Around_the_World_in_80

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charge of rebellion and polygamy. The disciples of the
prophet had since redoubled their efforts, and resisted, by
words at least, the authority of Congress. Elder Hitch, as is
seen, was trying to make proselytes on the very railway
trains.
Then, emphasising his words with his loud voice and
frequent gestures, he related the history of the Mormons
from Biblical times: how that, in Israel, a Mormon
prophet of the tribe of Joseph published the annals of the
new religion, and bequeathed them to his son Mormon;
how, many centuries later, a translation of this precious
book, which was written in Egyptian, was made by Joseph
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Smith, junior, a Vermont farmer, who revealed himself as
a mystical prophet in 1825; and how, in short, the celestial
messenger appeared to him in an illuminated forest, and
gave him the annals of the Lord.
Several of the audience, not being much interested in
the missionary s narrative, here left the car; but Elder
Hitch, continuing his lecture, related how Smith, junior,
with his father, two brothers, and a few disciples, founded
the church of the Latter Day Saints, which, adopted not
only in America, but in England, Norway and Sweden,
and Germany, counts many artisans, as well as men
engaged in the liberal professions, among its members;
how a colony was established in Ohio, a temple erected
there at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, and a
town built at Kirkland; how Smith became an enterprising
banker, and received from a simple mummy showman a
papyrus scroll written by Abraham and several famous
Egyptians.
The Elder s story became somewhat wearisome, and his
audience grew gradually less, until it was reduced to
twenty passengers. But this did not disconcert the
enthusiast, who proceeded with the story of Joseph
Smith s bankruptcy in 1837, and how his ruined creditors
gave him a coat of tar and feathers; his reappearance some
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Around the World in 80 Days
years afterwards, more honourable and honoured than
ever, at Independence, Missouri, the chief of a flourishing
colony of three thousand disciples, and his pursuit thence
by outraged Gentiles, and retirement into the Far West.
Ten hearers only were now left, among them honest
Passepartout, who was listening with all his ears. Thus he
learned that, after long persecutions, Smith reappeared in
Illinois, and in 1839 founded a community at Nauvoo, on
the Mississippi, numbering twenty-five thousand souls, of
which he became mayor, chief justice, and general-in-
chief; that he announced himself, in 1843, as a candidate
for the Presidency of the United States; and that finally,
being drawn into ambuscade at Carthage, he was thrown
into prison, and assassinated by a band of men disguised in
masks.
Passepartout was now the only person left in the car,
and the Elder, looking him full in the face, reminded him
that, two years after the assassination of Joseph Smith, the
inspired prophet, Brigham Young, his successor, left
Nauvoo for the banks of the Great Salt Lake, where, in
the midst of that fertile region, directly on the route of the
emigrants who crossed Utah on their way to California,
the new colony, thanks to the polygamy practised by the
Mormons, had flourished beyond expectations.
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Around the World in 80 Days
And this, added Elder William Hitch, this is why the
jealousy of Congress has been aroused against us! Why
have the soldiers of the Union invaded the soil of Utah?
Why has Brigham Young, our chief, been imprisoned, in
contempt of all justice? Shall we yield to force? Never!
Driven from Vermont, driven from Illinois, driven from
Ohio, driven from Missouri, driven from Utah, we shall
yet find some independent territory on which to plant our
tents. And you, my brother, continued the Elder, fixing
his angry eyes upon his single auditor, will you not plant
yours there, too, under the shadow of our flag?
No! replied Passepartout courageously, in his turn
retiring from the car, and leaving the Elder to preach to
vacancy.
During the lecture the train had been making good
progress, and towards half-past twelve it reached the
northwest border of the Great Salt Lake. Thence the
passengers could observe the vast extent of this interior
sea, which is also called the Dead Sea, and into which
flows an American Jordan. It is a picturesque expanse,
framed in lofty crags in large strata, encrusted with white
salt a superb sheet of water, which was formerly of
larger extent than now, its shores having encroached with
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Around the World in 80 Days
the lapse of time, and thus at once reduced its breadth and
increased its depth.
The Salt Lake, seventy miles long and thirty-five wide,
is situated three miles eight hundred feet above the sea.
Quite different from Lake Asphaltite, whose depression is
twelve hundred feet below the sea, it contains considerable
salt, and one quarter of the weight of its water is solid
matter, its specific weight being 1,170, and, after being
distilled, 1,000. Fishes are, of course, unable to live in it,
and those which descend through the Jordan, the Weber,
and other streams soon perish.
The country around the lake was well cultivated, for
the Mormons are mostly farmers; while ranches and pens
for domesticated animals, fields of wheat, corn, and other
cereals, luxuriant prairies, hedges of wild rose, clumps of
acacias and milk-wort, would have been seen six months
later. Now the ground was covered with a thin powdering
of snow.
The train reached Ogden at two o clock, where it
rested for six hours, Mr. Fogg and his party had time to
pay a visit to Salt Lake City, connected with Ogden by a
branch road; and they spent two hours in this strikingly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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