Show TRIBUTE TO UTAH BUILDERS TOLD ARRIVAL OF PIONEERS AND CONQUEST OF DESERT FIT FOR foit PORTRAYAL rOUT ON STAGE stafe the following tribute to pioneers was penned some years ago by the late C C goodwin goodwill and appeared in goodwins Good wills weekly it is good to see the saints bring their children in to conference we wonder it if many of them stop to tell their children the beautiful story of 0 the evolution that the full fill history pictures since the lay day that the first weary company came down tile the eastern mountains and halted here that was salt lakes first moving picture there has been none like it I 1 since con contemplating tem plating it the temple tile the hotels theaters churches hospitals great business houses and stately homes the temples to religion to learning to industry to justice and mercy all vanish away the ahe roar ot of business becomes still the silence which the desert broods conics back gardens vanish the flowers all fade there is nothing as Ls now seen save the surrounding mountains tile lake shimmering in tile the distance the sun shining III from above and the desolation that wrapped all this region round like a burial robe even the branches on the few stunted trees hung drooping like funeral plumes while the sough of the breeze coming down from roll the hills or up tip from the lake was as mournful as is the requiem chanted or the shores of the styx the way a state is carved out of 0 a wilderness and rounded into form is always an interesting theme I 1 the way the first stakes ot of civilization were driven in utah was dramatic enough to be set to words for the stage in their penury and distress tile the first act of the utah pioneers was to sink upon tile earthnut eart hnot linot in prayer for help not in I 1 lamentation and despair but in glad praise service iu in thanks to the power that had led them through the wastes and over the transfixed billions ot of the everlasting hills to a place of 0 rest then their work began they were not dreaming ot of fort fortunes lines the struggle before them was to live and that struggle continued almost without abatement to the end often only the barest necessities were vouchsafed few comforts no luxuries in that rough friction their youth was worn away the men surrendered their ambitions the women folded fond dreams and a thousand innocent longings in their hearts and drew draw the silence of self sacrifice over them forever but then the miracle commenced the desert began to transfer the wrinkles arid and sadness from ites somber face to theirs while in it turn it began to absorb the splendor 0 of their youth and to cause it to be reflected in it flowers and fruits and golden grain and vines ni which the birds made their nests and tilled filled all the soft air with their songs later still as though touched with pity the mountains began revealing the treasures within where here they had remained secreted waiting until the time should be ripe tor for the coming ot of progress and enlightenment lighten ment the over wearied led eyes 0 of those pioneers have mostly all closed their hands gnarled by labor are nearly all folded but the miracle I 1 still being performed more and more fields are arc annually rescued front from the desert more and more flowers are blooming more and more birds ire are singing wider and wider fields grow golden under the harvest sun sul recalling the old legend that artist angels in the ion long ago came here from Surn summerland merland and with divine pencils dipped in the dyes where light ts Is brewed left it all as a frame tor for a city beautiful which man was to build we may believe that the building of that city has been begun and is progressing toward perfection this Is the story that should be told tile the children when they are arc brot iu in to conference and then they should be told to listen and note it if they cannot still hear the echoes of that first giaise service with which the fathers dedicated this SOJI soil to the enlighten comes through devotion to duty through the omnipotence of patient labor and through falth faith in god tribune |