Show THE TEMPLE AN attraction THE temple is the chief attraction to strangers visiting this city it must be recognized by all who see it as a thing of beauty 21 even the non mormon residents with the exception of a few soured soure dand and contracted souls are proud of it and so BO express themselves the press dress of the country has given space to excellent descriptions of the recent ceremonies connected with the capstone and other details connected with the noble structure among the leading journals which have conspicuously treated this subject are the boston globe and the new york world the articles which appear in both these papers are well written they are similar in their general features and we therefore reproduce most of what appeared in but one of them the globe salt bait lake city U april 6 never was a grander a move more impressive iro press cepec spec bacle or ceremony witnessed anywhere than that of the laying of the tee ca capstone of the great mormon temple in this city at high noon today todar his it was the greatest event in the history of mormonism the grandest day ever seen in israel fully people had assembled from utah and the adjoining states and territories to participate in the ceremony five acres of ground were densely packed with human beings these kheswa were fired with a devotion to principle and a religious enthusiasm un paral lebed in the language of president wood luff if there was any scene ever enacted on earth that attracted the at of the god of heaven and the heavenly host it was the one today and the assemblage of the people shouting hosannas hosannah Hos annas to the laying of the cap capstone stOlle of the temple in honor of god when the sun had reached the high est eat point in the heavens wilford woodruff the president prophet and revelator of the mormon church ad dressed the multitude he has just passed his birthday but his bis faculties are as bright today as those of a young mw mac his manner was most impressive his voice was clear when be said CH harken arken all ye of the house of israel and ye nations of the earth we will lay the capstone of the greatest temple temp ilee of our god then he pressed the electric button and the capstone was dropped into place it was intended that he should do this work with his own bands and that the grand chorus of voices should id sing the fhe especially prepared odi ode on a platform erected at the extreme top of the spires fearing an accident tats scheme was abandoned A moment after the aged president had bad opened the electric current the av ar chite ct from the top of the Temples lg nailed balled back that the stone was in post tion it was then that the throng of people raised such a cry of rejoicing as ar has never been heard except from a vie dorious army they shouted hosanna hosanna ho ganna hosanna to god and the lamb amen amen and amen this they repeated three times accompanying compa nying their acclaims uy the waving of their handkerchiefs the ground trembled with th volume of sound which was multiplied again and again by the repetition of its echoes from the surrounding hills immediately afterwards the great golden statue of gabriel moroni proclaiming to all the world the coming of the redeemer was placed in post tion the statue is superb it sh immers and glistens in the sunlight in a perfectly dazzling way boston has recognized the talent of the artist who conceived it president woodruff had bad expressed the desire that he be might live to see me the temple completed and himself dedicate it j it was in answer to that one of the th apostles volunteered the information that the wish of the prescient was waa abe word of god to the mormon people op tor for that reason it was wae resolved that the temple ample should be completed and be dedicated one year from date i that will be on the sixty third anniversary of the organization of the church BUILDING OF THE TLE TEMPLE thirty nine years ago today the corner stone of this temple was I 1 laid id but it was only a few days after the th pioneer mormons cormons entered this valley where a now new empire was to be founded that the site on which it was to stand was chosen it was ou on a beautiful summer even ing in july after the valley had bad been fully explored and no more favorable spot be found to begin the building of a city in the wil wilderness derDeN on that july evening the mormon prophet brigham young in company with some of the apostles of the church were strolling about in the vicinity of their camping place to the south the valley spread out before them stretching away into vistas as as a dream westward was the great salt bait lake glistening like a mirror in the rays of the dying sunlight with its rugged mountainous islands from its waters and burying their heads in the white clouds and the blue of the heavens in the east were the eold cold gray peaks of the wasatch range to the north were the brown hills bills which fortify the city in that direction brigham young was not insensible to the tha D inspiration of the beautiful he gazed about him and waa earp aured by the sublimity of the environ ment turning his face toabe east he be struck his esho on the ground and said here is where the temple of our god shall rise No 29 one neever ever thought to question the of the decision there were no suggestions that better locations might be had brigham had made up his mind I 1 and from his decision there was no appeal from that time on the temple block was regarded as being sacred to the vu purpose for which it had been chosen 3 remembering with what matchless courage the great mormon leader had bad conducted his insignificant army over 1500 miles of unexplored desert and through mountain defiles into this then wilderness and recollecting how uD unerringly he planned 1 tor for the future well being of ja his followers one cannot restrain the thought did this modern pro prophet pilet in his bis imagination agi nation eye that summer night see through the mists of years the massive white pile that is now the temple but that july night nip ht when brigham m issued his bis edict and struck his cane on the earth was in 1847 and nothing was done on the work of building the temple until six years afterwards april 6 1853 was a day or of great rejoicing iu not only was the semiannual semi annual conference of the mormon church being 9 held but the ceremonies of laying the cornerstones corner stones of their first temple in the mountains were to be performed the first company of mormon plo pio to come to utah numbered six years afterwards salt lake city had bad a population of five or six alx thousand people it was a alty too the like unto which had never been seen men before nor never will be again so bo on that balmy day in april the saints gathered from the most moat remote settlements flags flaga were flying and bands there were two in utah then were playing men and women wore their gayest t attire and smiled their happiest presumably their souls wa were possessed posa essed of that peace which basseth all understanding A great procession was formed in honor of the ceremony which was wag about to he be celebrated A pro gramme of that parade is still extant but it is only necessary to the coherence of this story to say that the church authorities were the most conspicuous figures in the pageant there were the presidents apostles a and nd high priests the counsellors Coun the bishops and the elders and all the lesser degrees of latter day saint dig nit four cornerstones corner stones were laid four dedicatory prayers were offered in which the almighty was invoked to bless the building which was then begun and four grand orations were delivered there are many conflicting stories as to who conceived the design and plans of this temple thurman 0 angell was the first architect to have charge of the workout work but it was in the brain of brigham young that the primary idea of its shape and general construction was born doubtless this idea waff founded on the descriptions he had read of king Solo solomons monys temple but in any event he explained to angell angell the construction his bis mind had pictured and these the architect had elaborated and there have been very few changes in the plans since they were first draugh ted to the working out of these plans angell devoted his life after his hia death an assistant wider him was in charge 16 for a time but for the past five years don dun carlos carloa young a son ot of brigham young has directed the construction st for many years the progress on the temple was exceedingly slow the foundations were sunk 16 feet below the surface there was a great yawning hole to be filled and every rook had bad to be hauled a distance of 23 miles by ox team many people remember how bow slow that building rose they say that for years not a rook appeared above the level of the ground but nothing was slighted alighted there was no hurry burry and the temple when completed was intended to be as enduring as the mountains from which the stones were dug to build it with no better illustration of the patience and industry of the mormon people could be given thin than that displayed in the buildt building g of this great structure when one considers the size the absence of modern mechanical apelian app lian oes ces at that time for such an undertaking the distance to the quarries where the rook was obtained ana the thou sand disadvantage they contended against the work is seen to be ous and inspires wonder and admirada tion the comple quarries are in a rugged ragged mountain canyon called little cottonwood for many years or until 1872 every stone the building contains and there are an immense number of them was waa hauled by ox teams wagon were especially constructed for the work and some of the stones were so eo large as to require four and five yoke of cattle to draw the load how slow and expensive a building of this size must be when such methods are employed in its construction can be readily understood in 1872 a branch railroad was built to the quarries running from the temple yard and since that time the pro gress gresa has been more rapid and less expensive when standing near this prodigious pile it is impossible for the beholder to gain a lull full idea of its it s great size it is only when v viewed lewe d from a dis tance that its full impress impressiveness veness to Is truly comprehended then it appears massive and it rises above the other tall buildings of the city like a nigh high mountain above a level plain true when one stands beside it and irlea to count the courses of stone they rise until one tier is confused and commingled with another but at a distance it stands out solemn grand majestic and lovely there is a font room where baptisms are to be performed for the mor mops mons like the baptists baptista believe in immersion they baptize for the remission of sins gins and also baptize the he living for the on bin of some dead friend or relative who has passed into the beyond bey end without having been redeemed the purposes of these mormon temples are not understood by the uninitiated many suppose they are to be used as houses of worship that is an erroneous idea public services are never held in them they are designed denig ned for Meetings tha of the for the peM mances of ordinances Mances or and ceremonies like those of baptisms marriages and the ordaining of members into the almost numberless aum berless degrees of priestly functions the general public is po bitted to enter these temples afeei after wy are am completed |