sleeping-cars. Two days' rest at this point afforded an
opportunity to look about us, and to gather some information touching
the singular people who make it their home. The capital of Utah, so well
chosen for its special purpose, was an unbroken wilderness forty years
ago, but can now boast a population of twenty-five thousand. Under the
hands of its present occupants, the whole surrounding valley has been
cultivated to a degree of fertility scarcely equaled by the same number
of square miles on the continent. The city proper is laid out in broad
streets intersecting each other at right angles, and which are bordered
with cottonwood trees, forming a pleasant shade; while in every gutter a
stream of water runs swiftly along, with a rippling sound, fresh from
the neighboring mountains. Great attention has evidently been paid to
sanitary matters, and everything looks neat and clean. The visible
marvel of the city is the great Mormon temple, or Tabernacle, a building
capable of holding and seating over twelve thousand people, the roof of
which is self-supporting, and is believed to be the largest one of its
character extant. The acoustic properties of this immense structure are
also remarkably perfect, which was proven to us by some curious
experiments. As to general effect, however, there is no more
architectural character to the Mormon Tabernacle than to a prairie dog's
hole. Its roof resembles nothing so much as a huge metallic dish cover,
forming an awkward and prominent feature of the city.

It is not within our province to discuss in detail the peculiar and
abhorrent domestic life of this people, no visible evidence of which
meets the eye of the casual visitor; though in scanning the features of
the large audience assembled in the Tabernacle on Sunday, the obvious
want of intelligence in the faces of the women, compared with the men,
was certainly striking. One seemed also to read a spirit of discontent
or of calloused resignation in some of the better female countenances.
Of the thrift, industry, and material success of this community there
can be but one opinion. An important statistical item occurs to us in
this connection which is highly significant. It appears that while
Colorado and Kansas spend each one dollar and a tenth, and Nebraska two
dollars and a tenth per head on the education of their school
population, Utah expends but nine-tenths of a dollar for the same
purpose. Upon inquiry it was discovered that p