---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Parker, Aubrey
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 17
number: 3
published: 1914-01
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Aubrey Parker, "To Baby. A Poem," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 3 (January 1914): 211.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1703unse
  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: improvementera1703unse
start_page: 211
end_page: 211
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-01)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1703unse
  publication_year: 1914
  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 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# To Baby. A Poem

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BELATED EMIGRANTS OF 1856 211
has in ages past cut its way through the granite walls, forming
a chasm nearly nine hundred feet in length, and one hundred and
fifty feet wide. The bed of the river, at this point, is filled with
huge fragments of rocks that have fallen from above.
The mountain scenery along the Sweetwater Valley is picturesque and beautiful beyond description. The valley is from
five to ten miles in width, and bounded on the north and south
by mountain peaks, ragged summits, and rocky ridges, varying
from twelve hundred to twenty hundred feet in height. Those
on the south are the highest, and are well timbered, while those
on the north are bare, with the exception of a few scattering
cedars.
The river hugs the hills along the north side of the valley, and
its general course is to the east. Its average width is about sixty
feet, and its depth not far from four feet. The main branch of
this serpentine stream heads near the low pass, between the
Wind River and the Green River mountains, and the distance
from there to Devil's Gate is about eighty miles. This place,
called South Pass, separates the waters of the Atlantic ocean from
those of the Pacific, and the altitude is a little more than seven
thousand feet above sea level.
After ten days' hard riding over almost impassable roads,
Joseph A. Young and Abel Garr arrived at Salt Lake City, sore,
stiff and worn out. They immediately delivered to President
Brigham Young their important message, after which they enjoyed a needed rest.
(to be continued)
To Baby
Baby fingers, pink and white;
Also eyes so sweetly bright,
And the tresses of your hair
Are what men call golden fair;
Little dimpled, smiling face,
Promiseful of maiden grace!
But, O baby, why grow old
When the world is hard and cold?
Soothe and kiss me in gray hairs,
Be my baby all the years. Aubrey Parker