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Show PIONEER DAY TODAY. Si.Tfy years ago todaj- there was made- what might bo appropriately termed the official entry of tho pioneers pio-neers into this valley. Two days bo-foro, bo-foro, two of tho party rode into the valley and scouted around, but it was not until tho twenty-fourth of July that Brigharn Young with .the party omerged from the mouth of Emigration Emigra-tion canj-on and halted on tho sito where tlio city is now located. A good deal of misrepresentation, abuse, and reviling have boon indulged in by the church's so-callod historians and by its fanatical speakors from time to time with respect to this movement move-ment which quickly brought to this val-loy val-loy tho bulk of tho Mormon people. It is not necessary at this time- to enter en-ter into any detailed criticism of all that idle, fruitless, false, vicious talk. It is enough lo say that eventually the most of what haa been taught by tho fanatics -will have to bo sot asido and tho actual facts in evory coming of tho Mormons to Utah will not appear by uny means in the light in which a good many of the zealous churchmen havo zealously sought to place it. Enough of tins, however, for the time. ThiB incoming of tho pioneers here has been made an anniversary, and, by law, a holiday. This is both appropriate and right. We hcliovo in setting asido such dates as holidays and points of remembrance, as epochs in the History of communities and of States. "We, therefore, join heartily in spirit with the appropriate celebration cele-bration of the day, and trust that as the years go by the observances of the day will broaden, and will lose their rigid sectarian character, taking on more the shape that such observances observ-ances do in other States, ns a civic remembrance of the pioneers who first brought such civilizationjas they had to tho wilds and unbroken wastes of America, iu place of a sectarian church apotheosis. Wo observe signs of tho btua.'lcning of spirit and of observance observ-ance hore from time to time, and rejoice re-joice in them. In the menntimc, wc all approve the best that cim be dono in the way of these remembrances, and hope for the improvement us time goes on. But no one should (nil to remember such tribute trib-ute as is possibJe to the earnestness, the zenl, and the effective work that resulted in the reclamation of a great region of America. It is true that 'this was no desert when the pioneers came here. It was a rich country, full of gamo and fish, with bunch grass up to the sides of the horses as the pioneers rode along the bench aDd down iuto the valley. It was a rich land. It was a laud easily reduced to tillage. There were r.o such toilsome efforts, generation after generation, as was required in the opening of farms north of the Ohio in the occupancy of that now well-peopled region by the pioneers of the white race. That land was covered with forests which it took almost three genorations to reduce- so that the land could be most advanta-geously advanta-geously "used. The rifle was the first tool of the whUe man hi the West. Following it closely with the ax, civilization civ-ilization pushed fr.nvard. In Utah the arc was comparatively little- required, an-J the rifle less than in muai places. There wore some Indian In-dian vyajs, because the Indian is a wild beast irrepressible, bloodthirsty, rapacious. It always has been im-possible im-possible for first settlers to go anywhere any-where in America without encountering encounter-ing Indian hostility. The pioneers here had less of it than most; but it is to be remembered that the tribes occupying this region wore very low in the scale of humanity. It was a comparative easy matter to subdue such Indians as were here, because their numbers were few and their resource? re-source? were limited. And it must be remembered, also, that the pioneers always made it a point, so far as possible, to cultivate the Indians, make them friendly, and treat them justly, wherever the interests of the two races did not especially clah. On all accounts, therefore, we trust that the observances of the day may bo to the entire satisfaction of those participating in them, oud that all will receive appropriate benefits iu reminders of what they have received from the pioneers and of what is du3 to their memories. |
