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Show THE DESERET 6 at the top of the southwest tower is a reserve tank with a capacity of even thousand gallons of water. When we come to speak of the elegance of finish, furnishings and decorations, we learn as never before the inadequacy of human language. The marble-tilebaptismal room in the basement, grand and impressive in all its appointments, is but the introduction to brighter beauties and fairer charms as the ascent to the upper floors is made. The capacious bronze font will rest upon the backs of twelve bronzed oxen, already cast; a reminder of a like feature in the House built by Solomon, which stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south and three looking toward the east, and the sea was set above them, and all their hinder parts were inward. This large room has a pavement and base of fine white marble. A smaller room on an upper floor, resplendent in blue and gold, is paved with an artistically designed native hard wood mosaic, the blocks being no more than an inch square, finely polished. White and gold are, indeed, the prevailing colois throughout, but harmonious tints judiciously distributed remove every suggestion of too dazzling brightness. Notably is this the case in the overhead and side decoiations of a large high room on the north side. To be permitted to gaze for an hour in dumb delight at that magnificent ceiling were worth a year of life or a journey across a continent Exquisitely chaste, harmonious and natural in color as well as in every appointment, it impresses the wUh the sense that he looks not upon the work of man but upon nature herself in her most beautiful and luxunant mood It simply defies description. So it goes from foundation to summit everywhere are smmetry, solidity, richness and purity. We pause a moment to examine in various corridors the permanent wash basins made of solid, rare, and delicately tinted onjx, with plumbing fixtures thiQughout of appropriate finish, and note as an evidence of the thorough attention that has been paid to detail that even the door and window hardware has been made to order expressly for this building; the Beehive ornaments the door knobs, and with the design of the clasped hands is the motto, Holiness to the Lord. In the basement these fixtures (including all locks, bolts, hinges, etc.) are of brass; on the first floor they are of plated gold; on the second, of plated silver; on the third, of old silver; and above that and in the smaller rooms, of old bionze. There are four floois counting the basement, and each one, excepting the top, is divided into rooms of varying sizes. This upper or assembly room occupies d tr NEWS- the whole extent of the building except the towers, being 120 feet long, 80 feet wide and 36 feet high, with a seating capacity, including the gallery, of nearly 3,000 persons. The gallery is of graceful sweep; it is railed with bronze, &nd is reached by circular stairwas in each of the four corners. Nothing could surpass the beauteous grandeur of this vast hall. The elevated stands for the Priesthood at either end, the choice decorations of dais and the broad balcony, auditorium, the artistically paneled ceiling and frescoed frieze, with innumerable permanent lights mingled m the cornice, and five dependent chandelieis all combine in presenting to the mind a scene that will be equally imposing by day or by night. An important and scarcely less interesting structure is the Annex, being erected to the north of the Temple proper and about one hundred feet distant from it. This is to serve as the reception place, or business department of the Temple. It is solidly and handsomely built of the finest Sanpete stone and is nearing completion. It will also be heated and ventilated in the most approved manner. Its large quadrangular central room will have a height of thirty-sifeet; and by a broad corridor it is connected with the basement of the Temple itself hand-carve- d We have thus attempted a review of the history and a brief description of the the building present appearance which ot all others on the eailh excites the interest and waims the heart of the faithful Latter-daSaints. Our effort, with all its impel fections, is put forth for their information and encouragement. The blessings of H m wnorn they serve have abundantly lested upon the sacred edifice from its inception, and upon them in their efforts to complete it. ffhey have tiuted Him, and He has not forsaken them. In His name and with faith in His promises they have conti lbuted ot their substance in seasons of distress and m times of prosperity to the prosecution of the work in hand. It stands as a monument of His mercy and their devotion, and constitutes already a sure token of His acceptance of their taith and sacrifice With its dedication next April another enduring bond ofunion between time and eternity will be effected, another spot hallowed by ordinances performed for the living and the dead. In this reflection is ample reward for all the expenditure of toil and means that the progress of the building has witnessed. But there are other rewards in store. Man can not estimate, he can scarcely anticipate, the blessings that are reserved and ready for the faithful Saints of the of y Most High. Columbus Real Letter. letter of Columbus, Spanish, dated at Lisbon, where he stopped on his first return voyage, was translated into Latin, and sent to Rome for publication immediately after his arrival in Spain. Original copies of the oldest four editions of this version, printed in 1493, are preserved, according to the Literacy Digest, in the Lenox library. The rarest, and certainly the most interesting of the four is the pictorial edition, complete in ten leaves, which has lately been reproduced in exact facsimile. No other perfect copy is known to be extant. The curious woodcuts with which it is illustrated are supposed by some to have been copied fiom drawings made originally by Columbus himself. They give remarkable representations of the Admirals own caravel, of his first landing in Hayti and meeting with the natives, and of the different islands which he visited. This copy, which was rebound in red morocco by Thompson, the English bookbinder, apparently about sixty or seventy years ago, once belonged to Richard Heber, the celebrated bibliophile At the sale of the final portion of his library at Paris, 36, it October, appeared as No. 8S5 ot the catalogue, francs. This selling for ninety-seveprice shows how enormously curios of this description have risen in value in the last fifty years. There ai e now probably a hundred book - collectois wno w'ould be glad to give more than one hundred times n.nety seven francs for the little book Vanous editions and translations were printed of Columbus letter to the royal treasurer and secretaiy of the exchequer. Only a few of these, however, have come down to our time, and they are leckoned among the rarest and most s The number of expensive books. and translations printed in the fifteenth century is, so far as known, SHE first in 1 111 n edi-ton- fifteen. Music in Mi. UR musical and mineral resources are under remarkably similar conditions at the present time. Rich beyond measure are we in each, so far as natural resources go; and while we have attained somewhat of a world renown in both, their development is but in its infancy, and languishing for a better condition of things to dawn upon us Our Tintic and other mineral dis- Park, cj j cyiy$ |