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Show J UTAH'S PORTLAND EXHIBIT. The Missionary at the Gate. (Utah's exhibit at the Portland fair is scarcely one to excite hilarity or demonstrations of civic or other pride, but in the main it is quite creditable, credit-able, though unpretentious. Its mineral exhibit is quite an extensive one, and each day attracts the interest and attention of hundreds of visitors, visi-tors, and other features of the display give a sufficiently adequate lesson in the state's greatest resources. The one circumstance in Utah's contribution to the exposition which is obnoxious to Gentile visitors from Utah is the Mormon information bureau which has been established near the entrance en-trance to the Utah building, a fact which was commented upon recently by a contemporary. A young Mormon elder has charge of the booth, I and he is about the most industrious young per- Ison at the fair grounds. Every visitor must pass his bailiwick to reach the Utah building, and not one of them is ever allowed to pass the sacred shrine without listening to a dissertation on Mormonism. He has a number of Utah souvenirs souve-nirs to vend, but these are lost sight of as he fervently testifies to the immaculate attributes of Joseph F. Smith and the inspirational texture of the Book of Mormon. The young man at the stand is a returned missionary, and quite capable of preaching a Mormon sermon, which he does many times a day, either vocally or through the medium of a Mormon tract, usually from the exhaustless fountain foun-tain pen of Apostle-Editor Charles W. Penrose. He is a very conservative young churchman and makes no mistakes. Whether gratuitously offering of-fering literature upon the state of Utah, or giving it away when solicited, all the visitor ever receives re-ceives is some pamphlet defending or denying polygamy po-lygamy or eloquently setting forth the propaganda propa-ganda of the Mormon faith. A sermon is then launched at the visitor to the effect that the Mormons are great believers in education, and have built most of the public school houses; and that the improvement which have made Salt Lake so alluring in appearance were the result of Mormon thrift and enterprise. The fervid young elder reaches his peroration with the announcement announce-ment that the church does not interfere in Utah politics and that polygamy is no longer practiced. prac-ticed. The creation of such a bureau, devoted to these purposes of disseminating silly and' misleading mis-leading Mormon church prattle, is in no sense a surprise to people familiar with the wonderful methods of the dominant church. It is but a recurrence re-currence of what happened at the St. Louis exposition, ex-position, where whole mounds of Apostle Penrose's Pen-rose's tracts were distributed, and but repeats what has occurred in almost every public place where Utah has been represented. It is reminiscent remi-niscent of what happened while the Salt Lake delegation were being entertained at Los Angeles, An-geles, when Apostle-Senator Smoot injected a lot of Mormon apologies and ravings into an assembly as-sembly where the only mutual felicitations were appropriate. It looks as if such open violations of the ordinary conventions of civilized life would never cease among this "peculiar" people. It seems as if they will never discover the nauseating nause-ating effect of thin everlasting projection of their religion and their troubles into every available public place, however auch their action may violate decency and decorum. Managing Director Clawson should order this offensive booth removed from the vicinity of the Utah building or insist that the returned missionary mission-ary confine his operations to the' sale of Utah souvenivs and trinkets. It is not likely that Mr. Clawson will do this, as it is probable this booth proselyting bureau has Ins entire sanction, and besides such an Hon would occasion the wrath of Governor Cutler, if the mild-faced executive ex-ecutive is capable of such an emotion. Still, it would swell the attendance at the unique Utah building if this unseemly burlesque were eliminated, elimi-nated, and would create much more amicable relations between all classes here who are mutually mutu-ally interested in the success of the Utah exhibit. |