Show KIRTLAND AS IT IS THE following are extracts from a letter from a correspondent of kirt land ohio to the kansas city journal the old mormon temple which has looked down from its commanding height for nearly sixty years upon one of the quaintest quain test and most historical villages in corthern northern ohio will not be carried away to form one of the attractions at the worlds fair if the people of lake county are not altogether powerless in the matter it is a landmark they will not willingly part with although but a few of them have anything in common with the strange people who it 91 0 0 0 kirtland is an old village and one a progressive person would shun in seeking a home I 1 am reminded right here of a remark a gentleman made to me in speaking of the town I 1 confess when I 1 visited the spot where mormonism fairly took root I 1 felt a kind of a reverence for it chiefly because of its historical associations naturally I 1 sought out men who could tell me something of the history of the village and who might be able to assist me in getting the information I 1 desired concerning the temple I 1 ran across an elderly gentleman whose looks rather indicated a good natured successful business man of course a stranger to the village and its people I 1 thought the proper thing to do was to say something complimentary of this quaint zion I 1 did so and the reply kind of shocked me yes saideie said he lie there are worse places laces than kirtland to live in but I 1 bont dont know where in find them clearly my friend was not a mormon so we parted company kirtland is not entirely unattractive in fact it like a majority of the towns and villa villages as in n N northern 0 athern ohio is possessed ofa of natural tural w scenery nery that if ia pleasing to the eye it lies four miles back from lake erie and nestles between well wooded hills one branch of the chagrin river cuts through the village almost washing the foundations of a building but little less historical than the tam temple be itself A few stores an old hotel agat that sees few guests a flouring floering flou ring mill that to is evidently well patronized by the farmers one or two churches and fifteen or twenty old fashioned houses comprise the village known in history as the cradle of mormonism no attempt to improve the place has been made since the saints sought another zion and that was a good many years ago most of the citizens own fertile farms and can show a good fat fai bank account they have but food tittle ittle ambition and still less pride and so long as their houses bouses shelter them and the larder la Is full fall they are happy and indifferent to grass grown yards and broken down fences some two miles to the northeast is mentor a straggling village that once claimed president garfield as ag a citizen about the same distance away but almost directly north is the village of willoughby which watch has of late years become popular as a summer home for the wealthy citizens of cleveland to the south the country is lose less attractive the soil moll soon changing from sand to clay and becoming more difficult of cultivation but the temple is the great point of attraction here and the mere talk of removing it to chicago has set the whole populace in a fighting humor the iatter day saints revere and the gentiles venerate it it is the one great historical landmark of lake county and Ina many are the famous men who have made a pilgrimage to the inland village to gaze upon this noted piece of mormon 1 architecture during the garfield cam laign for the presidency the temple was visited by thousands from all parts of the country and the saints real realized izeda a handsome revenue from the admission fee the temple stands on a high hill a little to the west of the river and is built of stone it is about eighty feet long and sixty broad the walls are fifty feet highland are of a yellowish tinge on the front of the building one sees this inscription in gilt letters house of the lord built b by the church of christ in 1834 11 the inferior of the temple is unlike that of any other place of worship in the county and probably its like has no existence outside of mormon cities leading from the vestibule are two doors ahat hat open into separate aisles one for the anen en and the other for the women two latin inscriptions are still plainly visibly e but these attract less attention than the odd arrangement of pews at either end of the assembly room is a pulpit built up in four tiers where the twelve priests sat sal on front of the pulpit are letters denoting the titles of the high priests the second story is practically a repetition of the first and this is the old mormon school room here are to be seen the very blackboards upon which the prophet smith is said to have traced letters for the children of his new converts it is in proper to state however that no writing of the prophets is now visible the temple tower rises far above the massive walls and is visible for miles around in all directions from the shapely dome a magnificent view of a grand country is obtained farm houses to the west went south and east gopear in numbers while to the north lake erfe now free from ice and blue almost as the sky above it stretcher chei in vast expanse to the horizon it is yet early spring in this section of country but already the white sails sailo some scar scarcely eely visible from the dome of the temple how that lake commerce has begun |