It might have been worse : $b a motor trip from coast to coastMassey, Beatrice Larned
General
It might have been worse : $b a motor trip from coast to coast
Massey, Beatrice Larned
Automobile travel; United States -- Description and travel
Salt Lake is a wonderful city. Whatever you may think of the Mormons,
you have to admit that they are a far-sighted, industrious, and
executive people. Your chief interest centers about the Temple Block,
a ten-acre square surrounded by a stone and adobe wall twelve feet
high. The grounds are a beautiful park. The Bureau of Information is a
fine large building, where literature is distributed to three hundred
thousand visitors yearly. As many as thirty-nine states and seven
foreign countries had been represented on the registry in one day. “No
fees charged, and no donations received,” was the watchword on these
grounds. We wondered how the place was supported, and were told that
there were no pew-rentals in any of their churches, and no collections
made, nor were there any contribution-boxes found there.
“The Mormons observe the ancient law of tithing, as it was given to the
Children of Israel, by which a member pays one-tenth of his income, as
a free-will offering, for the support of the Church.”
In the Temple Block is the Assembly Hall, a semi-Gothic structure of
gray granite, with a seating capacity of two thousand, often used for
public lectures and concerts by any denomination. The Tabernacle is a
world-famed auditorium, seating eight thousand people, noted for its
remarkable construction and acoustic properties. The wooden roof,
self-supporting, rests upon buttresses of red sandstone, twelve feet
apart, the whole circumference of the building. These pillars support
wooden arches ten feet in thickness and spanning 150 feet. The arches,
of a lattice-truss construction, are put together with wooden pins,
there being no nails or iron of any kind used in the framework. The
building was erected between 1863 and 1870, and was nearly completed
before the railroads reached Utah. All the imported material had to be
hauled with ox-teams from the Missouri River. The original cost was
three hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of the cost of the organ. Our
guide, a lady, told us that their pioneer leader, Brigham Young, had
planned and supervised the erection of the building. “He was a glazier
and cabinet-maker by trade, but had been schooled chiefly by hardship
and experience. He not only designed this and the Temple, but he built
an equally wonderful commonwealth; one which is unique among the Middle
and Western states for law and order, religious devotion and loyalty.”
She told us that their church had established headquarters successively
in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and, after the martyrdom
of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, in 1846, it was obliged to seek refuge in
the Rocky Mountains. They have no professional or paid preachers; any
member of the congregation may be called upon to address them. We
were interested to hear of their women. “They are the freest, most
intensely individualistic women on earth, having three organizations of
their own. The Relief Society has thirty thousand members, publishes
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account