Page:Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow monochrome.djvu/99

 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 73 and we may confidently trust in His guidance and protection for the coming year!

I will here record a little circumstance which transpired a short time after my brother returned from his English mission, as follows:

By request of Lieutenant General Joseph Smith for him to organize a military company, which was to constitute a portion of the celebrated "Nauvoo Legion," Lorenzo proceeded at once. The company which he organized was mostly composed of volunteers from the company of Saints he had recently conducted from England. In the selection of officers, he was chosen captain.

At their first parade they were inspected by Gen. Smith, by whom the captain was highly complimented for the fine martial appearance and good military maneuvering of his company. It would not be at all surprising if an encomium from that source should arouse the long dormant military spirit of a man, who, as his early history tells, had so strikingly manifested a chivalrous vein in his "make up." Suffice it to say, the "Legion" claims the finale of Lorenzo's military tactics.

An interval occurred between the missionary travels of my brother, which he decided to spend alternately between Nauvoo and the home of our sister, Mrs. L. A. Morley.

Her home was in a small town called Lima, thirty miles south of Nauvoo. A few families of the Saints had clustered there, but most of the inhabitants were "old settlers," and anti-Mormon in their feelings, yet, when there was no uprising, very friendly and respectful to those of our people who sojourned among them.

Knowing that Lorenzo was rather leisurely that winter, the trustees solicited him to teach their district school. He consented, although, at the time, he well knew that he was taking an elephant by the bitts. The condition of that school was simply preposterous. A club of rough, ungovernable,