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into the Gentiles, and as I rose to leave gave me a dollar bill of Salt Lake currency for a memento, and bestowed upon me with great fervor his apostolic benediction.
At twelve o’clock I called, by appointment, on President Brigham Young. His houses and grounds occupy two ten-acre squares, enclosed on all sides by a wall ten feet high. Two long buildings, one surmounted by a bee hive, the other having a large stone lion over the porch, could he seen within the enclosure. They are connected by a row of offices, into which the gate opened from the street. Sending in my card, I was soon ushered into the “presence.” He received me quite cordially, and T took a rapid mental photograph of one of the most remarkable men of this generation. He is in his seventieth year, but looks at least five years younger; about five feet tan inches in height, portly in form, florid in complexion, with small gray eyes set far apart, sandy whiskers closely trimmed, abundant hair, false teeth, which makes his mouth seem prominent, somewhat carelessly dressed, wearing a black over-coat, with a red handkerchief tied loosely around his neck outside his coat—a quiet, self-possessed air and manner, as of a man conscious of his power,—such was the inventory I took of the man who is to-day amore absolute ruler of 120,000 people than any potentate, prince or president in the civilized world.
I told him I was about to go abroad, and as I expected frequently to be asked about Utah and the Mormons, I wished to take with me some more positive knowledge of the community than I had been able to gather from books or newspaper accounts. He glanced at me rather sharply, surmising perhaps that I was “interviewing” him as a newspaper correspondent, and said that he was glad that the Pacific railroad had opened Utah to intelligent travelers. He and his people had been cruelly misrepresented, and he referred with some bitterness to the speech of Senator Cragin of New Hampshire, which I had mentioned as my native State, said it was a tissue of lies; “but,” he said, with a malicious twinkle in his eyes, “he is not re-elected to the Senate.” This remark surprised me, for I knew Mr. Cragin was reelected last June, but I did not undeceive him. “All we ask is to be let alone. Congress had been very unfair in not admitting Utah as a State, and in legislating against our institutions.” There
