The Gull Monument

The Gull Monument

One of the important events preceding the October confer- ence of the Church was the unveiling, on Wednesday, October 1 , of the beautiful gull monument designed and executed by Ma- honri M. Young, a grandson of President Brigham Young.

This monument is a work of art that must appeal to the Lat- ter-day Saints as few pieces of sculpture can. It is a great con- ception, executed with a skill that grips. The oft-told story of the saving of the crops of the Pioneers by the gulls from the lake never fails to de- light the stranger and to cause emotion in the heart of the de- scendant of the Pio- neer. In the diversi- fied experiences of the Latter-day Saints no episode is sur- rounded with greater charm nor with plain- er manifestation of the mercy of God. On viewing the south relief plate, the chief plate of the four which are presented to the readers of the Era in this number, and which represents the coming of the gulls, Prest. Joseph

F. Smith's eyes were wet with tears as he said to a friend stand- ing by : "I can not look at that without being filled with emotion." It is what happens to all who know the story.

It was a delightful day— cool, and crisp. The early autumn tinge of color was visible in the trees. There was a tender at- mosphere and a constantly changing sky that lent cheerfulness to the peaceful surroundings— and in the faces of the congregation,

Photo by George' Piercy, 116 Main St., Salt Lake City

MAHONRI M. YOUNG Associate Mimber of the National Academy of Design, New YorK.

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composed of leaders from every part of Zion, one could read an- ticipation of the coming feast of spiritual things at the conference, as well as thoughtful reminiscences of the past and thanks to God for the day and the occasion. A large number of people, perhaps five thousand, gathered about the monument in the Temple Square, just in front of the Assembly Hall, to view the unveiling. On a temporary stand were President Joseph F. Smith, his coun- selors, Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose, a number of the Twelve, and other leading authorities of the Church, also Senator Reed Smoot, and Governor William Spry. Presiding Bishop Charles W. Nibley had charge of the ceremonies. Held's band played a selection, and the Tabernacle Choir, in front of the Assembly Hall, sang a beautiful song. Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, president of the Relief Societies of the Church, was then intro- duced by Bishop Nibley as one of the pioneers of 1848 who had witnessed the ravishes of the crickets and the deliverance of the crops from destruction by the gulls. He said : "She is a girl of only twenty-one years of age, due to the fact that she was born on February 29." She told briefly of the threatened destruction of the crops, in 1848, and then delivered this brief and elequent address :

It is a poetic coincidence that our idea of national freedom from oppression, and our idea of state deliverance from starvation, should be represented by birds. The eagle, majestic monarch of the air, is represented on shield, and coin, and tablet of bronze, all over the broad land. The gentle gull, humble habitant of the shores of our Great Salt Sea, has found shrine heretofore only in the grateful memories of this valley's pioneers and descendants. My heart swells with thanks- giving that we are now to preserve in sculptural art the miraculous incident we all know so well; and I now have the honor to unveil this beautiful monument to the eye and admiration of grateful thousands now living, and of untold thousands yet to come.

Exactly at 10:45, Mrs. Wells pulled the cords which released the flags, and the monument was unveiled amid the cheers of the assembled thousands.

Pioneers who witnessed the cricket war were asked to step forward to take seats near the stand. Some twelve or fifteen veterans responded amid the cheers of the assembly. Then Mr. Young, the sculptor, was introduced, and bowed to the audience as they cheered him.

Hon. W. W. Riter followed with an able address, giving his experiences during the rage of the crickets in 1848. The band played "The Star-spangled Fanner," and were loudly cheered.

President Joseph F. Smith followed with an address full of feeling, and largely of a reminiscent nature, relating inci- dents of his coming to the valley, the beginning of the cultivation of the soil, the coming of the crickets, the threatened desolation and the destruction of the crickets by the gulls. The crops were

THE GULL MONUMENT— BY MAHONRI M. YOUNG Looking northwest, the south and east reliefs in view. Unveiled and dedicated

October 1, 1913.

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thus saved, as well as the lives of many hundreds of pioneers who depended almost entirely upon the crops of that summer for their sustenance during the following winter. He closed with a touch- ing prayer dedicating the monument. The choir sang, "Utah, We Love Thee," and President Francis M. Lyman offered the bene- diction.

President Smith said, among other things :

"I am only relating what I saw. Whenever they had been filled to capacity the gulls would fly to the banks of the creek and there dis- goige of the dead pests which lay along the stream in piles many of which were as large as my fist. These piles literally covered the banks of the creek. After the crickets had been so nearly destroyed that they began to shelter themselves wherever they CQuld from the attacks of the gulls, the birds became so tame that they followed under our wagons as we drove along, into our yards, and under every shelter where the crickets sought protection from them. With the help of the Lord we were able to reap that fall a fairly good harvest."

President Smith read several historical papers, producing evi- dence concerning the ravages of the crickets of 1848. He said he did so desiring to throw more light upon "The Cricket War." He read this letter from Thomas Callister :

Salt Lake City, Feb. 13, 1869. President George A. Smith, Historian's Office:

I give you an incident which occurred in this valley in the summer of 1848, when the crickets descended upon everything green All the nursery trees had been destroyed and much of the grain, and the in- evitable destruction of everything was apparent to all.

President John Young, second counselor to President John Smith, president of the stake, came to him and in the most emphatic manner said: "Father Smith, it is your duty to send an express to Brother Brigham and tell him to not bring the people here, for if he does they will all starve to death."

Father Smith looked thoughtful for a few moments and replied: "Brother John Young, the Lord led us here, and he has not led us here to starve."

So dark were the circumstances that the hearts of the strongest elders were faint.

Elder John Neff, who was building a mill on Mill Creek, came to Father Smith and said: "Father Smith I have stopped building my mill; there will be no grain to grind and Brother John Young tells me that we shall have to leave here,- and advises me to stop wasting my money." Father Smith replied: "Brother Neff, go on with your mill, and as far as I have property I will guarantee success; and had I sufficient means, I would secure you against any loss; we are not going to be broken up, and I entreat you to go ahead with your mill, and if you do so, you shall be blessed and it shall be an endless source of joy and profit to you.

In a very short time after this, the gulls from the lake made their appearance and devoured the crickets.

As ever, your brother in the gospel,

Thos. Callister.

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President Smith explained that the reading of this letter was by no means intended to bring any kind of reproach upon Presi- dent John Young, who was as brave as anybody, but to show

PLVTES OF THZ PEDESTAL, GULL MONUMENT

Top to left: north plate, containing the dedication; right, east plate, Pioneers' arrival

and encampment. Below, left: south plate, despair, hope, and arrival

of tne gulls; right, west plate, the harvest.

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that even the bravest of the settlers became disheartened during the appalling- destruction.

The original letter is on file at the historian's office.

The following from Eliza R. Snow, who crossed the plains and mountains in Captain Joseph B. Noble's company in the fall of 1847, was read. She spent the winter of 1847-8 and the fol- lowing years in the valley. She kept a daily journal of her jour- ney, and of her early experiences in the Valley from which Pres- ident Smith read the following excerpt, under date of May 28, 1848:

This morning's frost, in unison with the ravages of the crickets for a few days past, produces many sighs and occasions some long faces with those that for the moment forget that they are Saints.

Under date of Saturday, June 10, 1848, Sister Snow records : The crickets continue their destructiveness.

Mrs. Patty Sessions, mother of Peregrine Sessions, captain of one of the companies of Saints which arrived in Great Salt Lake valley in the fall of 1847, also kept a daily journal, and under date of Tuesday, May 30, 1848, she journalized as follows :

Mr. Sessions has gone to the farm to keep the crickets off the crops; they are taking all before them that they come to. The frost killed a good deal.

Under date of June 9, 1848, John Smith, Chas. C. Rich and John Young, who constituted the presidency in the Great Salt Lake valley at that time, wrote to President Brigham Young and the Council of the Twelve Apostles the following:

There has been a large amount of spring crops put in, and they were doing well till within a few days; the crickets have done con- siderable damage both to wheat and corn, which has discouraged some, but there is plenty left, if we can save it for a few days. The sea gulls have come in large flocks from the lake, and sweep the crickets as they go; it seems the hand of the Lord is in our favor.

The gull monument is the work of Mahonri M. Young, a grandson of the great Pioneer Brigham Young. He is an asso- ciate member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and a member also of the Architectural League, New York. Mr. Young has been at work upon the monument for some length of time. The design was accepted by the First Presidency and the Presiding Bishopric about a year ago, since which time the artist has been almost continuously at work upon it. The monument of which we present a beautiful engraving in this number, con- sists of a granite pedestal weighing almost twenty tons, and a granite column over fifteen feet high, upon the top of which rests a great ball, and the two lake gulls. The birds are done in

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bronze covered with gold leaf, and weigh upwards of five hundred pounds, measuring over eight feet from the tips of the outside wings. About the foot of the pedestal is a beautiful fountain forty feet in diameter, formed with many tons of granite and ce- ment, in which, during the dedication, there were water lilies and gold fish.

Scenes leading up to the time of the coming of the crickets and the destruction by the gulls are pictured in the bronze tablets on the four sides of the pedestal, and are reproduced in one plate in this number of the Era : On the north, the legend, "Erected in grateful remembrance of the mercy of God to the Mormon Pioneers ;" on the east, the pioneers arriving in the valley ; on the south, the picture of a family of three overcome by the terror of the crickets, the coming of the gulls, and the saving of the har- vests of the pioneers ; on the west, a harvest scene.

In an eloquent speech at the semi-annual conference, Elder B. H. Roberts gave a forceful description of these tablets. After referring to the great Temple, — "The altar in stone that stands for the chastity of the individual, the purity of the home, the close- linking of man in brotherhood with man and in fatherhood with God, standing for the salvation both of the living and the dead, a modern witness for God, in stone, infinitely greater than that erected under the direction of Joshua," — and the bronze statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in the same sacred temple grounds, he called attention to the newly-dedicated gull monument, and described in beautiful language its plates and their significance, and the meaning of the monument, as follows :

"It gave me more delight than I can express to you here, the other day, to take my two daughters * * * to see this beautiful monu- ment, just completed and recently fittingly dedicated to the purpose for which it was erected. I pointed out to them how it told the story of God's deliverance of the Latter-day Saints in this valley in the year 1848. I rejoice with my whole heart, not only in the beauty of that great offering as a memorial to God for his goodness to our fathers, not only in its perfections as a work of art, but I look beyond all that to the thing that it represents — our recognition of God's great good- ness in delivering his people from threatened destruction — collective testimony of the people to the goodness of God to our fathers. It will stand, I believe, through many generations, one of the most beautiful, or to typify and memorialize one of the most beautiful incidents in the many wonderful experiences of the Latter-day Saints. For, indeed, Israel was so situated in the summer of 1848, that if God had not wrought out a deliverance for them, then there was nothing but starva- tion for the people, and reproach to the God of Israel who had brought them to this land. For this reason, I think, the Lord felt himself bound to work out the deliverance which that combination of bronze and

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stone stands for. The story is told eloquently, better than words will ever tell it, in the bronze tablets around the base of the monument. * * * * The graceful Doric column of the monument, sur- mounting the base, is fifteen feet high, and is topped by a granite sphere on which two gulls are seen in the act of lighting upon it — a most graceful thing in itself, and Mr. Young, the sculptor, has caught the action of it true to life.

"On three sides of the high base, in relief sculpture, the gull story is told: The tablature on the east tells of the arrival and early movements of the Pioneers. In the left foreground of the rugged Wasatch mountains there is the man afield with ox team plowing the stubborn soil, aided by the boy driver, followed by the sower. In the right foreground is the wagon home, women preparing the humble meal, while an Indian sits in idle but graceful pose, looking upon all this strange activity that is to redeem his land from savagery and give it to civilization.

"The tablature on the south tells the story of the threatened de- vastation from the crickets' invasion. A point of mountain and a glimpse of the placid, distant lake is seen. The farmer's fight with the invading pest is ended — he has exhausted all his ingenuity in the fight, and his strength. He is beaten. You can see that in the hopeless sinking of his figure to earth, his bowed head and listless, down- hanging hands from which the spade has fallen. Despair claims him — and laughs. With the woman of this tablature it is different. She is holding a child by the hand — through it she feels throbbing the call of the future — the life of a generation of men and women yet to be. Strange that to woman — man's complement — is given such superior strength in hours of severest trial. Where man's strength and cour- age and fighting ends, woman's hope and faith and trust seem to spring into newness of life. From her nature she seems able to do this inconsistent yet true thing — to hope against hope, and ask till she receives. I do not know in what school of psychology the sculptor studied his art, but he has certainly been true to the great psycholog- ical difference between man and woman. But to return to this woman of the tablature — she, too, is toilworn, and there is something truly pathetic in her body weariness, but her head is raised — raised to what until now has seemed the pitiless skies; but now they are filled with the oncoming flocks of gulls. Does she watch their coming with mere idle curiosity or vague wonderment? Or does her soul in the strange gull-cry hear God's answer to her call for help? God's answer to her they were, these gulls, in any event, as the gulls soon proved by devouring the destroyer.

"The west tablature commemorates the Pioneers' first harvest — worthily, too! In the background rises Ensign Peak. In the middle background the log house stands finished; in the foreground harvest- ing the golden grain is in progress, both men and women take joyous part. To the right a mother, half-kneeling, holds to her full breast a

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babe, who 'on the heart and from the heart receives his nourishment,' and about her knees two other children play in happy, childish ob- livion of toil and care. Oh, happy scene of life and joy, 'where Plenty leaps to laughing life with her redundant horn."

"'On the fourth tablature is the title of the monument. Fortu- nately it is simple, and not explanatory — the work of the sculptor tells the story — tells it well and eloquently. Too much narration would have marred it. This is the inscription:

THE SEA GULL MONUMENT

ERECTED IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF

THE MERCY OF GOD TO THE MORMON PIONEERS.

"Yes, let us own it. The salvation wrought out in that year of grace, 1848, for the 'Mormon' Pioneers, was thy work, Helper of the helpless, and Supplementer of man's endeavor; giving him of thy bounteous strength when his strength fails. How shall we honor thee for thy tender mercies to menward, but by acknowledgment of them, by hodling them in memory, and speaking of them to our children, and to our children's children, to the remotest generation?

"Though from afar the sea gulls came and destroyed the de- stroyer, it was thy voice, O Lord, that called them — they did but do thy bidding — the deliverance was of thee and by thee. And though in these grouped symbols of the monument the beautiful agency of thy merciful act is chiefly present, still beyond and above these to our consciousness the Eternal Cause of such events stands smiling.

"Long may these testimonies of stone and bronze, which our feeble hands have erected, stand on this sacred block as God's wit- nesses unto the inhabitants of the earth, that he has given a new dis- pensation of his truth to man, and confirmed it by a manifestation of his mercy and power in the deliverance of his people, I pray, in the name of Jesus,. Amen."

Stake superintendents who expect definite progress in M. I. A. work must themselves be prepared to give definite instruction at monthly officers' meetings. Every monthly meeting should have a definite purpose, something to be done, a program worked out well in advance, as well as worked out at the meeting. Then comes the fol- low-up plan, or checking in the field, to see that results are obtained and the work done. Superintendents should study the articles, "Sys- tem in Stake Work," and "Follow-up Work," in August Era.