ine and impressive in its
way as is her dramatic criticism or literary papers. All this, perhaps,
had paved the way for her to enter into a close and comprehensive study
of the subject which she is now so ably discussing in her notable
lectures on the social and the political crimes of Utah. The profound
and serious attention which she is now giving to this problem stamps her
lectures as among the most potent political influences of the time. Miss
Field's discussion of Mormonism is one of those events which seem
pre-determined by the law of the unconscious, and which seem to choose
the individual rather than to be chosen by him. In the summer of 1883,
by way of a change from continental travel, Miss Field determined to
hitch her wagon to a star and journey westward. She lingered for a month
in Denver where she received distinguished social attention and where,
by special request, she gave her lecture on an "Evening with Dickens"
and her charming "Musical Monologue." Of this Dickens' lecture a western
journal said:--

"Charles Dickens was the novelist of humanity, and Kate Field is,
to-day, his most sympathetic and intelligent interpreter. Those who
were so fortunate as to attend her reading last evening enjoyed an
intellectual pleasure not soon forgotten. They saw a slender, graceful
woman, dressed in creamy white, with soft laces falling about her; with
low, broad brow, and earnest, sympathetic eyes, under a cloud of soft
dark hair. With a rich and finely modulated voice of remarkable power
of expression, she held her audience for two hours spellbound by the
magic of her genius."

In Colorado Miss Field enjoyed an unique and picturesque holiday.
Picnics and excursions were gotten up in her honor; special trains were
run; she rode on horseback with gay parties of friends twenty-five miles
a day; she joined friends from New York who were camping out on "The
Needles," and she made a visit to the San Juan Silver-mining district.
Among other diversions she had the honor of naming a new watering place,
located on "The Divide," an hour by rail from Denver, to which, in honor
of General Palmer who has practically "made" that region, Miss Field
gave the name of Palmero, the Spanish for Palmer.

How unconsciously Miss Field came to study the problem presented by the
peculiar institutions of Utah is curiously indicated in a letter from
Salt Lake City, under date of Jan. 16, 1884, which she wrote to the
Bost