OCR Text |
Show 370 WESTERN WILDS. blended her life in Utah into one pleasing whole. What was there in this prairie State to take the place of her beloved mountains? Where was the rocky cafion, with ever- varying beauty of gorge, crag, and wooded slope? where the gray and blue peaks standing out sharply against the rosy evening sky ? where the Great Salt Lake, now spread out like a molten mirror in the summer calm, now sparkling in the light breeze, now tossing its white caps in the storm? There was a calm beauty in the rolling prairie ; but where was the wild charm of the Utah valley? The calm rivers had their pleasant features for Iowa people but what could take the place of crystal streams dashing down rocky cafions, of bright water- seeks gurgling by the road- side, of the sacred Jordan and its mountain affluents? There was no charm in this land for the eye of a mountaineer; and soon Manson also con-fessed that, for good or ill, he must some day live in the shadow of the Wasatch. After that their progress was rapid. They could not live away from the mountains. And, as I sat in front of their tasteful cottage, overlooking the city from the first " bench," and heard their story, I did not wonder at their conclusion ; for surely there are few places in this world which so charm the resident as Salt Lake City. Drink of its waters, walk its streets for one year, and you will ever long to return. Give but good government, and intelligent society, and Utah would be to me even as the home of the soul Salt Lake City, the particular spot at which I would pitch my tent forever. |