Page:History of Utah.djvu/273

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beef two cents a pound, and all payable in labor at what was then considered good wages, say forty or fifty cents a day.

Into the wilderness they went, journeying day after day on toward the setting sun, their hearts buoyant, their sinews strengthened by a power not of this world. Forever fades the real before the imag- inary. There is nothing tougher than fanaticism. What cared they for wind and rain, for comfortless couches or aching limbs? — the kingdom of the Lord was with them. vVhat cared they for insults and in- justice when the worst this world could do was to hasten heaven to them ? So on toward the west their long train of wagons rolled, leaving each day farther and farther behind the old, cold, fanatical east, with its hard, senseless dogmas, and its merciless civilization, without murmurings, without discord, the man above any other on earth they most loved and feared riding at their head, or standing with uplifted and extended hands as his people passed by, blessing and comforting them. We were happy and contented," says John Taylor, " and the songs of Zion resounded from wagon to wagon, reverberating through the woods, while the echo was returned from the distant hills, "^^

There were brass or stringed instruments in every company, and night and morning all were called to prayers ^^ at the sound of the bugle. Camp-fires drew around them the saints when their day's work was finished, and singing, dancing, and story-telling enlivened the hour.

As they went on their way their ranks were swelled by fresh bands, until there were brought together 3,000 wagons, 30,000 head of cattle, a great number of mules and horses, and immense flocks of sheep.

^' ' It is true,' he writes, ' that in our sojourning we do not possess all the luxuries and delicacies of old-established countries and cities, but we have abundance of the staple commodities, such as flour, meal, beef, mutton, pork, milk, butter, and in some instances cheese, sugar, coflfee, tea, etc' Letter in Millennial Star, viii. 1 14.

"Each family had prayers separately. Taylor's Rem., MS., 9.