Correspondence of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
UTAH AND THE MORMONS.
I have been agreeably surprised at the ap-pearance of Salt Lake City and the deportment of its inhabitants. In the States we are taught to believe that the Mormons are thieves, knaves or assassins. Such I find, is not the case. The people, three-fourths English, Scotch and Welsh, with an occasional sprinkling of bastard Amer-icans, are honest, thrifty and industrious, but ignorant. I have never seen a town of equal magnitude where such universal order prevails. Every one appears to have business and attends to it, without annoying his neighbors. I have seen no loafers, and find that there is not a sin-gle whiskev or drinking saloon in the city. One establishment is licensed to wholesale ar-dent spirits, but none is drank on the premises. Women promenade the streets after dark, unes-corted, and without fear of molestation. These things certainly are creditable. When a man is caught stealing he is summarily dealt with. An intelligent citizen informed me that for a number of years after the settlement of the val-ey, Salt Lake City was infested by a band of desperadoes, who murdered and pillaged indis-criminately, but that they had long since been killed or driven off by the peaceable inhabitants. There is at present but little field for the oper-ations of sharpers, and I advise all indolent per-sons to remain in the States where poor-houses are plentiful.
Of the Mormon religion I have learned but little. I think, however, that barring their great hobby of polygamy, the fundamental prin-ciples are good, although surrounded by a tis-sue of priestly hocus-pocus, intended to deceive and awe the ignorant and superstitious. Eve-ry man has as many wives as he can support, judging by the juvenile population. I sincerely pity a poor fellow who is afflicted with more than one if those that I have see are a fair sam-ple of Mormon beauty. The only passibly fair women that I have seen are inmates of Brig-ham's harem. While driving out some few days since, I overhauled the modern Solomon, who was going out into the country on a bender in company with a number of his coucubines. The carriages, each drawn by four horses, and accompanied by outriders and baggage wagons, formed a train half a mile long. I had a fair view of the stock—horses and women. The former were magnificent animals ; the latter fair to middling.
" Some were fair and some were plain,
And some were frightfully on the wane."
I noticed in the party women of forty and girls of twelve or fourteen. I have in vain en-deavored to ascertain the number of Brigham's wives, but no one here knows. I doubt if the old sinner himself can tell. Men frequently marry sisters. The population, with but few exceptions, consists of unnaturalized foreigners, who acknowledge no allegiance to the govern-ment under which they live, and evidently look upon representatives of the Union as enemies although they deal honorably with strangers A regiment of United States soldiers is posted on a hill, commanding the town, and holds'' the sword of Damocles" suspended over evil doers.
Salt Lake City, is, I believe, situated in lati-tude three degrees north of Cincinnati, and in longitude thirty-six west, but owing to its being on the Pacific slope, the climate is more tem-perate. The valley, with irrigation, produces fine crops. Fruit is becoming plentiful. I have seen many fine, thrifty orchards of apples, peaches and apricots, and at this season the trees are bending beneath their delicious fruit. I counted on one limb, eighteen inches long, forty-eight pretty developed apples ! Flour ranges from three to four dollars per hundred weight; wheat. one dollar per bushel ; oats, ninety cents ; barley, one dollar. Bacon is for-ty cents per pound ; brown sugar, fifty cents ; coffee, seventy-five ; sorghum molasses, two dol-lars and fifty cents per gallon, &c.
The large lake, some twenty miles distant, furnishes a fine article of salt in abundance. There are also many hot and cold mineral springs in the vicinity of the city. In one of these, which ejects a hundred gallons of water per minute, I enjoyed the luxury of a hot sul-phur bath. The hills are rich in ore and min-erals of all kinds. The people are energetic and will ultimately become self-sustaining and weal-thy. But I cannot tarry. Destiny hurries me on. We start this morning for the Nevada range. Ho ! for the land of Ophie ! Adieu ! sweet valley of saints ! I depart without a murmur of regret, although within thy quiet shades I have enjoyed an exceeding tranquility of mind and body. But I have failed to discover the purity of thy creed or the dazzling beauty of thy women. I have sought the dark-eyed for-est maid, bashful as a gazelle and beautiful as an houri—but in vain. I have sought delicious frogs from out the holy Jordan, and upon its bank feasted the grand sachem of the Utah tribe. I gave unto him an ancient red shirt, a jack knife, and a fine-tooth comb—and we were brothers. But after his departure, I discover-ed that the pewter spoon, with which he had gobbled his soup, had also gone upon the " war path." Lo ! the poor Indian !"
