144 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
country are hundreds of tributary farms and planta- tions. The population is from seven to fifteen thou- sand, varying with the ebb and flow of new converts and new colonizations.^
Conspicuous among the buildings, and chief archi- tectural feature of the holy city, is the temple, glisten- ing in white limestone upon the hill-top, a shrine in the western wilderness whereat all the nations of the earth may w^orship, whereat all the people may in- quire of God and receive his holy oracles.* Next in
' The blocks contain ' four lots of eleven by twelve rods each, making all comer lots. . .For three or four miles upon the river, and about the same dis- tance back in the country, Nauvoo presents a city of gardens, ornamented with the dwellings of those who have made a covenant by sacrifice. . .It will be no more than probably correct, if we allow the city to contain between 700 and 800 houses, with a population of 14,000 or 15,000.' Times and Sea- sons, iii. 936. A correspondent of the New York Herald is a little wild when he writes about this time: 'The Mormons number in Europe and America about 150,000, and are constantly pouring into Nauvoo and the neighboring country. There are probably in and about this city and adjacent territories not far from 30,000.' Fifteen thousand in 1840 is the number given in Mackay's The Mormons, 115, as I mentioned in the last chapter. A con-e- spondent's estimate in the Times and Seasons, in 1842, was for the city 7,000, and for the immediate surroundings 3,000. Phelps, in The Prophet, estimates the population during the height of the city's prosperity in 1844 at 14,000, of whom nine tenths were Mormons. Some 2000 houses were built the first year. Joseph Smith in Times and Seasons, March 1842, says: 'We number from six to eight thousand here, besides vast numbers in the county around, and in almost every county in the state.'
- The structure was 83 by 128 feet, and 60 feet high. The stone was quar-
ried within city limits. There was an upper story and basement; and in the latter a baptismal font wrought after the manner of King Solomon's brazen sea. A huge tank, upon whose panels were painted various scenes, and ascent to which was made by stairs, was upborne by twelve oxen, beautifully carved, and overlaid with gold. ' The two great stories, ' says a Mormon eye- witness, 'each have two pulpits, one at each end, to accommodate the Mel- chizedek and Aaronic priesthoods, graded into four rising seats, the first for the president of the elders and his two counsellors, the second for the president of the high priesthood and his two counsellors, and the third for the Melchizedek president and his two counsellors, and the fourth for the presi- dent of the whole church and his two counsellors. There are thirty hewn stone pilasters which cost about $3,000 apiece. The base is a crescent new moon; the capitals, near 50 feet high; the sun, with a human face in bold re- lief, about two and a half feet broad, ornamented with rays of light and waves, surmounted by two hands holding two trumpets.' All was crowned by a high steeple surmounted with angel and trumpet. The cost was nearly $1,000,000, and was met by tithes contributed by some in money or produce, and by others in labor. The four corner-stones of the temple were laid with much ceremony on the 6th of April, 1841, on the celebration of the anniver- sary of the church. Sidney Rigdon delivered the address, and upon the placing of the first stone, said: ' May the persons employed in the erection of this house be preserved from all hann while engaged in its construction, till the wliole is completed — in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy
