An Epic in Stone

Improvement Era Vol. XXX JUNE, 1927 No. 8 AN EPIC IN STONE A Monument to the Men of the Mormon Battalion ' By Elizabeth Cannon Porter [On Decoration Day it is planned to unveil an artistic monument to the Mormon Battalion, on the Capitol grounds, in Salt Lake City. The memorial is one of the most costly and imposing structures in the inter- mountain country. A parade is planned, which will form at the Eagle Gate, and proceed to the Capitol. The ceremonies here will include speeches, music. literary and military exercises, in which the state governor, members of the Mormon Battalion Commission, and other leading citizens, and military or- ganizations will take part. — Editors.} He faces the setting sun, does this man of bronze, just as his flesh and blood predecessor traveled toward the West. In the figure of the man of the Mormon Battalion that fronts the monument to ' that historic aggregation on the grounds of the State Capitol at Salt Lake City, are fearlessness and endurance. Upon his brow repose benignity and courage. Adventure enters here, and patriotism, for he sought an Empire. Carved in pale, gray granite, above the heroic statue of the soldier, are the magnificent head and shoulders of a woman, typifying the "Spirit of Progress." At the back of the monument lurks a squaw with papoose strapped on her back, watching th? progress of the white man. She is significant of the "Vanishing Race." THE ENLISTMENT Women figure prominently, too, in the first of the bas-reliefs where the men bid goodbye to their families. The men of the refugee camps of Mt. Pisgah' and Council Bluffs who were between the ages Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 110 3, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918, $2 per annum. Address Room 406, Church Office Building. Salt Lake City. Utah.

670 IMPROVEMENT ERA of 18 and 45 enlisted, leaving the women and children in the care of old men and small boys'. With the help of Brigham Young, five companies were raised^ in three days. The volunteers, every one of whom could sign his own name, enrolled under an American flag salvaged from the wreck of their homes in Nauvoo. Men and women bore the parting bravely. A dance was given in the Bowery for the departing soldiery the afternoon that they left. Husbands, fathers and sons gallantly gave up the clothes allotment Showing rear of ih: monument, facing the cverlasdng hills to the East. The Indian mother of the vanishing race furtively surveys the march of the white man. Left: Arrival of the Pueblo Detachment. Right: Finding Gold in California. for the year's service, which amounted to $40 apiece. This money between $5,000 and $6,000 in all, was sent back to their families to purchase supplies for the winter. THE MARCH The advance of the Mormon Battalion over 2,000 miles of

AN EPIC IN STONE 671 desert of the southwest was a marvelous march of infantry.* They toiled through drifting sand and cut a wagon passage in rock walls. At times they went without water; again they dug wells for man and animals. They encountered a herd of wild buffalo and caught glimpses of the wild life of the desert: elk, antelope, wolves, foxes, hares, gray "^"^fj^ Showing the arrival of the Pueblo detachment composed of invalids and laundresses, who entered Salt Lake Valley five days after Brigham Young pronounced: "This is the Place." rabbits, and prairie dogs. At one place were the heaped skeletons of one hundred mules that had perished in a storm the year before. They explored cliff dwellings, — a hundred-room mansion with foun- tains and courtyards of an ancient Indian king, modern pueblos, and *Says Lieutenant-Col. P. St. George Cooke, in charge of the Battalion, vice Col. J. Allen, deceased. "History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry. Half of it has been through a wilderness where nothing but savages and wild beasts are found, or deserts where, for the want of water, there is no living creature. There, with almost hopeless labor, we have dug deep wells, which the future traveler will enjoy. Without a guide who had traversed them, wc have ventured into trackless table lands, where water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and pick and ax in hand, we have worked our way over mountains which seemed to defy aught save the wild goat, and hewed a passage through a chasm of living rock more narrow than our wagons." — The Conquest of New Mexico and California, by P. St George Cooke.

^72 IMPROVEMENT ERA the old Spanish city of Santa Fe. At the latter place the battalion encamped in a wheat field back of the cathedral. On its entrance into the town it was greeted with a salute of a hundred guns, fired at the order of General Doniphan. THE PUEBLO DETACHMENT This shows the invalids and the women who had started out as laundresses with the battalion, in the covered wagons, entering the Salt Lake Valley, July 29, 1847. The sick on the march had been sent up to Colorado, where they had spent the Spring. They reached the Saints' destination five days after the main body of pioneers came through Emigration canyon. These intrepid voyagers, in the van- guard of civilization, had already explored the valley, plowed and Diggers discovered gold in the race at Sutter's mill, which started the gold rush, of 1849, to California. planted crops, selected a temple site and planned a city. A party had crossed the Jordan river and bathed in the lake at Black Rock, near Garfield, where Brigham Young pronounced the bathing in the saline sea most excellent. DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA When the footsore and weary battalion reached San Diego the American flag was floating over the harbor. The Mexican war, in

AN EPIC IN STONE 673 which th.> United States won every battle, was over. The men, mustered out, scattered to work their way back to their families in Utah and near the muddy Missouri. Some of th.m obtained work at Sutter's mill near Sacramento, where they participated in the discovery of gold — the announcement of which was to populate western America. The "Mormon" men who had been hired to dig the race went on with their work in face of the g neral excitement. In front of the monument is a pool set with Indian mosaic. The statuary rests upon the everlasting hills and is in harmony with the magnificent architecture of the Utah State Capitol, which flanks it on the north. Manana* Do the kindly deed today, my soul, Do the kindly deed today, Today is here, full of grace and cheer, Tomorrow so far away. Not manana, manana I To your brother's plea responsive be, From his prayer turn not away, Tomorrow's aid, it may fail to save: To'thc rescue, then, today; Not manana, manana! Make peace with the friend who wronged, perchance. Or perchance was wronged by you; Make peace today, go and find a way. Delay you will surely rue. Not manana, manana! For hearts are broken and lives are wrecked, Oft sorrow- and death hold sway, Because we say: "Tomorrow will do," And we will not act today. Not manana, manana! Did one pass beyond, misunderstood, When ycu might have cleared his name? "Tomorrow," you said, "it shall be done" — But tomorrow never came. Not manana, manana' For tomorrow never is, nor was. Its sun never rose nor set, Today alone is omnipotent. Never came tomorrow yet. Not manana, manana! Then live, my soul, in the present hour. Live, love and act while you may: Rise, master of self and tomorrow, Live, love and labor today. Not manana. manana! Mary f. Kelly Pye. ♦Pronounced man-ya-na — tomorrow.