OCR Text |
Show AND THE CITY. 95 that pays his entrance fee, considers that he is keeping Brother Brigham, and to do so is to him a pleasure. The theatre is the largest building in the city. It has a very plain exterior, but I am informed that the interior ar rangement cannot be surpassed for completeness and elegance by any theatre in the country, since the burning of the Academy of Music in New York city. Near the theatre is the City Hall, one of the finest buildings in the city. It is built of red sandstone, and the tin covering of the rounded top of its cupola on the centre of the roof, is con spicuous from all the approaches to the city In an other part of the city is a somewhat similar building, the court- house of the " State of Deseret." The public hall of the " Council of Seventy," is in the same locality, and so is the " Social Hall," belonging to Brigham, which is hired for balls, & c. There is but one hotel in the city, the Salt Lake House, which is a two- story building, with limited accommodations, often insufficient for the demand, and would not be creditable to any town of five thousand inhabitants east of the Mississippi.* The hotel, like the theatre, I have been told by good au thority, is the property of Brigham Young, and is conducted for him by a relative. A skeptic might suppose that the Pres ident has some regard for lucre, as well as the salvation of the souls of his fellow- men. On Main street, in the vicinity of the hotel, nearly all the principal business houses are situated. That of Mr. Jen nings, to which I have already alluded, is but one of a num ber of large stores. Walker Brothers, Ramshoff & Co., Gilbert & Sons, are the principal Gentile merchants, but the last named Gentile firm are also Jews. There is known no distinction between Jew and Christian by the Mor mon they are both Gentiles to him. There are a number * Since this was written another hotel, known as the Revere House, has been started by a Gentile, and I understand at least one other will be opened next summer. Gentile houses, I should think, would do well, as the majority of the patrons of the Salt Lake House are anti- Mormons. |