REST. 100 



and the Council House. The latter was formerly the place of 

 meeting of the Territorial Legislature, which now meets at 

 Fillmore City. 



The business thoroughfare of the city (East Temple Street) 

 runs north and south through it, and was for some distance 

 thickly lined with stores, workshops and hotels. The mer- 

 chants were doing a splendid business, and their stocks of 

 merchandise were speedily being evaporated by their Mormon 

 customers, who, with their pockets well lined with government 

 gold, were buying at an extravagant rate those foreign luxuries 

 which a lack of the needful had hitherto deprived them of, 

 and which retailed at prices high enough to startle persons 

 fresh from the cheap domain of the East. Sugar and coffee 

 went briskly at 60 and 65 cents per pound, molasses flowed at 

 the rate of HOO per gallon, and vinegar was $1.50 per bottle. 

 Calico retailed at from 30 to 40 cents per yard, and clothing of 

 all kinds was proportionately dear. Hardware was enormously 

 high also — a frying pan would not cross the counter for less 

 than $2.50, a coffee-mill would not come down from its abiding 

 place short of a $4.00 bait, and a tin coff'ee-pot off" its nail 

 for less than $3.50. These prices to persons in the States seem 

 fabulous, but from bitter experience I know them to be correct, 

 as our outfits, preparatory for California, were purchased here. 

 As an evidence of how speedily goods were disposed of at these 

 rates, I will state a fact. One house (Gilbert & Co.) disposed 

 of $3,000 worth of goods the first day their stock was exposed 

 for sale — a large transaction when we consider the penurious 

 habits of the denizens of Salt Lake City, and the limited means 

 they had of obtaining hard money, the only kind taken by 

 the merchants in exchange for their goods. 



The two hotels, the "Empire" and " New World," were also 

 coining their dimes. Poisonous concoctions, bearing the names 

 of "Pure Old Whisky," "Prime French Brandy," "Superior 

 Port Wine," etc., were here off'ered to a thirsty public at the 



