MORMON PREACHERS. 103 



a choral howl disturbed the quiet of the evening air. 

 P., lolling over the balcony, and allowing the " demure 

 travel of his regard " to sweep the horizon in search of 

 the yacht which was to fetch him away, informed us 

 that the howling came from three itinerant preachers 

 about to edify a group of fishermen on the quay. I 

 begged him to shut the window ; this being my pro- 

 tection against the outrage of a German Band, which 

 daily for six weeks had played " Partant pour la Syrie," 

 " The low-backed car/' " The Red and the Blue/' and 

 " Gk)d save the Queen " — never anything else, and 

 always pitilessly out of tune. But P.'s sense of the 

 ludicrous overcame his musical susceptibility, and con- 

 demned us to hear the hymn. Shortly afterwards, the 

 preaching began, and as we ascertained that it was 

 Mormonism then being expounded, we resolved to go 

 out and be edified. It was worth the effort. Standing 

 on a chair was a young man, scarcely above twenty, 

 swinging his arms about, and flinging forth in harsh 

 ejaculations a torrent of repetitions and abstractions, 

 quite distressing to listen to, from the total want of 

 anything that coidd arrest the interest of his audience. 

 Open-air preaching is meant to coerce the attention of 

 those who will not go to church ; but this Mormon 

 preacher never once alighted upon a phrase which 

 could awaken an idea in the minds of those he ad- 

 dressed; so that we marvelled why he should have 

 been chosen as a preacher of a doctrine which ad- 

 dresses the worldly interests. On each side of him 

 stood an Elder— and I wish I could paint the portraits 



