The Hero of Linister

The Hero of Linister BY SOLOMON F. KIMBALL

Andrew Smith, the subject of this sketch, was born February 28, 1837, at the quaint little town of Linister, a romantic spot situated among the beautiful glens of Ayershire, Scotland. It

was in the adjoining county, east of there, that he spent the greater

THE OLD SMITH HOME, RENFREWSHIRE, SCOTLAND Where Andrew Smith Spent His Boyhood Days

portion of his boyhood herding cows, mining coal, and working in the cotton mills. He joined the "Mormon" faith, in 1851, and five years later emigrated to America company with several hundred other in Latter-day Saints, all bound for Zion. On June 24, 1856, they arrived at Iowa City, Iowa, where three weeks were spent in pre-

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paring for their thirteen-hundred-mile handcart- journey across the plains. On the morning of July 15, they started on their perilous journey, reaching Florence, Nebraska, about the middle of August, having traveled upwards of three hundred miles in a little less than twenty-eight days. Some time was spent there in mending carts and getting ready for the remainder of one of the most remarkable trips that was ever recorded in the annals of history. During the afternoon of August 17, another start for the Rocky Mountains was made, and by this time Brother James G. Willie, captain of the company, had discovered the worth of this

From a painting by C. C. A. Christensen.

CROSSING THE PLAINS BY HANDCART

young man from Linister, whom he placed in charge of twenty women, who had no menfolks along to do the heavy work for them, such as chopping wood, mending carts, and other duties of a similar nature. The Indians were on the warpath that season, killing men, women and children all along the route. Just before daybreak on the morning of September 3, during a heavy rainstorm, the redskins ran off with thirty head of Captain Willie's best beef cattle which the Saints were depending upon for food. Brothers Smith

206 IMPROVEMENT ERA

and Elder were selected by the captain to remain behind and search for the stolen animals. They remained for a whole week, but no sign of them could be found anywhere. The men came near losing their lives several times while gone, and it was nothing short of a miracle that they reached their camp in safety. Brother Smith became so popular among the people of his company that he was made commissary, a position he filled with honor and credit until he reached the Valley. When the pilgrims reached North Platte bridge, 950 miles west of Iowa City, their provisions were so nearly exhausted that Captain Willie was compelled to put them on half rations, and that at a time when some

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From "Liverpool to Salt Lake" THE DEVIL'S GATE, IN WYOMING, ON THE SWEETWATER of the more feeble among them had commenced to fall by the wayside for want of nourishing food. Independence Rock was reached on the forenoon of October 17; Devil's Gate, next day at noon, and the Three Crossings of the Sweetwater, late on the evening of the 19th. It was here that the commissary doled out the last ounce of flour in camp to the

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hungry handcart people, who had already commenced to devour roasted rawhide and roseberries to keep life in their frail bodies until relief from the Valley could reach them. The next morning the shivering pilgrims pulled their rickety carts to the brink of the first of the three crossings of the Sweetwater, and when they beheld that mountain torrent filled with frozen slush, they threw up their hands in horror.The snow was eighteen inches deep on the level, and the wind blowing a perfect hurricane. The stream they were about to cross was waist deep, in places, and more than a hundred feet wide at all of the crossings

except one. It had to be forded three times that day before the freezing, starving Saints could continue on their way. It was here that Brother Andrew Smith, one of God's noblemen, made a record that will immortalize his name forever, worlds without end. It was here that the pilgrim Saint of Ayershire, Scotland, hauled cartload after cartload of suffering humanity across that snow-bound stream of the Sweetwater Valley, until the pangs of hunger pene- trated every part of his manly being. It was here that the

hero of Linister carried on his back delicate men and dying women through that waist deep water of Devil's Gate Gulch, until every fibre in his quivering body was tested to the very limit. It was here that the big-hearted Millen Atwood in thundering tones from the snowclad hills of that hell- bound region of Rocky Ridge, cried out, "Hold on there, An- drew boy, hold on there, you've done enough, my boy, MILLEN ATWOOD. the Lord knows you ve done >

Assistant Captain of the Willie Company enono -h I"

Through drifting snow this boy would go With freezing pjlgrims on his back,

208 IMPROVEMENT ERA Through rivers deep, through slush and sleet, And o'er the hills he 'broke' the track.

He climbed the heights, then sat up nights Nursing the sick and burying dead; His heart would bleed when he would feed Poor, helpless children without bread.

With dauntless will he fought on still, Saving the lives of all he could; Though he could feel his strength of steel Waning for want of needed food.

It would require volumes to do justice to the subject, and then half the personal incidents of interest would not be told. Suffice it to say, relief came on the evening of October 21, and the City of the Saints was reached about three weeks later. Among the five hundred handcart pilgrims who left Iowa City, on the morning of July 15, 1856, eighty-two deaths occurred, and had it not been for the brave "Mormon" boys from the Valley, whom the Lord raised up for just such rescuing work, not enough emigrants would have been left alive to tell the dreadful tale. Andrew Smith, the handcart veteran of 1856, is a man of character, determination, vigorous, God-fearing, and as tenderhearted as a child. He is ready at all times to aid and counsel friends who need his assistance. Thousands of the older members of the Church remember him for this trait with love and respect. His discernment is such that few have been able to deceive him. He possesses the gift of healing to a remarkable degree. Always he has been on hand to defend the cause of Zion, even at the risk of his life, if found necessary and a braver man ;

it would be difficult to find. Probably no person in the Church has passed through more dangerous places than he, and his energy and great faith in the Lord have always brought him through unscathed. Ever since he became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he has laid his all on the altar and given God the glory. He has been a faithful guard, at the east temple-gate, for more than twenty years past, and is still on duty.

Some Developments in Modern Chemistry BY DR. ROBERT STEWART, HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY OF THE UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

II The application of chemistry to the refining of gold and silver is manifold. It has led to the utilization of the "tailings," or waste materials, of many of the old worked mines, and has added greatly to the store of gold in the world. Rich results have been obtained from the study of the alloys and the isolation of many new materials, such as cromium, tungsten, and aluminum. The aluminum cooking utensils of the kitchen are one of the direct results of this application of chemistry, and the manufacture of the tungsten lamp is another. The isolation of the elements tungsten, and aluminum, in commercial form has been the production of these two essential articles of the household. Again, chemistry has shown how it is possible to obtain the so-called "electrolytic" iron, which is now the purest form of iron known. If an electric current under certain conditions be conducted through a solution of iron, the iron may be precipitated in any form desired, as a sheet of iron which can easily be welded into different sheets of any thickness desired, possessing a bright lustre which does not need polish. In the same way, the iron may be precipitated in the form of a spiral or in the form of seamless iron tubes, the advantage of which is of course obvious. Furthermore, this iron so precipitated is the purest form of iron that we know of. All the impurities have been eliminated from it so that if the electromagnets in an electric motor now be made of'this iron, a great saving of energy is possible. With the electromagnets of the electrical motor made of the purest kind of iron obtainable before this process was discovered, it was possible to develop a half horse-power motor. Now with the same energy, by using the different electromagnets made out of electrolytic iron, it is possible to develop a motor having a capacity of one and one-fourth horse-power. This saving of energy, of course, is of great economic value. This is the