Ogden Daily Standard | 1909-01-21 | Page 4 | Eighty-Two Years

' EIGHTY-TWO YEARS. The old gentleman who wa3 separated separ-ated from tho Mormons at the exodus from Far West and who had almost forgotten the past until after 70 years, when he came to Utah to meet some of those who knew bim as a boy of 12, certainly has the right to say he feels as did Rip Van Winkle when he arose from his sleep of 20 years and found a change almost beyond his power to realize. J. R. Sanders, who said good-bye to tho friends of his youth and went east, while tho great body of the Mormon Mor-mon people came west, was In Salt Lnkc, Tuesday, searching for a voice from the pasL He was looking for some one he knew when the hardships and privations fell heavily upon his father and mother and their associates associ-ates back in 1839. He met Joseph F. Smith. He knew the Smith family and he recalled the time of President Smith's birth. He met others and the old-timers exchanged reminiscences. Then Mr. Sanders was shown tho tabernacle tab-ernacle and temple and the attractions' of the city. He said it was as though ho had awakened from a dream; for he could scarcely realize the mutations of time. When he left the Mormons, they were sheltered In log cabins, crudely fashioned, fash-ioned, and poverty and wretchedness were upon them because of the persecutions perse-cutions Inflicted by a hostile people. Today he sees them happy, prosperous, prosper-ous, contented, with comfortable tomes and even palaces, surrounded by modern conveniences and advantages. advan-tages. He finds them with schools of learning and great industrial Institutions. Institu-tions. He notes the architectural beauty beau-ty of some of their houses of worship. And he says: "It is a revelation, and I am surprised surpris-ed beyond utterance. To me It all appeals ap-peals with greater force than perhaps to any one now Jiving, for I know tho old day6 but have been unconscious of the wonderful strides of tho Mormon Mor-mon people I have come - suddenly from tho reveries of 1833 to 1839 to tho present and the reality Is overpowering." over-powering." Mr. Sanders has been living In Minnesota Min-nesota a quarter of a century and prior pri-or thereto was a resident of the east He had" allowed his early experiences to remain unrecalled up to the time he arrived in Ogden. Though not a Mormon, being somewhat some-what pf a skeptic, yet of Mormon antecedents, an-tecedents, he decided to see Mormon-Ism Mormon-Ism of today. His story of the Mormon Mor-mon people as he remembers them and the Mormons of today as he sees them is a bridging of S2 years of wonderful won-derful changes.