| Show SOME PLAIN TRUTHS should a stranger in utah listen to to some of those who speak of its first fil st settlement nt and believe all he heard he would think the pioneers found a veritable bl paradise par adise a land of green and waving m meadows 4 0 w a a land of milk and hone honey a soil so rich rich it needed but a touch to pro po duce most beautiful harvests and when vice president colfax years later beheld the wondrous transformation a desert become a gardephe garde nhe said with a sneer it was just a little water a little water had bad done it all neither he be nor others today of similar small caliber could appreciate the toil hardships starvation discouragements discourage ments and deadly peril endured and conquered by the heroic settlers such cannot understand what it is to live months at a time on bran mush green weeds and roots with not an ounce of meat or groceries groce rieb of any kind yet this was the experience of multitudes travelers passing to california said utah was good for nothing but to obviate a big hole in the ground it was a utterly worthless and the mor mons were the biggest fools in the world t for staying ir in such a place I 1 heard such expressions many times for years it at required constant persuasion of the church leaders to keep the saints in utah yet vat many went to california to seek a better home in a discourse of president young delivered in ogden february irth 1856 nearly nine years after the advent of the pioneers he said 1 I saw in nauvoo that this people would have to flee into the mountains and into a climate and country that the gentiles would not desire if we are not in in such a place I 1 do not know where it will be found a place more undesirable than this do the saints delight in this locality no it is is repugnant to to their feelings and it was repugnant an t deeply so but the mao majority rity remained here because they knew the welfare of mormonism required it and this was one of the keys to explain the marvelous endurance anil and persistence displayed in the settlement of a dreary desert hundreds of miles from any outside aid an and i sur sui rounded by hordes of most cruel savages when I 1 entered utah in july 1850 1850 the landscape was as desolate as are today the deserts of wyoming and nevada not a bit ol of green to cheer the e eye y e except a thin fringe of willows a along 1 0 n g the streams aside from the limited acreage under cultivation the bench between the mouth ot of parleys canyon and the city was covered not with grass but with a dense growth of dwarf sun flowers among which passed indian women beating with paddles the ripe seeds into baskets for winter food our party of gold hunters encamped awhile on the jordan to rest the cattle and obtain supplies and here for the first time I 1 real zed the comparatively small value ot of money when we bargained for butter vegetables milk or other supplies and offered gold in payment people said pleadingly you let iet me have some sugar instead of noney honey or a little tea or coffee some bacon or dried fruit we had any for such a long time it would be so much better than money I 1 such words were common the people had gold but they could not eat it and they hungered for something besides bread and milk alter after a few days our party went on to california all but myself who remained behind to study mormonism mor monism a subject entirely new to tome me and what I 1 now saw was to me very strange I 1 saw no lawyers but instead people both mor mons and gentiles settling disputes before a bishops court or a high council amicably too when people were sick doctors were not sent for but the elders came and through faith the sick were healed far oftener than is the case today and what was very strange dances and business meetings were opened and closed with prayers prayer and while the dancers rested from time to time at a ball elders spoke filled by the inspiration ot of the holy spirit some prophesied some spoke or sang in tongues and others gave the interpretation many times a dancing party witnessed as powerful a manifestation of the holy spirit as a sunday meeting and a spirit presided just as heavenly this was all marvelosa marve loua to me who had always supposed such things pertained only to a strictly religious meeting I 1 did not then know that with god and his servants all things are spiritual and that he gos godfel el applies to and should regulate not only our religious duties ot of a Sl sunday but every act and avocation in lite seeing a whole community imbued with such a spirit I 1 could partially understand how they could lace face with suc unflinching ig r courage difficulties calculated to appall the stoutest heart I 1 lived many years in utah before I 1 saw a note of hand given or a receipt for money paid to ask for either would have been taken as an insult to ones honesty of character when a man agreed to pay a debt he expected to pay it and when he did pay his debt he wanted no receipt no business in that says he very likely but there was honesty on each side much more reliable than a bond or note of hand I 1 often rode over the country now known as would not have given ten cents an acre for it nor would any one else because there was no water for it four or five families claim ed what little water there was and had not enough and without water nothing would grow can anyone realize this when looking today over the thousands of acres of fields orchards and waving meadows in davis county yet it is all true not only in davis county but from one end ol of utah to the other small streams have increased in volume the rainfall has greatly increased and many running springs have broken out where water never ran before for instance in in i 1857 the writer traveling in southern utah in company with apostles george A smith amasa lyman and others and stopped for lunch at noon at a smal aprin sprin spring which aich ran about thirty feet and all dg disappeared in the sand to get a drink we had to dip up a spoonful at a time until a cup was filled in 1881 1 I passed the same place again and was astonished toni shed to see five families living there with orchard gardens and a small field all watered from the spring formerly so diminutive many other examples may inay be given if necessary As a key to this I 1 here insert a prophecy made by president heber deberc C kirn kim ball in parowan carowan Pa rowan may nth 1851 at the meeting when the name parowan carowan Pa rowan was substituted for louisa its first name he said As the num numbers liers and necessities of the saints in these mountain valleys shall increase so shall the waters increase write it down if you will wil for it is true I 1 wrote it down at the time and have seen it literally fulfilled JAMBS H MARTINEAU |
