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be seen every play night, surrounded by their wives and children, laughing and clapping like boys at a pantomime. Yon rocking chair, in the centre of the pit, is Young's own seat; his place of pleasure, in the midst of his Saints. When he chooses to occupy his private box, one of his wives, perhaps Eliza | the Poetess, Harriet the Pale, or Amelia the Magnificent, rocks herself in his chair while laughing at the play. Round about that chair, as the place of honor, cluster the benches of those who claim to stand nearest to their prophet of Heber C. Kimball, first counsellor; of Daniel H. Wells, second counsellor and general-in-chief; of George A. Smith, apostle and historian of the church; of George Q. Cannon, apostle; of Edward Hunter, presiding bishop; of Elder Stenhouse, editor of the Daily Telegraph; and of a host of less brilliant "Mormon" lights.

In the sides of the proscenium nestle two private boxes; one is reserved for the Prophet, when he pleases to be alone, or wishes to have a gossip with some friend; the other is given up to the girls who have to play during the night, but who are not engaged in the immediate business of the piece. As a rule, every one's pleasure is considered in this model playhouse; and I can answer, on the part of Miss Adams, Miss Alexander, and other young artists, that this appropriation to their sole use of a private box, into which they can run at all times, in any dress, without being seen, is considered by them as a very great comfort.

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dulging their appetites, is that of
sucking a peach. Short plays are in
vogue in this theatre, just as short
sermons are the rule in yon tabernacle.
The curtain, which rises at eight,
comes down about half past ten; and
as the "Mormon" fashion is for peo-
ple to sup before going out, they re-
tire to rest the moment they get home,
never suffering their amusements to
infringe on the labors of the coming
day. Your bell rings for breakfast at
six o'clock.

But the chief beauties of this model
playhouse lie behind the scenes; in
the ample space, the perfect light, the
scrupulous cleanliness of every part.
I am pretty well acquainted with green
rooms and side-wings in Europe; but
I have never seen, not in Italian and
Austrian theatres, so many delicate
arrangements for the privacy and com-
fort of ladies and gentlemen as at Salt
Lake. The green-room is a real draw-
ing-room. The scene painters have
their proper studios; the dressers and
decorators have immense magazines.
Every lady, however small her part in
the play, has a dressing-room to her-
self.

Young understands that the true work of reform in a playhouse must begin behind the scenes; that you must elevate the actor before you can purify the stage. To this end, he not only builds dressing-rooms and a private box for the ladies who have to act, but he places his daughters on the stage as an example and encouragement to others. Three of these young sultanas, Alice, Emily, and Zina, are Through the quick eye and careful on the stage. With Alice, the younghand of his manager, Hiram Clawson, est wife of Elder Clawson, I have had the President may be congratulated the honor to make an acquaintance, on having made his playhouse into which might be called a friendship, something coming near to that which and from her lips I have learned a he conceives a playhouse should be. good deal as to her father's ideas about Everything in front of the footlights stage reform. "I am not myself very is in keeping: peace and order reign fond of playing," she said to me one in the midst of fun and frolic. Nei- day as we sat at dinner-not in these ther within the doors nor about them words, perhaps, but to this effectdo you find the riot of our own Lyce-"but my father desires that my sisters um and Drury Lane; no loose women, no pickpockets, no ragged boys and girls, no drunken and blaspheming men. As a "Mormon" never drinks spirits, and rarely smokes tobacco, the enly dissipation in which you find these hundreds of hearty creatures in

and myself should act sometimes, as
he does not think it right to ask any
poor man's child to do anything which
his own children would object to do."
Her dislike to playing, as she after-
wards told me, arose from a feeling
that Nature had given her no abilities

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72

THE

"MORMON" THEATRE.

for acting well; she was fond of going to see a good piece, and seldom omitted being present when she had not to play. Brigham Young has to create as well as to reform, the stage of Salt Lake City; and the chief trouble of a manager who is seven hundred miles from the next theatre, must always be with his artists. Talent for the work does not grow in every field, like a sunflower and a peach-tree; it must be sought for in nooks and corners; now in a shoe-shop, anon in a dairy, then in a counting house; but wherever the talent may be found, Young cannot think of asking any young girl to do a thing which it is supposed that a daughter of his own would

scorn.

In New York, in St. Louis, in Chicago, nobody would assert that the stage is a school of virtue, that acting is a profession which a sober man would like his daughters to adopt. Young does not blind himself to the fact, that in claiming the theatre as a school of morals, he has to fight against a social judgment. An odor of vice, as of a poisonous weed, infects the air of a playhouse everywhere; though nowhere less offensively than in American towns. Against this evil, much of it the consequence of bad traditions, he offers up, as it were, a part of himself-his children; the only persons in Salt Lake City who could really do this cleansing work. In this way, Alice and Zina may be regarded as two priestly virgins who have been placed on the public stage to purify it by their presence from an ancient but unnecessary stain.

Young, and his agent Clawson, are bestowing much care upon the education of Miss Adams, a young lady who has everything to learn except the art of being lovely; also upon that of Miss Alexander, a girl who, besides being pretty and piquant, has genuine ability for her work. A story, which shows that Young has a feeling for humor, has been told me, of which Miss Alexander is the heroine. A starring actor from San Francisco fell into desperate love for her, and went up to the President's house for leave to address her. "Ha! my good fellow," said the Prophet; "I have seen you play Hamlet very well, and Julius

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Casar pretty well, but you must not aspire to Alexander."

We saw Brigham Young for the first time in his private box. A large head, broad, fair face, with blue eyes, light brown hair, good nose, and merry mouth; a man, plainly dressed, in black coat and pantaloons, white waistcoat and cravat, gold studs, and sleeve-links, English in build and looks,-but English of the middle class and of a provincial town; such was the "Mormon" prophet, pope, and king, as we first saw him in the theatre among his people. A lady, one of his wives, whom we afterwards came to know as Amelia, sat with him in the box; she, too, was dressed in a quiet English style; and now and then she eyed the audience from beyond her curtain, through an operaglass, as English ladies are apt to do at home. She was pretty, and appeared to us then rather pensive and poetical.

The pit was almost filled with girls; on many benches sat a dozen damsels in a row; children of Kimball, Cannon, Smith, and Wells; in some places twenty or thirty girls were grouped together. Young, as he told me himself, has forty-eight living children, some of whom are grown up and married; and, since he sets the fashion of attending this theatre among his people, it is only right that he should encourage his children to appear, both before the footlights and behind them. Alice is a young lady married to Clawson. Zina, whom we have seen play Mrs. Musket in the farce of "My Husband's Ghost," is a ladylike girl, tall, full in figure, moon-faced (as the Orientals say), not much of an artist. Emily we have also seen; Elder Clawson is said to be courting her. told that the flame is mutual, and that Emily is not unlikely to be gathered home to her sister Alice. Gentile rumor-fond of toying with the domestic secrets of the President's family-says that Alice is not happy with her lord; but this is one of those Gentile rumors which I can almost swear is false. One day, last week, I had the pleasure of taking Sister Alice down to dinner, of talking with her for a long evening, and of seeing and romping with her four brave boys. A brighter, merrier

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WHERE is the best place for the Saints to deposit their funds for the purposes of emigration? We answer in the Liverpool Office. If you keep funds in your own hands, there will be a constant temptation for you to part with them, little by little. It is very difficult, sometimes, when a temptation is continually before us, to retain a constant fortitude sufficient to repel the same. slaken our good resolutions in the least, in the hour of despondency and darkness, the enemy steps in and wins us from our guard, and persuades us to yield a little here, and a little there, till he has effectually entangled us in his meshes, when we awake in sorrow, and perceive that our means are gone, we scarcely know how then we are discouraged, and the enemy, to discourage us still more, upbraids us for our inconstancy, and endeavors to persuade us from making any further attempts to do our duty. To effectually battle against this temptation, let the Saints deposit their funds in this Office. This is the way that all good Saints, in these lands, have been doing for years. Have they ever lost anything, by obeying this wholesome and most beneficial counsel ? No: but there are hundreds now in Zion who would still have been in these lands, if they had trusted themselves to be their own bankers.

Perhaps some among the Saints would prefer a Gentile Bank for a depository. But let us say to such that Gentile institutions are, every year, becoming more and more unsafe. How many thousands of poor people have, during. the past year, lost their all, by the failures of Banks which they fondly hoped were sound and stable. In an hour, when they think all is safe, behold a crisis suddenly comes, and their little all takes wings and flies away, leaving them in poverty, wretchedness, and despair. Let the children of light then

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take warning, before the evil days come upon them, and they mourn in hopeless sorrow over their disobedience.

If you think the institutions of men are safer for your money than the kingdom of God, why do you trust your soul in the latter? Is not your soul of more consequence than your gold? And where you can trust the one, can you not also deposit the other? Shame to that professed Latter-day Saint who thinks more of his temporal treasures, and will entrust them outside of the kingdom, while he himself endeavors to stay inside. If God be God, serve him with your body, your spirit, your riches, and your all if the Devil be God, serve him with your body, spirit, gold and all but do not try to hold on to God and the Devil both such service is altogether unacceptable to God; and he will shake you off, and the Devil will have his own.

But some perhaps will say, that they can draw from Gentile institutions some small percentage of interest, and that it is not through any distrust of the kingdom of God, that they neglect to secure their means therein. To such we say, that the small interest which you receive is not sufficient to counterbalance the continual dangers of Bank failures; and even if it were, is it wise, is it pleasing in the sight of God, that you should neglect the means of perfect safety which has been for years established in these lands, and about which you have long ago been thoroughly taught by the faithful missionaries of

heaven?

There are others in these countries who mourn to think there are no teams to be sent from Utah, this season, to assist the Saints in crossing the Plains. But have such reflected that the Great Pacific Railroad will, by midsummer of this year, be six hundred miles nearer Salt Lake City, than in former years, and that it will require several pounds sterling per head more than in former emigrations, to pay this extra fare of 600 miles? Have you any prospect of obtaining this additional sum this season? If not, is it not wise and just on the part of the Saints in Utah, to grant you another year to make extra exertions, so that you will have funds sufficient to carry you to the terminus of the Railroad? As the Pacific Railroad advances, can you reasonably suppose that teams will be sent eastward a thousand miles as heretofore, at a cost far exceeding your Railroad fare?

The whole theory of emigration will naturally be revolutionized, under the powerful agency of steam; and the Saints must prepare for this new order of things. Let them earnestly petition their relatives and friends in Utah to deposit means, in part or in whole, in the President's office in Salt Lake City, to assist in gathering up those who may lack a few pounds sterling to deliver themselves. Many would prefer to deposit means to this end, rather than furnish teams, or spend 5 or 6 months of the best part of the season, as hundreds have done in years past. Let the Saints here be wide awake, for their own deliverance, and God will help those who seek diligently to help themselves.

Pour in your funds into this Office, month after month, until June of 1868, and be ready for the great work before you. Show to God, angels, and the Saints, that you not only have faith, but works also, and see what the Lord will do for you.

O. P.

CORRESPONDENCE.

75

SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

By a letter from Elder George Ruck, Mowbray, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, under date of December 19th, 1866, we are informed that there are a very few Saints in that part of the globe, who met in Conference on the 6th of May last. Only 23 souls were represented, including three Elders and other official members: some of these were reported as not being in good standing; but the majority were anxious to emigrate to Zion, as many already have done from those regions. In consequence of drought and other calamities, the poor were experiencing much suffering, which had been foretold by the Lord's Prophets who had, years ago, preached and forewarned the people, concerning the distress and judgments which awaited them, if they did not repent.

We say to the Saints in that far off land, and to all those scattered abroad, be faithful in serving God, and give diligent heed to the counsels which you, in past years, received from the faithful servants of the Most High; and as soon as the Lord opens the way, gather home with the righteous, that you may be taught more perfectly in the ways of the Lord, and prepared for his coming. You can easily perceive that this is an hour of judgment. God warned the American nation by Prophets; they gave no heed, the consequences were millions were slaughtered or crippled for life. The Latter-day Saint Prophets warned the people of Hindostan or India, but they were rejected and cast out; the fearful results were a war, followed by a famine which has, during the last year, swept off a million of human beings. Great and heart-rending distress will soon fall upon Great Britain, and the nations of Europe, because they reject the Lord's messengers. Under these circumstances, the Saints should redouble their diligence, and, if possible, get away, before they are overtaken by the overwhelming storms, which must soon burst with vengeance upon the wicked.

CORRESPONDENCE.

AMERICA.

Great Salt Lake City,

Dec. 2, 1866. Dear brother Franklin,-Your interesting letter of Oct. 23rd, came to hand on the 28th ult. I was strongly reminded of old times, past events, and fields of former labors, awakening happy recollections of associations which should never be forgotten, because of future rewards pending the final adjustment of great accounts and worthy deeds. I judge you scarcely felt that you were in a strange country, beholding so many familiar faces as greeted you upon your return to

"Merry England." Your brief but graphic sketch of the condition of some of the most prominent European countries, and the efforts made to revolutionize them, affords matter for profitable reflection.

The privilege you seem to have of travelling among the Conferences and Saints, will no doubt be highly appreciated by you, and also be a source of much comfort to the people who receive your administrations. God bless you exceedingly in your labors, is my prayer. As you continue your labors and extend your acquaintance, you will, I hope, find time to make me

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