SALT LAKE CITY, April 15th, 1864.
Mr. John S. Lindsay.
DEAR BROTHER:—Inclosed please find Twenty Dollars, being amount assigned you out of the proceeds of the Benefit recently given at the theatre.
Appreciating your faithful services, and the alacrity with which
you have contributed to our amusement during the past season, I
pray God to bless you, and increase your ability to do good.
Your brother in the Gospel,
BRIGHAM YOUNG.
This plan served to keep the company in a contented mood, and was repeated at the close of the following season with like result.
The writer had made some progress in the company, and at the next benefit got seventy-five dollars for his pro rata; this was less than a dollar a performance during the season of seven months, but then we were doing good missionary work, in the way of amusing the people, and this company were engaged in a labor they delighted in; while they were assisting in a great measure to pay for the great Thespian temple in which they were performing, they were enjoying the labor immensely and gave the same enthusiastic efforts to it they would have done to a mission, had they been called to go and preach the gospel. Moreover, they were gaining an experience in art that would have been perhaps impossible for them, had not this splendid theatre been erected in the home of the Saints. Brigham Young's comprehensive mind had grasped the advantage to his people of blending art with religion, and relieving the monotony of arduous pioneer toil with innocent and refreshing amusements.
CHAPTER VI.
SEASON OF '64-'65.
A Metropolitan Theatre in the Wilderness.