14 LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 



large family of children, some of the girls almost grown. The old gentle- 

 man was well up in the seventies, and concluded he wanted another wife. 

 His wife was much opposed naturally, and I heard her tell him she would 

 leave if he brought another wife home. The old fellow justified himself by 

 declaring that "more wives meant more stars in his crown of glory." This 

 was a heavy argument, but his wife couldn't see the force of the argument. 

 No doubt she felt it better for him to do with fewer stars in his crown, 

 than for her to suffer the presence of another woman in the house. Years 

 afterwards 1 heard he never had a chance to add stars to his crown, prob- 

 ably he was too old. 



I stayed with these people a week, then boarded with one of the elders 

 of the church who already had two wives, and had his eyes on a third, a 

 young grass widow, but she said she wouldn't be number three to the best 

 man living. I boarded with the elder's family during the remainder of my 

 stay in Salt Lake. 



The officers of the Church consisted of a Prophet, 12 Apostles, and 

 seventy elders, then come the teachers, and so on down to the laymen. They 

 believe in baptizing for the dead, that is the living can be baptized for any 

 relative who had passed away, and that by immersion. 



One old lady came near being drowned, for she was trying to save 

 seventy that had gone before. One reason why I had gone to board with the 

 elder was to learn what I could of the Mormon people. The women would 

 talk more than the men, and through them I learned many things. I found 

 none of them were exactly happy, and would enjoy getting away, but such 

 a thing was impossible at that time. They were there, and there they had 

 to remain. 



In speaking of the officers of the Church, I forgot the Angels. The de- 

 stroying Angels, whose duty it is to put away all undesirable beings. I have 

 often thought these destroying Angels might have had a great deal to do 

 with the Mountain Meadow Massacre. 



Salt Lake is well situated in the valley with gently rising ground to 

 the foothills. The streets were wide and had running water in ditches 

 through them. The buildings were mostly of logs, and in the center of the 

 town was what might be termed a fort. The log cabins were built in a 

 hollow square, enclosing two acres of ground, and at different intervals 

 were gates; this no doubt being for defense in time of Indian troubles. 



The Mormons became friends of all the Indians in that country and any 

 Indian you met always said, "Mormonee, Mormonee, heap good Mormon." 



We hired teams to take us to the Lake, about twenty miles away. The 

 water is so impregnated with salt you could wade out to your armpits and 

 then be raised right off your feet. One can walk along through the water 

 without sinking any deeper, and a nap on the surface is not an impossibil- 

 ity. The water is very clear, so clear you can see the pebbles in the bot- 

 tom at twenty feet. Along the shore was tons of salt, just winrows of it 

 two or three feet deep. We spent the day there, and on the return trip 

 stopped at a good camping place, where we refreshed ourselves with a few 

 hours sleep, and then proceeded on our way to camp, arriving about sunrise 

 next day. 



On Sundays we heard Brigham Young preach. They held services in 

 what they called their Tabernacle. It was made by planting posts in the 



