PURPOSE ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS—BIRTH AND PARENTAGE OF CAROLINA CORRADI—HER MOTHER'S PRESCIENCE—PREPARATION FOR FUTURE CAREER—DEVOTED WORK IN BEHALF OF DEAD KINDRED.

Few people have accomplished anything in this life worth mentioning who have not had a definite purpose in view, to which every faculty of their mind and body is made to bend. People without a purpose abound on every hand, with nothing in appearance to distinguish them from their fellows except a kind of mental or physical inertia or a fickleness of disposition, causing them to flit about from one pursuit to another, as a butterfly does from flower to flower. Their personal lack of purpose may not be apparent to the casual observer, especially if they be sufficiently under the influence of strong-minded, decisive friends, who furnish the purpose for them, and manipulate them as if they were human automatons.

Some people seem to be born with a purpose, or—more properly speaking—with a disposition to form a purpose, and adhere to it. They are not only possessed of energy, but of the power of concentration, the ability to apply themselves to the one particular purpose before them until they succeed.

Lacking a purpose—either innate or acquired—people are apt to drift aimlessly through life, like an abandoned boat upon the ocean, subject to every wind that blows and every current that flows. With conditions favorable, they may float on indefinitely, even as derelicts at sea have been known to do for years without meeting with any serious obstruction. Their course may be so serene, and so attended with good fortune, that observers may be almost forced to the conclusion that they have a charmed existence. The real test of their constancy and endurance comes to the mechanical derelicts when storms beset them and breakers loom up before them, and to their human prototypes when obstacles are encountered that only a strong mind can cope with, and when no friendly support is at hand, to lean upon. The weak and vacillating then flounder in uncertainty, so lacking in self-confidence as to be absolutely unable to formulate and execute any purposeful plan, while the strong-minded, resolute, self-reliant people carefully lay their plans, and then proceed to fulfill them.

Of course the majority of human derelicts are unwilling to admit that their failure to succeed is due to any fault of theirs. They prefer to believe that they are the victims of chance, or ill-luck, or lack of opportunity. Many of them have no desire to work, and others, if not really lazy, have no pride or interest in the work they do, and are therefore very indifferent workmen, and seldom retain a job long after getting it.

Occasionally a person is found who has sufficient mental grasp to devise, and executive ability to carry out a number of purposes simultaneously, and those who are specially successful in material affairs are sometimes called "Napoleons of finance." More frequently, however, the diffusion of energy due to following too many purposes results in failure. Many of the more conspicuous financial failures are made by persons who fairly bristle with purposes. They are like the ambitious but unwise blacksmith who had so many irons in the fire at once that he either had to slight his work on all or allow some to become overheated and spoiled.

It is infinitely more creditable to have one purpose, and accomplish it successfully, than a number and succeed only indifferently.

The story of which the foregoing is a prelude is not that of a "Napoleon of finance" or even of a Hetty Green in success in material matters, but of that of a very humble, but altogether worthy woman, whose aspirations are spiritual rather than material.

Examples from the ranks of the humble are more apt to be helpful to the great mass of the people than those taken from other classes, as what the wealthy and highly educated classes accomplish is apt to be attributed to their more favored station in life, and therefore not to be emulated by the poor, illiterate and obscure.

It will be observed that the example which follows is one that may be profitably emulated by any, regardless of rank in life.

Carolina Corradi was born September 1, 1856, in Mastetlen, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. She was the youngest but one of eleven children, born of parents who were only in moderate circumstances, and therefore the help of all the children able to work was required to maintain the reputation for thrift which the family had always enjoyed.

The parents were honest, industrious, intelligent, but not specially pious people. Her father, Johannes Corradi, was a rather ingenious man, able to turn his hand to almost any kind of work, and as kind-hearted and self-sacrificing a man as could be found anywhere, and generous almost to a fault. He was greatly beloved by all who knew him, and especially by his children. The mother was an exceptionally good housekeeper, and possessed rare tact as a manager, and developed into quite a business woman, especially after her husband's death, when it became her duty to manage the material affairs of the family. She was also known by her intimates to possess a gift of prescience, or the ability to see things before they actually transpired. By this gift she evidently foresaw something of the future of her daughter Carolina while she was yet a young child, and insisted that she learn the French laundry business, as the time would come when she would find it an advantage to work at it. Carolina was the only child concerning whom the mother had this impression, although the other daughters were apparently as well adapted for that kind of work as she was, and there was nothing about her to indicate that she, any more than the others, would ever need to work at it. Like many other branches of knowledge or craft, the secrets of French laundry work were only to be obtained by sacrifice, and so the parents of Carolina paid a considerable sum of money for the privilege, and bound her to serve without pay for a certain period to have her learn from those who were skilled in that line.

She was apt at learning, became a very proficient hand, and followed that line of employment for about three years while her mother still lived, (her father having died when she was fourteen years of age.) The mother died in 1883, leaving the children, who, however, were all grown to maturity by that time, to shift for themselves. Her last words to Carolina were that she must not mourn or despair because of her death, as there was something great prepared for her, of which she was then in ignorance, but of which she would learn in due time. She said nothing of the kind about the other children, and the family talked about the fact after the mother's death and decided among themselves that it meant that Carolina was somehow going to become possessed of wealth. They had faith in their mother's ability to see things that were coming to pass, and they couldn't think of anything quite so desirable in their estimation as wealth.

Carolina went out to service, and was mostly engaged in general housework. While the parents lived the family never learned of the Gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints, but some years later it was brought directly to the attention of some of the surviving members of the family, and Carolina alone of all of them was attracted by it. She joined the Church in the year 1889, and was so impressed with the doctrine of salvation for the dead, that she soon afterwards wrote a letter to the clerk of the parish in which her parents were born, to obtain information in regard to their ancestors. This was done in the hope that she might, at some time in the future, be able to have a vicarious work done in their behalf. To her gratification, the parish officer proved to be a distant relative, by the name of Corradi, and he supplied her with the names of her ancestors for a few generations—thirty-five or thirty-six names in all. They were all she was able to obtain, or knew where to obtain, before she migrated to Utah (which she did in the year 1891,) and she came here with a strong desire that they should have all the privileges of the Gospel that they might have enjoyed had they accepted of it in mortality.

She inherited enough from her parents' estate to pay for her emigration to Utah and leave $35.00 in her pocket when she landed here. That was the amount of her capital at the inception of her career here in Utah, less than twenty-three years ago. She had no relatives, and few acquaintances, in this land, and was unfamiliar with the language of the country.

She obtained work in a laundry at the lowest price paid to inexperienced hands, and was glad to get it. She was devoted to her religion, was faithful in attending meetings, paying her tithes and fast offerings, and never lost sight of the duty that she so early felt to be resting upon her, to do all that was in her power for the salvation of her dead kindred. In the meantime she had been acquiring a knowledge of the English language, but it was six years after she arrived in Utah before she began her vicarious work in the Temple. She was not able to follow this work up continuously—only to spend a day at a time, but the spirit of the work grew upon her. She was able to officiate for the females of her kindred, but she was in doubt as to how to proceed to get the work done for her male kindred. While in this state of anxiety the Spirit prompted her to apply to Niels P.L. Eskildz, with the assurance that he would faithfully serve, and be of great assistance to her. She accordingly applied to him, and, as already related, obtained his consent. When all those whose names she had were officiated for, she was favored with an open vision, in which a person appeared to her and told her that she had a great work yet to perform in behalf of her dead kindred—that she would do the work for more than a thousand.

At that time she did not know where she could get another name, and earned so little by her work (she never was paid more than $1.10 per day at the laundry, and much of the time only received $1.00 per day) that she couldn't foresee how she could ever afford to pay for having her genealogy traced up and obtain more names. She had recently been trying to obtain laundry work (ironing) in private families, with a view to earning more than she had been able to at the laundries, but had not yet succeeded to any great extent. She felt, however, that the Lord had inspired the promise made to her, and that He could and would provide a way for its fulfillment, but how she could not forsee.

Soon afterwards she obtained work in her line in a private wealthy family, where she was able to earn $2.00 per day, and also learned of a man who was engaged in the business of tracing up genealogies, whom she employed to obtain the names of her ancestors. She has since obtained several extensive lists of names, including several lines of her ancestors, and has now had Brother Eskildz regularly employed for several years, whenever he has been able to do so, officiating for her dead male kindred, while she has employed women, and occasionally spends a day in the Temple herself, laboring for her female kindred. She has thus done herself, or hired others to do the work, for almost 1800, and by the time she completes the work for all the names she has, the number will be increased to fully 1900.

She has done this as a labor of love, and found great joy and satisfaction in so doing—in fact, feeling repaid as she has proceeded by the enjoyment the work has afforded her, for all the labor and sacrifice it has involved. While her earnings have never been munificent, she has maintained a decent, respectable appearance, keeping house in from one to three rented rooms, and honestly paid her way and done her duty as a church member—all from her own earnings.

She feels that the Lord has been specially kind to her, in providing a way for the gratification of her earnest desire in behalf of her dead kindred. She expresses also her gratitude to Brother Eskildz, to whom great credit is due for classifying the names and providing for the orderly and complete performance of the work, so that no names have been duplicated, and none omitted. She says she doesn't know how she could have accomplished what she has without his help. Her genealogical records are in fine shape, and are a credit to her.

When asked how much money she had spent for genealogical research, for books in which to keep a record of the work done and for the payment of people she had hired to officiate for her kindred, she replied she did not know, and she did not care to know. She was content to know that it had been spent in a worthy cause, gave the Lord the credit for it and did not even seek any personal recognition.

She has felt sure since embracing the Gospel that her mother must have had a foreknowledge that she would labor in this cause, and she has had many assurances since she first engaged in the Temple work that her parents are aware of the vicarious work she has done or caused to be done in behalf of the dead, and heartily approve of the same.

She has sought no notoriety in what she has done; in fact, was rather reluctant about admitting it or giving any information concerning it, but the consciousness of it affords her a great deal of satisfaction—infinitely more, she says that the possession of a million dollars could.

Some women have doubtless done more than she in laboring for the salvation of the dead, numbers considered, but her record offers a specially fine example of a holy purpose faithfully pursued, and Carolina Corradi will doubtless stand throughout eternity as the personification of self-sacrifice and filial devotion.