Twelve Mormon Homes : Twelve Mormon homes visited in succession on a journey through Utah to Arizona.

Twelve Mormon Homes, page 122

in the same blanket. Some are woven with complicated designs, evidently varying with the humor of the weaver. Unlike the lazy Pi-edes and Utes, there are Navajo men who think it not be- neath their dignity to work, and will sit patiently on their heels in the sunshine all day twirling the spindle. The different styles of Indian blanket vary more than our own do, but a connoisseur can tell the difference between a Moquis, an Apache, or a Navajo blanket at a glance. I have spoken of the "Co-op. herd." In Utah they have carried the principle of co-operation very far, and finding how well it pays are pushing it in every direction. Each settlement has its herd, its dairy, its stores, its irrigating channels, and its fields managed on this basis; and the effort so far to restore the primi- tive Christian communism is entirely successful in settlements where the brethren live alone, without Gentiles to come in on them. One fence will enclose the harvest-fields or cotton-grounds of a whole settlement, each brother doing his share of the labor and being credited with his portion of the produce. The excellent roads that carried us from one end of the terri- tory to the other are not maintained at the cost of the entire pop- ulation. The sums voted by the legislature are small, as the nom- inal taxation of Utah is very light; but the brethren from each settlement come out and make the road as part of the tithing of their labor. The bishops act as unpaid supervisors, and Brigham Young praises or blames each day's work as he comes to his journey's end over it.60 "OMan Y diarists in pioneer Utah record their working on the roads or other public projects as part of their tithing. John D. Lee in his diaries has many accounts of teams, men, and materials provided for road building. Arrington, Great Basin 122