INTERESTING FROM UTAH.
THE COURTS—SOUTHERN UTAH—JOURNEY FROM SALT LAKE TO FILLMORE—WINTER QUARTERS—MOUNT NEBO—MORMON TOWNS—THE CAP-ITOL—AN INDIAN FARM—POLYGAMY—SCARC-ITY OF TIMBER—GOOD CROPS.
From Our Special Correspondent.
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T.,
September 10, 1858.
The Judges and the Territorial Secretary started on their journey to Fillmore from the camp of the army, in Cedar Valley, on Tuesday, August 24. The object of the trip, on the part of the former, was to fix the times and places of holding the United States District Courts throughout the Territory, which they are required by law to do at the Territorial seat of Government; on the part of the Secretary, to examine the condition of the Capitol building, and report the same to the Department of the Interior. Their escort consisted of a squadron of dragoons, its officers being Capt. W. D. Smith, and Lieuts. Haight and Livingston. From Salt Lake City, there is a broad, well-beaten road, running through Provo, along the eastern side of Luke Utah, to Fill-more, a distance of about 160 miles, and thence still southward 95 miles further to Parowan. This is the route over which pusses the travel to San Bernardino and San Diego, in southern California, the same route by which Col. Kane reached the city last March. But from Cedar Valley, which lies west from the lake, there is a cut-off intersecting the main road, at the foot of Mount Nebo, fifteen or sixteen miles south of the lake. The plan of our journey was to travel down by the cut-off on the west of the lake, and to return along the eastern shore, passing on our route through the whole chain of Mormon settle-ments, between Salt Lake City and Fillmore.
Six or eight miles from the camp we reached the spot where cantonments are being erected for the Winter quarters of the army. It is near the center of the valley. The ground slopes gradually toward the east, and is covered with a tangled growth of wild sage and greasewood. The lake is invisible from this point, although a view of it can be had from the present camp of the army through a notch in the mountains. Six large frame buildings, like the freight depots of most Western railroads, have been constructed for the reception of the Quarter-master's and Commissary stores. The troops on the ground were busy building their company quarters from adobes, which are supplied by forty or fifty Mormon workmen hired for the purpose from Payson, Springville, and Provo. The bricks were drying in the sun all along the road. During the afternoon we crossed a broad but low dividing ridge into Tintick Valley, so named after a Utah chief, and camped on the shore of the lake at sun-set. In all Cedar Valley there was but one Mor-mon settlement, a little adobe corral containing half a dozen houses, The inhabitants had only recently returned, and begun to learn that the troops are not all ogres and ghouls.
For a mile and more on the north and south of our camp the lake was fringed thirty feet deep with tall rushes, which dotted the water also to the dis-tance of two or three hundred yards from the shore. We were so coated with dust that it would have been hard to discover a difference in the color of our garments and our faces; so, after sunset we broke a pathway through the rushes and essayed a swim, but, though we waded into the lake several hundred feet beyond the reeds, the water nowhere reached above our elbows. Opposite us the mouth of Provo Cañon was so clearly defined, that it seemed as if a good swimmer could reach it within an hour, although it must have been nearly twenty miles distant, for the lake at this point is about fourteen miles wide.
Passing through Tintick Valley the next morn-ing, we came to the town of Goshen, containing 70 families. All the dwellings were rude huts of turf or logs, facing upon a square a few hundred feet in diameter. The whole was surrounded by a turf wall, outside which were large stacks of hay and grain. There was but one polygamist in the town—the Bishop, Phineas Cook, who had but two wives. His house, though the best in the place, contained only two rooms—one a bedroom, the other a kitchen, in which sat the two women, mak-ing baby-clothes. We lunched outside the wall, on cool buttermilk and bread, which the people were glad to sell us, near a stack of wheat, on which sat a pretty, young girl, braiding straw for hats. A group of inhabitants gathered around us, and one of them—an old fellow tremulous with palsy, and supporting himself on a crutch and a cane—lectured us on the necessity of polygamy to the acquirement of celestial glory. He said that, to get glory enough to be com-fortable in heaven, at least three wives were essen-tial; that he had as yet but one, and was so old and sick and poor that he could not get another in this world, but immediately after his death the Prophet Joseph would appear and confer on him the two others requisite.
Driving on, we ascended the ridge separating Tintick from Juab Valley, passed through a narrow canon, and descended a long hill into Juab. We made our camp for the night at the foot of Mount Nebo, the loftiest peak of the Wasatch range. Its height has not been definitely ascertained, but is supposed to nearly equal that of Fremont's Peak in the Wind River Mountains—13,000 feet. W. W. Phelps, the Devil in the Mormon endowment, claims to have stood on its summit, but the claim is somewhat apocryphal. When we first entered Salt Lake Valley in June, the snow was brilliant on this mountain, but it is now covered with a thick coating of dust. One of our party, who had passed many years in the south of France, re-marked that the appearance of its dun-colored drifts reminded him forcibly of the aspect of the Pyrennees in Summer. Just before reaching camp, we passed a group of huts, which had been built and occupied during the emigration to the south. Many of them were wick-ee-ups, or lodges, con-structed like those in Echo Cañon. Others were made by planting two rows of willow branches in the ground, six or eight feet apart, bending them and weaving the twigs together so as to form an archway. Others still were mere holes dug in the bank, the earth thrown out being erected" into a sort of breastwork.
The next morning we were shivering. The mer-cury had sunk nearly to the freezing-point; but as soon as the sun rose above the mountain, the tem-perature began to change so rapidly that long be-fore noon we were wilted by the heat. Some of the dragoons could hardly keep their saddles. A few miles brought us to the town of Nephi on Salt Creek, built at the foot of Sandy Spur of Mount Nebo. It is surrounded by a mud wall, about half a mile square and ten feet high. The streets run perpendicularly to the walls. It is well watered, and contains many substantial adobes. The popu-lation is about 750; the name of the Bishop, Jacob Bigler. We halted at the Tithing-Office, where the captain designed to make a purchase of grain from the ecclesiastical authorities, which he readily effected. Our ambulance was soon surrounded by a group of boys, clamoring for us to buy water-melons. The Tithing-Office here, as in almost ev-ery settlement through which we passed on the journey, was the best building in the town. The lower story was divided into bins filled with wheat. The upper story was filled with grain in bags. On the outer door was posted Gov. Cumming's procla-mation of June 14, announcing the "honorable adjustment of recent difficulties" and the "restoration of peace to our Territory." We crossed the street to a long, low mud house, to get a glass of buttermilk. Two thirds of the room was oc-cupied by cradles and bedsteads. The person who brought the milk—a healthy-looking girl, about eighteen years old, told us that she came from Westchester in New-York with her parents when she was eight years old, and that she and her sis-ters were wives of one man. She retained some sense of shame, for she blushed when she men-tioned the latter fact. Her parents lived in the same house. We passed out from Nephi, as we passed in, under an archway on which hung heavy wooden gates.
The next morning we crossed a ridge, out of Juab Valley into the valley of the Sevier River, which is spanned by a wooden bridge. The Sevier at this point is about as large as the Sweetwater at the Three Crossings. The water is of the color and has much of the taste of the Mississippi. Here the main ridge of the Wasatch range appeared to run west of us. Mount Nebo appeared isolated on the north, and its eastern slope seemed to be a precipice, with an almost perpendicular descent of several thousand feet. After traveling ten or twelve miles beyond the Sevier, we entered a nar-rower valley, called Round Valley, and camped near some springs at the foot of a mountain, which, like all those visible during the day, was well wooded toward the summit, and very rocky. Dur-ing the entire day's march we did not see a. house or a cultivated field. That evening, among some Indians who rode into camp, was a brother of Arapine, the prominent Utah Chief, who is a bap-tized Mormon.
Fifteen miles travel the next morning brought us to Cedar Springs, a little settlement of a dozen families, ten miles from Fillmore, and under the supervision of the Bishop of that town. Here a sister-in-law of Judge Drummond was living, a raw-boned woman, perfectly insane on the subject of Mormonism. On our return we camped close in the vicinity of this place, and she ranted to us how God would deliver us Philistines into the hands of the Saints, to be smitten during the Win-ter, as Joshua smote the men of Ai. This settle-ment is in Parawan Valley, which we had entered over a lofty ridge. It is the most extensive valley I have seen in the Territory, being bounded on the south and west by mountains faint and blue in the distance. The White Mountains, to which it was rumored during the Spring that the Mormons in-tended to make an ultimate retreat, were dimly visible in the western horizon. In this valley, about thirty miles west from Fillmore, the Sevier empties into a lake which has no outlet. By damming the river, which could readily be done, the area of arable land in the valley might be quintupled. As it is, however, all the settlements, as in every other valley along the Wasatch range, lie on little creeks at the foot of the western slopes of the mountains.
Fillmore is so situated. Unlike Nephi, it is not surrounded by a wall, although the fragments of mud forts erected during the Indian war of 1853 exist all about the town. The population is near seven hundred. The Bishop, Lewis Brunson, has also under his control the settlement of Cedar Springs on the north, and that upon Meadow Creek, about equi-distant on the south. The Cap-itol is the only prominent building in the place. It stands on a broad open lot in the center of the town, within no inclosure, and surrounded by piles of dirt, and chips, and rubbish. The escort was halted within the lot, and the Secretary on enter-ing the building found all the doors locked except those of his own office, on the first floor, in which some printers were working on the types and ma-chinery of The Deseret News, the Church news-paper. The sight rather astonished him, inasmuch as he had not been informed by the late Acting Secretary, W. H. Hooper, that the building had been transformed into a printing office; but, on the contrary, had been given to understand that it was unoccupied. While a messenger was sent for the keys, a motley group of Mormons and Indians collected around the carriage. Some of the latter were more sparsely clothed than was becoming, for a band fastened around the waist, from which depended two short woolen flaps, one before and one behind, constituted their sole apparel. Their old legs were all shriveled up, and they were very ill-favored in their features. They belonged to the band of Pah-vantes, or Paravants. The name of their principal chief is Canosh. He lives on Corn Creek, ten miles south of the town, where a gov- ernment farm has been established for the benefit of his band, and conducted hitherto under the su-pervision of Dr. Hurt. It was by this tribe of Paravants that Lieut. Gunnison and his party were murdered, not forty miles from Fillmore; and they have been guilty of more recent crimes.
The keys were soon procured and the party pro-ceeded to examine the building. The plans of the architect, which I saw during the afternoon, show that the original design was for an edifice in the shape of a Greek Cross, with a rotunda in the cen-ter 60 feet in diameter. Only one wing has been completed. The construction is very substantial. The foundation was laid with flag-stones three feet wide, on which rise the walls of rough hammered sand stone of an intense deep red. The basement is divided into eight rooms, resembling cells, im-perfectly lighted and wholly useless for legislative purposes. On the first floor a corridor seven feet wide runs the entire length of the building, from which open six well-finished, airy rooms, 12 feet high. The second floor is entirely occupied by a legislative hall, 60 feet long, 40 wide, and 18 high. This is entered by a flight of rough wooden steps running up outside the northern end of the build-ing. There is also a private entrance by a narrow flight of stairs, from one of the rooms on the first floor. The furniture had almost all disappeared. In the hall none was found except half-a-dozen tables, as many spittoons, a few arm chairs and a bass drum. In the rooms on the first floor there were some desks, most of which had been turned to use in the printing office. In the basement nothing was found except a dilapidated bedstead. The Secretary is entirely ignorant what has become of the rest of the furniture. None of it has been turned over to him at Salt Lake City, and no ac-count has been rendered concerning it by his pre-decessor.
The result of the examination of the building was to convince me fully of the untruth of the inti-mation, in the resolution of the Legislature of 1856-7 removing the seat of government to Salt Lake City, that the capitol at Fillmore did not fur-nish suitable accommodations for legislative pur-poses. It is the most spacious and commodious, as well as the best built edifice in the Territory. With a few trifling alterations it can furnish ac-commodations to the Supreme Court as well as to the Legislature. More than $30,000 have been expended on it by the National Government, although its actual cost has not much exceeded half that sum. The money was paid from the Na-tional Treasury into the hands of Brigham Young as Governor of the Territory. He then, as the head of the Mormon Church, set his people upon it to work out their tithing. He placed his own estimate upon the value of their labor, and credited himself as "Trustee in Trust" of the Church with the amount. I do not assert that all the work was performed in this manner, but I am sure that at least two-thirds of it was. The seat of Govern-ment was located at Fillmore in the Fall of 1851, but only one Legislature has ever been convened there—that of 1855-6. The other sessions have been held in Social Hall, in Salt Lake City, a building which belongs to the Church, and is used as a dance-room and a theater when not occupied by the Legislature. For the use of this Hall the United States has been made to pay to the Church at the rate of an annual rent of more than $7,000, while the total cost of the building cannot have ex-ceeded that sum, and while there has been at the real seat of government a building infinitely more commodious, erected expressly for Legislative purposes, and belonging to the United States itself.
I forgot to mention, that by the plan of the build-ing which I saw, it appeared that it was designed to insert the following inscriptions in the panels above the windows of the Legislative hall of the Capitol: "United we stand, divided we fall, for union is strength and God loves it."
Mr. Hartnett, the Secretary, had been intrusted by the Superintendent, of Indian Affairs with some unimportant commissions concerning Canosh—such as to procure him two plows, half-a-dozen shirts, etc. He accordingly sent a message to Corn Creek, and word was returned during the evening that Canosh would come up the next day. The dra-goons made their camp on the bank of the City Creek, close in the vicinity of the corral of the Tithing-Office, which was full of huge stacks of grain.
The next morning (Sunday,) sure enough, up came Canosh, about 9 o'clock, but brought 50 war-riors with him, armed for a fight, and unattended by squaws, a sure sign of a hostile disposition. His men posted themselves east of the capitol, and when we went to meet the chief, they were drawn up in array, the horsemen in front, and the foot-men behind them at regular intervals—as ugly a set of cut throats in appearance as I ever saw. Hardly one of them had any of the symmetry of features or dignity of bearing which is common among the Indians of the Plains. Canosh was induced, with-out trouble, to step aside into the shadow of the capitol, when Mr. Hartnett explained his errand and made a contract for breaking about twenty acres of ground on the Indian Farm and sowing it with wheat. The Judges and the Captain then held a conversation with him. In answer to th-eir questions he said he bad 24 lodges and about 90 warriors. They impressed on him the fact he must look to the Superintendent for his presents, and cease to levy black-mail on American travelers to California, over the southern road. He made a speech at last, in which he expressed his willing-ness to be friendly to "Americans" so long as they were friendly to him; but, said he, I want you to understand, that if they use blackguard talk to me I can talk as much like a blackguard as any of them. His remarks were translated by a Mormon interpreter, who seemed desirous to make ill feel-ing if he could. Indeed, there was good reason to believe that Canosh had been induced to bring his warriors up at the instigation of Mormons. They had abandoned their position and crowded around us during the talk, and now began a shaking of hands from which it was impossible to escape. Each man seemed determined to express his good will by the length of his shake and the tightness of his squeeze. Canosh then followed us into the Legislative Hall, with an Indian interpreter, where he ate four melons and blackguarded all the Utah Chiefs with whom he was on bad terms. He told us that he was a baptized Mormon, and asked us to tell the Superintendent to send him a watch, two wagons and a set of harness, some furniture, and pome workmen to build him an abode house, that he might live like a white man. In brief, he was amusingly unreasonable in his requests.
There were no religious services in the town during the day. In the afternoon the camp was crowded with boys and men bringing vegetables, milk, eggs and butter to sell, or attracted by curi-osity. One of our visitors was an old man named Eldridge, from North Carolina. He was a mem-ber of the Legislature during the year in which it sat at Fillmore, and made a speech one day against the system of theocracy, which he declared that Brigham was establishing. "If you unite Church and State" said he, "they will both go to hell." He was possessed of a comfortable property at the time, but began from that very moment to run down in the world until now he is almost wholly destitute; but he remains as zealous a Mormon as ever, and recounted with great fervor his mission-ary experiences in the Southern States. He said that John C. Calhoun once entertained him at his house and permitted him to hold a meeting on his plantation. Being encouraged, the old fellow stated that he was a phrenologist, and proceeded to examine our bumps with a view to our adaptation to Mor-monism. He pronounced me incapable of ever becoming a convert, on account of a lack of "ven-eration."
We left Fillmore on Monday noon, but traveled so slowly on account of the condition of the dra-goon horses that we did not reach Nephi, 70 miles distant, until Thursday. After passing Cedar Springs, throughout the entire distance there is not an inhabitant. Our camp at Nephi was just outside the town corral in which a guard is kept every night to protect the stock from Indian depredations. The only circumstances worth noticing during our stay there, were the sight of a Church express running with mail bags which were surely once the property of the United States; and that of an Indian squaw and a white woman, both wives of one man, sitting side by side on a fence rail in front of his house. The next day (Sept. 3), we drove to Payson, near the southeastern shore of Lake Utah. The town was once named Pet-tete-nete, after the chief of the band of Utahs who are within the immediate superintendence of Dr. Hurt in its vicinity. On the way we passed through the settlement of Summit Creek, with about 400 inhabitants, 18 miles from Nephi, beautifully situated on a clear, swift, and wooded brook, and overlooking most of Lake Utah and the towns along its eastern shore. In the principal street of the village women were busy sifting out the seeds from wild flax. Down the slope from the town to the bottom and along the lake the road was bounded on the west by a mud wall several miles in length; on the east it skirted the mountains. Behind the wall were broad fields of wheat, flax, Chinese sugar-cane and sunflowers, which last are raised for the sake of the oil which is extracted from their seed. We had entered now on the most fertile portion of the Mormon settle-ments. Between the mountains, which form a semi-circle around the eastern border of Lake Utah and the shore of the lake, there is a strip of bottom land varying in width from two to nine miles. It is well watered by creeks flowing down from the cañons, among which are the Spanish Fork and the Provo or Timpanogas—the latter a considerable stream, having nearly half the volume of the Jordan at full water. Along the edge of this broad bottom are situated Payson with about 1,500 inhabitants, Spanish Fork settlement with 3,000, Springville with 2,000, Provo with 4,500; then on the rising ground I above Provo Bench, Battle Creek and American Fork Settlements, each little larger than the village at Summit Creek; and finally on the north of the lake Lehi with about 700. The estimate which the Mormons make of the population of these towns is about 25 per cent greater than my own. There are also one or two villages, dependencies of one or the ; other of these towns, with a population of 200 or 300. On the western border of the lake there is not a single settlement. The mountains slope down j nearly to the shore, leaving no bottom land suscep-tible of cultivation. The broad "State" road from Salt Lake City to Fillmore runs through all the towns I have named, skirting the base of the mountains in its entire course around the lake. These mountains are broken by numerous cañons, along the sides of which there is an ample growth of pines, firs and cedars. Their summits are huge masses of rock or piles of glittering sand, and are streaked with deep ravines in which the snow lingers throughout all the Summer. The average altitude of these mountains must be between 9,000 and 10,000 feet. The scenery of the valley of Lake Utah is among the most beautiful in the whole Territory. A great part of the bottom land has been redeemed, is well fenced, thoroughly irrigated, and cultivated with care. The rest of it is divided into herd grounds for the stock of the various towns. Between Pay-son and the Spanish Fork settlement is a Reserva-tion of about 12,000 acres, on which is situated Dr. Hurt's Indian Farm.
In Payson relics of the emigration to the South were still visible—rude board shanties, wick-ee-ups thatched with straw, mud huts, log cabins, and bowers, of willow branches covered with wagon sheets. The most common quarters of the emi-grants, however, appeared to have been made by removing a wagon body from its wheels, placing it on the ground and building in front of it an arbor of cedars or willows. Around some of these habi-tations were scattered three or four bedsteads in the open air. In fact, two-thirds of the furniture which the Mormons seem to possess are bedsteads. During the return from the South it was noticeable that at least one wagon out of three was entirely filled with them. Every room in almost every house in Salt Lake City which I have ever entered contains at least one. We drove through the streets of the town just at the hour when the schools were dismissed, and the public square was sprinkled with boys and girls of every age from four to four-teen, in Salt Lake City instruction at the schools has not been resumed. The Mormon children, so far as I have been able to observe, show no signs of the physical degeneracy which might be ex-pected from their parentage. I have rarely seen children who seemed to possess more rugged health. The grave-yard near Salt Lake City, however, bears witness that a remarkably large proportion of them die at an early age.
After our escort had gone into camp, part of us engaged a rough wagon to take us to the Indian Farm, where we proposed to pass the afternoon and night, and rejoin the column the next morning. The farm-house is a large two-storied adobe, eighty feet long, twenty wide, with a cellar forty feet in length. The lower floor is occupied by a spacious ' kitchen, the agent's office, a "commissary room" and the granary. At the northern end, outside the house, is a large bake-oven. The second story is devoted to sleeping apartments. One-half of it is occupied by the farmer, a Mormon named Becke, and his family. In the other half are quartered some Mormon families, who took possession of the building during the emigration, but have not the means to return. The superintendent has not seen fit to remove them. Dr. Hurt's term of office has expired, but he retains a temporary supervision over the farm at the request of the superintendent, while he is attending to his private business pre-paratory to returning to the States. A number of Indians were on the premises, among whom I recognized several faces which I had seen at Camp Scott during last Winter. About a dozen were working on the farm. After tea we took a walk around that part of the land which is under culti-vation. It all lies, within the boundary of a ditch constructed for the purpose of irrigation, which incloses a square of about 900 acres. More than 300 acres have been redeemed by grubbing up the greasewood bushes and distributing the water, but only a portion of these have been cultivated during the present year. The crop of wheat this year will be about 2,000 bushels. Last year it exceeded 4,000, although the Mormon agent, Armstrong, did not report 3,000. The Indians, the Doctor told us, were not nearly so well disposed to labor as before the commencement of the disturbances last Sum-mer. After the Mormons drove him from the farm in September, the Indians saw the crops they had been taught to consider their own appropriated by the Bishops of the neigh-boring towns, the cattle driven away to Salt Lake City, and the farm-house occupied by strangers. To be sure, prudence dictated to the Mormons, into whose hands it fell, to distribute the crop among the Indians for whom it was raised, but there is no question that the distribution was attended by fraud. A great part of Pet-tete-nete's band, which received its chief sustenance from the farm, passed the Winter among the mountains, and it was hard to induce the young men to return to labor after they had enjoyed so long a taste of their former vagrant life. While walking through the cattle-yard, I noticed that many of the oxen bore the brand of Russell & Waddell. I have al-luded in a previous letter to the fact that the Mor-mons replaced the fat United States cattle, which they stole from the farm last Autumn, with lean United States cattle which they stole from the army on Ham's Fork about the same time. They appropriated, also, about fifty head of stock, the private property of Dr. Hurt, to the disposition of which no clue has been furnished, and probably never will be. According to Gov. Cumming's proclamation, the criminality of such an offense is all absolved by President Buchanan's pardon. Among the other products of the farm there were several varieties of tobacco, all growing thriftily. There was also a broad field of flax. The water of the irrigating ditches is supplied from the Spanish Fork, which flows through the reserve. The wa-ter, the Doctor tells me, is subject to very singular changes after showers on the mountains. There are Mormons beds of gypsum on the northern slopes of Mount Nebo, which are drained by the stream, and after a heavy shower on that mountain the water becomes almost milky white.
The next day at noon we reached Provo, passing on the way through Spanish Fork settlement and Springville. Both those towns, as well as Payson, were marked, like Fillmore, by fragments of mud-walls pierced with loop-holes, built for defense against the Indians. In all of them we noticed bowers or arbors made by planting posts in the ground and weaving a flat roof of willow twigs over them. In these it is customary to hold the religious meetings during the warm weather. The most extensive bowers in the Territory was within Temple Square, at Salt Lake City, close to the Tabernacle building. There is, however, no ves-tige of it now remaining.
The building which Brigham Young occupied during his stay at Provo has been converted into the Tithing-Office of the town. It consists of a row of rough board shanties running along one side of a square which is inclosed within a high board fence. Several other smaller huts are scattered along the remaining sides. From the roof of the principal shanty project eleven adobe chimneys. All the windows open upon the square and none upon the streets. The occupants of the harem, however, desirous to catch a glimpse of the outer world, gratify their curiosity by punching knots out of the pine boards and making reconnaissances through the holes. The square is at present half filled with stacks of hay and grain.
The same afternoon I left the party and rode on to Salt Lake City, 50 miles distant, where I arrived about midnight.
The result of the tour was to convince me that an intelligent judgment of the condition of the Mormon community cannot be formed by observ- ing merely that portion of it which resides at Salt Lake City. It is there that the influence of the priesthood is most intense, and precisely in propor-tion to the intensity of that influence in any place is the prevalence of polygamy and the display of animosity toward Gentiles. I knew that the Glad-donites (who are more numerous in this community than is believed), assert that a majority of the married inhabitants of the Territory are mono-gamists. I attach much more credit to their as-sertion than before I undertook the journey. I found a greater disparity in the wealth of the southern settlements, as compared with Salt Lake City, than I had believed. Throughout them all there appears to be a great equality in the division of property, or perhaps I should say rather that the population is reduced to a state of uniform pov-erty. In Salt Lake City, however, there is a col-lection of Presiding Elders, High Priests, Apostles, &c., who are stipendaries of the Church, enjoy comfortable incomes from herding grounds, ferry privileges, tracts of woodland in cañons, &c., of which they have secured grants from the Territo-rial Legislature, and have large, well-furnished houses, plenty of horses and cattle, and numerous wives. The presence of these people forces itself on one's notice every day. They constitute an aristocracy which the common people regard with envy. Their sons are not apprenticed to any trade, nor sent to the East to be liberally educated. They grow up generally ignorant, conceited and brutal.
Outside Salt Lake City, this aristocracy is limited in numbers. In the smaller towns it is confined to the immediate families of the Bishops and the Presi-dents of the "stakes." Hence, there is more inde-pendence of character in their population than in that of the city, although, even among them, as a Mormon expressed to me at Payson, "a man who sets himself in opposition to the priesthood might as well be in hell."
All the inhabitants of the southern towns are agriculturists. In Provo, there are several small manufacturing establishments, for which the abundant water power of the Timpanogas River furnishes great facilities; but from Salt Lake City to Fillmore, there is not a single store where dry goods or groceries are sold. The people have to come or to send to this city for their coffee, tea, sugar, shoes, calicoes, hats, &c. The blacksmith's trade is the only one which is self-supporting. The carpenters, shoemakers, &c., are all farmers, and practice their trades only during intervals from work on their fields. Most of the farming imple-ments I noticed were of inferior quality and well worn. The fields are usually inclosed within dirt walls. These are built by driving four posts into the ground, which support a case made of boards ten or twelve feet in length; this case is packed full of mud, which dries rapidly in the hot Summer sunshine. When it is sufficiently dry to stand with-out crumbling, the posts and case are moved further along, and the same process is repeated. These walls are no more expensive than wooden fences, and are more lasting; for the rails must be hauled from the cañons, and in Winter time neither Indians nor beggarly Mormons are scrupulous about helping themselves to firewood wherever they can find it. The scarcity of wood is quite as great a drawback to the development of this country as the scarcity of rain. It is found nowhere except along the sides of the cañons and on the tops of Mountain ridges; and pine lumber is much dearer here than in Central Kansas, while there is no black walnut, as in that region, to supply its place. The church dignitaries who have grants of timber privileges from the Territorial Legislature, use them in a way which is oppressive to the people. For instance, Brigham Young demands the deposit in his corral of every third load of lumber hauled from the canon behind his houses, which he holds by such a grant. There is not a well-timbered cañon nor a good herding ground along the whole Wasatch range, on which is not plastered an un-constitutional grant to some church dignitary. The very Indian Reservation near Payson, which I have described in this letter, has been made the subject of such a grant, and Bishop Butler of Spanish Fork settlement, is now contesting the right of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to reserve the land between the cultivated portion of the farm and Lake Utah. Indeed, the leaders of the Mormon church seem to have acted on the principle of the old Pilgrim resolutions, "That the Lord gave the land to the Saints; that this is the land; that we are the Saints."
The crops in the valley of Lake Utah, are very abundant. The average yield of wheat there will be 30 bushels to the acre, and the price of grain this season is just double what it was last year. One of the most noticeable facts about all the southern towns is that there are no barns for the storage of hay and grain, and the stabling of animals. The wheat is usually stored in the gar-rets of the houses; the hay is stacked in the farm-yards; and the animals are herded throughout the Winter in sheltered pastures. In Salt Lake City, however, Brigham Young, Heber Kimball and other dignitaries have barns, stables and granaries, the sight of which would gladden the heart of a New-England farmer. But there, as elsewhere, the cattle of the lesser saints are sent to pick dry bunch grass on the mountain slopes from Novem-ber till May. This grass, grown at such an eleva-tion, possesses extraordinary nutritive properties even at midwinter. About the middle of January a new growth is developed underneath the snow, which forces off the old dry blade that ripened and shed its seed the previous Summer, It has been noticed, however, that where a field of bunch grass has been closely grazed for several successive seasons it is sure to run out. Its seeds are fit to gather on the 1st of July, and the directors of the Patent-Office would do well to cause a quantity to be collected next season for distribution in the States. Gov. Powell, on his return in July, took a package, with which he intended to experiment on his plantation in Kentucky.
The people of the southern towns are not so cleanly and far more ragged in their dress than those of Salt Lake City. This is owing, first, to their poverty, and next, to the fact that the people of the city have had access to the stores of the Eastern merchants during the last six weeks. The sale of dry goods has been so unexpectedly large, even at the present exorbitant prices, that some of those merchants anticipate that the supply will be entirely exhausted before January, although a month ago, nothing was further from their ex-pectation. One fact was specially noticeable with regard to the southern people whom I have been describing. All the men wore shoes and stockings, but all the women and children were barefooted. From Fillmore to Provo I saw only one woman with a pair of shoes. The women also work in the fields, as in continental countries. Indeed, the ap-pearance of Springville, Payson, Nephi, or Fill-more reminded me more of that of a village in Würtemberg or Bavaria than of any town in the American States.
ARRIVAL OF TRAINS—ARMY SUPPLIES—DRINK-ING, GAMBLING AND FIGHTING—CONFUSION IN THE TERRITORIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE—A NEW JOURNAL, &C.
From Our Special Correspondent.
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., Sept. 11, 1858.
On my return to the City from the south, I found a great change in the appearance of its prin-cipal streets. Long trains, freighted with supplies for the army or with goods for the merchants, are arriving daily, and the streets are white with, wagon covers and noisy with the crack of ox-whips. In addition to the influx of teamsters, it seems as if Leavenworth City, Santa Fé, and San Francisco had each contributed its quota of blacklegs. Drink-ing saloons have been opened on Main street, and half a dozen gambling houses are scattered around the city, but thus far the proprietors of the latter have found few patrons outside their own frater-nity. The Mormons, or part of them, seem to ac-quiesce in this state of affairs with great compo-sure, and the principal drinking-saloon and gam-bling-room are in the Salt Lake House, a building under the control of the Church and the immediate superintendence of Heber C. Kimball. In front of this house fights are of daily occurrence. Night before last two gamblers shot one another in a store close in its vicinity. One of them died within an hour and the other will follow soon. They came here from Leavenworth. It was in front of this hotel that Mr. Thomas S. Williams thrashed Elder George D. Grant a few days ago, Grant having pre-viously snapped a pistol at him, in the same store in which the gamblers dispatched one another. The origin of the dispute which led to the gamblers' fight was in Kansas. Their names were Peale and Rucker. Rucker is dead. You will perceive that the two unruly Territories seem about to be con-nected by more sympathetic bonds than the myth-ical tie of Lane's Danite organization.
The police are utterly inefficient. They were very officious when there were only two dozen Gentiles in the city six weeks ago, and dogged their steps by day, and watched their houses by night with the utmost assiduity; but now they shrink from proper performance of duty. They cannot say that this negligence proceeds from a fear that they would encounter opposi-tion if they should arrest a Gentile for a breach of the peace, for such is not the case. They will be aided by Gentiles in every legal arrest they may attempt. There is a cause for the negligence (I do not say that it is the sole cause) in a desire to represent these gamblers and ruffians as the legiti-mate result of Eastern society, and to exaggerate the impropriety of their conduct with a view to exas-perating Mormon against Gentile—in short, a desire to make the Mormons feel like indignant martyrs. I have heard this desire expressed by at least one Mormon municipal official.
The United States District Court will commence its session here on the first Monday in October, Judge Sinclair being the presiding Justice. The annual term for the Northern District (Judge Eckels's) is fixed to be held at Farmington on the first Monday in September; that for the Southern District (Judge Cradlebaugh's) at Fillmore on the first Monday in November. The Supreme Court will meet at Fillmore on the first Monday in Jan-uary.
Judge Eckels will start for the East, on leave of absence, next Wednesday, the 15th. He will travel slowly, with his own outfit. The young English girl, Miss Henrietta Polydore, an account of whose case I gave in a recent letter, will be taken to Washington in his charge. The Danish Minister at Washington has made a request on the part of his Government (similar to that made by Lord Napier in the Polydore case) for intervention in behalf of a young girl abducted from her parents, who is now on her way to this city in a party of immigrants.
It is questionable whether there is legal proof of the passage of a single Territorial statute. I am informed that there is not an enrolled bill on file in the office of the Territorial Secretary, nor a jour-nal of the proceedings at any legislative session; that the accounts of that office are in the utmost confusion, and that not a tenth part of the prop-erty appertaining to it or under its supervision has been delivered or accounted for to the present in-cumbent. It is just so with the records of the Clerk's office for this district. I have examined them to-day with care, and, notwithstanding Gov. Cumming's assertion to the contrary, they are not in a complete state of preservation. There is only one package of papers on file in the office, and that embraces those in no case previous to 1856. It consists principally of the papers which accumu-lated in the case of Marshal Dotson, Thomas D. Pitt, Joseph P. Waters and Thomas S. Williams, who were tried in February, 1857, on an indict-ment for entering the tannery the supervision of which had been left to Mr. Dotson by Mr. J. M. Hockaday, the owner of the property. This was the case during the pendency of which pistols were pointed at Judge Stiles in the Court-room and a knife was drawn on him in his private chamber. The very first one of the papers which I drew from the file was a petition for the dismissal from the bar of Gen. David H. Burr, signed by Hosea Stout, James Ferguson, J. C. Little and A. Miner, for the al-leged reason that the General was a "dishonorable creature." The only book which is on file in the office is a record book, of which not more than twenty pages are filled. There are no court, clerk's or fee dockets, no order books, no copies of instruc-tions from the Departments at Washington. There is no press for the seal, no stationery, and not a single piece of furniture. I am far from believing Gov. Cumming capable of a deliberate falsehood, but under what delusion he wrote to the Secretary of State as follows, under date of May 2, I am un-able to conceive: "Since my arrival I have been "employed in examining the records of the Su-preme and District Courts, which I am now pre-pared to report as being perfect and unimpaired." The following letters, which I have copied from the originals on file in the office, will show with what; reluctance even the scanty records I have described were delivered up.
"CLERK'S OFFICE, 3d JUDICIAL DIS., U. T.
"G. S. L. CITY, Aug. 13, 1853.
"SIR: A young gentleman, to me unknown, pre-sented a paper to me to-day purporting to be the ap-pointment, of one Gilbert to the Clerkship of the Third Judicial District of this Territory. He stated that he was the appointee, and asked me for the records and the seal of the Court of that District. Should the pa-per referred to be genuine, I wish respectfully to call the attention of your Honor to the Act of Congress of Aug. 6, 1856. The 10th Section of that Act empow-ers each Judge of the Supreme Court of Territories to appoint one person as Clerk of the District over which he presides where one is not already ap-pointed.'
"I received my appointment from the Hon. George P. Stiles, whose successor I presume you are, and I know of no sufficient reason for my removal. Your Honor will do me the kindness to give me your offi-cial construction of the statute quoted, and whether or not you consider a Judge has any legal right to remove the Clerk of his District appointed by his predecessor, save for sufficient and legal cause. Should your de-cision be for my removal, the seal and records of the Court are subject to your order. "Very respectfully, your ob't serv't, J. W. CUMMINGS,
“Clerk 3d Jud. Dist. Court, U. T.
“The Hon. Judge SINCLAIR, U. S. Associate Justice, U. T."
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, U. T., Aug. 14,1858.
"SIR: I have received, through Mr. Hartnett your letter of the 13th inst. In answer, I have to say that I have appointed and qualified to the office which you lately held, Mr. Samuel A. Gilbert of this city-The fact of this appointment appearing to you under the sanction of my official signature, its the best evi-dence I can afford you of my opinion concerning my authority in the premises.
" I respectfully suggest to you that my official opin-ions upon questions of law can only be obtained when the subjects to which they may apply shall be drawn in question before me in the discharge of my official duties.
"I am very respectfully yours,
"CHARLES E. SINCLAIR,
" Asso. Jus. Sup. Court Utah Ter.,
"Ex-officio Judge IIId Judicial Dist.
"J. W. CUMMINGS, esq., late Clerk of the U. S. District Court
for the IIId Judicial District of Utah Territory."
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 16,1858.
"SIR: Your letter of the 14th inst. is received. It may not be becoming in me to differ with your Honor in regard to the present being a proper occasion to ask for your "official construction" of a statute while you are at the same time performing an official act which such construction must pronounce right or wrong. I am far from any inclination to contest at present what I most sincerely consider my clear right to retain my position as clerk of the Third Judicial District of this Territory.
"In turning over the seal and the records of the Court, I respectfully submit to you Honor that I do so under my solemn protest, and under the honest im-pression, from a fair and natural construction of the statute formerly quoted, that my removal without any proper cause, and the appointment of my successor, is an assumption of a right clearly and unquestionably in opposition to law.
"I have the honor to remain, very respectfully,
"Your obedient servant,
"The Hon. C. E. SINCLAIR" "J. W. CUMMINGS.
The Judges made inquiry a few days ago for the records of the Supreme Court, and found that they were in the possession of Brigham Young. Judge Sinclair has been endeavoring to find the law library appertaining to himself as Judge of this District. He has not yet been able to discover a single book, nor will he be. They were burned, down to the last volume.
Two companies of the 2d dragoons and one of the 5th infantry, forming a battalion under the command of Capt. Hawes of the dragoons, passed through this city on Wednesday on their way to the scene of the Indian disturbances on the Hum-boldt. They have taken with them supplies for two months. Mr. Francis Dodge, the newly appointed Indian Agent for Carson Valley, arrived from the States by the last mail, and will follow the troops, accompanied by Dr. Forney, the Superintendent, at the beginning of next week. Mr. Dodge is a nephew of Gen. Henry Dodge, formerly Senator from Wisconsin. He is familiar with the country and Indians of New-Mexico, having traversed the routes through that region repeatedly, but he has never before visited the tribes among which his present field of labor is situated. His knowledge, however, of the southern tribes will be of material assistance in the agency. The 6th infantry, which has commenced its march toward California, will pass along the Humboldt about the same time as Capt. Hawes's command.
Mr. Kirk Anderson, formerly of The Missouri Re-publican, has arrived in the city during the week. A press, together with complete materials for the issue of a weekly newspaper, is among the freight in one of Russell & Waddell's trains. As soon as it arrives, Mr. Anderson will commence the issue of his journal.
The press of The Deseret News has been removed from Fillmore to this city, and the last number of the paper was issued here. Gen. Johnston has ceased to exercise the imme-diate command over the army in Cedar Valley, having yielded it to Bvt.-Col. C. F. Smith of the 10th infantry. His duties are now confined to the supervision of the Department. It is expected that he will receive orders from the War Depart-ment to establish his headquarters in this city. The camp has been moved to the vicinity of the cantonments, which are in process of construction.
From The Deseret News, Sept. 1.
NOTICE.—Persons having Deseret currency, and not wishing to pay it on indebtedness or tithing, nor to place it on deposit, are requested to at once make a list of the numbers and values of the several notes in their possession, and furnish those lists to their re-spective Bishops, who will forward copies thereof to H. B. Clawson, Secretary of the Association, that it may be known where the bills are for which the holders would like to receive in exchange the ENGRAVED bills, which are now nearly finished. The above specified holders of currency who fail to comply with, the requi-site and safe request herein contained are hereby noti-fied that, for good and sufficient reasons, which they can learn hereafter, they risk the barring of the redemp-tion or exchange of such bills by the Deseret Currency Association. BRIGHAM YOUNG.
From The Deseret News, Sept 8.
PIC-NIC EXCURSION.—Agreeably to invitation by President Brigham Young, the First Presidency, his Excellency Governor Cumming, and several other citizens, with ladies and children, rendezvoused, Aug. 26, at a romantic, shady location, a short distance above mill D in Big Cottonwood Cañon, and around a commodious, bough-covered room built by the B. C. Lumber Company for the accommodation of those who might wish to participate in the dance.
Capt. W. H. Hooper accompanied the Governor to the rendezvous and in returning, while Mrs. Cum-ming, upon her spirited pony, and escorted by Gen. Ferguson, enjoyed a wider and more picturesque view of the constantly shifting scenery than could those who occupied luxurious seats in carriages.
Music, dancing, and the song enlivened the social gathering, in the enjoyment of which none seemed to surpass the Governor and his lady.
The party returned on the 28th, delighted and re-freshed by the pleasant, drive, the pure cañon breezes, and the two nights’ and day's encampment amid leafy bowers by ice-cold streams.
