WESTERN VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. 227 
sence of religious devotion. To an ordinary individual, 
hey appear to worship no deity but the works of their own 
1and—not wood and stone exactly, but coin and fruit-trees, 
actories and theatres. Their text is the old one—that Pro- 
idence will help those who help themselves ; and their whole 
eligious teaching, if such it may be called, is pure utili- 
arianism. They may convert the poor people of Wales and 
‘orway by concealing the truth; but it is very doubtful 
whether they ever make one true rts disciple in America— 
that is, one who joins them from religious conviction, and 
nat alone. 
|The day after leaving Salt Lake City we picked up a very 
rious little fellow on the road. He was a hump-backed 
Ferman Jew, and expressed strongly in his features that 
| quick and combative form of mental development traditional 
io dwarfs. I was much amused at one remark he made, and 
“very well expresses the general opinion amongst frontier 
nen. We were all standing over a blazing log-fire at a ranche 
m the Bitter Creek country, and I was listening to a tall 
W estern man as he laid down the law on the Mormon ques- 
10n, when one of the party remarked in the forcible language 
of the country, that he could not conceive how any man 
a have the bare-faced impudence to set himself up as a 
Christ amongst the people, as Brigham Young has done. At | 
hi 8, the little hump-back squeaked out from one corner, 
“He ish right! he ish right! How much monish do you 
hppose he hash made ?” 
truth, the Mormons are becoming very wealthy ; and, 
ndeed, they are not the only section of the “ faithful” who 
ave ies by their position on the great highway of travel 
Sacontinent. Besides, their colonization system is per- 
3 : wee government is very effective, and the taxation- 
a2 
