AFFAIRS IN UTAH.
Unpleasant Weather—Snow—Brigham Young GONE on a Southern Tour—Educational Matters—Horse Stealing, &c.
Correspondence of the New-York Times.
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Friday, Nov. 2, 1860.
After a very fine spell of weather we have had a very sharp foretaste of Winter. Sunday was one of those peculiarly unpleasant days, of which this lati-tude can boast—very windy and very dusty, the fine particles of earth at times so filling the air as not only to obstruct the vision, but to penetrate eyes, mouth, and nostrils to an exceedingly annoying degree. At night the Heavens looked black and threatening. The next morning, the earth was covered with about six inches of snow. More fell at intervals through the day. This was the first snow in the Valley this sea-son, and it appeared to take things animate and inani-mate by surprise. The fruit-trees had not shed their leaves, and the compact, snow falling upon them, bore down the young branches to the ground, inso-much that many trees of three or four years old, and under, were dwarfed to one-third their natural size. The young shoots, however, being more elastic now than in the Spring, sank gracefully under their bur-den, and consequently little harm in the way of break- age was done. A great deal of the root crop is yet to be gathered, and many of the people are caught with their new buildings half erected.
On Tuesday morning early, two inches more of snow fell. The air since has been clear and sharp, the days fine, and the nights frosty. The snow, how-ever, has not yet disappeared from the Valley. One benefit of this storm will be the softening of the ground for Fall plowing, as some of it had become so hard as to make it a matter of difficulty to lift potatoes, car-rots, beets, and the root crops in general.
BRIGHAM, with his two coadjutors, KIMBALL and WELLS, accompanied by a select party of adherents, have started on a tour South. How far they may go before they return, may be known to the initiated, but BRIGHAM is famous for doing two things, at times—keeping his own counsel and acting under the im-pression of the moment. Hence, though a programme be laid out, as like as not a sudden change will be made in it during the journey. Notwithstanding, one may guess the direction and extent. He has recently made a trip to Provo and Provo Valley. So he will go somewhere else this time. He will scarcely go eastward, there is nothing that way for him to visit; and he certainly will not go West; that will be too proximate to Camp Floyd. The Mormon settlements South extend some 300 miles. He will hardly make such a trip as will circumscribe those distant settle-ments, at this season, when the inclemency of weather, with the mercury near zero, is quite within the range of possibility. A visit to Juab, or to San Pete Valley, would seem more probable. He might extend his trip to the capital, Fillmore, some one hun-dred and fifty miles, or to the new settlements on the Sevier, or to the lead works on the Beaver. The pre-cise distance will, likely, depend more or less on the weather.
BRIGHAM has made quite a number of these tours the present season, perhaps to compensate for his in-door detention, compulsory or politic, of '58-9. Cache Valley, Provo City, Provo Valley, the Weber Coal Beds, and now the Southern country, come in for their share of attention. These rural trips seem to partake of a threefold character—recreative, ex-ploratory and religious. Of course, BRIGHAM, sitting in his office, to "give counsel to the brethren," almost from night to morn, from morn to dewy eve, although we have very little dew in this region, must certainly feel very eager to ruralize occasionally for a week or two. And at the same time he can take a glance at the resources and facilities of the country, advising the "brethren" to build a city here, or a fort there, or a hamlet sort of a settlement somewhere else, or to open kanyons in various parts of the country. While, as sure as fate, there would be plenty of exhortation to continue faithful, to punctually pay tithing, to raise lots of grain, and to keep it, instead of selling it to the Gentiles, not forgetting a strong dose of com-fort in the fond anticipation of the day of victory, when Time and the enemies of the Saints should be no more.
A number of school teachers and others have re-cently organized the "Deseret School-Teachers' Association," in this city, the avowed object of which is "to promote the advancement and concentrate the efforts of school teachers in this city; and, as oppor-tunities offer, throughout the Territory, to corres-pond with societies of a similar character, wherever established, and also to aim at the attainment of uni-formity in connexion with the practice of school teaching, by means of lectures, lessons, essays, read-ings, illustrations and criticisms." The following are the officers: ORSON PRATT, Jr., President; JAMES COBB, G. W. MOUSLEY, Vice-Presidents; W. WILLES, Secre-tary; H. W. CHURCH, Treasurer.
Every once in a while there are some large at-tempts in Utah at literary and scientific associations. Last Winter, a bill for the establishment of a Histori-cal Society was introduced in the Legislature, but whether that honorable body was too busy in killing the efforts of the "Code Committee," or in cogitating over other engrossing topics, or whether the historic bill was not exactly the thing, or was not born of the right parents, I cannot say; at any rate, no such bill passed, and no Historical Society was established.
Several years ago several societies of ample preten-sions sprang up into a kind of mushroom existence for a time. There was the Polysophical Society, the Universal Scientific Society, and I do not know what else. And wonderful things were on the eve of being done. I believe the Polysophical did weather along for a spell, and prosper. But the late JEDEDIAH M. GRANT saw something in it which did not take his fancy, and he thundered away at the institution until it fell, and great was the fall thereof. As to the Uni-versal Scientific Society, I believe nothing has been heard of that bantling since its birth. Whether it was still-born, or what was the matter with it, I cannot undertake to say. However, there does seem some-thing in the climate, or the ways of the folks here, that renders the health of such societies of a very del-icate character. If the late decision of the Probate Court, in the case of BRIGHAM YOUNG vs. P. K. DOTSON had been carried into execution, the ex-Marshal's property, or some of it, would ere this have been brought to the hammer. But Judge CROSBY'S expressed opinion against the jurisdiction of the Probate Court in such cases, and his volunteered readiness to issue a writ of injunction, if asked formally to do so, seems to have virtually laid an embargo on the operations of the territorial officials, for the sale has been postponed, and perhaps will be, until after the sitting of the Legislature, when some-thing will, no doubt, be done for the Judges, as the early session is at their request.
Fifteen horses were recently stolen one night from the vicinity of E. T. City, in Tooele Valley, and safely run off. Weber County has had considerable reputation as a rendezvous for thieves and their ill-gotten booty, and the officers there have been stirring up the nests. One gentleman was followed and ar-rested near Fillmore, with a horse stolen from Ogden. This fellow made a confession by which, if true, it appears that one method of stealing is to bribe In-dians to run off animals to a designated spot, where the white thieves are ready to take charge of the property the Indians bring to them, and to pay the re-ward. Many acts were confessed, and many names given connected with such pursuits. There is some-thing more in this plentitude of stealing than I can comprehend. Undoubtedly, the existing conflict about jurisdiction has some influence in the matter. Mr. GEORGE PEACOCK, of Manti, recently had his foot caught in the wheel of a threshing machine and severely injured.
