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Show ENGLISH CONDITIONS I DEPICTED BY ELDER I Herhert l !l:iisiht of Cedar City M Writes Interesting Letter H to Home Folks. H 1 LOIR IS SHORT AND kt RREAI) 1 AMINE LIKELY H A Visit to Home of the Historic and H Other Places of Interest Breaks H the Monotony of Regular M Missionary Life. M We have obtained the permission of M the family to publish the following H letter from Elder Herbert Haight to M his folks residing in this city. It is M especially interesting because in ad- M dition to describing many of the old fl historic places of England, it throws M , some light upon conditions as they M exist in the old world during the great M war that is raging there. H Elder Haight's letter follows: H Birmingham, England, May 14, 1917. M Dear Parents, Brothers and Sisters: M I received mother's letters and they H are all that keeps me alive. The boys H said today they wished I would get a PH letter every morning, the way I was fH singing around after reading yours of H the .10th. You will pardon me for not H writing while I was on my trip. I H couldn't very well do it, we were on fH the go all the time. It sure did mo H good. I feel like a new man now. m I had a cold for two or three weeks H and was afraid that I couldn't go, but H called on a doctor and he sounded my W heart and lungs and told me that he H thought I was all right. I believe it H left me the first duy out. We attend- H ed the conference at Nottingham and H had a fine time. The spirit of the H Lord was with us and we were blessed H with good weather and all to make our ssssl trip a success. Pies. Richards gave 'H us some good instructions, but very H little encouragement on the war sit- uation, for we wonder if our country -! will be involved in this great struggle H as these countries are. It looks very H much like you are. H By all means raise all the food you H can, for I am afraid that there will be H a famine all over the world. I have H seen lots of horse meat sold over the M block here, so we must he loyal to H our country and furnish her with grain H and meat. 1 think that is loyalty as B much as taking up arms, for these jH countries must be fed and are willing' jH to fight it to a victorious end. The H German menace has got to be stopped --H for the good of the world. Militarism must be done away with. The govern- H merit must be taken away from an t ambitious rolalty and given to a peace H loving people. World domination is a H dream that must be shattered for I I feel that the kaiser had hopes of nil- M ing the world with his great army. H This wur is doing a great deal of good H in the introduction of democracy, but M it is a shame that we had to be forced H into it. The way is opening up for H freedom of worship, and the Lord WM must prepare the world for His com- U ing. I am certain this is one of the WM steps. M Some of the Dark Aspects. H Orson must be conservative and wise H before he takes a final step. Find out H the best way you can serve your coun- MM try. Our country has got a big e- B nough burden to provide means and H food. If she can set her people to K work and use all her waste land. U There has been a complete revolution H here In agricultural methods! all pas tares, waste places by the raHroad ffl tracks, etc., are being put into crops. M Vou can't imagine how much is being M done along that line. It is either do M that or starve. America should profit Ja by the mistakes of this country. Don't H be carried away by hero tales and ex- U citement for you get into a trench H and wait there for yean. If it comes M to it. One fellow told me he spent II M months in a trench and never moved M more than six yards either way. It B like spending Hire, weeks in the H cellar, two out ami then three in u- H gain. These boys have wonderful en- jfl durance and I can't see how they livr M under the conditions the) go through starvation, wounded, legs off. On JR my trip 1 have seen enough cripples to III make me sick. I know that it is a a fffi grand thing to be loyal to our army 39 and navy, hut it is ulso loyal to help i teed the starving. I am not a cow- aid. Cod forbid that I be when my Mt (Continued on page seven.) ENGLISH C0II1NS DEPICTEDBY ELDER (Continued from first ftft ) country is to be invaded or she needs wer men to defend her against an enemy, ene-my, or to uphold her; but these countries coun-tries have the armies and are willing to fight this war to a victory, but they AJnced munitions and food. They can't Busc many more troops thai, they al ready have, but they can use the food. So loyalty to our allies will be to feed their armies and starving people at home Pardon me, but 1 am worried about you at homo. I would hate to see you go through what we are seeing here, and you don't need to if you start to guard against starvation. Prophesy teaches us that we are to have a famine, fam-ine, and we are on the verge of it. I have lost all my surplus flesh about 12 pounds and the president has lost 25 or more. That looks like it, doesn't does-n't it? (joke) My cold took all my fat off, but oh! such an appetite as I have now. I can't get enough to eat. We are just getting our green vegetables vegeta-bles radishes, asparagus, rhubarb, etc., New potatoes are selling at 28 cents per pound. What do you think about that? Could you imagine such a thing. We don't buy at such prices, not us. We will wait until they get to be 3 cents if they ever will. We are expecting a bread shortage soon. Everywhere you go are posters to the car windows, on the wind shields of autos, etc., "Eat Less Bread." They are trying every means they can to provide against the shortage of flour. Our baker told us the flour is made of oats, some little wheat, beans, corn, ground bone, rice, etc. One company was sued for putting sawdust in their bread. So you can see why I am anxious anx-ious about planting all the crops you can. Historic Places of Interest. 1 must tell you about my trip. It was one of the best trips I have ever had in my life. I should say the best,! for never before have I seen so much tO interest me in so short a time. Thee were eight elders in our party, including President Richards, and on Monday after our conference we left Nottingham and all walked up to the Robin Hood caves, where the famous Robin Hood and his band of legend-1 legend-1 ary outlaws escaped from the king and I Normans. Saw the tournament I groups spoken of in Ivanhoe, where ' I Ivanhoe fought alone with the Black I Knight; saw the under ground tunnel I through which they could go from the I caves in the forest to the old castle, I where the great battle was fought be-' I tween the Sarnns and Normans; saw i I Sherwood forest still standing, where 1 Friar Tuck lived. In Nottingham the! I street "Robin Hood Chase," Is along' the trail whore Robin Hood and band I traveled buck and forth to their caves ' I and haunts in the forest. It is a I crooked street and you are made to I draw on your imagination about the. days of long ago. We went through , I the castle and our guide told us the I history of places and scenes where I many crimes were committed that fig- I ured in ancient history in the days of, I Oliver Cromwell, etc. We spent all I day looking over the places of inter- I est in Nottingham and at 4:!50 p. m. ' I we took the train for London, arriving! I at 7:30 p m. We saw many beautiful I sights along our way. The weather I was grand- -just like our June days I at home. The green meadows, bord- I ered by green hedge rows, quiet little I hamlets and villages every mile or so I added t our interest and broke the I monotony of train traveling. Farm- I ers were in the fields, factories WOW I belching forth great clouds of smoke I from their towering smoke stacks; all I interested us along our journey. Soon I we were in the famous city of l.on- I don and it is indeed a great city, cov- I ering an area of 37 miles square. I People moving every way, in busses, I street cars (trains) and with every I conceivable conveyance imaginable, I from u donkey cart to an underground I railway. We were dazed for a few I minutes, but soon we regained our I senses and started for the London I conference headquarters, where the I president and elder gave us a hearty I welcome and furnished us a fine sup- I per. Next morning President McKay I outlined for us a progrum of sight B seeing, which was first to the famous I London Tower, where all famous poo I fl touhii were royal prisoners were I fl" Saw where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for many year.-.; where Queen Mary was beheaded and I many places too numerous to men tion in this hurried epistle. I will tell you the rest when I come home, if WO ever can get back. Then we went out K along the famous tower bridge walked along the bank of the Thames B River and crossed over the London I bridge. 'lion we went into the B Wr busiest center of the town und took B a buss for Madame Tussard's famous fl wax works. I never saw anything so B life like in this line before. If you didn't watch yourself you might be found talking to some of the wax figures. fig-ures. They have IVesi.lcnt Wilson, some of ! '...land's famous statesmen of today, Loyd George, Asqttith, also the Kaiser of Geitnanv. besides hundreds hun-dreds of other figures of famous kings and queens, writers, inventors, etc. Then we went to the show. Next day WO visited the zoological gardens, where all kinds of animals are kept. Then we came back to Pi adiUy circus (a street corner, and the busiest corner cor-ner in England, There must be eight or ten vehicles pass every second. You sure have to watch yourself in crossing cross-ing the street or you will get caught between two automobiles. -Another theatre at night. Next day we went through a museum where were qn exhibition ex-hibition prehistoric skeletons of Sau-rians, Sau-rians, M feet in length and fourteen feet high; a large elephant 11 feet high and many other great things. From here we came back into the center of the city and called upon an American store- one of the biggest business establishments in London; went upon the roof where mnny people were gathered to look over the city and also were served with ire cream the first we have had since coming to England. Thev can't make ice cream. here like we have at home. It did seem a treat to have some real ice cream again. We then walked down along the famous promenade 'Embankment," where the aristocrats get out and walk, which is along the . bank of the Thames. We were very ! much interested in a stone column that was brought from Egypt and which I was constructed or carved by Cleopatra, Cleopat-ra, the famous queen of Egypt, 11 B. C. We then visited the exterior of the House of Parliament; thence to the Buckingham palace, the home of the King, and walked through the famous Hyde park and to Rotton Row, where all the aristocrats were horse-back Hding. All kinds of horses were on exhibition. I should like to have had "Cheyenne" at her best and have ridden rid-den along by some of those swell girls. They sure have some riding habits. I may have won for me a home, but you can't get into the aristocratic families fam-ilies here so easily they are very seclusive and reserved (cold.) Another An-other show at night. President McKay Mc-Kay took us this day and showed us through Westminster Abbey. We also al-so called upon the American Consul and received papers from him to attend at-tend Parliament and spent the afternoon after-noon listening to the debates; then we went to the park again, and then to a theatre. Next day, (Saturday) we took a bus ride to the suberbs of the city, about fifteen miles, and saw the Criptol Palace and then to town, where we again went to the park, it being one of the big days as Saturday afternoon is a half holiday. Thousands Thou-sands upon thousands of people were there good and bad, worldliness and dissipation were in evidence. I am thankful that I was raised where a greater price was placed upon morality moral-ity and virtue. Where Valuables Are Unsafe. Sunday morning we all went down to Petticoat Lane the famous Jew market of London. The .lews observe Saturday a:, the Sabbath, and I never saw such a jaw in my life. You can buy anything you want here, from a needle to an automobile. We were instructed to leave all our money and valuables home, for they guarantee to steal your watch at one end of the street and sell it to you at the other. Thousands of people were there pur chasing, too. I never saw anything I wanted except a few post cards. In the afternoon I attended church. It was certainly a relief to leave the world for a few hours and worship ' God. Monday we went to town. I went through Westminster Abbey alone as President Laird, Hooper and Robins didn't CAN to go. I spent all morning musing and thinking about this ancient an-cient cathedral of which Washington Irving gives such a good description. I took the underground railway for the station where we were to leave for home and as luck would have it, my fellow elders were on the same tube, or train, after having been separated from them for about five hours in the big city of London. Aft-jr I had seen the Abbey I thought I would take a last look at some of the busy centers alone. We returned home Monday night and were not back long when we received the sad news from Walsall that one of our local elders had got caught in the belting and was killed. lie went around at the rate of three hundred revolutions throwing the flesh off his bones and scattering it all over the room an awful thing. We went to attend the funeral, where I had to give a talk and at the grave Elder Evans and I sang "O Crave, V hen-is hen-is Thy Victory." So you will pardon me for not writing writ-ing earlier, but from now on I will bo prompt, as 1 have been in the past. May Cod bless you and prosper you keep you safe from harm permit you all to live in peace and love, I am as ever, Your loving son and brother, HERBERT P. HAIOHT. |