MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 159 



Rocky Mountains demand only that amount of civil and religious 

 liberty which the Constitution professes to guarantee to every Ameri- 

 can citizen, and which the Pilgrim Fathers found for themselves " on 

 the wild New England shore." They complain that their enemies 

 have told their story, that their own statements have been ignored, 

 and that no credit has been given to them for an honest attempt, in 

 these latter days, to put in practice the doctrines of the early Chris- 

 tian Church. Even their enemies will hardly deny that they dis- 

 played faith, courage, and endurance, when they resolved, after being 

 expelled from one settlement after another, to plunge into the un- 

 known wilderness, and to found a new Zion beyond the existing lim- 

 its of the United States. These qualities have triumphed over great 

 physical difficulties, and a stranger is astonished at the prosperity 

 which Mormon industry has produced. A carefully-organized system 

 of irrigation has converted a barren desert into a productive garden, 

 and has had the remarkable effect of raising the permanent level of 

 the lake ten feet higher than it was in 1850. Every requirement of 

 the religious community is abundantly supplied by contributions, as- 

 sessed and collected upon voluntary principles. Besides the immense 

 new Tabernacle, a temple is now in course of construction, almost 

 Egyptian in its massive grandeur, toward which all the faithful con- 

 tribute, those who cannot afford money giving their labor. The In- 

 dians in Utah have been conciliated by the humane policy of feeding, 

 clothing, and teaching, instead of fighting them. The old accusations 

 of violence and cruelty toward Gentile immigrants, or Mormon de- 

 serters, if not altogether disproved, have at least been lived down in 

 recent times, and the existence of a military camp near Salt Lake 

 City is now, probably, more unnecessary than it would be at any 

 other town west of the Rocky Mountains. In order to appreciate the 

 tranquillity, sobriety, and steady industry of Deseret (as the Mormons 

 prefer to name their country), it may be contrasted with Nevada, an 

 adjoining State almost identical with Deseret as to soil, climate, and 

 mineral products. The so-called Silver State stands now preeminent 

 in the Union for its turbulent manners, for the number of its liquor- 

 shops, and as being the only State which legalizes public gambling.- 

 Of course, Nevada is merely passing through a certain rude stage of 

 her existence, just as California had done before her, and she, too, 

 will one day set her house in order; the remarkable point is that 

 Utah should, alone among the young communities of the far West, 

 have altogether escaped such a condition of things. To many persons 

 this will appear to be sufficiently explained by the fact that the Mor- 

 mons both preach and practise habits of extreme temperance, almost 

 amounting to total abstinence from every sort of stimulant. 



Considerable hostility undoubtedly exists between the Mormons 

 and some of their Gentile fellow-residents; this is greatly due to the 

 bitter attacks of certain local newspapers upon the Latter-day Saints, 



