--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Leigh, Rufus collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 14 number: 3 published: 1911-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Rufus Leigh, "The Inland Sea," *Improvement Era* 14, no. 3 (January 1911): 219.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1403unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1403unse start_page: 219 end_page: 219 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1911-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1403unse publication_year: 1911 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1911, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Inland Sea FOB THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER. 219 In a recent number of the Utah Educational Review, an editorial writer relates that some years ago he was lecturing in one of the remote counties in Utah. One hot summer evening he sat on the front step of a ranch house with the rancher, both in their shirt sleeves, after a long, hot day in the hay-field. "Professor," said the rancher, "this morning when you offered to help me I thought it was only a joke. About ten o'clock I was willing to admit that you handled a fork pretty well for a professor. By the middle of the afternoon I knew that you were a man as well as a professor. "Now," he continued, "I have three brothers who have been to college. One is principal of our school, at forty dollars a month; one is a clerk in the town store at about the same pay; and the other is the sissy-boy you see out there at the gate, flirting with the girls. He's been around here most of the summer, grumbling at the grub. I've had some notion to pay his way for another year in college, just to get him off the place. Is it any wonder I have no faith in college education?" The Inland Sea. (For the Improvement Era.) The Salton sea, inland beside Gray sands and shaggy crags snow-capped, Serenely rolls her heavy tide By deserts wide and rocks enwrapped. From eastward yawning canyons deep, Pure streams o'er-flood the blue expanse; Soft west winds parched her moisture reaps, Stale, brackish lake, the salts entrance. Thou sapphire gem of mountains high. Mere vestige now of wider sea, * Reflect, beneath clear, azure sky, The western peaks so dear to me! Rufus Leigh. Ann Akbor, Michigan.