All along the procession may be seen banners bearing the devices, "Hail to Zion's Chief," "God Bless Brigham Young," and kindred sentiments of "Welcome." No doubt these honest, simple people truly and thankfully express on such occasions their kindly feeling for "Brother Brigham"—they see him but seldom!
On arrival, the Prophet is taken to the best accommodation in the settlement, his suite are distributed among the people, and every kind attention is extended to them all, and their horses and carriages no further require their care. The people are happy to see their "big brethren," and many of them strain their pockets to entertain their guests.
There is usually one or more "meetings" for preaching, and, as these visits occur in summer, "boweries" are improvised, and decorated with evergreens, flowers, and fruits, and oftentimes the homespun cloth and home-made coverlets are suspended through the Bowery to exhibit the manufactures of Zion.
The preaching is directed by the Prophet.[1] The people all
- ↑ As a preacher, Brigham is always listened to attentively—not so much either for style or the matter of his discourse, as from the expectation that he may "say something " that the auditor is anxious to learn. When he has moments of "great freedom " he can make himself interesting; but his utterance is the declamation of the unmethodical itinerant, and not the logical oratory of the thinker or reader. When he tries to make a set speech, he is a fearful failure. At the request of Vice-President Colfax and his friends, he spoke in the Bowery, and made astonishing havoc with history and Lindley Murray. On that occasion in support of Polygamy he brought up the very questionable charge against Martin Luther, that he countenanced Polygamy in acquiescing in the marriage of Philip, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, to a second wife while his first was still alive. Brigham was utterly ignorant of history, and the brethren in his office prepared him notes for this special occasion—the first he had ever tried to use and he was perfectly confounded. On the paper before him were a few hard words about Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, and poor Brigham, innocent that the word "Landgrave" was a title of nobility, spoke of the supposed poylgamist as "Mr. Philip Landgrave"—a worthy example for the world to follow. The visitors could hardly contain their mirth, while the intelligent Mormons almost expired with mortification.
Of that occasion, Mr. Bowles wrote:
"There was every incentive for him to do his best; he had an immense audience spread out under the 'Bowery' to the number of five or six thousand; before him was Mr. Colfax, who had asked him to preach upon the distinctive Mormon doctrines; around him were all his elders and bishops, in unusual numbers; and he was fresh from the exciting discussion of yesterday on the subject of Polygamy. But his address lacked logic, lacked effect, lacked wholly magnetism or impressiveness. It was a curious medley of Scriptural exposition and exhortation, bold and bare statement, coarse denunciation, and vulgar allusion, cheap rant, and poor cant."—"Across the Continent," page 118.
