Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/31

 literally a desert. They had fled a thousand miles from their enemies across the barren plains, and the one master mind and controlling spirit, Brigham Young, told them here to halt and lay the foundations of the “City of Deseret.” The sufferings of this infatuated people for the first year or two were intense; but labor skillfully directed soon changed the face of nature, and they have “made the desert to bloom and blossom like the rose.” However much we may condemn the practices and institutions, we cannot deny that their material prosperity is something wonderful. To-day there dwells in this once desert waste a population of 126,000 souls. Everywhere may be seen the fruits «f enterprise and persistent energy.

This city contains about 25,000 inhabitants, and its appearance is very attractive. The houses are nearly all built of adobe, or sundried brick, and if mare than two stories in height, the upper one is built of wood, as is the case with the Theater and some other public buildings.

The first place visited this morning was the Square, inclosed by a high adobe wall, which contains the Tabernacle and the foundations of the Temple. There is an entrance from the street on each of the four sides. Passing in by the east gate, I found the Superintendent, who very politely showed me everything of interest. The Tabernac!e, which takes the place of the former “Bowery,” is an immense building, oval in form, 250 feet long by 130 wide; the roof of wood, and self-supporting, being 80 feet in height. From the outside it has the appearance of an immense dish-cover. The audience room one of the largest in the world, will seat by measurement 13,000 people. It contains an organ bull entirely by Mormon mechanics that is second in size only to that in Boston Music Hall. This immense room is a perfect Whispering gallery, the arched form of the ceiling carrying the slightest sound from one extreme end to the other without echo. A gallery extends around the whole interior, and my conductor says that the ordinary congregation on Sunday is from 8,000 to 10,000 people, but he has sees 14,500 here on one occasion. There is no means of heating this immense building, and a smaller tabernacle is used in winter, which will seat 3,000. My informant is an intelligent man, English by birth, has been here eighteen years, and in answer to my inquiries talks with apparent