threw ourselves upon a bed of pine branches and made suggestions for his drawing. All things must come to an end. We were obliged to tear ourselves away and to descend to earth. Nature was kind and let us down gently. The beds of flowers, the groups of granite rocks, the far distant' scenery soothing us. But the human was working within us and our thoughts turned towards the immense sandwiches that had been prepared. We found the typical place for luncheon, with its welcome shade above, and cool trickling water at our feet. Our time had come; we proceeded to desolate Alta and the tramway soon whirled all romance

into the past and dashed us down to the realization of prosy life with all its cares and duties. May Wells.

Conscience is like a sun dial. If you let truth shine upon it, it will point you right, but you may cover it over so that no truth can fall upon it, and then it will lead you astray if you follow its guidance.

Keep up hope in bad times. We have the same sun and sky and stars, the same God and heaven and truth; the same duties and the same helpers. Hope thou in God.-Dr. Goodell.

Any fool may meet with good fortune, but the wise man only will profit by it.

'Tis a sin to succeed sometimes. The eyes,
The emerald eyes of envy, how they glow!
Green with a hatred guile can ne'er conceal,
Tho' lip and hand seem friendly, when Success,
Fair goddess of good deeds and noble words,
Sits smiling at the fount of destiny
That feeds the river of a rival's fame.
Tho' lip, tho' hand may flatter, looks ne'er lie.
Attempt how vain! Transparent as the veil
O'er autumn's face, by Indian summer flung,
The falsehood still appears. A grievous sin
To jealous eyes-a sin scarce e'er forgiven-
Each good, each grand success that merit wins.
To jealous spleen add power, and who shall tell,
While cunning craft his wily hand doth hide,
What pits, what snares await the hapless wight,
Child of success and favorite of fame,
Who dares the mount of glorious deeds ascend!
If rightful cause, real reason, none appear,
And panoplied in purity he stands,

Still cause is quickly found-for pretext springs
As sage from barren soil; hate's quiver pours
Its arguments like arrows at the feet

Of power that speeds the shaft; and like a bird
The soaring soul, pierced midway in its flight,
Drops dead or wounded to the lowly plain.
Shot from an ambush! Knows he aught beside,
Save that base treachery lies lurking there?
What else for him, hate's victim, then remains,
Save patient grief and pardon of the wrong?
What cause had kingly Saul the shepherd lad-
Goliath's conqueror-to hate and spurn?
Stood not his throne, his royal line, secure,
Tho' David lived and breathed and battled on,
Still winning fair the laurel wreaths he wore?

Or dared he curse whom erst Jehovah blessed?
To hunt, as hound the flying hare, the soul-
The sacred soul of Israel's future king?
Sinned he not more, so doing, severing there
More surely and more swift the fateful chain
That bound him to the favor of the stars
And states that them inhabit, than when ire
Of Samuel roused in Agag's guilty cause?
Thy sin, O son of Jesse! was success.
Thy cause, O jealous king! the cause of Cain,
Of Cain 'gainst Abel, Lucifer 'gainst Christ,
Of Herod 'gainst the babe of Bethlehem.
The cause of envious wrath 'gainst righteous
worth,

In every act and scene of Time the same.

Yet some there be--such souls as diamonds rare,
In these earth's dying days-who are not pained
If fair success upon their fellows smile,
E'en through adversity doth coldly frown
And freeze the current of their own souls' weal.
And some there be-such gems still rarer shine-
Who, e'en as rivals of a rising star,
Still glory in its radiance, flung afar
For earth's illumining. God's noble ones
Are these, in either world; souls all select,
That live and labor, not for self, but seek,
O'er all, man's good, their Maker's glory; live,
Strive, not alone for kin, but for their kind,
And hold all men their brethren.
'Mid lesser lights, 'mid circling stars, are they;
The planets of a primal magnitude,
That shed their light upon the lessers' path,
Nor seek a dawning splendor to eclipse,
Nor joy to see a glorious star grow dim.
But weep, as wept the heavens o'er Lucifer,
When fainting falls and flickering expires

Blazing suns

33

The lowliest of all the sons of Light,
Self-slain by pride, or pierced by envious power.
As water-drops, all lives their level find,
The meanest and the mightiest. Ne'er mix
The dross of earth and gold of heaven, save here
In God's great furnace fire. There, Justice still
Will claim her own, and like with like will blend.
Haply till then 'twill ne'er be fully known
Who here succeed, who fail; for oft success
Doth failure seem, while sheer and rank defeat
May mask as victory. Success is sin
And failure, when unfairly we succeed;
And earth with all her blazing battle-fields,
And pride and pomp and tyranny of power,
Hath no such victories as soul may win
O'er self by sacrifice.

Such high success
No sin is; no, not e'en to jealous eyes,
That scaled in earthliness scarce see aright
Time's vantages-how then Eternity's?
That see not how supremely eminent,

In God's clear gaze, doth loom the mighty soul

That masters self, self's deepest wrongs condone,
And patient plods in pain and poverty-
If so the Master will-while lesser chiefs,
And lower lords, and serfs and paupers e'en,
In golden chariots ride; climbing with Christ
The steep and prickly path of principle,
To where, with smiling face and outreached

arms,

Wooing the martyr to her soft embrace,
To stanch his tears, and on his bleeding brow
Write the word "conqueror," awaits Success.

Go on, great work of God! The David thou
Of dispensations; hated, hunted, spurned
Throughout the ages. Vainly still shall speed
The javelins of spiteful jealousy.
Crushed thou may'st ofttimes be, but conquered
ne'er.

Still whirls the mystic wheel of destiny.
Gilboa waits the tyrant; and thy hand,
Thy potent hand, uplifted but in prayer,
And not to pierce, shall lay all giants low.
O. F. Whitney.

come guest;

Thy presence so royal need ask no release, My homage is worship, I love thee the best. Thy sway absolute as a tyrant could ask,

My home as a palace of duty should shine; Who would not thee cherish ?-a lovable taskCome dwell with me peace, I will ever be

thine.

Can we exorcise them by the siren of song,

Or in the dark midnight give sunshine of day? Oh Peace! thou immaculate, sinless, divine, Wilt dwell with the weakest of earth's erring sons?

sway;

Wilt barter thy house where the cherubims shine, For the tenement owned of earth's desolate ones?

THE CONTRIBUTOR.

JUNIUS F. WELLS, Editor.

SALT LAKE CITY, NOVEMBER, 1890.

THE MANIFESTO.

To whom it may concern:

PRESS dispatches having been sent for politi'cal purposes, from Salt Lake City, which have been widely published, to the effect that the Utah Commission, in their recent report to the Secretary of the Interior, allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or more such marriages have been contracted since last June or during the past year; also that in public discourses the leaders of the Church have taught and encouraged and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy;

I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have, during that period, been solemnized in our temples or in any other place in the Territory.

One case has been reported, in which the parties alleged that the marriage was performed in the Endowment House, in Salt Lake City, in the spring of 1889, but I have not been able to

learn who performed the ceremony; whatever

was done in this matter was without my knowledge. In consequence of this alleged occurrence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay.

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can reasonably be construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy, and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now pub

licly declare that my advice to the Latter-day

Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

Wilford Woodruff. President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

At the General Conference, Monday, October 7th, the above was read and Apostle Lorenzo Snow offered the following motion:

"I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only man on the earth at the present time who holds the keys of the sealing ordinances, we consider him fully authorized by virtue of his position to issue the manifesto, which has been read in our hearing, and which is dated September 24th, 1890, and that as a Church in General Conference as

sembled, we accept his declaration concerning plural marriage as authoritative and binding." The resolution was unanimously adopted by the vast assembly present.

It has been, ever since, an absorbing theme of conversation, and has led the people to reflect upon the relations with the General Government in a manner to confirm them more than ever in their conviction that God inspired the Constitution and will preserve it and a people to maintain it.

When the Edmunds bill passed Congress and became a law, disfranchising thousands of Latter day Saints, and jeopardizing their liberties, it was believed to be unconstitutional and the counsel of the President of the Church and his associates was to test the validity of the law in the courts; but at the same time to assume a willingness to conform in practice to its requirements. He arranged his own family matters accordingly, and advised others to do likewise.

This indeed has been the attitude of the Latter-day Saints with respect to the laws of the land ever since the Church was organized. They have always yielded obedience to the law and have claimed the right to protection from the law. It has been mob violence and the persecutions of the lawless that our people have ever resisted. There is no more calumnious and false charge than that Latter-day Saints are or ever have been defiant breakers of the law.

In regard to the laws against plural marriage, it has been difficult for men, who had contracted such marriages before any law existed against them, or the validity of such laws was decided, to at once conform to the arbitrary rulings o

represent shall be as judiciously expended the thirty-five associations getting premiums will be well endowed with the foundation, at least, of splendid libraries.

An interesting centennial will be celebrated next December at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where Samuel Slater, on December 21st, 1790, virtually began cotton manufacture in this country, although previous efforts had been made. Slater was a pupil of Arkwright, and as the English law forbade the communication of models of the cotton spinning machinery to other countries, Slater, trusting to his memory, reconstructed it under a contract with William Almy and Smith Brown. But for some time he could not recall a small but essential part of the process, and the tradition is that in a dream he returned to England, examined the machinery, found what he wanted and upon awaking completed his work successfully.

A recent article in Harper's Weekly alludes to this story and says that many years ago, Mr. Slater, himself, related the circumstance to a gentleman, who often repeated it in his family, from whom the Weekly got it. After long labor, working secretly with the aid of one man only, Slater thought that he had put the machinery in running order, and invited a few gentlemen interested in the enterprise to see the happy result of his toil. Proud and excited he essayed to start the machine, but it did not move. In vain, he tried, and, grieved and mortified, he dismissed his friends, assuring them, however, that he should certainly discover the difficulty.

But he was deeply discouraged. All the day and night he pondered and examined and tested and tried to move the machinery, but still it remained motionless. At length, heartsick and weary, he leaned his head against the machine and fell asleep. As he slept, he heard distinctly, a cheerful, friendly voice, saying: "Why don't you chalk the bands, Sam?" He started up, broad awake, and knew at once that a slight friction in the working of the machine was what was

wanting, and again summoning his friends, he saw in the smooth action of the jenny the triumphant result of his work. It is a pleasant story, and the Slater legend is not an invention, unless Mr. Slater deceived himself.

That it was a happy thought to introduce a page of appropriate music in THE CONTRIBUTOR and take steps to organize glee clubs and lesser combinations of singers in the associations is already manifest.

The announcement that a grand competition for prizes will be held in connection with the Annual Conference of the Y. M. M. I. A., next June, when Five Hundred Dollars will be distributed to the winning clubs, has had the effect of awakening a lively interest already.

There are several wards in Salt Lake City, and some outside, which have signified their intention of competing for the leading premium, and preliminary meetings of their male singers have already been held.

Quartettes and double quartettes will be practicing all winter in many wards, and we are assured by the approval that the project has at once secured, of a very large and wonderful gathering next June of the male voices of Zion, trained to render some soul-stirring selections, which we propose to issue with each number of the magazine,

It is sincerely hoped that the associations will appreciate this effort to introduce singing in their regular meetings and to make a specialty of that exercise. The assistance of Prof. Evan Stephens, which he generously tenders, so far as his time will permit, will be of great benefit to all who correspond with him.

The music type designed for our especial use had to be made to order and has not yet been received. It has delayed the issue and compelled us to use a larger fount for the present number, but will probably be here for the December number.

In reference to the steel plate of Apostle Orson Pratt, which appears as the frontispiece to this number, it will be