Cfh& Jfmprooetnen
JUNE, 1930 Vol. 33 No. 8
RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED
The Church In Action
DR. RICHARD R. LYMAN
Bill's Shadows PROF. HARRISON R. MERRILL
The Protection of
Adolescents
DR. VALERIA H. PARKER
A Touch With General
Lew Wallace
PRESTON NIBLEY
Camping REV HOYT E. HENRIQUES
I
American Fork Canyon Mt. Timpanogos in Background
'CARRY ON'
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The Improvement Era for June, 1930
529
ECASTI
"In what ways is the individual under moral obligation to be per- sonally efficient and how can this be accomplished?
"Why is everyone under obli- gation to his fellows diligently to seek and to apply social knowl- edge?" .
Dean Milton Bennion prefaces his next instalment of "A Spirit- ual Philosophy of Life" with the foregoing questions. If carefully read this article would be of untold value to every young person in the world. The author shows, too, that none are too old to improve. One statement from his article is given here: "The current anti- fat fashion has been used as an op- portunity to make popular the sub- stitution of a cigarette for a sweet. This substitution is no doubt ef- fective as an anti-fat measure, but so also is tuberculosis."
1 i i
The first of a series of articles by John Henry Evans under the title of "Joseph Smith, a Modern American Prophet," will appear in our next number. The subject is treated in an original way, inter- esting alike to young and old, and a picture is drawn of this remark- able youth which will make a deep impression.
i i i
Dr. William J. Snow furnishes us with a scholarly article under the title "The Historicity of Jesus," in which he shows that, from sources outside of the New Testament, our Savior's place in history is firmly established.
i i i
The articles "From the Green Mountains to the Rockies," several numbers of which have appeared in the Era, have awakened a desire in the hearts of many people to traverse old "Mormon" trails themselves. John Giles, author of this series, has consented to furnish Era readers with a brief travelogue for the July number. This will aid prospective tourists in planning their itinerary and will be inter- esting reading to all. i i 1
One of the most interesting ar- ticles that has come to the Era for a long time has just been handed us by Elder J. Percy Goddard, member of the Deseret Sunday School Union. It has as a title "Abominable Creeds"
The Improvement Era
Hugh J. Cannon Managing Editor
Melvin J. Ballard Business Manager
Heber J. Grant Editor
Elsie T. Brandley Associate Editor
Clarissa A. Beesley Associate Business Manager George Q. Morris Bachel Grant Taylor Chairman Finance and Publications
Organ of the Priesthood Quorums, the Mutual Improvement Associations and the Schools of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
CONTENTS
Title
Editorial —
Prayer and Blessings President Heber J. Grant
Edison's Sense of Humor ..Bryant S. Hinckley
The Church in Action Dr. Richard R. Lyman
A Word Concerning Prophecy Ed. M. Rotve
Bill's Shadows. A Story Prof. Harrison R. Merrill
Poetry Mary Hale Woolsey
Memory In a Deserted Garden
The Poplars The Little Road
June An Old Mirror Speaks
A Touch With Gen. Lew Wallace Preston Nibley
Heritage i M. Jenkins Jones
Out of the Burning. A Story (Chapter VII) ) ___ Ivy Williams Stone
Original Y. M. M. I. A. Worker Gone —
Message of the Ages .—
A Spiritual Philosophy of Life. Part VII Dean Milton Bennion
Bridger's Indian Wife Dies Carter E. Grant
Musings and Reminiscences on the Life of President Heber C. Kimball- Alice K. Smith
Vital Problems Confront Us
Camping Rev. Hoyt E. Henriqp.es
Youth -—.L. E. Flack
Another Unknown Soldier , Margaret C. Moloney
Priesthood Quorums —
Sacrament Meetings - Joseph Jenkins
The Sacrament : . -r....
Aaronic Priesthood Items _
Field Notes
Mutual Work —
The June Conference
Monthly Report of Accomplishments ;
Community Activity Department
M Men- Gleaners Department
Glenner Girls Department
Junior Girls Department
Bee Hive Girls Department
Page
531 533 534 538 539 541
542 543 546 549 551 552 555
558 560 564 567 568
570 571 572 572
573 574 576 578 579 580 581
Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1 103, Act of October, 1917, authorized July 2, 1918.
Manuscripts submitted without the statement, "At usual rates," are con- sidered free contributions. Photographs, unless their return is especially requested, wilt be destroyed.
Published monthly at Salt Lake City by the M. I. A. General Boards; $2 per annum. Address: Room 406 Church Office Building.
530
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
The Brick Man
says:—
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A uniform and increased yield usually is ob- tained over an entire field with the expenditure of less time and labor than is required if the wet spots are not drained.
In a soil that is saturated nearly to the sur- face during the spring and early summer, the roots of the crop spread out near the surface. Later, when summer droughts occur, the water table falls below this root zone and the crop "burns out."
In well drained soil the roots extend down- ward into the deeper root zone and the plants are better able to withstand the drought.
Our Vitrified Salt Glazed Drain Tile will adequately and economically meet every drain- age requirement.
THE SALT LAKE
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319 Kearns Building Salt Lake City, Utah
Phone Was. 951
EDITORIAL
Hugh J. Cannon Managing Editor
Heber J. Grant Editor
Elsie Talmage Brandley Associate Editor
Prayer and Blessings
Delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle at the Opening Session of the Centennial Conference, April 6, 1930
By PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
WE have received many telegrams of congratu- lation on this occasion, but we shall not attempt to read any of them this morning.
It has fallen to my lot, although a very weak, humble instrument in the hands of the Lord, to suc- ceed the wonderful men who have presided over this Church — the Prophet Joseph Smith, than whom no greater man I believe has ever graced the earth; that marvelous pioneer, Brigham Young; that mighty champion of liberty, John Taylor; that exceptional converter of men to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Wil- ford Woodruff; Lorenzo Snow, an extraordinary man at eighty-five years of age, who in three 'years lifted the Church from the slough of despond finan- cially to a place of financial standing; and that man, beloved by all who knew him, one of the outstand- ing men of all the world, Joseph F. Smith, the greatest preacher of righteousness I have ever known.
It is my right and privilege as the President of this Church to extend a blessing to the people, and with all my heart and soul I bless my counselors for their devotion to me and to the Church. I remem- ber with gratitude my counselors who have passed away. I rejoice in the wonderful labors and the de- votion of each and every one of the men who are members of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, also the Presiding Patriarch of the Church. I pray God to bless them for their integrity and their devotion, for their labors at home and abroad among the people.
I pray God to bless the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, the men who stand at the head of that great body of Priesthood, whose duty and obligation it is to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
I pray the blessings of the Lord upon the Presid- ing Bishopric of the Church, who preside over all the Lesser Priesthood — the Priests, Teachers and Deacons of the Church.
I pray God to bless this wonderful gathering of High Priests, such a gathering as I am sure cannot be found in any other part of the wide world. I pray God to bless the Seventies, and the Elders. I pray that he may bless all the members of the Lesser Priesthood ; that he may richly pour out his blessing
upon them in their youth, that there may be planted in their hearts a love of God and a desire to serve him as they grow to manhood; that they may feel to walk in the footsteps of their faithful parents. All of us who have been born in the Church, almost without exception, have been born of parents who have given their lives and the best that is in them for the work of God.
One of the most earnest prayers of my heart all my life has been that I should be able to live to be worthy of such a father and such a mother as were given to me.
I pray that the blessings of the Lord may attend all of the general officeis of our Church, all of whom are devoted to this work. I pray for the blessings of the Lord upon the officers and the General Board of the Relief Society. My heart goes out in gratitude and thanksgiving to God for the organization, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, of that wonder- ful society.
I thank the Lord for my association with Eliza R. Snow, Zina D. Young, Sarah M. Kimball, Aunt Em- meline B. Wells, Bathsheba W. Smith, Clarissa S. Williams and Sister Louise Y. Robison, who have stood as officers of the Relief Society. I am thankful indeed for what they have accomplished, for their wonderful work and example, and I pray God's choicest blessings upon them.
It is our sisters who carry the burden of the work. We talk about the missionary work of the Elders who go forth to proclaim the Gospel; we talk about the great pioneer work of the early settlers of this country, but I wish to say here that it is the mothers at home who are making the sacrifice for the boys to go into the mission field. It is the mothers who stand the hardships far more than the men. Men are engaged in many activities, and without the devotion and absolute testimony of the living God in the hearts of our mothers this Church would die. May God bless the mothers of men, is my most humble prayer; and I do bless them in the name of God our Heav- enly Father and in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
I pray for the same blessing upon the officers of
532 The Improvement Era for June, 1930
the General Board of the Young Ladies' Mutual restoration again to the earth of the plan of life
Improvement Association, and upon the Primary and salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you
Association, the Sunday Schools and the Young and I have received.
Men's Mutual Improvement Associations. I also Q0d bless the Patriarchs. I thank the Lord for pray for the blessings of the Lord upon those devoted Patriarch Perkins, a noble man in St. George, who and wonderful workers in the Genealogical Society. gaVe me a patriarchal blessing as a little child, fore- It is wonderful what is being accomplished in the telling my life in one small page of longhand writing, temples through the energy of these people who are which has been fulfilled to the very letter. I thank working along that line. God for John Rowberry, who gave me a blessing
I pray for the blessings of the Lord upon our to the effect that I should be taken from Tooele and
choir and its officers, and upon the music committee, be made one of the leading officials of this Church;
I pray for the blessings of the Lord upon the choirs anc} W^Q promised Francis M. Lyman that his name
throughout the Church. There are no other people should be chronicled among the Apostles of the
in the world in proportion to their numbers who Lord Jesus Christ in these last days. God bless our
have so many who pray to the Lord in beautiful Patriarchs and inspire them in their splendid work, songs. ■ I echo the prayer that was offered in the opening
God bless the Presidents of Missions, one and all. of this meeting, that God will bless the President of
They are marvelous men, those who are active today the United States and his cabinet, and all the officers
and those who have served in the past. It is marvel- of our great country. How I do rejoice in that state-
ous to contemplate the love and the confidence they ment contained in the Book of Mormon to the effect
have inspired and the inspiration that they have given that this is a land choice above all other lands and
to those over whom they preside. that no king shall reign here. Let us be true and
I pray God to bless the wonderful men who have loyal to this land of liberty. In no land in all the
given so much of their time as Presidencies of the wide world could the Gospel of Jesus Christ have
Stakes of Zion. Many of the men occupying these been established except in this beloved America of
positions give nearly as much time to their Church ours, work as they do to their ordinary affairs in life. God bless that liberty-loving country, Great Brit-
I pray for that same blessing upon the wonderful ain. May he bless our neighbor on the north, which
men who are Bishops and Bishops' Counselors. I is like one of our own family, Canada. May the
ask for the blessing of the Lord upon those who blessings of the Lord attend our people on the south,
preside over the quorums of Priesthood throughout in Mexico, who are struggling for their rights and
the Church. their liberty. May peace dwell in that land.
I pray abundantly for the blessings of the Lord I pray that the blessings of Almighty God may be
to be with those who have been sent forth to proclaim and abide with all the members of this Church, every
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to lift up their faithful, diligent Latter-day Saint. May we be able
voices in testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by the
Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of honesty, the uprightness and the truthfulness of our
mankind, and to bear witness that Joseph Smith lives. If we do this, then we are sure of a final
was a prophet of the true and the living God, inspired triumph.
of God to restore again to the earth the plan of life j rej0ice m z\\ tjjat we have heard here today. I
and salvation. ' rejoice and I am sure that the Prophet and the Patri-
Oh, how my heart goes out to those young men arch of the living God who sealed their testimonies
and young women who go forth with this testimony with their blood will rejoice at this wonderful gath-
burning in their very hearts for the spread of the ering. Oh, how I did pray, how I did supplicate the
truth. And thank God that they have brought Lord that Joseph F. Smith, the son of the martyred
honest souls from all over the wide world, from Patriarch, might live to occupy today this position
every denomination under heaven, to the Gospel of that I am occupying. Never until the night before
Jesus Christ. May God bless them and bless their he passed away did I give up the hope that he should
parents who are making sacrifices to send them forth have that privilege. But it has fallen to my lot with-
to proclaim the Gospel. Oh, how I do rejoice that I out my seeking to occupy this position. By that
do not know of one son or one daughter in all spirit of blessing which he possessed, I bless you one
Israel who has gone out into the world to proclaim and all, and all Israel, and every honest-hearted soul
the truth that has come home to announce that the in all the world who is trying to do good, and I do
truth is in some other land. Thank God for the it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer
truth and the power that goes with these young men of the world, and by the authority of the living
and young women as they go forth to proclaim the God, the Priesthood that I hold. Amen.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Vol. 33-41
E^E
June, 1930
No. 8
Edison's Sense of Humor
T
HOMAS A. ED- ISON, one of the greatest geniuses the world has known, defines genius as 99% perspiration and 1 % inspiration. One of his good natured mottoes is: "All things come to him who hustles while he waits." He believes in and has practised both of these suggestions eighteen hours a day for more working days than almost any other man living. His unremit ting toil, to use the words of Presi- dent Hoover, "has taken rivers of sweat from the backs of men and freed the hands of women from untold drudgery." His industry is an example to all ambitious young men.
On the evening of October 21st a great international celebration was held in his honor, commemo- rating the fiftieth anniversary of the completion of the incandescent lamp. This was an event of his- toric importance and many mag- azines and daily newspapers carried sketches of the great inventor's life and commented on his marvelous achievements.
L
„N an article in the American Magazine of January, 1929, contributed by Irving Bacheller, is related, in Edison's own words, one of his early ex- periences which indicates his alert- ness of mind and his fine sense of humor. He was a news agent on the train that ran between Sag- inaw and Detroit. The story of his last trip is full of significance and abounds in the rarest humor. Significant, because it helped him to find himself, and to get into the path that led him to fame. Pass- ing through the smoker, his arms full of newspapers, he was stopped by a Southerner dressed like a sport and with a negro valet.
By BRYANT S. HINCKLEY
'Boy, what ye got there?' he asked.
'Newspapers,' I answered.
'How many?'
'Thirty-four.'
'Chuck 'em out o' the win- dow,' he commanded.
"I hesitated.
"Chuck 'em out o' the win- dow,' he repeated. 'I'm able to pay
for 'em.'
'Taking him at his word, I flung them through an open win- dow.
"He lazily turned to the negro at his side, as if the vulgar details of business were beneath him, say- ing in a lordly tone: 'Nicodemus, settle with the boy.'
"The colored man paid me. I returned to my trunk. I had never sold my papers with so little effort. I thought that I would try him again. I returned to the smoking car with a load of magazines that staggered me. I left none behind.
"My customer saw me coming. 'Hello, boy, what ye got there?' he demanded. 'Magazines.' 'How many?' "I told him.
'Chuck 'em out o' the win- dow.'
My stock was moving fast. I think that half a mile of the right of way was paved with literature. 'Nicodemus, settle with the boy,' my whimsical Southern friend commanded, as I returned empty-handed to his seat.
"I understood the situation. My customer like many men of that time, on pleasure bent, was playing the part of a lavish Roman emperor. His little hobby was the creation of astonishment. I de- cided that if I had been chosen by fate to assist him to ride his hobby, far be it from me to lag behind.
"I hurried back to my trunk. It was half full of novels. Some of them showed signs of wear. The brakeman helped me stack them in my arms. It was almost a wagonload. I was in the midst of an adventure as thrilling as any in the books I carried. I toiled into the smoking car with my burden.
"Again the familiar words: 'Hello, boy, what ye got there?'
'Novels,' I answered.
" 'How many?'
"I gave the number.
"Again the welcome order: 'Chuck 'em out o' the window.'
"Gladly I chucked 'em. For a minute the air was full of mystery and bloody murder. Every tramp on that railroad must have become a walking library, and I'm sure that the section boss acquired a surprising familiarity with literature.
"Once more I heard the princely command: 'Nicodemus, settle with the boy.'
"I returned to an empty trunk. I closed and locked it for the last time. What should I do with it? I decided to try my luck once more. I dragged the trunk through the aisle to the smoking car. Every- one laughed as I bumped it through the door.
"Again the familiar greeting: 'Hello, boy, what ye got there?'
"Trunk,' I answered. "He smiled as he asked: 'How many?'
" 'One.' 'Chuck it off the train.'
"I dragged it to the platform and tumbled it to the right of way, and Nicodemus settled with me. I was out of the news-agent bus- iness for good."
Taken from "Making Friends with Luck" by Irving Bacheller, American Magazine, Jan., 1929.
The Church in Action
A Sketch of Its Work in Moral and Religious Education
GREAT as the zeal of the Church has been for up- building the public schools, its interest in schools for religious education is even more pronounced.
The Chief Aim
TtTHAT the leaders and pio- ** neers primarily desired was manhood, character; and since re- ligious truth could not consistent- ly be taught in the public school. Latter-day Saint people began early the establishment of C h u r c h schools; that is, institutions in which spiritual development could be emphasized. Early evidence of their desire for ethical, moral, and religious training was the found- ing, (Oct. 16, 1875) at Provo, Utah, of the Brigham Young Academy.
An Early Modern School
TN 1877 President Young estab- -*■ lished also the Brigham Young College in Logan, Utah, endow- ing this institution with a valu- able 9,000-acre tract of land near that city.
Provisions of the college deed of trust clearly reveal the practical side of this strong man's nature and the breadth of his prophetic view. The deed provides that, in addition to the usual subjects taught in colleges, the curriculum should include practical instruction in what we now call agriculture, manual training, mechanic arts, domestic science, and domestic art. While many institutions are giving instruction in- these branches today, they were rare and novel for a college in 1877.
Poverty Did Not
Daunt Their Spirit
of Education
HTHE early Intermoun- tain West was sparsely settled. Assessed valuations were so low and property so limited that it was out
By
DR. RICHARD R. LYMAN
of the
Council of Twelve
and of the
General Superintendency
of the
Y. M. M. I. A.
of the question to create a satis- factory free public school system. This condition gave to the people of the Church an opportunity to satisfy their ideals and desires for education in establishing in the principal cities a system of Church schools. These schools took the form of public high schools. To this day some of them are still con- ducted, even in comparatively large and well-to-do centers of business and population.
In these Church schools, stu- dents were responsible out of school hours, as well as during recitations, for their conduct as well as for their lessons. An ef- fort was made to induce students to live in strict conformity with all Church ideals. Temperance and self-control were emphasized. Tea, coffee, liquor, tobacco, and im- proper association were alike for- bidden. At the Brigham Young knowledge. Can we Academy, in the early days of this where a finer record? institution, Dr. Karl G. Maeser, a remarkable teacher and illustrious leader, exercised control over the
social activities as well as over the class-room work of the students.
A Builder of Character
T\R. MAESER was sent to Provo by President Brigham Young to start a school. Boys and girls who came into the institution in its early days, having had extreme- ly limited opportunities, necessarily had narrow vision. Karl G. Maeser opened the eyes of these young people and inspired their zeal, be- sides giving them information with which they laid the foundation for their future.
The devotion of this German- trained scholar had much to do with establishing in the hearts of the people unusual standards of character and high ambitions. Many of his students have gone on to successes that have astonished the most optimistic, not a few of them having become important factors in the work of the world.
Certain Human Products
AT this moment Utah has but one representative in Congress at Washington and two United States Senators. These three and one Justice of the Supreme Court are brilliant examples of this no- table teacher's inspiration. He filled his students with noble aims, and thrilled them with a love for
find any-
Moscow Institute
This educator's aim, also that of the Church, is to teach young people to be honest, chaste, virtu- ous, benevolent; to be kind, long-s uffering, Christian-like, and truly religious. This is the life that gives the greatest joy. An outstanding maxim of these Church schools is that the ages demonstrate such a life to be the only one that brings genuine and lasting satisfaction, and that the first of all virtues is honor.
With the people of the Church it is a conviction
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
535
that without religion a superior man or woman is not possible. And now that communities have grown stronger and assessed valu- ations have so increased that local units are able, by the usual forms of taxation, to maintain and have established modern high schools, — the present policy of the Church is to expend whatever means it has for educational purposes in de- veloping institutions limited to giving religious education.
L. D. S. View of Education
O ELIGION, character, depend- ^ ability — these are the qualities the world most needs; and in the educational system now maintain- ed by the Church the primary aim is to give moral and religious edu- cation.
What is the reason that so many people in these days, though scho- lastically trained, lose interest in practical religion? Is it not be- cause their religious development and education fail to keep pace with their scholastic or collegiate training? While attending high school and college, consistent re- ligious training for the many is neglected or wholly ignored.
To establish and conduct insti- tutions for giving purely religious training along with and parallel to, or hand-in-hand with, public school and college education — this
Logan institute
quired to leave friends, home and Church; and still more among those who attend college find it necessary to be away from home and home influences.
Devoting himself almost exclu- sively to scholastic pursuits, a stu- dent struggles through four years of high school, and then perhaps through four years more of col- lege life. During these eight years of intense mental development he
constitutes the present policy of the oftentimes pays but scant attention
Church. to religious thoughts and duties.
In order to get a high school With commencement day, his long
education many students are re- training is finished, and he is
Pocatello Institute — Interior
awarded academic honors for his success in scientific and secular sub- jects. When he begins again to give attention to religion, if the only religious views he has are those of his childhood, which have not been consistently developed, then, very naturally, to his well trained and analytical mind, these early views of religion seem crude and simple, if not absurd.
A Complete, Well Balanced Growth
^17ITH the hope that the young people of the Church may be provided with an education well rounded out in religion as well as in science and literature, we are aiming high — attempting to bring up a generation perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
For the attainment of this cher- ished ideal, the Church has estab- lished its system of religious train- ing-— -a development that parallels and goes hand-in-hand with the training given in the public schools.
The Primary associations give religious training to those who are doing work in the kindergarten and the first six grades of the pub- lic schools. The aim of this asso- ciation is to teach the beginnings of reverence and responsibility to these children and in a happy way to tie their activity up to the Church through service. The idea is, not only to teach correct prin- ciples, but so to lead the younger
536
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
children that they will form sound habits of life, to the end that ideals of religion and habits of industry may be well establish- ed during the years of childhood.
Academic Instruction in Scripture
HTHE Junior Seminary, in theory at least, is conducted parallel with public school training of the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. The purpose of Senior Seminaries is to teach ethical principles and prac- tical religion to those who are at- tending public high schools. They are established wherever there is a sufficient number of Latter-day Saint students to justify the un- dertaking.
Eighty-four seminaries, adjacent to high schools where numbers of L. D. S. students are registered, are now in operation. In these a total of 93 teachers are employed and 13,337 students are taking the work. In connection with col- leges the Church has also estab- lished three institutes. In these, 327 students are enrolled, with three teachers.
These institutes aim to provide college students who are members of the Church with a four-year training in the study of the Bible and other scriptures; also to afford them practice in religion and in the essential Christian characteristics — virtue, honesty, and self-control.
The Goal of Educational Work
HTHE Department of Education of the Church is attempting to secure teachers who are well equip- ped to give this work. Men and women with pleasing personalities and attractive personal appearance are selected. Those having natural ability to teach are placed jn charge. The idea is to make religious edu- cation both effective and attractive. To enable young people to become unselfish, God-fearing, Christian- like, strong, virtuous, upright; to develop them into patriotic and devoted citizens, good neighbors, exemplary Church members, ac- tive and honorable members of so- ciety,— this is the goal of all these efforts.
The Interior Mechanism
TW" HILE the primary purpose of the organizations referred
to herein is to give religious in- struction along with the secular training of modern schools and colleges, the Church has many oth- er organizations or institutions for teaching religious ideals, duties and conduct.
In each of the 1,016 wards in the various stakes of the Church, also in many of its branches in the missions throughout the world, five strong auxiliary organizations are operating. A numerous army of volunteer workers is necessary for the successful operation of these auxiliary organizations. They each have definite courses of study, clear-cut outlines, and faithful teachers. Figures showing the numbers of those who are actively engaged in the auxiliary organiza- tions will illustrate roughly the size of this army of workers.
In the Sunday Schools, for ex- ample, there are 1,299 stake offi- cers and teachers and 26,505 ward officers and teachers. With the 250,803 students, this makes a total membership of 278,627. In itself a large army, an enormous school, the Sunday School is a mighty educational institution.
The Relief Society, like these other major institutions, does work that is educational, but its main function is social service. It could very appropriately be called the mother's organization. Its offi- cers number 10,463, besides 20,- 948 teachers, who monthly visit the homes of the people, going from house to house. At the close of 1928 the total membership of this organization was 62,550.
For the Uplift of Youth
''"THE Young Ladies' Mutual Im- provement Association has definite programs with distinctive lines of training, intended primar- ily for the young women. There are 1,157 of these organizations; the officers and class leaders num- ber 10,841; the total membership reaches 54,287.
The corresponding organization for the young men has 1,033 units, with 8,667 officers and teachers, and 55,137 members. These as- sociations train young people in debating and public speaking, in biography, and other subjects of interest and practical value in modern life. The aim is to pre- sent materials that are up to date in science, literature, and art; also in health and sanitation.
To these two young people's organizations, the Mutuals, is as- signed also the responsibility of di- recting recreation work for the whole Church. The specific aim here is to blend uplift with rec- reation, for those who are well along in years as well as for the youth. They participate in basket ball, base ball, and other kinds of sport and recreation. The pro- gram of the Boy Scouts of Amer- ica is an integral and prominent part of the work for young men. The organization undertakes to provide young people with so much of "the things that are more excellent," with a program so fill- ed with healthful recreation and interesting study, that there will be no place or time in their lives for what is worthless or unwhole- some.
Development of the Young Child
'THE Primary Association is the fifth of the auxiliary organ- izations. It provides religious training for the children — a pro- gram carried on parallel with the kindergarten and the first six grades of the public schools.
In the Primary the children are taught the cardinal virtues — obe- dience, honesty, faith — with the same sincerity and thoroughness that they are taught language, arithmetic, or geography in the public schools. Character we hold to be more essential to success in life than is scholastic training.
Officers and teachers in the Pri- mary aggregate 13,419; the num- ber of organizations is 1,243; the total members, 108,596.
The Education of Women
T'HE Relief Society, the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association and the Primary, three of the strong auxiliary or- ganizations, are managed almost entirely by women. The work of the women throughout the Church is generally more efficient than that of the men. This may be because they have more time to attend to their Church work than do men, or it may be that they are more impressed with the saving power of religious work. It has been said, "Men may fail, but women never."
In Church proceedings women have always voted in the same manner as men. They are edu-
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
537
cated the same — for example, in public speaking. In Church work they are playing a part no less im- portant than that of men. During a hundred years, their help, their prayers, their devotion, have aid- ed greatly the achievements of the Church.
As text books these various aux- iliary organizations have used guide lessons and specially prepared manuals. College professors and public school teachers quite fre- quently assist in preparing these texts, and they are often the teach- ers in the various classes. Recent M. I. A. manuals include such top- ics as: "Heroes of Science," "Cap- tains of Industry," "Champions of Liberty," "A Century of Prog- ress." Magazines filled with mod- ern matter intended to grip the in- terest and hold the attention of young and old are issued monthly by these organizations.
The practical application of re- ligion for the men of the Church is further provided for in the Priesthood quorums. These are Quorums of Seventies, Elders, High Priests, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. In these, which are com- paratively small groups, not only are lessons taught and instructions given, but opportunity is provided for exercise in public speaking and for the application of various prac- tical duties.
The Gospel of Giving
TTHE value of giving, or the hap- piness that results from doing good to others, is an outstanding practice and principle of the Church. Practically all the teach- ers, leaders, and officers of these great organizations serve without compensation. Many of them make contributions in time and ef- fort that money could not pur- chase.
A n outstanding educational characteristic of the Church is its missionary system, which is de- voted to proclaiming the teachings of Jesus. In the entire range of human history the sole perfect character is that of Jesus of Naz- areth. Even those who are not members of any Christian denom- ination acknowledge this. Ask non-believers to name the char- acteristics of the life of a perfect human being; most of them will be cited from the life, the teach- ings, the example, of Jesus.
At the very age when young
people are most likely to waste their physical and mental powers in idleness, carelessness, or sport, this system sends them into the mission field to study and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Under the close supervision and instruc- tion of able mission presidents and leaders, they are required to live in accordance with these teachings and to advocate them.
This training is generally given to young men when they have finished high school, or to those who have not completed the high school course but are ready to be- gin their life's work. For those attending college, the aim is, at the end of the sophomore year to have them spend two years in the mis- sion field, reading, studying, ad- vocating, and practising the prin- ciples of the Gospel.
Education of the Emotions
THROUGHOUT its history. ■*■ while greatly interested in gen- eral and scholastic education, the Church has been more concerned in the education of the heart, in char- acter building. The Church is now but one hundred years old. Its achievements have proved a sur- prise to nearly all thinking people who have given its career careful study. In prominent places near- ly everywhere products of the Church system of education are in evidence.
Consider the influential posi- tions held by our representatives in the halls of Congress and the credit that has come to us because of our able representation in the Supreme Court of the United States. We have produced a Sec- retary of Agriculture, the presi- dents of several Agricultural Col- leges, the chairman of the U. S. Tariff Commission, and Directors of several State Agricultural Ex- periment Stations.
From our midst have come bankers, managers of big business institutions, the Director of ex- tension work in the Department of the Interior, research experts for various mining and other enter- prises, men prominent in the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads, Deans in various departments of State Universities, Editor and Chief of the Division of Publications, U. S. Department of Agriculture, State Commissioner o f Agriculture, presidents of educational institu- tions, members of important com-
missions appointed by the Presi- dent of the United States, and the director of the U. S. Veteran's Bureau. In fact we have repre- sentatives of men and women who are leading farmers, scientists, teachers, business men, engineers, and professional men in all parts of this intermountain country.
Fruits of the System
|"T is a compliment to our educa- tional institutions that we have representatives on faculties of the following universities: Columbia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Chicago, Michigan; professorship and head of a department in Iowa College; three faculty members in the Uni- versity of Ohio; a professorship in the University of Indiana; a mem- ber of the faculty in Peabody Col- lege, Tennessee, in the University of Southern California, the Uni- versity of California at Los Ange- les, University of Illinois, Univer- sity of California at Berkeley, and the ranking man in the electrical department in active charge of the world-famous electrical high ten- sion laboratory at Stanford Uni- versity.
We have helped professors to the University of Oregon at Eugene and the President of the Oregon Agricultural College; faculty mem- bers for the Chicago School of Music, and the conductor of music at the Mission Play in California; and a member of the faculty of Cornell University.
C'NNLY a few of the positions in ^ the educational world held by products of the educational system of the L. D. S. Church can be mentioned here; but even these suffice to show why the "Mor- mon" people are so well known in every part of the world; and this is the more remarkable from the fact that they are hardly more than half a million in number.
A noted traveler, a man of broad experience, Dr. A. E. Win- ship, has said: "Utah County has produced more musicians and art- ists than any other county of its size and population in the United States."
H av i n g accomplished these things for education in the first one hundred years of its history, who can predict what will be the edu- cational achievements of the Church during the marvelous cen- tury that is now dawning?
A Word Concerning Prophecy
By ED. M. ROWE
Assistant Professor of English, Brigham Young University
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." (II Peter 1:19.)
THERE is, in this paper, no attempt on the part of the writer to enter into a discus- sion of the prophecy on war, the prophecy concerning Stephen A. Douglas, the prophecy concerning the establishment of the Latter- day Saints as a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, the prophetic dedication and bless- ing of the Holy Land as a place for the return gathering of the Jews, or the coming forth of the Book of Mormon — all fulfilled during the last century, to a degree commensurate with the spirit of their utterance. My purpose is to give a brief treatment of the decla- ration and the fulfilment of other prophecy.
By prophecy I mean the decla- ration of the mind and will of God, to his people, by one chosen and inspired to speak for, and in behalf of a Deity. A prophet shares the counsels of God and asserts His word. He incites fear, utters warning, and inspires men to life and action. The blessing of the Almighty gives him under- standing. He denounces sin, preaches righteousness, and makes prophetic promise. No less a writer than Dr. J. M. P. Smith writes:
"It is for the modern prophet rather to face the facts of life with open eye, to read the message of God to the age as it is revealed in those facts and process- es, and to surrender himself in the full assurance of faith to the task of declaring and interpreting that message to his fel- lowmen. So will prophecy live again and religion once more become a quickening power upon the minds of men."*
TT is in the light of the quicken- ing power of prophecy and the evident assurance of promise that the ensuing thoughts are presented. To the Prophet Joseph Smith, at Hiram, Ohio, in November, 1831, the Lord declared Himself thus:
*J. M. Powis Smith. The Prophet and His Problems (New York, 1923), p. 233.
"And again, verily I say unto you, that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, that inasmuch as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears, and humble yourselves before me, for ye are not sufficiently humble, the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am; not with the carnal, neither natural mind, but with the spiritual." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 67:10.)
A LL of us may not be permitted to behold such visions as that presented to Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820, in which he saw the Father and the Son, or that given the Prophet and Sidney Rig- don, at Hiram, Ohio, on Feb. 16, 1832, in which they beheld the Son sitting on the right hand of the Father and received the assur- ance that they live:
"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all, which we give of him, that he lives;
"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God, and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 76: 22-23.)
T\7E may, however, having strip- ped ourselves of jealousies and fears, and having humbled our- selves before God, behold the veil rent and see him and know that he is, not with the carnal or nat- ural mind, but with the spiritual. The significance of this matter is that the inquiring mind of a humble, prayerful person may be enlightened; and a testimony may be implanted therein, when that mind is quickened by the Spirit of God. In spiritual vision, then, man may see God and know that he exists. To the truth of this declaration, hundreds of thousands of Latter-day Saints raise their voices in words of gratitude and songs of praise.
TN a manner scarcely less appar- ent than that of witnessing God with the spiritual mind, the right- eous man may obtain wisdom and hidden treasures of knowledge. To the psychologist or the philosopher who may believe in a Pantheistic God, such a statement as that of obtaining hidden treasures of knowledge is absurd. To him who believes in a personal Father, ca-
pable of manifesting himself to his children, the statement is prophetic and sound.
In Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord has made plain a code of regulations and suggestions which underlie self- preservation, physical health, men- tal discipline, and spiritual cul- ture. Predicated upon obedience to these suggestions is the follow- ing assurance:
They "shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures."
This, being the word of God, is prophetic. Was not its fulfil- ment made plain in the intellec- tual life of him to whom it was revealed on Feb. 27, 1833? To many young men who devote their lives to the pursuit of knowl- edge, the growth and development of Joseph Smith's intelligence is a challenge.
TIJROM what teachers did Joseph obtain the training that en- abled him to present the phil- osophy of life, here and hereafter, which he propounded to the world? Many thoughtful people find permanent satisfaction in the contemplation of that philosophy. Is it man-made? Was it given by inspiration? Recent investigation has proved that his knowledge of translating records from an an- cient to a modern language is valid and specific. In his thesis which he submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Lit- erature of the University of Chi- cago, Prof. Sidney B. Sperry has pointed out that the text of Isaiah in the King James' version of the Bible, in so far as it parallels that of the Book of Mormon, contains two hundred verses within which are italics. 'The Book of Mor- mon has different translations in the main, where italics occur, in ninety-six verses out of the two hundred." Prof. Sperry then con- cludes, after having considered the nature of the words in italics, that the evidence of Joseph Smith's in- dependence in translating the text of Isaiah is striking. Furthermore, (Continued on page 592)
Bill's Shadows
By HARR'SON R. MERRILL
W,
HEN Bill Gardner opened his eyes he found himself lying on a training table in the club house. The university doctor and Coach Karl Winston were bending over him.
He attempted to sit up. It was then he became conscious of pain.
'Take it easy," the doctor ad- monished, busying himself with his first-aid materials. "Did you hear the little birdies?"
Bill comprehended. He had been "out" before in high school.
"No birds out there," he re- sponded, masking his pain as best he could. "Did I stop him?"
1 HE doctor helped him to a sitting position and ar- ranged a support for his back be- fore he set to work with his band- age.
Coach Winston winked at the medical man.
"His old dad over again," he said whimsically. "What matter a few bones if he stopped him?" Then turning to Bill — "You threw him out of bounds. Staeger '11 have to win after that."
Bill grinned happily.
"Was afraid I was too late."
"Bill Gardner's son!" the coach mused. "There was a great foot- ball machine. I've never seen his equal before or since. Always felt with him in the game that I just about had two teams on the field — especially on defense. Tackled like a tiger."
B
(ILL'S heart thrilled.
He had always looked upon his dad as a modern Hercules.
'You got his fire, youngster," Coach Winston continued, "but not his physique." He felt the skinny leg dangling from the training table. "He'd a made two of you, son, but he never at his best charged better than you did out there today."
"Glad you liked my stuff," Bill managed to mumble. "He told me nothing but my best would be good enough for Staeger."
The old coach, graying around the temples, glanced up at the ceil- ing and swung back on the hind legs of his chair.
"But I wouldn't play any more football — if I were you."
"No more football!" Bill jerk- ed around to face the coach. The doctor swore.
' NOPE — b o d y and spirit don't match, son," the coach said gently. "You've got old Bill Gardner's spirit cramped up in that skinny body somehow — I saw your dad out there in that tackle you made. That's why I came in. Old Bill without his tousled head; old Bill with the meat all off."
"Well, what of that?" young Bill asked.
'That's what." The coach pointed to the bandaged shoulder. "Old Bill Gardner's spirit will tear that puny body to pieces in a foot- ball game. — Nope, you're not to play football any more this year at all, even if you recover in time. That's settled. I loved old Bill too much for that."
No more football?" Bill questioned ruefully. "That'll be a blow to Dad. He's expecting
„fLSO?J UlHtT-^
me to be at least one wing of the line. He's just got his heart set on that."
The . coach rose, out pugnaciously.
^■p cannot _
—AHOHYMOUS '
_^&
"Tut, tut." his chin thrust
"Who's coach here, me or old Bill Gardner? No more football for you this year — do you hear?"
"What about next year?" Bill asked anxiously.
"We'll see — next year. If Bill Gardner's spirit gathers some of Bill Gardner's beef, some of his iron, why — "
But the door which closed after the coach as he went out shut off the remainder of his sentence.
'There you are," the doctor an- nounced as he gathered up his ma- terials. "A broken collar bone and a badly wrenched shoulder for you."
But Bill Gardner paid no atten- tion .to the doctor. He was not to play football, and he thought he knew how his father would feel about that — his father who had set his heart on seeing his son play the game for Staeger in which he himself had starred a quarter of a century earlier.
JDILL returned for his sophomore year with high hopes, but they were soon blasted.
"Nope," the old coach said after examining him at the open- ing of school, "it's just out of the question, Bill. You're not going to play football on any of my teams. I'm not going to have you run some of those brittle bones through my ambitious freshmen."
No amount of argument would change him.
"It'd be the same old story," he finished bluntly, "a broken rib, a fractured collar bone, a smashed ankle — nope, you'll have to go in- to something else for your letter, if you're going to make one at this school. Plenty of sports besides football. Jump into one of them and show your stuff."
540
The improvement Era for June, 1930
A FEW days later Bill received a letter from his father that twisted his face into a pathetic grin. In it the elder Gardner said that he had looked in vain through the football prospects at Staeger University for that of his son. Now Bill knew that his name would not appear in those lists either this year or ever.
Despite the fact that he had worked all summer on Lake Michi- gan as life guard in the hope that the out-of-doors and plenty of ex- ercise would aid him in putting on "beef," as Coach Winston had called it, he had not grown heavier. His muscles were all right, he knew — as tough as whip cord — but stretched on pipe stems. He could almost see every one indi- vidually through his semi-trans- parent skin.
Bill crumpled up his father's letter which he had finished read- ing.
"Oh, well," he philosophized, "I'll just have to show him and old Winston that there's other ways than football to do big things."
Hi
.E flung out of his room and down toward the' uni- versity. He'd look the situation over, pick out a good sport, and head in somewhere. He'd find a place. He'd show 'em.
He turned in at the gymnasium. He'd take a swim and think it over. Then he'd study over ev- ery inter-collegiate sport on the list and make his selection. That slender body of his would serve both him and the university or he'd know the reason why.
He could remember yet the scene at the Union station in West- over when his father had sent him away to the university. He could almost see the expression on his father's face, and hear the inflec- tion of his voice, standing before the mural painting of a train of pioneer prairie schooners which adorned the half moon gable of the ceiling.
"Bill," he^ had said, "there's the stock you're from. Your an- cestors were pioneers, men who would die before they'd quit. Your great-grandfather was cap- tain of a pioneer wagon train like that; your grandfather was one of the first settlers of this valley. You
see, you have some mighty shad- ows back of you."
13ILL remembered his own reply and his father's re- joinder.
"But the schooners sail no more over the desert seas," he had said, "and the last bit of land in this valley has been taken under the enlarged homestead act."
"Yeah, both were gone in my day," his father had replied. "But there are plenty of other ways in which you can show your stuff. I showed mine in football. You can do the same."
"Looks like it," Bill mumbled as he strode into the dressing room.
He was stirred up inside as he began throwing off his clothes. He could remember his father's un- reasonable reply when he had re- minded him of the difference in their weights and builds.
'The Lord only knows where you picked up those gander shanks and pipe-stem arms," he had ex- claimed, as he grasped his son's waist with his two great hands. "I can almost span around you. But you're going to Staeger where the name William Gardner is en- graved on their silver loving cups and trophies — where it stands for what those chaps up there stand for. I'd like to see William Gard- ner, Junior, on some of their cups."
A-
lT that point, Bill remembered, Rad Bowen and his dad had come into the station — Rad with his huge white "W" blazing on his breast, a letter he, Bill Gardner, had been unable to win because of his brittle bones that would not stand football. He had felt like tweaking Bowen Senior's nose when that gentleman casually mentioned the fact that Bill had not made his letter. That was one of Bill's bitterest memo- ries.
Just now he could not forget that (it was against Rad's thigh that he crashed in that frosh foot- ball game when he had broken his collar bone and had been elim- inated from Staeger football for all time. He knew that Rad was not to blame for the accident, yet he felt that he would have to wipe that memory out sometime.
He threw his clothes into the locker and slammed the door. His face twisted into a cynical grin as
he remembered his father's parting words :
"This means a lot to me, son," he had said at the car steps. "For twenty years I've dreamed of this day — when I'd be sending a boy back to Staeger; when once more the old battle cry would call a Gardner to defend the Gold and Blue. In a few minutes you'll be on your way bearing my dreams. In you are powers of which you are not aware. As great shadows, but real figures your great-grand- father is there; your grandfather, who cut ten thousand feet of lum- ber in a day with an axe, is there; and I am there. When your hour comes, you are to answer for all of us."
"I have all right," Bill grunted disgustedly. "I've answered. Dad's plumb off his bean about that football business, hut — I guess there's nothing to do about it."
H,
.E seized his towel and started for the showers and the pool.
"I'll have to find a way to sur- prise 'im — I'll find a place some- where— got to. I'm going to give those said Shadows their chance or my name ain't Gardner. We'll see just what those Shadows are worth in a pinch."
In this aggressive frame of mind, he took his place on the rim of the tank where he paused for a mo- ment spreading his long arms like thin rudimentary wings. Then he plunged in and sped over the sur- face of the water. He turned at the end with a jack-knife move- ment he had mastered racing be- tween piers on Lake Michigan and sped back.
When his hand grasped the ca- nal running around the pool and he drew his head above the con- crete floor, he found himself look- ing up into an eager and animated face ornamented with two bird- like eyes.
"Here, come here," the little man on the floor exclaimed. "Come into my office."
Bill climbed out wondering if his bony body was now to be ban- ished from the pool also.
T
J- HE little man closed
the door carefully behind them,
then he danced over in front of
Bill and looked up approvingly.
"Say, where did you get that?"
(Continued on page 584)
Memory
23 y Mary Hale Woolsey
MEMORY'S a treasure-house, built of golden hours, Filled with precious moments — pre- cious just to, be; Things, perhaps, no other knew, or knowing, would remember — Ever hold a favored place in secret reverie.
Here's a day of long ago — a flawless gem of springtime, Green of leafy bough and gold of sun and blue of sky; Here's a song that thrilled me, from a joyous woodland singer, — Every note my heart can echo, clear and sweet and high.
Here's a blossom, waxy petal wet with dew of morning — Still in full perfection, for remem- brance keeps it so: And a butterfly that flitted, radiant prophecy of sunshine, 'Cross a path dark-shadowed by a cloud of fear and woe.
Here's a friendly hand-clasp, which when life was dark with doubting, Came with someone's smile and words of sympathy and cheer; This, an angel-touch of softly-curling baby fingers; That, a crystal jewel, was a limpid childish tear.
Memory, my treasure-house, built of golden hours, Filled with joy and sorrow, pain and rapture, life complete! Time hath bade the passing years to sift and blend and mellow — Draw the sting from bitterness, and concentrate the sweet.
The Poplars
By Mary Hale Woolsey
ACROSS the valley, row on row, Lombardy poplars straightly grow
Towards the watching sky, — Like soldiers bold and bravely tall, In uniform so handsome all
And gayly marching by.
Across the valley, mile on mile, Through winter's bleak and dreary while
Like soldiers bearing arms — ■ They braved the whirling blizzards white, Or, gauntly waiting through the night,
Stood sentinel 'gainst the storms.
But under skies no longer cold The balmy days of spring unfold,
Earth's miracle re-made — And o'er the valley, row on row, Our gallant poplars gayly grow — ■
Soldiers on dress parade!
J UNE has a witchery all its own — -the loveliness of perfect hours touched with the sadness which per- fection brings. Gardens, brides, and memories are woven into these songs in a way which catches one by the throat. Beauty, life's June- time gift to her children, is the ink in which the pen for these singing lines is dipped, and through it they become inviolate.
Tke Little Road
By Mary Hale Woolsey
'INHERE was a little winding road we J. followed long ago; Uphill and down it led, beneath kind trees and smiling sky; The little breezes played there, birds flitted to and fro, And flowers grew so close they touched our hands as we passed by.
* * * True, this highway is smoother — Lures us swiftly on and on
To a goal that's ever forward —
The miles behind are gone. * * *
And always there was time to spare along the little road; Long moments just to loiter if we chanced to meet a friend; For gaiety and laughter, or to ease an- other's load — There was no need for hurry, time seemed to have no end!
* * * But the wide highway is crowded; Eyes must be straight ahead.
We're anxious lest each hour
May be too quickly sped. * * *
Oh, somewhere near are little roads so narrow and so sweet (If we'll but leave the rushing, crowded highway now and then) Where each turning holds a secret, and who knows but we might meet Our own old carefree spirits on a Little Road again!
June
By Mary Hale Woolsey
OKIES of the bluest — they're June's; O Longest and goldest her days; Her birds sing the merriest tunes;
Softest the zephyr that plays. Clouds of the whitest afloat
On clearest of azure each day ; Tallest the grass underfoot,
And fairest her flowers so gay. Greenest the shadowy wood —
Oh, she will be gone all too soon ! Earth in her loveliest mood
Welcomes superlative June.
In a Deserted Garden
By Mary Hale Woolsey
/WILL tread softly here, where once you trod, Dear, busy gardener of long ago ! Between these crumbling walls you used
to know, Along these walks you laid so smooth,
and broad. I will tread softly- — for the very air Seems fragrant with the dreams you
planted here.
Your hands long since were stilled; no
other came To tend the flowers you loved so dearly
then — Yet every spring your lilacs bloom
again, And iris bluely blossoms just the same. Pale daisies struggle up among the weeds, And violets are hiding just below; Upon the wall the rambling roses grow, And honeysuckle, where the wild bee
feeds. Each summer brings the yellow roses,
too, To scatter spicy sweetness all around; Verbena spreads a carpet on the ground And hollyhocks stand tall again for you.
Flowers and walls your dreams still hold,
I know; Perhaps, to tend the spot you held so
dear, Your spirit self at dusk may linger here! — Oh, in your garden, I will tread softly
+ + ♦ CQ + ♦ ♦
Finding me here, you'd know I love them,
too — These flowers so sweet with memories of
you!
111
An Old Mirror Speaks
By Maty Hale Woolsey
JT is June! I know by the rose in her hand, By the gown that she wears — should not I, Who have mirrored them many and many a year, Know what frocks are worn when summer is nigh?
It is June! But I need not look at the rose,
Nor a gown need my calendar be! 'Tis June by the light in her shining eyes.
By her lips smiling tenderly.
It is June! Sweet maiden, a-thrill with dreams,
I know what he whispered tonight! — Before me, so many a maid has stood
With her face aglow with that same love-light.
Dream on, of orange-blossoms and lace, And dream of your tall lover close by
your side! It is June! Soon again to my silvered depths shall turn The joy-hallowed face of a bride.
A Touch With Gen. Lew Wallace and With an Unknown
By PRESTON NIBLEY
NOT long ago I received a letter from the Editors of the Improvement Era, ask- ing me to get in touch with a brother named George W. Vogel, at the Soldier's Home, Sawtelle, California, and that he would have an interesting story for me relative to an incident, during the Civil War, in which he figured with General Lew Wallace, the author of "Ben Hur." This was about all the information I had, when I set out to find Brother Vogel.
"THE Soldier's Home is a beauti- ful place, lying mid-way be- tween Los Angeles and Santa Monica ; the ocean on the west and the beautiful Santa Monica moun- tains on the north. For the veter- ans of our wars, no spot on earth could be more pleasant, in which to spend their peaceful and declining days. For many months I had daily passed through their grounds and had seen them loitering and resting here and there beneath the pepper trees and the palms. The old veterans, waiting patiently for the final bugle call; looking for- ward calmly to the last great change.
I was not long in locating Brother Vogel; a stocky, sturdily built man, now in his eighty- eighth year; in full possession of his faculties despite the heavy bur- den of his years. We sat down in a shady nook to discuss my errand.
"Yes," Brother Vogel said, "I had enlisted in the summer of 1862 and was sent with the Ohio volun- teers into Kentucky. I remember we crossed the Ohio river on a pon- toon bridge. Near Covington we brushed against the enemy. I found myself with several others, on General Buckner's plantation, in his peach orchard, firing at the Southern soldiers.
TT was a hot fight, all day long we loaded and fired, and bullets
from the enemies' guns seemed to be coming from every direction. Nearly all the peach trees were cut down by shells. However, I stood my ground and toward close of day found myself still there, un- harmed. As the Southern soldiers withdrew and firing almost ceased, I turned and saw a few men com ing on horse-back out of a wash behind me. When t^hey rode up I soon noticed that the leader was a general; a young man in his thirties, and yet he wore a beard and had the look of a seasoned officer. He asked me if I had a drink of water, and I replied that I had. Then he inquired, 'Young man, do you say your prayers?' I replied, 'Yes, my mother taught me to pray.' He replied, 'Well, I have been watching you during the afternoon from the wash below, and I believe that your mother's. prayers saved you to-day.' He shook hands with me, told me that I was a good fighter, and intro duced himself as General Lew Wallace.
A BOUT thirty-five years later I *■ was superintendent of a mine, south of Marysvale in Southern Utah, and one day when I went to the postoffice t,here was a box of books for me, which, on opening, I found to be the works of Lew Wallace. How he had remembered me or gotten my name, I do not know, but they were sent by him- self. I regret to say that during subsequent years in my moving around these precious volumes were lost."
"How did you come to join the 'Mormon' Church?" I asked Brother Vogel. "Well, that is an interesting story, too," he replied. "I was born right near Kirtland, Ohio, where the 'Mormons' once lived. My father, Peter Vogel, was a friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and on two occasions he
George W. Vogel
hid Joseph in his cellar while the mob was hunting for him. The Prophet gave my father a copy of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, and this was always a prized possession in our family.
A FTER the war I drifted west, '**• and finally settled in Colorado. Here I met with a very peculiar ex- perience which changed the whole course of my life. I was running a hotel at Walsenburg, Colorado. One forenoon I was asked by the hotel cook to go over to the Levi Grocery Store for something he had forgotten to order. The Levi House stood on a corner diagonally across from my hotel. As I was crossing the street a very fine look- ing gentleman with a suit of brownish color, and a brownish hat approached me. He extended his hand and said, 'You are George William Vogel.' I scanned him for a moment and answered, 'Yes, that is my name.' I took him to be a traveling man, as they often came in from the larger cities. I said, 'You have the best of me.' He did not give me his name, but as we shook hands I never had such a feeling pass through my body. He then spoke, saying, 'I am sent to you by the Master.' He told me that I had been considerably wor- ried about my brother John, who at this time was employed by an English whaling company, on the different islands of the Behring Sea,
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in the Arctic region. I told him that I had been worried about John, and he replied, 'Do not worry about him any more; he is all right, and there is a letter on the way to you from him.' Sure enough, three days later I received a letter saying he had resigned his position with the company and that he was on his way to Tacoma, Washington.
'THEN the stranger read my past to me like a book. He said that the destroying angel had tried to take my life on numerous occa- sions, but that I had been spared. He reminded me of the time when at the age of four years I had fallen down a well at our old home in Ohio, and had been saved by climbing into the bucket while my mother drew me out. He related incidents which had occurred all through my father's family, giving me the names of the dead, and of the living, and where they were. He told me about my little sister Julia, who had died as a child. He also related to me how my life had been spared on numerous occasions during the war. He further said, 'You are a chosen spirit, and your mission on this earth is that you shall be a savior to your father's household. You will yet go into the temple of the Master, and do a great work for your kindred dead.' He told me to be prayerful, to listen to the promptings of the spirit and that I would be guided and directed to Zion.
"I became so very much interest- ed that I begged my new-found friend to go over to my hotel and wait until I ran my errand, and that we would have dinner together and talk further. He said, 'Before I go, do you wish to ask me any- thing? If so, I will answer what- ever you wish to know.' I was so amazed that I did not know what to say, but again requested him to step over to my office at the hotel. I told him we would eat dinner and visit the whole afternoon. 1 then went across the street to the Levi Grocery, and in a few minutes returned and inquired of several who had seen us talking together if they knew who the gentleman was, and where he had gone. No one seemed to know. Arriving at my hotel, I found he was not there. I 'phoned the La Veta Hotel; no
such person was there and no one had ever seen him. I 'phoned down to Cucharas Junction to Mr. Fred Roof, the agent there, but he had not seen any one answering the description. I 'phoned to Mr. Foster, on the Apashapa, but he had not seen any such person around.
'There were two trains a day running north and back from Denver. The conductor and pas- sengers ate dinner at my hotel, and I inquired of them all if any of them had seen such a man as I de- scribed, but no one had seen him, and I never saw him again."
TTHE above circumstance made a ■- deep impression on Brother Vogel's mind, but he did not know what to make of it, and could not satisfy himself with any explanation. So he went about his daily tasks as heretofore, won- dering, wondering. Subsequently he sold out his hotel, took a posi- tion with the Standard Oil Com- pany, and was sent to Salt Lake City to straighten out some difficul- ty there. It was his first visit, and he was greatly interested in the
sights, the Temple, the Tabernacle, and the splendid manner in which the city was laid out. He put up at the Valley House, that historic old hotel which is now nothing but a memory, and gradually, in drifting around, madie a few friends. Someone, he has forgot- ten who, induced him to attend a 'Mormon" meeting, and there, to his great astonishment, he heard expounded the same doctrines that he had heard from the mysterious caller in Walsenburg, Colorado. From that time on, his whole duty was clear before him, and he was not long in applying for baptism.
"THIRTY-FOUR years have come and gone since Brother Vogel allied himself with the "Mormon" Church, and he is still here with us, ripe in wisdom, ex- perience, and the blessings of the Spirit. He looks calmly forward to the great change, which now cannot be so far away, and with a pleasing hope of meeting the mem- bers of his father's family, and his many friends and relatives, whom he has labored for, according to promise, in the temples of the Lord.
Heritage
By M. Jenkins Jones
V\7E may divide the people of this old world of ours into two classes, materialists and ideal- ists.
The materialist sees the plain, cold facts — nothing more. The idealist sees the plain, cold facts — and something more. He stops not here. A materialist may wander through a garden of roses and see the roses merely because he is passing among them. An ideal- ist may wander through the same garden. He sees the roses, not as mere roses, but as bits of heaven, as breaths of God. Each flower whispers to him a word of hope, and faith, and love. And he goes on his way refreshed and inspired. The further he goes the more he sees of the handiwork of the Al- mighty— of Nature. The laws of Nature are the thoughts of God.
T^HE Indian hears the voice of the omnipotent in the cool wind, in the wash of the water as it dash- es over the rocks and in the songs of the birds. He sees His touch in
the beautiful flowers and blue sky. He sees in the crystal-like lake the smile of the Great Spirit.
In obeying the laws of Nature, one is brought closer into the pres- ence of the Holy One. He may be tempted or ridiculed by his fel- low-men, but "It matters little what man may think, but it matters much what God may think." In obeying the laws of Heaven we obey the laws of the land.
ET us not be like the virgins who did not have enough oil for their lamps while awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom.
Let us all be idealists; let us be more alert and learn the laws of Nature and obey them, and let us learn the laws of the land and obey them also. We shall build up for our children a heritage that is worth something — a heritage of idealism. Teach the children the laws of the land and their idealism will not allow them to break these laws.
Tke Protection of Adolescents
By VALERIA H. PARKER, M. D. Former President of National Council of Women
THROUGH years of inten- sive effort in the educational field, many of the old pre- judices and inhibitions toward the subject of sex have been dis- persed, and a large proportion of those responsible for child train- ing are ceasing to consider the sex instinct as essentially degrading, something not to be spoken of, and to be thought of only in secret, and are realizing the pos- sibility of training it toward cre- ative outlets and wholesome per- sonal affections instead of permit- ting it to drift into undesirable channels.
AS a result of this changing at- titude, an increasing number of parents are found who have prepared themselves to meet their opportunity of interpreting the facts of reproduction truthfully to the young child, of preparing the pre-adolescent child for the phys- ical changes incident to his coming maturity, and of entering into the understanding and confidence of the unstable adolescent in his struggle for emotional and social adjustments, thus insuring a more stable understanding and satisfac- tory attitude toward the alluring adventure of his own mating and home-building. The embarrass- ing silence, the mysterious post- ponement, the household myth of- fered formerly to the trustful child who showed a natural interest in the origin of new life have given place to a more truthful and satis- fying explanation based on scien- tific fact, clothed in dignified yet simple language, conveying some- thing of the universality of the process by which new life unfolds from other lives and something of the strength and tenderness of the tie which binds together the members of the family.
"C OR too long the vocabulary dealing with sex consisted on the one hand of the obscenities in- cident to the street and school yard, shocking and yet stimulating to the curiosity of the uninitiated victim of the stork story, and on
the other of the scientific terms available to students of medicine and other sciences. Through the development of simple scientific and non-sentimental material for the layman, a vocabulary consist- ent with the dignity and impor- tance of the subject has been de- veloped so that the child need not learn his first facts concerning the "gift of life" from those who have wallowed in the mire of filth and obscenity.
In the fields of general health and hygiene, and training of mind and character, the early years of childhood are recognized as of vital significance. Attitudes, impres- sions, habits, are firmly rooted during the first twelve years of life, and bear largely upon adult character and habits. How im- portant, then, that care should be taken to see that the child's first impressions of sex should unfold naturally, that its interpretations are given him by those most in- terested in his character develop- ment, since his later sex choices and habits may be so largely influenced thereby. During the pre-adoles- cent years, the eager questioning mind governs a body in which sex is largely dormant, and the child thinks of himself as the cre- ated rather than the creator. Then is the time to acquaint him with the wonders of the reproductive process by which the world of plants and flowers renews itself each springtime, by which it is peopled always with birds and ani- mals and fishes, by which his own race moves on from generation to generation.
TJERE is the period when "Tell me a true story" is insistently heard and no story can be made to carry more fascination and in- terest than the one which tells of the tiny egg, no larger than the point of a pin, which having received its other half of life from Father, grew in a safe place in Mother's body, until in nine months' time, nourished through her blood, sharing her strength, after miraculous changes, his own little body was ready to come into
the world. To know how tiny garments were made ready before- hand, how plans for his future were talked of by those who loved him for months before they ever saw him, how his coming into the world meant pain and danger for Mother and anxiety for Father, all help him to understand a new and special value in his own life. All this will seem the more natur- al if he has already become famil- iar with the plant and animal parents and how their children grow. The training of the story teller is of less importance than his attitude of mind and manner. When these are free from embar- rassment, none will be found in the child, providing his point of view has not already been dis- torted. Maeterlinck's "Intelligence of the Flowers," his description of the bridal flight of the queen bee; 'The Way Life Begins," by Ver- non and Bertha Cady; 'The Three Gifts of Life," by Nellie M. Smith; "Plant and Animal Children; How They Grow," by Ellen Torelle, are among the many sources of interesting and inspiring material for the story teller.
No longer need the adolescent boy or girl pass through the be- wilderment of ^physical changes, the storms of emotional tension, the vagaries of sexual attraction, fearful, lonely and misunderstood. Social hygiene supplies wholesome knowledge and understanding which may stimulate a pride in developing manhood or woman- hood; the conscious sublimation of instinctive and pressing emotions through interesting regular and constructive work as well as in wholesome recreational and ath- letic outlets, together with such an idealization of the possibilities for development and happiness which lie in married love as may bring practical results in the protection of the love instinct, from disas- trous exploitation or adventuring.
'V'OUTH is the natural period for joy. Here are found great driving energies, sparkling ideals, freedom from full responsibility, keen sense of enjoyment, new pride
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in personal appearance, and yearn- ing for the beautiful. Here are the dreams and visions of the hap- py ending to the story — "and life went happily ever after." Here, too, are the bitter loneliness, the flashing moods of depression, the black feeling of being misunder- stood, the bewilderment over the pull between custom and desire, the rebellion at interference with developing individuality and against the stupid usualness of life. How carefully must now be con- sidered the needs of this soon pass- ing child — all unused to his grow- ing body with its new attractions and desires and its new reactions to the outside world. To the biological and physiological knowl- edge, social hygiene now adds a new knowledge of the psychology of the emotions — an appreciation of what is involved in wise choice of friends and conduct and of how easily the present substitute may dazzle one to mar or to destroy a future, enduring joy. Now comes the need for understanding social relationships, pride of face, re- sponsibility to future generations, the relation of the individual to society — for in this period he must gather in large part through his own choice, the associations and impressions which will mold his adult years and make or mar them.
The girl who dreams of the fairy prince and frequently mis- takes him in her eager watching for his coming, may, with care, be stimulated to make herself more worthy of his coming and to fore- swear the gay raiment and debo- nair mien of her dream lover for a reality less romantic, yet more durable for the wear and tear of everyday life. The boy whose eager fancy is attracted by beauty arrayed in loveliness, and who longs impulsively for its complete possession, can be aided to enrich his definition of beauty and to demand it in its fulness. He can be helped to find out that wife- hood and motherhood require more than will merely delight the eye and the senses. His struggle for clean living is a real and in- tense combat, once he is launched upon it. We must not fail to give him clear and definite under- standing as to the importance of the victory and to point out the weapons which will aid him as well as the subtle enemies to be feared.
Community and School Help
HP HE school as well as the home is commencing to recognize the importance and possibility of in- cluding simplified sciences, prac- tical physiology, and physical edu- cation in the lower schools as well as the high schools and colleges. This means practical aid in meet- ing personal and social sex prob- lems for the great mass of children who pass from the grammar grades into the great industrial world with its many moral and health hazards for those who are wholly unprepared. The church and Sun- day Schools are fast recognizing their responsibility in replacing vague and half-understood state- ments concerning "purity" by di- rect sex character training. From all these efforts we may hope to avert some of those tragedies of young lives traceable to the failure of home, church and school to recognize the need of and to pro- vide adequate training and guid- ance for a strong and fundamental instinct. By such methods we may hope to bring about a prepara- tion for mating and parenthood which will decrease the propor- tionate number of broken homes and the consequent disaster to child life.
The licensing and supervision of public amusement places and the provision of adequate and whole- some opportunities for recreation are of equal importance in pre- venting the misuse of the child's natural need of, and in meeting his overwhelming desire for play and emotional outlets. Such group activities as are developed through the Bee-Hive Girls, the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, the Woodcraft League and the host of other organizations for youth are of inestimable value in meeting the social yearnings of boys and girls.
QUITE naturally their eager restless energies demand fre- quent and thrilling good times. Boys and girls have sought one another for joyful adventures since the world began. Any attempt to thwart or to repress the joy demand or the urge for friendship and admiration from the other sex but swells the rebellious tide. Together, boys and girls will they find their good times — and all too often their tragedies — to- gether. Can we not avert the
tragedy and preserve the joy? Here is our hopeful task — the frank un- derstanding of the need of the joy and the companionship — the plan- ning of new delights and outlets for youthful energies and interests. Happy the home to which boys and girls in search of good times may be always sure of a welcome and a place for their romping and their laughter.
There is no truth in the oft repeated statement that the young people of today are worse than those of the former generation. They are, however, confronted with new conditions for which they need a new education and preparation if they are to meet them successfully. To summarize this preparation it must include three definite factors — F i r s t, knowledge of the laws of health, including those especially relating to manhood and womanhood. They should have opportunity to know of the powerful fluids which accumulate in special glands in early adolescence and, absorbed back into the bloodstream, are re- sponsible for the rapid changes of body and mind which are a char- acteristic of early adolescence. It is important that parents should understand these changes them- selves and cultivate both patience and a sense of humor to carry them through the unstable and difficult period as close companions of the young people who learn more from example than from precept. It is hard to see the affec- tionate, demonstrative child de- part; and the self-opinionated, non-demonstrative, reckless young person sometimes makes us anx- ious, but it is necessary that he should now learn to make his own choices, and wise that the older generation should try to assist by providing knowledge of human relationships and the .possibility and desirability of emotional con- trol. Playing with fire in the emotional world is as dangerous as elsewhere. Both the boy and the girl need to know that the fight for clean living is possible and bears a relationship to future hap- piness.
THE second necessity for the protection of adolescence is the provision of outlets for youthful energies. — These are work and play. Work should be interesting and develop unfolding abilities. It (Continued on page 554)
ut of tKe ^Burnin^
IVY WILLIAMS STONE
Chapter Seven
L
tlKE a nine days' wonder the news spread through the town — Judge Harrison had found his lost daughter! People began to recall the occasion of the kidnapping. Women engaged in heated arguments over whether it had been a lilac or a snowball bush that had sheltered the twin-buggy. The story of the dyed hair and the injured foot skipped from mouth to mouth, losing nothing in the telling. The poor child had been bald-headed; no, her hair had been gray from abuse and malnutrition, like the Prisoner of Chillon: All ten of her toes had been torn and bleeding. Miss Eunice had snatch- ed her from death. The child had shown good blood; funny the judge hadn't noticed her before that graduation night.
How would the pampered, in- dulged Portia accept her sister? Speculation ran high on this point, for Portia's gay, defiant attitude was common talk. Spike Reeves' yellow roadster, with its strident horn, had whirled madly along all the streets and highways, with Portia his constant companion. Consideration for another was foreign to Portia's standards. The necessity of sharing would hard.
come
W:
HILE the town marveled and women gossiped, Portia and Pamela entered upon a difficult re-adjustment. They faced each other across a broad abyss. This chasm of life, nine- teen years in the making, could not be bridged by the judge's an- nouncement, "Portia, this is your long lost sister!" There was no guest chamber, so Portia had to share her room. The closet had to be divided, half the dresser draw- ers had to be emptied of a strange assortment, space had to be made
for Pamela's intimate belongings. "It's like a dream; it doesn't seem real," mused Portia, pushing a pile of run down, soiled shoes into a far corner of the closet. "To think we are twin sisters, and have never slept together before!"
"It's less of a surprise to me than to you," replied Pamela, "for I've known all about it for three years. You see, I knew Father would want me sometime, so I was con- tent to wait. And Mother has been so kind. I saw her nearly every day. And always I had Aunt Eunice."
I
LT'S all so sudden," Portia was really trying to be nice. "When you've been the only one, it makes you feel sort of queer to find your importance cut in two. I don't mean to be selfish, I've just never had to divide."
"The difference between our childhood," laughed Pamela, "is that you had more than enough of everything, and I never had enough of any one thing. I was always a little bit hungry. I never had enough shoes to keep my feet warm and dry. I can't recall a winter's day when I wasn't just a little bit cold."
"It made us different; it couldn't be otherwise," added Portia. "We look alike, and that's all. You are serious and sensible and bright. Harrison intelligence, Father calls it. I am frivolous and flighty. I hate studying. We are as differ- ent as if we came from separate worlds! What would you do Pamela," Portia continued with a touch of levity, "if you made a hole in one?"
PAMELA glanced in quick alarm at her new sheer silk hose. "I'd darn it immediately," she replied.
Portia enjoyed this immensely. "Do you know the difference be-
tween a mashie, a niblick, a driver and a putter? What do you know about tennis? What would you do first if you were put in a car and made to drive it?"
Pamela sensed that Portia was flaunting her own superior knowl- edge, so she hastened to answer with questions of her own.
"Where would you look to find a cardinal's nest?" she retorted. "And what are doty chips? What would you do if a huge kettle of sorghum boiled over? And do you know what would happen if you swept the floor after sun- down? Do you know how many kernels of corn to drop in a hill? Which is better, to shell dried beans, or hang the vines from the rafters? Can you tell the difference between toadstools and mush- rooms? Can you distinguish the cry of a preying hawk? Do you know how many broods of babies cardinals raise in a year?"
VJOOD gracious," cried Portia, "I'd get zero on all those questions. You are just like Father. He fires questions at me so fast, I forget all I ever knew. I guess education only means how much you know of all you ought to know. I can swim and dance and ride. I play golf and bridge and tennis, but I couldn't cook a meal to save me. I've never worked a
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single day; I've never earned one penny."
"And I," added Pamela, trying in her turn to get the point of view of her sister, "would be a misfit in your circle. I may learn to play, but I'll never forget how to work. Hot days, aching shoulders, poor food have left an indelible mark. I will always work."
"Why worry about work?" queried Portia in a bored tone. "I know you had a hard childhood, but better forget it. Dad has plenty of money. Enjoy yourself now, while you may. Mother will fix up this room with twin beds, and presently all will be lovely between us. Some day a nice man will marry you because you are the Judge's daughter."
.FATHER may not al- ways be judge," ventured Pamela.
Portia 1 a u ghe d scornfully. "He'll die in office, never fear! Why, he's married to that court room. No one would dare op- pose him! My dear girl, for the last twelve years, both parties have endorsed his candidacy. It's too simple for words." She lay back upon the bed, kicked off her shoes and reached for a box of candy from under the pillow. "Wish they were better," she commented, "but my allowance was that near gone."
"I heard of a young lawyer who thought he might run against Father," began Pamela, but Portia was dozing and Pamela thought best not to press the subject.
a fatalist. Father will pack me off to some law school, in spite of all I may do. I wish I might dare tell him I won't go. Where do you get your courage, Pamela?"
"From within me," stated Pa- mela simply. "I know what I wish to be, and I intend to train for it. I have to live my own life."
r AMELA tried to please her father. Anything she chose to do suited Mother Echo. And so Pamela played at golf. She struck wildly at the elusive little balls, missed, endangered her cad- die. She could see no pleasure in the long hot tramps. She much preferred the huckleberry hikes of her youth. She was shocked to see cultured women haggle over tech- nical points in a game and vie for a trivial prize. But by listening and having little to say, she was soon able to confirm her suspicion. Judge Harrison was to have an op- ponent at the approaching election. A candidate was coming up in the Democratic party. They would no longer endorse Judge Harrison.
HAVING lived away from her people, Pamela had a bet- ter opportunity to observe. Judge Harrison had not been able to please everybody. There were people disgruntled over his deci- sions. Some objected to his slo- gan, "The Law is no Respecter or" Persons." An ambitious young lawyer, a Legionnaire slightly wounded in the World War, an- nounced his candidacy. Twenty years was long enough to serve. The bench needed new blood, more leniency, less literal interpre- tation of statutes. Pamela, with keen insight, sensed the danger to her father's position. He was a poor mixer. He was too austere. She knew he would not solicit votes, that he would have no paid workers.^ He .would not campaign. If people- wanted his services, they should take the initiative at the polls.
A-
Ti
HROUGH the summer months the Har- rison twins were dined and feted. Echo made plans for another bedroom; wanted to order an ex- pensive wardrobe for Pa- mela, but she desisted. "If Portia can put up with me for three months, all will be well," she explained. "I'm going in training as a nurse in September."
"I wish I had your courage and decision," la- mented Portia. "You seem so confident. I sulk and pout and refuse to study. but all to no avail. I am
"/ come ter marry ye. Curly'
T first Judge Harri- son refused to believe that anyone would dare to oppose him. Fi- nally, when forced to believe, he muttered contemptuously, 'The arrogant little upstart. Why, he hasn't even cited a case in point!"
"Portia," said Pamela solemnly, toward the end of summer, "that war vet- eran is going to defeat our father."
"Pooh!" answered Por- tia. "You're a trouble bor- rower. He hasn't a ghost of a chance."
"But you are wrong," persisted Pamela. "Father is too stilted. He simply won't unbend to people. You and I will have to elect him."
"And how?" queried Portia.
"You will go to yorr society friends. Tell them all what few people real- ly know — that Father re- turned Steve Turner's farm to him, after paying the taxes for nearly thirty years. Tell them he never prosecuted the Turners for kidnapping me. I shall go into Crow's Nest, and tell all the people there. I can speak their language. I shall persuade people to vote who have never done so before. It would near-
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ly kill Father to be defeated."
"He doesn't need the job," boasted Portia.
"Can't you see it is his life? That he knows nothing else? He would be lost — go into a decline — rust! If you will do your full part, and he is elected, I shall un- dertake to persuade him to let you choose your own college."
"Whoopee!" cried Portia all en- thusiasm. "I'll work for that bait. Spike will help me!"
Wf
HEN Pamela ex- plained their plans to her father, he was emphatically opposed. "No daughter of mine shall pollute her maidenly reserve," he began pom- pously, and suddenly stopped. He remembered a similar speech with its quick result. Once he had said, "No daughter of mine shall carry trays and linens." And here Pamela had already signed up for training in the hospital.
"We shall work honestly, open- ly, courteously," explained Pamela. "The voting public doesn't really know you, Father. Only a very few people do. You are known to the first family set- tlers and those people who have to come to court. Hundreds of other voters never saw you. I am going to see that the women of the mountains register and cast their ballot. It's a privilege."
"That impudent young scamp!" spluttered Judge Harrison. "Pre- sumptuous! Untrained! Not even native born!"
"People are sentimental about soldiers," added Pamela. 'They will vote for him because he went over the top, not because he knows his Blackstone!"
J'
JUDGE HARRISON
sighed. What a comfort it was to have a daughter eager and willing to help. One who did not wheedle for money, who never pouted, who knew her own mind; who couldn't be cowed.
Under Pamela's systematic man- agement the two sisters set method- ically to work to sell their father to the voting public. To Pamela it was serious business. She could not bear to think of him bowed with defeat. He knew no other life. If defeated, he would cease to live. He would merely exist. To Portia, it was an exciting new game. She played more golf, at- tended more bridge teas, drove
faster, had more people listen to her than ever before. Her active brain evolved a fantastic tale of her father's generosity. He had been kind to the man who had stolen his child. What an example of good for evil. She stressed the great privilege of the ballot, awak- ened flagging interest. Women who had not voted for years, who spent their leisure at bridge tables and beauty parlors, suddenly found it was "quite the thing" to cast a ballot. You didn't have to give your real age!
Jr AMELA postponed her hospital training until after the election. Dr. Locke demurred, fearful lest she never come. "I sort of wanted you in good form when my boy Dick starts his in- terneship," he explained. "He's got good stuff in him, Pamela, even if he is my boy. Girls like you make wonderful nurses, Pa- mela. Level headed. No hysterics at the sight of a drop of blood."
"I will come the day after elec- tion," promised Pamela.
Pamela went into Crow's Nest, where the meaning of election day was scarcely known. Because she spoke their language, the people listened. She had been one of them; knew their privations, their pride, their superstitions. She had no fear of the shaggy haired men who carried guns.
She offered no criticism of their mode of living. She could lend a hand at the kitchen tasks, could be trusted to watch a pot of bilin' syrup. She could read to starved souls, listen sympathetically to tales of physical miseries, could soothe a fretful child.
Steve turner was
genuinely glad to sponsor the cause of the man who had restored his home. Abe Walters, with unlim- ited leisure, volunteered to urge voting in the more remote dwell- ings, to see that people were reg- istered. Had not this jedge re- turned the farm to Millie's father? Surely they should vote. Cassie alternately cried and laughed over the return of Curly, told tales of her dipped hair to Millie's chil- dren, related all the details of the finding of the coal. Millie beg- ged forgiveness for thp precious book she had destroyed, and vol- unteered to name her next daughter Curly.
Pamela insisted upon one defi- nite course. No campaigner should disparage her father's youthful op- ponent. She merely wanted peo- ple to vote; to know of her fath- er's twenty years of service.
BUD TURNER, stal- wart, dark eyed, keenly observant, said little in the presence of this new, confident Curly. He felt there was no need for speech. Had he not promised his mother he would marry her and bring her back to Crow's Nest? But this was no time for love making or settin' up. Curly's thoughts were centered upon the election. When that was over, Bud decided he would go down to town, marry Curly and bring her home. She didn't need no more larnin'. She had plenty now. She had better marry than live in that queer smelling hospital where people moaned and screamed and most often died! Et warn't no place for his Curly. Reasoning thus, he contented himself by making her gifts of early nuts and autumn leaves, and secretly biding the time of his wedding day. She would be a joy to Cassie, whose eyes were getting too weak for the difficult task of wool spreading.
"I'll tell ye, Judge," volunteered the county surveyor, dropping in- to the chambers after court, "that young soldier lawyer had a pretty good chance to beat you, if your girls hadn't a got into it. As 'tis now, I calculate you'll win. But et'll be close; mighty close."
"I cannot reconcile myself to it," even to his court house asso- ciates the judge was frigidly polite. "Until this queer venture of m* sister's, the Harrison women were always content to remain in their homes. But my daughter Pamela is determined that the mountain people, particularly those residing in Crow's Nest, shall be educated to the full meaning of the ballot."
Election day found
the whole town more keenly inter- ested than they had been for years. Other offices faded into insignifi- cance besides the struggle for dis- trict judge. Why should a new- comer, unseasoned and unproven. displace one whose decisions had always been unbiased interpreta- tions of the state's statutes? Did (Continued on page 550)
Original Y. M. M. I. A. Worker
Called Home
JUNIUS F. WELLS, notable figure in the Church and espe- cially in the work of the Mu- tual Improvement Associations has passed on. He fell asleep suddenly and as peacefully as a tired child in Salt Lake City on the morning of April 15, and one can conceive of no mortal ending more in har- m o n y with this worthy man's nat- ural desires. Nothing could have been more distasteful to his ac- tive, alert spirit than to be bedfast either for a long or short period.
Of no modern man can it be said with better grace that "he went about doing good" than of Junius F. Wells. Few men in the entire community were better acquainted with Church history and doctrine than was he; few men in the nation were better posted on the trend of world af- fairs; and one can hardly conceive of a more polished, charming man- ner than he possessed. He took de- light in accosting a friend on the street, or visiting him in his home or place of business, and he never failed to leave an uplifting and stimulating thought.
'T'HE following was read at his ■*■ funeral services which were held in the Assembly Hall, Sun- day, April 20:
To Junius F. Wells the young people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owe gratitude and love, for he was the founder under the Prophet Brig- ham Young, of their glorious or- ganization, one of the greatest As- sociations of young men for the service of God in all the world.
On June 10, 1875, there was organized in the 13th Ward, Salt Lake City, the first Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, with Henry A. Woolley as presi- dent and B. Morris Young and Heber J. Grant, now president of
Junius F. Wells
the Church, as his counselors. This epochal organization was effected by Elder Junius F. Wells, acting under appointment, and was the genesis of the Y. M. M. I. A. movement. From that day until his death, April 15, 1930, Elder Wells has been an active member of the General Organization of the Associations. For four years he stood at the head as general presi- dent, until in 1880 Apostle Wil- ford Woodruff was sustained as general superintendent.
The organization of the Mutual Improvement work, however, was not the only important undertak- ing performed by Elder Wells. He was active in many Church labors. He filled two missions to Great Britain, one from 1872 to 1875, another in 1919-21, and during parts of 1875 and 1876 in the Eastern States. In 1905 he de-
signed and supervised the erection of the superb granite monument to Joseph Smith and the erection of the memorial cottage on the Joseph Smith farm at South Royalton, Vermont, which monument and cottage were dedicated Dec. 23, 1905, the one-hundredth anni- versary of the birth of the Prophet.
In 1918 he design- ed and supervised the erection of the monu- ment in the Salt Lake City cemetery, which was dedicated o n June 27 of that year to the memory of Hyrum Smith, broth- er of the Prophet, and the Patriarch of the Church. This magnificent shaft is an exact replica, except as to size, of the Joseph Smith monument at South Royalton. These memorial works so splendidly performed and, in the case of the first, accom- plished under great difficulties, stamp him as a man of outstand- ing faith, devotion and ability.
For nine years he has been an assistant Church historian and has gathered historical data of dis- tinctive value.
During all these years while en- gaged in his many and varied la- bors he has been deeply interested and active in the work most dear to his heart, the Mutual Improve- ment cause.
One of his outstanding achieve- ments was assisting in the plan- ning and execution of the great M. I. A. Jubilee parade in June, 1925.
Up to the last day of his life he was a source of inspiration and an active participant in the production of the great pageant — -"The Mes- sage of the Ages."
The members of the General Boards of the Mutual Improve- ment Associations recognize in Junius F. Wells a man of charm- ing personality, outstanding char- acter and sterling worth.
These qualities have endeared
550
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
him to us and bound us together' hi bonds of imperishable love and eternal fellowship. We know him as a faithful and devoted Latter- day Saint, and a valiant defender of the faith, who never wavered in his testimony to the divinity of the mission of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and the truth of the great work established in response to the command of the Father and of his Son Jesus Christ. Brother Wells' life and example have ever been an inspiration, encouraging us to press forward in the great work of Mu- tual Improvement and in the serv- ice of our Master and his Church and people.
We love him and revere his memory as a faithful, loving
Junius F. Wells
HIS mind was set with precious gems, Which when he met a friend, Flashed forth with such rare bril- liancy Their luster could but tend To fortify the soul.
How we shall miss him I
His gentle dignity.
His genial smile, his pleasant word,
The clasp of hands that friendship
■. stirred. His memory, may it long remain, He will not "pass this way again." — Ruth May Fox.
friend, a polished gentleman, a fearless servant of God, true to ev- ery trust, loyal to the brethren and to the Saints, always willing to sacrifice himself for the blessing of his fellow-men.
May his shining example ever live in the hearts and memories of the youth of Israel whom he loved so dearly, inspiring them to great- er effort and grander accomplish- ments in the great work of God in the coming years.
George Albert Smith, General Superintendent, Y. M. M. I. A.
Ruth May Fox, General President, Y. L. M. I. A.
Out of the Burning,
people think Jimmy Harrison had a hundred year lease on that office? Wasn't it time for newer blood, a more youthful slant on life? Did the American Legion think they could run the town and displace a scion of a first family? Shouldn't a man's war sacrifice be rewarded? What a shame to take the office away from Judge Harrison, just when he had finally found his daughter. Thus conflicting gossip ran riot and through it all, Judge Harrison remained calm, dignified and reserved. He held court while ballots were being scratched and the whole court house was agog with excitement. He refused in- terviews, contending his previous record was his sole platform.
At the peak of the excitement, when men with lunch boxes and set determined faces, waited in line, Old Silas Hoggan created a diver- sion. He suddenly appeared, de- manding a vote.
"I'm fur thet thar jedge what gimme the best home I ever knowed. Don't hev ter worrit over vittels down yonder," his high, cracked old voice expound- ed to all who would listen. "Sure! I'm free ter go, but ets the likeliest place I ever seed. I'm goin' back whin I'se had a chanct ter vote!"
/\S on other momen- tous occasions Judge Harrison paced his library on election night. The birth of twin daughters, the
(Continued from page 548)
recovery of Pamela, the loss of the coal fields, were all subordinated to this struggle. He wondered what be would do if he really lost? How would he occupy his time? The prospect of spending his days at home, with only Echo to bow to his decisions, was not inviting.
It was characteristic of Portia that she dashed in with the returns at ten thirty.
"You made it, Dad," she an- nounced, planting a moist kiss on each cheek of her protesting par- ent. "My, what a close race! Neck and neck you both ran till the re- turns came in from Crow's Nest. You got every vote in that forgot- ten hole. Seventy-nine of 'em, Dad. Behold the judge who suc- ceeds himself!"
Pamela, calm as her father, of- fered more lucid explanations.
"Your majority is seventy-five votes, Father."
OLOWLY the truth penetrated to the judge's weary brain. "Am I to understand that I owe my re-election to Crow's Nest? That without them, I was defeated? Pamela, this was your work. It is your victory."
Pamela smiled her gratitude. Praise from her father was a new sensation.
"I now demand that I be per- mitted to attend a college of my own choosing!" Portia felt the
need of striking while the iron was hot.
"And you?" The judge turned to Pamela a trifle ironically.
"Only your benediction as I lead my own life," she answered. "I go in training to-morrow."
At
jpTER the excite- ment had subsided and the others had retired, the judge still paced the library floor. He had food for thought. To be defeated in his own district. To be really elected by a landslide from an ignored, forlorn, forgotten district. Sure- ly Steve Turner had paid his ob- ligation. The judge saw a warn- ing. That young upstart had nearly put it over. This rising generation must be considered. He would have to unbend. Mix more with people. Be more human. He had been elected through the ef- forts of a child to whom he had once refused shelter. Portia would have her way. She would choose some fashionable finishing school and learn seventeen polite French phrases. She would learn to paint lakes and boats and flowers on use- less china, and concoct indigestible sweets.
TAMELA found the
life of a nurse no easy task. Long
hours of petty routine; trays and
baths, temperatures and linens; hot
(Continued on page 554)
Pageant Committee Standing, left to right: Junius F. Wells, Lester Hinchcliff, Anthony C. Lund, A. Hamer Reiser, Leroy Robertson. Ladies, left to right: Bertha Anderson Kleinman, Charlotte Stewart, Irma Felt Bitner, Ann Nebeker. Sitting, left to right: Tracy Y. Cannon, W. O. Robinson, Chairman George D. Pyper, Elbert H. Eastmond, Frank W. Asper.
cMessa^e of the Ag>es
THE great pageant, presented in the Salt Lake Tabernacle from April 6 to May 5, thirty consecutive nights, was wit- nessed by about 200,000 people.
Based on prices charged for the Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau, this would have cost the spectators more than half a million dollars.
Actually it did not cost them a penny.
Some who have seen both presenta- tions have expressed the thought that it is a compliment to the German produc- tion, in spite of its three hundred years of continuous im- provement, to com- pare the two.
Standing room admission was is- sued to approxi- mately a thousand people each night, and many hundreds were turned away, disappointed, be- cause they could not get into the building.
There were 30,000 applica- tions for tickets on file when the presentation closed. Apparently the building would have been packed for another thirty days.
The mammoth stage required 30,000 feet of lumber, enough to construct three frame houses. More electricity was used each evening than is required to light
Group of M Men who acted as ushers under direction of
Irwin R. Clawson
all the theatres in Salt Lake City. The "message" itself was marvelous, but even more so was the spirit which entered into it. More than fifteen hundred people took part daily in the presentation. Of these 312 were members of the Tabernacle choir, 187 made up the staff of gate and doorkeepers and ushers, 50 were members of the symphony orchestra and 50 were staff and stage directors. The rest were ac- tors.
The work of pre- sentation and the weeks of prepara- tion which preceded it was done gratu- itously and gladly.
A prominent non-"Mormon" ec- clesiastic said: "This pageant is the greatest uplift for Christianity that this country has ever seen. All of my flock who saw it are now coming to church."
A Spiritual Philosophy of Life
By MILTON BENNION Dean of the School of Education, University of Utah
VII
The Empirical Basis of Moral Ohli&ation
What Is the Empirical Basis of Man's Moral Obligation to His Fellow-men?
What Is the Nature of This Obligation?
How May It Be Fulfilled?
WHAT has made possible the type of life of the or- dinary man of today in a progressive, civilized community? What kind of life might he be liv- ing were it not for the accomplish- ments of his fellow-men since the dawn of civilization? To answer the last question first, it may be affirmed with certainty that even the simplest material benefits of civilization would not be avail- able to him. His shelter would be no better than that of some of the wild animals; his clothing, the un- tanned skins of wild animals; his food, the raw materials available in nature. All this because he would be without the use of fire, of tools, of domesticated plants and animals; in short, without the most rudimentary elements of civ- ilization. In spiritual goods he would be still more destitute, with no written language, literature, history, or biography; no scientific knowledge; no practical arts; no fine arts; nothing to appreciate ex- cept what nature provides un- touched by the imagination of a trained mind. What has enabled the man of today to escape from this gloomy situation? Is it not through the combined labors of his fellow-men through many gen- erations? It is in the very nature of civilization that it is of slow growth, and that this growth comes about only througli the con- tributions of many individuals and social groups, contributions to man's welfare that can be passed on from one generation to the next. Until such contributions
have been made, accumulated, and become available to each new gen- eration there can be no civilization, and consequently no opportunity for the individual to enjoy its benefits.
TTHE eighteenth century type of individualism carried over by Herbert Spencer and others into the nineteenth century, could nev- er have arisen had the facts of his- tory been given due consideration. That each individual is an inde- pendent unit under no obligation to his fellow-men, except as he, of his own volition, assumes such obligation is, in light of social facts, absurd. No one can grow up in a civilized community with- out being under obligation to his fellow-men for practically all that he is as a social and civilized being. If he lives in a better house than did his ancestors; if he enjoys the conveniences of plumbing fixtures, gas, electricity, telephone, radio, automobile, and a hundred other material conveniences of today, is he then under no obligation to anyone? Some one may answer, "He has worked, earned money, and paid for all these things." Could he have worked as he has and earned the money had not the conditions for this work been like- wise gradually developed and pass- ed on to him by his fellow-men? Furthermore, suppose by some miracle he otherwise obtained the money to buy, none of these con- veniences would be purchasable
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had they not first been invented, manufactured on a commercial scale, and distributed for sale, all of which involves the labors of thousands. The next question may well be, "Does he not give his own labor to his fellow-men in exchange for all of these bene- fits, and thus discharge his obliga- tion to them?" If he does, the answer is, yes, but he has received much before his life's labor be- gins. He must, therefore, begin his life's work with a great debt to discharge.
What is the Nature of This Debt?
"M"0 one can measure the extent ^ of his social debt nor count the millions to whom it is due. It is practically a limitless debt, and it is due to all humanity. The goods of civilization, often called the social inheritance, rightfully belong to humanity. They are its product. Do we owe a debt to Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, to Fulton, Morse, Pasteur and Burbank? Yes, to all of these, and to multitudes of oth- er individuals that as individuals have passed beyond the possibility of our paying directly to them. Their contributions were made to humanity and so likewise must ours be made. We benefit from the past and the present; we pay back to the present and to the fu- ture. We have received not only all the material benefits of civiliza- tion but also our great spiritual in- heritance— highly developed lan- guages, world literature, master- pieces of art and music, free po- litical institutions, philosophy and religion, and whatever else may be named as part of our spiritual pos- sessions. If the man of today has a thousand times more knowledge than did his ancestors five centuries
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
553
ago it is not because he is neces- sarily more brilliant than they, or even more industrious, but because he is profiting by what has been done by millions who have gone before him. In this age of rapid progress he may very quickly profit by the labors of his contempo- raries. New discoveries provide at once new conveniences, which he may use even though he may be very ignorant of the principle involved in these discoveries. No- table examples may be cited from the field of medicine and surgery. The non-medical man ordinarily wisely makes no pretense of un- derstanding exactly how the medi- cine prescribed for him operates toward curing him; nor does he attempt to decide, without medi- cal advice, whether or not he should undergo an operation or how the operation should be per- formed. On the contrary, his part is to have faith in the science of medicine and to have done for him what the best experts advise. In this age thousands of lives are thus saved. Do these men owe a debt to scientists and to the medi- cal profession? Some one may say, "Yes, but they pay the debt in full before the matter is finally settled." Do they? Can mere money pay for the saving of a life? Is not the debt deeper and more fundamental? Does it not call for using that life and that restored health and strength in return serv- ice to humanity? The knowledge and the skill utilized in saving a life are not the product or the pos- session of one man, however eminent he may be. The individ- ual physician, too, profits by the labors of others. He personally may be adequately paid by the financially well-to-do patient, but that is not the end of the obliga- tion for either the patient or the physician. As a licensed physician he is morally obligated to give the best service within his power to his patient, irrespective of the abil- ity or the inability of the patient to pay._ This is not an ethereal or impossible ideal. It is part of the code of ethics of the medical pro- fession and is often realized in medical practice.
OlMILAR illustrations might be ^ drawn from other professions to illustrate the point that it is the primary business of each and ev- ery profession to serve fellow-men,
and that financial reward should always be subordinate to this end. This ideal may be more difficult to realize in the legal than in some other professions. The tempta- tion comes too often to the lawyer to sell his services in a bad cause, and, unfortunately, some lawyers yield to this temptation, and so use their abilities "to make the worse appear the better reason," to thwart, instead of to promote jus- tice, contrary to the ethical stand- ards of their profession. This sit- uation, however, at once suggests great honor to the lawyer who lives up strictly to the standards of his profession. There are such. The principles of moral obliga- tion here applied to professional men also applies to business and industry. The primary object of any business or industry is serv- ice to fellow-men. On no other grounds can it be justified.
TT is not uncommon to hear •*■ young men, and sometimes young women, ask about various forms of business with primary reference to the possibility of their use as means of making abnormal- ly large profits. This is specifical- ly the case with respect to the so- called "selling game," where the "get-rich-quick" individual may be looking for a commission to sell something in which there is "a big graft." In its worst forms this tendency in business is manifested in selling stocks in various pro- motion schemes in which the sales- man gets a large cash down com- mission while the purchaser gets what often turns out to be a worthless piece of paper; it may be beautifully engraved, but oth- erwise neither ornamental nor use- ful. If this kind of business is not judged to be a violation of one of the Ten Commandments, it is, at any rate a gross violation of the standards of ethics as here con- ceived. These are, however, the abnormalities of business. It is to forestall such business practices that our "blue sky" laws have been enacted. It should be noted that not only does the standard of morals require service as the pri- mary consideration, but so also do the laws of progressive states. It is not long since saloons for the sale of liquors were licensed by civil authority to do a business now publicly regarded as detri- mental to humanity. This fact,
having taken hold of the public conscience, led to forbidding by law this form of business. The same is true of prostitution, of the sale of narcotics for other than strictly medical uses, of gambling houses, and exclusive gambling de- vices. All of these have been forms of business yielding profits to their owners or managers. Yet since they are not of real service, but, on the contrary, detrimental to mankind, conduct of any of these forms of business is made a crime.
EGITIMATE business is con- cerned with delivering to peo- ple real values in response to their legitimate desires. Is not this true of "the butcher, the baker, and the candle stick maker," of the deal- ers in fuel, in electrical appliances, in plumbing fixtures, or what not that may and do contribute to hu- man welfare? Businesses such as these and many others require manufacturing establishments as a basis of supply. Thus in the pro- cess of meeting human needs thou- sands of forms of service come in- to being. Each of these forms of service offers opportunities to men and women to fulfil, in some meas- ure, their moral obligations to their fellow-men. These obliga- tions are sometimes discharged as owners and managers of the in- dustry or business; in more cases it is as an employee or agent of the industry or business. In any case both the owner and the employee should see the spiritual purpose underlying the work, a purpose which gives dignity and moral sig- nificance to what might otherwise be mere drudgery.
HTHIS attitude and point of view may perhaps be more easily ac- quired in the professions having to do with the non-productive forms of service. Since, in such cases, the products of the service are them- selves spiritual it is easier for the worker to see the spiritual values in the whole process. Yet there are those in the professions, includ- ing even the profession of teach- ing, whose primary concern is with the financial reward they can get out of it. The writer is not ob- jecting to adequate financial re- wards to members of the profes- sions, including teaching. It does, however, seem like prostitution of these professions to make financial returns the primary consideration.
554
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
What, If Any, Are the Limits of Moral Obligation?
'"FHERE is no limit except that set by nature to the power and the opportunities of the individual to serve. Is the individual then to starve or ruin his health through privations in order to discharge his debt to humanity? No, because he cannot give his best and greatest service by this method. He should take a long-range view of his ob- ligations. This will require that he spend the major portion of his childhood and youth in building up his powers of service; that in mature life he secure the nourish- ment, rest, and recreation neces- sary to keep his powers of service at their best, both as to their in- tensity and their duration through the period of a normal working lifetime. Thus can he render the greatest sum total of service to hu- manity. Most people are not like- ly voluntarily to deprive them- selves unduly of the necessities of life for the sake of social service. Multitudes, however, dissipate and squander both their physical and mental powers in self indulgence and thus greatly diminish their powers of service to others, to say nothing of starving out the dis- position to do so. In so behaving many of these people have the feel- ing that it is their privilege thus to indulge if they choose to do so. They are wholly unmindful of the great debt they of necessity owe to their fellows, and of the fact that they themselves are really defraud- ers of mankind.
F\OES fulfilment of moral obli- gation as here conceived in- volve sacrificing the individual to humanity as a whole? No, the in- dividual can himself rise to the highest type of personality only by losing himself as a separate, self- centered individual, losing this narrow, inward looking self in the service of mankind; this is the meaning of love of fellow-men and of good-will toward mankind. It is the most basic and essential element in moral character, and is primarily responsible for develop- ing all the truly great men and women known to history. The principle is stated in striking form by the great master Teacher:
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, ' the same shall save it."*
*Mark 8:35.
Putting the same thought in of character must lose himself in terms of modern ethics, it may be the service of mankind; thus only said: can he become a great moral char-
acter; thus only can he realize the
He that would attain perfection highest spiritual life.
The Protection of Adolescents
(Continued from page 545)
should not be so difficult nor the hours so long as to injure the growing body. Good times are a necessity and are enhanced when both boys and girls are sharing them. Plenty of opportunities for boy and girl companionships of the right sort should be provided, preferably in each others homes and in groups. Any public amuse- ment places known to foster low standards and to permit lax con- duct should be avoided.
Last and most important, our young people must be given high ideals as to the meaning of the family relationships and home building. The example of their parents will influence this — con-
stant quarreling in the home will not help them. We may aid them in understanding that during the adolescent years, one com- mences to gather those qualities which may make or mar their own homes later on. To meet, to fall suddenly in love, and to live happily ever after is fairyland — not human life. But to pre- pare constructively for the great adventure of love and parenthood is likely to bring about the found- ing of more homes that will weath- er the stress and strain of modern life. This after all should be the great end and aim of our protec- tion of adolescence — that they may bear a brightly flaming torch to the next generation!
Out of the Burning
(Continued from page 550)
packs and cold packs. The ele- ment of suspense ever present. Doctors' set, white faces; the strug- gle against death, supremacy of science over disease; complaints and moans. She early learned to distinguish between the stoical si- lence of genuine sufferers and the fretful wails of the near sick. Long hours and aching feet. Madden- ing repetition of insignificant de- tails. The strength of near moth- ers, the miracle of birth. The tiny mites of humanity, individualistic with their first breath. The diet kitchen. Here Pamela learned the reasons for the unsightly risings which marred so many of the mountaineers. No wonder! Hom- iny, dried beans, fatty pork, maca- roni, rice, Johnny cake! Pamela shuddered and increased her own consumption of green food. The clinic, with its poor, ignorant, eager mothers. The operating rooms, where life hung by a thread. The classes and lectures; the queer anatomical names, the rigid exam-
inations. The close supervision; the long hours; the lack of recrea- tion. Often during those three years Pamela thought of her sister Portia. A star boarder in an ex- clusive school, learning superficial nothings, growing prettier and more polished, spending long va- cations in idleness. But Pamela had Dr. Locke's cheery smile, his humorous banter, his never failing faith. He gave you confidence in yourself. And there was Dr. Dick, his son. With the straight-for- ward eyes and contagious smile. The nurses nick-named him "The Shadow," because he was always in attendance upon his father. If you wanted the one, you looked for both!
Ti
HROUGH these years Pamela had daily need for the power of endurance which early privation had taught; and an in- ner urge prompted her resolve. She (Continued on page 562)
Briber's Indian Wife Dies
By CARTER E. GRANT
This is the seventh of a series of frontier narratives written by Carter E. Grant, Principal of the Jordan Seminary, — The Editors
BEFORE the close of the Salt Lake rendezvous on the
Weber, 1826, as we have already learned, Jim Bridger had proved himself a formidable In- dian fighter. After his discovery of the Salt Lake in 1824, he stead- ily forged ahead, but due to his "tender years," being but twenty when he first saw the Inland Sea, he found that "breaking-in" with the group of financial promoters was a bit slow; for Jim possessed neither education nor money, while the "head-lodgers," such as Gen- eral Ashley, Jedediah S. Smith, Fitzpatrick, Sublette and the oth- ers, had both.
History tells us that while Jim was still a blacksmith at St. Louis, before joining Ashley's men in his eighteenth year, he had become ex- pert with the rifle; and now, after four years of constant practice, it is stated, he drew a deadly aim with gun and pistol. He had be- come an obedient soldier, but when placed upon his own resources, be- came a fearless antagonist, crafty at warfare, and was seldom out- generaled in the wilderness. This sort of half-brother to the red man came to be known as their fiercest foe in a conflict, but their staunchest friend in peace. Setting aside all differences with his moun- tain neighbors, Jim married freely of their maidens, and at one time was proclaimed the "Blanket Chief" of the Crow Nation.
JrOR a period of twen- ty-three years, 1824-1847, until the coming of the "Mormons," no other mountain-man among the many hundreds, if not thousands, visiting the Rockies, possessed the confidence of as many Indian tribes as did Bridger. The Flatheads, Snakes and Utes, and possibly the Blackfeet as well gave him wives. Some writers claim, however, that although he had several wives, he did not have more than one at a time. Being so intimate with In-
dians, he soon learned that the savage mind was exceedingly alert at detecting the slightest crook in a trade or deceit in trifles; hence, by his accuracy in dealing with them he received a reputation among them for justice. It seems peculiar that the tribes who fought him one day would on the next come smoking the pipe of peace and offer to trade. If any excep- tion occurred to this rule, it lay with the crafty and treacherous Blackfeet with whom few white men could remain on terms of peace. Seemingly Bridger was able not only to interpret the savage's tongue, but his wily mind as well. It is said he could detect the very first signs of counterfeit friend- ship or duplicity; accordingly he never failed at cutting the fuse when it first sparked, thereby es- caping the scalping knife which he often saw reach the hair of his less sagacious companions.
1 0 Jim, the moun- tains, from first to last, possessed a rare attraction — constantly stir- ring up his curiosity. Having gained the summit of one lofty ridge, he just as eagerly sought the mystery lying beyond the next. It seems that this inborn inquisitive- ness for nature's wild abodes be- came Jim's dynamo, converting the unknown into the known, fairly driving him at the head of
his men into the "valley of death," and offering little reward but the satisfaction of having been there or having seen it. Thus he became not only a trapper but a discoverer and explorer as well.
Aj
Nc
OT many generations ago,' where you now sit, encircled with all that exalts and embellishes c/u- ilized life, * * * lived and loved another race of beings. * * * Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless. * * * Here they worshiped; and from many a dark bosom went up a fervent prayer to the Great Spirit. He had not written his laws for them on tables of stone, but he had traced them on the tables of their hearts. — "The Indians," by Charles Sprague.
lS we learned in our last article, General Ashley, having received an independent fortune from the beaver chase, sold his trapping interests to Jedediah Smith, Fitzpatrick and Jackson signing the papers July 26, 1826, by "the Grand Lake beyond the Rockies," and moved to St. Louis, leaving the mountains forever. He did, nevertheless, return to the Sweetwater the next year with a great train of supplies for the trap- pers. It was this year, 1827, that Ashley sent a wheeled cannon to the Salt Lake rendezvous, it being the first wheeled vehicle to enter the Rockies. Some writers have erroneously sent this famous "four pounder" to Utah Lake, but we know now that there was no fort erected on Utah Lake and that the cannon remained west of Ogden, Ashley coming, because of sickr ness, only as far as the Sweetwater. In a letter to General A. Mocomb, he says, "In the month of March, 1827, I fitted out a party of 60 men, mounted a piece of artillery (a four-pounder) on a carriage which was drawn by two mules; the party marched to or near the Grand Salt Lake beyond the Rocky Mountains, remaining there one month, stopped on their way back fifteen days, and returned to Lex- ington in the western part of Mis- souri in September, where the party was met with everything necessary for another expedition, and did return, using the same horses and mules, to the mountains by the last of November in the same year." Thus has Doctor Hale cleared up part of the mystery of the cannon, but as to just when or where it was used, we are still at a loss.
556
(Illustration by courtesy Union Pacific R. R.)
It was around this lake in the Jackson Hole country that Jim with his Indian wife "pursued the beaver with feverish anxiety, surviving on trails where others perished."
Wi
E are told that when General Ashley left the moun- tains, that Jim was pinched with a gnawing homesickness, for which we cannot blame him; think of it, four years on the frontier leading the life of a trapper week after week, year after year, heat, cold, hail or rain. Here he found no abodes of shelter except his own lodge or those of his mountain friends. Little wonder that he soon led a dark-eyed damsel of the Rockies to his camp, bestowing upon her the honor of becoming his "lodge supervisor." We are told that these dusky maids hon- ored their white chiefs, reverenc- ing them as their lords, perform- ing all the camp duties that the trapper had heretofore accepted as his lot.
W ITH Ashley gone, Bridger and a large group of men turned energetically and rather fruitfully, toward the free trap- ping trade; thus they entered the territory of the Utes, Bannock, and many a hornet-nest of Blackfeet; onward they pushed through Crow and Gros Ventre hunting grounds, pursuing the beaver with feverish anxiety, surviving on trails where others perished, and so broad was their course that they visited prac-
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
top of some of the packs were perched several half-breed children, perfect little imps, with wild black eyes glaring from among elf locks. These, I was told were children of the trappers; pledges of love from their squaw spouses in the wilderness."
r ARKMAN, also, in the "Oregon Trail" speaking of these mountain trappers says, They soon camped by our side. Their rifles, dingy and battered with hard service, rested with ours against the old tree; their strong rude saddles, their buffalo robes, their traps and their few rough and simple articles of their travel- ing equipment were piled near our tent. Their mountain horses turned to graze in the meadows among our own; and the men themselves, no less rough and hardy, used to lie half the day in the shade of our trees, lolling on the grass, laz- ily smoking, and telling stories of their adventures; and I defy the annals of chivalry to furnish the record of a life more wild and perilous than that of a Rocky Mountain trapper."
One of Bridger's wives, sup- posed to be his first, at least the first one bearing him children of record, was the daughter of a Flat- head chief. Her children were Felix and Josephine, both of whom were sent to school at St. Louis. After the Civil War broke out, Felix enlisted, 1863, in Com- pany L, Second Missouri Artillery, under General Totten. With the close of the struggle he joined Colonel Custer in some of his In- dian campaigns, but was not pres- ent when Custer and his two hun- dred twelve men were butchered by the Sioux. Felix died on the Bridger farm, Missouri, 1876. The mother of these two children took sick at Fort Bridger and died, 1846, the year before the "Mor- mon" pioneers reached the moun- tains. These half-breeds at that time were about eight and ten re- spectively. The mother was buried by the tribe in royal Indian fash- ion. Of such a death Parkman writes, "A complete stillness suc- ceeded;— then the Indians raised in concert their cries of lamenta- tion over the corpse, and among them Shaw, the white visitor, clearly distinguished those strange sounds resembling the word 'Hal- lelujah— Hallelujah,' which, to- gether with some other accidental
tically every valley, and climbed nearly every summit of the entire west. Through Bridger's keen ob- servation, seemingly a gift of his, the wilderness was stamped, map- like, upon his mind, and he came to possess an unerring talent for knowing routes and places; more- over, it is declared, that he knew boulders and trees as cattlemen nowadays know brands and steers. Before the "Mormon" pioneers came flocking by the thousands to the mountains, Bridger had be- come as wild and rugged as the mountains among which he lived. As most of his men possessed In- dian women and children, they in true Indian fashion carried with them all their belongings, wife, lodge, children, trapping outfits, horses, etc. In Washington Irv- ing's "Captain Bonneville" we get a splendid view of Bridger and some of his companions, ."We re- member to have seen them with their band passing through a skirt of woodland, — their long caval- cade stretching for nearly a half a mile. Sublette still wore his arm in a sling. (He was wounded in a fight in Pierre Hole, July 18, 1832.) The mountaineers in their rude hunting dresses, armed with rifles and roughly mounted, and leading their pack horses down a hill of the forest, looked like ban- ditti returning with plunder. On
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coincidences has given rise to the absurd notion that the Indians are descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel."
When the time for burial ar- rived, all the relatives of the dead woman brought forth presents, which, even to her horse, were buried by her side, after which ihe Indians mourned many days.
Naturally believers in the Book of Mormon will not view these as "accidental coincidences." Park- man writes further: "Thus they passed the greater part of the night. At times the fire would subside into a heap of embers, until the dark figures seated around it were scarcely visible; then a squaw would drop upon it a piece of buf- falo-fat, and a bright flame, in- stantly springing up, would reveal the crowd of wild faces."
To complete the ceremony, came the feasts, and, soon a nice group of well-grown plump dogs lay be- fore the chief's fire, for him and his guests, while the other savages prepared their own kettles, some- times scantily supplied. When all was ready at the chief's tent, an Indian squaw to begin the cere- mony hammered one of the fuzzy quadrupeds over the head, at least until the yelping ceased, then grab- bing it by a hind leg, quickly swung it to and fro through the blaze singeing the hair off, or the greater part of it, and before it had ceased kicking dropped its blistered body by her side while she com- pleted the customary rites for the others. This done, several squaws unsheathed their knives and soon the dripping pieces of flesh were in the boiling pot. Parkman con- tinues, "As a dog-feast is the greatest compliment a red man can offer to his guest; and, knowing that to refuse eating would be an affront, we attacked the little dogs, devouring them before the eyes of their unconscious parents."
I
HAVE previously mentioned that Hugh Glass was almost killed by a grizzly, and I promised to relate the story later. I shall quote from Henry Howe's book, "Historical Collections of the Great West," also from Nei- hardt, "The Splendid Wayfaring," using their stories without further reference.
"Bridget' and Fitzpatrick, while rid- ing nfar the forks of the river two hours since, had pushed through a mulberry
(Illustration by courtesy Union Pacific R. R-)
Felix and Josephine with their mother, a daughter of a Flathead Chief, trailed Weber Canyon with Jim Bridger long before the Iron Horse or power plants were dreamed of in the West,
thicket near a spring and had come sud- denly upon old Glass lying as though dead, with a bloody hunting knife be- side him. Not far away lay the car- cass of a grizzly bear. The old man's face was 'all scraped off,' as Bridger put it. It was evident that the old hunter had been taken by surprise and had not been able to 'set his trigger,' for the gun was still loaded and the great gashes in the bear's neck, chest and belly showed how Hugh had fought. Doubtless he had dismounted to drink at the spring, and his horse, terrified by the grizzly had bolted. 'We tried to put him on a horse,' said Bridger, 'but he screamed, though he didn't seem to know nothing; and so Fritz said he'd stay with the old man while I rode back to give you the word.'
"It was, of course, impractical to move the whole party on to the forks at that late hour, so the major sent two men back with Bridger to watch over Glass until the main body should come up next day. It was commonly believed in camp that night that the old man was 'done for, but when the party ar- rived at the forks next morning, he was still living, though unconscious. What should be done? It was impossible to move him ; and certainly the two hundred men could not be delayed indefinitely while one man decided whether or not he was going to die. Finally two men were induced by the offer of a liberal reward to remain with the wounded man until he could be placed on a horse or under the ground."
It is stated on rather reliable authority that the younger of the men left by Major Henry was the blacksmith Jim, then but eighteen years of age. As this was near the spot where Jed Smith and Baptiste
had killed and scalped three Ree Indians not so many nights before, staying alone with a dying man was no enviable job. Then, too, it was learned that the Indians were near and at any moment might discover their hiding place. Finally the older man, a French- Canadian, fully sensing their dan- ger, saddled up his horse and also Glass's.
Returning to the
written account we read:
"The main body, impatient at the de- lay, struck out for the Yellowstone. Ill luck still followed Henry and Ashley. A large war party thought to be Gros Ventres swooped down upon the men. During the brisk fight that followed, four trappers were killed and several horses were wounded.
"During the evening of the day of the battle, the two men who had been left to watch over old Glass, rode into camp, and the saddle of the horse they led was empty. They said they had remained at the forks four days; then the old man had 'gone under' and had been decently 'juried. They had brought all his 'fixin's' iway with them, including gun, blanket, powder-horn, knife, and flint and steel. The story they brought occasioned no surprise. Many spoke kindly of the dead that night, remembering much good of the graybearded old hunter — how cool he had been in the Ree fight, the droll things he had said on such and such occasions, feats of strength he had performed when a keelboat had grounded on a bar, and many lesser matters such as make men love men.
(Continued from page 563)
Musings and Reminiscences on the Life of Heber C. Kimball
By His Daughter ALICE K. SMITH
"A prince and a great man has this day passed from among us; tike a babe falling into a gentle slumber, he passed away. It was a scene of victory and triumph. What a host of faithful ones have awaited his arrival in the spirit world. Will it not be home to him when he meets •those bright ones with whom he had labored so long and so familiarly, and who knew his guileless simplicity, his truthfulness, his unshrinking faith, his integrity and worth?"
THUS was Heber C. Kimball eulogized in a Deseret News editorial on the day he pass- ed away, June 22nd, 1868, just sixty-seven years and eight days after the day of his birth. The editorial reflects the calm and true nature of Heber C. Kimball. .The existence of that other world" was just as actual to him as was this. The literalness with which he ac- cepted the words of the Master did not rob them of any depth nor spiritual meaning, but added to them the full force of fact. He was not only a philosopher, but a prophet and a seer. "He that be- lieveth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die."
HEBER C. KIMBALL stood next to Brigham Young in seniority in the original quorum of the twelve when it was reorganized according to the age of its members, he being just fourteen days young- er than President Young; and when the latter became president of the Church, Heber was chosen as his first counselor. His name is in- terlinked with the history of this organization almost from its in- ception, even as the Church's name is interlinked with the historv of the pioneering and development of Utah and the great west. There- fore, the history of his people.
Heber C. Kimball
their trials, journeyings and ac- complishments is a history of him, for he never forsook the Church nor his friends, nor did he once waiver in his integrity, whether in the midst of persecution or pros- perity. Brigham Young said of him, "His knees never trembled, his hands never shook." As a pio- neer and colonizer of the great west, he stood second only to President Brigham Young. The versatility of his nature suited him preeminently for that period in our history when the desert had to be subdued and the foundation of an empire laid.
T WAS only a child when Heber * C. Kimball passed to the great beyond, my heart and soul went out to him in love and reverence. and I almost worshiped him. He seemed to me the biggest man I
ever saw. I have watched him come down the hill on North Main Street and in my childish mind it seemed that he filled the whole sidewalk. In my mind's eye he has always appeared to me as he was so beautifully described many years after his death by his grandson, Apostle Orson F. Whit- ney:
"He was a singular compound, in his nature, of courage and timidity, of weak- ness and strength, uniting a penchant for mirth with a proneness to melancholy, and a blending of the lion-like qualities of a leader among men with the bashful- ness and lamb-like simplicity of a child.
"He was not a coward; a braver man probably never lived than Heber C. Kim- ball. His courage, however, was not of that questionable kind which 'knows no fear.' Rather was it of that superior order, that Ch'rist-like bravery, which feels danger yet dares to face it. He had all the sensitiveness of the poet — for he was both a poet and a prophet from his mother's womb — and inherited by birth- right the power to feel pleasure or suffer pain in all its 'exquisiteness and inten- sity.' "
]>ROTHER WHITNEY further describes him as being,
"Tall and powerful of frame, with piercing black eyes that seemed to read one through, and before whose searching gaze the guilty could not choose but quail. He moved with a stateliness and majesty all his own. He was a humble man and in his humility, no less than his kingly stature, consisted his dignity, and no small share of his greatness. It was his intelligence, earnestness, simplicity, sublime faith and unwavering integrity to principle that made him great, not the apparel he wore, nor the mortal chy in which his spirit was clothed. Neverthe- less, nature had given him a noble presence in the flesh, worthy the godlike stature of his spirit. * * *
"His temperament was religious and poetical. Sociable as he was and even bubbling over with mirth at times, his soul was essentially of a gloomy cast. * * * He was a diamond in the rough, but a diamond nevertheless. Unlettered and untaught, save in nature's school, the university of experience, where he was an apt and profound scholar, he was possessed of marvelous intuition, a genius God- given, which needed no kindling at a college shrine to prepare it for the work which providence had designed. Not but
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education would have polished the gem, causing it to shine with what the natural eye would deem a brighter lustre; but the fact remains that Heber C. Kimball, as he was, not as he might have been, was best adapted for the divine purpose, the career marked out for him by the finger of Deity."
"X/fANY lasting impressions were •*• made upon my mind through little incidents which set my child- ish mind to working. When my father prayed to his Eternal Father, he told him of his plans, his wor- ries, his. joys, and his sorrows. He talked with him as a son to an earthly father in whom he had great love and confidence, not as some being far off on another planet. On one occasion at family prayers when it seemed to me he was unusually earnest and was supplicating his Father for some especial blessing or favor, I was so impressed that I peeked carefully around to see if his Father stood there before him. I was disap- pointed, for it seemed he must be there. This made a deep impres- sion upon my mind, for all through my childhood days, my youth, my mature life, my Father in Heaven has not been so far away from me. I could appeal to him as a father who was full of love and compassion for his children.
TyfY sister Sarah was two years ■*■ A younger than me and one day when we were very small, father took us to his store-house where he kept supplies of shoes, drygoods and whatnot for his family. He was going to give us each a pair of shoes. Like all little girls we went off delighted with the prospect of having some pretty new shoes. Father placed us on a table or counter, and took off our old shoes. He took down from a shelf two pairs of old ladies' shoes. I can see them now, low topped, wide soles, low heels. He put them on our feet, laced them up and tied them, then told us to walk. We were horrified. I kept a stiff up- per lip but I saw that Sarah was weakening. Father gave one of his characteristic laughs, sat us up on the table again and took them off. Then he put on our feet some shoes that were anything but pret- ty, but they came somewhere near fitting us, and we went home re- joicing. This puzzled me for a long time. Why should my father who seemed to know everything take the time to put such shoes on
the feet of two little girls when anyone could see that they would not do at all? It finally dawned upon me that had he, in the first place, given us the shoes that final- ly pleased us we would have been greatly disappointed. But afte* our first shock we went away hap- py and contented. It was a won- derful lesson he taught us two lit- tle girls who were then too young to comprehend its meaning. He must have known that the day would come when we would un- derstand. He gave us the best he had and through his wonderful understanding made us happy.
"COLLOWING an accident, the direct cause of his death which occurred a few weeks later, he sent for his children to meet him at his headquarters (the "Big House," as we used to call it) on North Main, for he wished to talk to them. I was too young to remember the language he used or exactly what he said, but this is the impression that was made upon my mind: He did not expect to be with us long, and was going to heaven, where he would build beautiful white homes for his family. That impression stayed with me and has always been so vivid that until this day, when I pass a beautiful white house, I can see my father as he looked on that day so long ago, and I recall the picture which I be- held in my imagination of the beautiful white homes which my father would build for us.
Shortly after this my mother was taken seriously ill. I remem- ber one day, as father sat by her bedside, he seemed very much de- pressed. He bowed his head and the tears coursed down his cheeks. Perhaps he had a premonition that he was about to leave us and his heart ached for the widows and fatherless. I stood near, watching him and witnessing his grief, and my heart went out to him in such love and yearning that I could scarcely control myself, and I re- solved in my heart that I would always try to honor his name. When he got up to leave, he put his arms around me and with love and tenderness pressed me to his bosom. I wondered if he knew what I was thinking. Just a day or two after this he was stricken with paralysis, the final result of his accident, and from this he never recovered.
XJ OW well I remember the day of the funeral! As the pro- cession was about to leave for the tabernacle, the rain was coming down in torrents. The draping in the building was all in black, the coffin was elevated in the aisle and was covered with a black pall.
One beautiful scene connected with the event helped to assuage our grief and seemed to betoken to our lonely hearts that even though he were dead we would meet him again. Apostle Whitney describes this beautiful scene:
"And now occurred a remark- able, though purely natural, phe- nomenon. As the first clods of earth fell upon the coffin, the set- ting sun burst forth from his cloudy covering, shedding a golden halo of glory upon the scene, while instantaneously in the eastern hori- zon appeared a rainbow, the bright and beauteous token of promise, directly spanning the grave. It was no illusion; and as the last parti- cles of mother earth were gathered above the still bosom that slept below, the rainbow dissolved."
A ND now as I am nearing the 1 *• end of the way, the twilight of my life in this beautiful world, after varied experiences of three score years and ten, my heart is filled with praise and gratitude to my Father above for the many blessings that have been mine.
I feel with all my soul that when the summons comes, "My child, this night I require thy soul, thy mortal life is at an end," and I have passed the portals, that I will meet my earthly father again with a tender and loving embrace, just as I hope eventually to meet my Heavenly Father at the end of the road. In my mind I hear them both say, "My daughter, you have passed through tribulations, and have been true and faithful. Wel- come home!" And now, as I await the final call, when the Lord wants me, the greatest desire of my heart, above health, wealth, posi- tion and all else besides, is that my children will be true and faithful to the Gospel, and that when they pass from this world of action they will merit the meeting with their earthly father agaim who is indeed a prince of the most High God, and he will welcome them home with joy and satisfaction.
Vital Problems Confront Us
"God give us men. The time demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing hands.
■>■>
MUTUAL Improvement workers must be doers.
Action is their keyword. At this particular time when we turn in faith and hope to the new century of "Mormonism," the call comes to us to throw the full strength of our young manhood and womanhood into the fight against evil.
At the meeting of M. I. A. officers held during the Centennial Conference of the Church, the fol- lowing three stirring appeals were made for prohibition, for the anti- tobacco movement, and for regu- lations promoting safety.
At the conclusion of each ad- dress definite projects were named. We recommend these to you for your thoughtful consideration and for your adoption as far as may be found necessary and advisable in your locality. At our June Conference we shall ask for a re- port of progress made and of your plans for future campaigns in these three movements. General Superintendency, Y. M.
M. I. A., General Presidency, Y. L. M. I. A.
What Shall We Do About Tobacco?
By Heber C. Iverson
Member of the General Board of Y. M. M. I. A.
P VERY thoughtful parent and ■^ teacher will feel the challenge of these two messages by the Pres- idents of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers and of the National Education Association.
"But now comes a cold-blooded, fact- finding government agency, the Federal Trade Commission. The commission brings the tobacco men to the mourners' bench, and gets from them an abjectly humiliating confession of falsehood, de- ceit, and cheeky imposture. The news- papers put the story far back in the second section, if they printed it at all. Editorially they have little to say. Didn't they print the fake advertising? The cigaret corporation that was on the carpet admitted that it lied when it said smok-
ing its cigarets would keep a woman from getting overweight. It admitted that it printed tes.imonia';s from people who did not use its cigarets at all. It admitted that it printed tes.imonhls from people who not on.y did not write tnem. but never s .w them. It admitted that it paid for testimonials from a group of actresses to the effect that the use of these cigarets kept them slender and fit for their work, though the actresses were not cigaret smokers at all." — Christian Advo- cate. Northwestern Edition, February 13, 1930.
"Ignorance and Narcotics tend to standardize,' we_ken and defeat people. Education fosters individuality, distinc- tion, and achievement. Has there been in ail history so colossal a standardizing process — such a vast demonstration of the sheep. ike qu .i ies of the human race as in the spread of the tobacco habit. Has not this increase in the use of cigarets been brought about through the expendi- ture of minions of dollars for advertising; through the hured misuse of psycho.ogy, art, wri ing, printing, and radio; through the degraca ion of newspapers and maga- zines? Have not the tobacco interests admitted the falsity of the statements which were pub.ished in newsp pers and magazines th it had the confidence of our homes and of our schools? Should any school or home subscribe to magazines which support such a policy? Can we afford to spread, even among the children, a habit whose cost is greater than the total cost of free public education; a habit surely unworthy of an age that has produced a Lindbergh and has brought into the high schools of America a wonderful army of more than five million fine young men and women!" — E. Ruth Pyrtle, President of the National Education Association.
T WESTON OAKS, M. D., • says in his book on Medical Aspects of the Latter-day Saint Word of Wisdom:
"Dr. M. V. O'Shea conducted an in- quiry among one thousand high schools of the Middle West, concerning the effect of tobacco upon high school work. Of this great number of high school boys who smoked, only 15.9% were above the median in 'school work, while 60% were below it. Many hundreds of these boys contracted the habit while attending high school; and it was found that where this was the case, 68% of those doing so had shown a decline in their scholarship, with 61.9% losing in deportment. These fig- ures are significant, because they cover such a large group; and they justify some generalization as to the effects of this drug upon mental effort in young adult and adolescent boys. The decline in scholarship in this group varied from ten per cent to u ter failure. Dr. O'Shea requested the principals of these schools
to furnish such brief reports upon the work and behavior of their boys, beiorv and after beginning the use of tobacco. Because of what they represent in loss of potential manhood, these reports bear a pitiful significance; and Dr. O'Shea says of them:
'One cannot go over the reports from these two hundred six schools without forming the conviction that tobacco is either directly or indirectly playing a tragic role in the high school. There is no evidence of bias or prejudice in the returns from most of these schools; at any rate the principals and faculties were aware of the danger that preconceived no- tions might distort their views, so that they were on their guard. And if they erred at all it was probably in the way of leniency in estimating the intellectual status of smokers in their schools. Some at least of the principals who made returns are personally friendly toward tobacco, so far as its use by adults is concerned.
* * * " 'In personal interviews they informed the writer they enjoyed a cigar and believed that a moderate use of tobacco was not harmful to them mentally or physically. But they could not overlook the fact that records of the smokers in their schools were conclusive in showing that the use of tobacco by their pupils is detrimental to intellectual effort, and in extreme cases it paralyzes mental ac- tivity.'
TyRITING in the Kentucky vv Medical Journal, Dr. E. S. Frey of Louisville, mentions some careful observations made by Dr. Seaver, Director of the Physical Laboratory at Yale University and says:
"Out of the highest scholarship men at Yale only five per cent use tobacco. Of all the men who do not get appointments, ninety per cent use tobacco."
In MacLevy's book "The To- bacco Habit," are given some in- teresting statistics, of which the following are typical:
"Dr. George Lewis says that in fifty years no tobacco user in Harvard has graduated at the head of his class, though five out of six graduates were users."
"A Clark College professor says, out of two hundred one, ninety-three were users, one hundred eight were not. Of the non- smokers 68% won honors, while of the smokers only 18% won honors."
What noted men say:
"Boys, through cigarettes, train with bad pompany. They go with other smok- ers to the pool rooms and saloons. The
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561
cigarette drags them down. * * * One of the magistrates in New York states that 99 per cent of the boys between the ages of 10 and 17, who come before him charged with crime have their fingers disfigured by cigarette stains." — Henry Ford.
Attitude of Employers:
"Employers generally disapprove of cigarette smoking and will not employ boys who smoke. Neither Edison nor Ford will employ men in their factories who smoke cigarettes."
The Cadillac Motor Company in Detroit recently posted this no- tice:
"Boys who smoke cigarettes we do not care to keep in our employ. In the future we will no: hire anyone whom we know to be addicted to this habit. It is our desire to weed it entirely out of our factory. * * * We have two objects in view: First, to help men and boys; sec- ond, we believe that men who do not smoke or frequent the saloon can make better automobiles than those who do."
Marshall Field and Company, Chicago:
"For many years it has been our policy not to engage boys who make a practice of smoking cigarettes, as we believe it to be detrimental to their development."
Suggested Projects on Use of Tobacco
1. Public Education on law reg- ulating sale of tobacco and the harmful effects of its use.
2. Pledge officers to missionary work, assignment to and personal contact and labor with users of tobacco.
3. A project for M Men and Gleaners. Through the leaders of these groups stimulate these young people to do missionary work among their associates and friends.
4. Cooperate with civic officers in enforcement of law.
5. Have officers make it special business to check on sale of tobacco to minors.
6. Send men to the state legis- ture who will vote and work right on this and all other moral issues.
What Shall We Do About Liquor?
By DR. JOS. F. MERRILL Church Commissioner of Education
nrHE liquor problem in its va- *■ rious phases and angles is con- tinually in the mind of the public.
There are always "two distinct phases — the habit and the traffic. The beverage use of intoxicating liquors is unwise, often dangerous, for the individual, for society and for the race."
After trying for generations all other means of controlling the evils of the traffic in, and drinking of, intoxicating liquor, the people of the United States adopted prohi- bition, the constitutional amend- ment becoming effective on the 16th of January, 1920. In all, 46 states ratified the 18th Amend- ment, this being the largest number of affirmative state votes ever given to any amendment.
The Outlook said, January 27, 1926:
"National prohibition did not come as a result of an effort to m:.ke men moral by law. It was only when public opinion became convinced that the legalized liquor traffic was hopelessly corrupt and corrupt- ing, and traffic in alcoholic drink was an economic burden which the nation could not afford to bear, that prohibition be- came national."
A ND now what are we going to Jr^ do about it? Repeal the 18th Amendment, as some demand, modify it as others request, or en- force it as prohibitionists insist?
Relative to law observance Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes once said: "Everybody is ready to sus- tain the law he likes. That is not in the proper sense respect for law or order. The test of respect for law is where the law is upheld even though it hurts."
In his inaugural address Pres- ident Hoover said:
"There would be little traffic in illegal liquor if only criminals patronized it. We must awake to the fact that this pa- tronage from large numbers of law abiding citizens is supplying the rewards and stimulating crime .* * * The duty of citizens to support the laws of the land is co-equal with the duty of their govern- ment to enforce the laws which exist. No greater national service can be given by men and women of good will * * * than that they should, by their example, assist in stamping out crime and out- lawry by refusing participation in and condemning all transactions with illegal liquor. * * * Our whole system of self- government will crumble either if officials elect what laws they will enforce or citizens elect what laws they will sup- port. * * * For our citizens to patron- ize the violation of a particular law on the ground that they are opposed to it is destructive on the very basis of all that protection of life, of homes and property which they rightly claim under other laws."
A RE we Latter-day Saints? If so we not only stand for law observance, but as U. S. Prohibi- tion Administrator of this district, German E. Ellsworth says, we are active law observers. We cease standing and become active. This is the greatest thing of all — to obey the law ourselves. Next by our teaching and our examples we try to get others to obey the law. And further, we aid the officers in enforcing the law. How?
(a) By reporting all infrac-. tions of it that our keen and wide- open eyes may see. We now re- port robbery, arson, burglary, as- sault, theft, etc. Is it not equally an obligation of good citizenship to report to the proper officer ob- served or suspected violations of prohibition laws? A failure here is a failure in good citizenship. And this is what the Federal, County and City enforcement of- ficers in Salt Lake City complain of — lack of the active sympathy and aid of the citizenry in helping the officers. The latter are far too few to bring about unaided good enforcement. In any community M. I. A. members might organize to get information that will help the officers.
(b) By frequently compliment- ing the officers who do good work. Let them know you are watching them, confident they will do their duty. Just praise is helpful.
(c) By voting only for candi- dates for public office who are com- petent, fearless, dry in deed as well as word, and in full sympathy with law enforcement. President Coolidge said: "A government which does not enforce its laws is unworthy of the name of a gov- ernment, and cannot expect to hold either the support of its own citi- zens or the respect of the informed opinion of the world."
(d) By ceasing to shirk jury service. Prosecutors are very often discouraged by juries, which, con- trary to the evidence and the facts, acquit guilty defendants. Courts sometimes even reprimand juries for their failure to convict in ac- cordance with the evidence. It often appears that the "wets" are organized to furnish juries that will acquit guilty defendants.
(e) By being optimistic rather than pessimistic with respect to the* success of prohibition. Competent observers declare that prohibition in the United States is an eco-
562
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
nomic success. Hon. Geo. W. Wickersham, Chairman of the Hoover law enforcement commis- sion, recently declared that prohi- bition laws are better enforced than other federal laws. Sheriffs and chiefs of police produce records to show that prohibition is succeed- ing. Frantic opposition efforts of "wets" prove it.
Let us talk for, work for, vote for, and in every way act for, law, its observance and enforcement.
Safety
By JOHN F. BOWMAN Mayor of Salt Lake City
INTRODUCTORY observation : * Every thirty-one seconds a serious automobile accident oc- curs in the United States; the average increase of population of one every thirty-three seconds barely exceeds this casualty toll; every 17 minutes a death from automobile accident occurs; there were 31,500 persons killed by auto in 1929.
These figures show an urgent need for action.
Agencies For Correction
1. Traffic consciousness, very im- portant and may be developed by; (a) Educational programs.
1 . Schools.
a. Junior Traffic Of- ficers.
b. Compositions.
■ c. Lectures and class- work.
2. Safety Council, co- operating with State Council.
3. Civic Clubs.
4. Motion pictures such as "The Verdict"— a traffic story.
5. Children's safety clubs.
6. Drivers' clubs. Their function is to report flagrant violations.
7. Radio.
8. Traffic Week.
a. Posters.
b. Other publicity.
c. Brake testing, light testing, etc., drives.
9. Safety contests among commercial drivers.
1 0. Special box in paper for accidents and deaths weekly.
(b) Law Enforcement.
1. Strong police policy.
2. Cooperation of the
courts.
3. N o n discrimination among petty violators. No tearing up of tags. Impartial enforcement.
4. No withdrawal o f complaints because of non-prosecution for a consideration.
.(c) Legislative Program.
1. Uniform Motor Ve- hicle Legislation, a. Drivers' License.
Issued upon exami- nation.
Subject to revoca- tion or suspen- sion.
Uniform Speed
Regulations.
Uniform penalties
throughout the
states for
1. Reckless driving.
2. Speeding, head- lights, brakes, etc.
3. Driving while intoxicated.
4. Manslaughter.
Out of the Burning
(Continued from page 554)
wanted to be useful, to serve, to render return for her share of life's generous gifts.
She was relieved from duty one evening about nine o'clock, short- ly after the end of her probation- ary period. It had been a hard case. The head nurse was nearly exhausted, many assistants were needed. Dr. Locke had lost his bantering tone. Terse, muttered orders had been the only sound in the grim battle. Even now, though Pamela was relieved, the battle was not yet won. Dr. Dick, the shad- ow, was in attendance for the night.
THE lights of the nurses' home beckoned to the tired Pamela. Her feet ached. Her shoulders drooped. A nausea of ether and gas assailed her. How good the fresh air seemed; hints of running water, of buttercups and pussy willows. She raised her .head to breathe deeper and sud- denly stopped, petrified with fear. A tall, lean man stepped from the shadows directly into her path.
"I come ter marry ye, Curly."
"Oh!" cried 'Pamela, in a tone of half relief and half additional fear. "O," she added. "Is it Bud?" None save the family of Steve Turner called her Curly now.
"I come ter marry ye," persisted the voice in a monotone. He was under the light now and stood re- vealed in a store suit. Tall, straight, erect, purposeful.
"Weuns kin be married in the
mawnin' and be home fur supper. Ma air afixin' a feast."
"O, Bud!" cried Pamela, regret clutching her heart. "I can't do that. I ain't fur marryin' no- body, Bud." She dropped into his speech, hoping to be kind.
"Weuns has got a new room, Curly. I made et purposeful fur youns. Ets got windows; two of 'em, Curly."
"O, Bud, I can't marry nobody. I'm too young. I hev ter keep on larnin'. I hev ter keep ter school three years."
"Youns air twenty," continued Bud in a tone that seemed to con- sider no obstacle. "Millie hed three least ones when she war your age." He came closer and held out a bunch of odorous mountain vio- lets. That was what Pamela had smelled.
"I'm a comin' fur youns in the mawnin'," he repeated. "Maw's fixin' fur a party. Maw air poorly nowadays. Et air too much fur her, tendin' Millie's least one an' totin' coal, and all." He held out his arms, blocking the path. There was no escape save retreat. Pa- mela's mind flashed back seven years to the time Abe Walters way- laid her by the mountain well. Why did men court her in the dark?
B.
>UD stood patiently waiting, the drooping violets clutched in one hand. How ter- rible to hurt him. Mild, kind Bud, who had shielded her youth; who had stood off Millie's threats
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
56H
of violence, who had broken paths through the deep snows. Bud, who had hoed her corn rows, hunted the cow and helped fill her allotted sacks with potatoes. But she faced him bravely. "I ain't fur marryin' nobody. You air good and kind, but I don't want nobody!"
Bud's mouth dropped open. Ev- ery mountain girl hoped to marry. If she were not chosen by twenty, she was considered old, and usu- ally had to be satisfied with a wid- ower. It had never occurred to him that Curly would not be eager and willing. Mountain girls had long considered him desirable but un- attainable.
"I'm a comin' in the mawnin'. "
Ti
HE nurse whom Dr. Locke had pronounced so depend- able, so reliable, was openly cry- ing and running back into the hos- pital. Down the corridor to the vacant porch. There she fell up- on a bed, sobbing unrestrainedly. Poor Bud! How dreadful to hurt him.
Dr. Dick, coming from the room where death had been so im- minent, sought fresh air on the porch. He snapped on the lights and gazed in amazement at the prone figure of Pamela.
"What have we here?" he call- ed. "Why, Miss Harrison! What's the matter? You are supposed to be in bed. Why are you crying?"
"A man wants to marry me!"
blubbered Pamela. "
"Merciful heavens!" answered the doctor. 'Then why weep!" He had had no first hand experi- ence concerning marriage, but from observation, the young women whom he knew did not weep over proposals. They were usually the result of well laid plans.
"I don't want to marry any- body," sobbed Pamela. "He's waiting downstairs. He'll stand there all night. I can't go over to the home. It's Bud Turner from Crow's Nest. Your father knows him. I tell you, I don't want to get married at all!"
'Thank heaven for that!" mut- tered Dr. Dick, not knowing just why he said it, and utterly un- conscious that he was patting Pa- mela's golden curls.
tice to which few people paid any attention. But to Pamela Harri- son and Dr. Dick it had a hidden meaning:
"Steven Turner, age 22 of Crow's Nest, enlisted for a three-
year term in the U. S. navy to- day."
"Thank heaven for that!" re- peated Dr. Dick, still not knowing just why he felt so relieved. (To be continued)
Briefer s Indian Wife Dies
(Continued from page 557)
Ti
HE next evening's papers carried a brief, cursory no-
"Well, the old fellow was 'rubbed out' at last, but it took a grizzly bear to do the job, and it would have been worth a year's wages to see that bear-fight!"
We now skip over seven or eight months to February with the snow crusted and the winds cold at Fort Henry on the Yellowstone:
"Night had fallen, and the hush of intense cold was upon the white waste! A merry fire roared on the hearth of the big trading room where the men were lounging. Old Baptiste was making the Major's fiddle laugh and weep, and often when his bow swung into some old Southern jig-tune, the younger fellows, such as Bridger, would step it lively, aping the negro dancers. By and by, in a momentary hush, the stockade gate was heard to rattle at its bar as though a sudden wind had shaken it: yet there was no wind. The men listened a while, but heard only the howling of the wolves and the fort timbers popping in the great freeze.
"The music began again, and a youth, swinging into an extravagant Negro clog, aroused a roar of laughter. Again the music stopped; and scarcely had the si- lence returned, when a wild hoarse, cry arose outside. Some Crow Indian was there at the gate, no doubt; but what could he want? A trapper got up, and went out into the snow that whined under his moccasins, and, followed by the candle glimmer that spilled through the open door, went to the gate and raised the wicket through which trading was sometimes carried on. Immediately those inside heard the wicket clatter down, and with a look of terror on his face the trapper dashed back into the room and slammed the door.
'I — I — saw — ' he stammered.
'Saw what?' asked the major.
'Old Hugh Glass!' whispered the trapper, ' — all white — his ghost!'
'Fiddlesticks!' said the Major. Get- ting up from his bench by the fire, he went out into the starlit silence, and the men thronged to the door. The chain clanked: the gate swung wide. And then the impossible came to pass! The men saw Henry walking backward, and after him came no other than Hugh Glass who had died yonder at the forks of the Grand and was buried there! His hair that swept his shoulders and his long gray beard matted upon his chest were ghastly with his frozen breath. The men gave way at the door, and Henry backed in, followed by the spectre. And what a fate it had — -grotesquely blurred as though seen reflected in ruffled waters!
The old man stalked boldly into the middle of the room with his long rifle
where a trapper wall with abject
under his arm and stared about him.
" 'My G — ■!' gasped the Major; 'two men saw you die at the forks of the Grand!'
"The old man's chest rumbled with un- pleasant laughter.
'Show me those men who have seen so much,' he said. 'Either they lie here or I lie there! I'm not half sure myself.'
'Yonder is one,' said Henry, point- ing to Jim.
"Hugh turned to crouched against the terror in his eyes. For a brief moment the ruined face of the old man was as though a blizzard swept across it. He set the trigger of his gun and clicked the lock.) Then as he recognized Jim, the youthful blacksmith, his face softened, and. easing the hammer down, he strode over to the young man, demanding, 'where's your companion, the other one that saw me die; it's him I'm after!' , And again revenge seemed stirring every muscle as he sent his glaring eyes, search- ing the men as if impatient for the an- swer, 'show him to me!'
'Glass,' spoke up the Major, 'he left here before the river froze, carrying dispatches to Fort Atkinson.'
Well, well, that's all mighty pe- culiar!' he growled, 'I've come a long, hard journey to take revenge, but seein' he's gone, I'll wait.' . Then turning to his old friend, Hansel, the cook, he half demanded, 'Put on the pot and you'll see what an appetite a ghost can have!' And, having eaten with a wolfish hunger, the old man told the story of his resurrection.
"He could not say how long he had lain there by the spring; but by ir.d by he awoke and managed to get his eyes open. It was sometime before he could realize what had happened to him. Then he knew by the footprints of horses all around him that the main party had been there and gone on. The ash- heap of an old fire, however, showed that Major Henry had not intended to desert him. Some of his comrades had been left be- hind to care for him: but where were they? And where was his 'fixin's'? Not even so much as a knife had been left him.
"The more he thought about the matter the greater grew his anger, and he swore that he would live that he might avenge that treachery. Deliberately he set about the difficult business of getting well enough to travel. The spring furnished plenty of good water, and over it hung a bush full of ripe bull berries. Also, with his teeth he was able to tear flesh from the gashed body of the bear; but the meat had begun to spoil, and soon he had only the fruit and what bread-root he could find in the vicinity.
(Continued on page 566)
Camping
By REV. HOYT E. HENRIQUES
THE organization of the Boy Scouts of America does not
exist solely for summer rec- reation, however attractive this may be. Its purpose is to prepare its mem- bers to take their places in society as well-rounded units, not of dead- ly uniformity but capable of work- ing harmoniously with others to- wards the advancement of an ideal democracy. To further this end, Scouting has an excellent pro- gram varied enough so that boys of all conditions of mental, physi- cal, social, and financial status can become comrades in the great ad- venture.
The Handbook tells of the ways and means of developing such a program, so we need not refer to it at this time save to call atten- tion to the title-page with the word service prominently display- ed. This tells us, better than many words, the great funda- mental ideal of Scouting. Service to God and man, service to the State and its members, is the aim back of all our work. In prep- aration for this life of service, which too few realize in its en- tirety, the program must be di- versified enough to include all the activities of the normal, healthy boy. Among these, perhaps chief of the physical, is camping.
A SCOUT must learn many things, which may be classed either as mental or physical. Ad- vancement depends upon his skill in learning and doing. By mental things we mean those which are more or less separated from physi- cal exertion. Among these are such as "The History and Use of the Flag." This is class-work, en- couraging a laudable respect for the flag of our country.
It is interesting to note that
/ do not count the hours I spend In wandering by the sea;
The forest is my loyal friend, Like Cod it useth me:
Or on the mountain-crest sublime, Or down the oaken glade,
O what have I to do with Time? For this the day was made.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson.
more than half of the merit badges awarded for proficiency, have noth- ing to do with the out-door pro- gram, although not strictly class- work. Blacksmithing, for ex- ample, is not an out-door study, nor is it class-work. Carpentry, music, and textiles likewise are not out-door studies.
f*YN the other hand, we note sev- ^ eral badges awarded for physi- cal achievements which are not strictly a part of the out-door pro- gram. Aviation is physical, men- tal and out-doors, but not a part of what we commonly call the out-door life of a Scout Troop. But most of the physical side of Scouting is intimately connected with the out-door world.
Living in the "Center of Scenic America" we are particularly for- tunate in having so much of the out-doors right at our very door- steps. Perhaps it is because of this that we do not appreciate our op- portunities, for "familiarity breeds contempt" we are told. The writer came out into the mountains a seeker after health, and finding it here, resolved to do his little in im- planting in others a respect for. aye even better than that, a love of God's great nature world.
TN our out-door program, Camp-
ing is the goal to which all our
Scouts look with longing eyes.
Rare indeed is the boy who does
not care to get out and imitate the deeds of the great Scouts of by- gone days. Rare is the boy who is not impressed with the power of the Creator when suddenly confronted with some great mas- terpiece of the Great Builder. The boy may not show how much he is impressed, but nevertheless it makes a lasting impression which may change his whole attitude to- wards things in general.
Camping begins in the Tender- foot rank with Saturday and week-end hikes under the direction of an advanced Scout or adult leader. In these he receives train- ing in the fundamentals of Scout- ing or Camping. He is impressed with the need of careful prepara- tion. A really successful hike or camp is not the product of a few minutes thinking. In this prepa- ration such commonplace things as shoes and stockings take on a new aspect when seen in connec- tion with a fruitful tramp in a near-by canyon. He also has his first lesson in reverence for prop- erty rights, for he must respect the rights of others or he may be de- nied the privilege of entrance. This may seem selfish, but he is shown that unless he is careful of both public and private property other Scouts may suffer from his lack of consideration and be denied desir- able privileges.
TN the Second-class rank he learns the use of signs and symbols as means of conveying messages. A pile of stones now means some- thing to him. His powers of ob- servation are developed so that he can be reasonably sure of his place and direction even if he have no compass. Building a fire with- out waste of time and material is usually a new accomplishment, and his reaction on being shown how little fuel is needed to prepare a palatable meal is gratifying to the leader. Fire-building affords a fine beginning for a study in For-
The Improvement Era for June, 1930
565
estry and Conservation. The long- distance runners of the various In- dian tribes have always been an object of awe for the average American lad, and while our Scouts may not hope to rival the Indian lads in this field, they are taught how to cover ground with little