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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2a6ab2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54079 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54079) diff --git a/old/54079-8.txt b/old/54079-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9f6b5fc..0000000 --- a/old/54079-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,11389 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sinners and Saints, by Phil Robinson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Sinners and Saints - A Tour Across the States and Round Them, with Three Months - Among the Mormons - -Author: Phil Robinson - -Release Date: January 31, 2017 [EBook #54079] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SINNERS AND SAINTS *** - - - - -Produced by the Mormon Texts Project -(http://mormontextsproject.org), with thanks to Steven -Fluckiger, Mariah Averett, and Lauren McGuinness. - - - - - - - - -SINNERS AND SAINTS - -A TOUR ACROSS THE STATES, AND ROUND THEM - -WITH - -THREE MONTHS AMONG THE MORMONS - - -BY PHIL ROBINSON - -AUTHOR OF "IN MY INDIAN GARDEN," "UNDER THE PUNKAH," "NOAH'S ARK,'" -ETC., ETC. - - -NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION - - -LONDON - -1892 - - - -Inscribed, - -WITH AUTHOR'S GRATITUDE, TO A FRIEND, JOHN STUART DOWNING. - - - -CONTENTS. - --- - -CHAPTER I. - -FROM NEW YORK TO CHICAGO. - -By the Pennsylvania Limited--Her Majesty's swine--Glimpses of -Africa and India--"Eligible sites for Kingdoms"--The Phoenix -city--Street scenes--From pig to pork--The Sparrow line--Chicago -Mountain--Melancholy merry-makers. - - -CHAPTER II. - -FROM CHICAGO TO DENVER. - -Fathers of Waters--"Rich Lands lie Flat"--The Misery River--Council -Bluffs--A "Live" town, sir--Two murders: a contrast--Omaha--The -immorality of "writing up"--On the prairies--The modesty of -"Wish-ton-Wish"--The antelope's tower of refuge--Out of Nebraska into -Colorado--Man-eating Tiger. - - -CHAPTER III. - -IN LEADVILLE. - -The South Park line--Oscar Wilde on sunflowers as food--In a -wash-hand basin--Anti-Vigilance Committees--Leadville the city of -the carbonates--"Busted" millionaires--The philosophy of thick -boots--Colorado miners--National competition in lions--Abuse of the -terms "gentleman" and "lady"--Up at the mines--Under the pine-trees. - - -CHAPTER IV. - -FROM LEADVILLE TO SALT LAKE CITY. - -What is the conductor of a Pullman car?--Cannibalism fatal to lasting -friendships--Starving Peter to feed Paul--Connexion between Irish -cookery and Parnellism--Americans not smokers--In Denver--"The Queen -City of the Plains"--Over the Rockies--Pride in a cow, and what came -of it--Sage-brush--Would ostriches pay in the West?--Echo Canyon--The -Mormons' fortifications--Great Salt Lake in sight. - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE CITY OF THE HONEY-BEE. - -Zion--Deseret--A City Of Two Peoples--"Work" the watch-word of -Mormonism--A few facts to the credit of the Saints--The text of the -Edmunds Bill--In the Mormon Tabernacle--The closing scene of the -Conference. - - -CHAPTER VI. - -LEGISLATION AGAINST PLURALITY. - -A people under a ban--What the Mormon men think of the Anti-Polygamy -Bill--And what the Mormon women say of polygamy--Puzzling -confidences--Practical plurality a very dull affair--But theoretically -a hedge-hog problem--Matrimonial eccentricities--The fashionable -milliner fatal to plurality--Absurdity of comparing Moslem polygamy -with Mormon plurality--Are the women of Utah happy?--Their enthusiasm -for Women's Rights. - - -CHAPTER VII. - -SUA SI BONA NORINT. - -A Special Correspondent's lot--Hypothecated wits--The Daughters of -Zion--Their modest demeanour--Under the banner of Woman's Rights--The -discoverer discovered--Turning the tables--"By Jove, sir, you shall -have mustard with your beefsteak!" - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -COULD THE MORMONS FIGHT? - -An unfulfilled prophecy--Had Brigham Young been still -alive?--The hierarchy of Mormonism--The fighting Apostle and his -colleagues--Plurality a revelation--Rajpoot infanticide: how it was -stamped out--Would the Mormons submit to the process?--Their fighting -capabilities--Boer and Mormon: an analogy between the Drakensberg and -the Wasatch ranges--The Puritan fanaticism of the Saints--Awaiting the -fulness of time and of prophecy. - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE SAINTS AND THE RED MEN. - -Prevalent errors as to the red man--Secret treaties--The policy of the -Mormons towards Indians--A Christian heathen--Fighting-strength of -Indians friendly to Mormons. - - -CHAPTER X. - -REPRESENTATIVE AND UNREPRESENTATIVE MORMONISM. - -Mormonism and Mormonism--Salt Lake City not representative--The -miracles of water--How settlements grow--The town of Logan: one of the -Wonders of the West--The beauty of the valley--The rural simplicity of -life--Absence of liquor and crime--A police force of one man--Temple -mysteries--Illustrations of Mormon degradation--Their settlement of the -"local option" question. - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THROUGH THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. - -Salt Lake City to Nephi--General similarity of the settlements--From -Salt Lake Valley into Utah Valley--A lake of legends--Provo--Into -the Juab valley--Indian reminiscences--Commercial integrity of the -saints--At Nephi--Good work done by the saints--Type of face in rural -Utah--Mormon "doctrine" and Mormon "meetings." - - -CHAPTER XII. - -FROM NEPHI TO MANTI. - -English companies and their failures--A deplorable neglect of claret -cup--Into the San Pete Valley--Reminiscences of the Indians--The -forbearance of the red man--The great temple at Manti--Masonry and -Mormon mysteries--In a tithing-house. - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -FROM MANTI TO GLENWOOD. - -Scandinavian Mormons--Danish ol--Among the orchards at Manti--On the -way to Conference--Adam and Eve--The protoplasm of a settlement--Ham -and eggs--At Mayfield--Our teamster's theory of the ground-hog--On -the way to Glenwood--Volcanic phenomena and lizards--A suggestion for -improving upon Nature--Primitive Art. - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -FROM GLENWOOD TO MONROE. - -From Glenwood to Salina--Deceptiveness of appearances--An apostate -Mormon's friendly testimony--Reminiscences of the Prophet Joseph -Smith--Rabbit-hunting in a waggon--Lost in the sage-brush--A day at -Monroe--Girls riding pillion--The Sunday drum--Waiting for the right -man: "And what if he is married?"--The truth about apostasy: not always -voluntary. - - -CHAPTER XV. - -AT MONROE. - -"Schooling" in the Mormon districts--Innocence as to whisky, but -connoisseurs in water--"What do you think of that water, sir?"--Gentile -dependents on Mormon charity--The one-eyed rooster--Notice to All! - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -JACOB HAMBLIN. - -A Mormon missionary among the Indians--The story Of Jacob Hamblin's -life--His spiritualism, the result of an intense faith--His good work -among the Lamanites--His belief in his own miracles. - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THROUGH MARYSVALE TO KINGSTON. - -Piute County--Days of small things--A swop in the sage-brush; two -Bishops for one Apostle--The Kings of Kingston--A failure in Family. - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -FROM KINGSTON TO ORDERVILLE. - -On the way to Panguitch--Section-houses not Mormon homes--Through wild -country--Panguitch and its fish--Forbidden pleasures--At the Source of -the Rio Virgin--The surpassing beauty of Long Valley--The Orderville -Brethren--A success in Family Communism. - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -MORMON VIRTUES. - -Red ants and anti-Mormons--Ignorance of the Mormons among -Gentiles in Salt Lake City--Mormon reverence for the Bible--Their -struggle against drinking-saloons in the city--Conspicuous piety -in the settlements--Their charity--Their sobriety (to my great -inconvenience)--The literature of Mormonism utterly unreliable--Neglect -of the press by the Saints--Explanation of the wide-spread -misrepresentation of Mormonism. - - -CHAPTER XX. - -DOWN THE ONTARIO MINE - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -FROM UTAH INTO NEVADA. - -Rich and ugly Nevada--Leaving Utah--The gift of the Alfalfa--Through a -lovely country to Ogden--The great food devouring trick--From Mormon to -Gentile: a sudden contrast--The son of a cinder--Is the red man of no -use at all?--The papoose's papoose--Children all of one family. - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -FROM NEVADA INTO CALIFORNIA. - -Of bugbears--Suggestions as to sleeping-cars--A Bannack chief, his -hat and his retinue--The oasis of Humboldt--Past Carson Sink--A -reminiscence of wolves--"Hard places"--First glimpses of California--A -corn miracle--Bunch-grass and Bison--From Sacramento to Benicia. - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -San Franciscans, their fruits and their falsehoods--Their neglect -of opportunities--A plague of flies--The pigtail problem--Chinamen -less black than they are painted--The seal rocks--The loss of the -Eurydice--A jeweller's fairyland--The mystery of gems. - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -Gigantic America--Of the treatment of strangers--The wild-life -world--Railway Companies' food-frauds--California Felix--Prairie-dog -history--The exasperation of wealth--Blessed with good oil--The -meek lettuce and judicious onion--Salads and Salads--The perils of -promiscuous grazing. - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -The Carlyle of vegetables--The moral in blight--Bee-farms--The city of -Angels--Of squashes--Curious vegetation--The incompatibility of camels -and Americans--Are rabbits "seals"?--All wilderness and no weather--An -"infinite torment of flies." - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -THROUGH THE COWBOYS' COUNTRY. - -The Santa Cruz valley--The cactus--An ancient and honourable pueblo--A -terrible beverage--Are cicadas deaf?--A floral catastrophe--The -secretary and the peccaries. - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -American neglect of natural history--Prairie-dogs again; their courtesy -and colouring--Their indifference to science--A hard crowd--Chuckers -out--Makeshift Colorado. - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -Nature's holiday--Through wonderful country--Brown negroes a libel -on mankind--The Wild-flower State--The black problem--A piebald -flirt--The hippopotamus and the flea--A narrow escape--The home of the -swamp-goblin--Is the moon a fraud? - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -Frogs, in the swamp and as a side-dish--Negroids of the swamp -age--Something like a mouth--Honour in your own country--The Land of -Promise--Civilization again. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -FROM NEW YORK TO CHICAGO. - - By the Pennsylvania Limited--Her Majesty's swine--Glimpses of - Africa and India--"Eligible sites for Kingdoms"--The Phoenix - city--Street scenes--From pig to pork--The Sparrow line--Chicago - Mountain--Melancholy merry-makers. - -"DOES the fast train to Chicago ever stop?" was the question of a -bewildered English fellow-passenger, Westward-bound like myself, as I -took my seat in the car of the Pennsylvania Limited mail that was to -carry me nearly half the distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific. -"Oh, yes," I replied, "it stops--at Chicago." - -By this he recognized in me a fellow-innocent, and so we foregathered -at once, breakfasted together, and then went out to smoke the calumet -together. - --- - -To an insular traveller, it is a prodigiously long journey this, -across the continent of America, but I found the journey a perpetual -enjoyment. Even the dull country of the first hour's travelling had -many points of interest for the stranger--scattered hamlets of wooden -houses that were only joined together by straggling strings of cocks -and hens; the others that seemed to have been trying to scramble over -the hill and down the other side but were caught just as they got to -the top and pinned down to the ground with lightning conductors; the -others that had palings round them to keep them from running away, but -had got on to piles as if they were stilts and intended (when no one -was looking) to skip over the palings and go away; the others that had -rows of dwarf fir-trees in front of them, through which they stared out -of both their windows like a forward child affecting to be shy behind -its fingers. These fir-trees are themselves very curious, for they give -the country a half-cultivated appearance, and in some places make the -hillsides and valleys look like immense cemeteries, and only waiting -for the tombstones. Even the levels of flooded land and the scorched -forests were of interest, as significant of a country still busy over -its rudiments. - -"All charcoal and puddles," said a fellow-traveller disparagingly; "I'm -very glad we're going so fast through it." - -Now for my own part I think it looks very uncivil of a train to go -with a screech through a station without stopping, and I always wish I -could say something in the way of an apology to the station-master for -the train's bad manners. No doubt people who live in very small places -get accustomed to trains rushing past their platforms without stopping -even to say "By your leave." But at first it must be rather painful. -At least I should think it was. On the other hand, the people "in the -mofussil" (which is the Anglo-Indian for "all the country outside one's -own town") did not pay much attention to our train. Everybody went -about their several works for all the world as if we were not flashing -by. Even the dogs trotted about indifferently, without even so much as -noticing us, except occasionally some distant mongrel, who barked at -the train as if it was a stray bullock, and smiled complacently upon -the adjoining landscape when he found how thoroughly he had frightened -it away. - -There seemed to me a curious dearth of small wild life. The English -"country" is so full of birds that all others seem, by comparison, -birdles. Once, I saw a russet-winged hawk hovering over a copse of -water-oak as if it saw something worth eating there; once, too, I saw -a blue-bird brighten a clump of cedars. Now and again a vagabond crow -drifted across the sky. But, as compared with Europe or parts of the -East which I know best, bird-life was very scanty. - -And presently Philadelphia came sliding along to meet us with a stately -decorum of metalled roads and well-kept public grounds, and we stopped -for the first of the twelve halts, worth calling such, which I had to -make in the 3000 miles between the Atlantic and the Pacific. - -How treacherously the trains in America start! There is no warning -given, so far as an ordinary passenger can see, that the start is under -contemplation, and it takes him by surprise. The American understands -that "All aboard" means "If you don't jump up at once you'll be left -behind." But to those accustomed to a "first" and a "second" and a -"third" bell--and accustomed, too, not to get up even then until the -guard has begged them as a personal favour to take their seats--the -sudden departure of the American locomotive presents itself as a rather -shabby sort of practical joke. - -The quiet, unobtrusive scenery beyond Philadelphia is English in -character, and would be still more so if there were hedges instead -of railings. By the way, whenever reading biographical notices of -distinguished Americans I have been surprised to find that so many of -them at one time or other had "split rails" for a subsistence. But now -that I have followed the "course of empire" West, I am not the least -surprised. I only wonder that every American has not split rails, at -one time or another, or, indeed, gone on doing it all his life. For -how such a prodigious quantity of rails ever got split (even supposing -distinguished men to have assisted in the industry in early life) -passes my feeble comprehension. All the way from New York to Chicago -there are on an average twenty lines of split rails running parallel -with the railway track, in sight all at once! And after all, this is -only one narrow strip across a gigantic continent. In fact, the two -most prominent "natural features" of the landscape along this route are -dwarf firs and split rails. But no writer on America has ever told me -so. Nor have I ever been told of the curious misapprehension prevalent -in the States as to the liberty of the subject in the British Isles. - -In America, judging at any rate from the speech of "the average -American," I find that there is a belief prevalent that the English -nation "lies prostrate under the heel of a tyrant." What a shock to -those who think thus, must have been that recent episode of the queen's -pigs at Slough! - -Six swine and a calf belonging to her Majesty found themselves, the -other day, impounded by the Slough magistrates for coming to market -without a licence. Slough, from geographical circumstances over which -it has no control, happens to be in Buckinghamshire, and this country -has been declared "an infected district," so that the bailiff who -brought his sovereign's pigs to market, without due authority to do -so, transgressed the law. Two majesties thus came into collision -over the calf, and that of the law prevailed. Such a constitutional -triumph as this goes far to clear away the clouds that appeared to be -gathered upon the political horizon, and the shadows of a despotic -dictatorship which seemed to be falling across England begin to -vanish. The written law, contained probably in a very dilapidated -old copy in the possession of these rural magistrates, a dogs'-eared -and, it may be, even a ragged volume, asserted itself supreme over a -monarch's farmyard stock, and dared to break down that divinity which -doth hedge a Sovereign's swine. There are some who say that in the -British Isles men are losing their reverence for the law, and that -justice wears two faces, one for the rich and another for the poor. -They would have us believe that only the parasites of princes sit in -high place, and that the scales of justice rise or fall according to -the inclinations of the sceptre, with the obsequious regularity of the -tides that wait upon the humours of the moon. But such an incident -as this, when the Justices of Slough, those intrepid Hampdens, sate -sternly in their places, and, fearless of Royal frowns and all the -displeasure of Windsor, dispensed to the pigs, born in the purple, and -to the calf that had lived so near a throne, the impartial retribution -of a fine--with costs--gives a splendid refutation to these calumnies. -Where shall we look in Republican history for such another incident? -or where search for dauntless magistrates like those of Slough, who -shut their eyes against the reflected glitter of a Court, who fined the -Royal calf for risking the health of Hodge's miserable herd, and gave -the costs against the Imperial pigs for travelling into Buckinghamshire -without a licence? Fiat justitia, ruat coelum. There was no truckling -here to borrowed majesty, no sycophant adulation of Royal ownership; -but that fine old English spirit of courageous independence which has -made tyrants impossible in our island and our law supreme. It was of -no use before such men as these, the stout-hearted champions of equal -justice, for the bailiff to plead manorial privilege, or to threaten -the thunders of the House of Brunswick. They were as implacable as a -bench of Rhadamanthuses, and gave these distinguished hogs the grim -choice between paying a pound or going to one. Nor, to their credit -be it said, did either bailiff, calf, or pigs exhibit resentment. On -the contrary, they accepted judgment with that respectful acquiescence -which characterizes our law-abiding race, and the swine turned without -a murmur from the scene of their repulse, and trotted cheerfully before -the bailiff out of Buckinghamshire back to Windsor. - -The bailiff, no doubt, bethought him of the past, and wished the good -old days of feudalism were back, when a King's pig was a better man -than a Buckinghamshire magistrate. But if he did, he abstained from -saying so. On the contrary, he paid his fine like a loyal subject, and -gathering his innocent charges round him went forth, more in sorrow -than in anger, from the presence of the magisterial champions of the -public interests. The punished pigs, too, may have felt, perhaps, -just a twinge of regret for the days when they roamed at will over -the oak-grown shires, infecting each other as they chose, without any -thought of Contagious Diseases Acts or vigilant justices. But they -said nothing; and the spectacle of an upright stipendiary dispensing -impartial justice to a law-abiding aristocracy was thus complete. - -To return to my car. Beyond Philadelphia the country was waking up for -Spring. The fields were all flushed with the first bright promise of -harvest; blackbirds--reminding me of the Indian king-crows in their -sliding manner of flight and the conspicuous way in which they use -their tails as rudders--were flying about in sociable parties; and -flocks of finches went jerking up the hill-sides by fits and starts -after the fashion of these frivolous little folk. - -A mica-schist (it may be gneiss) abounds along the railway track, and -it occurred to me that I had never, except in India, seen this material -used for the ornamentation of houses. Yet it is very beautiful. In the -East they beat it up into a powder--some is white, some yellow--and -after mixing it with weak lime and water, wash the walls with it, the -result being a very effective although subdued sparkle, in some places -silvery, in others golden. - -Nearing Harrisburg the country begins to resemble upper Natal very -strongly, and when we reached the Susquehanna, I could easily have -believed that we were on the Mooi, on the borders of Zululand. But the -superior majesty of the American river soon asserted itself, and I -forgot the comparison altogether as I looked out on this truly noble -stream, with the finely wooded hills leaning back from it on either -side, as if to give its waters more spacious way. - -And then Harrisburg, and the same stealthy departure of the train. -But outside the station our having started was evident enough, for -a horse that had been left to look after a buggy for a few minutes, -took fright, and with three frantic kangaroo-leaps tried to take the -conveyance whole over a wall. But failing in this, it careered away -down the road with the balance of the buggy dangling in a draggle-tail -sort of way behind it. - -Nature works with so few ingredients that landscape repeats itself in -every continent. For there is a limit, after all, to the combinations -possible of water, mountain, plain, valley, and vegetation. This is -strictly true, of course, only when we deal with things generically. -Specific combinations go beyond arithmetic. But even with her species, -Nature delights in singing over old songs and telling the tales -she has already told. For instance here, after passing Harrisburg, -is a wonderful glimpse of Naini Tal in the Indian hills--memorable -for a terribly fatal landslip three years ago--with its oaks and -rhododendrons and scattered pines. In the valleys the streams go -tumbling along with willows on either bank, and here and there on the -hillsides, shine white houses with orchards about them. - -The houses men build for themselves when they are thinking only of -shelter are ugly enough. Elegance, like the nightingale, is a creature -of summer-time, when the hard-working months of the year are over and -Nature sits in her drawing-room, so to speak, playing the fine lady, -painting the roses and sweetening the peaches. But, ugly though they -are, these scattered homesteads are by far the finest lines in all the -great poem of this half-wild continent, and lend a grand significance -to every passage in which they occur. And the pathos of it! Look at -those two horses and a man driving a plough through that scrap of -ground yonder. There is not another living object in view, though the -eye covers enough ground for a European principality. Yet that man -dares to challenge all this tremendous Nature! It is David before -Goliath, before a whole wilderness of Goliaths, with a plough for a -sling and a ploughshare for a pebble. - -Here all of a sudden is another man, all alone with some millions of -trees and the Alleghanies. And he stands there with an axe in his -hands, revolving in that untidy head of his what he shall do next to -the old hills and their reverend forest growth. The audacity of it, and -the solemnity! - -It would be as well perhaps for sentiment if every man was quite alone. -For I find that if there are two men together one immediately tries -to sell the other something; and to inform him of its nature, he goes -and paints the name of his disgusting commodities on the smooth faces -of rocks and on tree-trunks. Now, any landscape, however grand, loses -in dignity if you see "Bunkum's Patent" inscribed in the foreground in -whitewash letters six feet high. - -What a mercy it is these quacks cannot advertise on the sky--or on -running water! - -For the river is now at its grandest and it keeps with us all the -afternoon, showing on either side splendid waterways between sloping -spurs of the hills densely wooded and strewn with great boulders. -But on a sudden the mountains are gone and the river with them, and -we speed along through a region of green grass-land and abundant -cultivation. Land agents might truthfully advertise it in lots as -"eligible sites for kingdoms." - -And so on, past townships, whose names running (at forty miles an hour) -no man can read, and round the famous "horseshoe curve"--where it looks -as if the train were trying to get its head round in order to swallow -its tail--down into valleys already taking their evening tints of misty -purple, and pink, and pale blue. And then Derry. - -Just before we arrived there, two freight trains had selected Derry as -an opportune spot for a collision, and had collided accordingly. There -could have been very little reservation about their collision, for the -wreck was complete, and when we got under way again we could just make -out by the moonlight the scattered limbs of carriages lying heaped -about on the bank. In some places it looked as if a clumsy apprentice -had been trying to make packing-cases out of freight wagons, but had -given up on finding that he had broken the pieces too small. And they -were too big for matches. So it was rather a useless sort of collision, -after all--and no one was hurt. - -But "the Pennsylvania Limited" has very little leisure to think about -other people's collisions, and so we were soon on our way again through -the moonlit country, with the hills in the distance lying still and -black, like round-backed monsters sleeping, and the stations going by -in sudden snatches of lamplight, and every now and then a train, its -bell giving a wail exactly like the sound of a shell as it passes over -the trenches. And so to Pittsburg, and, our "five minutes" over, the -train stole away like a hyena, snarling and hiccoughing, and we were -again out in the country, with everything about us beautified by the -gracious alchemy of the moonlight and the stars. - -And the Ohio River rolled alongside, with its steamers ploughing -up furrows of ghostly white froth, and unwinding as they went long -streamers of ghostly black--and then I fell asleep. - -When I awoke next morning I was in Indiana, and very sunny it looked -without a hill in sight to make a shadow. The water stood in lakes on -the dead level of the country, and horses, cattle, sheep, and here and -there a pig--a pregustation of Chicago--grazed and rooted, very well -satisfied apparently with pastures that had no ups and downs to trouble -them as they loitered about. And as the morning wore on, the people -woke up, and were soon as busy as their windmills. In the fields the -teams were ploughing; in the towns, the children were trooping off to -school. But the eternal level began at last, apparently, to weary the -Pennsylvania Limited, for it commenced slackening speed and finding -frivolous pretexts for coming nearly to a standstill--the climax being -reached when we halted in front of a small, piebald pig. We looked at -the pig and the pig looked at us, and the pig got the best of it, for -we sneaked off, leaving the porker master of the situation and still -looking. - -But these great flats--what a paradise of snipe they are, and how -golf-players might revel on them! Birds were abundant. Crows went about -in bands recruiting "black marauders" in every copse; blackbirds flew -over in flocks, and small things of the linnet kind rose in wisps from -the sedges and osiers. And there was another bird of which I did not -then know the name, that was a surprise every time it left the ground, -for it sate all black and flew half scarlet. Could not these marsh -levels be utilized for the Indian water-nut, the singhara? In Asia -where it is cultivated it ranks almost as a local staple of food, and -is delicious. - -A noteworthy feature of the country, by the way, is the sudden -appearance of hedge-rows. No detail of landscape that I know of makes -scenery at once so English. And then we find ourselves steaming along -past beds of osiers, with long waterways stretching up northwards, with -here and there painted duck, like the European sheldrake, floating -under the shadows of the fir-trees, and then I became aware of a great -green expanse of water showing through the trees, and I asked "What is -that? The water must be very deep to be such a colour." "That is Lake -Michigan," was the answer, "and this is Chicago we are coming to now." - -And very soon we found ourselves in the station of the great city by -the lake, with the masts of shipping alongside the funnels of engines. -But not a pig in sight! - -I had thought that Chicago was all pigs. - -And what a city it is, this central wonder of the States! As a whole, -Chicago is nearly terrific. The real significance of this phoenix city -is almost appalling. Its astonishing resurrection from its ashes and -its tremendous energy terrify jelly-fishes like myself. Before they -have got roads that are fit to be called roads, these Chicago men have -piled up the new County Hall, to my mind one of the most imposing -structures I have ever seen in all my wide travels. - -Chicago does not altogether seem to like it, for every one spoke of -it as "too solid-looking," but for my part I think it almost superb. -The architect's name, I believe, is Egan; but whence he got his -architectural inspiration I cannot say. It reminds me in part of a wing -of the Tuileries, but why it does I could not make up my mind. - -Then again, look at this Chicago which allows its business -thoroughfares to be so sumptuously neglected--some of them are almost -as disreputable-looking as Broadway--and goes and lays out imperial -"boulevards" to connect its "system of parks." These boulevards, simply -if left alone for the trees to grow up and the turf to grow thick, -will before long be the finest in all the world. The streets in the -city, however, if left alone much longer, would be a disgrace to--well, -say Port Said. The local administration, they say, is "corrupt." But -that is the standing American explanation for everything with which a -stranger finds fault. I was always told the same in New York--and would -you seriously tell me that the municipal administration of New York -is corrupt?--to account for congestion of traffic, fat policemen, bad -lamps, sidewalks blocked with packing-cases, &c., &c. And in Chicago it -accounts for the streets being more like rolling prairie than streets, -for cigar stores being houses of assignation, for there being so much -orange peel and banana skin on the sidewalks, &c., &c. But I am not at -all sure that "municipal corruption" is not a scapegoat for want of -public spirit. - -But let the public spirit be as it may, there can be no doubt as to -the private enterprise in Chicago. Take the iron industry alone--what -prodigious proportions it is assuming, and how vastly it will be -increased when that circum-urban "belt line" of railways is completed! -Take, again, the Pullman factories. They by themselves form an industry -which might satisfy any town of moderate appetite. But Chicago is a -veritable glutton for speculative trade. - -The streets at all times abound with incident. Here at one corner was -a Hansom cab, surely the very latest development of European science, -with two small black children, looking like imps in a Drury Lane -pantomime, trying to pin "April Fool" on to the cabman's dependent -tails. Could anything be more incongruous? In the first place, what -have negro children to do with April fooling? and in the next, imagine -these small scraps in ebony taking liberties with a Hansom! A group -of cowboy-and-miner looking men were grouped in ludicrous attitudes -of sentimentality before a concertina-player, who was wheezing out -his own version of "old country" airs. On the arm of one of the group -languished a lady with a very dark skin, dressed in a rich black silk -dress, with a black satin mantle trimmed with sumptuous fur, and -half an ostrich on her head by way of bonnet and feathers. The men -there, as in most of America, strike me as being very judicious in the -arrangement of their personal appearance, especially in the trimming -of their hair and moustachios; but many of the women--I speak now of -Chicago--sacrificed everything to that awful American institution, the -"bang." - -I know of no female head-dress in Asia, Africa, or Europe so absurd -in itself or so lunatic in the wearer as some of the Chicago bangs. -Ugliness of face is intensified a thousandfold by "the ring-worm style" -of head-dress with which they cover their foreheads and half their -cheeks. Prettiness of face can, of course, never be hidden; but I -honestly think that neither a black skin, nor lip-rings and nose-rings, -nor red teeth, nor any other fantastic female fashion that I have ever -seen in other parts of the world, goes so far towards concealing beauty -of features as that curly plastering which, from ignorance of its real -name, I have called "the ring worm style of bang." - -Here, too, in Chicago I found a man selling "gophers." Now, I do not -know the American name for this vanish-into-nothing sort of pastry, but -I do know that there is one man in London who declares that he, and he -alone in all the world, is aware of the secret of the gopher. And all -London believes him. His is supposed to be a lost art--but for him--and -I should not be surprised if some lover of the antique were to bribe -him to bequeath the precious secret to an heir before he dies. But in -Chicago peripatetic vendors of this cate are an every-day occurrence, -and even the juvenile Ethiop sometimes compasses the gopher. What -its American name is I cannot say; but it is a very delicate kind of -pastry punched into small square depressions, and every mouthful you -eat is so inappreciable in point of matter that you look down on your -waistcoat to see if you have not dropped it, and when the whole is done -you feel that you have consumed about as much solid nutriment as a fish -does after a nibble at an artificial bait. Have you ever given a dog a -piece of warm fat off your plate and seen him after he had swallowed -it look on the carpet for it? So rapid is the transit of the delicious -thing that the deluded animal fancies that he has as yet enjoyed only -the foretaste of a pleasure still to be, the shadow only of the coming -event, the promise of something good. It is just the same with yourself -after eating a gopher. - -Of course I went to see the stock-yards, and my visit, as it happened, -had something of a special character, for I saw a pig put through its -performances in thirty-five seconds. A lively piebald porker was one -of a number grunting and quarrelling in a pen, and I was asked to keep -my eye on him. And what happened to that porker was this. [1] He was -suddenly seized by a hind leg, and jerked up on to a small crane. This -swung him swiftly to the fatal door through which no pig ever returns. -On the other side stood a man-- - - That two-handed engine at the door - Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more, - -and the dead pig shot across a trough and through another doorway, -and then there was a splash! He had fallen head first into a vat of -boiling water. Some unseen machinery passed him along swiftly to the -other end of the terrible bath, and there a water-wheel picked him -up and flung him out on to a sloping counter. Here another machine -seized him, and with one revolution scraped him as bald as a nut. And -down the counter he went, losing his head as he slid past a man with -a hatchet, and then, presto! he was up again by the heels. In one -dreadful handful a man emptied him, and while another squirted him -with fresh water, the pig--registering his own weight as he passed the -teller's box--shot down the steel bar from which he hung, and whisked -round the corner into the ice-house. One long cut of a knife made two -sides of pork out of that piebald pig. Two hacks of a hatchet brought -away his backbone. And there, in thirty-five seconds from his last -grunt--dirty, hot-headed, noisy--the pig was hanging up in two pieces, -clean, tranquil, iced! - -The very rapidity of the whole process robbed it of all its horrors. -It even added the ludicrous to it. Here one minute was an opinionated -piebald pig making a prodigious fuss about having his hind leg taken -hold of, and lo! before he had even made up his mind whether to squeal -or only to squeak, he was hanging up in an ice-house, split in two! He -had resented the first trifling liberty that was taken with him, and in -thirty-five seconds he was ready for the cook! - -That the whole process is virtually painless is beyond all doubt, for -it is only for the first fraction of the thirty-odd seconds that the -pig is sentient, and I doubt if even electricity could as suddenly and -painlessly extinguish life as the lightning of that unerring poniard, -"the dagger of mercy" and the instantaneous plunge into the scalding -bath. - -Of the Chicago stock-yards, a veritable village, laid out with its -miniature avenues intersecting its mimic streets and numbered blocks, -it is late in the day to speak. But it was very interesting in its way -to see the poor doomed swine thoughtlessly grunting along the road, and -inquisitively asking their way, as it seemed, of the sheep in Block 9 -or of the sulky Texan steer looking out between the palings of Block -7; to watch the cattle, wild-eyed from distress and long journeying, -snorting their distrust of their surroundings, and trying at every -opportunity to turn away from the terribly straight road that leads to -death, into any crossway that seemed likely to result in freedom; to -see for the first time the groups of Western herdsmen lounging at the -corners, while their unkempt ponies, guarded in most cases by drowsy -shepherd-dogs, stood tethered in bunches against the palings. All day -long the air is filled with porcine clamour, and some of the pens -are scenes of perpetual riot. For the pig does not chant his "nunc -dimittis" with any seemliness. His last canticles are frivolous. It -is impossible to translate them into any "morituri te salutant," for -they are wanting in dignity, and even self-respect. With the cattle -it is very different. But few of them were in such good case as to -make high spirits possible, and many were wretched objects to look -at. Dead calves lay about in the pens, and there was a general air of -distress that made the scene abundantly pathetic. But, after all, it -does not pay to starve or overdrive cattle, and we may confidently -expect therefore, that in Chicago, of all places in the world, they are -neither starved nor overdriven systematically. - -The English sparrow has multiplied with characteristic industry in -Chicago, but further west I lost it. I saw none between Omaha and -Salt Lake City. So the sparrow line, I take it, must be drawn for -the present somewhere west of Clinton. I do not think it has crossed -the Mississippi yet from the east. But it is steadily advancing its -frontiers--this aggressive fowl--from both sea-boards, and just as it -has pushed itself forward from the Atlantic into Illinois, so from the -Pacific it has got already as far as Nevada. The tyranny of the sparrow -is the price men pay for civilization. Only savages are exempt. Here in -America, they have developed into a multitudinous evil, dispossessing -with a high hand the children of the soil, thrusting their Saxon -assumption of superiority upon the native feathered flock of grove and -garden, and driving them from their birthright. They have no respect -for authorities, and entertain no awe even for the Irish aldermen of -New York. In Australia it is the same. Imported as a treasure, they -have presumed upon the sentiment of exiled Englishmen until they have -become a veritable calamity. So they have been publicly proclaimed -as "vermin," and a price set upon their heads "per hundred." Indeed, -legislatures threaten to stand or fall upon the sparrow question. Here -in America, men and women began by putting nesting-boxes for the birds -in the trees and at corners of houses; I am much mistaken if before -long they do not end by putting up ladders against the trees to help -the cats to get up to catch the sparrows. - -I looked everywhere for "Chicago Mountain"--a New England joke against -the Phoenix City--and at last found it behind a house at the corner of -Pine and Colorado streets. They say (in Boston) that Chicago, being -chaffed about having no high land near it, set to work to build itself -a mountain, but that when it had reached its present moderate elevation -of a few feet, the city abandoned the project. But I am inclined to -think that this fiction is due to the spite of the New Englanders, who, -it is notorious, have to sharpen the noses of their sheep to enable -them to reach the grass that grows between the stones; for on looking -at the mountain in question I perceived it to be merely a natural -sand-dune which it has not been thought worth while to clear away. -Further to acquaint myself with the city, I went into sundry "penny -gaffs," or cafés chantants, and found them to my surprise patronized -by groups of men sad almost to melancholy. It was the music, I think, -that made them feel so. Its effect on me I know was very chastening. I -felt inclined to lift up my voice and howl. But the intense gravity of -the company restrained me, and I left. Yet I am told that inside these -very places men stab each other with Bowie knives and shoot each other -with revolvers, and are even sometimes quite disagreeable in their -manners. But so far as my own experience goes I seldom saw a gathering -so unanimously solemn. I might even say so tearful. It is possible, of -course, that the music eventually maddens them, that it works them up -about midnight into a homicidal melancholy. But there was no profligacy -of blood-shedding while I was there. - -They did not even offer to murder a musician. - -Footnotes: - -1. Need I say that I do not refer to the small field-rat of that name? - - - -CHAPTER II. - -FROM CHICAGO TO DENVER. - - Fathers of Waters--"Rich Lands lie Flat"--The Misery River--Council - Bluffs--A "Live" town, sir--Two murders: a contrast--Omaha--The - immorality of "writing up"--On the prairies--The modesty of - "Wish-ton-Wish"--The antelope's tower of refuge--Out of Nebraska - into Colorado--Man-eating Tiger. - -FROM Chicago to Omaha by the Chicago and "Northwestern" route is not an -exhilarating journey. When Nature begins to make anything out here in -America she never seems to know when to stop. She can never make a few -of anything. For instance, it might have been thought that one or two -hundred miles of perfectly flat land was enough at a time. But Nature, -having once commenced flattening out the land, cannot leave off. So all -the way from Chicago to Omaha there is the one same pattern of country, -a wilderness of maize-stubble and virgin land, broken only for the -first half of the way by occasional patches of water-oak, and for the -second half of willows. - -Just on the frontier-line of these two vegetable divisions of the -country lies a tract of bright turf-land. What a magician this same -turf is! It is Wendell Holmes, I think, who says that Anglo-Saxons -emigrate only "in the line of turf." - -The better half of the journey passed on Sunday, and the people were -all out in loitering, well-dressed groups "to see the train pass," and -at the stations where we stopped, to see the passengers, too. Where -they came from it was not easy to tell, for the homesteads in sight -were very few and far between. Yet there they were, happy, healthy, -well-to-do contented-looking families, enjoying the Day of Rest--the -one dissipation of the hard-worked week. What a comfortable connecting -link with the outer world the railway must be to these scattered -dwellers on this prairie-land! - -So through Illinois to the Mississippi. How wonderfully it resembles -the Indus where it flows past Lower Sind. A minaret or two, a -blue-tiled cupola and a clump of palms would make the resemblance of -the Mississippi at Clinton to the Indus below Rohri complete. And both -rivers claim to be "the Father of Waters." I would not undertake to -decide between them. In modern annals, of course, the American must -take pre-eminence; but what can surpass the historic grandeur that -dignifies the Indian stream? - -And so into Iowa, just as flat, and as rich, and as monotonous as -Illinois, and with just the same leagues of maize-stubble, unbroken -soil, water-oaks and willows. And then, in the deepening twilight, to -Cedar Rapids, with the pleasant sound of rushing water and all the -townsfolk waiting "to see the train" on their way from church, standing -in groups, with their prayer-books and Bibles in their hands. - -By the way, what an admirable significance there is in he care with -which these young townships discharge their duties to their religion -and the dead. The church or prayer-house seems to be always one of the -first and finest buildings. With only half-a-dozen homesteads in sight -in some places, there is the church and while all the rest are of the -humblest class of frame houses, the church is of brick. The cemeteries -again. Before even the plots round the living are set in order, "God's -acre" (often the best site in the neighbourhood) is neatly fenced and -laid out. - -And I thought it somehow a beautiful touch of national character, this -reverent providence for the dead that are to come. And just before I -went to sleep, I saw out in the moonlit country a cemetery, and on the -crest of the rising ground stood one solitary tombstone, the pioneer -of the many--the first dead settler's grave. In this new country the -living are as yet in the majority! - -Awakening, find myself still in Iowa, and Iowa still as flat as ever. -Not spirit enough in all these hundred miles of land to firk up even a -hillock, a mound, a pimple. But to make a new proverb, "Rich lands lie -flat;" and Iowa; in time, will be able to feed the world--aye, and to -clothe it too. - -In the mean time we are approaching the Missouri, through levels in -which the jack-rabbit abounds, and every farmer, therefore, seems to -keep a greyhound for coursing the long-eared aborigines. The willows, -conscious of secret resources of water, are already in leaf, and -overhead the wild ducks and geese are passing to their feeding-grounds. -Here I saw "blue" grass for the first time, and I must say I am glad -that grass is usually green. Elsewhere in the States, English grass is -called "blue grass;" but in some parts, as here in this part of Iowa, -there is a native grass which is literally blue. And it is not an -improvement, so far as the effect on the landscape goes, upon the old -fashioned colour for grass. And then the Missouri, a muddy, shapeless, -dissipated stream. The people on its banks call it "treacherous," and -pronounce its name "Misery." It is certainly a most unprepossessing -river, with its ill-gotten banks of ugly sand, and its lazy brown -waters gurgling along in an overgrown, self-satisfied way. It is -a bullying stream; gives nobody peace that lives near it; and is -perpetually trying in an underhanded sort of way to "scour" out the -foundations of the hollow columns on which the bridges across it are -built. But the abundance of water-fowl upon its banks and side-waters -is a redeeming feature for all who care to carry a gun, and I confess -I should like to have had a day's leisure at Council Bluffs to go out -and have a shot. The inhabitants of the place, however, do not seem -to be goose-eaters, for, close season or not, I cannot imagine their -permitting flocks of these eminently edible birds to fly circling about -over their houses, within forty yards of the ground. The wild-goose -is proverbially a wary fowl, but here at Council Bluffs they have -apparently become from long immunity as impertinent and careless as -sparrows. - -Council Bluffs, as the pow-wow place of the Red Men in the days when -Iowa was rolling prairie and bison used to browse where horses plough, -has many a quaint legend of the past; and in spite of the frame houses -that are clustered below them and the superb cobweb bridge--it has few -rivals in the world--that here spans the Missouri, the Bluffs, as the -rendezvous of Sagamore and Sachem, stand out from the interminable -plains eloquent of a very picturesque antiquity. And so to Omaha. - -"But I guess, sir, Om'a's a live town. Yes, sir, a live town." - -My experiences of Omaha were too brief for me to be just, too -disagreeable for me to be impartial. Before breakfast I saw a murder -and suicide, and between breakfast and luncheon a fire and several -dog-fights. Perhaps I might have seen something more. But a terrible -dust-storm raged in the streets all day. Besides, I went away. - -I am beginning already to hate "live" towns. - -I. - -It was during the Afghan War. I had just ridden back from General -Roberts' camp in the Thull Valley, on the frontiers of Afghanistan, and -found myself stopped on my return at the Kohat Pass. "It is the orders -of Government," said the sentry: "the Pass is unsafe for travellers." - -But I had to get through the Pass whether it was "safe" or not, for -through it lay the only road to General Browne's camp, to which I was -attached. So I dismounted, and after a great deal of palaver, partly of -bribes, partly of untruths, I not only got past the native sentries, -but got a guide to escort me, through the thirty miles of wild Afridi -defiles that lay before me. The scenery is, I think, among the finest -in the world, while, added to all is the strange fascination of the -knowledge that the people who live in the Pass have cherished from -generation to generation the most vindictive blood feuds. The villages -are surrounded by high walls, loopholed along the top, and the huts in -the inside are built against the wall, so that the roofs of them can -be used by the men of the village as lounges during the day, and as -ramparts for sentries during the night. Within these sullen squares -each clan lives in perpetual siege. The women and children are at all -times permitted to go to and fro; but for the men, woe to him who -happens to stray within reach of the jezails that lie all ready loaded -in the loopholes of the next village. The crops are sown and reaped by -men with guns slung on their backs, and in the middle of every field -stands a martello-tower, in which the peasants can take shelter if -neighbours sally out to attack them while at work. Rope-ladders hang -from a doorway half-way up the tower, and up this, like lizards, the -men scramble, one after the other, as soon as danger threatens, draw in -the ladder, and through the loop-holes overlook their menaced crops. - -A wonderful country truly, and something in the air to day that makes -my guide ride as hard as the road will permit, with his sword drawn -across the saddle before him. My revolver is in my hand. And so we -clatter along, mile after mile, through the beautiful series of little -valleys, grim villages, and towers. Now and again a party of women will -step aside to let us pass, or a dog start up to bark at us, but not a -single man do we see. Yet I know very well that hundreds of men see us -ride by, and that a jezail is lying at every loophole, and covering the -very path we ride on. - -We reach a sudden turn of the path; my guide gallops round it. He is -hardly out of my sight when Bang! bang! It is no use pulling up, and -the next instant I am round the corner too. A man, with his jezail -still smoking from the last shot, starts up from the undergrowth almost -under my horse's feet, and narrowly escapes being ridden down. Another -man comes running down the hillside towards him. In front of me, some -fifty yards off, is my guide, with his horse's head towards me and his -sword in his hand, and on the path, midway between us, lies a heap of -brightly-coloured clothing--a dead Afridi! For a second both guide -and I thought that it was we who had drawn the fire from the ambushed -men. But no, it the poor Afridi lad lying there in the path before -us, and the victim of a blood feud. He had tried, no doubt, to steal -across from his own village to some friendly hamlet close by, but his -lynx-eyed enemies had seen him, and, lying there on either side of his -path, had shot him as he passed. - -But what a group we were! Myself, with my revolver in my hand, looking, -horror-stricken, now at the dead, and now at his murderers; my guide, -in the splendid uniform of the Indian irregular cavalry, emotionless as -only Orientals can be; the two murderers talking together excitedly; in -the middle of us the dead lad! But there was still another figure to be -added, for suddenly, along the very path by which the victim had come, -there came running an old woman--perhaps she had followed the lad with -a mother's tender anxiety for his safety--and in an instant she saw the -worst. Without a glance at any of us, she flung herself down with the -cry of a breaking heart, by the dead boys side, and as my guide turned -to ride on and I followed him, as the murderers slipped away into the -undergrowth, we all heard her crooning, between her sobs, over the body -of her murdered son. - -II. - -I was in Omaha. I had just crossed Thirteenth Street, and, turning to -look as I passed, at the Catholic church, had caught an idle glimpse of -the folk in the street. Among them was a woman at the wooden gateway of -a small house, hesitating, so it seemed to me afterwards, about pushing -it open, for though she had her hand upon the latch, yet she did not -lift it, but appeared to me, at the distance I passed and the cursory -glance I gave, to be listening to what somebody was saying to her -through the window. Had I been only a few yards nearer! At the moment -that I saw her, the wretched woman was gazing with fixed and horrified -eyes upon a face--a grim and cruel face--that glared at her from a -window, and at a gun that she saw was pointed full at her breast. And -the next instant, just as I had turned the corner, there was the report -of fire-arms. It did not occur to me to stop. But suddenly I heard a -cry, and then a second shot, and somehow there flashed upon my mind the -picture of that hesitating woman by the wicket, with her knitted shawl -over her head, and the wind blowing her light dress to one side. - -I did not turn back, however. For the woman and the shots had only the -merest flash of a connexion in my mind. But after a few steps a man -came running past me, going perhaps for the doctor, or the police, -or the coroner, and the scared look on his face suddenly once more -wrenched back to my imagination the woman at the wicket. - -So I turned back into Thirteenth Street, and there, in the middle of -the road, with a man stooping over her and two women, transfixed by -sudden terror into attitudes that were most tragic, I saw the woman -lying. Her face was turned up to the bright sunlit sky, her shawl had -fallen back about her neck, and her hair lay in the dust. She was -already dead. And her murderer? He too had gone to his last account; -and as I stood there in that dreary Omaha road, with the wind raising -wisps of dust about the horror-stricken group, and thought of the two -dead bodies lying there, one in the roadway, the other in the house -close by, my mind reverted involuntarily to the fancy that at that very -moment the two souls, man and wife, were standing before their Maker, -and that perhaps she, the poor mangled woman, was pleading for mercy -for the man, her husband, the lover of her youth--her murderer. - --- - -In the evening, when a cool breeze was blowing, and imagination -pictured the trees holding up screens of green foliage before the -hotel windows to shut out the ugly views of half-built streets, I -entertained feelings that were almost kindly towards Omaha; but the -memory of the day that was happily past, as often as it recurred to -me, changed them to gall again. All day long there had been a flaring, -glaring sun overhead and the wind that was blowing would have done -credit to the deserts through which I have since marched with the army -in Egypt. It went howling down the street with the voices of wild -beasts, and carried with it such simooms of sand as would probably -in a week overwhelm and bury in Ninevite oblivion the buildings of -this aspiring town. And not only sand, but whirlwinds of vulgar dust -also, with occasional discharges of cinders, that came rushing along -the road, picking up all the rubbish it could find, dodging up alleys -and coming out again with accumulations of straw, rampaging into -courtyards in search of paper and rags, standing still in the middle -of the roadway to whirl, and altogether behaving itself just as a -disreputable and aggressive vagabond may be always expected to behave. -Of course I was told it was a "very exceptional" day. It always is a -"very exceptional day" wherever a stranger goes. But I must confess -that I never saw any place--except Aden, and perhaps East London, in -South Africa--that struck me on short acquaintance as so thoroughly -undesirable for a lengthened abode. The big black swine rooting about -in the back yards, the little black boys playing drearily at "marbles" -with bits of stone, the multitude of dogs loafing on the sidewalks, the -depressing irregularity Of the streets, the paucity of shade-trees, -the sandy bluffs that dominate the town and hold over the heads of -the inhabitants the perpetual threat of siroccos, and the general -appearance (however false it may have been) of disorder--all combined -with various degrees of force to give the impression that Omaha is a -place that had from some cause or another been suddenly checked in its -natural expansion. - -Its geographical position is indisputably a commanding one, and already -the great smelting works, with one exception the busiest in the States, -the splendid workshops of the Union Pacific Railway, and the thriving -distillery close by, give promise of the great industries which in the -future this town, with its wonderful advantages of communication, as -the meeting-point of great railway high-roads, will attract to itself. -Omaha has an admirable opera-house, and when its hotel is rebuilt it -will be able to offer visitors good accommodation. It has also an -imposing school-house imposingly advertised by being on top of a hill, -and the refining grace of gardens is not completely absent, while the -"stove-pipe" hat gives fragmentary evidence of advanced civilization. -But all this affords encouragement for the future only; at present -Omaha is a depressing spot. And so I left the town without regret; but -I did not make any effort to shake off the dust of Omaha. That was -impossible; it had penetrated the texture of my clothing so completely -that nothing but shredding my garments into their original threads -would have sufficed. - -Now I had read something of Omaha before I went there, had seen it -called "a splendid Western city," and been invited to linger there -to examine its "dozens of noble monuments to invincible enterprise," -which, with "the dozen or more church spires," are supposed to break -the sky-line of the view of this "metropolis of the North-western -States and Territories." It is possible, therefore, that my profound -disappointment with the reality, after reading such exaggerated -description, may have tinged my opinion of Omaha, and, combined with -the unfortunately "exceptional" day I spent there, have made me think -very poorly of the former capital of Nebraska. That it has a great -future before it, its position alone guarantees, and the enterprise -of Nebraska puts beyond all doubt; but the sight-seer going to Omaha, -and expecting to find it anything but a very new town on a very -unprepossessing site, will be as greatly disappointed as I was. - -Equally unfortunate is the "writing up" which the Valley of the Platte -has received. Who, for instance, that has travelled on the railway -along that great void can read without annoyance of "beautiful valley -landscapes, in which thousands of productive farms, fine farm-houses, -blossoming orchards, and thriving cities" are features of the country -traversed? No one can charge me with a want of sympathy with the -true significance of this wonderful Western country. And I can say, -therefore, without hesitation that the dreariness of the country -between Omaha and Denver Junction is almost inconceivable. There is -hardly even a town worth calling such in sight, much less "thriving -cities." The original prairie lies there spread out, on either hand, -in nearly all its original barrenness. Interminable plains, that -occasionally roll into waves, stretch away to the horizon to right and -left, dotted with skeletons of dead cattle and widely scattered herds -of living ones. Here and there a cow-boy's shed, and here and there a -ranch of the ordinary primitive type, and here and there a dug-out, -are all the "features" of the long ride. An occasional emigrant waggon -perhaps breaks the dull, dead monotony of the landscape, and in one -place there is a solitary bush upon a mound. A hawk floats in the air -above a prairie-dog village. A plover sweeps past with its melancholy -cry. - -No, the journey to North Platte--where a very bad breakfast was put -before us at a dollar a head--is not attractive. But here again it is -the Possible in the future that makes the now desolate scene so full -of interest and so splendidly significant. As a grazing country it -can never, perhaps, be very populous; but in time, of course, those -ranches, now struggling so bravely against terrible odds, will become -"fine farm-houses," and have "blossoming orchards" about them. But as -yet these things are not, and for good, all-round dreariness I would -not know where to send a friend with such confidence as to the pastures -between Omaha and North Platte. - -Oh! when are we to have Pullman palace balloons? Condemned to travel, -my soul and my bones cry out for air-voyaging. - -That some day man should fly like a bird has been, in spite of -superstition, an article of honest belief from the beginning of time, -and in the dove of Archytas alone we have proof enough that, even in -those days, the successful accomplishment of flight was accepted as a -fact of science. During the Middle Ages so common was this belief that -every man who dabbled in physics was pronounced a magician, and as such -was credited with the power of transporting himself through the air -at will. Some, indeed, actually claimed the enviable privilege, Friar -Bacon among others. But history records no practical illustration of -their control of the air, while more than one death is chronicled of -daring men who, with insufficient apparatus, launched themselves in -imitation of birds upon space, and fell, more or less precipitately, to -earth. The Italian who flapped himself off Stirling Castle trusted only -to a pair of huge feather wings, which he had tied on to his arms, and -got no farther on his way to France than the heads of the spectators -at the bottom of the wall; while the Monk of Tübingen started on his -journey from the top of his tower with apparatus that immediately -turned inside out, and increased by its weight the momentum with which -he came down plumb into the street. - -Beyond North Platte the same melancholy expanses again commence, the -same rolling prairies, with the same dead cattle and the same herds of -live ones, an occasional waggon or a stock-yard or snow-fence being -all that interrupts the flat monotony. But approaching Sterling a -suspicion of verdure begins in places to steal over the grey prairie, -and flights of "larks," with a bright, pleasant note, give something -of an air of animation to isolated spots. Here is a plough at work, -the first we have passed, I think, since we left Omaha, and the plover -piping overhead seem to resent the novelty. Cattle continue to dot the -landscape, and all the afternoon the Platte rolls along a sluggish -stream parallel to the track. - -The train happened to slacken pace at one point, and a man came up to -the cars. He was a beggar, and asked our help to get along the road -"eastward." One of his arms was in a sling from an accident, and his -whole appearance eloquent of utter destitution. And the very landscape -pleaded for him. Beggary at any time must be wretchedness, but here in -this bleak waste of pasturage it must almost be despair. And as the -train sped on, the one dismal figure creeping along by the side of the -track, with the dark clouds of a snowstorm coming up to meet him, was -strangely pathetic. - -And then Sterling. May Sterling be forgiven for the dinner it set -before us! - -And then on again, across long leagues of level plain, thickly studded -with prickly pear patches and seamed with the old bison and antelope -tracks leading down from the hills to the river. There are no bison -now. They cannot stand before the stove-pipe hat. The sombreroed -hunter, with his lasso, the necklace of death, was an annoyance to -them; they spent their lives dodging him. The befeathered Indian, "the -chivalry of the prairie," who pincushioned their hides full of arrows, -was a terror to them, and they fell by thousands. But before the -stove-pipe hat the bison fled incontinently by the herd, and have never -returned. - -The prairie-dogs peep out of their holes at us as we passed. The -bashfulness of "Wish-ton-Wish," as the Red Man calls the prairie-dog, -is as nearly impudence as one thing can be another. It sits up perkily -on one end at the edge of its hole till you are close upon it, and -then, with a sudden affectation of being shocked at its own immodesty, -dives headlong into its hole; but its hind-legs are not out of sight -before the head is up again, and the next instant there is the -prairie-dog sitting exactly where you first saw it! Such a burlesque of -shyness I never saw in a quadruped before. - -A solitary coyote was loitering in a hungry way along a gulch, and I -could not help thinking how the most important epochs of one's life -may often turn upon the merest trifles. Now, here was a coyote ambling -lazily up a certain gulch because it had happened to see some white -bones bleaching a little way up it. But in the very next gulch, which -the coyote had not happened to go up, were three half-bred greyhounds -idling about, just in the humour for something to run after. But they -could not see the coyote, though it was really only a few yards off, -nor could the coyote see them. So the dogs lounged about in a listless, -do-nothing, tired-of-life sort of way, thinking existence as dull -as ditch water, while the coyote, unconscious of the narrow escape -of its life that it ran, trotted slowly along--scrutinized the old -bones--scratched its head--yawned out of sheer ennui, and then trotted -along again. Now, what a difference it would have made to those three -dogs if they had only happened to loaf into the next gulch! And what -a prodigious difference it would have made to the coyote if it had -happened to loaf into the next gulch! - -The prickly pear, that ugly, fleshy little cactus, with its sudden -summer glories of crimson and golden blossoms, fulfils a strange -purpose in the animal economy of the prairies. In itself it appears to -be one of the veriest outcasts among vegetables, execrated by man and -refused as food by beast. Yet if it were not for this plant the herds -of prairie antelope would have fared badly enough, for the antelope, -whenever they found themselves in straits from wolves or from dogs, -made straight for the prickly pear patches and belts, and there, -standing right out on the barren, open plain, defied their swift but -tender-footed pursuers to come near them. For the small, thick pads -of the cactus, though they lie so flat and insignificantly upon the -ground, are studded with tufts of strong, fierce spines, and woe to the -wolf or the dog that treads upon them. The antelope's hoofs, however, -are proof against the spines, and one leap across such a belt suffices -to place the horned folk in safety. These patches and belts, then, so -trivial to the eye, and in some places almost invisible to the cursory -glance, are in reality Towers of Refuge to the great edible division of -the wild prairie nations, and as impassable to the eaters as was that -girdle of fire and steel which Von Moltke buckled so closely round the -city of the Napoleons. - -But here we are approaching Denver. The cottonwood has mustered into -clusters, a prototype of the future of these now scattered ranches. -Dotted about here and there in suitable corners, on river bank or under -sheltering bluff, single trees are growing side by side with single -stockyards or single cow-boys' huts, but every now and again, where -nature offers them a good site for a colony, the trees congregate, -select lots, and permanently locate. It is not very different after -all, with human beings. - -Nature here is undoubtedly tempting, and Denver itself must surely be -one of the most beautiful towns in the States. Through great reaches -of splendid farm-land, with water in abundance and the cottonwood and -willow growing thickly, we pass to our destination as the twilight -settles on the country. - -A whole day has again been spent in the train! We had awaked in the -morning to see from the car windows the people of Nebraska going out -to their day's work in the fields, and here in the evening we sit and -watch the Colorado folk coming home to their rest after the day's work -is over. Truly this steam is a Latter-Day apocalypse and this America a -land of magnificent distances. - -I found out on this trip that my fellow-travellers (and the fact holds -good nearly all over America) took the greatest interest in British -India, and finding that I had spent so many years there, they plied me -with questions. On some journeys it would be the political aspect of -our government of Hindostan that interested, at others the commercial -or the social. But going through Colorado, one of the haunts of the -"grizzly" and the "mountain lion," I had to detail my experiences of -sport in India. Above all, the tiger interested them. It is the only -animal in the world that may be said to give the grizzly a point or -two. And there are some even who deny this; but I, who have shot the -tiger, and never seen a grizzly, naturally concede the first place in -perilous courage to Stripes, the raja of the jungle. In one particular -aspect, at any rate, the tiger is supreme among quadrupeds. It has the -splendid audacity to make man his regular food. - -Now, it is generally supposed that the "man-eater" is a specially -formidable variety of the species; that it is only the boldest, -strongest, and fiercest of the tigers that preys on man. But the very -reverse is of course the truth. When hale and strong the tiger avoids -the vicinity of men, finding abundant food in the herds of deer and -other wild animals that share his jungles. But when strength and speed -of limb begin to fail, the brute has to look for easier prey than the -courageous bison or wind-footed antelope, and so skulks among the -ravines and waste patches of woodland that are to be found about nearly -every village. Then when twilight obscures the scene, he creeps out -noiseless as a shadow, and lies in ambush in a crop of standing grain -or bhair-tree brake, and watches the country folk go by from the fields -in twos and threes, driving their plough cattle before them. After a -while, there comes sauntering past alone, a man or a woman who has -lagged behind the company; yet not so far behind but that the friends -ahead can hear the scream which tells of the tiger's leap, though too -far for help to be of use. During four years 350 human beings and -24,000 head of cattle were killed by these animals in one district in -Bombay, while many single tigers have been known to destroy over a -hundred people before they were shot. One in the Mandla district caused -the desertion of thirteen villages and threw out of cultivation two -hundred and fifty square miles of country; while another, only one of -many similar cases, was credited with the appalling total of eighty -human victims per annum! The yearly loss in cattle and by decrease -of cultivation through the ravages of these fearful beasts has been -estimated at ten million pounds sterling! - -No wonder, then, that even these doughty grizzly-slayers of the Rockies -respect the tiger's name. - - - -CHAPTER III. - -IN LEADVILLE. - - The South Park line--Oscar Wilde on sunflowers as food--In a - wash-hand basin--Anti-Vigilance Committees--Leadville the city of - the carbonates--"Busted" millionaires--The philosophy of thick - boots--Colorado miners--National competition in lions--Abuse of the - terms "gentleman" and "lady"--Up at the mines--Under the pine-trees. - -STARTING from Denver for Leadville in the evening, it seemed as if -we were fated to see nothing of the very interesting country through -which the South Park line runs. At first there is nothing to look at -but open prairie land sprinkled with the homesteads of agricultural -pioneers, but as the moon got up there was gradually revealed a -stately succession of mountain ridges, and in about two hours we -found ourselves threading the spurs of the Sangre di Christi range -and following the Platte River up toward its sources. Crossing and -recrossing the cañon, with one side silvered, and the other thrown -into the blackest shadow by the moon, and the noisy stream tumbling -along beside us in its hurry to get down to the lazy levels of the -great Nebraska Valley, I saw glimpses of scenery that can never be -forgotten. It was fantastic in the extreme; for apart from the jugglery -of moonlight, in itself so wonderful always, the ideas of relative -distance and size, even of shape, were upset and ridiculed by the snowy -peaks that here and there thrust themselves up into the sky and by the -patches and streaks of snow that concealed and altered the contour of -the nearer rocks in the most puzzling manner imaginable. And all this -time the little train--for the line is narrow-gauge--kept twisting and -wriggling in and out as if it were in collusion with the hills, and -playing into their hands to disconcert the traveller. - -I have seen at different times great curiosities of engineering, as -in travelling over the Ghats in Western India, where everything is -stupendous and at times even terrific, where danger seems perpetual and -disaster often inevitable. In passing by train from Colombo to Kandy -in Ceylon, and crossing Sensation Rock, the railway cars actually hang -over the precipice, so that when you look out of the window the track -on which you are running is invisible, and you can drop an orange plumb -down the face of this appalling cliff on to the tops of the palm-trees, -which look like little round bushes in the valley down below. From -Durban to Pietermaritzburg again, on the line along which, when it -was first opened, the engine-driver brought out from England refused -to take his train, declaring it to be too dangerous, but along which, -nevertheless, the British troops going up to Zululand were all safely -carried. The South Park line, however, can compare with these, and must -be accepted as one of the acknowledged triumphs of railway enterprise. -For much of its length the rocks had to be fought inch by inch, and -they died hard. The result to-day is a very picturesque and interesting -ride, with a surprise in every mile and beauty all the way. - -On the way to the "City of the Carbonates," I heard much of Leadville -ways and life. That very morning the energetic police of the town had -arrested two young ladies for parading the sunflower and the lily too -conspicuously. One had donned a sunflower for a hat, the other walked -along holding a tall lily in her hand. The Leadville youth had gathered -in disorderly procession behind the aesthetic pair. So the police -arrested the fair causes of the disturbance. - -I told Oscar Wilde of this a few days later. "Poor sweet things!" -said he; "martyrs in the cause of the Beautiful." He was on his way -to Salt Lake City at the time, and I told him how the Mormon capital -was par excellence "the city of sunflowers," and assured him that the -poet's feeding on "gilliflowers rare" was not, after all, too violent -a stretch of imagination, as whole tribes of Indians (and Longfellow -himself has said that every Indian is a poem, which is very nearly -the same thing as a poet) feed on the sunflower. The Apostle of Art -Decoration was delighted. - -"Poor sweet things!" said he; "feed on sunflowers! How charming! If -I could only have stayed and dined with them! But how delightful to -be able to go back to England and say that I have actually been in a -country where whole tribes of men live on sunflowers! The preciousness -of it!" - -It is a fact, probably new to some of my readers: that the wild -sunflower is the characteristic weed of Utah, and that the seeds of the -plant supply the undiscriminating Red Man with an oil-cake which may -agreeably vary a diet of grasshoppers and rattlesnakes, but has not -intrinsically any flavour to recommend it. So South Kensington must not -rush away with the idea that the noble savage who has the Crow for his -"totem," feeds upon the blossoms of the vegetable they worship. It is -the prosaic oil-cake that the Pi-ute eats. - -But all I heard got mixed up eventually into a general idea that every -man in the place who had not committed a murder was a millionaire, and -all those who had not lost their lives had lost a fortune. The mines, -too, got gradually sorted up into two kinds--those that had "five -million now in sight, sir," or those whose "bottoms had fallen out." -But one fact that pleased me particularly was the "Anti-Vigilance" -Committee of Leadville. Every one knows that a "Vigilance Committee" -consists of a certain number of volunteer guardians of the peace, who -call (with a rope) upon strangers visiting their neighbourhood and -offer them the choice of being hanged at once for the offences they -purpose committing or of going elsewhere to commit them. The strangers, -as it transpires in the morning, sometimes choose one course and -sometimes the other. This is all very right and proper, and conduces to -a general good understanding. But in Leadville, the citizens started an -anti-vigilance committee and so the Vigilance Committee sent in their -resignations to themselves--and accepted them. I do not think I ever -heard of a fact so appalling in its significance. But the humour of it -is that the Anti-Vigilance Committee managed somehow to keep the peace -in Leadville as it had never been kept before. - -It reminded me of an incident of the Afghan war. A certain tribe of -hill-men persisted in killing the couriers who carried the post from -one British camp to the other, and the generals were nearly at their -wits' end for means of communication, when the murderers sent in word -offering to carry the post themselves--and did so, faithfully! - -It was in Leadville also that lived the barber who, going forth one -night, was met by two men who told him peremptorily to take his hands -out of his pockets, as they intended to take out all the rest. But he -had nothing in his pockets except two Derringers, so he pulled his -hands out and shot the two men dead where they stood. Next morning -the citizens of Leadville placed the barber in a triumphal chair, and -carried him round the town as a bright example to the public, presented -him with a gold watch and chain as a testimonial of their esteem for -his courage--and then escorted him the first stage out of the town, -advising him never to return. - -But this was in the Leadville of the very remote past--1880 or -thereabouts--and not in the Carbonate City of the present, 1882. The -town is now as quiet as such a town can be, a wonderfully busy place -and a picturesque one. - -And while my companions talked I sat in the wash-hand basin and smoked. -Why the wash-hand basin? Because there was nowhere else to sit. -The "smoking-car" of this particular train happened to be also the -gentlemen's lavatory, a commodious snuggery measuring about eight feet -by five. And as there were only eight smokers on board we were not so -crowded as we should have been if there had been eighteen, and then, -you see, we made more room still by two of the eight staying away. For -the rest, two of us sat in the wash-hand basins, one on a stool between -our legs, another on a stool with his knees against the gentlemen -opposite, and the balance stood. We were an example of tight packing -even to the proverbial sardine. But I found the water-tap at the edge -of the basin an inconvenient circumstance. I would venture to suggest -to American railway companies that for the comfort of smokers when -sitting in the basins they should place these taps a little farther -back. - -I suppose I ought to give some mining statistics about Leadville. But -the very fact that I shall be neglecting an obvious duty if I omit all -statistics, nearly decides me to omit them. The deliberate neglect of -an obvious duty is, however, a luxury which only the very virtuous -can indulge in; and to compromise therefore with the situation, I -would state that the mining output of Leadville is to-day about eleven -times as great as it was two years ago, and that five years ago there -was no output at all. That is to say, this town of Leadville, with a -population, floating and permanent together, of some 40,000 souls, and -yielding from its mines about a thousand dollars per head of the total -population, was five years ago a camp of a few hundred miners, as a -rule so disappointed with the prospect of the place that another year -of the status quo would have seen Leadville deserted. But the secret -of the carbonates being "ore-iferous" was discovered, and Tabor, like -the fossil of some antediluvian giant, was gradually revealed by the -pick of the miner, in all his Plutocratic bulk. A few years ago he -was selling peanuts at the corner of a street. To-day he moves about, -king of Denver, with Leadville for an appanage. His potentiality in -cheques increases yearly by another cipher added to the total, and -drags at each remove a lengthening chain of wealth. Why do men go on -accumulating money when they are already masters of enough? Surely it -is better to be rich than a pauper? But in Colorado this is not the -general opinion. Men there prefer to be ruined rather than be merely -rich. And the result is that you could hardly throw a boot out of the -hotel window without hitting an ex-millionaire. Not that I would advise -anybody to go throwing boots promiscuously out of hotel windows in -Leadville. You would run a good chance of following your boots. - -"Do you see that man there, paring his boot with a knife?" asked my -companion. - -"Yes," said I, "I see him; there is a good deal of him to see." - -"Well," said he, "that's So-and-so. He sold so-and-so for $400,000 -about a year ago. But he busted last Fall. And if you get into -conversation with him, he'll be glad to borrow a dollar from you." - -"Then I shall not get into conversation with him," I replied. - -"And do you see that old fellow on the other side, leaning against the -hitching post, outside the Post Office?" - -"Well," said I, "they seem to be mostly leaning against the -hitching-post, but I presume you mean the gentleman in the middle." - -"Yes," was the reply. "That's So-and-so. He struck the so-and-so, got -$80,000 for his share about six weeks ago--and is busted." - -And so on ad infinitum. The problem was a very puzzling one to me at -first--why do such men make fortunes if they take the first opportunity -of throwing them away? But the solution, I fancy, is this--that these -men do not care for money. It is to them what knowledge is to the -philosopher, a means of acquiring more--worthless in itself, but, as -leading to larger results, worthy of all eagerness in its pursuit. -They do not put Wealth before themselves as an accumulation of current -coins, capable of purchasing everything that makes life materially -pleasant. They contemplate it merely in the bulk. Much in the same way -a whaler never thinks of the number of candles in the spermaceti into -which he has struck a harpoon. He looks at his quarry only as a "ten -barrel" or a "fifteen barrel" whale, as the case may be. He does not -content himself with the illuminating potentialities of the creature -he pursues. He is only anxious as to how it will barrel off, and the -barrels might be pork, or potatoes, or anything else. So with the -man who goes out mine-hunting. He harpoons a lode, lays open so many -"millions" of ore, sells it to a company for a "million" or two, and -straightway goes and "busts" for so many "millions." It does not seem -to concern such a one that a "million" of dollars is so many guineas, -or roubles, or napoleons, or mohurs, and so forth, and that if he goes -on to the end of his life, he can never achieve more than money. His -arithmetic goes mad, and he begins computing from the wrong end of the -line. Ten thousands of dollars make one 50-cent piece, two 50-cent -pieces make one quarter, five quarters make one nickel, five nickels -make one cent, and "quite a lot" of cents make one fortune. So at it he -goes again, trying to foot up a satisfactory balance with thousands for -units--and "busts" before he gets to the end of the sum. - -Leadville itself as I first saw it, ringed in with snow-covered hills, -a bright sun shining and a slight snow falling, remains in my memory -as one of the prettiest scenes in my experience. In Switzerland even -it could hold its own, and triumph. I wandered about its streets and -into its shops and saloons, curious to see some of those men of whom -I had heard so much; but whatever may have been their exercises with -bowie-knife and pistol at a later hour of the day, I was never more -agreeably disappointed than by the manners and bearing of the Leadville -miners early in the morning. - -There is nothing gives a man so much self-reliance as having thick -boots on. This fact I have evolved out of my own consciousness, for -when I was out in the Colonies I often tried to analyze a certain sense -of "independence" which I found taking possession of me. The climate -no doubt was exceptionally invigorating, and I was a great deal on -horseback. But I had been subjected to the same conditions elsewhere -without experiencing the same results. And after a great deal of severe -mental inquiry, I decided that it was--my thick boots! And I was right. -No man can feel properly capable of taking care of himself in slippers. -In patent-leather boots he is little better, and in what are called -"summer walking-shoes" he still finds himself fastidious about puddles, -and at a disadvantage with every man he meets who does not mind a rough -road. But once you begin to thicken the sole, self-reliance commences -to increase, and by the time your boots are as solid as those of a -Colorado miner you should find yourself his equal in "independence." -And some of their boots are prodigious. The soles are over an inch -thick, project in front of the toes perhaps half an inch, and form a -ledge, as it were, all round the foot. What a luxury with such boots it -must be to kick a man! - -The rest of the costume was often in keeping with the shoe leather, and -in every case where the wearers did not belong to the shops and offices -of the town, there was a general attention to strength of material and -personal comfort, at a sacrifice of appearance, which was refreshing -and unconventional. They are a fine set, indeed, this miscellaneous -congregation of nationalities which men call "Colorado diggers." There -is hardly a stupid face among them, and certainly not a cowardly one. -And then compare them with the population of their native places--the -savages of the East of London, the outer barbarians of Scandinavia, the -degraded peasantry of Western Ireland! The contrast is astonishing. -Left in Europe they might have guttered along in helpless poverty -relieved only by intervals of crime, till old age found them in a -workhouse. But here they can insist on every one pretending to think -them "as good as himself" (such is, I believe, the formula of this -preposterous hypocrisy), and, at any rate, may hope for sudden wealth. -Above all, a man here does not go about barefooted, like so many of -his family "at home," or in ragged shoe-leather, like so many more of -them; but stands, and it may even be sleeps, in boots of unimpeachable -solidity. So he goes down the street as if it were his own, planting -his feet firmly at every step, and, not having to trouble himself about -the condition of the footway, keeps his head erect. Depend upon it, -thick boots are one of the secrets of "independence" of character. - -But Leadville, this wonderful town that in four years sprang up from -300 to 30,000 inhabitants, is not entirely a city of miners. On the -day that I was there larger numbers than usual were in the streets, in -consequence of an election then in progress holding out promises of -unusual entertainment. Besides these there is, of course, the permanent -population of commerce and ordinary business; and I was struck here, as -I had not been before since I left Boston, with the natural phenomenon -of a race reverting to an old type. Boston reminded me at times of some -old English cathedral city. Leadville was like some thriving provincial -town. The men would not have looked out of place in the street, say, -of Reading; while the women, in their quiet and somewhat old-fashioned -style of dressing, reminded me very curiously of rural England. Indeed, -I do not think my anticipations have ever been so completely upset -as in Leadville. All the way from New York I have been told to wait -"till I got to Colorado" before I ventured to speak of rough life, and -Leadville itself was sometimes particularized to me as the Ultima Thule -of civilization, the vanishing-point of refinement. - -But not only is Leadville not "rough;" it is even flirting with the -refinements of life. It has an opera-house, a good drive for evening -recreation, and a florist's shop. There were not many plants in it, it -is true, but they were nearly all of them of the pleasant old English -kinds--geraniums, pansies, pinks, and mignonette. Two other shops -interested me, one stocked with mineral specimens--malachite, agate, -amethyst, quartz, blood-stone, onyx, and an infinite variety of pieces -of ore, gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, bismuth, and sulphur--with -which pretty settings are made, of a quaint grotto-work kind, for -clocks and inkstands. The other a naturalist's shop, in which, besides -fossils, exquisite leaves in stone and petrified tree-fragments, I -found the commencement of a zoological collection--the lynx with its -comfortable snow-coat on, and the grey mountain wolf not less cozily -dressed; squirrels, black and grey, "the creatures that sit in the -shade of their tails," and the "friends of Hiawatha" with various -birds--the sage hen and the prairie chicken, the magpie (very like the -English bird), and the "lark,"--a very inadequate substitute indeed for -the bird that "at Heaven's gate sings," that has been sanctified to -all time by Shelley, and the idol of the poets of the Old World--and -heads of large game, horned and antlered, and the skin of a "lion." -It is a curious fact that every country should thus insist on having -a lion. For the real African animal himself I entertain only a very -qualified respect. For some of his substitutes, the panther of Sumatra -and the Far East, the (now extinct) cat of Australia, and the puma of -the United States, that respect is even more moderate in degree. "The -American lion" is, in fact, about as much like the original article as -the American "muffin" is like the seductive but saddening thing from -which it takes its name. The puma, which is its proper name, is the -least imposing of all the larger cats. It cannot compare even with the -jaguar, and would not be recognized by the true lion, or by the tiger, -as being a kinsman. It is just as true of lions as it is of Glenfield -starch--"when you ask for it, see that you get it." I admit that it is -very creditable to America that in the great competition of nations -she should insist on not being left behind even in the matter of -lions, but surely it would be more becoming to her vast resources and -her undeniable enterprise if she imported some of the genuine breed, -instead of, as at present, putting up with such a shabby compromise as -the puma. - -This tendency to exaggeration in terms has I know been very frequently -commented upon. But I don't remember having heard it suggested that -this grandiosity must in the long-run have a detrimental effect -upon national advancement. Presuming for instance that an American -understands the real meaning of the word "city," what gross and -ridiculous notions of self-importance second-class villages must -acquire by hearing themselves spoken of as "cities." Or supposing that -one understands the real meaning of the word "lady," how comes it that -an ill-bred, ill-mannered chambermaid is always spoken of as a "lady"? -If the name is only given in courtesy, why not call them princesses at -once and rescue the nobler word from its present miserable degradation? - -I was in the Chicago Hotel and a coloured porter was unstrapping my -luggage. I rang the bell for a message boy, and on another black -servant appearing I gave him a written note to take down to the -manager. But in that insolent manner so very prevalent among the -blacker hotel servants in America, he said: "That other gentleman will -take it down." "Other gentleman!" I gasped out in astonishment; "there -is only one gentleman in this room, and two negro servants. And if," I -continued, forgetting that I was in America, and rising from my chair, -"you are not off as fast as you can go, I'll--" But the "gentleman" -fled so precipitately with my message that I got no further. - -Now could anything be more preposterous than this poor creature's -attempt to vindicate his right to the flattering title conferred upon -him by the Boots, and which he in turn conferred upon the Barman, until -everybody in the hotel, from the Manager downwards, was involved in an -absurd entanglement of mutual compliments? It may of course be laughed -at as a popular humour. But a stranger like myself is perpetually -recognizing the mischief which this absurd want of moral courage and -self-respect in the upper classes is working in the country. Nor -have Americans any grounds whatever to suppose that this sense of -"courtesy" is peculiar to them. It is common to every race in the -world, and most conspicuous in the lowest. The Kaffirs of Africa and -the Red Indians address each other with titles almost as fulsome as -"gentleman," while in India, the home of courtesy and good breeding, -the natives of the higher castes address the very lowest by the title -of Maharaj("great prince"). It is accepted by the recipient exactly in -the spirit in which it is meant. He understands that the higher classes -do not wish to offend him by calling him by his real name, and his -Oriental good taste tells him that any intermediate appellation might -be misconstrued. So he calls himself, as he is called, by the highest -title in the land. There is no danger here of any mistake. Every one -knows that the misfortune of birth or other "circumstances beyond -his control" have made him a menial. But no one tells him so. He is -"Maharaj." - -For myself, I adopted the plan of addressing every negro servant as a -"Sultan." It was not abusive and sounded well. He did not know what it -meant any more than he knows the meaning of "gentleman," but I saved my -self-respect by not pretending to put him on an equality with myself. - -At Leadville the hotel servants are white men, and the result is -civility. But I was in the humour at Leadville to be pleased with -everything. The day was divine, the landscape enchanting, and the men -with their rough riding-costumes, strange, home-made-looking horses, -Mexican saddles (which I now for the first time saw in general use) and -preposterous "stirrups," interested me immensely. Of course I went up -to a mine, and, of course, went down it. And what struck me most during -the expedition? Well, the sound of the wind in the pine-trees. - -It was a delightful walk--away up out of the town, with its suburbs of -mimic pinewood "chalets" and rough log-huts, and the hills all round -sloping back from the plateau so finely, patched and powdered with -snow-drifts, fringed and crowned with pine-trees, here darkened with -a forest of them, there dotted with single trees, and over all, the -Swiss magic of sunlight and shadow; away up the hill-side, through a -wilderness of broken bottles and battered meat cans, a very paradise -of rag-pickers, among which are scattered the tiny homes of the -miners. Women were busy chopping wood and bringing in water. Children -were romping in parties. But the men, their husbands and fathers, -were all up at the mines at work, invisible, in the bowels of the -mountain; keeping the kobolds company, and throwing up as they went -great hillocks of rubbish behind them like some gigantic species of -mole, or burrowing armadillo of the old glyptodon type. And so on, up -the shingle-strewn hillside thickly studded with charred tree-stumps, -desolation itself--a veritable graveyard of dead pine-trees. Above -us, on the crest of the mountain, the forest was still standing, and -long before we reached them we heard the wind-haunted trees of Pan -telling their griefs to the hills. It is a wonderful music, this of -the pine-trees, for it has fascinated every people among whom they -grow, from the bear-goblin haunts of Asiatic Kurdistan through the -elf-plagued forests of Germany to the spirit-land of the Canadian -Indians. It is indeed a mystery, this voice in the tree-tops, with all -the tones of an organ--the vox-humana stop wonderful--and in addition -all the sounds of nature, from the sonorous diapason of the ocean to -the whisperings of the reed-beds by the river. When I came upon them -in Leadville the pines were rehearsing, I think, for a storm that was -coming. Lower down the slope, the trees were standing as quiet as -possible, and in the town itself at the bottom of the hill the smoke -was rising straight. But up here, at the top, under the pine-trees, -the first act of a tempest was in full rehearsal. And all this time -wandering about, I had not seen one single living soul. There stood the -sheds built over the mines. But no one was about. At the door of one -of them was a cart with its horses. But no driver. This extraordinary -absence of life gave the hill-top a strange solemnity--and though I -knew that under my feet the earth was alive with human beings, and -though every now and then a little pipe sticking out of a shed would -suddenly snort and give about fifty little angry puffs at the rate -of a thousand a minute, the utter solitude was so fascinating that I -understood at once why pine-covered mountains, especially where mines -are worked, should all the world over be such favourite sites in legend -and ballad for the home of elfin and goblin folk. - -The afternoon was passing before I set out homeward and I could hardly -get along, so often did I turn round to look back at the views behind -me. And in front, and on either side, were the hills, with their hidden -hoards of silver and lead, watching the town, whence they know the -miners will some day issue to attack them, and on their slopes lay -mustered the shattered battalions of their pines, here looking as if -invading the town, into which their skirmishers, dotted about among the -houses, had already fought their way; there, as if they were retreating -up the hillside with their ranks closed against the houses that pursued -them, or straggling away up the slopes and over the crest in all the -disorder of defeat. - -And so, down on to the level of the plateau again, with its traffic and -animation and all the busy life of a hardworking town. - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -FROM LEADVILLE TO SALT LAKE CITY. - - What is the conductor of a Pullman Car?--Cannibalism fatal to - lasting friendships--Starving Peter to feed Paul--Connexion - between Irish cookery and Parnellism--Americans not smokers--In - Denver--"The Queen City of the Plains"--Over the Rockies--Pride in - a cow, and what came of it--Sage-brush--Would ostriches pay in the - West?--Echo canyon--The Mormons' fortifications--Great Salt Lake in - sight. - -WHAT is the "conductor" of a Pullman car? Is he a private gentleman -travelling for his pleasure, a duke in disguise, or is he a servant -of the company placed on the cars to see to the comfort, &c., of the -company's customers? I should like to know, for sometimes I have been -puzzled to find out. The porter is an admirable institution, when he -is amenable to reason, and I have been fortunate enough to find myself -often entrusted to perfectly rational specimens. The experiences of -travellers have, as I know from their books, been sometimes very -different from mine--ladies, especially, complaining--but for myself I -consider the Union Pacific admirably manned. - -But it is a great misfortune that the company do not run hotel cars. -I was told that the reason why we were made over helplessly to such -caterers as those at North Platte and Sterling for our food was, that -the custom of passengers is almost the only source of revenue the -"eating-houses" along the line can depend upon. Without the custom of -passengers they would expire--atrophise--become deceased. What I want -to know is why they should not expire. I, as a traveller, see no reason -whatever, no necessity, for their being kept alive at a cost of so -much suffering to the company's customers. Let them decease, or else -establish a claim to public support. During a long railway journey the -system is temporarily deranged and appetites are irregular, so that -some people can not eat when they have the opportunity, and when they -could eat, do not get it. Some day, no doubt, a horrible cannibalic -outrage on the cars will awaken the directors to the peril of carrying -starving passengers, and the luxury of the hotel-car will be instituted. - -Not that I could censure the poor men of the South Seas or Central -Africa for eating each other. There seems to me something a trifle -admirable in this economy of their food. But cannibalism must, in the -very nature of it, be deterrent to the formation of lasting friendships -between strangers. So long as two men look upon each other as possible -side dishes, there can be no permanent cordiality between them. Mutual -confidence, the great charm of sincere friendship, must be wanting. You -could never be altogether at your ease in a company which discussed the -best stuffing for you. - -Meanwhile, the custom of carrying their own provisions is increasing in -favour among passengers, so that, hotel cars or not, these Barmecide -"eating-houses" may yet expire from inanition. The waiting (done by -girls) is, I ought to say, admirable--but then so it was at Sancho -Panza's supper and at Duke Humphrey's dinner-table. And yet the hungry -went empty away. - -Between Cheyenne and Ogden the commissariat is distinctly better, and -the unprovided traveller triumphs mildly over the more careful who have -carried their own provisions. But, striking a balance on the whole -journey, there is no doubt that the comfort of the trip, some sixty odd -hours, from Omaha to Ogden, is materially increased by starting with a -private stock of food. Bitter herbs without indigestion is better than -a stalled ox with dyspepsia. - -An old Roman epicure gravely expressed his opinion that Africa could -never be a progressive country, inasmuch as its shrimps were so small. -And I think I may venture to say that if the cookery in the central -States does not improve, the country must gradually drift backwards -into barbarism. For there is a most intimate connexion between cookery -and civilization. - -It is the duty of the historian, and not the task of the traveller, -to trace national catastrophes to their real causes--often to be -found concealed under much adventitious matter, and when found often -surprising from their insignificance--and I leave it, therefore, to -others to specify the particular feature of Irish cookery that tends to -create a disinclination to paying rent. - -That the agitated demeanour of the after-dinner speakers during Irish -tenant-right meetings' was due solely to the infuriating and ferocious -course of food to which they had just submitted, is as certain as that -the extraordinary class of noises, cavernous and hollow-sounding, -produced by their applausive audiences was owing to the fact that they -had not dined at all. In the West of Ireland (where I travelled with -those "experts in constitutional treason" who were then organizing the -"No Rent" agitation), the agitators and conspirators had no time for -long dinners, as the mobs outside were as impatient as hunger, so they -sat down, invariably, to everything at once--mutton, bacon, sausages, -turkey and ham, with relays of hot potatoes every two minutes. While -one conspirator was addressing the peasantry, the upper half of his -body thrust out of the lower half of the window, and only his legs in -the dining-room, the rest were eating against time, and as soon as the -speaker's legs were seen to get up on tiptoe, which they always did for -the peroration, the next to speak had to rise from his food. The result -was of course incoherent violence. But a closer analysis is required to -detect the causes of Irish dislike to rent. - -That it would be eventually found that potatoes and patriotism have -an occult affnity I have no doubt; but, as I have said above, such -research more properly belongs to the province of the historian. The -Spartan stirring his black broth with a spear revealed his nature at -once, and the single act of the Scythians, using their beefsteaks -for saddles until they wanted to eat them, gives at a glance their -character to the nation. - -At any rate, it is as old as Athenaeus that "to cookery we owe -well-ordered States;" for States result from the congregation of -individuals in towns, and towns are the sum of agglomerated households, -and households, it is notorious, never combine except for the sociable -consumption of food. So long as, in the Dark Ages, every man cooked -for himself, or, in the primitive days of cannibalism, helped himself -to a piece of a raw neighbour, there could be no friendly heartiness -at meals; but, as soon as cooks appeared, men met fearlessly round a -common board, towns grew up round the dinner-table, and, as Athenaeus -remarks, well-ordered States grew up round the towns. But if we were -to judge of the prospects of the people who live, say, about Green -River or North Platte, by the character of the food (as supplied to -travellers) the opinion could not be very complimentary or encouraging. - -It is a prevalent idea in England that Americans smoke prodigiously, -even as compared with "the average Britisher." Now, in America there -is very little smoking. You may perhaps think I am wrong. A great many -Americans, I allow, buy cigars in the most reckless fashion. But (apart -from the fact that cigars are not necessarily tobacco) I find that as -a rule they throw away more than they smoke. Speaking roughly, then, I -should say so-called "smokers" in this country might be divided into -three classes: those who buy cigars because they cost money; those -who buy them because cigars give them a decent excuse for spitting; -and those who buy them under the delusion that the friend who is with -them smokes, and that hospitality or courtesy requires that they -should humour his infatuation. Of the trifling residue, the men who -smoke because, as they put it, "they like it," it is not worth while -to speak. Now, one of the results of this general aversion to tobacco -is that when a foreigner addicted to the weed comes over and tries to -smoke, he is hunted about so, that (as I have often done myself) he -longs to be in his coffin, if only to get a quiet corner for a pipe. In -hotels they hunt you down, floor by floor, till they get you on to a -level with the street, and then from room to room till they get you out -on to the pavement. There is nowhere where you can read and smoke--or -write and smoke--or have a quiet chat with a friend over a pipe--or in -fact smoke at all, in the respectable, civilized, Christian sense of -the word. Of course, if you like, you can "smoke" in the public hall -of the hotel. But I would just as soon sit out on the kerbstone at the -corner of the street as among a crowd of men holding cigars in their -mouths and shouting business. Out on the kerbstone I should at any rate -find the saving grace of passing female society. In private houses -again, smokers are consigned to the knuckle end of the domicile and -the waste corners thereof, as if they snatched a fearful joy from some -secret fetish rites, or had to go apart into privacy to indulge in a -little surreptitious cannibalism. In the streets, friends do not like -you to smoke when with them, and there are very few public conveyances -in which tobacco is comfortably possible. - -In trains there is a most conspicuous neglect of smokers. I found, for -instance, on my journey from New York to Chicago, that the only place I -could smoke in was the end compartment of the fourth car from my own. -That is to say, let it be as stormy and dark as it may, you have to -pass from other car to the other half the length of the train, and when -you do get to "the smoking compartment" you find it is only intended to -hold five passengers. I confess I am surprised that these palace cars, -otherwise so agreeable, should be such hovel cars for smokers. Nor, by -the way, seeing that the company specially notifies that the passage -from one car to the other is "dangerous" while the train is in motion, -do I think it fair that smokers should be encouraged, and indeed -compelled, to run bodily risks in order to arrive at their tobacco. -Some day no doubt there will be Pullman smoking cars, and when there -are--I will find something else to grumble at. - -Imagine then my astonishment when arriving at the Windsor Hotel at -Denver, I was shown into a bona-fide smoking-room, with cosy chairs, -well carpeted, with a writing table properly furnished, all the -newspapers of the day, and a roaring fire in an open fireplace! Here -at last was civilization. Here was a room where a man might sit with -self-respect, and enjoy his pipe over a newspaper, smoke while he wrote -a letter, foregather over tobacco with a friend in a quiet corner! No -noise of loquacious strangers, no mob of outsiders to make the room -as common as the street, no fusillade of expectoration, no stove to -desiccate you--above all, no coloured "gentleman" to come in and say, -"Smoke nut 'lard here, sar!" I was delighted. But my curiosity, at such -an aberration into intelligence, led me to confide in the manager. - -"How is it," I asked, "you have got what no other hotel in America that -I have stayed in has got--a comfortable smoking-room after the English -style?" - -"Guess," said he, "because an English company built this hotel!" - -And I went upstairs, at peace with myself and all English companies. - -The first view of Denver is very prepossessing, and further -acquaintance begets better liking. Indeed on going into the streets of -"the Queen City of the Plains" I was astonished. The buildings are of -brick or stone, its roads are good and level, and well planted with -shade-trees, its suburbs are orderly rows of pretty villas, adorned -with lawn, and shrubs, and flowers. Though one of the very youngest -towns of the West, it has already an air of solidity and permanence -which is very striking, while on such a day as I saw it, it is also -one of the very cleanest and airiest. And the snow-capped hills are in -sight all round. - -Particularly notable in Denver are its railway station--and yet, -with all its size, it is found too small for the rapidly increasing -requirements of the district--and the Tabor Opera-House. This is really -a beautiful building inside, with its lavish upholstery, its charming -"ladies' rooms," and smoking-rooms, its variety of handsome stone, its -carved cherry-wood fittings, its perfectly sumptuous boxes. The stage -is nearly as large as that at Her Majesty's, quite as large as any in -New York, while in general appointments and in novelty of ornaments, -it has very few rivals in all Europe. In one point, the beauty of the -mise-en-scene from the gallery, the Denver house certainly stands quite -alone, for whereas in all other theatres or opera-houses, "the gods" -find themselves up in the attics, as it were, with only white-washed -walls about them, and the sides of the stage shut out from view, here -they are in handsomely furnished galleries, with a clear view of the -whole stage over the tops of the pagoda-roofed boxes--these curious -"pepper-box" roofs being themselves a handsome ornament to the scene. -By having only a limited number of "stalls" on the level, sloping the -"pit" up to the "grand tier," and making the stage nearly occupy the -whole width of the house, everybody in the building gets an equally -good view of the stage. It is indeed an opera-house to be proud of; and -Denver is proud of it. - -There is an idea sometimes mooted that Denver has been run on too fast; -that it has "seen its day," and may be as suddenly deserted as it has -been peopled. But there is absolutely no chance of this whatever. -Colorado is as yet only in its cradle, and the older it gets the more -substantial will Denver become, for this city--and very soon it will -be almost worthy of that name--is the Paris of "the Centennial State," -the ultimate ambition of the moderately successful miner. It is not a -place to make your money in and leave. But having made your money, to -go to and live in. For a man or woman must be very fastidious indeed -who cannot be content to settle down in this, one of the prettiest and -healthiest towns I have ever visited. Denver accordingly is attracting -to it, year by year, a larger number of that class of citizens upon -which alone the permanent prosperity of a town can depend, the men of -moderate capital, satisfied with a fair return from sound investments, -who put their money into local concerns, and make the place their -"home." - -I left Denver in the early morning. Outside the station were standing -five trains all waiting to be off, and one by one their doleful bells -began to toll, and one by one they sneaked away. Ours was the last to -be off; but at length we too got our signal: that is to say, the porter -picked up the stool which is placed on the platform for the convenience -of short-legged passengers stepping into the cars--and without a word -we crept off, as if the train was going to a funeral, or was ashamed -of something it had done. This silent, casual departure of trains -is a perpetually recurring surprise to me. Would it be contrary to -republican principles to ring a bell for the warning of passengers? One -result, however, of this surreptitious method of making off, is that -no one is ever left behind. Such is the perversity of human nature! In -England people are being perpetually "left behind" because they think -such a catastrophe to be impossible. In America they are never left -behind, because they are always certain they will be. - -At first the country threatened a repetition of the old prairie, made -more dismal than ever by our recent experiences of the Switzerland of -Colorado. But the scene gradually picked up a feature here and there as -we went along, and knowing that we were climbing up "the Rockies," we -had always present with us the pleasures of hope. But if you wish to -see the Rocky Mountains so as to respect them, do not travel over them -in a train. They are a fraud, so far as they can be seen from a car -window. But in minor points of interest they abound. Curious boulders, -of immense size and wonderful shapes, lie strewn about the ground, all -water-worn by the torrents of a long-ago age, and some of them pierced -with holes--the work of primeval shell-fish. Beds of river gravel -cover the slopes, and on every side were abundant vestiges of deluges, -themselves antediluvian. And then we came upon isolated cliffs of red -sandstone, with kranzes running along their faces--exactly the same -kranzes as the Zulus made such good use of during the war--and showing -in their irregular bases how old-world torrents had washed away the -clay and softer materials that had once no doubt joined these isolated -cliffs together into a chain of hills, and had left the sandstone heart -of each hill bare and alone. And so on, up over "the Divide" into -Wyoming, still a paradise for the ride and the rod, past Cheyenne, a -town of many shattered hopes, and out into the region of snow again. - -Our engine was perpetually screaming to the cattle to get off the -track, a series of short, sharp screams that ought to have sufficed -to have warned even cattle to get out of the way. As a rule they -recognized the advisability of leaving the rails, but one wretched -cow, whether she was deaf, or whether she was stupid, or whether, like -Cole's dog, she was too proud to move, I cannot say, but in spite of -the screams of the engine she held her ground and got the worst of the -collision. The cow-catcher struck her, and as we passed her, the poor -beast lay in the blood-mottled snow-drift at the bottom of the bank, -still breathing, but almost dead. As for the train, the cow might have -been only a fly. - -And so we went on climbing--herds of cattle grazing on the slopes, and -in the splendid "parks" which lay stretched out beneath us wherever -the hills stood far apart--with frequent snow-sheds interrupting all -conversation or reading with their tunnel-like intervals, till we -reached the Red Granite canyon, with great masses of that splendid -stone fairly mobbing the narrow course of a mountain stream, and -beyond them snow--snow--snow, stretching away to the sky-line without -a break. And then Sherman, the highest point of the mountains -upon the whole line--only some 8000 feet though, all told--with a -half-constructed monument to Oakes Ames crowning the summit. When -finished, this massive cone of solid granite blocks will be sixty feet -high. And then on to the Laramie Plains, with some wonderful reaches -of grazing-ground, and almost fabulous records of ranching profits, -And here is Laramie itself, that will some day be a city, for timber -and minerals and stock will all combine to enrich it. But to-day it is -desolate enough, muffed up in winter, with snowbirds in great flights -flecking the white ground. And so out again into the snow wilderness, -here and there cattle snuffing about on the desolate hill-sides, and -snow-sheds--timber-covered ways to prevent the snow drifting on to the -track--becoming more frequent, and the white desolation growing every -mile more utter. And the moon got up to confuse the horizon of land -with the background of the sky. And so to sleep, with dreams of the -Arctic regions, and possibilities, the dreariest in the world, of being -snowed up on the line. - -Awakening with snow still all round us, and snow falling heavily as we -reach Green River. And then out into a country, prodigiously rich, I -was told, in petroleum, but in which I could only see that sage-brush -was again asserting its claims to be seen above the snow-drift, and -that wonderful arrangements in red stone thrust themselves up from -the hill crests. Terraces reminding me of miniature table-mountains -such as South Africa affects; sharply scarped pinnacles jutting from -the ridges like the Mauritius peaks; plateaux with isolated piles -of boulders; upright blocks shaped into the semblance of chimneys; -crests broken into battlements, and--most striking mimicry of all snow -wildernesses--a reproduction in natural rock of the great fortress of -Deeg, in India. With snow instead of water, the imitation of that vast -buttressed pile was singularly exact, and if there had been only a -brazen sun overhead and a coppery sky flecked with circling kites, the -counterfeit would have been perfect. But Deeg would crumble to pieces -with astonishment if snow were to fall near it, while here there was -enough to content a polar bear. - -What a pity sage brush--the "three-toothed artemisia" of science--has -no commercial value. Fortunes would be cheap if it had. But I heard at -Leadville that a local chemist had treated the plant after the manner -of cinchona, and extracted from its bark a febrifuge with which he -was about to astonish the medical world and bankrupt quinine. That it -has a valuable principle in cases of fever, its use by the Indians -goes a little way to prove, while its medicinal properties are very -generally vouched for by its being used in the West as an application -for the cure of toothache, as a poultice for swellings, and a lotion -("sage oil") for erysipelas, rheumatism, and other ailments. Some day, -perhaps, a fortune will be made out of it, but at present its chief -value seems to be as a moral discipline to the settler and as covert -for the sage-hen. - -Would not the ostrich thrive upon some of these prodigious tracts of -unalterable land? Can all America not match the African karoo shrub, -which the camel-sparrow loves? Ostrich farming has some special -recommendations, especially for "the sons of gentlemen" and others -disinclined for arduous labour, who have not much of either money or -brains to start with. Is it not a matter of common notoriety that when -pursued this fowl buries its head in the sand, and thus, of course, -falls an easy prey to the intending farmer? If, on the other hand, -he does not want the whole of the bird, he has only to stand by and -pluck its feathers out, which, having its head buried, it cannot, of -course perceive. (These feathers fetch a high price in the market.) -Supposing, however, that the adventurous emigrant wishes to undertake -ostrich farming bona fide, he has merely to pull the birds out from the -sand, and drive them into an enclosure--which he will, of course, have -previously made--and sit on the gate and watch them lay their eggs. -When they lay eggs, ostriches--this is also notorious--bury them in the -sand and desert them, and the gentleman's son on the fence can then -go and pick them out of the sand. (Ostriches' eggs fetch five pounds -apiece.) These birds, moreover, cost very little for feeding, as they -prefer pebbles. They can, therefore, be profitably cultivated on the -sea beach. But I would remind intending farmers that ostriches are very -nimble on their feet. It is also notorious that they have a shrewd way -of kicking. A kick from an ostrich will break a cab-horse in two. The -intending farmer, therefore, when he has compelled the foolish bird to -bury its head in the sand and is plucking out its tail feathers, should -stand well clear of the legs. This is a practical hint. - -We dined at Evanston, neat-handed abigails, as usual, handing round -dishes fearfully and wonderfully made out of old satchels and seasoned -with varnish. There is a Chinese quarter here, with its curious -congregation of celestial hovels all plastered over with, apparently, -the labels of tea-chests. I should think the Chinese were all self-made -men. At any rate they do not seem to me to have been made by any one -who knew how to do it properly. - -However, we had not much time to look at them, for cows on the track -and one thing and another had made us rather late; so we were very soon -off again, the travellers, after their hurried and indigestible meal, -feeling very much like the jumping frog, after he couldn't jump, by -reason of quail shot. - -The snow had been gradually disappearing, and as we approached Echo -canyon we found ourselves gliding into scenes that in summer are very -beautiful indeed, with their turf and willow-fringed streams and -abundant vegetation. And then, by gradual instalments of rock, each -grander than the next, the great canyon came upon us. What a superb -defile this is! It moves along like some majestic poem in a series of -incomparable stanzas. There is nothing like it in the Himalayas that I -know of, nor in the Suleiman range. In the Bolan Pass, on the Afghan -frontier, there are intervals of equal sublimity; and even as a whole -it may compare with it. But taken all for all--its length (some thirty -miles), its astonishing diversity of contour, its beauty as well as -its grandeur--I confess the Echo canyon is one of the masterpieces -of Nature. I can speak of course only of what I have seen. I do not -doubt that the Grand canyon in Arizona, which is said to throw all the -wonders of Colorado and the marvels of Yellowstone or Yosemite into -the shade, would dwarf the highway to Utah, but within my experience -the Echo is almost incomparable. It would be very difficult to convey -any idea of this glorious confusion of crags. But imagine some vast -city of Cyclopean architecture built on the crest and face of gigantic -cliffs of ruddy stone. Imagine, then, that ages of rain had washed away -all the minor buildings, leaving only the battlements of the city, the -steeples of its churches, its causeways and buttresses, and the stacks -of its tallest chimneys still standing where they had been built. If -you can imagine this, you can imagine anything, even Echo canyon--but I -must confess that my attempt at description does not recall the scene -to me in the least. - -However, I passed through it and, up on the crest of a very awkward -cliff for troops to scale under fire, had pointed out to me the -stone-works which the Mormons built when they went out in 1857 to stop -the advance of the Federal army. - -And there is no doubt of it that the passage of that defile, even with -such rough defences as the Saints had thrown up, would have cost the -army very dear. For these stone-works, like the Afghans' sunghums, and -intended, of course for cover against small arms only, were carried -along the crest of the cliffs for some miles, and each group was -connected with the next by a covered way, while in the bed of the -stream below, ditches had been dug (some six feet deep and twenty -wide), right across from cliff to cliff, and a dam constructed just -beyond the first ditch which in an hour or two would have converted -the whole canyon for a mile or so into a level sheet of water. On -this dam the Mormon guns were masked, and though, of course, the -Federal artillery would soon have knocked them off into the water, a -few rounds at such a range and raking the army--clubbed as it would -probably have been at the ditches--must have proved terribly effective. -This position, moreover, though it could be easily turned by a force -diverging to the right before it entered the canyon, could hardly be -turned by one that had already entered it. And to attempt to storm -those heights, with men of the calibre of the Transvaal Dutchmen -holding them, would have been splendid heroism--or worse. - -And then Weber canyon, with its repetitions of castellated cliffs, and -its mimicry of buttress and barbican, bastion and demilune, tower and -turret, and moat and keep, and all the other feudal appurtenances of -the fortalice that were so dear to the author of "Kenilworth," with -pine-trees climbing up the slopes all aslant, and undergrowth that -in summer is full of charms. The stream has become a river, and fine -meadows and corn-land lie all along its bank; large herds of cattle -and companies of horses graze on the hill slopes, and wild life is -abundant. Birds are flying about the valley under the supervision of -buzzards that float in the air, half-mountain high, and among the -willowed nooks parties of moor-hens enjoy life. And so into Ogden. - -Night was closing in fast, and soon the country was in darkness. -Between Ogden and the City of the Saints lay a two hours' gap of -dulness, and then on a sudden I saw out in front of me a thin white -line lying under the hills that shut in the valley. - -"That, sir? That is Salt Lake." - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE CITY OF THE HONEY-BEE. - - Zion--Deseret--A City of Two Peoples--"Work" the watchword of - Mormonism--A few facts to the credit of the Saints--The text of the - Edmunds Bill--In the Mormon Tabernacle--The closing scene of the - Conference. - -I HAVE described in my time many cities, both of the east and west; but -the City of the Saints puzzles me. It is the young rival of Mecca, the -Zion of the Mormons, the Latter-Day Jerusalem. It is also the City of -the Honey-bee, "Deseret," and the City of the Sunflower--an encampment -as of pastoral tribes, the tented capital of some Hyksos, "Shepherd -Kings"--the rural seat of a modern patriarchal democracy; the place -of the tabernacle of an ancient prophet-ruled Theocracy--the point -round which great future perplexities for America are gathering fast; -a political storm centre--"a land fresh, as it were, from the hands of -God;" a beautiful Goshen of tranquility in the midst of a troublous -Egypt--a city of mystery, that seems to the ignorant some Alamut or -"Vulture's Nest" of an Assassin sect; the eyrie of an "Old Man of -the Mountains:"--to the well-informed the Benares of a sternly pious -people; the templed city of an exacting God--a place of pilgrimage -in the land of promise, the home of the "Lion of Judah," and the -rallying-point in the last days of the Lost Tribes, the Lamanites, the -Red Indians--the capital of a Territory in which the people, though -"Americans," refuse to make haste to get rich; to dig out the gold and -silver which they know abounds in their mountains; to enter the world's -markets as competitors in the race of commerce--a people content with -solid comfort; that will not tolerate either a beggar or a millionaire -within their borders, but insist on a uniform standard of substantial -well-being, and devote all the surplus to "building up of Zion," to -the emigration of the foreign poor and the erection of splendid places -of ceremonial worship--a Territory in which the towns are all filled -thick with trees and the air is sweet with the fragrance of fruit and -flowers, and the voices of birds and bees as if the land was still -their wild birthright; in which meadows with herds of cattle and horses -are gradually overspreading deserts hitherto the wild pashalik of the -tyrant sage-brush--a land, alternately, of populous champaign and -of desolate sand waste, with, as its capital, a City of Two Peoples -between whom there is a bitterness of animosity, such as, in far-off -Persia, even Sunni and Shea hardly know. - -Indeed, there are so many sides to Salt Lake City, and so much that -might be said of each, that I should perhaps have shirked this part of -my experiences altogether were I not conscious of possessing, at any -rate, one advantage over all my "Gentile" predecessors who have written -of this Mecca of the West. For it was my good fortune to be entertained -as a guest in the household of a prominent Mormon Apostle, a -polygamist, and in this way to have had opportunities for the frankest -conversation with many of the leading Mormons of the territory. My -candidly avowed antipathy to polygamy made no difference anywhere I -went, for they extended to me the same confidence that they would have -done to any Gentile who cared to know the real facts. - -In the ordinary way, I should begin by describing the City itself. -But even then, so subtle is the charm of this place--Oriental in its -general appearance, English in its details--that I should hesitate to -attempt description. Its quaint disregard of that "fine appearance" -which makes your "live" towns so commonplace; its extravagance in -streets condoned by ample shade-trees; its sluices gurgling along by -the side-walks; its astonishing quiet; the simple, neighbourly life of -the citizens--all these, and much more combine to invest Salt Lake City -with the mystery that is in itself a charm. - -Speaking merely as a traveller, and classifying the towns which I -have seen, I would place the Mormon Zion in the same genus as Benares -on the Ganges and Shikarpoor in Sinde, for it attracts the visitor -by interests that are in great part intellectual. The mind and eye -are captivated together. It is a fascination of the imagination as -well as of the senses. For the capital of Utah is not one of Nature's -favourites. She has hemmed it in with majestic mountains, but they -are barren and severe. She has spread the levels of a great lake, but -its waters are bitter, Marah. There is none of the tender grace of -English landscape, none of the fierce splendour of the tropics; and -yet, in spite of Nature, the valley is already beautiful, and in the -years to come may be another Palmyra. As yet, however, it is the day of -small things. Many of the houses are still of adobe, and they overlook -the trees planted to shade them. Wild flowers still grow alongside -the track of the tram-cars, and wild birds perch to whistle on the -telephone wires in the business thoroughfares. - -But the future is full of promise, for the prosperity of the city is -based upon the most solid of all foundations, agricultural wealth, and -it is inhabited by a people whose religion is work. For it is a fact -about Mormonism which I have not yet seen insisted upon, that the first -duty it teaches is work, and that it inculcates industry as one of the -supreme virtues. - -The result is that there are no pauper Mormons, for there are no idle -ones. In the daytime there are no loafers in the streets, for every man -is afield or at his work, and soon after nine at night the whole city -seems to be gone to bed. A few strangers of course are hanging about -the saloon doors, but the pervading stillness and the emptiness of the -streets is dispiriting to rowdyism, and so the Gentile damns the place -as being "dull." But the truth is that the Mormons are too busy during -the day for idleness to find companionship at night, and too sober in -their pleasures for gaslight vices to attract them. - -As a natural corollary to this life of hard work, it follows that the -Mormons are in a large measure indifferent to the affairs of the world -outside themselves. Minding their own business keeps them from meddling -with that of others. They are, indeed, taught this from the pulpit. -For it is the regular formula of the Tabernacle that the people should -go about their daily work, attend to that, and leave everything else -alone. They are never to forget that they are "building up Zion," that -their day is coming in good time, but that meanwhile they must work -"and never bother about what other people may be doing." In this way -Salt Lake City has become a City of Two Peoples, and though Mormon and -Gentile may be stirred up together sometimes, they do not mingle any -more than oil and water. - -There are no paupers among the Mormons, and 95 per cent of them live in -their own houses on their own land; there is no "caste" of priesthood, -such as the world supposes, inasmuch as every intelligent man is a -priest, and liable at any moment to be called upon to undertake the -duties of the priests of other churches--but without any pay. - -Last winter there was a census taken of the Utah Penitentiary and the -Salt Lake City and county prisons with the following result:--In Salt -Lake City there are about 75 Mormons to 25 non-Mormons: in Salt Lake -county there are about 80 Mormons to 20 non-Mormons. Yet in the city -prison there were 29 convicts, all non-Mormons; in the county prison -there were 6 convicts all non-Mormons. The jailer stated that the -county convicts for the five years past were all anti-Mormons except -three! - -In Utah the proportion of Mormons to all others is as 83 to 17. In the -Utah Penitentiary at the date of the census there were 51 prisoners, -only 5 of whom were Mormons, and 2 of the 5 were in prison for -polygamy, so that the 17 per cent "outsiders" had 46 convicts in the -penitentiary, while the 83 per cent. Mormons had but 5! - -Out of the 200 saloon, billiard, bowling alley and pool-table keepers -not over a dozen even profess to be Mormons. All of the bagnios and -other disreputable concerns in the territory are run and sustained by -non-Mormons. Ninety-eight per cent of the gamblers in Utah are of the -same element. Ninety-five per cent of the Utah lawyers are Gentiles, -and 98 per cent of all the litigation there is of outside growth and -promotion. Of the 250 towns and villages in Utah, over 200 have no -"gaudy sepulchre of departed virtue," and these two hundred and odd -towns are almost exclusively Mormon in population. Of the suicides -committed in Utah ninety odd per cent are non-Mormon, and of the Utah -homicides and infanticides over 80 per cent are perpetrated by the 17 -per cent of "outsiders." - -The arrests made in Salt Lake City from January 1, 1881, to December 8, -1881, were classified as follows:-- - - Men..........................782 - Women........................200 - Boys..........................38 - Total..................1020 - - Mormons--Men and boys........163 - Mormons--Women.................6 - Anti-Mormon--Men and boys....657 - Anti-Mormon--Women...........194 - Total..................1020 - -A number of the Mormon arrests were for chicken, cow, and water -trespass, petty larceny, &c. The arrests of non-Mormons were 80 per -cent for prostitution, gambling, exposing of person, drunkenness, -unlawful dram-selling, assault and battery, attempt to kill, &c. - -Now, if the 75 per cent Mormon population of Salt Lake City were as -lawless and corrupt as the record shows the 25 per cent non-Mormons to -be, there would have been 2443 arrests made from their ranks during -the year 1881, instead of 169; while if the 25 per cent non-Mormon -population were as law-abiding and moral as the 75 per cent Mormons, -instead of 851 non-Mormon arrests during the year, there would have -been but 56! - -These are the kind of statistics that non-Mormons in Salt Lake City -hate having published. But the world ought to know them, if only to -put to shame the so-called Christian community of Utah, that is never -tired of libelling, personally and even by name, the men and women whom -Mormons have learned to respect from a lifetime's experience of the -integrity of their conduct and the purity of their lives--the so-called -"Christian" community that is afraid to hear itself contrasted with -these same Mormons, lest the shocking balance of crime and immorality -against themselves should be publicly known. But there is no appeal -from these statistics. They are incontrovertible. - -The time at which I arrived in Utah was a very critical one for the -Latter-Day Saints. The States, exasperated into activity by sectarian -agitation--and by the intrigues of a few Gentiles resident in Utah who -were financially interested in the transfer of the Territorial Treasury -from Mormon hands to their own--had just determined, once more, to -extirpate polygamy, and the final passage of the long-dreaded "Edmunds -Bill" had marked down Mormons as a proscribed people, and had indicted -the whole community for a common offence. - -The following is the text of this remarkable bill:-- - -"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the -United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 5352 of -the Revised Statutes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, -amended so as to read as follows, namely: - -"Every person who has a husband or wife living who, in a territory or -other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, -hereafter marries another, whether married or single, and any man who -hereafter simultaneously, or on the same day, marries more than one -woman, in a territory or other place over which the United States have -exclusive jurisdiction, is guilty of polygamy, and shall be punished -by a fine of not more than $500 and by imprisonment for a term of -not more than five years; but this section shall not extend to any -person by reason of any former marriage whose husband or wife by such -marriage shall have been absent for five successive years, and is not -known to such person to be living, and is believed by such person to -be dead, nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which -shall have been dissolved by a valid decree of a competent court, nor -to any person by reason of any former marriage which shall have been -pronounced void by a valid decree of a competent court, on the ground -of nullity of the marriage contract. - -"SEC. 2--That the foregoing provisions shall not affect the prosecution -or punishment of any offence already committed against the section -amended by the first section of this act. - -"SEC. 3--That if any male person, in a territory or other place over -which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter cohabits -with more than one woman, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, -and on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than -$300, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both said -punishments, in the discretion of the court. - -"SEC. 4--That counts for any or all of the offences named in sections -one and two of this act may be joined in the same information or -indictment. - -"SEC. 5--That in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful -cohabitation, under any statute of the United States, it shall be -sufficient cause of challenge to any person drawn or summoned as a -juryman or talesman, first, that he is or has been living in the -practice of bigamy, polygamy or unlawful cohabitation with more than -one woman, or that he is or has been guilty of an offence punishable -by either of the foregoing sections, or by section 5352 of the -Revised Statutes of the United States, or the Act of July 1st, 1862, -entitled, 'An Act to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in the -territories of the United States and other places, and disapproving and -annulling certain Acts of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory -of Utah;' or second, that he believes it right for a man to have more -than one living and undivorced wife at the same time, or to live in -the practice of cohabiting with more than one woman; and any person -appearing or offered as a juror or talesman, and challenged on either -of the foregoing grounds, may be questioned on his oath as to the -existence of any such cause of challenge, and other evidence may be -introduced bearing upon the question raised by such challenge; and this -question shall be tried by the court. But as to the first ground of -challenge before mentioned, the person challenged shall not be bound -to answer if he shall say upon his oath that he declines on the ground -that his answer may tend to criminate himself; and if he shall answer -as to said first ground, his answer shall not be given in evidence in -any criminal prosecution against him for any offence named in sections -one or three of this Act; but if he declines to answer on any ground, -he shall be rejected as incompetent. - -"SEC. 6--That the President is hereby authorized to grant amnesty to -such classes of offenders, guilty before the passage of this act of -bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, on such conditions and -under such limitations as he shall think proper; but no such amnesty -shall have effect unless the conditions thereof shall be complied with. - -"SEC. 7--That the issue of bigamous or polygamous marriages, known as -Mormon marriages, in cases in which such marriages have been solemnized -according to the ceremonies of the Mormon sect, in any territory of -the United States, and such issue shall have been born before the 1st -January, A.D. 1883, are hereby legitimated. - -"SEC. 8--That no polygamist, bigamist, or any person cohabiting with -more than one woman, and no woman cohabiting with any of the persons -described as aforesaid in this section, in any territory or other place -over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, shall be -entitled to vote at any election held in any such territory or other -place, or be eligible for election or appointment to or be entitled -to hold any office or place of public trust, honour, or emolument in, -under, or for any such territory or place, or under the United States. - -"SEC. 9--That all the registration and election offices of every -description in the Territory of Utah are hereby declared vacant, and -each and every duty relating to the registration of voters, the conduct -of elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, and the canvassing -and returning of the same, and the issuing of certificates or other -evidence of election in said territory, shall, until other provision be -made by the Legislative Assembly of said territory as is hereinafter -by this section provided, be performed under the existing laws of the -United States and of said territory by proper persons, who shall be -appointed to execute such offices and perform such duties by a board of -five persons, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice -and consent of the Senate, not more than three of whom shall be members -of one political party, a majority of whom shall be a quorum. The -canvass and return of all the votes at elections in said territory for -members of the Legislative Assembly thereof shall also be returned to -said board, which shall canvass all such returns and issue certificates -of election to those persons who, being eligible for such election, -shall appear to have been lawfully elected, which certificates shall be -the only evidence of the right of such persons to sit in such Assembly, -provided said board of five persons shall not exclude any persons -otherwise eligible to vote from the polls, on account of any opinion -such person may entertain on the subject of bigamy or polygamy; nor -shall they refuse to count any such vote on account of the opinion of -the person casting it on the subject of bigamy or polygamy; but each -house of such Assembly, after its organization, shall have power to -decide upon the elections and qualifications of its members." - -The day also on which I arrived in Salt Lake City was itself a -memorable one, for it was the closing day of the fifty second annual -conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints--notable, -beyond other conferences, as a public expression of the opinions of -the leaders of the Mormon Church, at a crisis of great importance. The -whole hierarchy of Utah took part in the proceedings, and it was fitly -closed by an address from President Taylor himself, evoking such a -demonstration of fervid and yet dignified enthusiasm as I have never -seen equalled. - -My telegram to the New York World on that occasion may still stand as -my description of the scene. - -"Acquainted though I am with displays of Oriental fanaticism and -Western revivalism, I set this Mormon enthusiasm on one side as being -altogether of a different character, for it not only astonishes by its -fervour, but commands respect by its sincere sobriety. The congregation -of the Saints assembled in the Tabernacle, numbering, by my own careful -computation, eleven thousand odd, and composed in almost exactly -equal parts of the two sexes, reminded me of the Puritan gatherings -of the past as I imagined them, and of my personal experiences of the -Transvaal Boers as I know them. There was no rant, no affectation, no -straining after theatrical effect. The very simplicity of this great -gathering of country-folk was striking in the extreme, and significant -from first to last of a power that should hardly be trifled with by -sentimental legislation. I have read, I can assert, everything of -importance that has ever been written about the Mormons, but a single -glance at these thousands of hardy men fresh from their work at the -plough--at the rough vehicles they had come in, ranged along the street -leading to the Tabernacle, at their horses, with the mud of the fields -still upon them--convinced me that I knew nothing whatever of this -interesting people. Of the advice given at this Conference it is easy -to speak briefly, for all counselled alike. In his opening address, -President Taylor said,-- - -"'The antagonism we now experience here has always existed, but we have -also come out of our troubles strengthened. I say to you, be calm, for -the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and He will take care of us.' - -"Every succeeding speaker repeated the same advice, and the outcome -of the five days' Conference may therefore be said to have been an -exhortation to the Saints 'to pay no attention whatever to outside -matters, but to live their religion, leave the direction of affairs to -their priesthood, and the result in the hands of God.' - -"Bishops Sharp and Cluff challenged the Union to show more conspicuous -examples of loyalty than those that 'brighten the records of Utah;' -Bishop Hatch referred to a 'Revolutionary' ancestry; and Apostle -Brigham Young (a son of the late President) alluded to the advocacy -in certain quarters of warlike measures with which he was not himself -in sympathy. 'I am not,' he said, 'altogether belligerent, and am not -advocating warlike measures, but I do want to advocate our standing -true and steadfast all the time. If I am to be persecuted for living my -religion, why, I am to be persecuted. That is all. Dodging the issue -will not change it. I have read the bill passed to injure us, but am -satisfied that everything will come out all right, that the designs of -our enemies will be frustrated, and confusion will come upon them.' -Apostle Woodruff reminded the enemies of the Church that it 'costs a -great deal to shed the blood of God's people;' and Apostle Lorenzo Snow -said,--'I do not have any fear or trouble about fiery ordeals, but if -any do come we should all be ready for them.' - -"These and other references to possible trouble seem to show that the -leaders of the Church consider the state of the public mind such as -to make these allusions necessary. But loyalty to the Constitution -was the text of every address, and even as regards the Edmunds Bill -itself, Apostle Lorenzo Snow said,--'There is something good in it, -for it legalizes every issue from plural marriages up to January 1, -1883. No person a few years ago could have ever expected such an act -of Congress. But it has passed, and been signed by the President.' The -expressions of the speakers with regard to polygamy were at times very -explicit. The President yesterday said,--'Some of our kind friends have -suggested that we cast our wives off, but our feelings are averse to -that. We are bound to them for time and eternity--we have covenanted -before high heaven to remain bound to them. And I declare, in the name -of Israel's God, that we will keep the covenant, and I ask all to say -to this Amen.' (Here, like the sound of a great sea-wave breaking in a -cave, a vast Amen arose from the concourse.) 'We may have to shelter -behind a hedge while the storm is passing over, but let us be true -to ourselves, our wives, our families, and our God, and all will be -well.' Again to-day he exhorted the Saints 'to keep within the law, but -at the same time to live their religion and be true to their wives, -and the principles Of their Church.' Several other speakers touched -upon the fact of plurality being an integral doctrine of Mormonism, -and not to be interfered with without committing an outrage against -their religion. Retaliation was never suggested, unless the advice -given to the congregation to make all their purchases at Mormon shops -may be accepted as a tendency towards Boycotting. But the Church was -exhorted to stand firm, to allow persecution to run its course, and -above all, to be 'manly in their fidelity to their wives.' Nor could -anything exceed the impressiveness of the response which the people -gave instantaneously to the appeal of their President for the support -of their voices. The great Tabernacle was filled with waves of sound as -the 'Amens' of the congregation burst out. The shout of men going into -battle was not more stirring than the closing words of this memorable -conference spoken as if by one vast voice: 'Hosannah! for the Lord God -Omnipotent reigneth; He is with us now and will be for ever. Amen!'" - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -LEGISLATION AGAINST PLURALITY. - - A people under a ban--What the Mormon men think of the - Anti-Polygamy Bill--And what the Mormon women say of - polygamy--Puzzling confidences--Practical plurality a very dull - affair--But theoretically a hedge-hog problem--Matrimonial - eccentricities--The fashionable milliner fatal to - plurality--Absurdity of comparing Moslem polygamy with Mormon - plurality--Are the women of Utah happy?--Their enthusiasm for - Women's Rights. - -UTAH, therefore, at the time of my visit was "a proclaimed -district"--to use the Anglo-Indian phrase for tracts suspected of -infanticide--and every Mormon within it had a share in the disgrace -thrust upon it. Nor was the triumph of the Gentile concealed at the -result. The Mormons, therefore, were consolidated, in the first -instance, by the equal pressure of the new law upon all sections of the -church alike; in the next by the openly expressed exultation of the -Gentiles. I wrote at the time: "They feel that they are under a common -ban. The children have read the Bill or have had its purport explained -to them, and it is well known even among the Gentiles how keen the -grief was in every household when the news that the Bill had passed -reached Utah. Wives still shed bitter tears over the act of Congress -which breaks up their happy homes, and robs them and their children of -the protecting presence of a husband and father. The Bill was aimed to -put a stop to a supposed self-indulgence of the men. But the Mormons -have never thought of it in this light at all. They see in it only an -attempt to punish their wives. And it is this alleged cruelty to their -wives and children that has stubborned the Mormon men." - -Meanwhile the Mormons' affect a contemptuous disregard Of the -Commission and all its works. I have spoken to many, some of them -leaders of local opinion, and everywhere I find the same amused -indifference to it expressed. "We have too many real troubles," they -say, "to go manufacturing imaginary ones. We must live our religion in -the present and leave the future to God." - -"But," I would say, "this is not a question of the future. All children -born after the 1st of January, 1883, will be illegitimate--and in these -matters Nature is generally very punctual. Now, are you going to break -the law or going to keep it?" - -Some would answer "neither," and some "both," but all would agree -that there was no necessity for worrying themselves about evils which -may never befall, and that the Edmunds Bill, with all its malignity -and cunning, was "a stupid blunder," an "impossible" enactment, "an -absurdity." So the questioning would probably end in laughter. - -"But in spite of this expressed indifference to the working of the -Bill, there can be little doubt that the more responsible Mormons -have already made up their minds as to the course they will take. -'The people' will follow them of course, and forecasting the future, -therefore, I anticipate that a small minority will break down under the -pressure, and will return their plural wives to their parents, with -such provision as they can make for their future support. - -"Of the remainder, that is to say the bulk of the Mormons, I believe, -indeed I feel convinced, that they will simply ignore the Bill so long -as it ignores them, and that when it is put in force against them, they -will accept the penalty without complaint. In some cases the onus of -proving guilt will no doubt be made heavier by 'passive resistance,' -and where the whole family is solid in throwing obstacles in the way -of espionage, conviction will necessarily be very difficult. As a case -in point may be cited the instance of the Mormon in Salt Lake City, -who married a second wife and successfully defied both the law and -the public to fix his relationship to the lady in question and her -children. She herself was content with saying that her children were -honourable in birth, and that the wedding-ring on her finger was a fact -and not a fiction. But who her husband was neither the law nor the -press could find out for two years, and only then by the confession of -the sinner himself." - -I was sitting one day with two Mormon ladies, plural wives, and the -conversation turned upon marriage. - -"But," said I, "now that you have experienced the disadvantages of -plurality, shall you advise your daughters to follow your example?" - -"No," said both promptly, "I shall not advise them one way or the -other. They must make their own choice, just as I did." - -"Choice, I am afraid, is hardly a choice though. Plurality, I fear, is -too nearly a religious duty to leave much option with girls." - -"Nonsense," said the elder of the two, "I was just as free to choose my -husband as you were to choose your wife. I married for love." - -"And do you really believe," broke in the other, "that any woman in -the world would marry a man she did not like from a sense of religious -duty!" - -"Yes," said I, regardless of the fair speaker's scorn, "I thought -plenty of women had done so. More than that, thousands have renounced -marriage with men whom they loved and taken the veil, for Heaven's -sake." - -"Very true," was the reply, "a woman may renounce marriage and become a -nun as a religious duty. But the same motive would never have persuaded -that woman to marry against her inclinations. There is all the -difference in the world between the two. Any woman will tell you that." - -"Then you mean to say," I persisted, "that you and your friends -consider that you are voluntary agents when you go into plurality? that -you do so entirely of your own accord and of your own free choice?" - -"Certainly I do," was the reply. "You may not believe us, of course, -but that I cannot help. All I can say to you is, that if I had the last -seven years of my life to live over again, I should do exactly what I -did seven years ago." - -"And what was that?" I asked. - -"Refuse to marry a Gentile, to please my friends, and marry a -polygamist to please myself. I had two offers from unmarried men, -either of which my family were very anxious I should accept. But I did -not care for either. But when my husband, who had already two wives, -proposed to me, I accepted him, in spite of my friends' protests. And I -would marry him again if the choice came over again." - -"Then yours must surely be exceptional cases, for I cannot bring myself -to believe that those who have been 'first' wives would ever consent to -their husband's re-marriage, if their past could be recalled." - -"But I was his first wife," said the elder lady, "and my husband's -second wife was his first love. And if my past were recalled as you -put it, I would give my consent just as willingly as I did twelve -years ago." "Perhaps," said she, laughing, "you will call mine an -'exceptional' case too. But if you go through the Mormons individually, -I am afraid you will find that the 'exceptional' cases are very large." - -"And how about the minority?" I asked, "the wives whose hearts have -been broken by plurality?" - -"Well," was the reply, "there are plenty of unhappy wives. But this -is surely not peculiar to polygamy, is it? There are plenty of women -who find they have made a mistake. But is it not the same in monogamy? -And yet, though our poor women can get divorces with no trouble, and -at an expense of only ten dollars, and are certain of a competence -after divorce, and of re-marriage if they choose, they do not do it. -There is no greater disgrace attaching to divorce here than in Europe. -Indeed allowances are made for the special trials of plurality, and -mere unhappiness is in itself quite sufficient for a woman to get a -divorce. Yet divorce is very rare indeed, not one-tenth as common as in -Massachusetts, for instance." - -"There are bad men amongst us just as there are everywhere," continued -the other lady, "and a bad Mormon is the worst man there can be. But we -are not the only people that have bad husbands among them." - -And so it went on. I was met at every point by assurances as sincere -as tone of voice and language could make them appear. Eventually I -scrambled out of the subject as best I could, covering my retreat with -the remark,-- - -"Well, my only justification in saying that I do not believe you, is -this, that if I said I did, no one would believe me." - -Of this much, however, I am convinced, that whatever may have been -true thirty years ago--and there has not been a single trustworthy -book written about Mormonism since 1862--it is not true to-day that -the Church interferes with the domestic relations of the people. When -there is a divorce the Church takes care that the man does not turn his -wife adrift without provision. But as far as I have been able to learn, -the authorities do not meddle in any other way between man and woman, -so long, of course, as neither is a scandal to the community. When a -scandal arises the Church takes prompt notice of it, and the offender, -if incorrigible, is next heard of as "apostatizing," or, in other -words, being turned out of Mormonism as unfit to live in it. But once -married into polygamy, religion is all-powerful in reconciling women -to the sacrifices they have to make, precisely, I suppose, in the same -way that religion reconciles the nun to the sacrifices which her Church -accepts from her. - -Practical Plurality, then, is a very dull affair. I was disappointed -in it. I had expected to see men with long whips, sitting on fences, -swearing at their gangs of wives at work in the fields. I expected -every now and then to hear of drunken saints beating seven or eight -wives all at once, and perhaps even to have seen the unusual spectacle -of a house full of women and children rushing screaming into the street -with one intoxicated husband and father in pursuit. Everywhere else -in the world wife-beating is a pastime more or less indulged in coram -publico. In London, at any rate, men so arrange their chastisements -that you can hear the screams from the street and see the wife run out -of the front door on to the pavement. In Salt Lake City therefore, it -seemed only reasonable to suppose that the amount of the screaming -would be in proportion to the number of the wives, and that eventually -ill-used families would be seen pouring simultaneously out of several -doors, and scattering over the premises with hideous ululation. Where -are the aged apostles who have so often been described as going about -in their swallow-tail coats courting each other's daughters? Where -are the "girl-hunting elders" and "ogling bishops"? Where are the -families of one man and ten wives to be found taking the air together -that pictures have so often shown us? Of course there are anomalies, -and very objectionable they are. Thus one young man has married his -half-aunt, another his half-sister, and three sisters have wedded the -same man; but these instances are all "historical," so to speak, and -have been so often trotted out by anti-Mormon book-makers, that they -are hardly worth repeating. Nor does it appear to me to be of any force -to begin raking to-day into the old suspicions as to what Mormons dead -and gone used to do. - -What is polygamy like to-day? That is the question. Polygamy to-day, -then, has settled down into the most matter-of-fact system that is -possible for such exceptional domestic arrangements. In the first -place, it is not compulsory, and some of the leading saints are -monogamous. About one-fourth of married Mormons are polygamous, and of -these something less than three per cent are under forty years of age. -The bill of 1862 making polygamy penal effected little or no difference -in the annual average of plural marriages, but since 1877 there has -been a very sensible decrease. - -These facts, then, seem to prove first that polygamy, though accepted -as a doctrine of the Church, is not generally acted upon--and why? -For the best of reasons. Either that the men cannot afford to keep -up more than one establishment, or that they are too happy with one -wife to care to marry a second, or that the first wife refuses to -allow any increase of the household--all of which reasons show that -polygamy is controlled by prudential and domestic considerations, and -is not the indiscriminate "debauchery" that so many of the public -believe it to be. It is also evident that the younger Mormons are not -so active in marrying as the elder men were at their age, for ten -years ago the proportion of polygamous Mormons under forty years of -age was much greater, which may mean that the inaction of Congress was -gradually working towards the end which the action of '62 thwarted. -By legislating against polygamy, plural marriages increased--1863 -to 1866 being as busy years in the Endowment House as any that ever -preceded them--while by letting polygamy severely alone they have been -decreasing. - -Polygamy in fact, by the relaxation of the regime, now that Brigham -Young's personal government has ceased, has taken its place as an -ordinary civil institution, entailing serious responsibilities upon -those who choose to enter into it, and not carrying with it such -promises of temporal advantage as at one time were reserved for the -plurally wedded. There is not the same enthusiasm about it that there -was, owing probably to the diffusion among the people of a better -sense of the position of women and of the opinions of the world with -regard to polygamy. Under the administration of President Taylor there -has been a marked disinclination in the Church to interfere with the -domestic relations of the community, except, as I have said before, -when reprimand or punishment seemed to be called for; and it is -reasonable therefore to argue that the material decline in the number -of plural marriages between 1878 and 1882 would have continued, the -proportion of young enthusiasts have gone on decreasing and, as the -elders died out, the total of polygamists become annually less. Such, I -would contend, is the reasonable inference from the facts I have given. - -Polygamy, as a problem, reminds me of a hedgehog. But as the hedgehog -may not be familiar to my American readers, let me explain. The -hedgehog, then, is a small animal with a very elastic skin, closely -set all over with strong sharp spines. A rural life is all its -joy. In habits and character it assimilates somewhat to the Mormon -peasant, being inoffensive, useful, industrious, prolific, and largely -frugivorous. But when hunted it is otherwise. For the hedgehog, if -closely pursued, takes hold of its ears with its hind paws and, tucking -its nose into the middle of its stomach, rolls itself into a perfect -ball. The spines then stand out straight and in every direction -equally. Nor, thus defended, does the hedgehog shun the public eye. -On the contrary, it lies out in the full sunlight, in the middle of -the sidewalk or the dusty high-road, a challenge to the inquisitive -attention of every passing dog. And you can no more keep a dog from -going out of its way to reconnoitre the queer-looking object than you -can keep needles away from loadstones. They do not all behave in the -same way to it, though. The mutton-headed dogs sit down by it and -contemplate it vacantly, and go away after a bit in a kind of brown -study. The silly ones smell it too close, and go off down the road in a -streak of dust and yelp. The experienced dogs sniff at it and trot on. -"Only that hedgehog again!" they say. The malicious prick their noses -and lose their temper, and then prick their noses worse and lose their -tempers more. The puppy barks at it remotely, receding every time by -the recoil of its own bark, till it barks itself backwards into the -opposite ditch. But the hedgehog lies perfectly still, as round and -as spiny as ever, in the middle of the high-road. All the dogs are -much the same to it. Some roll it a little one way, and some roll it a -little the other. It gets dusty or it gets wet. But there it lies as -inscrutable, puzzling, and odious to passing dogs as ever. By-and-by -when it is dark, and everybody has got tired of poking it and sniffing -it and wondering at it, the hedgehog will quietly unroll itself and -creep away to some secluded spot betwixt orchard and corn-field, and -remote from the highways of men and their dogs. - -I am particularly led to this moralizing because a Mormon has just been -enumerating, at my request, some of the more extraordinary anomalies -that he knows of in recent polygamy. I took notes of a few, and they -seem to me sufficiently puzzling to justify a place in these pages. - -A young and very pretty girl, in "the upper ten" of Mormonism, married -a young man of her own class, but stipulated before marriage that he -should marry a second wife as soon as he could afford to do so. - -A young couple were engaged, but quarrelled, and the lover out of pique -married another lady. Two years later his first love, having refused -other offers in the mean time, married him as his second wife. - -A man having married a second wife to please himself, married a third -to please his first. "She was getting old, she said, and wanted a -younger woman to help her about the house." - -A couple about to be married made an agreement between themselves that -the husband should not marry again unless it was one of the relatives -of the first wife. The ladies selected have refused, and the husband -remains true to his promise. - -The belle of the settlement, a Gentile, refused monogamist offers of -marriage, and married a Mormon who had two wives already. - -A girl, distracted between her love for her suitor and her love for her -mother, compromised in her affections by stipulating that he should -marry both her mother and herself, which he did. - -A girl, a Gentile, bitterly opposed at first to polygamy, married a -polygamist at the solicitation of his first wife, her great friend. - -Two girls were great friends, and one of them, getting engaged to a man -(by no means of prepossessing appearance), persuaded her friend to get -engaged to him too, and he married them both on the same day. - -These are enough. Moreover, they are not isolated cases, and I believe -I am right in saying that I can give a second instance, of recent -date, of nearly all of them. Nor are these anonymous fictions like the -"victims" of anti-Mormon writers. I have names for each of them. One of -them tells me she could name "scores" of the same kind. - -It appears to me, therefore, that the women of Utah have shaken -somewhat the modern theories of the conjugal relation, and--with all -one's innate aversion to a system which is capable of such odious -abnormalisms--a most interesting and baffling problem for study. It is, -as I said, a regular hedgehog of a problem. If you could only catch -hold of it by the nose or the tail, you could scrunch it up easily. But -it has spines all over. It is at once provocative and unapproachable. - -I remember once in India giving a tame monkey a lump of sugar inside -a corked bottle. The monkey was of an inquiring kind, and it nearly -killed it. Sometimes, in an impulse of disgust, it would throw the -bottle away, out of its own reach, and then be distracted till it was -given back to it. At others it would sit with a countenance of the -most intense dejection, contemplating the bottled sugar, and then, -as if pulling itself together for another effort at solution, would -sternly take up the problem afresh, and gaze into it. It would tilt -it up one way and try to drink the sugar through the cork, and then, -suddenly reversing it, try to catch it as it fell out at the bottom. -Under the impression that it could capture it by a surprise it kept -rapping its teeth against the glass in futile bites, and, warming to -the pursuit of the revolving lump, used to tie itself into regular -knots round the bottle. Fits of the most ludicrous melancholy would -alternate with these spasms of furious speculation, and how the matter -would have ended it is impossible to say. But the monkey one night got -loose and took the bottle with it. And it has always been a delight to -me to think that whole forestfuls of monkeys have by this time puzzled -themselves into fits over the great Problem of Bottled Sugar. What -profound theories those long-tailed philosophers must have evolved! -What polemical acrimony that bottle must have provoked! And what a -Confucius the original monkey must have become! A single morning with -such a Sanhedrim discussing such a matter would surely have satiated -even a Swift with satire. - -Taking then polygamy to be the bottle, and the Gentile to be the -monkey, it appears to me that the only alternatives in solution are -these: Either smash the whole thing up altogether, or else fall back -upon that easy-going old doctrine of wise men, that "morality" is after -all a matter of mere geography. - -An Oriental legend shows us Allah sitting in casual conversation with a -man. A cockroach comes along, and Allah stamps on it. "What did you do -that for?" asks the human, looking at the ruined insect. "Because I am -God Almighty," was the reply. - -Now, polygamy can be smashed flat if the States choose to show their -power to do so. But no man who takes a part in that demolition must -suppose that in so doing he will be accepted by the community as -rescuing them from degradation. If left alone, polygamy will die out. -Mormons deny this, but I feel sure that they know they are wrong when -they deny it, for nothing but a perpetual miracle of loaves and fishes -will make polygamy and families of forty possible when population and -food-supply come to talk the position over seriously between them. The -expense of plurality will before long prohibit plurality. - -"The fashionable milliner" is the most formidable adversary that the -system has yet encountered. A twenty-dollar bonnet is a staggering -argument against it. When women were contented with sunshades, and -made them for themselves, the husband of many wives could afford to be -lavish, and to indulge his household in a diversity of headgear. But -that old serpent, the fashionable milliner, has got over the garden -wall, and Lilith [1] and Eve are no longer content with primitive -garments of home manufacture. - -No. Polygamy will before long be impossible, except to the rich; and in -an agricultural community, restricted in area, and further restricted -by the scarcity of water, there can never be many rich men. As it is, -the cost of plurality was on several occasions referred to by Mormons -whom I met during my tour, and I know one man who has for three years -postponed his second marriage, as he does not consider that his -means justify it; while I fancy it will not be disputed by any one -who has inquired into polygamy that, as a general rule, prudential -considerations control the system. Polygamy, then, I sincerely believe, -carries its own antidote with it, and if left alone will rapidly cure -itself. In the mean time the community that practises it does not -consider itself "degraded," and those who take part in smashing it up -must not think it does. - -The Mormons are a peasant people, with many of the faults of peasant -life, but with many of the best human virtues as well. They are -conspicuously industrious, honest, and sober. - -There is, of course, nothing whatever in common between Oriental -polygamy and Mormon plurality. The main object, and the main result -of the two systems are so widely diverse, that it is hardly necessary -even to refer to the hundred other points of difference which make -comparison between the two utterly absurd. - -Yet the comparison is often made in order to prove the Mormons -"degraded," and it is a great pity that such superficial and stupid -arguments should be far more effective ones are at hand. Polygamy, -though difficult to handle, is very vulnerable. The hedgehog, after -all, will have to unroll some time or another. But to assault polygamy -because the Mormons are "Turks" or "debauched Mahometans," or the other -things which silly people call them, is monstrous. - -The women have complicated the problem by multiplying instances of -eccentric "affection." But with it all they persist in believing that -they have retained a most exalted estimate of womanly honour. The men, -again, have inextricably entangled all recognized ideas of matrimonial -responsibilities. Yet they have not lost any of the manliness which -characterizes the pioneers of the West. - -Their social anomalies are deplorable, but they are not desperate. -Education and the influx of outsiders must infallibly do their work, -and any attempt to rob these men and women of the fruits of their -astonishing industry and of the peaceful enjoyment of the soil which -they have conquered for the United States from the most warlike tribes -among the Indians, and from the most malignant type of desert, is not -only not statesmanship, but it is not humanity. - -Are the women of Utah happy? No; not in the monogamous acceptation -of the word "happy." In polygamy the highest happiness of woman is -contentment. But on the other hand her greatest unhappiness is only -discontent. She has not the opportunity on the one hand of rising to -the raptures of perfect love. On the other, she is spared the bitter, -killing anguish of "jealousy" and of infidelity. - -But contentment is not happiness. It is its negative, and often has -its source in mere resignation to sorrow. It is the lame sister of -happiness, the deaf-mute in the family of joy. It lives neither in -the background nor foreground of enjoyment, but always in the middle -distance. Tender in all things, it never becomes real happiness by -concentration; having to fill no deep heart-pools, it trickles over -vast surfaces. It goes through life smiling but seldom laughing. -Now, in many philosophies we are taught that this same contentment -is the perfect form of happiness. But humanity is always at war -with philosophy. And I for one will never believe that perpetual -placidity is the highest experience of natures which are capable of -suffering the raptures of joy and of grief. I had rather live humanly, -travelling alternately over sunlit hills and gloomy valleys, than -exist philosophically on the level prairies of monotonous contentment. -Holding, then, the opinion that it is a nobler life to have sounded the -deeps and measured the heights of human emotions than to have floated -in shallows continually, I contend that polygamy is wrong in itself and -a cardinal crime against the possibilities of a woman's heart. A plural -wife can never know the utmost happiness possible for a woman. They -confess this. And by this confession the practice stands damned. - -Physically, Mormon plurality appears to me to promise much of the -success which Plato dreamed of, and Utah about the best nursery for -his soldiers that he could have found. Look at the urchins that go -clattering about the roads, perched two together on the bare backs of -horses, and only a bit of rope by way of bridle. Look at the rosy, -demure little girls that will be their wives some day. Take note of -their fathers' daily lives, healthy outdoor work. Go into their homes -and see the mothers at their work. For in Utah servants get sometimes -as much as six dollars a week (and their board and lodging as well -of course), and most households therefore go without this expensive -luxury. And then as you walk home through one of their rural towns -along the tree-shaded streets, with water purling along beside you -as you walk, and the clear breeze from the hills blowing the perfume -of flowers across your path in gusts, with the cottage homes, half -smothered in blossoming fruit-trees, on either hand, and a perpetual -succession gardens,--then I say, come back and sit down, if you can, to -call this people "licentious," "impure," "degraded." - -The Mormons themselves refuse to believe that polygamy is the real -objection against them, and it will be found impossible to convince -them that the Edmunds bill is really what it purports to be, a crusade -against their domestic arrangements only. There are some among them who -thoroughly understand the "political" aspect of the case, and are aware -that "the reorganization of Utah" would give very enviable pickings to -the friends of the Commission. Others, have made up their minds that -behind this generous anti-polygamy sentiment is mean sectarian envy, -and that this is only one more of those amiable efforts of narrow -Christians to crush a detested and flourishing sect. - -Jealousy, in fact, is the Mormons' explanation of the Edmunds bill. The -Gentiles, they say, are hankering after the good things of Utah, and -hope by one cry after another to persecute the Mormons out of them. But -it is far more curious that the jealousy of their own sex should be -suggested by Mormon women as the cause of their participation in the -clamour against polygamy. Yet so it is; the Gentile women are, they -say, "jealous" of a community where every woman has a husband! It is a -perplexing suggestion, and so thoroughly reverses all rational course -of argument, that I wish it had never been seriously put forward. -Imagine the ladies of the Eastern States who have made themselves -conspicuous in this campaign, who have fought and bled to rescue their -poor sisters from slavery, to free them from the grasp of Mormon -Bluebeards--imagine, I say, these ladies being told by the sisters for -whom they are fighting, that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for -being envious of the women in polygamy! Instead of being thanked for -helping to strike the fetters of plurality off their suffering sisters, -they are met with the retort that they ought to try being wives and -mothers themselves before they come worrying those who have tried it -and are content! They are requested not to meddle with "what they -don't understand," and are threatened with a counter-crusade against -the polyandry of Washington, New York, and other cities! But even more -staggering is the fact that Mormon women base their indignation against -their persecuting saviours on woman's rights, the very ground upon -which those saviours have based their crusade! The advocates of woman's -rights are a very strong party in Utah; and their publications use the -very same arguments that strong-minded women have made so terrible -to newspaper editors in Europe, and members of Parliament. Thus the -Woman's Exponent--with "The Rights of the Women of All Nations" for -its motto--publishes continually signed letters in which plural wives -affirm their contentment with their lot, and in one of its issues is a -leading article, headed "True Charity," and signed Mary Ellen Kimball, -in which the women of Mormondom are reminded that they ought to pray -for poor benighted Mr. Edmunds and all who think like him! Then follows -a letter from a Gentile, addressed to "the truthful pure-hearted, -intelligent, Christian women" of Utah, and after this an article, -"Hints on Marriage," signed "Lillie Freeze." But for a sentence or two -it might be an article by a Gentile in a Gentile "lady's paper," for it -speaks of "courtship" and "lovers," and has the quotation, "two souls -with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one," and all the -other orthodox pretty things about true love and married bliss. Yet the -writer is speaking of polygamy! In the middle of this article written -"for love's sweet sake," and as womanly and pure as ever words written -by woman, comes this paragraph:-- - -"In proportion as the power of evil increases, a disregard for the -sacred institution of marriage also increases among the youth, and -contempt for the marriage obligation increases among the married until -this most sacred relationship will be overwhelmed by disunion and -strife, and only among the despised Latter-Day Saints will the true -foundation of social happiness and prosperity be found upon the earth; -but in order to realize this state we must be guided by principles -more perfect than those which have wrought such dissolution. God has -revealed a plan for establishing a new order of society which will -elevate and benefit all mankind who embrace it. The nations that fight -against it are working out their own destruction, for their house -is built upon the sand, and one of the corner-stones in the doomed -structure is already loosened through their disregard and dishonour of -the institution of marriage." - -Now what is to be done with women who not only declare they are happy -in polygamy, but persist in trying to improve their monogamous sisters? -How is the missionary going to begin, for instance, with Lillie Freeze? - -If the Commission deals leniently with them, they will offer only -a passive resistance to the law. But if there is any appearance of -outrage, General Sherman may have some work to do, and it will be -work more worthy of disciplined troops than mere Indian fighting. -There would be abundance of that too, but the Mormons are themselves -sufficient to test the calibre of any troops in the world. For they are -orderly, solid in their adherence to the Church, and trained during -their youth and early manhood to a rough, mountain-frontier life. -They are in fact very superior "Boers," and Utah is a very superior -Transvaal, strategically. Mormonism is not the wind-and-rain inflated -pumpkin the world at a distance believes; it is good firm pumpkin to -the very core. Nor are the Indians a picturesque fiction. They are an -ugly reality, and under proper guidance a very formidable one. In the -mean time there is no talk of war, and the Sword of Laban is lying -quietly in its sheath. For one thing, the commission has given no -"cause" for war; for another, the present hierarchy of the Church are -men of peace. - -Such, then, as I view it, is the position in Utah at the present time. -Mormonism has taken up, in the phrase of diplomatic history, "an -attitude of observation," and the future is "in the hands of the Lord -God of Israel." - -Footnotes: - -1. By the way, it is curious that it should be charged against the -Mormons that they have made Adam a polygamist. It is not a Mormon -invention at all. For, as is well known, legends far older than Moses' -writings declare that Eve married into plurality, and that Lilith was -the "first wife" of our great progenitor. - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -SUA SI BONA NORINT. - - A Special Correspondent's lot--Hypothecated wits--The Daughters - of Zion--Their modest demeanour--Under the banner of Woman's - Rights--The discoverer discovered--Turning the tables--"By Jove, - sir, you shall have mustard with your beefsteak!" - -IT has been my good fortune to see many countries, and my ill-luck -to have had to maintain, during all my travels, an appearance of -intelligence. Though I have been over much of Europe, over all of -India and its adjoining countries, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Burmah, -and Ceylon, in the north and west and south of Africa, and in various -out-of-the-way islands in miscellaneous oceans, I have never visited -one of them purely "for pleasure." I have always been "representing" -other people. My eyes and ears have been hypothecated, so to speak--my -intelligence been in pledge. When I was sent out to watch wars, there -was a tacit agreement that I should be shot at, so that I might let -other people know what it felt like. When run away with by a camel -in a desert that had no "other end" to it, I accepted my position -simply as material for a letter for which my employers had duly paid. -They tried to drown me in a mill-stream; that was a good half-column. -Two Afridis sat down by me when I had sprained my knee by my horse -falling, and waited for me to faint that they might cut my throat. -But they overdid it, for they looked so like vultures that I couldn't -faint. But it made several very harrowing paragraphs. I have been sent -to sea to get into cyclones in the Bay of Biscay, and hurricanes in -the Mozambique Channel, that I might describe lucidly the sea-going -properties of the vessels under test. I have been sent to a King to ask -him for information that it was known beforehand he would not give, and -commissioned to follow Irish agitators all over Ireland, in the hope -that I might be able to say more about them than they knew themselves. -It has been my duty to walk about inquisitively after Zulus, and to -run away judiciously with Zulus after me. Sometimes I have taken long -shots at Afghans, and sometimes they have taken short ones at me. In -short, I have been deputed at one time and another to do many things -which I should never have done "for pleasure," and many which, for -pleasure, I should like to do again. But wherever I have been sent I -have had to go about, seeing as much as I could and asking about all I -couldn't see, and have become, professionally, accustomed to collecting -evidence, sifting it on the spot, and forming my own conclusions. In a -way, therefore, a Special Correspondent becomes of necessity an expert -at getting at facts. He finds that everything he is commissioned to -investigate has at least two sides to it, and that many things have -two right sides. There are plenty of people always willing to mislead -him, and he has to pick and choose. He arrives unprejudiced, and speaks -according to the knowledge he acquires. Sometimes he is brought up to -the hill with a definite commission to curse, but like Balaam, the son -of Barak, he begins blessing; or he is sent out to bless, and falls -to cursing. Until he arrives on the spot it is impossible for him to -say which he will do. But, whatever he does, the Special Correspondent -writes with the responsibility of a large public. It is impossible to -write flippantly with all the world for critics. - -Now, the demeanour of women in Utah, as compared with say Brighton or -Washington, is modesty itself, and the children are just such healthy, -pretty, vigorous children as one sees in the country, or by the seaside -in England--and, in my opinion, nowhere else. Utah-born girls, the -offspring of plural wives, have figures that would make Paris envious, -and they carry themselves with almost Oriental dignity. But remember, -Salt Lake City is a city of rustics. They do not affect "gentility," -and are careful to explain at every opportunity that the stranger must -not be shocked at their homely ways and speech. There is an easiness of -manner therefore which is unconventional, but it is only a blockhead -who could mistake this natural gaiety of the country for anything -other than it is. There is nothing, then, so far as I have seen, in -the manners of Salt Lake City to make me suspect the existence of that -"licentiousness" of which so much has been written; but there is a -great deal on the contrary to convince me of a perfectly exceptional -reserve and self-respect. I know, too, from medical assurance, -that Utah has also the practical argument of healthy nurseries to -oppose to the theories of those who attack its domestic relations on -physiological grounds. - -But the "Woman's Rights" aspect of polygamy is one that has never been -theorized at all. It deserves, however, special consideration by those -who think that they are "elevating" Mormon women by trying to suppress -polygamy. It possesses also a general interest for all. For the plural -wives of Salt Lake City are not by any means "waiting for salvation" -at the hands of the men and women of the East. Unconscious of having -fetters on, they evince no enthusiasm for their noisy deliverers. - -On the contrary, they consider their interference as a slur upon their -own intelligence, and an encroachment upon those very rights about -which monogamist females are making so much clamour. They look upon -themselves as the leaders in the movement for the emancipation of their -sex, and how, then, can they be expected to accept emancipation at the -hands of those whom they are trying to elevate? Thinking themselves -in the van of freedom, are they to be grateful for the guidance of -stragglers in the rear? They laugh at such sympathy, just as the brave -man might laugh at encouragement from a coward, or wealthy landowners -at a pauper's exposition of the responsibilities of property. Can the -deaf, they ask, tell musicians anything of the beauty of sounds, or -need the artist care for the blind man's theory of colour? - -Indeed, it has been in contemplation to evangelize the Eastern -States, on this very subject of Woman's Rights! To send out from -Utah exponents of the proper place of woman in society, and to teach -the women of monogamy their duties to themselves and to each other! -"Woman's true status"--I am quoting from their organ--"is that of -true status companion to man, but so protected by law that she can -act in an independent sphere if he abuse his position, and render -union unendurable." They not only, therefore, claim all that women -elsewhere claim, but they consider marriage the universal birthright -of every female. First of all, they say, be married, and then in case -of accidents have all other "rights" as well. But to start with, every -woman must have a husband. She is hardly worth calling a woman if she -is single. Other privileges ought to be hers lest marriage should -prove disastrous. But in the first instance she should claim her right -to be a wife. And everybody else should insist on that claim being -recognized. The rest is very important to fall back upon, but union -with man is her first step towards her proper sphere. - -Now, could any position be imagined more ludicrous for the would-be -saviours of Utah womanhood than this, that the slaves whom they talk -of rescuing from their degradation should be striving to bring others -up to their own standard? When Stanley was in Central Africa, he was -often amused and sometimes not a little disgusted to find that instead -of his discovering the Central Africans, the Central Africans insisted -on "discovering" him. Though he went into villages in order to take -notes of the savages, and to look at their belongings, the savages used -to turn the tables on him by discussing him, and taking his clothes -off to examine the curious colour, as they thought it, of his skin. So -that what with shaking off his explorers, and hunting up the various -articles they had abstracted for their unscientific scrutiny, his time -used to be thoroughly wasted, and he used to come away crestfallen, -and with the humiliating consciousness that it was the savages and not -he that had gained information and been "improved" by his visit. They -had "discovered" Stanley, not Stanley them. Something very like this -will be the fate of those who come to Utah thinking that they will be -received as shining lights from a better world. They will not find -the women of Utah waiting with outstretched arms to grasp the hand -that saves them. There will be no stampede of down-trodden females. -On the contrary, the clarion of woman's rights will be sounded, and -the intruding "champions" of that cause will find themselves attacked -with their own weapons, and hoisted with their own petards. 'With -the sceptre of woman's rights the daughters of Zion will go down as -apostles to evangelize the nation. 'Who is she that looketh forth as -the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an -army with banners?' The Daughter of Zion!" - -Mormon wives, then, are emphatically "woman's-rights women," a title -which is everywhere recognized as indicating independence of character -and an elevated sense of the claims of the sex, and as inferring -exceptional freedom in action. And I venture to hold the opinion that -it is only women who are conscious of freedom that can institute such -movements as this in Utah, and only those who are enthusiastic in -the cause, that can carry them on with the courage and industry so -conspicuous in this community. - -A Governor once went there specially instructed to release the women -of Utah from their bondage, but he found none willing to be released! -The franchise was then clamoured for in order to let the women of Utah -"fight their oppressors at the polls," and the Mormon "tyrants" took -the hint to give their wives votes, and the first use these misguided -victims of plurality made of their new possession was to protest, -20,000 victims together, against the calumnies heaped upon the men of -Utah "whom they honoured and loved." To-day it is an act of Congress -that is to set free these worse-than-Indian-suttee-devotees, and -whether they like it or not they are to be compelled to leave their -husbands or take the alternative of sending their husbands to jail. - -It reminds me of the story, "Sir, you shall have mustard with your -beefsteak." A man sitting in a restaurant saw his neighbour eating -his steak without mustard, and pushed the pot across to him. The -stranger bowed his acknowledgment of the courtesy and went on eating, -but without any mustard. But the other man's sense of propriety was -outraged. "Beefsteak without mustard--monstrous," said he to himself; -and again he pushed the condiment towards the stranger. "Thank you, -sir," said the stranger, but without taking any, continued his meal as -he preferred it, without mustard. But his well-wisher could not stand -it any longer. He waited for a minute to see if the man would eat his -beef in the orthodox manner, and then, his sense of the fitness of -things overpowering him, he seized the mustard-pot and dabbing down a -great splash of mustard on to the stranger's plate, burst out with, "By -Jove, sir, you shall have mustard with your beefsteak!" - -In the same way the monogamist reformers, having twice failed to -persuade the wives of Utah to abandon their husbands by giving them -facilities for doing so, are now going to take their husbands from -them by the force of the law. "Sua si bona norint" is the excuse of -the reformers to themselves for their philanthropy, and, like the old -Inquisitors who burnt their victims to save them from heresy, they -are going to make women wretched in order to make them happy. Says -the Woman's Exponent: "If the women of Utah are slaves, their bonds -are loving ones and dearly prized. They are to-day in the free and -unrestricted exercise of more political and social rights than are the -women of any other part of these United States. But they do not choose -as a body to court the follies and vices which adorn the civilization -of other cities, nor to barter principles of tried worth for the tinsel -of sentimentality or the gratification of passion." - -It is of no use for "Mormon-eaters" to say that this is written "under -direction," and that the women who write in this way are prompted by -authority. Nor would they say it if they knew personally the women who -write thus. - -Moreover, Mormon-eaters are perpetually denouncing the "scandalous -freedom" and "independence" extended to Mormon women and girls. And the -two charges of excessive freedom and abject slavery seem to me totally -incompatible. - -I myself as a traveller can vouch for this: that one of my first -impressions of Salt Lake City was this, that there was a thoroughly -unconventional absence of restraint; just such freedom as one is -familiar with in country neighbourhoods, where "every one knows every -one else," and where the formalities of town etiquette are by general -consent laid aside. And this also I can sincerely say: that I never -ceased to be struck by the modest decorum of the women I meet out of -doors. After all, self-respect is the true basis of woman's rights. - -This aspect of the polygamy problem deserves, then, I think, -considerable attention. An Act has been passed to compel some 20,000 -women to leave their husbands, and the world looks upon these women -as slaves about to be freed from tyrants. Yet they have said and -done all that could possibly be expected of them, and even more than -could have been expected, to assure the world that they have neither -need nor desire for emancipation, as they honour their husbands, -and prefer polygamy, with all its conditions, to the monogamy which -brings with it infidelity at home and prostitution abroad. Again and -again they have protested, in petitions to individuals and petitions -to Congress, that "their bonds are loving ones and dearly prized." -But the enthusiasm of reformers takes no heed of their protests. They -are constantly declaring in public speeches and by public votes, in -books and in newspapers--above all, in their daily conduct--that they -consider themselves free and happy women, but the zeal of philanthropy -will not be gainsaid, and so the women of Utah are, all else failing, -to be saved from themselves. The "foul blot" of a servitude which -the serfs aver does not exist is to be wiped out by declaring 20,000 -wives mistresses, their households illegal, and their future children -bastards! - -"By Jove, sir, you shall have mustard with your beefsteak!" - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -COULD THE MORMONS FIGHT? - - An unfulfilled prophecy--Had Brigham Young been still - alive?--The hierarchy of Mormonism--The fighting Apostle and his - colleagues--Plurality a revelation--Rajpoot infanticide: how it was - stamped out--Would the Mormons submit to the same process?--Their - fighting capabilities--Boer and Mormon: an analogy between the - Drakensberg and the Wasatch ranges--The Puritan fanaticism of the - Saints--Awaiting the fulness of time and of prophecy. - -"I SAY, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State -in the Union or an independent nation by ourselves. I am still, and -still will be Governor of this Territory, to the constant chagrin of -my enemies, and twenty-six years shall not pass away before the Elders -of this Church will be as much thought of as kings on their thrones." -These were the words of Brigham Young on the last day of August, 1856. -And the Bill was passed in 1882. - -Had Brigham Young been alive then, that prophecy would assuredly have -been fulfilled, for the coincidence of recent legislation with the date -he fixed, would have sufficed to convince him that the opportunity for -a display of the temporal power of his Church which he had foretold, -had arrived. Once before with similar exactness Brigham Young fixed a -momentous date. - -He was standing in 1847 upon the site of the Temple, when suddenly, as -if under a momentary impulse, he turned to those who were with him and -said, "And now, if they will only let us alone for ten years, we will -not ask them for any odds." - -Exactly ten years later, to the very day, and almost to the very hour -of the day, the news came of the despatch of a Federal army against -Salt Lake City. Brigham Young called his people together--and what a -nation they were compared to the fugitive crowd that had stood round -him in 1847!--and simply reminding them of his words uttered ten years -before, waited for their response. And as if they had only one voice -among them all, the vast assemblage shouted, "No odds." - -And then and there he sent them into Echo canyon--and the Federal army -knows the rest. - -Had he been alive to-day, that scene would probably have been repeated. - -But Brigham Young is not alive. And his mantle has not fallen upon -any of the Elders of the Church. They are men of caution, and the -policy of Mormonism to-day is to temporize and to wait. All the States -are "United" in earnest against them. Brigham Young always taught -the people to reverence prophecy, but he taught them also to help to -fulfil it. But nowadays Mormons are told to stand by and see how the -Lord will work for them. And thus waiting, the Gentiles are gradually -creeping up to them. Every year sees new influences at work to destroy -the isolation of the Church, but the leaders originate no counteracting -influences. Their defences are being sapped, but no counter-mines -are run. As Gentile vigour grows aggressive, Mormonism seems to be -contracting its frontiers. There is no Buonaparte mind to compel -obedience. Mahomet is dead, and Ali, "the Lion of Allah," is dead, and -the Caliphate is now in commission. - -President Taylor is a self-reliant and courageous man, but for a ruler -he listens too much to counsel. Though not afraid of responsibility, -it does not sit upon him as one born to the ermine. Brigham Young was -a natural king. President Taylor only suffices for an interregnum. Yet -now, if ever, Mormonism needs a master-spirit. Nothing demoralizes like -inaction. Men begin to look at things "from both sides," to compromise -with convictions, to discredit enthusiasm. This is just what they are -doing now. At one of the most eventful points of their history, they -find the voices of the Tabernacle giving forth uncertain sounds. Their -Urim and Thummim is dim; the Shekinah is flickering; their oracles -stutter. They are told to obey the laws and yet to live their religion. -In other words, to eat their cake and have it; to let go and hold -tight--anything that is contradictory, irreconcilable, and impossible. - -Meanwhile, wealth and interests in outside schemes have raised up in -the Church a body of men of considerable temporal influence, who it -is generally supposed "outside" are half-hearted. The Gentiles lay -great stress on this. But no one should be deceived as to the real -importance of this "half-heartedness." In the first place, a single -word from President Taylor would extinguish the influence of these -men politically and religously, at once and for ever. A single speech -in the Tabernacle would reduce them to mere ciphers in Mormonism, -and the Church would really, therefore, lose nothing more by their -defection than the men themselves. But as a matter of fact they are -not half-hearted. I know the men whom the outside world refers to -personally, and I am certain therefore of my ground when I say that -Mormonism will find them, in any hour of need, ready to throw all their -temporal influence on to the side of the Church. The people need not -be apprehensive, for there is no treason in their camp. There may be -"Trimmers," but was there ever a movement that had no Trimmers? - -The hierarchy in Utah stands as follows:-- - -President--John Taylor. Counsellors to the President--Joseph F. -Smith, G. Q. Cannon. Apostles--Wilford Woodruff, Franklin Richards, -C. C. Rich, Brigham Young, Moses Thatcher, M. Lyman, J. H. Smith, A. -Carrington, Erastus Snow, Lorenzo Snow, S. P. Teasdel, and J. Grant. -Counsellors to the Apostles--John W. Young, D. H. Wells. - -Now in the present critical situation of affairs the personnel of this -governing body is of some interest. President Taylor I have already -spoken of. He is considered by all as a good head during an uneventful -period, and that he is doing sound, practical work in a general -administrative way is beyond doubt. But it is his misfortune to come -immediately after Brigham Young. It is not often in history that an -Aurungzebe follows an Akbar. But his counsellors, Apostles Cannon and -Joseph Smith, are emphatically strong men. The former is a staunch -Mormon, and a man of the world as well--perhaps the only Mormon who -is--while the latter is "the fighting Apostle," a man of both brains -and courage. Had he been ten years older he would probably have been -President now. Of the remainder the men of conspicuous mark are Moses -Thatcher, an admirable speaker and an able man, Merion Lyman, a very -sound thinker and spirited in counsel, and D. H. Wells--perhaps the -"strongest" unit in the whole hierarchy. He has made as much history -as any man in the Church, and as one of its best soldiers and one of -its shrewdest heads might have been expected to hold a higher rank -than he does. He was one of the Counsellors of Brigham Young, but on -the reconstruction of the governing body, accepted the position of -Counsellor to the Twelve. These five men, should the contingency for -any decisive policy arise, will certainly lead the Mormon Church. - -I was speaking one day to a Mormon, a husband of several wives, and -was candidly explaining my aversion to that co-operative system of -matrimony which the world calls "polygamy," but which the Saints prefer -should be called "plurality." When I had finished, much to my own -satisfaction (for I thought I had proved polygamy wrong), my companion -knocked all my arguments, premises and conclusion together, into a -cocked hat, by saying,-- - -"You are unprejudiced--I grant that; and you take higher ground -for your condemnation of us than most do. But," said he, "you have -never referred to the fact that we Mormons believe plurality to be a -revelation from God. But we do believe it, and until that belief is -overthrown angels from Heaven cannot convince us. You spoke of the -power and authority of the United States. But what is that to the power -and authority of God? The United States cannot do more than exterminate -us for not abandoning plurality. But God can, and will, damn us to all -eternity if we do abandon it." - -Now what argument but force can avail against such an attitude as this? -The better the Mormon, the harder he freezes to his religion--and -part of his religion is polygamy--so important a part, indeed, that -the whole future of the Saints is based upon it. The "Kingdom of -God" is arranged with reference to it. The hopes of Mormons of glory -and happiness in eternity depend upon it, and in this life men and -women are perpetually exhorted to live up to it. It is pure nonsense -therefore--so at least it seems to me--to request the Mormons to give -up plurality, and keep the rest. You might just as well cut off all -a man's limbs, and then tell him to get along "like a good and loyal -citizen," with only a stomach. - -Force of course will avail, in the end, just as it did in India when -the Government determined to stamp out female infanticide among the -Rajpoots. There, the procedure was from necessity inquisitorial (for -the natives of the proscribed districts combined to prevent detection), -but it was eventually effectual. It was simply this. Whenever a family -was suspected of killing its female infants, a special staff of police -was quartered upon the village in which that family lived, at the -expense of the village, and maintained a constant personal watch over -each of the suspected wives during the period immediately preceding -childbirth. Nothing could have been so offensive to native sentiment -as such procedure, but nothing else was of any use. In the end the -suspects got wearied of the perpetual tyranny of supervision, and their -neighbours wearied of paying for the police, and infanticide as a -crime common to a whole community ceased after a few years to exist in -India. Now if the worst came to the worst, something of the same kind -is within the resources of the United States. Every polygamous family -in the Territory might be brought under direct police supervision at -the cost of their neighbours, and punishment rigidly follow every -conviction. This would stamp out polygamy in time. - -But it would be a long time, a very long time, and I would hesitate -to affirm that Mormon endurance and submission would be equal to such -a severe and such a protracted ordeal. There is nothing in their past -history that leads me to look upon them as a people exceptionally -tolerant of ill-usage. - -The infanticidal families in India were, it is true, of a fighting -caste and clan, but the suspected families were only a few hundreds -in number. They could not, like the Mormons, rely upon a strength of -twenty-five thousand adult males, an admirable strategic position, -and the help, if necessary, of twenty thousand picked "warriors" from -the surrounding Indian tribes; and it is mere waste of words to say -that the consciousness of strength has often got a great deal to do -with influencing the action of men who are subjected to violence. And -I doubt myself, looking to the recent history of England in Africa, -and Russia in Central Asia, whether the United States, when they -come to consider Mormon potentialities for resistance, will think it -worth while to resort to violence in vindication of a sentiment. The -war between the North and the South is not a case in point at all. -There was more than a mere "sentiment" went to the bringing on of -that war. Remember, I do not say that the Mormons entertain the idea -of having to fight the United States. I only say that they would not -be afraid to do it, in defence of their religion, if circumstances -compelled it. And I am only arguing from nature when I say that those -"circumstances" arrive at very different stages of suffering with -different individuals. The worm, for instance, does not turn till -it is trodden on. The grizzly bear turns if you sneeze at it. And I -am only quoting history when I say that thirty thousand determined -men, well armed, with their base of military supplies at their backs, -could defend a position of great strategical strength for--well, a -very considerable time against an army only ten times as numerous as -themselves--especially if that army had to defend a thousand miles of -communications against unlimited Indians. - -It was my privilege when on the editorial staff of the Daily Telegraph -in London to tell the country in the leading columns of that paper what -I thought of the chances of success against the Boers of the Transvaal. -I said that one Boer on his own mountains was worth five British -soldiers, and that any army that went against those fanatical puritans -with less than ten to one in numbers, would find "the sword of the -Lord and of Gideon" too strong for them, and the Drakensberg range an -impregnable frontier. As an Englishman I regret that my words were so -miserably fulfilled, and England, after sacrificing a great number of -men and officers, decided that it was not worth while "for a sentiment" -to continue the war. - -The points of resemblance between the Mormons and the Boers are rather -curious. - -The Boers of the Transvaal, though of the same stock as the great -majority of the inhabitants of British Africa, were averse to the forms -of government that had satisfied the rest. So they migrated, after some -popular disturbances, and settled in another district where they hoped -to enjoy the imperium in imperio on which they had set their longings. -But British colonies again came up with them, and after a fight with -the troops, the Boers again migrated, and with their long caravans of -ox and mule waggons "trekked" away to the farthest inhabitable corner -of the continent. Here for a considerable time they enjoyed the life -they had sought for, established a capital, had their own governor, -whipped or coaxed the surrounding native tribes into docility, and, -after a fashion, throve. But yet once more the "thin red line" of -British possession crept up to them, and the Boers, being now at bay, -and having nowhere else to "trek" to, fought. - -They were not exactly trained soldiers, but merely a territorial -militia, accustomed, however, to warfare with native tribes, and, by -the constant use of the rifle in hunting game, capital marksmen. So -they declared war against Great Britain, these three or four thousand -Boers, and having worked themselves up into the belief that they were -fighting for their religion, they unsheathed "the sword of the Lord -and of Gideon," threatened to call in the natives, and holding their -mountain passes, defied the British troops to force them. Nor without -success. For every time the troops went at them, they beat them, giving -chapter and verse out of the Bible for each whipping, and eventually -concluded their extraordinary military operations by an honourable -peace, and a long proclamation of pious thanksgiving "to the Lord God -omnipotent." To-day, therefore, Queen Victoria is "suzerain" of the -Transvaal, and the Boers govern themselves by a territorial government. -To their neighbours they are known as very pious, simple, and stubborn -people; very shrewd in making a bargain; very honest when it is -made; a pastoral and agricultural community, with strong objections -to "Gentiles," who, by the way, are never tired of reviling them, -especially with regard to alleged eccentricities in domestic relations. - -Am I not right, then, in saying that the resemblance between the Boers -and the Mormons is "curious"? - -When I speak of the Mormons as being prepared to accept the worst that -the commission under the Edmunds bill may do, it should be understood -that this readiness to suffer does not arise from any misconception of -their own strength. The Mormons are thoroughly aware of it; indeed, the -figures which I have given (25,000 adult males and 20,000 Indians) are -not accepted by all of them as representing their full numbers. They -fully understand also the capabilities of their position for defence, -and are not backward to appreciate the advantages which the length of -the Federal communications would give them for protracting a campaign. - -Under the circumstances, therefore, the argument of a leading Mormon, -that "if the United States really believe the people of Utah to be the -desperate fanatics they call them, any action on their part that tends -to exasperate such fanatics is foolhardy," may be accepted as quite -seriously meant. For the Mormons, if bigoted about anything at all, -are so on this point--that they cannot be crushed. As the elect of -God, specially appointed by Him to prepare places of worship and keep -up the fires of a religion which is very soon to consume all others, -they cannot, they say, be moved until the final fulfilment of prophecy. -The Jews have still to be gathered together, and "the nations from -the north country" whose coming, according to the Bible, is to be so -terrible, are to find the Mormons, "the children of Ephraim," ready -prepared with such rites and such tabernacles that the "sons of Levi," -the Jews, can perform their old worship, and, thus refreshed, continue -their progress to the Holy Land. "And their prophets shall come in -remembrance before the Lord, and they shall smite the rocks, and the -ice shall flow down at their presence, and a highway shall be cast up -in the midst of the great deep. And they shall come forth, and their -enemies shall become a prey unto them, and the everlasting hills shall -tremble at their presence." For this time, these men and women among -whom I have lived are actually waiting! - -Of course, we ordinary Christians, whose religion sits lightly upon -us, cannot, without some effort, understand the stern faith with which -the Mormons cling to their translations of Old Testament prophecy. Nor -is it easy to credit the fierce earnestness with which, for instance, -the Saints look forward to the accomplishment of the promise that they -shall eventually possess Jackson County, Missouri. But if this spirit -of intense superstition is not properly taken into account by those -who try to make the Mormons alter their beliefs, they run the risk of -underestimating the seriousness of their attempt. If, on the other -hand, it is properly taken into account, the difficulty of forcing this -people to abandon their creeds will be at once seen to be very grave. - -Except, perhaps, the Kurdish outbreak on the Persian frontier some -three years ago, there has been no problem like the Mormon one -presented to the consideration of modern Europe. In the case of the -Kurds, two nations, Turkey and Persia, were within an ace of war, in -consequence of the insurgents pretending that a point of religion -was involved, and popular fanaticism very nearly slipping beyond the -control of their respective governments. - -When living at a distance from Salt Lake City, it is very difficult -indeed to recognize the truth of the situation. Until I went there I -always found that though in a general way the obstacles to a speedy -settlement were admitted, yet that somehow or another there was always -the afterthought that Mormonism was only an inflated imposture, and -that it would collapse at the first touch of law. It was allowed on all -hands that the position was a peculiar one, but it was hinted also that -it was an absurd one. "No doubt," it was argued, "the Mormons are an -obstinate set of men, but after all they have got common sense. When -they see that everybody is against them, that polygamy is contrary to -the spirit of the times, that all the future of Utah depends upon their -abandonment of it, that resistance is worse than senseless," and so -on, they will give in. Let opinion as to the "bigotry" of the Mormons -or their capacity for mischief be what it might, there was always a -qualifying addendum to the effect that "nothing would come of all this -fuss." The Mormons, in fact, were supposed to be "bluffing", and it was -taken for granted therefore that they had a weak hand. - -But in Salt Lake City it is impossible to speak in this way. A -Mormon--a man of absolute honesty of speech--in conversation on this -subject declared to me that he could not abandon plurality without -apostatizing, and rather than do it, he would burn his house and -business premises down, go away to the Mexicans, die, if necessary. -Now, that man may any day be put to the very test he spoke of. He will -have to abandon polygamy, or else, if his adversaries are malicious, -spend virtually the whole of his life in jail. Which will he do? And -what will all the others of his way of thinking do? Will they defy the -law, or will they try to break it down by its own weight--that is to -say, load the files with such numbers of cases, and fill the prisons -with such numbers of convicts that the machinery will clog and break -down? The heroic alternatives of burning down their houses, going -off to Mexico, and dying will not be offered them. Their choice will -simply lie between monogamy (or celibacy) and prison, two very prosaic -things--and one or the other they must accept. Such at any rate is the -opinion of the world. - -But the Mormons, as I have already shown, do not admit this simplicity -in the solution at all. From the point of view of the law-makers, -they allow that the option before them is very commonplace. But the -law-makers, they say, have omitted to take into consideration certain -facts which complicate the solution. For though, as I have said, -the majority may be expected to accept such qualified martyrdom as -is offered, and "await the Lord's time", yet there can be no doubt -whatever that strict Mormons will not acquiesce in the suppression of -their doctrines, and among so many who are strict is it reasonable to -expect that there will be no violent advisers? Their teachers have -perpetually taught them, and their leaders assured them that prophecy -had found its fulfilment in the establishment of the Church in Utah. -Here, and nowhere else, the Saints are to await "the fulness of time" -when the whole world shall yield obedience to their government, and -reverence to their religion. The Rocky Mountains, and no other, are -"the mountains" of Holy Writ where "Zion" was to be built; and they, -the Mormons, are the remnant of Ephraim that are to welcome and pass -on the returning Jews. How, then, can the Saints reconcile themselves -to another exodus? Mexico, they say, would welcome them; but if the -richest lands in the world, and all the privileges they ask for were -offered them, they could not stultify revelation and prophecy by -accepting the offer. Moreover, they have been assured times without -number that they should never be "driven" again, and times without -number that their enemies "shall not prevail against them." To many, -to most, this, of course, now points to some interposition of Divine -Providence in their favour. The crisis may seem dangerous, and the -opposition to them overwhelming. But they are convinced--it is no -mere matter of opinion with them--that if they are only patient under -persecution and keep on living their religion, the persecution will -cease, and the triumph of their faith be fulfilled. Europe and America, -they believe, are about to be involved in terrific disasters. Wars of -unprecedented magnitude are to be waged, and natural catastrophes, -unparalleled in history, are to occur. But, in the midst of all -this shock of thrones, this convulsion of the elements, Zion on the -Mountains is to be at peace and in prosperity. It will be the one still -harbour in all the ocean of troubles, and to it, as to their final -haven, all the elect of all the nations are to gather. The prudent, -therefore, looking forward to this apocalypse of general ruin, counsel -submission to the passing storm, endurance under legal penalties, and -fidelity to their doctrine. - -But all are not prudent. Every Gethsemane has its Peter. And from that -memorable garden they draw a lesson. The Saviour, they say, meant -fighting, but when he saw that resistance to such odds as came against -him could have only ended in the massacre of his disciples, he went to -prison. - -That Brigham Young, if alive, would have decided upon a military -demonstration, the sons of Zeruiah are very ready to believe, for they -say that, even if the worst were to happen and they had eventually to -capitulate under unreasonable odds, their position would be preferable -to that which they hold to-day. To-day they lie, the whole community -together, under the ban of civil disabilities, as a criminal class, at -the mercy of police--a proscribed people. In the future, if compelled -to surrender their arms, they would be in the position of prisoners on -parole, under the honourable conditions of a military capitulation. The -worst, therefore, that could happen would, they say, be better than -what is. - -Such, at any rate, they assert, would have been the argument of Brigham -Young, and Gentiles even confess that if the late President were still -at the head of the Church the temptation for "a great bluff" would be -irresistible. - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE SAINTS AND THE RED MEN. - - Prevalent errors as to the red man--Secret treaties--The policy of - the Mormons towards Indians--A Christian heathen--Fighting-strength - of Indians friendly to Mormons. - -I HAPPENED some time ago to repeat, in the presence of two "Gentiles," -a Mormon's remark that the Indians were more friendly towards the -Saints than towards other Americans, and the comments of the two -gentlemen in question exactly illustrated the two errors which I find -are usually made on this subject. - -One said: "Oh, yes, don't you know the Mormons have secret treaties -with the Indians?" - -And the other: "And much good may they do them; these wretched Indians -are a half-starved, cricket-eating set, not worth a cent." - -Now, I confess that till I came to Utah I had an idea that the Utes -were always "the Indians" that were meant when the friendly relations -of the Mormons with the red men were referred to. About secret treaties -I knew nothing, either one way or the other. But while I was there I -took much pains to arrive at the whole truth--the President of the -Church having very courteously placed the shelves of the Historian's -office at my service--and I found no reference whatever, even in -anti-Mormon literature, to any "secret treaty." - -The Mormons themselves scorn the idea and give the following reasons: -1. No treaty made with a tribe of Indians could be kept secret. 2. -There is no necessity for a treaty of any kind, as the dislike of -the Indians to the United States is sufficiently hearty to make them -friendly to the Territory if it came to a choice between the one or the -other. 3. The conciliatory policy of the Church towards the Indians -obviates all necessity for further measures of alliance. - -And this I believe to be the fact. Indeed, I know that Mormons can -go where Gentiles cannot, and that under a Mormon escort, lives are -safe in an Indian camp that without it would be in great peril. I know -further that on several occasions (and this is on official record) the -expostulations of Mormons have prevented Indians from raiding--and I -think this ought to be remembered when sinister constructions are put -upon the friendliness of Saints towards the Indians. - -From the very first, the Church has inculcated forbearance and -conciliation towards the tribes, and even during the exodus from the -Missouri River, harassed though they sometimes were by Indians, the -Mormons, as a point of policy, always tried to avert a collision by -condoning offences that were committed, instead of punishing them. If -the red men came begging round their waggons they gave them food, and -if they stole--and what Indian will not steal, seeing that theft is -the road to honour among his people?--the theft was overlooked. Very -often, it is true, individual Mormons have avenged the loss of a horse -or a cow by taking a red man's life, but this was always in direct -opposition to the teachings of the Church, which pointed out that -murder in the white man was a worse offence than theft in the red, and -in opposition to the policy of the leaders, who have always insisted -that it was "cheaper to feed than to fight" the Indians. In spite, -however, of this treatment the tribes have again and again compelled -the Mormons to take the field against them, but as a rule the extent -of Mormon retaliation was to catch the plunderers, retake their stolen -stock, hang the actual murderers (if murder had been committed) and -let the remainder go after an amicable pow-wow. Strict justice was -as nearly as possible always adhered to, and whenever their word was -given, that word was kept sacred, even to their own loss. - -Both these things, justice and truth, every Indian understands. They do -not practise them, but they appreciate them. Just as among themselves -they chivalrously undertake the support of the squaws and children of a -conquered tribe, or as they never steal property that has been placed -under the charge of one of their own tribe, so when dealing with white -men, they have learned to expect fairness in reprisals and sincerity -in speech. When they find themselves cheated, as they nearly always -are by "Indian agents," they cherish a grudge, and when they suffer an -unprovoked injury (as when emigrants shoot a passing red man just as -they would shoot a passing coyote), they wreak their barbarous revenge -upon the first victims they can find. From the Mormons they have always -received honest treatment, comparative fairness in trade and strict -truthfulness in engagements, while, taking men killed on both sides, -it is a question whether the red men have not killed more Mormons than -Mormons have red men. - -During the war of 1865-67, I find, for instance, that all the recorded -deaths muster eighty-seven on the Indian side and seventy-nine on the -Mormon, while the latter, besides losing great numbers of cattle and -horses, having vast quantities of produce destroyed and buildings -burned down, had temporarily to abandon the counties of Piute and -Sevier, as well as the settlements of Berrysville, Winsor, Upper and -Lower Kanab, Shuesberg, Springdale and Northup, and many places in -Kane County, also some settlements in Iron County, while the total -cost of the war was over a million dollars--of which, by the way, the -Government has not repaid a Territory a cent. During the twenty years -preceding 1865 there had been numerous raids upon Mormon settlements, -most of them due to the thoughtless barbarity of passing emigrants; but -as a rule, the only revenge taken by the Mormons was expostulation, and -the despatch of missionaries to them with the Bible, and medicines and -implements of agriculture. - -The result to-day is exactly what Brigham Young foresaw. The -Indians look upon the Mormons as suffering with themselves from the -earth-hunger of "Gentiles," and feel a community in wrong with them, -while they consider them different from all other white men in being -fair in their acts and straightforward in their speech. In 1847 a chief -of the Pottawatomies--then being juggled for the second time from a -bad reservation to a worse--came into the camp of the Mormons--then -for the second time flying from one of the most awful persecutions -that ever disgraced any nation--and on leaving spoke as spoke as -follows--(he spoke good French, by the way): "My Mormon brethren,--We -have both suffered. We must help one another, and the Great Spirit -will help us both. You may cut and use all the wood on our lands that -you wish. You may live on any part of it that we are not actually -occupying ourselves. Because one suffers, and does not deserve it, it -is no reason he shall suffer always. We may live to see all well yet. -However, if we do not, our children will. Good-bye." - -Now, it strikes me that a Christian archbishop would find it hard -to alter the Red Indian's speech for the better. It is one of the -finest instances of untutored Christianity in history, and contrasts -so strangely with the hideous barbarities that make the history of -Missouri so infamous, that I can easily understand the sympathies of -Mormons being cast in with the Christian heathens they fled to, rather -than the heathen Christians they fled from. Nor from that day to this, -have the Mormons forgotten the hint the Pottawatomie gave them, and on -the ground of common suffering and by the example of a mutual sympathy -have kept up such relations with the Indians, even under exasperation, -that the red man's lodge is now open to the Mormon when it is closed to -the Gentile. - -What necessity, then, have the Mormons for secret treaties With -the Indians? None whatever. The Indians have learned by the last -half-century's experience that every "treaty" made with them has only -proved a fraud towards their ruin, while during the same period they -have learned that the word of the Mormons, who never make treaties, can -be relied upon. So if the Saints were now to begin making treaties, -they would probably fall in the estimation of the Indians to the level -of the American Government, and participate in the suspicion which the -latter has so industriously worked to secure, and has so thoroughly -secured. - -The other error commonly made as to the Indians is to underestimate -their strength. Now the Navajoes alone could bring into the field -10,000 fighting men; and, besides these, there are (specially friendly -to the Mormons) the Flatheads, the Shoshonees, the Blackfeet, the -Bannocks, part of the Sioux, and a few Apaches, with, of course, the -Utes of all kinds. The old instinct for the war-path is by no means -dead, as the recent troubles in the south of Arizona give dismal proof; -and a Mormon invitation would be quite sufficient to bring all "the -Lamanites" together into the Wasatch Mountains. - -That any such idea is ever entertained by Mormons I heartily repudiate. -But I think it worth while to point out, that--if the influence of -the Mormons on the Indians is considered of sufficient importance -to base the charge of treasonable alliance upon it--it is quite -illogical to sneer at that influence as making no difference in the -case of difficulties arising. But as a point of fact, the Mormons have -no other secret in their relations with the red men than that they -treat them with consideration, and make allowances for their ethical -obliquities; and further, as a point of fact also, these same tribes, -"the Lamanites" of the Book of Mormon, "the Lost Tribes," are in -themselves so formidable that under white leadership they would make a -very serious accession of strength to any public enemy that should be -able to enlist them. - - - -CHAPTER X. - -REPRESENTATIVE AND UNREPRESENTATIVE MORMONISM. - - Mormonism and Mormonism--Salt Lake City not representative--The - miracles of water--How settlements grow--The town of Logan: - one of the Wonders of the West--The beauty of the valley--The - rural simplicity of life--Absence of liquor and crime--A police - force of one man--Temple mysteries--Illustrations of Mormon - degradation--Their settlement of the "local option" question. - -SALT Lake City is not the whole of "Mormonism." In the Eastern States -there is a popular impression that it is. But as a matter of fact, it -hardly represents Mormonism at all. The Gentile is too much there, and -Main Street has too many saloons. The city is divided into two parties, -bitterly antagonistic. Newspapers exchange daily abuse, and sectarians -thump upon their pulpit cushions at each other every Sunday. Visitors -on their travels, sight-seeing, move about the streets in two-horse -hacks, staring at the houses that they pass as if some monsters lived -in them. A military camp stands sentry over the town, and soldiers -slouch about the doors of the bars. - -All this, and a great deal more that is to be seen in Salt Lake City, -is foreign to the true character of a Mormon settlement. Logan, for -instance (which I describe later on), is characteristic of Mormonism, -and nowhere so characteristic as in those very features in which it -differs from Salt Lake City. The Gentile does not take very kindly to -Logan, for there are no saloons to make the place a "live town," and -no public animosities to give it what they call "spirit;" everybody -knows his neighbour, and the sight-seeing fiend is unknown. The one and -only newspaper hums on its way like some self-satisfied bumble bee; the -opposition preacher, with a congregation of eight women and five men, -does not think it worth while, on behalf of such a shabby constituency, -to appeal to Heaven every week for vengeance on the 200,000 who don't -agree with him and his baker's dozen. There is no pomp and circumstance -of war to remind the Saints of Federal surveillance, no brass cannon -on the bench pointing at the town (as in Salt Lake City), no ragged -uniforms at street corners. Everything is Mormon. The biggest shop is -the Co-operative Store; the biggest place of worship the Tabernacle; -the biggest man the President of the Stake. Everybody that meets, -"Brothers" or "Sisters" each other in the streets, and after nightfall -the only man abroad is the policeman, who as a rule retires early -himself; and no one takes precautions against thieves at night. It is -a very curious study, this well-fed, neighbourly, primitive life among -orchards and corn-fields, this bees-in-a-clover-field life, with every -bee bumbling along in its own busy way, but all taking their honey back -to the same hive. It is not a lofty life, nor "ideal" to my mind, but -it is emphatically ideal, if that word means anything at all, and its -outcome, where exotic influences are not at work, is contentment and -immunity from crime, and an Old-World simplicity. - -But Logan is not by any means a solitary illustration. For the Mormon -settlements follow the line of the valleys that run north and south, -and every one of them, where water is abundant, is a Logan in process -of development. - -For water is the philosopher's stone; the fairy All-Good; the First -Cause; the everything that men here strive after as the source of -all that is desirable. It is silver and gold, pearls and rubies, and -virtuous women--which are "above rubies"--everything in fact that -is precious. It spirits up Arabian-Nights enchantments, and gives -industry a talisman to work with. Without it, the sage-brush laughs -at man, and the horn of the jack-rabbit is exalted against him. With -it, corn expels the weed, and the long-eared rodent is ploughed out -of his possession. Without it, greasewood and gophers divide the -wilderness between them. With it, homesteads spring up and gather the -orchards around them. Without it, the silence of the level desert is -broken only by the coyote and the lark. With it, comes the laughter -of running brooks, the hum of busy markets, and the cheery voices of -the mill-wheels by the stream. Without it, the world seems a dreary -failure. With it, it brightens into infinite possibilities. No wonder -then that men prize it, exhaust ingenuity in obtaining it, quarrel -about it. I wonder they do not worship it. Men have worshipped trees, -and wind, and the sun, for far less cause. - -Nothing indeed is so striking in all these Mormon settlements as the -supreme importance of water. It determines locations, regulates their -proportions, and controls their prosperity. Here are thousands of acres -barren--though I hate using such a word for a country of such beautiful -wild flowers--because there is no water. There is a small nook bursting -with farmsteads, and trees, because there is water. Men buy and sell -water-claims as if they were mining stock "with millions in sight," and -appraise each other's estates not by the stock that grazes on them, or -the harvests gathered from them, but by the water-rights that go with -them. Thus, a man in Arizona buys a forty-acre lot with a spring on it, -and he speaks of it as 70,000 acres of "wheat." Another has acquired -the right of the head-waters of a little mountain stream; he is spoken -of as owning "the finest ranch in the valley." Yet the one has not put -a plough into the ground, the other has not a single head of cattle! -But each possessed the "open sesame" to untold riches, and in a country -given over to this new form of hydromancy was already accounted wealthy. - -Every stream in Utah might be a Pactolus, every pool a Bethesda. To -compass, then, this miracle-working thing, the first energies of every -settlement are directed in the union. The Church comes forward if -necessary to help, and every one contributes his labour. At first the -stream where it leaves the canyon, and debouches upon the levels of -the valley, is run off into canals to north and south and west (for -all the streams run from the eastern range), and from these, like the -legs of a centipede, minor channels run to each farmstead, and thence -again are drawn off in numberless small aqueducts to flood the fields. -The final process is simple enough, for each of the furrows by which -the water is let in upon the field is in turn dammed up at the further -end, and each surrounding patch is thus in turn submerged. But the -settlement expands, and more ground is needed. So another canal taps -the stream above the canyon mouth, the main channels again strike off, -irrigating the section above the levels already in cultivation, and -overlapping the original area at either end. And every time increasing -population demands more room, the stream is taken off higher and higher -up the canyon. The cost is often prodigious, but necessity cannot stop -to haggle over arithmetic, and the Mormon settlements therefore have -developed a system of irrigation which is certainly among the wonders -of the West. - -"Logan is the chief Mormon settlement in the Cache Valley, and is -situated about eighty miles to the north of Salt Lake City. Population -rather over 4000." Such is the ordinary formula of the guide book. -But if I had to describe it in few words I should say this: "Logan is -without any parallel, even among the wonders of Western America, for -rapidity of growth, combined with solid prosperity and tranquillity. -Population rather over 4000, every man owning his own farm. Police -force, two men--partially occupied in agriculture on their own account. -N.B.--No police on Sundays, or on meeting evenings, as the force are -otherwise engaged." - -And writing sincerely I must say that I have seen few things in America -that have so profoundly impressed me as this Mormon settlement of -Logan. It is not merely that the industry of men and women, penniless -emigrants a few years ago, has made the valley surpassing in its -beauty. That it has filled the great levels that stretch from mountain -to mountain with delightful farmsteads, groves of orchard-trees, and -the perpetual charm of crops. That it has brought down the river from -its idleness in the canyons to busy itself in channels and countless -waterways with the irrigation and culture of field and garden; to lend -its strength to the mills which saw up the pines that grow on its -native mountains; to grind the corn for the 15,000 souls that live in -the valley, and to help in a hundred ways to make men and women and -children happy and comfortable, to beautify their homes, and reward -their industry. All this is on the surface, and can be seen at once by -any one. - -But there is much more than mere fertility and beauty in Logan and -its surroundings, for it is a town without crime, a town without -drunkenness! With this knowledge one looks again over the wonderful -place, and what a new significance every feature of the landscape -now possesses! The clear streams, perpetually industrious in their -loving care of lowland and meadow and orchard, and so cheery, too, -in their incessant work, are a type of the men and women themselves; -the placid cornfields lying in bright levels about the houses are not -more tranquil than the lives of the people; the tree-crowded orchards -and stack-filled yards are eloquent of universal plenty; the cattle -loitering to the pasture contented, the foals all running about in -the roads, while the waggons which their mothers are drawing stand -at the shop door or field gate, strike the new-comer as delightfully -significant of a simple country life, of mutual confidence, and -universal security. - -And yet I had not come there in the humour to be pleased, for I was not -well. But the spirit of the place was too strong for me, and the whole -day ran on by itself in a veritable idyll. - -A hen conveying her new pride of chickens across the road, with a -shepherd dog loftily approving the expedition in attendance; a foal -looking into a house over a doorstep, with the family cat, outraged at -the intrusion, bristling on the stoop; two children planting sprigs of -peach blossoms in one of the roadside streams; a baby peeping through a -garden wicket at a turkey-cock which was hectoring it on the sidewalk -for the benefit of one solitary supercilious sparrow--such were the -little vignettes of pretty nonsense that brightened my first walk in -Logan. I was alone, so I walked where I pleased; took notice of the -wild birds that make themselves as free in the streets as if they were -away up in the canyons; of the wild flowers that still hold their own -in the corners of lots, and by the roadway; watched the men and women -at their work in garden and orchard, the boys driving the waggons -to the mill and the field, the girls busy with little duties of the -household, and "the little ones," just as industrious as all the rest, -playing at irrigation with their mimic canals, three inches wide, old -fruit-cans for buckets, and posies stuck into the mud for orchards. I -stopped to talk to a man here and a woman there; helped to fetch down -a kitten out of an apple-tree, and, at the request of a boy, some ten -years old, I should say, opened a gate to let the team he was driving, -or rather being walked along with, go into the lot. - -It was a beautiful day, and all the trees were either in full bloom or -bright young leaf; and the conviction gradually grew upon me that I had -never, out of England, seen a place so simple, so neighbourly, so quiet. - -Later on I was driven through the town to the Temple. The wide roads -are all avenued with trees, and behind trees, each in its own garden, -or orchard, or lot of farm-land, stands a ceaseless succession of -cottage homes. Here and there a "villa," but the great majority -"cottages." Not the dog-kennels in which the Irish peasantry are -content to grovel through life so long as they need not work and -can have their whisky. Not the hovels which in some parts of rural -England house the farm labourer and his unkempt urchins. But cleanly, -comfortable homes, some of adobe, some of wood, with porticos and -verandahs and other ornaments, six or eight or even ten rooms, with -barns behind for the cow and the horse and the poultry, bird-cages -at the doors, clean white curtains at the windows, and neatly bedded -flowers in the garden-plots. Hundred after hundred, each in its own lot -of amply watered ground, we passed the homes of these Mormon farmers, -and it was a wonderful thing to me--so fresh from the old country, with -its elegance and its squalor side by side; so lately from the "live" -cities of Colorado, with their murrain of "busted" millionaires and -hollow shells of speculative prosperity--this great township of an -equal prosperity and a universal comfort. Every man I met in the street -or saw in the fields owned the house which he lived in, and the ground -that his railings bounded. Moreover they were his by right of purchase, -the earnings of the work of his own two hands. No wonder, then, they -demean themselves like men. - -I was driving with the President of the "stake"--such is the name -of the Church for the sub-divisions of its Territory--and the chief -official, therefore, of Logan, when, in a narrow part of the road we -met a down-trodden Mormon serf driving a loaded waggon in the opposite -direction. The President pulled a little to one side, motioning the man -to drive past. But the roadway thus left for him was rather rough and -this degraded slave of the Church, knowing the rule of the road (that a -loaded waggon has the right of way against all other vehicles), calmly -pointed with his whip-handle to the side of the road, and said to his -President, "You drive there." And the President did so, whereat the -down-trodden one proceeded on his way in the best of the road. - -Now this may be accepted as an instance of that abject servitude which, -according to anti-Mormons, characterizes the followers of Mormonism. As -another illustration of the same awe-stricken subjection may be here -noted the fact, that whenever the President slackened pace, passers-by, -men and women, would come over to us, and shaking hands with the -President, exchange small items of domestic, neighbourly chat--the -health of the family, convalescence of a cow, and, speaking generally, -discuss Tommy's measles. Now, women would hardly waste a despot's time -with intelligence of an infant's third tooth, or a man expatiate on the -miraculous recovery of a calf from a surfeit of damp lucerne. - -I chanced also one day to be with an authority when a man called in -to apologize for not having repaid his emigration money; and to me -the incident was specially interesting on this account, that very -few writers on the Mormons have escaped charging the Church with -acting dishonestly and usuriously towards its emigrants. I have read -repeatedly that the emigrants, being once in debt, are never able to -get out of debt; that the Church prefers they should not; that the -indebtedness is held in terrorem over them. But the man before me was -in exactly the same position as every other man in Logan. He had been -brought out from England at the expense of the Perpetual Emigration -Fund (which is maintained partly by the "tithings," chiefly by -voluntary donations), and though by his labour he had been able to pay -for a lot of ground and to build himself a house, to plant fruit-trees, -buy a cow, and bring his lot under cultivation, he had not been able to -pay off any of the loan of the Church. It stood, therefore, against him -at the original sum. But his delinquency distressed him, and "having -things comfortable about him," as he said, and some time to spare, he -came of his own accord to his "Bishop," to ask if he could not work of -part of his debt. He could not see his way, he said to any ready money, -but he was anxious to repay the loan, and he came, therefore, to offer -all he had--his labour. Now, I cannot believe that this man was abused. -I am sure he did not think he was abused himself. Here he was in Utah, -comfortably settled for life, and at no original expense to himself. No -one had bothered him to pay up; no one had tacked on usurious interest. -So he came, like an honest man, to make arrangements for satisfying a -considerate creditor, but all he got in answer was, that "there was -time enough to pay" and an exchange of opinions about a plough or a -harrow or something. And he went off as crushed down with debt as ever. -And he very nearly added to his debt on the way, by narrowly escaping -treading on a presumptuous chicken which was reconnoitring the interior -of the house from the door-mat. - -To return to my drive. After seeing the town we drove up to the Temple. -The Mormon "temples" must not be mistaken for their "tabernacles." -The latter are the regular places of worship, open to the public. The -former are buildings strictly dedicated to the rites of the Endowments, -the meetings of the initiated brethren, and the ceremonial generally -of the sacred Masonry of Mormonism. No one who has not taken his -degrees in these mysteries has access to the temples, which are, or -will be, very stately piles, constructed on architectural principles -said by the Church to have been revealed to Joseph Smith piecemeal, as -the progress of the first Temple (at Kirkland) necessitated, and said -by the profane to be altogether contrary to all previously received -principles. However this may be, the style is, from the outside, not -so prepossessing as the cost of the buildings and the time spent upon -them would have led one to expect. The walls are of such prodigious -thickness, and the windows so narrow and comparatively small, that -the buildings seem to be constructed for defence rather than for -worship. But once within, the architecture proves itself admirable. -The windows gave abundant light and the loftiness of the rooms imparts -an airiness that is as surprising as pleasing, while the arrangement -of staircases--leading, as I suppose, from the rooms of one degree -in the "Masonry" to the next higher--and of the different rooms, all -of considerable size, and some of very noble proportions indeed, is -singularly good. - -I ought to say that this Temple at Logan is the only one I have -entered, and it is only because it is not completed. This year the -building will be finished--so it is hoped--and the ceremony of -dedication will then attract an enormous crowd of Mormons. It is -something over 90 feet in height (not including the towers, which -are still wanting) and measures 160 feet by 70. On the ground floor, -judging from what I know of the secret ritual of the Church, are -the reception-rooms of the candidates for the "endowments," various -official rooms, and the font for baptism. The great laver, 10 feet -in diameter, will rest on the backs of twelve oxen cast in iron -(and modelled from a Devon ox bred by Brigham Young) and will be -descended to by flights of steps, the oxen themselves standing in -water half-knee-deep. On the next floor are the apartments in which -the allegorical panorama of the "Creation" and the "Fall of Man" will -be represented. Here, too, will be the "Veil," the final degree in -what might be called, in Masonic phrase, "craft" or "blue" Masonry, -and, except for higher honorary grades, the ultimate objective point -of Mormon initiation. Above these rooms is a vast hall, occupying the -whole floor, in which general assemblies of the initiated brethren and -"chapters" will be held. The whole forms a very imposing pile of great -solidity and some grandeur, built of a gloomy, slate-coloured stone (to -be eventually coloured a lighter tint), and standing on a magnificent -site, being raised above the town upon an upper "bench" of the slope, -and showing out superbly against the monstrous mountain about a mile -behind it. The mountain, of course, dwarfs the Temple by its proximity, -but the position of the building was undoubtedly "an architectural -inspiration," and gives the great pile all the dominant eminence which -Mormons claim for their Church. - -From the platform of the future tower the view is one of the finest I -have ever seen. The valley, reaching for twenty miles in one direction, -and thirty in the other, with an average width of about ten miles, lies -beneath you, level in the centre, and gradually sloping on every margin -up to the mountains that bound it in. Immediately underneath you, Logan -spreads out its breadth of farm-land and orchard and meadow, with the -river--or rather two rivers, for the Logan forks just after leaving the -canyon--and the canal, itself a pleasant stream, carrying verdure and -fertility into every nook and corner. To right and left and in front, -delightful villages--Hirum, Mendon, Wellsville, Paradise, and the rest, -all of them miniature Logans--break the broad reaches of crop-land, -with their groves of fruit-trees, and avenues of willows and carob, -box-elder, poplar, and maple, while each of them seems to be stretching -out an arm to the other, and all of them trying to join hands with -Logan. For lines of homesteads and groups of trees have straggled away -from each pretty village, and, dotted across the intervening meadows -of lucerne and fields of corn, form links between them all. Behind -them rise the mountains, still capped and streaked with snow, but all -bright with grass upon their slopes. It was a delightful scene, and -required but little imagination to see the 15,000 people of the valley -grown into 150,000, and the whole of this splendid tract of land one -continuous Logan. And nothing can stop that day but an earthquake or -a chronic pestilence. For Cache Valley depends for its prosperity -upon something surer than "wild-cat" speculations, or mines that have -bottoms to fall out. The cumulative force of agricultural prosperity is -illustrated here with remarkable significance, for the town, that for -many years seemed absolutely stationary, has begun both to consolidate -and to expand with a determination that will not be gainsaid. - -The sudden success of a mining camp is volcanic in its ephemeral -rapidity. The gradual growth of an agricultural town is like the -solid accretion of a coral island. The mere lapse of time will make -it increase in wealth, and with wealth it will annually grow more -beautiful. Even as it is, I think this settlement of Mormon farmers -one of the noblest of the pioneering triumphs of the Far West; and in -the midst of these breathless, feverish States where every one seems -to be chasing some will-o'-the-wisp with a firefly light of gold, or -of silver--where terrible crime is a familiar feature, where known -murderers walk in the streets, and men carry deadly weapons, where -every other man complains of the fortune he only missed making by an -accident, or laments the fortune he made in three days, and lost in as -many hours--it is surpassingly strange to step out suddenly upon this -tranquil valley, and find oneself among its law-abiding men. It is -exactly like stepping out of a mine shaft into the fresh pure air of -daylight. - -The Logan police force is a good-tempered-looking young man. There is -another to help him, but if they had not something else to do they -would either have to keep on arresting each other, in order to pass the -time, or else combine to hunt gophers and chipmunks. As it is, they -unite other functions of private advantage with their constabulary -performances, and thus justify their existence. As one explanation of -the absence of crime, there is not a single licence for liquor in the -town. - -Once upon a time there were three saloons in Logan. But one night a -Gentile, passing through the town, shot the young Mormon who kept one -of them, whereat the townsfolk lynched the murderer, and suppressed -all the saloons. After a while licences were again issued, but a -six months' experiment showed that the five arrests of the previous -half-year had increased under the saloon system to fifty-six, so -the town suppressed the licences again, and to-day you cannot buy -any liquor in Logan. I am told, however, that an apostate, who is -in business in the town, carries on a more or less clandestine -distribution of strong drinks; but any accident resulting therefrom, -another murder, for instance, would probably put an end to his trade -for ever, for it is not only the Mormon leaders, but the Mormon people -that refuse to have drunkards among them. - -These facts about Logan are a sufficient refutation of the calumny so -often repeated by apostates and Gentiles, that the Mormons are not the -sober people they profess to be. The rules now in force in Logan were -once in force in Salt Lake City, but thanks to reforming Gentiles there -are now plenty of saloons and drunkards in the latter. At one time -there were none, but finding the sale of drink inevitable, the Church -tried to regulate it by establishing its own shops, and forbidding it -to be sold elsewhere. But the Federal judge refused the application. -So the city raised the saloon licence to 3600 dollars per annum! Yet, -in spite of this enormous tax, two or three bars managed to thrive, -and eventually numbers of other men, encouraged by the conduct of -the courts, opened drinking-saloons, refused to pay the licence, and -defied--and still defy--all efforts of the city to bring them under -control. In Logan, however, these are still the days of no drink, and -the days therefore of very little crime. - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THROUGH THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. - - Salt Lake City to Nephi--General similarity of the - settlements--From Salt Lake Valley into Utah Valley--A - lake of legends--Provo--Into the Juab valley--Indian - reminiscences--Commercial integrity of the saints--At Nephi--Good - work done by the saints--Type of face in rural Utah--Mormon - "doctrine" and Mormon "meetings." - -THE general resemblance between the populations of the various Mormon -settlements is not more striking than the general resemblance between -the settlements themselves. - -Two nearly parallel ranges of the Rocky Mountains, forming together -part of the Wasatch range, run north and south through the length -of Utah, and enclose between them a long strip of more or less -desolate-looking land. Spurs run out from these opposing ranges, and -meeting, cut off this strip into "valleys" of various lengths, so that, -travelling from north to south, I crossed in succession, in the line -of four hundred miles or so, the Cache, Salt Lake, Utah, Juab, San -Pete, and Sevier valleys (the last enclosing Marysvale, Circle Valley -and Panguitch Valley), and having there turned the end of the Wasatch -range, travelled into Long Valley, which runs nearly east and west -across the Territory. - -In the Cache and the Sevier valleys there are some noble expanses of -natural meadow, but in all the rest the soil, where not cultivated, -is densely overgrown with sage-brush, greasewood and rabbit-brush, -and in no case except the Cache Valley (by far the finest section of -the Territory) and Long Valley, is the water-supply sufficient to -irrigate the whole area enclosed. The proportions under cultivation -vary therefore according to the amount of the water, and the size -of the settlements is of course in an almost regular ratio with the -acreage under the plough. But all are exactly on the same pattern. Wide -streets--varying from 80 to 160 feet in width--avenued on either side -with cotton-wood, box-elder, poplar, and locust-trees, and usually with -a runnel of water alongside each side-walk, intersect each other at -right angles, the blocks thus formed measuring from four to ten acres. -These blocks hold, it may be, as many as six houses, but, as a rule, -three, two, or only one; while the proportion of fruit and shade-trees -to dwelling-houses ranges from a hundred to one to twenty to one. As -the lots are not occupied in any regular succession, there are frequent -gaps caused by empty blocks, while the streets towards the outer limits -of the towns are still half overgrown with the original sage-brush. -All the settlements therefore, resemble each other, except in size, -very closely, and may be briefly described as groves of trees and fruit -orchards with houses scattered about among them. - -The settlements of the Church stretch in a line north and south -throughout the whole length of the Territory, and on reaching the Rio -Virgin, in the extreme south, follow the course of that river right -across Utah to the eastern frontier. The soil throughout the line north -and south appears to be of a nearly uniform character, as the same -wild plants are to be found growing on it everywhere, and the sudden -alternations of fertility and wilderness are due almost entirely to the -abundance or absence of water. - -Leaving Salt Lake City to go south, we pass through suburbs of orchard -and garden, with nearly the whole town in panoramic review before us, -and find ourselves in half an hour upon levels beyond the reach of -the city channels, and where the sage-brush therefore still thrives -in undisturbed glory. Bitterns rise from the rushes, and flights of -birds wheel above the patches of scrub. And so to the Morgan smelting -camp, and then the Francklyn works, where the ore of the Horn Silver -Mine is worked, and then the Germania, one of the oldest smelting -establishments in the Territory, where innocent ore of all kinds is -taken in and mashed up into various "bullions"--irritamenta malorum. -Two small stations, each of them six peach-trees and a shed, slip by, -and then Sandy, a small mining camp of poor repute, shuffles past, -and next Draper, an agricultural settlement that seems to have grown -fruit-trees to its own suffocation. - -The mountains have been meanwhile drawing gradually closer together, -and here they join. Salt Lake Valley ends, and Utah Valley begins, and -crossing a "divide" we find the levels of the Utah Lake before us, -and the straggling suburbs of Lehi about us. These scattered cottages -gradually thicken into a village towards the lake, and form a pleasant -settlement of the orthodox Mormon type. The receipt for making one of -these ought to be something as follows: Take half as much ground as -you can irrigate, and plant it thickly with fruit-trees. Then cut it -up into blocks by cutting roads through it at right angles; sprinkle -cottages among the blocks, and plant shade-trees along both sides of -the roads. Then take the other half of your ground and spread it out in -fields around your settlement, sowing to taste. - -The actual process is, of course, the above reversed. A log hut and an -apple-tree start together in a field of corn, and the rest grows round -them. But my receipt looks the easier of the two. - -Beyond Lehi, and all round it, cultivation spreads almost -continuously--alternating delightfully with orchards and groves and -meadows--to American Fork, a charming settlement, smothered, as usual, -in fruit and shade-trees. The people here are very well-to-do, and -they look it; and their fields and herds of cattle have overflowed and -joined those of Pleasant Grove--another large and prosperous Mormon -settlement that lies further back, and right under the hills. It would -be very difficult to imagine sweeter sites for such rural hamlets than -these rich levels of incomparable soil stretching from the mountains to -the lake, and watered by the canyon streams. - -"Great Salt Lake" is, of course, the Utah Lake of the outside world. -But "Utah Lake" proper, is the large sheet of fresh water which lies -some thirty miles south of Salt Lake City, and gives its name to the -valley which it helps to fertilize. All around it, except on the -western shore, the Mormons have planted their villages, so that from -Lehi you can look out on to the valley, and see at the feet of the -encircling hills, and straggling down towards the lake, a semicircle -of settlements that, but for the sterility of the mountain slopes on -the west, might have formed a complete ring around it. But no springs -rise on the western slopes, and the settlements of the valleys always -lie, therefore, on the eastern side, unless some central stream gives -facilities for irrigation on the western also. - -Utah Lake is a lake of legends. In the old Indian days it was held in -superstitious reverence as the abode of the wind spirits and the storm -spirits, and as being haunted by monsters of weird kind and great -size. Particular spots were too uncanny for the red men to pitch their -lodges there; and even game had asylum, as in a city of refuge, if it -chanced to run in the direction of the haunted shore. In later times, -too, the Utah Lake has borne an uncomfortable reputation as the domain -of strange water-apparitions, and several men have recorded visions -of aquatic monsters, for which science as yet has found no name, -but which, speaking roughly, appear to have been imitations of that -delightful possibility, the sea serpent. Science, I know, goes dead -against such gigantic worms, but this wonderful Western country has -astonishment in store for the scientific world. If half I am told about -the wondrous fossils of Arizona and thereabouts be true, it may even be -within American resources to produce the kraken himself. In the mean -time, as a contribution towards it, and a very tolerable instalment, -too, I would commend to notice the great snake of the Utah Lake. It has -frightened men--and, far better evidence than that, it has been seen by -children when playing on the shore. I say "better," because children -are not likely to invent a plausible horror in order to explain their -sudden rushing away from a given spot with terrified countenances and -a consistent narrative--a horror, too, which should coincide with the -snake superstitions of the Pi-Ute Indians. Have wise men from the East -ever heard of this fabled thing? Does the Smithsonian know of this -terror of the lake--this freshwater kraken--this new Mormon iniquity? - -Visitors have made the American Fork canyon too well known to need -more than a reference here, but the Provo canyon, with its romantic -waterfalls and varied scenery, is a feature of the Utah Valley which -may some day be equally familiar to the sight-seeing world. The -botanist would find here a field full of surprises, as the vegetation -is of exceptional variety, and the flowers unusually profuse. Down -this canyon tumbles the Provo River; and as soon as it reaches the -mouth--thinking to find the valley an interval of placid idleness -before it attains the final Buddhistic bliss of absorption in the lake, -the Nirvana of extinguished individuality--it is seized upon, and -carried off to right and left by irrigation channels, and ruthlessly -distributed over the slopes. And the result is seen, approaching Provo, -in magnificent reaches of fertile land, acres of fruit-trees, and miles -of crops. - -Provo is almost Logan over again, for though it has the advantage over -the northern settlement in population, it resembles it in appearance -very closely. There is the same abundance of foliage, the same width -of water-edged streets, the same variety of wooden and adobe houses, -the same absence of crime and drunkenness, the same appearance of solid -comfort. It has its mills and its woollen factory, its "co-op." and -its lumber-yards. There is the same profusion of orchard and garden, -the same all-pervading presence of cattle and teams. The daily life -is the same too, a perpetual industry, for no sooner is breakfast -over than the family scatters--the women to the dairy and household -work, the handloom and the kitchen; the men to the yard, the mill, -and the field. One boy hitches up a team and is off in one direction; -another gets astride a barebacked horse and is off in another; a third -disappears inside a barn, and a fourth engages in conflict with a drove -of calves. But whatever they are doing, they are all busy, from the old -man pottering with the water channels in the garden to the little girls -pairing off to school; and the visitor finds himself the only idle -person in the settlement. - -From Provo--through its suburbs of foliage and glebeland--past -Springville, a sweet spot, lying back under the hills with a bright -quick stream flowing through it and houses mobbed by trees. Here are -flour-mills and one of the first woollen mills built in Utah. In the -days of its building the Indians harried the valley, and young men -tell how as children they used to lie awake at nights to listen to the -red men as they swept whooping and yelling through the quiet streets -of the little settlement; how the guns stood always ready against the -wall, and the windows were barricaded every night with thick pine -logs. What a difference now! Further on, but still looking on to the -lake, is Spanish Fork (nee Palmyra), where, digging a water channel -the other day, the spade turned up an old copper image of the Virgin -Mary, and some bones. This takes back the Mormon settlement of to-day -to the long-ago time when Spanish missionaries preached of the Pope to -the Piutes, and gave but little satisfaction to either man or beast, -for their tonsured scalps were but scanty trophies and the coyote -found their lean bodies but poor picking. Only fifteen years ago the -Navajos came down into the valley through the canyon which the Denver -and Rio Grande line now traverses, but the Mormons were better prepared -than the Spanish missionaries, and hunted the Navajo soul out of the -Indians, so that Spanish Fork is now the second largest settlement -in the valley, and the Indians come there begging. They are all of -the "tickaboo" and "good Injun" sort, the "how-how" mendicants of -the period. All the inhabitants are as good an illustration of the -advantages of co-operation in stores, farm-work, mills--everything--as -can well be adduced. - -Co-operation, by the way, is an important feature of Mormon life, and -never, perhaps, so much on men's tongues and in their minds as at the -present time. The whole community has been aroused by the consistent -teaching of their leaders in their addresses at public "meetings," -in their prayers in private households, to a sense of the "suicidal -folly," as they call it, of making men wealthy (by their patronage) who -use their power against the Saints; and the Mormons have set themselves -very sincerely to work to trade only with themselves and to starve out -the Gentiles. And it is very difficult indeed for an unprejudiced man -not to sympathize in some measure with the Mormons. By their honesty -they have made the name "Mormon" respected in trade all over America, -and have attracted shopkeepers, who on this very honesty have thriven -and become wealthy in Utah--and yet some of these men, knowing nothing -of the people except that they are straightforward in their dealings -and honourable in their engagements, join in the calumny that the -Mormons are a "rascally," "double-dealing" set. For my own part, I -think the Church should have starved out some of these slanderers -long ago. Even now it would be a step in the right direction if the -Church slipped a "fighting apostle" at the men who go on day after -day saying and writing that which they know to be untrue, calling, -for instance, virtuous, hard-working men and women "the villainous -spawn of polygamy," and advocating the encouragement of prostitutes -as a "reforming agency for Mormon youth"! Meanwhile "co-operation" as -a religious duty is the doctrine while of the day, and Gentile trade -is already suffering in consequence. The movement is a very important -one to the Territory, for if carried out on the proper principles -of co-operation, the people will live more cheaply here than in any -other State in America. As it is, many imported articles, thanks to -co-operative competition, are cheaper here than further east, and when -the boycotting is in full swing many more articles will also come down -in price, as the Gentiles' profits will then be knocked off the cost -to the purchaser. Every settlement, big and little, has its "co-op.," -and the elders when on tour through the outlying hamlets lose no -opportunity for encouraging the movement and extending it. - -Passing Spanish Fork, and its outlying herds of horses, we see, -following the curve Of the lake, Salem, a little community of farmers -settled around a spring; Payson, called Poteetnete in the old Indian -days--after a chief who made life interesting, not to say exciting, for -the early settlers--Springlake villa, where one family has grown up -into a hamlet, and grown out of it, too, for they complain that they -have not room enough and must go elsewhere; and Santaquin, a little -settlement that has reached out its fields right across the valley -to the opposite slope of the hills. This was the spot where Abraham -Butterfield, the only inhabitant of the place at the time, won himself -a name among the people by chasing off a band of armed Indians, who -had surprised him at his solitary work in the fields, by waving his -coat and calling out to imaginary friends in the distance to "Come -on." The Indians were thoroughly fooled, and fled back up the country -incontinently, while Abraham pursued them hotly, brandishing his old -coat with the utmost ferocity, and vociferously rallying nobody to the -bloody attack. - -Here Mount Nebo, the highest elevation in the Territory was first -pointed out to me--how tired I got of it before I had done!--and -through fields of lucerne we passed from the Utah into the Juab Valley -and an enormous wilderness of sage-brush. It is broken here and -there by an infrequent patch of cultivation, and streaks of paling -go straggling away across the grey desert. But without water it is a -desperate section, and the pillars of dust moving across the level, and -marking the track of the sheep that wandered grazing among the sage, -reminded me of the sand-wastes of Beluchistan, where nothing can move a -foot without raising a tell-tale puff of dust. - -There, the traveller, looking out from his own cloud of sand, sees -similar clouds creeping about all over the plain, judges from their -size the number of camels or horses that may be stirring, and draws -his own conclusions as to which may, be peaceful caravans, and which -robber-bands. By taking advantage of the wind, the desert banditti -are able to advance to the attack, just as the devil-fish do on the -sea-bottom, under cover of sand-clouds of their own stirring up; and -the first intimation which the traveller has of the character of those -who are coming towards him, is the sudden flash of swords and glitter -of spearheads that light up the edges of the advancing sand, just as -lightning flits along the ragged skirts of a moving thunder-cloud. - -But here there are no Murri or Bhoogti horsemen astir, and the Indians, -Piutes or Navajos, have not acquired Beluchi tactics. These moving -clouds here are raised by loitering sheep, formidable only to Don -Quixote and the low-nesting ground-larks. They are close feeders, -though, these sheep, and it is poor gleaning after them, so it is a -rule throughout the Territory that on the hills where sheep graze, game -need not be looked for. - -An occasional ranch comes in sight, and along the old county road a -waggon or two goes crawling by, and then we reach Mona, a pretty little -rustic spot, but the civilizing radiance of corn-fields gradually dies -away, and the relentless sage-brush supervenes, with here and there a -lucid interval of ploughed ground in the midst of the demented desert. -With water the whole valley would be superbly fertile, as we soon see, -for there suddenly breaks in upon the monotony of the weed-growths -a splendid succession of fields, long expanses of meadowland, large -groves of orchards, and the thriving settlement of Nephi. - -Like all other prosperous places in Utah, it is almost entirely Mormon. -There is one saloon, run by a Mormon, but patronized chiefly by the -"outsiders"--for such is the name usually given to the "Gentiles" in -the settlement--and no police. Local mills meet local requirements, -and the "co-op." is the chief trading store of the place. There are no -manufactures for export, but in grain and fruit there is a considerable -trade. It is a quaint, straggling sort of place, and, like all these -settlements, curiously primitive. The young men use the steps of the -co-operative store as a lounge, and their ponies, burdened with huge -Mexican saddles and stirrups that would do for dog-kennels, stand -hitched to the palings all about. The train stops at the corner of the -road to take up any passengers there may be. Deer are sometimes killed -in the streets, and eagles still harry the chickens in the orchards. -Wild-bird life is strangely abundant, and a flock of "canaries"--a very -beautiful yellow siskin--had taken possession of my host's garden. -"We do catch them sometimes," said his wife, "but they always starve -themselves, and pine away till they are thin enough to get through -the bars of the cage, and so we can never keep them." A neighbour who -chanced in, was full of canary-lore, and I remember one incident that -struck me as very pretty. He had caught a canary and caged it, but the -bird refused to be tamed, and dashed itself about the cage in such a -frantic way that out of sheer pity he let the wild thing go. A day or -two later it came back, but with a mate, and when the cage was hung out -the two birds went into captivity together, of their own free-will, and -lived as happily as birds could live! - -My host was a good illustration of what Mormonism can do for a man. In -Yorkshire he was employed in a slaughtering-yard, and thought himself -lucky if he earned twelve shillings a week. The Mormons found him, -"converted" him, and emigrated him. He landed in Utah without a cent -in his pocket, and in debt to the Church besides. But he found every -one ready to help him, and was ready to help himself, so that to-day -he is one of the most substantial men in Nephi, with a mill that cost -him $10,000 to put up, a shop and a farm, a house and orchard and -stock. His family, four daughters and a son, are all settled round him -and thriving, thanks to the aid he gave them--"but," said he, "if the -Mormons had not found me, I should still have been slaughtering in the -old country, and glad, likely, to be still earning my twelve shillings -a week." Another instance from the same settlement is that of a boy -who, five years ago, was brought out here at the age of sixteen. His -emigration was entirely paid for by the Church. Yet last year he sent -home from his own pocket the necessary funds to bring out his mother -and four brothers and sisters! God speed these Mormons, then. They -are doing both "the old country and the new" an immense good in thus -transforming English paupers into American farmers--and thus exchanging -the vices and squalor of English poverty for the temperance, piety, and -comfort of these Utah homesteads. I am not blind to their faults. My -aversion to polygamy is sincere, and I find also that the Mormons must -share with all agricultural communities the blame of not sacrificing -more of their own present prospects for the sake of their children's -future, and neglecting their education, both in school and at home. But -when I remember what classes of people these men and women are chiefly -drawn from, and the utter poverty in which most of them I cannot, in -sincerity, do otherwise than admire and respect the system which has -fused such unpromising material of so many nationalities into one -homogeneous whole. - -For myself, I do not think I could live among the Mormons happily, for -my lines have been cast so long in the centres of work and thought, -that a bovine atmosphere of perpetual farms suffocates me. I am -afraid I should take to lowing, and feed on lucerne. But this does -not prejudice me against the men and women who are so unmistakably -happy. They are uncultured, from the highest to the lowest. But the -men of thirty and upwards remember these valleys when they were utter -deserts, and the Indian was lord of the hills! As little children they -had to perform all the small duties about the house, the "chores," as -they are called; as lads they had to guard the stock on the hills; as -young men they were the pioneers of Utah. What else then could they be -but ignorant--in the education of schools, I mean? Yet they are sober -in their habits, conversation, and demeanour, frugal, industrious, -hospitable, and God-fearing. As a people, their lives are a pattern to -an immense number of mankind, and every emigrant, therefore, taken up -out of the slums of manufacturing cities in the old countries, or from -the hideous drudgery of European agriculture, and planted in these Utah -valleys, is a benefit conferred by Mormonism upon two continents at -once. - -To return to Nephi. I went to a "meeting" in the evening, and to -describe one is to describe all. The old men and women sit in -front--the women, as a rule, all together in the body of the room, and -the men at the sides. How this custom originated no one could tell me; -but it is probably a survival of habit from the old days when there -was only room enough for the women to be seated, and the men stood -round against the walls, and at the door. As larger buildings were -erected, the women, as of old, took their accustomed seats together -in the centre, and the men filled up the balance of the space. The -oldest being hard of hearing and short of sight, would naturally, in an -unconventional society, collect at the front of the audience. Looking -at them all together, they are found to be exactly what one might -expect--a congregation of hard-featured, bucolic faces, sun-tanned and -deep-lined. Here and there among them is a bright mechanic's face, and -here and there an unexpected refinement of intelligence. But taken in -the mass, they are precisely such a congregation as fills nine-tenths -of the rural places of worship all the world over. Conspicuously -absent, however, is the typical American face, for the fathers and -mothers among the Mormons are of every nationality, and the sons and -daughters are a mixture of all. In the future this race should be a -very fine one, for it is chiefly recruited from the hardier stocks, -the English, Scotch, and Scandinavian, while their manner of life is -pre-eminently fitted for making them stalwart in figure, and sound in -constitution. - -The meeting opens with prayer, in which the Almighty is asked for -blessings upon the whole people, upon each class of it, upon their -own place in particular, upon all the Church authorities, and upon -all friends of the Mormons. But never, so far as I have heard, are -intercessions made, in the spirit of New Testament teaching, for the -enemies of the Church. References to the author of the Edmunds Bill -are often very pointed and vigorous. After the prayer comes a hymn, -sung often to a lively tune, and accompanied by such instrumental -music as the settlement can rely upon, after which the elders address -the people in succession. These addresses are curiously practical. -They are temporal rather than spiritual, and concern themselves with -history, official acts, personal reminiscences, and agricultural -matter rather than points of mere doctrine. But as a fact, temporal -and spiritual considerations are too closely blended in Mormonism to -be disassociated. Thus references to the Edmunds Bill take their place -naturally among exhortations to "live their religion", and to "build up -the kingdom" in spite of "persecution." Boycotting Gentile tradesmen -is similarly inculcated as showing a pious fidelity to the interests -of the Church. These are the two chief topics of all addresses, but -a passing reference to a superior class of waggon, or a hope that -every one will make a point of voting in some coming election, is -not considered out of place, while personal matters, the health of -the speaker or his experiences in travel, are often thus publicly -commented upon. The result is, that the people go away with some -tangible facts in their heads, and subjects for ordinary conversation -on their tongues, and not, as from other kinds of religious meetings, -with only generalities about their souls and the Ten Commandments. In -other countries the gabble of small-talk that immediately overtakes -a congregation let out of church sounds very incongruous with the -last notes of the organ voluntary that play them out of the House of -God. But here the people walking homeward are able to continue the -conversation on exactly the same lines as the addresses they have -just heard, to renew it the next day, to carry it about with them -as conversation from place to place, and thus eventually to spread -the "doctrine" of the elders over the whole district. A fact about -waggon-buying sticks where whole sermons about salvation by faith would -not. - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -FROM NEPHI TO MANTI. - - English companies and their failures--A deplorable neglect of - claret cup--Into the San Pete Valley--Reminiscences of the - Indians--The forbearance of the red man--The great temple at - Manti--Masonry and Mormon mysteries--In a tithing-house. - -FROM Nephi, a narrow-guage line runs up the Salt Creek canyon, and -away across a wilderness to a little mining settlement called Wales, -inhabited by Welsh Mormons who work at the adjacent coal-mines. The -affair belongs to an English company, and it is worth noting that -"English companies" are considered here to be very proper subjects -for jest. When nobody else in the world will undertake a hopeless -enterprise, an English company appears to be always on hand to embark -in it, and this fact displays a confidence on the part of Americans in -British credulity, and a confidence on the part of the Britishers in -American honesty, which ought to be mutually instructive. Meanwhile -this has nothing to do with these coal-mines in the San Pete Valley, -which, for all I know, may be very sound concerns, and very profitable -to the "English company" in question. I hope it is. The train was -rather a curious one, though, for it stopped for passengers at the -corner of the street, and when we got "aboard," we found a baggage -car the only vehicle provided for us. A number of apostles and elders -were on Conference tour, and the party, therefore, was a large one; so -that, if the driver had been an enthusiastic anti-Mormon, he might have -struck a severe blow at the Church by tilting us off the rails. The -Salt Creek canyon is not a prepossessing one, but there grew in it an -abundance of borage, the handsome blue heads of flowers showing from -among the undergrowth in large patches. - -What a waste of borage! Often have I deplored over my claret in India -the absence of this estimable vegetable, and here in Utah with a -perfect jungle of borage all about me, I had no claret! I pointed out -to the apostles with us that temperance in such a spot was flying -in the face of providence, and urged them to plant vineyards in -the neighbourhood. But they were not enthusiastic, and I relapsed -into silent contemplation over the incredible ways of nature, that -she should thus cast her pearls of borage before a community of -teetotallers. - -Traversing the canyon, we enter San Pete Valley, memorable for the -Indian War of 1865-67, but in itself as desolate and uninteresting a -tract of country as anything I have ever seen. Ugly bald hills and -leprous sand-patches in the midst of sage-brush, combined to form a -landscape of utter dreariness; and the little settlements lying away -under the hills on the far eastern edge of the valley--Fountain Green, -Maroni, and Springtown--seemed to me more like penal settlements -than voluntary locations. Yet I am told they are pretty enough, and -certainly Mount Pleasant, the largest settlement in the San Pete -country, looked as if it deserved its name. But it stands back well out -of the desperate levels of the valley, and its abundant foliage tells -of abundant water. A pair of eagles circled high up in the sky above -us as we rattled along, expecting us apparently to die by the way, and -hoping to be our undertakers. A solitary coyote was pointed out to me, -a lean and uncared-for person, that kept looking back over its shoulder -as it trotted away, as if it had a lingering sort of notion that a -defunct apostle might by chance be thrown overboard. It was a hungry -and a thirsty looking country, and Wales, where we left our train, was -a dismal spot. Here we found waggons waiting for us, and were soon on -our way across the desert, passing a settlement-oasis now and again, -and crossing the San Pete "river," which here sneaks along, a muddy, -shallow stream, at the bottom of high, willow-fringed banks. And so -to Fort Ephraim, a quaint little one-street sort of place that looks -up to Manti, a few miles off, as a little boy looks up to his biggest -brother, and to Salt Lake City as a cat might look up to a king. - -In 1865-67, however, it was an important point. Several companies of -the Mormon militia were mustered here, and held the mountains and -passes on the east against the Indians, guarded the stock gathered here -from the other small settlements that had been abandoned, and took part -in the fights at Thistle Creek, Springtown, Fish Lake, Twelve Mile -Creek Gravelly Ford, and the rest, where Black Hawk and his flying -squadron of Navajos and Piutes showed themselves such plucky men. It -is a pity, I think, that the history of that three years' campaign has -never been sketched, for, as men talk of it, it must have abounded with -stirring incident and romance. Besides, a well-written history of such -a campaign, with the lessons it teaches, might be useful some day--for -the fighting spirit of the Indians is not broken, and when another -Black Hawk appears upon the scene, 1865 might easily be re-enacted, -and Fort Ephraim once more be transformed from a farming hamlet to a -military camp. - -Yet I have often wondered at the apathy or the friendship of the -Indians. Herds of cattle and horses and sheep wander about among the -mountains virtually unguarded. Little villages full of grain, and -each with its store well stocked with sugar, and tobacco, and cloths, -and knives, and other things that the Indians prize, lie almost -defenceless at the mouths of canyons. Yet they have not been molested -for the last fifteen years. I confess that if I were an Indian chief, I -should not be able to resist the temptation of helping my tribe to an -occasional surfeit of beef, with the amusement thrown in of plundering -a co-operative store. But the Mormons say that the Indian is more -honest than a white man and, in illustration of this, are ready to -give innumerable instances of an otherwise inexplicable chivalry. For -one thing, though, the Mormons are looked upon by the Indians in quite -a different light to other Americans, for they consider them to be -victims, like themselves, of Federal dislike, while both as individuals -and a class they hold them in consideration as being superior to Agents -in fidelity to engagements. So that the compliment of honesty is -mutually reciprocated. To illustrate this aspect of the Mormon-Indian -relations, some Indians came the other day into a settlement and -engaged in a very protracted pow-wow, the upshot of all their -roundabout palaver being this, that inasmuch as they, the Indians, had -given Utah to the Mormons, it was preposterous for the Mormons to pay -the Government for the land they took up! - -From Fort Ephraim to Manti the road lies chiefly through unreclaimed -land, but within a mile or two of the town the irrigated suburbs of -Manti break in upon the sage-brush, and the Temple, which has been -visible in the distance half the day, grows out from the hills into -definite details. The site of this imposing structure certainly -surprised me both for the fine originality of its conception, and the -artistic sympathy with the surrounding scenery, which has directed -its erection. The site originally was a rugged hill slope, but this -has been cut out into three vast semicircular terraces, each of which -is faced with a wall of rough hewn stone, seventeen feet in height. -Ascending these by wide flights of steps, you find yourself on a -fourth level, the hill top, which has been levelled into a spacious -plateau, and on this, with its back set against the hill, stands the -temple. The style of Mormon architecture, unfortunately, is heavy and -unadorned, and in itself, therefore, this massive pile, 160 feet in -length by 90 wide, and about 100 high, is not prepossessing, But when -it is finished, and the terrace slopes are turfed, and the spaces -planted out with trees, the view will undoubtedly be very fine, and -the temple be a building that the Mormons may well be proud of. Looked -at from the plain, with the stern hills behind it, the edifice is -seen to be in thoroughly artistic harmony with the scene, while the -enormous expenditure of labour upon its erection is a matter for -astonishment. The plan of the building inside differs from those of -the temples at Logan, St. George, and Salt Lake City, which again -differ from each other, for it is a curious fact that the ritual of -the secret ceremonies to which these buildings are chiefly devoted, -is still under elaboration and imperfect, so that each temple in turn -partially varies from its predecessor, to suit the latest alterations -made in the Endowments and other rites celebrated within its walls. In -my description of the Logan Temple, I gave a sketch of the purposes for -which the various parts of the building were intended. That sketch, of -course, cannot pretend to be exact, for only those Mormons who have -"worked" through the degrees can tell the whole truth; and as yet no -one has divulged it. But with a general knowledge of the rites, and -an intimate acquaintance with freemasonry, I have, I believe, put -together the only reliable outline that has ever been published. The -Manti temple will have the same arrangements of baptismal font and -dressing-rooms on the ground floor, but as well as I could judge from -the unfinished state of the building, the "endowments," in the course -of which are symbolical representations of the Creation, Temptation and -Fall, will be spread over two floors, the apartment for "baptism for -the dead" occupying a place on the lower. The "sealing" is performed on -the third. I have an objection to prying into matters which the Mormons -are so earnest in keeping secret, but as a mason, the connexion between -Masonry and Mormonism is too fascinating a subject for me to resist -curiosity altogether. - -As a settlement, Manti is pretty, well-ordered and prosperous. The -universal vice of unbridged water-courses disfigures its roads just -as it does those of every other place (Salt Lake City itself not -excepted), and the irregularity in the order of occupation of lots -gives it the same scattered appearance that many other settlements -have. But the abundance of trees, the width of the streets, the -perpetual presence of running water, the frequency and size of the -orchards, and the general appearance of simple, rustic, comfort impart -to Manti all the characteristic charm of the Mormon settlements. The -orthodox grist and saw-mills, essential adjuncts of every outlying -hamlet, find their usual place in the local economy; but to me the -most interesting corner was the quaint tithing-house, a Dutch-barn -kind of place, still surrounded by the high stone stockade which was -built for the protection of the settlers during the Indian troubles -fifteen years ago. Inside the tithing-house were two great bins half -filled with wheat and oats, and a few bundles of wool. I had expected -to find a miscellaneous confusion of articles of all kinds, but on -inquiry discovered that the popular theory of Mormon tithing, "a tenth -of everything,"--"even to the tenth of every egg that is laid," as a -Gentile lady plaintively assured me, is not carried out in practice, -the majority of Mormons allowing their tithings to run into arrears, -and then paying them up in a lump in some one staple article, vegetable -or animal, that happens to be easiest for them. The tenth of their -eggs or their currant jam does not, therefore, as supposed, form part -of the rigid annual tribute of these degraded serfs to their grasping -masters. As a matter of fact, indeed, the payment of tithings is as -nearly voluntary as the collection of a revenue necessary for carrying -on a government can possibly be allowed to be. What it may have been -once, is of no importance now. But to-day, so far from there being -any undue coercion, I have amply assured myself that there is extreme -consideration and indulgence, while the general prosperity of the -territory justifies the leniency that prevails. - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -FROM MANTI TO GLENWOOD. - - Scandinavian Mormons--Danish ol--Among the Orchards at Manti--On - the way to Conference--Adam and Eve--The protoplasm of a - settlement--Ham and eggs--At Mayfield--Our teamster's theory of - the ground-hog--On the way to Glenwood--Volcanic phenomena and - lizards--A suggestion for improving upon Nature--Primitive Art - -"MY hosts at Manti were Danes, and the wife brewed Danish ol." Such -is the entry in my note-book, made, I remember, to remind me to say -that the San Pete settlements are composed in great proportion of -Danes and Scandinavians. These nationalities contribute more largely -than any other--unless Great-Britishers are all called one nation--to -the recruiting of Mormonism, and when they reach Utah maintain their -individuality more conspicuously than any others. The Americans, Welsh, -Scotch, English, Germans, and Swiss, merge very rapidly into one blend, -but the Scandinavian type--and a very fine peasant type it is--is -clearly marked in the settlements where the Hansens and the Jansens, -Petersens, Christiansens, Nielsens, and Sorensens, most do congregate. -By the way, some of these Norse names sound very curiously to the ear. -"Ole Hagg" might be thought to be a nickname rather than anything else, -and Lars Nasquist Brihl at best a joke. Their children are remarkably -pretty, and the women models of thriftiness. - -My hostess at Manti was a pattern. She made pies under an inspiration, -and her chicken-pie was a distinct revelation. Her "beer" was certainly -a beverage that a man might deny himself quite cheerfully, but to -eat her preserves was like listening to beautiful parables, and her -cream cheese gave the same gentle pleasure as the singing of thankful -canticles. - -In the garden was an arbour overrun with a wild grapevine, and I -took my pen and ink in there to write. All went well for a while. An -amiable cat came and joined me, sitting in a comfortable cushion-sort -of fashion on the corner of my blotting-pad. But while we sat there -writing, the cat and I, there came a humming-bird into the arbour--a -little miracle in feathers, with wings all emeralds and a throat of -ruby. And it sat in the sunlight on a vine-twig that straggled out -across the door, and began to preen its tiny feathers. I stopped -writing to watch the beautiful thing. And so did the cat. For happening -to look down at the table I saw the cat, with a fiendish expression of -face and her eyes intent on the bird, gathering her hind legs together -for a spring. To give the cat a smack on the head, and for the cat to -vanish with an explosion of ill-temper, "was the work of an instant." -The humming-bird flashed out into the garden, and I was left alone to -mop up the ink which the startled cat had spilt. Then I went out and -wandered across the garden, where English flowers, the sweet-william -and columbine, pinks and wallflowers, pansies and iris, were growing, -under the fruit-trees still bunched with blossoms, and out into the -street. Friends asked me if I wasn't going to "the conference," but -I had not the heart to go inside when the world out of doors was so -inviting. There was a cool, green tint in the shade of the orchards, -pleasant with the voices of birds and dreamy with the humming of -bees. There was nobody else about, only children making posies of -apple-blossoms and launching blue boats of iris-petals on the little -roadside streams. Everybody was "at conference," and those that could -not get into the building were grouped outside among the waggons of the -country folk who had come from a distance. These conferences are held -quarterly (so that the lives of the Apostles who preside at them are -virtually spent in travelling) and at them everything is discussed, -whether of spiritual or temporal interest and a general balance struck, -financially and religiously. In character they resemble the ordinary -meetings of the Mormons, being of exactly the same curious admixture -of present farming and future salvation, business advice and pious -exhortation. - -Everybody who can do so, attends these meetings; and they fulfil, -therefore, all the purposes of the Oriental mela. Farmers, -stock-raisers, and dealers generally, meet from a distance and talk -over business matters, open negotiations and settle bargains, exchange -opinions and discuss prospects. Their wives and families, such of -them as can get away from their homes, foregather and exchange their -domestic news, while everybody lays in a fresh supply of spiritual -refreshment for the coming three months, and hears the latest word of -the Church as to the Edmunds Bill and Gentile tradesmen. The scene is -as primitive and quaint as can be imagined, for in rural Utah life -is still rough and hearty and simple. To the stranger, the greetings -of family groups, with the strange flavour of the Commonwealth days, -the wonderful Scriptural or apocryphal names, and the old-fashioned -salutation, are full of picturesque interest, while the meetings of -waggons filled with acquaintances from remote corners of the country, -the confusion of European dialects--imagine hearing pure Welsh among -the San Pete sagebrush!--the unconventional cordiality of greeting, are -delightful both in an intellectual and artistic sense. - -I have travelled much, and these social touches have always had a charm -for me, let them be the demure reunions of Creoles sous les filaos in -Mauritius; or the French negroes chattering as they go to the baths -in Bourbon; the deep-drinking convivialities of the Planters' Club in -Ceylon; the grinning, prancing, rencontres of Kaffir and Kaffir, or -the stolid collision of Boer waggons on the African veldt; the stately -meeting of camel-riding Beluchis on the sandy put of Khelat; the -jingling ox-drawn ekkas foregathered to "bukh" under the tamarind-trees -of Bengal; the reserved salutations of Hindoos as they squat by the -roadside to discuss the invariable lawsuit and smoke the inevitable -hubble-bubble; the noisy congregation of Somali boatmen before their -huts on the sun-smitten shores of Aden;--what a number of reminiscences -I could string together of social traits in various parts of the -world! And these Mormon peasants, pioneers of the West, these hardy -sons of hardy sires, will be as interesting to me in the future as any -others, and my remembrance of them will be one of admiration for their -unfashionable virtues of industry and temperance, and of gratitude for -their simple courtesy and their cordial hospitality. - -As we left Manti behind us, the waggons "coming into conference" got -fewer and fewer, and soon we found ourselves out alone upon the broad -levels of the valley, with nothing to keep us company but a low range -of barren hills that did their best to break the monotony of the -landscape. In places, the ground was white with desperate patches of -"saleratus," the saline efflorescence with which agriculture in this -Territory is for ever at war, and resembling in appearance, taste, and -effects the "reh" of the Gangetic plains. Here, as in India, irrigation -is the only known antidote, and once wash it out of the soil and -get crops growing and the enemy retires. But as soon as cultivation -ceases or irrigation slackens, the white infection creeps over the -ground again, and if undisturbed for a year resumes possession. How -unrelenting Nature is in her conflict with man! - -We passed some warm springs a few miles from Manti, but the water -though slightly saline is inodorous, and on the patches which they -water I saw the wild flax growing as if it enjoyed the temperature and -the soil. Then Six-Mile Creek, a pleasant little ravine, crossed by a -rustic bridge, which gives water for a large tract Of land, and so to -Sterling, a settlement as yet in its cradle, and curiously illustrative -of "the beginning of things" in rural Utah. One man and his one wife -up on the hillside doing something to the water, one cock and one hen -pecking together in monogamous sympathy, one dog sitting at the door -of a one-roomed log-hut. Everything was in the Adam and Eve stage -of society, and primeval. So Deucalion and Pyrrha had the earth to -themselves, and the "rooster" stalked before his mate as if he was the -first inventor of posterity. But much of this country is going to come -under the plough in time, for there is water, and in the meantime, -as giving promise of a future with some children in it, there is a -school-house--an instance of forethought which gratified me. - -The country now becomes undulating, remaining for the most part a -sterile-looking waste of grease-wood, but having an almost continuous -thread of cultivation running along the centre of the valley which, a -few miles further on, suddenly widens into a great field of several -thousand acres. On the other side of it we found Mayfield. - -In Mayfield every one was gone to the Conference except a pretty girl, -left to look after all the children of the village, and who resisted -our entreaties for hospitality with a determination that would have -been more becoming in an uglier person--and an old lady, left under the -protection of a big blind dog and a little bobtailed calf. She received -us with the honest courtesy universal in the Territory, showed us where -to put our horses and where the lucerne was stacked, and apologized to -us for having nothing better than eggs and ham to offer! - -Fancy nothing better than eggs and ham! To my mind there is nothing in -all travelling so delightful as these eggs-and-ham interruptions that -do duty for meals. Not only is the viand itself so agreeable, but its -odour when cooking creates an appetite. - -What a moral there is here! We have all heard of the beauty of the -lesson that those flowers teach us which give forth their sweetest -fragrance when crushed. But I think the conduct of eggs and ham, that -thus create an appetite in order to increase man's pleasure in their -own consumption, is attended with circumstances of good taste that are -unusually pleasing. - -In our hostess's house at Mayfield I saw for the first time the -ordinary floor-covering of the country through which we subsequently -travelled--a "rag-carpet." It is probably common all over the world, -but it was quite new to me. I discussed its composition one day with a -mother and her daughter. - -"This streak here is Jimmy's old pants, and that darker one is a -military overcoat. This is daddy's plush vest. This bit of the pattern -is--" - -"No, mother, that's your old jacket-back; don't you remember?"--and so -on all through the carpet. - -Every stripe in it had an association, and the story of the whole was -pretty nearly the story of their entire lives in the country. - -"For it took us seven years to get together just this one strip of -carpet. We folks haven't much, you see, that's fit to tear up." - -I like the phrase "fit to tear up," and wonder when, in the opinion of -this frugal people, anything does become suitable for destruction. But -it is hardly destruction after all to turn old clothes into carpets, -and the process is as simple as, in fact is identical with, ordinary -hand-weaving. The cloth is simply shredded into very narrow strips, -and each strip is treated in the loom just as if it were ordinary -yarn, the result being, by a judicious alternation of tints, a very -pleasant-looking and very durable floor-cloth. Rag-rugs are also -made on a foundation of very coarse canvas by drawing very narrow -shreds of rag through the spaces of the canvas, fastening them on the -reverse side, and cutting them off to a uniform "pile" on the upper. -In one cottage at Salina I remember seeing a rug of this kind in which -the girl had drawn her own pattern and worked in the colours with a -distinct appreciation of true artistic effect. An industrial exhibition -for such products would, I have no doubt, bring to light a great many -out-of-the-way handicrafts which these emigrant people have brought -with them from the different parts of Europe, and with which they try -to adorn their simple homes. - -Our teamster from Mayfield to Glenwood, the next stage of my southward -journey, was a very cautious person. He would not hurry his horses down -hill--they were "belike" to stumble; and he would not hurry them up -hill--it "fretted" them. On the level intervals he stopped altogether, -to "breathe" them. It transpired eventually that they were plough -horses. I suspected it from the first. And from his driving I suspected -that he was the ploughman. In other respects he was a very desirable -teamster. - -His remarks about Europe (he had once been to Chicago himself) were -very entertaining, and his theory of "ground hogs" would have delighted -Darwin. As far as I could follow him, all animals were of one species, -the differences as to size and form being chiefly accidents of age or -sex. This, at any rate, was my induction from his description of the -"ground hog," which he said was a "kind of squirrel--like the prairie -dog!" As he said, there were "quite a few" ground hogs, but they moved -too fast among the brush for me to identify them. As far as I could -tell, though, they were of the marmot kind, about nine inches long, -with very short tails and round small ears. When they were at a safe -distance they would stand up at full length on their hind legs, the -colouring underneath being lighter than on the back. What are they? I -have seen none in Utah except on these volcanic stretches of country -between Salina and Monroe. - -Much of Utah is volcanic, but here, beyond Salina, huge mounds of -scoriae, looking like heaps of slag from some gigantic furnace, -are piled up in the centre of the level ground, while in other -places circular depressions in the soil--sometimes fifty feet in -diameter and lowest in the centre, with deep fissures defining the -circumference--seem to mark the places whence the scoriae had been -drawn, and the earth had sunk in upon the cavities thus exhausted. - -The two sides of the river (the Sevier) were in striking contrast. On -this, the eastern, was desolation and stone heaps and burnt-up spaces -with ant-hills and lizards. - -Nothing makes a place look (to me at least) so hot as an abundance of -lizards. They are associated in memory with dead, still heat, "the -intolerable calor of Mambre," the sun-smitten cinder-heap that men call -Aden, the stifling hillsides of Italy where the grapes lie blistering -in the autumn sun, the desperate suburbs of Alexandria--what millions -of scorched-looking lizards, detestable little salamanders, used to -bask upon Cleopatra's Needles when they lay at full length among the -sand!--the heat-cracked fields of India. I know very well that there -are lizards and lizards; that they might be divided--as the Hindoo -divides everything, whether victuals or men's characters, medicines -or the fates the gods send him--into "hot" and "cold" lizards. The -salamander itself, according to the ancients, was icy cold. But this -does not matter. All lizards make places look hot. - -On the other side of the river, a favourite raiding-ground of "Mr. -Indian," as the settlers pleasantly call him, lies Aurora, a settlement -in the centre of a rich tract of red wheat soil with frequent -growths of willow and buffalo-berry (or bull-berry or red-berry or -"kichi-michi") marking the course of the Sevier. - -But our road soon wound down by a "dug way" to the bottom-lands, and we -found ourselves on level meadows clumped with shrubs and patched with -corn-fields, and among scattered knots of grazing cattle and horses. -Overhead circled several pairs of black hawks, a befitting reminder to -the dwellers on these Thessalian fields, these Campanian pastures, that -Scythian Piutes and Navajo Attilas might at any time swoop down upon -them. - -But the forbearance of the Indian in the matter of beef and mutton -is inexplicable--and most inexplicable of all in the case of lamb, -seeing that mint grows wild. This is a very pleasing illustration of -the happiness of results when man and nature work cordially together. -The lamb gambols about among beds of mint! What a becoming sense of -the fitness of things that would be that should surprise the innocent -thing in its fragrant pasture and serve up the two together! "They were -pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided." And what -a delightful field for similar efforts such a spectacle opens up to the -philosophic mind! Here, beyond Aurora, as we wind in and out among the -brakes of willow and rose-bush, we catch glimpses of the river, with -ducks riding placidly at anchor in the shadows of the foliage. And not -a pea in the neighbourhood! Now, why not sow green peas along the banks -of the American rivers and lakes? How soothing to the weary traveller -would be this occasional relief of canard aux petits pois! - -After an interval of pretty river scenery we found ourselves once -more in a dismal, volcanic country with bald hills and leprous -sand-patches the only features of the landscape, with lizards for -flowers and an exasperating heat-drizzle blurring the outlines of -everything with its quivering refraction. And then, after a few miles -of this, we are suddenly in the company of really majestic mountains, -some of them cedared to the peaks, others broken up into splendid -architectural designs of almost inconceivable variety, richly tinted -and fantastically grouped. How wealthy this range must be in mineral! -In front of us, above all the intervening hills, loomed out a monster -mountain, and turning one of its spurs we break all at once upon the -village of Glenwood--a beautiful cluster of foliage with skirts of -meadow-land spread out all about it--lying at the foot of the huge -slope. - -Near Glenwood is an interesting little lake that I visited. Its water -is exquisitely clear and very slightly warm. Though less than a foot -deep in most places (it has one pool twelve feet in depth), it never -freezes, in spite of the intense cold at this altitude. It is stocked -with trout that do not grow to any size, but which do not on the -other hand seem to diminish in numbers, although the consumption is -considerable. The botany in the neighbourhood of the lake is very -interesting, the larkspur, lupin, mimulus, violet, heart's-ease, -ox-eye, and several other familiar plants of English gardens, growing -wild, while a strongly tropical flavour is given to the vegetation by -the superb footstools of cactus--imagine sixty-one brilliant scarlet -blossoms on a cushion only fifteen inches across!--by the presence of -a gorgeous oriole (the body a pure yellow freaked with black on the -wings, and the head and neck a rich orange), and by a large butterfly -of a clear flame-colour with the upper wings sharply hooked at the -tips. Flower, bird, and insect were all in keeping with the Brazils or -the Malayan Archipelago. - -On a rock, close by the grist-mill, is the only specimen of the -much-talked-of Indian "hieroglyphics" that I have seen. They may of -course be hieroglyphics, but to me they look like the first attempts of -some untutored savage youth to delineate in straight lines the human -form divine. Or they may be only his attempts to delineate a cockroach. - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -FROM GLENWOOD TO MONROE. - - From Glenwood to Salina--Deceptiveness of appearances--An apostate - Mormon's friendly testimony---Reminiscences of the Prophet Joseph - Smith--Rabbit-hunting in a waggon--Lost in the sagebrush--A day - at Monroe--Girls riding pillion--The Sunday drum--Waiting for the - right man: "And what if he is married?"--The truth about apostasy: - not always voluntary. - -SOON after leaving Glenwood, cultivation dies out, and for twelve miles -or so the rabbit-brush and grease-wood--the "atriplex" of disagreeably -scientific travellers, who always speak of sage-brush as "artemisia," -and disguise the gentle chipmunk as "spermophilus"--divide the land -between them. The few flowers, and these all dwarfed varieties, attest -the poverty of the soil. The mountains, however, do their best to -redeem the landscape, and the scenery, as desolate scenery, is very -fine. The ranges that have on either hand rolled along an unbroken -series of monotonous contour, now break up into every conceivable -variety of form, mimicking architecture or rather multiplying its -types, and piling bluffs, pierced with caves, upon terraces, and -pinnacles upon battlements. Causeways, like that in Echo Canyon, slant -down their slopes, and other vestiges of a terrific aqueous action -abound. Next to this riot of rock comes a long series of low hills, -grey, red, and yellow, utterly destitute of vegetation, and so smooth -that it looks as if the place were a mountain-yard, where Nature -made her mountains, and had collected all her materials about her in -separate convenient mounds before beginning to mix up and fuse. In -places they were richly spangled with mica, giving an appearance of -sparkling, trickling water to the barren slopes. - -On the other side of the valley, the mountains, discountenancing such -frivolities, had settled down into solid-bottomed masses of immense -bulk, the largest mountains, in superficial acreage, I had seen all the -journey, and densely cedared. - -With Gunnison in sight across the valley, we reached Willow Creek, -a pleasant diversion of water and foliage in the dreary landscape, -and an eventful spot in the last Indian war, for among these willows -here Black Hawk made a stand to dispute the Mormons' pursuit of their -plundered stock, and held the creek, too, all the day. And so out on to -the monotonous grease-wood levels again--an Indians' camp fire among -the cedars, the only sign of a living thing--and over another "divide," -and so into the Sevier Valley. The river is seen flowing along the -central depression, with the Red-Mound settlement on the other side of -the stream, and Salina on this side of it, lying on ahead. - -Salina is one of those places it is very hard to catch. You see it -first "about seven" miles off, and after travelling towards it for -an hour and a half, find you have still "eight miles or so" to go. -"Appearances are very deceptive in this country," as these people -delight in saying to new-comers, and the following story is punctually -told, at every opportunity, to illustrate it. - -A couple of Britishers (of course "Britishers") started off from their -hotel "to walk over to that mountain there," just to get an appetite -for breakfast. About dinner-time one of them gave up and came back, -leaving his obstinate friend to hunt the mountain by himself. After -dining, however, he took a couple of horses and rode out after his -friend, and towards evening came up with him just as he was taking off -his shoes and stockings by the side of a two-foot ditch. - -"Hallo!" said the horseman, "what on earth are you doing, Jack?" - -"Doing!" replied the other sulkily. "Can't you see? I am taking off my -boots to wade this infernal river." - -"River!" exclaimed his friend; "what river? That thing's only a -two-foot ditch!" - -"Daresay," was the dogged response. "It looks only a two-foot ditch. -But you can't trust anything in this beastly country. Appearances are -so deceptive." - -But we caught Salina at last, for we managed to head it up into a -cul-de-sac of the mountains, and overtook it about sundown. A few -years ago the settlement was depopulated; for Black Hawk made a swoop -at it from his eyrie among the cedars on the overlooking hill, and -after killing a few of the people, compelled the survivors to fly -northward, where the militia was mustering for the defence of the -valley. It was in this war that the Federal officer commanding the post -at Salt Lake City, acting under the orders of General Sherman, refused -to help the settlers, telling them in a telegram of twenty words to -help themselves. The country, therefore, remembers with considerable -bitterness that three years' campaign against a most formidable -combination of Indians; when they lost so many lives, when two counties -had to be entirely abandoned, many scattered settlements broken up, and -an immense loss in property and stock suffered. - -At Salina I met an apostate Mormon who had deserted the religion -because he had grown to disbelieve in it, but who had retained, -nevertheless, all his respect for the leaders of the Church and the -general body of Mormons. He is still a polygamist; that is to say, -having married two wives, he has continued to treat them honourably -as wives. With me was an apostle, one of the most deservedly popular -elders of the Church, and it was capital entertainment to hear the -apostate and the apostle exchanging their jokes at each other's -expense. I was shown at this house, by the way, an emigration loan -receipt. The emigrant, his wife, and three children, had been brought -out in the old waggon days at $50 a head. Some fifteen years later, -when the man had become well-to-do and after he had apostatized, he -repaid the $250, and some $50 extra as "interest." The loan ticket -stipulated for "ten per cent per annum," but as he said, it was "only -Mormons who would have let him run on so long, and then have let him -off so much of the interest." - -My host was himself an interesting man, for he had been with the -Saints ever since the stormy days of Kirtland, and had known Joseph -Smith personally. "Ah, sir, he was a noble man!" said the old fellow. -Among other out-of-the-way items which he told me about the founder -of the faith, was his predilection for athletic exercises and games -of all kinds; how he used to challenge strangers to wrestle, and be -very wroth when, as happened once, the stranger threw him over the -counter of a shop; and how he used to play baseball with the boys in -the streets of Nauvoo. This trait of Joseph Smith's character I have -never seen noticed by his biographers, but it is quite noteworthy, as -also, I think, is the extraordinary fascination which his personal -appearance--for he was a very handsome man of the Sir Robert Peel -type--seems to have exercised over his contemporaries. When speaking to -them, I find that one and all will glance from the other aspects of his -life to this--that he was "a noble man." - -Rabbit-hunting across country in a two-horse waggon is not a sport -I shall often indulge in again. The rabbit has things too much its -own way. It does not seem to be a suitable animal for pursuing in a -vehicle. It is too evasive. - -Indeed, but for an accident, I should probably never have indulged in -it at all. But it happened that on our way from Salina to Monroe we -lost our way. Our teamster, for inscrutable reasons of his own, turned -off from the main road into a bye-track, which proved to have been made -by some one prospecting for clay, and the hole which he had excavated -was its terminus. I tried to think out his reason for choosing this -particular road, the least and most unpromising of the three that -offered themselves to him. It was probably this. Two out of the three -roads, being wrong ones, were evils. One of these was larger than the -other, and so of the two evils he chose the less. Q.E.D. - -To get back into the road we struck across the sage-brush, and in so -doing started a jack-rabbit. As it ran in the direction we wanted to -go, we naturally followed it. But the jack-rabbit thought we were in -murderous pursuit, and performed prodigies of agility and strategy in -order to escape us. But the one thing that it ought to have done, got -out of our road, it did not do. We did not gain on the lively animal, -I confess, for it was all we could do to retain our seats, but we gave -it enough to prose about all the days of its life. What stories the -younger generation of jack-rabbits will hear of "the old days" when -desperate men used to come out thousands of miles in two-horse waggons -with canvas hoods to try and catch their ancestors! And what a hero -that particular jack-rabbit which we did not hunt will be! - -The road southwards leads along hillsides, both up and down, but on the -whole gradually ascending, till the summit of the spur is reached. Here -one of the most enchanting landscapes possible is suddenly found spread -out beneath you. A vast expanse of green meadow-land with pools Of blue -water here and there, herds of horses grazing, flocks of wild fowl in -the air, and on the right the settlement of Richfield among its trees -and red-soiled corn-fields! - -Crossing this we found that a spur, running down on it, divides it -really into two, or rather conceals a second plain from sight. But -in the second, sage-brush, "the damnable absinthe," that standard of -desolation, waves rampant, and the telegraph wire that goes straddling -across it seems as if it must have been laid solely for the convenience -of larks. Every post has its lark, as punctually as its insulator, and -every lark lets off its three delicious notes of song as we go by, just -as if the birds were sentries passing on a "friend" from picket to -picket. And here it was that we adventured with the jack-rabbit, much -to our own discomfiture. But while we were casting about for our lost -road, we came upon a desolate little building, all alone in the middle -of the waste, which we had supposed to be a deserted ranch-house, and -were surprised to find several waggons standing about. Just as we -reached it, the owners of the waggons came out, and then we discovered -that it was the "meeting-house" for the scattered ranches round, and -seeing the several parties packing themselves into the different -waggons remembered (from a certain Sabbatical smartness of apparel) -that it was Sunday. We were soon on our right road again, and passing -the hamlets of Inverary and Elsinore on the right, came in sight of -Monroe, and through a long prelude of cultivation reached that quaint -little village just apparently at the fashionable hour for girls to go -out riding with their beaux. - -Couple after couple passed us, the girls riding pillion behind their -sweethearts, and very well contented they all seemed to be, with their -arms round the object of their affections. Except in France once or -twice, I do not recollect ever having seen this picturesque old custom -in practice; but judging from the superior placidity of his countenance -and the merriment on hers, I should say it was an enjoyable one, and -perhaps worth reviving. - -Another interesting feature of Sunday evening in Monroe was the big -drum. It appeared that the arrival of the Apostle who was with me had -been expected, and that the people, who are everywhere most curiously -on the alert for spiritual refreshment, had agreed that if the Apostle -on arriving felt equal to holding a meeting, the big drum was to be -beaten. In due course, therefore, a very little man disappeared inside -a building and shortly reappeared in custody of a very big drum, which -he proceeded to thump in a becoming Sabbatical manner. But whether the -drum or the association of old band days overcame him, or whether the -devil entered into him or into the drum, it is certain that he soon -drifted into a funereal rendering of "Yankee Doodle." He was conscious, -moreover, of his lapse into weekday profanity, and seemed to struggle -against it by beating ponderous spondees. But it was of no use. Either -the drum or the devil was too big for him, and the solemn measure -kept breaking into patriotic but frivolous trochaics. Attracted by -these proceedings, the youth of the neighbourhood had collected, and -their intelligent aversion to monopolists was soon apparent by their -detaching the little barnacle from his drum and subjecting the resonant -instrument to a most irregular bastinado. They all had a go at it, both -drumsticks at once, and the result was of a very unusual character, -as neither of the performers could hear distinctly what was going -on on the other side of the drum, and each, therefore, worked quite -independently. In the meanwhile some one had procured a concertina, -and this, with a dog that had a fine falsetto bark, constituted a very -respectable "band" in point of noise. Thus equipped, the lads started -off to beat up the village, and working with that enthusiasm which -characterizes the self-imposed missions of youth, were very successful. -Everybody came out to their doors to see what was going on, and having -got so far, they then went on to the meeting. By twos and threes and -occasional tens the whole village collected inside the meeting-house, -or round the door unable to get in, and I must confess that looking -round the room, I was surprised at the number of pretty peasant faces -that Monroe can muster. - -And here for the first time I became aware of a very significant fact, -and one that well deserves notice, though I have never heard or seen -it referred to--I mean the number of handsome marriageable girls who -are unmarried in the Mormon settlements. Omitting other places, in each -of which many well-grown, comely girls can be found unmarried, I saw -in the hamlet of Monroe enough unwedded charms to make me think that -either the resident polygamist had very bad taste or very bad luck. My -host, a Mormon, was a widower (a complete widower I mean), and two very -pretty girls, neighbours, looked after his household affairs for him. -One was a blonde Scandinavian of Utah birth; the other a dark-haired -Scotch lassie emigrated three years ago--and each was just eighteen. -(And in the Western country eighteen looks three-and-twenty.) I asked -my host why he did not marry one of them, or both, and he told me that -he had a family growing up, and that he had so often seen quarrels and -separations result from the remarriage of fathers that he did not care -to risk it. - -And the Apostle, who was present, said, "Quite right." - -Now please remember this was in polygamous Utah, in a secluded village, -entirely Mormon, where, if anywhere, men and women might surely do as -they pleased. In any monogamous society such a reason, followed by the -approval of a Church dignitary, would not be worth commenting on, but -here among Mormons it was significant enough. - -I spoke to the girls, and asked them why they had not married. - -"Because the right man has not come along yet," said one. - -"But perhaps when the right man does come along he will be married -already," I said. - -"And why should that make any difference?" was the reply. - -In the meantime each of these shapely daughters of Eve had a "beau" who -took her out riding behind him, escorted her home from meeting, and so -forth. But neither of them had found "the right man." - -Of Monroe, therefore, one of those very places, retired from -civilization, "where the polygamous Mormon can carry on his beastly -practices undetected, and therefore unpunished"--as the scandalous -clique of Salt Lake City (utterly ignorant of Mormonism except what it -can pick up from apostates) is so fond of alleging--I can positively -state from personal knowledge that there are both men and women there -who are guided in matters of marriage by the very same motives and -principles that regulate the relation in monogamous society. Further, I -can positively state the same of several other settlements, and judging -from these, and from Salt Lake City, I can assure my readers that the -standard of public morality among the Mormons of Utah is such as the -Gentiles among them are either unable or unwilling to live up to. - -In this connexion it is worth noting that public morality has in Utah -one safeguard, over and above all those of other countries, namely, the -strict surveillance of the Church. I have enjoyed while in Utah such -exceptional advantages for arriving at the truth, as both Gentiles and -Mormons say have never been extended to any former writer, and among -other facts with which I have become acquainted is the silent scrutiny -into personal character which the Church maintains. - -Profanity, intemperance, immorality, and backbiting are taken quiet -note of, and if persisted in against advice, are punished by a gradual -withdrawal of "fellowship;" and result in what the Gentiles call -"apostasy." Among the standing instructions of the teachers of the -wards is this:-- - -"If persons professing to be members of the Church be guilty of -allowing drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, profanity, defrauding or -backbiting, or any other kind of wickedness or unrighteous dealing, -they should be visited and their wrong-doing pointed out to them in the -spirit of brotherly kindness and meekness, and be exhorted to repent." - -If they do not repent, they find the respect, then the friendship, and -finally the association, of their co-religionists withheld from them, -and thus tacitly ostracized by their own Church, they "apostatize" and -carry their vices into the Gentile camp, and there assist to vilify -those who have already pronounced them unfit to live with honest men or -virtuous women. - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -AT MONROE. - - "Schooling" in the Mormon districts--Innocence as to whisky, - but connoisseurs in water--"What do you think of that water, - sir?"--Gentile dependents on Mormon charity--The one-eyed - rooster--Notice to All! - -SITTING at the door next morning, I saw a very trimly-dressed damsel -of twenty or thereabouts, coming briskly along under the trees, which -there, as in every other Mormon settlement, shade the side-walk. She -was the schoolmistress, I learned, and very soon her scholars began -to pass along. I had thus an opportunity of observing the curious, -happy-go-lucky style in which "schooling" is carried on, and I was -sorry to see it, for Mormonism stands urgently in need of more -education, and it is pure folly to spend half the revenue of the -Territory annually in a school establishment, if the children and -their parents are permitted to suppose that education is voluntary -and a matter of individual whim. Some of the leading members of the -Church are conspicuous defaulters in this matter, and do their families -a gross wrong by setting "the chores" and education before them as -being of equal importance. Even in the highest class of the community -children go to school or stay away almost as they like, and provided a -little boy or girl has the shrewdness to see that he or she can relieve -the father or mother from trouble by being at home to run errands and -do little jobs about the house, they can, I regret to think, regulate -the amount of their own schooling as they please. I know very well -that Utah compares very favourably, on paper, with the greater part -of America, but I have compiled and examined too many educational -statistics in my time to have any faith in them. - -But in the matter of abstinence from strong drink and stimulants, the -leaders of the Church set an admirable example, and I found it very -difficult most of the time, and quite impossible part of it, to keep my -whisky flask replenished. - -My system of arriving at the truth as to the existence of spirit stores -in any particular settlement, was to grumble and complain at having -no whisky, and to exaggerate my regrets at the absence of beer. The -courtesy of my hosts was thus challenged, and of the sincerity of the -efforts made to gratify my barbaric tastes, I could have no doubt -whatever. In most cases they were quite ignorant of even the cost -of liquor, and on one occasion a man started off with a five-dollar -piece I had given him to get me "five dollars' worth of whisky in this -bottle," pointing to my flask. I explained to him that I only wanted -the flask replenished, and that there would be change to bring back. He -did not get any at all, however. - -On one occasion the Bishop brought in, in evident triumph, two bottles -of beer. On another I went clandestinely with a Mormon, after dark, and -drank some whisky "as a friend," and not as a customer, with another -Mormon, who "generally kept a bottle on hand" for secret consumption. -That they would both have been ashamed for their neighbours to know -what they were about, I am perfectly convinced. On a third occasion an -official brought me half a pint of whisky, and the price was a dollar. - -Now it is quite impossible for me, who have thus made personal -experiment, to have any doubt as to the prevailing sobriety of these -people. I put them repeatedly to the severest test that you can -apply to a hospitable man, by asking point-blank for ardent spirits. -Sometimes, in an off-hand way, I would give money and the flask to a -lad, and ask him to "run across to the store and get me a little whisky -or brandy." He would take both and meander round in an aimless sort of -way. But I might almost as well have asked him to go and buy me a few -birds-of-paradise or advance sheets of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." -The father or a neighbour might perhaps suggest a "likely" place to get -some stimulant, but, as a rule, the quest was unconditionally abandoned -as hopeless. - -The Elders of the Church set a strict example themselves, discouraging, -by their own abstinence, indulgence even in tea and coffee. You are -asked in a settlement whether you will have tea or coffee, just as in -England you would be asked whether you would drink ale or claret. A -strong man takes a cup of tea as a lady in Europe might take a glass of -sherry, as justified by unusual exercise and fatigue. Being a Londoner, -I entertain a most wholesome suspicion of water as a drink, and I -reverence fresh milk. In rural Utah, milk being so abundant, the people -think little of it, but they pride themselves on their water. - -"What do you think of that water, sir?" was a question that puzzled me -to answer at first, for I am not a connoisseur in drinking-water. If -it had been a claret, I might have made a pretence of criticism. But -water! Or if they had let me wash in it, I would have told them whether -I thought it "hard" or "soft." But to pass an opinion on a particular -tumbler of water, as if it were a special brand laid down by my host -for his own drinking, completely puzzled me. I can no more tell waters -apart than I can tell Chinamen. Of course I can discriminate between -the outcome of the sea and of sulphur springs. But for the rest, it -seems to me that they only differ in their degrees of cleanliness, or, -as scientific men say, to "the properties which they hold in solution," -that is mud. And mud, I take it, is always pretty much the same. - -So at first when my host would suddenly turn to me with, "What do you -think of that water, sir?" I made the mistake of supposing it might be -one of the extraordinary aqueous novelties for which this territory -is so remarkable--hot-geyser water or petrifying water, or something -else of the kind--and would smack my lips critically and venture on a -suggestion of "lime," or "soda," or "alkali." But my host was always -certain to be down with, "Oh, no; I assure you. That is reckoned the -best water in the county!" - -I soon discovered, however, that the right thing to say was that I -preferred it, "on the whole," to the water at the last place. This was -invariably satisfactory--unless, of course, there was a resident of -"the last place" present, when an argument would ensue. These people, -in fact, look upon their drinking-water just as on the continent they -look upon their vins ordinaires, or in England upon their local brews, -and to the last I could not help being delighted at the manner in -which a jug of water and tumblers were handed about among a party of -fatigued and thirsty travellers. I always took my share becomingly, but -sometimes, I must confess, with silent forebodings. - -For in some places there are springs which petrify, by coating with -lime, any substance they flow over, and I did not anticipate with any -gratification having my throat lined with cement, or my stomach faced -with building-stone. - -"Who are those children?" said I to my host at Munroe, pointing to -two ragged little shoeless waifs that were standing in his yard and -evidently waiting to be taken notice of. Instead of replying, my host -turned towards them. - -"Well, Jimmy," said he, "what is it to-day?" - -The wistful eyes looking out from under the tattered, broad-brimmed -hats, brightened into intelligence. - -"Another chicken for mother," said both together, promptly; and then, -as if suddenly overtaken by a sense of their audacity, the forlorn -little lads dropped their eyes and stood there, holding each other's -hands, as picturesque and pathetic a pair as any beggar children in -Italy. In the full sunlight, but half shaded by the immense brims of -those wonderfully ancient hats, the urchins were irresistibly artistic, -and if met with anywhere in the Riviera, would have been sure of that -small-change tribute which the romantic tourist pays with such pleasant -punctuality to the picturesque poverty of Southern childhood. But this -was in Utah. - -And my host looked at them from under his tilted straw hat. They stood -in front of him as still as sculptors' models, but fingers and toes -kept exchanging little signals of nervous distress. - -"All right. Go and get one," said my host suddenly. "Take the young -rooster that's blind of one eye." - -He had to shout the last instructions in a rapid crescendo as the -youngsters had sprung off together at the word "go," like twin shafts -from those double-arrowed bows of the old Manchurian archers. Three -minutes later and a most woful scrawking heralded the approach of -the captors and the captive. The young rooster, though blind of one -eye, saw quite enough of the situation to make him apprehensive, but -the younger urchin had him tight under his arm, and, still under the -exciting influences of the chase and capture, the boys stood once more -before my host, with panting bodies, flushed cheeks, and tufts of -yellow hair sprouting out through crevices of those wondrous old hats, -which had evidently just seen service in the capture. And the rooster, -feeling, perhaps, that he was now before the final court of appeal, -scrawked as if machinery had got loose inside him and he couldn't stop -it. - -"How's your (scraw-w-w-k) mother?" - -She's (scraw-w-w-k)--and she's (scraw-w-w-k) nothing to eat all -yesterday." (Scraw-w-k.) - -"Go on home, then." - -And away down the middle of the road scudded the little fellows in a -confusion of dust and scrawk. - -"Who are those children?" I asked again, thinking I had chanced on that -unknown thing, a pauper Mormon. - -"Oh," said my host, "he's a bad lot--an outsider--who came in here as a -loafer, and deserted his wife. She's very ill and pretty nigh starving. -Ay, she would starve, too, if her boys there didn't come round regular, -begging of us. But loafers know very well that 'those----Mormons' won't -let anybody go hungry. Ay, and they act as if they knew it, too." - -In other settlements there are exactly such similar cases, but I would -draw the attention of my readers--I wish I could draw the attention -of the whole nation to it--to the following notice which stands to -this day with all the force of a regular by-law in these Mormon -settlements:-- - - "NOTICE TO ALL. - - "If there are any persons in this city who are destitute of food, - let them be who they may, if they will let their wants be known to - me, privately or otherwise, I will see that they are furnished with - food and lodging until they can provide for themselves. The bishops - of every ward are to see that there are no persons going hungry. - - "(Signed by the Presiding Bishop.)" - -Now it may be mere "sentiment" on my part, but I confess that this -"Notice to All," in the simplicity of its wording, in the nobility of -its spirit, reads to me very beautifully. And what a contrast to turn -from this text of a universal charity, that is no respecter of persons, -to the infinite meanness of those who can write, as in the Salt Lake -Tribune, of the whole community of Mormons as the villainous spawn of -polygamy!" - -It is a recognized law among the Mormons that no tramp shall pass by -one of their settlements hungry; if it is at nightfall, he is to be -housed. Towards the Indians their policy is one of enlightened and -Christian humanity. For their own people their charity commences from -the first. Emigrated to this country by the voluntary donations which -maintain the "Perpetual Emigration Fund," each new arrival is met -with immediate care, and being passed on to his location, finds (as -I have described in another chapter) a system of mutual kindliness -prevailing which starts him in life. If sick, he is cared for. If he -dies, his family is provided for. All this is fact. I have read it in -no books, heard it from no hoodwinking elders. My informants are lads -just arrived in Salt Lake City--within an hour or two of their arrival, -in fact; young men just settling down in their first log hut in rural -settlements: grown men now themselves engaged in the neighbourly duty -of assisting new-comers. - -I have met and talked to those men--Germans, Scandinavians, -Britishers--in their own homes here in Utah, and have positively -assured myself of the fact I state, that charity, unquestioning, -simple-hearted charity, is one of the secrets of the strength of this -wonderful fabric of Mormonism. The Mormons are, more nearly than any -other community in the world on such a scale, one family. Every man -knows all the rest of his neighbours with an intimacy and a neighbourly -interest that is the result of reciprocal good services in the past. -This is their bond of union. In India there is "the village community" -which moves, though in another arc, on the same plane as the Mormon -settlement system. There, to touch one man's crop is to inflame the -whole clan with the sense of a common injury. Here it is much the same. -And as it is between the different individuals in a settlement, so it -is between the different settlements in the territory. A brutal act, -like that eviction of the Mormon postmaster at Park City the other -day, disturbs the whole of Mormonism with apprehensions of impending -violence. A libel directed at a man or woman in Salt Lake City makes a -hundred thousand personal enemies in Utah. Now, with what petard will -you hoist such a rock? - -Induce these Mormons to hate one another "for all the world like -Christians," as George Eliot said, and they can be snapped as easily -as the philosopher's faggots when once they were unbundled. But in -the meantime abuse of individuals or "persecution" of a class simply -cements the whole body together more firmly than ever. Mutual charity -is one of the bonds of Mormon union. It is the secret of this "oneness" -which makes the Salt Lake Tribune yelp so. - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -JACOB HAMBLIN. - - A Mormon missionary among the Indians--The story of Jacob Hamblin's - life--His spiritualism, the result of an intense faith--His good - work among the Lamanites--His belief in his own miracles. - -LEAVING Munroe, we find cultivation gradually disappearing, and, after -two or three miles, unmitigated brush supervenes. A steep divide now -thrusts itself across the road, and, traversing near the summit a -patch of pebbly ground which seemed a very paradise for botanists, we -descend again into a wilderness of grease-wood, "the unspeakable Turk" -among vegetables. The mountains between which we pass provide, however, -a succession of fine views. They are of that bulky, broad-based and -slowly sloping type that is so much more solemn and impressive than -jagged, sharp-pointed and precipitous formations. - -A few miles more bring us to one of them, and for the first time during -the journey our road runs through the thickly growing "cedars" which we -have hitherto seen only at a distance lying like dark clouds upon the -hill-sides and black drifts in the gulches. The wild flowers growing -under these "cedars" (and the pines which are sprinkled among them) are -of new varieties to me, and I enjoyed a five-mile walk in this novel -vegetation immensely. A few years ago, though, "Mr. Indian" would have -made himself too interesting to travellers for men to go wandering -about among the cedars picking posies. They would have found those -"arrows tipped with jasper," which are so picturesque in Hiawatha, -flying about instead of humming-birds tipped with emerald, and a -tomahawk hurtling through the bushes would have been more likely to -excite remark than the blue magpies which I saw looking after snails. - -This district was, until very recently, a favourite hunting-ground of -those Indians of whom old Jacob Hamblin was the Nestor--the guide, -philosopher, friend, and victim. One day they would try "to fill his -skin full of arrows;" on the next day they would be round him, asking -him to make rain-medicine. They would talk Mormonism with him all day, -and grunt approvingly; as soon as night fell they would steal his -horse. He was always patching up peace between this tribe and that, yet -every now and then they would catch him, have a great pow-wow over him, -and being unable to decide whether he should be simply flayed or be -roasted first over a charcoal fire, would let him go, with provisions -and an escort for his home journey. - -His life, indeed, was so wonderful--much more fascinating than any -fiction--that I am not surprised at his believing, as he does, that -he is under the special protection of Heaven, and, as he says, in a -private covenant with the Almighty that "if he does not thirst for -the blood of the Lamanites, his blood shall never be shed by them." -He began life as a farmer near Chicago, but being baptized received -at once "the immediate gift of the Holy Ghost," and at once entered -upon a career of "miracles" and "prophecies" that when told in serious -earnest are sufficient to stagger even Madame Blavatsky herself. He -cured his neighbours of deadly ailments by the laying on of hands, and -foretold conversions, deaths, and other events with unvarying accuracy. -By prolonged private meditation he enjoyed what, from his description, -must be a pregustation of the Buddhistic Nirvana, and after this, -miracles became quite commonplace with him. He witnessed the "miracle" -of the great quail flights into the camp of the fugitive and starving -Saints in 1846, and helped to collect the birds and to eat them; he saw -also the "miraculous" flights of seagulls that rescued the Mormons from -starvation by destroying the locusts in 1848. - -But his personal experiences, narrated with a simplicity of speech and -unquestioning confidence that are bewildering, were really marvellous. -If cattle were lost, he could always dream where they were. If sickness -prevailed, he knew beforehand who would suffer, and which of them would -die, and which of them recover. If Indians were about, angels gave -him in his sleep the first warnings of his danger. His sympathy with -the Indians was, however, very early awakened, and being strengthened -in it by the conciliatory Indian policy of Brigham Young, he became -before long the only recognized medium of friendly communication with -them. Everybody, whether Federal officials, California emigrants, -Mormon missionaries, or Indians themselves, enlisted his influence -whenever trouble with the tribes was anticipated. His own explanation -of this influence is remarkable enough. As a young man, he says, he was -sometimes told off to join retributive expeditions, but he could never -bring himself to fire at an Indian, and on one occasion, when he did -try to do so, his rifle kept missing fire, while "the Lamanites," with -equally ineffectual efforts to shed his blood, kept on pincushioning -the ground all around him with their futile arrows. After this he and -the Indians whenever they met, spared each other's lives with punctual -reciprocity. - -On one occasion he dreamed that he was walking in a friendly manner -with some of the members of a certain tribe, when he picked up a piece -of a shining substance, which stuck to his fingers. The more he tried -to rub it off the brighter it became. One would naturally, under such -circumstances, anticipate the revelation of a gold-mine, but Jacob -Hamblin, without any questioning, went off at once to the tribe in -question. They received him as friends, and he stayed with them. One -day, passing a lodge, "the Spirit" whispered to him, "Here is the -shining substance you saw in your dream." But all he saw was a squaw -and a boy papoose. However, he went up to the squaw, and asked for the -boy. She naturally demurred to the request, but to her astonishment the -boy, gathering up his bow and arrows, urged compliance with it, and -Hamblin eventually led off his dream-revealed "lump." After a while he -asked the boy how it was he was so eager to come, though he had never -seen a white man before, and the boy answered, "My Spirit told me that -you were coming to my father's lodge for me on a certain day, and that -I was to go with you, and when the day came I went out to the edge -of the wood, and lit a fire to show you the way to me." And Hamblin -then remembered that it was the smoke of a fire that had led him to -that particular camp, instead of another towards which he had intended -riding! - -By way of a parenthesis, let me remark here that if there are any -"Spiritualists" among my readers, they should study Mormonism. The -Saints have long ago formulated into accepted doctrines those mysteries -of the occult world which Spiritualists outside the faith are still -investigating. Your "problems" are their axioms. - -This Indian boy became a staunch Mormon, and to the last was in -communion with the other world. Remember I am quoting Hamblin's words, -not in any way endorsing them. In 1863 he was at St. George, and one -day when his friends were starting on a mission to a neighbouring -tribe, he took farewell of them "for ever." "I am going on a mission, -too," he said. "What do you mean?" asked Hamblin. "Only that I shall be -dead before you come back," was the Indian's reply. "I have seen myself -in a dream preaching the gospel to a multitude of my people, and my -ancestors were among them. So I know that I must be a spirit too before -I can carry the Word to spirits." In six weeks Hamblin returned to St. -George; and the Indian was dead. - -Brigham Young, as I have said, insisted upon a conciliatory policy -towards the Indians. He made in person repeated visits to the missions -at work among them, and was never weary of advising and encouraging. -Here is a portion of one of his letters: does it read like the -words of a thoroughly bad man?--"Seek by words of righteousness to -obtain the love and confidence of the tribes. Omit promises where -you are not sure you can fulfil them. Seek to unite your hearts in -the bonds of love. . . . May the Spirit of the Lord direct you, and -that He may qualify you for every duty is the constant prayer of your -fellow-labourer in the gospel of salvation, Brigham Young." Here -is a part of another letter: "I trust that the genial and salutary -influences now so rapidly extending to the various tribes, may continue -till it reaches every son and daughter of Abraham in their fallen -condition. The hour of their redemption draws nigh, and the time is not -far off when they shall become a people whom the Lord will bless. . . . -The Indians should be encouraged to keep and take care of stock. I -highly apprcNe your design in doing your farming through the natives; -it teaches them to obtain a subsistence by their own industry, and -leaves you more liberty to extend your labours among others. . . . -You should always be careful to impress upon them that they should -not infringe on the rights of others, and our brethren should be very -careful not to infringe upon their rights in any particular, thus -cultivating honour and good principles in their midst by example as -well as by precept. As ever, your brother in the gospel of salvation, -Brigham Young." - -These and other letters are exactly in the spirit of the correspondence -which, in the early days of England in Hindostan, won for the old -Court of Directors the eternal admiration of mankind and for England -the respect of Asia. Yet in Brigham Young's case is it ever carried -to his credit that he spent so much thought and time and labour over -the reclamation of the Indians, by a policy of kindness, and their -exaltation by an example of honourable dealing? - -It was in this spirit that the Mormon missionaries went out to -the Indians then living in the part of the Territory over which I -travelled, and Jacob Hamblin was one eminently characteristic of the -type. Beyond all others, however, he sympathized with the red man's -nature. "I argue with him just as he argues," he said. He was on -good terms with the medicine-men, and took a delightful interest in -their ceremonies. But when they failed to bring rain with bonfires -and howling, he used to pray down abundant showers; when they gave up -tormenting the sick as past all hope, Hamblin restored the invalid to -life by the laying on of hands! - -Once more let me say that I am only quoting, not indorsing. But I -do him a great injustice in not being able to convey in writing the -impressive simplicity of his language, his low, measured tones, -his contemplative, earnest attitude, his Indian-like gravity of -countenance. That he speaks the implicit truth, according to his own -belief, I am as certain as that the water of the Great Salt Lake is -salt. - -His "occult" sympathies seemed at times to be magnetic, for when in -doubt as to whom to choose for his companion on a perilous journey, -some brother or other, the fittest person for the occasion, would -always feel mysteriously influenced to go to him to see if his services -were needed. His displeasure killed men, that is to say they went from -his presence, sickened and died. So frequent was this inexplicable -demise that the Indians worked out a superstition that evil befalls -those who rob or kill a Mormon; and so marked were the special -manifestations of the missionaries' spirit power, that, as Hamblin -says, "the Indians were without excuse for refusing conversion," and -were converted. "They looked to us for counsel, and learned to regard -our words as law." Though the missionaries were sometimes alone, and -the tribes around them of the most desperate kind, as "plundersome" as -wolves and at perpetual blood-feud with each other, the Mormons' lives -were quite safe. When they had determined on an atrocity--burning a -squaw, for instance--they would do it in the most nervous hurry, lest -a Mormon should come along and stop it, and when they had done it and -were reproached, they used to cry like children, and say they were only -Indians. - -Tragedy and comedy went hand in hand; laughter at the ludicrous is cut -short by a shudder of horror. "We cannot be good; we must be Piutes. -Perhaps some of our children will be good. We're going off to kill -so-and-so. Whoop!" And away they would go, putting an arrow into the -missionary's horse as they passed. By-and-by the man who shot the arrow -would be found dead, killed by a Mormon's curse, and the rest would -be back at work in the settlement hoeing pumpkins--"for all the world -like Christians!" Through all these alternations of temper and fortune, -Jacob Hamblin retained his tender sympathy with the red men. - -Their superstitious piety which, quaintly enough, he does not seem -to think is exactly like his own, attracted him. He found among -them tribes asking the blessing of the Great Father on their food -before they ate it; invoking the Divine protection on behalf of their -visitors; praying for protection when about to cross a river; returning -thanks for a safe return from a journey; always sending one of their -religious men to accompany any party about to travel, and so on. All -this the pious Mormon naturally respected. But over and above these -more ordinary expressions of piety, he found tribes that believed in -and acted upon dreams; that accepted the guidance of "second sight;" -that relied upon prayer for obtaining temporal necessaries; that lived -"by faith," and were awaiting the fulfilment of prophecy. In all this -the Mormon missionary sees nothing but common sense. For instance, -Hamblin said, "I know that some people do not believe in dreams and -night-visions. I myself do not believe in them when they arise from a -disordered stomach, but in other kinds I have been forewarned of coming -events, and received much instruction!" And, in the spirit of these -words, he thinks it the most natural thing in the world that Indians -should start off after a dream and find their lost cattle; suddenly -alter their course in a waterless journey, and come upon hitherto -unknown springs; predict the most impossible meetings with friends, -and avoid dangers that were not even anticipated. In the most serious -manner possible, he acquiesces in the Indians' theory of rain-getting, -and acts upon their clairvoyant advice. "The Lord," he says, "is -mindful of the prayers of these poor barbarians, and answers them with -the blessings they need." Seeing them quite sincere in their faith, he -joins them in their ceremonies of scattering consecrated meal to ensure -protection on a journey, believing himself that simple reliance on -Providence is all that men of honest lives need. - -One tribe has a tradition that three prophets are to come to lead them -back to the lands that their fathers once possessed, that these are to -be preceded by good white men, but that the Indians are not to go with -them until after the three prophets have reappeared and told them what -to do. The Indians accept the Mormons as "the good white men" of the -tradition, but "the three prophets" not having reappeared, they refuse -to leave their villages (as the Mormons have wanted them to do), and -Hamblin has not a word to say against such "reasonable" objections. - -Is it not wonderful to find men thus reverting to an intellectual -type that the world had supposed to be extinct? to find men, shrewd -in business, honest in every phase of temporal life, going back to -cheiromancy and hydromancy, and transacting temporal affairs at the -guidance of visions? An Indian prays for rain on his pumpkins, in -apparently the most unreasonable way, but the Mormon postpones his -departure till the rain that results is over. On his way he nearly -dies of thirst, prays for deliverance, and in half an hour snow falls -over a mile and a half of ground, melts and forms pools of water! What -are we to say of men who say such things as these? Are they all crazy -together? And what shall we think of the thousands here who believe -that miracles are the most ordinary, reasonable, natural, every-day -phenomena of a life of faith, and quote point-blank the promises of the -New Testament as a sufficient explanation? The best thing, perhaps, is -to say Hum meditatively, and think no more about it. - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THROUGH MARYSVALE TO KINGSTON. - - Piute Count---Days of small things--A swop in the sage-brush; two - Bishops for one Apostle--The Kings Of Kingston--A failure in Family - Communism. - -FROM the brow of the cedared hill south of Munroe a splendid view -is obtained, and Piute County opens with fair promises; for a -superb-looking valley, all natural meadow, lies spread out on either -side of the Sevier, while from a gulch in the mountains on the right, -a stream of vegetation seems to have poured down across the level, -carrying along with its flood of cotton-wood and willow a few stately -old pine-trees. From among the vegetation peeps out a cluster of -miners' houses--for there are the Sevier mines up beyond that pine -gulch--and a ranch or two. Much of the enchantment of distance vanishes -of course as we come down to the level of the plains ourselves and -skirt it close under the hills on the left. But it is a fine location -nevertheless, and some day, no doubt, may be a populous valley. After a -mile or two it narrows, and we cross the river--a wooden bridge, with -a store and barns--("Lisonbee's place") making a pleasant interval of -civilization. - -From "Lisonbee's" the road passes up on to and over a stony plateau, -and then descends into the valley again. Cattle and horses are grazing -in the meadow, and the dark patches of wire-grass are spangled with -yellow lupins, and tinted pink in places with patches of a beautiful -orchid-like flower. On the edge of this pleasant-looking tract stand -two small cottages, and to one of these we are welcomed by its -Mormon occupants. To me the whole country had an aspect of desperate -desolation. Yet our host had just come back from "the Post;" his -children were away "at school;" the newspaper on his table was the -latest we had ourselves seen. It is true that the post was literally -a post, with a cigar-box nailed on the top of it, standing all by -itself among the brushwood on the roadside. The school was a mile or -two off, "just over the hill," and, till the regular teacher came, a -volunteer was making shift to impart education to the little scholars -who came straggling over the dreary hill-sides by twos and threes. -Yet, rudimentary though they be, these are the first symptoms of -a civilization triumphing over sage-brush, and give even to such -desperately small beginnings a significance that is very interesting. -All the thriving settlements I have visited began exactly in the -same way--and under worse conditions, too, for the Indian was then a -stronger power than the Mormon. - -Our host here had shot among the reeds in his meadow a large bird, the -size of an average goose, black with white spots, which he had been -told was "a loon." It was one of the larger "divers," its neck being -very long and snake-like, terminating in a comparatively small head, -its wings very short and its legs (the feet webbed) set, as in all -diving birds, far back on the body. - -Leaving this very young "settlement," we found ourselves again in a -wretched, waterless country, where the vegetation did not compensate -for its monotony by any attractions of colour, nor the mountains for -their baldness by any variety of contour. Here and there stunted cedars -had huddled together for company into a gulch, as if afraid to be -scattered about singly on such lonesome hill-sides, and away on the -right, in a dip under the hills, we caught a glimpse of Marysvale. - -Traversing this forbidding tract, we met another waggon on its way to -Munroe, and stopping to exchange greetings, it suddenly occurred to -one of the strangers that by our exchanging vehicles the horses and -their teamsters would both be going home instead of away from it, and -thus everybody be advantaged! The exchange was accordingly effected, -our teamster getting two Bishops in exchange for an Apostle and a -correspondent, and the waggons being turned round in their tracks, the -teams, to their unconcealed satisfaction, started off towards their -respective homes. - -Sage-brush and sand, with occasional patches of tiresome rock -fragments and unlimited lizards--nature's hieroglyphics for sultry -sterility--were the only features of the journey. Away on our left, -however, the track of a water-channel, that when completed will turn -many thousands of these arid acres into farm-lands, scarred the red -hill-side, and told the same old story of Mormon industry. Where it -came from I have forgotten, where it was going to I do not remember, -but it was in sight off and on for some thirty miles, and was probably -carrying the waters of the Sevier on to the Circle-ville plains. - -We are there ourselves in the evening, and passing through some -ploughed land and meadow, find ourselves upon the wind-swept, lonesome, -location of - -THE KINGS OF KINGSTON. - -Among the social experiments of Mormonism, the family communism of the -Kings of Kingston deserves a special notice, for, though in my own -opinion it is a failure, both financially and socially, the scheme is -probably one of the most curious attempts at solving a great social -problem that was ever made. - -Kingston is the name of a hamlet of fifteen wooden cottages and a -stock-yard which has been planted in the centre of one Of the most -desolate plains in all the Utah Territory--a very Jehunnam of a -plain. Piute County, in which it is situated, is, as a rule, a most -forbidding section of country, and the Kingston "Valley" is perhaps -the dreariest spot in it. The mountains, stern and sterile, ring it in -completely, but on the south-east is a great canyon which might be the -very mouth of the cavern in which the gods used to keep their winds, -for a persistent, malignant wind is perpetually sweeping through it -on to the plain below, and the soil being light and sandy, the people -live for part of the year in a ceaseless dust-storm. One year they -sowed 300 acres with wheat, and the wind simply blew the crop away. -That which it could not actually displace, it kept rubbed down close to -the ground by the perpetual passage of waves of sand. They planted an -orchard, but some gooseberry bushes are the only remaining vestiges of -the plantation, and even these happen to be on the lee side of a solid -fence. They also set out trees to shade their houses, but the wind -worked the saplings round and round in their holes, so that they could -not take root. It can be easily imagined, therefore, that without a -tree, without a green thing except the reach of meadow land at the foot -of the hills, the Kingston plain, with its forlorn fifteen tenements, -looks for most of the year desolation itself. That any one should ever -have settled there is a mystery to all; that he should have remained -there is a simple absurdity, a very Jumbo of a folly. Yet here, -after five years of the most dismal experiences, I found some twenty -households in occupation. - -At the time when Brigham Young was exerting himself to extend the -"United Order" (of which more when I come to Orderville), one of the -enthusiasts who embraced its principles was a Mr. King, of Fillmore. -He was a prosperous man, with a family well settled about him. -Nevertheless, he determined from motives of religious philanthropy to -begin life anew, and having sold off all that he possessed he emigrated -with his entire family into the miserable Piute country, selected in -an hour of infatuation the Kingston--then "Circleville"--location, -and announced that he was about to start a co-operative experiment -in farming and general industry on the basis of a household, with -patriarchal government, a purse in common, and a common table for all -to eat at together. - -Having been permitted to examine the original articles of enrolment, -dated May 1, 1877--a document, by the way, curiously characteristic of -the whole undertaking, being a jumble of articles and by-laws written -on a few slips of ordinary paper, a miracle of unworldly simplicity and -in very indifferent spelling--I found the objects of "the company," -as it is called, were "agricultural, manufacturing, commercial, and -other industrial pursuits," and the establishment and maintenance of -"colleges, seminaries, churches, libraries, and any other charitable -or scientific associations." It was to be superintended by a Board, -who were to be elected by a majority of the members, and to receive -for their services "the same wages as are paid to farm hands or other -common labourers." - -To become members of this Family Order it was necessary that they -should "bequeath, transfer, and convey into the company all their -right, title, and interest to whatever property, whether personal or -real estate, that they were then possessed of, or might hereafter -become possessed of by legacy, will, or otherwise for the purposes -above mentioned, and further that they would labour faithfully and -honourably themselves, and cause their children who were under age to -labour under the direction of the Board Of Directors, the remuneration -for which shall be as fixed by the board both as to price and kind of -pay he or she shall receive." It was "furthermore understood and agreed -that a schedule or inventory of all property bequeathed or transferred -to the company should be kept, together with the price of each article, -that in case any party becomes dissatisfied or is called away, or -wishes to draw out, he can have as near as may be the same kind of -property, but in no case can he have real estate, only at the option of -the Board, nor shall interest or a dividend be paid on such property." - -"We further agree" (so run the articles of this curious incorporation) -"that we will be controlled and guided in all our labour, in our food, -clothing, and habitations for our families" (by the Board), "being -frugal and economical in our manner of living and dress, and in no case -seek to obtain that which is above another." - -"We also covenant and agree that all credits for labour that stand to -our names in excess of debits for food and clothing, shall become the -property of the company." - -In these four articles is contained the whole of the principles of -this astonishing experiment. Men were to sell their all, and put the -proceeds into a family fund. Out of this, as the wages of their labour, -they were to receive food and other necessaries to the value of $1 a -day, and if at the end of the year their drawings exceeded the amount -of work put in the company "forgave" them the excess, while if their -earnings exceeded their drawings, they "forgave" the company. Thus the -accounts were annually squared by reciprocal accommodation. - -If anyone seceded from the Order, he was entitled to receive back -exactly what he had contributed. Mr. King, the father, started by -putting in some $20,000, and his sons and others following suit, -the fund rose at once to some $40,000. (I would say here that the -entirely original method of "keeping the books" makes balance-striking -a difficulty.) With this sum, and so much labour at their disposal, -the Family Company should have been a brilliant success. But several -circumstances conspired disastrously against it. The first was the -unfortunate selection of location, for, in spite of the quantity of -promising land available elsewhere, Mr. King pitched his camp in the -wretched sand-drifts of the Piute section. The next was the ill-advised -generosity of the founders in inviting all the country round to -come and join them, with or without means, so long as they would be -faithful members of the Order. The result, of course, was an influx of -"deadheads"--the company indeed having actually to send out waggons to -haul in families who were too poor to be able to move themselves. Of -these new-comers only a proportion were worth anything to the young -settlement, for many came in simply for the certainty of a roof over -their heads and sufficient food. The result was most discouraging, -and in short time the more valuable adherents were disheartened, and -began to fall off, and now, five years from the establishment of the -company, there are only some twenty families left, and these are all -Kings or relatives of the Kings. The father himself is dead, but four -sons divide the patriarchal government between them, and, having again -reduced the scheme to a strictly family concern, they are thinking of a -fresh start. - -What may happen in the future is not altogether certain, but it will be -strange if in this country where individual industry, starting without -a dollar, is certain of a competence, co-operative labour commencing -with funds in hand does not achieve success. At present the company -possesses, besides its land in the valley, and a mill and a woollen -factory, both commencing work, cattle and sheep worth about $10,000, -and horses worth some $12,000 more. This is a tolerable capital for an -association of hard-working men to begin with, but it is significant -of errors in the past that after five years of almost superhuman toil -they should find themselves no better off materially than when they -started. Nor, socially, has the experiment hitherto been a success, for -Kingston is, in my opinion, beyond comparison the lowest in the scale -of all the Mormon settlements that I have seen. It is poverty-stricken -in appearance; its houses outside and inside testify, in unmended -windows and falling plaster, to an absence of that good order which -characterizes so many other villages. The furniture of the rooms and -the quality of the food on the tables are poorer than elsewhere, and -altogether it is only too evident that this family communism has -dragged all down alike to the level of the poorest and the laziest of -its advocates, rather than raised all up to the level of the best off -and the hardest working. The good men have sunk, the others have not -risen, and if it were not so pathetic the Kingston phenomenon would be -exasperating. - -But there is a very sincere pathos about this terrible sacrifice of -self for the common good. I do not mean theoretically, but practically. -The men of "the company" are the most saddening community I have ever -visited. They seem, with their gentle manners, wonderful simplicity -of speech, and almost womanly solicitude for the welfare of their -guests, to have lost the strong, hearty spirit which characterizes -these Western conquerors of the deserts. Yet even the hard-working -Mormons speak of them as veritable heroes in work. It is a common thing -to hear men say that "the Kingston men are simply killing themselves -with toil;" and when Western men talk of work as being too hard, you -may rely upon it it is something very exceptional. Almost against -hope these peasants have struggled with difficulties that even they -themselves confess seem insuperable. They have given Nature all the -odds they could, and then gone on fighting her. The result has been -what is seen to-day--a crushed community of men and enfeebled women, -living worse than any other settlement on the whole Mormon line. -Their own stout hearts refuse to believe that they are a failure; but -failure is written in large capital letters on the whole hamlet, and in -italics upon every face within it. The wind-swept sand-drifts in which -the settlement stands, the wretchedness of the tenements and their -surroundings, the haphazard composition of their food, their black -beans and their buffalo berries, the whistling of the wind as it drives -the sand through the boards of the houses, the howling of the coyotes -round the stock-yard--everything from first to last was in accord to -emphasize the desperate desolation. But those who have known them for -all the five years that the experiment has been under trial declare -that their present condition, lamentable as it is, is an improvement -upon their past. When they ate at a common table, the living, it is -said, was even more frugal than it is now, and there was hardly a piece -of crockery among them all, the "family" eating and drinking out of tin -vessels. The women, either from mismanagement among themselves, or want -of order among the men, were unable to bear the burden of ceaseless -cooking, and the common table was thereupon abandoned by a unanimous -vote. - -Yet they are courtesy and hospitality itself, and their sufferings have -only clinched their piety. They have not lost one iota of their faith -in their principles, though staggering under the conviction of failure. -Their children have regular schooling, the women are scrupulously neat -in their dress, while profanity and intemperance are unknown. - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -FROM KINGSTON TO ORDERVILLE. - - On the way to Panguitch--Section-houses not Mormon homes--Through - wild country--Panguitch and its fish--Forbidden pleasures--At the - source of the Rio Virgin--The surpassing beauty of Long Valley--The - Orderville Brethren--A success in Family Communism. - -NEXT day we started over the hills for Panguitch, some forty miles -off. And here, by the roadside, was pointed out to me one of those -"section-houses" which a traveller in Utah once mistook for Mormon -"homes," and described "cabins, ten feet by six, built of planks, one -window with no glass in it, one doorway with no door in it." This is an -accurate description enough of a section-house, but it is a mistake to -suppose that any one ever lives in it, as section-houses are only put -up to comply with the Homestead Act, which stipulates for a building -with one doorway and one window being erected upon each lot within a -certain period of its allotment. But they do duty all the same in a -certain class of literature as typical of the squalid depravity of -the Mormons, for, being inhabited by Mormons, it follows, of course, -that several wives, to say nothing of numerous children, have all to -sleep together "on the floor of the single room the house contains!" -Isn't this a dreadful picture! And are not these large polygamous -families who live in section-houses a disgrace to America? But, -unfortunately for this telling picture, the only "inhabitants" of these -section-houses are Gentile tramps. - -A rough hill-road, strewn with uncompromising rocks, jolted us for -some miles, and then we crossed a stream-bed with some fine old pines -standing in it, and beds of blue lupins brightening the margin, and -so came down to the river level, and along a lane running between -hedges of wild-rose and redberry (the "opie" of the Indians) tangled -with clematis and honeysuckle, and haunted by many birds and brilliant -butterflies. The river bubbled along among thickets of golden currant -and red willow, and mallards with russet heads floated in the quiet -backwaters, by the side of their dames all dressed in dainty grey. It -was altogether a charming passage in a day of such general dreariness, -reminding one of a pleasant quotation from some pretty poem in the -middle of a dull chapter by some prosy writer. - -But the dulness recommences, and then we find ourselves at a wayside -farm, where a couple of fawns with bells round their necks are keeping -the calves company, and some boys are fishing on a little log bridge. -These fish must have been all born idiots, or been stricken with -unanimous lunacy in early youth, for the manner of their capture -was this. The angler lay on his stomach on the "bridge" (it was a -three foot and a half stream), with one eye down between two of the -logs. When he saw any fish he thrust his "rod"--it was more like a -penholder--through the space, and held it in front of the fishes' -noses. At the end of the rod were some six inches of string, with a -hook tied on with a large knot, and baited with a dab of dough. When -the fish had got thoroughly interested in the dough, the angler would -jerk up his rod, and by some unaccountable oversight on the part of -the fishes it was found that about once in fifty jerks a fish came up -out of the water! They seemed tome to be young trout; but, whatever -the species, they must have been the most imbecile of finned things. I -suggested catching them with the finger and thumb, but the boys giggled -at me, as "the fish wouldn't let ye." But I am of a different opinion, -for it seemed to me that fish that would let you catch them with such -apparatus, would let you catch them without any at all. - -From here to Panguitch the road lies through stony country of the -prevalent exasperating type until we reach the precincts of the -settlement, heralded long before we reach it by miles of fencing that -enclose the grazing-land stretching down to the river. A detestable -road, broken up and swamped by irrigation channels, leads into the -settlement, and the poor impression thus received is not removed as we -pass through the treeless "streets" and among the unfenced lots. But -it is an interesting spot none the less, for apart from its future, -it is a good starting-point for many places of interest. But I should -like to have visited Red Lake and Panguitch Lake. "Panguitch," by the -way, means "fish" in the red man's language, and it is no wonder, -therefore, that at breakfast we enjoyed one of the most splendid dishes -of mountain-lake trout that was ever set before man. It is a great fish -certainly--and I prefer it broiled. To put any sauce to it is sheer -infamy. - -The beaver, by the way, is still to be trapped here, and the grizzly -bear is not a stranger to Panguitch. - -Looking out of the window in the evening, I saw a cart standing by -the roadside, and a number of men round it. Their demeanour aroused -my curiosity, for an extreme dejection had evidently marked them for -its own. Some sate in the road as if waiting in despair for Doomsday; -others prowled round the cart and leant in a melancholy manner against -it. The cart, it appeared, had come from St. George, the vine-growing -district in the south of the territory, and contained a cask of wine. -But as there was no licence in Panguitch for the sale of liquors, it -could not be broached! I never saw men look so wretchedly thirsty -in my life, and if glaring at the cask and thumping it could have -emptied it, there would not have been a drop left. It was a delightful -improvement upon the tortures of Tantalus, but the victims accepted the -joke as being against them, and though they watched the cart going away -gloomily enough, there was no ill-temper. - -From Panguitch to Orderville, fifty miles, the scenery opens with -the dreary hills that had become so miserably familiar, alternating -with level pasture-lands, among which the serpentine Sevier winds a -curiously fantastic course. But gradually there grows upon the mind a -sense of coming change. Verdure creeps over the plains, and vegetation -steals on to the hill-sides, and then suddenly as if for a surprise, -the complete beauty of Long Valley bursts upon the traveller. I cannot -in a few words say more of it than that this valley--through which the -Rio Virgin flows, and in which the Family Communists of Orderville have -pitched their tents--rivals in its beauty the scenery of Cashmere. - -Springing from a hill-side, beautiful with flowering shrubs and -instinct with bird life, the Virgin River trickles through a deep -meadow bright with blue iris plants and walled in on either side by -hills that are clothed with exquisite vegetation, and then, collecting -its young waters into a little channel, breaks away prattling into -the valley. Corn-fields and orchards, and meadows filled with grazing -kine, succeed each other in pleasant series, and on the right hand -and on the left the mountains lean proudly back with their loads of -magnificent pine. And other springs come tumbling down to join the -pretty river, which flows on, gradually widening as it goes, past -whirring saw-mills and dairies half buried among fruit-trees, through -park-like glades studded with pines of splendid girth, and pretty -brakes of berry-bearing trees all flushed with blossoms. And the valley -opens away on either side into grassy glens from which the tinkle of -cattle-bells falls pleasantly on the ear, or into bold canyons that -are draped close with sombre pines, and end in the most magnificent -cathedral cliffs of ruddy sandstone. - -What lovely bits of landscape! What noble studies of rock architecture! -It is a very panorama of charms, and, travelled widely as I have, I -must confess to an absolute novelty of delight in this exquisite valley -of - -THE ORDERVILLE BRETHREN. - -Among the projects which occupied Joseph Smith's active brain was one -that should make the whole of the Mormon community a single family, -with a purse in common, and the head of the Church its head. In theory -they are so already. But Joseph Smith hoped to see them so in actual -practice also, and for this purpose--the establishment of a universal -family communism--he instituted "The Order of Enoch," or "The United -Order." - -Why Enoch? The Mormons themselves appear to have no definite -explanation beyond the fact that Enoch was holy beyond all his -generation. But for myself, I see in it only another instance of -that curious sympathy with ancient tradition which Joseph Smith, and -after him Brigham Young, so consistently showed. They were both of -them as ignorant as men could be in the knowledge that comes from -books, and yet each of them must have had some acquaintance with the -mystic institutions of antiquity, or their frequent coincidence with -primitive ideas and schemes appears to me inexplicable. No man can in -these days think and act like an antediluvian by accident. Josephus -is, I find, a favourite author among the Mormons, and Josephus may -account for a little. Moreover, many of the Mormons, notably both -Presidents, are or were Freemasons, and this may account for some more. -But for the balance I can find no explanation. Now I remember reading -somewhere--perhaps in Sir Thomas Browne--that "the patriarchal Order -of Enoch" is an institution of prodigious antiquity; that Enoch in the -Hebrew means "the teacher;" that he was accepted in prehistoric days as -the founder of a self-supporting, pious socialism, which was destined -(should destruction overtake the world) to rescue one family at any -rate from the general ruin, and perpetuate the accumulated knowledge of -the past. And it is exactly upon these conditions that we find Joseph -Smith, fifty years ago, promulgating in a series of formulated rules, -the scheme of a patriarchal "Order of Enoch." - -All Mormons are "elect." But even among the elect there is an -aristocracy of piety. Thus in Islam we find the Hajji faithful above -the faithful. In Hindooism the brotherhood of the Coolinsis accepted by -the gods above all the other "twice-born." Is it not, indeed, the same -in every religion--that there are the chosen within the chosen--"though -they were mighty men, yet they were not of the three"--a tenth legion -among the soldiers of Heaven--the archangels in the select ministry -of the Supreme? In Mormonism, therefore, if a man chooses, he may -consecrate himself to his faith more signally than his fellows, by -endowing the Church with all his goods, and accepting from the Church -afterwards the "stewardship" of a portion of his own property! It is -no mere lip-consecration, no Ritualists' "Order of Jesus," no question -of a phylactery. It means the absolute transfer of all property and -temporal interests, and of all rights of all kinds therein, to the -Church by a formal, legal process, and a duly attested deed. Here is -one:-- - -"Be it known by these presents, that I, Jesse W. Fox, of Great Salt -Lake City, in the county of Great Salt Lake, and territory of Utah, -for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred ($100) dollars and -the good-will which I have to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day -Saints, give and convey unto Brigham Young, trustee in trust for the -said Church, his successor in office and assigns, all my claims to and -ownership of the following-described property, to wit: - - One house and lot . . . . . . . . . . . . $1000 - One city lot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 - East half of lot 1, block 12 . . . . . . . . 50 - Lot 1, block 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 - Two cows, $50; two calves, $15 . . . . . . . 65 - One mare, $100; one colt, $50 . . . . . . . 150 - One watch, $20; one clock, $12 . . . . . . . 32 - Clothing, $300; beds and bedding, $125. . . 425 - One stove, $20; household furniture, $210. .230 - -- - Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2127 - -together with all the rights, privileges, and appurtenances thereunto -belonging or appertaining. I also covenant and agree that I am the -lawful claimant and owner of said property, and will warrant and for -ever defend the same unto the said trustee in trust, his successor in -office and assigns, against the claims of my heirs, assigns, or any -person whomsoever." - -Then follows the attestation of the witness; and the formal certificate -of the Judge of the Probate Court that "the signer of the above -transfer, personally known to me, appeared the second day of April, -1857, and acknowledged that he, of his own choice, executed the -foregoing transfer." - -Such transfers of property are not, I know, infrequent in other -religions, notably the Roman Catholic, but the object of the Mormon's -piety distinguishes his act from that of others. Had Brigham Young -persevered in his predecessor's project, it is almost certain that he -would have established a gigantic "company" that would have controlled -all the temporal interests of the territory, and eventually comprised -the whole Mormon population. It is just possible that he himself -foresaw that such success would be ruin; that the foundations of -the Order would sink under such a prodigious superstructure, for he -diverted his attention from the main to subsidiary schemes. Instead of -one central organization sending out colonies on all sides of it, he -advised the establishment of branch communities, which might eventually -be gathered together under a single headquarters' control. The two -projects were the same as to results; they differed only as to the -means; and the second was the more judicious. - -A few individuals came forward in their enthusiasm to give all they -possessed to a common cause, but the Order flagged, though, nominally, -many joined it. Thus, travelling through the settlements, I have -seen in a considerable number of homes the Rules of the Order framed -upon the walls. At any time these would be curious; to-day, when the -morality of the principles of Mormonism is challenged, they are of -special interest:-- - -"RULES THAT SHOULD BE OBSERVED BY MEMBERS OF THE UNITED ORDER. - -"We will not take the name of the Deity in vain, nor speak lightly of -His character or of sacred things. - -"We will pray with our families morning and evening, and also attend to -secret prayer. - -"We will observe and keep the Word of Wisdom according to the spirit -and the meaning thereof. - -"We will treat our families with due kindness and affection, and -set before them an example worthy of imitation. In our families and -intercourse with all persons, we will refrain from being contentious or -quarrelsome, and we will cease to speak evil of each other, and will -cultivate a spirit of charity towards all. We consider it our duty to -keep from acting selfishly or from covetous motives, and will seek the -interest of each other and the salvation of all mankind. - -"We will observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, in accordance with -the Revelations. - -"That which is committed to our care we will not appropriate to our own -use. - -"That which we borrow we will return according to promise, and that -which we find we will not appropriate to our own use, but seek to -return it to its proper owner. - -"We will, as soon as possible, cancel all individual indebtedness -contracted prior to our uniting with the order, and, when once fully -identified with said order, will contract no debts contrary to the -wishes of the Board of Directors. - -"We will patronize our brethren who are in the order. - -"In our apparel and deportment we will not pattern after nor encourage -foolish and extravagant fashions, and cease to import or buy from -abroad any article which can be reasonably dispensed with, or which -can be produced by combination of home labour. We will foster and -encourage the producing and manufacturing of all articles needful for -our consumption as fast as our circumstances will permit. - -"We will be simple in our dress and manner of living, using proper -economy and prudence in the management of all intrusted to our care. - -"We will combine our labour for mutual benefit, sustain with our faith, -prayers, and works those whom we have elected to take the management of -the different departments of the order, and be subject to them in their -official capacity, refraining from a spirit of fault-finding. - -"We will honestly and diligently labour and devote ourselves and all we -have to the order and to the building up Of the Kingdom of God." - -Under these general regulations a great number, as I have said, -enrolled themselves, and they may be considered therefore to -constitute, as it were, a Knight Templar commandery within a -Fellowcraft lodge. All are "brethren;" these are illustrious brethren. -All are pashas; these are "of many tails." All are mandarins of heaven; -these wear the supreme button. - -But the temporal object of the Order was not served by such transfers -of moral obligations; by the hypothecation of personal piety; by -the investment of spiritual principles in a common fund. You cannot -get much working capital out of mortgages on a man's soul. Calchas -complained bitterly when the Athenian public paid their vows to the -goddess in squashes. The collector, he said, would not take them in -payment of the water-rates. So it has fared with the Order of Enoch. It -is wealthy in good intentions, and if promises were dollars could draw -large checks. - -Here and there, however, local fervour took practical shape. The Kings -of Kingston planted their family flag on the wind-swept Circleville -plain. At Sunset another communistic colony was established, and in -Long Valley, in the canyons of the Rio Virgin, was inaugurated the -"United Order of Orderville." - -Situated in a beautiful valley that needs nothing more added to it to -make its inhabitants entirely self-supporting; directed and controlled -with as much business shrewdness as fervent piety; supported by its -members with a sensible regard for mutual interests--this Orderville -experiment bids fair to be a signal success. In their Articles Of -Association the members call themselves a Corporation which is "to -continue in existence for a period of twenty-five years," and of which -the objects are every sort of "rightful" enterprise and industry that -may render the Order independent of outside produce and manufactures, -"consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of -this Territory." Its capital is fixed at $100,000, in 10,000 shares of -$10 each, and the entire control of its affairs is vested in a board -of nine directors, who are elected by a ballot of the whole community. -Article 13 "the individual or private property of the states that -stockholders shall not be liable for the debts or obligations of the -company." Article 15 is as follows: "The directors shall have the -right and power to declare dividends on said stock whenever, in their -judgment, there are funds for that purpose due and payable." - -Now, in these two last articles lie the saving principles of the -Orderville scheme, Hitherto, from the beginning of the world, -experiments in communism have always split upon this rock, namely, -that individuality was completely crushed out. No man was permitted -to possess "private" property--he was l'enfant de la République, body -and soul--and no man, therefore, had sufficient personal identity -to make it possible for individual profits to accrue to him. And -so the best of the young men--let the experiment be at any date in -history you like--became dissatisfied with the level at which they -were kept, and they seceded. They insisted on having names of their -own, and refused to be merely, like the members of a jail republic, -known by numbers. Individuality and identity are the original data -of human consciousness. They are the first solid facts which a baby -masters and communicates; they are the last that old age surrenders to -infirmity and death. But in Orderville, it will be seen, the notion of -"private" property exists. It is admitted that there is such a thing -as "individual" ownership. Moreover, it is within the power of the -board to pay every man a dividend. This being the case, this particular -experiment in communism has the possibility of great success, for its -members are not utterly deprived of all individuality. They have some -shreds of it left to them. - -To become a member of the Order there is no qualification of property -necessary. The aged and infirm are accepted in charity. Indeed, at one -time they threatened to swamp the family altogether, for the brethren -seemed to have set out with a dead-weight upon them heavier than they -could bear. But this has righted itself. The working members have got -the ship round again, and in one way or another a place and a use has -been found for every one. Speaking generally, however, membership -meant the holding of stock in the corporation. If a man wished to -join the Order, he gave in to the Bishop a statement of his effects. -It was left to his conscience that this statement should be complete -and exhaustive; that there should be no private reservations. These -effects--whatever they might be, from a farm in another part of the -Territory to the clothes in his trunk--were appraised by the regular -staff, and the equivalent amount in stock, at $10 a share, was issued -to them. From that time his ownership in his property ceased. His books -would perhaps go into the school-house library, his extra blankets next -door, his horse into a neighbour's team. According to his capacities, -also, he himself fell at once into his place among the workers, going -to the woollen factory or the carpenter's shop, the blacksmith's forge -or the dairy, the saw-mills or the garden, the grist-mill or the -farm, according as his particular abilities gave promise of his being -most useful. His work here would result, as far as he was personally -concerned, in no profits. But he was assured of a comfortable house, -abundant food, good clothes. The main responsibilities of life were -therefore taken off his shoulders. The wolf could never come to his -door. He and his were secured against hunger and cold. But beyond -this? There was only the approbation of his companions, the reward -of his conscience. With the proceeds of his labour, or by the actual -work of his own hands, he saw new buildings going up, new acres coming -under cultivation. But none of them belonged to him. He never became a -proprietor, an owner, a master. While therefore he was spared the worst -responsibilities of life, he was deprived of its noblest ambitions. -He lived without apprehensions, but without hopes too. If his wife -was ill or his children sickly, there were plenty of kind neighbours -to advise and nurse and look after them. No anxieties on such matters -need trouble him. But if he had any particular taste--music, botany, -anything--he was unable to gratify it, unless these same kindly -neighbours agreed to spend from the common fund in order to buy him -a violin or a flower-press--and they could hardly be expected to -do so. Quite apart from the fact that a man learning to play a new -instrument is an enemy of his kind, you could not expect a community of -graziers, farmers, and artisans to be unanimously enthusiastic about -the musical whims of one of their number, still less for his "crank" -in collecting "weeds"--as everything that is not eatable (or is not a -rose) is called in most places of the West. Tastes, therefore, could -not be cultivated for the want of means, and any special faculties -which members might individually possess were of necessity kept in -abeyance. Amid scenery that might distract an artist, and fossil and -insect treasures enough to send men of science crazy, the community -can do nothing in the direction of Art or of Natural History, unless -they all do it together. For the Order cannot spare a man who may be a -good ploughman, to go and sit about in the canyons painting pictures -of pine-trees and waterfalls. Nor can it spare the money that may be -needed for shingles in buying microscopes for a "bug-hunter." The -common prosperity, therefore, can only be gained at a sacrifice of all -individual tastes. This alone is a very serious obstacle to success of -the highest kind. But in combination with this is of course the more -general and formidable fact that even in the staple industries of the -community individual excellence brings with it no individual benefits. -A moral trades-unionism planes all down to a level. It does not, of -course, prevent the enthusiast working his very hardest and best in -the interests of his neighbours. But such enthusiasm is hardly human. -Men will insist, to the end of all time, on enjoying the reward of -their own labours, the triumphs of their own brains. Some may go so -far as nominally to divide their honours with all their friends. But -where shall we look for the man who will go on all his life toiling -successfully for the good of idler folks, and checking his own free -stride to keep pace with their feebler steps? And this is the rock on -which all such communities inevitably strike. - -Security from the ordinary apprehensions of life; a general protection -against misfortune and "bad seasons;" the certainty of having all the -necessaries of existence, are sufficient temptations for unambitious -men. But the stronger class of mind, though attracted to it by piety, -and retained for a while by a sincere desire to promote the common -good, must from their very nature revolt against a permanent alienation -of their own earnings, and a permanent subordination of their own -merits. At Orderville, therefore, we find the young men already -complaining of a system which does not let them see the fruits of their -work. Their fathers' enthusiasm brought them there as children. Seven -years later they are grown up into independent-minded young men. They -have not had experience of family anxieties yet. All they know is, that -beyond Orderville there are larger spheres of work, and more brilliant -opportunities for both hand and head. - -Fortunately, however, for Orderville, the articles of incorporation -give the directors the very powers that are necessary, and if these -are exercised the ship may miss the rock that has wrecked all its -predecessors. If they can declare dividends, open private accounts, and -realize the idea of personal property, the difference in possibilities -between the outer world and Orderville will be very greatly reduced, -while the advantage of certainties in Orderville will be even further -increased. Young men would then think twice about going away, and -any one if he chose could indulge his wife with a piano or himself -with a box of water-colours. Herein then lies the hopefulness of -the experiment; and fortunately Mr. Howard Spencer, the President -of the community, has all the generosity to recognize the necessity -for concession to younger ambition, and all the courage to institute -and carry out a modification of communism which shall introduce more -individuality. I anticipate, therefore, that this very remarkable and -interesting colony will survive the "twenty-five years" period for -which it was established, and will encourage the foundation of many -other similar "Family Orders." - -Seven years have passed since Mr. Spencer pitched his camp in the -beautiful wilderness of the Rio Virgin canyons. He found the hills -of fine building-stone, their sides thickly grown with splendid pine -timber, and down the valley between them flowing a bright and ample -stream. The vegetation by its variety and luxuriance gave promise of -a fertile soil; some of the canyons formed excellent natural meadows, -while just over the ridge, a mile or two from the settlement, lay a -bed of coal. Finally, the climate was delightfully temperate! Every -condition of success, therefore, was found together, and prosperity -has of course responded to the voice of industry. Acre by acre the -wild gardens have disappeared, and in their place stand broad fields -of corn; the tangled brakes of wild-berry plants have yielded their -place to orchards of finer fruits; cattle and sheep now graze in -numbers where the antelope used to feed; and from slope to slope you -can hear among the pines, above the idle crooning of answering doves -and the tinkling responses of wandering kine, the glad antiphony of the -whirring saw-mill and the busy loom. - -The settlement itself is grievously disappointing in appearance. For -as you approach it, past the charming little hamlet of Glendale, past -such a sunny wealth of orchard and meadow and corn-land, past such -beautiful glimpses of landscape, you cannot help expecting a scene of -rural prettiness in sympathy with such surroundings. But Orderville -at first sight looks like a factory. The wooden shed-like buildings -built in continuous rows, the adjacent mills, the bare, ugly patch of -hillside behind it, give the actual settlement an uninviting aspect. -But once within the settlement, the scene changes wonderfully for the -better. The houses are found, the most of them, built facing inwards -upon an open square, with a broad side-walk, edged with tamarisk -and mulberry, box-elder and maple-trees, in front of them. Outside -the dwelling-house square are scattered about the school-house, -meeting-house, blacksmith and carpenters' shops, tannery, woollen-mill, -and so forth, while a broad roadway separates the whole from the -orchards, gardens, and farm-lands generally. Specially noteworthy -here are the mulberry orchard--laid out for the support of the -silk-worms, which the community are now rearing with much success--and -the forcing-ground and experimental garden, in which wild flowers as -well as "tame" are being cultivated. Among the buildings the more -interesting to me were the school-houses, well fitted up, and very -fairly provided with educational apparatus; and the rudimentary museum, -where the commencement of a collection of the natural curiosities of -the neighbourhood is displayed. What this may some day grow into, when -science has had the chance of exploring the surrounding hills and -canyons, it is difficult to say; for Nature has favoured Orderville -profusely with fossil strata and mineral eccentricities, a rich variety -of bird and insect life, and a prodigious botanical luxuriance. Almost -for the first time in my travels, too, I found here a very intelligent -interest taken in the natural history of the locality; but the absence -of books and of necessary apparatus, as yet of course prevents the -brethren from carrying on their studies and experiments to any standard -of scientific value. - -Though staying in Orderville so short a time, I was fortunate enough -to see the whole community together. For on the evening of my arrival -there was a meeting at which there was a very full gathering of the -adults--and the babies in arms. The scene was as curious as anything I -have ever witnessed in any part of the world. The audience was almost -equally composed of men and women, the latter wearing, most of them, -their cloth sun-bonnets, and bringing with them the babies they were -nursing. - -Brigham Young used to encourage mothers to bring them, and said that he -liked to hear them squalling in the Tabernacle. Whether he really liked -it or not, the mothers did as he said, and the babies too, and the -perpetual bleating of babies from every corner of the building makes it -seem to this day as if religious service was being held in a sheepfold. -Throughout the proceedings at Orderville babies were being constantly -handed across from mother to neighbour and back from neighbour -to mother. Others were being tossed up and down with that jerky, -perpendicular motion which seems so soothing to the very young, but -which reminded me of the popping up and down of the hammers when the -"lid" of a piano is lifted up during a performance. But the baby is an -irrepressible person, and at Orderville has it very much its own way. -The Apostle's voice in prayer was accepted as a challenge to try their -lungs, and the music (very good, by the way) as a mere obligato to -their own vocalization. The patient gravity of the mothers throughout -the whole performance, and the apparent indifference of the men, struck -me as very curious--for I come from a country where one baby will -plunge a whole church congregation into profanity, and where it is -generally supposed that two crying together would empty heaven. Of the -men of Orderville I can say sincerely that a healthier, more stalwart -community I have never seen, while among the women, I saw many refined -faces, and remarked that robust health seemed the rule. Next morning -the children were paraded, and such a brigade of infantry as it was! -Their legs (I think, though, they are known as "limbs" in America) were -positively columnar, and their chubby little owners were as difficult -to keep quietly in line as so much quicksilver. Orderville boasts that -it is self-supporting and independent of outside help, and certainly in -the matter of babies there seems no necessity for supplementing home -manufactures by foreign imports. The average of births is as yet five -in each family during the six years of the existence of the Order! Two -were born the day I arrived. - -Unfortunately one of the most characteristic features of this family -community was in abeyance during my visit--the common dining-table. For -a rain-flood swept through the gorge above the settlement last winter -and destroyed "the bakery." Since then the families have dined apart or -clubbed together in small parties, but the wish of the majority is to -see the old system revived, for though they live well now, they used, -they say, to live even better when "the big table" was laid for its 200 -guests at once. - -Self-supporting and well-directed, therefore, the Orderville -"communists" bid fair to prove to the world that pious enthusiasm, -if largely tempered with business judgment, can make a success of an -experiment which has hitherto baffled all attempts based upon either -one or the other alone. - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -MORMON VIRTUES. - - Red ants and anti-Mormons--Ignorance of the Mormons among - Gentiles in Salt Lake City--Mormon reverence for the Bible--Their - struggle against drinking-saloons in the city--Conspicuous - piety in the settlements--Their charity--Their sobriety (to - my great inconvenience)--The literature of Mormonism utterly - unreliable--Neglect of the press by the Saints--Explanation of the - wide-spread misrepresentation of Mormonism. - -FROM Orderville (after a short tour in the south-west of the Territory) -I returned to Salt Lake City, and during my second sojourn there, -over a month, I saw nothing and learned nothing either from Mormon or -Gentile to induce me to erase a single word I had written during my -previous visit. Indeed, a better acquaintance only strengthened my -first favourable opinions of "the Saints of the Rocky Mountains." - -I was walking one day up the City Creek, when I became aware of an aged -man seated on a stone by the roadside. His trousers were turned up to -his knees, and he was nursing one of his legs as if he felt a great -pity for it. As I approached I perceived that he was in trouble--(I -perceived this by his oaths)--and getting still nearer I ventured -to inquire what annoyed him. "Aged person," said I, "what aileth -thee?"--or words to that effect. But there was no response, at least -not worth mentioning. He only bent further over his leg, and I noticed -that his coat had split down the back seam. His cursing accounted for -that. It was sufficient to make any coat split. And then his hat fell -off his head into the dust, in judgment upon him. At this he swore -again, horribly. By this time I had guessed that he had been bitten by -red ants (and they are the shrewdest reptiles at biting that I know -of), so I said, "Bitten by red ants, eh?" At this he exploded with -wrath, and looked up. And such a face! He had a countenance on him like -the ragged edge of despair. His appearance was a calamity. "Red ants," -said he; "red Indians, red devils, red hell!" and then, relapsing into -the vernacular, he became unintelligibly profane, but ended up with -"this damned Mormon city." - -Now here was a man, fairly advanced in years, fairly clothed, fairly -uneducated. As I had never seen him before, he may have been, for all I -know, "the average American" I so often see referred to. Anyhow, there -he was, cursing the Mormons because he had been bitten by red ants! Of -his own stupidity he had gone and stood upon an ants' nest, thrust his -hippopotamus foot into their domicile, overwhelming the nurseries and -the parlours in a common catastrophe, crushing with the same heel the -grandsire ant and the sucking babe at its mother's breast, mashing up -the infirm and the feeble with the eggs in the cells and the household -provisions laid up in the larder--ruining in fact an industrious -community simply by his own weight in butcher's meat. Some of the -survivors promptly attacked the intruding boot, and, running up what -the old man was pleased to call "his blasted pants," had bitten the -legs which they found concealed within them. And for this, "the average -American" cursed the Mormons and their city! - -The incident interested me, for, apart from my sympathy with the -ants, I couldn't help thinking what a powerful adversary to Mormonism -this trifling mishap might have created. That man went back to his -hotel (for he was evidently a "visitor") a confirmed anti-Mormon. His -darkest suspicions about polygamy were confirmed. His detestation of -the bestial licentiousness of the Saints was increased a hundred-fold. -He saw at a glance that all he had ever heard about "the Danites" was -quite true, and much more too that he had never heard but could now -easily invent for himself. There was no need for any one to tell him, -after the way he had been treated within a mile of the Tabernacle, of -the infamous debaucheries of Brigham Young with his "Cyprian maids" and -his "cloistered wives." Wasn't it as plain as the sun at noonday that -the Mormons were in league with the red Indians, and went halves in the -proceeds of each other's massacres? - -The ant-bitten man was a very typical "Mormon-eater," for such -is the local name of those who revile Mormonism root and branch -because they find intelligent men opposed to polygamy. They are -under the impression, seeing and talking to nobody but each other, -that the United States in a mass, that the whole world, entertain an -unreasoning, fanatical abhorrence of the inhabitants of the Territory, -and share with them their mean parochial jealousy of the Mormon -tradesmen and Mormon farmers who are more thriving than they are -themselves. - -Here in Salt Lake City there is the most extraordinary ignorance -of Mormonism that can be imagined. I have actually been assured -by "Gentiles" that the Saints do not believe in the God of the -Bible--that adultery among them is winked at by husbands under a -tacit understanding of reciprocity--that the Mormons as a class -are profane, and drunken, and so forth. Now, if they knew anything -whatever of the Mormons, such statements would be impossible (unless -of course made in wilful malice), for my personal acquaintance with -"the Saints" has shown me that in all classes alike the reverence -for the God of the Bible is formulated not only in their morning and -evening prayers, but in their grace before every meal; that so far -from there being any exceptional familiarity between families, the -very reverse is conspicuous, for so strict is the Mormon etiquette of -social courtesies, that households which in England would be on the -most intimate terms, maintain here a distant formality which impresses -the stranger as being cold; that instead of the Mormons being as a -class profane, they are as a class singularly sober in their language, -and indeed in this respect resemble the Quakers. Now, my opinions are -founded upon facts of personal knowledge and experience. - -Of course it will be said of me that as I was a "guest" of Mormons -I was "bound" to speak well of them; that as I was so much among -them I was hoodwinked and "shown the best side of everything," &c., -&c. Against this argument, always the resource of the gobemouche, -common sense is useless. "Against stupidity the gods themselves are -powerless." But this I can say--that I will defy any really impure -household, monogamous or not, to hoodwink me in the same way--to keep -up from morning to night the same unchanging profession of piety, to -make believe from week to week with such consummate hypocrisy that they -are god-fearing and pure in their lives, and to wear a mask of sobriety -with such uniform success. And I am not speaking of one household only, -but of a score to which I was admitted simply as being a stranger from -whom they need not fear calumny. I do not believe that acting exists -anywhere in such perfection that a whole community can assume, at a few -hours' notice and for the benefit of a passing stranger, the characters -of honest, kind-hearted, simple men and women, and set themselves -patiently to a three months' comedy of pretended purity. Such impostors -do not exist. - -The Mormons drunken! Now what, for instance, can be the conclusion of -any honest thinker from this fact--that though I mixed constantly with -Mormons, all of them anxious to show me every hospitality and courtesy, -I was never at any time asked to take a glass of strong drink? If I -wanted a horse to ride or to drive I had a choice at once offered me. -If I wanted some one to go with me to some point of interest, his -time was mine. Yet it never occurred to them to show a courtesy by -suggesting "a drink." - -Then, seriously, how can any one have respect for the literature or the -men who, without knowing anything of the lives of Mormons, stigmatize -them as profane, adulterous, and drunken? As a community I know them, -from personal advantages of observation such as no non-Mormon writer -has ever previously possessed, [1] to be at any rate exceptionally -careful in maintaining the appearance of piety and sobriety; and I -leave it to my readers to judge whether such solid hypocrisy as this, -that tries to abolish all swearing and all strong drink both by precept -from the pulpit and example in the household, is not, after all, nearly -as admirable as the real thing itself. - -This, at all events, is beyond doubt--that the Mormons have always -struggled hard to prevent the sale of liquor in Salt Lake City, except -under strict regulations and supervision. But the fight has gone -against them. The courts uphold the right of publicans to sell when and -what they choose; and the Mormons, who could at one time boast--and -visitors without number have borne evidence to the fact--that a -drunkard was never to be seen, an oath never to be heard, in the -streets of their city, have now to confess that, thanks to the example -of Gentiles, they have both drunkards and profane men among them. But -the general attitude of the Church towards these delinquents, and -the sorrow that their weakness causes in the family circle, are in -themselves proofs of the sincerity in sobriety which distinguishes the -Mormons. Nor is it any secret that if the Mormons had the power they -would to-morrow close all the saloons and bars, except those under -Church regulation, and then, they say, "we might hope to see the old -days back when we never thought of locking our doors at night, and when -our wives and girls, let them be out ever so late, needed no escort in -the streets." - -And having travelled throughout the Mormon settlements, I am at a loss -how to convey to my readers with any brevity the effect which the tour -has had upon me. - -I have seen, and spoken to, and lived with, Mormon men and women of -every class, and never in my life in any Christian country, not even -in happy, rural England, have I come in contact with more consistent -piety, sobriety, and neighbourly charity. I say this deliberately. -Without a particle of odious sanctimony these folk are, in their words -and actions, as Christian as I had ever thought to see men and women. A -perpetual spirit of charity seems to possess them, and if the prayers -of simple, devout humanity are ever of any avail, it must surely be -this wonderful Mormon earnestness in appeals to Heaven. I have often -watched Moslems in India praying, and thought then that I had seen -the extremity of devotion, but now that I have seen these people on -their knees in their kitchens at morning and at night, and heard their -old men--men who remember the dark days of the Faith--pour out from -their hearts their gratitude for past mercy, their pleas for future -protection, I find that I have met with even a more striking form -of prayer than I have ever met with before. Equally striking is the -universal reverence and affection with which they, quite unconscious of -the fact that I was "taking notes," spoke of the authorities of their -Church. Fear there was none, but respect and love were everywhere. It -would be a bold man who, in one of these Mormon hamlets, ventured to -repeat the slanders current among Gentiles elsewhere. And it would -indeed be a base man who visited these hard-living, trustful men and -women, and then went away to calumniate them. - -But it is a fact, and cannot be challenged, that the only people in -all Utah who libel these Mormons are either those who are ignorant of -them, those who have apostatized (frequently under compulsion) from -the Church, or those, the official clique and their sycophants, who -have been charged with looking forward to a share of the plunder of -the Territorial treasury. On the other hand, I know many Gentiles who, -though like myself they consider polygamy itself detestable, speak of -this people as patterns to themselves in commercial honesty, religious -earnestness, and social charity. - -Travelling through the settlements, I found that every one voluntarily -considered his poorer neighbours as a charge upon himself. When a man -arrives there, a stranger and penniless, one helps to get together logs -for his first hut, another to break up a plot of ground. A third lends -him his waggon to draw some firewood from the canyon or hillside; a -fourth gives up some of his time to show him how to bring the water -on to his ground--and so on through all the first requirements of the -forlorn new-comer. Behind them all meanwhile is the Church, in the -person of the presiding Elder of the settlement, who makes him such -advances as are considered necessary. It is a wonderful system, and -as pathetic, to my mind, as any struggle for existence that I have -ever witnessed. But every man who comes among them is another unit of -strength, and let him be only a straight-spoken, fair-dealing fellow, -with his heart in his work, and he finds every one's hand ready to -assist him. - -And the first commencement is terribly small. A one-roomed log hut is -planted in a desert of sage-brush "with roots that hold as firm as -original sin," and rocks that are as hard to get rid of as bad habits. -Borrowing a plough here, and a shovel there, the new-comer bungles -through an acre or two of furrows, and digs out a trench. Begging of -one neighbour some fruit-tree cuttings, he sticks the discouraging -twigs into the ground, and by working out some extra time for another -gets some lucerne seed. Then he gets a hen, and then a setting of eggs, -by-and-by a heifer, and a little later, by putting in work or by an -advance from the Church, or with kindly help from a neighbour, he adds -a horse to his stock. Time passes, say a year; his orchard (that is to -be) has several dozen leaves on it, and the ground is all green with -lucerne, the chickens are thriving, and he adds an acre or two more to -the first patch, and his neighbours, seeing him in earnest, are still -ready with their advice and aid. Adobe bricks are gradually piled up -in a corner of the lot, and very soon an extra room or two is built -on to the log hut, and saplings of cotton-wood, or poplar, or locust -are planted in a row before the dwelling: and so on year by year, -conquering a little more of the sage-brush, bringing on the water a -furlong further, adding an outhouse, planting another tree. At the end -of ten years--years of unsparing, untiring labour, but years brightened -with perpetual kindness from neighbours--this man, the penniless -emigrant, invites the wayfarer into his house, has a comfortably -furnished bedroom at his service, oats and fodder for his team, ample -and wholesome food for all. The wife spreads the table with eggs and -ham and chicken, vegetables, pickles, and preserves, milk and cream, -pies and puddings--"Yes, sir, all of our own raising." The dismal -twigs have grown up into pleasant shade-trees, and a flower-garden -brightens the front of the house. In the barn are comfortable, well-fed -stock, horses and cows. This is no fancy picture, but one from life, -and typical of 20,000 others. Each homestead in turn has the same -experience, and it is no wonder, therefore, when the settlement, -properly laid out and organized, grows into municipal existence, that -every one speaks kindly of, and acts kindly towards, his neighbour. A -visitor, till he understands the reason, is surprised at the intimacy -of households. But when he does understand it, ought not his surprise -to give place to admiration? - -Not less conspicuous is the uniform sincerity in religion. A school -and meeting-house is to be found in every settlement, even though -there may be only half-a-dozen families, and besides the regular -attendance of the people at weekly services, the private prayers of -each household are as punctual as their meals. In these prayers, after -the ordinary generalities, the head of the house usually prays for -all the authorities of the Church, from the President downwards, for -the local authorities, for the Church as a body, and the missionaries -abroad, for his household and its guest, for the United States, and for -Congress, and for all the world that feels kindly towards Mormonism. -But quite apart from the matter of their prayers, their manner is very -striking, and the scene in a humble house, when a large family meets -for prayer--and half the members, finding no article of furniture -unoccupied for the orthodox position of devotion, drop into attitudes -of natural reverence, kneeling in the middle of the floor--appeals very -strongly to the eye of those accustomed to the stereotyped piety of a -more advanced civilization. - -One more conspicuous feature of Mormon life is sobriety. I have been -the guest of some fifty different households, and only once I was -offered even beer. That exception was in a Danish household, where -the wife brewed her own "ol"--an opaque beverage of home-fermented -wheat and home-grown hops--as a curiosity curious, as an "indulgence" -doubtful, as a regular drink impossible. On no other occasion was -anything but tea, coffee, milk, or water offered. And even tea and -coffee, being discouraged by the Church, are but seldom drunk. As a -heathen outsider I deplored my beer, and was grateful for coffee; but -the rest of the household, in almost every instance, drank water. -Tobacco is virtually unused. It is used, but so seldom that it does not -affect my statement. The spittoon, therefore, though in every room, is -behind the door, or in a corner under a piece of furniture. In case -it should be needed, it is there--like the shot-gun upstairs--but its -being called into requisition would be a family event. - -No, let their enemies say what they will, the Mormon settlements are -each of them to-day a refutation of the libel that the Mormons are not -sincere in their antipathy to strong drink and tobacco. That individual -Mormons drink and smoke proves nothing, except that they do it. For the -great majority of the Mormons, they are strictly sober. I know it to my -great inconvenience. - -Is it possible then that the American people, so generous in their -impulses, so large-hearted in action, have been misled as to the -true character of the Mormon "problem"? At first sight this may seem -impossible. A whole people, it will be said, cannot have been misled. -But I think a general misapprehension is quite within the possibilities. - -Whence have the public derived their opinions about Mormonism? From -anti-Mormons only. I have ransacked the literature of the subject, -and yet I really could not tell any one where to go for an impartial -book about Mormonism later in date than Burton's "City of the -Saints," published in 1862. Burton, it is well known, wrote as a man -of wide travel and liberal education--catholic, therefore, on all -matters religious, and generous in his views of ethical and social -obliquities, sympathetic, consistent, and judicial. It is no wonder, -then, that Mormons remember the distinguished traveller, in spite of -his candour, with the utmost kindness. But put Burton on one side, -and I think I can defy any one to name another book about the Mormons -worthy of honest respect. From that truly awful book, "The History -of the Saints," published by one Bennett (even an anti-Mormon has -styled him "the greatest rascal that ever came to the West") in 1842, -down to Stenhouse's in 1873, there is not, to my knowledge, a single -Gentile work before the public that is not utterly unreliable from -its distortion of facts. Yet it is from these books--for there are no -others--that the American public has acquired nearly all its ideas -about the people of Utah. - -The Mormons themselves are most foolishly negligent of the power of -the press, and of the immense value in forming public opinion of a -free use of type. They affect to be indifferent to the clamour of the -world, but when this clamour leads to legislative action against them, -they turn round petulantly with the complaint that there is a universal -conspiracy against them. It does not seem to occur to them that their -misfortunes are partly due to their own neglect of the very weapons -which their adversaries have used so diligently, so unscrupulously, and -so successfully. - -They do not seem to understand that a public contradiction given to -a public calumny goes some way towards correcting the mischief done, -or that by anticipating malicious versions of events they could as -often as not get an accurate statement before the public, instead of -an inaccurate one. But enterprise in advertisement has been altogether -on the side of the anti-Mormons. The latter never lose an opportunity -of throwing in a bad word, while the Mormons content themselves with -"rounding their shoulders," as they are so fond of saying, and putting -a denial of the libel into the local News. They say they are so -accustomed to abuse that they are beginning not to care about it--which -is the old, stupid self-justification of the apathetic. The fascination -of a self-imposed martyrdom seems too great for them, and, like flies -when they are being wrapped up into parcels by the spider for greater -convenience of transportation to its larder, they sing chastened -canticles about the inevitability of cobwebs and the deplorable -rapacity of spiders. - -"I can assure you," said one of them, "it would be of no use trying to -undeceive the public. You cannot make a whistle out of a pig's tail, -you know." - -"Nonsense," I replied. "You can--for I have seen a whistle made out of -a pig's tail. And it is in a shop in Chicago to this day!" - -It will be understood, then, that the Mormons have made no adequate -efforts either in books or the press to meet their antagonists. They -prefer to allow cases against them to go by default, and content -themselves with privately filing pleas in defence which would have -easily acquitted them had they gone before the public. America, -therefore, hearing only one side of the case, and so much of it, is -certainly not to be blamed for drawing its conclusions from the only -facts before it. It cannot be expected to know that three or four -individuals, all them by their own confession "Mormon-eaters," have -from the first been the purveyors of nearly all the distorted facts it -receives. Seeing the same thing said in many different directions, the -general public naturally conclude that a great number of persons are in -agreement as to the facts. - -But the exigencies of journalism which admit, for instance, of the -same correspondent being a local contributor to two or three score -newspapers of widely differing views in politics and religion, are -unknown to them. And they are therefore unaware that the indignation -so widely printed throughout America has its source in the personal -animosity of three or four individuals only who are bitterly sectarian, -and that these men are actually personally ignorant of the country -they live in, have seldom talked to a Mormon, and have never visited -Mormonism outside Salt Lake City. These men write of the "squalid -poverty" of Mormons, of their obscene brutality, of their unceasing -treason towards the United States, of their blasphemous repudiation of -the Bible, without one particle of information on the subject, except -such as they gather from the books and writings of men whom they ought -to know are utterly unworthy of credit, or from the verbal calumnies -of apostates. And what the evidence of apostates is worth history has -long ago told us. I am now stating facts; and I, who have lived among -the Mormons and with them, who have seen them in their homes, rich -and poor; have joined in their worship, public and private; who have -constantly conversed with them, men, women, and children; Who have -visited their out-lying settlements, large and small--as no Gentile -has ever done before me--can assure my readers that every day of my -residence increased my regret at the misrepresentation these people -have suffered. - -Footnotes: - -1. Except, of course, General Kane. - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -DOWN THE ONTARIO MINE. - -"Been down a mine! What on earth did you do that for?" said the elder -Sheridan to the younger. - -"Oh, just to say that I had done it," was the reply. - -"To say that you had done it! Good gracious! Couldn't you have said -that without going down a mine?" - -No, Mr. Sheridan, you could not; at least not in these latter days. Too -many people do it now for the impostor to remain undiscovered. Take my -own case, for instance. I had often read descriptions of mine descents, -and thought I knew how it happened, and how ore was got out. But no one -ever told me that you had to go paddling about in water half the time, -or that mines were excavated upwards. Now, then, if I had tried to -pretend that I had been down a mine I should have been promptly found -out, by my ignorance of the two first facts that strike one. Again, it -is very simple work imagining the descent of a "shaft" in a "cage." -But unfortunately a cage is only a platform to stand on without either -sides or top, and not, therefore, such a cage as one would buy to keep -a bird in, or as would keep a bird in if one did buy it. Nor, without -actually experiencing it, could anybody guess that the first sensation -of whizzing down a pipe, say 800 feet, is that of seeming to lose all -your specific gravity, and that the next (after you had partially -collected your faculties) is that you are stationary yourself, but that -the dripping timbers that line the shaft are all flying upwards past -you like sparks up a chimney. - -Mines, of course, differ from one another just as the men who go down -them do, but as far as I myself am concerned all mines are puddly -places, and the sensations of descent are ridiculous--for I have only -been down two in my life, and both "demned, damp, moist, unpleasant" -places. But the mine to which I now refer is the "Ontario," in Utah, -which may be said, in the preposterous vernacular of the West, to be -a "terrible fine" mine, or, in other words, "a boss mine," that is to -say, "a daisy." - -As for daisies, anything that greatly takes the fancy or evokes -especial admiration is called a daisy. Thus I heard a very much -respected Mormon Bishop, who is also a director of a railway, described -by an enthusiastic admirer as "a daisy!" - -Finding myself in Park "City" one evening--it is a mining camp -dependent chiefly upon the Ontario--I took a walk up the street with -a friend. Every other house appeared to be a saloon, with a doctor's -residence sandwiched in between--a significantly convenient arrangement -perhaps in the days when there was no "Protective Committee" in Park -City, but--so I am told--without much practical benefit to the public -in these quiet days, when law-abiding citizens do their own hanging, -without troubling the county sheriff, who lives somewhere on the other -side of a distance. The result of this is that bad characters do not -stay long enough in Park City now to get up free fights, and make work -for the doctors. The Protective Committee invites them to "git" as soon -as they arrive, and, to do them credit, they do "git." - -However, as I was saying, I took a walk with a friend along the street, -and presently became aware above me, high up on the hillside, of a -great collection of buildings, with countless windows (I mean that -I did not try to count them) lit up, and looking exactly like some -theatrical night-scene. These were the mills of the Ontario, which work -night and day, and seven days to the week, a perpetual flame like that -of the Zoroastrians, and as carefully kept alive by stalwart stokers as -ever was Vestal altar-fire by the girl-priestesses of Rome. It was a -picturesque sight, with the huge hills looming up black behind, and the -few surviving pine-trees showing out dimly against the darkening sky. - -Next morning I went up to the mine--and down it. - -Having costumed myself in garments that made getting dirty a perfect -luxury, I was taken to the shaft. Now, I had expected to see an -unfathomably black hole in the ground with a rope dangling down it, -but instead of that I found myself in a spacious boarded shed, with -a huge wheel standing at one end and a couple of iron uprights with -a cross-bar standing up from the floor at the other. Round the wheel -was coiled an enormous length of a six-inch steel-wire band, and the -disengaged end of the band, after passing over a beam, was fastened -to the cross-bar above mentioned. On the bridge of the wheel stood an -engineer, the arbiter of fates, who is perpetually unwinding victims -down from stage to stage of the Inferno, and winding up the redeemed -from limbo to limbo. Having propitiated him by an affectation of -intelligence as to the machinery which he controlled, we took our -places under the cross-bar, between the stanchions, and suddenly the -floor--as innocent-looking and upright-minded a bit of boarded floor -as you could wish to stand on--gave way beneath us, and down we shot -apud inferos, like the devils in "Der Freischütz." We had our lamps in -our hands, and they gave just light enough for me to see the dripping -wooden walls of the shaft flashing past, and then I felt myself -becoming lighter and lighter--a mere butterfly--imponderable. But it -doesn't take many seconds to fall down 800 feet, and long before I had -expected it I found we were "at the bottom." - -Our explorations then began; and very queer it all was, with the -perpetual gushing of springs from the rock, and the bubble and splash -of the waters as they ran along on either side the narrow tunnels; the -meetings at corners with little cars being pushed along by men who -looked, as they bent low to their work, like those load-rolling beetles -that Egypt abounds in; the machinery for pumping, so massive that it -seemed much more likely that it was found where it stood, the vestiges -of a long-past subterranean civilization, than that it had been brought -down there by the men of these degenerate days; the sudden endings of -the tunnels which the miners were driving along the vein, with a man -at each ending, his back bent to fit into the curve which he had made -in the rock, and reminding one of the frogs that science tells us are -found at times fitted into holes in the middle of stones; the climbing -up hen-roost ladders from tunnel to tunnel, from one darkness into -another; the waiting at different spots till "that charge had been -blasted," and the dull, deadened roar of the explosion had died away; -the watching the solitary miners at their work picking and thumping at -the discoloured strips of dark rock that looked to the uninitiated only -like water-stained, mildewy accidents in the general structure, but -which, in reality, was silver, and yielding, it might be, $1600 to the -ton! - -"This is all very rich ore," said my guide, kicking a heap that I was -standing on. I got off it at once, reverentially. - -But reverence for the Mother of the Dollar gradually dies out, -for everything about you, above you, beneath you, is silver or -silverish--dreadful rubbish to look at, it is true, but with the spirit -of the great metal in it all none the less; that fairy Argentine -who builds palaces for men, and gives them, if they choose, all the -pleasures of the world, and the leisure wherein to enjoy them. And -there they stood, these latter-day Cyclops, working away like the -gnomes of the Hartz Mountains, or the entombed artificers of the -Bear-Kings of Dardistan, with their lanterns glowing at the end of -their tunnels like the Kanthi gem which Shesh, the fabled snake-god, -has provided for his gloomy empire of mines under the Nagas' hills. -Useless crystals glittered on every side, as if they were jewels, and -the water dripping down the sides glistened as if it was silver, but -the pretty hypocrisy was of no avail. For though the ore itself was -dingy and ugly and uninviting, the ruthless pick pursued it deeper -and deeper into its retreat, and only struck the harder the darker -and uglier it got. It reminded me, watching the miner at his work, -of the fairy story where the prince in disguise has to kill the lady -of his love in order to release her from the enchantments which have -transformed her, and how the wicked witch makes her take shape after -shape to escape the resolute blows of the desperate lover. But at last -his work is accomplished, and the ugly thing stands before him in all -the radiant beauty of her true nature. - -And it is a long process, and a costly one, before the lumps of heavy -dirt which the miner pecks out of the inside of a hill are transformed -into those hundredweight blocks of silver bullion which the train from -Park City carries every morning of the year into Salt Lake City. From -first to last it is pretty much as follows. Remember I am not writing -for those who live inside mines; very much on the contrary. I am -writing for those who have never been down a mine in their lives, but -who may care to read an unscientific description of "mining," and the -Ontario mine in particular. - -In 1872 a couple of men made a hole in the ground, and finding silver -ore in it offered the hole for sale at $30,000. A clever man, R. C. -Chambers by name, happened to come along, and liking the look of the -hole, joined a friend in the purchase of it. The original diggers thus -pocketed $30,000 for a few days' work, and no doubt thought they had -done a good thing. But alas! that hole in the ground which they were -so glad to get rid of ten years ago now yields every day a larger sum -in dollars than they sold it for! The new owners of the hole, which -was christened "The Ontario Mine," were soon at work, but instead of -following them through the different stages of development, it is -enough to describe what that hole looks like and produces to-day. - -A shaft, then, has been sunk plumb down into the mountain for 900 -feet, and from this shaft, at every 100 feet as you go down, you find -a horizontal tunnel running off to right and left. If you stop in your -descent at any one of these "stages" and walk through the tunnel--water -rushing all the way over your feet, and the vaulted rock dripping -over-head--you will find that a line of rails has been laid down along -it, and that the sides and roofs are strongly supported by timbers -of great thickness. These timbers are necessary to prevent, in the -first place, the rock above from crushing down through the roof of the -tunnel, and, in the next, from squeezing in its sides, for the rock -every now and then swells and the sides of the tunnels bulge in. The -rails are, of course, for the cars which the miners fill with ore, and -push from the end of the tunnel to the "stage." A man there signals -by a bell which communicates with the engineer at the big wheel in -the shed I have already spoken of, and there being a regular code of -signals, the engineer knows at once at which stage the car is waiting, -and how far therefore he is to let the cage down. Up goes the car with -its load of ore into the daylight,--and then its troubles begin. - -But meanwhile let us stay a few minutes more in the mine. Walking -along any one of the main horizontal tunnels, we come at intervals to -a ladder, and going up one of them we find that a stope, or smaller -gallery, is being run parallel with the tunnel in which we are -walking, and of course (as it follows the same direction of the ore), -immediately over that tunnel, so that the roof of the tunnel is the -floor of the stope. The stopes are just wide enough for a man to work -in easily, and are as high as he can reach easily with his pickaxe, -about seven feet. If you walk along one of these stopes you come to -another ladder, and find it leads to another stope above, and going -up this you find just the same again, until you become aware that the -whole mountain above you is pierced throughout the length of the ore -vein by a series of seven-foot galleries lying exactly parallel one -above the other, and separated only by a sufficient thickness of pine -timber to make a solid floor for each. But at every hundred feet, as I -have said, there comes a main tunnel, down to which all the produce of -the minor galleries above it is shot down by "shoots," loaded into cars -and pushed along to the "stage." But silver ore is not the only thing -that the Company gets out of its mine, for unfortunately the mountain -in which the Ontario is located is full of springs, and the miner's -pick is perpetually, therefore, letting the water break into the -tunnels, and in such volume, too, that I am informed it costs as much -to rid the works of the water as to get out the silver! Streams gurgle -along all the tunnels, and here and there ponderous bulkheads have been -put up to keep the water and the loosened rock from falling in. Pumps -of tremendous power are at work at several levels throwing the water up -towards the surface--one of these at the 800-foot level throwing 1500 -gallons a minute up to the 500-foot level. - -Following a car-load of ore, we find it, having reached the surface, -being loaded into waggons, in which it is carried down the hill to -the mills, weighed, and then shot down into a gigantic bin--in which, -by the way, the Company always keeps a reserve of ore sufficient -to keep the mills in full work for two years. From this hour, life -becomes a burden to the ore, for it is hustled about from machine -to machine without the least regard to its feelings. No sooner is -it out of the waggon than a brutal crusher begins smashing it up -into small fragments, the result of this meanness being that the ore -is able to tumble through a screen into cars that are waiting for -it down below. These rush upstairs with it again and pour it into -"hoppers," which, being in the conspiracy too, begin at once to spill -it into gigantic drying cylinders that are perpetually revolving over -a terrific furnace fire, and the ore, now dust, comes streaming out -as dry as dry can be, is caught in cars and wheeled off to batteries -where forty stampers, stamping like one, pound and smash it as if they -took a positive delight in it. There is an intelligent, deliberate -determination about this fearful stamping which makes one feel almost -afraid of the machinery. Some pieces, however, actually manage to -escape sufficient mashing up and slip away with the rest down into -a "screw conveyor," but the poor wretches are soon found out, for -the fiendish screw conveyor empties itself on to a screen, through -which all the pulverized ore goes shivering down, but the guilty -lumps still remaining are carried back by another ruthless machine -to those detestable stamps again. They cannot dodge them. For these -machines are all in the plot together. Or rather, they are the honest -workmen of good masters, and they are determined that the work shall -be thoroughly done, and that not a single lump of ore shall be allowed -to skulk so without any one to look after them these cylinders and -stampers, hoppers and dryers, elevators and screens go on with their -work all day, all night, relentless in their duty and pitiless to the -ore. Let a lump dodge them as it may, it gets no good by it, for the -one hands it over to the other, just as constables hand over a thief -they have caught, and it goes its rounds, again and again, till the end -eventually overtakes it, and it falls through the screen in a fine dust. - -For its sins it is now called "pulp," and starts off on a second tour -of suffering--for these Inquisitors of iron and steel, these blind, -brutal Cyclops-machines, have only just begun, as it were, their fun -with their victim. Its tortures are now to be of a more searching -and refined description. As it falls through the screen, another -screw-conveyor catches sight of it and hurries it along a revolving -tube into which salt is being perpetually fed from a bin overhead--this -salt, allow me to say for the benefit of those as ignorant as myself, -is "necessary as a chloridizer"--and thus mixed up with the stranger, -falls into the power of a hydraulic elevator, which carries it up forty -feet to the top of a roasting furnace and deliberately spills the -mixture into it! Looking into the solid flame, I appreciated for the -first time in my life the courage of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. - -The mixture which fell in at the top bluish-grey comes out at the -bottom yellowish-brown--I only wonder at its coming out all--and is -raked into heaps that have a wicked, lurid colour and give out such -fierce short flames of brilliant tints, and such fierce, short blasts -of a poisonous gas, that I could not help thinking of the place where -bad men go to, and wondering if a Dante could not get a hint or two -for improving his Inferno by a visit to the Ontario roasting-furnace. -The men who stir these heaps use rakes with prodigious handles, and -wear wet sponges over their mouths and noses, and as I watched them I -remembered the poet's devils who keep on prodding up the damned and -raking them about over the flames. - -But the ore submits without any howling or gnashing of teeth, and is -dragged off dumb, and soused into great churns, kept at a boiling heat, -in which quicksilver is already lying waiting, and the ore and the -quicksilver are then churned up together by revolving wheels inside the -pans, till the contents look like huge caldrons of bubbling chocolate. -After some hours they are drained off into settlers and cold water is -let in upon the mess, and lo! silver as bright as the quicksilver with -which it is mixed comes dripping out through the spout at the bottom -into canvas bags. - -Much of the quicksilver drips through the canvas back into the pans, -and the residue, silver mixed with quicksilver, makes a cold, heavy, -white paste called "amalgam," which is carried off in jars to the -retorts. Into these it is thrown, and while lying there the quicksilver -goes on dripping away from the silver, and after a time the fires are -lighted and the retort is sealed up. The intense heat that is obtained -volatilizes the quicksilver; but this mercurial vapour is caught as it -is escaping at the top of the retort, again condensed into its solid -form, and again used to mix with fresh silver ore. Its old companion, -the silver, goes on melting inside the retort all the time, till at -last when the fires are allowed to cool down, it is found in irregular -lumps of a pink-looking substance. These lumps are then taken to the -crucibles, and passing from them, molten and refined, fall into moulds, -each holding about a hundred-weight of bullion. - -And all this bother and fuss, reader, to obtain these eight or ten -blocks of metal! - -True, but then that metal is silver, and with one single day's produce -from the Ontario Mine in the bank to his credit a man might live at his -leisure in London, like a nobleman in Paris, or like a prince among the -princes of Eulenspiegel-Wolfenbuttel-Gutfurnichts. - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -FROM UTAH INTO NEVADA. - - Rich and ugly Nevada--Leaving Utah--The gift of the - Alfalfa--Through a lovely country to Ogden--The great - food-devouring trick--From Mormon to Gentile: a sudden - contrast--The son of a cinder--Is the red man of no use at - all?--The papoose's papoose--Children all of one family. - -IT is a far cry from the City of the Saints to the city of the -Celestials, for Nevada stretches all its hideous length between them, -and thus keeps apart the two American problems of the day--pigtails -and polygamy. But mere length in miles is not all that goes to make a -journey seem long, for dreariness of landscape stretches every yard to -six feet, and turns honest miles into rascally versts, or elongates -them into the still more infamous "kos" of the East, the so-called -mile, which seems to lengthen out at the other end as you travel along -it, and about nightfall to lose the other end altogether. And Nevada is -certainly dreary enough for anything. It is abominably rich, I know. -There is probably more filthy lucre in it per acre (in a crude state, -of course) than in any other state in the Union, and more dollars piled -up in those ghastly mountains than in any other range in America. But, -as a fellow-passenger remarked, "There's a pile of land in Nevada that -don't amount to much," and it is just this part of Nevada that the -traveller by railway sees. - -"That hill over there is full of silver," said a stranger to me, by way -of propitiating my opinion. - -"Is it" I said, "the brute." I really couldn't help it. I had no -ill-feeling towards the hill, and if it had asked a favour of me, -I believe I should have granted it as readily as any one. But its -repulsive appearance was against it, and the idea of its being full of -silver stirred my indignation. I grudged so ugly a cloud its silver -lining, and like the sailor in the Summer Palace at Pekin felt moved to -insult it. The sailor I refer to was in one of the courts of the palace -looking about for plunder. It did not occur to his weather-beaten, -nautical intelligence that everything about him was moulded in solid -silver. He thought it was lead. A huge dragon stood in the corner -of the room, and the atrocity of its expression exasperated Jack so -acutely that he smote it with his cutlass, and lo! out of the monster's -wound poured an ichor of silver coinage. - -"Who'd have thought it!" said Jack, "the ugly devil!" - -Nevada, moreover, lies under the disadvantage of having on one side of -it the finest portion of California, on the other the finest portion -of Utah, and sandwiched between two such Beauties, such a Beast -naturally looks its worst. For the northern angle of Utah is by far -the most fertile part of the territory, possessing, in patches, some -incomparable meadows, and corn-lands of wondrous fertility. As compared -with the prodigious agricultural and pastoral wealth of such states as -Missouri, Illinois, or Ohio, the Cache Valleys and Bear Valleys of Utah -seem of course insignificant enough; but at present I am comparing them -only with the rest of poor Utah, and with ugly, wealthy Nevada. - -Starting from Salt Lake City northwards, the road lies through suburbs -of orchards and gardens, many of them smothered in red and yellow -roses, out on to the levels of the Great Valley. Here, beyond the -magic circle of the Water-wizard, there are patches of fen-lands still -delightful to wild-fowl, and patches of alkali blistering in the sun, -but all about them stretch wide meadows of good grazing-ground, where -the cattle, good Devon breed many of them, and here and there a Jersey, -loiter about, and bright fields of lucerne, or alfalfa, just purpling -into blossom and haunted by whole nations of bees and tribes of yellow -butterflies. What a gift this lucerne has been to Utah! Indeed, as the -Mormons say, the territory could hardly have held its own had it not -been for this wonderful plant. Once get it well started (and it will -grow apparently anywhere) the "alfalfa" strikes its roots ten, fifteen, -twenty feet into the ground, and defies the elements. More than this, -it becomes aggressive, and, like the white races, begins to encroach -upon, dominate over, and finally extinguish the barbarian weeds, its -wild neighbours. - -Scientific experiments with other plants have taught us that vegetables -wage war with each other, under principles and with tactics, curiously -similar to those of human communities. - -When a strong plant advancing its frontiers comes upon a nation of -feeble folk, it simply falls upon it pell-mell, relying upon mere brute -strength to crush opposition. But when two plants, equally hardy, come -in contact, and the necessity for more expansion compels them to fight, -they bring into action all the science and skill of old gladiators -and German war-professors. They push out skirmishers, and draw them -in, throw out flanking parties, plant outposts, race for commanding -points, manoeuvre each other out of corners, cut off each others' -communications with the water, sap and mine--in fact go through all the -artifices of civilized war. If they find themselves well-matched, they -eventually make an alliance, and mingle peacefully with each other, -dividing the richer spots equally, and going halves in the water. -But as a rule one gives way to the other, accepts its dominion, and -gradually accepts a subordinate place or even extirpation. - -Now this lucerne is one of the fightingest plants that grows. It is the -Norwegian rat among the vegetables, the Napoleon of the weeds. Nothing -stops it. If it comes upon a would-be rival, it either punches its head -and walks over it, or it sits down to besiege it, drives its own roots -under the enemy, and compels it to capitulate by starvation. Fences and -such devices cannot of course keep it within bounds, so the lucerne -overflows its limits at every point, comes down the railway bank, -sprouts up in tufts on the track, and getting across into the Scythian -barbarism of the opposite hill-side, advances as with a Macedonian -phalanx to conquest and universal monarchy. Three times a year can the -farmer crop it, and there is no fodder in the world that beats it. No -wonder then that Utah encourages this admirable adventurer. In time it -will become the Lucerne State. - -And so, passing through fields of lucerne, we reach the Hot Springs. -From a cleft in a rock comes gushing out an ample stream of nearly -boiling water as clear as diamonds, and so heavily charged with mineral -that the sulphuretted air, combined with the heat, is sometimes -intolerable, while the ground over which the water pours becomes in a -few weeks thickly carpeted with a lovely weed-like growth of purest -malachite green. Passing across the road, from its first pool under -the rock, the stream spreads itself out into the Hot Springs Lake, -where the water soon assimilates in temperature to the atmosphere, but -possesses, for some reason known to the birds, a peculiar attraction -for wild-fowl, which congregate in great numbers about it. Where it -issues from the rock no vegetable of course can grow in it, and there -is a rim all round its edge about a foot in width where the grass and -weeds lie brown and dead, suffocated by the fumes. The fungoid-like -growth at the bottom of the pool exactly resembles a vegetable, but -is as purely mineral, though sub-aqueous, as the stalactites on a -cave-roof. - -And so, on again through a wilderness of lucerne, with a broad -riband of carnation-coloured phlox retreating before its advancing -borders--past a perpetual succession of cottages coming at intervals -to a head in delightful farming hamlets of the true Mormon type--past -innumerable orchards, and here and there intervals of wild vegetation, -willows, and cotton-wood, with beds of blue iris, and brakes of wild -pink roses (such a confusion of beauty!) among which the birds and -butterflies seem to hold perpetual holiday. - -Then Salt Lake comes in sight, lying along under the mountains on the -left, and on the right the Wasatch range closes in, with the upper -slopes all misty with grey clouds of sage-brush, and the lower vivid -with lusty lucerne. Each settlement is in turn a delightful repetition -of its predecessor, meadow and orchard and corn-land alternating, with -the same pleasant features of wild life, flocks of crimson-winged or -yellow-throated birds wheeling round the willow copses, or skimming -across the meadows, bitterns tumbling out from among the reeds, doves -darting from tree to tree, butterflies of exquisite species fluttering -among the beds of flowers, and overhead in the sky, floating on -observant wings, the hawk--one of those significant touches of Nature -that redeems a country-side from Arcadian mawkishness, and throws into -an over-sweet landscape just that dash of sin and suffering that lemons -it pleasantly to the taste. - -Round the corner yonder lies Ogden, one of the most promising towns -of all the West, and as we approach it the great expanses of meadow -stretching down to the lake and the wide alfalfa levels give place -to a barren sage veldt, where the sunflower still retains ancestral -dominion, and the jackass rabbits flap their ears at each other -undisturbed by agriculture or by grazing stock. Nestling back into a -nook of the hills which rise up steeply behind it, and show plainly on -the front their old water-line of "Lake Bonneville" (of which the Great -Salt Lake is the shrunken miserable relict), lies a pretty settlement, -cosily muffed up in clover and fruit trees, and then beyond it, across -another interval of primeval sage, comes into view the white cupola of -the Ogden courthouse. - -Ogden is the meeting-point of the northern and southern Utah lines of -rail, and, more important still, of the Union Pacific and the Central -Pacific also. As a "junction town," therefore, it enjoys a position -which has already made it prosperous, and which promises it great -wealth in the near future. Nature too has been very kind, for the -climate is one of the healthiest (if statistics may be believed) in the -world; and wood and water, and a fertile soil, are all in abundance. -Fortunately also, the Mormons selected the site and laid it out so that -the ground-plan is spacious, the roadways are ample, the shade-trees -profuse, and the drainage good. Its central school is, perhaps, the -leading one in the territory, while in manufactures and industry -it will probably some day outstrip Salt Lake City. For the visitor -who does not care about statistics, Ogden has another attraction as -the centre of a very beautiful canyon country, and excursions can -be made in a single day that will give him as exhaustive an idea of -the beauties of western hill scenery, as he will ever obtain by far -more extended trips. The Ogden and Weber canyons alone exhaust such -landscapes, but if the tourist has the time and the will, he may wander -away up into the Wasatch range, past Ogden valley and many lovely bits -of scenery, towards Bear Valley. But for myself, having seen nearly all -the canyons of Utah and many of Colorado, I confess that the Weber and -Ogden would have sufficed for all mere sight-seeing purposes. - -It was in the Ogden refreshment-room, waiting for the train for San -Francisco, that I saw a performance that filled me with astonishment -and dismay. It was a man eating his dinner. And let me here remark, -with all possible courtesy, that the American on his travels is the -most reprehensible eater I have ever seen. In the first place, the -knives are purposely made blunt--the back and the front of the blade -being often of the same "sharpness"--to enable him to eat gravy with -it. The result is that the fork (which ought to be used simply to -hold meat steady on the plate while being cut with the knife) has to -be used with great force to wrench off fragments of food. The object -of the two instruments is thus materially abused, for he holds the -meat down with the knife and tears it into bits with his fork! Now, -reader, don't say no. For I have been carefully studying travelling -Americans at their food (all over the West at any rate), and what I say -is strictly correct. This abuse of knife and fork then necessitates -an extraordinary amount of elbow-room, for in forcing apart a tough -slice of beef the elbows have to stick out as square as possible, -and the consequence is, as the proprietor of a hotel told me, only -four Americans can eat in a space in which six Englishmen will dine -comfortably. The latter, when feeding, keep their elbows to their -sides; the former square them out on the line of the shoulders, and at -right angles to their sides. Having thus got the travelling American -into position, watch him consuming his food! He has ordered a dozen -"portions" of as many eatables, and the whole of his meal, after the -detestable fashion of the "eating-houses" at which travellers are fed, -is put before him at once. To eat the dozen or so different things -which he has ordered, he has only one knife and fork and one tea-spoon. -Bending over the table, he sticks his fork into a pickled gherkin, and -while munching this casts one rapid hawk-like glance over the spread -viands, and then proceeds to eat. Mehercule! what a sight it is! He -dabs his knife into the gravy of the steak, picks up with his fork a -piece of bacon, and while the one is going up to his mouth, the other -is reaching out for something else. He never apparently chews his food, -but dabs and pecks at the dishes one after the other with a rapidity -which (merely as a juggling trick) might be performed in London to -crowded houses every day, and with an impartiality that, considered as -"dining," is as savage as any meal of Red Indians or of Basutos. Dab, -dab, peck, peck, grunt, growl, snort! The spoon strikes in every now -and then, and a quick sucking-up noise announces the disappearance of a -mouthful of huckleberries on the top of a bit of bacon, or a spoonful -of custard-pie on the heels of a radish. It is perfectly prodigious. -It defies coherent description. But how on earth does he swallow? -Every now and then he shuts his eyes, and strains his throat; this, -I suppose, is when he swallows, for I have seen children getting rid -of cake with the same sort of spasm. Yet the rapidity with which he -shovels in his food is a wonder to me, seeing that he has not got any -"pouch" like the monkey or the pelican. Does he keep his miscellaneous -food in a "crop" like a pigeon, or a preliminary stomach like the cow, -and "chew the cud" afterwards at his leisure? I confess I am beaten by -it. The mixture of his food, if it pleases him, does not annoy me, for -if a man likes to eat mouthfuls of huckleberries, bacon, apple-pie, -pickled mackerel, peas, mutton, gherkins, oysters, radishes, tomatoes, -custard, and poached eggs (this is a bona-fide meal copied from my -note-book on the spot) in indiscriminate confusion, it has nothing to -do with me. But what I want to know is, why the travelling American -does not stop to chew his food; or why, as is invariably the case, he -will despatch in five minutes a meal for which he has half an hour set -specially apart? He falls upon his food as if he were demented with -hunger, as if he were a wild thing of prey tearing victims that he -hated into pieces; and when the hideous deed is done, he rushes out -from the scene of massacre with a handful of toothpicks, and leans idly -against the door-post, as if time were without limit or end! The whole -thing is a mystery to me. When I first came into the country I used to -waste many precious moments in gazing at "the fine confused feeding" of -my neighbours at the table, and waiting to see them choke. But I have -given that up now. I plod systematically and deliberately through my -one dish, content to find myself always the last at the table, with a -tumult of empty platters scattered all about me. Nothing can choke the -travelling American. In the meantime, I wish that young man of Ogden -would exhibit his great eating trick in London. It beats Maskelyne and -Cook into fits. - -From Ogden northwards the road lies past perpetual cottage-farms, -separated only by orchards or fields, and clustering at intervals -into pleasant villages, where the people are all busy gathering in -their lucerne crops. The same profusion of wild-flowers, and exquisite -rose-brakes, the same abundance of bird and insect life is conspicuous. - -But gradually our road bears away westward from the hills, leaving -cultivation and cottages to follow the line of irrigation along their -lower slopes, and while to our right the narrow-gauge line runs -northward up into the Cache Valley, the granary of Utah, we trend away -to the left. The northern end of the Salt Lake comes in sight, and the -track running for a while close to its side gives me a last look at -this sheet of wonderful water. - -I was sorry to see the last of it, for I was sorry to leave Utah and -the kind-hearted, simple, hard-working Mormon people. But the Lake -gradually comes to a point, dwindles out into a marsh, and is gone, and -as we speed away across levels of dreary alkaline ground, we can only -recall its site by the wild duck streaming across to settle for the -night in the reeds that grow by its edges. - -Away from Mormon industry, the sage-brush flourishes like green -bay-trees. To the east, the line of white-walled cottages speaks of a -civilization which we are leaving behind us. To the west, the dreary -mountains of Nevada already herald a region of barren desolation. And -so the sun begins to set, and in the dim moth-time, as the mists begin -to blur the outlines of Antelope Island in the Salt Lake, the small -round-faced owls come out upon the railway fencing and chuckle to each -other, and crossing the Bear River, all ruddy with the sunset, we see -the night-hawks skimming the water in chase of the creatures of the -twilight. - -And so to Corinne, ghastly Corinne, a Gentile failure on the very -skirts of Mormon success. It had once a great carrying-trade, for being -at the terminus of the Utah Railway, Montana depended upon it for its -supplies, and bitterly had Montana cause to regret it, for the Corinne -freight-carriers (I wish I could remember their expressive slang name) -seemed to think that railway enterprise must always terminate at -Corinne, and so they carried just what they chose, at the price they -chose, and when they chose. But the railway ran past them one fine day, -and so now there is Corinne, stranded high and dry, as discreditable -a settlement as ever men put together. Without any plan, treeless and -roadless, the scattered hamlet of crazy-looking shanties stands half -the year in drifting dust and half the year in sticky mud, and the -Mormons point the finger of scorn at the place the Gentiles used to -boast of. And Corinne seems to strike the keynote of the succeeding -country, for cultivation ceases and habitations are not on the desolate -plain we enter. And so to Promontory and then darkness. - -We awake to find ourselves still in calamitous Nevada. What heaps of -British gold have been sunk in those ugly hills in the hope of getting -up American silver! - -But here is Halleck, a government post, and soldiers from the barracks -are lounging about in uniforms that make them look like butcher-boys, -and with a drowsy gait that makes one suspect them to be burthened -with the saddening load of yesterday's whisky. Then, after an interval -of desert, we cross the Humboldt river, thick with the mud of melting -snows, and, snaking across a plain warted over with ant-hills, arrive -at Elko. - -It is possible that Allah in his mercy may forgive Elko the offal which -it put before us for breakfast. For myself, mere humanity forbids me to -forgive it. But Elko was otherwise of interest. A waiter, very black, -and, in proportion to his nigritude, insolent, had triumphed over my -unconcealed disgust with my food. Yet I turned to him civilly and said, -"Isn't there a warm spring here which is worth going to see?" - -"No," said the negro, "our spring been burned up!" - -"Burned up!" I exclaimed in astonishment; "the spring been burned up!" - -"Yes," said the abominable one, "burned up. Everybody know dat." - -"Was your mother there?" I asked courteously, pretending not to be -exasperated by the blackamoor. - -"My mother? No. My mother's--" - -"Ah!" I replied, "I thought she might have been burned up at the same -time, for you look like the son of a cinder." - -My sally--mean effort that it was--was a complete triumph, and I left -Ham squashed. It proved, of course, that it was the wooden shanty at -the spring that had been burned down, but in any case it was too far -off for us to go to see. So we consoled ourselves with the Indians, -who always gather on the platform at Elko, in the assurance of begging -or showing their papooses to some purpose. Nor were they wrong. I -paid a quarter to see "the papoose," and got more than my money's -worth in hearing this poor brown woman talking to her child the same -sweet nursery nonsense that my own wife talks to mine. And the papoose -understood it all, and chuckled and smiled and looked happy, for all -the world as if it were something better than a mere Indian baby. Poor -little Lamanite! In a year or two it will be strutting about the camp -with its mimic bow and arrows, striking its mother, and sneering at her -as "a squaw," and ten years later (if the end of the race has not then -arrived) may be riding with his tribe on some foul errand of murder, -while his mother carries the lodge-poles and the cooking-pots on foot -behind the young brave's horse. Imagine a life in which begging is the -chief dissipation, and horse-stealing the only industry! - -But I can feel a sympathy for the red man. It may be true that neither -gunpowder nor the Gospel can reform him, that his code of morality is -radically incurable, that he is, in fact, "the red-bellied varmint" -that the Western man believes him to be. Yet all the same, remembering -the miracles that British government has worked with the Gonds and -other seemingly hopeless tribes of India, I entertain a lurking -suspicion that under other and more kindly circumstances the Red Indian -might have been to-day a better thing than he is. - -At any rate, a people cannot be altogether worthless that in the -deepest depths of their degradation still maintain a lofty wild-beast -scorn of white men, and think them something lower than themselves. -And is not pride the noblest and the easiest of all fulcrums for a -government to work on? - -Is it quite certain, for instance, that, given arms, and drilled as -soldiers, detachments of the tribes, as auxiliaries of the regulars, -might not do good service at the different military posts, in routine -duty, of course, and that the prestige of such employment would not -appeal to the military spirit of the tribes at large? What is there -at Fort Halleck that Indians could not do as well as white men? It is -a notorious fact, and as old as American history, that the red man -holds sacred everything that his tribe is guarding. Why should not this -chivalry, common to every savage race on earth, and largely utilized -by other governments in Asia and in Africa, be turned to account -in America too, and Indians be entrusted with the peace of Indian -frontiers? - -I know well enough that many will think my suggestion sentimental and -absurd, but fortunately it is just the class who think in that way that -have no real importance in this or in any other country. They are the -men who think the "critturs" ought to be "used up," and who, when they -are in the West, "would as soon shoot an Injun as a coyote." These men -form a class of which America, when she is three generations older, -will have little need for, and who, in a more settled community, will -find that they must either conform to civilization or else "git." -There are a great number of these coarse, thick-skinned, ignorant men -floating about on the surface of Western America: for Western America -still stands in need of men who will do the reckless preliminary work -of settlement, and shoot each other off over a whisky bottle when that -work is done. Now, these men, and those of a feebler kind who take -their opinions from them, believe and preach that annihilation of the -Indian is the only possible cure for the Indian evil. I have heard -them say it in public a score of times that "the Indian should be -wiped clean out." But a larger and more generous class is growing up -very fast in the West, who are beginning to see that the red men are -really a charge upon them: and that as a great nation they must take -upon themselves the responsibilities of empire, and protect the weaker -communities whom a rapidly advancing civilization is isolating in their -midst. - -But it is a pity that those in authority cannot see their way to -giving practical effect to such sentiments, and devise some method for -utilizing the Indian. For myself, seeing what has been done in Asia -and in Africa with equally difficult tribes, I should be inclined to -predict success for an experiment in military service, if the routine -duties of barracks and outpost duty, in unnecessary places, can be -called "military service." - -For one thing, drilled and well-armed Indians would very soon put a -stop to cow-boy disturbances in Arizona, or anywhere else. Or, again, -if Indians had been on his track, James, the terror of Missouri, would -certainly not have flourished so long as he did. - -But by this time we have got far past Elko, and the train is carrying -us through an undulating desert of rabbit-bush and greasewood, with -dull, barren hills on either hand, and then we reach Carlin, another -dreadful-looking hamlet of the Corinne type, and, alas! Gentile also, -without a tree or a road, and nearly every shanty in it a saloon. - -More Indians are on the platform. They are allowed, it appears, under -the Company's contract with the government, to ride free of charge -upon the trains, and so the poor creatures spend their summer days, -when they are not away hunting or stealing, in travelling backwards -and forwards from one station to the next, and home again. This does -not strike the civilized imagination as a very exhilarating pastime, -nor one to be contemplated with much enthusiasm of enjoyment. Yet the -Indians, in their own grave way, enjoy it prodigiously. - -Curiously enough, they cannot be persuaded to ride anywhere, except on -the platforms between the baggage-cars. But here they cluster as thick -as swarming bees, the in all the fantastic combination of vermilion, -"bucks" tag-rag and nudity, the squaws dragging about ponderous bison -robes and sheep-skins, and laden with papooses, the children, grotesque -little imitations of their parents, with their playthings in their -hands. - -For the "papoose" is a human child after all, and the little Shoshonee -girls nurse their dolls just as little girls in New York do, only, of -course, the Red Indian's child carries on her back an imitation papoose -in an imitation pannier, instead of wheeling an imitation American -baby in an imitation American "baby-carriage." I watched one of these -brown fragments of the great sex that gives the world its wives and its -mothers, its sweethearts and its sisters, and it was quite a revelation -to me to hear the wee thing crooning to her wooden baby, and hushing -it to sleep, and making believe to be anxious as to its health and -comforts. Yes, and my mind went back on a sudden to the nursery, on -the other side of the Atlantic, thousands of miles away, where another -little girl sits crooning over her doll of rags and wax, and on her -face I saw just the same expression of troubled concern as clouded the -little Shoshonee's brow, and the same affectation of motherly care. - -So it takes something more than mere geographical distance to alter -human nature. - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -FROM NEVADA INTO CALIFORNIA. - - Of Bugbears--Suggestions as to sleeping-cars--A Bannack chief, - his hat and his retinue--The oasis of Humboldt--Past Carson - Sink--A reminiscence of wolves--"Hard places"--First glimpses of - California--A corn miracle--Bunch-grass and Bison--From Sacramento - to Benicia. - -IS a bugbear most bug or bear? I never met one yet fairly face to face, -for the bugbear is an evasive insect. Nor, if I did meet one, can I -say whether I should prefer to find it mainly bug or mainly bear. The -latter is of various sorts. Thus, one, the little black bear of the -Indian hills, is about as formidable as a portmanteau of the same size. -Another, the grizzly of the Rockies, is a very unamiable person. His -temper is as short as his tail; and he has very little more sense of -right and wrong than a Land-leaguer. But he is not so mean as the bug. -You never hear of grizzly bears getting into the woodwork of bedsteads -and creeping out in the middle of the night to sneak up the inside of -your night-shirt. He does not go and cuddle himself up flat in a crease -of the pillow-case, and then slip out edgeways as soon as it is dark, -and bite you in the nape of the neck. It is not on record that a bear -ever got inside a nightcap and waited till the gas was turned out, to -come forth and feed like grief on the damask cheek of beauty. No, these -are not the habits of bears, they are more manly than bugs. If you -want to catch a bear between your finger and thumb, and hold it over -a lighted match on the point of a pin, it will stand still to let you -try. Or if you want to have a good fair slap at a bear with a slipper, -it won't go flattening itself out in the crevices of furniture, in -order to dodge the blow, but will stand up square in the road, in broad -daylight, and let you do it. So, on the whole, I cannot quite make -up my mind whether bugs or bears are the worst things to have about -a house. You see you could shoot at the bear out of the window; but -it would be absurd to fire off rifles at bugs between the blankets. -Besides, bears don't keep you awake all night by leaving you in doubt -as to whether they are creeping about the bed or not, or spoil your -night's rest by making you sit up and grope about under the bed-clothes -and try to see things in the dark. Altogether, then, there is a good -deal to be said on the side of the bear. - -I am led to these remarks by remembering that at Carlin, in Nevada, I -found two bugs in my "berth" in the sleeping-car. The porter thought I -must have "brought them with me." Perhaps I did, but, as I told him, -I didn't remember doing so, and with his permission would not take -them any further. Or perhaps the Shoshonees brought them. All Indians, -whether red or brown, are indifferent to these insects, and carry them -about with them in familiar abundance. - -And this reminds me to say a little about sleeping-cars in general. -During my travels in America I have used three kinds, the Pullman -Palace, the Silver Palace, and the Baltimore and Ohio, and except -in "high tone," and finish of ornament, where the Pullman certainly -excels the rest, there is very little to choose between them. All are -extremely comfortable as sleeping-cars. In the Silver Palace, however, -there is a custom prevalent of not pulling down the upper berth when it -is unoccupied, and this improvement on the Pullman plan is certainly -very great. The two shelves, one at each end of the berth, are ample -for one's clothes, while the sense of relief and better ventilation -from not having the bottom of another bedstead suspended eighteen -inches or so above your face is decidedly conducive to better rest. -The general adoption of this practice, wherever possible, would, I am -sure, be popular among passengers. As day-cars, the "sleepers" have -one or two defects in common, which might very easily be remedied. For -one thing, every seat should have a removable headrest belonging to -it. As it is, the weary during the day become very weary indeed, and -the attempts of passengers to rest their heads by curling themselves -up on the seats, or lying crosswise in the "section," are as pathetic -as they are often absurd, and give a Palace car the appearance, on -a hot afternoon, of a ward in some Hospital for Spinal Complaints. -Another point that should be altered is the hour for closing the -smoking-room. When not required for berths for passengers (for the -company's employees ought not to be considered when the convenience of -the company's customers is in question) there is no reason whatever -for closing the smoking-room at ten. As a rule it is not closed; -but sometimes it is; and it should not be placed in the power of -a surly conductor--and there are too many ill-mannered conductors -on the railways--to annoy passengers by applying such a senseless -regulation. A third point is the apple-and-newspaper-boy nuisance. -This wretched creature, if of an enterprising kind, pesters you to -purchase things which you have no intention of purchasing, and if you -express any annoyance at his importunity, he is insolent. But apart -from his insolence, he is an unmitigated nuisance. What should be done -is this: a printed slip, such as the boy himself carries and showing -what he sells, should be put on to the seats by the porter, and when -any passenger wants an orange or a book, he could send for the vendor. -But the vendor should be absolutely forbidden to parade his wares in -the sleeping-cars, unless sent for. Anywhere else, except on a train, -he would be handed over to the police for his importunities; but on -the train he considers himself justified in badgering the public, -and impertinently resents being ordered away. These are three small -matters, no doubt, but changes in the direction I have suggested would -nevertheless materially increase the comfort of passengers. - -And now let me see. When I fell into these digressions I had just -said good-bye to the Mormons and Mormonland, and had got as far into -Nevada as Carlin. From there a dismal interval of wilderness brings the -traveller to Palisade, a group of wooden saloons haunted by numbers of -yellow Chinese. In the few minutes that the train stopped here, I saw a -curious sight. - -A number of our Shoshonee passengers--the "deadheads" on the platform -between the baggage-cars--had got off, and one, of them was the squaw -that had the papoose. As she sat down and unslung her infant from -her back, a group gathered round her--one Englishman, one negro, -three mulattoes, and a Chinaman. And they were all laughing at the -Indian. Not one of them all, not even the negro, but thought himself -entitled to make fun of her and her baby! The white man looks down -on the mulatto, and the mulatto on the negro, and the negro and the -Chinaman reciprocate a mutual disdain; yet here they were, all four -together, on a common platform, loftily ridiculing the Shoshonee! It -was a delightful spectacle for the cynic. But I am no cynic, and yet I -laughed heartily at them all--at them all except the Shoshonee. - -I cannot, for the life of me, help venerating these representatives of -aprodigious antiquity, these relics of a civilization that dates back -before our Flood. - -Then we reach the Humboldt River, a broad and full-watered stream, -lazily winding along among ample meadows. But not a trace of -cultivation anywhere. And then on to the desert again with the -surface of the alkali land curling up into flakes, and the lank grey -greasewood sparsely scattered about it. The desolation is as utter as -in Beluchistan or the Land of Goshen, and instead of Murrees there are -plenty of Shoshonees to make the desolation perilous to travellers by -waggon. At Battle Creek station they are mustered in quite a crowd, -listless men with faces like masks and women burnished and painted and -wooden as the figure-heads of English barges. I do not think that in -all my travels, in Asia or in Africa, or in the islands of eastern or -southern seas, I have ever met a race with such a baffling physiognomy. -You can no more tell from his face what an Indian is thinking of than -you can from a monkey's. Their eyes brighten and then glaze over again -without a word being spoken or a muscle of the face moved, and they -avert their glance as soon as you look at them. If you look into an -Indian's eyes, they seem to deaden, and all expression dies out of -them; but the moment you begin to turn your head away, at you. They are -hieroglyphics altogether, and there is something "uncanny" about them. - -At Battle Creek we note that (with irrigation) trees will grow, but -in a few minutes we are out again on the wretched desert, the eternal -greasewood being the only apology for vegetation, and little prairie -owls the only representatives of wild life. And so to Winnemucca, -where, being watered, a few trees are growing; but the desolation -is nevertheless so complete that I could not help thinking of the -difference a little Mormon industry would make! A company of Bannack -Indians were waiting here for the train, and such a wonderful -collection as they were! One of them was the chief who not long ago -gave the Federal troops a good deal of trouble, and his retinue was -the most delightful medley of curiosities--a long thin man with the -figure of a lamppost, a short fat one with the expression of a pancake, -a half-breed with a beard, and a boy with a squint. The chief, with -a face about an acre in width, wore a stove-pipe hat with the crown -knocked out and the opening stuffed full of feathers, but the rest -of his wonderful costume, all flapping about him in ends and fringes -of all colours and very dirty, is indescribable. His suite were in -a more sober garb, but all were grotesque, their headgear being -especially novel, and showing the utmost scorn of the hatter's original -intentions. Some wore their hats upside down and strapped round the -chin with a ribbon; others inside out, with a fringe of their own added -on behind--but it was enough to make any hatter mad to look at them. - -They travelled with us across the next interval of howling wilderness, -and got out to promenade at Humboldt, where we got out to dine--and, as -it proved, to dine well. - -Humboldt is an exquisite oasis in the hideous Nevada waste. A fountain -plays before the hotel door, and on either side are planted groves -of trees, poplar and locust and willow, with the turf growing green -beneath them, and roses scattered about. - -No wonder that all the birds and butterflies of the neighbourhood -collect at such a beautiful spot, or that travellers go away grateful, -not only for the material benefits of a good meal, but the pleasures -of green trees and running water and the song of birds. An orchard, -with lucerne strong and thick beneath them, promises a continuance of -cultivation, but on a sudden it stops, and we find ourselves out again -on the alkali plain, as barren and blistered as the banks of the Suez -Canal. A tedious hour or two brings us to the river again; but man -here is not agricultural, so the desert continues in spite of abundant -water. And so to Lovelocks, where girls board the train as if they were -brigands, urging us to buy "sweet fresh milk--five cents a glass." -Indians, as usual, are lounging about on the platform, and some more of -them get on to the train, and away we go again into the same Sahara as -before. Humboldt Lake, the "sink" where the river disappears from the -surface of the earth, and a distant glimpse of Carson's "Sink," hardly -relieve the desperate monotony, for they are hideous levels of water -without a vestige of vegetation, and close upon them comes as honest a -tract of desert as even Africa can show, and with no more "features" -on it than a plate of cold porridge has. A wolf goes limping off in a -three-legged kind of way, as much as to say that, having to live in -such a place, it didn't much care whether we caught it or not; and what -a contrast to the pair of wolves I remember meeting one morning in -Afghanistan! - -I was riding a camel and looking away to my right across the plain. I -saw coming towards me, over the brushwood, in a series of magnificent -leaps, a couple of immense wolves. I knew that wolves grew sometimes to -a great size, but I had no idea that, even with their winter fur on, -they could be so large as these were. - -And there was a majesty about their advance that fascinated me, for -every bound, though it carried them twelve or fifteen feet, was so -free and light that they seemed to move by machinery rather than by -prodigious strength of muscle. But it suddenly occurred to me that they -were crossing my path, and I saw, moreover, that our relative speeds, -if maintained, might probably bring us into actual collision at the -point of intersection. But it was not for me to yield the road, and the -wolves thought it was not for them. And so we approached, the wolves -keeping exact time and leaping together, as if trained to do it, and -then, without swerving a hair's-breadth from their original course they -bounded across the path only a few feet behind my camel. It was superb -courage on their part, and as an episode of wild-beast life, one of the -most picturesque and dramatic I ever witnessed. - -The next station we halted at was Wadsworth, a "hard place," so -men say, where revolvers are in frequent use and Lynch is judge. -Here the broad-faced Bannack chief got down, and, followed by his -tag-rag retinue, disappeared into the cluster of wigwams which we -saw pitched behind the station. I noticed a man standing here with a -splendid cactus in his hand, covered with large magenta blossoms, and -this reminded me to note the conspicuous change in the botany that -about here takes place. The flowers that had borne us company all -through Utah and now and then brightened the roadside in Nevada had -disappeared, and were replaced by others of species nearly all new -to me. I saw here for the first time a golden-flowered cactus and a -tall lavender-coloured spiraea of singular beauty. A little beyond -Wadsworth the change becomes even more marked, for striking the Truckee -river, we exchange desolation for pretty landscape, and the desert for -green bottom lands. The alteration was a welcome one, and some of the -glimpses, even if we had not passed through such a melancholy region, -would have claimed our admiration on their own merits. The full-fed -river poured along a rapid stream, through low-lying meadow-lands -fringed with tall cotton-wood, the valley sometimes narrowing so much -that the river took up all the room, and then widening out so as to -admit of large expanses of grass and occasional fields of corn. And so -to Greeno, where we supped heartily off "Truckee trout," one of the -best fish that ever wagged a fin. As we got back into the cars it was -getting dark, for with the usual luck of travel the Central Pacific -has to run its trains so as to give passengers ugly Nevada by day and -beautiful California by night. - -Awaking next morning was a wonderful surprise. We had gone to sleep in -Nevada in early summer, and we awoke in California late in autumn! In -Utah, two days ago, the crops had only just begun to flush the ground -with green. Here, to-day, the corn-fields were the sun-dried stubble of -crops that had been cut weeks ago! - -And the first glimpses of it were fortunate ones, for when I awoke -it was in a fine park-like, undulating country, studded with clumps -of oak-trees, but one continuous cornfield. Great mounds of straw -and stacks of corn dotted the landscape as far as the eye could see, -and already the fields were alive with carts and men all busy with -the splendid harvest. After a while came vast expanses of meadow, -prettily timbered, in which great flocks of sheep and herds of cattle -were grazing, ranches such as I had never seen before. And then we -passed some houses, broad-eaved and verandahed, with capacious barns -standing in echelon behind, and all the signs of an ample prosperity, -deep shaded in walnut-trees laden with nuts, overrun by vines already -heavy with clusters, and brightened by clumps of oleanders ruddy with -blossom. And then came the corn-fields again, an unbroken expanse of -stubble, yellow as the sea-sand, and seemingly as interminable. What a -country! It is a kingdom in itself. - -And its rivers! The American River soon came in sight, rolling its -stately flood along between brakes of willow and elder, and aspen, and -then the Sacramento, a noble stream. And the two conspire and join -together to take liberties with the solid earth, swamp it into bulrush -beds by the league together, and create such jungles as almost rival -the great Himalaya Terai. And so to Sacramento. - -Sacramento was en fete, for it was the race week. So bunting was -flapping from every conspicuous point, and everything and everybody -wore a whole holiday, morning-cocktail, go-as-you-please sort of look. -This fact may account for the very ill-mannered conductor who boarded -us here. - -I am sitting in the smoking-car. Enter conductor with his mouth too -full of tobacco to be able to speak. He points at me with his thumb. I -take no notice of his thumb. He spits in the spittoon at my feet and -jerks his thumb towards me again. I disregard his thumb. "Ticket!" he -growls. I give him my ticket. He punches it and thrusts it back to me -so carelessly and suddenly that it falls on the floor. He takes no -notice, but passes on into the car. I take out my pocket-book and make -a note;-- - -"Such a man as this goes some way towards discrediting the -administration of a whole line. It seems a pity therefore to retain his -services." - -However, of Sacramento, I was very sorry not to be able to stay there, -for next to the Los Angeles country I had been told that it was one of -the finest "locations" in all California, and I can readily believe it, -for the botany of the place is sub-tropical, and snow and sunstroke -are equally unknown. Fruits of all kinds grow there in delightful -abundance, and I cherish it therefore as a personal grudge against -Sacramento that there was not even a blackberry procurable at breakfast. - -Passing from Sacramento, and remarking as we go, the patronage which -that vegetable impostor, the eucalyptus globulus (or "blue-gum" of -Australia) has secured, both as an ornamental--save the mark!--and -a shade-tree, two purposes for which by itself the eucalyptus is -specially unfitted, we find ourselves once more in a world given up to -harvesting. A monotonous panorama of stubble and standing crops, with -clumps of pretty oak timber studding the undulating land, leads us to -the diversified approaches to San Francisco. - -It is old travellers' ground, but replete with the interest which -attaches to variety of scenery, continual indications of vast wealth, -and a rapidly growing prosperity. But one word, before we reach the -town, for that wonderful natural crop--the "wild oats," which clothe -every vacant acre of the country on this Pacific watershed with -harvests as close and as regular as if the land had been tilled, and -the ground sown, by human agency. This surprising plant is said to have -been brought to California by the Spaniards, and to have run wild from -the original fields. But whatever its origin, it is now growing in such -vast prairies that whole tribes of Indians used to look to it as the -staple of their food. But better crops are fast displacing it, and as -for the Indian, California no longer belongs to him or his bison-herds. -Further east, that is to say, from the Platte Valley to the Sierra -Nevada, the "bunch grass" was the great natural provision for the wild -herds of the wild man, and it still ranks as one of the most valuable -features of otherwise barren regions in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. -To the student of Nature, however, it is far more interesting as one -of the most beautiful examples of her kindly foresight, for the bunch -grass grows where nothing else can find nourishment, and just when -all other grasses are useless as fodder, it throws out young juicy -shoots, thrives under the snow, and then in May, when other grasses are -abundant, it dies! Somebodv has said that without the mule and the pig -America would never have been colonized. That may be as it may be. But -the real pioneer of the West was the bison, for the first emigrants -followed exactly in the footsteps of the retiring herds, and these in -their turn grazed their way towards the Pacific in the line of the -bunch grass. - -Mount Diavolo is the first "feature" that arouses the traveller's -inquisitiveness, and then the Martines Straits with their yellow -waters spread out at the feet of rolling, yellow hills, and then great -mud flats on which big vessels lie waiting for the tide to come and -float them on, and then a bay which, with its girdle of hills and its -broad margin, reminds me of Durban in Natal. So to Benicia, the place -of "the Boy," with the blacksmith's forge where Heenan used to work -still standing near the water's edge, and where the hammer that the -giant used to use is still preserved "in memoriam," and then on to the -ferry-boat (train and all!) and across a bay of brown water and brown -mud and brown hills--dismally remindful of Weston-super-Mare--and on -to dry land again, past Berkley, with its college among the trees, -Oakland, and other suburban resorts of the San Franciscan, to the -fine new three-storeyed Station at the pier. Once more on to the -ferry-boat, but this time leaving our train behind us and across -another bay, and so into San Francisco. Outside the station stands a -crowd of chariot-like omnibuses, as gorgeously coloured, some of them, -as the equipages of a circus, and empanelled with gaudy pictures. In -one of them we find our proper seats, and are soon bumping over the -cobble-stones into "the most wonderful city, sir, of America." - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - - San Franciscans, their fruits and their falsehoods--Their neglect - of opportunities--A plague of flies--The pig-tail problem--Chinamen - less black than they are painted--The seal rocks--The loss of the - Eurydice--A jeweller's fairyland--The mystery of gems. - -SOMEBODY has poked fun at San Francisco, by calling it the "Venice of -the West," and then qualifying the compliment by explaining that the -only resemblance between the two cities is in the volume and variety of -the disagreeable smells that prevail in them. But the San Franciscans -take no notice of this explanation. They accept the comparison in its -broadest sense, and positively expect you to see a resemblance between -their very wonderful, but very new town, and Venice! Indeed, there is -no limit to the San Franciscan's expectations from a stranger. - -Now, I was sitting in the hotel one day and overheard a couple of San -Franciscans bragging in an off-hand way to a poor wretch who had been -brought up, I should guess, in New Mexico, and calmly assuring him that -there was no place "in the world" of greater beauty than San Francisco, -or of more delicious fruit. I pretended to fall into the same easy -credulity myself, and drew them on to making such monstrous assertions -as that San Francisco was a revelation of beauty to all travellers, and -the perfection of its fruit a never-ceasing delight to them! I then -ventured deferentially to inquire what standard of comparison they had -for their self-laudation, what other countries they had visited, and -what fruits they considered California produced in such perfection. -Now, it turned out that these three impostors had never been out of -America: in fact, that, except for short visits on business to the -Eastern States, they had never been out of California and Nevada! I -then assured them that, for myself, I had seen, in America alone, many -places far more beautiful, while "in the world" I knew of a hundred -with which San Francisco should not venture to compare itself. As for -its fruits, there was not in its market, nor in its best shops, a -single thing that deserved to be called first-class. From the watery -cherries to the woolly apricots, every fruit was as flavourless as it -dared to be, while, as a whole, they were so second-rate that they -could not have found a sale in the best shops of either Paris or -London. The finest fruit, to my mind, was a small but well-flavoured -mango, imported from Mexico. Its flavour was almost equal to that of -the langra of the Benares district, or the green mango of Burmah; and -if the Maldah was grafted on to this Mexican stock, the result would -probably be a fruit that would be as highly prized in New York and in -England, as it is all over Asia. But very few people in San Francisco -ever buy mangoes. "No, sir," I said at last to the barbarian who had -been imposed upon; "don't you believe any one who tells you that San -Francisco is the most lovely spot on earth, or that its fruits are -extraordinary in flavour. San Francisco is a wonderful city; it is the -Wonder of the West. But you must not believe all that San Franciscans -tell you about it." - -It is a great pity that San Franciscans should have this weakness. They -have plenty to be proud of, for their city is a marvel. But it has as -yet all the disadvantages of newness. Its population, moreover, is -as disagreeably unsettled as in the towns of the Levant. All the mud -and dirt are still in suspension. I know very well, of course, that -improvement is making immense and rapid strides, but to the visitor the -act of transition is, of course, invisible, and he only sees the place -at a period of apparent repose between the last point of advance and -the next. He can imagine anything he pleases--and it is difficult to -imagine the full splendour of the future of the Californian capital. -But this is not what he actually sees. For myself, then, I found San -Francisco as so many other travellers have described it, disorderly, -breathless with haste, unkempt. Here and there, where trees have -been planted, and there is the grace of flowers and creeping plants, -the houses look as if rational people might really live in them. But -for the vast majority of the buildings, they seem merely places to -lodge in, dak-bungalows or rest-houses, perches for passing swallows, -anything you like--except houses to pass one's life in. They are not -merely wooden, but they are sham too, with their imposing "fronts" -nailed on to the roofs to make them look finer, just as vulgar women -paste curly "bangs" on to the fronts of their heads. There is also -an inexcusable dearth of ornament. I say inexcusable, because San -Francisco might be a perfect paradise of flowers and trees. Even the -"weeds" growing on the sand dunes outside the city are flowers that are -prized in European gardens. But as it is, Francois Jeannot,--"French -gardener, with general enterprise of gardens," as his signboard -states,--has evidently very little to do. There is little "enterprise -of gardens." Yet what exquisite flowers there are! The crimson salvia -grows in strong hedges, and plots are fenced in with geraniums. -The fuchsias are sturdy shrubs in which birds might build their -nests, and the roses and jessamines and purple clematis of strange, -large-blossomed kinds, form natural arbours of enchanting beauty. -Lobelias spread out into large cushions of a royal blue, and the canna, -wherever sown, sends up shafts of vivid scarlet, orange, and yellow. - -If I only knew the names of other plants I could fill a page with -descriptions of the wonderful luxuriance of San Franciscan flowers. -But all I could say would only emphasize the more clearly the apparent -neglect by the San Franciscans of the floral opportunities they possess. - -It is curious how enthusiastic California has been in its reception -of the eucalyptus globulus, the blue-gum tree of Australia. And I -am afraid there has been some job put upon the San Franciscans in -this matter. Has anybody, with a little speculation in blue-gums on -hand, been telling them that the eucalyptus was a wonderful drainer -of marshes and conqueror of fevers? If so, it is a pity they had not -heard that that hoax was quite played out in Europe, and the eucalyptus -shown to be an impostor. Or were they told of its stately proportions, -its rapid growth, its beautiful foliage, and its splendid shade? If -so, that hoax will soon expose itself. Given a site where no wind -blows, the eucalyptus will grow straight, but offered the smallest -provocation it flops off to one side or the other, while its foliage -is liable probably beyond that of all other trees to discoloration -and raggedness. In Natal it has proved itself very useful as fencing, -for neither wood nor stone being procurable, slips and shreds of -eucalyptus have soon grown up into permanent hedges. But no one thinks -of valuing it anywhere, except in Australia, either for its timber, its -appearance, or its medicinal virtues. - -In many ways the Queen of the Pacific was a surprise; I had expected -to find it "semi-tropical." It is nothing of the kind. Women were -wearing furs every afternoon (in June) because of the chill wind that -springs up about three o'clock, and men walked about with great-coats -over their arms ready for use. The architecture of the city is not -so "semi-tropical" as that of suburban New York, while vegetation, -instead of being rampant, is conspicuously absent. Three women out -of every four wore very thick veils, but why they were so thick I -could not discover. In hot countries they do not wear them, nor in -"semi-tropical." Perhaps they were vestiges of some recent visitation -of dust, which appears to be sometimes as prodigious here as it is in -Pietermaritzburg. But they might, very properly, have been an armour -against the flies which swarmed in some parts of the town in hideous -multitudes. I went into a large restaurant, the "Palace" something it -was called, with the intention of eating, but I left without doing so, -a palled by the plague of flies. I found Beelzebub very powerful in -Washington, and at some of "the eating places" in the South his hosts -were intolerable; but San Francisco has streets as completely given -over to the fly-fiend as an Alexandrian bazaar. - -Before I went to San Francisco, I had an idea that a "Chinese question" -was agitating the State of California, that every white man was excited -about the expulsion of the heathen, that it was the topic of the day, -and that passion ran high between the rival populations. I very soon -found that I had been mistaken, and that there is really no "Chinese -question" at all in California. At least, the one question now is, -how to evade the late bill stopping Chinese immigration; and it was -gleefully pointed out to me that though the importation of Celestials -by sea was prohibited, there was no provision to prevent them being -brought into the State by land; and that the numbers of the arrivals -would not probably diminish in the least! - -I had intended to "study" the Chinese question. But there is not much -study to be done over a ghost. Besides, every Californian manufacturer -is agreed on the main points, that Chinese labour is absolutely -necessary, that there is not enough of it yet in the State, that more -still must be obtained. And where a "problem" is granted on all hands, -it is hardly worth while affecting to search for profound social, -political, or economical complication in it. There is not much more -mystery about it than about the nose on a man's face. - -Of course those who organized the clamour have what they call -"arguments," but they are hardly such as can command respect. In the -first place they allege two apprehensions as to the future: 1. That -the Chinese, if unrestricted, will swamp the Americans in the State; -and 2. That they will demoralize those Americans. Now the first is, I -take it, absurd, and if it is not, then California ought to be ashamed -of itself. And as for the second, who can have any sympathy with a -State that is unable to enforce its police regulations, or with a -community in which parents say they cannot protect the purity of their -households? If the Chinaman, as a citizen, disregards sanitary bye-laws -why is he not punished, as he would be everywhere else: and if as a -domestic servant he misbehaves, why is he not dispensed with, as he -would be everywhere else? - -Besides these two apprehensions as to the future, they have three -objections as to the present. The first is, that the Chinese send their -earnings out of the country; the second, that they spend nothing in San -Francisco; the third, that they underwork white men. Now the first is -foolish, the second and the third, I believe, untrue. As to the Chinese -carrying money out of the country--why should they not do so? Will -any one say seriously that America, a bullion-producing country, is -injured by the Chinese taking their money earnings out of the States, -in exchange for that which America cannot produce, namely, labour? Is -political economy to go mad simply to suit the sentiment of extra-white -labour in California? - -As to the Chinese spending nothing in this country, this is hardly -borne out by facts, and, in the mouths Of San Franciscans, specially -unfortunate. For they have not only raised their prices upon the -Chinese, but have actually forbidden them to spend their money in -those directions in which they wished to do so. As it is, however, -they spend, in exorbitant rents, taxes, customs-dues, and in direct -expenditure, a perfectly sufficient share of their earnings, and -if permitted to do so, would spend a great deal more. A ludicrous -superstition, that the Chinese are economical, underlies many of the -misstatements put forward as "arguments" against them. Yet they are -not economical. On the contrary, the Chinese and the Japanese are -exceptional among Eastern races for their natural extravagance. - -It is further alleged that they underwork white men. This statement -will hardly bear testing; for the wages of a Chinese workman, in the -cigar trade, for instance, are not lower than those of a white man, -say, in Philadelphia. They do not, therefore, "underwork" the white -man; but they do undoubtedly underwork the white Californian. For the -white Californian will not work at Eastern rates. On the contrary, he -wishes to know whether you take him for "a -- fool" to think that he, -in California, is going to accept the same wages that he could have -stopped in New York for! Yet why should he not do so? It will hardly -be urged that the Californian Irishman is a superior individual to the -Eastern American, or that the average San Franciscan workman is any -better than the men of his own class on the Atlantic coast? Yet the -Californian claims higher wages, and abuses the Chinese for working at -rates which white men are elsewhere glad to accept. He says, too, that -living is dearer. Facts disprove this. As a matter of fact, living is -cheaper in San Francisco than in either Chicago or New York. - -How did I spend my time in San Francisco? Well, friends were very kind -to me, and I saw everything that a visitor "ought to see." But after my -usual fashion I wandered about the streets a good deal alone, and rode -up and down in the street-cars, and I had half a mind at first to be -disappointed with the city of which r had heard so much. But later in -the evening, when the gas was alight and the pavement had its regular -habitues, and the pawnbrokers' and bankrupts'-stock stores were all lit -up, I saw what a wild, strange city it was. Indeed, I know of no place -in the world more full of interesting incidents and stirring types than -this noisy, money-spending San Francisco. - -One night, of course, I spent several hours in the Chinese quarter, and -I cannot tell why, but I took a great fancy to the Celestial, as he is -to be seen in San Francisco. Politically, nationally, and commercially, -I hate Pekin and all its works. But individually I find the Chinaman, -all the world over, a quiet-mannered, cleanly-living, hard-working -servant. And in all parts of the world, except California, my estimate -of Johnnie is the universal one. In California, however, so the -extra-white people say, he is a dangerous, dirty, demoralizing heathen. -And there is no doubt of it that, in the Chinese quarter of the city, -he is crowded into a space that would be perilous to the health of -men accustomed to space and ventilation, but I was told by a Chinaman -that he and his people had been prevented by the city authorities from -expanding into more commodious lodgings. As for cleanliness, I have -travelled too much to forget that this virtue is largely a question -of geography, and that, especially in matters of food, the habits of -Europeans are considered by half the world so foul as to bring them -within the contempt of a hemisphere. As regards personal cleanliness, -the Chinese are rather scrupulous. - -But I wonder San Francisco does not build a Chinatown, somewhere in the -breezy suburbs, and lay a tramway to it for the use of the Chinamen, -and then insist upon its sanitary regulations being properly observed. -San Francisco would be rather surprised at the result. For the -settlements of the Chinese are very neat and cleanly in appearance, and -the people are very fond of curious gardening and house-ornamentation. -The Chinese themselves would be only too glad to get out of the centre -of San Francisco and the quarters into which they are at present -compelled to crowd, while their new habitations would very soon be -one of the most attractive sights of all the city. As it is, it is -picturesque, but it is of necessity dirty--after the fashion of Asiatic -dirtiness. Smells that seem intolerable assail the visitor perpetually, -but after all they were better than the smell from an eating-house -in Kearney Street which we passed soon after, and where creatures of -Jewish and Christian persuasions were having fish fried. I am not -wishing to apologize for the Chinese. I hate China with a generous -Christian vindictiveness, and think it a great pity that dismemberment -has not been forced upon that empire long ago as a punishment for her -massacres of Catholics, and her treason generally against the commerce -and polity of Europe. But I cannot forget that California owes much to -the Chinese. - -Next to the Chinese, I found the sea-lions the most interesting feature -of San Francisco. To reach them, however (if you do not wish to indulge -the aboriginal hackman with an opportunity for extortion), you have to -undergo a long drive in a series of omnibuses and cars, but the journey -through the sand-waste outskirts of the city is thoroughly instructive, -for the intervals of desert remind you of the original condition of -the country on which much of San Francisco has been built, while the -intervals of charming villa residences in oases of gardens, show what -capital can do, even with only sea-sand to work upon. We call Ismailia -a wonder--but what is Ismailia in comparison with San Francisco! After -a while solid sand dunes supervene, beautiful, however, in places -with masses of yellow lupins, purple rocket, and fine yellow-flowered -thistles, and then the broad sea comes into sight, and so to the Cliff -House. - -Just below the House, one of the most popular resorts of San Francisco, -the "Seal Rocks" stand up out of the water, and it is certainly one of -the most interesting glimpses of wild life that the whole world affords -to see the herds of "sea-lions" clambering and sprawling about their -towers of refuge. For Government has forbidden their being killed, -so the huge creatures drag about their bulky slug-shaped bodies in -confident security. It would not be very difficult I should think for -an amateur to make a sea-lion. There is very little shape about them. -But, nevertheless, it is such a treat as few can have enjoyed twice in -their lives to see these mighty ones of the deep basking on the sunny -rocks, and ponderously sporting in the water. - -And looking out to sea, beyond the sea-lions, I saw a spar standing -up out of the water. It was the poor Escambia that had sunk there the -day before, and there, on the beach to the left of the Cliff House, -was the spot where the three survivors of the crew managed to make -good their hold in spite of the pitiless surf, and to clamber up out -of reach of the waves. And all through the night, with the lights of -the Cliff House burning so near them, the men lay there exhausted with -their struggle. It was a strange wreck altogether. When she left port, -every one who saw her careening over said "she must go down;" every -one who passed her said "she must go down;" the pilot left her, saying -"she must go down;" the crew came round the captain, saying "she must -go down." But the skipper held on his way awhile, and at last he too -turned to his mate; "she must go down," he said. Then he tried to head -her to port again, but a wave caught her broadside as she was clumsily -answering the helm; and while the coastguard, who had been watching her -through his glass, turned for a moment to telephone to the city that -"she must go down,"--she did. When he put up the glasses to his eyes -again, there was no Escambia in sight! She had gone down. - -And the sight of that lonely spar, signalling so pathetically the -desolate waste of waves the spot of the ship's disaster, brought back -to my mind a Sunday in Ventnor, where the people of the town, looking -out across to sea, stood to watch the beautiful Eurydice go by in her -full pomp of canvas. A bright sun glorified her, and her crew, met for -Divine Service, were returning thanks to Heaven for the prosperous -voyage they had made. And suddenly over Dunnose there rushed up a dark -bank of cloud. A squall, driving a tempest of snow before it, struck -the speeding vessel, and in the fierce whirl of the snowdrift the folk -on shore lost sight of the Eurydice for some minutes. But as swiftly -as it had come, the squall had passed. The sun shone brightly again, -but on a troubled sea. And where was the gallant ship, homeward bound, -and all her gallant company? She had gone down, all sail set, all -hands aboard. And the boats dashed out from the shore to the rescue! -But alas! only two survivors out of the three hundred and fifty souls -that manned the barque ever set foot on shore again! And the news -flashed over England that the Eurydice was "lost." For days and weeks -afterwards there stood up out of the water, half-way between Shanklin -and Luccombe Chine, one lonely spar, like a gravestone, and those who -rowed over the wreck could see, down below them under the clear green -waves, the shimmer of the white sails of the sunken war-boat. She -was lying on her side, the fore and mizzen top-gallant masts gone, -her top-gallant sails hanging, but with her main-mast in its place, -and all the other sails set. The squall had struck her full, and she -rolled over at once, the sea rising at one rush above the waists of the -crew, and her yards lying on the water. Then, righting for an instant, -she made an effort to recover herself. But the weight of water that -had already poured in between decks drove her under. The sea then -leaped with another rush upon her, and in an awful swirl of waves the -beautiful ship, with all her crew, went down. The Channel tide closed -over the huge coffin, and except for the two men saved, and the corpses -which floated ashore, there was nothing to tell of the sudden tragedy. - -And then back into the city and amongst its shipping. I have all the -Britisher's attraction towards the haunts of the men that "go down to -the sea in ships." Indeed, walking about among great wharves and docks, -with the shipping of all nations loading and discharging cargo, and men -of all nations hard at work about you, is in itself a liberal education. - -But it can nowhere be enjoyed in such perfection as in London. There, -emphatically, is the world's market; and written large upon the -pavement of her gigantic docks is the whole Romance of Trade. A single -shed holds the products of all the Continents; and what a book it would -be that told us of the strange industries of foreign lands! Who cut -that ebony and that iron-wood in the Malayan forests? and how came -these palm-nuts here from the banks of the Niger? Mustard from India, -and coffee-berries from Ceylon lie together to be crushed under one -boot, and here at one step you can tread on the chili-pods of Jamaica -and the pea-nuts of America. That rat that ran by was a thing from -Morocco; this squashed scorpion, perhaps, began life in Cyprus or in -Bermuda. Queer little stowaways of insect life are here in abundance, -the parasites of Egyptian lentils or of Indian corn. The mosquito -natives of Bengal swamps are brought here, it may be, in teakwood -from some drift on the Burman coast. All the world's produce is in -convention together. Here stands a great pyramid of horned skulls, the -owners of which once rampaged on Brazilian pampas, or the prairies of -the Platte River, and hard by them lie piled a multitude of hides that -might have fitted the owners of those skulls, had it not been that -they once clothed the bodies of cattle that grazed out their lives in -Australia. Juxtaposition of packages here means nothing. It does not -argue any previous affinities. This ship happens to be discharging -Norwegian pine, in which the capercailzies have roosted, and for want -of space the logs are being piled on to sacks of ginger from the -West Indies. Next them there happens to-day to be cutch from India; -to-morrow there may be gamboge from Siam, or palm oil from the Gold -Coast. These men here are trundling in great casks of Spanish wine that -have been to the Orient for their health; but an hour ago they were -wheeling away chests of Assam tea, and in another hour may be busy with -logwood from the Honduras forests. One of them is all white on the -shoulders with sacks of American wheat flour, but his hands are stained -all the same with Bengal turmeric, and he is munching as he goes a -cardamum from the Coromandel coast. What a book it would make--this -World's Work! - -And then back through this city of prodigious bustle, through fine -streets with masses of solid buildings that stand upon a site which, -a few years ago, was barren sea-sand, and some of it, too, actually -sea-beach swept by the waves! - -The frequency of diamonds in the windows is a point certain to catch -the stranger's eye, but his interest somewhat diminishes when he finds -that they are only "California diamonds." They are exquisite stones, -however, and, to my thinking, more beautiful than coloured gems, ruby, -sapphire, or amethyst, that are more costly in price. But the real -diamond can, nevertheless, be seen in perfection in San Francisco. -Go to Andrews' "Diamond Palace," and take a glimpse of a jeweller's -fairyland. The beautiful gems fairly fill the place with light, while -the owner's artistic originality has devised many novel methods of -showing off his favourite gem to best advantage. The roof and walls, -for instance, are frescoed with female figures adorned on neck and arm, -finger, ear, and waist, with triumphs of the lapidary's art. - -There is something very fascinating to the fancy in gems, for the one -secret that Nature still jealously guards from man is the composition -of those exquisite crystals which we call "precious stones." We can -imitate, and do imitate, some of them with astonishing exactness, -but after all is done there still remains something lacking in -the artificial stone. Wise men may elaborate a prosaic chemistry, -producing crystals which they declare to be the fac-similes of Nature's -delightful gems; but the world will not accept the ruddy residue of a -crucible full of oxides as rubies, or the shining fragments of calcined -bisulphides as emeralds. No crucible yet constructed can hold a native -sapphire, and all the alchemy of man directed to this point has failed -to extort from carbon the secret of its diamond--the little crystal -that earth with all her chemistry has made so few of, since first -heat and water, Nature's gem-smiths, joined their forces to produce -the glittering stones. They placed under requisition every kingdom -of created things, and in a laboratory in mid-earth set in joint -motion all the powers that move the volcano and the earthquake, that -re-fashion the world's form and substance, that govern all the stately -procession of natural phenomena. Yet with all this Titanic labour, this -monstrous co-operation of forces, Nature formed only here and there -a diamond, and here and there a ruby. Masses of quartz, crystals of -every exquisite tint, amethystine and blue, as beautiful, perhaps, in -delicacy of hue as the gems themselves, were sown among the rocks and -scattered along the sands, but only to tell us how near Nature came to -making her jewels common, and how--just when the one last touch was -needed--she withheld her hand, so that man should confess that the -supreme triumphs of her art were indeed "precious"! - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - - Gigantic America--Of the treatment of strangers--The - wild-life world--Railway Companies' food-frauds--California - Felix--Prairie-dog history--The exasperation of wealth--Blessed - with good oil--The meek lettuce and judicious onion--Salads and - Salads--The perils of promiscuous grazing. - -I HAD looked forward to my journey from San Francisco to St. Louis -with great anticipations, and, though I had no leisure to "stop off" -on the tour, I was not disappointed. Six continuous days and nights of -railway travelling carried me through such prodigious widths of land, -that the mere fact of traversing so much space had fascinations. And -the variations of scene are very striking--the corn and grape lands of -Southern California, that gradually waste away into a hideous cactus -desert, and then sink into a furnace-valley, several hundred feet below -the level of the sea; the wild pastures of Texas, that seem endless, -until they end in swamped woodlands; the terrific wildernesses of -Arkansas, that gradually soften down into the beautiful fertility of -Missouri. It was a delightful journey, and taught me in one week's -panorama more than a British Museum full of books could have done. - -Visitors to America do not often make the journey. They are beguiled -off by way of Santa Fe and Kansas City. I confess that I should myself -have been very glad to have visited Santa Fe, and some day or other I -intend to pitch my tent for a while in San Antonio. But if I had to -give advice to a traveller, I would say:-- - -"Take the Southern Pacific to El Paso, and the Texan Pacific on to St. -Louis, and you will get such an idea of the spaciousness of America as -no other trip can give you." You will see prodigious tracts of country -that are still in aboriginal savagery and you will travel through whole -nations of hybrid people--Mexicans and mulattoes, graduated commixtures -of Red Indian, Spaniard, and Negro--that some day or another must -assume a very considerable political importance in the Union. - -Nothing would do Americans more good than a tour through Upper India. -Nothing could do European visitors to America more good than the -journey from San Francisco to St. Louis by the Southern-and-Texas -route. The Gangetic Valley, the Western Ghats, the Himalayas, are all -experiences that would ameliorate, improve, and impress the American. -The Arizona cactus-plains, the Texan flower-prairies, the Arkansas -swamps, give the traveller from Europe a more truthful estimate of -America, as a whole, by their vastness, their untamed barbarism, their -contrast with the civilized and domesticated States, than years of -travel on the beaten tracks from city to city. - -And here just a word or two to those American gentlemen to whom -it falls to amuse or edify the sight-seeing foreigner. Do not be -disappointed if he shows little enthusiasm for your factories, and -mills, and populous streets. Remember that these are just what he is -trying to escape from. The chances are, that he would much rather see a -prairie-dog city, than the Omaha smelting-works; an Indian lodge than -Pittsburg; one wild bison than all the cattle of Chicago; a rattlesnake -at home than all the legislature of New York in Albany assembled. He -prefers canyons to streets, mountain streams to canals; and when he -crosses the river, it is the river more than the bridge that interests -him. Of course it is well for him to stay in your gigantic hotels, -go down into your gigantic silver-mines, travel on your gigantic -river-steamers, and be introduced to your gigantic millionaires. These -are all American, and it is good for him, and seemly, that he should -add them to his personal experiences. So too, he should eat terrapin -and planked shad, clam-chowder, canvas-back ducks, and soft-shelled -crabs. For these are also American. But the odds are he may go mad -and bite thee fatally, if thou wakest him up at un-Christian hours to -go and see a woollen factory, simply because thou art proud of it--or -settest him down to breakfast before perpetual beefsteak, merely -because he is familiar with that food. The intelligent traveller, being -at Rome, wishes to be as much a Roman as possible. He would be as -aboriginal as the aborigines. And it is a mistake to go on thrusting -things upon him solely on the ground that he is already weary of them. -As I write, I remember many hours of bitter anguish which I have -endured--I who am familiar with Swansea, who have stayed in Liverpool, -who live in London--in loitering round smelting works and factories, -and places of business, trying to seem interested, and pretending to -store my memory with statistics. Sometimes it would be almost on my -tongue to say, "And now, sir, having shown off your possessions in -order to gratify your own pride in them, suppose you show me something -for my gratification." I never did, of course, but I groaned in the -spirit, at my precious hours being wasted, and at the hospitality -which so easily forgot itself in ostentatious display. I have perhaps -said more than I meant to have done. But all I mean is this, that when -a sojourner is at your mercy, throw him unreservedly upon his own -resources for such time as you are busy, and deny yourself unreservedly -for his amusement when you are at leisure. But do not spoil all his -day, and half your own, by trying to work your usual business habits -into his holiday, and take advantage of his foreign helplessness to -show him what an important person (when at home) you are yourself. Do -not, for instance, take him after breakfast to your office, and there -settling to your work with your clerks, ask him to "amuse himself" -with the morning papers--for three hours; and then, after a hurried -luncheon at your usual restaurant, take him back to the office for a -few minutes--another hour; and then, having carefully impressed upon -him that you are taking a half-holiday solely upon his account, and in -spite of all the overwhelming business that pours in upon you, do not -take him for a drive in the Mall--in order to show off your new horses -to your own acquaintances; and after calling at a few shops (during -which time your friend stays in the trap and holds the reins), do not, -oh do not, take him back to your house to a solitary dinner "quite -in the English style." No, sir; this is not the way to entertain the -wayfarer in such a land of wonders as this; and you ought not therefore -to feel surprise when your guest, wearied of your mistaken hospitality, -and wearied of your perpetual suggestions of your own self-sacrifice on -his behalf, suddenly determines not to be a burden upon you any longer, -and escapes the same evening to the most distant hotel in the town. Nor -when you read this ought you to feel angry. You did him a great wrong -in wasting a whole day out of his miserable three, and exasperated -him by telling his friends afterwards what a "good time" he had with -you. These few words are his retaliation--not written either in the -vindictive spirit of reprisal, but as advice to you for the future and -in the interests, of strangers who may follow him within your gates. - -From San Francisco to Lathrop, back on the route we came by, to -Oakland, and over the brown waters of the arrogant Sacramento--swelling -out as if it would imitate the ocean, and treating the Pacific as if -it were merely "a neighbor,"--and out into thousands and thousands of -acres of corn, stubble, and mown hay-fields, the desolation worked by -the reaper-armies of peace-time with their fragrant plunder lying in -heaps all ready for the carts; and the camp-followers--the squirrels, -and the rats, and the finches--all busy gleaning in the emptied fields, -with owls sitting watchful on the fences, and vigilant buzzards sailing -overhead. What an odd life this is, of the squirrels and the buzzards, -the mice, and the owls! They used to watch each other in these fields, -just in the very same way, ages before the white men came. The -colonization of the Continent means to the squirrels and mice merely -a change in their food, to the hawks and the owls merely a slight -change in the flavour of the squirrels and mice! So, too, when the -Mississippi suddenly swelled up in flood the other day, and overflowed -three States, it lengthened conveniently the usual water-ways of the -frogs, and gave the turtles a more comfortable amplitude of marsh. -Hundreds of negroes narrowly escaped drowning, it is true; but what an -awful destruction there was of smaller animal life! Scores of hamlets -were doubtless destroyed, but what myriads of insect homes were ruined! -It does one good, I think, sometimes to remember the real aborigines -of our earth, the worlds that had their laws before ours, those -conservative antiquities with a civilization that was perfect before -man was created, and which neither the catastrophes of nature nor the -triumphs of science have power to abrogate. - -Oak trees dot the rolling hills, and now and again we come to houses -with gardens and groves of eucalyptus, but for hours we travel through -one continuous corn-field, a veritable Prairie Of Wheat, astounding in -extent and in significance. And then we come upon the backwaters of the -San Joacquin, and the flooded levels of meadow, with their beautiful -oak groves, and herds of cattle and horses grazing on the lush grass -that grows between the beds of green tuilla reeds. It is a lovely reach -of country this, and some of the water views are perfectly enchanting. -But why should the company carefully board up its bridges so that -travellers shall not enjoy the scenes up and down the rivers which -they cross? It seems to me a pity to do so, seeing that it is really -quite unnecessary. As it was, we saw just enough of beauty to make us -regret the boards. Then, after the flooded lands, we enter the vast -corn-fields again, and so arrive at Lathrop. - -Here we dined, and well, the service also being excellent, for half a -dollar. Could not the Union Pacific take a lesson from the Southern -Pacific, and instead of giving travellers offal at a dollar a head at -Green River and other eating-houses, give them good food of the Lathrop -kind for fifty cents? As I have said before, the wretched eating-houses -on the Union Pacific are maintained, confessedly, for the benefit -of the eating-houses, and the encouragement of local colonization; -but it is surely unfair on the "transient" to make him contribute, -by hunger, on the indigestion, and ill-temper, to the perpetration -of an imposition. On the Southern and the Texas Pacific there are -first-rate eating-places, some at fifty cents, some at seventy-five, -and, as we approach an older civilization, others at a dollar. But no -one can grudge a dollar for a good meal in a comfortable room with -civil attendance; while on the Union Pacific there is much to make -the passenger dissatisfied, besides the nature of the food, for it is -often served by ill-mannered waiters in cheerless rooms. Avery little -industry, or still less enterprise, might make other eating-places like -Humboldt. - -It was at Lathrop that some Californians of a very rough type wished to -invade our sleeping-car. They wanted to know the "racket," didn't "care -if they had to pay fifty dollars," had "taken a fancy" to it, &c., &c.; -but the conductor, with considerable tact, managed to persuade them to -abandon their design of travelling like gentlemen, and so they got into -another car, where they played cards for drinks, fired revolvers out of -the window at squirrels between the deals, and got up a quarrel over it -at the end of every hand. - -California Felix! Aye, happy indeed in its natural resources. For we -are again whirling along through prairies of corn-land, a monotony of -fertility that becomes almost as serious as the grassy levels of the -Platte, the sage-brush of Utah, or the gravelled sands of Nevada. And -so to Modesta, a queer, wide-streeted, gum-treed place, not the least -like "America," but a something between Madeira and Port Elizabeth. -It has not 2000 people in it altogether, yet walking across the dusty -square is a lady in the modes of Paris, and a man in a stove-pipe hat! -Another stretch of farm-lands brings us to Merced, and the county of -that name, a miracle of fertility even among such perpetual marvels -of richness. If I were to say what the average of grain per acre is, -English farmers might go mad, but if the printer will put it into some -very small type I will whisper it to you that the men of Merced grumble -at seventy bushels per acre. I should like to own Merced, I confess. -I am a person of moderate desires. A little contents me. And it is -only a mere scrap, after all, of this bewildering California. On the -counter at the hotel at Merced are fir-cones from the Big Trees and -fossil fragments and wondrous minerals from Yosemite, and odds and ends -of Spanish ornaments. The whole place has a Spanish air about it. This -used to be the staging-point for travellers to the Valley of Wonders, -but times have changed, and with them the Stage-route, so Merced is -left on one side by the tourist stream. Leaving it ourselves, we -traverse patches of wild sunflower, and then find ourselves out on wide -levels of uncultivated land, waiting for the San Joacquin (pronounced, -by the way, Sanwa-keen) canal, to bring irrigation to them. How the -Mormons would envy the Californians if they were their neighbours, and -the contrast is indeed pathetic, between the alkaline wastes of Utah -and the fat glebes of Merced! - -At present, however, a nation of little owls possesses the uncultivated -acres, and ground squirrels hold the land from them on fief, paying, -no doubt, in their vassalage a feudal tribute of their plump, -well-nourished bodies. To right and left lies spread out an immense -prairie-dog settlement, deserted now, however; and beyond it, on -either side, a belt of pretty timbered land stretches to the coast -range, which we see far away on the right, and to the foot-hills--the -"Sewaliks" of the Sierra Nevada,--which rise up, capped and streaked -with snow, on the left. - -Wise men read history for us backwards from the records left by ruins. -Why not do the same here with this vast City of the Prairie-Dogs -that continues to right and left of us, miles after miles? Once upon -a time, then, there was a powerful nation of prairie-dogs in this -place, and they became, in process of years, debauched by luxury, and -weakened by pride. So they placed the government in the hands of the -owls, whom they invited to come and live with them, and gave over the -protection of the country to the rattlesnakes, whom they maintained as -janissaries. But the owls and the rattlesnakes, finding all the power -in their own hands, and seeing that the prairie-dogs had grown idle -and fat and careless, conspired together to overthrow their masters. -Now there lived near them, but in subjection to the prairie-dogs, a -race of ground-squirrels, a hard-working, thick-skinned, bushy-tailed -folk; and the owls and the rattlesnakes made overtures to the ground -squirrels, and one morning, when the prairie-dogs were out feeding and -gambolling in the meadows, the conspirators rushed to arms, and while -the rattlesnakes and the ground-squirrels, their accomplices, seized -possession of the vacated city, the owls attacked the prairie-dogs -with their beaks and wings. And the end of it was disaster, utter and -terrible; and the prairie-dogs fled across the plains into the woodland -for shelter, but did not stay there, but passed on, in one desolating -exodus, to the foot-hills beyond the woodland. And then the owls and -the rattlesnakes and the ground-squirrels divided the deserted city -among them. And to this day the ground-squirrels pay a tribute of their -young to the owls and the rattlesnakes, as the price of possession and -of their protection. But they are always afraid that the prairie-dogs -may come back again some day (as the Mormons are going back to Jackson -County, Missouri), to claim their old homesteads; and so, whenever -the ground-squirrels go out to feed and gambol in the meadows, the -rattlesnakes remain at the bottom of the holes, and the owls sit on -sentry duty at the top. Isn't that as good as any other conjectural -history? - -And then Madera, with its great canal all rafted over with floating -timber, and more indications, in the eating-house, of the neighbourhood -of the Big Trees and Yosemite. For this is the point of departure now -in vogue, the distance being only seventy miles, and the roads good. -But of the trip to Clark's, and thence on to "Yohamite" and to Fresno -Grove--hereafter. Meanwhile, grateful for the good meal at Madera, we -are again smoking the meditative pipe, and looking out upon Owl-land, -with the birds all duly perched at their posts, and their bushy-tailed -companions enjoying life immensely in family parties among the short -grass. Herds of cattle are seen here and there, and wonderful their -condition, too; and thus, through flat pastures all pimpled over -with old, fallen-in, "dog-houses," we reach Fresno. This monotony of -fertility is beginning to exasperate me. It is a trait of my personal -character, this objection to monotonous prosperity. I like to see -streaks of lean. Thus I begin to think of Vanderbilts as of men who -have done me an injury; and unless Jay Gould recovers his ground with -me, by conferring a share upon me, I shall feel called upon to take -personal exception to his great wealth. And now comes Fresno, a welcome -stretch of land that requires irrigation to be fruitful, a land that -only gives her favours to earnest wooers, and does not, like the rest -of California, smile on every vagabond admirer. Where the ground is -not cultivated, it forms fine parade-ground for the owls, and rare -pleasaunces for the squirrels. But what a nymph this same water is! -Look at this patch of greensward all set in a bezel of bright foliage -and bright with wild flowers! In mythology there is a goddess under -whose feet the earth breaks into blossoms and leaves. I forget her -name. But it should have been Hydore. And now, as the evening gathers -round, we see the outlines of the Sierras, away on the left, blurring -into twilight tints of blue and grey--and then to bed. - -California is blest in the olive. It grows to perfection, and the -result is that the California is no stranger to the priceless luxury of -good oil, and can enjoy, at little cost, the delights of a good salad. -How often, in rural England, with acres of salad material growing -fresh and crisp all round me, have groaned at the impossibility of a -salad, by reason of the atrocious character of the local grocer's oil! -But in California all the oil is good, and the vegetable ingredients -of the fascinating bowl are superb. But in America there is a fatal -determination towards mayonnaise, and every common waiter considers -himself capable of mixing one. So that even in California your hopes -are sometimes blighted, and your good humour turned to gall, by fools -rushing in where even angels should have to pass an examination before -admission. A simpler salad, however, is better than any mayonnaise, and -once the proportions are mastered, a child may be entrusted with the -mixture. - -The lettuce, by long familiarity, has come to be considered the true -basis of all salad, and in its generous expanse of faintly flavoured -leaf, so cool and juicy and crisp when brought in fresh from the -garden, it has certainly some claims to the proud position. But a -multitude of salads can be made without any lettuce at all, and it is -doubtful whether either Greece or Rome used it as an ingredient of -the bowl in which the austere endive and pungent onion always found a -place. Now-a-days however, lettuce is a deserving favourite, It has -no sympathies or antipathies, and no flavour strong enough to arouse -enthusiasm or aversion. It is not aggressive or self-assertive, but, -like those amiable people with whom no one ever quarrels, is always -ready to be of service, no matter what company may be thrust upon -it, or what treatment it has to undergo. Opinions of its own it has -none, so it easily adopts those of others, and takes upon itself--and -so distributes over the whole--any properties of taste or smell that -may be communicated to it by its neighbours. An onion might be rubbed -with lettuce for an indefinite period and betray no alteration in its -original nature, but the lettuce if only touched with onion becomes at -once a modified onion itself, and no ablution will remove from it the -suspicion of the contact. The gentle leaf is therefore often ill-used; -but, after all, even this, the meekest of vegetables, will turn upon -the oppressor, and if not eaten young and fresh, or if slaughtered with -a steel blade, will convert the salad that should have been short and -sharp in the mouth into a basin of limp rags, that cling together in -sodden lumps, and when swallowed conduce to melancholy and repentance. -The antithesis of the lettuce is the onion. Both are equally essential -to the perfect salad, but for most opposite reasons. The lettuce must -be there to give substance to the whole, to retain the oil and salt and -vinegar, to borrow fragrance and to look green and crisp. It underlies -everything else, and acts as conductor to all, like consciousness in -the human mind. It is the bulk of the salad so far as appearances go, -and yet it alone could be turned out without affecting the flavour of -the dish. It is only the canvas upon which the artist paints. - -How different is the onion! It adds nothing to the amount, and -contributes nothing to the sight, yet it permeates the whole; not, -however, as an actual presence, but rather as a reflection, a shadow, -or a suspicion. Like the sunset-red, it tinges everything it falls -upon, and everywhere reveals new beauties. It is the master-mind in -the mixed assembly, allowing each voice to be heard, but guiding the -many utterances to one symmetrical result. It keeps a strong restraint -upon itself, helping out, with a judicious hint only, those who need -it, and never interfering with neighbours that can assert their own -individuality. I speak, of course, of the onion as it appears in the -civilized salad, and not the outrageous vegetable that the Prophet -condemned and Italy cannot do without. Some pretend to have a prejudice -against the onion, but as an American humourist--Dudley Warner--says, -"There is rather a cowardice in regard to it. I doubt not all men and -women love the onion, but few confess it." - -In simplicity lies perfection. The endive and beetroot, fresh bean, -and potato, radish and mustard and cress, asparagus and celery, -cabbage-hearts and parsley, tomato and cucumber, green peppers and -capers, and all the other ingredients that in this salad or in that -find a place are, no doubt, well enough in their way; but the greatest -men of modern times have agreed in saying that, given three vegetables -and a master-mind, a perfect salad may be the result. But for the -making there requires to be present a miser to dole out the vinegar, -a spendthrift to sluice on the oil, a sage to apportion the salt, -and a maniac to stir. The household that can produce these four, and -has at command a firm, stout-hearted lettuce, three delicate spring -onions, and a handful of cress, need ask help from none and envy -none; for in the consumption of the salad thus ambrosially resulting, -all earth's cares may be for the while forgotten, and the consumer -snap his fingers at the stocks, whether they go up or down. There is -no need to go beyond these frugal ingredients. In Europe it is true -men range hazardously far afield for their green meat. They tell us, -for instance, of the fearful joy to be snatched from nettle-tops, -but it is not many who care thus to rob the hairy caterpillar of his -natural food; nor in eating the hawthorn buds, where the sparrows have -been before us, is there such prospect of satisfaction as to make us -hurry to the hedges. The dandelion, too, we are told, is a wholesome -herb, and so is wild sorrel; but who among us can find the time to -go wandering about the country grazing with the cattle, and playing -Nebuchadnezzar among the green stuff? In the Orient the native is never -at a loss for salad, for he grabs the weeds at a venture, and devours -them complacently, relying upon fate to work them all up to a good -end; and the Chinaman, so long as he can only boil it first, turns -everything that grows into a vegetable for the table. - -But it would not be safe to send a public of higher organization into -the highways and ditches; for a rabid longing for vegetable food, -unballasted by botanical ledge, might conduce to the consumption Of -many unwholesome plants, with their concomitant insect evils. Dreadful -stories are told of the results arising from the careless eating of -unwashed watercress; and in country places the horrors that are said -to attend the swallowing of certain herbs without a previous removal -of the things that inhabit them are sufficient to deter the most -ravenously inclined from taking a miscellaneous meal off the roadside, -and from promiscuous grazing in hedge-rows. - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - - The Carlyle of vegetables--The moral in blight--Bee-farms--The city - Of Angels--Of squashes--Curious Vegetation--The incompatibility of - camels and Americans--Are rabbits "seals"?--All wilderness and no - weather--An "infinite torment of flies." - -THE cactus is the Carlyle of vegetation. Here, in Southern California, -it assumes many of its most uncouth and affected attitudes, puts on all -its prickles and its angles, and its blossoms of rare splendour. Those -who are better informed than myself assure me that the cactus is a -vegetable. I take their word for it. Indeed, the cactus itself may have -said so to them. There is nothing a cactus might not do. But it surely -stands among plants somewhere where bats do among animals, and the -apteryx among birds. Look for instance at this tract of cactus which -we cross before Caliente. There are chair-legs and footstools, pokers, -brooms, and telegraph-poles; but can you honestly call them plants? - -But stay a moment. Can you not call them plants? Look! See those -superb blossoms of crimson upon that footstool of thorns, those golden -stars upon the telegraph-pole yonder, those beautiful flowers of rosy -pink upon that besom-head. Yes, they are plants, and worthy of all -admiration, for they have the genius of a true originality, and the -sudden splendour of the flowers they put forth are made all the more -admirable by the surprise of them and the eccentricity. And with them -grows the yucca, that wonderful plant that sends up from its rosette -of bayonets--they call it the "Spanish bayonet" in the West--a green -shaft, six feet high, and all hung with white waxen bells. I got out of -the train at one of its stoppages, and cut a couple of heads of this -wonderland plant, and found the blossoms on each numbered between 400 -and 406. And there was a certain moral discipline in it too. For we -found these exquisite flower-hung shafts were smothered in "blight," -those detestable, green, sticky aphides, that sometimes make rose-buds -so dreadful, and are the enemy of all hothouses. Looking out at the -yuccas as we passed, those splendid coronals of waxen blossoms--pure -enough for cathedral chancels--it seemed as if they were things of a -perfect and unsullied beauty. My arrival with them was hailed with -cries of admiration, and for the first moment enthusiasm was supreme. -But the next, alas for impure beauty! the swarms of clinging parasites -were detected. Hands that had been stretched out to hold such things -of grace, shrank from even touching them, known to be polluted, and -so, at last, with honours that were more than half condescension, -the yucca-spikes were put out on the platform, to be admired from -a distance. Passing through the cactus land we saw numbers of tiny -rabbits--the "cotton tails," as distinguished from the "mule-ears" -or jack-rabbits--dodging about the stems and grass; but in about an -hour the grotesque vegetable began to sober down into a botanical -conglomerate that defies analysis, and gives the little rabbits a -denser covert. The general result of this change in the botany was as -Asiatic, as Indian as it could be, but why, it were difficult to say, -unless it was the prevalence of the baboon-like "muskeet," and the -beautiful but murderous dhatura--the "thorn-apple" of Europe. Yet there -was sage-brush enough to make Asia impossible, while the variations -of the botany were too sudden for any generalizations of character. -And so on, past an oil-mill on the left--petroleum bubbling out of the -hillock--and a great farm "Newhall's," on the right; past Andrews and -up the hill to the San Fernando tunnel, 7000 feet in length, and then -down the hill again into San Fernando. Has any one ever "stopped off" -at San Fernando and spent any time with the monks at their picturesque -old mission, smothered in orangeries, and dozed away the summer hours -amongst them, watching the peaches ripen and the bees gathering honey, -and opening bottles of mellow California wine to help along the -intervals between drowsy mass and merry meal-times? I think when my -sins weigh too heavily on me to let me live among men, I will retire to -San Fernando, to the bee-keeping, orange-growing fathers, ask them to -receive my bones, and start a beehive and an orange-tree of my own. It -does not seem to me, looking forward to it, a very arduous life, and I -might then, at last, overtake that seldom-captured will-o'-the-wisp, -fleet-footed Leisure. - -The bees, by the way, are kept on a "ranch," whole herds and herds of -bees, all hived together in long rows of hives, hundreds to the acre. -They fly afield to feed themselves, and come home with their honey to -make the monks rich. I am not sure that these fathers have done all -they might for the country they settled in, and yet who is not grateful -to the brethren for the picturesqueness of comparative antiquity? Their -very idleness is a charm, and their quiet, comfortable life, half in -cloisters, half in orange groves, is a delight and a refreshment in -modern America. - -But the loveliness of their country, and the wonder of its -possibilities! Can any one be surprised that we are approaching the -city of Los Angeles? A bright river comes tumbling along under cliffs -all hung with flowering creepers, and between banks that are beautiful -with ferns and flowers, and the land widens out into cornfield -and meadow; and away to right and left, lying under the hills and -overflowing into all the valleys, are the vineyards, and orchards, and -orangeries that make the City of Angels worthy of a king's envy and a -people's pride. As yet, of course, it is the day of small things, as -compared with what will be when water is everywhere; but even now Los -Angeles is a place for the artist to stay in and the tourist to visit. -There is a great deal to remind you of the East, in this valley of -dark-skinned men, and in the "bazaars," with their long ropes of chilis -dangling on the door-posts, the fruit piled up in baskets on the mules, -the brown bare-legged children under hats with wide ragged brims, there -are all the familiar features of Southern Europe, hot, strong-smelling, -and picturesque. But Los Angeles shares with the rest of California -the disadvantage under which all climates of great forcing power and -rudimentary science must lie, for its fruits, though exquisite to look -upon, often prodigious in size, and always incredible in quantity, -fail, as a rule, dismally in flavour. The figs are very large, -both green and black, but they seem to have ripened in a perpetual -rainstorm; the oranges look perfection, and are as bad as any I have -had in America; the peaches are splendid in their appearance, for their -coarse barbaric skins are painted with deep yellow and red, but they -ought not to be called "peaches" at all. They would taste just as well -by any other name, and the traveller who knows the peaches of Europe, -or the peaches of Persia, would not then be disappointed. - -So away from Los Angeles, with its groups of idle, brown-faced men, -in their flap brimmed Mexican hats, leaning against the posts smoking -thin cigars, and its groups of listless, dark-eyed women, with bright -kerchiefs round their heads or necks, sitting on the doorsteps; away -through valleys of corn, broken up by orangeries and vineyards, where -the river flows through a tangle of willow and elder and muskeet; past -the San Gabriel Mission, overtaken, poor idle old fragment of the past, -by the railroad civilization of the present, and already isolated in -its sleepiness and antiquity from the busier, younger world about it; -on through a scene of perpetual fertility, orange groves and lemon, -fields of vegetables and corn, with pomegranates all aglow with scarlet -flowers, and eucalyptus-trees in their ragged foliage of blue and brown. - -The squash grows here to a monstrous size. "I have seen them, sir," -said a passenger, "weighing as much as yourself." The impertinence of -it! Think of a squash venturing to turn the scale against me. Perhaps -it will pretend that it has as good a seat on a horse? Or will it play -me a single-wicket match at cricket? I should not have minded so much -if it had been a water-melon, "simlin," or some other refined variety -of or even a the family. But that a squash, the 'poor relation' of the -pumpkin, should--. But enough. Let us be generous, even to squashes. - -Some one ought to write the psychology of the squash. There is a very -large human family of the same name and character. If you ask what -the bulky, tasteless thing is good for, people always say, "Oh, for -a pie!" Now that is the only form in which I have tasted it. And I -can say, from personal experience, therefore, that it is not good for -that. It never hurts anybody, or speaks ill of any one--an inoffensive, -tedious, stupid person, too commonplace to be either liked or disliked. -Economical parents say squashes are "very good for children," -especially in pies. They may be. But they are not conducive to the -formation of character. - -Some one, too, ought to visit these old Franciscan missions in Southern -California--some one who could write about them, and sketch them. -They are very delightful; the more delightful, perhaps, because they -are in the United States, in the same continent as "live" towns, as -Chicago, and Omaha, and Leadville, and Tombstone. Scattered about among -the rolling grassland are hollows filled with orchards, in which old -settlements and new are fairly embowered, while the missions themselves -are singularly picturesque; and San Gabriel's Church, they say, has a -pretty peal of bells, which the monks carried overland from Mexico in -the old Spaniard days, and which still chime for vespers as sweetly as -ever. What a wonder it must have been to the wandering Indians to hear -that most beautiful of all melodies, the chime of bells, ascending with -the evening mists from under the feet of the hills! No wonder they had -campanile legends, these poor poets of the river and prairie, and still -speak of Valleys of Enchantment whence music may be heard at nightfall! - -Past Savanna and Monte, with its swine droves, and its settlement -of men who live on "hog and hominy," past Puente, and Spadra, and -Pomona, into Colton, where we dine, and well, for half a dollar, -enjoying for dessert a chat with a very pretty girl. She tells us of -the beauties of San Bernardino, and I could easily credit even more -than she says. For San Bernardino was settled by Mormons some fifty -years ago, and has all the charms of Salt Lake City, with those of -natural fertility and a profusion of natural vegetation added. But I -can say nothing of San Bernardino, for the train does not enter it. -And then, reinforced by another engine--a dumpy engine-of-all-work -sort of "help"--clambers up the San Gorgonio pass. All along the road -I notice a yellow thread-like epiphyte, or air-plant, tangling itself -round the muskeet-trees, and killing them. They call it the "mistletoe" -here but it is the same curious plant that strangles the orange trees -in Indian gardens, and the jujubes in the jungles, that cobwebs the -aloe hedges, and hangs its pretty little white bells of flower all -over the undergrowth. On the bare, sandy ground a wild gourd, with -yellow flowers and sharp-pointed spear-head leaves, throws out long -strands, that creep flat upon the ground with a curious snake-like -appearance. Clumps of wild oleander find a frugal subsistence, and -here and there an elder or a walnut manages to thrive. But the profuse -fertility of California is fast disappearing. And so to Gorgonio, at -the top of the pass; and then we begin to go down, down, down, till we -are not surprised to hear that we are far below the level of the sea. -The cactus has once more reasserted itself, and to right and left are -"forests" of this grotesque candelabra-like vegetable, with stiff arms, -covered apparently with some woolly sort of fluff. The soil beneath -them is a desperate-looking desert-sand, and here and there are bare -levels of white glistening sterility. But water works such wonders that -there is no saying what may happen. At present, however, it is pure, -unadulterated desert--wilderness enough to delight a camel, were it not -for the quantity of stones which strew the waste, and which would make -it an abomination to that fastidious beast. Camels were once imported -into the country, but the experiment failed--and no wonder. Imagine the -modern American trying to drive a camel! The Mexican might do it, but I -doubt if any other race in all America could be found with sufficient -contempt for time, sufficient patience in idleness, sufficient -camelishness in fact, to "personally conduct" a camel train. There is -a tradition, by the way, that somewhere in Arizona, wild camels, the -descendants of the discarded brutes, are to be met with to this day, -enjoying a life without occupations. - -At present the most formidable animal in possession of these cactus -plains is the rabbit. But such a licence of ears as the creature has -taken! It must be developing them as weapons of offence: the future -"horned rabbit." They call these long-eared animals "mules," and deny -that you can make a rabbit-pie of them. This seems to me hardly fair -on the rabbit. But in England the small rodent suffers under even more -pointed injustice. - -A certain railway porter, it is said, was once sorely puzzled by a -tortoise which the owner wished to send by train. The official was -nonplussed by the inquiry as to which head of the tariff the creature -should be considered to fall under; but, at last, deciding that it was -neither "a dog" nor "a parrot" (the broad zoological classification in -use on British railways) pronounced the tortoise to be "an insect," and -therefore not liable to charge. This profound decision was prefaced -by a brief enumeration of the animals which the railway company call -"dogs." "Cats is dogs, and rabbits is dogs, and so is guinea-pigs," -said the porter, "but squirrels in cages is parrots!" - -But please note particularly the porter's confusion of identity with -regard to the rabbit. This excellent rodent is emphatically called "a -dog." But the rabbit knows much better than to mistake itself for a -dog. It might as well think itself a poacher. - -Meanwhile, other attempts have been made to confuse it as to its own -individuality; and if the rabbit eventually gives itself up as a -hopeless conundrum, it is not more than might be expected. Its fur -is now called "seal-skin" in the cheap goods market; the fluke has -attacked it as if it were a sheep; while in recent English elections, -when the Ground Game Bill was to the front, it was a very important -factor. All the same, everybody goes on shooting it just as if it -were a mere rabbit. This, I would contend, is hardly fair; for if its -skin is really sealskin, the rabbit must, of necessity, be a seal, -and, as such, ought to be harpooned from a boat, and not shot at with -double-barrelled guns. It is absurd to talk of going out "sealing" -in gaiters, with a terrier, for the pursuit of the seal is a marine -operation, and concerned with ships and icebergs and whaling line. A -sportsman, therefore, who goes out in quest of this valuable pelt -should, in common regard for the proprieties, affect Arctic apparel; -and, instead of ranging with his gun, should station himself with a -harpoon over the "seal's" blow-hole, and, when it comes up to breathe, -take his chance of striking it, not forgetting to have some water handy -to pour over the line while it is being rapidly paid out, as otherwise -it is very liable to catch fire from friction. By this means the rabbit -would arrive at some intelligible conception of itself, and be spared -much of the discomfort which must now arise from doubts as to its -personality. Nothing, indeed, is so precious to sentient things as a -conviction of their own "identity" and their "individuality," and I -need only refer those who have any doubt about it to the whole range -of moral philosophy to assure themselves of this fact. If we were not -certain who we were two days running, much of the pleasure of life -would be lost to us. - -We entered the arid tract somewhere near the station of the Seven -Palms. They can be seen growing far away on the left under the -"foot-hills." About half way through we find ourselves at the station -of Two Palms, but they are in tubs. Of course there may be others, -and no doubt are. But all you can see from the cars is a limited -wilderness. Yet on those mountains there, on the right--one is 12,000 -feet--there is splendid pine timber; and on the other side of them, -incredible as it seems, are glorious pastures, where the cattle are -wading knee-deep in grass! For us, however, the hideous wilderness -continues. The hours pass in a monotony of glaring sand, ugly rock -fragments, and occasional bristly cactus. And then begins a low -chapparal of "camel-thorn" or "muskeet," and as evening closes in we -find ourselves at the Colorado River and at Yuma, where the sun shines -from a cloudless sky three hundred and ten days in the year. - -And the weather? I have not mentioned it as we travelled along, for I -wished to emphasize it by bringing it in at the end of the chapter. -Well, the weather. There was none to speak of, unless you can call a -fierce dry over-heat, averaging 96 in the shade, weather. And this is -all that we have had for the last twelve hours or so; heat enough to -blister even a lizard, or frizzle a salamander. A hot wind, like the -"100" of the Indian plains, blew across the desperate sands, getting -scorched itself as it went, and spitefully passing on its heat to -us. It was as hot as Cawnpore in June; nearly as hot as Aden. And -then the change at Yuma! We had suddenly stepped from Egypt in August -into Lower Bengal in September--from a villainous dry heat into afar -more villainous damp one. The thermometer, though the sun had set, -was at and, added to all, was such a plague of mosquitoes as would -have subdued even Pharaoh into docility. The instant--literally, the -instant--that we stepped from our cars our necks, hands, and faces were -attacked, and on the platform everybody, even the half-breed Indians -loafing outside the dining-room, were hard at work with both hands -defending themselves from the small miscreants. The effect would have -been ludicrous enough to any armour-plated onlooker, but it was no -laughing matter. We were too busy slapping ourselves in two places at -once to think of even smiling at others similarly engaged; and the last -I remember of detestable Yuma was the man who sells photographs on the -platform, whirling his hands with experienced skill round his head and -packing up his wares by snatches in between his whirls. - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -THROUGH THE COWBOYS' COUNTRY. - - The Santa Cruz Valley--The Cactus--An ancient and honourable - Pueblo--A terrible Beverage--Are Cicadas deaf?--A floral - Catastrophe--The Secretary and the Peccaries. - -YUMA marks the frontier between California and Arizona. But it might -just as well mark the frontier between India and Beluchistan, for it -reproduces with exact fidelity a portion of the town of Rohri, in -Sind. A broad, full-streamed river (the Colorado) seems to divide the -town into two; on the top of its steep bank stands a military post, -a group of bungalows, single-storied, white-walled, green-shuttered, -verandahed. On the opposite side cluster low, flat-roofed houses, -walled in with mud, while here and there a white-washed bungalow, with -broad projecting eaves, stands in its own compound. Brown-skinned -men with only a waistcloth round the loins loaf around, and in the -sandy spaces that separate the buildings lean pariah dogs lie about, -languid with the heat. The dreadful temperature assists to complete the -delusion, and finally the mosquitoes of the Colorado river have all the -ferocity of those that hatch on the banks of the Indus. - -Against our will, too, these pernicious insects board our train and -refuse to be blown out again by all the draughts which we tax our -ingenuity to create. So we sit up sulkily in a cloud of tobacco smoke -far into the night and Arizona--watching the wonderful cactus-plants -passing our windows in gaunt procession, and here and there seeing a -fire flash past us, lit probably by Papajo Indians for the preparation -of their abominable "poolke" liquor. But the mosquitoes are satisfied -at last, and go to sleep, and so we go too. - -We awake in the Santa Cruz Valley, with the preposterous cactus -poles and posts standing up as stiff and straight as sentries "at -attention," and looking as if they were doing it for a joke. There is -no unvegetable form that they will not take, for they mimic the shape -of gate posts, semaphores, bee-hives, and even mops--anything, in -fact, apparently that falls in with their humour, and makes them look -as unlike plants as possible. I am not sure that they ought not to -be punished, some of them. Such botanical lawlessness is deplorable. -But, after all, is not this America, where every cactus "may do as -he darned pleases"? These cacti, by the way--the gigantic columnar -species, which throws up one solid shaft of flesh, fluted on each side, -and studded closely with rosettes of spines--are the same that crowd -in multitudinous impis on the side of the hills which slope from the -massacre-field of Isandula in Zululand, down to the Buffalo River. How -well I remember them! - -If it were not for the cactus it would be a miserably uninteresting -country, for the vegetation is only the lowest and poorest looking -scrub, and water as yet there is none. But now we are approaching what -the inhabitants call "the ancient and honourable pueblo of Tucson," -pronouncing it Too son, and ancient and honourable we found it--For -does it not dispute with Santa Fe the title of the most ancient town in -the United States? and was not the breakfast which it gave us worthy of -all honour? - -It takes, reader, as you will have guessed, a very long journey indeed -to knock into a traveller's head a complete conception of the size -of North America. Mere space could never do it, for human nature is -such that when trying to grasp in the mind any great lapse of time or -territory, the two ends are brought together as it were, and all the -great middle is forgotten. Nor does mere variety of scene emphasize -distance on the memory, for the more striking details here and there -crowd out the large monotonous intervals. Thus a mile of an Echo canyon -obliterates half a state's length of Platte Valley pastures, and a -single patch of Arkansas turtle-swamp whole prairies of Texan meadow. -But in America, even though many successive days of unbroken travel -may have run into one, or its many variations--from populous states to -desert ones, from timber states to pasture ones, from corn states to -mineral ones, from mountain to valley, river to lake, canyoned hills to -herd-supporting prairies, from pine forest to oak forest, from sodden -marsh to arid cactus-land--may have got blurred together, there grows -at the end of it all upon the mind a befitting sense of vastness which -neither linear measurement in miles nor variety in the panorama fully -explain. It is due, I think, to the size of the instalments in which -America puts forward her alternations of scene. She does not keep -shifting her suits, so as to spoil the effect of her really strong -hand, but goes on leading each till she has established it, and made -each equally impressive. You have a whole day at a time of one thing, -and then you go to sleep, and when you wake it is just the same, and -you cannot help saying to yourself: "Twenty-four successive hours of -meadowland is a considerable pasturage," and you do not forget it ever -afterwards. The next item is twenty-four hours of mountains, "all of -them rich in metals;" and by the time this has got indelibly fixed -on the memory, Nature changes the slide, and then there is rolling -corn-land on the screen for a day and night. And so, in a series of -majestic alternations, the continent passes in review, and eventually -all blends into one vast comprehensible whole. - -Apart from physical, there are curious ethnological divisions which -mark off the continent into gigantic subnationalities. For though the -whole is of course "American," there is always an underlying race, a -subsidiary one so to speak, which allots the vast area into separate -compartments. Thus on the eastern coast we have the mulatto, who gives -place beyond Nebraska to the Indian, and he, beyond Nevada, to the -Chinaman. After California comes the Mexican, and after him the negro, -and so back to the East and the mulatto again. - -Here in Arizona, at Tucson, the "Mexican" is in the ascendant, for -such is the name which this wonderful mixture of nationalities prefers -to be called by. He is really a kind of hash, made up of all sorts of -brown-skinnned odds and ends, an olla podrida. But he calls himself -"Mexican," and Tucson is his ancient and honourable pueblo. It is a -wretched-looking place from the train, with its slouching hybrid men, -and multitudinous pariah dogs. Indians go about with the possessive -air of those who know themselves to be at home; and it is not easy to -decide whether they, with their naked bodies and ropes of hair dangling -to the waist, or the half-breed Mexican with their villainous slouch -and ragged shabbiness, are the lower race of the two. And the dogs! -they are legion; having no homes, they are at home everywhere. I am -told there is a public garden, and some "elegant" buildings, but as -usual they are on "the other side of the town." All that we can see on -this side, are collections of squalid Arabic-looking huts and houses, -made of mud, low-roofed and stockaded with ragged-looking fences. The -heat is of course prodigious for eight months of the year, and the -dust and the flies and the mosquitoes are each and all as Asiatic as -the heat--or any other feature of this ancient and honourable It has -its interest, however, as an American pueblo. It has its interests, -however, as an American "antiquity;" while the river, the Santa Cruz, -which flows past the town, is one of those Arethusa streams, which -comes to the surface a few miles above the town and disappears again a -few miles below it. - -For the student of hybrid life, Tucson must have exceptional -attractions; but for the ordinary traveller, it has positively none. -Kawai Indians have not many points very different from Papajo Indians, -and mud hovels are after all only mud hovels. But it is an ancient and -honourable pueblo. - -The only people who look cool are the Mexican soldiers in blue and -white, and that other Mexican, a civilian, in a broad-brimmed, flimsy -hat, spangled with a tinsel braid and fringe. Have these men ever -got anything to do? and when they have, do they ever do it? It seems -impossible they could undertake any work more arduous than lolling -against a post, and smoking a yellow-papered cigarette. Yet only a few -days ago these Mexicans, perhaps those very soldiers there, destroyed a -tribe of Apaches, and then arrested a force of Arizona Rangers who had -pursued the Indians on to Mexican ground! These Apaches had kept the -State in a perpetual terror for a long time, but finding the Federal -soldiers closing in upon them, they crossed the frontier line close to -Tucson, and there fell in with the Mexicans, who must at any rate be -given the credit for promptitude and efficiency in all their Indian -conflicts. The Apaches were destroyed, and the force of Rangers who -had followed them were caught by the Mexican general, and under an old -agreement between the two Republics, they were made prisoners of war, -disarmed, and told to find their way back two hundred and fifty miles -into the States as best and as quickly as they could. Some thirty years -ago a Mexican general, who captured some American filibusters in a -similar way at the village of Cavorca, paraded his captives and shot -them all down. So the Arizona men were glad enough to get away. - -The cactus country continues, and the plants play the mountebank more -audaciously than ever. There is no absurdity they will not commit, even -to pretending that they are broken fishing rods, or bundles of riding -whips. But the majority stand about in blunt, kerb-stone fashion, as -if they thought they were marking out streets and squares for the -cotton-tail rabbits that live amongst them. Under the hill on the left -is the old mission church of "San'avere" (San Xavier); and over those -mountains, the "Whetstones," lies the mining settlement of Tombstone, -where the cowboys rejoice to run their race, and the value of life -seldom rises to par in the market. Then we enter upon a plain of the -mezcal all in full bloom, and a "lodge" of brown men, partly Indian, -partly Mexican, waiting it may be for the plant to mature and the time -to come round for distilling its fiery liquor. I tasted mezcal at El -Paso for the first time in my life, and I think I may venture to say -the last, so whether it was good of its kind or not, I cannot tell. I -am no judge of mezcal. But I know that it was thick, of a dull sherry -colour, with a nasty vegetable smell, and infinitely more fiery than -anything I ever tasted before, not excepting the whisky which the -natives in parts of Central India brew from rye, the brandy which the -Boers of the Transvaal distil from rotten potatoes, or the "tarantula -juice" which you are often offered by the hearty miners of Colorado. It -is almost literally "fire-water;" but the red pepper, I suppose, has as -much to do with the effect upon the tongue and palate as the juice of -the mezcal. - -On a sudden, in the midst of this desolate land, we come upon a ranche -with cattle wading about among the rich blue grass; but in a minute it -is gone, and lo! a Chinese village, smothered in a tangle of shrubs all -overgrown with creeping gourds, with the coolies lying in the shade -smoking long pipes of reed. - -Have you ever smoked Chinese "tobacco"? If not, be careful how you do. -A single pipe of it (and Chinese pipes hold very little) will upset -even an old smoker. For myself, can hardly believe it is tobacco, for -in the hand it feels of a silky texture, utterly unlike any tobacco -I ever saw, while the smell of it, and the taste on the tongue, are -as different to the buena yerba as possible. It is imported by the -Chinese in America for their own consumption, and in spite of duties -is exceedingly cheap. A single sniff of it, by the way, completely -explains that heavy, stupefying odour which hangs about Chinese -quarters and Chinese persons. - -But this glimpse of China has disappeared as rapidly as the ranche had -done, and in a few minutes later a collection of low mud-walled huts, -overshadowed by rank vegetation, an ox or two trying to chew the cud -in an uptilted cart, some brown-skinned children playing with magnolia -blossoms, and lo! a glimpse of Bengal. - -And then as suddenly we are out again on to the cactus plains with -cotton-tail rabbits everywhere, and cicadas innumerable shrilling from -the muskeet trees. Above all the noise of the train we could hear the -incessant chorus filling the hot out-of-doors, and, stepping on to the -rear platform, I found that several had flown or been blown on to the -car. Poor helpless creatures, with their foolish big-eyed heads and -little brown bodies wrapped up in a pair of large transparent wings. -But fancy living in such a hideous din as these cicadas live in! Do -naturalists know whether they are deaf? One would suppose of course -that the voice was given them originally for calling to each other in -the desolate wastes in which they are sometimes found scattered about. -But in the lapse of countless generations that have spent their lives -crowded together in one bush, sitting often actually elbow to elbow and -screaming to each other at the tops of their voices, it is hardly less -rational to suppose that kindly Nature has encouraged them to develop a -comfortable deafness. At any rate it is impossible to suppose that even -a cicada can enjoy the ear-splitting clamour in which its neighbours -indulge, and which now keeps up with us all the way as we traverse the -San Pedro Valley, and mounting from plateau to plateau--some of them -fine grass land, others arid cactus beds--reach another "Great Divide," -and then descend across an immense, desolate prairie, brightened here -and there with beautiful patches of flowers, into the San Simon Valley. -And all the time we eat our dinner (at the Bowie station) the cicadas -go on shrilling, on the hot and dusty ground, till the air is fairly -thrilling, with the waves of barren sound. That sounds like rhyme,--and -I do not wonder at it,--for even the cicadas themselves manage to drift -into a kind of metre in their arid aimless clamour, and the high noon, -as we sit on our cars again, looking out on the pink-flowered cactus -and the mezcal with its shafts of white blossoms, seems to throb with a -regular pulsation of strident sound. - -What a desolate land it seems, this New Mexico into which we have -crossed! But not for long. We soon find ourselves out upon a vast -plain of grassland, upon which the sullen, egotistical cactus will not -grow. "You common vegetables may grow there if you like," it says. -"Any fool of a plant can grow where there is good soil; but it shows -genius to grow on no soil at all." So it will not stir a step on to -the grass-land, but stands there out on the barren sun-smitten sand, -throwing up its columns of juicy green flesh and bursting out all over -into flowers of vivid splendour, just to show perhaps that "Todgers's -can do it when it likes." There is about the cactus' conduct something -of the superciliousness of the camel, which wades through hay with -its nose up in the air as if it scorned the gross provender of vulgar -herds, and then nibbles its huge stomach full of the tiny tufts of -leaves which is found growing among--the topmost thorns of the scanty -mimosa. - -Here, on this plain, is plenty of the "camel thorn," the muskeet, and -a whole wilderness of Spanish bayonet waiting till some one thinks it -worth while to turn it into paper, and there is not probably a finer -fibre in the world. Nor, because the cactus contemns the easy levels, -do other flowers refuse to grow. They are here in exquisite profusion, -a foretaste of the Texan "flower-prairies," and when the train stopped -for water I got out and from a yard of ground gathered a dozen -varieties. Nearly all of them were old familiar friends of English -gardens, and some were beautifully scented, notably one with a delicate -thyme perfume, and another that had all the fragrance of lemon verbena. - -Both to north and south are mountains very rich in mineral wealth, -and at Lordsburg, where we halted, I could not resist the temptation -of buying some "specimens." I had often resisted the same temptation -before, but here somehow the beauty of the fragments was irresistible. -Outside the station, by the way, under a heap of rubbish, were lying a -score or so of bars of copper bullion, worth, perhaps, twenty pounds -apiece. Such bulky plunder probably suits nobody in a climate of -everlasting heat, but it is all pure copper nevertheless--pennies en -bloc. - -The plain continues in a monotony of low muskeet scrub, broken here -and there by flowering mezcal. It is utterly waterless, and, except -for one fortnight's rain which it receives, gets no water all the -year round. Yet beautiful flowers are in blossom even now, and what -it must be just after the rain has fallen it is difficult to imagine. -To this great flower-grown chapparal succeeds a natural curiosity of -a very striking kind--a vast cemetery of dead yuccas. It looks as if -some terrific epidemic had swept in a wave of scorching death over the -immense savannah of stately plants. Not one has escaped. And there they -stand, thousand by thousand, mile after mile, each yucca in its place, -but brown and dead. And so through the graveyards of the dead things -into Deming--Deming of evil repute, and ill-favoured enough to justify -such a reputation. Even the cowboy fresh from Tombstone used to call -Deming "a hard place," and there is a dreadful legend that once upon -a time, that is to say, about ten years ago, every man in the den had -been a murderer! No one would go there except those who were conscious -that their lives were already forfeited to the law, and who preferred -the excitement of death in a saloon fight to the dull formalities of -hanging. However, tempora mutantur, and all that I remember Deming for -myself is its appearance of dejection and a very tolerable supper. - -And then away again, across the same flower-grown meadow, with its -sprinkling of muskeet bushes, and its platoons of yucca, but now all -radiant in their bridal bravery of waxen white. The death-line of the -beautiful plant seems to have been mysteriously drawn at Deming. I got -out at a stoppage and cut two more of the yuccas. The temptation to -possess such splendour of blossom was too great to resist. But alas! -as before, the dainty thing in its virginal white was hideous with -clinging parasites, and so I fastened them into the brake-wheel on the -platform, and sitting in my car smoking, could look out at the great -mass of silver bells that thus completely filled the doorway, and in -the falling twilight they grew quite ghostly, the spectres of dead -flowers, and touching them we find the flowers all clammy and cold. -"How it chills one!" said a girl, holding a thick, white, damp petal -between her fingers. "It feels like a dead thing." - -And sitting out in the moonlight--an exquisite change after the -hateful heat of the day thfit was past--we saw the muskeet growth -gradually dwindle away, and then great lengths of wind-swept sand-dunes -supervened. And every now and then a monstrous owl--the "great grey owl -of California," I think it must have been--tumbled up off the ground -and into the sky above us. Otherwise the desolation was utter. But I -sat on smoking into the night, and was abundantly repaid after awhile, -for the country, as if weary of its monotony, suddenly swells up into -billows and sinks into huge troughs, a land-Atlantic that beats upon -the rocks of the Colorado range to right and left; and as we cut our -way through the crests of its waves, the land broke away from before -us into bay--like recesses; crowned with galleries of pinnacled rock -and curved round into great amphitheatres of cliff. But away on the -left it seemed heaving with a more prodigious swell, and every now and -then down in the hollows I thought I could catch glimpses of moon-lit -water glittering. And the train sped on, winding in and out of the -upper ridges of the valley brim, and then, descending, plunged into -a dense growth of willows, and lo! the Rio Grande, and "the shining -levels of the mere." It was it then, this splendid stream, that had -been disturbing the land so, thrusting the valley this way and that, -shaping the hills to its pleasure, and that now rolled its flood along -the stately water-way which it had made, with groves of trees for reed -beds and a mountain range for banks! - -We cross it soon, seeing the Santa Fe line pass underneath us with -the river flowing underneath it again--and then with the Rio Grande -gradually curving away from us, we reach El Paso. And it is well -perhaps for El Paso, that we see it under the gracious witchery of -moonlight, for it is a place to flee from. Without one of the merits -of Asia, it has all Asia's plagues of heat and insects and dust. And -no one plants trees or sows crops; and so, sun-smitten, and waterless, -it lies there blistering, with all its population of half-breeds -and pariah dogs, a place, as I said, to flee from. And yet on the -other side of the river, a rifle-shot off, is the Mexican town of El -Paso--for the river here separates the States from their neighbour -Republic--and there, there are shade trees and pleasant houses, -well-ordered streets, and all the adjuncts of a superior civilization. - -A brawl alongside the station platform, with a horrible admixture of -polyglot oaths and the flash of knives, is the only incident of El Paso -life we travellers had experience of. But it may be characteristic. - -One of the party who had been incidentally concerned in the -disagreement travelled with us. He knew both New and Old Mexico well, -and among other things which he told me I remember that he said that -he had seen peccaries in New Mexico, on the borders of Arizona. I had -thought till then that this very disagreeable member of the pig family -confined itself to more southern regions. - -Treed by pigs is not exactly the position in which we should expect -to find a Colonial Secretary--at least, not often. But when one of -the Secretaries in Honduras was recently exploring the interior of -the country, he was overtaken by a drove of peccaries, and had only -time to take a snap shot at the first of them and scramble up a tree, -dropping his rifle in the performance, before the whole pack were -round his perch, gnashing their teeth at him, grunting, and sharpening -their tusks against his tree. Now the peccary is not only ferocious -but patient, and rather than let a meal escape it, it will wait about -for days, so that the Secretary had only two courses--either to remain -where he was till he dropped down among the swine from sheer exhaustion -and hunger, or else to commit suicide at once by coming down to be -killed there and then. While he was in this dilemma, however, what -should come along--and looking out for supper too--but a jaguar. -Never was beast of prey so opportune! For the jaguar has a particular -fondness for wild pork, and the peccaries know it, for no sooner did -they see the great ruddy head thrust out through the bushes than they -bolted helter-skelter, forgetting, in their anxiety to save their own -bacon, the meal they were themselves leaving up the tree. The jaguar -was off after the swine with admirable promptitude, and the Secretary, -finding the coast clear, came down--reflecting, as he walked towards -the camp, upon the admirable arrangements of Nature, who, having made -peccaries to eat Colonial Secretaries, provided also jaguars to eat the -peccaries. - -And so to sleep, and sleeping, over the boundary into Texas. - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - - American neglect of natural history--Prairie-dogs again; their - courtesy and colouring--Their indifference to science--A hard - crowd--Chuckers out--Makeshift Colorado. - -"HAVE we struck another city?" I asked on awaking, and finding the -train at a standstill. - -"No, sir," said the conductor, "only a water-tank." - -"You see," I explained, "there are so many 'cities' on the Railway -Companies' maps that one hardly dares to turn one's head from the -window, lest one should let slip a few--so I thought it best to ask." - -No, it didn't look like a country of many cities. It was Texas. And the -grazing land stretched on either side of us to the horizon, without -even a cow to break the dead level of the surface. It was patched, -however, with wildflowers. Yellow verbena and purple grew in acres -together. And then the breakfasting station suddenly overtook us. It -was called Coya, and we ate refuse. When we complained, the man and his -wife--knock-kneed folk--deplored almost with tears their distance from -any food supply, and vowed they had done their best. And while they -vowed, we starved on damaged tomatoes; and on paying the man I gave him -advice to go and buy some potter's field with the proceeds, and to act -accordingly. - -What I hate about being starved is, that you can't smoke afterwards. -The best part of a good meal is the pipe afterwards, and the more ample -the meal the better the subsequent weed. But on a pint of bad tomatoes -no man can smoke with comfort to his stomach. But I ate bananas till -I thought I had qualified for tobacco, and with my pipe came more -kindly thoughts. Outside the cars the country was doing all it could to -soothe me, for the meadows were fairly ablaze with flowers. They were -in distracting profusion and of beautiful kinds. I knew most of them -as garden and hothouse flowers in England, but not their names; the -verbenas, however, were unmistakable, and so was the "painted daisy." -It suffices, however, that the country seemed a wild garden as far as -the eye could reach, yellow and orange being as usual the prevailing -colours. - -This determination of wild flowers to these colours is a point worth -the notice of science. And why are the very great majority of Spring -flowers yellow? - -One of my companions called this distraction of colour a -"weed-prairie," which reminds me to say that it is perfectly amazing -how indifferent the present generation of Western Americans are to the -natural history of their country. They cannot easily mistake a crow or -a rose. But all other birds, except "snipe" and "prairie chickens," -seem to be divided into "robins" and "sparrows;" and all flowers, the -sunflower and the violet, into lilies and primroses. They have not had -time yet, they say, to notice the weeds and bugs that are about. But, -in the meantime, a most appalling confusion of nomenclature is taking -root. As with eatables and other things, the emigrants to the States -have taken with them from Europe the names of the most familiar flowers -and birds, and anything that takes their fancy is at once christened -with their names. - -As the sun rose the population of these painted meadows came abroad, -multitudes of rabbits, a few "chapparal hens," and myriads--literally -myriads--of brilliant butterflies. - -And so on for a hundred miles. And then Texas gets a little tired of -so much level land and begins to undulate. Dry river-beds are passed, -and then a muskeet "chapparal" commences, and with it a prodigious -city of prairie-dogs. But the inhabitants are partially civilized. The -train does not alarm them in the least. It does not even arouse their -curiosity. They sit a few feet off the rails, with their backs to the -passing trains. Perhaps they may look over their shoulders at it. But -they do not interrupt their gambols nor their work for such a trifle -as a train. They eat and squabble and flirt--do anything, in fact, but -run away. Now and then, as if out of good taste and not to appear too -affected, they make a show of moving a little out of the way. But the -motive is so transparent that the trivial change of position counts for -nothing. The jack-rabbit imitates the prairie-dog, just as the Indian -imitates the white man, and pretends that it too does not care about -the train. But there is an expression on its ears that betrays its -nervousness; and why, too, does it always manage to get under the shady -side of the nearest bush? - -One thing more about the prairie-dog, and I have done with him. The -soil east of Colorado city changes for a while in colour, being -reddish. Before this it had been sandy. And the prairie-dog alters its -colour to suit its soil. You might say of course that the dust round -its burrows tinged its fur, just as dust will tinge anything it settles -on. But it is a fact that the fur itself is redder where the soil is -redder, and that in the two tracts the little animal assimilates itself -to the ground it sits upon. And the advantage is obvious. Dozens of -prairie-dogs sitting motionless on the soil harmonized so exactly with -their surroundings that for a time I did not observe them. Detecting -one I soon learned to detect all. Now one of the grey prairie dogs on -the red soil would have been very conspicuous, just as conspicuous in -fact as a red one would have been trying to pass unobserved on the -lighter soil. - -The undulations now increase into valleys, and splendid they are, with -their rich crops of wild hay and abundant life. The train stops at -a "station" (I am not sure that it has earned a name yet), and some -cowboys, and dreadful of their kind, get on to the train. But it is -only for an hour or so. But during that hour the prairie-dogs had much -excitement given them by the perpetual discharging of revolvers into -the middle of their family parties. It is impossible to say whether any -of them were hit, for the prairie-dog tumbles into his hole with equal -rapidity, whether he is alive or dead. But I hope they escaped. For I -have a great tenderness for all the small ministers of Nature, in fur -and in feathers. - - "Their task in silence perfecting, Still working, blaming still our - vain turmoil, Labours that shall not fail, when man is gone." - -And yet I would be reluctant to say that their indifference to express -trains should be encouraged. I don't like to see prairie-dogs thus -regardless of the latest triumphs of science. And so if the cowboys' -revolvers frightened them a little, let it pass. - -The train stopped again at another "station," and our cowboy passengers -got out, being greeted by two evil-looking vagabonds lying in the shade -of a shrub. The meeting of these worthies looked unmistakably like that -of thieves re-assembling after some criminal expedition. All alike -seemed eager to converse, but they evidently had to wait till the train -was gone. One man had a bundle which he held very tight (so it seemed -to us) between his legs. A few muttered sentences were exchanged, the -speakers turning their heads away from the train while they talked, -and the rest assuming a most ludicrous affectation of indifference -to what was being said. We started off, and looking out at them from -the rear platform of the car, I saw they were already in full talk. -Their animated gestures were almost as significant as words. Had I -referred to the conductor I might have saved myself all conjecture. For -mentioning my suspicions to him, he said, "Oh, yes! Those Rangers who -got off at Coya are after that crowd: and they're a hard crowd too." - -They were, without doubt, a terribly "hard crowd" to look at, these -cowboy-men. In England they would probably have followed "chucking out" -as a profession. I remember in a police court, during election time, -seeing some hulking victims of the police charged with "rioting." But -they pleaded, in justification of turbulence, that they were "chuckers -out of meetings!" They had been captured when expelling the supporters -of a rival candidate from a public hall with the fag ends of furniture, -and made no attempt at concealment of their misdemeanour. They were -paid, they said, to chuck out, and chucked out accordingly, to the best -of their intelligence and ability, and when overpowered by the police -attempted no subterfuge. Their stock-in-trade were broad shoulders and -prodigious muscle. For any odd job of fancy work they would perhaps -provide themselves with a few old eggs or put a dead cat or two into -their pockets. But, as a rule, when they went out to business they took -only their fists and their hob-nailed boots with them, relying upon -the meeting room to provide them with table legs and chairs. As soon -as the signal for the disturbance was given, the chuckers-out "went -for" the furniture, and, armed with a convenient fragment, looked about -for people whom they ought to chuck. There were plenty to choose from, -for a meeting consists, as a rule, of several or more persons, and the -chuckers-out having marked down a knot of the enemy, would proceed -to eject them, individually if refractory, in a body if docile, and -would thus, if unopposed by police, gradually empty the room. There is -something very humorous in this method of invalidating an obnoxious -orator's arguments, for nothing weakens the force of a speech so much -as the total absence of the audience. Nevertheless, the chucker-out -sees no humour in his job. It is all serious business to him, and so he -goes through his chucking with uncompromising severity. Now and then, -perhaps, he expels the wrong man, or visits the political offences -of an enemy upon the innocent head of one of his own party; but in -political discussions with the legs of tables and brickbats, such -mistakes can hardly help occurring. - -And the beautiful undulating meadows continue, sprinkled over with -shrub-like trees, and populous with rabbits and prairie-dogs and -chapparal hens. Here and there we come upon small companies of cattle -and horses, most contented with their pastures; but what an utter -desolation this vast tract seems to be! The "stations" are, as yet, -mere single houses, and we hardly see a human being in an hour. And -then comes Colorado, a queer makeshift-looking town, with apparently -only one permanent place of habitation in it--the jail. - -Beyond the town we passed some Mexicans supposed to be working, but -apparently passing time by pelting stones at the snakes in the water, -and soon after stopped to take up some Texan Rangers for the protection -of our train during the night. These Rangers reminded me very much of a -Boer patrol, and there is no doubt that both cowboys and Indians find -them far too efficient for comfort. They are, as a rule, good shots, -and all are of course good riders. The pay is good, and, "for a spell" -as one of them said, the work was "well enough." And as the evening -closed in, and we began to enter a country of dark jungle-looking land, -the scene seemed as appropriate as possible for a Texan adventure. But -nothing more exciting than cicadas disturbed our sleep. Somebody said -they were "katydids," but they were not--they were much katydider. - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - - Nature's holiday--Through wonderful country--Brown negroes a libel - on mankind--The wild-flower state--The black problem--A piebald - flirt--The hippopotamus and the flea--A narrow escape--The home of - the swamp-gobblin--Is the moon a fraud? - -IN the morning everything had changed. Vegetation was tropical. Black -men had supplanted brown. Occasional tracts of rich meadow, with -splendid cattle and large-framed horses wading about among the pasture, -alternated with brakes of luxuriant foliage concealing the streams that -flowed through them, while fields of cotton in lusty leaf, gigantic -maize, and league after league of corn stubble, showed how fertile the -negro found his land. And the wild flowers--but what can I say more -about them? They seemed even more beautiful than before. - -There is something very striking and suggestive in these impressive -efforts of Nature to command, at recurring intervals, a recurring -homage. Thus, for one interval of the year the rhododendron holds an -undivided empire over the densely-wooded slopes of the great Himalayan -mountains in India. All the other beauties of mountain and valley -are forgotten for that interval of lovely despotism, and every one -who can, goes up to see "the rhododendrons in bloom." Nature is very -fond of such "tours de force," thinking, it may be, that men who see -her every-day marvels and grow accustomed to them require now and -then some extra-ordinary display, like the special festivals of the -ancient Church, to evoke periodically an extraordinary homage. Lest -the migration of creatures should cease to be a thing of wonder to us, -Nature organizes once in a way a monster excursion, sometimes of rats, -sometimes of deer, but most frequently of birds, to remind man of the -marvellous instinct that draws the animal world from place to place or -from zone to zone. For the same reason, perchance, she ever and again -drives butterflies in clouds from off the land out on to the open sea, -and, that the perpetual miracle of Spring may not pall upon us, she -gives the world in succession such breadths and tones of colour that -even the callous stop to admire the sudden gold of the meadows, the -hawthorn lying like snowdrifts along the country, the bridal attire of -the chestnuts, or the blue levels of wild hyacinth. As the priestess of -a prodigious cult, Nature decrees at regular intervals, for the delight -and discipline of humanity, a public festa, or universal holiday, to -which the whole world may go free, and wonder at the profusion of her -beauties. - -The track was, in places, very poor indeed, the cars jumping so much -as to make travelling detestable and travellers "sea-sick." And -then Dallas, with an execrable breakfast, and away again into the -wonderful country, with cattle perpetually wandering on to the track -and refusing to hear the warning shriek of the engine. The country was -richly timbered with oak and willow and walnut, with park-like tracts -intervening of undulating grassland. Here the stock wandered about in -herds as they chose, and except for a chance tent, or a shanty knocked -together with old packing-cases and canvas, there was no sign of -human population. But in the timbered country every clearing had the -commencement of a settlement, the tumble-down rickety habitation with -which the African, if left to his own inclinations, is content. And -wonderfully picturesque they looked, too, these efforts at colonization -in the middle of the forests, with the creepers swinging branches of -scarlet blossoms from the trees, and the foliage of the plantains, -maize and sugar-cane brightening the sombre forest depths. But the heat -must be prodigious, and so must the mosquitoes. - -It was Sunday, and after their kind the children of Ham were taking -"rest." Parties of negresses all dressed in the whitest of white, with -bright-coloured handkerchiefs on their heads, or hats trimmed with -gaudy ribands and flowers, and sometimes wearing, believe me, gloves, -were promenading in the jungle with their hulking, insolent-mannered -beaux. They looked like gorillas masquerading. In his native country -I sincerely like the negro. But here in America I regret to find him -unlovely. I am told that individual negroes have done wonders. I know -they have. But this does not alter my prejudice. I think the brownish -American negro of to-day is the most deplorable libel on the human -race that I have ever encountered. And I cannot help fearing that -America has a serious problem growing into existence in the South. The -brown-black population is there formulating for itself, apart from -white supervision, ideas of self-government, morality, "independence," -and even religion, that may make any future intervention of a better -class a difficult matter, or may eventuate in the contemporary -growth of two sharply-defined castes of society. I find the opinion -universally entertained in America that the brownish-black man is not -a sound or creditable basis for a community, and now that I have seen -in what numbers and what prosperity he has established himself in the -South, I cannot but think that he may be found in the future an awkward -factor in the body politic and social. - -The country in fact appears to be breeding helots as fast as it can for -the perplexity of the next generation. - -To the north of us as we travelled was a large Indian reservation, and -at more than one station I saw them crouching about the building. But I -should not have mentioned them had it not been that I saw a white man -trying to buy a cradle from a squaw. He offered $20 for it, but she -would not even turn her head to look at the money. It is quite possible -that the mother thought he was bargaining for the papoose as well as -the cradle. But I was assured that these women sometimes expend an -incredible amount of labour and indeed (for Indians) of money also upon -their papoose-panniers. One case was vouched for of an offer of $120 -being refused, the Indians stating that there were $80 worth of beads -upon the work of art, and that it had taken eleven years to complete. - -How beautiful Texas is! And what a future it has! For half a day and -a night we have been traversing grazing-land, and for half a day -fine timber growing in a soil of intense fertility. And now for half -a day we are in a pine country, sometimes with wide levels of turf -spreading out among the trees, sometimes with oak and walnut so thickly -intermingled with the pines that the whole forms a magnificent forest. -Passion-flowers entangle all the lower undergrowth, and up the dead -trees climbs that fine scarlet creeper which is such an ornament of -well-ordered gardens of some English country houses. But here in Texas -the people, as usual, have not had time yet to think of adornments, -and their ugly shanties therefore remain bare and wooden. They are of -course only ugly in themselves, that is to say, in material, shape, and -condition, for their surroundings are delightful and location perfect. -There is of course a good deal of "the poetry of malaria," as I heard a -charming lady say, about some of these sites. For it is impossible to -avoid the suspicion of agues and fevers in those splendid clearings, -with the rich foliage mobbing each patch of cotton, grapes, or maize. - -Whenever we happen to slacken pace near one of them an interesting -glimpse of local life is caught. Negroidal women come to the doors or -suddenly stand up in the middle of the crops in which, working, they -were unperceived. From the undergrowth, the ditches, and from behind -fences, appear dusky children, numbers of them, a swart infantry that -seems to me to fill the future with perplexity. Are these swarms going -to grow up a credit to the country? Have they it in their breed to be -fit companions in progress of the progeny of the best European stocks? - -The abundance of wild life, too, is very noticeable. Wherever we stop -we become aware of countless butterflies and insects busy among the -foliage, and the voices of strange birds resound from the forest depths. - -But other sites appear to me perfection. Take Marshall for instance, -or Jefferson. Which is the more beautiful of the two? Some of the -"commercial" settlements, just beginning life with a railway-station, -six drug stores, and seven saloons, have situations that ought to have -been reserved for honeymoon Edens. They are "hard" places. Law as yet -there is none except revolver law, and that is pitiless and sudden and -wicked. For Texas, the beautiful flower state, blessed with turf and -blessed with pines, has still the stern commencements of American life -before it--that rapid, fierce process of civilization which begins with -cards and whisky and murder, which finds its first protection in the -"Vigilantes" who hold their grim tribunals under the roadside trees, -but which suddenly one day wrenches itself, as it were, from its bad, -lawless past, and takes its first firm step on the high road to order -and prosperity and the world's respect. For every intelligent traveller -these ragged, half-savage, settlements should have a great significance -and interest. Before he dies they may be Chicagos or San Franciscos. -And these men, with their mouths full of oaths and revolvers on their -hips, are the fathers of those future cities. They will have no -immortality though in the gratitude of posterity. For they will shoot -each other of in those saloons, or the Rangers will shoot them down on -the flower prairies beyond the forests. But they will have done their -work nevertheless. Nature in every part of her scheme proceeds on the -same system of building foundations upon ruins. Whole nations have to -be killed off when they have prepared and preserved the ground as it -were for those that are to follow. Whether they are nations of men, -or of beasts, or of plants, she uses them in exactly the same way. -Everything must subserve the ultimate end. - -But I did not intend to moralize. The negress waiter at Longview (where -we dine very badly) reminds me how practical life should be. She never -stops to moralize. On the contrary, she just stands by the window, -swallowing all the peaches and fragments of pudding that the travellers -leave on their plates. Two he negroes wait upon us. But it looks as if -they were there to feed the negress rather than to feed us. For they -keep rushing in with full dishes to us and rushing off with the half -empty ones to her. And there she stands omnivorous, insatiable, black. -Everything that is brought to her of a sweet kind she swallows. Not as -if she enjoyed it, but as if she must. It was like throwing things into -a sink. She never filled up. - -And then, through the splendid tropical country, to Marshall. I must -return to Marshall, Texas, some day and be disillusioned, or else I -shall go down to my grave accusing myself of having passed Paradise in -the train, and not "stopped off" there. What an exasperating reflection -for a deathbed! I should never forgive myself. But perhaps it is not -so beautiful as it seems. In any case studies "from the life" would -be immensely interesting. I caught a few glimpses which entertained -me prodigiously. There was the negro dandy walking painfully in -patent-leather boots that were made for some man with ordinary feet, -with a fan in his hand and a large flower in his button-hole, an old -stove-pipe hat on his head, and a very corpulent handleless umbrella -under his arm. There was another, similarly caparisoned, escorting -three belles for a walk in the neighbouring jungle, the ladies all -wearing white cloth gloves and black cloth boots that squelched out -spaciously as they put their feet down. And alas! there was the black -coquette, with her bunch of crimson flowers behind her ear, her black -satin skirt and white muslin jacket, her parasol of black satin -lined with crimson--and how she flirts up the green slope, with a -half-acre smile on her face! She looks back at every other step to see -which, if any, of the black men, or the brown, or the yellow, on the -station platform is going to follow her expansive charms, and so she -disappears, this piebald siren, into the groves, her parasol flashing -back Parthian gleams of crimson as she goes. But every one, man, woman, -or child, black, brown, or yellow, was a study, so I must go back to -Marshall some day. - -At present, however, we are whirling away again through the lovely -woodland, and the whole afternoon passes in an unbroken panorama of -forest views, with great glades of meadow breaking away to right and -left, and patches of maize and cotton suddenly interrupting the stately -procession of timber. And then Jefferson. Is Jefferson more prettily -situated than Marshall? I cannot say. But Jefferson lies back among -the trees with an interval of orchard and corn-land between it and the -railway line, and looks a very charming retreat indeed. A fat negro -comes on board on duty of some kind connected with the brake, and -a witty little half-breed boy comes on after him. The fat negro is -the brown boy's butt. And he nearly bursts with wrath at the hybrid -urchin's chaff, and threatens, between gasps, a retaliation that cannot -find utterance in words. But the brown boy is relentless, and though -the train is rapidly increasing in its speed, he clings to the step and -taunts the negro who dare not leave his look-out post. But he knows -very well where the fat man will get off, and suddenly, with a parting -personality, the little wretch drops off the step, just as a ripe apple -might drop off a branch. And then the fat man has to get off. The speed -is really dangerous, but he climbs down the steps backwards, thinking -apparently only of his tormentor, and still breathing forth fire and -slaughter; and then lets go. Is he killed? Not a bit of it. He lands on -his feet without apparently even jarring his obese person, and when we -look back, we see that he is already throwing stones at the small boy, -whose batteries are replying briskly. I wonder if the hippopotamus ever -caught the flea? And if he did, what he did to him? - -And I remember how the Somali boys in Aden used to drive the bo'sun to -the verge of despair by clambering on to the ship and pretending not to -see him working his way round towards them with a rope's end behind his -back, and how at the very last moment, almost as the arm was raised to -strike, the young monkeys used to drop off backwards into the sea, like -snails off a wall. - -But is this Bengal or Texas that we are traveling through? The -vegetation about us is almost that of suburban Calcutta, and the heat, -the damp steamy heat of low-lying land, might be the Soonderbuns. And -here befell an adventure. We were nearing Atalanta. The train was on a -down grade and going very fast indeed, perhaps half a mile a minute. I -was sitting on my seat in the Pullman with the table up in front of me -and reading. At the other end of the car was a lady with some children -sitting with their backs to me. Further off, but also with his back to -me, was the conductor. Each "section" of a car has two windows. The -one at my left elbow had the blind drawn down. The other had not. On a -sudden at my ear, as it seemed, there was a report as of a rifle; the -thick double glass of the window in front of me flew into fragments all -over me, and the woodwork fell in splinters upon my book. I instantly -pulled up the blind of the other window and looked out to see who had -"fired." But of course at the speed we were going, there was no one in -sight. I called out to the conductor that some one had fired through -the window. He had not heard the explosion, nor had the lady. So their -surprise was considerable. And while I was looking in the woodwork -for the bullet I expected to find, the conductor picked off my table -a railway spike! Some wretch had thrown it at the passing train, and -the great velocity at which we were travelling gave the missile all -the deadly force of a bullet. "An inch more towards the centre of the -window, sir, and you might have been killed," said the brakeman. A -look at the splintered woodwork, and the bullet-like groove which the -sharp-pointed abomination had cut for itself, was suffcient to assure -me that he was right. But think of the atrocious character of such -mischief. The man who did it probably never thought of hurting any one. -And yet he narrowly missed having a horrible crime on his head. "If -we could have stopped the train and caught him, we would have lynched -him," said the conductor. "A year or two ago a miscreant threw a corn -cob into a window, very near this spot too. It struck a lady, breaking -her cheek bone, and bursting the ball of her left eye. We stopped the -train, caught the man, and hanged him by the side of the track then and -there." - -And then Atalanta, in a country that is very beautiful, but with that -poetry of malaria which suggests a peril in such beauty. And gradually -the land becomes swampy, and the old trees, hung with moss, stand -ankle-deep in brown stagnant water. The glades are all pools, and -where-ever a vista opens, there is a long bayou stretching down between -aisles of sombre trees. It is wonderful in its unnatural beauty, this -forest standing in a lagoon. The world was like this when the Deluge -was subsiding. There is a mysterious silence about the gloomy trees. -Not a bird lives among them. But in the sullen water, there are turtles -moving, and now and then a snake makes a moment's ripple on the dull -pools. Sunlight never strikes in, and as I looked, I could not help -remembering all the horrors of the slave-hunt, and the murder at the -end of it, in the dark depths of some such horrid brake as these we -pass. What a spot for legends to gather round! Has no one ever invented -the swamp-goblin? - -For an hour and more we pass through this eerie country, and then -comes a change to higher land with a splendid growth of pine and -walnut and oak all healthily rooted in dry ground. But towards evening -we come again into the swamps, and the sun goes down rosy-red behind -the water-logged trees, till their trunks stand out black against -the ruddy sky and the pools about their feet take strange tints of -copper and purpled bronze. And suddenly we flash across the track -of the narrow-gauge line to New Orleans--and such a sight! The line -pierces an avenue, straight as an arrow, for miles and miles through -the belt of forest. On either side along the track lie ditches filled -with water. But to-night the ditches seem filled with logwood dye, and -the wonderful vista through the deep green trees is closed as with a -curtain, by the crimson west! - -It was only a glimpse we got of it, but as long as I live I shall never -forget it, the most marvellous sight of all my life. - -No, not even sunrise upon the Himalayas, nor the moonlight on the -palm-garden in Mauritius--two miracles of simple loveliness that are -beyond words--could surpass that glimpse through the Texan forest. It -was not in the least like this earth. Beyond that crimson curtain might -have been heaven, or there might have been hell. But I am not content -to believe that it was merely Louisiana. - -And now comes Texakharna with its sweltering Zanzibar heat, but an -admirable supper to put us into good humour, and a beautiful moonlight -to sit and smoke in. If the sunset was weird, the moonlight was -positively goblinish. Such gloom! Not darkness remember, but gloom, -blacker than darkness, and yet never absolutely impenetrable. At least -so it seemed, and the fire-flies, flickering in thousands above the -undergrowth and up among the invisible branches, helped the fancy. -And the frogs! Was there ever, even in India in "the rains," such a -prodigious chorus of batrachians? And the katydids! Surely they were -all gone mad together. But it was a delightful ride. Sometimes in the -clearings we caught glimpses of negro parties, the white dresses of the -women glancing in and out along the paths, and the sound of singing -coming from the huts in the corners of the maize-patches. - -Here at the corner of a clearing stands a cottage, a regular fairy-tale -cottage "by the wood," and in the moonlight it looked as if, "really -and truly," the walls were made of toffy and the roof was plum-cake. At -any rate there were great pumpkins on the roof, just such pumpkins as -those in which Cinderella (after they had turned into coaches) drove -to the Prince's ball. And I would bet my last dollar on it that the -lizards that turned into horses were there too, and the rats, and in -the marsh close by you might have a large choice of frogs to change -into coachmen. - -And yet, I cannot help thinking, there is a good deal of false -sentiment expended upon the moon, the result of a demoralizing humility -which science has taught the inhabitants of "the planet we call Earth." -We are for ever being warned by our teachers against the sin of pride, -and being told that the universe is full of "Earths" just as good as -ours, and perhaps better. We are not, they say, to fancy that our own -world is something very special, for it is only a little ball, spinning -round and round in the firmament, among a number of other balls which -are so superior to it that if our own insignificant orange came in -contact with them we should get the worst of the collision. Nor are -we to fancy that the moon is our private property, and grumble at her -shabbiness, as our planetary betters have a superior claim to their -share of her, and this sphere of ours ought to be very thankful for as -much of the luminary as it gets. - -Now, to my thinking, there is something distinctly degrading in this -view. Englishmen maintain patriotically that Great Britain is the -Queen of the Sea; why, then, should not we Earthians, with a larger -patriotism, say that our planet is the best planet of the kind in the -firmament, and, putting on one side all petty territorial distinctions, -boldly challenge the supremacy of the Universe itself? Depend upon it, -if any presumptuous moon-men or Jupiterites were to descend to Earth -and begin to boast, they would be very soon put down, and I do not see, -therefore, why we should not at once call upon all the other stars -and comets to salute our flag whenever we sail past them on the high -seas of the Empyrean. As it is, we are taught timidity by science, and -told that whenever a filibustering comet or meteor--the pirates and -privateers of the skies--comes along our way we are to expect instant -combustion, or something worse. Why are they not made to drop their -colours by a shot across their bows? or why, when we next see a meteor -bearing down upon us, should we not steer straight at it, and, using -Chimborazo or Mount Everest, or the dome of St. Paul's, or the Capitol -at Washington as a ram, sink the rascal? A broadside from our volcanic -batteries, Etna and Hecla, Vesuvius, Erebus, and the rest would soon -settle the matter, and we should probably hear no more for a long time -to come of these black-flagged craft who go cruising about to the -annoyance of honest planets. The same unbecoming apprehensions are -entertained with regard to the moon. Yet it is absurd that we should be -afraid of her. The Earth, by its velocity and weight, could butt the -moon into space or smash her into all her original fragments, could -bombard her with volcanoes, or put an earthquake under her and make a -ruin of her, or turn the Atlantic on to her and put her out. The moon -is really our own property, something between a pump and a night light, -and, if the truth must be told, not very good as either. Twice a day -she is supposed to raise the water of our oceans, but we have often -had to complain of her irregularity; and every night she ought to be -available for lighting people home to their beds, but seldom is. As a -rule, our nights are very dark indeed, owing to her non-attendance; -and even when she is on duty the arrangements she makes for keeping -clouds off her face are most defective. If the Earth were to be half as -irregular in the duties which she has to perform there would soon be -a stoppage of everything, collisions at all the junctions, accidents -at the level crossings, planets telescoped in every direction, and -passengers and satellites much shaken, if not seriously injured. But -the Earth is business-like and practical, and sets an example to those -other denizens of the firmament which are perpetually breaking out in -eruptions, getting off the track, and going about in disorderly gangs -to the public annoyance. Why, then, we ask, ought our planet to be -for ever taking off its hat to the flat-faced old moon, who is always -trying to show off with borrowed light, makes such a monstrous secret -of her "other side," is perpetually being snubbed by eclipses, and made -fun of by stars that go and get occultated by her? - -But there are objections to discarding the luminary, for it is never a -graceful act to turn off an old dependant, and, besides, the moon is -about as economical a contrivance as we could have for keeping up the -normal average of lunatics, giving dogs something to bark at by night -when they cannot see anything else, and affording us an opportunity of -showing that respect for antiquities which is so becoming. - -But what business the Man in the Moon has there, remains to be -decided; and who gave him permission to go collecting firewood in -our moon, remains to be seen. For it is well to remember that a very -distinguished French savant has proved that the moon is the private -property of the Earth. We used, he says, to do very well without a moon -once upon a time; but going along on our orbit one day, we picked up -the present luminary--then a mere vagabond, a disreputable vagrant mass -of matter, with no visible means of subsistence--"and shall, perhaps, -in the future pick up other moons in the same way." As a matter of fact -then, he declares the moon to be a dependant of our Earth, and says -that if we were selfishly to withdraw our "attraction" from it, the -poor old luminary would tumble into space, and never be able to stop -herself, or, worse still, might come into collision with some wandering -comet or other, and get blown up entirely. We ought, therefore, to -think kindly of the faithful old creature; but we should not, all the -same, allow any length of service to blind us to the actual relations -between her and ourselves--much less to make us frightened of the moon. - -But the man in the moon should be seen to. He is either there or he is -not. If he is, he ought to pay taxes: and if he is not, he has no right -to go on pretending that he is. - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - - Frogs, in the swamp, and as a side-dish--Negroids of the swamp - age--Something like a mouth--Honour in your own country--The Land - Of Promise--Civilization again. - -ARKANSAS remains on the mind (and the traveller's notebook) as a -vast forest of fine timber standing in swamps. There are no doubt -exceptions, but they do not suffice to affect the general impression. -And if I owned Arkansas I think I should rent it to some one else to -live in; especially to some one fond of frogs. For myself, I feel no -tenderness towards the monotonous batrachian. Even in a bill of fare -the tenderness is all on the frog's side. But on the whole, I like him -best when he is cooked. In the water with his "damnable iteration" of -Yank! yank! yank! I detest him--legs and all. But served "a cresson," -with a clear brown gravy, I find no aggressiveness in him. It gets -cooked out of him: he becomes the gentlest eating possible. Butter -would not melt in his mouth, though it does on his legs. There is -none of the valiant mouse-impaling "mud-compeller" about him when you -foregather with him as a side dish. Aristophanes would not recognize -him, and the "nibbler of cheese rind" might then triumph easily over -him. Yet to think how once he shuddered the earth, and shook Olympus! -The goddess that leans upon a spear wept for him, and Aphrodite among -her roses trembled. - -But here in Arkansas, on a hot night in "the Moon of Strawberries," -what a multitudinous horror they are these "tuneful natives of the -reedy lake!" Like the laughter of the sea, beyond arithmetic. Like -the laughter of the sea, beyond arithmetic. Like the complainings of -the plagued usurers in Hell, beyond compassion. I cannot venture my -pen upon it. It is like launching out upon "the tenth wave," for an -infinite natation upon cycles of floods. It is endless; snakes with -tails in their mouths; trying to correct the grammar of a Mexican's -English. - -But, seriously; was ever air so full of sound as these Arkansas swamps -"upon a night in June!" It fairly vibrates with Yank! yank! yank! And -yet over, and under, and through, all this metallic din, there shrills -supreme the voice of strident cicadas, without number and without -shame, and countless katydids that scream out their confidences to all -the stars. It is really astonishing; a tour de force in Nature; a noisy -miracle. I wonder Moses did not think of it, for such a plague might -have done him credit, I think. At all events, the ancestors of Arabi -Pasha would have been egregiously inconvenienced by such a hubbub. It -is no use trying to talk; yank--Katy did--yank--yank. That is all you -hear. So you may just as well sit and smoke quietly, and watch the -moon-lit swamps and wonderful dark forests go by, with their perpetual -flicker of restless fire-flies, twinkling in and out among the -brushwood. If they would only combine into one central electric light! -All the world would go to see them--the new "Brush-light." But there is -very little sense of utility among fire-flies. They flicker about for -their own amusement, and are of a frivolous, flighty kind; perpetually -striking matches as if to look for something, and then blowing them out -again. They strike only on their own box. - -But here comes a station--"Hope." We are soon past Hope; and then -comes another swamp, with its pools, that have festered all day long -in the sun, emitting the odours of a Zanzibar bazaar, and standing in -the middle of them apparently are some clearings already filled with -crops, and a hut or two cowering, as if they were wild beasts, just on -the edge of the timber where the shadows fall the darkest. What kind -of people are they that live in this terraqueous land? No race that is -fit to rule can do it. No, nor even fit to vote. Some day, no doubt, -the wise men of the world will dig up tufts of wool, and skulls with -prognathous jaws, and label them "Negroids of the swamp age." Or they -may fall into the error of supposing that the wool grew all over their -bodies equally, and some Owen of the future discourse wisely of "the -great extinct anthropoids of Arkansas." For in those wonderful days -that are coming--when men will know all about the wind-currents, and -steer through ocean-billows by chart, when doctors will understand the -smallpox, and everybody have the same language, currency, religion, -and customs duties, and when every newspaper offce will be fitted with -patent reflectors, showing on a table in the editor's room all that -is going on all over the world, and special correspondents will be as -extinct as dodos, and when many other delightful means of saving time -and trouble will have come to pass--then, no doubt, as the Mormons say, -all the world will have become a "white and a delightsome people," and -the commentators will explain away the passages in the ancient English -which seem to point to the early existence of a race that was as black -as coals, and lived on pumpkins in a swamp. - -And still we sit up, long past midnight, for never again in our lives -probably shall we have such an experience as this, so unearthly in -its surroundings--forests that crowded in upon the rails and hung -threateningly over the cars, pools that lay glistening in the moonlight -round the foot of the trees, the air as thick as porridge with the -yanking of brazen-throated frogs, and the screaming of tinlunged -cicadas, yet all the time alive with lantern-tailed insects--just -as if the clamour of frogs and cicadas struck fireflies out of each -other in the same way that flint and steel strike flashes, or as if -their recriminations caught fire like Acestes' arrows as they flew, -and peopled the inflammable air with phosphorescent tips of flame--a -battery of din perpetually grinding out showers of electric sparks. - -And to make us remember this night the cars bumped abominably over -the dislocated sleepers and the sunken rails, as the Spanish father -whipped his son that he might never forget the day on which he saw a -live salamander; and the engine flew a streamer of sparks and ink-black -smoke, till it felt as if we were riding to Hades on a three-legged -dragon. But it came to sleep at last, and we went to bed, leaving the -moonlit country to the vagaries of the fireflies and the infinite -exultations of the frogs. - -Awaking in the morning with "the grey wolf's tail" still in the sky, -what a wonderful change had settled on the scene! The same swamped -forests on either side of us: the same gloomy trees and the same -sulky-looking pools; but a dull leaden Silence supreme! Where were -the creatures that had crowded the moonlight? You might live a whole -month of mornings without suspecting that there were any such things in -Arkansas as frogs or katydids or fireflies! - -I should have gone to sleep again if I had not caught sight of our new -porter, or brakeman. He happened to be laughing, and the corners of -his mouth, so it seemed to me, must have met behind. I need hardly say -he was a negro. But at first I thought he was a practical joke. I took -the earliest opportunity of looking at the back of his neck, to see -what kept his head together when he laughed. But I only saw a brass -button. I should not have thought that was enough to keep a man's skull -together, if I had not seen it. And he was always laughing, so that -there was nearly as much expression on the back of his head as on the -front. He laughed all round. - -I felt inclined to advise him to get his mouth mended, or to tell him -about "a stitch in time." But he seemed so happy I did not think it -worth while. - -Is it worth while saying that the swamp forest continued? I think not. -So please understand it, and think of the country as a flooded forest, -with wonderful brown waterways stretching through the trees, just as -glades of grass do elsewhere, with here and there, every now and again, -a broad river-like bayou of coffee stretching to right and left, and -winding out of sight round the trees, and every now and again a group -of wooden cabins, most picturesquely squalid, and inhabited by coloured -folk. - -Does anybody know anything of these people? Are they cannibals, -or polygamous, or polyandrous, or amphibious? Surely a decade of -unrestricted freedom and abundant food in such solitudes as these, must -have developed some extraordinary social features? At all events, it is -very difficult to believe that they are ordinary mortals. - -The hamlets are few and far between, and it is only once or twice -during the day that we strike a village nomine dignus. Looking at a -garden in one of these larger hamlets, I notice that the hollyhock and -pink and petunia are favourite flowers; and it is worth remarking that -it is with flowers as with everything else--the imported articles are -held in highest esteem. Writing once upon tobacco cultivation in the -East, I remember noting that each province between Persia and Bengal -imported its tobacco from its next neighbour on the west, and exported -its own eastward. It struck me as a curious illustration of the -universal fancy for "foreign" goods. So with flowers. It is very seldom -that the wild plants of a locality arrive at the dignity of a garden. -In England we sow larkspurs; in Utah they weed them out. In England we -prize the passion-flower and the verbena; in Arkansas they carefully -leave them outside their garden fences. And what splendid flowers these -people scorn, simply because they grow wild! Some day, I expect, it -will occur to some enterprising settler that there is a market abroad -for his "weeds;" and that lily-bulbs and creeper-roots are not such -rubbish as others think. - -Then Poplar Bluff, a crazy-looking place, with many of its houses built -on piles, and a saloon that calls itself "the XIOU8 saloon." I tried -to pronounce the name. Perhaps some one else can do it. Then the swamp -reasserts itself, and the forest of oak and walnut, sycamore and plane. -But the settlements are singularly devoid of trees, whether for fruit -or shade. The people, I suppose, think there are too many about already. - -And now we are in Missouri--the Mormons' 'land of promise,' and the -scene of their greatest persecutions. It is a beautiful State, as -Nature made it; but it almost deserves to be Jesse-Jamesed for ever for -its barbarities towards the Mormons. No wonder the Saints cherish a -hatred against the people, and look forward to the day when they shall -come back and repossess their land. For it is an article of absolute -belief among the Mormons, that some day or other they are going back to -Jackson County, and numbers of them still preserve the title-deeds to -the lands from which they were driven with such murderous cruelty. - -It was here that I saw men working a deposit of that "white earth" -which has done as much to bring American trade-enterprise into -disrepute as glucose and oleomargerine put together. In itself a -harmless, useless substance, it is used in immense quantities for -"weighting" other articles and for general adulteration; and I -could not help thinking that the man who owns the deposit must feel -uncomfortably mean at times. But it is a paying concern, for the world -is full of rascals ready to buy the stuff. - -And, after all, one half the world lives by poisoning the other. - -A thunderstorm broke over the country as we were passing through it, -and I could not help admiring the sincerity of the Missouri rain. -There was no reservation whatever about it, for it came down with a -determined ferocity that made one think the clouds had a spite against -the earth. Moss Ferry, a ragged, desolate hamlet, looked as if it was -being drowned for its sins; and I sympathized with pretty Piedmont -in the deluge that threatened to wash it away. But we soon ran out -of the storm, and rattling past Gadshill, the scene of one of Jesse -James' train-robbing exploits, and sped along through lovely scenery of -infinite variety, and almost unbroken cultivation, to Arcadia. - -But this is "civilization." In a few hours more I find myself back -again at the Mississippi, the Indus of the West, and speeding along its -bank with the Columbia bottom-lands lying rich and low on the other -side of the prodigious river, and reminding me exactly of the great -flat islands that you see lying in the Hooghly as you steam up to -Calcutta--past the new parks which St. Louis is building for itself, -and so, through the hideous adjuncts of a prosperous manufacturing -town, into St. Louis itself. - -Out of deference to St. Louis, I hide my Texan hat, and disguise myself -as a respectable traveller. For I have done now with the wilds and the -West, and am conscious in the midst of this thriving city that I have -returned to a tyrannical civilization. - -And I take a parting cocktail with the Western friend who has been my -companion for the last three thousand miles. - -"Wheat," says he, with his little finger in the air. - -And I reply, "Here's How." - -THE END. - - - -LONDON: - -PRINTED BY GILDERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sinners and Saints, by Phil Robinson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SINNERS AND SAINTS *** - -***** This file should be named 54079-8.txt or 54079-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/0/7/54079/ - -Produced by the Mormon Texts Project -(http://mormontextsproject.org), with thanks to Steven -Fluckiger, Mariah Averett, and Lauren McGuinness. - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Sinners and Saints - A Tour Across the States and Round Them, with Three Months - Among the Mormons - -Author: Phil Robinson - -Release Date: January 31, 2017 [EBook #54079] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SINNERS AND SAINTS *** - - - - -Produced by the Mormon Texts Project -(http://mormontextsproject.org), with thanks to Steven -Fluckiger, Mariah Averett, and Lauren McGuinness. - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - -<h1><a name="SINNERSANDSAINTS"></a>SINNERS AND SAINTS -</h1> -<p class="centered">A TOUR ACROSS THE STATES, AND ROUND THEM -<br> -<br>WITH -<br> -<br>THREE MONTHS AMONG THE MORMONS -</p> - -<p class="centered"><br><br>BY PHIL ROBINSON -<br> -<br>AUTHOR OF "IN MY INDIAN GARDEN," "UNDER THE PUNKAH," "NOAH'S ARK,'" -ETC., ETC. -</p> -<p class="centered"><br> -<br> -<br>NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION -</p> - -<p class="centered"><br> -<br> -<br>LONDON -<br> -<br>1892 -</p> - - -<p class="centered"><br><br><br><br>Inscribed, -<br> -<br>WITH AUTHOR'S GRATITUDE, TO A FRIEND, JOHN STUART DOWNING. -</p> - - -<h2>CONTENTS. -</h2> -<p class="centered">— -</p> -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERI">CHAPTER I. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM NEW YORK TO CHICAGO. -</p> -<p>By the Pennsylvania Limited—Her Majesty's swine—Glimpses of -Africa and India—"Eligible sites for Kingdoms"—The Phoenix -city—Street scenes—From pig to pork—The Sparrow line—Chicago -Mountain—Melancholy merry-makers. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERII">CHAPTER II. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM CHICAGO TO DENVER. -</p> -<p>Fathers of Waters—"Rich Lands lie Flat"—The Misery River—Council -Bluffs—A "Live" town, sir—Two murders: a contrast—Omaha—The -immorality of "writing up"—On the prairies—The modesty of -"Wish-ton-Wish"—The antelope's tower of refuge—Out of Nebraska into -Colorado—Man-eating Tiger. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERIII">CHAPTER III. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">IN LEADVILLE. -</p> -<p>The South Park line—Oscar Wilde on sunflowers as food—In a -wash-hand basin—Anti-Vigilance Committees—Leadville the city of -the carbonates—"Busted" millionaires—The philosophy of thick -boots—Colorado miners—National competition in lions—Abuse of the -terms "gentleman" and "lady"—Up at the mines—Under the pine-trees. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERIV">CHAPTER IV. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM LEADVILLE TO SALT LAKE CITY. -</p> -<p>What is the conductor of a Pullman car?—Cannibalism fatal to lasting -friendships—Starving Peter to feed Paul—Connexion between Irish -cookery and Parnellism—Americans not smokers—In Denver—"The Queen -City of the Plains"—Over the Rockies—Pride in a cow, and what came -of it—Sage-brush—Would ostriches pay in the West?—Echo Canyon—The -Mormons' fortifications—Great Salt Lake in sight. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERV">CHAPTER V. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">THE CITY OF THE HONEY-BEE. -</p> -<p>Zion—Deseret—A City Of Two Peoples—"Work" the watch-word of -Mormonism—A few facts to the credit of the Saints—The text of the -Edmunds Bill—In the Mormon Tabernacle—The closing scene of the -Conference. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERVI">CHAPTER VI. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">LEGISLATION AGAINST PLURALITY. -</p> -<p>A people under a ban—What the Mormon men think of the Anti-Polygamy -Bill—And what the Mormon women say of polygamy—Puzzling -confidences—Practical plurality a very dull affair—But theoretically -a hedge-hog problem—Matrimonial eccentricities—The fashionable -milliner fatal to plurality—Absurdity of comparing Moslem polygamy -with Mormon plurality—Are the women of Utah happy?—Their enthusiasm -for Women's Rights. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERVII">CHAPTER VII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">SUA SI BONA NORINT. -</p> -<p>A Special Correspondent's lot—Hypothecated wits—The Daughters of -Zion—Their modest demeanour—Under the banner of Woman's Rights—The -discoverer discovered—Turning the tables—"By Jove, sir, you shall -have mustard with your beefsteak!" -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERVIII">CHAPTER VIII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">COULD THE MORMONS FIGHT? -</p> -<p>An unfulfilled prophecy—Had Brigham Young been still -alive?—The hierarchy of Mormonism—The fighting Apostle and his -colleagues—Plurality a revelation—Rajpoot infanticide: how it was -stamped out—Would the Mormons submit to the process?—Their fighting -capabilities—Boer and Mormon: an analogy between the Drakensberg and -the Wasatch ranges—The Puritan fanaticism of the Saints—Awaiting the -fulness of time and of prophecy. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERIX">CHAPTER IX. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">THE SAINTS AND THE RED MEN. -</p> -<p>Prevalent errors as to the red man—Secret treaties—The policy of the -Mormons towards Indians—A Christian heathen—Fighting-strength of -Indians friendly to Mormons. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERX">CHAPTER X. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">REPRESENTATIVE AND UNREPRESENTATIVE MORMONISM. -</p> -<p>Mormonism and Mormonism—Salt Lake City not representative—The -miracles of water—How settlements grow—The town of Logan: one of the -Wonders of the West—The beauty of the valley—The rural simplicity of -life—Absence of liquor and crime—A police force of one man—Temple -mysteries—Illustrations of Mormon degradation—Their settlement of the -"local option" question. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXI">CHAPTER XI. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">THROUGH THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. -</p> -<p>Salt Lake City to Nephi—General similarity of the settlements—From -Salt Lake Valley into Utah Valley—A lake of legends—Provo—Into -the Juab valley—Indian reminiscences—Commercial integrity of the -saints—At Nephi—Good work done by the saints—Type of face in rural -Utah—Mormon "doctrine" and Mormon "meetings." -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXII">CHAPTER XII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM NEPHI TO MANTI. -</p> -<p>English companies and their failures—A deplorable neglect of claret -cup—Into the San Pete Valley—Reminiscences of the Indians—The -forbearance of the red man—The great temple at Manti—Masonry and -Mormon mysteries—In a tithing-house. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXIII">CHAPTER XIII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM MANTI TO GLENWOOD. -</p> -<p>Scandinavian Mormons—Danish ol—Among the orchards at Manti—On the -way to Conference—Adam and Eve—The protoplasm of a settlement—Ham -and eggs—At Mayfield—Our teamster's theory of the ground-hog—On -the way to Glenwood—Volcanic phenomena and lizards—A suggestion for -improving upon Nature—Primitive Art. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXIV">CHAPTER XIV. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM GLENWOOD TO MONROE. -</p> -<p>From Glenwood to Salina—Deceptiveness of appearances—An apostate -Mormon's friendly testimony—Reminiscences of the Prophet Joseph -Smith—Rabbit-hunting in a waggon—Lost in the sage-brush—A day at -Monroe—Girls riding pillion—The Sunday drum—Waiting for the right -man: "And what if he is married?"—The truth about apostasy: not always -voluntary. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXV">CHAPTER XV. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">AT MONROE. -</p> -<p>"Schooling" in the Mormon districts—Innocence as to whisky, but -connoisseurs in water—"What do you think of that water, sir?"—Gentile -dependents on Mormon charity—The one-eyed rooster—Notice to All! -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXVI">CHAPTER XVI. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">JACOB HAMBLIN. -</p> -<p>A Mormon missionary among the Indians—The story Of Jacob Hamblin's -life—His spiritualism, the result of an intense faith—His good work -among the Lamanites—His belief in his own miracles. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXVII">CHAPTER XVII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">THROUGH MARYSVALE TO KINGSTON. -</p> -<p>Piute County—Days of small things—A swop in the sage-brush; two -Bishops for one Apostle—The Kings of Kingston—A failure in Family. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM KINGSTON TO ORDERVILLE. -</p> -<p>On the way to Panguitch—Section-houses not Mormon homes—Through wild -country—Panguitch and its fish—Forbidden pleasures—At the Source of -the Rio Virgin—The surpassing beauty of Long Valley—The Orderville -Brethren—A success in Family Communism. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXIX">CHAPTER XIX. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">MORMON VIRTUES. -</p> -<p>Red ants and anti-Mormons—Ignorance of the Mormons among -Gentiles in Salt Lake City—Mormon reverence for the Bible—Their -struggle against drinking-saloons in the city—Conspicuous piety -in the settlements—Their charity—Their sobriety (to my great -inconvenience)—The literature of Mormonism utterly unreliable—Neglect -of the press by the Saints—Explanation of the wide-spread -misrepresentation of Mormonism. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXX">CHAPTER XX. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">DOWN THE ONTARIO MINE -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXI">CHAPTER XXI. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM UTAH INTO NEVADA. -</p> -<p>Rich and ugly Nevada—Leaving Utah—The gift of the Alfalfa—Through a -lovely country to Ogden—The great food devouring trick—From Mormon to -Gentile: a sudden contrast—The son of a cinder—Is the red man of no -use at all?—The papoose's papoose—Children all of one family. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXII">CHAPTER XXII. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">FROM NEVADA INTO CALIFORNIA. -</p> -<p>Of bugbears—Suggestions as to sleeping-cars—A Bannack chief, his -hat and his retinue—The oasis of Humboldt—Past Carson Sink—A -reminiscence of wolves—"Hard places"—First glimpses of California—A -corn miracle—Bunch-grass and Bison—From Sacramento to Benicia. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. -</a></p> -<p>San Franciscans, their fruits and their falsehoods—Their neglect -of opportunities—A plague of flies—The pigtail problem—Chinamen -less black than they are painted—The seal rocks—The loss of the -Eurydice—A jeweller's fairyland—The mystery of gems. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. -</a></p> -<p>Gigantic America—Of the treatment of strangers—The wild-life -world—Railway Companies' food-frauds—California Felix—Prairie-dog -history—The exasperation of wealth—Blessed with good oil—The -meek lettuce and judicious onion—Salads and Salads—The perils of -promiscuous grazing. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXV">CHAPTER XXV. -</a></p> -<p>The Carlyle of vegetables—The moral in blight—Bee-farms—The city of -Angels—Of squashes—Curious vegetation—The incompatibility of camels -and Americans—Are rabbits "seals"?—All wilderness and no weather—An -"infinite torment of flies." -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. -</a></p> -<p class="centered">THROUGH THE COWBOYS' COUNTRY. -</p> -<p>The Santa Cruz valley—The cactus—An ancient and honourable pueblo—A -terrible beverage—Are cicadas deaf?—A floral catastrophe—The -secretary and the peccaries. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. -</a></p> -<p>American neglect of natural history—Prairie-dogs again; their courtesy -and colouring—Their indifference to science—A hard crowd—Chuckers -out—Makeshift Colorado. -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. -</a></p> -<p>Nature's holiday—Through wonderful country—Brown negroes a libel -on mankind—The Wild-flower State—The black problem—A piebald -flirt—The hippopotamus and the flea—A narrow escape—The home of the -swamp-goblin—Is the moon a fraud? -</p> - -<p class="centered"><a href="#CHAPTERXXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. -</a></p> -<p>Frogs, in the swamp and as a side-dish—Negroids of the swamp -age—Something like a mouth—Honour in your own country—The Land of -Promise—Civilization again. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERI"></a>CHAPTER I. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM NEW YORK TO CHICAGO. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> By the Pennsylvania Limited—Her Majesty's swine—Glimpses of - Africa and India—"Eligible sites for Kingdoms"—The Phoenix - city—Street scenes—From pig to pork—The Sparrow line—Chicago - Mountain—Melancholy merry-makers. -</p> -<p>"DOES the fast train to Chicago ever stop?" was the question of a -bewildered English fellow-passenger, Westward-bound like myself, as I -took my seat in the car of the Pennsylvania Limited mail that was to -carry me nearly half the distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific. -"Oh, yes," I replied, "it stops—at Chicago." -</p> -<p>By this he recognized in me a fellow-innocent, and so we foregathered -at once, breakfasted together, and then went out to smoke the calumet -together. -</p> -<p>— -</p> -<p>To an insular traveller, it is a prodigiously long journey this, -across the continent of America, but I found the journey a perpetual -enjoyment. Even the dull country of the first hour's travelling had -many points of interest for the stranger—scattered hamlets of wooden -houses that were only joined together by straggling strings of cocks -and hens; the others that seemed to have been trying to scramble over -the hill and down the other side but were caught just as they got to -the top and pinned down to the ground with lightning conductors; the -others that had palings round them to keep them from running away, but -had got on to piles as if they were stilts and intended (when no one -was looking) to skip over the palings and go away; the others that had -rows of dwarf fir-trees in front of them, through which they stared out -of both their windows like a forward child affecting to be shy behind -its fingers. These fir-trees are themselves very curious, for they give -the country a half-cultivated appearance, and in some places make the -hillsides and valleys look like immense cemeteries, and only waiting -for the tombstones. Even the levels of flooded land and the scorched -forests were of interest, as significant of a country still busy over -its rudiments. -</p> -<p>"All charcoal and puddles," said a fellow-traveller disparagingly; "I'm -very glad we're going so fast through it." -</p> -<p>Now for my own part I think it looks very uncivil of a train to go -with a screech through a station without stopping, and I always wish I -could say something in the way of an apology to the station-master for -the train's bad manners. No doubt people who live in very small places -get accustomed to trains rushing past their platforms without stopping -even to say "By your leave." But at first it must be rather painful. -At least I should think it was. On the other hand, the people "in the -mofussil" (which is the Anglo-Indian for "all the country outside one's -own town") did not pay much attention to our train. Everybody went -about their several works for all the world as if we were not flashing -by. Even the dogs trotted about indifferently, without even so much as -noticing us, except occasionally some distant mongrel, who barked at -the train as if it was a stray bullock, and smiled complacently upon -the adjoining landscape when he found how thoroughly he had frightened -it away. -</p> -<p>There seemed to me a curious dearth of small wild life. The English -"country" is so full of birds that all others seem, by comparison, -birdles. Once, I saw a russet-winged hawk hovering over a copse of -water-oak as if it saw something worth eating there; once, too, I saw -a blue-bird brighten a clump of cedars. Now and again a vagabond crow -drifted across the sky. But, as compared with Europe or parts of the -East which I know best, bird-life was very scanty. -</p> -<p>And presently Philadelphia came sliding along to meet us with a stately -decorum of metalled roads and well-kept public grounds, and we stopped -for the first of the twelve halts, worth calling such, which I had to -make in the 3000 miles between the Atlantic and the Pacific. -</p> -<p>How treacherously the trains in America start! There is no warning -given, so far as an ordinary passenger can see, that the start is under -contemplation, and it takes him by surprise. The American understands -that "All aboard" means "If you don't jump up at once you'll be left -behind." But to those accustomed to a "first" and a "second" and a -"third" bell—and accustomed, too, not to get up even then until the -guard has begged them as a personal favour to take their seats—the -sudden departure of the American locomotive presents itself as a rather -shabby sort of practical joke. -</p> -<p>The quiet, unobtrusive scenery beyond Philadelphia is English in -character, and would be still more so if there were hedges instead -of railings. By the way, whenever reading biographical notices of -distinguished Americans I have been surprised to find that so many of -them at one time or other had "split rails" for a subsistence. But now -that I have followed the "course of empire" West, I am not the least -surprised. I only wonder that every American has not split rails, at -one time or another, or, indeed, gone on doing it all his life. For -how such a prodigious quantity of rails ever got split (even supposing -distinguished men to have assisted in the industry in early life) -passes my feeble comprehension. All the way from New York to Chicago -there are on an average twenty lines of split rails running parallel -with the railway track, in sight all at once! And after all, this is -only one narrow strip across a gigantic continent. In fact, the two -most prominent "natural features" of the landscape along this route are -dwarf firs and split rails. But no writer on America has ever told me -so. Nor have I ever been told of the curious misapprehension prevalent -in the States as to the liberty of the subject in the British Isles. -</p> -<p>In America, judging at any rate from the speech of "the average -American," I find that there is a belief prevalent that the English -nation "lies prostrate under the heel of a tyrant." What a shock to -those who think thus, must have been that recent episode of the queen's -pigs at Slough! -</p> -<p>Six swine and a calf belonging to her Majesty found themselves, the -other day, impounded by the Slough magistrates for coming to market -without a licence. Slough, from geographical circumstances over which -it has no control, happens to be in Buckinghamshire, and this country -has been declared "an infected district," so that the bailiff who -brought his sovereign's pigs to market, without due authority to do -so, transgressed the law. Two majesties thus came into collision -over the calf, and that of the law prevailed. Such a constitutional -triumph as this goes far to clear away the clouds that appeared to be -gathered upon the political horizon, and the shadows of a despotic -dictatorship which seemed to be falling across England begin to -vanish. The written law, contained probably in a very dilapidated -old copy in the possession of these rural magistrates, a dogs'-eared -and, it may be, even a ragged volume, asserted itself supreme over a -monarch's farmyard stock, and dared to break down that divinity which -doth hedge a Sovereign's swine. There are some who say that in the -British Isles men are losing their reverence for the law, and that -justice wears two faces, one for the rich and another for the poor. -They would have us believe that only the parasites of princes sit in -high place, and that the scales of justice rise or fall according to -the inclinations of the sceptre, with the obsequious regularity of the -tides that wait upon the humours of the moon. But such an incident -as this, when the Justices of Slough, those intrepid Hampdens, sate -sternly in their places, and, fearless of Royal frowns and all the -displeasure of Windsor, dispensed to the pigs, born in the purple, and -to the calf that had lived so near a throne, the impartial retribution -of a fine—with costs—gives a splendid refutation to these calumnies. -Where shall we look in Republican history for such another incident? -or where search for dauntless magistrates like those of Slough, who -shut their eyes against the reflected glitter of a Court, who fined the -Royal calf for risking the health of Hodge's miserable herd, and gave -the costs against the Imperial pigs for travelling into Buckinghamshire -without a licence? Fiat justitia, ruat coelum. There was no truckling -here to borrowed majesty, no sycophant adulation of Royal ownership; -but that fine old English spirit of courageous independence which has -made tyrants impossible in our island and our law supreme. It was of -no use before such men as these, the stout-hearted champions of equal -justice, for the bailiff to plead manorial privilege, or to threaten -the thunders of the House of Brunswick. They were as implacable as a -bench of Rhadamanthuses, and gave these distinguished hogs the grim -choice between paying a pound or going to one. Nor, to their credit -be it said, did either bailiff, calf, or pigs exhibit resentment. On -the contrary, they accepted judgment with that respectful acquiescence -which characterizes our law-abiding race, and the swine turned without -a murmur from the scene of their repulse, and trotted cheerfully before -the bailiff out of Buckinghamshire back to Windsor. -</p> -<p>The bailiff, no doubt, bethought him of the past, and wished the good -old days of feudalism were back, when a King's pig was a better man -than a Buckinghamshire magistrate. But if he did, he abstained from -saying so. On the contrary, he paid his fine like a loyal subject, and -gathering his innocent charges round him went forth, more in sorrow -than in anger, from the presence of the magisterial champions of the -public interests. The punished pigs, too, may have felt, perhaps, -just a twinge of regret for the days when they roamed at will over -the oak-grown shires, infecting each other as they chose, without any -thought of Contagious Diseases Acts or vigilant justices. But they -said nothing; and the spectacle of an upright stipendiary dispensing -impartial justice to a law-abiding aristocracy was thus complete. -</p> -<p>To return to my car. Beyond Philadelphia the country was waking up for -Spring. The fields were all flushed with the first bright promise of -harvest; blackbirds—reminding me of the Indian king-crows in their -sliding manner of flight and the conspicuous way in which they use -their tails as rudders—were flying about in sociable parties; and -flocks of finches went jerking up the hill-sides by fits and starts -after the fashion of these frivolous little folk. -</p> -<p>A mica-schist (it may be gneiss) abounds along the railway track, and -it occurred to me that I had never, except in India, seen this material -used for the ornamentation of houses. Yet it is very beautiful. In the -East they beat it up into a powder—some is white, some yellow—and -after mixing it with weak lime and water, wash the walls with it, the -result being a very effective although subdued sparkle, in some places -silvery, in others golden. -</p> -<p>Nearing Harrisburg the country begins to resemble upper Natal very -strongly, and when we reached the Susquehanna, I could easily have -believed that we were on the Mooi, on the borders of Zululand. But the -superior majesty of the American river soon asserted itself, and I -forgot the comparison altogether as I looked out on this truly noble -stream, with the finely wooded hills leaning back from it on either -side, as if to give its waters more spacious way. -</p> -<p>And then Harrisburg, and the same stealthy departure of the train. -But outside the station our having started was evident enough, for -a horse that had been left to look after a buggy for a few minutes, -took fright, and with three frantic kangaroo-leaps tried to take the -conveyance whole over a wall. But failing in this, it careered away -down the road with the balance of the buggy dangling in a draggle-tail -sort of way behind it. -</p> -<p>Nature works with so few ingredients that landscape repeats itself in -every continent. For there is a limit, after all, to the combinations -possible of water, mountain, plain, valley, and vegetation. This is -strictly true, of course, only when we deal with things generically. -Specific combinations go beyond arithmetic. But even with her species, -Nature delights in singing over old songs and telling the tales -she has already told. For instance here, after passing Harrisburg, -is a wonderful glimpse of Naini Tal in the Indian hills—memorable -for a terribly fatal landslip three years ago—with its oaks and -rhododendrons and scattered pines. In the valleys the streams go -tumbling along with willows on either bank, and here and there on the -hillsides, shine white houses with orchards about them. -</p> -<p>The houses men build for themselves when they are thinking only of -shelter are ugly enough. Elegance, like the nightingale, is a creature -of summer-time, when the hard-working months of the year are over and -Nature sits in her drawing-room, so to speak, playing the fine lady, -painting the roses and sweetening the peaches. But, ugly though they -are, these scattered homesteads are by far the finest lines in all the -great poem of this half-wild continent, and lend a grand significance -to every passage in which they occur. And the pathos of it! Look at -those two horses and a man driving a plough through that scrap of -ground yonder. There is not another living object in view, though the -eye covers enough ground for a European principality. Yet that man -dares to challenge all this tremendous Nature! It is David before -Goliath, before a whole wilderness of Goliaths, with a plough for a -sling and a ploughshare for a pebble. -</p> -<p>Here all of a sudden is another man, all alone with some millions of -trees and the Alleghanies. And he stands there with an axe in his -hands, revolving in that untidy head of his what he shall do next to -the old hills and their reverend forest growth. The audacity of it, and -the solemnity! -</p> -<p>It would be as well perhaps for sentiment if every man was quite alone. -For I find that if there are two men together one immediately tries -to sell the other something; and to inform him of its nature, he goes -and paints the name of his disgusting commodities on the smooth faces -of rocks and on tree-trunks. Now, any landscape, however grand, loses -in dignity if you see "Bunkum's Patent" inscribed in the foreground in -whitewash letters six feet high. -</p> -<p>What a mercy it is these quacks cannot advertise on the sky—or on -running water! -</p> -<p>For the river is now at its grandest and it keeps with us all the -afternoon, showing on either side splendid waterways between sloping -spurs of the hills densely wooded and strewn with great boulders. -But on a sudden the mountains are gone and the river with them, and -we speed along through a region of green grass-land and abundant -cultivation. Land agents might truthfully advertise it in lots as -"eligible sites for kingdoms." -</p> -<p>And so on, past townships, whose names running (at forty miles an hour) -no man can read, and round the famous "horseshoe curve"—where it looks -as if the train were trying to get its head round in order to swallow -its tail—down into valleys already taking their evening tints of misty -purple, and pink, and pale blue. And then Derry. -</p> -<p>Just before we arrived there, two freight trains had selected Derry as -an opportune spot for a collision, and had collided accordingly. There -could have been very little reservation about their collision, for the -wreck was complete, and when we got under way again we could just make -out by the moonlight the scattered limbs of carriages lying heaped -about on the bank. In some places it looked as if a clumsy apprentice -had been trying to make packing-cases out of freight wagons, but had -given up on finding that he had broken the pieces too small. And they -were too big for matches. So it was rather a useless sort of collision, -after all—and no one was hurt. -</p> -<p>But "the Pennsylvania Limited" has very little leisure to think about -other people's collisions, and so we were soon on our way again through -the moonlit country, with the hills in the distance lying still and -black, like round-backed monsters sleeping, and the stations going by -in sudden snatches of lamplight, and every now and then a train, its -bell giving a wail exactly like the sound of a shell as it passes over -the trenches. And so to Pittsburg, and, our "five minutes" over, the -train stole away like a hyena, snarling and hiccoughing, and we were -again out in the country, with everything about us beautified by the -gracious alchemy of the moonlight and the stars. -</p> -<p>And the Ohio River rolled alongside, with its steamers ploughing -up furrows of ghostly white froth, and unwinding as they went long -streamers of ghostly black—and then I fell asleep. -</p> -<p>When I awoke next morning I was in Indiana, and very sunny it looked -without a hill in sight to make a shadow. The water stood in lakes on -the dead level of the country, and horses, cattle, sheep, and here and -there a pig—a pregustation of Chicago—grazed and rooted, very well -satisfied apparently with pastures that had no ups and downs to trouble -them as they loitered about. And as the morning wore on, the people -woke up, and were soon as busy as their windmills. In the fields the -teams were ploughing; in the towns, the children were trooping off to -school. But the eternal level began at last, apparently, to weary the -Pennsylvania Limited, for it commenced slackening speed and finding -frivolous pretexts for coming nearly to a standstill—the climax being -reached when we halted in front of a small, piebald pig. We looked at -the pig and the pig looked at us, and the pig got the best of it, for -we sneaked off, leaving the porker master of the situation and still -looking. -</p> -<p>But these great flats—what a paradise of snipe they are, and how -golf-players might revel on them! Birds were abundant. Crows went about -in bands recruiting "black marauders" in every copse; blackbirds flew -over in flocks, and small things of the linnet kind rose in wisps from -the sedges and osiers. And there was another bird of which I did not -then know the name, that was a surprise every time it left the ground, -for it sate all black and flew half scarlet. Could not these marsh -levels be utilized for the Indian water-nut, the singhara? In Asia -where it is cultivated it ranks almost as a local staple of food, and -is delicious. -</p> -<p>A noteworthy feature of the country, by the way, is the sudden -appearance of hedge-rows. No detail of landscape that I know of makes -scenery at once so English. And then we find ourselves steaming along -past beds of osiers, with long waterways stretching up northwards, with -here and there painted duck, like the European sheldrake, floating -under the shadows of the fir-trees, and then I became aware of a great -green expanse of water showing through the trees, and I asked "What is -that? The water must be very deep to be such a colour." "That is Lake -Michigan," was the answer, "and this is Chicago we are coming to now." -</p> -<p>And very soon we found ourselves in the station of the great city by -the lake, with the masts of shipping alongside the funnels of engines. -But not a pig in sight! -</p> -<p>I had thought that Chicago was all pigs. -</p> -<p>And what a city it is, this central wonder of the States! As a whole, -Chicago is nearly terrific. The real significance of this phoenix city -is almost appalling. Its astonishing resurrection from its ashes and -its tremendous energy terrify jelly-fishes like myself. Before they -have got roads that are fit to be called roads, these Chicago men have -piled up the new County Hall, to my mind one of the most imposing -structures I have ever seen in all my wide travels. -</p> -<p>Chicago does not altogether seem to like it, for every one spoke of -it as "too solid-looking," but for my part I think it almost superb. -The architect's name, I believe, is Egan; but whence he got his -architectural inspiration I cannot say. It reminds me in part of a wing -of the Tuileries, but why it does I could not make up my mind. -</p> -<p>Then again, look at this Chicago which allows its business -thoroughfares to be so sumptuously neglected—some of them are almost -as disreputable-looking as Broadway—and goes and lays out imperial -"boulevards" to connect its "system of parks." These boulevards, simply -if left alone for the trees to grow up and the turf to grow thick, -will before long be the finest in all the world. The streets in the -city, however, if left alone much longer, would be a disgrace to—well, -say Port Said. The local administration, they say, is "corrupt." But -that is the standing American explanation for everything with which a -stranger finds fault. I was always told the same in New York—and would -you seriously tell me that the municipal administration of New York -is corrupt?—to account for congestion of traffic, fat policemen, bad -lamps, sidewalks blocked with packing-cases, &c., &c. And in Chicago it -accounts for the streets being more like rolling prairie than streets, -for cigar stores being houses of assignation, for there being so much -orange peel and banana skin on the sidewalks, &c., &c. But I am not at -all sure that "municipal corruption" is not a scapegoat for want of -public spirit. -</p> -<p>But let the public spirit be as it may, there can be no doubt as to -the private enterprise in Chicago. Take the iron industry alone—what -prodigious proportions it is assuming, and how vastly it will be -increased when that circum-urban "belt line" of railways is completed! -Take, again, the Pullman factories. They by themselves form an industry -which might satisfy any town of moderate appetite. But Chicago is a -veritable glutton for speculative trade. -</p> -<p>The streets at all times abound with incident. Here at one corner was -a Hansom cab, surely the very latest development of European science, -with two small black children, looking like imps in a Drury Lane -pantomime, trying to pin "April Fool" on to the cabman's dependent -tails. Could anything be more incongruous? In the first place, what -have negro children to do with April fooling? and in the next, imagine -these small scraps in ebony taking liberties with a Hansom! A group -of cowboy-and-miner looking men were grouped in ludicrous attitudes -of sentimentality before a concertina-player, who was wheezing out -his own version of "old country" airs. On the arm of one of the group -languished a lady with a very dark skin, dressed in a rich black silk -dress, with a black satin mantle trimmed with sumptuous fur, and -half an ostrich on her head by way of bonnet and feathers. The men -there, as in most of America, strike me as being very judicious in the -arrangement of their personal appearance, especially in the trimming -of their hair and moustachios; but many of the women—I speak now of -Chicago—sacrificed everything to that awful American institution, the -"bang." -</p> -<p>I know of no female head-dress in Asia, Africa, or Europe so absurd -in itself or so lunatic in the wearer as some of the Chicago bangs. -Ugliness of face is intensified a thousandfold by "the ring-worm style" -of head-dress with which they cover their foreheads and half their -cheeks. Prettiness of face can, of course, never be hidden; but I -honestly think that neither a black skin, nor lip-rings and nose-rings, -nor red teeth, nor any other fantastic female fashion that I have ever -seen in other parts of the world, goes so far towards concealing beauty -of features as that curly plastering which, from ignorance of its real -name, I have called "the ring worm style of bang." -</p> -<p>Here, too, in Chicago I found a man selling "gophers." Now, I do not -know the American name for this vanish-into-nothing sort of pastry, but -I do know that there is one man in London who declares that he, and he -alone in all the world, is aware of the secret of the gopher. And all -London believes him. His is supposed to be a lost art—but for him—and -I should not be surprised if some lover of the antique were to bribe -him to bequeath the precious secret to an heir before he dies. But in -Chicago peripatetic vendors of this cate are an every-day occurrence, -and even the juvenile Ethiop sometimes compasses the gopher. What -its American name is I cannot say; but it is a very delicate kind of -pastry punched into small square depressions, and every mouthful you -eat is so inappreciable in point of matter that you look down on your -waistcoat to see if you have not dropped it, and when the whole is done -you feel that you have consumed about as much solid nutriment as a fish -does after a nibble at an artificial bait. Have you ever given a dog a -piece of warm fat off your plate and seen him after he had swallowed -it look on the carpet for it? So rapid is the transit of the delicious -thing that the deluded animal fancies that he has as yet enjoyed only -the foretaste of a pleasure still to be, the shadow only of the coming -event, the promise of something good. It is just the same with yourself -after eating a gopher. -</p> -<p>Of course I went to see the stock-yards, and my visit, as it happened, -had something of a special character, for I saw a pig put through its -performances in thirty-five seconds. A lively piebald porker was one -of a number grunting and quarrelling in a pen, and I was asked to keep -my eye on him. And what happened to that porker was this.<sup>[<a name="CHAPTERIfn1"></a><a href="#txtCHAPTERIfn1">1</a>]</sup> He was -suddenly seized by a hind leg, and jerked up on to a small crane. This -swung him swiftly to the fatal door through which no pig ever returns. -On the other side stood a man— -</p> -<p> That two-handed engine at the door - Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more, -</p> -<p>and the dead pig shot across a trough and through another doorway, -and then there was a splash! He had fallen head first into a vat of -boiling water. Some unseen machinery passed him along swiftly to the -other end of the terrible bath, and there a water-wheel picked him -up and flung him out on to a sloping counter. Here another machine -seized him, and with one revolution scraped him as bald as a nut. And -down the counter he went, losing his head as he slid past a man with -a hatchet, and then, presto! he was up again by the heels. In one -dreadful handful a man emptied him, and while another squirted him -with fresh water, the pig—registering his own weight as he passed the -teller's box—shot down the steel bar from which he hung, and whisked -round the corner into the ice-house. One long cut of a knife made two -sides of pork out of that piebald pig. Two hacks of a hatchet brought -away his backbone. And there, in thirty-five seconds from his last -grunt—dirty, hot-headed, noisy—the pig was hanging up in two pieces, -clean, tranquil, iced! -</p> -<p>The very rapidity of the whole process robbed it of all its horrors. -It even added the ludicrous to it. Here one minute was an opinionated -piebald pig making a prodigious fuss about having his hind leg taken -hold of, and lo! before he had even made up his mind whether to squeal -or only to squeak, he was hanging up in an ice-house, split in two! He -had resented the first trifling liberty that was taken with him, and in -thirty-five seconds he was ready for the cook! -</p> -<p>That the whole process is virtually painless is beyond all doubt, for -it is only for the first fraction of the thirty-odd seconds that the -pig is sentient, and I doubt if even electricity could as suddenly and -painlessly extinguish life as the lightning of that unerring poniard, -"the dagger of mercy" and the instantaneous plunge into the scalding -bath. -</p> -<p>Of the Chicago stock-yards, a veritable village, laid out with its -miniature avenues intersecting its mimic streets and numbered blocks, -it is late in the day to speak. But it was very interesting in its way -to see the poor doomed swine thoughtlessly grunting along the road, and -inquisitively asking their way, as it seemed, of the sheep in Block 9 -or of the sulky Texan steer looking out between the palings of Block -7; to watch the cattle, wild-eyed from distress and long journeying, -snorting their distrust of their surroundings, and trying at every -opportunity to turn away from the terribly straight road that leads to -death, into any crossway that seemed likely to result in freedom; to -see for the first time the groups of Western herdsmen lounging at the -corners, while their unkempt ponies, guarded in most cases by drowsy -shepherd-dogs, stood tethered in bunches against the palings. All day -long the air is filled with porcine clamour, and some of the pens -are scenes of perpetual riot. For the pig does not chant his "nunc -dimittis" with any seemliness. His last canticles are frivolous. It -is impossible to translate them into any "morituri te salutant," for -they are wanting in dignity, and even self-respect. With the cattle -it is very different. But few of them were in such good case as to -make high spirits possible, and many were wretched objects to look -at. Dead calves lay about in the pens, and there was a general air of -distress that made the scene abundantly pathetic. But, after all, it -does not pay to starve or overdrive cattle, and we may confidently -expect therefore, that in Chicago, of all places in the world, they are -neither starved nor overdriven systematically. -</p> -<p>The English sparrow has multiplied with characteristic industry in -Chicago, but further west I lost it. I saw none between Omaha and -Salt Lake City. So the sparrow line, I take it, must be drawn for -the present somewhere west of Clinton. I do not think it has crossed -the Mississippi yet from the east. But it is steadily advancing its -frontiers—this aggressive fowl—from both sea-boards, and just as it -has pushed itself forward from the Atlantic into Illinois, so from the -Pacific it has got already as far as Nevada. The tyranny of the sparrow -is the price men pay for civilization. Only savages are exempt. Here in -America, they have developed into a multitudinous evil, dispossessing -with a high hand the children of the soil, thrusting their Saxon -assumption of superiority upon the native feathered flock of grove and -garden, and driving them from their birthright. They have no respect -for authorities, and entertain no awe even for the Irish aldermen of -New York. In Australia it is the same. Imported as a treasure, they -have presumed upon the sentiment of exiled Englishmen until they have -become a veritable calamity. So they have been publicly proclaimed -as "vermin," and a price set upon their heads "per hundred." Indeed, -legislatures threaten to stand or fall upon the sparrow question. Here -in America, men and women began by putting nesting-boxes for the birds -in the trees and at corners of houses; I am much mistaken if before -long they do not end by putting up ladders against the trees to help -the cats to get up to catch the sparrows. -</p> -<p>I looked everywhere for "Chicago Mountain"—a New England joke against -the Phoenix City—and at last found it behind a house at the corner of -Pine and Colorado streets. They say (in Boston) that Chicago, being -chaffed about having no high land near it, set to work to build itself -a mountain, but that when it had reached its present moderate elevation -of a few feet, the city abandoned the project. But I am inclined to -think that this fiction is due to the spite of the New Englanders, who, -it is notorious, have to sharpen the noses of their sheep to enable -them to reach the grass that grows between the stones; for on looking -at the mountain in question I perceived it to be merely a natural -sand-dune which it has not been thought worth while to clear away. -Further to acquaint myself with the city, I went into sundry "penny -gaffs," or cafés chantants, and found them to my surprise patronized -by groups of men sad almost to melancholy. It was the music, I think, -that made them feel so. Its effect on me I know was very chastening. I -felt inclined to lift up my voice and howl. But the intense gravity of -the company restrained me, and I left. Yet I am told that inside these -very places men stab each other with Bowie knives and shoot each other -with revolvers, and are even sometimes quite disagreeable in their -manners. But so far as my own experience goes I seldom saw a gathering -so unanimously solemn. I might even say so tearful. It is possible, of -course, that the music eventually maddens them, that it works them up -about midnight into a homicidal melancholy. But there was no profligacy -of blood-shedding while I was there. -</p> -<p>They did not even offer to murder a musician. -</p> -<h3>Footnotes: -</h3> -<p><a name="txtCHAPTERIfn1"></a><a href="#CHAPTERIfn1">1</a>. Need I say that I do not refer to the small field-rat of that name? -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERII"></a>CHAPTER II. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM CHICAGO TO DENVER. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Fathers of Waters—"Rich Lands lie Flat"—The Misery River—Council - Bluffs—A "Live" town, sir—Two murders: a contrast—Omaha—The - immorality of "writing up"—On the prairies—The modesty of - "Wish-ton-Wish"—The antelope's tower of refuge—Out of Nebraska - into Colorado—Man-eating Tiger. -</p> -<p>FROM Chicago to Omaha by the Chicago and "Northwestern" route is not an -exhilarating journey. When Nature begins to make anything out here in -America she never seems to know when to stop. She can never make a few -of anything. For instance, it might have been thought that one or two -hundred miles of perfectly flat land was enough at a time. But Nature, -having once commenced flattening out the land, cannot leave off. So all -the way from Chicago to Omaha there is the one same pattern of country, -a wilderness of maize-stubble and virgin land, broken only for the -first half of the way by occasional patches of water-oak, and for the -second half of willows. -</p> -<p>Just on the frontier-line of these two vegetable divisions of the -country lies a tract of bright turf-land. What a magician this same -turf is! It is Wendell Holmes, I think, who says that Anglo-Saxons -emigrate only "in the line of turf." -</p> -<p>The better half of the journey passed on Sunday, and the people were -all out in loitering, well-dressed groups "to see the train pass," and -at the stations where we stopped, to see the passengers, too. Where -they came from it was not easy to tell, for the homesteads in sight -were very few and far between. Yet there they were, happy, healthy, -well-to-do contented-looking families, enjoying the Day of Rest—the -one dissipation of the hard-worked week. What a comfortable connecting -link with the outer world the railway must be to these scattered -dwellers on this prairie-land! -</p> -<p>So through Illinois to the Mississippi. How wonderfully it resembles -the Indus where it flows past Lower Sind. A minaret or two, a -blue-tiled cupola and a clump of palms would make the resemblance of -the Mississippi at Clinton to the Indus below Rohri complete. And both -rivers claim to be "the Father of Waters." I would not undertake to -decide between them. In modern annals, of course, the American must -take pre-eminence; but what can surpass the historic grandeur that -dignifies the Indian stream? -</p> -<p>And so into Iowa, just as flat, and as rich, and as monotonous as -Illinois, and with just the same leagues of maize-stubble, unbroken -soil, water-oaks and willows. And then, in the deepening twilight, to -Cedar Rapids, with the pleasant sound of rushing water and all the -townsfolk waiting "to see the train" on their way from church, standing -in groups, with their prayer-books and Bibles in their hands. -</p> -<p>By the way, what an admirable significance there is in he care with -which these young townships discharge their duties to their religion -and the dead. The church or prayer-house seems to be always one of the -first and finest buildings. With only half-a-dozen homesteads in sight -in some places, there is the church and while all the rest are of the -humblest class of frame houses, the church is of brick. The cemeteries -again. Before even the plots round the living are set in order, "God's -acre" (often the best site in the neighbourhood) is neatly fenced and -laid out. -</p> -<p>And I thought it somehow a beautiful touch of national character, this -reverent providence for the dead that are to come. And just before I -went to sleep, I saw out in the moonlit country a cemetery, and on the -crest of the rising ground stood one solitary tombstone, the pioneer -of the many—the first dead settler's grave. In this new country the -living are as yet in the majority! -</p> -<p>Awakening, find myself still in Iowa, and Iowa still as flat as ever. -Not spirit enough in all these hundred miles of land to firk up even a -hillock, a mound, a pimple. But to make a new proverb, "Rich lands lie -flat;" and Iowa; in time, will be able to feed the world—aye, and to -clothe it too. -</p> -<p>In the mean time we are approaching the Missouri, through levels in -which the jack-rabbit abounds, and every farmer, therefore, seems to -keep a greyhound for coursing the long-eared aborigines. The willows, -conscious of secret resources of water, are already in leaf, and -overhead the wild ducks and geese are passing to their feeding-grounds. -Here I saw "blue" grass for the first time, and I must say I am glad -that grass is usually green. Elsewhere in the States, English grass is -called "blue grass;" but in some parts, as here in this part of Iowa, -there is a native grass which is literally blue. And it is not an -improvement, so far as the effect on the landscape goes, upon the old -fashioned colour for grass. And then the Missouri, a muddy, shapeless, -dissipated stream. The people on its banks call it "treacherous," and -pronounce its name "Misery." It is certainly a most unprepossessing -river, with its ill-gotten banks of ugly sand, and its lazy brown -waters gurgling along in an overgrown, self-satisfied way. It is -a bullying stream; gives nobody peace that lives near it; and is -perpetually trying in an underhanded sort of way to "scour" out the -foundations of the hollow columns on which the bridges across it are -built. But the abundance of water-fowl upon its banks and side-waters -is a redeeming feature for all who care to carry a gun, and I confess -I should like to have had a day's leisure at Council Bluffs to go out -and have a shot. The inhabitants of the place, however, do not seem -to be goose-eaters, for, close season or not, I cannot imagine their -permitting flocks of these eminently edible birds to fly circling about -over their houses, within forty yards of the ground. The wild-goose -is proverbially a wary fowl, but here at Council Bluffs they have -apparently become from long immunity as impertinent and careless as -sparrows. -</p> -<p>Council Bluffs, as the pow-wow place of the Red Men in the days when -Iowa was rolling prairie and bison used to browse where horses plough, -has many a quaint legend of the past; and in spite of the frame houses -that are clustered below them and the superb cobweb bridge—it has few -rivals in the world—that here spans the Missouri, the Bluffs, as the -rendezvous of Sagamore and Sachem, stand out from the interminable -plains eloquent of a very picturesque antiquity. And so to Omaha. -</p> -<p>"But I guess, sir, Om'a's a live town. Yes, sir, a live town." -</p> -<p>My experiences of Omaha were too brief for me to be just, too -disagreeable for me to be impartial. Before breakfast I saw a murder -and suicide, and between breakfast and luncheon a fire and several -dog-fights. Perhaps I might have seen something more. But a terrible -dust-storm raged in the streets all day. Besides, I went away. -</p> -<p>I am beginning already to hate "live" towns. -</p> -<h3>I. -</h3> -<p>It was during the Afghan War. I had just ridden back from General -Roberts' camp in the Thull Valley, on the frontiers of Afghanistan, and -found myself stopped on my return at the Kohat Pass. "It is the orders -of Government," said the sentry: "the Pass is unsafe for travellers." -</p> -<p>But I had to get through the Pass whether it was "safe" or not, for -through it lay the only road to General Browne's camp, to which I was -attached. So I dismounted, and after a great deal of palaver, partly of -bribes, partly of untruths, I not only got past the native sentries, -but got a guide to escort me, through the thirty miles of wild Afridi -defiles that lay before me. The scenery is, I think, among the finest -in the world, while, added to all is the strange fascination of the -knowledge that the people who live in the Pass have cherished from -generation to generation the most vindictive blood feuds. The villages -are surrounded by high walls, loopholed along the top, and the huts in -the inside are built against the wall, so that the roofs of them can -be used by the men of the village as lounges during the day, and as -ramparts for sentries during the night. Within these sullen squares -each clan lives in perpetual siege. The women and children are at all -times permitted to go to and fro; but for the men, woe to him who -happens to stray within reach of the jezails that lie all ready loaded -in the loopholes of the next village. The crops are sown and reaped by -men with guns slung on their backs, and in the middle of every field -stands a martello-tower, in which the peasants can take shelter if -neighbours sally out to attack them while at work. Rope-ladders hang -from a doorway half-way up the tower, and up this, like lizards, the -men scramble, one after the other, as soon as danger threatens, draw in -the ladder, and through the loop-holes overlook their menaced crops. -</p> -<p>A wonderful country truly, and something in the air to day that makes -my guide ride as hard as the road will permit, with his sword drawn -across the saddle before him. My revolver is in my hand. And so we -clatter along, mile after mile, through the beautiful series of little -valleys, grim villages, and towers. Now and again a party of women will -step aside to let us pass, or a dog start up to bark at us, but not a -single man do we see. Yet I know very well that hundreds of men see us -ride by, and that a jezail is lying at every loophole, and covering the -very path we ride on. -</p> -<p>We reach a sudden turn of the path; my guide gallops round it. He is -hardly out of my sight when Bang! bang! It is no use pulling up, and -the next instant I am round the corner too. A man, with his jezail -still smoking from the last shot, starts up from the undergrowth almost -under my horse's feet, and narrowly escapes being ridden down. Another -man comes running down the hillside towards him. In front of me, some -fifty yards off, is my guide, with his horse's head towards me and his -sword in his hand, and on the path, midway between us, lies a heap of -brightly-coloured clothing—a dead Afridi! For a second both guide -and I thought that it was we who had drawn the fire from the ambushed -men. But no, it the poor Afridi lad lying there in the path before -us, and the victim of a blood feud. He had tried, no doubt, to steal -across from his own village to some friendly hamlet close by, but his -lynx-eyed enemies had seen him, and, lying there on either side of his -path, had shot him as he passed. -</p> -<p>But what a group we were! Myself, with my revolver in my hand, looking, -horror-stricken, now at the dead, and now at his murderers; my guide, -in the splendid uniform of the Indian irregular cavalry, emotionless as -only Orientals can be; the two murderers talking together excitedly; in -the middle of us the dead lad! But there was still another figure to be -added, for suddenly, along the very path by which the victim had come, -there came running an old woman—perhaps she had followed the lad with -a mother's tender anxiety for his safety—and in an instant she saw the -worst. Without a glance at any of us, she flung herself down with the -cry of a breaking heart, by the dead boys side, and as my guide turned -to ride on and I followed him, as the murderers slipped away into the -undergrowth, we all heard her crooning, between her sobs, over the body -of her murdered son. -</p> -<h3>II. -</h3> -<p>I was in Omaha. I had just crossed Thirteenth Street, and, turning to -look as I passed, at the Catholic church, had caught an idle glimpse of -the folk in the street. Among them was a woman at the wooden gateway of -a small house, hesitating, so it seemed to me afterwards, about pushing -it open, for though she had her hand upon the latch, yet she did not -lift it, but appeared to me, at the distance I passed and the cursory -glance I gave, to be listening to what somebody was saying to her -through the window. Had I been only a few yards nearer! At the moment -that I saw her, the wretched woman was gazing with fixed and horrified -eyes upon a face—a grim and cruel face—that glared at her from a -window, and at a gun that she saw was pointed full at her breast. And -the next instant, just as I had turned the corner, there was the report -of fire-arms. It did not occur to me to stop. But suddenly I heard a -cry, and then a second shot, and somehow there flashed upon my mind the -picture of that hesitating woman by the wicket, with her knitted shawl -over her head, and the wind blowing her light dress to one side. -</p> -<p>I did not turn back, however. For the woman and the shots had only the -merest flash of a connexion in my mind. But after a few steps a man -came running past me, going perhaps for the doctor, or the police, -or the coroner, and the scared look on his face suddenly once more -wrenched back to my imagination the woman at the wicket. -</p> -<p>So I turned back into Thirteenth Street, and there, in the middle of -the road, with a man stooping over her and two women, transfixed by -sudden terror into attitudes that were most tragic, I saw the woman -lying. Her face was turned up to the bright sunlit sky, her shawl had -fallen back about her neck, and her hair lay in the dust. She was -already dead. And her murderer? He too had gone to his last account; -and as I stood there in that dreary Omaha road, with the wind raising -wisps of dust about the horror-stricken group, and thought of the two -dead bodies lying there, one in the roadway, the other in the house -close by, my mind reverted involuntarily to the fancy that at that very -moment the two souls, man and wife, were standing before their Maker, -and that perhaps she, the poor mangled woman, was pleading for mercy -for the man, her husband, the lover of her youth—her murderer. -</p> -<p>— -</p> -<p>In the evening, when a cool breeze was blowing, and imagination -pictured the trees holding up screens of green foliage before the -hotel windows to shut out the ugly views of half-built streets, I -entertained feelings that were almost kindly towards Omaha; but the -memory of the day that was happily past, as often as it recurred to -me, changed them to gall again. All day long there had been a flaring, -glaring sun overhead and the wind that was blowing would have done -credit to the deserts through which I have since marched with the army -in Egypt. It went howling down the street with the voices of wild -beasts, and carried with it such simooms of sand as would probably -in a week overwhelm and bury in Ninevite oblivion the buildings of -this aspiring town. And not only sand, but whirlwinds of vulgar dust -also, with occasional discharges of cinders, that came rushing along -the road, picking up all the rubbish it could find, dodging up alleys -and coming out again with accumulations of straw, rampaging into -courtyards in search of paper and rags, standing still in the middle -of the roadway to whirl, and altogether behaving itself just as a -disreputable and aggressive vagabond may be always expected to behave. -Of course I was told it was a "very exceptional" day. It always is a -"very exceptional day" wherever a stranger goes. But I must confess -that I never saw any place—except Aden, and perhaps East London, in -South Africa—that struck me on short acquaintance as so thoroughly -undesirable for a lengthened abode. The big black swine rooting about -in the back yards, the little black boys playing drearily at "marbles" -with bits of stone, the multitude of dogs loafing on the sidewalks, the -depressing irregularity Of the streets, the paucity of shade-trees, -the sandy bluffs that dominate the town and hold over the heads of -the inhabitants the perpetual threat of siroccos, and the general -appearance (however false it may have been) of disorder—all combined -with various degrees of force to give the impression that Omaha is a -place that had from some cause or another been suddenly checked in its -natural expansion. -</p> -<p>Its geographical position is indisputably a commanding one, and already -the great smelting works, with one exception the busiest in the States, -the splendid workshops of the Union Pacific Railway, and the thriving -distillery close by, give promise of the great industries which in the -future this town, with its wonderful advantages of communication, as -the meeting-point of great railway high-roads, will attract to itself. -Omaha has an admirable opera-house, and when its hotel is rebuilt it -will be able to offer visitors good accommodation. It has also an -imposing school-house imposingly advertised by being on top of a hill, -and the refining grace of gardens is not completely absent, while the -"stove-pipe" hat gives fragmentary evidence of advanced civilization. -But all this affords encouragement for the future only; at present -Omaha is a depressing spot. And so I left the town without regret; but -I did not make any effort to shake off the dust of Omaha. That was -impossible; it had penetrated the texture of my clothing so completely -that nothing but shredding my garments into their original threads -would have sufficed. -</p> -<p>Now I had read something of Omaha before I went there, had seen it -called "a splendid Western city," and been invited to linger there -to examine its "dozens of noble monuments to invincible enterprise," -which, with "the dozen or more church spires," are supposed to break -the sky-line of the view of this "metropolis of the North-western -States and Territories." It is possible, therefore, that my profound -disappointment with the reality, after reading such exaggerated -description, may have tinged my opinion of Omaha, and, combined with -the unfortunately "exceptional" day I spent there, have made me think -very poorly of the former capital of Nebraska. That it has a great -future before it, its position alone guarantees, and the enterprise -of Nebraska puts beyond all doubt; but the sight-seer going to Omaha, -and expecting to find it anything but a very new town on a very -unprepossessing site, will be as greatly disappointed as I was. -</p> -<p>Equally unfortunate is the "writing up" which the Valley of the Platte -has received. Who, for instance, that has travelled on the railway -along that great void can read without annoyance of "beautiful valley -landscapes, in which thousands of productive farms, fine farm-houses, -blossoming orchards, and thriving cities" are features of the country -traversed? No one can charge me with a want of sympathy with the -true significance of this wonderful Western country. And I can say, -therefore, without hesitation that the dreariness of the country -between Omaha and Denver Junction is almost inconceivable. There is -hardly even a town worth calling such in sight, much less "thriving -cities." The original prairie lies there spread out, on either hand, -in nearly all its original barrenness. Interminable plains, that -occasionally roll into waves, stretch away to the horizon to right and -left, dotted with skeletons of dead cattle and widely scattered herds -of living ones. Here and there a cow-boy's shed, and here and there a -ranch of the ordinary primitive type, and here and there a dug-out, -are all the "features" of the long ride. An occasional emigrant waggon -perhaps breaks the dull, dead monotony of the landscape, and in one -place there is a solitary bush upon a mound. A hawk floats in the air -above a prairie-dog village. A plover sweeps past with its melancholy -cry. -</p> -<p>No, the journey to North Platte—where a very bad breakfast was put -before us at a dollar a head—is not attractive. But here again it is -the Possible in the future that makes the now desolate scene so full -of interest and so splendidly significant. As a grazing country it -can never, perhaps, be very populous; but in time, of course, those -ranches, now struggling so bravely against terrible odds, will become -"fine farm-houses," and have "blossoming orchards" about them. But as -yet these things are not, and for good, all-round dreariness I would -not know where to send a friend with such confidence as to the pastures -between Omaha and North Platte. -</p> -<p>Oh! when are we to have Pullman palace balloons? Condemned to travel, -my soul and my bones cry out for air-voyaging. -</p> -<p>That some day man should fly like a bird has been, in spite of -superstition, an article of honest belief from the beginning of time, -and in the dove of Archytas alone we have proof enough that, even in -those days, the successful accomplishment of flight was accepted as a -fact of science. During the Middle Ages so common was this belief that -every man who dabbled in physics was pronounced a magician, and as such -was credited with the power of transporting himself through the air -at will. Some, indeed, actually claimed the enviable privilege, Friar -Bacon among others. But history records no practical illustration of -their control of the air, while more than one death is chronicled of -daring men who, with insufficient apparatus, launched themselves in -imitation of birds upon space, and fell, more or less precipitately, to -earth. The Italian who flapped himself off Stirling Castle trusted only -to a pair of huge feather wings, which he had tied on to his arms, and -got no farther on his way to France than the heads of the spectators -at the bottom of the wall; while the Monk of Tübingen started on his -journey from the top of his tower with apparatus that immediately -turned inside out, and increased by its weight the momentum with which -he came down plumb into the street. -</p> -<p>Beyond North Platte the same melancholy expanses again commence, the -same rolling prairies, with the same dead cattle and the same herds of -live ones, an occasional waggon or a stock-yard or snow-fence being -all that interrupts the flat monotony. But approaching Sterling a -suspicion of verdure begins in places to steal over the grey prairie, -and flights of "larks," with a bright, pleasant note, give something -of an air of animation to isolated spots. Here is a plough at work, -the first we have passed, I think, since we left Omaha, and the plover -piping overhead seem to resent the novelty. Cattle continue to dot the -landscape, and all the afternoon the Platte rolls along a sluggish -stream parallel to the track. -</p> -<p>The train happened to slacken pace at one point, and a man came up to -the cars. He was a beggar, and asked our help to get along the road -"eastward." One of his arms was in a sling from an accident, and his -whole appearance eloquent of utter destitution. And the very landscape -pleaded for him. Beggary at any time must be wretchedness, but here in -this bleak waste of pasturage it must almost be despair. And as the -train sped on, the one dismal figure creeping along by the side of the -track, with the dark clouds of a snowstorm coming up to meet him, was -strangely pathetic. -</p> -<p>And then Sterling. May Sterling be forgiven for the dinner it set -before us! -</p> -<p>And then on again, across long leagues of level plain, thickly studded -with prickly pear patches and seamed with the old bison and antelope -tracks leading down from the hills to the river. There are no bison -now. They cannot stand before the stove-pipe hat. The sombreroed -hunter, with his lasso, the necklace of death, was an annoyance to -them; they spent their lives dodging him. The befeathered Indian, "the -chivalry of the prairie," who pincushioned their hides full of arrows, -was a terror to them, and they fell by thousands. But before the -stove-pipe hat the bison fled incontinently by the herd, and have never -returned. -</p> -<p>The prairie-dogs peep out of their holes at us as we passed. The -bashfulness of "Wish-ton-Wish," as the Red Man calls the prairie-dog, -is as nearly impudence as one thing can be another. It sits up perkily -on one end at the edge of its hole till you are close upon it, and -then, with a sudden affectation of being shocked at its own immodesty, -dives headlong into its hole; but its hind-legs are not out of sight -before the head is up again, and the next instant there is the -prairie-dog sitting exactly where you first saw it! Such a burlesque of -shyness I never saw in a quadruped before. -</p> -<p>A solitary coyote was loitering in a hungry way along a gulch, and I -could not help thinking how the most important epochs of one's life -may often turn upon the merest trifles. Now, here was a coyote ambling -lazily up a certain gulch because it had happened to see some white -bones bleaching a little way up it. But in the very next gulch, which -the coyote had not happened to go up, were three half-bred greyhounds -idling about, just in the humour for something to run after. But they -could not see the coyote, though it was really only a few yards off, -nor could the coyote see them. So the dogs lounged about in a listless, -do-nothing, tired-of-life sort of way, thinking existence as dull -as ditch water, while the coyote, unconscious of the narrow escape -of its life that it ran, trotted slowly along—scrutinized the old -bones—scratched its head—yawned out of sheer ennui, and then trotted -along again. Now, what a difference it would have made to those three -dogs if they had only happened to loaf into the next gulch! And what -a prodigious difference it would have made to the coyote if it had -happened to loaf into the next gulch! -</p> -<p>The prickly pear, that ugly, fleshy little cactus, with its sudden -summer glories of crimson and golden blossoms, fulfils a strange -purpose in the animal economy of the prairies. In itself it appears to -be one of the veriest outcasts among vegetables, execrated by man and -refused as food by beast. Yet if it were not for this plant the herds -of prairie antelope would have fared badly enough, for the antelope, -whenever they found themselves in straits from wolves or from dogs, -made straight for the prickly pear patches and belts, and there, -standing right out on the barren, open plain, defied their swift but -tender-footed pursuers to come near them. For the small, thick pads -of the cactus, though they lie so flat and insignificantly upon the -ground, are studded with tufts of strong, fierce spines, and woe to the -wolf or the dog that treads upon them. The antelope's hoofs, however, -are proof against the spines, and one leap across such a belt suffices -to place the horned folk in safety. These patches and belts, then, so -trivial to the eye, and in some places almost invisible to the cursory -glance, are in reality Towers of Refuge to the great edible division of -the wild prairie nations, and as impassable to the eaters as was that -girdle of fire and steel which Von Moltke buckled so closely round the -city of the Napoleons. -</p> -<p>But here we are approaching Denver. The cottonwood has mustered into -clusters, a prototype of the future of these now scattered ranches. -Dotted about here and there in suitable corners, on river bank or under -sheltering bluff, single trees are growing side by side with single -stockyards or single cow-boys' huts, but every now and again, where -nature offers them a good site for a colony, the trees congregate, -select lots, and permanently locate. It is not very different after -all, with human beings. -</p> -<p>Nature here is undoubtedly tempting, and Denver itself must surely be -one of the most beautiful towns in the States. Through great reaches -of splendid farm-land, with water in abundance and the cottonwood and -willow growing thickly, we pass to our destination as the twilight -settles on the country. -</p> -<p>A whole day has again been spent in the train! We had awaked in the -morning to see from the car windows the people of Nebraska going out -to their day's work in the fields, and here in the evening we sit and -watch the Colorado folk coming home to their rest after the day's work -is over. Truly this steam is a Latter-Day apocalypse and this America a -land of magnificent distances. -</p> -<p>I found out on this trip that my fellow-travellers (and the fact holds -good nearly all over America) took the greatest interest in British -India, and finding that I had spent so many years there, they plied me -with questions. On some journeys it would be the political aspect of -our government of Hindostan that interested, at others the commercial -or the social. But going through Colorado, one of the haunts of the -"grizzly" and the "mountain lion," I had to detail my experiences of -sport in India. Above all, the tiger interested them. It is the only -animal in the world that may be said to give the grizzly a point or -two. And there are some even who deny this; but I, who have shot the -tiger, and never seen a grizzly, naturally concede the first place in -perilous courage to Stripes, the raja of the jungle. In one particular -aspect, at any rate, the tiger is supreme among quadrupeds. It has the -splendid audacity to make man his regular food. -</p> -<p>Now, it is generally supposed that the "man-eater" is a specially -formidable variety of the species; that it is only the boldest, -strongest, and fiercest of the tigers that preys on man. But the very -reverse is of course the truth. When hale and strong the tiger avoids -the vicinity of men, finding abundant food in the herds of deer and -other wild animals that share his jungles. But when strength and speed -of limb begin to fail, the brute has to look for easier prey than the -courageous bison or wind-footed antelope, and so skulks among the -ravines and waste patches of woodland that are to be found about nearly -every village. Then when twilight obscures the scene, he creeps out -noiseless as a shadow, and lies in ambush in a crop of standing grain -or bhair-tree brake, and watches the country folk go by from the fields -in twos and threes, driving their plough cattle before them. After a -while, there comes sauntering past alone, a man or a woman who has -lagged behind the company; yet not so far behind but that the friends -ahead can hear the scream which tells of the tiger's leap, though too -far for help to be of use. During four years 350 human beings and -24,000 head of cattle were killed by these animals in one district in -Bombay, while many single tigers have been known to destroy over a -hundred people before they were shot. One in the Mandla district caused -the desertion of thirteen villages and threw out of cultivation two -hundred and fifty square miles of country; while another, only one of -many similar cases, was credited with the appalling total of eighty -human victims per annum! The yearly loss in cattle and by decrease -of cultivation through the ravages of these fearful beasts has been -estimated at ten million pounds sterling! -</p> -<p>No wonder, then, that even these doughty grizzly-slayers of the Rockies -respect the tiger's name. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERIII"></a>CHAPTER III. -</h2> -<p class="centered">IN LEADVILLE. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> The South Park line—Oscar Wilde on sunflowers as food—In a - wash-hand basin—Anti-Vigilance Committees—Leadville the city of - the carbonates—"Busted" millionaires—The philosophy of thick - boots—Colorado miners—National competition in lions—Abuse of the - terms "gentleman" and "lady"—Up at the mines—Under the pine-trees. -</p> -<p>STARTING from Denver for Leadville in the evening, it seemed as if -we were fated to see nothing of the very interesting country through -which the South Park line runs. At first there is nothing to look at -but open prairie land sprinkled with the homesteads of agricultural -pioneers, but as the moon got up there was gradually revealed a -stately succession of mountain ridges, and in about two hours we -found ourselves threading the spurs of the Sangre di Christi range -and following the Platte River up toward its sources. Crossing and -recrossing the cañon, with one side silvered, and the other thrown -into the blackest shadow by the moon, and the noisy stream tumbling -along beside us in its hurry to get down to the lazy levels of the -great Nebraska Valley, I saw glimpses of scenery that can never be -forgotten. It was fantastic in the extreme; for apart from the jugglery -of moonlight, in itself so wonderful always, the ideas of relative -distance and size, even of shape, were upset and ridiculed by the snowy -peaks that here and there thrust themselves up into the sky and by the -patches and streaks of snow that concealed and altered the contour of -the nearer rocks in the most puzzling manner imaginable. And all this -time the little train—for the line is narrow-gauge—kept twisting and -wriggling in and out as if it were in collusion with the hills, and -playing into their hands to disconcert the traveller. -</p> -<p>I have seen at different times great curiosities of engineering, as -in travelling over the Ghats in Western India, where everything is -stupendous and at times even terrific, where danger seems perpetual and -disaster often inevitable. In passing by train from Colombo to Kandy -in Ceylon, and crossing Sensation Rock, the railway cars actually hang -over the precipice, so that when you look out of the window the track -on which you are running is invisible, and you can drop an orange plumb -down the face of this appalling cliff on to the tops of the palm-trees, -which look like little round bushes in the valley down below. From -Durban to Pietermaritzburg again, on the line along which, when it -was first opened, the engine-driver brought out from England refused -to take his train, declaring it to be too dangerous, but along which, -nevertheless, the British troops going up to Zululand were all safely -carried. The South Park line, however, can compare with these, and must -be accepted as one of the acknowledged triumphs of railway enterprise. -For much of its length the rocks had to be fought inch by inch, and -they died hard. The result to-day is a very picturesque and interesting -ride, with a surprise in every mile and beauty all the way. -</p> -<p>On the way to the "City of the Carbonates," I heard much of Leadville -ways and life. That very morning the energetic police of the town had -arrested two young ladies for parading the sunflower and the lily too -conspicuously. One had donned a sunflower for a hat, the other walked -along holding a tall lily in her hand. The Leadville youth had gathered -in disorderly procession behind the aesthetic pair. So the police -arrested the fair causes of the disturbance. -</p> -<p>I told Oscar Wilde of this a few days later. "Poor sweet things!" -said he; "martyrs in the cause of the Beautiful." He was on his way -to Salt Lake City at the time, and I told him how the Mormon capital -was par excellence "the city of sunflowers," and assured him that the -poet's feeding on "gilliflowers rare" was not, after all, too violent -a stretch of imagination, as whole tribes of Indians (and Longfellow -himself has said that every Indian is a poem, which is very nearly -the same thing as a poet) feed on the sunflower. The Apostle of Art -Decoration was delighted. -</p> -<p>"Poor sweet things!" said he; "feed on sunflowers! How charming! If -I could only have stayed and dined with them! But how delightful to -be able to go back to England and say that I have actually been in a -country where whole tribes of men live on sunflowers! The preciousness -of it!" -</p> -<p>It is a fact, probably new to some of my readers: that the wild -sunflower is the characteristic weed of Utah, and that the seeds of the -plant supply the undiscriminating Red Man with an oil-cake which may -agreeably vary a diet of grasshoppers and rattlesnakes, but has not -intrinsically any flavour to recommend it. So South Kensington must not -rush away with the idea that the noble savage who has the Crow for his -"totem," feeds upon the blossoms of the vegetable they worship. It is -the prosaic oil-cake that the Pi-ute eats. -</p> -<p>But all I heard got mixed up eventually into a general idea that every -man in the place who had not committed a murder was a millionaire, and -all those who had not lost their lives had lost a fortune. The mines, -too, got gradually sorted up into two kinds—those that had "five -million now in sight, sir," or those whose "bottoms had fallen out." -But one fact that pleased me particularly was the "Anti-Vigilance" -Committee of Leadville. Every one knows that a "Vigilance Committee" -consists of a certain number of volunteer guardians of the peace, who -call (with a rope) upon strangers visiting their neighbourhood and -offer them the choice of being hanged at once for the offences they -purpose committing or of going elsewhere to commit them. The strangers, -as it transpires in the morning, sometimes choose one course and -sometimes the other. This is all very right and proper, and conduces to -a general good understanding. But in Leadville, the citizens started an -anti-vigilance committee and so the Vigilance Committee sent in their -resignations to themselves—and accepted them. I do not think I ever -heard of a fact so appalling in its significance. But the humour of it -is that the Anti-Vigilance Committee managed somehow to keep the peace -in Leadville as it had never been kept before. -</p> -<p>It reminded me of an incident of the Afghan war. A certain tribe of -hill-men persisted in killing the couriers who carried the post from -one British camp to the other, and the generals were nearly at their -wits' end for means of communication, when the murderers sent in word -offering to carry the post themselves—and did so, faithfully! -</p> -<p>It was in Leadville also that lived the barber who, going forth one -night, was met by two men who told him peremptorily to take his hands -out of his pockets, as they intended to take out all the rest. But he -had nothing in his pockets except two Derringers, so he pulled his -hands out and shot the two men dead where they stood. Next morning -the citizens of Leadville placed the barber in a triumphal chair, and -carried him round the town as a bright example to the public, presented -him with a gold watch and chain as a testimonial of their esteem for -his courage—and then escorted him the first stage out of the town, -advising him never to return. -</p> -<p>But this was in the Leadville of the very remote past—1880 or -thereabouts—and not in the Carbonate City of the present, 1882. The -town is now as quiet as such a town can be, a wonderfully busy place -and a picturesque one. -</p> -<p>And while my companions talked I sat in the wash-hand basin and smoked. -Why the wash-hand basin? Because there was nowhere else to sit. -The "smoking-car" of this particular train happened to be also the -gentlemen's lavatory, a commodious snuggery measuring about eight feet -by five. And as there were only eight smokers on board we were not so -crowded as we should have been if there had been eighteen, and then, -you see, we made more room still by two of the eight staying away. For -the rest, two of us sat in the wash-hand basins, one on a stool between -our legs, another on a stool with his knees against the gentlemen -opposite, and the balance stood. We were an example of tight packing -even to the proverbial sardine. But I found the water-tap at the edge -of the basin an inconvenient circumstance. I would venture to suggest -to American railway companies that for the comfort of smokers when -sitting in the basins they should place these taps a little farther -back. -</p> -<p>I suppose I ought to give some mining statistics about Leadville. But -the very fact that I shall be neglecting an obvious duty if I omit all -statistics, nearly decides me to omit them. The deliberate neglect of -an obvious duty is, however, a luxury which only the very virtuous -can indulge in; and to compromise therefore with the situation, I -would state that the mining output of Leadville is to-day about eleven -times as great as it was two years ago, and that five years ago there -was no output at all. That is to say, this town of Leadville, with a -population, floating and permanent together, of some 40,000 souls, and -yielding from its mines about a thousand dollars per head of the total -population, was five years ago a camp of a few hundred miners, as a -rule so disappointed with the prospect of the place that another year -of the status quo would have seen Leadville deserted. But the secret -of the carbonates being "ore-iferous" was discovered, and Tabor, like -the fossil of some antediluvian giant, was gradually revealed by the -pick of the miner, in all his Plutocratic bulk. A few years ago he -was selling peanuts at the corner of a street. To-day he moves about, -king of Denver, with Leadville for an appanage. His potentiality in -cheques increases yearly by another cipher added to the total, and -drags at each remove a lengthening chain of wealth. Why do men go on -accumulating money when they are already masters of enough? Surely it -is better to be rich than a pauper? But in Colorado this is not the -general opinion. Men there prefer to be ruined rather than be merely -rich. And the result is that you could hardly throw a boot out of the -hotel window without hitting an ex-millionaire. Not that I would advise -anybody to go throwing boots promiscuously out of hotel windows in -Leadville. You would run a good chance of following your boots. -</p> -<p>"Do you see that man there, paring his boot with a knife?" asked my -companion. -</p> -<p>"Yes," said I, "I see him; there is a good deal of him to see." -</p> -<p>"Well," said he, "that's So-and-so. He sold so-and-so for $400,000 -about a year ago. But he busted last Fall. And if you get into -conversation with him, he'll be glad to borrow a dollar from you." -</p> -<p>"Then I shall not get into conversation with him," I replied. -</p> -<p>"And do you see that old fellow on the other side, leaning against the -hitching post, outside the Post Office?" -</p> -<p>"Well," said I, "they seem to be mostly leaning against the -hitching-post, but I presume you mean the gentleman in the middle." -</p> -<p>"Yes," was the reply. "That's So-and-so. He struck the so-and-so, got -$80,000 for his share about six weeks ago—and is busted." -</p> -<p>And so on ad infinitum. The problem was a very puzzling one to me at -first—why do such men make fortunes if they take the first opportunity -of throwing them away? But the solution, I fancy, is this—that these -men do not care for money. It is to them what knowledge is to the -philosopher, a means of acquiring more—worthless in itself, but, as -leading to larger results, worthy of all eagerness in its pursuit. -They do not put Wealth before themselves as an accumulation of current -coins, capable of purchasing everything that makes life materially -pleasant. They contemplate it merely in the bulk. Much in the same way -a whaler never thinks of the number of candles in the spermaceti into -which he has struck a harpoon. He looks at his quarry only as a "ten -barrel" or a "fifteen barrel" whale, as the case may be. He does not -content himself with the illuminating potentialities of the creature -he pursues. He is only anxious as to how it will barrel off, and the -barrels might be pork, or potatoes, or anything else. So with the -man who goes out mine-hunting. He harpoons a lode, lays open so many -"millions" of ore, sells it to a company for a "million" or two, and -straightway goes and "busts" for so many "millions." It does not seem -to concern such a one that a "million" of dollars is so many guineas, -or roubles, or napoleons, or mohurs, and so forth, and that if he goes -on to the end of his life, he can never achieve more than money. His -arithmetic goes mad, and he begins computing from the wrong end of the -line. Ten thousands of dollars make one 50-cent piece, two 50-cent -pieces make one quarter, five quarters make one nickel, five nickels -make one cent, and "quite a lot" of cents make one fortune. So at it he -goes again, trying to foot up a satisfactory balance with thousands for -units—and "busts" before he gets to the end of the sum. -</p> -<p>Leadville itself as I first saw it, ringed in with snow-covered hills, -a bright sun shining and a slight snow falling, remains in my memory -as one of the prettiest scenes in my experience. In Switzerland even -it could hold its own, and triumph. I wandered about its streets and -into its shops and saloons, curious to see some of those men of whom -I had heard so much; but whatever may have been their exercises with -bowie-knife and pistol at a later hour of the day, I was never more -agreeably disappointed than by the manners and bearing of the Leadville -miners early in the morning. -</p> -<p>There is nothing gives a man so much self-reliance as having thick -boots on. This fact I have evolved out of my own consciousness, for -when I was out in the Colonies I often tried to analyze a certain sense -of "independence" which I found taking possession of me. The climate -no doubt was exceptionally invigorating, and I was a great deal on -horseback. But I had been subjected to the same conditions elsewhere -without experiencing the same results. And after a great deal of severe -mental inquiry, I decided that it was—my thick boots! And I was right. -No man can feel properly capable of taking care of himself in slippers. -In patent-leather boots he is little better, and in what are called -"summer walking-shoes" he still finds himself fastidious about puddles, -and at a disadvantage with every man he meets who does not mind a rough -road. But once you begin to thicken the sole, self-reliance commences -to increase, and by the time your boots are as solid as those of a -Colorado miner you should find yourself his equal in "independence." -And some of their boots are prodigious. The soles are over an inch -thick, project in front of the toes perhaps half an inch, and form a -ledge, as it were, all round the foot. What a luxury with such boots it -must be to kick a man! -</p> -<p>The rest of the costume was often in keeping with the shoe leather, and -in every case where the wearers did not belong to the shops and offices -of the town, there was a general attention to strength of material and -personal comfort, at a sacrifice of appearance, which was refreshing -and unconventional. They are a fine set, indeed, this miscellaneous -congregation of nationalities which men call "Colorado diggers." There -is hardly a stupid face among them, and certainly not a cowardly one. -And then compare them with the population of their native places—the -savages of the East of London, the outer barbarians of Scandinavia, the -degraded peasantry of Western Ireland! The contrast is astonishing. -Left in Europe they might have guttered along in helpless poverty -relieved only by intervals of crime, till old age found them in a -workhouse. But here they can insist on every one pretending to think -them "as good as himself" (such is, I believe, the formula of this -preposterous hypocrisy), and, at any rate, may hope for sudden wealth. -Above all, a man here does not go about barefooted, like so many of -his family "at home," or in ragged shoe-leather, like so many more of -them; but stands, and it may even be sleeps, in boots of unimpeachable -solidity. So he goes down the street as if it were his own, planting -his feet firmly at every step, and, not having to trouble himself about -the condition of the footway, keeps his head erect. Depend upon it, -thick boots are one of the secrets of "independence" of character. -</p> -<p>But Leadville, this wonderful town that in four years sprang up from -300 to 30,000 inhabitants, is not entirely a city of miners. On the -day that I was there larger numbers than usual were in the streets, in -consequence of an election then in progress holding out promises of -unusual entertainment. Besides these there is, of course, the permanent -population of commerce and ordinary business; and I was struck here, as -I had not been before since I left Boston, with the natural phenomenon -of a race reverting to an old type. Boston reminded me at times of some -old English cathedral city. Leadville was like some thriving provincial -town. The men would not have looked out of place in the street, say, -of Reading; while the women, in their quiet and somewhat old-fashioned -style of dressing, reminded me very curiously of rural England. Indeed, -I do not think my anticipations have ever been so completely upset -as in Leadville. All the way from New York I have been told to wait -"till I got to Colorado" before I ventured to speak of rough life, and -Leadville itself was sometimes particularized to me as the Ultima Thule -of civilization, the vanishing-point of refinement. -</p> -<p>But not only is Leadville not "rough;" it is even flirting with the -refinements of life. It has an opera-house, a good drive for evening -recreation, and a florist's shop. There were not many plants in it, it -is true, but they were nearly all of them of the pleasant old English -kinds—geraniums, pansies, pinks, and mignonette. Two other shops -interested me, one stocked with mineral specimens—malachite, agate, -amethyst, quartz, blood-stone, onyx, and an infinite variety of pieces -of ore, gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, bismuth, and sulphur—with -which pretty settings are made, of a quaint grotto-work kind, for -clocks and inkstands. The other a naturalist's shop, in which, besides -fossils, exquisite leaves in stone and petrified tree-fragments, I -found the commencement of a zoological collection—the lynx with its -comfortable snow-coat on, and the grey mountain wolf not less cozily -dressed; squirrels, black and grey, "the creatures that sit in the -shade of their tails," and the "friends of Hiawatha" with various -birds—the sage hen and the prairie chicken, the magpie (very like the -English bird), and the "lark,"—a very inadequate substitute indeed for -the bird that "at Heaven's gate sings," that has been sanctified to -all time by Shelley, and the idol of the poets of the Old World—and -heads of large game, horned and antlered, and the skin of a "lion." -It is a curious fact that every country should thus insist on having -a lion. For the real African animal himself I entertain only a very -qualified respect. For some of his substitutes, the panther of Sumatra -and the Far East, the (now extinct) cat of Australia, and the puma of -the United States, that respect is even more moderate in degree. "The -American lion" is, in fact, about as much like the original article as -the American "muffin" is like the seductive but saddening thing from -which it takes its name. The puma, which is its proper name, is the -least imposing of all the larger cats. It cannot compare even with the -jaguar, and would not be recognized by the true lion, or by the tiger, -as being a kinsman. It is just as true of lions as it is of Glenfield -starch—"when you ask for it, see that you get it." I admit that it is -very creditable to America that in the great competition of nations -she should insist on not being left behind even in the matter of -lions, but surely it would be more becoming to her vast resources and -her undeniable enterprise if she imported some of the genuine breed, -instead of, as at present, putting up with such a shabby compromise as -the puma. -</p> -<p>This tendency to exaggeration in terms has I know been very frequently -commented upon. But I don't remember having heard it suggested that -this grandiosity must in the long-run have a detrimental effect -upon national advancement. Presuming for instance that an American -understands the real meaning of the word "city," what gross and -ridiculous notions of self-importance second-class villages must -acquire by hearing themselves spoken of as "cities." Or supposing that -one understands the real meaning of the word "lady," how comes it that -an ill-bred, ill-mannered chambermaid is always spoken of as a "lady"? -If the name is only given in courtesy, why not call them princesses at -once and rescue the nobler word from its present miserable degradation? -</p> -<p>I was in the Chicago Hotel and a coloured porter was unstrapping my -luggage. I rang the bell for a message boy, and on another black -servant appearing I gave him a written note to take down to the -manager. But in that insolent manner so very prevalent among the -blacker hotel servants in America, he said: "That other gentleman will -take it down." "Other gentleman!" I gasped out in astonishment; "there -is only one gentleman in this room, and two negro servants. And if," I -continued, forgetting that I was in America, and rising from my chair, -"you are not off as fast as you can go, I'll—" But the "gentleman" -fled so precipitately with my message that I got no further. -</p> -<p>Now could anything be more preposterous than this poor creature's -attempt to vindicate his right to the flattering title conferred upon -him by the Boots, and which he in turn conferred upon the Barman, until -everybody in the hotel, from the Manager downwards, was involved in an -absurd entanglement of mutual compliments? It may of course be laughed -at as a popular humour. But a stranger like myself is perpetually -recognizing the mischief which this absurd want of moral courage and -self-respect in the upper classes is working in the country. Nor -have Americans any grounds whatever to suppose that this sense of -"courtesy" is peculiar to them. It is common to every race in the -world, and most conspicuous in the lowest. The Kaffirs of Africa and -the Red Indians address each other with titles almost as fulsome as -"gentleman," while in India, the home of courtesy and good breeding, -the natives of the higher castes address the very lowest by the title -of Maharaj("great prince"). It is accepted by the recipient exactly in -the spirit in which it is meant. He understands that the higher classes -do not wish to offend him by calling him by his real name, and his -Oriental good taste tells him that any intermediate appellation might -be misconstrued. So he calls himself, as he is called, by the highest -title in the land. There is no danger here of any mistake. Every one -knows that the misfortune of birth or other "circumstances beyond -his control" have made him a menial. But no one tells him so. He is -"Maharaj." -</p> -<p>For myself, I adopted the plan of addressing every negro servant as a -"Sultan." It was not abusive and sounded well. He did not know what it -meant any more than he knows the meaning of "gentleman," but I saved my -self-respect by not pretending to put him on an equality with myself. -</p> -<p>At Leadville the hotel servants are white men, and the result is -civility. But I was in the humour at Leadville to be pleased with -everything. The day was divine, the landscape enchanting, and the men -with their rough riding-costumes, strange, home-made-looking horses, -Mexican saddles (which I now for the first time saw in general use) and -preposterous "stirrups," interested me immensely. Of course I went up -to a mine, and, of course, went down it. And what struck me most during -the expedition? Well, the sound of the wind in the pine-trees. -</p> -<p>It was a delightful walk—away up out of the town, with its suburbs of -mimic pinewood "chalets" and rough log-huts, and the hills all round -sloping back from the plateau so finely, patched and powdered with -snow-drifts, fringed and crowned with pine-trees, here darkened with -a forest of them, there dotted with single trees, and over all, the -Swiss magic of sunlight and shadow; away up the hill-side, through a -wilderness of broken bottles and battered meat cans, a very paradise -of rag-pickers, among which are scattered the tiny homes of the -miners. Women were busy chopping wood and bringing in water. Children -were romping in parties. But the men, their husbands and fathers, -were all up at the mines at work, invisible, in the bowels of the -mountain; keeping the kobolds company, and throwing up as they went -great hillocks of rubbish behind them like some gigantic species of -mole, or burrowing armadillo of the old glyptodon type. And so on, up -the shingle-strewn hillside thickly studded with charred tree-stumps, -desolation itself—a veritable graveyard of dead pine-trees. Above -us, on the crest of the mountain, the forest was still standing, and -long before we reached them we heard the wind-haunted trees of Pan -telling their griefs to the hills. It is a wonderful music, this of -the pine-trees, for it has fascinated every people among whom they -grow, from the bear-goblin haunts of Asiatic Kurdistan through the -elf-plagued forests of Germany to the spirit-land of the Canadian -Indians. It is indeed a mystery, this voice in the tree-tops, with all -the tones of an organ—the vox-humana stop wonderful—and in addition -all the sounds of nature, from the sonorous diapason of the ocean to -the whisperings of the reed-beds by the river. When I came upon them -in Leadville the pines were rehearsing, I think, for a storm that was -coming. Lower down the slope, the trees were standing as quiet as -possible, and in the town itself at the bottom of the hill the smoke -was rising straight. But up here, at the top, under the pine-trees, -the first act of a tempest was in full rehearsal. And all this time -wandering about, I had not seen one single living soul. There stood the -sheds built over the mines. But no one was about. At the door of one -of them was a cart with its horses. But no driver. This extraordinary -absence of life gave the hill-top a strange solemnity—and though I -knew that under my feet the earth was alive with human beings, and -though every now and then a little pipe sticking out of a shed would -suddenly snort and give about fifty little angry puffs at the rate -of a thousand a minute, the utter solitude was so fascinating that I -understood at once why pine-covered mountains, especially where mines -are worked, should all the world over be such favourite sites in legend -and ballad for the home of elfin and goblin folk. -</p> -<p>The afternoon was passing before I set out homeward and I could hardly -get along, so often did I turn round to look back at the views behind -me. And in front, and on either side, were the hills, with their hidden -hoards of silver and lead, watching the town, whence they know the -miners will some day issue to attack them, and on their slopes lay -mustered the shattered battalions of their pines, here looking as if -invading the town, into which their skirmishers, dotted about among the -houses, had already fought their way; there, as if they were retreating -up the hillside with their ranks closed against the houses that pursued -them, or straggling away up the slopes and over the crest in all the -disorder of defeat. -</p> -<p>And so, down on to the level of the plateau again, with its traffic and -animation and all the busy life of a hardworking town. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERIV"></a>CHAPTER IV. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM LEADVILLE TO SALT LAKE CITY. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> What is the conductor of a Pullman Car?—Cannibalism fatal to - lasting friendships—Starving Peter to feed Paul—Connexion - between Irish cookery and Parnellism—Americans not smokers—In - Denver—"The Queen City of the Plains"—Over the Rockies—Pride in - a cow, and what came of it—Sage-brush—Would ostriches pay in the - West?—Echo canyon—The Mormons' fortifications—Great Salt Lake in - sight. -</p> -<p>WHAT is the "conductor" of a Pullman car? Is he a private gentleman -travelling for his pleasure, a duke in disguise, or is he a servant -of the company placed on the cars to see to the comfort, &c., of the -company's customers? I should like to know, for sometimes I have been -puzzled to find out. The porter is an admirable institution, when he -is amenable to reason, and I have been fortunate enough to find myself -often entrusted to perfectly rational specimens. The experiences of -travellers have, as I know from their books, been sometimes very -different from mine—ladies, especially, complaining—but for myself I -consider the Union Pacific admirably manned. -</p> -<p>But it is a great misfortune that the company do not run hotel cars. -I was told that the reason why we were made over helplessly to such -caterers as those at North Platte and Sterling for our food was, that -the custom of passengers is almost the only source of revenue the -"eating-houses" along the line can depend upon. Without the custom of -passengers they would expire—atrophise—become deceased. What I want -to know is why they should not expire. I, as a traveller, see no reason -whatever, no necessity, for their being kept alive at a cost of so -much suffering to the company's customers. Let them decease, or else -establish a claim to public support. During a long railway journey the -system is temporarily deranged and appetites are irregular, so that -some people can not eat when they have the opportunity, and when they -could eat, do not get it. Some day, no doubt, a horrible cannibalic -outrage on the cars will awaken the directors to the peril of carrying -starving passengers, and the luxury of the hotel-car will be instituted. -</p> -<p>Not that I could censure the poor men of the South Seas or Central -Africa for eating each other. There seems to me something a trifle -admirable in this economy of their food. But cannibalism must, in the -very nature of it, be deterrent to the formation of lasting friendships -between strangers. So long as two men look upon each other as possible -side dishes, there can be no permanent cordiality between them. Mutual -confidence, the great charm of sincere friendship, must be wanting. You -could never be altogether at your ease in a company which discussed the -best stuffing for you. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, the custom of carrying their own provisions is increasing in -favour among passengers, so that, hotel cars or not, these Barmecide -"eating-houses" may yet expire from inanition. The waiting (done by -girls) is, I ought to say, admirable—but then so it was at Sancho -Panza's supper and at Duke Humphrey's dinner-table. And yet the hungry -went empty away. -</p> -<p>Between Cheyenne and Ogden the commissariat is distinctly better, and -the unprovided traveller triumphs mildly over the more careful who have -carried their own provisions. But, striking a balance on the whole -journey, there is no doubt that the comfort of the trip, some sixty odd -hours, from Omaha to Ogden, is materially increased by starting with a -private stock of food. Bitter herbs without indigestion is better than -a stalled ox with dyspepsia. -</p> -<p>An old Roman epicure gravely expressed his opinion that Africa could -never be a progressive country, inasmuch as its shrimps were so small. -And I think I may venture to say that if the cookery in the central -States does not improve, the country must gradually drift backwards -into barbarism. For there is a most intimate connexion between cookery -and civilization. -</p> -<p>It is the duty of the historian, and not the task of the traveller, -to trace national catastrophes to their real causes—often to be -found concealed under much adventitious matter, and when found often -surprising from their insignificance—and I leave it, therefore, to -others to specify the particular feature of Irish cookery that tends to -create a disinclination to paying rent. -</p> -<p>That the agitated demeanour of the after-dinner speakers during Irish -tenant-right meetings' was due solely to the infuriating and ferocious -course of food to which they had just submitted, is as certain as that -the extraordinary class of noises, cavernous and hollow-sounding, -produced by their applausive audiences was owing to the fact that they -had not dined at all. In the West of Ireland (where I travelled with -those "experts in constitutional treason" who were then organizing the -"No Rent" agitation), the agitators and conspirators had no time for -long dinners, as the mobs outside were as impatient as hunger, so they -sat down, invariably, to everything at once—mutton, bacon, sausages, -turkey and ham, with relays of hot potatoes every two minutes. While -one conspirator was addressing the peasantry, the upper half of his -body thrust out of the lower half of the window, and only his legs in -the dining-room, the rest were eating against time, and as soon as the -speaker's legs were seen to get up on tiptoe, which they always did for -the peroration, the next to speak had to rise from his food. The result -was of course incoherent violence. But a closer analysis is required to -detect the causes of Irish dislike to rent. -</p> -<p>That it would be eventually found that potatoes and patriotism have -an occult affnity I have no doubt; but, as I have said above, such -research more properly belongs to the province of the historian. The -Spartan stirring his black broth with a spear revealed his nature at -once, and the single act of the Scythians, using their beefsteaks -for saddles until they wanted to eat them, gives at a glance their -character to the nation. -</p> -<p>At any rate, it is as old as Athenaeus that "to cookery we owe -well-ordered States;" for States result from the congregation of -individuals in towns, and towns are the sum of agglomerated households, -and households, it is notorious, never combine except for the sociable -consumption of food. So long as, in the Dark Ages, every man cooked -for himself, or, in the primitive days of cannibalism, helped himself -to a piece of a raw neighbour, there could be no friendly heartiness -at meals; but, as soon as cooks appeared, men met fearlessly round a -common board, towns grew up round the dinner-table, and, as Athenaeus -remarks, well-ordered States grew up round the towns. But if we were -to judge of the prospects of the people who live, say, about Green -River or North Platte, by the character of the food (as supplied to -travellers) the opinion could not be very complimentary or encouraging. -</p> -<p>It is a prevalent idea in England that Americans smoke prodigiously, -even as compared with "the average Britisher." Now, in America there -is very little smoking. You may perhaps think I am wrong. A great many -Americans, I allow, buy cigars in the most reckless fashion. But (apart -from the fact that cigars are not necessarily tobacco) I find that as -a rule they throw away more than they smoke. Speaking roughly, then, I -should say so-called "smokers" in this country might be divided into -three classes: those who buy cigars because they cost money; those -who buy them because cigars give them a decent excuse for spitting; -and those who buy them under the delusion that the friend who is with -them smokes, and that hospitality or courtesy requires that they -should humour his infatuation. Of the trifling residue, the men who -smoke because, as they put it, "they like it," it is not worth while -to speak. Now, one of the results of this general aversion to tobacco -is that when a foreigner addicted to the weed comes over and tries to -smoke, he is hunted about so, that (as I have often done myself) he -longs to be in his coffin, if only to get a quiet corner for a pipe. In -hotels they hunt you down, floor by floor, till they get you on to a -level with the street, and then from room to room till they get you out -on to the pavement. There is nowhere where you can read and smoke—or -write and smoke—or have a quiet chat with a friend over a pipe—or in -fact smoke at all, in the respectable, civilized, Christian sense of -the word. Of course, if you like, you can "smoke" in the public hall -of the hotel. But I would just as soon sit out on the kerbstone at the -corner of the street as among a crowd of men holding cigars in their -mouths and shouting business. Out on the kerbstone I should at any rate -find the saving grace of passing female society. In private houses -again, smokers are consigned to the knuckle end of the domicile and -the waste corners thereof, as if they snatched a fearful joy from some -secret fetish rites, or had to go apart into privacy to indulge in a -little surreptitious cannibalism. In the streets, friends do not like -you to smoke when with them, and there are very few public conveyances -in which tobacco is comfortably possible. -</p> -<p>In trains there is a most conspicuous neglect of smokers. I found, for -instance, on my journey from New York to Chicago, that the only place I -could smoke in was the end compartment of the fourth car from my own. -That is to say, let it be as stormy and dark as it may, you have to -pass from other car to the other half the length of the train, and when -you do get to "the smoking compartment" you find it is only intended to -hold five passengers. I confess I am surprised that these palace cars, -otherwise so agreeable, should be such hovel cars for smokers. Nor, by -the way, seeing that the company specially notifies that the passage -from one car to the other is "dangerous" while the train is in motion, -do I think it fair that smokers should be encouraged, and indeed -compelled, to run bodily risks in order to arrive at their tobacco. -Some day no doubt there will be Pullman smoking cars, and when there -are—I will find something else to grumble at. -</p> -<p>Imagine then my astonishment when arriving at the Windsor Hotel at -Denver, I was shown into a bona-fide smoking-room, with cosy chairs, -well carpeted, with a writing table properly furnished, all the -newspapers of the day, and a roaring fire in an open fireplace! Here -at last was civilization. Here was a room where a man might sit with -self-respect, and enjoy his pipe over a newspaper, smoke while he wrote -a letter, foregather over tobacco with a friend in a quiet corner! No -noise of loquacious strangers, no mob of outsiders to make the room -as common as the street, no fusillade of expectoration, no stove to -desiccate you—above all, no coloured "gentleman" to come in and say, -"Smoke nut 'lard here, sar!" I was delighted. But my curiosity, at such -an aberration into intelligence, led me to confide in the manager. -</p> -<p>"How is it," I asked, "you have got what no other hotel in America that -I have stayed in has got—a comfortable smoking-room after the English -style?" -</p> -<p>"Guess," said he, "because an English company built this hotel!" -</p> -<p>And I went upstairs, at peace with myself and all English companies. -</p> -<p>The first view of Denver is very prepossessing, and further -acquaintance begets better liking. Indeed on going into the streets of -"the Queen City of the Plains" I was astonished. The buildings are of -brick or stone, its roads are good and level, and well planted with -shade-trees, its suburbs are orderly rows of pretty villas, adorned -with lawn, and shrubs, and flowers. Though one of the very youngest -towns of the West, it has already an air of solidity and permanence -which is very striking, while on such a day as I saw it, it is also -one of the very cleanest and airiest. And the snow-capped hills are in -sight all round. -</p> -<p>Particularly notable in Denver are its railway station—and yet, -with all its size, it is found too small for the rapidly increasing -requirements of the district—and the Tabor Opera-House. This is really -a beautiful building inside, with its lavish upholstery, its charming -"ladies' rooms," and smoking-rooms, its variety of handsome stone, its -carved cherry-wood fittings, its perfectly sumptuous boxes. The stage -is nearly as large as that at Her Majesty's, quite as large as any in -New York, while in general appointments and in novelty of ornaments, -it has very few rivals in all Europe. In one point, the beauty of the -mise-en-scene from the gallery, the Denver house certainly stands quite -alone, for whereas in all other theatres or opera-houses, "the gods" -find themselves up in the attics, as it were, with only white-washed -walls about them, and the sides of the stage shut out from view, here -they are in handsomely furnished galleries, with a clear view of the -whole stage over the tops of the pagoda-roofed boxes—these curious -"pepper-box" roofs being themselves a handsome ornament to the scene. -By having only a limited number of "stalls" on the level, sloping the -"pit" up to the "grand tier," and making the stage nearly occupy the -whole width of the house, everybody in the building gets an equally -good view of the stage. It is indeed an opera-house to be proud of; and -Denver is proud of it. -</p> -<p>There is an idea sometimes mooted that Denver has been run on too fast; -that it has "seen its day," and may be as suddenly deserted as it has -been peopled. But there is absolutely no chance of this whatever. -Colorado is as yet only in its cradle, and the older it gets the more -substantial will Denver become, for this city—and very soon it will -be almost worthy of that name—is the Paris of "the Centennial State," -the ultimate ambition of the moderately successful miner. It is not a -place to make your money in and leave. But having made your money, to -go to and live in. For a man or woman must be very fastidious indeed -who cannot be content to settle down in this, one of the prettiest and -healthiest towns I have ever visited. Denver accordingly is attracting -to it, year by year, a larger number of that class of citizens upon -which alone the permanent prosperity of a town can depend, the men of -moderate capital, satisfied with a fair return from sound investments, -who put their money into local concerns, and make the place their -"home." -</p> -<p>I left Denver in the early morning. Outside the station were standing -five trains all waiting to be off, and one by one their doleful bells -began to toll, and one by one they sneaked away. Ours was the last to -be off; but at length we too got our signal: that is to say, the porter -picked up the stool which is placed on the platform for the convenience -of short-legged passengers stepping into the cars—and without a word -we crept off, as if the train was going to a funeral, or was ashamed -of something it had done. This silent, casual departure of trains -is a perpetually recurring surprise to me. Would it be contrary to -republican principles to ring a bell for the warning of passengers? One -result, however, of this surreptitious method of making off, is that -no one is ever left behind. Such is the perversity of human nature! In -England people are being perpetually "left behind" because they think -such a catastrophe to be impossible. In America they are never left -behind, because they are always certain they will be. -</p> -<p>At first the country threatened a repetition of the old prairie, made -more dismal than ever by our recent experiences of the Switzerland of -Colorado. But the scene gradually picked up a feature here and there as -we went along, and knowing that we were climbing up "the Rockies," we -had always present with us the pleasures of hope. But if you wish to -see the Rocky Mountains so as to respect them, do not travel over them -in a train. They are a fraud, so far as they can be seen from a car -window. But in minor points of interest they abound. Curious boulders, -of immense size and wonderful shapes, lie strewn about the ground, all -water-worn by the torrents of a long-ago age, and some of them pierced -with holes—the work of primeval shell-fish. Beds of river gravel -cover the slopes, and on every side were abundant vestiges of deluges, -themselves antediluvian. And then we came upon isolated cliffs of red -sandstone, with kranzes running along their faces—exactly the same -kranzes as the Zulus made such good use of during the war—and showing -in their irregular bases how old-world torrents had washed away the -clay and softer materials that had once no doubt joined these isolated -cliffs together into a chain of hills, and had left the sandstone heart -of each hill bare and alone. And so on, up over "the Divide" into -Wyoming, still a paradise for the ride and the rod, past Cheyenne, a -town of many shattered hopes, and out into the region of snow again. -</p> -<p>Our engine was perpetually screaming to the cattle to get off the -track, a series of short, sharp screams that ought to have sufficed -to have warned even cattle to get out of the way. As a rule they -recognized the advisability of leaving the rails, but one wretched -cow, whether she was deaf, or whether she was stupid, or whether, like -Cole's dog, she was too proud to move, I cannot say, but in spite of -the screams of the engine she held her ground and got the worst of the -collision. The cow-catcher struck her, and as we passed her, the poor -beast lay in the blood-mottled snow-drift at the bottom of the bank, -still breathing, but almost dead. As for the train, the cow might have -been only a fly. -</p> -<p>And so we went on climbing—herds of cattle grazing on the slopes, and -in the splendid "parks" which lay stretched out beneath us wherever -the hills stood far apart—with frequent snow-sheds interrupting all -conversation or reading with their tunnel-like intervals, till we -reached the Red Granite canyon, with great masses of that splendid -stone fairly mobbing the narrow course of a mountain stream, and -beyond them snow—snow—snow, stretching away to the sky-line without -a break. And then Sherman, the highest point of the mountains -upon the whole line—only some 8000 feet though, all told—with a -half-constructed monument to Oakes Ames crowning the summit. When -finished, this massive cone of solid granite blocks will be sixty feet -high. And then on to the Laramie Plains, with some wonderful reaches -of grazing-ground, and almost fabulous records of ranching profits, -And here is Laramie itself, that will some day be a city, for timber -and minerals and stock will all combine to enrich it. But to-day it is -desolate enough, muffed up in winter, with snowbirds in great flights -flecking the white ground. And so out again into the snow wilderness, -here and there cattle snuffing about on the desolate hill-sides, and -snow-sheds—timber-covered ways to prevent the snow drifting on to the -track—becoming more frequent, and the white desolation growing every -mile more utter. And the moon got up to confuse the horizon of land -with the background of the sky. And so to sleep, with dreams of the -Arctic regions, and possibilities, the dreariest in the world, of being -snowed up on the line. -</p> -<p>Awakening with snow still all round us, and snow falling heavily as we -reach Green River. And then out into a country, prodigiously rich, I -was told, in petroleum, but in which I could only see that sage-brush -was again asserting its claims to be seen above the snow-drift, and -that wonderful arrangements in red stone thrust themselves up from -the hill crests. Terraces reminding me of miniature table-mountains -such as South Africa affects; sharply scarped pinnacles jutting from -the ridges like the Mauritius peaks; plateaux with isolated piles -of boulders; upright blocks shaped into the semblance of chimneys; -crests broken into battlements, and—most striking mimicry of all snow -wildernesses—a reproduction in natural rock of the great fortress of -Deeg, in India. With snow instead of water, the imitation of that vast -buttressed pile was singularly exact, and if there had been only a -brazen sun overhead and a coppery sky flecked with circling kites, the -counterfeit would have been perfect. But Deeg would crumble to pieces -with astonishment if snow were to fall near it, while here there was -enough to content a polar bear. -</p> -<p>What a pity sage brush—the "three-toothed artemisia" of science—has -no commercial value. Fortunes would be cheap if it had. But I heard at -Leadville that a local chemist had treated the plant after the manner -of cinchona, and extracted from its bark a febrifuge with which he -was about to astonish the medical world and bankrupt quinine. That it -has a valuable principle in cases of fever, its use by the Indians -goes a little way to prove, while its medicinal properties are very -generally vouched for by its being used in the West as an application -for the cure of toothache, as a poultice for swellings, and a lotion -("sage oil") for erysipelas, rheumatism, and other ailments. Some day, -perhaps, a fortune will be made out of it, but at present its chief -value seems to be as a moral discipline to the settler and as covert -for the sage-hen. -</p> -<p>Would not the ostrich thrive upon some of these prodigious tracts of -unalterable land? Can all America not match the African karoo shrub, -which the camel-sparrow loves? Ostrich farming has some special -recommendations, especially for "the sons of gentlemen" and others -disinclined for arduous labour, who have not much of either money or -brains to start with. Is it not a matter of common notoriety that when -pursued this fowl buries its head in the sand, and thus, of course, -falls an easy prey to the intending farmer? If, on the other hand, -he does not want the whole of the bird, he has only to stand by and -pluck its feathers out, which, having its head buried, it cannot, of -course perceive. (These feathers fetch a high price in the market.) -Supposing, however, that the adventurous emigrant wishes to undertake -ostrich farming bona fide, he has merely to pull the birds out from the -sand, and drive them into an enclosure—which he will, of course, have -previously made—and sit on the gate and watch them lay their eggs. -When they lay eggs, ostriches—this is also notorious—bury them in the -sand and desert them, and the gentleman's son on the fence can then -go and pick them out of the sand. (Ostriches' eggs fetch five pounds -apiece.) These birds, moreover, cost very little for feeding, as they -prefer pebbles. They can, therefore, be profitably cultivated on the -sea beach. But I would remind intending farmers that ostriches are very -nimble on their feet. It is also notorious that they have a shrewd way -of kicking. A kick from an ostrich will break a cab-horse in two. The -intending farmer, therefore, when he has compelled the foolish bird to -bury its head in the sand and is plucking out its tail feathers, should -stand well clear of the legs. This is a practical hint. -</p> -<p>We dined at Evanston, neat-handed abigails, as usual, handing round -dishes fearfully and wonderfully made out of old satchels and seasoned -with varnish. There is a Chinese quarter here, with its curious -congregation of celestial hovels all plastered over with, apparently, -the labels of tea-chests. I should think the Chinese were all self-made -men. At any rate they do not seem to me to have been made by any one -who knew how to do it properly. -</p> -<p>However, we had not much time to look at them, for cows on the track -and one thing and another had made us rather late; so we were very soon -off again, the travellers, after their hurried and indigestible meal, -feeling very much like the jumping frog, after he couldn't jump, by -reason of quail shot. -</p> -<p>The snow had been gradually disappearing, and as we approached Echo -canyon we found ourselves gliding into scenes that in summer are very -beautiful indeed, with their turf and willow-fringed streams and -abundant vegetation. And then, by gradual instalments of rock, each -grander than the next, the great canyon came upon us. What a superb -defile this is! It moves along like some majestic poem in a series of -incomparable stanzas. There is nothing like it in the Himalayas that I -know of, nor in the Suleiman range. In the Bolan Pass, on the Afghan -frontier, there are intervals of equal sublimity; and even as a whole -it may compare with it. But taken all for all—its length (some thirty -miles), its astonishing diversity of contour, its beauty as well as -its grandeur—I confess the Echo canyon is one of the masterpieces -of Nature. I can speak of course only of what I have seen. I do not -doubt that the Grand canyon in Arizona, which is said to throw all the -wonders of Colorado and the marvels of Yellowstone or Yosemite into -the shade, would dwarf the highway to Utah, but within my experience -the Echo is almost incomparable. It would be very difficult to convey -any idea of this glorious confusion of crags. But imagine some vast -city of Cyclopean architecture built on the crest and face of gigantic -cliffs of ruddy stone. Imagine, then, that ages of rain had washed away -all the minor buildings, leaving only the battlements of the city, the -steeples of its churches, its causeways and buttresses, and the stacks -of its tallest chimneys still standing where they had been built. If -you can imagine this, you can imagine anything, even Echo canyon—but I -must confess that my attempt at description does not recall the scene -to me in the least. -</p> -<p>However, I passed through it and, up on the crest of a very awkward -cliff for troops to scale under fire, had pointed out to me the -stone-works which the Mormons built when they went out in 1857 to stop -the advance of the Federal army. -</p> -<p>And there is no doubt of it that the passage of that defile, even with -such rough defences as the Saints had thrown up, would have cost the -army very dear. For these stone-works, like the Afghans' sunghums, and -intended, of course for cover against small arms only, were carried -along the crest of the cliffs for some miles, and each group was -connected with the next by a covered way, while in the bed of the -stream below, ditches had been dug (some six feet deep and twenty -wide), right across from cliff to cliff, and a dam constructed just -beyond the first ditch which in an hour or two would have converted -the whole canyon for a mile or so into a level sheet of water. On -this dam the Mormon guns were masked, and though, of course, the -Federal artillery would soon have knocked them off into the water, a -few rounds at such a range and raking the army—clubbed as it would -probably have been at the ditches—must have proved terribly effective. -This position, moreover, though it could be easily turned by a force -diverging to the right before it entered the canyon, could hardly be -turned by one that had already entered it. And to attempt to storm -those heights, with men of the calibre of the Transvaal Dutchmen -holding them, would have been splendid heroism—or worse. -</p> -<p>And then Weber canyon, with its repetitions of castellated cliffs, and -its mimicry of buttress and barbican, bastion and demilune, tower and -turret, and moat and keep, and all the other feudal appurtenances of -the fortalice that were so dear to the author of "Kenilworth," with -pine-trees climbing up the slopes all aslant, and undergrowth that -in summer is full of charms. The stream has become a river, and fine -meadows and corn-land lie all along its bank; large herds of cattle -and companies of horses graze on the hill slopes, and wild life is -abundant. Birds are flying about the valley under the supervision of -buzzards that float in the air, half-mountain high, and among the -willowed nooks parties of moor-hens enjoy life. And so into Ogden. -</p> -<p>Night was closing in fast, and soon the country was in darkness. -Between Ogden and the City of the Saints lay a two hours' gap of -dulness, and then on a sudden I saw out in front of me a thin white -line lying under the hills that shut in the valley. -</p> -<p>"That, sir? That is Salt Lake." -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERV"></a>CHAPTER V. -</h2> -<p class="centered">THE CITY OF THE HONEY-BEE. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Zion—Deseret—A City of Two Peoples—"Work" the watchword of - Mormonism—A few facts to the credit of the Saints—The text of the - Edmunds Bill—In the Mormon Tabernacle—The closing scene of the - Conference. -</p> -<p>I HAVE described in my time many cities, both of the east and west; but -the City of the Saints puzzles me. It is the young rival of Mecca, the -Zion of the Mormons, the Latter-Day Jerusalem. It is also the City of -the Honey-bee, "Deseret," and the City of the Sunflower—an encampment -as of pastoral tribes, the tented capital of some Hyksos, "Shepherd -Kings"—the rural seat of a modern patriarchal democracy; the place -of the tabernacle of an ancient prophet-ruled Theocracy—the point -round which great future perplexities for America are gathering fast; -a political storm centre—"a land fresh, as it were, from the hands of -God;" a beautiful Goshen of tranquility in the midst of a troublous -Egypt—a city of mystery, that seems to the ignorant some Alamut or -"Vulture's Nest" of an Assassin sect; the eyrie of an "Old Man of -the Mountains:"—to the well-informed the Benares of a sternly pious -people; the templed city of an exacting God—a place of pilgrimage -in the land of promise, the home of the "Lion of Judah," and the -rallying-point in the last days of the Lost Tribes, the Lamanites, the -Red Indians—the capital of a Territory in which the people, though -"Americans," refuse to make haste to get rich; to dig out the gold and -silver which they know abounds in their mountains; to enter the world's -markets as competitors in the race of commerce—a people content with -solid comfort; that will not tolerate either a beggar or a millionaire -within their borders, but insist on a uniform standard of substantial -well-being, and devote all the surplus to "building up of Zion," to -the emigration of the foreign poor and the erection of splendid places -of ceremonial worship—a Territory in which the towns are all filled -thick with trees and the air is sweet with the fragrance of fruit and -flowers, and the voices of birds and bees as if the land was still -their wild birthright; in which meadows with herds of cattle and horses -are gradually overspreading deserts hitherto the wild pashalik of the -tyrant sage-brush—a land, alternately, of populous champaign and -of desolate sand waste, with, as its capital, a City of Two Peoples -between whom there is a bitterness of animosity, such as, in far-off -Persia, even Sunni and Shea hardly know. -</p> -<p>Indeed, there are so many sides to Salt Lake City, and so much that -might be said of each, that I should perhaps have shirked this part of -my experiences altogether were I not conscious of possessing, at any -rate, one advantage over all my "Gentile" predecessors who have written -of this Mecca of the West. For it was my good fortune to be entertained -as a guest in the household of a prominent Mormon Apostle, a -polygamist, and in this way to have had opportunities for the frankest -conversation with many of the leading Mormons of the territory. My -candidly avowed antipathy to polygamy made no difference anywhere I -went, for they extended to me the same confidence that they would have -done to any Gentile who cared to know the real facts. -</p> -<p>In the ordinary way, I should begin by describing the City itself. -But even then, so subtle is the charm of this place—Oriental in its -general appearance, English in its details—that I should hesitate to -attempt description. Its quaint disregard of that "fine appearance" -which makes your "live" towns so commonplace; its extravagance in -streets condoned by ample shade-trees; its sluices gurgling along by -the side-walks; its astonishing quiet; the simple, neighbourly life of -the citizens—all these, and much more combine to invest Salt Lake City -with the mystery that is in itself a charm. -</p> -<p>Speaking merely as a traveller, and classifying the towns which I -have seen, I would place the Mormon Zion in the same genus as Benares -on the Ganges and Shikarpoor in Sinde, for it attracts the visitor -by interests that are in great part intellectual. The mind and eye -are captivated together. It is a fascination of the imagination as -well as of the senses. For the capital of Utah is not one of Nature's -favourites. She has hemmed it in with majestic mountains, but they -are barren and severe. She has spread the levels of a great lake, but -its waters are bitter, Marah. There is none of the tender grace of -English landscape, none of the fierce splendour of the tropics; and -yet, in spite of Nature, the valley is already beautiful, and in the -years to come may be another Palmyra. As yet, however, it is the day of -small things. Many of the houses are still of adobe, and they overlook -the trees planted to shade them. Wild flowers still grow alongside -the track of the tram-cars, and wild birds perch to whistle on the -telephone wires in the business thoroughfares. -</p> -<p>But the future is full of promise, for the prosperity of the city is -based upon the most solid of all foundations, agricultural wealth, and -it is inhabited by a people whose religion is work. For it is a fact -about Mormonism which I have not yet seen insisted upon, that the first -duty it teaches is work, and that it inculcates industry as one of the -supreme virtues. -</p> -<p>The result is that there are no pauper Mormons, for there are no idle -ones. In the daytime there are no loafers in the streets, for every man -is afield or at his work, and soon after nine at night the whole city -seems to be gone to bed. A few strangers of course are hanging about -the saloon doors, but the pervading stillness and the emptiness of the -streets is dispiriting to rowdyism, and so the Gentile damns the place -as being "dull." But the truth is that the Mormons are too busy during -the day for idleness to find companionship at night, and too sober in -their pleasures for gaslight vices to attract them. -</p> -<p>As a natural corollary to this life of hard work, it follows that the -Mormons are in a large measure indifferent to the affairs of the world -outside themselves. Minding their own business keeps them from meddling -with that of others. They are, indeed, taught this from the pulpit. -For it is the regular formula of the Tabernacle that the people should -go about their daily work, attend to that, and leave everything else -alone. They are never to forget that they are "building up Zion," that -their day is coming in good time, but that meanwhile they must work -"and never bother about what other people may be doing." In this way -Salt Lake City has become a City of Two Peoples, and though Mormon and -Gentile may be stirred up together sometimes, they do not mingle any -more than oil and water. -</p> -<p>There are no paupers among the Mormons, and 95 per cent of them live in -their own houses on their own land; there is no "caste" of priesthood, -such as the world supposes, inasmuch as every intelligent man is a -priest, and liable at any moment to be called upon to undertake the -duties of the priests of other churches—but without any pay. -</p> -<p>Last winter there was a census taken of the Utah Penitentiary and the -Salt Lake City and county prisons with the following result:—In Salt -Lake City there are about 75 Mormons to 25 non-Mormons: in Salt Lake -county there are about 80 Mormons to 20 non-Mormons. Yet in the city -prison there were 29 convicts, all non-Mormons; in the county prison -there were 6 convicts all non-Mormons. The jailer stated that the -county convicts for the five years past were all anti-Mormons except -three! -</p> -<p>In Utah the proportion of Mormons to all others is as 83 to 17. In the -Utah Penitentiary at the date of the census there were 51 prisoners, -only 5 of whom were Mormons, and 2 of the 5 were in prison for -polygamy, so that the 17 per cent "outsiders" had 46 convicts in the -penitentiary, while the 83 per cent. Mormons had but 5! -</p> -<p>Out of the 200 saloon, billiard, bowling alley and pool-table keepers -not over a dozen even profess to be Mormons. All of the bagnios and -other disreputable concerns in the territory are run and sustained by -non-Mormons. Ninety-eight per cent of the gamblers in Utah are of the -same element. Ninety-five per cent of the Utah lawyers are Gentiles, -and 98 per cent of all the litigation there is of outside growth and -promotion. Of the 250 towns and villages in Utah, over 200 have no -"gaudy sepulchre of departed virtue," and these two hundred and odd -towns are almost exclusively Mormon in population. Of the suicides -committed in Utah ninety odd per cent are non-Mormon, and of the Utah -homicides and infanticides over 80 per cent are perpetrated by the 17 -per cent of "outsiders." -</p> -<p>The arrests made in Salt Lake City from January 1, 1881, to December 8, -1881, were classified as follows:— -</p> -<table > <tr><td> Men </td><td>782</td></tr> -<tr> <td>Women</td><td>200</td></tr> - <tr><td>Boys</td><td>38</td></tr> - <tr><td> Total</td><td>1020</td></tr> - </table> - <p></p> - <table> - <tr><td>Mormons—Men and boys</td><td>163</td></tr> -<tr><td>Mormons—Women</td><td>6</td></tr> - <tr><td>Anti-Mormon—Men and boys</td><td>657</td></tr> - <tr><td>Anti-Mormon—Women</td><td>194</td></tr> - <tr><td> Total</td><td>1020 </tr> -</table> -<p>A number of the Mormon arrests were for chicken, cow, and water -trespass, petty larceny, &c. The arrests of non-Mormons were 80 per -cent for prostitution, gambling, exposing of person, drunkenness, -unlawful dram-selling, assault and battery, attempt to kill, &c. -</p> -<p>Now, if the 75 per cent Mormon population of Salt Lake City were as -lawless and corrupt as the record shows the 25 per cent non-Mormons to -be, there would have been 2443 arrests made from their ranks during -the year 1881, instead of 169; while if the 25 per cent non-Mormon -population were as law-abiding and moral as the 75 per cent Mormons, -instead of 851 non-Mormon arrests during the year, there would have -been but 56! -</p> -<p>These are the kind of statistics that non-Mormons in Salt Lake City -hate having published. But the world ought to know them, if only to -put to shame the so-called Christian community of Utah, that is never -tired of libelling, personally and even by name, the men and women whom -Mormons have learned to respect from a lifetime's experience of the -integrity of their conduct and the purity of their lives—the so-called -"Christian" community that is afraid to hear itself contrasted with -these same Mormons, lest the shocking balance of crime and immorality -against themselves should be publicly known. But there is no appeal -from these statistics. They are incontrovertible. -</p> -<p>The time at which I arrived in Utah was a very critical one for the -Latter-Day Saints. The States, exasperated into activity by sectarian -agitation—and by the intrigues of a few Gentiles resident in Utah who -were financially interested in the transfer of the Territorial Treasury -from Mormon hands to their own—had just determined, once more, to -extirpate polygamy, and the final passage of the long-dreaded "Edmunds -Bill" had marked down Mormons as a proscribed people, and had indicted -the whole community for a common offence. -</p> -<p>The following is the text of this remarkable bill:— -</p> -<p>"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the -United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 5352 of -the Revised Statutes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, -amended so as to read as follows, namely: -</p> -<p>"Every person who has a husband or wife living who, in a territory or -other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, -hereafter marries another, whether married or single, and any man who -hereafter simultaneously, or on the same day, marries more than one -woman, in a territory or other place over which the United States have -exclusive jurisdiction, is guilty of polygamy, and shall be punished -by a fine of not more than $500 and by imprisonment for a term of -not more than five years; but this section shall not extend to any -person by reason of any former marriage whose husband or wife by such -marriage shall have been absent for five successive years, and is not -known to such person to be living, and is believed by such person to -be dead, nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which -shall have been dissolved by a valid decree of a competent court, nor -to any person by reason of any former marriage which shall have been -pronounced void by a valid decree of a competent court, on the ground -of nullity of the marriage contract. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 2—That the foregoing provisions shall not affect the prosecution -or punishment of any offence already committed against the section -amended by the first section of this act. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 3—That if any male person, in a territory or other place over -which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter cohabits -with more than one woman, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, -and on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than -$300, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both said -punishments, in the discretion of the court. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 4—That counts for any or all of the offences named in sections -one and two of this act may be joined in the same information or -indictment. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 5—That in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful -cohabitation, under any statute of the United States, it shall be -sufficient cause of challenge to any person drawn or summoned as a -juryman or talesman, first, that he is or has been living in the -practice of bigamy, polygamy or unlawful cohabitation with more than -one woman, or that he is or has been guilty of an offence punishable -by either of the foregoing sections, or by section 5352 of the -Revised Statutes of the United States, or the Act of July 1st, 1862, -entitled, 'An Act to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in the -territories of the United States and other places, and disapproving and -annulling certain Acts of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory -of Utah;' or second, that he believes it right for a man to have more -than one living and undivorced wife at the same time, or to live in -the practice of cohabiting with more than one woman; and any person -appearing or offered as a juror or talesman, and challenged on either -of the foregoing grounds, may be questioned on his oath as to the -existence of any such cause of challenge, and other evidence may be -introduced bearing upon the question raised by such challenge; and this -question shall be tried by the court. But as to the first ground of -challenge before mentioned, the person challenged shall not be bound -to answer if he shall say upon his oath that he declines on the ground -that his answer may tend to criminate himself; and if he shall answer -as to said first ground, his answer shall not be given in evidence in -any criminal prosecution against him for any offence named in sections -one or three of this Act; but if he declines to answer on any ground, -he shall be rejected as incompetent. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 6—That the President is hereby authorized to grant amnesty to -such classes of offenders, guilty before the passage of this act of -bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, on such conditions and -under such limitations as he shall think proper; but no such amnesty -shall have effect unless the conditions thereof shall be complied with. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 7—That the issue of bigamous or polygamous marriages, known as -Mormon marriages, in cases in which such marriages have been solemnized -according to the ceremonies of the Mormon sect, in any territory of -the United States, and such issue shall have been born before the 1st -January, A.D. 1883, are hereby legitimated. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 8—That no polygamist, bigamist, or any person cohabiting with -more than one woman, and no woman cohabiting with any of the persons -described as aforesaid in this section, in any territory or other place -over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, shall be -entitled to vote at any election held in any such territory or other -place, or be eligible for election or appointment to or be entitled -to hold any office or place of public trust, honour, or emolument in, -under, or for any such territory or place, or under the United States. -</p> -<p>"SEC. 9—That all the registration and election offices of every -description in the Territory of Utah are hereby declared vacant, and -each and every duty relating to the registration of voters, the conduct -of elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, and the canvassing -and returning of the same, and the issuing of certificates or other -evidence of election in said territory, shall, until other provision be -made by the Legislative Assembly of said territory as is hereinafter -by this section provided, be performed under the existing laws of the -United States and of said territory by proper persons, who shall be -appointed to execute such offices and perform such duties by a board of -five persons, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice -and consent of the Senate, not more than three of whom shall be members -of one political party, a majority of whom shall be a quorum. The -canvass and return of all the votes at elections in said territory for -members of the Legislative Assembly thereof shall also be returned to -said board, which shall canvass all such returns and issue certificates -of election to those persons who, being eligible for such election, -shall appear to have been lawfully elected, which certificates shall be -the only evidence of the right of such persons to sit in such Assembly, -provided said board of five persons shall not exclude any persons -otherwise eligible to vote from the polls, on account of any opinion -such person may entertain on the subject of bigamy or polygamy; nor -shall they refuse to count any such vote on account of the opinion of -the person casting it on the subject of bigamy or polygamy; but each -house of such Assembly, after its organization, shall have power to -decide upon the elections and qualifications of its members." -</p> -<p>The day also on which I arrived in Salt Lake City was itself a -memorable one, for it was the closing day of the fifty second annual -conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—notable, -beyond other conferences, as a public expression of the opinions of -the leaders of the Mormon Church, at a crisis of great importance. The -whole hierarchy of Utah took part in the proceedings, and it was fitly -closed by an address from President Taylor himself, evoking such a -demonstration of fervid and yet dignified enthusiasm as I have never -seen equalled. -</p> -<p>My telegram to the New York World on that occasion may still stand as -my description of the scene. -</p> -<p>"Acquainted though I am with displays of Oriental fanaticism and -Western revivalism, I set this Mormon enthusiasm on one side as being -altogether of a different character, for it not only astonishes by its -fervour, but commands respect by its sincere sobriety. The congregation -of the Saints assembled in the Tabernacle, numbering, by my own careful -computation, eleven thousand odd, and composed in almost exactly -equal parts of the two sexes, reminded me of the Puritan gatherings -of the past as I imagined them, and of my personal experiences of the -Transvaal Boers as I know them. There was no rant, no affectation, no -straining after theatrical effect. The very simplicity of this great -gathering of country-folk was striking in the extreme, and significant -from first to last of a power that should hardly be trifled with by -sentimental legislation. I have read, I can assert, everything of -importance that has ever been written about the Mormons, but a single -glance at these thousands of hardy men fresh from their work at the -plough—at the rough vehicles they had come in, ranged along the street -leading to the Tabernacle, at their horses, with the mud of the fields -still upon them—convinced me that I knew nothing whatever of this -interesting people. Of the advice given at this Conference it is easy -to speak briefly, for all counselled alike. In his opening address, -President Taylor said,— -</p> -<p>"'The antagonism we now experience here has always existed, but we have -also come out of our troubles strengthened. I say to you, be calm, for -the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and He will take care of us.' -</p> -<p>"Every succeeding speaker repeated the same advice, and the outcome -of the five days' Conference may therefore be said to have been an -exhortation to the Saints 'to pay no attention whatever to outside -matters, but to live their religion, leave the direction of affairs to -their priesthood, and the result in the hands of God.' -</p> -<p>"Bishops Sharp and Cluff challenged the Union to show more conspicuous -examples of loyalty than those that 'brighten the records of Utah;' -Bishop Hatch referred to a 'Revolutionary' ancestry; and Apostle -Brigham Young (a son of the late President) alluded to the advocacy -in certain quarters of warlike measures with which he was not himself -in sympathy. 'I am not,' he said, 'altogether belligerent, and am not -advocating warlike measures, but I do want to advocate our standing -true and steadfast all the time. If I am to be persecuted for living my -religion, why, I am to be persecuted. That is all. Dodging the issue -will not change it. I have read the bill passed to injure us, but am -satisfied that everything will come out all right, that the designs of -our enemies will be frustrated, and confusion will come upon them.' -Apostle Woodruff reminded the enemies of the Church that it 'costs a -great deal to shed the blood of God's people;' and Apostle Lorenzo Snow -said,—'I do not have any fear or trouble about fiery ordeals, but if -any do come we should all be ready for them.' -</p> -<p>"These and other references to possible trouble seem to show that the -leaders of the Church consider the state of the public mind such as -to make these allusions necessary. But loyalty to the Constitution -was the text of every address, and even as regards the Edmunds Bill -itself, Apostle Lorenzo Snow said,—'There is something good in it, -for it legalizes every issue from plural marriages up to January 1, -1883. No person a few years ago could have ever expected such an act -of Congress. But it has passed, and been signed by the President.' The -expressions of the speakers with regard to polygamy were at times very -explicit. The President yesterday said,—'Some of our kind friends have -suggested that we cast our wives off, but our feelings are averse to -that. We are bound to them for time and eternity—we have covenanted -before high heaven to remain bound to them. And I declare, in the name -of Israel's God, that we will keep the covenant, and I ask all to say -to this Amen.' (Here, like the sound of a great sea-wave breaking in a -cave, a vast Amen arose from the concourse.) 'We may have to shelter -behind a hedge while the storm is passing over, but let us be true -to ourselves, our wives, our families, and our God, and all will be -well.' Again to-day he exhorted the Saints 'to keep within the law, but -at the same time to live their religion and be true to their wives, -and the principles Of their Church.' Several other speakers touched -upon the fact of plurality being an integral doctrine of Mormonism, -and not to be interfered with without committing an outrage against -their religion. Retaliation was never suggested, unless the advice -given to the congregation to make all their purchases at Mormon shops -may be accepted as a tendency towards Boycotting. But the Church was -exhorted to stand firm, to allow persecution to run its course, and -above all, to be 'manly in their fidelity to their wives.' Nor could -anything exceed the impressiveness of the response which the people -gave instantaneously to the appeal of their President for the support -of their voices. The great Tabernacle was filled with waves of sound as -the 'Amens' of the congregation burst out. The shout of men going into -battle was not more stirring than the closing words of this memorable -conference spoken as if by one vast voice: 'Hosannah! for the Lord God -Omnipotent reigneth; He is with us now and will be for ever. Amen!'" -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERVI"></a>CHAPTER VI. -</h2> -<p class="centered">LEGISLATION AGAINST PLURALITY. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> A people under a ban—What the Mormon men think of the - Anti-Polygamy Bill—And what the Mormon women say of - polygamy—Puzzling confidences—Practical plurality a very dull - affair—But theoretically a hedge-hog problem—Matrimonial - eccentricities—The fashionable milliner fatal to - plurality—Absurdity of comparing Moslem polygamy with Mormon - plurality—Are the women of Utah happy?—Their enthusiasm for - Women's Rights. -</p> -<p>UTAH, therefore, at the time of my visit was "a proclaimed -district"—to use the Anglo-Indian phrase for tracts suspected of -infanticide—and every Mormon within it had a share in the disgrace -thrust upon it. Nor was the triumph of the Gentile concealed at the -result. The Mormons, therefore, were consolidated, in the first -instance, by the equal pressure of the new law upon all sections of the -church alike; in the next by the openly expressed exultation of the -Gentiles. I wrote at the time: "They feel that they are under a common -ban. The children have read the Bill or have had its purport explained -to them, and it is well known even among the Gentiles how keen the -grief was in every household when the news that the Bill had passed -reached Utah. Wives still shed bitter tears over the act of Congress -which breaks up their happy homes, and robs them and their children of -the protecting presence of a husband and father. The Bill was aimed to -put a stop to a supposed self-indulgence of the men. But the Mormons -have never thought of it in this light at all. They see in it only an -attempt to punish their wives. And it is this alleged cruelty to their -wives and children that has stubborned the Mormon men." -</p> -<p>Meanwhile the Mormons' affect a contemptuous disregard Of the -Commission and all its works. I have spoken to many, some of them -leaders of local opinion, and everywhere I find the same amused -indifference to it expressed. "We have too many real troubles," they -say, "to go manufacturing imaginary ones. We must live our religion in -the present and leave the future to God." -</p> -<p>"But," I would say, "this is not a question of the future. All children -born after the 1st of January, 1883, will be illegitimate—and in these -matters Nature is generally very punctual. Now, are you going to break -the law or going to keep it?" -</p> -<p>Some would answer "neither," and some "both," but all would agree -that there was no necessity for worrying themselves about evils which -may never befall, and that the Edmunds Bill, with all its malignity -and cunning, was "a stupid blunder," an "impossible" enactment, "an -absurdity." So the questioning would probably end in laughter. -</p> -<p>"But in spite of this expressed indifference to the working of the -Bill, there can be little doubt that the more responsible Mormons -have already made up their minds as to the course they will take. -'The people' will follow them of course, and forecasting the future, -therefore, I anticipate that a small minority will break down under the -pressure, and will return their plural wives to their parents, with -such provision as they can make for their future support. -</p> -<p>"Of the remainder, that is to say the bulk of the Mormons, I believe, -indeed I feel convinced, that they will simply ignore the Bill so long -as it ignores them, and that when it is put in force against them, they -will accept the penalty without complaint. In some cases the onus of -proving guilt will no doubt be made heavier by 'passive resistance,' -and where the whole family is solid in throwing obstacles in the way -of espionage, conviction will necessarily be very difficult. As a case -in point may be cited the instance of the Mormon in Salt Lake City, -who married a second wife and successfully defied both the law and -the public to fix his relationship to the lady in question and her -children. She herself was content with saying that her children were -honourable in birth, and that the wedding-ring on her finger was a fact -and not a fiction. But who her husband was neither the law nor the -press could find out for two years, and only then by the confession of -the sinner himself." -</p> -<p>I was sitting one day with two Mormon ladies, plural wives, and the -conversation turned upon marriage. -</p> -<p>"But," said I, "now that you have experienced the disadvantages of -plurality, shall you advise your daughters to follow your example?" -</p> -<p>"No," said both promptly, "I shall not advise them one way or the -other. They must make their own choice, just as I did." -</p> -<p>"Choice, I am afraid, is hardly a choice though. Plurality, I fear, is -too nearly a religious duty to leave much option with girls." -</p> -<p>"Nonsense," said the elder of the two, "I was just as free to choose my -husband as you were to choose your wife. I married for love." -</p> -<p>"And do you really believe," broke in the other, "that any woman in -the world would marry a man she did not like from a sense of religious -duty!" -</p> -<p>"Yes," said I, regardless of the fair speaker's scorn, "I thought -plenty of women had done so. More than that, thousands have renounced -marriage with men whom they loved and taken the veil, for Heaven's -sake." -</p> -<p>"Very true," was the reply, "a woman may renounce marriage and become a -nun as a religious duty. But the same motive would never have persuaded -that woman to marry against her inclinations. There is all the -difference in the world between the two. Any woman will tell you that." -</p> -<p>"Then you mean to say," I persisted, "that you and your friends -consider that you are voluntary agents when you go into plurality? that -you do so entirely of your own accord and of your own free choice?" -</p> -<p>"Certainly I do," was the reply. "You may not believe us, of course, -but that I cannot help. All I can say to you is, that if I had the last -seven years of my life to live over again, I should do exactly what I -did seven years ago." -</p> -<p>"And what was that?" I asked. -</p> -<p>"Refuse to marry a Gentile, to please my friends, and marry a -polygamist to please myself. I had two offers from unmarried men, -either of which my family were very anxious I should accept. But I did -not care for either. But when my husband, who had already two wives, -proposed to me, I accepted him, in spite of my friends' protests. And I -would marry him again if the choice came over again." -</p> -<p>"Then yours must surely be exceptional cases, for I cannot bring myself -to believe that those who have been 'first' wives would ever consent to -their husband's re-marriage, if their past could be recalled." -</p> -<p>"But I was his first wife," said the elder lady, "and my husband's -second wife was his first love. And if my past were recalled as you -put it, I would give my consent just as willingly as I did twelve -years ago." "Perhaps," said she, laughing, "you will call mine an -'exceptional' case too. But if you go through the Mormons individually, -I am afraid you will find that the 'exceptional' cases are very large." -</p> -<p>"And how about the minority?" I asked, "the wives whose hearts have -been broken by plurality?" -</p> -<p>"Well," was the reply, "there are plenty of unhappy wives. But this -is surely not peculiar to polygamy, is it? There are plenty of women -who find they have made a mistake. But is it not the same in monogamy? -And yet, though our poor women can get divorces with no trouble, and -at an expense of only ten dollars, and are certain of a competence -after divorce, and of re-marriage if they choose, they do not do it. -There is no greater disgrace attaching to divorce here than in Europe. -Indeed allowances are made for the special trials of plurality, and -mere unhappiness is in itself quite sufficient for a woman to get a -divorce. Yet divorce is very rare indeed, not one-tenth as common as in -Massachusetts, for instance." -</p> -<p>"There are bad men amongst us just as there are everywhere," continued -the other lady, "and a bad Mormon is the worst man there can be. But we -are not the only people that have bad husbands among them." -</p> -<p>And so it went on. I was met at every point by assurances as sincere -as tone of voice and language could make them appear. Eventually I -scrambled out of the subject as best I could, covering my retreat with -the remark,— -</p> -<p>"Well, my only justification in saying that I do not believe you, is -this, that if I said I did, no one would believe me." -</p> -<p>Of this much, however, I am convinced, that whatever may have been -true thirty years ago—and there has not been a single trustworthy -book written about Mormonism since 1862—it is not true to-day that -the Church interferes with the domestic relations of the people. When -there is a divorce the Church takes care that the man does not turn his -wife adrift without provision. But as far as I have been able to learn, -the authorities do not meddle in any other way between man and woman, -so long, of course, as neither is a scandal to the community. When a -scandal arises the Church takes prompt notice of it, and the offender, -if incorrigible, is next heard of as "apostatizing," or, in other -words, being turned out of Mormonism as unfit to live in it. But once -married into polygamy, religion is all-powerful in reconciling women -to the sacrifices they have to make, precisely, I suppose, in the same -way that religion reconciles the nun to the sacrifices which her Church -accepts from her. -</p> -<p>Practical Plurality, then, is a very dull affair. I was disappointed -in it. I had expected to see men with long whips, sitting on fences, -swearing at their gangs of wives at work in the fields. I expected -every now and then to hear of drunken saints beating seven or eight -wives all at once, and perhaps even to have seen the unusual spectacle -of a house full of women and children rushing screaming into the street -with one intoxicated husband and father in pursuit. Everywhere else -in the world wife-beating is a pastime more or less indulged in coram -publico. In London, at any rate, men so arrange their chastisements -that you can hear the screams from the street and see the wife run out -of the front door on to the pavement. In Salt Lake City therefore, it -seemed only reasonable to suppose that the amount of the screaming -would be in proportion to the number of the wives, and that eventually -ill-used families would be seen pouring simultaneously out of several -doors, and scattering over the premises with hideous ululation. Where -are the aged apostles who have so often been described as going about -in their swallow-tail coats courting each other's daughters? Where -are the "girl-hunting elders" and "ogling bishops"? Where are the -families of one man and ten wives to be found taking the air together -that pictures have so often shown us? Of course there are anomalies, -and very objectionable they are. Thus one young man has married his -half-aunt, another his half-sister, and three sisters have wedded the -same man; but these instances are all "historical," so to speak, and -have been so often trotted out by anti-Mormon book-makers, that they -are hardly worth repeating. Nor does it appear to me to be of any force -to begin raking to-day into the old suspicions as to what Mormons dead -and gone used to do. -</p> -<p>What is polygamy like to-day? That is the question. Polygamy to-day, -then, has settled down into the most matter-of-fact system that is -possible for such exceptional domestic arrangements. In the first -place, it is not compulsory, and some of the leading saints are -monogamous. About one-fourth of married Mormons are polygamous, and of -these something less than three per cent are under forty years of age. -The bill of 1862 making polygamy penal effected little or no difference -in the annual average of plural marriages, but since 1877 there has -been a very sensible decrease. -</p> -<p>These facts, then, seem to prove first that polygamy, though accepted -as a doctrine of the Church, is not generally acted upon—and why? -For the best of reasons. Either that the men cannot afford to keep -up more than one establishment, or that they are too happy with one -wife to care to marry a second, or that the first wife refuses to -allow any increase of the household—all of which reasons show that -polygamy is controlled by prudential and domestic considerations, and -is not the indiscriminate "debauchery" that so many of the public -believe it to be. It is also evident that the younger Mormons are not -so active in marrying as the elder men were at their age, for ten -years ago the proportion of polygamous Mormons under forty years of -age was much greater, which may mean that the inaction of Congress was -gradually working towards the end which the action of '62 thwarted. -By legislating against polygamy, plural marriages increased—1863 -to 1866 being as busy years in the Endowment House as any that ever -preceded them—while by letting polygamy severely alone they have been -decreasing. -</p> -<p>Polygamy in fact, by the relaxation of the regime, now that Brigham -Young's personal government has ceased, has taken its place as an -ordinary civil institution, entailing serious responsibilities upon -those who choose to enter into it, and not carrying with it such -promises of temporal advantage as at one time were reserved for the -plurally wedded. There is not the same enthusiasm about it that there -was, owing probably to the diffusion among the people of a better -sense of the position of women and of the opinions of the world with -regard to polygamy. Under the administration of President Taylor there -has been a marked disinclination in the Church to interfere with the -domestic relations of the community, except, as I have said before, -when reprimand or punishment seemed to be called for; and it is -reasonable therefore to argue that the material decline in the number -of plural marriages between 1878 and 1882 would have continued, the -proportion of young enthusiasts have gone on decreasing and, as the -elders died out, the total of polygamists become annually less. Such, I -would contend, is the reasonable inference from the facts I have given. -</p> -<p>Polygamy, as a problem, reminds me of a hedgehog. But as the hedgehog -may not be familiar to my American readers, let me explain. The -hedgehog, then, is a small animal with a very elastic skin, closely -set all over with strong sharp spines. A rural life is all its -joy. In habits and character it assimilates somewhat to the Mormon -peasant, being inoffensive, useful, industrious, prolific, and largely -frugivorous. But when hunted it is otherwise. For the hedgehog, if -closely pursued, takes hold of its ears with its hind paws and, tucking -its nose into the middle of its stomach, rolls itself into a perfect -ball. The spines then stand out straight and in every direction -equally. Nor, thus defended, does the hedgehog shun the public eye. -On the contrary, it lies out in the full sunlight, in the middle of -the sidewalk or the dusty high-road, a challenge to the inquisitive -attention of every passing dog. And you can no more keep a dog from -going out of its way to reconnoitre the queer-looking object than you -can keep needles away from loadstones. They do not all behave in the -same way to it, though. The mutton-headed dogs sit down by it and -contemplate it vacantly, and go away after a bit in a kind of brown -study. The silly ones smell it too close, and go off down the road in a -streak of dust and yelp. The experienced dogs sniff at it and trot on. -"Only that hedgehog again!" they say. The malicious prick their noses -and lose their temper, and then prick their noses worse and lose their -tempers more. The puppy barks at it remotely, receding every time by -the recoil of its own bark, till it barks itself backwards into the -opposite ditch. But the hedgehog lies perfectly still, as round and -as spiny as ever, in the middle of the high-road. All the dogs are -much the same to it. Some roll it a little one way, and some roll it a -little the other. It gets dusty or it gets wet. But there it lies as -inscrutable, puzzling, and odious to passing dogs as ever. By-and-by -when it is dark, and everybody has got tired of poking it and sniffing -it and wondering at it, the hedgehog will quietly unroll itself and -creep away to some secluded spot betwixt orchard and corn-field, and -remote from the highways of men and their dogs. -</p> -<p>I am particularly led to this moralizing because a Mormon has just been -enumerating, at my request, some of the more extraordinary anomalies -that he knows of in recent polygamy. I took notes of a few, and they -seem to me sufficiently puzzling to justify a place in these pages. -</p> -<p>A young and very pretty girl, in "the upper ten" of Mormonism, married -a young man of her own class, but stipulated before marriage that he -should marry a second wife as soon as he could afford to do so. -</p> -<p>A young couple were engaged, but quarrelled, and the lover out of pique -married another lady. Two years later his first love, having refused -other offers in the mean time, married him as his second wife. -</p> -<p>A man having married a second wife to please himself, married a third -to please his first. "She was getting old, she said, and wanted a -younger woman to help her about the house." -</p> -<p>A couple about to be married made an agreement between themselves that -the husband should not marry again unless it was one of the relatives -of the first wife. The ladies selected have refused, and the husband -remains true to his promise. -</p> -<p>The belle of the settlement, a Gentile, refused monogamist offers of -marriage, and married a Mormon who had two wives already. -</p> -<p>A girl, distracted between her love for her suitor and her love for her -mother, compromised in her affections by stipulating that he should -marry both her mother and herself, which he did. -</p> -<p>A girl, a Gentile, bitterly opposed at first to polygamy, married a -polygamist at the solicitation of his first wife, her great friend. -</p> -<p>Two girls were great friends, and one of them, getting engaged to a man -(by no means of prepossessing appearance), persuaded her friend to get -engaged to him too, and he married them both on the same day. -</p> -<p>These are enough. Moreover, they are not isolated cases, and I believe -I am right in saying that I can give a second instance, of recent -date, of nearly all of them. Nor are these anonymous fictions like the -"victims" of anti-Mormon writers. I have names for each of them. One of -them tells me she could name "scores" of the same kind. -</p> -<p>It appears to me, therefore, that the women of Utah have shaken -somewhat the modern theories of the conjugal relation, and—with all -one's innate aversion to a system which is capable of such odious -abnormalisms—a most interesting and baffling problem for study. It is, -as I said, a regular hedgehog of a problem. If you could only catch -hold of it by the nose or the tail, you could scrunch it up easily. But -it has spines all over. It is at once provocative and unapproachable. -</p> -<p>I remember once in India giving a tame monkey a lump of sugar inside -a corked bottle. The monkey was of an inquiring kind, and it nearly -killed it. Sometimes, in an impulse of disgust, it would throw the -bottle away, out of its own reach, and then be distracted till it was -given back to it. At others it would sit with a countenance of the -most intense dejection, contemplating the bottled sugar, and then, -as if pulling itself together for another effort at solution, would -sternly take up the problem afresh, and gaze into it. It would tilt -it up one way and try to drink the sugar through the cork, and then, -suddenly reversing it, try to catch it as it fell out at the bottom. -Under the impression that it could capture it by a surprise it kept -rapping its teeth against the glass in futile bites, and, warming to -the pursuit of the revolving lump, used to tie itself into regular -knots round the bottle. Fits of the most ludicrous melancholy would -alternate with these spasms of furious speculation, and how the matter -would have ended it is impossible to say. But the monkey one night got -loose and took the bottle with it. And it has always been a delight to -me to think that whole forestfuls of monkeys have by this time puzzled -themselves into fits over the great Problem of Bottled Sugar. What -profound theories those long-tailed philosophers must have evolved! -What polemical acrimony that bottle must have provoked! And what a -Confucius the original monkey must have become! A single morning with -such a Sanhedrim discussing such a matter would surely have satiated -even a Swift with satire. -</p> -<p>Taking then polygamy to be the bottle, and the Gentile to be the -monkey, it appears to me that the only alternatives in solution are -these: Either smash the whole thing up altogether, or else fall back -upon that easy-going old doctrine of wise men, that "morality" is after -all a matter of mere geography. -</p> -<p>An Oriental legend shows us Allah sitting in casual conversation with a -man. A cockroach comes along, and Allah stamps on it. "What did you do -that for?" asks the human, looking at the ruined insect. "Because I am -God Almighty," was the reply. -</p> -<p>Now, polygamy can be smashed flat if the States choose to show their -power to do so. But no man who takes a part in that demolition must -suppose that in so doing he will be accepted by the community as -rescuing them from degradation. If left alone, polygamy will die out. -Mormons deny this, but I feel sure that they know they are wrong when -they deny it, for nothing but a perpetual miracle of loaves and fishes -will make polygamy and families of forty possible when population and -food-supply come to talk the position over seriously between them. The -expense of plurality will before long prohibit plurality. -</p> -<p>"The fashionable milliner" is the most formidable adversary that the -system has yet encountered. A twenty-dollar bonnet is a staggering -argument against it. When women were contented with sunshades, and -made them for themselves, the husband of many wives could afford to be -lavish, and to indulge his household in a diversity of headgear. But -that old serpent, the fashionable milliner, has got over the garden -wall, and Lilith<sup>[<a name="CHAPTERVIfn1"></a><a href="#txtCHAPTERVIfn1">1</a>]</sup> and Eve are no longer content with primitive -garments of home manufacture. -</p> -<p>No. Polygamy will before long be impossible, except to the rich; and in -an agricultural community, restricted in area, and further restricted -by the scarcity of water, there can never be many rich men. As it is, -the cost of plurality was on several occasions referred to by Mormons -whom I met during my tour, and I know one man who has for three years -postponed his second marriage, as he does not consider that his -means justify it; while I fancy it will not be disputed by any one -who has inquired into polygamy that, as a general rule, prudential -considerations control the system. Polygamy, then, I sincerely believe, -carries its own antidote with it, and if left alone will rapidly cure -itself. In the mean time the community that practises it does not -consider itself "degraded," and those who take part in smashing it up -must not think it does. -</p> -<p>The Mormons are a peasant people, with many of the faults of peasant -life, but with many of the best human virtues as well. They are -conspicuously industrious, honest, and sober. -</p> -<p>There is, of course, nothing whatever in common between Oriental -polygamy and Mormon plurality. The main object, and the main result -of the two systems are so widely diverse, that it is hardly necessary -even to refer to the hundred other points of difference which make -comparison between the two utterly absurd. -</p> -<p>Yet the comparison is often made in order to prove the Mormons -"degraded," and it is a great pity that such superficial and stupid -arguments should be far more effective ones are at hand. Polygamy, -though difficult to handle, is very vulnerable. The hedgehog, after -all, will have to unroll some time or another. But to assault polygamy -because the Mormons are "Turks" or "debauched Mahometans," or the other -things which silly people call them, is monstrous. -</p> -<p>The women have complicated the problem by multiplying instances of -eccentric "affection." But with it all they persist in believing that -they have retained a most exalted estimate of womanly honour. The men, -again, have inextricably entangled all recognized ideas of matrimonial -responsibilities. Yet they have not lost any of the manliness which -characterizes the pioneers of the West. -</p> -<p>Their social anomalies are deplorable, but they are not desperate. -Education and the influx of outsiders must infallibly do their work, -and any attempt to rob these men and women of the fruits of their -astonishing industry and of the peaceful enjoyment of the soil which -they have conquered for the United States from the most warlike tribes -among the Indians, and from the most malignant type of desert, is not -only not statesmanship, but it is not humanity. -</p> -<p>Are the women of Utah happy? No; not in the monogamous acceptation -of the word "happy." In polygamy the highest happiness of woman is -contentment. But on the other hand her greatest unhappiness is only -discontent. She has not the opportunity on the one hand of rising to -the raptures of perfect love. On the other, she is spared the bitter, -killing anguish of "jealousy" and of infidelity. -</p> -<p>But contentment is not happiness. It is its negative, and often has -its source in mere resignation to sorrow. It is the lame sister of -happiness, the deaf-mute in the family of joy. It lives neither in -the background nor foreground of enjoyment, but always in the middle -distance. Tender in all things, it never becomes real happiness by -concentration; having to fill no deep heart-pools, it trickles over -vast surfaces. It goes through life smiling but seldom laughing. -Now, in many philosophies we are taught that this same contentment -is the perfect form of happiness. But humanity is always at war -with philosophy. And I for one will never believe that perpetual -placidity is the highest experience of natures which are capable of -suffering the raptures of joy and of grief. I had rather live humanly, -travelling alternately over sunlit hills and gloomy valleys, than -exist philosophically on the level prairies of monotonous contentment. -Holding, then, the opinion that it is a nobler life to have sounded the -deeps and measured the heights of human emotions than to have floated -in shallows continually, I contend that polygamy is wrong in itself and -a cardinal crime against the possibilities of a woman's heart. A plural -wife can never know the utmost happiness possible for a woman. They -confess this. And by this confession the practice stands damned. -</p> -<p>Physically, Mormon plurality appears to me to promise much of the -success which Plato dreamed of, and Utah about the best nursery for -his soldiers that he could have found. Look at the urchins that go -clattering about the roads, perched two together on the bare backs of -horses, and only a bit of rope by way of bridle. Look at the rosy, -demure little girls that will be their wives some day. Take note of -their fathers' daily lives, healthy outdoor work. Go into their homes -and see the mothers at their work. For in Utah servants get sometimes -as much as six dollars a week (and their board and lodging as well -of course), and most households therefore go without this expensive -luxury. And then as you walk home through one of their rural towns -along the tree-shaded streets, with water purling along beside you -as you walk, and the clear breeze from the hills blowing the perfume -of flowers across your path in gusts, with the cottage homes, half -smothered in blossoming fruit-trees, on either hand, and a perpetual -succession gardens,—then I say, come back and sit down, if you can, to -call this people "licentious," "impure," "degraded." -</p> -<p>The Mormons themselves refuse to believe that polygamy is the real -objection against them, and it will be found impossible to convince -them that the Edmunds bill is really what it purports to be, a crusade -against their domestic arrangements only. There are some among them who -thoroughly understand the "political" aspect of the case, and are aware -that "the reorganization of Utah" would give very enviable pickings to -the friends of the Commission. Others, have made up their minds that -behind this generous anti-polygamy sentiment is mean sectarian envy, -and that this is only one more of those amiable efforts of narrow -Christians to crush a detested and flourishing sect. -</p> -<p>Jealousy, in fact, is the Mormons' explanation of the Edmunds bill. The -Gentiles, they say, are hankering after the good things of Utah, and -hope by one cry after another to persecute the Mormons out of them. But -it is far more curious that the jealousy of their own sex should be -suggested by Mormon women as the cause of their participation in the -clamour against polygamy. Yet so it is; the Gentile women are, they -say, "jealous" of a community where every woman has a husband! It is a -perplexing suggestion, and so thoroughly reverses all rational course -of argument, that I wish it had never been seriously put forward. -Imagine the ladies of the Eastern States who have made themselves -conspicuous in this campaign, who have fought and bled to rescue their -poor sisters from slavery, to free them from the grasp of Mormon -Bluebeards—imagine, I say, these ladies being told by the sisters for -whom they are fighting, that they ought to be ashamed of themselves for -being envious of the women in polygamy! Instead of being thanked for -helping to strike the fetters of plurality off their suffering sisters, -they are met with the retort that they ought to try being wives and -mothers themselves before they come worrying those who have tried it -and are content! They are requested not to meddle with "what they -don't understand," and are threatened with a counter-crusade against -the polyandry of Washington, New York, and other cities! But even more -staggering is the fact that Mormon women base their indignation against -their persecuting saviours on woman's rights, the very ground upon -which those saviours have based their crusade! The advocates of woman's -rights are a very strong party in Utah; and their publications use the -very same arguments that strong-minded women have made so terrible -to newspaper editors in Europe, and members of Parliament. Thus the -Woman's Exponent—with "The Rights of the Women of All Nations" for -its motto—publishes continually signed letters in which plural wives -affirm their contentment with their lot, and in one of its issues is a -leading article, headed "True Charity," and signed Mary Ellen Kimball, -in which the women of Mormondom are reminded that they ought to pray -for poor benighted Mr. Edmunds and all who think like him! Then follows -a letter from a Gentile, addressed to "the truthful pure-hearted, -intelligent, Christian women" of Utah, and after this an article, -"Hints on Marriage," signed "Lillie Freeze." But for a sentence or two -it might be an article by a Gentile in a Gentile "lady's paper," for it -speaks of "courtship" and "lovers," and has the quotation, "two souls -with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one," and all the -other orthodox pretty things about true love and married bliss. Yet the -writer is speaking of polygamy! In the middle of this article written -"for love's sweet sake," and as womanly and pure as ever words written -by woman, comes this paragraph:— -</p> -<p>"In proportion as the power of evil increases, a disregard for the -sacred institution of marriage also increases among the youth, and -contempt for the marriage obligation increases among the married until -this most sacred relationship will be overwhelmed by disunion and -strife, and only among the despised Latter-Day Saints will the true -foundation of social happiness and prosperity be found upon the earth; -but in order to realize this state we must be guided by principles -more perfect than those which have wrought such dissolution. God has -revealed a plan for establishing a new order of society which will -elevate and benefit all mankind who embrace it. The nations that fight -against it are working out their own destruction, for their house -is built upon the sand, and one of the corner-stones in the doomed -structure is already loosened through their disregard and dishonour of -the institution of marriage." -</p> -<p>Now what is to be done with women who not only declare they are happy -in polygamy, but persist in trying to improve their monogamous sisters? -How is the missionary going to begin, for instance, with Lillie Freeze? -</p> -<p>If the Commission deals leniently with them, they will offer only -a passive resistance to the law. But if there is any appearance of -outrage, General Sherman may have some work to do, and it will be -work more worthy of disciplined troops than mere Indian fighting. -There would be abundance of that too, but the Mormons are themselves -sufficient to test the calibre of any troops in the world. For they are -orderly, solid in their adherence to the Church, and trained during -their youth and early manhood to a rough, mountain-frontier life. -They are in fact very superior "Boers," and Utah is a very superior -Transvaal, strategically. Mormonism is not the wind-and-rain inflated -pumpkin the world at a distance believes; it is good firm pumpkin to -the very core. Nor are the Indians a picturesque fiction. They are an -ugly reality, and under proper guidance a very formidable one. In the -mean time there is no talk of war, and the Sword of Laban is lying -quietly in its sheath. For one thing, the commission has given no -"cause" for war; for another, the present hierarchy of the Church are -men of peace. -</p> -<p>Such, then, as I view it, is the position in Utah at the present time. -Mormonism has taken up, in the phrase of diplomatic history, "an -attitude of observation," and the future is "in the hands of the Lord -God of Israel." -</p> -<h3>Footnotes: -</h3> -<p><a name="txtCHAPTERVIfn1"></a><a href="#CHAPTERVIfn1">1</a>. By the way, it is curious that it should be charged against the -Mormons that they have made Adam a polygamist. It is not a Mormon -invention at all. For, as is well known, legends far older than Moses' -writings declare that Eve married into plurality, and that Lilith was -the "first wife" of our great progenitor. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERVII"></a>CHAPTER VII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">SUA SI BONA NORINT. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> A Special Correspondent's lot—Hypothecated wits—The Daughters - of Zion—Their modest demeanour—Under the banner of Woman's - Rights—The discoverer discovered—Turning the tables—"By Jove, - sir, you shall have mustard with your beefsteak!" -</p> -<p>IT has been my good fortune to see many countries, and my ill-luck -to have had to maintain, during all my travels, an appearance of -intelligence. Though I have been over much of Europe, over all of -India and its adjoining countries, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Burmah, -and Ceylon, in the north and west and south of Africa, and in various -out-of-the-way islands in miscellaneous oceans, I have never visited -one of them purely "for pleasure." I have always been "representing" -other people. My eyes and ears have been hypothecated, so to speak—my -intelligence been in pledge. When I was sent out to watch wars, there -was a tacit agreement that I should be shot at, so that I might let -other people know what it felt like. When run away with by a camel -in a desert that had no "other end" to it, I accepted my position -simply as material for a letter for which my employers had duly paid. -They tried to drown me in a mill-stream; that was a good half-column. -Two Afridis sat down by me when I had sprained my knee by my horse -falling, and waited for me to faint that they might cut my throat. -But they overdid it, for they looked so like vultures that I couldn't -faint. But it made several very harrowing paragraphs. I have been sent -to sea to get into cyclones in the Bay of Biscay, and hurricanes in -the Mozambique Channel, that I might describe lucidly the sea-going -properties of the vessels under test. I have been sent to a King to ask -him for information that it was known beforehand he would not give, and -commissioned to follow Irish agitators all over Ireland, in the hope -that I might be able to say more about them than they knew themselves. -It has been my duty to walk about inquisitively after Zulus, and to -run away judiciously with Zulus after me. Sometimes I have taken long -shots at Afghans, and sometimes they have taken short ones at me. In -short, I have been deputed at one time and another to do many things -which I should never have done "for pleasure," and many which, for -pleasure, I should like to do again. But wherever I have been sent I -have had to go about, seeing as much as I could and asking about all I -couldn't see, and have become, professionally, accustomed to collecting -evidence, sifting it on the spot, and forming my own conclusions. In a -way, therefore, a Special Correspondent becomes of necessity an expert -at getting at facts. He finds that everything he is commissioned to -investigate has at least two sides to it, and that many things have -two right sides. There are plenty of people always willing to mislead -him, and he has to pick and choose. He arrives unprejudiced, and speaks -according to the knowledge he acquires. Sometimes he is brought up to -the hill with a definite commission to curse, but like Balaam, the son -of Barak, he begins blessing; or he is sent out to bless, and falls -to cursing. Until he arrives on the spot it is impossible for him to -say which he will do. But, whatever he does, the Special Correspondent -writes with the responsibility of a large public. It is impossible to -write flippantly with all the world for critics. -</p> -<p>Now, the demeanour of women in Utah, as compared with say Brighton or -Washington, is modesty itself, and the children are just such healthy, -pretty, vigorous children as one sees in the country, or by the seaside -in England—and, in my opinion, nowhere else. Utah-born girls, the -offspring of plural wives, have figures that would make Paris envious, -and they carry themselves with almost Oriental dignity. But remember, -Salt Lake City is a city of rustics. They do not affect "gentility," -and are careful to explain at every opportunity that the stranger must -not be shocked at their homely ways and speech. There is an easiness of -manner therefore which is unconventional, but it is only a blockhead -who could mistake this natural gaiety of the country for anything -other than it is. There is nothing, then, so far as I have seen, in -the manners of Salt Lake City to make me suspect the existence of that -"licentiousness" of which so much has been written; but there is a -great deal on the contrary to convince me of a perfectly exceptional -reserve and self-respect. I know, too, from medical assurance, -that Utah has also the practical argument of healthy nurseries to -oppose to the theories of those who attack its domestic relations on -physiological grounds. -</p> -<p>But the "Woman's Rights" aspect of polygamy is one that has never been -theorized at all. It deserves, however, special consideration by those -who think that they are "elevating" Mormon women by trying to suppress -polygamy. It possesses also a general interest for all. For the plural -wives of Salt Lake City are not by any means "waiting for salvation" -at the hands of the men and women of the East. Unconscious of having -fetters on, they evince no enthusiasm for their noisy deliverers. -</p> -<p>On the contrary, they consider their interference as a slur upon their -own intelligence, and an encroachment upon those very rights about -which monogamist females are making so much clamour. They look upon -themselves as the leaders in the movement for the emancipation of their -sex, and how, then, can they be expected to accept emancipation at the -hands of those whom they are trying to elevate? Thinking themselves -in the van of freedom, are they to be grateful for the guidance of -stragglers in the rear? They laugh at such sympathy, just as the brave -man might laugh at encouragement from a coward, or wealthy landowners -at a pauper's exposition of the responsibilities of property. Can the -deaf, they ask, tell musicians anything of the beauty of sounds, or -need the artist care for the blind man's theory of colour? -</p> -<p>Indeed, it has been in contemplation to evangelize the Eastern -States, on this very subject of Woman's Rights! To send out from -Utah exponents of the proper place of woman in society, and to teach -the women of monogamy their duties to themselves and to each other! -"Woman's true status"—I am quoting from their organ—"is that of -true status companion to man, but so protected by law that she can -act in an independent sphere if he abuse his position, and render -union unendurable." They not only, therefore, claim all that women -elsewhere claim, but they consider marriage the universal birthright -of every female. First of all, they say, be married, and then in case -of accidents have all other "rights" as well. But to start with, every -woman must have a husband. She is hardly worth calling a woman if she -is single. Other privileges ought to be hers lest marriage should -prove disastrous. But in the first instance she should claim her right -to be a wife. And everybody else should insist on that claim being -recognized. The rest is very important to fall back upon, but union -with man is her first step towards her proper sphere. -</p> -<p>Now, could any position be imagined more ludicrous for the would-be -saviours of Utah womanhood than this, that the slaves whom they talk -of rescuing from their degradation should be striving to bring others -up to their own standard? When Stanley was in Central Africa, he was -often amused and sometimes not a little disgusted to find that instead -of his discovering the Central Africans, the Central Africans insisted -on "discovering" him. Though he went into villages in order to take -notes of the savages, and to look at their belongings, the savages used -to turn the tables on him by discussing him, and taking his clothes -off to examine the curious colour, as they thought it, of his skin. So -that what with shaking off his explorers, and hunting up the various -articles they had abstracted for their unscientific scrutiny, his time -used to be thoroughly wasted, and he used to come away crestfallen, -and with the humiliating consciousness that it was the savages and not -he that had gained information and been "improved" by his visit. They -had "discovered" Stanley, not Stanley them. Something very like this -will be the fate of those who come to Utah thinking that they will be -received as shining lights from a better world. They will not find -the women of Utah waiting with outstretched arms to grasp the hand -that saves them. There will be no stampede of down-trodden females. -On the contrary, the clarion of woman's rights will be sounded, and -the intruding "champions" of that cause will find themselves attacked -with their own weapons, and hoisted with their own petards. 'With -the sceptre of woman's rights the daughters of Zion will go down as -apostles to evangelize the nation. 'Who is she that looketh forth as -the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an -army with banners?' The Daughter of Zion!" -</p> -<p>Mormon wives, then, are emphatically "woman's-rights women," a title -which is everywhere recognized as indicating independence of character -and an elevated sense of the claims of the sex, and as inferring -exceptional freedom in action. And I venture to hold the opinion that -it is only women who are conscious of freedom that can institute such -movements as this in Utah, and only those who are enthusiastic in -the cause, that can carry them on with the courage and industry so -conspicuous in this community. -</p> -<p>A Governor once went there specially instructed to release the women -of Utah from their bondage, but he found none willing to be released! -The franchise was then clamoured for in order to let the women of Utah -"fight their oppressors at the polls," and the Mormon "tyrants" took -the hint to give their wives votes, and the first use these misguided -victims of plurality made of their new possession was to protest, -20,000 victims together, against the calumnies heaped upon the men of -Utah "whom they honoured and loved." To-day it is an act of Congress -that is to set free these worse-than-Indian-suttee-devotees, and -whether they like it or not they are to be compelled to leave their -husbands or take the alternative of sending their husbands to jail. -</p> -<p>It reminds me of the story, "Sir, you shall have mustard with your -beefsteak." A man sitting in a restaurant saw his neighbour eating -his steak without mustard, and pushed the pot across to him. The -stranger bowed his acknowledgment of the courtesy and went on eating, -but without any mustard. But the other man's sense of propriety was -outraged. "Beefsteak without mustard—monstrous," said he to himself; -and again he pushed the condiment towards the stranger. "Thank you, -sir," said the stranger, but without taking any, continued his meal as -he preferred it, without mustard. But his well-wisher could not stand -it any longer. He waited for a minute to see if the man would eat his -beef in the orthodox manner, and then, his sense of the fitness of -things overpowering him, he seized the mustard-pot and dabbing down a -great splash of mustard on to the stranger's plate, burst out with, "By -Jove, sir, you shall have mustard with your beefsteak!" -</p> -<p>In the same way the monogamist reformers, having twice failed to -persuade the wives of Utah to abandon their husbands by giving them -facilities for doing so, are now going to take their husbands from -them by the force of the law. "Sua si bona norint" is the excuse of -the reformers to themselves for their philanthropy, and, like the old -Inquisitors who burnt their victims to save them from heresy, they -are going to make women wretched in order to make them happy. Says -the Woman's Exponent: "If the women of Utah are slaves, their bonds -are loving ones and dearly prized. They are to-day in the free and -unrestricted exercise of more political and social rights than are the -women of any other part of these United States. But they do not choose -as a body to court the follies and vices which adorn the civilization -of other cities, nor to barter principles of tried worth for the tinsel -of sentimentality or the gratification of passion." -</p> -<p>It is of no use for "Mormon-eaters" to say that this is written "under -direction," and that the women who write in this way are prompted by -authority. Nor would they say it if they knew personally the women who -write thus. -</p> -<p>Moreover, Mormon-eaters are perpetually denouncing the "scandalous -freedom" and "independence" extended to Mormon women and girls. And the -two charges of excessive freedom and abject slavery seem to me totally -incompatible. -</p> -<p>I myself as a traveller can vouch for this: that one of my first -impressions of Salt Lake City was this, that there was a thoroughly -unconventional absence of restraint; just such freedom as one is -familiar with in country neighbourhoods, where "every one knows every -one else," and where the formalities of town etiquette are by general -consent laid aside. And this also I can sincerely say: that I never -ceased to be struck by the modest decorum of the women I meet out of -doors. After all, self-respect is the true basis of woman's rights. -</p> -<p>This aspect of the polygamy problem deserves, then, I think, -considerable attention. An Act has been passed to compel some 20,000 -women to leave their husbands, and the world looks upon these women -as slaves about to be freed from tyrants. Yet they have said and -done all that could possibly be expected of them, and even more than -could have been expected, to assure the world that they have neither -need nor desire for emancipation, as they honour their husbands, -and prefer polygamy, with all its conditions, to the monogamy which -brings with it infidelity at home and prostitution abroad. Again and -again they have protested, in petitions to individuals and petitions -to Congress, that "their bonds are loving ones and dearly prized." -But the enthusiasm of reformers takes no heed of their protests. They -are constantly declaring in public speeches and by public votes, in -books and in newspapers—above all, in their daily conduct—that they -consider themselves free and happy women, but the zeal of philanthropy -will not be gainsaid, and so the women of Utah are, all else failing, -to be saved from themselves. The "foul blot" of a servitude which -the serfs aver does not exist is to be wiped out by declaring 20,000 -wives mistresses, their households illegal, and their future children -bastards! -</p> -<p>"By Jove, sir, you shall have mustard with your beefsteak!" -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERVIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">COULD THE MORMONS FIGHT? -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> An unfulfilled prophecy—Had Brigham Young been still - alive?—The hierarchy of Mormonism—The fighting Apostle and his - colleagues—Plurality a revelation—Rajpoot infanticide: how it was - stamped out—Would the Mormons submit to the same process?—Their - fighting capabilities—Boer and Mormon: an analogy between the - Drakensberg and the Wasatch ranges—The Puritan fanaticism of the - Saints—Awaiting the fulness of time and of prophecy. -</p> -<p>"I SAY, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State -in the Union or an independent nation by ourselves. I am still, and -still will be Governor of this Territory, to the constant chagrin of -my enemies, and twenty-six years shall not pass away before the Elders -of this Church will be as much thought of as kings on their thrones." -These were the words of Brigham Young on the last day of August, 1856. -And the Bill was passed in 1882. -</p> -<p>Had Brigham Young been alive then, that prophecy would assuredly have -been fulfilled, for the coincidence of recent legislation with the date -he fixed, would have sufficed to convince him that the opportunity for -a display of the temporal power of his Church which he had foretold, -had arrived. Once before with similar exactness Brigham Young fixed a -momentous date. -</p> -<p>He was standing in 1847 upon the site of the Temple, when suddenly, as -if under a momentary impulse, he turned to those who were with him and -said, "And now, if they will only let us alone for ten years, we will -not ask them for any odds." -</p> -<p>Exactly ten years later, to the very day, and almost to the very hour -of the day, the news came of the despatch of a Federal army against -Salt Lake City. Brigham Young called his people together—and what a -nation they were compared to the fugitive crowd that had stood round -him in 1847!—and simply reminding them of his words uttered ten years -before, waited for their response. And as if they had only one voice -among them all, the vast assemblage shouted, "No odds." -</p> -<p>And then and there he sent them into Echo canyon—and the Federal army -knows the rest. -</p> -<p>Had he been alive to-day, that scene would probably have been repeated. -</p> -<p>But Brigham Young is not alive. And his mantle has not fallen upon -any of the Elders of the Church. They are men of caution, and the -policy of Mormonism to-day is to temporize and to wait. All the States -are "United" in earnest against them. Brigham Young always taught -the people to reverence prophecy, but he taught them also to help to -fulfil it. But nowadays Mormons are told to stand by and see how the -Lord will work for them. And thus waiting, the Gentiles are gradually -creeping up to them. Every year sees new influences at work to destroy -the isolation of the Church, but the leaders originate no counteracting -influences. Their defences are being sapped, but no counter-mines -are run. As Gentile vigour grows aggressive, Mormonism seems to be -contracting its frontiers. There is no Buonaparte mind to compel -obedience. Mahomet is dead, and Ali, "the Lion of Allah," is dead, and -the Caliphate is now in commission. -</p> -<p>President Taylor is a self-reliant and courageous man, but for a ruler -he listens too much to counsel. Though not afraid of responsibility, -it does not sit upon him as one born to the ermine. Brigham Young was -a natural king. President Taylor only suffices for an interregnum. Yet -now, if ever, Mormonism needs a master-spirit. Nothing demoralizes like -inaction. Men begin to look at things "from both sides," to compromise -with convictions, to discredit enthusiasm. This is just what they are -doing now. At one of the most eventful points of their history, they -find the voices of the Tabernacle giving forth uncertain sounds. Their -Urim and Thummim is dim; the Shekinah is flickering; their oracles -stutter. They are told to obey the laws and yet to live their religion. -In other words, to eat their cake and have it; to let go and hold -tight—anything that is contradictory, irreconcilable, and impossible. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, wealth and interests in outside schemes have raised up in -the Church a body of men of considerable temporal influence, who it -is generally supposed "outside" are half-hearted. The Gentiles lay -great stress on this. But no one should be deceived as to the real -importance of this "half-heartedness." In the first place, a single -word from President Taylor would extinguish the influence of these -men politically and religously, at once and for ever. A single speech -in the Tabernacle would reduce them to mere ciphers in Mormonism, -and the Church would really, therefore, lose nothing more by their -defection than the men themselves. But as a matter of fact they are -not half-hearted. I know the men whom the outside world refers to -personally, and I am certain therefore of my ground when I say that -Mormonism will find them, in any hour of need, ready to throw all their -temporal influence on to the side of the Church. The people need not -be apprehensive, for there is no treason in their camp. There may be -"Trimmers," but was there ever a movement that had no Trimmers? -</p> -<p>The hierarchy in Utah stands as follows:— -</p> -<p>President—John Taylor. Counsellors to the President—Joseph F. -Smith, G. Q. Cannon. Apostles—Wilford Woodruff, Franklin Richards, -C. C. Rich, Brigham Young, Moses Thatcher, M. Lyman, J. H. Smith, A. -Carrington, Erastus Snow, Lorenzo Snow, S. P. Teasdel, and J. Grant. -Counsellors to the Apostles—John W. Young, D. H. Wells. -</p> -<p>Now in the present critical situation of affairs the personnel of this -governing body is of some interest. President Taylor I have already -spoken of. He is considered by all as a good head during an uneventful -period, and that he is doing sound, practical work in a general -administrative way is beyond doubt. But it is his misfortune to come -immediately after Brigham Young. It is not often in history that an -Aurungzebe follows an Akbar. But his counsellors, Apostles Cannon and -Joseph Smith, are emphatically strong men. The former is a staunch -Mormon, and a man of the world as well—perhaps the only Mormon who -is—while the latter is "the fighting Apostle," a man of both brains -and courage. Had he been ten years older he would probably have been -President now. Of the remainder the men of conspicuous mark are Moses -Thatcher, an admirable speaker and an able man, Merion Lyman, a very -sound thinker and spirited in counsel, and D. H. Wells—perhaps the -"strongest" unit in the whole hierarchy. He has made as much history -as any man in the Church, and as one of its best soldiers and one of -its shrewdest heads might have been expected to hold a higher rank -than he does. He was one of the Counsellors of Brigham Young, but on -the reconstruction of the governing body, accepted the position of -Counsellor to the Twelve. These five men, should the contingency for -any decisive policy arise, will certainly lead the Mormon Church. -</p> -<p>I was speaking one day to a Mormon, a husband of several wives, and -was candidly explaining my aversion to that co-operative system of -matrimony which the world calls "polygamy," but which the Saints prefer -should be called "plurality." When I had finished, much to my own -satisfaction (for I thought I had proved polygamy wrong), my companion -knocked all my arguments, premises and conclusion together, into a -cocked hat, by saying,— -</p> -<p>"You are unprejudiced—I grant that; and you take higher ground -for your condemnation of us than most do. But," said he, "you have -never referred to the fact that we Mormons believe plurality to be a -revelation from God. But we do believe it, and until that belief is -overthrown angels from Heaven cannot convince us. You spoke of the -power and authority of the United States. But what is that to the power -and authority of God? The United States cannot do more than exterminate -us for not abandoning plurality. But God can, and will, damn us to all -eternity if we do abandon it." -</p> -<p>Now what argument but force can avail against such an attitude as this? -The better the Mormon, the harder he freezes to his religion—and -part of his religion is polygamy—so important a part, indeed, that -the whole future of the Saints is based upon it. The "Kingdom of -God" is arranged with reference to it. The hopes of Mormons of glory -and happiness in eternity depend upon it, and in this life men and -women are perpetually exhorted to live up to it. It is pure nonsense -therefore—so at least it seems to me—to request the Mormons to give -up plurality, and keep the rest. You might just as well cut off all -a man's limbs, and then tell him to get along "like a good and loyal -citizen," with only a stomach. -</p> -<p>Force of course will avail, in the end, just as it did in India when -the Government determined to stamp out female infanticide among the -Rajpoots. There, the procedure was from necessity inquisitorial (for -the natives of the proscribed districts combined to prevent detection), -but it was eventually effectual. It was simply this. Whenever a family -was suspected of killing its female infants, a special staff of police -was quartered upon the village in which that family lived, at the -expense of the village, and maintained a constant personal watch over -each of the suspected wives during the period immediately preceding -childbirth. Nothing could have been so offensive to native sentiment -as such procedure, but nothing else was of any use. In the end the -suspects got wearied of the perpetual tyranny of supervision, and their -neighbours wearied of paying for the police, and infanticide as a -crime common to a whole community ceased after a few years to exist in -India. Now if the worst came to the worst, something of the same kind -is within the resources of the United States. Every polygamous family -in the Territory might be brought under direct police supervision at -the cost of their neighbours, and punishment rigidly follow every -conviction. This would stamp out polygamy in time. -</p> -<p>But it would be a long time, a very long time, and I would hesitate -to affirm that Mormon endurance and submission would be equal to such -a severe and such a protracted ordeal. There is nothing in their past -history that leads me to look upon them as a people exceptionally -tolerant of ill-usage. -</p> -<p>The infanticidal families in India were, it is true, of a fighting -caste and clan, but the suspected families were only a few hundreds -in number. They could not, like the Mormons, rely upon a strength of -twenty-five thousand adult males, an admirable strategic position, -and the help, if necessary, of twenty thousand picked "warriors" from -the surrounding Indian tribes; and it is mere waste of words to say -that the consciousness of strength has often got a great deal to do -with influencing the action of men who are subjected to violence. And -I doubt myself, looking to the recent history of England in Africa, -and Russia in Central Asia, whether the United States, when they -come to consider Mormon potentialities for resistance, will think it -worth while to resort to violence in vindication of a sentiment. The -war between the North and the South is not a case in point at all. -There was more than a mere "sentiment" went to the bringing on of -that war. Remember, I do not say that the Mormons entertain the idea -of having to fight the United States. I only say that they would not -be afraid to do it, in defence of their religion, if circumstances -compelled it. And I am only arguing from nature when I say that those -"circumstances" arrive at very different stages of suffering with -different individuals. The worm, for instance, does not turn till -it is trodden on. The grizzly bear turns if you sneeze at it. And I -am only quoting history when I say that thirty thousand determined -men, well armed, with their base of military supplies at their backs, -could defend a position of great strategical strength for—well, a -very considerable time against an army only ten times as numerous as -themselves—especially if that army had to defend a thousand miles of -communications against unlimited Indians. -</p> -<p>It was my privilege when on the editorial staff of the Daily Telegraph -in London to tell the country in the leading columns of that paper what -I thought of the chances of success against the Boers of the Transvaal. -I said that one Boer on his own mountains was worth five British -soldiers, and that any army that went against those fanatical puritans -with less than ten to one in numbers, would find "the sword of the -Lord and of Gideon" too strong for them, and the Drakensberg range an -impregnable frontier. As an Englishman I regret that my words were so -miserably fulfilled, and England, after sacrificing a great number of -men and officers, decided that it was not worth while "for a sentiment" -to continue the war. -</p> -<p>The points of resemblance between the Mormons and the Boers are rather -curious. -</p> -<p>The Boers of the Transvaal, though of the same stock as the great -majority of the inhabitants of British Africa, were averse to the forms -of government that had satisfied the rest. So they migrated, after some -popular disturbances, and settled in another district where they hoped -to enjoy the imperium in imperio on which they had set their longings. -But British colonies again came up with them, and after a fight with -the troops, the Boers again migrated, and with their long caravans of -ox and mule waggons "trekked" away to the farthest inhabitable corner -of the continent. Here for a considerable time they enjoyed the life -they had sought for, established a capital, had their own governor, -whipped or coaxed the surrounding native tribes into docility, and, -after a fashion, throve. But yet once more the "thin red line" of -British possession crept up to them, and the Boers, being now at bay, -and having nowhere else to "trek" to, fought. -</p> -<p>They were not exactly trained soldiers, but merely a territorial -militia, accustomed, however, to warfare with native tribes, and, by -the constant use of the rifle in hunting game, capital marksmen. So -they declared war against Great Britain, these three or four thousand -Boers, and having worked themselves up into the belief that they were -fighting for their religion, they unsheathed "the sword of the Lord -and of Gideon," threatened to call in the natives, and holding their -mountain passes, defied the British troops to force them. Nor without -success. For every time the troops went at them, they beat them, giving -chapter and verse out of the Bible for each whipping, and eventually -concluded their extraordinary military operations by an honourable -peace, and a long proclamation of pious thanksgiving "to the Lord God -omnipotent." To-day, therefore, Queen Victoria is "suzerain" of the -Transvaal, and the Boers govern themselves by a territorial government. -To their neighbours they are known as very pious, simple, and stubborn -people; very shrewd in making a bargain; very honest when it is -made; a pastoral and agricultural community, with strong objections -to "Gentiles," who, by the way, are never tired of reviling them, -especially with regard to alleged eccentricities in domestic relations. -</p> -<p>Am I not right, then, in saying that the resemblance between the Boers -and the Mormons is "curious"? -</p> -<p>When I speak of the Mormons as being prepared to accept the worst that -the commission under the Edmunds bill may do, it should be understood -that this readiness to suffer does not arise from any misconception of -their own strength. The Mormons are thoroughly aware of it; indeed, the -figures which I have given (25,000 adult males and 20,000 Indians) are -not accepted by all of them as representing their full numbers. They -fully understand also the capabilities of their position for defence, -and are not backward to appreciate the advantages which the length of -the Federal communications would give them for protracting a campaign. -</p> -<p>Under the circumstances, therefore, the argument of a leading Mormon, -that "if the United States really believe the people of Utah to be the -desperate fanatics they call them, any action on their part that tends -to exasperate such fanatics is foolhardy," may be accepted as quite -seriously meant. For the Mormons, if bigoted about anything at all, -are so on this point—that they cannot be crushed. As the elect of -God, specially appointed by Him to prepare places of worship and keep -up the fires of a religion which is very soon to consume all others, -they cannot, they say, be moved until the final fulfilment of prophecy. -The Jews have still to be gathered together, and "the nations from -the north country" whose coming, according to the Bible, is to be so -terrible, are to find the Mormons, "the children of Ephraim," ready -prepared with such rites and such tabernacles that the "sons of Levi," -the Jews, can perform their old worship, and, thus refreshed, continue -their progress to the Holy Land. "And their prophets shall come in -remembrance before the Lord, and they shall smite the rocks, and the -ice shall flow down at their presence, and a highway shall be cast up -in the midst of the great deep. And they shall come forth, and their -enemies shall become a prey unto them, and the everlasting hills shall -tremble at their presence." For this time, these men and women among -whom I have lived are actually waiting! -</p> -<p>Of course, we ordinary Christians, whose religion sits lightly upon -us, cannot, without some effort, understand the stern faith with which -the Mormons cling to their translations of Old Testament prophecy. Nor -is it easy to credit the fierce earnestness with which, for instance, -the Saints look forward to the accomplishment of the promise that they -shall eventually possess Jackson County, Missouri. But if this spirit -of intense superstition is not properly taken into account by those -who try to make the Mormons alter their beliefs, they run the risk of -underestimating the seriousness of their attempt. If, on the other -hand, it is properly taken into account, the difficulty of forcing this -people to abandon their creeds will be at once seen to be very grave. -</p> -<p>Except, perhaps, the Kurdish outbreak on the Persian frontier some -three years ago, there has been no problem like the Mormon one -presented to the consideration of modern Europe. In the case of the -Kurds, two nations, Turkey and Persia, were within an ace of war, in -consequence of the insurgents pretending that a point of religion -was involved, and popular fanaticism very nearly slipping beyond the -control of their respective governments. -</p> -<p>When living at a distance from Salt Lake City, it is very difficult -indeed to recognize the truth of the situation. Until I went there I -always found that though in a general way the obstacles to a speedy -settlement were admitted, yet that somehow or another there was always -the afterthought that Mormonism was only an inflated imposture, and -that it would collapse at the first touch of law. It was allowed on all -hands that the position was a peculiar one, but it was hinted also that -it was an absurd one. "No doubt," it was argued, "the Mormons are an -obstinate set of men, but after all they have got common sense. When -they see that everybody is against them, that polygamy is contrary to -the spirit of the times, that all the future of Utah depends upon their -abandonment of it, that resistance is worse than senseless," and so -on, they will give in. Let opinion as to the "bigotry" of the Mormons -or their capacity for mischief be what it might, there was always a -qualifying addendum to the effect that "nothing would come of all this -fuss." The Mormons, in fact, were supposed to be "bluffing", and it was -taken for granted therefore that they had a weak hand. -</p> -<p>But in Salt Lake City it is impossible to speak in this way. A -Mormon—a man of absolute honesty of speech—in conversation on this -subject declared to me that he could not abandon plurality without -apostatizing, and rather than do it, he would burn his house and -business premises down, go away to the Mexicans, die, if necessary. -Now, that man may any day be put to the very test he spoke of. He will -have to abandon polygamy, or else, if his adversaries are malicious, -spend virtually the whole of his life in jail. Which will he do? And -what will all the others of his way of thinking do? Will they defy the -law, or will they try to break it down by its own weight—that is to -say, load the files with such numbers of cases, and fill the prisons -with such numbers of convicts that the machinery will clog and break -down? The heroic alternatives of burning down their houses, going -off to Mexico, and dying will not be offered them. Their choice will -simply lie between monogamy (or celibacy) and prison, two very prosaic -things—and one or the other they must accept. Such at any rate is the -opinion of the world. -</p> -<p>But the Mormons, as I have already shown, do not admit this simplicity -in the solution at all. From the point of view of the law-makers, -they allow that the option before them is very commonplace. But the -law-makers, they say, have omitted to take into consideration certain -facts which complicate the solution. For though, as I have said, -the majority may be expected to accept such qualified martyrdom as -is offered, and "await the Lord's time", yet there can be no doubt -whatever that strict Mormons will not acquiesce in the suppression of -their doctrines, and among so many who are strict is it reasonable to -expect that there will be no violent advisers? Their teachers have -perpetually taught them, and their leaders assured them that prophecy -had found its fulfilment in the establishment of the Church in Utah. -Here, and nowhere else, the Saints are to await "the fulness of time" -when the whole world shall yield obedience to their government, and -reverence to their religion. The Rocky Mountains, and no other, are -"the mountains" of Holy Writ where "Zion" was to be built; and they, -the Mormons, are the remnant of Ephraim that are to welcome and pass -on the returning Jews. How, then, can the Saints reconcile themselves -to another exodus? Mexico, they say, would welcome them; but if the -richest lands in the world, and all the privileges they ask for were -offered them, they could not stultify revelation and prophecy by -accepting the offer. Moreover, they have been assured times without -number that they should never be "driven" again, and times without -number that their enemies "shall not prevail against them." To many, -to most, this, of course, now points to some interposition of Divine -Providence in their favour. The crisis may seem dangerous, and the -opposition to them overwhelming. But they are convinced—it is no -mere matter of opinion with them—that if they are only patient under -persecution and keep on living their religion, the persecution will -cease, and the triumph of their faith be fulfilled. Europe and America, -they believe, are about to be involved in terrific disasters. Wars of -unprecedented magnitude are to be waged, and natural catastrophes, -unparalleled in history, are to occur. But, in the midst of all -this shock of thrones, this convulsion of the elements, Zion on the -Mountains is to be at peace and in prosperity. It will be the one still -harbour in all the ocean of troubles, and to it, as to their final -haven, all the elect of all the nations are to gather. The prudent, -therefore, looking forward to this apocalypse of general ruin, counsel -submission to the passing storm, endurance under legal penalties, and -fidelity to their doctrine. -</p> -<p>But all are not prudent. Every Gethsemane has its Peter. And from that -memorable garden they draw a lesson. The Saviour, they say, meant -fighting, but when he saw that resistance to such odds as came against -him could have only ended in the massacre of his disciples, he went to -prison. -</p> -<p>That Brigham Young, if alive, would have decided upon a military -demonstration, the sons of Zeruiah are very ready to believe, for they -say that, even if the worst were to happen and they had eventually to -capitulate under unreasonable odds, their position would be preferable -to that which they hold to-day. To-day they lie, the whole community -together, under the ban of civil disabilities, as a criminal class, at -the mercy of police—a proscribed people. In the future, if compelled -to surrender their arms, they would be in the position of prisoners on -parole, under the honourable conditions of a military capitulation. The -worst, therefore, that could happen would, they say, be better than -what is. -</p> -<p>Such, at any rate, they assert, would have been the argument of Brigham -Young, and Gentiles even confess that if the late President were still -at the head of the Church the temptation for "a great bluff" would be -irresistible. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERIX"></a>CHAPTER IX. -</h2> -<p class="centered">THE SAINTS AND THE RED MEN. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Prevalent errors as to the red man—Secret treaties—The policy of - the Mormons towards Indians—A Christian heathen—Fighting-strength - of Indians friendly to Mormons. -</p> -<p>I HAPPENED some time ago to repeat, in the presence of two "Gentiles," -a Mormon's remark that the Indians were more friendly towards the -Saints than towards other Americans, and the comments of the two -gentlemen in question exactly illustrated the two errors which I find -are usually made on this subject. -</p> -<p>One said: "Oh, yes, don't you know the Mormons have secret treaties -with the Indians?" -</p> -<p>And the other: "And much good may they do them; these wretched Indians -are a half-starved, cricket-eating set, not worth a cent." -</p> -<p>Now, I confess that till I came to Utah I had an idea that the Utes -were always "the Indians" that were meant when the friendly relations -of the Mormons with the red men were referred to. About secret treaties -I knew nothing, either one way or the other. But while I was there I -took much pains to arrive at the whole truth—the President of the -Church having very courteously placed the shelves of the Historian's -office at my service—and I found no reference whatever, even in -anti-Mormon literature, to any "secret treaty." -</p> -<p>The Mormons themselves scorn the idea and give the following reasons: -1. No treaty made with a tribe of Indians could be kept secret. 2. -There is no necessity for a treaty of any kind, as the dislike of -the Indians to the United States is sufficiently hearty to make them -friendly to the Territory if it came to a choice between the one or the -other. 3. The conciliatory policy of the Church towards the Indians -obviates all necessity for further measures of alliance. -</p> -<p>And this I believe to be the fact. Indeed, I know that Mormons can -go where Gentiles cannot, and that under a Mormon escort, lives are -safe in an Indian camp that without it would be in great peril. I know -further that on several occasions (and this is on official record) the -expostulations of Mormons have prevented Indians from raiding—and I -think this ought to be remembered when sinister constructions are put -upon the friendliness of Saints towards the Indians. -</p> -<p>From the very first, the Church has inculcated forbearance and -conciliation towards the tribes, and even during the exodus from the -Missouri River, harassed though they sometimes were by Indians, the -Mormons, as a point of policy, always tried to avert a collision by -condoning offences that were committed, instead of punishing them. If -the red men came begging round their waggons they gave them food, and -if they stole—and what Indian will not steal, seeing that theft is -the road to honour among his people?—the theft was overlooked. Very -often, it is true, individual Mormons have avenged the loss of a horse -or a cow by taking a red man's life, but this was always in direct -opposition to the teachings of the Church, which pointed out that -murder in the white man was a worse offence than theft in the red, and -in opposition to the policy of the leaders, who have always insisted -that it was "cheaper to feed than to fight" the Indians. In spite, -however, of this treatment the tribes have again and again compelled -the Mormons to take the field against them, but as a rule the extent -of Mormon retaliation was to catch the plunderers, retake their stolen -stock, hang the actual murderers (if murder had been committed) and -let the remainder go after an amicable pow-wow. Strict justice was -as nearly as possible always adhered to, and whenever their word was -given, that word was kept sacred, even to their own loss. -</p> -<p>Both these things, justice and truth, every Indian understands. They do -not practise them, but they appreciate them. Just as among themselves -they chivalrously undertake the support of the squaws and children of a -conquered tribe, or as they never steal property that has been placed -under the charge of one of their own tribe, so when dealing with white -men, they have learned to expect fairness in reprisals and sincerity -in speech. When they find themselves cheated, as they nearly always -are by "Indian agents," they cherish a grudge, and when they suffer an -unprovoked injury (as when emigrants shoot a passing red man just as -they would shoot a passing coyote), they wreak their barbarous revenge -upon the first victims they can find. From the Mormons they have always -received honest treatment, comparative fairness in trade and strict -truthfulness in engagements, while, taking men killed on both sides, -it is a question whether the red men have not killed more Mormons than -Mormons have red men. -</p> -<p>During the war of 1865-67, I find, for instance, that all the recorded -deaths muster eighty-seven on the Indian side and seventy-nine on the -Mormon, while the latter, besides losing great numbers of cattle and -horses, having vast quantities of produce destroyed and buildings -burned down, had temporarily to abandon the counties of Piute and -Sevier, as well as the settlements of Berrysville, Winsor, Upper and -Lower Kanab, Shuesberg, Springdale and Northup, and many places in -Kane County, also some settlements in Iron County, while the total -cost of the war was over a million dollars—of which, by the way, the -Government has not repaid a Territory a cent. During the twenty years -preceding 1865 there had been numerous raids upon Mormon settlements, -most of them due to the thoughtless barbarity of passing emigrants; but -as a rule, the only revenge taken by the Mormons was expostulation, and -the despatch of missionaries to them with the Bible, and medicines and -implements of agriculture. -</p> -<p>The result to-day is exactly what Brigham Young foresaw. The -Indians look upon the Mormons as suffering with themselves from the -earth-hunger of "Gentiles," and feel a community in wrong with them, -while they consider them different from all other white men in being -fair in their acts and straightforward in their speech. In 1847 a chief -of the Pottawatomies—then being juggled for the second time from a -bad reservation to a worse—came into the camp of the Mormons—then -for the second time flying from one of the most awful persecutions -that ever disgraced any nation—and on leaving spoke as spoke as -follows—(he spoke good French, by the way): "My Mormon brethren,—We -have both suffered. We must help one another, and the Great Spirit -will help us both. You may cut and use all the wood on our lands that -you wish. You may live on any part of it that we are not actually -occupying ourselves. Because one suffers, and does not deserve it, it -is no reason he shall suffer always. We may live to see all well yet. -However, if we do not, our children will. Good-bye." -</p> -<p>Now, it strikes me that a Christian archbishop would find it hard -to alter the Red Indian's speech for the better. It is one of the -finest instances of untutored Christianity in history, and contrasts -so strangely with the hideous barbarities that make the history of -Missouri so infamous, that I can easily understand the sympathies of -Mormons being cast in with the Christian heathens they fled to, rather -than the heathen Christians they fled from. Nor from that day to this, -have the Mormons forgotten the hint the Pottawatomie gave them, and on -the ground of common suffering and by the example of a mutual sympathy -have kept up such relations with the Indians, even under exasperation, -that the red man's lodge is now open to the Mormon when it is closed to -the Gentile. -</p> -<p>What necessity, then, have the Mormons for secret treaties With -the Indians? None whatever. The Indians have learned by the last -half-century's experience that every "treaty" made with them has only -proved a fraud towards their ruin, while during the same period they -have learned that the word of the Mormons, who never make treaties, can -be relied upon. So if the Saints were now to begin making treaties, -they would probably fall in the estimation of the Indians to the level -of the American Government, and participate in the suspicion which the -latter has so industriously worked to secure, and has so thoroughly -secured. -</p> -<p>The other error commonly made as to the Indians is to underestimate -their strength. Now the Navajoes alone could bring into the field -10,000 fighting men; and, besides these, there are (specially friendly -to the Mormons) the Flatheads, the Shoshonees, the Blackfeet, the -Bannocks, part of the Sioux, and a few Apaches, with, of course, the -Utes of all kinds. The old instinct for the war-path is by no means -dead, as the recent troubles in the south of Arizona give dismal proof; -and a Mormon invitation would be quite sufficient to bring all "the -Lamanites" together into the Wasatch Mountains. -</p> -<p>That any such idea is ever entertained by Mormons I heartily repudiate. -But I think it worth while to point out, that—if the influence of -the Mormons on the Indians is considered of sufficient importance -to base the charge of treasonable alliance upon it—it is quite -illogical to sneer at that influence as making no difference in the -case of difficulties arising. But as a point of fact, the Mormons have -no other secret in their relations with the red men than that they -treat them with consideration, and make allowances for their ethical -obliquities; and further, as a point of fact also, these same tribes, -"the Lamanites" of the Book of Mormon, "the Lost Tribes," are in -themselves so formidable that under white leadership they would make a -very serious accession of strength to any public enemy that should be -able to enlist them. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERX"></a>CHAPTER X. -</h2> -<p class="centered">REPRESENTATIVE AND UNREPRESENTATIVE MORMONISM. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Mormonism and Mormonism—Salt Lake City not representative—The - miracles of water—How settlements grow—The town of Logan: - one of the Wonders of the West—The beauty of the valley—The - rural simplicity of life—Absence of liquor and crime—A police - force of one man—Temple mysteries—Illustrations of Mormon - degradation—Their settlement of the "local option" question. -</p> -<p>SALT Lake City is not the whole of "Mormonism." In the Eastern States -there is a popular impression that it is. But as a matter of fact, it -hardly represents Mormonism at all. The Gentile is too much there, and -Main Street has too many saloons. The city is divided into two parties, -bitterly antagonistic. Newspapers exchange daily abuse, and sectarians -thump upon their pulpit cushions at each other every Sunday. Visitors -on their travels, sight-seeing, move about the streets in two-horse -hacks, staring at the houses that they pass as if some monsters lived -in them. A military camp stands sentry over the town, and soldiers -slouch about the doors of the bars. -</p> -<p>All this, and a great deal more that is to be seen in Salt Lake City, -is foreign to the true character of a Mormon settlement. Logan, for -instance (which I describe later on), is characteristic of Mormonism, -and nowhere so characteristic as in those very features in which it -differs from Salt Lake City. The Gentile does not take very kindly to -Logan, for there are no saloons to make the place a "live town," and -no public animosities to give it what they call "spirit;" everybody -knows his neighbour, and the sight-seeing fiend is unknown. The one and -only newspaper hums on its way like some self-satisfied bumble bee; the -opposition preacher, with a congregation of eight women and five men, -does not think it worth while, on behalf of such a shabby constituency, -to appeal to Heaven every week for vengeance on the 200,000 who don't -agree with him and his baker's dozen. There is no pomp and circumstance -of war to remind the Saints of Federal surveillance, no brass cannon -on the bench pointing at the town (as in Salt Lake City), no ragged -uniforms at street corners. Everything is Mormon. The biggest shop is -the Co-operative Store; the biggest place of worship the Tabernacle; -the biggest man the President of the Stake. Everybody that meets, -"Brothers" or "Sisters" each other in the streets, and after nightfall -the only man abroad is the policeman, who as a rule retires early -himself; and no one takes precautions against thieves at night. It is -a very curious study, this well-fed, neighbourly, primitive life among -orchards and corn-fields, this bees-in-a-clover-field life, with every -bee bumbling along in its own busy way, but all taking their honey back -to the same hive. It is not a lofty life, nor "ideal" to my mind, but -it is emphatically ideal, if that word means anything at all, and its -outcome, where exotic influences are not at work, is contentment and -immunity from crime, and an Old-World simplicity. -</p> -<p>But Logan is not by any means a solitary illustration. For the Mormon -settlements follow the line of the valleys that run north and south, -and every one of them, where water is abundant, is a Logan in process -of development. -</p> -<p>For water is the philosopher's stone; the fairy All-Good; the First -Cause; the everything that men here strive after as the source of -all that is desirable. It is silver and gold, pearls and rubies, and -virtuous women—which are "above rubies"—everything in fact that -is precious. It spirits up Arabian-Nights enchantments, and gives -industry a talisman to work with. Without it, the sage-brush laughs -at man, and the horn of the jack-rabbit is exalted against him. With -it, corn expels the weed, and the long-eared rodent is ploughed out -of his possession. Without it, greasewood and gophers divide the -wilderness between them. With it, homesteads spring up and gather the -orchards around them. Without it, the silence of the level desert is -broken only by the coyote and the lark. With it, comes the laughter -of running brooks, the hum of busy markets, and the cheery voices of -the mill-wheels by the stream. Without it, the world seems a dreary -failure. With it, it brightens into infinite possibilities. No wonder -then that men prize it, exhaust ingenuity in obtaining it, quarrel -about it. I wonder they do not worship it. Men have worshipped trees, -and wind, and the sun, for far less cause. -</p> -<p>Nothing indeed is so striking in all these Mormon settlements as the -supreme importance of water. It determines locations, regulates their -proportions, and controls their prosperity. Here are thousands of acres -barren—though I hate using such a word for a country of such beautiful -wild flowers—because there is no water. There is a small nook bursting -with farmsteads, and trees, because there is water. Men buy and sell -water-claims as if they were mining stock "with millions in sight," and -appraise each other's estates not by the stock that grazes on them, or -the harvests gathered from them, but by the water-rights that go with -them. Thus, a man in Arizona buys a forty-acre lot with a spring on it, -and he speaks of it as 70,000 acres of "wheat." Another has acquired -the right of the head-waters of a little mountain stream; he is spoken -of as owning "the finest ranch in the valley." Yet the one has not put -a plough into the ground, the other has not a single head of cattle! -But each possessed the "open sesame" to untold riches, and in a country -given over to this new form of hydromancy was already accounted wealthy. -</p> -<p>Every stream in Utah might be a Pactolus, every pool a Bethesda. To -compass, then, this miracle-working thing, the first energies of every -settlement are directed in the union. The Church comes forward if -necessary to help, and every one contributes his labour. At first the -stream where it leaves the canyon, and debouches upon the levels of -the valley, is run off into canals to north and south and west (for -all the streams run from the eastern range), and from these, like the -legs of a centipede, minor channels run to each farmstead, and thence -again are drawn off in numberless small aqueducts to flood the fields. -The final process is simple enough, for each of the furrows by which -the water is let in upon the field is in turn dammed up at the further -end, and each surrounding patch is thus in turn submerged. But the -settlement expands, and more ground is needed. So another canal taps -the stream above the canyon mouth, the main channels again strike off, -irrigating the section above the levels already in cultivation, and -overlapping the original area at either end. And every time increasing -population demands more room, the stream is taken off higher and higher -up the canyon. The cost is often prodigious, but necessity cannot stop -to haggle over arithmetic, and the Mormon settlements therefore have -developed a system of irrigation which is certainly among the wonders -of the West. -</p> -<p>"Logan is the chief Mormon settlement in the Cache Valley, and is -situated about eighty miles to the north of Salt Lake City. Population -rather over 4000." Such is the ordinary formula of the guide book. -But if I had to describe it in few words I should say this: "Logan is -without any parallel, even among the wonders of Western America, for -rapidity of growth, combined with solid prosperity and tranquillity. -Population rather over 4000, every man owning his own farm. Police -force, two men—partially occupied in agriculture on their own account. -N.B.—No police on Sundays, or on meeting evenings, as the force are -otherwise engaged." -</p> -<p>And writing sincerely I must say that I have seen few things in America -that have so profoundly impressed me as this Mormon settlement of -Logan. It is not merely that the industry of men and women, penniless -emigrants a few years ago, has made the valley surpassing in its -beauty. That it has filled the great levels that stretch from mountain -to mountain with delightful farmsteads, groves of orchard-trees, and -the perpetual charm of crops. That it has brought down the river from -its idleness in the canyons to busy itself in channels and countless -waterways with the irrigation and culture of field and garden; to lend -its strength to the mills which saw up the pines that grow on its -native mountains; to grind the corn for the 15,000 souls that live in -the valley, and to help in a hundred ways to make men and women and -children happy and comfortable, to beautify their homes, and reward -their industry. All this is on the surface, and can be seen at once by -any one. -</p> -<p>But there is much more than mere fertility and beauty in Logan and -its surroundings, for it is a town without crime, a town without -drunkenness! With this knowledge one looks again over the wonderful -place, and what a new significance every feature of the landscape -now possesses! The clear streams, perpetually industrious in their -loving care of lowland and meadow and orchard, and so cheery, too, -in their incessant work, are a type of the men and women themselves; -the placid cornfields lying in bright levels about the houses are not -more tranquil than the lives of the people; the tree-crowded orchards -and stack-filled yards are eloquent of universal plenty; the cattle -loitering to the pasture contented, the foals all running about in -the roads, while the waggons which their mothers are drawing stand -at the shop door or field gate, strike the new-comer as delightfully -significant of a simple country life, of mutual confidence, and -universal security. -</p> -<p>And yet I had not come there in the humour to be pleased, for I was not -well. But the spirit of the place was too strong for me, and the whole -day ran on by itself in a veritable idyll. -</p> -<p>A hen conveying her new pride of chickens across the road, with a -shepherd dog loftily approving the expedition in attendance; a foal -looking into a house over a doorstep, with the family cat, outraged at -the intrusion, bristling on the stoop; two children planting sprigs of -peach blossoms in one of the roadside streams; a baby peeping through a -garden wicket at a turkey-cock which was hectoring it on the sidewalk -for the benefit of one solitary supercilious sparrow—such were the -little vignettes of pretty nonsense that brightened my first walk in -Logan. I was alone, so I walked where I pleased; took notice of the -wild birds that make themselves as free in the streets as if they were -away up in the canyons; of the wild flowers that still hold their own -in the corners of lots, and by the roadway; watched the men and women -at their work in garden and orchard, the boys driving the waggons -to the mill and the field, the girls busy with little duties of the -household, and "the little ones," just as industrious as all the rest, -playing at irrigation with their mimic canals, three inches wide, old -fruit-cans for buckets, and posies stuck into the mud for orchards. I -stopped to talk to a man here and a woman there; helped to fetch down -a kitten out of an apple-tree, and, at the request of a boy, some ten -years old, I should say, opened a gate to let the team he was driving, -or rather being walked along with, go into the lot. -</p> -<p>It was a beautiful day, and all the trees were either in full bloom or -bright young leaf; and the conviction gradually grew upon me that I had -never, out of England, seen a place so simple, so neighbourly, so quiet. -</p> -<p>Later on I was driven through the town to the Temple. The wide roads -are all avenued with trees, and behind trees, each in its own garden, -or orchard, or lot of farm-land, stands a ceaseless succession of -cottage homes. Here and there a "villa," but the great majority -"cottages." Not the dog-kennels in which the Irish peasantry are -content to grovel through life so long as they need not work and -can have their whisky. Not the hovels which in some parts of rural -England house the farm labourer and his unkempt urchins. But cleanly, -comfortable homes, some of adobe, some of wood, with porticos and -verandahs and other ornaments, six or eight or even ten rooms, with -barns behind for the cow and the horse and the poultry, bird-cages -at the doors, clean white curtains at the windows, and neatly bedded -flowers in the garden-plots. Hundred after hundred, each in its own lot -of amply watered ground, we passed the homes of these Mormon farmers, -and it was a wonderful thing to me—so fresh from the old country, with -its elegance and its squalor side by side; so lately from the "live" -cities of Colorado, with their murrain of "busted" millionaires and -hollow shells of speculative prosperity—this great township of an -equal prosperity and a universal comfort. Every man I met in the street -or saw in the fields owned the house which he lived in, and the ground -that his railings bounded. Moreover they were his by right of purchase, -the earnings of the work of his own two hands. No wonder, then, they -demean themselves like men. -</p> -<p>I was driving with the President of the "stake"—such is the name -of the Church for the sub-divisions of its Territory—and the chief -official, therefore, of Logan, when, in a narrow part of the road we -met a down-trodden Mormon serf driving a loaded waggon in the opposite -direction. The President pulled a little to one side, motioning the man -to drive past. But the roadway thus left for him was rather rough and -this degraded slave of the Church, knowing the rule of the road (that a -loaded waggon has the right of way against all other vehicles), calmly -pointed with his whip-handle to the side of the road, and said to his -President, "You drive there." And the President did so, whereat the -down-trodden one proceeded on his way in the best of the road. -</p> -<p>Now this may be accepted as an instance of that abject servitude which, -according to anti-Mormons, characterizes the followers of Mormonism. As -another illustration of the same awe-stricken subjection may be here -noted the fact, that whenever the President slackened pace, passers-by, -men and women, would come over to us, and shaking hands with the -President, exchange small items of domestic, neighbourly chat—the -health of the family, convalescence of a cow, and, speaking generally, -discuss Tommy's measles. Now, women would hardly waste a despot's time -with intelligence of an infant's third tooth, or a man expatiate on the -miraculous recovery of a calf from a surfeit of damp lucerne. -</p> -<p>I chanced also one day to be with an authority when a man called in -to apologize for not having repaid his emigration money; and to me -the incident was specially interesting on this account, that very -few writers on the Mormons have escaped charging the Church with -acting dishonestly and usuriously towards its emigrants. I have read -repeatedly that the emigrants, being once in debt, are never able to -get out of debt; that the Church prefers they should not; that the -indebtedness is held in terrorem over them. But the man before me was -in exactly the same position as every other man in Logan. He had been -brought out from England at the expense of the Perpetual Emigration -Fund (which is maintained partly by the "tithings," chiefly by -voluntary donations), and though by his labour he had been able to pay -for a lot of ground and to build himself a house, to plant fruit-trees, -buy a cow, and bring his lot under cultivation, he had not been able to -pay off any of the loan of the Church. It stood, therefore, against him -at the original sum. But his delinquency distressed him, and "having -things comfortable about him," as he said, and some time to spare, he -came of his own accord to his "Bishop," to ask if he could not work of -part of his debt. He could not see his way, he said to any ready money, -but he was anxious to repay the loan, and he came, therefore, to offer -all he had—his labour. Now, I cannot believe that this man was abused. -I am sure he did not think he was abused himself. Here he was in Utah, -comfortably settled for life, and at no original expense to himself. No -one had bothered him to pay up; no one had tacked on usurious interest. -So he came, like an honest man, to make arrangements for satisfying a -considerate creditor, but all he got in answer was, that "there was -time enough to pay" and an exchange of opinions about a plough or a -harrow or something. And he went off as crushed down with debt as ever. -And he very nearly added to his debt on the way, by narrowly escaping -treading on a presumptuous chicken which was reconnoitring the interior -of the house from the door-mat. -</p> -<p>To return to my drive. After seeing the town we drove up to the Temple. -The Mormon "temples" must not be mistaken for their "tabernacles." -The latter are the regular places of worship, open to the public. The -former are buildings strictly dedicated to the rites of the Endowments, -the meetings of the initiated brethren, and the ceremonial generally -of the sacred Masonry of Mormonism. No one who has not taken his -degrees in these mysteries has access to the temples, which are, or -will be, very stately piles, constructed on architectural principles -said by the Church to have been revealed to Joseph Smith piecemeal, as -the progress of the first Temple (at Kirkland) necessitated, and said -by the profane to be altogether contrary to all previously received -principles. However this may be, the style is, from the outside, not -so prepossessing as the cost of the buildings and the time spent upon -them would have led one to expect. The walls are of such prodigious -thickness, and the windows so narrow and comparatively small, that -the buildings seem to be constructed for defence rather than for -worship. But once within, the architecture proves itself admirable. -The windows gave abundant light and the loftiness of the rooms imparts -an airiness that is as surprising as pleasing, while the arrangement -of staircases—leading, as I suppose, from the rooms of one degree -in the "Masonry" to the next higher—and of the different rooms, all -of considerable size, and some of very noble proportions indeed, is -singularly good. -</p> -<p>I ought to say that this Temple at Logan is the only one I have -entered, and it is only because it is not completed. This year the -building will be finished—so it is hoped—and the ceremony of -dedication will then attract an enormous crowd of Mormons. It is -something over 90 feet in height (not including the towers, which -are still wanting) and measures 160 feet by 70. On the ground floor, -judging from what I know of the secret ritual of the Church, are -the reception-rooms of the candidates for the "endowments," various -official rooms, and the font for baptism. The great laver, 10 feet -in diameter, will rest on the backs of twelve oxen cast in iron -(and modelled from a Devon ox bred by Brigham Young) and will be -descended to by flights of steps, the oxen themselves standing in -water half-knee-deep. On the next floor are the apartments in which -the allegorical panorama of the "Creation" and the "Fall of Man" will -be represented. Here, too, will be the "Veil," the final degree in -what might be called, in Masonic phrase, "craft" or "blue" Masonry, -and, except for higher honorary grades, the ultimate objective point -of Mormon initiation. Above these rooms is a vast hall, occupying the -whole floor, in which general assemblies of the initiated brethren and -"chapters" will be held. The whole forms a very imposing pile of great -solidity and some grandeur, built of a gloomy, slate-coloured stone (to -be eventually coloured a lighter tint), and standing on a magnificent -site, being raised above the town upon an upper "bench" of the slope, -and showing out superbly against the monstrous mountain about a mile -behind it. The mountain, of course, dwarfs the Temple by its proximity, -but the position of the building was undoubtedly "an architectural -inspiration," and gives the great pile all the dominant eminence which -Mormons claim for their Church. -</p> -<p>From the platform of the future tower the view is one of the finest I -have ever seen. The valley, reaching for twenty miles in one direction, -and thirty in the other, with an average width of about ten miles, lies -beneath you, level in the centre, and gradually sloping on every margin -up to the mountains that bound it in. Immediately underneath you, Logan -spreads out its breadth of farm-land and orchard and meadow, with the -river—or rather two rivers, for the Logan forks just after leaving the -canyon—and the canal, itself a pleasant stream, carrying verdure and -fertility into every nook and corner. To right and left and in front, -delightful villages—Hirum, Mendon, Wellsville, Paradise, and the rest, -all of them miniature Logans—break the broad reaches of crop-land, -with their groves of fruit-trees, and avenues of willows and carob, -box-elder, poplar, and maple, while each of them seems to be stretching -out an arm to the other, and all of them trying to join hands with -Logan. For lines of homesteads and groups of trees have straggled away -from each pretty village, and, dotted across the intervening meadows -of lucerne and fields of corn, form links between them all. Behind -them rise the mountains, still capped and streaked with snow, but all -bright with grass upon their slopes. It was a delightful scene, and -required but little imagination to see the 15,000 people of the valley -grown into 150,000, and the whole of this splendid tract of land one -continuous Logan. And nothing can stop that day but an earthquake or -a chronic pestilence. For Cache Valley depends for its prosperity -upon something surer than "wild-cat" speculations, or mines that have -bottoms to fall out. The cumulative force of agricultural prosperity is -illustrated here with remarkable significance, for the town, that for -many years seemed absolutely stationary, has begun both to consolidate -and to expand with a determination that will not be gainsaid. -</p> -<p>The sudden success of a mining camp is volcanic in its ephemeral -rapidity. The gradual growth of an agricultural town is like the -solid accretion of a coral island. The mere lapse of time will make -it increase in wealth, and with wealth it will annually grow more -beautiful. Even as it is, I think this settlement of Mormon farmers -one of the noblest of the pioneering triumphs of the Far West; and in -the midst of these breathless, feverish States where every one seems -to be chasing some will-o'-the-wisp with a firefly light of gold, or -of silver—where terrible crime is a familiar feature, where known -murderers walk in the streets, and men carry deadly weapons, where -every other man complains of the fortune he only missed making by an -accident, or laments the fortune he made in three days, and lost in as -many hours—it is surpassingly strange to step out suddenly upon this -tranquil valley, and find oneself among its law-abiding men. It is -exactly like stepping out of a mine shaft into the fresh pure air of -daylight. -</p> -<p>The Logan police force is a good-tempered-looking young man. There is -another to help him, but if they had not something else to do they -would either have to keep on arresting each other, in order to pass the -time, or else combine to hunt gophers and chipmunks. As it is, they -unite other functions of private advantage with their constabulary -performances, and thus justify their existence. As one explanation of -the absence of crime, there is not a single licence for liquor in the -town. -</p> -<p>Once upon a time there were three saloons in Logan. But one night a -Gentile, passing through the town, shot the young Mormon who kept one -of them, whereat the townsfolk lynched the murderer, and suppressed -all the saloons. After a while licences were again issued, but a -six months' experiment showed that the five arrests of the previous -half-year had increased under the saloon system to fifty-six, so -the town suppressed the licences again, and to-day you cannot buy -any liquor in Logan. I am told, however, that an apostate, who is -in business in the town, carries on a more or less clandestine -distribution of strong drinks; but any accident resulting therefrom, -another murder, for instance, would probably put an end to his trade -for ever, for it is not only the Mormon leaders, but the Mormon people -that refuse to have drunkards among them. -</p> -<p>These facts about Logan are a sufficient refutation of the calumny so -often repeated by apostates and Gentiles, that the Mormons are not the -sober people they profess to be. The rules now in force in Logan were -once in force in Salt Lake City, but thanks to reforming Gentiles there -are now plenty of saloons and drunkards in the latter. At one time -there were none, but finding the sale of drink inevitable, the Church -tried to regulate it by establishing its own shops, and forbidding it -to be sold elsewhere. But the Federal judge refused the application. -So the city raised the saloon licence to 3600 dollars per annum! Yet, -in spite of this enormous tax, two or three bars managed to thrive, -and eventually numbers of other men, encouraged by the conduct of -the courts, opened drinking-saloons, refused to pay the licence, and -defied—and still defy—all efforts of the city to bring them under -control. In Logan, however, these are still the days of no drink, and -the days therefore of very little crime. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXI"></a>CHAPTER XI. -</h2> -<p class="centered">THROUGH THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Salt Lake City to Nephi—General similarity of the - settlements—From Salt Lake Valley into Utah Valley—A - lake of legends—Provo—Into the Juab valley—Indian - reminiscences—Commercial integrity of the saints—At Nephi—Good - work done by the saints—Type of face in rural Utah—Mormon - "doctrine" and Mormon "meetings." -</p> -<p>THE general resemblance between the populations of the various Mormon -settlements is not more striking than the general resemblance between -the settlements themselves. -</p> -<p>Two nearly parallel ranges of the Rocky Mountains, forming together -part of the Wasatch range, run north and south through the length -of Utah, and enclose between them a long strip of more or less -desolate-looking land. Spurs run out from these opposing ranges, and -meeting, cut off this strip into "valleys" of various lengths, so that, -travelling from north to south, I crossed in succession, in the line -of four hundred miles or so, the Cache, Salt Lake, Utah, Juab, San -Pete, and Sevier valleys (the last enclosing Marysvale, Circle Valley -and Panguitch Valley), and having there turned the end of the Wasatch -range, travelled into Long Valley, which runs nearly east and west -across the Territory. -</p> -<p>In the Cache and the Sevier valleys there are some noble expanses of -natural meadow, but in all the rest the soil, where not cultivated, -is densely overgrown with sage-brush, greasewood and rabbit-brush, -and in no case except the Cache Valley (by far the finest section of -the Territory) and Long Valley, is the water-supply sufficient to -irrigate the whole area enclosed. The proportions under cultivation -vary therefore according to the amount of the water, and the size -of the settlements is of course in an almost regular ratio with the -acreage under the plough. But all are exactly on the same pattern. Wide -streets—varying from 80 to 160 feet in width—avenued on either side -with cotton-wood, box-elder, poplar, and locust-trees, and usually with -a runnel of water alongside each side-walk, intersect each other at -right angles, the blocks thus formed measuring from four to ten acres. -These blocks hold, it may be, as many as six houses, but, as a rule, -three, two, or only one; while the proportion of fruit and shade-trees -to dwelling-houses ranges from a hundred to one to twenty to one. As -the lots are not occupied in any regular succession, there are frequent -gaps caused by empty blocks, while the streets towards the outer limits -of the towns are still half overgrown with the original sage-brush. -All the settlements therefore, resemble each other, except in size, -very closely, and may be briefly described as groves of trees and fruit -orchards with houses scattered about among them. -</p> -<p>The settlements of the Church stretch in a line north and south -throughout the whole length of the Territory, and on reaching the Rio -Virgin, in the extreme south, follow the course of that river right -across Utah to the eastern frontier. The soil throughout the line north -and south appears to be of a nearly uniform character, as the same -wild plants are to be found growing on it everywhere, and the sudden -alternations of fertility and wilderness are due almost entirely to the -abundance or absence of water. -</p> -<p>Leaving Salt Lake City to go south, we pass through suburbs of orchard -and garden, with nearly the whole town in panoramic review before us, -and find ourselves in half an hour upon levels beyond the reach of -the city channels, and where the sage-brush therefore still thrives -in undisturbed glory. Bitterns rise from the rushes, and flights of -birds wheel above the patches of scrub. And so to the Morgan smelting -camp, and then the Francklyn works, where the ore of the Horn Silver -Mine is worked, and then the Germania, one of the oldest smelting -establishments in the Territory, where innocent ore of all kinds is -taken in and mashed up into various "bullions"—irritamenta malorum. -Two small stations, each of them six peach-trees and a shed, slip by, -and then Sandy, a small mining camp of poor repute, shuffles past, -and next Draper, an agricultural settlement that seems to have grown -fruit-trees to its own suffocation. -</p> -<p>The mountains have been meanwhile drawing gradually closer together, -and here they join. Salt Lake Valley ends, and Utah Valley begins, and -crossing a "divide" we find the levels of the Utah Lake before us, -and the straggling suburbs of Lehi about us. These scattered cottages -gradually thicken into a village towards the lake, and form a pleasant -settlement of the orthodox Mormon type. The receipt for making one of -these ought to be something as follows: Take half as much ground as -you can irrigate, and plant it thickly with fruit-trees. Then cut it -up into blocks by cutting roads through it at right angles; sprinkle -cottages among the blocks, and plant shade-trees along both sides of -the roads. Then take the other half of your ground and spread it out in -fields around your settlement, sowing to taste. -</p> -<p>The actual process is, of course, the above reversed. A log hut and an -apple-tree start together in a field of corn, and the rest grows round -them. But my receipt looks the easier of the two. -</p> -<p>Beyond Lehi, and all round it, cultivation spreads almost -continuously—alternating delightfully with orchards and groves and -meadows—to American Fork, a charming settlement, smothered, as usual, -in fruit and shade-trees. The people here are very well-to-do, and -they look it; and their fields and herds of cattle have overflowed and -joined those of Pleasant Grove—another large and prosperous Mormon -settlement that lies further back, and right under the hills. It would -be very difficult to imagine sweeter sites for such rural hamlets than -these rich levels of incomparable soil stretching from the mountains to -the lake, and watered by the canyon streams. -</p> -<p>"Great Salt Lake" is, of course, the Utah Lake of the outside world. -But "Utah Lake" proper, is the large sheet of fresh water which lies -some thirty miles south of Salt Lake City, and gives its name to the -valley which it helps to fertilize. All around it, except on the -western shore, the Mormons have planted their villages, so that from -Lehi you can look out on to the valley, and see at the feet of the -encircling hills, and straggling down towards the lake, a semicircle -of settlements that, but for the sterility of the mountain slopes on -the west, might have formed a complete ring around it. But no springs -rise on the western slopes, and the settlements of the valleys always -lie, therefore, on the eastern side, unless some central stream gives -facilities for irrigation on the western also. -</p> -<p>Utah Lake is a lake of legends. In the old Indian days it was held in -superstitious reverence as the abode of the wind spirits and the storm -spirits, and as being haunted by monsters of weird kind and great -size. Particular spots were too uncanny for the red men to pitch their -lodges there; and even game had asylum, as in a city of refuge, if it -chanced to run in the direction of the haunted shore. In later times, -too, the Utah Lake has borne an uncomfortable reputation as the domain -of strange water-apparitions, and several men have recorded visions -of aquatic monsters, for which science as yet has found no name, -but which, speaking roughly, appear to have been imitations of that -delightful possibility, the sea serpent. Science, I know, goes dead -against such gigantic worms, but this wonderful Western country has -astonishment in store for the scientific world. If half I am told about -the wondrous fossils of Arizona and thereabouts be true, it may even be -within American resources to produce the kraken himself. In the mean -time, as a contribution towards it, and a very tolerable instalment, -too, I would commend to notice the great snake of the Utah Lake. It has -frightened men—and, far better evidence than that, it has been seen by -children when playing on the shore. I say "better," because children -are not likely to invent a plausible horror in order to explain their -sudden rushing away from a given spot with terrified countenances and -a consistent narrative—a horror, too, which should coincide with the -snake superstitions of the Pi-Ute Indians. Have wise men from the East -ever heard of this fabled thing? Does the Smithsonian know of this -terror of the lake—this freshwater kraken—this new Mormon iniquity? -</p> -<p>Visitors have made the American Fork canyon too well known to need -more than a reference here, but the Provo canyon, with its romantic -waterfalls and varied scenery, is a feature of the Utah Valley which -may some day be equally familiar to the sight-seeing world. The -botanist would find here a field full of surprises, as the vegetation -is of exceptional variety, and the flowers unusually profuse. Down -this canyon tumbles the Provo River; and as soon as it reaches the -mouth—thinking to find the valley an interval of placid idleness -before it attains the final Buddhistic bliss of absorption in the lake, -the Nirvana of extinguished individuality—it is seized upon, and -carried off to right and left by irrigation channels, and ruthlessly -distributed over the slopes. And the result is seen, approaching Provo, -in magnificent reaches of fertile land, acres of fruit-trees, and miles -of crops. -</p> -<p>Provo is almost Logan over again, for though it has the advantage over -the northern settlement in population, it resembles it in appearance -very closely. There is the same abundance of foliage, the same width -of water-edged streets, the same variety of wooden and adobe houses, -the same absence of crime and drunkenness, the same appearance of solid -comfort. It has its mills and its woollen factory, its "co-op." and -its lumber-yards. There is the same profusion of orchard and garden, -the same all-pervading presence of cattle and teams. The daily life -is the same too, a perpetual industry, for no sooner is breakfast -over than the family scatters—the women to the dairy and household -work, the handloom and the kitchen; the men to the yard, the mill, -and the field. One boy hitches up a team and is off in one direction; -another gets astride a barebacked horse and is off in another; a third -disappears inside a barn, and a fourth engages in conflict with a drove -of calves. But whatever they are doing, they are all busy, from the old -man pottering with the water channels in the garden to the little girls -pairing off to school; and the visitor finds himself the only idle -person in the settlement. -</p> -<p>From Provo—through its suburbs of foliage and glebeland—past -Springville, a sweet spot, lying back under the hills with a bright -quick stream flowing through it and houses mobbed by trees. Here are -flour-mills and one of the first woollen mills built in Utah. In the -days of its building the Indians harried the valley, and young men -tell how as children they used to lie awake at nights to listen to the -red men as they swept whooping and yelling through the quiet streets -of the little settlement; how the guns stood always ready against the -wall, and the windows were barricaded every night with thick pine -logs. What a difference now! Further on, but still looking on to the -lake, is Spanish Fork (nee Palmyra), where, digging a water channel -the other day, the spade turned up an old copper image of the Virgin -Mary, and some bones. This takes back the Mormon settlement of to-day -to the long-ago time when Spanish missionaries preached of the Pope to -the Piutes, and gave but little satisfaction to either man or beast, -for their tonsured scalps were but scanty trophies and the coyote -found their lean bodies but poor picking. Only fifteen years ago the -Navajos came down into the valley through the canyon which the Denver -and Rio Grande line now traverses, but the Mormons were better prepared -than the Spanish missionaries, and hunted the Navajo soul out of the -Indians, so that Spanish Fork is now the second largest settlement -in the valley, and the Indians come there begging. They are all of -the "tickaboo" and "good Injun" sort, the "how-how" mendicants of -the period. All the inhabitants are as good an illustration of the -advantages of co-operation in stores, farm-work, mills—everything—as -can well be adduced. -</p> -<p>Co-operation, by the way, is an important feature of Mormon life, and -never, perhaps, so much on men's tongues and in their minds as at the -present time. The whole community has been aroused by the consistent -teaching of their leaders in their addresses at public "meetings," -in their prayers in private households, to a sense of the "suicidal -folly," as they call it, of making men wealthy (by their patronage) who -use their power against the Saints; and the Mormons have set themselves -very sincerely to work to trade only with themselves and to starve out -the Gentiles. And it is very difficult indeed for an unprejudiced man -not to sympathize in some measure with the Mormons. By their honesty -they have made the name "Mormon" respected in trade all over America, -and have attracted shopkeepers, who on this very honesty have thriven -and become wealthy in Utah—and yet some of these men, knowing nothing -of the people except that they are straightforward in their dealings -and honourable in their engagements, join in the calumny that the -Mormons are a "rascally," "double-dealing" set. For my own part, I -think the Church should have starved out some of these slanderers -long ago. Even now it would be a step in the right direction if the -Church slipped a "fighting apostle" at the men who go on day after -day saying and writing that which they know to be untrue, calling, -for instance, virtuous, hard-working men and women "the villainous -spawn of polygamy," and advocating the encouragement of prostitutes -as a "reforming agency for Mormon youth"! Meanwhile "co-operation" as -a religious duty is the doctrine while of the day, and Gentile trade -is already suffering in consequence. The movement is a very important -one to the Territory, for if carried out on the proper principles -of co-operation, the people will live more cheaply here than in any -other State in America. As it is, many imported articles, thanks to -co-operative competition, are cheaper here than further east, and when -the boycotting is in full swing many more articles will also come down -in price, as the Gentiles' profits will then be knocked off the cost -to the purchaser. Every settlement, big and little, has its "co-op.," -and the elders when on tour through the outlying hamlets lose no -opportunity for encouraging the movement and extending it. -</p> -<p>Passing Spanish Fork, and its outlying herds of horses, we see, -following the curve Of the lake, Salem, a little community of farmers -settled around a spring; Payson, called Poteetnete in the old Indian -days—after a chief who made life interesting, not to say exciting, for -the early settlers—Springlake villa, where one family has grown up -into a hamlet, and grown out of it, too, for they complain that they -have not room enough and must go elsewhere; and Santaquin, a little -settlement that has reached out its fields right across the valley -to the opposite slope of the hills. This was the spot where Abraham -Butterfield, the only inhabitant of the place at the time, won himself -a name among the people by chasing off a band of armed Indians, who -had surprised him at his solitary work in the fields, by waving his -coat and calling out to imaginary friends in the distance to "Come -on." The Indians were thoroughly fooled, and fled back up the country -incontinently, while Abraham pursued them hotly, brandishing his old -coat with the utmost ferocity, and vociferously rallying nobody to the -bloody attack. -</p> -<p>Here Mount Nebo, the highest elevation in the Territory was first -pointed out to me—how tired I got of it before I had done!—and -through fields of lucerne we passed from the Utah into the Juab Valley -and an enormous wilderness of sage-brush. It is broken here and -there by an infrequent patch of cultivation, and streaks of paling -go straggling away across the grey desert. But without water it is a -desperate section, and the pillars of dust moving across the level, and -marking the track of the sheep that wandered grazing among the sage, -reminded me of the sand-wastes of Beluchistan, where nothing can move a -foot without raising a tell-tale puff of dust. -</p> -<p>There, the traveller, looking out from his own cloud of sand, sees -similar clouds creeping about all over the plain, judges from their -size the number of camels or horses that may be stirring, and draws -his own conclusions as to which may, be peaceful caravans, and which -robber-bands. By taking advantage of the wind, the desert banditti -are able to advance to the attack, just as the devil-fish do on the -sea-bottom, under cover of sand-clouds of their own stirring up; and -the first intimation which the traveller has of the character of those -who are coming towards him, is the sudden flash of swords and glitter -of spearheads that light up the edges of the advancing sand, just as -lightning flits along the ragged skirts of a moving thunder-cloud. -</p> -<p>But here there are no Murri or Bhoogti horsemen astir, and the Indians, -Piutes or Navajos, have not acquired Beluchi tactics. These moving -clouds here are raised by loitering sheep, formidable only to Don -Quixote and the low-nesting ground-larks. They are close feeders, -though, these sheep, and it is poor gleaning after them, so it is a -rule throughout the Territory that on the hills where sheep graze, game -need not be looked for. -</p> -<p>An occasional ranch comes in sight, and along the old county road a -waggon or two goes crawling by, and then we reach Mona, a pretty little -rustic spot, but the civilizing radiance of corn-fields gradually dies -away, and the relentless sage-brush supervenes, with here and there a -lucid interval of ploughed ground in the midst of the demented desert. -With water the whole valley would be superbly fertile, as we soon see, -for there suddenly breaks in upon the monotony of the weed-growths -a splendid succession of fields, long expanses of meadowland, large -groves of orchards, and the thriving settlement of Nephi. -</p> -<p>Like all other prosperous places in Utah, it is almost entirely Mormon. -There is one saloon, run by a Mormon, but patronized chiefly by the -"outsiders"—for such is the name usually given to the "Gentiles" in -the settlement—and no police. Local mills meet local requirements, -and the "co-op." is the chief trading store of the place. There are no -manufactures for export, but in grain and fruit there is a considerable -trade. It is a quaint, straggling sort of place, and, like all these -settlements, curiously primitive. The young men use the steps of the -co-operative store as a lounge, and their ponies, burdened with huge -Mexican saddles and stirrups that would do for dog-kennels, stand -hitched to the palings all about. The train stops at the corner of the -road to take up any passengers there may be. Deer are sometimes killed -in the streets, and eagles still harry the chickens in the orchards. -Wild-bird life is strangely abundant, and a flock of "canaries"—a very -beautiful yellow siskin—had taken possession of my host's garden. -"We do catch them sometimes," said his wife, "but they always starve -themselves, and pine away till they are thin enough to get through -the bars of the cage, and so we can never keep them." A neighbour who -chanced in, was full of canary-lore, and I remember one incident that -struck me as very pretty. He had caught a canary and caged it, but the -bird refused to be tamed, and dashed itself about the cage in such a -frantic way that out of sheer pity he let the wild thing go. A day or -two later it came back, but with a mate, and when the cage was hung out -the two birds went into captivity together, of their own free-will, and -lived as happily as birds could live! -</p> -<p>My host was a good illustration of what Mormonism can do for a man. In -Yorkshire he was employed in a slaughtering-yard, and thought himself -lucky if he earned twelve shillings a week. The Mormons found him, -"converted" him, and emigrated him. He landed in Utah without a cent -in his pocket, and in debt to the Church besides. But he found every -one ready to help him, and was ready to help himself, so that to-day -he is one of the most substantial men in Nephi, with a mill that cost -him $10,000 to put up, a shop and a farm, a house and orchard and -stock. His family, four daughters and a son, are all settled round him -and thriving, thanks to the aid he gave them—"but," said he, "if the -Mormons had not found me, I should still have been slaughtering in the -old country, and glad, likely, to be still earning my twelve shillings -a week." Another instance from the same settlement is that of a boy -who, five years ago, was brought out here at the age of sixteen. His -emigration was entirely paid for by the Church. Yet last year he sent -home from his own pocket the necessary funds to bring out his mother -and four brothers and sisters! God speed these Mormons, then. They -are doing both "the old country and the new" an immense good in thus -transforming English paupers into American farmers—and thus exchanging -the vices and squalor of English poverty for the temperance, piety, and -comfort of these Utah homesteads. I am not blind to their faults. My -aversion to polygamy is sincere, and I find also that the Mormons must -share with all agricultural communities the blame of not sacrificing -more of their own present prospects for the sake of their children's -future, and neglecting their education, both in school and at home. But -when I remember what classes of people these men and women are chiefly -drawn from, and the utter poverty in which most of them I cannot, in -sincerity, do otherwise than admire and respect the system which has -fused such unpromising material of so many nationalities into one -homogeneous whole. -</p> -<p>For myself, I do not think I could live among the Mormons happily, for -my lines have been cast so long in the centres of work and thought, -that a bovine atmosphere of perpetual farms suffocates me. I am -afraid I should take to lowing, and feed on lucerne. But this does -not prejudice me against the men and women who are so unmistakably -happy. They are uncultured, from the highest to the lowest. But the -men of thirty and upwards remember these valleys when they were utter -deserts, and the Indian was lord of the hills! As little children they -had to perform all the small duties about the house, the "chores," as -they are called; as lads they had to guard the stock on the hills; as -young men they were the pioneers of Utah. What else then could they be -but ignorant—in the education of schools, I mean? Yet they are sober -in their habits, conversation, and demeanour, frugal, industrious, -hospitable, and God-fearing. As a people, their lives are a pattern to -an immense number of mankind, and every emigrant, therefore, taken up -out of the slums of manufacturing cities in the old countries, or from -the hideous drudgery of European agriculture, and planted in these Utah -valleys, is a benefit conferred by Mormonism upon two continents at -once. -</p> -<p>To return to Nephi. I went to a "meeting" in the evening, and to -describe one is to describe all. The old men and women sit in -front—the women, as a rule, all together in the body of the room, and -the men at the sides. How this custom originated no one could tell me; -but it is probably a survival of habit from the old days when there -was only room enough for the women to be seated, and the men stood -round against the walls, and at the door. As larger buildings were -erected, the women, as of old, took their accustomed seats together -in the centre, and the men filled up the balance of the space. The -oldest being hard of hearing and short of sight, would naturally, in an -unconventional society, collect at the front of the audience. Looking -at them all together, they are found to be exactly what one might -expect—a congregation of hard-featured, bucolic faces, sun-tanned and -deep-lined. Here and there among them is a bright mechanic's face, and -here and there an unexpected refinement of intelligence. But taken in -the mass, they are precisely such a congregation as fills nine-tenths -of the rural places of worship all the world over. Conspicuously -absent, however, is the typical American face, for the fathers and -mothers among the Mormons are of every nationality, and the sons and -daughters are a mixture of all. In the future this race should be a -very fine one, for it is chiefly recruited from the hardier stocks, -the English, Scotch, and Scandinavian, while their manner of life is -pre-eminently fitted for making them stalwart in figure, and sound in -constitution. -</p> -<p>The meeting opens with prayer, in which the Almighty is asked for -blessings upon the whole people, upon each class of it, upon their -own place in particular, upon all the Church authorities, and upon -all friends of the Mormons. But never, so far as I have heard, are -intercessions made, in the spirit of New Testament teaching, for the -enemies of the Church. References to the author of the Edmunds Bill -are often very pointed and vigorous. After the prayer comes a hymn, -sung often to a lively tune, and accompanied by such instrumental -music as the settlement can rely upon, after which the elders address -the people in succession. These addresses are curiously practical. -They are temporal rather than spiritual, and concern themselves with -history, official acts, personal reminiscences, and agricultural -matter rather than points of mere doctrine. But as a fact, temporal -and spiritual considerations are too closely blended in Mormonism to -be disassociated. Thus references to the Edmunds Bill take their place -naturally among exhortations to "live their religion", and to "build up -the kingdom" in spite of "persecution." Boycotting Gentile tradesmen -is similarly inculcated as showing a pious fidelity to the interests -of the Church. These are the two chief topics of all addresses, but -a passing reference to a superior class of waggon, or a hope that -every one will make a point of voting in some coming election, is -not considered out of place, while personal matters, the health of -the speaker or his experiences in travel, are often thus publicly -commented upon. The result is, that the people go away with some -tangible facts in their heads, and subjects for ordinary conversation -on their tongues, and not, as from other kinds of religious meetings, -with only generalities about their souls and the Ten Commandments. In -other countries the gabble of small-talk that immediately overtakes -a congregation let out of church sounds very incongruous with the -last notes of the organ voluntary that play them out of the House of -God. But here the people walking homeward are able to continue the -conversation on exactly the same lines as the addresses they have -just heard, to renew it the next day, to carry it about with them -as conversation from place to place, and thus eventually to spread -the "doctrine" of the elders over the whole district. A fact about -waggon-buying sticks where whole sermons about salvation by faith would -not. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXII"></a>CHAPTER XII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM NEPHI TO MANTI. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> English companies and their failures—A deplorable neglect of - claret cup—Into the San Pete Valley—Reminiscences of the - Indians—The forbearance of the red man—The great temple at - Manti—Masonry and Mormon mysteries—In a tithing-house. -</p> -<p>FROM Nephi, a narrow-guage line runs up the Salt Creek canyon, and -away across a wilderness to a little mining settlement called Wales, -inhabited by Welsh Mormons who work at the adjacent coal-mines. The -affair belongs to an English company, and it is worth noting that -"English companies" are considered here to be very proper subjects -for jest. When nobody else in the world will undertake a hopeless -enterprise, an English company appears to be always on hand to embark -in it, and this fact displays a confidence on the part of Americans in -British credulity, and a confidence on the part of the Britishers in -American honesty, which ought to be mutually instructive. Meanwhile -this has nothing to do with these coal-mines in the San Pete Valley, -which, for all I know, may be very sound concerns, and very profitable -to the "English company" in question. I hope it is. The train was -rather a curious one, though, for it stopped for passengers at the -corner of the street, and when we got "aboard," we found a baggage -car the only vehicle provided for us. A number of apostles and elders -were on Conference tour, and the party, therefore, was a large one; so -that, if the driver had been an enthusiastic anti-Mormon, he might have -struck a severe blow at the Church by tilting us off the rails. The -Salt Creek canyon is not a prepossessing one, but there grew in it an -abundance of borage, the handsome blue heads of flowers showing from -among the undergrowth in large patches. -</p> -<p>What a waste of borage! Often have I deplored over my claret in India -the absence of this estimable vegetable, and here in Utah with a -perfect jungle of borage all about me, I had no claret! I pointed out -to the apostles with us that temperance in such a spot was flying -in the face of providence, and urged them to plant vineyards in -the neighbourhood. But they were not enthusiastic, and I relapsed -into silent contemplation over the incredible ways of nature, that -she should thus cast her pearls of borage before a community of -teetotallers. -</p> -<p>Traversing the canyon, we enter San Pete Valley, memorable for the -Indian War of 1865-67, but in itself as desolate and uninteresting a -tract of country as anything I have ever seen. Ugly bald hills and -leprous sand-patches in the midst of sage-brush, combined to form a -landscape of utter dreariness; and the little settlements lying away -under the hills on the far eastern edge of the valley—Fountain Green, -Maroni, and Springtown—seemed to me more like penal settlements -than voluntary locations. Yet I am told they are pretty enough, and -certainly Mount Pleasant, the largest settlement in the San Pete -country, looked as if it deserved its name. But it stands back well out -of the desperate levels of the valley, and its abundant foliage tells -of abundant water. A pair of eagles circled high up in the sky above -us as we rattled along, expecting us apparently to die by the way, and -hoping to be our undertakers. A solitary coyote was pointed out to me, -a lean and uncared-for person, that kept looking back over its shoulder -as it trotted away, as if it had a lingering sort of notion that a -defunct apostle might by chance be thrown overboard. It was a hungry -and a thirsty looking country, and Wales, where we left our train, was -a dismal spot. Here we found waggons waiting for us, and were soon on -our way across the desert, passing a settlement-oasis now and again, -and crossing the San Pete "river," which here sneaks along, a muddy, -shallow stream, at the bottom of high, willow-fringed banks. And so -to Fort Ephraim, a quaint little one-street sort of place that looks -up to Manti, a few miles off, as a little boy looks up to his biggest -brother, and to Salt Lake City as a cat might look up to a king. -</p> -<p>In 1865-67, however, it was an important point. Several companies of -the Mormon militia were mustered here, and held the mountains and -passes on the east against the Indians, guarded the stock gathered here -from the other small settlements that had been abandoned, and took part -in the fights at Thistle Creek, Springtown, Fish Lake, Twelve Mile -Creek Gravelly Ford, and the rest, where Black Hawk and his flying -squadron of Navajos and Piutes showed themselves such plucky men. It -is a pity, I think, that the history of that three years' campaign has -never been sketched, for, as men talk of it, it must have abounded with -stirring incident and romance. Besides, a well-written history of such -a campaign, with the lessons it teaches, might be useful some day—for -the fighting spirit of the Indians is not broken, and when another -Black Hawk appears upon the scene, 1865 might easily be re-enacted, -and Fort Ephraim once more be transformed from a farming hamlet to a -military camp. -</p> -<p>Yet I have often wondered at the apathy or the friendship of the -Indians. Herds of cattle and horses and sheep wander about among the -mountains virtually unguarded. Little villages full of grain, and -each with its store well stocked with sugar, and tobacco, and cloths, -and knives, and other things that the Indians prize, lie almost -defenceless at the mouths of canyons. Yet they have not been molested -for the last fifteen years. I confess that if I were an Indian chief, I -should not be able to resist the temptation of helping my tribe to an -occasional surfeit of beef, with the amusement thrown in of plundering -a co-operative store. But the Mormons say that the Indian is more -honest than a white man and, in illustration of this, are ready to -give innumerable instances of an otherwise inexplicable chivalry. For -one thing, though, the Mormons are looked upon by the Indians in quite -a different light to other Americans, for they consider them to be -victims, like themselves, of Federal dislike, while both as individuals -and a class they hold them in consideration as being superior to Agents -in fidelity to engagements. So that the compliment of honesty is -mutually reciprocated. To illustrate this aspect of the Mormon-Indian -relations, some Indians came the other day into a settlement and -engaged in a very protracted pow-wow, the upshot of all their -roundabout palaver being this, that inasmuch as they, the Indians, had -given Utah to the Mormons, it was preposterous for the Mormons to pay -the Government for the land they took up! -</p> -<p>From Fort Ephraim to Manti the road lies chiefly through unreclaimed -land, but within a mile or two of the town the irrigated suburbs of -Manti break in upon the sage-brush, and the Temple, which has been -visible in the distance half the day, grows out from the hills into -definite details. The site of this imposing structure certainly -surprised me both for the fine originality of its conception, and the -artistic sympathy with the surrounding scenery, which has directed -its erection. The site originally was a rugged hill slope, but this -has been cut out into three vast semicircular terraces, each of which -is faced with a wall of rough hewn stone, seventeen feet in height. -Ascending these by wide flights of steps, you find yourself on a -fourth level, the hill top, which has been levelled into a spacious -plateau, and on this, with its back set against the hill, stands the -temple. The style of Mormon architecture, unfortunately, is heavy and -unadorned, and in itself, therefore, this massive pile, 160 feet in -length by 90 wide, and about 100 high, is not prepossessing, But when -it is finished, and the terrace slopes are turfed, and the spaces -planted out with trees, the view will undoubtedly be very fine, and -the temple be a building that the Mormons may well be proud of. Looked -at from the plain, with the stern hills behind it, the edifice is -seen to be in thoroughly artistic harmony with the scene, while the -enormous expenditure of labour upon its erection is a matter for -astonishment. The plan of the building inside differs from those of -the temples at Logan, St. George, and Salt Lake City, which again -differ from each other, for it is a curious fact that the ritual of -the secret ceremonies to which these buildings are chiefly devoted, -is still under elaboration and imperfect, so that each temple in turn -partially varies from its predecessor, to suit the latest alterations -made in the Endowments and other rites celebrated within its walls. In -my description of the Logan Temple, I gave a sketch of the purposes for -which the various parts of the building were intended. That sketch, of -course, cannot pretend to be exact, for only those Mormons who have -"worked" through the degrees can tell the whole truth; and as yet no -one has divulged it. But with a general knowledge of the rites, and -an intimate acquaintance with freemasonry, I have, I believe, put -together the only reliable outline that has ever been published. The -Manti temple will have the same arrangements of baptismal font and -dressing-rooms on the ground floor, but as well as I could judge from -the unfinished state of the building, the "endowments," in the course -of which are symbolical representations of the Creation, Temptation and -Fall, will be spread over two floors, the apartment for "baptism for -the dead" occupying a place on the lower. The "sealing" is performed on -the third. I have an objection to prying into matters which the Mormons -are so earnest in keeping secret, but as a mason, the connexion between -Masonry and Mormonism is too fascinating a subject for me to resist -curiosity altogether. -</p> -<p>As a settlement, Manti is pretty, well-ordered and prosperous. The -universal vice of unbridged water-courses disfigures its roads just -as it does those of every other place (Salt Lake City itself not -excepted), and the irregularity in the order of occupation of lots -gives it the same scattered appearance that many other settlements -have. But the abundance of trees, the width of the streets, the -perpetual presence of running water, the frequency and size of the -orchards, and the general appearance of simple, rustic, comfort impart -to Manti all the characteristic charm of the Mormon settlements. The -orthodox grist and saw-mills, essential adjuncts of every outlying -hamlet, find their usual place in the local economy; but to me the -most interesting corner was the quaint tithing-house, a Dutch-barn -kind of place, still surrounded by the high stone stockade which was -built for the protection of the settlers during the Indian troubles -fifteen years ago. Inside the tithing-house were two great bins half -filled with wheat and oats, and a few bundles of wool. I had expected -to find a miscellaneous confusion of articles of all kinds, but on -inquiry discovered that the popular theory of Mormon tithing, "a tenth -of everything,"—"even to the tenth of every egg that is laid," as a -Gentile lady plaintively assured me, is not carried out in practice, -the majority of Mormons allowing their tithings to run into arrears, -and then paying them up in a lump in some one staple article, vegetable -or animal, that happens to be easiest for them. The tenth of their -eggs or their currant jam does not, therefore, as supposed, form part -of the rigid annual tribute of these degraded serfs to their grasping -masters. As a matter of fact, indeed, the payment of tithings is as -nearly voluntary as the collection of a revenue necessary for carrying -on a government can possibly be allowed to be. What it may have been -once, is of no importance now. But to-day, so far from there being -any undue coercion, I have amply assured myself that there is extreme -consideration and indulgence, while the general prosperity of the -territory justifies the leniency that prevails. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM MANTI TO GLENWOOD. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Scandinavian Mormons—Danish ol—Among the Orchards at Manti—On - the way to Conference—Adam and Eve—The protoplasm of a - settlement—Ham and eggs—At Mayfield—Our teamster's theory of - the ground-hog—On the way to Glenwood—Volcanic phenomena and - lizards—A suggestion for improving upon Nature—Primitive Art -</p> -<p>"MY hosts at Manti were Danes, and the wife brewed Danish ol." Such -is the entry in my note-book, made, I remember, to remind me to say -that the San Pete settlements are composed in great proportion of -Danes and Scandinavians. These nationalities contribute more largely -than any other—unless Great-Britishers are all called one nation—to -the recruiting of Mormonism, and when they reach Utah maintain their -individuality more conspicuously than any others. The Americans, Welsh, -Scotch, English, Germans, and Swiss, merge very rapidly into one blend, -but the Scandinavian type—and a very fine peasant type it is—is -clearly marked in the settlements where the Hansens and the Jansens, -Petersens, Christiansens, Nielsens, and Sorensens, most do congregate. -By the way, some of these Norse names sound very curiously to the ear. -"Ole Hagg" might be thought to be a nickname rather than anything else, -and Lars Nasquist Brihl at best a joke. Their children are remarkably -pretty, and the women models of thriftiness. -</p> -<p>My hostess at Manti was a pattern. She made pies under an inspiration, -and her chicken-pie was a distinct revelation. Her "beer" was certainly -a beverage that a man might deny himself quite cheerfully, but to -eat her preserves was like listening to beautiful parables, and her -cream cheese gave the same gentle pleasure as the singing of thankful -canticles. -</p> -<p>In the garden was an arbour overrun with a wild grapevine, and I -took my pen and ink in there to write. All went well for a while. An -amiable cat came and joined me, sitting in a comfortable cushion-sort -of fashion on the corner of my blotting-pad. But while we sat there -writing, the cat and I, there came a humming-bird into the arbour—a -little miracle in feathers, with wings all emeralds and a throat of -ruby. And it sat in the sunlight on a vine-twig that straggled out -across the door, and began to preen its tiny feathers. I stopped -writing to watch the beautiful thing. And so did the cat. For happening -to look down at the table I saw the cat, with a fiendish expression of -face and her eyes intent on the bird, gathering her hind legs together -for a spring. To give the cat a smack on the head, and for the cat to -vanish with an explosion of ill-temper, "was the work of an instant." -The humming-bird flashed out into the garden, and I was left alone to -mop up the ink which the startled cat had spilt. Then I went out and -wandered across the garden, where English flowers, the sweet-william -and columbine, pinks and wallflowers, pansies and iris, were growing, -under the fruit-trees still bunched with blossoms, and out into the -street. Friends asked me if I wasn't going to "the conference," but -I had not the heart to go inside when the world out of doors was so -inviting. There was a cool, green tint in the shade of the orchards, -pleasant with the voices of birds and dreamy with the humming of -bees. There was nobody else about, only children making posies of -apple-blossoms and launching blue boats of iris-petals on the little -roadside streams. Everybody was "at conference," and those that could -not get into the building were grouped outside among the waggons of the -country folk who had come from a distance. These conferences are held -quarterly (so that the lives of the Apostles who preside at them are -virtually spent in travelling) and at them everything is discussed, -whether of spiritual or temporal interest and a general balance struck, -financially and religiously. In character they resemble the ordinary -meetings of the Mormons, being of exactly the same curious admixture -of present farming and future salvation, business advice and pious -exhortation. -</p> -<p>Everybody who can do so, attends these meetings; and they fulfil, -therefore, all the purposes of the Oriental mela. Farmers, -stock-raisers, and dealers generally, meet from a distance and talk -over business matters, open negotiations and settle bargains, exchange -opinions and discuss prospects. Their wives and families, such of -them as can get away from their homes, foregather and exchange their -domestic news, while everybody lays in a fresh supply of spiritual -refreshment for the coming three months, and hears the latest word of -the Church as to the Edmunds Bill and Gentile tradesmen. The scene is -as primitive and quaint as can be imagined, for in rural Utah life -is still rough and hearty and simple. To the stranger, the greetings -of family groups, with the strange flavour of the Commonwealth days, -the wonderful Scriptural or apocryphal names, and the old-fashioned -salutation, are full of picturesque interest, while the meetings of -waggons filled with acquaintances from remote corners of the country, -the confusion of European dialects—imagine hearing pure Welsh among -the San Pete sagebrush!—the unconventional cordiality of greeting, are -delightful both in an intellectual and artistic sense. -</p> -<p>I have travelled much, and these social touches have always had a charm -for me, let them be the demure reunions of Creoles sous les filaos in -Mauritius; or the French negroes chattering as they go to the baths -in Bourbon; the deep-drinking convivialities of the Planters' Club in -Ceylon; the grinning, prancing, rencontres of Kaffir and Kaffir, or -the stolid collision of Boer waggons on the African veldt; the stately -meeting of camel-riding Beluchis on the sandy put of Khelat; the -jingling ox-drawn ekkas foregathered to "bukh" under the tamarind-trees -of Bengal; the reserved salutations of Hindoos as they squat by the -roadside to discuss the invariable lawsuit and smoke the inevitable -hubble-bubble; the noisy congregation of Somali boatmen before their -huts on the sun-smitten shores of Aden;—what a number of reminiscences -I could string together of social traits in various parts of the -world! And these Mormon peasants, pioneers of the West, these hardy -sons of hardy sires, will be as interesting to me in the future as any -others, and my remembrance of them will be one of admiration for their -unfashionable virtues of industry and temperance, and of gratitude for -their simple courtesy and their cordial hospitality. -</p> -<p>As we left Manti behind us, the waggons "coming into conference" got -fewer and fewer, and soon we found ourselves out alone upon the broad -levels of the valley, with nothing to keep us company but a low range -of barren hills that did their best to break the monotony of the -landscape. In places, the ground was white with desperate patches of -"saleratus," the saline efflorescence with which agriculture in this -Territory is for ever at war, and resembling in appearance, taste, and -effects the "reh" of the Gangetic plains. Here, as in India, irrigation -is the only known antidote, and once wash it out of the soil and -get crops growing and the enemy retires. But as soon as cultivation -ceases or irrigation slackens, the white infection creeps over the -ground again, and if undisturbed for a year resumes possession. How -unrelenting Nature is in her conflict with man! -</p> -<p>We passed some warm springs a few miles from Manti, but the water -though slightly saline is inodorous, and on the patches which they -water I saw the wild flax growing as if it enjoyed the temperature and -the soil. Then Six-Mile Creek, a pleasant little ravine, crossed by a -rustic bridge, which gives water for a large tract Of land, and so to -Sterling, a settlement as yet in its cradle, and curiously illustrative -of "the beginning of things" in rural Utah. One man and his one wife -up on the hillside doing something to the water, one cock and one hen -pecking together in monogamous sympathy, one dog sitting at the door -of a one-roomed log-hut. Everything was in the Adam and Eve stage -of society, and primeval. So Deucalion and Pyrrha had the earth to -themselves, and the "rooster" stalked before his mate as if he was the -first inventor of posterity. But much of this country is going to come -under the plough in time, for there is water, and in the meantime, -as giving promise of a future with some children in it, there is a -school-house—an instance of forethought which gratified me. -</p> -<p>The country now becomes undulating, remaining for the most part a -sterile-looking waste of grease-wood, but having an almost continuous -thread of cultivation running along the centre of the valley which, a -few miles further on, suddenly widens into a great field of several -thousand acres. On the other side of it we found Mayfield. -</p> -<p>In Mayfield every one was gone to the Conference except a pretty girl, -left to look after all the children of the village, and who resisted -our entreaties for hospitality with a determination that would have -been more becoming in an uglier person—and an old lady, left under the -protection of a big blind dog and a little bobtailed calf. She received -us with the honest courtesy universal in the Territory, showed us where -to put our horses and where the lucerne was stacked, and apologized to -us for having nothing better than eggs and ham to offer! -</p> -<p>Fancy nothing better than eggs and ham! To my mind there is nothing in -all travelling so delightful as these eggs-and-ham interruptions that -do duty for meals. Not only is the viand itself so agreeable, but its -odour when cooking creates an appetite. -</p> -<p>What a moral there is here! We have all heard of the beauty of the -lesson that those flowers teach us which give forth their sweetest -fragrance when crushed. But I think the conduct of eggs and ham, that -thus create an appetite in order to increase man's pleasure in their -own consumption, is attended with circumstances of good taste that are -unusually pleasing. -</p> -<p>In our hostess's house at Mayfield I saw for the first time the -ordinary floor-covering of the country through which we subsequently -travelled—a "rag-carpet." It is probably common all over the world, -but it was quite new to me. I discussed its composition one day with a -mother and her daughter. -</p> -<p>"This streak here is Jimmy's old pants, and that darker one is a -military overcoat. This is daddy's plush vest. This bit of the pattern -is—" -</p> -<p>"No, mother, that's your old jacket-back; don't you remember?"—and so -on all through the carpet. -</p> -<p>Every stripe in it had an association, and the story of the whole was -pretty nearly the story of their entire lives in the country. -</p> -<p>"For it took us seven years to get together just this one strip of -carpet. We folks haven't much, you see, that's fit to tear up." -</p> -<p>I like the phrase "fit to tear up," and wonder when, in the opinion of -this frugal people, anything does become suitable for destruction. But -it is hardly destruction after all to turn old clothes into carpets, -and the process is as simple as, in fact is identical with, ordinary -hand-weaving. The cloth is simply shredded into very narrow strips, -and each strip is treated in the loom just as if it were ordinary -yarn, the result being, by a judicious alternation of tints, a very -pleasant-looking and very durable floor-cloth. Rag-rugs are also -made on a foundation of very coarse canvas by drawing very narrow -shreds of rag through the spaces of the canvas, fastening them on the -reverse side, and cutting them off to a uniform "pile" on the upper. -In one cottage at Salina I remember seeing a rug of this kind in which -the girl had drawn her own pattern and worked in the colours with a -distinct appreciation of true artistic effect. An industrial exhibition -for such products would, I have no doubt, bring to light a great many -out-of-the-way handicrafts which these emigrant people have brought -with them from the different parts of Europe, and with which they try -to adorn their simple homes. -</p> -<p>Our teamster from Mayfield to Glenwood, the next stage of my southward -journey, was a very cautious person. He would not hurry his horses down -hill—they were "belike" to stumble; and he would not hurry them up -hill—it "fretted" them. On the level intervals he stopped altogether, -to "breathe" them. It transpired eventually that they were plough -horses. I suspected it from the first. And from his driving I suspected -that he was the ploughman. In other respects he was a very desirable -teamster. -</p> -<p>His remarks about Europe (he had once been to Chicago himself) were -very entertaining, and his theory of "ground hogs" would have delighted -Darwin. As far as I could follow him, all animals were of one species, -the differences as to size and form being chiefly accidents of age or -sex. This, at any rate, was my induction from his description of the -"ground hog," which he said was a "kind of squirrel—like the prairie -dog!" As he said, there were "quite a few" ground hogs, but they moved -too fast among the brush for me to identify them. As far as I could -tell, though, they were of the marmot kind, about nine inches long, -with very short tails and round small ears. When they were at a safe -distance they would stand up at full length on their hind legs, the -colouring underneath being lighter than on the back. What are they? I -have seen none in Utah except on these volcanic stretches of country -between Salina and Monroe. -</p> -<p>Much of Utah is volcanic, but here, beyond Salina, huge mounds of -scoriae, looking like heaps of slag from some gigantic furnace, -are piled up in the centre of the level ground, while in other -places circular depressions in the soil—sometimes fifty feet in -diameter and lowest in the centre, with deep fissures defining the -circumference—seem to mark the places whence the scoriae had been -drawn, and the earth had sunk in upon the cavities thus exhausted. -</p> -<p>The two sides of the river (the Sevier) were in striking contrast. On -this, the eastern, was desolation and stone heaps and burnt-up spaces -with ant-hills and lizards. -</p> -<p>Nothing makes a place look (to me at least) so hot as an abundance of -lizards. They are associated in memory with dead, still heat, "the -intolerable calor of Mambre," the sun-smitten cinder-heap that men call -Aden, the stifling hillsides of Italy where the grapes lie blistering -in the autumn sun, the desperate suburbs of Alexandria—what millions -of scorched-looking lizards, detestable little salamanders, used to -bask upon Cleopatra's Needles when they lay at full length among the -sand!—the heat-cracked fields of India. I know very well that there -are lizards and lizards; that they might be divided—as the Hindoo -divides everything, whether victuals or men's characters, medicines -or the fates the gods send him—into "hot" and "cold" lizards. The -salamander itself, according to the ancients, was icy cold. But this -does not matter. All lizards make places look hot. -</p> -<p>On the other side of the river, a favourite raiding-ground of "Mr. -Indian," as the settlers pleasantly call him, lies Aurora, a settlement -in the centre of a rich tract of red wheat soil with frequent -growths of willow and buffalo-berry (or bull-berry or red-berry or -"kichi-michi") marking the course of the Sevier. -</p> -<p>But our road soon wound down by a "dug way" to the bottom-lands, and we -found ourselves on level meadows clumped with shrubs and patched with -corn-fields, and among scattered knots of grazing cattle and horses. -Overhead circled several pairs of black hawks, a befitting reminder to -the dwellers on these Thessalian fields, these Campanian pastures, that -Scythian Piutes and Navajo Attilas might at any time swoop down upon -them. -</p> -<p>But the forbearance of the Indian in the matter of beef and mutton -is inexplicable—and most inexplicable of all in the case of lamb, -seeing that mint grows wild. This is a very pleasing illustration of -the happiness of results when man and nature work cordially together. -The lamb gambols about among beds of mint! What a becoming sense of -the fitness of things that would be that should surprise the innocent -thing in its fragrant pasture and serve up the two together! "They were -pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided." And what -a delightful field for similar efforts such a spectacle opens up to the -philosophic mind! Here, beyond Aurora, as we wind in and out among the -brakes of willow and rose-bush, we catch glimpses of the river, with -ducks riding placidly at anchor in the shadows of the foliage. And not -a pea in the neighbourhood! Now, why not sow green peas along the banks -of the American rivers and lakes? How soothing to the weary traveller -would be this occasional relief of canard aux petits pois! -</p> -<p>After an interval of pretty river scenery we found ourselves once -more in a dismal, volcanic country with bald hills and leprous -sand-patches the only features of the landscape, with lizards for -flowers and an exasperating heat-drizzle blurring the outlines of -everything with its quivering refraction. And then, after a few miles -of this, we are suddenly in the company of really majestic mountains, -some of them cedared to the peaks, others broken up into splendid -architectural designs of almost inconceivable variety, richly tinted -and fantastically grouped. How wealthy this range must be in mineral! -In front of us, above all the intervening hills, loomed out a monster -mountain, and turning one of its spurs we break all at once upon the -village of Glenwood—a beautiful cluster of foliage with skirts of -meadow-land spread out all about it—lying at the foot of the huge -slope. -</p> -<p>Near Glenwood is an interesting little lake that I visited. Its water -is exquisitely clear and very slightly warm. Though less than a foot -deep in most places (it has one pool twelve feet in depth), it never -freezes, in spite of the intense cold at this altitude. It is stocked -with trout that do not grow to any size, but which do not on the -other hand seem to diminish in numbers, although the consumption is -considerable. The botany in the neighbourhood of the lake is very -interesting, the larkspur, lupin, mimulus, violet, heart's-ease, -ox-eye, and several other familiar plants of English gardens, growing -wild, while a strongly tropical flavour is given to the vegetation by -the superb footstools of cactus—imagine sixty-one brilliant scarlet -blossoms on a cushion only fifteen inches across!—by the presence of -a gorgeous oriole (the body a pure yellow freaked with black on the -wings, and the head and neck a rich orange), and by a large butterfly -of a clear flame-colour with the upper wings sharply hooked at the -tips. Flower, bird, and insect were all in keeping with the Brazils or -the Malayan Archipelago. -</p> -<p>On a rock, close by the grist-mill, is the only specimen of the -much-talked-of Indian "hieroglyphics" that I have seen. They may of -course be hieroglyphics, but to me they look like the first attempts of -some untutored savage youth to delineate in straight lines the human -form divine. Or they may be only his attempts to delineate a cockroach. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM GLENWOOD TO MONROE. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> From Glenwood to Salina—Deceptiveness of appearances—An apostate - Mormon's friendly testimony—-Reminiscences of the Prophet Joseph - Smith—Rabbit-hunting in a waggon—Lost in the sagebrush—A day - at Monroe—Girls riding pillion—The Sunday drum—Waiting for the - right man: "And what if he is married?"—The truth about apostasy: - not always voluntary. -</p> -<p>SOON after leaving Glenwood, cultivation dies out, and for twelve miles -or so the rabbit-brush and grease-wood—the "atriplex" of disagreeably -scientific travellers, who always speak of sage-brush as "artemisia," -and disguise the gentle chipmunk as "spermophilus"—divide the land -between them. The few flowers, and these all dwarfed varieties, attest -the poverty of the soil. The mountains, however, do their best to -redeem the landscape, and the scenery, as desolate scenery, is very -fine. The ranges that have on either hand rolled along an unbroken -series of monotonous contour, now break up into every conceivable -variety of form, mimicking architecture or rather multiplying its -types, and piling bluffs, pierced with caves, upon terraces, and -pinnacles upon battlements. Causeways, like that in Echo Canyon, slant -down their slopes, and other vestiges of a terrific aqueous action -abound. Next to this riot of rock comes a long series of low hills, -grey, red, and yellow, utterly destitute of vegetation, and so smooth -that it looks as if the place were a mountain-yard, where Nature -made her mountains, and had collected all her materials about her in -separate convenient mounds before beginning to mix up and fuse. In -places they were richly spangled with mica, giving an appearance of -sparkling, trickling water to the barren slopes. -</p> -<p>On the other side of the valley, the mountains, discountenancing such -frivolities, had settled down into solid-bottomed masses of immense -bulk, the largest mountains, in superficial acreage, I had seen all the -journey, and densely cedared. -</p> -<p>With Gunnison in sight across the valley, we reached Willow Creek, -a pleasant diversion of water and foliage in the dreary landscape, -and an eventful spot in the last Indian war, for among these willows -here Black Hawk made a stand to dispute the Mormons' pursuit of their -plundered stock, and held the creek, too, all the day. And so out on to -the monotonous grease-wood levels again—an Indians' camp fire among -the cedars, the only sign of a living thing—and over another "divide," -and so into the Sevier Valley. The river is seen flowing along the -central depression, with the Red-Mound settlement on the other side of -the stream, and Salina on this side of it, lying on ahead. -</p> -<p>Salina is one of those places it is very hard to catch. You see it -first "about seven" miles off, and after travelling towards it for -an hour and a half, find you have still "eight miles or so" to go. -"Appearances are very deceptive in this country," as these people -delight in saying to new-comers, and the following story is punctually -told, at every opportunity, to illustrate it. -</p> -<p>A couple of Britishers (of course "Britishers") started off from their -hotel "to walk over to that mountain there," just to get an appetite -for breakfast. About dinner-time one of them gave up and came back, -leaving his obstinate friend to hunt the mountain by himself. After -dining, however, he took a couple of horses and rode out after his -friend, and towards evening came up with him just as he was taking off -his shoes and stockings by the side of a two-foot ditch. -</p> -<p>"Hallo!" said the horseman, "what on earth are you doing, Jack?" -</p> -<p>"Doing!" replied the other sulkily. "Can't you see? I am taking off my -boots to wade this infernal river." -</p> -<p>"River!" exclaimed his friend; "what river? That thing's only a -two-foot ditch!" -</p> -<p>"Daresay," was the dogged response. "It looks only a two-foot ditch. -But you can't trust anything in this beastly country. Appearances are -so deceptive." -</p> -<p>But we caught Salina at last, for we managed to head it up into a -cul-de-sac of the mountains, and overtook it about sundown. A few -years ago the settlement was depopulated; for Black Hawk made a swoop -at it from his eyrie among the cedars on the overlooking hill, and -after killing a few of the people, compelled the survivors to fly -northward, where the militia was mustering for the defence of the -valley. It was in this war that the Federal officer commanding the post -at Salt Lake City, acting under the orders of General Sherman, refused -to help the settlers, telling them in a telegram of twenty words to -help themselves. The country, therefore, remembers with considerable -bitterness that three years' campaign against a most formidable -combination of Indians; when they lost so many lives, when two counties -had to be entirely abandoned, many scattered settlements broken up, and -an immense loss in property and stock suffered. -</p> -<p>At Salina I met an apostate Mormon who had deserted the religion -because he had grown to disbelieve in it, but who had retained, -nevertheless, all his respect for the leaders of the Church and the -general body of Mormons. He is still a polygamist; that is to say, -having married two wives, he has continued to treat them honourably -as wives. With me was an apostle, one of the most deservedly popular -elders of the Church, and it was capital entertainment to hear the -apostate and the apostle exchanging their jokes at each other's -expense. I was shown at this house, by the way, an emigration loan -receipt. The emigrant, his wife, and three children, had been brought -out in the old waggon days at $50 a head. Some fifteen years later, -when the man had become well-to-do and after he had apostatized, he -repaid the $250, and some $50 extra as "interest." The loan ticket -stipulated for "ten per cent per annum," but as he said, it was "only -Mormons who would have let him run on so long, and then have let him -off so much of the interest." -</p> -<p>My host was himself an interesting man, for he had been with the -Saints ever since the stormy days of Kirtland, and had known Joseph -Smith personally. "Ah, sir, he was a noble man!" said the old fellow. -Among other out-of-the-way items which he told me about the founder -of the faith, was his predilection for athletic exercises and games -of all kinds; how he used to challenge strangers to wrestle, and be -very wroth when, as happened once, the stranger threw him over the -counter of a shop; and how he used to play baseball with the boys in -the streets of Nauvoo. This trait of Joseph Smith's character I have -never seen noticed by his biographers, but it is quite noteworthy, as -also, I think, is the extraordinary fascination which his personal -appearance—for he was a very handsome man of the Sir Robert Peel -type—seems to have exercised over his contemporaries. When speaking to -them, I find that one and all will glance from the other aspects of his -life to this—that he was "a noble man." -</p> -<p>Rabbit-hunting across country in a two-horse waggon is not a sport -I shall often indulge in again. The rabbit has things too much its -own way. It does not seem to be a suitable animal for pursuing in a -vehicle. It is too evasive. -</p> -<p>Indeed, but for an accident, I should probably never have indulged in -it at all. But it happened that on our way from Salina to Monroe we -lost our way. Our teamster, for inscrutable reasons of his own, turned -off from the main road into a bye-track, which proved to have been made -by some one prospecting for clay, and the hole which he had excavated -was its terminus. I tried to think out his reason for choosing this -particular road, the least and most unpromising of the three that -offered themselves to him. It was probably this. Two out of the three -roads, being wrong ones, were evils. One of these was larger than the -other, and so of the two evils he chose the less. Q.E.D. -</p> -<p>To get back into the road we struck across the sage-brush, and in so -doing started a jack-rabbit. As it ran in the direction we wanted to -go, we naturally followed it. But the jack-rabbit thought we were in -murderous pursuit, and performed prodigies of agility and strategy in -order to escape us. But the one thing that it ought to have done, got -out of our road, it did not do. We did not gain on the lively animal, -I confess, for it was all we could do to retain our seats, but we gave -it enough to prose about all the days of its life. What stories the -younger generation of jack-rabbits will hear of "the old days" when -desperate men used to come out thousands of miles in two-horse waggons -with canvas hoods to try and catch their ancestors! And what a hero -that particular jack-rabbit which we did not hunt will be! -</p> -<p>The road southwards leads along hillsides, both up and down, but on the -whole gradually ascending, till the summit of the spur is reached. Here -one of the most enchanting landscapes possible is suddenly found spread -out beneath you. A vast expanse of green meadow-land with pools Of blue -water here and there, herds of horses grazing, flocks of wild fowl in -the air, and on the right the settlement of Richfield among its trees -and red-soiled corn-fields! -</p> -<p>Crossing this we found that a spur, running down on it, divides it -really into two, or rather conceals a second plain from sight. But -in the second, sage-brush, "the damnable absinthe," that standard of -desolation, waves rampant, and the telegraph wire that goes straddling -across it seems as if it must have been laid solely for the convenience -of larks. Every post has its lark, as punctually as its insulator, and -every lark lets off its three delicious notes of song as we go by, just -as if the birds were sentries passing on a "friend" from picket to -picket. And here it was that we adventured with the jack-rabbit, much -to our own discomfiture. But while we were casting about for our lost -road, we came upon a desolate little building, all alone in the middle -of the waste, which we had supposed to be a deserted ranch-house, and -were surprised to find several waggons standing about. Just as we -reached it, the owners of the waggons came out, and then we discovered -that it was the "meeting-house" for the scattered ranches round, and -seeing the several parties packing themselves into the different -waggons remembered (from a certain Sabbatical smartness of apparel) -that it was Sunday. We were soon on our right road again, and passing -the hamlets of Inverary and Elsinore on the right, came in sight of -Monroe, and through a long prelude of cultivation reached that quaint -little village just apparently at the fashionable hour for girls to go -out riding with their beaux. -</p> -<p>Couple after couple passed us, the girls riding pillion behind their -sweethearts, and very well contented they all seemed to be, with their -arms round the object of their affections. Except in France once or -twice, I do not recollect ever having seen this picturesque old custom -in practice; but judging from the superior placidity of his countenance -and the merriment on hers, I should say it was an enjoyable one, and -perhaps worth reviving. -</p> -<p>Another interesting feature of Sunday evening in Monroe was the big -drum. It appeared that the arrival of the Apostle who was with me had -been expected, and that the people, who are everywhere most curiously -on the alert for spiritual refreshment, had agreed that if the Apostle -on arriving felt equal to holding a meeting, the big drum was to be -beaten. In due course, therefore, a very little man disappeared inside -a building and shortly reappeared in custody of a very big drum, which -he proceeded to thump in a becoming Sabbatical manner. But whether the -drum or the association of old band days overcame him, or whether the -devil entered into him or into the drum, it is certain that he soon -drifted into a funereal rendering of "Yankee Doodle." He was conscious, -moreover, of his lapse into weekday profanity, and seemed to struggle -against it by beating ponderous spondees. But it was of no use. Either -the drum or the devil was too big for him, and the solemn measure -kept breaking into patriotic but frivolous trochaics. Attracted by -these proceedings, the youth of the neighbourhood had collected, and -their intelligent aversion to monopolists was soon apparent by their -detaching the little barnacle from his drum and subjecting the resonant -instrument to a most irregular bastinado. They all had a go at it, both -drumsticks at once, and the result was of a very unusual character, -as neither of the performers could hear distinctly what was going -on on the other side of the drum, and each, therefore, worked quite -independently. In the meanwhile some one had procured a concertina, -and this, with a dog that had a fine falsetto bark, constituted a very -respectable "band" in point of noise. Thus equipped, the lads started -off to beat up the village, and working with that enthusiasm which -characterizes the self-imposed missions of youth, were very successful. -Everybody came out to their doors to see what was going on, and having -got so far, they then went on to the meeting. By twos and threes and -occasional tens the whole village collected inside the meeting-house, -or round the door unable to get in, and I must confess that looking -round the room, I was surprised at the number of pretty peasant faces -that Monroe can muster. -</p> -<p>And here for the first time I became aware of a very significant fact, -and one that well deserves notice, though I have never heard or seen -it referred to—I mean the number of handsome marriageable girls who -are unmarried in the Mormon settlements. Omitting other places, in each -of which many well-grown, comely girls can be found unmarried, I saw -in the hamlet of Monroe enough unwedded charms to make me think that -either the resident polygamist had very bad taste or very bad luck. My -host, a Mormon, was a widower (a complete widower I mean), and two very -pretty girls, neighbours, looked after his household affairs for him. -One was a blonde Scandinavian of Utah birth; the other a dark-haired -Scotch lassie emigrated three years ago—and each was just eighteen. -(And in the Western country eighteen looks three-and-twenty.) I asked -my host why he did not marry one of them, or both, and he told me that -he had a family growing up, and that he had so often seen quarrels and -separations result from the remarriage of fathers that he did not care -to risk it. -</p> -<p>And the Apostle, who was present, said, "Quite right." -</p> -<p>Now please remember this was in polygamous Utah, in a secluded village, -entirely Mormon, where, if anywhere, men and women might surely do as -they pleased. In any monogamous society such a reason, followed by the -approval of a Church dignitary, would not be worth commenting on, but -here among Mormons it was significant enough. -</p> -<p>I spoke to the girls, and asked them why they had not married. -</p> -<p>"Because the right man has not come along yet," said one. -</p> -<p>"But perhaps when the right man does come along he will be married -already," I said. -</p> -<p>"And why should that make any difference?" was the reply. -</p> -<p>In the meantime each of these shapely daughters of Eve had a "beau" who -took her out riding behind him, escorted her home from meeting, and so -forth. But neither of them had found "the right man." -</p> -<p>Of Monroe, therefore, one of those very places, retired from -civilization, "where the polygamous Mormon can carry on his beastly -practices undetected, and therefore unpunished"—as the scandalous -clique of Salt Lake City (utterly ignorant of Mormonism except what it -can pick up from apostates) is so fond of alleging—I can positively -state from personal knowledge that there are both men and women there -who are guided in matters of marriage by the very same motives and -principles that regulate the relation in monogamous society. Further, I -can positively state the same of several other settlements, and judging -from these, and from Salt Lake City, I can assure my readers that the -standard of public morality among the Mormons of Utah is such as the -Gentiles among them are either unable or unwilling to live up to. -</p> -<p>In this connexion it is worth noting that public morality has in Utah -one safeguard, over and above all those of other countries, namely, the -strict surveillance of the Church. I have enjoyed while in Utah such -exceptional advantages for arriving at the truth, as both Gentiles and -Mormons say have never been extended to any former writer, and among -other facts with which I have become acquainted is the silent scrutiny -into personal character which the Church maintains. -</p> -<p>Profanity, intemperance, immorality, and backbiting are taken quiet -note of, and if persisted in against advice, are punished by a gradual -withdrawal of "fellowship;" and result in what the Gentiles call -"apostasy." Among the standing instructions of the teachers of the -wards is this:— -</p> -<p>"If persons professing to be members of the Church be guilty of -allowing drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, profanity, defrauding or -backbiting, or any other kind of wickedness or unrighteous dealing, -they should be visited and their wrong-doing pointed out to them in the -spirit of brotherly kindness and meekness, and be exhorted to repent." -</p> -<p>If they do not repent, they find the respect, then the friendship, and -finally the association, of their co-religionists withheld from them, -and thus tacitly ostracized by their own Church, they "apostatize" and -carry their vices into the Gentile camp, and there assist to vilify -those who have already pronounced them unfit to live with honest men or -virtuous women. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXV"></a>CHAPTER XV. -</h2> -<p class="centered">AT MONROE. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> "Schooling" in the Mormon districts—Innocence as to whisky, - but connoisseurs in water—"What do you think of that water, - sir?"—Gentile dependents on Mormon charity—The one-eyed - rooster—Notice to All! -</p> -<p>SITTING at the door next morning, I saw a very trimly-dressed damsel -of twenty or thereabouts, coming briskly along under the trees, which -there, as in every other Mormon settlement, shade the side-walk. She -was the schoolmistress, I learned, and very soon her scholars began -to pass along. I had thus an opportunity of observing the curious, -happy-go-lucky style in which "schooling" is carried on, and I was -sorry to see it, for Mormonism stands urgently in need of more -education, and it is pure folly to spend half the revenue of the -Territory annually in a school establishment, if the children and -their parents are permitted to suppose that education is voluntary -and a matter of individual whim. Some of the leading members of the -Church are conspicuous defaulters in this matter, and do their families -a gross wrong by setting "the chores" and education before them as -being of equal importance. Even in the highest class of the community -children go to school or stay away almost as they like, and provided a -little boy or girl has the shrewdness to see that he or she can relieve -the father or mother from trouble by being at home to run errands and -do little jobs about the house, they can, I regret to think, regulate -the amount of their own schooling as they please. I know very well -that Utah compares very favourably, on paper, with the greater part -of America, but I have compiled and examined too many educational -statistics in my time to have any faith in them. -</p> -<p>But in the matter of abstinence from strong drink and stimulants, the -leaders of the Church set an admirable example, and I found it very -difficult most of the time, and quite impossible part of it, to keep my -whisky flask replenished. -</p> -<p>My system of arriving at the truth as to the existence of spirit stores -in any particular settlement, was to grumble and complain at having -no whisky, and to exaggerate my regrets at the absence of beer. The -courtesy of my hosts was thus challenged, and of the sincerity of the -efforts made to gratify my barbaric tastes, I could have no doubt -whatever. In most cases they were quite ignorant of even the cost -of liquor, and on one occasion a man started off with a five-dollar -piece I had given him to get me "five dollars' worth of whisky in this -bottle," pointing to my flask. I explained to him that I only wanted -the flask replenished, and that there would be change to bring back. He -did not get any at all, however. -</p> -<p>On one occasion the Bishop brought in, in evident triumph, two bottles -of beer. On another I went clandestinely with a Mormon, after dark, and -drank some whisky "as a friend," and not as a customer, with another -Mormon, who "generally kept a bottle on hand" for secret consumption. -That they would both have been ashamed for their neighbours to know -what they were about, I am perfectly convinced. On a third occasion an -official brought me half a pint of whisky, and the price was a dollar. -</p> -<p>Now it is quite impossible for me, who have thus made personal -experiment, to have any doubt as to the prevailing sobriety of these -people. I put them repeatedly to the severest test that you can -apply to a hospitable man, by asking point-blank for ardent spirits. -Sometimes, in an off-hand way, I would give money and the flask to a -lad, and ask him to "run across to the store and get me a little whisky -or brandy." He would take both and meander round in an aimless sort of -way. But I might almost as well have asked him to go and buy me a few -birds-of-paradise or advance sheets of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." -The father or a neighbour might perhaps suggest a "likely" place to get -some stimulant, but, as a rule, the quest was unconditionally abandoned -as hopeless. -</p> -<p>The Elders of the Church set a strict example themselves, discouraging, -by their own abstinence, indulgence even in tea and coffee. You are -asked in a settlement whether you will have tea or coffee, just as in -England you would be asked whether you would drink ale or claret. A -strong man takes a cup of tea as a lady in Europe might take a glass of -sherry, as justified by unusual exercise and fatigue. Being a Londoner, -I entertain a most wholesome suspicion of water as a drink, and I -reverence fresh milk. In rural Utah, milk being so abundant, the people -think little of it, but they pride themselves on their water. -</p> -<p>"What do you think of that water, sir?" was a question that puzzled me -to answer at first, for I am not a connoisseur in drinking-water. If -it had been a claret, I might have made a pretence of criticism. But -water! Or if they had let me wash in it, I would have told them whether -I thought it "hard" or "soft." But to pass an opinion on a particular -tumbler of water, as if it were a special brand laid down by my host -for his own drinking, completely puzzled me. I can no more tell waters -apart than I can tell Chinamen. Of course I can discriminate between -the outcome of the sea and of sulphur springs. But for the rest, it -seems to me that they only differ in their degrees of cleanliness, or, -as scientific men say, to "the properties which they hold in solution," -that is mud. And mud, I take it, is always pretty much the same. -</p> -<p>So at first when my host would suddenly turn to me with, "What do you -think of that water, sir?" I made the mistake of supposing it might be -one of the extraordinary aqueous novelties for which this territory -is so remarkable—hot-geyser water or petrifying water, or something -else of the kind—and would smack my lips critically and venture on a -suggestion of "lime," or "soda," or "alkali." But my host was always -certain to be down with, "Oh, no; I assure you. That is reckoned the -best water in the county!" -</p> -<p>I soon discovered, however, that the right thing to say was that I -preferred it, "on the whole," to the water at the last place. This was -invariably satisfactory—unless, of course, there was a resident of -"the last place" present, when an argument would ensue. These people, -in fact, look upon their drinking-water just as on the continent they -look upon their vins ordinaires, or in England upon their local brews, -and to the last I could not help being delighted at the manner in -which a jug of water and tumblers were handed about among a party of -fatigued and thirsty travellers. I always took my share becomingly, but -sometimes, I must confess, with silent forebodings. -</p> -<p>For in some places there are springs which petrify, by coating with -lime, any substance they flow over, and I did not anticipate with any -gratification having my throat lined with cement, or my stomach faced -with building-stone. -</p> -<p>"Who are those children?" said I to my host at Munroe, pointing to -two ragged little shoeless waifs that were standing in his yard and -evidently waiting to be taken notice of. Instead of replying, my host -turned towards them. -</p> -<p>"Well, Jimmy," said he, "what is it to-day?" -</p> -<p>The wistful eyes looking out from under the tattered, broad-brimmed -hats, brightened into intelligence. -</p> -<p>"Another chicken for mother," said both together, promptly; and then, -as if suddenly overtaken by a sense of their audacity, the forlorn -little lads dropped their eyes and stood there, holding each other's -hands, as picturesque and pathetic a pair as any beggar children in -Italy. In the full sunlight, but half shaded by the immense brims of -those wonderfully ancient hats, the urchins were irresistibly artistic, -and if met with anywhere in the Riviera, would have been sure of that -small-change tribute which the romantic tourist pays with such pleasant -punctuality to the picturesque poverty of Southern childhood. But this -was in Utah. -</p> -<p>And my host looked at them from under his tilted straw hat. They stood -in front of him as still as sculptors' models, but fingers and toes -kept exchanging little signals of nervous distress. -</p> -<p>"All right. Go and get one," said my host suddenly. "Take the young -rooster that's blind of one eye." -</p> -<p>He had to shout the last instructions in a rapid crescendo as the -youngsters had sprung off together at the word "go," like twin shafts -from those double-arrowed bows of the old Manchurian archers. Three -minutes later and a most woful scrawking heralded the approach of -the captors and the captive. The young rooster, though blind of one -eye, saw quite enough of the situation to make him apprehensive, but -the younger urchin had him tight under his arm, and, still under the -exciting influences of the chase and capture, the boys stood once more -before my host, with panting bodies, flushed cheeks, and tufts of -yellow hair sprouting out through crevices of those wondrous old hats, -which had evidently just seen service in the capture. And the rooster, -feeling, perhaps, that he was now before the final court of appeal, -scrawked as if machinery had got loose inside him and he couldn't stop -it. -</p> -<p>"How's your (scraw-w-w-k) mother?" -</p> -<p>She's (scraw-w-w-k)—and she's (scraw-w-w-k) nothing to eat all -yesterday." (Scraw-w-k.) -</p> -<p>"Go on home, then." -</p> -<p>And away down the middle of the road scudded the little fellows in a -confusion of dust and scrawk. -</p> -<p>"Who are those children?" I asked again, thinking I had chanced on that -unknown thing, a pauper Mormon. -</p> -<p>"Oh," said my host, "he's a bad lot—an outsider—who came in here as a -loafer, and deserted his wife. She's very ill and pretty nigh starving. -Ay, she would starve, too, if her boys there didn't come round regular, -begging of us. But loafers know very well that 'those——Mormons' won't -let anybody go hungry. Ay, and they act as if they knew it, too." -</p> -<p>In other settlements there are exactly such similar cases, but I would -draw the attention of my readers—I wish I could draw the attention -of the whole nation to it—to the following notice which stands to -this day with all the force of a regular by-law in these Mormon -settlements:— -</p> -<p> "NOTICE TO ALL. -</p> -<p> "If there are any persons in this city who are destitute of food, - let them be who they may, if they will let their wants be known to - me, privately or otherwise, I will see that they are furnished with - food and lodging until they can provide for themselves. The bishops - of every ward are to see that there are no persons going hungry. -</p> -<p> "(Signed by the Presiding Bishop.)" -</p> -<p>Now it may be mere "sentiment" on my part, but I confess that this -"Notice to All," in the simplicity of its wording, in the nobility of -its spirit, reads to me very beautifully. And what a contrast to turn -from this text of a universal charity, that is no respecter of persons, -to the infinite meanness of those who can write, as in the Salt Lake -Tribune, of the whole community of Mormons as the villainous spawn of -polygamy!" -</p> -<p>It is a recognized law among the Mormons that no tramp shall pass by -one of their settlements hungry; if it is at nightfall, he is to be -housed. Towards the Indians their policy is one of enlightened and -Christian humanity. For their own people their charity commences from -the first. Emigrated to this country by the voluntary donations which -maintain the "Perpetual Emigration Fund," each new arrival is met -with immediate care, and being passed on to his location, finds (as -I have described in another chapter) a system of mutual kindliness -prevailing which starts him in life. If sick, he is cared for. If he -dies, his family is provided for. All this is fact. I have read it in -no books, heard it from no hoodwinking elders. My informants are lads -just arrived in Salt Lake City—within an hour or two of their arrival, -in fact; young men just settling down in their first log hut in rural -settlements: grown men now themselves engaged in the neighbourly duty -of assisting new-comers. -</p> -<p>I have met and talked to those men—Germans, Scandinavians, -Britishers—in their own homes here in Utah, and have positively -assured myself of the fact I state, that charity, unquestioning, -simple-hearted charity, is one of the secrets of the strength of this -wonderful fabric of Mormonism. The Mormons are, more nearly than any -other community in the world on such a scale, one family. Every man -knows all the rest of his neighbours with an intimacy and a neighbourly -interest that is the result of reciprocal good services in the past. -This is their bond of union. In India there is "the village community" -which moves, though in another arc, on the same plane as the Mormon -settlement system. There, to touch one man's crop is to inflame the -whole clan with the sense of a common injury. Here it is much the same. -And as it is between the different individuals in a settlement, so it -is between the different settlements in the territory. A brutal act, -like that eviction of the Mormon postmaster at Park City the other -day, disturbs the whole of Mormonism with apprehensions of impending -violence. A libel directed at a man or woman in Salt Lake City makes a -hundred thousand personal enemies in Utah. Now, with what petard will -you hoist such a rock? -</p> -<p>Induce these Mormons to hate one another "for all the world like -Christians," as George Eliot said, and they can be snapped as easily -as the philosopher's faggots when once they were unbundled. But in -the meantime abuse of individuals or "persecution" of a class simply -cements the whole body together more firmly than ever. Mutual charity -is one of the bonds of Mormon union. It is the secret of this "oneness" -which makes the Salt Lake Tribune yelp so. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI. -</h2> -<p class="centered">JACOB HAMBLIN. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> A Mormon missionary among the Indians—The story of Jacob Hamblin's - life—His spiritualism, the result of an intense faith—His good - work among the Lamanites—His belief in his own miracles. -</p> -<p>LEAVING Munroe, we find cultivation gradually disappearing, and, after -two or three miles, unmitigated brush supervenes. A steep divide now -thrusts itself across the road, and, traversing near the summit a -patch of pebbly ground which seemed a very paradise for botanists, we -descend again into a wilderness of grease-wood, "the unspeakable Turk" -among vegetables. The mountains between which we pass provide, however, -a succession of fine views. They are of that bulky, broad-based and -slowly sloping type that is so much more solemn and impressive than -jagged, sharp-pointed and precipitous formations. -</p> -<p>A few miles more bring us to one of them, and for the first time during -the journey our road runs through the thickly growing "cedars" which we -have hitherto seen only at a distance lying like dark clouds upon the -hill-sides and black drifts in the gulches. The wild flowers growing -under these "cedars" (and the pines which are sprinkled among them) are -of new varieties to me, and I enjoyed a five-mile walk in this novel -vegetation immensely. A few years ago, though, "Mr. Indian" would have -made himself too interesting to travellers for men to go wandering -about among the cedars picking posies. They would have found those -"arrows tipped with jasper," which are so picturesque in Hiawatha, -flying about instead of humming-birds tipped with emerald, and a -tomahawk hurtling through the bushes would have been more likely to -excite remark than the blue magpies which I saw looking after snails. -</p> -<p>This district was, until very recently, a favourite hunting-ground of -those Indians of whom old Jacob Hamblin was the Nestor—the guide, -philosopher, friend, and victim. One day they would try "to fill his -skin full of arrows;" on the next day they would be round him, asking -him to make rain-medicine. They would talk Mormonism with him all day, -and grunt approvingly; as soon as night fell they would steal his -horse. He was always patching up peace between this tribe and that, yet -every now and then they would catch him, have a great pow-wow over him, -and being unable to decide whether he should be simply flayed or be -roasted first over a charcoal fire, would let him go, with provisions -and an escort for his home journey. -</p> -<p>His life, indeed, was so wonderful—much more fascinating than any -fiction—that I am not surprised at his believing, as he does, that -he is under the special protection of Heaven, and, as he says, in a -private covenant with the Almighty that "if he does not thirst for -the blood of the Lamanites, his blood shall never be shed by them." -He began life as a farmer near Chicago, but being baptized received -at once "the immediate gift of the Holy Ghost," and at once entered -upon a career of "miracles" and "prophecies" that when told in serious -earnest are sufficient to stagger even Madame Blavatsky herself. He -cured his neighbours of deadly ailments by the laying on of hands, and -foretold conversions, deaths, and other events with unvarying accuracy. -By prolonged private meditation he enjoyed what, from his description, -must be a pregustation of the Buddhistic Nirvana, and after this, -miracles became quite commonplace with him. He witnessed the "miracle" -of the great quail flights into the camp of the fugitive and starving -Saints in 1846, and helped to collect the birds and to eat them; he saw -also the "miraculous" flights of seagulls that rescued the Mormons from -starvation by destroying the locusts in 1848. -</p> -<p>But his personal experiences, narrated with a simplicity of speech and -unquestioning confidence that are bewildering, were really marvellous. -If cattle were lost, he could always dream where they were. If sickness -prevailed, he knew beforehand who would suffer, and which of them would -die, and which of them recover. If Indians were about, angels gave -him in his sleep the first warnings of his danger. His sympathy with -the Indians was, however, very early awakened, and being strengthened -in it by the conciliatory Indian policy of Brigham Young, he became -before long the only recognized medium of friendly communication with -them. Everybody, whether Federal officials, California emigrants, -Mormon missionaries, or Indians themselves, enlisted his influence -whenever trouble with the tribes was anticipated. His own explanation -of this influence is remarkable enough. As a young man, he says, he was -sometimes told off to join retributive expeditions, but he could never -bring himself to fire at an Indian, and on one occasion, when he did -try to do so, his rifle kept missing fire, while "the Lamanites," with -equally ineffectual efforts to shed his blood, kept on pincushioning -the ground all around him with their futile arrows. After this he and -the Indians whenever they met, spared each other's lives with punctual -reciprocity. -</p> -<p>On one occasion he dreamed that he was walking in a friendly manner -with some of the members of a certain tribe, when he picked up a piece -of a shining substance, which stuck to his fingers. The more he tried -to rub it off the brighter it became. One would naturally, under such -circumstances, anticipate the revelation of a gold-mine, but Jacob -Hamblin, without any questioning, went off at once to the tribe in -question. They received him as friends, and he stayed with them. One -day, passing a lodge, "the Spirit" whispered to him, "Here is the -shining substance you saw in your dream." But all he saw was a squaw -and a boy papoose. However, he went up to the squaw, and asked for the -boy. She naturally demurred to the request, but to her astonishment the -boy, gathering up his bow and arrows, urged compliance with it, and -Hamblin eventually led off his dream-revealed "lump." After a while he -asked the boy how it was he was so eager to come, though he had never -seen a white man before, and the boy answered, "My Spirit told me that -you were coming to my father's lodge for me on a certain day, and that -I was to go with you, and when the day came I went out to the edge -of the wood, and lit a fire to show you the way to me." And Hamblin -then remembered that it was the smoke of a fire that had led him to -that particular camp, instead of another towards which he had intended -riding! -</p> -<p>By way of a parenthesis, let me remark here that if there are any -"Spiritualists" among my readers, they should study Mormonism. The -Saints have long ago formulated into accepted doctrines those mysteries -of the occult world which Spiritualists outside the faith are still -investigating. Your "problems" are their axioms. -</p> -<p>This Indian boy became a staunch Mormon, and to the last was in -communion with the other world. Remember I am quoting Hamblin's words, -not in any way endorsing them. In 1863 he was at St. George, and one -day when his friends were starting on a mission to a neighbouring -tribe, he took farewell of them "for ever." "I am going on a mission, -too," he said. "What do you mean?" asked Hamblin. "Only that I shall be -dead before you come back," was the Indian's reply. "I have seen myself -in a dream preaching the gospel to a multitude of my people, and my -ancestors were among them. So I know that I must be a spirit too before -I can carry the Word to spirits." In six weeks Hamblin returned to St. -George; and the Indian was dead. -</p> -<p>Brigham Young, as I have said, insisted upon a conciliatory policy -towards the Indians. He made in person repeated visits to the missions -at work among them, and was never weary of advising and encouraging. -Here is a portion of one of his letters: does it read like the -words of a thoroughly bad man?—"Seek by words of righteousness to -obtain the love and confidence of the tribes. Omit promises where -you are not sure you can fulfil them. Seek to unite your hearts in -the bonds of love. . . . May the Spirit of the Lord direct you, and -that He may qualify you for every duty is the constant prayer of your -fellow-labourer in the gospel of salvation, Brigham Young." Here -is a part of another letter: "I trust that the genial and salutary -influences now so rapidly extending to the various tribes, may continue -till it reaches every son and daughter of Abraham in their fallen -condition. The hour of their redemption draws nigh, and the time is not -far off when they shall become a people whom the Lord will bless. . . . -The Indians should be encouraged to keep and take care of stock. I -highly apprcNe your design in doing your farming through the natives; -it teaches them to obtain a subsistence by their own industry, and -leaves you more liberty to extend your labours among others. . . . -You should always be careful to impress upon them that they should -not infringe on the rights of others, and our brethren should be very -careful not to infringe upon their rights in any particular, thus -cultivating honour and good principles in their midst by example as -well as by precept. As ever, your brother in the gospel of salvation, -Brigham Young." -</p> -<p>These and other letters are exactly in the spirit of the correspondence -which, in the early days of England in Hindostan, won for the old -Court of Directors the eternal admiration of mankind and for England -the respect of Asia. Yet in Brigham Young's case is it ever carried -to his credit that he spent so much thought and time and labour over -the reclamation of the Indians, by a policy of kindness, and their -exaltation by an example of honourable dealing? -</p> -<p>It was in this spirit that the Mormon missionaries went out to -the Indians then living in the part of the Territory over which I -travelled, and Jacob Hamblin was one eminently characteristic of the -type. Beyond all others, however, he sympathized with the red man's -nature. "I argue with him just as he argues," he said. He was on -good terms with the medicine-men, and took a delightful interest in -their ceremonies. But when they failed to bring rain with bonfires -and howling, he used to pray down abundant showers; when they gave up -tormenting the sick as past all hope, Hamblin restored the invalid to -life by the laying on of hands! -</p> -<p>Once more let me say that I am only quoting, not indorsing. But I -do him a great injustice in not being able to convey in writing the -impressive simplicity of his language, his low, measured tones, -his contemplative, earnest attitude, his Indian-like gravity of -countenance. That he speaks the implicit truth, according to his own -belief, I am as certain as that the water of the Great Salt Lake is -salt. -</p> -<p>His "occult" sympathies seemed at times to be magnetic, for when in -doubt as to whom to choose for his companion on a perilous journey, -some brother or other, the fittest person for the occasion, would -always feel mysteriously influenced to go to him to see if his services -were needed. His displeasure killed men, that is to say they went from -his presence, sickened and died. So frequent was this inexplicable -demise that the Indians worked out a superstition that evil befalls -those who rob or kill a Mormon; and so marked were the special -manifestations of the missionaries' spirit power, that, as Hamblin -says, "the Indians were without excuse for refusing conversion," and -were converted. "They looked to us for counsel, and learned to regard -our words as law." Though the missionaries were sometimes alone, and -the tribes around them of the most desperate kind, as "plundersome" as -wolves and at perpetual blood-feud with each other, the Mormons' lives -were quite safe. When they had determined on an atrocity—burning a -squaw, for instance—they would do it in the most nervous hurry, lest -a Mormon should come along and stop it, and when they had done it and -were reproached, they used to cry like children, and say they were only -Indians. -</p> -<p>Tragedy and comedy went hand in hand; laughter at the ludicrous is cut -short by a shudder of horror. "We cannot be good; we must be Piutes. -Perhaps some of our children will be good. We're going off to kill -so-and-so. Whoop!" And away they would go, putting an arrow into the -missionary's horse as they passed. By-and-by the man who shot the arrow -would be found dead, killed by a Mormon's curse, and the rest would -be back at work in the settlement hoeing pumpkins—"for all the world -like Christians!" Through all these alternations of temper and fortune, -Jacob Hamblin retained his tender sympathy with the red men. -</p> -<p>Their superstitious piety which, quaintly enough, he does not seem -to think is exactly like his own, attracted him. He found among -them tribes asking the blessing of the Great Father on their food -before they ate it; invoking the Divine protection on behalf of their -visitors; praying for protection when about to cross a river; returning -thanks for a safe return from a journey; always sending one of their -religious men to accompany any party about to travel, and so on. All -this the pious Mormon naturally respected. But over and above these -more ordinary expressions of piety, he found tribes that believed in -and acted upon dreams; that accepted the guidance of "second sight;" -that relied upon prayer for obtaining temporal necessaries; that lived -"by faith," and were awaiting the fulfilment of prophecy. In all this -the Mormon missionary sees nothing but common sense. For instance, -Hamblin said, "I know that some people do not believe in dreams and -night-visions. I myself do not believe in them when they arise from a -disordered stomach, but in other kinds I have been forewarned of coming -events, and received much instruction!" And, in the spirit of these -words, he thinks it the most natural thing in the world that Indians -should start off after a dream and find their lost cattle; suddenly -alter their course in a waterless journey, and come upon hitherto -unknown springs; predict the most impossible meetings with friends, -and avoid dangers that were not even anticipated. In the most serious -manner possible, he acquiesces in the Indians' theory of rain-getting, -and acts upon their clairvoyant advice. "The Lord," he says, "is -mindful of the prayers of these poor barbarians, and answers them with -the blessings they need." Seeing them quite sincere in their faith, he -joins them in their ceremonies of scattering consecrated meal to ensure -protection on a journey, believing himself that simple reliance on -Providence is all that men of honest lives need. -</p> -<p>One tribe has a tradition that three prophets are to come to lead them -back to the lands that their fathers once possessed, that these are to -be preceded by good white men, but that the Indians are not to go with -them until after the three prophets have reappeared and told them what -to do. The Indians accept the Mormons as "the good white men" of the -tradition, but "the three prophets" not having reappeared, they refuse -to leave their villages (as the Mormons have wanted them to do), and -Hamblin has not a word to say against such "reasonable" objections. -</p> -<p>Is it not wonderful to find men thus reverting to an intellectual -type that the world had supposed to be extinct? to find men, shrewd -in business, honest in every phase of temporal life, going back to -cheiromancy and hydromancy, and transacting temporal affairs at the -guidance of visions? An Indian prays for rain on his pumpkins, in -apparently the most unreasonable way, but the Mormon postpones his -departure till the rain that results is over. On his way he nearly -dies of thirst, prays for deliverance, and in half an hour snow falls -over a mile and a half of ground, melts and forms pools of water! What -are we to say of men who say such things as these? Are they all crazy -together? And what shall we think of the thousands here who believe -that miracles are the most ordinary, reasonable, natural, every-day -phenomena of a life of faith, and quote point-blank the promises of the -New Testament as a sufficient explanation? The best thing, perhaps, is -to say Hum meditatively, and think no more about it. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">THROUGH MARYSVALE TO KINGSTON. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Piute Count—-Days of small things—A swop in the sage-brush; two - Bishops for one Apostle—The Kings Of Kingston—A failure in Family - Communism. -</p> -<p>FROM the brow of the cedared hill south of Munroe a splendid view -is obtained, and Piute County opens with fair promises; for a -superb-looking valley, all natural meadow, lies spread out on either -side of the Sevier, while from a gulch in the mountains on the right, -a stream of vegetation seems to have poured down across the level, -carrying along with its flood of cotton-wood and willow a few stately -old pine-trees. From among the vegetation peeps out a cluster of -miners' houses—for there are the Sevier mines up beyond that pine -gulch—and a ranch or two. Much of the enchantment of distance vanishes -of course as we come down to the level of the plains ourselves and -skirt it close under the hills on the left. But it is a fine location -nevertheless, and some day, no doubt, may be a populous valley. After a -mile or two it narrows, and we cross the river—a wooden bridge, with -a store and barns—("Lisonbee's place") making a pleasant interval of -civilization. -</p> -<p>From "Lisonbee's" the road passes up on to and over a stony plateau, -and then descends into the valley again. Cattle and horses are grazing -in the meadow, and the dark patches of wire-grass are spangled with -yellow lupins, and tinted pink in places with patches of a beautiful -orchid-like flower. On the edge of this pleasant-looking tract stand -two small cottages, and to one of these we are welcomed by its -Mormon occupants. To me the whole country had an aspect of desperate -desolation. Yet our host had just come back from "the Post;" his -children were away "at school;" the newspaper on his table was the -latest we had ourselves seen. It is true that the post was literally -a post, with a cigar-box nailed on the top of it, standing all by -itself among the brushwood on the roadside. The school was a mile or -two off, "just over the hill," and, till the regular teacher came, a -volunteer was making shift to impart education to the little scholars -who came straggling over the dreary hill-sides by twos and threes. -Yet, rudimentary though they be, these are the first symptoms of -a civilization triumphing over sage-brush, and give even to such -desperately small beginnings a significance that is very interesting. -All the thriving settlements I have visited began exactly in the -same way—and under worse conditions, too, for the Indian was then a -stronger power than the Mormon. -</p> -<p>Our host here had shot among the reeds in his meadow a large bird, the -size of an average goose, black with white spots, which he had been -told was "a loon." It was one of the larger "divers," its neck being -very long and snake-like, terminating in a comparatively small head, -its wings very short and its legs (the feet webbed) set, as in all -diving birds, far back on the body. -</p> -<p>Leaving this very young "settlement," we found ourselves again in a -wretched, waterless country, where the vegetation did not compensate -for its monotony by any attractions of colour, nor the mountains for -their baldness by any variety of contour. Here and there stunted cedars -had huddled together for company into a gulch, as if afraid to be -scattered about singly on such lonesome hill-sides, and away on the -right, in a dip under the hills, we caught a glimpse of Marysvale. -</p> -<p>Traversing this forbidding tract, we met another waggon on its way to -Munroe, and stopping to exchange greetings, it suddenly occurred to -one of the strangers that by our exchanging vehicles the horses and -their teamsters would both be going home instead of away from it, and -thus everybody be advantaged! The exchange was accordingly effected, -our teamster getting two Bishops in exchange for an Apostle and a -correspondent, and the waggons being turned round in their tracks, the -teams, to their unconcealed satisfaction, started off towards their -respective homes. -</p> -<p>Sage-brush and sand, with occasional patches of tiresome rock -fragments and unlimited lizards—nature's hieroglyphics for sultry -sterility—were the only features of the journey. Away on our left, -however, the track of a water-channel, that when completed will turn -many thousands of these arid acres into farm-lands, scarred the red -hill-side, and told the same old story of Mormon industry. Where it -came from I have forgotten, where it was going to I do not remember, -but it was in sight off and on for some thirty miles, and was probably -carrying the waters of the Sevier on to the Circle-ville plains. -</p> -<p>We are there ourselves in the evening, and passing through some -ploughed land and meadow, find ourselves upon the wind-swept, lonesome, -location of -</p> -<p>THE KINGS OF KINGSTON. -</p> -<p>Among the social experiments of Mormonism, the family communism of the -Kings of Kingston deserves a special notice, for, though in my own -opinion it is a failure, both financially and socially, the scheme is -probably one of the most curious attempts at solving a great social -problem that was ever made. -</p> -<p>Kingston is the name of a hamlet of fifteen wooden cottages and a -stock-yard which has been planted in the centre of one Of the most -desolate plains in all the Utah Territory—a very Jehunnam of a -plain. Piute County, in which it is situated, is, as a rule, a most -forbidding section of country, and the Kingston "Valley" is perhaps -the dreariest spot in it. The mountains, stern and sterile, ring it in -completely, but on the south-east is a great canyon which might be the -very mouth of the cavern in which the gods used to keep their winds, -for a persistent, malignant wind is perpetually sweeping through it -on to the plain below, and the soil being light and sandy, the people -live for part of the year in a ceaseless dust-storm. One year they -sowed 300 acres with wheat, and the wind simply blew the crop away. -That which it could not actually displace, it kept rubbed down close to -the ground by the perpetual passage of waves of sand. They planted an -orchard, but some gooseberry bushes are the only remaining vestiges of -the plantation, and even these happen to be on the lee side of a solid -fence. They also set out trees to shade their houses, but the wind -worked the saplings round and round in their holes, so that they could -not take root. It can be easily imagined, therefore, that without a -tree, without a green thing except the reach of meadow land at the foot -of the hills, the Kingston plain, with its forlorn fifteen tenements, -looks for most of the year desolation itself. That any one should ever -have settled there is a mystery to all; that he should have remained -there is a simple absurdity, a very Jumbo of a folly. Yet here, -after five years of the most dismal experiences, I found some twenty -households in occupation. -</p> -<p>At the time when Brigham Young was exerting himself to extend the -"United Order" (of which more when I come to Orderville), one of the -enthusiasts who embraced its principles was a Mr. King, of Fillmore. -He was a prosperous man, with a family well settled about him. -Nevertheless, he determined from motives of religious philanthropy to -begin life anew, and having sold off all that he possessed he emigrated -with his entire family into the miserable Piute country, selected in -an hour of infatuation the Kingston—then "Circleville"—location, -and announced that he was about to start a co-operative experiment -in farming and general industry on the basis of a household, with -patriarchal government, a purse in common, and a common table for all -to eat at together. -</p> -<p>Having been permitted to examine the original articles of enrolment, -dated May 1, 1877—a document, by the way, curiously characteristic of -the whole undertaking, being a jumble of articles and by-laws written -on a few slips of ordinary paper, a miracle of unworldly simplicity and -in very indifferent spelling—I found the objects of "the company," -as it is called, were "agricultural, manufacturing, commercial, and -other industrial pursuits," and the establishment and maintenance of -"colleges, seminaries, churches, libraries, and any other charitable -or scientific associations." It was to be superintended by a Board, -who were to be elected by a majority of the members, and to receive -for their services "the same wages as are paid to farm hands or other -common labourers." -</p> -<p>To become members of this Family Order it was necessary that they -should "bequeath, transfer, and convey into the company all their -right, title, and interest to whatever property, whether personal or -real estate, that they were then possessed of, or might hereafter -become possessed of by legacy, will, or otherwise for the purposes -above mentioned, and further that they would labour faithfully and -honourably themselves, and cause their children who were under age to -labour under the direction of the Board Of Directors, the remuneration -for which shall be as fixed by the board both as to price and kind of -pay he or she shall receive." It was "furthermore understood and agreed -that a schedule or inventory of all property bequeathed or transferred -to the company should be kept, together with the price of each article, -that in case any party becomes dissatisfied or is called away, or -wishes to draw out, he can have as near as may be the same kind of -property, but in no case can he have real estate, only at the option of -the Board, nor shall interest or a dividend be paid on such property." -</p> -<p>"We further agree" (so run the articles of this curious incorporation) -"that we will be controlled and guided in all our labour, in our food, -clothing, and habitations for our families" (by the Board), "being -frugal and economical in our manner of living and dress, and in no case -seek to obtain that which is above another." -</p> -<p>"We also covenant and agree that all credits for labour that stand to -our names in excess of debits for food and clothing, shall become the -property of the company." -</p> -<p>In these four articles is contained the whole of the principles of -this astonishing experiment. Men were to sell their all, and put the -proceeds into a family fund. Out of this, as the wages of their labour, -they were to receive food and other necessaries to the value of $1 a -day, and if at the end of the year their drawings exceeded the amount -of work put in the company "forgave" them the excess, while if their -earnings exceeded their drawings, they "forgave" the company. Thus the -accounts were annually squared by reciprocal accommodation. -</p> -<p>If anyone seceded from the Order, he was entitled to receive back -exactly what he had contributed. Mr. King, the father, started by -putting in some $20,000, and his sons and others following suit, -the fund rose at once to some $40,000. (I would say here that the -entirely original method of "keeping the books" makes balance-striking -a difficulty.) With this sum, and so much labour at their disposal, -the Family Company should have been a brilliant success. But several -circumstances conspired disastrously against it. The first was the -unfortunate selection of location, for, in spite of the quantity of -promising land available elsewhere, Mr. King pitched his camp in the -wretched sand-drifts of the Piute section. The next was the ill-advised -generosity of the founders in inviting all the country round to -come and join them, with or without means, so long as they would be -faithful members of the Order. The result, of course, was an influx of -"deadheads"—the company indeed having actually to send out waggons to -haul in families who were too poor to be able to move themselves. Of -these new-comers only a proportion were worth anything to the young -settlement, for many came in simply for the certainty of a roof over -their heads and sufficient food. The result was most discouraging, -and in short time the more valuable adherents were disheartened, and -began to fall off, and now, five years from the establishment of the -company, there are only some twenty families left, and these are all -Kings or relatives of the Kings. The father himself is dead, but four -sons divide the patriarchal government between them, and, having again -reduced the scheme to a strictly family concern, they are thinking of a -fresh start. -</p> -<p>What may happen in the future is not altogether certain, but it will be -strange if in this country where individual industry, starting without -a dollar, is certain of a competence, co-operative labour commencing -with funds in hand does not achieve success. At present the company -possesses, besides its land in the valley, and a mill and a woollen -factory, both commencing work, cattle and sheep worth about $10,000, -and horses worth some $12,000 more. This is a tolerable capital for an -association of hard-working men to begin with, but it is significant -of errors in the past that after five years of almost superhuman toil -they should find themselves no better off materially than when they -started. Nor, socially, has the experiment hitherto been a success, for -Kingston is, in my opinion, beyond comparison the lowest in the scale -of all the Mormon settlements that I have seen. It is poverty-stricken -in appearance; its houses outside and inside testify, in unmended -windows and falling plaster, to an absence of that good order which -characterizes so many other villages. The furniture of the rooms and -the quality of the food on the tables are poorer than elsewhere, and -altogether it is only too evident that this family communism has -dragged all down alike to the level of the poorest and the laziest of -its advocates, rather than raised all up to the level of the best off -and the hardest working. The good men have sunk, the others have not -risen, and if it were not so pathetic the Kingston phenomenon would be -exasperating. -</p> -<p>But there is a very sincere pathos about this terrible sacrifice of -self for the common good. I do not mean theoretically, but practically. -The men of "the company" are the most saddening community I have ever -visited. They seem, with their gentle manners, wonderful simplicity -of speech, and almost womanly solicitude for the welfare of their -guests, to have lost the strong, hearty spirit which characterizes -these Western conquerors of the deserts. Yet even the hard-working -Mormons speak of them as veritable heroes in work. It is a common thing -to hear men say that "the Kingston men are simply killing themselves -with toil;" and when Western men talk of work as being too hard, you -may rely upon it it is something very exceptional. Almost against -hope these peasants have struggled with difficulties that even they -themselves confess seem insuperable. They have given Nature all the -odds they could, and then gone on fighting her. The result has been -what is seen to-day—a crushed community of men and enfeebled women, -living worse than any other settlement on the whole Mormon line. -Their own stout hearts refuse to believe that they are a failure; but -failure is written in large capital letters on the whole hamlet, and in -italics upon every face within it. The wind-swept sand-drifts in which -the settlement stands, the wretchedness of the tenements and their -surroundings, the haphazard composition of their food, their black -beans and their buffalo berries, the whistling of the wind as it drives -the sand through the boards of the houses, the howling of the coyotes -round the stock-yard—everything from first to last was in accord to -emphasize the desperate desolation. But those who have known them for -all the five years that the experiment has been under trial declare -that their present condition, lamentable as it is, is an improvement -upon their past. When they ate at a common table, the living, it is -said, was even more frugal than it is now, and there was hardly a piece -of crockery among them all, the "family" eating and drinking out of tin -vessels. The women, either from mismanagement among themselves, or want -of order among the men, were unable to bear the burden of ceaseless -cooking, and the common table was thereupon abandoned by a unanimous -vote. -</p> -<p>Yet they are courtesy and hospitality itself, and their sufferings have -only clinched their piety. They have not lost one iota of their faith -in their principles, though staggering under the conviction of failure. -Their children have regular schooling, the women are scrupulously neat -in their dress, while profanity and intemperance are unknown. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM KINGSTON TO ORDERVILLE. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> On the way to Panguitch—Section-houses not Mormon homes—Through - wild country—Panguitch and its fish—Forbidden pleasures—At the - source of the Rio Virgin—The surpassing beauty of Long Valley—The - Orderville Brethren—A success in Family Communism. -</p> -<p>NEXT day we started over the hills for Panguitch, some forty miles -off. And here, by the roadside, was pointed out to me one of those -"section-houses" which a traveller in Utah once mistook for Mormon -"homes," and described "cabins, ten feet by six, built of planks, one -window with no glass in it, one doorway with no door in it." This is an -accurate description enough of a section-house, but it is a mistake to -suppose that any one ever lives in it, as section-houses are only put -up to comply with the Homestead Act, which stipulates for a building -with one doorway and one window being erected upon each lot within a -certain period of its allotment. But they do duty all the same in a -certain class of literature as typical of the squalid depravity of -the Mormons, for, being inhabited by Mormons, it follows, of course, -that several wives, to say nothing of numerous children, have all to -sleep together "on the floor of the single room the house contains!" -Isn't this a dreadful picture! And are not these large polygamous -families who live in section-houses a disgrace to America? But, -unfortunately for this telling picture, the only "inhabitants" of these -section-houses are Gentile tramps. -</p> -<p>A rough hill-road, strewn with uncompromising rocks, jolted us for -some miles, and then we crossed a stream-bed with some fine old pines -standing in it, and beds of blue lupins brightening the margin, and -so came down to the river level, and along a lane running between -hedges of wild-rose and redberry (the "opie" of the Indians) tangled -with clematis and honeysuckle, and haunted by many birds and brilliant -butterflies. The river bubbled along among thickets of golden currant -and red willow, and mallards with russet heads floated in the quiet -backwaters, by the side of their dames all dressed in dainty grey. It -was altogether a charming passage in a day of such general dreariness, -reminding one of a pleasant quotation from some pretty poem in the -middle of a dull chapter by some prosy writer. -</p> -<p>But the dulness recommences, and then we find ourselves at a wayside -farm, where a couple of fawns with bells round their necks are keeping -the calves company, and some boys are fishing on a little log bridge. -These fish must have been all born idiots, or been stricken with -unanimous lunacy in early youth, for the manner of their capture -was this. The angler lay on his stomach on the "bridge" (it was a -three foot and a half stream), with one eye down between two of the -logs. When he saw any fish he thrust his "rod"—it was more like a -penholder—through the space, and held it in front of the fishes' -noses. At the end of the rod were some six inches of string, with a -hook tied on with a large knot, and baited with a dab of dough. When -the fish had got thoroughly interested in the dough, the angler would -jerk up his rod, and by some unaccountable oversight on the part of -the fishes it was found that about once in fifty jerks a fish came up -out of the water! They seemed tome to be young trout; but, whatever -the species, they must have been the most imbecile of finned things. I -suggested catching them with the finger and thumb, but the boys giggled -at me, as "the fish wouldn't let ye." But I am of a different opinion, -for it seemed to me that fish that would let you catch them with such -apparatus, would let you catch them without any at all. -</p> -<p>From here to Panguitch the road lies through stony country of the -prevalent exasperating type until we reach the precincts of the -settlement, heralded long before we reach it by miles of fencing that -enclose the grazing-land stretching down to the river. A detestable -road, broken up and swamped by irrigation channels, leads into the -settlement, and the poor impression thus received is not removed as we -pass through the treeless "streets" and among the unfenced lots. But -it is an interesting spot none the less, for apart from its future, -it is a good starting-point for many places of interest. But I should -like to have visited Red Lake and Panguitch Lake. "Panguitch," by the -way, means "fish" in the red man's language, and it is no wonder, -therefore, that at breakfast we enjoyed one of the most splendid dishes -of mountain-lake trout that was ever set before man. It is a great fish -certainly—and I prefer it broiled. To put any sauce to it is sheer -infamy. -</p> -<p>The beaver, by the way, is still to be trapped here, and the grizzly -bear is not a stranger to Panguitch. -</p> -<p>Looking out of the window in the evening, I saw a cart standing by -the roadside, and a number of men round it. Their demeanour aroused -my curiosity, for an extreme dejection had evidently marked them for -its own. Some sate in the road as if waiting in despair for Doomsday; -others prowled round the cart and leant in a melancholy manner against -it. The cart, it appeared, had come from St. George, the vine-growing -district in the south of the territory, and contained a cask of wine. -But as there was no licence in Panguitch for the sale of liquors, it -could not be broached! I never saw men look so wretchedly thirsty -in my life, and if glaring at the cask and thumping it could have -emptied it, there would not have been a drop left. It was a delightful -improvement upon the tortures of Tantalus, but the victims accepted the -joke as being against them, and though they watched the cart going away -gloomily enough, there was no ill-temper. -</p> -<p>From Panguitch to Orderville, fifty miles, the scenery opens with -the dreary hills that had become so miserably familiar, alternating -with level pasture-lands, among which the serpentine Sevier winds a -curiously fantastic course. But gradually there grows upon the mind a -sense of coming change. Verdure creeps over the plains, and vegetation -steals on to the hill-sides, and then suddenly as if for a surprise, -the complete beauty of Long Valley bursts upon the traveller. I cannot -in a few words say more of it than that this valley—through which the -Rio Virgin flows, and in which the Family Communists of Orderville have -pitched their tents—rivals in its beauty the scenery of Cashmere. -</p> -<p>Springing from a hill-side, beautiful with flowering shrubs and -instinct with bird life, the Virgin River trickles through a deep -meadow bright with blue iris plants and walled in on either side by -hills that are clothed with exquisite vegetation, and then, collecting -its young waters into a little channel, breaks away prattling into -the valley. Corn-fields and orchards, and meadows filled with grazing -kine, succeed each other in pleasant series, and on the right hand -and on the left the mountains lean proudly back with their loads of -magnificent pine. And other springs come tumbling down to join the -pretty river, which flows on, gradually widening as it goes, past -whirring saw-mills and dairies half buried among fruit-trees, through -park-like glades studded with pines of splendid girth, and pretty -brakes of berry-bearing trees all flushed with blossoms. And the valley -opens away on either side into grassy glens from which the tinkle of -cattle-bells falls pleasantly on the ear, or into bold canyons that -are draped close with sombre pines, and end in the most magnificent -cathedral cliffs of ruddy sandstone. -</p> -<p>What lovely bits of landscape! What noble studies of rock architecture! -It is a very panorama of charms, and, travelled widely as I have, I -must confess to an absolute novelty of delight in this exquisite valley -of -</p> -<p>THE ORDERVILLE BRETHREN. -</p> -<p>Among the projects which occupied Joseph Smith's active brain was one -that should make the whole of the Mormon community a single family, -with a purse in common, and the head of the Church its head. In theory -they are so already. But Joseph Smith hoped to see them so in actual -practice also, and for this purpose—the establishment of a universal -family communism—he instituted "The Order of Enoch," or "The United -Order." -</p> -<p>Why Enoch? The Mormons themselves appear to have no definite -explanation beyond the fact that Enoch was holy beyond all his -generation. But for myself, I see in it only another instance of -that curious sympathy with ancient tradition which Joseph Smith, and -after him Brigham Young, so consistently showed. They were both of -them as ignorant as men could be in the knowledge that comes from -books, and yet each of them must have had some acquaintance with the -mystic institutions of antiquity, or their frequent coincidence with -primitive ideas and schemes appears to me inexplicable. No man can in -these days think and act like an antediluvian by accident. Josephus -is, I find, a favourite author among the Mormons, and Josephus may -account for a little. Moreover, many of the Mormons, notably both -Presidents, are or were Freemasons, and this may account for some more. -But for the balance I can find no explanation. Now I remember reading -somewhere—perhaps in Sir Thomas Browne—that "the patriarchal Order -of Enoch" is an institution of prodigious antiquity; that Enoch in the -Hebrew means "the teacher;" that he was accepted in prehistoric days as -the founder of a self-supporting, pious socialism, which was destined -(should destruction overtake the world) to rescue one family at any -rate from the general ruin, and perpetuate the accumulated knowledge of -the past. And it is exactly upon these conditions that we find Joseph -Smith, fifty years ago, promulgating in a series of formulated rules, -the scheme of a patriarchal "Order of Enoch." -</p> -<p>All Mormons are "elect." But even among the elect there is an -aristocracy of piety. Thus in Islam we find the Hajji faithful above -the faithful. In Hindooism the brotherhood of the Coolinsis accepted by -the gods above all the other "twice-born." Is it not, indeed, the same -in every religion—that there are the chosen within the chosen—"though -they were mighty men, yet they were not of the three"—a tenth legion -among the soldiers of Heaven—the archangels in the select ministry -of the Supreme? In Mormonism, therefore, if a man chooses, he may -consecrate himself to his faith more signally than his fellows, by -endowing the Church with all his goods, and accepting from the Church -afterwards the "stewardship" of a portion of his own property! It is -no mere lip-consecration, no Ritualists' "Order of Jesus," no question -of a phylactery. It means the absolute transfer of all property and -temporal interests, and of all rights of all kinds therein, to the -Church by a formal, legal process, and a duly attested deed. Here is -one:— -</p> -<p>"Be it known by these presents, that I, Jesse W. Fox, of Great Salt -Lake City, in the county of Great Salt Lake, and territory of Utah, -for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred ($100) dollars and -the good-will which I have to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day -Saints, give and convey unto Brigham Young, trustee in trust for the -said Church, his successor in office and assigns, all my claims to and -ownership of the following-described property, to wit: -</p> -<p> One house and lot . . . . . . . . . . . . $1000 - One city lot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 - East half of lot 1, block 12 . . . . . . . . 50 - Lot 1, block 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 - Two cows, $50; two calves, $15 . . . . . . . 65 - One mare, $100; one colt, $50 . . . . . . . 150 - One watch, $20; one clock, $12 . . . . . . . 32 - Clothing, $300; beds and bedding, $125. . . 425 - One stove, $20; household furniture, $210. .230 - — - Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2127 -</p> -<p>together with all the rights, privileges, and appurtenances thereunto -belonging or appertaining. I also covenant and agree that I am the -lawful claimant and owner of said property, and will warrant and for -ever defend the same unto the said trustee in trust, his successor in -office and assigns, against the claims of my heirs, assigns, or any -person whomsoever." -</p> -<p>Then follows the attestation of the witness; and the formal certificate -of the Judge of the Probate Court that "the signer of the above -transfer, personally known to me, appeared the second day of April, -1857, and acknowledged that he, of his own choice, executed the -foregoing transfer." -</p> -<p>Such transfers of property are not, I know, infrequent in other -religions, notably the Roman Catholic, but the object of the Mormon's -piety distinguishes his act from that of others. Had Brigham Young -persevered in his predecessor's project, it is almost certain that he -would have established a gigantic "company" that would have controlled -all the temporal interests of the territory, and eventually comprised -the whole Mormon population. It is just possible that he himself -foresaw that such success would be ruin; that the foundations of -the Order would sink under such a prodigious superstructure, for he -diverted his attention from the main to subsidiary schemes. Instead of -one central organization sending out colonies on all sides of it, he -advised the establishment of branch communities, which might eventually -be gathered together under a single headquarters' control. The two -projects were the same as to results; they differed only as to the -means; and the second was the more judicious. -</p> -<p>A few individuals came forward in their enthusiasm to give all they -possessed to a common cause, but the Order flagged, though, nominally, -many joined it. Thus, travelling through the settlements, I have -seen in a considerable number of homes the Rules of the Order framed -upon the walls. At any time these would be curious; to-day, when the -morality of the principles of Mormonism is challenged, they are of -special interest:— -</p> -<p>"RULES THAT SHOULD BE OBSERVED BY MEMBERS OF THE UNITED ORDER. -</p> -<p>"We will not take the name of the Deity in vain, nor speak lightly of -His character or of sacred things. -</p> -<p>"We will pray with our families morning and evening, and also attend to -secret prayer. -</p> -<p>"We will observe and keep the Word of Wisdom according to the spirit -and the meaning thereof. -</p> -<p>"We will treat our families with due kindness and affection, and -set before them an example worthy of imitation. In our families and -intercourse with all persons, we will refrain from being contentious or -quarrelsome, and we will cease to speak evil of each other, and will -cultivate a spirit of charity towards all. We consider it our duty to -keep from acting selfishly or from covetous motives, and will seek the -interest of each other and the salvation of all mankind. -</p> -<p>"We will observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, in accordance with -the Revelations. -</p> -<p>"That which is committed to our care we will not appropriate to our own -use. -</p> -<p>"That which we borrow we will return according to promise, and that -which we find we will not appropriate to our own use, but seek to -return it to its proper owner. -</p> -<p>"We will, as soon as possible, cancel all individual indebtedness -contracted prior to our uniting with the order, and, when once fully -identified with said order, will contract no debts contrary to the -wishes of the Board of Directors. -</p> -<p>"We will patronize our brethren who are in the order. -</p> -<p>"In our apparel and deportment we will not pattern after nor encourage -foolish and extravagant fashions, and cease to import or buy from -abroad any article which can be reasonably dispensed with, or which -can be produced by combination of home labour. We will foster and -encourage the producing and manufacturing of all articles needful for -our consumption as fast as our circumstances will permit. -</p> -<p>"We will be simple in our dress and manner of living, using proper -economy and prudence in the management of all intrusted to our care. -</p> -<p>"We will combine our labour for mutual benefit, sustain with our faith, -prayers, and works those whom we have elected to take the management of -the different departments of the order, and be subject to them in their -official capacity, refraining from a spirit of fault-finding. -</p> -<p>"We will honestly and diligently labour and devote ourselves and all we -have to the order and to the building up Of the Kingdom of God." -</p> -<p>Under these general regulations a great number, as I have said, -enrolled themselves, and they may be considered therefore to -constitute, as it were, a Knight Templar commandery within a -Fellowcraft lodge. All are "brethren;" these are illustrious brethren. -All are pashas; these are "of many tails." All are mandarins of heaven; -these wear the supreme button. -</p> -<p>But the temporal object of the Order was not served by such transfers -of moral obligations; by the hypothecation of personal piety; by -the investment of spiritual principles in a common fund. You cannot -get much working capital out of mortgages on a man's soul. Calchas -complained bitterly when the Athenian public paid their vows to the -goddess in squashes. The collector, he said, would not take them in -payment of the water-rates. So it has fared with the Order of Enoch. It -is wealthy in good intentions, and if promises were dollars could draw -large checks. -</p> -<p>Here and there, however, local fervour took practical shape. The Kings -of Kingston planted their family flag on the wind-swept Circleville -plain. At Sunset another communistic colony was established, and in -Long Valley, in the canyons of the Rio Virgin, was inaugurated the -"United Order of Orderville." -</p> -<p>Situated in a beautiful valley that needs nothing more added to it to -make its inhabitants entirely self-supporting; directed and controlled -with as much business shrewdness as fervent piety; supported by its -members with a sensible regard for mutual interests—this Orderville -experiment bids fair to be a signal success. In their Articles Of -Association the members call themselves a Corporation which is "to -continue in existence for a period of twenty-five years," and of which -the objects are every sort of "rightful" enterprise and industry that -may render the Order independent of outside produce and manufactures, -"consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of -this Territory." Its capital is fixed at $100,000, in 10,000 shares of -$10 each, and the entire control of its affairs is vested in a board -of nine directors, who are elected by a ballot of the whole community. -Article 13 "the individual or private property of the states that -stockholders shall not be liable for the debts or obligations of the -company." Article 15 is as follows: "The directors shall have the -right and power to declare dividends on said stock whenever, in their -judgment, there are funds for that purpose due and payable." -</p> -<p>Now, in these two last articles lie the saving principles of the -Orderville scheme, Hitherto, from the beginning of the world, -experiments in communism have always split upon this rock, namely, -that individuality was completely crushed out. No man was permitted -to possess "private" property—he was l'enfant de la République, body -and soul—and no man, therefore, had sufficient personal identity -to make it possible for individual profits to accrue to him. And -so the best of the young men—let the experiment be at any date in -history you like—became dissatisfied with the level at which they -were kept, and they seceded. They insisted on having names of their -own, and refused to be merely, like the members of a jail republic, -known by numbers. Individuality and identity are the original data -of human consciousness. They are the first solid facts which a baby -masters and communicates; they are the last that old age surrenders to -infirmity and death. But in Orderville, it will be seen, the notion of -"private" property exists. It is admitted that there is such a thing -as "individual" ownership. Moreover, it is within the power of the -board to pay every man a dividend. This being the case, this particular -experiment in communism has the possibility of great success, for its -members are not utterly deprived of all individuality. They have some -shreds of it left to them. -</p> -<p>To become a member of the Order there is no qualification of property -necessary. The aged and infirm are accepted in charity. Indeed, at one -time they threatened to swamp the family altogether, for the brethren -seemed to have set out with a dead-weight upon them heavier than they -could bear. But this has righted itself. The working members have got -the ship round again, and in one way or another a place and a use has -been found for every one. Speaking generally, however, membership -meant the holding of stock in the corporation. If a man wished to -join the Order, he gave in to the Bishop a statement of his effects. -It was left to his conscience that this statement should be complete -and exhaustive; that there should be no private reservations. These -effects—whatever they might be, from a farm in another part of the -Territory to the clothes in his trunk—were appraised by the regular -staff, and the equivalent amount in stock, at $10 a share, was issued -to them. From that time his ownership in his property ceased. His books -would perhaps go into the school-house library, his extra blankets next -door, his horse into a neighbour's team. According to his capacities, -also, he himself fell at once into his place among the workers, going -to the woollen factory or the carpenter's shop, the blacksmith's forge -or the dairy, the saw-mills or the garden, the grist-mill or the -farm, according as his particular abilities gave promise of his being -most useful. His work here would result, as far as he was personally -concerned, in no profits. But he was assured of a comfortable house, -abundant food, good clothes. The main responsibilities of life were -therefore taken off his shoulders. The wolf could never come to his -door. He and his were secured against hunger and cold. But beyond -this? There was only the approbation of his companions, the reward -of his conscience. With the proceeds of his labour, or by the actual -work of his own hands, he saw new buildings going up, new acres coming -under cultivation. But none of them belonged to him. He never became a -proprietor, an owner, a master. While therefore he was spared the worst -responsibilities of life, he was deprived of its noblest ambitions. -He lived without apprehensions, but without hopes too. If his wife -was ill or his children sickly, there were plenty of kind neighbours -to advise and nurse and look after them. No anxieties on such matters -need trouble him. But if he had any particular taste—music, botany, -anything—he was unable to gratify it, unless these same kindly -neighbours agreed to spend from the common fund in order to buy him -a violin or a flower-press—and they could hardly be expected to -do so. Quite apart from the fact that a man learning to play a new -instrument is an enemy of his kind, you could not expect a community of -graziers, farmers, and artisans to be unanimously enthusiastic about -the musical whims of one of their number, still less for his "crank" -in collecting "weeds"—as everything that is not eatable (or is not a -rose) is called in most places of the West. Tastes, therefore, could -not be cultivated for the want of means, and any special faculties -which members might individually possess were of necessity kept in -abeyance. Amid scenery that might distract an artist, and fossil and -insect treasures enough to send men of science crazy, the community -can do nothing in the direction of Art or of Natural History, unless -they all do it together. For the Order cannot spare a man who may be a -good ploughman, to go and sit about in the canyons painting pictures -of pine-trees and waterfalls. Nor can it spare the money that may be -needed for shingles in buying microscopes for a "bug-hunter." The -common prosperity, therefore, can only be gained at a sacrifice of all -individual tastes. This alone is a very serious obstacle to success of -the highest kind. But in combination with this is of course the more -general and formidable fact that even in the staple industries of the -community individual excellence brings with it no individual benefits. -A moral trades-unionism planes all down to a level. It does not, of -course, prevent the enthusiast working his very hardest and best in -the interests of his neighbours. But such enthusiasm is hardly human. -Men will insist, to the end of all time, on enjoying the reward of -their own labours, the triumphs of their own brains. Some may go so -far as nominally to divide their honours with all their friends. But -where shall we look for the man who will go on all his life toiling -successfully for the good of idler folks, and checking his own free -stride to keep pace with their feebler steps? And this is the rock on -which all such communities inevitably strike. -</p> -<p>Security from the ordinary apprehensions of life; a general protection -against misfortune and "bad seasons;" the certainty of having all the -necessaries of existence, are sufficient temptations for unambitious -men. But the stronger class of mind, though attracted to it by piety, -and retained for a while by a sincere desire to promote the common -good, must from their very nature revolt against a permanent alienation -of their own earnings, and a permanent subordination of their own -merits. At Orderville, therefore, we find the young men already -complaining of a system which does not let them see the fruits of their -work. Their fathers' enthusiasm brought them there as children. Seven -years later they are grown up into independent-minded young men. They -have not had experience of family anxieties yet. All they know is, that -beyond Orderville there are larger spheres of work, and more brilliant -opportunities for both hand and head. -</p> -<p>Fortunately, however, for Orderville, the articles of incorporation -give the directors the very powers that are necessary, and if these -are exercised the ship may miss the rock that has wrecked all its -predecessors. If they can declare dividends, open private accounts, and -realize the idea of personal property, the difference in possibilities -between the outer world and Orderville will be very greatly reduced, -while the advantage of certainties in Orderville will be even further -increased. Young men would then think twice about going away, and -any one if he chose could indulge his wife with a piano or himself -with a box of water-colours. Herein then lies the hopefulness of -the experiment; and fortunately Mr. Howard Spencer, the President -of the community, has all the generosity to recognize the necessity -for concession to younger ambition, and all the courage to institute -and carry out a modification of communism which shall introduce more -individuality. I anticipate, therefore, that this very remarkable and -interesting colony will survive the "twenty-five years" period for -which it was established, and will encourage the foundation of many -other similar "Family Orders." -</p> -<p>Seven years have passed since Mr. Spencer pitched his camp in the -beautiful wilderness of the Rio Virgin canyons. He found the hills -of fine building-stone, their sides thickly grown with splendid pine -timber, and down the valley between them flowing a bright and ample -stream. The vegetation by its variety and luxuriance gave promise of -a fertile soil; some of the canyons formed excellent natural meadows, -while just over the ridge, a mile or two from the settlement, lay a -bed of coal. Finally, the climate was delightfully temperate! Every -condition of success, therefore, was found together, and prosperity -has of course responded to the voice of industry. Acre by acre the -wild gardens have disappeared, and in their place stand broad fields -of corn; the tangled brakes of wild-berry plants have yielded their -place to orchards of finer fruits; cattle and sheep now graze in -numbers where the antelope used to feed; and from slope to slope you -can hear among the pines, above the idle crooning of answering doves -and the tinkling responses of wandering kine, the glad antiphony of the -whirring saw-mill and the busy loom. -</p> -<p>The settlement itself is grievously disappointing in appearance. For -as you approach it, past the charming little hamlet of Glendale, past -such a sunny wealth of orchard and meadow and corn-land, past such -beautiful glimpses of landscape, you cannot help expecting a scene of -rural prettiness in sympathy with such surroundings. But Orderville -at first sight looks like a factory. The wooden shed-like buildings -built in continuous rows, the adjacent mills, the bare, ugly patch of -hillside behind it, give the actual settlement an uninviting aspect. -But once within the settlement, the scene changes wonderfully for the -better. The houses are found, the most of them, built facing inwards -upon an open square, with a broad side-walk, edged with tamarisk -and mulberry, box-elder and maple-trees, in front of them. Outside -the dwelling-house square are scattered about the school-house, -meeting-house, blacksmith and carpenters' shops, tannery, woollen-mill, -and so forth, while a broad roadway separates the whole from the -orchards, gardens, and farm-lands generally. Specially noteworthy -here are the mulberry orchard—laid out for the support of the -silk-worms, which the community are now rearing with much success—and -the forcing-ground and experimental garden, in which wild flowers as -well as "tame" are being cultivated. Among the buildings the more -interesting to me were the school-houses, well fitted up, and very -fairly provided with educational apparatus; and the rudimentary museum, -where the commencement of a collection of the natural curiosities of -the neighbourhood is displayed. What this may some day grow into, when -science has had the chance of exploring the surrounding hills and -canyons, it is difficult to say; for Nature has favoured Orderville -profusely with fossil strata and mineral eccentricities, a rich variety -of bird and insect life, and a prodigious botanical luxuriance. Almost -for the first time in my travels, too, I found here a very intelligent -interest taken in the natural history of the locality; but the absence -of books and of necessary apparatus, as yet of course prevents the -brethren from carrying on their studies and experiments to any standard -of scientific value. -</p> -<p>Though staying in Orderville so short a time, I was fortunate enough -to see the whole community together. For on the evening of my arrival -there was a meeting at which there was a very full gathering of the -adults—and the babies in arms. The scene was as curious as anything I -have ever witnessed in any part of the world. The audience was almost -equally composed of men and women, the latter wearing, most of them, -their cloth sun-bonnets, and bringing with them the babies they were -nursing. -</p> -<p>Brigham Young used to encourage mothers to bring them, and said that he -liked to hear them squalling in the Tabernacle. Whether he really liked -it or not, the mothers did as he said, and the babies too, and the -perpetual bleating of babies from every corner of the building makes it -seem to this day as if religious service was being held in a sheepfold. -Throughout the proceedings at Orderville babies were being constantly -handed across from mother to neighbour and back from neighbour -to mother. Others were being tossed up and down with that jerky, -perpendicular motion which seems so soothing to the very young, but -which reminded me of the popping up and down of the hammers when the -"lid" of a piano is lifted up during a performance. But the baby is an -irrepressible person, and at Orderville has it very much its own way. -The Apostle's voice in prayer was accepted as a challenge to try their -lungs, and the music (very good, by the way) as a mere obligato to -their own vocalization. The patient gravity of the mothers throughout -the whole performance, and the apparent indifference of the men, struck -me as very curious—for I come from a country where one baby will -plunge a whole church congregation into profanity, and where it is -generally supposed that two crying together would empty heaven. Of the -men of Orderville I can say sincerely that a healthier, more stalwart -community I have never seen, while among the women, I saw many refined -faces, and remarked that robust health seemed the rule. Next morning -the children were paraded, and such a brigade of infantry as it was! -Their legs (I think, though, they are known as "limbs" in America) were -positively columnar, and their chubby little owners were as difficult -to keep quietly in line as so much quicksilver. Orderville boasts that -it is self-supporting and independent of outside help, and certainly in -the matter of babies there seems no necessity for supplementing home -manufactures by foreign imports. The average of births is as yet five -in each family during the six years of the existence of the Order! Two -were born the day I arrived. -</p> -<p>Unfortunately one of the most characteristic features of this family -community was in abeyance during my visit—the common dining-table. For -a rain-flood swept through the gorge above the settlement last winter -and destroyed "the bakery." Since then the families have dined apart or -clubbed together in small parties, but the wish of the majority is to -see the old system revived, for though they live well now, they used, -they say, to live even better when "the big table" was laid for its 200 -guests at once. -</p> -<p>Self-supporting and well-directed, therefore, the Orderville -"communists" bid fair to prove to the world that pious enthusiasm, -if largely tempered with business judgment, can make a success of an -experiment which has hitherto baffled all attempts based upon either -one or the other alone. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX. -</h2> -<p class="centered">MORMON VIRTUES. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Red ants and anti-Mormons—Ignorance of the Mormons among - Gentiles in Salt Lake City—Mormon reverence for the Bible—Their - struggle against drinking-saloons in the city—Conspicuous - piety in the settlements—Their charity—Their sobriety (to - my great inconvenience)—The literature of Mormonism utterly - unreliable—Neglect of the press by the Saints—Explanation of the - wide-spread misrepresentation of Mormonism. -</p> -<p>FROM Orderville (after a short tour in the south-west of the Territory) -I returned to Salt Lake City, and during my second sojourn there, -over a month, I saw nothing and learned nothing either from Mormon or -Gentile to induce me to erase a single word I had written during my -previous visit. Indeed, a better acquaintance only strengthened my -first favourable opinions of "the Saints of the Rocky Mountains." -</p> -<p>I was walking one day up the City Creek, when I became aware of an aged -man seated on a stone by the roadside. His trousers were turned up to -his knees, and he was nursing one of his legs as if he felt a great -pity for it. As I approached I perceived that he was in trouble—(I -perceived this by his oaths)—and getting still nearer I ventured -to inquire what annoyed him. "Aged person," said I, "what aileth -thee?"—or words to that effect. But there was no response, at least -not worth mentioning. He only bent further over his leg, and I noticed -that his coat had split down the back seam. His cursing accounted for -that. It was sufficient to make any coat split. And then his hat fell -off his head into the dust, in judgment upon him. At this he swore -again, horribly. By this time I had guessed that he had been bitten by -red ants (and they are the shrewdest reptiles at biting that I know -of), so I said, "Bitten by red ants, eh?" At this he exploded with -wrath, and looked up. And such a face! He had a countenance on him like -the ragged edge of despair. His appearance was a calamity. "Red ants," -said he; "red Indians, red devils, red hell!" and then, relapsing into -the vernacular, he became unintelligibly profane, but ended up with -"this damned Mormon city." -</p> -<p>Now here was a man, fairly advanced in years, fairly clothed, fairly -uneducated. As I had never seen him before, he may have been, for all I -know, "the average American" I so often see referred to. Anyhow, there -he was, cursing the Mormons because he had been bitten by red ants! Of -his own stupidity he had gone and stood upon an ants' nest, thrust his -hippopotamus foot into their domicile, overwhelming the nurseries and -the parlours in a common catastrophe, crushing with the same heel the -grandsire ant and the sucking babe at its mother's breast, mashing up -the infirm and the feeble with the eggs in the cells and the household -provisions laid up in the larder—ruining in fact an industrious -community simply by his own weight in butcher's meat. Some of the -survivors promptly attacked the intruding boot, and, running up what -the old man was pleased to call "his blasted pants," had bitten the -legs which they found concealed within them. And for this, "the average -American" cursed the Mormons and their city! -</p> -<p>The incident interested me, for, apart from my sympathy with the -ants, I couldn't help thinking what a powerful adversary to Mormonism -this trifling mishap might have created. That man went back to his -hotel (for he was evidently a "visitor") a confirmed anti-Mormon. His -darkest suspicions about polygamy were confirmed. His detestation of -the bestial licentiousness of the Saints was increased a hundred-fold. -He saw at a glance that all he had ever heard about "the Danites" was -quite true, and much more too that he had never heard but could now -easily invent for himself. There was no need for any one to tell him, -after the way he had been treated within a mile of the Tabernacle, of -the infamous debaucheries of Brigham Young with his "Cyprian maids" and -his "cloistered wives." Wasn't it as plain as the sun at noonday that -the Mormons were in league with the red Indians, and went halves in the -proceeds of each other's massacres? -</p> -<p>The ant-bitten man was a very typical "Mormon-eater," for such -is the local name of those who revile Mormonism root and branch -because they find intelligent men opposed to polygamy. They are -under the impression, seeing and talking to nobody but each other, -that the United States in a mass, that the whole world, entertain an -unreasoning, fanatical abhorrence of the inhabitants of the Territory, -and share with them their mean parochial jealousy of the Mormon -tradesmen and Mormon farmers who are more thriving than they are -themselves. -</p> -<p>Here in Salt Lake City there is the most extraordinary ignorance -of Mormonism that can be imagined. I have actually been assured -by "Gentiles" that the Saints do not believe in the God of the -Bible—that adultery among them is winked at by husbands under a -tacit understanding of reciprocity—that the Mormons as a class -are profane, and drunken, and so forth. Now, if they knew anything -whatever of the Mormons, such statements would be impossible (unless -of course made in wilful malice), for my personal acquaintance with -"the Saints" has shown me that in all classes alike the reverence -for the God of the Bible is formulated not only in their morning and -evening prayers, but in their grace before every meal; that so far -from there being any exceptional familiarity between families, the -very reverse is conspicuous, for so strict is the Mormon etiquette of -social courtesies, that households which in England would be on the -most intimate terms, maintain here a distant formality which impresses -the stranger as being cold; that instead of the Mormons being as a -class profane, they are as a class singularly sober in their language, -and indeed in this respect resemble the Quakers. Now, my opinions are -founded upon facts of personal knowledge and experience. -</p> -<p>Of course it will be said of me that as I was a "guest" of Mormons -I was "bound" to speak well of them; that as I was so much among -them I was hoodwinked and "shown the best side of everything," &c., -&c. Against this argument, always the resource of the gobemouche, -common sense is useless. "Against stupidity the gods themselves are -powerless." But this I can say—that I will defy any really impure -household, monogamous or not, to hoodwink me in the same way—to keep -up from morning to night the same unchanging profession of piety, to -make believe from week to week with such consummate hypocrisy that they -are god-fearing and pure in their lives, and to wear a mask of sobriety -with such uniform success. And I am not speaking of one household only, -but of a score to which I was admitted simply as being a stranger from -whom they need not fear calumny. I do not believe that acting exists -anywhere in such perfection that a whole community can assume, at a few -hours' notice and for the benefit of a passing stranger, the characters -of honest, kind-hearted, simple men and women, and set themselves -patiently to a three months' comedy of pretended purity. Such impostors -do not exist. -</p> -<p>The Mormons drunken! Now what, for instance, can be the conclusion of -any honest thinker from this fact—that though I mixed constantly with -Mormons, all of them anxious to show me every hospitality and courtesy, -I was never at any time asked to take a glass of strong drink? If I -wanted a horse to ride or to drive I had a choice at once offered me. -If I wanted some one to go with me to some point of interest, his -time was mine. Yet it never occurred to them to show a courtesy by -suggesting "a drink." -</p> -<p>Then, seriously, how can any one have respect for the literature or the -men who, without knowing anything of the lives of Mormons, stigmatize -them as profane, adulterous, and drunken? As a community I know them, -from personal advantages of observation such as no non-Mormon writer -has ever previously possessed,<sup>[<a name="CHAPTERXIXfn1"></a><a href="#txtCHAPTERXIXfn1">1</a>]</sup> to be at any rate exceptionally -careful in maintaining the appearance of piety and sobriety; and I -leave it to my readers to judge whether such solid hypocrisy as this, -that tries to abolish all swearing and all strong drink both by precept -from the pulpit and example in the household, is not, after all, nearly -as admirable as the real thing itself. -</p> -<p>This, at all events, is beyond doubt—that the Mormons have always -struggled hard to prevent the sale of liquor in Salt Lake City, except -under strict regulations and supervision. But the fight has gone -against them. The courts uphold the right of publicans to sell when and -what they choose; and the Mormons, who could at one time boast—and -visitors without number have borne evidence to the fact—that a -drunkard was never to be seen, an oath never to be heard, in the -streets of their city, have now to confess that, thanks to the example -of Gentiles, they have both drunkards and profane men among them. But -the general attitude of the Church towards these delinquents, and -the sorrow that their weakness causes in the family circle, are in -themselves proofs of the sincerity in sobriety which distinguishes the -Mormons. Nor is it any secret that if the Mormons had the power they -would to-morrow close all the saloons and bars, except those under -Church regulation, and then, they say, "we might hope to see the old -days back when we never thought of locking our doors at night, and when -our wives and girls, let them be out ever so late, needed no escort in -the streets." -</p> -<p>And having travelled throughout the Mormon settlements, I am at a loss -how to convey to my readers with any brevity the effect which the tour -has had upon me. -</p> -<p>I have seen, and spoken to, and lived with, Mormon men and women of -every class, and never in my life in any Christian country, not even -in happy, rural England, have I come in contact with more consistent -piety, sobriety, and neighbourly charity. I say this deliberately. -Without a particle of odious sanctimony these folk are, in their words -and actions, as Christian as I had ever thought to see men and women. A -perpetual spirit of charity seems to possess them, and if the prayers -of simple, devout humanity are ever of any avail, it must surely be -this wonderful Mormon earnestness in appeals to Heaven. I have often -watched Moslems in India praying, and thought then that I had seen -the extremity of devotion, but now that I have seen these people on -their knees in their kitchens at morning and at night, and heard their -old men—men who remember the dark days of the Faith—pour out from -their hearts their gratitude for past mercy, their pleas for future -protection, I find that I have met with even a more striking form -of prayer than I have ever met with before. Equally striking is the -universal reverence and affection with which they, quite unconscious of -the fact that I was "taking notes," spoke of the authorities of their -Church. Fear there was none, but respect and love were everywhere. It -would be a bold man who, in one of these Mormon hamlets, ventured to -repeat the slanders current among Gentiles elsewhere. And it would -indeed be a base man who visited these hard-living, trustful men and -women, and then went away to calumniate them. -</p> -<p>But it is a fact, and cannot be challenged, that the only people in -all Utah who libel these Mormons are either those who are ignorant of -them, those who have apostatized (frequently under compulsion) from -the Church, or those, the official clique and their sycophants, who -have been charged with looking forward to a share of the plunder of -the Territorial treasury. On the other hand, I know many Gentiles who, -though like myself they consider polygamy itself detestable, speak of -this people as patterns to themselves in commercial honesty, religious -earnestness, and social charity. -</p> -<p>Travelling through the settlements, I found that every one voluntarily -considered his poorer neighbours as a charge upon himself. When a man -arrives there, a stranger and penniless, one helps to get together logs -for his first hut, another to break up a plot of ground. A third lends -him his waggon to draw some firewood from the canyon or hillside; a -fourth gives up some of his time to show him how to bring the water -on to his ground—and so on through all the first requirements of the -forlorn new-comer. Behind them all meanwhile is the Church, in the -person of the presiding Elder of the settlement, who makes him such -advances as are considered necessary. It is a wonderful system, and -as pathetic, to my mind, as any struggle for existence that I have -ever witnessed. But every man who comes among them is another unit of -strength, and let him be only a straight-spoken, fair-dealing fellow, -with his heart in his work, and he finds every one's hand ready to -assist him. -</p> -<p>And the first commencement is terribly small. A one-roomed log hut is -planted in a desert of sage-brush "with roots that hold as firm as -original sin," and rocks that are as hard to get rid of as bad habits. -Borrowing a plough here, and a shovel there, the new-comer bungles -through an acre or two of furrows, and digs out a trench. Begging of -one neighbour some fruit-tree cuttings, he sticks the discouraging -twigs into the ground, and by working out some extra time for another -gets some lucerne seed. Then he gets a hen, and then a setting of eggs, -by-and-by a heifer, and a little later, by putting in work or by an -advance from the Church, or with kindly help from a neighbour, he adds -a horse to his stock. Time passes, say a year; his orchard (that is to -be) has several dozen leaves on it, and the ground is all green with -lucerne, the chickens are thriving, and he adds an acre or two more to -the first patch, and his neighbours, seeing him in earnest, are still -ready with their advice and aid. Adobe bricks are gradually piled up -in a corner of the lot, and very soon an extra room or two is built -on to the log hut, and saplings of cotton-wood, or poplar, or locust -are planted in a row before the dwelling: and so on year by year, -conquering a little more of the sage-brush, bringing on the water a -furlong further, adding an outhouse, planting another tree. At the end -of ten years—years of unsparing, untiring labour, but years brightened -with perpetual kindness from neighbours—this man, the penniless -emigrant, invites the wayfarer into his house, has a comfortably -furnished bedroom at his service, oats and fodder for his team, ample -and wholesome food for all. The wife spreads the table with eggs and -ham and chicken, vegetables, pickles, and preserves, milk and cream, -pies and puddings—"Yes, sir, all of our own raising." The dismal -twigs have grown up into pleasant shade-trees, and a flower-garden -brightens the front of the house. In the barn are comfortable, well-fed -stock, horses and cows. This is no fancy picture, but one from life, -and typical of 20,000 others. Each homestead in turn has the same -experience, and it is no wonder, therefore, when the settlement, -properly laid out and organized, grows into municipal existence, that -every one speaks kindly of, and acts kindly towards, his neighbour. A -visitor, till he understands the reason, is surprised at the intimacy -of households. But when he does understand it, ought not his surprise -to give place to admiration? -</p> -<p>Not less conspicuous is the uniform sincerity in religion. A school -and meeting-house is to be found in every settlement, even though -there may be only half-a-dozen families, and besides the regular -attendance of the people at weekly services, the private prayers of -each household are as punctual as their meals. In these prayers, after -the ordinary generalities, the head of the house usually prays for -all the authorities of the Church, from the President downwards, for -the local authorities, for the Church as a body, and the missionaries -abroad, for his household and its guest, for the United States, and for -Congress, and for all the world that feels kindly towards Mormonism. -But quite apart from the matter of their prayers, their manner is very -striking, and the scene in a humble house, when a large family meets -for prayer—and half the members, finding no article of furniture -unoccupied for the orthodox position of devotion, drop into attitudes -of natural reverence, kneeling in the middle of the floor—appeals very -strongly to the eye of those accustomed to the stereotyped piety of a -more advanced civilization. -</p> -<p>One more conspicuous feature of Mormon life is sobriety. I have been -the guest of some fifty different households, and only once I was -offered even beer. That exception was in a Danish household, where -the wife brewed her own "ol"—an opaque beverage of home-fermented -wheat and home-grown hops—as a curiosity curious, as an "indulgence" -doubtful, as a regular drink impossible. On no other occasion was -anything but tea, coffee, milk, or water offered. And even tea and -coffee, being discouraged by the Church, are but seldom drunk. As a -heathen outsider I deplored my beer, and was grateful for coffee; but -the rest of the household, in almost every instance, drank water. -Tobacco is virtually unused. It is used, but so seldom that it does not -affect my statement. The spittoon, therefore, though in every room, is -behind the door, or in a corner under a piece of furniture. In case -it should be needed, it is there—like the shot-gun upstairs—but its -being called into requisition would be a family event. -</p> -<p>No, let their enemies say what they will, the Mormon settlements are -each of them to-day a refutation of the libel that the Mormons are not -sincere in their antipathy to strong drink and tobacco. That individual -Mormons drink and smoke proves nothing, except that they do it. For the -great majority of the Mormons, they are strictly sober. I know it to my -great inconvenience. -</p> -<p>Is it possible then that the American people, so generous in their -impulses, so large-hearted in action, have been misled as to the -true character of the Mormon "problem"? At first sight this may seem -impossible. A whole people, it will be said, cannot have been misled. -But I think a general misapprehension is quite within the possibilities. -</p> -<p>Whence have the public derived their opinions about Mormonism? From -anti-Mormons only. I have ransacked the literature of the subject, -and yet I really could not tell any one where to go for an impartial -book about Mormonism later in date than Burton's "City of the -Saints," published in 1862. Burton, it is well known, wrote as a man -of wide travel and liberal education—catholic, therefore, on all -matters religious, and generous in his views of ethical and social -obliquities, sympathetic, consistent, and judicial. It is no wonder, -then, that Mormons remember the distinguished traveller, in spite of -his candour, with the utmost kindness. But put Burton on one side, -and I think I can defy any one to name another book about the Mormons -worthy of honest respect. From that truly awful book, "The History -of the Saints," published by one Bennett (even an anti-Mormon has -styled him "the greatest rascal that ever came to the West") in 1842, -down to Stenhouse's in 1873, there is not, to my knowledge, a single -Gentile work before the public that is not utterly unreliable from -its distortion of facts. Yet it is from these books—for there are no -others—that the American public has acquired nearly all its ideas -about the people of Utah. -</p> -<p>The Mormons themselves are most foolishly negligent of the power of -the press, and of the immense value in forming public opinion of a -free use of type. They affect to be indifferent to the clamour of the -world, but when this clamour leads to legislative action against them, -they turn round petulantly with the complaint that there is a universal -conspiracy against them. It does not seem to occur to them that their -misfortunes are partly due to their own neglect of the very weapons -which their adversaries have used so diligently, so unscrupulously, and -so successfully. -</p> -<p>They do not seem to understand that a public contradiction given to -a public calumny goes some way towards correcting the mischief done, -or that by anticipating malicious versions of events they could as -often as not get an accurate statement before the public, instead of -an inaccurate one. But enterprise in advertisement has been altogether -on the side of the anti-Mormons. The latter never lose an opportunity -of throwing in a bad word, while the Mormons content themselves with -"rounding their shoulders," as they are so fond of saying, and putting -a denial of the libel into the local News. They say they are so -accustomed to abuse that they are beginning not to care about it—which -is the old, stupid self-justification of the apathetic. The fascination -of a self-imposed martyrdom seems too great for them, and, like flies -when they are being wrapped up into parcels by the spider for greater -convenience of transportation to its larder, they sing chastened -canticles about the inevitability of cobwebs and the deplorable -rapacity of spiders. -</p> -<p>"I can assure you," said one of them, "it would be of no use trying to -undeceive the public. You cannot make a whistle out of a pig's tail, -you know." -</p> -<p>"Nonsense," I replied. "You can—for I have seen a whistle made out of -a pig's tail. And it is in a shop in Chicago to this day!" -</p> -<p>It will be understood, then, that the Mormons have made no adequate -efforts either in books or the press to meet their antagonists. They -prefer to allow cases against them to go by default, and content -themselves with privately filing pleas in defence which would have -easily acquitted them had they gone before the public. America, -therefore, hearing only one side of the case, and so much of it, is -certainly not to be blamed for drawing its conclusions from the only -facts before it. It cannot be expected to know that three or four -individuals, all them by their own confession "Mormon-eaters," have -from the first been the purveyors of nearly all the distorted facts it -receives. Seeing the same thing said in many different directions, the -general public naturally conclude that a great number of persons are in -agreement as to the facts. -</p> -<p>But the exigencies of journalism which admit, for instance, of the -same correspondent being a local contributor to two or three score -newspapers of widely differing views in politics and religion, are -unknown to them. And they are therefore unaware that the indignation -so widely printed throughout America has its source in the personal -animosity of three or four individuals only who are bitterly sectarian, -and that these men are actually personally ignorant of the country -they live in, have seldom talked to a Mormon, and have never visited -Mormonism outside Salt Lake City. These men write of the "squalid -poverty" of Mormons, of their obscene brutality, of their unceasing -treason towards the United States, of their blasphemous repudiation of -the Bible, without one particle of information on the subject, except -such as they gather from the books and writings of men whom they ought -to know are utterly unworthy of credit, or from the verbal calumnies -of apostates. And what the evidence of apostates is worth history has -long ago told us. I am now stating facts; and I, who have lived among -the Mormons and with them, who have seen them in their homes, rich -and poor; have joined in their worship, public and private; who have -constantly conversed with them, men, women, and children; Who have -visited their out-lying settlements, large and small—as no Gentile -has ever done before me—can assure my readers that every day of my -residence increased my regret at the misrepresentation these people -have suffered. -</p> -<h3>Footnotes: -</h3> -<p><a name="txtCHAPTERXIXfn1"></a><a href="#CHAPTERXIXfn1">1</a>. Except, of course, General Kane. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXX"></a>CHAPTER XX. -</h2> -<p class="centered">DOWN THE ONTARIO MINE. -</p> -<p>"Been down a mine! What on earth did you do that for?" said the elder -Sheridan to the younger. -</p> -<p>"Oh, just to say that I had done it," was the reply. -</p> -<p>"To say that you had done it! Good gracious! Couldn't you have said -that without going down a mine?" -</p> -<p>No, Mr. Sheridan, you could not; at least not in these latter days. Too -many people do it now for the impostor to remain undiscovered. Take my -own case, for instance. I had often read descriptions of mine descents, -and thought I knew how it happened, and how ore was got out. But no one -ever told me that you had to go paddling about in water half the time, -or that mines were excavated upwards. Now, then, if I had tried to -pretend that I had been down a mine I should have been promptly found -out, by my ignorance of the two first facts that strike one. Again, it -is very simple work imagining the descent of a "shaft" in a "cage." -But unfortunately a cage is only a platform to stand on without either -sides or top, and not, therefore, such a cage as one would buy to keep -a bird in, or as would keep a bird in if one did buy it. Nor, without -actually experiencing it, could anybody guess that the first sensation -of whizzing down a pipe, say 800 feet, is that of seeming to lose all -your specific gravity, and that the next (after you had partially -collected your faculties) is that you are stationary yourself, but that -the dripping timbers that line the shaft are all flying upwards past -you like sparks up a chimney. -</p> -<p>Mines, of course, differ from one another just as the men who go down -them do, but as far as I myself am concerned all mines are puddly -places, and the sensations of descent are ridiculous—for I have only -been down two in my life, and both "demned, damp, moist, unpleasant" -places. But the mine to which I now refer is the "Ontario," in Utah, -which may be said, in the preposterous vernacular of the West, to be -a "terrible fine" mine, or, in other words, "a boss mine," that is to -say, "a daisy." -</p> -<p>As for daisies, anything that greatly takes the fancy or evokes -especial admiration is called a daisy. Thus I heard a very much -respected Mormon Bishop, who is also a director of a railway, described -by an enthusiastic admirer as "a daisy!" -</p> -<p>Finding myself in Park "City" one evening—it is a mining camp -dependent chiefly upon the Ontario—I took a walk up the street with -a friend. Every other house appeared to be a saloon, with a doctor's -residence sandwiched in between—a significantly convenient arrangement -perhaps in the days when there was no "Protective Committee" in Park -City, but—so I am told—without much practical benefit to the public -in these quiet days, when law-abiding citizens do their own hanging, -without troubling the county sheriff, who lives somewhere on the other -side of a distance. The result of this is that bad characters do not -stay long enough in Park City now to get up free fights, and make work -for the doctors. The Protective Committee invites them to "git" as soon -as they arrive, and, to do them credit, they do "git." -</p> -<p>However, as I was saying, I took a walk with a friend along the street, -and presently became aware above me, high up on the hillside, of a -great collection of buildings, with countless windows (I mean that -I did not try to count them) lit up, and looking exactly like some -theatrical night-scene. These were the mills of the Ontario, which work -night and day, and seven days to the week, a perpetual flame like that -of the Zoroastrians, and as carefully kept alive by stalwart stokers as -ever was Vestal altar-fire by the girl-priestesses of Rome. It was a -picturesque sight, with the huge hills looming up black behind, and the -few surviving pine-trees showing out dimly against the darkening sky. -</p> -<p>Next morning I went up to the mine—and down it. -</p> -<p>Having costumed myself in garments that made getting dirty a perfect -luxury, I was taken to the shaft. Now, I had expected to see an -unfathomably black hole in the ground with a rope dangling down it, -but instead of that I found myself in a spacious boarded shed, with -a huge wheel standing at one end and a couple of iron uprights with -a cross-bar standing up from the floor at the other. Round the wheel -was coiled an enormous length of a six-inch steel-wire band, and the -disengaged end of the band, after passing over a beam, was fastened -to the cross-bar above mentioned. On the bridge of the wheel stood an -engineer, the arbiter of fates, who is perpetually unwinding victims -down from stage to stage of the Inferno, and winding up the redeemed -from limbo to limbo. Having propitiated him by an affectation of -intelligence as to the machinery which he controlled, we took our -places under the cross-bar, between the stanchions, and suddenly the -floor—as innocent-looking and upright-minded a bit of boarded floor -as you could wish to stand on—gave way beneath us, and down we shot -apud inferos, like the devils in "Der Freischütz." We had our lamps in -our hands, and they gave just light enough for me to see the dripping -wooden walls of the shaft flashing past, and then I felt myself -becoming lighter and lighter—a mere butterfly—imponderable. But it -doesn't take many seconds to fall down 800 feet, and long before I had -expected it I found we were "at the bottom." -</p> -<p>Our explorations then began; and very queer it all was, with the -perpetual gushing of springs from the rock, and the bubble and splash -of the waters as they ran along on either side the narrow tunnels; the -meetings at corners with little cars being pushed along by men who -looked, as they bent low to their work, like those load-rolling beetles -that Egypt abounds in; the machinery for pumping, so massive that it -seemed much more likely that it was found where it stood, the vestiges -of a long-past subterranean civilization, than that it had been brought -down there by the men of these degenerate days; the sudden endings of -the tunnels which the miners were driving along the vein, with a man -at each ending, his back bent to fit into the curve which he had made -in the rock, and reminding one of the frogs that science tells us are -found at times fitted into holes in the middle of stones; the climbing -up hen-roost ladders from tunnel to tunnel, from one darkness into -another; the waiting at different spots till "that charge had been -blasted," and the dull, deadened roar of the explosion had died away; -the watching the solitary miners at their work picking and thumping at -the discoloured strips of dark rock that looked to the uninitiated only -like water-stained, mildewy accidents in the general structure, but -which, in reality, was silver, and yielding, it might be, $1600 to the -ton! -</p> -<p>"This is all very rich ore," said my guide, kicking a heap that I was -standing on. I got off it at once, reverentially. -</p> -<p>But reverence for the Mother of the Dollar gradually dies out, -for everything about you, above you, beneath you, is silver or -silverish—dreadful rubbish to look at, it is true, but with the spirit -of the great metal in it all none the less; that fairy Argentine -who builds palaces for men, and gives them, if they choose, all the -pleasures of the world, and the leisure wherein to enjoy them. And -there they stood, these latter-day Cyclops, working away like the -gnomes of the Hartz Mountains, or the entombed artificers of the -Bear-Kings of Dardistan, with their lanterns glowing at the end of -their tunnels like the Kanthi gem which Shesh, the fabled snake-god, -has provided for his gloomy empire of mines under the Nagas' hills. -Useless crystals glittered on every side, as if they were jewels, and -the water dripping down the sides glistened as if it was silver, but -the pretty hypocrisy was of no avail. For though the ore itself was -dingy and ugly and uninviting, the ruthless pick pursued it deeper -and deeper into its retreat, and only struck the harder the darker -and uglier it got. It reminded me, watching the miner at his work, -of the fairy story where the prince in disguise has to kill the lady -of his love in order to release her from the enchantments which have -transformed her, and how the wicked witch makes her take shape after -shape to escape the resolute blows of the desperate lover. But at last -his work is accomplished, and the ugly thing stands before him in all -the radiant beauty of her true nature. -</p> -<p>And it is a long process, and a costly one, before the lumps of heavy -dirt which the miner pecks out of the inside of a hill are transformed -into those hundredweight blocks of silver bullion which the train from -Park City carries every morning of the year into Salt Lake City. From -first to last it is pretty much as follows. Remember I am not writing -for those who live inside mines; very much on the contrary. I am -writing for those who have never been down a mine in their lives, but -who may care to read an unscientific description of "mining," and the -Ontario mine in particular. -</p> -<p>In 1872 a couple of men made a hole in the ground, and finding silver -ore in it offered the hole for sale at $30,000. A clever man, R. C. -Chambers by name, happened to come along, and liking the look of the -hole, joined a friend in the purchase of it. The original diggers thus -pocketed $30,000 for a few days' work, and no doubt thought they had -done a good thing. But alas! that hole in the ground which they were -so glad to get rid of ten years ago now yields every day a larger sum -in dollars than they sold it for! The new owners of the hole, which -was christened "The Ontario Mine," were soon at work, but instead of -following them through the different stages of development, it is -enough to describe what that hole looks like and produces to-day. -</p> -<p>A shaft, then, has been sunk plumb down into the mountain for 900 -feet, and from this shaft, at every 100 feet as you go down, you find -a horizontal tunnel running off to right and left. If you stop in your -descent at any one of these "stages" and walk through the tunnel—water -rushing all the way over your feet, and the vaulted rock dripping -over-head—you will find that a line of rails has been laid down along -it, and that the sides and roofs are strongly supported by timbers -of great thickness. These timbers are necessary to prevent, in the -first place, the rock above from crushing down through the roof of the -tunnel, and, in the next, from squeezing in its sides, for the rock -every now and then swells and the sides of the tunnels bulge in. The -rails are, of course, for the cars which the miners fill with ore, and -push from the end of the tunnel to the "stage." A man there signals -by a bell which communicates with the engineer at the big wheel in -the shed I have already spoken of, and there being a regular code of -signals, the engineer knows at once at which stage the car is waiting, -and how far therefore he is to let the cage down. Up goes the car with -its load of ore into the daylight,—and then its troubles begin. -</p> -<p>But meanwhile let us stay a few minutes more in the mine. Walking -along any one of the main horizontal tunnels, we come at intervals to -a ladder, and going up one of them we find that a stope, or smaller -gallery, is being run parallel with the tunnel in which we are -walking, and of course (as it follows the same direction of the ore), -immediately over that tunnel, so that the roof of the tunnel is the -floor of the stope. The stopes are just wide enough for a man to work -in easily, and are as high as he can reach easily with his pickaxe, -about seven feet. If you walk along one of these stopes you come to -another ladder, and find it leads to another stope above, and going -up this you find just the same again, until you become aware that the -whole mountain above you is pierced throughout the length of the ore -vein by a series of seven-foot galleries lying exactly parallel one -above the other, and separated only by a sufficient thickness of pine -timber to make a solid floor for each. But at every hundred feet, as I -have said, there comes a main tunnel, down to which all the produce of -the minor galleries above it is shot down by "shoots," loaded into cars -and pushed along to the "stage." But silver ore is not the only thing -that the Company gets out of its mine, for unfortunately the mountain -in which the Ontario is located is full of springs, and the miner's -pick is perpetually, therefore, letting the water break into the -tunnels, and in such volume, too, that I am informed it costs as much -to rid the works of the water as to get out the silver! Streams gurgle -along all the tunnels, and here and there ponderous bulkheads have been -put up to keep the water and the loosened rock from falling in. Pumps -of tremendous power are at work at several levels throwing the water up -towards the surface—one of these at the 800-foot level throwing 1500 -gallons a minute up to the 500-foot level. -</p> -<p>Following a car-load of ore, we find it, having reached the surface, -being loaded into waggons, in which it is carried down the hill to -the mills, weighed, and then shot down into a gigantic bin—in which, -by the way, the Company always keeps a reserve of ore sufficient -to keep the mills in full work for two years. From this hour, life -becomes a burden to the ore, for it is hustled about from machine -to machine without the least regard to its feelings. No sooner is -it out of the waggon than a brutal crusher begins smashing it up -into small fragments, the result of this meanness being that the ore -is able to tumble through a screen into cars that are waiting for -it down below. These rush upstairs with it again and pour it into -"hoppers," which, being in the conspiracy too, begin at once to spill -it into gigantic drying cylinders that are perpetually revolving over -a terrific furnace fire, and the ore, now dust, comes streaming out -as dry as dry can be, is caught in cars and wheeled off to batteries -where forty stampers, stamping like one, pound and smash it as if they -took a positive delight in it. There is an intelligent, deliberate -determination about this fearful stamping which makes one feel almost -afraid of the machinery. Some pieces, however, actually manage to -escape sufficient mashing up and slip away with the rest down into -a "screw conveyor," but the poor wretches are soon found out, for -the fiendish screw conveyor empties itself on to a screen, through -which all the pulverized ore goes shivering down, but the guilty -lumps still remaining are carried back by another ruthless machine -to those detestable stamps again. They cannot dodge them. For these -machines are all in the plot together. Or rather, they are the honest -workmen of good masters, and they are determined that the work shall -be thoroughly done, and that not a single lump of ore shall be allowed -to skulk so without any one to look after them these cylinders and -stampers, hoppers and dryers, elevators and screens go on with their -work all day, all night, relentless in their duty and pitiless to the -ore. Let a lump dodge them as it may, it gets no good by it, for the -one hands it over to the other, just as constables hand over a thief -they have caught, and it goes its rounds, again and again, till the end -eventually overtakes it, and it falls through the screen in a fine dust. -</p> -<p>For its sins it is now called "pulp," and starts off on a second tour -of suffering—for these Inquisitors of iron and steel, these blind, -brutal Cyclops-machines, have only just begun, as it were, their fun -with their victim. Its tortures are now to be of a more searching -and refined description. As it falls through the screen, another -screw-conveyor catches sight of it and hurries it along a revolving -tube into which salt is being perpetually fed from a bin overhead—this -salt, allow me to say for the benefit of those as ignorant as myself, -is "necessary as a chloridizer"—and thus mixed up with the stranger, -falls into the power of a hydraulic elevator, which carries it up forty -feet to the top of a roasting furnace and deliberately spills the -mixture into it! Looking into the solid flame, I appreciated for the -first time in my life the courage of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. -</p> -<p>The mixture which fell in at the top bluish-grey comes out at the -bottom yellowish-brown—I only wonder at its coming out all—and is -raked into heaps that have a wicked, lurid colour and give out such -fierce short flames of brilliant tints, and such fierce, short blasts -of a poisonous gas, that I could not help thinking of the place where -bad men go to, and wondering if a Dante could not get a hint or two -for improving his Inferno by a visit to the Ontario roasting-furnace. -The men who stir these heaps use rakes with prodigious handles, and -wear wet sponges over their mouths and noses, and as I watched them I -remembered the poet's devils who keep on prodding up the damned and -raking them about over the flames. -</p> -<p>But the ore submits without any howling or gnashing of teeth, and is -dragged off dumb, and soused into great churns, kept at a boiling heat, -in which quicksilver is already lying waiting, and the ore and the -quicksilver are then churned up together by revolving wheels inside the -pans, till the contents look like huge caldrons of bubbling chocolate. -After some hours they are drained off into settlers and cold water is -let in upon the mess, and lo! silver as bright as the quicksilver with -which it is mixed comes dripping out through the spout at the bottom -into canvas bags. -</p> -<p>Much of the quicksilver drips through the canvas back into the pans, -and the residue, silver mixed with quicksilver, makes a cold, heavy, -white paste called "amalgam," which is carried off in jars to the -retorts. Into these it is thrown, and while lying there the quicksilver -goes on dripping away from the silver, and after a time the fires are -lighted and the retort is sealed up. The intense heat that is obtained -volatilizes the quicksilver; but this mercurial vapour is caught as it -is escaping at the top of the retort, again condensed into its solid -form, and again used to mix with fresh silver ore. Its old companion, -the silver, goes on melting inside the retort all the time, till at -last when the fires are allowed to cool down, it is found in irregular -lumps of a pink-looking substance. These lumps are then taken to the -crucibles, and passing from them, molten and refined, fall into moulds, -each holding about a hundred-weight of bullion. -</p> -<p>And all this bother and fuss, reader, to obtain these eight or ten -blocks of metal! -</p> -<p>True, but then that metal is silver, and with one single day's produce -from the Ontario Mine in the bank to his credit a man might live at his -leisure in London, like a nobleman in Paris, or like a prince among the -princes of Eulenspiegel-Wolfenbuttel-Gutfurnichts. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM UTAH INTO NEVADA. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Rich and ugly Nevada—Leaving Utah—The gift of the - Alfalfa—Through a lovely country to Ogden—The great - food-devouring trick—From Mormon to Gentile: a sudden - contrast—The son of a cinder—Is the red man of no use at - all?—The papoose's papoose—Children all of one family. -</p> -<p>IT is a far cry from the City of the Saints to the city of the -Celestials, for Nevada stretches all its hideous length between them, -and thus keeps apart the two American problems of the day—pigtails -and polygamy. But mere length in miles is not all that goes to make a -journey seem long, for dreariness of landscape stretches every yard to -six feet, and turns honest miles into rascally versts, or elongates -them into the still more infamous "kos" of the East, the so-called -mile, which seems to lengthen out at the other end as you travel along -it, and about nightfall to lose the other end altogether. And Nevada is -certainly dreary enough for anything. It is abominably rich, I know. -There is probably more filthy lucre in it per acre (in a crude state, -of course) than in any other state in the Union, and more dollars piled -up in those ghastly mountains than in any other range in America. But, -as a fellow-passenger remarked, "There's a pile of land in Nevada that -don't amount to much," and it is just this part of Nevada that the -traveller by railway sees. -</p> -<p>"That hill over there is full of silver," said a stranger to me, by way -of propitiating my opinion. -</p> -<p>"Is it" I said, "the brute." I really couldn't help it. I had no -ill-feeling towards the hill, and if it had asked a favour of me, -I believe I should have granted it as readily as any one. But its -repulsive appearance was against it, and the idea of its being full of -silver stirred my indignation. I grudged so ugly a cloud its silver -lining, and like the sailor in the Summer Palace at Pekin felt moved to -insult it. The sailor I refer to was in one of the courts of the palace -looking about for plunder. It did not occur to his weather-beaten, -nautical intelligence that everything about him was moulded in solid -silver. He thought it was lead. A huge dragon stood in the corner -of the room, and the atrocity of its expression exasperated Jack so -acutely that he smote it with his cutlass, and lo! out of the monster's -wound poured an ichor of silver coinage. -</p> -<p>"Who'd have thought it!" said Jack, "the ugly devil!" -</p> -<p>Nevada, moreover, lies under the disadvantage of having on one side of -it the finest portion of California, on the other the finest portion -of Utah, and sandwiched between two such Beauties, such a Beast -naturally looks its worst. For the northern angle of Utah is by far -the most fertile part of the territory, possessing, in patches, some -incomparable meadows, and corn-lands of wondrous fertility. As compared -with the prodigious agricultural and pastoral wealth of such states as -Missouri, Illinois, or Ohio, the Cache Valleys and Bear Valleys of Utah -seem of course insignificant enough; but at present I am comparing them -only with the rest of poor Utah, and with ugly, wealthy Nevada. -</p> -<p>Starting from Salt Lake City northwards, the road lies through suburbs -of orchards and gardens, many of them smothered in red and yellow -roses, out on to the levels of the Great Valley. Here, beyond the -magic circle of the Water-wizard, there are patches of fen-lands still -delightful to wild-fowl, and patches of alkali blistering in the sun, -but all about them stretch wide meadows of good grazing-ground, where -the cattle, good Devon breed many of them, and here and there a Jersey, -loiter about, and bright fields of lucerne, or alfalfa, just purpling -into blossom and haunted by whole nations of bees and tribes of yellow -butterflies. What a gift this lucerne has been to Utah! Indeed, as the -Mormons say, the territory could hardly have held its own had it not -been for this wonderful plant. Once get it well started (and it will -grow apparently anywhere) the "alfalfa" strikes its roots ten, fifteen, -twenty feet into the ground, and defies the elements. More than this, -it becomes aggressive, and, like the white races, begins to encroach -upon, dominate over, and finally extinguish the barbarian weeds, its -wild neighbours. -</p> -<p>Scientific experiments with other plants have taught us that vegetables -wage war with each other, under principles and with tactics, curiously -similar to those of human communities. -</p> -<p>When a strong plant advancing its frontiers comes upon a nation of -feeble folk, it simply falls upon it pell-mell, relying upon mere brute -strength to crush opposition. But when two plants, equally hardy, come -in contact, and the necessity for more expansion compels them to fight, -they bring into action all the science and skill of old gladiators -and German war-professors. They push out skirmishers, and draw them -in, throw out flanking parties, plant outposts, race for commanding -points, manoeuvre each other out of corners, cut off each others' -communications with the water, sap and mine—in fact go through all the -artifices of civilized war. If they find themselves well-matched, they -eventually make an alliance, and mingle peacefully with each other, -dividing the richer spots equally, and going halves in the water. -But as a rule one gives way to the other, accepts its dominion, and -gradually accepts a subordinate place or even extirpation. -</p> -<p>Now this lucerne is one of the fightingest plants that grows. It is the -Norwegian rat among the vegetables, the Napoleon of the weeds. Nothing -stops it. If it comes upon a would-be rival, it either punches its head -and walks over it, or it sits down to besiege it, drives its own roots -under the enemy, and compels it to capitulate by starvation. Fences and -such devices cannot of course keep it within bounds, so the lucerne -overflows its limits at every point, comes down the railway bank, -sprouts up in tufts on the track, and getting across into the Scythian -barbarism of the opposite hill-side, advances as with a Macedonian -phalanx to conquest and universal monarchy. Three times a year can the -farmer crop it, and there is no fodder in the world that beats it. No -wonder then that Utah encourages this admirable adventurer. In time it -will become the Lucerne State. -</p> -<p>And so, passing through fields of lucerne, we reach the Hot Springs. -From a cleft in a rock comes gushing out an ample stream of nearly -boiling water as clear as diamonds, and so heavily charged with mineral -that the sulphuretted air, combined with the heat, is sometimes -intolerable, while the ground over which the water pours becomes in a -few weeks thickly carpeted with a lovely weed-like growth of purest -malachite green. Passing across the road, from its first pool under -the rock, the stream spreads itself out into the Hot Springs Lake, -where the water soon assimilates in temperature to the atmosphere, but -possesses, for some reason known to the birds, a peculiar attraction -for wild-fowl, which congregate in great numbers about it. Where it -issues from the rock no vegetable of course can grow in it, and there -is a rim all round its edge about a foot in width where the grass and -weeds lie brown and dead, suffocated by the fumes. The fungoid-like -growth at the bottom of the pool exactly resembles a vegetable, but -is as purely mineral, though sub-aqueous, as the stalactites on a -cave-roof. -</p> -<p>And so, on again through a wilderness of lucerne, with a broad -riband of carnation-coloured phlox retreating before its advancing -borders—past a perpetual succession of cottages coming at intervals -to a head in delightful farming hamlets of the true Mormon type—past -innumerable orchards, and here and there intervals of wild vegetation, -willows, and cotton-wood, with beds of blue iris, and brakes of wild -pink roses (such a confusion of beauty!) among which the birds and -butterflies seem to hold perpetual holiday. -</p> -<p>Then Salt Lake comes in sight, lying along under the mountains on the -left, and on the right the Wasatch range closes in, with the upper -slopes all misty with grey clouds of sage-brush, and the lower vivid -with lusty lucerne. Each settlement is in turn a delightful repetition -of its predecessor, meadow and orchard and corn-land alternating, with -the same pleasant features of wild life, flocks of crimson-winged or -yellow-throated birds wheeling round the willow copses, or skimming -across the meadows, bitterns tumbling out from among the reeds, doves -darting from tree to tree, butterflies of exquisite species fluttering -among the beds of flowers, and overhead in the sky, floating on -observant wings, the hawk—one of those significant touches of Nature -that redeems a country-side from Arcadian mawkishness, and throws into -an over-sweet landscape just that dash of sin and suffering that lemons -it pleasantly to the taste. -</p> -<p>Round the corner yonder lies Ogden, one of the most promising towns -of all the West, and as we approach it the great expanses of meadow -stretching down to the lake and the wide alfalfa levels give place -to a barren sage veldt, where the sunflower still retains ancestral -dominion, and the jackass rabbits flap their ears at each other -undisturbed by agriculture or by grazing stock. Nestling back into a -nook of the hills which rise up steeply behind it, and show plainly on -the front their old water-line of "Lake Bonneville" (of which the Great -Salt Lake is the shrunken miserable relict), lies a pretty settlement, -cosily muffed up in clover and fruit trees, and then beyond it, across -another interval of primeval sage, comes into view the white cupola of -the Ogden courthouse. -</p> -<p>Ogden is the meeting-point of the northern and southern Utah lines of -rail, and, more important still, of the Union Pacific and the Central -Pacific also. As a "junction town," therefore, it enjoys a position -which has already made it prosperous, and which promises it great -wealth in the near future. Nature too has been very kind, for the -climate is one of the healthiest (if statistics may be believed) in the -world; and wood and water, and a fertile soil, are all in abundance. -Fortunately also, the Mormons selected the site and laid it out so that -the ground-plan is spacious, the roadways are ample, the shade-trees -profuse, and the drainage good. Its central school is, perhaps, the -leading one in the territory, while in manufactures and industry -it will probably some day outstrip Salt Lake City. For the visitor -who does not care about statistics, Ogden has another attraction as -the centre of a very beautiful canyon country, and excursions can -be made in a single day that will give him as exhaustive an idea of -the beauties of western hill scenery, as he will ever obtain by far -more extended trips. The Ogden and Weber canyons alone exhaust such -landscapes, but if the tourist has the time and the will, he may wander -away up into the Wasatch range, past Ogden valley and many lovely bits -of scenery, towards Bear Valley. But for myself, having seen nearly all -the canyons of Utah and many of Colorado, I confess that the Weber and -Ogden would have sufficed for all mere sight-seeing purposes. -</p> -<p>It was in the Ogden refreshment-room, waiting for the train for San -Francisco, that I saw a performance that filled me with astonishment -and dismay. It was a man eating his dinner. And let me here remark, -with all possible courtesy, that the American on his travels is the -most reprehensible eater I have ever seen. In the first place, the -knives are purposely made blunt—the back and the front of the blade -being often of the same "sharpness"—to enable him to eat gravy with -it. The result is that the fork (which ought to be used simply to -hold meat steady on the plate while being cut with the knife) has to -be used with great force to wrench off fragments of food. The object -of the two instruments is thus materially abused, for he holds the -meat down with the knife and tears it into bits with his fork! Now, -reader, don't say no. For I have been carefully studying travelling -Americans at their food (all over the West at any rate), and what I say -is strictly correct. This abuse of knife and fork then necessitates -an extraordinary amount of elbow-room, for in forcing apart a tough -slice of beef the elbows have to stick out as square as possible, -and the consequence is, as the proprietor of a hotel told me, only -four Americans can eat in a space in which six Englishmen will dine -comfortably. The latter, when feeding, keep their elbows to their -sides; the former square them out on the line of the shoulders, and at -right angles to their sides. Having thus got the travelling American -into position, watch him consuming his food! He has ordered a dozen -"portions" of as many eatables, and the whole of his meal, after the -detestable fashion of the "eating-houses" at which travellers are fed, -is put before him at once. To eat the dozen or so different things -which he has ordered, he has only one knife and fork and one tea-spoon. -Bending over the table, he sticks his fork into a pickled gherkin, and -while munching this casts one rapid hawk-like glance over the spread -viands, and then proceeds to eat. Mehercule! what a sight it is! He -dabs his knife into the gravy of the steak, picks up with his fork a -piece of bacon, and while the one is going up to his mouth, the other -is reaching out for something else. He never apparently chews his food, -but dabs and pecks at the dishes one after the other with a rapidity -which (merely as a juggling trick) might be performed in London to -crowded houses every day, and with an impartiality that, considered as -"dining," is as savage as any meal of Red Indians or of Basutos. Dab, -dab, peck, peck, grunt, growl, snort! The spoon strikes in every now -and then, and a quick sucking-up noise announces the disappearance of a -mouthful of huckleberries on the top of a bit of bacon, or a spoonful -of custard-pie on the heels of a radish. It is perfectly prodigious. -It defies coherent description. But how on earth does he swallow? -Every now and then he shuts his eyes, and strains his throat; this, -I suppose, is when he swallows, for I have seen children getting rid -of cake with the same sort of spasm. Yet the rapidity with which he -shovels in his food is a wonder to me, seeing that he has not got any -"pouch" like the monkey or the pelican. Does he keep his miscellaneous -food in a "crop" like a pigeon, or a preliminary stomach like the cow, -and "chew the cud" afterwards at his leisure? I confess I am beaten by -it. The mixture of his food, if it pleases him, does not annoy me, for -if a man likes to eat mouthfuls of huckleberries, bacon, apple-pie, -pickled mackerel, peas, mutton, gherkins, oysters, radishes, tomatoes, -custard, and poached eggs (this is a bona-fide meal copied from my -note-book on the spot) in indiscriminate confusion, it has nothing to -do with me. But what I want to know is, why the travelling American -does not stop to chew his food; or why, as is invariably the case, he -will despatch in five minutes a meal for which he has half an hour set -specially apart? He falls upon his food as if he were demented with -hunger, as if he were a wild thing of prey tearing victims that he -hated into pieces; and when the hideous deed is done, he rushes out -from the scene of massacre with a handful of toothpicks, and leans idly -against the door-post, as if time were without limit or end! The whole -thing is a mystery to me. When I first came into the country I used to -waste many precious moments in gazing at "the fine confused feeding" of -my neighbours at the table, and waiting to see them choke. But I have -given that up now. I plod systematically and deliberately through my -one dish, content to find myself always the last at the table, with a -tumult of empty platters scattered all about me. Nothing can choke the -travelling American. In the meantime, I wish that young man of Ogden -would exhibit his great eating trick in London. It beats Maskelyne and -Cook into fits. -</p> -<p>From Ogden northwards the road lies past perpetual cottage-farms, -separated only by orchards or fields, and clustering at intervals -into pleasant villages, where the people are all busy gathering in -their lucerne crops. The same profusion of wild-flowers, and exquisite -rose-brakes, the same abundance of bird and insect life is conspicuous. -</p> -<p>But gradually our road bears away westward from the hills, leaving -cultivation and cottages to follow the line of irrigation along their -lower slopes, and while to our right the narrow-gauge line runs -northward up into the Cache Valley, the granary of Utah, we trend away -to the left. The northern end of the Salt Lake comes in sight, and the -track running for a while close to its side gives me a last look at -this sheet of wonderful water. -</p> -<p>I was sorry to see the last of it, for I was sorry to leave Utah and -the kind-hearted, simple, hard-working Mormon people. But the Lake -gradually comes to a point, dwindles out into a marsh, and is gone, and -as we speed away across levels of dreary alkaline ground, we can only -recall its site by the wild duck streaming across to settle for the -night in the reeds that grow by its edges. -</p> -<p>Away from Mormon industry, the sage-brush flourishes like green -bay-trees. To the east, the line of white-walled cottages speaks of a -civilization which we are leaving behind us. To the west, the dreary -mountains of Nevada already herald a region of barren desolation. And -so the sun begins to set, and in the dim moth-time, as the mists begin -to blur the outlines of Antelope Island in the Salt Lake, the small -round-faced owls come out upon the railway fencing and chuckle to each -other, and crossing the Bear River, all ruddy with the sunset, we see -the night-hawks skimming the water in chase of the creatures of the -twilight. -</p> -<p>And so to Corinne, ghastly Corinne, a Gentile failure on the very -skirts of Mormon success. It had once a great carrying-trade, for being -at the terminus of the Utah Railway, Montana depended upon it for its -supplies, and bitterly had Montana cause to regret it, for the Corinne -freight-carriers (I wish I could remember their expressive slang name) -seemed to think that railway enterprise must always terminate at -Corinne, and so they carried just what they chose, at the price they -chose, and when they chose. But the railway ran past them one fine day, -and so now there is Corinne, stranded high and dry, as discreditable -a settlement as ever men put together. Without any plan, treeless and -roadless, the scattered hamlet of crazy-looking shanties stands half -the year in drifting dust and half the year in sticky mud, and the -Mormons point the finger of scorn at the place the Gentiles used to -boast of. And Corinne seems to strike the keynote of the succeeding -country, for cultivation ceases and habitations are not on the desolate -plain we enter. And so to Promontory and then darkness. -</p> -<p>We awake to find ourselves still in calamitous Nevada. What heaps of -British gold have been sunk in those ugly hills in the hope of getting -up American silver! -</p> -<p>But here is Halleck, a government post, and soldiers from the barracks -are lounging about in uniforms that make them look like butcher-boys, -and with a drowsy gait that makes one suspect them to be burthened -with the saddening load of yesterday's whisky. Then, after an interval -of desert, we cross the Humboldt river, thick with the mud of melting -snows, and, snaking across a plain warted over with ant-hills, arrive -at Elko. -</p> -<p>It is possible that Allah in his mercy may forgive Elko the offal which -it put before us for breakfast. For myself, mere humanity forbids me to -forgive it. But Elko was otherwise of interest. A waiter, very black, -and, in proportion to his nigritude, insolent, had triumphed over my -unconcealed disgust with my food. Yet I turned to him civilly and said, -"Isn't there a warm spring here which is worth going to see?" -</p> -<p>"No," said the negro, "our spring been burned up!" -</p> -<p>"Burned up!" I exclaimed in astonishment; "the spring been burned up!" -</p> -<p>"Yes," said the abominable one, "burned up. Everybody know dat." -</p> -<p>"Was your mother there?" I asked courteously, pretending not to be -exasperated by the blackamoor. -</p> -<p>"My mother? No. My mother's—" -</p> -<p>"Ah!" I replied, "I thought she might have been burned up at the same -time, for you look like the son of a cinder." -</p> -<p>My sally—mean effort that it was—was a complete triumph, and I left -Ham squashed. It proved, of course, that it was the wooden shanty at -the spring that had been burned down, but in any case it was too far -off for us to go to see. So we consoled ourselves with the Indians, -who always gather on the platform at Elko, in the assurance of begging -or showing their papooses to some purpose. Nor were they wrong. I -paid a quarter to see "the papoose," and got more than my money's -worth in hearing this poor brown woman talking to her child the same -sweet nursery nonsense that my own wife talks to mine. And the papoose -understood it all, and chuckled and smiled and looked happy, for all -the world as if it were something better than a mere Indian baby. Poor -little Lamanite! In a year or two it will be strutting about the camp -with its mimic bow and arrows, striking its mother, and sneering at her -as "a squaw," and ten years later (if the end of the race has not then -arrived) may be riding with his tribe on some foul errand of murder, -while his mother carries the lodge-poles and the cooking-pots on foot -behind the young brave's horse. Imagine a life in which begging is the -chief dissipation, and horse-stealing the only industry! -</p> -<p>But I can feel a sympathy for the red man. It may be true that neither -gunpowder nor the Gospel can reform him, that his code of morality is -radically incurable, that he is, in fact, "the red-bellied varmint" -that the Western man believes him to be. Yet all the same, remembering -the miracles that British government has worked with the Gonds and -other seemingly hopeless tribes of India, I entertain a lurking -suspicion that under other and more kindly circumstances the Red Indian -might have been to-day a better thing than he is. -</p> -<p>At any rate, a people cannot be altogether worthless that in the -deepest depths of their degradation still maintain a lofty wild-beast -scorn of white men, and think them something lower than themselves. -And is not pride the noblest and the easiest of all fulcrums for a -government to work on? -</p> -<p>Is it quite certain, for instance, that, given arms, and drilled as -soldiers, detachments of the tribes, as auxiliaries of the regulars, -might not do good service at the different military posts, in routine -duty, of course, and that the prestige of such employment would not -appeal to the military spirit of the tribes at large? What is there -at Fort Halleck that Indians could not do as well as white men? It is -a notorious fact, and as old as American history, that the red man -holds sacred everything that his tribe is guarding. Why should not this -chivalry, common to every savage race on earth, and largely utilized -by other governments in Asia and in Africa, be turned to account -in America too, and Indians be entrusted with the peace of Indian -frontiers? -</p> -<p>I know well enough that many will think my suggestion sentimental and -absurd, but fortunately it is just the class who think in that way that -have no real importance in this or in any other country. They are the -men who think the "critturs" ought to be "used up," and who, when they -are in the West, "would as soon shoot an Injun as a coyote." These men -form a class of which America, when she is three generations older, -will have little need for, and who, in a more settled community, will -find that they must either conform to civilization or else "git." -There are a great number of these coarse, thick-skinned, ignorant men -floating about on the surface of Western America: for Western America -still stands in need of men who will do the reckless preliminary work -of settlement, and shoot each other off over a whisky bottle when that -work is done. Now, these men, and those of a feebler kind who take -their opinions from them, believe and preach that annihilation of the -Indian is the only possible cure for the Indian evil. I have heard -them say it in public a score of times that "the Indian should be -wiped clean out." But a larger and more generous class is growing up -very fast in the West, who are beginning to see that the red men are -really a charge upon them: and that as a great nation they must take -upon themselves the responsibilities of empire, and protect the weaker -communities whom a rapidly advancing civilization is isolating in their -midst. -</p> -<p>But it is a pity that those in authority cannot see their way to -giving practical effect to such sentiments, and devise some method for -utilizing the Indian. For myself, seeing what has been done in Asia -and in Africa with equally difficult tribes, I should be inclined to -predict success for an experiment in military service, if the routine -duties of barracks and outpost duty, in unnecessary places, can be -called "military service." -</p> -<p>For one thing, drilled and well-armed Indians would very soon put a -stop to cow-boy disturbances in Arizona, or anywhere else. Or, again, -if Indians had been on his track, James, the terror of Missouri, would -certainly not have flourished so long as he did. -</p> -<p>But by this time we have got far past Elko, and the train is carrying -us through an undulating desert of rabbit-bush and greasewood, with -dull, barren hills on either hand, and then we reach Carlin, another -dreadful-looking hamlet of the Corinne type, and, alas! Gentile also, -without a tree or a road, and nearly every shanty in it a saloon. -</p> -<p>More Indians are on the platform. They are allowed, it appears, under -the Company's contract with the government, to ride free of charge -upon the trains, and so the poor creatures spend their summer days, -when they are not away hunting or stealing, in travelling backwards -and forwards from one station to the next, and home again. This does -not strike the civilized imagination as a very exhilarating pastime, -nor one to be contemplated with much enthusiasm of enjoyment. Yet the -Indians, in their own grave way, enjoy it prodigiously. -</p> -<p>Curiously enough, they cannot be persuaded to ride anywhere, except on -the platforms between the baggage-cars. But here they cluster as thick -as swarming bees, the in all the fantastic combination of vermilion, -"bucks" tag-rag and nudity, the squaws dragging about ponderous bison -robes and sheep-skins, and laden with papooses, the children, grotesque -little imitations of their parents, with their playthings in their -hands. -</p> -<p>For the "papoose" is a human child after all, and the little Shoshonee -girls nurse their dolls just as little girls in New York do, only, of -course, the Red Indian's child carries on her back an imitation papoose -in an imitation pannier, instead of wheeling an imitation American -baby in an imitation American "baby-carriage." I watched one of these -brown fragments of the great sex that gives the world its wives and its -mothers, its sweethearts and its sisters, and it was quite a revelation -to me to hear the wee thing crooning to her wooden baby, and hushing -it to sleep, and making believe to be anxious as to its health and -comforts. Yes, and my mind went back on a sudden to the nursery, on -the other side of the Atlantic, thousands of miles away, where another -little girl sits crooning over her doll of rags and wax, and on her -face I saw just the same expression of troubled concern as clouded the -little Shoshonee's brow, and the same affectation of motherly care. -</p> -<p>So it takes something more than mere geographical distance to alter -human nature. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII. -</h2> -<p class="centered">FROM NEVADA INTO CALIFORNIA. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Of Bugbears—Suggestions as to sleeping-cars—A Bannack chief, - his hat and his retinue—The oasis of Humboldt—Past Carson - Sink—A reminiscence of wolves—"Hard places"—First glimpses of - California—A corn miracle—Bunch-grass and Bison—From Sacramento - to Benicia. -</p> -<p>IS a bugbear most bug or bear? I never met one yet fairly face to face, -for the bugbear is an evasive insect. Nor, if I did meet one, can I -say whether I should prefer to find it mainly bug or mainly bear. The -latter is of various sorts. Thus, one, the little black bear of the -Indian hills, is about as formidable as a portmanteau of the same size. -Another, the grizzly of the Rockies, is a very unamiable person. His -temper is as short as his tail; and he has very little more sense of -right and wrong than a Land-leaguer. But he is not so mean as the bug. -You never hear of grizzly bears getting into the woodwork of bedsteads -and creeping out in the middle of the night to sneak up the inside of -your night-shirt. He does not go and cuddle himself up flat in a crease -of the pillow-case, and then slip out edgeways as soon as it is dark, -and bite you in the nape of the neck. It is not on record that a bear -ever got inside a nightcap and waited till the gas was turned out, to -come forth and feed like grief on the damask cheek of beauty. No, these -are not the habits of bears, they are more manly than bugs. If you -want to catch a bear between your finger and thumb, and hold it over -a lighted match on the point of a pin, it will stand still to let you -try. Or if you want to have a good fair slap at a bear with a slipper, -it won't go flattening itself out in the crevices of furniture, in -order to dodge the blow, but will stand up square in the road, in broad -daylight, and let you do it. So, on the whole, I cannot quite make -up my mind whether bugs or bears are the worst things to have about -a house. You see you could shoot at the bear out of the window; but -it would be absurd to fire off rifles at bugs between the blankets. -Besides, bears don't keep you awake all night by leaving you in doubt -as to whether they are creeping about the bed or not, or spoil your -night's rest by making you sit up and grope about under the bed-clothes -and try to see things in the dark. Altogether, then, there is a good -deal to be said on the side of the bear. -</p> -<p>I am led to these remarks by remembering that at Carlin, in Nevada, I -found two bugs in my "berth" in the sleeping-car. The porter thought I -must have "brought them with me." Perhaps I did, but, as I told him, -I didn't remember doing so, and with his permission would not take -them any further. Or perhaps the Shoshonees brought them. All Indians, -whether red or brown, are indifferent to these insects, and carry them -about with them in familiar abundance. -</p> -<p>And this reminds me to say a little about sleeping-cars in general. -During my travels in America I have used three kinds, the Pullman -Palace, the Silver Palace, and the Baltimore and Ohio, and except -in "high tone," and finish of ornament, where the Pullman certainly -excels the rest, there is very little to choose between them. All are -extremely comfortable as sleeping-cars. In the Silver Palace, however, -there is a custom prevalent of not pulling down the upper berth when it -is unoccupied, and this improvement on the Pullman plan is certainly -very great. The two shelves, one at each end of the berth, are ample -for one's clothes, while the sense of relief and better ventilation -from not having the bottom of another bedstead suspended eighteen -inches or so above your face is decidedly conducive to better rest. -The general adoption of this practice, wherever possible, would, I am -sure, be popular among passengers. As day-cars, the "sleepers" have -one or two defects in common, which might very easily be remedied. For -one thing, every seat should have a removable headrest belonging to -it. As it is, the weary during the day become very weary indeed, and -the attempts of passengers to rest their heads by curling themselves -up on the seats, or lying crosswise in the "section," are as pathetic -as they are often absurd, and give a Palace car the appearance, on -a hot afternoon, of a ward in some Hospital for Spinal Complaints. -Another point that should be altered is the hour for closing the -smoking-room. When not required for berths for passengers (for the -company's employees ought not to be considered when the convenience of -the company's customers is in question) there is no reason whatever -for closing the smoking-room at ten. As a rule it is not closed; -but sometimes it is; and it should not be placed in the power of -a surly conductor—and there are too many ill-mannered conductors -on the railways—to annoy passengers by applying such a senseless -regulation. A third point is the apple-and-newspaper-boy nuisance. -This wretched creature, if of an enterprising kind, pesters you to -purchase things which you have no intention of purchasing, and if you -express any annoyance at his importunity, he is insolent. But apart -from his insolence, he is an unmitigated nuisance. What should be done -is this: a printed slip, such as the boy himself carries and showing -what he sells, should be put on to the seats by the porter, and when -any passenger wants an orange or a book, he could send for the vendor. -But the vendor should be absolutely forbidden to parade his wares in -the sleeping-cars, unless sent for. Anywhere else, except on a train, -he would be handed over to the police for his importunities; but on -the train he considers himself justified in badgering the public, -and impertinently resents being ordered away. These are three small -matters, no doubt, but changes in the direction I have suggested would -nevertheless materially increase the comfort of passengers. -</p> -<p>And now let me see. When I fell into these digressions I had just -said good-bye to the Mormons and Mormonland, and had got as far into -Nevada as Carlin. From there a dismal interval of wilderness brings the -traveller to Palisade, a group of wooden saloons haunted by numbers of -yellow Chinese. In the few minutes that the train stopped here, I saw a -curious sight. -</p> -<p>A number of our Shoshonee passengers—the "deadheads" on the platform -between the baggage-cars—had got off, and one, of them was the squaw -that had the papoose. As she sat down and unslung her infant from -her back, a group gathered round her—one Englishman, one negro, -three mulattoes, and a Chinaman. And they were all laughing at the -Indian. Not one of them all, not even the negro, but thought himself -entitled to make fun of her and her baby! The white man looks down -on the mulatto, and the mulatto on the negro, and the negro and the -Chinaman reciprocate a mutual disdain; yet here they were, all four -together, on a common platform, loftily ridiculing the Shoshonee! It -was a delightful spectacle for the cynic. But I am no cynic, and yet I -laughed heartily at them all—at them all except the Shoshonee. -</p> -<p>I cannot, for the life of me, help venerating these representatives of -aprodigious antiquity, these relics of a civilization that dates back -before our Flood. -</p> -<p>Then we reach the Humboldt River, a broad and full-watered stream, -lazily winding along among ample meadows. But not a trace of -cultivation anywhere. And then on to the desert again with the -surface of the alkali land curling up into flakes, and the lank grey -greasewood sparsely scattered about it. The desolation is as utter as -in Beluchistan or the Land of Goshen, and instead of Murrees there are -plenty of Shoshonees to make the desolation perilous to travellers by -waggon. At Battle Creek station they are mustered in quite a crowd, -listless men with faces like masks and women burnished and painted and -wooden as the figure-heads of English barges. I do not think that in -all my travels, in Asia or in Africa, or in the islands of eastern or -southern seas, I have ever met a race with such a baffling physiognomy. -You can no more tell from his face what an Indian is thinking of than -you can from a monkey's. Their eyes brighten and then glaze over again -without a word being spoken or a muscle of the face moved, and they -avert their glance as soon as you look at them. If you look into an -Indian's eyes, they seem to deaden, and all expression dies out of -them; but the moment you begin to turn your head away, at you. They are -hieroglyphics altogether, and there is something "uncanny" about them. -</p> -<p>At Battle Creek we note that (with irrigation) trees will grow, but -in a few minutes we are out again on the wretched desert, the eternal -greasewood being the only apology for vegetation, and little prairie -owls the only representatives of wild life. And so to Winnemucca, -where, being watered, a few trees are growing; but the desolation -is nevertheless so complete that I could not help thinking of the -difference a little Mormon industry would make! A company of Bannack -Indians were waiting here for the train, and such a wonderful -collection as they were! One of them was the chief who not long ago -gave the Federal troops a good deal of trouble, and his retinue was -the most delightful medley of curiosities—a long thin man with the -figure of a lamppost, a short fat one with the expression of a pancake, -a half-breed with a beard, and a boy with a squint. The chief, with -a face about an acre in width, wore a stove-pipe hat with the crown -knocked out and the opening stuffed full of feathers, but the rest -of his wonderful costume, all flapping about him in ends and fringes -of all colours and very dirty, is indescribable. His suite were in -a more sober garb, but all were grotesque, their headgear being -especially novel, and showing the utmost scorn of the hatter's original -intentions. Some wore their hats upside down and strapped round the -chin with a ribbon; others inside out, with a fringe of their own added -on behind—but it was enough to make any hatter mad to look at them. -</p> -<p>They travelled with us across the next interval of howling wilderness, -and got out to promenade at Humboldt, where we got out to dine—and, as -it proved, to dine well. -</p> -<p>Humboldt is an exquisite oasis in the hideous Nevada waste. A fountain -plays before the hotel door, and on either side are planted groves -of trees, poplar and locust and willow, with the turf growing green -beneath them, and roses scattered about. -</p> -<p>No wonder that all the birds and butterflies of the neighbourhood -collect at such a beautiful spot, or that travellers go away grateful, -not only for the material benefits of a good meal, but the pleasures -of green trees and running water and the song of birds. An orchard, -with lucerne strong and thick beneath them, promises a continuance of -cultivation, but on a sudden it stops, and we find ourselves out again -on the alkali plain, as barren and blistered as the banks of the Suez -Canal. A tedious hour or two brings us to the river again; but man -here is not agricultural, so the desert continues in spite of abundant -water. And so to Lovelocks, where girls board the train as if they were -brigands, urging us to buy "sweet fresh milk—five cents a glass." -Indians, as usual, are lounging about on the platform, and some more of -them get on to the train, and away we go again into the same Sahara as -before. Humboldt Lake, the "sink" where the river disappears from the -surface of the earth, and a distant glimpse of Carson's "Sink," hardly -relieve the desperate monotony, for they are hideous levels of water -without a vestige of vegetation, and close upon them comes as honest a -tract of desert as even Africa can show, and with no more "features" -on it than a plate of cold porridge has. A wolf goes limping off in a -three-legged kind of way, as much as to say that, having to live in -such a place, it didn't much care whether we caught it or not; and what -a contrast to the pair of wolves I remember meeting one morning in -Afghanistan! -</p> -<p>I was riding a camel and looking away to my right across the plain. I -saw coming towards me, over the brushwood, in a series of magnificent -leaps, a couple of immense wolves. I knew that wolves grew sometimes to -a great size, but I had no idea that, even with their winter fur on, -they could be so large as these were. -</p> -<p>And there was a majesty about their advance that fascinated me, for -every bound, though it carried them twelve or fifteen feet, was so -free and light that they seemed to move by machinery rather than by -prodigious strength of muscle. But it suddenly occurred to me that they -were crossing my path, and I saw, moreover, that our relative speeds, -if maintained, might probably bring us into actual collision at the -point of intersection. But it was not for me to yield the road, and the -wolves thought it was not for them. And so we approached, the wolves -keeping exact time and leaping together, as if trained to do it, and -then, without swerving a hair's-breadth from their original course they -bounded across the path only a few feet behind my camel. It was superb -courage on their part, and as an episode of wild-beast life, one of the -most picturesque and dramatic I ever witnessed. -</p> -<p>The next station we halted at was Wadsworth, a "hard place," so -men say, where revolvers are in frequent use and Lynch is judge. -Here the broad-faced Bannack chief got down, and, followed by his -tag-rag retinue, disappeared into the cluster of wigwams which we -saw pitched behind the station. I noticed a man standing here with a -splendid cactus in his hand, covered with large magenta blossoms, and -this reminded me to note the conspicuous change in the botany that -about here takes place. The flowers that had borne us company all -through Utah and now and then brightened the roadside in Nevada had -disappeared, and were replaced by others of species nearly all new -to me. I saw here for the first time a golden-flowered cactus and a -tall lavender-coloured spiraea of singular beauty. A little beyond -Wadsworth the change becomes even more marked, for striking the Truckee -river, we exchange desolation for pretty landscape, and the desert for -green bottom lands. The alteration was a welcome one, and some of the -glimpses, even if we had not passed through such a melancholy region, -would have claimed our admiration on their own merits. The full-fed -river poured along a rapid stream, through low-lying meadow-lands -fringed with tall cotton-wood, the valley sometimes narrowing so much -that the river took up all the room, and then widening out so as to -admit of large expanses of grass and occasional fields of corn. And so -to Greeno, where we supped heartily off "Truckee trout," one of the -best fish that ever wagged a fin. As we got back into the cars it was -getting dark, for with the usual luck of travel the Central Pacific -has to run its trains so as to give passengers ugly Nevada by day and -beautiful California by night. -</p> -<p>Awaking next morning was a wonderful surprise. We had gone to sleep in -Nevada in early summer, and we awoke in California late in autumn! In -Utah, two days ago, the crops had only just begun to flush the ground -with green. Here, to-day, the corn-fields were the sun-dried stubble of -crops that had been cut weeks ago! -</p> -<p>And the first glimpses of it were fortunate ones, for when I awoke -it was in a fine park-like, undulating country, studded with clumps -of oak-trees, but one continuous cornfield. Great mounds of straw -and stacks of corn dotted the landscape as far as the eye could see, -and already the fields were alive with carts and men all busy with -the splendid harvest. After a while came vast expanses of meadow, -prettily timbered, in which great flocks of sheep and herds of cattle -were grazing, ranches such as I had never seen before. And then we -passed some houses, broad-eaved and verandahed, with capacious barns -standing in echelon behind, and all the signs of an ample prosperity, -deep shaded in walnut-trees laden with nuts, overrun by vines already -heavy with clusters, and brightened by clumps of oleanders ruddy with -blossom. And then came the corn-fields again, an unbroken expanse of -stubble, yellow as the sea-sand, and seemingly as interminable. What a -country! It is a kingdom in itself. -</p> -<p>And its rivers! The American River soon came in sight, rolling its -stately flood along between brakes of willow and elder, and aspen, and -then the Sacramento, a noble stream. And the two conspire and join -together to take liberties with the solid earth, swamp it into bulrush -beds by the league together, and create such jungles as almost rival -the great Himalaya Terai. And so to Sacramento. -</p> -<p>Sacramento was en fete, for it was the race week. So bunting was -flapping from every conspicuous point, and everything and everybody -wore a whole holiday, morning-cocktail, go-as-you-please sort of look. -This fact may account for the very ill-mannered conductor who boarded -us here. -</p> -<p>I am sitting in the smoking-car. Enter conductor with his mouth too -full of tobacco to be able to speak. He points at me with his thumb. I -take no notice of his thumb. He spits in the spittoon at my feet and -jerks his thumb towards me again. I disregard his thumb. "Ticket!" he -growls. I give him my ticket. He punches it and thrusts it back to me -so carelessly and suddenly that it falls on the floor. He takes no -notice, but passes on into the car. I take out my pocket-book and make -a note;— -</p> -<p>"Such a man as this goes some way towards discrediting the -administration of a whole line. It seems a pity therefore to retain his -services." -</p> -<p>However, of Sacramento, I was very sorry not to be able to stay there, -for next to the Los Angeles country I had been told that it was one of -the finest "locations" in all California, and I can readily believe it, -for the botany of the place is sub-tropical, and snow and sunstroke -are equally unknown. Fruits of all kinds grow there in delightful -abundance, and I cherish it therefore as a personal grudge against -Sacramento that there was not even a blackberry procurable at breakfast. -</p> -<p>Passing from Sacramento, and remarking as we go, the patronage which -that vegetable impostor, the eucalyptus globulus (or "blue-gum" of -Australia) has secured, both as an ornamental—save the mark!—and -a shade-tree, two purposes for which by itself the eucalyptus is -specially unfitted, we find ourselves once more in a world given up to -harvesting. A monotonous panorama of stubble and standing crops, with -clumps of pretty oak timber studding the undulating land, leads us to -the diversified approaches to San Francisco. -</p> -<p>It is old travellers' ground, but replete with the interest which -attaches to variety of scenery, continual indications of vast wealth, -and a rapidly growing prosperity. But one word, before we reach the -town, for that wonderful natural crop—the "wild oats," which clothe -every vacant acre of the country on this Pacific watershed with -harvests as close and as regular as if the land had been tilled, and -the ground sown, by human agency. This surprising plant is said to have -been brought to California by the Spaniards, and to have run wild from -the original fields. But whatever its origin, it is now growing in such -vast prairies that whole tribes of Indians used to look to it as the -staple of their food. But better crops are fast displacing it, and as -for the Indian, California no longer belongs to him or his bison-herds. -Further east, that is to say, from the Platte Valley to the Sierra -Nevada, the "bunch grass" was the great natural provision for the wild -herds of the wild man, and it still ranks as one of the most valuable -features of otherwise barren regions in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. -To the student of Nature, however, it is far more interesting as one -of the most beautiful examples of her kindly foresight, for the bunch -grass grows where nothing else can find nourishment, and just when -all other grasses are useless as fodder, it throws out young juicy -shoots, thrives under the snow, and then in May, when other grasses are -abundant, it dies! Somebodv has said that without the mule and the pig -America would never have been colonized. That may be as it may be. But -the real pioneer of the West was the bison, for the first emigrants -followed exactly in the footsteps of the retiring herds, and these in -their turn grazed their way towards the Pacific in the line of the -bunch grass. -</p> -<p>Mount Diavolo is the first "feature" that arouses the traveller's -inquisitiveness, and then the Martines Straits with their yellow -waters spread out at the feet of rolling, yellow hills, and then great -mud flats on which big vessels lie waiting for the tide to come and -float them on, and then a bay which, with its girdle of hills and its -broad margin, reminds me of Durban in Natal. So to Benicia, the place -of "the Boy," with the blacksmith's forge where Heenan used to work -still standing near the water's edge, and where the hammer that the -giant used to use is still preserved "in memoriam," and then on to the -ferry-boat (train and all!) and across a bay of brown water and brown -mud and brown hills—dismally remindful of Weston-super-Mare—and on -to dry land again, past Berkley, with its college among the trees, -Oakland, and other suburban resorts of the San Franciscan, to the -fine new three-storeyed Station at the pier. Once more on to the -ferry-boat, but this time leaving our train behind us and across -another bay, and so into San Francisco. Outside the station stands a -crowd of chariot-like omnibuses, as gorgeously coloured, some of them, -as the equipages of a circus, and empanelled with gaudy pictures. In -one of them we find our proper seats, and are soon bumping over the -cobble-stones into "the most wonderful city, sir, of America." -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII. -</h2> -<p class="chapterHeading"> San Franciscans, their fruits and their falsehoods—Their neglect - of opportunities—A plague of flies—The pig-tail problem—Chinamen - less black than they are painted—The seal rocks—The loss of the - Eurydice—A jeweller's fairyland—The mystery of gems. -</p> -<p>SOMEBODY has poked fun at San Francisco, by calling it the "Venice of -the West," and then qualifying the compliment by explaining that the -only resemblance between the two cities is in the volume and variety of -the disagreeable smells that prevail in them. But the San Franciscans -take no notice of this explanation. They accept the comparison in its -broadest sense, and positively expect you to see a resemblance between -their very wonderful, but very new town, and Venice! Indeed, there is -no limit to the San Franciscan's expectations from a stranger. -</p> -<p>Now, I was sitting in the hotel one day and overheard a couple of San -Franciscans bragging in an off-hand way to a poor wretch who had been -brought up, I should guess, in New Mexico, and calmly assuring him that -there was no place "in the world" of greater beauty than San Francisco, -or of more delicious fruit. I pretended to fall into the same easy -credulity myself, and drew them on to making such monstrous assertions -as that San Francisco was a revelation of beauty to all travellers, and -the perfection of its fruit a never-ceasing delight to them! I then -ventured deferentially to inquire what standard of comparison they had -for their self-laudation, what other countries they had visited, and -what fruits they considered California produced in such perfection. -Now, it turned out that these three impostors had never been out of -America: in fact, that, except for short visits on business to the -Eastern States, they had never been out of California and Nevada! I -then assured them that, for myself, I had seen, in America alone, many -places far more beautiful, while "in the world" I knew of a hundred -with which San Francisco should not venture to compare itself. As for -its fruits, there was not in its market, nor in its best shops, a -single thing that deserved to be called first-class. From the watery -cherries to the woolly apricots, every fruit was as flavourless as it -dared to be, while, as a whole, they were so second-rate that they -could not have found a sale in the best shops of either Paris or -London. The finest fruit, to my mind, was a small but well-flavoured -mango, imported from Mexico. Its flavour was almost equal to that of -the langra of the Benares district, or the green mango of Burmah; and -if the Maldah was grafted on to this Mexican stock, the result would -probably be a fruit that would be as highly prized in New York and in -England, as it is all over Asia. But very few people in San Francisco -ever buy mangoes. "No, sir," I said at last to the barbarian who had -been imposed upon; "don't you believe any one who tells you that San -Francisco is the most lovely spot on earth, or that its fruits are -extraordinary in flavour. San Francisco is a wonderful city; it is the -Wonder of the West. But you must not believe all that San Franciscans -tell you about it." -</p> -<p>It is a great pity that San Franciscans should have this weakness. They -have plenty to be proud of, for their city is a marvel. But it has as -yet all the disadvantages of newness. Its population, moreover, is -as disagreeably unsettled as in the towns of the Levant. All the mud -and dirt are still in suspension. I know very well, of course, that -improvement is making immense and rapid strides, but to the visitor the -act of transition is, of course, invisible, and he only sees the place -at a period of apparent repose between the last point of advance and -the next. He can imagine anything he pleases—and it is difficult to -imagine the full splendour of the future of the Californian capital. -But this is not what he actually sees. For myself, then, I found San -Francisco as so many other travellers have described it, disorderly, -breathless with haste, unkempt. Here and there, where trees have -been planted, and there is the grace of flowers and creeping plants, -the houses look as if rational people might really live in them. But -for the vast majority of the buildings, they seem merely places to -lodge in, dak-bungalows or rest-houses, perches for passing swallows, -anything you like—except houses to pass one's life in. They are not -merely wooden, but they are sham too, with their imposing "fronts" -nailed on to the roofs to make them look finer, just as vulgar women -paste curly "bangs" on to the fronts of their heads. There is also -an inexcusable dearth of ornament. I say inexcusable, because San -Francisco might be a perfect paradise of flowers and trees. Even the -"weeds" growing on the sand dunes outside the city are flowers that are -prized in European gardens. But as it is, Francois Jeannot,—"French -gardener, with general enterprise of gardens," as his signboard -states,—has evidently very little to do. There is little "enterprise -of gardens." Yet what exquisite flowers there are! The crimson salvia -grows in strong hedges, and plots are fenced in with geraniums. -The fuchsias are sturdy shrubs in which birds might build their -nests, and the roses and jessamines and purple clematis of strange, -large-blossomed kinds, form natural arbours of enchanting beauty. -Lobelias spread out into large cushions of a royal blue, and the canna, -wherever sown, sends up shafts of vivid scarlet, orange, and yellow. -</p> -<p>If I only knew the names of other plants I could fill a page with -descriptions of the wonderful luxuriance of San Franciscan flowers. -But all I could say would only emphasize the more clearly the apparent -neglect by the San Franciscans of the floral opportunities they possess. -</p> -<p>It is curious how enthusiastic California has been in its reception -of the eucalyptus globulus, the blue-gum tree of Australia. And I -am afraid there has been some job put upon the San Franciscans in -this matter. Has anybody, with a little speculation in blue-gums on -hand, been telling them that the eucalyptus was a wonderful drainer -of marshes and conqueror of fevers? If so, it is a pity they had not -heard that that hoax was quite played out in Europe, and the eucalyptus -shown to be an impostor. Or were they told of its stately proportions, -its rapid growth, its beautiful foliage, and its splendid shade? If -so, that hoax will soon expose itself. Given a site where no wind -blows, the eucalyptus will grow straight, but offered the smallest -provocation it flops off to one side or the other, while its foliage -is liable probably beyond that of all other trees to discoloration -and raggedness. In Natal it has proved itself very useful as fencing, -for neither wood nor stone being procurable, slips and shreds of -eucalyptus have soon grown up into permanent hedges. But no one thinks -of valuing it anywhere, except in Australia, either for its timber, its -appearance, or its medicinal virtues. -</p> -<p>In many ways the Queen of the Pacific was a surprise; I had expected -to find it "semi-tropical." It is nothing of the kind. Women were -wearing furs every afternoon (in June) because of the chill wind that -springs up about three o'clock, and men walked about with great-coats -over their arms ready for use. The architecture of the city is not -so "semi-tropical" as that of suburban New York, while vegetation, -instead of being rampant, is conspicuously absent. Three women out -of every four wore very thick veils, but why they were so thick I -could not discover. In hot countries they do not wear them, nor in -"semi-tropical." Perhaps they were vestiges of some recent visitation -of dust, which appears to be sometimes as prodigious here as it is in -Pietermaritzburg. But they might, very properly, have been an armour -against the flies which swarmed in some parts of the town in hideous -multitudes. I went into a large restaurant, the "Palace" something it -was called, with the intention of eating, but I left without doing so, -a palled by the plague of flies. I found Beelzebub very powerful in -Washington, and at some of "the eating places" in the South his hosts -were intolerable; but San Francisco has streets as completely given -over to the fly-fiend as an Alexandrian bazaar. -</p> -<p>Before I went to San Francisco, I had an idea that a "Chinese question" -was agitating the State of California, that every white man was excited -about the expulsion of the heathen, that it was the topic of the day, -and that passion ran high between the rival populations. I very soon -found that I had been mistaken, and that there is really no "Chinese -question" at all in California. At least, the one question now is, -how to evade the late bill stopping Chinese immigration; and it was -gleefully pointed out to me that though the importation of Celestials -by sea was prohibited, there was no provision to prevent them being -brought into the State by land; and that the numbers of the arrivals -would not probably diminish in the least! -</p> -<p>I had intended to "study" the Chinese question. But there is not much -study to be done over a ghost. Besides, every Californian manufacturer -is agreed on the main points, that Chinese labour is absolutely -necessary, that there is not enough of it yet in the State, that more -still must be obtained. And where a "problem" is granted on all hands, -it is hardly worth while affecting to search for profound social, -political, or economical complication in it. There is not much more -mystery about it than about the nose on a man's face. -</p> -<p>Of course those who organized the clamour have what they call -"arguments," but they are hardly such as can command respect. In the -first place they allege two apprehensions as to the future: 1. That -the Chinese, if unrestricted, will swamp the Americans in the State; -and 2. That they will demoralize those Americans. Now the first is, I -take it, absurd, and if it is not, then California ought to be ashamed -of itself. And as for the second, who can have any sympathy with a -State that is unable to enforce its police regulations, or with a -community in which parents say they cannot protect the purity of their -households? If the Chinaman, as a citizen, disregards sanitary bye-laws -why is he not punished, as he would be everywhere else: and if as a -domestic servant he misbehaves, why is he not dispensed with, as he -would be everywhere else? -</p> -<p>Besides these two apprehensions as to the future, they have three -objections as to the present. The first is, that the Chinese send their -earnings out of the country; the second, that they spend nothing in San -Francisco; the third, that they underwork white men. Now the first is -foolish, the second and the third, I believe, untrue. As to the Chinese -carrying money out of the country—why should they not do so? Will -any one say seriously that America, a bullion-producing country, is -injured by the Chinese taking their money earnings out of the States, -in exchange for that which America cannot produce, namely, labour? Is -political economy to go mad simply to suit the sentiment of extra-white -labour in California? -</p> -<p>As to the Chinese spending nothing in this country, this is hardly -borne out by facts, and, in the mouths Of San Franciscans, specially -unfortunate. For they have not only raised their prices upon the -Chinese, but have actually forbidden them to spend their money in -those directions in which they wished to do so. As it is, however, -they spend, in exorbitant rents, taxes, customs-dues, and in direct -expenditure, a perfectly sufficient share of their earnings, and -if permitted to do so, would spend a great deal more. A ludicrous -superstition, that the Chinese are economical, underlies many of the -misstatements put forward as "arguments" against them. Yet they are -not economical. On the contrary, the Chinese and the Japanese are -exceptional among Eastern races for their natural extravagance. -</p> -<p>It is further alleged that they underwork white men. This statement -will hardly bear testing; for the wages of a Chinese workman, in the -cigar trade, for instance, are not lower than those of a white man, -say, in Philadelphia. They do not, therefore, "underwork" the white -man; but they do undoubtedly underwork the white Californian. For the -white Californian will not work at Eastern rates. On the contrary, he -wishes to know whether you take him for "a — fool" to think that he, -in California, is going to accept the same wages that he could have -stopped in New York for! Yet why should he not do so? It will hardly -be urged that the Californian Irishman is a superior individual to the -Eastern American, or that the average San Franciscan workman is any -better than the men of his own class on the Atlantic coast? Yet the -Californian claims higher wages, and abuses the Chinese for working at -rates which white men are elsewhere glad to accept. He says, too, that -living is dearer. Facts disprove this. As a matter of fact, living is -cheaper in San Francisco than in either Chicago or New York. -</p> -<p>How did I spend my time in San Francisco? Well, friends were very kind -to me, and I saw everything that a visitor "ought to see." But after my -usual fashion I wandered about the streets a good deal alone, and rode -up and down in the street-cars, and I had half a mind at first to be -disappointed with the city of which r had heard so much. But later in -the evening, when the gas was alight and the pavement had its regular -habitues, and the pawnbrokers' and bankrupts'-stock stores were all lit -up, I saw what a wild, strange city it was. Indeed, I know of no place -in the world more full of interesting incidents and stirring types than -this noisy, money-spending San Francisco. -</p> -<p>One night, of course, I spent several hours in the Chinese quarter, and -I cannot tell why, but I took a great fancy to the Celestial, as he is -to be seen in San Francisco. Politically, nationally, and commercially, -I hate Pekin and all its works. But individually I find the Chinaman, -all the world over, a quiet-mannered, cleanly-living, hard-working -servant. And in all parts of the world, except California, my estimate -of Johnnie is the universal one. In California, however, so the -extra-white people say, he is a dangerous, dirty, demoralizing heathen. -And there is no doubt of it that, in the Chinese quarter of the city, -he is crowded into a space that would be perilous to the health of -men accustomed to space and ventilation, but I was told by a Chinaman -that he and his people had been prevented by the city authorities from -expanding into more commodious lodgings. As for cleanliness, I have -travelled too much to forget that this virtue is largely a question -of geography, and that, especially in matters of food, the habits of -Europeans are considered by half the world so foul as to bring them -within the contempt of a hemisphere. As regards personal cleanliness, -the Chinese are rather scrupulous. -</p> -<p>But I wonder San Francisco does not build a Chinatown, somewhere in the -breezy suburbs, and lay a tramway to it for the use of the Chinamen, -and then insist upon its sanitary regulations being properly observed. -San Francisco would be rather surprised at the result. For the -settlements of the Chinese are very neat and cleanly in appearance, and -the people are very fond of curious gardening and house-ornamentation. -The Chinese themselves would be only too glad to get out of the centre -of San Francisco and the quarters into which they are at present -compelled to crowd, while their new habitations would very soon be -one of the most attractive sights of all the city. As it is, it is -picturesque, but it is of necessity dirty—after the fashion of Asiatic -dirtiness. Smells that seem intolerable assail the visitor perpetually, -but after all they were better than the smell from an eating-house -in Kearney Street which we passed soon after, and where creatures of -Jewish and Christian persuasions were having fish fried. I am not -wishing to apologize for the Chinese. I hate China with a generous -Christian vindictiveness, and think it a great pity that dismemberment -has not been forced upon that empire long ago as a punishment for her -massacres of Catholics, and her treason generally against the commerce -and polity of Europe. But I cannot forget that California owes much to -the Chinese. -</p> -<p>Next to the Chinese, I found the sea-lions the most interesting feature -of San Francisco. To reach them, however (if you do not wish to indulge -the aboriginal hackman with an opportunity for extortion), you have to -undergo a long drive in a series of omnibuses and cars, but the journey -through the sand-waste outskirts of the city is thoroughly instructive, -for the intervals of desert remind you of the original condition of -the country on which much of San Francisco has been built, while the -intervals of charming villa residences in oases of gardens, show what -capital can do, even with only sea-sand to work upon. We call Ismailia -a wonder—but what is Ismailia in comparison with San Francisco! After -a while solid sand dunes supervene, beautiful, however, in places -with masses of yellow lupins, purple rocket, and fine yellow-flowered -thistles, and then the broad sea comes into sight, and so to the Cliff -House. -</p> -<p>Just below the House, one of the most popular resorts of San Francisco, -the "Seal Rocks" stand up out of the water, and it is certainly one of -the most interesting glimpses of wild life that the whole world affords -to see the herds of "sea-lions" clambering and sprawling about their -towers of refuge. For Government has forbidden their being killed, -so the huge creatures drag about their bulky slug-shaped bodies in -confident security. It would not be very difficult I should think for -an amateur to make a sea-lion. There is very little shape about them. -But, nevertheless, it is such a treat as few can have enjoyed twice in -their lives to see these mighty ones of the deep basking on the sunny -rocks, and ponderously sporting in the water. -</p> -<p>And looking out to sea, beyond the sea-lions, I saw a spar standing -up out of the water. It was the poor Escambia that had sunk there the -day before, and there, on the beach to the left of the Cliff House, -was the spot where the three survivors of the crew managed to make -good their hold in spite of the pitiless surf, and to clamber up out -of reach of the waves. And all through the night, with the lights of -the Cliff House burning so near them, the men lay there exhausted with -their struggle. It was a strange wreck altogether. When she left port, -every one who saw her careening over said "she must go down;" every -one who passed her said "she must go down;" the pilot left her, saying -"she must go down;" the crew came round the captain, saying "she must -go down." But the skipper held on his way awhile, and at last he too -turned to his mate; "she must go down," he said. Then he tried to head -her to port again, but a wave caught her broadside as she was clumsily -answering the helm; and while the coastguard, who had been watching her -through his glass, turned for a moment to telephone to the city that -"she must go down,"—she did. When he put up the glasses to his eyes -again, there was no Escambia in sight! She had gone down. -</p> -<p>And the sight of that lonely spar, signalling so pathetically the -desolate waste of waves the spot of the ship's disaster, brought back -to my mind a Sunday in Ventnor, where the people of the town, looking -out across to sea, stood to watch the beautiful Eurydice go by in her -full pomp of canvas. A bright sun glorified her, and her crew, met for -Divine Service, were returning thanks to Heaven for the prosperous -voyage they had made. And suddenly over Dunnose there rushed up a dark -bank of cloud. A squall, driving a tempest of snow before it, struck -the speeding vessel, and in the fierce whirl of the snowdrift the folk -on shore lost sight of the Eurydice for some minutes. But as swiftly -as it had come, the squall had passed. The sun shone brightly again, -but on a troubled sea. And where was the gallant ship, homeward bound, -and all her gallant company? She had gone down, all sail set, all -hands aboard. And the boats dashed out from the shore to the rescue! -But alas! only two survivors out of the three hundred and fifty souls -that manned the barque ever set foot on shore again! And the news -flashed over England that the Eurydice was "lost." For days and weeks -afterwards there stood up out of the water, half-way between Shanklin -and Luccombe Chine, one lonely spar, like a gravestone, and those who -rowed over the wreck could see, down below them under the clear green -waves, the shimmer of the white sails of the sunken war-boat. She -was lying on her side, the fore and mizzen top-gallant masts gone, -her top-gallant sails hanging, but with her main-mast in its place, -and all the other sails set. The squall had struck her full, and she -rolled over at once, the sea rising at one rush above the waists of the -crew, and her yards lying on the water. Then, righting for an instant, -she made an effort to recover herself. But the weight of water that -had already poured in between decks drove her under. The sea then -leaped with another rush upon her, and in an awful swirl of waves the -beautiful ship, with all her crew, went down. The Channel tide closed -over the huge coffin, and except for the two men saved, and the corpses -which floated ashore, there was nothing to tell of the sudden tragedy. -</p> -<p>And then back into the city and amongst its shipping. I have all the -Britisher's attraction towards the haunts of the men that "go down to -the sea in ships." Indeed, walking about among great wharves and docks, -with the shipping of all nations loading and discharging cargo, and men -of all nations hard at work about you, is in itself a liberal education. -</p> -<p>But it can nowhere be enjoyed in such perfection as in London. There, -emphatically, is the world's market; and written large upon the -pavement of her gigantic docks is the whole Romance of Trade. A single -shed holds the products of all the Continents; and what a book it would -be that told us of the strange industries of foreign lands! Who cut -that ebony and that iron-wood in the Malayan forests? and how came -these palm-nuts here from the banks of the Niger? Mustard from India, -and coffee-berries from Ceylon lie together to be crushed under one -boot, and here at one step you can tread on the chili-pods of Jamaica -and the pea-nuts of America. That rat that ran by was a thing from -Morocco; this squashed scorpion, perhaps, began life in Cyprus or in -Bermuda. Queer little stowaways of insect life are here in abundance, -the parasites of Egyptian lentils or of Indian corn. The mosquito -natives of Bengal swamps are brought here, it may be, in teakwood -from some drift on the Burman coast. All the world's produce is in -convention together. Here stands a great pyramid of horned skulls, the -owners of which once rampaged on Brazilian pampas, or the prairies of -the Platte River, and hard by them lie piled a multitude of hides that -might have fitted the owners of those skulls, had it not been that -they once clothed the bodies of cattle that grazed out their lives in -Australia. Juxtaposition of packages here means nothing. It does not -argue any previous affinities. This ship happens to be discharging -Norwegian pine, in which the capercailzies have roosted, and for want -of space the logs are being piled on to sacks of ginger from the -West Indies. Next them there happens to-day to be cutch from India; -to-morrow there may be gamboge from Siam, or palm oil from the Gold -Coast. These men here are trundling in great casks of Spanish wine that -have been to the Orient for their health; but an hour ago they were -wheeling away chests of Assam tea, and in another hour may be busy with -logwood from the Honduras forests. One of them is all white on the -shoulders with sacks of American wheat flour, but his hands are stained -all the same with Bengal turmeric, and he is munching as he goes a -cardamum from the Coromandel coast. What a book it would make—this -World's Work! -</p> -<p>And then back through this city of prodigious bustle, through fine -streets with masses of solid buildings that stand upon a site which, -a few years ago, was barren sea-sand, and some of it, too, actually -sea-beach swept by the waves! -</p> -<p>The frequency of diamonds in the windows is a point certain to catch -the stranger's eye, but his interest somewhat diminishes when he finds -that they are only "California diamonds." They are exquisite stones, -however, and, to my thinking, more beautiful than coloured gems, ruby, -sapphire, or amethyst, that are more costly in price. But the real -diamond can, nevertheless, be seen in perfection in San Francisco. -Go to Andrews' "Diamond Palace," and take a glimpse of a jeweller's -fairyland. The beautiful gems fairly fill the place with light, while -the owner's artistic originality has devised many novel methods of -showing off his favourite gem to best advantage. The roof and walls, -for instance, are frescoed with female figures adorned on neck and arm, -finger, ear, and waist, with triumphs of the lapidary's art. -</p> -<p>There is something very fascinating to the fancy in gems, for the one -secret that Nature still jealously guards from man is the composition -of those exquisite crystals which we call "precious stones." We can -imitate, and do imitate, some of them with astonishing exactness, -but after all is done there still remains something lacking in -the artificial stone. Wise men may elaborate a prosaic chemistry, -producing crystals which they declare to be the fac-similes of Nature's -delightful gems; but the world will not accept the ruddy residue of a -crucible full of oxides as rubies, or the shining fragments of calcined -bisulphides as emeralds. No crucible yet constructed can hold a native -sapphire, and all the alchemy of man directed to this point has failed -to extort from carbon the secret of its diamond—the little crystal -that earth with all her chemistry has made so few of, since first -heat and water, Nature's gem-smiths, joined their forces to produce -the glittering stones. They placed under requisition every kingdom -of created things, and in a laboratory in mid-earth set in joint -motion all the powers that move the volcano and the earthquake, that -re-fashion the world's form and substance, that govern all the stately -procession of natural phenomena. Yet with all this Titanic labour, this -monstrous co-operation of forces, Nature formed only here and there -a diamond, and here and there a ruby. Masses of quartz, crystals of -every exquisite tint, amethystine and blue, as beautiful, perhaps, in -delicacy of hue as the gems themselves, were sown among the rocks and -scattered along the sands, but only to tell us how near Nature came to -making her jewels common, and how—just when the one last touch was -needed—she withheld her hand, so that man should confess that the -supreme triumphs of her art were indeed "precious"! -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV. -</h2> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Gigantic America—Of the treatment of strangers—The - wild-life world—Railway Companies' food-frauds—California - Felix—Prairie-dog history—The exasperation of wealth—Blessed - with good oil—The meek lettuce and judicious onion—Salads and - Salads—The perils of promiscuous grazing. -</p> -<p>I HAD looked forward to my journey from San Francisco to St. Louis -with great anticipations, and, though I had no leisure to "stop off" -on the tour, I was not disappointed. Six continuous days and nights of -railway travelling carried me through such prodigious widths of land, -that the mere fact of traversing so much space had fascinations. And -the variations of scene are very striking—the corn and grape lands of -Southern California, that gradually waste away into a hideous cactus -desert, and then sink into a furnace-valley, several hundred feet below -the level of the sea; the wild pastures of Texas, that seem endless, -until they end in swamped woodlands; the terrific wildernesses of -Arkansas, that gradually soften down into the beautiful fertility of -Missouri. It was a delightful journey, and taught me in one week's -panorama more than a British Museum full of books could have done. -</p> -<p>Visitors to America do not often make the journey. They are beguiled -off by way of Santa Fe and Kansas City. I confess that I should myself -have been very glad to have visited Santa Fe, and some day or other I -intend to pitch my tent for a while in San Antonio. But if I had to -give advice to a traveller, I would say:— -</p> -<p>"Take the Southern Pacific to El Paso, and the Texan Pacific on to St. -Louis, and you will get such an idea of the spaciousness of America as -no other trip can give you." You will see prodigious tracts of country -that are still in aboriginal savagery and you will travel through whole -nations of hybrid people—Mexicans and mulattoes, graduated commixtures -of Red Indian, Spaniard, and Negro—that some day or another must -assume a very considerable political importance in the Union. -</p> -<p>Nothing would do Americans more good than a tour through Upper India. -Nothing could do European visitors to America more good than the -journey from San Francisco to St. Louis by the Southern-and-Texas -route. The Gangetic Valley, the Western Ghats, the Himalayas, are all -experiences that would ameliorate, improve, and impress the American. -The Arizona cactus-plains, the Texan flower-prairies, the Arkansas -swamps, give the traveller from Europe a more truthful estimate of -America, as a whole, by their vastness, their untamed barbarism, their -contrast with the civilized and domesticated States, than years of -travel on the beaten tracks from city to city. -</p> -<p>And here just a word or two to those American gentlemen to whom -it falls to amuse or edify the sight-seeing foreigner. Do not be -disappointed if he shows little enthusiasm for your factories, and -mills, and populous streets. Remember that these are just what he is -trying to escape from. The chances are, that he would much rather see a -prairie-dog city, than the Omaha smelting-works; an Indian lodge than -Pittsburg; one wild bison than all the cattle of Chicago; a rattlesnake -at home than all the legislature of New York in Albany assembled. He -prefers canyons to streets, mountain streams to canals; and when he -crosses the river, it is the river more than the bridge that interests -him. Of course it is well for him to stay in your gigantic hotels, -go down into your gigantic silver-mines, travel on your gigantic -river-steamers, and be introduced to your gigantic millionaires. These -are all American, and it is good for him, and seemly, that he should -add them to his personal experiences. So too, he should eat terrapin -and planked shad, clam-chowder, canvas-back ducks, and soft-shelled -crabs. For these are also American. But the odds are he may go mad -and bite thee fatally, if thou wakest him up at un-Christian hours to -go and see a woollen factory, simply because thou art proud of it—or -settest him down to breakfast before perpetual beefsteak, merely -because he is familiar with that food. The intelligent traveller, being -at Rome, wishes to be as much a Roman as possible. He would be as -aboriginal as the aborigines. And it is a mistake to go on thrusting -things upon him solely on the ground that he is already weary of them. -As I write, I remember many hours of bitter anguish which I have -endured—I who am familiar with Swansea, who have stayed in Liverpool, -who live in London—in loitering round smelting works and factories, -and places of business, trying to seem interested, and pretending to -store my memory with statistics. Sometimes it would be almost on my -tongue to say, "And now, sir, having shown off your possessions in -order to gratify your own pride in them, suppose you show me something -for my gratification." I never did, of course, but I groaned in the -spirit, at my precious hours being wasted, and at the hospitality -which so easily forgot itself in ostentatious display. I have perhaps -said more than I meant to have done. But all I mean is this, that when -a sojourner is at your mercy, throw him unreservedly upon his own -resources for such time as you are busy, and deny yourself unreservedly -for his amusement when you are at leisure. But do not spoil all his -day, and half your own, by trying to work your usual business habits -into his holiday, and take advantage of his foreign helplessness to -show him what an important person (when at home) you are yourself. Do -not, for instance, take him after breakfast to your office, and there -settling to your work with your clerks, ask him to "amuse himself" -with the morning papers—for three hours; and then, after a hurried -luncheon at your usual restaurant, take him back to the office for a -few minutes—another hour; and then, having carefully impressed upon -him that you are taking a half-holiday solely upon his account, and in -spite of all the overwhelming business that pours in upon you, do not -take him for a drive in the Mall—in order to show off your new horses -to your own acquaintances; and after calling at a few shops (during -which time your friend stays in the trap and holds the reins), do not, -oh do not, take him back to your house to a solitary dinner "quite -in the English style." No, sir; this is not the way to entertain the -wayfarer in such a land of wonders as this; and you ought not therefore -to feel surprise when your guest, wearied of your mistaken hospitality, -and wearied of your perpetual suggestions of your own self-sacrifice on -his behalf, suddenly determines not to be a burden upon you any longer, -and escapes the same evening to the most distant hotel in the town. Nor -when you read this ought you to feel angry. You did him a great wrong -in wasting a whole day out of his miserable three, and exasperated -him by telling his friends afterwards what a "good time" he had with -you. These few words are his retaliation—not written either in the -vindictive spirit of reprisal, but as advice to you for the future and -in the interests, of strangers who may follow him within your gates. -</p> -<p>From San Francisco to Lathrop, back on the route we came by, to -Oakland, and over the brown waters of the arrogant Sacramento—swelling -out as if it would imitate the ocean, and treating the Pacific as if -it were merely "a neighbor,"—and out into thousands and thousands of -acres of corn, stubble, and mown hay-fields, the desolation worked by -the reaper-armies of peace-time with their fragrant plunder lying in -heaps all ready for the carts; and the camp-followers—the squirrels, -and the rats, and the finches—all busy gleaning in the emptied fields, -with owls sitting watchful on the fences, and vigilant buzzards sailing -overhead. What an odd life this is, of the squirrels and the buzzards, -the mice, and the owls! They used to watch each other in these fields, -just in the very same way, ages before the white men came. The -colonization of the Continent means to the squirrels and mice merely -a change in their food, to the hawks and the owls merely a slight -change in the flavour of the squirrels and mice! So, too, when the -Mississippi suddenly swelled up in flood the other day, and overflowed -three States, it lengthened conveniently the usual water-ways of the -frogs, and gave the turtles a more comfortable amplitude of marsh. -Hundreds of negroes narrowly escaped drowning, it is true; but what an -awful destruction there was of smaller animal life! Scores of hamlets -were doubtless destroyed, but what myriads of insect homes were ruined! -It does one good, I think, sometimes to remember the real aborigines -of our earth, the worlds that had their laws before ours, those -conservative antiquities with a civilization that was perfect before -man was created, and which neither the catastrophes of nature nor the -triumphs of science have power to abrogate. -</p> -<p>Oak trees dot the rolling hills, and now and again we come to houses -with gardens and groves of eucalyptus, but for hours we travel through -one continuous corn-field, a veritable Prairie Of Wheat, astounding in -extent and in significance. And then we come upon the backwaters of the -San Joacquin, and the flooded levels of meadow, with their beautiful -oak groves, and herds of cattle and horses grazing on the lush grass -that grows between the beds of green tuilla reeds. It is a lovely reach -of country this, and some of the water views are perfectly enchanting. -But why should the company carefully board up its bridges so that -travellers shall not enjoy the scenes up and down the rivers which -they cross? It seems to me a pity to do so, seeing that it is really -quite unnecessary. As it was, we saw just enough of beauty to make us -regret the boards. Then, after the flooded lands, we enter the vast -corn-fields again, and so arrive at Lathrop. -</p> -<p>Here we dined, and well, the service also being excellent, for half a -dollar. Could not the Union Pacific take a lesson from the Southern -Pacific, and instead of giving travellers offal at a dollar a head at -Green River and other eating-houses, give them good food of the Lathrop -kind for fifty cents? As I have said before, the wretched eating-houses -on the Union Pacific are maintained, confessedly, for the benefit -of the eating-houses, and the encouragement of local colonization; -but it is surely unfair on the "transient" to make him contribute, -by hunger, on the indigestion, and ill-temper, to the perpetration -of an imposition. On the Southern and the Texas Pacific there are -first-rate eating-places, some at fifty cents, some at seventy-five, -and, as we approach an older civilization, others at a dollar. But no -one can grudge a dollar for a good meal in a comfortable room with -civil attendance; while on the Union Pacific there is much to make -the passenger dissatisfied, besides the nature of the food, for it is -often served by ill-mannered waiters in cheerless rooms. Avery little -industry, or still less enterprise, might make other eating-places like -Humboldt. -</p> -<p>It was at Lathrop that some Californians of a very rough type wished to -invade our sleeping-car. They wanted to know the "racket," didn't "care -if they had to pay fifty dollars," had "taken a fancy" to it, &c., &c.; -but the conductor, with considerable tact, managed to persuade them to -abandon their design of travelling like gentlemen, and so they got into -another car, where they played cards for drinks, fired revolvers out of -the window at squirrels between the deals, and got up a quarrel over it -at the end of every hand. -</p> -<p>California Felix! Aye, happy indeed in its natural resources. For we -are again whirling along through prairies of corn-land, a monotony of -fertility that becomes almost as serious as the grassy levels of the -Platte, the sage-brush of Utah, or the gravelled sands of Nevada. And -so to Modesta, a queer, wide-streeted, gum-treed place, not the least -like "America," but a something between Madeira and Port Elizabeth. -It has not 2000 people in it altogether, yet walking across the dusty -square is a lady in the modes of Paris, and a man in a stove-pipe hat! -Another stretch of farm-lands brings us to Merced, and the county of -that name, a miracle of fertility even among such perpetual marvels -of richness. If I were to say what the average of grain per acre is, -English farmers might go mad, but if the printer will put it into some -very small type I will whisper it to you that the men of Merced grumble -at seventy bushels per acre. I should like to own Merced, I confess. -I am a person of moderate desires. A little contents me. And it is -only a mere scrap, after all, of this bewildering California. On the -counter at the hotel at Merced are fir-cones from the Big Trees and -fossil fragments and wondrous minerals from Yosemite, and odds and ends -of Spanish ornaments. The whole place has a Spanish air about it. This -used to be the staging-point for travellers to the Valley of Wonders, -but times have changed, and with them the Stage-route, so Merced is -left on one side by the tourist stream. Leaving it ourselves, we -traverse patches of wild sunflower, and then find ourselves out on wide -levels of uncultivated land, waiting for the San Joacquin (pronounced, -by the way, Sanwa-keen) canal, to bring irrigation to them. How the -Mormons would envy the Californians if they were their neighbours, and -the contrast is indeed pathetic, between the alkaline wastes of Utah -and the fat glebes of Merced! -</p> -<p>At present, however, a nation of little owls possesses the uncultivated -acres, and ground squirrels hold the land from them on fief, paying, -no doubt, in their vassalage a feudal tribute of their plump, -well-nourished bodies. To right and left lies spread out an immense -prairie-dog settlement, deserted now, however; and beyond it, on -either side, a belt of pretty timbered land stretches to the coast -range, which we see far away on the right, and to the foot-hills—the -"Sewaliks" of the Sierra Nevada,—which rise up, capped and streaked -with snow, on the left. -</p> -<p>Wise men read history for us backwards from the records left by ruins. -Why not do the same here with this vast City of the Prairie-Dogs -that continues to right and left of us, miles after miles? Once upon -a time, then, there was a powerful nation of prairie-dogs in this -place, and they became, in process of years, debauched by luxury, and -weakened by pride. So they placed the government in the hands of the -owls, whom they invited to come and live with them, and gave over the -protection of the country to the rattlesnakes, whom they maintained as -janissaries. But the owls and the rattlesnakes, finding all the power -in their own hands, and seeing that the prairie-dogs had grown idle -and fat and careless, conspired together to overthrow their masters. -Now there lived near them, but in subjection to the prairie-dogs, a -race of ground-squirrels, a hard-working, thick-skinned, bushy-tailed -folk; and the owls and the rattlesnakes made overtures to the ground -squirrels, and one morning, when the prairie-dogs were out feeding and -gambolling in the meadows, the conspirators rushed to arms, and while -the rattlesnakes and the ground-squirrels, their accomplices, seized -possession of the vacated city, the owls attacked the prairie-dogs -with their beaks and wings. And the end of it was disaster, utter and -terrible; and the prairie-dogs fled across the plains into the woodland -for shelter, but did not stay there, but passed on, in one desolating -exodus, to the foot-hills beyond the woodland. And then the owls and -the rattlesnakes and the ground-squirrels divided the deserted city -among them. And to this day the ground-squirrels pay a tribute of their -young to the owls and the rattlesnakes, as the price of possession and -of their protection. But they are always afraid that the prairie-dogs -may come back again some day (as the Mormons are going back to Jackson -County, Missouri), to claim their old homesteads; and so, whenever -the ground-squirrels go out to feed and gambol in the meadows, the -rattlesnakes remain at the bottom of the holes, and the owls sit on -sentry duty at the top. Isn't that as good as any other conjectural -history? -</p> -<p>And then Madera, with its great canal all rafted over with floating -timber, and more indications, in the eating-house, of the neighbourhood -of the Big Trees and Yosemite. For this is the point of departure now -in vogue, the distance being only seventy miles, and the roads good. -But of the trip to Clark's, and thence on to "Yohamite" and to Fresno -Grove—hereafter. Meanwhile, grateful for the good meal at Madera, we -are again smoking the meditative pipe, and looking out upon Owl-land, -with the birds all duly perched at their posts, and their bushy-tailed -companions enjoying life immensely in family parties among the short -grass. Herds of cattle are seen here and there, and wonderful their -condition, too; and thus, through flat pastures all pimpled over -with old, fallen-in, "dog-houses," we reach Fresno. This monotony of -fertility is beginning to exasperate me. It is a trait of my personal -character, this objection to monotonous prosperity. I like to see -streaks of lean. Thus I begin to think of Vanderbilts as of men who -have done me an injury; and unless Jay Gould recovers his ground with -me, by conferring a share upon me, I shall feel called upon to take -personal exception to his great wealth. And now comes Fresno, a welcome -stretch of land that requires irrigation to be fruitful, a land that -only gives her favours to earnest wooers, and does not, like the rest -of California, smile on every vagabond admirer. Where the ground is -not cultivated, it forms fine parade-ground for the owls, and rare -pleasaunces for the squirrels. But what a nymph this same water is! -Look at this patch of greensward all set in a bezel of bright foliage -and bright with wild flowers! In mythology there is a goddess under -whose feet the earth breaks into blossoms and leaves. I forget her -name. But it should have been Hydore. And now, as the evening gathers -round, we see the outlines of the Sierras, away on the left, blurring -into twilight tints of blue and grey—and then to bed. -</p> -<p>California is blest in the olive. It grows to perfection, and the -result is that the California is no stranger to the priceless luxury of -good oil, and can enjoy, at little cost, the delights of a good salad. -How often, in rural England, with acres of salad material growing -fresh and crisp all round me, have groaned at the impossibility of a -salad, by reason of the atrocious character of the local grocer's oil! -But in California all the oil is good, and the vegetable ingredients -of the fascinating bowl are superb. But in America there is a fatal -determination towards mayonnaise, and every common waiter considers -himself capable of mixing one. So that even in California your hopes -are sometimes blighted, and your good humour turned to gall, by fools -rushing in where even angels should have to pass an examination before -admission. A simpler salad, however, is better than any mayonnaise, and -once the proportions are mastered, a child may be entrusted with the -mixture. -</p> -<p>The lettuce, by long familiarity, has come to be considered the true -basis of all salad, and in its generous expanse of faintly flavoured -leaf, so cool and juicy and crisp when brought in fresh from the -garden, it has certainly some claims to the proud position. But a -multitude of salads can be made without any lettuce at all, and it is -doubtful whether either Greece or Rome used it as an ingredient of -the bowl in which the austere endive and pungent onion always found a -place. Now-a-days however, lettuce is a deserving favourite, It has -no sympathies or antipathies, and no flavour strong enough to arouse -enthusiasm or aversion. It is not aggressive or self-assertive, but, -like those amiable people with whom no one ever quarrels, is always -ready to be of service, no matter what company may be thrust upon -it, or what treatment it has to undergo. Opinions of its own it has -none, so it easily adopts those of others, and takes upon itself—and -so distributes over the whole—any properties of taste or smell that -may be communicated to it by its neighbours. An onion might be rubbed -with lettuce for an indefinite period and betray no alteration in its -original nature, but the lettuce if only touched with onion becomes at -once a modified onion itself, and no ablution will remove from it the -suspicion of the contact. The gentle leaf is therefore often ill-used; -but, after all, even this, the meekest of vegetables, will turn upon -the oppressor, and if not eaten young and fresh, or if slaughtered with -a steel blade, will convert the salad that should have been short and -sharp in the mouth into a basin of limp rags, that cling together in -sodden lumps, and when swallowed conduce to melancholy and repentance. -The antithesis of the lettuce is the onion. Both are equally essential -to the perfect salad, but for most opposite reasons. The lettuce must -be there to give substance to the whole, to retain the oil and salt and -vinegar, to borrow fragrance and to look green and crisp. It underlies -everything else, and acts as conductor to all, like consciousness in -the human mind. It is the bulk of the salad so far as appearances go, -and yet it alone could be turned out without affecting the flavour of -the dish. It is only the canvas upon which the artist paints. -</p> -<p>How different is the onion! It adds nothing to the amount, and -contributes nothing to the sight, yet it permeates the whole; not, -however, as an actual presence, but rather as a reflection, a shadow, -or a suspicion. Like the sunset-red, it tinges everything it falls -upon, and everywhere reveals new beauties. It is the master-mind in -the mixed assembly, allowing each voice to be heard, but guiding the -many utterances to one symmetrical result. It keeps a strong restraint -upon itself, helping out, with a judicious hint only, those who need -it, and never interfering with neighbours that can assert their own -individuality. I speak, of course, of the onion as it appears in the -civilized salad, and not the outrageous vegetable that the Prophet -condemned and Italy cannot do without. Some pretend to have a prejudice -against the onion, but as an American humourist—Dudley Warner—says, -"There is rather a cowardice in regard to it. I doubt not all men and -women love the onion, but few confess it." -</p> -<p>In simplicity lies perfection. The endive and beetroot, fresh bean, -and potato, radish and mustard and cress, asparagus and celery, -cabbage-hearts and parsley, tomato and cucumber, green peppers and -capers, and all the other ingredients that in this salad or in that -find a place are, no doubt, well enough in their way; but the greatest -men of modern times have agreed in saying that, given three vegetables -and a master-mind, a perfect salad may be the result. But for the -making there requires to be present a miser to dole out the vinegar, -a spendthrift to sluice on the oil, a sage to apportion the salt, -and a maniac to stir. The household that can produce these four, and -has at command a firm, stout-hearted lettuce, three delicate spring -onions, and a handful of cress, need ask help from none and envy -none; for in the consumption of the salad thus ambrosially resulting, -all earth's cares may be for the while forgotten, and the consumer -snap his fingers at the stocks, whether they go up or down. There is -no need to go beyond these frugal ingredients. In Europe it is true -men range hazardously far afield for their green meat. They tell us, -for instance, of the fearful joy to be snatched from nettle-tops, -but it is not many who care thus to rob the hairy caterpillar of his -natural food; nor in eating the hawthorn buds, where the sparrows have -been before us, is there such prospect of satisfaction as to make us -hurry to the hedges. The dandelion, too, we are told, is a wholesome -herb, and so is wild sorrel; but who among us can find the time to -go wandering about the country grazing with the cattle, and playing -Nebuchadnezzar among the green stuff? In the Orient the native is never -at a loss for salad, for he grabs the weeds at a venture, and devours -them complacently, relying upon fate to work them all up to a good -end; and the Chinaman, so long as he can only boil it first, turns -everything that grows into a vegetable for the table. -</p> -<p>But it would not be safe to send a public of higher organization into -the highways and ditches; for a rabid longing for vegetable food, -unballasted by botanical ledge, might conduce to the consumption Of -many unwholesome plants, with their concomitant insect evils. Dreadful -stories are told of the results arising from the careless eating of -unwashed watercress; and in country places the horrors that are said -to attend the swallowing of certain herbs without a previous removal -of the things that inhabit them are sufficient to deter the most -ravenously inclined from taking a miscellaneous meal off the roadside, -and from promiscuous grazing in hedge-rows. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV. -</h2> -<p class="chapterHeading"> The Carlyle of vegetables—The moral in blight—Bee-farms—The city - Of Angels—Of squashes—Curious Vegetation—The incompatibility of - camels and Americans—Are rabbits "seals"?—All wilderness and no - weather—An "infinite torment of flies." -</p> -<p>THE cactus is the Carlyle of vegetation. Here, in Southern California, -it assumes many of its most uncouth and affected attitudes, puts on all -its prickles and its angles, and its blossoms of rare splendour. Those -who are better informed than myself assure me that the cactus is a -vegetable. I take their word for it. Indeed, the cactus itself may have -said so to them. There is nothing a cactus might not do. But it surely -stands among plants somewhere where bats do among animals, and the -apteryx among birds. Look for instance at this tract of cactus which -we cross before Caliente. There are chair-legs and footstools, pokers, -brooms, and telegraph-poles; but can you honestly call them plants? -</p> -<p>But stay a moment. Can you not call them plants? Look! See those -superb blossoms of crimson upon that footstool of thorns, those golden -stars upon the telegraph-pole yonder, those beautiful flowers of rosy -pink upon that besom-head. Yes, they are plants, and worthy of all -admiration, for they have the genius of a true originality, and the -sudden splendour of the flowers they put forth are made all the more -admirable by the surprise of them and the eccentricity. And with them -grows the yucca, that wonderful plant that sends up from its rosette -of bayonets—they call it the "Spanish bayonet" in the West—a green -shaft, six feet high, and all hung with white waxen bells. I got out of -the train at one of its stoppages, and cut a couple of heads of this -wonderland plant, and found the blossoms on each numbered between 400 -and 406. And there was a certain moral discipline in it too. For we -found these exquisite flower-hung shafts were smothered in "blight," -those detestable, green, sticky aphides, that sometimes make rose-buds -so dreadful, and are the enemy of all hothouses. Looking out at the -yuccas as we passed, those splendid coronals of waxen blossoms—pure -enough for cathedral chancels—it seemed as if they were things of a -perfect and unsullied beauty. My arrival with them was hailed with -cries of admiration, and for the first moment enthusiasm was supreme. -But the next, alas for impure beauty! the swarms of clinging parasites -were detected. Hands that had been stretched out to hold such things -of grace, shrank from even touching them, known to be polluted, and -so, at last, with honours that were more than half condescension, -the yucca-spikes were put out on the platform, to be admired from -a distance. Passing through the cactus land we saw numbers of tiny -rabbits—the "cotton tails," as distinguished from the "mule-ears" -or jack-rabbits—dodging about the stems and grass; but in about an -hour the grotesque vegetable began to sober down into a botanical -conglomerate that defies analysis, and gives the little rabbits a -denser covert. The general result of this change in the botany was as -Asiatic, as Indian as it could be, but why, it were difficult to say, -unless it was the prevalence of the baboon-like "muskeet," and the -beautiful but murderous dhatura—the "thorn-apple" of Europe. Yet there -was sage-brush enough to make Asia impossible, while the variations -of the botany were too sudden for any generalizations of character. -And so on, past an oil-mill on the left—petroleum bubbling out of the -hillock—and a great farm "Newhall's," on the right; past Andrews and -up the hill to the San Fernando tunnel, 7000 feet in length, and then -down the hill again into San Fernando. Has any one ever "stopped off" -at San Fernando and spent any time with the monks at their picturesque -old mission, smothered in orangeries, and dozed away the summer hours -amongst them, watching the peaches ripen and the bees gathering honey, -and opening bottles of mellow California wine to help along the -intervals between drowsy mass and merry meal-times? I think when my -sins weigh too heavily on me to let me live among men, I will retire to -San Fernando, to the bee-keeping, orange-growing fathers, ask them to -receive my bones, and start a beehive and an orange-tree of my own. It -does not seem to me, looking forward to it, a very arduous life, and I -might then, at last, overtake that seldom-captured will-o'-the-wisp, -fleet-footed Leisure. -</p> -<p>The bees, by the way, are kept on a "ranch," whole herds and herds of -bees, all hived together in long rows of hives, hundreds to the acre. -They fly afield to feed themselves, and come home with their honey to -make the monks rich. I am not sure that these fathers have done all -they might for the country they settled in, and yet who is not grateful -to the brethren for the picturesqueness of comparative antiquity? Their -very idleness is a charm, and their quiet, comfortable life, half in -cloisters, half in orange groves, is a delight and a refreshment in -modern America. -</p> -<p>But the loveliness of their country, and the wonder of its -possibilities! Can any one be surprised that we are approaching the -city of Los Angeles? A bright river comes tumbling along under cliffs -all hung with flowering creepers, and between banks that are beautiful -with ferns and flowers, and the land widens out into cornfield -and meadow; and away to right and left, lying under the hills and -overflowing into all the valleys, are the vineyards, and orchards, and -orangeries that make the City of Angels worthy of a king's envy and a -people's pride. As yet, of course, it is the day of small things, as -compared with what will be when water is everywhere; but even now Los -Angeles is a place for the artist to stay in and the tourist to visit. -There is a great deal to remind you of the East, in this valley of -dark-skinned men, and in the "bazaars," with their long ropes of chilis -dangling on the door-posts, the fruit piled up in baskets on the mules, -the brown bare-legged children under hats with wide ragged brims, there -are all the familiar features of Southern Europe, hot, strong-smelling, -and picturesque. But Los Angeles shares with the rest of California -the disadvantage under which all climates of great forcing power and -rudimentary science must lie, for its fruits, though exquisite to look -upon, often prodigious in size, and always incredible in quantity, -fail, as a rule, dismally in flavour. The figs are very large, -both green and black, but they seem to have ripened in a perpetual -rainstorm; the oranges look perfection, and are as bad as any I have -had in America; the peaches are splendid in their appearance, for their -coarse barbaric skins are painted with deep yellow and red, but they -ought not to be called "peaches" at all. They would taste just as well -by any other name, and the traveller who knows the peaches of Europe, -or the peaches of Persia, would not then be disappointed. -</p> -<p>So away from Los Angeles, with its groups of idle, brown-faced men, -in their flap brimmed Mexican hats, leaning against the posts smoking -thin cigars, and its groups of listless, dark-eyed women, with bright -kerchiefs round their heads or necks, sitting on the doorsteps; away -through valleys of corn, broken up by orangeries and vineyards, where -the river flows through a tangle of willow and elder and muskeet; past -the San Gabriel Mission, overtaken, poor idle old fragment of the past, -by the railroad civilization of the present, and already isolated in -its sleepiness and antiquity from the busier, younger world about it; -on through a scene of perpetual fertility, orange groves and lemon, -fields of vegetables and corn, with pomegranates all aglow with scarlet -flowers, and eucalyptus-trees in their ragged foliage of blue and brown. -</p> -<p>The squash grows here to a monstrous size. "I have seen them, sir," -said a passenger, "weighing as much as yourself." The impertinence of -it! Think of a squash venturing to turn the scale against me. Perhaps -it will pretend that it has as good a seat on a horse? Or will it play -me a single-wicket match at cricket? I should not have minded so much -if it had been a water-melon, "simlin," or some other refined variety -of or even a the family. But that a squash, the 'poor relation' of the -pumpkin, should—. But enough. Let us be generous, even to squashes. -</p> -<p>Some one ought to write the psychology of the squash. There is a very -large human family of the same name and character. If you ask what -the bulky, tasteless thing is good for, people always say, "Oh, for -a pie!" Now that is the only form in which I have tasted it. And I -can say, from personal experience, therefore, that it is not good for -that. It never hurts anybody, or speaks ill of any one—an inoffensive, -tedious, stupid person, too commonplace to be either liked or disliked. -Economical parents say squashes are "very good for children," -especially in pies. They may be. But they are not conducive to the -formation of character. -</p> -<p>Some one, too, ought to visit these old Franciscan missions in Southern -California—some one who could write about them, and sketch them. -They are very delightful; the more delightful, perhaps, because they -are in the United States, in the same continent as "live" towns, as -Chicago, and Omaha, and Leadville, and Tombstone. Scattered about among -the rolling grassland are hollows filled with orchards, in which old -settlements and new are fairly embowered, while the missions themselves -are singularly picturesque; and San Gabriel's Church, they say, has a -pretty peal of bells, which the monks carried overland from Mexico in -the old Spaniard days, and which still chime for vespers as sweetly as -ever. What a wonder it must have been to the wandering Indians to hear -that most beautiful of all melodies, the chime of bells, ascending with -the evening mists from under the feet of the hills! No wonder they had -campanile legends, these poor poets of the river and prairie, and still -speak of Valleys of Enchantment whence music may be heard at nightfall! -</p> -<p>Past Savanna and Monte, with its swine droves, and its settlement -of men who live on "hog and hominy," past Puente, and Spadra, and -Pomona, into Colton, where we dine, and well, for half a dollar, -enjoying for dessert a chat with a very pretty girl. She tells us of -the beauties of San Bernardino, and I could easily credit even more -than she says. For San Bernardino was settled by Mormons some fifty -years ago, and has all the charms of Salt Lake City, with those of -natural fertility and a profusion of natural vegetation added. But I -can say nothing of San Bernardino, for the train does not enter it. -And then, reinforced by another engine—a dumpy engine-of-all-work -sort of "help"—clambers up the San Gorgonio pass. All along the road -I notice a yellow thread-like epiphyte, or air-plant, tangling itself -round the muskeet-trees, and killing them. They call it the "mistletoe" -here but it is the same curious plant that strangles the orange trees -in Indian gardens, and the jujubes in the jungles, that cobwebs the -aloe hedges, and hangs its pretty little white bells of flower all -over the undergrowth. On the bare, sandy ground a wild gourd, with -yellow flowers and sharp-pointed spear-head leaves, throws out long -strands, that creep flat upon the ground with a curious snake-like -appearance. Clumps of wild oleander find a frugal subsistence, and -here and there an elder or a walnut manages to thrive. But the profuse -fertility of California is fast disappearing. And so to Gorgonio, at -the top of the pass; and then we begin to go down, down, down, till we -are not surprised to hear that we are far below the level of the sea. -The cactus has once more reasserted itself, and to right and left are -"forests" of this grotesque candelabra-like vegetable, with stiff arms, -covered apparently with some woolly sort of fluff. The soil beneath -them is a desperate-looking desert-sand, and here and there are bare -levels of white glistening sterility. But water works such wonders that -there is no saying what may happen. At present, however, it is pure, -unadulterated desert—wilderness enough to delight a camel, were it not -for the quantity of stones which strew the waste, and which would make -it an abomination to that fastidious beast. Camels were once imported -into the country, but the experiment failed—and no wonder. Imagine the -modern American trying to drive a camel! The Mexican might do it, but I -doubt if any other race in all America could be found with sufficient -contempt for time, sufficient patience in idleness, sufficient -camelishness in fact, to "personally conduct" a camel train. There is -a tradition, by the way, that somewhere in Arizona, wild camels, the -descendants of the discarded brutes, are to be met with to this day, -enjoying a life without occupations. -</p> -<p>At present the most formidable animal in possession of these cactus -plains is the rabbit. But such a licence of ears as the creature has -taken! It must be developing them as weapons of offence: the future -"horned rabbit." They call these long-eared animals "mules," and deny -that you can make a rabbit-pie of them. This seems to me hardly fair -on the rabbit. But in England the small rodent suffers under even more -pointed injustice. -</p> -<p>A certain railway porter, it is said, was once sorely puzzled by a -tortoise which the owner wished to send by train. The official was -nonplussed by the inquiry as to which head of the tariff the creature -should be considered to fall under; but, at last, deciding that it was -neither "a dog" nor "a parrot" (the broad zoological classification in -use on British railways) pronounced the tortoise to be "an insect," and -therefore not liable to charge. This profound decision was prefaced -by a brief enumeration of the animals which the railway company call -"dogs." "Cats is dogs, and rabbits is dogs, and so is guinea-pigs," -said the porter, "but squirrels in cages is parrots!" -</p> -<p>But please note particularly the porter's confusion of identity with -regard to the rabbit. This excellent rodent is emphatically called "a -dog." But the rabbit knows much better than to mistake itself for a -dog. It might as well think itself a poacher. -</p> -<p>Meanwhile, other attempts have been made to confuse it as to its own -individuality; and if the rabbit eventually gives itself up as a -hopeless conundrum, it is not more than might be expected. Its fur -is now called "seal-skin" in the cheap goods market; the fluke has -attacked it as if it were a sheep; while in recent English elections, -when the Ground Game Bill was to the front, it was a very important -factor. All the same, everybody goes on shooting it just as if it -were a mere rabbit. This, I would contend, is hardly fair; for if its -skin is really sealskin, the rabbit must, of necessity, be a seal, -and, as such, ought to be harpooned from a boat, and not shot at with -double-barrelled guns. It is absurd to talk of going out "sealing" -in gaiters, with a terrier, for the pursuit of the seal is a marine -operation, and concerned with ships and icebergs and whaling line. A -sportsman, therefore, who goes out in quest of this valuable pelt -should, in common regard for the proprieties, affect Arctic apparel; -and, instead of ranging with his gun, should station himself with a -harpoon over the "seal's" blow-hole, and, when it comes up to breathe, -take his chance of striking it, not forgetting to have some water handy -to pour over the line while it is being rapidly paid out, as otherwise -it is very liable to catch fire from friction. By this means the rabbit -would arrive at some intelligible conception of itself, and be spared -much of the discomfort which must now arise from doubts as to its -personality. Nothing, indeed, is so precious to sentient things as a -conviction of their own "identity" and their "individuality," and I -need only refer those who have any doubt about it to the whole range -of moral philosophy to assure themselves of this fact. If we were not -certain who we were two days running, much of the pleasure of life -would be lost to us. -</p> -<p>We entered the arid tract somewhere near the station of the Seven -Palms. They can be seen growing far away on the left under the -"foot-hills." About half way through we find ourselves at the station -of Two Palms, but they are in tubs. Of course there may be others, -and no doubt are. But all you can see from the cars is a limited -wilderness. Yet on those mountains there, on the right—one is 12,000 -feet—there is splendid pine timber; and on the other side of them, -incredible as it seems, are glorious pastures, where the cattle are -wading knee-deep in grass! For us, however, the hideous wilderness -continues. The hours pass in a monotony of glaring sand, ugly rock -fragments, and occasional bristly cactus. And then begins a low -chapparal of "camel-thorn" or "muskeet," and as evening closes in we -find ourselves at the Colorado River and at Yuma, where the sun shines -from a cloudless sky three hundred and ten days in the year. -</p> -<p>And the weather? I have not mentioned it as we travelled along, for I -wished to emphasize it by bringing it in at the end of the chapter. -Well, the weather. There was none to speak of, unless you can call a -fierce dry over-heat, averaging 96 in the shade, weather. And this is -all that we have had for the last twelve hours or so; heat enough to -blister even a lizard, or frizzle a salamander. A hot wind, like the -"100" of the Indian plains, blew across the desperate sands, getting -scorched itself as it went, and spitefully passing on its heat to -us. It was as hot as Cawnpore in June; nearly as hot as Aden. And -then the change at Yuma! We had suddenly stepped from Egypt in August -into Lower Bengal in September—from a villainous dry heat into afar -more villainous damp one. The thermometer, though the sun had set, -was at and, added to all, was such a plague of mosquitoes as would -have subdued even Pharaoh into docility. The instant—literally, the -instant—that we stepped from our cars our necks, hands, and faces were -attacked, and on the platform everybody, even the half-breed Indians -loafing outside the dining-room, were hard at work with both hands -defending themselves from the small miscreants. The effect would have -been ludicrous enough to any armour-plated onlooker, but it was no -laughing matter. We were too busy slapping ourselves in two places at -once to think of even smiling at others similarly engaged; and the last -I remember of detestable Yuma was the man who sells photographs on the -platform, whirling his hands with experienced skill round his head and -packing up his wares by snatches in between his whirls. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI. -</h2> -<p class="centered">THROUGH THE COWBOYS' COUNTRY. -</p> -<p class="chapterHeading"> The Santa Cruz Valley—The Cactus—An ancient and honourable - Pueblo—A terrible Beverage—Are Cicadas deaf?—A floral - Catastrophe—The Secretary and the Peccaries. -</p> -<p>YUMA marks the frontier between California and Arizona. But it might -just as well mark the frontier between India and Beluchistan, for it -reproduces with exact fidelity a portion of the town of Rohri, in -Sind. A broad, full-streamed river (the Colorado) seems to divide the -town into two; on the top of its steep bank stands a military post, -a group of bungalows, single-storied, white-walled, green-shuttered, -verandahed. On the opposite side cluster low, flat-roofed houses, -walled in with mud, while here and there a white-washed bungalow, with -broad projecting eaves, stands in its own compound. Brown-skinned -men with only a waistcloth round the loins loaf around, and in the -sandy spaces that separate the buildings lean pariah dogs lie about, -languid with the heat. The dreadful temperature assists to complete the -delusion, and finally the mosquitoes of the Colorado river have all the -ferocity of those that hatch on the banks of the Indus. -</p> -<p>Against our will, too, these pernicious insects board our train and -refuse to be blown out again by all the draughts which we tax our -ingenuity to create. So we sit up sulkily in a cloud of tobacco smoke -far into the night and Arizona—watching the wonderful cactus-plants -passing our windows in gaunt procession, and here and there seeing a -fire flash past us, lit probably by Papajo Indians for the preparation -of their abominable "poolke" liquor. But the mosquitoes are satisfied -at last, and go to sleep, and so we go too. -</p> -<p>We awake in the Santa Cruz Valley, with the preposterous cactus -poles and posts standing up as stiff and straight as sentries "at -attention," and looking as if they were doing it for a joke. There is -no unvegetable form that they will not take, for they mimic the shape -of gate posts, semaphores, bee-hives, and even mops—anything, in -fact, apparently that falls in with their humour, and makes them look -as unlike plants as possible. I am not sure that they ought not to -be punished, some of them. Such botanical lawlessness is deplorable. -But, after all, is not this America, where every cactus "may do as -he darned pleases"? These cacti, by the way—the gigantic columnar -species, which throws up one solid shaft of flesh, fluted on each side, -and studded closely with rosettes of spines—are the same that crowd -in multitudinous impis on the side of the hills which slope from the -massacre-field of Isandula in Zululand, down to the Buffalo River. How -well I remember them! -</p> -<p>If it were not for the cactus it would be a miserably uninteresting -country, for the vegetation is only the lowest and poorest looking -scrub, and water as yet there is none. But now we are approaching what -the inhabitants call "the ancient and honourable pueblo of Tucson," -pronouncing it Too son, and ancient and honourable we found it—For -does it not dispute with Santa Fe the title of the most ancient town in -the United States? and was not the breakfast which it gave us worthy of -all honour? -</p> -<p>It takes, reader, as you will have guessed, a very long journey indeed -to knock into a traveller's head a complete conception of the size -of North America. Mere space could never do it, for human nature is -such that when trying to grasp in the mind any great lapse of time or -territory, the two ends are brought together as it were, and all the -great middle is forgotten. Nor does mere variety of scene emphasize -distance on the memory, for the more striking details here and there -crowd out the large monotonous intervals. Thus a mile of an Echo canyon -obliterates half a state's length of Platte Valley pastures, and a -single patch of Arkansas turtle-swamp whole prairies of Texan meadow. -But in America, even though many successive days of unbroken travel -may have run into one, or its many variations—from populous states to -desert ones, from timber states to pasture ones, from corn states to -mineral ones, from mountain to valley, river to lake, canyoned hills to -herd-supporting prairies, from pine forest to oak forest, from sodden -marsh to arid cactus-land—may have got blurred together, there grows -at the end of it all upon the mind a befitting sense of vastness which -neither linear measurement in miles nor variety in the panorama fully -explain. It is due, I think, to the size of the instalments in which -America puts forward her alternations of scene. She does not keep -shifting her suits, so as to spoil the effect of her really strong -hand, but goes on leading each till she has established it, and made -each equally impressive. You have a whole day at a time of one thing, -and then you go to sleep, and when you wake it is just the same, and -you cannot help saying to yourself: "Twenty-four successive hours of -meadowland is a considerable pasturage," and you do not forget it ever -afterwards. The next item is twenty-four hours of mountains, "all of -them rich in metals;" and by the time this has got indelibly fixed -on the memory, Nature changes the slide, and then there is rolling -corn-land on the screen for a day and night. And so, in a series of -majestic alternations, the continent passes in review, and eventually -all blends into one vast comprehensible whole. -</p> -<p>Apart from physical, there are curious ethnological divisions which -mark off the continent into gigantic subnationalities. For though the -whole is of course "American," there is always an underlying race, a -subsidiary one so to speak, which allots the vast area into separate -compartments. Thus on the eastern coast we have the mulatto, who gives -place beyond Nebraska to the Indian, and he, beyond Nevada, to the -Chinaman. After California comes the Mexican, and after him the negro, -and so back to the East and the mulatto again. -</p> -<p>Here in Arizona, at Tucson, the "Mexican" is in the ascendant, for -such is the name which this wonderful mixture of nationalities prefers -to be called by. He is really a kind of hash, made up of all sorts of -brown-skinnned odds and ends, an olla podrida. But he calls himself -"Mexican," and Tucson is his ancient and honourable pueblo. It is a -wretched-looking place from the train, with its slouching hybrid men, -and multitudinous pariah dogs. Indians go about with the possessive -air of those who know themselves to be at home; and it is not easy to -decide whether they, with their naked bodies and ropes of hair dangling -to the waist, or the half-breed Mexican with their villainous slouch -and ragged shabbiness, are the lower race of the two. And the dogs! -they are legion; having no homes, they are at home everywhere. I am -told there is a public garden, and some "elegant" buildings, but as -usual they are on "the other side of the town." All that we can see on -this side, are collections of squalid Arabic-looking huts and houses, -made of mud, low-roofed and stockaded with ragged-looking fences. The -heat is of course prodigious for eight months of the year, and the -dust and the flies and the mosquitoes are each and all as Asiatic as -the heat—or any other feature of this ancient and honourable It has -its interest, however, as an American pueblo. It has its interests, -however, as an American "antiquity;" while the river, the Santa Cruz, -which flows past the town, is one of those Arethusa streams, which -comes to the surface a few miles above the town and disappears again a -few miles below it. -</p> -<p>For the student of hybrid life, Tucson must have exceptional -attractions; but for the ordinary traveller, it has positively none. -Kawai Indians have not many points very different from Papajo Indians, -and mud hovels are after all only mud hovels. But it is an ancient and -honourable pueblo. -</p> -<p>The only people who look cool are the Mexican soldiers in blue and -white, and that other Mexican, a civilian, in a broad-brimmed, flimsy -hat, spangled with a tinsel braid and fringe. Have these men ever -got anything to do? and when they have, do they ever do it? It seems -impossible they could undertake any work more arduous than lolling -against a post, and smoking a yellow-papered cigarette. Yet only a few -days ago these Mexicans, perhaps those very soldiers there, destroyed a -tribe of Apaches, and then arrested a force of Arizona Rangers who had -pursued the Indians on to Mexican ground! These Apaches had kept the -State in a perpetual terror for a long time, but finding the Federal -soldiers closing in upon them, they crossed the frontier line close to -Tucson, and there fell in with the Mexicans, who must at any rate be -given the credit for promptitude and efficiency in all their Indian -conflicts. The Apaches were destroyed, and the force of Rangers who -had followed them were caught by the Mexican general, and under an old -agreement between the two Republics, they were made prisoners of war, -disarmed, and told to find their way back two hundred and fifty miles -into the States as best and as quickly as they could. Some thirty years -ago a Mexican general, who captured some American filibusters in a -similar way at the village of Cavorca, paraded his captives and shot -them all down. So the Arizona men were glad enough to get away. -</p> -<p>The cactus country continues, and the plants play the mountebank more -audaciously than ever. There is no absurdity they will not commit, even -to pretending that they are broken fishing rods, or bundles of riding -whips. But the majority stand about in blunt, kerb-stone fashion, as -if they thought they were marking out streets and squares for the -cotton-tail rabbits that live amongst them. Under the hill on the left -is the old mission church of "San'avere" (San Xavier); and over those -mountains, the "Whetstones," lies the mining settlement of Tombstone, -where the cowboys rejoice to run their race, and the value of life -seldom rises to par in the market. Then we enter upon a plain of the -mezcal all in full bloom, and a "lodge" of brown men, partly Indian, -partly Mexican, waiting it may be for the plant to mature and the time -to come round for distilling its fiery liquor. I tasted mezcal at El -Paso for the first time in my life, and I think I may venture to say -the last, so whether it was good of its kind or not, I cannot tell. I -am no judge of mezcal. But I know that it was thick, of a dull sherry -colour, with a nasty vegetable smell, and infinitely more fiery than -anything I ever tasted before, not excepting the whisky which the -natives in parts of Central India brew from rye, the brandy which the -Boers of the Transvaal distil from rotten potatoes, or the "tarantula -juice" which you are often offered by the hearty miners of Colorado. It -is almost literally "fire-water;" but the red pepper, I suppose, has as -much to do with the effect upon the tongue and palate as the juice of -the mezcal. -</p> -<p>On a sudden, in the midst of this desolate land, we come upon a ranche -with cattle wading about among the rich blue grass; but in a minute it -is gone, and lo! a Chinese village, smothered in a tangle of shrubs all -overgrown with creeping gourds, with the coolies lying in the shade -smoking long pipes of reed. -</p> -<p>Have you ever smoked Chinese "tobacco"? If not, be careful how you do. -A single pipe of it (and Chinese pipes hold very little) will upset -even an old smoker. For myself, can hardly believe it is tobacco, for -in the hand it feels of a silky texture, utterly unlike any tobacco -I ever saw, while the smell of it, and the taste on the tongue, are -as different to the buena yerba as possible. It is imported by the -Chinese in America for their own consumption, and in spite of duties -is exceedingly cheap. A single sniff of it, by the way, completely -explains that heavy, stupefying odour which hangs about Chinese -quarters and Chinese persons. -</p> -<p>But this glimpse of China has disappeared as rapidly as the ranche had -done, and in a few minutes later a collection of low mud-walled huts, -overshadowed by rank vegetation, an ox or two trying to chew the cud -in an uptilted cart, some brown-skinned children playing with magnolia -blossoms, and lo! a glimpse of Bengal. -</p> -<p>And then as suddenly we are out again on to the cactus plains with -cotton-tail rabbits everywhere, and cicadas innumerable shrilling from -the muskeet trees. Above all the noise of the train we could hear the -incessant chorus filling the hot out-of-doors, and, stepping on to the -rear platform, I found that several had flown or been blown on to the -car. Poor helpless creatures, with their foolish big-eyed heads and -little brown bodies wrapped up in a pair of large transparent wings. -But fancy living in such a hideous din as these cicadas live in! Do -naturalists know whether they are deaf? One would suppose of course -that the voice was given them originally for calling to each other in -the desolate wastes in which they are sometimes found scattered about. -But in the lapse of countless generations that have spent their lives -crowded together in one bush, sitting often actually elbow to elbow and -screaming to each other at the tops of their voices, it is hardly less -rational to suppose that kindly Nature has encouraged them to develop a -comfortable deafness. At any rate it is impossible to suppose that even -a cicada can enjoy the ear-splitting clamour in which its neighbours -indulge, and which now keeps up with us all the way as we traverse the -San Pedro Valley, and mounting from plateau to plateau—some of them -fine grass land, others arid cactus beds—reach another "Great Divide," -and then descend across an immense, desolate prairie, brightened here -and there with beautiful patches of flowers, into the San Simon Valley. -And all the time we eat our dinner (at the Bowie station) the cicadas -go on shrilling, on the hot and dusty ground, till the air is fairly -thrilling, with the waves of barren sound. That sounds like rhyme,—and -I do not wonder at it,—for even the cicadas themselves manage to drift -into a kind of metre in their arid aimless clamour, and the high noon, -as we sit on our cars again, looking out on the pink-flowered cactus -and the mezcal with its shafts of white blossoms, seems to throb with a -regular pulsation of strident sound. -</p> -<p>What a desolate land it seems, this New Mexico into which we have -crossed! But not for long. We soon find ourselves out upon a vast -plain of grassland, upon which the sullen, egotistical cactus will not -grow. "You common vegetables may grow there if you like," it says. -"Any fool of a plant can grow where there is good soil; but it shows -genius to grow on no soil at all." So it will not stir a step on to -the grass-land, but stands there out on the barren sun-smitten sand, -throwing up its columns of juicy green flesh and bursting out all over -into flowers of vivid splendour, just to show perhaps that "Todgers's -can do it when it likes." There is about the cactus' conduct something -of the superciliousness of the camel, which wades through hay with -its nose up in the air as if it scorned the gross provender of vulgar -herds, and then nibbles its huge stomach full of the tiny tufts of -leaves which is found growing among—the topmost thorns of the scanty -mimosa. -</p> -<p>Here, on this plain, is plenty of the "camel thorn," the muskeet, and -a whole wilderness of Spanish bayonet waiting till some one thinks it -worth while to turn it into paper, and there is not probably a finer -fibre in the world. Nor, because the cactus contemns the easy levels, -do other flowers refuse to grow. They are here in exquisite profusion, -a foretaste of the Texan "flower-prairies," and when the train stopped -for water I got out and from a yard of ground gathered a dozen -varieties. Nearly all of them were old familiar friends of English -gardens, and some were beautifully scented, notably one with a delicate -thyme perfume, and another that had all the fragrance of lemon verbena. -</p> -<p>Both to north and south are mountains very rich in mineral wealth, -and at Lordsburg, where we halted, I could not resist the temptation -of buying some "specimens." I had often resisted the same temptation -before, but here somehow the beauty of the fragments was irresistible. -Outside the station, by the way, under a heap of rubbish, were lying a -score or so of bars of copper bullion, worth, perhaps, twenty pounds -apiece. Such bulky plunder probably suits nobody in a climate of -everlasting heat, but it is all pure copper nevertheless—pennies en -bloc. -</p> -<p>The plain continues in a monotony of low muskeet scrub, broken here -and there by flowering mezcal. It is utterly waterless, and, except -for one fortnight's rain which it receives, gets no water all the -year round. Yet beautiful flowers are in blossom even now, and what -it must be just after the rain has fallen it is difficult to imagine. -To this great flower-grown chapparal succeeds a natural curiosity of -a very striking kind—a vast cemetery of dead yuccas. It looks as if -some terrific epidemic had swept in a wave of scorching death over the -immense savannah of stately plants. Not one has escaped. And there they -stand, thousand by thousand, mile after mile, each yucca in its place, -but brown and dead. And so through the graveyards of the dead things -into Deming—Deming of evil repute, and ill-favoured enough to justify -such a reputation. Even the cowboy fresh from Tombstone used to call -Deming "a hard place," and there is a dreadful legend that once upon -a time, that is to say, about ten years ago, every man in the den had -been a murderer! No one would go there except those who were conscious -that their lives were already forfeited to the law, and who preferred -the excitement of death in a saloon fight to the dull formalities of -hanging. However, tempora mutantur, and all that I remember Deming for -myself is its appearance of dejection and a very tolerable supper. -</p> -<p>And then away again, across the same flower-grown meadow, with its -sprinkling of muskeet bushes, and its platoons of yucca, but now all -radiant in their bridal bravery of waxen white. The death-line of the -beautiful plant seems to have been mysteriously drawn at Deming. I got -out at a stoppage and cut two more of the yuccas. The temptation to -possess such splendour of blossom was too great to resist. But alas! -as before, the dainty thing in its virginal white was hideous with -clinging parasites, and so I fastened them into the brake-wheel on the -platform, and sitting in my car smoking, could look out at the great -mass of silver bells that thus completely filled the doorway, and in -the falling twilight they grew quite ghostly, the spectres of dead -flowers, and touching them we find the flowers all clammy and cold. -"How it chills one!" said a girl, holding a thick, white, damp petal -between her fingers. "It feels like a dead thing." -</p> -<p>And sitting out in the moonlight—an exquisite change after the -hateful heat of the day thfit was past—we saw the muskeet growth -gradually dwindle away, and then great lengths of wind-swept sand-dunes -supervened. And every now and then a monstrous owl—the "great grey owl -of California," I think it must have been—tumbled up off the ground -and into the sky above us. Otherwise the desolation was utter. But I -sat on smoking into the night, and was abundantly repaid after awhile, -for the country, as if weary of its monotony, suddenly swells up into -billows and sinks into huge troughs, a land-Atlantic that beats upon -the rocks of the Colorado range to right and left; and as we cut our -way through the crests of its waves, the land broke away from before -us into bay—like recesses; crowned with galleries of pinnacled rock -and curved round into great amphitheatres of cliff. But away on the -left it seemed heaving with a more prodigious swell, and every now and -then down in the hollows I thought I could catch glimpses of moon-lit -water glittering. And the train sped on, winding in and out of the -upper ridges of the valley brim, and then, descending, plunged into -a dense growth of willows, and lo! the Rio Grande, and "the shining -levels of the mere." It was it then, this splendid stream, that had -been disturbing the land so, thrusting the valley this way and that, -shaping the hills to its pleasure, and that now rolled its flood along -the stately water-way which it had made, with groves of trees for reed -beds and a mountain range for banks! -</p> -<p>We cross it soon, seeing the Santa Fe line pass underneath us with -the river flowing underneath it again—and then with the Rio Grande -gradually curving away from us, we reach El Paso. And it is well -perhaps for El Paso, that we see it under the gracious witchery of -moonlight, for it is a place to flee from. Without one of the merits -of Asia, it has all Asia's plagues of heat and insects and dust. And -no one plants trees or sows crops; and so, sun-smitten, and waterless, -it lies there blistering, with all its population of half-breeds -and pariah dogs, a place, as I said, to flee from. And yet on the -other side of the river, a rifle-shot off, is the Mexican town of El -Paso—for the river here separates the States from their neighbour -Republic—and there, there are shade trees and pleasant houses, -well-ordered streets, and all the adjuncts of a superior civilization. -</p> -<p>A brawl alongside the station platform, with a horrible admixture of -polyglot oaths and the flash of knives, is the only incident of El Paso -life we travellers had experience of. But it may be characteristic. -</p> -<p>One of the party who had been incidentally concerned in the -disagreement travelled with us. He knew both New and Old Mexico well, -and among other things which he told me I remember that he said that -he had seen peccaries in New Mexico, on the borders of Arizona. I had -thought till then that this very disagreeable member of the pig family -confined itself to more southern regions. -</p> -<p>Treed by pigs is not exactly the position in which we should expect -to find a Colonial Secretary—at least, not often. But when one of -the Secretaries in Honduras was recently exploring the interior of -the country, he was overtaken by a drove of peccaries, and had only -time to take a snap shot at the first of them and scramble up a tree, -dropping his rifle in the performance, before the whole pack were -round his perch, gnashing their teeth at him, grunting, and sharpening -their tusks against his tree. Now the peccary is not only ferocious -but patient, and rather than let a meal escape it, it will wait about -for days, so that the Secretary had only two courses—either to remain -where he was till he dropped down among the swine from sheer exhaustion -and hunger, or else to commit suicide at once by coming down to be -killed there and then. While he was in this dilemma, however, what -should come along—and looking out for supper too—but a jaguar. -Never was beast of prey so opportune! For the jaguar has a particular -fondness for wild pork, and the peccaries know it, for no sooner did -they see the great ruddy head thrust out through the bushes than they -bolted helter-skelter, forgetting, in their anxiety to save their own -bacon, the meal they were themselves leaving up the tree. The jaguar -was off after the swine with admirable promptitude, and the Secretary, -finding the coast clear, came down—reflecting, as he walked towards -the camp, upon the admirable arrangements of Nature, who, having made -peccaries to eat Colonial Secretaries, provided also jaguars to eat the -peccaries. -</p> -<p>And so to sleep, and sleeping, over the boundary into Texas. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII. -</h2> -<p class="chapterHeading"> American neglect of natural history—Prairie-dogs again; their - courtesy and colouring—Their indifference to science—A hard - crowd—Chuckers out—Makeshift Colorado. -</p> -<p>"HAVE we struck another city?" I asked on awaking, and finding the -train at a standstill. -</p> -<p>"No, sir," said the conductor, "only a water-tank." -</p> -<p>"You see," I explained, "there are so many 'cities' on the Railway -Companies' maps that one hardly dares to turn one's head from the -window, lest one should let slip a few—so I thought it best to ask." -</p> -<p>No, it didn't look like a country of many cities. It was Texas. And the -grazing land stretched on either side of us to the horizon, without -even a cow to break the dead level of the surface. It was patched, -however, with wildflowers. Yellow verbena and purple grew in acres -together. And then the breakfasting station suddenly overtook us. It -was called Coya, and we ate refuse. When we complained, the man and his -wife—knock-kneed folk—deplored almost with tears their distance from -any food supply, and vowed they had done their best. And while they -vowed, we starved on damaged tomatoes; and on paying the man I gave him -advice to go and buy some potter's field with the proceeds, and to act -accordingly. -</p> -<p>What I hate about being starved is, that you can't smoke afterwards. -The best part of a good meal is the pipe afterwards, and the more ample -the meal the better the subsequent weed. But on a pint of bad tomatoes -no man can smoke with comfort to his stomach. But I ate bananas till -I thought I had qualified for tobacco, and with my pipe came more -kindly thoughts. Outside the cars the country was doing all it could to -soothe me, for the meadows were fairly ablaze with flowers. They were -in distracting profusion and of beautiful kinds. I knew most of them -as garden and hothouse flowers in England, but not their names; the -verbenas, however, were unmistakable, and so was the "painted daisy." -It suffices, however, that the country seemed a wild garden as far as -the eye could reach, yellow and orange being as usual the prevailing -colours. -</p> -<p>This determination of wild flowers to these colours is a point worth -the notice of science. And why are the very great majority of Spring -flowers yellow? -</p> -<p>One of my companions called this distraction of colour a -"weed-prairie," which reminds me to say that it is perfectly amazing -how indifferent the present generation of Western Americans are to the -natural history of their country. They cannot easily mistake a crow or -a rose. But all other birds, except "snipe" and "prairie chickens," -seem to be divided into "robins" and "sparrows;" and all flowers, the -sunflower and the violet, into lilies and primroses. They have not had -time yet, they say, to notice the weeds and bugs that are about. But, -in the meantime, a most appalling confusion of nomenclature is taking -root. As with eatables and other things, the emigrants to the States -have taken with them from Europe the names of the most familiar flowers -and birds, and anything that takes their fancy is at once christened -with their names. -</p> -<p>As the sun rose the population of these painted meadows came abroad, -multitudes of rabbits, a few "chapparal hens," and myriads—literally -myriads—of brilliant butterflies. -</p> -<p>And so on for a hundred miles. And then Texas gets a little tired of -so much level land and begins to undulate. Dry river-beds are passed, -and then a muskeet "chapparal" commences, and with it a prodigious -city of prairie-dogs. But the inhabitants are partially civilized. The -train does not alarm them in the least. It does not even arouse their -curiosity. They sit a few feet off the rails, with their backs to the -passing trains. Perhaps they may look over their shoulders at it. But -they do not interrupt their gambols nor their work for such a trifle -as a train. They eat and squabble and flirt—do anything, in fact, but -run away. Now and then, as if out of good taste and not to appear too -affected, they make a show of moving a little out of the way. But the -motive is so transparent that the trivial change of position counts for -nothing. The jack-rabbit imitates the prairie-dog, just as the Indian -imitates the white man, and pretends that it too does not care about -the train. But there is an expression on its ears that betrays its -nervousness; and why, too, does it always manage to get under the shady -side of the nearest bush? -</p> -<p>One thing more about the prairie-dog, and I have done with him. The -soil east of Colorado city changes for a while in colour, being -reddish. Before this it had been sandy. And the prairie-dog alters its -colour to suit its soil. You might say of course that the dust round -its burrows tinged its fur, just as dust will tinge anything it settles -on. But it is a fact that the fur itself is redder where the soil is -redder, and that in the two tracts the little animal assimilates itself -to the ground it sits upon. And the advantage is obvious. Dozens of -prairie-dogs sitting motionless on the soil harmonized so exactly with -their surroundings that for a time I did not observe them. Detecting -one I soon learned to detect all. Now one of the grey prairie dogs on -the red soil would have been very conspicuous, just as conspicuous in -fact as a red one would have been trying to pass unobserved on the -lighter soil. -</p> -<p>The undulations now increase into valleys, and splendid they are, with -their rich crops of wild hay and abundant life. The train stops at -a "station" (I am not sure that it has earned a name yet), and some -cowboys, and dreadful of their kind, get on to the train. But it is -only for an hour or so. But during that hour the prairie-dogs had much -excitement given them by the perpetual discharging of revolvers into -the middle of their family parties. It is impossible to say whether any -of them were hit, for the prairie-dog tumbles into his hole with equal -rapidity, whether he is alive or dead. But I hope they escaped. For I -have a great tenderness for all the small ministers of Nature, in fur -and in feathers. -</p> -<p> "Their task in silence perfecting, Still working, blaming still our - vain turmoil, Labours that shall not fail, when man is gone." -</p> -<p>And yet I would be reluctant to say that their indifference to express -trains should be encouraged. I don't like to see prairie-dogs thus -regardless of the latest triumphs of science. And so if the cowboys' -revolvers frightened them a little, let it pass. -</p> -<p>The train stopped again at another "station," and our cowboy passengers -got out, being greeted by two evil-looking vagabonds lying in the shade -of a shrub. The meeting of these worthies looked unmistakably like that -of thieves re-assembling after some criminal expedition. All alike -seemed eager to converse, but they evidently had to wait till the train -was gone. One man had a bundle which he held very tight (so it seemed -to us) between his legs. A few muttered sentences were exchanged, the -speakers turning their heads away from the train while they talked, -and the rest assuming a most ludicrous affectation of indifference -to what was being said. We started off, and looking out at them from -the rear platform of the car, I saw they were already in full talk. -Their animated gestures were almost as significant as words. Had I -referred to the conductor I might have saved myself all conjecture. For -mentioning my suspicions to him, he said, "Oh, yes! Those Rangers who -got off at Coya are after that crowd: and they're a hard crowd too." -</p> -<p>They were, without doubt, a terribly "hard crowd" to look at, these -cowboy-men. In England they would probably have followed "chucking out" -as a profession. I remember in a police court, during election time, -seeing some hulking victims of the police charged with "rioting." But -they pleaded, in justification of turbulence, that they were "chuckers -out of meetings!" They had been captured when expelling the supporters -of a rival candidate from a public hall with the fag ends of furniture, -and made no attempt at concealment of their misdemeanour. They were -paid, they said, to chuck out, and chucked out accordingly, to the best -of their intelligence and ability, and when overpowered by the police -attempted no subterfuge. Their stock-in-trade were broad shoulders and -prodigious muscle. For any odd job of fancy work they would perhaps -provide themselves with a few old eggs or put a dead cat or two into -their pockets. But, as a rule, when they went out to business they took -only their fists and their hob-nailed boots with them, relying upon -the meeting room to provide them with table legs and chairs. As soon -as the signal for the disturbance was given, the chuckers-out "went -for" the furniture, and, armed with a convenient fragment, looked about -for people whom they ought to chuck. There were plenty to choose from, -for a meeting consists, as a rule, of several or more persons, and the -chuckers-out having marked down a knot of the enemy, would proceed -to eject them, individually if refractory, in a body if docile, and -would thus, if unopposed by police, gradually empty the room. There is -something very humorous in this method of invalidating an obnoxious -orator's arguments, for nothing weakens the force of a speech so much -as the total absence of the audience. Nevertheless, the chucker-out -sees no humour in his job. It is all serious business to him, and so he -goes through his chucking with uncompromising severity. Now and then, -perhaps, he expels the wrong man, or visits the political offences -of an enemy upon the innocent head of one of his own party; but in -political discussions with the legs of tables and brickbats, such -mistakes can hardly help occurring. -</p> -<p>And the beautiful undulating meadows continue, sprinkled over with -shrub-like trees, and populous with rabbits and prairie-dogs and -chapparal hens. Here and there we come upon small companies of cattle -and horses, most contented with their pastures; but what an utter -desolation this vast tract seems to be! The "stations" are, as yet, -mere single houses, and we hardly see a human being in an hour. And -then comes Colorado, a queer makeshift-looking town, with apparently -only one permanent place of habitation in it—the jail. -</p> -<p>Beyond the town we passed some Mexicans supposed to be working, but -apparently passing time by pelting stones at the snakes in the water, -and soon after stopped to take up some Texan Rangers for the protection -of our train during the night. These Rangers reminded me very much of a -Boer patrol, and there is no doubt that both cowboys and Indians find -them far too efficient for comfort. They are, as a rule, good shots, -and all are of course good riders. The pay is good, and, "for a spell" -as one of them said, the work was "well enough." And as the evening -closed in, and we began to enter a country of dark jungle-looking land, -the scene seemed as appropriate as possible for a Texan adventure. But -nothing more exciting than cicadas disturbed our sleep. Somebody said -they were "katydids," but they were not—they were much katydider. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII. -</h2> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Nature's holiday—Through wonderful country—Brown negroes a libel - on mankind—The wild-flower state—The black problem—A piebald - flirt—The hippopotamus and the flea—A narrow escape—The home of - the swamp-gobblin—Is the moon a fraud? -</p> -<p>IN the morning everything had changed. Vegetation was tropical. Black -men had supplanted brown. Occasional tracts of rich meadow, with -splendid cattle and large-framed horses wading about among the pasture, -alternated with brakes of luxuriant foliage concealing the streams that -flowed through them, while fields of cotton in lusty leaf, gigantic -maize, and league after league of corn stubble, showed how fertile the -negro found his land. And the wild flowers—but what can I say more -about them? They seemed even more beautiful than before. -</p> -<p>There is something very striking and suggestive in these impressive -efforts of Nature to command, at recurring intervals, a recurring -homage. Thus, for one interval of the year the rhododendron holds an -undivided empire over the densely-wooded slopes of the great Himalayan -mountains in India. All the other beauties of mountain and valley -are forgotten for that interval of lovely despotism, and every one -who can, goes up to see "the rhododendrons in bloom." Nature is very -fond of such "tours de force," thinking, it may be, that men who see -her every-day marvels and grow accustomed to them require now and -then some extra-ordinary display, like the special festivals of the -ancient Church, to evoke periodically an extraordinary homage. Lest -the migration of creatures should cease to be a thing of wonder to us, -Nature organizes once in a way a monster excursion, sometimes of rats, -sometimes of deer, but most frequently of birds, to remind man of the -marvellous instinct that draws the animal world from place to place or -from zone to zone. For the same reason, perchance, she ever and again -drives butterflies in clouds from off the land out on to the open sea, -and, that the perpetual miracle of Spring may not pall upon us, she -gives the world in succession such breadths and tones of colour that -even the callous stop to admire the sudden gold of the meadows, the -hawthorn lying like snowdrifts along the country, the bridal attire of -the chestnuts, or the blue levels of wild hyacinth. As the priestess of -a prodigious cult, Nature decrees at regular intervals, for the delight -and discipline of humanity, a public festa, or universal holiday, to -which the whole world may go free, and wonder at the profusion of her -beauties. -</p> -<p>The track was, in places, very poor indeed, the cars jumping so much -as to make travelling detestable and travellers "sea-sick." And -then Dallas, with an execrable breakfast, and away again into the -wonderful country, with cattle perpetually wandering on to the track -and refusing to hear the warning shriek of the engine. The country was -richly timbered with oak and willow and walnut, with park-like tracts -intervening of undulating grassland. Here the stock wandered about in -herds as they chose, and except for a chance tent, or a shanty knocked -together with old packing-cases and canvas, there was no sign of -human population. But in the timbered country every clearing had the -commencement of a settlement, the tumble-down rickety habitation with -which the African, if left to his own inclinations, is content. And -wonderfully picturesque they looked, too, these efforts at colonization -in the middle of the forests, with the creepers swinging branches of -scarlet blossoms from the trees, and the foliage of the plantains, -maize and sugar-cane brightening the sombre forest depths. But the heat -must be prodigious, and so must the mosquitoes. -</p> -<p>It was Sunday, and after their kind the children of Ham were taking -"rest." Parties of negresses all dressed in the whitest of white, with -bright-coloured handkerchiefs on their heads, or hats trimmed with -gaudy ribands and flowers, and sometimes wearing, believe me, gloves, -were promenading in the jungle with their hulking, insolent-mannered -beaux. They looked like gorillas masquerading. In his native country -I sincerely like the negro. But here in America I regret to find him -unlovely. I am told that individual negroes have done wonders. I know -they have. But this does not alter my prejudice. I think the brownish -American negro of to-day is the most deplorable libel on the human -race that I have ever encountered. And I cannot help fearing that -America has a serious problem growing into existence in the South. The -brown-black population is there formulating for itself, apart from -white supervision, ideas of self-government, morality, "independence," -and even religion, that may make any future intervention of a better -class a difficult matter, or may eventuate in the contemporary -growth of two sharply-defined castes of society. I find the opinion -universally entertained in America that the brownish-black man is not -a sound or creditable basis for a community, and now that I have seen -in what numbers and what prosperity he has established himself in the -South, I cannot but think that he may be found in the future an awkward -factor in the body politic and social. -</p> -<p>The country in fact appears to be breeding helots as fast as it can for -the perplexity of the next generation. -</p> -<p>To the north of us as we travelled was a large Indian reservation, and -at more than one station I saw them crouching about the building. But I -should not have mentioned them had it not been that I saw a white man -trying to buy a cradle from a squaw. He offered $20 for it, but she -would not even turn her head to look at the money. It is quite possible -that the mother thought he was bargaining for the papoose as well as -the cradle. But I was assured that these women sometimes expend an -incredible amount of labour and indeed (for Indians) of money also upon -their papoose-panniers. One case was vouched for of an offer of $120 -being refused, the Indians stating that there were $80 worth of beads -upon the work of art, and that it had taken eleven years to complete. -</p> -<p>How beautiful Texas is! And what a future it has! For half a day and -a night we have been traversing grazing-land, and for half a day -fine timber growing in a soil of intense fertility. And now for half -a day we are in a pine country, sometimes with wide levels of turf -spreading out among the trees, sometimes with oak and walnut so thickly -intermingled with the pines that the whole forms a magnificent forest. -Passion-flowers entangle all the lower undergrowth, and up the dead -trees climbs that fine scarlet creeper which is such an ornament of -well-ordered gardens of some English country houses. But here in Texas -the people, as usual, have not had time yet to think of adornments, -and their ugly shanties therefore remain bare and wooden. They are of -course only ugly in themselves, that is to say, in material, shape, and -condition, for their surroundings are delightful and location perfect. -There is of course a good deal of "the poetry of malaria," as I heard a -charming lady say, about some of these sites. For it is impossible to -avoid the suspicion of agues and fevers in those splendid clearings, -with the rich foliage mobbing each patch of cotton, grapes, or maize. -</p> -<p>Whenever we happen to slacken pace near one of them an interesting -glimpse of local life is caught. Negroidal women come to the doors or -suddenly stand up in the middle of the crops in which, working, they -were unperceived. From the undergrowth, the ditches, and from behind -fences, appear dusky children, numbers of them, a swart infantry that -seems to me to fill the future with perplexity. Are these swarms going -to grow up a credit to the country? Have they it in their breed to be -fit companions in progress of the progeny of the best European stocks? -</p> -<p>The abundance of wild life, too, is very noticeable. Wherever we stop -we become aware of countless butterflies and insects busy among the -foliage, and the voices of strange birds resound from the forest depths. -</p> -<p>But other sites appear to me perfection. Take Marshall for instance, -or Jefferson. Which is the more beautiful of the two? Some of the -"commercial" settlements, just beginning life with a railway-station, -six drug stores, and seven saloons, have situations that ought to have -been reserved for honeymoon Edens. They are "hard" places. Law as yet -there is none except revolver law, and that is pitiless and sudden and -wicked. For Texas, the beautiful flower state, blessed with turf and -blessed with pines, has still the stern commencements of American life -before it—that rapid, fierce process of civilization which begins with -cards and whisky and murder, which finds its first protection in the -"Vigilantes" who hold their grim tribunals under the roadside trees, -but which suddenly one day wrenches itself, as it were, from its bad, -lawless past, and takes its first firm step on the high road to order -and prosperity and the world's respect. For every intelligent traveller -these ragged, half-savage, settlements should have a great significance -and interest. Before he dies they may be Chicagos or San Franciscos. -And these men, with their mouths full of oaths and revolvers on their -hips, are the fathers of those future cities. They will have no -immortality though in the gratitude of posterity. For they will shoot -each other of in those saloons, or the Rangers will shoot them down on -the flower prairies beyond the forests. But they will have done their -work nevertheless. Nature in every part of her scheme proceeds on the -same system of building foundations upon ruins. Whole nations have to -be killed off when they have prepared and preserved the ground as it -were for those that are to follow. Whether they are nations of men, -or of beasts, or of plants, she uses them in exactly the same way. -Everything must subserve the ultimate end. -</p> -<p>But I did not intend to moralize. The negress waiter at Longview (where -we dine very badly) reminds me how practical life should be. She never -stops to moralize. On the contrary, she just stands by the window, -swallowing all the peaches and fragments of pudding that the travellers -leave on their plates. Two he negroes wait upon us. But it looks as if -they were there to feed the negress rather than to feed us. For they -keep rushing in with full dishes to us and rushing off with the half -empty ones to her. And there she stands omnivorous, insatiable, black. -Everything that is brought to her of a sweet kind she swallows. Not as -if she enjoyed it, but as if she must. It was like throwing things into -a sink. She never filled up. -</p> -<p>And then, through the splendid tropical country, to Marshall. I must -return to Marshall, Texas, some day and be disillusioned, or else I -shall go down to my grave accusing myself of having passed Paradise in -the train, and not "stopped off" there. What an exasperating reflection -for a deathbed! I should never forgive myself. But perhaps it is not -so beautiful as it seems. In any case studies "from the life" would -be immensely interesting. I caught a few glimpses which entertained -me prodigiously. There was the negro dandy walking painfully in -patent-leather boots that were made for some man with ordinary feet, -with a fan in his hand and a large flower in his button-hole, an old -stove-pipe hat on his head, and a very corpulent handleless umbrella -under his arm. There was another, similarly caparisoned, escorting -three belles for a walk in the neighbouring jungle, the ladies all -wearing white cloth gloves and black cloth boots that squelched out -spaciously as they put their feet down. And alas! there was the black -coquette, with her bunch of crimson flowers behind her ear, her black -satin skirt and white muslin jacket, her parasol of black satin -lined with crimson—and how she flirts up the green slope, with a -half-acre smile on her face! She looks back at every other step to see -which, if any, of the black men, or the brown, or the yellow, on the -station platform is going to follow her expansive charms, and so she -disappears, this piebald siren, into the groves, her parasol flashing -back Parthian gleams of crimson as she goes. But every one, man, woman, -or child, black, brown, or yellow, was a study, so I must go back to -Marshall some day. -</p> -<p>At present, however, we are whirling away again through the lovely -woodland, and the whole afternoon passes in an unbroken panorama of -forest views, with great glades of meadow breaking away to right and -left, and patches of maize and cotton suddenly interrupting the stately -procession of timber. And then Jefferson. Is Jefferson more prettily -situated than Marshall? I cannot say. But Jefferson lies back among -the trees with an interval of orchard and corn-land between it and the -railway line, and looks a very charming retreat indeed. A fat negro -comes on board on duty of some kind connected with the brake, and -a witty little half-breed boy comes on after him. The fat negro is -the brown boy's butt. And he nearly bursts with wrath at the hybrid -urchin's chaff, and threatens, between gasps, a retaliation that cannot -find utterance in words. But the brown boy is relentless, and though -the train is rapidly increasing in its speed, he clings to the step and -taunts the negro who dare not leave his look-out post. But he knows -very well where the fat man will get off, and suddenly, with a parting -personality, the little wretch drops off the step, just as a ripe apple -might drop off a branch. And then the fat man has to get off. The speed -is really dangerous, but he climbs down the steps backwards, thinking -apparently only of his tormentor, and still breathing forth fire and -slaughter; and then lets go. Is he killed? Not a bit of it. He lands on -his feet without apparently even jarring his obese person, and when we -look back, we see that he is already throwing stones at the small boy, -whose batteries are replying briskly. I wonder if the hippopotamus ever -caught the flea? And if he did, what he did to him? -</p> -<p>And I remember how the Somali boys in Aden used to drive the bo'sun to -the verge of despair by clambering on to the ship and pretending not to -see him working his way round towards them with a rope's end behind his -back, and how at the very last moment, almost as the arm was raised to -strike, the young monkeys used to drop off backwards into the sea, like -snails off a wall. -</p> -<p>But is this Bengal or Texas that we are traveling through? The -vegetation about us is almost that of suburban Calcutta, and the heat, -the damp steamy heat of low-lying land, might be the Soonderbuns. And -here befell an adventure. We were nearing Atalanta. The train was on a -down grade and going very fast indeed, perhaps half a mile a minute. I -was sitting on my seat in the Pullman with the table up in front of me -and reading. At the other end of the car was a lady with some children -sitting with their backs to me. Further off, but also with his back to -me, was the conductor. Each "section" of a car has two windows. The -one at my left elbow had the blind drawn down. The other had not. On a -sudden at my ear, as it seemed, there was a report as of a rifle; the -thick double glass of the window in front of me flew into fragments all -over me, and the woodwork fell in splinters upon my book. I instantly -pulled up the blind of the other window and looked out to see who had -"fired." But of course at the speed we were going, there was no one in -sight. I called out to the conductor that some one had fired through -the window. He had not heard the explosion, nor had the lady. So their -surprise was considerable. And while I was looking in the woodwork -for the bullet I expected to find, the conductor picked off my table -a railway spike! Some wretch had thrown it at the passing train, and -the great velocity at which we were travelling gave the missile all -the deadly force of a bullet. "An inch more towards the centre of the -window, sir, and you might have been killed," said the brakeman. A -look at the splintered woodwork, and the bullet-like groove which the -sharp-pointed abomination had cut for itself, was suffcient to assure -me that he was right. But think of the atrocious character of such -mischief. The man who did it probably never thought of hurting any one. -And yet he narrowly missed having a horrible crime on his head. "If -we could have stopped the train and caught him, we would have lynched -him," said the conductor. "A year or two ago a miscreant threw a corn -cob into a window, very near this spot too. It struck a lady, breaking -her cheek bone, and bursting the ball of her left eye. We stopped the -train, caught the man, and hanged him by the side of the track then and -there." -</p> -<p>And then Atalanta, in a country that is very beautiful, but with that -poetry of malaria which suggests a peril in such beauty. And gradually -the land becomes swampy, and the old trees, hung with moss, stand -ankle-deep in brown stagnant water. The glades are all pools, and -where-ever a vista opens, there is a long bayou stretching down between -aisles of sombre trees. It is wonderful in its unnatural beauty, this -forest standing in a lagoon. The world was like this when the Deluge -was subsiding. There is a mysterious silence about the gloomy trees. -Not a bird lives among them. But in the sullen water, there are turtles -moving, and now and then a snake makes a moment's ripple on the dull -pools. Sunlight never strikes in, and as I looked, I could not help -remembering all the horrors of the slave-hunt, and the murder at the -end of it, in the dark depths of some such horrid brake as these we -pass. What a spot for legends to gather round! Has no one ever invented -the swamp-goblin? -</p> -<p>For an hour and more we pass through this eerie country, and then -comes a change to higher land with a splendid growth of pine and -walnut and oak all healthily rooted in dry ground. But towards evening -we come again into the swamps, and the sun goes down rosy-red behind -the water-logged trees, till their trunks stand out black against -the ruddy sky and the pools about their feet take strange tints of -copper and purpled bronze. And suddenly we flash across the track -of the narrow-gauge line to New Orleans—and such a sight! The line -pierces an avenue, straight as an arrow, for miles and miles through -the belt of forest. On either side along the track lie ditches filled -with water. But to-night the ditches seem filled with logwood dye, and -the wonderful vista through the deep green trees is closed as with a -curtain, by the crimson west! -</p> -<p>It was only a glimpse we got of it, but as long as I live I shall never -forget it, the most marvellous sight of all my life. -</p> -<p>No, not even sunrise upon the Himalayas, nor the moonlight on the -palm-garden in Mauritius—two miracles of simple loveliness that are -beyond words—could surpass that glimpse through the Texan forest. It -was not in the least like this earth. Beyond that crimson curtain might -have been heaven, or there might have been hell. But I am not content -to believe that it was merely Louisiana. -</p> -<p>And now comes Texakharna with its sweltering Zanzibar heat, but an -admirable supper to put us into good humour, and a beautiful moonlight -to sit and smoke in. If the sunset was weird, the moonlight was -positively goblinish. Such gloom! Not darkness remember, but gloom, -blacker than darkness, and yet never absolutely impenetrable. At least -so it seemed, and the fire-flies, flickering in thousands above the -undergrowth and up among the invisible branches, helped the fancy. -And the frogs! Was there ever, even in India in "the rains," such a -prodigious chorus of batrachians? And the katydids! Surely they were -all gone mad together. But it was a delightful ride. Sometimes in the -clearings we caught glimpses of negro parties, the white dresses of the -women glancing in and out along the paths, and the sound of singing -coming from the huts in the corners of the maize-patches. -</p> -<p>Here at the corner of a clearing stands a cottage, a regular fairy-tale -cottage "by the wood," and in the moonlight it looked as if, "really -and truly," the walls were made of toffy and the roof was plum-cake. At -any rate there were great pumpkins on the roof, just such pumpkins as -those in which Cinderella (after they had turned into coaches) drove -to the Prince's ball. And I would bet my last dollar on it that the -lizards that turned into horses were there too, and the rats, and in -the marsh close by you might have a large choice of frogs to change -into coachmen. -</p> -<p>And yet, I cannot help thinking, there is a good deal of false -sentiment expended upon the moon, the result of a demoralizing humility -which science has taught the inhabitants of "the planet we call Earth." -We are for ever being warned by our teachers against the sin of pride, -and being told that the universe is full of "Earths" just as good as -ours, and perhaps better. We are not, they say, to fancy that our own -world is something very special, for it is only a little ball, spinning -round and round in the firmament, among a number of other balls which -are so superior to it that if our own insignificant orange came in -contact with them we should get the worst of the collision. Nor are -we to fancy that the moon is our private property, and grumble at her -shabbiness, as our planetary betters have a superior claim to their -share of her, and this sphere of ours ought to be very thankful for as -much of the luminary as it gets. -</p> -<p>Now, to my thinking, there is something distinctly degrading in this -view. Englishmen maintain patriotically that Great Britain is the -Queen of the Sea; why, then, should not we Earthians, with a larger -patriotism, say that our planet is the best planet of the kind in the -firmament, and, putting on one side all petty territorial distinctions, -boldly challenge the supremacy of the Universe itself? Depend upon it, -if any presumptuous moon-men or Jupiterites were to descend to Earth -and begin to boast, they would be very soon put down, and I do not see, -therefore, why we should not at once call upon all the other stars -and comets to salute our flag whenever we sail past them on the high -seas of the Empyrean. As it is, we are taught timidity by science, and -told that whenever a filibustering comet or meteor—the pirates and -privateers of the skies—comes along our way we are to expect instant -combustion, or something worse. Why are they not made to drop their -colours by a shot across their bows? or why, when we next see a meteor -bearing down upon us, should we not steer straight at it, and, using -Chimborazo or Mount Everest, or the dome of St. Paul's, or the Capitol -at Washington as a ram, sink the rascal? A broadside from our volcanic -batteries, Etna and Hecla, Vesuvius, Erebus, and the rest would soon -settle the matter, and we should probably hear no more for a long time -to come of these black-flagged craft who go cruising about to the -annoyance of honest planets. The same unbecoming apprehensions are -entertained with regard to the moon. Yet it is absurd that we should be -afraid of her. The Earth, by its velocity and weight, could butt the -moon into space or smash her into all her original fragments, could -bombard her with volcanoes, or put an earthquake under her and make a -ruin of her, or turn the Atlantic on to her and put her out. The moon -is really our own property, something between a pump and a night light, -and, if the truth must be told, not very good as either. Twice a day -she is supposed to raise the water of our oceans, but we have often -had to complain of her irregularity; and every night she ought to be -available for lighting people home to their beds, but seldom is. As a -rule, our nights are very dark indeed, owing to her non-attendance; -and even when she is on duty the arrangements she makes for keeping -clouds off her face are most defective. If the Earth were to be half as -irregular in the duties which she has to perform there would soon be -a stoppage of everything, collisions at all the junctions, accidents -at the level crossings, planets telescoped in every direction, and -passengers and satellites much shaken, if not seriously injured. But -the Earth is business-like and practical, and sets an example to those -other denizens of the firmament which are perpetually breaking out in -eruptions, getting off the track, and going about in disorderly gangs -to the public annoyance. Why, then, we ask, ought our planet to be -for ever taking off its hat to the flat-faced old moon, who is always -trying to show off with borrowed light, makes such a monstrous secret -of her "other side," is perpetually being snubbed by eclipses, and made -fun of by stars that go and get occultated by her? -</p> -<p>But there are objections to discarding the luminary, for it is never a -graceful act to turn off an old dependant, and, besides, the moon is -about as economical a contrivance as we could have for keeping up the -normal average of lunatics, giving dogs something to bark at by night -when they cannot see anything else, and affording us an opportunity of -showing that respect for antiquities which is so becoming. -</p> -<p>But what business the Man in the Moon has there, remains to be -decided; and who gave him permission to go collecting firewood in -our moon, remains to be seen. For it is well to remember that a very -distinguished French savant has proved that the moon is the private -property of the Earth. We used, he says, to do very well without a moon -once upon a time; but going along on our orbit one day, we picked up -the present luminary—then a mere vagabond, a disreputable vagrant mass -of matter, with no visible means of subsistence—"and shall, perhaps, -in the future pick up other moons in the same way." As a matter of fact -then, he declares the moon to be a dependant of our Earth, and says -that if we were selfishly to withdraw our "attraction" from it, the -poor old luminary would tumble into space, and never be able to stop -herself, or, worse still, might come into collision with some wandering -comet or other, and get blown up entirely. We ought, therefore, to -think kindly of the faithful old creature; but we should not, all the -same, allow any length of service to blind us to the actual relations -between her and ourselves—much less to make us frightened of the moon. -</p> -<p>But the man in the moon should be seen to. He is either there or he is -not. If he is, he ought to pay taxes: and if he is not, he has no right -to go on pretending that he is. -</p> - - -<h2><a name="CHAPTERXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX. -</h2> -<p class="chapterHeading"> Frogs, in the swamp, and as a side-dish—Negroids of the swamp - age—Something like a mouth—Honour in your own country—The Land - Of Promise—Civilization again. -</p> -<p>ARKANSAS remains on the mind (and the traveller's notebook) as a -vast forest of fine timber standing in swamps. There are no doubt -exceptions, but they do not suffice to affect the general impression. -And if I owned Arkansas I think I should rent it to some one else to -live in; especially to some one fond of frogs. For myself, I feel no -tenderness towards the monotonous batrachian. Even in a bill of fare -the tenderness is all on the frog's side. But on the whole, I like him -best when he is cooked. In the water with his "damnable iteration" of -Yank! yank! yank! I detest him—legs and all. But served "a cresson," -with a clear brown gravy, I find no aggressiveness in him. It gets -cooked out of him: he becomes the gentlest eating possible. Butter -would not melt in his mouth, though it does on his legs. There is -none of the valiant mouse-impaling "mud-compeller" about him when you -foregather with him as a side dish. Aristophanes would not recognize -him, and the "nibbler of cheese rind" might then triumph easily over -him. Yet to think how once he shuddered the earth, and shook Olympus! -The goddess that leans upon a spear wept for him, and Aphrodite among -her roses trembled. -</p> -<p>But here in Arkansas, on a hot night in "the Moon of Strawberries," -what a multitudinous horror they are these "tuneful natives of the -reedy lake!" Like the laughter of the sea, beyond arithmetic. Like -the laughter of the sea, beyond arithmetic. Like the complainings of -the plagued usurers in Hell, beyond compassion. I cannot venture my -pen upon it. It is like launching out upon "the tenth wave," for an -infinite natation upon cycles of floods. It is endless; snakes with -tails in their mouths; trying to correct the grammar of a Mexican's -English. -</p> -<p>But, seriously; was ever air so full of sound as these Arkansas swamps -"upon a night in June!" It fairly vibrates with Yank! yank! yank! And -yet over, and under, and through, all this metallic din, there shrills -supreme the voice of strident cicadas, without number and without -shame, and countless katydids that scream out their confidences to all -the stars. It is really astonishing; a tour de force in Nature; a noisy -miracle. I wonder Moses did not think of it, for such a plague might -have done him credit, I think. At all events, the ancestors of Arabi -Pasha would have been egregiously inconvenienced by such a hubbub. It -is no use trying to talk; yank—Katy did—yank—yank. That is all you -hear. So you may just as well sit and smoke quietly, and watch the -moon-lit swamps and wonderful dark forests go by, with their perpetual -flicker of restless fire-flies, twinkling in and out among the -brushwood. If they would only combine into one central electric light! -All the world would go to see them—the new "Brush-light." But there is -very little sense of utility among fire-flies. They flicker about for -their own amusement, and are of a frivolous, flighty kind; perpetually -striking matches as if to look for something, and then blowing them out -again. They strike only on their own box. -</p> -<p>But here comes a station—"Hope." We are soon past Hope; and then -comes another swamp, with its pools, that have festered all day long -in the sun, emitting the odours of a Zanzibar bazaar, and standing in -the middle of them apparently are some clearings already filled with -crops, and a hut or two cowering, as if they were wild beasts, just on -the edge of the timber where the shadows fall the darkest. What kind -of people are they that live in this terraqueous land? No race that is -fit to rule can do it. No, nor even fit to vote. Some day, no doubt, -the wise men of the world will dig up tufts of wool, and skulls with -prognathous jaws, and label them "Negroids of the swamp age." Or they -may fall into the error of supposing that the wool grew all over their -bodies equally, and some Owen of the future discourse wisely of "the -great extinct anthropoids of Arkansas." For in those wonderful days -that are coming—when men will know all about the wind-currents, and -steer through ocean-billows by chart, when doctors will understand the -smallpox, and everybody have the same language, currency, religion, -and customs duties, and when every newspaper offce will be fitted with -patent reflectors, showing on a table in the editor's room all that -is going on all over the world, and special correspondents will be as -extinct as dodos, and when many other delightful means of saving time -and trouble will have come to pass—then, no doubt, as the Mormons say, -all the world will have become a "white and a delightsome people," and -the commentators will explain away the passages in the ancient English -which seem to point to the early existence of a race that was as black -as coals, and lived on pumpkins in a swamp. -</p> -<p>And still we sit up, long past midnight, for never again in our lives -probably shall we have such an experience as this, so unearthly in -its surroundings—forests that crowded in upon the rails and hung -threateningly over the cars, pools that lay glistening in the moonlight -round the foot of the trees, the air as thick as porridge with the -yanking of brazen-throated frogs, and the screaming of tinlunged -cicadas, yet all the time alive with lantern-tailed insects—just -as if the clamour of frogs and cicadas struck fireflies out of each -other in the same way that flint and steel strike flashes, or as if -their recriminations caught fire like Acestes' arrows as they flew, -and peopled the inflammable air with phosphorescent tips of flame—a -battery of din perpetually grinding out showers of electric sparks. -</p> -<p>And to make us remember this night the cars bumped abominably over -the dislocated sleepers and the sunken rails, as the Spanish father -whipped his son that he might never forget the day on which he saw a -live salamander; and the engine flew a streamer of sparks and ink-black -smoke, till it felt as if we were riding to Hades on a three-legged -dragon. But it came to sleep at last, and we went to bed, leaving the -moonlit country to the vagaries of the fireflies and the infinite -exultations of the frogs. -</p> -<p>Awaking in the morning with "the grey wolf's tail" still in the sky, -what a wonderful change had settled on the scene! The same swamped -forests on either side of us: the same gloomy trees and the same -sulky-looking pools; but a dull leaden Silence supreme! Where were -the creatures that had crowded the moonlight? You might live a whole -month of mornings without suspecting that there were any such things in -Arkansas as frogs or katydids or fireflies! -</p> -<p>I should have gone to sleep again if I had not caught sight of our new -porter, or brakeman. He happened to be laughing, and the corners of -his mouth, so it seemed to me, must have met behind. I need hardly say -he was a negro. But at first I thought he was a practical joke. I took -the earliest opportunity of looking at the back of his neck, to see -what kept his head together when he laughed. But I only saw a brass -button. I should not have thought that was enough to keep a man's skull -together, if I had not seen it. And he was always laughing, so that -there was nearly as much expression on the back of his head as on the -front. He laughed all round. -</p> -<p>I felt inclined to advise him to get his mouth mended, or to tell him -about "a stitch in time." But he seemed so happy I did not think it -worth while. -</p> -<p>Is it worth while saying that the swamp forest continued? I think not. -So please understand it, and think of the country as a flooded forest, -with wonderful brown waterways stretching through the trees, just as -glades of grass do elsewhere, with here and there, every now and again, -a broad river-like bayou of coffee stretching to right and left, and -winding out of sight round the trees, and every now and again a group -of wooden cabins, most picturesquely squalid, and inhabited by coloured -folk. -</p> -<p>Does anybody know anything of these people? Are they cannibals, -or polygamous, or polyandrous, or amphibious? Surely a decade of -unrestricted freedom and abundant food in such solitudes as these, must -have developed some extraordinary social features? At all events, it is -very difficult to believe that they are ordinary mortals. -</p> -<p>The hamlets are few and far between, and it is only once or twice -during the day that we strike a village nomine dignus. Looking at a -garden in one of these larger hamlets, I notice that the hollyhock and -pink and petunia are favourite flowers; and it is worth remarking that -it is with flowers as with everything else—the imported articles are -held in highest esteem. Writing once upon tobacco cultivation in the -East, I remember noting that each province between Persia and Bengal -imported its tobacco from its next neighbour on the west, and exported -its own eastward. It struck me as a curious illustration of the -universal fancy for "foreign" goods. So with flowers. It is very seldom -that the wild plants of a locality arrive at the dignity of a garden. -In England we sow larkspurs; in Utah they weed them out. In England we -prize the passion-flower and the verbena; in Arkansas they carefully -leave them outside their garden fences. And what splendid flowers these -people scorn, simply because they grow wild! Some day, I expect, it -will occur to some enterprising settler that there is a market abroad -for his "weeds;" and that lily-bulbs and creeper-roots are not such -rubbish as others think. -</p> -<p>Then Poplar Bluff, a crazy-looking place, with many of its houses built -on piles, and a saloon that calls itself "the XIOU8 saloon." I tried -to pronounce the name. Perhaps some one else can do it. Then the swamp -reasserts itself, and the forest of oak and walnut, sycamore and plane. -But the settlements are singularly devoid of trees, whether for fruit -or shade. The people, I suppose, think there are too many about already. -</p> -<p>And now we are in Missouri—the Mormons' 'land of promise,' and the -scene of their greatest persecutions. It is a beautiful State, as -Nature made it; but it almost deserves to be Jesse-Jamesed for ever for -its barbarities towards the Mormons. No wonder the Saints cherish a -hatred against the people, and look forward to the day when they shall -come back and repossess their land. For it is an article of absolute -belief among the Mormons, that some day or other they are going back to -Jackson County, and numbers of them still preserve the title-deeds to -the lands from which they were driven with such murderous cruelty. -</p> -<p>It was here that I saw men working a deposit of that "white earth" -which has done as much to bring American trade-enterprise into -disrepute as glucose and oleomargerine put together. In itself a -harmless, useless substance, it is used in immense quantities for -"weighting" other articles and for general adulteration; and I -could not help thinking that the man who owns the deposit must feel -uncomfortably mean at times. But it is a paying concern, for the world -is full of rascals ready to buy the stuff. -</p> -<p>And, after all, one half the world lives by poisoning the other. -</p> -<p>A thunderstorm broke over the country as we were passing through it, -and I could not help admiring the sincerity of the Missouri rain. -There was no reservation whatever about it, for it came down with a -determined ferocity that made one think the clouds had a spite against -the earth. Moss Ferry, a ragged, desolate hamlet, looked as if it was -being drowned for its sins; and I sympathized with pretty Piedmont -in the deluge that threatened to wash it away. But we soon ran out -of the storm, and rattling past Gadshill, the scene of one of Jesse -James' train-robbing exploits, and sped along through lovely scenery of -infinite variety, and almost unbroken cultivation, to Arcadia. -</p> -<p>But this is "civilization." In a few hours more I find myself back -again at the Mississippi, the Indus of the West, and speeding along its -bank with the Columbia bottom-lands lying rich and low on the other -side of the prodigious river, and reminding me exactly of the great -flat islands that you see lying in the Hooghly as you steam up to -Calcutta—past the new parks which St. Louis is building for itself, -and so, through the hideous adjuncts of a prosperous manufacturing -town, into St. Louis itself. -</p> -<p>Out of deference to St. Louis, I hide my Texan hat, and disguise myself -as a respectable traveller. For I have done now with the wilds and the -West, and am conscious in the midst of this thriving city that I have -returned to a tyrannical civilization. -</p> -<p>And I take a parting cocktail with the Western friend who has been my -companion for the last three thousand miles. -</p> -<p>"Wheat," says he, with his little finger in the air. -</p> -<p>And I reply, "Here's How." -</p> -<p class="centered">THE END. -</p> - - -<p class="centered"><br><br><br><br>LONDON: -</p> -<p class="centered">PRINTED BY GILDERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. 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