Latest / Science Fiction Books - Daily / 27 - Around The World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
Transcript
- Chapter twenty seven, in which past Partou undergoes at a speed of twenty miles an hour a course of Mormon history. During the night of the fifth of December, the train ran southeasterly for about fifty miles, then rose an equal distance in the northeasterly direction towards the Great Salt Lake. Past Partou about nine o'clock went out upon the platform to take the air. The weather was cold, the heavens gray, but it was not snowing. The sun's disk, enlarged by the mist, seemed an enormous ring of gold, and Past Partu was amusing himself by calculating its value impounds sterling, when he was diverted from this interesting study by a strange looking personage who made his appearance on the platform. This personage, who had taken the train at Elco, was tall and dark, with black mustache, black stockings, a black silk hat, a black waistcoat, black trousers, a white cravat, and dogskin gloves. He might have been taken for a clergyman. He went from one end of the train to the other and affixed to the door of each car a notice written in manuscript Passepartout approached and read one of these notices, which stated that Elder William Hitch, Mormon missionary, taking advantage of his presence on train number forty eight, would deliver a lecture on Mormonism in car number one seventeen from eleven to twelve o'clock, and that he invited all who were desirous of being instructed concerning the mysteries of the religion of the Latter day Saints to attend. I'll go, said Passepartout to himself. He knew nothing of Mormonism except the custom of polygamy, which is its foundation. The news quickly spread through the train, which contained about one hundred passengers, thirty of whom, at most attracted by the notice ensconced themselves. In Car number one seventeen. Passepartout took one of the front seats. Neither mister Fogg nor Fix cared to attend. At the appointed hour. Elder William Hitch rose, and, in an irritated voice, as if he had already been contradicted, said, I'll tell you that Joe Smith is a martyr, that his brother Hiram is a martyr, and that the persecutions of the United States government against the prophets, will also make a martyr of Brigham Young, who dares to say the contrary. No one ventured to gainsay the missionary, whose excited tone contrasted curiously with his naturally calm visage. No doubt his anger arose from the hardships to which the Mormons were actually subjected. The government had just succeeded, with some difficulty in reducing these independent fanatics to its rule. It made itself master of Utah and subjected that territory to the laws of the Union. After imprisoning Brigham Young on a charge of rebellion and polygamy. The disciples of the prophet had since redoubled their efforts and resisted by words at least the authority of Congress. Elder Hitch, as is seen, was trying to make proselytes of the very railway trains. Then emphasizing his words with his loud voice and frequent gestures, He related the history of the Mormons from biblical times, how that in Israel, a Mormon prophet of the tribe of Joseph published the annals of the New religion and bequeathed them to his son Mormon how many centuries later a translation of this precious book, which was written in Egyptian, was made by Joseph Smith Junior, a Vermont farmer who revealed himself as a mystical prophet in eighteen twenty five, and how in short, the celestial messenger appeared to him in an illuminated forest and gave him the annals of the Lord. Several of the audience, not being much interested in the missionaries narrative, here, left the car, but Elder Hitch, continuing his lecture, related how Smith Junior, with his father, two brothers, and a few disciples, founded the Church of the Latter day Saints, which adopted not only in America, but in England, Norway, and Sweden and Germany counts many artisans as well as men engaged in the liberal professions among its members. How a colony was established in Ohio, a temple erected there at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, and a town built at Kirkland. How Smith became an enterprising banker and received from a simple mummy showman a papyrus scroll written by Abraham and several famous Egyptians. The Elder's story became somewhat wearisome, and his audience grew gradually less until it was reduced to twenty passengers. But this did not disconcert the enthusiast, who proceeded with the story of Joseph Smith's bankruptcy in eighteen thirty seven, and how his ruined creditors gave him a coat of tar and feathers, his reappearance some years afterward more honorable and honored than ever at independence Missouri, the chief of a flourishing colony of three thousand disciples, and his pursuit thence by outraged gentiles and retirement into the far west. Ten hearers only were now left among them honest Passepartout, who was listening with all his ears. Thus he learned that after long persecutions, Smith reappeared in Illinois and in eighteen thirty nine founded a community at Navhu on the Mississippi, numbering twenty five thousand souls, of which he became mayor, chief Justice and general in chief. That he announced himself in eighteen forty three as a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and that finally being drawn into ambuscade at Carthage, he was thrown into prison and assassinated by a band of men disguised in masks. Passepartout was now the only person left in the car, and the elder, looking him full in the face, reminded him that two years after the assassination of Joseph Smith, the inspired prophet Brigham Young his successor, left Nauvoo for the banks of the Great Salt Lake, where, in the midst of that fertile region, directly on the route of the emigrants who crossed Utah on their way to California, the new colony, thanks to the polygamy practiced by the Mormons, had flourished beyond expectations. And this, added Elder William Hitch, this is why the jealousy of Congress has been roused against us. Why have the soldiers of the Union invaded the soil of Utah. Why has Brigham Young, our chief, been imprisoned in contempt of all justice? Shall we yield of force? Never driven from Vermont, driven from Illinois, driven from Ohio, driven from Missouri, riven from Utah, We shall yet find some independent territory on which to plant our tents. And you, my brother, continued the elder, fixing his angry eyes upon his single auditor, Will you not plant yours there too, under the shadow of our flag? No, replied passepartout courageously in his turn, retiring from the car and leaving the elder to preach to vacancy. During the lecture. The train had been making good progress, and towards half past twelve it reached the northwest border of the Great Salt Lake. Thence the passengers could observe the vast extent of this interior sea, which is also called the Dead Sea, and to which flows an American Jordan. It is a picturesque expanse, framed in lofty crags and large strata encrusted with white salt, a superb sheet of water which was formerly of larger extent than now, the shores having encroached with the lapse of time, and thus at once reduced its breadth and increased its depth. The Salt Lake, seventy miles long and thirty five wide, is situated three miles eight hundred feet above the sea, quite different from Lake Asphaltite, whose depression is twelve hundred feet below the sea. It contains considerable salt, and one quarter of the weight of its water is solid matter. Its specific weight being one point one seven zero and after being distilled one point zero zero zero. Fishes are of course unable to live in it, and those which descend through the Jordan, the Weber and other streams soon perish. The country around the lake was well cultivated, for the Mormons are mostly farmers, while ranches and pens for domesticated animals. Fields of wheat, corn and other cereals. Luxuriant prairies, hedges of wild rows, clumps of acacias and milkwort would have been seen six months later la Now the ground was covered with a thin powdering of snow. The train reached Ogden at two o'clock, where it rested for six hours. Mister Fogg and his party had time to pay a visit to Salt Lake City, connected with Ogden by a branch road, and they spent two hours in this strikingly American town, built on the pattern of other cities of the Union, like a chequerboard with the somber sadness of right angles. As Victor Hugo expresses it, the founder of the City of the Saints could not escape from the taste for symmetry, which distinguishes the Anglo Saxons in this strange country, where the people are certainly not up to the level of their institutions. Everything is done squarely, cities, houses and follies. The travelers then were promenading at three o'clock about the streets of the town, built between the banks of the Jordan and the spurs of the Wassatch Range. They saw few or no churches, but the prophet's mansion, the court house, and the arsenal, blue brick houses with verandas and porches surrounded by gardens boarded with acacias, palms and locusts. A clay and pebpal wall built in eighteen fifty three surrounded the town, and in the principal street, where the market and several hotels adorned with pavilions. The place did not seem thickly populated. The streets were almost deserted, except in the vicinity of the temple, which they only reached after having traversed several quarters surrounded by palisades. There were many women, which was easily accounted for by the peculiar institution of the Mormons. But it must not be supposed that all the Mormons are polygamists. They are free to marry or not as they please. But it is worth noting that is mainly the female citizens of Utah who are anxious to marry, as according to the Mormon religion, maiden ladies are not admitted to the possession of its highest joy. These poor creatures seemed to be neither well off nor happy. Some, the more well to do, no doubt, wore short, open black silk dresses under a hood or modest shawl. Others were habited in Indian fashion passepartout could not behold without a certain fright. These women charged in groups with conferring happiness on a single Mormon. His common sense pitied above all the husband. It seemed to him a terrible thing to have to guide so many wives at once across the vicissitudes of life, and to conduct them, as it were, in a body to the Mormon Paradise, with the prospect of seeing them in the company of the glorious smith, who doubtless was the chief ornament of that delightful place to all eternity. He felt decidedly repelled from such a vocation, and he imagined, perhaps he was mistaken that the fair ones of Salt Lake City cast rather alarming glances on his person. Happily, his stay there was but brief. At four, the party found themselves again at the station, took their places in the train, and the whistle sounded for starting. Just at the moment, however, that the locomotive wheels began to move, Cries of stop, stop were heard. Trains like time and tide stopped for no one. The gentleman who uttered the cries was evidently a belated Mormon. He was breathless with running. Happily, for him, the station had neither gates nor barriers. He rushed along the track, jumped on the rear platform of the train, and fell exhausted into one of the seats. Passepartout, who had been anxiously watching this amateur gymnast, approached him with lively interest and learned that he had taken flight after an unpleasant domestic scene. When the Mormon had recovered his breath, Passepartout ventured to ask him politely how many wives he had for from the manner in which he had decamped, it might be thought that he had twenty at least one, Sir, replied the Mormon, raising his arms heavenward. One and that was enough. End of chapter