Show REMARKS hr ry president young bowery sept 23 28 1856 I 1 I 1 reported BY oed ded tdeo D WATT I 1 think it is is now proven to a certainty that men women and children can cross the plains from the settlements on the missouri river to this place on foot and draw hand carts loaded with a good portion of the articles needed to bus sus sustain tain them on the way y to me this is no more a matter of fact this morning after seeing the companies that have crossed the plains than it was years ago I 1 have no different k knowledge feelings or faith upon this subject today today to day dav than I 1 have had from the beginning it has been a matter of do doubt abt with many mahy of or our elders who have gone out to preach and with many who have staid at home bome as to the propriety of starting a train upon the plains for men women and children to walk probably my faith has been based upon actual knowledge there are a great many men who know but little about what whit they can do and there are a great many women that never consider what they can perform people do not fully reflect upon their own acts upon their own ability and therefore do not understand what they are capable of doing mv my reasoning hab has been like this take small chil chii children aen hen those that are over five years of age and if their steps were counted and measure measured dy those teat that they take in the course of one day you would uld find that they had taken enough to have traveled from 12 to 20 miles i count the steps that a woman takes taves when she is ii doino doing doine doing her work let them be measured and it wilile will be found that in many instances she had taken steps enough enough to have traveled from 15 to 20 miles a day dar I 1 will warrant this to be the case the steps of women who spin would in all probability make from 20 to 30 miles a day so with men they do not consider the steps they make when they are at their labor they are all the time walkin waikin walking even our masons up upon n the walls are all th the e time stepping og they take a step almost at every breath many people have believed that they could not walk much of a distance if they had to walk right along in a road but thill this is ig not so our carpenters joiners rna ina masons sons tenders road makers tillers of the soil and abid persons of almost all avocations in life men women and children are subject to continual travel these things I 1 have contemplated and I 1 have seen walking milking put into practise the longest 0 journey journ eyon on foot that ever I 1 took at one time wis was in the year when a com corn pany of the brethren went up to missouri the next season after the saints were driven out of jackson county many in this congregation and some on the stand were in that company company br kimball and br i woodruff yoo ito woodruff druff were irn ill it we performed a journey of two thousand miles on foot fool we started on the ath day of may and accomplished that journey inside of three months carrying our guns on our shoulders doing our own cooking etc and instead of walking along without having to labor much of the way we had to draw our baggage wagons through mud holes and over sections of bad road T twenty w enty or thirty men would take hold and draw a wagon u up a hill or through h a mud hole and it was adom seldom that I 1 ev everyday er tay down to rest until eleven or twelve at n ight night i and we always rose very early in the morning I 1 think the horn born was waa blown at three to arouse us to prepare breakfast etc and get an early arly e ariy start and we averaged in the outward trip upwards of forty miles a day if we bayed by a day or half a day we 0 generally ge calculated to make the travel of the week average forty miles a day we spent considerable time in waiting upon the sick and some days and nights the thel brethren who were able were standing over the sick and dying and burying the dead we buried eighteen of the company notwithstanding all aly this inside of three months we walked about two thousand miles I 1 am not a good walker though I 1 have walked a great deal in the course of my life but it is not natural to me to be a great walker I 1 have walked much during my missions to preach the gospel and we have many in this congregation who have walked from twenty to thirty miles on a sabbath after working hard all the week and then pre preached a ched two or t three ree times when I 1 was in england I 1 found that I 1 was poor at walking in in comparison with the females mal mai esthere there br edmund ellsworth who has led this first company of hand carts over the plains says that the females have stood the journey better than the males taking the girls iris and the boys of equal age the he men and the women and the females have best endured the travel in england I 1 could walk comfortably with the men but if the women undertook they could easily outdo me in walking our oar american women think it strange to advance such an idea as walking but I 1 will refer you yon to one individual that many of you xou ou know and that is sister turley who now ti lives ilves ves in san bernardino after working hard all the week she and her husband frequently used to walk twenty or thirty miles on the sabbath and attend three meetings there are many in this congregation that used to walk and preach and some of them did so on week days as well as on Sabbat sabbaths Sab baths bs true in those old countries people are not in the habit of taking journeys of hundreds of miles as the americans do but they walk through their towns and counties throughout their circuits and walk a great deal more and better than dothe do the americans the common people the masses that work ork in the factories do riot not own teams in tha the old countries and if they wish to visit or go to a fir fair f ir the they ol 01 go on foot if they should get pet any way va of conveyance to places where the railroads L have not yet reached they hire a cart or perhaps a wagon on springs and six eight twelve or twenty persons will get pet in and ride for a few miles cades but that is only for the he s ike of the name of riding and not particularly for the comfort of it for they would as a general thing rather foot it than ride in many of their modes of conveyance to the american this beem seem strange blut bit you may go into scotland and wales and then cross to the little island called ireland and then to france and the german states and pass on to italy and you 5 ou will find the generality of the people in the habit of performing their journeys on foot not depending upon n being conveyed in vehicles they are in the habit of working and walking ingy and their toils and labors are very excessive ces sive and apparently without cessation go into the mountainous mountain ous oua regions of some of those old countries and you yoen will see men women and children packing so soil 1 11 like ilke I 1 ce it would be to take it from the banks of jordan and carry it half way up the sides of these mountains and when they can get one two or three rods of level surface making their gardens garden upon the rocks T djey iley will take cows up to anch places and pack pac k up fodder and there keep kep them themy for they are not able to go down and feed and return again the same day da they will walk on the brinks of precia precipices ices clamber around the rocks pack pock up the soil from the bottoms bot and bub bus make a subsistence raising a few potatoes and whatever er vegetables th they y can and there they live summer and winter they are all the time toiling and laboring in many districts of england it is the custom to put children into factories at five years of age and there they remain so long as they live children from five years old and upwards will go for miles to their labor early in the morning winter and summer and must be at the factory at factory time and there they must stand upon their feet antil they are dismissed for a half an hour or an hour to eat their breakfast or their dinner and all the rest of the time they are upon their feet they are ara used to labor accustomed to being on their feet and walking we have not yet had a report from any of the brethren who have led the handcart hand cart companies p anie anle s with regard to their traveling across the pla pia plainsman plains any more than to say they are here I 1 t think b ink br ellsworth says sa s that seven persons died in his company between here and iowa city how many died dred in the companies last year how many will die in in the companies wh who oride ride double that number v ery likely As for health it is far healthier to walk than iban to ride and better every way for the people when they get up in in the morning instead of wearying the women with running through the long grass el grass hunting the oxen etc they are there I 1 in camp and if they wish to do 0 any walking they can take hold of their little hand band carts carta and t go go on about their bli business siness when they come to sandy hills it is is then alyn 0 no doubt hard voice they can then double teams yes they can easily double teams for they are right on hand all the time the hand band carts look rather broken up but if the they y had been made of good seasoned timber t they h e y would have come in as nice as when they started with them true the brethren and sisters that came in with hand carts have eaten up their provisions and some have hired their clothing brought and thet ther they had but little on their carts catte when they came in n I 1 they also started with full loads and I 1 presume it was hard for them at first but they became inured to it and yesterday I 1 heard hear many of them and especially the women observing to some of the sisters that came to see them while they were questioning them about their journey journea across the plains on foot that if we had the journey to perform again and had our choice i we would fould gd go on foot rather than go with tea teams ms and be plagued with oxen and wagons va gons 11 why I 1 wiil wirl will answer one query we have not time to wait for oxen and wagons the handcart hand cart companies that have come in had a few strong teams with them well able to travel but the companies had to wait every day for those teams and they hindered them exceedingly if this is not so let br ellsworth correct me this is what I 1 have heard some of them say they could have been here ten days ago perhaps twelve had it not been for waiting for the teams if persons have a journey to land tand perform and can go at railroad speed with hand carti carfi s wis als it is better than to drag dram along with ox teams this is is the subject I 1 have on my mind and I 1 presume the people feel as I 1 do it is is an interesting te subject an interesting int event in in our history as a people there is nothings no thins that can be brought before the latter day saints of deeper interest than to know how hov they can be gathered together without so great an expense as has hitherto attended the gathering we know that our sorrows and our cares in this particular are measurably at an end if wa we can avoid baing bv ing tennis teams and expensive outfits out fits to bring tile the people here we have now proved that they can come pretty much by themselves ves yes working their way along and drawing their own provisions and also their little ones and the malmed maimed and old and blind if any way vay may can be opened for the gathe gatherine gathering rine together of the poor it takes taken off a great burden and labor from ha the the people it is 13 an interesting subject and my feelings are precisely as they have been all the tilo lime I 1 havo believed and I 1 believe today to day that I 1 can take my own family my women and children across those plains asking no odds of auy any team tsana in the tha world only what we make ourselves and I 1 believe I 1 could beat any ox train tran ut it I 1 have always believed it I 1 believe it today to day I 1 presume my family would feel as an others ethers feel that it Js is a hard bard task a great trial who can bear huch buch such tuch great afflictions to have to walk a thousand miles those into the llie celestia Cele Cete stid kingdom will count this a verv very light task lask in fit the end and if they have llave to walk th thousands of miles they will lee themselves happy for the tiie privilege lige that they may know how to enjoy celesti celestial 1 glory I 1 recollect that in fit my roy 3 oune oun oung days belore before I 1 made any profession of religion when people were disposed disposer to call me ine au an infidel though they did not know what infidelity was wasl wasy because I 1 did not believe in fit the tha sectary sec thrim in I 1 could not see any utility in it any further than a moral character was concerned yet I 1 believed the bible I 1 felt feit in those days alter alten I 1 hd had madd mada a profession ot of religion that if I 1 could see the tile face of a prophet prophets such auch as dmd lived oil on the earth oarth in former thries times a moan roan that llad had revelations to whom the heavens were opened who wilo knew god and his cliar acter I 1 would freely circumscribe lle ile lie the earth on my hands and knee I 1 thought that biere was no hardship I 1 would undergo I 1 if I 1 could see eee one person that knew what god go is and where he is what vs wms v s hi bi chancier and what eternity was as and I 1 that fiat ike the lie people feel fel fei with re g gird ird to rei rel giom of to the he do trine of or the gosp 1 pir tidally if arnot not altogether as I 1 did they are very anxious to know tb tiie tile davs of or hf they want to know the ways of god they want to become acquainted with his character to know who he 1 H i antt ami what lie ig is they want u waitt aitt to understand just as they hey are tire directed id und understand ersLand in it the nw nev testament testaments and wid said to be the tha words of the savior athis tio tin s is eternal lire life to know the only living and true god and jesus christ w whom divoni he be hus bus sent 1 to f 0 know that god and 0 to o jesus the people who wish to do ri right ht are willing to tb undergo anything those that gather lir il it they will do the best they know will know god and tind jesus whom lie has sent and a nd as fimi air lin with A ith liin liln libin as they can bo be with anhar acter whose face they see not they can know li it s character abd aed understand his ways I 1 bl shall all ail now give way and call upon br elsworth to address you and nud if any of the other I 1 ir re ethren thren who been beed called culled upon to come to the stand stands are hi it the cogl gat ion inn they will please come forward for word for it is of great lut iut ju interest terest crest to me file to pain aarn aara something of the travels of our bre bro brethren thren and sisters |