MISTAKE IN BUILDING—SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS—TAXED—THE CRICKET WAR—CROPS SAVED—HARVEST FEAST—DEPUTATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES—ELDER TAYLOR CONFERS WITH IT—CALLED TO FRANCE—FROM SAWPIT TO PULPIT—THE LIFE OF AN APOSTLE.

So the winter passed away, and the spring came, and with it came frequent rain storms. "We made one mistake in building," remarks Elder Taylor; "having been informed there was no rain, or very little, in the valley, we made our roofs too flat, which, when the spring rains commenced, caused considerable trouble." It was with great difficulty that their beds could be kept dry. But this was not their chief difficulty—food was getting scarce, and a number of the improvident ones were without.

At a public meeting, Elder Taylor proposed that a tax be laid upon the people according to their means to pay it, to supply those who were in need; and that the High Council be authorized to levy it, and have discretionary power to determine who should be taxed, and who should be assisted. The motion was carried unanimously.

Elder Taylor and his family, in common with the whole people, made every effort to get in extensive crops of grain and large gardens. In this they were quite successful; but when early summer brought flattering promises of a bountiful harvest, then from the mountains came myriads of black crickets into their grain fields and threatened to destroy them. The people, even to the women and children, turned out, to stay, if possible, the ravages of the destroyer. They devised various ways to rid themselves of the terrible insect, but in vain they labored; the crickets were rapidly making green fields bare. When it is remembered that the colonists were dependent on that crop for food for the ensuing year, it is not surprising that hope sank within them, or that they became alarmed and talked of sending an express to President Young, begging him not to bring in any more people, as there was a famine in prospect. But in the midst of their calamity a wonderful deliverance was at hand; untold thousands of snow-white sea-gulls came in clouds from the direction of the lake, and settling down upon the fields of grain, began devouring the crickets. Day after day did these white-winged messengers of mercy continue the work of devouring crickets, until the pests were destroyed and the fields of growing grain saved.

In August an abundant harvest was gathered, and a public harvest feast proclaimed. In the midst of the feasting and dancing, singing and rejoicing, the Saints did not forget to thank and praise the Power which had given them the rich fruits of the earth; and expressions of gratitude—soul-felt and universal—in prayer and speech, occurred as frequently as song or dance.

In all these anxieties, labors, fears, hopes and rejoicings, Elder Taylor took part. Many leaned on his strength in those days. When despair settled over the colony he infused it with hope; when the weak faltered, he strengthened them; when the fearful trembled, he encouraged them; those cast down with sorrow, he comforted and cheered. His faith and trust in God, and in His power to preserve and deliver His people were as unshaken in the midst of the difficulties they encountered in settling the desert valleys of Utah, as it had been in the midst of mob violence in Missouri and Illinois; as unmoved as it was amid the confused shouts and curses, groans and shriekings, and murderous bullets which, all mingled together, made up that scene of hell and death in Carthage jail.

Though much of his time was occupied in teaching and encouraging others, he was also active in farming, gardening, fencing fields, etc.; and during the summer of 1849, constructed a bridge over the Jordan River, the first that ever spanned that stream. With Parley P. Pratt and others he went on several exploring expeditions. In one of these he visited Utah Valley and Lake. He built the first boat that was launched on that beautiful sheet of water, and ascertaining that there was an abundance of fish in the lake he manufactured a sein a hundred feet long, for which his wives spun the material. The fish caught in this manner materially assisted in eking out the scant supplies of the colonists.

In August, 1849, General John Wilson, with a small military escort, visited the colonists. He was on a private mission from the President of the United States, Zachary Taylor, to the Saints. The object of that mission was this:

There was trouble anticipated in the then approaching congress, about the territorial question, involving as it did, at that time, the extension of slavery. General Wilson, therefore, was sent to request the settlers in Salt Lake Valley to unite with California and form a state, which it was proposed to admit into the Union, and thus, for the time being, remove the slavery question from congress. The pro-slavery party had been gaining ground rapidly for a few years previous to this time. Texas had been annexed, and was a slave state. So extensive was its territory, that it was capable of being divided into several states, all of which, of course, would tolerate slavery.

The treaty which closed the war with Mexico had resulted in the United States obtaining an immense area of country, out of which new states and territories would be carved; and of course there was in prospect a terrible struggle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties, the former seeking to establish slavery in, and the latter to exclude it from the states and territories to be made out of this new accession of country. It was thought by the administration, that if a large state extending from the Pacific ocean eastward to Salt Lake, with slavery prohibited by its constitution, was admitted into the Union, it would offset the then late accession of Texas, and calm the rising storm over that question.

General Wilson stated, that so eager was the President of the United States in regard to the subject, that if he [Wilson] found any difficulty in the way, his instructions were to appeal to the patriotism of the Mormon people.

Elder Taylor, Charles C. Rich and Daniel Spencer were appointed to confer with General Wilson upon the subject of his mission. The result of those deliberations was a proposal by the people of Salt Lake Valley, California agreeing therewith, to form a state unitedly, and continue in that condition two years; after which the eastern part of the state was to be formed into a state by itself.

With this as a basic proposition, General Wilson started for California, to confer with another gentleman who had been sent out on a like mission to that place; but he encountered very severe weather in the mountains, by which he was delayed. After many severe hardships he reached the coast, only to find that his coadjutor had become tired of waiting and had sailed for the East, so that they did not meet to confer upon the matter proposed to the Saints.

Senator Truman Smith, of Connecticut, in a speech he delivered in the United States Senate, July 8th, 1850, after having read some statements furnished him by Dr. John M. Bernhisel, thus alludes to the presence of General Wilson in Salt Lake Valley:

"The statement of Dr. Bernhisel touching the wonderful progress made by the people of Deseret within a space of time incredibly brief, is abundantly confirmed by a letter which I received from General John Wilson, dated at Salt Lake City, September 6th, 1849, from which I submit the following extract:

"A more orderly, earnest, industrious and civil people, I have never been among than these, and it is incredible how much they have done here in the wilderness in so short a time. In this city which contains about from four to five thousand inhabitants, I have not met in a citizen a single idler, or any person who looks like a loafer. Their prospects for crops are fair, and there is a spirit and energy in all that you see that cannot be equaled in any city of any size that I have ever been in, and I will add, not even in old Connecticut."

Elder Taylor having labored for two years in laying the foundation of a future great commonwealth, was then called upon to leave that kind of labor and introduce the gospel into France.

What a change is here! from the desert wilds of the Rocky Mountains, in the interior of America, to France—to proud, beautiful France, first in all that pertains to modern civilization! From a city of adobe huts, log cabins and board shanties, to the glittering splendors and sumptuous palaces of splendid Paris! From the saw-pit to the pulpit, and lecture-platform—such is the life of an apostle!

PRIMITIVE SAW MILL

PRIMITIVE SAW MILL