In 1850, by vote of congress, twenty thousand dollars were appropriated for the building of a state-house, and the sum of five thousand dollars was appropriated for the foundation of a library in Salt Lake City. The delegate from Utah was authorized to make a selection of books, and several thousand volumes were forwarded from the east during this and the following year.^^ Rooms were prepared in the council-house for their reception, and many periodicals, both Mormon and gentile, were added to the stock of reading matter. Among the former was the Millennial Star, already mentioned, and the Frontier Guardian, published bi-monthly at Kanesville, Iowa, between February 1849 and March 1852, and afterward as a weekly paper under the style of the Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel}^
have been taught successfully. First General Epistle of the Twelve, in Utah Earhj Records, MS., 74, and Frontier Guardian, May 30, 1849. 'German books were bought in order that the elders might learn that language. ' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 3.
1^ Dr Bemhisel was appointed by the president of the U. S. as special agent to expend the U. S. appropriation of §5,000. Hist. B. Young, MS., 80. Many valuable donations of maps, papers, etc., were received. Contributor, 270; G-unnison's The Mormons, ^'ii; Utah Early JRecords, MS., 130; Millennial Star, xii. 330-1. William C. Staines was appointed librarian. Deseret News, Feb. 21, 1852.
^' Of the Frontier Guardian, brief mention has already been made. The first number, published Feb. 7, 1849, with Orson Hyde as editor and proprietor, will bear comparison with many of the leading newspapers in eastern or Euro- pean cities. In the prospectus Mr Hyde states that 'it will be devoted to the news of the day, to the signs of the times, to religion and prophecy, both an- cient and modern; to literature and poetry; to the arts and sciences, together with all and singular whatever the spirit of the times may dictate. ' Published, as was the Guardian, on the extreme frontier of the states, Mr Hyde was enabled to furnish the latest news from Salt Lake City, and many valuable items have been gleaned from its pages. Glancing at them for the first time, one asks, How did he contrive to bring out his newspaper in such creditable shape, at a place which one year before was only an encampment of emigrants en route for the valley? During this year, however, Kanesville — later Flor- ence — had made very rapid progress, due, in part, to the migration to Califor- nia. Glancing over the first numbers of the Guardian, we find advertised for sale dry goods, groceries, provisions, hardware, clothing, and most of the commodities needed by emigrants. There was a hotel, a fashionable tailor, a lawyer, a doctor, and of course a tabernacle, which served for -.ocial pai-ties and religious worship. Provisions rose to very high rates, th*- igh not to the prices demanded in Salt Lake City. On Feb. 7, 1849, flour, beef, and pork were selling at Kanesville for about $2 per 100 lbs. On May 1, 1850, flour was worth §6 to $6.50, beef $3.50 to $4.50, and pork $5 to $6. Potatoes had risen meanwhile from 25 cents to $1, com from 20 cents to $2.25, and wheat from 50 cents to $1 .75, per bushel. On March 4, 1852, appeared the first num-
