A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-73

Gentile Account, page 142

Of course one can imagine many interpretations of S's dream. I was more interested in the picture he unconsciously drew of the modern Mahomet "superintending the unloading" of the river steamboat and wearing the common Yankee garb, with a torn sleeve; even while going through the impressive ceremony of welcoming the newly arrived converts in the church. No Rienzi113 pomp and parade to impose on the uned- ucated mind! I often wonder how Joseph Smith maintained so great a hold upon the reverence of his disciples in spite of the disenchanting circumstances that surrounded his daily life. Thursday Feb 6th. I sallied out today to visit some of my friends, but found the doors closed and no smoke curling from the chimneys. Sister Liston's door, I knew would always be open for me, and I turned from the Plaza into the little gate and passed under the long vine arbor to the quiet room where she sat patiently wait- ing the end of her malady. I had not seen her since the Gardner's Festival. I asked her how she got there, and she answered, laughing, that she she [sic] went there as she did to Meeting in the grandest style, for her own husband was the steed when she rode in her wheelbarrow. She explained the absence of the different Sisters from home. They were holding a Sisters Meeting of the Relief Society, she said, for it was one advantage of the monthly Fast Day that, there being no dinner to cook, `Xola di Rienzi, 1313-1354, a popular Roman leader who believed he had a mission to bring the pope in Avignon back to Rome and unify Italy. Wagner's opera Rienzi is based on his life. Columbia Encyclopedia, 1696. 142