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Show THE TWiENTY-FOURTH. The "American" organ half-heartedly concedes the propriety of observing ob-serving the. -Twenty-fourth of July as a holiday. Why there should be any reluctance whatever about standing stand-ing in to do honor to the day, no matter what the person's prejudices, predilections or preferences would be a mystery anywhere but here in Utah where the quality of opposition on the part of that paper and its upholders up-holders is not strained but absolute and evinced on all possible occasions. The fact that it was Mormons who first peopled Utah and brought it within the fold of the United States should not and with the broader-minded broader-minded non-Mbrmons docs not cut the smallest figure, any more than the circumstances that Puritans established estab-lished civilized conditions on our Eastern shores and planted upon our soil the boom of religious liberty which grew into political freedom and general liberty for all. Wc do not need to be Puritans in order to measure and estimate the consequence of those people's early work, nor do wc need to be Mormons to fully appreciate ap-preciate and fitly recognize the grand results . flowing from the Mormon's work in pioneering these wastes and first setting up in this far off, foreign for-eign land the standard which the other Pilgrims made possible of existence. ex-istence. Speaking of this reminds us that a prominent "American" leader, who may or may not glory in the name of Darmcr, in a speech recently scouted the idea that the Mormons raised the Stars and Stripes on Ensign En-sign Peak (or it is presumable anywhere any-where (e, according to his drift)' on arrival here, holding this to be a beautiful after-thought of theirs or ' something to that effect. There is now but a remnant of that hardy and persevering band left, but, so far as known, these retain their mental faculties in excellent condition and to all with the possible exception of the gentleman spoken of and some of his cohorts, the word of those pioneers is unimpeachable. It is unquestionably un-questionably the case that each and every one of them' will bear a different differ-ent testimony from that of Mr. Darmcr; Dar-mcr; but as long as they were here on the occasion spoken of, and he wasn't, his denial must of necessity count for more than their assertion, and of such material is "American" capital made. Truth hopes the Twenty-fourth will be generally observed, not religiously re-ligiously but secularly, wholeheartedly wholeheart-edly and fittingly. It is, next to the Fourth of July, hc greatest day in the national calender. It advanced American civilization, American institutions insti-tutions and American enterprises almost al-most a generation by the great occurrence oc-currence in Utah which it signalized sixty years ago and this would "be as cheerfully and unhesitatingly said had those who consummated the great work, been Catholics, 'Methodists, 'Method-ists, infidels or what not. It is a time for the paying of general respect for putting aside bickering, for ignoring all manner of social differences, for being for this time what wc ought to be all the time one people with one prevailing sentiment and an unfailing faith in the continued growth and welfare wel-fare of this richly endowed land. All honor to the Twenty-fourth and the brave people who blazed it with red upon the calcndarl |