A THRIVING COMMUNITY. 329
taxable property at the latter date was $1,160,883.80, or an average of more than $400 per capita. The entire revenue amounted to $26,690.58,^^ of which sum $9,725.87 was expended for public improvements, the encouragement of industries, or educational purposes.
Little more than five years had elapsed since the pioneer band entered the valley of Great Salt Lake, and now the settlers found themselves amidst plenty and comfort in the land of promise, where until their arrival scarce a human being was to be seen, save the Indians whose clothing was the skins of rabbits and whose food was roasted crickets.^* There was no destitution in their midst ;^^ there was little sick- ness. ^^ In these and some other respects, the wildest misstatements have been made by certain gentile writers, among them Mr Ferris, who, as we shall see, was appointed secretary for Utah.^^ In this pure
show as soon as possible a population of 100,000, which would entitle them to claim admission as a state.
'^^Not more than one tenth was collected in cash, payment being usually- made in grain. Contributor, 332. ' SeciA-ing a territorial revenue of $23,000, including merchants' licenses and tax on liquors. ' Hist. B. Young, MS., 1852, 2.
^* The most exposed parts of the country are annually run over by the fires set by the Indians to kill and roast the crickets, which they gather in summer for winter food.' Gunnison s The Mormons, 21.
"^The country was canvassed to ascertain how many inmates there would be for a poor-house, then projected. Only two were found, and the Mormons concluded that it was not yet time for such an institution. Id., 34.
^The number of deaths in the territory during the year ending June 1, 1850, was 239. U. S. Census, 1S50, 997; and in Salt Lake county, which vir- tually meant Salt Lake City, 121; in both, the mortality was therefore less than 20 per thousand, or about the average death-rate in San Francisco dur- ing recent years. jNIoreover, the population of Utah included a very large proportion of infants. Of 64 deaths reported in the Deseret News of March 8, 1851, 34 occurred between the ages of one and ten.
- ' Utah and the Mormons; the History, Government, Doctrines, Customs,
and Prospects of the Latter-day Saints; from personal observation durinrj a six months' residence at Great Salt Lake City. By Benjamin G. Ferris, late secretary of Utah Territory, Neio York, 1S54- Mr Ferris is not the first one whom in his own opinion a six months' residence in the west justifies in writ- ing a book. It was the winter of 1S52-3 which he spent there, and while professing that he writes wlioUy from an anti-Mormon standpoint, as a rule he is comparatively moderate in his expressions. The illustrations in this volume are many of them the same which are found in several other works. Beginning with the physical features of Utah, he goes through the whole range of JNIormon history, and concludes with chapters on government, doc- trines, polygamy, book of INIormon proselytizing, and society. While some- times interesting, there is little original information; and aside from what the author saw during his residence in Utah, the book has no special value.
