "Pion- eer Day." The guests at the tabernacle heard a unique program, con- sisting of interesting reminiscences, given principally by the veterans, of experiences in Manti sixty years ago. Musical numbers and readings by some of the later generations of the Temple City were interspersed. In the afternoon the Daughters of the Pioneers and others entertained nearly three hundred of the veterans and their escorts at a banquet in the opera house. The entertainment concluded with toasts and responses by the early pioneers, who related many interesting accounts of the bat- tles with the Lamanites, their advantages, or rather disadvantages, for gaining an education, their amusements, and numerous anecdotes most interesting and amusing to the younger people. Wednesday was given over to the school children, and was termed "Governor's Day," but Governor William Spry could not be present. An interesting talk was given by State Superintendent of Schools, A. C. Nelson, who represented His Excellency. This meeting, held in the high school building, was attended by a large congregation of school children and veterans. The celebration concluded with a dramatic entertaiment of pioneer days, in the opera house. Of the first company of pioneers who settled Manti in 1849, Ezra Shomaker, Azariah Smith, William B. Richey, Adelia B. Cox Sidwell, Mary Lowry Peacock, Chelnecha Hambleton Jolley Tuttle, Esther Smith Andersen, Jerusha Shomaker Billings, and Lucy Allen Cox, are now residents of the city. The successful entertainment was attended by many former residents who had been" absent from Manti nearly fifty years. President Anthon H. Lund represented the First Presidency, and in the tabernacle gathering related some interesting history of the early days. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 382–384. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 13, no. 5. March 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Harris, Frank S., “Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands.” - Curtis, Theo. E., “Here, Upon Thy Holy Mountain.” - May, J. P., “The Comet’s Coming.” - Lambourne, Alfred, “Sketches and Extracts from “The Old Journey”.” - Ra, A. W., “Snap Shot from a Tourist’s Pen.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Success in Failure.” - Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things. V.—George H. Brimhall.” - Rust, D. D., “From Salt Lake to the Grand Canyon.” - James, Harry A., “Today.” - Lancaster, Florence L., “The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea. II.” - Ursenbach, O. F., “Live for Love.” - Brookbank, Thomas W., “Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. IV.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “The Temple in the Morning Sun.” - Allen, James X., “Where Are We At?.” - Davenport, E. Remington, “Life’s Jewels.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality. V.—The Sculptured Figures of Society.” - Meakin, John P., “Greetings 1910.” - Roberts, B. H., “Joseph Smith’s Doctrines Vindicated. I—Men the Avatars of God.” - Driggs, Howard R., “The Library Gymnasium—Elements of Success in the Work.” - Jenson, Andrew, “Hospitality to Missionaries.” - Young, Seymour B., “Missions of Australia and Pacific Islands.” - Smith, Joseph F., Jr., “Salvation Universal. V.” - Baggarley, Maud, “Habit.” - Smith, Joseph F., “Editor’s Table: Clean Dramatic Amusements.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “An Easter Prayer.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Messages from the Missions.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work: M. I. A. Reading Room and Gymnasium in Logan.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Dramas for M. I. A..” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Suggestions for Debates.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Tribute of Respect.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 385–480. # Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. MARCH, 1910. No 5. Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands. BY FRANK S. HARRIS, OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, AND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. The researches of archaeologists, ethnologists, and geologists in America have in late years contributed much in support of the Book of Mormon account of ancient American civilization. It shall be the purpose of this article to call attention to evidence in favor of that account from another field of scientific research. A record of this evidence is found in Bulletin 14-5 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, issued in April, 1909. This bulletin is entitled Vegetation Affected by Agriculture in Central America, and contains results of extensive investigations into the relations between the vegetation of that region to conditions that have existed there in past ages. In other words, it is a bionomic, or ecological study, presented by Mr Orator F. Cook, who is in charge of bionomic investigations of tropical and subtropical plants for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Before taking up what Mr. Cook says, the Book of Mormon account will be briefly reviewed. Students of that book will 386 MPRO VEMENT ERA remember that Jared and his company left Asia at the time of the confounding of language, (Ether 1: 33) which according to Bible chronology was 2,311 B. C. After some years of travel they fi- nally landed in America, perhaps somewhere on the west coast of Mexico or Central America. From this point they spread and increased until their civilization occupied all of North America. In places the population was very dense, Central America being a center of great activity (Ether 10: 20-28). After many hundreds of years great contentions arose, and the people were finally all destroyed except Coriantumr who, in his wanderings, found the city of Zarahemla and the people of Muiek in South America some hundreds of years B. C. (Omni 1: 20-22). Thus the Jaredite civilization in America lasted about two thousand years closing soon after the arrival of the colonies from Jerusalem. It will be remembered that the people of Nephi left Jerusalem six hundred years B. C, while the followers of Mulek left eleven years later. These two colonies landed separately, but were united at Zarahemla during the reign of Mosiah. From there they grad- ually spread northward and, on reaching North America, they found that the previous occupants of the country (the Jaredites) had made the land desolate as far as its natural vegetation was concerned. Helaman describes in a concise manner the conditions found in the forty -sixth year of the reign of the Judges (Helaman 3). He says: And it to pass in the forty and sixth, yea, there was much came many dissensions, in the which there were an exceeding contention and great many who departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and went forth unto the land northward, to inherit the land; And they did travel to an exceeding great distance, insomuch that they came to large bodies of water, and many rivers; Yea, and e'~en they did spread forth into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had not been rendered desolate, and without timber, because of the many inhabitants who had before inherited the land. And now no part of the land was desolate, save it were for timber, etc. ; but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people who had before inhabited the land, it was called desolate. And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, never- theless the people who went forth, became exceeding expert in the work BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS— BOOK OF MORMON LANDS. 387 ing of cement ; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell. And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south, to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. And the people who were in the land northward, did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land, that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their building . And it came to pass as timber was exceeding scarce in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way of shipping; And thus they did enable the people in the land northward, that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement. I desire to call especial attention to the fact that they found the native vegetation removed in this section, which undoubt- edly is Central America. They also began a process of reforest- ing, and, in the meantime, did much building with cement. Continuing from the period described by Helaman, the Book of Mormon tells us of this second civilization that flourished over the land for a number of centuries before the Lamanites finally reverted to a state of savagery. Keeping in mind these two civilizations, as described by the Book of Mormon, and their effects on the natural vegetation of the land, we shall review some of Mr. Cook's discoveries and conclusions. In his introduction, (page 7) he says: Savages who live by hunting and fishing or upon wild fruits, seeds, and honey may occupy a tropical region without seriously disturbing the previous balances of organic nature; but no careful observer of the agri- cultural aborigines of Central American countries can doubt that they have had vory definite influences upon their surroundings, or that influ- ences of the same kind have been exerted for long periods of time. He comments at some length on the vegetation in the region under discussion, considering the balance between certain types of plants and the succession of types under different conditions. He shows how "localities which contain remnants of ancient for- 388 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ests can be recognized by the presence of complete faunas of humus-inhabiting forest animals, such as the millipeds and centi- peds, and some of the lower orders of insects and arachnids." Prom these various relations he points out how Central America has gone through periods of forest removal and reforesta- tion. Commenting on the time covered by the processes he says (page 14): Of the periods of time required for such changes to be accomplished only rud? estimates are possible in the present state of our knowledge. A thousand years appears a small allowance for the complete reforesta- tion of a thoroughly denuded region, and for the spread of humus-inhabit- ing organisms over the reforested country. The survival of the humus- inhabiting animals on the ruin-covered hill is hardly to be considered pos- sible, for the pyramids and chambered buildings which covered the sum- mit, as well as large areas of the elaborately terraced approaches, appear tii have been faced all over with cement. Continuing his account of the ancient civilization and its e.Tects. Mr. Cook says (page 16): Many localities which are now occupied by apparently virgin forests are shown by archaeological remains to be regions of reforestation. Thus in the Senahu-Cahabon district of Alta Vera Pas relics of two or three very different types of primitive civilizations indicate that as many ancient populations have occupied successively the same areas which are now being chared anew by the coffee planters as though for the first time. It does not yet appear that any considerable region of forest has been explored in Central America without similar evidence that the pres- ent forests are not truly virgin growth. Even in extremely humid and insalubrious lowlands of the Atlantic slope of Co3ta Rica many relics of ancient civilizations have been uncovered in cleaning away the heavy tropical forests to make banana plantations. The same has recently been found to be true of the uninhabited coast regions of eastern Guatemala. It is not probable that more than a small proportion of the tribes which have inhabited t'ue Central American region were builders of stone structures or other permanent monuments by which ancient occupations could be proved. The likelihood that many tribes might pass without leaving any permanent evidence of their existence makes it more remark- able that all parts of Central America have in one prehistoric age or another been the scenes of primitive agricultural civilizations sufficiently advanced to work in stone, or at least to pile up terraces or earthworks BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS— BOOK OF MORMON LANDS. 3*9 of regular form. Some of the more barbarous tribes might occupy a region for thousands of years and yet leave no traces other than the fragments of broken pottery. These fragments are so abundant and so generally distributed in Central America that they appear as a regular coistituent of alluvial soils and surface deposits. . . . . Terracing of the land shows that agriculture was extensively prac- ticed in former times in regions now unoccupied. Two principal forms of prehistoric stone terraces, built evidently for agricultural purposes, may be recognized in the Central American region, in addition to the narrow terraces of earth described in a previous section. There are (1) narrow, high terraces to hold drainage water and prevent erosion in the narrow valleys or on steep slopes of mountains and (2) broad, low terraces appar- ently leveled to keep rain water from running off rather than to apply irrigation. He further states That the ancient occupants of the humid mountain regions of eastern Guatemala by agricultural civilizations were very prolonged and were repeated in several prehistoric ages as indicated by the very severe ero- sion which the region has suffered. It is not likely that such deeply dis- sected contours would have been formed if the country had not been kept in a denuded condition for long periods of time. Space will not permit of further quotation from either account, but sufficient has been said to show that the most careful biological and agricultural investigations are in strict harmony with the revealed word. Briefly The Book of Mormon tells of two dis- summarizing: sway in America. The first remaining tinct civilizations holding about two thousand years and the second continuing also for a long period. Their great agricultural activity is often referred to, and the clearing away of the forests by at least the first people is made very plain. The present flora and fauna of Central America, and the va- rious remains found there, clearly indicate to the scientist that the region was anciently occupied for long periods by different civilized peoples, also that these peoples practiced intensive systems of agriculture and removed the virgin forests, leaving the land in a de- nuded condition. Terraces, used to assist agricultural operations and prevent the erosion brought on by the forest denudation. are every- Citation: Harris, Frank S., "Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 385–389. # Here, Upon Thy Holy Mountain 390 IMPROVEMENT ERA. where encountered. The work in cement mentioned by Helaman was found by Mr. Cook to still be preserved in the ruins. No exact dates can be determined, from the workings of the forces in nature, but the vegetation in Central America, the number and distribution of the lower forms of animal life in the forests, and the erosions indicate, as nearly as such things can, that the dates given in the Book of Mormon are correct. As time goes on and the field of human knowledge is widened, it becomes more obvious that the story of the ancient civilization in America, as it is being told to scientists by "rock and tree," is the same story that was told to the boy prophet by "the voice from the ground" a generation ago. Ithaca, N. Y. Here, Upon Thy Holy Mountain. {For the Improvement Era.) Here, upon thy holy mountain, Lord, a living prophecy, Under Truth's celestial fountain, Lo, thy people wait for thee. Soon the sky shall roll asunder, And proclaim thy mighty name In eternal peals of thunder From thy chariots of flame. Hangs thy sword o'er shrine and steeple, And o'er Mammon's crowded halls; Lord, reclaim thy chosen people, Ere thy pending judgment fahs. Lift us up from every nation Into thine eternal rest, When the world to condemnation, Sees thy glory manifest. Theo. E. Curtis. Citation: Curtis, Theo. E., "Here, Upon Thy Holy Mountain," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 390. # The Comet’s Coming The Comet's Coming. (For the Improvement Era.) A wandering visitant, an unknown world, Across the solar scheme by fVce is hurled! A comet, lo, from depths of space is sent, Along a path where none before have whirled, On errand for the gods, perhaps, is bent! Oh, awe-inspiring spectre from the deep! What is thy mission? Why the secret keep? Mysterious brilliant, trailing thy long light, Dost thou new progress bring for man to reap? Or is thy drama cast in stellar night? Hast thou a message for the souls on earth? Or is there scheduled some momentous birth, That shall disturb the quietude of man? Wilt thou increase the moaning, or the mirth, Or change the general workings of the plan? History's page is red, phantom sphere, With mystic markings of thy advent here: For Sol's domain, this planetary flock, Art thou a pendulum, a life-time year? An hour-striker on yon mighty clock? But mandate law forever rules the scheme, Thee, wondrous comet, and the stars that gleam: All basic units in composite clay, And these realities, — the mental dream, Are governed by God's own imperial sway. J. P. May Citation: May, J. P., "The Comet’s Coming," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 391. # Sketches and Extracts from “The Old Journey” SKETCHES AND EXTRACTS JSy Alfred How rapidly we have grown! What used to be dreams of the future first changed to reality, and then sank away until they are but a dream of the past ! No more the long trains of dust-covered wagons, drawn by the slow and patient oxen, wind across the level plains or through the deep defile. No more the Pony Ex- press or the lumbering stage coach brings the quickest word or forms the fastest transport between the inter-mountain region and "The States." How hard it is to understand the briefness of time that has passed since this great interior country was practically a howling wilderness, inhabited by bands of savage Indians, and penetrated only by intrepid trappers or hunters! Before us was the land of Kit Carson; of the Sioux, the Cheyenne and the Ute. In FROM "THE OLD JOURNEY." Lambourne. our path was the home of the prairie dog, the coyote, and the rattlesnake; of the antelope, the buffalo and the bear. Day after day we trudged along, day after day the prairie un- rolled before, or, day after day the red hills of sandstone looked down upon us. The days grew into weeks, the weeks into months, and still the cattle, freed from the yoke, hastened to slake their thirst in the passing streams. Now we behold a land giving promise of future greatness, where peace, wealth and happiness shall go hand in hand, and where al- ready it is well-nigh impossible for the youth of today to compre- hend the struggles and privations of their Pioneer Fathers. Citation: Lambourne, Alfred, "Sketches and Extracts from “The Old Journey”," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 392–393. # Snap Shot from a Tourist’s Pen Snap Shot From a Tourist's Pen. Little Jem, the News Boy. BY ATTE' RA. Lights were on in the eastbound flyer. The rhythmic rocking of the heavy Pullman palace, that for hours had lulled the travel- ers into lazy day-dreams, was now broken by quick lurches and long slidings. We sat erect with intent ears, half shivering, to comment upon the streaks of sleet that spat and hissed at our window panes. A prolonged whistle, a conductor's call, hustle, bustle, the rattle of small coin, with a mixture of suave darkies, a dive through the whirling blast, with its needle points of ice, and we were housed again —settled for one of the long waits that belong to a tourist's trip. A quartet of travelers, including a portly gentleman with a smile a size larger than himself; his wife, a matronly woman in black, with eyes deep and dark and wonderful; a slender little woman in gray, whose quiet face seemed, somehow, to reflect the charm of living and loving, the strength of striving and the tend- erness of trusting, and her daughter, a dainty maiden of sixteen, composed, what seemed to me, the coziest group of all the SNAP SHOT FROM A TOURISTS PEN. 395 groups that fretted and fussed, or cuddled and cooed in the pala- tia depot at C The jostling incomers had pushed me c' e . ' upon this cozy quartet, and I knew, from her confidences to ne lady in gray, that the woman of deep, wistful eyes mourned a .. .tie son, her only child, dead. That her trip would be more a search for one to take his place, than for pleasure or for rest. Her desires were high; no waif in the streets, with inborn gifts of theft and deceit, could be taken to the heart and home left vacant by her angel "Ah, woman," I mused, "is thine truly a mother's child. heart, and a mother's grief? and what means that well of tender- ness in your beautiful eyes?" A newsboy's cry, "Papers, papers, evening papers," attracted the lady in gray, and she beckoned the small peddler to her side — a ragged, bedraggled, dirty-faced urchin of about six years. The boy thrust forward a damp paper. The lady put the paper gently aside, while she held temptingly in the child's sight a silver coin. "Little boy," she said, with serious face, pointing the while to great clock near the roof — "did you — hear— the— clock , just now?" "Yes 'um," replied the child with a frightened tremor. "And what did it say?" 'Leven, mum," said the child, and with a quick step nearer, the little fellow burst forth into a half sobbing, pitiful wail. "I — knows what you'd say, mum, it's bed time fur kids; and so whut it is, but me daddie what's sick ain't had no supper t'day; and momie, she sez, 'Don't you dast to come home, Jem, till ye've sold twelve;' and yere's six papers yet — will you buy, mum, please won't you buy?' The lady looked troubled, the light deep in her face for the moment was gone. Touching the child gently she answered, "Go wash your hands and face, little boy, that I may see how you look, and I'll buy your papers, all six, and let you go home." The child hurried away, and soon returned with water-smeared hands, his ittle sun-browned face clean and shining, the wet locks of his tangled hair trying to curl. The lady took the papers, slipped a piece of money into the little one's eager hand, and then, leaning forward said in quick, low tones, 396 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Would you kiss me good night for this quarter?' The child was startled, but in a moment began again his half sobbing little whimper, while he greedily eyed the coin held out. "If I "ist kin know how, mum, but —— I 'ist — don't "' "0 nevermind," the lady interrupted. "Take the quarter and run home quick to momie, and kiss her good night.'' When the child had gone, the woman with that strange intui- tional inspiration that comes to some persons, we know not how nor why, turned to her companion and said: "Mrs. Beaumont, cousin dear, that boy, I feel, is the child you are searching. He is motherless, I saw it in his eyes; and the little one is without love — none to kiss — he hasn't even learned how — my heart yearned to teach him, to take him from out the coldness of body and of soul to the shelter of my arms, my love." "My dear cousin," answered Mrs. Beaumont, "you have learned to see and understand children from the teacher's stand- point; I see them only from the mother's, and that child, I believe, " is an expert in trickery, and no fit substitute for my Her voice choked with a sob, and she turned away to hide her tears. The other woman sat for a moment in deep thought, then murmuring audibly, as she stroked the soft tresses of her own child, "Can it be, I wonder, that a teacher's love has greater scope than that of a mother — thank the All-loving Father, then, that I am both!'' * * * * * The big clock struck twelve— one more hour gone and an- other yet to wait. Crowds had come, and crowds had disappeared. The cozy quartet had lunched and settled itself in another part of the great building. Again was heard the newsboy's cry, the same piping, baby voice. The lady in gray started and turned pale. She spoke hurriedly to her companion and then slipped from sight. The motherly woman crossed the room and accosted the child. With the same pitiful, half -sobbing whimper, he told the same tale— daddy sick and supperless, and momie's demands "0, buy, lady," he pleaded, "I'm 'ist so tired and the big clock is struck twelve." SNAP SHOT FROM A TOURIST'S PEN. 397 The lady put her hand on the child's head and with a quick, firm movement, turned his face to her own. "What is your name, boy," she demanded. "Jem," he replied, with a frightened whimper. "Jem what? Tell me your other name," the lady now coaxed. "It's — it's— it's Jemmie dey calls me when I sells all de papers," he replied. "But you sold all your papers an hour ago to go home; and " now you are telling me a naughty, wicked lie, and The child jerked away and fled across the hall to the outer door. There he paused a moment, turned and walked slowly back. Without a word he looked earnestly into the lady's face. "What do you want, little man?" she asked, as she returned the child's intent gaze, and put forward an inviting hand. "Yu looks like the momie I lost — 'ist like — und — agin yu don't —'ist das'nt go back to Tom and Dik." Tears filled the blue eyes, and a sob broke from the little throat as he turned and fled into the darkness. * * * * The sharp, stinging storm lulled. With the passing of midnight the crowds at the depot thinned; but above the medley made by switching trains and puffing engines there was unusual commotion — trainmen rushing about, shouts for policemen, for officers, for a doctor! "Child killed," brawled a burly-voiced fellow who made way through the gathering crowd for another to deposit the limp form of little Jem, the newsboy, upon the bench, where the man of the cozy quartet had spread his thick, warm coat. "Who is he —where are his people?'' demanded a number of excited voices. "Yere's his brother," shouted someone, and an awkward, beer-soaked lad of sixteen was pushed into the crowd. Threats and questions brought forth the frightened youngster's state- ment. Little Jem's father had been killed in a railroad accident. His mother, a sister to the fellow who gave his name as "Tom," 398 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . died soon after, and he "little 'un, about three or four," had not understood, and thought his "momie" lost. Tom and his pard, Dik, had "adopted the little 'un," and took him to the shack by the "ware 'ouse" to live. Little Jem sold papers, Tom and Dik blacked boots for a living. "And ye sent the lad to sell papers while ye drank beer and gambled with yer dirty cards," put in the gruff voice of the tender, the burly man who had rescued the child from the tracks: "and if he's kilt I'll testify agin ye." The physician who had been summoned worked rapidly over the little body, and now, after another moment of intense listen- ing, he stood erect. The little white face quivered and the eyes opened with a wild stare. Tom darted forward and with a strange, gleeful laugh cried out, "Jemmie, ye aint dead, nuther, be ye, lad?" — "Don't Tom don't — don't beat me I 'ist can't— — — sell — no — other six," the little fellow wailed. The doctor pushed Tom roughly away, the child's wail died down to a moan, the eyes again closed. The very heart throb of the circling crowd was hushed, and many eyes glistened with starting tears. Again the blue eyes opened wide "Momie, I want's my momie!" sobbed the little voice. The lady in black sprang forward, grasped the little out- stretched hands, and with the deep, sobbing cry of a mother's anguish-filled heart she called, "Jemmie, Jemmie, open your eyes, dear — and be my little boy" The eyes opened, and with a bright smile the child responded, "Yu looks 'ist like my momie, what is lost 'ist like — my — momie— and agin yu don't." A shudder went over the little form, a look of pain, a gasp, and the blue eyes closed to open again in that land where the "momies" of little ones are never lost. "The little fellow is cared for," said a very gentle but husky voice, and the man of the quartet drew his wife tenderly away. "Yes, he is cared for," added a sweeter, softer voice I rec- — ognized the lady in gray — "and more than that, thank God; the mother-love has awakened, its selfishness is gone, and now a Citation: Ra, A. W., "Snap Shot from a Tourist’s Pen," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 394–398. # Success in Failure SNAP SHOT FROM A TOURISTS PEN. 399 home, yes, a home and a heart, will be open for some 'tricky, ill-bred' foundling of these cruel streets. Success in Failure. If you do your best, there is no need of fretting because you do not win, or succeed. To have things come your way is not always to win or to succeed. "It reminds me," says a respected college graduate, "of my athletic days. I got quite accustomed to defeat. About the only consolation I got out of my athletics was the knowledge that the exercise did me good. I am glad I kept at it, though. The more I see and learn of men, the more strongly I believe in Edison's maxim that 'genius is work.' The farther along you get in school or in life, the more men you will meet who have as good or better minds than you have. But if their minds are brighter than yours, it is because they have used them longer, or have made better use of equal time than you have. It is for us all to see that the latter shall net be true in cur case." Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Success in Failure," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 399. # Some Men Who Have Done Things. V.—George H. Brimhall Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. V. -George H. Brimhall. A BOY WHO LIVES A WHOLE WINTER ON CORN BREAD AND MOLASSES BECOMES THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL TEACHER THE "MORMON" PEOPLE HAVE PRODUCED. Nobody who lives among the Latter-day Saints needs to be Brigham Young told that George H. Brimhall is the president of the University at Provo. And it is superfluous to say here that he is one of the most influential school men, not only in Utah, but in the Rocky Mountain states. The other day a prominent edu- cator, when I asked him what he thought of President Brimhall, answered instantly, as if the question were not unfamiliar to him: "I have no hesitation in saying that I believe him to be the most inspirational teacher the Lat- ter-day Saints have ever pro- duced." This is high praise. But it does not appear to be an exaggeration when we call DR. GEORGE H. BRIMHALL. t0 mind the h ° StS ° f people scattered throughout ^^ 'Mormondom," whose lives are vastly different from what they SOME MEN WHO HA VE DONE THINGS. 401 would be if it were not for the uplifting influence of^is man. You cannot know of BrimhalPs work, and then go off and meas- ure any one's real worth in the world by the number of figures in his bank book. He was born in Salt Lake City, but did not live there long. Ogden was the first home he remembers. Among his earliest recollections is the Echo Canyon war. His father, being a fifer in the old Ogden band, went marching off to the war fifing, in a new straw hat, and six year old Georgie's heart welled up with pride, partly because of that fife, partly because of the new hat. He was too young, then, to feel any way put out by the fact that the family had to shift for itself. The first pair of shoes, which he wore at this time, were made by his mother out of an old bell strap of good width, and some boot tops that had been his fath- er's. His first pair of trousers, acquired at this time also, were made of factory cloth colored brown with sagebrush. A picture of those early days that, once you get it, sticks in your memory, is of a loaded wagon drawn by four cows and an Indian pony, the pony being on the lead to guide the other animals, and driven by long rope lines. This was the Brimhall family on the move in those troublous times of '58. Behind, in one corner of their little dirt-roof cabin, were a pile of straw and pieces of wood ready for the torch which was to set the whole settlement in flames. Spanish Fork, Cedar Fort, Grafton on the Virgin river, Salt Lake, and Spanish Fork again, are towns that he lived at during the next few years. The explanation of this migratory life is found in the fact that his father was called on a mission to pioneer some of these places. It was a hard life, incomprehensible nowadays, because there is nothing like it. And yet it had its compensa- tions. It taught the boy that what was to be got out of life he had to work for. Many instances could be given which taught the future educator lessons of courage, altruism, obedience, integ- rity. No wonder, is it? that Professor Brimhall believes in the efficacy of pioneer life, and sends some of his boys to Canada to wrest a hardy character from the frontiers. Three instances will serve to show his mettle in those days. At Spanish Fork in the later sixties food was scarce — scarce m IMPROVEMENT ERA. at least, in the Brimhall family. For, all one winter he lived on corn bread and molasses. He had to work, too, with men who were better fed, and here was the main trial. Every day at noon when they stopped for lunch, he went off by himself to eat his simple meal. Returning, he saw more than one dinner pail in which he knew were crusts of white bread left over and for which he would have given anything. Another time he and his brother were sowing wheat. The wagon was in the middle of the field with a gun, half of it in plain sight. It had been taken merely because President Young's coun- sel was that the brethren should never go out to work unarmed, for there had been no apparent need for it hitherto. Pretty soon a couple of Indians came riding towards the wagon at a gallop. Instantly George cried out to his brother, "Indians! unhitch!" at the same time breaking for the gun. It was a race with death. But he got there first, and the Indians made for the hills. It was sheer obedience to counsel that saved the day— else the gun would not have been there, and therefore the boys' lives would have been endangered. Once, again, George was at Tintic, working in a mine. The manager, a friend of his father's, was a well-informed Josephite. He wanted very much to convert the boy to his way of think- ing. And he was fast effecting his purpose, too, for George had no answer to the man's outflow of "argument." All at once young Brimhall remembered his parents' teachings that whenever in doubt over anything he should go to the Lord for guidance. So, one night he did so. The next day when the wily antagonist began to throw the net, it was with a strong man he had to wrestle, not a stammering boy as before. No more attempts were made to change his views. There was much evil on every hand at the mines, which was becoming harder and harder to resist. And so George got out of the place as speedily as he could, at the first favorable opportunity, because drinking, gambling, profanity, blasphemy, were not at all to his liking. Meanwhile his education had been going on as rapidly as his circumstances would permit. By the time he went to school at Ogden, he could read anything in McGuffy's Third Reader, write a fair hand, and cipher a little. All this he owed to a conscientious SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 403 mother. At all the places where the family lived he had some- what of schooling. And he speaks highly of the character of his teachers. One of them made a profound impression on the boy's mind by reason of his kindliness in dealing with the wayward. When- ever an urchin in the school did something worthy of the birch, a brand-new withe was taken out of a large bundle hanging over the desk. The lad was marched solemnly to the front, taken by the hand, and sent around in a circle a-flying. But never a birch touched the boy anywhere; was always worn out on the floor at it the culprit's heels! That must have been a spectacle not soon to be forgotten, whoever proved to be the erring one. Anyway, it made a profound impression on the future pedagogue. At eighteen George had made such progress in his studies as to warrant his being chosen to assist George Carson in the Spanish Fork school. Next year, however, he came in contact with Judge Dusenberrv, who had started at Provo what was called the Timpanogas University. This was his first impulse towards an education higher than that of the grades in those days. His nineteenth year, therefore, found him at the Provo school. Two years he attended there, working for his board the second year and doing janitor's service at school. When he returned to Spanish Fork from his school work, he found that an impetus had been given to education which is alto- gether unique. Forty of the Spanish Fork boys had gone to the canyon, chopped down logs, hauled them to the town, erected a 1 ' commodious building, and established the "Young Men's Academy there, with a capable teacher from Provo in charge. Brimhall was employed here the following year. Presently we find him becoming a public character, for he was chosen superintendent of schools and member of the town council. Meantime, however, he managed either his father's farm or one of his own, — a practice, by the way, he has continued almost up to the present. When the Brigham Young Academy opened, young Brimhall was among the first students to enter. Over him, as over hun- dreds of others, was the spell of the magician teacher cast. "Judge Dusenberry,' he told me, "showed me the road to higher education, but Karl G. Maeser pointed out the way to the higher 404 IMFRO VEA1EKT ERA life." This great teacher became the boy's ideal of the higher life, expressed in the qualities of honesty, earnestness, industry, sim- ple faith, fidelity. He studied at the academy off and on till he took his degree. In 1891, President Brimhall left the public schools to accept a position in the Provo academy. When he first went there he was in charge of the preparatory department. He was advanced from one place to another till he became president of that large institu- tion. During all these years he occupied responsible offices in the Church. He was in every capacity except that of chorister, in both the Sunday school and the Mutual Improvement Association. "When did you first make up your mind to become a school teacher?" I asked him. "Well, really," he answered, "I did not make up my mind at all on the matter. As a matter of fact, teaching is simply the survival of the fittest of the occupations I have had. I cannot be said at any time in my life to have set up a peg and aimed at reaching it. Whatever I happened to be doing, I said to myself concerning it, 'I'm going to do my best at this, and enjoy it.' I believe you have to enjoy what you do in this world. That, in my opinion,is the main thing. I have never had an extended employ- ment in my life that I did not like. But there are some things that I like to do better than others. And teaching I like the best of all. I like that best, perhaps, because I have been able to do it better than anything else —been more successsful in it than in other things. That is why I call it the survival of the fittest." "But, President Brimhall, have you not had one dominant purpose or desire running through your life?" — "Yes, I have certainly. My ruling passion has been to move men's minds, to convert others to my way of thinking. This above all else I have had an ambition for; and I suppose if I had not taken up with the profession of teaching, I should have had to do somehow with public affairs. It has been a sort of instinct with me. And so what I meant by saying that I did not set up a peg and endeavor to reach it is, that I had never fixed my purpose on this or that place in life, or even on any particular calling. I had always merely the instinctive desire to deal with ideas in men, and rested in the teacher's vocation for the reason partly that I think SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 405 it affords a better opportunity of expressing that desire than any- other. I found myself possessed of this general purpose at six- teen or seventeen years of age, and it has remained with me evtr since." Doubtless this furnishes an explanation for his effective pub- lic speaking, if one be needed. He is one of the most convincing preachers we have. An editorial writer in Colorado, the other year, commenting upon a sermon which President Brimhall had delivered the evening before in the town, said: "Whether his ideas about God are true or not, we cannot say; but while he is speaking, you simply have to believe in the existence of a God." And that is true. The man has a most dominant personality— in the pleasant sense,I mean, — and you cannot get away from the feeling that what he says is true. He has a marvelous gift of setting ideas clearly before you, and of showing you the right side of them. He is, moreover, a hard man to deal with when you are covering up the meaning underneath a quantity of words, whether you do it consciously or not. His keen intellect will have separated the chaff from the wheat — if there be any wheat— by the time you have ended your speech. I asked him to give me the qualifications of a real teacher, and in answer he offered the one word, "sympathy." "By sympathy, "he explained, "I mean the power of entering into the soul of the taught so as to see what is there and what is needed, and then of supplying that need, — it is the power of sim- ple appreciation. We talk about graft in business and politics. There is graft in education, too. What is it? Why letting a pupil fail under our hands. That's what graft in education is. A favorite motto with me is, 'Thou shalt not permit any stu- dent to get discouraged.' What an awful thing it is, when you come to think of it, to allow any young person in our charge to lose heart in the highway of individual progress, when almost the only really helpful thing we are able to give is an uplift! En- couragement with a fable is better than discouragement with a fact." "The true teacher, then, is all too rare," I commented. "And why?" he demanded; and answering his own question, "because too many use the sacred profession of teaching as a 406 IMPROVEMENT ERA. so-called stepping-stone to something higher! There is nothing higher. There may be something with more money in it. There may be something with more fame in it. But nothing higher. Martin Luther declared that if he were not a preacher he would be a teacher. "I have never found my ideal in a politician or even a states- man, though that comes nearer it. Much less have I found my ideal in the money-maker. Nor have I been able to find it in the inventor, nor even in the man of letters. To me it has been alone in the teacher. I could have made money if I had the inclination, and plenty of it. A few years ago a man said to me, 'Why do you waste your time in the school room when you could be making heaps of money.' He was himself a maker of shekels. 'I'll let you have money, you can invest that in land, buy sheep, set your boys to work, and in a single year you may clear twenty-five thousand dollars.' "Twenty-five thousand dollars! I said to myself — that's what my sons and I may make in a single year. That's pretty good! But what will the twenty-five thousand dollars in a single year make of them and me? That's the point." He broke off suddenly here and gave me his idea of what manner of man everyone ought to be. "My ideal of true manhood," he said, "has always been Joseph who was sold into Egypt. He must have been a fine specimen of the physical man to have attracted Potipha^'s wife; that he was strong morally is evidenced from his resisting her charms; his intellectual superiority is proved by his ability to cope with so large a situation as confronted him when he was made ruler under Pharaoh; and his great spirituality is brought out in his religious life. A man who lacks physical manhood is weak; he who is deficient mentally is an imbecile; to lack spirituality or moral power is to be weak. It takes all four of these qualities to produce a genuine manhood — to give life in its fullest and richest sense. For me and my sons to divert our whole energy to the making of money, would be to deprive us of the power of tr.ily living. And so I remained in the school room." The mention of money reminded me of the small compensa- tion teachers get, as a rule. And I mentioned the matter by way SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 407 of drawing out the President. I was somewhat startled by the result. It was like pressing an electric button unconsciously, and suddenly turning on a roomfull of light. "Compensation!" he cried, turning on me with great warmth — "compensation! Measure the real compensation that a teacher gets with the apparent compensation that, say, successful busi- ness men receive, and what do you get? And here followed such a glorification of the teacher's calling as made most other pursuits appear mean and groveling by com- parison. "The farmer, as he watches the golden grain maturing, experiences a real joy in life. So I suppose does the man who sits behind the bank counter. The farmer in the fall reaps his harvest. And so does the banker. But what becomes of it all grain and — money, houses, clothing, whatnot? It lasts for a time and then perishes out of the sight of man. No matter how high the heap of money may be nor how full the barns — it is the same— there is an end of it all. "Not so with the teacher's. His harvest is not only contin- uous, never-ending, but increases as the years and the centuries go on! Take my missionary class at the University, for example. Say that I inspire in them a desire to live the fuller, the richer, the higher life. They go out from me and live it. They teach their children to desire it and to live it, and they in turn inspire their children, and so on endlessly. Why, talk about harvest, this is the only harvest— there is no other. This will be Karl G. Maeser's harvest, his reward, to be surrounded by the thousands whose influence has uplifted them to what is really worth while to — — what is enduring in life. And it will be the harvest of every genuine teacher who has sought faithfully to uplift his fellow- men." Time to Help Mother. "It is time to organize a Mother's Protective Association among the boys and girls. Have less jolly times, and more rest for mother; for all around me I see motherless homes, where mother was killed by overwork and want of rest and recreation in the fresh air." C. E. Davis. Citation: Evans, John Henry, "Some Men Who Have Done Things. V.—George H. Brimhall," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 400–407. # From Salt Lake to the Grand Canyon From Salt Lake to the Grand Canyon. BY D. D. RUST. Fredonia, the nearest settlement to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, exhibited about as much commotion last June upon hearing the exhaust of an automobile as did the early inhabitants 0%/ ZlBS ''dl'-^m, 1 ^^r^Jsam / . i «.py» ^ ^ - f . Photo by D D. Rust CAMP AT BRIGHT ANGEL — ON THE NORTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON. of the Hudson at the chug, chug of Fulton's Folly. And a month before there was about as much faith in the promise of such an opportunity as Bridger had in the production of corn in the Salt Lake valley. But such are the surprises wrought by the miracles of mechanical improvement and industrial advancement. Since his visit to the Kaibah country with Senator Smoot and FROM SALT LAKE' TO THE GRAND CANYON. 409 others, in the autumn of 1902, Mr. Gordon Woolley continued to express and cherish a desire again to look into the marvelous Titan of chasms. To satisfy this longing, two motor cars were steered down through the counties, rougher and wilder as you go, towards the Buckskin Mountains, that might as well be a thousand miles away. It is not expected, nor wished, that the Grand Can- yon will ever become as fa- miliar to people of Salt Lake City as is Garfield Beach or Lagoon. The God of the wilderness will see to that. But space will shorten. The actual distance between the two places is four hundred and twenty-five miles. Ox teams went in twenty days; horses in two weeks; a com- bination of railroad, stage and pack outfit, six days; automobiles did it in four days, and may do it in two; Photo by D. D. Rust. Pullman cars may run it from The Forerunner of a Railroad Canyon. to the sun to sun; — and the end is not yet. There has been a call to the There is now a call to the city. wilderness. The temples, spires, turrets, monuments, domes, - all the forms of architecture of the mountains— are more inspiring than the works of man. Solitude is as necessary as society. The awful depths, the pinnacles of glory, and the gloomy shadows of the canyon, give the keenest impressions, and would be fitting for a sacred excursion. With Mr. Woolley were his wife and four children Mr. David Affleck, Mrs. Woolley's sister, and "Sandy," the "chauf" Photo by D. D. Rust WHERE A MAN FEELS HIS INSIGNIFICANCE. all of Salt Lake City. They were joined at Kanab by E. D. Woolley and others. The roads were discouraging enough. The people were worse than the roads. All along they were met with that old FROM SALT LAKE TO THE GRAND CANYON. 411 "You'll never get there," both from those who knew and those who didn't know the requirements of automobiles. There were rocks and slumps and washouts; there were creeks to ford, and deserts of deep sand; there were narrow, crooked dug- ways that would puzzle Ben Hur. Yet they went and re- w° turned with slight need for repairs. The cars deserve spe- cial mention. One was a big ^'B^ffl^'-fspy' £ "Thomas," 60-horse, a type ^^ms } M of the famous car that went around the world. The other was a pattern of the Vander- * bilt cup-winner. They were pioneers —and they looked the 1 jtWk part. The racer took the lead through the forest, with Gor- don Woolley at the wheel. w # Today 412 IMPROVEMENT ERA. little more than eight hundred miles? These two cars left their tracks in a strip of country that has been "a hiss and a by- word." They cannot be erased. They may serve as a stamp of growth. It is as impossible to forecast what may follow, as it is to tell the course of the roots of that quaint pine on a rocky peak. Pioneers have always builded better than they knew. Kanab, Utah. To Day. (For the Improvement Era.) Why are we wistfully shaking our heads, And sighing for days that are o'er, Speaking of joys that are long ago past As if they could never be more? If in our world things are going awry, Nature has changed not, but men; We are to blame for the sighs and the tears, God is the same now as then. Trouble is oft what we make for ourselves, Sorrow a thing we create, Hugging the burden we might cast aside, Despairingly talking of Fate; If we are men, let us live out the past. Problems were made but to face, The more we endure the greater the joy, When we get to the end of the race. "Onward!" the motto, not sighing for aye For the shadowy age of gold, Of that which shall be in a far-distant age, Or that was in the good days of old: Brothers, the time that is given us is now, Our part in life's game we must play, Be content, and remember for you and for me The most glorious tima is To Day. Harry A. Jame; Citation: James, Harry A., "Today," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 412. # The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea. II The Carlyles and their House at Chelsea. BY FLORENCE L. LANCASTER. II. Craigenputtock was a remote district where was a manor house adjacent to a farm, the property of Mrs. Carlyle's ancestors. Here the young couple began their domestic life on the slender resources Carlylehad managed to save from another German work, and here they dwelt for the next six years. These were the years of Carlyle's literary apprenticeship. At this period he wrote a Life of Goethe, and a History of German Literature —which was ' 'cut up into articles, " and, the financial side of things becoming critical, he "worked desperately at Sartor Resartus." It may be interesting also to record that during this epoch he wrote a novel "which had to be burned." Within these years, also, when he was between thirty and forty, he took his first lessons in Greek. Meanwhile these years at the secluded manor are recorded by Mrs. Carlyle as the six most miserable years of her life. Much of her feelings may be gauged in and "between the lines" of the poem written at this time, a few verses of which are as follows: TO A SWALLOW BUILDING UNDER OUR EAVES. Thou, too, hast traveled, little, fluttering thing, Hast seen the world, and now thy weary wing Thou too must rest. But much, my little bird, couldst thou but tell, I'd give to know why here thou lik'st so well To build thy nest. 414 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Did fortune try thee? was thy little purse Perchance run low, and thou afraid of worse Felt here secure? Ah, no! thou needst not gold, thou happy one! Thou know'st it not. Of all God's creatures, man Alone is poor. What was it, then? some mystic turn of thought, Caught under German eaves, and hither brought, Marring thine eye For the world's loveliness, till thou art grown A sober thing that does but mope and moan Not knowing why? God speed thee, pretty bird; may thy small nest With little ones in all good time be blest. I love thee much; For well thou managest that life of thine, While I! oh, ask not what I do with mine! Would I were such The above poem, with its tacit plaint, was enclosed in a letter to a man of affairs of the time, Francis Jeffries. As many of the essential conditions continued while the environment was more desirable, it may be well to consider them, as affecting the tenor of the life at the isolated manor, and of the subsequent years in London. Literary composition meant to Carlyle "a solitary process of mental agony," so that it followed his wife had to be much alone. As, with their limited income, only one servant was kept, domestic details must have fallen upon her to perform to no slight extent. Carlyle, from his outside masculine standpoint, spoke of these duties as "the saving grace of her life." But there must have been many times when a woman of her capacities would feel it far otherwise. She was not of a character to look back with longing eyes on the trivial gayeties of "the Belle of Haddington.'' As Carlyle's wife she had the acquaintanceship of many distinguished people. But an active mental career of her own, perhaps, would have been the one thing to compensate her for the lack of another fulfilment. She was childless. Also, during their London life, THE CARLYLES AND THEIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA. '415 there was an unhappy misunderstanding through a Lady Ashburton, which lasted for years, until the latter 's death. The well-known example of a somewhat petty exactingness on the one hand, and on the other the provocation of "the husband's friend," who had none of the strain of repetition or strife with details of the wife, but who could inspire his ready confidence. Yet, with all these regretable phases, Mrs. Carry le was pre- eminently the companion of the man she had married. Soul- steeped in essentials, with his mind's constant absorption in exacting labor, together with some concealment on her part, he was often oblivious of causes of dissatisfaction and pain to her, which were apparent to others. When he did realize these, he atoned in word and in deed. Carlyle was not a man to have made pretense, or uttered empty speech, for any cause whatsoever. The words penned on his wife's death reveal a subtle appreciation, a recognition of her as helpmeet, and contain a note of inner under- standing of causes for suffering that is something like contrition, most touching. She was "the true and loving helpmeet" of her husband, and, knowing his greatness, if she aided his achievement by insuring daily peace and order, even in dusting, or darning his socks, I do not think she should have regarded her marriage as a failure. With this brief retrospect, let us take a stroll through the silent rooms. THE DINING ROOM AND ROOM ADJOINING (WHICH WAS SOMETIMES CALLED THE BACK DINING ROOM). One is impressed on first entering here with the sense of pro- portion, substantialness and orderly repose tinctured with an undercurrent of melancholy, qualities which pervade the whole house. Two square-paneled rooms, divided by a partial wall and folding-doors, panels and doors painted drab. In each room is a marble mantlepiece and a grate with horizontal bars, the same as when an introspective eye gathered a moment's casual inspiration from the flames which glowed there. Carlyle used every room in the house at different times, except the bedrooms, as his study. In the foremost of these rooms a part of The French Revolution — the first work completed on the author's settlement in London —was 416 IMPRO VEMENT ERA written. Afterwards, during the still earlier period of its history, Carlyle and his papers having disappeared to an upper apartment, itwas used as the drawing room. Therein are certain relics of those times. The round, old-fashioned table, consisting, in fact, of two semi-circular ones clamped together, to be used separately if required. Beside it, certain horse-hair covered chairs of strong but elegant workmanship. These were exported from the home at Craigenputtock. Asked by inquisitive visitors, "Who made these chairs?" Carlyle was wont to reply, "In Cockneydom, nobody in our day: unexampled prosperity makes another kind." During its drawing room days, Edward Irving said to Mrs. Carlyle, on enter- ing this room, "You are like Eve, and make a bit of paradise wherever you go." In part proof of this pretty compliment from her old admirer, is a bracket which Mrs. Carlyle made. It is a three-cornered bracket, with two shelves, painted chocolate, orna- mented with Grecian figures cut out and pasted on, and varnished light oak, which merges with the hue of the paneling. The inner apartment was used for a lengthy period as tne dining-room, and a cozy dining-room it must have made, though somewhat small, when the clamped table was called into requisition for such a select gathering of friends as John Forster, Macready, Dickens and Thackeray, or was spread for the entertainment of Emerson, or that Harriet Martineau who wrote the fine poem "Onward!" and forwarded the success of Carlyle 's lectures by canvassing for subscriptions. But I must not omit to mention the two interesting pictures over the respective fire-grates. One shows the front room as it used to be in the drawing-ro^m days, the two rooms covered with a gaily-patterned carpet, Mrs. Carlyle, seated, wears the matronly muslin cap and quaint "cross-over," of the period; a dog — a faith- ful friend whose remains are buried in the garden — gazes with mute intentness into her face. Carlyle, apparently just about to "say something," is comfortably attired in a plaid dressing-gown, and handles a churchwarden pipe. — The other picture over the mantle of the back dining- — room is a portrait arresting in its pathos. It is fittingly placed in the room. Just before Mrs. Carlyle's sudden death, which hap- pened while she was taking a drive in a brougham, the last of a Citation: Lancaster, Florence L., "The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea. II," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 413–416. # Live for Love THE CARLYLES AND THEIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA. 417 series of "irruptions" had occurred in fitting up this room as Car- lyle's study, the garret he had occupied being found too cold for his declining years. A book-case, fitted into an alcove, was made after Carlyle's instructions, containing now various copies of his own works. It was in this room that his last literary labors were accomplished in the Reminiscences, with a neice to act as secre- tary. After that "writing had become impossible." London, England. [to be concluded in next number. 1 Live For Love. (For the Improvement Era.) There are more kind words than ever spoken, And more good deeds that could be done. Some simple act or sweet, kind token, Would cheer the heart of some sad one. There's many a flower that could be given, To buoy some heart in its mortal race; But how oft we wait 'till the soul's in heaven, And the body is cold in death's embrace. Many a soul in despair has wasted For want of friendship's helping hand; And broken hearts to the dregs are tested, Dying for love throughout our land. Many the youth whose life of sin Speaks the atmosphere of a faulty home. No hearthstone love to his great within, He seeks the great wide world to roam. Then why not live for those who love us, With noble deeds, kind words for all. It would make earth as heaven above us And save mankind from downward fall. Let's give our flowers to those who're living, And strew them freely on the road. Such kindly acts are worth the giving, To help mankind with life's great load. 0. F. Ursenbach. Citation: Ursenbach, O. F., "Live for Love," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 417. # Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. IV Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. BY THOMAS W. BROOKBANK. IV. The following sacred names occur in the Book of Mormon and are made: (Class No. 3.) Almighty Lord God Omnipotent Almighty God Lord Jesus Christ Beloved Lord of Hosts Christ Lord Omnipotent Comforter Maker Creator Mediator Eternal Father Messiah Everlasting Father Mighty God Father Mighty One God Most High God of Israel Most High God ' King Only Begotten Holy One Prince of Peace Holy One of Israel Redeemer Holy Ghost Savior Holy Spirit Shepherd Holy Messiah Son Lamb Son of God Lamb of God Son of Righteousness Lord Spirit Lord God Wonderful Counsellor Lord God Almighty The next group includes words that, though common some- HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 419 times, or generally, have, for one reason or another, been made proper nouns in the Book of Mormon: (Class No. 4.) Bountiful Great Spirit Priesthood Chief Judge High Priest Scriptures ' Cherubim Judge Teacher Desolation New (Jerusalem) Tower Gentiles Priest Twelve Governor Finally, a special list of names or parts of names, reserved for particular notice, is found in (Class No. 5.) Alpha Christ Omega Tower Anti Jew Red Sea Twelve Arch Hebrew New Wonderful Bible Mary This last list shall be subdivided into (a) Those that are of Greek origin as, Alpha, Omega, Christ, Bible, Anti and Arch, (b) Those that are common translatable terms as New, Tower, Twelve, Wonderful, and Red Sea. (c) Gentile forms of certain proper names as Jew and Hebrew. In Class No. 1 of the general list there are several names that are compounded with the Greek "Anti," which in one or two in- stances was changed to "Ante," perhaps through a typographical error, or it may be the result of the substitution of one vowel sound for another, thus causing a variation that seems to have been quite common among the ancient Jews, and which grew out of their system of writing only the consonants of words, as, for example, b-r-d, which, in English might stand for bard, beard, bird, board, broad, brad or bred. Now, the presence of these few Greek words in the Book of Mormon instead of discrediting its authenticity in any degree, serves only to confirm its claims as a true historical record. When the colony under Lehi left Jeru- salem, Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Israel were all hoary with age, though Rome was still in her swaddling clothes. The Greeks had taken Troy 684 years, and Homer had lived two centuries at least 420 IMPROVEMENT ERA. before the first line of the Book of Mormon history was written. Pour hundred years before Lehi's departure from his native land the people of God had attained to world-wide fame by the building of their fiist magnificent temple under Solomon, and by the wis- dom of their greatest king. The Jews and the Greeks were not very remote neighbors, and some traces of Greek in the Book of Mormon are to be expected. Indeed, if we found nothing what- ever of that language, in that book, it would be hard to explain how it transpires that the learned founder of the Nephite people knew no Greek; knew nothing of a people with whom they doubt- less had more or less literary and commercial intercourse. Thus the occurrence of these Greek words in the Book of Mormon are perfectly consistent with what the record should dis- close. In the Nephite name "Ziff, " we find a Babylonian name copied outright, and this fact seems to link these two people also together at some time in neighborly association. In this connec- tion it is worthy of remark that the Nephite name"Antionah" is apparently compounded from the Greek "Anti," the Egyptian name "On," and the Hebrew termination "Ah." "Antiparah," another Nephite name, easily separates into the Greek "Anti," and "Parah" of the land of the Jews. Anti-on-um is doubtless derived from a Greek, an Egyptian, and a Hebrew source. The names Christ, Bible, (and Mary may be included here) were all given to the Nephites by direct revelation; and the sacred use of the Greek Alpha and Omega was introduced among them by the Savior himself. [to be continued.] Flagstaff, Ariz. The Dignity of Labor. "We shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put brains and skill in the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem." — Up from Slavery. Citation: Brookbank, Thomas W., "Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. IV," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 418–420. # The Temple in the Morning Sun Photo by Shipler THE TEMPLE IN THE MORNING SUN. "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. . . . The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discov- ereth the forests; and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory." — Psalms. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "The Temple in the Morning Sun," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 421. # Where Are We At? Where Are We At? BY JAMES X. ALLEN, M. D. One feeling common to humanity is — Where are we at? The Where traveler by sea or land, ever has this recurring thought, are we On the ocean the questions are asked: How far are at? we from New York? When shall we reach Liverpool? Where, our port of destination? The traveler by train constantly looks out of the window seek- ing an answer to the mind's query, Where are we at? Merchants and trades-people go to much expense, in clerks and record books, in order the batter to find an answer to the questions: Where are we at? How do we stand? Are we making headway? How is it with us? And to settle all doubts, they take stock periodically, not only to ascertain what line of goods are most lucrative, but to find out who may be trusted, and what customers are unreliable. The wise merchant, having found out his past mistakes, will at once proceed to correct them. Not only merchants and corpo- rations must keep tab as to where they are at, but farmers and professional men must know the why and the wherefore of their failures before they can correct mistakes and proceed onward to success. Will not these same rules apply to the child of God who has started on the path of life, and whose objective is celestial glory? It seems that such was the opinion entertained by an old veteran in the ranks, the Apostle Paul, who advised his brethren and co- workers: "Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith, prove your own selves." The sacred writer knew that to get off the "narrow way" was one of the easiest things in the world. He, therefore, pressed this matter home: "Prove yourselves whether WHERE ARE WE AT? 423 you be in the faith." He did not wish them to take chances; but to "make their calling and election sure." A writer in the Book of Mormon who, with the Apostle Paul, was equally solicitous for the welfare of the children of God, points them to an "iron rod," —the law of God — and bids them cling to it as the only means of safety, knowing, as he did, that separated from said rod they would be in constant and imminent danger. There has been of late much excitement about the north pole of our earth. I think I see a parallel in the searches for the pole and those who start out for the great reward promised to the faithful. Many brave souls have made the attempt to reach that hitherto unknown point, the north pole, some have started in ships not fit- ted for the journey — not properly built; not properly officered. Captain Nansen, of Norway, after looking around and failing to find a vessel adapted to the voyage, consulted the marine architects and had a ship built for the occasion. Captain Nansen, although he failed to find the object of his research, attained greater latitude than any previous explorer in His name is not left without distinc- ' search for the "no longitude. ' tion. It is surrounded with a halo of dauntless energy. The boy Joseph Smith— being moved by the Divine Spirit to reach a place much talked about, but of which little, if anything, was known, the highest abode of the blest, started out to find a sure — means of conveyance one that was correctly built and properly officeredby intelligent and properly authorized managers. The many churches which he examined proved unsatisfactory to his earnest mind, so he concluded to consult the Master-builder — the Supreme Architect of the universe. In his perplexity he con- cluded to take and put into effect the advice of the Apostle James: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not." He asked God to tell him which of the many churches professing to guide souls to divine glory was the right one to carry him safely across the stormy sea of life and adversity, and of human frailties, to the desired haven of rest. The Great Architect told him not to risk his soul with any of them; they were not properly built; the material used in their construc- tion was not the best; they were not properly officered, and that 424 ROVEMENT ERA. those which they did have were unlicensed —were without divine authority. A new Church was organized, having God for its designer. The materials were selected by the designer; the proper officers were selected, licensed and divinely authorized to conduct the Church. They were enjoined to keep in constant touch with the Great Designer's office, so that, difficulties arising on the voyage, or doubts springing up as to what would be best to do under cer- tain circumstances, they could communicate with the head office and be set at rights. The Church was named after its Designer and Author — "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints;" officered according to God's plan, and he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, etc. (Eph. 4: 11). The voyagers in search of the pole have been in the habit of taking observations of the lum.naries and stars every day when the sky was clear enough for them to do so. When the heavens were obscured for a time, and no observation was possible, the officers were on the alert to take advantage of the first bright star that should make its appearance, to enable them to ascertain their whereabouts, — where they were at. Had these duties been neg- lected they would have been like a rudderless ship without a com- pass, drifting none knew whither, in constant dread of shipwreck or other disaster. How is it with us members of this Church? Do we each and all keep a log-book through whichwe can trace out each day's course in this trackless ocean of time? Do we each know just where we are at? Do we each know just how far we have advanced? Or are we in a rudderless boat drifting on an unknown sea without compass or sextant, toward we know not where? You who are familiar with the life of Benjamin Franklin, the great American scientist, philosopher and statesman, will call to mind that he made himself a table of faults to be avoided. On the top of the sheet of paper he wrote down a dozen things to be avoided, and down one side of the page, the days of the month. At night, before retiring, he looked over his list of "dont's" and when he found a "don't" that he had violated, he at once put a WHERE ARE WE AT? 425 black mark in the square opposite the day and the "don't" that he had disregarded. In this way he was enabled to compare dates and to know exactly what progress he was making — to know where he was at. Benjamin Franklin was not only a great man, but he was a good man whose example could be followed to advantage by all of us. What advancement have I made in the divine life since I first saw the light? Am I constant in attendance at the gatherings of the Saints, as I was when I first felt the joy of saint- ly communion? Do I contribute as honestly and freely to the Lord's storehouse as I did at first? If not, why not? Have I as many or as great faults as I had years ago? Am I overc miing every known defect as it manifests itself from time to time? Am I as eager to warn my neighbor and show him what God has done for me, as when the blaze of gospel light and truth first illumined my soul? St. John 1: 40-43 tells how Andrew, a disciple of John the Baptist, after first hearing the Master, made haste to find his brother Simon and declare unto him the glad news: "We have found the Messiah." When we first saw the light of truth, was not the impulse within us — "I must hasten to show the glad tidings to my relatives?" Of course it was, and so it is with every- one who is "born again." Are we as eager today to bear our testimony to the truth as we were when the love of God first filled our hearts? And if not, why not? I fear that many become disheartened — disgusted with them- selves and their many shortcomings, and cease to pray, instead of examining themselves and finding out the cause of their back- sliding, and avoiding the same pitfalls in future. At the battle of the Wilderness, in the first day's conflict, the Southern army had the best of it. That night General Sherman thought that he could see where the Union army had made some mistakes, and that he could also see how those mistakes could be rectified. He donned his hat and proceeded to General Grant's tent in order to lay the matter before his commanding officer- Not finding Grant in his quarters, he proceeded to hunt him up. In time Sherman spied a lone figure leaning against a tree with a lighted cigar in his mouth. Sherman, knowing the habits of his superior, judged this lone figure to be Grant. Sherman approached with— "Good evening, General." "Good evening, General," was Citation: Allen, James X., "Where Are We At?," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 422–425. # Life’s Jewels 426 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . Grant's reply. Sherman's next remark was, "We've been licked today." The answer was calm, but with much assurance, "Yes, but we'll lick them tomorrow." The commanding general was neither excited or discouraged. He had calmly reviewed the day's maneuvers and had seen the mistakes which he had decided to avoid on the following day. General Sherman, noticing the confidence with which his superior officer spoke, concluded to keep his counsel to himself, and at once departed in silent confidence that the morrow would see the nation's braves "on top." And so it turned out. The point of the story is— never say die. God's love is greater than his anger. Let not our faults keep us from the feet of our Lord. The prodigal son had sinned grievously, but he knew that the father's love was unbounded, and he was not disappointed. Broth- ers, holding the priesthood, let us each keep a log-book and jot down our bearings every day, that we may always know where we are at, lest we find ourselves without a rudder or chart, drifting among the danger rocks of apostasy, without hope. Ogden, Utah. Life's Jewels. {For the Improvement Era.) Give unto me no common gem! My crown must be of worth; gather for my diadem The rarest pearls of earth. One here, one there, but few in all, Yet each with worth untold; The gems I gather with a call Are neither bought nor sold. And though I leave this earthly sphere, I'll clasp them to my heart; Yea, leave all gold and silver here, But we shall never part. And what my crown? ere I forget: 'Tis happiness divine; 'Tis made of life, with jewels set, Each gem a friend of mine. Budapest, Hungary. E. Remington Davenport. Citation: Davenport, E. Remington, "Life’s Jewels," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 426. # The Crown of Individuality. V.—The Sculptured Figures of Society The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. V.— The Sculptured Figures of Society. Over the great doorway of one of New York's sky-scraping office buildings three colossal sculptured figures are posed in crouching attitudes. With their great bowed heads, grimly tense features, and muscles strained like whip-cords they seem to hold on their broad shoulders the terrific weight of twenty or more stories of solid masonry. They are really only — pompous shams. Theirs is only a Herculean pose. Theirs is only the pretense of the strenuous — not its reality. They were put in after the build- ing was completed; they could be removed without endangering the safety of the edifice in the slightest. They have no more real responsibility than a wandering fly, tarrying for a moment on the flag-pole on the roof. There are thousand of such sculptured figures in the world of society today. They are men whose powers are evidenced in ounces, whose pretense is proclaimed in tons. They are those whose promises out-soar the eagles, whose performance is lower than the flight of the mud-lark. They are constantly posing phy- sically, mentally, morally, socially,or spiritually. By juggling with excuses of their vanity and selfishness they may mislead them- selves and others for a time, but usually — they deceive only them- selves. They are most often like the village fool who thought he played the organ when he only— pumped the bellows. * From The Crown of Individuality . Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Re veil Company. 428 IMPRO VEMENT ERA Certain fairly harmless sculptured figures have the pose of being "extremely busy." They constantly seek to raise themselves to a conspicuous ledge by the derrick of their own conceit. They seem to have so much to accomplish that you might infer that were each day two weeks long and three weeks wide, it would be absurdly inadequate for their diurnal duties. Their tasks are so "terrifically many" that, if you were optimistic enough to accept their statements as net, without asking for discount, you would realize that these tasks could never be accomplished by any indi- vidual — would surely require a syndicate. it They belong to a class, who if they receive three letters a day, tell you that they are "just deluged with correspondence." Their social engagements are "positively tiresome" and as you listen to the list of their society friends your commercial instinct makes you picture what a splendid elite directory it would be were itonly put into print. Their troubles with their servants seem so great that you wonder why they do not discharge nine or so of them and worry along with the remainder. They use a seventy horse-power vocabulary for a bicycle set of thoughts. They go around polishing their own halos. Another of these sculptured figures poses as an intellectual Atlas holding up the whole firmament of thought — merely one world is too easy. His ignorance and his impudence ever collab- orate with his iconoclasm. He demolishes literary reputation with the ease of a sharp-shooter hitting glass balls. He confides to you that Shakespeare is greatly overrated, Thackeray was only a cynic, Scott a garrulous old novelist, George Elliot a sawdust doll, Dickens a tedious reporter. All the world's greatest drama- tists, novelists, poets, philosophers and thinkers, are one by one, inevitably bowled into — nothingness. There is a sculptured figure who speaks as though pronounc- ing the last word of finality on science and higher thought. The problems that- have baffled the sages for ages seem to him as lu- minant as an electric sign on a dark street. Though he has read, perhaps, partially through one volume of Spencer, Tyndall, Hux- ley, or Darwin, he erupts, like a pretensive Vesuvius of knowledge on — evolution. There are thick clouds of the smoke of mere words, and sputtering of confused light. Every weak spot in THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 429 theology is known to him and where he cannot find a puncture he makes one. He seems to believe he could handle all cannon-ball problems as lightly as though they were rubber-balls. Ignorance of many of these great questions is justifiable and natural to us who are not omniscient. It needs no apology, because one may be thinking honestly on other subjects nearer and dearer to one's life. The wrong and folly lie only in — the pose and the pretense. There are other sculptured figures more sad to think of, more serious to contemplate, more blighting on the lives of others. They are those who peril the crown of their individuality by a moral or a religious pose— a combination of pharisaism, pride, policy and pretense. They may occupy high places but, like statues in cathedrals, despite the religious atmosphere and the environment in which they exist, they remain — only stone. Religion to be worth aught must transform and sweeten and better lives or — it is only a self-deceiving formula. It must be a living impetus making them bear bravely their own burdens; it must broaden their shoulders to stand the strain of others' needs; itmust make them active, verile, aggressive, inspiring powers in the world. Religion, to be really worth while, should, by their living, fill men's hearts with love, truth, right, justice, sweetness, honesty, faith, charity, trust and peace. These virtues can no more be kept hid from the world around them than can the blaz- ing sun, riding royally in the zenith at noonday. There are religious sculptured figures from sheer hypocrisy, consciously treading on their church rating— these may deceive the world without blindfolding their own eyes for a moment. There is a more subtle form where the individual himself does not realize that he is only an eye-servant or an ear-servant, that his is lip He has no realization that he is not trans- service only. forming what he believes is true into a dynamic moral force affect- ing his own life and the lives of others. There are sculptured figures of friendship that may deceive us for a time. Discovery may take from us, for a long period, all that is best in us, shrivel our faith in humanity, and leave us lonely — until we bury the dead body of the friendship and learn to forget. There are friendships upon the certainty of which we have 430 IMPRO VEMENT ERA staked our life.We have felt that though the winds of adversity might blow bleakly about us, the ships of our highest hopes wreck at the moment we believed they were almost in their haven of return; the night of our great misfortune settle down on us without a star; the cup of sorrow, shame and suffering be close- pressed to our lips, yet despite all that might possibly come to us, there would ever be— this true friend by our side. We may have shared his crust of trial and disappointment, heart-gladdened, in a way, and we were privileged thus to be of service to him. We may have listened untiringly to his endless repetition of the litany of some sorrow of his— soothing him, sweetly consoling, silently and sympathetically comforting — with no thought of self. We may have secretly left the deathbed of some great hope of our own, stifled our sobs bravely that he might not know, and sat down with serene patience to watch and nurse with him at the sick-bed of some grief of his or to help him towards the resurrection of some hope of his from the grave of his sorrow or his failure. All that was ours, all the resources of our whole life were more truly his than ours because his need would stimulate us to higher effort in his behalf than we would make in our own. He may have protested undying gratitude, told us freely, over and over again, that no demand or need of ours would seem even a drop to the ever-flowing spring of his gratitude. Then when the finger of time had moved from days to weeks, and to months, the angel of a great grief may have knocked at the door of our heart, and perforce we have to open and let the angel of sorrow come in. In the awful desolation and loneliness that numb our very soul we may turn around confident of meeting responsive eyes looking inspiration into ours; we involuntarily bend the ear to hear words of courage from the lips of the only one in all the world that could comfort or console. We reach out, by some subtle instinct, the hand of our pain, expecting it to be warmly covered, but instead we touch only — the cold, hard, chiseled out. lines of a sculptured figure. Then we realize the fulness of one of the most pathetic cries in all the world's history, when Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, in sublime hunger of heart, in divine protest of soul, broke in on the Citation: Jordan, William George, "The Crown of Individuality. V.—The Sculptured Figures of Society," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 427–430. # Greetings 1910 THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 431 slumber of Peter with the words: "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" We have faced a new tragedy of the soul — alone. The sculptured figure may never realize what he has done. Real, honest effort, no matter how slight seem results, no matter how weak seem the progress, has no time for mere parade. Their high motives that inspire are: love, honor, truth, justice or those others that lead the ranks of their high purpose. The glowing realization that their work is serious inspires them. Their consecrated effort to rise to the heights of their highest nature — gives a royal importance that banishes trivialities. True importance is The large duties, cares always simple. and responsibilities of those seeking to do great things give them natural dignity and ease. They have the simple grace of the bir- den-bearers of India, who carry heavy loads on their heads and, in the carrying learn how to carry them, erect— with fearless step. There is in them no trace of the — pose of the strenuous. Men of serious effort think too much of their work to think much of them- selves. Their great interest, enthusiasm, and absorption in their world of fine accomplishments eclipse all littleness. They are liv- ing their life, — not playing a part. They are burning incense at the shrine of a great purpose— not to their own vanity. They ever have poise — not pose. (The next article in this series "The Hungers of Life," will — appear in the April number of the Era.) f % Greetings 1910. from one who loves God and his brothers -all of them. To the Improvement Era. each day of the new year unfold life's choicest M7W gifts to everyone in your home circle Cast out from Eden the cactus and the nettle and in their places culti- vate the lily— purity, and the nv/rtle— friendship; and so make earth— heaven, and human life a delightful melody- May roses bloom by vour cottage gate and may flowering vines ever cluster about its walls. John T €Meakin. 1 Citation: Meakin, John P., "Greetings 1910," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 431. # Joseph Smith’s Doctrines Vindicated. I—Men the Avatars of God Joseph Smith's Doctrines Vindicated. BY B. H. ROBERTS. I. Men the Avatars of God.* Early in the month of August, I had the pleasure of address- ing a congregation from the Tabernacle stand in Salt Lake City; and when the remarks I made on that occasion were published, those who had the publication in charge entitled them, "The Mes- sage of 'Mormonism.' " In part the remarks covered a review of a series of articles publishedthe Cosmopolitan Magazine during in the early summer months, which Mr. Harold Bolce gave the in result of a two years' itinerary through the universities of the United States, pointing out the trend of religious and philo- sophical thought among the professors of these universities. On that occasion I called attention to the fact that the first great mes- sage that Joseph Smith delivered to the world: namely, that all the churches were wrong, and their creeds an abomination unto the Lord, received wonderful confirmation from the utterances of these professors quoted in the articles I name. That occasion in August did not warrant a complete or exhaustive review of these articles, nor did it afford the opportunity, for sheer lack of time, to indicate all the points at which modern educated thought sustained utter- ances of the great modern prophet. It is this theme which I desire to renew and discuss on the present occasion. *The word avatar comes from the Sanskrit word avatara, and in Hindu mythology meant an incarnation; a manifestation of Deity. JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES VINDICATED. 433 The question which I now propose to take up fjg$L prove to : you, I think, that it is useless for the world to decry some of the fundamental doctrines announced by the Prophet Joseph Smith, on the ground that they were the utterances of an uneducated, obscure and ignorant youth— since, I believe, I shall be able to show you that from some of the highest seats of learning in the land there comes pronounced confirmation of the things our prophet taught; and hence that his utterances on the doctrine to be considered were not born of ignorance, but of inspiration from God. In the Cosmopolitan for July, 1909, in the editorial review of Mr. Bolce's article, is this utterance: Many university teachers, while subscribing to doctrines akin to those of Christian Science, New Thought, and the Emanuel movement, are in favor of studying the forces of the spiritual world in a cold, scien- tific manner. Orthodox Christian dogma is regarded as at variance with its own principles and is interpreted in a new and revolutionary light. The professors' philosophy is purged of mysticism and blind faith. By moving their young students, they believe they will move the world, and so they are directing their energies to the scientific interpretation of those forces which are marvelously transforming our contemporary age. Mr. Bolce himself, in further explanation of the attitude of many of the educators in the universities, represents Professor James C. Monaghan, recently of Notre Dame University, and form- erly of the University of Wisconsin, as telling his classes, in regard to the adage that "there is room at the top," that there is no top, "that progress — particularly spiritual progress— is eternal." The Latter-day Saints will readily recognize that statement as in har- mony with "Mormon" doctrine. Continuing, Mr. Bolce says: Friends of the college philosophers insist that if there is a gulf between them and the people, it is because the masses have not yet crossed over into the life of progress and spiritual liberty. It is simply that the professors from the standpoint of their followers, are inviting mankind again into the fields to which the prophets beckoned the world centuries ago. The choice, it is declared, is either backward to the brute, or forward to the superman. I think that the Latter=dav Saints w ill also recognize in that a 434 1MPR0 VEMENT ERA . note of — "Mormonism" because they believe that whatever man may be today, whatever his excellence may be even the excellence — of the most highly developed men — we believe that there are heights beyond those which he has now attained, to which it is possible for him to mount. I merely wanted to read those two paragraphs for the pur- pose of presenting the attitude of the professors, in a general way, in regard to the creeds of men and the existing Christian Churches. I now call your attention to some few doctrines that our prophet taught in respect of man. Of course, you who are familiar with Christian teaching of three-quarters of a century ago, will recall the fact that it was quite customary to represent man as a quite inferior, insignificant, poor worm of the dust; and the phrase- ology applied to him was that he was a creature "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. " Referring to these ideas as something engrafted upon Christianity, yet foreign to its genius, Professor G. H. Howison of the University of California, in his contribution to the book Conceptions of God (1902), and speaking of those who hold and taught such views, says: Their monotonous theme was the inevitable greatness of the Supreme Being and the utter littleness of man. Their tradition lay like a pall upon the human spirit— nay, it lies upon it to this day, and it smothers now, as it smothered then, the voice that answers there to the call of Jesus." (p. 96.) When the prophet proceeded with the deliverance of his mes- sage to the world, he departed from this view as to the essential baseness of the nature of man, and proceeded to proclaim him to be a son of God, not only through some means of adoption, but by the very nature of him. He proclaimed him to be an eternal intelligence as to his spirit, and that after the experience of the resurrection from the dead, he would be an immortal personage, a prince of heaven, an heir to all that God possesses, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, capable of infinite progress and of amazing possibilities. On one occasion — to be more specific, in 1844 while discoursing upon the subject of man and his spirit, he pro- pounded this quest on: The mind of man, the immortal spirit — where did it come from? JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES VINDICATED. 435 All learned men and doctors of divinity say that God created it in the beginning, but it is not so. The very idea lessens man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine; I know better. Hear it, all ye ends of the world! for God has told me so. If you don't believe me, it will not make the truth without effect We say that God himself is a self-existent being. Who told you so? It is correct enough, but who told you that man did not exist in like m inner, upon the same principle? God made a tabernacle and put man's spirit in it, and it became a living soul It does not say in the Hebrew that God created the spirit of man; it says God made man out of the earth and put in him Adam's spirit, and so became a living soul. The mind or the intelli- gence which man possesses is co-eternal with God himself God himself does not create himself. Intelligence is eternal, and exists upon a self-existenc principle; it is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it. The spirit of man is not a created being, it existed from eternity, and will exist to eternity. Such was the prophet's teaching upon this subject. I might, however, supplement the above statement by quoting one of the revelations that also bears upon this theme. The Christian world are ready to accord to the Christ, the Son of God, an existence co-eternal with God; and indeed would consider it unorthodox to hold any other view than the co-eternity of the Son with the Father; and they quote in support of this view the very beautiful preface to John's gospel; namely, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The same was in the begin- ning with God In him was life, and the life was the light of men." And then later it is explained that this "Word'' "became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory; the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth." All orthodox Christians believe that this passage estab- lishes the co-eternity of the Christ with the Father. Now, that is a very great doctrine; but I desire to show you that, excellent as it is, the Lord in our dispensation has added another truth to that one by what is said in the revelation from which I now read. Jesus Christ is represented as speaking: Verily, I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the first-born. [Now, mark you — addressing the several brethren 436 IMPROVEMENT ERA. who were present when this revelation was received] — Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is spirit, even the spirit of truth. Meaning that part of man that is spirit, that intelligence, that thing within man that is conscious of its own existence, and of other existences; that has power to will and to direct and to do things, that thing within man that reasons and reflects and has memory, that being who, most emphatically, is you, yourself, and not the house, merely, in which youlive; that, too, was in the beginning with the Father. And now the revelation broadens the truth beyond those to whom the Christ directly spoke at the time the revelation was given; for in a subsequent verse it says: ''Man,'' undoubtedly meaning the race Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also, otherwise there is no existence. Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man, because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under con- demnation, For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples. That is bold doctrine. When our prophet came with this splendid message to the world, he was met with the cry of "Blas- phemy, blasphemy!" Three-quarters of a century have now passed away since these utterances were first given to the world; and I want to show you what men in the highest seats of learning have to say with respect to principles that are either identical with these, or closely analogous with them, though, of course, the learned men whom I quote may not be aware even of the existence of these revealed truths given to the world by Joseph Smith. Tbey are not, of course, consciously bearing any testi- mony to the doctrines announced by our prophet; but they are JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES VINDICATED. 437 bearing unconscious testimony to the truth; and I am glad to see the truth grow, whether by direct or indirect means. Sometimes I think that the indirect means that God is using for disseminating his truths are more potent and far-reaching, perhaps, than the directmeans which we are seeking to use, and that God is using through his Church. But now to this record and what our learned men are saying on principles identical or analogous to these, Profes- sor Howison, whom I before quoted, says: Son of man, thou art the son of God. Rouse heart! put on the gar- ments of thy majesty, and realize thy equal, thy free, thy immortal membership in the Eternal Order!" (Conceptions of God, p. 96.) Professor Robert Kennedy Duncan, in the concluding pages of his The New Knowledge, (1905) says: Still another conception of the new knowledge is that of the vast stores of inter-elemental energy of which we live but on the fringe a store of energy so great that every breath we draw has within it suffi- cient power to drive the workshops of the world. Man will tap this energy some day, somehow But now that we know, or think we know, of this infinite treasure-house of inter-elemental energy lying latent for the hand of the future man to use, it is neither difficult nor fanatical to believe that beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars. "In the beginning God created," and in the midst of his creation he down man with a little spark of the Godhead in him to set — make him to strive to know and in the striving to grow and to progress to some great, worthy, unknown end in this world. He gave him hands to do, a will to drive, and senses to apprehend — just a working equipment; and so he has won his way, so far, out of the horrible con- ditions of pre-history. I have been presenting to you the words of our prophet. Mr. Bolce represents the professors, of our American universities, as saying: The professors see in man, and in man alone, the consciousness and power destined to sway the affairs of the world. Professor Munsterberg insists that the world we will is the reality, and that the least creature of all mortals ''has more dignity and value than even an Almighty God," as that being is popularly conceived It is declared by the 438 IMPROVEMENT ERA. professors that if divine energy is divisible and man's spirit inferior to God's, the eternal future of the soul is unalluring. Christianity so teaches, they say, and is of all philosophies the most pessimistic. For- ever in its scheme man is to be an underling. Not only that, but un- countable billions of souls — worms of the dust — are created doomed to perpetual despair; while a fortunate remnant's highest felicity is to gather around the throne of a superior and august God and chant his praises. Then follows this contrast with the above view: Opposed to this conception is the new psychology that teaches that the spirit of man is the highest conscious expression of the infinite, and that by invoking the powers — the divine forces — resident in the human, all that humanity desires may be accomplished. Thus complete does the divinity of man's spirit appear to these philosophers. Continuing, these views are expressed: The colleges in teaching this faith take ground with those who believe that in the emancipation and fruition of modern thought greater works than Christ did will be performed. It is, therefore, to rid the modern mind of this deadening effect of what they deem to be paralyz- ing superstitions that the professors attack orthodox dogmas. Far from deriding the forces of the spirit, the colleges proclaim that the laws of divine energy are the most important study confronting modern man. The professors take their stand with Professor Slater of Chicago University whom I heard emphasize with marked sincerity that the "name of Jesus is not written but plowed into the history of the world." Yet in their determination to approach the God- idea as scien- tists, they consider themselves more reverent than the great body of church people who, they believe, are indulging in idolatrous prostration and ritual. In still stronger confirmation of Joseph Smith's doctrine, in language more direct, is the following utterance from Professor Herrick, of Dennison University, who says: Focused in the mind of man, therefore, are the dynamic forces of the universe. Beyond and above our most daring calculation is the potency of thought! And in the following allegorical words, the scien- tist explained how the mind of man, assuming and asserting its power may absorb the fire of creative energy. "The wood disappears in the grate, but the genial warmth pervades the room, invades our blood, JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES. VINDICATED. 439 quickens our pulse, wakens vital action, and finally is wrought into the history of our life." we keep in mind this picture of an element be- If coming transfused by natural processes into human life and happiness, it is not difficult to understand the scientific interpretation of prayer, of New Thought, of Christian Science, of the Emmanuel Movement, and simi- lar forces marvelously transforming our contemporary age. As scien- tists, not as communicants at old altars, many scholars have allied them- selves with the forces of spiritual health and healing. And yet when the Prophet Joseph and the first elders of the Church taught that the world today was entitled to the enjoyment of the same "spiritual gifts," of forces that characterized the Church of Christ in the early Christian centuries, by which the sick were healed, the lame made to walk, and the power of proph- ecy and revelation enjoyed, — they were classed as presumptuous persons, and generally discredited; indeed one of the complaints against the Saintswhen settling in Jackson county, Missouri 1831-1833— was that These pretended to communications and revelations direct from heaven, to heal the sick by the laying on of hands, and, in short, to per- form all the wonder-working miracles wrought by the inspired apostles and prophets of old. ..... They openly blaspheme the most high God, and cast contempt on his holy religion by pretending to receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to speak in unknown tongues, by direct inspiration, and by diverse pretenses derogatory of God and religion, and to the utter subversion of human reason. This is from a document put into circulation by the Jackson county anti-"Mormon" mob, in the summer of 1833 (Evening and Morning Star for December, 1833). But now we find, according to Mr. Bolce's representation, professors in universities asserting their faith in the possibility of this spiritual force operating at present among the children of men, and, incidentally, our author remarks, "These men are not dreamers; they are of solid mental mould." As a result of man awakening to the consciousness of these indwelling forces, our author says: "Human society, for the first time in history, is coming to itself," says Professor Edmund J. James, "and is becoming conscious of definite ends and purposes toward which it is striving; of the possibility of set- 440 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . ting up certain ideals toward which it can ever struggle. '' And now that man has discovered that there resides in his nature a spirit of energy that is divine, the colleges say, and that he can summon it to work his will, the potency and future operation of this psychic force no man can com- pute. Science having found a way through psychology to God, the opportunities for the race, through invoking in the human consciousness the brooding spirit that fills all space, are absolutely infinite. Science, therefore, is demonstrating along new lines, or at least is claiming to demonstrate, that man is God made manifest. More than seventy-five years before this utterance of the scientist, however, there went ringing down the corridors of time these words of our prophet: The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples! Continuing, Mr. Bolce concludes his article on this theme in the following terms: And modern philosophy, as set forth in American universities, holds this incarnation not as a fanciful and merely beautiful ideal, but as a working and understandable principle in the soul of humanity. The pro- fessors, who are digging what they believe to be graves for therefore, dead dogmas, stand as exponents of the teaching that man is the embodi- ment and conscious expression of the force that guides all life and holds all matter in its course. Man has begun the cycle of that triumphal daring prophesied by ancient seers, and which appealed so potently to the imagination of Poe. Not merely in religious rhetoric but in reality, the schoolmen say, is man the avatar of God. That is to say, man is the incarnation of God, the incarnation of a divine spirit; his spirit is one with the Infinite Spirit, even the spirit and essence of God. Let no one hereafter say, when viewing the teachings of Joseph Smith in reference to the divinity of man's spirit, that- his doctrines are merely the utterance of an ignorant, unlettered man, since the doctrines he taught three-quarters of a century ago, now receive this splendid, though unconscious vindi- cation, through the utterances of the most learned men of our country and age. [to be concluded.] Citation: Roberts, B. H., "Joseph Smith’s Doctrines Vindicated. I—Men the Avatars of God," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 432–440. # The Library Gymnasium—Elements of Success in the Work The Library-Gymnasium. Elements of Success in the Work. BY HOWARD R. DRIGGS, SECRETARY UTAH COMMISSION. The Library-Gymnasium Commission is constantly receiving letters of inquiry —and many of them come from M. I. A. workers — to this effect: What can we do best to estiblish the library-gym- nasium in our community? We wish we had a satisfactory patent answer to this frequent question. But we frankly admit we have not. The question, however, is a worthy one, and it deserves careful attention. What we can do is to offer some more or less practical suggestions to the earnest workers in this great cause. And that is the purpose of this article. The first thing necessary, it seems to us, is to create the proper spirit for a library-gymnasium. This is a work that devolves upon the schools, the M. I. A. and other organizations. They already have done much and could do far more to foster it, by stimulating the young people to athletic and literary activities. A live basket-ball team, or base-ball nine, a skating or swimming contest, occasionally a track meet, or other wholesome sports, all will do a great deal to rouse the youth from sluggish ways and put such red blood in their systems as will one day make them dis- gusted with loafing and saloon habits. An enthusiasm for literary activities, too, can be greatly culti- vated by the organization of reading circles, debating teams, lec- ture courses, historical societies, nature study clubs, farmer's win- Such an organization as the ter schools, and other like activities. M. I. A. is, and should be, a live power in bringing about such uplifting pastimes. 44kJ IMPROVEMENT ERA. One idea that we must rid our minds of is: that big, expen- sively equipped buildings are the first requisite in the movement. The most costly building might be erected and furnished, and yet fail of its great purpose, if there were no spirit to patronize it among the people. Buildings will come fast enough if the need for them is made strong enough. Better a simple room or two with a few choice books, and a chance for wholesome games, with a spirit that demands good things to read and clean sports to play at, than the most expensive library-gymnasium without such a spirit as will fill it with life and culture. The great aim of this great cause, after all, is not so much to plant a lot of big buildings over the state, as it is to give men and women better ways of spending their leisure hours than wast- ing them in street and kitchen gossip over the penny affairs of the neighborhood, the water question, some saloon brawl or village scandal. The great purpose of this cause is to fill the minds of the people with something better to talk about, to fill them with a love for cleaner, higher-minded pastimes. The library idea stands for more wholesome mental recre- ation. The gymnasium means more manly games and sports. The institution, in a word, is not merely a basket-ball room and a book-house: it is a new center of culture for the community, the great purpose of which is to lead in, and to provide for, all kinds of choice recreation for body and mind. Not all our communities are ready to support a first-class, up- to-date library-gymnasium. There are, perhaps, half a hundred cities in the state that are able, it would seem, to have a live library and some features of th3 gymnasium, as a basket-ball room, swimming pool, skating pond, etc. And these cities should be stirred to bring about such advantages. There are many other smaller towns where some library- gymnasium advantages might be offered to the people, especially if the city officers and school trustees would co-operate to keep open rooms of an evening and during a part of the day. There is no good reason, indeed, why every city, town, and hamlet cannot at least have enough good books to read. The school law pro- vides that the trustees shall spend fifteen cents per capita for all children of school age, annually, to purchase libraries. They may THt! LIBRARY-GYMNASIUM. 443 spend more, and they may also open this school library to the pub- lic. It would certainly seem, therefore, that our school boards have an excellent chance to cultivate good book habits among the people. The library side of our problem has been worked out in many other states; and it is found that the three prime essentials of suc- cess, in maintaing a library and reading room, are: 1. Permanency. 2. A Live Librarian. 3. The Right Books. Let us discuss them in order: 1. Permanency. The library must be run on a business basis; must be open regularly, rain or shine, during such hours as best meet the needs of the people. It, therefore, cannot depend on charity; it must be provided by a regular fund, and the best way to provide this fund is through a city tax, or if the city is not ready to assume the burden, the school board can carry it, and must car- ry it, of course, if it be carried, in the smaller districts where there is no town. Let us say right here that the M. I. A. and other like organ- izations can do much to foster the library spirit in their communi- ties, but it is too much to expect them to carry for a whole com- munity more than a just share of the burden of the public library. The public library, like the public school, should be carried by the whole people; and every organization or private citizen can then have the full benefits of the institution without feeling its burden. The M. I A. and other associations can do much to help the library, not only by cultivating the reading habit; but, if they so desire, by donating such books as they would have their members read. Any library would be glad to get such books to enrich its col- lection and bring readers to its rooms. 2. A Live Librarian. This is a work that demands skill and tact as well as common sense and a good heart. The success of any library depends almost wholly upon the librarian. We need not hope ever to get splendid results, therefore, if we run a library by employing some "charity" person— some one who has no better qualifications than mere goodness and need of the position. Neither can any library succeed for long; if it must depend on voluntary service — this willing person one week, another next, and so on. It is for this reason largely that many reading rooms have 444 IMPROVEMENT ERA. gone to the wall, despite well-meant and generous efforts on the part of most deserving people who have —bless them for — car- it ried the burden till they could carry it no longer. Let us recog- nize now that we must employ a live librarian —one who love s books, who will work, will keep pace with the times, and one who can cultivate in boys and girls a discriminating love of good books. 3. The Right Books. This is the third great essential of library success, and a most important one. If we want to bring about good reading habits among young or old, we must offer them books first of all that they will read, and second, that will do some good when they are read. The book shower method of sup- plying a library, is a proved failure. We need not expect to get many choice books by gleaning from the homes. People have very few books to give away; and not many can afford to give their best. It is wrong to try to rob the homes to make a public library. It may be, of course, that some homes have a choice book or set of books which is of use no longer in the home, that would do good in a library; if the owner desires to give it, all right. But to make a library dependent for its reading material on such book collections, is to kill its influence at the very outset. A few really choice books that have been proved successful is the collection to start out with. Get a cash donation. Spend it under wise direction. If you need expert help, ask the library commission, and it will be freely, cheerfully given. Then add a few good books every month or oftener. Keep the library fresh and growing. Let people know by bulletins and notices in the local paper when new books arrive — and the readers will come to you faster than they can be supplied. Live libraries managed by live librarians, and kept open, sun or shower, during the hours when people can best visit them, will certainly succeed. And now a word as to the gymnasium side of the question. This part of the work we know is a more perplexing problem It has not been worked out as fully as has the library. Yet it has been made, by such organizations as the Y. M. C. A. and the schools, to succeed splendidly. Think of the gymnasium not merely as a basket-ball room, or a drill-hall. It should be a home for the boys — or athletic head- THE LIBRARY-GYMNASIUM. 445 quarters. Rest rooms, supplied with books, magazines, stereo- scopic pictures, and wholesome, quiet games, should be among its attractions. The gymnasium should also give opportunity for meeting of athletic commit'ees, teams, etc. It may and should provide basket ball rooms, equipped with gymnastic apparatus; and there should, if possible, be provided shower and plunge baths. There might be a bowling alley and such other attractive games as can be managed well and kept wholesome. If such a house u provided and is placed under the wise direction of a real boy-leader — one who has sense as well as life one whom the boys respect and follow with instinctive trust, then it will succeed. It can hardly fail. And we can develop such directors if we try. All these things cannot, of course, be had at once, but a lead toward them can be made, and should be made as soon as the time is ripe. Let your community get together. Do not attempt to split up and run things in any "one-horse" fashion. Here is one thing on which all creeds and parties, all business and social in- terests can unite. Get together. Decide according to local con- ditions the best plan to pursue, and follow it. If the school is best prepared to take the lead, all right, if the town government is able and most ready to go ahead, then let the town take the burden. If there are strong, live organizations that can best bring about the results we seek, then give them the right of way and get in behind to push for them. If by co-operation of all the forces the result can be brought about, let the forces be joined. It is a cause that belongs to all the saving of our youth — the redeeming of the desert wastes of humanity — the providing of better, more wholesome pleasures for all. University of Utah. The Thing Worth While. "The longer I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living for— and dying for, if need be— is the oppor- tunity of making some one else more happy and more useful." Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington. Citation: Driggs, Howard R., "The Library Gymnasium—Elements of Success in the Work," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 441–445. # Hospitality to Missionaries Hospitality to Missionaries. BY ANDREW JENSON, PRESIDENT OF THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION. The Scandinavian people, from times immemorial, have sustained a very high reputation for hospitality to strangers, a trait of char- acter undoubtedly inherited from their Israelitish forefathers; for it is a well established fact that the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were especially hospitable to the strangers within their gates in ancient days. The elders who labored in the Scandi- navian mission at an early day could travel almost without purse or scrip (like the disciples of Christ in Pales- tine), among the peasantry of the country. This has been modified somewhat of late years, owing, per- Andrew Jenson, President of ^^ ^ tQ the fact that SQ many Ameri _ the Scandinavian Mission. Engligh and ^^ ^^ have traveled so extensively in these lands, and spoiled the people in these respects by their extreme liberality in offering payment for every service. Especially is this true on the western coast of Norway. And yet, our elders are even now treated with much kindness and hospitality. The accompanying picture shows a group of elders (six in number) being entertained by a family of Saints in Aalborg, Denmark. At the head of the table sit the host and hostess. Standing by them is their pretty little daughter who is waiting at the table. The three brethren at the left are Elders James A. Johnsen. Isaac A. Jensen and Andrew Jenson. On the HOSPITALITY TO MISSIONARIES. 447 opposite side of the table are Elders Hans Mikkelsen, Charles H. Sorensen and James Jensen. The host, Brother Madsen, is a new convert, who for years before he joined the Church was kind and hospitable to the missionaries. When elders are far away from their wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, and other true and devoted friends, in the dear land of the West where the Saints of God dwell, they fully appreciate any kindness and hospitality extended to them. For, as a rule, their friends are few, and their enemies many. A party of six Elders entertained at lunch by a family of Saints in the City of Aalborg, Denmark. In many places in these northern countries we have a class of middle-aged and elderly sisters whom we affectionately call "mis- sionary mothers." They exercise goodwill and charity towards the missionary, assist him in many little ways, thus making it easier for him to stand the temporary loss of friends at home. The elder therefore feels from the bottom of his heart to say, "God bless our missionary mothers." Copenhagen, Denmark. Citation: Jenson, Andrew, "Hospitality to Missionaries," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 446–447. # Missions of Australia and Pacific Islands Missions of Australia and Pacific Islands. BY DR. SEYMOUR B. YOUNG, PRESIDENT OF THE FIRST COUNCIL OF SEVENTY. The mission to Australia was opened in 1849, when President Brigham Young sent Elders Alva Hanks and Augustus Farnum, as advance messengers from Salt Lake valley, to that distant field of labor. Elder Hanks lost his life on the return voyage, but Elder Farnum returned safely home, after a lengthy mission in that far distant land. In the year about 1875, Isaac Groo, John M. Young and several others were sent as missionaries to Australia, to carry the gospel message. They were not, however, as successful in making converts and establishing branches of the Church as the missionaries have been since that day. Australia is the largest island in the world, and is properly named the "Island Continent." It measures 2,500 miles in length, from east to west, and 1,950 miles in breadth, and contains an area of three million square miles, nearly as large as the United States of America, leaving out Alaska. It is surrounded, on the west, by the Indian ocean, on the east by the South Pacific sea, on the north, and separating it from New Guinea, by the Torez strait, eighty miles wide, and on the south by the Bass strait, one hun- dred and forty miles in width, dividing it from Tasmania. The island of Tasmania, formerly known as Van Diemen's Land, though discovered at an earlier date, was more thoroughly explored by Tasma, a celebrated navigator, in 1861. Owing to the position of these islands, being situated at the antipodes of the civilized world, the region has longer been the terra incognita or Ultima Thule than any other part of the western world. MISSIONS OF AUSTRALIA AND PACIFIC ISLANDS. 449 New Zealand, another large island, lies twelve hundred miles east of the southeast coast of Australia, while the islands of Samoa are situated eighteen hundred miles east of Australia. This portion of our globe, known as Australasia, and compris- ing the island continent of New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, is set, as its name implies, south of Asia. In its archipelago New Britain, Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, are Loyalty Islands, and New Caledonia. Australia was known as New Holland for many years after its discovery by the Dutch, in 1605. On the island of Australia proper, we have the following subdivisions or states: North Australia, including the Tropic of Capricorn; and western Aus- tralia, with its capital city of Perth; South Australia, with the city of Adelaide as its capital; and eastern Australia, or New South Wales, with Victoria as its capital city; Southeastern Australia with Melbourne as its capital; and just north of New South Wales lies Queensland, with Brisbane as its capital city. These great cities of Australia, above named, with those of Tas- mania and New Zealand, form the greater portion of our extreme Southern Pacific Mission, and are our missionary headquarters of the Australian and New Zealand missions. Looking from the southeast coast of Australia directly south 140 miles across the Bass Strait we see Tasmania. Its capital city is Hobart. Then southeast 1,200 miles onto New Zealand, capital city, Auckland, and east 1,800 miles to Samoa; and in all these four great groups of islands, in their capital cities, we have missionary headquarters. Then further west we have the Society Islands, with missionary headquarters at Tahiti; and the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands northeast from Tahiti. Australia was successfully explored from south to north by a Mr, Stuart, making his third venturesome journey of discovery, starting from Adelaide in 1865 and crossing the Island of Austra- lia to the Indian ocean. Since that time the electric tele- graph from Adelaide to Melbourne, Sidney, and other Aus- line tralian cities, has been established along this route marked by Mr. Stuart. The greater cities of Australia and Tasmania, with the excep- tion of Adelaide, were founded by the convicts that were shipped 450 IMPROVEMENT ERA. from Great Britain, beginning in 1803; and continuing without interruption until 1836, consisting of political and poaching con- vict prisoners, and these island cities became the Botany Bay for convicc colonies from 1803 to 1865, when great Britain ceased alto- gether sending convicts and criminals to Australia and Tasmania, as a better class of people were settling up these two great coun- tries, and the descendants of the original citizens were found to be good, reliable citizens. The Society and Sandwich Islands were discovered by Captain Cook, and explored by him toward the close of the eighteenth century. We have a missionary headquarters at Sidney, with C. A. Orme as president, and forty-four missionaries; another one at Auk- land, New Zealand, with George Bowles, president, and fifty-three missionaries; another at Apia, Samoa, with William A. Moody president, and nineteen missionaries; also missionary headquarters at Tahiti, Society Islands, with William A. Seegmiller, president, and twelve missionaries; also on the Hawaiian Islands, with Sam- uel E. Woolley, president, with twenty-four missionary elders, four lady missionaries, and two native missionaries. This mission has a large sugar plantation, making it self-sustaining. The sugar plan- tation, as well as the missionaries are under the direction and charge of President W'oolley. On Van Diemen's Land, or the Island of Tasmania, a penal colony was established as early as 1803. The intention of Great Britain was to colonize the more dangerous political prisoners of her realm, more especially the Irish rebels of 1798, upon this island. For almost a quarter of a century it was known as a con- vict settlement under the immediate control of the Governor of New South Wales. In 1810 the population of this island num- bered only 1,300 souls. Bush ranging was rife, and there was no guarantee of safety for life or property. In 1825 Van Diemen's land had reached a population of 8,000, was separated from New South Wales, and made a separate colony under the governorship of Sir George Arthur, who continued to control until 1836. He was an autocrat and a very strict disciplinarian, at times, maybe too severe, but his discipline seemed necessary to control the con- victs, and to protect the colony and prepare it for the near future hwen the good among the convicts should be permitted to dom- MISSIONS OF AUSTRALIA AND PACIFIC ISL u\DS. 451 inate. This brought about an uplift of the general situation, and opened the way for a cessation of convict transportation to that colony, which was practically realized in 1837. During these years of expansion and trial there was almost a constant war waged against the natives. This was called the Black War. An attempt was made by the white people to establish a cordon across the island and hem in the natives, but peaceful measures prevailed with them, and by a treaty the natives were finally relegated to Flinders' Island. Sir John Franklin, of arctic exploration fame, succeeded Sir George Arthur as governor, and the emigration of free people was encouraged. Thus for years the struggle continued against con- vict transportation. At length a league was formed by the other colonies, and in 1850 the iniquitous system that England had established of transporting convicts to Van Diemen's land ceased, and in order to efface the stigma attached to the island because of the terrible cruelties inflicted upon the convicts of earlier years of this penal settlement, the name was changed from Van Diemen's land to Tasmania, in honor of the great explorer Tasman. The wonder is that these penal stations were not broken up long before the mandate was made for their abolishment. The settlement of South Australia was, however, an exception to the convict rule. Here no penal colony was established, but a num- ber of London gentlemen secured a grant of a large tract of land from the government of Great Britain. Permission to enlist volunteers from the well-to-do classes of Great Britain to purchase this land in small farms for about twelve shillings per acre was obtained, and the money thus secured from the sale of this land, was used in paying the passage of these volunteers, consisting of laboring men and women, to this new colony. These immigrants were not only paid liberal wages for cultivating the land, but were allowed to purchase a few acres so that very early in its history the tillers of the soil became the owners thereof, and a measure was introduced into Parliament by the originators of the colony (and this measure soon became a law), that no poacher or political offender or person convicted of any misdemeanor or crime should be sent there. Hence the capital city, named Adelaide, became from the first a prosperous city, and was settled by a superior 452 IMPROVEMENT ERA. class to those who had settled Sidney or Brisbane or Melbourne or any part of Tasmania. It mattered little in early times in what part of the island of Van Diemen these convicts were located. There was no difference in the punishments and cruelties inflicted upon them, and it would be a stretch of the imagination to suppose that greater cruelties were ever perpetrated in Siberia. Weighted down with heavy chains, which made walking almost impossible, the convict was made to toil in the woods near by his prison from day to day and from month to month. If he complained of illness, he was accused of malignering, and his complaint only increased the brutality of his jailer, until worn out with lashings and solitary confinement and starvation, he sunk down and died, hailing death as a welcome relief from his cruel master. Flogging was given with a cat-of- nine tails, a cruel whip with nine leather thongs attached to a stock, each thong tipped with metal, so that when applied to the naked and bent back, small pieces of flesh would be gouged out of the poor sufferer's body at every blow from these cruel lashes. Then as a sequel to the lashing, solitary confinement without food was added to the poor sufferer's misery, and if he survived these measures, in many instances he only waited an opportunity to pounce upon his jailer and strangle him to death, knowing for this he would be im- mediately executed by hanging, but preferring this ignominious death, to his life of torture. The motto of the convicts became "Anywhere, anywhere, to get out of the world." It must also be remembered that these convicts were not all criminals, but in many cases political offenders, and in others, men who were sent for life to these penal colonies because they had stolen a rabbit from the forest or game preserves of some English baron, in many cases hunger prompting them to make the theft. "It is with shame," says a well-known writer, "one has to admit that such cruelties were not only possible under the con- vict system, but that for so many years the people of Great Brit- ain were the instigators of convict colonies, which made it possible for their agents, appointed as jailers over these unfortunate peo- ple, with a few honorable exceptions— to torture and kill them according to their own depraved dispositions— so that Australia and Van Diemen's land, with their penal colonies, became the dread and scourge of the British nation." Citation: Young, Seymour B., "Missions of Australia and Pacific Islands," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 448–452. # Salvation Universal. V Salvation Universal. BY JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR., ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN. V. How great is the responsibility of the Latter-day Saints! No wonder the theme occupied the prophet's mind so constantly, just before his death, for upon the Saints devolves the labor of this universal redemption! Is not this the greatest, most glorious duty in the world? How terrible would be the consequences should we fail! The earth would be smitten with a curse, and utterly wasted. The work of all the dispensations would be lost, the dead as well as the living would be denied salvation. Anarchy, con- fusion, even chaos, would reign supreme: for this salvation must come by our endeavors, and we cannot fail. Individuals may fail to do their part, and be rejected for their failure, but the work of the Lord shall go on and increase from day to day, until redemp- tion of the dead shall be accomplished. If all the righteous blood from the days of Abel to the days of Zecharias, was required of the Jews in the days of Christ, because they neglected to do their duty in this regard, is it unreasonable to suppose that the blood of all the righteous from the begin- ning to the present day will be required of this generation? For our privileges are not only as great, but greater than those of the Jews in the meridian of time. Therefore it behooves each one of us to rid our garments of the blood of this generation by per- forming all our duties required in the gospel. If this work must be performed for the dead from the begin- ning to the end of time, Inw is it to be done? It is an excep- tional case when a family record can be traced beyond the fif- 454 IMPROVEMENT ERA. teenth century with any degree of accuracy, and most all of those that can, merely give the name of the father and first-born son, or the name of the one inheriting the estate. In extent of time three or four hundred years is but a moment. What, then, are we to do for the great multitudes of our kindred who antedate the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries, whose records were never kept, and conse- quently we cannot obtain? Will the Lord hold us accountable for these diad, and punish us for not doing their work, when we are powerless to act? Not in the least. The Lord requires of us that we do all we can, no more than that. He will assist us if we will try, and the way will be opened before us, as has been the case in innumerable instances, so that we can accomplish a great deal more than we at first think we can. There is enough that we can do for the dead, from the records which can be obtained today, to fill a hundred temples daily, and then we would not be through, at the rate we are working, before Christ will come to reign. We are expected to save as many as we possibly can with the knowledge we possess, and when the Redeemer comes to reign on earth, there will be a closer communication between the mortal and the resurrected Saints who will work hand in hand in the re- demption of the dead. Those who have passed beyond will then be in a position to furnish to their mortal kin all necessary names for temple work: and thus the labor for their salvation will be facili- tated and more accurately done than it possibly can be done today. Even now hundreds of thousands of records have been pre- pared, the names of many millions of souls have been published and are accessible to the members of the Church. Each year new genealogical records are being prepared in vast numbers more rapidly than we can do the work. And the Saints, with all their diligence, are not doing all that could be done. Comparatively, we are few in numbers, and the capacity of our four temples, lim- ited, but we should increase the work by increasing the number of workers. When the present temples will not accomodate all who desire to attend, the Lord will require that other temples be erected. There are in the Church toiiy over forty-one thousand, seven hundred men holding the Melchizedek Priesthood, and every faithful SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 455 elder has access to the temples. Suppose that each of the forty - one thousand, seven hundred elders should go to one of the tem- ples one day each month —and where they cannot go, they might send and have the work done for them— what would be the result? The work would be done for five hundred thousand each year. If an equal number of sisters would do the same, there would be one million souls endowed every year. If we spent one day each month in the temples saving our dead, just twelve days out of the three hundred and sixty-five of the year, brethren and sisters, would any of us be doing more than our share? Could we even feel that we were doing our full duty, when the responsibility given us is so great, and "the Saints have not too much time to save and redeem their dead and gather together their living rela- tives, that they may be saved also before the earth will be smitten, and the consummation decreed falls upon the world? Suppose we did all this each year, in the course of a century we would have endowed one hundred million souls, which is about the present population of the United States, and a very small part of the work for those whose records we may now obtain. In the library of the Genealogical Society of —which society was organized Utah in 1894 as an aid to the Saints who desire to do temple work — situ- ated in the Historian's office, Salt Lake City, we have on file hun- dreds of records, containing millions of names that have been col- lected from the parish registers and other records both in the United States and Europe. These are accessible, and many are obtaining from them the names of their dead and performing in the temples the work that will merit them a place in the king- dom of God. Again, suppose each one of us should fill out one baptismal blank of twenty names, and send it to the temple every month, it would mean that over twenty million, sixteen thousand baptisms would be performed each twelve months. Suppose we sent such a list but twice a year, we would then baptize three million, three hundred and thirty-six thousand souls each year. Is this more than we ought to do? Is itmore than we are capable of doing? It cer- tainly is a great deal more than we are doing; and, too, there are many individuals who are baptizing more than twenty every month- If a few can do it, why can not all? The fact is, this question has 456 IMPROVEMENT ERA. not appealed to many of us, we have been so busy in other pursuits, principally in the accumulation of worldly goods that we cannot carry with us, that we have had no time or inclination to do the work for our dead. If one hundredth part of the energy expended by the members of the Church in other ways were directed in the channel of temple work where it properly belongs, we could accomplish a great deal more work than we are now doing for the salvation of the dead. But one will say: ''I have done the work forall my ancestors of whom I have any knowledge. My genealogy can only be traced to my great grandfather, beyond that all is dark. How can I be baptized each year for twenty, forty, sixty, or more of my dead when we haven't their records?" To such a person I reply: If you have done the work for all your known dead, and your record can- not be traced but one or two generations, you still have the privi- lege of assisting your neighbor who lacks sufficient help and there- fore cannot do the work for all his dead. Assist him and assist the temples with your financial as well as your moral support, and the way may be opened before you that you can obtain more knowledge of your own dead. There is one thing of importance, however, we must keep in mind. No person has a right to select names promiscuously of any family, and go to the temple to perform the work for them. This cannot be tolerated, for it would lead to confusion and duplication of work. Let each family do the work for their own dead kindred, as they may have the right, andif they do work for others, it must be at the instance and with the consent of the living rela- tives who are immediately concerned. A few individuals have desired to do the work for men of renown, generals, presidents, magistrates, and others who have risen to prominent stations in the world. One object they apparently have in view is that they may say they have done the work for such and such persons. But there is an order in this work, as in all things pertaining to the gospel, and in no case should work be done in this manner, unless the circumstances are such that proper sanction of the temple authorities can be given. We are also troubled at times by what are known as "link- men," individuals in the world who manufacture names so that Citation: Smith, Joseph F., Jr., "Salvation Universal. V," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 453–456. # Habit SALVATION UNIVERSAL. 457 they can complete unbroken a family line. This is done for the purpose of making money, and is, of course, knavery of the worst kind. Those who are guilty of this trickery do not understand salvation for the dead, and may not fully realize the wickedness of such a course. Latter-day Saints should be accurate in their recording, and not depend entirely on the temple records for a history of their work. Temple record books are prepared for the use of the Saints so that each family may keep their own record of their dead. This should be done that the record may be handed down from genera- tion to generation. Remember it is out of the records that the dead are to be judged. We should be orderly in all things, and strive to get the spirit of the work, live our religion and work out our own salvation by assisting in the salvation of our dead, for we without them cannot be made perfect. In the words of the prophet, I shall conclude, Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free.* [the end.] Habit. A thought, a deed — my spirit is strong! To the voice of conscience I say "be still," And then — ah then the evil is done: Habit has fettered the giant Will. But Will is king, though held in thrall, And perseverance his fetter breaks, And when he conquers Habit bold, Of her a docile slave he makes. Maud Baggarley * Doc. and Cov. 128: 22. Citation: Baggarley, Maud, "Habit," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 457. # Editor’s Table: Clean Dramatic Amusements Editor's Table. Clean Dramatic Amusements. Amusements people will have. It is needful and right that these should be provided. Giving the people proper dramatic entertainment was an early desire of President Brigham Young. This idea was at the basis of the building of the Salt Lake Theatre, a playhouse many years in advance of the community, when it was first erected. He encouraged dramatic art among the people, and was ambitious to make the stage a means of social uplift and in- tellectual development. Like dancing, which he and the author- ities of the Church after him permitted, the drama was to be a means of betterment for the person through recreation, entertain- ment and amusement. It was to be clean and elevating, the — theatre a place where you could go for high class enjoyment, and even where you could ask the blessings of the Lord upon what you learned and thought and saw. "Those who cannot serve God with a pure heart in the dance, should not dance," said President Young on one occasion. Not with decent people, at least. Then again: "If you wish to dance, dance, and you are just as much prepared for a prayer meeting after dancing as ever you were, if you are Saints." These words apply also to the theatre, and, in fact, to all our amusements. When we seek recreation anywhere it should be in this spirit, — not alone in dances, summer outings, and private or public parties, but also in the theatre. In order, however, to maintain this spirit in our social and amusement circles, choice of our associates, to some extent, and a guarding of our actions, in a degree, are needful and very import- EDITOR'S TABLE. 459 ant. This is quite as true of the theatre. There is as much need of our choosing plays as of choosing books, friends, and asso- ciates. If one accept an invitation to a party, or a home even- ing, or a dinner, one must first know from whom the invitation comes, and if it turn out that the source is low and infamous, the society coarse, and the food and drinks unfit, one must, in justice to his character and physical welfare, refuse the entertainment. Equally so with the theatre. There is as much need to exercise good taste in choosing matter for our entertainment in the drama, as in choosing honorable society and pure food. It must be said with regret that much of the entertainment offered to us and our chil- dren on the stage and in the amusement hall, these days, is mor- ally and intellectually unfit. What was recently said at Denver, in a sermon by Dr. Vos- burg, applies with force in Salt Lake City, and perhaps in the western cities and settlements generally. He spoke on the "Undressed Drama," and in the course of a scathing sermon said: It is an undeniable fact that a large proportion of the plays offered at the theatres today are intellectually imbecile and morally degrading. Just as high toned moral and spiritual teaching creates better citizens,does the undressed drama make worse citizens, and so become the logical feeder of the red light district. It is a curse to civil- ization, an enemy of the home and of mankind. The Denver News agrees with him. and declares that he does not overstate the case, for a large part of the plays which are offered today are "hurrahs for the tenderloin, glorifications for the scarlet woman, proclamations that dramatic art depends upon an absence of decency, and as nearly as possible an absence of clothes." The drama of the day and the prevailing moving picture and vaudeville shows, it may be added, are as untrue to life as they are indecent. "They picture the dive as the home of wit, instead of being the abiding place of dullness." They paint "happiness growing from the soil that nourishes half our suicides, and defy not only every law of decency, but every fact of life — and indeed to do the one they must do the other." The managers and players seem to have forgotten that decency pays, or else public teste is so low and degraded that this Citation: Smith, Joseph F., "Editor’s Table: Clean Dramatic Amusements," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 458–459. # An Easter Prayer 460 IMPROVEMENT ERA. statement is no longer a fact. There is more reason to believe, how- ever, that the public take what is provided for them, and that decency pays, even in the theatre, if it were given a reason- able chance. It pays in hotels, in resident districts, in the better walks of life, where the vicious and evil are not tolerated, why not in the theatre? But if managers and players still persist in presenting either unfit subjects, or fit subjects in an unfit way, why there is only one remedy, and that is for the people to withdraw their support, and patronize only such plays and playhouses as are clean and whole- some. This can be done by their making selection, as one would select a friend, an associate, or a book. Degrading plays, it is 'true, should not be permitted in the theatres and amusement halls of the Latter-day Saints, but if for any reason they gain entrance, the people, by a system of investi- gation and choice, should shun them, withdraw th^ir patronage, and let them as severely alone as they would spoiled food, or .coarse, vile associates. The character and value of the play and the entertainment are well given by President Young in the opening sentence of this article. They should be clean, refined and uplifting. Can you, if you are a Latter-day Saint, apply the test that he gave to dancing to what you have seen and heard and thought and learned in the play and entertainment? Can you ask the blessings of the Lord upon your efforts to obtain recreation, entertainment and amuse- ment from them? If so, they are clean and sweet and worthy of your patronage; if not, they are neither fit for you nor your chil- dren. But it is your duty to choose before you accept them, or permit yourself or your children to attend. Joseph F. Smith. An Easter Prayer. Make us strong, God, to overcome daily difficulties by faith. Such faith as gives us will and strength to act right towards our loved ones; to render loving service to all mankind. Open the understanding of our minds to clearly comprehend the wonderful Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "An Easter Prayer," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 460. # Messages from the Missions EDITOR'S TABLE. 461 sacrifice of thy Son. He hath redeemed our souls through the resurrection. We have found life everlasting in his unselfish death. Help us cheerfully to learn wisdom through diligence on our part, and by obedience to thy law, for so shall we rejoice in thy blessings, and be strong now and hereafter to help bear the burdens of the weak. As Jesus gained mastery over death through pain and struggle, and without price wrought miracles of love and healing; so prepare us, in the midst of thy bounteous blessings, or in the valley of the shadow of obstacles, hardships and sorrows, to remember his priceless service, that we may find strength to mas- ter fear and doubt and selfishness, and be able in our turn to give some comfort to the unfortunate. Help us to awake to the im- port of his mission, to gain a measure of his kingly spirit: "He that believe th on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do," that thus we may be urged to faith in the future, and to good deeds in this life. For this is the promise: through the resurrection of Christ the mortal of the workers of good shall put on immortality, and they shall rise to endless life and happiness. As in nature we hear at this season sounds all about us foreshadowing the marvelous reawakening of life, so fill thou our souls with this knowledge: there is a resurrec- tion, the grave hath no victory, the sting of death is swallowed up in Jesus Christ, the endless light and life of the world, that can never be darkened. Messages from the Missions. Elder Nephi J. Brown, writing from London, England, on January 17, says: "The missionary work in London is progressing nicely. We are getting several good investigators to our meetings. A marked inter- est is taken in the M. LA. work. The senior manual for this season is indeed excellent. The comments of non-'Mormons' in regard to it are very favorable.'' Elders Erastus Johnson and Edward P. Makelprang, writing from Aalesund branch, Bergen conference, Norway, January 8, express thanks for the Era which arrives at the lodge monthly and is read with inter- 462 IMPROVEMENT ERA. est and pleasure. "We desire the portrait of the primary department of our Sunday school in print. Many of the Saints of this branch live out in the country, hence all the children are not on the photo. The true and everlasting work of our Heavenly Father is progressing in this part of his vineyard." PRIMARY DEPARTMENT, AALESUND SUNDAY SCHOOL, NORWAY. K. N. Winnie andE. G. Cannon writing from Nome, Alaska, Novem- ber 15, 1909, say: "We are holding meetings here as usual, but infidel- ity is increasing, and it seems very difficult to reach the church-goers. The pleasures of this world seem to be all-satisfying to hundreds of the population in this city, but we are not going to give up the fight, but rather continue to send out our warning voices while we are here. We are indeed watchmen on the wall of the city, but 'who hath believed our report?' Only very few so far, but, as the scriptures say: If we labor all our lives and bring but one soul into the kingdom of God, how great shall be our rejoicing. There is nothing in all this unbelieving world that we would take in exchange for the light and knowledge that we receive through obedience to the Gospel. We pray that our Father may con- EDITOR'S TABLE. 463 tinue to use the Era as an agent in dispensing the great truths which he is revealing in these latter-days." On January 15-16 a conference was held at Kelsey, Texas, attended by Mission President S. 0. Bennion and President C. H. Hart, of the First Council of Seventy. On this occasion the new church of the Kel- sey branch was dedicated. The Kelsey branch is one of the largest branches of the Church outside of the stakes of Zion, the colony num- bering some five hundred people. President C. H. Hart offered the dedi- catory prayer. The church building is very prominently located on a hill in the center of Kelsey. It is fifty feet wide by eighty-five feet long, having a seating capacity in the main auditorium of six hundred. The rostrum for the presiding elders and the choir will seat fifty people. The building besides has four class rooms that will seat fifty people each. The structure is of frame, lined with brick, and cost approximately $6,400. Elders Archie Frame and Benjamin F. Le Baron had charge of the work, assisted by other elders and local brethren. Well seated, and well lighted throughout with gas, it is a very commodious and comfort- able building, and a credit to Kelsey ward, as well as to all Latter- day Saints. The Relief Society purchased the new organ and a beautiful silver sacrament set. In the Wisconsin conference of the Northern States mission there is a spirit of inquiry from every side. The German speaking people seem willing to accept the gospel, and they make good, sturdy Latter- day Saints. President C. L. Reuckert, of the Milwaukee branch, who was called to preside there after filling a mission, has been in the Northern States seven years. Since his release from regular missionary work, he has gone into business at Milwaukee, and the Lord is prospering him and the branch under his presidency. The names of the persons in the picture are: Upper row, from left to right: R. F. Shumway, Clarkston; Jos. A. Orgill, Daniels; L. C. Montgomery, Heber; Alonzo Mackay, Calder's Sta- tion, all of Utah; Jno. S. Morgan, Liberty, Idaho; J. T. Durrant, Porter- ville; Jos. Kutschal, Salt Lake City. Second row: Z. M. Chapman, Blue- water, N. M.; L. C. Larsen, Salt Lake City; Jno. R. Bingham, Trenton, Utah; E. D. Shawcroft, La Jara, Colo.; Sister. Maeser (student) Sister .Anna Hindley, American Fork (lady missionary); Sister Jane Nelson, Salt Lake City, (lady missionary); W. G. Palmer, Preston, Idaho; F. B. C. Scheidig, Salt Lake City. Third row: J. C. Keller, Manti, Utah; W. H. Meacham, Lago, Idaho; H. M. Olmstead, Darby, Idaho; Conf. Pres, George E. Liljenquist, Hyrum, Utah; Mission Sec'y- D. A. Latimer, Granger, Utah; E. M. Crawford, Manti, Utah; W. D. Baird, Mink Creek. Idaho; R. Maeser, (student). Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Messages from the Missions," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 461–464. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. Important Class Organization of Seventies. — On Wednesday evening, February 9, at 8 p. m., an important class was organized, com- posed of presidents of seventies and class teachers belonging to the quo- rums of seventy located in, and near, Salt Lake City. The class will meet every Wednesday night, at 8 p. m., in a very desirable hall, on the fourth floor of the splendid new "Bishop's Building." The hall will seat very comfortably about seventy-five persons. The object of the organi- zation is to give presidents and class teachers an opportunity of studying the lessons outlined in the Third Year Book of the Seventies Course in Theology. Elder B. H. Roberts, of the First Council of Seventy, will be in charge of the class, which is a guarantee that all who attend will ob- tain a comprehensive understanding of the lessons that are to be studied by the seventies during the present year. Visiting presidents of seventy who may be in Salt Lake City on any Wednesday night, will be made wel- come at the class meetings. Presidents of quorums within easy reach of the meeting place, are urged to see that the same splendid attendance present at the opening meeting, shall be present regularly. Constant attendance at these preparation meetings will prove of great assistance to the quorums that have representatives earnestly engaged in the class work. Transfer Certificates. — An elder from Burtner, Utah, enquires relative to elders' transfers from one quorum to another: "Some quor- ums receive an elder after he has been duly received as a member of the ward, the elder presenting his certificate of ordination to the president of the quorum he wishes to join; while other quorums require a certificate of membership issued by the president or clerk of the quorum from which the elder came. Elders have been deprived of membership in quorums of which they should have been members, for years, by reason of not be- ing able to obtain a recommend from the quorum of which they have been members. Please give definite instruction in regard to this matter." 466 1MPR0 VEMENT ERA We think that paragraph 89 of the Annual Instructions, 1910, by the Presiding Bishopric is full and to the point: When a person is ordained to an office in the priesthood he is en- titled to a certificate ofordination which he should carefully preserve. Whenever necessary it should be presented to the proper authority as an evidence of his ordination and accepted by the quorum having jurisdic- tion in the ward or stake where he resides and he should be permitted to ; join that quorum without any recommendation from the quorum where he formerly resided, provided he has been accepted as a member of the ward. If he does not possess a certificate of ordination, and the recom- mend upon which he was received in the ward gives his priesthood and last ordination, it should be accepted as evidence that he holds that office, and he should be admitted to fellowship in the quorum, provided there is no evidence to the contrary. Value of a Schedule of Meeting Topics. —The Council of the Seventy-seventh quorum of seventy, Ogden, have issued, in leaflet form, a schedule of lesson topics, embracing all the meetings to be held from January 10, to December 26, 1910. Each member of the quorum has been supplied with a copy, thus having always at hand correct informa- tion of the lesson to be considered each week. The presidents of this quorum discovered that it was not uncommon for members, through ab- sence from a meeting or from home, or for other cause, to be unable at times to take active part in the lesson discussion, since they had lost track of the lesson. The schedule enables each member, even though a break has occurred in his attendance, always to know what lesson to pre- pare for any given night. The Seventy-seventh council expect that the schedule will cause a greater proportion of members to be prepared in lesson work. It is suggested to other presidents that it might be helpful to adopt this system, or some other, to help members to keep posted on the lesson to be studied for any particular date. Following is a sample of the information contained in the leaflet Mar. 7, Lesson 9. Special Lesson. Discourse. (Quorum meeting). The Latter-day Saints' superior grounds for faith in the existence of God. Mar. 14, Lesson 10. The Limitations of our Revelations. Mar. 21, Lesson 11. Ancient conceptions of God. Mar. 28, Lesson 12. Ancient Conceptions of God. (Continued). In this manner the lessons are outlined for the entire year. All presidents should be equally active, with those of the Seventy- seventh quorum, contriving plans that will help bring success to their quorums President's council meetings should be held regularly. In quorums may be discussed, and such plans put in these, the needs of the motion as may be impressed upon the minds of presidents by the Spirit of the Lord. PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS TABLE. 467 Priesthood Quorums the Means of Fellowship and Fra- ternity. — In this light the members of the quorums are scarcely taking advantage of the splendid opportunities offered. Think of i-t, now! Are you quite as close to the brethren of your quorum as you might be, both to your own and to their benefit in countless ways? If not, why not- Lesson seven of the Elders' course, this year, points to the fact that there is no other one means more favorable to true development than the quo- rum. Then it explains that in the quorum we have fellowship, fraternity and progressive study; and in addition, as a guiding, uplifting influence pervading all this, the members are entitled to the Holy Ghost. We may well ask whether the quorum members are making the most of these ad- vantages; and also call attention to the opportunity the quorums present for the exercise of the legitimate desire for companionship, and brotherly love, and for the intellectual and spiritual progress of its members. Are the members making use of these chances? Unless occasion is taken to grasp them, opportunities slip by to no purpose. It requires effort and diligent application to gain knowledge and power, so also to get the best results out of our quorum association. "Fellowship, fraternity, spiritual growth." Let us introduce habits into our lives that will foster these virtues. What habits? Cleanliness of body and mind, cheerfulness, consideration for another's feelings, harmony, thorough preparation of lessons, help- fulness, and then by doing something for the ward, not only as indi- viduals, but as a quorum. To get the best out of fellowship and fra- ternity, as out of life, and to increase spiritual growth, the individual must put forth effort to cheerfully and intellectually help and serve his ftllows. Slogan— A Year Book in the Hands of Every Seventy— An Outline in the Hands of Every High Priest and Elder.— In some instances there appears to be a lack of appreciation for the splendid Year Book, that has been prepared for the quorums of seventy. The First Council have had ten thousand of these books published, in order that every seventy in the Church may be in possession of a copy. Occasionally presidents seem to think that if a majority of the members of a quorum purchase books, that should be satisfactory. It is the judgment of the presiding council that every seventy should purchase the work. Any member of a quorum who has not interest enough to take the Year Book, must be in a bad state spiritually, and in great need of special attention from the quorum council. In some cases members are prevented through absence from home, tnd other causes, from being in attendance at quo- rum meetings; such absence or other obstacle, should not be considered a reason for not studying the Year Book. Brethren who cannot attend 168 IMPR VEMENT ERA . quorum meetings should be desirous of keeping in touch with quorum work. This^can be done by giving an hour or two each week to a study of the work that has been prepared. The cost of the Year Book is so trifling that no one could advance that as a reason for not being loyal to their quorum text book. Brethren who do not have the book are entirely unacquainted with the value of the lessons that have been prepared. They need converting. A Year Book Let the slogan in every council be: in the hands of every member. Members of quorums, no matter how iso- lated, or in what employment, should be taught to keep in step with the quorum organization to which they belong. This can be done by studying the Year Book in whatever work, or place one may be. What is here said to the seventies applies with equal force to the high priests and elders. Because the bishops are not, perhaps, as per- sistent in insisting that the brethren of tlnse quorums shall be in pos- session of the outlines as in the case of priests, teachers and deacons, is no excuse for laxity on their part, in this respect. Brethren, study the outlines with your quorums, if you have opportunity: but in all events read them and keep up with the march of progress. Marriage of Widows. — "If a woman is sealed to a man in the temple for eternity, and the man, her husband, dies, and she marries again and has a family by a second husband, to which man do the chil- dren belong in the hereafter? The children, according to the belief of the Latter-day Saints, go with the mother, and she, of course, belongs to the man unto whom she was originally sealed for time and eternity. Her second marriage was for time only. Correction.— In the Seventies' third Year Book, p. 21, 4th and 5th lines from the bottom, appears an error in punctuation which entirely changes the meaning of the idea sought to be conveyed, making it con- trary to "Mormon" doctrine: The sentence reads: "In both 'Mormon' theism and 'Mormon' philosophy, matter is eternal force, the permanent element in causation, according to the suggestion of Mr. Mill, is eternal." Place a semi-colon after the first "eternal," and the error is corrected: "In both 'Mormon' theism and 'Mormon' philosophy matter is eternal; force, '' etc. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 465–468. # Mutual Work: M. I. A. Reading Room and Gymnasium in Logan Mutual Work. M. I. A. Reading Room and Gymnasium in Logan. Active labors in providing the young people of Logan with a public gathering place where they may find healthful physical exercise, social con- verse, as well as intellectual diversion, in the way of good current reading matter, has ended in most satisfactory results. The brethren and sisters engaged in this work deserve commendation. Assistant Superintendent Frederick Scholes, responding to a request, tells the Era of the efforts of the M. I. A. to establish this enterprise in Logan: ' 'Our first active steps, ' ' he writes, "were taken during the summer of 1908. At this time definite plans were agreed upon, and the approval of the. Cache Stake presidency was obtained. We received substantial encour- agement from a number of leading citizens of Logan, but on account of a feeling that our plans were inadequate for the needs of the town, we were asked to desist our efforts for the time being. Notwithstanding this setback, Superintendent A. E. Cranney, with undaunted energy, ably seconded by members of his board, took the matter of our needs up with the General Board Y. M. M. I. A., and the encouragement we received from that active and interested body gave us new courage, and through their efforts we had placed at our disposal the spacious and substantial building known as the Preston Block, situated in the central part of Logan, close in to the business districts, an ideal location for our purpose. Our aim is to provide an attractive rendezvous for the boys, especially those who are attracted from home influences to the alluring downtown districts. In our rooms we them not only good reading, clean offer and attractive games, more favorable environment, associations under but we endeavor in this way to encourage and help them to more fully understand that, for 'a wise and glorious purpose, we have been placed here on earth,' and that 'The man who wins is the man who does.' "We have fitted up three large rooms, as reading room, game room, and gymnasium, and have in contemplation the fitting up of another Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work: M. I. A. Reading Room and Gymnasium in Logan," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 469. # Dramas for M. I. A. 470 IMPROVEMENT ERA. large room for the exclusive use of the sisters. (The ladies will also share and enjoy the other departments.) ' 'As in all enterprises of this character, the ladies proved themselves a tower of strength, for through their untiring efforts and co-operation the M. I. A. of the stake held successful bazaars and entertainments in each ward, which netted for reading room purposes upwards of $1,000. Public spirited citizens are contributing freely to the reading room, books, papers and leading magazines, and all interested feel much en- couraged in the bright prospects for success in this feature of our work.'' Dramas for M. I. A. From time to time there will be published in the Improvement Era titles of plays passed upon by the Committee on Music and Drama as suitable for production by members of the M. I. A. A few are here presented from among those examined and approved. It is anticipated that a copy of each play passed upon as acceptable will be kept in the office of the Era to be loaned for examination, when necessary, and returned to the office promptly. When copies are required for use by the associations, the General Secretary, upon request, will furnish informa- tion as to where these can be purchased, in Salt Lake City. The usual price of each copy is fifteen cents, except in the case of special plays and operettas, where the cost is greater. Local officers of the M. I. A. may have plays of their own choosing examined and reported upon, and sug- gestions in the line of desirable pieces will be duly appreciated when for- warded to the General Board Committee on Music and Drama for consid- eration. The committee consists of Oscar A. Kirkham, Willard Done and James H. Anderson, care Era office, Salt Lake City. Whenever requested, the members of the committee, or either of them, will render such advice and assistance as may be practicable in the time at their dis- posal. The names of suitable pieces so far selected are: Cricket on th°, Hearth, or, a Fairy Tale of Home. Drama in three acts, dramatized by Albert Smith, from Charles Dickens' story of the same name. Suitable for professionals and carefully drilled amateurs Seven male .and eight female characters, besides fairies and neighbors. Requires careful, yet not elaborate dressing. Costumes of seventy years ago. Two interior scenes. Plays two hours. Bread on the Waters. Drama in two acts by George M. Baker, suitable for carefully drilled amateurs. Five male and three female characters Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Dramas for M. I. A.," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 470. # Suggestions for Debates MUTUAL WORK. 471 all young people but two. Easily staged. Modern costumes. Two interior scenes. Plays one hour and forty minutes. The Berrypickers. A lively operetta for junior classes; requires at least twenty-four, would be better with double that number. and Dresses pretty, but not elaborate. Can be tastefully arranged with little difficulty. One outdoor scene. Plays forty minutes. Makes an excellent evening's entertainment in connection with such desirable short dramas for amateurs, as Bread on the Waters, Above the Clouds, Among the Breakers, Down by the Sea, The Last Loaf, etc. Our Boys. Comedy in three acts, by Henry J. Byron. Suitable for professionals and carefully drilled amateurs. Six male four female characters. Modern costumes. Scenery easily arranged. Three inte- rior scenes. Plays two hours. Comrades. Drama in three acts. Suitable for professionals and carefully drilled amateurs. Four male, three female characters. Mod- ern costumes. One interior scene, variations arranged with little difficulty. Plays two hours. Suggestions for Debates. Before a debate, the two teams, or associations, or sides, should formulate a written agreement covering the following points: 1. The time and place of the contest. 2. The time for submitting the question and by which team it shall be submitted. 3. The time for the team receiving the question to return its choice of side. 4. The number of debaters on each side and the length and order of their speeches. 5. The method of choosing judges. The Committee on Debates, Contests and Lectures, consisting of Dr. John A. Widtsoe, B. H. Roberts, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., A. W. Ivins, Ed- ward H. Anderson, makes the following suggestions: In selecting a question for debate care should be taken to choose a subject upon which difference of opinion may fairly exist, in fact one upon which public opinion is divided. Questions should be chosen, the study of which will be worth the while of the debaters and the discus- sion of which will be beneficial and enlightening to the hearers. Each team may consist of either two or three debaters. The contest will probably be long enough with two on a side, 472 IMPRO VEMENT ERA Principal speeches should be from ten to fifteen minutes in length. A good order is as follows: first affirmative speaker, 15 minutes; first negative, 15 minutes; second affirmative, 15 minutes; second negative, 20 minutes, 15 for his principal speech and 5 for closing rebuttal and summary for his side; followed by a five-minute closing rebuttal by one of the affirmative speakers. If desired the five-minute closing rebuttal may be given as a second speech to the first negative speaker instead of adding it to the time of the second speaker, but the affirmative must al- ways close the debate. Another plan which has some advantage over the first is to give each man a principal and a rebuttal speech. No person should be retained as a judge who is not acceptable to both sides. It should be the primary purpose of each team to present clearly and fairly the arguments for its side and to defend its position with as much information and logical argument as possible. This requires much care- ful study and preparation. Mere assertion of one's own opinion has no argumentative force and should be avoided. Attempted flights of oratory should also be omitted. It should not be forgotten that there are two sides to every contro- versy, and that there is room for perfectly honest and friendly differ- ences of opinion on most questions. The debates should be opened and closed by music and prayer, and conducted in an academic spirit of fairness and with a view to getting at the truth. It is no disparagement to be defeated in a contest so con- ducted. Respectful courtesy should be shown on both sides, and all person- alities avoided. In referring to the debaters on the opposite side, no names should be used, but rather the expression, "the gentleman or speaker on the affirmative," or "negative," as the case may be. Improper motives should not be attributed. Only small, petty minds do that. A debate should never degenerate into mere conten- tion. It is held to get information, gather knowledge, and ascertain the truth, and not to gain personal advantage. The wording of the question should be agreed upon by both sides, and a definition of the terms should be thoroughly understood. The de- baters should confine themselves to the points of the question, and not permit themselves to treat topics not germane to the issue. A chair- man should be chosen to conduct the debate, who will announce the sub- ject, the name of the judges, the respective speakers, and the decision of the judges, and see that the debate is carried on in fairness. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Suggestions for Debates," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 471–472. # Tribute of Respect MUTUAL WORK. 473 Let the discussion close with the debate, and not be carried on later, nor on the outside. In regard to the judges, let it be remembered that their decisions are only the opinions of three out of the many who have listened, and that their decisions do not necessarily settle the merits of the question, — only the points of that debate in their opinion. Suggestions for questions for debate on historical, biographical, political, economical, educational, literary, artistic, scientific, ethical, and miscellaneous subjects will appear in this department from time to time. Two subjects from each of these divisions follow: Resolved, that Greece has contributed more to the civilization of the world than Rome. Resolved, that the Declaration of Independence wi.l be regarded in the future as a more important document than the Emancipation Proclama- tion. Resolved, that Franklin should be regarded as the greatest Ameri- can. Resolved, that Webster's 7th of March speech was worthy of him. Resolved, that the existence of parties is necessary in free government. Resolved, that the government should own and operate the railroads. Resolved, that strikes are a benefit, on the whole, to the laboring class. Resolved, that the government should establish postal savings banks. Resolved, that high schools should be a part of the common school sys- tem. Resolved, that a collegiate education would make a man a better farmer. Resolved, that the madness of Hamlet was altogether feigned. Resolved, that the prevalence of fiction in modern literature has been, on the whole, a good rather than an evil. Resolved, that art and science are antagonistic. Resolved, that photography has done more to popular- ize art than engraving. Resolved, that the atomic theory finds in science sufficient confirmation to establish its validity. Resolved, that genius is hereditary. Resolved, that it is never right to deceive. Re- solved, that it is better to be rich than poor. Resolved, that intemper- ance has been a greater curse to mankind than slavery. Officers please note: to avoid possible difficulty, you are requested to use for debate only such topics as are from time to time suggested by the committee; and if you have other topics that you wish to debate, these should first be submitted to the committee for approval. Tribute of Respect. The following resolutions of respect to the memory of Elders Hela- man Pratt and John C. Harper, were recently passed by the Y. L. and Y. M M. I. A. of the Juarez Stake of Zion: Whereas, our Father in heaven hath, in his omniscient providence, called home, within the brief span of five burdened days, two men who 474 IMPRO VEMENT ERA have stood for all that is noble and best in both the Mutual Improvement cause, as well as for the Church of Christ in this far-away Mexican land and, Whereas, Elder Helaman Pratt has acted from its inception, as a very father, guide and friend to every department of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association in these colonies; and, Whereas, Elder -Harper has opened wide the portals of his home to all who sought help or "comfort within its spacious walls, both friend and stranger, giving to the interests under his wife's care whatever of assistance and hospitality was necessary to their full development, and this, too, without money and without price; now, therefore, Be it resolved: That we, the officers and members of the Y. L. and Y. M. M. I. A. of Juarez Stake of Zion, do join in this expression of our love and esteem for these brethren, our heartfelt loss in their death; and above all do we unite in an earnest prayer for the stricken wives who have been thus bereaved. We realize that words are feeble to express the affectionate tribute which we desire to pay. Yet even so, we tenderly offer these weak words on the altar of our respect, our love and our deep sympathy. May the Father, who has led us to this prom- ised land, which has been sowed in our sorrows and watered with our tears, comfort our beloved associate officers, and all the members of these two families, with the blessed realization that these two noble brethren have entered upon a more beautiful mission, have been called to occupy a more exalted position. We have rejoiced in sweet association with these our friends, both those who have gone beyond, and those who linger here. May the hallowed influence of these two consecrated examples linger upon our own lives like a benediction of peace, love and faith everlasting. Committee: Nancy E. Durfie, Anna I. Wilson, Mina W. Bowman, Susa Young Gates. Col. Juarez, January 10, 1910. A customer was trading in one of the great stores of Salt Lake, whose proprietors are mostly Latter-day Saints. The over-important clerk waiting upon him was heard to use the name of Deity in vain in some trifling remark made to a fellow clerk. "Young man," said the costumer in rebuke "such language is both unbecoming and inappropri- ate in this store!" But is it ever anywhere becoming and appropriate? Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Tribute of Respect," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 473–474. # Passing Events Passing Events. Herbert John Gladstone, fifty-six years of age, and the young- est son of the late William E. Gladstone, has been appointed the first Governor-General of South Africa. William M. Laffan, editor and publisher of the New York Sun, and for many years one of the leading newspaper managers of America, died November 19, last, aged sixty-two years. The British Elections, beginning on January 15 and continuing until the 29th, gave the Liberal government the majority in the House of Commons. The new Parliament assembled February 15. W. Cameron Forbes was inaugurated Governor-General of the Philippines on November 23, which was a general holiday in Manila. He is the fifth to occupy the post since the organization of civil govern- ment in 1901— William H. Taft, Luke E. Wright, Henry C. Ide and James P. Smith. Football Fatalities for the 1909 season numbered 30 players, accord- ing to the Chicago Record-Herald. Eight of these were college students, 20 high school boys, and two members of athletic clubs. During the season 216 others were injured. In the annual report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, published November 21, it is estimated that the total cost of the canal will be three hundred and seventy-five million dollars. The President expects that the canal will be finished in five years. Floods in France, in the closing days of January, did serious injury along the Seine. The city of Paris suffered great damage from the water, one-fourth of the city being submerged. The loss of life was 476 IMPRO VEMENT ERA comparatively small, but the damage to property has been estimated at over $200,000,000. The Standard Oil Company was declared an illegal combination operating in restraint of trade, and ordered to cease such combination and operation. The opinion, rendered November 20, was given by the U. S. Circuit court for the eastern district of Missouri. The case now goes to the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal. Richard Watson Gilder, poet and editor of the Century magazine since 1881, and for eleven years prior to that time managing editor of Scribner's Monthly, died on November 18, 1909, age 65 years. He was president of the New York association for the blind, and interested in many charitable organizations. He wrote six volumes of verse. John Stewart Kennedy died in New York, October 31. He was not known as a wealthy man, yet he gave at his death to education alone almost as much as Rhodes gave to Oxford, (a little less than fifteen mil- lions) and to religious and charitable purposes as much again. For twenty-six years he was president of the Presbyterian hospital in New York, and in 1908, gave a million to that institution. The Governor's Conference, held at Washington on January 18- 20, was attended by the governors of thirty-one states. The uniformity of state laws relating to matters of divorce, labor problems, and conser- vation of natural resourses, was the important subject under consider- ation. It was decided to hold similar conferences annually, and here- after at state capitals, the next conference to be held between Thanks- giving and Christmas of this year. On November 20, just one week after the Cherry, Illinois, coal mine explosion, twenty out of the three hundred miners imprisoned in the St. Paul coal mine, were discovered alive and rescued. The fire was caused by the carelessness of a miner who threw a burning torch upon a pile of hay. Fire and an explosion followed. The superintendent and thirteen men lost their lives in a vain attempt to rescue the unfortunate men. Several serious coal mine disasters have followed in other places since then, and steps are being taken to prevent these fearful calam- ities in the future by better provisions and regulations. Conservation of the National Resources. — President Taft urged strongly in his message to Congress on January 14, the conserva- tion of national resources. Among other things, he urged the govern- mental control of water power sites in public lands to prevent their PASSING EVENTS. 477 absorption in a monopoly. He recommended the issue of thirty million dollars in bonds for reclamation of arid lands and for the extension of projects already begun. The beginning of the development of inland waterways by the improvement of the Ohio river and the upper Missis- sippi he also recommended. Ann Everington Woolley, mother of Elder B. H. Roberts, died on January 11, at her home in Bountiful. She was born in Norfolk, England, December 18, 1826, embraced the gospel in August, 1851, and came to Utah in May, 1862. She leaves a total of one hundred and five descendants. She was a woman of strong personality, gentle, refined and intelligent, and wielded power and influence in her large family up to the last. She took a lively interest in all the affairs of the commu- nity until the time of her death, and in the young people's organizations and the Sunday school she exerted a splendid influence. Federal Incorporation was proposed by President Taft in a spe- cial message sent to Congress on the 7th of January. The president rec- ommended the enactment of a law providing for the formation of corpor- ations to engage in trade and commerce among the states and with for- eign nations, and protecting them from undue interference by the states and regulating their activities. He suggests that such corporations should be prohibited from holding stock in other companies; that their issue of stock should be subject to Federal supervision; and that they should be required to file reports of their operations with the Department of Commerce and Labor. The Panama Canal will likely be opened by 1915. At any rate the great southwest is getting ready to celebrate the momentous event. The Panama-California-Exposition of San Diego have announced their intention to so celebrate in 1915. On December 7, last, San Francisco decided to hold a Panama-Pacific-International Exposition in that city in or about 1915 to celebrate the opening of the canal, In January the committee of two hundred chose an executive group of thirty, from the solid and progressive business interests, who will superintend the project- It is announced that next to the rebuilding of San Francisco, the Fair is to be the city's proudest work. A revolution in Nicaragua has extended rapidly, led by Gen. Estrada. The prisons have been filled with prisoners suspected of com- plicily in the revolulion. Two Americans, Cannon and Grace, who had joined the revolutionists, were recently put to death under President 478 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Zelaya's orders. This exasperated the United States government, which asked for explanations, but receiving none, sent the gunboat Vicksburg and the cruiser Des Moines to Nicaraguan waters to protect American interests. On December 1 Secretary Knox notified both the government of Nicaragua and the leaders of the revolution that the United States would hold strictly accountable for the protection of American lives and property, the factions in control of eastern and western portions of the republic. Secretary Knox severely condemned President Zelaya and described his administration a blot upon the history of Nicaragua. Louis Paulhan, the French aviator, gave an exhibition of his 1400-pound, 50-horse-power flying machine in Salt Lake City, on Satur- day aud Sunday, January 29, 30. The people were disap- pointed on Saturday, but on Sunday his biplane, over which he exercised splendid control, made an ascent of about 300 feet and remained in the air something like ten and a half minutes, sailing from the fair grounds to Jordan river and return. Between January 10 and 20, Paulhan attended a series of contests at Los Angeles, Photo by Shipler where on the 12th he suc- Paulhan Flying in the Rocky Moun- ceeded in reaching a height tain Air. of 4,165 feet, leaving behind all the world's records for altitude. The attendance at the contest increased from twenty to fifty thousand people per day, and thirty-five prizes were carried off by aviators and aeronauts, aggregating eighty thousand dollars. In Salt Lake City the mountain atmosphere was against high flights, and the aviator declared that a much lighter machine must be constructed to make flying a success in this high altitude. He and his company of avi- ators took in about $8,000 in fees for their exhibition, and he is so pleased that he is said to have promised to come again with a lighter machine. Early in February he exhibited in Denver, and came near get- ting killed in an accident. The Bishop's Building, the new home of the Presiding Bishopric of PASSING EVENTS. 479 the Church, the Seventies, the Relief Society, the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associa- tions, the Superinten- dent of Church Schools and Religion Classes, and the Primary Asso- ciations, was dedicated on the evening of the 27th of January, Presi- dent Joseph F. Smith offering the dedicatory prayer. Members of the boards of the or- Utah PhotoMaterialsCo ganizations especially The Bishop 's Building, No. 40 North Main St. interested, with their Home of the Improvement Era. friends, were invited to the exercises. At 5 o'clock the proceedings began with a reception, at which function the officers of the various organizations housed in the building acted as hosts and hostesses in their respective rooms. Bish- ops Charles W. Nibley, 0. P. Miller, and David A. Smith were in general charge. The utmost sociability prevailed, and the various rooms from the basement to the large banquet hall on the fourth floor were inspected. At 6 o'clock refreshments were served in the neatly decorated hall on the fourth floor, where Bishop Nibley acted as master of ceremonies. Dur- ing the refreshments the exercises were proceeded with. They consisted of prayer by President Anthon H. Lund, music, songs, addresses, and a hymn, "Come, come, ye Saints," closing with a response by President Joseph F. Smith, and the dedicatory prayer, the concluding hymn by the assembly being, "We thank thee, God, for a prophet." The benedic- tion was pronounced by President Francis M. Lyman. Among those who took part in the program of music were J. J. McClellan, Lizzie Thomas Edward, Ed. P. Kimball, Oscar W. Kirkham, Tracy Y. Cannon, George D, Pyper, Edna H. Coray, Orpah Walker, Evan Stephens and Hyrum M. Smith. Among the speakers representing the different organizations were President Seymour B. Young, of the First Council of Seventy; Bish- op Charles W. Nibley; President Anthon H. Lund, for the Religion Classes; President George H. Brimhall representing the Church Schools; Elder Heber J. Grant for the General Board Y. M. M. I A.; Bathsheba W. Smith for the Relief Societies; Martha Home Tingey for the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations; and Louie B. Felt, for the 480 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Primary Associations. From the opening at 5 o'clock to the close at 10 o clock, the utmost good feeling prevailed, and the Presiding Bishopric and their aids did grand service in making the affair one of the most pleasant of its kind ever held; as their two hundred and fifty guests would unanimously declare. In President Lund's address he referred to the needs of the Historian's Office and Genealogical Society for better quarters, and later President Smith stated that such a build- ing was the next that would receive attention. The Bishop's building itself is one of the most substantial in the state, and the architect, Don Carlos Young, was complimented for its beauty and stability. The Relief Societies, Young Ladies' Associations and Primaries donated altogether some $20,000 towards its erection, the Church providing the remainder. "The Great Apostasy" is the title of the latest addition to Church literature. Heretofore, on one or two occasions the book has been referred to in these pages. James E. Talmage, Ph. D., F. R. S. E., is the author, a guarantee that it is both logical and instructive. It is designed to give light on the general apostasy of the Church that devel- oped during and after the apostolic period. This it does in interesting text and argument, illumined by most striking passages of scriptural and secular history which go to prove the falling away, and the fact that the primitive Church lost its power, authority and graces as a divine institution, and degenerated into an earthly organization only. The establishment of the primitive Church is first treated; then are given the predictions foretelling the apostasy, followed by a chapter on its early stages. The causes of the apostasy, divided into external and internal, are discussed in six chapters containing convincing and strik- ing testimony and extracts from early Church writers to uphold the argument. The tenth and closing chapter is devoted to the results of the apostasy and its sequel, under which are discussed revolts against the Church of Rome, the Reformation, the Inquisition, the affirmation of the apostasy, the Revelator's vision of the restoration, and the re-establish- ment of the Church in the 19th century through the Prophet Joseph Smith. To the elder in the mission field, students in the priesthood quorums at home, the general reader and investigators of the teachings of the restored Church of Christ, a study of this exposition of a very significant and important subject, will bring great light. It proves, we believe conclusively, that the apostasy of the primitive Church was a reality; and it points to the truth that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a divine institution, restored and organized, by authority, prophecy, new revelation, and the sanction of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to take the place of the fallen Church. Price 60 cents at the Deseret News book store. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 475–480. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 13, no. 6. April 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Roberts, B. H., “Joseph Smith’s Doctrines Vindicated. II—The Existence of a Plurality of Divine Intelligences.” - Hewlett, Frank J., “Peoples and Places in the Orient. VIII.—Jottings in Japan.” - Ottinger, George M., “The Maya Sculptor.” - Spencer, Josephine, “At the Hacienda.” - Hickman, J. E., “Springtime of Life.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “His Old Father Satisfied.” - Jenson, Nephi, “Isaiah 29.” - Madsen, Peter, “The Grasshopper Famine—The Mullet and the Trout.” - Borlase, Jack, “A Reverie.” - Adams, Alva, “A Talk to Young Men.” - Grigg, Hallie, “The Petals.” - Alder, Lydia D., “Two Mothers.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality. VI.—The Hungers of Life.” - Tanner, Joseph M., “A Friend of the Boys and Girls of Forty Years Ago.” - Haddock, Lon J., “The Whistler.” - Brookbank, Thomas W., “Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. V.” - Merrill, H. R., “The Call of Authority. I.” - Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things. VI.—John C. Cutler.” - Whitney, Horace G., “A Word to Dramatic Clubs.” - Smith, Joseph F., “Editor’s Table: Masquerade Balls—Stay at Home.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “April 6.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Messages from the Missions.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work: Committee of Control; Deseret Gymnasium; Program for Quarterly Conjoint Meetings.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 481–576. # Joseph Smith’s Doctrines Vindicated. II—The Existence of a Plurality of Divine Intelligences IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. APRIL, 1910. No 6. Joseph Smith's Doctrines Vindicated. BY B. H. ROBERTS. II. The Existence of a Plurality of Divine Intelligences- The trend of teaching by professors in universities of America is supporting the ideas expressed by Joseph Smith in relation to Deity; not by direct affirmation, of course, but by natural impli- cation, they sustain his doctrines in relation to Deity. Let me call your attention to what the prophet taught on the subject of Deity, by quoting one paragraph from a discourse delivered by him in 1844. I think this one paragraph presents in one view the essential things the prophet had to say about God: What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. If the veil was rent today, and the great God who upholds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and things by his power, was to make himself visible — I say if we were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form, like yourself in all the present image and very form as a man: for Adam was created in the very fashion, image, and likeness of God, and received instructions from 4S2 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and walked and talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another. • This doctrine met with the cry of " Blasphemy!" even more pronouncedly than the Prophet's doctrine respecting man. The general conception of orthodox Christendom in relation to God was that he was an incorporeal being, that he was without body; by which they meant that he was not matter; that he was immate- rial and without form. They adopted the old pagan idea that God was without parts, without passions; that he was without quality, as a matter of fact, if these other descriptions of him were true. What is the inevitable outgrowth of the doctrines of these professors in our universities, from what was said in part I, of this treatise? It is that there is in man a divine spirit: that man is "God manifested in the flesh." From this, the question very Do men become immortal? Are there any means naturally arises: by which men may become eternal entities — immortal individuals? If so, would they be any less incarnations of a divine spirit in their immortal state than they are now as mortals? The answer is obvious; and if only it be admitted that man may become immor- tal, then the doctrine of Joseph Smith respecting God receives strong support by necessary implication from the aforesaid teachers of the universities; for if it be true, as we now are assured it is by these "man is God made manifest;" that teachers, that "focused in the mind of man are all the dynamic forces of the uni- verse" — then truly it is that such doctrines cannot be far removed from the bold announcement of Joseph Smith, that "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. " To make complete the support of Joseph Smith's doctrines from the teachings of the universities, it only becomes necessary to say that the individual man persists; that he becomes as man, body and spirit, immortal. Let these declara- tions be made: The spirit in man is divine — he is an incarnation of God; man will become immortal. Say this and then the whole doc- trine of Joseph Smith, both as to man and as to God, receives per- fect support from the trend of university teachings, as repre- sented by Mr. Bolce's papers here being discussed; and there is JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES VINDICATED. 483 no escaping that conclusion. Hold to the first proposition, namely, that the spirit of man is divine, then the question resolves itself merely into Is there such a thing as resurrection from the this: dead for man? The Christ answers, Yes; and proclaims himelf to be the "resurrection and the life;" and the "first fruits of the resur- rection." Paul most eloquently argues for the reality of the resurrec- tion from the dead; indeed, his whole ministry had this as its foundation. You will rememher how he argues the question in the 15th chapter of First Corinthians; wherein he masses the Chris- tian testimony for the resurrection of the Christ; and after mass- ing it he then declares that if Christ was not raised from the dead, then the faith of the Saints was vain, and men were still in their sins, andwere without hope in the world; for it is only through Christ that men might hope for the resurrection from the dead. Not only does the Christ and Paul argue for this great fact yet to be realized in man's experience, but you will find very many Christian philosophers who are arguing today for the same truth. Among these scientists is one who is among the first scientists of the English speaking people of today, Sir Oliver Lodge, who, in speaking upon the subject of the resurrection, in his recent work, Science and Immortality, says: It is clear that Christianity, both by its doctrines and its ceremo- nies, rightly emphasizes the material aspect of existence. For it is founded upon the idea of incarnation; and its belief in some sort of bodily resurrection is based on the idea that every real personal existence must have a double aspect, not spiritual alone, nor physical alone, but in some way both. Such an opinion, in a refined form, is common to many systems of philosophy, and is by no means out of harmony with science. That is the declaration of one of the foremost scientists of our day! Continuing he says: Christianity, therefore, reasonably supplements the mere survival of a discarnate spirit, a homeless wanderer or melancholy ghost, with the warm and comfortable clothing of something that may legitimately be spoken of as a "body;'' that is to say, it postulates a supersensually appreciable vehicle or mode of manifestation, fitted to subserve the needs of terrestrial 484 IMPROVEMENT ERA. life;anetherialor other entity constituting the persistent "other aspect," and fulfiling some of the functions which the atoms of terrestrial matter are constrained to fulfil now. And we may assume, as consonant with or even as part of Christianity, the doctrine of the dignity and sacramental character of some physical or quasi-material counterpart of every spirit- ual essence. In other words, Sir Oliver evidently believes in something equivalent to the resurrection of man; that there will be some sort of quasi-material substance that shall form the future cloth- ing of man's spirit, suitable to the future states of its existence and experiences. Now, my friends, the point is this: If our professors, as we see they do, insist that there is incarnate in man a divine spirit, and we get men through the veil of death, and they become immortal men, possessing immortal tabernacles, what have you here but the "superman" of the professors, or the "exalted man" of Joseph Smith's doctrine? And if we postulate for these immortals, as both Joseph Smith and the professors do, a limitless opportunity for progress and development, then indeed it is not impossible that man may approach, somewhat, even to the excel, lence of his Father and of his elder brother, Jesus Christ. This brings me to the consideration of another thought in connection with Joseph Smith's doctrine, namely, the doctrine that there is a plurality of divine intelligences in the universe — "Lords many and Gods many," as Paul would say. It was supposed that Joseph Smith was guilty of great blas- phemy, when he announced to the world that in the great vision of God, given to him, he beheld two personages, each resembling the other, and that they spake to him; and one said to the other, calling the prophet by name, "This is my beloved Son; hear him." Since Joseph represented that there were two divine personages —Father and Son —separate and distinct, one from the other, he was charged with having uttered a great blasphemy. Such a statement was at variance with the orthodox conception of Deity. It had been held in the creeds of men —notwithstanding they professed belief in God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit— that somehow or other the three persons of the Godhead were but one essence or substance: were but one entity, and not three sepa- JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES VINDICATED. 485 rate and distinct personages or individuals. But if the doctrine considered in part I of this treatise be true as to the spirit in man being divine; and if that spirit goes through the resur- rection and becomes an immortal personage —still divine what — is the result? The result must be that there are a multitude of divine intelligences; which is only another way of saying with Paul, and Joseph Smith, that there are "Lords many and Gods many." And so the inevitable result of the teachings in our uni- versities leads to the support of this doctrine that was announced to the world by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that there are a multi- — angels and arch-angels; tude of divine Intelligences in the heavens — David's "congregation of and Gods who meet in solemn councils the mighty," where God "judgeth among the Gods" — to generate the wisdom that is present through the universe that has been brought from chaos into cosmos by the wisdom and power of these divine intelligences. But as "pertaining to us," there is one God- head appointed to preside from among these Intelligences — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And this Godhead, or grand presidency, does preside over our world and the spheres that are associated with it: with our earth and its heavens. This doctrine of the existence of a plurality of divine Intelli- gences has further support by a very eminent professor — no less a personage than Professor James, late of Harvard university. Within the year, his lectures before Oxford university, England, have been published, and this work bears the title A Pluralistic Universe. The outcome of Professor James' learned discussion of all the questions involved in this subject is to the effect that instead of the universe being, as he satirically speaks of it, when referring to the monistic view of it — "a solid block," it is a plur- alistic universe. One of his passages runs as follows: I propose to you that we should discuss the question of God, without entangling ourselves in advance in the monistic assumption. Is it prob- able that there is a superhuman consciousness at all, in the first place? When that is settled, the further question whether its form be monistic or pluralistic is in order (page 295). This question as to their being a "superhuman consciousness" the professor decides in the affirmative as at least probable; and — 486 IMPROVEMENT ERA. then he announces that the only way to escape from the incon- sistenciesof other theories "is to be frankly pluralistic and assume that the superhuman consciousness, however vast it may be, has itself an external envelopment, and consequently is finite" (page 311). "The line of least resistance, then, as it seems to me," he adds, "both in theology and philosophy, is to accept, along with the superhuman consciousness, the notion that it is not all-embracing, the notion, in other words, that there is a God, but that he is finite, either in power or in knowledge, or in both at once. These, I need hardly tell you, are the terms in which common men have usually carried on their active commerce with God; and the monistic perfections that make the notion of him so paradox- ical practically and morally are the colder addition of remote pro- fessorial minds, operating in distans upon conceptual substitutes for him alone" (page 311). Professor James also explains that present day Monism carefully repudiates complicity with Spinozis- tic Monism, "in that, it explains, the many get dissolved in the one and lost, whereas in the improved, idealistic form they get pre- served in all their manyness as the one's eternal object. The absolute itself is thus represented by absolutists as having a plur- alistic object. But if even the absolute has to have a pluralistic vision, why should we ourselves hesitate to be pluralists on our own sole account? Why should we envolve our 'many' with the 'one' that brings so much poison in its train?" (Page 311). Addressing himself directly to Oxford men on the movement of late towards pluralistic conceptions of the universe, professor James says: "If Oxford men could be ignorant of anything, it might almost seem that they had remained ignorant of the great empirical movement towards a pluralistic panpsychic view of the universe, into which our own generation has been drawn, and which threatens to short-circuit their methods entirely and become their religious rival unless they are willing to make themselves its allies" (page 313). The professor also insists that by taking the system of the world pluralistically we banish what he calls our "foreignness" by which I understand him to mean our apartness from the world (i. e., universe). "We are indeed internal parts of God, and not JOSEPH SMITH'S DOCTRINES VINDICATED. 487 external creations, on any possible reading of the panpsychic sys- tem. Yet because God is not the absolute, but is himself a part when the system is conceived pluralistically, his functions can be taken as not wholly dissimilar to those of the other smaller parts, — as similar to our functions, consequently. "Having an environ- ment, being in time, and working out a history just like ourselves, he escapes from the foreignness from all that is human, of the static, timeless, perfect absolute. * * No matter what the content of the universe may be, if you only allow that it is many everywhere and always, that nothing real escapes from hav- ing an environment, so far from defeating its rationality, as the absolutists so unanimously pretend, you leave it in possession of the maximum amount of rationality practically obtainable by our minds. Your relations with it, intellectual, emotional and active, remain fluent and congruous with your own nature's chief demands" (pages 318, 319). We have not time, of course, to enter into all the explanations and arguments that Professor James enters upon in treating this subject, but the purpose of his whole work is to establish the idea that the unity one discovers in the laws and forces of our universe, grows out of a "free harmony of individual entities;" that the absolute reality is a system of self-active beings forming a unity; and hence, he concludes the world to be 'a pluralistic universe." With this view Professor Howison, of the University of California, agrees, if I understand him aright, in his contribu- tion to a volume on the Conception of God. And so this doc- trine of a plurality of divine Intelligences existing in the universe, as taught by our prophet, is receiving confirmation by the works and the philosophizing of some of the foremost learned men of our age and country, and, for that matter, of the world. Perhaps you will be putting to me the question: What of all this? Why discuss questions of this character? What spiritual or moral force may one gather from a contemplation of such themes? Well, in the first place, to Latter-day Saints, those who have faith in the dispensation of the fulness of times and in the Prophet Joseph Smith — does it mean nothing to you to find the inspi- rations of God in this man confirmed by the conclusions of plodding philosophers who come trailing in seventy-five years after — IMPROVEMENT ERA. the words of the prophet have gone forth to the world? After he has been denounced as charlatan, as false prophet and deceiver, for advancing the truths we have been considering — does it mean nothing to you to find that the truths which he stood for are per- meating the philosophies of men and receiving the sanction and approval of the learned? It means much to me; it gives confirma- tion to my faith; and I rejoice in the triumph that the truth is achieving. Then to all, whether Latter-day Saints or not, it seems to me that to have fixed in the mind, in the consciousness, the thought of the reality of things — the reality of God, the reality of the divine in man, the consciousness that this spirit within us is of a divine nature, and that it is capable of attaining to some- thing really good and great— to something really worth while — to goodness, power and glory, to have that thought present to con- sciousness, as we go about the duties of life — to feel that "for a wise and glorious purpose God has placed us here on earth, " and has merely "withheld the recollection of our former friends and birth" — to be conscious of all this, I say, is to gather strength for the battle of life. To feel that we, in the essence of us, are one with God, and that he envelops us closely about by spiritual influences that we can call to our assistance — to be conscious of the fact that our life is part of God's life — to be conscious of this is to banish from us the thought of failing in life. We gather spiritual strength, and force and power to meet the responsibilities and duties of life, by contemplation of these high themes. This is the practical effect of these doctrines — we know that our life touches the life of God; that our life is one with God's life, and this inspires to noble efforts, out of which may grow the highest and most glorious results possible to human life. (the end.) Energy the Motive Power. The longer I live the more deeply am I convinced that that which makes the difference between one man and another— between the weak and powerful, the great and insignificant — is energy, invincible determi- nation — a purpose once formed, and then death or victory. This quality will do anything that is to be done in the world; and no two-legged creature can become a man without it. Buxton. Citation: Roberts, B. H., "Joseph Smith’s Doctrines Vindicated. II—The Existence of a Plurality of Divine Intelligences," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 481–488. # Peoples and Places in the Orient. VIII.—Jottings in Japan Peoples and Places in the Orient. BY FRANK J. HEWLETT, DIRECTOR OF THE UTAH STATE FAIR AND PRESIDENT OF HEWLETT BROS. COMPANY. VIIL— Jottings in Japan. Two privileges extended to trans-Pacific passengers are highly appreciated: one, the allowance of three hundred pounds of bag- gage; the other, the purser's right to give you first class rail- way tickets with stop-over privileges between Kobe and Yokohama. There is no extra charge except the gov- ernment tax imposed on every tourist, whether he travel by rail or steamship, or by the Osaka electric cars of Tokyo, or Yokohama. The fare is from three cents to twenty- five, according to distance, Bulls Carrying Rails for the Mountain Railroad. for the first class; from two to twelve cents for the sec- ond class; and a half cent to two cents for third class travelers. The fare is light on the third class, the longest trip being only an extra two cents. We decided to travel by train on "The Imperial Government Tokaido Railway." Seven trains a day leave Kobe for Yokohama and Tokyo. Sleeping and dining cars are attached, built in Eng- lish fashion. You can easily distinguish your coach. The first 190 IMPROVEMENT ERA. class is distinguished by a white stripe, the second by a blue, the third by a red one. Your tickets are colored to correspond. The station is crowded with men, women and children, for the Japan- ese have the traveling-fever and ride gleefully about the country. They carry so many bags and bundles that one is constantly reminded of Ameri- cans as they appear just before Christ- mas. On each side of the track, European style, is a station, and no one but the traveler is allowed on the platform without a special ticket pur- chased for a nominal sum. We are crowded against the gates, the bell rings, our tickets are shown to the uniformed gate-keeper, but are not taken up until we arrive Country Street Scene, Japan. at our destination. The conductor, a bright lad of eighteen, directs us to a comfortable seat. We are now interested in watching the other passengers troop down the platform, their clogs raising discordant sounds in the ears of the musically inclined. You see friends part- ing, with bows and smiles, for there is no kissing nor shaking of hands in Japan. A shrill whistle, and the train starts. We pass by the stations and notice two signs; one in Japanese characters, the other in English, showing the number of miles to the next station, and the points of interest worth visiting. The conductors and trainmen are dressed in blue uniforms. They pay strict attention to the wants of their passengers. Only first class passengers are allowed to leave the train at the differ- ent stations along the Tokaido line. Our coach is almost filled with young men neatly dressed in white suits and wearing straw hats. They are students on their way to the Tokyo seats of learn- ing. All are smoking cigarettes, laughing, chatting and playing pranks on each other, as students of their age can enjoy. They started the game," one of their favorite "scissors and stone amusements; and to my surprise every word was spoken in fairly good English. Tired of this game, one of them produced a comic PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 4U1 weekly, which was passed from one to the other, amid shouting and loud laughter. When they were through, I asked permission to look at the paper which had created so much merriment. It was the Tokyo Fuck, a comic weekly modeled along the lines of itsNew York contemporary of the same name, in typographical appearance, but differing in the character of its humor. This publication is entirely the product of Japanese brains and labor, but it appears with a dual dress — English and Japanese. Its illus- trated jokes and cartoons have their Japanese legend attached, at the right hand side of the picture, running vertically, and their Eng- lish underneath. This particular cartoon represented a Japanese student seated Returning from the Field. Japanese Children's Game- Stick and Hoop. in an easy chair with an almond-eyed maiden on his knee. His arm was gently stealing around her waist, while he uttered burn- ing words of love in her willing ears. Over the door was perched a large owl, looking wise, and wondering what was to follow. What amused the Oriental youths so much was the love-making ways of the Occident, which were thus being introduced into the "Land of the Rising Sun." Cupid is shy to the young people of Japan. There are no love comedies and tragedies. The parents decide the important question. Both the interested parties have confidence in their judgment; and, though they may never have 492 IMPROVEMENT ERA. seen their future partner until the wedding day, a Japanese mar= riage is generally a happy one. Our first stop was at Osaka, the Pittsburg of Japan, popula- tion 995,000, noted for its wealth and large manufactories. The city is intersected by canals and rivers, crossed by hundreds of substantial bridges. The principal sights are the Imperial Mints and the Osaka Castle. An electric car line connects Osaka with Kobe. We next visit Kyoto, the third city in size, and the capital of old Japan. This is a city of palaces and temples, almost sur- rounded by ranges of rugged hills, forming an ideal background to the delightful picture of the city nestling in the green fields and densely wooded slopes. Through the heart of it all glide the silvery waters of the Kamo river, spanned by picturesque old bridges. Kyoto stands one hundred and sixty-two feet above the level of the sea, and covers an area of about eleven square miles. Its inhabitants number close to 375,000, considerably fewer than during the early days of the Tokugawa-Shogunate, when the city was at the height of its prosperity, prior to the removal of the capital to Tokyo. The train stops at nearly every station. On the platforms are venders of newspapers, teapots of tea, fruits, colored candies, and new wooden boxes, about the size of a brick, containing rice, fish, and condiments. About dusk we arrived at Japanese Home in Rural District. Shidzuoka, the great tea center, built almost in the shadow of Fujiyama, the peerless mountain of Japan. We had telegraphed for accomodations at the Daitokan hotel, as we expected to remain in this important city of the Tokaido line for some time. We were fortunate in securing a place, as many of the tea, lacquer-ware, porcelain and bamboo buyers were located at the Japanese inns. Bright and early next morning we rode in our jinrikisha through a beautiful country in the Shidzuoka prefecture, first PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 493 through a bamboo grove, next through a typical lane bordered by shrubs and flowers. A few minutes later our human horses trotted through fragrant tea gardens, just at the right time for us to pick some of the tender buds sprouting from the tops of the bushes. The tea plant, as is well known, is a hardy evergreen of the Camelia family. It grows a thick and solidly massed bush, and at first glance a tea garden, regularly dotted and bordered with round bushes, setting closely to the ground, might be mistaken for a field of sage, cnly for its rich, dark-green color. In its cultivated state, the bush is from two to four feet in height, its growth being limited by 'frequent prunings. From three to five years are required for the tea plant to mature. In the spring the young leaves crop out of the ends of the shoots and branches, and when the whole top of the bush is covered with pale, golden-green tips, in May, the first picking takes place. This is the choicest A JAPANESE TEA GARDEN. leaf, and contains the sap that gives forth the aroma. The choic- est qualities grown on the hillsides, carefully shaded of tea are from the hot sun by matted awnings. The pickers go down the rows of these carefully tended bushes, and nip off only the young- est leaves or buds at the top of each shoot. The young tea leaves, picked in early May and June, comprise about half of the whole season's crop. The succeeding growth of leaves is coarser and has less flavor. While in Shidzuoka, we had ample time to study Japanese 494 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . business methods. With the merchants, all is specialty. They confine their business to one distinct line. The shops of Japan as a rule are small, one-story, unpretentious affairs. Exceptions are found in Tokyo and Yokohama, where some large department stores have recently opened, and are gaining trade every day, by the new methods adopted. The typical store in Japan is used both for business and domestic purposes. In front, facing the narrow street, the merchandise is displayed, the whole front being thrown open by light, sliding doors, covered with white paper instead of glass. The family is snugly ensconced in the back part of the build- ing. There is no counter, but in lieu thereof 'there is a small platform covered with matting, in the center of which is a hibache or wooden box, about a foot square, half filled with sand. On top of the box during business hours, a few pieces of charcoal are kept constantly burning. When business is quiet, the merchant sits beside the hibache smoking contentedly waiting for customers. In politeness the Japanese rank next to the French, and whether the purchase is made or not, the customer is invariably well treated. The coins used in Japan are called yen and sen. A yen is worth fifty cents, United States currency, and one hundred sen is equal to one yen in value. You enter a fish shop, and you have the privilege of buying any part of the fish according to the part and quality desired. The heads are neatly stacked in a pile for the poorer classes, the entrails in another; while the choice bits are carefully washed and put on plates; nothing is wasted in Japan. In a poultry shop you may see a well dressed Japanese buying the leg or the wing of a fowl, while by his side may be a poor, half -dressed woman purchasing the feet or neck. In the stores all are as busy as the proverbial bee. There is no Sunday in Japan, which means seven days for business, except where holidays, which are numerous, intervene. On warm days the clerks throw off their clothes, except a small breech-cloth. Except in large cities, one of the least troubles of the Japanese is wearing clothes. Merchants are compelled to keep the street well sprinkled in front of their stores. This is done by means of a dipper, with a long, wooden handle. No one is allowed to loiter in front of the stores or on the corners. A sturdy little brown man, in a bright uniform with brass buttons, a long sword at his PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 495 side, beckons such a one to move on. In Shidzuoka, I saw a native about sixteen years of age steal some fruit from a stand in one of the little shops. I was not the only one who witnessed the theft. The little policeman and sword were "Johnnie on the spot." Taking a cord from his pocket, about the kind used by American boys for spinning tops, he tied it around the young fel- low's waist. The prisoner and thief then followed him as meekly as a gentle lamb, his head hung in shame. The clerks and delivery boys, with their blue kimonos, are standing, I might say walking, advertisements for the merchant; for his business is announced in bold, white characters on their backs. Let us enter a typical Japanese shoe store. Hanging on pegs in the wall, are hundreds of pairs of geta, for you must remember there is no plural in their language. These are wooden-clogs having a piece of wire well covered with cloth, which goes over the big toe to keep them on the foot. In dry weather low ones are worn. During the rainy season, they have strips under them, converting them into miniature sleds, and they seem to be effective in keeping the little brown people out of the mud. In the larger cities the American shoe is fast winning its way. The army now wears foot-gear of foreign style, although made in Japan. In ENTRANCE HACHIMAN TEMPLE, KAMAKURA. 49o IMPROVEMENT ERA. some of the higher schools, shoes are required to be worn by the students, and many of the girls are adopting like foot-wear. The favorite shoes for men are the gaiter, which can be easily slipped off and on, a necessity in the land of the Mikado. When one enters a Japanese house, hotel, temple, or indeed any of the finer buildings, it is required that the shoes be removed, for the floors are beautifully polished, cov- ered with a soft, clean matting that would be ruined by the nails of heavy shoes. Slippers are generally placed by the door as a polite invitation to make the exchange. A hose mer- chant would soon go into bankruptcy, for it is only on very rare occasions that a Japanese man or woman wears hose. A vender of hats would have similar difficulties to contend with. The women never wear them, the men seldom. A light, gaudy parasol pro- tects their heads from the tropical sun, while their unique umbrella does Daibutsu, Kamakura. valuable service during the rainy season. (Bald-headed persons are rare in Japan, probably because hats are not generally worn by the natives.) The furniture dealers would also have the short end of business, for tables, chairs and bedsteads are not used. The mat on the floor serves for all three. Shelf-hardware is slowly coming into use, but cnopsticks are still preferred to the knife and fork. The Japanese people are great consumers of tea and rice, which are both used without sugar. Merchandise is mostly purchased on two or four weeks' time. There is no cash discount. All is net, to be paid for when due. Should longer time be desired, an extra amount is added to the price of the goods. The old method of the merchants of Japan, in which they made a clean settlement once a year, as with the Chinese, is now about a thing of the past. With many pleasant recollections and a crowd of American PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 497 and Japanese friends at the station to bid us sayanavra we set out once more upon our journey. Through the villages we saw bam- boo poles in front of most of From their tops were the houses. floating colored papers and linen fishes from four to seven feet long. On enquiring, we were informed that it was "Boys' Day," a holiday observed in honor of the boys; each fish represented a boy. Nothing was too good for the boys on this gala day. The idea is that a live fish will swim up the stream to success, while a dead one will float down to failure. The boys are encouraged to be live fish, to overcome all obstacles, and to make a success of all they undertake. The third of March is "Girls' Day," and each girl is presented with a doll. Next we stop at Nagoya, the fourth city of Japan, with 280,000 inhabitants. Its chief products are cloisonne, porce- lain and fans. Nagoya Castle is celebrated for a pair of golden dolphins on the roof of the tower. Our stay was a brief one. A few hours' ride brought us to Kamakura which was once the capital of the ancient Shoguns of Minamovo, but is now a mere seaside village where still remains some old relics, including a fam- ous Daibutsu (Great Buddah). This colossal figure is the largest in Japan. was cast in 1717. It It is in a sitting position and is forty-nine feet high. The interior is hollow and is fitted up as a temple with shrines. The curious head-dress is composed of clus-. ters of snails which, out of gratitude, it is said, to Buddah for his love of animals, shielded thus from the sun the exposed head of their holy friend. Let us hasten to Yokohama and witness Japan's great Jubilee to commence July 1, 1909, and last four days, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Japan to foreign trade. Kamakura, Japan. Both on the way. Mama had sent little Bessie to the pantry to get some sticky fly paper. She was gone a long time, and finally the mother called: "Bessie, hurry with the fly paper. Have you got it?" There was a pause, and then this in an earnest voice: "No, mama, the fly paper's got me. But— we're both coming!'' — Selected. Citation: Hewlett, Frank J., "Peoples and Places in the Orient. VIII.—Jottings in Japan," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 489–497. # The Maya Sculptor -*JBKf$k iL^v. *gA % t^JN'WfSI k jr. *l-^S 1 .1 < :,' . .1 dL&Ak \SW •if 4*VJ| m . THE MAYA SCULPTOR. With respect to the artistic merit of the monuments of Yucatan, and their status in comparison with the works of the ancient Greeks, Romans and other old-world peoples, it would be far from favorable; yet, they are most wonderful when we consider that the handiwork of those old artists, original in design and motive, workman-like in finish and execution, was chiseled by men who had no knowledge of iron or any metal. Their stone implements were porphyry, and the material out of which the ancient artists of that region cut their basso-relievos and monoliths, was a soft coralline limestone, on which such a tool as porphyry would be almost as effective as one of steel. In some of the ruins of the old cities, especially at Copan, there are clusters of square stone pillars or obelisks varying from twelve to twenty feet high. They are elaborately sculptured, showing human figures, ornamental designs and hieroglyphic inscriptions on their sides. The picture repre- sents a Maya sculptor, elevated on his scaffolding, labo- riously and patiently working out his conception of a dei- fied king or hero, which evidently these monoliths per- sonify. GEORGE M. OTTINGER. Citation: Ottinger, George M., "The Maya Sculptor," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 498–499. # At the Hacienda — — ! At the Hacienda. BY JOSEPHINE SPENCER. The still figure in the moonlight is the Senor, and you may See him sitting mostly that way, dumb and heedless, night and day. Just now, too, the season's mem'ries crowd the rest that's in his heart And make black the barb o' poison on his sorrow's rusty dart. Can't be true you've met with any cowboy lopin' on the range And he's let you off that story of the Senor' s, for a change? It's gone clean throughout the South here, Texas and the Mexicos, Arizony, and the Isthmus, and all Californy knows How old Ruel lost his daughter. Well, I'm glad to have my chance, Knowing how they've mixed the story with their kite-flies at romance. Yes, the Senor 's white as silver, proud, too, as a prince or king — And with warrant, if you count what blood and titled lineage bring. Rich? I guess — though it's a matter of the commonest report That there's many a stagger fortune has gone up in one day's sport; For, you see, his longest suit was on fast horses, and his name Stood up dizzy in race-records in the nation's tracks of fame; And the fall that laid him crippled is the fruit of that last race, When, his every cent at stake, he took the treacherous jockey's place And with those mad throngs there, watching him in white and breath- less spell, Reached the stake an inch af oremost of the others ere he fell But that triumph was the last one that the Senor ever saw, — On the track, at least for nature rendered bills for broken law; Made it death or strict retirement as the Senor's gift to choose, And he, grudging, took the latter; but for what his life must lose Of its oldtime sport — half reckless— he had famous horses bought And at any price or trouble to the grand old Mesa brought; — —— AT THE HACIENDA. 501 Like those connoisseur collectors of "rare paintings or old lace, So he gathered equine treasures to his quiet mountain place, Where, upon the race-track, (laid here ere the house itself was planned) He some measure of the old life in his exile might command, And the fame of his possessions to the world might still reveal That his heart had not relinquished all the oldtime fire and zeal. Rarest breeds of every country came to grace the stately walls Of the costly palace stables, and.among the oaken stalls Stood, like jewels in their settings, all along the polished plain Of the wall's wide panels, inlaid with their woods of richest stain, Perfect types of equine beauty, curved bodies, sleek and slim Princely arch of neck and nostril, princely shape and pose of limb; Murzuk— kingliest type of beauty from the purest Arab line: Selim, whom the Persian masters sold for half a Mexan mine; These, and breeds of Texas prairies, long of step, and slim of girth, Told the judgment that selected bargains from the best of earth. For the Senor 's lore and life-art made lym connoisseur of race; And his wealth could render worthless obstacles of price and place. So it fell, of course, that rumor of his madness spread afar; And the fame of his collection, like a magnet, or a star, Guided many curious people to the plateau's wooded height, (Where the hacienda reared its dozen cupolas in sight) Who passed through the ponderous gateway of the walls that crowned its crest, Built to balk cowboy marauders, and became the erewhile guest Of the Senor, happy ever to give greeting to that soul Who might thrill him with the story of some fierce-contested goal. Thus it chanced, the Senor, sitting in the broad veranda's shade, Saw one day a stranger riding down the graveled path that made Sinuous curves of length in guiding through the thick palmetto trees, And gave welcome with his courtly, old-world air of grace and ease; Listened, gracious, as the stranger, with his touch of English style, Told the errand which had brought him over many a desert mile To behold the Senor 's stables; and then roused the Senor 's greed With the list of famed ancestors of his own sore-ridden steed, And held out his hope of selling, if the Senor chose to name Such an offer as might tempt him to relinquish his prized claim. And the Senor, charmed by something in the stranger's air and face, Holding in his look and manner subtle mark of birth and race, —— > 502 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Begged him, in his silken Spanish, to become his favored guest morrow: taking needful time for judgment and for rest, Till the When upon the private race-track just beyond the wooded ground, They should prove the vaunted pacer in a trial on its round. Called Jose to serve the stranger, with a charge for every need, (Anxious equal for the comfort of the master as the steed.) Summoned the young Senorita from her shady hammock seat To add her solicitations to make his request complete. Then, upon the broad veranda, sitting idly in the shade Of pomegranate boughs and palm leaves arched in many a green arcade Sat in comfort, while the stranger, softly wreathing rings of smoke, Told him tales of English races that his memory bespoke; — Till the older man with visions wakened by each pictured scene Lived again in old-time rapture the glad days that once had been: Listening breathless, never heeding how the Saxon's eyes of blue Found their frequent glance reflected in soft eyes of midnight hue. For the shy young Senorita, sitting silent and apart, Seemed to his fine sense, as hostess hardly well to bear her part. And his courtly heart regretted, as it oft had done before, That high-mannered wife who bore his honors well in days of yore, Sat so blind, that when at nightfall the well-favored guest was shown To his chamber in the west wing and they found themselves alone, He had words of gentle chiding for the manner, strange and shy, Which might seem like meagre greeting to the cultured traveler's eye; Pleased to note, when their guest after his attention kind bestowed That the child a shy obedience to her past instructions showed. And swift morrows passed each other, spreading muffled silvern wings, Whilst the stranger still would linger, finding plea in various things To detain him — first the pleasure that the Senor's passion found Trying speed of famous horses on the race-track's level round. Then some jaunt into the mountains, with the hope that fate or chance Might reveal some rich Golconda's hidden treasure to his glance. And full oft when molten sunsets melted into sapphire eves, And the sky's white rain of moonlight dripped through close palmetto leaves, Sweet Josita and the stranger strolled together arm in arm Through the wide grounds, drinking fieeply in the evening's subtle charm. Tillone day when he had ridden up the steep barranca, told — By some horseman who had stopped here of some late-seen sign of gold — —— AT THE HACIENDA. 503 I, the Sheriff, and my party, passing through the ponderous gate, Armed with warrants, whose grave charges claimed a grievance to the state, Rode, and found the Senor sitting in the early twilight gloom, On the broad veranda opening from a front, wide-windowed room; Formed in line around the doorway ere was heard a muffled hoof, And presented to the Senor all our gathered links of proof Which declared the man he sheltered as a rogue of deepest dye, Hiding from a score of victims to his errant treachery; — of the mammoth Mexan mine Told the story of his scheming Worked by men who waited vainly for the never coming sign — Of their wages long months lacking— holding faith from day to day — Through his specious tales and promise that the long arrear of pay Would in time yet be forthcoming from his men across the sea The great syndicate whose money held the mammoth work in fee. How at last the men, half maddened by their want and waiting, swore To be tools of his bold scheming and bald trickery no more: And inflamed with murderous passion, to his house, an angry horde, Rode with muttered threats of vengeance but by some strange chance ; the word Of the raid had gone before them; and though swift and still they sped, When they reached the spot, the object of their planned revenge had fled. Gone upon his fleet horse —winner of full many a famous stake; And with two hours flown between them, hopeless, then, to overtake. So they gave him up, surmising that the blue Atlantic's brine In short time would lie between them and the owner of the mine. Whether all his smooth tongue uttered savored in the least of truth, Or he merely worked to profit at the wretches' hands, in sooth, I can't swear; but certain, if what some of them have claimed is true He was quick to share the hardships of his men the long months through: Shared with them his food, too, when they came to him in want and grief, Sparing neither time nor effort that might aim for their relief. One who stayed with him through all, and told him, (if I guess it right) Of the mad mob riding down the trail for blood that summer night Swore that though in truth all blameless of events that raised the blow He would yet have faced their vengeance had he not been urged to go — 504 IMPROVEMENT ERA. And with freedom's better venture seek, from friends across the sea, Succor for their need, and safety for himself from rope and tree. But the miners met that story with a howling sleet of scorn; Praying yet that fate might bring him to the vengeance they had sworn. And at length chance played to trace him through a rumor that had come From some rancher who had tarried at the Senor's mountain home; — And they flocked— a half-score bringing to my county seat the word Of the man's late dereliction; thus our raid here had occurred. And we claimed the Senor's duty, as became his honored name, To deliver him to justice who was charged with such dark blame. And the Senor, sorely stricken that the guest of his high store Held the stain of such dishonor, in his pride, deep-wounded swore That the man should answer dearly for deceit so deep and base — Bidding all of us in silence hide ourselves about the place; For the villain soon returning from his journey, unaware, Would be taken without trouble in our deftly-actioned snare. So 'twas planned; and while we waited, silent in the twilight gloom, Suddenly a rustle sounded in the near, wide-windowed room, And I thought 1 saw before me, as I waited at my post, Something down the broad walk flitting like the moonlight's moving ghost, But before I knew if I had dreamed, below, outside the walls, We could hear a horse neigh, giving short, home-coming, joyous calls. Then — a sudden sound of hoof- beats floating back upon the road Fleeing with the lightning's swiftness from the Senor's near abode, Told us that the stealthy ambush hatching in the dark was known, And the victim we had counted for our clever trap had flown! Then we dashed out, riding pell-mell, with a wild, half brutish glee, The hot chase there close before us rousing all our deviltry. But the man— or his swift pacer — measured magic lengths of ground, Heedless of our hail of bullets whistling shrilly all around; Yet I, who was worst and foremost of our wild, blood-thirsty men, Knew the cruel odds between us should he face us — one to ten; Knew, as he did, flight was hopeless from our fierce, fresh-mounted crew — When a sudden curve the road made brought to both of us the view Of the cliffs that edge the river; and before his foaming horse ——— ! A T THE HA CIENDA . 505 Could be checked, he was upon them — and I cursed in quick remorse, For that minute from his saddle sounded woman's scream; shrill a And the next they plunged together in the deep, swift-flowing stream! Then for days we dragged the current, though no hope our dark work cheered, And at length we raised a cross there where the two had disappeared * * * That's the Senor's little romance; and his life's a link of hell What with loneliness and brooding on his hopeless wrong as well; But to tell the truth, — though wildest of the yelling crew that run The young wretches to the river, and the glibest with my gun I have took a heap of stock since in the stories I've been told That the Englishman's intentions was all solid, and — By old Harry and hot Hades! its on me — what? shake my hand! Me that chased you to the river —heau of that un-Christian band? Brought back money for the miners — their salary's arrear? all Won't that word just clear the howlin', thicknin' gloom that's broodin' here! And — and her, too. Lord! won't the message be a blazin' silver star Shining in a sky o' midnight for the old man droopin' thar! Say! I think all things considered — if the Senor hasn't heard I had better step ahead there, and just kind o' break the word. Understand? he thinks dead sure you both arefloatin' in the — Wait! Just step back behind them bushes, — there's the Senor at the gate. Things to Do Now. "Give the children a tent. Teach them camp living and camp cook- ing. It is good training and great fun — and fun is a tonic in summer.'' "Good idea to serve as many meals as possible out of doors, on lawn or piazza — good fun for you, too." "Never, never put natural ice in the goblets on the table. Too cold and too dangerous. Fill bottles with water and put them on ice. Never put ice in water." "Why not use your second-story piazza as a bedroom? Hang a can- vas curtain in front to keep out the rain, lay down rugs, put a bed and washstand out there. Sleep out of doors as much as possible. It gives an ideal night's rest. Try it — and screen the bed — don't forget that.'' Citation: Spencer, Josephine, "At the Hacienda," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 500–505. # Springtime of Life The Springtime of Life. BY J. E. HICKMAN, A. M., PRINCIPAL OF THE MURDOCK ACADEMY. Earth has her springtime, so has man. At the passing of winter the innumerable seeds begin to grow, telling the varied stories of their possibilities. Without knowing the life history of the plant, no one could conjecture what sort of a plant was bound up in the germ. Often the smallest seed brings forth a giant tree, while a large one may produce only a pumpkin. The best environments bring out the greatest possibilities. In early life the latent forces lie shrowded in the untutored child. Who can prophesy its future? As the seed's potential power can only be told when it develops flower and fruit, so the child's possibilities are not fully known till it attains manhood. Whatever mitigates against the best unfolding goes to stultify or falsify the true character of man or plant.Not long since I stood in the desert and around me were scanty, scrubby, uninviting plants, gray with the fuzz of necessity. I felt I was surrounded with the desolation of possibilities. Life without hope — exist- ence with a distorted nature. I could not see the true character in that dwarfed life. It lacked the one element for complete existence— water. A few days later I stood by a window filled with house plants. One was dying because of water. For want of it one was dwarfed; due to a too copious supply, the other died in full leaf. How like humanity! I have seen distorted and worthless lives for want of culture and opportunity. I have seen others retrograding through luxury and ease. With intelligent care the thorniest shrub will supplant leaves for spines and twigs for thorns. Even the cactus, under the wiz- zard-like training of Luther Burbank forgets its thorns. Instead, THE SPRINGTIME OF LIFE. 507 fleshy, edible leaves and most delicious fruit are produced. The peach tree was once a shrub bearing a bitter-rind and poisonous nut. Today it stands as one of the twelve most delicious fruits known, of which there are over three thousand varieties. This is the work of culture. On the other hand, the choicest tree may, under adverse conditions, cease entirely to bear, or will produce hard and citron-like fruit. Plants under such conditions may be said to have reverted to their state of savagery. Running broadly parallel with this is human existence. Each child becomes the algebraic sum of his external forces and internal impulses. Should they be good and strong, the child puts forth his greatest self. With opportunity he lives that broad and ever- changing life to which every rational being is heir. With culture the wildest Indian child will forget its wigwam and shed its girdle for civilian garb. It will turn from its idle life to that of the student; and the wild warwhoop will be transmuted into the fervid speech of the orator. The raggedest waif of the slums could, under the divine care of a home, stand transfigured upon God's mountain. While the noblest child, through neglect and unhal- lowed influences, may become a Jean val Jean; or the purest Lucile may plunge into unspeakable sin and die in the hut of the wretched. There is no other time in life when neglect or misdirecting of energy has so dire effect as in youth. That is the period when one gets his bearings for life's work. Then is when the boy begins to be distinctly manly, and the girl distinctly womanly. For at that time new life awakens in them— new thoughts arise; new de- sires stimulate to action; act they must, be it good or be it ill. This is the springtime of life. It may be called the conundrum period; for parents often fail to understand their children, and they do not always understand themselves. During that stage, new and often incongruous fan- cies fill the mind. The world to them is full of scintillating splen- dor, and they are wild to follow it; false or true, one is as inviting as the other. Then they approach the rapids of life — rapids that have engulfed the alluring hopes of youth. This is the most dan- gerous period, and at once the most valuable. For then is when the new thoughts of life rise upon youth's horizon like a star of 508 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the first magnitude. Such thoughts absorb all others. The childish hopes and fears of yesterday give place for the realiza- tion of the new creations. During this period the boy or girl may become reticent, morose or crabbed, but more often he is gay and heedless of duty. His thoughts take wings and the new impulses awaken strange judgments of the future and of life's meaning. He jumps at conclusions, for he is guided by impulse rather than by reason. The wiser judgments of older heads are to him anti- quated. It is then he, in his own estimation, knows more than father. No amount of pelting his ideas with unsavory epithets will effectually dislodge them. Out of such incongruities rub- — bish —if he is rightly directed, come the nobler thoughts of man- hood. He needs time to adjust himself to the new life of ado- lescence. The fancies of childhood are tucked away with dolls or cast aside with willow horses, tops and marbles. The loves of yester- day are the dislikes of today. He is often whimsical and fickle, and we grow impatient at his erratic conduct. Remember he is passing through the period of incompleteness. What if he does climb up the lamp posts of Paris and drink the oil from the lamps, pull the long beards of the venerable senators of Rome, destroy the priceless paintings of Greece, or break the statuary, he will attain a wiser view and place a truer estimate upon things of worth. The youth is to be respected for all this; his nature is not to be crushed, but directed and approved. The government of child- hood must be supplanted for greater liberties.The failure to recognize this brings all sorts of trouble in the family government. His government, like his clothes, must continually be enlarged, but government and guidance must not be withdrawn. Obedience to parents is a mark of superior and refined intel- lect. It is equally true that a person inferior in intellect and pur- pose is of the disobedient order. Though the great mind demands great freedom, at the same time it is generously obedient to superiors. In the springtime of life, youths should weave into their lives all that is holy. Obedience to parents is the surest guide for fulfiling life's mission. Washington, at the last moment, relin- THE, SPRINGTIME OF LIFE. 509 quished his youthful passion for the sea through the pleadings of his mother. Had he turned a roving seaman, as he desired, he most likely never would have been the savior of his country. Gar- field at sixteen w as bent on going to sea, but relinquished his dream when he saw his mother in tears. This obedience made it possible for him to become president of the United States. Christ at twelve, though thrilled with the inspiration of his divine mission, left the temple to obey his parents till they felt to liberate him for his Messianic destiny. This act alone marked a mighty epoch in his history. Willing obedience is a mark of pure intelligence. Wilful dis- obedience, as a rule, is indicative of brutishness and ignorance. — The young man should be taught self made to feel that all thoughts and deeds are prophetic of what he is to be. Subtle and fleeting, indeed, are his thoughts, but like the unseen magnetic lines of force that hold the earth rigid in her declination, he cannot extri- cate himself from his thoughts. He changes his character and impulses by changing his thoughts, and such a feat is a slow process. Thoughts and deeds wrought out in youth's merry hours, some of which are tinged with wicked folly, are forces ever checking and swaying manhood's powers. In the soft virgin soil of the mind there may be sown the sweet-scented flowers or be planted the roots of the poisonous upas tree. "No change in childhood's early day, No storm that raged, no thought that ran, But leaves a track upon the clay Which slowly harden into man." It is not enough merely to live, any more than it is merely to plant. The nurture after the planting brings the harvest. In life it is the struggle for truth that gives value to existence. If you just eat, sleep and recreate, the animal does as much. It is the intellect that separates man from the brute; then, develop in- tellect. The overcoming of weaknesses and the directing of his forces make man the master of the earth. Every pure, original thought widens the gap between him and the brute, and narrows the gulf between him and his Creator. 510 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Youth is not the preparation for life, it is the shaping of life. There is no other period of mortal existence where neglect, stulti- fication or misdirecting of energies has so dire an effect. Youth is the period of the greatest criminal awakening. It is also the period of the greatest religious awakening. Over fifty per cent of all criminals were so at seventeen. More than fifty per cent of those converted to Christianity had their religious awakening between fifteen and eighteen years of age. It is as equally true in any other mental awakening. Genius or demon manifests his trait in youth. Cast your eye over history; where was there ever a prophet who was not trained in youth? Or artist who was not fired with his divine art during his adolescence? Too often the young man is prodigal of his energies, waste- ful of time. "He who wilfully wastes an hour," says Darwin, "has not learned the value of life." Why not take a lesson from nature? When the earth was young, and she throbbed with energy, God stored up the useless forests in the form of coal and petroleum; he classified the limestone, granite, marble, and iron, that man-to-be might use them for the redemption and beautify- ing of the earth. Had this work been neglected, man today would be a nomad on a hapless world. With this as a suggestion, young man, utilize well your endowments, direct your energies, plan for the future, cultivate well your mind and body; be frugal and economical of your time and power; plan and execute. Re- member that great minds plan, weak ones wish. Make active every good emotion, and whatever your desire in your maturer manhood, make it active in the morning of your young life. Idle dreaming de-energizes, it trusts to luck. "Luck is a fool, pluck is the hero." Do not procrastinate, for procrastination has thwarted the aims of life, overthrown empires and turned worlds from their appointed spheres. I would not take from youth wholesome pleasure or quiet rest. Earnest toil merits it, but see that pleasure does not leave a tinge of regret. Let pleasure have its place. Its time is when the voice of duty does not call. Aimless youth and thriftless man- hood insure a fruitless old age. Youth stands for ambition, pos- sibility and hope. It is the springtime of life, strewn with the flowers of beauty and of incense— blossoms that proclaim a fruit- Citation: Hickman, J. E., "Springtime of Life," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 506–510. # His Old Father Satisfied — THE SPRINGTIME OF LIFE. 511 fill harvest. Give heed that the biting frosts of sin, or the blighting of misdirected energies do not blast the promise of life's harvest. Neglect the warning and the bitter winds of remorse will whistle through the leafless forest of old age; then, cheerless indeed will be the keen memories of the past. Beaver, Utah. His Old Father Satisfied. Twenty years ago a discouraged young doctor in one of our large cities was visited once by his old father, who came up from a rural disrict to look after his boy. "Well, son," he said, "how are you getting along?" "I'm not getting along at all, " was the disheartened answer. "I'm not doing a thing." The old man's countenance fell, but he spoke of courage and pa- tience and perseverance. Later in the day he went with his son to the "Free Dispensary," where the young doctor had an un- salaried position, and where he spent an hour or more every day. The father sat by, a silent but intensely-interested spectator, while twenty-five poor unfortunates received help. The doctor forgot his visitor while he bent his skilled energies to this task; but hardly had the door closed on the last patient, when the old man burst forth: "I thought you told me that you were not doing anything! Why, if I had helped twenty-five people in a month as you have in one morning, I would thank God that my life counted for something." "There isn't any money in it, though," explained the son some- what abashed. "Money!" the old man shouted, still scornfully. "Money! What is money in comparison with being of use to your fellow- men? Never mind about money; you go right along at this work every day. I'll go back to the farm, and gladly earn money to support you as long as I live — yes, and sleep sound every night with the thought that I have helped you to help your fellow- men." Chicago Advance. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "His Old Father Satisfied," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 511. # Isaiah 29 Isaiah 29. BY NEPHI JENSON. The prophecy recorded in the 29th chapter of Isaiah, and its remarkable fulfilment accomplished by the power of God, verifies in a most remarkable way the truth concerning divine interposition expressed in the lines: Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will. The thought most emphasized in the chapter is that a nation should "be brought down and speak out of the ground." The prophet seems to have been very deeply impressed with this thought, for he repeats it four times in the third verse of the chapter. Then, after describing graphically what should befall this nation which should be "brought down," the prophet declares: 11. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12. And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. That the book spoken of should contain a "vision" of the nation that should "speak out of the ground" is evident from the fact that just as the prophet finishes his description of that nation he declares, "And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book." ISAIAH 29. 513 Then the prophet makes it plain that at the time of the com- ing forth of "the book" the power of God should be made manifest in a most remarkable way. In verse fourteen we have this bold declaration: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among the people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Of the effect the book should have upon those who receive it, 18. In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord. Is the Book of Mormon, the manner of its coming forth, its acceptance by those who have received it, a fulfilment of this most remarkable prophecy? Let us consider the different parts of the prophecy separately. First, then, as to the character of the book spoken of. It should be the "voice" of a nation speaking "out of the ground," or a record of a nation that had been "brought down" or destroyed; and should contain something about the ministry of Christ, for it should make the "meek rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." The Book of Mormon possesses both of these characteristics. It is a history of a nation now extinct. It gives the origin of that nation, tells of its progress in government, religion and civilization. And it contains the gospel of Jesus Christ as he taught it to the an- cient inhabitants of America, after he had completed his ministry in Palestine. The most important incident associated with the fulfilment of the prophecy under consideration, should be an extraordinary man- ifestation of the power of God. The Lord, through the prophet, declares, "I will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder." And by way of indicating what effect this "marvelous work" should have upon the world, it is declared that "the wisdom of their wise men shall perish." Is the Book of Mormon, the resto- ration of the gospel, and the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this "marvelous work?" To answer this question we only need to reason from cause to effect. The 514 tMPRO VEMENT ERA . "marvelous work" spoken of by the prophet should cause "the wisdom of their wise men to perish, and the understanding of their prudent men to be hid;" or, in other words, this "marvelous work" to be accomplished by power would be so great and perfect divine that the theories and dogmas formulated by the "wisdom" of learned men, when compared with the work of God, would be found to be indefensible, and be rejected. Hundreds of young men of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scarcely out of their teens, without any technical theological training, leave the plow in the furrow, the tools on the bench, and the books on the desk, and go out into the world to preach the gospel restored in the Book of Mormon and other modern revelations. After these young men have been in the missionary field for about a year they are able, without difficulty, to defend this restored gos- pel against the most skillful attacks of the most scholarly theolo- gians. Indeed the untrained young men often witness the com- plete overthrow of the ingeniously devised doctrines of the theolo- gians, when these doctrines clash with the eternal truth contained in "Mormonism." There is not a "Mormon" missionary who has not had the experience of seeing a learned divine, who has once measured his human creed against the truth revealed from heaven in the dispensation of the fulness of times, go out of his way to avoid a second meeting with a "Mormon" elder. How is it that these volunteer soldiers of the cross can so easily defend their religion against the attacks of the learned regulars of the minis- try? It is because the young "Mormon" missionaries represent the "marvelous work" spoken of by the prophet; and they are armed with the great truths revealed in the Book of Mormon and other revelations given in the great last dispensation. When the cherished theories formulated in the councils of the wise strike the great truths found in the rock of revelation, "the wisdom of their wise men perish." Of the effect the book should produce, it is declared that at the time the words of the book should be heard, "the meek should increase their joy in the Lord." Has the Book of Mormon caused "the meek to increase their joy in the Lord?" Let the devotion and fidelity of the Saints to the truth, and their suffering for the gospel, answer. Why did the Saints in the days of Missouri and ISAIAH 29. 515 Illinois endure vilification, the burning of their homes, the con- fiscation of their property, and expatriation, rather than deny their religion? It was because their faith and joy in the Lord had been "increased" by the witness of the Book of Mormon for the Lord, and by other strong assurance of the truth which had come to them. • The Book of Mormon corroborates the testimony of the Bible concerning the greatest truth of all history, that Jesus is the Christ. Those who receive the testimony of the Book of Mormon, as well as that of the Bible, have a double assurance of the divin- ity of the Son of God; and well might they, as they do, "rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." The fulfilment of this remarkable prophecy accomplished by the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the manner in which the book has been received, and the effect it has produced, is no mere coincidence. It did not just happen so. The prophecy was uttered about three thousand years ago; we today witness its complete ful- filment. There is, in all this, evidence that the prophecy was inspired, and its fulfilment by the Being who accomplished, shapes the destiny ofmen and nations. If it be said that a man like Joseph Smith could write the Book of Mormon, I answer that no man could write a book which, like the Book of Mormon, in three quarters of a century, would be accepted as a fulfilment of an ancient prophecy and a direct reve- lation from God, by a million people of all kinds of beliefs and dif- ferent temperaments. Such a task is beyond the power of man. — Liahona, the Elders' Journal. Forest Dale, Utah. Necessity. Necessity robs indolence, and stands A rampart around fortitude. Commands A mighty shoulder at the wheels of strife, And purifies the muddy stream of life. Theo E. Curtis. Citation: Jenson, Nephi, "Isaiah 29," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 512–515. # The Grasshopper Famine—The Mullet and the Trout The Grasshopper Famine— the Mullet and the Trout. BY PETER MADSEN. [Deliverance from the ravages of crickets wrought by the sea gulls in the spring of 1849, was a most merciful providence in behalf of the early pioneers of Utah. They were saved from starvation by this mirac- ulous interference, the birds feasting from morning un- til night on the black demons. The scanty crops were thus saved. The gull, in consequence, is a sacred bird among the Latter- day Saints. And the sego lily, upon the roots of which the people subsisted in those tryingdays, is honored as the chosen flower of the state of Utah. The children of the pio- neers hold in lov- ing reverence the sea gull and the sego lily. But a few years Peter Madsen, Pioneer Fisherman of Utah. later there were — THE GRASSHOPPER FAMINE. 517 other plagues that drove the people to the brink of starva- tion. The crops of 1854 and 1855 failed, owing principally to the rav- ages of grasshoppers, though drought added its share to the disaster. Then came the unusually severe winter of 1855-6, when, from cold and starvation, cattle and sheep died by the thousands. The people suf- fered severely from these combined calamities, and were once more driven to roots for subsistence. However, an additional medium not so generally advertised was providentially provided — an agency unsung by the poet and unchronicled in the annals of the historian. Notwithstand- ing, it deserves mention by both. It was the mullet and the trout of Utah lake that played this import- ant part in furnishing the famishing people with food. While fish is not, — coupled with the perhaps, as poetic a subject as sea gulls and sego lilies recollection of the conditions, the term, "Grasshoppers — the Mullet and the Trout,'' is perhaps as rythmical and surely as historically import- ant as, "Crickets — the Sea Gull and the Sego Lily." But to the fish and the famine. One day recently a number of men were discussing the early cricket plague and the relief brought by the sea gulls, when Hon. John Henry Smith called attention to the substan. tial help that the fish of Utah lake provided in supplying food for the famishing, during the hard times of 1855-6. He maintained they were quite as worthy of historical record as the gulls and the lilies. When pressed for particulars, he referred to the veteran fisherman, Peter Mad- sen.The latter was appealed to, and it is to him and to his sons, D. H. Madsen and George A. Madsen, who have succeeded to his wholesale fishing business, that the Era is indebted for this very interesting narra- tive on the subject. Peter Madsen, by the way, is a sturdy, remarkable character. Born in Veile,Denmark, April 6, 1824, he joined the Church, June 12, 1853, being baptized by Elder Rasmus Neilsen. He served his country in the Prussian war of 1847-50, and four years later became a pioneer of west- ern America. In 1870-2 he went as a missionary to his native land, and in 1886-88 filled a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. Edward H. Anderson.'] In response to a request from the Era to state my experience during the grasshopper plague, in the early days of Utah, I gladly furnish the following, all of which I remember as the most trying experiences of my life. I arrived in Salt Lake City on October 4, 1854, and came to Provo the same year, where I have since made my home. ; 518 IMPROVEMENT ERA. It was in the year 1855, as I remember, when the grass- hoppers first made their descent upon the small fields of the pio- neers. The crops had been planted in rich soil, along the Provo river, and gave promise of fair har- vest, equal to the demand of the small population and the incoming immigrants —who would be too late to plant crops during that summer. We felt that all would be well with us, when lo, about July 24, the grasshoppers came upon us. So thick did they descend that they fairly darkened the sun. They de- stroyed most of the crops, as they made their way towards the shores of the lake, which they attempted to cross, and were drowned by wagon loads, many of them being eaten by the fish, and great walls of them floated upon the shores of the lake. It was a little later than this that the people came to the lake. From Sevier on the south to Salt Lake on the north, they came with wagons and barrels and salt, pre- pared to take fish home with them for food during the winter. Their crops were destroyed, and they Utah Lake Mullet and Sucker. were weak from hunger. They Though much alike they are two distinct species, with dif- brought with them two short ferent habits. On the left the pieces of seine, which I secured mullet on the right the sucker ; from them and joined to the end of the trout no portrait could be procured at this season. of a short seine I had knit during These varieties of fish fig- my first winter in Utah, and there- ured largely in saving the by made a fairly good net. pioneers from starvation, in the 50's. They all camped along the river t-3 520 IMPROVEMENT ERA. near where it empties into the lake, and we made preparations to supply them with mullet and trout which were quite plentiful at that time. WINTER SCENE ON THE PROVO AT THE PLACE WHERE THE PEOPLE CAMPED IN THE 50'S. Having been accustomed to fishing in Denmark when a boy, I was prepared for this important duty, of furnishing food for a starving people, and I will always remember the scene along the river's bank after the first day's catch had been distributed. The campers were in little groups around the camp fires, where they were broiling fish on the hot coals, and fating them with a relish that only those who have been through experiences of this kind can appreciate. The bishop of Provo sent men to help, and all day and night the fishing went on. The Saints came and remained on the river until they had enough fish salted to last them during the coming winter, then left for their homes, to give room to others equally as needy. For weeks the work went on. Nobody ever asked who did the work, or who received the fish. We were comparatively Citation: Madsen, Peter, "The Grasshopper Famine—The Mullet and the Trout," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 516–520. # A Reverie —— THE GRASSHOPPER FAMINE. 521 equal in those days, and all we asked was enough to eat until we could raise crops to supply us with food. I have always regarded this as one of my greatest opportu- nities for doing good, and often of late years I have been visited by those with whom I shared the necessaries of life during those try- ing days. Since that time I have been much interested in the fish in Utah lake, and many times have I given loads of fish from my nets to those who were in need. I am now in the 86th year of my life, and am still interested in the protection of Utah's fish, for I feel that they played an important part in saving the people from starvation in early days, and am sure they will continue to grow into an important resource in the development of our great state. Provo, Utah. A Reverie. (For the Improvement Era.) Down near the banks of the Jordan Is a cottage that's weathered and worn, But I love it, — its age I will pardon — It's the cottage*where Maggie was born. Though the flowers once tended by Maggie, No longer the cottage adorn, And the trees and the hedges are shabby, And the old willow bridge looks forlorn, Though the birds that sang in the meadow, And the bees and the butterflies there, Seem all to have passed like a shadow, And the stillness of death fills the air, Still I think, as I sit in my mansion, Where I dream from the eve till the morn, Of the days when I used to court Maggie, In the cottage where Maggie was born. Jack Borlase. Lehi, Utah. Citation: Borlase, Jack, "A Reverie," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 521. # A Talk to Young Men — A Talk to Young Men. BY EX-GOVERNOR ALVA ADAMS, OF COLORADO. [Last June, at the 20th annual commencement of the Colorado state Agricultural College, former Governor Alva Adams, of Pueblo, delivered the annual address to the thirty graduating young men. It was pub- lished at the time in the daily papers, and through a friend, a copy has fallen into the hands of the editors of the Era. It contains so many gems of thought that it is worthy of study and preservation. Editors.] It is with diffidence that I come before this splendid class of graduates to give the final words of their public school career. For many years you have been guided by cultured and trained men and women. I can add nothing to your culture or training, but per- chance I may draw, from thirty years of practical life, some les- son that may turn you from paths that others have followed with bleeding feet, with no result but waste and disappointment. Advice is often a mere matter of rhetoric, and though given without cost, is held dear at the price. Some of my words may go in the same inventory, but for most of my theories of life I have seen the testimony of pierced hands. The diplomas you receive are the proof of faithful and dili- gent study; they represent an honorable degree; they are the best decorations that can be given by a republic founded on universal intelligence; but they are the Lexingtons, and not the Yorktowns, of life's warfare. Whatever native ability you have will be improved by educa- tion, but it is beyond the power of the school to make a Beecher, a Hillis or an Aylesworth, out of a Corbett or a Sullivan. If you are born with one talent, education will give it the force of two; if with five, culture makes them equal ten. It adds to the stature A TALK TO YOUNG MEN. 523 of the short, and enables the tall to reach the stars. It is the trained that are to direct the destinies of the twentieth century. Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Schwab to the contrary, higher education does not interfere with business or commercial success. True education makes men more practical — more efficient. If it made only dreamers, then Carnegie and Schwab might be right, as the age demands men of action. With only idealists and poets, the race would starve. It is true, American achievement bears the names of many uncultured men; they were strong, self-reliant; they were born into a new field, rich with the spoils of nature's centuries. Fate placed in their hands a golden They succeeded without apple. schooling, yes, but with education their success would have been greater, while under today's conditions many of them would have failed. Some are fortunate in the age in which they are born. In the future the one-eyed man will be king only in the country of the blind. Baseball had its birth as the great American game when I was a school boy. Many amateur clubs won trophy after trophy, until national renown was gained. Soon the professional club was developed, and for twenty-five years no amateur club has been heard of outside its local campus. In life, as in athletics, it will be the best trained who win. The new century is aglow with opportunity, but her golden nuggets will not be uncovered by the chance prospector, but by the trained and skilled miner. Pro- ficiency and common sense are the two principal ingredients in the elixir of success. Many a failure has come by insisting upon the highest or nothing. There are many places between nothing and the White House. In all our millions there have been but twenty- five presidents. Look high, keep the stars in view, but keep your feet on the earth — aerial navigation is not yet perfected or safe. We differ in attainment and ability, but there is a place for every honest, earnest worker. No defect, no frown of nature, need bar us from life's dividends. In every soul there is a chord that responds to some divine note. Blind Milton saw paradise; deaf Beethoven heard the glad songs of angelic choirs. To achieve, you must have an aim — that aim need not be the noblest, but it must be nobly followed. It is not the trade, but the way it is carried "on that marks the man. No profession nor calling of itself ever degraded or ennobled a man. Hands are made for toil; tools are 524 IMPROVEMENT ERA. emblems of credit as much as the brief, sermon or poem. Christ toiled, the great of all ages have toiled. There is honor in toil. Life is too short to travel every path of human effort, or to experiment with every vocation. Study your talents, inclination and environment, select that line in life which your judgment and sense determines to be best for you, and then ''whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." When hunting ducks you will sometimes make a good shot by aiming at a flock, but generally a hunter who aims at a single bird, brings home the most game. There are no half-rates, no free passes on the road leading to suc- cess — all must pay full fare. As to your own ability — you know the goods, and it is your place to fix the price, and you are alone to blame if you under- value them. I would not commend impudence and offensive nerve, yet would say, be not over-modest — the world forgets easily. Keep yourself to the front. We have often seen assurance and ordinary ability take the head of the hall where modest, retiring genius remained a wall-flower. Self-respect and self-appreciation are closely allied. Self-assertion is sometimes unpleasant, but men often concede to it. Vacillation is weakness. The soldier who prepares a smooth road of retreat will be apt to use it. Burn your bridges — think only of victory and victory will come. To consider the possibility of defeat is to invite defeat. When Cortez sank his ships, Montezuma was conquered. That act made his five hundred and eight soldiers masters of Mexico. It is courage and enthusiasm that moves the world. Caution is good, but too much caution is brother to cowardice. "The brave fail sometimes— the coward always." God never calls neu- trals, but radicals, when he has work to do and crowns to give. Work is not a curse, but a benediction. Those who avoid labor as the penalty for disobedience in Eden, are refusing the best gift of heaven. There is no place in the economy of God for the man who will not work — the loafer must reform or die. There is but one more character which more useless and dangerous is than the ignorant idler, and that is the educated idler. Knowledge is power for either good or evil. Do not study astrology, thinking to find your star. I tell you, in this work-a-day world there is no magician but labor. In — A TALK TO YOUNG MEN. 525 letters of living fire it is graven over every one of the hundred gates that lead to happiness and success. Fate— predestination is but the apology of bankruptcy. Napoleon pretended to believe in his star, but his faith was not so strong but that he worked twenty hours out of twenty -four, and ravished the world for spoil with which to raise and equip his armies. Luck is the fool god- dess, and those who bow at her altar will wear the cap of folly and drink dregs their life long. In all schemes and plans of life, honesty and truth are funda- mentals. When time began, God and the angels proclaimed truth and manhood, and there has been no change in the laws or admin- istration of heaven since the globe was launched. Truth is truth To the end of reckoning. These primary qualities must be coupled with force, will^ industry; without them they are like a telegraph instrument that has no battery. You face life at a sublime hour— there are dan- gers, yes. No heights are scaled without risk. Danger and vic- tory often sleep in the same cradle. The most serious tendency is the almost universal worship of mammon. The golden calf has been reared high above most other altars, and it is gorged with sacrificial offerings of health, honor, reputation and lives. Lux- ury and extravagance are in the atmosphere of the age. I have no stones to throw at wealth — it can be a benediction, a good angel, it can be a messenger of love and joy and help, as noble as ever carried a benefaction or lifted a burden. ,1 have no patience with the idea that poverty and virtue are twins. There is nothing more depressing, more hopeless, than abject poverty. Honest poverty is no disgrace, but it is a desire not to escape its deadening grasp as soon as possible. It should be the first duty of life to become prosperous — that is, become independent; but independence does not mean the ability to keep step with the wave of reckless extravagance which is sweeping over the land, plant- ing unrest, envy and discontent in millions of honest hearts. When you find that you take no interest in anything save the almighty dollar, go and read and re-read Dickens.' Christmas Carol. A serious danger of the age is the drift away from sacred Citation: Adams, Alva, "A Talk to Young Men," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 522–525. # The Petals 526 IMPROVEMENT ERA. things, from the orthodox faith of the founders of the republic. The boast of the hour is our liberalism in religion. Churches com- pete in making conditions of membership and belief easy. The power of religion is being liberalized out of it. It is still respect- able to be connected with the church, but much of it is a lip and not a heart service. Consult your own heart, home and observa- tion if this be not too generally true. Achievement and discovery now come so fast that the most marvelous are received without surprise. I know of no field of morals, of commerce, of attainment, upon which has been placed ' the seal 'complete." Until the tides are harnessed, until the heat and energy of the sun is stored for the use and happiness of man, the two oceans joined by a Panama passage of peace, and Alaska and Patagonia linked by a pathway of steel, until intemper- ance and wrong are curbed, until labor and capital both recognize the golden rule, until justice and right shall be the portion of every citizen, no American youth dare say, "The harvest has been gathered, there is no work for my hands." In every educated American youth are the possibilities of a Samson, and it is their own fault if they grind corn for the Philistines. From the schools of today are to come the masters of tomor- row. The Lincolns, Phillips, Beechers, the Roosevelts. What crown or cross fate may lay at your door no oracle can tell; but let your life, your training, your character be such that when the knock comes you can respond, "I am ready!" "The Petals." (For the Improvement Era.) The dainty petals are falling; The rare fruit-bloom is o'er, Yet we sorrow not, recalling The bounteous fruits in store. The plans for success we cherished May fail, as years go by. Shall we mourn that they have perished, • If we are improved thereby? Hallie Grigg. Na pa, Idaho. Citation: Grigg, Hallie, "The Petals," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 526. # Two Mothers — —— *1 * | " M Kffi 1 W *j * ifl B™~- ttijj i " TMml iifflTtiiM Sketches by Lilian Comielley Two Mothers. MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS. "That other mother, coming near Within her eyes there burns "I am a-weary weeping so, A quenchless fire — a with'ring fear, My heart throbs with its pain, That ev'ry solace spurns. close my eyes to ease my woe, 1 And see it all again, I pity her — have anger none, But 0, so much of joy, My slain — the Crucified — my Son, For love divine gave me a Son There hanging on the tree! A Judas was her boy." 'Twas not for wrong that he had done JUDAS' MOTHER. E'en then he thought of me. "0 Mary, dost thou turn from me? "How happy he in childhood days, Nay! scorn me not unheard! How agile, lithe of limb! I bore the birth-pangs willingly Then came the dream I dreamed Without complaining word, always, And mother-love, thou knowest Of greatness born with him. well, At times I chided, yet I know, Will permeate all space; His wisdom outweighed mine, Will plunge into the depths of It came from where the riches flow, hell, That flood the stream of Time. Or rise to God's high place. — — 528 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Yet I am powerless — overcome, To heights or depths where'er I go Dense darkness all around; This, phantom-like, is nigh My heart is crying for my son, My son by infamy brought low, When I make not a sound. While thine ascends on high. Have pity, Mary, women we, Bound by a common tie; "0 pity, Mary, hear me, hear!'' I would exchange, if it could be Prone on the earth she lies, Or would rejoicing die. For grief so deep there is no tear To lave the burning eyes. "To be in thy place! See me kneel! But Mother Mary lifts her up, My son brought death to thine; And soothes her with caress, Throughout all ages must I feel, Adds sweetness to her bitter cup, The wrath of the Divine? And makes her own pain less. Lydia D. Alder. Citation: Alder, Lydia D., "Two Mothers," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 527–528. # The Crown of Individuality. VI.—The Hungers of Life — The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. VI. —The Hungers of Life. Hunger is the voice of a void. It is Nature demanding her rights. It is the restless, insistent cry of an instinct, clamoring to be satisfied. There are four great hungers of life, — body- hunger, mind-hunger, heart-hunger and soul-hunger. They are all real, all need recognition, all need feeding. The claim of a hungry body has right of way over all other needs. It requires no credentials, no argument, no advocate. It holds a first mortgage on the sympathy and aid of humanity. But the hunger for food while being most irrepressible, most immedi- ately compelling, has no monopoly on the hungers of life. In the world today there are in reality more people starving for love than for bread. There is more heart-hunger than body-hunger more unsatisfied yearning for sympathy, affection, companionship, kindness and appreciation than for food. These hungers are not a modern invention. They are as old as history. When Adam's They began in the Garden of Eden. bodily hungerwas recognized and great stores of growing food insured him against starvation, the hunger of his heart was appeased by a wife. Then the mind-hunger of the first married couple was appealed to under the pretense that they should know the difference between good and evil. There was a soul-hunger * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Revell Company. 530 IMPROVEMENT ERA. still to be met. They had the promise that they would "be as gods." There was no evil in the four hungers, but merely that two of these were appealed to by lying and treachery. The wrong goods were delivered, — that is all. We have all these four hungers because we are human —be- cause we are higher than the animals. These hungers are aspirations, and were meant to be satisfied. They mean man's true expression— not false repression. Life is a continuous battle for our hungers. True living means realizing the real hungers of ourselves and others and seeking to satisfy them. False living means vainly humoring morbid acquired appetites. At Thanksgivingtide and at the Christmas season the cup of gratitude and kindness especially overflows to others. Let us at this time, and at all others, real- ize that feeding the body-hunger is simply an initial duty. It is a first privilege of human brotherhood, good enough as a beginning but not as a full story. Let us give others, not merely what we have but what we are. Let us feed their higher hungers, not on set days and occasions, but in unbroken years of such days. Let us make this spirit — like a persistent, pervading perfume of inspiration— ever sweeten our own lives and those of others. Mind-hunger is a craving for intellectual food. It may be an insatiable desire for education. It may reveal itself in a passion for books, in securing a few shelves of certain books for one's very own. It may mean the joy of possession of not mere books, but of just those selected volumes that mean silent friends, talking over inspirations to one's eyes instead of one's ears. That is what makes a package of old magazines a treasure in some lonely home, after they have outlived their usefulness elsewhere. This mind-hunger may be keen and on edge for fine music, the hearing of which would be a stimulus at the time, and later a golden memory; while to many of the box-holders it is merely a social duty, a bit of pose and something to talk about. The mind- hunger may long to have the privilege of hearing a certain great lecturer, or sometimes there is a rushing wave of desire to speak freely, fully, frankly to some one who seems to live on the intel- lectual heights, and to [feed on his words that if actually given THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 531 personally, in quickening advice or inspiration, would bring real joy. These are but suggestions of the mind's hunger for that which it needs and craves. The great heart-hunger of humanity is — loneliness. Loneli- ness is the heart's realization that no one is self-sufficient, no one is complete alone. It is always the restless yearning in some form, for God's greatest gift to man — love. We seek it ever, consciously or unconsciously, as the great gnarled roots of trees, guided by some divine instinct, ever reach out in their con- stant search for the water that means life to them. The hungers for friends, sympathy, appreciation, confidence, companionship, are simple phases, degrees, or tendencies of hunger for the finest human love — love of one alone for us alone. In a great city there are countless thousands of men and women leading lives of loneliness; they are just heart-hungry for the affection they feel is their due and their right. It is not the burden of daily toil, the smallness of the reward, the dull round of daily duties that make them heart-weary, but that benumbing sense of loneliness that sometimes sweeps over the soul like a mighty tide and submerges every thought but of — hunger for affection. They just feel hungry for some one to whom they can tell the littleincidents that make up their days, some one to be genuinely interested, some one to share their little joys and sorrows; some one to smooth away the lines of care and worry, some one whose eyes will brighten at their approach, some one to whom they will be necessary, some one who will fill their sky with the sunshine of love and the glow of trust and confidence. They want — some one to live for, some one to work for, some one to need them. It is not always clearly formulated, or even clearly under- stood, for the heart's feeling is often beyond its power to express. It may le only a vague, restless unsatisfiedness, but all the ener- gies and emotions of the heart silently sweep themselves in one direction, as rivers unknowing why, seek the ocean. And, with this heart-hunger satisfied, the magic hand of Time seems to have changed suddenly the whole perspective of life. The harsh out- lines of cares and troubles seem softened and transformed, as the — 532 IMPROVEMENT ERA. moon throws a glorifying silver light of interpretation over even the most -psosaic of scenes. When this heart-hunger is unappeased, we may take cocaines of distraction that dull the pain they do not remove. We do a thousand little things to kill the time that hangs heavy on our hands, but this is not true living. It is the dullness of drugged emotions that keeps us from our best selves. It does not bring true peace — it is only — numbness. Real peace comes from finding oneself — temporary oblivion from losing oneself. This heart-hunger is so real that it is not limited to those leading lives of real loneliness. It finds itself in homes where there is the semblance of real companionship, but not its actuality, its cold, bare anatomy, not its living, pulsing, vitalizing soul. There is As a divine paradox in feeding the heart-hungry. we seek in appease the heart-hunger of another our own grows less. The food increases in the using, as the miraculous feeding of the four thousand at the sermon in the wilderness — what remained after all were feed was more than the original supply; Let us make others forget their heart-hunger .in the kindness, thoughtfulness, consideration, sympathy, companionship and affection we can give them. Let us forget our own heart- hunger in feeding others, even though we can silence ours in no other way. No one occupies so humble a position that he cannot thus help. There are times in the life of all when, weak and worn with the struggle, the ebb-tide of hope seems to carry out with it all inspiration, all impulse, all incentive. In the darkest night of a great loss, paralyzing pain, or a voiceless grief, we seem to lose our very bearings on life, and weak, trembling hands hold the use- less compass of our purpose. We see nothing to live for, and life does not then seem worth living. At such an hour gentle words of comfort and courage and companionship— words that come glowing from the very soul of another, not empty, cheap commonplaces that roll flippantly from the tongue come as living — food to the hungry heart. When the trials of the individual heart seem hard to bear and the failures of our best efforts tempt us to overthrow the altars of our ideals; and all that we have held high and best seems THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 533 empty delusion,we feel this hunger for a loving friend, a coun- selor, a guide. We want fresh, kindly eyes of those who really care to look at our problems, to help us to regain our faith in humanity, our belief in ourselves, our trust in the certainty of the final triumph of right, love, justice and truth. To feed the heart-hungry we must give the positives of our life, not the negations. We must give our strength, not our weakness; our certainties, not our fears; our radiant finalities of decision, not our unsettled dilemmas. If we were to transform "feed the hungry" from a mere phrase into a vital impulse finding expression in every day of our living, we would bring the spirit of the millennium into the expanding circle of our individual life and influence. We would realize that these hungers are real, and were given to man that they might be satisfied. They are not to be confused with mere morbid appetites, counterfeit hungers — man-made out of the idle hours of his folly. These must be killed— starved into submission, dominated, mastered, vanquished by the individual who would be true to his —kingship over himself. Soul-hunger has its infinite phases as well as heart-hunger. Soul-hunger is man's insatiate desire to know the truth of the life now and the life hereafter. Soul hunger has existed in man since, the beginning of time. All the religions of the world are simply systems to feed this spiritual hunger. Hunger is the conscious- ness of incompleteness. The belief in immortality, another world, a new life, is simply the — last great hunger of the soul. (The next article in this series, "Throwing Away Our Happiness," will appear in the May number of the Era.) One of Our Faults. Too oft contented to be discontented, We let indifference rule us unrepented. Theo E. Curtis. Citation: Jordan, William George, "The Crown of Individuality. VI.—The Hungers of Life," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 529–533. # A Friend of the Boys and Girls of Forty Years Ago A Friend of the Boys and Girls of Forty Years Ago. BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER. I am asked by the editor to become reminiscent, and to write something of the life and character of James Dwyer, whose familiar figure on the streets of Salt Lake City, recently, re- called to the older generation a pioneer bock-man of Utah. A testimonial of the man, at this time, should bring com- fort to his declining years, and encour- agement to those who take satisfaction in the welfare and progress of their fel- low-men. Thirty and forty years ago James Dwyer's book store was a popular rendezvous for all lovers of good books; James dwyer. an d to the student As he appeared in his book-store days, and as body of those days hundreds of students will remember him. there was a certain A FRIEND TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS. 535 charm and inspiration in his acquaintance. In casting up the accounts of life, one always feels a special indebtedness to good books, and he who has introduced one to the best thoughts of the age may claim some grateful acknowledgement as a benefactor to one he has so cheerfully put on the track of useful information. The writer never meets James Dwyer upon the streets, or more frequently in some book store, without feelings of special gratitude to the man who in days gone by took so much pleasure in recommending to him good books. I think I may conservatively say, after years of travel in foreign lands and in our own coun- try, that I never knew what I considered a better book man than James Dwyer. He had the happy faculty of making one fall in love with a good book. True, it was the business of this pioneer book man to sell his books, but his gains, I am compelled to believe, were not by any means the highest pleasure he enjoyed whenever he won a convert to good reading. I dare say his ledger accounts of those early days will reveal a very generous credit which thousands enjoyed who sought the opportunities of something good to read; indeed, I never heard it said that his generous allowance for the honesty of those who wanted his books had much to do with the financial prosperity of his business. James Dwyer had the happy faculty of finding out what his books contained. I don't mean by that that he always read the books himself. He found out those who were competent to pass a reli- able judgment upon a new book or to designate the qualifications of the mind to appreciate the great authors of the past. "Take this book," Mr. Dwyer would sometimes say to the writer, "with my compliments. When you have read it, tell me briefly what it contains and the quality of mind required to appreciate it, and in what way it will be specially helpful to those who read it." When I first became acquainted with Mr. Dwyer, I marveled at what appeared to me his great familiarity with all kinds of books. I soon learned to place great confidence in his recommendations, and I have always taken a singular pleasure is confessing his great helpfulness to me in the choice of books, and his remarkable en- thusiasm always induced me to read almost every book I bought in his store. Such expressions as I have here voiced I have heard from scores of young men who felt in those early days that con- Citation: Tanner, Joseph M., "A Friend of the Boys and Girls of Forty Years Ago," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 534–535. # The Whistler — 536 IMPROVEMENT ERA. tagious love for good books that this pioneer book man always car- ried about with him. While there is nothing standing against me on the ledger accounts of James Dwyer's books, I freely acknowledge my indebtedness to him for the enthusiasm which he imparted to my life when, as a young man, I was seeking the association of good books. These words of homage will scarcely pay the interest on the principal of the great debt I owe him. The assurance of having done so much good to others ought to bring the supremest satisfaction to his life, and make his last days the best of all his days. It should be added that James Dwyer started his book business in 1866, in the post office in the old Constitution Building, then directed by Postmaster W. Street. His first stock came, as the mails came, in an overland stage coach. Ten dollars was all he had as capital. He borrowed that from Banker Warren Hussy. Robert Sharky offered to go security for the amount, but Mr. Hussy refused, saying prophetically, "James Dwyer has the stuff in him to succeed." And his prediction came true. The Whistler. (For the Improvement Era.) I sat alone in my office, weary and sick at heart, For life seemed such a struggle, and mine such a strenuous part; And I thought of the many thousands, engaged in the weary strife, Of the cares, and pains, and sorrows, that make up what men call life. Of the toil-worn men, aye, and women, too, passing their several ways, Grinding, grinding, the long hours through, the hours that drift into days, And days that make years as the seasons roll; with small share of rest or change, Till merciful Death comes to claim his toll, and summons them out of range. Yes, I was "blue," I admit it! I felt ready to quit right then For the cords 'round my heart seemed straining, and my hopes were sink- ing, when Sharp on my ear from the street below fell a sound that made me start, A glorious, bubbling melody that sped its way to my heart. — THE WHISTLER. 537 Nearer it came, and nearer, fuller and more complete As if the heart of its happiness, could scarce find room in the street; Into the hallways and out again, back from the wall outside, Till the very air seemed to tremble and throb, on the breast of its swell- ing tide. I stepped to the window and glanced below, and there down the busy street, Coatless and careless, sunburned and soiled, torn jacket and naked feet, Came a mite of a boy, just a common lad, the kind one may meet any day, But the expression of bliss he had, as he swung along on his way! With hands in pockets and head held proud, as tho' hurling defiance at Fate, Unmindful as Love of the passing crowd, with its strife and turmoil and hate, The fresh, young lips compressed to a knot, and the sun-kissed cheeks puffed wide, With the throbbing, bubbling notes they caught, ere they whistled their way outside. Back to my mind came memories, and into my eyes came tears, As my own lost youth with its bright day-dreams, rose up from the by- gone years; That happy youth, with its dear boy-dreams, while the earth was yet sc young, And the song of life in the bright sunbeams, that my own boy-heart had sung. Away like a flash went my sorrows; gone were all doubts and fears; For the message it bore so joyous, so free, seemed mine for the coming years. For why should each worrisome trifle bow my head 'neath affliction's rod? And what opposition can stifle a man fashioned like unto God? What cause had I for worry? What reason had I to complain? Had I not, in my own blind hurry, submitted to needless pain? I turned with a heart strong and steady, the wide, groping future to meet, For God's message had reached me already, through that whistling boy in the street. Lon J. Haddock. Citation: Haddock, Lon J., "The Whistler," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 536–537. # Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. V Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. BY THOMAS W. BROOKBANK. V. Respecting the terms new, twelve, tower and wonderful, it is observed that they are not Nephite names at all; but simply Eng- lish words used for the originals, and the occurrence of the letter w in them is of no consequence to invalidate the claim that the Nephite names are spelled without a q, x or w. A few words of explanation respecting the use of the proper name, Red Sea, in the Book of Mormon, instead of the Hebrew name for that body of water, may not be out of place. It appears that as far back as B. C. 285, when the work of trans- lating the Hebrew scriptures into Greek was in progress, into the version called the Septuagint, or the LXX, (seventy) the waters in question were known by the name Erythra Thalassa, the first of these words meaning red and the other sea (Exodus 15: 4). Later it was called in Latin Mare Rulrum — Mare meaning sea and Rulrum, red. It does not appear, therefore, that the Jews or any other ancient people had any name for this body of water that could not also be given in a foreign language under the proper term for red and sea, or, in other words, it is a proper name raised to that order or position from common translatable terms; and the Book of Mormon is perfectly consistent in the use of the Eng- lish name — as much so as it when it translates the originals for is white or black, instead of giving us the Hebrew for those words. With respect to the name Hebrew, it is not a properly con- HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 539 structed Jewish name at all. Some authorities are of the opinion that it is derived from Eber, or Heber, one of the later descend- ants of Shem. If this be true, the form of the name, according to principles of analogy for forming Jewish names, should be Eber- ites, or Heberites. Other learned men are of the opinion that it is derived from ibrhi, which has practically the meaning of and, on this ground, the name in the plural stranger, or foreigner, would be Ibrhim. Jew and Jews are names given to the children of Israel by their neighbors, and both Hebrew and Jew are for- eign terms, though both are derived from Jewish bases. Now, if it had been necessary, for instance, to use the Gentile name Alexander Quincy Law in translating the Book of Mormon, we should expect to see it spelled as here given, and there is, there- fore, nothing unusual, strange, or inconsistent about the case when the Book of Mormon spells the Gentile name Jew and Hebrew, each with a w. If they were strictly Jewish names the matter would appear in a different aspect. As the case stands, the state- ment that the Book of Mormon proper names, if of purely Ne- phite origin, make no use of the Gentile q, x or w, cannot be contro- verted; there is no possible ground for argument or denial. The Hebraisms and Jewish analogies that have now been passed upon demonstrate that the Prophet Joseph Smith was not the author of the Book of Mormon. He knew nothing of the Hebrew language, while the records in question are full of evidences that their writ- ers were thoroughly familiar with its principles and use. Sidney Rigdon was not the author of that book, for he did not see it or- Joseph Smith until after the work was published. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on the sixth day of April, 1830, and Sidney Rigdon was not admitted to fellowship in it until the following October. The Book of Mormon was first published in 1829. PROBABLE HEBRAIC ORIGIN OF JAREDITE NAMES IN THE BOOK OF ETHER. In the foregoing groups of names, those that are of Jaredite use are listed together with those of the Nephites as having a Jewish origin. It is very probable that some of our readers desire to know upon what grounds this common classification is based. — 540 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . In reply, it is admitted that with our present information on this matter, nothing sufficiently definite to remove the last remnant of doubt from every mind can be submitted, but it appears, neverthe- less, from more than one consideration, that no palpable mistake has been made in assuming that the Jaredite and the Nephite names belong to peoples who had a common racial origin. Certainly no one claims that the first writers of the Book of Ether (a subdivision of the Book of Mormon) are to be numbered among those whom the Christian world now recognizes under the names of Hebrews, Israelites or Jews. The name Hebrew, from Eber or more probably from Ibrh or Ibr, was doubtless not coined in any form until about the time that Abraham left his native land in obedience to the command of the Almighty long after the — Jaredites had colonized America — and the names Israelites and Jews are of still later origin. No one should conclude, however, from these facts, that the Jewish race— the chosen people of God did not exist for many centuries before the new names, just men- tioned, were applied to them, — did not exist in pre-diluvian days. Jesus Christ was a Jew by birth and his genealogy is traced back to Adam without any admixture of known Gentile blood. That the Jewish race existed before the dispersion at Babel is quite clearly shown by the fact that the Hebrew language came out of the confusion of tongues almost, if not wholly unimpaired. Speaking with respect to its preservation, Dr. Angus, in the Bible Hand Book, paragraph 26, (3), says:"It may be added that the Hebrew of Abraham's day was probably closely allied to the orig- inal tongue, if it were not itself identical with it. This conclusion is based chiefly on the proper names of the early chapters of Genesis. These names are all significant in Hebrew, and the mean- ing in that tongue always explains the reason why they were given." Dr. Adam Clark commenting on Genesis 11: 1, says: "All mankind w is of one language, in all likelihood the Hebrew; and of one speech; articulating the same words in the same way. It is generally supposed that after the confusion mentioned in this chapter, the Hebrew language remained in the family of Heber. The proper names and their significations given in the scripture, seems incontestible evidence that the Hebrew language was the original language of the earth— the language in which — HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 541 God spake to man, and in which he gave the revelation of his will to Moses and the prophets. 'It was says Mr. Ains- used,' worth, 'in all the world for one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven years, till Phaleg, the son of Heber, was born, and the tower of Babel was in building, one hundred years after the flood (Gen. 10: 25, 11: 9). After this it was used among the Hebrews or Jews, called, therefore, the Jew's language until they were carried captive into Babylon, where the holy tongue ceased from being commonly used, and the mixed Hebrew (or Chaldee) came in its place." "It was the universal belief among the rabbins, the Christian fathers and the older theologians, that the Hebrew was the language of Adam and Eve, and that it prevailed among all man- kind till the dispersion at Babel," Johnson's New Universal Ency- clopedia (appendix) Art. Semitic Languages. Thus it appears that there has been a very general concensus of opinion among theo- logians that the Hebrew language existed long before the disper- sion, and after that event, in a state of remarkable purity even down to the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. It appears, further, that the main foundation for this opinion, is based on the proper names and their significations in the first few chapters of Genesis. There are altogether about two score only of such names in the whole of the Mosaic pre-diluvian history, and for convenience in compar- ing them with those of a later date and use, the list is herewith presented, omitting those that belong to the Deity: Abel, Adah, Adam, Assyria, Cain, Cainan, Ethiopia (Cush), Eden, Enoch, Enos, Euphrates, Eve, Gihon, Ham, Havilah, Hiddekel, Irad, Jabel, Jared, Japheth, Jubal, Lamech, Mahalaleel, Mehujael, Methusael, Methuselah, Naamah, Noah, Nod, Pison, Seth, Shem, Tubal Cain, Zillah. The termination of a number of these names occur in the familiar ah, several others in the well known el, and some of them are transmitted entirely down to later Jewish times. It will, further, be noticed how some of these early names in Genesis. are compounded, as, Tubal-Cain, from Tubal and Cain; Mehujael, from Jael and a prefix; Methuselah, from Selah and a prefix. Further strong evidence that the Hebrew language was in use before the flood, and that it was not confounded when the build- . 542 IMPR VEMENT ERA ing of the tower of Babel was stopped by the confusion of tongues, is found in the fact that the names of the Deity and of persons are used before the deluge and the dispersion that are used immediately after the latter event without any explanation of the divine personages or ancient worthies that were to be identified. If the language of Noah and his people was confounded, the names for God and Jehovah, and the whole list of worthies from Adam to Noah, would have been meaningless and indistinguishable to every post-Babelite without an explanatory guide to let him know, for instance, that the Z of his day was identical with the A of Adamic times, but just where it should appear, if needed at all, the Bible supplies us with no reference keys. God's knew chosen people who Jehovah was after the dispersion just as readily and as fully as they did before it, without having his identity revealed anew to them. It appears, further, from the Biblical records, that gene- alogies were kept by the people of the Lord from the days of Adam to those of Noah and his descendants, who lived at the time of the dispersion. Christ's lineage is traced to Adam, and it is scarcely possible that no other pre-diluvian families left a genea- logical record also, but even if they did not, the fact that one sin- gle family lineage was preserved for about one thousand seven hundred years is quite conclusive evidence that there were written records in existence before the deluge. Learned men who have studied the subject are of the opinion that the present Biblical account of creation was largely copied by Moses from earlier records. From this standpoint it is apparent that if the Hebrew were the universal language at the time of the dispersion, its preserva- tion was essential, unless every record that was in existence before the building of the tower of Babel was to become sealed and use- less to mankind, just as the Egyptian hieroglyphics were not decipherable before the discovery of the Rosetta stone, which gave the keys to them through a known language. If there were many languages in use at the time in question, the preservation of one of them to serve as a key to decipher the records of the past was also necessary. If they were all confounded, the history ard records of anti-diluvian days might just as well have been written in the language of the supposed inhabitants of Mars. But we have HEBREW ANALOGIES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON. 543 evidence that one language did come out of the general confusion of tongues at Babel unimpaired and the consistency of the Book of ; Mormon in stating (Ether 1: 35) that the language of Jared was not confounded affixes a broad seal of divinity to that work. What "unlearned youth," if an impostor, would even have thought of covering the point in question; and of doing it by the preserva- tion of theHebrew? Deeply laid, indeed, in the foundations of truth is that work which God has brought forth in the last days by the hands of Joseph Smith, his prophet, seer and revelator. In the statement just made that the Book of Mormon pro- vides for the preservation of Hebrew when the language of the rest of the world was confounded,a few necessary remarks have been anticipated. The grounds upon which such men as Dr. Angus and Dr. Clark base their opinion that the Hebrew was in use before the building of Babel, and after it practically unmodified, is found in the earlier and later Biblical names and their significa- tions. The evidence thus afforded is considered incontestible. Now, while we cannot give the meaning of the Jaredite names, an examination of them will show that they are largely built upon Biblical Hebrew models, and that is sufficient for present purposes — the evidence sustains the classification as heretofore given. It is scarcely necessary to add that it is taken for granted that those who used the Hebrew language were of the Jewish race. Gen- tiles have never been eager to adopt Jewish manners, customs or speech. The keeping of genealogies, too, by the Jaredites, while not conclusive that they were of the Jewish race, is, nevertheless, in line with Jewish customs or obligation. If, further, St. Paul understood the situation aright, they were Jews; for he says that to these people, — not to Gentiles —the oracles of God have been committed, and the Jaredites certainly received from him a code of his laws and authority to administer them. (the end.) Flagstaff, Arizona. Citation: Brookbank, Thomas W., "Hebrew Idioms and Analogies in the Book of Mormon. V," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 538–543. # The Call of Authority. I i-'ifiijjui'a'tt'n The Call of Authority. BY H. R. MERRILL. I. James Williams, commonly called "Brig" from the fact that he was a "Mormon," stood leaning against his broncho while his companion kneeled to drink from the little spring at his feet. Around them stretched the hills and valleys of Montana, and the picturesque costumes of the two cow boys were in keeping with their wild surroundings. "Well, 'Brig,' what are these 'Mormons,' anyhow?" the man asked, as he straightened up and'proceeded to knock the dust from his leather chapes with his riding quirt. The young fellow thus addressed threw the reins over his horse's head, and swung into the saddle before he answered his friend's question. "I don't believe I know as much about the 'Mormons' as I ought to," he replied. "I was born a 'Mormon' and that's about all I can say about it. My father and mother are counted good 'Mormons,' and I remember much they taught me, but' we had a big family, and it was rather hard scratchin' for a living down on the sage brush flats, and so us older boys had to get out and dig for ourselves. I haven't been at home much since I was a little lad." The other man mounted, and they rode off down the creek. "We've heard so many tough yarns, around these parts, about these 'Mormons,' that we concluded they were some kind of savages, but I can't see that you've got any horns, and you seem to be a human bein' about like the rest of us and, if anything, not quite so oncivilized." THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 545 "There's nothing in 'Mormonism' to be ashamed of, that I know of," the boy replied. "Of course, I don't know much about the doctrines. I don't take much stock in religion, anyhow, but I know that you won't find any better livin' people anywhere than the 'Mormons,' and I'll tell you, Jack, if I had lived up to the teachin's I got from my mother, you wouldn't find me at some of the places I now visit, although I will say that as a result of my mother's teachin', I'm not quite so bad as the rest of you, yet." Jack smiled as he replied: "You're kind a layin' the leather on me now, and 1 guess I deserve it; but I ain't got a mother, and haven't had one since I was a little tad, but she left me this, and it should have taught me better." He reached inside of his shirt and brought forth an old, worn New Testament. "I ain't read it very much, but it some- times helps me a little when I git in a hole. I don't suppose 'Mormons' believe in that at all." "You're on the wrong trail, there. They do believe in that, and teach that, and live according to its teachins' closer 'n any sect on earth, — in fact they send out hundreds of young men every year to preach the gospel, and they defend it against all comers, from the Bible." "They do? Well, I didn't think they believed in the Bible at all. What do they pay the young men for goin' out preachm?" "Nothing. They are supposed to go and stay as long as the Church wants them to, and pay their own expenses all the time." "No wonder you would rather punch cattle. Can any one go that wants to, or how do they manage it? How do they get them to go?" "They have at the head of the Church a president, or prophet, who calls these young men, and they take it as being a call from God, because the prophet is God's representative on earth. It is the call of authority, you know." "Supposin' you would get a call. Would you go?" The young fellow straightened up in his saddle and rode for a moment in silence, his eyes vacantly gazing over the blue peaks in the distance. Hismemory carried him back to the time when he was visiting at home the year before. When he was ready to leave, his good mother had kissed him, and, as she held him 546 IMPROVEMENT ERA. off at arm's length, with tears rolling down her cheeks, she said: "My boy, I hate to see you go again, but I want you to prom- ise me that you will try to live a good life, and that if you are called upon a mission, you will come home and go." He stooped over and kissed the dear old lips, and murmured brok- enly, "They won't call me," and had ridden away with no other promise. At length he said, "I don't know, I might go, and I might not." He put spurs to his horse and they galloped on in silence. The sun had set when the two cowboys galloped up to camp, where a half dozen men were sitting around tbe fire while the cook was preparing the supper. The frying veal and boiling coffee 'sent out a pleasant odor to greet the hungry men. The newcomers, with marvelous speed, unsaddled their horses and turned them loose with a pat and a kind word, and then joined the group at the fire. "Did you get any mail, Bill?" Jack asked. "I got a couple for 'Brig,' but none for you." The speaker, a young man of about twenty, handed the let- ters to Williams, who seated himself near the blaze and began to open them. James Williams was a "Mormon" boy from Southern Idaho. He was but nineteen years of age, but his dark, thin face looked five years older as he leaned near the fire to read his letter. His parents were Latter-day Saints, but, as he had said, personally he knew little of the doctrines of the Church. When he first landed in the camp of the Denning ranch, two years before, upon being asked where he was from, he had replied that he was born in Utah, but his folks now lived in Southern Idaho. One of the men had shouted, "A 'Mormon,' bedad!" "One of Brig Young's followers," another rejoined. The young man flushed up at their taunting remarks, but he was loyal to his early teachings, and calmly remarked: "Yes, sir, I'm a 'Mormon.' I'm a follower of Brigham Young, and I'm not ashamed of it." His words were greeted by shouts of laughter from the men, who gathered around to see this new specimen of mankind, and " THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 547 who began plying the lad with all sorts of questions, until the boy- was almost on the verge of breaking down; but he strove manfully to keep the tremble out of his lips as he faced the taunting crowd. "Well, sonny, how did Brigham Young look?" a big fellow asked. "I never saw him, but I know that he was the greatest man that was ever in the west," the boy replied, scarcely able to keep the tears out of his voice. The cowboy looked around at the men, with a knowing wink. "Now lookie here, sonny, you're insinuatin' a whole lot when " you put him above his betters, and I am here to say that "Brigham Young was the greatest man in the west," put in Jack Hillman, who had been a silent onlooker, as he laid his hand upon the boy's shoulder. "The kid's right, ain't he boys? and to prove it, we'll go in and drink a health to young 'Brig' here, who is goin' to stay with us." "You're right, Jack!" the men cried, and a couple of them caught the lad up on to their shoulders and marched away to the bar, where the "health" was duly drunk. From that day the boy had been a favorite in camp, and had come to regard his new name with pride, and in his two years with the outfit he had become one of the best cowmen on the ranch. Jack Hillman had been his best friend from the very first, but had never mentioned "Mormonism" to him until the day upon which this story opens. "Well, 'Brig,' who's it from?" one of the boys asked, as he finished one of the letters. "I hope she's well." "It isn't from a girl," he answered, as he held it out to the flames. "I think I'll forget it. He opened the other letter and read it slowly. It was from his mother, and as he read the pleading words, tears came to his eyes; for although he was a rough, hard cowboy, yet he was a "Mormon" boy, and mother's influence was still strong. When he finished the letter, he tenderly folded it and put it in his pocket. "I guess that was from her, anyhow," Jack Hillman cried. "And I guess she gave him the G. B., too, by the way he looks after it." . 548 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The men all joined in the laugh that followed. The lad smiled at the friendly banter. "Yes, boys, that was from her, but no matter what I would do, she would never give me the 'go by.' She loves me too well for that." "Well, now, you're all fired sure about that. I never had a girl like that in my life. I wish I had one like her." "I guess you've got one," the boy answered. "Nearly every- body has one like her. It was from my mother." "Supper's ready!" the cook shouted. After supper was over, they gathered around the fire again to enjoy a peaceful smoke and a friendly chat before going to bed The talk at first was upon the experiences of the day, but finally drifted around to "town talk," and Billy was asked all sorts of ques- tions about what was going on in town. "I went to a show last night," Billy replied, "and a fellow sang the prettiest song I ever heard in my life. We spatted him out twice. That song rang in my ears all night, so this morn- ing, before I left, I hunted the fellow up, and gave him a dollar to teach it to me." "Let's have it, then, so we can tell if you got cheated." "Well, I ain't no kind of a singer," Billy answered, as he straightened up, "but I'll try the thing, anyhow." The strong tones of his baritone voice floated out over the prairie, and although the voice was not polished it was good, and the rough cowboys listened intently to the beautiful old words. When the last strains had died away, there was not a sound but the crackling of the fire. At length Jack Hillman, taking his pipe from his mouth, said, "That was good. You made a good bargain. That's worth a dollar in any man's money. Sing it again." "Yes, let's have it again!" they all cried. Once more the song was. sung. When Billy reached the last chorus they all joined in and sang, but each saw a different face at the window, as he repeated the sweet old words: Somebody's waiting for me, Someone who loves me, I know, THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 549 Somebody's wondering where I can be, And what can be keeping me so. Somebody's heart is sad, Waiting so anxiously. There's a light shinging bright, In the window tonight, For there's somebody waiting for me. The song over, the men arose and in subdued voices, " 'lowed 'twas 'bout bed time," and began to spread down \'their blankets. Jack Hillman and the ' 'Mormon" boy made their bed, and as they got into it, Jack said, "If I had a mother waitin' for me, she wouldn't have to wait long, you kin bet your long green on that." "Jack!" The voice was a little husky, and the cowboy answered tenderly, "Yes, lad." "I've got a mother waitin' for me. You know what we were talking about today? Well, that first letter was from the president of our Church, asking me if I'd go on a mission, and the other one was from my mother. The letter went home, you know, and they forwarded it on to me, and my mother wrote and asked me to come home and go; but I haven't saved up much money, and the folks couldn't keep me very well, and I'm not much struck on goin', anyway, so I burned the letter, and thought I would for- get it, but that song — song just about made me home- well, that sick, for I know mother'llwatch every day for my comin', and every night, Jack, I know she prays for me. I know that when the daylight's gone, so she can't see down the lane, there'll be a light in the window a-waitin' for me, and if I don't go, 1 know that every time it's taken away the tears will roll down the dear old cheeks, and the wrinkles will get deeper around her eyes." The voice was very husky here, and big, strong Jack touched the little Testament tenderly. "Now, Jack," the boy continued, "what would you do?" There was silence for a few minutes, save for the lonely cry of the coyote, wafted on the breeze. "Well, 'Brig,' if it was me, I'd go," Jack replied. "How 550 IMPROVEMENT ERA. much money have you got? You could sell your outfit for a good price, too." "I've got three month's wages comin'; I would hate to sell Buck to any of these fellows, they are so hard on a horse." "I'll buy Buck," Jack answered. "I wouldn't mind selling him to you." The boy knew that Jack loved his horses and treated them as friends. After a few more words the conversation ceased and the camp was wrapped in peaceful slumber. The next morning, after breakfast was over, James sold his outfit to the boys, who were sorry to see him go, but his mind was made up, and nothing would change him; so, after a hearty hand- shake all around, he climbed into the buckboard with Billy, and they started for town. Jack rode along at the side for a short distance, and when they were out of sight of the men, he told Billy to stop. ' 'Brig,' I want to speak to you alone for a minute," he said. James got out of the buckboard and went over to where Jack had dismounted. "Now, 'Brig,' I want you to remember me," he said, "and if you ever get in a tight place, why let me know. You've done me a deal of good since you've been with this outfit. Although you're no saint, you are not like the rest of us, and you've helped me keep on the straight trail. I hate to see you go, but I reckon your mother holds the best hand, this time. I hope you'll go on that mission, if your mother wants you to, for their ain't nobody like a mother, after all, I guess; but since I ain't got one, I want you to take this for me to yours." He placed two twenty dollar gold pieces in the boy's hand. "Now, I reckon, it's about time you was joggin' along, if you're goin' to catch that train." "Goodby, Jack," James said, as he took the cowboy's hand. "You've been a mighty good friend to me, and if you ever want to see a mother, come and see mine. You'll be welcome any time, for the latch string's always out." James turned and, with moistened eyes, rejoined Billy. As they trotted along over greasewood and rabbit brush, he watched his friend vanish from sight over a low hill. [to be continued.] Citation: Merrill, H. R., "The Call of Authority. I," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 544–550. # Some Men Who Have Done Things. VI.—John C. Cutler — Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. VI.— John C. Cutler. AN ENGLISH BOY, BY SAVING, INVESTING, AND WATCHING HIS INVEST- MENTS, RISES FROM A CLERKSHIP YIELDING ONLY EIGHT DOLLARS A MONTH TO BECOME ONE OF UTAH'S RICHEST AND SAFEST FINANCIERS. "Every young man ought to save a little every month, till saving becomes a habit. Then he should invest his savings in some- thing that will earn money for him while he sleeps. And, finally, he must watch that investment. Saving, investing, watching that's the way to become independent financially." This is what John C. Cutler, former Governor of Utah, and one of our richest men, said to me the other day when I asked him how a young man could rise who started out to work for wages. And the remark not only furnishes the key-note of the Gov- ernor's own success in life, but forms an excellent motto for any one who wants to keep his nose off the com- mercial grindstone. When he was seventeen, he had one hundred dollars. Now, he had not inherited it, for his parents were poor; he had not been given it, merely HON. JOHN C. CUTLER. because nobody in all England had 552 IMPROVEMENT ERA. money to give away; and he had not picked it up in the pros- pector's camp, for the simple reason that there was no prospect- or's camp in the town of Manchester. He had saved it. Mark that. He had saved it — one hundred dollars in five years and on a wage ranging from about eight dollars the first month to about twenty dollars the last month! that the face of money were worth what it costs in effort! Then this hundred dollars and — many another first hundred dollars —would easily have been equiv- alent to the thousands of some other men. The fact that between • twelve and seventeen he saved one hundred dollars, was a big fact. — And so I repeat it in five years he had saved one year's wages, after paying for his board and lodging and clothes. Is it any marvel that John C. Cutler is now a rich man? Meantime, his parents, who lived at Sheffield, had joined the Church, and had made arrangements to emigrate to America. John C. was not then a Latter-day Saint, but he decided to go to the New World with the family. "There's better opportunity for growth in America than in England," he explained to his employer, when he gave notice that he wished to give up his clerkship. And so, with twenty guineas in his pocket, he took ship for the west- ern land. The five years' savings, however, went in less than five minutes when the family reached a point in their journey overland where it was necessary to add a yoke of cows to the already pur- chased four yokes of oxen. Just at the time when the Cutler family got to Salt Lake work happened to be as scarce as dollars. And so the future Governor and financier, with his brother, Thomas R., trudged out among the farmers in Mill Creek, south of the city, hunting for labor. "We've got to have work of some sort," John C. declared wherever he went. All that they could get, though, was a job digging potatoes and beets on shares. But the boys dug them as cheerfully and as well as they had measured gingham and cast up accounts in the Manchester store. This was the very next day after the family's arrival in Salt Lake. And this, moreover, is the only time John C. has ever asked any one for work. After the potatoes and beets were dug he helped make a canal, occupying an old house belonging to the Brintons. The next fall he was offered a clerkship in a store in the city, which he accepted. In the three SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 553 years, during which he was employed here, he became an essential part of the firm.But, owing to a difference as to the principles on which the business should be managed, he withdrew from the establishment. Immediately he was offered places elsewhere, but he determined to launch out for himself. "I made up my mind to have a business of my own," he said, speaking of this time, "even if I had to set up a peanut stand. Should it turn out that I had money enough only to put in a stock of roasted peanuts, why, peanuts it should be. and I would add eggs and apples and other things as I could. But I had set my heart on starting out for myself." That a young man with a wife and two children should think seriously, even as a last resort, of setting up a peanut stand, may have a strange sound for us nowadays, especially in any connec- tion with the name, John C. Cutler. But it shows the stuff he was made of. For independence seems to have been a passion with him. That he did not have recourse to this means of earning a livelihood, but engaged presently in a more lucrative business, was due to a fortuitous event. The Provo woollen mills had been established, and A. 0. Smoot was looking for an agent for the Salt Lake trade. Having heard of the young English clerk's push and business ability,Mr. Smoot sought him out and offered him the agency. The two called on President Brigham Young, a bargain was struck by which John C. was to sell the product of the woollen mills on commission, and a new store was opened up in the Constitution building, on Main street. Young Cutler had practically no capital, but everybody connected with the transaction appeared to like his looks and to place great reliance on his ability and honesty. Nor were they to be deceived by appearances. Mr. Cutler made good. He laid in a stock of cloth, adding other things in the "dry" line, as the busi- ness grew, made the concern pay, and, in the end, established a knitting factory. A grand thing it is to have men build up hopes in you, but a grander thing still to fulfil those hopes! Now, a good many men, as their business increased, would have enlarged the floor space of the store. They would have secured another floor, and then another— would have widened the building, and finally torn down the whole structure, to replace it by 554 IMPROVEMENT ERA. a larger. Or, maybe, they would have established departments in other parts of the city, or even in other towns. But John C. Cutler was not born to be a mere store-keeper. His genius ran into other and more varied enterprises. As his merchandising yielded greater and greater returns, he endeavored to invest his spare money to advantage. He bought four hundred dollars worth of Utah Central, in a little while got sixty dollars as interest, and sold the bonds for six hundred and fifty dollars. A few hundred dollars he invested in sheep, which, in the twenty years he has kept them, have brought him about fifteen per cent a year on his money. And so, wherever opportunity presented itself, he put money here and there, until now he is not only one of the wealthiest men in Utah but, as nine out of ten business men will tell you, one of the very safest. For, as a number of them informed me, if, during a financial crisis, any man in Utah has money, that man is John C. Cutler. I asked him to give me the best advice for young men that his long and successful experience could suggest. "First of all,'' he said, "a young man should learn to econ- omize and save till he gets a start. He must learn that there are many things that he cannot have and that he must do without for a time. He has to do this if he is to save at all. And he cannot get a start in business unless he saves. You know the old adage, that living ten cents under your income is happiness, ten cents over is misery. Well, nothing can be truer. Every young man, therefore, no matter how small his income, ought to save some- thing out of it every month. And he should do this till saving becomes a habit, till it is second nature to live within his means. That is why I regard the building societies as such a blessing to the average wage-earner — it compels him to save so much every month out of his wages. At the end of a given time — say ten years — he has a house and lot of his own, whereas otherwise, most probably, he would not have. And he may have something of far greater value than a house and lot, at the end of that time, namely, a habit of setting apart each month some portion of his wages, but whether he is in a building association or not, every young man should form the habit of saving as much as he can. "Then, when he has a little money saved, he should look SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 555 around for an opportunity to invest it. Now, money is a tireless worker — it earns all the time, whether its owner is awake or asleep. If you have a tolerable lump of it, it's like having another pair of hands working for you— only hands that need no rest. Of course, he has to watch this investment as closely as he can. For instance, I myself invested in sheep and let them out to others. One day I learned that the man who had them was on the verge of a business break-up. I took the sheep away and placed them elsewhere. About a year or two later the man failed, and I was saved. On another occasion I found out that another man who had my sheep was speculating. I took the sheep away from him. Pretty soon he went under, and I was saved again. And so a man has to watch an investment. There's no use having money out if you don't keep track of it. To be sure, every man is liable to make — mistakes the best men. I know a man who bought some Deseret National stock at the same time that I did, and sold it not long afterward, instead of keeping it and making it earn good money." "What about speculation?" I inquired. "Is it not a bad thing?" "Well, as a matter of fact, all business is more or less of a speculation. I buy a stock of goods. 1 don't know whether I can sell them or not. I hope I can. That is why I buy. But they may stay on the shelves. Every business transaction of this sort is somewhat of a venture. But I suppose you mean speculation in the ordinary sense, sinking money in the hope cf a large return. Even that is a matter of degree. The main objection to that sort of thing is that men sometimes speculate with money that should go for other things. Here is a man, for example, who has a wife and children. The family expenses make a given demand on his regular income. Other necessary things have their demand. Each month a certain amount of money comes in, and a certain amount has to go out for these regular expenses. Now, it would be wrong for such a man to speculate with any part of the money which ought to go for the family, or other necessary use. But if he has any money not so required, money which he hasn't any special need for at the time, he may set it apart for speculative purposes, if he chooses. This is what I mean by speculation being 556 IMPROVEMENT ERA. a matter of degree. For myself, though, I prefer the safer ways of business enterprises to speculation in its less restricted sense. Often, when I am in California, I go to San Francisco to the stock exchange, but I am never tempted to buy. "Another source of grief in speculation is that the man of small capital puts it into too many things at once. I am speaking now of the person who has a certain amount which he sets aside, over and above his expense money. If I have large sums invested in, say, ten different places, and I lose on three or four, it is prob- able that I may make enough from the other six or seven invest- ments to more than offset the loss in the three or four. But if I have only a small sum, I can't afford to take chances by dividing this amount among too many investments that promise large returns, but that are risky. It would be better for me, in this case, to put my money into some two or three things that yield smaller profits, but are safe. "But there is something besides mere safe returns to con- sider. A young man who contemplates entering business should try, in the main, to put his money into enterprises that give con- stant employment to the people. Thus, while he is establishing West Side, Hon. John C. Cutler's Orange Grove, La Canejeda, California, February 5, 1910. SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 657 himself on a firm basis, he will, at the same time, be building up the community. And this is good citizenship as well. "Above all things, he must deal fairly and honestly with everyone." "What, in your opinion," I asked, "are the opportunities today as compared with those under which you arose into success?" "Better, I should say— much better. There is scarcely a com- parison. Nowadays a young man stands a hundred chances where we older men stood one. Boys today have a better education, to begin with. Only yesterday, for example,a man asked me if I couldn't get him some work. He had come from one of the Southern States; he was a man of family; he could neither read nor write; and he had no trade. Such a condition ought to be impossible to the future, if we may judge by the way our boys are educated now. Nobody but will be able to read and write. And then, almost every boy nowadays can have a trade. I believe that every boy should learn a trade. He may not need it, and then again he may. For the last five years, when I have gone on my annual visit to an orange grove I have in California, I have Harold G. Cutler learning- the orange and lemon business. Pruning lemon trees, February 5, 1910. at Hon. John C. Cutler's ranch, La Canejeda, California. —, 558 IMPROVEMENT ERA. noticed a certain house there which is building. The owner works for daily wages, but he knows the carpenter's trade, and every spare moment he has, he puts on the house. It is finished now, and would have cost him between four and five thousand dollars. As it is, it has cost him only the land — six or seven hundred dollars and the actual material he has put into it. So I believe thoroughly in the manual training departments which our high schools are putting in, because they give the boys an opportunity to learn a trade; and, in case something should happen in their business ven- tures, — if they engage in business — they will have something to fall back upon. ''But opportunities to engage in business are vastly more plentiful now than they were in my younger days. A hundred new vocations have arisen, and the older ones have opened out into finer possibilities. The principles of success, though, are the same as they always have been. "In business, as in everything else that the hands and brain of man find to do, good luck is but old-fashioned good manage- ment." ti-*^-*w*'-»- < * i <* Wi^^^M A LONELY TRAIL IN THE UINTAHS. Citation: Evans, John Henry, "Some Men Who Have Done Things. VI.—John C. Cutler," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 551–558. # A Word to Dramatic Clubs A Word to Dramatic Clubs. by horace g. whitney, dramatic and music editor of the "deseret news." In a few years— to be exact, on March 8, 1912— that historic temple of the drama, the Salt Lake Theatre, will celebrate its fiftieth birthday. Founded by President Brigham Young, as a place where amusement and instruc- tion might be blended, and the talents of the community encouraged, the old house, almost the only sur- vivor of its contemporaries through- out the land, still stands'as a monu- ment to the far sightedness, enter- prise and liberality of the great leader and his pioneer associates. What mutations and changes in the drama, what ebbs and flows in the public taste, the old theatre has wit- nessed during those fifty years! It was erected in the middle of the three HORACE G. WHITNEY. decades which I always think of as the really golden period in the history of the American drama, the fifties, sixties, and seventies, a period that saw the advent of our Forrests, Booths, McCulloughs, Barretts, Keenes, Adamses, Jeffersons, Cushmans, Neilsons, Haynes, Andersons, and of our never-to-be-forgotten New York, Boston and San Francisco stock companies. Dating from such a period, small wonder is it that the Salt Lake Theatre should be regarded by many in the community not only as a monument to its pioneer builders, but as a reminder of the days when the drama stood for something real, and often- 560 IMPROVEMENT ERA. times, as a protest against the inanity, purposelessness and indecency to which the theatre of today has descended. a visit from some such rare player as Robert Man- It takes tell,whose recent round of productions came like a revivifying breath from the good old dramatic days, to call sharply to our minds the vast gulf that separates the stage of the present from that of the days of our fathers. It was a reminder of the van- ished best in the drama,, of the sort of theatrical fare on which our fathers and mothers were fed, of the class of entertainments that caused the Salt Lake Theatre to be built. Let us hope that such a vision of what the drama ought to be, and might be, with proper encouragement, will bear fruit in the minds of those who were fortunate enough to behold it. Mournful though the admission is, it must be said that in Salt Lake, as elsewhere, the taste for the cheap, frothy, and aimless, jn both drama and music, has reached almost the lowest -ebb. The flood of variety entertainments, moving pictures, sensational plays and plays whose themes skirt on the indecent, has literally submerged the public taste, and it might be thought, in viewing the patronage often bestowed on the few really meritorious attractions which visit us from time to time, has totally obliterated the desire for the clean, pure, and uplifting on the stage. In one Salt Lake theatre there has regularly been presented, for some months past, a spectacle which is surely without a parallel. I refer to the epi- sodes, not seen once, twice or thrice, but many times, when an actor has appeared in a state of intoxication before audiences of ladies and young people who, nevertheless, throng the theatre when he appears, and who never seem know when they are to insulted. Such a thing would have been impossible not many years ago, and that it goes on now without arousing particular com- ment or protest, affords an eloquent comment on the status which has been reached by actors, managers and audiences alike. Every one who has followed the trend of public amusements of late years must rejoice to note the awakening which is taking place in the midst of the Latter-day Saints in regard to this sub- ject. It is especially fitting that the hand of guidance and cor- rection should be extended from the Mutual Improvement Associa- A WORD TO DRAMATIC CLUBS. 561 tions of the Church; that they can exert a powerful influence, there can be no two opinions. Nearly every ward has its amuse- ment committee, appointed by the bishopric, and regularly sus- tained by the people at their conferences, with the other ward officials. These committees are powerful agencies, and if the Mutual Improvement Associations vvork in harmony with them, as they should do, great good can be accomplished. These amuse- ment committees ought to be made up of bright, wide awake minds, of young men and women who, if possible, have had exper- ience in music, the drama or art of some class; those who know the good from the bad, who are in touch with what is going on in the world, who read, and who keep in communication with dramatic societies, clubs, or the other wards of greater age and experience, who are trying to exercise an elevating influence in the productions they put forward. To uplift, to instruct, at the same time that they amuse, ought to be their motto. Nothing is more painful to the discerning mind than to see in our missionary farewells, for instance, selections from the rag time, slang, or trivial classes of music. In our musical renditions especially, care should be taken to secure selections of a higher grade than that which we often use. It is pleasant to note that the published programs of the joint meetings of the Mutual Improvement Associations on the first Sun- day of each month, show an improvement over those of only a short time ago. The ward authorities, who are accustomed to leave the choice of these numbers co the younger officials of the associations, should see that there is a kindly censorship exercised over the class and grade of selections announced for Sunday even- ing renditions. The careful president and amusement committee, by noting what other wards are doing, from the publication of these programs in the Deseret News and the Improvement Messenger, can soon become posted as to what represents the best in the list of renditions, and learn the class that ought to be avoided. The amateur dramatic clubs and societies which are con- stantly springing up throughout the Church, especially in the wards which are provided with suitable amusement halls, deserve encouragement, but they need, at the same time, the guiding hand 562 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of an experienced mentor, and if they have not such a one at their head or among their number, they ought to be required to work in harmony with, and under the direction of the amusement committee of their wards. There is so much to be avoided, such a wilderness of trash from which to choose, that the inexperienced are almost certain to select the wrong thing in making their choice of a play on which to begin work. Assuming that the local forces have only a fair amount of histrionic talent, there is a limit- less field of standard plays, short or long, easy or difficult, suited to all grades, from which selection can be made. These are pub- lished at prices within the reach of all, and catalogues describing what the plays are like, naming the number of characters, describing the scenery, costumes, etc., required, can be obtained without any charge whatever. Those who have had experience along those lines, know where such catalogues and plays can be obtained. To such as have not, a letter to the Deseret News Book Store, which maintains a play department and has close relations with the leading dramatic publishers, or to the dramatic or music instructor of the University of Utah, the Latter-day Saints' Univer- sity in Salt Lake, the Brigham Young University of Provo, or the Agricultural College of Logan, will bring the necessary advice and counsel as to the proper steps to be taken. While you are choosing, let me advise that the widest of berths' be given to the "blood and thunder" dramas, plays of gore and revenge, and dramas or comedies in which the sex problem is made to play a leading part, and that preference be given to the clean English comedies and dramas, such as Robertson and Henry J. Byron delighted the world with a few years ago. Such plays as Our Boys, Uncle, Sweethearts, School, Caste, Engaged, Home, etc., are samples of good language and interesting plots, and they point a clean and healthy moral at the same time. A very entertaining and instructive evening's entertainment, and one that gives opportunity to a large amount of talent, is to arrange a concert program interspersed with recitations, vocal and instrumental music, etc., as a first part, and to conclude with a comedy or farce which runs thirty or forty minutes. There is an endless from which to choose of such works; one act field pieces that can be recommended are such as My Turn Next, A WORD TO DRAMATIC CLUBS. 563 Lend me Five Shillings, A Clerical Error, The Highland Legacy, Old Cronies, A Cup of Tea, The Happy Pair, Barbara, Sunset, My Milliner's Bill, Comedy and Tragedy, Drifted Apart, etc. A number of these are serious and should not be attempted unless the talent selected to portray them is of a high character. One act operas and operettas are also most pleasant forms of amuse- ment, and correspondence with any of the leading music firms will bring a list of works well within the average company's ability to render. If your society or club is older and more experienced and can depend upon the financial patronage that will justify it, copy- righted plays such as Esmeralda, Hazel Kirke, Young Mrs. Win- throp, the Banker's Daughter, Confusion, The Private Secretary, The Silver King, An American Citizen, The Money Spinner, etc., can all be recommended, though some of them require special scenery. And while on the subject of these copyrighted plays, let me add this remark, that the dramatic organizations among the Latter-day Saints should take their stand on the side of those who accord to the authors of these plays their undoubted right to be paid for the products of their brains. The law protects the author who copyrights his play, just as it does the inventor who patents his invention, and the man, woman, or society who appropriates the ideas of an author, simply violates the command- ment which "Thou shalt not steal." says, The land is full of pirates and unauthorized agents who sell stolen versions of stand- ard plays at "cut rates." If you are ambitious to produce copy- righted plays, deal with the author or his representative; the old Home Dramatic Club, of which ex-Governor Wells and Bishop 0. F. Whitney were once members, established itself strongly with the foremost dramatic publishers of the country by paying the due royalties to the authors of the copyrighted plays they brought out, and it is pleasant to know that the various ambitious produc- tions of the dramatic departments of our several state and Church universities and colleges, are all made after due and proper arrangements with the owner of the plays. The laborer is worthy of his hire. Citation: Whitney, Horace G., "A Word to Dramatic Clubs," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 559–563. # Editor’s Table: Masquerade Balls—Stay at Home Editor's Table. Masquerade Balls. The question of whether it is proper to hold masquerade balls has arisen in one of the stakes of Zion. It is reported that, much against the wishes of the stake authorities, some of the wards have, nevertheless, held these balls, and the brethren wish to know what the general authorities think of masquerade balls, and the advisability of holding them. The advice and counsel of the First Presidency, from the beginning to the present time, has always been against masquer- ade balls and masquerade gatherings of any kind. We trust that this counsel is generally understood and adhered to throughout the Church. There are so many safer and more respectful amusements that it doesn't seem reasonable that anyone should wish to endanger the morals of the young people by even suggesting a masquerade. This particular kind of amusement had its origin in the courts of kings, where moral degeneracy was not uncommon. The mask enabled the vicious princes to hide their corruption, while it gave license to evil men and women to commit licentious- ness such as even the most wicked and vile among them .were ashamed to engage in without the protection of the mask. This class of amusement became especially prevalent in public entertainments in Italy about the close of the middle ages. It was introduced into England by Henry VIII, whose tyranny, natural violence and evil practices are universally detested, but which were fit consorts of the mask. Masquerades have continued, with more or less popularity, unto the present, and are now com- EDITOR'S TABLE. 56£ mon accompaniments to the carnival, where indulgences of the sensual appetites are generally given full sway. The nearest approach, however, to this species of entertainment which English law and taste permit in this day, is fancy costumes, with- out the facial mask. Undoubtedly the reason for this is that from their nature masked amusements, so-called, are peculiarly liable to abuse. The mask is found in dens of infamy and vice; it has its home there. It is a means used by the harlot and procurer to cover shame and to practice evil. Its use has no redeeming feature. It is repulsive in every way. There is nothing clean nor attractive about it. For these and other reasons the mask-ball has no place among the amusements of the Latter-day Saints, where every action must be open and above board, and where virtue, purity and fidelity are prevailing characteristics. Joseph F. Smith. Stay at Home. • Perhaps due to hereditary inclinations in remote ancestry, there is a restlessness in the race, at this season of the year, which stirs the blood. It fills people with an often irresistible desire to move to new places, and with a longing for new environment. But let us read the sentiment in Longfellow's song: Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest; Home-keeping hearts are happiest, For those that wander they know not where, ^Are full of trouble and full of care; To stay at home is best. You are tired of the old environments, the old home, the old farm, the old surrounding country. But, in most cases, you are doing about as well right where you are, as you could do in a new place. Don't be in a hurry to answer the roaming call. A story is told of a man who, when he felt the lazy spells coming on him, 5B6 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to which he was subject, and which caused him to hate his work and wish to run away from it, took saw and worked hard his for an hour sawing oak wood. By that time his back and arm were so tired that his other work seemed so light and easy that he returned thankfully to his accustomed task. Take an hour off, when the moving desire comes, and walk out in the field, up on the near hill, on the steep mountain side. Exert yourself until you are very tired, then go home and rest, and sing the old song. Disappointment comes so easily and soon, in changing home, that only for the very best of reasons should it ever be under- taken—ill-health, or financial betterment. And then only after carefully weighing the conditions and probable results. Some people become so accustomed to their crude surround- how beautiful, how profitable, how rich ings that they fail to see these could be made with just a little energy expended in the right direction. And, also, they see no good qualities in their neigh- bors, when a little interest in them, and a little service rendered, would change the whole situation. It would tend to make the would-be roamer feel that no other people, and no other spot on the earth, can ever quite supply what home provides. Young men who earn salaries should make it a point to invest their savings in land in the vicinity of their own homes, if possible. It is the safest and best investment that can be made. It is sure As it is best to stay at to increase in value and bring big returns. home, so it is best to invest at home. You can then know what you are getting, if you have the wisdom to see the undeveloped riches at your doors. Just recently, a community invested thousands of dollars in a far-away stock land-scheme, at the solicitation of an attractive solicitor. Sage-brush land by the thousands of acres, right at their doors, could have been bought for ten and fifteen dollars per acre, but it had no attraction for them. Only a year or two later a canal was projected, and strangers came thousands of miles to buy the discarded sage-land, which is now scarce at sixty and one hundred dollars per acre, and owned by new settlers. The old settlers may or may never receive a reasonable percent on what they invested afar off, but they have lost the four and five hundred per cent which they might have had on their home invest- Citation: Smith, Joseph F., "Editor’s Table: Masquerade Balls—Stay at Home," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 564–566. # April 6 EDITOR'S TABLE. 567 ment. It is best to stay at home, and to develop the uncounted resources that lie at our own doors. God has given us a glorious land, full of material riches, laden with opportunity, and rich in healthful environment. Let us think well before we change these for new, before we give up familiar and cherished scenes and tried and trusted friends for new environment and strange associates. To say nothing of other things — the need of developing the land and fortifying our strength in the stakes of Zion, — the chances are that the energy put forth in tearing up and moving, if used in the direction of improvement and betterment of our present surroundings, would bring us more satisfaction and greater returns than we would ever receive from the contemplated change. Stay at home, and if you have means to invest buy farm-land at reasonable prices and cul- tivate it— is good counsel to young men. Joseph F. Smith. April 6. For the marvelous incidents clustering about this day every Latter-day Saint has reason to be sincerely thankful. On this day, the probable birthday of the Messiah, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was regularly organized and established by command of God and agreeable to the laws of our glorious land of liberty, peace and plenty. By the will and commandment of God, also, Joseph Smith the prophet had been previously called and ordained the first elder, and inspired of the Holy Ghost to lay the foundations of the Church, and to build it up unto the most holy faith. For this divine call, and the wonderful events that have resulted, let us thank our Heavenly Father. To him also be thanks for the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ contained in the Book of Mormon — this record of a fallen people, this witness of the truth of the gospel and the holy scriptures — translated by Joseph through power given him from on high. Thanks for the testimony that God calls and inspires men and women for his mar- velous work in our day and age, as in generations of old. Thanks Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "April 6," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 567. # Messages from the Missions 568 IMPROVEMENT ERA. for the lives of these, his servants, who suffered, fought, and endured, until at length they entered the promised land in full faith and with steadfast testimony. Thanks for those who have arisen in power to fill their places. Thanks for the growth and strength of the Church, and for the deliverance it has wrought. That, through the priesthood, such faith and spiritual power is asserted among men as was never witnessed since the scenes enacted upon the shores of Galilee. That the poor have heard and found the gospel of spiritual peace, and that many have established their temporal heritage in this land of ineffable glory where the triumph of truth has set the captives free. And none are alien to these blessings who believe, repent, worship the Father in Jesus' name, and do the works of righteousness. The promise is, they shall receive a crown of everlasting life. Because of the resulting events of this day, we are planted of the Lord in the peaceful valleys where our feet tread the ways of pleasantness. Our Heavenly Father has taken fear and bondage from us, and guided us beside the still waters, where the mountains drop riches and the fields yield in abundance. Praise and thanks be to his holy name. Messages from the Missions. The Swedish mission has 25 branches, 70 missionaries, with a total membership of 2,182, including 278 children. During the year 1909, there were 140 baptisms, 275,399 tracts distributed, 42,624 books sold, 167,399 families visited in tracting, and 3,027 meetings held. The Scandinavian mission reports six conferences. For the year 1909 there were 368 baptisms; there is a total membership, including 701 children, of 3,005. There are 39 branches, and 132 missionaries. During the year, 805,976 tracts were distributed, and 24,310 books sold, while 471,569 families were visited in tracting. President Charles A . Callis, of the Southern States mission, reports 987 baptisms, and 637 children blessed, in that mission, for 1909. There are thirteen conferences, and during the year one new branch was EDITOR'S TABLE. 56 d organized, and four Sunday schools. Sales of the. Book of Mormon num- bered 3,528, other standard works 1,263, and other books 36,540. The total number of tracts distributed were 366,549; 46,911 copies of Liahona, the Elders' Journal, were distributed, and 1,242 subscriptions obtained. Elder D. M. Powelson, Cork, Ireland, writes, February 20: "The Improvement Era makes such an impression for good on strangers to our religion, that I find it a splendid means of introducing the gospel among that class of people. Its moral teachings are of such high standard that wherever it is read I find it leaves a deep impression for good. I have passed my copies to numerous persons, until some of the copies are almost worn out with use. In all who have read them cases those express the idea that the Improvement Era is one of the best literary magazines that has fallen into their hands. Persons who read the Era soon lose faith in the falsehoods spread abroad about the Latter-day Saints — when they see that the official organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the M. I. A. is putting forth such admirable teachings.'' NORTHERN STATES MISSION. The office force and President, January 10, 1910, whose address is 110 So. Paulina St., Chicago, 111. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Messages from the Missions," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 568–569. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. Origin of Man. — 'In just what manner did the mortal bodies of ' Adam and Eve come into existence on this earth?'' This question comes from several]High Priests' quorums. Of course, all are familiar with the statements in Genesis 1: 26, 27; 2: 7; also in the Book of Moses. Pearl of Great Price, 2: 27; and in the Book of Abraham 5:7. The latter statement reads: "And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man's spirit) and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." These are the authentic statements of the scriptures, ancient and modern, and it is best to rest with these, until the Lord shall see fit to give more light on the subject. Whether the mortal bodies of man evolved in natural processes to present perfection, through the direction and power of God; whether the first parents of our generations, Adam and Eve, were transplanted from another sphere, with immortal taber- nacles, which became corrupted through sin and the partaking of natural foods, in the process of time; whether they were born here in mortality, as other mortals have been, are questions not fully answered in the revealed word of God. For helpful discussion of the subject, see Improvement Era, Vol. XI, August 1908, No. 10, page 778, article, "Creation and Growth of Adam;" also article by the First Presidency, "Origin of Man," Vol. XIII, No. 1, page 75, 1909. The Holy Sacrament. — "Is it, or is it not, proper for an elder passing the sacrament, to refuse to give it to one he knows to be unworthy of partaking of it?" It is the duty of the bishop solely to sit in judgment in such a case. By the authority vested in the bishop, as a high priest, the sacra- ment is administered. It is in his charge; and if there are members in the congregation who are unworthy of the sacrament, it is the duty of the bishop, and no one else, to sit in judgment in such a case. Therefore it is not proper for an elder to refuse any person the sacrament, unless he has previously been instructed to do so by the bishop of the ward. But, if the elders who administer the sacrament know of persons in the con- PRIES1H00D QUORUMS' TABLE. 571 gregation who are unworthy to partake of it, it is their duty to so report to the bishop, and await the bishop's instruction (read III Nephi 18: 28-30). — Active High Priests. President Nathaniel V. Jones, of the High Priests' Quorum of the Granite Stak? of Zion, has carefully com- piled a report received from the high priests in charge of the nineteen wards of that stake, from which it appears that there are 336 high priests in the Granite Stake of Zion, 30 of whom are stake and officers 57 bishops and counselors; there are 111 engaged in Sunday school, Mutual Improvement and other Church work, outside of the bishoprics; 88 who are 70 years of age and upwards, and there are 9 patriarchs in the stake. Of infirm, and such as are unable to do much work, there are 19; and 57 out of the total number are not at all employed in priest- hood or Church duties. It appears, also, from this report, that there are 181 high priests in the stake who attend the weekly priesthood meetings. To the Seventies' Quorums: — The First Council is advised that the Deseret News Book Store is getting out a second edition of Elder N. L. Nelson's Preaching and Public Speaking; also that the book, after having been thoroughly revised by the author, has been read critically by a committee suggested by the First Presidency, and been duly accepted as worthy the study of all who expect to take part in the min- istry of the Latter-day Saints. Now, while the first requisite of a Latter-day Saint preacher is a testimony of the gospel, and the second, a wide range of facts and truths to sustain that testimony, these prime qualifications become effective only to the extent that he can envoke and hold the attention of his audience. In other words, his effectiveness will depend, to a very large extent, upon his method of presentation. In this respect, Elder Nelson's book will be found helpful. We, therefore, cordially recommend it to the seventies generally, and especially to those preparing for missions. Sunny Natures. — To be a successful governor, and an attractive teacher of young men, one must have not only firmness, a keen sense of right, and love for the members of the class, but also a sunny disposition. Who can estimate the value of a nature so sunny that it attracts every- body! Everybody wants to get near sunny people; everybody likes to know them. They open, without effort, doors which morose natures are obliged to pry open with great difficulty, or perhaps cannot open at all. Teachers of deacons quorums should be sought who have these qualifica- tions. To find them is a great work for the bishops. When found they will solve to a great extent the grave question of order, or disorder, now so uppermost in many of the quorums. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 570–571. # Mutual Work: Committee of Control; Deseret Gymnasium; Program for Quarterly Conjoint Meetings Mutual Work. Committee of Control Deseret Gymnasium. The Committee of Control of the Deseret Gymnasium were appointed Wednesday, March 16, at a meeting of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A., by the First Presidency, as follows: Hyrum M. Smith, chairman, B. F. Grant, Thomas Hull, of the Y. M. M. I. A.; Willard Young, B. S. Hinckley, A. B. Christensen, of the L. D. S. University; Stephen L. Richards, J. F. Bennett, Milton Bennion, of the Sunday School Union Board; and J. M. Knight, Sylvester Q. Cannon, George R. Emery, and John M. Cannon, of the Ensign, Pioneer, Salt Lake and Granite Stake Presidencies. The order of appointment is signed by Presidents Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund, and John Henry Smith, of the Council of Twelve. Programs for Quarterly Conjoint Meetings. A topic which the stake officers should take up immediately is the matter of providing programs suitable for the quarterly conjoint meet- ings. The M. I. A. has been given the Sunday evening of the quarterly conferences of the stakes for use in the interests of the work of the Improvement Associations. In these quarterly meetings there should be a short report given by the stake superintendents of the condition of the organizations, for the enlightenment of the public and the visiting breth- ren and sisters. These reports should be concise, short, clear and definite, as far as possible. Provisions should be made also for a program consisting of one selection from the Young Men and one from the Young Ladies, which should reflect the work and the studies taken up in the manuals of these organizations. Besides, there should be a suitable musical program, and such other exercises as will fit the occasion. In case there are no visitors, it is expected that the stake officers will appropriately occupy the remainder of the time presenting to the people such instructions and explanations as will enable them to understand more fully the object of the associations and the labors that we are endeavor- ing to perform, as well as the various divisions of our work that we are seeking to establish. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work: Committee of Control; Deseret Gymnasium; Program for Quarterly Conjoint Meetings," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 572. # Passing Events Passing Events. High prices of the necessaries of life is being made the subject of special investigation by the United States Congress. The cost of produc- tion, the profits of the middlemen and the retailer, the effect of combina- tions, the charges for transportation, and the effect of the tariff, with other points related to the question, will enter into the investigation. Mine disasters in the United States, during the months of Decem- ber, January and February, were the cause of the death of 416 miners. An explosion at Primero, Colorado, January 31, killed 75 miners; and on the 1st. of February, 35 miners were killed and 15 injured by an explosion in a coal mine in Drakesboro, Kentucky. The state statistics of Utah, as compiled by H. T. Haines, state statistician, shows that during the year 1908, 10,069 babies were born in the state, and that during the same year there were 4,062 deaths, as against 3,866 for 1909. In 1908 there were 4,120 marriages; in 1909, 4,500 marriages. The divorces for 1908 numbered 493, and for 1909, 530. St. Gauden's Statue of Phillips Brooks, which is a gift of the people of Boston, was recently unveiled in that city and stands against the east on Copley Square. wall of Trinity, At this writing the merits of the monument are under critical discussion in the classical city. This sculpture was the last work of St. Gaudens. Phillips Brooks, the preacher of the word of God and the lover of mankind, was born in Boston in 1835, and died in that city in 1893. A sentence from one of his sermons to the boys is well worth preservation and adoption by everv young man in the land. It was given to the Era by a mother who selected it and enjoined it upon every one of her sons to make it the motto of his life. It reads: "Be such a man, live such a life, that if every man were a man like you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God's paradise." Parley Doney Parkinson, of Preston, Idaho, is the youngest student in the West Point Military Academy. He entered the Academy . 574 IMPR YEMEN T ERA March 1, having been named by Senator William E. Borah. He passed the necessary examination, with exceptionally high rating, be- fore a U. S. army examining board, at Fort Slocum, N. Y., January 12, where he was found mentally and physically equipped for appointment to the great military school. He had just passed the age of seventeen years when he entered, which is the youngest age at which a person can be appointed. Par- ley is a son of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Parkinson, his father being president of the Oneida stake. He is a graduate of the public schools, and received additional instruction in the Oneida stake academy, at Pres- ton, and later studied at the Highland Falls Military Train- PARLEY DOXEY PARKINSON. ing School, N. Y. Emmeline B. Wells, familiarly and lovingly known as "Aunt Emm'' celebrated her eighty-second anniversary on February 28. It was really not her birthday, for this gifted and honored lady was born on that unusual day, the twenty-ninth of February, and has, therefore, had only nineteen birthdays. Sister Wells must have lived according to the admonition of him who wrote, "If wrinkles must be writ- ten upon our brows, let them not be writ- ten upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old,'' for though these many years she has worn a crown of silver hair, her spirit has remained beautifully young. It is indeed a delight to listen to her bright conversa- tion and repartee. The Relief Society, the organization in which she has worked for many years past with such untiring z< al, gave an open reception in her honor, on her anniversary, and many hundred friends EMMELINE B. WELLS. availed themselves of this opportunity to show PASSING EVENTS. 575 her their love and esteem. The beautiful suite of rooms in the Bishop's Building, occupied by the Relief Society, was thrown open and the general officers of the society acted as a reception committee. There were flowers in great abundance, delightful music and dainty refresh- ments, but the charm of the occasion was the exquisite little woman, clad in a pale blue silk gown, of Utah weave, gracefully receiving her friends with an apt, kind and affable expression of love for one and all. For several years past Sister Wells has been foremost among women along many lines of work, — suffrage, philanthropy, social reform, politics and literature. She has helped many an aspiring young man and young woman in the literary field, and now, in silver age, is still an inspiration to all who know her. Her high intelligence and innate refinement have cast an atmosphere around her that breathes its sweet influence wherever she goes. Sweet poet, true friend, noble woman, God's choicest bless- ings attend you ever! Joseph Smith Tanner died in Payson, January 27, 1910, in the 77th year of his age. His passing removes from this life a man of remarkable energy and a striking character. Those who knew Payson's bishop forty years ago will call to mind the prominence of Joseph Tanner, not only in that community, but in the remembrances of thousands who knew him before the railroads in the territory had made their way as far south as Pay- son. His home was a 'mile-stone in the travels of thousands between the south and Salt Lake City, and it is not outside the truth to say that there was through- out southern Utah not a better known man, nor a man more highly respected than he was. Joseph S. Tanner was a man of great force, and represented in a striking manner the ^character of the early founders ofour commonwealth. From his childhood to his mature man- hood he was occupied in the frontier life JOSEPH SMITH TANNER. of the people. His constant movements Died January 29, 1910. gave him little or no opportunity for an education. He learned by doing, and his experiences covered a wide field of usefulness. Possessed of enormous physical powers, in all classes of manual labor, he was easily a leader among his fellows. 'A discriminat- . 576 1MPR0 VEMENT ERA ing judgment caused him to be always respected by the large number who acknowledged his leadership. palmy days of his life his In the flocks and his herds and his land kept him strenuously engaged in the accumulation of the material affairs of life. He was the father of thirty- one children, and a grand patriarch in Zion. What, perhaps, most people will remember of this remarkable man is the almost unparalleled hospital- ity of his home. He was a generous provider, and dispensed with a joyful liberality the freedom and helpfulness of his home, which was a wayside inn gratuitously provided for the thousands who traveled through the town over which he presided as bishop for so many years. To those who knew the man intimately, who were his associates in the business affairs of his life, his sterling integrity will always be appre- ciated. No man ever doubted his word. He was prompt in the fulfil- ment of every obligation; and the trust reposed in him by the community over which he presided was as absolute as it was inspiring. Everybody that knew him, knew where to find him upon every question involving morality, integrity and financial honor, and he was not easily moved from what he had taken to be paths of honor. What his position in life would have been had he enjoyed such oppor- tunities of education as are afforded the present generation, can be but a mattter of speculation. As he grew in power and influence, he felt more keenly the disadvantages that come from the want of an educational training; and the sympathetic and generous interest he therefore took in the mental equipment of his children has won for him the admi- ration of those who appreciate the blessings of an education. His life is a beautiful example to every young man who believes in the gos- pel of work, and the great progressthat comes from the wise expenditure of abundant energy. One of the founders of our common- wealth, he shared the hardships of pioneer days, and cheerfully took part inmany of the most difficult tasks which fell to the lot of the men who blazed the way to our good fortunes, and to our triumphs of material prosperity. Elder Charles P. Anderson, President of the Gothenborg conference, Sweden, writes, January 19: "We have moved from Linnegatan 68 to Husargatan 17, Gothenborg. The work of the Lord is making some progress here. We are making many friends, if not many converts. Many believe our doctrines, but are very cautious about joining the Church by baptism. We are hopeful that the new year will bring greater results to our cause than the year past." Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 6 (April 1910): 573–576. # *Improvement Era*, May 1910 The retained masthead identifies *Improvement Era*, volume 13, no. 7, May 1910, published monthly at Salt Lake City by the General Board of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations. ## Editorial contents - A Holy Triple Alliance, 577. - John Daniel Thompson McAllister, 581. - In the Heart of the Wasatch: The Cradle of a Mountain Stream, 582. - The Call of Authority—II, 584. - In the Heart of the Uintahs: Lake at the Foot of Mount Agassiz, 594. - Utah Freighters' Last Haul, 596. - The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea—III, 608. - The Crown of Individuality—VII. Throwing Away Our Happiness, 612. - President John R. Winder, 617. - Tribute of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. to President Winder, 628. - Some Men Who Have Done Things—VII. George W. Middleton, 631. - Is Mother Earth Growing Old?, 639. - Comets, 645. - Two Plans, 652. - Editor’s Table: Changes Among the General Church Authorities, 654. - Editor’s Table: Church Statistics, 657. - Priesthood Quorums’ Table, 663. - Mutual Work: Annual M. I. A. Conference, 665. - Passing Events, 668. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910), cover, masthead, and editorial contents. # A Holy Triple Alliance IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. MAY, 1910. No 7. A Holy Triple Alliance. BY A. A. RAMSEYER. In the 19th chapter of Isaiah, entitled "The burden of Egypt," is found the following prophecy: 19. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt 21. And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it. 22. And the Lord shall smite Egypt; he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them. 23. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria; and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. 24. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land. 25. Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. On a Sunday morning, October 24, 1841, Apostle Orson Hyde, upon the Mount of Olives, offered to the Lord a prayer, which can be read in Vol. IV, pp. 456-59, Church History. He asked the Lord "to remove the barrenness and sterility of this land (Palestine); to let the land become abundantly fruitful, when 578 IMPROVEMENT ERA. possessed by its rightful heirs; to let it again flow with plenty to feed the returning prodigals who come home with a spirit of grace and supplication; to let them come like clouds and like doves to their windows," and to "restore the kingdom unto Israel — to raise up Jerusalem as its capital, and to constitute her people a distinct nation and government, with David, thy servant, even a descendant from the loins of ancient David to be their king." Since that memorable day, three other apostles of the Lord have visited Palestine and, standing on the same Mount of Olives, dedicated the land for the return of the Jews, viz., Presidents George A. Smith, Anthon H. Lund and Francis M. Lyman. More than fifty years elapsed before the Jews organized to regain possession of their fatherland, but the Zionist movement has now made such headway that it is clearly designed to accomplish what it started for, the regaining of Palestine for the Jews. Since the deposition of Abdul Hamid, an immense step forward towards that object has been taken, for the Jews are gathering in great numbers to Jerusalem and near-by places, and buying tracts of lands, which will yet furnish in abundance the proverbial milk and honey, as in ancient times. With the degree of liberty granted in the new Turkish constitution, the children of Judah will surely gather to the land of their fathers, and work out their social and political independence. Farther north, in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, there are great changes going on, too. From the late sultan, Abdul Hamid, the Germans got a concession to build a railroad from Scutari, on the Bosporus, to Bagdad in Mesopotamia, and hence to the Persian Gulf. With this railroad concession is granted a tract of land twelve and a quarter miles wide, along the entire length of the line, fifteen hundred miles long; in other words, a land grant of eighteen thousand six hundred square miles, equivalent to nearly one half the area of Oklahoma or Ohio, was given the German company, with permission to use all waters along the route for electric purposes. This line will pass through lands rich in asphalt and petroleum. But the greatest value of Mesopotamia, or ancient Babylonia, lies in the fact that when it was artificially irrigated, this was one of the principal granaries of the world. The ancient irrigation works decayed, through neglect and depopulation. Now A HOLY TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 579 the British engineer, Wilcocks, who built the great Nile dam at Assuan — has been entrusted by Turkey with the restoration of irrigation in Mesopotamia; this region he divides into two sections, Upper Chaldea, with an area of 1,280,000 acres of first class land, and lower Chaldea, with an area of 1,500,000 acres of excellent land, though not quite so valuable as the first section. The cost of the works is estimated at forty million dollars. When reclaimed these lands will eagerly be bought and cultivated by European farmers, possibly by German Jews. The railroad once completed, the settlers would feel quite near their old home, for the two great German railway lines from Hamburg and Frankfort unite at Budapest, passing through Macedonia to Constantinople. This new line will pass through Anatolia to Angora, over the Taurus mountains to Adana and Aleppo, in Syria; thence through Southern Kurdistan to Nineveh and Bagdad, on the Tigris. Nor is it improbable that from Aleppo this line might branch southward through Palestine to Egypt, thus furnishing the highway which Isaiah prophecies of. Since the British took hold of Egypt this country has steadily progressed, politically and socially. Education is advancing, agriculture is being developed, stability of affairs has been secured; in short, the elements of good government are present on every hand. What has been accomplished in Egypt can be repeated in Mesopotamia, also in Palestine. When sufficiently advanced in civilization, the commercial relations may terminate in political combinations, perhaps, to offer a strong, united front to outside opposition. At first sight such a triple alliance may appear purely visionary, yet history furnishes us ample ground for the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy. The Jews were in constant relations with the Egyptians; great numbers of them settled here before Christ's birth. Surely their descendants must be scattered in Mizraim. Again the ten tribes were carried to Babylonia, and afterwards Judah and Benjamin, too, were transplanted into Assyria; although the ten tribes thence traveled to the northern countries, and the Jews, after seventy years of captivity, returned to Jerusalem, it is evident that not a few Israelites chose to remain among their captors, for various reasons, a successful business, together with religious 580 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and racial toleration, being the anchor to restrain them in their new home. The same is true of the modern Jews. Hence we may expect to find the blood of Israel scattered in Assyria, as well as in Egypt. When the "times of refreshing" shall come, these will hearken to the voice of the shepherd, and be one in heart and mini with their brethren at Jerusalem. Agricultural supremacy was not thought much of formerly, but now far-seeing statesmen point out the imminent danger of a world-wide famine,caused by an ever increasing industrial population, with which the farming population does not keep pace. It has been said, perhaps very truly, that the Jews (the Rothschilds) control the world's purse-strings. Who knows what other factors may yet shape the destiny of the nations? The agricultural products of Egypt, Palestine and Asia Minor could easily insure to these countries a supremacy not dreamed of. The wonderful development of the arid western regions of the United States and Canada, during the last sixty years, speaks volumes. What was done here may be repeated in Asia Minor. Recently the telegraphic news mentioned a report from U. S. Consul Sempich, at Bagdad, which says that "four thousand coolies, and the necessary engineers, "are already at work on the initial projects in northern Mesopotamia, and agricultural benefits are expected to follow in two or three years. About 12,500,000 acres of land are to be irrigated, the work (of reclamation) to occupy six or seven years. Wheat, barley and cotton can be grown upon the land, and the present population of two million souls is expected to be greatly increased as the project progresses.'' The consul adds that "if the plan should succeed only in part, it promises to revolutionize commerce and shift trade balances and traffic in this part of the world." In conclusion, the reader's attention is called to a series of articles which will appear shortly in the Deseret News. They come from the pen of that indefatigable traveler, Frank G. Carpenter. In the near future he is to take us across Egypt, Palestine, and perhaps farther north, describing, as he goes, the trend of modern civilization in the oriental countries. Let us watch the birth of a new empire ! Forest Dale, Utah. Citation: A. A. Ramseyer, "A Holy Triple Alliance," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 577–580. # John Daniel Thompson McAllister JOHN DANIEL THOMPSON MCALLISTER. Born, Lewis, Sussex Co., Delaware, Feb. 19, 1827; died Jan. 21, 1910; joined the Church July 5, 1847. Missionary; carrier of the stone block of Utah to the Washington Monument; holder of many civil offices, including Territorial Marshal, and Chief of the Salt Lake fire department; member of the Deseret Dramatic Association; eleven years president of St. George stak.s; carpenter, mill laborer and business man; a worker in the temples and in affairs religious — in all cheerful, energetic, true and faithful to the end. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "John Daniel Thompson McAllister," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 581. # In the Heart of the Wasatch: The Cradle of a Mountain Stream IN THE HEART OF THE WASATCH. THE CRADLE OF A MOUNTAIN STREAM. Behold a Babylonish pile arise, On which throughout the year the deep snow lies, While at its spiral base, as lost in sleep, A mountain lake lies cold, and dark, and deep. Upon the zig-zag cliffs of iron grey, Heavy and wan, the storm-clouds hold this day. The Tower of Babel now the thick murk glooms, And like a mighty spectral shadow looms, Dim, black, gigantic, saving for the snow, Reflected vaguely in the lake below. Anon, O dreadful sound ! the thunder peal, When e'en the giant mountains seem to reel. From "Plet,'' a poem by Alfred Lambourne. IN THE HEART OF THE WASATCH. CRADLE OF A MOUNTAIN STREAM. Sketch by Alfred Lambourne. Citation: Alfred Lambourne, "In the Heart of the Wasatch: The Cradle of a Mountain Stream," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 582–583. # The Call of Authority—II The Call of Authority. BY H. R. MERRILL. II. It was the day before Christmas. The snow was falling in large, feathery flakes, robing sagebrush and grease-wood in dewy white. Around the Williams' farm stretched the fantastic shapes in three directions, until all was lost in the snowy mist. Behind the house the cleared fields lay, with the yellow stubble barely visible above the snow. In front of the farm house the county road wandered away into oblivion to the north and south. The lonely house and corrals and stables were as entirely shut off from the world by the falling flakes as if they were alone upon the earth. Inside the house all was clean and comfortable. It is true, there was no more furniture than was absolutely necessary for the accommodation of the family, and the furniture they had was built more for durability than for beauty, yet there was some influence about the place that proclaimed it a home in the very broadest sense of the word. Everybody was preparing for Christmas. Mrs. Williams was busily engaged making fancy cakes with which to fill the little stockings when Santa Clause should come. The savory odor from cooking pastry and roasted meat was pleasant, and seemed so good to Ted that he ceased driving his chair-horse long enough to exclaim, "Oh, mamma, I can even smell Santa Claus!" Molly, a lass of seventeen, was assisting in the preparations, with her sleeves rolled up and a daub of flour on her nose, but, on the whole, looking very healthy and sweet. Ted, a boy of eight, THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 585 was busily engaged with his chair-horses, while little Eva was getting her doll ready to receive dear, old Santa Claus. Mrs. Williams stopped with her knife in the air, as she finished cutting out a fancy cookie elephant, "Is that your father and the boys, Molly?" she asked. Molly dropped the rolling pin and ran to the door. Yes, it's them!" she cried, all excitement; for she knew that Santa Claus' pack was somewhere in the sleigh. John Williams came in, after shaking the snow from his coat and hat and wiping it from his beard. "It is certainly snowing. If it keeps on like this we'll have two feet of snow in the morning," he said. "Daddy, daddy, did you see Santa Claus?" the children cried, as they gathered around him. "Yes, I saw Santa Claus," he answered, as he took the two youngest on his knees. "Did you tell him to bring me an engine, and a drum, and a pocket-knife?" Ted asked. "Santa says he is very poor this year," the father answered, as he stroked his hair. "But he sent this for me to give to you today." He brought out a sack of stick candy, and the children were soon back with their games again. "Did you get a letter, John?" his wife asked. "Yes, we got a letter from Jimmy." The elderly lady wiped her hands and adjusted her spectacles. Her hands trembled as she took the letter. "Poor boy!" she said, wistfully. "I wish he could be with us tomorrow." She took the letter, and, sitting near the window, began to read, but she had to wipe her glasses several times before she was through, for there is some subtle influence that steals over the heart at Christmas time, which causes us to crave for all that we love to be near. She knew that her Jimmy was among strange people, and that they were anything but friendly to the humble "Mormon" elders who left home and family and friends to yield obedience to the Divine call to go and teach all nations. She knew, also, that since the first Christmas the Master and his true 586 IMPROVEMENT ERA. followers had been persecuted and slain for the testimony which they bore. "The boy seems to be doing all right," the father said. "It seems that he has obtained a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel, at last." " 'I'm so glad I came,' he writes. I can never be too thankful, either, although it is very hard to get the money for him. He talks as though he is making it go as far as he can." "Yes, it's hard to get the money," Mr. Williams said. "Taxes are past due now, and he asks for money, and I'm sure I don't know where it is coming from. The price of wheat was low this fall, and there was no sale for hay, at all, and money's so scarce that I can't borrow any. I'd hate to have the boy come home, for I am sure that if he doesn't do the world much good, it will be a good experience for him." "No, John, we mustn't think of Jimmy's comin' home, as long as we have a roof over our heads, 'till he's released. I'd rather mortgage the farm first, and then Jimmy can help us pay it off when he comes home." "I always hate to think of mortgagin' the farm, now we've got it cleared, and in a condition to bring something in, for it's been a long, hard fight— but then we know Jimmy's engaged in the Lord's work, don't we, Mary? And He says to seek first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness, and all things will be added. For thirty years these old hands have grubbed and hoed and worked on this farm, but if my life's work is needed for the spreadin' of gospel truths, I am willing to give it all. I ain't so young as I used to be, but I can start again." "Yes, John, everything belongs to the Lord, and he will repay. Everything must come right in the end, for he is our guide; and even if we should 'die before our journey's through, all is well.'" After the chores were done, the boys came in and prepared for supper. John, the elder of the two, was like his father — hale and hearty — but the lines on his forehead, even at that early age, proclaimed him a thinker. Francis was tall and slim, but, for all that, strong and healthy. When all were seated around the table, the father returned THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 587 thanks, after which each one helped himself to what he desired of all the good things, for, although there was nothing costly or grand about the meal, it was such a meal as can only be found upon a western farmer's table. "We are all here but one," the mother said, as she looked around at the smiling faces. "I hope that he has a shelter tonight and a good place to stay-" The meal went on in silence, on the part of the old folks, for each was thinking of the vacant chair. One was wondering where he could find a man who would take a mortgage on the farm, while the mother was thinking of her wandering boy, and praying God, in her heart, that he would raise up friends to care for him. When supper was over and the dishes were washed, the family gathered around the stove, parching corn and telling stories of other days. The feathery snow had changed to dry, cutting flakes. The wind had arisen and howled mournfully around the house, as he rattled the windows and sifted the snow through the crack under the door, in a vain endeavor to do away with this one cozy spot which defied his power. "It's a bad night, tonight," Mr. Williams said, as he took a handful of corn. "We should be thankful for our comfortable home, if we haven't much money." Just then the dogs began to bark, and went bounding along the porch. "I wonder what that can be?" Mrs. Williams said, as she opened the door and looked out. "There's a man at the gate." Her husband went to the door. A man left his horse at the gate and came in. "Good evening," the stranger said. "Good evening," Mr. Williams replied. "It's rather a bad night. Won't you come in?" "Yes, it is a bad night. I was wondering, mister, if I could put my horse up and stay here tonight, or a while, at least, till my horse rests a little. He's plum give out." "Why, certainly. Come in. The boys will 'tend to your horse. John, take the gentleman's horse and put him in the stable.' ' The stranger shook the snow from his wide, white hat, and 588 IMPROVEMENT ERA. stepped into the room. He was a tall, good-looking young fellow, and was attired in a long, yellow "slicker." ''Take off your 'slicker,' and make yourself at home," Mr. Williams said, as he placed a chair near the fire. The "slicker" was removed, and the man stood revealed, clothed in the wild splendor of a western cowboy. The children opened their eyes when they saw the leathern chapes, and the great pearlhandled revolver that hung lcosely from the stranger's belt. "I ain't in no Christmas togs," he said bashfully, "but I hope you won't mind." "Not at all, my boy," Mr. Williams said heartily. "Just move up to the fire and thaw out a bit. ' ' "Yes, do, and I'll fix you something to eat. Make yourself right at home. Molly, set the gentleman a plate." The kind lady busied herself about supper for the guest. "We were just talking about what a bad night it is. It's a good thing you found us and stopped." "I kind 'a hated to stop," the stranger said, "but Buck was plum give out, so I had to- But I hope I won't inconvenience you none." "Not a bit, sir," the good lady responded. "We've got a boy out somewhere among strange people, and we are not a-goin' to do anything for you but what we'd like somebody to do for him." "Yes, we've got a lad out in Illinois on a mission — but maybe you don't know what that means. Well, we are 'Mormons' and when our young men are called on a mission, they go and travel without purse or. scrip, where they can. Our Jimmy's been out more than a year now, so, you see, whenever we can we are glad to repay some good Christian who cares for our boy, by givin' someone else's boy shelter." "I used to work with a young 'Mormon,' and he told me something about this missionary work," the stranger replied. "He told me that the missionary had to pay all of his own expenses, too. I should think it would take quite a lot of money to do that." "Yes, it does," Mr. Williams replied, as a shadow passed over his face. "Yes, it takes a lot of money," his wife joined in. "It THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 589 is pretty hard for us just now, but I know we'll pull through somehow. Won't you sit up to the table now?" After the stranger had commenced eating, he looked so frank and listened so well and seemed so young, the old lady launched forth upon her favorite theme — Jimmy and his doings. She told how much they missed him, and how hard it was to get money enough to keep him, and how the Lord had blessed them since he went, and then, in conclusion, she said: "We are in the tightest pinch that we've ever been in, right now. Taxes are due, and Jimmy needs a new suit, and crops were poor and prices low. John says he doesn't know where he'll get the money, but we are goin' to try and mortgage the place, but dislike to do it, for John has been workin' on this farm for thirty years, and mortgages are so hard to pay." The voice faltered, and sounded full of tears, but with an effort she finished: "I know the Lord will open up the way for us. He has never failed us yet." "Mary, the gentleman won't want to hear all that. It's Christmas, besides; so, away with cares, for tonight and tomorrow, anyway." When the stranger was through eating, they all gathered once more around the fire, and resumed the corn-parching and stories. The stranger was very silent, but seemed to be enjoying the home-like circle. Occasionally his eyes would wander to the sweet, womanly face of Molly, but if she happened to catch his glance, they would fall, and a deep blush would creep up beneath the tan to the very roots of his dark hair. When the hour was growing late, Mr. Williams arose and said, "It is bedtime. Let us have prayers and go to sleep, so Santa Claus can come." The family moved their chairs around in a circle' and kneeled down. The cowboy stood looking on, embarrassed, not knowing just what to do, but, just as Mr. Williams began to pray, he dropped onto his knees. When the simple ceremony was over, he brushed a tear from his sunburned cheek. It was the first prayer that he had heard in a family circle for many years. What a 590 IMPROVEMENT ERA. crowd of memories came flocking back to him, as he listened to the humble invocation! He was assigned to sleep with one of the older boys. When his head touched the pillow, his fancy carried him back to the little cabin on the Potomac, and once more he could hear the sweet voice of his mother, and feel the tender lips, as she kissed him good night and tucked him in his little bed. The next morning, when all was excitement over the treasures which Santa Claus had brought — although they consisted of but a few nuts and a little candy for each, and a few cheap toys and fancy cakes for the little ones— the stranger took his hat to go out to look after his horse, and lo, Santa Claus had remembered him, also; for there, in his hat, was a bag of candy and nuts, as big as any that any of the children had received. He put it in his pocket and went out with moistened eyes, caused by the thoughtful kindness of these people to a total stranger. When he reached the barn, he found the farmer's horse outside in the cold, and his own pony snug and warm in the comfortable stable. He greeted the glad whinny with a kind word, and, as he rubbed the broncho's yellow neck, said, "Buck, old boy, we fell in with friends this time, but, I reckon, we'll soon have to be on our way. I hate to leave, f^r it's the first real home that you and I have struck for a long time." When breakfast was over, the stranger arose and said awkwardly, "You folks have been very kind to me, but I reckon I'll have to be goin' now." "Why, it's Christmas day! Can you get home in time for dinner?" Mrs. Williams asked. "Well — not quite in time for dinner, but I don't know as that will make much difference. I ain't been home for Christmas dinner for many years." "Well, I never! How's that?" the good lady exclaimed. "I always like my boys home on Christmas." "I ain't got what you could call a home— but the ranch — and most of the boys go home, so I usually knock about somewhere," the cowboy answered. THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 591 "Then you'll stay right with us," Mr. Williams said decidedly. "We've got one vacant chair, anyhow. We haven't anything very grand to eat, but if you will stay you will be doin' us a great favor." The man looked from one kind face to the other, and at the home-like room. "Well, if it won't be imposin' I'd like to stay, for it seems good to be at home," he finally said. "Christmas is so lonely when you are alone." Thus it was settled that the stranger should stay. The day was spent as Christmas day can only be spent— with pleasure around the home fireside, amid the crack of nuts, the pop of corn, and the delicious smell of turkey and plum pudding. In the evening the stranger "thawed out," from the combined influence of the fire and the brotherly kindness shown towards him, and told many thrilling tales of the cow camp and the trail, until all were sorry when the clock struck twelve. After thanks returned to the Father who is the Lord of the Christmas day? and is so kind to his children, the family circle broke up, and all went off to bed with many cheery good nights. When the stranger and Francis were preparing for bed, the cowboy suddenly asked, "Would you show me a picture of your brother Jimmy?" Francis opened the old desk and took out a photograph of Jimmy, dressed in missionary style. The stranger looked at the face for a moment and then asked, "Did he ever work in Montana?" "Yes, he spent three years up there herding cattle," Francis replied. The cowboy handed the picture back. "I think I have seen him before," he said, as he got into bed. The next morning, when breakfast was over, Buck was brought out and saddled, in spite of all the farmer's warm invitation to stay longer. When all was in readiness, the stranger put his hand into his pocket and said, "Now, Mr. Williams, what do I owe you for the keepin' of my horse and me? I can never pay you for your kindness, though." 592 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Don't you mention pay to me, my boy. Didn't I tell you that I've got a boy out somewhere, and maybe he can't pay; but if that wasn't the case, it would be the same anyway. Our latch string is slways out, and when we get too poor to keep a traveler without pay, why, I reckon, we'll be most too poor to live." The stranger was a true westerner, and tried no more to pay for that which is not for sale — true hospitality. "I am very much obliged to you," he said. "I hope you'll forgive my offerin' to pay, but if I ever get a chance I'll repay it." He shook hands with the farmer and the boys, and then, as he took the good lady's hand, he said awkwardly, "You've been very good to me, misses. Tell B Jimmy, hello forme." He swung into the saddle, and as he rode through the gate he raised his hat to Molly, who appeared at the door for a moment. "Now, boys, hook up!" Mr. Williams cried. "I've got to find somebody who will let me have some money." The boys went off to the stable. Mr. Williams and his wife went into the house, with sad faces. The farmer began preparing to go to. town, while Mrs. Williams went in to make the boys' beds. He had just got his coat on, when his wife came running out of the bed-room. With trembling hands she held a piece of paper out to her husband. "Oh, John, read that!1' she cried excitedly. John took the paper, and with wonder read: A couple of years ago, I knowed a young "Mormon'' who was called "Brig." I liked him pretty *well, and we came to be pals. He was called on a mission. When he left, he told me if I ever wanted a mother to go and see his. I didn't know this was his home until last night. You have been both a father and a mother to me. I happen to have a little money with me, and I hope you will accept it for "Brig's" sake. Jack Hillman. The old man unrolled the bills and counted them. "Two hundred dollars!" he cried, when he had finished counting them. "0 John, we won't have to mortgage the farm!" The good THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 593 wife threw her arms around her husband's neck, and they wept for joy. "Well, Mary, the good Book says that bread cast upon the waters, after many days shall return, but ours returned the same day." Out on a snow-clad hill a traveler stopped his horse and looked back at the lonely house set, with its few corrals and stables, upon a wide stretch of matchless white. He gazed wistfully at the barren scene, and tears moistened his eyes, as he took a little Testament from his pocket and reverently kissed it. "No wonder 'Brig' got homesick," he murmured. And he turned his horse and rode leisurely on into the frosty north. [to be concluded.] THE SALT LAKE THEATRE, FOUNDED BY BRIGHAM YOUNG, AND OPENED MARCH^8,H862. Citation: H. R. Merrill, "The Call of Authority—II," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 584–593. # In the Heart of the Uintahs: Lake at the Foot of Mount Agassiz IN THE HEART OF THE UINTAHS. LAKE AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT AGASSIZ. Lo, now the yellow twilight in the west Grows dim and fades upon the mountain's breast. And when the lake and crags have turned to jet, The crescent moon hangs where the sun had set. No less the gloom and aged savageness Impress the thought than does the gorgeous dress Brief summer lends to this high altitude, Between the fierce assaults of winter rude, When round and round the snows are drifted o'er, Until it seems the steeps can hold no more, And in vast combs along the mountain wall The avalanche hangs poised for instant fall. From "Plet," a poem by Alfred Lambourne. IN THE HEART OF THE UINTAHS. LAKE AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT AGASSIZ. Sketch by Alfred Lambourne. Citation: Alfred Lambourne, "In the Heart of the Uintahs: Lake at the Foot of Mount Agassiz," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 594–595. # Utah Freighters' Last Haul Utah Freighters' Last Haul. BY SOLOMON F. KIMBALL. The year 1868 was known throughout this whole RockyMountain region as the big railroad year. The screech of the Union Pacific locomotive was heard upon the plains, and the great road was soon to penetrate the everlasting hills. Prominent Utah men contracted to build about two hundred miles of track, but Photo by Carter. Utah freighters' last journey over the plains, Elk Mountainsbosses in the foreground. -wagon UTAH FREIGHTERS' LAST HAUL. 597 were unable to proceed until supplies could be brought from the terminus of the Union Pacific, way off in the plains of Wyoming. The^ spring was wet and backward. The mountain streams, during the brtak, became raging torrents. Toll roa,ds, toll bridges and ferries were so numerous along the route, that it would have bankrupted the ordinary freighter to patronize them all. Before winter was fairly over, the old-time freighters hitched up their CHARLES P KIMBALL. GEORGE CRISMON. Born Jan 4, 1S43 D. P. Kimball's wagon boss. Born July 5, 1833; died January 27, igo8. CHARLES CRISMON. Born June 14, 1844. teams and made a break for the railroad terminus, some five hundred miles away to the east of Salt Lake City. There were upwards of three hundred teams in the company, owned by George Crismon, Charles Crismon, Malin Weiler, David H. Cannon, William Streeper, Samuel Mclntyre, William Mclntyre, Riley Judd, Quince Knowlton, William H. Hooper, Heber P. Kimball, David P. Kimball and others. Each company traveled under the supervision of a wagon boss, or captain. Most of the drivers were experienced western men, not afraid of anything, and in endurance as tough as the proverbial boiled owl. About the first of May they started on their perilous journey. All went well until they reached Coalville, where one of the boys came near losing his life. Chalk creek was overflowing its banks, and had cut a deep channel around the bridge. As he was fording this dangerous place, his saddle animal lost its footing, and 598 IMPROVEMENT ERA. away they went down stream. Had it not been for timely aid, he and his outfit soon would have been floating over the briny waters of the inland sea! In the afternoon of the third day they arrived at Echo Canyon creek, where was an old-fashioned poll toll-bridge, costing, I venture, less than one hundred dollars. For crossing this shaky old structure, which was almost submerged, the keeper demanded three dollars per wagon, cash down. The bosses refused to pay it, so decided to ford the treacherous stream, if possible. The crossing was just above the bridge, only a few rods from where the creek empties into the Weber river. For the trial trip E. M. weiler. they selected the best team in the outfit, a Born April 18, 1839. magnifiCent four-thousand-dollar ten-mule team, owned by Hooper and Knowlton. Before the venture was made, a number of the boys gathered around with axes and lariats, to be used in case of trouble. When all was ready, Bill Luce, Hooper and Knowlton's wagon boss, mounted the near wheeler and started his outfit through this mountain torrent. As the trusty leaders neared the center of the stream, everybody watched with bated breath. The moment the animals reached the main channel, the current picked them up, quick as lightning, and carried them down stream. In less than five seconds, three pairs of mules disappeared under the bridge. In less time than that, the draw chain, that held them to the wagon, was cut, by one of the men on shore. Quick as thought, the animals shot down stream, with incredible rapidity, but before they reached the raging, roaring Photo by Ellis & Goodwin. WILFORD LUCE. Hooper and Knowlton's wagon boss. Born Nov. 7, 1838, Vinal Haven, Fox Island, Maine; died Aug., 1906. UTAH FREIGHTERS' LAST HAUL. 599 waters of the Weber a number of expert throwers of the lariat lassoed the heads of the mules, and within a very short time, the six drowning animals were safely hauled ashore. A shout went up from a hundred throats in honor of the boys who performed this heroic act. The toll-bridge keeper stood nearby, a pleasant smile playing over his countenance, thinking, perhaps, that it is better to be born lucky than rich. He collected the toll without further trouble. When the boys arrived at Yellow creek, they faced a similar FORT BRIDGER, 1868. Photo by Carter. proposition, except that it was mud to cross instead of water. Here they were compelled to pay another three dollars per wagon, there being no way to avoid it. Next day they reached Bear river. The first object to meet their gaze was a big sign-board with this inscription: "Tollbridge, five dollars for wagons; fifty cents a head for loose animals. No credit here." This meant about fifteen hundred dollars toll for the outfit, and the captains' pocketbooks had already, from previous drains, commenced to crumple at the corners. It had rained every day since they left home, and the river 600 IMPROVEMENT ERA. was, therefore, very high. The bosses first scanned their gaunt pocketbooks, then studied the sign over the bridge. They sat down on the river bank to watch the driftwood, as it shot by at the rate of half a mile a minute. After partaking of a hearty meal, they gathered fresh courage, and set about to ford the river. As good luck would have it, in doing this they lost neither man nor beast, a feat nothing short of a miracle. Next morning they came to another mud stream, with a cheap bridge over it. The proprietor wanted three dollars per wagon J. QUINCY KNOWLTON. " Born Julv 9, 1835; died December 13, 1886. WILLIAM MCINTYRE. Born March 19, 1848. for the privilege of driving over this rickety old thing. The boys, however, saw a way around it. They drove about a half mile above, and selected a place where it was believed they could cross. At that place the slough was about one hundred feet wide, and the banks on both sides were almost perpendicular. The mud was so deep that even loose animals could not wade through it. Besides this, a blinding blizzard was raging. With these disadvantages staring them in the face, the boys were yet equal to the occasion. Unhitching a number of their animals, they drove them, single-file, over a rough mountain trail, some distance above, at which place UTAH FREIGHTERS' LAST HAUL. 601 LONE WOLF. A Cheyenne brave; many a scalp to his credit. they crossed. Returning to the mud-hole opposite their wagons, they arranged their teams once more for action. In the meantime, the men who remained on the other side drove their wagons very near to the slough, and let them down into it by hand; then, taking long chains, fastened the ends to the wagon-tongues and, wading, carried the other ends over to the boys on the opposite side. The teams were now hitched to the ends of these chains, and so the wagons were hauled over. The majority of the boys worked at this job in mud and water up to their waists, all day long. By five o'clock that night camp was again on the move. At the foot of Quakingasp ridge they found plenty of wood. Here they built bonfires, dried their clothing, cooked supper and went to rest, satisfied that they had outwitted another greedy toll-bridge keeper. Next morning the snow was a foot deep, and the wind still blowing. The boys got a late start, and it was nearly noon before they reached the summit of Quakingasp ridge, the highest pass between Salt Lake City and the terminus of the railroad. The roads 'were somewhat better from this point on, and it was down grade most of the way to Green river. However, it was almost impossible to get around the numerous toll-bridges that continued to block their progress. To cross such streams as Green river and the North Platte on ferries cost five dollars for each wagon, to say nothing of the risk taken in swimming their animals over. BIG BEAR. A Cheyenne warrior. 602 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The Indians were hostile that season, committing depredations all along the road. Reaching Bitter creek, the boys were compelled to get out their breech-loaders. Thus equipped they were prepared to defend themselves against their dusky foes. Being experienced Indian fighters, they were well acquainted with the cunning ways of the lurking redskin thieves. On the plains, a few hundred yards away, one cannot distinguish an Indian from a white man, which fact gave the Indians a great advantage. Scarcely a day passed, after they left Bitter creek, but their teams were stampeded, for the animals were quick to catch the scent of the red man. Sometimes the animals ran several hundred yards before they could be stopped. Several of the drivers came near losing their lives in these run-aways. The wagons were empty, hence easily drawn. The teams often started to run without giving the slightest warning. After Elk mountains were reached, all were supplied with fresh meat, since from there on plenty of elk, deer and antelope were encountered. Just twenty-nine days from the date the boys left home, they From an old photograph. TEAMSTER SCALPED BY THE INDIANS, NEAR FORT LARAMIE. UTAH FREIGHTERS' LAST HAUL. 603 Photo by Carter. CHURCH BUTTES, Twenty-five miles north-east of Fort Bridger. arrived at Big Laramie, the terminus of the railroad. It had stormed every day up to this time, consequently they had slept in damp bedding the whole distance. The Big Laramie river was very swollen. The bridge across it had been carried away. The tie contractors, however, had built a boom at this place, which answered the purpose of a foot bridge for those who dared to cross it. It consisted of green logs coupled together with log chains. The river was about one hundred and fifty feet wide with a strong current. The boom was completely submerged. A streak of white foam, caused by the rushing waters beating against the logs, being the only visible guide. The whirling waters made the boom dance like a jumping-jack. It was as much as a greenhorn's life was worth to undertake to cross it. Laramie City was on the opposite side of the river, and about two miles from camp. As soon as darkness brooded over the land, every driver in camp crossed the boom, and even jollied one an other in dare-devil fashion as they went, by churning the loss . . Photo by Carter. up and down m the surging MEDICINE B0Wj WY0MINGj 1868. waters. Reaching town, 0ne of the last buffalos to roam the they remained until midnight plains, watching the sights— no tame affair. Hundreds of desperate characters weregath ering at this place for what they could get out of it. They often killed a man for a dollar, and if he hadn't the dollar, they were apt to kill him for not having it. Shootings UTAH FREIGHTERS' LAST HAUL. 605 JOS. C. RICH, The humorist; born Jan. 16,1841; died Oct. 17, rgoS — was a boon companion of W. R. Judd. were so common that only little attention was paid to them. Every surething-game ever thought of was brought into requisition at Laramie City, which at that time was the "Sodom" of the plains, sure enough. After nearly a month, the delayed goods, for which the Utah boys had been waiting, arrived. Then there was "something doing." The goods consisted of plows, scrapers, wheelbarrows, powder, and every other thing in the line of supplies for building the railroad. Nearly every wagon had a cart hitched behind it, and some wagons had two or three. With their wagons loaded, the boys were soon homeward bound. The rich bunchgrass was now knee deep, and their animals became as fat and sleek as seals. The roads being in splendid condition, good '.time, was made. Uncle Sam, by this time, had stationed soldiers along 'the road, and the Indians were pretty well subdued. Reaching Bitter creek, the freighters found it lined with railroad graders of the lowest type . The sluggish creek was nearly a hundred miles long, and thousands of workmen were sporting in its waters in the July weather and, besides, washing their dirty clothing in it. While this did not improve the taste of the water, it made but little difference to the graders, as the water they used for culinary purposes was hauled from Green river and other far off peaces. The freighters, however, were compelled to drink Bitter creek water, or go without. By the time they reached the mouth of this wnjJAM RILEy jm)Dj filthy stream, the water was so thick and r 11. 4. -n-l t jj • cl £ .• 1 The humorist; born May g, 1S33; slimy that Kiley Judd, in a tit ot rational died August 20, iss5. 606 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . humor, declared that after he started drinking the water he could not let go until he had clipped it off with his scissors. It was so full of alkali and other poisonous substances that it came near killing some of the toughest mules in camp — but the boys escaped. Arriving at Bear river, the majority of the returning freighters went to work on the Naunnan contract. This job completed, they went to work on President Brigham Young's one-hundred-mile contract, remaining there all winter. Crismon Brothers had a thirty-six mile contract which occupied the most of their time that season. That winter hay could not be purchased at any price, and Photo by Carter. The Old Z. C. M. I. and West Side Main Street, Ogden, 1870. The Eccles Building is now located on this site. their animals were fed solely on shelled corn. Often in the morning the boys found several dead animals lying around camp. Crismon Brother alone lost about fifty head. Had it not been for the exhorbitant prices the railroad people paid for their work, such losses could not have been sustained. As soon as the railroad reached Ogden, early in May, 1869, the occupation of the Utah freighters was gone. They sold their outfits to the highest bidders and invested their means in other enterprises. Thus ended UTAH FREIGHTERS' LAST&HAUL. 607 the big railroad year of 1868, and forever the days of freighting over the plains. Photo by Carter. Old Utah Central Railway station, Ogden, Utah, 1870. Looking east. I Know. (For the Improvement Era.) I know in whom I trust — my Father, God and King. I know thy word is sure — that it one day shall bring My weary, earth-bound soul back unto thee once more. I shall not knock in vain; if I'm but true, the door Will open wide for me. I know in whom I trust; though fierce the battle-cry, No foe can e'er o'ercome when thou, my King, art nigh. Then give me strength to live more near to thee each day, To love, to hope, and give, to work, and watch and pray, That I may reach my home. Grace Ingles Frost. Waterloo, Utah. Citation: Solomon F. Kimball, "Utah Freighters' Last Haul," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 596–607. # The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea—III The Carlyles and their House at Chelsea. BY FLORENCE L. LANCASTER. III. Time remains for a brief glance only at the other rooms, as the sun hastens on his course, and the housekeeper is busy watering the plants in the walled plot of ground on which the diningroom and certain other windows look, called the garden. On the staircase we are reminded of the literary atmosphere that was about the place. Here, now intimated by diagrams, were hung portraits and sketches pertaining to English and German literary men, and to the scenes and personages relative to the subjects of Carlyle's books. It was evident that the author of the life of Cromwell, of Frederick the Great, and of a host of other biographies, believed that much could be learned from the face, for the walls of his studies abounded in portraits, some of which still remain. Up the first flight of stairs are the drawing-room and Mrs. Carlyle's bed-room. The first named is a good sized apartment with three windows and two doors, and was used for some years— until it became the drawing-room permanently — as Carlyle's sanctum. Here Cromwell was written and, no doubt, Hero Worship— first delivered as a course of lectures, thought out and prepared. Among the relics that it now contains are certain portraits, a case revealing manuscripts, and letters written by and to Carlyle, and a bookcase filled with some of the volumes that composed his library. A large engraving of the speaking face of Goethe is from a portrait painted during life. We note the high brow, beautiful with lines, the noble Roman nose, the tender gravity of THE CARLYLES AND THEIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA, 609 expression, the genius a-gleam in the eagle-glance of the ardent eyes. Over the fireplace is an equally faithful portrait of Mrs. Carlyle, in oils. Among the manuscript, letters, etc., are three cards from Goethe, which at different times accompanied presents to Carlyle. Each contains some greeting in impromptu verse, one being signed in the immortal poet's hand, Goethe, the others simply G. Carlyle, on his death, bequeathed to Harvard University the bulk of the volumes used in the writing of The French Revolution and The Life of Frederick. Yet these remaining volumes in the case give an index to Carlyle's studies, strikingly consistent with his productions. Among them are divers dictionaries, French and German, and a book entitled The English Shakespeare. Written in their own tongues are lives of Schiller and Goethe, a set of Moliere's Works, and a Life of Melanchthon, in Italian. There is an edition of the Works of Plato, in English, a History of English Literature, in German, and among the English books are Smith's Wealth of Nations, Ruskin's Political Economy of Art, Bancroft's History of the Colonization of the United States, and Memoirs of an American Lady, by Mrs. Grant. By the way, the pleasant-faced Scottish widow who "shows you over," will tell you that of the visitors who come to visit her renowned countryman's dwelling, six percent are Americans, the German nation next predominating. From the room above described we step into Mrs. Carlyle's bed-room, a small apartment containing the skeleton of a fourposter, and two invitingly low cane chairs. The tiny dressing= room adjoining overlooks the walled enclosure, verdant with vine and creeper, and a pear tree whose rustling foliage curtains the window. In it a black-bird sings to his mate the same liquid notes sung by his ancestors in that bough to Mrs. Carlyle's sensitive ear. carlyle's bed-room and the guest-chamber. The house being built according to the plan of only one or two rooms on a story, to gain these rooms necessitates the climbing of another flight of stairs. The guest-chamber is of airy dimensions. In it Emerson slept when on a visit to Carlyle. It was interesting to recall some of the conversation between 610 Improvement era. these two men, whose originality consisted in feeling and thinking sincerely, and the expressed and tacit understanding of essentials as they said ''good night" at the door. Half the bed-room occupied by Carlyle is taken up by a huge four-poster. The accompanying marble-topped wash-stand and painted deal dressing-table are pieces of furniture of the plaines1-. In the adjoining dressing-room is a stout mahogany crook, worn by the hand that grasped it, and beside it a plaster cast of the hand. Browning says something about a beautiful feminine hand being "a woman of itself." We look at this hand with the long fingers, straight and strong, the vigorous knuckles and well-developed, square-cut nails, and feel that the hand of Thomas Carlyle is a man of itself — a hand to be trusted, a noble hand. THE GARRET STUDY. This sequestered apartment seems remote from the rest of the house, and almost from the world. It receives daylight from a skylight in the roof, and contains two doors, each of which opens into a closet-passage, convenient for coal scuttles and fitted with pegs. Here Carlyle was closeted during the writing of Frederick the Great, a work whose several volumes it took some thirteen years to complete. To obtain some of the neceesary information Carlyle twice visited Germany, and with such thoroughness are battle-grounds and plans of manoeuvre therein described that it is to this day used as a work of reference by students preparing for examinations in the German army. Among the engravings the walls contain are two curious portraits, in a double frame, of Voltaire, who, of course, figured in A Life of Frederick the Great. One of them depicts well-cut features, animated by a smile from scintillating eyes and writhing mouth, crowned with laurel. The other is of a crouching old man in a skull-cap. These represent, respectively, the French and English ideas in those days of Voltaire. Another most interesting engraving depicts the grim potentate, Frederick, himself. In the long, thin nose, the prominence above the beetling brows, the intensity in the starting eyes, are concentrated in hieroglyphics the history which the patient and just mind of Carlyle expounded for all men, circling around a being one might imagine to laugh, but never to smile. THE CARLYLES AND THEIR HOUSE AT CHELSEA. 611 Before we leave the house, let us turn once more to the picture over the mantlepiece, in the last used room down stairs. An old man, with hair whitened by time, an Inverness cloak wrapped about him, gazes with a deeply inward-seeing eye, in which there is a touch of ineffable mournfulness, into the past. We translate that look of introspective mournfulness — the mournfulness of intense sympathy of a bereft old age, beset by a supersensitive touch of personal contrition, but sustained by the consciousness of great works accomplished to the best of a true mind s power, by Carlyle's own words — "Not happiness, but something higher." There is about Carlyle's style a solemn resonance and rhythm that reminds one of the music of the sea. And as the very manner of his expression suggests the sublime in nature; his thought reveals the spirit of the essential and fundamental in life. There is no other writer, perhaps, who makes us realize with so startling force the trivial unreality of convention, and of the mere outward phases of life that wrap us round. Judged from a somewhat superficial standpoint, however— which would apply more in the relation of daily companionship than in any other — Carlyle may be said to have had the limitation of his greatness. His moods were seldom attuned to a reception of the lyric in nature, and the contemplation of life as a mere pageant, or as an infinity of impressions for imagination to play upon, seldom lent diversion to his mind. Yet such were the essentials of the man, that, had circumstances called on him to prove them in objective ways, he would have played full well, according to the times, the role of a Mohammed, a Cromwell, a Washington, as he nobly fulfiled his part of The Hero asMan of Letters. London, England. (THE END.) Citation: Florence L. Lancaster, "The Carlyles and Their House at Chelsea—III," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 608–611. # The Crown of Individuality—VII. Throwing Away Our Happiness The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. VII. — Throwing Away Our Happiness. If in the desert, a lone traveler, in angry protest against the hardships of his journey, were to slash with his knife his goatskin water-bag, letting the hot sand drink up the water that means health, strength, life itself, it would seem — supreme folly. If a shipwrecked sailor were to slip voluntarily from his rude raft of spars in mid-ocean, thrust it far from him in disgust that it were not a finely upholstered boat, and, forsaking it, trust himself alone to the powers of winds and waves and darkness, it would seem — contempt for the mercies left him. If we were to see a man idly roll a hundred dollar bill into a splint, hold a lighted match to it and watch the charred fragments fall to the floor as a dead memorial of uselessness, — we would remember it for a lifetime. We would tell the story many times in the years to come. We would dilate on the waste, the folly, the great possibilities for good and helpfulness wantonly sacrificed to vanity and vandalism. In our every-day life there are countless instances of happiness thrown away just as foolishly for a trifle, — perhaps but the puny gratification of a moment. It seems more hopelessly inexcusable than to cast aside a pearl and save the empty, useless oyster shell that enclosed the treasure. * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Revell Company. THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 613 Our happiness rarely dies a natural death. We slay it with our own hand, or others kill it for us. The veriest trifle may keep it alive, the veriest trifle may kill it, and yet selfishly, blindly, we still the heart of our own happiness or that of others. We may even irreverently throw the blame on the scheme of the universe — when we alone are at fault. Happiness does not consist of what we have but what we are; not in our possessions but in our attitude towards them. It is the serenity of the soul in the presence of a present joy. It is not absolute, requiring certain fixed conditions; it is relative. What would be a fast for one might prove a royal feast for another. Happiness does not always require success, prosperity or attainment. It is often the joy of hopeful struggle, consecration of purpose and energy to some good end. Real happiness ever has its root in unselfishness— its blossom in love of some kind. We make or mar our own happiness and that of others to a larger degree than we are willing to admit. It is easier to pose as victim of conditions than to prove oneself victor. The soul of our happiness may be— love. This love may be so fine and great and simple and it so fills our life that it leaves no room for pain, as light crowds out darkness. It may, with its Midas touch, turn even our trials and troubles into the gold of sweetness, strength and consolation. It may stand ever between us and the world— as a bulwark keeps back the sea. It may become to us an angel of hope holding our hand with gentle pressure when the clouds hang low, sustaining us when the way of life seems hard. This honest love may ever trust us; forgiving and forgetting may be its atmosphere. It may inspire us, recreate us, give wings to us when downcast, a new shield to faith and new heart to energy. We may have this great happiness all our own, firm in our grasp, yet for a mere trifle— we may throw it away, or let it fall gradually from us— like pearls dropping, one by one, silent and unnoted, from a broken necklace. We let some petty, mean trait of ours, some weakness we should master through self-control, cheat us of our happiness. We have held some penny of momemtary satisfaction so close to our eyes that it eclipses the sun of our happiness. A foolish jealousy 614 IMPROVEMENT ERA. that deadened our ears to explanation, that shut our eyes to the truth and that stilled our tongue when it would speak the words of faith we could hardly keep back — we have let this jealousy, this snap judgment, expressive not of real love but of wounded pride, swallow up our happiness —as the ocean engulfs a treasure ship. We may let idle gossip, false sympathy, imbecile advice from those who know absolutely nothing about our real condition, shut us from love and faith, breed doubt and suspicion, and choke trust as by the fumes of some noxious gas. We may let some other folly which comes from our false interpretation cheat us of our happiness like one ignorant of the meaning of a deed — signing away a fortune. And when it is all over we may not have the moral courage to go back, as we should. When later, conscience holds, in a bitter hour of realization and loneliness, its sad post-mortem over the dead happiness, it may be very poor satisfaction to know that we killed a love that we needed and that needed us— for such a trifle. Friendship that meant much in our happiness, that was rest, refuge and joy, may be thrown away for a trifle. Friends, real friends, are rare in the individual life. We cannot have many of them. They do not come in bunches like bananas. They are never found ready-made at all. They are formed by weathering the same gales of fate together, by standing the heat of conflict together, by kinship of mind and heart, by common interest in a common ideal, by basic understanding, mutual dependence, thorough respect and loyalty that grows stronger as need grows greater. Acquaintances we may have many, but acquaintanceship is — merely the grapes of possibility from which the rich wine of friendship is aged and mellowed. Friends are usually necessary to happiness. Robinson Crusoe could hardly have been genuinely happy in his isolation, no matter how he kept his optimism breathing by frequent applications of oxygen from the tank of his philosophy. Even love does not long satisfy unless there is in it real friendship and companionship. Love is, in reality, only a supreme, unique brand of perfected friendship. But we may throw this element in happiness away in a mood of selfishness and blindness. For the empty pleasure of a clever, cutting taunt we may THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 615 give a stab-thrust that may kill a friendship. We may take the kindly expressions of our friend as a matter of course, demanding as a right what belongs to us as a courtesy. You cannot force a spontaneity any more than you can make the bud a full-blown rose by forcibly opening its petals. The bud becomes a rose by natural expansion from within. A friend's need is our opportunity. A momentary neglect or coolness at a psychologic moment, when the tired heart needs sympathy, encouragement or help to the utmost, may begin the death of a friendship. Some, people like the dividends on friendship, but not its assessments. They really do not n_eed a friend, they want a bank. When there is not mutual helpfulness — not necessarily the same in kind or in degree, but the helpfulness in which each gives freely his best to the other, as naturally as a flower exhales perfume — the friendship is like a patent that is nearing its time of expiration. Ingratitude kills friendship or rapidly attenuates it to a point where it must die of anasmia. If we value our happiness or our friend, let us gladly expend the time, energy and thought required to keep the relationship — free, clear, fresh-running as a mountain brook. An idle, flippant breach of confidence, at a moment when it seemed almost calculated treachery, may kill a friendship or a happiness growing for years. A hasty surrender to temper, a sudden heat of anger, may be followed by a drop of sixty degrees in the temperature of a relation between two people. It may destroy a real happiness as a blizzard may, in a single night, ruin a fruit field. There may be an unkind letter, a cruel fling of cynicism, or an unjust slur or sneer that meant only venting our own sad disappointment, chagrin or deferred hope, on an innocent friend. We may have been conscious of the injustice before the words were cold on our lips, but some mean streak in our nature may have kept us from calling them back. We are often happy in our hopes, our plans, our purposes or our possessions and let the envy of another poison the well-spring of our happiness. Envy is a drug that stupefies energy. It does not give us what seems so beautiful to us merely because it belongs to another. The very thing we desire might not fit us nor 6 16 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . agree with us even if we could get it. Have you ever noticed how much more interesting your neighbor's paper looks than your own, as you let your eye wander to what your seat-mate is reading? Have you ever felt that the meal some one else has ordered looks much more appetizing than yours, even though you could have had precisely the same if you had desired? Happiness does not come from comparison of our lives with others; we have our own life to live at its best, not — the lives of others. Let us get what we can from our own paper, our own meal, our own life. Let us live so intently, so bounteously that the joy from oar life will overflow into others, will make us better able to help others, will transform us into castles of refuge to those who need us. Nursing a grievance does not bring us happiness. Being hypersensitive to the opinions others have of us puts us into the false position of making their approval our court of appeals instead of our own conscience and self-respect. False pride too often betrays us into surrendering the" realities of life for the poor satisfaction of an hour. Some persons are so busy putting poultices on their wounded vanity that they let their happiness die of inanition. Living each day at our best, simply, sincerely, sweetly, is the surest way to win happiness and — to hold it. (The next article in this series, "Sitting in the Seat of Judgment," will appear in the June number of the Era.) We Want Men of Deeds. Men of deeds are what we want today. The man who says, "This should be done," is generally one who always shirks. Let him rather say to his fellowmen, "Come, let us push along." He does not wait for his brother to accomplish that which it is his own duty to do. What would the world's progress have been today if all men had lagged ■ behind with no one daring to take the lead upon a better road? Let us, then, join hands to be leaders and doers of what we teach, so that our deeds may shine forth as beacon lights on the mountains of achievement unto which the world of men shall long to come. — W. J. Citation: William George Jordan, "The Crown of Individuality—VII. Throwing Away Our Happiness," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 612–616. # President John R. Winder President John R. Winder. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. In the death of President John R. Winder, a strong man and a remarkable pillar of the Church passed from the activities of this existence to new achievements in the world of spirits. For nearly sixty years he was a familiar figure in Salt Lake City and Utah, and took a leading part in a variety of public interests in our commonwealth. Business, industry, agriculture; civil, political, and military affairs and religious labors,constantly occupied his time and talents. In every capacity he was trustworthy, honest, just, kind, plain in deportment, willing to serve; energetic and loveable, public-spirited, simple in habit and taste, a good and noble man, — a splendid type of the pioneers of Utah, and a faithful Latter-day Saint. THE OLD WINDER HOME IN BIDDENDEN, COUNTY OF KENT, ENGLAND. 618 IMPROVEMENT ERA. He was born in Biddenden, a little village in Kent, just west of Dover, in the southwestern part of England. At the age of twenty, with a very limited education, he set out for London to make his own way in life. In reality he had already done so, because from the day he was old enough, he had been compelled to toil for his own living. A little incident in this his early life was related by him to his band of temple workers, some years ago, which shows his trust in the watchcare of God: I was a poor little boy. I was sent out into the fields to keep the birds off the grain, and it was a very lonely spot, surrounded with woods. (I might say this was a little more than seventy years ago.) Being entirely alone, I was somewhat fearful, and I remember that I was impressed to kneel down in the brush and pray to the Lord that his angels might watch over and protect me from harm. I remember now, just as well as I see your faces, that that was the end of my fear. I also think that that was the beginning of my success in life. Although that spot is many thousand miles distant, and it is more than seventy years ago, I could walk straight to that very spot where I knelt down, and where I received that blessing. Having obtained a situation in a west end shoe store, he labored at this task for about seven years; and in the meantime he married Ellen Walters, November 24, 1845, and later went to Liverpool, where he resided some seven years. It was in this city that he first heard the gospel. The strange circumstance that led him to the Latter-day Saints is best related by himself, as told to his temple friends: The manner in which the gospel came to me was somewhat singular. I was in a store one day, and a person had torn up a letter into very small fragments and thrown it on the floor. I was impressed to pick up a small 'piece of it, and on that piece of paper were the two words, "Latter-day Saint." I looked at it and wondered what it meant. I never had heard of Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons,'' or Joseph Smith, or anything of the kind. I was impressed to take it over and ask the man who was at the desk what it meant. He happened to be a Latterday Saint, and he went on and told me what it meant, and where these people were meeting in Liverpool, and I attended their meetings. He soon became convinced of the truth, and . was baptized September 20, 1848, by Elder Thomas D. Brown; his wife joined Sun Lial on the old Winder home in Biddenden, County of Kent. some weeks later, and was baptized by Elder Orson Pratt. They were associated with the Liverpool branch until February, 1853, when they sailed for America, arriving in Salt Lake City, October 10, of that year. Ten days out on the Atlantic, small-pox was discovered among the passengers, and Brother Winder was taken ill with the disease. One young man lying next to him in the quarantined house on deck died, and was cast into the sea; the sailors, referring to Winder, said, "We will have him next." "I did not believe what they said," he stated later, "I had a living faith that I would recover and get to Zion." This abiding faith carried him through many dangers, for on another occasion he said: "Several times I have been snatched, as it were, from death by the hand of the Lord. I know this as well as I stand here." Arriving in Utah, he began business as a tanner, and as a maker of harness, saddles, boots and shoes, associating himself in this work with Samuel Mulliner and William Jennings; and later with Brigham Young and Feramorz Little, in which latter partnership he erected a tannery in Parley's canyon, which was operated until the native bark became so scarce and the competition of importation so strong that they were compelled to abandon the business. 620 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Then it was that he purchased his well-known Poplar Farm, south of Salt Lake City, and began the pursuit of farming and stock-raising, in which he took great delight all his days, and succeeded admirably. As to his military activities, he joined the Nauvoo Legion in 1855. This body of militia was perpetuated in Utah because there was need often, in those early days, of protection from the Indians. He was captain of a company of lancers; and, as in all things that he undertook, he did his work here so carefully and well that he soon became prominent in military circles. He was in the Echo canyon war during the fall and winter of 1857-8, where he had charge of fifty men, left to guard the canyon and its approaches after General Wells and Colonel Burton had returned home and Johnston's army had gone into winter quarters at Fort Bridger. Being temporarily relieved of duty about Christmas, it became necessary to call him on an Indian campaign in the West. He raised eighty-five mounted men, and with General George D. Grant, in early March, pursued a band of thieving Indians through Tooele county, and onto the Great Desert. The party was caught in a storm, lost the Indian trail, and returned to Salt Lake City. Only a short time after this, Colonel Winder was called with a company of men to take charge of the defenses in Echo canyon. He remained in service until the unfortunate episode was over and peace was declared. In the Black Hawk war of 1865-6-7, Colonel Winder was a part of the time an aid to General Daniel H. Wells. He collected and made a statement of the accounts of the expenses of this war, amounting to $1,100,000 which was presented later to Congress, but only recently, and after many efforts, has there been hope of recognition. For fourteen years, beginning with 1870, John R. Winder was assessor and collector of Salt Lake City; he served in the city council for three terms, 1872-8; and served also for about three years as watermaster. His religious duties and offices were many and important. In the spring of 1884 he was chosen second counselor to Presiding Bishop W. B. Preston, in which position he acted until October 17, 1901, when he became first counselor to President Joseph F. Smith in the First Presidency of the Church. In the quorums of PRESIDENT JOHN R. WINDER. 621 the priesthood he held nearly every intermediate position, including High Councilor of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion, and was persistently zealous and active in his work. In 1892, at the April conference, it was decided to finish the Salt Lake temple by the next April for dedication, forty years from the day of its beginning. President Wilford Woodruff and his associates looked about for a man who could and would undertake to supervise the accomplishment of the immense task. The man chosen was John R. Winder, and he went about the work with characteristic zeal and determination. People said the work could not be done. Some of the workmen thought so. President Winder said recently, referring to that matter: I never had a doubt in my mind but that it would be accomplished. It never entered my mind that it could not be accomplished. I remember on one occasion, I had heard that some of the brethren at work had said it could not be done; so I called them together in the building. There were two hundred and fifty men. I was standing talking to them, and telling them that if there was a man among them that felt this work could not be accomplished, let him please get his pay and go to work A STREET IN BIDDENDEN, ENGLAND. Home town of President John R. Winder. 622 IMPROVEMENT ERA. somewhere else. I did not know that President Woodruff was in the house, but it appears that he stood right behind a curtain that was up there, and heard what I said, and throwing aside the curtain he said: "That's right; the work has got to be done, and if there is anybody here that thinks it can't be done, let him leave.'' Characteristic of President Winder, whenever he undertook anything, so in this case, the work was done, done well, and on time. When we remember that he was then past three score and ten, the remarkable activity of the man becomes apparent. This was really the beginning of the period in which his greatest life-work was accomplished. He not only finished the task by his faith, energy and work, but was a liberal donor to the fund which met the heavy expenses of the work, at a time when the Church was heavily involved financially. After the dedication, in April, 1893, he was selected and sustained in May following as first assistant to President Lorenzo Snow in charge of the temple. He remained a temple worker all his remaining life. At the temple dedication services President Joseph F. Smith commended Bishop Winder for his faithful, persistent and efficient labors, and pronounced a blessing upon him for time and all eternity. And the promise for this life surely came true, for he was exceedingly blessed in every way, and his heart was so full of thanks and gratitude that he could not refrain in every public speech to call attention to it and to thank and praise his Father in heaven. And for the future, happiness and eternal life are hisHe was exceedingly modest, and was adverse to any distinction being made of him. The Era desired to print a character sketch of his life, and obtained a near friend of his to prepare it. The paper was presented to him, but he objected: "It will not do," he said, "to write that way of me. There are so many good, faithful men who have done as much or more for the cause than I have, that it is not wise, in my position, to hold me up as a special example. In my feelings I am always opposed to distinctions among the Latter-day Saints. Not that I do not appreciate the kind sentiments expressed, but it will not do. Why should I be singled out?" So the article was not printed, and out of deference to his wishes, never will be. Pictures of his early home in England, and I ■' [jtt^flBf MM CHURCH AT BIDDENDENT, WHERE THE WINDERS WORSHIPED. scenes in Biddenden prepared to accompany the discarded article are, however, presented with the present very inadequate sketch. The writer treasures many crisp counsels, wise sayings, and pointed expressions, heard at various times, in various places, under different circumstances, and uttered by the lips of President John R. Winder. His personal advice and counsel were not always agreeable at first, for he had a very terse way of saying things, but in the end they generally proved pleasant, best, and a blessing to him who followed them. Union, love and fellowship among the Saints, publicly and privately, he always sought to promote. His counsel to individuals was not mere mechanical words. When he counseled simplicity of life, you might be sure he lived the simple life; when he told a young man that purity of thought and action is the best course, it was because he had traveled in it ; when he advised frugality and thrift, it was because in his own life he had practiced these virtues; and when he impressed a young man that truthfulness and honesty are essential in business, it was because that was his policy all the day long. He was outspoken, and faithful in expressing his sentiments. On one occasion he gave this talk, which is a fair sample of his counsel: Never seek for place or power, for fame or honor, lest you embitter another life with jealousy, or canker another heart with envy. Remem- 624 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ber the covenants you have made — in the waters of baptism, and in the House of the Lord. Be honest in your dealings with your own people, and with all the world beside. Remember, 0 remember, to keep all your covenants — with yourself, with your families, with your brethren and with God! So will God remember you and yours, in the day when he makes up his jewels." His being chosen first counselor to President Joseph F. Smith was the greatest surprise of his life, he declares: One day President Smith sent for me. He said, "Brother Winder, are you willing to act as my counselor?" What could I say, brethren? To think that one who had sprung from the source I had, without any education (for when I was old enough I had to toil for my own living), slow of speech, feeling as though I could pass through the floor whenever I am called upon to speak to the people — was it possible that President Smith could choose me for his counselor under these circumstances? Don't you think, brethren and sisters, that I know how to appreciate these things? I think I do. His modest, energetic and effective service, his discretion, his conservative action and wise judgment, in this position, are evidences of the inspiration that led President Smith to select John R. Winder for the responsible station. His optimistic spirit held to the last, and he requested that there should be no "moaning at the bar when he put off to sea," and that his family should not wear black at the funeral — requests strictly adhered to. His favorite hymns were sung at the funeral services: "0 my Father," "Who are these arrayed in white?" ;"Mid scenes of confusion," "Rest for the weary soul," and "Zion stands with hills surrounded," the last being sung at the cemetery. Funeral services were held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, beginning at 11 a. m., March 31, 1910. That thousands attended, including leading authorities from all parts of the Church, the governor and officers of the state, the mayor and officers of the city, judges and leading business men and citizens, was a testimony of the love and esteem in which he was held by all classes of people. More than two thousand people were at the grave, which was dedicated by Bishop Franklin S. Tingey. A sentiment from each of the speakers is here given: W. W. Riter: "He was totally without guile; plain in deportment, and had only one standard — right and justice." 626 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Bishop George Romney: "I feel I have lost one of my very best friends on earth. ^Bot a soul who worked with him for seventeen years in the temple but what loved him. He has been the instrument of releasing thousands in the spirit world, and he has gone to meet them yonder. He was one of the best men that ever lived upon God's footstool. He would willingly have laid down his life for his friends. I am as certain that his family will have the privilege of meeting Brother Winder in the life beyond, as I am that I stand here today.'' B. F. Grant: "So resigned was President Winder to go, that he frequently dedicated himself to the Lord, saying, 'Oh, Lord, here I am, poor, weak mortal man that I am. Father, I am dyir.g, do with me as thou wilt; and if it be thy will, I am willing to go on, or stop laboring in this life, and if it is thy will I am here. There is nothing in my heart but to say, Thy will be done, not mine.' '' President Anthon H. Lund: "He was a wise counselor — a just man. He ever had a smile on his face. I learned to love him — I was proud of his confidence. His opinion was sought; his word was to be relied on and he spoke what he meant, and meant what he said. Richard W. Young: "Colonel Winder had many of the qualities of a soldier — bravery, foresight and keen judgment. He was a man of strength, without harshness, a man pre-eminently just and considerate.'' Heber M. Wells: "Among his eminent characteristics were his perfectly wonderful industry and his untiring energy. * * * He was good to the poor and ever kept his life sweet. He was a friend and an inspiration to the young man." Nephi L. Morris: "I shall cherish his memory as long as I live." President Francis M. Lyman: "He sought the Lord early, and was never forsaken. No man ever came more worthily into the First Presidency than he.'' Heber J. Grant: "John R. Winder has done more for me in the hours of trouble and financial stress than any other man." President Joseph F. Smith: "If any man loved him any more than I do, I say God bless that man. In his military career and all other phases of his life, he never sought office nor honors; they were always in search of him. Heaven itself could scarcely be more true than President Winder was true." John R. Winder possessed comparatively little of this world's goods, as men count wealth these days, though he had plenty for his needs, and for his splendid family, but, as one of his friends remarked, "He is a rich man; he fought the good fight, and he has won eternal life." JOHN REX WINDER. Pioneer, counselor, temple-worker, Churchman, militiaman, civilian, agriculturist and business man; born, Biddenden, England, December 1, 1821; joined the Church September 20, 1848; arrived in Utah October 10, 1853; joined the Nauvoo Legion in 1855; entered political service in 1870; was chosen counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, April, 1884; selected for temple work in 1892-3; became first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church October 17, 1901; died March 27, 1910. Citation: Edward H. Anderson, "President John R. Winder," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 617–627. # Tribute of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. to President Winder Tribute of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. to President Winder. At the general board meeting of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, held on Wednesday, March 30, Elders Heber J. Grant and B. H. Roberts were appointed by President Joseph F. Smith a committee to prepare a suitable expression of appreciation of the life and character of President Winder, to be recorded in the minutes of the General Board; and to report at the next meeting of the board which, on account of the general conference of the Church, convened Wednesday, April 13, at which time the following report and appreciation were read and unanimously adopted by the members of the board: To the Super intendency and General Board of Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations: Brethren: — Your committee, to whom was referred the matter of drafting for our board minutes suitable notice of the demise of the late President John R. Winder, a member of the General Board of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, present the following: IN MEMORIAM. In the life and character of the late President John R. Winder the young men of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may see at once the triumphs of the gospel when applied to human life, and the value of human life when consecrated to the service of God and fellowmen. His was pre-eminently a useful life, full of activity applied to practical things, rather than to the development of ideas. He was one who emphasized the importance of common things — the things with which men have most to do, about which they are most concerned, and the doing of which moulds the character of individuals and nations. This does not mean that his life was exclusively, or even chiefly, given over PRESIDENT JOHN R. WINDER. 629 to what are generally recognized as secular or material affairs; his life's activities embraced the spiritual as well as the temporal, only in the spiritual, as in the temporal, he was practical. The great underlying principles of the gospel — the fundamentals on which religion rests — he seemed to grasp by an act of faith, and ever after hold in consciousness; after which, for John R. Winder, there remained nothing to do but to go steadily forward, day after day and year after year, in doing that which God had appointed unto man to do, having sublime faith that if this were done the results promised of God, that cannot lie, would not fail. In this spirit he wrought his life's work— characterized by ceaseless activity, constant and systematic application to whatever was undertaken, a rare grasp of details and intuitive knowledge of their importance; to every trust he was faithful, to every promise — to spoken word as to written bond — he was true: and, withal, as unselfish in his service to man, to the state, to the Church, and to God, as we may hope to see a man in this our mortal life. In his character, as in his life, he was every way admirable. Simplicity, directness, honesty, constituted a group of qualities strongly marked in him. Justice, which demands fairness for all, and charity, whence springs mercy and patience and brotherly kindness, were not acquired virtues, but native to his soul. If, after the purity of his mind, which arose from the harmonious blending of all his mental and spiritual qualities, one were to seek for the predominant characteristics of his spirit — the master note of the splendid symphony of his life — it would be found in his absolute faith and trust in God. The twenty-third Psalm voices the constant song of his spirit, and reveals the keynote of his life: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 630 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Long may the life's labor and character of President John R. Winder remain a memory in Israel to console the aged faithful, and to be an inspiration and a beacon light to the youth. Let it be ordered that these expressions of our appreciation of the life and character of President John Rex Winder be spread upon the minutes of this General Board meeting; that they be published in the Imprrovement Era, the organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations; also that a copy of the same be neatly pen-engrossed, suitably bound and presented to his family. Respectfully submitted, Heber J. Grant, B. H. Roberts. Worth Your While. Remember, young man, that a backbone is infinitely more important than a wishbone. Young people who are deferring marriage until they can afford to live stylishly, are making a great mistake. The material rubbish with which we may surround ourselves does not create happiness. That comes from the song in the heart. "I would urge upon every young man, as the beginning of his due and wise provision for his household, to obtain, as soon as he can, by the severest economy, a restricted, serviceable, and steadily — however slowly — increasing series of books for use through life, making his little library, of all the furniture in his room, the most studied and decorative piece, every volume having its assigned place, like a little statue in its niche." — Sesame and Lilies, John Ruskin. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Tribute of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. to President Winder," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 628–630. # Some Men Who Have Done Things—VII. George W. Middleton Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. VII.— George W. Middleton, WHO DECLARES THAT WHAT A YOUNG MAN NEEDS IN ORDER TO GET ALONG IN ANY CALLING IS, NOT NATURAL BENT, BUT INTELLECT AND CHARACTER. Here is a man who, some five and forty years ago, was born on a stream that had volume enough only to drag itself past ten or twelve doors before e /aporating in the hot air or slinking away ignominiously into the skirts of the Great American Desert, and whose only intellectual nourishment came out of Rollin's Ancient History and a few dogeared school books taken home to con of an evening. Today, he not only stands in the forefront of a great army of skilled physicians and surgeons in ihe largest city of the intermountain country, but constitutes a rare type of what a medical man ought to be and to do in the world. DR. GEO. W. MIDDLETON. 632 IMPROVEMENT ERA. How did he get there, and why? The external facts of Dr. Middleton's life are soon told, there are so few of them. Like many another man who has wrenched success out of city life, he was born and reared on a farm — a farm in Hamilton's Ford, down there in Iron county, Utah. His father was an everlasting worker, and believed that everybody else should be. And so young Middleton had to do his share of the farm toil — for which he very naturally feels more grateful now than he did then. Of course, he went to school, such as it was in those early days in the country, and quickly picked up all there was in the way of education at the Ford. And when no more was to be got out of school, he prosecuted a search for lore on his own account. The only books accessible to him then, besides the one I have mentioned, were the school speller, in which he became so proficient that be could spell down the village, at contests in orthography held every once in a while; the National series of Readers, which have started out on the royal highway of learning many generations of men and women; and an old copy of a work on algebra, which he mastered, not only out of sheer dearth of reading matter, but because he liked mathematics. Night and morning, while the rest of the family were asleep, he worked patiently and with zest, by the dim candle light, at all these books till he knew them by heart. At twenty-one he went to the B. Y. Academy at Provo, where he fell in with some more books, got under the spell of that great magician, Dr. Karl G. Maeser, and breathed for three years the atmosphere of enthusiasm and learning that has always abounded in that institution. He was graduated in the last class under the administration of Dr. Maeser. For the next two years he conducted the Summit Stake Academy. After that he studied medicine at the College of Physicians and surgeons, at Baltimore, spent one year at the London Hospital, and another at the Johns Hopkins' Hospital. Between these college and hospital courses, however, he practiced medicine in his home county, where he obtained a large business and performed some brilliant surgical operations. Ultimately he came to Salt Lake and established himself with his old friend, Dr. Allen. Though Dr. Middleton has a large practice in the state, and SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 633 is having exceptional success in surgery, to which he is gradually inclining from medicine, still it is nat this sort of experience that has interest for the average young person. The doctor is a remarkable man, as all men must be who attain eminence in any genuine pursuit; and being such, he has some remarkable opinions. It is some of these that we shall find of most interest and value. "Dr. Middleton," I asked, "what natural appitude do you think a young man ought to have who wishes to become a physician?" and was surprised at the answer. "No natural aptitude at all," he promptly replied. "All anybody needs in order to get along in any calling is intellect and character. If he has these, he can succeed; if he lacks them, he will fail. And it does not matter what he takes up in the one case or in the other." This opinion was so entirely out of the usual run of ideas on the subject, that I determined to find out whether I had heard correctly. "Then you think that a young man can succeed as well in one vocation as in another?" "Yes, provided he put brains and character into it. • I notice that a great many men in history, who were eminent in a given thing, either were eminent in other things also, or showed that they could be equally eminent in other things. Look at Michael Angelo, for instance, and our own Benjamin Franklin, not to name others. A man comes into the world with a certain intellect and character to develop, with a given energy of soul; he turns it into this or that channel, and you see the result. Success is merely a matter of amount, so to speak, of the intellect and character the owner possesses. Whatever Franklin did, he succeeded in, because he had a high power of intellect and character, which he put into his work." "Anyway," I added, by way of letting this thought sink into my mind, — "anyway, a young man requires some education and training in whatever calling he chooses?" "That is another thing. Yes, a young man should have a lot of education and training to begin with. How much? Well, at least a good high school course, and a good medical course of four years on top of that." 634 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "How old should he be before he begins the study of medi" cine?" "Not younger than twenty-four or five. His character ought to be fixed before he plunges into the sea of temptations he will find at all medical schools. At these schools he will most probably associate with immoral men, men who have not been impressed, as our 'Mormon' boys all have been, that loose morals are a bad thing. Here is where 'Mormonism' has done me a great service, it has kept me from partaking of the immoral influences that at various times I have been thrown into. And then again, medical students come in contact with dissolute women, and are sent to the sporting centres of the large cities where the colleges are situated. No young man should go into the atmosphere surrounding all our large medical colleges, whose character has not set so strongly that he can resist these temptations." "Speaking of medical schools, Doctor, what are some of the best? No; that is not what I mean. How can a young man know what to do when it comes to choosing a school?" "He ought to go to the best. There are colleges and colleges in the United States. That is why a medical degree in our country is worth nothing in England — you can't tell whether it comes from a school like Johns Hopkins (the only medical college in America recognized in England) or from some one-horse private school in the Southern States. "That, too, is why I think all our medical schools ought to be chartered by the federal government. There are too many small poorly-equipped medical colleges in the nation. There should be fewer, and the standard of these ought to be exceedingly high, considering the importance to the people of the profession of medicine. "But to return to your question. There should be nothing cheap in a physician's education. It costs more, if its poor, than it does if its good —in the long run. The highest expense is, in the end, the cheapest in human lives and dollars and cents. If a young man does not know what school to go to, he ought to consult physicians of standing who do know. But he should make up his mind to have only the best training." SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 635 "What about a young man's motive in choosing the calling of a physician?" "The only admissible motive should be to do good." "But it is rumored, Doctor," I said, "that there is lots of money in this profession." Every phys'cian and prospective physician ought to hear the answer, the whole of it — even more than I set down here. "No man is worthy the name of physician who is in the profession for what money he can get out of it. Not dollars and cents, but the good to be done to humanity, should be a young man's aim who intends to study medicine. And this aim brings money, too, whereas the commercial, mercenary aim does not. Suppose a man comes to me with a pain which I can relieve, but which he cannot pay for. Suppose, further, 1 relieve his pain, free him of his burden; he goes back and tells his neighbors, who are never dumb to an appeal to the God in them. And my practice grows accordingly. If money is what a physician wants, this is the only worthy way to obtain it — through advertisements of this sort. "As a matter of fact, however, the great burden of a doctor's bills falls mainly on one class, a class that can ill afford it — the man who works for daily wage. The rich can afford to pay well. The very poor cannot afford to pay at all, and so every physician has a good deal of charity work. To make my point clear: The other day a man was coming from a hospital, where he had had a child operated upon. I asked him what he had to pay for the doctor's service. Five hundred dollars. He was a working man. He had paid seventy-five dollars and given his note for four hundred and twenty-five dollars! I left that man thinking hard. Here is a man, I said to myself, who will have to scrape and pinch for several years in order to pay this. Meantime, his children, this child and the others, will have to go without something that would really be necessary for their mental and moral development, and thus the family, the state and the Church be the poorer. This looks hardly right, does it?" "Well," I interposed, "what would you have done?" "I think I should have looked into the case — inquired into the number of his family, found out what the man's prospects were, and 636 IMPROVEMENT ERA. charged him, perhaps, a hundred dollars. You know, I don't believe it would be a good thing not to have charged something — people don't generally appreciate it." "What is the true physician's work?-' "If I were a layman, I would demand two things, and only two things, of the physician who treated me — first, skill, and second, absolute honor. There are too many physicians who prey on the prejudices and technical ignorance of the people. They rob them. But the true doctor will not do this. He will deal honestly with his patients. Such a man can find opportunities to do good everywhere, either in relieving pain and distress or in educating the people to the point where they can avoid certain diseases. You know some of our greatest plagues, like tuberculosis and typhoid fever, are mainly preventable. If people only knew, they could avoid these diseases. It is part of the true physician's work to teach the people how to prevent, as well as how to be cured of, these infections. ' 'And then there are a great many unfortunates in every community who will suffer all their lives, unless some kindly-disposed physician will help them without pay. I know two physicians in England — Dr. Openshaw of London, and Dr. Jones of Liverpool — who have from eight to nine thousand charity cases, besides their regular practice. Of course, these are rare exceptions, but only because the men have exceptional notions as to what a physician's real worth in the world is. I have seen these physicians in the midst of hundreds of unfortunate children, dealing with them in the tenderest manner, fondling them with a mother's affection. Here they found their true physician's reward, alleviating humanity's suffering; for charity brings out manhood in the practioneer as in others." "And now, my last question, What ought a physician to do that he might keep growing?" "If a medical man have character and intellect, he will grow. These are, as I have said, the main thing. An experienced physician ought to be better than one just out of college. His services are worth more. This is the case even where the physician has no more than mediocre intelligence. But there is a great difference between even experienced medical men. Some do SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 637 not, as you say, grow. And that is a great difference. This difference lies in their intellectuality. One doctor will see this fragment and +hat fragment, but not know what to do with all the fragments. Another will put these fragments together till he gets a circle. He will always be reasoning on the old facts, for the purpose of getting new information." A splendid illustration of this growing in a physician is something that I happen to know of Dr. Middleton, but that he possibly might object to my using in this place, if he were asked beforehand. He was called in. by another physician to consult over a child at the point of death, from an acute case of Bright's disease. The child was deaf, dumb and blind. After making an examination of the case, Dr. Middleton decided that the only thing to do was to perform an operation. He came to this conclusion in a most philosophical way. As is well known, in tuberculosis of the kidneys the covering of these organs prevents expansion. If, therefore, this covering were removed, there would be hope. The thing had been done before, but only in chronic cases, and with poor results. The operation was performed by Drs. Middleton and Allen, and in an incredibly short time the child was playing in the yard, perfectly well. So far as is known such a thing, under similiar conditions, has never been done before in the history of medicine, and it amounts, therefore, to a brilliant, original discovery. ''Among physicians there are two classes," the Doctor went on, "the satellite and the luminary. The first revolves around others, the second serves as a centre round which others revolve. The true physician, the one who wishes to grow, will shine by his own light. He is one who is a born luminary. There is much for the luminary-physician to do by way of self improvement. He must read much, and live in his cases. He must make generalizations from known facts. And, lastly, he must not be afraid to go away to see and hear men who have risen in their profession See, hear, read, think, work — these are the watch-words of the progressive physician." That Dr. Middleton has himself done what he advises young physicians to do, is evident from his extended trips to the best hospitals in Europe and America, the generalizing power of his fine intellect, his really excellent literary ability, and the larger 638 IMPROVEMENT ERA. interest which he manifests in almost every subject. And this should be the last word to the prospective physician, based on the character of Dr. Middleton himself. Only the great physicians find themselves interested in subjects as foreign to medicine as mathematics and philosophy and general literature. Sailing on Life's Sea. (For the Improvement Era.) O'er life's great, surging, restless sea, That flows on to eternity; With earth's great throng who swell the tide, I'm sailing o'er the ocean wide. I see the throng now come, now go; They're drifting, drifting to and fro: I see the waves around them dash, I hear the breakers plunge and splash. And day by day thus do they sail; Some with their faces sad and pale; Some with white brows all marked with care, Whose sad hearts breathe a silent prayer. Others are asking God for aid To give them faith ere hope shall fade; And some there are with souls oppressed, And some who hide sin in their breast. Thus do they sail, the false, the base, And those who do a shadow chase, — The vain, the proud, the wretch, the knave, The good, the noble and the brave, — » The true, the strong with hearts of worth, The giddy with their trivial mirth ; The gallant and the stalwart youth ; And those who wrestle for the truth; The haughty with their colors proud. And those who babble long and loud; Yea, vilest hearts that hell can name, And purest souls that God can claim, Are sailing here on life's great sea, That flows on to eternity. Sarah E. Mitton. Logan, Utah. Citation: John Henry Evans, "Some Men Who Have Done Things—VII. George W. Middleton," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 631–638. # Is Mother Earth Growing Old? Is Mother Earth Growing Old? BY ALBERT JONES. [This paper was read before the High Priests of Utah Stake on March 6, 1910, and that body of Priesthood has unanimously asked that it be printed in the Era, to which request we give cheerful consent.— Editors.] The estimated historical age of the planet upon which we reside is not so great, when we quietly make a reckoning of time; and although our minds have been, and are impressed today, that the early periods of this earth's history are so far in the past, being enshrouded in our thoughts with the mysterious charm that distance and age lend to every view of human life, yet the historical ag;e of this, our earth, is not so great but that we can grasp the length of its duration: 4,004 B. C, 1910 A. D., according to the accepted Bible chronology, makes mother earth 5,914 years old at her last birthday. She stands the lapse of time very well, for her age — a little palsied and shaky a while ago near Italy; gave way to tears in the neighborhood of Paris, a short time since — but is yet taking good care of her children. It is only 3,823 years since Abraham defeated Ched-orla-omer, one of the great kings of the East; and, on his victorious return, paid tithes to the king of Salem. The story of this event causes us to stand amazed, as we glance down through the vista of time since that event occurred. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, the Pyramids, Cleopatra's Needle, the mummified remains of Rameses the first, all hoary with age, crowd upon our mental vision; 5,914 years; now compare these figures as associatad with time, to other enumerations: 5,914 bushels of wheat, 5,914 dollars! the 6 40 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . price of a horse, what a small sum, exhausted in less than a month by a modern spendthrift; 5,914 dollars would not pay the salary of a mayor of some of our cities, nor be sufficient as a retaining fee for certain of our ce]ebrated corporation lawyers; 5,914 years, with this comparison, does not appear such an immense length of time. Only think of it! the united ages of eighty men, of seventy-four years each, would amount to six years beyond the historical age of our dear old Mother Earth. Time is more easily measured than we think: for instance, take two of you high priests of seventy-five years each, and the second might have been present at the capitulation of Quebec, in 1759, when brave Wolf and Montcalm lost their lives. He might have heard General Wolf quietly reciting Gray's Elegy to his officers, as he crossed the St. Lawrence river. Put two more high priests in line, of seventy-five years each, joining hands with the first two, and the end man might have been present at the grand tableaux, when Pocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith from the vengeance of her dusky relatives. Have two more of the high priests stand up, husky young men of fifty-eight each, and the last one would be shaking hands with the inspired Columbus, congratulating him on his arrival at Cuba, in 1492, as the discoverer of the New World, so little known to him at the time. Join on the line four more of seventy years, you would then have only ten standing. The last one, a bold, blunt man, would be at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle, about 1215 A. D., telling King John of England his mind, in a very haughty manner, in regard, perchance, to the king's attempt to incarcerate his uncle in one of the king's castles, and that he, with the rest of the barons there present, was not going to stand such work any longer, but that a fair trial should be given every man charged with crime, before his imprisonment. Three fifty-year-old men now join the line, and the thirteenth would be keeping close to the heels of the conqueror's horse (William of Normandy), hoping for recognition in the Dooms Day Book for the recording of a good sized land grant, situate and being in the tight little island of Great Britain. Now a larger number rally to the front. Fifteen of you high IS MOTHER EARTH GROWING OLD? 641 priests, of seventy years each, stand up, take hold of hands, there's only twenty-eight of yoi in line, and the twenty-eighth is at the terrible siege of Jerusalem. Titus is closing in on the temple; it is on fire. He has seen Paul beheaded at Rome, the crucifixion of our Savior, the three Marys' at the Cross, heard how Jesus healed the sick, that he raised the dead, how the angels sang at his birth, "Peace on earth, good will to men;" but it sounds like hollow mockery in his ear now, as he sees the towers of the temple fall, all ablaze with fire. So fierce did the flames rage, that the precious metal of its roof poured in a molten stream down among the nethermost stones of its foundation. The Savior knew full well that "not one stone would be left upon another," in the effort to secure that gold. Now, keep your places in the line, you twenty-eight, please, you are not so very tired in helping in the passage of so short a period as 1910 years. Let us continue — plenty more high priests; move out eight more of them of seventy-five years each — the last one is listening to the tale told outside the palace gate of Nebuchadnezzar, how the Hebrew boy, Daniel, had interpreted the king's dream; not only that, but the wonder of it was that he not only interpreted the dream, but told the dream itself, after the king had forgotten it. All Babylon was amazed, but the captive children of Israel still leave their harps unstrung, they could not sing the songs of Zion, in that strange land, but sat by the waters of Babylon and wept. Stand up, five more young men of forty years each, and the man at the end is at the dedication of Solomon's temple. He hears that grand, impressive prayer, sees the. glory of the Lord upon the temple, the fire come down from heaven and consume the sacrifice. What a feast that must have been, what wealth displayed, and what a mighty offering: 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep were slain! Then Israel was in the proud zenith of her glory. Just one step into line, a man of fifty-seven, in the full vigor of his manhood, and meet David in one of his strongholds of the mountains. He joins him in a raid upon the Philistines, sees the shepherds of Nabal come into camp, and try their skill and strength with David's mighty men. They wrestle, they race, 642 IMPROVEMENT ERA. they shoot their arrows and sling at a mark. David, looking on at their play, speaks admiringly of the shepherd's skill with the sling, saying, "Yes, it was very easy for me to fetch Goliath down, with his great big head for a mark." David, short of supplies, sends to Nabal for food for his men — is refused. He sees David's lion-like nature roused, orders are given, "Gird on your swords and follow," — he's off. But Nabal's wife comes bearing supplies, and her entreaties turn David from his purpose. Our man mingles with David's mighty warriors, and witnesses how David, with his grand and noble manhood, wins the hearts of all that come in contact with him. Truly, he was a man after God's own heart, and we love him yet. Six more men of seventy-three years stand up. The end man is walking dry-shod between the piled up waters of the Red sea which Moses has stricken into obedience with his rod. The waters rise as a wall on either side. Presently he joins in the shouts of the hosts of Israel, and hears the song of Miriam, as their once tyrannical masters are swallowed up in the returning waters. He takes no part in the worship of the golden calf, as like one of Egypt's idols as could be. He sees the face of Moses ablaze with glory, and the Tables of the Law broken to pieces at the display of anger when the man of God sees the sacrilege of the people as they dance around their idol. And now let three eighty-year-old men stand with the rest. The third sees the favored of God, the beloved of his father, he whose branches should run over the wall: the victorious, the wise, the interpreter of Pharaoh's dream, the savior of his father's house, once sold as a bondman, now the honored Israelite, next the throne of Egypt (a brother of his, Disraeli, was next the throne of England a few years back.) This man, the fifty-first in line, sees the lion-like Judah humbly pleading with Joseph; he hears the pathetic tale, "We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him;" still Judah pleads on, "Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman to my Lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father and the lad be not with me,' lest, perad venture, I see the evil that shall come to my father?" IS MOTHER EARTH GROWING OLD? 643 Joseph cannot restrain himself longer, he falls upon Benjamin's neck and weeps aloud, so that the Egyptians without the hall heard and the fame thereof was told in Pharaoh's house. Two more good men, of eighty-one years each, join the line. They should be good men, for one of them is Abraham's servant, so that on that day, when the patriarch received a visit from the three men, he caught a glimpse of their faces as he delivered the calf he had dressed to his master. He heard Sarah laugh, and then, in her confusion, deny that she had laughed; witnessed the joy at the birth of Isaac, and the sorrow of the patriarch when Hagar went out with the boy Ishmael; accompanied Abraham in a three days' journey with young Isaac; learns how Abraham left him and the other servant in charge of the camp, while Abraham and Isaac went further to worship. How sorrowful and thoughtful Abraham was on this journey. But when he returned to the camp his solemn look had disappeared, quiet joy and serenity of mind marked the face of the patriarch. Six more of .seventy years get into line, quick, you are getting tired. But none so tired in their appearance as the venerable old man, Noah, who now has labored so many years in vain, trying to convert his people from the evil ways in the which they had fallen; commanded to build an ark, he obeys; notwithstanding the jeers and jibes of the wicked and debased men, his neighbors, he builds on; the flood came, and he and his family are the only ones saved. Let us hasten on; there are plenty of you left to extend the chain; twenty-four of you high priests, seventy years old, now come in. The last one, the eighty-third in line, beholds the father of the race, the Ancient of Days, with Eve, our mother, there formed and fashioned in God's own image, approved and blest of Him who made the earth, the heavens, the sea and all that in them is, and gave them dominion in this fair earth, their dwelling place. To the Almighty, who gave our father this, be all praise for ever and ever. Amen. Provo, Utah. PRSIDENT ANTHON H. LUND, Sustained April 6, and set apart as First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 7, 1910. Citation: Albert Jones, "Is Mother Earth Growing Old?," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 639–644. # Comets Comets. BY CHARLES H. SKIDMORE, B. L., M. A., PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS, BRIGHAM YOUNG COLLEGE. It is hoped that a few of the many everyday inquiries .on the subject of comets in general, and Halley's comet in particular, may be answered in the following article. But, at most, little can be said on a subject as broad as the universe. Comets are easily distinguished from other heavenly bodies. Each looks very much like a star enveloped in a luminous fog, which usually streams forth on one side with a long, hazy light. The word comet is derived from the Greek word home, which suggests the common meaning "hairy star." Milton, in Paradise Lost, says, Satan, incensed with indignation and unterrified, stood like a great comet burning in the arctic sky, shaking pestilence and war from "his horrid hair." In this, too, Milton portrays the superstitious belief in the malign influence of comets, which prevailed for centuries. Their visits were rare, but altogether too frequent to suit. Among other historical events, the downfall of Nero, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the invasion of William the Conqueror, were heralded by the appearance of comets. What terror these visitors must have awakened in the hearts of their beholders is partly told in the following quotation from Ambrose Pare, a learned writer of the 16th century, concerning the comet which appeared in 1528: This comet was so horrible, so frightful, and it produced such great terror in the vulgar, that some died of fear and others fell sick. It appeared to be of excessive length, and was of the color of blood. At the summit of it was seen the figure of a bent arm, holding in its hand a 646 IMPROVEMENT ERA. great sword, as if about to strike. On both sides of the rays of this comet were seen a great number of axes, knives, and bloodcolored swords, among which were a great number of hideous human faces, with beards and bristling hair. Another strange notion was proclaimed by old preachers that comets were the sins of mortals set on fire by the wrath of God. In the light of modern science, on the contrary, these "fireballs flung by an angry God" are quite harmless wanderers in space, whose beautiful forms and wonderful features are eagerly watched with rare delight. Even a collision with one of them may not prove disastrous. Sir Robert Ball says: In 1861 we had a novel experience. On a Sunday evening, in the midsummer of that year, we dashed into a comet. * * * It was the end of the tail which we encountered. * * * Most of us never knew that anything had happened at all, and the rest only learned of the accident long after it was all over. For a couple of hours that night it would seem that we were actually in the tail of a comet, but so far as I know, no one was injured. * * * Indeed, I have only heard of one calamity arising from the collision. A clergyman, on this particular occasion, however, said the sky was overcast with a peculiar glow, while the ordinary light was so much interfered with that the sexton had to provide a pair of candles to enable him to get through the sermon. The expense of these candles was, 1 believe, the only loss to the earth in consequence of its collision with the comet of 1861. When one contemplates the large number of comets there are in existence, their enormous size generally, and their great velocity, he wonders why there are not more collisions than there are, and why they do not work greater disaster than they do. After considering these points briefly, however, one should not fail to examine the size, shape and position of the orbits of comets, their mass, their density and constituent parts. The number of comets recorded in historical and scientific annals is about eight hundred, perhaps fifty per cent of which were discovered before the invention of the telescope, in 1609. Up to this time there were not more than an average of thirty comets seen in the century. In the 18th century there were seventy observed, in the 19th century three hundred. Of the last number not more than thirty could be seen with the naked COMETS. 647 eye. Few men have seen more bright comets than could be counted on the- fingers of one hand, unless by the aid of a telescope. A telescope usually brings to view from three to ten per year. These are so distributed in the sky that there is seldom a day when one cannot be seen. If Kleiber is right in maintaining that not more than three per cent of those entering the solar system can be seen in our telescopes, then Kepler's statement that comets are as plentiful as fishes in the sea is not greatly exaggerated. Indeed, if one transcends the solar system Kepler's statement is sufficient. The dimensions of comets are often inconceivable. The head of the comet of 1811, the largest comet on record, was at one time 1,200,000 miles in diameter, or approximately one and one-half times the diameter of the sun. The tail of the comet of 1882, the longest recorded, was more than 10,000,000 miles longer than the distance from the earth to the sun. Comets' heads are usually from 40,000 to 150,000 miles in diameter, and their tails are from 5,000,000 miles long to ten times that length. Most comets whose heads are less than 10,000 miles in diameter pass by unobserved, even through telescopes, unless they come unusually near the earth. When one of these huge bodies comes within the effective gravitational influence of our massive sun, its motion is accelerated, and varies almost inversely as the square of its distance from the sun, until frequently it passes by and loops around the sun with a velocity a thousand times faster than the swiftest cannon ball. Indeed, the swiftest rifle bullet travels little more than 2,000 feet per second, while it is estimated that the comet of 1680 attained the incomprehensible speed of 370 miles per second, when nearest the sun, or a velocity twenty times as fast as that with which the earth moves in its orbit. Most comets acquire so great a speed in their course around the sun that they are forced into distant space along paths whose form will never permit them to return. Their orbits, or paths, are open curves, either hyperbolas or parabolas. These are obtained by heavenly bodies which travel, because of the sun's attractive force, with a velocity exceeding 26 miles a second, when at a distance of 93,000,000 miles from the sun. Again, when these bodies move with less speed than this 648 IMPROVEMENT ERA. they are compelled by law to travel periodically around the sun along closed curves, elliptic in form. If these curves are quite circular, as in the case of the earth's orbit, the sun resides near their center, and consequently bodies moving along them will travel with an almost uniform speed. However, if these curves are greatly flattened, with the sun near the middle of one end, as in the case of the orbits of most periodic comets, the velocity of bodies moving along them will become very great in the sun's end of the curve, and very slow in the other end. There are thirty comets which travel along curves of this kind, and which make their regular periodic trips around the sun in less than one hundred years each; and, too, there are thirty more comets, moving periodically, which take a longer time than one hundred years to fall from space and sweep around the ruler of our solar system. As in geometry a circle can be determined by any three points not in a straight line, so in celestial mechanics the orbits of heavenly bodies can be determined by three different observations. It is found that the planes of orbits of comets are tilted at a greater or lesser angle from the plane of the earth's orbit, which fact makes a collision with the earth more or less difficult. The chances for such a collision are fairly told by Professor Newcomb, as follows: So small is the earth in comparison with celestial space, that if one were to shut his eyes and fire at random in the air, the chances of bringing down a bird would be better than that of a comet of any kind striking the earth. Should such a collision occur, the results would not be so disastrous as one might expect, on account of a comet's mass and density being insignificant. Comets are not dense enough to shut off from view the stars which lie behind them. And comets passing close to some of the moons of our planets have hardly disturbed them, and yet have been materially influenced themselves. Professor Young is of the opinion that if the largest comet were condensed into an iron ball, its diameter would not exceed one hundred and fifty miles. He further suggests that the mean density of a comet is only about one-six-thousandth part of that of the air at the earth's surface, and that a comet's tail is less dense than the best vacuum we can make by any means of science. COMETS. 649 Although the mean density of a comet is extremely low, yet it is possible for it to be made up of dense particles at great distances apart. It is commonly thought, though not definitely known, that this is true, and that a comet is largely composed of "meteoric bricks or pin-heads" some distance apart, engulfed in hydrogen and other gases, "in which light is produced either by electric discharges, or by some different action due to the rays of the sun." This action becomes more vigorous as comets approach the sun, and may account, in part, for their greater light at that time, as well as for the various forms and positions of the comets' tails. Again, if these meteoric particles would clash with the sun, would there be a tremendous crash? Professor Young answers this question in the following language: The cometary particles would pierce the photosphere (apparent surface of the sun) and liberate their heat mostly below the solar surface, simply expanding by some slight amount, the sun's diameter, and so adding to its store of potential (energy about as much as it ordinarily expends in a few hours and postponing by so much the date of its solidification. There might, and very likely would, be a flash of some kind at the solar surface as the shower of cometary particles struck it, but probably nothing that the astronomer would not take delight in watching. An experience of this kind nearly happened in 1843, when a great comet passed nearer the sun than has any known body, all but grazing it surface. Encke's comet (1819) is the only one at present that shows any great tendency to fall into the sun. Its period is only three and one-third years, the shortest period known. Up to 1868 each revolution has been two and one-half hours shorter than the next preceding one; since, the change has continued at only half that rate. It is now at a distance of 32,000,000 miles, which is less than one-fourth its distance ninety-one years ago; its diameter is now only 3,000 miles, while then it was more than ten times as great. This gives an excellent example, too, of how comets waste away on their extensive journeys among the various celestial bodies, each of which exerts its gravitational force upon their unsubstantial forms. Some of their wandering gases have, without doubt, been added to the earth's atmosphere, and some of their lost particles to the dust sometimes collected on lofty Alpine snows, 650 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Several famous comets exhibit phenomena of unusual interest, but it may suffice to conclude this article with a few miscellaneous statements regarding "Comet A 1910," and the famous Halley's Comet. The name "Comet A 1910" designates that this is the first new and unexpected visitor entering the solar system this year. If named according to custom, and in the order in which they are discovered, other new comets of this year will be called Comet B 1910, Comet C 1910, etc. On the morning of January 17 came the announcement of the existence of Comet A, from Johannesburg, South Africa. The next day it was observed at the Lick Observatory, where at its brightest it was visible to the naked eye in the day time. Only one or two comets a century have been so bright. For about ten evenings, near the setting sun, it was an easy and attractive object to the naked eye, except when hidden behind a cloudy sky. As it continued in its sudden flight, its total length ranged from a few degrees up to one-fourth the distance across the visible heavens. At first it was straight, with its head downward, and its tail extending upward directly away from the sun. Later it resembled a large feather with its upward end bending to the south. It came up from behind and within 10,000,000 miles of the sun, looped around it quickly, and then receded in a line almost directly away from the earth. The earth's motion placed it behind the sun again. It will continue there until the earth has crossed its orbit, when it may possibly in several months to come, be detected again in large telescopes. Edmund Halley, from whom the famous comet of 1682 gets its name, believed as strorgly as any one could in Sir Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation. He persuaded Newton to prepare his immortal Principia, and bore the expense of its publication. In accordance with its principles he computed the orbits of at least two dozen comets. On comparing the orbits of the comets of 1531, 1607 and 1682 he was struck with their similarity and began an investigation to see if they were but one comet, whose period was seventy-six years. Convinced later of this fact, he boldly staked his reputation upon it by predicting the return of his comet in 1759. Knowing that he would be in his grave at that time, he expressed a hope that "posterity would not refuse to acknowledge that this was discovered by an Englishman." Nothing was known at that time of the existence of Uranus and Nep- COMETS. 651 tune, but in his calculations he allowed more than a year for the retarding effect which the planets Jupiter and Saturn would have upon his comet. Astronomers began to watch for its return in 1757. A French mathematician, Clairaut, showed by skilful investigations, that it might appear on April 13, 1759, but as he had omitted some small terms in his calculations, the true time he said may differ from this by as much as a month. The actual time of its perihelion, or its nearest approach to the sun, was on March 13, 1759, just within the limit named. Thus a great truth was verified, and thus were hushed forever the opponents of Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Historical records are now at hand which show that this comet has visited the solar system at least twenty-five times, the first of which was in the year 11 B. C, and the last in 1835. At its last visit its total length was about as long as the handle of "the dipper." In some peculiar way it lost its tail at perihelion, but soon was supplied with a new one, which originated from a different place from the first, and which possessed at different times various interesting characteristics. The present visit promises to be a more brilliant and a more interesting one, as natural conditions are more favorable, and as highly improved instruments are in use. Dr. Wolf, of Heidelberg, had the honor of photographing Halley's comet on August 28, 1909, and of announcing its twenty-sixth visit, September 11, at which time he had fully verified his previous observations. After Wolfs announcement, two plates at Greenwich of the date of September 9 were inspected again, and sure enough showed slight impressions of the comet's existence. Perhaps the first sight of it visually was through the 40-inch Yerkes telescope, on September 17. The observed place of the comet differed from the computed one by only 24" in right ascension by 4' in declination. The comet passed behind the sun in March, 1910, placing the earth, the sun and the comet almost in line on the 25th. In April it came out from behind the sun's rays, curved around in its orbit at its greatest speed, and swept down between the earth and the sun, again to place these three objects in line on or about May 18. On that date its head will pass within 14,300,000 miles of the earth. Its tail di. rected away from the sun, may then engulf us. As we merge into this experience of a lifetime, we find a series of eager astronomers, Citation: Charles H. Skidmore, "Comets," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 645–651. # Two Plans 652 IMPROVEMENT ERA. fairly well organized, well-equipped and widely distributed for the purpose of making the best possible observations in the hope that new scientific truths shall be revealed. Logan, Utah. Two Plans. (For the Improvement Era.) When you've planned and plotted; when you've schemed; When you've hoped and struggled; when you've dreamed; And then have seen each favored project fall, And all your honeyed dainties turn to gall; You could curse the world and give up like a rat, But what's to be gained by that? When you've risen in the morning, rested and renewed, When you've felt yourself with God-like power imbued— And then, ere day hath waned, your strength has flagged, 'Till night discovers you entirely fagged; You might give up the struggle with the doffing of your hat, But what's to be gained by that? When you've found a friend, one who you think is true; The one in all this world, to sympathize with you; And then, ah, then, your fond hopes fade away, As time reveals your idol made of clay, You could mistrust the future, when hope has fallen flat, But what's to be gained by that? To battle 'mid the strong ones, and to hold your own, To prove yourself a hero, 'mid thousands, or alone, To rise from insignificance to noblest height, And look back on a course as clean and bright As man can shape on this old habitat, There's something to be gained by that! When others falter, to have faith to stand And reach, perchance, a kindly, helping hand To some poor, fainting brother, sorely pressed; To trust in God, and do your very best, And take life as a game of tit for tat, There's something in a thought like that! To have a heart for others, as we swing along; To "let up" on the dirge, and substitute the song; To quit the sqalid basement, with its mould and blight, And live upon the surface where the sun shines bright; To live and love and labor and laugh, and just grow fat, What better could we ask than that? Lon J. Haddock. PRESIDENT JOHN HENRY SMITH, Sustained April 6, and set apart as Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 7, 1910. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Two Plans," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 652–653. # Editor’s Table: Changes Among the General Church Authorities Editor's Table. Changes Among the General Church Authorities. Several important changes among the general authorities were made at the last annual conference, owing to the death of President John R. Winder. President Anthon H. Lund was chosen and sustained first counselor to President Joseph F. Smith, Elder John Henry Smith as second counselor in the First Presidency, and Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve, caused by the promotion of Elder John Henry Smith. Elder Rudger Clawson was also honorably released from the Auditing Committee, being a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who pass upon the distribution of funds, and Heber Scowcroft was chosen and sustained a member of that committee, of which William W. Riter is now chairman. President Lund's life and labors are now an open book before the people. For many years he has faithfully served the Saints in deed and counsel in many capacities. His promotion from second to first counselor in the First Presidency is not only well merited, but received with hearty satisfaction by all. President John Henry Smith has well earned the third position in the Church to which he is now promoted after several decades of unceasing, earnest and faithful work in its cause, both spiritually and temporally. He is a broad-minded and a big-hearted man in the right place. Both of President Joseph F. Smith's counselors are tried and true, and men with whom the interests of the Saints and the most important affairs of the Church may be trusted and imposed with perfect confidence. Joseph F. Smith, Jr., the new apostle, is a son of President Joseph F. Smith and Julina L. Smith, and is a native Utahn, born EDITOR'S TABLE. 655 n Salt Lake City, July 19, 1876. He has been an active worker in the Church from the beginning. On the 19th of July, 1884, he was baptized, and four years later was ordained a deacon, and thereafter a teacher in the 16th ward. On September 8, 1897, he -was ordained an elder, and a seventy on May 12, 1899. The following day he left for Great Britain on a mission. He labored in the Nottingham Conference, under the presidency of Piatt D. Lyman, returning home in July, 1901. He served as one of the presidents of the 24th quorum in 1903, and acted as instructor of the quorum thereafter and for some time previous thereto. In March, 1904, when the Salt Lake Stake was organized, he was set apart as one of the High Councilors of that stake, which position he held up to the time of being called to act in the Quorum of the Twelve. He married Louie B. Shurtliff, daughter of President Louis W. Shurtliff, of Ogden, on the 26th of April, 1898. She died on the 30th of March, 1908, leaving two small children. Recently Elder Smith married Ethel G. Reynolds, daughter of the late Elder George Reynolds. He is very much interested in the Genealogical work of the Church, and is assistant editor of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, besides being secretary, treasurer and librarian of the Genealogical Society of Utah. In the summer of 1902, he labored in Massachusetts, gathering the genealogy of the Smith family, securing hundreds of names, and straightening out the family line from Robert, the earliest ancestor in America. He has been actively engaged in the Mutual Improvement work of the Church, acting as aid in the Salt Lake Stake M. I. A., in 1898-9, and a member of the General Board since 1903. Last year he was made a member of the General Board of Religion Classes, also, and in 1906 he was sustained as assistant to Church Historian Anthon H. Lund, which position he still holds. He has served as a home missionary in the Salt Lake Stake, from the year 1901 to the present time. A young man, spiritually inclined, energetic and capable in all his work, full of the spirit of the gospel, he gives every promise of continuing a faithful and competent servant of the people, and an effective worker in the cause of the Lord, in his new appointment and calling. The Era is pleased to present to its readers in this number, excellent recent photographs of the new officers. JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR., Sustained April 6, and ordained an Apostle and set apart as one of the quorum of Twelve Apostles, April 7, 1910. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Editor’s Table: Changes Among the General Church Authorities," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 654–656. # Editor’s Table: Church Statistics EDITOR'S -TABLE. 657 Church Statistics. At various times during the 80th Annual Conference of the Church, statistics were given which had been gathered by the Presiding Bishopric. These show great progress in the Church. Elder W. W. Riter, a member of the Auditing committee, which reported everything pertaining to the finances in a very satisfactory condition, gave some very interesting figures from which it is learned that the tithing receipts and voluntary donations for 1909 increased materially over the former year. On an average 51 per cent of the tithing received was returned to the local districts to aid in Church enterprises. Some stakes received as high as 80 and 103 per cent in return, but the Salt Lake City stakes received last year only 40 per cent of the amount paid in. No tithing is paid for the support of the heads of the Church, as the income from other funds is sufficient for the verymodest payments made to them. The birthrate among the members of the Church in the stakes of Zion only, for 1909, was 39 per 1,000, as against 32 for the United States. The deathrate among the members of the Church in the stakes of Zion for the same period was 9 per 1,000, as against 17 in the United States. This is a little lower than the lowest deathrate, 10, experienced by life insurance companies, and they only accept physically perfect men as risks. The marriage rate was 16.5 per 1,000. There were 31 widows and widowers for every 1,000 members; and 50 persons unmarried who are over 21 years of age in every 1,000. The missionaries in the field January 1, 1910, was 48 for every 1,000 holding the Melchizedek Priesthood, or a total at that date of 2,065, costing their friends and themselves about $500,000 per annum to maintain. There are 10,688 persons now living who have filled one or more missions. Of temple marriages entered into in 1909 and previous years, there were 46 persons, or 23 couples, divorced in 1909; while among 658 IMPROVEMENT ERA. those not married in the temples there were 83 couples divorced for the same period. During the year there were 2,748 persons married in the various temples of the Church. Of the male members of the Church 41,586 hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, and 33,357, the Aaronic. In the Sunday schools are enrolled 46 per cent of the whole membership of the Church. This includes both old and young, men and women, boys and girls. In the Y. M. M. I. A., 8.8 percent are enrolled; in the Y. L. M. I. A. 9.1; in the Primary, 19; and in the Religion Classes 10 per cent. There are 60 stakes of Zion, 695 bishops' wards, and 21 missions. During 1909, there were 9,143 persons baptized in the stakes, and 5,391 in the missions, a total of 14,534. There are 2,275 children over nine years of age not baptized. In the Latter-day Saints' hospital there were 1,200 operations performed during the year, 600 of them being the means of preserving life. The mortality rate is less than is prevalent through the United States as a whole. Some very interesting conclusions and reflections may be drawn from these facts: The Salt Lake stakes are not enriched from the tithing funds, to the disadvantage of the outlying districts, as is sometimes charged. The birthrate among the Latter-day Saints is considerably higher and the deathrate very much lower — nearly half — than is general in our country. Clean lives and temperate living undoubtedly account for this commendable vitality. We are growing. Approximately twice as many were added to the Church by baptism in the stakes as in the mission fields. For each missionary on an average 2.6 persons were baptized in the missions. There is a factor of safety, in the temple marriages, so great that one is almost justified in declaring temple marriages a cure for the divorce evil. There is opportunity for 81 persons in every 1,000, or about 8 per cent to get married, among widows, widowers and young people over 21 years of age, the latter class being about 5 per EDITOR'S TABLE. 659 cent. The average size of families is 5.3 among the Latter-day Saints. An immense field is still open for the officers of the Y. M. M. I. A. to enlarge their enrollment. These general figures should be used by stake and organization officers in comparison with their local conditions, and where local affairs are not equal to the Church standard, special efforts should be made to improve. Decoration Day. A day devoted to the past, in which to remember the men and women who gave their best days and most loving service for the generations to come. In a broad sense, it is a day to think about the work of the Pilgrim fathers, the Patriots of '76, and the saviors of the Union. Tell the children how the pilgrims kindled the fires of independence and self-government. Tell them how the patriots, in their unequal struggle with kings, placed justice and freedom at our gates, gave shelter to the hunted, rest and hope for the downtrodden and oppressed, and to the starved laborer bread with his toil. Tell them how the citizen soldiers of 1861 flung by the spade and the ax, and shouldered arms to save the Nation— and in answer to our country's call left the plow to rust in the furrow, or quit the lighter task of pen and rostrum, to rein the charger on the battlefield. It is a day also to tell the little ones, and the youth of the land, of the Declaration of Independence, that "chart and compass of all human rights," which, as the most eloquent of American orators has so well said, "uncrowned kings, and wrested fronrthe hands of tyranny the sceptre of usurped and arbitrary power. It superseded royal grants, and repealed the cruel statutes of a thousand years. It gave the peasant a career, it knighted all the sons of toil, it opened all the paths to fame, and put the star of hope above the cradle of the poor man's babe." In a local sense, Decoration Day should bring to mind not only our immediate dead, and the heroes who established our nation and lived and died for liberty, but should awaken to our ten- 660 IMPROVEMENT ERA. der recollections the valiant band of pioneers and their trusty followers who in the early days pressed onward over the untrodden prairies and explored the lone rivers of the west. In tears and toil they founded cities in the mountain valleys, built homes, and made the thirsty desert to bloom. They offered their sacrifices with cheerful hearts and in unbounded faith. They carved their fortunes from the lonely, stubborn wilds — these heroes of the prairie schooner, these soldiers of the cross, thinkers, builders, pioneers. Thousands about us may rest in unknown graves, but long after this generation is dead, their courageous words shall sound trumpet calls to victory — their heroic deeds be messages of hope and cheer. The land is sacred for their sakes, these brave, true builders of our homes. Remember them today, "Crown in your hearts these dead heroes of ours, And cover them over with beautiful flowers.'' Messages from the Missions. The statistical report of the Netherlands-Belgium mission for 1909, shows that there are 5 conferences in which 80 missionaries are laboring, with a total of souls belonging to the Church of 2,722. There were 242 baptisms for the year; 121,796 tracts distributed; 57,594 books, and 3,441 meetings held. Altogether 100,026 families were visited and 16,426 re-visited. Prospects for 1910 are reported in the Millennial Star to be exceedingly bright. President Charles W. Penrose of the European Mission was notified by caVegram on April 7, that he had been released. Elder Rudger Clawson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has been appointed by the First Presidency of the Church to succeed him. Elder Penrose left Salt Lake City for Europe October 15, 1906, and has rendered splendid service, and brought the mission up to a high state of efficiency. Elder J. E. Simmons of the Wheeling conference, West Virginia^ writes March 15, that on January 1st of this year church work was opened in Wheeling when there was not a friend to tho cause in the city. At present the elders have many warm friends, and they have been able to plant the good gospel seed with prospects of bounteous harvest. As EDITOR'S TABLE. 661 to their labors, they have sold 40 Books of Mormon, 369 other books, and have distributed 3,101 tracts, and 224 copies of Liahona. They have visited 3,155 families and re-visited 137; held 25 Book of Mormon lectures, 3 gospel meetings, and 1,584 gospel conversations. They have besides spent some 663 hours in study. ELDERS OF THE WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA, CONFERENCE. Reading from right to left: Wilford A. Henniger, McGrath, Canada; J. E. Simmons, Chesterfield, Idaho. Front row: V. G. Ashcroft, Teton, Idaho; E. J. Whiting, St. Johns, Arizona. These elders are among two thousand more who devote their time and labor free to the cause of the Lord. Their reward lies in the happiness of service. A conference presidents' conference was held January 28, 1910, in Chicago, to discuss plans for the work of the year and report on the condition of the different fields of labor. At the close of the conference it was the general expression from each one present that much good would come to the work from the exchange of ideas and the instructions given by President German E. Ellsworth. The conference presidents were also pleased to gain a more thorough knowledge of the work done by the mission office, and departed with great appreciation of the magnitude of the work done by the brethren and sisters appointed to this labor. The conference closed with a general good understanding of each other's work. I Br '^^^3 5^ il ▼ > o r— I OS W o .a c p3 O go0 T3 l-9 P3 CD M o> m ^3 CJ H 3s . s ~ o> o> o >. 8 * r £^ cd . . m i-c ad !zi s Q m ° § r- TO cd +3 CD CO rC -1-3 C CQ & fi CD - +3 o s CD S .2 CD ►1 so CD U * > /,•> to C cD '^ tS3 faO „ c 9 -S3 SS 2 03 • CD C P M fe 03 bJ) "8 pi S P s S CD CO CD .S a en •?* ^1 o e ► ■Sfi " c o ,r-5 CD K T3.SP C *■< CO -£5 O co 5 I ^. 03 © n3 ^ 5 +3 CO CD § rt-£3 CD ■*= h (V H Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Editor’s Table: Church Statistics," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 657–662. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. The Judgment. — "If a missionary, through diligent labor, bring a soul unto the Lord and accomplish many other good works, after which he turn from the Lord and apostatize and become an atrocious sinner, will he receive any reward for the good he did while working righteousness, or will that be blotted out? Take, for example, Judas Iscariot." There are two classes of sinners, those who may be forgiven, and the sons of perdition who may not be forgiven. Every man will be judged according to his works and the deeds which he has done. If he has done evil, sinned and become wicked, he will have to answer for his sin and wickedness and evil in the place of punishment, until the judgment of the Lord shall have been satisfied, and he shall be willing to repent. If a man has done good works, he will receive his reward. The good he has done will stand to his credit forever, provided, of course, he shall not have sinned so grievously that he cannot repent; for, if he repent not, it is clear that the good which he has done will then be of no benefit to him, as he chooses to remain in punishment. As to the second class of sinners, the sons of perdition, who are guilty of shedding innocent blood, or who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him, the end of their punishment, and the place thereof, and their torment, no man knows. God is very merciful, and all his judgments are not given unto men. (Read section 19 of the Doctrine and Covenants, also section 29: 30; and section 76). Summing up the matter, it is clear from the scriptures that all men will receive their rewards according to their works, tempered by the justice and mercy of God. If they have done good, they will be rewarded for that good; if they have done evil, they will receive punishment for that evil. If they have done both good and evil, to which class we all belong, they may rest assured that they will be rewarded for the good and punished for the evil. Playing Cards. — "Is playing cards on Sunday breaking the Sabbath— not observing it nor keeping it holy — therefore breaking one of the Ten Commandments? Is card-playing a sin under such conditions?" We consider that it would be breaking the Sabbath day, and that it would be very harmful to play cards on the Sabbath. It is wrong to play cards at any time, because of the evils that are almost sure to re- 664 IMPROVEMENT ERA. suit from indulgences in this line of amusement. To know that an act is wrong and then to do it, is a grievous sin; to knov to do good and not to do it is a sin. Some people consider cards an innocent game. To show that it is not so, President Smith relates an incident of a young man who was a playmate of his in Nauvoo and who later came to Utah and went with him to Hawaii on a mission. This young man, shortly after their arrival in Utah after their mission was filled, was married. He had a good home and wife and for those days was well provided for. Through some means or other he became infatuated with card-playing and spent evenings at that game. President Smith at that time lived close by and was frequently invited in with him to play cards. He also finally became interested in cards, and spent many evenings with his friend at the game. After a while he found that he was not fit for duty, and that with it there was an excitement that led him away from his more serious thoughts and occupations. Discovering this, President Smith said to himself: "This is getting monotonous, I must quit. I have other things to do than to waste my time with cards. I must learn to do something, to get an education, to progress, to make achievement in life. I can't afford to spend my time in wasteful, exciting amusement.'' He so told his friend, and that was the end of it with President Smith. His friend, however, paid no attention to the warning, but kept right on with his cards The next thing he indulged in beer at his home to keep up the interest; and this paling, he ordered whisky in order to keep up the excitement, — and this was the way of an innocent, social game of cards. The result was that in the end his friend, who refused to consider cards a sin and evil, became so reckless with drink that he was finally picked up in the gutter and became a vagabond and an outcast, and even committed grievous sin, so grievous that he was compelled to leave the country. He was gone for years, but finally died a miserable outcast, shunned by all and respected by none — all for an innocent game of cards. President Smith is so set upon the truth that cards are evil that he will not tolerate them either on Sundays nor on any other day, and absolutely forbids his family from playing cards under any conditions. He has also made this declaration to the public and advises the Saints generally throughout the Church to leave cards severely alone. It is a waste of time, and a dangerous and useless diversion, and he can see no good in cards in any way. Some years ago he wrote several articles in the Era and Juvenile condemning the practice of cards and advising the Latter-day Saints to quit that amusement. This has generally been adhered to, in families anxious to obey counsel and believe that therein is safety. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 663–664. # Mutual Work: Annual M. I. A. Conference Mutual Work. Annual M. I. A. Conference. The Fifteenth General Annual Conference of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be held in Salt Lake City, on Saturday and Sunday, June 4th and 5th, 1910. All officers and members of the associations are requested to be present at all of the meetings of the conference, and a cordial invitation is hereby extended to the Saints generally to attend the meetings to be held in the Tabernacle on Sunday, June 5th, at 2 and 7 p. m. Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, B. H. Roberts, General Superintendency Y. M. M. I. A. Martha H. Tingey, Ruth M. Fox, Mae T. Nystrom, Presidency Y. L. M. I. A. The officers of the Young Men's Associations will meet on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock and in the afternoon at 2 o'clock. Special instructions to stake superintendents and ward presidents will be presented. The General Board desires the attendance of every stake superintendent in the Church and of every ward president. If for any reason these can not attend, an authorized officer should be selected to represent them. A conjoint officers' meeting of the Young Ladies' and Young Men's Associations will be held on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, at which important discussions on conjoint work will be given. A special meeting of stake superintendents of the Y. M. M. I. A. is being arranged for, at which suggestions will be called for from these officers relating to the betterment of our work. Come prepared. General meetings will be held at 2 and 7 p. m On Friday evening a conjoint social entertainment will be held: the time, place and program to be announced later. Efforts are being made to present a field program, after the close of the Saturday afternoon meeting. 666 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Summer Work. Several of the stakes have announced their M. I. A. summer courses, and very commendable programs are presented. The editors of the Era will be glad to receive all the outlines, which will be filed where members of the General Board may inspect them. Annual Conferences. In the general annual conferences of the Y. M. M. I. A , the superintendent of each of the associations should give a statement of the condition of the organization in his stake, placing particular stress upon the various divisions of our work, especially as to the organization of the committees and what work has been accomplished by them. Then, there should be appropriate exercises by young men and young women, reflecting the work of the organizations as presented in the manuals, also appropriate music, and, if possible, essays, songs and testimonies. It is well to have a contest of some kind in connection with the conference, on the Friday or Saturday evenings. This, for the young men, may be oratorical, athletic, a debating or story-telling contest. The General Board Committee has not arranged a uniform program for these occasions, but it is left to the initiative of the stake officers, who should use their own ingenuity in providing interesting and appropriate exercises. As to the dates of these annual conferences, that is left to be named by the stake officers of each stake. They should consult with the stake presidency, and set their own dates, and then notify the General Board, both of the Young Men and the Young Ladies, of the time. The boards will then, in all likelihood, appoint some one to attend the conference, where that can be done. An Extra Monthly Conjoint Meeting. It is announced that the General Board of the Y. L. M. I. A. has made provision in their program for the next season's work for one conjoint meeting with the Y. M. M. I. A. each month, in addition to the regular Sunday night conjoint meeting, usually held on Fast days, the object being to give opportunity for the young ladies to join with the young men in literary work, debates, contests, and lectures and other exercises aside from the regular manual exercises. In view of this arrangement the General Board of the Y. M. M. I. A. at a meeting held Wednesday, April 13, 1910, passed the following reso- MUTUAL WORK. 667 lution which the officers of the various stakes and wards are advised to carry into effect: "Be it resolved by the General Board of Y. M. M. I. A. that we concur in the action of the General Board of Y. L. M. I. A., and advise all the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations to join with the young ladies in providing suitable programs for these conjoint meetings to consist of debates, contests, lectures and other suitable exercises." In arranging for these meetings the program committees of the two associations should meet conjointly to prepare the program and to arrange for their proper presentation. Summer Half Holiday. At the annual conference of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of the three stakes of Weber county held on Sunday, April 10, the following resolution was presented and unanimously adopted by the officers in conference 'assembled. All the sessions of the conference were permeated with the spirit of having something done for the betterment of the young people. Action was the slogan. In the general evening meeting the resolution was read to the great congregation in the Tabernacle and commented upon, and the people present were asked to join in aid of the movement. A committee of six was named in the officers' meeting to consult with the merchants with a view to getting a uniform half holiday during the week: Believing, as we do, that the strength of a community lies in the moral, upright living of the people, and that such a condition can best be secured by a wholesome observance of the Sabbath day, the laws of virtue, temperance and sobriety, and that each individual can and ought to contribute to the betterment of existing conditions, it is Resolved, by the officers and teachers of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of Weber, Ogden and North Weber stakes, in conference assembled: That we will use our utmost endeavors to secure the setting apart and observance each week, during the summer season, of a half holiday, on a day other than Sunday, and the use of the same for ball games, races, excursions, and other out-of-door sports and amusements that are now frequently appointed for Sunday; That we will refrain from visiting theaters, picture shows, ball games, races, pleasure resorts, or other places of amusement on the Sabbath day, and urge our friends and associates to do likewise; That we will not visit restaurants or cafes where intoxicating beverages are served or can be procured on order; That while in any restaurants or cafes we will avoid sitting in booths or compartments secluded from the view of others, by curtains or partitions. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work: Annual M. I. A. Conference," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 665–667. # Passing Events Passing Events. Jane Snyder Richards. Sister Jane Snyder Richards, who recently celebrated her 87th anniversary, is the wife of Apostle Franklin D. Richards, and was born on the 31st day of January, 1823, at Pamellia, Jefferson county, New York. She joined the Church in the winter of 1839-40. She was suffering from a severe illness at the time, but firmly convinced that it was her duty to be baptized, a hole was cut in the ice, and she was carried down into the icy waters of Lake La Porte and the ordinance was performed by her brother, Robert. As a result, she received a wonderful testimony of the truth, and was immediately healed. On the 18th day of December, 1842, she became the wife of Elder Franklin D. Richards, and moved with him to the city of Nauvoo, where they resided until driven out by the mob in 1846. While encamped at Sugar Creek her husband was called upon a mission to England, and Sister Jane was left to make the perilous journey to Winter Quarters without his aid. Enroute she lost her two children, a son anl a daughter, and endured untold mental and physical suffering many times hovering between life and death. On the return of her husband, in 1848, she crossed the plains, arriving in Salt Lake in October of that year. In August, 1872, she became president of the Relief Societies of Ogden City and on the 19th of July, 1877, was called by President Brigham Young to preside over the Relief Societies of the Weber stake, which position she held for thirty-one years. In 1888 she was made first counselor to Sister Zina D. H. Young, president of the Relief Societies of the Church. In 1891, in company with others of her sisters, she attended the National Council of Women at Washington, where on previous occasions, she had formed the acquaintance of several prominent ladies of that organizations, and secured for herself and associates, membership and recognition in that national organization in whose subsequent labors she took an active and prominent part. In 1892 she was appointed vice president of the Utah Board of Lady Managers of PASSING EVENTS. 669 the World's Fair, at Chicago, in which position she rendered most valuable service. Sister Richards is now in her 88th year, and she resides with her daughter., Mrs. Joseph A. West, at Ogden, Utah. Her life is going out like a pleasant evening, surrounded by her devoted children, and made happy by the kindly consideration of her loving sisters and former colaborers, many of whom recently came all the way from Salt Lake City and made her 87th birthday anniversary a most delightful and notable occasion. Mrs. Mary Holladay Richins, formerly Miss Mary Holladay, of Salt Lake City, died at Union, Oregon, on March 12, 1910. A most lovable character, with a sweet nature and disposition, she won her way into the hearts of all who knew her, and remained enshrined therein through her unfailing kindness and loyalty. A bride of a few short months, she was about to realize that sweetest hope of a true woman's heart, the hope of maternity, when she gave her life, a sacrifice that life might be. Her home life was ideal, and hard indeed is the parting to the devoted husband. Mrs. Richins was born at Hooper, Weber county, Utah, September, 1880. Her whole life was devoted in earnest effort to do good. Prior to her marriage to Osmond Richins, June 25, 1909, she was for thirteen years a member of the Salt Lake Tabernacle choir. Possessing a voice of rare quality, her talent was freely devoted to the people, wherever it would give pleasure or comfort. In Arizona, California, and in the city of Denver, where she rendered invaluable service in the missionary cause with her musical talent, and ability to make friends, she will be well remembered. She possessed no small artistic talent, and left a number of works from her brush and pen. She was a member of the "Corianton'' company, appearing at all of its productions; also a member of the Salt Lake Choral Society. She was prominent in Church and social circles at her new home in Union, Oregon, and her death was mourned by the entire community. Funeral services were held at Union, March 14. All places of business were closed, as an evidence of the esteem in which she was held. Mary Holladay Richins. 670 IMPROVEMENT ERA. John Bray Maiben died in Manti, Utah, on the 10th of March, 1910. He was an early settler, a pioneer in the state, a man of staunch and unflinching character, recognized as an example of faithfulness, a lover of mankind and of God, a man of cheerful disposition, a peacemaker, and a leader in many good works. He was born June 16, 1826, at Brighton, Sussex, England, and was of Scotch descent, his grandfather having been born in Sterling Castle, Scotland. The family resided in Perth for X several generations, and were ^^^* j9 H known as MacBains, the spelling ■5 Kp»-~^ JM ■ being later changed to Maibenn JH V John B. was privately educated in W mm V an academy at Brighton, and took W i9 V a course as medical student at Char- ^H LW ^LW ing Cross and ether hospitals in LW ^m London. It was while here that in contact with the the Church of Jesus Latter-day Saints. He embraced the gospel, and was baptized by Elder John Barnes, July 27, 1848, since which time his every effort and ambition were devoted to his chosen religion. He desired to gather to Utah, but had noticed in the printed instructions of President Brigham Young that only bread-winners were needed in the pioneer commonwealth; he therefore abandoned his career as a medical practitioner, and engaged in the stationery business, in which he greatly prospered. While in England he engaged in missionary work, and kept open house for the traveling elders, in 1850. He presided over the Finsbury branch in 1851, and the Holburn branch in 1854. Sailing for America on the ship Samuel Curling, April 22, 1855, he arrived in Salt Lake City on September 28. His span of life covered a period of material progress clearly unparalleled in the history of the world, as one may notice when reflecting that the same distance is now covered by travelers in twelve to fourteen days, a criterion of the advancement in other lines of material progress. In Utah his life was rich in experience and vicissitudes. He participated in the Echo canyon war, and was one of John Bray Maiben, age 82. London, he came elders of Christ of PASSING EVENTS. 671 the three hundred who witnessed Johnston's army march through Salt Lake to Camp Floyd. He was a close associate of President Brigham Young, by whom, August 1, 1875, he was appointed bishop of Manti. Since that time, he resided in that city and devoted his time to the building up of the community in spiritual and temporal affairs. On the 7th of July, 1877, at the ■time of the organization of the stakes of Zion by President Brigham Young, he was chosen second counselor in the presidency of the Sanpete stake, remaining an able assistant to President Knud Peterson, until the latter's death, in 1902, at which time he was ordained a patriarch, on the 16th of November, by President Joseph F. Smith. He filled more than fifty different offices, civil and religious. His greatest work, however, will undoubtedly be counted as having been accomplished in connection with the Manti temple, both in its erection and subsequently in the labors performed therein. He was set apart as first assistant president of the temple, by President Anthon H. Lund, in October, 1891, since which he has been a constant worker there until September, 1909, when failing health and the loss of sight compelled him to resign. Only those who are familiarly acquainted with his labors and character can fully appreciate the enthusiasm, the earnestness and zeal with which he entered into the labors of the House of the Lord, and the blessings and comfort that he disseminated to the people who came there for consolation. He was a man of moral strength; "Always kind, but very resolute." John Bray Maiben, age 52. The Sixth Ward chapel of the Ogden Stake, recently opened, is situated at the corner of 23rd Steet and Madison Avenue, in the heart of the residence portion of Ogden, Utah. It is a restful looking little house, in which the people of that ward meet for worship, classwork and other ward services. A few lines of the Greek classic add to the otherwise strikingly beautiful, white stone and cream brick construction. It has an exceptionally clean, dainty appearance. The auditorium is reached by three flights of stone steps, two at the south and one at the east front entrance. Through the vestibules into the main assembly hall, where heavy oak pews have been provided for four hundred persons, religious Sam'l T. Whitaker, Archt. SIXTH WARD CHAPEL, OGDEN, UTAH. assemblies are held. The choir niche is located between two large classic pilasters, and has a seating capacity of ninety people. Light reaches the choir during the day through a tiled glass ceiling, and in the evening from incandescent lamps concealed from the view of people in the auditorium. The finish throughout is natural yellow pine, in light amber color. To the right of the auditorium, and on the same floor, is a large library; and to the left, on the same floor, a council chamber and private rooms. From the assembly hall, through vestibules, two broad stairways lead to the rotunda below, around which class rooms have been arranged, accommodating seven hundred pupils. On this floor, also, are located lavatories, drinking fountains, electrical, heating and ventilating apparatus. A baptismal font has been arranged conveniently near the boiler room, for warming the water during cold weather. Vacuum vapor with gravity return and an air line to the boiler room, are the methods used in warming the various compartments. Fresh air is brought into the building over warmed coils, in quantities sufficient to give each person the maximum amount of air necessary. The foul air is taken out of the rooms through openings at the floor line, in heated shafts, and this exhaust compels the fresh, warm air to be brought in at the desired places, and it regulates the amount of the supply. The acoustics are remarkably successful and nearly perfect. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 7 (May 1910): 668–672. # *Improvement Era*, June 1910 The retained masthead identifies *Improvement Era*, volume 13, no. 8, June 1910, published monthly at Salt Lake City by the General Board of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations. ## Editorial contents - The Greatest Menace to the Church—The Remedy, 673. - Peoples and Places in the Orient—IX. Japan’s Great Jubilee, 680. - Thoughts of a Farmer—X. Comparisons—Misfits, 691. - The End of the Rainbow, 694. - The Missionary Problem, 705. - The Call of Authority—III, 710. - The Crown of Individuality—VIII. Sitting in the Seat of Judgment, 720. - The Second Commandment, 731. - A Personal Testimony, 735. - Some Men Who Have Done Things—VIII. Richard W. Young, 739. - At the Head of Noisy Water Canyon, 746. - At the Point of the Oquirrhs, 747. - Editor’s Table: The Spirit of Worship, 749. - Elders of Pennsylvania and Maryland Conferences, 755. - Priesthood Quorums’ Table, 759. - Mutual Work, 761. - Passing Events, 764. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910), cover, masthead, and editorial contents. # The Greatest Menace to the Church—The Remedy IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. JUNE, 1910. No 8. The Greatest Menace to the Church— the Remedy. * BY ELDER ANTHONY W. IVINS, OF THE QUORUM OF TWELVE APOSTLES. "He that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain, and shall say, Prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people." "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.'" This first article of faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is fundamental and indispensable to the belief of every Christian man and woman. We believe that without faith it is impossible to please God; that we must believe in him, must believe that he is. We must believe that he has control over our destinies, and that we owe allegiance and service to him; otherwise there would be no desire upon our part to find him out, or learn of his ways. This first article of our faith is accepted by very many people, so far as it applies to faith in our Heavenly Father, who reject the remainder of it. Mohammed taught faith in God, and that doctrine today is the foundation *Remarks at the General Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1910. 674 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of the Moslem religion. The Jews believe in the God of Abraham, but neither of these peoples acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God, nor as the Savior of the world. The Latter-day Saints believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ — not that he was simply a reformer, a prophet of his time, one seeking to establish righteousness, but that he is the Son of the living God and the Redeemer of the world. We believe in the Holy Ghost, who bears record of the Father and the Son, and who leads into all truth. While we believe that these first doctrines of the Church are fundamental and indispensable, we do not regard them as sufficient to assure exaltation in the presence of our Father in heaven, but that they must be accompanied by works; that we must do the will of the Father, keep the commandments which he has given us, in order that we may be brought back into his presence. This congregation is made up largely of Latter-day Saints, people who have accepted these first principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who hava repented of their sins, gone down into the waters of baptism, and have received the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. You have come up here to the mountains of Ephraim, that you may learn the way of the Lord, that you may learn to walk in his paths. I am sure it is for that purpose that you are here this afternoon, that you may be taught the way of the Lord. This congregation, undoubtedly, represents officially a great majority of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The presiding authorities of the Church are here; presidents of stakes are here; high councilors are here; bishops of wards, and men and women who preside over the auxiliary organizations of the Church — all are here this afternoon, that you may learn better the way of the Lord and how to walk in his paths. You are watchmen upon the towers of Zion, and the Lord has said, "Except ye warn the wicked man of his wickedness, and he die in his iniquity, his blood will I require at your hands; but if ye warn the wicked, and he repent not, you have delivered your soul." My brethren and sisters, I understand the Lord to mean by this, that we who profess to follow him, we who have been called to feed the flock of Christ, are to be advocates of righteousness, that we are to teach the word of the Lord THE GREATEST MENACE TO THE CHURCH. 675 by precept and by example, that we are to make plain that straight and narrow path in which he would have all his children walk; in other words, that we are to remove the stumbling blocks from the way of the Lord, so far as it is in our power to do so. Where the stumbling blocks cannot be removed, they can at least be marked, and their existence may be known, in order that they may be avoided. I had been wondering what I should say to this congregation, because I thought that, probably, I might be asked to speak to you; and I felt at a loss until a circumstance, which occurred a short time ago, led me to a chain of thought and suggested a subject to which I shall briefly refer. I love to advocate the doctrines of the gospel of Christ, because I believe in them with all my heart. I love to teach the way of redemption, which the Savijr of mankind taught, because I know it to be the power of God unto salvation; and I do not believe that there is any other way under heaven by which men and women can be saved; or by which power is given them over the sins of the world, except through obedience to the gospel. I love to speak of and to think of the good that exists in the world. This is a good world which the Lord has given us; there is an abundance of good things in it,-- everything, in fact, that we could desire to make us happy, if only utilized as our Father designed that they should be. I feel depressed when I think and talk of evils which exist. To place myself in conflict with existing conditions, when I know that by so doing I may be subject to criticism, that my words may be misinterpreted and misunderstood, to feel that I may be criticised, and that my views may not meet with the approbation of people whom I would desire to please, does not make me happy; it never did make me happy to think of evil, nor to talk about it. Yet, when I see conditions existing in this country —this God-given country of ours — which it seems to me are striking at the very foundations of society, conditions which have resulted in the downfall of nations, in times past, and which must inevitably result in the downfall of nations, or communities, or individuals, wherever they continue, — when it seems to me that these conditions are surely, if slowly, fastening themselves upon this country of ours, I feel constrained to rai e my voice in warning to my brethren and sisters against them. I 676 IMPROVEMENT ERA. believe that I fully appreciate the value of care and wisdom in handling all great questions, particularly where questions arise in which men and women may consjientiously differ in their opinion. I have never desired to be an extremist. I have never liked sensationalism. I have never liked offensive partisanship in anything. I do not like it, even in the advocacy of the word of the Lord, because I do not consider it necessary. But those things against which the Lord has spoken, which are fundamentally wrong, those things against which the servants of the Lord have always warned us — to those things, at least, it seems to me, I should feel justified in referring, even at the risk of being misunderstood. I do not expect tnat my views, nor the views of the Church, are going to be adopted by all people. I recognize the fact that in this country in which we live, majorities rule, and that minorities must be subject to them. This is all right, and I submit to it; but I also submit that majorities are not always right, and while I yield, I may still remain unconverted. Some little time ago, it was my pleasure to be in a great city, and I rode through its streets with a companion. I admired its beautiful residences; I admired its public buildings; I admired its parks, and the things which men had done to embellish it. As we passed down one of its streets, I saw upon the wall of a dwelling a placard, just a piece of yellow cloth, which had "Small Pox'' printed on it. I said to myself, that means that there is someone sick there, and that placard, which has been put there by health officers, is a warning to other people that they should not go into that house during the period that it is infected with this disease; and I said to myself, the people who live there, I suppose, are also restrained from going out. It is their own house; they are unfortunately ill; why should the law lay its hand upon them and prevent them going in and out of their own home, and their friends going to their assistance and going away again ? I then reasoned: it is because the infection that is there may be carried to other people, and they may become sick; and so I concluded that, after all, it was well within the province of the law to take control of that house during the period of infection, and prevent people from either going in or coming out of it. I THE GREATEST MENACE TO THE CHURCH. 677 knew that after awhile, if the patient recovered, that he would go out clean and without infection, and that neither he nor those with whom he came in contact would be in danger. We went on and turned into another street, and came to a great building. I saw the door swinging to and fro, just a screen door that was there. I looked in and saw that the room was beautifully embellished. There were mirrors; there was music. 1 heard the clink of glasses, I heard the laughter of men and women, too, for, as the door swung back and forth, I saw there were women there. My friend said, "That is a saloon; we call it a saloon." Yes, and refreshments were served there, for I saw "Ice Cream" and "Refreshments" marked in great letters over the door; and my companion said, "Just back of it, there in that group of buildings that you see, there are lawless men and abandoned women; and there ribaldry, and license, and intemperance reign supreme." Then my mind reverted back to that other house. On this house there was no placard, nothing on the door to warn people that it was a dangerous place to go; yet, I thought to myself, of the two, the danger to society, the danger of infection, is far greater in this latter place than in the former. Why isn't there some warning there? Why are not people given to understand tne dangers of this place? Why are they, upon the contrary, invited into it? Why is this condition legalized and licensed here in this beautiful city? Then I thought of something else, and I am going to refer to it. I know that I am discussing a delicate question, but I thought of this: only a few days before, I had read, in one of the great magazines of the country, that they had taken the trouble to collect statistics, and that the medical fraternity of the United States had reported to them that seventy-five per cent of all the men in the great cities of this country, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight years, were infected with disease that was almost incurable, as the result of their acquaintance with just such places as this to which I have referred — not diseases that can be easily eradicated, but that are handed down to the third and fourth generations of those who forget God and neglect to keep his commandments. I said to myself, the one great evil that menaces this nation today, the one great evil which menaces the Church — 678 IMPROVEMENT ERA. for whatever menaces the nation is a menace to the Church; thank God, these things do not exist in the Church; they are no part of it; they never have been, and if the gospel of Jesus Christ could prevail, there would be no such places in the world — but, I said to myself, the greatest menace to this nation today, and the greatest menace or enemy which the Church of Christ has to combat, is intemperance and sexual sin. I just wanted to say that word to my brethren here this afternoon. You men who preside over the destinies of this people — isn't it a stumbling block in the path? Every power that Satan can conceive of is exercised in defense of this evil, and all his forces are marshalled to support it, to promote, to protect it. Now, the way to combat these evils, if I were going to suggest a plan, is to follow the policy suggested by Brother McKay. 1 do not want to advocate offensive measures I only want to say to my brethren and sisters that that which the law legitimately and properly authorizes you and me to do, that much, at least, we are justified in doing; and, regardless of the law, it becomes our duty, every one of us, to make known to our children, to the children of our brethren and sisters, and to the children of our friends in the world, the existence of this deadly menace, in the hope that they may be persuaded to avoid it. When Rome adhered to her simple life, when the honor of her men and the virtue of her women were above reproach, she became the mistress of the world; but when these things, to which I have referred, gradually fastened themselves upon her, she went into dissolution! One of the things I was impressed with, when I first went to Mexico, a few years ago, was a very beautiful growth which I observed upon the trees there. It was in the winter that I went there, but as I traveled up those streams I noticed that here and there along the way, there was an occasional tree dotted with green— sometimes only one bunch, sometimes many bunches, all beautiful and green. I examined it, and found it to be mistletoe. It seemed to be rather an embellishment to look at it, but after awhile, as I went further up one of these canyons, one day, I observed a tree that was dying. It was literally covered with mistletoe, this beautiful plant. The fact of the matter was that the plant had fastened itself upon the tree, just as other parasites THE GREATEST MENACE TO THE CHURCH. 679 fasten themselves upon that which other people create, until it had sapped the last bit of life out of it, and the tree had died. This shrub does not grow from the earth, as other plants do; it does not struggle for existence, as God seems to have designed that all good things shall struggle for their existence, from infancy to old age; but it just waits till the tree has grown, till the tree has made the struggle and has become vigorous, and then the first thing you know you will see a bunch of mistletoe sprout out on one of the branches. After awhile it goes to another branch, and then to another, and if left, as I have said, it takes away the life of the tree. Well, I said to myself, it would be better to cut it off, better to remove that single bunch that has appeared — and I made it a practice to do that with my own trees thereafter, and I found that it was an easy matter to keep it down; but if left to itself, if kept there because of its beauty — and it is a thing of beauty — it became a thing of danger. So, my brethren and sisters, that which God has ordained for the good of man, that which makes men and women happy, that which makes men and women temperate, that which makes men and women virtuous, that which leads men and women to believe in God and Christ, and to serve them— that we cultivate, that we cherish, that we care for. But that which comes into our midst when the tree has become strong, and fastens itself upon us, with no other purpose in the world except to sap our life-blood, better cut it right off; better get rid of it, hadn't we? I think so. So I want to say that any legitimate means which is in your power and mine, we should exercise in the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ for the eradication of these things as they exist in the world, and to keep them out of the Chureh of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that they may have no place in it. God bless you, my brethren and sisters, through Jesus Christ. Amen. Citation: Anthony W. Ivins, "The Greatest Menace to the Church—The Remedy," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 673–679. # Peoples and Places in the Orient—IX. Japan’s Great Jubilee Peoples and Places in the Orient. BY FRANK J. HEWLETT, DIRECTOR OP THE UTAH STATE FAIR AND PRESIDENT OF HEWLETT BROS. COMPANY. IX.— Japan's Great Jubilee— "A-1-o-h-a," "Sayonarra." July 1, 1909, was a red-letter day in Japan. It marked the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Yokohama to foreign trade. The occasion was one unanimously chosen by Japanese and foreigners alike as worthy of being celebrated in a triumphal manner. Fifty years ago the ground upon which Yokohama now stands was occupied by an insignificant fishing village, bearing the name of Yokohamamura. It was not very long after its opening, in 1859, that the tide of emigration, both native and foreign, set in with a rush. Commerce and industry developed with almost phenomenal rapidity. Equally remarkable progress was achieved in many other branches of public activity, with the result that the little fishing village has been transformed into one of the leading commercial and shipping centers of the Orient. From a cipher the foreign trade of the port has grown to a total of three hun= dred and sixty million yen— cut the figure in two, you have dollars — a year, according to the latest returns, and its population is slightly over four hundred thousand souls. The Japanese and foreigners, Americans predominating, worked like Trojans together for this celebration. The result was that nothing quite so elaborate was ever seen in Yokohama before. The decorations alone cost fifty-two thousand dollars. The buildings throughout the city were gorgeously decorated with flags, lanterns, bunting and electric lights. There was a perfect system attached to it that was wonderful. The little brown archi- PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 681 tects planned the decorations for the main streets as carefully as if they were planning a permanent structure. On one of the most prosperous business streets, the Benten-Dori, they had arranged on both sides trellises of bamboo, on which were hung bunches of imitation wisteria, and at regular intervals were suspended large lanterns under miniature temples, each lantern gaily decorated with the new coat-of- arms of the city, and the fiftieth anniversary jubilee characters. Above all was an umbrella-like spray of paper objects in colors, and the effect, especially at night, was most charming. Electric lights, sparkling like glistening stars in the trees, was a novel idea, and with an immense painting, depicting Yokohama in 1859 and 1909, you may just imagine it was all worth seeing. And people! — you might well call it one stupendous conference. Tokyo is only eighteen miles away; out of her millions of people she sent her full quota, and with other towns and villages pouring their hosts in, the narrow streets became almost impassable. Vehicles were barred from the principal thoroughfares during the afternoon. Even the "rikisha" was not allowed, but as soon as the police had the first opportunity to make an opening for the foreigners they invariably did so. The Japanese do not have one immense procession, as in our country, but it was divided, as near as we could judge, into about one hundred of them, which gave the people in different parts of the city an equal chance to see one of them, at least. But to describe a Japanese procession would tax the wits of any American. They are generally headed by a float, on which is represented a daimyo, or to be plain, one of the old war-lords in traveling regalia, composed first of his bearers, carrying long poles, at the tops of which were long bunches of feathers, and in some cases wool; then, the carriers, bearing lacquer boxes, which contained his wardrobe, armor, swords, arrows and bows, etc. He, himself, was borne in a palanquin of gorgeous workmanship, and followed by an officer of his court, the whole making an imposing display. The music was the poorest feature of the parades. The bands generally consisted of five musicians, four beating drums, and a leader playing the flute. Take an ordinary beer-keg, knock out the two ends, then cover with a tough piece of hide, and you have 682 IMPROVEMENT ERA. a typical Japanese drum. After the band followed a stuffed elephant, then a score or more of children, drawing a tall figure in full uniform, which was really an awful caricature. On many of the corners were erected platforms, high enough so that you could see the geisha girls dance, while others were devoted, for the time being, to theatrical performances. They were weird plays, mostly representing old feudal times, the long sword playing an important part. The native people seem to enjoy it, so no one else had any cause for complaint. Photo by F. J. Hewlett. YOKOHAMA JUBILEE DAY. Scene on the Houchi-Dori. Head of of the main procession, July 1, 1909. We visited an interesting exhibition held in Memorial Hall. If was instructive, and reflected the conditions existing at the eventful period of inception, of relics and souvenirs of the time, and by illustrations and works, both from the Japanese and foreign standpoint. The articles in the exhibition were divided into two sec- PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 683 tions, one representing the period prior to, and including the opening of the port, while the other represented the changes immediately following. In the Japanese picture we saw the foreigners eating with knives and forks, and their behavior in the teahouses— well, the caricatures were "awfully funny." The American magazines had illustrations of the first Japanese embassy in Washington, at Willard's hotel, sitting a la Japanese, playing a game similar to chess, while the photographs illustrated the more serious side, including one of Prince Ito while abroad. Relics of Commodore Perry were numerous, including his sword and parts of his costume. The sword was given by Commodore Perry to Mr. Horton, who died and was buried in Yokohama. Other exhibits included steam engines and scales brought by Commodore Perry, a saddle spotted with blood, which was used when Sakuma Shozan was assassinated in Koyoto, in 1864; a proclamation which was Photo by f. J. Hewlett. YOKOHAMA JUBILEE DAY. A Special Parade, July, 1909. 684 IMPROVEMENT ERA. posted in Yokohama by the central government in the early days of the Meija era, when precautions were necessary to overcome the public sentiment and spirit against foreigners; the first mail box in Yokohama, and its notice-board in English and Japanese; the first paper money in a foreign language issued by the Yokohama bank in the denomination of dollars; watehes, clocks, instruments of many kinds, then new to Japan, and first brought into the country at that period; the designs and models of the warships Kaiyo and Nisson, the nucleus of Japan's modern navy, presented by the Dutch ship-builders There were many interesting exhibits that portrayed to the Japanese, as well as the visitors, the marvelous strides and accomplishments of the fifty years now closed. After dark, the floating spectacle on the bay was magnificent. We were unable to count the numerous barges, sampans, sailboats and launches paraded, all beautifully decorated with Japanese lanterns of every color and size. To cap the climax, four of the battleships that were dotted with electric lights, from the top of the masts to the waterline, were lighted each night, as a courtesy to our own United States. The show of fireworks was grand, and on one occasion ended with a masterpiece, "The American Flag." The Jubilee lasted three days, and was pronounced by all an unqualified success. Thousands of people paced the streets all night. In the morning you would find them sleeping on the benches alongside the bay, sitting on the doorsteps, inside of packing boxes, and, in fact, in every nook and corner available. No one molested them. Though tired out, all were happy, even the little tots being dressed in the gayest of colors. Many had their faces painted, making them appear like little Indians. Our time in Japan is drawing to a close, the S. S. Korea, sister ship to the Siberia, is now anchored inside the break-water of Tokyo bay, and her cargo, consisting mainly of tea, silk and rice, are being hoisted aboard. In twenty-four hours we will commence t>he homeward voyage. In Japan there is a vast amount of detail work in connection with business and with traveling through the empire; at the same time, there is something fascinating about the mingling with a strange people, with stranger customs, and in their own country, but when one understands their ways th.3 task is lighter. One learns their way of conduct- PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 685 ing business, studies the climatic conditions, watches the beautiful flowers, dwarfed trees and shrubs. One visits the gilded temples of Tokyo, Kyoto and Nikko, and tries to solve the mysterious rites and ceremonies conducted there. Our thoughts fly fast, as they take us once more through the bamboo groves into the rice fields and tea gardens, the meetings with the elders from our own "dear mountain home," who are promulgating the gospel to this strange Photo by F. J Hewlett. AMERICANS ENJOYING JAPAN'S GREAT JUBILEE. people. We wander in thought once more through the little villages, and remember the polite bow and the pleasant smile. We sometimes doubt that they are genuine, but it is sufficient for them to know we are guests in the land of the Mikado. They are at least successful in creating a good impression with the foreigners. The longer you remain, the more you realize that Japan unfolds mystery after mystery, and from dawn to dark the gradual fulness of her charms. There is no end to the surprises of Japanese character, and after a foreigner has spent months in the midst of this charming people, he must confess that he enjoys the native simplicity. At the same time, there is a mysterious, invisible barrier which rises between us, a line plainly drawn, which tells us that 686 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the people of the Occident and the people of the Orient can never dwell together as one. Our voyage on the steamship Korea, from Yokohama to San Francisco, take it all together, was a pleasant and interesting one. There were many genial spirits aboard, among them being Amos P. Wilder, United States Consul to Hong-Kong, just transferred to Shanghai; Willard Martin, Consul at Hankow; Alexander Young, the genial host and proprietor of the Alexander Young hotel, the finest in Hawaii; besides many American missionaries, with their families, just returning from several years' work in Japan, China and Korea. We enjoyed their lectures and informal talks very much. The sky was bright with tropical sunshine above, and the blue water beneath us was asleep, as the good steamship, Korea, gently churned her way into Honolulu bay, at about eleven o'clock in the morning. The passengers were all dressed to go ashore, but the question with all was, "How long will we be allowed to meander around beautiful Honolulu?" The first-class passengers, at the sound of the gong, appeared in the dining-room and successfully passed quarantine inspection. After luncheon the purser stated that the Korea would not sail until the next day at five o'clock p. m., sharp, and wished us all a delightful time. He also said, among other charming bits of pleasantry, that he would be pleased to take back, free of charge, all the fruits and flowers we could carry aboard. Clapping our hands like school children, all as happy as the many bridal couples aboard, we scampered on deck. The old saying was once more verified, "There is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." The Chinese sailors were closing the gangway, the yellow flag was being pulled up the second time, orders were given to move back into quarantine. A Chinese passenger in the steerage had just developed a case of bubonic plague. Notices were posted on board stating that no passengers would be allowed to go ashore, with other instructions added. We were disappointed. So were the good people of Honolulu. Ship-day is one of the red letter " events with them. During the night the steerage quarters and all in them were fumigated. When we awoke the next morning the Korea was tied to the wharf, but the yellow flag was still at the top of the mast. PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 687 The cargo was discharged, the new lot swung aboard and dropped into the hold, and ninety-three of the ninety-five passengers booked for San Francisco appeared at the appointed time, and were allowed to sail with us the remainder of the voyage. Bubonic plague had no terror for them. A' surprise awaited us. At four o'clock, one hour before sailing time, the people of Honolulu came to the wharf loaded with carnations and other beautiful flowers made into leis, "wreaths," which they sent aboard. A few moments later ev^ery woman was decked with flowers, as were many of the men. The Royal Hawaiian band came on the wharf and played stirring airs, choosing for the last the one that the Hawaiian's love so well, A-l-o-h-a, meaning "Love to all," which was followed by the "Star Spangled Banner," and the last we heard was its patriotic strains, and wa saw the good people of Honolulu waving flags and handkerchiefs, throwing flowers, with A-l-o-h-a, A-l-o-h-a, A-l-o-h-a. The scene brought many tears to the eyes of the quarantined passengers of the Korea. It was courtesies that ever will be remembered. During the evening the Honolulu passengers, with several natives, assembled in the social hall and sang the sweet songs of Hawaii. Alexander Young gave a short talk on Honolulu and her people, which was well received. A pretty souvenir was presented to each of the passengers on which was engraved only one word, but we all knew what it meant — A-l-o-h-a. A few days later the Korea approaches the "Golden Gate," and the old, familiar scenes unfold before us like an immense panorama. We quietly wend our way to the stern of the liner, and as we watch the foaming trail of white mingled with blue, our thoughts fly fast as our minds wander back to the teeming millions of people and the mystic places of interest left behind in Photo by F. J. Hewlett. Amusing the passengers with the monkeys — Ben and Betsy — on board the S. S. Korea. 688 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the Orient. We realize that it is no dream, that the people have awakened from the sleep of centuries. What it means is quite beyond the possibility to estimate. Picture an ocean that stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic. On the one hand border it with the shores of the two Americas, and on the other, assemble the empires of Russia, Japan, Korea, Formosa, the Philippines and India, — and central among all these places, the vast territory of the Chinese empire, with a population numbering nearly one third that of the entire globe. Imagine, too, this mass of people living in exclusion and almost apart from the other people of the world and, in a fashion, quite like that of the ancients of four thousand years ago. Then, suddenly, the gateways to this empire are swung wide open, like the gates to Japan! All nations are welcomed to her ports; the needs of modernization are readily recognized; the wants and demands of over four hundred millions of people who had previously required nothing from beyond their own borders, thereupon lecome the complex wants and demands concurrent with our western civilization. Already, to fill their needs, through the great artery of Suez is pouring the commerce of Europe, and the trans-Pacific lines are constantly increasing their capacities to accommodate this new trade. Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, and other wealthy nations, are playing their financial cards to perfection, each in hopes of outwitting the others in securing the lion's share of the gilt-edged Chinese bonds and securities that are being placed on the market, the funds derived therefrom to be used in gigantic enterprises already planned. The high class Chinese are men of honor and integrity. They can also be relied on. They do not say one thing and mean another. Thus opens the world's greatest commercial drama — a drama which is accompanied by all the elements of the dramatic, of conquest, of the heroic and the romantic. There will be scenes laid at the courts of kings and emperors, and there will be councils where ambassadors of nations will attend; for never before has there been, and it is doubtful one will ever occur again, a commercial situation of such international importance. Compared with the undertakings to be accomplished during this new era, the splendid achievements of the present day will fade into insignifi- PEOPLES AND PLACES IN THE ORIENT. 689 cance. There will rise up new leaders of finance, new captains of industry; new and greater lines of steamships must be built, new railroad systems projected, and put in operation; there must be countless new manufactories, mercantile establishments, banks, telegraph and telephone systems. In fact, every avenue of business must be opened up through the empire, for China has indeed awakened, and she will not be content until she has reared her industries and her institutions to a comparison with those of our own glorious country under the Stars and Stripes. When China has her great Jubilee, it will be so gigantic and on such a magnificent scale, that all other people and places in the Orient will pale in comparison, and the echoes of it will be heard throughout the entire world. Sayonarra. (the end of this series of letters.) Courage, My Brother. (For the Improvement Era.) Why grieve o'er the past, my brother? The future holds more for thee; Why waste thy moments in vain regrets? Strive thou, more loyally. For life is only a span — From birth to the echoless shore, Where the boatman waits so silently, With a hand on the ready oar. 0 why do you falter, brother, And why despair by the way? Tho' the way be dark or the path be lone ! Thy summons may come today. Are you helping a failing brother? Are you shielding a sister from sin? Are you giving freely your gold for need? Do you strengthen the weak to win? And to hearts that love you and trust you. Are you speaking sweet words today? And those who are bowed with the care of years, Are you seeking with love to repay? 690 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Onward, more bravely, brother! The Savior is calling to thee; He is waiting to bring thee safe home again, To a land by the shining sea. And the land just beyond the shadows, Is free from all pain or tears; So gird on thy armor, my brother, And strive through the fleeting years. Grace Zenor Robertson. Parker, Idaho. Let us Bear up the Cross. (For the Improvement Era.) Stand valiant, ye Saints, for the hour is at hand When many shall fall though we think that we stand. A warning doth sound over Zion aloud And a prophecy falls in the voice of the cloud; Array for the battle, ye hosts of the Lord, Truth perched on your banner, and death on your sword. The armies of Satan are marshalled abroad, Let us stand for the faith and the kingdom of God. Whatever befalls, let us walk in the light, Lest we fall by the way in the gulf of the night. Whatever befalls, 0 let not a 'plaint Be found in the hand or the heart of a Saint. Let us bear up the Cross which our patriot sires So valiantly bore from their city of spires, When ahead they beheld but the heart of the waste, And behind them the smoke of their city effaced; Which heroes and prophets, through martyrdom's path, Have carried to glory, to fame and to death; Which Christ, the Redeemer, through babels of strife, Once carried in triumph to death and to life. Let me carry the burdens along till I faint, WTith the zeal of a Paul and the heart of a Saint! Let me hold to the nations the Cross, while I stand; When I fall, let me fall with the Cross in my hand. Theodore E. Curtis. Citation: Frank J. Hewlett, "Peoples and Places in the Orient—IX. Japan’s Great Jubilee," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 680–690. # Thoughts of a Farmer—X. Comparisons—Misfits Thoughts of a Farmer. BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER. X.— Comparisons— Misfits. Comparisons are often a pleasing medium through which to convey some striking idea. Comparisons, however, may be often very misleading, and it is sometimes difficult to detect the greatest fallacies when conveyed through contrast or comparison. Sometime ago I sat in a large educational assembly where 1 heard a multitude of school teachers applaud a lecturer, who in speaking of the weaknesses of child life declared, by way of comparison, that "a chain is no stronger than its weakest link." Doubtless many of those present thought the comparison, though time-honored, striking and illuminating. Many did not stop to think, perhaps, that a human life is really not a chain of links. The absence of the link principle in human attributes created a suspicion that the comparison might be wrong, because what at first thought might appear a similarity, after all contained no likeness whatever. Comparisons are so frequently used by people in conversation, and by lecturers, that it pays to scrutinize them before accepting them at full value. When one stops to think, it is quite clear that in human life one attribute or peculiarity may be strengthened or weakened by another. A man may be considered naturally dishonest, and be given to theft, did he not possess religious qualities that restrain him from misappropriating the property of others. The science of phrenology, whatever its accuracy may be, teaches that a strongly developed characteristic in one direction, may be helpful to other characteristics that are weak. We have a very com- 692 IMPROVEMENT ERA. mon example .of the idea here sought to be conveyed in the loss of one of the senses. When the sight is gone, the sense of touch answers its purposes to a wonderful extent. It is clear, then, that these human qualities are not related to one another as links are found in a chain. When a link breaks, it is thrown away and a new one put in its place, or it may be mended by the process of welding. If such were the conditions of the attributes of life, the process of mending human affairs would be quite impossible. Men would be robbed of that which comes through the power of faith or the exercise of repentance. It will be seen that such a comparison is very misleading, because of the great dissimilarity between the links of a chain and the links in a human being — because a human being has no links at all. What I have in mind is not so much the error contained in such a comparison, as the error that people often make in this world in determining just what a thing is. In the case above referred to, the lecturer, speaking of human weaknesses, looked upon them solely from the standpoint of strength. Now, the human system is a very complex affair, and it is quite possible that what we regard as a weakness is, after all, not a weakness, but a misfit. Sometime ago it was my duty as a farmer to run a binder in the harvest field for about thirty days. For a long time I was troubled by the elevator chain, which runs around the sprocket wheels at the rear of the machine. The links kept breaking. It is true, they were somewhat worn, and I therefore imagined that the links broke because they were too weak to do their work in elevating the grain. Frequently, however, the chain would fly off and scatter the links in aggravating confusion over the ground. That led me to believe that there was something the matter with the chain, besides the weakness of its links. I thereupon took a standard link and went over the entire chain, measuring every link by it. To my great surprise, I discovered a link that was larger than any of the rest. Although it was similar to other links in appearance, and not very greatly different in size, it was enough larger to cause the mischief. It was simply a misfit in the sprocket wheel. When I thought of the trouble it had made me for days past, I was very careful to keep THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. 693 it out of the tool box, lest it should get into the chain again. Its weak links, that had been breaking for a number of days, had put upon them an extraordinary and unnecessary strain under which they broke. After that the weak links in the chain did their work well. The circumstance reminded me how often it happens in life that the thing we are after is not really the thing we need. All through life we are constantly patching up difficulties, and it not unfrequently happens that we put the patches in the wrong place. Sometimes a little bit of shifting, a change in environments, helpfulness by proper influences, mend the difficulties in child life very easily. What they needed was not strengthening at some point , but adjusting the daily habits of their life to the work they were capable of performing. You can't look into a human being as you look at a chain and mend it in the same way. If you do, the chances are you make a botch of him. How often it happens in the public life, in Church or State, that men find great difficulty in adjusting themselves to their surroundings. They are misfits, often too small to fit in the cogwheels of human endeavor. It does not follow that men are too small for the places they occupy. Sometimes they are men of superior abilities and attainments, but lack the power to adjust themselves to the services they are asked to perform. The genius to work harmoniously in the affairs of life is so important to the individual and to society, that its acquirement should be studied and if possible attained. Sometimes the cog-wheels themselves get out of line and need readjusting. That is the work of a master mechanic. It is the work of a genius with power to recognize— a genius that can take upon himself those divine attainments by which things are put in order and made to work in their divinely appointed spheres. Alhekta, Canada. Citation: Joseph M. Tanner, "Thoughts of a Farmer—X. Comparisons—Misfits," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 691–693. # The End of the Rainbow The End of the Rainbow. BY NEPHI ANDERSON, AUTHOR OF " ADDED UPON," "THE CASTLE BUILDER," ETC. I. Roni Jones came back from the city with a pocketful of money and an additional swagger to his gait. The boys noticed his new suit of clothes and his added importance, as he alighted from the train and sauntered up to the village store, where a half dozen loiterers were seated on the hitching pole, like a row of crows on a fence. "Hello, boys," said Roni cheerilv, "how's everybody?" "Bully!" "Fine!" "All 0 K!" came from the boys, one after the other, in the order of their position on the rail. "Got back, eh?" "How's town?" "Fine! Got top prices for my steers, an' had a dandy time." "Did you take in the theatres?'' "You bet! one nearly every night. Some fine shows was runnin' this week." There was room for one more at the end of the pole, so Roni, to be sociable, seated himself with the boys. They looked at his new stiff hat and his patent leather shoes, and then they nudged each other. "Purty dandy," remarked one, half aloud, as if he did not want Roni to hear; but that young man heard, and with a knowing smile, pushed back his hat from the red mark which it had made across his forehead. "That's all right, Dave," he replied; "but when a feller's invited out to city society, he's got to dress different from everyday farm clothes." "So you was invited out, eh?" THE END OF THE RAINBOW. 695 "Sure. I stopped with Aunt Lizzy, an' she's acquainted with lots )f tony people. There was parties an' sociables a-plenty, an' I come in fur them all." "Make any mashes?" "Well, now, Billy, I — I improved my opportunities, I can tell ye." "Yes, I heard of ye, Rone," shouted the boy on the further end of the line, "how one of them city gals turned your head." "How! what did ye hear, Dick?-' "What did your show tickets cost ye?" continued Dick, instead of replying to the question. "I'll bet they come mighty high. She wouldn't go to nigger heaven." Roni jumped from the rail and faced the row of laughing boys. "Oh, that's all right, fellers," he said. "You don't understand You think that 'cause a girl lives in the city, she's extravagant an' stuck up. That's where you're fooled." "Rone's a goner!" exclaimed one. "When's the wedden' to be? ' asked another. "Can she milk?" shouted a third; whereupon a yell of laughter ran along the perch. "Say, tell us her name?" they began again. "Is she dark or light?" "Short or tall?" "I'll bet she wears eye-glasses — " "An' gloves up to her elbows?" Roni scowled a little at them, hardly knowing whether to defend himself or to treat with silent contempt these jokes at his expense. "Say," broke in a small boy, who stood resting his chin on top of the pole, "do ye wear your best clothes every day in town? Should think ye wouldn't know when Sunday comes." The crowd suppressed its merriment on the principle that no attention should be paid to a "kid" who "butted in." Those who had sharp knives deliberately whittled their sticks, while there was a moment's silence. The store door opened, and a girl came out. Seeing the crowd of men and boys, she paused, as if afraid to run the gauntlet of staring eyes and lively tongues. But there was no escape 696 IMPR0VEMEN7 ERA. from the ordeal — and it was always a trial for Jean Roundy to have to push her way through a lot of lounging men. Some of the girls did not mind it, she knew, but she avoided it as often as possible. As she passed, she was greeted with smiles, grunts and "how do's" from the boys. Roni lifted his hat to her with awkward grace. She was about as much startled at his looks and action as the crowd was amused. Roni saw his chance to escape, so he stepped alongside of the girl, and with a wave of his hand to the crowd he said: "So long, boys, better company, ye know; and on the way home, too." Jean was his nearest neighbor. He took her basket as a matter of course, something he had not been in the habit of doing, and chatted good-naturedly with her. She had never found it difficult to look the young man squarely in the face, but now she could only glance at him, his looks and actions being so strange. The sun was just setting, and the poplars cast their shadows away across the yellow stubble of the fields. The cows were bellowing near the bars, and the frogs creaked sleepily from the sedgy, half-filled water ditches. The noise of playing children echoed across the fields, giving the human coloring to the medley of evening sounds. Jean did not say much as they trudged along, but Roni's tongue was uncommonly ready. Had he not spent a week in the city! Had he not made himself "safe" with "somebody!" and in the assurance of this safety he was free to talk to any and all the girls of his acquaintance, and especially to Jean. He had avoided, recently, being too free with the girls around home, but now the restraint was no longer needed. He told her of his good luck in disposing of his stock, of his attendance at the theatre, and of his social experiences in the city. "I tell ye," he remarked, "it does a feller good to shake off the clods once in a while and get acquainted with other than country folks. It kind o' broadens a feller." Jean had been very seldom to the city, and had visited the theatre but once, when she had gone with a crowd of girls up in one of the cheaper seats. THb hJND OF THE RAINBOW. 697 "Oh, I don't object to goin' up there with the boys," he remarked, "but it's lots better further down, where you can see a little more than jest the tops of the actor's heads." "Yes, I guess so." "What's been goin' on out here lately? Nothin' very excitin', 1 guess; never is." "No," she assented. "J see that Jim Brown hasn't threshed yet. Nor you either." "No, not yet." "We're havin' a long spell of fine weather." "Yes, we are." "Say, Jean, don't ye get kinder lonesome out here on the farm all the time?" Jean had known nothing but the farm and was contented enough. However, she was evidently expected to answer Roni in the affirmative; but she did not reply immediately. "How's your mother?' ' he asked. "Oh, she's well." "An' gran'mother?" "She's not so well." "Too bad. Gettin' old, I guess." "Huh, huh." This disconnected conversation was checked by their arrival at Jean's gate. He gave her the basket. "Thank ye for carryin' it," she said. "Don t mention it," he replied. "It wasn't very heavy, but I got kinder warm. I wish I had a drink o' buttermilk." Usually there was plenty of it in her mother's cellar, but she did not invite him to come in and get a drink, as he had expected. She said a simple goodnight, and walked up the path to the house. He stood for an instant looking at her, and then cut cross-lots for home. Every week Roni Jones went to town to see "his girl." When joked about it, in the rural fashion of his neighbors, he never denied that such was his business in the city. As the town drew him more, the interest in his country neighbors seemed to grow less. His manner, and even his speech, changed somewhat, 698 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . it must be admitted, for the better; but his harsher critics said he was "only a clod-hopper aping city ways." But whatever other faults the young man had, no one could say that he was lazy. His mother's forty-acre farm was among the most productive, made so, mainly, by his own work. Though the house was small and humble, the barn and stack-yards were extensive. If Roni Jones was to bring a city wife to the farm, he would have to do some extensive building. And this work he actually began that fall, after the crops had been harvested. He dug a big hole in the corner lot next to the road, and when the frost made the road easy, he frequently made trips to the mountains for rock. He did not talk much, and his inquisitive neighbors failed to get any definite information regarding his plans. Just before Christmas, all work on the new house ceased, and Roni Jones was not seen going to or coming from town. He was away from home, and his mother said that he had gone off on a- visit. He had arranged with a neighbor to do his chores, and he had told this neighbor that he might be absent all winter. The mother tried not to show her worry, but that was not so easy. The holiday season was danced away in the usual country manner. As far as could be seen, Roni Jones was not missed. Widow Jones spent that long, cold winter alone. The village loungers, sitting around the stove of the country store, had discussed the young man's case in all its phases, and judgment had been passed on him in the following original terms: "His city gal's given him the gran' bounce" — "An' bein' afraid to face us fellers, he's skipped." "He's had to come down from his high horse.'' "He's been jolted purty hard, I guess." "He's been chasin' a rainbow — " "An' a rainbow's purty hard to catch." II. Roni Jones alighted from the caboose of the freight train, and walked hurriedly down the road towards home. It was the middle of the afternoon, and the farmers were busy in the fields. To avoid staring eyes from the farmhouses, he followed the irrigation canal for some distance, though it made the way longer. THE END OF THE RAINBOW. 699 Roni shortly slackened his pace, lingering at times to finger the green willows along the bank. It was the first week in May, yet that afternoon some belated April showers swept hurriedly over the fields, only to give way again to the blue sky and the warm sun. The first warm pulsation of summer could be felt in the air. The world was aglow with light, and throbbing with life. The spring day touched Roni Jones' sore heart with velvety softness. How good, thought he, to get home again; to see the unsullied blue of the sky, instead of the blackness of chimney smoke; to smell the sweetness of all things growing, instead of the stench of mills, and mines, and streets; to hear the twitter of birds, the drone and chirp of insects, the soft whisperings of willow tops, instead of the clatter of paved streets, and the roar and rattle that men make when they crowd together into cities. He took long breaths of the air, and how good it was! He had been away nearly six months, but it seemed an age of wear and tear and confusion. His coming out of it all into this big, free, open country, was like being born again into a new world. Would his mother ever forgive him? He did not care so much what others might say, but he hoped his mother would not be too hard on him. True, he had been somewhat hard on her — but he was going to make it all up to her. He was going home to stay, and behave himself. There would be no more "girl" for him. He had learned his lesson. Heaps of new earth lay along the canal bank. He wondered who had taken his part in the yearly ditch cleaning. As he neared home, he could see that only a part of his land was planted. The lucern was beautifully green, and there seemed to be about ten acres of growing wheat, but there was yet much to do. He was thankful that he had come back in time to put in some of the crops, at least. For him there would be no more loafing at the store, or wasting of precious time going back and forth to and from town. Roni left the canal bank and followed his own ditch down to the farm. The sky clouded over again, and the rain came down hard. He hastened his steps until he came to the corner of his potato field, where, in a clump of willows, there was a shelter of boards. He dodged under the bushes to the cover, but as he did 700 EMENT ERA. so, he heard a scream of fright, and came nearly running into Jean Roundy, who was standing under the cover. "Halloo, Jean," he said. "Sorry I scared you so." He went up to her and they shook hands. "What are you doin' here?" he enquired. Jean's color flew back to her face, which was now red with confusion. She backed away from him, looking down on the ground and then up at the sky. "I came here to get out of the rain — gracious, ye scared me! When'd ye get back?" "Jes' now. This rain is fine fur the crops, isn't it?" "I guess so." "What ye doin' with a hoe, Jean? you turned farmer?" "Alius been a farmer. ' ' "Well, I mean you hain't always worked in the fields?"' "No." "An' you're some ways from your land." "Oh, I live with grandma— that is, until she died."., "Is she dead?" "Yes; died last month." "I never heard of it. An' so you stayed with h^r till she died. You must see mother quite often, then. How is she?" "Purty well, considerin'." "Considerin' what? But I ought to know — yes, I do know." Jean was uneasy. She looked out over the fields, wet with rain, and then at the sky again. "The rain hain't bad now, so I guess I'll go," she remarked. "It's rainin' mighty hard yet, an' you'll get wet if ye go out in it. Here, sit down a little while, I want to ask you some more questions." He pushed towards her an old box. She seated herself reluctantly, holding the hoe across her lap. He took Jean's bucket, which was half filled with cut potatoes ready for planting, placed a board across and sat down on it. The sun peeped suddenly out, and there was a "sunshine shower." The girl scraped the grass with her hoe, and struck rather viciously at a big yellow dandelion blossom. Roni looked at her — in fact he could not take his eyes from her all the time they had been talking. There was something about the girl that he had not noticed before. She was larger, a THE END OF THE RAINBOW. 701 little older, more of a woman. He saw her coarse, ragged shoes and wornout, calico dress. Her hands were thick with the callous of work, and for a moment he contrasted them with some others he had known. She had removed her old, weatherbeaten, straw hat, and was fanning her face with it. Her hair was of the light, Huffy, unruly kind, and she impatiently brushed it back to get it out of her eyes. He noticed that her lips were full and red, and that abroad band of brown freckles extended across her nose from one cheek to the other. Her eyes were big and blue. Hard, coarse work couldn't take away their soft delicacy. He asked her about the neighbors, and she answered him with the meagre information which she had. "Ye see, I haven't been out much," she was forced to explain. "I stayed with gran'ma very close, an' then I had to help mother some. I've even had to neglect some of my meetin's." The sky was clearing, and presently they heard a voice calling across the field. They both arose and looked around the bushes. "Who's that?" asked he. "That's mother, isn't it?" "Yes; she's callin' me." "What does she want of you?" "Why, we've been plantin' potatoes, an' I guess she thinks it's time we begin again. She had to go to the house, but she's come back. I guess I'll go." "Wait a minute. Jean, what are you doin' that for?" "To help her, of course. Goodness knows, she needs help, an' I couldn't stan' to see her workin' out in the field alone. I'm young and strong and can plant potatoes, but she can't do much." She picked up her bucket and shook off the board. "Just a minute," he pleaded. The girl paused, with hoe and bucket in hand. Her hat was tilted on the back of her head, and she looked alternately at Roni and the big dandelion which lay prone at her feet. She was not very neat, she was not very pretty; but there was something about her that touched and satisfied him. A new light shone about his next-door neighbor. He placed his ha.ids over the one that clasped the hoe, and held it firmly. "Jean," he said, "thank you for helpin1 mother. An' now, 702 IMPROVEMENT ERA. will ye help me? I've been a fool, I guess. I know I've done wrong in neglectin' mother. I've been chasin' 'round the country tryin' to get rid of something that I could jest as well have buried right here in mother's field Jean, you're awfully good, an' I want ye to help me." "Jean," echoed again across the field, but the girl did not reply. She stood looking down. Presently she said, "Your mother's plantin' potatoes. Here, go an' help her. I think I'll go home." He took the proffered bucket and hoe. "All right," he replied, "but mother '11 think I drove ye away. Come along with me to her first." "All right," she said, and they stepped out into the open field together. The mother was at work in a piece of plowed land some distance away. As she looked up and saw the two coming towards her, she straightened from her work, and gazed fixedly at them. "Jean," said he, "do you know if mother has any buttermilk at the house?" "No; I gave the last to the pig this morninV "You have'nt any at your house, I suppose?" "Don't know; mother was to churn this afternoon." "Say, I'm comin' over this evenin' to get some." There was no reply to this. The mother stood still looking at them as they approached. "Jean," he asked, and stopped for a reply, "you don't care, do ye?" "Law, no;" she replied, "the folks'll be real glad to see ye." They walked on. In the eastern sky stood a beautiful rainbow. One end reached behind the hills; the other end seemed to rest on the little house which was his home, and bathed it in beautiful colors. A robin, thinking that the rain was over, warbled in a bush nearby. The air was sweet and fresh and full of life, at least it seem3l so to Roni Jones. Jean was looking at the rainbow. "Isn't it fine!" she remarked. "I read a story the other day where it said that at the end of every rainbow there could be found a Dot o' gold, a treasure, or somethin' like that. An' then THE END OF THE RAINBOW. 703 it said that one end of a rainbow is always restin' on your own doorstep. What does that mean?" Roni looked at her, and then slow ly it came to him v, hat that meant. * 'I'll tell ye tonight, when I come over after that buttermilk," he said. Hope. (For the Improvement Era.) There is a heart that never fails To send a silent prayer above, In memory of bygone days — ■ Those days of childlike, trusting love, Whose star of hope, oft hid in gloom, Or dimly seen through falling tears, Still shines, the darkness to illume, O'ershadowing life's declining years. We see in part, and know in part, For blest perfection is not yet, We often grieve with aching heart, And hollow eyes with "lashes wet,'' Because we fail to understand The Providence that bears control. Soon is the glorious dawn at hand, That brings the triumph of the soul. As we are seen, there shall we see, And know as we are known, — For every mystery holds a key,— And reap as we have sown. We then will own, with grateful hearts, That Father's way was kind and just, Wondering that in mortal life We could not to his wisdom trust. The scales of darkness from our eyes Will fall, and we shall plainly see How many times the friends we blamed Were only weak and frail as we. Oh, then let love and mercy rule Life's darkest, stormy day, "We shall know each other better When the clouds have rolled away." Mary A. Farnsworth. Colonia Garcia, Mextco. Photo by Shipler. A BUSINESS CORNER, SALT LAKE CITY. U. S. Post Office and the Newhouse Buildings. Citation: Nephi Anderson, "The End of the Rainbow," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 694–704. # The Missionary Problem The Missionary Problem. BY EUGENE L. ROBERTS. [The author has filled a mission to Germany and Switzerland, just recently, and is at present a student at Yale University. His remarks should contribute towards making the missionary ideals for the future more definite, and it may be stimulate missionaries to greater activity. In Yale he met the New Haven elders, and was struck by their good work, which he has good reason to believe should be set up as an example. The elders, however, should remember that they have been sent out to teach the truth, to deliver a divine message, and should not permit themselves in the least to be converted to error. — Editors.] "I hate tracting, and must whip myself into it every day," is a common remark among our missionaries- There are, of course, numerous exceptions; but the writer feels certain, after heart to heart talks with scores of elders in England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and at home, that the average missionary dislikes this part of his work. Why? Various excuses are offered. A German elder justifies himself in the following words, and missionaries in different parts of the field have agreed with him: Somehow, I feel that there is nothing in the literature I am handing this people which deals with the things uppermost in their minds. There seems to be nothing that applies to the religious or social problems of their day; nothing which holds their interest because it discusses things vital to their e very-day lives. My tract would have been a powerful factor for conversion years ago, when the focus point of attention and interest was upon dogma and authority. But the world's eye is now centered upon other great questions. People no longer ask which is the true church ; but they are keenly interested in what principles must underlie social systems in order to bring about a better relation- 706 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ship between man and man, and man and God. The paramount problems are social, and my tract does not deal directly with these. My religion, however, does contain truths which would enlighten the world in all its perplexing questions. In my tracting district the big question is temperance, and a few reformers are fighting nobly to check the evil effects of drink. When nearly every household is talking of nothing else but drink, I pass from door to door with a tract on "Baptism for the Dead.'' And I am grieved because they refuse me, and I want to shake their dust from my feet. I honestly believe that if my tract were a discussion of the vital question, and incorporated the "word of wisdom," and I could devote my time, money and energy working hand in hand with these reformers for the uplifting of these people, I should love tracting, and become enthusiastic over it. In the Eastern States, at present, diet occupies the public mind. Scientists and laymen alike are intensely interested in what people should eat and how much. The high price of meats has compelled people to attend to the important question as to whether the eating of animal flesh can be dispensed with or not. Professors Chittenden and Fisher and Doctors Mendel and Anderson, of Yale, have carried on exhaustive experiments on diet, and have proved to the satisfaction of most medical men and scientists that numerous ailments and diseases which decrease the happiness and efficiency of most people are due to eating an excess of meat. Horace Fletcher, a magnificent example of the fruits of keeping the word of wisdom, is lecturing to large audiences of working and business men on the benefit of not only thorough mastication, but also of the reduction of proteid foods, and the doing away with teas, coffees and alcoholic drinks. "Mormonism" has something definite to contribute to the subject under discussion. It has a scheme of diet marvelous in its conception, and so far antedating the discoveries of these modern scientific men, as to make it peculiarly interesting to them. During a discussion on diet in the Yale gymnasium recently, the writer took occasion to quote from the "Mormon" "Word of Wisdom." This excited general surprise. Dr. Anderson, who figured prominently in the dietary experiments, was especially interested. One gentleman remarked, "Does 'Mormonism' mean 1HE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 707 anything sensible and practical like that? I thought it nothing but polygamy and superstition." The great masses with whom our missionaries come in contact would be equally surprised to find that "Mormonism" means something real and beneficial to them. If the tracts occupied themselves with this interesting subject at this particular time, the people would begin to see that "Mormonism" is here for the practical, everyday good of mankind; that it is here to get people to live more sane and happy lives, and not merely to increase its numbers and decrease the membership of other churches. The missionaries, too, or at least the most progressive, would feel themselves more in tune with the great needs of things and would work with greater enthusiasm. Whatever the cause of the aversion to tracting may be, it is real, and is a hindrance to the progress of missionaries. Many have confessed that this one thing has caused them great worry, both while on their missions and for a long time afterward. Another question is the waste of time. There are few elders who do not regret much wasted time — time lost because their work was not systematized, nor their hours properly divided. The typical day of too many missionaries is a period made up of much sleeping; a great amount of loafing; considerable idle gossiping! some incoherent studying; a little purposeless visiting of Saints or friends some other elder made years ago; and perhaps an hour or so of almost aimless tracting, to keep the record respectable. However we . may wish to be optimistic and emphasize the bright side of things, we must be blindly so not to recognize and admit this condition and to realize its evil effects. Conditions ought to be improved. Missionary life ought to be made fuller and richer. Elders must awake to an appreciation of the importance of their time. They should become aware of the infinite possibilities all around them for development. Missionaries constantly preach that the glory of God is intelligence, and yet allow thousands of chances to acquire this intelligence slip by. They love to think and say that as God is man may become, but they fail to appreciate the significance of this marvelous truth. In New Haven, Connecticut, there are four elders who are exempt fromjthis criticism, and who represent what may be termed 708 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the ideal type of the modern "Mormon" minister. The writer had the pleasure of introducing them into Yale's religious life, and they are at present as much a part of it as the students themselves. They spend their spare time in the lecture halls or libraries; they attend the religious services and Bible classes, and take part in the discussions, giving to the students the "Mormon" interpretation of religion; they work shoulder to shoulder with the Yale boys in the missionary activities among the slums of New Haven, and are cultivating a comradeship and fellowship with the students. The Yale boys know who they are, and are coming to respect and admire both them and the great religious movement they represent. The New Haven elders are also active among the churches and the Y. M. C. A. of this city. Through attending Bible classes and assisting these societies in their efforts for good, they have made many friends, among whom are an influential Sunday school teacher and a prominent minister. The former entertains the elders at evening dinner once a week. As another example of the good results, the friends of one of the released missionaries gave him a farewell social which was attended b y some twenty of the best people of the city. A new elder from another field, after being in New Haven for a while, remarked: My missionary life never began until now. I never realized how big the world is, and how much there is to learn. These lectures and sermons at Yale have given me a different point of view, and a broader attitude toward the world. They have shown me the beauty of both "Mormon" ideals and those of the world. They have stimulated me to learn all I can and to give to the world the grand truths of "Mormonism.'' This young man is not the only one whose notion of things has been changed. There are many students of Yale and people of New Haven who look at life through different eyes since meeting the "Mormon" boys. They appreciate better the ultimate purpose of things. Many admit freely that our religion has much to contribute to the world; and they are all convinced that it is not the despicable system they had imagined it was. Some, too, are coming to believe that "Mormonism" is all we claim for it. THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 709 These opportunities for real missionary work and for growth are not peculiar to this city. They can be found everywhere by the elder who is awake to what is going on around him. God speed the day when the "Mormon" missionary field will become the school it was intended to be. New Haven, Conn. In Union There is Strength. (For the Improvement Era.) In Union only is there strength, 0 man! Harmonic units form the perfect whole ! If all progression's founded on this plan, Then universal brotherhood's the goal. The glowing orb, enthroned on Zenith's height, Displays his power, nurtured from this fact, And spheres revolving 'round the heavenly light, In attuned union, rhythmic'ly must act. And all that we behold, or do, or know, Express the wisdom in this primal law; Disintegrating clay, and things that grow, Disclaim relation with discord and flaw. But recognition of a truth should bring Its useful application in each life; To contemplate and picture it, and sing, Alle7iates no pain, nor lessens strife. To correlate and build on true concepts, To learn their many phases, weight and worth, Will make the angel-seekers true adepts And bring the dreamed, regenerated birth. Idealism's fervent, growing hope, The soul's fine graph that's drawn on axes true, Shall brighten in its wide, engulfing scope, And be the welder of the old and new. J. P. May Milfokd, Utah. Citation: Eugene L. Roberts, "The Missionary Problem," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 705–709. # The Call of Authority—III The Call of Authority. BY H. R. MERRILL. III. It was a bright, clear day in November. The majestic Wasatch peaks, after a sunny summer, had donned their winter suits and stood hoary-headed sentinels above the peaceful valley. The rugged canyons were wrapped in the blue, misty veil of the Indian summer, and seemed like shadows on the mountain side. The brown foot-hills rolled away from the icy peaks to the sear and yellow valley below. At the Williams farm all was joy and peace. The large hay stacks, sunning themselves in the farmyard, spoke of a good yield, while the large piles of straw silently testified that wheat bins were full. It had been an exceptionally good year, and the farmers felt themselves well paid for their hard labor. For the seventh time Molly had come to the door and gazed down the lane, returning to her baking with the same report — that she couldn't see them yet. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving, and truly it was going to be a thanksgiving, for today Jimmy was coming home. He had been gone twenty-six months, and was now returning with an honorable release. "I wonder if Jimmy's friend from Montana will come?" Mrs. Williams mused, as she turned the edge of a squash pie. "I hope he will come, for he certainly helped us out last year. John wants him to come, too, for he has got the money all saved up, and can pay him back now." "I don't know," Molly answered, "but I don't care if he THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 711 doesn't." The little blush belied her words, however, for the handsome cowboy had made an impression upon the romantic girl. "He seemed to be a nice boy," Mrs. Williams continued, "and I felt sorry for him." Just then little Ted came bounding into the room. "They're comin'!" he shouted. "Jimmy's with 'em." He was off again like a shot. The two women ran out to the gate, wiping their hands upon their aprons as they went. Sure enough, they were coming. Mr. Williams and James occupied the front seat, while Francis and John sat behind. The missionary was driving. "Doesn't he look fine!" Molly whispered, as the wagon drew near; but Mrs. Williams could not see, for in spite of all she could do the tears would come and block her vision. "We've got him!" Mr. Williams shouted, as the wason stopped and James sprang out and took his mother in his arms. "My own mother!" was all he could say. "My son! my son!" the mother cried joyfully, as she kissed him again and again. After the greetings were over, he turned to Molly and said, "And this is that old, sweet sister of mine. I was almost afraid I would lose her before I returned. There are so many young fellows looking for good housekeepers nowadays." "None of them would want me," she blushingly replied. All was joy at the old farm. The wanderer had returned. He was kept busy answering questions and asking about old friends. Little Eva and Ted were shy at first of the stranger gentleman who had arrived, but were soon convinced that it was really their own big brother, and soon they were talking merrily of their stick-horses and doll-houses, as he held them on his knees. The old folks talked to their son of his missionary life, and their hearts were filled with gratitude to the Father who had brought their wanderer safely back to them, pure and clean from the sins of the world, and a man of God in very deed. "Well, Jimmy, we are glad to have you back again," the father said. "But I suppose we ought to call you James, now, for you are no longer a boy," he added, with a proud smile. 712 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "No, father, call me Jimmy, still. It wouldn't seem like home if you did not, and I've been so home-sick to hear it just like you and mother say it." Out in the stable the talk was all of Jimmy, as the boys unharnessed and fed the team. "He's the same old Jimmy," Francis said, "all but in looks. He looks fine, doesn't he?" "Yep, he's the same old Jimmy," John replied. "He certainly does look fine. Hasn't got the big-head a bit, either. Now take Dave Coleman. When he came home he was so stuck up he wouldn't speak to a common fellow. He wasn't a preacher, either, and his fine appearance soon wore off. Jimmy wasn't a bit like that, but is just the same as ever, in that way, and yet there's something about him that tells you he's all right." "Do you remember the day Dave came home? I was standing at the station when he got off the car and strutted up to where we stood, and after shaking hands with his folks, he turned to me and said, 'And this is Mr. Williams, I believe?' His hand was as limber as a dish rag. ' ' Jimmy wasn't a bit like that. He made us all feel right at home with him in a minute, and said hello to all the boys he knew, as if he had just left yesterday. Of course, we could all tell that it wasn't the same Jimmy that left us, for it wasn't the loud, boisterous hello of the cowboy, it the quiet refined greeting of the gentleman." The shades of night were beginning to draw closer around the farm in the valley, as a horseman appeared on the top of the hill at the north. It was Jack Hillman on his way to accept the warm invitation which he had received to spend Thanksgiving Day at the farm, and to wekome "Brig" back. It was the same cowboy, Jack, who had ridden away that morning after Christmas with a full heart, caused by the kindly treatment he had received. Since that day he had lived a different life. His record had been above reproach. Since that time, whenever he was tempted to do wrong, a picture of that family circle, as they knelt in prayer, would flash before his eyes and he would be strengthened. Often the sweet, womanly face of Molly Williams would appear before him, and he could see the same look of amazed wonder in her eyes THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 713 that had been there when he told tales of the wild carousals of the camp. "Come, Buck, it is getting dark!" he cried, as the farm came into view. He removed the travel-stained handkerchief from his neck, and replaced it with a new one, as the horse galloped on. Arriving, he arranged his hair with a few touches from a pocketcomb; then, with the dirty handkerchief, he proceeded to dust himself as best he could. He was greeted warmly in the farm yard, by Francis and Mr. Williams. When Teddy came in and cried, "The cowboy's come!" James followed him out to greet his old friend, while Molly quickly vanished into her own room. The cowboy did not recognize the new-comer in the dusk, until he was grasped in a pair of strong arms and heard the familiar voice say, "Hello, Jack!" "Hello, 'Brig'!" he cried, as soon as he recognized him. "I am glad to see you back." Soon as the greeting was over, and Jack had removed his chapes, spurs and pistol, they went into the house, where the cowboy was warmly greeted by the good lady and the blushing Molly. Thanksgiving was spent pleasantly, for all the family were at home, with nothing to mar their homely pleasure. In the evening the young folks went to the dance in the ward house, where Jack, with his handsome face and good dancing, soon became a favorite, but in spite of attentions from others, Molly remained his favorite and received most of his attention. James treated all alike, but he danced the last dance with Nellie Reynolds. When Thanksgiving was over, and Jack was thinking about leaving, James spoke of a subject which had frequently come to his mind. "Jack, if you could get a job down here would you stay?" "It's according to what the job would be," he finally replied drawing his gloves thoughtfully through his hands. "Suppose it was a job you like?" "Yes, I believe I'd stay," Jack answered. "I rather like this country, anyhow." "I made arrangements with an Eastern firm to buy some cattle, and I'll want somebody to help me who understands the busi- 714 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ness. Perhaps there may not be as much money in it as you have been getting, but it will be a good job, and if things turn out right we can make more. What do you say? Will you stay?" The cowboy's mind ran north to the lonely cattle ranch where there were only rough men for companions, and no place to visit but the saloon. Then he recalled the pleasant hours spent here, and the sociable party the night before. "Yes, I'll stay," he said. The two boys entered into partnership, under the name of Williams & Hillman. Jack was an expert cattleman; James, also, was experienced at the business, and succeeded in securing good orders from eastern firms. Jack had saved up a little money, which, along with the money that Mr. Williams was able to give James, enabled them to do a fairly good business from the very start; but by their thrift and caution, they soon increased their capital until they made good wages. On the short winter days, as they rode out among the farms in search of cattle, their usual theme was religion. James was anxious to convert his friend to the gospel, and on the long winter nights before retiring, they would search out the truths contained in their Testaments, which they always carried. James pointed out to his friend the similarity between the restored gospel and that taught by the Master. Jack's thoughts were thus led along religious lines, and he soon became interested in the all-important subject. As time went on, the friendship between the young men grew stronger. Each time they spent a few days at the farm house in the valley, the cowboy became fonder of "Brig's" folks. It was no longer "Brig" with him, however, but just plain Jim. Each time they left he thought more of Molly, whose sweet, womanly ways had awakened all that was best in him. Jim, too, was happy in the love of a good woman, for Nellie Reynolds had promised to become his wife, and he was looking forward with expectant joy to the time when he could call her his own. Jack, after careful examination and study of the doctrines taught by the Latter-day Saints, was imbued with the same religious spirit that characterized his friend's life, and was finally bap- THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 715 tized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From the day he received the beautiful, yet simple ordinance at the hands of his friend, who, he believed, was acting by authority received from the Master, he lived a life worthy of a Latter-day Saint. His rough, cowboy manners were polished and softened by the daily companionship of James, and his frequent visits to the Williams home. He attended Church whenever possible, and took a great interest in Sunday school and Mutual Improvement work. Along with the spiritual development of his*soul, there was another influence which worked a miracle in his life. It was the love for sweet Molly Williams, which gradually grew stronger. Whenever tempted to depart from the straight and narrow path, his love for her prompted him to do the right, until his old life was entirely a thing of the past. In the new-found joy of living right, he realized the fulfilment of the promise, "You shall walk in newness of life." And yet, whenever he desired to confess his love for the innocent girl, some of the misdeeds of his past life stared him in the face, and he realized how much inferior to her he really was. In the time which followed his visits to her home, the truth of the divine edict was borne in upon his soul, that "all men shall be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil ." One hot June day the two friends were in town with a bunch of cattle, to ship east. Jim called at the office for the mail, while Jack drove the cattle to the loading corral. He had just gotten them inside and the gate closed, when Jim came galloping up with a broad smile on his face. "Well, old man, this letter looks suspicious," he cried, as he handed Jack a letter. Jack looked at the envelope, and then tore it open with unsteady fingers. He read the note and then, with a look of dismay, cried, "They want me to go on a mission! What shall I do? I couldn't ever learn to preach." Jim watched his friend for a moment, and then said seriously, "Do? Why, go, of course. That is the call of authority, if this is the true Church." Jack turned, tied his horse to the fence without saying a 716 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . word, looked over the letter again, and finally said, "Well, I reckon it is. They haven't given me much time, but I think I can be ready." "Good for you, old boy!" Jim cried, as he slapped his friend on the back, for he was a little doubtful as to just how he would take it. "You'll never regret it, and we're in a position now so you can go, too. When are you expected to leave?" "June the thirtieth." "That is sudden, but we can arrange it." On the night of June twenty-ninth, the ward meetinghouse was ablaze with lights, and filled to the door with people, old and young, assembled to do honor to the departing missionary, for Jack had become well and favorably known during his short stay among them. The good things of life abounded, there was a program, and all enjoyed a sociable chat as the home-made delicacies, brought by the ladies, were eaten. All the evening Jack had been nervous and bashful. This prominence was a new thing to him. Somehow his hands and feet were dreadfully in his way, as he sat upon the stand with the bishop and his counselors, during the program. When called upon to acknowledge the honor shown him, he was utterly at a loss and only succeeded in saying, "Thank you," rather huskily, but the audience greeted his effort with hearty applause, for many of the men could remember a night, not so many years ago, when they had occupied awkwardly the same position, and some of the women, through tear-dimmed eyes, could see, instead of the bashful, halting Jack, the loved features of a husband, a father, a brother or a sweetheart, several of whom were even now far from home and friends. The program over, Jack sought Molly, for it was in her presence only that he felt completely at ease. All his friends were anxious to show how much they would miss him, and to sympathize with him. This only added to his embarrassment, while Molly with her quick woman's intuition, talked of other subjects; and though anxious at heart, she assumed a cheerful manner and talked of pleasant things. When at last the program was over, and they were alone together, as they walked arm in arm towards the old home, his THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 717 heart was too full for words. It was with difficulty that he curbed the desire to take her in his arms and tell her of his love. His heart sank at the thought of leaving her, hut the thought that a two years' training in doing the right would bring him nearer her level, buoyed him up to tell her the great secret. Reaching the lane, with its line of stately poplars that led to the old home, Jack broke the silence. "These past two years seem almost like a dream. I came here a wanderer, and your folks took me in, gave me a home and homely love, above all things most dear. Then dear old Jim, in his kind way, led me into the truth, which I know now for myself. To prove that I know it, I have accepted this call to take it t^ other people who need it as greatly as I needed it." "Yes; it is wonderful how things come about. I remember when you came — a big, wild cowboy!" Molly replied. "I remember that time, too, and always shall. I never can forget how good it seemed to be at home. I can never thank you folks enough for what you've done for me. I hope I may prove worthy of your interest. I suppose when 1 return you and Jim'll be married. Then, I fear, it will not seem quite so much like home, when you are gone." "Jim might be married," Molly murmured. "And you?" he asked, tremulously. "Oh, I'll not get married — so soon, anyway," she faltered. The tell-tale note was in her voice. "Why not?" he asked. "Because — " and Jack unable to resist longer, threw his arm around her, and drew her to his side. "Because you will wait for me, dear one?" he murmured. "Say that you will." "I will, Jack," she whispered. She threw her arms about his neck, and their lips met in the first, sweet kiss. It was with tear-dimmed eyes that they bade each other good-by, a little later, for the train was to leave at five o'clock, and it was now past midnight. Jim was going to take Jack to the station at four. "Be noble, Jack, and fulfil an honorable mission before you return," Molly whispered, as she went up the steps to her room. 718 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "With God's help 1 will be good, and will stay until recalled, " he replied. He went into the kitchen, where the family had assembled before going to bed, and after a hearty good-by, he went to his room, but not to sleep. The sweet face of Molly was constantly before him, and the clinging pressure of her arms and lips lingered with him, as he arranged his belongings. Last of all he took out the little Testament and lovingly placed a little picture of Molly between the leaves. At four o'clock he awakened James. Together they hitched the horses to the wagon. As they drove out of the front gate, in the glorious dawn of the June morning, Mr. Williams appeared at the door and shouted a kind good-by and God speed. Jack answered in a husky voice, for he had learned to love the simple folk and everything connected with the place. As they turned into the lane, he caught sight of Molly at her window, waving a last good-by. At the station, when all was in readiness, the two men looked into each other's eyes, and each turned away in a vain endeavor to keep the tears back. "Good-by, Jim," said Jack, with difficulty. "You've been like a brother to me, and have made my life worth the living. I hope to be a brother to you in very deed some day. Molly has promised to wait for me." "Good-by, Jack. When hard times and persecution come, always keep the example of our Savior before you. Remember that you are a true servant of the living God, and then when you come back, I'll be glad to welcome you as a brother indeed." He added, after a pause, "I am going to be married in September." "All aboard!" the conductor's cry rang out. The two cowboys impulsively threw their arms about each other. "Good-by, Jack, and God bless you." "Good-by, Jim. May heaven bless you, old boy," Jack answered, as he swung into the last car. Jim waved his hat to his friend, until he was carried beyond the old grist mill and out of sight. To another son of the Father a call had come through his THE CALL OF AUTHORITY. 719 prophet, and like Abraham of old, he believed God. and it will undoubtedly be counted unto him for righteousness. He had been called of God .by "prophecy and by the laying on of hands," by those who are in authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof, "for no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." ;/t:---^^&, The Old Home. There's a mother, bent and wrinkled, in a home back 'mong the hills, And a longing for a letter that mother's lone heart fills, — Just a line from son or daughter, who for years has been away; But the letter's long in coming, — none she gets day after day. No one knows how still and lonesome is that house where years ago Mother rocked the old red cradle, gently, gently, to and fro; Soothed away child griefs with kisses, bound up cuts and fingers sore, And a-smiling watched the playing on the spotless kitchen floor! Merry children round the table; quaint old dishes white and blue; Now none come when dinner's ready, — table's only set for two! Often when the light is waning, from the little parlor stand Mother takes an old-time picture in her work-worn, trembling hand, Gazes on the face intently (such love's 'mong earth's chiefest charms): — "I was never half so happy as when you were in my arms! I was often tired and weary, filled with care, and oft perplexed; Had so much to do I wondered what the task I should do next. But I'd bear the burden gladly, suffer what I did, — and more, If those days — now gone forever — I could once again live o'er!" Now her longing's for a letter, as she does her household chores, — Write and tell her how you love her — if that lonesome mother's yours! — Farm and Home. Citation: H. R. Merrill, "The Call of Authority—III," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 710–719. # The Crown of Individuality—VIII. Sitting in the Seat of Judgment The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. VIII.— Sitting in the Seat of Judgment. Blindfolded; holding in her left hand a balance; in her right a sword— thus they picture the goddess of Justice. This is satire in symbolism. It seems the work of some cunning cynic, concentrating in a single figure the worst elements of human injustice and grimly labeling it ''Justice." ■ It is worse than a label— it is a libel. This goddess of Justice has her eyes deliberately closed to the facts. She holds ostentatiously on high the scales of justice but never sees their movement. She has her hand tight-pressed on the sword of punishment before even hearing the testimony. She is excluding all evidence but one — hearsay. This is the goddess of Justice that dominates society today. The true Justice should be open-minded, open-eyed, open-eared, open-lipped, open-handed. Serene, free, unhampered by bonds without or ' ;y prejudice within, she should have one object — to discover the truth. Nothing should escape her searching vision; no faintest whisper elude her eager ears; with finest, honest wisdom should she question, and with free unencumbered hands investigate, test, prove. The lamp of truth should throw its dazzling glow of illumination on every trifle of evidence. The balance of judgment should be held rigidly on a support before her, not suspended from — a trembling arm. This seems a higher and truer symbol than— a blind woman, sporting her regalia. * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Re veil Company. THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 721 Character is not a simple, uniform product. It cannot be judged as dress-goods— by a yard or so of sample unrolled from a bolt on the counter. It it complex, confused, uncertain, changing, subject to moods that contradict our conclusions. While knowing all this we dare to construct the whole life and character, of one we may have never even met. We build it from a few hints, slurs, idle comments, or the vague rumors or absolute lies of newspaper reports — as scientists reconstruct an unknown prehistoric animal from a few bones. One judges a painting by the full view of the whole canvas; separate, isolated square inches of color are meaningless. Yet we dare to judge our fellowman by single acts and words, misleading glimpses, and deceptive moments of special strain. From these we magnify a mood into a character and an episode into a life. There is entirely too much human judging, too much flippant criticism of the acts of others. Suspicion is permitted to displace evidence, cheap shrewdness to banish charity, prejudice to masquerade as judgment. We imagine, we guess, we speculate — then pass on through the medium of indiscreet speech and idle gossip to what may bring bitterness, sorrow, heartache and injustice to others. The very ones we condemn may be battling nobly under a hail of trial and temptation where we might fall faint in the trenches or, lowering our colors, drop back in hopeless surrender. We have a right to our preferences, our likes and dislikes, our impressions, our opinions, but we should withhold final judgment— as an honest, unprejudiced juryman keeps his verdict in suspense until he has heard and tested all of the evidence. We have no right to let prejudice tyrannize over judgment and kill — the justice of the soul. We may see an act but have no luminous revelations of the motive behind it. We idly condemn the gaiety of some man who has suffered a terrible loss, and term him heartless. Perhaps he laughs only to keep back tears that would gush like a torrent from his heart were he less brave. We criticise the parsimony of some one, when it really means concentrated generosity to some one else. Overgenerous forgiving may seem weakness —when it is the ' 'ninety times nine" of a great nature. Love at its height may seem 722 IMPROVEMENT ERA. indifference. What appears conceit may be only some one's attempt to recover a lost self-confidence he hungers to regain. Some one's fretfulness, or occasional outbursts of temper, may be but sparks of protest from the hidden fires of a sad lifestory, or some bravely-borne illness unknown but to a chosen few. Meanness may in reality be poverty too proud to confess itself. We hear one side of many a story and judge by that alone. We judge often along the line of our least mental resistance. Ignorantly we condemn a man for vanity because we would be vain had we accomplished his work. There is a wide difference between putting yourself in another's place and putting him in yours. The one is an attempt at wisdom; the other a speculation in prejudice. We misinterpret motives, do not know facts, and judge from wrong standards. In the individual life we realize that there are times when everything we do or say misrepresents us. We mean kindness, but somehow the words sound cross, cruel or misleading. Without intending it, we hurt those who are dearest; we regret it, know the sad effect we are creating, yet we blunder on into deeper pitfalls. We may be even too falsely proud to explain. We are all out of key. We are tobogganing down the incline of a mood. We may not understand ourselves and in a spirit of heart-hunger may long for someone sweetly and gently to comprehend us, to see us truly, despite — ourselves and our acts. Knowing this labyrinthic quality in us and even in human nature at its best, let us throw the golden mantle of love, and kindness and justice over every thought of condemnation. How can we judge others harshly when we do not know ourselves and while we suffer so much from the misjudging from others? Let us live in the open sunlight of love, shutting our eyes in charity from adverse judging — just forgetting much, forgiving much. Let us sweetly, sincerely, sympathetically seek in the best side of some one we know — his real, fine, true self. Let us think of the fine flowers and ignore the weeds as temporary invaders. This may prove an inspiration to some one near and dear to us to live up to our ideal of him, to be worthy of the higher levels to which our faith has raised him. Sometimes situations arise between friends that demand rapid THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 723 judgment and action. Then should we check off the items carefully, considering truly botn sides of the ledger of our experience. Before pronouncing sentence let us see if in our hearts we honestly believe our verdict fair, just and true. Let us be assured it is justice— not prejudice, pique, temper, disappointment, distorted gossip, or aught else that is eclipsing the justice of our judgment. Our justice, if such there be, may change bitterly the life of both. One of the hardest lessons of life is to learn not to judge. Perhaps m'nety per cent of the adverse criticism, comment and judging of humanity is unnecessary and serves no useful purpose. It is not our business. It is simply our mere impertinent meddling in the affairs of others, without even a hope of being helpful or useful. It is often what we would most quickly resent — were the situations reversed. There are times in every life when we mud judge, when we should judge, and when it is vitally important that we should judge wisely and justly. There are those closely associated with us in love, friendship or business — where it may be important for us to understand their words, their acts, their motives, and their emotions in so far as they affect ours. The very attitude of not judging until it becomes necessary gives ever dignity, calmness, poise, and fineness to these enforced judgments. The judgment that has been dulled by constant misuse, like a razor that has been used to sharpen pencils, is of little value in real need. The wisest judgment means the best head co-operating with the best heart. It is kind, honest, charitable — seeking truth, not the verifying of a prejudice. It says ever, in prefacing its conclusions on the evidence. "As it seems to me," "If I understand it aright," "So far as I have been able to reason it," "Unless I am mistaken," or similar phrases. These represent the suspended judgment — with no tone of absolute finality. They show a willingness to modify the verdict, to soften the sentence, or to order a new trial if new evidence, new illumination, or new interpretation can be produced. Only through sympathy can character be rightly understood. Intolerance and prejudice poison judgment. Even our worst ene- 724 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . mies are not as bad as we think them. When Apelles, the Greek painter, ma*de a portrait of Alexander, King of Macedon, he painted the monarch with his finger on a scar received in battle so that the disfigurement was not evident. Let us not point out the scars on the lives and characters of those around us, but let the kindly finger of charity gently obscure them. To kill the judgment habit where it is unnecessary, we must silence expression, but we must do more — we must learn not to think severe judgment even if not spoken. If we do judge severely in our thought it colors our acts and our attitude. When tempted to judge let us ask — "is it necessary?" When hearing gossip let us ask — "What are your proofs?" We should stifle our own criticisms and silence those of others. In judging others let us have courage to say, not coldly and uncaring but from the depths of human love and sympathy — "I really cannot tell. I do not know." There is an Oriental legend thaJ, one day, Christ, wandering through the streets of Jerusalem, came suddenly on an idle crowd of jeerers over the dead body of a dog. Each spoke contemptuously, each condemning some phase, each, contributing some meanness to add to the cruel merriment. Christ stood silent for a moment, and then, pointing to the open mouth of the dead dog, said — "Ah, but no pearls are whiter than his teeth." This spirit of seeking ever the best side in our daily living would absolutely transform it. (The next article in this series, "The Inspiration of Possiblities," will appear in the July number of the Era.) Trust in God. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright. — Ps. 20: 7, 8. "With Songs and Everlasting Joy." [anthem] "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy." — Isaiah 35:10. Maestoso. high S^ ■fl By Edwin F. Parry. mid the mountains, -N— NI — I 1 — lT-75!— r - 33J FV — jPA-i — I 1 — »7» — Exalt - ed on high, on high mid the mountains, " 1-*- * • i-^= U r ~ :fc* :t="Jr5: V— V— ' a - far _tfczi An en - sign to na - tions, to na-tions, a - g-»-r!« P-— f rP f~ i- r - d — 1 — ~l~ ^^" P far! sto - ry, And I, too, would ex- alt thee in 726 IMPROVEMENT ERA. :=1 -£ fain would I glo - ry, 0 Zi fair Zi - on, -#- -»- -0Glorious as the i^Eiiii^iiiiiig star ■^t yfgffcj st r^ / i?;<. cFt~ morn - ing star, the morning star, &H5 ,-. Glorious as the SoZo or duet. Andante. =rrrfaigr:— morning star! Many propnets have told of thy mwtnfwmm j -* beauty and splendor, Of the hea - ven - ly light that shall £S -st— ^ 3^=g==M: 4= -I- ^1= WITH SONGS AND EVERLASTING JuY. 727 shine up - on thee; That the great ones of earth sincere — §k — 3 —J — _^ — *-[-* — m — • — * — i — -P 1— -H — • # -* — * — m — 0 — •— b — * — }* — • -»t## — * — homage shall render, And from all thy oppressors thou shalt Si S=f :^r -r» 1 1 f, * — ^ nt. a tempo. s=£=± £=£=: -«i- -i — er be free. -is 1- ===3: -25) -JFiom the ends of tiie earth thy brave M~ .s sons and fair daughters, As foretold long a - go, shall re- -I See* :3=? turn to their home; p — I: From the isles of the sea, from a- =1 ^1 728 IMPROVEMENT. ERA. ±=d=£= f±=i=xnz cross the great waters, With songs and everlasting joy shall they fit*. -A-r-^r come, With songs and ev-er-last-ing joy shall they come. P* = E&EE. 1 — =t IP Allegretto. Then rise and shine, -fr-b-p r~ |—^^--\- — ^r— ! — it* _U / 1 Then rise, rise ani shine, for thy light is I. come, : rrs — ■-• •-- a ~r& »t — 0 — r^ — sr — I 1 — fS> :lzfez4:t=Etfzpzf^=trt=:=:biz=lz=Etti^=fc=E=^? gi and shine, ■A— N • *= • -c^> — — Lh^==^b — ~ Ll p-i — h ■ rise, rise and shine, for thy light 0 4' h:-|?-t-#-#---#-^— ! JL*. Jffi. -I— 4— -I— -0- -0+—W- ■+3 K" is come, And the ^ , h ! mmm WITH SONGS AND EVERLASTING JOY. 729 OL_S=EJ i-Nv— t- -• — l<& — 0 — rit. ry of the Lord is -0+ .0. -&. ,t a tempo thee! Then and shine, fc£=q^ :fc=^ VH- h ~ pv- — i— £=b tr 1 and shine, for thy Hgnt come, -B>- SV,- • •- s r(© •'. 0 — r^ m. \ r~&- 1 ±=£z=j-^; and shine, ■-J- — » — »- 0 — L& — !ii * # (2 -*-Jf • 5* -i — i— rise, ise and shine, for thy light is come, and the 2; n.n 4 4i J^ f- i- .V i ' * d .d * ' im-F-r-B-P-F^— FF — £=— £hF?— l=P-s — F^ — *=»=* 7trZu^"h±Z^~! b & 1 P ^~ H-1^* f F* ^-1— H rit. rv of the Lord is risen or thee! Lord is 32: & EESEEpEE&EEgEE^ U— 1 r-W— I— 1— yL — L L^ — LZ 1 1_. ps tempo ad lib Photo by Symons ELDER RUDGER CLAWSON. Chosen April 7, 1910, to succeed Elder Charles W. Penrose as President of the European Mission; born, Salt Lake City, March 1, 1857; chosen President of the Box Elder Stake of Zion February 5, 1888; called, ordained and sustained a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, October, 1898. Citation: William George Jordan, "The Crown of Individuality—VIII. Sitting in the Seat of Judgment," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 720–730. # The Second Commandment The Second Commandment. BY GRACE ZENOR-ROBERTSON. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: "Thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; "And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." In every human heart is planted an inborn desire for worship. Depraved, sometimes, the desire may be, yet as a rule, fancy converts the object of worship into something far more powerful than the worshiper. Scarcely had God's voice declared his commands to Moses on Sinai, when the children of Israel, with Aaron in the valley below, were making unto themselves an image of gold, declaring it to be the god which delivered them from Egypt. Moses, their guide and teacher, had left them for a short time. They were weak, and faith failed them without his presence; yet God forgave them because of their repentance. Just previous to the birth of Christ was a period of idolatry. Every nation, save the Jews, had a set of deities, each worshiping as it chose. Some made idols of the mountains, the rivers, and the sun, moon and stars, while others worshiped men and women who had achieved fame through great deeds. To each were erected temples, altars and statues of different materials. 732 IMPROVEMENT ERA. During this period there was little progression, either mental or moral. Nearly all known nations were under the rule of one despotic nation. Since Christ's burial, let us look at some of the nations that have been for centuries worshipers of graven images: In far away China, where magnificent temples are reared to unknown gods; in Japan, where Buddha's name and Buddha's form are reverenced, have existed both darkness and superstition until recent years, when Christianity has been taught among the people. During the terrible scenes of the French Revolution, nearly the whole population of France were unbelievers, and in the midst of the struggle, bowed in the streets to the enthroned "Goddess of Reason." Robespierre, himself, declared that a republic could not flourish unless the people were believers in a Supreme Being — in a hereafter. It is strange, with so many evidences of God's handiwork, so many acknowledgments of his love, that men will sometimes go astray because they lack faith to worship one who is not visible in person. Strange that men cannot walk by faith instead of sight. You remember the story of Thomas, who doubted that his Master was arisen from the dead— and must thrust his hand in the wounded side, and feel the nail prints in his hands and feet? And Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." I wonder, if in our own day, there are any in our fair land who make unto themselves graven images! There are few, perhaps, who lift up their eyes in prayer to the hills or the lights of the firmament, or who have raised up idols of stone, but there are some who, like the rich young ruler, would go away very sorrowful were they asked to exchange their gold for eternal life. There are others who see afar off and indistinctly the dream-idol of fame, and with their whole being are waiting to pay homage at its shrine. And there are still others who worship self, who remember not His little ones. Their hearts are set upon the glittering THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 733 baubles of the world, wherewith to clothe the outward form — when much fairer would they be with but one gem, the gem of chastity. Miserable are they, having neglected to seek first his kingdom. ' 'Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." In worshiping aught save the Creator, we not only injure ourselves but generations to come, except through sincere repentance and a return unto his love. And the promise is sure, "But showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." Parker, Idaho. Photo by Gerald Anderson. AT THE BOUNDARY MONUMENT UTAH- WYOMING. This country is barren, with a wilderness of rolling hills, and the monument marks the south-west corner of Wyoming. It is located about twenty miles east of Grass Creek, Summit county, Utah, and perhaps thirty miles south and a little west of Evanston, Wyoming. Large herds of sheep graze on the surrounding ranges, and there is a large shearing and dipping plant in the neighborhood. Photo by George Albert Smith. COTTONWOOD TREE AT FLORENCE, NEB., PLANTED BY BRIGHAM YOUNG. "A notable character in life's grand tragedy, one bloody scene of which had so lately closed, waiting at the wing he had caught his cue, and the stirring stage of Time was now ready for his advent."— Whitney's History of Utah, vol. /p. 235. "The foundation for the Church of Christ, which the Prophet Joseph had laid, was broad and grand. To follow Joseph, God had provided in Brigham Young a strong builder who thoroughly understood the plans and specifications of the complex and colossal superstructure that was thereupon to be erected. With master mind and hand, he stood ready at the appointed hour to grapple with the stupendous task.'' — Brief History of the Church, p. 100. Citation: Grace Zenor-Robertson, "The Second Commandment," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 731–734. # A Personal Testimony A Personal Testimony. BY DAVID EVANS, JR. [The Berlin Courant, of Wisconsin, publishes the following statement of David Evans, Jr., of Berlin, Wisconsin, quoted from Liahona, the Elders' Journal, Independence, Missouri, adding that the personal testimony of Mr. Evans is reprinted by his permission and consent. Brother Evans has sent a copy of the Courant to the editors of the Era, and we take pleasure in reprinting his testimony, which is both faith-promoting and interesting in its character. — Editors.] Dear Brother:— In compliance with your request to write something for Liahona about myself, my experience and my faith, I send you the following: I am David Evans, Jr., formerly extensively known in Wisconsin. For three successive terms I was the member of Assembly representing Waushara county, in our Wisconsin legislature, during the time when Wisconsin was wrested from the grasp of special privilege and monopoly, and restored to the list of states governed by the people. For thirty-three years I was a citizen of the township of Aurora, Waushara county, Wisconsin, and by my townsmen was at different times elected as town treasurer and chairman of supervisors of that town, and served on the board of county commissioners of Waushara county. I am the eldest son of Captain David Evans, formerly a master mariner of Great Britain, who, as such, in his time commanded some of the vast merchant ships in the commercial navy of England, and for over thirty-three years was a commissioned officer of the United States revenue marine service. At the time of his death he held the commission of captain, which he had held for twenty-eight years. For forty-two years he was a citizen of Wisconsin and widely 736 IMPROVEMENT ERA. known in the early days of the state, to which he came in 1853, from Wales. I have served my adopted country, both in her ships and in defense of the flag, in the armies of the Union during the civil war, enlisting as a private when but fifteen years of age, and serving to the end of the war. My comrades elected me as commander of John H. Williams Post No. 4, G. A. R. Department of Wisconsin, at Berlin. I am thus particular in telling who I am, because a man's position in the world and his identity have weight and bearing upon his testimony given upon any subject. 1 was born in Caernarvon, North Wales, September 17, 1848, and came to Wisconsin with my parents in 1853. I was converted to "Mormonism'' finally and fully in 1903, and became a member of the so-called "Mormon" Church May 1, 1903, being baptized in the Tabernacle font at Salt Lake City, April 30 of that year, confirmed the next day in the ward meeting house of the 17th ward, Salt Lake City. I became a member because I was convinced that it was the Church of Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven whereby man may be saved; that it consistently taught that our Father revealed himself to his children in this our day as certainly as he did in the days of Moses, or of Christ our Savior; that he is no respecter of persons, and had throughout all history taught anew the truth to mankind by the mouths of those who were as babes and sucklings in the wisdom of the schools, teaching plainly his truths in words which the simplest could understand. A youth, by the common name of Joseph Smith, had given forth anew from the Lord the never-dying truth, which from the beginning he has found needful to repeat, time after time, line upon line, and precept upon precept, to the sons of men. It was not hard for my reason to accept it. Truth is reason. I did accept that statement as the truth, and like a babe I have ever since been creeping and feeling toward the light. My faith has been as that of a child, and my faith has not been disappointed in any particular. Though I have not been much used to oral prayer, I have prayed without ceasing in secret, and my prayers have been answered in a remarkable manner in many instances. Here is an instance: About seven years ago I first noticed that A PERSONAL TESTIMONY. 737 my hearing was failing, and consulted many different doctors during that time. I was treated for my ailment by several, growing gradually worse, until in the month of February, of the present year, I was nearly totally deaf in both ears. It was painful to my friends to try to make me understand them, and as painful and very mortifying for me to try to understand anything going on about me. I could not understand when spoken to in a loud voice by a person touching me, and when a piano was played in a loud key in the room where I was, I could not distinguish one tone from another; it was simply a painful drumming sound, a jarring on my nerves. From this pitiful condition, well known to my wife, members of our family and friends, I was healed instantly in answer to the prayers of my brethren, offered to God in my behalf, in the Temple at Salt Lake City. I was healed upon the very day upon which the brethren, in a prayer circle in the temple, offered prayers for my recovery, and I retain my hearing to this day, it being now better than that of nine-tenths of men at my age. I can hear a watch tick when it is held at nearly full length of the arm away. This is my truthful testimony as to the manner in which I received this great blessing, worth more to me than all the money in the world, and I give this testimony to the world, declaring in the most solemn manner that I speak the truth. I testify further that I know that God lives. How could I doubt it any more, after his mercy unto me in so signal a manner? I know that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that his Church is again established upon the earth, never more to be overthrown. His mercy endureth forever. I know that Joseph Smith, homely though his name may be, was and is a prophet of God to whom God, in his wisdom, showed plainly and forcibly great truths anew which the minds of men, darkened for ages, had lost, and in whose place they had erected a system of vain fables of men. They claimed to worship God, having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof. There are but comparatively few members of the Church of Jesus Christ today in the world, but the truths taught by Joseph Smith permeate and tinge the utterances of a hundred thousand pulpits who would scorn to accept them as truths coming from "Mormonism," which they are, "none the less. 738 IMPROVEMENT ERA. I have felt it to be my duty to bear my testimony openly before the world. I bear this testimony as the truth, that it may go wherever wind doth blow, or water on earth doth flow, and men are gathered together. Bbklin, WlSCO'SlN. June. (For the Improvement Era.) Profuse thy way with roses strewn, 0 queen of all the year! Thou glorious month of flowers and bloom, We hail thee far and near. Sweet incense of the flowers that bloom, Thy perfumed breath, 0 lovely June! Wild roses in the summer wind Are tossing gleefully; By mossy banks tea-ro3es twine, All shaded daintily. How fragrant, precious, is the bloom Of lovely, queenly, radiant June! The nature-world with God in tune, Is blushing smilingly; And everywhere the flowers in bloom Are kissing rapturously. Of gauzy lace now weaves the moon, The fleecy veils for brides of June. Sweetly sails the wide-eyed moon, Through clouds of silv'ry light; Cool, sighing breezes softly croon, And whisper through the stilly night, And robes of gossamer the moon Is weaving for the brides of June. Lydia D. Alder. Citation: David, Jr. Evans, "A Personal Testimony," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 735–738. # Some Men Who Have Done Things—VIII. Richard W. Young Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. VIII. — Richard W. Young. WHO MAINTAINS THAT ALL FORMS OF TRICKERY AND DISHONESTY ARE AS FOREIGN TO THE REAL INTERESTS OF A LAWYER AS THEY ARE TO THE SCHOOL TEACHER AND THE BUSINESS MAN. "Does any man succeed in the law by the practice of dishonest methods?" "Why, certainly not. The thing is impossible, in any proper sense of the word 'success.' To start out on a career of trickery in the law would, in the long run, be as suicidal as in business or school teaching. More so. Should a lawyer once get a breath of suspicion concerning him that he misquotes the law, that he suborns witnesses, or that he endeavors to have a case put off on improper grounds, rising to anything like eminence in the profession would be out of the question for him. The judge would not take his word; his fellow attorneys would distrust him, and once he got an unenviable reputation of that sort, instantly there would be an end to what otherwise might be a prosperous career. He could scarcely conduct a legitimate business at all. Lawyers have a high sense of honor as a rule— as high as can be found in any profession." RICHARD W. YOUNG. 740 IMPROVEMENT ERA. A very different notion, you see, from that usually held by persons who do not much come in contact with the legal lights. There has grown up among people generally an idea that lawyers succeed in proportion to their knack for turning tricks. But no one can talk with such a lawyer as Richard W. Young and not feel that the sense of absolute honor is even higher in the law than inmost other professions. The trickster, the pettifogger, the shyster is actually more looked down upon by his own fellows in the law than persons of the same ilk are in business circles. Richard W. Young has had a most remarkable career. Scarcely more than fifty, he has had more experience than a good many octogenarians have managed to crowd into their lives. And it has been varied as a spring landscape. He is the grandson of President Brigham Young, the great western pioneer. But he was not therefore born with a silver spoon in his mouth. All he had as a starting capital was a desire to succeed, any amount of energy, an eye that could detect an opportunity a mile away, and, what is even less common, such an agreeable manner as you read about in those accomplished courtiers, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Phillip Sidney. He went to school till he was thirteen, at which time he discontinued, for awhile, in order to enter a railway office at Salt Lake. For eighteen months after this he was collector, bill-clerk and telegraph operator. Subsequently he attended the University of Utah in the same classes as Governor Wells, Professor Toronto, President Kingsbury, and others who have since become prominent in Utah. We next see him at Richfield, Utah, teaching school, and then at Manti, where he was principal of the high school. His grandfather, at his father's death, had taken in hand his education, intending him for an architect. The plan of education seems to have taken a characteristically practical turn, and so young Richard was put on the temple block in a carpenter's shop to begin his architectural career. The death of the President, however, put a period to this scheme of education, and Richard was thrown upon his own resources, which turned him in the direction we have noted. In 1878 he was appointed to a vacant cadetship at West Point by Delegate Cannon, but did not accept it immediately owing to SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 741 his prospects in the Utah and Northern offices at Ogden. But later he accepted the appointment. The progress he made here is indicated by the following figures: At the end of his first year he stood No. 43 in his class; of his second year, No. 28; of the third year, No. 19; and of the last year, No. 15. On his graduation he chose the artillery, with the title of Second-lieutenant in the Third United States Artillery. Later he was transferred to the Fifth Artillery, with the same rank, taking up his residence at Governor's Island, New York City. Here he remained for four years, studying meanwhile at Columbia University, where he was graduated from the law school in the same class with Gov. Hughes and William Travers Jerome, of New York. In 1886 he came to Fort Douglass with his battery, but two years later resigned from the army to practice his legal profession. When the war broke out with Spain, he volunteered his services, and commanded the famous Utah Batteries in the Philippines, having participated in some thirty engagements. He was appointed Superior Provost Judge of Manila and afterwards a Member of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands, and prepared a code still in force which has won him high praise from lawyers familiar with the work. During his residence at New York he had written a book on the general subject of the work of the military in the suppression of mobs, which was declared to be the best of its kind written in America. Returning from Manila, Mr. Young resumed his law practice at Salt Lake, where he has obtained a large clientage. In addition to the time he has devoted to his favored profession, he has served on the board of education, in the city council, and in various responsible ecclesiastical offices. He is now president of the Ensign stake. Two things outstand in this varied career, which it will not do to pass over. One is his ability to see and grasp an opportunity. Out there on Governor's Island he could, like all the young officers who had preceded him, and like a good many who have followed him in the same place, have thrown away a great deal of time which he found on his hands, and which army officers frequently find on their hands. But he did not do so. On the contrary, he saw in the nearness of Columbia College an opportunity to pursue a course in 742 IMPROVEMENT ERA. law, with the aim of increasing his efficiency in another department of the army. Now, before this none had seen this chance, although it was equally before his predecessors as before him. It all lay in the seeing eye. And this is characteristic of Richard W. Young. The other thing is his native integrity and freedom from every element of hypocrisy. It is sometimes the case (rare let us hope) that when a young man goes away from the unpopular and despised "Mormons" to attend school or perform special missions, not religious, he endeavors to hide the fact that he is a Latterday Saint. The experience of Richard W. Young shows what folly this is, not to use a worse term. While he has never thrust his religious conviction upon anyone, still he has never sought to cover it up as something to be ashamed of. Nor has he ever lost anything by this course. On the contrary, he has gained. People always like openness, candor, as they instinctively hate and despise falsity in character. No sincere man need fear that his openness will bring him harm from others. Hypocrisy in one thing invites distrust in everything. Richard W. Young is instinctively true as steel. And Mr. Young's opinions are as interesting as his brilliant career. For one thing, he thinks very highly of his profession — as indeed what man should not, if he hopes to get along in it? "Look at the names of men in public life," he exclaimed enthusiastically, "and notice how many of them are lawyers? Whenever a political speaker is wanted, it is oftenest a lawyer that is sought out. Is a bill to be drafted in a legislative body? A lawyer is the first man appealed to— is, in fact, the only man almost that can do it. Lawyers we find everywhere holding high places, from that of county attorney, through governors, representatives in Congress, senators, to presidents of the United States. "And then, too, what an excellent discipline the study and practice of the law is! It makes one broad-minded and liberal and charitable in his opinions. An average practicing attorney, taking all sorts of cases, has to study various branches of knowledge that no other man, except a specialist in any one of the branches, has occasion to do. He is brought in contact with every phase SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 743 of life. Today he has a case involving the relationship between husband and wife or parents and children. Tomorrow he has a railroad case, in which is involved a thousand and one things in hitherto foreign branches, but which must be thoroughly mastered before he can make any headway. And thus it goes into all the phases of life. Besides this broadened knowledge there comes the developing po ver to weigh evidence and facts and to see that there is always something to be said on the other side. This makes one look at things from a broader point of view than would be possible otherwise. The law, moreover, tends to make one charitable. Here, for instance, are two men, both honest, who testify to different things which both have seen. And so a lawyer, when he is told something bad of another, says to himself, 'Well, that may be so and it may not be— there may be some mistake somewhere.' " "A good many persons," I ventured, "believe that a lawyer is not really necessary to the community, if they do not actually believe that he is a mischief-maker— what about it?" ■ "The 'Mormon' people should be the last to believe that, in view of their history," Mr. Young answered. "Why, in the thirty or forty odd times that the Prophet Joseph was arrested and tried for offenses which he did not commit, he almost invariably was defended and Cleared by lawyers. Even if there were no quarrels between different persons to be settled in courts, there would still be a great need for lawyers. A man is accused of a crime, for example. He may be guilty or he may not. In either event the facts need to be brought out and presented in a clear, logical way, — -which an untrained person can scarcely do. But if the accused be guilty, there may be some extenuating circumstances. And all this can be done better by a lawyer than by anyone else, merely because he has made the study of the law a specialty. "Only, there should be no sharp practice, no creating of evidence, no suborning of witnesses, no efforts to clog the wheels of justice. There is plenty of work for a lawyer within legitimate fields. Besides, laying aside court cases altogether, a large part of a lawyer's work nowadays lies in other directions. There are wills to make out, agreements between business parties to draw up, sales to negotiate, and so on. Those, therefore, who say 744 IMPROVEMENT ERA. there is no particular need for lawyers either do not understand the work done by them, or have in mind what we call in the legal profession 'the ambulance chaser,' or those who promote and stir up litigation for the fees they may earn — which is not considered respectable among decent lawyers." "To what extent is success in the law to be measured by the winning of cases?" "Well, a lawyer who does not generally win cases would hardly be regarded as successful. Cases would not come to him who had the reputation of habitually losing them. Still it isn't the winning of cases, after all, it's the way you win them. In the long run, though, the winning of cases is mostly due, not, as is commonly believed, to improper methods, but to the superior ability of the man who wins them. What 1 mean is this: the lawyer must be able to see into the heart of a case when it is presented to him. There are no two cases that are exactly the same. Each has some peculiar point of difference from every other. The lawyer must see that. If he does not, he may lose the case. So that, as I say, in the long run the court trials are won mainly by the lawyer who sees farthest into his cases and presents that case in the clearest manner to judge or jury— qualities of the head wholly dissociated from trickery." "What qualifications do you think a young man ought to have who aims to enter the profession of law?" "In the first place, he ought to have natural aptitude for the law, a taste for that sort of life. If he does not he will not go very far in it. Then, he ought not to be afraid of work — he should be naturally industrious. The law is a laborious calling — a jealous mistress, demanding hard work and much of it. For if a lawyer have a case involving a branch of knowledge —say medicine or electricity— he must in a few weeks master the general principles and many of the details of that subject before he can enter upon the case with any hope of conducting it with intelli= gence. And all this requires close and continual application of the mind to a given subject. The law is no lazy man's vocation. "Next, any one who wishes to become a lawyer must be honest. I have already said a good deal on that point. But it is very important. Every lawyer is confronted by temptation. It SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 745 may be easy to get witnesses to testify in a given case that the accused was somewhere else when the crime was committed. But no honest lawyer will do that kind of business. Instantly he would lose cast with his profession. He would be distrusted by the judge, and in time he would be among the outcasts of the profession. I repeat, a lawyer must be honest. And, lastly, he ought to be public spirited— he should be interested in every public question, for the reason that on many questions concerning the people, the lawyer is frequently in a better position than any one else to discuss it." "Talking about criminal cases, Mr. Young, should a lawyer take a case when he knows the accused to be guilty, say, of murder?" "Well, while I don't seek for a guilty man to come to me with his case, still I don't think I ought to refuse. If a person is to be punished for a crime, it must be only by due process of law. Every one accused is innocent before the law unless he is proved guilty. And so, in civilized countries, even a criminal has rights, and these rights must be protected. He is entitled to a fair and impartial trial before his peers. "Now, if I took such a case, I would say to my client 'If you do not wish to plead guilty I will see to it that your trial is conducted fairly. There shall be no suborning of witnesses, no wrestings of the law or the evidence, and if there is any extenuating circumstances I will put it clearly and honestly. If you wish anything more than this, you had better go to someone else.' This every honest lawyer will do." "Is not the law profession full?" I inquired. "Not any more so than others. In the law, as in every other calling, new men are coming in and old men are dropping out — dropping out, some through death, some through lack of ability, some through misfit. But here, as elsewhere, natural aptitude, industry, and honesty will win success. It is the survival of the fittest." Citation: John Henry Evans, "Some Men Who Have Done Things—VIII. Richard W. Young," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 739–745. # At the Head of Noisy Water Canyon AT THE HEAD OF NOISY WATER CANYON. SKETCH BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE. The Noisy Waters. By this appropriate and poetic name, the Ute Indians, before the days of the Pioneers, called the clear mountain stream that sends its crystal tribute into our valley. City Creek, the less imaginative, the more practical, white man calls it. But more fitting was the Indian title when the stream was in its wild condition, before it had been tamed to the needs of civilization. The White Cliff, its ledges, in the early summer, loaded deeply with snow, faces the steep, pine-clothed heights of the Black Mountain on the opposite side of the canyon. In the early summer, too, a small lake is formed at the cliff base by the melting snow. It is surrounded by grassy, flower-strewn meadows, groves of aspen, and sub-alpine fir. A highly picturesque, one may say grand, scene is that at the head of Noisy Water Canyon. Citation: Alfred Lambourne, "At the Head of Noisy Water Canyon," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 746. # At the Point of the Oquirrhs AT THE POINT OF THE OQUIRRHS. SKETCH BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE. At the "Point of the Mountain," as we call the place where the Oquirrh Range stoops and ends at the shore of the Inland Sea, is the subject of the above sketch. The old rock house was a mail station in the years gone by. It has seen changes in the land since the days of the western Jehu. On the hillside, about a mile westward of Garfield Beach, is the well-known "Cave." It was once a place of sepulture, used as a burial place by the aborigines. The herd boys knew its secrets. On the right side of the sketch is shown a deep opening in the limestone cliffs, a corral fence across it. This is reported to be quite a deep cave, but whose entrance, a few feet back, has been walled up for quite a number of years. What its secrets may be none at present seem to know. The sketch was taken looking southward. To the north stretches out the Inland Sea. Photo by Shipler. BRIGHAM YOUNG AND PIONEER MONUMENT, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. C. E. Dallin, sculptor, unveiled July 20, 1897, cost about $36,000. "Brigham found himself, in possession of qualities which we find present primarily in all great men — intellectual force, mental superiority, united with personal magnetism, and physique enough to give weight to will and opinion; for Brigham Young was assuredly a great man, if by greatness we mean one who is superior to others in strength and skill — moral, intellectual or physical.'' — Bancroft's History of Utah, p. 201. Citation: Alfred Lambourne, "At the Point of the Oquirrhs," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 747–748. # Editor’s Table: The Spirit of Worship Editor's Table. The Spirit of Worship. Civilization in these western valleys is still very young. Only sixty-three years ago this month the pioneer settlers were winding their way over the untrodden desert to find a new home in this then primitive west. They were few in number, poor in this world's goods, but abundantly rich in faith and unconquerable determination. Figuratively, they burned their bridges behind them, and went forth to conquer. They did so literally, for there was no way out but to do or die. And they found faith and strength to live and do. The work which they began, it is our duty to continue. Our religion means work and faith, and the reward is not gained by beginning, but by continuing and enduring to the end. The Lord has greatly blessed the Latter-day Saints in their efforts, and I believe many of these blessings have come to us because of the faith, glad hearts and cheerful countenances of our fathers and mothers, the valiant founders of our homes amid the mountains. The recent dedication of the Bishop's Building, the Pioneer Stake hall on April 17, and the completion of many new and commodious meetinghouses throughout the length and breadth of the land, have caused me to reflect on the wonderful changes that have come in the condition of the people in these few short years. My first recollection of a place of worship was in Nauvoo. It was in a little grove of trees near the site of the temple. In company with my mother I listened here to such men as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, the Prophet Joseph and the Patriarch Hyrum.^ I remember 750 IMPROVEMENT ERA. quite well attending one meeting in this grove, that a wagon had been drawn up in front of the audience and the Prophet Joseph stood in the box speaking, when it began to rain. Some one or two persons got up and held umbrellas over him, to shield him from the wet. Many of the people had no umbrellas, and it was very annoying and disagreeable to sit there, but I remember very well, though but a little boy, that there was no one went away from the ground while he spoke. Next I remember the place of worship on the Missouri river, at Winter Quarters, now called Florence, some six or seven miles up the river from Omaha. The meetinghouse there consisted of a bowery— posts set in the ground with cross poles over them and covered with green boughs, which were replaced from time to time, as they grew dry and the leaves rattled off. This was the meeting place of the Saints in the fall and winter of 1846-7, and I know not how much longer, for we left for the Salt Lake valley in the spring of 1848. At Council Bluffs a double log house was built, in which council meetings were held by the priesthood, but in Winter Quarters the bowery served the purpose. In the Salt Lake valley, the first place of worship I recall was within the temple square, in the southeast corner, where a large bowery was erected. Here I remember first the 4th and 24th of July celebrations, on this temple block corner, under the bowery. The first tabernacle or assembly hall of any pretentions at all, in Salt Lake City, was erected in the southwest corner of the temple block. Here the old tabernacle stood, north and south, and the doors opened north and south. Later on, doors were cut through the center of the building, and the interior was greatly changed. The stand, first built in one end of the building, was removed to the center of the west side of the building. Up to 1854, this was the only meetinghouse that I remember having seen in the Church. Of course, other meetinghouses had been built in different parts of the territory. And I want to say here, in order that it may be remembered bv the children and young people, that as soon as our people began to gather into these mountain valleys, their first effort, whenever they settled in any part of the country, was extended towards the building of accommodation houses that could be used at once for educational and religious purposes. They EDITOR'S TABLE. 751 prepared to fit out these houses as speedily as possibly, and they were completed with the combine i object of serving for educational instruction and religious worship, for our religion and our education ran hand in hand throughout all the formation of our settlements. In 1849, president Young began to counsel the people to form settlements in the north as far as Ogden, and in the south to Lehi, Provo and Manti and intermediate points. A little settlement, Summit, on the dividing line between Utah and Juab counties, was started, and there a few of our people laid the foundations of a village now called Santaquin. Towns were laid out at American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Springville and Spanish Fork. The next settlements were projected some two or three hundred miles south in Iron county, and there, within the stockade built to protect the settlers from Indians, a bowery was erected where school was taught and the gospel preached to the children and people who gathered there. The history of our public buildings in all the early settlements is told in the case of these pioneer villages: first the bowery, then the log hut with dirt roof, and then the adobe structures. Most of these have now disappeared, or are disappearing, and today we worship in comfortable stone or brick palaces. There is an infatuation at present for building meetinghouses everywhere in the Church. Never before, it seems, was there a time when there was so much thought and talk of building as at present. Day after day appeals come to the First Presidency asking the Trustee-in-trust for help. There are some two hundred wards in the Church without meetinghouses, while three hundred more are now building. We wish that the Trustee-in-trust had means enough to erect all these houses of worship, but he hasn't, and yet the presidency are doing the very best they can, giving in justice and economy, and with impartiality, in accordance with their best judgment, to those who stand in need. But the thought I wish to emphasize is this, and I do it that the young people particularly may reflect upon the spirit that should characterize our lives and worship. Our fathers and mothers sat in the rain to listen tc the Prophet Joseph in the open air in Nauvoo; in Winter Quarters, amid the tumult of 752 IMPROVEMENT ERA. uncertainty and flight, heard the voice of Brigham Young in the open, in sod houses or under shady bowers; and upon the temple block in the Great American Desert, wayworn and weary, listened to the prophets expounded by Orson Pratt, and other leading elders: while in other new settlements the people paid their simple devotions to the Most High in log houses and boweries; — but let it be remembered forever, in it all they possessed palatial faith and integrity. Now that we sit in the midst of prosperity and plenty, granted to us through the bounteous blessings of Almighty God, in comfortable chairs, in palaces lighted by the press of the electric button, with sweet instruments of music to greet our ears, let it not be said that in our worship nor in our lives, we have in the slightest lost the humility, devotion, faith and integrity of the fathers. Joseph F. Smith. Gathering of the Jews. The gathering of the Jews into the Holy Land is a work not only of great importance but of living interest. It is evident, from a special cable to the New York Times, printed on the 16th of January this year, that the new constitutional regime in Turkey has caused an influx of Jews from Russia, Persia, and elsewhere. Colonies are spreading through the plains of Esdraelon, and their modern methods of agriculture are greatly increasing the productions of the earth. This movement is one of the signs of the latter-days. The Improvement Era is indebted to Elder J. T. Smellie, of New York, for a copy of the Times containing the following cablegram from London: Letters from Jerusalem say that the proclamation of the Constitution in Turkey has thrown open the doors of Palestine to the incoming of Jews from all parts of the world. In Jerusalem alone four-fifths of the population of one hundred thousand now belong to the Jewish faith, while at Jaffa, Tiberias, Safed, and Haifa Jews are reckoned by tens of thousands. Almost the whole extensive plane of Esdraelon has been bought up by them. Their prosperous colonies spread from Dan to Beersheba, and EDITOR'S TABLE. 753 even further south to the outskirts of Egypt. Thousands are escaping from Persia to find shelter and protection in the Holy Land, while every ship from Odessa carries hundreds of them. The valley of the Jordan, once the property of the ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, is being eagerly sought after by Jewish capitalists and syndicates of Zionists, whose agents, distributed all over the land, are buying up rich properties of Mohammedan offenders whose incomes since the revolution are considerably lessened. The Holy City is essentially a Jewish town. Banking, as well as trade and commerce, is monopolized by Jews. The government has found it necessary to organize a company of Jewish gendarmes. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are sent annually from Europe and America to enable the colonists to build homes, hospitals, schools and invalid homes. Over one hundred Jewish schools already exist in Jerusalem alone, and synagogues are going up everywhere. The value of land has risen fourfold. The ignorant and povertystricken fellaheen are being ousted from their homes and villages by the sharp European Jewish settler, whose modern agricultural implements and methods have made the land produce harvests never before dreamed of by the natives. The Anglo-Palestine Company, a Zionist banking and commercial enterprise, is pushing the cause of Israel with great determination. The racial exclusiveness of the Jews and their clannish proclivities are arousing the opposition of the Ottomans, and the Turkish constitutional regime has in this question one of the greatest problems that a new and patriotic government ever faced. Messages from the Missions. On Sunday, April 23, Sister Phebe A. Daybell, wife of Elder George W. Daybell, at that time doing missionary work in England, died. She was the mother of four children, and was an enthusiastic Church worker, being secretary for the Relief Society at the time of her death. The funeral was held at Charleston, Wasatch county, Utah, April 26. Elder Daybell was cabled for, and left England for home on April 30. President Andrew Jenson, writing from Copenhagen, March 28, says: "We have just had a splendid conference in this city. Every seat in 754 IMPROVEMENT ERA. our spacious hall was occupied last night. Twenty-three elders from Zion were present; seventy-one were reported baptized in this conference during the last six months, which is a greater number than ever before in this conference during the same length of time, for the past thirty years. All are well at mission headquarters. We rejoice over the glorious results of our labors, and all the elders join me in sending greetings to the First Presidency of the Church and the Saints in Zion." Elder Alma 0. Taylor returned on April 26, from Japan, where he labored for about nine years, presiding most of the time over the Japanese mission. He translated the Book of Mormon into the Japanese language and published it. Elder Fred A. Caine, a grandson of Hon. John T. Caine, also returned on the same date, after eight years of missionary work, during which time he assisted in the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon and Anderson's Brief History of the Church Both of these books are selling well, and more than one thousand copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon have been disposed of since its publication a few months ago. Elder Caine left home June 26, 1902, and Elder Taylor July 24, 1901. Both have acquired the language about as perfectly as it is possible for foreigners to do, and they have performed a wonderful literary work by the help of the Lord. The gospel seed has been planted in a new soil, and whatever the harvest, the names of these young men will always be honored for the part they have taken, and for the many years of labor they have spent, in seeking to found God's "marvelous work and a wonder'' in the Japanese nation. The Era extends to them a hearty welcome home. ALMA 0. TAYLOR. FRED A. CAINE. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Editor’s Table: The Spirit of Worship," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 749–754. # Elders of Pennsylvania and Maryland Conferences ELDERS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND CONFERENCES. Austin P. Miller, President East Pennsylvania Conference; W. J. Lewis; W. R. Dredge, former President, now released to return home; Jos. A. Wagstaff, Jr., President of the Maryland Conference. Elder Austin P. Miller, writing the Era from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shows why young men should be interested in Mutual Improvement work, and in the choice of first class companions There are many in the world who live immoral lives, and he cautions the young men of the Church to choose pure companions, and suggests that one of the best places to find them is in the Mutual Improvement associations. In early youth is the time to comply with the splendid law of purity, and the word of wisdom as contained in section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The thing to do is to acquire good habits in youth, when the bad habits easily shrink from before the good. The keynote to purity is to keep busy, for it has well been said that "an idle mind is the devil'g workshop.'' The M. I. A. organizations give one opportunity to keep physically pure, to study good books, gain knowledge, and to prepare for the mental and religious work which must eventually rest upon all the young people of Zion. Elder Miller has been appointed to preside in Philadelphia, after spending ten months ii Massachusetts, in place of Elder W. R. Dredge, released to return home. More workers are needed in that field, and especially young men of learning and character, who can say no when the time comes, and yes, when that is for the best. Thirteen elders are laboring in East Pennsylvania and ten in Maryland, 756 IMPROVEMENT ERA. at present. Elder Miller has charge of the East Pennsylvania Conference at the present time, and Elder Joseph A. Wagstaff, of the Maryland Conference. Several Sunday schools are organized, and two Mutual Improvement associations. Many homes are open for cottage meetings and the elders have more calls than they can reasonably fill. They are meeting with excellent success in tracting and holding open air meetings. Portraits of four elders of the conferences are given herewith. The Rutland Evening News of Rutland, Vermont, contains a favorable editorial notice of a stereopticon lecture on "Mormonism" given under the auspices of the Rutland Teachers' Association, at the High School assembly room, March 18, by Henry White, of New York, to a large audience. Mr. White, it will be remembered, spent some time in Salt Lake City, and became thoroughly familiar with the Latter-day Saints and their institutions. The paper states that he gave a most interesting as well as instructive lecture on "Mormtnism" and on the present day conditions in Salt Lake City, and concludes: "It was evident that he had given the subject thorough and impartial investigation, and the subject matter of his lecture was not only new to his hearers, but of great interest. The pictures thrown on the screen were first-class in every respect, consisting of views of Utah scenery, public buildings in Salt Lake City, and 'Mormon' leaders and their families. Mr. White was introduced by United States Marshal Horace W. Bailey." Elder Christian I. Jensen, of Manassa, Colorado, who registered at the Central* States Mission office, October 23, 1909, and labored in Arkansas, disappeared from Little Rock, January 24, last. All efforts to find him were futile, but recently his body was recovered from the Arkansas river, and many conditions lead to the conclusion that the young missionary was sandbagged, and his body thrown into the river, though the whole matter is shrouded in mystery that may never be solved. Bishop Christen Jensen, father of the young man, made every effort, for six weeks, as soon as the news of the young man's disappearance reached him, with the assistance of President S. 0. Bennion and the elders, and the police, detectives, fishermen, etc., to get trace of the missing man, but with no success until April 17, when a negro boy found the body, in a fair state of preservation, floating in the river, eight miles below Little Rock. The body was recovered and laid to rest on the 23rd of April, in the Manassa cemetery. The speakers at the funeral were President Samuel 0. Bennion, of the Central States mission, Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., of the Council of Twelve, and President E. S. Christensen. . rT • o 3- — i_i 2 ^ s° go CJP > >-j i-J go *,» ar3 ■ > ^ oo X — 2 5 H 03 l-< 2. BS go Ct> ?3 3 ** Ed a H H O o O § c ~ eld ght: o La Miss PC 3 co " O £j\ H 03 4 Cr OS o ^crq i-a wor eH. orth reta: - 2 r-t i 1 <<} ^ «-■" S^ CO 1-3 O £0 < > ff^i"^ K 3 e- 3 GO .L 03 O g 53 2 ^»'^ 3 (tjq « o ■—■ £3-.s — ' _. o =+, Fe-t^eD H g>^'3 > CO c+ y H oo P7" _ , X S £ o ts3 o o'a > 2; 3 * S tr £H CD & m > Ed (t> ® Met •^ 3 trij, ff ft o^ ® — ■ > w 5' I r" H d H X 0 H Ed o o F c Ed > a c 758 IMPR0VEMEN1 ERA. Elder Nephi Pratt, for a number of years president of the Northwestern States Mission, and for several years a clerk in the business department of the Improvement Era, died. April 22, 1910, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. C. Morris, in Spokane, Washington. He was a son of Parley P. Pratt, one of the founders of the Church, and was born in Nauvoo, Illinois, sixty-five years ago. With his parents he came to Salt Lake in 1849. He filled a mission to England and Wales some thirty years ago, and during his whole life was an energetic and able missionary, a genial companion, faithful and devoted, with a spiritual nature that was an inspiration to all with whom he came in contact. His body was brought to Salt Lake City for burial, and President Joseph F. Smith and leading Church members spoke at the funeral services. Elder Louis Edgar Miller died in April, while in the mission field in Chicago. Solemn and impressive funeral services were held over his remains at the Riverton ward, Utah, meetinghouse, on the 14th of April. He was an exceptionally faithful missionary, and his home life was model. He was exemplary, industrious, sober, progressive, honest and trustworthy. He was twenty-eight years of age, and unmarried. His parents are Charles E. and Christina Miller. He had two brothers and four sisters. ELDERS OF ELDORADO, ARKANSAS. Top row: H. M. Bishop, Inkom; Riley G. Judd, Burley, Idaho. Bottom row: Jas. W. Brown, (Conference President) American Fork; A. W. Garfield, Garland, Utah. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Elders of Pennsylvania and Maryland Conferences," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 755–758. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. Class Methods. — A class teacher enquires : "Are we to take up, in class, the subject matter of the Manual lessons before the review questions?" That will depend very largely on whether your class members are thoroughly prepared. If they have studied the lesson, the references and the notes, until they are familiar with all the points, then it would, perhaps, be well to take up the review questions of the lesson first, bringing forth such points as are not thoroughly understood by the members. Let it be remembered that the review questions are prepared for convenience, and not to be followed too closely. Othor questions should also be asked and considered by the class. However, if class members are not prepared, or have poorly studied the lessons, then it may be well to occupy a part of the time in actual study of the lessons, in the class, and later take up the review, and such questions as may arise in the class. The ideal way, it seems to us, is to require all the members of the class to prepare their lessons at home, then in the class give time to ask such questions as are not clearly understood by them, and have these treated first, and afterwards any question that the teacher may wish to present. Who Holds the Keys of the Priesthood?— "We did not get the same understanding with reference to the keys of the priesthood in studying lesson 7 of the high priests' manual. Some understand that the president of the Church alone holds the keys of the priesthood, while other brethren understand that while the president of the Church holds all the keys of the priesthood, still the quorum of apostles, first seven presidents of seventy, patriarchs, the presiding bishops, presidents of stakes, bishops of wards and presidents of quorums and others hold the keys under and through him, and perform and do all that is necessary to successfully accomplish what the Lord requires in these various subdivionsofhis Church. Which is correct?" The power and authority of the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood is to hold the right of presidency, with power and authority over all the offices in the Church in all ages of the world, to administer in spiritual things.' The presidency of the high priesthood have a right to officiate in all the offices of the Church (Doc. and Cov. 107: 8, 9). 760 IMPROVEMENT ERA. It is ordained that "three presiding high priests, chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the confidence, faith and prayer of the Church, form a quorum of the presidency of the Church" (Doc. and Cov. 107: 22 j. Over this quorum, as the head, stands the president of the Church. He holds the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, and has power to delegate authority to all other officers in the Church, who thus receive power under and through him to perform and do all that is necessary to accomplish what the Lord desires in the various subdivisions of his Church (Doc. and Cov. 68: 19-23; 107: 6468; 76-84). "The keys of the kingdom belongeth always unto the presidency of the high priesthood" (Doc. and Cov. 81: 2). It is the duty of the president of the high priesthood to preside over the whole Church and to be like unto Moses, to be a seer, a revelator, a translator and a prophet, having all the gifts of God, which he bestows upon the head of the Church (Doc. and Cov. 107: 91-2). While the patriarch of the Church holds the keys of the sealing blessings of the Church (sec. 124: 92, 3), and the twelve hold the keys to open up the authority of the kingdom of God to the four corners of the earth, and to send the word of God to every creature, and other officers hold other keys (sec. 124: 123-128), still, it must be recognized that the keys of presidency over the high priesthood and all its officers, and to be a translator, revelator, seer and prophet, are held and belong solely to the president of the Church, under whose direction all the officers of the Church work and perform their ecclesiastical duties. Beginning of the Aaronic Priesthood. — "Did the Lesser Priesthood (or the priesthood known to us as the Aaronic or Levitical) have a beginning with Aaron? This idea seems to be carried out in the two lessons, 8 and 9, of the high priests' manual.'' The answer to the question must necessarily be "no." The Aaronic Priesthood is but an appendage to the Melchizedek Priesthood, or a part of it, a separate function, whose particular mission is to precede the Melchizedek, or to prepare the way for its dispensations upon the earth. Priesthood is the agency of God, and therefore is eternal, without beginning of days or end of years, and as the lesser, Aaronic, Levitical or preparatory priesthood, partakes of the nature of the higher priesthood, it must necessarily be eternal, though it may be called by different names under different dispensations. So that, while the Lesser Priesthood was first called the Aaronic Priesthood in the days of Aaron, for we have no knowledge of its having been known by that name before that time, undoubtedly the authority, and perhaps the exercise, of that priesthood had always existed and did not begin with Aaron. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 759–760. # Mutual Work Mutual Work. Secretary and Instructor Deseret Gymnasium. Professor B. S. Hinckley, of the Business College of the Latter-day Saints' University, was appointed secretary of the Deseret Gymnasium by the Board of Control, on April 21. Professor Hinckley not only entertains deep sympathy for the boys, but is greatly interested in athletics, and no better selection could have been made for this important office. He has been connected with the Latterday Saints' University for a number of years. He was born at Coalville, Summit county, Utah, July 9, 1867, and later moved south to Millard county, where the family resided for thirteen years. He entered the Brigham Young Academy, Provo, in 1884, graduating in 1889. In 1892 he graduated at the Eastman National College of Poughkeepsie, New York. Leaving the Brigham Young Academy, which he entered as teacher in 1893, he accepted BRIANT S. HINCKLEY, the P™cipal8hip of the Salt Lake Business College on the Secretary Deseret Gymnasium. 5th of March> 1900> He hag been a member of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. for a number of years, and taken an active part in the educational development of the young people. Some years ago he was made counselor to President Hugh J. Cannon, of the Liberty stake, and is an indefatigable Church worker. 762 IMPROVEMENT ERA. As Professor Hinckley's assistant instructor in the Deseret Gymnasium, R. W. Richardson, late assistant physical director at the University of Utah, has been engaged. He will have charge of the classes on the floor of the big gymnasium. For the past three years he has been engaged in the work of physical education, having served at the Y. M. C. A., and the University of Utah. He also had charge of the gymnasium work in the Rexburg Academy, Idaho, a year ago, and has served in athletic work at the Blackfoot high school. It is announced that the gymnasium will be opened July 21, but the date may be postponed till fall. Juarez M. I. A. in Championship Contest. On the 18th and 19th of March the basket ball teams of the Southwest met in El Paso, Texas, at the Y. M. C. A. building, to contest for the championship of the southwest. Among the players was the M. I. A. team from Colonia Juarez. On the 18th, the Y. M. C. A. won from the high school by a score of 17 to 16; Colonia Juarez won from the El Paso Military Institute 65 to 8; the high school won from the Military Institute by a score of 32 to 25; and the Bisbee high school won from the New Mexico College, 25 to 15. Large crowds attended and El Paso was in the throes of a basket ball fever. On the 19th the Bisbee high school defeated the M. I. A. of Colonia Juarez by a score of 19 to 15, and by this won the championship of the southwest and the basket ball trophy. The M. I. A. of Colonia Juarez had already defeated the Y. M. C. A. by a score of 28 to 26, and thereby took second place, and undoubtedly would have taken first place if they had not had to contest with the ethers immediately after their contest with the Y. M. C. A. The Y. M. C. A. defeated the El Paso high school by a score of 27 to 24, for third place. The final contest between the Bisbee high school and the M. I. A. of Colonia Juarez, was the fastest and most sensational game ever seen in the city. Great enthusiasm marked the play of the three games which made up the evening's program. The contest between the Bisbee and M. I. A. of Colonia Juarez created such enthusiasm as is seldom seen in this game. The M. I. A. had only six men, and one of these was put out of commission, so that they were compelled to play with five men, whereas the other teams had several more to choose from, in making up their players. The grit of the M. LA. boys was the general topic of conversation, and it was said, by an observer, that he had never seen such endurance in young men. Their friends attributed it to the exercise which they obtained on the farms, but their parents believe that it is due to their clean lives MUTUAL WORK. 763 and the observanca of the Word of Wisdom. On their return to Colonii Juarez they received an enthusiastic reception from their friends, who tendered them a banquet and sang songs in their honor. In El Paso they were well treated. Ernest Hatch was the coach of the team, and these were in the line up: Skou3en, L. Taylor, Richardson, Canover, and H. Taylor. Outline of Program for Meetings of Annual Conference. The first Y. M. M. I. A. meeting will be held at 10 a. m. June 4, and the following are the main points in the program: 1. Efficient stake supervision, officers' meetings, teachers, spirit and work — Douglas M. Todd. 2. Music in the Associations — Oscar A. Kirkham. 3. A Debate by two young men, conducted as a sample of Debates in the associations — Dr. John A. Widtsoe. 4. Athletics, including co-operation, campus, equipment, rules, and qualifications of contestants — Lyman R. Martineau. 2 p. M. — 1. Manuals and Getting Manual Lessons — Prof. John H. Evans. 2. Story-telling Contests, Orations and Lectures —Joseph F. Smith, Jr. 3. Reading Course — Dr. George H. Brimhall. 4. Statistical Reports, Accounts, Era, Fund, Secretaries — Secretary Moroni Snow. Music will be interspersed, and there will be time for pertinent questions and discussion. Come prepared. Saturday evening a special and important meeting of stake superintendents and presidents of stakes with the General Board will be held. On Sunday morning there will be a conjoint officers' meeting to consider conjoint work; Debates will be considered by Dr. John A. Widtsoe; Music by Oscar A. Kirkham; Drama by Alice Tuddenham; Reading and Story-Telling, Emma Goddard. Speeches, limited to from five to ten minutes, with discussions and questions after each subject. Miscellaneous. At 2 and 7 p. m. general conjoint meetings will be held in the Tabernacle. President Joseph F. Smith and President Martha H. Tingey will speak at the afternoon meeting. At the evening meeting Dr. George H. Brimhall will speak on "Be ye Clean.'' There will be good music and singing at all the meetings. On Friday evening a reception to officers, holding tickets, with social entertainment and light refreshments, will be given in the Bishop's Building. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 761–763. # Passing Events Passing Events. Elder Rudger Clawson, recently called to preside over the European Mission, was for some years president of the Box Elder stake of Zion. He won the hearts of the people. President Oleen N. Stohl recently invited Elder Clawson and his family to visit Brigham City, which invitation they accepted, and on the 30th of April, at 4 o'clock, a banquet was held in their honor at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Anderson, where about seventy of their former neighbors and friends were present in their honor. On the same evening a social was held in the stake tabernacle, which was beautifully decorated, and to which all were invited. A part of the program consisted in the presentation to Elder Clawson of a beautiful gold watch, which was handed him by Bishop Lorenzo Stohl, in behalf of the people assembled. The inscription reads, "Rudger Clawson, from your Brigham City friends, April 30, 1910.'' Elder Clawson was greatly affected, and in a happy speech thanked the people for the honor shown him. Elder Clawson left for Liverpool May 16. The Era wishes him inspiration, success and happiness in his new and responsible calling. Ex-President Roosevelt gave a talk on peace before the Nobel prize committee, members of royalty, and other personages distinguished in the political, educational and social life of Norway, on the occasion of his visit there, May 5. It will be remembered that he received the Nobel prize, in 1906, in recognition of his services in bringing to a conclusion the Russo-Japanese war. He said, among other things: ' 'Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life; but despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to PASSING EVENTS. 765 exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality. "Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror prattled of peace, while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.'' The Roosevelt Dam will be completed this month, and the project, it is announced, will be formally opened next fall. There is a movement in Arizona to have former President Roosevelt open the project on the 27th of October, his birthday. This is the greatest reclamation enterprise undertaken by the government, and when completed will cost $8,640,000. It will irrigate 240,000 acres of land in the Salt River Valley, and the fertility of the desert and the general conditions of climate are of such a character that it is estimated by expert agriculturists that the crops of a single season will return enough to repay the entire investment of the government. The resevoir created by the dam is the largest artificial body of water in the world. The dam is 280 feet high, 180 feet long on top, and contains 326,000 cubic yards of masonry. Reference to the dam, with pictures thereof, are found in the January, 1909, number of the Era, page 201-12. "Mark Twain," Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the greatest American humorist, died at Redding, Con., April 21. He was born in Florida, Monroe Co., Missouri, November 30, 1835, and three years thereafter the family moved to Hannibal on the Mississippi. In 1851 he learned the business of pilot on the Mississippi. He became a tramp printer, went to the mines in Nevada, where he first experienced the western spirit, and was a local editor of a newspaper in Virginia City, in 1862. Later he reported on the papers in San Francisco, and in 1866 visited the Sandwich Islands. He again entered the newspaper business in Buffalo, and finally settled in Hartford, Conn. His leading works are: Roughing It, The Jumping Frog (1866); Innocence Abroad (1869); Tom Sawyer (1876); A Tramp Abroad (1880); The Prince and the Pauper (1882); Life on the Mississippi (1883); Huckleberry Finn (1885): A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur (1889 »; The American 766 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Claimant (1892); The £1,000,000 Bank Note (1893); Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894); Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894); Joan of Are (1896); More Tramps Abroad (1897); The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900); Christian Science (1907K In 1894 he lost his fortune in a printing establishment and later made a tour of the world, giving lectures and readings, and in this way he earned enough to pay the full claims of his creditors, and himself a handsome balance. Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton, paid this personal tribute to "Mark Twain:" All the world knows that in Mark Twain it has lost a delightful humorist, a man able to interpret human life with a flavor all his own; but only those who had the privilege of knowing him personally can feel the loss to the full— the loss of a man of high and lovely character, a friend quick to excite and give affection; a citizen of the world, who loved every wholesome adventure of the mind or heart; an American who spoke much of the spirit of America in speaking his native thoughts. Bjornstjerne Bjornson, "the Victor Hugo of the North," as he was called years ago by a French writer, died in Paris, April 26, 1910. He was also called, by the Norwegians, "the uncrowned king of Norway,'' because of his strong efforts put forth for the absolute freedom of his country. He was born December 8, 1832, in Kirkne,Hedemarken,in the wild and lonely Dovre,some short distance south of Trondhjem. From the rugged nature of his early home he imbibed the leading characteristics of his life. His passing takes from Norway the last of her triad of grand old men — Grieg, Ibsen, Bjornson. The second died in May, 1906. Bjornson was a play-writer and a journalist in early days, and later a politician and social reformer, which brought his writings prominently before the general public. But he was a Norwegian first, and he championed first and foremost the race, genius and tongue of Norway against the persistent encroachments of the Danes, Germans and Swedes. Once he advocated that Norway become an independent republic, but in 1905 he favored the election of a king as the best scheme of government for Norway. His many novels, dramas, plays, songs and miscellaneous writings are full of grandeur, beauty and charm. Many of his fatherland songs have become national songs. One of the fascinations of his writings is the moral force in his woman characters, and his charming insight into woman's life, and much of this was due to the wise influence of his faithBjornstjerne Bjornson. PASSING EVENTS. 767 ful and loveable wife, Carolina Bjornson, who for years acted as his secretary. A Correction.— In the santiment by Elder B. F. Grant, on page 626, May number of the Era, a typographical error appears. In the remarks attributed to President Winder it reads: "I am dying," and it should read: "I am thine.'' King Edward VII of England died at his palace in London, May 6 On the afternoon of the day of his death, during a waking interval, and when he was critically ill, he said: "Well, it is all over, but I think I have done my duty." He was born in Buckingham palace, November 9, 1841, and baptized as Albert Edward. On the following 14th of December, as heir-apparent, he was created Prince of Wales. He received his education at the Universities of Edinburg, Oxford and Cambridge. In 1860 he went to Canada, and by special invitation of President „, . T„, Buchanan visited the United States, where King Edward VII. , . , ,. . , . ' „-,,.„ he received a cordial reception. In 18b2 he was promoted to the rank of general, and in the spring of that year visited Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Athens In 1863 he took his seat in the House of Lords, and on the 10th of March of that year was married to Princess Alexandra the eldest daughter of the King of Denmark. In 1875 he visited India, and in 1885, with the princess, made an extended trip through Ireland. When Queen Victoria, his mother, died, January 22, 1901, he became King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, and chose to be known as Edward VII. He was a tactful, genial and amiable character, and made a much better king than it was generally conceded he would make, prior to the death of his mother. He was very fond of sport, but after he became king he settled down to his duties and performed them to the great satisfaction of his people. His eldest son, Albert Victor, died January 14, 1892, and on the morning of the 9th of May, 1910, his second son, George Frederick Ernest Albert, born June 3. 1865. was publicly proclaimed King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British dominions beyond the seas, defender of the faith and Emperor of India, from the friary court balcony of St James palace, with all the pomp of medieaval custom. He chose to be called George V. 768 IMPROVEMENT ERA. David Josiah Brewer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, appointed in 1889, died suddenly at Washington, March 28, aged nearly seventy- three. He was the son of missionaries, and was born at Smyrna He served as Judge of the Supreme Court of Kansas, 1870-1884, and Judge of the U. S. Circuit Court, 1884-9. He was more widely known to the people of the United States than any other member of the Supreme Court, due partly to his popularity as a public speaker on topics of wide interest, and to his deep religious convictions which supplied the occasion of many of his public addresses, and were known and respected everywhere. On April 25, President Taft appointed Governor Charles E. Hughes, of New York to succeed Justice Brewer. The Governor accepted the appointment, was later confirmed by the Senate, and will enter upon his duties October 10. Of the new Judge it is said, "He was taken from the state to enrich the nation." Professor H. V. Hilprecht reported, on March 18, at Philadelphia, at a gathering of friends of the University of Pennsylvania, at the home of Provost Harrison, his discovery of a fragment of cuneiform tablet believed to be of the period of 2,100 years before Christ, and bearing an account of the deluge, described in the Bible, and agreeing with the narrative of Genesis. The fragment which has just been deciphered, says the account, was one of those excavated from the lowest stratum of the oldest part of the ruins of the temple library of Nippur, and was brought here by the expedition sent out by the University of Pennsylvania in 1899. It is of unbaked clay and measures 2f inches at its greatest length and 2| inches at its greatest width. As translated by Professor Hilprecht, the narrative contained on the tablet follows: (I declare unto thee) that confess of heaven I will loosen, a deluge I will make, and it shall sweep away all men together; but thou (the Babylonian Noah) seek life before the deluge cometh forth; for to all living beings, as many as there are, I will bring overthrow, destruction, annihilation . . . build a great ship and . . . total height shall be its structure. It shall be a houseboat carrying what has been saved of life. . . . With a strong deck cover it. The ship which thou shalt make, into it bring the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven and the creeping things, two of everything instead of a number . . . and the family . . . The oldest tablet heretofore known containing an account of the flood is the "Layard deluge tablet,'' now in the British museum, but the latter only dated from 650 B. C. The "Layard tablet" agrees with the details of the biblical narrative in only a few particulars. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 8 (June 1910): 764–768. # *Improvement Era*, July 1910 The retained masthead identifies *Improvement Era*, volume 13, no. 9, July 1910, published monthly at Salt Lake City by the General Board of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations. ## Editorial contents - Development of Home Interests—Temporal and Spiritual, 769. - Japan, the Ideal Mission Field, 779. - Thoughts of a Farmer—XI. Scouring, 786. - Cocoanut Culture Commercially, 788. - The Crown of Individuality—IX. The Inspiration of Possibilities, 793. - Church of San Xavier del Bac, 797. - Pioneer Journeys, 802. - My Friend, 811. - In the Far North, 813. - The Light of the Star, 816. - The United Brethren, 818. - An Experience in Jail, 824. - Some Men Who Have Done Things—IX. James G. McDonald, 828. - For Conscience’s Sake, 837. - Editor’s Table: Which Will You Save?, 842. - Priesthood Quorums’ Table, 848. - Mutual Work, 860. - Passing Events, 864. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910), cover, masthead, and editorial contents. # Development of Home Interests—Temporal and Spiritual IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. JULY, 1910. No 9. Development of Home Interests- Temporal and Spiritual. BY PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH. |This opening address of President Joseph F. Smith at the eightieth annual conference of the Church, April, 1910, is so laden with good counsel relating to the temporal and spiritual salvation of the people, that readers of the Era, young and old, will find it worthy of careful consideration. It embodies his wise counsel to the people to colonize only in localities approved by authorities of the Church; and to stay at home, thus avoiding so much purposeless roaming from place to place. It breathes the spirit of his advice to the people to cultivate, intensely and intelligently, their lands, and to develop unitedly the bounteous resources around them, by the encouragement and establishment of home industries. It has reference to his counsels to parents to teach their children the gospel in the home by precept and example; and contains exhortations to the Saints otherwise to comply with the practical precepts of our religion. — Edward H. Anderson.] I must confess that I do not feel adequate to the task of speaking to you this morning, but I hope the good Spirit from the Lord may rest upon us, not only during the time I may occupy, but throughout the entire meeting, and, indeed, throughout the sessions of this conference. I feel in my heart to say to this vast congregation, GodJ)less you and pour out his Holy Spirit upon 770 IMPROVEMENT ERA. you. May he reward you, by its rich outpouring, for your presence here, which indicates your faith and your desire to be present at the general conference of the Church to take part in the services and exercises thereof, and show that unity, that interest, that love and devotion to the work of the Lord, which should characterize the lives and acts of every member of the Church. It is almost marvelous, considering the condition of the weather, to see such a vast congregation as is assembled here today at the opening session of our conference; and, again, from my heart I thank you for your attendance, and for the interest you feel in the work of the Lord in which we are all engaged. I feel, in my soul, that those who have come, sparing the time and the means necessary, to attend the conference here, will not go away at the conclusion of our meetings either barren or unfruitful, for I believe the Lord will bless you and pour out his Spirit upon you in abundance. I take it for granted that the vast majority of those assembled here today are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing, and I would that this might be said of every soul that is present; for it is my belief that there is no greater honor, nor can there be any greater blessing obtained by man in this world, or in the world to come, than to be members in the Church of Christ in good fellowship with him. There are one or two matters that have rested upon my mind of late. While there are many things that might be spoken of here today, or at least hinted at, or simply mentioned, they will be more fully spoken of, unquestionably, by those who shall occupy the stand during our conference. But one thing has seemed to impress itself very strongly upon my mind, and I desire to say a few words in relation to it. It may be considered a secular matter, but to me it is both spiritual and temporal. I do not think it would be possible for me to appreciate very highly that sort of salvation that is only spiritual. I desire to see, and to witness, and to embrace the religion that is both temporal and spiritual, and to participate in and enjoy the salvation that is both temporal and spiritual. The matter that I refer to is home building and the providing of places to dwell for the children of the Latter-day Saints. DEVELOPMENT OF HOME INTERESTS. 771 We have witnessed a disposition, among some of our people, to want to draw off and go away almost limitless distances from the body of the Church— a disposition to scatter abroad, rather than to gather together, and a tendency of our children to go away from their homes, to seek homes for themselves somewhere else, in some other state, or territory, or country, away off from their parental homes. Now, it appears to me that there are almost limitless opportunities and advantages yet to be utilized, not only here in the state of Utah, but in the nearby or adjoining states, where our young people may find lands and build homes for themselves without wandering away off into South America or into southern Mexico, or into any other foreign country. It is being demonstrated that there are within our reach, under our very eyes, large tracts of country that only needed either cooperation of labor or capital to bring it under cultivation and to render it susceptible of building good homes, and towns, and villages. It is, in my judgment, wise, prudent and proper for our young people to try to secure for themselves lands as near to their homes as possible, near the homes of their parents, and as closely associated as possible with the communities of the Church, that they may have the advantages of Sunday schools, Improvement associations, and Primary associations; in other words that they may have the advantages of Church organizations for the benefit of their children, as well as for their own benefit. While they are thus reaping the benefits and blessings of these privileges at home, they are building up this country, instead of leaving it to the stranger to come here and build it up,— and, perhaps a class of strangers that we could not affiliate with, or who could not affiliate with us. There are classes of people we know of in the world who are not, or at least have not proved themselves to be up-todate, desirable neighbors and pleasant associates; but they, this class, are seeking dwelling places, seeking opportunities, both in our country and elsewhere, and it is just as well that our own people— our own boys and girls, should build up among us as for the stranger to come from abroad, from distant countries, to occupy the land instead of them. I want to say to this congregation that we have not approved, and we do not approve of this disposition that has manifested itself, to some extent, on the 772 IMPROVEMENT ERA. part of some of our brethren, to go away off into some distant country where neither life, nor liberty, nor property is safe. We would rather see our people operate together, and help to build up and develop this country so long as there is room for us to dwell. When the necessity comes for us to colonize, we may do it in some organized way by which, in the doing of it, all concerned may obtain the best and greatest advantages and reap the greatest benefit to themselves. Now, I want it understood that I do not hold to the idea that one little state, perhaps, is going to be sufficiently large to accommodate all the Latter-day Saints, or that the Church of Jesus Christ will of necessity be confined within small limits. I do not view it in this way; but I wish it understood that when it becomes necessary for the Latter-day Saints to colonize in distant lands, or away from the body of the Church, that it is best to do it under the sanction, approval and counsel of the presiding authorities of the Church, and of leading men who have experience, and the welfare of the people at heart, who can direct their energies and their course, and help them to colonize, where it is necessary for them to colonize and build homes. Briefly stating it, in my opinion it is proper, it is wisdom, indeed, I think it is a necessity for the Latter-day Saints to take every advantage they possibly can to secure homes for themselves in Utah, in Idaho, in Wyoming and Colorado, in the adjoining states here and in our own country — in our blessed America — under our grand and glorious government, where life, property and the liberties of men may be protected and not jeopardized by mob violence, by revolutions, or by any sort of disruption that so often occurs in some of our neighboring countries. Of course, I commend and approve of our colonies, formed by authority and guidance of the Church in northern Mexico and in Canada, and recommend them to homeseekers who desire to go there. In connection with this matter, I think it is wisdom for us, as agriculturists, to study agriculture and to become able to produce out of an acre of ground as much as the "heathen Chinee," or as any other people can produce from the same ground. I do not see why we cannot learn to cultivate the soil as intelligently and as profitably as any other class of people in the world; and yet it is a DEVELOPMENT OF HOME INTERESTS. 773 well-known fact that up to the present we have not devoted that attention, care, thoughtfulness, or that intelligence to agriculture in our country that we should have done, and that we are now learning to do by the aid of schools where men who desire to follow agriculture may learn the nature of the soil and all the other conditions necessary to produce the largest results for their labor. Now, another thing. The thought has prevailed in olden time that it was proper, and an effort used to be made to get our people everywhere to co-operate together, to combine their energies and their little means in the establishment of home industries that will give employment to themselves and to their children, and will be productive not only of those things that are needful for us in our homes and country, but that will be a source of revenue to us by transportation. Today we have allowed this home industry spirit almost to perish from among us, and that spirit of loyalty which impels a man or a woman to sustain home industry by their patronage is almost a thing of the past. We do not witness that same loyalty among the people to patronize home industries and institutions, that are established by ourselves or our communities, intended for the building up of the country, and for the production of those things that are needful to society. We do not exhibit that spirit of loyalty towards these things that we should do. In my opinion, there are too many of us that would rather go to a "cheap John" establishment and buy shoddy — because we can get it a faw pence less per yard — than to go to a home-producing establishment and buy cloth that is all wool and a yard wide, and that will wear, and pay the price for it. It is a short-sighted idea and policy for us to patronize foreign capital, foreign labor, when we can produce the same articles in a better condition and class, at home by our own labor, giving ourselves employment, and thereby build up our country and preserve our money at home. These things will, no doubt, be referred to, more or less, by the brethren who shall speak during the conference, and they may dwell upon these matters at greater length. I desire to say that "Mormonism," as it is called, is still, as always, nothing more and nothing less than the power of God unto salvation, unto every soul that will receive it honestly and will obey it. I say to you, my brethren, sisters and friends, that all 774 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Latter-day Saints, wherever you find them, provided they are true to their name, to their calling and to their understanding of the gospel, are people who stand for truth and for honor, for virtue and for purity of life, for honesty in business and in religion, people who stand for God and for his righteousness, for God's truth and his work in the earth, which aims for the salvation of the children of men, for their salvation from the evils of the world, from the pernicious habits of wicked men and from all those things that degrade, dishonor or destroy; or tend to lessen the vitality and life, the honor and godliness among the people of the earth. I love the gospel today more than I ever did before in all my life. I believe more firmly — if such a thing can be possible — in the divine mission of Christ and in the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith than ever before. I feel in every fibre of my being that they have been sent of God, that they have laid the foundations for life everlasting to the world. I believe that Christ is, indeed, the Redeemer from sin and death, and the only door that has ever been opened, to my understanding, at least, whereby man may live again after he has died. I believe in these principles, I have received them, I have accepted them in my soul, and I feel that they are true. I know that they are good, for they incite men to deeds of honor, of virtue, of honesty and of uprightness; they make men feel that it is their duty as well as their privilege — and it is a glorious privilege, too — to obey God and keep his commandments, that they might be worthy to meet him and enjoy an inheritance in his kingdom, to partake of his glory and of his salvation. Let the people be united, and not divided one against another. In union we have strength, but in division and discord we become like water spilled upon the ground, that cannot be gathered up. Let the people be united in their worship of God, united in their faith, united in their love of all that is good, noble and Godlike, united one with another in helping to establish the standard of peace and righteousness in the earth, that all men may come to it and partake of its blessings and glory. Let your light so shine that the world may see it and be constrained to glorify God therefor. I feel again in my heart to bless you, and I pray that we may have power given to us, one and all, to stand in the truth — firm DEVELOPMENT OF HOME INTERESTS. 775 and faithful, unbending and unyielding to any of the things to the contrary that come from the outside. Let us attend to our prayers. Do not forget that the Lord Almighty has said, "I will be inquired of by you," and, "he that seeketh me early shall find me." The Lord has made it obligatory upon us to seek after him, to have prayerful hearts and spirits, that we may supplicate the Lord, if for nothing more than to acknowledge to him that we feel that we are his children, and believe in his word and in the promises that he has made to us. While he may have blest us with all the temporal blessings that are necessary for our happiness and well being, and we need not ask him for food, for clothing nor for houses, or where to lay our heads — we can, at the same time acknowledge to the Lord our gratitude that he has so overruled all things, so provided for us and opened our way, that we have been able to obtain all these things and surround ourselves with the temporal blessings of life. Surely the Lord has been very merciful and very providential to us, up to this time, with reference to all these things. Another requirement that I wish to mention is that the parents in Zion will be held responsible for the acts of their children, not only until they become eight years old, but, perhaps, throughout all the lives of their children, provided they have neglected their duty to their children while they were under their care and guidance, and the parents were responsible for them. One thing I deplore, and that is the fact that I can scarcely go onto the street or sidewalk but I see one to a dozen or more boys in their teens — with pipes of tobacco in their mouths, puffing away in the open. When I see them, I think, Oh, what a pity! Oh, what a shame! How foolish, how imbecile, how useless and how injurious is this practice to the youth of the people! I deplore the sight of it wherever I see it. I want to tell those present, who are in the habit of using these things, that when you meet me in the street with a pipe, cigarette or a cigar in your mouths, please do not recognize me — go right by, and I will do the same. I never did like to bow to a nasty, old, stinking pipe nor to take my hat off to it. (Laughter.) I deplore the habit that many of the youth of this city, many of the youth of this state, aye, and of everywhere — not only in this state, but everywhere else — falling 776 IMPROVEMENT ERA. into this pernicious, useless and injurious habit — costly, too, and no return, it is simply an outlay for injury. I think it would be quite as manly if they would take directly to the use of opium, and use it until they killed themselves quickly. It would be sooner over with to do that than to take the slower means of reaching death by sucking a pipe, cigarette or something of that kind. Again, respecting intoxication. I want to say to you that we deplore the existence of this evil in any community, an}^where; and we deplore the fact that it may possibly be said — I do not say it is so, but I deplore the fact that it may be said that some of the members of the Church are patrons of saloons. I would to God it could not be said in truth, and I hope the time will come when no man in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will ever condescend or so humiliate himself as to enter into a saloon, or to even cross the threshhold of those places of death. I hope the time will come when this can be said. I cannot see how it is possible for Latter-day Saints to claim to be members of the Church, in good standing, or expect to receive the blessings and advantages of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, while they themselves are violating some of these most precious principles of purity of life that the Lord has made manifest to us in this dispensation. Leave these poisonous and injurious things alone; live within your means; get out of debt and keep out of debt; do not run faster than you can go safely; be careful and cautious in what you do; advise with those who have wisdom and experience, before you leap, lest you leap into the dark: and so guard yourself from possible evil and disadvantage, that the Lord can pour out the blessings of heaven upon you, yes, "open the windows of heaven" and pour out upon you blessings, that you shall scarcely have room to contain them. Remember the commandment of the Lord concerning the law of revenue for the Church. We are doing the best we know how, by the advice and counsel of the wisest men we have, and by the inspiration, as we trust, from the Lord, in the use and employment of the means that belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Up to date, I do not believe there is one of the brethren connected with the management of the financial affairs of the Church who will be or carl' be in the least DEVELOPMENT OF HOME INTERESTS. Ill ashamed of the course that he has taken, or of the work that he has done or consented to the doing with reference to the expenditure of the Church means. Not a dollar has been expended, so far as I have any knowledge, contrary to the laws of the Church, or contrary to that which is deemed, by the wisest men we have, to be for the best good of our cause. It is true we are building meetinghouses all over the land— that is, we are helping; we can't do it all, we are not in a position to do even half of it, but we are helping hundreds of our wards to build their meetinghouses, according to the means that we have. We expect to be able to continue to do this; but there are a great many people in the Church whose names are recorded in a book— some of you would be surprised, I am sure, to see that book, called the record of the non-tithepayers. I believe that if all these members, whose names are recorded in the book as non-tithepayers, would pay anything like an honest one-tenth of their interest annually, into the bishop's store-house, we would have means to build all the meetinghouses in Zion that it is necessary to build. We could not build them all this year, or next year, but we could build some this year, as far as the means would go; a few next year, as far as the means would go, — and so we would keep on until we would build meetinghouses and schoolhouses for all the Latter-day Saints in every part of the land. But we can't do it yet — there are too many non-tithepayers. Now, whether these people do not believe in the law of tithing, or whether they are disgruntled for some other cause, or whether they are so poor they could not pay their tithing, or what may be the reason, they do not do it, I do not know the reason, but I believe that if they only knew what would be for their best good, they would observe and keep that law, though they were only able to give their little mite toward it, and thus have their names at least recorded on the tithpayer's list and record.. It would be a good thing for them to do it, because of the blessing attached to the observance of the law. I repeat again that if all the Latter-day Saints would pay an honest tithing, we would have plenty of means to build all the meetinghouses that we need, — that is, gradually, as we would have the means to do it with. Again, the Lord God Almighty bless you. My heart is full of 778 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . blessing for the Latter-day Saints. I love the man, with all my heart, who I know is an honest, upright, true, faithful Latterday Saint. A man of this description is one of the best citizens of any country; he is a good citizen of any city, of any county, of any state, or of any nation wherever he may be; and he is one of the very best. A real Latter-day Saint is a good husband, he is a good father, he is a good neighbor, he is a good citizen, and a good man all around; and it takes a good Latter-day Saint to be a first class everything else. Again — the Lord bless you, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Oh, Never be Sad. Oh, never be sad, the world don't care for the story of sorrowing hearts, It opens its ears only to those, who some joyous tale imparts. Oh, never sit grieving o'er vanished years, or thinking of what might have been; The worth of the past is the strength it gives to the future with chances to win. Don't worry for fear the coming years, will still hide the pearl you seek, But think of the toiler who plants and waits, e'er he can the harvest reap. Look well to the future, with brightness and joy, the boon that is coming your way, No mortal e'er yet in quest of grief went, that found not, I'll venture to say. The future has all that the past can boast, its prospects are many and rare, So every day that's dealt out to you, pray live it with judgment and care. * We know not how soon the curtain will fall, and our part in life's play be done, But certain is joy, if we know we have filled the cup of sorrow to none. Sarah E. Mitton. Logan, Utah Citation: Joseph F. Smith, "Development of Home Interests—Temporal and Spiritual," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 769–778. # Japan, the Ideal Mission Field Japan, the Ideal Mission Field. BY ELDER ALMA 0. TAYLOR, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE MISSION. Japan is the paradise of the Orient. Nature has clothed her landscape in a beauty that fascinates, and gives to her life a mystery that attracts. Health is abundant. Liberty is untrammeled. Respect and courtesy are charmingly exhibited in every circle of society. Japan was my "home, sweet home" for eight and a half years. Her people were my companions and friends for the same length . of time. I learned to eat with chopsticks, to sit with legs folded upon the floor, to enjoy and understand conversations carried on around the little charcoal brasiers (hearthstones of Japanese homes). I have come to appreciate, to a degree, the distinctive art and music of Japan. And, at last, I am absolutely convinced that the people are worthy of the time spent, money used, and labor performed by the Latter-day Saints among them. Indeed, they are worthy of more noble and more patient efforts than we have made. My own eight and a half years mission in Japan was none too long for me, and I hope not too long for the Japanese. There is a fascination in missionary work among a pagan people that is not known by missionaries in Christian lands. The Japan mission gives the opportunity to appreciate the work of St, SISTER KUMA NABESHIMA. 780 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Paul among the ancient pagans, and to taste with him the joy and satisfaction that come with the conversion of souls from the altars of idolatry. There is an opportunity in that mission for the development of a greater individual faith, and a broader religious conception than in other fields, because of the fact that arguments and reasons for our claims must come largely from ourselves, and not be borrowed from others. For example: an elder addressing a pagan audience cannot declare with effect or convincing power that Jesus is the Christ because the Bible or some modern prophet says so. He has to show that Jesus is the Christ by sound reasoning, based upon the. exercise of his own intelligence and the inspiration of heaven direct to him. Or, in other words, the successful elder stands upon his own faith in the doctrines he declares, and cannot establish the truth of any proposition simply by appealing to the words of John, Peter or Paul. He succeeds best by earnestly and prayerfully seeking the evidences which God has amply provided in his own creations and dealings, and by using these evidences under the direction of the Holy Spirit. I remember being asked to address an audience in Salt Lake City, before I went to Japan, on the subject "Why I am a Latterday Saint. " After stating that my birth and bringing up in the Church were the first and foundation reasons for my being a Latter-day Saint, I proceeded to quote scripture to show that "Mormonism" was true. I am not ashamed of that speech, but I often smile when I think of the effect, or rather the lack of effect, such a speech would have on an audience in Japan, where we have to give a reason for our faith independent of the Bible and the scriptures. Is it not true that men who use the scriptures only, as authority for everything they believe, manifest a decided lack of independent thinking; become, as it were, dependent upon MR. HIROHARU IKUTA. Critic of the Japanese translation of the Book of Mormon. JAPAN, THE IDEAL MISSION FIELD. 781 KATSUZO NASA. A Young Convert. others, having little or no original, self-discovered reasons or foundations for their belief? Not that I think man can improve upon the testimony of scripture, but I enquire as to what some men would stand on if the holy scriptures and oracles were all taken away? In Japan the elders have to preach God and Jesus Christ, not in the name of Paul, John, Peter, Nephi, Samuel, Joseph Smith, or any other prophet, but in their own names and through the testimony *f their own works. The elders need, then, to understand God and the Only Begotten Son and their works, by themselves and for themselves, and to have their faith based, not upon the words of the prophets alone, but, as far as possible, upon the foundations upon which the prophets themselves stood. I believe the Japan mission is more like St. Paul's, (leaving out his persecutions) than any other mission. The prayers of the good Saints throughout the world, offered in behalf of the Japan mission, have not been in vain. The elders have felt the support of these prayers and hope the Saints will not cease to pray for their brothers and sisters in those islands, for they need heavenly blessC*S ings now and in the future, just as they have ^fe. ■ needed and received their, in the past. The ^^^J^^^ work in Japan has been, is, and, I firmly be- & hiy lieve, will be fruitful. Some have supposed that the vineyard was barren and the soil unfit for the gospel vine. But such doubters are too impatient, and altogether mistaken. The elders have not labored in vain. Their achievements are as great as the achievements made by any elders in any mission in the same number of years. Comparisons are odious and figures misleading. The point to bear in mind is that Japan was an uncleared, unplowed, almost pristine, pagan field when the pioneer missionaries arrived. The marvel is', not that a nation was not born in a day, but that in eight years a Takeshiro Sakuraba. Teacher in a Tokyo High School. 782 IMPROVEMENT ERA. terribly weak force of missionaries laid in Japan the foundation of a beautiful branch of the kingdom of God. It requires much besides good intentions and earnestness to preach the gospel. The teacher should know his students and adapt his methods to them. It requires time and patience for the missionaries to understand the Japanese character and mould their methods accordingly. It requires time and determination to get ability sufficient to clearly A few of our Japanese brothers and sisters residing at Tokyo. Back row, extreme right: Sister Nami Hakii, first female convert in Japan. express Christian principles' in a pagan tongue. It requires time and patience to translate scripture into Oriental hieroglyphics. It requires time and sacrifice to gain a correct knowledge of far eastern customs and adapt ourselves to them sufficiently to assure the Orientals that our motives are good and our hearts sincere. It takes time for the pagan mind to grasp and the pagan heart to feel the plan of salvation through Christ, I repeat, therefore, that the marvel is, not that the Japanese nation was not born into the fold of Christ in a day, but that in a little over eight years enough distinctive literature j)f the Church and tracts'are trans- JAPAN, THE IDEAL MISSION FIELD. 788 lated to enable the missionaries to work aggressively, and that there is a good, faithful colony of thirty-seven Latter-day Saints who are willing to suffer and make sacrifice for the truth, and who endure and obey as all true Saints do— this is the marvel. And in this marvelous achievement the power and blessing and support of heaven have been so clearly manifested that it is almost an insult to our Father to think, let alone say, that the missionaries in Japan are accomplishing nothing. The Saints in Japan not only love each other, but they are interested in the welfare of their brothers and sisters all over the world. They inquire about them, they rejoice with them and mourn with them. They are in every way worthy of our reciprocal love and esteem and prayers. The Holy Spirit is working in the Japan mission. Signs follow the believers there as elsewhere. The Saints are enjoying the blessings of the gospel. Testimony meetings are favored with the presence and demonstrations of the Comforter. Peace and happiness fill the heart of every sincere member. All this indicates that the blood of Israel is there. The Lord acknowledges our Japanese brothers and sisters as his children. There was a time, some years ago, when it seemed that our converts were not firm. We have had to excommunicate five. This was discouraging, but an experience and lesson we needed badly. 1 don't think the Lord will impose upon all who were dropped out of the Church a heavy penalty. Because we didn't know how to teach the Japanese, and we didn't understand the language well enough to teach. The result was, some were admitted into the Church without having a proper understanding of the step they were taking, and a realization of the sacredness and weight of the covenants made. Having no foundation, they fell. However, as our experience increased and our ability to explain the gospel in Japanese grew, we were able, by patient, careful teaching, to make the gospel clear and beautiful to the investigators, so that they felt it and understood it before entering the Church. Such converts are true, and stand today upon a firm base. So what we need and must always have in Japan is men with a knowledge of Japanese character, familiarity with their customs, 784 IMPROVEMENT ERA. experience, ability in the Japanese language, and true sympathy for the people. To qualify in these attainments and perform a good, well-rounded, profitable mission, the missionaries must be in the field a long time, and constantly enjoy the companionship of the Holy Spirit. Five, six, seven or eight years, perhaps, sounds long and cruel to some people, but I do not believe that any strong, broad, loyal Latter-day Saint, who knows and keeps the first two greatest commandments, would allow years or sacrifice Left, standing: Elders John W. Stoker, Leroy Chadwick. Sitting: Aritatsu Kawanaka, first convert in Hokkaido, Japan, Elder Justus B. Seeley. The little girl is Kawanaka's daughter. to be a consideration in answering a call of God to Japan. To my mind, the opportunity for and need of a long service is a distinct blessing afforded by the Japan mission. And a long service in Japan is entirely worth while, because of the superior experience and strength every earnest worker obtains, and the intense joy he or she feels when witnessing the wonderful influence of the gospel on the minds, hearts and lives of a pagan nation. JAPAN, THE IDEAL MISSION FIELD. 785 Before concluding, just a word or two about the Japanese language, which, it seems, Americans generally imagine, is one of the hardest, if not the hardest language in the world. After all, I have concluded that Japanese is not essentially or theoretically difficult. I believe there is no more simple or natural language. Surely there is none that has fewer iron-clad rules. And I have often thought that we Westerners make the language difficult ourselves by trying to find in it rules that don't exist. If we were to start out bv simply memorizing every word, phrase and clause as we hear and read them, without searching for rules, we would, no doubt, find our sorrows diminished. The quantity of the language, however, is a severe test to memory. It is a long language — I sometimes say "limitless." It certainly requires a larger vocabulary than English. But indeed it has been a delightful study to me, and the characters, what few I know, are joy itself. No one need be frightened of the Japanese language. Things Requisite. Have a tear for the wretched — a smile for the glad; For the worthy, applause — an excuse for the bad; Some help for the needy — seme pity for those Who stray from the path where true happiness flows. Have a laugh for the child in play at thy feet; Have respect for the aged; and pleasantly greet The stranger that seeketh for shelter from thee, Have a covering to spare, if he naked should be. Have a hope in thy sorrow — a calm in thy joy; Have a work that is worthy thy life to employ; And, oh! above all things on this side the sod, Have peace with thy conscience and peace with thy God. — Selected. Citation: Alma O. Taylor, "Japan, the Ideal Mission Field," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 779–785. # Thoughts of a Farmer—XI. Scouring Thoughts of a Farmer. BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER. XL— Scouring. Last year had in its springtime a long, rainy season. It was difficult to keep implements exposed to the rain from rusting. The plow, which it was my lot to use, gave me considerable difficulty at the outset, because, in the language of the farmer, it would not scour. Every time there was a change in the consistency of the soil, or where clay or gumbo was in excess, the particles would adhere to the surface of the plow until it was like dragging a log of wood beneath the surface of the land. The horses often had put upon them almost a double burden. Frequent stops were necessary to clear the attaching soil, polish the blade of the plow and apply a little oil. These repeated processes in time brought the implement into a good, servicable condition, and the horses went along without excessive burden, and rolled the soil over as the farmer delights to see it turned. The condition of that plow contains some analogy to the affairs of human life. Did you ever see people to whom every disagreeable little thing will cling, and these little things accumulate until they become a load almost too heavy to draw? Like the plow, they cease to do good work by turning over the soil and exposing it to the air and to sunshine. Persons who thus have some sort of affinity for unpleasant things, for the accumulation of matter foreign to their needs, experience a great deal of trouble in life. Their burdens are excessively heavy. What they really need is a bright polish that will make the disagreeable things of life pass by them without gluing themselves fast to their natures. THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. 787 We all know the value of one's ability to see, hear and feel minutely the things that are going on about one. These senses are ordained of God for our helpfulness and guidance. On the other hand, it is well to be able to forget. Sometimes we find it quite necessary to our happiness in life to forget the distasteful experiences to which we are all more or less subject. It is also necessary sometimes to have ears and hear not, to have eyes and see not. Many things happen about us to which we ought to be wholly oblivious, if we do not wish to sense their discomfort and annoyance. The senses and attributes with which we have been endowed are divinely appointed agencies by which we ought to discriminate in life between that which is useful and that which is harmful. The soil of human existence, through which day after day we are compelled to plow our way, has in it sticky and foreign substances which adhere whenever possible to the spirit of our life and weigh down our feelings until their burdens make us unhappy. There are some who take trifles too seriously, who fail to discriminate between that which is important and that which is non-essential to their welfare. It is not intended that we should carry the various burdens of life all the way across the fields of our existence. When in the course of our daily toils we turn over, like the plow, the soil that is to bear fruit, we leave it in its divinely appointed place to gather properties from the sunshine and the air through which it is made productive. There are many difficulties in life through which we must plow, and, like the soil, they disintegrate in sunshine; and though apparently useless when going through them, they turn to excellent advantage in an open atmosphere. As we look back upon them we see them crumbling to pieces. If we carry them along with us they grow, like the rolling snow, until they become large, and we sink beneath the burden of their weight. With the plow one of the first requisites is that it should scour well, so in life it is absolutely necessary that there be about us some polished surface over which disagreeable and useless things may glide with ease. Alberta, Canada. Citation: Joseph M. Tanner, "Thoughts of a Farmer—XI. Scouring," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 786–787. # Cocoanut Culture Commercially Cocoanut Culture Commercially. BY JOHN Q. ADAMS, OF THE SAMOAN MISSION. [A second article, illustrated, on this subject, is promised by the author, which will deal with the cocoanut plantation work of the elders, at the gathering places of the Saints in German and American Samoa respectively. — Editors. ] Conflicting were the emotions that surged through the mind of an erstwhile Columbus on a certain memorable night in October of 1492, as his eyes beheld the dancing torchlights of the inhabitants of a new world. Conflicting, too, are the thoughts of a more modern beholder of things new, as the Pacific liner creeps nearer in-shore to one of the numerous bits of island dotting the South sea, and he obtains his first glimpse of a rich tropical scene. Perhaps at beautiful Hawaii does the pleasing experience first befall him. As the initial, bold headland, with flattened crown and surf -beaten base, gradually takes its place to the rear, a scene of appealing natural beauty at once begins asserting itself, and the predominating feature is the luxuriant vegetation. Eyes accustomed to the scantily attired, sagebrush Rockies, here search in vain for a break in the dense verdure. Rearing their heads high above the common level, the stately cocoanut palms are discerned from afar, and as the distant glance develops into closer acquaintanceship, this family of monarchs lose none of their first novel impression. In the home market one may have purchased a stripped specimen of fruit for a quarter and, after eagerly draining every drop of the precious "milk," as voraciously have devoured the crisp, white flesh, without ever bestowing a thought on what a tale the monkey-like face could unfold were its avocation a talkative one. COCOANUT CULTURE COMMERCIALLY. 789 In lieu of this, suppose that we assume the role of spokesman, and place the cocoanut where it properly belongs,in the fixed relationship of plant to animal. Scattered over enough of the earth's warmer latitudes to be classed as the universal hot-climate tree, we find various specimens of the palm family, the cocoanut palm standing far in the van from the utility standpoint. As these lines are penned from mid-Pacific, they will naturally deal in part with what the cocoanut means to the Pacific Islander, together with its place in the commercial world. First let us glance at local conditions. For a specific example, supposing Samoa be dealt with. Of volcanic origin, the interior of these islands is exceedingly rough — practically inaccessible. At some places the upheaval abruptly ends with the ocean waves, the perpendicular mass of lava rock admitting of no beach. But mostly a sandy, low-lying, shelving beach extends inland from a few hundred feet to a mile or more, and it is on this that the cocoanut thrives best, each island being veritably fringed or framed in a thick, unbroken line of majestic trees, extending to the water's edge. So closely do Mother Nature's land forces contest with her sea forces for a boundary line, that it is really a continual battle along the disputed territory between out-stationed cocoanut sentries and the encroaching battering ram of surf and wave. The hungry, ever-restless waters undermine and level ignominiously on the beach great numbers of trees, but in spite of such conflict, the utmost harmony in reality prevails, for the bracing sea air and underground trickling moisture of the beach is just the ideal conducive combination for a thriving tree. So much for conditions in Nature's domain. Now for a few items relative to the utility of the cocoanut. To deal briefly with its importance in native life we may make the statement that it is the staff in more ways than one. From the fibrous husk a tough, wiry rope is braided, which takes the place of nails in binding the frame-work of the houses, and is a generally useful article. The pebble floor is covered with mats woven from the cocoanut leaf, and in all kinds of carrying, cocoanut leaf baskets are the receptacle. Water for house use is kept in vessels made from the whole shell of the nut, while a polished half -shell serves for the cup in the dignified ceremony of passing 790 IMPROVEMENT. ERA. the "ava" or native drink. Canes and other curios are made from the wood for tourists trade, and house timbers are improvised from the trunk. Then there is the food question, the most pressing of all. The grated meat is readily made up into a variety of dishes and combinations, all rich, nourishing and tasty. And as a by-product the cocoanut meat, with but little effort, may be transformed into pork and eggs. Interesting as the above might be made by a descriptive, detailed write-up, the limited confines of this article will not permit of further mention of it, and we shall now proceed to quite another phase, the cocoanut in commerce. The "copra" trade is one of the world's commercial items that must not be overlooked. In the one matter of soap alone we are deeply indebted to the cocoanut tree, for without its balmy, creamy oil, our skins misht chafe under more drastic cleansers. To follow out the various stages of copra-making in natural sequence, we will begin at the beginning. The well systematized method of cocoanut culture nowadays calls for a nursery to begin aright. Large, smooth, well-filled and formed nuts are selected and set on edge on the ground, or in perhaps six inches of soil, all close together and with the eyes pointing upwards. Soon a shoot peeps up, and upon attaining a height of a couple of feet, the transplanting to a permanent place occurs, the trees being set about thirty feet apart each way. For the succeeding three or four years all the ground is weeded, but when the trees have grown up beyond damage from cattle, the latter become the clearing agents, roaming at will over the plantation. In approximately seven years the trees have reared their heads some twenty feet in the air, and tassels, similar in appearance to those adorning our common corn stalks, appear at the base of the leaves. On these, miniature nuts are soon discernible, looking for all the world like acorns. In a few months the meat begins to harden, and now is when the drinking quality of the cocoanut is at its best — sweet, sparkling, snappy and exhilarating. Not long afterward the matured husk turns a dull brown, and the now ripened nut tumbles heavily to the ground. No nuts are picked fronTthe tree for copra making, as only the fully matured COCOANUT CULTURE COMMERCIALLY. 791 ones produce a first class, oily article. Once the tree commences bearing, the crop is a perennial one, always being found on the tree in all stages of development, from blossom to nut. The tree is a long liver, one hundred years of useful service being no impossible goal for a well located tree to reach. To gain an insight into the copra-making industry let'us take a pleasant mile stroll out from Apia, through one of the largest cocoanut plantations in the world. The firm, a German concern, has something like fifteen thousand acres planted in different places on these islands, and, with nearly all in full bearing, the sight is a magnificent one. As one saunters along the well kept private road, the broad expanse of hundreds of acres stretch away on either hand. The trees are scarcely more than a foot in diameter, perfectly straight and smooth-barked to a height of from twenty-five to seventy-five feet, and are surmounted by a stately crown of long, graceful leaves, at the base of which clusters the fruit to an average aggregate of perhaps fifty. The grass is kept from the roots by a gang of blacks imported from the Solomon Islands. Queer, trim built, little, muscular fellows they are, clad in vivid scarlet loin-cloths. In diligence they more than make up for their diminutive size. Herds of sleek cattle crop the luxuriant grass contentedly, raising their heads in surprise as the white intruder passes. Down the road come a number of cage-like wagons, filled with cocoanuts and drawn at a creeping pace by patient oxen. As the loaded wagons come lumbering in, their contents are dumped, and husk, shell and all is split in twain by a black boy with an ax. Others take the nut in hand as it is halved and with their heavy knives dexterously slice out the meat in curls. The husks and shells are utilized in the furnace which operates the drying room, in which the meat is stacked in trays made of spaced slats. In about three days it is dry enough to be shipped, the steamer each month carrying it away in large burlap bags to Sidney, from which port it is distributed to the different marts of the world, chiefly in France, to be made up into soaps, oils, etc. The copra market, like the wheat exchange, is subject to fluctuations, the price ranging from one to five cents per pound. At the common rate of two cents, an acre of fairly productive 792 IMPROVEMENT ERA. cocoanuts will net approximately twenty-five dollars per annum. Taken all in all, from the standpoints of utility and extraordinary features, the cocoanut tree occupies the relationship in the tropical vegetable kingdom that the lion does in his animal sphere, a monarch, and to man it stands as his best hot-zone friend. Apia, Samoa. Soldier of the Cross. (For the Improvement Era.) Not like a knight of the olden days, who fought for a woman's love — Not like a hero in strife of war, with a floating banner above; But truly a soldier he — , Who goeth out to the world, With a message of love and a sword of peace, And the emblem of Truth unfurled. Far from his native, snow-crowned hills, far from his fireside cheer, Into the lands all unknown to him, he goes without thought of fear; Yet often amidst the silence — And oft 'midst the city's glare, His heart turns back to the peaceful vale, And to those who lo/e him there. Sometimes he looks at a pictured face, a face that is almost fair — Perhaps he smiles at the golden threads, of a baby's silken hair. Or, perchance, 'tis a sweet-heart's face he sees — Like a flower smiles back to him, And he reverently thanks the Father of all — She is safe from a world of sin. What brings he back from the battlefield? Not wreaths, nor fame, nor power; But a soul unstained by the lust of the world, and strength for the weakest hour. No song, no cheer of welcome rings, No laurel wreath for his brow; There are few who know of the victories won, Or can claim him a hero now. But a blessing on those who, in blessing thee, bless the Master of earth and heaven, And blessing on those who turn away, and a prayer in mercy given. We wait to welcome you home again, 0 soldier of cross and crown! For the cross was borne, but the crown will be given To thee when the sun goes down. Grace Zenor Robertson. Parker, Idaho. Citation: John Q. Adams, "Cocoanut Culture Commercially," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 788–792. # The Crown of Individuality—IX. The Inspiration of Possibilities The Crown of Individuality.* BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. IX. — The Inspiration of Possibilities. The world needs the clarion call of a great inspiration on the unmeasured possibilities of the individual. No man that ever lived exhausted his possibilities. The greatest that ever shed the glory of their presence on this earth of ours have given but at most a few-sided showing of the lines upon which they concentrated. None ever lived the full, rounded, perfect flowering of his whole nature, the vastness of his possibility remained in the silence and secrecy of the unexpressed. Life is too short for the full story. The feeling of the incompleteness of this life, its unsatisfiedness, is a strong base of belief — in immortality. Let us throw overboard that benumbing philosophy of the words, "Remember your limitations," and preach ever: "Remember your limitless possibilities." With the new dignity added to the individual life comes a finer realization of the power of maximum living from day to day, a large, firmer grip on individual problems. There will be a revelation that must tend to kill shams and pretense. There will be a truer attunement with the highest real things in life. There will not be the folly — the disheartening "limitation" adage so fears— of people attempting to succeed at once in lines where only genius or years of concentrated effort can hope to achieve. Man is not put into the world as a music-box mechanically set * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Revell Company. 794 IMPROVEMENT ERA. with a certain fixed number of tunes, but as a violin with infinite possibilities. This music no one can bring forth but the individual himself. He is placed into life not a finality, but a beginning; not a manufactured article, but raw material; not a statue, but an unhewn stone ready alike for the firm chisel of defined purpose or the subtle attrition of circumstances and conditions. It is only what a man makes of himself that really counts. He must disinfect his mind from that weakening thought that he has an absolutely predetermined capacity like a freight car with its weight and tonnage painted on the side. He is growing, expansive, unlimited, self-adjusting to increased responsibility, progressively able for large duties and higher possibilities as he realizes them and lives up to them. Man should feel this sense of the limitless— physically, mentally, morally, spiritually. Newspaper and magazine stories of men who come to this country with seventy-six cents and now own thirty million dollars and head a trust, tell the financial side of possibility. It is here deemed unnecessary to give new appetizers for a national hunger— so well developed. From the physical side man may realize as a removed "limitation" that some of the strongest, most healthy and athletic men were weaklings in childhood and even young manhood. They made themselves anew by exercise, outdoor life, sunshine, simple food and adherence to the laws of health which constitute the common sense of nature. There is no loss of any of the senses nor of limbs that has proved a handicap fatal to the success of those great ones who had cultivated a fine contempt for obstacles that dared to daunt them. The possibilities of mental development stand vindicated in the splendid roster of the great ones of the world who with the smallest opportunities of education, fought their way to the ranks of great thinkers, men of rare individuality, and real leaders in the world's advance guard to the higher things. Never were books so cheap or so accessible as today, and but a trifle of time consecrated daily to this development would work wonders for him who not merely wishes and wants but wills to realize possibilities. No one in life occupies a position so humble, be it in the THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 795 smallest hamlet or the largest city, that he cannot manifest his moral strength and exercise it. There is n:>ne so obscure that he cannot make the lives of those around him marvelously changed, brightened and inspired if he would merely progressively live up to his expanding possibilities in the way of kindness, thoughtfulness, cheer, good-will, influence and optimism. Better far is it for the individual to be a live coal, radiating light and heat for a day, than to be an icicle for a century. It is better to be an oasis of freshness and inspiration, if the oasis be no larger even than a tablecloth, than a desert of dreariness — larger than Sahara. We can all be intensive, even if we cannot yet be extensive; deep, if we cannot be wide; concentrated, if we cannot be diffused. The smallest pool of water can mirror the sun; it does not require an ocean. Let us live up to our possibilities for a single day, and we will not have to die to get to heaven; we will be making heaven for ourselves and for others right here — today on this little, spinning globe we call the earth. What a man is at any moment of life does not fix what he may become. It is not necessarily a destination; it may be merely a station; a chapter, not the complete story. Progress is but the continuous revelation of possibilities transformed into realities. We see the running, but not the goal. It is not results that are the true test of living, for they may lie outside the individual's power to control, but it is ever the moral and mental qualities he puts into the struggle. The world's standard of judging is not in accord with the higher ethics of the soul. It is not getting the best, but proving worthy of the best, that is the revelation of true character. The man who talks airily of the things he would do if only he had time, unconscious of the golden hours of wasted oppportunity frittering idly through his fingers, had better wake up. He often envies those who have performed some marvel in self -education, when but a small section of the time he squanders in a year with the lavish recklessness of a Monte Cristo would enable him to learn a new language. Every hour is a new chariot of time's possibilities that might be laden with rich treasure, but if man tacks up the sign, "no freight," he should not complain of the subsequent barrenness of result. The roll of the great leaders in 796 IMPROVEMENT ERA. human thought and effort have not been those who had the best opportunities, but those who made — the best use of them. There are men battling with the soil on poor, ansemic farms, that yield but a bare living, while underneath those acres may be rich veins of coal, wells of oil, that need but the revealing, or beds of other minerals that mean liberation from the slavery of poverty. It is not easy to make them manifest, but the greater treasures of the individual's possibilities within his own heart, mind and life he can bring out if he only will. Self-confidence is a virtue that should never lead a single life; it should be wedded — to tireless energy. There come high-tide moments in all lives when contemplating some heroic deed, when our ears are filled with the triumphal music of a great thought, when the vitalizing words of some great thinker or teacher reach our soul through our eyes with a message of illumination. We then see our life in new perspective. The meanness and emptiness of living on low levels shame the soul out of self-complacency, and we seem to see wondrous visions of our possibilities, glimpses of what we might become. It is a coming face to face with our higher self that may recreate our lives for all the years, if we only will. Let us realize our progressive possibilities, make them real, vital, growing, not uselessly held — as a warm, living seed may rest for years in the dead hand of a mummy. Realizing possibilities is the soul of optimism, and optimism is the soul of living. (The next article of this series, "Forgetting as a Fine Art," will appear in the August number of the Era.) A Morning Prayer. The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces. Let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep. Amen. — Robert Louis Stevenson. Citation: William George Jordan, "The Crown of Individuality—IX. The Inspiration of Possibilities," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 793–796. # Church of San Xavier del Bac Photo by C. R. Savage. Church of San Xavier Del Bac. BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE. The sun went down hot, as we forded the shallow Santa Cruz river. The heaps of jagged mountains, clustered upon the desert horizon, glowed with its red light. Each picacho appeared semitransparent, as if it had been saturated with fiery heat, or had been changed to ruby. The sky was cloudless, and soon became of that peculiar, bluish-green hue characteristic of the Arizona twilight. The glow upon the distant mountains turned deeper and deeper, becoming, ere it vanished altogether, a most wondrous crimson. A rich, crimson stain, too, lingered long upon the old adobe western wall of the Mission Dolores. The ruined building, with its open windows, tottering to its fall upon the low mound, and surrounded by marsh lands in which grew tall, coarse grasses with here and there a gaunt, angular thorn tree, bore a saddened aspect at the approach of night. The strange, old church we had been to visit, is known as the 798 IMPROVEMENT ERA. San Xavier del Bac. It is situated nine miles to the southward of Tucson and stands in the midst of a most dreary and desolate landscape. Around it is the level desert, broken with near piles of lava rock, that emerge from the sands like islands above the sea. In the distance are seen the mountains, flat-topped ranges, or detached groups of volcanic peaks of singular forms, jutting up one behind another in grotesque savageness, and ranging in tints from the palest ashen-grays to livid reds and dark, indigo-toned blues. A palo verde stands here and there in some wash, or a tall green column of the cereus giganteus, the rigid trunks of the latter giving a peculiar stiffness of effect to the scene. Altogether it is one of the very last places in which one might expect to see a sacred edifice. The building itself is highly picturesque, and even approaches the imposing, when not too critically examined. The design is bold, with its dome and towers and, at a distance, rich facade. Around it runs a wall, and at one side is the Casa Morte, and at the other a long range of buildings which appear to combine the uses of dormitory for priests and travelers, as well as being a hospital for the sick among the surrounding tribes of Indians. The church is in the Moorish style of flamboyant architecture, and dates back to somewhere between 1690 and 1700, making it one of the oldest mission churches hereabouts. It was founded by the Jesuit and Franciscan Fathers in their arduous and self-sacrificing labors, and it was constructed under adverse conditions and with unskilled workmen. It is built of rock and brick, covered with a yellowish-gray plaster, a plaster that has become very hard through the adding of the blood of cattle to the mixture. A motly group of Papago Indians were gathered around the entrance in the church wall as our vehicle came up. They were from the poor, miserably built huts near by, and one of them, an Indian boy with an immense, naked cavalry sword, stood guard at the door. This boy, with his evident self-conscious pride at our seeing him thus fulfiling his office, was highly ludicrous. But on the lower steps, those leading to the doorway, was a sight pathetic. This was the venerable resident priest. He was totally blind, bent with extreme age, his skin covered with a thousand wrinkles, and his hair as white as snow. In his hands was a musical instrument. CHURCH OF SAN XAVIER DEL BAC. 799 It was made of reeds, and the feeble notes that he drew from their depths were as mournful in sound as the appearance of the old man was sad. We entered the church. On the walls are several old paintings reputed to be of considerable value, and most hideous frescoes, too, depicting the joys of paradise and the tortures of the RUINS OF MISSION DOLORES. Sketch by the Author. damned. Fortunately it was Easter Sunday, and we could not have chosen a more opportune time for our visit to San Xavier del Bac. In spite of the sterile surroundings, the poor Indians, who mostly make up the devotees of the place, had found something of suitable greenness to decorate the altar and various other portions of the church interior. Later we gazed at the festival; saw the tottering form of the aged priest led up the aisle to the altar steps, and listened to his quavering voice as he intoned the chant. Sheaves of barley were carried in the procession and afterwards placed on the altar steps. At the festival's close, the old man was led back to the outer door, and there, standing in the sunlight, with trembling hand extended, he received such homely contributions from his flock, sometimes a sweet-cake, sometimes a lump of sugar, as the poverty of the donors compelled them to give. 800 IMPROVEMENT ERA. It impressed us that there was a singular harmony of sadness about it all— the dreary and sterile landscape, the half-finished, the already half-ruined church, the blind old priest, the poor Indian worshipers and their wretched village. We had begun the previous day with an early visit to the banks of the Santa Cruz. The Spanish-Mexican women were there ahead of us. With the women arrayed in their white bodices and scarlet petticoats, with the washing done — for the coming festival day, perhaps — in the primitive way, rubbing on aflat stone or beating thereon, and then rinsed in the clear, passing water; and as the women were mostly young, and a few who might truly be called handsome, with the lithe, slender figures, the black hair and lustrous eyes of the south, the sight was a pretty one; and all in keeping with the hour and scene. Now there was a harmony of another kind, but in strange discord with the emblematic nature of the festival, which should be a joyous one, indeed, to be expressive of a belief in the resurrection. - jm jj L ■ • 1 ■k j |^l HEBER SCOWCROFT. Appointed and sustained a member of the Church Auditing Committee, at the April Conference, 1910. See sketch in "Passing Events." Citation: Alfred Lambourne, "Church of San Xavier del Bac," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 797–801. # Pioneer Journeys Pioneer Journeys. From Nauvoo, Illinois, to Pueblo, Colorado, in 1846, and Over the Plains in 1847. Extracts from the private journal of the late pioneer John Brown, who for a period of twenty-nine years was Bishop of Pleasant Grove. ARRANGED BY HIS SON, JOHN ZIMMERMAN BROWN, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. On July 29, 1845, I returned to Nauvoo with my family, purchased a lot from William Hyde, and commenced to build a house. But as soon as I had collected the material the mobs began burning the homes of the Saints out in the country, and all business was suspended. As destruction threatened the Saints on every hand, a council of the leading brethren was held, at which it was decided to leave the state of Illinois in the spring. But, as my house was so nearly completed, I finished it, and soon after William Crosby, my brotherin-law, came with his family and lived with us while we remained in the city. Before we could go to the wilderness it was necessary for us to return to pioneer john brown. our former homes in the south and arrange our business affairs. However, we did not leave Nauvoo until PIONEER JOURNEYS. 803 we had received our endowments in the temple. I rented my home to a brother and left it in charge of William Hyde, authorizing him to sell it if he could, and to use the means in preparing for his journey to the west, which he afterwards did. We left the "City of Joseph" on the 14th of January, 1846, going by land, and reached our old home in Monroe county, Mississippi, February 22. We had been instructed by President Brigham Young to leave our families here, take those families that were ready for the journey, go west with them through the state of Missouri and fall in with the companies from Nauvoo in the Indian country. In accordance with this instruction, we started from Mississippi on April 8, 1846, with fourteen families. William Crosby, D. M. Thomas, William Lay, James Harmon, George W. Bankheai and I formed a mess, having a wagon to ourselves. Our plan was to return to Mississippi in the fall. We crossed the Mississippi river at Iron banks and traveled through the state of Missouri, arriving at Independence on May 26, a distance of six hundred and forty miles. Here great excitement prevailed over a rumor that ex-Governcr Boggs, of Missouri, had started for California; that the "Mormons" had intercepted and killed him on the way; and that they had also murdered and robbed several companies of emigrants, etc. The people of Independence tried to persuade us not to go to the plains, as we would surely fall victims to the revengeful "Mormons." But we told them we were not afraid. At this point we were joined by Robert Crow, from Perry county, Illinois, and William Kartchner, together with some emigrants en route to Oregon. We had in all twenty-five wagons and here our company was more fully organized. William Crosby was chosen captain, with Robert Crow and John Holladay as counselors. It was not until we reached the Indian country that our Oregon friends learned they were traveling with a company of "Mormons." This fact gave them some uneasiness, and they began to think we did not travel fast enough. One day they left us and went ahead, but the next day we passed them. They were a little afraid to go on alone, not thinking their company strong enough, so they remained with us until we reached the Platte 804 IMPROVEMENT ERA. river. Here we met a company of six men who had come all the way from Oregon, and when our friends saw this, they were no longer afraid to travel alone, as their company consisted of fourteen men. They left us on the Platte, where we rested a day for repairs. We now had twenty-four men and nineteen wagons, having lost one yoke of oxen belonging to George Threlkil, which was stolen by the Fox Indians. We had followed the Oregon trail from Independence, Missouri, and upon reaching the Platte expected either to have fallen in with the companies from Nauvoo, or to have found their trail. But we heard nothing from them whatever. Not knowing but what they had gone up the north side of the Platte, we continued our journey along the south side; some of our company, however, were reluctant about going on. On the 25th of June we came among the buffalo, and laid in a supply of meat. The hunting delighted us; our eyes had never beheld such a sight; the whole country was covered with them. One day a buffalo calf came running into the train of wagons when the dogs and teamsters came running after it. Several times it dashed through the train, and finally it ran in among our loose cattle where, after the dogs were called off, it became contented. A Spaniard, whom we had taken in a few days before, caught the calf with a lasso and tied it up; but it killed itself in a few minutes. This Spaniard, whose name was Hosea, had started down the river on a boat with some traders, but as the water was too low they had become lodged on the sand. He being afraid to stop in the Pawnee country, joined our company to go back to the mountains. He was of great service to us in doing camp duty and in caring for the animals. He also taught us how to approach the buffalo. One night, as we were camped opposite Grand Island, our cattle, being closely corraled, suddenly stampeded. The horses also broke loose and ran away. The running of the frightened animals, with the bellowing of the cattle and the ringing of the cow-bells, threw the whole camp in commotion. Men, women and children were seen rushing in every direction, frightened almost to death, supposing, of course, the Pawnees were upon us. One man was so sure of this that he fired his gun in the midst of the PIONEER JOURNEYS. 805 confusion. But orders were given at once not to fire, and after quiet was restored, it was found that no damage was done exceptixig the breaking of a cows's leg and the tipping of a provision box down from the rear end of one of the wagons. At the crossing of the south fork of the Platte we encountered such a severe storm that our tents were blown down and many of us suffered intensely with the cold. On June 30 we crossed the south fork of the Platte-; and next day, July 1, we reached Ash Hollow, where our Spaniard was bitten by a rattlesnake, which laid him up for a week or more. That night we camped near the brush in the hollow, not knowing that we were so near the north fork of the Platte river. I went on guard at the second watch, and was warned by the first guard to "look sharp," as the mules were very uneasy. One of our men, seeing something near one of the mules, threw a bone at it, supposing it to be a dog, but it ran in the darkness like a man sneaking away. At the same time I discovered a horse going loose across our corral and, upon examination, found that its rope had been cut. I immediately gave the alarm, when all of our men rushed out of their lodgings. We found several horses that were cut loose, and one mare and two colts were missing. A close watch was kept until morning, when we discovered a trail up the hollow where the three animals had been driven away. Besides the footprints of the horses there were nine moccasin tracks in the trail. We moved our camp down to the river and six men followed the trail that day, but learned nothing of the lost animals. At this time we were met by a company of men from California, from whom we learned that there were no "Mormons" on the route ahead of us. On receiving this intelligence some of our members became dissatisfied and wanted to turn back, while others thought it best to go on; but after due consideration we decided to continue our journey. We reached Chimney rock on July 6, and at Horse creek stopped one day to repair wagons. A few miles below Laramie we met a Mr. John Kershaw, who was camped in "Goshen Hole." He told us-he had heard reports to the effect that the "Mormons" had gone up the south fork of the Platte. We then held a council and concluded to go no further west, but to find a suitable place on the east side of the mountains, where the company could 806 IMPROVEMENT ERA. winter. Mr. Kershaw said that the head of the Arkansas river was the best place, as corn was being raised there and it was near the Spanish country, where the company could get supplies. He further informed us that in a few days he would start for Pueblo with two ox teams. There being no road, and he being acquainted with the route, we concluded to wait and go along with him. So, on July 10, we broke camp and resumed our journey. Mr. Kershaw proved faithful to us, and rendered all the assistance he could. One niecht it was necessary for us to camp without water, and fearing our cattle should stray off, we corraled them for the first time since the big stampede. About ten o'clock all the animals in camp suddenly became so excited that they were unmanageable. The horses pulled up their stakes and ran away. A mule that was close by me, however, did not succeed in getting away before I caught his rope. Not being able to hold the animal, I quickly mounted him and away he dashed, in spite of all my efforts to control him. His determination to follow the other frightened animals quickly impressed me with the fact that if the Indians got our horses they would certainly get me, too. But the animals stopped after running about a half a mile, and we succeded in recovering them. On the 19th of July twelve Cheyenne Indians came into our camp. We prepared a feast and gave them some presents, and next day we came to their village. Here they kindly received us, giving us a "feast" of stewed buffalo meat. We did some trading with them, and they appeared to be well pleased with our visit. Tvvo'of their lodges traveled with us for a few days. On July 24, we lay by on Crow creek, and some ten or twelve of us went out a few miles to hunt for some buffalo that had been seen at a distance the night before, but the supposed game proved to be a band of wild horses. An Indian who went out with us mounted his horse and gave them chase, but he could not come up to them. We then separated and wandered over the plains, which were literally covered with prickly pears, (cactus) and while we were thus scattered we were discovered by a large party of Indians, who had not seen us before. They immediately rushed upon us. We tried to get together before they could reach us, PIONEER JOURNEYS. 807 but were not successful. We were terribly frightened, but it was useless for us to try to get away, as the Indians were well mounted. As soon as our Indian guide, who was following the wild horses, saw the situation, he rode toward us with all the speed possible, meeting his countrymen about one hundred yards away. Their method of approach, with outstretched hands, was new to us; but Mr. Kershaw, who had accompanied us, betrayed no fear whatever, telling us that this was their symbol of friendship. He was well acquainted with their chief, whose name, in English, was "Slim Face." In general appearance this Indian chief very much resembled Andrew Jackson. A large circle was now formed around a fire, and after "the pipe" was filled, we indulged in a "friendly smoke." A good many of these Indians accompanied us to our camps, and next day the whole nation, with their women and children and lodges, met us at "Cash la Pood," where we made them a big feast and gave them some presents. After trading some with them we moved on to the south fork of the Platte river, searching in vain for the trail of the "Mormons," of whom we could learn absolutely nothing. We crossed the south fork of the Platte river on July 27, a few miles below a small fort, coming into a wagon trail made by traders en route to the Spanish settlements in the south. We continued our journey along this road, reaching Pueblo, a Mexican town situated near the Arkansas river, on August 7, 1846. Since leaving Independence, Missouri, we had completed a journey, as near as we could estimate, of eight hundred miles. Living in this fort were six or eight mountaineers, who had married among the Spanish and Indian women. These people received us kindly. It was here, at Pueblo, that we first learned that the "Mormons" had stopped at the Missouri river, and that five hundred of them had enlisted in the United Statss army, and were then on their way to New Mexico. Upon receiving this startling information a council was held at which it was decided for the company to winter in this place, and those men whose families were yet in the east should return and bring them out the follow- 808 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ing spring. The company was organized as a branch of the Church, and such council as the Spirit directed was given. The mountaineers said our people could have their surplus of grain in exchange for labor. Cabins, in the form of a fort, were built and active preparations for winter were made. The company was instructed to tarry here until they received word from the Church authorities where to locate. We remained at Pueblo with the Saints until September 1, ' wjtK), when we bade them good-by and started for the East, following uowii the Arkansas river to the Santa Fe trail. Our friends were very much disappointed in not having fallen in with the body of the Church. Only those who have experienced similar circumstances can appreciate the sadness of our parting, but we comforted our friends all that we could and left our blessings with them. On this return journey our party consisted of eight men, as follows: William Crosby, D. M. Thomas, John Holladay, William Lay, James Smithson, George W. Bankhead, John Brown and a man by the name of Wales Bomy, who had been to Oregon. On September 3, we came to Bent's Fort, where we learned that the reports concerning the "Mormons" at the Missouri river were true. We also were told that forty fine government teamsters had started from this part for the states just a few days before our arrival. We set out at once to overtake them, in order to travel with them through the hostile country. On September 7, we passed by the Arapahoes village and next day caught up with the government teamsters, who were under the command of Captain Dunigan. Almost every day we were met by troops and baggage trains that were on their way to Santa Fe. On September 10, Colonel Price came along, and on the 12th we met the Mormon Battalion, which gave us the greatest pleasure, for we were well acquainted with a great many of them. On September 13, we met John D. Lee, Howard Egan and James Pare. We saw plenty of buffalo, but could not kill many, as our horses were not fit for the chase, and it was difficult to approach the game on foot. At the same time our store of provisions was almost exhausted. Near a stream called Walnut creek a large herd of buffalo was seen feeding on PIONEER JOURNEYS. 809 the low land. We stationed men in the bushes at the crossing while some of us went around and started the animals toward the creek. As the buffalo came up the men began shooting at them. Many of the terrified ones turned and jumped from the steep banks into the water, where they could scarcely get out. The whole herd then followed, running over each other in great confusion. The men ran up and continued their firing until the animals had got away. In all we succeeded in either shooting or drowning nine big buffalo, which were dressed for food. But in spite of our success here, our provisions soon ran short again. We continued with Captain Dunigan's wagon train until September 26, when we separated, he going to Fort Leavenworth, and we pushing on to Independence, Missouri, where we arrived on the 30th. Here Mr. Bomy left us, and we continued our journey southward, reaching our homes in Mississippi, October 29th. After a few days rest we began making preparations to move with our families, early in the spring, to Council Bluffs, and thus be ready to go westward with the Church. About this time Elders Bryant Nowlin and Charles Crismon came to our settlement direct from Council Bluffs. They carried an epistle from the council of the apostles instructing us to remain another year with our families, but to fit out and send all the men we could spare to go west as pioneers. We held meetings to consider the matter, at which we concluded to send some four colored servants as pioneers, one of us going along to take charge of them. William Crosby, John H. Bankhead, William Lay and I each furnished a servant, and John Powell arranged for his brother David to go along. It fell to my lot to go and take charge of the company. In order for us to reach Council Bluffs in time, it was necessary to make this journey of a thousand miles during the winter months. All arrangements being made, we left Mississippi on January 10, 1847. D. M. Thomas joined us with his family, and Brother Charles Crismon also accompanied us. We were well fitted out with two good wagons and supplies, but as we traveled northward the weather bf came extremely cold. At St. Louis, where we were joined by Joseph Stratton and his family, we purchased more teams and wagons. A few 810 . IMPROVEMENT ERA. days later Bryant Nowlin and Matthew Ivory overtook us, and we now had six wagons. But the mud was so heavy that we had to lay over several days. Finally it turned cold, giving us the severest kind of weather, which was extremely hard on the negroes. My servant, whose name was Henry, caught cold and took the winter fever, which caused his death. I buried him in Andrew county, Missouri, at the lower end of the Round Prairie, just eight miles north of Savannah. In this neighborhood we purchased some more cattle, and resuming our journey, we reached the Bluffs just a few days before President Brigham Young and the pioneers started for the West. While we were waiting here, John Bankhead's colored man also died with the winter fever. This journey from Mississippi was the hardest and severest trip I had ever undertaken. I left one wagon and its load here with Brother Crismon, to bring along with the families that were to follow, and took the other two wagons and the two colored men, Oscar Crosby and Hark Lay, who had survived the journey, and joined Pioneer Camp. Brothers David Powell and Matthew Ivory also enlisted as pioneers; and on April 11, when the pioneer company was organized, and I was chosen captain of the Thirteenth Ten, these four men were assigned to my ten. When we reached Fort Laramie, on June 1, we found Brother Robert Crow, who had come up from Pueblo with six wagons. He had been here two weeks, waiting for the first company of Saints to come along. He told us that the remainder of the Mississippi company were still at Pueblo waiting to come with a detachment of the "Mormon" Batallion that had wintered there. On June 3, Elder Amasa Lyman, with Roswell Stevens, Thomas Woolsey and John H. Tippits, started for Pueblo to meet the Saints and bring them along. Brother Crow joined our camp and came on to the valley with us. On July 29, 1847, a few days after the pioneers had entered the valley, the Mississippi Saints, whom we had left at Pueblo nearly a year before, together with a detachment of the "Mormon" Battalion, under the command of Captain James Brown, came into Salt Lake Valley. Citation: John Brown, "Pioneer Journeys," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 802–810. # My Friend My Friend. [The following beautiful poem was printed in the early eighties, and is credited to the editor of the East End News. It has often been reprinted, and has appeared in several different languages. We believe readers of the Era will find pleasure in studying the verses and references attached. — Editors.] How often I'd longed for a trustworthy friend, Job 23:3 On whom in all seasons my heart might depend, Ps. 62:8 Both my joy and my sorrow to share; Jas. 5:13 But I met with so much disappointment and pain, Job 5:7; Ps. 4:12,13 That I feared all my seeking would prove to be vain, Sol. Song 3:2 Lo, I nearly gave o'er in despair. Ps. 73:2 I was friendless and sad, my heart burdened with grief, Ps. 88:3 And I knew not to whom I could look for relief, Ps. 8?*:18 When I heard a voice, gentle and calm: Isa. 13:2 "0 come unto me, lay thy head on my breast, Matt. 11:28 And I will refresh thee; in me find thy rest, Matt. 11:29 And I'll ever protect thee from harm." Ps. 91; Heb. 13:5 "I will soothe thee in sorrow, will comfort in pain; Ps. 103:13 You never shall seek my assistance in vain; Matt. 6:6 Then refuse not my offer of love. Heb. 12:25 I will heighten thy joy; I will lessen thy woe; Ps. 30:11 I will guide thee thro' life in the path thou shouldst go, Ps. 32:8 And will safely convey thee above." John 14:2, 3 I listened with pleasure. So sweet was the voice, Zeph. 3:17 So soothing the tone, I could not but rejoice, Matt. 12:19, 20 For I felt that his sayings were true. Rev. 3:14 And now I well know that he used no deceit, Heb. 6:18 For I'm sure that the hours I have spent at his feet, Luke 8:35 Are the happiest ever I knew. Prow 3:17 812 IMPROVEMENT ERA. He stilleth my passions; he calmeth my fears; Isa. 41:10; 1-14 He changeth the aspect of death as it nears, John 8:51 And bids me confide in his love; Isa. 26:3, 4 He whispers his infinite power to save, Heb. 7:25 To snatch me at last from the realms of the grave, I Thes. 4:16 To dwell in his presence above. John 17:24 In what words can I speak of the worth of my friend? Rev. 5:9 Having loved me once, he will love to the end, John 13:1 Though I ofttimes forgetful may be. Hos. 14:4 Every cause of estrangement I would humbly defy, Rom. 8:38, 39 So deep and so long, so broad and so high, Eph. 3:18, 19 Is the love that he beareth to me. Jer. 31:3 And how can I tell of the deeds he has done? Isa. 53. Of the manner in which my affections he won.' Jer. 31:3 Of his goodness, his kindness, his grace? Ps. 103; 34:8 I was lost and he found me; I was blind,he gave sight; Luke 15:4; 4:18 My path was a dark one, but he made it light, Isa, 42:16 And brightened the gloomiest place. Ps. 23:4 I was filthy and foul, but he made me quite clean; I John 1:5 And covered with rags for a long time I'd been, Isa. 64:6 But he gave me a garment to wear; Isa. 61:10 'Twas a beautiful robe, no defect could I see, Rev. 19:8 For he made it himself, and then gave it to me, Rom. 5:19; Phil. 3:9 That I might look lovely and fair. Eph. 5:27 I had broken the law, and was sentenced to die; Rom. 6:23 I knew I was guilty, had naught to reply, Rom. 3:19 And my conscience tormented me sore; Rom. 7:24 When my friend came in view, showed his hands and his side, John 20:27 And told me that once in my stead he had died, I Peter 3:18 That I might have life evermore. John 3:16 Such, then, is my friend. Oh I wish I could sound Ps. 66:16 The praise of his name to earth's uttermost bound, Rom. 10:18 I would sound it again and again. Isa. 62:6 Do you ask who it is that has stilled my complaints? Ps. 34:6 Oh, listen, ye sinners! Oh, praise him, ye saints! Heb. 12:25 It is Jesus, the Savior of Men! Matt. 1:21 Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "My Friend," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 811–812. # In the Far North m ■ ''r j£H|F7*;* iSt— t SJiifflMil , II Ji^ fk-M A PART OF THE CITY OF AALESUND AS REBUILT. In the Far North. BY EDWARD P. MACKELPRANG, OF THE SCANDINAVIAN MISSION. We are laboring in the city of Aalesund, located on the western coast of Norway. The city was built some sixty-two years ago on two small islands, connected with a large bridge spanning the water in the narrowest and most convenient place. This city is at present the largest fishing port in Scandinavia. Eighty large fishing boats, owned by different individuals, constitute the fishing fleet. The average price of one of these boats all complete, with fishing net, is about sixty thousand kroner. There are, besides, between five hundred and six hundred motor boats, owned by residents of the city, and then there are eighteen boats used for hunting whales. These go far into the north, sometimes reaching as far as the Arctic ocean. They go out for trips which last from three to four months, generally beginning in April and returning in August, which is the only time that the weather will permit this class of business sport. Each boat generally averages from three to four whales, and from twelve to fifteen men man each boat, and the product of their catch amounts to about thirty 814 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Harbor, Aalesund. thousand kroner for each boat. Fish and oil are exported from this place to Germany, Spain, Italy, England and South and North America, and the annual income for fishing is, on an avearge, about twenty million kroner. The city was destroyed by fire on the 23rd of January, 1904. It broke out at 1:30 in the morning,in a creamery building, and the wind was blowing at such a high rate that nearly all the buildings, which are made mostly of timber, were consumed, so that at five o'clock on the next day, more than twelve thousand people were homeless in a ruined city. Only one life was lost. The people, however, took courage, and for some time lived in boats and in the few houses on the outskirts that escaped the fire. The people received relief immediately from surrounding settlements, and on the 27th of the month two large vessels from Germany, loaded with provisions, and having medical aid, arrived. These remained eight days,and while in the harbor thousands of people went on board for their meals and received beds during the night. People were transported to all parts of Norway free. Large sums of money were likewise sent in from other countries, the United States leading in its generosity to the people, one million five hundred thousand kroner in all being conPhoto by Edward P. Mackelprang. Gieke Church, Erected in the 9th Century. Cemetery, Aalesund, Norway. IN THE FAR NORTH. 815 contributed. In all, the loss sustained by the fishermen in the destruction of the city was upwards of twenty million kroner, for which there was an insurance of about eleven and a half millions. Eighty thousand dollars out of the donated millions was set apart to erect a hospital. In 1907 the city was practically rebuilt with stone buildings, " MiSf QrflflS^i ■::■ ■ ■' ■:::■ ^g^L.4. AlB^fc&B. m — £ ! ft*, f ' City of Aalesund, Norway, in ruins after the fire, 1904. shown are temporary buildings. The houses and consequently is now in a condition much better than ever, and is today a thriving city. I am indebted for much of this information to the mayor of the city, who kindly furnished me with the items. Our Church work is progressing, and our meetings are fairly well attended. Aalesund, Norway- Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In the Far North," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 813–815. # The Light of the Star The Light of the Star. Words by Edward II. Andebson. Moderoto. Mm. J=80. i : Music by W. 0. Clive. zr -0- -#v wq-s- -•- i i A mes - sage of hope flies on spir - it - like wings, The Star is the Christ who hath died for the world, I I !> I 1 ^ " I I ^ i =|: Borne on the breeze from the mountains a Word and the Force that e'er bear - eth men far, on; fe^- -i — r I p — k=- it The -#- -F-#- d-0- -f- m «• T 1 tempers the strife of man - kind, and it sings Fath ■ er of Truth, whose glad light is un - furled, SSE m t= THE LIGHT OF THE STAR. 817 0 0 0 — J-g -s — j— l# 1 — ^-ug.,^ — jj Love - songs of Bid - ding the r: peace from the light of na - tions the peace of F — Fthe its Star, dawn, — J-#— 0 — f— 1 I fe^J? •_ -j=3-0 0- j-j-g » Love songs of peace Bid - ding the na nM r=t from, the light of tions the peace of ttr- =£* FrEE the Star, its dawn. m 1 The message is Truth, the strong victor of all, Word that must conquer, and ever endure: Accepting no bribe, and no person nor call, Just of the ages forever secure. For mortals who stray in the by-ways of grief, Deluged with doubt in the darkness of sin, It serves as a sunlight that bringeth relief, Sparkling with life as it shineth therein. It comforts the heart that with sadness is drear; Fear is forgotten in hopes that arise. The Father and Son to the heart is come near; Gone are the clouds that late covered the skies. Then hark to the message on shadowy wings, Sounding in gladness from mountains afar; It offers the waters of life; and it brings Glory and joy from the light of the Star. Citation: Edward H. Anderson, "The Light of the Star," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 816–817. # The United Brethren The United Brethren, BY JOB SMITH. It is known that in the year 1840, Apostle Wilford Woodruff was inspired to leave the place where he was preaching, in Staffordshire, England, and with short notice, make a trip by stage and on foot to Herefordshire, to the headquarters of a society called United Brethren. And it is also known that the members of this society, almost without an exception, embraced the gospel, and soon after commenced emigrating to Nauvoo, there being added to the Church, during the next six months, over one thousand souls. A few facts relating to this society, as to their work as a religious organization, their zeal, ambition and personnel, may be interesting at this date and period of the Latter-day work. It is mainly of interest to our young missionaries, as an incentive to seek for and listen to the promptings of the spirit, in the discharge of their duties, so as to find the people who have the disposition and the courage to receive their message. The society called Methodists, as we all know, was founded by John Wesley, who was a regular minister of the Church of England, and who seceded therefrom on account of the dead formality of that church, their prayers, lessons, and general religious exercises being simply the reading of printed forms of prayer, repeated every Sunday — some of them quite absurd and vain to an actively devout mind seeking divine favors. Their sermons, all read from manuscripts, were devoid of the inspiration and zeal of servants of God. John Wesley, being inspired to do good among the English people, and to show the difference between empty formalities and THE UNITEDIBRETHKEN. 819 real, religious activity, lefVofl^his surplice (a white gown used by the church of England ministers) and set out with earnest, honest desire and f lith to preach the gospel as far as he understood it, for the reformation and salvation of those who would listen to him. Of course, the honest people, especially the poor, soon recognized an honest preacher, and soon a society was formed and preaching places were found, and a great organization was established, called Methodists. Now, all this transpired in the eighteenth century. Later on, and as wealth and popularity filled fashionable chapels and places of worship, formality and fashion deadened the preaching of his successors, and he being now gone, left nothing but his printed sermons to keep his fervor alive. Thomas Kington was a Methodist preacher of John Wesley's stamp, zeal and inspiration. To him the dead influence of formal religion was not sufficient to save a soul. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" was his favorite text, and with a revivalist's zeal he, as a Methodist worker, stirred up his hearers and annoyed the more formal and better paid preachers of that denomination — and, as a result, he was expelled. This occurred some time before 1830Methodism had settled down into a rut of self-satisfied formality, which objected to being disturbed by a call to repentance, which was the battle cry of this notable man. But Thomas Kington, though a poor man and expelled by his church, could not be silenced. He had no chapel or church to preach in, but he remembered that the great preacher of Nazareth preached in the open air to the poor and also to the proud; and the poor of Herefordshire were glad to hear Kington, and offered their large kitchens for him to preach in. Other good men felt the touch of zeal to try to persuade people to "repent and believe." A society was soon formed, and at the date of Apostle Wilford Woodruff's visit, it possessed between thirty and forty preachers and preaching places. It had a great many very poor people as its members, and a fe# working men in fairly good circumstances, and one man who might be called wealthy, he being a farmer and owner of some land. It had extended from Herefordshire into Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, and formed into two circuits (or conferences) named after the places where their chief gatherngs were held, called Froom's Hill and Gatfield Elm. 820 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Thomas Kington was the general superintendent, and the chief preachers assembled once in three months to arrange the dates and 'places where each should preach during the following three months. Some were called "preachers" and others "exhorters." A page of my Recollections will illustrate their methods: About this time, (1836), I being about eight years old, one of these preachers came to Redmarley, where I was living at Father Bundy's, and asked permission to hold an evening meeting in his house for preaching. This was granted. This was my first acquaintance with United Brethren. But the preachers were not all brethren, for the preacher that visited us was an unmarried female named Hannah Gittings. Intermittent with her preaching were impassioned appeals for praying by the congregation individually, which seemed to take such hold upon her listeners that several at the same time occasionally might be heard. In due time the meeting closed, and, of course, the lady, needing lodging, was made welcome to stay all night. Previous to retiring she introduced family prayers. Concentrating now her efforts in behalf of the family, requiring each individual to pray vocally, it soon became my turn. I had been used to repeating the Lord's prayer every night before retiring, but that would not do for this occasion. I was compelled, by her entreaties, to make an effort to use my own words, which I did, in praying zealously for the change of heart which she had been advocating; and, sure enough, it had the effect to make me a very anxious candidate for baptism when Apostle Woodruff afterwards arrived. Besides Thomas Kington there were several other men who were very zealous and influential preachers, who devoted most of their time going from branch to branch preaching three times on Sunday and nearly every night on week days, and opening new places. Others were laboring men who, when Sunday came, would walk from five to fifteen miles to a preaching place and hold two meetings, and return in the night. At each quarter-day a plan would be devised and immediately printed for distribution among the members of each branch. On this "plan" was printed the name of each preacher and exhorter, also the name of each village or preaching place in each circuit. Thus there was an interchangeable rotation of preaching places for each preacher, and a change of preacher in each preaching THE UNITED BRETHREN. 821 place during three months. Generally speaking they were very impressive preachers, holding their audiences as with a hypnotic influence, frequently causing young persons — chiefly females— to fall down upon the floor in a fit of noisy desperation concerning their supposed awful condition of sins committed and unforgiven. Then would follow a scene of pleading by the preacher that Christ would forgive sins if they would only believe. "Believe in Christ, and you shall be saved." The word "believe" was often and urgently repeated. In most cases, after sufficient pleading, the convert would exclaim, "I do believe," repeated over and over. The preacher would then shout glory, over the saving of a soul, and the young person would spring up and dance around in a noisy fit of ecstasy, occupying considerable time, and suspending all other religious exercise. These scenes, however, were chiefly in evidence at protracted meetings, called love-feasts, watch-nights and special gatherings. Another element productive of interest in religious matters in these days was the reading, by laboring people, of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Most scholars of recent years have, doubtless, read the book much as a curiosity; but at the time herein referred to, it struck hard into the consciences and inner lives of the common people, producing more genuine religious thought than all the formal religious preaching done by the various orthodox ministers of that day. There was, beyond all controversy, a deeply devout feeling, devoid of all ostentation, intense opposition to all forms of pride, profanity and every form of immorality. Vocal prayer was urged upon all, and all formal prayer was done away. This was the condition when President Woodruff arrived In President Woodruff's History, by Matthias F. Cowley, is found the account of their receiving his testimony. There are but few now living who can remember the event. The falling-down practice was not declaimed against by the elder, and some young persons who previously had been often affected in this ecstatic delirium, would, after baptism, abandon themselves voluntarily into this condition, whereupon the elder followed the instruction given, and the practice forever ended. Now, as to the personnel of the preachers of this society, it 822 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . is interesting to know that most of them, if not all, became strongly convinced of the truth of the gospel, and all emigrated and became faithful supporters of the Latter-day work. The following are the names of the ones best remembered: John Benbow, whose home President Woodruff first visited, and who, after being baptized, advanced money by which the first English edition of the Book of Mormon and the Latter-day Saints' hymn book were printed. He afterwards emigrated to Nauvoo, assisted the prophet with money, traveled with the exiled Saints to Salt Lake City, and lived a few miles south. John Gailey spent three years following in England, as a traveling elder, with whom, as a youthful companion, I traveled a great many weary miles, emigrated to Nauvoo, and finally settled in Kaysville and died there. Thomas Clark settled in Tooele valley. Charles Price settled at Five Points, near Ogden. Thomas Jones died on the Weber. John Bailey came in Martin's handcart company, was badly frozen, and died in Salt Lake City. John Cheese emigrated to Nauvoo and became a captain in the Nauvoo Legion. John Oakley emigrated and served in Cheese's company. Henry Steed died in Farmington. William Steed died in Nauvoo. John Rowberry became a bishop in Tooele. John Tyler and James Jones, I believe, died in St. Louis. Daniel Browett, member of Mormon Battalion, killed by Indians, on his way back to his family. Robert Harris, of the Mormon Battalion, died in Malad valley. Edward Phillips lived and died at Kaysville. Thomas Oakley lived and died at Paris, Idaho. Thomas Smith (my father) labored as traveling elder in England eleven years, following his ordination, being the chief means of raising up conferences in Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Norfolk, (Norwich) an aggregate of one thousand members, many of whom, or their posterity, are now residents of Salt Lake City and many parts of Utah and Idaho. He emigrated in 1852 and lived and died in Parowan. THE UNITED BRETHREN. 823 Another peculiarity of the United Brethren was that several ladies engaged in vigorous preaching. Their names were as follows: Mary Steed, who died in St. Louis. Hannah Gittings, who died in Nauvoo. Betsy Hilton and a Miss Holmes. Susan Brooks who became the wife of Apostle Willard Richards and who died in Farmington. Patriarch Thomas Steed, of Farmington, relates that in a conversation with Susan Brooks she told him that on the last Sunday previous to the visit of President Woodruff that she with a companion were walking a distance to fill an appointment for preaching when one said to the other: "What are you going to preach today?" "I don't know, I have preached all I know. What are you going to preach?" ''I, also, have preached all I know. I hope the Lord will send us light." And Elder Steed adds, "This was the condition of nearly all the preachers." Brother Thomas Steed, of Farmington, should be duly credited for much of the information in this paper, as he is about two years older than myself and lived in the Herefordshire circuit, while I lived in the Gatfield Elm circuit. Our memories disagree in nothing. Sugar Housk, Utah. Give Him Useful, Manly Work To Do. "There is no period more critical than the period of adolescence. It is the storm and stress period of a boy's life. You cannot present a Christianity that is made up of don'ts to a boy. He wants to know of something he can do, not a lot of things he must not do. He must have room to work off the energy God has pumped into him." Citation: Job Smith, "The United Brethren," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 818–823. # An Experience in Jail An Experience in Jail. BY ELDER CARL KJ^R. [From a letter written by President Andrew Jenson, of the Scandinavian Mission, to the First Presidency of the Church, it is learned that the successful labors of the elders in Norway, as reported in the Bergen Conference, excited the attention of the State Church clergy. The number of baptisms in Haugesund, a city of about six thousand inhabitants, located south of Bergen on the west coast, where sixteen new members had been added to the Church, was especially alarming to the clergy, who thereupon incited the civil authorities to take action. It was believed that some of the new converts had not formally withdrawn from the Lutheran church before baptism, which neglect is technically against a law that is seldom enforced in such cases. It was found, hewever, upon recent investigation by the officers, that all the elders who had done the baptizing had left the country except one, Elder Carl Kjasr of Salt Lake City, Utah, who was arrested. He is the president of the branch at Haugesund, and, Elder Jenson adds, is true to his duties, obedient to counsel, and a zealous and energetic worker. When Elder Kjser appeared in court he was told that he had been fined twenty kroner, (nearly $5) for baptizing two little girls whose names had not been previously withdrawn, in conformity with law, from the Lutheran Church records. He was told that in lieu of the fine he might serve twelve days as an ordinary prisoner, or four days on a bread and water diet. To the great surprise of the officials, Elder Kjser chose the latter alternative. He was then imprisoned in a solitary cell, on Tuesday, March 8, in the evening, where he remained until the following Saturday. Prior to his entering the cell, Elder Kjser had the opportunity of explaining the principles of the gospel to the judge and to other officials of the court, and he lost no opportunity during his imprisonment to preach the gospel to the jailer, and to his fellow prison- AN EXPERIENCE IN JAIL. 825 ers. He also sent for and bore his testimony to the priest at whose instigation, no doubt, the whole affair had been inaugurated. With this introduction, President Jenson encloses the account of the imprisonment, written by Elder Kjaer himself, from which we make the following synopsis. It should be stated, however, that President Jenson says that subsequent investigation proved that the e'ders were not guilty of breaking even the technicality of the law, for one of the persons whom Elder Kjser baptized had asked the priest to have her name withdrawn from the records, which he failed to do; and the other was a member of a "Mormon'' familv. — Editors.] I could not keep my seat when the priest said that the "Mormons" were not Christians. I told him about my dear mother, who is now dead, taking me on her lap many times, when I was only four or five years old, teaching me that Jesus is the Son of God, and about his atonement, and that it is only through him that we all can be saved. Addressing the pastor, I said: "These lessons I'll never forget, as long as I live. Let me tell you, pastor, that my mother was a 'Mormon,' and I was born over in Utah. Now, don't you ever tell anybody that the Latter-day Saints don't teach Christ and him crucified, for so you tell a falsehood." He bowed his head as if ashamed. "Why," said I, "if there are any people who believe in Jesus it is the Latter-day Saints." I explained authority, revelation and priesthood, telling him about the restoration of the same, etc. I made him a present of the Fundamental Principles of the Gospel, by Apostle Orson Pratt, which he accepted and promised to read. We parted after an interview of about forty minutes. When the elders previously visited this man he in almost every case, had refused to take our tracts, but now he accepted a good book. After the priest had gone, the jailer and one of the police came down to know what the priest had said. I preached to them for about fifteen minutes. Then my friend, one of the judges, also came down, and wanted to know what the priest had said to me, and I had another conversation with him. After they had left, a woman prisoner next to my cell, who had overheard my lecture to these officials of the prison, soon began asking me questions concerning "Mormonism." She read aloud, as I dictated to her from the New Testament, thus following through from one principle to 826 IMPROVEMENT ERA. another until the jailer returned. Our conversation lasted about two hours. She knows more about "Mormonism"' now, and she said it was her intention to investigate further, and try and live a good life hereafter. The next morning I noticed a small crack in the partition (the walls being double). I folded up some tracts and a book and forced them through this crack to a certain prisoner, who had advised me to send for the priest. I signaled to him first, and he gladly received the tracts. I also gave the jailer two books, which ne promised to read. Before making up my bed on this last day, 1 put two small books under the pillow, hoping that they might do good to some one. Friday and Saturday were hungry days for me. I had lost my appetite and had only eaten two slices of bread, but drank considerable water. Saturday evening, at eight p. m., sharp, I was released, went to the home of one of the Saints and ate a go^d, hearty meal. On Sunday night our little hall was so overcrowded that I think we will have to hire a larger one, if it keeps on thus. My name appeared in the newspapers, and the whole affair was explained in the Haugesund Avis on Saturday. The editor of that paper is a very good friend of the "Mormon ' missionaries. Monday I made a revisit, or rather a "first self -invitation'' to the prison, with an armful of books. I asked permission to have an interview with the chief, and was shown into his office. He took me by the hand, and I thanked him for his kindness and friendliness. He looked down at the floor and replied, "ingen aarsag," (no cause). I then praised the force of men under him, and especially the jailer, for his zeal in performing his duty. He thanked me for the kind words I spoke about his men. I then made him a present of a Book of Mormon. He took it, hurriedly looked it over, and then accepted it with a "thank you," and gave me his hand. I next made my friend, Judge No. 2, a present of the same book. He took me by the hand and thanked me. The other judge received a Voice of Warning, and the jailer The Fundamental Principles of the Gospel, while every policeman, and even the marshal who arrested me, received some kind of book. Not one refused to accept my books, and all were as polite as could be. I AN EXPERIENCE IN JAIL. 827 imagine that this is the first time the judges and prison officials have had any prisoner return, after serving sentence, to thank them for their kindness. We have gained many good friends through this occurrence. I feel very happy and never felt the Spirit of God in such a degree as when I was addressing that priest in the prison; it burned in my breast like fire. The Lord was with me while in jail, and I knew that his guardian angels comforted me, for I could feel their presence. I've learned many lessons through this experience. I love my Savior, the gospel, and the opportunity I have of being an ambassador of the same, better than ever before. I love my home in Zion, my dear loved ones there, my fellowmen, freedom and liberty. I feel I have done my duty, and would be willing again to go through the same ordeal, if thereby I could bring one honest soul into the fold of Christ. Haugesund, Norway. Church Organization. The purpose of Church organization is that God may give his covenant people an opportunity to more fully learn the principles of the gospel of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and that they may more thoroughly put them into practice. Church organization acts as a disciplinarian of its members; in other words, the laws of the Church are the guards of the members to keep them from overstepping the bounds of propriety. Through Church organization the Lord can more effectively carry out his plans among the children of men. Through Church organization the members thereof may, with authority, counsel one with another and so impart wisdom. In counsel there is safety. Through Church organization it is possible for the members of the Church to do all things in unity. In unity there is strength. Through Church organization God, of necessity, imparts more plentifully of intelligence to his children. Through Church organization its members may attain to peace and perfect harmony. The Apostle Paul speaks (Eph. 4) of the gifts and possible attainments of the Saints in his day, through Church organization. I. W. Fletcher. Citation: Carl Kjær, "An Experience in Jail," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 824–827. # Some Men Who Have Done Things—IX. James G. McDonald Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. IX.— James G. McDonald. THE ROAD A CANNY SCOTCH LAD TOOK FROM A SMALL SHOP WITH A BELL OVER THE DOOR TO THE ONLY EXCLUSIVELY CHOCOLATE HOUSE IN AMERICA, AND THE GAIT HE WENT AT. Is there a boy hereabouts who looks with yearning eyes toward Canada, Mexico or South America because he sees no opportunities close by? Let him get by heart the story of McDonald. Does any young man in all our West lose heart because he had no chance to acquire an education? He cannot do better than read about James G. McDonald, who went to school only thirteen weeks. Ten minutes in the McDonald office, down there on Third South Street, in Salt Lake City, would tone up such a boy's system— would fill him so full of "go" that he would never have time again to mourn over lost opportunities, or opportunities he james c. Mcdonald. never had. "You're the first person that has]ever asked me to lookback," SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 829 Mr. McDonald said to me, when I called on him. "I'm too busy looking ahead. Besides, I don't believe in looking back." When I remembered what happened to Lot's wife, on account of a predilection she had for rearward glances, I could not in all conscience blame him, provided he would look back only this once. And he did. Twenty-five years ago Mr. McDonald ventured out in business for himself. That business was handling confectionery, Chinese mat rice, and other such articles. Today he employs about four hundred workers in his Salt Lake chocolate and cocoa plant, and has five branch houses— Denver, Seattle, Spokane, Portland and Los Angeles. The only capital he had to begin with was a Scotch parentage and some early lessons that sank deep. His mother was pronounced in the ability to get, his father in the capacity to keep, and both in the power to work tirelessly. James G. has far outstripped his parents in all these capabilities, and opened up realms in each that the parents did not even dream of. That his home environment was of the right sort otherwise, also, is evident. Mr. McDonald believes in himself, but he believes profoundly in the Lord, as well. He declares that he has never in his life undertaken an important step without first making it a matter of earnest prayer — a thing for which a good many business men nowadays have no time. A couple of stories, I think, will reveal the secret of James G's success in life. When a boy he was fond of the violin, as he is yet, in fact; for the McDonalds have a gift in music. And so he wished to take lessons of Professor So-and-so,- up the street. He wanted to know what the father thought about it. "D'ye think, Jimmie," said the canny Scotchman, "ye can be the best fiddler in the world?" Jimmie disclaimed such far-reaching ambitions in the field of the violin. "Well, then, dinna ye study music. Take something useful. There's monny fiddlers in hell— dinna ye go there." And here's where Mr. McDonald first learned the difference between a violinist and a fiddler. 830 IMPROVEMENT ERA. A year or so after his marriage he was passing Swaner's jewelry store one evening on his way home. Glancing in at the window he saw a beautiful sterling silver water pitcher. Instantly a bit of sentiment took hold of him. He went in. "How much is that vase?" he asked the jeweler. "Thirty-seven dollars." "I'll take it." On his way home he got to thinking. "There's thirty-seven dollars I've sunk," he said to himself. "Thirty-seven dollars put out of commission. With that money I could have bought so much goods, turned them so many times a month, and in a year made several hundred dollars." He has never bought any more silver water pitchers. I have often, in this series of articles on successful men, had occasion to point out the fact that when you look carefully into the lives of those who have done anything on a big scale, nine to one you will be astonished at the simplicity of their ways of doing it. In none of the men on our list is this fact more patent than in James G. McDonald. There is nothing resembling the dark and devious in his career and methods. The motive of his life is to succeed. This is a passion with him. Money is not his aim— has never been. Small, as men go, in size, he is a tremendous force. When he sets his Scotch head, depend upon it, something's going to pop, and it won't be the Scotchman, either. And the more difficult the thing, the harder he sets his head. It's a tonic, the way he does things. Daring and venturesome in business as an old buccaneer on the ocean, yet, paradoxical as it may be, he will never enter upon anything till he is assured it will succeed. "I dislike failure of any sort," he said. "I don't want to be a party to anything that is going to fail, that is not going to succeed." The other day a man came to him with an invitation to join a business enterprise. "What do you know about it?" he inquired The man did not know very much about it except the general plan. "Then what do you want to go into it for?" A few days afterwards he met the same person. "Since I spoke to you last," he told him, "I have studied that business affair. I've found out the actual standing of concerns like it in Denver, have discovered SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 831 the headway it has made, the money invested, the territory it has to put its goods in, and I don't think I want to go into the enterprise." He looks before he leaps, not because his money may be involved, but because of his desire for success. Mr. McDonald, however, does not want merely to succeed. He wants to succeed by perfectly honorable and straightforward means. It would be just as easy for him, as for others, to dope his candy, shell his cocoa, or to use other long-shot methods in his trade. But he does not. Instead of using second or third grade butter in his candy, he uses only first grade, and first grade materials in every variety of his products. It is better, he thinks, to ask a fair price for a first class article, than a low price for a second class article. If you satisfy your customers, they will trade with you. "What would happen, do you think," he asked me, "if I should turn out long-shot goods in cocoa?" "People would take to drinking tea,'' I answered. "Correct!" he exclaimed. "And where would my cocoa business be?" "But," I protested, "a good many business concerns act on the principle that they can turn out successfully long-shot goods." "That is true," he replied. "But they're fools. Nobody can build up a permanent and growing trade on such a principle. You can't deceive people all the time. The housewife may take your cheap-made goods this once, and say nothing about it. But she goes somewhere else next time. I am building up a business to hand down to my children, and I can't afford to hand them anything that's tarnished." Nor does Mr. McDonald stop with the material of his candies and cocoa. The very boxes are a thing of beauty and, therefore, desirable. It came about in this way. When he first went into the business of making his own paper boxes, it was new to him, and he had to make haste slowly. But he knew the principle upon which everything, boxes included, should be made. He knew right from wrong, even here. And so, when his employees, who were on piecework, turned out a crudelooking box, he carried it gingerly over to the heating stove in the 832 IMPROVEMENT ERA. factory and threw it in. The workers lost their piecework and he lost his material, by this interesting process, but he didn't have to keep on burning boxes. And that's a great point. After six months in this business, he took the gold medal for the best boxes, and that against strong competition. The same honesty characterizes his methods of disposing of his goods. Once he learned that one of his men was resorting to questionable ways of gaining trade. He called him upon that green rug in the office. "Look here," he said, "this business was not built up by tricks. .If these things you sell are good, people will buy them and want more. If they're not, what's the use lying about them?'' Success, honest success, but success out of the material at hand — that is also true of Mr. McDonald. And this is a point worth learning. Mr. McDonald does not go around wondering whether he could not succeed if he only had the moon or some of the fixed stars as his place of abode. He took up his residence, he picked up a business, on this old earth of ours, on the American continent, in western America, in Salt Lake City. And why? Merely for the trivial reason that he happened to have been born here and not somewhere else. If he had been born in New Jersey, he wouldn't have been hunting for Salt Lake. He believes in home industry with a vengeance. "For a number of years," he said, when I asked him about finding opportunities or making them, — "for a number of years our young men have been leaving the state of their birth, their inheritances for what they imagine greater opportunities elsewhere. At the same time farmers and business men of the East and the Middle West have been coming among us and finding greater possibilities than they could find anywhere else. The truth is, too many of our people have got it into their heads that they have to have a hundred and sixty acres of land to make a living on, and as soon as they can't find that amount here they go somewhere else. An Illinois or an Ohio farmer will make an independent fortune out of twenty acres. A Chinaman gets rich out of five acres. "I visited a plant in this city the other day where they dress about seven thousand chickens a week. Salt Lake city uses about SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 833 sixteen thousand pounds of chicken every week. These fowls are shipped here from Kansas. Formerly they were sent in cold storage, but now they come alive in car loads. And the proprietor told me that the saving in feathers alone, which sell for from nine to eighteen cents a pound, almost pays the freight on the whole. "Why doesn't somebody raise chickens here? Does Kansas have any greater natural advantages than Utah? The trouble is that a good many people do not make the best of what they have. "A fruit packer in Utah county told me that one acre down there yielded, in peaches, sixteen hundred dollars in one season. WHERE THE CHOCOLATES ARE MADE. 834 IMPROVEMENT ERA. That's rather high, isn't it? But suppose you take half of this fjgure as an average yield. Five acres, properly cultivated, will bring four thousand dollars a year. That's not bad. "There's no need for our young men to go away. All they have to do is to look around them, to make use of what they've got. If they go away, others will take their places here, and then they'll be sorry they went." The way Mr. McDonald has gone about it, is what has counted most, I think. He has done two things that every boy ought to know. First, he has specialized. It isn't generally known that he deliberately threw away a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of business, in order to specialize. He eliminated seven hundred kinds of confectionery in order that he might take up one — chocolates. "I cut out the cheap confectionery," he said, "prize boxes, chewing gum, nuts, and such things. What did I do? I went into the exclusive manufacture of chocolates." This was a hazardous thing to do, for no one else had the nerve to try it in America. People said he was crazy, a fool, and called him other choice epithets. But he had his eye on bigger things than what these "people" saw. And now everybody knows the result. He early learned the great law of division of labor — that you can do one thing better than you can do a hundred different things. And he knew, too, the immense territory there is in these western states. He asked me: "Do you know what I would do if I owned the Blank Hat Factory? (He didn't say hat factory at all. He said something else. But hats will do.) I would specialize. If I only made boys' hats, I would go to Philadelphia, get the most skilled hatters (if I couldn't get them here) buy the most modern machinery, and turn out the best boys' hats in the civilized world." There's nothing like this idea of doing one thing and doing that absolutely right. How many McDonalds do you think there is room for in Utah? Would we had a few more! Home industry would be a different thing then. And you wouldn't have to coax people to buy home-made goods. They'd buy them without. You couldn't stop them from buying. Who has to be wheedled and cajoled into eating McDonald's chocolates! SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 835 The second thing I promised to speak of is the man's tireless energy. This is positively something amazing. In this respect he resembles the forces of nature. He believes it is better to wear out than to rust out. A prominent man told him, when he was eighteen, that he was burning the candle at both ends. And yet it seems to last as well as some candles that have never been lighted. "Most Americans are lazy," he observed. "They're afraid of work — unless you give a different meaning to the word 'afraid,' as in the case of the boy who was so little afraid of work that he lay down and slept by it. Do you think I could have built up a business like this on eight hours a day?" "Eighteen, rather," I suggested. And he is long-visioned as an eagle. He invented that phrase about Salt Lake's being the hub. He drew a map with Salt Lake as the hub, and seven other cities at the end of the spokes. That came out of the candy and chocolate business. He established a branch house in Los Angeles — and lost money there for four years. Now, however, he is getting it all back — and more. The same is true of Seattle. That is still a bottomless pit. But he characteristically persists, because his eagle eye can see that that city commands the territory of Alaska and of British Columbia. So it will go on till, in the end, by foresight, by intelligence, by honesty, by untiring work, this astonishing man shall have it literally to say, as he now says figuratively, "McDonald feeds chocolates to the world!" New States. The Arizona and New Mexico statehood bill, after remaining on the Senate calendar for almost three months, was taken up by the Senate on June 16, and passed, after a debate lasting a little more than two hours. Speeches were made in favor of the bill by Senators Beveridge, Frazier Hughes and Smoot. As amended by the Senate, the bill provides for the admission as states of the two territories, after a constitution has been adopted by each of them, approved by the president and ratified by Congress. The bill, as amended, has passed both houses, and was signed by President Taft, June 20, 1910. ELDER CHARLES W. PENROSE, Of the quorum of Twelve Apostles, who landed in New York June 17, on his return from presiding over the European mission. He left Salt Lake City, October 15, 1906, and arrived June 21, 1910. The Era joins his many friends in extending him hearty greetings on his return home. Citation: John Henry Evans, "Some Men Who Have Done Things—IX. James G. McDonald," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 828–836. # For Conscience’s Sake 'Tor Conscience's Sake." A Pioneer Story Based on the Life of George Lake, one of the first Latter-day Saints to Colonize Mexico. BY MAMIE AND VIVA HUISH. Aloft in the eastern sky, an hour's length from the hill tops, Ushering the new born day, the sun in heaven suspended Looked down on the sleeping wastes, on the miles and miles of prairie, Whose arms stretched away in the distance, to gather home to its bosom Strength and life, and herds to graze on its scanty verdure. Coiling with stealth of a serpent, winding across the valley; Marked by the Druid alamoes that for ages had grown on its margin, Dipping their hoary beards into the turbulent water, — Northward the river flowed to empty itself in the Great Lake. I. Filled were my eyes with tears, as I gazed on the distant prairie; And I saw thro' the mist of years, the care and toil and privation, Before the dry, bleak desert as the rose should blossom and flourish. Forgotten were those around me, as I looked at the desolate picture, Wondering why God had chosen a land so distant and barren. Driven were we from our homes, with our helpless wives and our children; Bound by a common belief — to suffer in common for freedom. Dusty and careworn and weary, from the miles of tedious travel, Kneeled my companions with me, to pour forth our hearts in devotion. Looking into each face, where the light of each soul was reflected. Saw I no trace of fear, but a patience enduring and God-like; Feared they not the hardships that lay in the years before them; 8SS IMPROVEMENT ERA. Feared they to disobey when God commands from the heavens. Renewed by the strength of their faith, with the union of loved ones around me, The finding a haven of rest filled my grateful heart to o'erflowing — So, with our teams and our wagons, we entered the quiet valley. II. Away to the south and the west, with its patios and low adobe houses, Lay a peaceful Mexican village all serene. By the banks of the river Were the farms that yielded their food and were tilled in a crude, ancient fashion. Renting one of these farms for the half the crop we might gather, The grain we had brought from our homes, tho' late in the season, was planted; And, stretching our tents near the river, in the shade of the sheltering branches, We started our lives anew, as strangers among a strange people. III. Then came the season of drought, and the lagging days grew longer, Bringing the sultry weather, — the days and nights without moisture. Shrinking within itself, the river, now but a streamlet, Fain would withhold from the sun the draught that he eagerly sought for, As he swept with fiery breath the fields that were midway to harvest; And the hopes that had sprung in our hearts, with the grain drooped low 'neath his anger. What wonder that we should despair: gone was our store of provisions, Even the little corn which we daily ground in mataties Bought of a native amigo, who illy could spare it, diminished Till we scarcely could spare enough to give to the hungry children. Unused were we to the climate, but we struggled on for existence, Wanting for nourishing food, and the comforts that we had been used to. Strong and brave were our hearts, but our bodies, that part which was mortal, Succumbed. My heart grew faint as I watched my darling children Tossing with aching heads to and fro on their little pillows; Hot and red on their lips and brows burned the flush of the fever. Twice the sun rose and set, to bring no relief to the sufferers; Sinking to rest on the morrow saw a life ebb away, and then vanish As a flickering candle-light dies with a gust of wind thro' the casement. FOR CONSCIENCE'S SAKE. 889 Patiently Mary attended the child of her sister-companion. Moistening the feverish lips and aching brow, and in silence Closing the sightless eyes of the dead, — soon to hasten To shroud two babes of her own, e'er the week of suffering ended. We carried the three to a valley, away to the south and the westward, Where some of the Saints had been gathered; following far up the river, On past the homes of the living, — our loved ones the first to inhabit The City of Death, to be left in God's care; then returning To kneel by the bedside of those who were slowly recovering, We prayed: "Oh, Heavenly Father, look down in thy infinite mercy And fill our hearts with that faith that thou hast taught us to cherish; That we may be able to see thy light though the shadows that darken. We have followed thy hand through the desert, now forsake us not in our sorrow. We know that thou, in thy wisdom, has placed these trials before us To give us strength to endure, that our footsteps turn not nor falter. Help us to live to be worthy the blessings that folhw the faithful. And we dedicate all that we have to thine own namesake and thy glory." Renewed by the incense of faith, we arose, knowing "all would be well." IV. "Sorrow cometh not single," and the breath of woe, ere departing, Swept over the Mexican village, and many were seized by the fever. Unaided they died, — and we, by the bonds of a similar sorrow, Prayed God to inspire our minds that we might be able to help them. Wandering one day by the river, the voice of guidance prompting, I peeled from the alamo trunk the bark, which I burned into ashes. Making a simple infusion which relieved their terrible suffering. Thus many weeks I watched and prayed by their bedsides, frequenting Lowly and wretched roofs, and thro' hallways to canopied chambers Where distress and sorrow concealed themselves from the sunlight. Night after night, when all were asleep, I hastened on to my duty; And then, as the morning approached, returned to my home from the watching. Thus we were able to help them. Thus heaven in goodness provided That I found a place in their hearts, and they called me "The Good White Doctor." This was my mission to be, called by a holy apostle To tarry with "God's chosen people," awhile not to join with my brethren. 840 IMPROVEMENT ERA. V. Opened the window of heaven, and God looked and smiled thro' the curtain, A? the rain? cooled the breath of the prairie, with a promise of bountiful harvest. A.nd he sent tha "Angel of Goodness" to reveal to the hearts of the natives Our poverty, sorrow and want, and he gave them the needed pity. VI. One night, as we sat in the twilight, watching the dim shadows gather, Sounded the wooden latch, and the door swung back on its hinges; And we knew the soft tread of the tegua, and Manuel, the weaver* entered, Laying his gift down before us, the half of a fatted yearling, Only half he retained to feed his own hungry household. Into my mouth came these words, "Senor Manuel Hernandez, God from the heavens above will look down and reward you with plenty." VII. As when across the sky, the driving pulse of the rain-cloud Grows for a moment thin, and betrays the sun by its brightness, Our lives had been brightened awhile to enter a cloud which was darker. Just in the gray of the dawn, as the mist uprose from the river, There was a stir and a sound in the peaceful Mexican village. The governor issued an order that the Saints of God should be exiled And driven out of this land; and we knew not where we could wander. Return to our homes? No; never! For that meant a cruel desertion Of our loved ones — our wives and our children, and a forfeit of blessings celestial. But the angel stretched forth his hand and, gathering the cloud in his mantle, Sent a messenger forth to save us; and Don Celvestre Queveda Arose and said to the people, "Answer will I to the governor, If stay in the land you will, till your harvest is ripened and gathered." VIII. Autumn came with her easel and painted the landscape with beauty, Trailing her crimson garments to herald a song of thanksgiving. Up from the teeming earth a voice re-echoed her gladness, And insect choirs sang hymns, as we welcomed the harvest home. FOR CONSCIENCE'S SAKE. 841 IX. With means from my practice I purchased a terreno for seventy pesos, From the emigrant road to the river, the first that was bought by our people. In the summer of eighty and eight, with Sarah's help and the children's, I completed the first adobe house, the "corner stone of a city.'' * * * * Aloft in the eastern sky the sun still rises in splendor, — Looks down on a fruitful valley, on miles of limitless prairie, Whose arms have brought from the distance, and hold in its heaving bosom Strength and life, and a people who have made the desert to blossom. Still to the south and the west lies the peaceful Mexican village; Still flows the river northward to empty itself in the Great Lake. Here stands a flourishing city; but where are the hearts that so grandly Throbbed in harmonious accents to strengthen and lighten a nation? They who suffered and cried not; — who gave up their homes and their kindred, Walking with naked feet, for the sake of the conscience within them? "Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them; — Thousands of throbbing hearts where theirs are at rest and forever; Thousands of aching brains where theirs no longer are busy; Thousands of toiling hands where iheirs h^ve ceased from their labors; Thousands of weary feet where theirs have completed their journey." — Oh, pause by your hearthstones a moment, as you gather around with your children, To instil in their hearts the same faith, oh, tell them "The Pioneer Story." Colonia Duel n, Mexico. Meaning of Our Flag. It means that every citizen of the Republic, native or naturalized, must be protected at home in every state, abroad in every land, on every sea. It means that all distinctions based on birth and blood have perished from our laws; that our government shall stand between labor and capital; between the weak and the strong; between the individual and the corporation; between want and wealth; and give and guarantee simple justice to each and all. It means that there shall be a legal remedy for every wrong. — Ingersoll. Citation: Mamie and Viva Huish, "For Conscience’s Sake," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 837–841. # Editor’s Table: Which Will You Save? Editor's Table. Which Will You Save? To observe the Sabbath day properly is the plain duty of every Latter-day Saint— and that includes the young men and women and the boys and girls. It may seem strange that it should be necessary to repeat this often-asserted fact. But there appears to be some people, and sometimes whole communities, who neglect this duty, and therefore stand in need of this admonition. What are we required to do on the Sabbath day? The revelations of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph are very plain on this subject, and these should govern us, for they are in strict harmony with the teachings of the Savior. Here are some of the simple requirements: The Sabbath is appointed unto you to rest from your labors. The Sabbath is a special day for you to worship, to pray and to show zeal and ardor in your religious faith and duty — to pay devotions to the Most High. The Sabbath is a day when you are required to offer your time and attention in worship of the Lord; whether in meeting, in the home, or wherever you may be— that is the thought that should occupy your mind. The Sabbath is a day when, with your brethren and sisters, you should attend the meetings of the Saints, prepared to partake of the sacrament of the Lord's supper; having first confessed your sins before the Lord and your brethren and sisters, and forgiven your fellows as you expect the Lord to forgive you. On the Sabbath day you are to do no other thing than to prepare your food with singleness of heart, that your fasting may be EDITOR'S TABLE. 843 perfect, and your joy may be full. This is what the Lord calls fasting and prayer. The reason for this required course upon the Sabbath is also plainly stated in the revelations. It is that one may more fully keep himself unspotted from the world; and to this end, also, the Saints are required to go to the house of prayer and offer up their sacraments on the Sabbath day. Now, what is the promise to the Saints who observe the Sabbath? The Lord declares that inasmuch as they do this with cheerful hearts and countenances, the fulness of the earth is theirs: "the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth. Yea, and the herb, and the good things which cometh of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards." These are all made for the benefit and use of man, to please the eye and to gladden the heart, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. All are promised to those who keep the commandments, and among the commandments is this important one, to observe properly the Sabbath day. The Lord is not pleased with people who know these things and do them not. Men are not resting from their labors when they plow, and plant, and haul and dig. They are not resting when they linger around the home all day on Sunday, doing odd jobs that they have been too busy to do on other days. Men are not showing zeal and ardor in their religious faith and duty when they hustle off early on Sunday morning on the cars, in teams, in automobiles, to the canyons, the resorts, and to visit friends or places of amusement, with their wives and children. They are not paying their devotions in this way 'to the Most High. Not in seeking pleasure and recreation do they offer the-'r time and attention in the worship of the Lord; nor can they thus rejoice in the spirit of forgiveness and worship that comes with partaking of the holy sacrament. Boys and young men are not fasting with singleness of heart, that their joy may be full, when they spend the Sabbath day loafing around the village ice cream stand or restaurant, playing 844 IMPROVEMENT ERA. games, or in buggy-riding, fishing, shooting, or engaged in physical sports, excursions and outings. Such is not the course that will keep them unspotted from the world, but rather one that will deprive them of the rich promises of the Lord, give them sorrow instead of joy, and unrest and anxiety instead of the peace that comes with works of righteousness. Let us play and take recreation to our heart's content during other days, but on the Sabbath let us rest, worship, go to the house of prayer, partake of the sacrament, eat our food with singleness of heart, and pay our devotions to God, that the fulness of the earth may be ours, and that we may have peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come. "But," says one, "in our settlement we have no other day for amusements and sports, excursions and outings, ball games and races." Then demand one. Is it possible that parents, in the face of the promises of the Lord, will deny a day in the week when their children may have recreation; and so force them to spend the Sabbath in sports! One prominent man, in one of the northern stakes, where ball games and other sports are said to be the rule on Sunday, asked what could be done to remedy the evil. He was told to try a half holiday on one of the week days —say Saturday. "Then," he replied, "we can have no change nor remedy. Here are hundreds of acres of hay and ripening fields crying for workmen, and we cannot spare our boys for play." The best reply to such an argument is the question: Which is best, to let the hay go to ruin, or the boy? Let the hay go; save the boy. He is worth more than all your material possessions. Save him in the spirit of the gospel, — protect him from Sabbathbreaking, — by offering a little temporal sacrifice, and the Lord will keep his promises to you. Get together in your ward, unitedly select a day for play and recreation; and, like faithful Saints, demand that the Sabbath day, as far as you and yours are concerned, shall be devoted to the Lord our God! Joseph F. Smith. Messages from the Missions. Elder A. R. Babcock writes from New Haven, Conn.: "Gospel and life, as the Latter-day Saints understand them, are attracting the attention of many cultured citizens of this city. The cottage meetings held speak louder than words. On December 15, the first one in a dozen years was held here. January, 1910, there were four held, with an attendance of ten persons at each. In February, there were seven held; in March, ten; and in April, fifteen, with an average of twenty-five persons present. We receive our pay in full every day in contentment." ELDERS LABORING IN NEW HAVEN, CONN. From left to right: Don C. Smith, Snowflake, Arizona; A. Leroy Staker, Teton, Idaho; A. Rowley Babcock, Lost River, Idaho; and J. Wayne Peterson, Heber, Utah. President J. C. Larsen, Jr , writing from 375 Moss Lane East, Whitworth Park, Manchester,England, May 14, 1910, says: "A special public 846 IMPROVEMENT ERA. meeting was held at Manchester, April 20, for the purpose of opening and dedicating our new hall. In spite of the inclement weather, there were one hundred Saints and friends from this and other branches of the Manchester conference present, who were comfortably seated in the large room, and greatly enjoyed the spiritual and intellectual feast. President Charles W. Penrose came over from Liverpool to be with us on the occasion. The congregation sang, "We thank thee, 0 God, for a prophet.'' Prayer by Elder John E. Layne. Singing, "This hous-> we dedicate to thee." Conference President J. C. Larsen, Jr., welcomed all, and briefly told how the building had been acquired. President Penrose then dedicated the ground and building to the service of the Lord, asking the blessings of God on it, and on all who may come to it, either to preach the gospel or to learn the will of the Lord. Elder Nathan Done sang the sacred solo, "Sometime We'll Understand." President Penrose occupied the remaining time, explaining some of the duties and possibilities of Latter-day Saints. He showed the difference between eternal life and eternal existence. Said all God's children would have an eternal dwelling place somewhere, but to become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of the Father, they will have to ELDERS IN MANCHESTER CONFERENCE. Left to right, back row: W. C. Mills, L. G. Taylor, W. E. Mitten, J. McMurdie, S. 0. Bryson, H. C. C. Rich. Second row: J. F. Bagnalt, D. L. Pugh, N. R. Pixton, J. T. Williams, J. E. Layne. Third row: J, H. Bankhead, N. F. Bullen, George Briggs, Charles Porter, A. A. Atkinson, F. B. Meads, William Chappel. Fourth row: S. B. Wallis (local), D. R. Wilding, W. A. Langton, A. J. Munns. Front row: W. S. Glenn, Nathan Done, C. W. Gibbs, J. C. Larsen, Jr., (Conference President), H. Chamberlain, J. L. Barrow and C. D. Spence. EDITOR'S TABLE. 847 keep his commandments and exhibit the Christ-like spirit of brotherly love. There was an excellent spirit at the meeting. Both Saints and friends are well pleased with the new church, and feel it to be a long-felt want fully realized. The brick building contains three good sized rooms and a cloak-room. It is fitted up with gas and water, and has other modern conveniences. It has ample back and front yards, and is enclosed by a neat iron railing and hedge. It is located in ^ 4'*'% ' ' *"*■' ■ i •■-.. Tm .■ * W . ml m v: H W " ; • -- '- .4 *■ • '*' WW'"" BHBB^^S sssssi New Latter-day Saints' Church, Manchester, England, 88 Clarendon, Rd. Off High Street, C on M., as taken before the building was fixed for use. a very quiet and respectable residence district. The final settlement was made, and the deeds delivered just a few hours before the building was dedicated. We are very happy, and are most grateful to our mission president and to the Church authorities, at home in Zion, for buying us such a splendid place of worship. We feel it will be a power for good in spreading the truths of the restored gospel. We are all well, and the work is in a prosperous condition. We all read the Era with much profit. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Editor’s Table: Which Will You Save?," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 842–847. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. The Power of Habit. — On Saturday morning, May 28, last, at the priesthood meeting of the Granite stake, there were some one hundred and sixty-five members of the Lesser Priesthood quorums present. Elder George M. Cannon was given five minutes to talk to the boys, and he made the following interesting remarks on the power of habit : "I must say it is a very pleasing sight to see so many boys here this morning. I feel that great good will come to these boys from the privilege they have of attending meetings of this kind. When a little boy, I belonged to a ward in which the bishop took a good deal of pains with the boys of that ward — the fourteenth ward, Salt Lake City. We were early ordained deacons, and then gradually promoted to the various orders of the priesthood, and, personally, I received great benefit from the work assigned to us in that way. It is a good thing for the boys to learn that which is required of them as deacons, so that when they grow up they may understand the office and duty of a deacon. It is a good thing to be able, then, to do that which is required of a teacher; and, later, the work of a priest; and, finally, to receive a promotion such as is offered to many of the young men here today — to become elders. All of these offices were conferred upon me, and I was always thankful that I belonged to a ward where the bishop took pains in using the boys from the time of their youth until they became young men. "I deem it a blessing, also, that the boys may come together this morning, to a place where they meet the prophet of the Lord, for we have with us, on this occasion, President Joseph F.- Smith and both of his counselors. The time may come when the boys here present will be glad to testify to their children, and to those whom they meet, that they came, on this day in May, 1910, to this building, and were privileged to see the prophet of the Lord. I remember, myself, an experience that I had similar to this, by the permission of the bishopric of our ward, prior to the death of President Brigham Young. It was the custom in those days to hold priesthood meetings in the old Council House, which PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 849 was located at the place where the large Deseret News building now stands. I remember going to one of those meetings— the last public meeting, as I recall it, that was ever attended by President Brigham Young. I remember the remarks he made on that occasion, and I have always felt glad in my heart that I was invited to go to those meetings. I had frequently been to the Tabernacle, where we could see President Young from a distance, but in this particular meeting I was sitting a very few benches from where he sat, and I could hear every word he said, even in a quiet, conversational tone. I believe you boys who are present here will, in after life, appreciate the privilege you have of meeting the presiding authorities here today, and it will be a source of strength to you. ' 'I remember one of the lessons President Young sought to enforce at that time, and that was the necessity of our people being true to each other and the necessity of forming good habits. He told a story about a little boy away back in New England. He lived in a frame house, and when he was a little child he slept in the attic in that house. There happened to be a knot-hole in one of the boards, and it was his custom, on arising in the morning, to go to this place and put his finger into the knot-hole. The sun would stream onto it, and it would show the blood and bones in his hand. If any of you have ever put your finger into a knot-hole, where the sun was shining, you have seen a similar result to what we call an X-Ray; you can see the bone, the flesh and the blood. This little boy did that every morning when he got up. After awhile he grew to be a young man, and he entered business. In a short time, because of his faithfulness, he was promoted and became the junior partner. One morning he was called from his room in haste. He still slept in the attic, and he was called suddenly downstairs, so that he forgot his little custom. When he got downstairs he attended to that for which they had called him; then he had breakfast, and went off to his work. All the time he was eating his breakfast, he was wondering what he had forgotten. After awhile he went off to his office, and still he wondered what he had forgotten or neglected. He attended to his correspondence and his business duties, but still he could not think what it was. It worried him very much, and he asked the other members of the firm if they knew of any appointment he had made. He also asked the clerks if they knew of anything he had promised to do. Finally, he went back to his desk and commenced to look through his papers. Then he remembered what it was; he picked up his hat, rushed home, up to his room, and he stuck his finger into the knot-hole. (Laughter.) "That was told by President Young to illustrate the power of habit. 850 IMPROVEMENT ERA. If you form good habits, those things will stay with you through life, and help you to do right. If you form bad habits, they will make you their slaves. "You can be bound by your habits, just like the boy was who was called up by his teacher. She told him she was going to tie him up with a spool of thread, and the boy laughed at the idea of a little, weak woman tying him with a spool of thread. She had him put his thumbs up; they were crossed at the joints; and she began to wind the thread around them. She twisted the thread around, and around, and around again, until the thread had formed a band so strong he could not move his thumbs; he was bound by this little string of thread. After awhile she said, "Let's see you break loose." He was powerless, he could not move his thumbs; he was fastened as securely as if with iron bands. So it is with habit: if we form good habits, they will help us in life; if we form bad habits, they will enslave us. So President Frank Y. Taylor asks the young men to keep themselves pure and sweet, so that the Spirit of God may dwell in their tabernacles, which I pray may be the lot of all of us, in the name of Jesus. Amen. A Word to the Youth of Zion. — How can the young people of Zion best help the missionary cause? Upon whom does the responsibility of the spiritual growth of Zion depend? Upon those who have fought most of life's battle, or those who have the fight before them? Let all the youth of Zion strive for the advancement of the cause at home. There is just as bright a crown for those who do their duty at home as for those who work abroad. To do his duty is all that is required of any one. Though we may not at present be able to preach the gospel in the world, we can preach it at home by our every act, and in our everyday life. "Actions speak louder than words.-' I hope we may start the fight right and carry our banners to the front, thus following the paths of the noble ones who have gone before, and left us to finish the great work they have begun. You start right when you do your duty in your priesthood quorum. — W. J. Died in the Mission Field. — Elder Thaddeus Walker, of Inkom, Idaho, died in the Southern States Mission, on April 15, 1910, age twenty- one years. He had been on his mission twenty-four months. He labored for twenty-three months in the Florida conference, and died at Atlanta, Georgia, of typhoid fever. His companions speak of him as being pure, true and faithful. His body was embalmed and sent home for burial. Mutual Work. M. I. A. Track Meet. The second annual track meet of the Millard Stake Mutual Improvement Associations was held at Holden, April 21, 22 and 23. The weather conditions were ideal, and the good people of Holden royally entertained the hosts of visitors. Stake Secretary Albert E. Gull, of Meadow, reports that Joseph E. Maddock, the pleasant and affable coach of the University of Utah, conducted the event without a hitch. Professor Plumb's band, of Hinckley, discoursed sweet music. The success of the meet, he says, was due, in a large measure, to the efficient services of the Athletic and Oratorical committees. Eight out of tJie eleven wards in KARL H. DAY, Fillmore, winner in 100, 220 and 440 yard dashes. ALONZO HUNTSMAN, Fillmore, winner in standing and running high jumps, running broad jumps, and 220 yards hurdle race. ALBERT J. ASHMAN, Fillmore, winner in Oratory. FRED NEILSEN, Leamington, Shot-put hero, distance, 32 feet 1 inch. HINCKLEY JUNIOR BASKET BALL TEAM. Standing: F. L. Hickman, coach. Top row: Arthur Reeve, Lucin Whitehead, Johnny Wright, Clarence Bishop. Bottom row: William Blake, Moroni Moody, Johnny Greener. MUTUAL WORK. 853 the stake entered contestants, and there were more than one hundred entries, besides those who entered for story telling and oratory, — a material increase over last year's entries. All the officers and those immediately interested were greatly pleased with the way the young people conducted themselves, and feel that much good will come from these annual gatherings. Each victor on the field will receive a signet pin, while the winners in oratory will receive rewards of a literary character. Events, and those who won out: 100, 220 and 440 yard dashes— Karl H. Day, M. I. A. president of Fillmore, time 10 1-5, 23|, 53f sec, respectively. 880-yard run— John Lundahl, of Oak City, time: 2.04 minutes. One-mile run— Charles C. Roper, of Oak City, time: 4.48 minutes. 880-yard relay race — John Lundahl, Winslow Walker, Charles G. Roper and Ray Finlinson, all of Oak City. SOME OF THE CHAMPIONS AND THEIR COACHES. Back row: Soren J. Rawlinson, coach; Willard Christensen, LeRoy Walker, Alonzo Christensen, of the Oak City senior basket ball team; George E. Finlinson, president Y. M. M. I. A., chairman stake athletic committee and manager Oak City athletics. Second row: Winslow Walker, Oak City basket ball team; Joseph H. Maddock, coach U. ol U. ; John Lundahl, Oak City basket ball team and winner in halt-mile run; Stanley Lovell, winner in hammer throw. Bottom row: Clarence Nielsen, Oak City basket ball team; Roy Finlinson, Fred S. Lyman, winner in pole vault; Charles G. Roper, winner in one-mile run. OASIS BASKET BALL TEAM, WINNERS AT THE M. I. A. CONTEST. Top row, left to right: Hulda Hansen, Inga Christensen, Carrie Jensen, Leila Langston, Dora Henry. Bottom row: Lillie Hansen, Ava Bennett. 220-yard hurdle race— Alonzo Huntsman, of Fillmore, time: 27 seconds. The standing high jump, height not given; the running high jump, five feet, nine inches; and the broad jump, twenty feet, six inches, were also won by Huntsman. Shot put -Fred Nielson, of Leamington, distance 32 feet, 1 inch. Hammer throw— Stanley Lovell of Oak City, 95 feet 8 inches. Pole vault — Fred S. Lyman, of Oak City, 8 feet. Senior basket ball— Oak City. Junior basket ball— Hinckley. Ladies' basket ball— Oasis. Oral stories — first prize, Edith Cooper, of Deseret, subject: ''Queen Esther;" second prize, Ada Brunson, of Fillmore, subject: "Miriam.'' Orations — A.J. Ashman, of Fillmore, and Richard Nixon, of Holden, subjects: "The Peace Movement," and "Abraham Lincoln." Thus ended the three days' contest, and one of the largest gatherings ever held in Millard stake. Oak City carried off sixty- seven points, and won the silver cup from Deseret. The officers of the association express MUTUAL WORK. 855 their hope that the movement will still grow, and that it may be the means of improving the condition of the young people along all lines. Following are the Y. L. M. I. A. officers: Maggie Hatch, Albertina Fisher, Rose Jensen, Addie Hansen. The Y. M. M. I. A. officers: Jesse J. Bennett, Heber N. Beckstrand Arthur Stott, Albert E. Gull. Annual Conference. The Fifteenth General Annual Conference of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held June 3, 4, and 5, 1910, at Salt Lake City, Utah. The officers of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations assembled at Barratt Hall, June 4, 10 a. m., some five hundred being present, and Assistant Superintendent Heber J. Grant presiding. Singing, "0 ye mountains high" — Congregation. Prayer by Elder Joseph W. McMurrin. Singing, "The Sweetest Story Ever Told"— Provo quartet. Big Horn and Morgan were the only stakes unrepresented. The other sixty stakes were represented by three hundred and nineteen officers. Elder Douglas M. Todd spoke on EFFICIENT STAKE SUPERVISION. He referred to the organization of committees, to monthly officers' meetings, weekly stake officers' meetings and efficient clase teachers. Elder Todd emphasized the necessity of having a well organized stake board and of meeting regularly and planning the work. He said: "We have many enquiries coming in from superintendents as to work regulation, and we find that the best results accrue where there is a strong stake board regulating their work according to their peculiar conditions. The stake board should be reasonably compact, and the weekly meetings must be held regularly. There should be a regular organization of committees A good class leader is not always a good superintendent, and vice versa. When we find a young man well qualified for any particular position, it is well to keep him there. We believe in distributing the work among the young men. We have a great deal of work to perform, and our plan is based on the supposition that we have a great many workers. Nothing develops a young man faster than the placing of duties upon his shoulders commensurate with his capacities. Unless we can get more young men into the work, there will be a burden on the 856 IMPROVEMENT ERA. shoulders of the few. Not getting together and organizing right, not working to system, and lack of diligence, is- where we fail. The duty of the man in charge is to &ee that the others carry out the work under him. If he does that well, he will have his hands full. We must have a reasonably large stake board, with the best obtainable material, and there must be efficient work. When a young man comes home from college or a mission, there is a rivalry among the various Church organizations to secure his services, and we must be up and doing. But in the selection of a young man, a great deal depends on the spirit he manifests. If he does not show the proper spirit, with humility, his plans and work will amount to very little. Every man is entitled to the inspiration of his calling, and this inspiration should make him a leader in his work. Superintendent Heber J. Grant sang, "The Flag Without a Stain," the congregation joining in the chorus. Elder Oscar A. Kirkham, musical director of the association, read a very able paper on the subject of MUSIC IN THE ASSOCIATIONS. He told of the good effect of an inspiring song-program at the opening of religious exercises, and emphasized the necessity of having energetic young men to look after the musical talent and musical features, and it need not necessarily be the choir leader, who may be overburdened with work. He stated that under careful supervision, quartets and choruses might be formed, and these combined would make an excellent male chorus for stake occasions. He advised that all the singers learn the melody of our hymns before taking up part singing. While he did not wish to discourage part singing, he thought that all our people ought to be able to sing the melody of our hymns. Dr. John A. Widtsoe gave an interesting talk on DEBATES. This was a practically new feature of our work, but a number of associations had taken it up during the past winter and had met with success. Prospects are that next year many more of the organizations will take up debating, as the young ladies have decided to join in this feature. One additional conjoint meeting a month will be provided in their program, at which time the young ladies may take part in the debating work of the associations. A number of people had questioned the propriety of debating, as it led to differences of opinion, and in some cases to wrangling, so that no good result had come from them. He explained MUTUAL WORK. 857 the modern methods, and stated that there is no relationship between the old and the modern methods of debating. In debates there must first be a good selection of subject; then comes the thorough searching out of matter pertaining to the subject, the presentation in clear, concise, logical form, and, finally, the public deli?ery; but that is of little consequence as compared to the first-mentioned, more important features. At the conclusion of his address Dr. Widtsoe gave a forcible illustration of modern debates by introducing two bright young men of the Granite stake board, John E. Pixton for the negative and Hugo B. Anderson for the affirmative, their subject being, "Resolved, that a system of bank deposit guarantee similar to that of Oklahoma is desirable.'' Charles H. Hart, W. H. Smart, and Joseph F. Smith, Jr., were appointed judges, with Superintendent David H. Morris, of St. George, and Superintendent A. E. Cranney, of Logan, as time-keepers. The judges, after the spirited contest, rendered a mixed verdict, two in favor of the affirmative, and one for the negative. The decision was greeted with applause, as were the young men after each of their meritorious speeches. Elder B. H. Roberts spoke briefly on the cause of the feeling that once existed among our communities against debating, saying it came from the old religious debates once extant in the Church, which often developed into wrangling among the audiences, as well as among the debaters, the meeting often running on till midnight. The speaker was not in favor of debating on religious subjects, but thought debating as carried on at present, with suitable subjects and proper regulations, would be productive of much good. Some few minutes were then devoted to explaining the different departments of the work, and the asking of pertinent questions. Adjourned. Singing, "Praise to God, immortal praise"— Provo quartet. Benediction by Elder Frank Y. Taylor. Meeting again convened in Barratt Hall at 2 o'clock, Assistant Superintendent Heber J. Grant presiding. Singing, "We thank thee, 0 God, for a prophet"— Congregation. Prayer by Elder Nephi L. Morris. Violin solo— Professor W. C. Clive. Elder Lyman R. Martineau, on ATHLETICS, was the first speaker in the afternoon session. Elder Martineau stated that as far as he could learn from the different organizations, athletics 858 IMPROVEMENT ERA. had been a success, and had been the means of bringing a number of boys into the associations, who had not previously attended. He stated that the Juvenile Court had handled some three thousand, five hundred juvenile delinquents last year, and ninety-five per cent of these boys and girls had no official home, no place where they could go to have a social time in their own community, so they went out to seek friends. He thought that if our organizations would take up athletics and make it one of the prominent features of their work, and invite the boys that were inclined to be wayward, that in due course of time these very boys would become enrolled members in the organizations. He recommended that wherever practicable, the organization purchase some two or three acres for a campus of their own, and that they induce the boys to take care of it and become interested in it. It is not necessary to have an extensively equipped campus, but a few things at a time should be secured, until they have a well equipped campus. He also recommended that where a community was erecting a gymnasium or library, or were pushing any municipal movement, that the M. I. A. organizations co-operate with them and help to make it a success; but where there are no movements of this kind, that our organizations take the first steps. Elder Martineau argued that athletics, carried on in a proper manner, will do much to increase our attendance and bring about a general moral uplift. Elder John Henry Evans then gave a talk on GETTING MANUAL LESSONS. He stated that the manuals for this coming year would be "The Making of the Citizen," for the senior classes; and "Lessons in Conduct" for the junior classes, abounding in concrete narrative material, presented in a new and attractive way. The manuals for the senior class will take up economics and the general business affairs of life. There will be fifteen lessons in each manual. To begin with Elder Evans emphasized the necessity of getting the best man in the ward to teach the class, not necessarily a professional teacher, but one who is willing to work. The work in the mutual widely differs from that in the public schools, where the pupils prepare their lessons at home, to a great extent. Elder Evans recommended that where necessary, and when home preparation had been neglected, the teacher actually study the lesson with the students in class, and make the lesson as informal as possible. To do this successfully each member must have a text book in his hands. Where home preparation could be obtained, it was the ideal way, and by far the best means, but where circumstances were such that home preparation could not be obtained, he recommended the above methods. MUTUAL WORK. 859 Solo, "The Earth is the Lord's" — Oscar A. Kirkham. Dr. George H Brimhall spoke on the READING COURSE. The Committee on Reading Course had recommended the following books for 1910-11: For the Seniors: Lorna Boone, by Blackmore; Brewer's American Citizenship; Captain Bonneville, by Washington Irving; and Emerson's Essays: Friendship, Prudence and Heroism, in one book. For the Juniors: Timothy TitcomVs Letters, by J. G. Holland; The Widow 0' Callaghan' s Boys, by Zollinger; The Bishop's Shadow, by I. T. Thurston. Brother Brimhall stated that all these books had good points in them, but like most other books, none of them were all good. Time was devoted to PERTINENT QUESTIONS, during which the subjects of debates was again brought up. A number of officers stated that they held their regular meetings on Sunday evening, and asked the propriety of holding debates on that evening. Elder B. H. Roberts stated that in view of some of the Church members feeling some.vhat opposed to debating at all, on account of trouble that had arisen through debating in the past, and because of regard for the Sabbath day, that we do not hold debates on Sunday evening, since such action would tend to prejudice against them. After some discussion, a motion carried unanimously that debates be not held on Sunday evenings. General Secretary Moroni Snow read the statistical and financial reports, which will appear in these columns later. (The minutes, containing the other proceedings of Saturday and Sunday, will be concluded in the August Era which will also contain some Df the speeches made at the convention, and other important matter relating to our work. The fall convention dates have been set, and forwarded to the stake superintendents, who are requested to verify them, and if any changes are desired, to notify the General Secretary. The corrected dates will appear in the August number of the Era.) Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 848–859. # Mutual Work Passing Events. At the Lehi Tabernacle, on Sunday afternoon, May 8, 1910, 1,291 people attended meeting. The occasion was the dedication of the splendid building. Bishop James H. Gardner, of the second ward, presided, and Presidents Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund, the stake presidency, high councilors and bishops of the stake were present. This tabernacle is one of the finest churches in the state. It is built of buffcolored pressed brick, on a foundation of blue limestone, with a heavy footing of concrete. The seating capacity is 1,100, and the cost $46,500, not counting the beautiful pipe organ, nineteen feet high, eight feet deep and twenty feet wide, having thirteen couplers and accessories, which cost $3,700. A portrait and description of the organ has The corner stone of this 1901, the ground having LEHI TABERNACLE. Dedicated May 9, 1910. heretofore appeared in the Improvement Era. tabernacle was laid on the 14th of September, been broken in the fall of 1900. The dimensions of the building outside PASSING EVENTS. 861 are 76 by 121 feet, the main auditorium being 60 by 80 feet. Lehi was one ward at the time it was started, presided over by Bishop T. R. Cutler, but before ii was completed the city was divided into four, with Anders Fjeld, James H. Gardner, Henry Lewis and John Stoker bishops of the respective wards. The main auditorium of the building is now used by the first and second wards, while the room at the back is used by the second ward Relief Society. Originally it was planned that the basement should be used for Sunday school and Mutual work, but when the ward was divided, the second ward finished the part of the house now used for their assembly rooms. The main room seats four hundred people, and there are four class rooms, besides a front room and a furnace room. The grounds cover an area of eleven by thirteen rods, are surrounded by a fence, and will be parked early next spring. The building was dedicated May 8, by President Joseph F. Smith, and on the day of the dedication many former residents of the city came from different parts to attend the exercises. The alfalfa weavil, a lucern pest which has spread from Salt Lake county to surrounding counties, has done much damage to the alfalfa crop in Tooele, Davis, Summit and parts of Utah counties. This is one of the most serious troubles that the farmers of Utah have ever met with, and the extinction of the pest should receive not only the hearty co-operation of every farmer in the state, but that of every other citizen. In the Deseret Farmer, of May 21, the following editorial appears: "Professor Titus reports that this pest has been in Utah since 1904, and last year (1909) it began to spread from Salt Lake county to adjoining counties. Anyone who has not had actual experience with the insect can hardly appreciate the extent of the loss. Serious injury in the field appears in the distance like frost, but closer examination shows thousands of young worms feeding upon the plants. "We regard this as the most serious menace to Utah agriculture that has ever appeared, and feel that a united effort should be made at once to check its spread. In relation to methods of control, Professor Titus has the following to advise: "Cut the first crop as early as possible. The ground should be disced and cross-disced as soon as the hay is off, and then gone o,Ter with a leveler in the same way. These operations will kill a large percentage of the young worms. Then force the second crop as rapidly as possible and repeat the discing and leveling. "In a newly infected district, like Tooele county, it would seem to us the part of wisdom to go over the field with a mowing machine, fire and plow. This is a serious problem, farmers of Utah, and needs to be met with every force at our command." John Hafen, the well known landscape painter, died at Indianap_ 862 IMPROVEMENT ERA. olis, Indiana, on the morning of June 3, 1910. His name has been a household word among the people of Utah and the West generally for many years, and in the Church and state publications his work and name were frequently mentioned. Mr. Hafen was born in Scherzingen, Switzerland, in 1857. At the age of five he came with his parents to Utah, and since that time has spent most of his life in the state. He has been abroad several times to pursue his art, and did his most extensive studying in the Julian Academy, Paris. His landscape work, particularly, has attracted great attention. He won the state prize of $500 for the best painting, in 1900, and in 1902 the medal of honor from the Utah State Art Institute. The same year he received the first prize for the best landscape painting at the state fair. Just prior to the dedication of the Salt Lake temple he labored as a decorator of the interior of that edifice. Recently he has passed much of his time in Indianapolis, where he was engaged in painting portraits of many leading citizens, and had won considerable success in his efforts in this line, as well as in landscape painting. His family was with him at the time of his death, they having left their home in Springville only a few days before, to spend the summer with him. His death was entirely unexpected. He was a man of excellent taste, and was very spiritual-minded in his feelings. He believed that his calling to art came from the Divine Spirit, and this upheld him so that adversity had no power to dull his genius. Funeral services were held in the Provo tabernacle on the JOHN HAFEN. A late Portrait of the Artist John Hafen. PASSING EVENTS. 863 morning of June 9. L. A. Ramsey, the artist and author of the portrait of Joseph Smith, Elder Nephi L. Morris,Dr. George H.Brimhall, Elder B. H. Roberts, and others, spoke in eulogy of his life and labors. His body was buried in the Springville cemetery. On Sunday morning, 5th, at the annual conference of the M. I. A., a fitting tribute was paid to the memory of the artist by Elder Heber J. Grant, who, in addition, read appreciations of his life and work, from a number of Utah artists. Heber Scowcroft, who was appointed a member of the Auditing Committee of the Church at the late April conference, was only twelve years of age when he came to Utah with his parents. He was born in Tottenham, Lancashire, England. January 21, 1868, and is the son of the late John Scowcroft, who with his wife and five children emigrated from their native land, England, in June, 1880. Heber attended the public schools of Ogden until seventeen years of age, since which time he has been identified with the business established by his father, becoming a partner in the firm of John Scowcroft & Sons Company, one of the large wholesale houses of Utah, in January, 1889. He is also a heavy stockholder and director in the Pingree National Bank, a stockholder in the Bank of Preston, Idaho, and a stockholder and director in the VolkerScowcrof t Lumber Company, besides holding interests in many other commercial organizations of the state. He was married to Ellen Pingree, a daughter of Job Pingree, in January, 1890. She died in 1900, leaving him three children. In the following year he married Ida Pingree, a sister of his former wife, with whom he has eight children, five of whom are eight years of age and under. He has occupied a number of Church positions, being counselor to President John L. Herrick, in the Y. M. M. I. A. of the second ward, Ogden, in 1896. He was second assistant to A. McLaren Boyle, in the superintendency of the second ward Sunday school, in 1897. When, in 1889, John L. Herrick was called to fill the position of superintendent of the Weber Stake Y. M. M. I. A., Heber was called as his second assistant, in which position he labored faithfully for many years, and was released in 1901 to act in the bishopric of the second ward, as counselor to Bishop Robert McQuarrie. In 1904, when the parents class movement was first agitated, the second ward of Ogden was selected for the experiment, and Heber Scowcroft was chosen to take charge and supervise the first class thus organized in the Church. The experiment was a success, and other classes were proposed in other wards. He assisted in launching this movement, being later made a member in the Weber stake Sunday school board, laboring in the parents' department, with Judge H. H. Rolapp at the head. After the division of Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 860–863. # Passing Events 864 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the Weber stake into three, in 1908, he was chosen a member of the high council of the Weber stake, which position he still holds. In the fall of 1909, when the Betterment League was organized in Ogden, at the head of which is Elder David 0. McKay, of the quorum of twelve apostles, Heber Scowcroft was chosen by the president as chairman of the executive committee of the league, and he has devoted much time to this organization, which promises much for the civic betterment of Ogden. He has held no political offices, though often importuned to accept the nomination for member of the city council ; and for mayor in two different campaigns. He has always contended that his spare time was better taken up with Church work, and that he could not well accept the political positions, since in them he would have to cater, to some extent, to the liquor and sporting elements of the city. He is a strong advocate of public education, and is also a patron and advocate of Church schools, being at present a member and secretary of the Board of Education of the Weber Stake Academy, located in Ogden. He is a young man of splendid business ability, strong in mortfl qualities, and one of the most energetic Church workers in the community. Theodore Roosevelt received the degree of D. C. L. at Oxford on June 7th, on which occasion he delivered his Romanes lecture which dealt with "Biological Analogies in History." The ceremony took place in the Sheldonian Theatre, where for three hundred years and more it has been the custom to hold these exercises. His reception surpassed in enthusiasm anything within the memory of the oldest Oxonians. Following the lecture, Mr. Roosevelt and one hundred and fifty Americans, including the Rhodes scholars, lunched together. Here is an extract from the close of his sermon: I believe that we, of the great civilized nations of today, have a right to feel that long careers of achievement lie before our several countries. To each of us is vouchsafed the honorable privilege of doing his part, however small, in that work. Let us strive hardly for success, even if by so doing we risk failure, spurning the poorer souls of small endeavor, who know neither failure nor success. Let us hope that our own blood shall continue in the land, that our children and children's children, to endless generations, shall rise to take our places and play a mighty and dominant part in the world. But whether this be denied or granted by the years we shall not see, let at least the satisfaction be ours that we have carried onward the lighted torch in our own day and generation. If we do this, then, as our eyes close and we go out into the darkness, and other hands grasp the torch, at least we can say that our part has been borne well and valiantly. Col. Roosevelt arrived in New York June 18, having sailed from there March 23, 1909. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 9 (July 1910): 864. # *Improvement Era*, August 1910 The retained masthead identifies *Improvement Era*, volume 13, no. 10, August 1910, published monthly at Salt Lake City by the General Board of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations. ## Editorial contents - “Be Ye Clean”, 865. - The Mill in Liberty Park, 876. - The Friend, 878. - My Home Among the Hills, 892. - The Martyr, 894. - Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury—My Friend, 917. - Dudley Bain, 920. - Some Men Who Have Done Things—X. George Reed, the Cauliflower King, 925. - Editor’s Table: Order of the Priesthood, 932. - Priesthood Quorums’ Table, 940. - Mutual Work, 944. - Passing Events, 955. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910), cover, masthead, and editorial contents. # “Be Ye Clean” IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. AUGUST, 1910. No 10. "Be Ye Clean.'" BY DR. GEORGE H. BRIMHALL, PRESIDENT OP THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. My brethren and sisters, I believe in self-reliance; I believe in a certain amount of independence; but I do not believe that self-reliance segregated from everything else is of much value. I do not think my self-reliance to breathe is of much value if I eliminate my dependence upon a supply of something to breathe. I do not believe that my self-reliance to see amounts to very much standing off by itself, and no stimulus furnished me from elsewhere. This ego, this suggestive existence is a very small thing to boast over. I want your faith and your prayers; I want to be dependent upon my Father in heaven, so exercise your faith and prayers for me. I am here for you, tonight; you are not here for me. The Church is for you. This beautiful world is for the people who are in it. The gospel is for you. It would be a gospel if none of you lived. It is not so much a question of you being for the institution, as the institution being for you. "Be ye clean," has been assigned me as a topic. Who said it? It is put in quotation marks. My Father in heaven, your *An address delivered at the closing session of the annual M. I. A. Conference, June 5, 1910, at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. 866 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Father in heaven said it and handed it down to us, through the dispensations, reiterating it to the Prophet Joseph. Cleanliness, courage and industry characterize a successful life. I mean courage to do what we know to be right, and courage to seek the greatest avenues of right — God's avenues. Where else do I hear the proclamation, "Be ye clean?" To whom am I addressing this text? To young Israel; to men and women the issue of the cleanest fountains of life that the ages have produced— the Josephs of modern Israel. I am speaking to a class of men and women, youths and maidens, who have been put in the midst of environments all of which are saying, Be ye clean. If I cast my eyes upward, the Italian skies smile back upon ire, and it seems as if they say to my soul, Be ye clean. These mountain peaks, capped with the symbol of purity, the white snow, looking down upon us from the time we were born, are saying with the silent influence of their majesty and their purity, Be ye clean. The mountain rills, that come leaping from the canyons and sparkle in their clearness, seem to say, Be ye clean. The wind that blows, coming from the grass-covered mountains, or the pineclad hills, in all its freshness seems to say — no, not seems to say, it does say to your soul and to mine, Be ye clean. It purifies my blood, and invigorates my whole being. Then, if I gaze upon myself, or if I look upon one of you — the human form, with its contour, its symmetry, filled with intelligence, this individual says, Be ye clean. I heard an eminent physician, not long since, speaking about keeping the body clean, and he said to the students: "How sweet we feel when we are clean ! How the very fragrance of cleanliness is invigorating! There is nothing so sweet as a clean babe, with all its innocence." But there is another field to which I turn — the soul-craving, the yearning for cleanliness, the thirst for righteousness. If I turn t) my own soul, and you to yours, if it is not a corrupted soul, we find a something in here which says, Be ye clean. Then, if this be true, why give such a subject as this for our conference? I will take the liberty of reading a clipping from our newspaper — I say our newspaper, because if I can have but one newspaper, this is the one I shall have, because it is the cleanest one. I find that, by reading this paper, I am posted "BE YE CLEANS 867 fairly well, with my neighbors, on the current events of the age. I find that, through its columns, I form an acquaintance with the hourly news of the day, comparatively with my friends with whom I converse. I find that it is a peer, as a periodical, to the best periodicals; and 1 find that its editorial pages sparkle with the things that help me as a father, help me as a teacher, help me as a man. It is one of the factors of social and individual cleanliness. I have reference to the Deseret News. I do not hear very much about it; it does not need talking about, but I come back again to the first proposition — the Deseret News, perchance, does not need me, but I need it; my household needs it; the school with which I am connected needs it. I will read this clipping, from a recent editorial in the News: A little book has just been published by the Vir Publishing company, Philadelphia, which should be widely read. It is called Letters of a Physician to his Daughters, and it treats on "the great black plague," a subject on which too little is generally known. The author is Dr. F. A. Rupp. His aim is to enlighten the young people on the awful dangers to which they are exposed through the existence of the "social evil.'1 His language is plain, and some of the facts he relates are awful, but the little book can be read by the most fastidious. The author claims that about 72 per cent of the adult male population is unfit, on account of a certain disease, to be husbands and fathers, and that thousands of innocent girls are every year contaminated, broken in health and sent to their graves. He warns unsuspecting girls against these conditions. It is a subject of which little is ever said, in public or in print, but it is evident that the time has come for a friendly warning to the young people. The conditions in the world are such that, for the sake of coming generations, no less than ourselves, it becomes necessary to make war upon "the black plague," with all the means at our disposal. I was not startled at reading this, because I had taken pains to confidentially converse with physicians concerning conditions, and I was told by one, and it was verified by another, in brief, that the graduating physicians abroad are told to take no chances when they go to a home where a new birth is expected — take no chances, but always treat the eyes of the child at its birth! Then he gave me the per cents. I will not quote them here, because I 868 IMPROVEMENT ERA. think you are ready to say, "Talk cleanliness; the world has filth enough that we must meet and endure." You and I needed no treatment of that kind! There was no necessity of cautioning the accoucheurs in our homes to protect us from the probability of having our little eyes filled, at birth, with that which would put them out. Ah! the Jews understood something about these things when they said, ''Master, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" But we were born of an ancestry that put us on the plain of life unhandicapped, that we might survive among the fittest of men. Today I met a woman from the south, and she said: "My father was a wonderful man. He has a posterity of over two hundred, and not one of them is deformed." Of those two hundred descendants of that man, there is not one that is deficient in any faculty; he is but a type of many of the founders of this commonwealth. I suppose I might tell you of some things you already know. One of them is this: You must exist, there is no escaping from existence, and you must, with myself, be subject to law. If I will not obey high law, I must come under the penalty of low law. If I will not keep the law of cleanliness, then I must come under the law of un cleanliness. We cannot escape it, either individually or communitively. The law is after every one of us — silently, searchingly making its demands. I want to relate a circumstance or two on this question of personal cleanliness. An eminent physician said to me, the other night, on the train, "Do you remember such and such a young man?" I replied, "I do; and I knew his father. His father was a very prominent man in educational and political circles." "Well," he said, "I was that man's classmate. He could get his geometry with a half hour's effort; his language was but a plaything to him; and he walked right through Latin, while I plodded and plodded. We loved each other; we hunted and fished together; we associated together among our friends. I scarcely had a brother that I loved as I loved him. He knew my heart; I thought I knew his. We graduated together. One day he came to me and said, calling me by name, 'Let us go to such a place tonight.' And I asked him, 'Why? What for?' 'Oh,' he said, 'you will learn what for. You have not tasted the sweet fruits of life " BE YE CLEAN:1 868 yet; come on.' I said, 'Explain;' and he told me where he was going and what he was going for. I turned to him and said, 'My friend, no other man have I loved more than you; no other man has been knitted to my soul by the bonds of companionship more closely than you; but henceforth please do not acknowledge me as an acquaintance. You have been where I can never go. I have my manhood; I have the purity of my boyhood; now we part." And they parted. The man who had tasted these "sweets of life" and sought to befriend his companion by luring him there, went east to school; and for the first year he made a record. The next year his memory failed him; "and the sequence was," said my friend on the train, "he died in a hospital." "That is a sporadic case, doctor," I said. "It represents a type, a whole class of men," he said. The wages of sin is death. Now what took place in this sad case? It was a happy thing for the man and the community that he did die, that he was gone. Nature blotted him out, as far as an earthly individual is concerned. She did more than that, she blotted him out as a perpetuator of his race. I do not know whether he will want individual, eternal life or not, but he can't escape it — I mean individual, eternal existence; he can't escape that; but I do not think he can have eternal life in the sense that you and I can enjoy it, because eternal life means eternal liberty; it means eternal love; it means eternal labor; it means eternal progress. He cannot have it as you and I can have it, because he is loaded down, bowed in spirit, filthy still; as the Prophet Alma says, "Do not think that the resurrection is the restoration of impurity to purity; that which is filthy will be filthy still; ' indicating that a process of purification must go on after death. The character of all characters that I admire is Joseph that was sold into Egypt. He, it seems to me, was the most rounded character I ever read of. He must have been a perfect type of physical vigor, and he must have been a high type of intellectual vigor, else the great landowner of Egypt would not have trusted him, and he would not have been put as an overseer in the prison cell. He must have been a wonderful type of moral vigor and strength to stand true to his master, true to his trust, true to 870 IMPROVEMENT ERA. himself. I know that he was a high type of spiritual vigor, because when the king was troubled he came out with boldness, saying that interpretations belong to God, and then with selfreliance, reinforced by a reliance on the Lord — and that comes only through spirituality — he said, "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." That is an all-around man — physically, morally, intellectually and spiritually vigorous. The other day I was coming from the south in an automobile. The owner of it was handling it, and his wife, who was sitting behind, said, calling him by name: "Something is the matter with this machine The valves are not working equally; you have lost a spark some vrli ere." The man threw on the extra force of the gasoline, and sought to clear the eigine, but it would not clear, and he said, "I believe there is a dead spark." He got out. I wanted to learn something about automobiles, so I got out, too. He lifted the cover and he took one of the plugs out — cr, first, he took a steel screw-driver and held it near to the little rod that ran up beside one of these plugs. As he touched it, an electric spark flew to the screw-driver, and he said, "Alive." He touched the next one. There was a spark. He said, "That one's alive and all right." As he put his screwdriver near the third one there was a faint response. He said, "Half dead." He put his screw-driver to the next one — no response. He said, "Dead." He went back to the box and took a new plug. He unscrewed the dead plug and screwed the new one in its place. He unscrewed the half-dead plug, then took a brush and a little — something like a toothpick— and began to pick at the plug and brush it. By this time I said, "Well, what made that one weak?" "Dirt," he said. "Oh," I said, "that was what killed the last one?" He said, "Sure. Sometimes, when we get a faint, weak plug, we can clean it up and go on; but if it gets very dirty we have to unscrew it and put in a new one." Well, the whole thing was preaching me a sermon. I once heard President George Q. Cannon speaking from this stand to the young people on "The causes of apostasy, " and he "BE YE CLEAN." 87 1 gave uncleanliness, — he called it unchastity — as one of the causes of apostasy. Do you know that we have the word of the Eternal that a filthy man, an unchaste man, one who persists in it and does not repent in sack-cloth and ashes, shall deny the faith? It is an absolute, fixed penalty. A man that will undertake to be unclean and remain in this Church, is attempting to make Deity a falsifier. Dirty sparks — dying sparks— dead sparks. The Josephs were not all sent to Egypt, brethren and sisters; there are many Josephs in Israel today. I want to talk cleanliness to you. I will tell you a story of one of our young men that went to Germany, a perfect Apollo" in physique, and he was marked as a victim by beauty and wealth. He found himself locked in a room, on a railroad train, with one of his pursuers, a charming creature, and he said to me: "Why, Brother Brimhall, you don't know how my blood boiled. At first I was simply disgusted, but the allurements, and the cunning, and the blandishments, and the taunts — at times taunting me as not being a man — were hard to endure. Every fiber of my being was burning with passion; and" he said, "do you know what happened? Vividly came back the words of Apostle John Henry Smith, which he spoke to me when I left for Europe. It seemed that I could see him standing right before me, and feel the pressure of his parting grasp; and I was lifted into an atmosphere of purity, so that I would have died before I would have yielded to the temptations without, or the clamoring within." Another young man who went west for an education, and who is quite an eminent professor, said: ' 'Mormonism' saved me when I was out in the world. The words of Joseph Smith, that I had read, saved me. I was in the swim, rushing along down the social current, and I came to a place where I was face to face with temptation, and these words came to me: 'A man who commits adultery cannot enter the celestial kingdom of God.' I had read that, and I believed it, and it kept me from falling." I speak of this that you may know what influence the gospel has upon men, and how it rescues them. Oh, is it possible that a class of young people who are taught as you and I have been 872 IMPROVEMENT ERA. taught— that keeping clean is as much a necessity as keeping alive — is it possible that we can ever prostitute our purity! I remember a case of parents saying to their son, "Now, you are going on a mission. We are glad you are worthy. We expect you to do your duty and return, but we would rather you came back to us in a coffin than to come back to us unclean." We, as a people, are taught that next to murder is unchastity; and that is philosophic. The man who kills his fellow man, unlawfully, moves the spirit world; he has created conditions that demand an entrance into the spirit world; and he has no authority of law for doing it. And the person who creates physical conditions that require the moving of the heavens towards the earth, with no authority of law behind the act, has unlawfully disturbed the physical and the spiritual universe. Oh, my brethren and sisters, happy, happy is the father and the mother who can take their first-born, and all their children, and say, "You are the product of law and love!" I speak of the law of God, not only in our Church — for we have the law of God, it is the law of God for eternity, — but people outside the Church may have the law of God, to them, for this life. Is it possible that a man will take advantage of a woman's weakness? Why not take the advantage of the weakness of her arm and strike the blow, because you are stronger? Have virtuous boys and you will have chaste girls everywhere. I heard a woman, one time from this stand, years ago, say that in primitive time man pursued woman as the hawk pursues the dove. Well, it is too much so now. There are men in this enlightened age who talk about woman being the legitimate prey of man — but not Latter-day Saints, not real men. Let me tell you what happened in a court, in a celebrated case. I will just quote the words of the attorney; they impressed me very forcibly. It was a case where a fallen woman had killed a vile man. It had been a long drawn out case; I will not name it here, if I did, you would remember it. The attorney said, "The brute in hici called, and the brute in her answered." We speak about having spirit in our veins, in the resurrection. Why, we need spirit in our veins now, to control this blood that is in our veins. The brute is not to lead the man, and it is wrong, in one respect, to call it brute, because it is the image of God, but "BE YE CLEAN:' 873 it may become brutish. It is an awful thing to call a man a brute, but if he lets these lower impulses guide him and direct him. what is he? He is subject to the lower or animal nature; he is worse lhan the brute, lower than the brute, because he is a man underneath the brute. Why shall we not protect them — our sisters? They are jewels in our care; are we knights or cravens? Let me tell you, girls, no man is capable — I am speaking psychologically— no man is capabe of properly loving a woman whose virtue he has not had a regard for. After he has despoiled her, I do not care what compensation he may make, he is psychologically incapable of loving her as he would have loved her had he followed the lines of the law and of humanity, and not the cravings of animality. History is full of incidents to prove this, and science is conclusive on that point. Now, girls, you might remember this: don't cheapen your charms. Do you remember the story of the old grocer who, when a fellow came up to his store and began taking hold of the fruit, said, "Begone with you?" The fellow thought the old grocer was rather surly, and said, "Why, we might want to buy some peaches;" and the old man replied, "A peach that everybody handles, nobody wants to buy." (Laughter.) So, girls, don*t cheapen your charms. There are things that strengthen us in the line of being clean, aside from what we have been born to. Among these are clean books, clean associates. I heard a man say, the other day, at our commencement exercises, a very intellectual man who was speaking to the graduates, how they were to be responsible for what they did in this world, and he said, "I have been trying for fifty years to overcome a song I heard when I was a boy." I say to you, oh, have regard for boyhood! If you cannot regard your God, if you cannot regard yourself, your fatherhood, your mother sentiment, regard the boy, and never sing aught but purity in his presence, nor tell a story that is filled with unclean thoughts, lest you be held guilty of corrupting an innocent soul. We, many of us, know how these things hang on to us. There is a place in Spanish Fork canyon that I cannot pass today without an old vulgar jingling coming into my ears. I was riding up the canyon, one day, with Dr. M. H. Hardy — there was a man whose life was a 874 IMPROVEMENT ERA. > sermon in cleanliness and courage — and I said to him, "Doctor when we get up there, that old thing is going to rise up." "You know how to get rid of it?" he said. "Yes, I have been thinking of it." As we rode up, there was the maple tree under which the camp-fire had been built, twenty-five years before that time. Around that camp-fire crouched, with the rain pouring down on the quilts, the men — no, the males, — who sang that vulgar song to me and the other boys. Well, as we approached that old campground there, the jingle of that song began, and the unclean suggestions came back to me, and I called out, so loud that it echoed over the hills, the names of "Nephi!" "Joseph!" and at once my mind was filled with revelations of the deeds of these noble characters, and suddenly the vile images and suggestions skulked off to the corners of forgetfulness; evil was overcome with good, and Satan was cast out. Lives of great men are calling, "Be clean!" I want to tell you what else calls to me: The wrecks of my acquaintances, the ruined lives, the darkened souls of men that I have known are looking up and saying, "Oh, be clean! Be clean!" The ruins of prostitute and decayed nations are calling to you and to me, all down the corridors of time, saying to us, as a community, and saying to the young people of this century, "Be clean! Be clean!" The words of my mother are echoing in my ears — the words she wrote me at a mining camp, saying, "my boy, be clean! be clean!" The eyes of my children, the confiuing gaze of my wife, the sweet, innocent look of the students I meet, and my brethren and sisters, are all saying, "Be clean!" And, oh, 1 thank God that I have been preserved! I thank my Father that I have escaped unscathed! What would I be if I had to keep my soul, all the time, a secret that I dare not divulge to my complement, and be conscious that if she knew what I knew about myself she would regret having become mine! Wnatmust a lover feel, when he is forced to realize that if his sweetheart knew what he knows about himself she would never marry him! A fair deal in courtship is made possible only by cleanliness, or by open confession. One thing more: The lives of my brethren with whom I asso- "BE YE CLEAN:' 875 ciate, the brethren in our home circles and the brethren here, and especially the whole lives of the general authorities of the Church, are calling to me and saying, "Be clean! Be clean!" The cleanliness of their words and works at home and abroad proclaim cleanliness of character. I wish to testify with all the power I have, with all the hopes I have of meeting it here and hereafter, that the feeling, the spirit and the atmosphere that surround the brethren, the leaders of this people, breathe cleanliness and courage. And, further, that great and good men of the world testify to the same thing. God bless you and this work — this glorious work! May he help us to keep our family name clean, help us to keep the name of this Church clean, and help — oh, not help, but do keep ourselves clean, that we may not be required to walk the earth, or go into the eternities of the spirit world loaded down with uncleanliness — is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Come, Gather to Zion. (For the Improvement Era.) Out on life's sea where the tempest is raging, A wand'rer is drifting so sad and alone, And over the billows the Savior is calling And earnestly bidding the wand'rer come home. Come, gather to Zion, ye humble and lowly, No longer in darkness ye wander alone, The elders of Israel are the gospel proclaiming, And bringing God's children to Zion, their home. Come, ye that are weary and burdened with sorrow; Come, ye young and ye old, ye feeble and blind; . Yes, come unto Zion, your home in the mountains, And partake of the blessings of Jesus so kind. Come, ye honest in heart, and receive the glad message : The Savior has spoken from heaven once more, Restored the true gospel in his tender mercy, Come, gather to Zion, and rejoice evermore! Eugene A. Rooch. Mt. Carmel, Utah. Citation: George H. Brimhall, "“Be Ye Clean”," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 865–875. # The Mill in Liberty Park THE MILL IN LIBERTY PARK. FROM A SKETCH BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE. It might be thought, perhaps, that in a country so recently settled as Utah, there would be very few buildings of a purely picturesque character. Such, however, is not the fact* There are all sorts of rustic bits, worthy the sketcher's attention, by the quiet valley streams and at the village crossroads— weather-stained mills with cumbrous wheels, odd cottages, all sorts of quaint pieces of architecture, surrounded by fields and orchard walls. The old mill in Liberty Park was once highly picturesque ; that is, especially in connection with its surroundings. In the spring time there was a bright and pleasant scene there, when the rushes of the mill-pond first thrust up their fresh green blades from the water, but growing more sombre as the season advanced until, in summer, the rushes formed an all but unimpenetrable fen, inhabited by all the marauding blackbirds of the locality. Perfectly in keeping with the mill and its environments were the rain storms of autumn, when the rushes were all withered and brown, and up amongst them were the tall milkweeds with faded, yellow leaves and silken tassels hanging from the bursted seed-pods. The above sketch was taken by the flume, where the waters of the pond emptied when the mill was at rest. ~**-„Tj^0^ ■ ■ 2l ' . - v ' '" ■ ,y--~- w ih i ;.u \\ v -■' . 1 J ^jmn 1 i^m 1 < " 1 ■- — ■ 1 I 1 »•»«*! 1 '^k~ g=ffa "" ."" ."':-— t: ■■ - *■**" « -p fr^~~~~ , g ~_-_ =L_^ .-^=33^^ THE SAW MILL, MOUTH OF NOISY WATER. FROM A SKETCH BY ALFRED LAMBOURNE. Hardly could we find a more pictorial scene than was once the Church blacksmith-shop, a short distance beyond the Eagle Gate. That is, in connection with the water mill that once stood by it. The gray adobe walls of the shop, the wheel and grass-grown flume of the mill, were reflected in a pool of the passing stream. And in the background were the bold outlines of the northern hills. No less picturesque was the saw-mill, a short distance beyond; and again the flour mill beyond that. In brief, the mouth of Noisy Water, a few years ago, was a sort of paradise for the sketcher of rustic scenes. There was something impressive in the thought, as one used to look at the mill or saw wheel, that the water that turned it came from the wilds that heard the eagle's scream and the cries of the wild beasts, and yet passed on to irrigate the fields and orchards of the Pioneers. And the logs that lay by the saw-mill, too ; they had been the solemn pines •which grew where raged the mountain storms; their branches had been vocal to the winds of summer and winter; the lightnings had played among them, and the wild snows had drifted. The pines had murmured like the waves of a summer sea; or shrieked before the fierce onslaught of the northern blast. Citation: Alfred Lambourne, "The Mill in Liberty Park," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 876–877. # The Friend The Friend. BY WILLARD DONE. I. "Big Bill Dayton" he was called by the men who rode the western plains with him. In the large hearts of these men, expanding under the influence of the boundless plains and the lofty mountains, he occupied a place befitting his size. For Dayton was a big-bodied, large-souled man, in every sense a friend. And if, in a universal way, "all the world loves a lover," every man in it loves intimately and individually a friend. Dayton was a scout, hunter and guide on the western frontiers in the early 50's, and knew every phase of the wild lives and strong, sturdy, true characters of the men who braved the primitive perils and hardships of the virgin wilderness. Therewas a mysterious something connected with his early life in New England which had been only vaguely hinted at among his companions, but was circumstantially known to none of them. They only knew, in a general way, that in his young manhood he had had educational advantages, social aspirations, bright prospects, refined surroundings, influential connections. Then, of a sudden, everything changed; prospects vanished; the future was darkened; and "the places that had known him knew him no more." It was, as Longfellow has said, As if a morning of June, with all its music and sunshine, Suddenly paused in the sky, and fading, slowly descended Into the east again, from whence it late had arisen. There were vague hints of an unfortunate love affair, involving the treachery of a trusted friend, and a disappointment from THE FRIEND. 879 which complete recovery was impossible. At any rate, he suddenly left his native town just when his career seemed about to open, and began a new life in the great west. The friends he found in his new home, and the few strangers he occasionally met, made but few attempts to probe into his past, and he met these attempts with good-humored but baffling evasion. "Bill," said one of them, "why did ye come to th' wild and woolly, when ye might 've hed wife and young 'uns and home and infiooence in th' effete east? What made ye come, anyway?" With a good-natured smile and wink he answered, " 'Cause I like ye so well, boys. I felt yer friendly hooks a reachin' out and pullin' me acrost the range, and I jist couldn't help comin'. It was your fault thet the east lost me, an' my promisin' career was cut short. Why say, boys, if ye'd only let me alone, I might' ve been in Congress or in jail by now. And maybe I wouldn't 've broke the hearts of a lot of forlorn girls and left New England so all fired full of pinin' old maids. It's all your fault, boys." His manner of speech, rather than his words, was greeted with delighted shouts, and the boys knew better than to pursue the subject further. It was very evident that Dayton had no intention of telling them of his life before the west called him. And yet each day their conviction was deepened that reasons unknown to them lay behind his severing old ties and forming new ones. So they bided their time in patience. Only with one of the men was Dayton in the least degree confidential. If it is the case that opposites attract, there was a striking illustration of the fact in the friendship of Dayton and Dick Martin. Dick was little more than five feet high, and weighed only a hundred and ten pounds. The contrast between his diminutive figure and Dayton's six feet, and more than two hundred pounds, of muscular manhood, was almost grotesque. But in the long rides and arduous labors and thrilling adventures of the frontiersmen, they were inseparable companions. "Big Bill" and "Dickey Boy" were familiarly and closely associated figures in the west; and if Dayton lifted the curtain of his past life to any one, it was to Martin. 880 IMPROVEMENT ERA. II. The golden glow of the summer of 1852 was fading into autumn, and some of the boys, Dayton and Martin among them, were ready for a trip from Fort Bridger to the Missouri river. They set out in the early morning, just as the level rays of the sun shot across the prairie, making a path of gold for the beginning of their journey. "It's a good sign, Dick," said Dayton, as he and Martin rode side by side, a little apart from the others. "What is?" asked the matter-of-fact Martin. "The sun-path to the east," answered Dayton, his serious eyes turned full on his friend's face. "Say, Bill," said Martin, "don't ye sometimes wish ye was in the east, 'stid of livin' in this no-man's country?" A shadow of pain rested for a moment on Dayton's face, as he made answer. "No, Dick, I don't. Fer I know thet out here there's truth and honesty, and when a friend hitches up with ye, he's yours till the world goes smash. It may be no-man's country," he added after a pause, "but it's God's country. And it's too big and wonderful for men to be mean; and people ain't so thick here thet they hev to lie and deceive and take each other's stuff and break faith with their friends. " "Bill," said Martin, "I know ye're way above us fellers. Ye're only puttin' on when ye talk rough and act ign'rant. When ye fergit yerself, ye talk and act like a— a — " he paused for a word — "like a Senator!" he finished abruptly. Dayton started at the word, and a flush spread over his face. "You've hit me right, Dick," he said. "You're the only man out here, I guess, that ever tried to understand me. So I think you can understand what I'm going to tell you. I was a law student in a New England town; and after graduating I opened an office, secured a practice, and made a start in politics. And there was where my trouble began. I was candidate for the Senatorship, and my chief opponent was also my rival for the love of a beautiful girl. THE FRIEND. 881 "I never could prove it on him, but I believe he stooped to sharp practice and low politics to gain his ends and defeat meI'm not the kind of man, Dick, to play the trickster in love or a fight. I've got to see my enemy's eyes when I strike him. I can't stab him in the back. "Well, I woke up, the morning after the election, a ruined man: defeated for office, spurned by the girl I loved, stripped of my practice, shunned by my friends. I guess I was too hotheaded, but I immediately issued a statement declaring that I knew nothing of the means by which I had been defeated and discredited; that I cared nothing; that the good or ill opinion of people so fickle was a matter of indifference to me; that the truth would come out some time, and I would hold my patience; that I wouldn't dignify the town by living in it any longer; and much more to the same effect. "There was a great deal of bombast in what I said, but the spirit of indignant protest was on me and brought to full vigor an inborn love of wild adventure; so I left the town that night and started west. That was seven years ago, Dick, and no word has passed between my friends and me since that time. "If I had had any relatives," he continued after a time, "maybe I wouldn't have thrown away my life. But the spirit of wild unrest is on me now forever, and I am always to be a homeless, hopeless, aimless wanderer. ' ' There was such a note of pathos in the story and the manner of telling it, that tears sprang to Martin's eyes. In mute sympathy he grasped the big man's hand, and they rode on in silence. III. An emigrant train, bound for the gold fields of California, was making its slow and weary way westward. In the party was a man scarcely entering middle life, yet prematurely old, with hair growing gray and face deeply marked with lines of care. His wife was a strikingly handsome woman, refined in features, and graceful and dignified in bearing. But her face bore traces of sorrow and suffering and deep anxiety, as if ordeals remote or recent had tried her soul to the limit of endurance. 882 IMPROVEMENT ERA. With them was their only child, a little girl not more than five years old, but bearing evidence of a sad experience far beyond her years. Only at long intervals did she relax from her seriousness long enough to pick a flower or play with a pretty pebble, or note some curious object along the trail. For the most part she looked anxiously at her father and mother, as if trying vainly to read the story of sorrow and care written in their faces. It was only when her father was away that she put her questions into words. Time and again in the long journey had she asked her troubled mother questions which troubled and perplexed her the more. "Didn't we have a good home in Norton, mamma?" "Yes, my child." "And wasn't papa rich?" "Yes." "Was he a Senator?" "Yes, dear." "What does it mean to be a Senator?" "It's a great honor. A Senator goes to Washington and sits in a beautiful, big building and helps to make laws." "Then why did papa come back from there so soon?" "Hush, child," said the sorrowing mother, with a sob. "I can't make you understand." "But I'll understand sometime, won't I?" "I'm afraid so, my poor child." The little one looked wonderingly at her mother, and hesitated a moment between sympathy and curiosity. She must ask one more question, the one that perplexed her most, and on which her childish curiosity had never been satisfied. "Why did we leave home, where we had a nice house, and carriages and horses and money, and come out here where everything is so poor and bare and dry, and I get so tired— so tired — " "Hush, hush, my poor child," said the heart-sick mother, bursting into uncontrolable tears. And the little one put her arms around the mother's neck and murmured the words that have comforted many another sorely perplexed one, "Don't cry, mamma, everything will be all right." THE FRIEND. 88b Then the father came up, and he knew that the old subject was up for sorrowful question. So he turned away, and let the wife and child weep out their anguish together. IV. Riding as scouts in advance of their party, Dayton and Martin made their camp one night near a small stream which ran into the Platte river. The two preceding days rumors of Indian troubles had been brought to them by trappers, who were returning to winter quarters at Salt Lake City. That night they took their turns at sentry duty. The second watch was taken by Dayton. The moon was at the full, and its mellow light brought every detail of the landscape into full relief. To the east of the camp was a low, sharp ridge, its slopes bearing a few trees. Like a silver band the glistening stream flowed past the camp, disappearing around the point of the hill. Tinged by the early frosts, winter's harbingers, the browning grass stretched in a ruffled vista to the north and south. The beauty of the scene enchanted Dayton, and the vast solitude reawakened in him the longings and aspirations of his early life. As he recalled his boyish hopes and ambitions, the career he had marked out for himself, and thought of her who he hoped would share it with him, he knew the bitter memories and vain regrets of the man who has cast the die of life and lost. He was roused from his reverie by a faint sound which seemed to come from the trees on the further slope of the ridge. He listened intently; and soon the sound was repeated. It was the cry of a child. A third time it reached him, but it was interrupted, as if a hand had been suddenly clapped over the little one's mouth. Dayton quietly awakened Martin and told him to watch the camp. Stealthily creeping up the slope, he saw an Indian running along near the summit, with a little girl in his arms. He ran in a crouching position, as if afraid of being seen in the brilliant moonlight by some one on the eastern side of the ridge. Dayton hid behind a tree directly in the Indian's path, and faced him when he came up, commanding him to halt. The savage was completely unnerved, and he knew that no argument would avail against the pistol the white man held. The child ceased crying and held out 884 IMPROVEMENT ERA. her hands to Dayton, but he spoke to her in a voice as gentle as a woman's. "Stay there a few minutes, dear. I'll soon get you back to your mother." And the little girl sank back into the savage's arms. Changing again to the Indian tongue, Dayton asked gruffly, ''Where did you get the girl?'' "Back here," said the Indian, nodding toward the east. "How far?" "About two hours." "Where are you taking her?'' "To my camp." "How far is that?" Dayton asked; but the Indian stubbornly refused to answer. "Turn around," Dayton said sharply. The Indian obeyed. "Now carry the child back to its mother," he said, in a commanding tone. The Indian shuddered. "They kill me," he said. "I'll kill you if you don't," Dayton exclaimed; and the Indian knew that he meant what he said. Dayton called Martin, and knowing they could get back to camp soon after daybreak, the two drove the Indian before them at a rapid pace. They had not proceeded far when they saw a woman running distractedly toward the south. "Mamma! Mamma!" cried the little girl, and Dayton shouted. As the woman ran toward them Dayton turned to Martin and said, "Take this Indian back to the camp. I don't want him here when the child's mother comes. If you know he is not armed, you may turn him loose." Then turning to the Indian he said, "Don't come back. Leave white women and children alone. If you must fight, fight men. But don't let me see you again." They disarmed the Indian and Martin started westward with him, while Dayton, with the child in his arms, went to meet the woman. The mother took her child and passionately embraced and kissed it, while Dayton stood speechless and blanched, as if he had seen an apparition. THE FRIEND. 885 Then she looked up to thank her benefactor, and the color left her cheek, and the words of thanks died on her lips. "Will!" she gasped. "You here?" Overcome with excitement and the surprise of the unexpected meeting, she swayed and would have fallen; but Dayton placed his arm through hers, and gently took the child from her. Then the flood of memory returned, and the barriers of seven years melted away before it. He saw her as he had known her in the old New England home, and the name he had called her sprang to his lips. "Edith, yes. This is my home now." The pathos of utter loneliness and desolation was in his voice and words, and a sob of pity shook her frame. "And I have no home," she said disconsolately. For a short time they walked along in silence, both busy with their thoughts. Edith was the first to speak. "Why did you leave home between two days, like an outcast, with no word of farewell or explanation to your friends?" she asked. "Do you, of all my friends, ask me that?" he exclaimed, looking at her in astonishment. "And why not?" she asked. "After all that had passed between us in the old time, who is more entitled to know?" "Who, indeed!" he exclaimed bitterly. He thrust his free hand into the bosom of his hunting shirt, drew therefrom a faded and battered paper and handed it to her. "Perhaps this will remind you of the reason." And the bitterness and sorrow of years of disappointed longing were in his voice. The sun was just commencing to streak the eastern sky with strands of gold, and the light frost that decked the grass shone like diamonds. As Edith read the paper, her eyes dilated and a moan of despair escaped her lips. "It's a forgery!" she cried. "I wrote nothing. I had no opportunity. An enemy has done this." "A forgery!" he exclaimed, incredulity and dismay pictured in his face. For a few minutes they stood, while the child turned wonderingly from one to the other. Then Edith grasped Dayton's arm and gasped, "Can my husband— can Robert Bailey have done this?" 836 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "So, you married my rival?" said he. Then, in bitter sarcasm, "I presume his triumph in love was a consequence of his noble political victory?" "Will Dayton, you shall not speak to me like that," she said, and yet there was more of sorrow than anger in her voice. "I waited more than a year for news of you. I wrote letters to every place where I thought you might be. I resisted the bitter attacks they made on you, which were intensified by your absence. And then at length I was forced, by your continued silence, to think that you had cast me out of your heart, and to believe, under protest, the tales they told of you. And so, because of my bitter disappointment and his constant pleading, I married Robert Bailey." By this time the little girl had fallen asleep in Dayton's arms, while the mother, weak with excitement and the long search for her child, leaned heavily on him as they walked. "What did they say of me?" he asked. "That you had defrauded a friend with promises based on your election to the Senate. That you had taken money as a bribe, on the promise that in the event of your election you would use your official position to promote his interests." He stared at her in astonishment. "Who was this friend?" he asked. "John Bartholomew," she answered. "He gave it out that you had approached him with such an offer to secure his support, and that he had accepted merely to defeat you. It was a shrewd political move; for it required only a little quiet work among lukewarm friends of yours to turn enough against you to insure Robert's election. Then, when you went away, vague rumors and assertions spread and became more and more definite. Your enemies became emboldened by your absence and openly charged you with dishonor, and appealed to your absence as proof of the charges." "And would the people of Norton believe these slanders?" he asked in astonishment. "We resisted the rumors as well as we could. But our denials were met with stronger and stronger proofs, including one THE FRIEND. 887 letter signed by you, bearing on the compact between you and Bartholomew." "I signed no paper, I made no bargains, no agreements!" he exclaimed. "Who has done these wrongs? I'll find out if I have to traverse half the world; and when I do — " She placed her hand protestingly on his arm, and the bitterness left him and he said, "Pardon me, Edith. 1 am saying too much." She said nothing, but her thoughts were busy. Who but her husband had profited by the forgeries? Who else would have a motive for the deception? Her conviction deepened that he was double-dyed with guilt, and she was disconsolate. By this time they had made their way to the camp. Here all was confusion. Most of the able-bodied men, including Bailey, were away reconnoitering when the Indians surprised the camp and the child was stolen. In the confusion following the attack the mother had rushed away, unnoticed, in a wild search for her child. The Indians had scattered, one of them going directly toward camp with the child, while the others, for decoy purposes, had gone the other way. When the father returned, and heard of the loss of wife and child, he immediately started out with a companion to search for them, and had not returned. No more men could be spared from the little party, for fear of another attack; and Dayton volunteered to go out in search of the men. He selected the strongest and swiftest horse the camp afforded, and trusting to his strength and skill and knowledge of the country, he started on his perilous expedition. Edith stood watching him until he disappeared; and then turned wearily into the little tent to care for the child. And in her inmost soul she could scarcely say for whom she felt the greatest anxiety, her husband or the big, strong man whose life was suddenly joined again with hers. Gaining an idea of the general direction the men had taken, Dayton rode swiftly but cautiously after them. For four hours he rode through blinding dust which the wind, that had arisen at 888 IMPROVEMENT ERA. sunrise, hurled about his head as if in defiance of his wish to save the wanderers. His way was impeded and his view restricted by the wind and the stinging sand; while the howling of the gale prevented him from hearing any sound that might betray the nearness of friend or foe. It therefore happened that without the sound of the gun reaching him, a spent bullet rolled almost to his feet. He could just note the direction from which it came, and judge, with the unerring instinct of the trained frontiersman, his distance from the one firing the shot. He turned his horse in that direction. Soon the sounds of firing and the shouts of combatants reached him, and he knew that a battle was on. Spurring his horse to a gallop, he dashed into the midst of the fray, to the utter surprise of white men and Indians alike. The two m^n were desperately struggling against half a dozen Indians, and losing ground every minute. As Dayton came up, one white man fell. Seeing the uselessness of the slaughter, he fired point blank into the faces of the nearest Indians; and before they could recover from their surprise he seized the one survivor, lifted him into the saddle in front of him, and dashed away in the direction from which he had come. The wind, which had been such an annoyance to him, served him now in two ways: it prevented the pursuing Indians from getting a good aim, and it also indicated the direction he must take to get back to camp. As the rescued man turned to see if the Indians were following, he caught signt of the other's face. ''Is this Will Dayton?" he exclaimed. ''Yes, Rob Bailey," Dayton answered. "Have you seen my wife?" Bailey asked. "Yes, and talked with her," he answered. "She and the child are safe in camp." He said nothing of the way in which their safety had been secured. He only urged the horse the more, to save the life of the man who he believed had robbed him of all that would have mile his own life worth while. And so they rode on, until the horse panted with the torture of his work, and could carry his double burden no longer. They both dismounted; and while the THE FRIEND. 889 horse browsed in the short grass, the two men stood face to face for the first time in seven years. Bailey was the first to speak. "We stand in the face of death, Will," said he, "and there is no use wasting words. What has passed between you and Edith?" "She can tell you that," was Dayton's answer. "We have no time for discussion. There is one thing I must know before you are unable to speak, or I to hear. Who wrote this note?'' He held out the battered paper. Bailey gazed at it with astonishment, but without a sign of recognition. "I never saw it before," he said. "I believe you are telling the truth," Dayton answered. "This is no time for falsifying. That horse cannot run with both of us a hundred yards. When he has rested a few minutes longer he can take up one of us and carry him into camp. I know which one of us that will be. The other may never reach the camp alive. In those few minutes I must ask two questions, and I charge you, as one of us is standing on the threshold of eternity, that you tell the truth. First, how was I defeated? Second, why did you come west?"' "I would rather lose my life than miss the opportunity of answering those two questions," Bailey answered. "And yet I could not have answered them until now, because I did not know the whole truth before. The man who was killed by the Indians today knew all about it. He told me the truth and handed me this written statement just before we met the Indians," and he gave to Dayton a piece of paper, roughly scrawled with pencil. Before another word could pass, the noise of the pursuing Indians reached them. Instantly Dayton sprang to the horse, led it to Bailey's side, and before the startled man could think, much less resist, he lifted him on the horse, took off the bridle, and gave the animal a blow that sent it flying toward the camp. Then, seizing his rifle, Dayton slipped into a small ravine, behind a clump of underbrush, and awaited inevitable death. The Indians surrounded him and a fusilade of arrows commenced. He scarcely knew how long he was under fire, when he felt a stinging pain in his side, and became unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he was in the emigrant 890 IMPROVEMENT ERA. camp, and Edith and her husband were bending over him with tenderest solicitude. They had applied such restoratives as were at hand, and Dayton, whom a rescuing party had dragged from the brink of the grave, opened his eyes and smiled faintly into the faces of his friends. "Thank God, you are safe!" they exclaimed in one breath. "But I'm dying," he replied. "Don't say that, Will," said Bailey, while his wife looked her sympathy. "We want you to live and get redress for the wrongs you have suffered." Dayton smiled and shook his head. "It's too late," said he. Then, taking the paper from his pocket, he handed it to Edith and said, "Read this to me." Wonderingly she took the paper from his hand and read: I, Henry Peters, do hereby declare that, under strong pressure. I was induced, by enemies of William Dayton, to commit two forgeries in connection with the election of Robert Bailey. Under this influence I also invented the story of Dayton's bargain with John Bartholomew. Bartholomew, I knew, would not dare deny the story, because he was in the power of Dayton's opponents. Bailey had nothing to do with these things; and when he found, after four years of faithful service, by what foul means he had been elected, ht resigned his seat. Unable to endure the stigma and shame, he gave up all he had in Norton, to make partial amends, and came west. Then remorse seized me, and I followed him, determined to tell the whole truth. But I had not courage to do so until I found myself face to face with death. I write this paper with my own hands, and thus make tardy amends; and may God have mercy upon my soul! The dying man gazed happily into the faces of the husband and wife, from which the shadow of years was lifted. "I saved Rob for you," he said to Edith, "when I thought he had done me the greatest wrong. I leave him to you and to the happiness that will be yours, knowing him to be entirely worthy of you. God bless you both. ' ' And so he died. They placed him in a grave altogether too lonely and shallow and rude for the great body and big heart and tender soul of the man. And before they returned to fortune and happiness at the old Norton home, they placed a stone on the HE FRIEND. 891 grave with the inscription, "Greater love hath no man than that he will give his life for his friend." In Memory of Samuel W. Richards. (Born Aug. 19, 1824; died Nov. 26, 1909.) (For the Improvement Era.) Dead? dead? nay, say not so, The good, the beautiful can never die; The flowers may fade, and, drooping fall asleep, But they shall bloom anew some fairer day; The oak may fall and mingle with the dust, But "what has been shall surely be again." And to be good was this man's greatest aim ; Behold, great trials trodden under foot; Ambitions flung aside as bubbles on the air; All worldly honor, love and dazzling wealth Counted as dross, entombed in one desire Which mantled him in sheen of righteousness. All heights, all bounds were circumscribed by this; Within its circle possibilities Which few men dream of thrilled his mortal life: "But to be good,'' what meaning anchors there? A trusted son, a faithful minister Of God's immortal plan; ambassador To kindreds, tongues and peoples; patriarch Of countless generations, with the key To endless lives and vast eternities Within his grasp, and power to overcome The fiendish host whose snares were set for him ; To conquer pain and burst the earth-bound tomb, And, rising, live where more inspiring dreams And e'er increasing splendors lure him on. Ruth May Fox. Citation: Willard Done, "The Friend," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 878–891. # My Home Among the Hills 'All around the dear old homestead lyin' there among the hills. MY HOME AMONG THE HILLS. In the fragrant, scented summer, when the evenin' breezes blow, An' the visions of the home-land to my mem'ry come and go, Then in dreams I see the mountains, an' the river clear and cool A dashin' and a dancin' through the deep, blue swimmin' pool; An' I hear the red-winged pecker, jist a peckin' all day long, An' the swayin', swishin' willers, low an' sweet as any song; — I can hear the robin's warble, an' the meadow lark's sweet thrills, All around the dear old homestead lyin' there among the hills. The fine old castle's made of logs, an' the roof is rather low, But I think it's nearer heaven than the highest roof I know; The rooms were not so plentiful, but it used to seem to me There was alius room for strangers; where we put 'em I can't see! 'There was alius room for strangers." "Now, the Wasatch foothill-country's only with me in my dreams." I never kuew the dear home-scenes were really half so fair. An' that kind nature's masterpiece was spread out before me there, 'Till I saw no more the birches standin' guard along; the rills. An' I heard no more their whispers as they watched among: the hills. The nights were cool an' quiet, an' my sleep was sweet an' long:, For the creek kept up it's dronin', soft an' low as mother's song;, But the dawn would find me risin' when the dew -was on the flowers, An' the air was sweet as honey in the airly mornin' hours. Now, the Wasatch foothill-country's only with me in my dreams; An' no more I hear the murmur of the crystal mountain streams; But the roses in the bushes, hidin' there from greedy bills, I know are a noddin' to me, from my home among the hills. There's my mother, fond and lovin', with her hair all streaked with gray, An' I know she's ever prayin' for her son so far away; An' my father's proudly thinkin' of the man he thinks I'll be, When I've learned my little lesson over here across the sea. There are others waitin' for me— sisters, brothers an' the rest, An' their high-flown expectations make me do my level best. There'* another, not a sweetheart, all my dreams her dear face *lls. An' for me her pure, sweet presence makes a heaven of the hills. Belfast, Ireland. H. R. MERRILL. 'There are others waitin' for me — sisters, brothers an' the rest." Citation: H. R. Merrill, "My Home Among the Hills," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 892–893. # The Martyr The Martyr. BY ELIZABETH RACHEL CANNON. I. — The King's Council. "What now, Amulon? Why so gloomy? Upon my word, you have not smiled for a week," and King Noah affectionately slapped his favorite's shoulder. "I'll warrant me it's a woman," continued the king, when the other vouchsafed no reply, "for nothing else would move you." "And what if it were?" answered the other moodily. "Would talking about it mend matters?" "There is only one cure for a broken heart," and Noah wagged his head sagely. "And that is— ?" "Another love?" "H'm." "Among the thousand women of the court, are there not maids that please you? Women of all types grace the gardens of the city of Lehi-Nephi. Would you have a rose, a violet, a magnolia, a lily, a passion flower or a tulip? Pluck it." And he nodded toward the court of the women. "Need I remind thee, OKing, who art the prince of love, that when a man wants one woman — " The king threw back his head and laughed until his fat# sides shook. "And who is the lady that dares withstand the bold Amulon?" The king's face displayed the first interest it had worn that THE MARTYR. 895 day, as he lolled on the crimson cushions that extended before his golden throne. He and his priests sat in the Hall of the Ambassadors, adjoining the great stone amphitheatre used for large assemblies. The hall where the king held his court was richly beautiful with its tiled floor, its ivory-tinted walls and the great gilded chairs of the thirty priests who constituted the king's council. All morning they had been attending to affairs of state, dealing principally with taxes, for the dissolute king maintained his magnificence with one-fifth of his people's produce. The moment was propitious and Amulon hastened to explain. ''The maid, 0 King, is Zara, the daughter of Gideon, who opposes my suit." "What, do you court the father? Make good with the girl." "I cannot. She will have none of me." For Amulon, who owed his title of favorite to his intrepidity and unscrupulousness, to acknowledge himself beaten was highly amusing. "The girl has been a companion to her father and has imbibed his notions," her lover continued. "If she were moved into another atmosphere she might change her mind. Association with the gracious Princess Otalitza would certainly mend her manners." "So you want — " "Her brought to the palace." The king scowled. "Amulon, I can deny you nothing. Let the girl be brought. But look you," he added quickly, "she is to be in the train of the princess. Hands off, for awhile, you understand. Her father is a good soldier, and might cause trouble." "You will send your orders?" said Amulon, following up his advantage. "The palanquin shall fetch her today." Both men looked up. Noises of turmoil and commotion came from the doorway. Half a dozen soldiers, dragging a limp figure, burst into the room. They were followed by a howling mob that shouted, "Away with him! Down with the prophet!" As they hauled the man over before the dais, the twenty odd priests leaned forward with interest, while one exclaimed, "It is the Prophet Abinadi!" 896 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Aye, Abinadi, whom I found in the plaza reviling thee, 0 king," exclaimed Himni, a priest, from the mob. Noah looked down upon a tall man with straggling gray hair. In spite of his manacled hands, the buff e tings of the soldiers and the jeers of the multitude, his thin lips curved in a scornful smile and his defiant face showed no sign of fear. "What are the charges?" asked the king. "He promises bondage and dire calamities to the people, and thy life, 0 King, he says, will be as a garment in a flame of fire. Who is this man that he should judge thee?" The great, purple veins stood out on the king's forehead, and he exclaimed angrily, "Take him to prison!" The priests crowded up expectantly, for though Noah was not loved, yet he was feared; but Omner petitioned, "Let us question this pretender that we may confound him." "Yes, surely, the Lord must confide all wisdom to his prophets," scoffed Nehor. So they plied him with questions, and to their astonishment he answered them boldly. "Why do you, the priests of the Lord, who are supposed to teach the people, ask these things of me? You cannot teach what you do not practice. You are wine-bibbers and revelers. You set the example of sensuousness and law-breaking, and seek not the kingdom of heaven, but the riches of the world." The king turned wearily. "Away with this fellow," he said, "and slay him, for he is mad." "Touch me not," commanded the prophet, "until I have delivered my message; then do with me as you will." He spoke with such dignity and authority that they listened while he preached with the power of God. He dwelt on the law of Moses, then, a wondrous light illumining his face, he told them about the Messiah. How a new star should appear in the heavens and there should be continuous light for the space of three days, while far across the seas a child should be born in poverty, of a lowly virgin, and he should be the Son of God. The child should grow to be a man, despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who would suffer himself to be mocked and scourged, and cast out and disowned by his people. THE MARTY ti. 897 And after working many mighty miracles among the children of men, he would be crucified and slain. Thus would the spirit triumph over the flesh and he should bring to pass the resurrection of the dead. "And where will you be, you priest of Satan, on that day?" he cried, working himself into a frenzy. "I tell you that the wicked shall have cause to howl, and weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth!" Then he launched into such a fierce denunciation of the court, that the priests looked at each other aghast, and the king turned a sickly green. Abinadi lashei himself into a fury as he pictured the torments of the wicked, until his body swayed with the power of his imaginings. Calming himself, finally, he commanded: "Repent ye, teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come. Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ, the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father." He ceased speaking. "Take him away and put him to death." Then Alma, the sweet-spirited one among the priests, young, but wise in count il, stepped forward, the sunlight glinting on his fair hair. "This man has spoken the truth, and when, in all the reign of the just Noah, was a man put jO death for speaking the truth?" "He said that the king's life should be as a garment in a hot furnace," cried Himni vindictively. Amulon, who hated Alma for reasons of his own, smiled as he mockingly exclaimed, "What! has the gentle Alma turned prophet? Presently we shall have a pair of them." The king motioned for the guards to remove the prisoner, and turning on his heel he leaned affectionately on the arm of Amulon and passed out, leaving Alma biting his lips with vexation and choking with humiliation. IL— The Revel. A solitary figure crossed the court on the pyramid, where the cluster of state buildings was located. Although he went toward the palace, he lagged like an unwelcome guest at a feast. The night was not cold but he shivered and wrapped his cloak around him . 893 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Behind him lay the great stone amphitheatre, with its tier after tier of seats, vaulted by the starlit sky. To the north loomed the great temple, surmounted by its tower. The somber blackness was relieved only by the sacred fire that burned on top. Ahead of him reposed the royal palace, resplendent as a jewel in its setting of perfumed gardens. Sounds of music and revelry issued from the casement, and the guest stopped to take a deep breath of the sweet night air before he plunged into the hot-house brilliance beyond. As he entered the great banquet hall, many eyes turned that way. Alma had thrown off his cloak, displaying a purple tunic that enhanced the gold of his hair and the blue of his eyes. His short robe was caught in at the waist by a girdle of sapphires, and his lower limbs were bare save for the thongs of buckskin, extending from his sandals, which were strapped around them. It was not the beauty of the graceful young cavalier that attracted attention, but the whisper had gone forth that he was out of favor at court. That was what had brought him there to face it out, to show he was not afraid. For the most part, the guests whose brains were not addled with wine were absorbed in their own affairs, for the hour was late and the diners at the banquet table, which was heavy with its gold and silver service, were on the last course. It consisted of dainty dishes of snow, brought on the backs of men from the distant volcano, delicately flavored with the grated rind of limes. Goblets brimming with odoriferous wines were constantly being refilled, but the real revelry was just begun. Before morning the great jars that stood on the buffet, that extended all around the great banquet room, would be overturned and emptied. Beside them were baskets laden with fruit — the gold of the tropics — bunches of purple grapes, pomegranates, tunas, oranges, pineapples, bananas, achuacates (the butter that grows on trees) and wild plums. Above these, on the wall, was a fresco of naiads, while the magnificent ceiling- was of green and gold. Oh, he had an eye for beauty, had King Noah! — too much fcr his good. A crowd of musicians played barbaric music, a troup of acrobats performed in an ante room, while from the corridor came peals of laughter. 1HE MARTYR. 899 Alma ran his eye along the table. The king leered into the face of the ever-present Amulon, while on his left the buffoon, Omo, discoursed coarse jests. Suddenly Alma's heart stood still and then sickened. Could that be Zara, the daughter of Gideon, in the party of the princess? Yes, it was Zara, looking more radiant than ever. What was she doing in the palace of the king? From the shadow of the curtains he watched her with troubled eyes. A smile played on her expressive face and her eyes were bright with excitement. He waited impatiently until they rose from the table, but before he could get to her she was gone. A few minutes later she appeared with the dancers. How beautiful she looked, cream robed, with golden orchids in her hair! The intoxication of the dance set his blood to throbbing, but he noticed with rising resentment that he was not the only one interested in the new beauty. Alma wandered around the hall shunned by all, for it is not wise to flatter the one on whom the king frowns. He watched his chance, then went to speak to Zara. She rose to meet him, and there was genuine pleasure in her tone. "Why, Alma, I've been looking for you so long." "Is that what brought you here, my lady?" he asked tensely. "It was the king's palanquin that brought me here," she answered archly. His brows lowered. "Perhaps the same conveyance will carry you back?" "Perhaps." "Zara, I don't like to see you here." "Why not? It is glorious! I love the magnificence of the court. It is breath to my nostrils. I have never lived before." "Your eyes are blinded by the gilded surface and you do not see the rottenness beneath. When you know it as well as I — " and he laughed bitterly. "I cannot understand," he added soberly, "how your father allows you here, when he objected to me simply because I belonged to the court, though I hate everything that is connected with it." "My father — you might know — he did not send me here. I came by the order of the king." 900 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Alma looked startled. "Do you know what for?" She shrugged her shoulders. "No one asks his reasons of the king." "Yes, but there is a reason. You had better go away from here, my lady. This is no place for you." "I cannot," she said simply. "Besides, I tell you, Alma, it is not the place, but the person. A pure-minded person can be good anywhere, the evil always find means to sate their appetites." "No one is safe in the palace; you must go away." "If I should leave, what then? I should be brought back again. You are satiated with all this. It opens a new world to me. I intend to see it," she cried, almost angrily. She turned to talk to some young bloods, who were hovering around her, and Alma was dismissed. Realizing his failure with the girl, he turned his steps toward the king. If he were not in disfavor, he might have her released. At least there was a chance to find out why she was there, he argued. He approached the throne, bowed, and murmured, "I have a petition to make, your majesty." The king stared coolly past him, as if he were not there, and went on talking to Amulon, while Alma retreated, reddening to the ears, as a titter arose behind palm leaf fans. His disgrace was now complete, and he thought the next move would be assassins. "Well, Abinadi,'you may have company," he muttered. He wandered aimlessly about in a daze, finally going to the gaming tables for, though he did not gamble himself, he hoped to drown his misery in the excitement of the players. * # * * Zara stood in the shadow of the palms at the entrance to the patio. The revel was beginning to pall on her with its grossness. True, the musicians had been replaced with others, and as she listened, the strains of "The Heavens for a Kiss" floated out to her. Many of the lights were out and what remained burned badly, but they were sufficient to display sights from which her whole soul shrank. Omo lay across the end of the table, his bull neck kinked so his heavy breathing could be heard all over the room. Omner had tipped over a wine jar, and lay on the floor with his head in a THE MARTYR. 901 red pool that looked like blood. Himni was pouring cold water down the neck of a servant girl, while he explained that it would make her lips red. Mulek's dominating voice rose above all others. Some callow youths were trying to sing. Nobody knew where the king was. Most of the girls had departed, and Zara, for the first time, felt lonely and scared. She wished Alma would come. She heard a footstep behind her; then a door pulled to. She listened, thinking it was he. "So, I have found you at last, my dove!" She uttered a startled cry and looked up to see the great form of Amulon towering over her. His eyes glowed like fires in the dark. "Come!" he coaxed. "How these arms have ached for you!" "Let me go!" she cried fiercely, struggling like a frightened bird in his grasp. "Fight away, my pretty. My, how tigerish we are! I' faith, I believe that is why I love you!" "I shall cry for help." "Who is there to hear you?" "I shall expose you to the king." "He will not believe you." "Then Alma shall intercede in my behalf." Amulon laughed. "Alma! he is already a doomed man." "My father shall carry my case before the king!" she cried in a panic. "Why did the king have you brought here? To grace the train of Otalitza, when there are a hundred women fighting for the place you occupy? Why, I say, except at my request? If you spurn me, the king will claim you. Take your choice." Seeing the hopelessness of her case, woman's mt, which has been her chief weapon since the world began, came to her rescue. She slipped up her arms and encircled his head, kissing his handsome, bruised-looking lips. "Amulon," she whispered, "I am not a slave to be coerced. What I do, I must do of my own free will, without force." "You are right," he said, won by her speedy capitulation. 902 MPROVEMENT ERA. He instantly freed her, for he was as generous as he was passionate. "Your lips are like the desert and your brow is fevered. See, I will bath it in the fountain." She darted forward, and as he stumbled after her and fell headlong on the pavement, she did not stop to look back, but kept right on. * * * * The breeze that precedes the dawn was stirring when a white - robed figure stole out on the roof garden of the palace. She started back when, on turning a corner, she was confronted by a man muffled in a long cloak. "Zara!" "Oh, Alma, I am so glad!" and she wrung her hands in relief. "Why are you here alone at this time?" "I could not sleep. So many strange things have happened. And you?" "I could not sleep, either. I searched for you, last night, but could not find you. Where did you go?" "To the inner patio." "With whom?" "Amulon." "Amulon! So, that is why you came to the palace?" "He said as much." "And I have ruined myself at court through espousing the cause of the Prophet Abinadi." "So Amulon intimated." "Where is he?" "Down the well, for aught I know. I fled from him, and he gave chase. He was half drunk and stumbled over the fountain curbing, but whether he pitched in or not I do not know. I never stopped to look back." "He didn't; trust his luck for that. And you? How did you get out?" "Why, through the court of the lions, of course." "They might have killed you." "So I thought; but the king's ocelots are well fed. They did not care to get up to dine off me in the middle of the night." THE MARTYR. 903 The rainbow colors of the dawn of the tropics illumined the sky to the east, and below, the hills were swathed in pearl gray mist. Alma breathed deep as he looked at Zara, fresh and radiant as the morning itself. The fleecy robe she had slipped on parted at the throat, her dark head was swathed in a pale blue gauze, broidered with silver stars, and not all the turmoil of the night could disguise the fact that she was young and glad to be alive. As she lifted a slender, rounded, white arm to indicate the violet and orange of the horizon, Alma caught her in his arms. "Come with me," he whispered, "away from this wicked place. Let me teach you the principles of Abinadi. Together let us live our lives, and, as he has taught, in conformity with the will of the Lord." "Abinadi!" she murmured. "I already believe in him, although he has taught the strange doctrine that we must return good for evil, instead of demanding an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But you must teach me, Alma," she added fearfully, "for there are many things I do not understand. And this strange doctrine of repentance, that they talk so much about — " "The king had better take to heart," Alma finished grimly. "Would that the scales might fall from his eyes, as they have from mine!" "He is going to put Abinadi to death?" "So I fear." "And you?" "Oh, I shall take up the work where he left off. I'm afraid, his mantle will fall on unworthy shoulders. I have carefully written down all his words, and I shall teach them to the people when he is gone. I consecrate my life to the work. God grant me strength and light to do it well!" "Does Abinadi know?" "Yes; I go now to visit him in his cell." "Tarry a little, Sir Prophet," she commanded, running her hand through his yellow hair. Together they watched the sun rise. The mocking birds sang riotously. The lavender flowers of the bougainvillaea drooped in the garden, while from the patio below the air came laden with the heavy odor of the blossom called "The Perfume of the Night." 904 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The lovers did not notice that with it was mingled the scent of the ill-omened "Flower of the Dead." III.— The Execution. The great market place was the heart of the city. The streets, like so many arteries, emptied into its pulsating center. There all the buying and selling went on. Here was a fruit stand from which a bronze Lamanitish goddess flicked the flies. Yonder was a clothier's containing garments of chameleon dyes. There were cafes, candy stands, butcher shops, fish from the lake, venders of pottery, and makers of lace. The band played there in the afternoon, and lovers sought the shade of its arbors in the evening. This morning something of unusual occurrence was about to happen. People were running hither and thither. There was a hushed murmur of excitement among the crovds, which were larger than on any market day. Four regiments of soldiers were stationed at the corners, while a fifth was keeping the people back from an open space in the middle of the square. "Wherefore the crowd?" asked a countryman who had just brought his cart of vegetables to the city that morning, of a young man who was hurrying to the scene. The other looked at him in surprise, "Why, they are going to burn the Prophet Abinadi." "They're not going to burn him alive?" "How do you think they'd burn him — dead?" he threw back over his shoulder, as he hurried on. The crowd was impatient. "Light the fire, and let us see if this false prophet is pluckily true to his convictions." "What are they waiting for?" called another. There was a blare of trumpets, a blast of martial music, and then the cry, "Make way for the king!" On a palanquin, borne aloft on the shoulders of men, surmounted by a green canopy, reclined the king. As soon as he reached the place of execution he ordered the soldiers to bring forth the prisoner. When Abinadi, sustained by the heroism of THE MARTYR. 005 martyrdom, but very weak and trembling physically, stood before him, Noah pronounced sternly: "Abinadi, we have found an accusation against thee and thou art worthy of death; for thou hast said that God himself should come down among the children of men, and now for this cause thou shalt be put to death, unless thou wilt recall all the words thou hast spoken evil concerning me and my people." With a hunted look in his eyes Abinadi answered: "I will not recall the words I have spoken unto you concerning this people, for they are true. I will suffer even unto death. I will not recall my words, and they shall stand as a testimony against you. And if ye slay me, ye will shed innocent blood, aad this- shall stand as a testimony against you at the last day." The words touched even the callous heart of Noah, and he was half convinced. He turned to the priests. "Shall we release him?" "Death to .Abinadi, he has reviled the king!" was the shout. "Death to Abinadi!" "Let his God delay the flames!" "He says we shall all be captives to the Lamanites!" "Down with false prophets!" Amid the maledictions, they bound Abinadi to the stake and lighted the fagots under his feet. As the flames licked his quivering limbs, and he writhed in agony, he looked into the faces of the terror-stricken populace and said in accents thick, "It will come to pass that ye shall be afflicted with all manner of diseases because of your iniquities. Yea, and ye shall be smitten on every hand, and shall be driven and scattered to and fro, even as a wild flock is driven by wild and ferocious beasts. And in that day ye shall be hunted, and ye shall be taken by the hand of your enemies." As the flames mounted higher and higher, and the victim writhed in agony, a young man, with sunny hair, made his way out of the crowd. Henceforth he was the disciple of the dead prophet, and the blood of martyrdom had won its first convert in Alma. His was net the only sick heart, for when the agonized victim looked out of his pain-dimmed eyes and said prophetically to 906 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Noah, "Ye shall suffer, as I suffer, the pains of death ' >y fire," the King called suddenly, "Ho, take me hence!" IV -The Waters of Mormon. Gloom reigned in the palace and in the heart of Zara. The death of Abinadi seemed to portend evil. Alma was condemned to death, and guards were scouting the country for him; for he had disappeared. Zara was torn with fear, for she expected daily to see him dragged there in irons. Again she thought he had been secretly murdered, and this hunting for him was a pretense. Then a message came to her, She sent for Amulon, who came gladly, for she had locked herself up in her apartments and refused to see him for days, while he, whose Will was law, chafed like a chained lion. She was peculiarly gracious, and it was with difficulty he restrained himself, for his love for this maiden, who was the first who had ever opposed him, swept him off his feet. "I have a favor to ask of you, Amulon, as always," she began. "Which is already granted, if it lies within my power, princess." "Ever am I more indebted to you." "What is my lady's latest caprice?" "You know I am virtually a prisoner here. All of the palace is mine, but the bird is none the less barred because the cage is gilded. An aged aunt of mine is dying, and she has sent for me to soothe her last hours. I would go to her bedside. Will you not ask the king's permission that I may go?" Amulon was touched by her earnestness, for ever are strong men weakest through their strength. "Go, Zara, and I will be responsible to the king." He stepped to the door and summoned Mulek. "Do you accompany this lady wherever she goes. See that no harm approaches, and return her in safety to the palace." Mulek bowed and retreated. Zara sallied out accompanied by the giant soldier MulekThey made their way to a large house with a stone front. They THE MARTYR. 907 entered, and passed through corridor after corridor, until they came to the one that led to the death chamber. "You will wait here for me, Mulek?" "The Lord Amulon said I was not to let you out of my sight." "But you can't go in there when she is dying!" "I go where you do," he answered doggedly. She was in despair. But everyone has his vulnerable point. She began to plead with him, using all her art, but he only shook his head. She tore a heavy gold chain from her neck. Three great emeralds hung pendant from it. The bauble was worth a fortune. She thrust it into his hand, saying imperiously, "Wait here, I will soon be back." Before he could recover himself she was gone. His first impulse was to follow her, but he distinguished the sound of a woman's voice, and it deterred him. The giant waited a long time. He paced restlessly around the room. When the afternoon sun faded into evening he grew alarmed. He rang a bell, which no one answered. He walked through the deserted halls. He came back and went to the room of the sick woman. There was no couch there, and a new light broke in on him. He ran through the house, shouting. A Lamanitish woman, a servant, confronted him. "Where is Zara, the daughter of Gideon?" he fairly shouted. She eyed him calmly. "I know of no such woman." "I brought her here," he reiterated. "She is not here," she repeated. He rushed through the house, but found no trace of her whom he sought. His first impulse was to flee and escape the anger of Amulon. But on second thought he decided that would look as if he had connived at her escape. If he reported at once, she might yet be found. He started on a run back to the palace. When he presented himself before Amulon, a sweating, palpitating, trembling wretch, the courtier gave him one look and then roared, "Where is the girl?" "Alas, I know not!" wailed the other. "1 turned, M'lord, and she was gone. Some power of magic— ' he dodged a heavy bronze vase that Amulon, in his rage, hurled at his head. It crashed into the door beyond and splintered it. 908 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The chief priest clapped his hands. Slaves appeared. "Take him," he commanded. "Let him be lashed. Send soldiers to search the house of Zeezrom,and arrest every one you find there." All night Amulon paced the palace, and all night rose the shrieks of Mulek, lashed to the whipping post. In the meantime Zara was being borne through tall hedges of organ cactus on the outskirts of the city. Through fields of maguey — the large century plant— until they reached the prairie where the mesquite grew, they continued. Beyond, palm trees were gracefully silhouetted against the sky. Plantains rattled in the wind. As they neared the oasis, they felt the dread stillness of the tropic jungle, for the night was coming on. The rich velvet of the sward was flecked with the wild tulip, and long mosses cast black shadows in a pool as clear and deep as a woman^ eyes. Such were the Waters of Mormon, where Alma, the sweetspirited, baptized believers and taught the gospel of the Savior, thus carrying on the work of Abinadi. When the slaves stopped, and Alma saw that the white palanquin bore a woman, he came forward. Zara slipped lightly out, without assistance, and ran to meet him. "Zara!" he exclaimed. "It is I, Alma." Then she continued breathlessly, "They have located you. The sentence of death hangs over you and your followers. You must flee quickly." "How did you find out?" "Ever since you went away I have lived on the name of Alma. Every breath that concerned you my intuition has ferreted out. The armies of the king have orders to march against you now, for the king fears the stronghold you are gaining among the people." "And you came to tell me this! If they knew it, what would they do to you?" "I don't know; I'm not going back to find out." "Not going back?" "No; I'm going with you — if you will let me." "Let you, ^ara!" A look of glad surprise broke over his face, as he took her tenderly in his arms. But amid all his joyful THE MARTYR. 909 exultation, there was a fear in his heart of hearts. He knew that behind his cherished one lay luxury and pleasure, and ahead of her was — the desert. V.— The Flight. Consternation reigned in the palace. The unsuccessful army returned, announcing the escape of Alma and four hundred and fifty of his followers. Amulon, in an angry mood, and the king had had words over the disappearance of Zara. Noah foresaw trouble with her father, and Gideon was one of his best generals. Nor was he mistaken, for along came the sturdy old soldier demanding to see his daughter. Noah explained that the girl was gone, that every effort had been made to locate her, but without avail. Gideon did not believe it. He thought they were deceiving him. He poured execrations on their heads. "There is only one fate that awaits a woman that steps inside your palace. Were there not enough, but my daughter must grace your court? She was of a different type, and that was why you coveted her. You have lied to me, for you have something to conceal. A father's curse be on you!" It was in vain that the king denied any knowledge of Zara's whereabouts. He had been involved in so many intrigues that he was not believed when he spoke the truth. "Curse you, but you will tell me where she is, or I will run you through!" and Gideon drew his sword. "It would be a deed of heroism to rid the Nephites of such a tyrant." Noah could have summoned his guards, but Gideon had challenged him as man to man. The king had been a soldier in his youth, but years of dissipation had rendered his flesh flabby and his spirit afraid. They crossed swords and lunged at each other. A few moments and the king was breathless. Gideon so evidently had the advantage that Noah, in sheer cowardice, turned and fled. He rushed to the temple. Withdrawn sword Gideon followed him. Through chamber after chamber the king ran. The rooms were superb with their mosaic and metal work, but Noah did not notice any of the decorations, for after him followed grim Nemesis. 910 IMPROVEMENT ERA, The two flying figures, one very little behind the other, reached the top of the second pyramid. Noah mounted the steps that led to the top of the tower. This was ascended by a series of ladders, and when he reached the second he kicked the first from under him. When he reached the top his face was purple, and every breath was pain. He could go no further, and he knew that his respite was short. He looked down from the dizzy height. Then he lost himself in astonishment. "Let me down!" he screamed. "The armies of the Lamanites are upon us!" Gideon, deeming this but a ruse, was in no wise deterred in his pursuit. "I tell you they are spread out in battle array on the plains below! Let me down that I may save my people!" pleaded Noah. "Save your people? you had better save your own neck," Gideon thought grimly. He went to the parapet and looked down. The king was right, there were the Lamanite phalanxes spread out upon the plain as far as the eye could see. "Come down and save your people," he called, sheathing his sword. He himself went over and began to beat the alarum drum to call the men to arms. As the old king tottered down there was time for a new fear to supplant the other. None knew better than he how illy his kingdom was prepared for war. He had made his people lovers of pleasure. The standing army was small, and no match for the fierce Indians inured to hardship. "Call the people together and tell them to bring their families and flee into ihe wilderness," he commanded. "It were folly to fight them here." When all the people of the city were congregated, Noah, like a good leader, led the flight. The Lamanites were not slow to discover the tactics, and started out in swift pursuit. They soon overtook the Nephites and the massacre commenced. Noah, maddened by the sight of the blood, bade the heralds command all the men to flee, for they were retarded by the women and children. "They will not murder the women in cold blood," reasoned the valorous king, "and some of us may be saved while Gideon engages the enemy here." THE MARTYR. 911 Like geese that follow their leader, on the spur of the moment many of the men turned and followed the king and his priests, who were in full flight. After they had gone some distance into the wilderness, they began to come to their senses. One commoner voiced the sentiment of the men when he said, "If our loved ones are slain, it were better that we had perished with them." "But, at least, after striking a blow in their defense," added another. "Let us go back and see if they are dead. And if they are," — here the speaker looked meaningly at Noah — "we will seek revenge." "We are a laughing stock and a bye word," said one man who prided himself on his honor. They were all heartily ashamed of themselves, and, as is always the case under such circumstances, they sought someone on whom to lay the blame. Whereupon, when the king commanded them not to return, it brought their anger to a head. Instead of obeying him, they turned viciously upon him as the cause of all their misfortunes. They overpowered him roughly and bound him hand and foot. Amulon, who at least had the saving grace of loyalty, was the only one who drew his sword in defense of the king. He was run through the side for his pains. The other priests, for their part, seeing themselves so out-numbered, took to their heels. Amulon, weak from loss of blood, staggered over onto a brush heap, and there they let him lie. With presence of mind, he stuffed his shirt into the wound and staunched the flow of blood. He was in a raging fever, and one of the men taking pity on him as he tossed with sleepless eyes, brought him a cup of water. When night was well advanced, he dragged himself down to a stream and drank deep of the running water. He was conscious of the fact that no one had paid any attention to him. To attempt the escape of Noah, he knew was hopeless. He felt that the king must have help, and have it quickly. Urged on by some power beyond himself, the wounded man arose and staggered out into the jungle. He found the priests, or rather, they found him, and Amulon, 91 2 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . by his old power of eloquence, rallied them and brought them back. But lo, when they arrived at the place where the Nephites had camped, they were gone, and Amulon feared that in his daze he had mistaken the place. But Himni raised a shout, and they found only too ghastly evidence of the recent presence of the Nephites. The trunk of an immense tree had been partially burned. Lashed to its side was what was left of a man, under whom a fire had been built. One of the priests walked over, and from the ashes picked out the king's signet ring. They had burned Noah to death. Thus had the prophecy of Abinadi come to pass, "His life was as a garment in a furnace of fire." VI.— The Abduction. Like nomads the priests wandered into the forest, subsisting on berries and wild game. One day Omo, the voluptuary, came into camp with what for him was unusual speed. The men loafing around the camp began to jeer at him. "I have seen such a sight — " he began. "You must have seen something to make you run. He has seen such a sight — " "As you would all break your necks to see." "What have you seen?" "Women." "Women!" they muttered. "Girls — young, beautiful, graceful as gazelles." "He has been seeing visions.'' "Listen. As I lay under a willow, that I might digest my dinner out of the heat of the sun, I did hear singing and laughter — " "He was asleep and dreamed it." "Very cautiously did I crawl out, and there I beheld fifty Lamanitish maidens — " "Lamanites! Huh!" "Fifty Lamanitish damsels, as I did start to say, wreathed with garlands and bedecked with golden circlets on their arms and ankles, making merry in the woods. Then they ceased from their sports and sat them down to picnic out of great hampers. They THE MARTYR. 913 took out such viands! Ah me, I have not tasted cooked faod in a twelve month! Who knows? I might have made myself known and been made much of among so many maidens; but I forebore, and came here to acquaint you with the fact." A shout of laughter arose. "Come on, boys," volunteered one. "But Lamanites!" "I care not," decided Omner. "We are outcasts among our own people, and we dare not return to Lehi-Nephi. For my part, a Lamanite maid is good enough to cook my food and live in my tepee." "Mine, too, if she be good looking. Omner, lead out." As gaily as a crowd of school boys on a lark, they hurried through the woods. Others joined them on their way. After the order of primitive man did they lie in wait for, and carry off, their mates. After the first panic, the girls, when they found the white-skinned men were inclined to be wooers, were nothing loth. So the camp was doubled that night, for the fifty of Omo's imagination had dwindled to twenty four. Also like primitive man, they fought for their mates. A dispute arose as to who should have a tall, slender girl who wore great golden shells in her black hair. She was well worth fighting for, as most of the men seemed to think, for the riot soon developed into a free-for-all fight. It threatened to turn the camp into a hospital, when Amulon, returning from the hunt, strode in and threw a buck from his shoulders. Without more ado he threw himself into the midst of the melee and separated the opponents. As soon as the combatants saw who it was they decided to leave the decision with him. Amulon listened to the story of the day's conquest, and patiently heard each claim. In the meantime he had casually looked the girl over. She stood with heaving bosom and scornful lips while the parley went on. She narrowed her eyes, however, and paid attention when this big, powerful man, so evidently the master, took a hand. Finally he announced his decision, "I shall keep her myself." An ominous murmur arose. "He struck not a blow, but he seizes the plunder." 914 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Not a man there but knew Amulon would make his claim good, but where he was sure of his ground he could afford to be politic. He had exchanged a meaning look with the dark-eyed beauty, so he said magnanimously, "Come, we will let the girl herself make the choice." As soon as she understood the import of his words, she went over and stood up straight and tall by his side. As with primitive man, the strongest had won out. So Amulon, garbed in a leopard's skin was wed to the Indian girl in the forest. He did not know until afterwards that she was Lamona, the daughter of the king of the Lamanites. VII. — The Revenge. At the time that he fled from the armies of King Noah, Alma had led his people to a land of pure water. There they had prospered and built the city of Helem. They lived out the principles of right as laid down by the martyred prophet. Alma taught his people the gospel of brotherly love, and he was beloved of them so much that they desired to make him their king. This he refused, saying, "Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another." The armies of the Lamanites, who had conquered the whole country, came upon them. Alma and his brethren prayed to the Lord to save them. Then they went out and delivered themselves to the Lamanites, for they did not believe in bloodshed. 'The Lamanites spared them, although they made them subject to them and heaped heavy burdens on their backs. When the daughter of King Laman and twenty-three of her companions had been abducted in the woods, the Lamanites had been much wroth and made devastating war upon the Nephites, who were already practically slaves to their hard task-masters, who forced them to pay tribute of one-half of all their substance. At the time the men had deserted the women at the instigation of Noah, the Nephites had only saved themselves by making such terms, coupled by the fact that the Nephite girls went forth and begged clemency from the dusky warriors. Touched by the beauty of the white jwomen, the Lamanites had spared them. THE MARTYR. 915 "But in return ye steal our women, and carry them whither we know not, ' ' growled King Laman. The Nephites were in despair, for they knew nothing of the affair. Gideon came forth with the declaration, "You remember the wicked priests of King Noah whom we left wandering in the wilderness? Their minds were ever bent on mischief. Without doubt they have stolen the maidens." Acting on the suggestion, King Laman sent out scouts, who located the Lamanites living with their white husbands at a place called Amulon. Laman was furious, but Lamona went and threw herself at her father's feet and pleaded so earnestly in behalf of Amulon, whom she loved, that the stern old king relented and received his big son-in-law into favor. Thence he steadily rose, until he occupied his old position of king's favorite. Through his influence his fellow priests rose to places of honor in the kingdom. They taught the Lamanites much of the lore of the Nephites. Guided by the cunning of Amulon, the tribe became wealthier and more powerful than it had ever been before. The white husband of the king's only daughter ranked second only to the king himself, and Laman made Amulon ruler over many cities. Now it chanced that among those over which he exercised his dominion was the newly conquered province of Helem. Traveling with great pomp and splendor, accompanied by his dusky princess and flanked by the barbarian armies, Amulon entered the city of Helem and began to rule over the people of Alma. Amulon was a hard taskmaster, and the Lamanites drove the people of Alma like cattle, and put heavy burdens on their backs. When they raised their voices in supplication to the Lord their guards smote them on the mouth. So the Nephites learned to pray silently, in their hearts. The Lord heard their supplications. When Amulon learned that Zara lived in the city, he chivalrously gave orders that she and her family should be exempt from toil, but Alma preferred to go into the field and work side by side with his brethren. Zara, who was high-spirited, felt the humiliation; also she grieved for the people when she saw their miserable condition, so she pondered in her heart how she might relieve them. 916 IMPROVEMENT ERA. She counseled with Alma and advised: "Let the people prepare for flight; let them gather together secretly their necessities, that we may go to the city of Zarahemla, for I feel that the Lord will deliver us out of the hands of our enemies." Then she went and presented herself before Amulon. It was with mixed emotions that they beheld each other: Zara the suppliant, Amulon the arbiter, with a queenly woman by his side. Zara began fearlessly, for she was playing for the man she loved and the pilgrims who had given up their homes that they might live in conformity with their own consciences. "My Lord Amulon, I have come to present a petition — a petition which, knowing your generous nature, I am sure you will grant. As you are aware, there is ill feeling between your soldiers and the inhabitants, and it grieves me to behold the strife. That we may better understand one another, I have come to ask you to break bread with us —you and your court and all your soldiery. If you will honor us with your presence, we will assemble and make merry together in the great hall." Amulon, with a queer look on his face, graciously accepted the invitation. On the day that the Helemites feasted the soldiers of King Laman, Zara flitted among the huge wine jars, which stood in enormous numbers around. She moved from one to the other, pouring into them from a pitcher a concoction made of the sleeping herb and the juice of the poppy. That night, when the revelry was at its height and the brains of the gluttonous soldiers were wine-clogged, they did not notice that the room was being strangely emptied of Nephites. The Lamanites were steeped in a stupor bound to hold them until the sun had long passed high noon next day. While the brawlers lay in drugged heaps, out in the starlit night, a party of pilgrims silently took their way to Zarahemla. Zara, again facing the wilderness, fearfully clasped her boy to her bosom. The boy was Alma, the son of Alma, future high priest of Zarahemla, and forefather of the prophets that heralded the coming of the Lord. (the end.) Citation: Elizabeth Rachel Cannon, "The Martyr," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 894–916. # Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury—My Friend Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury-My Friend. BY JAMES X. ALLEN, M. D. I hope the Era will grant me a small space to pay my respects to my life-long, but now deceased friend, Samuel J. Sudbury. A short statement in the Deseret News emphasized his heartfelt and profound spirituality; but while all that was said of him was true, not a small fraction of his life history was even hinted at, nor do I expect to do more than give a reverent and brief epitome of his character. I became intimately acquainted with Brother Sudbury in Sheffield, England, in 1852. He attended the meetings of the Saints and was very much interested. We became intimate friends, and when he concluded to take a wife, he honored me by choosing me as father to give away the bride. In January of 1853, we sailed from Liverpool in the ship Golconda, for America. We arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall of the same year. That fall the greater part of the emigrants were re-baptized — it being considered that the task of driving oxen from Keokuk, Iowa, to Salt Lake City, together with PATRIARCH SAMUEL J. SUDBURY. Born, England, Sept. 9, 1829; died Dec. 28, 1909. 918 IMPROVEMENT ERA. wading rivers, guarding cattle at night and cooking our food with buffalo chips, had not contributed much towards our spiritual growth. Brother Sudbury and wife did not join the Church until after their arrival in Zion. For fifty-nine years we were fast friends. I cannot tell how proud I have always been of that friendship. Somebody has said, "On the choice of our friends our good or evil name depends." I can assure you that no man was ever the worse for the friendship of Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury. I have verified Solomon's description of a friend: A friend loveth always, not only in prosperity but in adversity. . There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother; he is more hearty in all friendly offices. He reproves when he sees anything amiss. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Brother Sudbury's friendship never made him blind to the shortcomings of his friends; but his rebuke partook more of the character of a mother than that of a schoolmaster. It has been said, "The only way to have a friend is to be one yourself." But how often are we disappointed in those whom we befriend! The friendship of our brother was perfect, undeviating. No earthly treasure can compare with that of a trusty friend. Homer defines friendship as, "Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspired." Somebody has said that "True happiness consists, not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice of them." Shakespeare makes Timon of Athens say, "I am wealthy in my friends:" Poor old man! He had none except his faithful servant. Those old and tried friends, how dear they are to our hearts! Well may Shakespeare make the Prince of Denmark say, "Those friends thou hast and tried, grapple them to thy soul." I have, and still do thank God for the friendship of so good and noble a man as was Samuel J. Sudbury. Well may Mr. Blair say, "Friendship, mysterious cement of the soul, sweetener of life, solder 'of society." Some other writer thus expresses it, "Pure friendship is something which men of inferior intellect can never taste." Samuel J. Sudbury was a man of superior intellect, exalted PATRIARCH SAMUEL J. SUDBURY. 919 spiritually, with a guileless heart. Byron also expresses himself beautifully on this same subject, "Friendship is love without its wings." Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. The servant know. eth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you (John 15: 15, 16). Brother Sudbury was in possession of that good spirit that partaketh of the things of God and reveals them unto men. He was a friend of God. After the disciples had proved their loyalty by faithful servitude they were admitted to the more holy communion of intimate friendship, and no man ever acquired that holy intimacy with God in any other way. "No man who is an enemy of God can be a true friend to man;" enmity to God is enmity to the family of God. While we were sorry to part with Brother Sudbury, there is comfort in the thought, there is one more attraction drawing our thoughts towards the great beyond. When children, parents and friends pass away, our interests here are weakened, as they are strengthened in our blessed future home. Ogden, Utah. The Mound Builders. Mr. N. H. Winchell, writing in the Popular Science Monthly dwells upon the enormous antiquity in their present habitat of the Indian tribes who constructed the "mounds.'' The great variety of dialects, none of which are connected with those of Europe or Asia, indicates, he says, either that the present population originated from a number of successive migrations, or, which is more probable, from a continuous occupation of American soil. It is certain that the mound-builders were the ancestors of some of the existing tribes. Both the Algonkian stock in the northeastern United States and Canada, and the Siouan stock in the great plains west of the Mississippi, were mound-builders. In Minnesota the two stocks coincidentally occupied the territory, dividing it between them, at the same time, when the white man's invasion began.— Youth's Companion. Citation: James X. Allen, "Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury—My Friend," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 917–919. # Dudley Bain Dudley Bain. BY ELLEN LEE SANDERS. "White and colored races should never mix under any circumstances," said the old doctor, and the way in which his chin was thrust out to emphasize the remark was a plain challenge to us younger men to dispute him if we dared, and as the doctor was always interesting, even in his most radical moods, we were discretely silent. We had learned by experience that just the right amount of reticence as to our own opinion always provoked the doctor to prove his point. "I agree with Fenimore Cooper when he put it into the mouth of an Indian chief, who had taken a white captive for a wife, that 'the fruit is not good.' " And he scanned our faces in turn aggressively. ' 'Born of southern parents, sent north to be educated, and rushing from the lecture room to the battle field, almost before the ink was dry on my diploma, I've had an exceedingly good chance to become familiar with all the questions of enough importance to be worth noticing." He looked around to see if any of us fifty-year-old striplings had the temerity to doubt his word, and then proceeded to place and hammer another nail into the argument he was having all by himself. ' 'The direct results from having these sons of Ham among us, arose from the sin of miscegenation. It is not less in the free condition of the rascals, and it is the breeder of most of the horrors that have disgraced the archives of several of our states in recent years. Whenever I have taken the trouble to look up the DUDLEY BAIN. 921 antecedents of a negro guilty of a particularly atrocious crime, I have always found white blood behind it— vicious white blood, too, for no other kind finds itself in the veins of negroes, or other dark races. And some of our worst white criminals have their blood stained with a little smut." We looked pleasantly interested, and the old doctor proceeded along the lines we expected. "I have had negroes in my employ, and can get along all right with a full-blooded one, but not with the mixtures. I could relate forty modern instances to prove my point,— (my next door neighbor nudged me gently and whispered, "It's coming!")— but I know of a case that happened just before the war that illustrates just what I mean." We all came to attention. ' 'When I was a young fellow, home from college on a vacation I went hunting with some friends about as discreet as I was, and got lost in a swamp. When we had about made up our minds that we would spend the night in mud and water up to our knees, we struck dry ground, and on a little rise, scarcely an acre in extent, we found a cute little two-roomed house, for it was too nice to call a cabin. It was furnished for a woman, and was so new that there were no weather stains on it, and it was neat and even pretty. "We were very glad to pass the night there, and as I was looking around for material to write a note to our unknown host, I found a lot of closely written, loose sheets of paper, and the little that I read gave me the idea that we had stumbled upon the retreat of either a mad poet or a criminal in love. So I took the papers, and we hastily left the place. "I read them all afterward, and from other sources gathered valuable additions to what they contained, and I am going to tell it to you in true story book style." Dan Crawford, a Southern planter, sat on the broad, shaded veranda of his inviting old Southern mansion, and expressed in every line of his comfortable, rotund body that he was in a very uncomfortable frame of mind. He mopped the perspiration from his forehead, chewed his cigar instead of smoking it, pulled at his 922 IMPROVEMENT ERA. forelock and buttoned his two-colored linen coat with nervous hands. The dog, wise to his master's ways, slunk off and eyed him with apprehension. Oh, he was aware that he had a terrible temper, and had flattered himself that he was always master of it; but today it had slipped its leash, and while it ruled him he had done some very regretable work, and his regret was not unmixed with apprehension. Fear was a word he would not tolerate, even in his private cogitations, still, there had been something positively menacing in the cool, defiant spirit that had looked out of the eyes of the slave he had whipped; whipped brutally, without conquering; whipped till shame paralyzed his arm as anger cooled, and he felt himself to be both a coward and a brute. Whatever may have been said or sung, written or romanced about, it was never a common thing in the South for a slave to be severely punished. Who but a fool would willfully deface a costly painting, break a rare vase, or perform any other act cf vandalism on his own property? A thousand dollar horse is not often abused or beaten except by a mad man, and a negro slave — a man in the prime of life, and of a good disposition, was worth a thousand dollars. Marks of the lash on his back lessened his value one half, as testifying to an ugly disposition. An unruly, dissatisfied slave was a dread to all slave owners. Insolence and insubordination is epidemic, and the slave ow^er made haste to part with a slave as soon as this spirit made itself manifest, as the easiest and surest method of dealing with insubordination. Dan Crawford picked up his hat as if to go, thought better of the impulse, and settled' himself in his chair again, but the dog watching his master through one half-closed eye did not yet attempt to approach him. The perspiration that trickled from the planter's face was not caused entirely by the warm weather, nor yet by the violent and unusual exercise he had been taking. He was suffering mental disturbances that were hard for a person of his placid temperament to bear. He tried to banish the theme of his worry, but he could not get rid of it, and as the slave's word DUDLEY BAIN. 923 and manner came back to him, a flood of hot, angry blood, crimson with shame, surged over neck and face, till he looked capable of repeating the beating he had been regretting. Dan Crawford was a bachelor of forty, and owned a large plantation and many slaves. A "Sir Galihad"' in character, who had considered the only course possible to a Southern gentleman, when the lady he loved died, was to mourn for her all his days. So he had given his strength and energy to his estate, keeping bachelor's hall, till even the memory of the Southern flower he had loved and lost had faded to a fragrant shadow, so faint that it took an effort to recall her face. His house had been kept in pretty good order by a colored woman, who had been trained by his mother; and thus, as his mind traveled over the details of his domestic life, he thought agam of the negro he had whipped, — Dudley Bain, body servant, private secretary, slave, but not— no, no, not the other thing the wretch had dared to name! And even the planter's softly uttered r's, and habitual languid drawl did not destroy the force of his half muttered remarks, and the dog withdrew himself yet further into the shrubbery, and went to sleep. As usual he and Dudley Bain had been in the office together, and the master had been dictating and outlining letters to his sec-_ retary, going over some accounts, and estimating the probable cost of improvements Mr. Crawford contemplated making before his niece should come to make her home with him. It had pleased Dan Crawford to educate Dudley Bain till he could fill this position, in defiance of the strong prejudice in the South against educating negroes. He had found the lad bright, intelligent, industrious and trustworthy, and withal of a most docile and affectionate disposition; at times the master so far forgot moiety of negro blood in the lad as to treat him almost as a man, consulting him in such matters as were now under consideration — the renovating and decorating of the old mansion for its new mistress. When the morning's work was finished, Bain put his papers together preparatory to going to his own room, there to complete the work laid out. He paused with the papers in his hands, 924 IMPROVEMENT ERA. looked his master in the face irresolutely, turned pale, and turned hastily as though to quit the room. These signs of emotion did not escape the observation of the easy-going master. He had always had a special liking for the bright lad of twenty, whose mother had been a very white mullato from the Bain plantation, forty miles away. The mother had been bought at a bankrupt sale, for her many good qualities, to act as maid to Mr. Crawford's mother. The woman had died when Dudley was hardly more than a day old, leaving the helpless infant dependent on the kindness of Madam Crawford. For want of something better to do, perhaps, the good lady had taken care of the orphan herself; and, finding him particularly bright, had taught him to read and write; and when she knew that death was upon her, ten years later, had commended him to her son, and begged, in terms little short of commands, that the boy should never be sent into the fields to work among the negroes. "Because he is not strong enough for such work," she had said, but really it was because the white blood so predominated in Dudley Bain that Madam Crawford had felt that to treat him as a negro would be little short of a crime. His parentage was no secret to the noble woman who had protected his tender years. She knew that her pretty mulatto maid had fallen an easy victim to the blandishments of a peddler of cheap finery and ' 'pinch-beck" jewelry. The girl had loved him with the wild abandon of her race, and when he did not return and redeem his promises, had grieved herself into a state of health that was the real cause of her death. The doctors, of course, had learnedly and pompously talked of ''depleted vitality," etc., "resulting in heart failure;" but Mrs. Crawford, being a woman, knew that it was just a plain case of "heart-break," etc., "resulting in not caring to live." So it had pleased the son of this benevolent old lady to make a private secretary of his mother's protege, and the arrangement had proven entirely satisfactory. [to be continued.] Citation: Ellen Lee Sanders, "Dudley Bain," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 920–924. # Some Men Who Have Done Things—X. George Reed, the Cauliflower King Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. X. — George Reed, the Cauliflower King. THE OLD RECIPE FOR MAKING A SUCCESSFUL MAN STILL THE BEST — INTEREST IN YOUR WORK, ABILITY TO THINK ABOUT IT, AND THOROUGHGOING TRUSTWORTHINESS. George Reed is a truck-gardener. He lives in Forest Dale, a self-reliant little town that is struggling hard to keep from being gobbled up by the Greater Salt Lake. By those city folks who eat lettuce in the spring, green peas and corn in the summer, and cabbage in the autumn, his occupation is supposed to last only during the few m,onths when Jack Frost is not hanging around, before which and after which he can have nothing to do but lie on the south side of the house counting his dollars and wondering if they will hold out till plowing time. This, however, is a great mistake. The picture is wholly wrong. First of all, because the man is George Reed, and, being George Reed, he is not in the habit of lying about, neither on the sunny side of a building, nor anywhere GEORGE REED AND WIFE. 926 IMPROVEMENT ERA. else. And, secondly, because by hard work and native intelligence, he has succeeded in making truck-gardening an all-year vocation. There is not a week during the fifty-two in the year when he does not cart vegetables to Market Row, in Salt Lake. And the story of how he does it is extremely interesting. He was born in England fifty-one years ago— on a farm. Tilling the soil, therefore, runs in the blood with him. Besides, he probably would have chosen it as his vocation, anyhow. He had only one year's schooling, during which he learned to read, but not to write. Those were the days before compulsory education became a law in England. A.nd then, too, the Reed family numbered twelve persons, including the parents, and every hand was necessary as soon as it could put itself to good use. Not till he was seventeen did he learn to sign his name. Since then, however, he has made up for those early deficiencies, for few men of his opportunities are better read. At fourteen he left home to seek employment. During the first few years he drove a team, he worked as a charcoal burner, he tended horses in Lord Hampton's stables, and he milked cows. But he always clung as close to Mother Earth as he could. At twenty-three he came to Utah, a married man. For a year or two before this he had been engaged in the dairy business in his own employment. The "Mormon" missionaries came to his home; their message appealed to his naturally religious mind, and so in a couple of weeks after first seeing them he joined the Church. Arrived in Salt Lake City, he rented less than an acre of ground in the western part of the town.' Here he demonstrated to himself and to such others as cared to pay attention to what he was doing, that there was money in the soil. For by intelligent application, he picked up just one thousand dollars during the summer months from that small patch of land. George Reed never goes about with his eyes shut. They are always wide open, seeing what they can see. And one can imagine him standing by the fence corner, overlooking that less than one acre, and the situation that confronted him. \ Of the two— the land and the situation — the land was by far the smaller. Anyway, it was while he stood there looking over them. He knew that he SOME MEN WHO HA VE DONE THINGS. 927 would have to make his living off that acre. It would have to be worked for all it was worth. And this is what he did. He decided to put the whole piece in potatoes, and two kinds of celery and cauliflower. The celery rows were five feet apart, and between the rows were potatoes. Every other row of celery was early, the rest late. After the early celery was marketed, there was p^nty of earth left to heap up the late celery. The celery and potatoes occupied two-thirds of the plot. Celery and cauliflower took up the rest of the ground. The celery rows here were ten feet apart with the cauliflower in between. This was treated as the other was. And the net income was one thousand dollars! George Reed, the very first year of his arrival here, was thus a producer, and not a sponge. Nor was he experienced in this sort of thing. He had never done the like before. But that was no hindrance. He had hands — and a head. And he used both. All he did was to plan first and then execute, instead of executing first and then planning. He had certain things to do, he had certain conditions to do them under, and so he took the shortest way he could find. And that is all. At Farmer's Ward he did the same kind of work, and in much the same way. But poor health hampered him in his efforts. Besides, he saw the need of more land. And so he moved to Forest Dale. That was fifteen years ago. Here he rents thirty acres. He says he could get along just as well with twenty; only he can't get just twenty; he has to take the thirty or more; and so he takes the thirty. But for garden purposes the twenty acres suffice. And so Mr. Reed may be said to cultivate a twenty acre farm. Now, the task he has before him all the time is this; "How can I cultivate this piece of land so as to get the most out of it? What things that will grow here pay the best?" It is practically the same problem that confronts a business man, the same that confronts every man. Only not every man goes at the solution of his problem in this philosophical way. First of all, the ground has to be taken care of. Mr. Reed plows it twice, once in the fall and again in the spring. The second plowing is not so deep as the first. He keeps the land free 928 IMPROVEMENT ERA. from weeds. His reasoning on the matter of weeds is characteristic. Weeds, he says, take nourishment from the soil — nourishment that is needed by decent plants. Hence they must be kept down. And the sooner they are disposed of the better. The growing plants, too, must be cultivated. Most people, he thinks, use too much water. If the plants are cultivated every ten days, they can do with comparatively little water. And then when they are irrigated the thing must be done judiciously. Mr. Reed irrigates by a sort of instinct. A man ought to feel, he says, whether the water should run fast through the rows or slowly and long. You can't guess at these things. Mr. Reed has a good word also on the question of seed. Some buy the cheapest they can get. So does Mr. Reed, for that matter. But his idea of cheapness is different from most people's. "I can get cauliflower seed for six dollars a pound," he told me, "but I wouldn't plant it. All my cauliflower seed costs me fortyfour dollars a pound." There is a great difference between six dollars and forty-four dollars. But there is a vastly greater difference between the crops they respectively produce, so Mr. Reed says. Forty-four dollars thus proves a smaller outlay than six dollars. Which is perfectly obvious. Considerable thought, too, must be given to the matter of what to plant. Mr. Reed plows up, in September, some land that has been in cabbage and cauliflower and sows it in'1 spinach. This is ready for the market in March. The yield of this sort of garden truck is out of all proportion to the labor required to produce it. "I can plow and harrow and sow in the fall enough spinach in two hours and a half, at most, to bring me sixty dollars. Of course there is the work of cutting it for market. This would, perhaps, require, all told, two or three hours more labor." It is, therefore, a paying business to raise spinach. Let us say, then, that work proper begins with spinach in March. The next articles ready for the market are onions, lettuce, and parsley. These all have been planted in the fall. After this comes spinach again — spinach that has been planted in the spring — and spring lettuce and onions and parsley. Next come early cabbage and early cauliflower, then late cabbage and cauliflower. Celery and turnips (late), carrots and parsnips and beets SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 929 next have their turn. This brings us to the fall, when cauliflower is put upon the market. It is cauliflower that prolongs the marketing season for Mr. Reed. This is his largest crop. And it is this crop that has made him a king in Market Row. He has a way of maturing late cauliflower and preserving it through the winter. He got the secret in a course given in the University of Experience. He had the graciousness to tell me what it was, but I promised neither to give it away in the Era, nor to use it myself. And so, if the readers of this article are curious to know what it is, they will have to get it direct from him. Formerly, he told me, he lost all the cauliflower that did not mature before the frost and hard weather. But he has wrested from Nature this secret, by which he can actually mature this late cauliflower, and by which he has profited several thousand dollars. Cauliflower, as I have said, carries him to market from the time parsnips and beets are sold till it is time for spinach again. Mr. Reed must be a good bargainer, moreover, for he tells me that he has never had any trouble to sell his products. I know others that do have trouble. Without meaning to throw out insinuations against any other market gardeners, I must drop a hint or two as to how Mr. Reed has succeeded in disposing of his products. In the first place, he takes great pains to have only the best for sale. This goes a long way towards finding a market. If I may be forgiven a personalism, I may set down here the extreme delight with which I partook of a delicious morsel of asparagus that came to our house once, (only once!) and the all but overwhelming desire I had to hunt up the man who could grow such choice vegetables. When he raised celery and potatoes on that acre plot on Eighth West street, the merchants on Market Row were so eager for the celery that they were willing to come to his place and dig it up — which some of them did. That is the first point — to have good things to sell. And the second point is to possess plain, everyday, common, Christian honesty! When Mr. Reed tells them, up there on Market Row, that he has suchand-such articles, of such-and-such quality, the merchants have learned to feel as sure that they are what he says they are, as if they were looking at them with their eyes. And this is a great 930 IMPROVEMENT ERA. point in these days when you have to run to your wit's end for a thousand tests by which to know that you are not being cheated. There is no doctoring up vegetables to deceive the sharpest. And here are two more hints: Mr. Reed understands men — he studies character. "You know," he slyly observed to me, "some people know what they want, and some don't. The first class you've got to let alone. But the other fellows you've got to tell what to buy." Most probably he got this bit of information, too, at the University of Experience. A good many persons, however, have, seemingly, never passed through this school. And then, again, he never brings home any part of his load. He studies the market price. He sells what he can of his produce at the prevailing prices — and generally that is all he has,— but rather than take any home to spoil, he sells the rest for what he can get. Whether this is good business or not, from the standpoint of those who want to keep up the price, I do not know, but it strikes me as being mighty good sense. From all this Mr. Reed reaps an abundant harvest of dollars. Five thousand dollars is his gross income yearly, of which nearly half is cauliflower money. In his case the expenses drag down this figure somewhat. He has to rent his land and, at present, to hire his labor. But, even so, he nets between twenty-five hundred and three thousand dollars every year. Many a young man, and old one, too, wearing a pencil behind his ear, or perched on a stool by a high desk, or thumping away on a typewriter, or hanging around waiting for something to turn up, would not be the worse off for a wage like this, let alone having the freedom of the open air. But it requires brains to do this. There is no doubt about that. Some people think — usually those who would be hard put to it to tell a cow from a sheep, but for the blessed picture books — that a farmer has no particular use for eyes and ears and brains— only of hands. Well, some of them don't. But they are the sort generally who do not have any particular use for success, either — never having had any. Not so with men of the Reed stamp. Such men think. They have to. They could not earn success if they didn't. They put two and two together — and make four. And this is no small accomplishment, small as it seems. SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 931 When a plant does not do well, such a farmer must know why. Certain vegetables pay better than others. On every hand the tiller of the soil who is something other than the so-called clodhopper, is called on to think. "This work is very hard, though, isn't it?" I asked. "Not very," was the reply. "Not harder than most others. To be sure the hours are long during certain seasons of the year, but the work is not hard. And then there is a variety of tasks which you don't get in very many other occupations." And I thought of the French witticism made at the expense of our modern division of labor: "How sad it must be to think that you have never raised anything but a valve, or made anything greater than the eighteenth part of a pin!" Here is a man that can plow the ground, harrow it, fertilize it, plant it with cauliflowers — forty thousand of them — water them, cultivate them and market them — and not have a separate man to do each process. Mr. Reed gave me the best reason for the existence of an agricultural school that I have ever heard. Anyway he brought it home straighter. "I believe in schools where they teach agriculture," he said. "I started out without any such education. Everything I have learned about the nature of soils and plants 1 have had to get through hard experience. Of course, I have made many mistakes in getting my information — and lost money, to boot. Now, if I had been to an agricultural college, I should have been saved both time and expense. There are certain things you simply have to know about the soil and the plants, if you get along at all. If you get these things before you begin, you can start real business early; if you don't, why you will progress slowly." Citation: John Henry Evans, "Some Men Who Have Done Things—X. George Reed, the Cauliflower King," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 925–931. # Editor’s Table: Order of the Priesthood Editor's Table. Order of the Priesthood.* BY PRESIDENT. ANTHON H. LUND. Wherefore now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence. He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved, shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen. (Doc. and Gov. 107: 99-100.) Thus saith the Lord. In these two paragraphs each one is enjoined to do his duty. I was really pleased this morning to see this nice lot of young boys rise up as members of the Church, holding the Aaronic Priesthood. Boys, it is a good beginning. I was pleased with the remarks of Brother Cannon, and I hope you will remember them, and remember the precious words spoken by President Smith, who has shown unto us the great value of holding the priesthood. You boys may not today appreciate how valuable is the priesthood you hold. When you go out into the world on missions you will see how the people of the world honor their priests in different nations, how they look up to them, and especially if they hold high offices. Yet, let me tell you, boys, that not any of the greatest prelates in the world's religions holds the degree of priesthood that you do, for the priesthood of God has not been received by them. What they hold is man-given, but you, my young friends, and you brethren, all of you, hold a priesthood that has come from heaven * Delivered before the Granite Stake priesthood meeting, May 28> 1910. EDITOR'S TABLE. and been conferred by angels to men upon the earth. When we hold the priesthood we are recognized as servants of the Most High. We hold the priesthood, his commission unto man. What manner of men ought we to be to have been honored with the priesthood— the Melchizedek priesthood, the priesthood after the order of the Son of God? You, my young friends, who hold the Aaronic priesthood, which is an appendage of the higher priesthood, will understand, by and by, more fully the value of these callings and of the authority placed upon you. There have been more keys of the priesthood given unto this generation than to any other generation who have lived upon the earth. The apostles in ancient times held the priesthood. They traveled with the Savior himself, listened to the inspired words spoken by the Master, and were taught by him direct, but the dispensation of the fulness of times had not yet come into the world The dispensation of Christ had a special object. The Savior came with a mission to fulfil the covenants made in the eternal councils, to redeem the world by giving his life as a sacrifice for sin, to establish his gospel among men, to teach the better and the higher law. But we are told by Paul that there was a time coming in which men would not listen to sound doctrine, and in which the Savior said, they would think they were doing God a service by killing his servants. That time did come, and the Lord in his mercy took the gospel from the earth for a time, and took the priesthood away until the time should come when the dispensation of the fulness of times should be ushered in. We are convinced that the Lord has established this great work, and that the Prophet Joseph has been hid in Christ until the time when he should perform the great mission of introducing his last and wonderful dispensation. Keys have been given unto us that were not used by, or given to, those of other dispensations. They knew about them, gave hints concerning them, but to us these keys have been given, and we have used them and are using them every day. Not only are the keys of the priesthood used for the living, but also for the dead. I have no doubt that the apostles understood the use of these keys in those days, but as that dispensation opened, the Lord saw it would not be a blessing to make it a permanent one, because the people would reject it and draw more 934 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . condemnation upon themselves; and hence, many of these things were not introduced. Temple building was not introduced in the days of the apostles. They did not build meetinghouses. They simply preached unto the men and women whom they met, and they established the great fact that Jesus had been born, that he had lived upon the earth, and performed miracles, had taught the true principles of the gospel, had suffered for all mankind, and had been crucified and was resurrected. They preached these truths and they were accepted by a great number of the people, but the majority rejected the priesthood, and the men that held the apostleship were slain and others usurped their places. The truths of the gospel had been written by the evangelists and apostles, and have come down to us through the ages, and have worked great good among men; but the great blessing of possessing the priesthood, which this body of men do possess, was not enjoyed for many hundred years. The Catholics claim succession from Peter the Apostle through a line of bishops who resided at Rome. They further claim that as John the Revelator was still living, and did not interfere with che proceedings of these bishops, he must have acknowledged them as legitimate leaders of the Church. Now, I have used that argument in just the opposite way. John the Revelator, the beloved disciple of the Master, lived more than thirty years after the martyrdom of Peter. I have tried to show that when they claim a succession through bishops, when an apostle was living, they do not understand the order of the priesthood. If the bishop of Rome was the successor of Peter, John, who held the apostleship, would be subject to a bishop, and that never has been and never will be the order of the priesthood. John, being alive and holding the keys of the High Priesthood, was an apostle, and no bishop chosen by men could be set up to preside over him. They show their weakness in claiming a succession through bishops when the Lord had an apostle upon the earth. Now, did the Lord acknowledge the bishop in Rome as his vicegerent on the earth? 1 certainly claim he did not, for when he had revelations to give, and had commands to send to different branches of the Church, he did not reveal himself to the bishop in Rome, but he revealed himself to John, his beloved apostle, who was EDITOR'S TABLE. 935 then in banishment on the Isle of Patmos. He was the man recognized by heaven and by his Master as the one who held the keys upon the earth, and John imparted the instructions of the Lord to those branches of the Church, and he gave the members encouragement and reproof. The Lord used his servant, the apostle, years after there had been bishops appointed in Rome, in fact, after several of them had been appointed and died. He that holds the keys of the High Priesthood and presides over it will never be subjected to the presidency of a bishop, for that is not the order of that priesthood. When you look at the organization of the priesthood, how perfect it is! That priesthood will not be taken away from the earth again nor will it be given to another people. There are people in our day who claim to get it through lineage. The Lord says that it shall not be taken from this people and given to another people. A lot of men who were too weak to follow the destinies of the Church in its poverty and its exile, have tried to establish a church for themselves, and at last got the consent of the Prophet's son to be their leader and president. What had the mass of the people done that they should forfeit the right of presidency and of having the Church amongst them? I have not heard one argument that was worth anything against our people. They say that our people did not build the temple, in the time that was allotted them, and therefore the Lord rejected them and gave th-3 authority to others — to men who did not assist in temple building and do not build temples now. What an inconsistent, unreasonable idea and argument! The Lord has accepted this people. Just think, when the Saints knew that the temple would not be kept in their hands and that they had to leave their city, they still continued in their work until the temple was dedicated. The keys of the priesthood were bestowed in that temple, and endowments given, and the people felt blessed although they made such a great sacrifice, for they spent most of a million dollars in erecting that building, and then had to leave it. Their faith was sublime, and the Lord accepted their sacrifice. Now brethren, let us remember these words that I read. "Let every man learn his duty," and do as the great commander Nelson said, at the beginning of the battle, "Today England expects every 936 IMPROVEMENT ERA. man to do his duty." So today our heavenly Father expects every man holding the priesthood to do his duty, and we must do our duties. If they are onerous, if they are sometimes hard to perform, do not let us shirk, do not let us be slothful, for, "He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand," and unless we stand to the last, the crown will not be ours. And my dear sisters, to you also is the command that every one of you must do your duty and be diligent that you may stand, for you are called to perform most important duties, and the Lord will bless you in them. He will give you joy in them, and your work will tend just as much towards upbuilding the kingdom of God as the duties performed by our brethren. All join together in the great work of building up the kingdom of God upon the earth. God bless you all. Amen. Messages from the Missions. Under date of June 3, 1910, Elder Ray L. Pratt, president of the Mexican mission, writing to the Deseret News from Calzada de Santa Maria, Mexico, gives an incident of the goodness of the Lord towards the Latter-day Saints and his divine and protecting care over them in an epidemic of sickness. He says: ' 'The elders and Saints of the Chalco conference have been greatly blessed of the Lord, and miraculously preserved during the epidemic of smallpox which has raged for the last six months in Ozumba, where the elders of that conference have their headquarters, and surrounding towns. The civil register of Ozumba alone shows 700 deaths from smallpox, during the time mentioned, and although the dreaded disease has been in the home of nearly every family of Saints residing in those towns, not a single death of the Saints from the disease has been registered. And although the elders, through their ministrations to the people and Saints, have been exposed daily, none of them has contracted the disease. Some remarkable cases of healing have attended the administrations of the elders. In one ca3e a little girl was left nearly blind as a result of the smallpox, a white film having come over the eye. She was administered to and almost instantly the film disappeared and her sight today is clear and perfect. The disease has now practically died out, for which we thank EDITOR'S TABLE. 937 the Lord, as we do also for preserving the Saints from death, and the elders from contagion." J. Alma Langston, writing from Breslau, Germany, May 23, says: "This part of the German and Swiss mission is progressing very rapidly. We have a branch of about 170 members, most of them recent converts, and every month more are added. Generally there are four or five elders working in this city which has a population of about 500,000. We feel well, and wish we had more help. ELDERS IN BRESLAU, GERMANY. Left to right: (standing) J. Alma Langston, A. Frank Barnes, Orange Olsen; (sitting) Arthur Woolley, Orson Douglas, Harold C. Kimball. Elder L. Montgomery of the Wisconsin conference write to Liahona the Elders'1 Journal, giving an account of a visit which he and President George E. Liljenquist made to a Miss Bashna Cornwall, who is 90 years of age, and living with her brother Newman, aged 88, and a sister, aged 83, at West Alles, Wisconsin, all of whom were neighbors and acquaintances of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It appears that she had written an article which was published in the Milwaukee Sentinel in which she claimed that the appearance of Halley's comet, 75 years ago, aided in the rise of "Mormonism." The writer states that notwithstanding her 90 years on earth, her memory is bright, which all the more gives weight to the story which she cheerfully gave them regarding the rise 938 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . of the Church and of the people before the Church was organized. They especially inquired as to how the Smith family was regarded in that locality by those who were not members of the Church. They give her exact words in reply: 'I have nothing to say against the Smiths. They were representative people. They were peaceful neighbors, and although not educated in book learning, no one could say they were ignorant or illiterate. Socially, they were inclined to be jovial and not wearers of 'wry faces/ as we have since heard. In personality Joseph Smith, Jr. was tall, wellproportioned, and good looking. His character was good, and one could tell at sight that he was a great man. "The first adherents of 'Mormonism' were of the better class of people, many of whom sacrificed fortunes that they might move west with the body of the Church.'' They also asked her as to what she thought of the early persecutions of the Latter-day Saints, to which she replied: "I consider the persecution of the 'Mormons' and the burning of the Nauvoo temple cruel and inhuman acts, while the martyrdom of Joseph Smith was very much uncalled for, as his actions would warrant anything but ill treatment." Elder William 0. Beckstrom, president of the Sundsvall conference of the Swedish mission, writes to the Era, under date of June 22: "We are an interested and happy band of workers. We held a successful spring conference in the early, part of May last. Two converts were baptized. An incident as to how one of the converts came to embrace the gospel is here given: "Two of the elders visited Hernosand, last winter, and held a public meeting on the Sunday following their arrival on Friday. A certain woman had read some Latter-day Saint literature, some years ago, giving little attention to its contents. This woman dreamed on the night of the arrival of these elders that she saw a young man in her home who pointed to her and said: 'Faith and baptism, quickly.' She awoke and pondered over the strange message received, trying to solve the meaning. Unable to forget the matter or cast it from her mind, and being desirous of learning the interpretation, she went to her priest or minister and related the dream to him. She asked him what it meant, and he answered that it was a very common thing for people to dream and that he thought there was no further significance whatever to it. The answer was very unsatisfactory to her. It appears that the woman was a Sunday school teacher in one of the churches of that city, and upon the EDITOR'S TABLE. 939 particular Sunday of the visit of these two elders, last May, the Spirit of the Lord moved upon her to visit the meeting of the Latter-day Saints. On entering the hall, to her astonishment, she saw the very young man whom she had seen the previous Friday night in her dreams. This increased her interest, for she had never seen nor met him before. She listened attentively to what was said by the speakers, and the following Tuesday visited, the elders and asked for an explanation of the first principles of the gospel, with particular reference to faith and baptism. She studied over their replies, and sought the Lord for light, which she rereceived. Two weeks later she wrote a letter stating she was ready for baptism. Her husband was opposed to her taking this step, and she therefore desired the elders to unite with her in prayer that this difficulty might be overcome. She succeeded in this, the Lord answering her petition, and was baptized at the conference as stated. Thus we see how the Lord accomplishes his purposes." The Bondage of Debt. "If it be suggested that my whole indebtedness was at no time more than five to seven thousand dollars, I have only to say that even one thousand dollars of debt is ruin to him who keenly feels his obligation to fulfil every engagement, yet is utterly without the means of so doing, and who finds himself dragged each week a little deeper into hopeless insolvency. To be hungry, ragged and penniless is not pleasant, but this is nothing'.to the horrors of bankruptcy. Most poor men are so ignorant as to envy the merchant or manufacturer whose life is an incessant struggle with pecuniary difficulties, who is driven to constant 'shinning, 'and who from month to month, barely evades that insolvency which sooner or later overtakes most men in business; so that it has been computed that but one in twenty of them achieves a pecuniary success. For my own part — and I speak from sad experience — I would rather be a convict in a state prison, a slave in a rice swamp, than to pass through life under the harrow of debt. "Let no young man misjudge himself unfortunate, or truly poor, so long as he has the full use of his limbs and faculties, and is substantially free from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust ieproach, are disagreeable; but debt is infinitely worse than all. And if it had pleased God to spare either or all of my sons to be the support and solace of my declining years, the lesson which I should have most earnestly sought to impress upon them is — never run into debt." — From Recollections oj a Busy Life — Horace Greeley. Citation: Anthon H. Lund, "Editor’s Table: Order of the Priesthood," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 932–939. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. Ordinations to the Priesthood.— What language is used in ordaining to the Aaronic Priesthood? It is customary in ordaining a person to the Aaronic Priesthood who has never held that priesthood in substance to say : ' 'We confer upon you the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain you to the office of " — deacon, teacher, or priest, as the case may be, but when the Aaronic Priesthood has once been conferred upon a person, it is only necessary to say in ordaining him to another office in the same priesthood, "We ordain you to the office of," — priest, teacher, or deacon, as the case may be. This same order applies to ordinations in the Melchizedek Priesthood. Tri-Stake Priesthood Convention. — There were 1,244 members of the Priesthood quorums in attendance at the tri-stake general Priesthood Convention of the Weber, Ogden, and North Weber stakes, held in the Weber stake Academy, on Sunday, July 10. The brethren were seated according to the degree of Priesthood held, and after an hour's general exercises the assembly was separated in six departments — High Priests, Seventies, Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. Elder Da,rid 0. McKay presided. He stated that the convention was a new thing. It was, however, not an end in itself, but a means to make quorum work more effective in the stakes represented. There should be an element of brotherhood in the work of the quorums; and one of the objects was to develop this and a feeling of fraternity among the brethren, as well as to discuss plans and methods for the most effective practical and scholastic work among them. Under Music Director Joseph Ballantyne a male chorus sang attractive music. "The Priesthood Movement" was discussed by John V. Bluth of the North Weber stake, and "The Priesthood as Teachers'' was a paper given by Charles C. Richards of the Ogden stake. Elder George F. Richards of the Quorum of Twelve expressed his delight with the great assembly, and stated that the convention may be PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 941 a precedent for others of a similar character to be held throughout the Church. Excellent papers were given in the quorum departments by a number of the brethren who had been previously appointed for these exercises. A general discussion of the paper followed in each case. In the High Priests department, conducted by Alva Scoville, were 382 high priests, and papers were given under the following titles : "What are the Functions that belong to the calling of a high priest in the Church and how may these be exercised?" by Wiley G. Cragun of the Weber stake High Council. "Organization, labor and purpose of the home ministry," by Samuel G. Dye of the Ogden stake High Council; "What can a High Priest do, that he is not specially called to do, to help the work of the Lord in his ward," by Harry E. Baker of the North Weber stake High Council. In the Seventies department, conducted by Elder Fred Foulger, Donald D. McKay of Ogden stake High Council gave a paper on "The Place and Calling of the Seventy;" "Sources of Man's Knowledge of God," by Ammon Green, Jr., of the North Weber stake, "Ancient Conception of God from Adam to Abraham," S. M. Kershaw, Weber stake. In the Elders department, Samuel A. Blair conducted the exercises. "Place and Function of Elders' Quorums in the Church," by William D. Van Dyke, Jr., North Weber stake High Council; "How to Make Class Recitation Interesting," Charles J. Ross, Weber stake High Council; "How Elders' Efficiency may be Enhanced in Promoting the Progress of the Church," by 0. M. Sanderson. In the Priests department, Thomas A. Shreeve conducted the exercises. "The Priest, his Qualifications, Duties, and Powers," Joseph C. McFarlane of the Weber stake High Council;" "The Aaronic Priesthood, Origin and History," Joseph R. Morrell, of the Ogden stake High Council; "Section 13, Doctrine and Covenants," John C. Neil, of the North Weber stake High Council. Teachers department, Elijah A. Larkin conductor. "The Ideal Teachers' Quorum — Responsibility of Officers, Members and Instructors," Lars E. Eggertson, Ogden stake High Council; "The Careless Quorum Member and the Best Way to Reach his Heart," Alfred Dickson, North Weber stake High Council; "Methods of Training the Ordained Teacher for the Performance of Practical Duties," James R. Beus, of the Weber stake High Council. Deacons department, George E. Butler conductor. "The Mission of the Deacons," James' Skeen, North Weber stake High Council; "How can we Help Boys to Adjust Themselves to the Calling and Spirit of the 942 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . Priesthood?" James M. Barlow, Weber stake High Council; "How can We Acquire an Interest in Boy Activities?" Christian J. Jensen, Ogden stake High Council. The convention work, it may well be predicted, will result in great good in arousing enthusiasm among the members in the various wards of the three stakes, and in giving the officers and class leaders increased zeal for their labor. The order was excellent, and the arrangements were carried out to perfection. During the class exercises remarks were made in the various divisions by Elders David 0. McKay, B. H Roberts, George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney and others who were present. Some of the papers will be printed in the Era later. Two general public meetings were held in the evening, one in the Stake Academy, addressed by Elder Orson F. Whitney; and the other in the Tabernacle, where Elder B H. Roberts addressed the congregation on "Priesthood." Sunday Refreshment Stands. — "Do the authorities of the Church approve of ice cream and refreshment stands or parlors being open and run on Sunday nights?" The authorities of the Church are very desirous that Sunday shall be observed according to the commandments of the Lord which enjoin us to honor the Sabbath day, do no work, attend the house of worship, and do nothing except prepare our meals with singleness of heart. The 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, beginning with the 7th verse and ending with the 14th, is very plain and tells us how to spend the Sabbath. The promise is made to those who will keep these commandments, with cheerful hearts and countenances, that the fulness of the earth shall be theirs, and they shall have peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come. This promise should be sufficient to make every man and woman willing to obey the laws of the Lord. Furthermore, parents in Zion should teach their children the sacredness of the Sabbath day so that they will not be anxious or desirous of congregating around public places for amusement, entertainment and refreshments, or to create a disturbance to the annoyance of those who live nearby and to the public generally. In itself, there is no harm in eating ice cream and refreshments on Sunday night, but it is what it leads to with boys and girls that makes it very undesirable. Parents who permit their ten-year-old boys, and from that to sixteen, to visit these places persistently on Sundays and to carry on in a rude and boisterous way are not doing their full duty. They are not teaching their children to observe the Sabbath day, and they are permitting them to do things that will result in evil to the children, and in heart-burnings and distress to themselves as years go by. PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS TABLE. 943 Attention is called to the resolution of the three stakes in Ogden and in other stakes of Zion in regard to the observance of the Sabbath day, passed at the recent annual conference of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations, and also the Sunday Schools of those stakes. Let all associations seek to create a sentiment against spending Sunday evening in ice cream parlors, in refreshment stands, and instead of that let the young people gather at the homes of their parents or attend to public worship. It is a good idea for the young men and women officers of the associations to call on their bishop and tell him that they are prepared to co-operate with the parents' class of the Sunday School, with the bishop of the ward, and with all good people, to create a sentiment in the community against the desecration of the Sabbath day; and that as far as they are concerned as officers, they are not patronizing refreshment places and amusement schemes on the Sabbath day. This would have its effect. We should remember that reforms come by personal effort. We shall always find evil things in th s world, and it is our duty to steer clear of them, and so control our appetites, passions and desires, as to put temptation far below us, and live in an atmosphere where we can be sure of the approbation of our Father in heaven, keeping his laws and commandments. Marriage for Eternity. "Sometimes into two hearts great enough to hold it and into two souls where it may forever abide, there comes the Everlasting Love. It is elemental, like the fire and the sea, with the depth and splendor of the surge and the glory of the flame. It makes the world a vast cathedral in which the two, may worship, and where even in the darkness there is the peace which passeth all understanding, because it is of God. "When the time of parting comes, for there is always that turning in the road, the sadness is not so great because one must go on alone. Life grows beautiful after a time, and even wholly sweet, when a man and a woman have so lived and loved and worked together, that death is not good-by but rather auf wieder sehen." — Selected. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Priesthood Quorums’ Table," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 940–943. # Mutual Work Mutual Work. M. I. A. Annual Conventions, 1910. To the Stake Officers Y. M. M. LA.: The following are the appointments for the M. I. A. Conventions, 1910. In case any changes are desired in the dates given, the stake superintendents should immediately consult with their stake presidencies and arrange for a new date, and notify the General Boards of the Y. M. and Y. L. M. I. A. CONVENTION APPOINTMENTS. August 14 — Yellowstone, Alberta. August 21 — Wayne and Taylor. August 28 — Beaver, Fremont, Malad, Hyrum, Pocatello, Woodruff, September 5 — Kanab. September 4 — Box Elder, Bear River, Cassia, Liberty, Jordan, Weber, Parowan, North Davis, Rigby, Panguitch, San Juan at Moab. September 11 — Ensign, South Sanpete, Uintah, Wasatch, Granite, South Davis, Tooele, Bannock, Emery, North Weber, Pioneer, San Luis, Teton. September 12— St. George. September 14 — San Juan at Mancos. September 18 — Big Horn, Oneida, Blackfoot, Summit, Millard, Juab, Ogden, Nebo, Alpine, Bingham, Carbon. September 25 — North Sanpete, Union, Benson, Morgan, Utah, Bear Lake, Cache, Sevier, Salt Lake, Star Valley. Convention dates of ..Arizona and Mexico will be announced later. PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONVENTION. Stake superintendents will please give special and immediate attention to the following items: 1. Confer with the stake presidency— secure their co-operation and arrange for the conventions. 2. See that your ward and stake organizations are all complete and your class teachers selected before the convention. 3. See that all officers and class teachers are notified by personal MUTUAL WOR . 945 visit where possible or by letter, to secure their attendance. Leave no one with an excuse for absence. Make a special effort to O&t a large representation of officers from each association— it should be one hundred per cent. 4. Secure a suitable hall, or halls, for the convention, where both the young men's and young ladies' officers may be accommodated without interfering with Sunday schools or ward meetings. Consult with the young ladies in regard to this. Confer with the officers of the young ladies and arrange for entertaining officers who come from a distance; and, if practicable, provide for light joint luncheon between sessions. 5. It has been provided for, by arrangement between the two boards, that all Sunday school teachers who are Mutual Improvement officers or class teachers shall be excused from Sunday school classes to attend the morning session of the convention. 6. Do not fail to extend a personal, special invitation to the stake presidency, high councilors; bishops and their counselors, and all the stake officers of the auxiliary organizations to attend the convention meetings. 7. See to it that competent persons are selected to treat the subjects at the convention. Assign the topics to them in advance, and call attention to the necessity of preparing the subject according to the outlines. 8. Forward copies of this circular to every ward president without delay, and request him to acknowledge receipt of them and see to their proper distribution. 9. Hold at least one preliminary meeting of the stake superintendency, aids and convention speakers, discuss the convention subjects thoroughly, and perfect all arrangements for the convention, in ample time before the date. Notify the General Secretary two weeks prior to the convention of what measures have been taken to carry out these instructions. 10. Stake secretaries are requested and required to furnish a report to the general secretary. In making these arrangements, care should be taken not to interfere with the sessions of the Sunday schools or regular ward afternoon meetings. Some settlement should be selected where the meetings can be held in a building other than that in which the Sunday school and ward afternoon meetings are held. Young men should, as far as possible, aid the young ladies to get to the conventions. Thoroughly advertise your conventions throughout your stake; give frequent notice in the ward meetings, Sunday schools and other gather- 946 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ings, and have a notice published in your local newspaper, in addition to individual notice, personal or by letter, to every Y. M. M. I A. officer, including the class teacher. For the work of the young men's associations, two meetings will be held, one at 10 a. m. and one at 2 p. m. In the evening, at the most convenient hour, a joint meeting should be held to which the public should be invited. A program need not be prepared for the evening meeting. In case no visitors from the general board are present, the stake officers should be prepared to occupy the time in presenting to the public the advantages and outlines of M. I. A. work for the season, and otherwise proceed with the convention work. The meetings will be conducted by the stake M. I. A. officers, and the young men's program will consist of the following : PROGRAM, 10 A. M. 1. Joint opening exercises. 2. Separation. 3. Roll call. 4. Stake Superintendent's Report as to Preparation for this Convention.— This should include every item named in these instructions, as to distribution of literature, notices and invitations to officers, preliminary meetings, etc. 5. Efficient Stake Supervision. Efficient stake supervision should include the proper organization of the stake and ward officers, monthly and weekly ward and stake officer's meetings, getting efficient class teachers, enrollment and attendance, the spirit of the officers, and the checking up of the work by the stake officers in every ward. 6. Music in the Associations. — This should deal with musical directors, and proper organization of quartet and male choruses, hymns and melody singing. (See remarks by Oscar A. Kirkham, Era, September.) 7. Debates. — (See remarks by Dr. John A. Widtsoe, delivered at the June conference— Era for September and conference minutes.) 8. Athletics. — Touching every department relating to the method of introducing athletics into the associations, campus and equipment, rules for meets, annual meets, qualifications for contestants, outdoor and indoor work. Local conditions. Note. — The time for each of the topics should be so divided that there will be ample opportunity for discussion, and for pertinent questions during the meeting. MUTUAL WORK. 947 Note. — The topics discussed at the annual conference in June were of such timeliness and importance that the board has deemed it proper to suggest them as the leading topics for consideration at the annual conventions. PROGRAM, 2 P. M. 1. Opening exercises. 2. Manuals, and Manual Lessons. — This topic should include a brief statement of the contents of the manuals for this season, sample lessons of which will be provided for each speaker by application to the general secretary. Class work, teachers and teaching, the importance of home preparation and of having the manual in the hands of every member of the association, should be dwelt upon. 3. Story Telling Contests, Orations and Lectures. This should set forth the purpose and plan of the work, the selection of topics, and the interest and value of these exercises. 4. Reading Course.— This should include a short talk on the books that have been selected for the present year, the use of books in general, and plans for effectively placing the books in the cheapest way in the hands of the members of the association, with a view to the importance of the youth forming the habit of reading good books. 5. Miscellaneous Business.— This should include instructions relating to statistical reports; the fund; the canvass for the Improvement Era; duties of secretaries; promptness of remittances; accuracy and honesty in accounts; the educational advantages of doing business for the Era and the manual. As in the forenoon, there should be time left for pertinent questions and discussions during this session. Where convenient it is desirable that an evening meeting, to which the general public is invited, should be held. At this meeting the members of the general board visiting will occupy the time, but in case of their absence the superintendeney of the staks should be prepared to present to the public a plan and preview of the labors of our organizations for the coming year, and to appeal to them for their sympathy and aid in making our organization a success. IMPORTANCE OF THE CONVENTION. These conventions are of paramount importance, and it is hoped that the superintendents will see that their officers are present. It is not enough to have just one ward representative, make it a point to have all officers there, one hundred per cent, if possible. The success of the convention depends largely upon your efforts, dear brother, and upon the 948 IMPROVEMENT ERA. efforts and spirit of your associates. Keep in touch with the general office and make all the arrangements necessary for successful meetings. We pray that the Lord may bless your labors and that you may have a profitable convention. Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, B. H. Roberts. General Superintendency Y. M. M. I. A. Annual M. I. A. Conference. (Concluded from July Era.) Saturday, June 4, 1910, 2 p. m. at Barratt Hall. Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., delivered an address on STORY TELLING CONTESTS, ORATIONS AND LECTURES. Fifteen manual lessons had been prepared for next year, and as there would be some twenty-five meetings held, ten or more sessions will be occupied by other matters than those contained in the manual. The time of some of these sessions at least, will be occupied in the junior classes with story telling, reading, recitations, etc., and in the senior classes by debates, orations and lectures. The question is, What are the purposes in holding these contests? Sometimes we get the idea that in these contests the great object is to win, but that is not the case. Of course, any young man entering a debate or other contest should work to gain his point, but these contests are primarily for the purpose of gaining information and developing power to express thoughts and feelings intelligently before the public. It isn't everybody who can successfully express his or her thoughts so that the meaning is fully conveyed. We want to develop this power, so that when our missionaries go out they can fully express themselves. Elder Smith suggested that the officers arrange their programs and choose contestants early in the season, giving the participants plenty of time to prepare. He stated that these contests, when held in public, should be well advertised and special music provided, and a very enjoyable and instructive meeting held. Many topics were presented in the manual for 1909-10, and more would be printed in the new manuals. In case any association wished to take up any topic not included in those recommended by the General Board, it must first be submitted to the Committee of the General Board for approval. Stories should be submitted to the association officers for approval, and only such chosen as MUTUAL WORK. 949 are uplifting, educatioual, and teach some great principle or truth. General Secretary Moroni Snow read the STATISTICAL AND FINANCIAL REPORTS. From the statistical report of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations for the year ending May 31, 1910, it appears that there are 655 associations, an increase of 26 over the year previous. Out of this number 472 are graded, an increase of 37. There are 32,- 743 permanent members enrolled, an increase of 518, and an active membership of 22,772, a decrease of 619 over last year. A total of 13,- 358 between fourteen and forty-five years of age are not enrolled, which is an increase of 606; 1,161 members are away from home attending school, and 1,243 are on foreign missions. There were 13,506 in average attendance, an increase of 139 over last year: 3,333 offieers' meetings were held, an increase of 64. Officers' meetings, regular weekly meetings, joint meetings, monthly conjoint meetings, extra and special meetings, conferences and conventions, public lectures, contests, debates, etc., totalled 25,844. It is noticeable that public lectures, debates, contests, concerts, etc., numbered this season 1,085, which is an increase of 433 over last season. The manual lessons were generally completed. The decrease of 2,- 213 shown in manual lessons completed arises from the fact that onlv 15 lessons were given in the manual for the season of 1909-10, as compared with twenty-one lessons in previous years. There were 29,857 home preparations, which is a decrease of 8,341, the decrease being assigned to a similar cause. In this connection special emphasis should be placed upon home preparation and every effort made to have those who join the classes study the lessons, so that the best good may result from the lesson exercises. There were 7,177 miscellaneous exercises, an increase of 481. It is encouraging to note that 1,916 members read one or all the reading course books, which is an increase over last year of 584. In 1907, 750 members read one or all of the reading course; in 1908, 1,635; in 1909, 1,332. The stake officers visited 3,290 times, which is an increase of 541 over last year. The missionary visits, however, by the ward M. I. A. officers decreased by 276, the total being 3,058. There are now 236 libraries, which is an increase of 46 over last year, and in these libraries are 11,843 volumes, an increase of 152 over the year previous. The total value of the libraries is estimated at $9,138.27, which is an increase of $2,268.62. Of the foreign missions, reports were received from the Central 950 IMPROVEMENT ERA. States, Hawaiian Islands, Northern States, Northwestern States, Western States, Sweden and Scandinavia, from which it appears that there are 1,568 active members and 1,852 permanent members enrolled, with an average attendance of 819. Twenty-four members have read the reading course. Singing, "Come let us anew, our journey pursue"— Congregation. Benediction by Elder Rulon S. Wells. SUNDAY MEETINGS. Sunday morning, at 10 o'clock, conjoint officer's meeting in the Tabernacle, president Joseph F. Smith presiding. The Tabernacle was well filled with young people. The rongre^ation sang' "High on the Mountain Top," and prayer was offered by Dr. George H. Brimhall. A double trio was rendered by six young ladies. Addresses were then given on conjoint work. Elder John A. Widtsoe spoke on debates. His remarks will be printed in full later. Elder Oscar A. Kirkham delivered an address on music, which will later appear in full in the Era. Elder John Robinson sang "The Valley of the Shadow." The subject of Drama in the associations was treated by Sister Alice C. Tuddenham. Sister Emma Goddard presented the subject of reading and storytelling in the associations. In the discussion of the subjects which jollowed, President Joseph F. Smith said that every word of Dr. Widtsoe's remarks as to debates in the associations was in full accord with his iaeas on the matter; and he hoped that the suggestions would be followed. Elder Heber J. Grant said he was pleased with the address of Elder Kirkham in regard to music. Attention should be paid to the text of the songs taught, as well as the melody. In answer to a question Elder Grant said thai where a young man and young lady conductor were present at meetings the two should alternate in the work of conducting the music. Sister Martha H. Tingey, president of the young ladies' general board, said the remarks of Elder Grant in regard to music applied to reading, also, and no story should be told which contained anything contrary to the teachings of the gospel. Considerable discussion followed in which the various phases of mutual work were gone over, and suggestions made for the improvement of each department. The congregation sang "0 thou rock of our salvation." Benediction by Sister Agnes S. Campbell. MUTUAL WORK. 951 President Joseph F. Smith presided over the general meeting of the conference held at two o'clock in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle choir sang "Glorious things of thee are spoken,'' and prayer was offered by Elder Joseph W. McMurrin. The Tabernacle choir sang ' 'The morning breaks, the shadows flee." Superintendent Heber J. Grant presented the authorities of the general boards of the young ladies' and young men's associations. The Young Men's officers were unanimously sustained as follows: Of the general board Y. M. M. I. A.: Joseph F. Smith, general superintendent, Heber J. Grant and B. H. Roberts, assistants. As aids: Francis M. Lyman, John Henry Smith, J. Golden Kimball, Junius F. Wells, Rodney C. Badger, George H. Brimhall, Edward H. Anderson, Douglas M. Todd, Thomas Hull, Nephi L. Morris, Willard Done, LeRoi C. Snow, Frank Y. Taylor, Rudger Clawson, Rulon S. Wells, Joseph W. McMurrin, Reed Smoot, Bryant S. Hinckley, Moses W. Taylor, B. F. Grant, Hyrum M. Smith, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., 0. C. Beebe, Lewis T. Cannon, Benjamin Goddard, George Albert Smith, Thomas A. Clawson. Lyman R. Martineau, Charles H. Hart, John A. Widtsoe, James H, Anderson, Anthony W. Ivins, Oscar A. Kirkham, Anthon H. Lund, George F. Richards. Moroni Snow, General secretary. Sister Martha H. Tingey, president of the Y. L. M. I. A., then addressed the congregation. She said the work of the mutuals is growing, Zion is growing. She felt that the Lord must be pleased with the work. "But there is evil among us, and what can we do to stem the tide of evil which is broadcast in the earth? I will tell you in a few words: live up to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ in your daily lives. That will prove a remedy, and by that we may escape the evil extant throughout the world. Parents should teach their children faith in God, baptism, and to keep the Sabbath day holy. "Another evil that I see creeping in among both our young men and young ladies is that of striving for fashion. Our garments should be neat and becoming, but plain, and we should not strive to follow those whose highest object in life seems to be to adorn their bodies. * Another practice to be deplored is that of visiting the cafes and soda fountains, where much ill health is engendered, and the habit of treating is established." Tne anthem, "Grant us Peace, 0 Lord," was sung. President Joseph F. Smith said, "We have heard of the misdeeds of some who have fallen into error and transgression, but I believe there is not another people of the some magnitude and surrounded with the same 952 IMPROVEMENT ERA. environments, circumstances and temptations that can produce as large a percentage of uprightness, purity, virtue and honor as this people can. I would like to proclaim that thought and that truth to the world." His address in full will appear later. Elder Heber J. Grant delivered a eulogy on John Hafen, the artist, who died in Indianapolis, Friday, June 3, telling of the universal esteem in which he was held, and of the eminence he had attained as Utah's foremost landscape painter, having obtained honors both at home in Utah and elsewhere The speaker read extracts from comments of other artists, and an editorial which recently appeared in the News. A chorus of little children from the Ensign stake, under the direction of Sister Nellie Penrose Whitney, rendered a summertime lullaby. Sister Emma Ramsey Morris, of the Primary Associations, delivered a very interesting address on the importance of the work among the children at the tender and susceptible stage of their development. She said there were between fifty and sixty thousand children enrolled in the primaries, with twelve thousand teachers. Mrs. Morris spoke of the importance of music, reading the old Church hymn, "Come, Come, ye Saints." The choir sang the anthem, "God is our Refuge and Strength," and the benediction was pronounced by Sister Louie B. Felt, of the Primary Association. Sunday evening conjoint meeting was opened by the congregation singing "Come, come, ye Saints," and prayer was offered by President John Henry Smith, after which a solo, "Hosannah," was given by Melvin Peterson. President Joseph F. Smith presided at the meeting. Elder George H. Brimhall spoke on "Be ye clean." "The Mother's Lullaby" was sung by the ladies' chorus of Pioneer stake, under the direction of Miss Mabel Cooper. President Joseph F. Smith then addressed the congregation in behalf of the Primary Associations and their work. The ladies' chorus sang "We ever Pray for Thee," and the benediction was pronounced by President Anthon H. Lund. Conference adjourned. Alpine Stake Athletic Contest. The second annual athletic contest of the M. I. A. of the Alpine stake was held at American Fork, Utah, Wednesday, June 15. Stake Secretary John E. Standring writes that a large and enthusiastic crowd MUTUAL WORK. 953 was present, every Jesse Walker. ward being represented, which speaks volumes for the interest taken in, *»nd the popularity of, the meet. The Lehi Silver Band was in attendance and did its part in making the occasion a successful and enjoyabe one. As a preliminary event, a game of baseball was played between Lehi and Linden league teams, the former win ning. They received a valuable catcher's mitt as a prize. The Track and Field contests between the three districts were spirited. The teams were so evenly matched that interest never waned until the last event was pulled off. Last year, in the early spring, Alpine stake was divided into three permanent athletic districts. Lehi four wards and Cedar Valley, district No. 1; American Fork four wards, and Alpine, district No. 2; Pleasant Grove three wards, Manila and Linden, district No. 3. Preliminary contests, both last year and this, were held between the wards in these districts to determine the best men for the stake meet. In this way many were imbued and became enthusiastic with the spirit of the athletic work. When the number of points received by each team at this year's meet was announced it was found that district No. 1 made 53 points, district No. 2, 22 points, and district No. 3, 29 points. District No. 1 was awarded a beautiful silver loving cup for their permanent possession. The highest individual point winner of the day was Earl Holmstead of district No. 1; Homer Christensen, the highest in district No. 2, and Jesse Walker, the highest in district No. 3 (pictures herewith). In order to stimulate a greater individual interest in the meet, gold pins engraved "M. I. A. 1910," also bearing the inscription of ' HomerChristensen American Fork. first," "second," or "third, "with ribbons attached, red designating first, white, second, and blue, third place —were awarded individuals winning first, second and third place in each event. The day closed with a model social dance in 954 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the Apollo hall, all contestants being admitted free as guests of the M. I. A. The stake is divided into three athletic districts, with a chairman appointed over each, who, with the presidents of the associations therein comprise the athletic council of that district and work up interest in the meet. A valuable silver loving cup is awarded each year to the district taking first place, and individual trophies, consisting of pins and ribbons are given individuals taking first, second or third place in each event. The meet was governed by strict track and field rules, all events were pulled off in record time, everything was well arranged and all officials appointed before hand, and everybody did their duty. The expenses of the meet are met by charging a nominal admission fee to the grounds and grand stand. Last year the meet was held at Lehi, and district No. 2 carried off the silver loving cup. Pleasant Grove has been designated for next year's meet, with the assurance of continued success. Alpine stake has a class of young people who will do everything in their power to make these meets successful. The records made in this year's meet showed a marked improvement over those of last year, and one and all are now planning and working to get athletes in shape who will make their district the winner of the stake meet another year. LEHI TEAM. Earl Holmstead (From the left, the third in uniform in second row) highest individual winner in District No. 1. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Mutual Work," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 944–954. # Passing Events Passing Events. President Diaz was re-elected president of Mexico on June 26, and Raymond Corral, vice-president, by an overwhelming majority. President Diaz is now in his 80th year, and has been president, excepting four years, since the first election in 1876. The Fourteenth International Congress of American Republics was opened at Buenos Aires on July 12, and will remain in session for five or six weeks. The last conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1906. The importance of these gatherings is regarded as second only to the great peace conference of The Hague. Professor Goldwin Smith, author, lecturer and educator, died at Toronto, June 7, in his 87th year. In 1858-66 he was professor of modern history at Oxford, and later a professor of English and constitutional history at Cornell, 1868-71. He wrote numerous magazine and newspaper articles upon educational, religious, and political subjects and was author of forty books, The Eighteenth Universal Peace Congress will meet at Stock, holm, Sweden, the first week in August. The Seventeenth Congress was held in London, in 1908, at which Utah wa3 well represented, and it is hoped that some of the friends of peace from the people whose creed is "Peace on earth, good will to men," will find it convenient to represent Utah in the Eighteenth Congress. Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, the English aviator, and the third son of Lord Langattock, who crossed the English channel twice in a Wright aeroplane without descending, and who flew from Dover to Sangatte, near Calais, France, and back again to Dover, and decended, covering fifty miles in ninety minutes, was killed on the 12th of July in an aviation accident at Bournemouth, England. Captain Scott, of the British Antarctic expedition, with a crew of twenty-seven picked men, and twenty-eight officers and men of science, sailed from the Thames on June 1st in Terranova. Captain Scott hopes to reach the South Pole in December, 1911. Besides ponies, and 956 IMPROVEMENT ERA. dog teams, they are provided with a motor sled which has been satisfactorily tested on the snows of Norway. A statue of General George A. Custer was unveiled June 4, by his widow, in the presence of President Taft, at Monroe, Michigan. This noted Indian fighter was slain in the Sioux massacre, on the Little Big Horn, in Montana, in 1876, and is represented as reining in his horse while reconnoitering from the summit of a hill. The monument was erected by the people of Michigan, and is the work of Edward C. Potter, of Greenwich, Connecticut. Old Folks' Day this year was observed on the 22nd of June, in Tooele City. This city and county entertained over two thousand people, all over seventy years of age, besides five hundred visitors from Cache in the north to Richfield in the south. Everybody in Tooele united to give them a pleasant time. Two hundred waiters served them with food and drink, and four local physicians, with nurses, arranged a medical relief corps to wait upon the old people in case of necessity. Postal savings banks will be established throughout the land, perhaps by the year 1911. A board of trustees provided by Congress will determine what postoffices shall become postal savings banks. An account may be opened with one dollar, and no single account may exceed $500. Saving stamps of a ten-cent denomination will be issued for those who desire to accumulate mo ney for deposits upon which two per cent interest will be paid. For those who desire to exchange their deposits for government bonds, which will be issued in denominations of twenty dollars and upwards, provision is made for exchanging with interest at two and a half per cent. The money accumulated in the postal savings banks is to be deposited in both national and state banns in the vicinity of the local postoffice, and these banks are to pay two and one-fourth per cent interest. The board of trustees for the selection of postoffices consists of the Postmaster General, Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General. "A Brief History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself," is the title of a neatly-bound, 63-page booklet published by the Deseret Sunday School Union, Salt Lake City, and sold for 25 cents. The first part of the volume contains the prophet's own account of his life and his early revelations up to and including the year 1830. In the first chapter following there is a brief account of the life of Joseph and the history of the Church from the organization to the martyrdom. The final chapter enumerates some of the prophet's characteristics, and refers to the divinity of his work and the founding of Utah. Altogether PASSING EVENTS. 957 the little volume contains a fund of information on this subject as pertinent and encompassing, as it is brief and quickly to be read. As an introduction to "Mormonism" at home and abroad, it should be of great value. Noel Guy Davis passed the examination at Ann Arbor on the 17th of June, and was admitted to the Naval Academy, from Utah. He has earned his position through pluck, push and perseverance, and his friends wish him success jn securing for himself a name among the naval service of our nation. He was born on Christmas day, 1891, in Salt Lake City. He entered the public schools at eight and graduated at fourteen. He entered the Latter-day Saints' University in 1906, from which institution he graduated this spring. Just prior to his graduation from the L. D. S. he took the examination for the naval service, and the result came to the ears of his fellow students on the evening of the graduation exercises, at which time President Willard Young announced that one of the students, Noel Davis, had earned a place in the Ann Arbor Naval Academy. Barratt Hall almost shook with the applause that followed. His widowed mother, Mrs. Lena B. Davis, of Salt Lake City, may well be proud of her son's achievements, and he has occasion to exclaim with the immortal Washington, "What 1 am today I owe to my mother!'' The Press of Norway has recently made severe attacks upon the Latter-day Saints and their propaganda for converts, declaring that the elders are in Norway to induce young women to emigrate to Utah for evil purposes. To protest against these statements, and to show their utter incorrectness, the colony of Norwegian Latter-day Saints and other Norwegians of Salt Lake City held a public mass meeting on the 7th of July in the Fourteenth ward assembly hall. A representative of the Norwegian women read some of the objectionable and scurrilous articles from the Norwegian press to the assembly. An address was presented, signed by all the women present, protesting against the falsehoods, to be forwarded to the Norwegian papers with a request that they give the protest as wide a circulation as they have given the false and dishonorable attacks upon the people of Utah. Leading NorwegianAmerican citizens, not members of the Church, also testified to the correctness of the statements in the protest. An address was delivered NOEL GUY DAVIS. 958 IMPROVEMENT ERA. by Lawyer C. M. Nielsen, in which he gave statistics proving the utter falsehood of the statements made by the Norwegian papers. There are eight thousand Norwegian men and women in Utah, half of whom are Latter-day Saints, and the other half belonging to different denominations. The address from the Norwegian women in Utah sets forth the favorable, happy and prosperous condition of their cuntrymen in this state. It was signed by all present. The signatures are certified by C. M. Nielsen, Norwegian vice-counsel for the state of Utah. This was forwarded for publication to Aftenposten, Christiania, together with a photograph containing some hundred or more Norwegian men and women, taken before the doors of the courthouse in Salt Lake City, as happy and good looking a "bunch" as was ever placed before a camera. It is hoped the press will deal fairly in this matter. The Pioneer Monument, at Hyrum, Cache county, Utah, erected in honor of the pioneers who settled there in 1860, is located upon tne city hall grounds of that city, facing the main street. Upon the metal plate are inscribed the names of the pioneers and their children. Hyrum, a thriving city of two thousand people, feels just pride in thus honoring her pioneers. The imposing monument shaft composed of Utah temple granite, stands nearly eighteen feet high Its base weighs nine thousand pounds. The monument cost something over six hundred dollars, and is an art production emanating from the artistic mind and skilled hand of Mr. P. PIONEER MONUMENT, HYRUM, UTAH. C. Hansen, a native son of Hyrum, now of Logan. The fiftieth anniversary celebration of the settlement of Hyrum took place on June 22, 1910. The pioneers and early settlers from many points in Utah and Idaho participated in the festivities. They were decorated with badges indicating the year of their first arrival. The streets and public buildings were beautifully decora ced. There were true- tolife illustrations of the early mode of conveyance, the ox team, and the early style of abode, the log cabin. Mayor H. F. Liljenquist, son of the first mayor, the late Hon. 0. N. Liljenquist who was elected in 1870, PASSING EVENTS. 959 presided over the exercises as marshal of the day. The address of welcome was delivered by President W. C. Parkinson, then followed a program of reminiscent stories, speeches, poems, prepared papers and songs. Following the program the pioneers, early settlers, and distinguished /isitors were banqueted, after which the unveilving ceremonies took place. Old Father Niels B. Nielsen, eighty-eight years of age, the oldest living Hyrum pioneer, with trembling hand, guided by his son-in-law, Hon. I. C. Thoreson, unveiled the monument to the applauding assembly, while the band played a national air. The dedicatory prayer was offered by Bishop A. 0. Allen and the oration, "The Pioneers— the Monument, " was delivered by Mr. C. F. Olsen. Mr. 0. F. Wilson presented the monument to the city authorities, and Mayor Liljenquist gave a speech of acceptance. Of the actual pioneers there are only ten living: Niels B. Nielsen, Andrew B. Nielsen, Moroni Benson, Adam Smith, Andrew Anderson, Oliver McBride, Alice Anderson, Elizabeth Williams, Cynthia Allen, and Elmira McBride. Elder Andreas Peterson, a leading business man, and well known Churchman of Logan, Utah, has been called to the presidency of the Swedish mission to relieve Elder Peter Sundwall. He was born on the 23rd of rjune, 1849, in Hobal Parish, Dalsland, Sweden. In the spring of 1871, he left his parental home and went to Christiania, Norway, returning at Christmas, that year. Having heard the gospel preached by elders during his stay in Christiania, he explained the first principles of the gos- ^m ■ ''"%''' •' pel to his father, mother three brothers rtri WL and one sister. Returning, next spring, K to Christiania he- was baptized, on the 25th of May following, by Niels Isaksen, ^^ — ^^^^^HJ ancj tne jay after confirmed by Maans ANDREAS PETERSON. Anderson. He was ordained to the office of deacon and later teacher in the Aaronic priesthood, acting as teacher in the Christiania branch. In the spring of 1873, he was called to labor as a missionary in Stavanger, and on the 3rd of August following was ordained an elder. He labored in Stavanger some two years? holding many public meetings and gaining a splendid experience in the mission field. In the spring of 1875, he was called to Dramen, where he continued in the ministry for more than two years, during which time some sixty members were added to the Church. In the summer of 1877 960 IMPROVEMENT ERA. he visited his home in Sweden, and on the 9th of June baptized his mother. Ten days later he left Christiania for America, reaching Salt Lake City July 14, 1877. Aside from a five-month residence in Spring City, Sanpete county, he has resided in Logan since January 8, 1878. He married Inga Overson July 25 following. At the October general conference, 1882, he was called on a mission to Scandinavia. He labored in the Stockholm conference, Sweden, as a traveling elder for nearly two years, during which time he walked more than three thousand miles and baptized forty- two souls. He was released in 1884 and arrived home November 10, being immediately called to preside over the second quorum of elders, which position he held until the 3rd of March, 1887, when he was ordained a high priest by George Pitkin and called to serve in the high council of Cache stake. On December 5, ] 889, after serving as a missionary in the Logan temple, he was chosen superintendent of the Logan 4th ward Sunday school, which position he held until August, 1898. On the 12th of that month he left on another mission to Scandinavia. On the way east he visited important Church historical places in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and New York. Arriving in Copenhagen on the 9th of September, 1898, he was appointed to preside over the Scandinavian mission on the 18th of the same month, and for nearly three years following he faithfully performed the duties of that calling. In Gillavare. Lapland, thirty-six miles within the polar circle, he held a public meeting, attended by over two hundred people, which was the first ever held by a "Mormon" elder in that part of the world. Leaving Copenhagen on April 29, 1901, after his release, he made a trip of the orient, visiting Constantinople, Syria, and the Holy Land. He also went to Egypt, thence to Italy, Switzerland ai*l France, arriving in Utah July 8, 1901. Of this trip he says: "I have' had a life-long desire realized, for which I am happy indeed, and I must say that the experience which I have thus gained, and the sights seen, shall always be treasured fondly in my recollection as pearls of great price gathered from the shores of the ocean of life." Elder Peterson has always taken great interest in the study of his own language — Swedish — as well as the Danish, Norwegian, English and German languages. In a political way he has served his city one term in the City Council and two terms on the Board of Education. He expects to leave for Stockholm to fill his new missionary call about the first of September. A zealous worker in the cause of the Church, an excellent speaker, an experienced business man, Elder Peterson possesses all the qualifications that go to make an ideal mission president. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Passing Events," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 955–960. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 13, no. 11. September 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Young, Levi Edgar, “The Colonizers of Utah.” - Sanders, Ellen Lee, “Dudley Bain.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Heber C. Kimball.” - Kimball, Heber C., “Address to My Children.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: X. Forgetting as a Fine Art.” - Brookbank, Thomas W., “A Book of Mormon Consistency.” - Widtsoe, John A., “About Debating.” - Richards, George F., “Why Are “Mormon” Missionaries Expelled from Germany?.” - Kirkham, Oscar A., “Music.” - Gudmundsen, A. G., ““Climb”.” - Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things: XI. Orson F. Whitney.” - Pack, Frederick J., “The Creation of the Earth.” - Bennion, Milton, “A Plea for the Larger Life.” - Baker, Harry E., “What Can a High Priest Do?.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Editor’s Table: Faith.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “The Deseret Gymnasium.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 963–1053. # The Colonizers of Utah IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. SEPTEMBER, 1910. No. 11 The Colonizers of Utah. BY LEVI EDGAR YOUNG, B. S., OF THE UNIVERSITY OP UTAH. [The author has kindly permitted the Era to print this introductory chapter of his forthcoming History of Education in Utah, a work of exceptional merit, the manuscript of which is completed, and will soon be issued in book form. — Editors.] Come, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Pioneers! 0 pioneers! For we cannot tarry here, We must march, my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful, sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, Pioneers! 0 pioneers! 0 you youths, western youths! So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! 0 pioneers! All the past we leave behind; We debauch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world: Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! 0 pioneers! 964 IMPROVEMENT ERA. We detatchments steady throwing, Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountain steep, Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go the unknown ways, Pioneers! 0 Pioneers! 0 you daughters of the West! 0 you young and elder daughters! 0 you mothers and you wives! Never must you be divided, in your ranks you move united, Pioneers! 0 pioneers! Has the night descended? Was the road of late so toilsome? Did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! 0 pioneers! Till with sound of trumpet, Far, far off the day-break call. Hark! How loud and clear I hear it wind; Swift, to the head of the army! Swift, spring to your places! Pioneers! 0 pioneers! — Walt Whitman. The colonizers of Utah were sturdy frontiersmen, born and bred in the school of experience. Wilderness breakers of a high type, they built their homes on the frontier, where a wild sur- rounding country forced them to a primitive type of living. Til- lers of the soil, they had learned the law of adaptability, enabling them in time to turn the gray sage-brush desert into private gar- dens. Descendants of the Puritans and Quakers, their forefathers had helped Oliver Cromwell establish law and liberty in England. They had inherited the honest and God-fearing characteristics of the Teuton, and to these traits were added still stronger race con- stituents, because of their long life in the world of mental and muscular activity. Their fathers had fought and suffered in those wars that had firmly established our independence, and true to their instincts, they lost their feelings of sectionalism and isola- tion, and gave their allegiance first and always to the government of the United States. Their nationalistic spirit is shown in the words of Brigham Young, delivered to the people at the celebra- tion held in Salt Lake City, July 4, 1856, in honor of Independence THE COLONIZERS OF UTAH. 965 Day. After the reading of the Constitution of the United States, Governor Young said: Eighty years ago, on the day we now celebrate, our forefathers, few in numbers, but strong in their united love of right, declared to the mother country and to the world that they were, "and of a right ought to be free and independent." The oppression which hastened this declara- tion, the long struggle, the sacrifices and hardships that followed, and the glorious results are so well known, that I need not ask your patience by rehearsing them upon this occasion. . . . Glancing at the past, perhaps we as a people have more reason to respect, honor, love and cher- ish the government of the United States, her Constitution and her free institutions, than any other people on the face of the earth. We are occupying a region well known as being peculiarly desirable, and one hitherto unsettled by the whites. We are almost a thousand miles from the nearest seaport. We are hemmed in by lofty mountains on every side, while numerous isolated ranges, and barren, arid plains so crowd our surface, that but a small portion of it is suited to the purposes of settlement. In even those narrow localities, ditches and canals have to be made by much labor, in order to irrigate soil whereon rain seldom falls from early in spring to late in autumn. And when all has been done that could be, towards supplying the thirsty crops, the husbandman is oft compelled to witness the products of his toil droop and die ere maturity, through the failure of the few small streams, so laboriously brought under control. . . . But amid all these disadvantages we are trying to extend the area of freedom, and to gladden the most unin- viting domain of a great nation with the blessings and privileges of her free institutions. . . . The true principles of a republican form of government can be based only in a high tone and sense of honor; liberal, enlightened, and intelligent and extended views of human existence and progress and a faithful, unyielding, rigid and patriotic adherence to the Constitution and laws of the country. The pioneers of Utah were a community of fixed purpose. Their remoteness from civilization, and their intense love for and devotion to religion, their identity of tasks and dangers, and the primitive life imposed upon them, developed a society of brother- hood and equality. Always optimistic, they had those verile qual- ities which made them win "in the stern strife of actual life." Devout students of the Bible, they took for their guide in all their actions and social life a splendid system of Christian ethics, 966 IMPROVEMENT ERA. it was their deep religious feelings, together with their thriftiness, that made them a strong and fearless people. When the little band of weary pilgrims halted in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, July 24, 1847, the leader, Brigham Young, saw for the first time the difficult problem before them. The land was bleak and sterile, without grace and softness. Bathed always by the sun's hottest rays, the rainfall was limited, making the country an ardent and inanimate picture. Men in search of wealth would never have set- tled upon the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Pioneers go, as a rule, where wealth and plenty hold out an inviting hand, where nature appears to be friendly, and where the earth and sky co-operate for man's advantage. A land of solitude, it was the home of the rattlesnake and the wolf. Wild grass, sage-brush and grease wood covered the valleys and foot hills. Few trees there were, yet the red anemone and violet grew along the streams. The mountains were misty and gloomy, and were cracked by the heat. A few miles to the west, lay the gleaming waters of America's Dead Sea, a mysterious sheet of water, leaden, heavy and almost motionless, but now and then throwing upon its shores driftwood, stripped of all bark, and whitened like bones in a desert waste. But those pioneers of '47 had faith in the soil. Explorers and trappers had passed through the Valley of Great Salt Lake. They saw, however, only a desert. Brigham Young and his people saw the possibilities of the desert. All that was needed was water, and then would the sage-brush land prove of inestimable worth for agriculture. From time immemorial have arid regions been productive of high civilizations. The valleys of Mesopotamia and the Nile have fairly teemed with luxuriant fields of grain, as a result of their wonderful irrigation systems. And in modern times Brigham Young fathered irrigation for the redemption of the arid West. On the morning of the arrival of the "Mormon" party into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, they planted potatoes, after which they turned the water upon the ground and gave the seed "quite a good soaking." On July 26, the brethren were quite busily employed in wooding their plows, harrows, etc., and in ploughing and planting and doing work in various branches preparatory to farm- ing. The "Mormons" made quick work of the redemption of the soil, THE COLONIZERS OF UTAH. 967 and in a few years thriving settlements were found in all the sur- rounding valleys near Salt Lake City. The people were compelled to turn to the material pursuits of life, and never have a people made greater economic and intellectual strides in so short a time. Said Theodore Roosevelt in the "Mormon" Tabernacle at Salt Lake City, May, 1903: Here in this state the pioneers, and those who came after them, took the land that would not ordinarily be chosen as a land that would yield returns for little effort. You took a territory which at the outset was called after the desert, and you literally — not figuratively— you lit- erally made the wilderness blossom as the rose. The fundamental ele- ment in building up Utah has been the work of the citizens of Utah. And you did it because your people entered in to possess the land, and to leave it after them to their children and to their children's children. You here, whom I am addressing, and your predecessors, did not come here to exploit the land and then go somewhere else. You came in, as the governor of the state has said, as home makers, to make homes for your- selves and for those who should come after you. And this is the only way in which a state can be built up. And I say to all of you, and all of your people, from one ocean to another, especially the people of the arid and semi-arid regions, the people of the great plains, the people of the mountains, approach the problem of taking care of the physical resources of the country in the spirit that has made Utah what it is. By 1850, some fifteen thousand souls had made their way across the plains and had settled in the valleys of Utah. The peo- ple had been steadily working, and from the epistles issued from time to time by the presidency of the "Mormon" Church, we glean the following statements, that show what the people were doing. In the fourth general epistle, issued at the close of the year 1850, we read: On the twelfth day of May, peach trees of two years' growth were in bloom; and several trees of the same age in different parts of the valley alternately bloomed until the 29th, when currants, beans, peas, etc., put forth their blossoms, and nature smiled with prospects of early fruits. But on the 7th of June, the snow fell freely in the surrounding mountains, followed by a severe frost on the 18th, and a slight one on the 19th, which injured the vines and tender plants. Yet we feel con fident that this valley will yet produce the choicest fruits, as it does 968 IMPROVEMENT ERA. now the richest vegetables. . . . The weather has been more cloudy, the nightslwarmer, and the showers more frequent in the heat of summer, and vegetation more rapid this season than hitherto, conse- quently artificial irrigation has been less needed, which has been a great blessing; for during the irrigating season there were not men enough in the valley to water the immense fields of grain, had it been as dry as some previous seasons. The crops have been abundant in all the settlements of Deseret this season. Many of the inhabitants of the city are leaving their good homes this fall, and taking up land in the country, preparatory for extensive farming operations, and many who are now arriving in their midst are gathering in companies of tens, twenties and fifties to act in concert in preparing to feed the friends we are calling home. Our state house is enclosed; the walls are nearly ready for plaster- ing, and we have no doubt that the several departments will be ready for their several uses — the sitting of the General Assembly; the High School rooms; the printing office, and tithing, post and recording office — the coming winter. There are several extensive store houses completed, and near com- pletion, in our city, and goods sufficient in quality and variety, with the exception of groceries, for the necessities of the people for another season. We anticipate some relief in the sugar market next season, from the culture of sugar beets and its manufacture, but this can make but little impression the first year, as we are not informed of more than one or two bushels of the genuine sugar beet seed in the valley; though we know of no country where a greater quantity of saccharine matter is pro- duced in vegetation than this. Many scores of emigrants are arriving in the valley, and have wit- nessed our location, peace, union and prosperity, and though not profess- ing to believe the doctrines of Christ, are making their way home as fast as possible, to bring their families hither where they can enjoy health in a land of civil and religious liberty, and where they find themselves free to do right. Preparations are made for the establishment of a Parent School for qualifying teachers for primary and infant schools throughout the state; for enclosing the university lands, a plot of about six hundred acres, directly east of the city; and for everything else which may tend to fa- cilitate the improvement of the old and the young alike, in the knowledge of the arts and sciences, and general intelligence. One can see that the Utah pioneers were a thrifty people. THE COLONIZERS OF UTAH. 969 They put every effort forward to establish homes and cities, schools and public institutions, that would equal the best in the land. They built roads and bridges, they established stage lines and mail routes from city to city, and town to town. They planted gardens and fields of wheat, and carried with them where- ever they went the Anglo-Saxon love for law and order. In fifty years the wilderness had been reduced, and Utah was one of the foremost states of the Union, economically and intellectually. Machinery, steam and electricity, together with the directing force of a thrifty people have made Utah what it is today. The industrial history of Utah alone is one of the most phe- nomenal in history. It was here in the mountain fastnesses where men were taught to hew out their own careers, and to develop inventiveness and resourcefulness. "The restraints of custom were broken, and new lines of growth and new institu- tions were produced." The people became western, and it is the West that has emphasized the worth and power of the common man. It took man and made him over. It created new ideals. It gave him new and weighty problems to solve, and it taught him the fundamental law of democracy. He became nationalistic and democratic to the core. "The West admired a self-made man, and was ready to follow its hero with the enthusiasm of a section more responsive to personality than to the program of trained states- men. The West was a self-confident section, believing in its rights to share in government, and troubled by no doubts of its capacity to rule/' — Frederick J. Turner. The soil was looked to first, and Utah prides herself that from the beginning her chief industry has been agriculture. The tilling of the soil is the highest safe-guard to all government and civil- ization, and unlike the miners of Nevada and California, the set- tlers of Utah turned to the raising of wheat and potatoes, and the conquering of the soil and the elements. Their religion was expressed in the hardest kind of toil, for the rainfall of the Great Desert was only about ten inches a year, and the sage-brush waste was indeed discouraging. But their hope was in keeping with their dreams, and they were a thrifty people. The "Mormon" pioneer understood better than any one else that the secret of all life in its best is to lay a secure and solid foundation. Brigham 970 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Young directed the settling not only of the city of Salt Lake but of all the cities and towns of the State, and as a consequence there was set up the typical Teutonic township form of government throughout the state, that form of government which the Puri- tans brought to the shores of America and made it at the begin- ning the unit of government in the United States. Wherever one finds the Teutonic township developed one will always find the highest and most democratic form of government on the face of the globe. Brigham Young was a typical New Englander, and he naturally had a knowledge of Puritan institutions. His village system was a type of the best in America. Every town was systematically laid out, with broad streets and walks, and on each side a stream of water and an avenue of trees. They were very picturesque, these Utah villages, in time. The houses of the peo- ple stood back from the street some few rods, and the people lived side by side in the pure democratic way of olden times. This system, as Mr. John Fiske pointed out, implies an abundance of land, and the head of each family owns a home. There was no social nor political distinction. In the house there was no domestic service that was not performed by the mother and daughters, and on the outside, the owner had workmen, but they were in no sense looked upon as an unprivileged class. There was a universality of manual labor. The people were all poor, it is true, but as they acquired worldly goods, they acquired cul- ture. In the centre of the town was built the meetinghouse, which was used for Sunday school and meetings on the Sabbath day, and for the day school during the next five days of the week. Here all the people met in town meetings to discuss questions pertaining to the town — the moral, the agricultural, the political, the social conditions, all were talked over freely, and those laws and systems adopted that would be for the best good of all con- cerned. These villages have grown into the cities of Utah. In the "Mormon" families the old system remains. The mother and daughters work in the house. There is no privileged class. The father takes part in the affairs of the outside world. His children read and write, there is a piano in the parlor, the Atlantic Monthly on the table, and the girl who bakes bread in the morning, sings Schubert or plays Beethoven in the afternoon. In the days when LEVI EDGAR YOUNG. Levi Edgar Young was chosen one of the First Council of Seventy to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Elder George Reynolds. Elder Young was educated at the University of Utah, and at Harvard and Columbia universities, and has spent three years in Eurooe, where he presided over the Swiss and Austrian Mission. 972 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the pioneers settled the State, everyone was urged to live his best self. The Bible was found in every home, and a deep religious sense, combined with freedom of thought, was developed. The pioneers of Utah had high ideals. They did not attempt a small task. They plunged boldly into a great work, keeping thought with England's poet: Oh, if we drew a circle premature, Heedless of far gain, Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure Bad is our bargain! Was it not great? did not he throw on God (He loves the brethren) — God's task to make the heavenly period Perfect the earthen ? Did not he magnify the mind, show clear Just what it all meant? He would not discount life, as fools do here, Paid by instalment. He ventured neck or nothing — heaven's success Found, or earth's failure: "Wilt thou trust death or not?" He answered, "Yes! Hence with life's pale lure!" That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it: This high man, with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one His hundred's soon hit: The high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit. The ' 'Mormons" settled in a land where the materials had to be loved, "but while loving the material, they conquered it, mas- tered it, made it of worth to the higher self." In Maeterlink's Kingdom of Matter he tells us that man will rise from a knowledge of matter to the life of spirit, the life of highest love. The foundation of Utah's development is laid deep and secure. It began with the kingdom of matter in all its grandeur, it will end in "the highest of love." Utah was settled by the kind of people that make history. THE COLONIZERS OF UTAH. 973 They were of the kind that Emerson designates as real characters, men of real worth. Theirs was the faith, Taught by no priest, but by their beating hearts: Faith to each other: the fidelity Of fellow-wanderers in a desert place, Who share the same dire thirst, and therefore share The scanty water: the fidelity Of men whose pulses leap with kindred fire, Who in the flash of eyes, the clasp of hands, The speech that even in lying tells the truth Of heritage inevitable as past deeds. May, in the silent, bodily presence feel The mystic stirring of a common life Which makes the many one. Honesty at a Premium. Each of us should examine himself carefully and make sure that he is following a course in life that will withstand the most severe investigation. Just as few mistakes as possible, on our part, should be permitted that would tend to weaken the con- fidence of our fellows. Let it be kept in mind that the commercial manager of today is diligently seeking for the man in whom he can have the greatest trust and confidence. The average business man of today is perfectly willing to reward honesty and integrity, which in results are synonymous. So, if a young man wishes to command a good salary, it will be neccessary for him to look carefully after his character, making sure that he is honest, not only with him- self, but with his associates. The principle of honesty is of greater importance than is often surmised, insuring, as it does, our own best good, and the results that go to make us men of worth. To practice dishonesty brings into our lives trouble, doubt and discontent. A clear conscience, void of offense, is one of the greatest blessings that can be enjoyed by man. So, boys, let us remember this, "Be honest, and so be happy." P. M. Shafer. Moab, Utah. Citation: Young, Levi Edgar, “The Colonizers of Utah,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 963–973. # Dudley Bain Dudley Bain. BY ELLEN LEE SANDERS. (Concluded.) "What is it, Dudley?" Mr. Crawford asked quisically, but not unkindly. "Are you wanting to get married, boy?' The young secretary paused and laid the papers on the table. "Mr. Crawford," he said, putting the intimation of mar- riage from him with something like disgust, "I want to ask a very great favor of you, and because it is of so much moment to me, and because I have been thinking of it so long — years, I think — I find it very difficult to speak to you about it."' There was something so dignified in the boy's manner, — an assumption of equality, an unspoken and perhaps unconscious dropping of the slave attitude, that the planter was irritated before the sentence was fairly finished, and while in the very act inviting the confidence of his secretary. "You understand my position here," the lad continued. "With all your kindness to me I am still your slave, and will be the slave of whomsoever shall inherit your estate after you. I cannot associate with negroes, much less marry among them. There are places where my dark blood would not matter so much as it does here. In Cuba, Mexico, Manila, or many of the beau- tiful islands of the South Seas where life would be delightful. Give me what you will, and my freedom, and with good feeling between us let me go to some of these places." There was a sobbing breath, and his great dark eyes were lifted to his master's face beseechingly, as he continued. "Some place on the face of the earth, since God has made such places for such as I, where I can hold up my head and be a man among men; where I can hope to make an honorable name for DUDLEY BAIN. 975 myself, marry and live like other men. You understand me, sir, far better than I can express myself," he said with proud yet respectful deference. But the planter did not understand at all, and that was Dud- ley Bain's first mistake. The secretary-slave had been thinking about himself for years and what he would like to do, who he was, and on whom he had first claims; and this had colored every act of his life, and even put unjustifiable meaning into the easy-going kindness of his master, while Dan Crawford had thought of his slave not at all, except as he was a useful pawn on the checkerboard of his life. Not particularly quick at any mental process, the planter found the entire subject presented by his slave bewilderingly and benumbingly new. It filtered into his mind in fragments, Dudley was asking for his freedom and he was worth two thousand dollars; that was sur- prising enough, but the planter also noted that the fellow was giving himself airs, and asking for it like a crown prince might prefer a request to the king. With rising anger he next took cognizance of the "With good feeling between us." Had the boy suddenly gone mad? No, there was the light of reason and strong emotion in the face opposite him. Anger and surprised helplessness warred with each other in Mr. Crawford's mind. He leaned back in his chair and took refuge in sarcasm. "My very dear Sir," he said, elaborately imitating Dudley's assumption of equality, "You don't think you are asking too much do you? You are worth about two thousand dollars, and if I un- derstand you right, I believe that you suggested that in addition to your freedom I add a suitable amount to start you in business, I presume in this new country you would like to honor with your presence. Why, I have never even thought of giving you your freedom, much less of starting you in business, and I know of no reason why I should think of it." Then with swiftly rising anger he thundered, "Don't you think you have asked a little too much?" Dudley, who well understood his master's moods, the storms of temper that sometimes assailed him, and also the justness and 976 IMPROVEMENT ERA. generosity which was habitual, turned and gathered up his papers and would have left the room in silence had he been permitted. But Dan Crawford had worked himself into a towering pas- sion by this time, and insisted the question he had asked should be answered. "Answer me, you impudent hound!" he yelled, getting up on his feet and standing before the boy, "Answer me!" For a moment there was silence save for the master's hurried breathing, then as if his will was compelling his body to obey, the slave raised his eyes, and looking his master in the face steadily, said, as if every separate word was an effort, said slowly and dis- tinctly, "No, sir, not too much for a son to ask of his father." Dan Crawford staggered as if he had been struck a blow. Such an insult from such a source was maddening. With a bellow of rage he seized a whip that hung on the wall and rained savage blows on the defenseless head and shoulders, yes and across the face of the boy who stood passive, the blood trickling from a dozen wounds, till as h is been said the master was paralyzed with shame. Shame because this creature, suffering under his just anger, was helpless -socially, physically and also before the law. Throwing the whip across the room as if afraid to trust him- self with it he said, "Go to the negro quarters, you hound, and never come into my presence again. You are no son of mine," and in a few brutal sentences he told Dudley the shameful story of his parentage. Harsh treatment and bitter words had only served to deepen the impression in Dudley's mind that Mr. Crawford was his father, and without a word he passed out of his master's presence, giving him a look as he went that was full of hate and menace, and it stuck to the planter's memory in spite of his efforts to get rid of it. However, the deed was done and could not be helped, but as his anger cooled, and his better nature again assumed sway, Dan Crawford felt that he had been both unwise and unjust in the course he had taken, for, wholly untrue, and deeply insulting as he knew the lad's charge to be, there had been that in the boy's words and manner that forced his master to believe that the boy DUDLEY BAIN. 977 had been honest in making the suggestion, and compelled by him- self into the open assertion. In the heat of his anger he had ordered Dudley to the negro quarters, whither he had promptly gone, and the lashing he had given the lad made it impossible from his point of view to act on a cooler judgment. The planter shifted about in his chair and, mopping the per- spiration from his forehead, communed with himself. "Jf he was a real nigger he'd come crawling up here to ask my forgiveness in about an hour, but that fellow's got enough white blood in him and enough education that if there's any asking forgiveness done it'll be old Dan Crawford that's got to do it." Of course that was out of the question, and the planter fell into a brown study. His mother's dying injunction, which he had always held sacred, seemed doubly binding on him now, and yet he could see no way out of the dilemma in wnich his bad temper had placed him. He felt that any yielding, any concession he might wish to make for the sake of his dead mother's wishes, or for the lad's white blood, or the conduct of his past life, would be construed by Dudley into an admission of the degrading charge. After a very bad hour with himself the planter decided that he would sell Dudley to some man who would be a kind master, and employ the boy at his accustomed work. Never again could he employ him thus, have him about his person, or willingly come in contact with him; and while thus resolved, and cursing him for an impertinent negro, Dan Crawford knew in his heart that it was the white blood that had spoken and acted through the entire deplorable interview. So poor Dudley was abandoned to a fate far worse to him than death. Living in a small cabin among the crowded cabins of the noisy, dirty, ignorant field-negroes, never for a moment out of sight and hearing of them, working at rough manual labor that taxed both strength and endurance to the limit, not basking in the heat of the sun as a negro does, but sickening as white men do in the cotton districts of the South. Performing these unac- customed labors under the eye of a brutal overseer, who was high- 978 IMPR 0 VEMENT ERA . ly gratified to find the secretary in disgrace, it was not strange that thoughts of suicide should begin to haunt the waking hours of Dudley Bain. The negroes were very broadly amused to see the secretary degraded from his high calling, and invented many reasons for "ol' Mar's gettin' mad," which they told in Dudley's presence, hoping to get the truth. They resented his silence and aloofness, and took advantage of all the small means that presented them- selves to make him feel his position among them. At first the work in the fields was almost more than he could endure, and brought on a spell of sickness; but Dudley was young, and although he longed to die, he got well and went back again to work. The slave had loved his master dearly, partly because be be- lieved the bond of blood was between them, partly for the sake of the good woman who had protected his forlorn childhood, but more than all else, because he had inherited his mother's devoted affectionate nature that must love something or somebody with all his heart. A nature made up of a white man's intellect, and a tropical capacity for loving, had met a condition that turned that love into hate, bitter and deep, and it was not fear of death, or of eternal punishment, nor the love of life that held him back from suicide, but the hope of a revenge as great as the wrongs he fancied his master had inflicted upon him. With the coming of Mr. Crawford's niece, Miss Agnes Burley, the old Crawford mansion took on a new base of life and gaiety. Miss Burley was a blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked girl, plump as a partridge, so full of wholesome, high spirits that she electrified all with whom she came in contact. School days, that leave so many girls languid and spiritless, had by no means robbed Miss Burley of her health and vivacity. She had absorbed, along with a fair share of mathematics, music, and "ologies," a love of fun, and a thorough enjoyment of life, that might have been deemed sufficient for a whole seminary of ordinary girls. The young folks of adjoining plantations and, indeed, for miles around, were attracted to the hospitable mansion and its kind- DUDLEY BAIN. 979 hearted, resourceful mistress. With an artistic and romantic nature, backed by good sense and a fair share of executive ability, Miss Agnes organized and carried out all kinds of entertain- ments— rides and hunts, picnics and exploring parties, moonlight rows upon the river, and masquerades indoors and out. Dumb suppers were cooked and served at the ghostly hour of midnight, with weird ceremonies. From these suppers only were the gentle- men excluded. They were left to sift, as best they might, the grains of truth from the bushels of fiction which the girls told of their ghostly experiences. Uncle Dan was never excused from taking an active part in the merry-making. Often he was dragged off, unwillingly enough, until he almost sighed acquiescence to Old Mammy's remarks: "Mars Crawford, dat ar chile, Miss Agnes, hav done turn dis here place wrong side out and shook it, plum from de ole trunks in de garret, where your mammy usen to keep her ole clo's, to de smoke-house cellah." But even when he sighed occasionally for the quiet indolence of his past life, Mr. Crawford was well-pleased to have it so, and even old black mammy, with all her grumbling, liked the "goings on," for the negroes are a fun-loving, light-hearted race, much like children, after their generations of slavery, when not crossed by vicious or alien blood. The house was full of young people, and an air of subdued excitement. Preparations were going forward for the most mysterious and thrilling party ever yet devised. Hallowe'en was to be celebrated with every form of fortune telling that had ever been heard of. There were plots and counterplots, and the air was full of a riot of half suppressed mirth, not entirely free from superstition. Dan Crawford, the courteous, urbane, hospitable gentleman of the old school, was occupying his favorite chair on the wide veranda, answering the merry remarks addressed to him by his guests. But his mind wandered from the mirth, music and laugh- ter around him, to the as yet unsolved pro Mem of Dudley Bain and his face, as his master had last seen it. Though months had passed since the recorded episode between master and slave, not yet had a suitable purchaser been found; 980 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and try as he would, the planter could not shake off the feeling that the boy was in his immediate vicinity. The rustling of leaves, the sighing of a zephyr, the flickering of leaf-shadows on the wall, breathed of his presence, and brought back, with annoying distinctness, the last look on the face of the punished slave as he had left his master's presence. The terrible is the unknown. Out of the mysterious unknown came a relentless spirit of hate and accusation — an invisible atmosphere that surrounded Mr. Crawford. There is a latent superstition in all human nature which edu- cation teaches people to hide, to deny, to reason about, but never, even in one individual, to wholly eradicate. Mr. Crawford had been blessed by nature, no doubt, with a full share of this mental mirage, and to this had been added the teachings of his negro nurse; and though he had repudiated all such things long ago, it was like the colors that are set in the unwoven wool, it was there to stay until the last fragment was worn out; and that he had disobeyed the dying request of his mother — broken his word to her, in fact, —gave superstition vital- ity, and called it into active life. Stronger than any other trait in the planter's nature was his pride. He had never spoken of the occurrence between himself and Dudley Bain, for pride had sealed his lips closer than any con- fessional could have done. Pride now forbade that by look or word he should betray his mental sufferings, which, in spite of his stout denials to himself were fast degenerating into fear —the fear that becomes panic. Pride would not allow him to even question his overseer with regard to Dudley, as he would not, and could not, explain the situ- ation. Of the boy's severe illness and recovery he had only heard through a conversation between two housemaids. Pride made it impossible for the master to concede anything, change any condition, unless Dudley should first come to him, retract his charge and apologize, lest, to the boy, it should seem a con- fession of fatherhood, and to himself a bribe to his fears. He had considered the advisability of going away for a time. "Yes," he said to himself, "that is what I will do. Just as soon as this party is over, I will take my kinswoman and together DUDLEY BAIN. 981 we will make an extended visit somewhere, I don't care where, so I get away from here for awhile. I've always intended to travel, anyhow, and may as well go now." And poor Dudley Bain — what of him? Amidst surroundings abhorrent, and associations repulsive, in unaccustomed labor, he was fast wasting the flowers of his youth, and burning up the light and fires of his life in a cold and deadly rage. He would have gone raving mad had it not been for the daily task that kept his mind from the subject of his revenge during the day, though he never quite forgot it. At night he would lie awake 1 )ng hours thinking over his wrongs, and planning. He could have assassinated his master almost any day, if that had seemed a desirable thing to do, or he could have laid the beautiful old mansion waste with fire; but either of these would have seemed to him a coarse and poor revenge indeed. When sleep came, that should have cooled his heated brain, and brought sweet refreshment to quivering nerves and burning eye-balls, he dreamed. Such dreams! He stood over his master, whip in hand, and from his lash-tortured flesh drew blood for blood. Lashed him till he owned the truth, having neither pity nor remorse, even when he pleaded with his son to end his sufferings. With such thoughts and plans and dreams, he fed the evil in his soul and bided his time, nor night nor day, ever for one moment, abandoned the purpose of his life. Was it any marvel that Dan Crawford felt in the very air about him the impulse of such a hatred? Dudley had seen Miss Agnes Burley, and knew of all the gay doings up at the big house, as did every slave on the plantation; and to himself he mockingly called her "cousin." He tried to hate her as he did Mr. Crawford, and wondered once, in a vague way, why he could not be more thoroughly revenged on his master through the girl; but the thought revolted the few shreds of manhood not burned to bitter dust by the fires of his murderous hate, and was abandoned. Queer orchids semetimes bloom in the most unexpected places. Dudley Bain fell in love with Agnes Burley. He loved her at various times with all the natures that were 982 IMPROVEMENT ERA. his by the terrible inheritances of his mixed blood. The love of a refined, educated white man, who desires a spiritual, and intel- lectual companion for life, — a chivalrous, romantic love that rated her as little less than angelic. Then he also loved her with the love of a negro— a passionate, unreasoning, devoted love, not to be denied by any obstacle, but true even unto dying, which was the nature of his gentle mother. Reaching back to his savage Afri- can ancestors, who with club and spear slew all the males of a village, and took the woman of his choice from her dead kindred, and expected her to rejoice at his prowess and strength, he loved her when most he hated his master, and when the fires of revenge burned hottest;— loved her with the love of a beast that crushes and mangles what it will not set at liberty, or leave living for another, and which it cannot retain. And so it was, that mingled with the revengeful fires of his hate was this other dream, this dream of love, that was to his soul like the rich and exquisite jewels of a miser, that are shut away in the dark, but of which the owner is always conscious, rejoicing in their richness and radiance, even while he shivers in rags, and fin- ally dies of cold and hunger, for the price of a fragment of the poorest. Hate is not so ingenious and resourceful as love. No sooner had this new passion taken possession of Dudley Bain, than he knew what he wanted to do. He would build himself a house in the innermost recesses of the swamp, on a little island known only to himself. This he would furnish the best he could secretly, and provide other nec- essaries, and take Miss Burlev there and lav siege to her heart. He would be so kind, so tender, so devoted, that she must love him at last, even if she was angry with him at first. He would tell her of those far-off countries where the moiety of dark blood in his veins would be no bar against him. With the education, ability and good breeding which they both possessed, and the money rightfully theirs, as the planter's joint heirs, they could enter the most exclusive circles. He still intended to revenge himself upon Mr. Crawford, of course, but the manner did not matter so much now. When the girl loved him enough that he could trust her, it DUDLEY BAIN. 983 would be necessary for her to claim the estate, that he, who was the rightful heir, might through her receive his own; and in another and kinder land they would find happiness together. When the thought obtruded itself, as it did sometimes, that Miss Burley would always loathe, scorn and hate him, his soul grew faint with horror at the monstrous alternative which his evil genius would suggest. There are those who believe that we are all given a guardian angel at our birth. If the planter had one, and it knew its busi- ness, it was time for it to start the languid gentleman on the con- templated journey, even if it had to invent more daylight night- mares for him. Swift-footed, dexterous, energetic, Dudley Bain found opportunity to carry out his project. As the months went by he made every arrangement to receive and keep his captive in the house in the swamp. He had made his plans so that the night of the Hallowe'en party was to bring the denoument, and he felt a cold certainty of success. Without difficulty he had learned from the negro housekeeper the details of the evening's program, and had prepared himself to take advantage of its excellent oppor- tunities. There was a good moon rising a little late. The young folks had played their games, eaten a most delicious supper, tried their fortunes in every conceivable way, and played mad-cap pranks on each other, till, with somewhat subdued spirits, they gathered about a fire of glowing logs, burning on the hearth in a great open fireplace in the huge hall. Then came the budget of ghost stories, carefully prepared beforehand by Miss Agnes, which blanched the cheeks of the timid, and sent little ecstatic thrills of fear up and down the nerves of the bravest. As the last ghostly lady with clanking chain was made to "walk the plank," the fire waned to a dull glow, and somewhere on the plantation a hound lifted up his voice in a long, lugubrious howl. To this banshee accompaniment, Miss Agnes dared those present, who claimed the proud title of bravery, to go to the edge of a wooded knoll, a few hundred yards away, where a trickle of 984 IMPROVEMENT ERA. water was caught in a shallow stone basin, irregular and ringed around with moss and ferns, and known from colonial times as the "Gipsy's Well," and having its own special spooks, according to the superstitions of the negroes. It was a very pretty place, and they had visited it often in daylight hours; but to go at midnight, after their ghostly carousal, was a very different thing. "We will have a roll of honor," said Miss Burley, producing a large sheet of paper, and tacking it on the wall where a square frame of evergreen had been placed to receive it. "Who, for the honor of their house, their name and lineage, will have their names first inscribed here, by making the ghostly visit to the Gipsy's Well?" she asked bravely and laughingly. But the laugh did not ring quite true, and the girls drew closer together, and it seemed to them all that shadows drew closer, and unseen eyes were upon them, and tense intelligence awaited their reply. Mr. Crawford hastened to respond. "For the honor of the House of Crawford I claim the right to be first," and rose to his feet. But Agnes, with her voice steady enough now, and with mirth so vital that it was infectious, claimed the right to go first "for the honor of the House of Burley, in default of a male repre- sentative." But the guests all protested that no lady should go out into the night so far alone; and finally it was decided that if there be any of the gentler sex stout-hearted enough to venture, they should have escort. As a result of the discussion, it was further enjoined that the lady should be left in the last little pool of silvery moonlight in plain sight of the group of watchers on the veranda, while the gentleman escort must really go to the well and procure son- e trophy to show that he had been to the designated spot— for it was not the business of women to uphold the honor of their respective houses for bravery. When, in spite of Agnes' protests, it had been unanimously decided that "the honor of the House of Burley" must be satis- fied with that, and Agnes had given her word to obey the rule of the majority, the assembled guests watched the stately gentleman, with the white-robed figure on his arm, as they descended the DUDLEY BAIN. 985 shallow marble steps and proceeded silently, as spirits might pass, out across the wide expanse of lawn, losing sight of them occa- sionally, when some mass of shrubbery intervened. There was a tragic hush in the air, though the gipsy heart of night seemed full to overflowing with an inarticulate whispering. Scarcely breathing, they watched the two figures, still per- fectly distinct, pause at the last pool of liquid, silvery moonlight, just on the edge of the line of dark forest. The girl turned and waved her hand at the breathless group on the veranda, and the Colonel's broad shoulders were swallowed up by the black shadows of the trees. As the moments passed, those who strained their eyes to see the form of Colonel Crawford reappear, saw a dun-colored shadow separate itself from the blackness of trees and moss to the right of where the path led to the Gipsy's Well. A beast with its tail dragging the earth, the legs spread to support the body, the head carried low and turning mechanically from side to side, snapping in a vicious though uncertain way at moving twigs and shadows. The great beast staggered and wallowed, rather than walked, across the little lake of light to where the girl stood, unconscious of its approach. There was an inarticulate voice of warning from the horri- fied watchers on the veranda; and at the sound Miss Burley turned slowly and faced death in its most terrible form— death from the fangs and claws of a mad dog! She stood quite still, after that first involuntary turning, knowing that her one slender hope of life was that the brute sh mid mistake her for an inanimate object. Not many feet from the girl, the mad beast paused and seemed to be gathering strength for a spring, his red eyes upon her, for a breeze had fanned the light folds of her white dress and betrayed her. At this critical moment, a rifle shot rang out; and the living horror, with snarls and spasmodic bounds, turned and bit and gnawed at its own flesh, with the bullet intended for the heart of Colonel Crawford in its side. At the same moment two figures appeared from the forest shades that had just given up such a monster — Dudley Bain, who, 986 IMPROVEMENT ERA. knife in hand, threw himself on the wounded mad dog, and Colonel Crawford, who bore his fainting kinswoman to their horror-stricken guests, who came swiftly down the lawn to meet them. Long before the foremost had reached the scene of battle, all was still- The huge dog lay stark, a knife-wound deep in his heart, and Dudley Bain in a pool of blood, not many feet away, torn and bitten in a ghastly manner. He was perfectly conscious, and when kind hands would have moved him he begged them to desist, as he knew he had but a few minutes to live, and would rather die where he had fallen. His eyes, gentle now and quiet as when he had been secretary to Colonel Crawford, looked on this circle of weeping women and respectful men, and sighed a faint sigh of satisfaction; but though there was that unappeased craving to hear Colonel Crawford acknowledge him as his son, the hate and passion of revenge were quite gone. In answer to their repeated inquiries as to what they could do for him, he said, "I want to talk to Colonel Crawford; and, par- don me, I want to talk to him alone; tell him I am dying." A messenger sped on swift feet; and as the Colonel came in haste, the guests withdrew to a distance and left them together, even as the dying slave had requested. For a moment the slave did not speak, but his great black eyes searched the face of his master, the majesty and dignity of honorable death upon him. The Colonel choked, as, kneeling beside the boy, he tried to speak, and offered to take his hand. But Dudley drew back his hand, and with his eyes burning with desire to know, and his parting soul almost upon his lips, he whispered, "Are you my father?" There was a pause of exquisitely painful silence, and then the Colonel removed his hat, and lifting his hand up to the pure, peaceful stars he said, ' 'Dudley, my poor boy, before God I am not." And the Colonel went on to express his sorrow and regret for that other time— his love for him, his depth of obligation and gratitude, and how gladly he would confer liberty and money, and anything he might desire, if only, by any miracle, his life might be spared. But it all fell on unheeding ears. DUDLEY BAIN. .987 A gray shadow was creeping up over the face now, and the eyes that had burned into the Colonel's were looking into space. Bain was trying to adjust himself to the new thought, for at last he believed his master's word. His hatred, his despair, his desire for revenge, the plans worked out by day and the dark visions of the night were gone, and only one thing was left of all the shat- tered ruins of his life — his love for Agnes Burley. He had given his life for her, had saved her from a terrible death, and his spirit sang a hymn of triumph, even while still in its ignoble prison. "Thank you," he said to the Colonel's generous and heart- felt flood of praise and thanks and promises. "Will you permit me to speak to Miss Agnes just a few moments alone," he gasped. What passed between them during the five minutes that he lived after she came to him, no one ever knew, for he was quite dead when she called her uncle, and they had to unclasp his stiffen- ing fingers from the hem of her white dress; and where he had pressed it to his lips, it was soaked with blood and venomous foam. And while we sat in shocked silence, the old anti-Bellum doc- tor got up and sauntered off, without waiting to hear either our opinion of the story, cr the point he had made. (the end.) Naturally. A Washington man, says the Delineator, while visiting a friend's place in Virginia, became much interested in his experiments in fruit culture. One day the visitor was making the rounds of the place, being in charge of the friend's young daughter of ten, who acted as a guide. "This tree seems to be loaded with apples," observed the Washing- tonian, indicating a particularly fine specimen. "Yes, sir," assented the child. "Father says this is a good year for apples." "I am glad to hear that," said the visitor. "Are all your trees as full of apples as this one?" "No, sir," explained the girl, "only the apple trees." Citation: Sanders, Ellen Lee, “Dudley Bain,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 974–987. # Heber C. Kimball HEBER C. KIMBALL. From a Photo taken in 1867. Born June 14, 1801; died June 22, 1868. The 109th anniversary of the birth of this venerable leader in the Church was celebrated in June, 1910, at a family reunion held in Whitney Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Heber C. Kimball,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 988. # Address to My Children Address to my Children. WRITTEN BY HEBER C. KIMBALL. To my Beloved Children, Sent Greeting: I desire to speak to my children this morning that they may be wise and honored of God and of men ; and I pray that I may be inspired by the Holy Ghost. My soul is swallowed up in God. As to the things of this world, they are lost to me. I do not feel concerning them as I have heretofore; I care only for the things of eternity. When I behold the great things of God and the glory which awaits the righteous, and when I reflect that the road is so straight that but few find it, I feel to pray the Lord to bless my children and save them. I am thankful to God because I live in a day when some will find it, and will become gods. A man may become a god as Jesus Christ did. For this he must prepare himself while in the flesh, that he may be enthroned as a judge is enthroned. I have a desire that my children may be crowned, and if I be enthroned I want to have the privilege of wafting myself, by the power of God, to visit my children. Every- thing we see here is typical of what will be hereafter. Oftentimes, when I hear people talk of their difficulties, it appears like foolishness to me; I scarcely notice them. I want my children to be an example tp others, and I want the older ones to be an example to the younger children, and not only to them, but to their friends and to their sex. My children, listen to the instructions of your parents, and when they say to you, do a thing, doit. Overcome every spirit of tyranny and oppression, and be as clay in the hands of the potter. 990 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The time will come when you will have children, and you will have tender feelings for them, and will then look back and appre- ciate the tender feelings that your parents had for you. My soul has mourned for the welfare and salvation of my children. When I look at the things of the eternal world, I feel willing to make sacrifices that I may enjoy the privileges which God is willing to give his people. When I speak to my children, I speak as a father, and there is no person on the earth that has more tender feelings for his children than I have. I want the older ones to be a pattern for the younger ones, and inasmuch as there is hard- ness, put it away; for it is like a seed which, if it be cultivated, grows to a tree, grows to maturity, and when it brings forth fruit, it brings forth hardness and tyranny. We should always endeavor to plant peace and kindness. Remember always to be affectionate to your parents; for you will have posterity, because God has promised it; and if the oldest are not faithful, God will raise a posterity from the younger. I want my children to show proper respect to all men, and be gentle to them, as you want they should be gentle to you. Be subject to all officers, both civil and religious, and reverence them in their offices. When you speak of the prophet and the apostles, speak well of them and not reproachfully. Reverence all men in their respective places, and never speak disrespectfully of them, nor of any person on the earth. If you cannot speak well, keep your mouth shut. If you do this, you shall be respected as your father has been, for this has always been my course. Be attentive to these instructions and be faithful in all things, and you shall be enthroned in the kingdom of God and shall increase from generation to generation, and there shall be no end of the increase. When I come into the presence of God, he will permit me to stand at your head as Adam will stand at the head of all families of the earth. Don't give way to evil, my children, lay aside all wickedness, and never suffer yourselves to go into wicked company or corrupt places. If we give way to sin even a little it will conceive in our bosoms and grow. I know if I am faithful no good thing will be withheld from me, but if I make a misstep it may all be taken away. We are acting in view of eternity, we are laying a foundation for eternity. If you remem- ADDRESS TO MY CHILDREN. 991 ber these things, God will bless you with glory and eternal life. I want you to remember that inasmuch as you honor your father, when you become old and are engaged in the ministry, you shall be honored. The gospel of Jesus Christ, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, is true; I know it, for God has revealed it to me. Every man who rejects it will be damned, and every one who receives it will be saved. Baptism is a sign of the resurrec- tion, and it is the password whereby we enter into the kingdom of God. All the ordinances are signs of things in the heavens. I want my children to observe these things, for we have come into a dispensation when we have got to open a door to receive all dis- pensations of old. I want to become just what I ought to be. My children, never cultivate a spirit of covetousness. When you see anybody who is poor, and you have means, assist him; and when poor men or poor women come along, take them into your house ani feed and clothe them. Always enlist on the side of the oppressed. This principle was always in me, and I want my children to cherish it. If you show mercy, you shall have mercy. The character of the Almighty is noble, and none will come into his kingdom only those who are noble, kind, merciful, virtuous and obedient. The course I take in this life will be handed down to future generations. You will hand it down from generation to generation, and all records which are made here on earth will be had in heaven. Now, my children, God recognizes all that you do. Never cultivate anything wicked, corrupt or dishonest. Instead of taking a penny from a neighbor, give him two. As you do unto others, so shall it be measured unto you again. Let these instruc- tions sink deep into your minds: for God is bound to bestow these blessings upon us. Even so. Amen. Citation: Kimball, Heber C., “Address to My Children,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 989–991. # The Crown of Individuality: X. Forgetting as a Fine Art The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. X. Forgetting as a Fine Art. Forgetting is one of the fine arts of living at our best. It is not that phase of non-remembering, where a name or a date or a fact has not strength enough to keep itself from sinking deep into memory's sea of oblivion. Fine forgetting means character asserting itself — not mind losing itself. It is the blue pencil of wisdom — cutting out unnecessary words from the text of our living. It is individual kingship determining what thoughts it will permit to reside in its kingdom. It is the exclusion act of the soul — eject- ing the unworthy and the undesirable. A great editor once said: "The true secret of editing is to know what to put int^ the waste- basket." Forgetting is the soul's place for losing discarded thoughts, depressing memories, mean ambitions, false standards and low ideals. All the virtues, vices and qualities of mental and moral life may be defined in terms of — forgetting or of remembering. Self- ishness is forgetting others in over-remembering self. Worry is the inability to forget the troubles that may never happen. Honor is remembered high standards made evident in acts. Anger is the explosion of an over-heated memory. Forgiveness is the heart's for£3tfulness of an injury. Ingratitude is the heart's forgetfulness of a favor. Habit is the memory of acts, making repetition easier. Mercy is the memory of human weakness tempering justice. Envy is forgetting one's own possessions in over-remembering those of * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Re veil Company. THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 993 others. Influence is the remembered acts of one inspiring the acts of others. Patience is forgetting petty troubles along the way in concentrating thought on the goal. Love is the heart's sweet- est memories shrined in another. Forgetting as a fine art has two distinct phases: learning how to forget and what to forget. Forgetting is the heart's eclipse of a memory. It is so easy to say lightly to some one suffering from a memory, "Oh, just forget it all." Those of us who have sought honestly and bravely to fight it out on Ihe silent battlefield of the soul know that forgetting is never easy. If it were there would be neither credit, courage nor strength in mastering it. Those peo- ple who tell you moral battles are easy, really know nothing about it, care nothing, or they are getting ready to tell you they have just remembered an appointment and must say "good-bye." It is a real fight, but we can win in the end — if we are not afraid of a quick, hard fight. It is better than a long siege of remembering that lasts for years. Keeping the world from knowing our pain or struggle by veil- ing our sorrow with a smile, seeming to forget, is fairly easy; but this is not — real forgetting. The biggest souls find it hardest to forget. Trained forgetting is paradoxic. We cannot forget by trying intensely to forget — this merely deepens and gives new vitality to the memory. True forgetting really means finer mem- ory; it is displacing one memory by another, by a stronger one, an antidotal one. It means concentrating on the second phase so that the first is weakened, neutralized, and faded out like a well- treated ink-stain. It is removing a weed from the garden of thought, and then planting a live, sturdy flower in its stead. It is cultivating new interests, new relations, new activities. Time helps wonderfully, but especially when we go into partnership with her. If we learn to forget wisely and unselfishly in the trifles of our daily living with others, we shall silently accumulate higher pressure reserve power for our own later needs. Let us forget thorns of daily living in remembering roses of its possibility; forget things that pain in remembering unnoted reasons for thankfulness; forget the weakness of those around us in seeking to discover wherein they are strong. Let us forget the disappointments in 994 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the courage of new determination; forget the little wrong we have suffered from our friend, in living again in the memory of his many kindnesses; forget the things that depress in concentrating on those that exalt. Fine forgetting is an attempt at — finer justice. It means aggressive living — on the uplands of truth and light. The man who lets the really great things of life, love, honor, duty, trust, friendship, loyalty, justice, selfishly slip away from him for the mere gratification of a moment or a mood, has no right at first to forget. His* first duty is to see that he has not been keeping his conscience under the ether of self-apology. He must realize the wrong, and do all in his power to right it. Then in his new strength the petty things will lose their treacherous charm. They will fade into the dim recesses of forgetfulness where they belong, luminant, inspiring. There are moments when a man rejoices that he is living, that he is yet able to do the right thing he disdained — to fill some one's life with roses, clear someone's path of sorrow. He has the new opportunity of doing a big man's work in a great, simple, self- forgetful way. He who listens gleefully to scandal, turns it over meltingly on the tongue of appreciation, and then syndicates it with supple- mentary chapters of his own guessing, repeats it until it becomes a stained tattoo in memory. His ears should be debarred from listening and his mind taught to forget by thinking deeply of the pain such scandal would give to him, were he or some one dear to him the victim, innocent or guilty. He whose success has made him hard, selfish, intolerant, and critical, who has no patience with those who have not succeeded, should* rest for a little from his work of pinning new medals on the chest of self -approval. He should forget his unworthy vanity by recalling his own hard struggles and the part that chance, pat- ronage, favor, or even questionable cleverness, has had in incubat- ing his prosperity. He may then gladly extend the helping hand he now withholds. We often let an act of the long ago poison our present living: we remember when we should forget. Tl^ere are things done in the inexperience of youth, in moments of unreason, acts of many years ago, that have left livid scars in thought, that sting and THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 995 canker, that discourage and deaden purpose, depress our moral vitality, dim our mental vision, and dull our energy. We should let the dead past bury its dead. We should put them forever out of life and thinking. If we have made all reparation possible, let us consider them as the acts of someone else — a weaker self that is now dead, not the self that lives today, the one we are seeking to make finer and better. Let us make our new self more than a monument to a dead past. Let it be to us a prophetic tablet to the greater self we are preparing. Remember and think of past folly, mistakes, sin and sorrow only long enough to repair, to atone and to avoid. Then forget the yesterdays of sadness, shame, wrong and failure in the soul's concentration on the new, fresh, clean days for higher, truer liv- ing, making each new day but the prelude to a new, better tomorrow,. It was this fine forgetting St. Paul meant when he said "Forgetting the things which are behind I press forward to the mark of my high calling." Forgetting of this type is simply — for- giving ourselves for past errors. We forgive others for wrongs where there is true regret, realization, and the promise, direct or implied, of non repetition. If we are honest in our determination, if we really have acquired new wisdom, why should we not thus forgive — ourselves? Forgetting is the hardest lesson of life, and it is never so hard as with the memories of the emotions. Our bitterest moments of living are when we drape our sweetest memories in black because they belong to a past that is dead forever. There are high-lights of remembered joy that overcome us with madden- ing pain, harder to bear than any actual sorrow, past or present. There are memory cells that we long to identify, to individualize and to isolate from the millions of their fellows in the brain and to kill as the electric needle deadens the life of an individual hair- cell. "Sorrow's crown of sorrows," says Tennyson, "is remember- ing happier things." Lang, hard sorrow is a sickness of the soul, from which in time we may gradually emerge. Nature gently leads us back to health in our days of emotional convalescence by helping us to forget and by giving us new memories to remember. 996 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Memory is a mental force we cannot kill, but we can direct, we can give it new subjects to act upon, new right engines of purpose to move, new channels into which to run. There are sometimes petty fractures of our pride, irritating incidents that hurt perhaps because we are nervous. They loom large before us. For the time each seems as big as a real sorrow or loss. If we cannot master, it may be as well to surrender to it just for a little, to think it out, to talk it out, to get it out as much as possible from the emotional system. Then we should cease to think and to talk; we should learn to forget, avoiding situations and conditions that revive the pain, seeking right work and association that lead from it. Then even a great cankering sorrow will be conquered. If found unworthy we shall find it si- lenced forever in our hearts and— dead in our memory. L2t us seek to begin each new day in the consciousness of our crown of individuality as serene and calm as though it were a new life, with nothing of the old remaining but its wisdom, its sweet memories, its duties, its responsibilities, and the hope, joys, privi- leges, love, and possessions the old life has bequeathed to us. (The next article of this series, "The Victoria Cross of Happiness," will appear in the October number of the Era.) The Freedom of Obedience and Service. (For the Improvement Era.) Proyo, Utah. Oh, may I know the Lord as friend, And love of him my life attend; May freedom's joy my soul e'er thrill, In yielding mine to Father's will. Oh, may I grow to love to give, And for the help of others live; May sweetest joy be mine to know That I have lessened others' woe. May life eternal be my share, Under my Redeemer's care, With those I love — eternal joy, Eternal work in God's employ. George H. Brimhall Citation: Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: X. Forgetting as a Fine Art,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 992–996. # A Book of Mormon Consistency A Book of Mormon Consistency. BY THOMAS W. BROOKBANK. The record of Christ's personal teachings to the Nephites, when he visited them after his resurrection, is embraced in chap- ters 11 to 28 (inclusive) of III Nephi, and considering the brief time which was occupied in these ministrations, the account is more complete than the New Testament records are. Notwithstanding this fact, it is remarkable that he did not once mention the names of the Scribes and Pharisees, either singly or together. These powerful and haughty sects had been prin- cipally instrumental in effecting his death, and at their hands he had suffered the most bitter persecution throughout the whole pe- riod of his public life. Naturally his mind would be filled with some of the pleasing, and then again with some of the sad and harrowing remembrances of his former days in Jerusalem and the land of his nativity. Under these circumstances who can presume that his omission to refer by name to his former enemies was the result of inadvertence or chance? On the contrary, we find unmis- takable evidence in Nephi's record that his remarkable silence was predetermined; for on one occasion, at least, he had more than a good opportunity to name the Scribes and the Pharisees, and his purpose not to do so is obvious. The text of Matthew 5: 20, in our common Bibles, reads thus: "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven." The corresponding verse in III Nephi 12: 20, is as follows: "Therefore, come unto me and be saved; for verily I say unto you, that except ye shall keep my commandments, which I have com- manded you at this time, ye shall in no case enter into the king- dom of heaven." 998 IMPROVEMENT ERA. In the verses immediately preceding the 19th of this Nephite quotation, Christ was repeating to the Saints on this continent the first portion of his sermon on the Mount of Olives, in a manner that if not strictly literal, was yet more nearly so than it was like an original discourse. In the 19th verse we plainly see that he is preparing the way for what he says in the first portion of the 20th, and having thus avoided the necessity for naming the Scribes and Pharisees, he resumes, even before closing the 20th verse, his former sermon. What a revelation of God's just indignation and anger is thus displayed to our view! The expunging of the names of the Scribes and Pharisees from the vocabulary of the risen Redeemer seems per- fectly to illustrate what is meant by having one's name blotted out from the book of God — out of the book of his remembrance — a penalty which he has threatened, more than once, to inflict upon the desperately wicked. There is told, in the ominous silence of the Savior respecting his persecutors and murderers, the story of cen- turies piled on centuries of suffering, of spoliation, banishment, death and woe for a race — of prayers unanswered, of petitions ignored, of tears and groanings unheeded until the days of refresh- ing shall come, and the names of God's chosen people again be held in his remembrance. Such is the story, as it appears to me, that is told in the Book of Mormon by a carefully designed act of our Lord, which altogether, in its revelations and significance, con- stitutes a grand and yet appalling consistency. It is, furthermore, not only consistent with the revealed word of God respecting what the worst elements of humanity shall suffer, and the history of the forgotten Jews; but it is consistent also with the record of Christ's ministrations, after his resurrec- tion, among the people of the land of his birth? When conversing, for instance, with the two disciples, as they journeyed to Emmaus, the topics readily suggested the names of the Scribes and Pharisees; but no mention of them was made. Even the mouths of the disci- ples were sealed in this respect in the presence of the Lord. The translator of the Book of Mormon made no mistake, for more reasons than one, when he omitted the names of these sects from that record. Flagstaff, Arizona. Citation: Brookbank, Thomas W., “A Book of Mormon Consistency,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 997–998. # About Debating About Debating. BY DR. JOHN A. WIDTSOE, PRESIDENT OF THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, LOGAN, UTAH. My dear brethren and sister 's, fellow workers: — When the work of the Mutual Improvement Associations was in a measure reshaped last year, to conform to the new priesthood movement, the sug- gestion was made that debating be one of the incidental features of our work. No special emphasis was placed upon this feature of our work, but, neverthless, a large number of associations undertook to carry on debating, and, as far as we can learn, with considerable success. Recently the Young Ladies' Mutual Improve- ment Associations have also decided that debating may well be a part of their incidental work. The prospect is, therefore, that next year considerable debating will be done by the associations. It is, consequently, quite necessary that the officers familiarize themselves with the proper methods of conducting debates, so the greatest possible good from debating may be obtained by our boys and girls. There has been a great deal of well-founded prejudice against debating in our Church, and in other communities, for that mat- ter. Many individuals and communities have been seriously injured by interminable wrangling over immaterial questions. Frequently questions of theology have been taken up and discussed pro and con, in an unsystematic manner, to the detriment of all who took part in the discussion. Occasionally subjects that can be settled only by revelation, through those who have the author- ity, have been used as subjects for debate, and, naturally, with * Delivered at the M. I. A. annual conference, June 5, 1910. 1000 IMPROVEMENT ERA. evil results. We want to make clear that wrangling and debat- ing are not in any sense related. Modern debate is a systematic, intellectual exercise, which results in mental development. The old-fashioned wrangling that, 1 suppose, we have all indulged in more or less, has very little good effect upon the mind. The most important thing in organizing the work in debating is to make sure that the right kind of a subject is chosen. There are some subjects that should not be debated. For instance, all theological subjects should be omitted from our list of possible questions for debates. Even the interpretation of a Biblical pas- sage should be absolutely forbidden in our debating. Subjects which are not debatable, because they are remote in character, in time or place, should not be debated. Historical subjects, such as the comparing of great historical personages are also of doubtful value for debates, and would better not be used. The subjects that we want to debate in our associations are those that are of a living interest to the young people, and which, as far as possible, bring the young people in touch with the present day advance- ment of the world, whether it be on the educational, political or social side. The debate, to be of real value, should be educa- tional; it must be developing in its effect upon the young people — upon the debaters and the listeners. I have been instructed to say that the associations should choose their subjects from the published list that will appear in the Era and in the Young Woman s Journal. If other subjects are desired, they should be sent in to the committee in charge, for approval, before they are actually used by the associations. Great care should also be taken in tne choice of debaters. Occasionally we have young men and women who are a trifle quarrelsomp,who would like to enter into a debate simply for the fun of debating, but who are not seriously desirous of preparing themselves for the debate. Such young peo- ple should not be allowed to enter the debate unless they are forti- fied by the association of more serious-minded young people. It may be said also, as a word of warning, that a young man or woman should not be asked to take part in a debate, when he or she has formed decided convictions on that subject. Do not ask one of our young people to argue against his well-established con- victions; it will not result in good. The intellectual exercise may ABOUT DEBATING. 1001 be obtained, but the moral effect is not good. There are so many subjects, neutral in their nature, that may be used without detri- ment to the young people, that the danger of having someone argue against his convictions can easily be avoided. The real value of a debate lies not in the public performance, but in the preparation for the debate. This should be made clear to all those who take part in debates. The first step in the preparation is the collection of material. An effort should be made to obtain an abundance of material which may be used in constructing an argument. Now, the associa- tions have found more or less difficulty in securing material this year. The finding of suitable material and facts bearing on the question will nearly always be the most difficult problem before those who undertake debates. We may keep in mind that the public schools, the colleges and universities— Church and state — will be glad to let the associations have the use of the books in their collections for this purpose. The educational institutions are not confined in their efforts to the buildings in which they labor, but are desirous of assisting all educational movements throughout the state. There is also a movement on foot, which I think will supply the associations with all necessary material; but this plan has not been fully perfected. The plan itself will be published very soon in the Era and the Young Woman's Journal. Please look for it. After the material has been collected, the argument must be constructed, and herein lies, also, one of the chief values of debating. The habit of organizing diverse and scattered material into a logical and systematic whole is of great value to all in the daily affairs of our lives, and especially in the missionary work that nearly all of us have to do, whether at home or abroad. The arguments should be constructed according to well defined rules. No man should be a law unto himself. There is a science of argu- mentation; and I suggest that the officers see to it that their debaters have access to a few books showing how a debate should be constructed. I recommend, as one of the most suitable man- uals, Alden's The Art of Debate, a small book that will cost about seventy -five cents. The debate itself, that is, the public performance, which is 1002 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the last step in the debate, and, perhaps, the least important for our purposes, should be governed according to the established methods of procedure. Robert's Rules of Order and other similar books should be used in guiding the debate itself. A chairman should be appointed, a definite time allotted to the speakers, and a regular order insisted upon. In fact, the whole thing should be orderly, and if an orderly procedure is adhered to, there will be little disturbance of the kind reported by our brethren and sisters in some public debates. I may say, also, that the judges, in most cases, should be asked to hand in their verdict by ballot. If the three judges get together to consult, the probability is that they will take nearly as long a time in making up their minds as the debate itself consumes. When the debate is over and the evening is closed, there should be no further discussion of it; it should not be a topic of conversation at the fireside or on the street-corner, because it is likely to do damage if carried into the daily lives of the people. The debate, generally, should be serious. Occasionally, how- ever, a light subject may be treated — a subject that will create a good-natured merriment; for instance: "Should Women Propose? ' (Laughter). Such a subject is a bit of nonsense, yet it might result in good. Other subjects of the kind might be found for occasional debates. It may be suggested that two debates during the year are probably sufficient for any one organization. Debating should not be held on Sunday. If the associations meet regularly on Sun- day, some week-day or evening when dancing or some other form of amusement is usually engaged in, might be taken for the debate. It is well to notify the public — the fathers and mothers — and try to get all to come out. It is fascinating to all to witness the clash of wits. Debates should be opened and closed with prayer; and sing- ing should be had, as in any other meetings. The whole perform- ance should invite the good spirit of God, and be in harmony with the spirit of this Church. The young ladies have set aside a time, and have been willing to join with the young men, once a month, in a conjoint meeting 'for the purpose of debating or telling stories, or in contests of ABOUT DEBATING. 1003 various kinds; and in this new debating work, the sisters should participate. It would be well, in most cases, to divide the sides, so that each side has a man and a woman on it, and not pit the men against the women, unless you have some subject that is bet- ter handled in that way. Men should not undertake to go it alone in the matter of debating. The presence of the sisters on our debat- ing teams will help in the orderly presentation of the debate. Now, in conclusion: the work is new; it should be undertaken with caution and care. If any dangerous results appear to follow, the work might well be stopped in a community for a time, for we want the right kind of debates. However, let us give debating a fair trial. Debating is a splendid intellectual exercise. It always means intellectual development. The great books of the world are all arguments — in a way. The works of Orson Pratt, B. H. Roberts, and all the great writings of our Church, are only arguments built upon the established principles of argumentation. We need not be afraid of debating, if we carry it on properly ; and I hope it will be conducted in that way. I pray that in this work we may be successful, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Work. (For the Improvement Era.) By the sweat of thy brow shall thy bread be earned, A curse that into a blessing turned Ere it was spoken by lips Divine, A gift supernal, a gift sublime! The bread that is earned by labor is sweet ; 'Tis they with nothing to do whose feet Are ever wending the downward way, Who quarrel wiih fate each hour, each day. Then work, just work, 'tis a glorious thing To work and smile, to smile and sing, And thank the One whose will is best, For work, the blessing which bringeth rest. Grace Ingles Frost. Waterloo, Utah. Citation: Widtsoe, John A., “About Debating,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 999–1003. # Why Are “Mormon” Missionaries Expelled from Germany? Why Are "Mormon" Missionaries Expelled From Germany? BY ELDER GEORGE F. RICHARDS, OF THE QUORUM OF TWELVE APOSTLES. [On July 21, 1910, Herr Dalwitz, the Prussian Minister of the Inter- ior, on recommendation of the political police, signed orders for the expulsion of twenty-one "Mormon" missionaries, most of whom were Americans or Englishmen. On the day following, they were given three days in which to depart. Among them were three American students who, upon the request of Hon. Irwin B. McLaughlin, charge d' affaires at the American embassy, were permitted to remain. It appears that the missionaries had assembled from various parts of Germany at the Latter-day Saints' headquarters in Berlin, to meet President Thomas E. McKay, of the Swiss and German mission. As early as the 31st of May last, Elder McKay wrote from his headquarters in Zurich, Switzer- land, to President Joseph F. Smith, stating that he had requested the police to grant permission to have the meeting held. On the 21st, as services were being held, the agent of the political police, who was seated in the audience, rose and declared the gathering dissolved. Then several members of the criminal police appeared, and virtually took the congregation into custody. It will be remembered that in 1903 the status of the "Mormons" in Germany was taken up in a council between the foreign office and the foreign embassy. At that time the govern- ment took the position that the teachings of the missionaries were sub- versive of morality. It was then arranged that they should withdraw from the country, and that their headquarters should be moved from Ber- lin to Switzerland. Subsequently the missionaries, numbering abrut one hundred and forty, departed, leaving the German Latter-day Saints, with a total membership of eight thousand, in the care of Germans. In recent years, the Germans say, the "Mormons'' have disregarded the under- standing of 1903, hence this action. WHY ARE "MORMON" MISSIONARIES EXPELLED? 1005 Elder George F. Richards, in the following communication, discusses the position of the government that the teachings of "Mormon" mission- aries are subversive of morality. To any one familiar with the subject of morals as they exist in Germany and among the Latter-day Saints, the conclusion which the government arrived at is very humorous. — Editors.] The status of "Mormons" in Germany was taken up in exchanges between the foreign office and the foreign embassy, in 1903, when the government took the position that the teachings of the missionaries were subversive of morality. — Telegram in the Deseret News, July 22, 1910. The statement made by the German government officials as the cause for the banishment from that country of ''Mormon'' missionaries will appear most absurd to thousands who have for a lifetime lived among the Latter-day Saints, heard their teachings and become familiar with their manner of living, and the high standard of morality which they have raised to the world. The statement is so vague as to preclude a specific answer. To say that we deny the charge would seem to be an answer as full and comprehensive as the indefinite charge would merit or demand. We would ask the authors of that remarkable statement where- in the teachings of the Latter-day Saint missionaries are subversive of morality? No church on the earth has a higher standard of morality than has the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the "Mormon" Church. That standard is ordained of God. With it adultery, in the category of crime, stands next to murder. An adulterer or a fornicator can not have membership in the Church except he repents. "If a man com- mit adultery, he can not receive the celestial kingdom of God, even if he is saved in any kingdom, it can not be the celestial king- dom." {Compendium, p. 280.) We are sure the teachings of the Latter-day Saint missionaries upon that topic, and the example set by them, could be followed with profit by their accusers. Wherein, then, we would again ask, are the teachings of the "Mormon" missionaries subversive of morality? Is it in that they teach as did Jesus (Matt. 6: 9) that God is our Father and we his children? Or, as do the scriptures, (Gen. 1: 27) thab we are made in his image and likeness, and that he is a God of parts and passions 1006 IMPROVEMENT ERA. even as is man; and that the Trinity — the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost — are not one substance, but three separate and distinct individuals, the Father and the Son being personages of flesh, bone and spirit, as tangible as man, and the Holy Ghost a personage of spirit only? (Doctrine and Covenants 130: 22, and Matt. 3: 16, 17). .Or, is it that they teach that faith in Christ is essential to salvation? If so, then condemn the scriptures, for so they teach (John 3: 18-21; 8:24). Or, is it that they teach that men cannot be saved in their sins, and that sins can be forgiven and remitted only after repent- ance and compliance with the ordinance of baptism (Luke 13: 5; 3: 3)? Or, that they teach, as did Jesus, (John 3: 5) that except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the king- dom, outside of which there is no salvation? Or, is it that they teach that authority to administer the gos- pel ordinances is as necessary today as it was in the primitive church? (John 15: 16; 20: 21). Or, is it because they justify Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Moses, and others, whom God justified, in having a plurality of wives? (Matt. 8: 11). If so, then we answer that the Latter-day Saints neither teach nor practice plural marriage, at home or abroad, it being forbidden, both by the law of the land and the rule of the Church; therefore the action of the German officials, on such ground, means a needless fear of an imaginary foe. Or, is it that they teach the immortality of the soul, as do the scriptures, (I Cor. 15: 21, 22) that as Christ died, and after three days took up his body— the same body he laid down (Luke 24: 30-43; John 20: 27) so we, after a season, will take up the same bodies that we lay down, and as Jesus went to the Father and sat at his right hand in his kingdom, as seen by Stephen (Acts 7: 55) even so we may, by following the example set by the Savior, become joint heirs with him in the kingdom and glory of God? (Luke 15: 31). Or, is it that they teach the eternity of the marriage cove- nant—that wives and husbands, sealed so for time and eternity, by WHY ARE "MORMON" MISSIONARIES EXPELLED? 1007 one having authority, will be man and wife after death, and their children born under that covenant will be theirs fcrever — the covenant to be kept, the identity to be preserved, the relations perpetuated, and the individuals glorified? (I Cor. 11: 11; Doctrine and Covenants 132). Or, is it that they teach that little children have eternal life, being redeemed from before the foundations of the world, through the blood of the Lamb of God — no little children in hell, but "of such is the kingdom of heaven"? Or, is it that they teach that salvation is for the dead as well as for the Jiving, for the heathen as well as for the Christian (1 Peter 3: 18; 4: 6; Gal. 3: 8, 9), the heathen to have this gospel after death, if not before? Or, is it that we believe the scriptures literally? (II Peter 1: 20; Isaiah 8: 20.) If the officials of the German government, or any one else, has discovered that, as a people, we teach any principle which is not scriptural, we would be pleased to have them point out to us wherein we are so doing, that we may make our teachings conform —for as yet we have not been able to discover any such discrep- ancy. One of the strongest evidences of the truth of "Mormon- ism," and that which is the most potent factor in converting men and women to our faith, is the fact that we teach only true scrip- tural doctrine. An investigation will prove this fact. It is a matter of regret that the officials of the German government did not make such comparisons, and point out in detail some of our non-scriptural teachings. "Mormonism" means so much to the individual, if true, that it is worth his while to give a careful and unbiased consideration of what it purports to be. Saul of Tarsus fought the primitive Saints, believing he was doing God a service. He afterwards learned his mistake, and it was a thorn in his side forever after. The German government officials will, no doubt, see their mistake later. Truth will manifest itself and will prevail. Citation: Richards, George F., “Why Are “Mormon” Missionaries Expelled from Germany?,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1004–1007. # Music Music." BY OSCAR A. KIRKHAM, OF THE L. D. S. UNIVERSITY, AND MEMBER OF THE Y. M. M. I. A. GENERAL BOARD. The great, parched desert, longing for the refreshing rain, might be compared to the American people longing for expression in the great art of music. The willingness to spend millions of dollars annually for the support of great artists is only one evi- dence. The old world may boast of her past, with Mozart, Handel, Beethoven, Wagner and others, with their wonderful works of art, but I sincerely bslieve the great future belongs to America. We take advantage of their works and progress, and work with new people, with new hopes and aspirations, and not in any section of our fair land are there greater possibilities and probabil- ities for development than among the Latter-day Saints, with their intense religious feelings, and their great love for this art. We might go one step farther,. and say that among our own people no organization should be more responsible for this progress than the Mutual Improvement Associations. But are we doing our part? The Sunday schools and Primaries are progressing; the ward choirs are working as best they can, but I must confess that when I was requested to represent this work on the Y. M. M. I. A. board, and when I went to look for the musical organization through which I might work and be of assistance, I found practi- cally none. Let us hope, in the year's work that is before us, we will perfect our organization along this line, and unitedly make possible the advancement of this uplifting art among our people. *An address delivered at the Annual M. I. A. Conference, Sunday, June 5, 1910, at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. MUSIC. 1009 A joint committee of the young; ladies' and young men's associa- tions should be appointed in each ward, who would work unitedly in furnishing the musical programs for regular weekly preliminary and conjoint Sunday evening meetings, entertainments, concerts, and, when possible, the presentation of operettas, cantatas, ora- torios and operas. Permanently organized mutual choirs are discouraged, from the fact that it is generally impossible for more than one organiza- tion of this kind to exist in a ward, the support of the people being rightly given to the ward choir. The young ladies may, however, have their ladies' chorus and the young men their male chorus, and these may unite at times for the presentation of special musical works which might be suggested from time to time through the medium of our magazines. Would not work of this kind help to supplement the crying need of something to take the place of " the dance? Very often there are excellent singers among the young ladies and men of our wards who do not care to join the regular ward choirs, but who would delight in joining a chorus of young and happy singers, which had for its object the presentation of some light opera or oratorio. An organization of this kind affords the best example of a true democracy. It unites young people in doing a common good. Let us spend some of the splendid time we are now using, perhaps, in scolding young people or parading their faults before them, in assisting them to unite in the refining labor of presenting some beautiful musical work. The best way to help the boys and girls is to give them some good work to do. It is also suggested that both stake boards have musical rep- resentatives who should work together for the betterment of the cond;tions in the stake and for the preparation of music at con- ferences. In one of the stakes, during the past season, where the young men and young ladies of the different wards meet for preliminary programs, the lives of the different great musicians have been discussed and some of their music has been performed. This is an excellent idea, and has proved extremely entertaining and educational. In some of the stakes which embrace Salt Lake City and 1010 IMPROVEMENT ERA. vicinity, a number of the professional people have very generously taken their pupils on the Sunday evenings of our conjoint work and given song services. While these entertainments have proved very entertaining, and accomplished good, still, it has been sug- gested by the young men's general board that some good speaker be allowed a short time on these programs to address the splendid audiences which have been attracted by the beautiful singing. At the reception given to Commodore Dewey, at his home- coming after his heroic work in the Spanish-American war, two thousand members of the choral societies, to one of whieh I had the pleasure of belonging, went out on the United States battle- ships and sang the Hallelujah Chorus. The sailors leaned against the sides of the vessels and cried for their native land. Then six thousand voices greeted him on the shore and sangj "Behold, the Conquering Hero Comes!" Dewey said that nothing in all his lavish receptions touched him as this did. Music goes to the real self and awakens it to the best in life. This is a much better way of expressing our patriotism than with guns and firecrackers. If we will sing often, in our associations and our homes, the songs of our Nation, there shall never be any question as to our patriotism. Someone has said, "Let me write the songs of the nation, and I care not who writes the laws." In a like manner we should never tire in singing the hymns of our Church, the heart-songs of our people. The youth of Zion will never fail in holding up the faith of their fathers if they will ever sing with spirit and meaning those glorious songs. The beauty of their texts and the inspiration of their history will live forever. Let us hope that at some not far distant time the musical forces of the young ladies' and young men's associations will be so perfected, and their labors so active that it will be possible for us to call their stake and ward officers together at these annual conferences and plan for musical contests and festivals which will become an inspiration to our young people, and the admira- tion of our Church. Is it possible? Yes! And may the Lord inspire us, and may we work for its accomplishment. Citation: Kirkham, Oscar A., “Music,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1008–1010. # “Climb” "Climb." BY A. G. GUDMUNDSEN. Did you ever sit at a meal of good and wholesome edibles and enjoy to the full extent the repast, until, by unlucky chance, you were served with the dessert that, because of either poor pastry, cooking, or the substance contained, bordered upon the fetid? If you have, undoubtedly your meal was spoiled. You condemned the cook. You forgot the good that went before, for in the things of life we are apt and inclined to be forgetful of the good, if the evil but casts its shadow. Yet, if you had but stopped to think and consider, and had acted promptly, you need not have devoured the dessert — so called — after the first taste, but could have passed it by, and remembered the cook as a good one. At the same time, you might have exercised a subtle acumen by nudging your companion, warning him of the dessert, thereby checking a possible discom- fort or wrong impression. It is because of this latter desire in counteracting a wrong impression that I wish to "nudge" my reader and warn him of the "dessert," if he has already partaken of the meal; and if not, to invite him to dine with me by meal reading the article in the May Cosmopolitan, entitled "Felicity." In case of the latter, the "nudge" must of necessity be pre- vious,but in good form. That of which I wish to speak I will quote: "There is always room on top,'' exclaims the flippant philosopher of today, seeking to spur us on. It is a false incentive. 'Twas never intended that we should all be climbers. Stop! Ponder on such a statement that we, the children of God, were not intended to be climbers; that we should be destined to be satisfied with what we are, be that ever so low, when the very things of nature, of which we are a part, urge us on and on to the higher and better plain. 1012 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Height has but one dimension — that leading toward perfec- tion; but height is not confined to any one specific profession, occupation, position or job; it is a property of all. 'Tis true we are not all intended, or rather adapted, for the same thing. It is good; but, look you, has not progression been the noticeable factor in the building of civilization? Has not improvement been made by us upon the work of our progenitors in every walk of life? And, by the same rule, can we deny the possible or probable advance- ment by our progeny? As surely as the sun will rise upon the morrow, just so certain can we presage the advancement of man- kind, if what was intended shall be. Every onward and upward step that we take, and those to follow, as did the stepping-stones of our forefathers, places us upon a higher round on the ladder of perfection. The rules of life demand that a man shall either advance or retrograde; for in the stream of existence no man can stand still. But the current is never so swift as to make it impossible for us to row our barge up-stream, if we but will. The extent of our progress depends upon our muscles and our brain, and if we choose to cast our oars aside and drift down the stream, past the sturdy men and women who are ever pulling onward, with might born of knowledge, heedless of their cries, "Danger below! ' we are sure to be consumed in the vortex of sin, to be whirled and dashed about, then swallowed in its never- ceasing greed for idle men, realizing too late that we were expected to "climb," and we had not taken advantage of this knowledge, or complied with this expectation. To remark that a philosopher is "flippant,"' who encourages all classes of men to strive for the top of their profession, is to have that remark branded as recreant. All creeds and denominations teach that there is room on top. One has but to gaze into the heavens to be convinced of the limitlessness of space and progress. As God is, so can man become, and because of one failure, or two or three, we should not throw our oars overboard and say, ' 'Tis useless," but we should climb, climb, climb. Confucius said, "Man's glory [alone] is not in never falling, but in rising every time he falls." So let us climb and be climbers. Let us try it "CLIMB." 1013 again and be "stickers," always remembering that fame is not per- fection, nor has perfection in our various walks of life a visible limit. Felicity is for the ignorant alone, if it stops progression. True happiness and bliss can only be attained when we have a thorough knowledge that we are "climbing." Hbber. Utah. Success. BY FRANKLIN H. ROLAPP. Success is the result of applied energy, the main theme of ambition, and the joy of the soul — an oak developed from an acorn of courage. Success is the gossip of the idler and the reward of the worker. It is loved and desired by all, though, however, feared and shunned by most; a beautiful rose on a stem of thorns and thistles, acquired by careful arts and the overcoming of those obstacles which lie in its path. Success is no respecter of person, though, however, only attainable when welcomed, you will find it very delicate. Be sure you understand it. Remember its motto, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." It demands a square deal. Did you ever hear of one's idleness being rewarded with suc- cess? No. Idleness and misery; work and success. "Where there is a will there is away." Assuming that you have the will, are you acquainted with the way, which is crowded with opposition and obstructed with difficulties? An essential; for without the battle there can be no victory, therefore be tactful and always apply your best. In every undertaking, no matter h »w small or how large, be master of the situation. Be patient. Rimember Rome wasn't built in a day. It's the small and daily acts of life which count, not the grand-stand plays. Do what you d) not merely to please, and never to displease, but because you know it to be right. This is a means to an end, for if you love your work you will have success, and if you wish success you will have to work. Leipzig, Germany. Citation: Gudmundsen, A. G., ““Climb”,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1011–1013. # Some Men Who Have Done Things: XI. Orson F. Whitney Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. XL— Orson F. Whitney, WHO, DISCOVERING HIMSELF AT TWENTY-ONE, HAS SPENT THE REST OF HIS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS IN POINTING OUT THE LONGER AND THE PLEASANT AVENUES IN "MORMONISM." Orson F. Whitney has neither built a railroad, nor established a canning factory, nor invented a rapid calculator, nor got for- tune and place out of the stock exchange or the butter trust, nor even founded a society of anybody's sons or daughters. All he has done, if one could allow the Practical Man to put it, is to make new phrases, to coin words. And yet a hundred chances to one when the Man-with-the- Scythe is endeavoring painfully to recall the name of him who built this railroad or factory, or invented that machine which turns bran and sawdust into bright' five dollar gold pieces, Whitney's name will come fresh to his lips, ready to drop off any minute into the vocal word. Such* havoc does Father Time work with our poor balances and measuring-rods! And why? Because, if we must confess it, machines, fac- tories, railways, whatnot, necessary though they are, do but sat- isfy a lower want in us, a transitory desire, whereas the poetic and the eloquent word ministers to a higher craving, speaks to the thing in us that abides, heartens us to endure these mere bread- and-butter implements. The poet, the preacher, the writer, the artist, the sculptor the musician — these we must measure by something other than the commercial foot-rule. They shine by their own light, and not by the glint of mica. Fortunate we are that we have them, and we pay ourselves a high compliment when, SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 1015 in our harum-scarum chase after things that perish, we pause long enough to pay our toll of admiration and praise, as all "Mormondom" does to this man. In eighty years, only four men stand out as great preachers of the New Dispensation, and, singularly enough, all four have won laurels almost equally as writers and speakers. • Whatever "Mormonism" may hereafter produce in oral and written exposi- tors of the Word, the names of these four will be easily distin- guished from all the rest in this period. Not that the rest are inconspicuous. We have had pioneers and colonizers, editors and educators, financiers and spiritual guides, all of whom have done signal work in the department of activity which they have chosen. All of these, too, with hundreds of others, have engaged in preaching. Nevertheless, we have had, thus far, only four great preachers, men in whom was the gift of expression in an eminent degree. Of these four, not the least is -Orson F Whitney. And, like his companions in the group, he wears two laurel wreaths — one given by the muse, the other by the god of the spoken word. This is rare. Elsewhere than among the Latter-day Saints, the preacher is not commonly a poet or man of letters. Not often do ministers take to the pen. Neither does the poet or man of letters often exercise the gift of Demosthenes. One never thinks of Bryant or Longfellow as public speakers. On the other hand, Webster and Henry Ward Beecher did not write any poetry. Doubtless all this is true not because there is any unfriend- liness between the tongue and the pen, but rather because there is not the demand otherwhere for public speaking on the part of the writer that there is with us. Moreover, compared with at least two of the group in which I have placed Orson F. Whitney, his total output in writings and addresses is larger. As a poet, he is far and away the first in our eighty -years, whether we consider the level of his art or the bulk of his work. Time was with Orson F. Whitney when he had not thought that his gift lay in writing, and when standing on his feet to speak was both a painful and an uncertain operation. This was as late as his twenty-second year. Hence the youth who does not know whether he has a gift or what it is, need not lose heart. In "Mormondom" there is not much chance that gems will lie 1016 IMPROVEMENT ERA. hidden in caves of ocean, dark and serene, nor that the flower will waste its sweetness on the desert air. Something will happen to bring the gem into the glimmer of the sunshine. Some breeze will waft the perfume of the flower to an appreciative nostril. Only, there must be an awakening, perhaps, as there was in Orson F. Whitney's case. At all events, the youthful Whitney was not so eloquent as he has since become. "I cannot look back on my first attempts at debating," he told me, "without a feeling of pain. Almost any of the boys with whom I associated were better speak- ers than I." That was at the Zeta Gamma Society, an organiza- tion which Orson was partly instrumental in effecting, and at which the boys sharpened their wits on one another. An incident in his early missionary work is to the same effect. He was called upon to speak at a public meeting. "The 'Mormon' elders," he said, "were unlike any other preachers, in that they always depended on the Holy Spirit for guidance in their utterance in the pulpit." This was all he could think of, so he kept repeating this as greatly anxious to make the point. That the point was made became painfully evident next morning when he read in the daily paper this irreverent account of his sermon: "Elder Whitney told his audience last evening that the 'Mormon' elders always depended on the Holy Spirit for their sermons. If so, the Holy Spirit was sadly negligent in young Whitney's case!" Here surely is a far cry from the debating society and the missionary field to the tabernacle and the lecture platform. By what means did Apostle Whitney ascend from the one place to the other? In the path he followed are strewn some fine lessons for the Latter-day Saint youth who wishes to get along in writing and speaking. Until he was twenty-one his darling passion was for music and the drama. The story of how he was turned from a longing for the stage is interesting and instructive. The histrionic bent, however it came in the first place, was cultivated by the Wasatch Literary Society. That was in his school days. The boys got together, read, essays they had written, shouted and declaimed, till the very welkin rang. Orson seemed more apt at disturbing the echoes up there in the welkin, than in writing or debating, and so, very naturally, thought his destiny pointed stageward. SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 1017 Anyway, he importuned his parents to let him follow that career, and his mother, failing to turn his inclination, finally told him that if she could sell a certain piece of land, she would give him two hun- dred dollars to take him to New York. So his hopes and imagination took a sudden bound. He saw himself, doubtless, snatching fame before the Gotham footlights and then coming home to the Salt Lake theatre and proving his choice of a profession. The young folks, too, gave him a huge send-off. But he had reckoned with- out his host, as the saying is. His mother could not sell the land! The Whitney family had almost abandoned i heir vocations in the long hunt for a buyer. But all the buyers had taken to the woods. So the young declaimer, disappointed and saddened, gave up his ambition for the stage. No, that is not correct. He only post- poned it, as he thought at the time. I have a grave suspicion that, had Orson F. Whitney gone upon the stage, he would not have stayed with it long, or rather, on it. His mind is naturally creative, and creative minds are not content merely to reproduce the thoughts of others. Young Whitney would have turned to play-writing. There is no doubt about it. Only, though, this is by the way. Soon ofter this, Orson was called on a mission to the United States. A second time was the land brought into requisition, this time as a means of sending him to his field of labor. Immediately it was sold! This should have been a sign to the young man that his destiny did not point to the footlights. But it was not. The fact is that at this particular time he was somewhat indifferent to religion. He was not sure that he wanted to go. Not that he was not, even then, spiritually-minded. His is pre-eminently the spiritual type of mind. But his spiritual energy was absorbed in his supposed calling. Neverthess he went. As with hundreds of others, so with Orson F. Whitney— a mission was the turning point in his career. Only, in his case, it was more pronounced. And it came about in this way: He was "laboring" in the state of Pennsylvania with Elder A. Milton Musser. But he had little interest in his work. Having visited some historic places in the East, he engaged to write them up for the Salt Lake Herald, and these articles occupied his attention. Meantime, Elder Musser was endeavor- 1018 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ing to awaken his interest in his missionary duties. But a dream accomplished what his companion had failed to do. "I thought I was in the Garden of Gethsemane," he told me, "a witness of the Savior's agony. I seemed to be standing be- hind a tree in the foreground of the picture, from which point I could see without being seen. The Savior, with the Apostles Peter, James and John, entered the garden through a little wicket gate at my right, where he stationed them in a group, telling them to pray. He then passed over to my left, but still in front of me, where he also knelt down and prayed. His face, which was toward me, streamed with tears, as he besought the Father to let the cup pass, and added, 'Not my will, but thine be done.' Hav- ing finished his prayer, he arose and crossed to where the Apos- tles were kneeling, fast asleep. He shook them gently, they awoke, and he reproached them for their apathy. Again he bade them pray, and again crossed to his place and prayed, returning as before to find them sleeping. This happened three times, until I was perfectly familiar with his face, form, and movements. My heart went out to him, and 1 loved him with all my soul. "Suddenly the circumstances changed, though the scene remained the same. Instead of before the crucifixion, it was after. The Savior and the three apostles now stood in a group at my left, and were about to take their departure to heaven. I could endure it no longer, but rushed out from behind the tree, fell at his feet, clasped him around the knees and begged him to take me also. With a look of infinite tenderness, he stooped, lifted me, and embraced me, saying, in the kindest and gentlest manner, 'No, my son, these can go with me, for they have finished their work; but you must stay and finish yours!' I besought him, then, to let me come to him at the last. There was a look on his face as if he would gladly have granted my request had it been wise. 'That will depend,' he said, 'entirely upon yourself.' " From that moment Orson slept no more at his post, but looked upon his missionary work as his first duty. A series of miraculous experiences and a great spiritual illumination, for none of which is there space here, rooted him forever in the truth. He knew then that his mission in life was to preach the gospel by SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 1019 tongue and pen, and that any other calling would be a mere baga- telle by comparison. After this he found himself alone at Elyria, a town near Oberlin, Ohio. A good sister there proposed to gather whomso- ever she could of the neighbors at her house and have a meeting. Elder Whitney protested that he could not preach! '"What!" the sister cried, "y°u a missionary come out here to preach and not willing to do it?" Tha'j settled the matter. The young man went before the Lord and besought him for divine aid. And the Lord heard his prayer. For that evening he occupied the entire time, speaking with great fluency. After that he had little difficulty in public speaking. Orson F. Whitney has the gift of oratory. There is no doubt about that. Else why have not hundreds of other elders in the Church, with the same or even more practice, exhibited the same power of oral utterance? It was not in them, to begin with. It was in him. That's the difference. Yet he employed definite means looking toward the perfection of his power. I have heard that the Bishop, in his younger days before he was a bishop, used to practice on the trees and the rocks in the lonely canyon. This sounds so extremely probable that I have not attempted to verify the statement. He told me distinctly that he had his "barn- storming period." Three characteristics have greatly aided the development of this gift. In the first place, he has extraordinary powers of con- centration of mind. Even as a small boy this was of unusual strength. In the school-room he could keep his attention on a book, to the total exclusion of any amount of varying noises. And the fact attracted the notice of his teacher to the extent that she pre- dicted for him a great future. The possession of this quality is itself a long step towards mental power. Then, too, his mind is creative, and abhors the adoption of the ready-made phrase. He prefers his phrases made to order. Not only his poetry, but his addresses and sermons, abound in original dynamic and beautiful phraseology. He is pre-eminently a maker of phrases. Lastly, he is endowed with a phenomenal verbal memory. Words and combination of words, once entering his capacious mind, lodge. He 1020 IMPROVEMENT ERA. will recall the exact wording of letters, documents, poems, whose very thought would have escaped most other even strong minds, and that after the lapse of many years. I have known but one other person with such a verbal memory. Now, in spite of the fact that Henry Ward Beecher could never quote anything exactly, in other words, had an extremely poor verbal memory, yet I think we might set it down as a general truth that a strong memory for words is indispensable to the orator. These three characteristics, I think, — concentration, originality, and a good verbal memory — give us the secret of Orson F. Whitney's success as a preacher. The way he picked up writing is harder to account for. No doubt here too he had a gift. Or rather he turned his oratorical gift to the pen. Essentially, I cannot but think, the gift of the writer and the gift of the speaker are one and not two. The one could easily become the other, and will, unless there happens some- thing to divide them, to atrophy one of them. Macaulay is a singu- lar example of this fact. He was greater as an orator than as a writer. So that no doubt in Mr. Whitney's case of writing, it was merely an oratorical gift expressing itself through the pen. Or to reverse the order, the poet sometimes expressed himself by means of the tongue. Bat here, too, there must have been the same diligent applications of means to an end. The same care for the original phrase manifested itself. But those descriptive articles for the Salt Lake Herald appear to have been not only the beginning but likewise the impulse to continue. For they attracted the keen eye of President Brigham Young, and incited him to write to the young missionary encouraging him to cultivate his gift so that he might be useful in spreading the gospel of the kingdom. In this incident, by the way, we get a fine side light on the varied character of President Young, a man of the people, who knew what was going on and saw more than one thing at a time. The same letter contained this extremely wise bit of advice: "Never condescend to argue with the wicked. The principles of the gospel are too sacred to be quarrelled over. Bear your testimony in humility and leave the result with the Lord." To use a gift in building up the kingdom of God, that is Orson F. Whitney's motto. Naturally he would do this, once take for granted his conversion to the truth. He is a product of "Mor- From a photo taken in Oardston, Canada, August, 1906 ORSON F. WHITNEY, Of the Quorum' of Twelve Apostles. 1022 IMPROVEMENT ERA. monism." His every thought and emotion has its roots deep down in his religious faith. All that he has said, whether by the pen or by the tongue, takes its rise in "Mormonism." There is no need to go outside for material. Only in "Mormonism" could there be found another theme as great as "Paradise Lost." Here is a big lesson for the "Mormon" writer. At present the pro- fession of letters with us is in a sad state. If one writes for the "Mormon" public alone, there is no bread in the larder. If one writes for the larger public of the nation or the world, one has to abandon distinctly "M )rmon" themes, unless these are disguised beyond all recognition. And so the "Mormon" writer must ever steer between Scylla and Charybdis. But that way lies in the direc- tion our poet-preacher has pointed in "Elias." One has to do one's best work and leave the event to Providence and the critics. And so, to some extent, with the preacher. In "Mormonism," Apostle Whitney thinks, the preacher has limitless possibilities in theme and opportunity, for its development and presentation. "The gospel," he told me, "must be preached to all men, not alone the poor and unschooled, but also to the rich and scholarly. And we need all sorts of men to do this work. Hitherto we have done our proselyting among the so-called middle classes. But the gospel will have to be presented to the so-called high born, the aristocracy of the blood and the mind. They, too, must be left without excuse. But we must have a different class of preachers from the otherwise very excellent Welshman who sent a bundle of tracts to Mr. Gladstone, with the explanatory letter: "Here is some trax, read them, for they are fax!" We must have scientific preachers to preach the gospel scientifically; poetic preach- ers to preach it poetically; philosophical preachers to preach it phil- osophically. There are innumerable opportunities open before the preacher. Time is crowding upon us. We must reach the educated and cultured classes through preachers who are themselves cul- tured and educated." Citation: Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things: XI. Orson F. Whitney,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1014–1022. # The Creation of the Earth The Creation of the Earth. BY FREDERICK J. PACK, A. M., PH. D., DESERET PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. The discussion of the "Creation of the Earth" will appear under three heads: I, The Biblical Account; II, The Astronom- ical Hypotheses of Earth Origin; and III, The Geological Record. In considering the first an effort will be made to support the fact that the writer of the biblical account of creation could not have received his information except through the source of inspi- ration. The second article will contain an outline of the va- rious hypotheses of earth origin, including the Nebular, the Mete- oric and the Planetesimal. Article number three will contain an account of creation as revealed in the geological record, concluding with a summary in which an effort will be made to show the complete agreement of the facts derived from these three sources. I. WAS THE WRITER OF THE BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF CREATION INSPIRED? In the following discussion the question of the identity of the writer of the Book of Genesis is not to be considered. The destructive work of the so-called higher criticism has made but little inroad upon the general belief that the book was written by Moses, some time about fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. But the question before us has to do solely with the source of the knowledge possessed by the writer of that book, and specifically with that portion of it which deals with the events of creation. 1024 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The writer of the Book of Genesis gives the chronology cf creation as follows: 1. The change from darkness to light. 2. Separation of waters above and below by the appearance of a firmament or expanse (i. e., the atmosphere). 3. The dividing or segregation of the land and water upon the earth, followed by a growth of vegetation. 4. Appearance of the sun, moon and stars visible from the surface of the earth. 5. Production of the lower forms of animal life, those that swarm in the waters, and the creeping and the flying species of the land. 6. Introduction of the higher land animals, including man. As before intimated, it is very generally believed that Moses is the author of the book of Genesis, and that he wrote it near the beginning of the fifteenth century B. C. The opinion is held by many that he received it as a direct revelation from God, while others take the stand that he may have copied large parts of it from authentic manuscripts then in existence, and still others, who even accept the authorship of Moses, believe that he gathered the story from sources approaching the mythical. For our present purpose we shall refer to the author of the Bible account of cre- ation, as contained in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, simply as the writer, and for the argument at hand it matters not as to his identity. We hope to prove that the writer must have been inspired, or he could not have written the account as it appears. It becomes necessary at this point to state that the chronol- ogy of creative events as given in the Book of Genesis has been vindicated by modern scientific discovery in almost ever detail. The means by which this has been done will be largely reserved for consideration in articles II and III. Granting, therefore, for the time being, that the Bible chronology of creation is correctly stated, inquiry will be turned at once to a consideration of the source of the writer's information; which, it appears, may be determined by the answers to the following questions: 1. Had the knowledge of the times reached a stage of THE CREATION OF THE EARTH. 1025 development sufficient to enable the writer to speak from the standpoint of actual acquaintance with the facts? 2. Did the writer arrive at this chronology through a pro- cess of reasoning? 3. Is the chronology as here stated simply the result of chance? 4. Did the writer receive his information as a revelation from Deity? The questions will be considered in the order in which they are given. It is apparent that inasmuch as no human being was present at the time of the creation no history or tradition of these events is possible. The writer, whether Moses or someone preceding him, could not, therefore, have received his information from such sources. The only record of these events open to man is that written in the great Book of Nature, and in order to read it one must be versed in many, if not all of the intricacies of celestial mechanics, and more particularly modern stratigraphic geology. While, of course, this source of information has been in existence ever since the events recorded therein occurred, yet its value was not appreciated or even its existence known until many centuries after the Book of Genesis was written. It is, however, generally known that astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, yet it should be borne in mind that the first well-defined hypothesis of earth-origin was postulated by LaPlace scarcely more than one hundred years ago, or fully three thousand years after the Book of Genesis was written. Furthermore, this hypothesis deals only with the events which brought the earth into existence, but attempts no delineation of the appearance of life. The writer, therefore, could not have received his information from astronomical sources, firstly, because of the lack of develop- ment of that and allied science, and secondly, because astronomy, even in its most modern development, cannot deal with the origin of life, either floral or faunal. William Smith (1769-1839) has been called the ' 'Father of Stratigraphic Geology." In 1799, scarcely more than a century ago, he first pointed out that the history of the earth may be ascertained by a close study of the fossils contained within the rocks, and further, that each series of strata is characterized by 1026 IMPR 0 VEMENT ERA . definitely defined flora and fauna. Stratigraphic geology, based primarily upon these facts announced by Smith, is now in a posi- tion to outline in considerable detail the order of appearance upon the earth of both plant and animal life, and this ability has arisen very largely within the last fifty years. We should say, there- fore, in answer to the first question, that it would be wholly impos- sible for the writer of the Book of Genesis, living fifteen hundred years B. C, to have given this chronology through any informa- tion he may have received from the science of his times. It has been argued by some that this chronology of creative events is the result of a combination of reasoning and chance — that the writer reasoned upon the matter, used good judgment, and was fortunate in stating the events correctly. This objection, how- ever, is beset with many difficulties. Strangely enough the Bible chronology of creation does not appear to be a reasonable one until it is viewed in the light of recent scientific development. The fol- lowing may be named as points which would likely have appeared inconsistent before their truth was supported by recent research: The appearance of vegetation before the sun began to shine; the existence of light before the appearance of the sun moon and stars; and the introduction of the sun as late as the fourth cre- ative period. To the unscientific mind these points appear quite out of their natural order. Recent researches in paleontologic geology have, however, revealed the fact that the first types of vegetation were of the simplest sort, and of the kind which appear to have re- quired but little direct light for their growth. The early absence of vegetation requiring large quantities of direct light is to some sufficient proof that the sun did not appear until well along in the creative period. In accord with certain lavs pertaining to light and its origin, it is generally ./elieved among scientists that the activity in matter during the first formative periods of the earth's history would be quite sufficient of itself to generate considerable light. And many further hold that during the early stages of the earth's formation it was enshrouded with great masses of vapor- ous material excluding the direct light of the sun and other celes- tial luminaries. It is not possible, however, that the writer could have come to the distinctive conclusion without some external assistance. THE CREATION OF THE EARTH. 1027 When driven to the extreme it might be urged, by some, who are opposed to the divine authenticity of the Bible, that the writer of the chronology of creation simply drew upon his imagination and proved fortunate, or, in other words, that the agreement of the Bible chronology with that worked out by scientific investiga- tion is only a case of coincidence. The probabilities of chance in this case, however, are so great that this objection may at once be ruled out of the question. If six numbers representing crea- tive events, and ranging from one to six, be placed in a receptacle, shaken and emptied, there is hardly one chance in thousands that they will appear in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And it would have been equally difficult for the writer to have arranged the events in their proper order had he depended wholly upon coincidence. The facts thus far presented seem to show that the writer of the chronology of creation could not have received his information from the science of his day; that one unacquainted with modern scientific discoveries would have placed the creative events in quite another ->rder; and that this chronology cannot be the result of chance. Another point which seems completely to incapaciate the writer for the task of forming the chronology was his undoubted ignorance of the existence of at least one of the events— the appearance of light independent of that of the sun, moon or stars. And this brings us to the answer of the fourth question. The manuscript of the Bible chronology of creation was likely written near the beginning of the fifteenth century B. C. It was given first place in the Septuagint version, translated practically two hundred years B. C. It, of course, was not written as a scientific treatise, but was apparently designed to meet the needs of a primitive people who trusted in God for their guidance. It has stood the test of discovery and criticism for more than three thousand years, and it now coincides in almost every detail with the most advanced scientific discovery of our times. It seems quite apparent that the writer of that account could not have received his information from any source except that of revelation. He must have been inspired. Citation: Pack, Frederick J., “The Creation of the Earth,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1023–1027. # A Plea for the Larger Life A Plea for the Larger Life. BY MILTON BENNION, M. A., PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. Every year, in my classes in ethics, somebody suggests that our supposed regard for the welfare of others is, after all, only selfishness; that when we do good to others it is only because we think it will promote our own individual happiness. In other words, that we are purely selfish creatures, acting upon the law of self-preservation, which in man becomes self-aggrandizement. We sometimes look upon social and political organizations and pub- lic institutions in the same way. In this light, a political party is supposed to do whatever will perpetuate its own existence or further its own success. Even churches, and organizations within the churches, have sometimes taken this narrow point of view. We commonly justify the public school system on the ground that the state has the right of self-preservation, and that in a demo- cratic state, public education is necessary to the preservation of the state. There is no doubt but that the individual has the right of self-preservation, and that institutions have this right, so long as they are serving a useful purpose; but, so far, they have not risen to the plane of ethical living. They are on the biological plane, common to man and the lower animals. Let us look at human life from another standpoint. Mankind has two kinds of possessions, i. e., material and spiritual. The material possessions consist of the natural resources of the earth, which, in theory, belong to all mankind ; and the material products of labor, which become the property of the producer. The spirit- A PLEA FOR THE LARGER LIFE. 1029 ual possessions are the product and the property of the whole race. Possession by one does not preclude possession by all, but rather helps others to like possession. The spiritual achievements of the race, including the knowl- edge underlying material progress, are acquired by a slow process of creation, discovery and invention, the results of which are accumulated and transmitted from one generation to another. Every man born into a civilized society is heir to this spiritual wealth. Each individual can be a partaker of the results of the labors of all, and each is involuntarily a partaker in a large degree. What he gets beyond this will depend in part upon his native capacity, but primarily upon his own efforts. In a survey of the history of civilization we are likely to under- value its foundational elements; to overlook the fact that the men who first invented the simplest tools, the use of metals and any method of extracting metals from their ores; and the men who first domesticated plants and animals and discovered how to till the soil, are the peers of Morse and Edison. We forget that our greater achievements of the present are not due to our superior native abilities, but to the vast inheritance that comes to us as a result of the labors of many generations of men. The labors of these unnumbered generations is constantly manifest in all our activities. As one writer has said, "The man who invented the pbw is invisible beside the plowman." As civilization passes its primitive stages it becomes neces- sary to have special institutions for the preservation and transmis- sion of the spiritual wealth that makes civilization. The school is such an institution. The common schools aim to transmit the knowledge and the tools of knowledge that are most essential to the well-being of all. The higher schools aim to perpetuate and augment all that is best in civilization. The ideal university aims to represent all the most fundamental branches of learning, and as far as possible, to master these fields and enlarge them by research. It is the proper business of all these schools, from bot- tom to top, to guard not only the purely intellectual and aesthetic products of the race, but, most of all, to preserve and foster the highest ideals of life and conduct. • In somewhat the same way, the state, the church, the family, 1030 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and other less universal institutions, each has its special function in caring for and advancing the co-operative business of mankind. The words of St. Paul, "We are every one members one of another," addressed to the members of the Christian Church, can be applied with equal force to the whole human race. The legitimate sphere of individualism consists in the right and duty of self-development on the part of each man and woman, but that development is unethical and onesided if it is not directed toward the service of humanity. We recognize, further, the right of the individual to judge moral questions that concern his own life, but that judgment must have respect to the well-being of the whole race. That moral philosophy, however, which gives the individual the right to do as he pleases, so long as he does not interfere with the like right of others, recognizes only a negative duty. No man can be thus free from positive obligation to his fellows. As partakers of the spiritual wealth of civilized society, we are debtors to humanity, and, as such, can fill our obligations to the race only by using our abilities and knowledge to the fullest extent for the benefit of mankind. This debt on the part of the one to the many is so great that no man can possibly do more than justice demands of him by way of service. Not how much, but how best can we serve, is the problem for each of us to solve. Let us find what we can do best that society needs most; then do it with the well-being of our fellows as a motive, and our own happiness will take care of itself. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." No greater truth was ever written. It is also true that he that seeketh his own pleasure shall lose it; while he that loseth hirrself in the service of God and his fellowmen shall find an enduring happiness in fellowship with them. This is the proper end and destiny of man. Forest Dale, Utah. Citation: Bennion, Milton, “A Plea for the Larger Life,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1028–1030. # What Can a High Priest Do? What Can a High Priest Do?* BY HARRY E. BAKER, OF THE NORTH WEBER STAKE HIGH COUNCIL. Those who have been ordained to the high priesthood have reached the most advanced ground to be had in the Church. It is that order which Jesus held on earth, "called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek," and opens the door to the greatest possibilities offered to man. The path to eternal God- hood, which is an office of presidency, lies through this order of the priesthood, and such an exaltation can never be attained out- side of it. The presidency of a church or the presidency of a world must spring up out of this priesthood. The duties of the calling are essentially those of presidency. I think in the study of the various orders and functions of priesthood, the mind should clearly grasp the distinction between duties of presiding and duties of ministering. All other orders of priesthood involve various forms of ministration. This one which we are considering alone carries with it the authority of leadership — the standing at the head — the handling of the reins of power. The high priest is a spiritual director or general leader. The president of the Church, his counselors, presidents of stakes and their immediate advisers, bishops of wards and their counselors, all must be high priests. The presiding and commanding positions which they hold make it essential that they possess this priesthood. Now, with this distinctive feature before us, let us turn to our subject, "What can a high priest do that he is not specially called to do, to help the work of the Lord in his ward?" *Delivered at the tri-stake Priesthood Convention, Ogden, July 10, 1910. 1032 IMPROVEMENT ERA. . The spirit of his priesthood is that of counseling, directing, leading ; and to magnify it he must be imbued with that spirit. Men who find themselves in this position are, as a rule, advanced in years and therefore are ripe in experience and full of wisdom and understanding, and are therefore the better qualified to possess and exercise the spirit of this priesthood. Such men should be possessed of this spirit of counseling and directing all the time and wherever they go. They are ordained to this calling in the midst of the people. They should be looked up to and deferred to by members of the Church, because of this high office and the conse- quent seal of authority which God has sealed upon them. In so far as men enjoy the special spirit of their priesthood, and walk by faith, they realize this fact. And in as far as members of the Church have been instructed and received light and also walk by faith, they will recognize, with every mark of consideration, the gifts and powers and privileges of the high priesthood, and they will be found enquiring to know who is and who is not a high priest for this purpose. In the Sunday school and more especially in the parents' class is a splendid field for a high priest to magnify his calling. The subjects dealt with in the parents' department are of a practical nature and cover a vast field in the rearing and training of chil- dren, involving all the varied experiences of life. Nowhere can the experience and wisdom of the high priest be used to better advantage than in this field of usefulness. The young parents who attend these classes are there seeking for guidance in the difficult problems that arise daily in their homes. They are not there so much to give as to get good, wholesome ideas of child- rearing and training. The exchange of ideas at these classes often reaches to the very heart of the problems in hand, and be- comes intensely interesting and profitable to young parents. In- stinctively the high priest ought to realize that there is unmis- takably one of his fields for usefulness. He should bring to the help of these young parents his experiences of years in the rearing of a family — point out to them his mistakes and direct them in safer paths. He must not suppose that because he has reared a family and has no young children that he himself is past the need of discussion in regard to child-rearing, for he has only passed WHAT CAN A HIGH PRIEST DO? 1033 through a kindergarten school himself, as it were, and will again engage in this same business hereafter, bringing to his aid only that wisdom which he is able to draw from his life on the earth. But the opportunities of the high priest to bo of service in his ward are by no means limited to the parents' class. They are an advisory body of men, and it should be considered the duty of the younger element of the ward to seek counsel under them con- tinually and, if done in the spirit of the priesthood, that is, with the recognition that they should so respect the priesthood, they will seldom fail of getting right counsel. This sacred right to ad- vise and counsel should be ever in the mind of the man so honored, and he should be prudent and thoughtful in exercising this privi- lege, and above all, prayerful, that he may always be possessed of the Spirit of God, that he may in his ripened years be an unfailing fountain of true wisdom, and a mariner whose compass is always set to the safe point. This is his high privilege. And whenever a man so possessing the high priesthood continually seeks by prayer for this endowment of the spirit, he may obtain it and keep it. The hay-day in his blood is tame. The excitements and temp- tations of youth have largely passed away, and he is no longer subject to those failings which so often deprive men of the spirit of their calling. For this reason the younger element can rely with more certainty on the counsel of the aged than upon those of middle life or younger. It is not so much a matter of intellect as in being under the immediate influence of the Spirit, for the Spirit will not err in counsel. But if the high priest will not thus seek diligently to obtain the spirit of his calling he cannot magnify his priesthood in this particular field of endeavor, for the people will quickly detect his lack of the spirit of counsel and leave him alone- while, on the other hand, if he possesses it they will know it in- tuitively and seek after him. It is the duty of the high priest to recognized this special power and right in himself, to exercise it on all suitable occasions, and not hold his peace and be a silent man. It is his duty to act in this respect, to show forth his wis- dom, and apply it in the interest of God's people. The Mutual Improvement Associations should be visited by him frequently, and all the quorums of the priesthood. If he sees Citation: Baker, Harry E., “What Can a High Priest Do?,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1031–1033. # Editor’s Table: Faith 1034 IMPROVEMENT ERA. anything of note for the attention of the bishop, he should not hesitate to make mention of it to that officer. The bishop needs wise suggestions, and he would be an un- worthy bishop indeed who would not gladly listen to the sugges- tions of a high priest. He ought to obtain more from that body of men in his ward than from any others, as to the feeling and needs of the people. The true bishop should have it in heart to say, "My dear brother, you are a high priest, I need your sugges- tions and counsel to aid me in the proper conducting of my admin- istration of the ward. Do not hesitate to point out to me any matter that may be upon your mind. 1 shall appreciate it." The bishop and high priest belong to the same quorum, they are cut from the same piece of cloth, so to speak; therefore, it is most fitting that such a close relationship should exist and be recog- nized on the part of both. Much depends, it is true, upon the bishop in this matter. If he courts the counsel of his high priests they should be found in that prayerful, spiritual condition enabling them to render him invaluable aid, but if he does not recognize in a practical way the value of this high relationship, the high priest can be of little direct aid to him. It is a serious mistake for anv high priest to look upon him- self as out of the harness or laid upon the shelf. While younger and more active men may have been called to places which require a great deal of activity and the strenuous life— it does not imply that the Church no longer needs the services of the high priest, by any manner of means. He should keep his harness on in propor- tion to his ability to get about. Keep it on and die in it. Then he will find it strapped to him when he wakens on the other side, and himself ready for the activities which may await him there, and thus not unduly lengthen the period of negative existence due to the infirmities of age. But the high priest not appointed to specific work should be actively interested in the work for the dead, and should visit and inspire the families of the Saints to follow up this great work. In this field he can be of incalculable service to the bishop and the ward. Where there are parents who have not been sealed or had their children sealed to them, where families do not sense the great importance of work for their dead and are neglecting it and WHAT CAN A HIGH PRIEST DO? 1035 dying and passing away without accomplishing it in some degree, it is peculiarly the privilege of the high priest to enlighten their minds and awaken their interesc in the salvation of their dead. His field of activity in this direction is limitless, and the call for his services is loud indeed. If it be true that a man by striving all his life and bringing but one soul to Christ will have such great joy in the kingdom of heaven, how great may be the joy of those high priests, who, relieved of the more exacting labors of the priesthood, turn their attention to this great subject, and become the means of arousing family after family to look ofter the salva- tion of their dead. What could be a more fitting rounding out of an active life in the ministry? What could be a more fitting close of an eventful and useful career than attention to the great work for the dead? As a Church we are doing too little in this direction. Our temples are not all filled, and many families are wholly neglecting to attend to the duty they owe their progeni- tors. This work should be taken up more vigorously and more systematically than has been the case, and I do not know wherein the priesthood could do better than to lay this responsible charge upon the shoulders of the high priests. I hope to see the day when bishops will be called upon to set their high priests at work systematically along this line. But whether this is done or not, it is now an open field for honors of the very highest kind, and which will reach into eternity with greater glory to the doer than any other labor that can be pursued here upon the earth— for the beneficiaries there awaiting the coming of the laborer in the king- dom will crown him with mighty praises and thanksgiving. Ogden, Utah. Remain Faithful. "Nothing is so difficult as to remain faithful. Those who will fulfil on a rainy day a promise which they have made on a sunny one, are few and far between." — Wagner. Editor's Table. Faith. Many young people have an idea that faith pertains entirely to what they please to term "religion;"' and so when a person be- gins to speak of faith they wander off, apparently losing interest in what might follow, because they fear religious principles are to be discussed in which they are seemingly little interested. The Latter-day Saints, however, believe that faith is essential in all things— temporal and spiritual. In fact, they are firm believers in the truth that the spiritual and the temporal go together, not only to make the perfect man and woman, but to make a perfect character. It is forcibly set forth in the revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith that "spirit and element, inseparably connected, re- ceive th a fulness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy." In a recent number of the Youth's Companion the following striking narrative confirms the teachings of the Latter-day Saints that faith lies at the basis of all action, — re ligious and scientific. The scientists base their works on faith as certainly as prophets, saints, and the elders: "The trouble is," said Harold Raymond, on his return from his sec- ond year in college, "that when you enter the sphere of religion, you deal with something quite different from anything that you meet in science. In the one you move step by step along lines of induction or deduction, and in the other you fling a highway through the air, in a bold and beau- tiful manner, but in a way quite different from that of science." "I am not sure that the difference is so great as we are accustomed to suppose," replied his friend. "I have been thinking how scientific faith is, or, rather, how large a part faith plays in science. No man ever made a great discovery that was wholly an accident. Even if he EDITOR'S TABLE. 1037 were seeking the Northwest Passage and found America, it was faith that was guiding him.'' "But it is a very different thing from what you call faith, isn't it?" asked Harold. "Faith seems very vague as compared with the pro- cesses of science." "I don't think so. I have wondered how it would seem if we were to try to add some modern names of science to the great muster-roll of faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews." "I should like to hear how it would sound." "By faith Columbus, when he was called of God to descover a new world, went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sailed strange waters, with Cabot, Magellan, Vespucius and Balboa, the heirs with him of the same promise. "By faith Copernicus lifted the earth from its solid base and set it to moving in rhythmic order round the sun; and all the suns and sons of ' suns with planets in bright array that circle round the throne of God. This he beheld by faith. "By faith LaPlace understood how the worlds are made from star- dust; and Newton beheld in the fall of the apple a force that holds the worlds in place, and that not by things that do appear. "By faith the men of science, who did not always call themselves men of faith, found substance in the things hoped for, and moved from ex- periment to hypothesis and from hypothesis to theory, and from theory to fact and from fact to sight: and all these were the children of faith. "And what shall I more say? For time would fail me to tell of Stephenson and Fulton, of Morse and Roentgen and Edison and Lister; of Cyrus Field and Alexander Bell and Marconi and Wilbur Wright, who through faith made iron float, yoked chariots to the invisible power of steam, caused the voice of man to be heard by his fellow man at a dis- tance of a thousand miles, filled the air with voices inaudible to the ear, but intelligible to the mind of faith, and lifted the bodies and the minds of men on wings of wonder, and set them to sailing amid the clouds. "By faith they built railways, irrigated deserts, crossed the track- less ice to the poles; subdued climate, overcame hardship and incred- ulity; out of weakness were made strong, and added to the space and comfort of human life, and gave wonderful analogies to those who seek the farther knowledge which is by faith. "Now they who do such things all die in faith, and none of them fully receive the promise, God having provided some better thing that we, too, should learn the lesson of faith, and follow their steps. "And wherein we have learned from saints and apostles, and the 103$ IMPROVEMENT ERA. Lord of life, and have found sure footing for faith, let us not count it unreasonable that still we follow, and live the life of faith." Messages from the Missions. Elders Edward W. Jensen and Charles H. Sorensen, writing from Aalborg, Denmark, July 4, on trading, state that during the past year they found a number of people in that old city, in which there are many good and honest members of the Church, who are willing to listen to the truth about the Latter-day Saints. The photos illustrate the elders meeting one of the prejudiced kind, who is receiving a tract and tearing it up before them, showing his contempt. While tracting is difficult and disagreeable, many times the elders through it receive an introduction. They recognize that tracts are used not so much to sell as to introduce the message that they have to deliver. We are called to search for the honest in heart, and we know that the words of the Savior to his servants are true: "This gospel of the king- dom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- ness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." The responsibility rests upon us to warn all the people that God has revealed his gospel, and to call them to repentance and belief. We are often spoken of with contempt in the public press, and despised by our enemies, but we still find many good and honest friends willing to give us an opportunity to explain to them the truth, and to judge us by our works. So we cheerfully labor. Elder T. F. Sevy, writing from Linton, Indiana, July 23, 1910( speaks of the first Sunday school organized in Linton, Indiana, of which he sends a photograph. The three elders in the rear have been in charge since last February. They are, reading from left to right: Elders T. F. Sevy, Elial Hadlock, superintendent, and Fayne Miliner. Other elders who are laboring in the city are, second row: C. W. Ellsworth, Vernon Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Editor’s Table: Faith,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1034–1038. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table EDITOR'S TABLE. 1039 Robinson, of Linton, Indiana, who was the first elder ever called from Indiana as a regular missionary, and R. S. Reid. FIRST LATTER-DAY SAINT SUNDAY SCHOOL'rIN LINTON, INDIANA. Elder Rudger Clawson, of the European mission, lately made a tour of the continent, visiting the Scandinavian and Swedish missions, and thence to Germany, where he met, in Hamburg, with President Thomas E. McKay and the elders, on July 20. The following day he went to Ber- lin, and thence to Holland. He reports as follows in the Millennial Star: "At 2:30 p. m., July 21, we met with the elders of the Berlin con- ference, at Berlin, an active, wide-awake, and intelligent body of young men, as, in truth, were all the elders I have met during my visit on the continent. "At the evening meeting the hall was crowded with Saints and friends, but the occasion was greatly marred by the entrance of the police, who unceremoniously, and in defiance of true politeness, inter- rupted the speaker and closed the meeting. [An account of this trouble, in which President Clawson figured, being held in prison overnight, appears in another part of this number of the Era.] "Yesterday, July 24, I had the pleasure of attending a notable con- ference of the Netherlands mission, held in Rotterdam. President Joseph F. Smith, Bishop Charles W. Nibley and other visitors, and about one hundred and fifty elders were present, President B. G. Thatcher taking charge. At the afternoon services there were eleven hundred people present and in the evening fifteen hundred crowded into the hall, and listened with rapt attention to the testimonies and exhortations of the prophet of God, the presiding bishop and the elders of the Church. The 1040 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Sunday evening meeting was one of the largest, if not the largest, meet- ings ever held by our Church in the world, outside the stakes of Zion. There were fifteen hundred present; of this number eight hundred were friends. Thirteen hundred and fifty books were sold. "Two priesthood meetings were held today at 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. There were present President Joseph F. Smith, Bishop Charles W. Nibley, myself, President Thomas E. McKay, President B. G. Thatcher, one hundred and forty elders, and a number of visitors. Many timely suggestions and wise counsels were given by President Smith and others, and it was a matter of regret when the meeting came to a close. Priesthood meetings will continue tomorrow and Wednesday, when an adjournment will be reached. "President Smith leaves tomorrow (Tuesday) morning for Denmark and the north, and it is expected will meet with the elders and Saints in Copenhagen, Christiania and Stockholm before returning." It is expected that President Smith and Bishop Nibley will arrive in Salt Lake City about September 8. X^- ■•-.& •"■^r • 1 toft **& * ■;*** i m wS ■ ~ THE I . D. S. CHOIR AT STOCKHOLM, SWEDISH MISSION. Priesthood Quorums' Table. "The Place and Functions of Elders' Quorums in the Church." — This paper was read before the tri-stake Priesthood Conven- tion, July 16, 1910, at Ogden, by William D. VanDyke, of the North Weber stake high council: At the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 6, 1830, the prophet called upon the brethren present, ask- ing if they would accept himself and Oliver Cowdery as their teachers in spirtual things, and if they were willing that he should proceed to organ- ize the Church, according to the commandments of the Lord. To this they consented. The prophet then ordained Oliver an elder of the Church of Jesus Christ, after which Oliver ordained the prophet an elder of said Church. Joseph and Oliver had previously been ordained apostles under the hands of Peter, James and John, and had doubtless reordained each other; yet, when it came to the organization of the Church, they were instructed in the art of order and government. Hence our Father commanded the prophet and Oliver to ordain each other elders in the Church, and thus this office in the priesthood was created and instituted as the first stepping stone of growth and development in the Melchizedek Priesthood. In later revelations from the Lord, the duties and labors of the elders are definitely stated. In his broj»d, and comprehensive field of labor, he has the authority to preach the gospel, baptize, lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, administer the sacrament, and pre- side where there is no high priest present. Indeed, he has a right to officiate in a high priest's stead when there is no high priest present, confirm baptized members of the Church, and ordain other elders, priests teachers and deacons. Ninety-six elders constitute a quorum which is presided over by a president and two counselors, "whose duty it is to sit in council with them, and teach them according to the covenants." There may be any number of quorums of elders in a branch or stake of Zion, as there is no 1042 IMPROVEMENT ERA. limit whatever given in the revelations. The elders' "quorum is insti- tuted for standing ministers, nevertheless they may travel, yet they are ordained to be standing ministers to my Church" (Sec. 124: 137). All quorums of elders are under the supervision and jurisdiction of the presidency of the stake in which they are located, hence in the Church of Christ they are definitely known as stake organizations, although the members are under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the ward in which they reside. This fact, when understood aright, should prevent any friction or confusion between the bishop and the elders' quorums, for I take it the bishops will not call upon the elders for other labors on quorum meeting nights, unless it becomes absolutely necessary. These con- ditions, however, remain in the discretion of the bishop of the ward in which the elder resides. Numerically considered, our elders' quorums constitute the largest body of the priesthood, and I am informed that the great majority of the missionaries abroad are now from the elders' quorums. But let me ask, how many quorums in these three stakes are in touch with their elders abroad? How many quorums have sent out letters of encourage- ment to their brothers in the field? How many of the quorums have inquired as to the finances of their poorer members abroad who, perhaps are stranded? How many quorums have taken steps among its mem- bers at home, who are able, to send the worthy and needful fellow- members in the field a few dollars, on Christmas or New Year? How many quorums inquire concerning the welfare of the families of their absent missionaries? All of these important duties, I take it, are func- tions of the elders' quorums as a whole. However, I think the primary reasons for which the elders' quor- ums in the Church were organized are for convenience, for discipline, order, instruction in the art and system of government, and to encour- age and educate its members in the gospel of Christ, and in their duties in the priesthood. Indeed, the mission and functions of the elders' quor- ums are foreshadowed in the following portion of one of the revelations. I read from section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants: And, as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning even by study, and also by faith. Organize yourselves, prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord ; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High. . . . Appoint yourselves a Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1039–1042. # Mutual Work PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS TABLE. 1043 teacher, and let not all be spokesmen at once; but let one speak at a time, and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken, that all may be edified of all, and that every man may have an equal privi- ln the foregoing statement I have endeavored briefly to outline the mission and duties of the elders' quorums, to their members at home and abroad. Let us now briefly consider the duties of the individual elder to his quroum and to the priesthood which he holds in the Church. First, there is the attendance at quorum meetings. During the time that I labored in the presidency of one of the elders' quorums of the old Weber stake, I discovered that one of the greatest difficulties we had to contend with was non-attendance at quorum meetings. This led to an inquiry as to the cause, which revealed various excuses. Among them was that of some of the younger brethren that they had recently been married, and that their wives would not stay at home alone. Unfortunately for the elders' quorums, in many cases in the past young men were ordained elders before they were elligible for marriage in the temple. Too often their only object was to get married; hence they considered the ordina- tion to the office of elder merely a mechanical process to obtain their object. The result is they attended their quorum meeting for the ordination and then failed to attend future meetings. In our enquiries we received excuses from some of these brethren fulfiling the words of the parable in the scriptures: "I pray thee have me excused. . . . I have married a wife and cannot come." The only cure for these evils, and to increase the attendance, is a constant looking after, a continuous following them up, on the part of the presidency of the quorum, assisted by faithful members. It is an excellent plan for the president of a quorum to appoint one of the faith- ful members, who lives near a delinquent member, to call upon the delin- quent on the following Monday night and bring him, if possible, to the quorum meeting with him. The following up plan, of course, should be done "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness and love unfeigned. . . . That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death," Then, too, the quorum presidency should see to it that every mem- ber has something to do continually. Make a definite rule to commence meetings on time, and close on time. Avoid, by all means, discussions on technical, and perhaps immaterial questions. Have a program pre- pared which will be carried out systematically and with spice. If there are members of the quorum who are inclined to sing, group them together and encourage them to sing before the quorom in a quartette, or other- 1044 IMPROVEMENT ERA. wise. The Lord has said, concerning the songs of Zion, "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart, yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads" (Doc. and Cov. 25: 12). I think the primary cause of non-interest and slackness of duty by some elders in their quorums, and in the Church, is due to the fact that they do not understand the spirit and weight of their calling; they do not appreciate their standing in the priesthood. It is conferred upon them as a free jewel from heaven, but they understand not its value. Therefore, let the faithful quorum workers unite, and enquire after the delinquents in the spirit of kindness and brotherly love, explaining unto them that where much is given much will be required and "he that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand." Endeavor also to arouse the spark of divinity which rests dor- mant in their bosoms. Show them the blessings in store for faithful elders, that "by magnifying their calling they may be sanctified by the spirit unto the renewing of their bodies, they may become the seed of Abraham and the Church and kingdom, and the elect of God." Steadfastness. — We have determined that the gospel is true. Let us remain steadfast. "A man should not incessantly change with every impression of the moment, but should remain steadfast when he has once determined upon what is right. Of what use are the flowers if they do not produce fruits, and of good ideas if they are not transmuted into deeds? We must encourage stability, habituate ourselves to remain constant, and when we are sure that we are right, must fortify ourselves against invasion. Do not let criticisms or attacks disturb you." —Wagner. Quorum Outlines. — Quorums desiring outlines should send orders to the Improvement Era, 20-22 Bishop's Building, and the books, will be forwarded promptly. All outlines are fifteen cents each this year. Now that the quorums have resumed work again, every member should have an outline. Mutual Work. The Y. M. M. I. A. Reading Course. Dr. George H. Brimhall, president of the Brigham Young University, and chairman of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A. Committee on Read- ing Course, has this to say to young men about books: Man is what he feeds on, and what he does. Physically, man feeds on food, drink, air, light and temperature. Intellectually, man feeds on ideas, and one of the best of these feeding grounds is a book, i. e., a good book. "Tell me what you think, and I'll tell you what you are." Tell me what you read and I'll tell you what you think. Choice ideas lead to choice habits, choice habits make choice men. Choice books contain the choicest ideas of the choicest minds. The production and preservation of books has been a matter of Divine care. The Lord indicated to Nephi that the fate of a whole people depended on the getting of a book from the library of Laban. It would appear that the Book of Mormon had a guardian angel of no common type. Through the ages that it slumbered in the hill, the hour of its coming forth was marked on the dial plate of prophecy. The Lord loves books because they are levers for lifting men to higher things. He counsels, saying, "Seek ye knowledge out of the best books." If God indicated that the salvation of a nation depended on a book, what shall we say of the possibility of saving an individual without books? Can it be done in the light of the declaration, "No man can be saved in ignorance?'' "Man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge." The Adamic race had a written language in the first dispensation. The Lord taught them to write and read. The race that reads not. has no civilization. It can no more become civilized than a man can become educated without a memory. Books are the memory of the race. Now it comes to this, — read, or be ruled out from the best society. The following gem from the pen of Channing may be committed to memory with great profit: It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of 1046 IMPROVEMENT ERA. all. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am— no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling — if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of paradise, and Shake- speare to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultured man. It has been said that the difference between a book and a person is that one you can shut up when you wish, while the other you can't. Well, a book once read cannot be shut up. Its pages are ever after open to him who has read it, either encouraging him upward or drawing him downward. Books are to be chosen with the same care as companions. Careless companionship is no more dangerous than is idte reading. THE BOOKS FOR THIS M. I. A. YEAR. Knowing that lofty literature leads to the inability to love low ideals, the committee has selected several volumes for the junior students. Captain Bonneville, by Washington Irving, a true-to-life description of the pre-pioneer period of the great Rocky mountain region. The book is a master pen-picture of the invasion of the wild west by the adventur- ous trapper and explorer. Read it, and you cannot help remembering its contents, unless your memory has been enebriated by sensa- tionalism. Widow O'Callaghan's Boys — Zollinger: No boy can read this little volume without having a higher regard for "Mother's Boy," and an increase of desire to be more helpful at home. The story leads on in a way that the reader wants to follow to a finish. The pages fairly sparkle with what might be called domestic psychology. It is good reading for mothers as well as their sons. The Bishop's Shadow: This book is published without introduction or preface. The author, I. T. Thurston, thinks it all sufficient to put on the fly-leaf, "To the Beautiful Memory of Philips Brooks," and launches us out upon a boy-life voyage with the story of "A Lost Pocketbook." One of the charms of the work is the resting places where the reader may stop and look back as one who has mowed a swath of fragrant grass, and, after "sharpening up a bit," leans forward and cuts on and MUTUAL WORK. 1047 on, joyously triumphant to the end of the field. It is. a case of the man winning the boy and the boy winning his way. This book is good read- ing for the father, the teacher and the president. Titcomb's Letters, by J. G. Holland, is suited to both Junior and Senior students. This work has lived the law of the survival of the fittest for nearly a quarter of a century. The first letter, "Getting the Right Start," is splendid, but no better than those which follow. The volume contains twenty-four letters, eight to young men and eight to young women, and eight to young married people. The writer is pointed, practical and yet poetic. It is a work of high themes, handled in a masterly manner. For the Senior students, Friendship and Other Essays, the product of the great mind of Emerson. The volume contains three world-famed essays— "Friendship," "Prudence," and "Heroism." Each essay is a string of pearls; a stream of purest, highest thoughts, information, ideality, and inspiration flows from ihe pages. To read any part of this book is to feel one's self rising into a higher self. Here are some sam- ple sentences from its pages: "We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken." "Nature punishes any neglect of Prudence." "The characteristic of a genuine heroism is its persistency." Get this little book. You can put it in your coat pocket. At leis- ure time you can converse with a man of whom the Anglo-Saxon race may well be proud. It is no small thing to say that you are acquainted with Emerson. Lorna Doom, by Blackmore. It is not too much to say that this is a choice story— a real romance furnishing elevated entertainment. Any one who recreates in such a field of poetic prose as the pages of this classic furnishes, will have a literary taste which will revolt against any indulgence in low literature. Tell me what a man likes to read, and I will tell you what he has been reading. Brewer's American Citizenship— full of crisp, up-to-date ideas on the very things that we need in our ccmmunity life. Every American worthy the name is a prince or a princess, by birth or adoption. The two great things to learn are— first, to be a man, then to be a citizen. Empty your pocket into your brain by buying and reading this book. Reading Course Methods. "Diferentiate or Die" is a law which has been in force from the beginning, and it has not been repealed by nature, yet. Every line of life is operating under it today. It is as operative in education as it is in business, so put this reading course work under the supervision of some one or more persons in your stake, 104S IMPRO VEMENT ERA . and in each ward, and see that it is worked at, and reports made of its success or its failure. Give time, somewhere at your meetings, for a review of the books. Make the Reading Course a live part of a live asso- ciation. Bring it to the front sometime, somehow, somewhere. Officers should get into the books, and let the books get into them, and this will make appreciation possible. Nothing can grow so well without official appreciation as it can with it. Appreciation is the highest kind of encouragement. Let the M. I. A. in its Reading Course echo the Call of the Ages, "Go on, or get out of the way." Public Library and Reading Rooms: — Let us encourage the free public library by lending it support, and by giving it our patronage. The library habit is a sure cure for the pool-room pastime: one is a mind-filler, and the other is a time-killer. The home-reading habit is a safeguard of the home-loving instinct. ''And the more of home, the more of heaven in this life." Provo, Utah. The Deseret Gymnasium. The opening for physical examination and membership, September 1, of the Deseret Gymnasium marks a new epoch in the progress of Church work. The Church has always encouraged manly sports and legitimate enjoyments. It is a part of its creed that the most efficient Latter-day Saint is the one who is well balanced mentally, morally, and physically. In the city the chances for proper physical training are small. The tendency is for the young people to grow up hollow-chested and weak-eyed. Hence, the authorities deemed it necessary to provide some means of securing for the young people a place where they could get this physical training, and that under the direction of our own peo- ple. At the same time they thought to provide a means of legitimate enjoyment to the young people by encouraging athletic games and contests. The Deseret Gymnasium, to be opened September 15, is the largest and best equipped institution in the intermountain district. It is ninety feet wide by one hundred and fifty feet long — outside measurement, and is three stories high. On the ground floor are the offices of the director and instruction staff, a barbar shop, six standard bowling alleys, a room for handball, a private exercise room, two rooms for visiting teams, twenty-three private dressing rooms, a locker-room containing thirteen hundred steel lockers, a private locker-room, twelve showers, a wash and toilet room, and the pool. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1043–1048. # The Deseret Gymnasium If i It s ■ 1 . ■ .r.*"1'" i^JI'Il' ==-f-M . -"--.„ '"",-7, ' ^^PB MAIN HALL, DESERET GYMNASIUM. The pool itself is thirty feet wide and sixty feet long. It is four and one-half feet deep at one end and eight feet deep at the other. The whole room is finished in white glazed tile. A spectator's gallery sur- rounds the room, about twelve feet above the floor. The showers, toilet and wash rooms, which are between the locker-room and the plunge, are finished in white marble. No one will be allowed in the plunge until he has taken a showar, in order to keep the water in the plunge as clean as possible. The second floor is occupied by the main gymnasium, the wrestling room, and the physical examiner's office. Here is every kind of appa- ratus imaginable for developing the body. Indian clubs, dumb-bells, chest-weights, and ladders line the wall, in neat arrangement. There are jumping and vaulting standards, parallel bars, horizontal bars, horses and mats round the outer part of the floor, while in the center there are four basketball courts, flying rings, traveling rings, trapezes, and rope ladders. Then there are medicine balls, kicking standards, a rowing ma- chine, wrist and leg machines, a neck machine, back machines and al- most anything else you can imagine. The rings, trapezes and ladders are hung from steel beams in the top of the building, where a big sky light affords ample light. The third floor is the spectator's gallery. It surrounds the whole main room. It is sloped like an amphitheater and contains six hundred and fifty opera chairs. Besides these there is standing room for three 1050 IMPROVEMENT ERA. or four hundred people, so that a thousand people can be accommodated to watch exhibitions and contests. Above the spectator's gallery, en- circling the whole main room is the running track. It is fourteen and one-half laps to the mile, is covered with cork, and is wide enough for two runners. In two corners of the building there are steel stairs lead- ing up to the spectator's gallery and running track, and in the other two corners there are brass rods for sliding down to the main floor. The whole building is ventilated by a fan-blast system, which insures fresh air throughout even though the windows are shut. Any person over twelve years old, of good character, is entitled to membership in the gymnasium. Only women will be admitted in the mornings and Monday evenings. The afternoons and evenings are reserved for the men. The men's membership is divided into four grades. The junior grade comprises those between twelve and fourteen years of age. These are admitted two afternoons a week, and pay six dollars membership fee and one dollar locker fee a year. The boys in the inter- mediate grade are from fifteen to seventeen. They are admitted any af- ternoon until 6 o'clock, and pay eleven dollars membership fee and one dollar locker fee. Those in the senior grade must be over eighteen. They have full privileges of the gymnasium when it is not occupied by the women. They pay seventeen dollars membership fee and one dollar locker fee. The fourth grade is for business men. They pay twenty- five dollars a year for full privileges of the gymnasium. A similar division is made for the women at reduced rates. In this way it is hoped to give the privileges of the gymnasium to a large number of people. Everyone who applies for membership must undergo two examina- tions,— a physical examination, and a medical examination, in order that such work may be prescribed as will tend to remedy any physical or or- ganic defect, and at the same time prevent injury to weak hearts from too violent exercises. The success of the undertaking is assured. Bryant S. Hinckley, formerly principal of the Latter-day Saints Business College, is the gen- eral secretary, W. B. Day, who has had twenty years experience in simi- lar work in the Y. M. C. A.'s throughout the country, is the physical director. Robert Richardson and Anna Nebeker, both of the University of Utah, will be his assistants. Besides these there will be coaches in wrestling, swimming, and probably fencing. These instructors, besides their work in the gymnasium, will help to organize athletics and conduct meetings in the Y. M. M. I. A. and other organizations in other stakes outside the city. There will doubtless also be training classes organized for the accommodation of representatives from the Y. M. M. I. A. of other stakes. The gymnasium will be used for the final contests and SWIMMING POOL. meets. By this system of extension work it is hoped to put all athletics in the Church on a basis of true sportsmanship, — to teach that it is bet- ter to lose honorably than to win by trickery. Rigby Stake Athletics. Superintendent Willard S. Burton, of the Rigby stake writes to the Era announcing the first athletic contest of that stake, held at Lewis- ville, August 10, with a large and enthusiasiastic gathering in attend- ance. Most of the prizes awarded to any of the associations of the stake were given to Menan. All the events, except base ball and basket ball, were free for all to enter. Two baseball games, five innings each, were played, Grant winning against Menan. Three basket ball games were played by the Y. L. M. I. A.: Garfield vs. Grant, and Rigby vs. Menan. The two winning teams, Garfield and Menan played a third game for a basket ball and the stake champanion- ship, Menan winning. The pole vault was won by D. Ballantyne, of Menan, record 8 feet 6 inches; the run and broad jump by John Jeff, of Lewisville, record 16 feet 3 inches; shot put (14-pound ball) by Mr. Kennedy,of Rigby, record 34 feet 4 inches. Mr. Batt, of Clark, took the second prize, record 33 feet 10 inches. The run and high jump was won by D. Ballantyne, of Menan, record 5 feet one inch. The ladies fifty yard dash was won by Maggie Jones, of Rigby. W. L. Green, of Menan, deserves special mention, as he won every foot race during the day contested by the Y. M. M. I. A. Prizes were awarded for each contest. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “The Deseret Gymnasium,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1049–1051. # Passing Events Passing Events. William George Jordan, well known to our readers as the author of Self- Control, and a series of excellent articles now being printed in the Era, entitled The Crown of Individuality, also the author of Great Truths, and other books, was appointed secretary to the House of Gov- ernors on July 15, 1910. We heartily congratulate Mr. Jordan upon this appointment which marks an important advance in the history of that institution. Having a permanent secretary will give the House of Governors a central agency and assist in keeping alive the movements with which it is concerned, and in shaping the programs for its success- ful annual meetings. Mr. Jordan was the originator of the idea of a House of Governors, and has shown untiring energy in transforming his idea into an institution. Hence, he is the best qualified man that could possibly be obtained for this post. His office will be a clearing house for the problems and the united deliberations of the executives of forty- eight states. The New York Times declares that "with the appointment of the secretary, the conference of the Governors rises over the status of informal meetings to that of a deliberative body, that is practically in session the year round." The next meeting will be held at Frankfort, Kentucky, November 29 to December 2. The present governors of the states and the thirty-one to be elected in November are expected to at- tend. It will interest readers of the Improvement Era to know that we have secured the right from Mr. Jordan to print his latest book, Little Problems of Married Life, the chapters of which will run serially, begin- ning in Vol. 14, soon as the present articles end. John Griffin Carlisle, former Secretary of the Treasury, died in New York City, July 31. He was born in Kenton county, Kentucky, September 5, 1835. From 1877 to 1890 he was a prominent political character of this country, being a member of the National House of Representatives of which he was speaker from 1883 to 1889. He re- signed to fill the unexpired term of James B. Beck in the United States Senate, from which he resigned again, in 1893, to become Secretary of the Treasury under President Grover Cleveland. When the Democratic party retired in 1897, he withdrew from politics and took up the practice of law in New York City. The Value of the Imports of the United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, was $1,500,000,000, while the exports was about $1,750,000,000, showing that the foreign commerce of the United States was greater last year than in any year preceding except 1907. Your Subscription, my friend, expires with the next number. Order the new voulme of the IMPROVEMENT ERA, today. Priesthood Quorum Manuals, for the present year should be ordered now from the IMPROVEMENT ERA. The third year course will be issued in January. J. Austin Hunter, of Grantsville, Utah, writes: "The ERA has been a source of inspiration to me, indeed, while in the mission field. I will always speak a good word for it. It is the best magazine I have ever read." Niels Peterson, of Garland, says: "An elder in the field cannot afford to be without the ERA. It contains many gems of truth. 1 was indeed thank- ful for it." Let us add, neither can an elder at home afford to be without the ERA in his family. The Senior and Junior Manuals, Y. M. M. I. A. will be ready early in September. Order now. You will find them to be among the best books you ever read. There are over seventy stories and anecdotes in the Junior Manual. Only 25 cents. The Utah Canning Co., Ogden, a firm whose products are synonymous with pure food, puts up pork and beans, catsup, tomatoes and other good things that every lover of home manufacture should call for at his dealers. Every word the Manufacturers Association of Utah say of them is true. See Back Cover of the ERA. George D. Kirby, of Sugar City, Idaho, writes: "I cannot refrain from h speaking a few words of praise for the August number of the ERA. It's , splendid. Particularly are the articles "Be Ye Clean," by George H. Brim- . hall, "The Friend," by Willard Done, and "The Martyr," by Elizabeth R. | Cannon entitled to commendation. Best wishes for its continued success." J IMPROVEMENT ERA, SEPTEMBER, 1910. Joseph F. Smith, ) „,., Hecer J. Grant, Business Manager Edward H. Anderson, j ^aitors Moroni Snow, Assistant TABLE OF CONTENTS. Morning by the Mill. Stetch and Poem Alfred Lamboume 961-962 The Colonizers of Utah (with Portrait of the Author) Levi Edgar Young, B. S. ... 963 'Honesty at a Premium F. M. Shafer 973 \ Dudley Bain A Story Ellen Lee Sanders 974 t Portrait of Heber C. Kimball 988 l Address to my Children Heber C. Kimball 989 •The Crown of Individuality — X. Forgetting as a Fine Art Willam George Jordan 992 "The Freedom of Obedience and Service. A Poem George H. Brimhall 996 'A Book of Mormon Consistency Thomas W. Brookbank 997 About Debating Dr. John A. Widtsoe 999 fWork. A Poem . . . . Grace Ingles Frost 1003 Why are "Mormon" Missionaries Expelled from Germany? George F. Richards 1004 Music Oscar A. Kirkham 1008 "Climb" . . tf A. G. Gudmuhdsen 1011 Success _ Franklin H. Rolapp 1013 Some Men who have Done Things- — XI. Orson F. Whitney (with Portrait) John Henry Evans 1014 The Creation o fthe Earth Frederick J. Pack, A. M.... 1023 A Plea for the Larger Life Milton Bennion, A. M 1028 What Can a High Priest Do? Harry E. Baker 1031 Editors' Table— Faith -. 1036 Messages from the Missions 1038 1038 Priesthood Quorums' Table 1041 Mutual Work— The Y. M. M. I. A. Reading Course Dr. George H. Brimhall 1045 The Deseret Gymnasium ! 1048 Rigby Stake Athletics 1051 Passing Events 1052 Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 11 (September 1910): 1052–1053. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 13, no. 12. October 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Smith, Joseph F., “Character, Mettle and Mission of the Latter-day Saints.” - Merrill, H. R., “The Pig and the Man.” - Halls, William, “Why the Saints Are in the Mountains.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: XI. The Victoria Cross of Happiness.” - Penrose, Charles W., “Something About the “Lost Tribes”.” - Todd, Douglas M., “Efficient Stake M. I. A. Supervision.” - Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things: XII. Charles W. Penrose.” - Anderson, Nephi, ““A Little Child Shall Lead Them”.” - Taylor, Joseph E., “What Shall We Do with Our Boys?.” - Pack, Frederick J., “The Creation of the Earth.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Editor’s Table: Habit and Duty.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1054–1145. # Character, Mettle and Mission of the Latter-day Saints IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. , OCTOBER, 1910. No. 12. Character, Mettle and Mission of the Latter-day Saints.* BY PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH. I consider it a great honor to have the privilege of being associated, in the work of mutual improvement, with such a body of intelligent people as are assembled here this afternoon. I desire to express to you, my brethren and sisters engaged in this glorious cause, my heartfelt gratitude and feeling of thankfulness for the interest that you manifest in your attendance at this con- ference, and otherwise in the cause of human redemption. You cannot be engaged, it seems to me, in a better work than this in which you are engaged as teachers, instructors and leaders among the youth of Zion, and the children of the people among whom we dwell. I feel impelled to say, that notwithstanding the refer- ences that we have heard to the misdeeds of some, to the falling of individuals into error, sin and transgression against the laws of life, health and morality, and against all the laws of God and of human propriety, I believe — and I think my ground is good for such belief — that there is not another people of the same magni- tude, surrounded by the same environments, circumstances and * An address before the M. I. A. Annual Conference, in the Taber- nacle, Salt Lake City, June 5, 1910. 10U IMPROVEMENT ERA. temptations, that can produce as large a percentage of upright- ness, of purity, honesty, virtue and honor as this people can do. I would like to proclaim that thought and truth to the world, that they may know the truth, for it is the truth. Duty of the Saints and their Leaders as Persistent Teachers. We do not look for absolute perfection in man. Mortal man is not capable of being absolutely perfect. Nevertheless, it is given to us to be as perfect, in the sphere in which we are called to be and to act, as it is for the Father in heaven to be pure and righteous in the more exalted sphere in which he acts. We will find in the scriptures the words of the Savior himself to his disci- ples, in which he required that they should be perfect, even as their Father in heaven is perfect; that they should be righteous, even as he is righteous. I do not expect that we can be as perfect as Christ, that we can be as righteous as God. But I believe that we can strive for that perfection with the intelligence that we possess, and the knowledge that we have of the principles of life and salvation. The duty of the Latter-day Saints, and the para- mount duty of those who are leaders in this work of mutual improvement in the Church, is to inculcate in the hearts of the young people these principles of righteousness, of purity of life, of honor, of uprightness and of humility withal, that we may be humble before God and acknowledge his hand in all things. According to his revelations, he is displeased with those who will not acknowledge his hand in all things. When we look at the imperfections of our fellow-beings, some of the inclinations of those with whom we are intimately associated in the various or- ganizations of the Church, and discern in them their natural prone- ness to evil, to sinfulness, to a disregard of sacred things, and sometimes their inclination to disregard and treat lightly, if not with contempt, those things which should be more sacrei than life itself, it makes the task seem almost discouraging, and it seems impossible for us to accomplish that which we have in view, and to perform the mission that we have undertaken to our own satisfaction and the acceptance of the Lord. CHARACTER AND MISSION OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 1055 But what shall we do? Shall we quit because there are those with whom we come in contact who are not willing to rise to the standard to which we seek to exalt them? No! Someone has said that the Lord hates a quitter, and there should be no such thing as quitting when we put our hands to the plow to save men, to save souls, to exalt mankind, to inculcate principles of righteousness and establish them in the hearts of those with whom we are associated, both by precept and by example. There must be no such thing as being discouraged. We may fail, over and over again, but if we do, it is in individual cases. Under certain conditions and circumstances, we may fail to accomplish the object we have in view with reference to this individual or the other indi- vidual, or a number of individuals that we are seeking to benefit, to uplift, to purify, to get into their hearts the principles of just- ice, of righteousness, of virtue and of honor, that would fit them to inherit the kingdom of God; to associate with angels, should they come to visit the earth. If you fail, never mind. Go right on; try it again; try it somewhere else. Never say quit. Do not say it cannot be done. Failure is a word that should be unknown to all the workers in the Sunday schools, in the Mutual Improve- ment Associations, in our Primary Associations, in the Quorums of Priesthood, as well as in all the organizations of the Church everywhere. The word fail ought to be expunged from our language and from our thoughts. We do not fail when we seek to benefit the erring, and they will not listen to us. We will get the reward for all the good we do. We will get the reward for all the good we desire to do, and labor to do, though we fail to accomplish it, for we will be judged according to our works and our intent and purposes. The victim of evil, or sin, the one whom we seek to benefit, but who will not yield to our endeavors to benefit him, may fail, but we who try to uplift him will not fail, if we do not quit. The Purpose We Have in View. If we continue trying, failing, as it were, or missing one mark, should not discourage us; but we should fly to another, keep on in the work, keep on doing, patiently, determinedly doing our duty, seeking to accomplish the purpose we have in view. What 1056 IMPROVEMENT ERA. is it? What do I have in my mind to accomplish? This may be considered selfish, but, first of all, the paramount desire of my heart is that I may, by the help of my God, save myself; that I, by the help of God, may be worthy, eventually, to be exalted in the kingdom of God. Next to it, and equal to it— for that also is as necessary to my salvation and happiness as is my own salvation — is that those whom God has given to me, whom he has placed in my care, over whom he has made me guardian and responsible, that these may be worthy to be saved and exalted in the king- dom of God. Then, reaching out to my neighbor and to my asso- ciates, and to all my fellow-members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for they come next. We are bound together in the bond of the new and everlasting covenant. We are children of the same covenant. We are born of the same mother — the water of baptism. We have come out from that watery grave unto a newness of life and unto a forgiveness of sins. Thus you and I, who have been born again, are born of the same mother, and are endowed with the same spirit from on high. Then my sympathy goes out to you next. My earnest desire is that you shall do your duty. Next to myself, and those immediately connected or united with me by the bonds of the new and ever- lasting covenant, come the people of God. Then what? Then the dead that have died without a knowledge of the truth. Their sal- vation is necessary. Our condition here is not perfect. Neither can we become perfect without them; neither can they be made perfect without us, according to the revelations of God to the world in the latter- days. And then who? Then to the strangers abroad in the world, and all the sons and daughters of God in every part of the earth, that the gospel may be sent to them, that they may be taught the words of life and salvation, the words of truth and righteousness, faith in God, love for God, faith in the divine mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, faith in his atone- ment for the sins of the world, faith in his resurrection from the dead, by which every son and daughter of Adam shall be brought forth from their sleeping dust, and shall live again, their identities being preserved, just as truly as the identity of the Son of God was preserved, who was not suffered to see corruption. These are truths that I believe in; that we ought to teach; CHARACTER AND MISSION OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 1057 that we ought to live and obey; and we, every man and woman of us, should be watchmen and watchwomen upon the towers of Zion, seeking to ameliorate the conditions of those who are under the bonds of sin and darkness. We should seek to bring them to the marvelous light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they with us, if we are faithful, may walk in the light of Christ, as he is in the light, that we may have fellowship with him, and his blood shall cleanse us from all sin. The Mission of Jesus Christ and His Prophet Joseph Smith. It is the duty of the Latter-day Saints, the duty of these aux- iliary organizations of the Church, all and each of them, to teach to the children that are brought within our influence and care the divinity of the mission of Joseph Smith, the prophet. Do not for- get it. Do not let him perish out of your thoughts and minds. Remember that the Lord God raised him to lay the foundations of this work, and the Lord did what has been done through him, and we see the results of it. Men may scoff at Joseph Smith and at his mission, just as they scoffed at the Savior and his mission. They may ridicule and condemn the works of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as they did ridicule and make light of and condemn the mission of the Christ, and yet with all their condemnation, their scoffing, their ridicule, their contempt and murderous persecution of the Saints of former days, God's name, the name of the lowly Nazarene —he that had not where to lay his head, he that was scoffed at, abused, insulted, persecuted and driven into conceal- ment and into exile, time and again, because they sought his life; he that was charged with doing good by the power of Satan; he that was charged with violating the Sabbath day, because he permitted his disciples to gather ears of corn and eat them on the Sabbath; he that was called a friend of publicans and sinners; he that was called a friend of wine bibbers, and all this sort of thing; and at last was crucified, mocked, crowned with thorns, spat upon, smote and abused until he was lifted upon the cross, as they shouted, "Now, if thou be the Son of God, come down!" — even the thieves crucified with him mocked and ridiculed him, and asked him, if he were Christ to come down and also deliver them 1058 IMPROVEMENT ERA. — all this happened to Jesus, the Son of God. But what is the result? Look at the so-called Christian world today. Never has there been a name brought to the intelligence of the human race since the foundations of the world that has cost so much, that has accomplished so much, that has been revered and honored so much, as the name of Jesus Christ — once so hated and persecuted, and crucified. The day will come — and it is not far distant, either— when the name of the Prophet Joseph Smith will be coupled with the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God, as his representative, as his agent whom he chose, ordained and set apart to lay anew the foundations of the Church of God in the world, which is indeed the Church of Jesus Christ, possessing all the powers of the gospel, all the rites and privileges, the authority of the holy priesthood, and every principle necessary to fit and qualify both the living and the dead to inherit eternal life, and to attain to exaltation in the kingdom of God. The day will come when you and I will not be the only ones who will believe this, by a great deal ; but there will be millions of people, living and dead, who will proclaim this truth. This gospel revealed to the Prophet Joseph is already being preached to the spirits in prison, to those who have passed away from this stage of action into the spirit world without the knowledge of the gospel. Joseph Smith is preaching the gospel to them, so is Hyrum Smith, so is Brigham Young, and so are all the faithful apostles that lived in this dispen- sation under the administration of the Prophet Joseph. They are there, having carried with them from here the holy priesthood which they received under the hands and by the authority of the Prophet Joseph Smith. With that authority, conferred upon them in the flesh, they are preaching the gospel to the spirits in prison, as Christ did when his body lay in the tomb, and he went to proclaim liberty to the captives and to open the prison doors to them that were bound. Not only are these engaged in that work, but hundreds and thousands of others. The elders that have died in the mission field have not finished their missions, but they are continuing them in the spirit world. Possibly the Lord saw it necessary or proper to call them hence as he did. I am not going to question that thought, at least, not dispute it. I leave it in the hand of God, for I believe that all these things will be over- CHARACTER AND MISSION OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 1059 ruled for good, for the Lord will suffer nothing to go to his people in the world that he will not over-rule eventually for their greater good. The Sacredness of Home. Now, I did not expect to speak so long to you, and I do not in- tend to speak much longer. I hope you will remember the sugges- tions that have been made. Sister Tingey has preached to us one of the purest of gospel sermons, and we have had a number of excel- lent gospel sermons during these meetings, this forenoon and this afternoon. Brethren and sisters, let us remember them. I trust, especially, that you will cherish in your souls the thought that there is no other place in the world that should be so attractive, so desirable, so peaceful and so lovely to us and to our children as our homes. God should be our partner there. The Spirit of the Lord should dwell with us in our homes; and by the aid of the good spirit that comes from the Lord we should be able to banish from our homes all jealousy, all anger, all disputation, all lack of confidence one in another. We should be united. It should be a place where love abounds— the love of God; the pure love of the husband to his wife; the pure and unselfish love of the wife to her husband ; the pure and indestructible love of the par- ents for the children; and the filial love of the children to the par- ents. This love for each other should find lodgment, should find joy, existence or being forever, in the precincts of that sacred place we call home — where mother is, where the children are born, where the parents live, where the children nestle to their par- ents. 0 my soul! what is there that should be more sacred to us? What is there that should be kept more pure, holy, spotless, or sinless than that place we call home? Why should a man quar- rel with his family at home? Why should a woman quarrel with her husband or the children in their home? Why should there be dissatisfaction, misunderstandings, lack of confidence or lack of love, one for another, in our homes? 0 I do not see how such things can be! And yet, sometimes they come. Sometimes they come because the husband is not altogether thoughtful of the rights of his wife. Sometimes they come because the wife is not altogether thoughtful of the circumstances and conditions under 1060 IMPROVEMENT ERA. which her husband is laboring. Misunderstandings arise, and these little difficulties come about in a moment of thoughtlessness or forgetfulness, perhaps, when we do not realize, or when we cease to realize, that this is my wife; this is the mother of my children; this is my home; here is the duelling place of my chil- dren— my sons and my daughters. They forget that. They let that thought escape their minds. A word of anger is spoken, and, like a spark to the powder can, everything is exploded at once. We ought to know better than that. We ought to have lived longer than to submit to such things as that. Save the Sinners Who Sit in Darkness. And remember, too, that we are not to call the righteous to repentance, but to save men who are in darkness. We are to save the sinners, if we can — that is, we can't save them, but we can point out the way by which they can save themselves, with the help of the Lord. That is our duty. We must so live that our example, and precept as well, shall tend always to bring men to reflection, and eventually to conviction, that we are at least sin- cere in our religion and faith, and that it is good to imitate our example. Let our light so shine that others may see our good works and be inclined to come and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Character of the Latter-day Saints. A good deal could be said, but I realize that I am encroach- ing on the time. God bless the Mutual Improvement Associations. I feel in my soul— and I do not want to sit down till I say it again — that I am standing before as good a people, and, without boast- ing, I believe a better people than can be found anywhere else in the world. In saying this, however, I do not do it in the Pharisaic- al spirit that was illustrated by our Savior of old. I do not say it in the spirit of the one who said, "I thank thee, 0 Lord, that I am not as other men." I say, in the spirit of humility and grati- tude and thankfulness to the Lord, that I am looking upon people who devote their time, who give their talents, their faith, their means and their efforts to the benefit of the youth of Zion, for the good of Israel. Therefore, I feel that I am justified in saying that Citation: Smith, Joseph F., “Character, Mettle and Mission of the Latter-day Saints,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1054–1061. # The Pig and the Man CHARACTER AND MISSION OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 1061 I am before a congregation of people who have not a superior, at least, anywhere in the world. My brethren and sisters, let us maintain our integrity, our high standard, our faith, our religion, our devotion to the cause of Zion and the redemption of the misguided, the saving of the erring and those who have fallen in sin. As far as it is within our power, let us save our young people from falling into sin, keep them from going astray. The way to do that is to keep a kind but firm hand upon them all the time — know where they are at night, know whose company they are in, what kind of people they are associating with, and guard them carefully, that they may not become a prey to the destroyer. Gospel Messengers. (For the Improvement Era.) Out of the blazing West they came, All armed with Truth and Light: Today a battle's lost or won, — They speed on wings of Right! Over the perilous plains they fly To lands of far away, To conquer there, or there to die, In the cause of Dawning Day. Full up the rugged steeps they climb, All set with cunning snares, To trip them in a hapless time, To catch them unawares. But on they press with dauntless hearts; They strike down every foe. In God alone they put their trust, And conquer as they go! Into the realm of reigning night, With banners all unfurled, They make their stand and fight their fight For the Day Dawn in the world. Then give them vict'ry, Lord of hosts, And let thy Light prevail, And when that Day dawns on the world, ' May all its dawning hail! Louis W. Larsen. The Pig and the Man. BY H. R. MERRILL, AUTHOR OF "THE CALL OF AUTHORITY" AND "MY HOME AMONG THE HILLS." Sandy sat on the ditch bank holding his head in his hands. He was not feeling very well, for just the night before he had met some friends in town. Of course, all must treat, and as a result, Sandy was feeling queer. Occasionally he would take a drink from a flask that sat by his side, "just to sober up on," he said to himself. As he sat there dozing, with his eyes half closed, a pig came slowly along the end of the lucerne patch, his wobbling walk reminding Sandy of his friend's gait as he wobbled off toward home. He took another deep swig from his flask. By now his headache was partly assuag°d by his fresh intoxication, but he was very drowsy. The pig came ambling on, and Sandy seemed to find something very amusing in his face, for he laughed sleep- ily as the pig drew near. The new-comer stopped, surprised at the sudden noise, and looked into the man's red, swollen face. Sandy nodded good-humoredly, as he stretched out and allowed his head to rest upon the cool, soft grass that bordered the ditch. It seemed so comfortable, and the day was so warm, that Sandy closed his eyes contentedly. When he opened them again, he was surprised to see the pig standing upon his hind legs, dressed in man's attire. Sandy rubbed his eyes, and stared at the visitor a moment. "That's the funniest pig I ever saw,'' he muttered. "Looks something like a man, I swan if he doesn't!" The hog regarded the man critically for a moment, and then said, "Well, I didn't expect to find another pig out here." THE PIG AND THE MAN. 1063 Sandy's eyes fairly popped with astonishment. He had never heard a pig talk before. "Say what are you?" he finally gasped. "I'm a pig," the visitor replied, "and you're another." "I ain't a pig!" Sandy cried indignantly. "Don't you dare call me a pig again!" "On second thought, I don't believe 1 will. I'd hate to claim relationship to you." The pig smiled condescendingly. "To me!" Sandy yelled. "You confounded old Baconsides! Do you know who you're talking to? A pig, indeed! I haven't a snout a foot long, with a ring in it, like yours." "No, .you havn't," the pig replied quietly. "But yours looks like a lump of beefs) eak, and ought to have a ring in it." Sandy looked cross-eyed at his nose, and felt of it to see really how big it was. "I'm not a pig, anyhow," he replied, a little subdued, for the visitor had very nearly told the truth. "Say, Baconsides, won't you have a drink?" He handed the half empty flask out to the hog. The hog smelled of it, and then shook his head. "No, I wouldn't care for any." "Why?" Sandy asked, surprised, for none of his friends of the day before' had refused. "It isn't poison." "Perhaps not," the pig replied, "but I think you have been drinking from that bottle." "Well, what if I have? That wouldn't hurt you, would it?" "I'm afraid it would. lean eat and drink almost anything, but that dirty tobacco is too much for me, and I'm sure you had your mouth full when you drank from that bottle." "By grannie, you're very particular! Say, do you know, Baconsides, I've got a mighty sweet little wife, and she even kisses me? Come along and drink — you're no better than she is." "I don't know how she ever does it. I'm sure I've been in nasty places, but nothing stinks worse than you do with that old pipe and plug, mingled with odors of whisky. Your wife is to be pitied if she has to kiss you." Sandy restrained his wrath with difficulty. "You old hypocrite! Don't you know my wife loves me, and 1064 IMPROVEMENT ERA. would do anything for me? If I asked her to kiss me, she'd do it." "She's a fool, then. You couldn't kiss my wife smelling as you do, and in your drunken condition — she wouldn't stand for it. You must not think much of your wife or you wouldn't ask her to do it." "I love my wife. She's the finest little woman in this coun- try," Sandy replied proudly. "I'd do anything for her." "Does she like to see you coming home drunk and smelling like a stale old to- bacco factory?" Sandy scratched his head. ."Well — er — no, she doesn't. Last night, when I got home, she felt awful bad and cried a a good deal, for, al- though I pretended not to, I could hear her sobbing softly to herself. No, she doesn't like to see me drunk." "Does she like to kiss you when your mouth is full of tobacco, and you smell like a whisky barrel besides?" Sandy was beginning to think the conversation was becom- ing too personal. He sat and sifted a handful of dirt carefully through his fingers before he replied. "No, I don't suppose she does," he finally said. "Now, would you like to kiss old man Jones?" Old man Jones was an inveterate tabacco-chewer, and stains From a sketch by George Atkinson 'THE pig and the man." THE PIG AND THE MAN. 1065 from the filthy weed were usually plainly visible on his gray beard. "By crackey!" Sandy cried, relieved because the conversation had taken a turn. "I wouldn't kiss him if he'd give me his whole farm. Kiss old man Jones!" He lay back and laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks in streams. "My word, that would be a dose!" "Are you any better?" the pig asked. "Wasn't your mouth full of tobacco when you tried to kiss your wife this morning, on the porch, when she pushed you away? No wonder she wouldn't kiss you! If you were a gentleman you would never have asked her, or even appeared before her in the condition you were in; but you're not a gentleman — you're a pig — a dirty pig!" Sandy turned red in the face with shame and anger at this plain speech, for that was one reason why he had come out into the field, — he had attempted to kiss his wife, but she had pushed him away and called him a pig. "Well, may be I am a pig," he said sullenly, for he realized that he had acted no gentlemanly part towards his wife. "But I haven't a snout like yours," he continued. "I'm a man, and a gentleman. I pay my way, and smoke cigars in town. It was the drink that made me act so beastly." "No man would ever allow his appetite to rule him so far — only pigs do that. A man is not reckoned by his money, neither are all who smoke cigars gentlemen. In fact, no matter hoiv polished a man may be, if he smokes even cigars he just lacks that one point of being a true gentleman. A true gentleman will not satisfy his own abnormal appetites at the expense of his friends and loved ones. While he is puffing at one cigar, he may be rob- bing a dozen people of clean, pure air; and every glass of wine he drinks, sometimes adds just that much to the cup of sorrow that is being drained by a loved one. No, a man who smokes lacks that much of being a gentleman. He is that one point worse than a pig. A pig will rob his friends of food to satisfy his own hunger, but he will not rob them of the free gifts of God by doing that which does not even benefit himself." Sandy straightened up, and looked intently into the porker's sharp little eyes. 1066 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Say, old man, you're a sage," he muttered, "I never looked at it just like that." "That's why I say you're a pig. Pigs never consider the rights of others — gentlemen do. I saw a party pass in a coach, the other day— a company of ladies and gentlemen. A young man got in at the crossing. He was dressed like a gentleman, and thought he was one. As soon as he, was seated, he drew a cigar- ette out of his pocket and began puffing away. He was robbing five persons to satisfy a craving of his own. He was selfish and ungentlemanly. Wasn't he a pig?" "Yes, that was a pigish trick," Sandy agreed. ' 'Now, suppose your wife should commence chewing tobacco, and should come home drunk, would you love her and kiss her as you do?" "No, sir! I'd leave her. I wouldn't have a dirty woman like that around me." The pig looked quisically at Sandy, and his little eyes seemed to convey a world of meaning, as he winked and pointed first one ear and then the other in Sandy's direction. Sandy began to feel uncomfortable, as the porker's meaning became clear to him. "I know a man," the hog continued, "who got married. He married a very sweet little woman who loved him dearly. He loved his wife, also, and tried to please her in every way, for a time — he even quit using tobacco for her sake. One day he began to use it again. For a while he used it secretly, and thought he would keep it from his wife, but tobacco is about as bad to hide as a skunk, and she soon discovered that he had been smoking. She said nothing at first, for she thought he had just taken an occasional smoke with a friend. Finally, he began to use it openly. She remonstrated with him, but he could not see that it was any of her business what he did, so he kept on. They were married then, you know. In this way he robbed her of her peace of mind, and some of the respect she had for him. Besides, he robbed her of clean, fresh air, and forced her to live in a nasty, sickening atmosphere, when he was present with her. He had become a tyrant in this, instead of a loving husband. One day he met some friends in town, and when he came home he was intoxicated. Imagine her feelings when she saw the man she loved in such a THE PIG AND THE MAN. 1067 beastly condition. He tried to embrace her, drunkenly , but she pushed him away. Then he became angry, and said harsh words to her. He might have struck her, but she locked herself in her room. Was he a gentleman?" "No," Sandy replied meekly. "Now the young lady is almost broken-hearted. She has discovered that she married a pig — without the snout, it is true, but a pig, just the same. Her fine, gentlemanly husband has become a traitor, a drunkard and a pig, with a nose like a piece of raw beefsteak, and a breath that smells like a sewer pipe. Her idol is shattered, and the sunshine has been stolen from her life. She's crying up there in the house now, and you— are the pig." The porker pointed an accusing forefoot at the humbled man, and then quietly reached out and took the whisky bottle between his teeth. Sandy made a grab for it, but before he reached it he heard the glass crash. He opened his eyes just in time to see the pig disappearing in the tall grass. His flask lay broken upon the ground, and the sun was beating down upon his bare head. He had been asleep. He brushed the dirt from his trousers, as he arose from the ground, and tried to straighten his tangled hair. He recalled the conversation that he had with the pig in his dream, and glanced towards the house. He was almost sober now. His pipe was lying upon the ground ; he kicked it savagely into the ditch, as he removed the plug of tobacco from his pocket and dropped it into the water. "I've been a pig," he said to himself, "but I'm going to be a man now, and a gentleman, too, please God!" He washed his hands and face in the cold water, and then dried them upon his handkerchief. He picked up his hat, put it on his head, and started for the house. Sandy was thoroughly ashamed of himself. His dream had deeply impressed itself upon his mind. He realized how unkind and ungentlemanly he had been in dealing with his wife. He really loved her, and when he was made to see how degraded he had appeared in her eyes, tears of sorrow and repentance rolled down his cheeks. In the barnyard he could see the effects of his recent condition. 1068 IMPROVEMENT ERA. His buggy was not in the shed, and pieces of harness were lying about where he had dropped them in his drunken carelessness. He gathered up the harness, ran the buggy into its place, and then went on up the path towards the house. There every- thing was different: flowers lined the walk and everything was beautiful and orderly, the porch was clean and the dooryard was in perfect order. Sandy knew whose faithful hands had been at work there, and he thought of the happy days when he and his wife lived as married sweethearts together. In the old days his wife would have been at the door to meet him with a kiss; now the door was open, but the loved form was not there. He thought of the condition he was in when he entered the house the night before, and was not surprised that she did not come to greet him. He went into the kitchen. All was clean and quiet. The tinware shone like silver, from their pegs upon the wall, the range was polished until he could see his image in the nickel upon th.3 doors. He glanced around the room. Not a spot of dirt was vis- ible, excepting on the window sill, where one of his old, dirty pipes lay with the ashes strewn around it. He hastily took it up and, lifting a lid from the stove, dropped it into the fire. "Marks of the pig," he muttered. "This is no place for pigs to live, and there will be no room for one here any more." He went into the dining-room. His wife was busily engaged shelling peas, and only glanced up when he entered. Then she continued her work, without speaking a word. Sandy glanced at her closely. He could feel a blush of shame creeping over his face and neck, for he noticed that she had been weeping. It was not the same pleasant face that used to greet him in the days when they were newly wed. A few wrinkles had crept around the eyes, and the mouth was sad. Sandy noticed these signs of sorrow, and his eyes became moist with tears of contrition, as he took a step towards her. "Mary, may I come in?" he asked humbly. She glanced up, surprised at the question. "Why, certainly, you may do as you like." "Mary, I've come to ask forgiveness for what I did last night." She was about to make a cold reply, but glancing into his Citation: Merrill, H. R., “The Pig and the Man,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1062–1069. # Why the Saints Are in the Mountains THE PIG AND THE MAN. 1069 working face, she saw the evidence of a broken heart and a con- trite spirit stamped thereon. For a moment she hesitated. He kneeled beside her and reverently took her by the hand, while tears of repentance were rolling down his cheeks. "My darling, forgive me, please!" he murmured brokenly. All the love that had been pent up in her sore heart for many months shone in her face and hallowed it, as she placed her arms around the repentant sinner's neck and whispered, "Oh, my love, my husband!" Leaning her head upon his shoulder she wept for joy. Her prayers had been answered. Their tears mingled, as they sobbed together over their new-found happiness and resurrected love. * * * Around the farm now all is orderly. The harness is always in its place, and the buggy is always in the shed. There is no longer a contrast between the domains controlled by the husband and those over which the wife presides, and sweet, pure love reigns supreme in the home. The pig has been cast out— the drunkard and the tobacco fiend have gone with him— the gentleman has taken his place. Now, when Sandy goes to town, he is always in a hurry to return home. He has no more time to waste carousing with his friends, and no money to spend upon filthy tobacco, for he knows that out in his own dear home a loved one is anxiously watching the road for the first sigms of his approach. With the money he used to waste in buying tobacco and beer, he buys some little dainty that his wife can enjoy with him. As he drives into the yard and sees her waiting for him, his heart swells with pride, for the lines have fled from her face and sunshine has taken their place. As he takes her in his arms and kisses her, and hears her soft voice whisper, "It's so sweet to kiss you now, dear," he thinks of the time when his kisses were offensive to her, and sobs and sorrow met him, instead of all this love and sunshine. Tears of joy and thanksgiving dim his eyes, as he goes off to unhitch the team. "Thank God I'm a man once more, and a gentleman!" he fervently whispers. "And thank God I had that dream!" Belfast, Ireland. Why the Saints are in the Mountains. BY WILLIAM HALLS. As the Lord works on natural principles, through human agencies, to accomplish his purposes in the earth, when he has a particular work for individuals to do, he prepares them for that work. The history of men who have been prominent in the world's affairs proves this. A very striking example of this is shown in the life of Moses. Had he been raised among his brethren in captivity, he would have been unprepared for his mission ; but being for years in the court of Pharoah, he was learned in the language, laws, customs and government of the Egyptians. Forced to flee to Midian, he received the priesthood under the hands of Jethro, and during his forty years' residence there he was, no doubt, taught the knowl- edge of the true God, and also the right powers and duties of the priesthood. By these experiences he was prepared not only to stand -before the imperious Pharaoh, and demand the release of his brethren, and lead them out of bondage as a temporal deliverer, but also to be their spiritual guide, their civil and ecclesiastical lawgiver. The Lord promised them not only freedom from bondage, but to give them a choice inheritance described as a "land of milk and honey." Having crossed the Red sea, being free from restraint, why did not Moses lead them at once to the promised land? Hav- ing just been emancipated from slavery, they were unprepared to assume the responsibility of self-government, and apply to their lives the principles of civil and religious liberty. They needed experience and instruction in the knowledge of the true God; for, WHY THE S A INST ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1071 as soon as Moses left them for a few days, they began the worship of a golden calf, in imitation of the Egyptians, who worshiped the sacred bull. Instead of reaching their destination in a few weeks, they wandered in the wilderness forty years, and only two, who were twenty years old and upward when they came from Egypt, lived to cross the Jordan into the promised land. If it required former-day Israel forty years to be prepared to live the law of carnal commandments, and prepare for the first coming of Christ, how much longer will.it require latter-day Israel to prepare to live the law of the celestial kingdom, and build up Zion for the second coming of Christ? After Joseph Smith received his first vision, he was instructed several years by the angel Moroni, before he was permitted to receive the plates and commence to translate the Book of Morm6n. The Saints who settled in Kirtland, Ohio, had a very faint con- ception of the magnitude of the work that lay before them and their children and children's children before the coming of the Lord. Had they foreseen that the homes they were making would have been abandoned, and the temple they were building would so soon be in the hands of their enemies and be defiled, they would have labored with reluctance. As it was, with this knowledge with- held, they were slothful, for after they were commanded to build a house wherein the elders might be "endowed with power from on high'' and be instructed to enable them to go and preach the gos- pel and minister in the callings of the priesthood more intelligently, the Lord reproved them, saying, "For ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, in that ye have not considered the great commandment in all things I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house." Those who settled in Jackson county, Missouri, in 1831, were, of course, all new converts without experience; and, as ancient Israel in the wilderness were impregnated with Egyptian idolatry, so were these infected with the leaven of the gentiles. They were unprepared to build up Zion, and the Missourians were unpre- pared to allow them. Their safety was in being united and keep- ing all the commandments of God, and when, by disunion and dis- obedience they forfeited their claims on the Lord for protection, 1072 IMPROVEMENT ERA. he used their enemies as a scourge to drive them from their homes. In 1834, the Lord called some of the brethren from Ohio and other parts in the East to form a company called "Zion's Camp," to go to Missouri to assist those who had been driven from Jack- son county, and use their influence, if possible, to reinstate them in their homes, but they were not in a condition to receive the blessing the Lord would have given them. The Lord said, speak- ing of those who had been driven, "I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them in consequence of their trans- gressions." "Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings and contentions, and annoyings and strifes and lustful and covetous desires among them, therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances. But, behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, therefore, in consequence of the transgression of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion. And let those command- ments which I have given concerning Zion and her laws be executed and fulfiled after her redemption." In regard to the members of Zion's Camp, those who had been faithful and not murmured, the Lord said, "l have heard their prayers and will accept their offering; and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith." The travels of Zion's Camp not only served to prove their endurance, faith and patience, but also to prepare them for their work in the future. The Lord, knowing that many of them would cross the plains with companies of emigrants, and especially to pre- pare them for that labor, the Lord told them in a former com- mandment to " journey by land, and they shall do like unto the children of Israel, pitching their tents by the way. And behold this commandment you shall give unto all your brethren." It was not only necessary that the elders be prepared to lead the Saints, but that the whole Church be proved and tried and prepared to act unitedly. It was necessary that the Saints should move from place to place, and as they would not move with their own accord, the Lord allowel thair enemies to nmve WHY THE SAINTS ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1073 them. Every time they moved, they left behind them some of the discontented and those weak in the faith ; and every new settle- ment they made they were more united, a little wiser and a little better. And when they were expelled from Missouri, and left many more of the disaffected and commenced to build up Nauvoo, in Illinois, they did much better than ever before. Still, they were not yet in a condition to build up Zion. In order to do that, the Lord said, they must be "united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom." "And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial king- dom, otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself." From the various missions, new converts were coming into Nauvoo, who were untried and inexperienced; there were foes without and traitors within. It soon became necessary that another move be made, not only to escape from persecution, but for the good of the Church. Another severe trial was necessary to shake off and leave behind the unworthy, that the more faithful might go and make another start. That the faithful Saints had learned wisdom by what they had suffered, is proved by contrasting the conduct of Zion's Camp, in 1834, with that of the pioneers of 1847. Some of the mem- bers of Zion's Camp murmured and were rebellious to such a degree that the Lord afflicted them with cholera, and fourteen died, while the pioneers performed their journey across the plains, encountering still more hardships, without dissension. It was not designed that the Saints who were gathered out froii' among the gentiles should alone build up the center stake of Zion, the "New Jerusalem." According to the word of the Lord, in the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites are to take an important part in that work. Soon after the Church was organ- ized, a mission was opened among them, but up to the time the Saints left Nauvoo very little had been done among them. Accord- ing to natural principles, the way the Lord always works, it would require a long time to civilize, educate and Christianize them to prepare them to intelligently fill their misson. We see even now, with all that the Saints have done for them, that they are yet unprepared. The Latter-day Saints and the Lamanites are not the only 1074 IMPROVEMENT ERA. people to be considered in this work. This nation has a great and mighty mission, as a forerunner, to prepare the way for the preaching of the gospel, and the establishing of the Church of Christ upon the earth. The Lord raised up wise men and inspired them to found this government, they formulated the Declaration of Independence, framed the Constitution, setting forth the fundamental principles on which the nation should be built. The battle was fought and independence gained; but inde- pendence is one thing, freedom is another. The Declaration of Independence by no means made the people free. "The fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth were set on edge." The abstract principles of freedom, existing in theory on paper, had to be worked out by a long course of training and experience, before they could apply them practically in their lives. The tree of liberty, either of civil or religious liberty, is of very slow growth. For sixty years after the making of the Constitution, we see the people assembled to celebrate their freedom; see them listen in reverence to the reading of the Declaration of Independ- ence; see them held spell-bound while the orator of the day eulo- gizes the principles of liberty and holds up the nation as "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Yet the rebounding echo of the thunderous applause that emphasizes his theme has scarcely died away, before the same man is leading a howling mob to tar and feather the unfortunate citizens whose religious belief differs from his. When the Saints sent a petition to the president, praying for redress of their wrongs, President Van Buren answered, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you." . The federal government could protect one of its citizens in far-away China, spend millions of dollars and sacrifice thousands of lives, if need be to defend him, and call to account the nation which would allow his rights to be infringed, but could not protect its citizens on its own soil. With such crude conceptions of the - rights and duties of the general government in the mind of the chief magistrate, what might be expected of those who, if pos- sible, were more ignorant and less informed? What hope could the Saints have for protection under such conditions? But there are other reasons than those mentioned why the Saints should go to the mountains. WHY THE SAINTS ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1075 For years, the menace of slavery had been rising in the south, as a disturbing element. Being incompatible with freedom, it could not live and flourish under the same flag. It was contrary to the genius of the constitution and the declaration of the fath- ers that all men are "free and equal," and entitled to "life lib- erty and the pursuit of happiness." This was tearing the nation asunder. The moral sense of the South sustained it as a legiti- mate institution; the moral sense of the North condemned it as a "relic of barbarism." Many in the South were ready to lay down their lives in its defense, while more in the North were willing to lay down their lives to abolish it. Imagine the inconsistency of the picture of the Goddess of Liberty, holding out the banner of freedom inviting the world, while under the very shadow of its protecting folds stands the pale tyrant holding in thrall the dusky slave, whose despairing cry, as the cruel lash lascerates his quiv- ering flesh, mingles its discordant note with the freeman's exult- ant shout of liberty. This question had to be settled. The crisis came, which "terminated in the death and misery of many souls," as Joseph Smith prophesied it would, thirty years before. During that con- flict, Missouri suffered more than any other state, especially in the vicinity of Jackson county, from whence the Saints were driven thirty years before. What would have been their fate had they been there at that time? Peace restored, the permanency of the Union assured, the Nation was ready to enter upon an era, not only of "reconstruction," but of constructive development. Meantime, the Saints were in the mountains in peace, build- ing homes, raising and educating large families, opening missions among the Indians, preaching the gospel abroad, and gathering Israel. But they were laboring under great disadvantages by a lack of adequate transportation; when the elders went on missions, it took several weeks of laborious travel to reach either the Atlantic or the Pacific coast, and then a tedious ocean voyage to reach their destination. Hundreds of men and teams were sent every year to the Missouri river, a thousand miles, to bring emigrants who were fulfiling the words of Isaiah, "and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountains of the Lord, to 1076 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." This mode of travel involved much waste of energy, time and means. It was necessary that several railroads be built across the continent, from sea to sea, with numerous local lines to intersect them; that steam vessels be built to facilitate ocean travel ; and telegraph lines and postal routes established. The Saints had neither numbers, time nor means to do this work; this was not their calling. This work was for others, aided by them, so the Lord raised up wise men and inspired them to form companies, organize capital, and do this work, and they are doing it with commendable zeal. Now, when elders go on mis- sions, they reach their fields of labor in a few days, and emigrants from far-off Scandinavia or New Zealand can reach Salt Lake val- ley in a few days with ease, instead of six months' hard travel. And representatives from all the stakes of Zion, and the home mis- sions, can attend the general conferences in Salt Lake City, report their labors, and receive instructions and counsels. The general authorities of the Church and members of the general boards of the auxiliary associations can visit the stakes, give necessary counsel, return in a few days and report conditions. The presi- dent of the Church, from his office in Salt Lake City, may com- municate with the headquarters of the stakes and missions, receive information and give counsel as occasion requires. No people in the nation have been benefited more by these developments than the Saints have, from the fact that no people needed them as much. And no people appreciate these conveniences more than they, and none are more solicitious for the well-being and perpetuity of the nation. The Lord did not raise up wise men to form this government to have it overthrown; it has a mission, not only to establish peace on this continent, but to exert a world-wide influence in the inter- est of peace and freedom among all nations. The fundamental principles enunciated by the fathers will prevail. The Lord will not suffer wicked men and traitors to destroy the government If many turn away from virtue and honesty, become very wicked, and by secret combinations threaten its destruction, the Lord will cause the wicked to destroy the wicked, and by various calamities WHY THE SAINTS ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1077 cut off the most bitter branches. He will raise up wise men who will uphold the constitution, and the elders of the Church will stand as a unit in its defense. Though it may take the nation a long time to reach, in full, its ideals, prejudice and intolerance are gradually giving way; freedom is slowly but surely growing. In Nauvoo, from whence the Saints were expelled over sixty years ago, the people now open their doors and welcome the elders to their homes; the same is true of Jackson county, Missouri. The way is being prepared for the redemption of Zion. In reviewing the history of events since the opening of this dispensation, we see clearly the hand of Providence over his Saints and over this nation; all the opposition, persecutions and drivings endured from their enemies, have tended to expedite the work and push the Saiitson to their destiny. The Lord has made no mistakes; if mistakes have been made, they are the mistakes of men, which in no way can hinder the ultimate design of God. It was necessary that the Saints come to the mountains to save them from destruction by their enemies; that they might escape the terrible scourge incident to the civil war; and that they might grow and spread out, so that the "border of Zion might be enlarged and her stakes strengthened." Thus, instead of being confined to the narrow limits of Nauvoo and vicinity, Hancock county, Illinois, we see them on the very backbone of the American continent, from Canada north to Mexico south, and spreading east and west,— filling the mountains and valleys with a healthy, prosperous, free and contented people; building temples, tabernacles, churches, schools, colleges and universities, for the spiritual and intellectual development of a God-fearing, pure and virtuous community. They are becoming "a powerful people in the midst of the Rocky mountains," fulfiling the prediction of Joseph Smith, delivered in 1842. In regard to the spiritual condition of the Church compared with the conditions in Nauvoo, we now see the first presidency* the twelve apostles, with all the general authorities, united. They are all tried and true men ; the same is true of the presidents of stakes, high councilors, bishops and counselors, almost without exception. And there is growing up in our midst a class of young men Citation: Halls, William, “Why the Saints Are in the Mountains,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1070–1078. # The Crown of Individuality: XI. The Victoria Cross of Happiness 1078 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and women who, notwithstanding all the temptations aud induce- ments to sin thrown around them, all of which are necessary to prove them, are showing a purity of life, strength of character, a self-denial, a devotion to duty to God and his cause, that show they can be trusted in any position to which they may be called. And though we cannot say that all are walking the narrow way, yet out of this people, in the due time of the Lord, will be chosen a mighty host who will go and build up Zion, the "New Jerusalem," by the principles of "the law of the celestial king- dom," having a knowledge of all the arts, sciences, inventions and conveniences of civilization, also a knowledge of God by inspi- ration from heaven. They will build a temple and a city that will be the beauty of holiness, out of which God will shine, and the gen- tiles will come to her light, and "kings to the brightness of her rising," a city that the Lord will delight to own and bless at his coming. MAxcos, Colo. IN THE GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA. The Crown of Individuality.* BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. XL — The Victoria Cross of Happiness. Happiness does not come from folding our hands, serenely filling our hearts with the minor music of resignation, and gazing heavenward as though posing for a spiritual photograph. Happi- ness is activity, not torpor; doing, not dreaming; finding oneself, not losing oneself; illumination, not illusion; reality, not imagina- tion. Happiness does not fool itself by believing that whatever is is best; it seeks constantly to find whatever is best in what is and — tries to make it better. Making ourselves believe we are happy, by thinking that we are, is a poor brand of self -hypnotism. It does not bring happi- ness, any more than imagining we are dining sets before us a table with a real, eatable dinner of nine courses. Constantly declaring loudly we are happy when, in the deep indigo of a mood, we feel that happiness is for us forever as extinct as the dodo, is not brave, it is dishonest. It is playing a confidence game on the credulity of our friends. It is false optimism — the voice of the pessimist lying about his troubles. True happiness does not brag — it radiates. If the trials and sorrows of life depress, one should not deny but realize them, and then instantly seek to change conditions, as the engineer stops his train at a danger signal and aids in removing the obstacle on the track. If our sorrows be real, we should * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming Revell Company. 1080 IMPROVEMENT ERA. then bear them as bravely as we can by concentrating the thought on brighter things. We often accentuate our pains by hot poul- tices of self-sympathy that we constantly apply to our wounds. We do not let Nature gently heal them; we do not seek to forget ours in helping others to forget theirs. Delusion never gives reality. Reality comes only from truth — right thinking followed by right living. The Infinite gives to no man happiness; but only the raw material from which it can be made. He provides iron ore but never plowshares, clay but not bricks, wheat but not loaves. The material from which one man forms only an abode of misery, another transforms into a temple of joy. Happiness is a manu- factured article; it cannot be bought or sold, it must be home- made —by the individual himself. The only man for whom a ready- made paradise was provided was Adam — and he spoiled it all and was evicted. All the other people have had to make their own paradise or go without. Life is not a summer holiday, or a personally conducted tour through joyland, or a dream we must accept just as it comes— it is a struggle, a battle. We must do our part; we must fight — fight, too, with no war maps of the full campaign spread out before us for our consultation and inspiration. We must fight the enemy that is nearest, vanquish the duty that stands in our way, help the faint and the fallen, win every point of higher, better, clearer vision, be ready for whatever comes — with a true soldier's defiance of the odds against him. Whatever is worth while is worth the fight to attain it. If you want happiness, fight for it like a man. Fight to be worthy of it, fight to win it, fight to keep it, fight to share it, fight to help others get theirs. Fighting for happiness is paradoxic. We must battle for something higher than happiness or we will not win it. He who aims at it directly always misses it. He gets a poor, weak, adul- terated brand of selfishness that proves that his satisfaction, pleasure or joy is only a flavored, cheap substitute. Nature's pure food brand, the real article, never has a bad after-taste, it never palls. He who is living on the higher levels, battling bravely to be at his best, placing happiness secondary to love, right, honor, ideals, truth, unselfishness and justice, is the one to whom it THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 1081 comes. Happiness is the moral Victoria Cross of life. It is an extra award given for kingship over self, a fine victory on the battlefield of self, "for valor," for the good of others. More than fifty years ago England established the Victoria Cross — that simple Maltese cross of bronze with a decoration and the words, "For Valor," the whole suspended from a ribbon. It was given to soldiers, sailors, and to all others who proved worthy by special acts of unselfish bravery in imperative need. Of the thousands awarded this most highly-prized honor, few, if any, ever thought of it for an instant at the very hour — they proved supremely worthy of it. Thrilled with sublime courage in the heat of battle they over-rode mere duty by a higher inspiration. Love for humanity made some rise to supreme heights of daring to save the lives of others. Some stood brave and undaunted, fearless, almost blind, to every danger in the hour of supreme need of a nation, an army or an individual. Forgetting self, forgetting the fearful hazard, forgetting the spell-bound spectators, forgetting all but the imperative call for instant action, their plan was hardly conceived before its accom- plishment was begun. They responded to some divine impulse that so filled the human that it left no room for thought of the Cross. They forgot it, but they proved worthy of it— and later it was pinned on their breast. Let happiness be our Victoria Cross — given because of our proving worthy. The battlefield in our fight for happiness is not the world but — self. Mere attainment of wealth, fame, success, position, power or possession does not necessarily bring — happiness. The history of the ages proves this. Happiness comes ever from with- in. It is the atmosphere of an inner calm and peace. We must battle not for happiness directly but — against the elements within us that keep happiness from us, and valiantly on the side of those that will help us win it. There are traits within us that often poison the cup of happiness when it is safe within our hand, — jealousy, malice, stubbornness, envy, pride, selfishness, idleness, fear, worry, suspicion, and a host of others. Let us realize the elements that keep us from happiness, keep the need of mastering them before us, and we start bravely on the road. Worrv is a common enemy to happiness. It is restless sur- 1082 IMPROVEMENT ERA. render to vague fears, not meeting them singly, but multiplying them. It is the insistent, irritating iteration of one disturbing thought. Have you ever struck repeatedly one key of a type- writer when the ribbon does not move and then found it worn through in a few moments? There is no progress, no writing pro- duced, no result but useless wear. This is how worry acts on the mind; it eats through energy, purpose, vitality, and produces — nothing. It is not the sunshine of clear thinking focused on a problem, it is a dull, distorting, blurring mental fog that creates phantoms where none exist. It is not easy to control; but it can be conquered, and it must be or it will darken the whole life of the individual. Taking shorter views of the daily living helps greatly. Living from day to day, making each day a complete life in itself, doing each day our best, and in the realization we have done our best facing results bravely, — this is the magic formula that somehow we must learn to transform into real living. Worry has a corner on most of the — unhappiness in this life of ours. We must fight against selfishness if we would win — happiness. All the sins, weaknesses, and follies of human nature are simply selfishness appearing and reappearing under a hundred disguises or changes of garb. Selfishness is treacherous because it pro- duces a temporary counterfeit of happiness that cheats the individ- ual. It gives a semblance while destroying the reality. It puts him out of touch with humanity, kills his genuine interest in others, isolates him, intensifies his demands while diminishing his real resources, destroys his true perspective of life, builds up a false self-sufficiency, a self-finality. Nothing that lives in nature lives for itself alone. The plant that absorbs what is to it life-food, carbonic acid from the air, must exhale oxygen or it will die. Giving is as vital as getting. Fighting for happiness means get- ting it in order that we may give it, and by giving it we get it again in new form. Nothing outside of man can make him really —happy. It must in some way enter into the very fibers and substance of our lives and thoughts and needs. Happiness ultimately means self-conquest, self -harmony. It is the higher self ruling in peace over a con- quered lower self, as a victorious general wisely rules a city he has taken. Happiness must not be confused with content, satisfaction, Citation: Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: XI. The Victoria Cross of Happiness,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1079–1083. # Something About the “Lost Tribes” THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 1088 comfort, pleasure, and joy. These are but sparks, while happi- ness is the electric atmosphere of the heart —living, pulsing, glow- ing. It is tho gladness of the soul that inspires and strengthens the individual to face conditions he cannot change. Happiness does not mean living under skies of perpetual sun- shine, where pain, sorrow, sickness, longing, trial, failure and poverty are forever banished. They can never be banished from the world. But the positive, brave, aggressive spirit that inspires us in the fight for true happiness is greater, deeper, stronger and higher than these. It dominates them when they come, as a sturdy swimmer overcomes the threatening surge. It reduces the frictions of life, transforms their bitterness into sweetness, their pangs into power. The great invaders of human happiness are not the great trials and sorrows, but the treason of petty day-by-day unnecessary worries, wrongs and injustices manufactured by ourselves or dona- ted to us by those around us. Fighting for happiness lessens these in number and in force. Love gives us that quick instinct for finer vision in seeing wondrous possibilities for happiness for ourselves and others that no mere reason of the mind could discover. Love is the instinct of the heart. Purpose, a concentrated, conse- crated object in living, helps to happiness for ourselves and for others. There is only one minute a day, when the sun is at its zenith, that it casts no shadow. At every other moment the stronger the sunlight the deeper the shadow. There are rare, fleeting moments when the sun of our happiness is at its highest; then there are no shadows. Let us see the sunlight in our life so strong and with so concentrated a determination that the shadows will hardly trouble us. Let us not put off the expectation of happiness to be realized in some great future, but find it from day to day in the trifles of life— as the children of Israel gathered, fresh every day, the manna that fed them. (This splendid series will be continued in the Improvement Era, volume 14, beginning with November, when "The Crimes of Respect- ability'' will appear.) Something About the "Lost Tribes." BY CHARLES W. PENROSE OF THE QUORUM OF TWELVE APOSTLES. The gathering of Israel is part of the work of restoration, or "restitution of all things," to be accomplished in tha greatest of all dispensations — "the dispensation of the fulness of times." This comprehends not only the return of Judah to Palestine, and the consequent re-establishment of the throne of David, to be occu- pied by one of his descendants, but the assembling of the "outcasts of Israel, " belonging to the tribes that were separated from Judah and Benjamin, were taken into captivity and were carried away into Assyria, from which country and its bondage they subse- quently escaped and traveled northward into regions then gener- ally unknown. The story of the division of Israel from Judah is told in the Book of Kings, particularly in I Kings. The sins which were committed by the tribes of Israel under Jeroboam and his succss- ors are described in chapters 15 to 22, and the account of their consequent captivity is given in II Kings, 17. The body of Israel- ites, commonly called the Ten Tribes, were really but portions of nine and a half tribes. Judah and Benjamin, with half of the tribe of Manasseh, united under the kingdom of Judea and were known as Judah, or the Jews. With them were mingled some por- tions of all the other tribes, but the greater numbers of them were carried away into captivity, and in scripture are mentioned as Israel, in distinction from Judah, who remained under a separate government until they, too, through transgression, wrere rejected of the Lord, were also taken captive, and subsequently were dis- persed among the various nations of the world. Thus all Israel, that is, the twelve tribes, the offspring of the SOMETHING ABOUT THE "LOST TRIBES:' 1085 twelve sons of Jacob, were scattered abroad in fulfilment of the predictions of their great prophet, Moses, the final blow upon the Jewish peoole being dealt to them because of their rejection of the Messiah. Judah bears a special mark among all the races with which he has been mixed. The blood of Judah, though min- gled with the blood of the Gentiles, carries its own identity with the power of reproduction through all its generations. There are, no doubt, some distinctive marks on the other tribes, but they are not so plainly discernible as those upon Judah. The principle of heredity is abiding and continuous, but it is not the purpose of this brief article to enter into it or explain it. How- ever, Israel is distinct from all other races, and each branch or tribe is entitled to gifts peculiar to itself, which will all be mani- fested in due time. The Ten Tribes, so-called, that were taken captive into Assyria, are destined, according to Biblical prophecy, to be gathered in the latter-days and become a great power in the earth. The Hebrew prophets— notably Isaiah, 11th chapter, Jeremiah, chapters 30 and 31, Ezekiel, chapter 37, and Zechariah, chapters 12 and 13— graphically describe the gathering of both Judah and Israel, the former to Jerusalem, the latter to a land chosen for them as specially bestowed upon Joseph, (Gen. 49: 26; Deut. 33: 15-17 who held the birthright in place of Reuben, who forfeited it through transgression. These predictions are to be fulfiled as literally as those concerning the dispersion. The scattering of the tribes of Israel is mentioned in the Old Testament repeatedly, but the course taken by them after their captivity is not definitely given in the books counted as canonical. However, it is clearly stated thit they were taken int) the "north country," and that in the latter-days they will be brought from the north country, as well as from other places where they were to be scattered In the Apocrypha ivill be found an account of the movement of those tribes of Isiael after they had been for some time in bondage (see II Esdras, 13: 39-50, as follows): And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multi- tude unto him; those are the Ten Triba.s which were carried away prison- ers out of their own land in the time of O^ea the king, whom Salmanasar, the King of Assyria, led away captive, and he carried them over the lOtfG IMPROVEMENT ERA. waters, and so they came into another land. But they took this coun- sel among themselves,that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river, for the Most High thenyshowed signs for them, and held still the floods till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, viz., of a year and a half; and the same region is called Arsareth. Then dwelt they there until the latter time; and now when they shall begin to come, the Highest shall stay the springs of the streams again, that they may go through; therefore sawest thou the multitude with peace. But those that he left behind of thy people are they that are found within my borders. Now when he destroyeth the multitude of the nations that are gathered together, he shall defend his people that remain. And then shall he show them great wonders. There have been many speculations concerning the probable whereabouts of these Israelites, whom the Lord is to bring in from their long dispersion, and make of them a great people in the latter-days. Some writers, who have learned of the relics of ancient races on the American continent, and the traces discovered of their evident Hebrew origin, their familiarity also with Egyp- tian architecture and language, have reached the conclusion that the unknown land to which, according to Esdras, the "lost tribes" were taken, was the American continent, and volumes have been written in support of this theory. The Latter-day Saints know that the notion is incorrect, because of the revelation of the Book of Mormon, which gives the origin of the people who built the cities and monuments and wrote the hieroglyphs referred to, and therefore understand for a certainty that these colonizers of this continent were not the Ten Tribes, but that descendants of Joseph were brought upon this land by Divine direction, and that from them sprang the civilization, the remnants of which have been dis- covered in latter times, and whose history is given in that most remarkable volume, translated by the gift and power of God. The question, then, still remains, and is asked by many per- sons, among them not a few of the Latter-day Saints, where are the "lost tribes" of Israel, and do they exist somewhere as a dis- tinct body, or were they all so scattered among the nations that SOMETHING ABOUT THE "LOST TRIBES." 1087 their identity has become extinct? In consequence of the numer- ous references in holy writ to the "north countries" as the des- tination of the tribes after their escape from Assyria, and to the part of the globe from whence they are to return, some people have imagined they were in the neighborhood of the north pole, and since the alleged "discoveries"' of that region by Commander Peary and, perhaps, Dr. Cook, they have felt somewhat dis- appointed, feeling compelled to abandon the idea. Now, in the first place, there has been no positive revelation or authoritative announcement that the Ten Tribes existed in a separate body at or near the north pole. In the next place, the explorations and devel- opments concerning the polar region have been chiefly conducted from points on the American continent, while the vast regions northward from the eastern hemisphere have been comparatively unexplored. It is quite possible, therefore, that there may be lands and peoples, in the extreme north of the other half of the globe, which are yet undiscovered and unknown. There are tra- ditions among the people of Siberia concerning some fierce and hostile tribes, living in lands far to the north and regarded as dan- gerous and to be avoided. This is merely mentioned, in passing, to show the possibility that there are habitable lands between modern Russia and the pole. Recently it has been argued that the prophecies concerning the gathering of Israel in the latter days are being fulfiled by the coming in of descendants of the house of Israel in northern Europe, through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, as restored by the angel of the Most High. It is evident from the blessings bestowed by the patriarchs of the Church upon the heads of Saints from those lands, that they are of the house of Israel, belonging to different tribes, but particularly of Ephraim. There is no doubt in the minds of those who have investigated this subject, that when traveling northward, as described by Esdras, the tribes of Israel mingled on the way with Gentile nations, and that num- bers of their posterity are to be found in the various provinces of Germany, in Switzerland, in Holland, in Sweden, Denmark, Nor- way, Finland, Iceland, and the numerous islands in the far north. Much of the blood of Israel is, doubtless, to be found in the British Isles. It was obtained, in all probability, by the admixture 1088 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of Saxon, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish blood with that of the ancient Britons and the Picts and Scots, who inhabited those islands and were subject to the incursions and conquests of the peoples mentioned, among whose ancestors the Israelites mingled in their journey of a year and a half towards the extreme north. Thus the nations here mentioned became impregnated with the seed of Israel, and their descendants who came to this country, bringing the principles of religious freedom and planting the standard of liberty, were also of the lineage to whom great blessings were promised, and from among all these, many who are of Israel embrace the gospel of the latter-day dispensation. The gather- ing of some of their descendants to Zion is in part fulfilment of the prophecies in regard to the gathering, but there are revela- tions which cannot be said to be literally fulfiled in this movement. Some of these are here cited: And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them. And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence. And there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim; and they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows (Doc. and Cov. 133: 26-34). This indicates the coming of a body of these Israelites, with prophets at their head, from regions of ice and rocks, under Divine direction, to receive blessings on this land where are the "ever- lasting hills, " and the gathering place for Israel and the keys of power and authority in the hands of the "children of Ephraim." It is evident, also, that they have important records, containing accounts of the dealings of the Lord with them, and his word con- cerning them, which they are to bring with them, that they may SOMETHING ABOUT THE "LOST TRIBES." 1089 be joined with the record of the Jews— the Bible — and the record of the Nephites— the Book of Mormon (see I Nephi 15: 12, 13.) For, behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it. And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel ; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews. We learn from the Book of Mormon, further, that the Savior, when he appeared to the Nephites, spoke of the "lost tribes'' as having been taken away by the Father to a land which he did not reveal to them, and that he was going to visit them and make known to them the same things which he had revealed to his dis- ciples on the eastern hemisphere, and to those on the western con- tinent. But, verily, I say unto you, that the Father hath commanded me, and I tell it unto you, that ye were separated from among them because of their iniquity, therefore it is because of their iniquity that they know not of you. And verily, I sav unto you again, that the other tribes hath the Father separated from them; and it is because of their iniquity, that they know not of them. And verily, I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching; and they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice; that I should not manifest myself unto them, save it were by the Holy Ghost (III Nephi 15: 19-23). And verily, verily, I say unto you, that I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem; neither in any parts of that land round about, whither I have been to minister. For they of whom I speak are they who have not as yet heard my voice; neither have I at at any time manifested myself unto them. But I ha'"e received a commandment of the Father that I shall go unto them, and that they Citation: Penrose, Charles W., “Something About the “Lost Tribes”,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1084–1090. # Efficient Stake M. I. A. Supervision 1 090 IMPR 0 VEMENT ERA . shall hear my voice, and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one fold and one shepherd; therefore I go to show myself unto them (III Nephi 16: 1-3). But now I go unto the Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he Know- eth whither he hath taken them (III Nephi 17: 4). These revelations will, doubtless, be among the records which the tribes are to bring forth in the latter-d lys, and which are to be united with the Bible and the Book of Mormon, showing the dealings of God among these three separate sections of the house of Israel, bringing to pass the sayings of the prophets of old, and aiding in the consummation of the great work of the latter-days. Thus, while the gathering of scattered Israel is being partly ful- filed in the bringing in of people who are of the blood of Israel from the various nations where it was scattered, there is yet to come to pass the word of the Lord a portion of which is here cited, and we may confidently look for its fulfilment as literally as that concerning the house of Joseph and their record, and the house of Judah and their record. We recommend students on this problem of the probable local- ity of a body of Israelites, descendants of the tribes that escaped from Assyria, and concerning whom great promises have been made, to look at a globe showing the conformation and countries of the earth, about which something is known, or a plan of the earth's surface, exhibiting both hemispheres, and then, with the understanding that the Ten Tribes, in their journey from Assyria northward, passed through continental Europe away up to the regions of ice on that hemisphere, and they will see the possibility, even the probability, of the existence of a body of people who will yet fulfil to the very letter tbe predictions of ancient prophets concerning their restoration in the latter-days. This will detract nothing from the views held concerning the great work of gath- ering of the people who have been mixed among the Gentiles, and whom the Lord is gathering from the east and the west, the north and the south, and giving them an inheritance in Zion. Efficient Stake M. I. A. Supervision.* BY ELDER DOUGLAS M. TODD OF THE GENERAL BOARD Y. M. M. I. A. Inquiry made of a number of stake superintendents as to methods followed in accomplishing their work, reveals little uni- formity. Methods vary under different conditions. While this was to have been expected, and is to a great extent necessary, there are, nevertheless, a number of fundamental principles and methods which every superintendent should thoroughly understand and follow as closely as possible. I. — THE STAKE BOARD. Close observation for many years has proven beyond question that the best results are obtained in those stakes that are provided with strong and well-centralized stake boards. This board should consist of a superintendent, two assistants, a secretary, a treas- urer, and a number of aids, the number of the latter being gov- erned by the number of associations under the supervision of the board. Members of the regular stake board should reside within a reasonably close distance of each other, so as to enable them to be regular attendants at the weekly meetings of the board. Assist- ants to the stake board may be appointed in those stakes where there are associations at long distances from the center, and their reports can be made at stated times in writing. Some objection has been urged against the selecti >n of too many workers as members of stake boards, on the ground that it * Delivered at the Y. M. M. I. A. officers' meeting, annual conference, Saturday, June 4, 1910. 1092 IMPROVEMENT ERA. weakens the organization by taking too many good class leaders and ward workers away from positions where they are accomplish- ing much good. If care is used in the selection of stake and ward workers, little harm need be expected from this source. The qualities that go to make a good board member are -not necessarily those that are found in a good class leader, and whenever a young man is found doing good work as an officer in an association, or as a class leader among the boys, he should be disturbed only for the best of reasons. The highest position in the Church, or the place of greatest honor for any young man, is where he can do the most good. I think we will not feel the burden of these numerous stake boards and organizations, if we can only continue to draw more young men into the field. We have a great deal of work to per- form in the Church, in every organization, and we have a great many organizations; but the plan is formed on the supposition that we have a great many workers, and that there is nothing in the world that develops people faster than giving them something to do. We have lots of offices, and we ought to have lots of officers. I realize that it is a pretty heavy strain, at times, to get the right kind of men to fill the numerous positions which our organizations naturally create; and unless we can reach out, and get more young men into the harness who will perform their duties and get the spirit of their calling, undoubtedly it is going to be a burden on the few. It may weaken us in some places, in order to strengthen us in others. We have failures, not because of the lack of a good system or a good organization, but for lack of following out or working up to any particular plan. Most of our failures go by default. It was not because we did not know what to do; it was not because we did not have men to do it; but it was because we did not organize; we did not get together; we did not do the things that were outlined for us. This is true in nine cases out of ten. You may quiz a superintendent very closely, and, in most instances, you will find his work is deficient, not because he does not understand what ought to be done, but because he has not been sufficiently diligent in doing that work, or in getting others to do it. That is his work; that is the larger part of his work — EFFICIENT STAKE M. I. A. SUPERVISION. 1093 the manifestation of what we call "executive ability," or the power to get somebody else to do the work for you (laughter) ; and that is a very great gift; it is a great power; and there are few men who can exercise it as it ought to be exercised. That is enough for any man that stands at the head of a large and important organization. He is seeing that the work is done, and the chances are that he does, then, as nrav.h as any other member of the organization. Where we have such young men, who take hold of this work in the spirit of the work, and organize it as their necessity demands, it seems impossible, and almost useless, for any stake to copy too closely the organization of another stake. But, I believe that there are these essentials —that we must have stake boards; that they must be reasonably large; that they must be so located that they can hold regular meetings for laying out their work, reporting upon their work, talking over the work, and getting the spirit of the work. II.— WARD ORGANIZATIONS AND MEETINGS OF WARD OFFICERS. Much that has been said regarding the organization of the stake board, applies with equal force to the ward. There should be enough members to create interest in the meetings, and these meetings should be formal in their nature, and held at regular intervals. There should be prayer, roll call, and minutes of the previous meeting, that all may be reminded of actions taken and work assigned. Both members and committees would be more likely to accomplish tasks assigned them if there were more cer- tainty of their being called upon to report their labors. When committees or members are assigned certain duties, it is the busi- ness of the presiding officers to know at short intervals how the work is progressing, so that" assistance or stimulation may be given as needed. This can be done only where meetings of all workers are held regularly. III. — ORGANIZATION OF COMMITTEES. The General Board has been pretty thoroughly divided into committees, in order to meet the necessities of the increasing diversity of our work; and, where necessary, similar committees may be appointed in stake and ward organizations, but it will be 1 094 IMPR 0 VEMEN T ERA. well to know that necessity for the committee exists before it is organized. IV. — CLASS LEADERS. One of the most important objects of all of our efforts as Mutual Improvement workers, is getting the many subjects we put forth in our manuals before as many boys as possible, in such a way as to influence their lives for good. In accomplishing this great end, so much depends on the man who presents the subject that stake presidents, bishops and all concerned should be fully converted to the necessity of rendering all assistance possible to help us secure the best available material. In one of our most successful stakes, that is one of their committees. They have a committee on class study, and they have a chairman of that committee — one of the best men that they can get in the stake, an educator who understands his business, and whose duty it is to assist in the selection of efficient class leaders, to suggest to them plans for doing better class work, making bet- ter preparation, getting the class leaders to understand and get the spirit of their particular work. Very much depends upon securing suitable material. We cannot always hope to secure the best in the stake, because there are many other organizations that are laboring just as diligently as we are, and who are reaching out, just as anxiously, for every well qualified young man they can get hold of. I heard of a movement, in one particular stake, to restrict appointments — one stake position to one person. This is rather a new innovation, and I am doubtful, in my mind, as to how it will work. I do not know that we are far enough along to restrict ourselves in that way. One thing we do want to do, is to be up and doing. Of course, if we do not make an effort, if we do not make application for workers in our organizations, we will not get them. There are two or three places for every efficient young man who comes home from school or college, or returns from a mission. There is a spirit of competition and rivalry among our organizations, and we will have to be up and doing, and get a fair share of all the talent that there is in the Church, among the young men. We will have to organize our stake boards according to our necessities, and according to the work which we are trying to accomplish. There EFFICIENT STAKE M. I. A. SUPERVISION. 1095 has been considerable done the last year or two in the field of athletics. There has been occasion for more and stronger com- mittees. There has been necessity for closer conferences, more regular meetings, better plans, more efficient organizations to accomplish the work that we are attempting along that particular line. But when all is said and done, the greatest thing that there is, in order to secure efficient stake supervision, is the spirit that the young men manifest in this particular work. It is a Church work; it is a religious duty; it is a mission to which our young men are called; and if they do not strive, under the spirit and guidance of the Holy Ghost, to get the spirit of their calling, and to get into it in that spirit, to manifest humility, prayerfulness and an earnest desire in their hearts to perform the work to which they are called, their plans and programs and committees, and all this mechanical outline which they make, amounts to very little. I believe this, brethren, that there is a spirit, that goes with every calling in this Church. A man is entitled to inspiration in every position which he is called to occupy, and he is entitled to more inspiration in that particular calling than any other man in the stake. There isn't another man in the stake, be he high or be he low in the organization, who is entitled to such inspiration from the Lord, as to what ought to be done, as the young man who has been regularly called and set apart to perform that par- ticular work. I think there should be no man in the stake who gets better ideas or more inspiration as to what ought to be done for the good of the young men, than the superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations in the stake. If I had the power to leave that one particular thought with every stake superintendent and every aid — that they seek diligently for the Spirit of the Lord to guide them and give them inspiration, to suggest to their minds what particular form their work ought to take in order to accomplish the best results — I would feel well paid for all the effort I have put forth in the work. May God bless and prosper us in our labor, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. DISCUSSION. A Brother in the audience (name not given): The greatest 1096 IMPROVEMENT ERA. trouble we have in our association is how to get our enrollment and attendance up. I would like to get some ideas on that. How can we get ward workers to work up their attendance, to hunt the boys who are not in the Mutuals, and get them there and keep them there? That is the problem we have to solve. D. M. Todd: It is a big question, brethren, a big subject. I would answer it by saying, in two ways: first, by competent mis- sionary work, especially in the beginning of the season; and then by convincing every young man in the ward that you have his interest at heart and have not forgotten him. Again, I would repeat, we fall down because of lack of effort. There are scores of boys who never receive an invitation of anv kind to go to Mutual, in our various wards, up to Christmas time. In some wards they have received a very nice little invitation, reminding them that Mutual commences on a certain date, and that the brethren would be pleased to have their attendance and their assistance during the coming year. In other wards, they visit around and make personal calls, perhaps at the young man's home, where they can talk with him, and, at the same time, enlist the sympathy and support of the father and mother. I don't know how it operates upon you, but I tell you when a young man comes into my home inquiring and wanting to enlist our support in this cause, he gets it; for the time being, at least, he gets it; there is no question about it. He converts me in a minute, and I feel like putting my shoulder to the wheel and helping him accomplish what he is doing. There are many little devices like this to reach the boys and get the subject before them. Advertising — that is what it is. It is letting every person in the ward know what you are doing and when you are going to do it. Then another thing is to "deliver the goods." The boys will come if you give them what they need and desire. I realize this: that you frequently have to create the desire, create a desire for something that is good, but very much depends upon the character of the work you are doing; it centers and rests right down upon that class leader. We believe, of course, that we are giving you excellent subjects. If we didn't, we would hunt up those that we thought were excel- lent. But, taking all things into consideration, and all the condi- tions, we, the General Board, are certainly trying to give you the Citation: Todd, Douglas M., “Efficient Stake M. I. A. Supervision,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1091–1097. # Some Men Who Have Done Things: XII. Charles W. Penrose EFFICIENT STAKE M. I. A. SUPERVISION. 1097 subjects that will be best fitted for your various conditions. Now, after we have done this, after we have stirred you up the best we can, by reminding you of what we are trying to accomplish, then we ask you to pass it along; and then it will rest, very largely, upon your class leader, the man who handles the subject which we have given you, and the men at the head, who get up those splended little programs. I attended a Young Men's Improvement Association in Idaho Falls, last Wednesday evening. They were taking up summer work. They had two or three of the nicest, tidiest little pieces of music, and then they took up a discussion of Robert's Rules of Order. It certainly filled me with enthusiasm in regard to the possibilities of our young people along this line. Now, I am satisfied that that question would be answered there. I believe that all you have to do now is to go out and get an intelligent young man, and get him to attend once or twice, and you would have him for the season, if all our associations were giving exercises of interest. We have had an example here this morning. Every member here sat listening attentively; we did not lose a single word. We were all pleased. You could see it on every countenance. There is not much trouble in getting up attendance, if we do good work. Member: One question more. Do you not find that the summer course helps the attendance by not letting the interest die out? That is my experience; I do not think there is any question about it. In the statistics furnished us at the last conference, by the bishop's office, it is shown that there are enrolled in the Sunday schools 46 per cent of the Church population; in the Prim- aries 19 per cent; in the Religion classes 10 per cent; in the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association 9.1 per cent; in the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association 8.8 per cent. We can well direct some effcrt toward obtaining a larger member- ship, and also a more regular attendance. Some Men Who Have Done Things. BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' UNIVERSITY. XII. -Charles W. Penrose. THIS ARTICLE TELLS HOW A POOR ENGLISH BOY, THE SON OF A WIDOW, BECAME THE HORACE GREELEY OF "MORMONDOM," MOULDING THE OPINIONS OF TWO GENERATIONS. Last year the Improvement Era ran to exactly ten hundred and eight pages— two good-sized volumes on my shelf. Suppose, now, you had ninety-seven of these ranged side by side. They would cover just ten and a half feet— more than twice the space of Eliot's five-foot library. This would fairly represent the Pen- rose editorials, if they were bound — the work of thirty -five years! And, mind you, this is a low estimate. I have only counted a column a day in the newspaper, and three hundred days in the year. Nor have I included hundreds of editorials for the English Star, articles during many years for the magazines and news- papers, and countless documents for the Church, let alone his tracts and books. No wonder he told me that newspaper work is not a soft snap! Nor would your ninety-seven volumes be thin ideas in ragged English. Charles W. Penrose has neither thin ideas nor ragged English. His literary code is extremely rigid. The journalist, he thinks, ought to write correctly, concisely, clearly, and truth- fully. And anybody who knows the first principles about writing is aware that all these qualities do not come always frr the asking. Whoever will take the pains to go over the writings of Mr. Penrose will find opinions plainly and strikingly put. SOME MEN WHO HA VE DONE THINGS. 1099 Opinions, mind! And this is a great point in our day, when a grain of wheat is hidden in two bushels of chaff .'Charles W. Penrose was not a pair of invisible scissors, clipping inaudibly, nor yet a pen, dipping itself in ink and writing merely because there were three columns to fill, besides the theatre announce- ments. Emerson distinguishes between the farmer and the Man on the farm, and the distinction is obvious. Similarly, there is the editor and the Man writing editorials. Mr. Penrose was the Man in the editorial room, thinking. Somebody, whose name is not worth remembering, has said that it does not matter any more whether or not we know who edits our daily papers— even the big ones. That is a mistake. The time will never come when it won't matter. Time was when Amer- ican newspapers were under the complete domination of the political party. But strong men, like James Gordon Bennett and Horace Greeley, broke away and said what was in them, without consult- ing the politicians, and we had a period of independent journal- ism. Now, again, except in a comparatively few cases, political parties are in control and the vested interests speaking through the counting room. The editor in the editorial room speaks only when nodded to, and says only what he is told to say. But the Man in the editorial room is of a different stripe. He will not be muzzled. He will speak the truth as he sees it. The attempt was made once, by a political daily in Salt Lake, to put Mr. Penrose in leading strings. But the thing could not be done. And so it does matter whether we know who writes our editorials. There is no hiding the fact that an editor is in the room, or a Man writing editorials. For more than twenty years Charles W. Penrose was an authority to the "Mormon" reading community. Was there a knotty theological question? It went to him, and knotty in- deed would it have to be if it had no answer from him — and a clear one! Was there a dispute on any subject, or a point on which information was wanted? It was confidently forwarded to the editor of the News. Apostle Penrose himself can never approximate how he both shaped opinions and directed modes of thinking in the young men and women of the Church. I personally know of a raw youth who lived on an Idaho farm, in 1100 IMPROVEMENT ERA. those days, in what was then a wild and lonely country. During all the years running between nine and nineteen, in this boy's life, almost his whole source of education was the Deseret News, which he read with the most religious devotion— advertisements and all. But always the most vital thing to him was the editoral page. This he read and reread. More than to anything else, he owes to those editorials whatever of clearness of vision he possesses, and intel- ligible expression, if not actually a controversial turn of mind. And this Mr. Penrose must have done for boys and girls and men and women over all the Church, especially where books were scarce. It is no small thing to have done this. But Charles W. Penrose was once a poor boy himself, of whom no one would hazard a prediction that called for a long life like his, and of such usefulness. He was born nearly seventy-nine ¥years ago, in England. Fond of books, he read a great deal, including poetry and the Bible, which he could understand at an unusually early age. At eighteen he joined the Church, and then began his long career of religious activity. Almost immediately he was ordained an elder and sent on a mission, which lasted ten years. When this ended he came to Utah, living first at Farmington, then at Logan, next at Ogden, and finally at Salt Lake City. He has been a farmer, a store-keeper, a legislator, a high councilor, one of a stake presi- dency, and now is deservedly in the quorum of apostles. All this in addition to a foreign missionary and editor. His journalistic career began very early. While in England, in his first rrissionary field, he wrote for the Star. These early articles were mainly controversial. Besides, he answered attacks of ministers and others in the English papers. He wrote some verses, too, during these years, which were printed in the Star, among them being the famous hymn, "0 ye mountains high." . These activities in writing it was that led to his appointment, in 1866, as assistant editor of the Star. During two years and more he wrote all the editorials for this excellent little magazine, besides many articles for newspapers, in defense of the faith. Returning home from this second missioD, he was offered a place in the editorial rooms of the Daily Telegraph, published by the brilliant journalist, T. B. H. Stenhouse. But he refused the SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 1101 offer to enter into business at Logan. Later, the Ogden Junction was started. Franklin D. Richards, who had presided over the European mission while Mr. Penrose edited the Star, induced the future journalist to accept the assistant editorship of that paper. Presently it became a daily, with Mr. Penrose as editor and manager. But the work was too much, even for a man of the enormous vitality of young Charles W. And so the Junction had to get a business manager. After seven years, however, President Young asked the young editor to come to Salt Lake to work on the News. For a time he was sub-editor, but later, in President Taylor's day, was made editor-in-chief. With the exception of two years, dur- ing which he was editor of the Herald, and a brief period, during which he was assistant Church historian, he occupied the chief editorship of the News, till he was called to preside over the European mission some three and a half years ago. The opinions of such a man— a man with extraordinary natural endowments to begin with, and a wide and varied experi- ence such as he has had— ought to be of considerable weight. "What qualifications," I asked him, "do you think a young man ought to have who looks towards journalism for a career?" And his answer was, "Keen and quick perceptive powers, love of the truth,concen- tration, punctuality, firmness and industry. He ought to have the ability to get to the bottom of a question rapidly, almost intuitively, and to examine exactly and swiftly both sides of any question that may come up for treatment. The journalist should have the disposition to get at the truth of a thing promptly, in regard either to circumstances, principles or policies. And then, of course, he must acquire the habit of expressing, directly and clearly, his honest convictions. If he perceives a weakness in an opponent's argument or statement, he has done only half of what is necessary. He must also point that weakness out in such a manner that others will see it. He must, therefore, guard against such weakness in his own statements, so they may not be open to question from the other side. There must be accuracy in every statement that is made, whether it be of occurrences, dates and figures, or as to the position taken by the other side in the 1102 IMPROVEMENT ERA. controversy. Then he must have what I may call a positive condi- tion of mind, with firmness to hold to a given point and, at the same time, a willingness to look at and fully consider the claims of the opposition. Tenacity of purpose in holding to a position, once taken, until it is shown to be untenable — not, of course, to the point of not being willing to correct mistakes — that is necessary to an editor; but vacillation is a mark of weakness, and renders writings of little value. Then he must have activity, continuity, perseverance, and a willingness and the ability to work, work, work! There are no soft-snaps in journalism. If there are, I have not found them. ' 'The journalist, moreover, must have a wide range of informa- tion. His mind must be open to receive present impressions and grasp current events, taking a world-wide view of happenings, theories and public opinions. He must form the habit of catch- ing hold of news items from every available source rapidly, but with entire concentration. That matter of concentration, let me say, is vitally necessary— the ability to give one's whole attention now to this, and now to that, without afterwards confusing ideas about them." And let me stop long enough to interject that, without doubt, Mr. Penrose's ability to put his mind quickly to a thing and wholly to it, without diversion, is one of the secrets of the extraordinary amount of work he has been able to do. A wonderful quality of mind, which it will pay any young man to cultivate. He does not believe in trying to do two things at the same time. Intense con- centration on one thing at a time, no matter how small, tends, he says, to clearness of thinking. Besides, Mr. Penrose, according to all accounts, has a phenomenal memory. The secret of that, too, is his power of concentration, his habit of considering one thing at a time, and putting his whole mind on it. "Newspaper work," he continued, "requires promptitude, industry, and dt votion. No cne can succeed, either as a reporter or an editorial writer, without these characteristics. Temperance in all things, avoidance of stimulants is absolutely necessary to permanent success." In answer to a question as to the prospects of any young man who entered upon journalism, he said: "It is not lucrative, com- SOME MEN WHO HAVE DONE THINGS. 1103 pared with most other professions. High-class journalism, of course, is vvell-paid — in the large cities of the nation. In the newer parts of the country the remuneration of the journalist is comparatively small. The supply of capable journalists, like the supply of capable teachers, is small, yet, strange to say, the monetary rewards are small, out of all proportion, in both profes- sions. The cause fcr this, in the case of the newspaper writer, lies in the large number of newspapers in our western country and the consequent limited circulation of each." "What, then, are the rewards of journalism?" "Well, there is a certain fascination in gathering news, nar- rating events, and commenting on the questions of the day. The fact that one's writings exert an influence on others, increases this fascination. And then, of course, the journalist has a desirable standing in the community. The real reward of journalism is the dissemination of correct principles, which build up good society, and those who engage in it have their compensation in the influ- ence they carry and the good thev effect. "All this, however, applies only to decent journalism. But there is a sort which any aspirant for journalistic honors should avoid. Many persons engage in newspaper work for the pay it brings, and for the evil they can do in the way of retaliation for injuries received or imagined, and to break down that which they dislike and wish to destroy. Yellow journalism, as it is called, is one of the most ignoble of occupations. It begets and encour- ages a disregard for truth, honor, equity, justice and mercy. The bogus interview affords one illustration of the evil of that kind of journalism. Sometimes it is manufactured entirely by the reporter, giving, as the views of some prominent person, ideas that he never entertained, in language that he never used. In other cases the reporter deliberately misinterprets the opinions and perverts the words of the person interviewed, to his personal injury and the deception of the public, just to suit the bias of the paper that publishes them, or to play into the hands of political or other opponents. Such libelous articles are deserving of the most severe public reprobation, and their authors should be denounced and punished, while the paper that encourages them ought to be shunned by all readers." Citation: Evans, John Henry, “Some Men Who Have Done Things: XII. Charles W. Penrose,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1098–1104. # “A Little Child Shall Lead Them” 1104 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "But, Brother Penrose," I interrupted, "in what you have just said you imply that yellow journalism pays. Is that correct?"' "Yes. There is a large class of general readers who take pleasure in feeding on this literary garbage and 'spicy' falsehood." "That, I suppose, becomes a snare to the feet of the young and unwary journalist, does it not?" "It does. The journalist must be clean, if he is to do good work. Drinking and gambling and lying, once they are begun, inevitably drag the weakling down. The reporter comes in con- tact with all classes of society, in his quest for news. But here, as everywhere else, strength of character is at a premium. When the newspaper man goes on the downward path very far, he gen- erally leaves the clean paper and gravitates to the disreputable sheet." Mr. Penrose believes that there is ample room for growth and individual progress in journalism. "The journalist may broaden his own powers and learn to appreciate the best thoughts and modes of expression, and thus gn w into a power in the community. " The Gospel of Smiles. BY HAROLD GOFF. Blest is the man who believes in the gospel of smiles— who keeps a song in his heart whether the skies be blue or gray. When sorrow and disappointment come to him, he hides them away in himself somewhere, and the friend whom he greets, seeing only the smile, hearing the cheery salutation, and feeling the warmth of his handclasp, believes there is °nly joy in his soul. How bright the world because of him! He goes into places where darkness has reigned, and sunshine enters with him and remains. He walks among the subjects of pain, and drives that despot from his realm. He descends into the valley of death, and life abounds. Thus, in all his journey through the world, he carries a blessing for his fellowmen; and though, at last, even he sinks down before defeat, he hears the sound of victory's music, and through the shadow of failure he can see God's smile. 'A Little Child Shall Lead Them." JTHOR OF "ADE BUILDER," ETC. BY NEPHI ANDERSON, AUTHOR OF "ADDED UPON," "THE CASTLE I. The baby was very sick. The doctor, leaving an hour ago, had said that he could do no more for it; it might live to grow up, or it might at any time follow its mother into the world of spirits. Edith held it in her lap and looked down into its pitiable small, wan face, wondering at its littleness and weakness, and of what more she could do for her wee baby brother. The baby's mother had died when it had come into the world, now nearly two weeks ago. The father, being a seaman, was away, far on the other side of the world, and would not be home for months yet. So there were the eight-year-old sister Jennie, herself, and the baby— and the baby, apparently, would not stay long with them. It was ten o'clock in the evening. Jennie was fast asleep in her bed in the corner. As the elder sister sat with the baby un her lap, she felt lonely and heartsick. Her very bones ached with weariness, and she could easily have fallen asleep where she sat, even though a dying babe was in her lap; but she steeled her- self to endure. For the last month she had lived under high ten- sion. She had watched and worked during her mother's last ill- ness, and had cared for the child since. What more could she do now? Her eyes hungered on the child. "You sweet little thing, bless you!" she whispered. "Mother gave you to me to keep and 'tend, and I'm doing the best I can. What more can I do? What— I haven't— and mother asked me 1106 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to — I have forgotten! And perhaps it is too late now. 0 baby! 0 mother!" The young woman arose, and carried the baby to the bed in the corner. She gently shook her sleeping sister, who awoke, rubbing her eyes. "Jennie, wake up! wake up! You must watch baby a little, while I run for the minister. Here, are you awake? Let him lie with you. I'll not be long." She made the little girl sit up in bed, wrapping the clothes well around her; then placed the baby near her, where it would be safe. Then she threw a shawl over her head, and hurried out. There was a cold, drizzling rain falling, and the pavement stones were slippery with mud. The lights were out in the shops, and the gas lamps on the corners were but hazy blurs. Edith heeded neither darkness nor wet, but sped on down a narrow, ill- smelling street, it being the nearest way to the parsonage. Drnnken men and women reeled by her, but she noticed them not, as they were common enough sights in the big English sea- port where she lived. A light yet burned in the parsonage, so she hurried up the steps an 1 rang the bell. A maid admitted her, and she asked if the minister was in. She was told that he was, and was shown to a small waiting room. Presently, the parson entered. Edith's acquaintance with him was slight, as she very seldom attended his services. He met her with a smile, peculiar to ministers, and the girl noted that there was a dimple in his chin. He stood waiting for her to state her errand. "The baby is very sick," she stammered, "and he hasn't been christened yet— nor baptized. Won't you come and attend to it, sir?" "I— I — what is your name, my good woman?" "I'm Edith Dexter— John Dexter's daughter." "John Dexter?" "Yes. You may not know him, but—" "Yes, I remember him. He is not — " "No; he does not belong to your church," replied the girl, surmising what the minister's pause meant. "He does not belong to any church; but mother was a member of your congregation. "A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 1107 You remember her, sir? Because she asked me to, I have come to you. The baby may not live Ions:, and I have neglected to have it baptized. You see — " she went ou hurriedly, as she noted the minister's smile change to an expression which looked like a frown— "you see, I'm not a regular church goer, and so, in the stress of our troubles, I forgot to take the little one to church; but if you'll come nov, sir." "You have been very neglectful," said he, "in denying the saving grace of the gospel to an helpless babe." "Yes; perhaps I have; but then—" She hardly knew what to say, so her words ended in a moan. The parson went to the window and looked out. The rain beat against the glass. He looked at his watch. "It is late tonight," he said, "and I have much to do; a number of calls yet to make before morning, but I shall come to you as soon as possible." He took her address and bade her good night. She ran back home through the darkness and rain. Jennie was heroically trying to keep awake, and the baby was lying as she had placed it. The young woman threw her wet shawl over a chair by the fire in the grate, and picked up the infant. It opened its eyes and looked at her, but lay very still. ''Baby dear! baby dear! ' she crooned as a mother would. "Dear little brother, stay with us! We want a brother so bad — a brother to grow up to be a man. Baby, dear, dear — " She lifted the tiny thing up and gently pressed her lips to its cheek. "What shall we name you? John, after father, or Paul? Jennie, what shall we name little brother?" But Jennie was fast asleep. Outside, the noises grew fewer, as the city took upon itself the quiet of midnight. The rain still fell, and a wind from the sea drove it against the windows. Edith placed some coal on the fire, and drew her chair nearer. She tried to have the baby feed from a spoon, but it would not respond to the coaxing touches. Why did not the parson come? Dear baby! What a frail, flower-like thing it was! thought Edith. Why should it have to be baptized, anyway? She had a faint recollection of the preacher's saying that baptism was for the remission of sins. But what sins had the baby committed? What 1108 IMPROVEMENT ERA. wrong could it have thought or done in its few days of earthly life? But the mother had been a believer, and if by any rite or ceremony in this life the baby would get a safer journey to heaven to join its mother, why, by all means, let it be done. There may be something in it, or the mother would not have been so anxious. As for herself, she had not bothered much with religion, especially since Paul Weldon had become religious and had tried to convert her to his peculiar views. Paul used to come to see her. It seemed an age since she had quarreled with him and had sent him away, though it had been only a year. He, also, was a seaman, and goodness knows in what part of the world he was roving. Sailors get to see the world, anyway, while the women stay within the narrow confines of the smoke-begrimed town, grinding out their lives in some shop or mill. . . . The clock struck twelve. There is the minister! No; it was but a gust of wind. The watcher with her babe looked out of the window, but all was still now. She paced softly back and forth on the flour until one o'clock, but no parson came. Then she sat down again by the glowing coals. The baby was cold; its little hands and feet were like ice. She rubbed them gently by the fire, but the child lay motionless in her hands. Its faint breathing could hardly be detected. The clock struck two. How the wind howled outside! The sign-boards of the shops on the corners rattled and creaked! A boat on the river signalled hoarsely that it was coming into harbor. Jennie slept soundly in the corner. The little babe became stiller and colder, if that were possible; then there was a twitching of the face, a spasmodic movement of its limbs, and then it lay limp and dead. The girl knew now that all was over with "little brother," so she placed him gently in his crib and spread the sheet over his lifeless form. Then the intense strain was relaxed, and Edith sank into a chair, sobbing out her grief until the early hours of the morning. Added to all her sorrows was now another: she had permitted the child to die unbaptized. She had neglected it until it was too late. What if it had died in its sins, and was now beyond the reach of salvation, beyond the reach of its sainted mother! And she — she had been the cause of its destruction! 'UA LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 1109 The minister came as the daylight was creeping through the window. He explained that he had been detained longer than he had expected. "It's now too late," she said, "the child is dead." He stood looking at the distracted young woman, and there was a mixture of sternness and pity in his gaze. "You have neglected a solemn duty," he said; "and now we must trust that God will have pity." "In what way?" asked she, realizing in a dim way what she wanted to know. "We shall hope that the child is an Elect infant," he replied. "And if he is not, what then?" "It is not for me to say." "Do you mean, parson, that there is a possibility of my little brother's having been lost? he who has been innocent of any wrong or sin?" "We all sin and fall short of the salvation of the Lord." "But he was such a mite— and he lived only two weeks- he-" "There is no sin so small but it deserves damnation. . . . Can I be of any service to you in any way?" Edith Dexter arose. She was not a bad looking girl, though now she was sadly worn with toil and shaken with sorrow. She straightened herself, however, holding her head firmly erect. "No;" she said defiantly, "you cannot help me— neither you nor your religion— a religion which sends innocent babes to hell. No, thank you!" The parson retreated to the door, paused there for a moment, and then passed out. When he had gone, the young woman went to the dead child, lifted the cover, and touched softly its cold cheek. Then she drew the sheet over again. She locked the door, then blew out the lamp. The rain had ceased, and the clouds were scudding before a wind high up in the heavens. Edith lay down by her sister, gently drew the sleeper's head against hers, and remained still. In a little while she, too, was fast asleep. 1 1 10 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . II. One warm afternoon in July Paul Weldon stood in the open doorway of No. 14 Willmington Street, looking into the little front parlor. He heard a noise, as of someone scrubbing a floor at the back, and he hesitated whether or not to give some taps with the knocker, or to go around to the back. As a rule, women do not like to have visitors on wash or scrub days, and he was not sure of a welcome under the most favorable conditions. Paul was a young man of twenty-eight, tall and well-formed. He was dressed in clothes that had the marks of a tailor's recent pressing, and he looked "sprucy" enough to call on the finest lady in the land. Paul rapped, and the scrubbing ceased. A back door opened part way, and Edith Dexter' s head peered around. "Who is it? What's wanted?" she asked. Then she recog- nized the visitor and continued, "Why, Paul, is that you? Come in and sit down, while I finish the floor." She closed the door and went to work again. Paul stepped in and looked around. He saw the same little parlor with the same furniture and ornaments that had been there a year ago. Not even a chair had been changed from its accustomed place, and his own photograph leaned, as usual, against the vase on the mantel. When Edith came in, he saw that she had changed her dress and smoothed her hair. They looked at each other earnestly, as they soberly shook hands. "You look well," she said. "And you," he replied, "you have changed a bit." "Yes; we live in a world of change. I suppose you have heard of us?" "Yes; I saw your father at Suez, on his way through the canal to Calcutta. He told me about your troubles, and he asked me to call on you when I got home. I landed yesterday after- noon." "Thank you. Is he well? I haven't had a letter for three weeks." "He was well, and bearing up under his trouble manfully. I "A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 1111 was to tell you, from him, that you were to take care of yourself and Jennie, and you were not to work too hard." "He's a dear dad," she said with a smile. "Where's Jennie? She's grown some, I suppose?" "She'll be home from school shortly." "Are you through with your Saturday's house-cleaning, Edith?" "Nearly, just a little dusting." "Dusting? I don't see any dust." "No, I suppose not; but I can." "Well, when you're through, let's take a little trip across the river. The air is clean and cool out there, and Jennie will enjoy digging in the sand." "Well, I—" "I promised your father to help you. You look tired. An out will do you good. I've a lot to tell you, and you've a lot to tell me. It will be pleasanter to talk out there." She had seated herself on the piano stool, and now she looked at the young man across the room, debating within herself whether or not to go. It took but a moment to decide, however. "It's good of you. Yes; I'll go." Half an hour later Paul, Edith, and the delighted Jennie were on the ferry boat crossing the big Mersey river. The wind came cool from the sea, sweeping the smoke of the city inland. They landed at New Brighton Pier. The tide went out, and the clear, firm sand lay in great banks along the shore. Jennie soon became busy with bucket and spade, while Edith and Paul sat on one of the nearby seats watching her. They looked not only at the playing child, but out at the river, alive with craft of all kinds: the small sail boat, tacking back 'and forth up the river; fishing smacks coming in from the Irish sea; the ferry-boats loaded with passengers, and serving as movable bridges between the busy cities on either side; the little low-lying tug boats with hawser attached to a string of coal-laden barges; another puffing tug, bringing in a big sailing ship, per- haps laden with a cargo from the antipodes; big tramp steamers, carrying freight to and from all parts of the world; the palatial ocean gray-hound, slowly but majestically gliding down the river 1112 IMPROVEMENT ERA. into the sea, which it will cross in a week and disembark its passen- gers on the American shore. From the river they look out to the open sea and sky, dotted with sails and streaked with smoke. The lighthouse stands high on the uncovered rocks, and children are wading in the pools of water left by the receding waves. The grim port lies watching at the mouth of the river. The eye lingers on sea and sky, on such a day as this, not landward on houses or green fields or forests beyond. "The sailor must lead a free, open life," remarked Edith. "You think so because you look at it from a distance," he replied. "Your viewpoint is from the land. It is dreary and hard enough to be that fisherman on yonder smack, or the sailors on that big schooner, not to mention the slaves in the stoke-hole of an ocean liner." Paul told her of his voyaging for the past year, and she spoke of her hard experiences at home. Not once did either of them mention that which had caused their last quarrel — there might never have been a quarrel between them, it was so com- pletely hidden. They both seemed glad enough to forget any unpleasantness of the past in the enjoyment of the present. He told some merry jokes, and she laughed roses into her cheeks. Jennie played until she became hungry, and then they opened the basket and partook of an appetizing luncheon. On the way home, she asked him to eat Sunday dinner with them. "You don't go to church?" he enquired. "No; I haven't been for six months." "I ought to run home and see mother, but — " "Go see your mother," she interrupted; "you can visit with other people when you no longer have a mother. Come and see us when you return." "May I, Edith?" "Why, certainly. Come at any time. You're welcome." A seaman on land is usually his own master. Paul Weldon was in no hurry to ship on a long voyage that summer; in fact, he was seriously thinking of quitting the sea for good. Edith's work at the shop was not confining, so she had a good many afternoons off, which were usually spent with Jennie and Paul on the river, "A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THE Mr 1113 or on the sands, or in the parks. Every Sunday morning the two sisters went to the cemetery, and spent the morning in caring for their two graves. The second Sunday after his return, Paul went with them. It was a beautiful morning, and the tram-car ride to the suburbs and then the walk out between the fields to the grave yard were delightful. Jennie was talkative, but Edith was silent. She never performed this weekly duty unaccompanied with ser- ious thoughts. There were the two mounds— the one under which all that was earthly of her mother lay, and the little one, covering the remains of the tiny brother who had died without baptism. The uncertainty of his fate had grieved her very much. The minister had hinted that the babe was lost, and whenever that thought came to her, her heart sank like lead, the beauty of field and flower vanished, and her soul seemed to harden; and such a feeling at the graves of loved ones, was indeed to be in misery. "Edith," asked Paul that morning, "why do you never go to church?" "Because I do not believe in the preacher, or what he says." "I suppose you mean the Presbyterian minister that your mother worshiped with?" "Yes." "Well, there are others. You might find some that would please you." "No; I have tried a good many. They are all very much alike. Would you advise me to try yours? Everbody's religion and preachers, like everybody's children, are the best." Paul laughed. "I fear you would not fancy my minister," he said. "Why not?" "Well, he is only a boy, not so old as I am; he can't preach; he doesn't know much scripture, and he makes a good many grammatical and other errors when he talks." The young woman looked at Paul as if he were trying a joke on her. "It's a fact," he continued; "but for all that he knows more gospel truth than many a highly educated minister." 1114 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Perhaps; I shall not deny that; but let's not talk about religion today; we might get into another discussion. The graves look fresh, don't they, after the rain?" Paul and Edith were much together during the summer. He had loved the girl for years, and he had told her of it a number of times in the past. Since his return he had not spoken to her of his love, but he had shown by every action towards her that he still felt the same; and she appeared to feel more kindly towards him. He had tried a number of times to talk to her about that which lay so near his heart, but each time she had evaded the sub- ject; she was getting somewhat of a puzzle to the young man. One Sunday evening, towards the close of the summer, they were alone. Jennie had gone to bed, and the weather did not per- mit of a walk. They were sitting by the table, one on each side of the lighted lamp, she turning over the leaves of a magazine, and he doing nothing at all but looking at her. The conversation had been somewhat halting, and then there had been a long pause. "Edith," he began, "you must listen to me tonight. You know I love you, have never ceased loving you; but 1 don't under- stand you. Sometimes you act as if you thought a little of me, and then again you seem not to care." "I do care for you, Paul." "Not enough to marry me, I fear." "I'm not going to marry." "Edith, don't say that! You can't mean that!" "I do mean it." She ceased playing with the magazine, and looked directly at him across the table. "I don't understand. You have given me encouragement, haven't you?" "Yes, I suppose I have; and I will say this, Paul, I shall marry you, if I ever marry at all; but I have made up my mind not to get married. I suppose I have been wrong in encouraging you, but I couldn't bear to treat you other than kindly, because — ■ you see— I do think a lot of you; and you have been very good to me and Jennie." He looked dumbly at her. "You don't understand. No, of course not; but I'll tell you — "A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 1115 that is no more than right. . . . When mother died, she left a little baby. I cared for it until it, too, died— in about two weeks. Mother, before she went, asked me to see that it was properly baptized, but I, in my worry and care, forgot to do it. The night before it died, I went in a hurry to mother's minister and asked him to come and baptize the child. He came in the morning, when it was too late. And then he intimated to me that, because of my neglect, the poor, innocent thing had not gone to its mother in heaven, but that it was among the lost!'' "But, Edith—" "Wait, listen. I spoke impatiently to him; I could not help it. My heart hardened against him and his religion. After the little thing had been laid beside its mother, I thought much on what the minister had said — got out my catechism and read what it said there — and, oh, it said it plainer than the preacher did! 'Elect infants, dying in infancy, are saved;' which implies that some infants are not elect and, therefore, not saved. I read also that punishment for sin in the next world is 'everlasting separa- tion from God, and most grievous torments in hell-fire forever' — and my baby might be suffering that! Paul, it seems as though I was its mother, and I loved it very dearly. The next time the minister called on us, which was a few days after the funeral, I told him that if my babv had gone to hell, I wanted to go there, too. It was wicked of me, I know, but I couldn't help it. I felt like that, then, and I feel like that yet." "And so do I, Edith." She did not notice what he said, but continued in a hard voice: "I made up my mind then and there that I would have noth- ing more to do with ministers and religion. I won't say but there is some good in them, but I have suffered sc — " "Such doctrine is all wrong, Edith. Surely you do not believe that your babe is in hell?" "No; but the books teach that it might be possible. And I have been taught it; but I don't know— I don't know!" "Edith, what's that got to do with your loving me, and your marrying me?" "Much, Paul, much. Can't you see?" 1116 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "No; I can't see, Edith." He arose and went around to her chair. The tears were flowing unhindered down her cheeks. "I love you, and want you," he said tenderly. "Don't!" she sobbed. "I can't — I mustn't marry you!" She pushed him gently away, and he went back again to his seat. He was silent. "I'll be plain with you," she went on presently. "If we should get married, we may — we very likely would, have children. Who is to assure me that they will be Elect children? They may be predestined to hell-fire forever, and I would be the mother who would bring them to such a fate. No; Paul, never, never!" She breathed hard for a few minutes and then bowed her face on her hands as she sobbed. Paul went to the window, and then back to the table, stopping again at her chair. He placed his hand on her bowed head. After a time she controlled herself, and smiled faintly up at him. "Listen to me," he pleaded. "I'll go over here and talk to you across the table." "All right, I'll listen." "I have said very little to you about my religion sin^e I came back, Edith, because I remember what took placj a year ago; but, my dear girl, I tell you most solemnly that your babe is not among the lost. It is saved in the kingdom of God, for Jesus said 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Your Westminster Con- fession and your catechism are mistaken. Let me read to you what the Lord says about infants." He took from his pocket a book, and turning over its leaves for a moment he read: . Little children need no repentance, neither bap- tism. Behold, baptism is unto repentance, to the fulfiling of the commandments unto the remission of sins. " 'But little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world. 'Little children cannot repent, wherefore it is awful wicked- ness to deny the pure mercies of God unto them, for they are all alive in him because of his mercies.' " "Where is that found?" she asked. "That is from the Book of Mormon." "Is that the book you spoke to me about?" Citation: Anderson, Nephi, ““A Little Child Shall Lead Them”,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1105–1117. # What Shall We Do with Our Boys? "A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 1117 "Yes; and listen — " She looked at him across the table a? he talked. His eyes glowed and his earnest words rang true. He spoke of God's love for all mankind in providing a Redeemer who had atoned for the sins of the world; how this atoning grace was given to all unaccountable beings freely and without conditions on their part; how repentance and baptism applied only to those capable of discerning between right and wrong; how that infants, although born into a world of sin, were yet innocent, and, therefore, mem- bers of God's great heavenly kingdom. The young woman asked Paul many questions, all of which he answered fully and carefully, quoting passages from the Bible to prove his statements. As he talked, the shadows which seemed always to lurk in her face, began to disappear. Darkness vanished before the rising sun, and her soul arose from a region of gloom and despair into one of light and gladness. Time sped, and it was midnight before they were aware of it. "You are quite a preacher," she remarked, when the subject seemed exhausted. "Where did you learn all that?" "From my books and the inspiration of the Lord to me. I have had both with me on my sailing around the world -but you don't like preachers, and here I have been—" "Oh, but I'll acknowledge that there is a difference in preach- ers. Is what you have been telling me 'Mor monism?"' "Yes; but that is just one of the precious pearls from its endless chain of truth." "Well," said she, with more genuine happiness expressed in her words than he had heard for a long time, "If that's true, I— I — with you for the preacher— wouldn't mind being a 'Mormon' myself." And then he went around once more to her side of the table. What Shall We Do With Our Boys? BY ELDER JOSEPH E. TAYLOR. Why is this question so often asked, and by whom? Is it by the parents of the youth of Zion? If so, they are the ones who should be prepared to answer the question in its entirety — being, in the main, if not solely, responsible as far as a proper teaching and training of their sons is concerned. I was asked the question, the other day, "Is there any revela- tion giving instructions that are particularly applicable to our youth during the adolescent period?" I answered: Special instructions have been given to parents in regard to their children. No age has been specified, except that which relates to their baptism. The other revelations apply to all individuals who are accountable, in their separate and distinct spheres. The relation of parents and children, those who have been born in the new and everlasting covenant, is an eternal one; and no son thus born must ever consider himself as freed from the responsibility of paying that respect and reverence, as well as per- forming that filial duty which is demanded of him in that rela- tionship. To illustrate: The burden of the Savior's utterances while in mortality was the name, "My Father," honoring and recognizing him along every line, extolling him at every point, declaring, "I come not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." And although, as Isaiah and John the Revelator said of him, he had "trod- den the wine press alone," in accordance with the Father's will, and secured a victory so complete as to be able to present to the Father a redeemed and glorified earth and people — yet that Son took no honor t) himself. On the contrary, as Paul says, "Then WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR BOYS? 1119 shall the Son, also, himself be subject unto him, [the Father] that God may be all in all." Therein is exhibited the very acme of filiation, setting thereby such a noble example, that, if followed, will redound to the honor of every son of a noble sire. The Father in return, after having received a redeemed earth and people from his obedient Son, now gives them back to him and crowns him "King of kings and Lord of lords." In treating upon the responsibility of parents, it may be well to commence with the mother; for to her belongs the duty of teaching and instructing the babe — the child. President Brigham Young covered the ground in a discourse delivered by him in April, 1852. He said: Education commences with the mother and child in connection — before it is born. It depends mainly upon the mother as to what children receive in early age, of principle of every description. I will tell you the truth, as you will find it in eternity. If your children do not receive impressions of true piety, virtue, and every principle of the holy gospel, you may be assured that their sins will not be required at the hands of the father — but the mother.* What is imbibed in infancy is the most lasting upon the mind through life. The early impressions that she gives the child, will be the char- acteristic points in his character through every avenue of his mortal exist- ence. If mothers will take proper pains, they can instil into the hearts of their children what they please. The pride which a mother takes in clothing her children prop- erly is a pardonable one. But this is merely outward adornment, and too often viewed as all-sufficient. But what about the spirits that inhabit their bodies, the training of which she has been entrusted with? These came from God, and will go back to him with a history of their treatment while in mortality. A father has a separate responsibility, as well as that in com- mi n with the mother. Hp should, to the extent of his ability, provide them with an education, associated with an influence of a * We think the intent of this remark would be better expressed, perhaps, in these words: "Their sins will not be required at the hands of the father alone, but of the mother also, and it may be mainly." — Editor. Citation: Taylor, Joseph E., “What Shall We Do with Our Boys?,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1118–1120. # The Creation of the Earth 1120 IMPROVEMENT ERA. gospel character, to qualify them for their future, be it along the lines of literature, mechanism, science, art, or otherwise, suited if possible, to the capacity' and natural endowment of each child. To see that the home is supplied with a class of literature — besides that which is sacred— the tendency of which is essentially elevat- ing. To choose for their companions, among those of the!r own sex, those who are not only moral and intellectual, but spiritual withal. We should also provide legitimate and consistent amuse- ments, to fill a want which every child desires to have gratified. It is imperative that every father should set an example of righteous conduct, thus giving strength and power to every verbal instruction along religious lines. In short, he should exhibit such love and affection that will bind the child to parent and home. With your duty thus faithfully discharged, let one or more of your sons wilfully break loose from these moorings and wander away, he then becomes wholly responsible, and in due time, like the scriptural prodigal, he will humbly return to the family hearth- stone and receive forgiveness — the key of which every faithful father holds, and can turn for his son's salvation. The prophet Joseph said, concerning children born under the covenant, "When a seal is set upon the father and the mother, it secures their posterity so that they cannot be lost, but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father and mother." It would be cruel in the extreme to lay a son's imprudence and wrong-doing at the door of a faithful parent. As well might we make our Heavenly Father responsible for the iniquity of the "Son of the Morning;" or our Prophet Joseph responsible for the lack of faith and persistent opposition exhibited in the conduct of his sons. A just judgment comes from God alone. In conclusion, let me say the most potent influence that can be brought to bear upon our sons is that which originates in the home. The auxiliary organizations are important factors, which we consider indispensable, and are strong supporters of the home. Let this labor of love be commenced and continued around the family hearth, which will be met with a heart and soul response by our covenant born sons, thus solving fully and entirely the problen, "What shall we do witlTour boys?" The Creation of the Earth. BY FREDERICK J. PACK, A. M., PH. D., DESERET PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH. II. The following brief outline is intended only as a synopsis of the essential features of the principal hypotheses of earth origin. Lack of space has necessarily crowded out all detailed explana- tion, and in some cases even generalities are omitted. In most instances the bare conditions only are given, with little or no attempt to present the reasons therefor. It, of course, will be borne in mind that these hypotheses are not the result of idle minds. They have been worked out only through years of careful and intense application. Every feature presented has been bolstered up by careful deduction and wherever possible by observation. Hypothe- ses, of course, are not laws. Time only can prove whether they are true or untrue. They constitute the indispensible scaffold work used by the builders in constructing the great storehouse of scientific knowledge. HYPOTHESES OF EARTH ORIGIN.— THE LAPLACIAN OR " NEBULAR" HYPOTHESIS. The first definitely stated hypothesis of earth origin was that postulated by Laplace, near the beginning of the last century. It assumes that the matter now comprising the solar system was once in an extremely heated, gaseous condition, and in the form of a vast spheroid, extending beyond the present limits of Neptune, our most remote known planet. It is further assumed that this enormous mass was rotating in the same direction as the present 1 122 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . system. The origin of this mass was not postulated by Laplace, but has since been referred to the collision of pre-existing celestial bodies. The extreme tenuity or rarity of the material compris- ing this great spheroid is worthy of note. It will be recalled that Neptune is practically 2,775,000,000 miles distant from the sun, which means that the original spheroid would have a diameter of 5,550,000,000 miles. If the matter comprising our solar system were expanded into a mass of this size, the average density of the mateiial would be but a small fraction of a millionth of the density of our atmosphere at the earth's surface. Professor Moulton has calculated the average density of the mass, when expanded to the orbit of Neptune, to be 1-240,000,000 of the aver- age air at the surface of the earth. The hypothesis further holds that the gradual loss of heat by radiation resulted in contraction. According to certain definitely known laws of dynamics this shrinking would result directly in an increased rotation of the mass. It appears that a balance would soon be reached when there would be no further shrinkage in the equatorial portion. The polar regions, however, in which the cen- trifugal force (a) approaches zero, but in which the centripital force remains practically constant, would continue to contract, and thus the spheroidal mass would draw away from the equato- rial portion, forming a ring resembling, perhaps, those of Saturn. (a) The centrifugal force is well shown in the throwing of water from a rotating wheel, and in the "pull" exerted by a mass attached to a string, and revolved at a considerable velocity. The force necessary to restrain the mass from flying off at a tangent is termed the centripital force. This hypothesis assumes that the parent mass continued to cool and contract until additional rings, equalling in number the present planets, were left behind. It further assumes that the sun now constitutes the shrunken remnant of the original spheroid, after the various planetary rings had been formed. It is further held that as these rings cooled, they parted at their weakest points and each collected into a hot, gaseous spher- oid, not unlike the parent mass, and that these in turn, through cooling and shrinkage, gave rise to rings which evolved into the satellites of our present planets. THE CREATION OF THE EARTH. 1123 With respect to our own planet, it is believed that the mate- rial now comprising it and its satellite, the moon, was separated from the original spheriod at a somewhat late stage in the forma- tion of rings, the chronological order supposedly having been Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury. It is assumed that the earth-moon ring also collected into a hot, gaseous spheroid, which in turn gave rise to a ring now condensed into the moon. It was held by the original Laplacian hypothesis that the material comprising the earth, even after the separation of the moon ring, was in an exceedingly hot, gaseous condition. This continued to cool and to shrink, passing first through a liquid, and finally into its present state. It is postulated that the initiation of solidification began on the surface, which early resulted in the formation of a "crust" overlying a highly-heated liquid interior. At this stage a hot, gaseous atmosphere is supposed to have existed. As the result of further cooling it is assumed that the "crust" thickened, and that the heavier constituents of the atmosphere condensed and added to the outer portions of the earth. This condition of a highly heated interior is believed by the adherents of the hypothesis to have persisted to the present time, and in support of this Belief they point to the enormous quantities of liquid lava ejected through volcanic openings. By way of summary the following stages may be noted: A highly heated, rotating, gaseous nebula, spheroidal in form, and extending beyond the present orbit of Neptune; cooling accompanied by con- traction,resulting in an increased rotation; cessation of contraction in equatorial portion, but continued contraction in polar portion, resulting in the separation of a ring at the equator; continued cooling and shrinkage, resulting in the formation of rings equal in number to that of our planets; the breaking of the rings at places of least resistance, each forming a gaseous spheroidal planet, some- what resembling the parent nebula; cooling and contraction of planets, forming the satellite rings, which in turn broke and formed the satellites or moons; cooling of the planet with the appearance of the original solid crust, and accompanied by a highly heated gaseous atmosphere; continued cooling, resulting in the present condition of a supposed liquid interior enveloped by a 1124 IMPROVEMENT ERA. solid "crust," with contemporaneous modification of the at- mosphere. Serious doubts have recently arisen concerning several of the more or less important features of this hypothesis. It is, for instance, no longer held that the earth is a liquid mass enveloped in a comparatively thin but solid crust. On the contrary, the earth acts in almost every way very much like an extremely rigid mass. Latest developments, however, in seismological observa- tions, especially in the transmission of earthquake waves, lead to the belief that there may be some small portions of the earth's interior in a plastic or viscous condition, but it is' by no means believed that the interior is wholly liquid, as originally postulated by the nebular hypothesis. Grave doubts have also recently been cast upon several of the mechanical features of the hypothesis. It should be said, however, that many men of science still hold this hypothesis in some form or other, usual]y, however, very much modified. THE METEORIC HYPOTHESIS. It is a matter of common observation that fragments of metallic and stony matter enter the upper atmosphere nightly in great numbers, and that they occasionally reach the surface of the earth in solid form. This naturally gave rise to the sugges- tion that the earth may have arisen through the accumulation of meteoric particles. There appears, however, to be very little foundation for belief in the meteoric hypothesis in this form. Lockyear and George H. Darwin have presented some scholarly ideas pointing to a belief in the origin of the solar sys- tem from meteoric sources. But as the methods of accumulation do not materially differ from those outlined in the Laplacian hypoth- esis, we shall not go into further detail. It should, perhaps, be stated that the meteoric hypothesis, even in its best form, is not generally held by scientists. THE PLANETESIMAL HYPOTHESIS. The latest addition to our knowledge of earth origin is that embodied in the planetesimal hypothesis as announced by Cham- berlain and Moulton. Research, extending over a period of many THE CREATION OF THE EARTH. 1125 years, has convinced Chamberlain that the Laplacian hypothesis is seriously at fault, especially with respect to the mechanical way in which the solar system was evolved. Several other differences will also appear as the new hypothesis is outlined. For a full discussion of this work the reader is referred to Vol. II of Chamberlain and Salisbury's Geology, 1906. The authors of the new hypothesis find through astronomical observation that the prevailing type of nebula is spiral in form, and not spheroidal as assumed by Laplace. It is further observed that these spiral forms are composed of thinly attenuated nebulous material, interspersed here and there with denser portions called knobs, the nucleus or central knob being the largest. Revolu- tion takes place around this central mass. The planetesimal hypothesis postulates that the solar system was originally in the form of one of these spiral nebulae, and that the planets now occupy the positions of the original knobs. It further holds that the material comprising the nebula was in a cold, discrete condition, and that the accumulation of the material around these knobs took place by "overtake" rather than by "collision." The velocity of the nebulous particles appears to be such that if they were to collide they would be volatilized at once through the force of the impact. By means of overtake, the velocity of impact would be greatly reduced, and, therefore, accu- mulation made possible. The increase in size of the nuclei, or knobs, would be accompanied by an increase in temperature. This would be the result of two factors: firstly, the impact of incoming particles, and secondly, compression immediately attendant upon increase in size. It is worthy of note here that the Laplacian and the Planetesimal hypotheses differ materially with respect to temperature changes. The former holds to a constantly decreas- ing temperature, while the latter postulates an increasing temper- ature, contemporaneous with the planetary evolution. In a few words, then, it may be stated that the Planetesimal hypothesis assumes that the solar system was originally in the form of a great spiral nebula, that the accumulation of cold nebul- ous material around the nuclei gave rise to the planets, that the planets increased in temperature with size, and that they now revolve in the orbits originally marked out by the spiral knobs. 1126 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The satellites are explained to be the result of independent accu- mulation around nuclei subsidiary to the planets to which they belong. * * * * % Some further interesting differences in the two principal hypotheses may be pointed out. It has already been seen that they differ materially as to the temperature at various stages of planetary evolution. The Laplacian hypothesis originally held to a liquid interior, enveloped in a solidified portion called the crust. This, as already noted, would be impossible according to the Plane- tesimal hypothesis. It is not, however, out of harmony with the latter view to hold that the interior of the earth is highly heated, in fact, this is now practically a demonstrated fact. According to Laplace's hypothesis, the atmosphere has from the beginning formed a covering for the inner and more solid particles. Its composition has changed very materially through the various stages of planetary evolution, and is now composed of the final unconsolidated residuum. Chamberlain believes that the constituents of the atmosphere were originally included in the earth-stuff, and have subsequently been forced to the surface through the rise in temperature. Laplace's views would hold to a constantly decreasing atmosphere, and Chamberlain's to an increasing one. The Laplacian hypothesis derives the ocean water, or hydro- sphere, through precipitation from the atmosphere, while the Planetesimal hypothesis holds that all surface water has come from the interior, primarily forced out by the increasing pressure and temperature. The most recent investigation along this line seems to support Chamberlain rather than Laplace. * * * ■# * From the foregoing statement of differences it maybe thought that the two hypotheses are almost at complete variance. This, however, is not the case. They both derive the solar system from a parent nebula, which in turn, both agree, may have been derived through the collision or close approach of previously existing celestial bodies. They both postulate the rapid movement of matter, especially during the early stages of planetary evolution. THE CREATION OF THE EARTH. 1127 They both hold to the appearance of the oceanic bodies at a rather late stage in the formation of the planetary masses. And they both hold that the interior of the earth is much more highly heated than is the surface. The differences, therefore, are largely matters of detail in methods of accumulation. The bearing of many of the facts upon the subject of the Creation of the Earth will be emphasized in the following article. The Cry of Dolores. [Written for the Improvement Era by Mary S. Farnsworth, in honor of Mexico's Centennial day, September 16, 1910.] With joy we meet to bless the day, That heard Dolores' cry, And marks the century passed away That flung truth's pennon high. To honor those who nobly bled In freedom's glorious cause, With brave Hidalgo at their head, To crush a tyrant's laws. Three centuries 'neath a foreign power, In bondage worse than death, Induced brave souls at that sad hour To seek sweet freedom's breath, By casting off the tyrant's yoke, So long and meekly borne, Whose galling bonds, like thongs of oak, Their quivering flesh had torn. Their precious blood flowed not in vain, Which dyed their native sod, But shadowed forth a glorious reign, To lift them from the clod. God bless our Chieftain now in power, Loved Diaz, brave and true, 0 lengthen out his mortal hour! His health and strength renew. Citation: Pack, Frederick J., “The Creation of the Earth,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1121–1128. # Editor’s Table: Habit and Duty 1 128 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . Give knowledge, wisdom, gift and grace, Supply his every need, Until the end of life's grand race, Our Savior's lambs to feed. In every noble, val'rous deed, Let patriot souls rejoice, Released from faction, myth and creed, To make God's Truth their choice. For soon the promised day will come, When time shall be no more, Each soul called hence to Father's home On heaven's shining shore, To meet a judgment wise and just, Immortal hearts to thrill, As we have spurned God's holy trust, Or wrought his righteous will. Col. Diaz, Mexico. Pray. {For the Improvement Era.) "Pray, my darling, God will hear you; You are his beloved child," Holy angels ever near you Sweetly say in accents mild. Pray, 0 youth! 'tis his commandment That his children come to him; Without prayer the soul must languish, And the eye of faith grow dim. He who spake as man ne'er speaketh — Said, "pray always, flock of mine; Lest ye fall into temptation Ye must seek for power divine." Wheresoe'er on earth you wander You're a subject of his care; great a,ver. Mary A. Freeze. lou're a suoject oi nis care; Yet, you'll feel your claim the greater When you bow in humble prayer. Ma Editor's Table. Habit and Duty. A speaker called attention recently, at a priesthood meet- ng, to a boy who was called up by his teacher. She told him she was going to tie him up with a spool of thread, and the boy laughed at the idea of a little, weak woman tying him with a spool of thread. She had him put his thumbs up; they were crossed at the joints, and she began to wind the thread around them. She twisted the thread around, and around, and around again, until it had formed a band so strong that he could not move his thumbs; he was bound by this little string of thread. After a while she said, ' 'Let's see you break loose." He was powerless; he could not move his thumbs; he was fastened as securely as if with iron bands. So it is with habit. It is a duty to form good habits, and a sin to form bad habits. President Joseph F. Smith followed the first speaker. On this subject of habit and duty he said: "The force of habit, the strength of the little thread of habit, becomes wound around and around our lives, until we are bound by the weakest little thing in the world, to begin with; but by con- stant winding, constant using, constantly yielding to the habit of doing a thing, it is made obligatory upon us, and we cannot extri- cate ourselves from it. "I thought the remarks of the first speaker a very nice illustration, and want to say to you boys, if you will habituate yourselves to doing right, habituate yourselves to shunning evil, to turning away from temptation, and make it a habit of your lives to refuse to say ugly things, to refuse to associate with bad boys, to refuse to use bad words, to refuse to do anything that would grieve your father or your mother, or 1130 IMPROVEMENT ERA. that would bring shame or confusion to yourselves— if you will do that, it will become, not just like the thread of bad habit, but nevertheless the effect of it will be the same, only for good. It will become like the thread of good habit. You will be so wrapped up, and so bound up, in the habit to do good, that no temptation or power of the wicked one can become sufficiently strong to turn you away from that which is right, and pleasing and acceptable in the sight of the Lord. "I want to say another thing to you, boys. The holy priest- hood has been conferred upon you. Now, do yuu realize what the result will be if you do not honor it? Will you remember that the Lord has said, "Where much is given, much will be required?" And where men receive much and are unfaithful, that they shall be beaten with many stripes? Do you remember this scripture? "I want to say to you, boys, that unless you do your duty, having been called to the lesser priesthood, unless you magnify it, and honor it, and listen to good counsel, it will not be a pleasing thing, not an honor, not a reward of good behavior and merit to you, but it will be a means of condemnation, and eventually of sor- row, and perhaps darkness and apostasy." What is a Boy Worth? A PRIZE OF $20 IS OFFERED FOR THE BEST ANSWER. Bishop Roscoe W. Eardley, of the Liberty Stake of Zion, re- cently sent to a number of the leading brethren and sisters of his ward and stake the following letter, asking that they give an an- swer thereto in order that he might better understand their feel- ings in regard to the youth in their care. The superintendents of the Sunday schools, the Primary, and the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement associations were asked to give written answers to the letter. In order that the idea may be made more universal, the Im- provement Era offers a prize of twenty dollars for the best an- swer to the questions asked in the letter. This is open to any one, and answers are particularly wanted from those who have charge of the youth, in the Priesthood quorums, Sunday schools, EDITOR'S TABLE. 1131 Mutual Improvement associations, Primary associations, and Re- ligion classes. The replies that we ask for, and which should be sent to the Improvement Era, No. 20 Bishops' Building, no later than November 15, 1910, should contain not more than one thou- sand words. The writer of the best article will be awarded twenty dollars. All the papers will bel< rig to the Era, and a number of the best will be printed. The letter follows: Salt Lake City, Utah, Aug. 22, 1910. • Dear Feothfr: What is a boy worth? "What is a good hoy worth? A wayward one? How can you get the full value out of the boy? If you had a hoy and some good neighbor spoke a kind word to him, that kept him in the right road, or if he had struck an open switch and a helping hand was reached out that drew him back to the main line, how would you feel towards that neighbor? If you had a neighbor who said of your boy, "Am I my brother's keeper?" or who crossed to the other side of the road, as did the Levite on his way to Jericho, when he saw your boy down, naked, bruised and bleeding, what would you think of that neighbor? We talked about boys yesterday morning in our bishop's meeting, and we want to talk about boys next Thursday evening in our teachers' meeting. That all may be interested, we suggest that if any of the districts have not been visited this month, they be visited between now and Thursday, and at least the name and age of every boy on every "beat" be learned. Let's be prompt at 7:45. Sincerely your brother in the Gospel. Close of Volume Thirteen. This number closes volume thirteen of the Improvement Era. The editors and managers are thankful to the writers who have made this volume one of the most interesting and valuable in the history of the magazine. Numerous letters from the elders abroad, and young men in all parts of the Church at home, have expressed their appreciation of the help the Era has been to them, in that it has been a medium through which they have received valuable instructions in a general way, and specifically pertaining to their work in the Priesthood quorums, in the Mutual 1132 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Improvement associations, and in the traveling and preaching of the gospel abroad. None the less grateful are we all to the officers of the Y. M. M. I. A., ably supported by the presidents of stakes, bishops of wards, and the priesthood generally, whose loyalty and energetic labors gave this volume now closing such a wide circulation that the general superintendency and the board of aids were enabled to add sixteen pages of reading to every number of the magazine. Through this means not only more but a greater variety of matter was insured, and subscribers have not only received what was promised, but much more, a characteristic of the Era from the very first. Now, 1-t us unitedly put forth every effort to circulate the new volume beginning in November, as extensively as the present one, and to bend every energy to make it merit the patronage and support of every lover of good literature. The prospectus in this number sets forth some of the attractive features for the new vol- ume, which we believe will appeal to all lovers of good reading, and an up-to-date magazine. The Improvement Era. is sent free to missionaries, which is a consideration for every subscriber interested in the spread of the gospel, for by this means he becomes an active agent in one of the grandest causes of the Church — the promulgation of the gospel message to the world- And at the same time he receives full value personally in the magazine itself for his investment. A manual — either senior or junior— is given free with each subscription as usual. These books in themselves are valuable and attractive reading for the home. The senior manual, a book of one hundred and eight pages, deals with economics as related to good citizenship, and the junior (one hundred and sixteen pages) is a book of anecdotes and stories on the development of character, especially suitable for young people. We invite every reader of the present volume to renew his subscription now, feeling assured that he will be pleased with what we have to offer in the new volume. We feel confident that a careful reading of each number will give delight and instruction to all, and create a genuine sense of enthusiasm for priest- hood, missionary, and Mutual work. It is with gratitude to the EDITOR'S TABLE. 1133 Lord for the success of the past that we pen these closing words in volume thirteen; and with hopeful anticipations for the future, we appeal to the priesthood and the officers of the Y. M. M. I. A. to prove loyal to the new volume fourteen. Death of Bathsheba Wilson Smith. Bathsheba Wilson Smith, president of the Relief Societies of the Church in all the world, and widow of George Albert Smith, who was counselor to Brigham Young and a cousin to Joseph Smith the prophet, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Clarence Merrill, in Salt Lake City, September 20, 1910. She was born at Shinnston, Harrison county, West Virginia, May 3, 1822, and was the daughter of Mark Bigler and Susannah Ogden. She was a member of the first Relief Society organized by the Prophet Joseph in Nauvoo, March 17, 1842, since which time she has been promi- nently connected in various capacities with that splendid organiza- tion. On October 3, 1901, she was chosen president of the soci- eties in all the world, and the general conference of the Church ratified the choice November 10, of that year. She continued to act in that office until death. She was a loveable, true and faith- ful character, and a prominent worker in the temple for many years. Always, her life was devoted to the mission of the Church and the cause of God. Messages from the Missions. Elder W. E. Tangreen gives a report of the methods of conducting mission labors in Savaii. Samoa. His letter reached the Era July 29, and he states that about a year ago Elders L. L. Gardner and J. T. Blake established the Falelima school, and began the labor of allaying the strong prejudice against the Latter-day Saints mission, so general throughout the island of Savaii. Teachers of other denominations were working eagerly to poison the minds of the people with untruthful stories concerning the Church. One of these untruthful reports was that the L. D. S. mission had gained the governor's disfavor and was 1134 IMPROVEMENT ERA. about to be driven from Samoa. Under these conditions, the natives would scarcely have courage to join our ranks, even though converted to our doctrine, neither vould they show an interest in us, lest they bring the reproach of the community upon them, as the Samoan is greatly influenced by old customs and traditions. Strange to say, through the craft of sectarian ministers, many communities in that region have been led into making an oath to God that their families would join no other church. If any one breaks this oath, he is liable to be disfellowshiped or driven from the village, unless he has enough adherents to make him safe in the establishment of a branch of the Church. This holds in dark- ness many an honest soul who would gladly accept the gospel, but has not courage to leave for it father, mother, inheritance and worldly prestige. Elder Tangreen continues: "Elder D. C. McBride, president of the Savaii conference, attended the April conference at Upolu and reported the labors of the Savaii elders and Saints. He explained that there was a growing sentiment in favor of 'Mormonism,' and that it needed only a little work in some villages to give them prestige enough to establish a branch of the Church. Many prospective converts were waiting to see some of the fruits of our labors on Upolu and Tutuila, and to get an assurance that the Latter-day Saints' mission is permanent. . 4 i*' 7 WP*" a^ Br" 2. "^1^^ " -<*-w_- . Zl.~rf«^ -**•'' *-■ -Ul i wfi ELDERS AND SAMOAN SAINTS WITH THE L. D. S. MISSION BOAT. EDITOR'S TABLE. 1135 "The Sauniata Amusement Club, composed of young folks who have studied in the Church schools, had just given a very impressive enter- tainment before the conference gathering. It had convinced all present that 'Mormonism' is alive and growing. "President William A. Moody called about twenty of the best sing- ers and actors to accompany him in a tour of Savaii. The writer was also privileged to join the party. It was planned to hold meetings and give an entertainment in a number of the most favorable villages. "With a party of about twenty eight in number, we set out in a row-boat from Apia, the capital and chief seaport of German Samoa, and landed at Lalomalava, Savaii. There, five converts were baptized and a branch was established, in the midst of a bitter community. A native missionary from our party was appointed to preside over the new flock. "Word spread quickly throughout the island that the Latter-day Saints' school choir was traveling with a program. Their fame went before them, and people were anxious to receive the party. Invitations were received from many villages to visit them, but the limited time would not permit the acceptance of all. We had but twenty-five days to complete the trip, so it was necessary to stop only in villages where the most effective work could be done. "After several days of very effective work, the party reached Pale- lima, the largest of the three Savaii branches. There we spent two days. Four meetings were held, one of which was at the water's edge, where three were baptized. With a growing interest in the gospel, and a pro- gressive school taught by Elders J. T. Blake and M. I. Bird, Falelima bids fair to become a very thrifty branch. Near the end of the journey we called at Si 'Ufaga, where Elders E. P. Christensen and E. D. Hick- man are in charge of the branch and school. "During the twenty-five .days spent in circling Savaii, twenty-two meetings were held, and the program was given in sixteen villages. In almost every instance a large and appreciative audience was in attend- ance. A few villages, however, seemed cool in their reception of the party.but after spending a night and the greater part of a day with each of them, we parted with a feeling of friendship. There is now a stand- ing invitation, in most of the visited villages, for elders to call. Con- ference President D. C. McBride feels elated over the party's success. He has bright hopes for the future. Many new homes have been opened to the elders, and much prejudice allayed. People have come to know that the Latter-day Saints' mission is alive and growing. The demonstration made by the choir added greatly to the ever-growing fame of the mission school. It also added ten or twelve to its enrollment. 1 136 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . ' 'One of the many pleasant experiences of the journey was a two- days' visit at the Savaii volcano. The great crater has continued active during the past five years, weakening at times, only to break out afresh to flood the surrounding country with a new coat of lava. "Upon returning to Apia, President Moody was shown a letter writ- ten by the governor of German Samoa to a native missionary at Laloma- lava, the new branch on Savaii. It was a notification to the missionary to discontinue Latter-day Saint services in that village, until permis- sion was given by all its chiefs. It was easily to be seen that if such rul- ing remain, there would be little chance of establishing a new branch of the mission in German Samoa. With difficulty President W. A. Moody and Conference President A. Jensen succeeded in getting an interview with his excellency, Governor Solf . At first he seemed bitter, but upon learning something of their purposes, and of the work being done by the mission, he considered their plea for rights. A letter bearing his seal was sent to Lalomalava, to cancel the order of his first letter, and to inform the village chiefs to give the Saints their rights. He also promised not to interfere with our work. Word was received, last week, from Elder D. C. McBride, that another branch of the mission had been established on Savaii, and that others are expected to follow soon. Aided by the guiding hand of the Almighty, we hope the good work will continue." Concerning the banishment from Berlin, mentioned and commented upon in the September Era, President Thomas E. McKay reported further to the Millennial Star of August 11, as follows: "At a regular registered Thursday night meeting, held in our hall at Berlin, Landsbergerster 32, there were assembled about three hun- dred of our members and friends. Among these were about twenty-five • Americans, some of whom are students of music, registered in Berlin, others were visiting for the first time, and some were missionaries, who were seeing a few of the larger cities of Germany on their way to the big conference at Rotterdam. "They were all present at this meeting, especially to hear President Clawson. During the services, and while President Clawson was still speaking, a uniformed officer, followed by a policeman and six or more detectives, walked through the aisles to the speaker's stand, and the officer in a loud, excited tone of voice declared the meeting closed, and ordered all women to leave the hall at once. There would have been some excitement and remonstrance right here, but one of the elders, in a subdued but firm tone of voice, told the officer not to get excited, and also requested the people to leave the hall as quietly and as quickly as EDITOR'S TABLE. 1137 possible. As soon as the women were out, the men of German birth were allowed to go. Then all the Americans, students, tourists and missionaries were escorted in twos to the police station. Here a request was made to get into telephone communication with our ambassador, Dr. Hill. Mr. Andelin, a grand opera singer, also asked the privilege of communicating the news of his whereabouts to his wife and babes. Both requests were denied. The twenty-one Americans were required to give their names, ages, birthplaces, parents' names, home addresses, etc., and then empty their pockets. Their money was carefully counted, and a detailed account of every article written down. All articles were then placed carefully away in large envelopes, and properly named. They were then shown to their sleeping apartments. These consisted of separ- ate cells, about six feet wide and twelve feet long. The beds were clean. "The next morning at seven, breakfast, consisting of a cup of coffee and a piece of black bread, was served but not eaten. At ten o'clock all were lined up, the roll called, and then marched to a small waiting room, where they were detained until 2:30 o'clock, when, with- out any hearing whatever, they were each given banishment papers, which allowed three days to lea/e Prussia. No other reason than 'undesirable foreigners' is given for the banishment. "The case is now in the hands of our embassy, and will be vigorously protested. "The intelligent and thinking class of Germans, and the police authorities themselves, are disgusted with such actions, which are brought about almost entirely by a few officers who are used as tools in the hands of so-called Christian ministers— Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees. "The desire of the people in Germany for a square deal to all, and especially for religious freedom, is becoming too strong to much longer allow such high-handed discrimination to continue." Elder Joseph S. Johnson, writing from Thames, New Zealand, July 27, says that the elders are energetic in their labors, and the work of the Lord is progressing steadily in that far-off land, while opposition is gradually dying out. "While we enjoy the many beauties of this south- ern land, we have not forgotten our mountain homes, and one who sees the beauties of that goodly land cannot help but declare that the hand of the Lord is over his people, and by his aid they will become a power in the earth." Elder Johnson sends a picture of the elders laboring in Thames, and adds: "Two are native elders of New Zealand, who have been called to labor in the ministry in connection with the elders from Zion, and it is with great pride that they perform their labors and testify ELDERS LABORING IN THAMES, NEW ZEALAND. Reading from left to right the elders are: (standing) A. E. Burt, Brig- ham City, Utah; E. T. Kupa, New Zealand. (Sitting) F. E. Thomas, Manassa. Colorado; J. S. Johnson, Collinstoh, Utah; W. H. Humph- reys, Millville, Utah; E. Kamau, New Zealand. to the divinity of the work that they are engaged in. And it is through their faithfulness to the commandments of God that they are able to bear testimony to the world that the gospel of Christ has been restored to earth, with all the keys and powers necessary to carry on the work for the salvation of the souls of men, and bring about that peace on earth and good will to men, that the gospel will surely bring." Elder Joseph W. Nuttall, writing from Huntsville, Missouri, Septem- ber 2, encloses a photograph of the elders laboring there, and says: "Up until June 1, we elders had been working in the eastern half of the state by counties, and doing what good we could. The president decided to change our efforts to campaign work, so that we would be able to accom- plish more and come in contact with more people, and also enable us to hold meetings in the cities. On June 12, five of us, who formed Com- pany A, met in Huntsville, where we commenced our work. Other elders met in other counties and formed companies. Street meetings were held in Huntsville, but the people were prej- udiced and paid little heed. The elders traveled through the northern Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Editor’s Table: Habit and Duty,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1129–1139. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table COMPANY A, MISSOURI CONFERENCE. Top row, left to right: Clarence N. Parker, Hooper, Utah; Amnion L. Johnson, Barnwell, Canada; Alma Fullmer, Springville, Utah. Bottom row: Jospeph E. McKean, Wood's Cross; Joseph W. Nuttall, Provo, Utah. counties, and were received kindly in most settlements, while in other places the people were hostile, and little good was accomplished. "In our travels we find that the people are becoming more acquainted with us, and the old, bitter prejudice is dying away with the older people. We quite often meet with people who were acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and with Brigham Young, and they will admit that they had some other power than man's, to enable them to accomplish the work they did, and they wish us God's speed in our good work." While the elders were traveling in the northern part of the state they visited Nau- voo, and were received by the people, who made their visit as pleasant as possible. The old buildings that were occupied by the prophet and early Church leaders are still standing and are occupied. They visited Carthage jail, the scene of the martyrdom. Many of the people asked when the "Mormons" were coming back, and other such questions, and stated that if the Saints had remained there, they believe that Nauvoo would now be as large as Kansas City. In their travels the elders crossed and re-crossed many old "Mormon" trails, and heard many comments on the hardships our people endured in their enforced travels. Eldei Nuttall adds: "These things strengthen our faith, cause us to press on in our work, and do all the good we can in bringing the children of men to the truth of the gospel. We enjoy reading the Era; it is doing a great deal of good in the mission field." Priesthood Quorums' Table. Methods of Training Ordained Teachers for the Per- formance of Practical Duties. — At the Tri-stake Priesthood Conven- tion, Ogden, July 10, James R. Beus, of the Weber stake High Council, spoke as follows: In dealing with this subject, I think it important that we learn something of the nature of these practical duties. I shall, for conve- nience, classify a few of them under two general headings— 1, General, 2, Specific — and attempt to name and discuss a few that I shall assign to those respective headings. I.— General: a. To lead a clean, pure, honest, upright life. b. To attend the weekly priesthood meetings, c. To have a profound respect for God and his laws. II.— Specific:— a. Deacons and teachers should be appointed to watch over the Church, to be standing ministers to the Church (Doc. and Co v. 84: 111). The teacher's duty is to watch over the Church always, and be with and strengthen them, and see that there is no iniquity in the Church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil speaking, and see that the Church meet together often, and also that all the members do their duty; and he is to take the lead of meetings, in the absence of the elder and the priest, and to be assisted always, in all his duties in the Church, by the deacons, if occasion requires. But neither teachers nor deacons have authority to baptize, administer the sacrament or lay on hands. They are, however, to warn, exhort, teach, and invite all to come to Christ. In considering these points, I suggest that the data and quorum records be made more complete. I think they should indicate: 1. Attendance. 2. If absent, the reason for such absence. 3. Prepara- tion. 4. Performance of practical duties. 5. His attendance at Sab- bath worship. As to methods of training for the performance of these practical PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS TABLE. 1141 duties, let us consider them in the order already enumerated in this paper. 1. As to leading a life that is in harmony with the general spirit and requirements of this priesthood: a. Let the young man thoroughly understand those requirements, and express a determination, or at least a willingness, to endeavor to live up to the same, before receiving the priesthood. I think the ward teachers could perform an important labor here; but it must receive specific attention, and the instruction should have the direct object in view of preparing the young man to receive the priesthood, b. There should be appointed times for the conferring of the priesthood, and it should rarely be at odd intervals, c. There should be one, best adapted and qualified — and having at least one weeks' notice to prepare — explain, in a fifteen-minute talk, the sacred- ness of this ordinance, also the responsibilities they are assuming; and they should express their acceptance by, perhaps, a rising vote. Let there be n^t so much of a decrying of the evils, as there is of a pointing out of the higher and the better, under the happy influence of the Holy Ghost. The evils are not tolerated, because there is no time or room for them. Let the boys be occupied in doing good things, and learn the joy that is found therein. I very well realize that this last statement covers a big field. I think, however, that it is practicable and important and could be accom- plished. I think every ward should have its library, gymnasium and athletic clubs. But, says one, this is foreign to the subject. I think not entirely so. In my judgment, if you expect to control the boys in their attitude towards the priesthood, and not provide for those lines of recreation, growth and advancement, you are mistaken. Brethren, lead out, or encourage this recreation spirit in the Y. M. M. I. A. of your ward, and let the boys follow your lead, and not another less acceptable. 2. Attendance at weekly priesthood meetings: a. That the records be kept as already indicated, b. In case a brother is absent twice consecu- tively, and no reason offered for such absence, that said brother shall receive a mailed letter, which has been carefully prepared by one appointed, read and approved by the bishopric and, perhaps, the com- mittee of the high council. If there is no response, send a second letter. If there is still no response, let the presidency of the quorum visit and labor with him. If they cannot succeed, let the class leader visit and labor with this brother. If all these— followed up diligently and in love — fail, let his case be referred to the bishopric and high council for further action. Let all these proceedings be a part of the quorum record, with date ' 142 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . and all particulars appended. Not long hence, there will be a day of pro- motion, and in all cases of promotion let the quorum secretary provide all the brethren with a card on which shall be carefully recorded the brother's attendance, preparation and performance of practical duties. This he may present to the one in charge, at the time of said promotion. While this record should not be absolute in the matter of a brother's promotion, still it should be important, serving as no small incentive to a better performance of duty. 3. General classification. Specific duties: a. The teacher is to watch over the Church always — a standing minister, b. To see that there is no iniquity in the Church, no backbiting, evil speaking, etc., — sins that poison the stream of brotherly love, undermine fraternal con- fidence, blacken innocent character and canker the souls of those who are guilty of such meddlesomeness, c. To see that the members of the Church meet together often. How may all this be accomplished? Perhaps the teacher maybe assigned work in company with the ward teachers. Let them in turn perform those labors. I would suggest that there be a place in the order of business for the quorum class work for the brethren to report on this work, and let same be placed to their credit on the quorum records. Now, a word to the quorum officers: Dear brethren, never be absent from your quorum meetings. Always be on time. Always be prepared. Have a fixed determination to perform your full duty. Very much depends on you in this work. Be faithful. Love the brethren. Commit to memory the order of business for your quorum class work- See that no time is wasted in conducting your work. Attach proper dignity to the work. See to it that you have good class leaders. Now, to the class leaders: See to it, brethren, that you teach. Don't do all the talking — but teach. Be exemplary. Give your heart to this work. A very beautiful instance of humility is related of Professor Blackie, an eminent Scotch professor. Blackie was lecturing to a new class, with the members of which he was imperfectly acquainted. A student arose with his book in his left hand. "Sir," thundered Blackie, "hold your book in your right hand!" As the student was about to reply, he continued, "No words, your right hand, I say!'' The student held up his right arm, ending piteously at the wrist. "I have no right hand," he said. Before Blackie could open his lips, there arose such a storm of hisses that his voice was overcome. Then the professor left his place, went down to the student he had Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1140–1143. # Passing Events PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 1143 unwittingly hurt, and, putting his arms around the boy's shoulders, drew him close to him. "My boy," he said, and he spoke very softly, but every word was audible in the house, "my boy, you will forgive me that I was over rough. I did not know! I did not know!" He turned to his students, and with a look and tone inspired with his great heart, he said, "And let me say to you all, I am rejoiced to be shown that I am teaching a class of gentlemen." Anotner story, and I am through. In an English book called Five Years of Penal Servitude, the writer, who had himself been a convict, tells of an incident he saw at Dartmoor prison. By good behavior, he had caused himself to be transferred from his solitary cell to a large hall, where were sixty-seven other convicts whose obedience to prison regula- tions had also gained for th«m the privilege of associating in a common room. On his first night in the hall he was agreeably surprised to see a display of moral courage on the part of some convicts which commanded the respect of their companions. Just before bedtime a bell sounded, and the men stood up in two rows facing each other The warden called out, "Those who wish to say their prayers, step to the rear. Silence and order for prayers." "Who will have the courage," thought the convict who relates the incident, "to face the sneers and jokes, and kneel before this crowd of criminals?" To his surprise, sixteen convicts stepped to the rear, and for five minutes engaged in silent prayer. Not a word— not even a look from the unkneeling ones— sneered at the bowed men. Every night and morning, during his stay at the hall, there were some convicts who, when the order was given, "Silence for prayers," bowed in humble submission before the Lord. Never did the most hardened prisoners utter a disparaging word. Some of them had been in prison again and again and, seemingly, loved crime for its own sake. Others were as brutal and as ignorant as savages. Scarcely one of them would have endured a five minutes' conversation from a minister of the gospel with- out ridiculing him. Yet they knew a brave deed when they saw one, and, bad as they were, could not help respecting the-men who had courage to kneel in their presence. I think the lesson here taught is apparent. Brethren, always be true to your profession as Latter-day Saints. Passing Events. Some World's Fair buildings at Brussels, including the Bel- gian and English, were destroyed by fire, August 14. Two or three people were killed and many injured; and property said to be worth one hundred million dollars was destroyed, mostly art treasures. President Joseph F. Smith and Presiding Bishop Charles W. Nibley and party returned on September 3, from a tour of Europe. They left Salt Lake City, July 4, visiting Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, France and England, and held meetings in all the missions. It was a trip of travel and meetings, and President Smith was greeted with gladness by thousands of Saints and missionaries. The Revolution in Nicaragua, which began in October, 1909, has ended in the complete success of the insurgents. On the night of August 21, President Madriz, accompanied by his chief advisers, left Managua, the capital, which was then occupied by the insurrectionary forces, for Corinto, and sailed from that port to Amapala, Honduras. Before leaving, Madriz turned over the presidency to a brother of Gen- eral Estrada, who took possession of the capital, August 22. Forest fires, in northern Idaho and western Montana, during the month of August, caused enormous destruction of timber and a consider- able loss of life. About one hundred miles square was swept by fire in a district sparcely settled. At Wallace, Idaho, a great part of the town was destroyed, and a number of people were burned to death. Several smaller villages were also burned, and the dead are said to number alto- gether one hundred and eighty, mostly men in the forest service. Timber fires in Oregon have also destroyed thousands of acres of timber. President Pedro Montt, of Chile, died suddenly at Bremen, August 16. He had just arrived from a visit to the United States, and was a passenger on the Kaiser Wilhem der Grosse, having witnessed the attempted assassination of Mayor Gaynor of New York. He became president of Chile in 1906, having rendered distinguished service in both Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1144–1145. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 14, no. 1. November 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Hyde, William A., “How Can We Acquire an Interest in Boy Activities?.” - Gardner, Hamilton, “Pen Pictures of the Holy Land: I. The Damascus of Today.” - Richards, Charles C., “The Priesthood as Teachers.” - Crockwell, George W., “Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: I.” - Hogenson, J. C., “Natural Development.” - Anderson, Nephi, “Sunny Days in Ireland.” - Kirby, George D., “Hypocrisy.” - Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: XII. The Crimes of Respectability.” - Adams, John Q., “The Evolution of a Cocoanut Plantation: II.” - Parker, Aubray, “Sacred Dust.” - Anderson, Edward H., “For the Development of Character: Helpful Stories and Anecdotes.” - Watkins, Arthur V., “The Nephite Shepherd: Part One, I. The Awakening of Zemnarihah.” - Smith, Joseph F., “Editor’s Table: An Address.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 1–94. # How Can We Acquire an Interest in Boy Activities? IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIV. NOVEMBER, 1910. No. 1. Hov^ can v^e Acquire an Interest in Boy Activities? BY WILLIAM A. HYDE, PRESIDENT OF THE POCATELLO STAKE OF ZION. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things," spoke the Apostle Paul, as he compared his former state of spiritual childhood with his advanced growth in the knowledge of the gospel. We men, who have matured in thought and judgment, in reality have put away our childish natures, and live a life as distinct, almost, from that of our infancy and boy- hood, as the life of one class of animal creation differs from another. Every species of creation is in its own atmosphere of desires and influences, that surrounds it as the waters surround the fish or the air surrounds the birds. To arbitrarily remove one from its normal atmosphere is to disturb its state of peace, and impose upon it the unnatural. Now, while the difference in atmosphere between the boy and the man is not so great as between different species, it is, nevertheless, pronounced. It consists of the difference in the activities of the man and the boy. These activities merge into 2 IMPROVEMENT ERA. each other, and there is some common ground upon which both stand, but ordinarily they occupy a dilTerent mental sphere. The man, by reason of his knowledge of the past and his recollection of boyish experiences and ideas, may step out of his sphere and get down to the boy. The boy, for the very good reason that the ground between him and the mm has never been traversed by him, cannot get into the sphere of the man at once, no matter how much he may try. You may put a young head on old should- ers, but you "cannot put an old head on young shoulders." This being the case, all systems of teaching or education that assume only the standard of the man are faulty. The teacher must know the atmosphere or activities of the boy, and descend from his ele- vation to that of the boy, and act and talk as one boy acts and talks with another, to be fully appreciated. To attempt to forcibly take the b »y from his sphere and place him in the sphere of the man, is folly. The boy may, from his standpoint, view the life and actions of the man and may, to a greater or less extent appreciate them, as he is more or less thoughtful and sober- minded, but much that he sees and hears is incomprehensible to him. He naturally prefers his own sphere of activities, for it is the normal life for him; and it will follow that in teaching, the greater success will come to the man who can by any means enter the boy's domain of action for the purpose of influencing him. How may we do this, is the question. We cannot do it by remaining in our own sphere. Now comes the question. What are the boy's activities? With the normal boy, the physical in his being predominates. His nerve structures are being developed rapidly. He is industrious in his way, be it at work or at play. Whatever he does, he does intensely, if it appeals to him, and he rests and recuperates rapidly. If left to develop naturally, he will be busy from the time he makes mud pies until he crosses the threshold of manhood— in one direction or another. He is seldom still. Next to the physical is his social activity. He must have companions. If he has no boy friends, or brothers or sisters, he will make a companion of a cat or a dog, or even of a wooden doll. The boy is a savage, and he will run with his tribe. He will have his band of robbers to make fancied depredations, or he will have his congregation to whom he will preach. To take him away from HOW CAN WE ACQUIRE INTEREST IN BOY ACTIVITIES? 3 his companions is worse than to imprison him, for you kill the social side of his life. These physical and social activities mainly constitute the boy's life. While he is learning and getting experience, and gradually developing toward the sphere of a man, these physical and social calls of his nature are the stock of his existence. He will listen to the moral story, perhaps, and perform his religious duty, but all such things to him are adjuncts to the greater fact that he lives, and acts, and loves. If he has sorrow, it is soon effaced and forgotten in the onward flow of his spirits, and his buoyant life rises above his diffi- culties, and if not oppressed by unnatural conditions, he will always be the cheerful, noisy, young human animal. How diff'erent the man's activities! He is engaged in the serious, practical affairs of life. He has put away childish things in very deed. The problem of living confronts htm daily. Con- tinuous labor has taken out of his nature much of the sentiment, and trouble has hardened him anil made him more or less doubtful. Yet the course of our existence has thrown these two beings together — the boy attached to the man, and the man owing a duty to the boy. May their lives be mingled so that there shall be harmony and progress for them? and if so, in what way? Our methods and institutions of education, in and out of the Church, have in the past demanded more from the boy, in the meeting of these two activities, than they have from the man. And the fault with many men is that they demand all the conces- sion from the boy, not meeting him in a desire to understand him and do the right thing by him. Men of advanced thought, on the subject of sociology and education, are endeavoring to provide for the needs of the boy by societies that permit their natural activities, and which organize them into bands being governed by rules, the observance of which brings promotion and preferment. It will probably be found, when tested by time, that the plan will develop a self-reliant and independent man, educated along practical lines, and free from many of the evils which effect the ordinary youth. But it may be discovered, also, that he may be free from that certain class of restraint which can come only from the interested father, 4 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and perhaps lacking in the main essentials of a religious na- ture. I think that the whole question of the eJacation of the boy will be solved when the man has the time and the inclination to get into his life. Let the man be a boy again by remembering, if he can, his boyhood days, and that remembrance will soften and warm his heart. Sach an attitude may tend to relax his control and discipline in one way, but in another he will gain, for he can win the sympathy of the boy and get his willing obedience. One effect will be to make the man more just. He will not condemn the boy for every little fault, for he will see himself in his youthful days, and kno^r that the fault of the boy is but the repetition of his own boyish shortcomings. He cm then remember when sym- pathy and patience would have done him more good than punish- ment, and in this mental attitude, in all his work with the boy, reason will be the ruling power, rather than fear or force. The man's life is one of work, unceasing and engrossing; the boy's life calls for play, enjoyment and social opportunities. Why not "mix if with him; you would both be better for it. By doing this, you will give the boy some of the wisdom and restraint of the man, and the boy will pay you back in relaxation and temporary relief from your worries. The harm that our boys get from immoral ideas communicated to them, always comes from bad men or older companions. You may sometimes see a crowd of boys surrounding a man at some public place; he is entertaining and confidential, and they are list- ening to every word he says. Here is a man to be envied, for he has the power to do good. He is entering into the boy's activi- ties, perhaps, and is one among them today; and, unfortunately for these boys, he may be doing them irreparable injury. You may, largely, take the place of that man with your boy, if you only will. In the atmosphere of the boy's activities we may get his con- fidences, and in no other way. He will tell you of the things that he and the other boys are doing, and you may know his inner life. There is an undercurrent in the stream of every human existence, with which the world is not acquainted; and it is that undercurrent in the life of your boy that you must know about, HOW CAN WE ACQUIRE INTEREST IN BOY ACTIVITIES^ 5 that you may preserve him and keep him. I remember the thoughtful father who told me of the time when chance gave him the opportunity of sleeping with his son. And, as boys and men will, they lay long into the night talking over things until they warmed up to each other in unmeasured confidence, and the man, with his arm around the boy, told of some of the experiences of his youth, and the boy followed, telling his father of the events of his every day life, of evil-minded boys and girls who were sug- gesting immoral things to him. The father drew a picture of the results of sin, and held the boy's sister up as being just what every other girl would be, and ought to be, if they were preserved from bad boys and men. Some deep secrets of nature were revealed to the wondering boy; he was made acquainted with life, its production and its sacredness; he was told of the possibilities that lay in his future for good; noble men were held up before him as being the ideals he should follow; the pitfalls of the city were explained to him, with the red lights and the painted creatures within, and he was told that his father would follow him cheer- fully to the grave, rather than see him go to such places. And then, as the awful consequences of sin were laid before him, he wept, and lay closer to his father. Their lives had mingled, and both came from the sacred communion better and stronger. I recall another father, one of the busiest men in Utah, who travels much, being away from home most of the time. Once at least, sometimes twice a week, he writes to his boys and girls individually. Not necessarily long letters, but enough to show that he is interested in them, and to call for an answer. It gives him an opportunity to say in black and white, "My dear boy," and sign himself, "Your loving father," and that is more than food or drink to the sensitive, appreciative boy. No wonder that this man's family is held up as one of the most ideal in the Church. Out of his generous spirit, the boy will always give you as much as you give to him. Advise with him and he will advise with you; confer wiLh him and he will return like confidence; but by failing to meet him in the spirit of concession, you may dam up his stream of confidence and sympathy. Boys love commendation. Praise will compel them more quickly than punishment. Try this system with your boy. Start 6 IMPROVEMENT ERA. tomorrow and watch him closely for a month. Note every good thing that he does and commend him for it. Say, "That was as good as I could do it," or, "My boy, that was a fine day's work." If he does things wrongly, don't consider at once that it was inten- tional, but that it was a mistake in judgment on his part, and do nothing further than with reason and good sense to show him how to do better. Do not scold him; remember when you were scolded and how it hurt, and ask yourself if you want some big, superior being to stand over you and scold you. At the end of the month you will see the man growing in that boy, he will be developing self-reliance, self-respect, judgment, and more than anything else, appreciation of you. The noble qualities of the soul flourish best in the warm soil of reason, and in the sunlight of kindness. These narrow, peevish, disagreeable, disobedient boys were brought up in some sour, alkali patch of an ignorant father's management. Treat your boy as the beginning of a man; recog- nize in him that which is really there, the spirit that makes him; consider that in him is some degree of intelligence; that he has inherent rights which he brought with him; that in his former sphere he was capable, perhaps, of as much or more than you were. God gave Joseph Smith a good father, as well as giving the father a good son. Stretch your imagination past its limit and imagine, if you can, one of those spirits doing an injustice to another. Invite your boy's judgment and consideration of things, counsel with him, make him your chum, and he won't need so many questionable chums. With these methods, you may acquire an interest in his life that will give you power and influence with him. How may these theories be applied to the management of the lesser priesthood? In my opinion, the best kind of family government will be the best kind of church government. The best government is that which needs the least attention. The boy or man who can govern himself will give others little trouble. Family and church govern- ment are both based on the recognition of the needs and rights of the governed. The high priest and eldfr may be full of the dignity of their lofty calling, but the Great High Priest said, "Suffer little chil- HOW CAN WE ACQUIRE INTEREST IN BOY ACTIVITIES? 7 dren and forbid them not to come unto me." Take the deacons into counsel with you. Weigh their ideas with yours, select the best of your conclusions, then direct and assist them in the car- rying out of plans. Remember that the making of the deacon has not eradicated the boy. The boyish impulses are there, improved and sobered somewhat by his sense of responsibility, but still strong in him. If he has shown good work, a little public commendation will gratify and stimulate him. Never condemn him publicly. The criticisms you offer should be on general prin- ciples, and given in the quorum; and correction of the individual should be in private, and never administered unless followed by an expression of love as the motive of correction. There is no greater secret in the art of government than the showing forth of genuine kindness after the necessary correction is administered, that the chastised may know that the correction is for their good, and that your affection has not ceased. Teach correct principles, then, as much as possible, let the lesser priesthood govern themselves, remembering that the young should always be under your watchful eye. My brethren, let us try to get near to the boys. The world is trying to get close to them; good and wise men are everywhere trying to interest and appeal to them; and bad men are laying plans to tempt and enslave them. Let us absorb every good idea that we can; let us utilize the intelligence of men wherever we find it; and then let the love in our hearts and the spirit of the gospel be the pilot to show us the true way. Po( ATELLo, Idaho. Sweet Sylvia. (For the Improvement Era.) Sweet Sylvia, 'twere no surprise I follow you with longing eyes ; As water finds the lower plains, . ^._ ^ My vision falls where beauty reigns. Theodore E Curtis. Citation: Hyde, William A., “How Can We Acquire an Interest in Boy Activities?,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 1–7. # Pen Pictures of the Holy Land: I. The Damascus of Today Pen Pictures of the Holy Land, b'rom Dan to Beersheba. BY HAMILTON GARDNER. I. — The Damascus of Today. Damascus is called the oldest city in the world. From the time of Abraham, whose servant Eliezer was a native Damascene, it has played an important role in Oriental history. At one time the home of Syrian kings, who fought David and Solomon and other Israel- itish monarchs, it later became the most widely famed seat of learning in the East, and for hundreds of years was the capital from which powerful Arabian caliphs ruled the surrounding lands. For Christians, the history of Damascus is of considerable import- ance, because of its connection with the conversion and first missionary labors of the Apostle Paul. Today, Damascus offers to the visitor many sights of absorbing inter- est. Of all the cities in the Holy Land usually visited by tourists, none has retained its strictly Oriental char- acter so much as this. The distinct- ive coloring and charm of Eastern life, the customs and habits of the THE HOUSE OF ANANIAS. PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. people, the Oriental manner of living and thinking can be seen here, with the minimum of Western influence. Add to this the places of Biblical interest, and the value of a visit to this ancient city is apparent. Usually, the first place a visitor looks up in Damascus is the "street which is called straight." At the present time it could not even be called straight. It will be remembered that Judas, to whose house Anan- ias was directed to find Paul, lived near this street. The "straight street"' it remains to this day, but that is its only reminder of the past; and it in no way diff^ers from other dirty, crooked streets in the city. The house of Ananias has been located by tradition, and its cellar serves as a chapel, where pilgrims are supposed to pray devoutly, and tourists to give the at- tendant a liberal tip. One other place con- nected with Paul's sojourn is shown, and that is the hole in the city wall through which he escaped at night by being let down in a basket. Only one little discrepancy could be found with regard to the exactness of this location; namely, that the wall was built by the Turks eleven hundred years after Paul's death. But our guide thought that such a shght technicality as this should not lessen our awe of so holy a place. Far surpassing these somewhat doubtful Biblical locations, in attraction and interest, are the streets and bazaars of Damascus. A walk through these furnishes a veritable succession of pictures ' 'the street which is called straight " From the minaret of a nearby Mosque, Damascus. 10 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of Oriental life, unsurpassed, perhaps, anywhere in the world. Ma-as-salameh, 0 reader, peace be with thee! Wilt thou go with me, 0 unknown one, on a short visit through the bazaars and street' of Damascus? As we walk down the middle of the street— there are no side- walks—we must keep our wits about us; for the thoroughfare is crowded with almost every kind of conveyance. Poor people on little donkeys ride side by side with Turkish effendis, on richly ca- Photo bv the Author. ARAB TYPES. parisoned horses, and both must get out of the way of the strings of camels that are continually going by. Carriages and carts pass to and fro, while the loud and insistent clanging of a bell pro- claims that the electric tramway has invaded these time-honored domains of the primitive methods of travel. Occasionally a herd of donkeys, with jingling bells on their necks, trot rapidly past, and innumerable dogs, belonging to no one, slink through the crowds in search of stray morsels of food. But jast notice the types of people going by. You cannot mistake that Arab yonder. The dress he wears— a long striped cloak of dull brown, with a thin, bright-colored piece of cloth held on the head by two coils of black goat's hair— is the garb worn by these children of the desert from time immemorial. The poorly dressed women you see, with foreheads, lips and cheeks tatooed. I'EK PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAKD. 11 are Bedouins. Their more favored sisters go veiled, and com- pletely envelop themselves in a loosely fitting robe of black, which successfully hides whatever grace of form or feature they may have. The men you notice with long, fur cloaks, and white cloth wrapped around their heads, are Mohammedan priests. The poorer class of Moslems wear a short jacket, a wide belt of cloth, highly colored, and absurdly baggy trousers. The richer ones dress in European style, but all wear the conventional Turkish "fez." A RAISIN MERCHANT AND HIS CUSTOMERS, DAMASCUS. Intermingling with all these people are travelers from almost every country of Europe and America. Truly a cosmopolitan collection. Let me take you now into some of the Damascus bazaars. You must remember that each profession or handicraft has its own particular district. Thus the saddlers have a bazaar of their own, the goldsmiths another, the sellers of spice another — in fact, the business district of the city is simply made up of the bazaars of these different guilds. These streets are all covered and the shops line both sides. We will walk rapidly through some of them, but stop only in the most interesting. This one, where the men are hammering lustily away, is the coppersmith's market. Some beautiful beaten brass-work can be obtained here. Notice that Bedouin who is purchasing a platter about four feet in diameter. His whole family, and also his 12 IMPROVEMENT ERA. guests, will dine from that one dish. He believes the extent of his hospitality will be judged by the size of the platter; and according to that standard he is certainly generous. The next bazaar we happen to pass through seems to be filled almost entirely with women, and is apparently the Oriental sub- stitute for a bargain counter sale. Can't you easily guess what is sold here? Silks and draperies, of course. The women go from one stall to another, examine countless pieces of cloth they have no intention of buying, chatter and bargain incessantly over ridicu- lously small sums, and sometimes, to win their point, coquettishly pull aside their veils and smile at the merchant. But, according to Mohammedan etiquette, it is strictly improper for an infidel dog of a Christian to see a Moslem woman's face, so we must move on. Here, in the shoemaker's bazaar, we see the long, sharp- pointed, red and yellow shoes the natives wear, and the wooden slippers, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which Turkish ladies use in the bath. Some beautiful inlaid furniture can be seen in the wood- turner's street, but the workmen themselves are more interesting. Observe how this one uses his lathe. Sitting down in front of it, he furnishes the motive power by means of a bow-like contrivance in his left hand. With his right he uses his cutting chisel, and steadies this with the toes of his left foot. Before we go into the next bazaar, let me advise you to be decidedly careful of your money. It is called the Greek bazaar, and is the headquarters for Oriental goods and trinkets of the kind that tourists buy. Of all the shrewd and crafty merchants of the East, the Greek far surpasses all others in the art of separating innocent and unsuspecting tourists from their money — hence my warning. You see, they even stand out in the middle of the street to try to entice us into their shops. And persistence! It's no use telling this fellow that we do not need anything. The only way to get rid of him is to look at his goods. Some of these Per- sian carpets he is showing you are really genuine, but those knives he says are real Damascus blades were more than likely made in Solingen, Germany. And don't believe a word he says about the sofa cushion he is displaying having been made by some favorite in the Sultan's harem. If the truth were known, it was probably PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. 13 woven in England. And so he continues. As he shows you lace, beads, shawls and trinkets, he has an exaggerated story to tell of each one. As the most tempting thing in his store, he saves for the last a collection of what he says are old Greek and Roman coins. He is willing to swear to their age and genuineness, but it would not be at all surprising if he had buried them himself a month before. If you do finally decide to purchase anything, give only about one-fourth of the price asked; and even then your con- science need not worry you about cheating the wily Greek. If our walk through the bazaars has made you thirsty, a drink of one of the many kinds of lemonade, cooled with snow from Mount Lebanon, will allay the feeling. You can obtain it right here in the street. Public drinking fountains are found in Damascus in the shape of the water-carrier, who, with goat-skin slung over his shoulder, and to the loud rattle of two brazen cups, distributes his liquid coolness to the thirsty. Water, flavored with licorice root and raisins, is -sold in the same way. In the baker's shops can be seen a tempting array of sweetmeats, many of them in honey, of which the Moslem is very fond; but I should advise you to taste them before you see how they are cooked. While not approaching the completeness of a modern Ameri- ^^^mEnjMQL^ ^B^^Hl i-£ ijy ^^Jj 1^ : ^^B^^Bw^^^^^E^^Hyj^S/^ ! 1 y.vMKBwtr^ ^■^^Hp^^Bn^ZjBHS^^^^^K'^^^B^H^lKj ^m Photo by the Autlior. A SYRIAN MARKET. 14 IMPROVEMENT ERA. can department store, still the streets of Damascus are head- quarters for almost everything that the man of the East could possibly desire. Peddlers there sell all kinds of fruits, nuts, vege- tables, foodstuffs, sweetmeats, clothes, weapons, grass and grain for horses, second hand goods, flowers, and other things too nu- merous to mention. Each one proclaims, at the top of his voice, that his wares are infinitely superior to all others, so the result is a babel of noise and confusion. Added to this din is the rattle of coin, by which the money-changers advertize their business; the cries of the public letter-writers, inducing people to dictate their letters to them; the sharp shouts of the carriage-drivers; the plaintive moaning of the beggars; and sometimes the humming, droning voices of school boys, as they sit cross-legged on the floor and recite verses from the Koran. More powerful than these, and at the same time more euphonious and musical, are the cries of muezzins, as they ascend the minarets of the mosques five times a day and call the people to prayer. Listen, now, as the call in Arabic resounds from one minaret to the other all over the city: "Allah is great. I testify that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah. Come to prayers." The character of the Damascenes furnishes as interesting a study as their customs and habits. Naturally imbued with the intense fanaticism of the Moslems, they have, in addition to this, a deep pride in their city, and an intense jealousy of Occidental ideas. To them Damascus, with its verdant gardens and sweetly scented orchards, appears as a representation of what heaven will be. Accustomed, as some of them are, to life in the Arabian desert, it is no wonder that this view is held. "Come to Damas- cus," they say, "and live in paradise." Dost thou, 0 reader, share this sentiment? Ma-as-salameh ! Lehi, Utah Citation: Gardner, Hamilton, “Pen Pictures of the Holy Land: I. The Damascus of Today,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 8–14. # The Priesthood as Teachers The Priesthood as Teachers.* BY CHARLES C. RICHARDS, FIRST COUNSELOR IN THE PRESIDENCY OF THE OGDEN STAKE OF ZION. I have been requested to present to you a paper upon the top- ic, "The Priesthood as Teachers;" and while the subject is a com- prehensive one, the period alotted me is necessarily so brief that I can but touch a few of the important features of it. As we understand the word priesthood, it means the power and authority to represent God; hence the topic may be defined as "Those who have the power and authority to represent God as teachers." A teacher is said to be one who educates, instructs, communicates knowledge, counsels. And it might be added, that the teacher can only impart to his fellows intelligence previously acquired and retained by him. History, both sacred and profane, teems with evidence of this fact. For it is recorded that A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh (Luke 6: 45). The necessity of man's being taught has existed in all ages of the world's history. It is recorded that as far back as in the great counsel in heaven, where the creation of this world was determined upon, several vital principles were taught: 1. That the agency of man, which the Lord has given him, cannot be destroyed. 2. That the will of our Heavenly Father *A paper read at the tri-stake Priesthood Convention, Ogden, July 10, 1910. 16 IMPROVEMENT ERA. should be done. 3. That rebellion against God and his purposes will be punished. 4. That greed for power and authority is not Godlike, nor approved of God. In that great gathering, our Heavenly Father was the chief Teacher. He rejected the offer of Satan to force salvation upon all mankind, and to compensate himself for so doing by taking from the Father his honor and power. Later, in the Garden of Eden, God taught Adam and Eve that they should multiply and replenish the earth; that they could eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the tree of knowl- edge of good and evil, and if they chose to eat of that tree, they might do so, but that in the day they should eat thereof that they should surely die. And again, after their banishment from the Garden of Eden, God taught them that they should worship him, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks for an offering unto him. In the days of Moses, the Lord promised him that he would teach him what he should say to the children of Israel (Ex. 4: 12). Centuries later, Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer, taught his disciples, as one having authority, (Matt. 7: 29) how to pray, (Luke 11: 2-4) how to live, (Matt. 22: 35-40) and how to teach, (Matt, 28: 19, 20) commanding them to teach all nations, baptiz- ing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and to observe all things whatsoever he had com- manded them (Matt. 28: 19, 20). He also taught them that the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father would send in his name, would teach them all things and bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever he had said unto them (John 14: 26). Daily, in the temple and in every house, after the death of the Master, the apostles taught and preached Jesus Christ (Acts 5: 42). The Apostle Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, said, "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many wit- nesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (II Tim. 2: 2). Upon the issuance of the gospel into this dispensation, we find the Father and the Son instructing and teaching the boy, Joseph Smith — who afterward became known as the prophet of God — that none of the religions of the world were pure, and that he THE PHIESTHOOU A^ TEACHERS. 17 must not unite with any of them. The Angel Moroni, John the Baptist, Peter, James and John, Moses, Elias and Elijah, each appeared to him, and taught him the gospel plan of salvation. The Holy Ghost also was his frequent companion, and gave unto him revelations and instruction concerning the purposes of the Lord. The same teachings and commandments that were given to the prophets of old in the earlier dispensations, were given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and through him to the Church in this dispensation. As early as the 27th of December, 1832, by revelation to the prophet, (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 88) the Lord said: And I give unto you a commandment, that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom; teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to under- stand; of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land, and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms. That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you. Behold I sent you out t j testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned, to warn his neighbor. Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads. Therefore, tarry ye, and labor diligently, that you may be perfected in your ministry to go forth among the Gentiles for the last time, as many as the mouth of the Lord shall name, to bind up the law and seal up the testimony, and to prepare the Saints for the hour of judgment which is to come. Therefore, verily I say unto you, my friends, call your solemn assembly, as I have commanded you; and as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom: seek learning even by study, and also by faith. Organize yourselves, prepare every needful thing, and estab- lish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let not all be spokesmen 18 IMPROVEMENT ERA. at once; but let one speak at a time, and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken, that all may be edified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege. And again, the order of the house prepared for the presidency of the school of the prophets, established for their instruction in all things that are expedient for them, even for all the officers of the Church, or in other words, those who are called to the ministry in the Church, begin- ning at the high priest, even down to the deacons. Acting upon these divine instructions, in January, 1833, (History of the Church, Vol. I, pp. 321, 322) and in the fall of 1834 and 1835, schools of the prophets, or elders — all holding the Melchizedek Priesthood— were established at Kirtland, Ohio, wherein the brethren might be more perfectly instructed in the glorious things of God, during the winter season {History of the Church, Vol. 11, p. 169). Before these schools, in the fall of 1834, the prophet delivered "Lectures on Theology," which were afterwards published in the Doctrine and Covenants, and called "Lectures on Faith" (History of the Church, Vol. II, p. 176). The members of the classes were mostly elders, and gave the most studious attention to the all-important object of qualifying them- selves as messengers of Jesus Christ, to be ready to do his will in carrying glad tidings to all who would open their eyes, ears and hearts. In the latter part of the summer and autumn of 1833, a school of elders was organized in Jackson county, Missouri, over which Apostle Parley P. Pratt was called to preside. The class, to the number of sixty, met for instructions once a week. The place of meeting was in the open air, under some tall trees in a retired place in the wilderness, where they prayed, preached, prophesied and exercised themselves in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There great blessings were poured out, and many great and marvelous things were manifested and taught The Lord gave him great wisdom, and enabled him to teach and edify the elders, and comfort and encourage them in their preparation for the great work which lay before them. Parley was also much edi- fied and strengthened. To attend the school he had to travel on foot— and sometimes barefooted at that — about six miles {Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 100). While engaged in that THE PRIESTHOOD AS TEACHERS. 19 service, Elder Pratt was in correspondence with the prophet, and in answer thereto he received from the Lord, on August 2, 1833, and transmitted to Parley, a revelation showing that the Lord was pleased with the work. 1 quote from the revelation as follows: Behold, I say unto you concerning the school in Zion, I, the Lord, am well pleased that there should be a school in Zion, and also with my servant, Parley P. Pratt, for he abideth in me; and inasmuch as he con- tinueth to abide in me, he shall continue to preside over the school in the land of Zion, until I shall give unto him other commandments. And I will bless hia with a multiplicity of blessings in expounding all scrip- tures and mysteries to the edification of the school, and of the Church in Zion. Verily, I say unto you, that it is my will that an house should be built unto me in the land of Zion, like unto the pattern v;hich I have given you. For a place of thanksgiving for all Saints, and for a place of instruction for all those who are called to the work of the ministry in all their several callings and offices, that they may be perfected in the understanding of their ministry — in theory, in principle and in doctrine — in all things pertaining to the kingdom of God on the earth, the keys of which kingdom have been conferred upon you. In the fall of 1835, a portion of the Kirtland temple was finished, and schools were opened in several apartments. The presidency of the Church, the twelve, and many others, were organized into a school for the purpose of studying the Hebrew language. This study, and the meetings of the several quorums for instruction and endowment, occupied most of the winter. In November, 1835, the prophet was attending school. The History of the Church records that, on November 3, he attended and assisted in organizing the Elders' School, called it to order, and spoke upon the object of the school, and the great necessity of the members rightly improving their time and reining up their minds to a sense of the great object that lay before them. The following day he again attended school, during the usual school hours, and it is recorded that they made rapid progress in their studies. In the evening, at his home, he lectured on grammar; and on the following day he also attended school. The prophet seemed to realize that the glory of God is intelli- gence; that man cannot be saved in ignorance; that his mission was 20 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to educate and elevate his people as (juickly as possible; and that he must work while the day lasted, for the night would come when no man could work. The object of teaching is to educate, instruct and qualify our fellows and ourselves to live, in the most pleasing and acceptable manner, lives that are noble, upright and unselfish; full of faith, virtue, hope, charity, brotherly love, kindness, self-denial and long-suffering. And how can such teaching be successfully accomplished? Only by those whose lives of purity and self-denial entitle them to the companionship of the Holy Spirit, who have it in rich abundance, and who, by their patient study and constant devotion, evidence that they are ever following in the footsteps and service of the Master. Then can the teacher most successfully render his service of love and good fellowship: 1. By wholesome example on his own part; for the eye is keen to observe and the brain long to retain its impressions. 2. By precept; for the advice of a friend and brother, free from guile, and inspired of the Lord to teach the way to immor- tality and eternal life, will never be forgotten. 3. By constant attention t3 duty and supervision of the work undertaken; that in every day and hour of the week he should greet his neighbor as a friend and brother, and ever be ready to magnify his calling as a teacher of Christ. 4. By consistency in his life; that his example may harmon- ize, not conflict with and destroy his precepts. For what does it profit a Saint to be taught in his home the word of wisdom, by one of his fellows, if the next day he meets the same brother on the street and sees him smoking tobacco, or drinking intoxicating beverages? Or, if a man teach his neigh- bor to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, while he himself attends theatres, pleasure resorts, cuts or hauls his hay or grain, works at his shop or trade, or otherwise desecrates the day? Or if a man teaches his brother honesty, and himself has a well- deserved reputation for untruthfulness and trickery? It is a mockery in the sight of God and true Saints for a man to teach what he does not and will not practice. Far better off are we without than with such teaching. Again, a brother who THE PRIESTHOOD AS TEACHERS. 21 violates part of the commandments is not eligible to teach a righteous observance of the others. F.r it has been said, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye" (Matt. 7: 5). As we have seen, the Lord desires his people to be well informed in regard to all matters relating to the past, present and future of their existence; of the heavens and the earth; things at home and abroad, temporal as well as spiritual; and ail things per- taining to the C'hurch and kingdom of God. Surely there is much yet to be learned and taught to the people. We have scarcely begun the conquest. The range and opportunities are limitless as the eternities of space, and the Lord desires us to explore and acquire all the knowledge that can be secured in mortality. What brother, then, whether he be old or young, elder, seventy, high priest or member, can truly say that he has no need to be further taught of God, and the plan of eternal life? For the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Pearl of Great Price 1: 39). But there are brethren among us who feel that it is unneces- sary for them to take time to study the scriptures, and other good books, to thoroughly acquaint themselves with the principles of the gospel, and other precious truths the Lord has commanded us to learn. They feel that it is exacting too much of their time, and discounting the promises of the Lord as well, to ask them to study, under a competent teacher, the gospel principles and the best manner of presenting them, before they go to the pulpit, or the homes of the people, to teach them. The 12th, 13th and 14th verses of section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants are some- times relied upon to sustain the views of these brethren. They are as follows: And again, the elders, priests, and teachers of this Church shall teach the principles of my gospel, which are in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, inthe which is the fulness of the gospel; and they shall observe the covenants and the Church articles to do them, -and these shall be their teachings, as they shall be directed by the Spirit. And the Spirit 22 IMPROVEMENT ERA. shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith, and if ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach. But nowhere in these paragraphs is the thought advanced that study is unnecessary. It is merely promised that by the prayer of faith the Spirit will direct what shall be taught, not necessarily how it shall be presented, while the 118th paragraph of section 88 of the Doctrine and ('ovenants clearly requires study and self- preparation. It is as follows: And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom J seek learning even by study, and also by faith. And this latter interpretation was the one placed upon these provisions by the Prophet Joseph and the twelve, immediately after he received them by revelation from the Lord. For they forth- with organized the Elders' schools, at Jackson county, Missouri, and at Kirtland, Ohio, a class in which the Hebrew language was taught to the first presidency, twelve, and other leading men — also grammar and other classes. And in the midst of it all, Joseph the prophet stood forth as the organizer, teacher, lecturer and member. The schools were in session daily in the winter season, teaching the elders how to preach and expound the gospel. Is it possible that the prophet of God, and the men who com- muned with him with great frequency, needed such schools of instruction, but that we have no need for them at the present timp>? No, it is not. It cannot be so. We have great need for preparation classes, and probably no greater need ever existed than at the present time. Classes where the preachers who occupy the pulpits, and the teachers at the fireside alike, can learn the beauties of the gospel truths, and how and when to present them to the people in the most effective manner. In conclusion, let me say that our motto should be, "Once a teacher, always a teacher." Though we may be called infrequently, either to teach from the pulpit, or even as a ward teacher at the fireside, let our daily lives, and each hour of the day, be exam- ples of truthfulness, sincerity, sobriety, virtue, charity, faith, hope and confidence in God and our fellowman. Remember we are always seen of God, angels and our fellows. Let no one of them ever feel ashamed of us or of our conduct. Ogubn, Utah Citation: Richards, Charles C., “The Priesthood as Teachers,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 15–22. # Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: I Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God. BY ELDER (lEOIKlK W. CKOCKWEl.L. I. The question of extreme importance, Was Joseph Smith a prophet of God? is one that should not be passed lightly by. In regard to it, every man and woman upon the face of the whole earth should know the truth. Upon this most important question hangs the destiny not only of the inhabitants of this nation, but of every nation and isle of the sea upon the whole earth. The Latter-day Saints testify that Joseph was called and chosen to be a prophet of the Lord, and upon this is based the foundation of their faith; while there are people of different lands who assert positively that he was an impostor. The accusation is made that he is looked upon by his followers as being equal, if not superior, to the Savior of the world. There never was anything more ridiculous, absurd, or untrue. He is counted, however, by them as among the greatest of God's prophets. If he was called and chosen as a prophet of the Most High, it is necessary that every person render obedience to the gospel which he promulgated, if he hopes or desires to become a member of the Church of Christ. It was restored to the earth by angels and divine messengers from the heavens, with authority from God to administer in all the ordinances thereof. If Joseph was not so called, thousands have been deceived and are yet in their sins. Either he was a prophet of God, or he was not. Such being the case, it would be the part of wisdom for everyone to lay aside his prejudices, and with a humble heart investigate the claims 24 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and the works of this man, asking the Heavenly Father to direct him in the path of right. There is no middle ground upon which the name of Joseph Smith can stand. He was either a true prophet of God, or he was not. It shall be my object to endeavor to prove, from a few of his prophecies, that he was an inspired man, a true prophet of the Lord. In the writings of Moses, the law-giver to Israel, there is a rule or test which the Lord himself gave, whereby the children of men might be able, in all ages of the world, to discern a true prophet from an impostor: "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, n' r come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not fear him" (Deut. 18: 22). Under this law, it would be consistent to weigh the question at issue, and all Latter-day Saints are willing that the man whom they honor as one of the greatest of the prophets of the world, shall be judged by this law, and if he fails to pass this test favorably, I for one am willing to admit that they have been deceived. The first prophecy which he gave to the world was the words spoken to him by an angel, who said his name was Moroni— one of the ancient inhabitants of this land —as follows: "God has a work for you to do; and your name shall be had for good and evil among all nations, kindred and tongues — or it; shall be both good and evil spoken of among all people." How great the presumption, how great the egotism that would have led this unlettered boy of fourteen years of age to have uttered this prophecy in and of himself ! A boy whose name, in the regular or natural course of events, would, in all probability, never have been known outside of the immediate neighborhood in which he lived. He did not come of renowned parentage. His name was one of the most common in the English language. He was not domiciled in the habitations of the wealthy, but he was a child of the common people. His father was an honest but poor farmer. He was born and bred to the trials of the poor. Has that prophecy been fulfiled? Let the world answer. Take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the JOSEPH SMITH A PROPHET OF GOD. 25 earth; go into every nation, and wherever you find the gospel of Jesus Christ taught or preached, there you will also find the name of Joseph Smith held in honor and reproach. There was, at the time of his going to the grove to ask his Heavenly Father's guidance, a great religious revival in the neighborhood, in which several of the different sects took part, and he was mystified to hear one say, "Lo! here is Christ," another say, "Here is the way," and another cry, "Here is the way to be saved!" He did not believe tiiat the Lord was the author of such confusion. He knew that, since they taught different doctrines, they all could not be right. Never for an instant, however, did he imagine that they all were wrong. Having read from the Apostle James (1: 5) "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him," he went to seek light in prayer. The Lord, in answer to his prayer, appeared unto him, accom- panied by his Son Jesus Christ, in a glorious vision. He was told to join none of the sects, for they had all gone out of the way. They taught for doctrines the commandments of men. He was dumbfounded to hear this; and, hastening to his home, he found a preacher of one of these sects and to him, in his childlike sim- plicity and innocence, he related what he had both seen and heard. His heart overflowed with joy, that he was able to inform this so-called man of God of the vision, and perhaps be the means of causing him to turn his feet into the path of right. But how unspeakably astonished he no doubt was to hear this great and good man— as he believed him to be — treat him with scorn, turn his story into ridicule, and tell him that the days of revelation were passed, that God no longer spoke from the heavens, and that what he had seen was all from the devil! Believing that God was no respecter of persons, and was the same yesterday, today and forever, he was filled with amazement to hear this preacher of righteousness make this declaration. Like Paul, Joseph knew he had seen a vision, no matter what any one said to the contrary. Beginning with this minister of the gospel who thus held him up to continual scorn and ridicule, persecution started, and from that time his life was full of trials and hardships. Hunted upon every side, placed in the jails of Illinois and Missouri, arrested and 26 IMPROVEMENT ERA. tried over two score times for various crimes — but upon trial being always acquitted — at last, when in jail at Carthage, Illinois, the mob declared, "The law cannot touch him, powder and shot shall!" He died a martyr to the cause of truth, giving his life for his friends. He sealed his testimony — that the gospel had been restored to the earth through his instrumentality — with his blood. [TO BE CONTINUED.] Portland, Oregon. Capernaum. {For the hriprovew£nt Era.) "Capernaum, thou shalt be cast down to hell !" 'Twas spoken in a time long passed away; Unheeded, the prophecy on them fell — O'ertaken all, they perished in a day. An earthquake buried thee beneath the ground; Thy tott'ring buildings fell in heaps of stone; Then ope'd the earth — the people none were found- Their names and habitations still unknown. Ah ! was it here Christ did those wondrous things ? 0 was it here that he pronounced thy doom ? 0 city lost, how bitter are the stings And punishment, that end not in the tomb ! But in this age, this resurrection day. Thy time is come, light falls again on thee; The destruction shows that hid thee away, Yet not completed is thy destiny. Then come ye forth, thy story speak aloud, No longer sleep, all hidden 'neath the sod ! Cant off the clods that bind, and leave thy shroud, Gaze once again upon the works of God ! RUINS OF THE SYNAGOGUE AT CAPERNAUM. Ah ! his displeasure thou hast suffered long, In silence born it, hidden there from sight; Come forth, and sing a resurrection song, And bask again in heaven's glorious light ! Lydia D. Alder. AT THE Excavation of CAPBRNAUii, April, 1905. Consolation. (For the Improvement Era.) When the cold frost of death Falls on the lea, And, sorrow-laden, you Call on Me, Know that your faded flower. Blossoms in heaven's bower, Only a single hour Hidden from thee. Theodore E. Curtis. Citation: Crockwell, George W., “Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: I,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 23–27. # Natural Development Natural Development. BY PROF. J. C, HOGENSON, OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. It is by some an accepted theory that, in its most primi- tive condition, the earth was a globe of fire, cast off by centrifugal force from some larger or central body, and that it has been grad- ually cooling through the almost countless ages of the past. The secondary condition of the world is supposed to have been a hot, seething, boiling mass, which converted the moisture of its atmos- phere into great masses of vapor. This rose, until reaching a cold medium, "it condensed and poured back upon the earth in such torrents of rain as finally to cool the surface. Here the water found lodgment, gradually accumulating and cooling, until at length it covered the entire globe, so as to form a universal sea. The water, percolating through the rents in the rocks, produced by steam, constantly enlarged the fissures, and with the assistance of gases, began to change the appearance of the surface by causing violent eruptions that threw up vast bodies of land. Every dis- placement served to increase more rapidly the appearance of land. Thus were the seas and continents formed. Life first appeared in the water, and was of a very simple organization, as well as diminutive in size, consisting of only one cell. Fishes then came into being, to be succeeded by more and more complex creatures, as the land became able to support such creatures as were adapted to an existence both in and out of water. It is suppos3d by many that from the simple, flower-like protozoans, that first appeared in the heated waters, there came into being higher orders, as the sea grew colder, until not only the shark and whale were called into existence, but there followed huge amphibians, or land animals. The land continued to cool and NATURAL DEVELOPMENT. 29 increase, and there appeared a wondrous g;owth of vegjetation which grew to the height of four or five huadred feet. This, by eruptions and changes, was buried and forms our present coal beds. As the centuries rolled on, the temperature was gradually modified, and new forms of life appeared, to suit the new environ- ment, and whose organizations were adapted to the new condi- tions. Insects noA' filled the trees, and butterflies ravaged the wealth of flowers which clustered everywhere. Monsters appeared among the vegetation, so that the dense woods resounded with caw, roar, bellow, croak and grunt, as victim fled from pursuer. All of these phases were but ^transitory and preparatory processes of nature, by which the earth became fitted for the abode of man. He was born, we are told in holy writ, in the Garden of Eden, among the birds, beasts and flowers. The sixth day, or period of creation, is the time when God endowed him with superior attributes, with intelligence above all other crea- tures. Whether man originated from a monad (single cell) or was made by separate creation, need concern us but little; for in either case the necessity of a First Great Cause is evident. (In religion we deal with first causes; in science we deal with second- ary causes.) We can scarcely believe or comprehend the multitudes of different forms of life that live upon our globe. By the aid of the microscope we are able to discover life in every blade of grass, and even in the very dust upon the roads. We scarcely ever breathe but that we inhale innumerable living things. Where, then, does life stop? Who knows? Perhaps these small crea- tures are in their turn recipients of beings infinitely small com- pared to themselves. Most of the diseases that afflict the human race come from these minute causes. Place a dish of stagnant water under the microscope and there appears a swarming popu- lation, so small that some of them are not more than .25000 of an inch in length. These, by bounds and jumps, transform the field of vision into an immense world full of life. Let us gaze for a moment into the supposed future. Slowly and imperceptibly the heat of the sun declines, and the temper- ature of the earth sinks by equally slow degrees. Thousands of years pass away, glacial periods come and go, and the heat still 30 IMPROVEMENT ERA. grows less. Little by little the drifting masses of ice extend far and wide, ever toward more southern shores. At last all the seas of earth become one unbroken mass of ice, life vanishes from its surface, and is to be found in the ocean depths alone. The temperature continues to fall, the ice grows thicker and thicker. Thousands of years roll on and the ice reaches the bottom. The last traces of life then disappear, and the earth is covered with per- petual snow and ice. She rolls on in her path through eternity. Like a faintly glowing disk, the sun crosses the sky. The moon is scarcely visible. The stars twinkle on in silence; some are burned out, but others twinkle in their places. New life is teeming in other planets; other suns give forth their heat and light. This, in short, is the great cycle of eternity. We cannot measure the simple needs. Of even the tiniest flower, Nor check the flow of the golden sands That run through a single hour; But the morning dews must fall, And the sun and the summer rain Must do their part and perform it all, Over and over again. Over and over ai?ain, The brook through the meadow turns. And over and over again. The plant into earth returns. In the Psalms, the poet David first looked out upon nature and felt his littleness; then he looked farther and saw his great- ness. You can imagine him lying on the hills looking up into the heavens, at the stars, as they shone so clearly in the eastern sky. Palestine was a world to him. He knew not the great steppes of Russia, the plains of China, or the wilderness of Africa. The mountains around Jerusalem are but foothills when compared with the Himalayas. The Jordan is but a brook when compared with the Mississippi or the Amazon. The Mediterranean is scarcely more than an inland sea, when compared with the Atlantic or the Pacific, over which we sail, knowing that beneath our feet are valleys as deep and mountains as high as man ever gazed upon. To the Psalmist, the stars were mere points of light. He did not NATURAL DEVELOPMENT. 31 know, perhaps, what immense distances separate this world from other and larger worlds; yet he was inspired to write: 0 Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. * * * * When I consider chy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and stars which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. *•* * * * * * * When we realize this greatness of nature, we are almost inclined to say, "We are but insects on a globe of sand. The world is an ant-hill, and we but ants upon it." We may also, and should, so look upon nature that its very grandeur will awe us and make us feel more keenly and vividly the great mission which God has placed us here to perform. Logan, Utah. The Sacrament. (For the Improvement Era.) With Adam and the first great sin. Eternal Death was ushered in; And fell its stern and fatal ban O'er all the race of fallen man. There was no power in man to save The groping nations from the grave. Till a redeeming arm of love Was given from the courts above. He came, the mighty Prince of Peace, To cope with Death for our release; He died, and in the grave alone, He conquered Death upon his throne. So, when we meet to take afresh The emblems of his broken flesh. Remember, by his sacrifice. Of all that live Death only dies. Theodore E. Curtis. Citation: Hogenson, J. C., “Natural Development,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 28–31. # Sunny Days in Ireland Sunny Days in Ireland. BY NEPHI ANDERSON, AUTHOR OF "ADDED UPON," "tHE CASTLE BUILDER," ETC. Ireland to some people is a land of fogs and much rain; but to me it stands for blue skies, warm, soft breezes, the green of growmg grass and blossoming trees; and, above all, a week of warm, sunny days in pleasant company. That week in the Emerald Isle stands out in my memory as one of the most pleasur- able in my life. President Heber J. Grant, his wife, Emily W, Grant, their two little girls, Emily and Frances, and the writer, left Liver- pool on the Dublin boat at twelve noon, Saturday, May 20, 1905, landing at Dublin the following morning. President Grant was due in Belfast the next day to attend conference, but owing to missing train connections, and the lack of Sunday traits, it appeared as if he would fail to reach his destination in time. In his characteristic determination to "get there," he even made enquiries if it were possible to get an automobile for the trip to the north of the island; but this failed also. He, however? managed to arrive in time to attend some of the conference meetings. There is a thriving branch of the Church at Dublin, most of the members not being Irish, but German. A number of enterpris- ing German Saints, having found it a profitable business to sell pork in all its varied forms and grindings to the inhabitants of Dublin, had invited others of their fellow countrymen to come over and partake of their good fortune and opportunities, and so there is quite a colony of German pork-butchers in the capital of the Emerald Isle, The Saints received us loyally. We attended the SUNNY DAYS IN IRELAND. 33 Sunday school in their hall, away up in the third story of a build- ing on Sackville street, Dublin's one big, wide street. As the day was fine, Sunday afternoon, one of the Saints showed Sister Grant, the little girls and me around. There are a good many places of historic interest in the city, but as it was Sunday we did not have access to them. In our rambles we were led to Phoenix park — and that put an end to further sight-seeing in the capital city of Ireland. Phoenix park is one of the largest in the world, comprising a tract two thousand acres in extent. The point which lies nearest to the city consists of a high plateau, laid out in walks, grass, lakes, tiny watercourses and . falls, flower beds, a beautiful and remarkable variety of trees and shrubbery. Lying there, high above the smoke, dirt and noise of the city, it is an ideal place for rest. One of the largest lawn plats — acres in extent — stretched away in velvety green, soft and smooth and level as the rug on a parlor floor. Great, beautiful trees bordered this lawn, and scat- tered here and there were an abundance of restful, easy chairs. There were a good many people out, but not enough to make it crowded or disagreeable. Children played on the grass. The ladies sat and read contentedly. Others strolled about. We remained in the park until it was time to go home and to the even- ing meeting. Monday morning we went back to the park. We wouldn't think of going anywhere else — not while Phoenix park was so near at hand, and the day was so sunny and warm. We engaged an Irish driver, and had our first ride in a jaunting car around the park, to the extent of ten or a dozen miles. We visited the big stone monument erected to that famous Irishman, the Duke of Wellington. Then we went to the beautiful corner-spot again. That afternoon the place was ideal. The day was perfect — warm, soft, inclined to be dreamy. There was just a sprinkling of nurses with baby carriages, and children tumbling over the lawn. We sat on the easy chairs and tried t) read, but that was impos- sible. It was sacrilige to try to get interested in a printed page when nature spoke in such eloquent beauty all around us. There is a very good zoological garden in Phoenix park. We saw the animals that afternoon. The monkey house was one of 31 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the biggest I had ever seen— and one can watch a house full of monkeys with never flagging interest. But the lions and tigers were especially attractive. There were a good many, and when feeding time came the lions roared lustily. It was an impressive sight to see a tiger, with cat-like agility, catch the raw meat thrown to it, and then keep a continuous snarl of fierce outbursts for fifteen minutes before it would be quiet enough to eat. President Grant joined us the next day, and we planned to leave for Killarney on the noon train, but we were hindered, for some cause, and had to wait until three o'clock. What should we do to spend the time? Why, go to the Phoenix park, of course — and so we did. The train took us right across Ireland, and we obtained a good view of the wonderfully green island in the sweep of the warm Atlantic winds and rains. The whole of the interior seemed to us to be one low level stretch, boggy and wet. Hedges lined the roads and boundaries, and a brilliantly yellow furze bush made great daubs of color on the universal green. The next morning we awoke at Killarney. The word is sug- gestive of "sL bewitching vista of blue hills, placid lakes, sparkling streams and romantic waterfalls," but we find that none of these are to be seen. The sights are a mile or more away. The town itself is a small, somewhat squalid village, a hundred and eighty- six miles southwest from Dublin. The whole town, together with much of the surrounding country, belongs to the Earl of Kenmare. And now arrangements must be made to visit the famous lakes. The town is full of people who are eager to help you do this. The hotels have elaborate excursions outlined by which the tourists may get to see Killarney in all its parts and details, at the same time prolonging his stay as long as possible. We, however, nad no time — not to speak of means — for this, so we arranged to "do" the lakes in one day. We began our pilgrimage by seating ourselves in a buggy — in Ireland it would be called a carriage or car — and being driven along the borders of the lower lake towards the mountains. In the course of an hour or so we arrived at the entrance of the Gap of Dunloe, a gorge or small canyon in the hills. Here we were shown "Kate Karney's cottage," wherein we saw the turf 36 IMPROVEMENT ERA. fire burning in the fireplace, and Kate Karney's daughter or grand- daughter— I forget which — eager to sell us souvenirs. Here, at the entrance to the Gap, we alighted from the carriages, as this is as far as the wagon road is made. The four miles through the defile must be walked, or horses must be hired for riding. Out of the small band of ponies and shaggy horses offered us, we selected two for the little girls— the rest of us decided we would rather walk. Viewed by the eyes of Westerners, from the Rocky mountains, the Gap of Dunloe is somewhat of a tame affair. It might be likened to a tenth-rate Utah canyon, though, of course, it might appear quite grand to those who had never seen anything grander. "And to think," we said, "that we have traveled this long dis- tance to see this, when a walk up City Creek canyon would give us an equally beautiful view!" There are some large, fantastic rocks on either side, but there is plenty of room for a wagon road. A few boulders are left, no doubt for a purpose, where a road might easily be made. But the owners of horses in the vicinity must also make a living, as well as the coachmen and wagon men, and so the wagon road ends where it docS, The day was fair and warm, just pleasant for walking; and we were not permitted to gaze at the scenery all the time, for all along the route we met with people who desired to amuse us. There are some good echoes in places, and for sixpence a man would fire a shot that we might hear the echo. Another played the violin, and the echo came clear and distinct from the crags on the other side. A small stream flows along the bottom of the defile, expanding now and then into- small lakes of black-looking water. One of these, — Black Lough — we are told, is the identical spot where St. Patrick drowned the last snake in Ireland. Seated on the rocks by the roadside, at proper distances apart, were Irish women selling milk to the thirsty traveler. If the milk pitcher did not tempt us to drink, the women drew aside their shawls and gave us a peep at someohi-ng stronger in a flask, with the assur- ance that we would get a "drop of the creature" in our milk. The owners of the horses accompanied us, and if desired would lead them along for the rider. These genial Irish gentlemen have a vast fund of information to give to the visitor. Here is a sample: SUNNY DAYS IN IRELAND. 37 "Among the nearby hills there is a small lake renowned for its fabulous depth. A well-known professor, who was in that part, was climbing the hills, when Pai, his guide, asked him if he would like to see this lake, 'for it's no bottom at all, sorr,' 'How do you know that, Pat?' asked the professor. 'Well, sorr, I'll tell ye. Me own cousin was showin' the pond to a gentleman one day, sorr, and he looked incredulous like, just as you do, and me cousin couldn't stand it for him to doubt his word, and so he said, I'll prove the ^ruth of me words, he said, and off with his clothes and into the water he jumped.' The professor's face wore an amused expression. 'Yes, sorr, in he jumped, and didn't come up again, at all, at all!' 'But,' said the professor, 'I don't see that he proved his point by drowning himself.' 'Is it drowned? Not a bit drowned, at all, he was ! Sure, didn't a cable come from him next day in America askin' for his clothes to be sent on!' " Dunloe Gap opens into a valley wherein lies the upper of the Killarney lakes. We caught a glimpse of the water from over the hills, and we soon wended our way down into the valley. Before we could reach the lake, however, we had to pass a toll gate and THE ISLANDS, UPPER LAKE KILLARNEY 38 IMPROVEMENT ERA. pay a shilling to get through. Here we parted company with the horses and their attendants, they climbing back again through the Gap to be ready for the morrow's victims. Our guides proved to be pleasant fellows, even though they did not know the difference between the Irish shamrock and a common three-leaved clover. A boat, two rowers, and a lunch basket were waiting for us. We were glad to spread the lunch on the grass and to eat. The rest was also acceptable. But we soon embarked, and the boat was headed down the stream. We soon came to the Upper lake proper, a small body of water two and one half miles long by half a mile wide. The lake is studded with, islands — some mere bare rocks, others covered with grass and trees. The hills on each side are densely clad with verdure, oft reflected in the placid waters. We glided in and out among the islands, and shortly came to the stream which connects this body of water with the Middle lake. We soon came to the Eagle's Nest, a high mountain on the left, where again the echoes are very easily awakened. At the lower end of the channel the water flows more swiftly, and we should have ''shot the rapids" under the old Weir Bridge; but this event, described in the guide books as a very exciting thing to do, was a very tame affair. Perhaps the water was low that season, for the boatman had to push with the oars, and the boat scraped on the bottom as we passed through. We were now at what, with Irish perversity, is called the "Meeting of the Waters," for the stream here separates into two channels. There is not in this wide world a valley so sweet, As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet, sang the poet of this spot; and we can call it nothing but beauti- ful, although we would not go quite so far as the poet. We now emerged into the Middle lake, about a mile wide and two long. We were soon rowed across the straight that leads us into the large Lower lake, a beautiful body of water about five miles by three. Thackeray, in his Irish Sketch Book, when replying to the question, "What is to be said about the Middle lake?" said: When there, we agreed that it was more beautiful than the large lake; then when we came back, we said, "No, the large lake is the more SUNNY DAYS IN IRELAND. 39 beautiful;" and so at every point we stopped, we determined that that particular spot was the prettiest. The fact is, I do'n't care to own them, they are too handsome. As for a man coming from his desk in London or Dublin, and seeing the whole lakes in a day, he is an ass for his pains. A child, doing a sum in addition, might as well read the whole multipli- cation table and fancy he had it by heart. The writer of this sketch may come under Thackeray's classi- fication; "but sure" he was enjoying it, even if but for a day. Those who had time and money certainly would do better to linger longer among these charming spots, but for us half a loaf was better than no bread. The day continued to be clear. When we were well out into the MEETING OF THE WATERS, KILLARNEY. larger lake the wind came up, and the waves began to roll pretty high. Our boat was a small one, and we had to be careful lest the waves dash over into our laps. We watched the expression on the faces of the rowers, as the wind came stronger, and we saw that they turned to get under shelter of a headland. It was a good thing that they did, for the lake soon became pretty rough. In rounding the outer point of this headland we saw the island of Innisfallen, one of the most beautiful of the many 40 IMPROVEMENT ERA. islands in this lake. We could not land and inspect it, so we will have to be satisfied with Moore's famous lines: Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well, May calm and sunshine long be thine. How fair thou art let others tell, While but to feel how fair be mine. Sweet Innisfallen, long shall dwell In memory's dream that sunny smile Which o'er thee on that evening fell. When first I saw thy fairy isle. We were landed at the ruins of Rose castle — big' high walls of stone, which, of course, has its romantic history. There are more famous echoes around Rose island, among which might also be named this Irish story: Paddy, wishing to improve on the original article, sent a man to conceal himself in the ruin* of the castle. Then the boatman sings out, "How do you do, Paddy Blake?" to which the response comes, "Very well, thank you!" This particular guide always speaks of the echo as if it were a lady. "Pat," he was asked, "why do you apply the feminine gender when talking about the INNISFALLEN, KILLARNEY. SUNNY DAYS IN IRELAND. 41 echo?" "Feminine gander, your honor? Sure, I never called the echo a goose, she's too smart for that!" "No— you don't understand— why do you address the echo as a woman ?" "Sure," replied the enlightened Pat, " 'tis because she always has the last word." At Rose castle we took the carriage back to Killarney and the hotel; but, as there was still a good part of the beautiful after- noon left, we drove out to Muckross abbey and its grounds, situ- ated on the shore of the Lower lake. Muckross abbey is one of those * 'beautiful ruins' ' which the tourist so much admires. Its great age gives it an added charm — it was built in the year 1340. The grounds around this ruin in truth are very charming. The gently rolling greensward is dotted with trees, some of which we pronounced the most beautiful we had ever seen. Immense, they were, with great, round, smooth branches reaching skyward. Queen Victoria, while on a visit to this spot, planted a group of trees, now called the Royal Family. Within the walls of the ruin, a magnificent yew tree spreads its branches over the crumbling, moss-covered stones. The grounds are beautifully laid out and kept. The luxuriant vegetation, sone of which seems to be of a semi-tropical nature, shows that this is a protected spot of the Emerald Isle. We could well believe the statement made to us, that Jay Gould himself had tried to buy the estate. The day closed before we saw very much of these lovely grounds, so we had to go back to the hotel. Sister Grant, how- ever, was not to be cheated out of a more intimate acquaintance with such loveliness. We had planned to visit Cork, and Blarney castle, the next day, but she chose to remain and bask one more day in the sunny mellowness of Killarney, rather than to risk the tiresome journey further south. So I left them and contin- ued on the southern trip alone, singing: By Killarney' s lakes and fells, Emerald isles and winding bays. Mountain paths and wooded dells, Memory ever fondly strays. Citation: Anderson, Nephi, “Sunny Days in Ireland,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 32–41. # Hypocrisy Hypocrisy. BY GEORGE D. KIRBY. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men , but, within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Matt. 23: 28). Just prior to the crucifixion of the Savior, he made a scath- ing denunciation of the Pharisees in which, among other things, he gave utterance to the above sentence. This whole chapter of Matthew is a stern rebuke to the hypocrite, and Christ's teachings to his disciples about this time were a continuous warning to beware of those who appeared "outwardly beautiful as whited sepulchers, but who within were full of dead men's bones." They were false spirits and their mission was to deceive. That which I have referred to above occurred in the year 33, the year in which the Christ was crucified, and we find God, seven- teen hundred and ninety-eight years later, giving his Church the same counsel through the Prophet Joseph Smith, ending with a warning which all men will do well to remember, ' 'Let every man beware lest he do that which is not in truth and righteousness before me" (Doctrine and Covenants 50: 9). The faithful are those who listen not to the hypocrite, but endure to the end, either in life or death, and they will inherit eternal life as their reward; but deceivers and hypocrites are deceiving themselves as well as others, and will be brought to judgment and condemned. Of course, some have been innocently and ignorantly deceived, and the Lord has said that they shall be reclaimed; but how much better it will be for us always to act in truth and righteousness, giving heed to the Lord and his teachings, rather than to the HYPOCRISY. 43 hollow mockery of the hypocrites. How much better to avoid the necessity of proving, on the day of judgment, that we have been misled through ignorance! Notwithstanding there are many false spirits among us, there is much truth in the world, and this truth is broadening and will one day encompass the whole world, in accordance with the divine plan of God; but there is much to do before that condition is reached. "The harvest is great and the laborers few," and these few must not only teach the truth, but must denounce and wipe out the sophistry of the emissaries of Satan — the hypocrites. In order to accomplish this end, which will be accomplished in due time, of course, men must be continually on their guard. Elder 0. F. Whitney, in his epic poem, Elias, has this to say: Be not beguiled: not what men think and say, But what God sees and knows, is what avails. Men will be and are continually called upon to decide what is mere sophistry and what is truth; but if they have the proper spirit within them, they will not be led far astray. But, alas, so many do not possess the spirit they should. There is a tendency among the Saints to disregard, more or less, the teachings which are given them. If they live according to their best knowledge, there would be no saloons among us; there would be no use for tea and coffee and tobacco; there would be less of a craze for amuse- ment; our meetinghouses would be so crowded as to require larger ones; new temples would have to be erected in order to satisfy the demands for work for the dead; no difficulty would be experienced in getting plenty of missionaries to preach the gospel to the world; and there would be a spirit of forgiveness and faith such as few people have ever felt. Why do we not always live according to our highest convic- tions, and the light of the gospel? Is it because we have not been blessed of the Lord? No, it is not. Is it, then, because there is a degree of hypocrisy and deceit among us? When our enemies charge us with this and kindred qualities, there may be too much truth in the charges. And yet it is not a great deal that the Lord has required of us, and it is, moreover, of the highest benefit to us. But instead of doing all that he has required us to do, we 44 IMPROVEMENT ERA. choose often to stoop to petty sins that deprive us of blessings in this life and the other. We are too susceptible altogether to the influences that sur- round us. The Lord has commanded us to come out of Babylon; yet some follow after her in theories and fashions. We affiliate with those who would do us injury, adopt their ideas, and follow their practices. When will we leave off this? Instead of leading, we are led. In too many households of the world we see poodle dogs, pussy cats, birds and other things, that can be teth- ered by a string in order that mothers may attend clubs, etc., whereas, mothers should be rearing children and training them in the fear of God. The Latter-day Saints should see to it that these evil practices are not adopted by them. Some one has said, "The most deceived man is the one who deceives himself." I am reminded of the story of the Brooklyn woman who possesses a model servant in all respects, except that she is none too truthful. Lately the mistress has been using all her eloquence to make Nora see the error of her deceitfulness, but she had to own herself beaten when Nora, with a beaming Irish smile, turned to her, and in a most cajoling tone said, "Sure now, mum, an' wot de ye suppose the power of desavin' was given us for?" But, brethren, whatever we really are, that let us be in all fearlessness. Whatever we are not, that let us cease striving to seem to be— and we will be better citizens, better friends, and bet- ter candidates for the kingdom of God. Sugar City, Idaho. The Philosophy of Opposition. "in the making of a man, power is born of opposition; struggle begets strength; resistance provokes vigor of body and of spirit, the very obstacles to progress make progress possible. . . . Wherever resistance is overcome, limitations removed, or difficulties transferred into advantages, there is a conquest of character, and the growth of a larger soul in the process of appropriating to itself a larger world." John Grier Hibben, Atlantic Monthly. MISSIONARIES OFgTHE BROOKLYN PONPEKEXCE, EASTERN STyiTES MISSION. Taken just before the Brooklyn and New York Conferences were joined. Citation: Kirby, George D., “Hypocrisy,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 42–45. # The Crown of Individuality: XII. The Crimes of Respectability The Crown of Individuality.* BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. XII. — The Crimes of Respectability. Respectability wears white robes of superiority and is vain of her virtues. Respectability keeps within the pale of human and social law though breaking the laws of — the finer code of the soul. With Pharisaic self-complacency she withdraws her dainty skirts from contact with crime. She sits serene and self-appointed in the seat of judgment and deals out hard condemnation on the offenders of human law — the criminals, the outcasts of society. Let Respectability listen for a moment to the charges to be brought against her and then quietly, squarely and honestly face the issue and see its justice. We must realize as an absolute fact that all the crimes of criminals in any city or state, massed together and awful as they may be, cause but a very small part of the suffering of life, and affect but a small fraction of the people compared with — the crimes of respectability. Let us realize that it is from the regular army of respectability that life's greatest sorrow comes — not from the scattered skirmishers of crime. If we honestly accept and believe truth, we have a new illumination, a high impulse, and a noble inspiration towards higher, simpler living. Were we to question a thousand or a million men we would find that but a small percentage have ever had their lives dark- ened by deeds of crime, in fact, by any acts punishable by human * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Eevell Company. THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 47 aw. But from the cruel, unnecessary, unpunishable weakness and injustice of every-day life— none is ever long immune. The crimes of respectability are gossip, jealousy, envy, bitter words, hypocrisy, scandal, malice, persistent meannesses and injustice, lying, temper, hard, uncharitable judgment, selfishness, spite, ingratitude, treach- ery, and — a host of others. Gossip is one of the popular crimes that has caused infinitely more sorrow in life than— murder. It is drunkenness of the tongue; it 1.=^ assassination of reputations. It runs the cowardly gamut from mere ignorant, impertinent intrusion into the lives of others to malicious slander. If facts do not exist it creates them. If the facts be innocent it somehow juggles them into evidence of black guilt. In interpretation it always chooses the worse of two possible motives. It constitutes itself a secret court of inquisition that decides on the fate of the victiiu in his absence — when he has no chance to speak in his own behalf. It is a conspiracy of wrong. He who listens to this crime of respectability without protest is as evil as he who speaks. One strong, manly voice of protest, of appeal to justice, of calling a halt in the name of charity — could fumigate a room from gossip as a clear, sharp winter wind kills a pestilence. Sometimes gossip does not deal altogether in words; there are simple yet subtle tricks of silence and gesture — and in a moment the deed is accomplished. It seems like a whiff from one of those diabolically poisoned roses of the Borgias that kill and leave no sign. Then a reputation lies dead in the roadway. Some- one's mighty faith in someone has its pulse stilled forever. Some- one is walking his weary way alone in the silence with the sun of love blotted from his sky. There is a Satanic ingenuity in quoting part of a sentence and without telling how or why it was spoken. It puts a man of honor in a position where he cannot explain because he knows not the treason. This seems the master-stroke of gossip. It may kill a great love in an instant and leave no chance for explanation that might drive out the poison of a lack of faith— unjustified were the truth known. The happiness of two may be killed by — this lying silence. Jealousy has a hundred masquerades in which to do its deadly work. In countless business enterprises alone it transforms the 48 IMPROVEMENT ERA. joy of honest, faithful, service into a grim inferno of hopeless struggle. Inferiority, incompetency, or selfish, impotent ambition is seeking to undermine the best efforts of others. By tale-bearing, petty intrigue, trickery, imposition and all those other small imple- ments of warfare that make up the armory of small minds they seek to harm others. The venom of jealousy, s^lf-distilled, pois- ons not only others but their own whole natures. They envy but do not emulate. If the constant energy expended in injuring others were concentrated in heroic efforts to better themselves the results 'would be vastly different for— themselves and the world. There are men who wear the white badge of respectability as jauntily as though it were a fresh white pink in their buttonhole. They like the favor of the community as expressed to them by smiles, cheery words and pleasant greetings on the morning walk to the station. They may show a different side to their families. They may have irritability, impatience and a waspish, mean temper that upsets a household day after day. They have a long trail of bitter memories and of rankling injustice, that runs from the breakfast table to eventide. They vent their temper on their family and on inferior employees who cannot resent it— never on a business customer or associate. Prudence, policy and politeness forbid. They are thoroughly conscious of the limit— they rarely play it. When the master returns the members of the family look up questioningly to size up his mood as a farmer surveys the clouds to determine what the weather will be. The sorrow caused by professionals who steal tangible things is microscopic in compari- son with the misery caused by respectable amateurs who rob their homes and offices of happinesses— by temper, alone. There are women in some communities with reputations that are spotless— as the world's standard goes. Their uniform of respectability seems always fresh from the laundry. Those who know them best know they are narrow and bigoted, hard and uncharitable in their judgments, unforgiving, selfish and bitter. Their very influence is blighting; they are daily transforming some- one's Eden into a desert. They shrivel generous impulses of those around them. They pass through life self-mesmerized by their selfishness, in sublime unconsciousness that they are doing THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 49 more real harm in the world than some whose acts they regard with profound horror. Real human love seems as dead in their hearts, as destitute of the slightest light or warmth or glow, as the cen- turies-old ashes of Pompeii. These women are not necessarily hypocritic. They are only taking a Rip Van Winkle sleep of selfish self-satisfaction. No one seems to have the courage to awaken them— with a strong dose of straight talk. The daily evils that make life hard are not the great sorrows from which under the healing touch of time we may rise sweet- ened, softened, strengthened, facing life bravely anew. They are the infinity of irritating trifles, the cruelly unnecessary injust- ices, the absolutely man-made wrongs of life. It is irreverent to refer to them as any part of the divine plan. These wrongs are as much man-made as — a pair of shoes or a watch or an automobile. There is selfishness that overrides the rights of others like a car of Juggernaut. There is a bitterness of unforgiving condem- nation that listens to no reasons, explanations or motives, that believes because it has seen, that credits the senses and accepts circumstantial evidence as final. There is avarice that starves what it should feed. There is ingratitude that, turning traitor to the kindness it has received, dries for years some generous foun- tain of giving. There is hypocrisy that, masquerading like the devil in a surplice, poisons love and friendship and leaves scars in memory, and sears and warps character. These are a few of the crimes of respectability. A large part of the" evils in life is preventable; some by the individual alone. Why do we not prevent them? Man longs to learn the secrets of the Infinite in this universe of His, as though it would change man's whole life. If man be not true to what he knows, he is not ready to know more. With many people it is like a child who, not yet having mastered his primer, is hungry for Shakespeare. Man is said to have been made in the image of his — Creator. Some men seem to be trying — to remove the labels and other identifying brands. If we are men, with the dignity of our powers and privileges and possibilities, let us just — live like men. Life is not something to be lived through, it is to be lived up to— in aU its highest meanings and messages. There was in the army 50 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of Alexander the Great a soldier, who, although he bore the very- name of the great conqueror, was in his heart a great coward. Cowardice in any soldier of that mighty army was the worst of all crimes; yet for this man to be a coward was shame unspeakable. And Alexander in great anger commanded the craven: "Either give up my name or follow my example." Living up to our privileges means living up to our name — anything less means failure. If for a single week in any city each individual were to say each morning: "Today no one in the world shall have even one second darkened by any act of mine," and live it— that city, would be transformed and glorified. It would, after all, mean only negative goodness. It would mean only the avoidance of evil, not real, aggressive, positive, high-keyed living at our best, but the burden of life would be lifted, the heavens would almost open and be visible. Then in an atmosphere warm with the radiant glow of love and brotherhood we could almost hear the faint rustle of the angels' wings — the angels of peace ushering in the millennium on this world of ours. (The next chapter in this series, "The Optimism that Really Counts," will appear in the December number of the Era.) Looking up the River, in Bear River Canyon, Wasatch Mountains. Citation: Jordan, William George, “The Crown of Individuality: XII. The Crimes of Respectability,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 46–50. # The Evolution of a Cocoanut Plantation: II The Evolution of a Cocoanut Plantation. BY ELDER JOHN Q. ADAMS, OF THE SAMOAN MISSION. II. Our ''Mormon" boys devoting part of their missionary careers towards raising cocoanuts! This sentence may be made into either a statement or a query, as the question mark is added or omitted. From such a ;^ ^^, .:•»,•>-■.. S. condition, perhaps sufficient justification may be derived for what will follow in this article. In a previous article another phase of the cocoanut was dealt with — its relation- ship to the commercial world, together with its significance to the Pacific Islanders. In the succeeding few para- graphs we shall take up the past, present and future of our own plantation, and en- deavor to note the progress- ive stages as they gradually develop, with due mention of the part played by our faithful Saints of this village, (Mapusoga) at once our school center and the scene of one of our two large plantations. Some eight years back Mapuscga was founded, ostensibly as a school village. About twenty-four acres of land were leased from several chiefs of the village of Tralenin, a place three miles inland and twelve miles up the coast from Pago Pago. As in all pioneer efforts, where a few years of man's artificial efforts are made to supplant the results of hundreds of years of Nature's Many weary months of ax-swinging. 52 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . sway, much exertion and planning become involved in the trans- formation. Dense forests, such as are found only in tropical lati- tudes, must be leveled, despite all their pristine majesty, and replaced by a more useful generation of trees. Dwellings became necessary, and dot the clearings as man's most effectual stamp that the places are his, and that he has simply come as the rightful owner to claim his own. Avenues of subsistence must also be originated, and in a multitude of ways does pio- neering teem with possibilities, and things to be accomplished in sequence. Thus was Mapusoga begun, led by "Mormon" boys of the substantia!, Rocky mountain stamp, and rein- forced by their dark-skinned brethren, of Lamanitish descent. From the beginning our Saints here have been a source of wonder to the on-looking public, because of the reversal of the natural order of torrid laziness. Ac- customed for preceding generations to taking life easy, and the bounti^ s of a tropical climate, there has been lack- ing any incentive whatsoever to hard, manual labor. And yet the "Mormon" slogan, jfe'^v^^^MBBi . ^jf %. t *^JM^ jHinL'iMj k^ 't^^^^^ 1 Wi On these quickly improvised scaffolds the bare - legged choppers perch contentedly and peck away. work," seems to be a contagious something that permeates the life of a Latter-day Saint, ?ome from what land he may; and so it was and is here. All was not smooth sailing at first, by any means; but, as the place grew, and as a necessarv recompense for the months of weary ax-swinging and knifing, small wages were distributed and a good spirit prevailed. And now for the present. As the wilderness melts away into a broad clearing, planting begins — but first, just a word: The usual order of work is to first clear away the underbrush and shrubbery, by means of large knives, wielded by the smaller and weaker members of the community. Following them comes the brigade of strong men with heavy, five- pound axes — good headway resulting. The large trees do not root THE E VOL UTION OF A COCOANUT PL ANT A TION. 53 deeply in this land of constant rain, the root systems of some species beginning up as high as six feet above the ground, form- ing a great, spread- ing butt. To sever the trunk close to the ground would be quite impracticable, hence, notches are made in the tree up to where its girth is reasonably small, and in these, slabs are inserted. On these quickly improvised, A place thus cleared is not again molested for miniature scaffolds say— well onto a year. the bare -legged choppers perch con- tentedly and peck away, their blows resounding until the ominous swap foretells a weakening base. With care, no accident need occur, and as the monarch goes crashing to the earth, an accompany- ing shout is given by the victors. A place thus cleared is not molested again for say — well onto a year — when it is pretty well overgrown with pawpaw, and other tender shrubs. These are easily dis- patched with knives, and axes are used on the fallen trees, now in the first stages of rot- ting, all protruding branches being cut off. Once more the ground appears, and now plant- ing begins. The nuts, previously sprouted for perhaps eight or The nuts are first sprouted in a closely pUnted nursery. 54 IMPROVEMENT ERA. more months, in a closely planted nursery, are set approximately thirty feet apart each way, at the ti.ne of transplanting being two feet or more high. The nuts will grow if only placed on the ground, but to give stability they are covered. Within from four to six months, weeding becomes necessary, all the ground being cleared with knives. From now on, keeping the weeds from the trees within a radius of — say four feet— is about all that is necessary, the people planting bananas, taro, etc., sparsely among the trees and keeping the ground clear. Part of our plantation is situated on the abrupt side of a mountain, overlooking the ocean to good effect. Not only is a fine sea-view afforded, but to passing vessels the light green of the clearing, framed by the darker forest, presents a striking sight, which will be greatly enhanced when ^he cocoanut palms shall have reared their heads to the accustomed altitude. At the present writing, a bunch of natives come each morning from the three or four neighboring villages and join forces with our own men in the chopping campaign. With their shining Part of the plantation is situated on the side of a mountain. THE EVOLUTION OF A COCOANUT PLANTATION. 55 brown bodies bared to the waist, and in differently colored lava- lavas, or shirts, fastened at the waist by some mysterious sort of careless twist, and invariably of straight, erect, dignified bearing, they are an interesting study. And this interest doubles itself when in # Sacred Dust Sacred Dust. BY AUBRAY PARKER. The "dust of the departed" has been held as sacred in nearly all ages since the world began. Gigantic mausoleums began to be erected, for the repose of the dead, long before the Christian era. Indeed, the pyramids of Egypt speak, with very ancient voice, of the sacredness of the bodies of the departed great. That the body of man is sacred, living or dead, no reasoning being can doubt. To sit down and think upon its construction and mechanism, is to become elevated above all that is trivial — to become absorbed for a time, as it were, in the sublime realities of God's creation. It is the object of this little article to prove not only the sacredness of the body of man, which the Lord God "formed from the dust of the ground," but also of the dust of the whole creation, which shows forth the handiwork of God. In the second chapter of the Book of Moses, in the Pearl of Great Price, are these words: And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this Heaven and this Earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things, yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest. From this revelation we learn that God created this earth upon which we stand. And further, that he created everything that is upon, within, above and beneath the earth; in short, the whole of creation is of his own design and workmanship. He is the Author of this wondrous world and its many inhabitants. God SACRED DUST. 57 the Father, by his Only Begotten, created the beasts of the earth and the plants of the field, hence the dust of which they are made is sacred. It is sacred, and cannot be brought to naught. The virgin lily bends its head, And blends its dust with lilies dead, Dust that shall live in days to be, And still retain its chastity. The vestment that to earth doth fall, Again shall be a lily tall; For nothing lives or dies in vain, All things die to live again. There are, uidoubtedly, different grades of creation. God has endowed the body of man with an intelligence capable of evolving to perfection, like unto his own. Hence, man is his highest crea- tion, and has dominion over all the beasts of the field. The most uncouth human on the face of the globe may be called a god in embryo; but, just as all seed does not produce fruit, even so it is that all men will not attain unto godhood. All dust that has been raised up to hold a human soul is placed upon the highest pinnacle of God's creation, and is capable of responding to that invitation issued by the Savior of mankind, viz., "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." When we think of the many holy men we have known, who have lived, died and gone to dust, we ask ourselves, "Is theirs not sacred dust? sunken temples, shrines of worship, awaiting the trump of Gabriel, that they might rise again, sublime celestial and incapable of decay?" "Solomon and all his glory has gone down to death, and the winter winds moan over his dust." — Ichabod. So even is it, "Man being born of woman, has but a short time to live." He is the fruit of that eternity gone before him, living in the day that now is. The natural man feels that he is born to perform, and that he does from the time of his access to the time of his egression from this world of potter's clay. He manipulates nature in order to perfect his art. He, perchance, is crowned with laurel, for in 58 IMPR0VEMEN1 ERA. that his creations are draped in beauty. Yet, after all, the innate germ of decay is in them, laurel and all; yea, they of ttime moulder in the making. So they pass, as all mundane creations must pass. They all must, as Shakespeare has said with grim humor, "as chimney-sweepers come to dust." What wouldst thou, 0 man, That thou shouldst be, For all eternity ? An eternal j^^em Moulden in a crucible of'dust? Mystic crucible ! Made like High God, Made out of earth's vernal sod: A shrine of worship, Once fit for cherubim. Or God's own holy soul. Now vitiated by Satan's blight; Now seest dim heaven in earth thro' curtained light' The body of man is of ineffable beauty. How wonderful its constitution — the binding together of veins and nerves, of bones and sinews ! "Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God," sings Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The earth is of dust — is it not then sacred? Earth is surmounted with an altar cloth of blue, bespangled with stars of silver, and upon it rests a chalice of gold, from which flows light and beauty into the lap of Nature. All dust, methinks, is sacred; each grain belongs to God. Gateshead, England. Citation: Parker, Aubray, “Sacred Dust,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 56–58. # For the Development of Character: Helpful Stories and Anecdotes For the Development of Character. Helpful Stories and Anecdotes. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON, AUTHOR OF "a BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH," "a LIFE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG," ETC. Of What Help is a Mission? Elder David H. Woodard, of Elsinore, Utah, recently returned from a foreign mission, answers this question, in his own case — a question frequently as~ked by young men who are not over full of faith. He relates: "I am thankful I was called on a mission. God has converted me to the principles of the gospel, in every case where I have put myself in harmony with them, "I have thus proved true the saying in John 7: 17: 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.' "Furthermore, I have proved true the saying in James 1: 5, 6: 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; audit shall be given him.' I have had my prayers answered to the very letter; just as often as I prayed for that which is righteous — and by just effort tried to obtain it." The Slavery of Bad Habit. A young man residing in Southern Utah, a prosperous, good citizen and member of the Church, gave the following strong illustration of the power of habit, and the need of self-will and control in overcoming it. 60 IMPROVEMENT ERA. He told the writer that when he was eight years of age he first foolishly began the use of tobacco, without the knowledge of his parents. When about seventeen years of age he had the privi- lege of attending school in the Brigham Young University. One day the president, suspecting that a number of young men used tobacco, called all the boys who had the habit to meet him in his office. Forty out of the whole enrollment responded, includine our friend. The president began to question them relating to the use of the weed: '■'When did you begin using tobacco?" "Why do you use it?" "Have you ever tried to quit ?" "Will you quit now?" In nearly every instance, to the last two questions the boys answered, "Yes; many times, but I can't." As the president went down the line, it was common for the boy sheepishly to acknowledge, "I have tried time and time again to quit, but I can't." This manifest weakness and abject slavery to a bad habit so disgusted our friend that he determined when his turn came that he would answer, "I have never tried, but I can quit, and I will." This he did, and he has never used tobacco since. In speaking of the disgust that he experienced at the answers of the boys, he expressed himself as so completely overwhelmed with the helplessness of the young men who had formed the dirty habit, that it made him determine that, as for him, he would show self-control and will enough to do as he pleased, rather than to be the slave of tobacco. He is, therefore, a free man, and thankful for the incident that determined him to be free. Courage to Say No. A former prominent school teacher of Salt Lake county, now occupying a remunerative position out of the state, related to the writer this incident, which came under his personal observation. It teaches that the only safe thing for a young man to do, when he finds himself in bad company, is to have the courage to protest against their evil suggestions, and then to abandon them — get out of it: FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER. 61 "I tell you, no, I'm not with you, if that's what you're up to! It's not right ! You can count me out !" The speaker was a young man whom we will name Henry Hill, one of a crowd of boys, out for an evening of fun. It was the third or fourth exclamation of the kind he had made to the entreaties of his companions, and as he stood facing them, with his fists clenched, every muscle firmly set, the boys realized that he meant every word he uttered, and that it was no use further to appeal to him to join them in the scheme. "Then you're a sissy, a baby !" derisively shouted the crowd with one voice. "You're afraid; a sissy !" again resounded. One of the leaders then yelled "Oh, let the baby alone ! Let's go burn the fence !" "All right !" said one. "All right; let's go! Come on!" shouted the others, and off they rushed pell-mell, following Jack Marsh, the leader. The boys, ranging in age from fourteen to seventeen years, were out for an evening of so-called fun. They had already done some slight mischief, but nothing serious so far. In their antics, they had overturned several wagons, unbuckled harnesses, and tied or untied horses, as the animals happened to be either loose or fastened. For a crowd of boys on such "outs" seems determined that things shall be what they are not. They had taken horses from one man's stable and tied them in a neighbor's barn, and transferred the latter's cows to the stall where the horses stood; and in other ways disarranged things in general. Being about ready to end up the night, Jack Marsh had sug- gested building a bonfire, and that a neighboring fence be used for the purpose. The boys assented — some of them reluctantly in their own feelings, and in false fear of being; counted cowardly— all but Henry Hill, the sole objector, and, incidentally, the only boy exhibiting real courage— he it was who so promptly said "No!" and defended his position with such vigor and manliness as must have made a deep impression on the crowd, especially on the boys who were reluctant. All the contempt so scornfully directed against him hadn't the slightest effect in changing his determination. It was a case 62 IMPROVEMENT ERA. where it took more courage to stand on one's own judgment against the crowd, than with the crowd, on their suggestions for evil and the wanton destruction of property. So the crowd, led by Jack Marsh, went about their mischief; but Henry Hill went home. The next morning the good people of the village adjusted their property, but there was much stir over the burned fence. The young school teacher, being familiar with the youth of the village, was appealed to for the names of the culprits; but these were not divulged at the time, though public suspicion justly rested upon Jack Marsh, one of the wild young fellows in the district, noted for leadership in malicious mischief. Now it happened, some four years after the fence-burning incident, that the state law-makers met, and the school teacher, in the meantime, had been elected to represent a district in the lower house of the Utah legislature, tlsually the members of that body in the course of the session visit the state institutions, and the custom was continued by the sixth legislature. The state reform school was visited one day; and there, who should our teacher meet but Jack Marsh, the suspected leader of the boys, so familiar to him in the village where he taught school — disgraced for incorrigibility ! In the state prison he came upon another young man whom he recognized as one more of the gang. Going up to him, he said with apparent surprise: "Hello, you here?" "Yes; and I'm the biggest fool in. My fear of the boys led me to this. I was always afraid to stand against them and to assert my own best judgment. I fell in line with the devilment they wanted me to do, and I continued that way; and here's how it's ended. You can set it down, if I ever get out of here, I'll have a mind of my own!" Then he told the young former teacher all about the fence-burning incident. But the strangest, as well as the most pleasant, part of the young teacher-legislator's experience, in his round of the state institutions, was his visit to the University of Utah, where he met Henry Hill, a respected student of the great school, just beginning FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER, r,3 his fourth college year with splendid prospects of honorable graduation. The Lord Answers Prayers. ''In a certain city in England," writes Andrew L. Rogers, of Snowflake, Arizona, in a letter dated August 27, 1910, "this incident occurred, while I was on my mission recently: A man denounced the 'Mormons,' at the close of a street meeting, in such vehement terms, that the crowd began to shout, 'They [the elders] ought to be pitched into the sea!' Notwithstanding these threats, and that if they appeared again on the street this opponent would be thereto help carry them out, another meeting was called; and when the time arrived this man, who made a boast to be there to tear down the 'Mormons,' did not even put in an appearance, and one of the largest meetings ever held in the place was con- vened. And, mind you, this was all in answer to earnest prayer that such should be the case." Photo bv Wilcox. Flag Rush, University of Utah, September 22. 1910, in which the Sophomores won from the Freshmen. Citation: Anderson, Edward H., “For the Development of Character: Helpful Stories and Anecdotes,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 59–63. # The Nephite Shepherd: Part One, I. The Awakening of Zemnarihah The Nephite Shepherd. A Book of Mormon Story, in Two Parts. BY ARTHUK V. W ATKINS. Part One. I. — The Awakening of Zemnarihah. The gray streaks of light in the east showed that another day was about to dawn. Smoke was curling upward from at least a dozen chimneys, light and foggy at first, showing that the fires had just been kindled. Occasionally a merchant's cart could be heard rumbling over the pavement in some distant street. The gates in the walls creaked as they swung open to admit the farmer with his load of fruit and vegetables. The night watchman on the walls was climbing down as the light of day came to take his place. All was beginning to awake but the youth — until now unno- ticed— leaning against the wall of yonder mansion. In a half recumbent position, he appeared to hive been sleeping most of the night. His head was thrown back enough to reveal his face, one of Hebrew cast, proud and haughty. Seemingly few of the cares of this world had ever rested on his shoulders. He was large of stature, his chest full and shoulders broad. A dark red robe covered his frame from neck to knees; his feet were enclasped in gold-trimmed sandals. His rest might have remained unbroken, but for the appear- ance of a servant at this moment, who tapped him lightly on the arm, at the same time saying. THE NEPHITE SHEPHERD. 65 "Come, Zemnarihah, thy father awaits thee." With a start the youth awoke, seized the closely shaven servant by the neck, and commenced shaking him soundly. The next moment his hands dropped to his side. ''Forgive me, Zoram, I am rash; but that dream! Oh, but just now he struck with his hand ! I leaped and seized him by the throat, to strangle the dog, and— it was only a dream— I had you instead. Once more, I implore your forgiveness ! What brings you here? Any news from father? The whole night long have I watched and waited, until sleep overpowered me." "Thy father awaits thee. Hasten to him at once in the lower chamber. ' ' In the lower chamber of the same dwelling lay the elder Zemnarihah. One look into his face told the tale; disease, pain and suffering were stamped on every lineament in his face and vein in his arms. Frightful to behold was this human being; to a naturally fierce and morbid countenance, disease had added the withering look of hate. He lay upon his couch against a mass of pillows. A taper burned low in one corner, giving a ghostly look to the room; two windows in the east wall were partly curtained, and, as the sun had not yet risen, little light came in through them. The fur- nishings of the room were few, but richly decorated with gold and silver trimmings. A glittering sword hung over a painting on the wall nearest the foot of the bed. The painting itself was enough to inspire terror in any bosom, without the sword hanging over it. It represented a group of men in red robes and with heads closely shaven. In the hands of all were knives sprinkled with blood, and jeweled swords hung by their sides. One was in the act of admin- istering an oath, and another in the act of swearing. The dull glow cf the taper gave an unearthly expression to the faces. Such was the room into which the servant led the youth. Judging from the expression that came over his face, it was his first time there. The father motioned the son to his side, and then, taking him by the hand, bade him sit on the stool by the bedside. "My son, you doubtless wonder why I am brought home in this condition— almost a corpse. But it will be of no use for you 66 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to know why my illness, so take your mind from thinking of it. I have something of great importance that you must know, — Zoram, begone, until you are called— something, my son, that concerns your future and the destiny of our family. Before I tell you, you must swear never to reveal it to any one except to those whom I shall name." Here the father turned his glaring eyes upon the youth. "I do, father," the boy answered quiveringly. "It is well, my son. Now listen, that you may never forget — never ! You are heir to the greatest wealth in all this land. Do you hear? You will be the richest man in all this land of Zara- herala." "Yes, father, it is commonly reportel that you are rich." "All of it will be yours when I am gone, unless — " His voice fell to a whisper. "Unless what, father?" "Unless his words come true— oh, it can't be ! He lies — the dog — he lies — I say he lies !" During this speech the sick man's face was terrible. All the dark and sinister things of a lifetime seemed to be crowded into that one expression. His voice grew hoarse, then sunk into a whisper. He fell back on the pillows exhausted. Stillness ensued for a few moments, and then he resumed: "My son, you have heard of Kishkumen, who slew the chief jud^e. You have also heard of Gadianton, and — " 'Yes, father, but they were — " "Never mind what they were. You also know that they organized a society to protect their lives, to regain their rights as chief judges and governors over this land." "But, father, what have they to do with you or me?" inter- rupted the youth. "This: I am a member of that secret band. I owe my all to it." "Father!" The youth sprang from the bedside horror stricken, and with dilated eyes gazed into those of his father. The look was short-lived; the palsied hand quietly motioned the boy back to his seat. THE NEPHITE SHEPHERD. 67 "You must learn to control yourself better, my boy. Think of it, all 1 have came through that organization. Your grand- father was one of the first members. The judgment seat belongs to us— it was stolen away from our family. It should be yours by rightful succession. My boy, I look to you to restore our rights. Lachoneus is a thief and a robber; he is one of those abominable priests who lord over us. But for them, and I would this day be king over this people, and you a prince. Yes, but for them and that cursed Lamanite ! He upholds the judge, calls him a man of God, and calls on the people to support him. Even yesterday, at Moroni, I heard this dog of a priest calling the people to repent- ance, pronouncing the vengeance of God upon us if we did not. Fah ! I could have killed him on the spot, and would have done so, had I not been so unfortunate as to have this attack of an old trouble come upon me. But here I am speaking to you perhaps my last words, calling upon you to avenge our wrongs, You must join the organization. Join, and all the wealth I have is yours; and, if our plan succeeds, you will be a king. My boy, what is your answer? I must know at once. I am getting weaker, and soon will not be able to hear you." The wrongs the father had recited, and the great wealth promised, overcame, to a certain extent, the youth's repulsion to the secret society; yet he still had a conscience that prompted him to do right. He had been taught — as was customary among the Nephites — to honor father and mother, so this request came upon him in the form of a duty. What could he do ? A dying father, one whom he had feared and obeyed all his life, was making a last request. True, he was shocked when the revelation came that his father was a leader in the Gadianton society, and that his wealth was due to his being a member of it. To turn traitor to his father and reveal the secret, was farthest from his thoughts. His word of honor, once given, was sacred. And yet, to join the society meant the fighting of the chief judge, and to do that meant the losing of any chances he might have in gaining the love of the judge's daughter. This last thought came to him like a flash. "No, no, father! Don't ask me to do that!" he exclaimed indignantly, as soon as he could find speech. 68 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Zemnarihah, you must! You will!" The words hissed between his teeth, his black eyes flashed fire, as he sat upright with hands clenched. Then, slowly stretch- ing out one pain-racked hand, he whispered, "Look!" The eyes of the boy followed the direction of the hand until they rested upon the painting on the wall. No exclamation passed his lips, not a tremor moved his frame. The father saw his advantage and was quick to follow it. "You have gone too far to retreat now. You have the knowl- edge that the secret organization exists. No one can know that and live, unless he joins. The wealthiest men in the city belong. Come, my son, promise!" He paused a moment, "What, no answer? My boy, it cannot be that — oh, it cannot! Art thou in love with the daughter of Lachoneus?" Still there was no answer, "I might have known it!" — more to himself than to the boy before him, "Yes, I have long suspected it! There is only one way now — join, win your rights to the kingdom, and with the girl do as you please," The father slowly dropped back against the pillows, overcome by the exertion. His argument struck home, Zemnarihah turned impulsively around, "I will," he answered, after a pause. "But, father, you are ill. Let me summon Seezoram, that he may attend you." "Nay, nay, my time has come. I have felt it all along. Sum- mon Zoram, he will conduct you to Giddianhi, who will administer the oath and give you the signs and pass words," Zoram soon appeared, and in response to a sign from the sick man, conducted the youth out of the chamber. As they entered the middle court they met Giddianhi. A sign from Zoram was sufficient, Zemnarihah was taken by Giddianhi out of the house, and by a secret passage out of the city, to the regular meeting place of the Gadianton society, [TO BE CONTINUED,] E.MMELINE B. WELLS. President of the Relief Societies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints in all the world. Chosen Monday, October 3, by the First Presidency, and sustained Sunday, October 9, 1910, by the General Conference of the Church, with Clarissa S. Williams and Julina L. Smith, Counselors. Citation: Watkins, Arthur V., “The Nephite Shepherd: Part One, I. The Awakening of Zemnarihah,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 64–69. # Editor’s Table: An Address Editor's Table. An Address. BY PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH. I feel very grateful for the privilege of being present with you this morning at the opening of our eighty-first anniversary of the semi-annual conference of the Church [October 6, 1910]. I am pleased to see so many present, and my heart is full of bless- ing for the Latter-day Saints and, indeed, for all the honest in heart throughout the world. I earnestly desire that the Spirit of the Lord may visit us and abide with us throughout all the sessions of this conference. I do not feel that I should occupy very much time this morn- ing. I have just got out of my bed, where I have lain for more than a month, with very little exercise, and I feel the effects of the inertia, the inactivity to which I have been subjected — not willingly but unwillingly — for the last thirty days or more. Never- theless, I feel in my heart to say to this congregation that I love the gospel, I love and believe the truth that has been revealed anew to the children of men in these latter days, more, if possible, today than ever I did in my life, and I think that it is possible for the reason that I believe all true Latter-day Saints are growing. They are progressing, they are absorbing more light, more intelli- gence, stronger convictions of the truth day by day; for we cannot help doing this, if we enjoy the spirit of the gospel as we should. A Pledge with God and his People Made and Kept. In the days of my childhood and early youth, I made a pledge with God and with his people that I would be true to them. In looking over the experiences of my life, I cannot now discern, and EDITOR'S TABLE. 71 do not remember a circumstance, since the beginning of my experience in the world, where I have felt, for a moment, to slacken or relax in the pledge and promise that I made to God and to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in my youth. If there is a man or a woman in the world who can point out to me an instance, in all my life, where I have been untrue to my pledge or promise or covenant, I shall be glad to receive that information from that man or woman. As an elder in Israel, I tried to be true to that calling; I tried to my utmost to honor and magnify that calling. When I became a seventy, I felt in my heart to be true to that calling, and I strove with all the intelligence and fervor of my soul to be true to it. I have no knowledge nor recollection of any act of mine, or of any circumstance in my life where I proved untrue or unfaithful to these callings in the priesthood of the Son of God. Later in my life, when I was called to act as an apostle, and was ordained an apostle and set apart to be one of the twelve, I strove to honor that calling, to be true to it, and to my brethren, to the household of faith, and to the covenants and obligations involved in receiving this holy priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God. I am not aware that I ever violated one of my obligations or pledges in these callings to which I have been called. I have sought to be true and faithful to all these things. I have endeavored to be true to my family; and if ever I have violated one pledge or promise, or neglected one obligation that rests upon me in these relationships, I do not know it. And when I have made pledges to the people of God or to the world, if ever I have violated those pledges I do not know it. Furthermore, I do not believe there is a man living who does know it, or who can truthfully testify that I ever did violate these pledges. True to God, his People and the World in Every Promise. I stand before you today, my brethren, sisters and friends, on the ground that I have tried to be true to God to the utmost of my knowledge and ability; that I have tried to be true to my peo- ple to the utmost of my knowledge and ability; and I have been true to the world in every pledge and promise that I have made to the world. There have been men who have shown a disposition to 72 IMPROVEMENT ERA. make it appear that I was a hypocrite; that I was two-faced; that I was one thing to the world and another thing in secret. Falsehood and Vilification Must Cease. I want it distinctly understood that those who have conveyed such an idea as this to mankind have been wilfully injuring me, wronging me, and falsifying me and my character before the peo- ple; and I want it distinctly understood that those things must stop. They must stop at least among men who profess to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I can endure to be maligned and persecuted by my enemies, who are also enemies of the kingdom of God, but I do not want to be maligned and behed by men who profess to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, neither intentionally nor other- wise. Now, I trust that you understand clearly what I mean. I do not know how I can make it much plainer or clearer with the knowledge that I have of language. Then, I repeat, as the Lord has helped me in the past to be true to my covenants, that I have entered into with him and with you, with my brethren and with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so, by his help and by his blessing, 1 propose to be true throughout the future of my life, whether I am permitted to live long or short — it matters not to me. While I live, I hope to be a true man, an honest man, a man who can face all mankind and, at last, who can stand before God, the Judge of the quick and the dead, and not quail for what I have done in the world. May God bless you. May peace abide with you, my brethren and sisters. I pray you to be true to your covenants; be true to those covenants that you made in the waters of baptism; to those covenants you made in the house of the Lord; and true to every righteous obligation that devolves upon yoii. Latter-day Saints must be Thinkers and Workers. To be Latter-day Saints, men and women must be thinkers and workers; they must be men and women who weigh matters in their minds; men and women who consider carefully their course of life and the principles that they have espoused. Men cannot be faithful Latter-day Saints unless they study and understand, to some extent at least, the principles of the gospel that they have EDITOR'S TABLE. 73 received. When you hear people, who profess to be Latter-day Saints, running off on tangents, on foolish notions and one-horse, cranky ideas, things that are obviously opposed to reason and to good sense, opposed to principles of righteousness and to the word of the Lord that has been revealed to men, you should know at once that they have not studied the principles of the gospel, and do not know very much about the gospel. When people under- stand the gospel of Jesus Christ you will see them walking straightforward, according to the word of the Lord and the law of God, strictly in accordance with that which is consistent, just, righteous, and in every sense acceptable to the Lord, who only accepts of that which is right and pleasing in his sight; for only that which is right is pleasing unto him. "I Know that my Redeemer Lives." I have not time, neither have I strength this morning, to enter into details or to undertake to preach a lengthy discourse. I do not feel able to do it physically. The spirit is willing, but just now the flesh is not very strong; but I want to bear testimony to you Latter-day Saints. I know that my Redeemer lives. We have all the testimony and all the evidence of this great and glo- rious truth that the world has, that is, all that the so-called Chris- tian world possesses; and in addition to all that they have, we have the testimony of the inhabitants of this western continent, to whom the Savior appeared and delivered his gospel, the same as he delivered it to the Jews. In addition to all this new testimony, and the testimony of the holy scriptures from the Jews, we have the testimony of the modern prophet, Joseph Smith, who saw the Father and the Son, and who has borne record of them to the world, whose testimony was sealed with his blood, and is in force upon the world today. We have the testimony of others, who wit- nessed the presence of the Son of God in the Kirtland Temple, when he appeared to them there, and the testimony of Joseph, and of Sidney Rigdon, who declared that they were the last witnesses of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I say again I know that my Redeemer lives; for in the mouths of these witnesses this truth has been estabUshed in my mind. Besides these testimonies, I have received the witness of the 74 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Spirit of God in my own heart, which exceeds all other evidences, for it bears record to me, to my very soul, of the existence of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I know that he lives, and that in the last day he shall stand upon the earth, that he shall come to the people who shall be prepared for him, as a bride is prepared for the bridegroom when he shall come. I believe in the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I have every evidence that I need — at least enough to convince me of the divinity of his mission. I am proud to say that I have accepted, and have tried to keep and honor, every word that has proceeded from the mouth of God through him. As it is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," no one will dare to accuse me of side-tracking from or of refusing to obey any doctrine taught by or revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Divine Authority of the Prophet Joseph and his Successors. I bear my testimony to you and to the world that Joseph Smith was raised up by the power of God to lay the foundations of this great latter-day work, to reveal the fulness of the gospel to the world in this dispensation, to restore the priesthood of God to the world, by which men may act in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and it will be accepted of God; it will be by his authority. I bear my testimony to it; I know that it is true. I bear my testimony to the divine authority of those who have succeeded the Prophet Joseph Smith in the presidency of the Church. They were men of God; I knew them; I was intimately associated with them, and as one man may know another, through the intimate knowledge that he possesses of him, so I can bear testimony to the integrity, to the honor, to the purity of life, to the intelligence, and to the divinity of the mission and calling of Brigham, of John, of Wilford and of Lorenzo. They were inspired of God to fill the mission to which they were called, and I know it. I thank God for that testimony, and for the spirit that prompts me and impels me toward these men, toward their mission, toward this people, toward my God and my Redeemer. I thank EDITOR'S TABLE. 75 pray earnestly that it may never depart fron- id. God bless you, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. the Lord for it, and I pray earnestly that it may never depart from me — worlds without end. Conference Sermon of President Anthon H. Lund. I am very happy this morning to be present at this conference, and to see so many of the Saints who have assembled here at this first meeting. I rejoice that we have had the pleasure of listening to our president, that his health has permitted him to leave his room and to come here and bear such a powerful testimony unto us. I know that you, with me, are happy to see him and to listen to him, and our prayers are that President Smith may regain his wonted health, and be released from all pain of the kind he has suffered so long. Spiritual Growth and Temple Work. I believe that during the last six months there has been great progress in the Church, and that the Saints are drawing nearer unto God, and are trying to perform their duties better than before. When I look upon the eagerness with which the Saints flock to the temples, I know that in spiritual matters they feel well. During the past year the temple here has been crowded, and I congratulate the Saints upon this fact, which shows that they love to go into the house of God and take part in the ordinances which are performed therein. The prophecy of Malachi is fulfiling: the hearts of the children are turned to their fathers. During the last six months we have had a great increase in the number of the members of the Genealogical Society, which proves the interest that the Saints are taking in the great work for the dead. Many are sending abroad, obtaining their records to quite an extent, and I want to encourage the Saints in this good work. Yesterday we had seventy-two couples of young people come to the temple to be married. That is a good sign. We want the young people to begin married life aright. We want them to go to the house of God and make covenants with him to serve him, and also enter into covenants wiUi one another in regard to married 76 IMPROVEMENT ERA. life, and to obtain the blessings of the sealings performed under the authority of the holy priesthood. The Mission Fields. The work abroad continues to prosper. We have the joy to learn that the work in Europe is going forward in spite of all opposition. About three months ago we heard about a wholesale exiling of our elders from Prussia. I believe there were twenty- one cast into prison, and it looked as if that government would suc- ceed in its determination to stop the progress of the work of the Lord in that kingdom. Our elders, however, did not feel dis- heartened. If they could not labor in Prussia, there were other countries where they could go and labor in the Lord's vineyard. We have had letters from prominent men in Germany and France asking us for literature. They wanted to know more about us, and gave as a reason that they had read about the persecution of the elders by the government of Prussia. They say they could hardly believe that such things could take place in the twentieth century. The report of the German mission shows that the work there has not been stopped, for the month after this occurrence was, I believe, one of the banner months in that mission, as to baptisms. in a late letter from President Thomas McKay, we learn that the branch established at Vienna last year, with three members, has now grown to thirty-five; and at a meeting he attended there were a hundred people present, and this was only a meeting by invitation. He thinks that there is one of the best openings for the proclamation of the gospel. Likewise in Hungary — our elders have not done much in that kingdom. It belongs to Austria, but is a separate nationality. We have a brother there who has studied the language, and has published tracts in it, and a consid- erable awakening is witnessed there. People are eager to know something concerning the gospel of Christ, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph, and there are good prospects that many in that nation will come and join us. The brethren are continuing their labors in the French part of Switzerland, in France and in Belgium, and are meeting with success. Likewise in Holland, and in the Netherlands mission as a whole, our missionaries are obtaining EDITOR'S TABLE. 77 gratifying results. In Norway there was some excitement, this summer, among the people. The priests and the press sought to have laws passed against the elders being allowed to preach in Norway, and it looked for awhile as if such laws would be passed. But I am happy to say that the committee having the bill in hand reported to the Storthing, or Congress, of Norway, that there was no need of any more legislation in that regard. So our Saints there feel to breathe freer. But, whatever men may do, I feel that nothing can be done to stop the progress of the work of the Lord. This is the gospel restored unto the earth, and it must be preached unto all nations. John, in describing the mission of the angel that should come with the everlasting gospel, tells us that his proclamation was to go to all nations — none should be exempt- None had the gospel, it had to be restored and preached to all.. And this has become our mission, brethren and sisters; we must dO' this work. We are sending two thousand elders abroad. They are working diligently, and they are gaining the love and confi- dence of those with whom they become acquainted. The people look upon these men as men who are what they profess to be — earnest ministers of the gospel, who seek to enlighten their fellow- men concerning their belief; and in their works and in their lives they show the fruits of the faith which God has given them. We are sending out missionaries every year, in fact, every month. Practical jReligion Should be Taught to our Children. I want to say to the Saints that our children should be taught in the principles of the gospel; they should be encouraged to attend the different organizations that have been established for the development of our children and our young people. We have several of these organizations. Our Mutuals are doing a splendid work. We like to encourage those who are engaged therein, and encourage our fathers and mothers to see to it that their sons and their daughters take the courses that are given in the Mutuals. We also want to encourage them to send their children to the Prima- ries, to the Sunday schools, and to the Religion classes. We know that this is necessary. Our children should be guarded against contaminating influ- ences. When we read reports from the juvenile courts we feel 78 IMPROVEMENT ERA. shocked, and we are thankful that these courts have been estab- lished, for we believe they do a great deal of good. We hope that our legislature will sustain them, and we must take a hand with them. We must be warned by what we hear is going on among the young people, and try to protect them against the evil influ- ences that are so demoralizing. Let us encourage our children to become members of the organizations I have mentioned, and to receive as much training as possible in religion. We do not mean thereby that they should be taught theory entirely, but we want them taught practical religion. We want them taught how to pray, how to walk uprightly before God, how to learn to exercise charity to the neighbor, to do good to those who are in need, and to remember the sick. I was touched when I heard that a cer- tain class in the Religion class organization, went and got flowers and sent them to a sick class-mate to comfort him in his sickness, and thus gave evidence to the sick boy that he was remembered by his class. We should commend such thi igs; we want to encour- age our children to think of others besides themselves. Now, brethren and sisters, do not discourage the children from attending the Primaries, the Religion classes or the Mutuals. All of these organizations are of the utmost importance, and we desire to see them well attended, so that the young peo- ple may get the benefit of the teachings given therein. Negligence of the Saints in Attending Meetings. We hope that the Saints will be alive in their duties to attend their meetings. We find there is a slackness in some places, and this I believe, to some extent, can be ascribed to those who have charge. The bishops and their assistants must study their congregations, and must seek to make their meetings inter- esting, so thac they do not have to preach to empty benches. This has not been the custom in Israel. As a rule, our meetinghouses are filled, but in some places there has arisen indifference, and where such neglect is seen, our brethren who have charge should study conditions, and the cause of this negligence, in regard to attending meetings. We are commanded by the Lord to go to his house on the Sunday. The Sunday has been declared his holy day, and he com- EDITOR'S TABLE. " ' 79 mands us to go to his house and there offer uj) our oblations, there renew our covenants in the sacrament, there listen to those who shall address us, and take part in the worship of God. This duty cannot be neglected without our sustaining a great loss. Brethren and sisters, let us be thankful that God has given us the faith and a testimony of the truth, and has given us a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that his successors have been men appointed by the Lord. We know this. This is our testimony, when we are called upon to speak, for we feel it within our heart of hearts. Now let us carry out in our everyday life that which we know to be right, and the blessings of the Lord will attend us. May he bless the congregation of the Saints. May he bless us in this conference; bless the speakers who shall address us, that such things may be brought forth as shall be for our best good. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. (President John Henry Smith spoke on the need of faithful mis- sionaries, the tendency to scatter, the glory of our own land and nation, and home building, motherhood, and children. His practical and pertinent sermon will appear in the Era later.) Messages from the Missions. Elder Victor H. Sears, who left Chicago late in August for a mission to Germany, is the first Chicago elder to leave for a foreign mission. He is a grandson of the late Lorin Farr and a son of Dr. Heber J. Sears, and, graduated last Spring from the "Weber Stake i^cademy. Elder Reno Ferre, under date of September 10, writes the Era from Baton Rouge, La., saying that the summer work of the elders in Louisi- ana has been very successful. Their book sales were low, but they had baptized forty-six converts. Their conference was held at New Orleans, August 29, attended by all the elders except E. R. Burkley and T. N. Drinker, and by President S. 0. Bennion and two lady missionaries. A good feeling prevailed and satisfactory work in the field had been done. The elders hope to have free access to the city before the end of the year. At Pride and Glovey there are well organized Sunday schools and thirty-eight meetings have been held. A portrait of the Louisiana elders follows: ^' 1^ si^B J y ^ ^ 5^^ i ^ iff } ? - 'f ' Y LOUISIANA ELDERS. Top row, left to right: E. G. Bell, William W. Farley. William Karren (Sunday school superintendent), Reno Ferre and J. M. Barnson. Front row: T. L. Archibald, R. T. Gallagher, President A. L. Thomas, J. H. Hutchinson, Ed. Darlington. Elder John T. Barrett, of Providence, R. I., writes to the ERA,under date of September 5, that there is an average of fourteen elders labor- ing in the Rhode Island conference, and they have done a very good work in Rhode Island and Connecticut during the past six months, hav- ing held 175 meetings; distributed 19,00 0 tracts and 1,215 books; visited 19,661 new families; revisited 3.- 736; spent 3,925 hours intracting, 5,562 hours in gospel conversations and 13,429 hours in study. The elders study in organized classes during the win- ter under leaders, and great good is accom- plished in this way. In Providence there is a n excellent Sunday school and the local brethren are perfectly capable of carrying on the Sunday school and the regular meetings when the elders are absent. "We are proud of our ELDERS OF PROVIDENCE. R. I. Left to right, back row: James C. Glover, Farmington; Ross Bartlett, Vernal; and in front, John T. Barrett, Salt Lake City— all of Utah. EDITOR'S TABLE. , 81 circle of friends, who are of the best class of thrifty business people, and highly intelligent. In fact, this is the class that''fefei%ospel mostly appeals to here— the thinkers and those who are perfectly capable of standing alone, holding their ground with any one who may oppose the truth." Elder E. R, Burkley and T. Norton Brinker reported to the Cen- tral States mission office, printed in the Deseret News of September 3, a case of healing by the power of administration, that is worthy of notice: "Last Sunday, on arriving at the home of Brother Simpson, we found the family very much alarmed because of the doctors having told them that there was no chance in the world of their son's recovery. It seemed that every moment would be his last; he was unable to sp^ak, and his pulse was beating at an exceedingly rapid rate. After uniting in prayer, we administered to him and continued to do so through the night. The doctor promised to call that evening, but, believing the boy to be dead, delayed his coming, nor did he call until three o'clock the next afternoon. After an examination of the patient, the doctor pro- nounced him very much better than on the day before. He expressed surprise and astonishment at the condition, and, although being skeptically inclined, he admitted that a power higher than his had saved the life of the boy, pronouncing him practically out of danger." Elder Harold C. Kimball writes under date of August 29, that while he and three companions were preaching in Breslau on Friday, August 19, they were visited by criminal detectives and were commanded to follow them, which they did, and were taken to the courthouse and searched. Their passports were taken, and after being questiv^ned they were released and told to appear on the following Tuesday to receive their passports. The elders called and were given their passports, together with banishment papers. Besides a verbal banishment from Prussia each elder received a zwangpass, which was to ship them via Berlin and Ham- burg to America, and thence to their homes in Utah. This document provided that if the elders stopped over in any place on the way without reporting to the police, they would be fined fifty marks or imprisoned for fifty d^ys. When the elders asked why they were banished, they were told that no official reason would be given. Eight elders were recently banished from Leipzig and one from Konigsberg, and it seems as if the government means business. The recent banishment from Berlin seems to have made quite a stir, and a statement was made in one of the Ger- man papers that it is intended to banish every elder from Germany. Elder Kimball adds: "In spite of our difficulties here in Gei'many the work is progressing very rapidly. Instead of stopping our elforts they help us along, and we are not disposed to take the threats too seriously. I think something will occur before long to help us get our freedom." 82 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Elder Andrew Funk, Aarhus, Denmark, September 6, sends a photo- graph of the elderi laboring in that conference of the Scandinavian mis- sion. The portrait shows the elders at the home of one of their friends, Mr. Thomas Hermanseii, who, during a recent conference, served the elders every morning with breakfast. The photograph was taken at the breakfast table, and the names of the elders and visitors, reading from left to right, are as follows: ELDERS AND SAINTS OF THE AARHUS CONFERENCE, DENMARK. Seated: Christen Nielsen, Anthon Cramer, Martin Peterson, E. J. Chri^;- tiansen, M. D. Simonsen, Hyrum W. Hansen, Andrew Funk, President Niels J. Larsen, Mission President Andrew Jenson, Marie Hermansen. Thomas Hermansen, Hannah Nielsen, Hyrum Nielsen, Dorothy E. Little, William D. Norman, Louis M. Breinholt, N. Claudius Hoist, J. Lyman Nielsen, C. H. Johnson, Hilmar M. Nielsen. Standing: August 0. Niel- sen, A. P. Nielsen, A. A. Smith, Christian Jensen, Erastus P. Rasmus- sen, and Niels Iversen. Mr. Hermansen is a staunch defender of the Saints. His wife has been a member of the Church for sixteen years, during which time they have always had an open house to entertain the missionaries. The spirit of that home has a wide influence for good among the Saints in Aarhus. During the April conference, when the picture was taken, not an elder who attended needed to seek entertainment at hotels, but were enter- tained at the homes of the Saints, the example of Mr. Hermansen being copied by the other members of the Church, who thus pro^e their faith by their works. "As elders we are firm in the belief that those who EDITOR'S TABLE. 83 thus entertain us will not lose their reward because of their kindness to the servants of the Lord, for he has said, 'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily, I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.' " ELDERS OF VICTORIAN CONFERENCE. Back row, left to right: J. F. Wardle, Parker; D. H. Ricks. Rexburg, Idaho; S. A. Taylor, Provo; L. M. Richards, Logan, Utah; Front row: L. M. Paul, Rexburg, Idaho. W. E. Ellison, Salt Lake City; A. E. Watkins, conference president, Provo Utah; D. C. Laker, St. Charles, Idaho; D. T. Gibbs, Alberta, Canada. These elders are laboring in two branches of the Church, one with head- quarters at 99 Somerset St., Richmond, and one at South Melbourne. At Richmond there is a graded Sunday school of three departments, a well attended Mutual Improvement association, of which Elder W. E- Ellison is president, with Elder Ricks and Maud A. Reynolds, as assist- ants. They study from the New Witnesses for God, No. 2, and enjoy the lessons. They hold well attended street meetings, and find many who listen who are earnest seekers for the truth, and who later come to the hall meetings, which are well attended. Elder S. A. Taylor, who gives us this information, further states that the South Melbourne conference is progressing rapidly under the care of Elder D. C. Laker. On the 8rd of July three new converts were baptized. They have a good Sunday school of two departments, and are studying from the Book of Mormon with great interest. A Bible class is held on Wednesday night of each week, composed of Saints and investigators, and cottage meetings are held as 84 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . often as occasion will permit. On Friday night of each week street meetings are held which create considerable interest, and there is often much questioning after the meeting, which results generally in an increased attendance and more friends for the elders. There is an aver- age of thirty who attend hall meetings on Sunday night. The elders ire laboring diligently, and the prospects for the branch are bright. Elder Emil W. Weed, conference president of Stockholm, Sweden, writes, August 26: "It is now more than four weeks since we were hon- ored by the visit of our beloved President Joseph F. Smith and Bishop Charles W. Nibley. On account of this visit, judging by the general good feeling that exists, as well as the expressions and testimonies given by those who were present to hear and see and even grasp the president by the hand, a beautiful feeling and good influence remains with us. Now and then we hear members say: 'Now, my heart is content; I have seen and heard the prophet, and know now he is a man of God.' We rejoice in this, fpr we love and honor him as a man of God, and feel that such sentiments as these are inspired by the Holy Spirit." The Stockholm choir, of which Gustave W. Teudt is leader, and a portrait of which appeared in the September number of the Era, rendered the music at the meetings during President Smith's visit, and was very highly compli- mented by him for its excellent singing. Elder Arthur Manning, of West Point, Davis Stake of Zion, and a missionary of the Southern States, died at a hospital in Knoxville, Tenn- essee, September, 22, 1910. He arrived in the mission field, June 14- 1909, and labored faithfully in Ohio, Virginia and Tennessee. He was twenty-four years old. The body was brought to Utah by President C. A- Callis and buried in the cemetery of his home town. Elder Ben E. Mason, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, writes hat mission work is being prosecuted with vigor in that district, under the leadership of President C. Alvin Orme. The missionaries under his direction seem to be enjoying their labors in that large island division of the vineyard. Elder Mason encloses a poem which he composed on the 68th anniversary of the birth of his mother, June 15, 1910. He is the baby son out of eleven children, and he sent it to her from his mis- sion field ten thousand miles away, in Sydney, Australia. The poem is full of filial love and good sentiment, which will give great comfort to the heart of his mother. A young man can do no better service than to temper the remaining days of father and mother, ease their cares and smooth their pathway, by obedience, a noble life and filial affection. Citation: Smith, Joseph F., “Editor’s Table: An Address,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 70–84. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. How to Make a Class Recitation Interesting. — This topic was treated 'by Elder Charles J. Ross, of the Weber Stake high council, at the July convention of the three stakes. Love for the class and for the work is the bond of sympathy that brings success. This in itself may constitute fitness for teaching. Not all your elders are, in the main, well rooted in the gospel, others are skeptical; so you must know them. There must be first the personality that wins; there must be mutual attraction. Personal appearance means a great deal. A clear, well-modulated voice, a gentle but firm manner, play no small part in producing interest in the class. You may have a fine head of hair, but if it is unkempt it detracts from the interest. The eye should be bright, the smile cheerful, radiating a thorough prep- aration of the lesson on the part of the teacher. An attitude of love and interest in the class, an attractive personality, should be balanced by a keen and discerning mind and an equitable poise. Repose, it is said, is the emblem of power. Two things you must know — your pupil and his life first, but no less yourself and your own mind. Knowing one's own mind is said to be the secret of firmness, and means determination, and includes constancy of pur- pose. So, knowing yourself, and having decided to accept the position as class instructor, you should realize two requirements — namely, pa- tience and firmness; patience is control, and your work calls for its con- stant exercise. Without control there can be no interest in the class. Patience is often tried by having to repeat a thing several times, but it must be given again and again, until the suggestion bears fruit. It is your business to explain a point until the class understands, or until they remember and do. Now, there are some things with which you must not be too pa- tient— for instance, heedlessness. Kindly suggestion must be called to this as long as it continues; then again, carelessness, unnecessary lack of preparation, or irregular preparation, or irregular attendance. We 86 IMPROVEMENT ERA. hear elders say sometimes, "The teacher does not care whether we pre- pare or not." You must care whether he prepares or not, whether he is careful or slipshod, or progressive or non-progressive, in his prepara- tion. The class quickly recognizes your interest or lack of interest in this regard. One thing must never be forgotten, and that is that the class invariable takes its cue from the teacher. Is the teacher half-hearted, half- interested, irregular with his lessons? The class finds it easy to excuse themselves and do likewise. Are mistakes corrected once in a while, neglected afterwards? The pupil's work will show the same lack of interest. The interest in our class recitation is often destroyed at the begin- ning by the teacher offering excuses for his lack of preparation. He has not had time, just hurriedly glanced over it last night, etc. Excuses, especially self-excuses, are worse than useless. As Shakespeare puts it, "Patches put upon a little breach, discredit more in hiding of the fault." Hurry is one great trouble in our preparation. It is described as being peculiarly American. Before we master the simple things in our preparation we rush ahead to the more difficult things, and the result is that in the end we fail to get interest when presenting the lesson. Only the most ambitious, patient and energetic members of the class survive. Hurry has been described as "Americanitis, " a kind of disease of rush, worry and ruin. It is always dangerous, in the preparation of a lesson, to a healthy and successful growth. Some writer has said, "Hurry means physical tension somewhere, and exhaustion afterwards.'' Hurry suggests bad planning, imperfect preparation, careless execution, loss of interest. Hurrv means loss of dignity and power. Hurry means fear, and fear is the greatest enemy to success. In vain people try to attain a calm manner with a tense body. When we have relaxed the muscles at will, we may easily become quiet in manner and peaceful in spirit. The bodily condition is the real repose. We will not hurry when we know the danger to the nervous system. A painstaking, interesting teacher is usually rewarded by a painstaking, interesting class. Are we Living in one of the Three Glories? — "Are we living in any one of the three degrees of glory, as mentioned in Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants?" asks a correspondent of Centerfield, Utah. No; it is very clear, from the Pearl of Great Price, that we are living in our second estate, our first having been the estate in which we dwelt with the Father in the heavens, before our coming to this earth; and that the glories which are mentioned in Section 76 of the Doctrine and Co'enants are the conditions that will await us hereafter. That PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS' TABLE. 87 these glories come after the resurrection, is especially made plain from the 16th verse, "Speaking of the resurrection of the dead, concerning those who shall hear the voice of the Son of Man; and shall come forth." Also, in verse 50, it is made plain that the partaker.5 of celestial glory are those "who come forth in the resurrection of the just" (see also verses 63, 64, 65). Again, in regard to the partakers of terrestrial glory, we are told (verses 72-5) that they are those who died without law, and who were visited in prison, to whom the Son preached the gospel, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, "who received not the testi- mony of Jesus in the flesh." And in verse 85 it is said that the partakers of the telestial glory shall not be redeemed, "until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have finished his work." We are now in our second estate awaiting places in these glories, and it is clear that the people on earth today are not in any of these glories. About Passing from One Glory to Another.— "Can one pass from the telestial to the terrestrial and celestial glories, sometime in eternity, worlds without end?'' The answer to this question may not be absolutely clear in the reve- lation; but the general understanding, both from the revelation and from the interpretations that have heretofore been made thereof, is that once a person enters these glories there will be eternal progress in the line of each of these particular glories, but that the privilege of passing from one to the other (though this may be possible for especially gifted and faithful characters) is not provided for. The statement in verse 112, relating to partakers of the telestial glory, that they who inhabit it shall be servants of the Most High, but "where God and Christ dwell they cannot come worlds without end," would indicate that at least those who live in this glory are not capable of graduating into the celestial glory. Who knows but in the providences of God there may be excep- tions, because all his judgments are not made known to us? But this thought is awakened: Would it be reasonable to suppose that a person who was so neglectful in this life as to fail in meriting a greater glory would be able to mane such great strides in the world to come as to overtake those who have been true and faithful here? We think not. Another thought: There are many degrees of glory in each of these three glories and the faithful will be given full satisfaction and reward for their efi'orts, "for they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared." The rewards for all will be greater •88 IMPROVEMENT ERA. than anticipated. And we are told even the glory of the telestial "sur- passes all understanding." Important Special Seventies' Meetings.— The First Council of Seventy calls the attention of the seventies to the fact that special appointments are being made for members of the presiding council to visit all the quorums throughout the Church, that come under their special jurisdiction. This labor is being undertaken with the approval and under the direction of the Council of the Twelve. Many of the quorums of seventy have been depleted in numbers through brethren being called into other positions, and from other causes. A thorough and general setting in order is necessary, that the quorums may be improved and put in a condition that will enable the members to better perform the duties required of them. Presidents of quorums are particularly reminded that the success of these special visits, depends almost entirely upon their spirited and prompt co-operation with the local .authorities. Let no time be lost in making the necessary preliminary arrangements. Names of brethren to be ordained seventies should be carefully considered, and such selections made as can reasonably be expected to fill the require- ments of the calling. Past faithfulness and attention to duty, while very essential, are not the only qualifications required. Adaptability to the special calling is also very important, and should always be borne in mind. Selections for ordination are to be made under the direction of the stake presidency. Now is an opportune time to fill the quorums. Young men coming into the ranks of the seventies now will have the advan- tage of beginning with January, 1911, the fourth year book in the seventies' course in theology, treating on the important subject of the atonement. The subject is worthy of the most careful attention of all those who are or expect to be witnesses for the Savior of men. The first council urges all presidents and active members to unite in a campaign that will insure a large attendance at these special meetings. Let every man holding the office of a seventy, and all those who are to be ordained, be notified of the meetings, and wherever necessary an extra and earnest effort should be made in order that all concerned may be present. Hard work on the part of the local councils and their assistants will bring success and joy. Procrastination will mean failure and dissap- pointment. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 85–88. # Mutual Work Mutual Work. Propositions for Debate. The general boards have approved of the following subjects for debate. The committee on debates has arranged a list of references — general, for the affirmative, and for the negative. These are printed in a small pamphlet and will be supplied to the ward presidents for the use of their debaters, upon application to the general secretaries Y. M. or Y. L. M. I. A., Salt Lake City, Utah: 1. Naturalization. — Proposition: The naturalization laws of the United States should be made more stringent. 2. Direct Legislation. — Proposition: The system of direct legisla- tion by the people should be more generally adopted in the United States. 3. Proportional Representation. — Proposition: Legislative bodies should be chosen by a system of proportional representation. 4. The Popular Election of Senators. — Proposition: A constitu- tional amendment should be adopted, providing that United States sen- ators be selected by direct vote of the people. 5. The Monroe Doctrine. — Proposition: The Monroe Doctrine should be continued as a part of the permanent foreign policy of the United States. 6. Reciprocity with Canada. — Proposition: A reciprocal commercial treaty should be concluded between the United States and Canada. 7. Shipping Subsidies. Proposition: The United States should establish a more extensive system of shipping subsidies. 8. Postal Savings Banks. — Proposition: A system of postal sav- ings banks should be established in the United States. 9. Government Ownership of Railways. — Proposition: The rail- ways of the United States should be owned and operated by the government. 10. A Postal Telegraph. — Proposition: The government should 90 IMPRO YEMENI ERA . maintain and operate a teles:raph system in connection with the post- office. 11. Municipal Transportation. — Proposition: Street railways should be owned and operated by municipalities. 12. Compulsory Industrial Arbitration. — Proposition: Boards of Arbitration with compulsory powers should be established to settle dis- putes between employers and wage-earners. Circular of Suggestions. A supply of circulars entitled "Suggestions to Stake Superintendents and Ward Officers, ' ' for the guidance of officers during the present season, has been distributed to the various wards of the Church. We trust that those who are engaged in doing business with the Era office will care- fully read these suggestions. In this connection we desire also to call attention to the necessity of being prompt. No subscription should be held in the hands of the agent, but should be forwarded immediately to the office; no orders for manuals should be neglected, nor funds withheld for any length of time. It is a very important matter, as far as principle goes, to be careful of trust funds. While we have no general complaint, cases have arisen where agents have been very careless in remitting to the office, causing complications between the subscriber and the office, which should not exist. The careful reading of the circular, and prompt- ness in collecting and remitting for books. Eras, manuals, etc., will make us all happy and friendly. Canvass for Subscriptions. A supply of blank subscription sheets for the new volume fourteen of the Improvement Era has been distributed to the officers of the associations throughout the Church, and we trust that the agents will use them in ordering volume fourteen. The canvass for this volume should be made immediately, if the work has not already been done. A little effort put forth now will bring results, There should not be a settlement in the Church where it is not possible to obtain five per cent of the Church population as subscribers for the Era. We believe that people who once subscribe for and read the magazine will be easily induced to subscribe again. Now let the work, therefore, be taken up MUTUAL WORK. 91 by those appointed to it, and prosecuted in a thoroughly systematic manner, so that every family in the Church shall be asked to subscribe. Do You Favor Boxing with Gloves as a Part of M. I. A. Athletic Sport? The committee on athletics and field sports presented the following on the above question at a recent meeting of the General Board: "We do not favor boxing for exhibition, as the number of par- ticipants will necessarily be limited, and the spectators will derive no benefit. Its tendency is to degenerate into fighting, and therefore we do not encourage it as a part of M. I. A. sport, while we think it permissible in moderation, when indulged in for exercise only. Respectfully, Lyman R. Martineau, Hyrura M. Smith. B. F. Grant. The report was unanimously adopted by the Board. Additional Conjoint Meetings. The following resolution was passed by the general board Y. M. M. I. A. some time ago: Whereas, The general board Y. L. M. I. A. has made provision, in their program for the next season's work, for one conjoint meeting with the Y. M. M. I. A. each month, in addition to the regular Sunday night conjoint meeting, therefore be it Resolved, By the general board Y. M. M. I. A., that we concur in the action of the general board Y. L. M. I. A., and advise all Y. M. M. I. associations to join with the Y. L. M. I. A. to provide suitable programs for these nights, to consist of debates, readings, lectures, concerts or other suitable exercises. New Zealand M. I. A. Elder 0. R. Johnson, writing to the Messenger, the organ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the New Zealand mission, from Auckland, states that on June 8, 1910, their Mutual Improvement Association was reorganized, with Elders H. C. Perkins, president; 0. R. Johnson and Emma Ashmore, counselors; Dorius Mincher, secretary; Eva Watts, organist; and Elders Rulon C. Haacke and Noal Levy, chorister and librarian, respectively, of both organizations. They looked forward to the year 1910 to be the banner year for Auckland. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 89–91. # Passing Events Passing Events. A visit to the Capson House is editorially mentioned in Skaii- dinaviens Stjerne of September 15. The visit was made on the 22nd of August by President Andrew Jenson, of the Scandinavian mission, and Albert Capson, president of the Skane conference, Malmo, with Elder A. Funk and others. The old house is located on the great farm Skona- back, and it was in this house that the late Elder Andrew W. Winberg, on the 24th of April, 1853, organized the first branch of the Churi-h in Sweden. At that time the house was occupied by the grandfather of Albert Capson, and is known to this day as the Capson House. They also visited the old property in Lund, where Carl Capson resided in June, 1853, and in whose barn the first conference of southern Sweden was held, on the night of June 25, 1853, with Elder Lundblad as president. The conference lasted during the night and was held in secret owing to the opposition of priests, police and mobs. There were about a hundred members present, besides Elder P. 0. Hansen, the translator of the Book of Mormon into Danish, and the late Patriarch 0. N. Liljenquist, then of Copenhagen. Several photographs of the buildings and environments were taken by Elder Funk and have appeared, with an account of the trip, in Bikuben and Utah Posten, the Scandinavian Church papers of Utah. President Jenson mentions the growth of the Church since that day, and contrasts the peace now enjoyed by the elders and Saints in their worship, with the early days when bodily punishment, the prison- house and fines awaited those who were active in the promulgation of the revealed gospel of Jesus Christ. For the change, the Saints have occasion to thank the Lord, who, during the intervening years, has so wonderfully calmed the storms and made their pathway brighter. Lucy Walker Kimball, born April 30, 1826, in Peacham, Cale- donia, county, Vermont, died in Salt Lake City, October 1, 1910. She was at one time the wife of Joseph Smith, the prophet, to whom she was sealed by William Clayton, May 1, 1843. In 1845, she became the wife of President Heber C. Kimball, with whom she had nine children. She passed through many of the hardships of the early days, and proved faithful to the end. FAS SING EVENTS. 93 "The Los Angeles Times" building and plant were destroyed by an explosion on the morning of October 1. The Times, established in 1881, is one of the leading newspapers of the southwest.owned and edited by General Harrison Gray Otis, who has successfully conducted the paper without Union printers, and so gained the ill-will of the Union laborers. The management are convinced that sympathizers with Union labor planned the explosion. Several lives were lost, and perhaps half a mil- lion dollars. Large rewards are offered for the criminals, but so far they have not been apprehended. The Oneida Stake Presidency was reorganized at the quarterly conference held in Preston, September 24-5, 1910. An honorable release was extended to President George C. Parkinson and his counselors, Joseph S. Geddes and C. D. Goaslind; and Josephs. Geddes was sustained as president of the Oneida stake of Zion, with James Johnson and Taylor Nelson as counselors. Elders Charles D. Goaslind and James Callan were added to the high council. President Francis M. Lyman, Heber J. Grant and Charles W. Penrose,of the Council of Twelve, were present. President Parkinson has honorably and creditably conducted the affairs of Oneida stake for twenty-six years, and passes out of the active service in this capacity with the good will of the presiding brethren, and his many other friends. Portugal has had a revolutionary change of government with com- paratively little bloodshed. A republic was declared in Lisbon and other cities on October 6. King Manuel was forced to seek refuge on a foreign warship. The Republican movement, wnich in February, 1908 found vent in the assassination of King Carlos and Crown Prince Louis Phillipe, was at the basis of the revolution, and the revolutionists suc- ceeded in winning over both the army and the navy, rendering the young king helpless. The provisional republican government has ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits, and many of the nuns and monks have had their property confiscated. All members of other religious orders refusing to become secularized must also leave the country; but those who consent, may remain in Portugal and return to their families. The provisional government has notified foreign nations that it will recognize all con- tracts, alliances and financial obligations entered into by the monarchy. The success of the revolution fanned the fire of discontent in Spain, and the government fears a recurrence of the troubles of a year ago, when Francisco Ferrer, the schoolmaster, was executed. The tramway between Tooele and the Highland Boy mine, Bingham, was recently put into operation, after eleven months devoted 94 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to construction. It is one of the great industrial enterprises of the west. It is four miles long, with seventy-nine towers, varying in height from ten to ninety feet. There are nine intermediate stations, besides the terminals. There are 212 buckets on the line, with a capacity of eight cubic feet, moving at a speed of about 600 feet per minute, and deliver- ing ore at the smelter at the rate of about 100 tons per hour. They are operated part of the distance by motor and part by gravity. The high- est point is about 8,200 feet above sea level and 1,500 above the mine. The cost of transporting ore is approximately ten cents per ton, by tramway, while the cost by rail is nearly fifty cents. The Bureau of Information, located on the tabernacle square, has recently completed, as an addition to the building, a handsome 30x30 foot waiting room. It is well-furnished, and adds materially to the com- fort and convenience of visitors. The old, octagonal, swivel writing desk of President Brigham Young adorns the center of the new room, and accommodates four writers at once. A bust of the president, by Mahonri Young, adorns the top of the unique old piece of furniture. The room accommodates about two hundred people, and here the visiting parties to be taken over the grounds will be made up. Besides a writing room, a waiting room, a conservatory and dressing rooms, there are com- fortable resting rooms for visitors. The basement is used for the stor- ing of literature, which is annually distributed by the ton, mostly free. Over three hundred thousand people visited the Bureau last year, who were entertained and shown over the grounds by Benjamin Goddard and his aids: ^.nd at least the same number will visit this year. People from all parts of the world are visitors, and one day last summer there were people from Canada, Mexico and twenty-nine of the United States. J. O. Belknap, of South Royalton, Vermont, died on the night of October 6, 1910. He has been postmaster and leading merchant of the village for many years, and was the recognized leader of the town in all worthy enterprises. He was the first to render help and encouragement to Elder Junius F. Wells in the purchase of land for the monument to the memory of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He did much to allay criticism and to create toleration for the Latter-day Saints, and to encourage the erection of the monument, when friends were few, and many believed the undertaking impracticable or impossible. He led in offering the public hall for the use of President Smith and party at the time of the dedica- tion. He was a good, honorable man, with a heart in favor of the work of the Lord, and his memory should be long honored and cherished by the Latter-day Saints. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 1 (November 1910): 92–94. # Cover, Masthead, and Contents *Improvement Era*. Volume 14, no. 2. December 1910. Organ of the Priesthood Quorums and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; published at Salt Lake City by the General Board. ## Contents - Wells, Junius F., “The Smith Family in Vermont.” - Roberts, B. H., “The Morning of the Restoration.” - Moody, William A., “At Rest on the Hill Overlooking the Sea.” - Lambourne, Alfred, “On the Christmas Eve.” - Lambourne, Alfred, “The Golden Gate, Pacific Coast.” - Watkins, Arthur V., “The Nephite Shepherd: Part One, II. Prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite.” - Goff, Harold, “Among the Toilers.” - Hoggan, Lella Marler, “Just a Little Blue Stocking.” - Gardner, Hamilton, “Pen Pictures of the Holy Land: II. Horseback from Nazareth to Jerusalem.” - Pearson, Sarah E. H., “When Life Was Young.” - Spencer, Josephine, “By Way of Miracle.” - Crockwell, George W., “Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: II.” - Smith, John Henry, “Editor’s Table: Pertinent Counsel.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work.” - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events.” Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Cover, Masthead, and Contents," *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 95–186. # The Smith Family in Vermont IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIV. DECEMBER, 1910. No. 2 The Smith Family in Vermont. BY JUNIUS F. WELLS. The sojourn of the family of Joseph Smith, the "Mormon" prophet, in the state of Vermont, was between the years 1791 and 1816. During this period of about twenty-five years, they resided in the towns of Tunbridge, Randolph, Sharon, Royalton and Norwich, and for about a year in Lebanon, N. H. The family came from Ipswich and Topsfield, Essex county, Mass., where its ancestors were original settlers. The prophet's ancestry is briefly given, back to the first American progenitor, as follows: He was the fourth child and third son of Joseph Smith, born July 12, 1771, Topsfield, Mass., and Lucy Mack; married January 24, 1796, at Tunbridge, Vt. He was the third child and second son of Asael Smith, born Mch. 8, 1744, Topsfield, Mass., and Mary Duty; married February 12, 1767. He was the fifth child and second son of Samuel Smith, born 26th January, 1714, Topsfield, Mass., and Priscilla Gould; married 1734. * Written at the request of the compilers of a genealogical history of the to^n of Royalton, Vermont, which is about to be published. — J. F. W. 96 IMPROVEMENT ERA. He was the third child and first son of Samuel Smith, born Topsfield, Mass., 26 January, 1666, and Rebecca Curtis; married January 25, 1707. He was the son of Robert and Mary Smith, who came from Essex county, England, in 1635. In the maternal line, Joseph Smith was descended from a Scotch family; the first known American was: Ebenezer Mack, who resided at Lyme, Ct., and died 1777. His wife, Hannah Gates, died 1796. Their son, Solomon Mack, born at Lyme, Ct., 26 September, 1735, died 23 August, 1820. Married 1759, Lydia Gates, daughter of Nathan Gates, born 3 September, 1735. Lucy their daugh- ter, was born 8 July, 1775, married 24 January, 1796, to Joseph Smith. Their children were 1. Alvin, born Tunbridge, Feb. 11, 1797, died 19 Nov., 1824. 2. Hyrum, born Tunbridge, Feb. 9, 1800, killed Carthage, 111., 27 June, 1844. 3. Sophronia, born Tunbridge, May 16, 1803. 4. Joseph, born Sharon, Dec. 23, 1805, killed 27 June, 1844, at Carthage, 111. 5. Samuel H., born Tunbridge, Mar. 13, 1808, died July 30, 1844. 6. Ephraim, born Royalton, Mar. 13, 1810, died Mar. 24, 1810. 7. William, born Royalton, Mar. 13, 1811. 8. Catherine, born Lebanon, July 28, 1812, died Feb'y 1, 1900. 9. Don Carlos, born New York State, Mch. 25, 1816, died Aug. 7, 1841. 10. Lucy, born New York State, July 18, 1821. Asael Smith, with his family, came up from Ipswich, Mass., in 1791, and settled in South Tunbridge, where he bought one of the gore farms, to which was later added two or three others. The site of this homestead, which Asael and his sons cleared, is the farm now owned and which, for many years past, has been owned and occupied by Mr. John F. Bennett. They appear to have been pioneers in this part of Tunbridge, lying on the North Royalton boundary, and this locality was known as the Smith settlement. It was set off as school district No. 13, and Jesse Smith was appointed trustee. Asael Smith was a man of ability. He had served a full term as a soldier of the Revolution. He had held offices of trust in Ipswich and Topsfield, Mass., before emigrating to Vermont; and HEARTHSTONE AT THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH. Portraits of the Prophet Joseph, his mother, Lucy, and his brother, Hyrum Smith. 98 IMPROVEMENT ERA. he was chosen to almost every office, except town clerk, in the town of Tunbridge, while he lived there. He was selectman, moderator, grand juror, surveyor of highways; member of the building committee, trustee and pew-holder of the church; and moderator of the meeting that in 1798 formed one of the earliest, if not the first, Universalist society in the state. In 1796 his son, Joseph, married Lucy Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack, of Gilham, N. H. These were the parents of the prophet. They occupied the first clearing of the farm, working it on shares, while the father and the remaining sons broke up the remainder. They were successful farmers, and in 1802 they took their savings, and some means that had been given Lucy as her mar- riage portion, and opened a little store at Randolph. The goods purchased at Boston appear to have been sold mostly for ginseng root, which was shipped to China and sold by a partner in the transaction, who proved to be dishonest, making no returns for the cargo. This disaster to their fortunes compelled a return to their farm life, and later Joseph rented the farm owned by his wife's father in Sharon, moving on to it in the fall of 1804, or the spring of 1805. This farm, which was mostly in the town of Sharon, also comprised a tract of several acres ly:ng between the two lines of Sharon, along Ebenezer Dewey's, in Royalton; and here was located the homestead and part of the orchard, reaching over the line into Royalton. This is where their fourth child, Joseph, was born, on December 23, 1805. They prospered while living on this farm, for about three years, when the family moved to Tunbridge for a short time, and thence to a farm in Royalton, which they occupied for three years. During this period, Joseph senior worked on the farm sum- mers and taught school part of the time winters. His son Joseph attended the school on Dewey hill, and was taught his letters by Deacon Jonathan Kinney, the schoolmaster there. The family moved to Lebanon, N. H., in 1811, and remained there until late the following year, when they rented a farm from Squire Murdock, in the town of Norwich, about two miles north of the village on the old turnpike road. Here they remained THE SMITH FAMILY IN VERMONT. 99 for three years, and in the spring of 1815 took their final leave of the state and moved to Palmyra, New York. On the way, they stopped at Royalton, where the prophet's mother parted forever with her mother, Lydia Gates, widow of Solomon Mack. She remained at the home of her son, Daniel Mack, in Royalton, where she died in 1817. It was not until 1820, about five years after the family left the state of Vermont, that Joseph Smith came into the public notice, by announcing that he had seen a vision of the Father and the Son, and had been called by them to the labor that proved to be his life work, namely, the establishment of the Church and organization which has come to be known over the whole world as the "Mormon" Church. It is not appropriate in these pages to trace the growth of this Church, but to mention it, as through it the old homestead of his parents and birthplace of the prophet has recently come into great prominence, and attracted attention of the world to the towns of Royalton and Sharon ; whose history would not be complete without allusion to the celebration of the prophet's one hundredth anniversary, at his birthplace, December 23, 1905. In May of that year, Mr. Junius F. Wells, of Salt Lake City, Utah, purchased the old farm, for the Church, of which he is a member and representative, and began the work of erecting a monument and memorial in honor of the prophet who was its founder. This was completed, so far as the raising of the monu- ment went, and the dedication occurred on December 23, 1905. A company of leading officials of the "Mormon" people came from Utah for the purpose, there being over fifty present, and their President, Joseph F. Smith, son of Hyrum, and nephew of the prophet, offered the dedicatory prayer. There were six or seven hundred people present from all parts of the state. The work of completing the Memorial Cottage and beautifying the surrounding grounds was left with Mr. Wells, who continues to spend a part of each year there, and under whose direction a very beautiful place is being made, to which thousands of visitors are attracted annually. Within the Memorial Cottage are being assembled the por- traits of the Smith family, and those associated with them in their THE JOSEPH SMITH MEMORIAL MONUMENT, SHARON, VERMONT. THE SMITH FAMILY IN VERMONT. 101 lifetime, also pictures showing the places of residence from Essex, England, in 1635, to Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. Chief among these portraits is a group of three, comprising Joseph the Prophet, his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, and his brother Hyrum. These are beautifully painted in oil, on wood panels, and adorn the mantelpiece, which has been built over the old hearth- stone that has been preserved, and occupies in the new cottage the precise place that it did in the old home where the prophet was born. We present a picture of this, and of the monument which is described as follows: Description of the Joseph Smith Monument. The monument is of dark Barre granite. It rests upon a concrete foundation fourteen feet square and seven feet deep. The first base is twelve feet square, twenty inches thick, and weighs about nineteen tons. The second base is nine feet square, two feet thick and weighs about thirteen tons. The inscription die is six feet square, six feet two inches high, and weighs about twenty tons. The capstone is seven feet four inches square, two and a half feet thick and weighs about ten tons. The shaft is four feet square at the base, three feet at the top, is thirty-eight and a half feet long (a foot for each year of the prophet's life) and weighs about forty tons. The total height of the monument is about fifty-one feet and weighs about one hundred tons, the whole being beautifully polished. The Inscription. Around the capstone is the following verse from the New Testament. It was reading this verse that led Joseph Smith to seek the Lord in oral prayer. In response, he received his first vision: If any oj you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. — James 1: 5. Upon the front of the inscription die: Sacred to the memory of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, Born here 23rd December, 1805. Martyred, Carthage, Illinois, 27th June. 1844. 102 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Upon the opposite side of the inscription die: Testimony of Joseph Smith. In the spring of the year of our Lord, 1820, the Father and the Son appeared to him in a glorious vision, called him by name and instructed him. Thereafter heavenly angels visited him and revealed the principles of the Gospel, restored the authority of the Holy Priesthood, and the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in its fulness and perfection. The engraved plates of the Book of Mormon were given him by the angel Moroni. These he translated by the gift and power of God. He organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the sixth day of April, 1830, with six members. He devoted his life to the establishment of this Church, and sealed his testimony with his blood. In his ministry he was constantly supported by his brother Hyrum Smith, who suffered martyrdom with him. Over a million converts to this testimony have been made through- out the world; and this monument has been erected in his honor, to com- memorate the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, by members of the Church which he organized. They love and revere him as a Prophet of God; and call his name blessed for ever and ever. Amen. Christmas Hymn. {For the Improvement Era.) My heart is full of thanks and love For Him who dwells in heav'n above; He sent his Son to Calvary, To suffer, bleed and die for me. Therefore, my soul shall ever sing All hail to him, my God and King, Who found me in the darkest night, And sent to me the gospel light. 0 Father dear, I ask of thee No blessing to withhold from me; And may I ever faithful prove To sing the praises of thy love. Niels Hansen. Citation: Wells, Junius F., “The Smith Family in Vermont,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 95–102. # The Morning of the Restoration The Morning of the Restoration. BY B. H. ROBERTS. [A second edition of the first volume of Elder B. H. Roberts' New Witnesses for God is in press. It is to be made uniform in style with the two volumes under this title recently published on the Book of Mormon, and treats of Joseph Smith, the prophet, as a witness for God among the children of men, in the ushering in of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. The 11th chapter, beginning the 4th thesis, which we are pleased to be permitted to present to the readers of the Improve- ment Era, introduces this new and important witness, setting forth the religious conditions that existed, at that time, in America, and particu- larly in New York State. It graphically describes the environments that surrounded the boy prophet and gives an impressive account of the first vision. Furthermore, it names the great truths that came to him and the world in answer to his prayer, and points to the wide-sweeping effect of it all upon the accepted theology of Christendom. A reading of this chapter will whet the appetite for the whole splendid volume. The book, as now issued, completes the set of three volumes, and presents the subject, New Witnesses for God, as Elder Roberts conceived the work twenty-eight years ago, and upon which, intermittently, he has labored that length of time. It is a precious contribution to the literature of the Church. — Editors.] At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the western part of the state of New York was a new country, by which I mean one recently settled, and comparatively a wilderness. At the close of the Revolutionary war, which secured to the former British colonies independence, the people of the new-born nation found their country and themselves impoverished. Manufactures, owing to the narrow and selfish policy of England toward her colonies, (that policy had been to discourage the colonies from manufacturing, lest they should 104 IMPROVEMENT ERA. compete with the manufactures of England) could scarcely be said to have an existence. Commerce, owing to the fact that the new nation had not yet established a commercial standing in the world, afforded little opportunity for American activity. Moreover, the American people themselves, of that generation, because of the conditions which had surrounded them in the New World, were neither skilled artisans, capable of competing with the British workmen in manufacturing, nor had they the cunning that comes by training, which qualified them for immediate success. What they did possess was sturdy physical frames — constitutions unimpaired either by the excesses practiced among barbarians, or by the vices which abound in older civilizations. They possessed strong hands, superb courage and simple tastes, and with these they entered into that almost boundless empire of wilderness to the west of them, to make homes for themselves and their children. Lo king from the standpoint of our modern life, which knows so much of ease and comfort, "the lot of these pioneers was a hard one. The soil which their rude shares upturned to the sun was indeed virgin and fertile, but before it could be cultivated it had to be cleared of its heavy growth of timber and underbrush, and, with the means then employed to clear a farm, was wellnigh the labor of a lifetime. Each pioneer, with the help of a few neighbors — which help he paid for by helping them in return — built his own house, his barn, his sheds, and fenced his "clearing." Each fam- ily within itself was practically self-supporting. The hum of the spinning-wheel, the rattle of the shuttle and the thumping of the loom, were heard in every home, as wool and flax were converted into fabrics to clothe the family, and every pioneer cultivated such a variety of products that his farm and his labor supplied his wants and those of his household. Happily for their contentment, the conditions in which they lived rendered their wants but few. In settling the wilderness, the pioneers were not disposed to crowd each other. They settled far apart. It often happened that a man's nearest neighbor would be two or three miles away, so that the country for a long time was but sparsely settled. Towns were few and far between, and were only slowly builded. No such mushroom growth of towns was known as that which characterized the settlement of the great prairie states, in subse- THE MORNING OF THE RESTORATION. 105 quent years. A few families, settling on a stream furnishing water power for a grist-mill, or at some point on lake or stream frequented by the India is, for the purpose of trading their furs, formed the nucleus of these towns, and soon school houses and churches increased their attractions. It was a simple, honest life these pioneers led. A life full of toil, for it was a stubborn fight they had with the wilderness to subdue it. And yet their very hardships tended towards virtue. A busy life in honorable pursuits can never be a vicious one; and the constant toil of these men in wood and field so kept hands and head employed that there was left no time nor opportunity, nor much of inclination, to pursue evil. Their amusements were few and simple, consisting in the main of the occasional gathering of neighbors for social enjoyments— the love of youth and maiden seeking its legitimate expression in that companionship which alone satisfies the hunger of the heart, I doubt not, was the incen- tive which brought about these gatherings, at least their frequency — and the old people, well pleased to see their own youth reflected in that of their sons and daughters, looked on with unconcealed delight. Not only was this life in the wilderness favorable to morality, but it contributed equally well to the cultivation of the religious sentiment in man. Man is by nature a religious animal, and where natural conditions prevail instead of artificial ones, true to his nature, man inclines toward a religious state of mind. There is something in the awful stillness of the wood that says to man, "God is in this solitude!" The murmur of the brook, splashing over its pebbly bed, and the mournful sighing of the wind through the tree tops, whisper to his spirit the fundamental truth of all religion — "God lives!" The stars looking down through the trees, or mirrored in stream or lake, bear witness to the same great truth; while the orderly course of the seasons, bringing with such undeviating regularity seed time and harvest, the period of sum- mer's growth and winter's rest, accompanied by the fact of the sun shining for the evil as well as for the good, and the rain fall- ing upon the just and the unjust alike, give ample evidence of God's interest in the world he has created, and of his beneficence and mercy towards all men. 106 IMPROVEMENT ERA. When conditions were so favorable for the development of natural religion, it is not surprising that profound interest was manifested also in revealed religion, especially when we remember that these pioneers of the wilderness were but from one to three generations removed from ancestors who had left the Old World for the express purpose of worshiping God according to their under- standing of that same revealed religion. That skepticism of the eighteenth century, which in some quarters had such a baneful influence upon religious belief, was scarcely felt in these settle- ments remote from the old centers of the New World civilization. These men of the wilderness believed the Bible, and looked upon it with the reverence worthy of men descended from Protestant fathers, who had in their system of theology made it take the place of pope and church, and established it as their sole author- ity and infallible guide in the matters of faith and morals. While many of them refused to identify themselves with any of the various sects about them, or subscribe to their creeds, they were profound believers in the word of God, and often confessed this short creed, which they duly impressed upon their descendants: "I believe in God, in the Bible, and in a state of future rewards and punishments." There was no lack of zealous churchmen among the pioneers, sectaries who taught special forms of faith and contended for the necessity of articular dogmas and formulas with all that ardor and narrowness of view that usually characterizes the sectarian mind. Their contentions for the correctness of their respective creeds were not always free from bitterness; but for all that the Protest- ant sects in the main recognized each other as parts of a great universal church, and occasionally would so far put away the differ- ences of creed which separated them as to unite for the purpose of holding union protracted meetings, for the conversion of unbelievers. During the continuance of these meetings, the minister avoided preaching any doctrine except such as could be accepted by all the sects — evangelical doctrine. Professedly their sole effort was to lead the unconverted to believe in and accept Christ, let them join what sect they pleased. Usually matters went on very agreeably, until the converts made by these united efforts THE MORNING OF THE RESTORATION. 107 began to express their preference for one or the other of the dif- ferent religious sects. Then would break out those fierce secta- rian struggles for advantage, which ever have been so disgraceful to Protestant Christendom. The good feeling temporarily exhib- ited during the union meetings nearly all disappeared, and by the fact of its vanishing, impressed an observer with the idea that all along it was more pretended than real. Sectarian zeal was unbounded in its efforts to secure as many of the new converts as possible to its own peculiar denomination. There was a cry of lo here, and lo there, not unfrequently accompanied with remarks of detraction about the opposing sects. The priests, each jealous for his own church, contended fiercely with one another, so that they who ought to have been the most exemplary in that conduct which makes for peace on earth and good will towards men, were often the most to be blamed for stirring up contention. Such a wave of religious fervor, brought about in the manner above set forth, and attended with results described, passed over the western part of the State of New York, in the winter and spring of 1820. The movement at that time was of unusual inter- est, first on account of its extent, and second on account of the intensity of the religious excitement produced. It can well be imagined that with these two conditions existing, the bitterness among the sects taking part in the movement would be correspond- ingly great when it came to dividing up the spoils, by which I mean, when the converts made by a unity of effort began to file off, some to one sect and some to another. Such was the case. Presbyterians opposed Methodists; and Methodists, Baptists; and Baptists opposed both the other sects. All was strife, contention, confusion, beneath which Christian charity and good will to man — these weightier matters of the law — were buried so far out of sight that it might be questioned if they ever existed. Standing somewhat apart from, but watching with intense interest, this religious excitement, and wondering greatly at the confusion and strife attendant upon it, was a lad fourteen years old.* He was born of parents numbered among the pioneers of * Joseph Smith, the prophet, was born in Sharon, Windsor county, State of Vermont, 23rd of December, 1805. 108 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the wilderness, and up to that time had lived with them, sur- rounded by the conditions already described in the first part of this chapter as so favorable to morality and the development of religious sentiment. By this religious agitation the mind of the lad was stirred to serious reflection, accompanied with great uneasiness, on account of the sectarian strife so incessant and so bitter. He saw several members of his father's family connect themselves with the Presbyterian sect, but he himself was more partial to the Methodist church; and at times he felt some desire to be united with it. The tumult arising from the religious con- tention, however, was such as to bewilder him, and he felt himself incompetent to decide who was right and who was wrong. "What is to be done?" he would often ask himself. "Who of all these parties are right? Or are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?"* Young as he was, his native intelligence taught him that something was radically wrong with all this contention over religion. It was clear, even to his boyish mind, that God could not be the author of all this confusion. Goi's church would not be split up into factions in this fashion; if he taught one society to worship one way, and administer one set of ordinances, he would not teach another principles diametrically opposed. f Influenced by these reflections, he refrained from joining any of the sects, and in the meantime studied the scriptures as best he could for himself. While thus engaged, his attention was attracted to that passage in James which says: If any of yon lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall b°, given him. That passage was like the voice of God to his spirit. "Never" he was wont to say in later life — "never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this * Pearl oj Great Price, page 83: 10. t See Joseph's reasoning upon this subject published in his account of the rise of the Church, written for Mr. John Wentworth, proprietor of the Chicago Democrat (1842). This article is also found in a pam- phlet by George A. Smith, entitled Answers to Questions, p. 27. Also History of the Church, Vol. IV, chapter xxxi. THE MORNING OF THE RESTORATION. 109 did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart."* He reflected upon it again and again, and as he did so the impression grew stronger that the advice of the ancient apostle offered a solution to his perplexities. It never occurred to him to think that the passage meant other than it said, or to question the universal application of the advice it gives. He knew nothing of the sophistry of the schools of theology, which too often made the word of God of none effect by their learned exegesis. Through the innocent eyes of a mere boy, he looked the proposition of James squarely in the front, and, thanks to the teachings of parents who revered the word of God, he believed what the man of God said, and- he believed further that he expressed that which the Lord inspired him to say; so that it came to him with the full force of a revelation. Under such cir- cumstances, what was more natural than for him to reason thus: if any person needs wisdom from God, I do; for how to act I do not know, and unless I can get more than I now have, I shall never know.f But one conclusion could be arrived at, through such a course of reflection: he must either remain in darkness and con- fusion or do as James directed — ask of God. And since he gives wisdom to them that lack wisdom, and will give liberally and not upbraid, he thought he might venture. And so at last he did. He selected a place in a grove near his father's house, and there, one beautiful morning in the spring of 1820,$ after, looking timidly about to ascertain that he was alone, the boy knelt, in his first attempt at vocal prayer, to ask God for wisdom. No sooner had he begun calling upon the Lord than there sprang upon him a being from the unseen world, who so entirely overcame him, and bound his utterance, that he could not speak. Thick darkness gathered about him, and it seemed to the strug- gling boy that he was doomed to sudden destruction. He still exerted all his power to call upon the Lord to deliver him from the power of the enemy who had seized him. But still his unseen, * History of the Church, Vol. I, p. 4. t His reasoning set down here is paraphrased from his own account of what he thought. History of the Church, Period I, Vol. 1, p. 4. X The^exact date of this occurrence is not known. 110 IMPROVEMENT ERA. though none the less real, enemy continued to prevail. Despair filled his heart. He was about to abandon himself to destruction when, at the moment of his greatest alarm, he saw a pillar of light exactly over his head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon him. No sooner did this light appear, than he was free from the enemy which had held him bound. As the light rested upon him he saw within it two Per- sonages, whose brightness and glory defy all description. They stood above him in tne air, and one of them, pointing to the other, said: ''JOSEPH, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, HEAR HIM." The object of the lad in going to that place to engage in secret prayer was to learn of God which of all the sects was right, that he might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did he recover his self-possession than he asked the personage to whom he was thus introduced which of all the s'ects was right — which he should join. He was answered that he must join none of them; for they were all wrong. Their creeds were an abomina- tion in God's sight; the professors of them were all corrupt — "They draw near me with their lips," said the personage talking to him, "but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments of men; having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof." Again he was told that he must join none of them. Many other things were said to him on that occasion which the prophet has not recorded, except to say that he was promised that the fulness of the gospel would at some future time be made known to him.* With this the vision closed, and the boy, on coming to him- self, was lying upon his back looking up into heaven. He arose to his feet, and looked upon the place of his fierce struggle with his unseen though powerful enemy — the place also of his splendid vision! What a change had come to the lad in one brief hour! He was no longer struggling with doubts or troubled with perplexities * Answers to Questions, p. 87. Also the Wentworth letter, History of the Church, Vol. IV, p. 537. THE MORNING OF THE RESTORATION. Ill as to which of the sects was right. He had gone to tnat place of prayer plagued with uncertainty, now no one among the children of men was so well assured as he of the course to pursue. He had proved the correctness of James' doctrine — men may ask God for wisdom, receive liberally, and not be upbraided. He knew that the religious creeds of the world were untrue ; that they taught for doctrine the commandments of men; that religionists observed a form of godliness, but in their hearts denied the power of God; that they drew near to the Lord with their lips, but their hearts were far from him. He knew that God the Father lived, for he had both seen him and heard his voice. He knew that Jesus lived and was the Son of God, for he had been introduced to him by the Father, conversed with him in heavenly vision, and had received instruction and a promise that the fulness of the gospel should yet be made known to him. Up to that time his life had been uneventful, and of a character to make him of no particular con- sequence in the world; now he stood as God's witness among the children of men. Henceforth he must bear witness to the great truths he had learned. His testimony will arouse the wrath of men, and with unrelenting fury they will pursue him; slander, outright falsehood, and misrepresentation will play havoc with his reputation; everywhere his name will be held up as evil; deris- ion will laugh at his testimony; ridicule will mock it; on every hand he will meet with the cry, "False prophet! false prophet!" chains and the dungeon's gloom await him; mobs with murderous hate will assail him again and again; and at last, while under the protection of the law, and the honor of a great commonwealth pledged fur his safety, he will be murdered in cold blood for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus! How little that fair-haired boy, standing there in the unpruned forest, with the sunlight stealing through the trees about him, realized the burden placed upon his shoulders that morning, by reason of the visitation he received in answer to his prayer! Here is not the place for argument, that is to come later; but let us consider the wide-sweeping effect of this boy's vision upon the accepted theology of Christendom. First, it was a flat contradiction to the assumption that reve- 112 IMPROVEMENT ERA. lation had ceased, that God had no further communication to make to man. Second, it revealed the errors into which man had fallen con- cerning the personages of the Godhead. It made it manifest that God is not an incorporeal being, without body or parts; on the contrary he appeared to the prophet in the form of a man, as he did to the ancient prophets. Thus, after centuries of controversy, the simple truth of the scriptures, which teach that man was created in the likeness and very image of God — hence God must be the same in form as man — was reaffirmed. Third, it corrected the error of the theologians respecting the oneness of the persons of the Father and the Son. Instead of being one in person, as the theologians taught, they are distinct in their persons, as much as any father and son on earth; and the oneness of the Godhead referred to in the scriptures, must have reference to unity of purpose and of will; the mind of the one being the mind of the other, and so as to the will and other attributes. The Godhead is made up of harmonized, divine intelligences. The announcement of these truths, coupled with that other truth proclaimed by the Son of God, namely, that none of the sects and churches of Christendom were acknowledged as the Church or kingdom of God, furnishes the elements for a religious revolution that will affect the very foundations of modern Christian theology. In a moment all the vubbish concerning religion, which had accum- ulated through all the centuries since the gospel and authority to administer its ordinances had been taken from the earth, was grandly swept aside— the living rocks of truth were made bare upon which the Church of God was to be founded — a New Dis- pensation of the gospel was about to be committed to the earth — God had raised up a witness for himself among the children of men. Citation: Roberts, B. H., “The Morning of the Restoration,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 103–112. # At Rest on the Hill Overlooking the Sea At Rest on the Hill Overlooking the Sea. BY WILLIAM A. MOODY, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE SAMOAN MISSION. [Elder William A. Moody, of Thatcher, Arizona, late president of the Samoan mission, with headquarters at Pesega, Apia, Samoa, returned to Salt Lake City on the 25th of September, having sailed from his field of labor August 25. On the 22nd of February, 1908, he left Utah, and presided over the mission the whole time of his absence. He reports the prospects good for future growth in the membership of the Church in Samoa. During his incumbency, there was an increase of four hundred and seventy-five members —three hundred and fifty-three of these being by baptism. He established, while there, thirteen new branches, there being now nineteen in all. with a total membership of seventeen hundred and sixty-one. The baptisms have constantly increased in the past three years, with a record of about two hundred for the present year. The elders have established seven schools, in which some three hundred stu- dents are being taught by the elders, of whom there are thirty in the mission, with four more on the way. Elder Moody is optimistic in his views relating to the spread of the gospel in that land, and considers the prospect promising for future growth. Elder Don C. McBride, of Pima, Arizona, was chosen temporary president of the mission. On his way across the Pacific Elder Moody found time to pen the following reflections and historical data, which we are pleased to present to the readers of the Improvement Era. — Editors]. As one enters upon the highway of life, with the eye of faith he looks into the future. He sees his goal as a distant light might be seen through night's darkness, but what lies between him and his goal he sees not, and strive as he may he cannot clearly depict what the future holds for him. But, with the boon of hope, he makes for himself a picture of achievement and success, needless to say, widely at variance with what his life's journey really 114 IMPROVEMENT ERA. brings him. He looks to the future and plans for the future. He continues to travel towards his seemingly distant goal. He observes that the members of his community are gradually being harvested by that Grim reaper called Death, Who, with his sickle keen, Mows down the ripened grain, And the flowers that grow between. Yet it seldom occurs to him that he might be harvested next, and so it transpires that whether his life be composed of trial, hardship and struggle, or whether he has easy access to that which his ambition leads him to achieve, there is wisdom in his not knowing what the future holds for him, thus causing him to live and work and develop by faith. When one receives the call of authority to carry the glad message of a restored gospel to an unbelieving world, and through faith accepts the call, it usually causes him to turn a sharp corner in the experiences of life. He severs family ties, and, amid an atmosphere of love and of good will, and of loving wishes and ardent prayers for his success, he bids farewell to his family and friends, and when the shades of night fall upon his home, made lonely now by his absence, the family kneels in humble prayer, with a longing desire, and earnestness which, perhaps, may have been wanting in the habitual formally of their prayers hereto- fore offered; and, with tear-stained eyes, they pray to the kind Father of all to let his watchcare go with our missionary, to his field of labor, crown his labors with success, and in due time bring him safely home ''laden with many sheaves." Each little child is taught to pray for brother or papa, as the case may be. A halo of holiness settles down upon the family, who have made new resolutions to live so as to merit the blessings for which they WM. A. MOODY. AT REST ON THE HILL OVERLOOKING THE SEA. 115 pray. The angels gladly report a new epoch in the life of our messenger of salvation. Here again faith and hope are active. A beautiful picture of a happy home-coming is involun- tarily made, with its expectant joy. Yet we know not God's pur- poses— he may never return. Among the many who have thus severed family ties, some, like ripened grain, have been harvested from all parts of the world The missionaries to Samoa have yielded their portion, who are now in a more blessed abode awaiting the home-coming of their earthly kindred. We are grieved to part with those dear ones, because we love and miss them, not because we feel that they are less happy. But here again is shown the wisdom of Deity in withholding what the future had in store for them. With the "shield of faith and the sword of truth," they marched bravely into the field of battle, and after winning laurel crowns, died battling gallantly for truth and the down- fall of sin and error. It was not a combat where the noise of troops, the din of battle, and the excitement of armies caused one to forget self in the mad rush; but a battle THE CEMETERY AT FAGALII, SAMOA. 116 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . where much more courage and constancy are needed; where calm, considerate thought and faith and hope, in the ultimate triumph of truth, cause one to battle with the ever present weakness of the flesh, until he so far conquers his physical self as to make it sub- ject to his will, pure and undefiled, subject to the will of God; and having thus eradicated the darkness of evil from his soul, he becomes a light which unselfishly shines to light the pathway of others. Just back of the little village of Fagalii, on the brow of the hill overlooking the sea, about seventy-five yards inland from the beach, just where the cocoanut-covered slope suddenly forms a AT REST IN THE CEMETERY AT FAGALII, SAMOA. declivity to the low, narrow strip of land which borders the sea, is the mission cemetery. The original picket fence, being decayed, has recently been replaced by a concrete wall; and modest, white marble plates, set in suitable cement blocks, mark the resting place of the mortal remains of the following named missionaries: Ransom M. Stevens, Ella Adelia Moody and Judson B. Tom- linson. Also children of missionaries, as follows: George Emmett Hilton, Janette Hilton, Thomas Harold Hilton and Loi Roberts. AT REST ON THE HILL OVERLOOKING THE SEA. 117 The remains of Mrs. Kate E. Hall Merrill and her one day old baby, who died June 29, 1891, were interred in this cemetery, but were later removed to America; and the remains of George E. Morris, who died December 12, 1908, were interred in the govern- ment cemetery at Apia. In making these improvements on the cemetery, it became necessary to cut down most of the beautiful trees and shrubbery which heretofore surrounded the graves, and were ever in bloom; but new shrubbery has been planted, and a new growth of beauti- ful foliage will soon spring up to adorn and again beautify that holy sanctuary. The New Firm. {For the Improvement Era.) The world may laugh, in passing by, At this new firm of Wife and I; But what care we how men may talk, For we are founded on a rock! We are the principals, you know, Our children constitute the Co., Our Creditor is God above. Our stock in trade is mutual love. At every season's ample end A baby is the dividend. Time cannot reach to rend apart The band that binds us heart to heart; And so we shall continue on When earth and sky and time are gone; And, looking through prophetic eyes Into futurity's deep skies, I see it burst the band of years And broaden into deeper spheres. Forever up eternal flights, It comprehends all depths and heights, All principalities and powers — This little company of ours. Theodore E. Curtis. Citation: Moody, William A., “At Rest on the Hill Overlooking the Sea,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 113–117. # On the Christmas Eve : ■'»' ^ f:: Isle* of cJboals, Rtlan tic Coast. ON THE CHRISTMFVS EVE. Citation: Lambourne, Alfred, “On the Christmas Eve,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 118. # The Golden Gate, Pacific Coast The Golden Gate, Pacific Coast. BY FVLFRED LA.M BOURNE Citation: Lambourne, Alfred, “The Golden Gate, Pacific Coast,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 119. # The Nephite Shepherd: Part One, II. Prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite The Nephite Shepherd. A Book of Mormon Story, in Two Parts. BY ARTHUR V. WATKINS. Part One. II.— Prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite. The following day witnessed some stirring times. Zarahemla was visibly agitated. Whenever a group of men or women were congregated there was a lively discussion. The babel of voices could be heard on all sides, in the markets, in the public gardens and parks, and even in the hall of justice. One theme seemed to be uppermost in everybody's mind. Even the children in the streets and playgrounds were discussing it. 4 group of men in the square before the hall of justice were having an animated discussion. "1 say he is right. We are wicked. Nephi's children are gone astray. They do not hold to the traditions of their fathers. God brought us here and gave us this promised land, but we refuse to worship him, and worship "our gold and costly things instead." So spoke one. His speech caused hilarious laughter. "So we are wicked, are we? A dog of a Lamanite must come and tell us about our sins! A righteous man, indeed! Pray where did he get his swarthy hide ? From the sins of his father Laman! Why, this Samuel is a vagabond, many times accused of crime." So spoke a second one. "Did he not greatly insult Zemnarihah, one of the noblest of men? It is whispered that the priestly power has promised him THE NEPHITE SHEPHERD. .121 great reward to tell us of our sins, so that we will become humble and easy for them to rule. But, men of Zarahemla, we are not fools any longer. The judges have ordered him cast out of the city, and woe be unto him if he dare return!" So added «a third. Many taunts were hurled at the first speaker, such as, "Art thou also of the priestly congregation? Dost thou also believe in the foolish traditions concerning Christ, who is to be born of a virgin?" Just then the attention of the multitude that had gathered to hear the discussion, was diverted by a guard of the city gates, who came running into the crowd on his way to the hall of justice. ''What news? What news?" the crowd greeted him. The news soon spread. "The Lamanite is upon the city walls prophesying against the city, telling of its destruction and of the great things that are to happen." It spread from group to group, from market to market, and from house to house. As many as were able, hastened to the place indicated. All the contending factions of that great city were repre- sented. Those who believed in the words of Samuel were there to hear more, and to protect him. Those who believed not were there to stop his words, and to slay him if he persisted. Among the multitude, standing in the thoroughfare running parallel with the wall, was Zemnarihah. He stood regarding the multitude with reserved demeanor, taking sides with neither of the centending factions. By his side stood Zoram, who, as well as his master, wore the badge of mourning, for the senior Zemnarihah had died the day previous. Not far away was Giddianhi talking quietly with two men. The men soon departed in haste. Giddi- anhi joined another small group of men, and after a few words to them, they soon melted away in the larger crowd. Giddianhi then beckoned Zoram to one side. "Make youself free among the people; put in a word now and then to stir them up in anger against the Lamanite; cause them to seek his life; but take no part in the attempt yourself." So saying, he left Zoram to do his bidding while he quietly took a position in a retired corner of the great street, where he 122 IMPROVEMENT ERA. could watch Zemnarihah, the people and Samuel, without being noticed himself. Meanwhile the multitude was increasing. Among the latest arrivals was the chief judge's chariot, containing a driver and the judge's daughter. Suddenly all eyes were turned toward the wall — Samuel was speaking again. The commotion in the multitude stopped, and the attention of all was focused on the strange figure before them. Strange indeed it was. Not so much because of the dress, which was simple, but from the expression on the face. Although all knew him to be a Lamanite, yet as he stood with uplifted arms, his face glowing with an indescribable light, it would not have been difficult to have convinced them that they were deceived — that it was not Samuel, but one of their own number. His bare arms and legs showed the cruel marks of the lashing that had been administered to him the day previous. His voice, though trem- bling with emotion, rang out clearly and distinctly, and either won his hearers for or against him. These were his words: Behold I give unto you a sign; for five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name. And behold this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day. Therefore there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day, and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is born. And behold there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you. And behold this is not all, there shall be many signs and wonders in heaven. The multitude stood spellbound. The very boldness and positiveness of the Lamanite caused them to marvel. One of their THE NEPHITE SHEPHERD. 123 number had cried to him without ceasing for a sign, that they might know when the Son of God should be born, and this was his answer. Five years more and marvelous and spectacular were the things that would take place. So great were his utterances that the people were astounded, and dare not raise a hand against him. The holy light that came from his countenance held his followers enraptured. Many others believed his words and went straightway to the river Sid on, where they were baptized by Nephi. The spell was broken, however, when he denounced them for their wickedness and called them to repentance. Then it was that the men, acting under instructions from Giddianhi, did their work. They cried out against him, they mocked and jeered. Those who felt the biting sting of Samuel's words joined in the mocking. Goaded on by the jeers of their associates they called loudly for his life, hurling vile epithets, such as imp.oster, dog and knave. At this juncture, two men, dispatched by Giddianhi, appeared on the scene, armed with bows and arrows, slings and lances. A gutteral cheer arose from the mob, "The Lamanite must die!" One of the men immediately fitted an arrow to his bow, and was taking careful aim at the unprotected Samuel, when an unfor- seen thing happened. Quick as a flash the driver of the> chief judge's chariot leaped from the vehicle, snatched the weapon from the man, and then brought it down on his head with such force that it felled him to the earth. Instantly the driver was seized, and would undoubtedly have been torn to pieces but for Zemnari- hah. He rushed into the crowd, tore the unfortunate man loose from his captors, hastily pushed him into the chariot, seized the reins and pulled the horses quickly around. In a moment the chariot and its occupants disappeared around a neighboring corner. The incident happened so suddenly that very few of the mob noticed ?'t. They were devoting their whole attention to Samuel, who continued to cry unto them from the wall. Stones from the pavement were torn up, broken into smaller fragments, and hurled at him. These either fell so far short or went so wide of the mark, that Samuel was in little danger. The bowmen, however, were his greatest danger. Arrows flew thick and fast, but lo and 124 IMPROVEMENT ERA. behold none of them touched him! This only increased the anger of the men, so instead of excited and nervous shooting they stead- ied themselves, taking deliberate aim. Behold their amazement when nothing would touch him! Arrows whizzed by his head, under and above his outstretched arms, but not one harmed his person. Being some of the best archers in the city, the men were dumbfounded. Many dropped their weapons and fell upon their knees; fear came upon them that they were seeking the life of one of God's servants. Now they believed his words, so they went, as he before had directed them, to Nephi who was baptizing in the river Sidon. But not so with the large portion of the multitude; they became more chmorous for his blood. Seeing that they could not hit him with their stones and arrows, they called loudly for their captains and others to procure ladders and take him from off the wall, that they might wreak vengeance upon him. Before such demands the captains were powerless to resist. As much as some of them believed his word-*, yet they were fear- ful of the mob. Being under the chief judge, himself a just man, they feared his displeasure, but being weak mortals, they feared the displeasure of the populace more. Ladders were soon brought; Samuel's doom seemed to be sealed. There he knelt, with upturned face, and arms pointed heavenward, as if calling the vengeance of a just God down upon his persecutors. The sun, low in the west, was in line with Sam- uel's person; rays of light seemed to give his naturally dark body an almost angelic expression. The picture was short lived; the captains were nearing the top. One last, longing look upon Zarahemla, the beautiful, and Samuel disappeared, clambering down the other side of the wall. As the captains stood on top they saw a dark figure, appar- ently a man, disappear in the neck of the woods, jutting out from the river Sidon. And that was the last a Zarahemlite ever saw of Samuel, the Lamanite prophet. [TO BE CONTINUED.] Citation: Watkins, Arthur V., “The Nephite Shepherd: Part One, II. Prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 120–124. # Among the Toilers Among the Toilers. BY HAROLD GOFF. The Master's exhortation, "Love one another," can never come into complete fulfilment until we understand one another. And we shall never understand one another until we learn to look at life and interpret its meaning and its worth from more than our own particular point of view. There is more than sentimentality in the old song, We shall know each other better When the mists have rolled away. We can read into it — or out of it, if you will — the lesson that it is our duty to help roll the mists away. In a great measure we can accomplish this end, for much of the mist which enclouds man- kind is of our own making. In a casual conversation, not long ago, a friend of mine strongly impressed this truth upon me, although I doubt that at the time he was conscious that his utterances were more than common- place— a fact which reminds us that the impromptu word or action may often be of more value than we think. My friend is an edu- cated man— a graduate of Cornell — and an educator. Most of his work in the world is of the mental type ; most of his time he is engaged in the vocation of instructing the young. But many of his summers he chooses to spend in manual labor, out in the fields tilling the soil, or gathering in the crops at harvest time. It was shortly after his return from such a summer's work that he said to me: "It does one good to get out among the toilers — I mean the toilers in the fields or the shops. We are all toilers in our own particular way, but we fail to appreciate the other fellow because 126 IMPROVEMENT ERA. we do not meet him on his own ground and learn to know him as he is. "Those of us whose work is not manual, often think that the field or shop workers are happy and contented only in their working clothes, and that the dust and grime of their labor is an essential part of their happiness. And we look on them with something akin to contempt. But we are wrong. The dust and the grime, it is true, are a part of their life, but they themselves are not very different from the rest of us. They like good homes; they like clean clothes, clean beds and clean food; they like their rest and recreation. More often than we know, they like those accom- plishments we call culture, and would cultivate them if they had the chance. "And some of these modest, unassuming toilers are really expert in their line; they can do important and necessary work better than most of us could dream of doing it." As an example, my friend told me of a blacksmith — Peterson by name, I believe, though that doesn't matter — who had been in charge of the repair work on the machinery of a certain ranch. With only an improvised shop, this blacksmith could provide any wheel, shaft, or other mechanical appliance that might be needed. And he would attempt — and accomplish too — work that seemed little short of marvelous. Once, when the heavy steel pipe of a "driven" well had slipped from its fastenings and had dropped to the bottom of the bore, its recovery was despaired of. Four hundred pounds of steel, point downward, had dropped two hun- dred feet. It must have buried itself forty feet in the mud, and at a tremendous distance from the ground surface. Men of expe- rience with wells declared that the pipe could not possibly be recovered. Some of them were willing to wager one thousand dollars that it could not be done. But Peterson, calm and unper- turbed, said quietly, "I'll get it up this afternoon." And he did, with a contrivance of his own manufacture. I don't know what it was, but he ought to have it patented. This same blacksmith, after cutting and pounding a piece of steel pipe for two hours, shaping it into a guard for some part of an engine's mechanism, discovered that the piece would not do. "I'll have to try again," he said quietly, "I got the weld that AMONG THE TOILERS. 127 time." There was no violent cursing, no muttering or complaint at the two hours of hard labor lost. It was simply, "I'll have to try again." What a lesson for the best of us! This unassuming blacksmith is only one of many toilers whom we, that work in office, store or school room, should know. And they ought to know us. An interchange of places, a meet- ing on a common plane, would make us all bigger, broader and better. It would minimize narrowness and bigotry; it would teach us appreciation, toleration, and true charity — life's greatest heritage. Modern labor troubles, as my friend reminded me, would largely be done away with, if a perfect understanding could be established between the toilers of the brain and the toilers of the brawn. The "labor problem" would be solved. Difficulties and disagreement which may throw states, and even nations, into tur- moil, might be avoided, if "the mists were rolled away." A more perfect harmony would exist, and universal peace, that long-sought- f or consummation, would prevail. Then would abide true charity, and the divine injunction, "Love one another," would be near fulfilment. University of Utah. Wanted. (Selected.) God give us men. A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands — Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess a genius and a will, Men who have honor, men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking'— Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking. For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps' J. G. Holland. Citation: Goff, Harold, “Among the Toilers,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 125–127. # Just a Little Blue Stocking Just a Little Blue Stocking. BY LELLA MARLER HOGGAN. I. — The Wild Teaches Jim a Lesson. "Don't you know, Hughie, I sometimes think that this is God's own land, and that that old mountain yonder is his temple," said Jim, as he and the old mountaineer drew rein at the little spring that bubbled up at the foot of the hill. "Yes, Jim, that's right, that's right; it is God's own land, and that is one of his temples. He built it with his own hands ages ago. He made these hills, too, Jim, and the lake, and the medder yonder, and them old pine trees and this little spring. When they're all muffled up in snow like this, they look mighty solemn and quiet like, and it makes a fellow feel like God's close around some- where." Old Hughie shaded his eyes with his hand and looked across the purple mountains toward the sunset. Only a few of the rug- ged summits stood out purple against the crimson-tinted sky. The others were cloaked and hooded in snow. "Now, right over there, Jim," he said, pointing to a break in the range, "right there where the sun's goin' down, is the place where you and me camped when you first came into the valley." "Is it?" questioned Jim. "I thought it was further south than that." "No," said Hughie decidedly, "that's the place right there. I used to camp there years ago. D'you 'member that little clump of quakin'-asp and that big rock at the side of the road?" "Yes." "Well, right there's where I used to make my camp-fire. JUST A LITTLE BLUE STOCKING. 129 There's a spring right there at the foot of the hill, and a little creek a runnin' out of it — suthin' like this one. I used to lay down there In the shade of the willers, while my hoss was a feedin'. I liked to listen to the wind in the leaves, and hear the water a laughin' and a bubblin' as it splashed over the moss and the rocks. The air alius smelled so fresh and sweet there. They was runnin' vines and hoss-mint, down along the stream, and the roses was alius in bloom up by the spring. ' ' The horses had finished drinking, and they cantered on down the half-obliterated road. The snow filtered through the twigs of the trees and bushes in great white wreaths, as the horses jostled them in passing. "Yes, I'll never forget that place," continued Hughie. "I alius feel closer to God, somehow, when I'm alone out in them mountains. It's the same feelin' as I have here when the snow lays muffled on everything." "I felt rather lonesome the night we camped out in those mountains," remarked Jim. "Yes, I recollect," mused Hughie. "But that was 'fore you got acquainted with the hills and the rocks and the forests. You'd feel different now. You have to get acquainted with the wild things 'fore you learn to like 'em. Now that little spring, up there where the horses drank— I'm acquainted with that spring jest the same as I be with a man or a hoss. And old Saw- tell peak over yonder— why, Jim, I know that mountain as well as I do you." "I believe you do, Hughie; and sometimes I fancy that the mountains and the rocks and the streams know you." "Guess they do, Jim; most of 'em, any way. They've taught me some mighty good lessons, boy. And they'll do the same by you, if you'll just open your heart to 'em." "I don't know, Hughie. You seem to be on better terms with them than any one else I know." "The reason the wild things know me so well, Jim, is because I love 'em so. When you get to loving the mountains and the woods and such things, you jesc feel as if they're waitin' 'round to do suthin' fer you all the time, and you feel sort o' related to 'em, somehow. And you begin to lovin' everything and every- 130 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . body. 'Taint the things theirselves that makes you feel that way, Jim — it's the One that made 'em. When you get close to the heart of the old world, my boy, you find God. And he helps you to find your own heart, and to find all the joy that's hid away waitin' fer you." There was quiet for some minutes, save the muffled thud of the horses feet in the new snow. Then Jim broke the silence with ''Don't you know, Hughie, that's the way I found God. When I came out here with you I did not know what I believed. I thought I was an atheist. At any rate, I felt sure I was not a Christian. But after I had lived in these mountains awhile I dis- covered that my heart had been made over, as it were. Of course, I was around with you considerable, and that made a dif- ference. A man couldn't live around you long, Hughie, without being a better man." "Maybe I helped you to see things a little — that's all — God done the rest." "I used to get up mornings and look up at the old mountain," continued Jim, "and feel thankful that I was here. It is so old and mystic and mighty. It lifts a man up to a higher plane and makes him want to be better. After that I learned to see the beauty in the lake and woods, and the pretty nooks and corners out in the hills." "Yes, Jim, God is in the quiet places, as well as in the mighty ones. Now, that little cove yonder is just as necessary to his plan as Sawtell peak is. It don't look much now, drifted full of snow as it is, but it's cool and shady in summer,and wild violets and sweet grass and medder posies spring up, and the cattle come to nip the grass and get a drink from the spring." Again they rode on in silence. Hughie was thinking. After a few minutes he said abruptly, "I alius feel sorry fer an atheist, Jim. They're missin' so much that God meant they should enjoy. They jest see the outside o' things, as it were. It's like lookin' at the printin' on a page, when you can't read a word of it. Its jest a jumble of marks. Now, if they could jest get acquainted with Nature she'd introduce 'em to God, and then they could find the way all right; for he's alius close around ready to help a man out if he loses his way. An atheist most gen 'ally thinks that he JUST A LITTLE BLUE STOCKING. 131 knows all about created things, but I want to tell you, Jim, he ain't on speakin' terms with 'em. Why if he was, it wouldn't be no time 'till he'd see what a fool he is, and he'd be too ashamed of hisself to look 'em in the face again." "That's the way I felt, Hughie, after I'd been out here with you awhile. I felt ashamed to think I had ever doubted God and his goodness. I'm glad I know these things, but I'm sorry that I did not know them sooner." II. — A Woman in It. "No use o' spoilin' today's sunshine by worryin' 'bout yester- day's rain, Jim. You can make good all you've lost. The home folks are alius glad to kill the fatted calf fer the prodigal's return." "Yes, I can make good with the home folks; but that isn't all, Hughie." "A woman in it?" "Yes, there was a woman in it — a dear, sweet little woman she was, too. She used to think a great deal of me — at least, I thought she did. And she was all the world to me. That was why I left home, Hughie. I couldn't stay around and see some- one else taking my place by her side." "Go on," urged Hughie seriously. "How did it all happen? Tell me about it." "There isn't much to tell," mused Jim. "It was Christmas eve, and she came with me to spend the evening with mother. She helped me to fasten baby's little blue stockings to the mantle above the grate. I took my little sister, Honey-Bird, onto my lap and told her the Santa Claus story, which she had heard every night for weeks. Nellie told her the story of the Christ-child. Then baby was tucked into her little bed, and father and mother and Nellie and I spent a pleasant evening together. While I was walking home with Nellie, we spoke of Christmas, and of Honey- Bird's bright anticipations for the morrow. Then I tried to tell Nellie what had been in my heart through the years. But she wouldn't let me say the words. 'No, James,' she said firmly, 'no, not while you look |at life as you do now. We could never be 1 32 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . happy.' I tried to tell her that I could be a better man if she would help me. Then she looked straight into my eyes. 'Why, James,' she said, 'you are not even a Christian! The man I marry must be a devout, sincere Christian. He must be strong enough to lead the way if my faith should waver.' I did not say any more until we reached her home. Then I said, 'I am sorry, Nellie, that our paths lead in different directions. I had hoped that we would some day sit together by an open fireplace and tell stories to little children. I had hoped that we would stand together and hang little Christmas stockings by the mantle. But if you do not love me as I am, I shall go away. I do not believe in winning a woman by making promises that are seldom fulfiled. So it will be good by this time, Nellie, instead of good night.' " " 'I am sorry, James, that our lives and our ideals are not more alike,' she said. 'You have been very good to me and I shall always remember you kindly. May God bless you wherever you go.' "Her hand touched mine for a moment — and only a moment — and then she was gone. And the joy went out of my heart with her, Hughie." "She done the right thing, Jim — the right thing. A woman'd be a fool that'd marry a man 'fore he was acquainted with God. A man like you or me, Jim, has to have the rough places in him made smooth 'fore he's fit to marry a good woman. Women can help men to read the things outo' life what's good fer 'em, but its better fer a man to learn his letters alone. Makes him more of a man. Then he ain't alius leanin' on a woman fer his moral strength. Even if he loses her, he's a man anyway." "And you think she did the right thing, then, in sending me away?" "'Course she did, Jim— 'course she did. Best thing 'at could've happened to you. You ain't lost no time. You've jest been makin' a man of yourself. ' ' "But, Hughie, if she really cared, don't you think she would have given me some little word of encouragement to have helped me along, while I was finding the way?" "Not a bit of it — not a bit of it. Why, Jim, if we could see the answer to all the sums 'fore we started on 'em, they JUST A LITTLE BLUE STOCKING. 133 wouldn't be no use of figgerin' 'em out. 'Tain't a good way to do, Jim, to get your money 'fore you finish your job." "But suppose you finish your work, and never get your pay- then what?" "Ah, Jim, my boy, that never happens! God never beats a man out o' what's coming to him. It's like I was a tellin' you, Jim, you might lose the woman, but if you've made a man of yourself, you're still a man; and that's wuth the price you've paid fer it, you know." The old man straightened up in his saddle and shaded his eyes with his hand again. "See that old pine tree down there, right to the point of the mountain?" "Well?" "Well, it alius stands right there, quiet like and unpretend- ing but alius right there. You kin see it fer miles away. When travelers git off the trail, or git lost in a storm, they look fer the old lone pine. Its one of the guide posts of these mountains. Well, Jim, some people's jest like that oil tree. You alius know right where to find 'em, and though they don't say nothin' they're alius pointin' out the road fer you to travel. Now, this little woman we've been a talkin' about has been a kind of a guide post to you. She didn't say nothin' — didn't make no promises, nor tell you what to do. She jest stayed right where she was and pointed out the road to vou. And you've been a thinkin' of her all the time, and been a tryin' to git into the road she pointed out to you. Now, Jim, the thing fer you to do is to go right back to Nellie and tell her you've found the way, and you're ready to walk in the same path with her now." "No, I'm too late," Said Jim decidedly. "There was another man who loved her, and he was a Christian. She is probably married by now." "Don't you ever think she's married, Jim. Girls like Nellie don't shift their hearts around every season. If she loved you then, she loves you now." "I'm afraid not, Hughie. You know two years is a long time to be away from the woman you love, especially when there isn't the least little tie between you to help her to be true." 134 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Maybe you're right, Jim— maybe you're right," consented the old man. III. — Hughie's Christmas Tale. The journey was finished in silence, and when they drew rein in j'ront of the old bunk house the boys greeted them with a cheer. That night after supper the boys gathered in the cabin for a social game of cards. Hughie had been very quiet at supper, and he sat now and gazed into the open grate of the old stove and watched the large sticks burning. After the boys had finished a game he swung his chair around, facing them, and asked bluntly, "How many of you fellers are going home fer Christmas?" "None of us, I guess," answered the mail-driver, as he picked up the deck of cards and began shuffling them. "I don't know as anybody's goin' to leave the ranch, " said Nelson, "unless it's Jim. His letter looked rather suspicious." "Yes, how 'bout that letter, Jim? It smelled o' Christmas, sure enough," queried old Pete. "What letter?" questioned Jim. "I forgot all about Jim's letter," confessed Fred. "It's around here somewhere." And he began picking up the papers and scraps off from the long shelf. "Here it is," he said; and he passed it over to Jim. Jim looked at the address a moment, and then put it in his pocket. "Is it the right one?" laughed the boys. "It's from my sister, ' ' he said quietly. "Say, boys—" and old Hughie drew his chair up a little nearer to the table— "if you'll just let that game slide, I'd like to tell you a story." "All right, Hugh. Is it a Christmas story?" asked the mail- driver, speaking for the crowd again. "Yes, boys, it's a Christmas story, and it's a true one. It's about forty year ago now," began the old man, "since I come into the valley. I was just a boy then, wild and thoughtless and fool- ish. I'd alius lived in York state with my folks, in a quiet little country place. But I'd alius wanted to get out and away. Both my grandfather and my father had been pioneers. In their earlier days they'd lived out in the borderland. They'd tilled the soil, JUST A LITTLE BLUE STOCKING. 135 killed wild animals and fought the Indians. The warmth in their blood had been handed down from father to son, and a generous share was bestowed on me. I had an uncle out West who used to write us wonderful letters about the country, and when I was only a little chap I made up my mind to come West. And it wasn't many years 'till the chance come, and I was only too glad to take it. My mother tried to talk me out of goin', but when my father saw how determined I was he told mother he thought they'd better decide to let me go. She finally consented, and preparations was made in a hurry for my leavin'. I was glad she consented, 'cause I think I would have gone even if she hadn't. I can see her now as she looked them last few days 'fore I left. There was a sad, anxious look on her face, as she went about her work. Her eyes was full of tears she was a holdin' back. And I think she had a prayer in her heart fer me all the time, 'cause she seemed to be thinkin' o' me all the time. I remember how she washed my clothes and mended all the rents and thin places. She knit new heels and toes in my socks, and she darned and pressed and sponged my old suit 'till it looked like a new one. I kep' a tellin' her I didn't want to take many things, but she went right on fixin' 'em up as if I hadn't spoke. She tucked in warm gloves and mufflers and soft ties and handkerchiefs. She put in paper and envelopes and stamps, and she wrote her address on the enve- lopes and stamped some of 'em, so I'd be sure and remember to write. When it come time to leave she didn't say much — I guess her heart was too full to speak many words. She jest pressed my hand and smiled through her tears. "'Good by— be good, Hugh,' she said. 'Come back to us soon— God bless you.' "That was all. Then I passed out of the old gate, and rode down the lane and on into the great West. I looked back once, but a mist blurred my eyes. Mother and the old home faded from view. A great stretch of prairie came between us, and then the years held us apart. At first I didn't intend to stay away so long, but the years jest slipped away 'fore I knew it. I made new friends and learned new lessons and lived in a new world. When the buttercups and medder posies would blossom in the spring I'd promise myself a trip home in the fall. But when the 136 IMPROVEMENT ERA. wind whistled through the trees and frisked the red leaves about, and the snow come down in big flakes, I alius felt as if I'd better wait 'til spring. When Christmas time come along I'd alius think of 'em. Sometimes I'd send 'em a check, sometimes a box of trinckets, and sometimes I'd write 'em a letter. But somehow I never went home. I jest kep' a puttin' it off and a puttin' it off — and the years kep' a slippin' by. They jest went along so easy like that a feller hardly realized they was a passin', and after awhile they begun to double up on their selves. I used to get letters from home tellin' me what they was all doin'. They alius told me the most 'bout Birdie Lou, that was my baby sister. She was jest learnin' to talk when I went away. Fer two or three years she had 'em tell me 'bout Santa Claus. She alius wanted me to come home to tell her the Santa Claus story and to write the letter to him. After awhile they quit tellin' me of her pretty baby sayin's, and I knew she could talk plain; but somehow I alius thought of her as my little baby sister. I could see her in her little red apron, with a chubby fist poked in each pocket, comin' a smilin' down the path to the barn to meet me. Then father used to alius send me word of some new work he had to do, and say he needed me to help him. Mother alius asked me when I was comin' home. I used to tell 'em I'd be comin' home soon. In one letter I prom- ised mother I'd be home in time to help her plant her flowers in the spring, and I'd paint the fence for him, and I had a whole book full o' Christmas stories and fairy tales for Birdie Lou. "But when spring come a whisperin' through the sweet grass and the medder posies, and a singin' in the streams and glintin' the purple mountains, it jest sort o' held me here. And other springs came and went, and still I didn't find my way back. Then, one fall, I guess 1 got homesick. It jest seemed as if suthin' was a callin' me across them purple mountains and the big gray plain. It jest kep' a callin' and a callin'; but I said to myself, 'Keep still, Hughie, things is all right. Don't be an old fuss.' But it wasn't no use. If I'd go a fishin' down the creek it seemed as if my father was jest up the stream a little way a waitin' fer me; and if I went a huntin' it seemed as if he was a walkin' along side o' me. And he alius seemed to be a waitin' fer me to go with him. Guess I ought to a took the hint and a gone home, but I didn't. The JUST A LITTLE BLUE STOCKING. 137 days slipped along 'till Christmas was jest about here, and then one day a feller come over from the station house with a slip o' yeller paper in his pocket. Soon as I saw that scrap o' paper I knew 'twas fer me, and I knew that suthin' was wrong at home: 'Father very low — come home.' That was all it said. But that was enough, boys Hosses and trains couldn't go fast enough to take me back to the old home. I didn't send 'em word I was a comin', and so, of course, no one come to meet me. I walked from the station up to the house. My heart beat fast as I neared the old house again. From the time I left the old snow-capped mountains 'till I walked up the little lane, there'd been a prayer in my heart. By night and by day I'd kep' a askin' God to git me there in time I felt a little strange, too, as I asked him; 'cause all through the years he'd kep' a sayin, tome, 'Better go home this year, Hugh — better go home — the folks are a needin' you.' But I'd kep' waitin' along thinkin' I had plenty o' time. And now 1 stood at the old gate. It was night time and the lights burned low. I walked slowly up the path, boys, and stepped on the little front porch. (TO BE CONCLUDED IN JANUARY NUMBER.) ELDERS AT BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. Top row, left to right: Ambrose Call, F. Horace Gunn, Conference President. Bottom row: Mayben Fox, Joseph A. Bateman. Citation: Hoggan, Lella Marler, “Just a Little Blue Stocking,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 128–137. # Pen Pictures of the Holy Land: II. Horseback from Nazareth to Jerusalem Pen Pictures of the Holy Land, From Dan to Beersheba. BY HAMILTON GARDNER. II. — Horseback from Nazareth to Jerusalem. In all the country, "from Dan to Beersheba," there is no part more interesting than that between Nazareth and Jerusalem. Important sites connected with Old and New Testament history- are found on every side, and form material of the most absorbing interest for the student of the Bible. The habits and beliefs of the people can be studied in their native simplicity, thus furnish- ing a splendid idea of Biblical customs, for in many respects the IfcSa^r"'" - ■■ ^".; . :... -■■:, S^i* f ,' ; 3 £ ,, ' "?*" •*• i Woi. . _,-'*" • 1 All the Photos by the Author. NAZARETH, FROM THE WEST. PEN PICTURE SiOF THE HOLY LAND. 139 country people of Palestine live today in the same manner as at the time of Christ. The land itself is also of great interest— the real rivers, plains and mountains of the Bible— for though man and time have altered the cities, the country remains prac- tically the same. Traveling horseback in Palestine is a novel experi- ence for a Westerner. In- stead of the "lope" our horses are able to maintain for hours, "Old Canary,'' the horse I was luckless enough to ride, could sel- dom be urged beyond a walk. He was equipped with an English racing saddle which instead of adding to my com- fort, as the owner undoubt- edly intended, had just the opposite effect. Instead of shoes, the horse had four flat plates of steel nailed to his hoofs— the usual manner of shoeing horses in Palestine. However, this made him none the less sure-footed. While on this trip we stayed at night at the Oriental khans, or inns. Their function is very different from that of Occidental hotels. For instance, they furnish their guests with nothing but a room, so we had to take most of our food and bedding along with us. The room, too, was always devoid of bedding, except for a raised platform in one end where the traveler slept. The Mohammedan habit of sitting cross-legged on the floor does away with the necessity for much furniture. Also, khans must furnish entertainment not only for two-footed guests, but for four-footed ones as well. (And incidentally I may state that little guests BEDOUIN WOMEN AT MARY'S WELL, NAZARETH. 140 IMPROVEMENT ERA. with even more than four feet are nearly always to be found there.) Thus it often happens that travelers, horses, donkeys and camels stay under the same roof, sometimes separated from each other only by a reed partition. Our experience with Oriental food was even more unpleasant than with the khans. The natives live on a diet that seemed almost impossible for us to eat. The principal food is Arabian bread, unleavened, and baked in round pieces, about eighteen inches in diameter and a quarter-inch thick. When eaten, it is folded twice, then rolled in a cylindrical form. To make it more palatable, it is sometimes fried in little pieces of sheep's fat. Another favorite dish is "kifti" — wheat boiled for twenty-four hours, and then made into balls with a little meat and fat. "Jogurt" is the universal drink. This is a kind of sour milk mixed with water, and really quenches the thirst admirably. To make a particularly bounteous repast, a native host would serve these dishes and raw onions. It can well be imagined that we gained very little avoirdupois from such food. Traveling through localities where few foreigners ever go, we were naturally regarded as curiosities. Crowds began to follow us whenever we came into a village. One night, 1 remember, this curiosity almost cost us our supper. We arrived at a town late one evening, and, after obtaining accomodation in a barber- shop, went out to find some supper. One native still had some stewed beans left in his little shop, so we determined to make the best of these, and two pieces of Arab bread. But the curiosity of the people outside rose to such an extent that some of them came in. One man, in order to facilitate his observation of us, came over and leaned on our table. It happened that his hand rested on one of our pieces of bread. As we did not desire to have our bread flavored, we threw that piece away. In spite of our warn- ing, the man's wonder was so great that it was not a minute before his hand was leaving an imprint on the other piece. That left a jug of water and the beans. Imagine our sorrow when, in a short time, another man, thinking his observations would be more accurate if his thirst were allayed, calmly appropriated our jug and drank most of the water. We dined that night on beans. Most of the people of central Palestine are Mohammedans, and PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. 141 their religious practices and other customs are very interesting. Each Moslem is supposed to go to the mosque five times every day and say his prayers. He always takes his shoes off when entering, and is required to wash face, hands and feet before beginning his devotions. The prayer is a chapter from the Koran, and is always accompanied by a series of motions. Facing the direction of Mecca, the Moslem first places his hands to the lobes of his ears, and then to his hips. He next kneels down and bends forward twice. Then, placing his hands flat on the floor, he touches his forehead between them. Many of the more fanatical Mohammedans keep this up for hours at a time. Another interesting phase of Islam life is their treat- ment of women. Every woman must go veiled from ten years of age till forty- five. No man is! supposed to see her face during this time except her husband and blood relations. Her courtship is a most peculiar one. She never sees her husband until the marriage is performed, all arrangements being made by some female relative. Imagine how a young American would like such a custom. We began our journey one pleasant morning in March, the most beautiful time of the year in Palestine, for it is then that the wild flowers cover the hills with their many-colored blossoms. Leaving Nazareth, with its white houses clustered together in a little bowl-shaped basin among the hills, we climbed the height where it is said the people tried to cast Christ down. Here we had an excellent view of the Plain of Esdraelon, or Jezreel, com- pletely planted in grain and appearing like a waving sea of green. Striking directly across one arm of this plain, we soon reached Nain, the little village where Christ restored the widow's son to life. At this place, as at most of the others I shall mention, A MOHAMMEDAN AT PRAYER. 142 IMPROVEMENT ERA. there is nothing left that can be connected with events in Bible history. Nain is nothing more than a miserable Arabian village with mud houses and thatched roofs. The location is naturally the thing of importance. From Nain we had a splendid view of Mt. Tabor, one of the reputed scenes of Christ's transfiguration. Both Greek and Roman Catholics have locations on its summit, which each avers to be the "exact spot" where this event took place. History seems to show, however, that Mt. Tabor was inhabited at the time of Christ, so the locations hardly harmonize with the scriptural account. An hour's ride from Nain brought us to the Pool of Gideon. It was at this spring that the soldiers of the Israelitish general, THE POOL OF GIDEON. Gideon, underwent a curious test to determine who should fight against the Midianites. "Every one that lappeth at the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth," was to fight in the battle, while "everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink" was to be left behind. "The number of them that lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men" and with this force Gideon defeated his enemies. Behind the pool of Gideon are the so-called Mountains of Gilboa— in the West they would be mere hills. Here the battle was fought PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. 143 between the Israelites and Philistines that resulted in tin over- whelming defeat of the former, the death of Jonathan and the suicide of Saul, Israel's first king. David later visited the scene of this conflict, and in that most beautiful eulogy to his friend Jonathan said: "Ye mountains of Gideon, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offering." Now, it is a curious fact that even today, practically no vegetation thrives on these particular hills, while the surrounding country is extremely fertile. Not far from Gideon's pool is the old village of Jezreel. Here lived King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who killed Naboth to obtain the vineyard. This unscrupulous woman later met her death here, and her body was torn by dogs, in exact fulfilment of the predictions of Elijah. The prophet himself was here on several occasions. Towards sunset of the first day, we passed through the village Sulem, the old Shunum. Elijah sometimes resided here at the home of the Shunammite woman, and it was her son that he restored to life. Next morning our first stop was at the pits of Dothan, the reputed location of the sale of Joseph into Egypt. The pit into which the unfortunate young man was thrown is still pointed out. At present it is filled with water part of the year. THE PITS OF DOTHAN, WHERE JOSEPH WAS SOLD INTO EGYPT. 144 IMPROVEMENT ERA. We spent most of the afternoon in Sebastiyeh, the old city of Samaria. Naturally, its greatest interest to us lay in its connec- tion with the missionary work of the early Christian church. Philip was successful in making a number of converts here, and, after their baptism, Peter and John came up from Jerusalem to bestow the Holy Ghost on them. Recent excavations in Sebastiyeh have .brought to light a number of colonnaded streets, a pagan tem- ple and a circus, presumably erected by Herod to honor Augustus. Samaria was once the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. The second night of our trip we were in the interesting old city of Shechem. In early times, Jacob and his sons bought some land from the King of Shechem, and settled near by. Joshua called a general assembly of the tribes here, soon after the con- quest of the Promised Land. At this meeting the blessings and curses promised Israel were read from the tops of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal, which stand near the city. It was at Shechem that the Samaritans had their greatest power, and today there are still one hundred and sixty members of this Jewish sect here. They still ad- here to their ancient traditions, but are rapidly dying out. Not far outside of Shechem is Jacob's well, a seemingly authentic location. Christ had his famous conversation with the woman of Samaria here. The village of Sychar lies about half a mile away on the hillside, and the poor woman cannot be blamed for wanting something that would spare her the laborious task of carrying a heavy jug on her head this distance. Nearby, on some of the land purchased by Jacob, is shown the traditional site of Joseph's tomb. From Shechem the road leads through the hills and valleys ap- JA0B,g WELL_SYCHAR IN THE portioned to Ephraim, passes near background. PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. 145 ARAB PLOWMAN NEAR SHECHEM. Shiloh, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, and Bethel, the rocky field where Jacob one night tried the suitability of a stone as a pillow, and then coming into the section assigned to Benjamin, finally reaches Jerusalem. At the end of three and a half days of constant travel we were indeed glad to get sight of the Holy City. Traveling as we did, we had a good opportunity of getting acquaintel with the country. While it may have appeared a promised land to the Israelites, who had been in the wilderness forty years, it certainly does not "flow with milk and honey" now. It is rocky, hilly and poorly supplied with water. In fact, an American who has lived in Jerusalem forty- five years, made this somewhat amusing comment on it: "This must be very good land— it has to be, to hold all the rocks that are on it." In some parts, the hills are terraced to bring them under cultivation. Wheat and a kind of lentils are the chief crops, and there are a number of large olive orchards. The present methods of agriculture are but little in advance of those in vogue at the time of Abraham. Plowing is still done with oxen and a forked, wooden stick for a plow. Water is car- ried in jugs and goat-skins, and crops are practically all moved with donkeys. Some of the Jews, who have bought land in Gali- lee, are using modern scientific methods and implements, and this will probably mean the redemption of the country. In spite of the inconveniences, I have had no more delightful experience than to become acquainted with the country of the Bible — knowing that it appears now substantially the same as in ancient times. To stand in a place where a certain event took place, take out one's Bible and read, gives an interest and charm worth many sacrifices and hardships. The country is the faith- promoting part of Palestine — not the cities. Christ loved the 146 IMPROVEMENT ERA. country and the open-air, and some of his greatest sermons were preached there — for example, the beatitudes and his sermon from the boat. So, when one is in the solitude of God's beautiful nature, in the country where Christ labored and traveled, his work and life seem more vivid and real than ever before; and his personality and teaching make an impression upon the mind never equalled under other conditions. This experience I regard as the best part of my trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem. University of Utah. God's Love. A CHRISTMAS THOUGHT. (For the Improvement Era.) Think not to God we are too small, Or that he does not know our name; Nor that he cannot hear our call — His lore forever is the same. 0 be content! he knows us well, Each little world of heart and brain; A part of him, we need not tell, Our every sorrow, grief or pain. Oft would we burst the prison wall, That holds our lives within, But that his love is over all, Our trembling hearts to draw to him. Then, 0 my soul, thou shalt be glad! No more be tempest tossed, nor moan; In all the world let none be sad, For lo, the King comes to his own! Lydia D. Alder. Citation: Gardner, Hamilton, “Pen Pictures of the Holy Land: II. Horseback from Nazareth to Jerusalem,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 138–146. # When Life Was Young When Life Was Young. Dedicated to Justus W. Seeley II., on his Sixtieth Birthday. BY SARAH E. H. PEARSON. [The Coat of Arms published herewith is the crest of the Hawley family, of which the author is a member, and appears, I believe, for the first time in print, in Utah, to arouse interest among the members rf said family in the genealogical history, both in the little book, House of Hawley, as well as the records, containing over seven thousand names, now in the hands of the Utah Genealogical Society. Jacob C. Hawley, of Oasis, Utah, recent missionary in Michigan, has, I believe, been largely instrumental in placing the records and gathering new data.— S. E. H. P.] When life was young, its kingship all before you, Its untried paths with bloom and beauty hung, Those were the days when as a child I knew you And Annie — sweet companion you had won. Watched with a child's un jealous admiration The wildrose bloom upon her glowing cheek, As your fond eyes taught Love's initiation. And hers replied with lustre mild and meek. The years are long since then, Time's pathway leading Through dewy morn, with its lush grass and flowers, On to the mountain top, the hour glass reading The flush of noon through intertwining hours, The pathway rugged oft, and steep for climbing, Oft wind-swept, snow- bedecked, or burning sand. 148 IMPROVEMENT ERA. To you — subduers of the wilds of nature — Grim civilizers of that cliff-bound land — Homes, trees by running streams, and orchards ripening, Erstwhile refresh your footsore, toiling band. Just twice I saw you 'midst those early struggles, And Rogers asked me, with a sneer, your plight, Laughed scornfully at prophesied successes; Fore-claimed for you the certain losing fight. "I know the place," he said. "Such desolation! I rode that country through the Indian raids. Coyotes and rattlers! End of earth's creation! The world's debris thrown next the Gate of Hades!" As leaders' foretime saw their homes in vision, The furrows, plants and trees before they grew, So later seers saw other fields elysian Spring, through their toil and faith, to actual view. — Well I recall that first, rude, one-roomed cabin, A visit from a young, unhappy wife, The bread of kindness loving hands extended, Mute sympathy that was the wine of life. Well I recall the letter on the mantle, My shiver as the postmark stared at me; It was from home! Could there be aught the matter? My wishing eyes would pierce the seal to see. I turned a startled gaze to Annie, seeing Eyes brooding mystic message to be read; But quivering lips vouchsafed no explanation — How could she tell me that my love was dead! The letter was her own. I put it from me, Thrust forth the memory of it from my mind; I would not let intruding thoughts crowd on me. To pale-faced Fear I cried, "Get thee behind! Life hath too much of gaunt, despairing sorrow — Presaged, the lifelong path of agony! Papa, we'll laugh the ghosts away — to-morrow." (Oh, in thy neck to hide my tears today!) I'll feel my father's rapturous arms — to-morrow Bask in his loving, understanding smile, WHEN LIFE WAS YOUNG. 149 And know I could not from the angels borrow More happiness than shall be mine — the while. I'll tell him of my wanderings, and double The dreams wherein I stumbled through the dark; When mother's shade was guide through stress and trouble, And always led me t'ward a shining mark. Then, in my dream, I saw them both, at even, Walk hand in hand, and marveled as I smiled; My sweet young mother, lo, for years in heaven, And father, darling, here with me the while. No, that part of my dream is out of reason ! (What matter tidings that the letter gave!) So, trusting, I returned home— just in season, To cry my heart out on my father's grave. These are the flashlights thrown upon the canvas From memory — pictures of the long ago, The blue and gold of youth, and hope, and gladness, Grey days of toil, of sober thought, of woe. These are the ties that bind us to each other, That hold the present handclasp warm and true ; Insures the valid title, sister and brother; Growth of the soul insures, by balm and rue. Our hill of life is now in its declining, Care's silver frosts our hair: we're growing old; And warp and woof of life, of God's designing, Shows sorrow's filling midst its cloth of gold. You in the limelight — I along the shadow- Both striving, where God placed us, true to be. I know thy worth, thy friendship's loving service, Thy tenderness, and thine integrity. Long may'st thou live, to gather life's best blessings, And long enjoy the vigor of thy youth. Long may thy hand dispense thy meed of plenty, Thy influence be cast for God and Truth. Mellow and golden be thine age, surrounded By peace and kindred,^far from world's alarms; And, like a sheaf of ripened wheat, be garnered, Celestial fruitage to thy Master's arms. OgdkN, Utah. Citation: Pearson, Sarah E. H., “When Life Was Young,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 147–149. # By Way of Miracle By Way of Miracle. A Common Sense Story with a Christmas Ending. BY JOSEPHINE SPENCER. Haskins turned from his sixth inventory of the shelves oppo- site, and explored the three-by-six show-case under his elbow. There was the assortment familiar to him from his round of many country towns: cards of cheap china buttons, boxes of Clark's 0. N. T., and strips of glazed pasteboard filled with hooks-and- eyes,mingled indiscriminately with pocket-knives, bottles of cheap perfume, gaudy vases and other "fancy staples." He traced, with forced attention, the design on a pair of gingerbread-yellow baby shoes, stitched with white cotton and finished with rosettes of cot- ton baby-ribbon . These, and the box of plaid pen-holders, began strangely to mix themselves together. Haskins caught himself suddenly, and sat up with a start. The narrow doorway had darkened, and the little girl who had sat, with placid perseverance, on her camp-stool back by the delaine counter, "minding store," came forward and measured out a half- pound of white beans for her customer — the first, Haskins remem- bered, in the hour he had waited for Brookes to come back. The woman went out, and Haskins watched her taking her way across the dusty road, shielding her head with her apron from the blazing sun. She disappeared in a dwelling house adjoining the blacksmith shop opposite, from whence came the sounds of horses' hoofs stamping, and the clamp of iron on the smith's forge. A small boy came outside of the produce store next door, and stood with eager face watching the antics of the unmanage- able horse. Little things stood for excitement in Pilute. BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 151 The shop-girl, a child of thirteen years, disappeared through the little passage way leading into the family living rooms, and Haskins went back into the cooler dimness and sat down on the camp-stool she had left vacant, leaning his head back against the folds of delaine on the counter. A bee buzzed through the open doorway, circled the arc of light about it, and whizzed out. A wagon clattered down the wide street outside, diverting the small boy's attention for a space from the quadruped in the smithy. A blue fly hummed angrily from the tight-lidded ham-screen, and dabbed blindly into a stream of sticky liquid pasted on the molasses- keg. Presently the mouse, which had peeped from a tiny opening in the counter behind Haskins, disappeared nimbly, at sound of footsteps at the front door. "Hullo, Haskins! Brookes turned up yet?" Haskins rubbed his eyes. "Nope. They think maybe he will stay over till tomorrow. A cattle deal on, I understand." "If that's right, I'm going to clear out! Another day in this berg will put me into a permanent doze. Come on, Haskins — we can make the town on our way back — better luck, too, maybe." "Can't afford to pull out now. I've a bill of goods all but settled for." "Huh! Thought you just told me the proprietor was out of town." "Sure! But the daughter's the firm in this shop. She looks over samples and selects goods, and father 0 K's her choice and signs checks." "Daughter?" said the other, brightening. He was plump, and smooth-shaven, with a suspicious film of white on his pinkish- brown cheeks. "No go, Peters," said Haskins, feebly grinning. "Little, faded-out old maid— forty or nearby, I reckon. Smart, though, as steel tacks. Runs the store— and the family, too, I imagine, without their knowing it. Father thinks she's just women-folks— and I guess she thinks so, too. She's business, though, all right!" "Then why in—" "Happened to get my chance while you were over at Binkley's. She's in there, now, nursing a sick child." 152 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Wonder if I'd better ask to see her?" Haskins pointed to a row of shelves. "See those two jars? That's their limit of stock in your lines." "Has been, you mean. I'm going to fill that empty shelf with choice greens and Oolongs, and breakfast teas, together with mixed Mochas and Javas— before the other drummers arrive." "It isn't a question of competition, Peters. It's just that you are in the wrong town." "Speak English, Haskins — and out loud. I'm no linguist nor mind-reader." "It's what the other tea specialists call a 'Word of Wisdom' town. Two-thirds of the population cut out coffee and other stimulants — from tea, to toddy and tobacco." Peters looked intelligent. "Dry!" he ejaculated. "Not quite," prompted Haskins. "There's a saloon down street kept specially for travelers." Peters looked conscious, then frowned. "Don't spring puzzles a day like this, Haskins. The ther- mometer— ' ' "It's simple as the alphabet. They leave stimulants alone because they think it keeps them healthy." "Well, as far as liquor is concerned, they may be right; but tea and coffee—" "Remember the rules, back there in the Battle Creek Sani- tarium, when you laid up for repairs? Made you cut out tea and coffee there — you remember — and gave you scientific reasons for doing it." "Yes; but, as you say, I was there for repairs. Healthy people don't need a regime." "The 'Mormons' claim we wouldn't need repairs if we cut out all stimulants," explained Haskins. "The Battle Creek people and a lot of other scientists, you know, say the same thing. Well, the 'Mormons' claim they had that same knowledge seventy or eighty years ago, by revelation, which the scientists are learning now by research and experiment." "You mean to tell me no 'Mormon' drinks tea or coffee?" "A lot of them do both; but the straight 'Mormon' — the one BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 15 who lives his religion— will never touch either. It is a principle with them, known as the 'Word of Wisdom;' and the manor woman who indulges in stimulants is breaking a rule of 'Mormon' doctrine." "Moses in Egypt!" said Peters, staring helplessly. "It's a blooming poor prospect for a tea specialist! I've heard of temper- ance towns— but tea and coffee! I might as well skip the state, if the majority of its people look at it that way. All the other towns carry a jar apiece, Haskins!" "The larger ones carry full lines, I imagine. Population about evenly divided. Besides, as I said before, all 'Mormons' don't keep the 'Word of Wisdom.' It's a matter of individual conscience —not compulsion. A lot more are keeping it since the Battle Creek people have proved the Lord's word to be scien- tifically correct." "I guess Pilute is pretty much converted, if that's all its chief grocery needs to keep in stock." Peters looked disconsolately at the two samples on the shelf, and stood up. "It's so-long for me, Haskins. I might as well make the 4:30 train." Haskins rose with a prolonged yawn. "Wait a minute — I'll escort you to the depot. Martyr- stunt, too — this June sun is as hot as August." Esther Brookes came from the little passage-way, behind the cheese-crate, and looked after the two men lounging down the road. Her high brow was drawn in a frown, which made three distinct wrinkles across its surface, and the half shut lids through which she looked, made her eyes seem glazed and small. In the warm stillness the footsteps of the two men sounded distinctly down the board walk to the depot. Esther walked back to the stool and sat down. Her back ached, and she realized for the first time today that she was tired. For two hours past she had alternated hot vinegar poultices on the baby's back, with "spells" of hard rubbing, and it had left her weak-kneed and aching. She felt almost as old as the drummer had said she was. "Forty!" and "little and faded out!" Well, the last might be true, but the first!— she would like them both to 154 IMPROVEMENT ERA. know what a joke that was — how many years between her and Haskins' guess. It did not matter much, though. Life would go on much the same in those unexperienced years. Perhaps she was really old now, in a way, as she would be then. For all that she would like Haskins to know. She had always liked him rather, because her father had said, when Haskins made Pilute before, that he was a ''clean man;" and because Effie Phillips, who had gotten her "name up" for flirting with drummers, had said once that "Haskins must be dead struck on his wife — or somebody at home — for he wouldn't flirt with a girl for a farm." Effie's testimony, in its way, was a tribute to her father's judgment, and had made Esther feel safe in being companionable with the "drummer." There was a morbid dread in her of seem- ing to be "setting her cap" for any one; and she had learned, from the narrow judgment of others, to repress her own instinct for sociability, lest she earn an unjust reputation as "running after a beau." She would like Haskins to know, though, about that funny mistake of his. It was a world-old feminine impulse stirring in her, under a consciousness heaped with debris of vinegar-kegs and bolts of delaine. Forty? Not yet! What did it matter, though, after all? She would go on just the same in those years between, alternating pint and quart measures at the molasses and vinegar kegs, and selling extra orders of perfume and glass vases at Christmas time. No one would know or care if she were forty or fourteen, so long as the jugs and scales measured even weight, and her father's books showed the year's balance on the right side. She laid it to the pain in her side— that sudden rush of sick revulsion. How long she had been at it— the storekeeping— and all the rest! She must have measured rivers of vinegar in the years she had been at the task— and miles of calico and delaine. There would be endless streams and miles yet to put into endless jugs, and upon ever-multiplying backs. If she could only go away from it all for a week or a month ! The desire was novel with Esther. Once she had gone with father and the rest of the family for a week's stay in the canyon. They had camped out, and Esther's memory of the experience BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 155 was a jumble of fretful children, uncomfortable cots under close tents, bugs, mosquitoes— and a brooding fear of snakes. It had been a wild relief to get back to the sane comfort of clean beds, and tablecloths and antless food, and she had never indulged a desire since to renew her holiday. That there might be brighter offerings in the tabooed word did not occur to her. Life in Pilute moved in even grooves. Esther rose and went to the rear of the store where a group of cheap mirrors hung on the wall. Taking one down she wiped the dust from the surface, and studied her reflection. "Little and faded out!" It was not an unapt description, she told herself — swallowing a lump in her throat — and one could hardly be blamed for mistaking her age. Her thick red hair, drawn back severely from a too high brow, and brought low in her neck in a big "bob," made her look matronly, while the dull, indigo hues of her cheap print gown brought out all the sallow tones in her thin face. She had always dressed in indigos, for economy's sake. The color wore well, and did not show stains. Once she had spoken for a bright challis that had come into stock, a single dress pattern, and some- thing in her had yearned for this gay gown, which could not be duplicated — at least in Pilute. She had kept it for best, never putting it on without torment, for all her bright anticipation in its enjoyment — for the majenta in its groundwork had wrought worse havoc with her dull skin and red hair than even the indigos, and though she wore it to its finish, with Indian stoicism, pain had accompanied the ordeal — that had quite shut out further ambition for personal adornment. As with her one holiday, she did not sense that exquisite gradations of hue — as of happiness — lay between. She hung the mirror back on the wall and sank, with a tired listlessness, on the camp stool. Suddenly, with the physical relax- ation, something within her gave way. With her head against the delaines she sat and sobbed without restraint. Haskins walked up the board walk from the station, his hat held high above his perspiring forehead. He stopped at the nar- row street leading to the Pilute "hotel," but turned aside at thought of the close little room under the eaves, and the still less inviting parlor, with its noisy children and ceaseless tang of the piano. The Brookes' grocery was an idyllic spot in comparison 156 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to either, and he went gratefully indoors, willing to enjoy the luxury of a camp-stool till definite word came of the proprietor. He did not see Esther's stealthy flight to the telephone as he walked back, but caught a half view of her as she stood behind the cheese-crate. Her cheek, visible to Haskins, was flushed and stained, and the voice that came audibly, to him was queerly tremu- lous. She was talking into the mouthpiece, but the receiver, which was invisible to Haskins, hung on its hook. "No, Ellen," came Esther's voice, in a suspiciously high- pitched tone, "you are — you are — fooled about — my age. I really — am not forty. I've got several years yet to reach that mark — even if — " There was a lull, following a distinct break in Esther's voice. Haskins met the gaze she turned on him rather unsteadily. Could she have heard his idle words? But no — the face she turned on him, though visibly disturbed by recent distress, was not unfriendly. She walked over and met his eyes with the frank gaze he had before noted and liked. "I'm sorry Pa is so long, Mr. Haskins; but it's about sure he'll sign for that bill of goods — and if you'd like to make Banville with your friend, and call here on your way back, it will be just the same. I — we won't let anybody else in on your chance." "Thank you — thanks!" said Haskins, a little embarrassed. Her voice, usually so cool, and prim and business-like, seemed altogether strange with that childish tremor, and he felt almost as if some show of sympathy were needed. She turned into the little passage- way directly, however, and Haskins, with distinct relief at his easy task and hasty departure, ran to try for the luckily delayed train. Amos Brookes came home that night in jubilant spirits. "I'm a clear five thousand to the good on the cattle deal," he said, "and with that and the year's store profits, I can afford to branch out a little in the business. When that dry- goods drummer comes along from Salt Lake, I guess I'll let him put me in a line of fancy silks. There's no need of our towns- people putting their money into the city stores at Conference time, if they can find just as good at home." BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 157 "It will be a heap safer to select from the city stores for the stock, father," said Esther rather eagerly. "If I could go up myself, I could look around and get the pick of half a dozen firms, instead of from just one line of samples." Amos looked at her, and then acquiesced, as usual, with Esther's judgment. "I don't know but that you're right. You can stay with Aunt Ellen while you're up there; she's been asking for a long while to have you come up for a visit." ***** "I want you to stay over tomorrow, dear, and see the play at the theatre. They say it's real laughable. That's about the only kind I care for nowadays — something to wipe out sad memories. When our lives get filled up with real cares, we need something opposite for our recreation. The play? It's something about — 'Aunt Mary' — a long word, I can't recall it. We'll go and have a good laugh, if there's one in it." Thev had seats in the front row of the family circle, and Esther looked down at the boxes, and stalls and parquet seats filled with daintily-dressed young girls, with a sensation as of being in a different world. Music and light, and a new realm of young girlhood in that picture — a world, if eye-evidence might be trusted, filled with light hearts and happiness. Esther had hardly sensed the half -meaning of that word; she had her first dim defini- tion of it in the vision of this seemingly care-free humanity. "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary." She could not pro- nounce the long name, even; but its meaning spelled itself out in the successive acts. Prim, old-fashioned Aunt Mary, set in grooves of narrow living, was a changed being under influences of cheer, pleasure and care-freeness. Esther's breath came in queer, fierce little gasps. What if something like that came into her life — could anything"rejuvenate" her— "little faded old maid!" She began to lose sentences and points in the play, in mental pictures which had taken hold of her. "Aunt Mary,"— a real entity to her— became Esther Brookes in fancy. If change of scene and thought could make one young and bright and happy— but it was all a play— that other— she urged, waking up regretfully from 158 IMPROVEMENT ERA. her dreams. Nothing like that could happen in real life. Not that she wanted to do the lively and exaggerated things that "Aunt Mary" stood for — but just to have relief from the dull home tasks she had known so long! That night she crept into her aunt's bedroom, and said some- thing in a choked voice. "Stay?" cried Aunt Ellen. "Why indeed you shall, child! I've asked Amos again and again to let you come up and spend a year or so with me. It never seemed right to me that you should stay down there and take the burden of that store and house on your shoulders. I saw just how it was the time I spent Thanks- giving down there. You needn't do a thing, dear. I'll just write to Amos and tell him I'm going to keep you up here to live with me for awhile — and I'll tell him to send a big enough check out of that last big cattle deal of his to give you a right happy time. You go to sleep, now, Honey, and I'll fix it. Amos is as good as gold, only he needs to have his eyes opened to the fact that there's something more in the world to think of than just getting and saving." * * * * * Haskins, sitting with Peters on one of the benches at the Pavilion, watched the dancers with indifferent interest, 3ave as an unusually awkward pair wakened an instant's laughable attention. Then, suddenly, his eyes fastened on a trim figure whirling: about the big hall. It was simply, but stylishly garbed, in black and white dotted muslin, with bows of black velvet ribbon here and there, making what Haskins called a "classy" gown. It was not this, though, which held him. A remembered visage, surely, yet unfamiliar, too; a bright, rose-cheeked face, with wavy hair of the red that goes with certain peach-bloom complexions. Where had he seen it? He appealed to Peters, but that crony answered after his wont: "Don't think I've seen her before— I usually know the location of a pretty girl. Mighty fine looker, wherever she belongs!" A few moments later they strolled around the pavilion to go to the restaurant, and met a little group who had just left the dancing floor. BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 159 "How do you do, Mr. Haskins?" A hand was outstretched, and Haskins, whose unconsciously searching gaze had brought the recognition, still stared, per- plexed, at the face raised in frank friendliness to his. "Pardon me, Miss — Miss — " "I'm Amos Brookes' daughter, down at Pilute," she smiled. "I selected some goods from you about a year ago, you know." Haskins stared helplessly. This trim, bright looking little creature the faded, frowsy, old-maidish girl, in her soiled gown, who had surprised him with her shrewd business interest and good sense! He murmured a few words stumblingly before another partner claimed her— and then was pulled away by Peters, who spoke with rather a resentful tone. "I half guessed you had something up your sleeve down there in Pilute/' he said. "Thought it was strange doings for a girl to be head of that concern down there. Wonder if she hadn't been in the way if I couldn't have sold a sample or two of tea and coffee? 'Word of Wisdom,' eh? Well, I guess you thought the word you gave me down there was wisdom, sure enough! Piggish, I call it, though." Haskins laughed shortly. If Peters had only seen her then! He went back again presently, and after a short search sought her out. He had not danced for five years — Constance's death had changed everything for him. He had felt almost like an old man — too old and too sad to think of pleasure in any form. Now — well, he owed something to that clever girl — an apology of some kind for his, sarcastic appreciation of her plain ugliness — whether she had overheard or not. Besides, he wanted to make sure. That dwarfed little girl down in Pilute— it savored of the uncanny! He found himself surprisingly light on his feet, for a man who had abjured dancing for all time. Was it the music, or the girl with her light touch and step that made him feel its sense? She could certainly dance — that girl! Haskins was sorry when the two-step came to an end. He did not essay to intro- duce Peters, much to that gallant's wrath, but surrendered her to the young man who came up claiming the coming waltz. She was 160 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . with the Mutual Improvement Association she had told him, and this repeated to Peters, who was unused to the local atmosphere, had a somewhat repressive effect. "If it's a Y. W. C. A. proposition, I guess I'll have to give in. But it's another sample of your porcine proclivities, Haskins — and I'll be on guard with you after this. The next time you try to put me off with an old maid story, 1 11 stay on the premises till I've proved if it's a personal 'Word of Wisdom' or a relig- ious one that makes you shy on companionship." Haskins went home, but not to sleep. He had never seen eyes that had appealed to him so much since Constance's. Frank, yet a little wistful — and that deep, dark gray he had always liked. Amos Brooke's daughter — and Pilute! His mother kept house for him in a pretty bungalow he had built when he was first married, and she came to the door pres- ently, wakened by the light from his transom. "What is it, Don, dear? Not in trouble, I hope?" "Trouble, mother? Not a bit. I've spent the first bright hours tonight I've known in five years!" "Thank heaven for that, dear! I've prayed night and day that something might come into your life to brighten it. I hope it may last forever!" Forever? Haskins lay awake a long time and thought. The long, warm summer was nearing its close. It was nearly midnight as Haskins came up the walk, but his mother met him on the front porch. The moon made it bright almost as daylight, and she saw the tense, bitter look in her son's face. "What is it, Don?" The voice was quiet, but insistent, and Don, as was his wont, answered its plea. "What 1 might have expe:ted, mother. I simply made the mistake of thinking her broad enough to let love take the place of creed — or at least to let me within the pale of her charity." He sat down on the step, beside her chair which sat near. "You mustn't call it narrow, dear— her devotion to her religion. Remember she has been brought up in it— it is meat and drink to her. Constituted as she is, to deprive her of it would BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 161 be like taking away air, food, water. She would shrivel up and fade out." "I'm not asking her to give up anything, mother. I told her she could live her life, I mine." "But with Esther, her life would be yours, and yours hers. Don't you see the daily jar and fret for her— that freedom you would wish? For her, with her convictions, the "apart" plan would mean torment." "She tried t:> make me see it; but I told her, finally, she prob- ably would get enough satisfaction out of her self -righteousness to fill her life, even if nothing more came into it." "Don!" "Oh, I'm sick of it, mother— the cant, and narrowness that won't make allowances for a mere differing viewpoint." "But that difference to her, Don, means a matter of eternal moment. You must try and be broad enough to see her side, and make the allowance you ask for your own views." "Well, we won't waste time going over the old ground. I've said goodby to Esther — forever!" "Don!" "That little girl seemed to fill a void that has never been filled before. I mistook her character, that's all." "Then she does not — " "Oh, she confessed to caring for me — it's that which hurts: I can't talk about it, mother — it brings back things I've been try- ing for her sake to crowd out of my mind. But there — it's all useless, and besides, it's after midnight. Time for you to be asleep." * * * * Esther sat alone in the little tower, watching purple shadows play on the lake islands, and the big green waves race in from the west. The couple outside on the bench had not noted her, and it was only when her own name came to her that her attention reverted to them. "Esther Brookes? Oh, I guess it's all settled between her and Earl Jamison. They are together almost always now. Don Haskins? Yes, for a while; but he*s too much of an outsider for a girl like Esther to consider seriously. She is straight 'Mormon' 162 v IMPROVEMENT ERA. all through. Yes, his parents are. Don was sidetracked — by chance, I've always said — sometime in his boyhood. Like all healthy youngsters, Don liked pranks. One of them went a little too far, and a ward official, in the little country town where he then lived, made the mistake of punishing him in a way strict enough to have fitted a capital crime. Denounced the lad by name in his own presence and his parent's, in open meeting; predicted the gallows, and called him a disgrace to the Church. Don has never looked inside of a meetinghouse since. Every year added weight to his grievance. The country ward and its concave official became a symbol in his mind of the whole Church. His sense of injustice kept him from seeing that the official was only one of a big body which held natures differing from each other as the suns differ from the stars. He began to associate with outsiders — the kind that take care to nurse his kind of a grievance. In that way he has just drifted away. I've always said if it had not been for the unwise 'stunt' of that country counselor, Don would have been in the Church today, and, moreover, a shining light in it." The conversation changed, and the couple, after a moment, went away. The clouds that had been lying low in the eastern sky drifted in gigantic pillars to the horizon, and the wind which had been in the west shifted, as if seeking support from the great, moving mass. It made a circular whirlwind of the little tower, and Esther made her way down stairs to seek a more peaceful spot. The same wind which had driven Esther from her aerie, brought Haskins from the city. It had blown there with a gusto in accord with his own thoughts, and he had taken the train for Saltair to mingle his own mood with the elements, which here had double play in air and wave. He had expected the dark day to keep people away from the resort, but a large crowd had been drawn by advertisement of the evening's fireworks. The waves rolled almost even with the pavilion floor, and after a brief fight with them, Haskins, with other bathers, retired. Brine as a shower, or inward draught, is not alluring. Sheltered in a nook from the strong east wind, Haskins watched the angry lake and sky. Someone beside him spoke. BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 163 "There's Ebler taking his load of fireworks out to the plat- form, to set for tonight." "Risky, in this high wind." "Oh, a raft's all right. Can't capsize, you know." "Would'nt care. to take chances, myself. By George! There's a girl on that raft— see, behind the pile of fireworks." "Guess it's Miss Brookes. She's a distant relative of Ebler's. I've seen her ride out with him before." Haskins looked. Esther's face, turned westward, caught the reflection of the lurid sun, now low in the sky. She was watch- ing the green waves roll away in front of the raft, with genuine enjoyment. "She's brave, all right!" Yes, Haskins knew that. He had seen her courage mani- fested in many ways during his year's courtship. If only it had been along other lines! It was a struggle out there with the raft. It took the full strength of the two men to row it to the platform, a hundred yards away from the pavilion. One of them climbed, finally, on to its floor, and the other tried to throw him a rope for the raft's moorings. Just then a long, green wave that had rolled in from afar, lifted the frail craft and dashed it against the uprights. There was a crash, and a roar, and then from the little raft came a burst of flame, spitting, leaping and writhing like venomous snakes. The man on the raft jumped, caught the edge of the platform, and hung, till Ebler's hand drew him to safety; but the impact of his leap had been tragical to the raft. Pushed from the platform, and caught by the racing waves, it drifted away, its surface a wall of spurting fire. Between the flashes, they saw the slender form of the girl, upright and motionless, between the lurid panels of crimson fire and sky. Warning voices called Haskins back, but the oars — already in his han is — soon took him beyond their sound. He sensed only one thing— the moving thing of flame drifting to the horizon, and the silhouette of the slender form outlined in the double glow. The great waves aided him, lifting his boat, and bearing it swiftly in their mad race. But the raft raced, too, and Haskins' heart was heavy with deadly fear. What chance for her 164 IMPROVEMENT ERA. holding out, with the foothold beneath her lapped by that unquenchable flame! Speeding along, he watched the dark outline of her form hungrily. Any moment she might be tempted to plunge into the seething brine. No hope for her, once this should happen! On and on he sped, his oars serving to guide and even to impel the boat. It seemed to him that the raft before him grew dimmer — was it receding, then, so much swifter than he chased — or was it that the flames were dying down? If that were true, it meant destruction of the raft — nothing but that. Still, as he looked, he fancied there still stood against the lurid sky that slender silhouette. His stroke, trained in his Ann Arbor days, took him near. The raft showed now a low-lying bar of flame there in the distance, but the form— the form had vanished! Hask- ins groaned, then tore like a madman at the oars. It was not till he had rounded the dwindling bar of flame that he saw her — her hands grasping the last of the uncharred poles of the raft. "I — 1 must have second sight, or something," she whispered, with a smile as she saw him. "Something seemed to tell me — long ago— it — it was you!" They landed in a bit of bay, on the shore, and Haskins helped her wring the soaked skirts before putting her in a shel- tered niche in the cliff. They sat silent while watching the play of waves, and fading glare of gold along their crests. "I can't think what I've done to deserve this chance," said Esther at last. "I thought out there, before I saw the boat, that it was all over, and that vou would ne/er know. That seemed harder to me than — than what seemed to be coming." Don turned to look at her white face. "You mustn't speak in riddles, now — I was never clever nor patient." She laid her hand on his. "The riddles are all ended, Don. I couldn't sense my way before, but today something has happened to open my eyes. If my life can be anything to you, I want you to take it." Don's face hardened. "You mean that I am to take it in pay for this? I am not a usurer." "It is others who have been that. They took heavy toll from BY WAY OF MIRACLE. 165 you,fpoor Don— it is that I want you to let me make up for." "Esther!" said Don. "I would like to commence tomorrow, or even today, if I might; but there are other things— Aunt Ellen, you know, and the trip. She has set her heart on it, that I should go with her, and I owe her too much to disappoint her wish. When we come back — " "You will marry me, Esther, freely, without reserve?" "I can get my trousseau ready, you know, while I am away. We will be back in December, and then — " But the rest was smothered in the dusk. ***** The Haskins bungalow was bright with evergreen and holly, wreathed in window and porch, on mantle and picture frame. "Can't think what you are setting up a Christmas tree for," said Janet Haskins' neighbor, looking in at late afternoon. "Esther's family will be here to celebrate with us, you know. We felt it would be just the thing since there was no wedding." "Seemed kind of funny to me, her wanting to go to that for- saken little town for the honeymoon." "It's her home, you know, and she met Don there." "Yes, but the mystery is where they would put company in that little back shanty thsy live in. It's only a wing of the store, you know." "Why, dear soul! Amos built a fine new house there this summer, in the big lot adjoining the shop." "Amos Brookes! I'd have to see it — roof to cellar — to believe. Of all the close-fisted — " "He has wakened from that nightmare. Esther has made him see that the good of money is its right use, and that if it does not goto enrich his own and his family's and his neighbor's living, it might as well lay unsought in the mine or sea. It is a hard les- son for some of us to learn— that right use of the means we are blest with— that happy medium between wastefulness and useful- ness. That last word means so much." "Well, it seems most like a miracle to think of Amos — but my! when you think of your Don going into the temple to be mar- ried—it looks like Esther could do all kinds of miracles herself." 166 IMPROVEMENT ERA. "Only the miracles that human love and trust can always do. It's just the old story of patience and charity put to actual test. I always felt that once some new influence came into Don's life, to turn his thought from the old bitter channels, he would see the truth." "Well, it has seemed to make him happy — for if ever a man was made over new, it is Don — since he was engaged to Esther. I never liked his being in the drummer business. It takes a man away from home too much." "Yes, but thank heaven that's over, too. It was a desperate remedy for a desperate condition of mind and of finance, after Con- stance died, you know. Now he's in business, and life has begun over — ah, there they come!" "That's right, Mrs. HasHns, you go out and meet them, and I'll baste that turkey, and take out those mince pies. I declare — if that ain't Amos' second daughter —most growed up, I'll be bound — for all her looking so little and faded out." "She's just starved, Ellen. We are going to have her up here for awhile after the holidays. Esther wants her to have a change. You know there is not much to keep young folks interested in a country store, and Esther — " "Merry Christmas, mother!" It was Don and Esther's voices together; and in a moment she was in a co-operative hug which took her breath. "I was just saying, Esther," said Ellen, "that your sister looks now just as you did when — " "When I met my fate," said Esther, turning to Don with a queer smile. "Little, faded, and forty." Don took her hand. "You heard, that day, little girl," he said soberly. "To think that I could hurt you!" "Hurt!" echoed Esther, indignantly. "It changed my whole life — made me realize that I cared for the things I have won. It has been like a miracle!" "A double one!" said Don. "There's a Trismas tree!" piped one of the tiny Brookeses, who came trooping in. "A Merry Christmas!" chimed the older ones from the door- way. And so the new life began. (the end.) Citation: Spencer, Josephine, “By Way of Miracle,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 150–166. # Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: II Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God. BY ELDER GEORGE W. CROCKWELL. II. To Brigham Young has been given the honor — and that right- fully—of leading the Latter-day Saints to the Rocky mountains and locating them in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. I would not detract one iota from the honor of that great leader of Latter- day Israel, nor will it belittle him in the least to show that he was an instrument in the hands of God, and used by him, to fulfil a prophecy made years before by Joseph Smith. In the month of December, 1830, in a revelation given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, Doctrine and Covenants 35: 24, is the following commandment of the Lord: Keep all the commandments and covenants by which ye are bound; and I will cause the heavens to shake for your good, and Satan shall tremble and Zion shall rejoice upon the hills and flourish. Again, in a revelation given at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831, Doc- trine and Covenants 49: 25: Zion shall flourish upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together unto the place which I have appointed. In the History of Joseph Smith, is this prophecy, made August 6, 1842: I prophesied that the Saints should continue to suffer much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky mountains; many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose their lives in consequence of exposure and disease, and some of you will go and assist in making; settlements and building cities, and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky mountains. Also this from his history: February 20, 1844, at a meeting of the twelve apostles, I instructed them to send out a delegation and investigate the locations of California and Oregon, to hunt out a good location where we might remove after the temple is completed. 168 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The temple mentioned was the temple at Nauvoo. By refer- ring to his history we find these words: On February 25, 1844, I prophesied that within five years we should be out of the power of our enemies, and told the brethren to record it; and when it came to pass, they need not say they had forgotten the saying. This, you will understand, was written three years before the exodus from Nauvoo to the Rocky mountains. The prophet, in the meantime, had suffered martyrdom, but his death did not prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy. One of his last acts, as recorded in his history, was as follows: On March 26, 1844, Joseph Smith addressed a memorial to Con- gress, asking for authority to raise a company of one hundred thousand to proceed to the west and open up the vast regions to settlement. At this time, all that portion of the United States west of the Mississippi was a barren waste, and uninhabited, untrodden by the foot of man, save by a few hardy adventurers, trappers and roving bands of American Indians. It was called the Great American Desert, and deemed of no value and unfit for habitation. With these facts and prophecies before us, who will dare to say that Joseph Smith, with prophetic eye, did not look forward to the removal of the Saints to the west? His every act shows that this subject of removing to the Rocky mountains, as the future refuge of his people, was indelibly stamped on his mind. For proof of this prophecy, made August 6, 1842, of which I requote this portion, "Some of you will go and assist in making settlements and building cities, and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky mountains," one has only to go to Utah, Arizona or Idaho, to see the splendid chain of settle- ments, cities and towns that have been built by the Latter-day Saints, and one can see that this has been literally fulfiled. They have become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky mountains. In fact, a man may truthfully claim that the chain extends from Old Mexico, on the south, to Canada, on the north. Time will not permit me to go further into detail of these prophecies, but I believe a sufficient amount of proof has been pre- sented to convince even the most skeptical of their literal fulfil- ment. (to be continued.) Citation: Crockwell, George W., “Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: II,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 167–168. # Editor’s Table: Pertinent Counsel Editor's Table. Pertinent Counsel. BY PRESIDENT JOHN HENRY SMITH. At the semi-annual conference of the Church, in October last, President John Henry Smith gave some very important counsel, in his opening talk to the people. He called attention to the faithful- ness of President Joseph F. Smith, and urged the Saints to live so that they also could be true to God, his people and all men, as President Smith had been true. He urged them to so conduct their walks in life that like him, at the age at which he has arrived, each of them could stand in the sacred presence of their fellowmen and declare: "I have betrayed no trust, violated no obligation, nor counseled other men so to do." After calling attention to the importance of our wonderful missionary work, and commending both men and women for their readiness to respond to missionary calls, he spoke as follows: The Habit of Drifting. There are a number of subjects upon which, probably, we ought to speak in this conference, and in which we are most earnestly and devotedly interested. Among them is the one in which we see evidence of the drifting away from the old habit in the formation of our settlements and establishing ourselves in the land. There is discovered to be uneasiness in some sections of the country. There are still quite a number of our brethren wandering around in the world, hunting something better beyond our settlements. They have been in most states of the Union. They have passed beyond the borders into Mexico. Some of them have gone down into the South American republics. Others of them have passed beyond the borders into Canada. They are seen on the move, looking for something and anticipating something 170 IMPROVEMENT ERA. which never comes. After wandering around the circle, dissi- pating their means, and putting themselves almost in a condition of beggary, they, in many instances, are compelled to return to their mountain home, that they may be enabled to secure the necessaries of life. We have sought to stop this tendency, and to call the people to an understanding of their responsibility in car- ing legitimately and properly for their households, in making their homes, and preserving those homes, that their children may not be wanderers in the world. But it seems difficult to make an imprtssion upon some minds in regard to this matter, and we feel that an effort should be made to preserve ourselves in the posses- sion of that which we have, and to repress this spirit of wander- ing, wandering, and wandering, until it leads to our almost com- plete annihilation, as far as our happiness is concerned, and almost as far as our physical well-being is concerned. The Glory of Our Own Land and Nation. The United States, my friends, is good enough for me. Any- where under that flag, within the confines of the United States, should please every American, should fill him with hope and with faith, and none of you can help but feel that hope and that faith when you stop to think, and weigh the mission of that flag in the world, and the good that has come to you and yours, and the good that has c >me to me and mine. From a far-off land, amidst perse" cution and trial, my ancestry landed upon this continent. Under our flag they have endured some hardships and some privations and tribulations. Even wrongs have been heaped upon them by the intolerance of their fellowmen; but we have yet to find one of them who feels that that flag should be lowered from the place it occupies. They feel that our country's laws should be sustained and honored by the children of the Latter-day Saints in the United States. Our place among men should be a place of honor, a place of worth, that no matter where found we should be recog- nized as among the most obedient, tractable and earnest observers of the laws of our country. In our perversions and the mistakes we make in our lives, we should not lay it to the flag; we should not lay it to the laws of our country. We should not lay it to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which under the EDITOR'S TABLE. 171 law of God is required to obey every constitutional law of this land. When we step aside from it, we assume personally the burdens and responsibility of our violations of the law. May you and I recognize our places in the great scheme of life to which we have been called by the still small voice, or by the ministration of the elders of the Church in the world outside. May we continue beneath the folds of the flag, in this glorious land, rejoicing in the fact that it floats and invites us to enjoy every blessing and right that mortal can enjoy beneath any flag in the world— and many more. I do not wish to drift away from the thought that is in my mind upon this question of people moving from our sections of country into other sections of the land. To the east of us is one of the finest sections of the world, a place where good homes can be built, where ample water, by labor, can be secured, and where industrious men, in the course of a few years, can stand in the possession of opulence and wealth. There homes may be established and joy abound in the rearing of a family among friends and neighbors who feel, as you feel, reverence and respect for everything that is noble and good. Children and Home. The impress of the remarks of President Lund, in regard to the question of the guardianship of our children, should ever be held in remembrance by Latter-day Saints. Their homes should be homes of love and peace, should be homes of plenty, should be homes of prayer and devotion. They should be homes where a father, loving the right, presides in honor, and where a mother, loving the right, loving the home and all its interests, guards it and her children. There is quite a deal of carelessness and thoughtlessness in regard to the matter of the mingling together of all classes of people, especially of young people, that forebodes evil . f no limited character. We should seek to change and limit that wrong, and the possibilities i f that wrong. Your sons, in pay- ing their addresses to my daughters, should pay to them the addresses of a man who is clean, and moral, and sweet in his life. The girls who receive and enjoy his companionship should recog- nize his worth as a man of honor, of integrity and of virtue. The 172 ROVEMENT ERA. woman to whom he pays his addresses should be above reproach, or the possibility of censure in any respect as to her moral worth. When my sons go into your homes, to pay their addresses to your daughters, you should expect them to be men who are above reproach, whose honor is clean and free; who are as virtuous as maidens could be. Their hearts should be aflame with the true nobility of manhood, a love of God, love of country, love of home, love of faith, love of right, and be possessed of the dignity that should characterize genuine and true manhood, in every sense of the word. My brethren and sisters, let us remember who we are; let us remember from whence we came; let us remember our hope in con- nection with this work which God has revealed, the hope in our souls, written there by the finger of God. Let us keep in mind the obligations resting upon us, that we would stand for the uplifting of the race, that we would guard manhood and require from manhood the same that has been required by the world from womanhood. We shall continue to require from the womanhood of our Church, the womanhood of our nation, a womanhood so clean and so sweet, that wherever found, the impress of the nobility of their characters will write upon the souls of men — respect, honor and devotion. Again I welcome you to conference. Again I say to you, when you go to your homes, go with this impress upon your souls — that the Latter-day Saints love this government; that the Latter- day Saints love every truth that God has revealed; that the Latter- day Saints propose to continue to gather truth from every source in the world, and to utilize that truth, to the best of their ability, in the betterment of the human family — men, women and children alike. Let us keep up the standard of our birth, as far as it is possible for us to do so, and let us teach the women who are for- feiting their right of motherhood, and trampling in the dust that call of God, "Multiply and replenish the earth," that they are on the road to destruction; that it means death; it means shame; it means the blotting out of the purposes of God, so far as their acts are concerned. Let us say to our own womanhood, one and all: Motherhood is her glory, and the fulfilment of the position of motherhood places her, when her mission is done, in the arms and EDITOR'S TABLE. 173 holding the respect of the Redeemer of the world, and God our Father— the friend and guide of us all. Economy, Honesty and Obedience to Law. Look carefully around, over the land; secure good homes; preserve everything of a temporal nature, and utilize it legiti- mately. Cease to grow in the thought of increasing extravagance and recklessness. There is a feeling of recklessness taking pos- session of the American people — and it reaches us— that will, from time to time, write the dishonor of the men all over the land, who are unfaithfully handling the funds of other people. Wherever a man is entrusted with the funds of a people, or of his neighbors, or friends, as a banker, as a merchant, or in any of the fields of activity where we enter to do legitimate and proper business, he should learn that those interests should be guarded more carefully and sacredly than his life. But we hear and see, upon the right hand and upon the left: This man has gone wrong, and the other man has gone wrong. This one has made a mistake. This one is in the penitentiary, in connection with these matters, and as a result of these conditions has brought himself into disgrace and shame. He has disgraced the family from which he came; he has disgraced the wife and child with whom he was associated, if he had a wife and child, and disgraced, as far as it is possible, the honor of his state and the honor of his nation. You among the "Mormon" people, can write it in your books, that the "Mormon" apostles have never counseled you to steal. They have never counseled you to lie. They have never counseled you to bear false witness against your neighbor. They have never counseled you to do wrong to your fellow — not in any sense of the word. But their instruction, from the day you were born, as you have heard their voices in these gatherings, or in other gather- ings, was that the highest elements of your manhood should be developed, that you might be lifted up and prepared for the duties of life. Pay your debts, be honest, virtuous, truthful, geLerous, brave with unyielding courage and eternal hope, and God the Father will receive you when your mission in the world is done. They have warned you not to destroy the honor of woman. They have sought to guard you in the complete and implicit observance 174 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of every moral rule. Every woman has been warned and re warned by the same voices. See to it that your womanhood is guarded, and that you live in harmony with the principles of righteousness and right. Now, my brethren and sisters, I welcome you again, and ask you to observe the rules of your Church, and you will never be far in the wrong. Observe the duties and responsibilities made incumbent upon you, and which come to you by right under the constitution and laws of your country, and you will never go far wrong. It is true we have our weaknesses, and we make our little mistakes; but the heavy burdens of crime and evil will not rest upon our shoulders. When the time shall come, we will stand accepted of our God, because we have been true to him; we have been true to one another; we have been true to the obligations into which we have entered; we have been true to the requirement given of the Lord, and with which we have had much to do and say in the times past, obeying the laws of our country, which have been decided constitutional by the courts of our country, and doing that, there will be no regrets upon our part. None of our friends will feel that we have trampled upon them, if we have walked in this right and true path. May heaven bless every man, woman and child of our land. May the Lord bless the citizenship of our state, men of every creed and of every faith, if they obey the requirements of that faith in honor and in truth. May he bless the sons of the soil in the United States, and her daughters, that this land may present a people to the world that shall be unequalled among mankind in the future; men and women who shall be unequalled in their equipment for the duties of life; unequalled in their generosity, in their bravery, in their love of virtue, in their honor and truth, and in their sustain- ing of all things that mean, in manhood and womanhood, all that is noble and good. Amen. Christmas Greeting. To the bearers of glad tidings in every nation, on the plains, in the valleys, on the mountains, and in the islands of the seas, EDITOR'S TABLE. 175 who render free and loving service to their fellows in proclaiming our Redeemer's message of "Peace on earth, good will to men," A MERRY CHRISTMAS. To those who bear the burdens at home, waiting, watching, praying, reaching out by faith and toil to encour- age and sustain the bearers of the word, A MERRY CHRISTMAS. To the faithful officers of the Church, and to the Saints in the wards and stakes of Zion, in quorums and auxiliary organiza- tions, who, without complaint or financial recompense, counsel, direct, teach, and render help in the temporal troubles and mental anxieties of their brethren and sisters, A MERRY CHRISTMAS. To the patient toilers in mine, office, mart, in forest, field and farm, whose brain and brawn are the backbone of the nations' material progress; and to their brethren and sisters, the skilful artisans and learned men and women of the professions, the train- ers of our youth, all teaching that labor is the joyful music of happiness and progress, A MERRY CHRISTMAS. To the fathers and mothers, often misunderstood and unappreciated, unceasingly planning, working and worrying, for the good of their sometimes wayward children, hoping that the future may dawn with healing recompense, A MERRY CHRISTMAS. To the young men and women, full of vigor and strength, standing at the wings of the stage of life, with earnest impa- tience to enter the uncertain storm of action, but full of hope and determination to perform an honorable part in the great drama of life, A MERRY CHRISTMAS. To the veterans, the founders, pioneers and builders of our commonwealth, whose sun of life is setting, who are patiently waiting for the summons beyond, with firm confidence in the Master's promise, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, ' ' A MERRY CHRISTMAS. 176 IMPROVEMENT ERA. To the patriotic officers of city, state and nation, to parents, kinsmen, friends, rich and poor, to all, young and old, strug- gling upward and onward in the paths of service, the cheer and peace of Christ rest upon you; to all A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Importance of the Priesthood and its Keys. At a recent priesthood meeting, President Joseph F. Smith answered a question asked by one of the brethren who wished to know what is meant by priesthood, and keys of the priesthood, in these words: The priesthood that we hold is of the greatest importance, because it is the authority and power of God. It is authority from heaven that has been restored to men upon the earth in the latter- days, through the ministration of an angel from God, who came with authority to bestow this power and this priesthood upon men. I say that the priesthood who are the agents of our heavenly Father, hold the keys of the ministering of angels. What is a key? It is the right or privilege which belongs to and comes with the priesthood, to have communication with God. Is not that a key? Most decidedly. We may not enjoy the blessing, or key, very much, but the key is in the priesthood. It is the right to enjoy the blessing of communication with the heavens, and the privilege and authority to administer in the ordiiances of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. That is a key. You who hold the priesthood have the key or the authority, the right, the power or privilege to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the gospel of repentance and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins — a mighty important thing, I tell you. Toere isn't a minister of any church upon all of God's footstool today, so far as we know, except in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who has the keys or the authority to enjoy the ministration of angels. There isn't one of them that possesses that priesthood. But here we ordain boys who are EDITOR'S TABLE. 177 scarcely in their teens, some of them, to that priesthood which holds the keys of the ministering of angels and of the gospel of repentance and baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. There is not a minister anywhere else in the world, 1 repeat, who possesses these keys or this priesthood or power, or that right. Why? Because they have not received the gospel, nor have they received that priesthood by the laying on of hands by those having authority to confer it. The splendid steel engraving of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in this number, appeared first in Americana in the History of the Mormon Church, by B. H. Roberts. Messages from the Missions. ELDERS IN COMPANY T, NEW HAMPSHIRE CONFERENCE. Left to right: Victor Austin, William F. Butterfield, Mor- ris Tanner and Vivian Snow. These elders write that President Howell has had the elders working in the smaller cities in compan- ies. It has proved quite a success, so far. "We have finished tracting Frank- lin and Franklin Falls, and are now in Tilton, New Hampshire. We have a num- ber of friends in each place. Lately one of the elders had the privilege of explaining suffrage in Utah, before a large audience in Social Hall. The Lord is blessing us in numerous ways. OS w CQ H Eh Dl, w C3Ph T) 3 4) IS c o •— O ^ o "O t+ •-3 O w ^ b»" oT . d$: 03 bJC >-H C O a p- Q 3 PA .a Eootf 8^ . iJS -so > .2 *-" KH M SffeS PQ-3 c3 bC Ph .2 03 E »-3 EDITOR'S TABLE. 179 President D. W. Grover of the Nottingham Conference, England, writes, under date of October 18, enclosing a group of elders of that con- ference, including President Rudger Clawson of the European mission, and states further: "We have just closed a very successful half-year, with an increase in all lines of our work. Our baptisms have been nearly as many as the total number of last year. There is bright prospect for a good harvest of souls for the next six months." Elder E. Davis, of Belfast, Ireland, in enclosing this picture of the four largest elders laboring in the Irish Conference, adds: "The work of the Lord is progressing in Ireland. As the people be- come more acquainted with the principles of the gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints, they see more clearly that the slanderous stories, spoken and published against our people, are based on false- hood and misrepresenta- tion. They begin to real- ize the importance of our message, and can also see that prophets are needed in this day and age to bring men to a unity of the faith. The confusion existing among the sects of so-called Christendom has led the people to see the need of prophets, that they may be made one in Christ, as Christ is one with the Father; also they see that thus they may receive spiritual food. Our meetings are well at- tended, and a larger place of worship is now re- Large ELDERS OF THE IRISH CONFERENCE. From left to right: H. R. Merrill, Preston, Idaho— height 6 ft. 4 in., weight 245 lbs. V. J. Danielson, Independence, Mo. — height 6 ft. 3 in., weight 178 lbs. E. Davis, Waterloo, Salt Lake City- height 6 ft. 3 in., weight 210 !b-. J. M. McMurdie, Paradise, Utah— height 6 ft. 3 in., weight 204 lbs. quired. Our street-meeting season has been a most pleasant one 180 IMPROVEMENT ERA. crowds listen to our message. Though we meet with some opposition, we feel to rejoice, for it causes people to investigate, and proves to be a blessing in disguise. The elders have their hearts and souls centered in the work, and they rejoice in their testimony which they bear to the chil- dren of men. Their prayer is, 'God speed the work throughout the nations of the earth.' '' COMPANY A, EAST KANSAS ELDERS. Left to right: Elders Ben T. Helm. Salt Lake City, William H. Duffin, Provo, Utah; Philander Packer, Franklin, John F. Miller, St. Anthony, Willis Teeples, Goshen, Idaho; President C. R. Christensen, East Kansas Conference, Monticello, 0. T. Harmon, Price Utah; S. C. Adams, Bunker- ville, Nevada. Elder 0. T. Harmon has been called to preside over the St. Johns Conference. The elders are doing a good work, and have had good suc- cess in distributing the Book of Mormon. President Andreas Peterson, of the Swedish mission, writing toC. A. Carlson, from Stockholm, October 26, says that since the 15th of September, when he landed in Gothenburg, until the 25th October, he had traveled over 3,325 miles in Sweden, to bear witness to the gospel mes- sage. He had held forty-one meetings, including Sunday schools and priesthood meetings; and had richly enjoyed the Spirit of the Lord. He remarks further that at no other time in his experience in that land had the priests and press spoken and written so much against the Latter-day Saints as they now speak and write. The leading churchmen of the Lutheran church at Stockholm, a week prior to his writing, in one of the gather- ings of the officials of that church, had suggested sending a petition to the king, providing: that not only foreign "Mormons," but even Swedish citizens who are Latter-day Saints be exiled from the country. The sug- gestion was unanimously adopted by the priests in the gathering. What the result will be, time will show. "We are all, however, in the hands of God," he adds. Citation: Smith, John Henry, “Editor’s Table: Pertinent Counsel,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 169–180. # Priesthood Quorums’ Table Priesthood Quorums' Table. Seventies' Year Book Postponed. — To the Presidents and Mem- bers oj the Quorums of Seventy: Dear Brethren— It becomes necessary to announce to you a postponement in issuing the Seventies' Fourth Year Book. The reason arises from two considerations: first, very many of the quorums will not have completed the Third Year Book, by the first of the year, and will have plenty of matter,both for private study and class work, for at least two or three months of the new year, 1911. The other reason for postponement is that Elder Roberts, who is preparing the Fourth Year Book, on The Atonement, informs the Council that it will be necessary to have more time to complete the work, as he desires not to mar the great theme of the Fourth Year Book— The Atonement— -by too much haste. The council agrees with him in these views, that is, that time enough should be allowed to complete the subject to his satisfaction. In view of these circumstances, it is decided not to issue the Fourth Year Book until the 1st of March, and we are urging upon each quorum to take steps to thoroughly complete the Third Year Book. Where the quorums will have completed the book by the first of the year, we suggest that they review what, in their judgment, would be the most important parts of the subject, and amplify their studies on those parts, until the Fourth Year Book is ready, about March 1, 1911. As many new members are being ordained into the quorums this fall and winter, we call the attention of the presidents to the necessity of having these new members, in each case, supplied with a complete set of the year books. No. 1 is very important, because it contains a divi- sion which treats of the Organization and Duties of the Seventy, also their place in the Church organization. The other four parts of the First Year Book give a survey and an analysis of all the scriptures which a seventy must be familiar with and use in his work. The Second Year Book is an outline History of the Dispensations of the Gospel, and the Third Year Book deals with the Conception of God Among all Nations and 182 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Races of Men; while the Fourth Year Book will treat of the great doc- trine of the Atonement. All seventies should be supplied with these books from first to last, and especially should all incoming elders be urged to obtain a complete set for their private study and reading, so that they may catch up with the back work of their quorums. It would also be greatly to the advantage of the First Council if subscriptions were taken in advance for the year book number 4, and we hereby urge the presidents to send in all such subscriptions, that we may avoid the unpleasantness and difficulty of sending out year books only to have many of them returned. Trusting that you will be prompt in attending to all these instructions, and in imparting this information to the members of your quorums by having this communication read to them in quorum meetings, and also reminding you of our seventy's slogan, which we trust is not being forgotten — "To become a Seventy means mental activity, intellectual development, and the attainment oj spiritual power." We remain your brethren in the gospel, Seymour B. Young, In behalf of the First Council of the Seventy. What a Teachers' Quorum Could Do.— The teachers' quorum in a ward should make itself popular. The power to make itself so is easily possessed by the twenty-four young men belonging if they will but work to that end. What is there that could stand against twenty-four young men in their teens, who resolve to be one in purpose, to do their part as real teachers, according to the order of Christ's Church? These results can be reached by them: 1. Meet once a week. 2. Study the duties of your calling. 3. Minister .in those duties. 4. Act in all ward privileges. 5. Bear testimony to truths learned in gatherings of the Church. 6. Prepare for future responsibilities. 7. Pride yourselves with the possession of a knowledge of God. 8. Cultivate faith and reliance in God. 9. Stand without reproach, and put to shame a denier of virtue. 10. Be inspired to save souls. Let us ask agkin, could not twenty-four young men, in any ward in Zion, so do? Could they not reap abundant pleasure and have the inward joy that would so popularize their lives and quorum, that others, seeing it, would say, "That crowd I wish to join; as they are, I wish to become?"— L. E. Eggbrtson, of the Ogden Stake High Council. Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Priesthood Quorums’ Table,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 181–182. # Mutual Work Mutual Work. A Day for Recreation. At the M. I. A. convention held in Preston, Idaho, September 18, 1910, the young men passed the following resolution: The Y. M. M. I. A. officers of Oneida stake feel the need of the promotion of clean athletics, and Whereas, Every young man needs some wholesome recreation, which he cannot obtain unhss means are provided, and Whereas, The time so devoted should be made interesting and profit- able, and Whereas, Athletic sports cannot be successfully promoted unless a uniform time is devoted to them, be it resolved that, As stake and ward officers we earnestly urge the setting aside of Saturday afternoon throughout the stake for this purpose, and pledge ourselves to work to this end in our respective wards. It being understood that this resolution does not apply where young men or young ladies are engaged during the week in school work where the needed recreation is obtained. Ask Yourselves. Now is the time for the stake superintendent and the ward presi- dent to ask questions: Have you organized the necessary committees? Are they working? Have you competent, boy-loving, active teachers? Is the class order good? Are you well-informed of the work outlined and suggested by the committees of the general board? Are all your mem- bers supplied with manuals? Is the canvass for the Era finished? What activities are you providing? Have you chosen debaters, selected a sub- ject, and arranged for one or more debates? Are you using members of the junior class for story- telling in your preliminary proa rams? Is your enrollment what it should be? Is your missionary committee work- ing? How about a concert and a drama this season? Are you going to have a stake M. I. A. day next spring or summer, to have a good' social time, to exhibit the best in oratory, essays, athletics, games' stories, etc? Have you a set of the reading course, and is it put to use? Are you busy doing something? Have you succeeded in making all your officers busy? Are you meeting regularly as officers, and working unitedly to a common purpose in all things? Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Mutual Work,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 183. # Passing Events Passing Events. Salt Lake City's population is officially announced as 92,777, and the county at 131,426, an increase in the city, since 1900, of 39,- 246, or 73 per cent; the county population in 1900 was 77,725. David Bennett Hill, formerly governor of New York, and after- wards senator from that state, died October 20, age 67 years. He became lieutenant-governor in 1882, serving until 1885; and was gover- nor from 18S5 to 1891, and United States senator from 1891 to 1897. He was candidate for the nomination for president in the national Demo- cratic convention in 1892. The Portuguese Republic has been formally recognized by the governments of Switzerland and Brazil. On October 18, the provincial government decreed the abolishment of the house of Peers, Council of State and titles of nobility, banished the Braganza dynasty and secular- ized charitable institutions. Considerable difficulty is experienced by the monks and nuns who were driven out of Portugal, in finding refuge in other countries. Spain will not entertain any of them who are not nationally Spanish. Postal savings banks are being established, according to the order of Congress, in forty-eight second-class postoffices throughout the nation, one in each state and territory. In these offices the system will have a trial. Provo has been designated in Utah for this purpose. The idea seems to be popular, and numerous applications from all parts of the country, for the establishment of savings banks, have come in, but as Congress appropriated only $100,000 for all the expenses of equip- ment,engraving, printing, etc., it has been impossible to make an experi- ment, so far, upon a large scale. Julia Ward Howe, reformer, philanthropist and distinguished poet, died October 17, 1910, age 91 years. She is best remembered by her famous "Battle Hymn of the Republic," but was the author of sev- MASSING EVENTS. 185 eral volumes of verse, besides The Life of Margaret Fuller, Essays on Modern Society, Reminiscences and other prose writings. For forty years she was a leader in the movement of women suffrage, and was actively interested in the promotion of peace. She frequently lectured and enjoyed a wide acquaintance with men and women of letters. She was the wife of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe,and shared his interest in the cause of anti-slavery. The battleship "Maine," the blowing up of which was the immediate cause of the opening of the Spanish-American war, in May, 1898, is to be raised from the Havana harbor, and army engineers have been given charge of the work. A representative of Spain is to be pres- ent. Few believe that any authorized representative of Spain planned or executed the explosion which destroyed the warship, and recently one of the generals of the army stated that the Cuban insurgents blew up the battleship to percipitate and facilitate the war between the United States and Spain. Whether this is true or not, it is hoped that when the wreck is uncovered the full truth will be disclosed. China's progress is marked by the second great step toward the establishment of free institutions in that country. The first was the convention of the provincial assemblies a year ago, and on the 3rd of October, this year, the second great step was taken by the opening of the National Assembly at Pekin, by Prince Regent Chung, who declared, in a brief address, that the wish of the people was for parliamentary government, and urged the representatives to labor to this end. In the new assembly are two hundred members, one hundred of whom are royal princes and nobles, literati and rich men. The remainder are elected by provincial assemblies. The present program contemplates a general parliament in 1915. The November elections resulted nationally in a victory for the Democratic party in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and other Eastern States. The Republican majority of 43 in the House of Representatives was wiped out, giving the Democrats a safe working majority of about 29; while in the Senate the Republicans will have a reduced majority after the legislative elections are held in the states. In Utah the Republican general ticket won by large majorities in all the counties except Washington. D. N. Straup, as justice of the supreme court, was elected over Charles C. Richards, and Joseph Howell over Ferdinand Erickson, for Congress, by a majority of about 18,000. Senator Sutherland will doubtless be returned to the Senate. Salt Lake county went Republican by a comfortable number; the city went 186 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . "American" by a small plurality, that party electing a justice of the peace and a constable. The campaign was marked with considerable acrimony, the question of prohibition being the cause of most of the ill feeling. Two Democratic senators, and seven members of the lower house of the legislature were elected. One cent letter postage is what the postmaster-general is cred- ited with having promised the United States in the near future. The postoffice department, according to figures recently made public, is rapidly appproaching a state of complete self-support. The deficit of the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1910, was only a little over five million dol- lars, as against seventeen million dollars the year before. When the receipts are equal to the expenditures, Congress will be in a mood, undoubtedly, to facilitate the transaction of business by reducing the rate of letter postage to one cent. The experience in the past is that every reduction in letter postage has been followed by a larger increase in the postal receipts, more letters being written where the postage is lower. In 1792, the rate of postage was six cents for a distance under thirty miles, and twenty-five cents for 450 miles or more. In 1845, the rate was reduced to five cents for 300 miles, and ten cents for a greater distance, for half ounce letters. In 1851, it was again reduced to three cents for 3,000 miles or less. The last reduction to two cents was made in 1883, when the allowable weight was increased to one ounce. In early days the government receipts in the postoffice department were much les than in a modern city of 25,000 inhabitants. In 1792, all told, there were less than 200 postoffices in this country, whereas now they are numbered by the tens of thousands, and turn over to the treasury department every year about $250,000,000. Crossing the Atlantic in an airship was attempted by Walter Wellmanand five companions who left Atlanta City on October 15, in the airship America. The following morning the airship passed Nantuckett, but, encountering diverse winds, it was carried out of its course, and after traveling about 1,750 miles, and being in the air about seventy hours, the crew abandoned the ship about 300 miles off Cape Hatteras, and was taken on the steamer Trent, bound for New York. "Siam made remarkable progress under the enlightened rule of King Chula Longkorn, who died late in October. One of his early teachers was an American woman, and he had a great admiration for this coun- try. Among his many reforms he abolished slavery, wisely declaring that the welfare of the land is impossible when the principle of equality is absent.'' Citation: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “Passing Events,” *Improvement Era* 14, no. 2 (December 1910): 184–186.