--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 10 published: 1912-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Questionable Goodness," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 10 (August 1912): 900.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera15010unse 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: improvementera15010unse start_page: 900 end_page: 900 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera15010unse publication_year: 1912 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 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Questionable Goodness Questionable Goodness It is a custom among the Indians to say no bad word of the dead. An observer relates that once in a southern county in Utah the Indians were sitting silently about a campfire discussing a recently dead companion. Evidently their friend who had died was one of the kind about whom it is very difficult to say much good. There was complete silence for a long time, not one of them being able to conjure up in his mind what good could be said of the departed. Finally one broke the silence: "He good smoker." That was the only thing that could be said of him.