The Awakening of the Desert

by Julius Charles Birge

GREAT SALT LAKE

During nearly all of our sojourn in the city our venerable and beloved traveling companion, Deacon Simeon E. Cobb, had been in another Mormon home very ill. It was a home, however, in which there was but one wife, and which I frequently visited. On the 10th of October, the Deacon peacefully passed away. All of the members of our party were summoned to the city, and on the following day we laid him in a cemetery, situated away up near Camp Douglass, and overlooking the entire Jordan Valley. There was no clergyman in the city to assist in the obsequies. The Reverend Norman McLeod was then on his Eastern trip already referred to. Deacon Cobb's Mormon home had been a comfortable asylum in his days of suffering, and he had said, previous to his death, that the good wife who attended him had been an angel of mercy.

I will allow those writers who have met bad women among the Mormons to give their own experiences. Personally I have met none who did not seem to be moral and true to the fundamental principles that underlie Christian character, as they understood them.

Some writings that I have perused comment on the race deterioration of this people, as the result of polygamy. In theory one would expect such a result, and the practice, doubtless, has produced its effects. However, from personal observation I am unable to discover wherein the children in Utah appear to be materially different from those in other parts of our country, though in Salt Lake City there is a mixed population composed of Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, native Americans and other industrious people. This is not an apology for the abhorrent practice of polygamy; but it must be supposed that temperance, industry, and the recognized value of other good habits, as prescribed, and fairly well observed by the Mormons are sure to produce more favorable results than are the rapid and dissipated careers of many children of fortune, who are so-called leaders in American social life.

The facilities for education, the libraries, the opportunities provided for wholesome amusement, and the development in music, were certainly on as advanced a scale as were those in any part of our Western States or territories in that day. The University of Deseret, legalized by their Legislature Assembly, was opened in November, 1850, and provided for free admission to students. In it the use of tobacco and intoxicants was especially interdicted. The work of the institution was discontinued during the war because of insufficient funds, and it was, therefore, not in operation during my first visit. It was re-opened in 1867.

Brigham encouraged music and the drama. The large and well-trained choir in the Tabernacle is even to this day an attraction for visitors. Theatrical performances were regularly given from the earliest days of the Mormon settlement. In an address delivered by Brigham in 1852, he is quoted in the History of Brigham Young, MS. of that year, as stating, with reference to dancing and theatricals,—"These pastimes give me a privilege to throw everything off and shake myself that my body may exercise and my mind rest." Their dancing parties were, therefore, conducted under the supervision of church officers, and it was said that they were opened with prayer.

The fine Salt Lake Theater building was in use at the time of our visit in 1866, and was practically unchanged in 1910, except (as I observed) that opera-chairs were substituted for long seats in the main part of the auditorium.

An excellent stock company, in which three of the president's daughters were regular members, appeared at this theater two nights each week. No dramatic entertainments were given there on other nights. The president regularly occupied his box at the right of the stage in company with one wife, who was said then to be his favorite,—the other wives occupying their regular seats, side by side, in two long rows in the parquet. All the wives were usually present. Gentiles were expected to sit in the circles and galleries above. The entertainment and other features of the performances in the theater partook of the nature of family gatherings. The parquet afforded opportunities for social greetings among the Saints, and between the acts presented an animated scene. Laura Keene, Maggie Mitchell, the Irvins, Phelps and other stars of the day, were introduced from time to time. The auditorium was said to have a seating capacity of more than 2,500.

As examples of the plays presented, all of which I witnessed, may be mentioned, Gilderoy, Camilla's Husband, Brother Bill & Me, Robert McCaire, As Like as Two Peas, Women's Love, Extremes, Love Knot, Deaf as a Post, The Old Chateau, Charles XII King of Sweden, Jeremy Diddler, Grimaldi, or Perfection, The Robbers, Barney the Baron, Advertising for a Wife, and Marble Heart, written by Mr. Sloan, a local playwright.

With but few exceptions, these were well presented. It is my belief that at no time have the Mormons allowed to be presented upon their stage any plays of the shameful and disgraceful type so popular at many of our Eastern and further Western places of amusement.