--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Nicholas G. Smith collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 9 published: 1914-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Nicholas G. Smith, "For the Gospel’s Sake," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 9 (July 1914): 887–889.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1709unse 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: improvementera1709unse start_page: 887 end_page: 889 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1709unse 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. --- # For the Gospel’s Sake EDITORS' TABLE 887 settled, in the early 80's, the pioneers built upon Swift Creek in the shadow of the high Rockies. Afton was organized in 1887 into a ward of the Church. Swift Creek is a large, beautiful, clear stream of water issuing from a pine- and aspen-lined canyon which opens into the very heart of the settlement. The photos at the bot- tom show one of the main sources of this stream, some seven miles, from that to ten, up the precipitous mountain pass. It is an ice-cold, clear, fresh-water geyser pouring an immense volume of water out of the side of the mountain at intervals of twenty minutes. The flow continues for the space of twenty minutes and then gradually recedes into the mountain again, for a like length of time. The water rises slowly out of the fountain or hole in the hill, after each interval, until it reaches the brim, when again the stream is precipitously poured down its bed on the mountain side to join Swift Creek on its way to the valley. Swift Creek, which is really a small river, is thus fed, one may say, by jerks. In the early settlement of the town, a pioneer miller built a flour mill upon this stream, at the mouth of the canyon. He fre- quently observed to his customers that it was one of the most re- markable streams he had ever seen in his life. His mill would run rapidly for twenty minutes and then slow down for another twenty minutes, when it would again begin to run more rapidly, thus alter- nating continually. The cause of the phenomenon was never known by the good miller, since he died a year or so before the residents of the town solved the mystic problem some six years ago, when the fresh-water geyser referred to was discovered. In the frontispiece a company of young people are seen making their way down the canyon on a narrow trail. They are returning from a Pourth-of-July trip, having visited this wonderful fresh-water gey- ser. The bed of the stream, nearly dry, and the mouth of the geyser, are shown in the lower and upper pictures to the left and ; in the lower right hand corner, the same are shown when the water is at its height. For the Gospel's Sake President Nicholas G. Smith, writes to the Era from Wood- stock, South Africa, May 9: "On the morning of April 23, five elders arrived in Table Bay from Zion, and their hearts were filled with happiness at the thought of soon landing and going to work at their missionary labors. That was not to be their lot in South Africa. No sooner had the emigration officer boarded the boat and learned that they were elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than he ordered them to be detained. "Elder Clifford S. Hodgson and myself were soon busy try- . 888 IMPROVEMENT ERA ing to arrange with the officials to let the elders out on bond, but they would not do so. The emigration officers selected some very difficult words from the dictionary and ordered the men to write these words. The elders did not spell all of them cor- rectly and consequently they were deported on account of "illit- eracy.' We appealed to the highest tribunal, the Board of Par- dons, and after the elders had been in confinement for eight days, the case was brought up and tried. "We had secured an eminent attorney, and he made a very good case out of it, actually showing that the men could write even better than some of the judges who were sitting on the case, but all to no avail. We were 'Mormons' and were not wanted here, so the action of the emigration official was sustained and the elders ordered deported. "The elders were kept in a shanty made of galvanized iron, with a galvanized iron fence around it, with barbed wire around the top, the lot being about 30 by 130 feet and adjoining the ' '-'':} ;,•'''. Wgj^l ; t^r-* ~* -^ ;'':.;»! III 1 **& m * MP*** 1 compound, or place, where the negroes are kept. £&L 3\ They also had several Indians and other undesirables in with the elders. For this accommodation they were required to pay $2.50 per day. The man who was in charge of them felt that they were upright men, and did everything in his power to make their stay pleasant. m His kindness will long be remembered by the elders and goes to show that whenever a person associates with the Latter-day Saints he cannot help but be impressed with their manhood. "The South African mission is growing slowly but surely, and I yet look for the time when we will be permitted to enter here and preach the gospel unmolested. The elders deoorted are EDITORS' TABLE 889 shown in the picture, left to right John E. Riggs, William C. : White, S. E. Van Francis, Peter J. Peterson, and Gerald R. El- dredge. Their keeper, a Mr. Ross, is standing in the rear."