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Show THE CITIZEN 2 but the foregoing tale is one of g interest not only to the Mormons but to the thousands who come here every year as tourists. And that tale, too, is one of the traditions behind the long trek still followed by this people in paying its annual homage at the center of its administration. It is to remain for a few days in the atmosphere that harks of earlier struggles and triumphs that the thousands come to Salt Lake City. During the conference days, the city loses its air of self contented boredom. For it has new life, fresh life from every point of the compass, poured into it by the intangible call of a faith. The occurence is repeated year after year, April and October. Search where you will, it is not duplicated in the broad expanse of the civilized world or to the remotest comer of any exploder section. The thousands are here now pouring through stores, into theatres, dance halls, enjoying the hundreds of things different in Salt Lake than elsewhere, but remembering first that they have come to the center of the faith from which the state has been built. never-endin- An aerial panorama of Salt Lake City trek to this valley that the gathering assumed the importance that it has come to hold. Construction of a meeting place began on July 31, 1847, just a week after the first L. D. S. colonists arrived. The result was a rude bpw-er- y 40 by 28 feet, with a raised platform for speakers and the' Church officials at one end. Four years later the construction of the Old Tabernacle was begun on the southwest corner of what now is the Tabernacle block That building, 126 by 64 feet, was dedicated on April 6, 1852, at the twenty-secon- d annual conference of the Church. Eleven years later the present tabernacle was begun. The plans for the structure were drawn by President Brigham Young, William H. Folsom and Henry Grow. Delays obstructed the work of the builders, the actual construction beginning in 1865 and progressing far enough that by 1867 the could assemble there. Dedication was held August 6, 1867, with some of the people walking hundreds of miles to be present at Mormons the dedication. In its form at that time, it had neither gallery or the metal roof of the present time. giant organ was begun in and was finished after a year and a half of work, in which THE 100 men constantly were employed. Some of the pipes are 32 feet high, and there are 112 sets of pipes, which are divided into seven sections. Perhaps I stray from the subject, 4 , No question, its the greatest gath- ering of its kind in the world. The Temple Block, gathering place of the Mormons si i |