Page:The City of the Saints.djvu/271

Rh The penalty attached to betting of any kind is a fine not exceeding $300, or imprisonment not exceeding six months. The importation of spirituous liquors is already burdened with an octroi of half its price, raising cognac and whisky to $12 and $8 per gallon. If the state could make her own laws, she would banish "poteen," hunt down the stills, and impose a prohibitory duty upon every thing stronger than Lager-bier.

On the saddest day of the year for the bird which has lost so much good fame by condescending to appear at table aux choux, I proceeded with my fidus Achates—save the self-comparison to pious Æneas—on a visit to Mr. W.W., alias Judge Phelps, alias "the Devil." He received me with great civility, and entered without reserve upon his hobbies. His house, which lies west of Temple Block, bears on the weathercock (Job, xxxviii., 35, "Adsumus:" "Here we are"). Besides Hebrew and other linguistic studies, the judge is a meteorologist, and has been engaged for some years in observations upon the climate of the Territory. An old editor at Independence, he now superintends the Utah Almanac, and gave me a copy for the year 1860, "being the 31st year of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." It is a small duodecimo, creditably printed by Mr. J. M'Knight, Utah, and contains thirty-two pages. The contents are the usual tables