The Observatory, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico
MAY 1955
In This Issue:
Archaeology and the Book of Mormon by Dr. Milton R. Hunter
by Dr. Franklin S. Harris, Jr.
The biggest eggs known to man come from Madagascar and are more than 2400 years old. Laid by the half-ton ostrich-like Aepyornis maximus Ele- phant Bird, the fossil eggs were more than a foot long and weighed about 18 pounds when fresh.
Recent studies of the use of yellow driving glasses and tinted wind- shields for night driving have found that they reduce the ability to distinguish objects through loss of acuity and con- trast vision, particularly at low illumina- tion levels, compared to when such devices are not used.
To eliminate scratches on film which show when making photographic enlargements a new silicone liquid has been found which has about the same index of refraction as the film so that when the scratches are filled with the liquid they can't be seen. The liquid also removes fingerprints, and when used with a special carrier permits wash- ing off dust particles.
Adult vertebrates have a blood pig- ment, hemoglobin, but three species of fish native to the waters of South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic have colorless blood. These fish do not have any of the special erythrocyte cells which contain hemoglobin.
With the graduation of 6861 in 1953- 54 the physicians in the United States have increased to one in every 730 persons.
Anew midget tape pocket recorder has been developed which by using printed circuits and hearing aid tubes is small enough to be carried in a large overcoat pocket.
HT'he origin of the manufacture of soap goes back more than 5,000 years ac- cording to Martin Levey of Pennsyl- vania State University. Washing the body and general cleaning use of soap came later, early use was for cleaning of wool and medical purposes. Until the middle of the nineteenth century soda and potash from plant ashes were the most common washing materials. MAY 1955
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A SCHEME FOR SAFER AND BETTER HIGHWAYS
by Dr. G. Homer Durham
VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
EDITOR'S NOTE This month Dr. G. Homer Durham expresses his views on long-range high- way construction and safety.
There are fifty-eight million motor vehicles registered in the United States, using 3,400,000 miles of roads and streets, of which one fourth are paved (920,000 miles) and only a good third (1,250,000) graveled. By 1970 it is estimated that there will be 85 mil- lion vehicles on the highways and streets, all with higher-powered engines • and moving at greatly increased speeds. If present trends continue, the death toll from accidents will increase, and the ratio of modern highways capable of carrying heavy traffic will fall be- hind the present available facilities. Ob- viously, something must be done. Better and safer highways have to be built or the number of ve- hicles reduced or con- trolled. The latter is un- desirable. President Y/T&r Eisenhower has awaken- ed interest in the prob- lem by his 1955 message on highways to the Con- gress. His proposals are now being de- bated and discussed.
The danger inherent in past highway- planning policies has been that we have thought only in terms of bringing our road systems up to date and not of planning and building for future antici- pated need. To construct 1955 highways for 1955 vehicles, 1955 cities, and 1955 traffic, is insufficient. "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Prov. 29:18), many of them perishing on the highways. The following "proposi- tions" and sub-topics are therefore pre- sented as a device for stimulating inter- est in future as well as current need. The "day-dreaming" schemes which follow only assume, (1) need, (2) the existence of engineering knowledge and skill, (3) the larger fiscal capacity of the national, as contrasted with state and local units, and (4) the need for a new conception of "national" inter- state highways for economic growth, defense, and emergency. The practical problems remain to be solved after the "dreaming."
Proposition #1
The national government should as- sume the major costs of constructing and maintaining the "primary" roads in a "national" interstate highway system.
Wherever feasible and if desirable
(especially in built-up populated areas where congestion is heaviest), the toll principle could be utilized, if necessary, to construct the necessary, modern ex- pressways and thruways.
The constitutional basis for the fore- going would be the power to tax and spend (the "taxing" and "spending" powers) "for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" (Article I, section 8) "to establish post offices and post roads" and "to regu- late commerce . . . among the several states." (Idem.)
Sufficient time has elapsed since World War II to demon- strate that the gap be- tween construction and maintenance, and actual traffic, is ever-widening. Highway deaths are in- creasing. The political pressure on state legisla- tures for funds to be spread thinly over a variety of public works, mental hospitals and institutions, educa- tion, buildings, and other state-local re- quirements, is such that despite heavy and constant pressure from highway- users, truckers and other associations, the gap between vehicle-miles-speed and adequate roads will continue to widen. The fiscal "will" of the states does not seem to keep pace with the creative spirit and capacity of American industry. The federal government, with broader fiscal resources, can help fill this do- mestic "dollar gap."
The critical consideration in the pro- posal is the definition of the new na- tional system as distinguished from the federal-state, state, and local systems now designated.
Contractors have learned to deal with state highway authorities rather than with the Public Roads Administration, directly. Contract authorizations should not be centralized in Washington. State highway departments may still collabo- rate with PRA district officials and pre- serve local responsibility.
Proposition #2
The present pattern of federal aid for "state" and local highways should con- tinue with about the same volume of federal funds. These funds, with exist- ing state gasoline taxes, should be
(Continued on page 366) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
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i4 Parade of Values in Religious Books and Supplies
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New Books For Book Lovers
1. Not by Bread Alone 1.50
2. Story Classics 100
3. Doctrines of Salvation 3.00
4. Matthew Cowley, Man of Faith.. 3.50
5. Power of Positive Thinking 2.95
6. L.D.S. Scriptures 4.50
7. Gospel Ideals 4.00
8. Your Faith and You 3.00
9. For Time or Eternity? 2.00
10. First 2000 Years 3.25
Genealogical Supplies
11. Leatherette Binders - 1.00
12. Temple Binders - 3.00
13. Coat of Arms Binder 5.00
14. Acetate Sheets 25 and .35
15. Family Group Sheets per c. 1.40
16. Pedigree Charts per c. 1.40
17. Family History per c. 1.40
18. Personal Record per c. 1.40
19. Plain Bond - per c. 1.00
20. Picture Pedigree Sheets doz. .35
To Make Your Teaching More Effective
21. Flanel Boards (Easel Type) 4.00
22. Flanel Board (Portable Leather- ette) - 6.00
23. Songs to Sing 2.00
24. Our Bible 35
25. Wheat for Man 100
26. His Many Mansions 2.25
27. Story Classics 1 00
28. Story Gems 100
29. History of All Churches Chart 25
30. Joseph Smith, By His Mother
Lucy Mack Smith 2.25
31. Challenge of Our Times 2.00
32. We Believe 100
33. Les Go Scrapbook 1.00
34. Contents, Structure and Author- ship of the Book of Mormon 3.00
35. Story Teller's Scrapbook 1.00
36. Treasures Unearthed 1.00
For the Children
37. A Child's Story of the Pearl of Great Price 1.75
38. Book of Mormon Stories for
Young L.D.S 3.00
39. Bible Stories for Young L.D.S 3.00
40. The Story of Our Church for
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41. Journey to Promised Land 1.75
42. Precious Land of Promise ..: 1.75
43. Land of Their Inheritance 1.75
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45. Story Princess Book 1.00
BOOKCRAFT Mav '55 1186 South Main, Salt Lake City, Utah
Please send the following circled books:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 1 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
for which I enclose check ( ) money order ( ) for $
NAME
ADDRESS
CITY STATE.
BOOKCRAFT
1186 SOUTH MAIN
SALT LAKE CITY 4, UTAH
MAY 1955
291
^^ IMPROVEMENT ^Rj
"The Voice of the Church"
i^J n-J
n~>
VOLUME 58
NUMBER 5
au
1955
Editors: DAVID O. McKAY - RICHARD L. EVANS
Managing Editor: DOYLE L. GREEN
Associate Managing Editor: MARBA C. JOSEPHSON
Production Editor: ELIZABETH J. MOFFITT
Research Editor: ALBERT L. ZOBELL, JR.
Contributing- Editors: ARCHIBALD F. BENNETT - G. HOMER DURHAM
FRANKLIN S. HARRIS, JR. - HUGH NIBLEY - LEE A. PALMER
CLAUDE B. PETERSEN - SIDNEY B. SPERRY
General Manager: ELBERT R. CURTIS - Associate Manager: BERTHA S. REEDER
Business Manager: JOHN D. GILES - Advertising Director: VERL F. SCOTT
Subscription Director: A. GLEN SNARR
The Editor's Page
Some Thoughts on the Social Problems of Young People
- President David O. McKay 301
Church Features
Your Question: Card Playing and Games of Chance
_ President Joseph Fielding Smith 302
The Way of the Church— Controlling the Past— Part V
HughNibley 306
Unlocking the Doors to Opportunity Eugenie Daniels 309
Letter to a Missionary Companion Rulon Kalian 314
The Escape of Mulek Ariel L. Crowley 324
The Church Moves On 296 Presiding Bishopric's Page 354
Genealogy 309 Master M Men Breakfast 367
Melchizedek Priesthood 352
Special Features
". . . Keep Fit. Be a Man" David S. King 304
". . . publish it upon the mountains" — the story of Martin Harris
Chapter III William H. Homer, Jr. 310
Archaeology and the Book of Mormon — II Milton R. Hunter 316
Prayer: the Key to Security Ezra J. Poulsen 323
Through the Eyes of Youth: Happy Mother's Day, Sweetheart!
__ Eileen Gibbons 328
James Wother spoon — Eagle Scout Victor Lindblad 330
The Spoken Word from Temple Square
! ..Richard L. Evans 332, 336, 340
Exploring the Universe,', Franklin S.
Harris, Jr '-.'. 289
These Times, A Scheme for Safer
and Better Highways, G: Homer
Today's Family
Know Your LDS Cooks, The Savor of Old-Fashioned Cooking, Iris
Parker 356
Basket Birthdays, Evelyn Witter ..358 Handy Hints 359
Durham 290
That Friendly Touch, Florence J.
Johnson - 294
Your Page & Ours 368
The Ambassador Came to Dinner, Jerry Wooden 360
If I Were in My Teens, Edith F. Shepherd 362
Stories, Poetry
May Is the Time Verna Linburg 312
Mother of the Year Elsie Chamberlain Carroll 320
Frontispiece,
Ames
Poetry Page
Sea Host, Bernice
Suffer Little Children, Virgil B. *
.299 Smith 351
.300 My Wealth, H. H. Ramsay 367
icia
I Lyman of
THE PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS, MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSO- CIATIONS, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, MUSIC COMMITTEE, WARD TEACHERS, AND OTHER AGENCIES OF
Jke L^kurch of
deiuS L^kriit
of oLatter-dau J^ainli
Jhe Cf
over
Our cover this month is a full-color reproduction of the Observatory, or Cara- cal, at Chichen Itza, Yacatan, Mexico, taken by Otto Done while on a trip with Dr. Milton R. Hunter. Dr. Hunter re- lates his experiences while on the trip in the articles running currently in these pages, and in subsequent issues, under the title "Archaeology and the Book of Mor- mon."
EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES 50 North Main Street
Y.M.M.LA. Offices, 50 North Main St.
Y.W.M.I.A. Offices, 40 North Main St.
Salt Lake City 1, Utah
Copyright 1955 by Mutual Funds, Inc., and published by the Mutual Improvement Asso- ciations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- ter-day Saints. All rights reserved. Sub- scription price, $2.50 a year, in advance ; foreign subscriptions, $3.00 a year, in advance; 25e single copy.
Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103. Act of October 1917, au- thorized July 2, 1918.
The Improvement Era is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, but welcomes con- tributions. All manuscripts must be accom- panied by sufficient postage for delivery and return.
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Thirty days' notice required for change of address. When ordering a change, please in- clude address slip from a recent issue of the magazine. Address changes cannot be made unless the old address as well as the new one is included.
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DAVIS & SONS 30 N. LaSalle St. Chicago, Illinois
Member, Audit Bureau of Circulations
292
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
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EARN EXTRA MONEY CUSTOM BALING
fWhen your own hay is in, custom baling can easily add to your cash income. The Bale-O-Matic bales from windrow or stack, turns out 30-, 35-, 37*4.-, 40-, or 45-inch bales that meet any requirement for shipping or resale. With its powerful V-4 engine, and safety advantages like shear bolts on the flywheel and 3 rachet-type slip clutches pro- tecting conveyor and tying mechanism, the Bale-O-Matic is built to stand up. See your MM dealer now, for 2-way profit facts on the one-and-only MM Bale-O-Matic.
FIELD-CHOP HAY AND ROW CROPS i FASTER WITH THIS MM FORAGOR
This new MM Foragor chops hay, corn, or other forage crops faster than ever before. Hay or row crop heads are quickly interchangeable without changing the feeder apron. You set cutting lengths of %", Vi", %", 1-Vs", 2-H", or 3" without remov- ing cutter knives . . . get uniform cutting without leaf loss or stem shattering. Speed of blower and cutter, pickup, and feeder are quickly changed without removing or adding chain links. Powered by a new V-4 engine through a 2-speed V-belt drive, the Foragor is easily pulled by any 2-plow tractor. Before you buy any forage harvester, be sure you have all the facts on the new MM Foragor.
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INNEAPOLIS-MOLINE
MAY 1955
MINNEAPOLIS 1, MINNESOTA
293
See San Francisco
ON YOUR WAY TO LOS ANGELES
Take Southern Pacific's fine, fast Overland Route trains to San Francisco ... stop off and visit this gay, cosmopolitan city... then complete your trip to Los Angeles on S.P.'s California Day- light, the luxurious, scenic streamliner with the bargain coach fares! You'll see California's mountains and valleys, plus 113 miles of beautiful Pacific surf.
S.P.'s Daylights give you foam rubber reclining Chair Car seats . . . huge picture windows . . . economical Coffee Shop . . .Tavern Car for refreshments and congenial company. Your seat is reserved.
So the next time you go to Los Angeles, see the magic city of San Francisco — then see California by Daylight.
For information and reservations for your California trip, call at our Salt Lake City Ticket Office, or write T. E. Hewitt, General Agent, 14 South Main St., Salt Lake City 1.
294
THAT FRIENDLY TOUCH
By Florence J. Johnson
During the past years I have made many friends. Miles separate us. But our letters and notes keep us in touch with one another. Because of this active correspondence list, I have a "Friends' Night." This is an evening I spend at my desk, re- reading the notes and cards and let- ters that I have received since the last Friends' Night, and writing the many letters that are to be answered.
I do not have time to write long letters every time, but an avalanche of cards and notes do go out, mixed with several lengthy letters. A care- fully kept record book keeps me in- formed so that no one is slighted.
I am an avid greeting card collector and am always on the lookout for something unusual, something differ- ent. The same goes for note sta- tionery. All these go into a special box, and I am seldom at a loss for the right card. As for notes — a few months ago, I fell off a chair I was using for a ladder and sprained an ankle. Yes, I have a kitchen ladder, but it happened to be in another part of the house, so I climbed up on a chair. Some of the stationery I had on hand had a picture of a woman doing just that thing. I used this in sending notes to some of my friends. Weeks later, I received a letter from a friend, thanking me for saving her from just the same kind of accident. She was planning to clean the top shelves of her cupboard, the stepladder was in the garage, and it was raining. She was building up the height of the chair when the mailman arrived with my letter. After reading the letter, and seeing the picture, she put on a raincoat and rubbers and went out after that stepladder. "Maybe I wouldn't have fallen," she wrote, "but after your letter I wasn't taking any chances. So, thanks again for that timely bit of coincidental advice."
I have two "round robin" groups. One is a relative circle; the other is a circle of friends scattered all over the States. These letters are lengthy and accompanied by clippings and snapshots, all sorts of miscellany. This is a wonderful way to keep in touch with a congenial group, for (Concluded on page 349) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
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MAY 1955
295
THE CHURCH MOVES ON
A Day To Day Chronology Of Church Events
February 1955
O A Elder George Q. Morris of the ^ " Council of the Twelve dedicated the chapel of the Heyburn Ward, Mini- doka (Idaho) Stake.
President Ernest C. Anderson, for- merly second counselor to President Milan D. Smith of the Union (Oregon) Stake, was sustained as stake president. Elder Vern L. Nebeker was re-sustained as first counselor, and Elder James L. Stocking was sustained as second coun- selor.
President Lionel Marcus West sus- tained in the El Paso (Texas) Stake, succeeding President Edward Vernon Turley, Sr. Elder Keith Romney, formerly second counselor in the out- going presidency, was sustained as first counselor. Elder Joseph Devon Payne was sustained as second counselor. Elder Payne is the son of Elder George Q. Payne who was released as first counselor in the stake presidency.
O €> The First Presidency announced the appointment of President M. Ross Richards as president of the East Central States Mission, succeeding Presi- dent Cornelius Zappey. At the time of this appointment President Richards was serving as second counselor in the Bountiful (Utah) Stake presidency. Mrs. Richards will accompany him on this new assignment.
O 7 Elder Layton B. Jones sustained as second counselor in the Seattle (Washington) Stake presidency, suc- ceeding Elder Frank M. Parry.
Mar«h 1955
1
The annual all-Church junior basketball tournament began at Deseret Gymnasium, Salt Lake City. Scores of today's games were:
Aurora 41, Raymond Fourth 34; Compton First 39, Eugene 29; Mesa Third 57, Montpelier Fourth 36; South- gate 54, Grant Third 47; Layton Fifth 53, Sacramento First 34; Edgehill 64, Boise Fourth 36; Garden Park 58, Idaho Falls Thirteenth 52; Bonneville Second 38; Tremonton Third 39.
296
i\ Scores in today's all-Church junior " basketball games:
Consolation: Montpelier Fourth 42, Boise Fourth 40; Sacramento First 52, Raymond Fourth 39.
Championship: Pocatello Eleventh 56, Layton Fifth 51; Las Vegas First 65, Mesa Third 40; Holladay Fourth 52, Aurora 46; Compton First 46, Hunts- ville 32; Tremonton Third 52, Wells- ville Second 41; Edgehill 45, West Jordan First 27; Provo Fifth 46, Garden Park 45; Southgate 50, Springville Sec- ond 40.
ft Scores in the all-Church junior
** basketball tournament:
Championship games: Pocatello Elev- enth 72, Holladay Fourth 52; Tremon- ton Third 38; Southgate 36; Compton First 56, Provo Fifth 35; Edgehill 48, Las Vegas First 27.
Losers' Bracket: Idaho Falls Thir- teenth 42, Eugene 38; Garden Park 59, Huntsville 40; Layton Fifth 50, Aurora 45; Grant Third 48, Bonneville Second 47; Springville 74, Wellsville Second 47; West Jordan First 53, Mesa Third 41.
M Scores in the all-Church junior * basketball tournament:
Championship games: Pocatello Elev- enth 43, Tremonton Third 39; Compton First 46, Edgehill 45.
Losers' bracket: Las Vegas First 71, Provo Fifth 50; Garden Park 45, West Jordan 35; Layton Fifth 67, Springville Second 56; Holladay Fourth 56, South- gate 55; Grant Third 57, Sacramento First 35; Idaho Falls Thirteenth 58, Montpelier Fourth 45.
r Scores of the final games of the ** all-Church junior basketball tour- nament: Compton First 52, Pocatello Eleventh 45 (first and second); Edge- hill 46, Tremonton Third 44 (third and seventh); Las Vegas First 86, Holla- day Fourth 61 (fourth and eighth); Garden Park 60, Layton Fifth 59 (fifth and ninth); Grant Third 61, Idaho Falls Thirteenth 49 (sixth and tenth). Grant Third Ward won the consolation title; Garden Park Ward was given the sportsmanship trophy.
o Elder Howard W. Barben was
sustained as president of the West
Jordan (Utah) Stake with Elders Leon-
ard C. Beckstead and C. Elmo Turner as counselors. They succeed President Lawrence T. Dahl and his counselors, Elders Royal V. Beckstead and Joseph P. Butterfield.
Elder Clyde M. Lunceford was sus- tained as second counselor to President Philo T. Edwards of the Sharon (Utah) Stake, succeeding Elder Robert J. Olsen, deceased.
1r Second Assistant General Superin- « tendent David S. King of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement As- sociation was appointed to the Region 12, Boy Scouts of America, executive committee. His assignment in the YMMIA superintendency is to direct the Scout and Explorer programs for the Church.
In This was the 113th anniversary of ' the organization of the Relief So- ciety in the Church. Special programs have been held by the organization this month.
ft a Elder Harold B. Lee of the Coun- w " cil of the Twelve, and former president of the Pioneer Stake, dedicated the multiple-chapel which will serve the four Poplar Grove wards as well as being the stake center for the Pioneer (Salt Lake City) Stake.
President Milton R. Hunter of the First Council of the Seventy dedicated the chapel of the Genola Ward, Santa- quin-Tintic Stake.
ft fi The First Presidency announced " " the appointment of Bishop Ellis V. Christensen of the Richfield Fourth Ward, Sevier (Utah) Stake, as presi- dent of the Tahitian Mission, succeed- ing President John Kenneth Orton who has been home some time because of illness. In the meantime Elder Larson H. Caldwell has been acting president of the Tahitian Mission. President Christensen served as a missionary in Tahiti in 1928 and 1929. He has been active in Scouting in Richfield and is a former president of the seventies' quorum there. From 1943 to 1950 he served as a member of the Sevier Stake high council. In May 1950 he became bishop of the Richfield Fourth Ward. Mrs. Christensen and their four daugh- ters will also serve on this mission.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
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MAY 1955
297
Cherished Experiences
From the writings of
President David O. McKay
Compiled by Clare Middlemiss
This stirring book was compiled for the pur- pose of building increased faith in the hearts of all Latter - day Saints throughout the world. President David ©.McKay has visited the Saints in their far-off homelands more than any other President and has encour- aged and inspired them. Share with Presi- dent McKay all the rich spiritual experiences of his visits with Saints all over the world.
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Man, His Origin and Destiny
JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
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298
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
-Photograph by Foldes of Monkmcijcr
by Bemice Ames
T7vening and thousands of gulls ■^ Rush to the sky together, Carving their space in the air, Wheeling, with never a feather Of sound.
MAY 1955
F|arkness and gulls drop like strings *-* Lacing the shadows of night Into the sand with their wings, Folding the last bit of light
To the ground.
fiCEAN folk turn up their lamps, ^ Knowing release of the day Happens when thousands of gulls Have ushered the twilight away.
299
LILIES-OF-THE- VALLEY By Pauline Havard
stoop and pick the lilies-of-the-valley, Finding in each immaculate bell of snow The scent that makes the past's gate swing
ajar, Reveals my mother's garden. Clear and
low The separate flowers then chimed their
secret music For her who tended them, but none so
clear As the chimes rung by the lilies-of-the- valley! And so, as I pick them now, each rich, lost
year Returns; and every tiny, scented bell Brings back the music of those childhood
hours I spent in a sunny world of make-believe, Sharing the magic of my mother's flowers.
MAY By Gene Romolo
May's plane, gliding gracefully makes a safe landing, And green skirts come fluttering down to
the soil. Her enchanting smile, contagious, outstand- ing, Cheers every man of the fields at his toil.
Soon over bushes and over tree-branches, The beauty and fragrance of blossoming
spreads; So ardent May's impulse, wherever she
glances, On hill or on valley bright blooms lift
their heads.
Then, again all too soon May's plane is
awing, And gone is the loveliest month of the
spring.
IN A COUNTRY CEMETERY By Leone E. McCune
Now peacefully they rest, these honored dead
Here on this slope, beside the little town
These valiant souls whose earnest toil and sweat
Transformed the hills to soft green eider- down;
Whose yearning vision saw each tree lined street,
The red schoolhouse, the cozy homes and yards,
Where children laugh and run on flying feet.
The Church with bells that ring the Sab- bath day
With tall white spires a-gleaming far and wide
That beckon people in to sing and pray.
This town, their monument, the heritage The pattern set for good and worth-while
lives Left to their seed, by noble parentage.
300
TO MY MOTHER By Calvin Pratt
I see her in her rocking chair When day's long work is done. I visualize her beauty rare. I know the love she's won. I see the toil of months and years Well-worn now in her brow. I see her calming all my fears. I see it plainly now. I marvel at her tender love, And at her gracious care. I kneel before the throne above To give this humble prayer:
Take care of Mother dear, oh God, And bless her in thy sight, For on thy righteous path she's trod To bask in gospel light.
She's taught each daughter and each son
To love and honor thee;
A great reward she's rightly won
For all eternity.
And so, dear God, in thy Son's name,
I humbly ask tonight,
That thou wilt keep alive the flame
Of Mother's holy light,
To send it forth through all the earth,
To spread thy truths again.
For all these things of priceless worth
I thank thee, God; Amen.
UNCHARTED By Gene Moore
y heart is a valley; my heart is a hill; must take time to explore it with skill. The world is small use with its science and
art If one goes around it neglecting his heart.
ELLENORE
By Genneva Dickey Watson
I never held you in my arms And rocked you mother-wise I never sang you little songs, Nor kissed your sleepy eyes;
But, oh, my baby, once I dreamed With you beneath my heart,
That I should curl your wispy hair, And teach you woman-art.
One night you turned and slipped away To a tenderer love than mine,
So now I give all childhood The love you made divine.
A BIRTHDAY THOUGHT By Pansye H. Powell
Cdme days are gray;
1 Some days are gold. God puts them all together, For every day His love will hold No matter what the weather.
W™1
ON MOTHER'S DAY By Enola Chamberlin
She did not smooth the Appian Way; Construct the Chinese Wall; Nor make a dangerous survey To chain a waterfall.
She did not hunt the buffalo,
Nor build a pyramid, Nor find America, but, oh,
She bore the men who did!
HEADLAND OAK
By Richard F. Armknecht
One tree upon the headland, one Lone oak where never oak should be. A difficult phenomenon
To riddle out. This ancient tree, Bent landward in a ragged plume,
Has dropped its acorn in their season These many years. The bitter doom
Of sterile soil is ample reason Not one had grown. But why and how
Came this one tree, the first, the last, Whose bole and branch forever bow
Before the stubborn sea wind's blast? I can't explain it, nor can you,
But if some reason must be guessed Perhaps it lies in one small clue —
Each year it has a bluebird's nest.
MY MOTHER'S HANDS By Geri Materkowski
My mother's hands are artist's hands, They work in patience and in faith In their artistry genius fades; Before their tasks strong men would quake.
They are not slim hands, mother's hands. Nor white, nor petal smooth, But, oh, the pain they've pressed away And, oh, the fears they've soothed.
My mother's hands are artist's hands. You see it when they pray. They've taken babes and moulded men And set them in the Godly way.
OLD LADY TALKING
By Christie Lund Coles
I had not meant to pause at all,
Except to speak, to pass the time of day, Smiling a little pityingly, For what was there she could have to say?
I had not counted on her eyes,
With a hunger like a child's for bread;
And surely I was not prepared
For the swift, nostalgic words she said.
Quickly as a summer storm they came, The words, the details of her years, Her youth, not too unlike my own, Her flowered hopes, her laughter, tears.
My hours were full. I should not stay. And yet, her day was strangely drear. And someday, I may listen to the past And wait and wait for someone who will hear.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
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Some Thoughts on the Social Problems of Young People
by President David O. McKay
.
IT is the duty of every citizen to see to it that our children have a wholesome community environment in which to live during their tender and impressive years.
I think it is a tragedy to have young girls and young boys grow up without opportunity of social activity under the proper environment, and recrea- tion halls should be dedicated as fitting places for these young folk to come and meet one an- other, to participate in dancing, in the drama, in music, and in other activities that offer oppor- tunity for development to our boys and girls.
Some of our girls come, properly chaperoned, but they do not have the opportunity to partici- pate in the dances. The recreation hall should be a place for cordiality where all young people may have an opportunity to mingle and to meet their mates. That means something in this day of divorces due to hasty marriages where they do not understand each other.
Youth is the happy time of life; their hearts are hopeful. It is our duty to see that those hopes are realized.
In this matter of chaperonage, there is too much laxity on the part of the parents.
It is a dangerous sin, when home discipline breaks down, and the loving advice of a wise father and a loving mother is defied. We are told by an elderly American explorer that among the Iroquois Indians, the "crime which is regarded as most horrible, and which is without example, is that a son should be rebellious toward his
mother" — an ideal that might be well cherished today among men who esteem themselves high in the scale of civilization.
If we are sincere in our desire to reduce de- linquencey among youth, let us look to ourselves as members of the community and as leaders and officials in civic circles.
With the sensationalism and artificial stimula- tion to which the child of today is subjected in this age of mechanical wonders, it is of the gravest importance that society realize that it is only in the example of sincere living upon the part of the individual members of society that the child finds a dynamic impulse for his own wholesome devel- opment.
Young men and women sometimes yield to in- dulgence for the sake of popularity. He who per- sistently bids for popularity at the expense of health and character is a foolish man. "A man who stands behind a bar and swallows drink after drink for the sake of sociability is paying a high price for a miserable product. Social popularity purchased in such a way and at such a price is not good enough for an honest man to wipe his feet upon." Indeed, men who yield to tempta- tion to seek popularity among friends lose the very thing they desire, while the boy who main- tains his standards wins their respect.
We need not shut our eyes to the fact that too many of our young folk respond to the call of the physical because it seems the easy and natural things to do. Too many are vainly seek- ing short cuts to happiness. It should always be
{Concluded on following page)
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MAY 1955
^e Fdi tor's Pap?
C3 30i
THE EDITOR'S PAGE
(Concluded from preceding page) kept in mind that that which is most worth while in life requires strenuous effort.
I never hear one of our brethren bear testimony to to the divinity of this work, without feeling that the strength and growth of character depends upon a life consistent with that testimony; and it makes character to live in harmony with man's ideals, or at least to strive to live in harmonv with them.
I can illustrate what I mean by relating an incident concerning two of our boys at college. They had been taught that, next to life itself, they should cherish chastity.
One of these boys noticed that there was a laxity among his classmates, and after a few months at col- lege, he partook of a different spirit from the one he had in his home, and one night he said to his companion, who was older than he, "I am going out tonight with those fellows."
"Well, you'd better not," said his companion.
"Oh," he said, "I don't know! Those fellows have a good time, take their wine, have their cigarets and their
cigars; they enjoy themselves; and here we are restrained. They get their lessons; they are doing just as well in college as we are; and I am going out with them. I am not so sure that our ideals are necessary, anyhow."
The older one walked up, put his hand on his com- panion's shoulder, and said, "Those boys may be getting along all Hght in school, and do these things to which you refer; but you can't."
"Why?"
"Because you know better. And once you break through that ideal, your character is broken."
It was the best lesson he learned in college, and I am very glad that he learned it and lived it.
What our young people need, what every man and every woman in this world need in order to keep himself or herself free and unspotted from the sins of the world is the power of self-mastery. Each individual should studiously practise self-control. It does not come all at once. Nature never makes cash payments as a whole, says William George Jordan. Her payments are always made in small instalments. Those who desire to win self-mastery must do it by constant application.
by Joseph Fielding Smith
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
Card Playing and Games of Chance
"For some time I have had a very serious question on my mind. It is in regard to the playing of card games. Is it a sin to play cards or join card clubs? I am a returned missionary and have thought that there was nothing but evil coming from playing card games and joining card clubs. Some of my friends think I am very foolish in holding such a belief, but still I do not wish to join them in doing such a thing if it is considered wrong and not approved by the Church."
Nothing good comes out of card games or games of chance. There are numerous ways in which we may obtain wholesome amusement and recreation which is beneficial to both body and mind. In games where cards are used usually "stakes" are played for, and betting is done. Someone will ob- tain the "stakes," but no one really wins, for the one who obtains the "stakes" has lost part of his manhood
302
which is difficult to regain. There seems to be an urge in human nature which leads many men and women to seek to obtain something for nothing, and many have risked their hard-earned substance on the altar of chance, hoping to win a fortune which they have not earned. There is a lure in all games of chance which Satan places before them, and in their greed or selfish desire for gain they take the uncertain bait far less innocently than does a fish which grabs the angler's hook.
The regular standard playing cards are used in gam- bling games. They are found in questionable resorts and gambling dens. Young people who have learned to play the games in their own homes or at card clubs with in- nocent intent too frequently are lured into questionable places where gambling prevails. Such games of chance are usually associated with cigarets and beer and those who indulge in cards acquire also the tobacco and drink- ing evils. Card playing becomes a habit just as much as smoking and drinking. I remember a neighbor of
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
mine who in his earlier days was addicted to gambling. Later in his life he repented and joined the Church. One day before a group of which I was a member, he em- phatically impressed upon our minds the fact that gambling is a disease which fastens itself upon those who indulge so tenaciously that they seldom quit. Its influ- ence upon character is just the same as the use of tobacco and strong drink. He advised all to shun all card play- ing and games of chance lest the habit would destroy them.
Card playing and all other games of chance should be avoided as the gate of destruction. All such practices have been discountenanced by the authorities of the Church from the beginning of our history. When the Mormon Battalion was called into the service of the country, President Brigham Young addressed the volun- teers and said that he wished them to prove themselves to be the best soldiers in the service of the United States. He admonished the captains to be fathers to the men in their companies and to manage the officers and men by the power of the priesthood. They should keep them- selves clean, teach chastity and gentility. There was to to be no swearing, and no man was to be insulted. They were to avoid contention with Missourians — their ene- mies— and all other persons. They were to take their Bibles and copies of the Book of Mormon with them and study them but not impose their beliefs on others. They were to avoid card playing, and if they had cards with them, they were to burn them. If they would follow this instruction, he promised them that they would not be called on to shed the blood of their fellow men.
President Joseph F. Smith has given this wholesome advice:
"While a simple game of cards in itself may be harm- less, it is a fact that by immoderate repetition it ends in an infatuation for chance schemes, in habits of excess, in waste of precious time, in dulling and stupor of the mind, and in the complete destruction of religious feel- ing. These are serious results, evils that should and must be avoided by the Latter-day Saints. Then again, there is a grave danger that lurks in persistent card playing, which begets the spirit of gambling, of specula- tion and what awakens the dangerous desire to get something for nothing." (Gospel Doctrine, p. 412.)
"Card playing is an excessive pleasure; it is intoxicat- ing, and therefore, in the nature of a vice. It is natural- ly the companion of the cigaret and the wine glass, and the latter leads to the poolroom and the gambling hall. Few men and women indulge in the dangerous pastime of the card table without compromising their business affairs and the higher responsibilities of life.
Tell me what amusements you like best and whether your amusements have been a ruling passion in your life, and I will tell you what you are. Few indulge frequently in card playing in whose lives it does not become a ruling passion." (Juvenile Instructor, Vol. 38, p. 529.)
The Lord said:
"A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
"For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." (Matt. 12:35-37.)
This being true of words that are idle, may we not say that idle acts spent in evil practices will merit the same reward?
This does not mean that the Lord frowns on inno- cent amusement and the time spent in wholesome games. The human body needs relaxation, and this can be ob- tained in a legitimate way. For this purpose in part the Mutual Improvement Associations have been organized where proper forms of amusement and entertainment may be taught, and thereby the body strengthened and the mind quickened and developed. In one of the dark- est hours in the history of the Church, when the weary members were crossing the plains having been driven from their homes, the Lord through President Brigham Young said to them:
"If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.
"If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful." (D. & C. 136:28-29.)
The Prophet Joseph Smith engaged in manly sports on the few occasions that came to him. President Brigham Young and his brethren built the Salt Lake Theatre and the Social Hall. The drama, the dance, and other entertainments were given to the members of the Church, and by this means they were edified and strengthened; all such entertainments were opened and closed with prayer. The auxiliary organizations en- courage athletic contests and sports under proper super- vision and regulations. Our people are encouraged, not curtailed, in every kind of needful recreation and amuse- ment; but all things which the world seeks, leading to evil, such as card playing, raffling, and indulging in playing machines of chance, are frowned upon as de- structive of morals and abiding faith in that which is just and true.
— Hal Rumel Photo
MAY 1955
303
EDITOR'S NOTE
From March 1, to March 5, 1955 the first all-Church Junior Basket- ball tournament was played at Deseret Gymnasium in Salt Lake City. Twenty-four of the 1027 teams registered in the Church at the beginning of play last fall saw action in this tournament.
This is how the teams finished in the tournament: 1. Compton First (California) ; 2. Pocatello Eleventh (Idaho); 3. Edgehill (Salt Lake City); 4. Las Vegas (Nevada);
5. Garden Park (Salt Lake City) ;
6. Grant Third (Salt Lake City) ;
7. Tremonton Third (Utah) ; 8. Holladay Fourth (Salt Lake City) ; 9. Layton Fifth (Utah); 10. Idaho Falls Thirteenth (Idaho).
Garden Park was awarded the sportsmanship trophy; Grant Third won the consolation position.
This article is based on a talk given by Second Assistant General Superintendent David S. King of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association to the seventeen-and- eighteen-year-old members of the tournament teams at their devo- tional meeting on March 5.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (1 Cor. 3:16-17.)
Members of the Compton First Ward Junior basketball team, after winning the first all-Church tournament. First row, left to right: Bob Dalley, Ben McCabe, Tory Zim- merman, and Bishop Weldon H. Dalley. Second row: F. M. Zimmerman, president of Long Beach (California) Stake; Terry Paulos, Bill Reese, Van Peterson, Karl Weller, and Homer Bringhurst, coach. Back row: Ted Paulos, coach; Rulon Johnson, Ralph Brissen- den, Bob Scott, and Charles Bledsoe, stake athletic director.
• •
• • •
Keep Fit. Be a Man"
by David S. King
SECOND ASSISTANT GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT YMMIA
Recently my nine-year-old son asked me to help him build a shield to use in a Cub Scout demonstration. Together we found an old piece of plywood, upon which we traced the shape of an imposing shield. After cutting it out and trim- ming the edges, I suggested that in order to make it really authentic, we ought to embellish it with a real in- signia. A lion — the standing lion with forearms outstretched — was se- lected for the purpose. Its outlines were traced onto the shield. A cup full of papier-mache was cooked up and spread onto the surface, and carefully shaped and molded to con- form to the outline of our stirring little emblem. The shield was then sprayed with silver paint; the lion was painted red; handles were added, and lo, we had a shield that would have stirred the heart of the most fastidious knight that ever trod the ancients paths of chivalry.
As I handed the finished shield to my son, I laughingly reminded him, but with some seriousness, that he
304
had no right to bear it unless he was willing to show forth the same quali- ties as those possessed by the lion which he had selected as his emblem. In ancient days the noblest of the warriors selected coats of arms which would embody those outstanding qualities which appealed to them most. The lion was chosen for strength and courage; the leopard for cunning and ferocity; and the eagle for loftiness and nobility.
I also explained to my son that the knight of old went forth to battle completely encased in armor. The helmet protected his head and neck; the breastplate and backpiece pro- tected his trunk and organs; the greaves protected his limbs; and the gauntlets gave protection to his hands. The shield, broadsword, and spear completed his accoutrement, and he was then ready for battle. Thus armed, he was protected from the front and the rear and could easily defend himself against a hundred unarmed men.
Today, life is not much easier on
us than it was on the warrior knights of old. As you young men walk out of this building, today, you will find enemies everywhere trying to destroy you. It is true that you will not be stuck in the back by a barbed arrow nor a murderous long-pike, but you will be assaulted by cunning and wicked advertising — by insidious pressures brought on you by age-old temptations; and by clever, and beau- tiful commercial productions designed to fill your mind with trash and evil. These enemies, intangible though they may be, can effectively destroy your strength, rob you of your man- hood, and kill your power to resist.
But God has not left you without protection. Armor has been furnished to protect you from both front and back. It is real, tough armor, and no evil can penetrate it.
Paul was referring to this armor when, in writing to the Ephesians, he said:
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. * * *
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breast- plate of righteousness;
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:11, 14-17.)
That is the armor of the modern knight who bears the priesthood of the Lord: righteousness, faith, truth, a peaceful purpose, and the word of God. Your armor is your own vir- tue, your power to resist temptation, your right to approach the throne of God at any period in your life, to ask for necessary strength. Such spiritual armor as this, if worn properly, will give the soul complete protection and perfect coverage.
In the north woods, packs of raven- ous wolves descend upon herds of reindeer to feed themselves. Attack is rarely made on the healthy, strong, and vigorous ones. Invariably the marauders slink in the shadows until they can spot a straggler — some lone deer rendered feeble by disease or old age. This miserable specimen is quickly destroyed.
And so the forces of evil, the forces that destroy man — invariably attack the stragglers — they attack those who have been rendered spiritually and morally weak by enfeebling dissipa- tion or by violation of the laws of life. But those who wear as the armor of their salvation the breast- plate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, will never be stragglers in the battle of life. The desolation of sin will pass them by. Unlimited strength and re- sistance will flow unto them, to the overpowering of all their foes.
Referring again, for a moment, to Paul's statement that each of us is a temple of God, I wonder whether you realize how marvelous and how beautiful the human body is. Eugene Sandow, when a sickly lad of thir- teen, visited an art gallery and saw two statues, one of the Greek god Apollo, and the other of the Greek hero Hercules. So enthralled was he with what he saw that he resolved to develop himself to the peak of physical perfection. Twenty years later he was recognized as one of the strongest men of all time.
You who know a little about chem- istry or physics or mechanical engi- neering, well know that all of the MAY 1955
Garden Park team receives the sportsmanship trophy from Elder A. P. Warnick, tournament director. Bishop Hoyt W. Brewster is the first man kneeling at the left. Team sponsor is Barbara Cook.
scientific principles taught in the laboratory, and many not taught are involved in the construction of the human body. Consider the intricacy of the skeleton structure, the nervous system, the digestive system, the cir- culatory system, all superimposed on each other — consider all of your glands, organs, bones, muscles, liga- ments, and a multitude of unnamed, and even unknown members, all com- bining to give you a sound, serv- iceable body. Its intricacy and complexity is such that after four thousand years of study, the body is still essentially a mystery to modern science.
All of this is given to you by your Heavenly Father — given to you for your use, for your service, and for your glory. In return, God has asked
Verl F. Scott, advertising director of "The Improvement Era," gives the Era Award (a gold watch) to Terry Paulos of Compton First. Terry was selected as the most valu- able player of the tournament.
you but one thing, and that is that you take care of it — that you treat it with the care, the respect that it deserves.
Brethren, learn to avoid bad habits — chains that will rob you of your unrestrained freedom to prog- ress throughout this life and the life to come.
In Hampton Court, England, there are several massive oak trees with trunks of enormous girth. In spite of their size and apparent strength, these trees are slowly dy- ing by strangulation. Years ago tender ivy shoots were planted at the base of these giants and were allowed to crawl up the trunks. Today, this ivy has grown so luxuriantly, and has so completely enveloped these trees and strangled their life processes that they are slowly but surely dying. Who would have thought that an innocent little tendril, no bigger around than a twig, could kill several tons of live oak?
Who would think that a little habit — uncontrolled — could ruin a man?
Several years ago a certain man was in a position in life where he appeared to have everything in his favor for success. He was intelligent. He had had an excellent war record and had risen to the rank of captain. He was commanding in appearance and not without sensitivity. He was definitely not a bad man. But he had some bad habits. His social (Continued on page 334) 305
Oonirolliruj the Rasf
■
by Dr. Hugh Nibley
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
Part V
F
rom Origen on, the fathers insist that every verse of the scripture can be read a number of different ways, an arrangement which Aquinas aptly describes as "conven- ient." If a passage might prove em- barrassing taken as it stands, one has only to read it in some other "sense." Needless to say the sense most fre- quently objected to is the crass, literal, historical one — beneath the attention of minds devoted to the contempla- tion of higher things. In the fathers, according to Schanz, "allegorical arbi- trariness and uncontrolled whimsy run riot," expressing themselves in the scholia, the homily, and the commen- tary.82
In our own day, both for Catholics and Protestants, this lavish control has boiled down to a much simpler double bookkeeping, in which, ac- cording to Professor Pfeirfer, one must "distinguish sharply between true facts and true doctrine. . . . That the point of view of science and faith should be kept distinct is admitted by a historian who is a Roman Cath- olic priest, G. Ricciotti, when he recognized that exegetically 'the sun stood still and the moon stayed' at Gibeon in a literal sense, but that scientifically 'there was no real astro- nomical perturbation.' "83 So, the sun stood still literally but not astro- nomically.
306
What if Constantine only saw a sundog and not a vision of the cross? This simply proves for Father Bligh "that the value of a confession is not determined by the rational sufficiency of the motives that produced its first steps," and, "what is true for the Emperor is true for those who imi- tated him."84 Which is another way of saying that though Constantine did not have a vision at all, it is just the same as if he did since in the end he became converted.
Peter the Lombard, more bound by literal mindedness, when he finds the Bible in conflict with his science, falls back on the principle propounded by Hilary: "The thing must not be sub- ject to the word, but the word to the thing."85 That sounds reasonable enough: but when the word is the scripture and the thing is one's own limited experience, then to subject the word to the thing is to interpret any line of scripture in whatever way suits one's predilections — and as such the Lombard makes full use of it. It is an unlimited license to control the past. It is the boast of the Catho- lic scholar Schindler that the scholas- tic philosophers always denounced lying.80 Of course they did; the pur- pose of their art was to make it un- necessary to lie. If one can prove that black is white by a syllogism, why should one be guilty of blurting it out, unproven, as a lie?
The ardent Catholic apologist, Arnold Lunn, recently wrote: "The Church claims that her credentials can be proved from certain books in the Bible, treating them as purely human documents. The Bible con- sists of a series of books selected by the Catholic Church- — books which the Catholic Church claims the right to interpret. It is for the church to say where the Bible records objective facts and where the Bible uses meta- phor and allegory."87 This is self- certification with a vengeance: the church waves before us certain docu- ments which she claims prove her authority; these documents she has
personally selected, but even so they do not even remotely suggest what she claims they do unless they be read and interpreted in a very special sense, that sense being carefully pre- scribed— by the church! Mr. Lunn is telling us in effect that the church has a perfect right to control the past to prove its holy calling, even though the only proof of that calling is the doctored document itself. A reading of Denzinger will show the surpris- ing degree to which the reading of the scriptures is controlled by the Roman church; in this valuable work the extreme nervousness of the clergy about letting people read the Bible for themselves or in their own lan- guages goes hand in hand with the frequent and frank admission, that while the Bible seems to swarm with anti-Catholic material, to make a pro- Catholic case out of it requires the labor of trained specialists equipped with highly artificial tools of inter- pretation.88
When in 1865 John Henry New- man was consulted by a friend re- garding the founding of a Catholic historical review he replied: "Noth- ing would be better — but who would bear it? Unless one doctored all one's facts, one would be thought a bad Catholic."89 At the same time Du- chesne was protesting in vain to his fellow church historians "that it was contrary to a sound historical meth- od to insist on twisting the texts to make them talk like Athanasius," that is, to control the earlier texts in support of later theology.90 In oppos- ing this Duchesne was bucking the established practice of centuries. Ac- cording to De Wulf, when St. Thomas Aquinas wants to disagree with St. Augustine, his unfailing guide and mentor, "he does not contradict him; he does not consider him suspect . . . instead he transforms the meaning of his statements, sometimes by slight corrections, sometimes by violent in- terpretations which do violence to the text. Von Hertling has listed some 250 such deliberately falsified cita- tions from Augustine."91
This business is easily justified among religious writers by the law of the greater good. The Moham- medan doctors established the princi- ple that anything which Mohammed would have said could be safely at- tributed to him, and on this authority put in his mouth the edict, "What- ever is in agreement with this, that THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
is from me, whether I actually said it or not."92
What makes this sort of high- handed control possible is the con- fiding of all interpretive authority in official, appointed bodies of experts, closed corporations of professional clergy that may not be challenged from outside; they are self-certified and self-perpetuating. Nowhere have the doctors enjoyed more absolute au- thority than among the Jews, whose awe in the presence of formal learn- ing is just this side of idolatry; what- ever a clever scholar teaches, accord- ing to Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, is to be received as if it were the word of God spoken to Moses himself on Sinai!93
By closing ranks and presenting a proud front to the world of common men, the clergy are spared the pains of ever having to answer back to the strong arguments against their con- trol of the past. Any who refuse to accept their verdict are by that very act disgraced and disqualified. As often as not they gain the support of princes and potentates, and then woe to the wretch who questions them!
When the immortal Pascal, one of the supremely great intellects of all time, challenged the tricky but shal- low and contradictory arguments of the Jesuits, they put him in his place by accusing him of being "a brilliant farceur without 'authority,' a lay theologian, an amateur of two days' standing, 'the ladies' theologian,' ' and the like, clinching their charges with the ultimate condemnation of all upstarts: "He does not even have a doctor's degree!"84 Thus Lunn an- nihilates one who dared to criticize the matchless double talk of St. Liguori: "The poor man did not real- ize that casuistry, like other branches of law, has its technical vocabulary and, as a result, he made a very com- plete fool of himself." As for Pro- fessor Haldane, though he quotes Aquinas in the clearest possible terms, he cannot for Mr. Lunn be anything but "uninstructed and amateurish."95 This is the last and favorite resort of the clergy when they are questioned too closely: their questioners simply don't understand; they are "unin-
structed and amateurish." "Unless you accept our interpretation of the texts," the layman is told, "you ob- viously do not understand them. And if you don't understand them, you have no right to question our inter- pretation of them!"
And so the layman is put in his place. The guarded degree, the closed corporation, the technical vocabulary, these are the inner redoubt, the in- violable stronghold of usurped au- thority. Locked safe within the massive and forbidding walls of in- stitution and formality lies what the Egyptians called "the King's secret," the secret of controlling the past.
1.
AS FAR AS IT IS TRANSLATED CORRECTLY."
After all has been said about the art of selecting, censoring, rewriting, and interpreting the records of the past, the fact remains that the great- est opportunity for exercising control over the documents lies not in these mechanical chores but in the business of translating the strange and un- familiar idioms in which the texts are written. As Joseph Smith knew so well, next to revelation it is lan- guage that holds the key to the past. This key is worth a brief examination here.
The writers of fantastic fiction often overlook the very obvious. We have yet to learn of any creation of theirs that has surpassed in boldness of con- ception or economy of operation that astounding device by which the hu- man race has throughout its history been able to preserve the very thoughts of men and transmit them through unlimited expanses of time and space. Writing is a thoroughly artificial thing — no more a product of evolution than feathers or water or algebra are. It is hard to believe that the first systems of writing that arose almost simultaneously in Egypt, Sumer, Elam, and India (all these cul- tures being at that time in contact with each other) were each invented independently or brought forth in re- sponse to the needs of the business world.96 For though writing may have been suggested by such useful
mnemonic devices as property marks and tallies,97 busy practical people have always got along supremely well without it. Like the calendar — long supposed to have been the invention of farmers, who of all people are the least dependent on the fixed and rigid setting of days98— writing is only use- ful in everyday life because everyday uses have been found for it. But the businessman, however capable he may be in other things, often becomes awkward and self-conscious when he tries to write correctly, embarrassing- ly aware that he is handling a medium that is strange to his calling. Though writing is as old as history, practical people have never yet got used to it, but like the generality of mankind have persisted in viewing it as a sort of magic, an affected and artificial thing, an ornamental ac- complishment designed for ostenta- tion rather than for use. It is in- conceivable that true writing was ever devised as a tool for these people, let alone by them. The really marvelous things that writing does, the astound- ing feats of thought-stimulation, thought-preservation, and thought- transmission for which it has always been valued by a small and special- ized segment of society, "the scribes," are of no interest to practical people: business records, private letters, school exercises, and the like are periodically consigned to. the inciner- ator by clerks and merchants to whom eternal preservation and limitless transmission mean nothing. The contents of such documents from the beginning show a complete unaware- ness, almost a visible contempt, for the real capabilities and uses of writ- ing. It is another and equally an- cient type of document that knows how to prize the true merit of the written word, and it is easy to sur- mise that this wonderful device came to the human family as a gift from parties unknown whose intent was that it should assist the race in a sort of cosmic bookkeeping. At any rate,, that actually is the principal use to which the instrument has been put since the beginning of that history which it alone has made possible.
(Continued on following page)
MAY 1955
307
CONTROLLING THE PAST
(Continued from preceding page)
One might as well argue that the brace and bit was invented as a crude tool for scratching leather and later discovered to be useful for boring holes in wood as to maintain that writing was conceived as a means of keeping track of heads of beef and measures of grain by people who later discovered that far more won- derful and significant things could be done with it. The Great Seal of England can be used to crack nuts with — a simple, practical, primitive operation, suggesting a very plausible origin — but it also has other uses. The earliest uses of writing for the keeping of accounts are in temple records, sacred things; and right along with them go the ritual texts, with an equal claim to antiquity and a far greater claim to the attention of those priests who have always been the peculiar custodians of the written word. From the beginning the writ- ten words were the divine words, the mdw ntr."
To state it briefly, we find writing from the first used for two kinds of bookkeeping: for terrestrial business it is not really necessary — in fact, such masters of this field as Commo- dore Vanderbilt found themselves better off without it; but for celestial business it is indispensable. Which, then, is the more likely to have pro- duced it? Every indication points to the temple.
And what an instrument! By its operation we know not only what men saw and heard and did and said three and four thousand years ago, but actually what they also thought and felt. The most delicate nuances and fleeting impulses of the mind have outlasted the enormous Cyclopean foundations of world-ruling cities, and where twenty-ton blocks may have vanished without a trace, the dreams, hopes, and surmises of the fragile people who lived among them remain as fresh and clear as ever, available to the modern world in almost embarrassing abundance. Embarrassing, because this inesti- mable treasure lies neglected, even by those regiments of professional hu- manists who claim to be its custo- dians.
The cause of this neglect is to be found in the peculiar nature of the instrument. Our thought-transmis- sion machine is the simple and eco-
308
nomical apparatus it is by virtue of being at the same time an exceeding- ly sensitive one. The price of the thing is nominal in this age of great libraries and microfilming, but its ef- fectiveness depends entirely on the skill and understanding with which it is operated. True writing is not picture writing; to receive its mes- sage the reader himself must be very specially adjusted. And when such a reader takes it upon himself to convey to others the words of the ancients, he himself becomes a part of the transmission machine — its most vital element, in fact. As far as the general public is concerned, the ef- fectiveness of the miraculous and age- old machine for thought-transmission depends entirely on the man who is operating it.
All the documents of antiquity without exception are written in lan- guages that no one speaks today. What an opportunity this offers for controlling the past! In the field of translation the scope and ambition of operations are simply staggering. The ancient writer and the modern reader — producer and consumer of history respectively — are alike at the mercy of a tyrannical middleman without whose express permission not one word can be conveyed from the past to the present. This serious situ- ation demands a moment's attention. Let us consider briefly the crippling disadvantages of trying to study church history through the medium of translations.
2. The Follies of Translation
Folly Number One — Destroying the Clues: Every page of any ancient text is a densely compact, all but solid mass of elaborately interwoven clues. No two people react the same way to these clues, and no one person reacts the same way to them twice. Yet a translation, no matter how good, is only one man's reaction to the clues at one time of his life. The most famous and successful transla- tion in the English language is Fitz- gerald's Rubaiyat. Fitzgerald's, not Omar Khayyam's, for though Fitz- gerald translated the whole thing again and again, producing a differ- ent Omar each time, Fitzgerald was never satisfied that any of his poems was Omar's. The translator is like an officious detective who hands us
his written report of the case but re- fuses to let us see the evidence for ourselves. Granted that the con- stable is smarter than we are and more experienced at his business, still we want to see the clues for ourselves, for in them lie the charm, challenge, and instruction of the game. In the place of a teeming, living complex of hints and suggestions which is the original text the translator gives us, as he must, only a limited number of certitudes — his certitudes, not the au- thor's— and whatever fails to attract his attention and elicit his response is left unrecorded. Thus the door is closed to any critical study of any text in translation, and we have the well-known dictum that the com- pletest critical commentary on a text is a translation of it, or in other words, that a translation is not a text at all but only a commentary on it: after the translator has given us his views there is nothing more to say. He places before us his own handiwork from which all possible interpretations but his own have been removed.
Folly Number Two — Opinions for Evidence: There are two things that no translation can convey, namely what the author said and how he said it. At the beginning of his book on the translation of Greek and Latin, Wilamowitz-Moellendorf gives a well- nigh perfect definition of a transla- tion: "A translation is a statement in the translator's own words of what he thinks the author had in mind." He cannot, of course, state what the author actually had in mind, for only the author knows that; nor can he report what the author said he had in mind, for the author has already done that; he can, as Wilamowitz assures us, only tell us in his own language what he thinks the author is trying to convey.
This means that any translation is at best only an opinion — one man's opinion of what another man had in mind. Now the importance of an- cient documents as a whole lies in their value as evidence, the evidence on which we must build the whole story of the human race. But an opinion is not evidence. It is not ad- missible in the court of scholarship for the same reason that it is not admissible in a court of law, because it always contains a conclusion of the
(Continued on page 364) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Genealogy
Unlocking the Doors to Opportunity
by Eugenie Daniels
An unusual night scene of the Salt Lake Temple.
0
ur family tree grew many years before I even knew it had been planted. The phrases, "keeping family records, hunting genealogy, and filling out pedigree charts" were familiar, but the necessity or the fascination of doing it didn't appeal to me until I was in my twenties and visiting a great-aunt who had reared my orphan mother and brought her to Utah where she joined the Church.
I had lived in California about fifteen years when I went back to Payson, Utah, to visit relatives. While at my aunt's home I noticed several loose-leaf books on a table and won- dering about them, asked, "Aunt Mat- tie, what are you doing with all those books?"
After her explanation I became in- terested and a half-hour later was "up to my neck" in them. Each book contained sheet after sheet of my ancestors' history. Each sheet had five generations of ancestors. Later I began making copies of each sheet pertaining to my mother's fam- ily. The longer I read and wrote, the more interested I became. I did not want to stop when my husband came to take me home.
Aunt Mattie taught me to think back, as that is the method of filling out genealogy-history sheets. Each person starts with his or her name, then fills in a space designated for MAY 1955
— Photograph by T. Harold Jacobsen
his father and mother's name, date of birth, date of marriage, place of birth and place of death. Going back, the next place to fill out has increased to four spaces because, each has to fill in the history of his father's parents (your grandparents on his side) and his mother's father and mother (grandparents on her side), increas- ing eight histories like doubling a penny.
After reading several pages I dis- covered my mother's grandmother was a direct descendant of Priscilla Mullins, who had married John Alden. Priscilla's daughter was Ruth Alden. Her daughter was Ruth Bass, whose daughter Ruth Webb had a daughter Ruth Faxon. Ruth Faxon named her daughter Ruth Locke.
But when Ruth Locke married and had her child, it was a boy so the family name of Ruth stopped, and the son was named Albert Faxon Kapple, born in Dublin, Ireland, or on the ocean. Albert Faxon Kapple, some- times spelled Capel, met and married Corinnia Simonds. They had a girl and christened her Joanna Kapple. She married Henrich Franz Friedrich, an artist from Sulzheim, Germany. He changed his name to English, spelling it Henry Fredericks. They were the parents of my mother, Cora Corinnia Fredericks.
Sir Robert Arden born January 15,
1484, in Warwickshire, was an officer in the army of King Henry VIII and a remote grandparent of mine and also a great-grandparent of William Shakespeare. Their relationship was as follows:
Sir John Alexander's children were, Henry, May 11, 1510 — married Grace Arden; Mary, Feb. 5, 1512 — married (Grace's brother) Robert Arden; Abigail, June 6, 1515 — married Rich- ard Shakesphere; Agnes, March 9, 1522 — married John Hill, a doctor; he died; and she married Mary's hus- band, Robert Arden.
Mary's daughter married Abigail's son (cousin), who was John Shake- sphere. They were the parents of William Shakespeare, the playright.
On this Webb "limb" its branches went back to the year 1372. From Sir John Alexander Webb's father, John Webb, born July 9, 1450 to his grandfather, William Webb, John Webb, Sr., and Geoffrey Webb born April 12, 1372.
Glancing at the family tree as a whole the name Abigail, a few genera- tions back, was as common as Cathy, Sue, and Robin are today. On its limbs were Abigail -twigs of Baxter, Willis, Saville, Allen, Locke, Buell, Ames, Noyes, and Shakespeare.
The oddest names were Brother Paddy of Plymouth, Massachussetts. Humility Webb, Experience Bolter, Love Simonds, Ebenezar Flagg, Free- dom Stone, wife of Deacon John Buell, II, Abyah Ingersol, and Cathrine Goode, wife of Sir Robert Buell of Chesterton.
On my mother's limb of the family tree, females predominated. She was the mother of four daughters. She had only one brother, and her sisters, with the exception of one, had only daughters.
I remember reading in Macaulay's History of England, "A people which takes no pride in the noble achieve- ment of remote ancestors, will never achieve anything worthy to be re- membered with pride by remote de- scendants."
(Continued on page 348) 309
Activities in Rirtland
Chapter III
Martin Harris was baptized at Fayette by Oliver Cowdery shortly after the Church was organized (April 6, 1830). Also bap- tized at the same time were the Prophet's father and mother and Orrin Porter Rockwell.1
The first recorded ordination of Martin Harris to an office in the priesthood, that of priest, occurred at the first conference of the Church, held at Fayette, June 9, 1830. Joseph Smith, Sr., and Hyrum Smith were ordained priests at the same confer- ence.2
The first high priests were ordained at the conference held at Kirtland, June 3-6, 1831. Among those or- dained high priests at that time were the Prophet's father, his brother Hyrum, and Martin Harris. Martin was ordained under the hands of Lyman Wight.3
During the summer of 1831 Martin Harris was called to accompany the Prophet on a mission to Missouri.4 The missionaries traveled with com- panions, and Martin was paired with Edward Partridge. Their destination was the "land of our inheritance, where Zion should be built." Martin Harris was present at the consecra- tion and dedication ceremonies of the land of Zion.
On August 3, 1831, the temple site was dedicated by Joseph Smith. Present also were Sidney Rigdon, Ed- ward Partridge, W. W. Phelps, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and Joseph Coe. The scene was solemn and impressive.5
During this same month, August
Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History (Salt Lake City, 1950), p. 93.
mid., p. 98.
''■Ibid., p. 126.
documentary History of the Church (Salt Lake City, 1927), 1:188.
"Ibid., 1:199.
The printing press on which the first edition of the Book of Mor- mon was printed, in 1830.
310
1831, Martin Harris was the first called by name through revelation to obey the law of consecration as an example to the church. "It is wis- dom in me that my servant Martin Harris should be an example unto the church, in laying his money before the bishop of the church." (D. & C. 58:35.)
It is said he obeyed cheerfully.
Returning from the mission to Mis- souri, Martin Harris proceeded to es- tablish his home in Kirtland, which
remained his permanent residence until he went to Utah in 1870.
The reputation of Martin Harris and the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries at the time he moved from Palmyra to Kirtland, is expressed in a newspaper article pub- lished under date of May 26, 1831, stating that Martin Harris was one of about fifty persons to move- to Ohio. It went on to say that his character was of the finest, but that his large circle of friends pitied him
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
for his delusions in joining the When the call went forth asking
Church.0 for volunteers to go to Zion to the
An important event in the progress succor of the Saints who had been of the Church took place in the driven from Jackson County> Martin autumn of 1831, the appointment of fiarris was amon§ the first to offer a body of stewards over the revela- ^1S fe™es" While a member of tions and commandments. This group Zion s CamP' Martin s perverse na- of men, of which Martin Harris was Jure was agai* revealed. We quote a member, was assigned the responsi- from the P™phet s journal for Mon- bility of managing the publication day, June 16, 1834: of the book of commandments and revelations.7 The vital importance of this calling was emphasized when the Lord warned the committee of stew- ards, "And an account of this stew- ardship will I require of them in the day of judgment." (D. & C. 70:4.)
The fundamental significance and true worth of the revelations are forcefully expressed in the report of Joseph Smith:
My time was occupied closely in review- ing the commandments and sitting in con- ference for nearly two weeks; for from the first to the twelfth of November [1831] we held four special conferences. In the last, which was held at Brother Johnson's in Hiram, after deliberate consideration, in consequence of the book of revelations, now to be printed, being the foundation of the Church in these last days, . . . Therefore the conference voted that they prize the revelations to be worth to the Church the riches of the whole earth, speaking temporal- ly. The great benefits to the world which result from the Book of Mormon and the revelations which the Lord has seen fit in His infinite wisdom to grant unto us for our salvation, and for the salvation of all that will believe, were duly appreciated.8
Martin Harris was for a time faith- ful and energetic in the performance of his duties in Kirtland. However, as early as the beginning of 1834, a spirit of discontent and criticism was made manifest in his attitude. It is recorded that during January 1834 Martin Harris was hailed before the council to answer charges of slander against Joseph Smith.8
He confessed that his mind was dark- ened, and that he had said many things inadvertently, calculated to wound the feel- ings of his brethren, and promised to do better. The council forgave him, with much
good advice.9
•
On the following February 17, 1834, Martin Harris was chosen a member of the first high council to be organized in this dispensation.10
"Painesville (Ohio) Telegraph, cited in Francis W. Kirkham, A New Witness for Christ in America (In- dependence, Mo. 1942), p. 168.
7D. H. C, op. cit., 1:236.
flbid., 1:235-236.
Hbid., 11:26.
1072uJ., 11:28; D. & C. 102.
MAY 1955
Standing near Monument to Martin Harris at Clarkston, Utah, are two grandsons of Martin Harris. (Left) Walter Harris Davis, son of Julia, daughter of Martin, and (right) Russell King Harris, son of Martin, Jr.
[In Zion's Camp], Martin Harris having boasted to the brethren that he could han- dle snakes with perfect safety, while fool- ing with a black snake with his bare feet, he received a bite on his left foot. ... I [Joseph Smith] took occasion to reprove him, and exhort the brethren never to trifle with the promises of God. I told them that it was presumptuous for anyone to provoke a serpent to bite him, but if a man of God was accidentally bitten by a poisonous serpent, he might have faith, or his brethren might have faith for him; so that the Lord would hear his prayer and he might be healed; but when a man designedly provokes a serpent to bite him, the principle is the same as when a man drinks deadly poison, knowing it to be such. In that case, no man has any claim on the promises of God to be healed.11
As early as June 1829, the Lord
made known his purpose, as of old; to select Twelve Apostles:
And now, behold, I give unto you, Oliver Cowdery, and also unto David Whitmer, that you shall search out the Twelve, who shall have the desires of which I have spoken;
And by their desires and their works you shall know them. (D. & C. 18:37-38.)
The Lord then set forth their quali- fications and duties.
It was not until February 14, 1835, more than five years later, that this divine command was complied with. At a special meeting held in Kirtland on this date, Joseph Smith announced that he had been commanded of the Lord to organize the Council of the Twelve, who would constitute a body equal in authority to the First Presi- dency. All members of Zion's Camp who could be reached were asked to attend, for the Twelve were to be called from among this number. To the two men who had formerly been named by revelation, Joseph Smith now added Martin Harris, and com- missioned the three witnesses to choose and ordain the first members of the Council of the Twelve in this dispensation to instruct them in the duties of their new calling. Thus Martin Harris participated in this momentous event.12 He was entrusted with a divine mission and called to fulfil the purposes of God.
Martin Harris early became the confidant of the Smith family. Joseph's mother, who was nearer Martin's own age, was always solicitous of his wel- fare. She writes, "I spoke of a con- fidential friend, to whom my husband merely mentioned the existence of the plates, some two or three years prior to their coming forth. This was none other than Martin Harris, one of the witnesses to the book, subsequent to its being translated.13
Joseph Smith himself was ever thoughtful of Martin Harris. Observe the intimate associations: Martin Har- ris was baptized at the same time as were the Prophet's father and mother; he was ordained a high priest at the same time as were the Prophet's father and brother Hyrum; he ac- companied Joseph on the mission to Missouri and was present at the dedi- cation of the temple site. History, in fact, records numerous instances
™Ibid., 11:95.
™lbid., 11:186-187.
13Lucy Mack Smith, History of the Prophet Joseph (revised ed. Salt Lake City 1902), p. 109.
(Continued on page 344) 311
For a prolonged moment, Mark with his wife, Julia, hesitated there in the doorway of the school auditorium. Just now, he knew, he should be happy because Paula was graduating; happy because — well happiness was supposed to go with graduation the way moon rhymed with June. But definitely he wasn't happy. A vague melancholy gripped his soul.
He and Julia were late, as usual. But tonight it didn't matter. Re- served seats awaited in the honored place for parents, seats predestined for them since the day they acquired Paula. He took the offered printed program, and they followed an usher down the aisle. Having settled Julia, he sank gratefully into his pre- destined chair. Why make such a fuss about finishing the twelfth grade? Why didn't they hand out diplomas, as they did report cards, and be through with it?
Casually he studied his program and saw that Paula would sing a closing number. Paula lived in a world of song. She never, oh never, lived in the prosaic world of mathe- matics— that world she'd bequeathed to him when she dumped her algebra literally and figuratively into his lap.
"Daddy, it says here: 'Airplane A takes off from airport X.' Miss Humphreys says. . . ."
To no one in particular he'd growled, "Miss Humphreys! Why doesn't she do her own homework? If I had my way. . . ."
Of course, Paula had seen that he was pretty rusty on algebra and, to save face, he'd lectured her about developing initiative, doing her own work. Her only response was, "Daddy! You want me to graduate, don't you?"
And so Paula was graduating or would be graduated within the hour. School dignitaries now were filing on- to the stage. Which was Miss Humphreys? Undoubtedly she was the elderly woman wearing bifocals. No other creature could take pleasure in finding out how long it took air- plane A to overtake airplane B.
Just to prove his judgment sound, he whispered to Julia. "Which one is Miss Humphreys?" Julia, a devout member of P-TA would know.
She whispered back, "The blond on the front row, the one in the blue faille suit."
Why, Miss Humphreys was little more than a child herself! A golden -
312
haired goddess: living proof that sometimes a dream can be practi- cal, practical enough to own a math- ematical brain!
Here came the seniors, marching single file up the aisle, babes in som- ber caps and gowns, step by step ad- vancing. After tonight, they would keep walking. Where? Into what? He was a diver fearfully emerging from icy waters, shaking sub-zero spray from his eyes. So much would happen. Paula could know suffering and tragedy. A cord in his neck tightened.
Paula swept by with a faint smile. Her face held the innocence of child- hood, the confidence of youth, and the crusading zeal of Joan of Arc. Behind her marched Herb Eliott. Paula was currently in love with Herb.
So he hadn't been too concerned when, with the frankness of atomic- age youth, she'd confided, "Herb and I mean to have six children, a brick house electrically applianced. Of course, I'll have my career — my music — too."
The career, he gathered, also had a halo of unreality. He hadn't
pointed out that the house and chil- dren wouldn't mysteriously take care of themselves; that they would neces- sitate a large slice of worry and work about tonsillectomies, plumbing, menus. Instead, he'd said, "If you'd concentrate on algebra, you might make an A. . . ."
Her laugh was delicious. "Daddy! I'm avoiding the stigma of being a brain. Herb says a smart girl con- centrates on looks."
He looked at her now without the bias of father love. There was nothing startling about her. She was average height, neither extremely dark nor fair, just natural looking, and appealing. So there would al- ways be a Herb or some other man in her life until she chose one Herb for good. Heaven help her to choose the right Herb!
Somewhere in the marching seniors, he saw himself — another Mark. He recognized him by his long arms, big ears, and mop of red hair. This other
Mark looked with mild amazement across the chasm of thirty years at what he had become: a baldheaded man with an expanding waistline. As a boy, this Mark had had a dream with two ingredients: fun and barrels of money. He and a girl named Jennie had commuted to Bates High with two elderly schoolteachers and some businessmen. Very prosaic! Except that he and Jennie were in love!
"Trouble is, most people think fun and life don't go together," he'd told Jennie. "No use livin', if you can't have fun. I'll be a famous ball player, make a pile of money out of fiavin' fun. Between seasons, we'll travel. There'll be Hawaii, the Alps, and maybe an African safari. You'd love that, Jennie. We'll have fun- fun—"
It was as easy as that because everything comes out right, once you're in a dream. Where was Jen- nie now? Her folks moved away that summer. After all these years, he still remembered his pain at losing Jennie. They'd written long letters for a while. But words were a poor substitute. Then, suddenly, his father
Is th
t
by Verna Linburg
had died. Somebody had to run the store.
Baseball waited while he learned about invoices, discounts, markets. He also learned to love Julia, the per- fect secretary. When they'd mar- ried, there wasn't time for much of a honeymoon. A new wing was being added to the store. Later there'd been air conditioning, escalators, a tea room.
He could never have done it ex- cept for Julia. Julia was good for him. She inspired him to make dreams concrete. He'd made money, not barrels of it, but enough. Fun? Had he had fun along the way? Maybe not. At least not in the way the boy Mark had thought of fun. But there'd been satisfaction. Maybe that was the word! Satisfaction with the business, his home, the Church, Julia! Julia was talking to him now.
"Isn't he distinguished-looking?"
He leaned a little closer to her and mumbled, "Hum-m-m? Who?"
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
I le and Julia were late. But tonight it didn't matter. Reserved seats awaited in the honored place tor parents.
Time
"I said, 'Isn't the speaker distin- guished-looking?""
By a tremendous effort, he con- centrated briefly on the bespectacled commencement orator; trying desper- ately to paint a realistic world to the senior class, he might as well be lec- turing a group of happy sparrows. His words rumbled on and on. Their thunder echoed in his brain like the distant rumble announcing the ghost- ly nine-pin game to Rip Van Winkle. Unlike Rip, though, only half of his brain was asleep — the half listening to the commencement address — the other half was busy with thoughts of Paula.
She'd come to them after two years of marriage. Naturally, he'd wanted a boy but, in no time at all— in fact, from the minute her baby fingers had clutched his hand — he'd been satisfied with a girl-child. Daughters favored fathers, he thought; sons were like mothers. Paula grew to look like Julia, thank goodness, but MAY 1955
inside she was his. They shared a mutual dislike of onions, hot Weather, and crowds, and a love of rain, the lonesome whistle of a train and the taste of popcorn. Tonight marked the end of one phase of their close- ness. After tonight, Paula would have college, a home of her own. . . ."
Her soprano voice awakened the other half of his brain. Paula stood before the footlights. She started to sing.
Mark heard Julia's sharp intake of breath, felt her shoulder give a con- vulsive twitch. A muscle in his jaw quivered.
All the longing and heartache of childhood melting into adulthood was in their daughter's dear voice. Mark wanted to take her into his arms and hold her forever, hold back life, sorrow, pain. These must never touch her. The song swept on to its heartbreaking finale on high-high notes.
It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful evening. Thunderous ap- plause rang down the curtain, and the audience broke into a milling crowd.
A small cyclone hit him, and Paula's arms closed around his neck. "Oh, Daddy! I'm going to cry! It's
all over! I thought I'd be happy, but I'm not! I know you cannot un- derstand. . . ."
But he- did. Something sweet and dear was over for him, too. Paula was experiencing her first grief over an accomplished dream— a sudden adult awareness that possessing a dream doesn't bring happiness. Why must it be so? He wished he could tell her, but there were no words for dreams that faded into reality.
He wanted to tell her, "Someday you'll be in our place, and then a little door in your heart will open wide, and you'll be back to tonight. So tonight isn't over, Baby. Not really! You'll always have it, in a way." Instead, he patted her back and nodded over her shoulder at Miss Humphreys, who had joined them.
Paula turned in his arms. She wiped her eyes and smiled at every- body. "Daddy, the gang's going to Miss Humphreys'. . . ."
"Run along," he said.
The boy who took her away wasn't named Herb. He was a tall, red- headed fellow with big ears, a young fellow named Mark. And so he called after them,
"Have fun!"
313
Kaysville, Utah
Dear Edgar,
It was a thrill bumping into you, my old missionary companion, after all these years. But the thrill turned to shock when you an- swered my question as to what you were doing in the Church with, "Nothing."
I am sorry our visit was interrupted and cut so short so that all I had a chance to say was, "I still believe, and stronger than ever," but had no time to give you my reasons. Hence^ this letter.
You once told me of; an experience \ you^had with a deer-hunting com-*', panfon in the high Uintah Moun- . tains, late one fall in bitter cold and stormy weather. Your companion had become lost, panicky,; and finally exhausted from running ' over the, mountainside. He lay down under a pine tree, and by sheer luck you had A come upon him before he froze to death. He ; was still conscious and could talk >to you, but in his numbed condition claimed he was not cold at all.
No amount of coaxing on your part could persuade him to get up and move around. He begged to be left alone, insisting that he was perfectly comfortable, and became angry when you dragged him to his feet and made him move. You said he really was angry when at last in desperation you picked up a stick and laid one or two across his back until he moved to get out of the reach of it. You had to drive him more than a mile like that, for every time you were sympathetic and eased up with the stick, he'd lie down again. Final- ly, however, you got him moving faster and faster to get out of the way of the stick, and his blood started circulating, warming him up so that when he could think clearly, he thanked you time and time again with tears in his eyes for using the stick and saving his life.
I have the feeling since our con- versation the other day that you, and hundreds of other good men like you, are in about the same condition spiritually as your hunting compan- ion was physically. You came home from your mission all enthusiastic, and for some reason you have grown cold. Is it because of inactivity in the Church? Is it because you're so 314
Letter to a Missionary
An artist's conception of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, in the war prophesied by Joseph Smith, as early as 1833.
cold you are numb and can't think clearly in spiritual matters?
Perhaps you may have been of- fended by your ward teachers, quo- rum president, or your bishop be- cause he would not go away and quit bothering you. Am I guessing cor- rectly? It's too bad there isn't some sort of spiritual stick each could use to arouse you and get your spiritual blood circulating again. I'm sure the time would come when you would thank those who did use it for doing
so.
Now to answer that charge of yours that there is no evidence, out- side of Joseph Smith's saying so, that an angel ever visited him. Edgar, there are stacks of good evidence to corroborate Joseph Smith's statement that an angel came to him with an all important message from God to mankind.
Do you remember the conference in Chattanooga, and the one meeting we held up on Lookout Mountain,
where one of the great battles of the Civil War was fought, known as the "Battle above the Clouds"? We mis- sionaries were sitting on the steps of the New York monument while President Callis was delivering his sermon, and in the course of his re- marks he quoted these lines from Shakespeare:
And this our life exempt from public
haunt Finds tongues in trees, books in the
running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in every
thing.
— As You Like It, Act II, Sc. 1
Then he asked us, "If there are sermons in stone, as Shakespeare said, what sermon is that pile of stone preaching?" pointing to the monument. None of us had an an- swer. Then he said, "I'll tell you what sermon it is preaching. It is preaching that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God." He paused as we looked at each other wondering how THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Companion
by Rulon Killian
BISHOP OF KAYSVILLE 1ST WARD
it could possibly be. Then he con- tinued about like this:
"Twenty-eight years before the Civil War began, Joseph Smith prophesied that war would break out between the Southern States and the Northern States, that the Southern States would call upon Great Brit- ain for help, and that the war would terminate in the death and misery of many souls. Now New York and other states have gone to much trouble and expense to have these stones hauled up on this mountain (and dozens of other parks through- out the Southern States) and piled up artistically to tell all who visit these places that the Southern States did fight against the Northern States, that the Southern States did call up- on Great Britain for help, and that the war did terminate in the death and misery of many souls."
You may have forgotten that ser- mon, Edgar, but I haven't, and as I have grown older and have looked about me, I see many things besides stones that are preaching a sermon
that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and testifying that he was visited and in- structed by an angel. Your automo- bile is preaching it, and so is your refrigerator and all of our modern- day wonders.
The Angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith September 22, 1823, and after telling the boy about the plates hid- den in the hill, began quoting prophe- cies from the Old Testament saying that they had not been fulfilled yet but soon would be. One of these was from Joel 2:28 to 30. It reads, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daugh- ters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
"And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
"And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke." Now there are other verses he quoted, and whole sermons in each of them, but time and space will permit my call- ing attention to only the part where- in it says that God will pour out his spirit upon all flesh, men will dream dreams and see visions and great wonders will come upon the earth. The angel said, "Now that prophecy will soon come to pass."
Edgar, have you ever stopped to
The wonders of modern automotive transportation received great impetus under the hands of such men as Henry Ford, pictured here in his first "horseless carriage." MAY 1955
realize that men in 1823 were har- vesting their grain with scythes and sickles and threshing it out by spread- ing it on a floor and driving their oxen over it? The selfsame method that had been used for the past five thousand years. (You can read of that method in the book of Genesis.) But shortly after 1823, Cyrus H. McCormick began visualizing the possibility of a mechanical reaper, and it was in the ninth year after the angel's visit that he had his reaper patented. Also, in 1823, women were still using the needle and thread to make their clothes as they had been doing ever since before the flood. But soon the inventor Elias Howe got to dreaming of the possi- bility of a sewing machine, and in a score of years he was demonstrating one.
I was reading a little almanac re- cently put out by the Bell Telephone Company, and this appeared in one place, "When George Washington died (December 14, 1799) although his death was top news to the coun- try, it was eleven days before the people up in Boston heard about it," showing that in communication as in these other things progress was slow. George Washington died twenty-four years before the angel's visit. Shortly after the visit, how- ever, a man who was neither scien- tist nor mechanic, but an artist, was returning from an art exhibit in Paris. While on the boat the idea came to him of the possibility of sending messages by code over a wire. He soon was working on the idea. A wire was strung between Washington, D. C, and Baltimore, and the first words sent over the wire were, "What hath God wrought." Thus Samuel F. B. Morse publicly admitted that God had put this idea into his head. (By the way, this demonstration took place May 24, 1844, just one month and three days before that bloodthirsty mob took the life of Joseph Smith in Carthage, Illinois.) Twenty-four years before the angel's visit it took top news eleven days to reach Boston, three hundred and fifty miles away! Twenty-four years after the angel's visit it could be sent in less than eleven seconds.
Edgar, get out your encyclopedia and check me on these dates and no- tice too that in transportation as in
{Continued on page 350) 315
Juan (one of the Lacadon Indian guides) paddling the boat taking Milton R. Hunter and Jose Davila across the river near Jose Petit's home, and Nabor (another Lacadon Indian guide), sitting on the log.
Part II
Visiting Bonampak and the Lacadon Indians
dramatic chapter in the story of /I American archaeology was broad- ly cast to the world in 1947 when the recent discovery in the southern jungles of Mexico of scenes depicting dark-and light-colored Indians paint- ed on the interior walls of a temple was announced. The Mayan name Bonampak, meaning "painted walls," was given to this archaeological site.1 A succession of interesting events resulted in the discovery of Bonam- pak. Approximately fifteen years ago when war clouds were hovering over the United. States, Charles (Car- los) Frey, a young man in Chicago, decided to get completely away from what we term civilization; and so he left the United States with the hope of rinding a spot where he could enjoy peace and contentment with
iSylvanus G. Morley, The Ancient Maya (Palo Alto, California, 1947), p. 415.
316
complete freedom from the multitude of worries and problems attached to modern society. In the jungles of the Usumancinta River basin near the southern borders of Mexico, he joined a group of Mayans, the Lacadon In- dians, who were living under very primitive conditions.2 He married one of their women and made his home with them.
After living with them for a few years, he won their confidence, and they told him about Bonampak, situ- ated some ten to fifteen miles from their jungle huts. As a result of much persuasion, the Lacadon In- dians guided Mr. Frey to the temple of the "painted walls," and these he examined with intense interest. Soon thereafter he visited Mexico City and reported his discovery. Archaeol-
Archaeology
Book
Hbid., pp. 208, 381, 410.
ogists hurried to Bonampak and pub- lished articles describing this unusual, ancient temple with its "painted walls."
When I read those articles, I se- cretly and eagerly hoped to visit Bon- ampak and examine this marvelous discovery which could provide valu- able evidence in helping to confirm the claims made by the Book of Mor- mon that there were dark and light colored peoples in ancient America. :- My chances to go there seemed re-
32 Ne. 5:21-25; 30:6; Jacob 3:8; 3'Ne. 2:15.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
mote; however, rather unexpectedly I received the opportunity to go.
At 5:30 a.m. on the morning of January 18, 1955, Otto Done, a photographer working for the Church, Jose Davila, a Mexican guide and former branch president at Puebla, and I alighted from a train at Tenosi- que, Tabasco, Mexico, waited anxious- ly for daylight to come, and then hired the owner of a small plane to fly us to an airstrip near Bonampak. By 10 o'clock we had flown over the jungles of Mexico nearly to the ex- treme southern limits of that coun- try and had landed on an airstrip cut for the use of workers in the chicle industry which provides the substance from which chewing gum is made. The place we landed was called El Sedro. We were now in one of the most densely wooded re- gions in the world, where there are no civilized people and no laws to govern the few primitive Lacadon Indians who live there. Before he left, our aviator informed us that we were crazy if we attempted to hike to Bonampak. He said, "If you get lost, you won't be the first nor the last ones. Recently an American was lost in these jungles for fifteen days." In spite of his efforts to discourage us, we were still determined to go to Bonampak.
And so the aviator remarked, "If you still insist on going, there is your
v/nv
■
■
and the of Mormon
by Dr. Milton R. Hunter
OF THE FIRST COUNCIL OF THE SEVENTY
Photographs by Otto Done BB|
trail leading out of the southwest corner of the airstrip; however, I still think you are fools."
We arranged with the aviator to meet him at the airstrip three days hence at 10 a.m., waved adieu as he flew away, and then commenced hik- ing along a very indistinct and diffi- cult jungle trail.
After approximately one hour's time had passed and Otto, Jose, and I had almost reached the conclusion
(Continued on following page) MAY 1955
m *%«
mm
■ fi n»!"v $&$
f •/ J.V- 'ft
%m
'. ?4>'.%V
-Mm ■
#&-
^ ' F, Bj- J.
■rip A •■•"•"
Top: Airplane view of jungles and clouds, shortly before the arrival at the airstrip fifteen miles from Bonampak. Center: A stream of water used for a jungle trail, and Nabor, Milton R. Hunter, and Jose Davila. Bottom: Lacadon Indians studying a photograph of themselves, Milton R. Hunter, and Jose Davila. Observe height of Indians. The three on the left are the Indians who first met us.
317
dred feet upward and growing close- ly together, were interwoven with vines of various species. These nd only climbed the trees from the ground to their tops, but also grew crosswise from tree to tree, making: the vegetation practically a solid hedge. We observed that certain varieties of plants, such as philoden- drons, which are grown as house plants in Utah, climbed one hundred feet high to the tops of the trees. Words are inadequate to describe the density and the beauty of the tropical jungles of southern Mexico. Thou- sands of orchid plants are attached to the trees. When in full bloom, these flowers would be a gorgeous
sight.
Milton R. Hunter and Nabor examining a broken Mayan stele at Bonampak.
Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
(Continued from preceding page) that we were lost, we met some In- dians on the trail and they became our guides.
Our rescuers consisted of two In- dian women and a boy, the latter whom I estimated to be approximately fifteen years old. These Indians, hav- ing heard our plane, had left their home and hurried down the trail to meet us.
They spoke Spanish and Mayan, having learned the former language from chicle workers, and so Otto and Jose conversed with them in Spanish.
After proper introductions had been made, the Indian women announced that they were formerly the wives of a man named Corranza who had been killed recently by another mem- ber of their tribe named Obregon. This news was disheartening. Here we were miles and miles from civili- zation, with no law enforcement officers nor laws to protect us, and suddenly we were informed that this had happened. With concern we asked, "Why did Obregon shoot Cor- ranza?"
The reply was, "Because Obregon was loco in the head."
In each of our hearts was a strong hope and a sincere prayer that we three would not become Obregon's next victims. Nevertheless we were very thankful to have the Indians
318
as our guides; and so we proceeded onward, putting our trust in the Lord. Never in my life before making this trip have I known what jungles and jungle trails really were. What a trail! The trees of numerous varie- ties, towering approximately one hun-
Occasionally vines grew across the trail only four or five feet from the ground. This necessitated much stooping on our part, especially in the case of Otto Done who is six feet two inches tall. Because of the masses of leaves which were packed on the ground, the trail at times was ex- tremely difficult to distinguish. We could have gone one direction almost as easily as another and still thought we were on the trail.
The tropical vegetation was so dense, regardless of how brightly the sun shone in the heavens, that it re- sembled dusk throughout the entire
Jose Petit, a red- headed Lacadon In- dian — practically white, with his wife and baby. Jose is the brother-in-law of of Frey, discoverer of Bonampak.
■■*■>. .,y3T .^■gyyWu. v ■ ■. ■■->:■: ■-■--V "" <r -W .oV^. . 3 "vSL, ' SF* ■:".
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
A White, redheaded Lacadon woman.
course of our journey. The heat was intense and the humidity high. I was unable to wear my glasses at all in the jungles.
We soon learned that the Lacadon Indians were decidedly in favor of
J
using streams of water for the trail whenever opportunity afforded itself. Occasionally during the earlier por- tion of our journey the trail crossed streams of water. We picked our way very cautiously, endeavoring to find logs or rocks on which to walk. Soon our feet were thoroughly soaked, and from then on we merely waded in the water in Indian fashion when- ever we encountered a stream. As we continued our journey toward Bonampak, the trail on a number of occasions actually went in the streams of water, following their courses for nearly one hundred yards at a time before coming again onto the land. At certain times the water in which we waded was knee-deep. The trail was so indistinct and difficult to fol- low that without our Indian guides we would have never reached Bon- ampak.
Our progress was made more diffi- cult in certain places by muddy trails, causing us to sink ankle-deep; in other places our progress was ham- pered by four or five logs which had fallen on top of each other and were lying stretched across the trail. If it so happened that there was a hole large enough underneath the logs to squeeze through, the Indians would drop on their stomachs and crawl. Unfortunately, we found it impossible to follow suit, since we were carrying MAY 1955
so much equipment, and so we were forced to climb over the logs. I had ' a large movie camera strapped around my neck and hanging in front of me, with another camera hanging down my back, and water canteens hanging on each side. Otto and Jose were equally heavily laden, their packs in- cluding food, hammocks, and several additional cameras.
As we continued our journey along the jungle trail, it seemed as if every vine reached out and grabbed hold of our feet, tripping us over. It was really laughable to see how many times each of us fell down, but our Indian guides never stumbled. My first really exciting fall occurred shortly after the Indians had joined us. We were attempting to cross a stream on a log covered with slick, green moss. When I reached the middle of the stream, my feet slipped, and I fell into the water. As quickly as I could I held both cameras as high out of the water as possible, while I struggled to my feet and out of the stream. How the Indians laughed! That mishap furnished them the most fun they experienced while we were with them.
We hiked through the jungles for approximately two hours after the
Indian women and boy met us before we arrived at their casa or home. We invited them to continue on to Bonampak, but they declined, stating that the two men of that particular household probably would go with us if we would wait until they returned from hunting birds. Naturally to wait was our only choice; however, this afforded us an unusual oppor- tunity to study the Lacadon Indians firsthand.
The two men, their several wives, and the two boys were living in two thatched houses which stood in the center of a beautiful spot that had been carved out of the jungles. A river of sparkling water ran nearby. Approximately ten acres of land pro- duced bananas, sweet potatoes, corn, sugar cane, gourds, tobacco, and papayas for the Indians' subsistence. We observed that this small group of natives had twelve dogs, a herd of goats, a large flock of chickens, several turkeys, and a pair of parrots. The latter perched in a tree and served as decoys to attract wild parrots which the Indians shot for food according to their desires and needs.
Since there were only two boys of approximately fifteen years of age in
(Continued on page 338)
K":S;!!jj.:i-
Lacadon Indians eating dinner before the departure for Bonampak.
319
by Elsie Chamberlain Carroll
YEAR
Nancy left her typewriter and went impatiently to answer the doorbell. She'd never get that article finished in time. She hoped it was a salesman whom she could dispose of quickly. She sighed as she passed the door of Jim's disorderly room. Why was it so much harder to train Jim than it had been the other children? — That slipshod Barker family — what he could see in the girl?— The bell rang again.
"Good morning, Mrs. Morris," greeted the smartly tailored young woman on the porch. "Can you spare a few moments?"
"I'm very busy. What — "
"I'm Bonnie Ungar from the Eve- ning Express. You know, of course, that you are a nominee for the Clarks- dale mother of the year."
"Yes. I heard — or read something about it. There were several nom- inees."
"Yes. But you are tied in the committee with another, that is for— the deciding vote. Mr. Harvey, edi- tor of the Express, persuaded the com- mittee to let him run interviewes with you two nominees; then maybe have a public poll or something like that for the final decision. It seems the qualifications of you and the other nominee are so fine — and yet
320
so different that he thinks it would arouse interest in what are the best qualifications for good motherhood. He appointed me to write the inter- views which will be published in the woman's department of the Express."
Nancy hesitated. She was natural- ly pleased that she had been nomi- nated by the Progressive League she had organized a number of years ago. But having a public poll — it was a strange procedure.
"If — if you are too busy right now, I could come back a little later," the girl offered. "I could go and see Mrs. Barker first."
"No, no. Come in. I'm always busy." Mrs. Barker — surely it couldn't be —
"Sit here, by this table. Who did you say the other nominee is?"
"A Mrs. Barker — Susan I think her name is."
"The one who lives on Canal Street?"
"Why, yes, I believe so. Yes, here it is — 49 West Canal Street. Her husband is Sam Barker. He has a food store over on the west side. She must be a wonderful woman, too, though not so prominent as you. I really hadn't heard of her before. I suppose you know her."
"I know of her," Nancy said dryly.
She thought of her picture of the Barker home she had built from things Jim had said since he became interested in Jeanie — a family picnic in the living room one day when it rained — little boys roasting wieners over logs in the fireplace — neighbor- hood talent shows and lawn carnivals with the mother leaving her washing half-done to be a judge. And he thought it was wonderful.
"Well, now what is it you want to know?" She wondered who could have nominated the woman. She couldn't possibly belong to any clubs — with that household. Was it nine or eleven, Jim had said?
"Why just everything. Everyone knows how much you've done for Clarksdale, working on drives, lectur- ing, organizing clubs. You organized the Progressive League — tell me about that." '
"That was fifteen years ago. There was nothing in Clarksdale then, it seemed to me, of a cultural nature. There were only five original mem- bers. Women were not interested in anything outside their homes. Now there are fifty members and a long waiting list. The league has done wonders in improving the members through wide reading and has stimu- lated interest in civic projects which THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
have raised the cultural standards of the town."
"What are some of the projects you have helped to promote?"
"I promoted the first drive for a public library, was a charter member of the City Health Board. Oh, I suppose I've had my hand in most everv worth-while movement in Clarksdale during the last quarter of a century."
"I'm sure you have. And all your lecturing and writing besides."
"Yes, I do some of both. I helped get our Community Lyceum Course operating and have been on the Lec- turing Service Bureau since.
"And you write for different maga- zines."
"I do the news notes for the A.A.U.W. Bulletin and some articles each year for the Social Science Gazette, and occasionally something else. I'm busy now on an article I must get off."
"Tell me about your hobbies."
Nancy stiffened a little.
"I've never had time for hobbies. They're for people who fail to find real objectives in life."
The girl was taken aback.
"Tell me about your family. I un- derstand your four sons and one daughter have done pretty wonderful things, too. And of course it's the children who largely determine the greatness of the mother."
"My oldest son, Dr. Henry T. Mor- ris, is with the International Archaeo- logical Institute."
"I've heard of him. He writes for National Geographic."
"Yes. He conducts archaeological surveys, too, in different countries. He is going to Greece soon to over- see excavations there. MAY 1955
Or had he already gone? Nancy recalled his last letter with uneasi- ness. Could his marriage be in danger? He mentioned Harriet's ob- jection to his traveling abroad until Tommy had recovered from rheu- matic fever. Why hadn't he written more? Had she made the children too independent of her?
"You must be very proud of him. Your next son? He's the architect who helped plan the remodeling of the White House, isn't he?"
"Yes, Richard is doing very well."
"The Express ran an article on him in our column, 'Local Boys Make Good.' "
Nancy wondered if she sent the clipping to Richard — or was it still
in her desk? She'd been so busy about that time with committee work.
"And your third son? Where is he?"
"He's with the government also — an attache in Italy."
"Are these three sons married?"
"Yes. Walter hasn't been home since the war. He married a French girl while he was doing personnel work after the war. Then he was given his present position."
"And you haven't seen him in all these years?"
"No. Children have their own lives to live." Nancy recalled Walter's plan to bring his bride home and her own discouragement of it because of the expense and shortness of his vacation. Had her hope to go abroad herself before he returned, prompted her advice?
"And you have but one daughter? What is she doing to add to your honor as a mother?"
"I'm afraid nothing." Nancy hoped the girl couldn't sense her disap- pointment. "Kathie married just be- fore she finished college. I'd planned for her to study medicine. Her father had hoped one of the children would follow his profession — and she seemed to have a bent in that direction. Her husband is an agricultural professor."
Her disappointment that Kathie had refused a career still hurt. Of course she'd wanted her to marry, but she was so young and had had her babies so fast. Nancy had tried hard to be father and mother both after Henry's death. She had so wanted them all to achieve. But Kathie had failed her.
"How many grandchildren do you have?" the girl asked.
(Continued on following page)
321
(Continued from preceding page)
Nancy felt almost embarrassed. Her children were prolific.
"Henry has five, Richard five, and Walter — three." His last letter had said there would be another in the spring, and the baby wasn't yet a year old! "And Kathie — She used to say she wanted ten and — she has seven already. One pair of twins. I'm afraid she's like some of the women here who seem to think the size of their families is the goal of motherhood. I believe in improving the race — not just making it larger." The girl kept busily taking notes.
"Oh, we haven't talked about Jim. Though he's still young, I imagine you can tell pretty well what he will be."
Nancy sighed. "I wish I could tell about Jim. He's the brightest of the children as far as his IQ goes. But he hasn't found himself yet."
"Doesn't he go with Jeanie Barker? How exciting! Their mothers — both candidates for Mother of the Year. That would make a story in itself."
"I don't see why," Nancy said coldly. "Now if you have the in- formation you want, Miss Ungar, I really must get back to my work."
"Could you give me just one more thing? I do want to do justice to you wonderful women. Please list the things you have developed in your children which you consider the great- est contributing factors in their suc- cess."
As Nancy sat formulating the rules, schedules, and habits she had empha- sized with the children in their early lives, she noted the girl's eyes roving admiringly over the attractive living room. Nancy was proud of the harmony, the dignified austerity, and elegance she had achieved.
"I don't know whether these are the most important, but being left to take the place of their father as well as being mother, I tried to im- press them with things I felt were the bases of success: becoming in- dependent— able to solve their own problems without leaning on others: forming habits of industry and de- pendability; and to be constantly on the alert for opportunities for ad- vancement toward the goals of their ambitions. I had them follow a few rules and schedules in the home to inculcate punctuality, neatness, shar- ing of responsibility. These seemed
322
MOTHER OF THE YEAR
to work pretty well with the older boys. But — of course Jim is still young."
"I think you've been wonderfully successful, and thank you so much. If you think of anything else, call me. Mr. Harvey wants the interviews in tomorrow's paper."
Nancy went back to her work, still thinking of Susan Barker. What had she done for Clarksdale — except increase the population? Her house- keeping must be haphazard — judging from the effect on Jim. How serious was he with Jeanie? She was pretty, Nancy recalled, the one time he'd brought her home — but not well- groomed. He'd brought her only once, but went to her home more and more frequently.
Back at her work she forgot every- thing until four o'clock, when she stopped to freshen herself and pre- pare dinner. When it was six o'clock and Jim hadn't come, she was irri- tated. If he'd been delayed at the lab he should have phoned. This was happening too often. He'd prob- ably gone home with Jeanie and was eating some of Mrs. Barker's "good stew" he'd told her about, sitting with a bunch of disheveled kids.
She ate her dinner in grim discon- tent and was back at her work when Jim came, hours later. When he came to her door, she said coldly, "I suppose you've had something to eat."
"Yes," he answered and went to his room. The next day there was a restraint between them.
When the Express came that eve- ning, Nancy turned at once to Woman's Section and hastily read the editorial paragraph preceding Miss Ungar's interviews. She re-read the last sentence: "But after all, this recognition is not for the Mother of the Year, but for the outstanding mother, and it is in her relationship with her children that a mother's greatness is found." An uneasy feel- ing stole over Nancy, but she soon forgot it as she read of the achieve- ments of herself and her children. The girl had done a good job. Nancy glowed with satisfaction.
She turned to the other interview with curiosity.
"The two selected by the committee from the number of worthy nominees are vastly different. My visits to both were — well, inspiring.
"Mrs. Barker was making a cos- tume for one of her girls for the com- ing school jamboree. She was also tending a daughter's twins while their mother was working on the drive for disabled Korean veterans, and she was baking beans for a church social. But she made me wel- come.
"Mrs. Barker is the mother of ten. The six married ones have given her twenty-one grandchildren."
Nancy read of the Barker progeny — one son was a Scout executive; an- other was with his father in the gro- cery business; a third, city recreational director, and another was on a mis- sion. She read with special interest about her daughters.
" 'Ruth is the mother of the twins. I was too busy when my children were small to do anything outside the home. I don't want my girls to be so tied. I try to give them a little freedom so they can take part in things that help others and at the same time make them better mothers. Clara, my second girl, is going to a home demonstrator's convention in Seattle. We will have her three with us the ten days she's gone. Her husband is fine about her going, but he's principal of the junior high over in Three Points and of course can't take care of the babies.' "
"When the interviewer asked if caring for grandchildren wasn't hard now she was getting older, Susan re- plied: 'Well, of course, I get tired easier, but grandchildren don't get on my nerves, they're something extra special.
"While she talked of her children she alternately picked up the toys the twins kept throwing out of the play pen, checked on the beans in the oven, and basted ruffles on Judy's costume. Phil, in Korea, had been wounded twice and decorated for the heroic rescue of some of his wounded buddies.'
"She told of the disappointment to her and her husband that they couldn't give all their children college educations. Robert had started to school on his GI allotment, but when their second baby came, they couldn't make his $90 stretch over all their expenses; so he had stopped to help his father in the grocery business. She hoped Phil could go when he goi back from Korea and Howard when
(Continued on page 346) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
rawer.
i
THE KEY TO SECURITY
by Ezra J. Pouhen
The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness," says Joseph Addison.
When one sees people beset by fear and anxiety, often over matters of no great moment, he is compelled to wonder why so many fail to seek the strength found in honest faith and in daily prayer. The person who keeps in touch with God in the true spirit of worship finds courage to act, make decisions, and meet life's re- verses with a buoyancy unknown to the person of little faith.
As a small boy, I used to wonder about our nextdoor neighbor. I was sure he was the happiest man I ever saw, though I could see no particular reason for this. But I knew by the way he whistled when he worked in his garden, by the way he greeted the youngsters on the street, as well as his ever-present smile that he felt life was paying him rich dividends, though he worked hard and was not wealthy. In time, I learned his story. He had lived a careless life in his younger days, and as a result had tasted the bitter dregs of failure and hopelessness, which is usually the lot of those who attempt to live aim- lessly without God. Then, in his need, he humbled himself and prayed for guidance. That was the begin- ning of a new life, which made him a friend of man and a servant of God. And he became the happiest of men.
Another person who brought home to me at an early age the conviction that prayer leads one along the road to security and happiuess was Heber Keech of St. Charles, Idaho. Brother Keech used to ride horseback through the settlements of the Bear Lake Val-
The person who keeps in touch with God in the true spirit of worship finds courage to meet life's reverses with a buoyancy un- known to the person of little faith.
MAY 1955
ley visiting religion classes in the various wards. His faith- promoting stories always held us spellbound.
In one of them, which I have heard him tell several times, he related an experience while chopping a tree down in the canyon. He was sure, by all his knowledge as a woodsman, that his horses tied to his wagon some distance away, peacefully eating their hay, were safe, as he intended felling the tree directly away from them.
Yet, as his ax rang out in the crisp October air, he was suddenly seized
by an impression, which seemed as if it were a voice speaking to him, warning him to move his horses and wagon. At first, he tried to resist the warning, thinking it but a passing no- tion; but having knelt by his wagon to pray for safety and guidance, be- fore leaving his home in the valley, he gave sober thought, and finally gave obedience to the prompting. Later, when the tree, having twisted unexpectedly on the stump, crashed down across the spot where his horses and wagon had been, he knew he had been saved from a disaster by his willingness to listen to the still small voice.
We all face perplexities and dan- gers almost daily, and not infre- quently we feel inadequate within ourselves to cope with our problems. Still, by placing ourselves prayer- fully in harmony with the spiritual forces around us, we may enjoy pro- tection from danger, guidance in our daily affairs, and the calm faith that right triumphs.
—Religious News Service Photo
323
One of the points at which the biblical narrative touches the Book of Mormon narrative is the seizure and murder of the sons of Zedekiah, king of Judah. When Zede- kiah and members of his household and staff fled by the Jericho Road at the end of the Chaldean siege, they were overtaken and carried to Riblah for a summary trial. After judgment, the Chaldean army "slew the sons of Zedekiah before his
The ESCAPE of MULEK
*%*%w
"1*
eyes
In the Book of Mormon account, one of the sons of Zedekiah escaped death, and was brought into the Western Hemisphere, where his name Mulek became attached to a peo- ple, a city, and a land.2 It is more than possible that his name is rather a title than a proper name, being indistinguishable from the He- brew MLK "a king.";i The applica- tion of such a title to a sole surviving son of Zedekiah, who was thus heir apparent to the throne of Judah, appears perfectly consistent. In bibli- cal and Book of Mormon names alike, the root MLK, a king, is a common- place element.4
The reconciliation of the biblical account, implying extermination of the male royal line, with the Book of Mormon account of an escape by one son, requires a critical examina- tion of the biblical language used, in the light of parallel biblical narra- tives, as well as an examination of the circumstantial evidence available, in and out of the Bible.
At the outset consideration must be given to the probable ages of the sons of Zedekiah. This king ascend- ed the throne at twenty-one years of age5 and perished at thirty-one in the eleventh year of his reign. G Ac- cording to Jewish tradition, the num- ber of his sons who were slain by the order of Nebuchadnezzar was ten.7
Assuming that Zedekiah married at the early age of eighteen, his eldest child could not have exceeded twelve or thirteen years of age at the time of his death. If ten of his sons were slain, and in the meantime he had a family of daughters, as is well attested,8 then there is a high prob-
hy Ariel L. Crowley \ Ph.D.
'Numbers refer to bibliography at end of article.
ability that Mulek was a mere infant at the time he escaped. This prob- ability is strongly supported by the quite uniform habit of distinguishing- between sons and male infants in biblical accounts. Examples are nu- merous.
Thus, Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the doors of their tents ". . . and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. "!l
So also, Ittai, the Gittite, passed over the brook Kidron, ". . . and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him."10
In the temple arrangements set up by Hezekiah, the courses of the priests were set, among other things,- accord- ing ". . . to the genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters."11
The order of Haman, in Esther, for the destruction of the Jews carried the directive to kill all the Jews ". . . both young and old, little children and women."12
Even the commandment given for the destruction of the Canaanite peo- ple under Moses made the same distinction. The Israelites were or- dered to ". . . smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword" excepting ". . . the women, and the little ones, . . ."13
This commandment gave rise to great wrath on the part of Moses when it was literally obeyed in the case of the Midianite invasion. It is said that the Israelites ". . . warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males,"1* whereas, in point of fact they spared "all the women . . . and their little ones."15 When Moses learned of this literal application of the law requiring the sparing of chil- dren, he issued a summary order, "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones."16
While instances might be multi- plied, it seems thoroughly settled in the samples given that male babies
were not counted among the sons or men of Israel as such and were the subjects of a special immunity, along with women and girls.
Pursuing a rule of construction which has come to be a standard in modern law, that words once used in a particular sense are presumed to be used always in the same sense in the same document unless dis- tinguished specially,17 the word sons in the notices of the death of the sons of Zedekiah excludes "the little ones" on biblical precedent.
It is, moreover, a common thing in the Bible, for historians to use all-inclusive terms, without intending in the least either to mislead or to misrepresent the facts. Instances closely paralleling the case of the sons of Zedekiah are easily found.
In the case of the household of Ahaziah, the king, it is written that his mother Athaliah, ". . . arose and destroyed all the seed royal."18 Athaliah herself thought that was exactly what she had done, and ruled for six years on that premise.19 In point of fact a girl named Jehoshaba ". . . took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain."20
In connection with the same slaughter in which the sons of Zede- kiah perished, Jeremiah declared that ". . . the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah,"21 yet the new governor, Gedaliah, was shortly there- after murdered by Ishmael "of the seed royal"22 who had escaped by hiding in Ammonite country during the siege.2S With Ishmael were "the princes of the king."24
There is something grimly amus- ing in the accounts of the destruction of the Midianites and Amalekites. Excepting little girls, it appears that the Midianite people were utterly exterminated under Moses.25 But
324 THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
v**v%*v%
"Biblical accounts tell of the seizure and murder of the sons of Zedekiah, king of Judah. In the Book of Mormon account, one of the sons of Zedekiah escaped death and came to the Western Hemisphere, where his name Mulek became attached to a people, a city, and a land."
some time later the Midianites rose up in such force that they over- whelmed Israel and kept them in misery for seven years.20 Similarly, it is written that Saul reported to the prophet Samuel, saying that he had ". . . utterly destroyed the Amal- ekites,"27 pursuant to a directive from Samuel requiring that Saul slay ". . . both man and woman, infant and suckling, . . ,"28 Yet David,
the successor of Saul found it nec- essary to repeat the killing, and again ". . . left neither man nor woman alive."29 Notwithstanding these two destructions, shortly afterward a group of four hundred Amalekites kidnap- ped two of David's wives,30 in com- pany with other Amalekites, and es- caped on camels leaving many more Amalekites dead behind.31
Instances in which even the word
WWWWW««WWHiVVVWH«*WW
all must be construed to mean some- thing less than totality are many. A few will suffice to demonstrate the point. According to the record at one time Solomon held an eight-day feast ". . . and all Israel with him."32 Again, ". . . the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord."33 In the very invasion at the time of Zedekiah, despite the record of many who escaped into Egypt,34 it was recorded that young and old, "all" were given into the hand of the Chaldean invader.35 And as a last example, at the death of Saul, ". . . all his house died together."30 Of this passage, the celebrated com- mentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, judged that this could mean that those who were with the king were cut off, nothing more.37 It is apparent in all of the passages cited that the writers had no intention of denying that there were exceptions. "All" seems to have been used to mean "the bulk" or perhaps only "representatives of all."
It is at once apparent that where the word all is not used, the mere expression being ". . . they slew the sons of Zedekiah . . ."38 the narra- tive is even weaker, and it is perfectly proper to reach the true sense by in- ferring "they slew the sons of Zede- kiah who did not escape."
Having seen, therefore, that the ex- istence of an exception in the escape of Mulek is within the proper sense of the record, it remains to be seen whether or not the mechanics of the escape are in any way indicated.
Little children, as nature has or- dained, and more particularly among people of simple life, are universally the charge of their mothers and sisters. At the escape of Zedekiah from Jeru- salem, his wives and daughters went with him. The historian Josephus details it thus: "When the city was taken about midnight, and the ene- my's generals were entered into the temple, and when Zedekiah was sen- sible of it, he took his wives and his children, and his captains and friends, and with them fled out of the city through the fortified ditch, and through the desert."39 When the pur- suing soldiers caught up with the (Concluded on following page)
MAY 1955 325
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THE ESCAPE OF MULEK
(Concluded from preceding page)
fugitives near Jericho, many of those who fled the city with Zedekiah "left him and dispersed themselves, some one way and some another, and every one resolved to save himself."40 "So the enemy took Zedekiah alive when he was deserted by all but a few, with his children and his wives." Those who were, as Dr. Clarke said in his commentary on the passage, "most probably persons who belonged to the palace and, harem of Zedekiah, some of them his own concubines and children."
The women, with whom, as before demonstrated, would be found the "little ones" were remanded into the custody of Nebuzar-adan, the Chal- dean general, and by him turned over to Gedaliah as puppet gover-
nor
41
When Ishmael, kinsman of the dead king, treacherously killed Geda- liah, he carried away with him the daughters of Zedekiah, toward the land of the Ammonites,42 with "all the residue of the people." Johanan followed quickly in pursuit, where- upon the people who had gone with Ishmael joined forces with Johanan, and it is written that "the mighty men of war, and the women and the children" fearing to return to Jeru- salem, departed to go into Egypt.43
It is made eminently clear there- fore, that whether with the women who were turned over to Nebuzar- adan, or behind in Jerusalem, or at Mizpah, the way was open for escape of Mulek. Indeed the narrative of the escape of the "women and chil- dren" among whom were the daugh- ters of Zedekiah, furnishes a probable record of the way it was accomplished.
There is a strange and mysterious passage of scripture which is, by these happenings, and by the very impli- cations of escape contained in the words little ones as including male children, for the first time made un- derstandable:
A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.44
The accomplishment of fulfilment of this prophecy through Mulek by way of the escape of the women of the house of Zedekiah is indicated in the Book of Mormon with clarity.
326
Thus, while but one son of Zedekiah is mentioned as having escaped, it is written in the plural form that "they," the "seed of Zedekiah are with us, and thev were driven out of the land of Jerusalem," necessarily implying women, seed of Zedekiah, i.e., his daughters. That the "little one" be- came a thousand and a small one a strong nation is manifest from the fact that they were exceedingly nu- merous at the time Mosiah found them and brought about a union of countries.45
It will be seen by reference to the passage cited, wherein complete de- struction of groups is first declared and then an exception recited, that the only distinguishing characteristic between the common biblical ac- counts and the account of the killing of the sons of Zedekiah is the absence of a record of the exception within the pages of the Bible. It is supplied for the first time in the Book of Mormon, which stands thus as a necessary link in the chain of records.
Properly read, therefore, the record in the words of Jeremiah and II Kings, as supplemented in Helaman, is this:
And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: All except it were Mulek.40
BIBLIOGRAPHY
m Kings 25:5-7; Jer. 39:6.
2Heloman 6:10; 8:21; Alma 51:26.
3Gesenius, Lexicon, Ed. Robinson, 1844, p. 583; see also J. M. Sjodahl, Introduction to the Study of the Book of Mormon (1927) p. 140.
"Gen. 36:12; I Chron. 6:40; Dan. 2:37; John 18:10; Alma 8:3; 20:2; Omni 30.
5 o II Kings 24:18; 25:2.
7Ginzberg, teg. 1V:293; VI:382-3.
sjer. 41:10; Josephus, Ant. X:IX:4.
»Num. 16:27.
10II Sam. 15:22.
»II Chron. 31:18.
12Esth. 3:13.
13Deut. 20:13-14.
"Num. 31:7, 9, 17.
**lbid., 31:9.
mbid., 3i:17.
1759 C. J. 1003.
,STT Kin«s 11:1.
mbid., 11:3.
wIbid., 11:2.
aJer. 39:6.
^Ibid., 41:1.
^Josephus, Ant. X:IX:2.
2*Jer. 41:1.
KNum. 31:7-18.
2Bludges 6:1-6.
27'I Sam. 15:20.
mbid., 15:3.
wIbid., 27:8-9.
wlbid., 30:5.
™Ibid., 30:17.
32I Kings 8:65.
™Ibid., 8:63.
^Jer. 33-34.
^II Chron. 36:17.
m Chron. 10:6.
^Commentary on I Chron. 10:6.
^II Kings 25:7.
39 «Josephus, Ant. X:VIII:2.
"Idem, X:IX:4.
^Jer. 41:10.
^Ibid., 41:16-17.
"Isaiah 60:22.
"-"Omni 15, 17.
"Jer. 39:6; II Kings 25:7; Helaman 8:21.
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327
Happy Mother1 s Day^ Sweetheart: b Eik™ Gihhons
To a little girl with freckles and pigtails a mother is a queen and a goddess. She moves about, automatically being where she needs to be for the little girl's every wish, and she sort of unwinds like a clock, every tick represent- ing something wonderful. She knows all the stories in the world, more, in fact, than all the schoolteachers com- bined, the answers to a myriad of- unanswerable ques- tions, and is beautiful besides.
Nothing unhappy ever happens to her because she is a mother. Laughter or tears, love or hate — all these seem apart from the mother whom the little girl wor- ships.
As she goes into her teens, the girl also goes from pig- tails to curls, effortlessly and automatically, of course. Mother can do everything. The girl realizes that her mother can cook, sew, and work hard — qualities more human than those she knew in her mother a few years ago — and without pathos the girl lets her mother do them. After all, she is a mother. Mothers are still won- derful, and they can do everything.
But when a girl, through one experience, then an- other, begins to mature, she gradually realizes that her mother is a "person"; that she isn't an automatic, un- winding, transfigured angel, or a bodiless, gartless, pas- sionless goddess — she can even make a mistake. A mother!
Dear Mother — ever since I discovered that you were a "person," that you actually thought, lived, laughed, and loved like others, that you were me in a few years and your mother a few years ago, I have had to form a new concept of a mother. I have lived with the growing realization which has formed this new concept for years now.
Like a child who is delighted with the Church because of Primary parties and fun in Sunday School, I as a child and teen-ager was delighted with you. And just as a few experiences in life teach us what the Church is really about, a knowledge that thrills us deeply, I have begun to realize what a mother really is, and I am in awe. Mother now is far more wonderful, far more a goddess
and far more lovable as a human being than she was as something direct from the seventh heaven — because we expect miracles from the supernatural, but when humans perform them, that's something. And mothers do — every day! Think, Mother, of the millions of questions, tears, joys, and problems Mother is there to solve and under- stand.
Think of the many times in your life, Mother, the many times every day when your whole purpose has been helping the family, or friends, or the needy whom you don't even know. This purpose is your life, all your life.
For every washing, ironing, scrubbing, every sleepless night during sieges of mumps, rheumatic fever, and polio, every meal prepared, whether it is bread and gravy or steak, for every prayer you have offered in behalf of others, for every unselfish deed of your whole life, you shall have a star in your crown. And you shall have a crown.
Yes, you are a "person." You, like all of us, can have stomach aches, bad days and bad nights. But, Mother, my dear, may you have very few more in the next fifty years. I wish that God would give you today, sort of in advance, the rest from all trouble, care and sorrow which he promises to people like you in the scriptures. (Alma 40:11-12.) You are on the right track. You are a good mother — helpful and loving. You and Daddy have had a material struggle providing for us, and it is a spirit- ual struggle to keep our thoughts always in harmony with His. But it is worth while, and we can receive un- bounded aid from Him.
You know, Mother, even as you know you are reading this, that He is there, he is mindful of you, loves you and will help you in all you do. You have known that for as long as you can remember. Experience has taught me that to seek God's help in doing my best and then worry- ing about things is just a lack of faith.
Dear Mother, will this do for a Mother's Day gift? I would like to have sent you so many wonderful things tied in pink ribbon — but all I had was blue ribbon.
Abundant love on another Mother's Day. May the days between now and the next one be joyous.
Love,
To a little girl, a mother is a queen and a goddess.
— H. Armstrong Roberts photo
M^f^^^^ tfmrf6
328
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James Wotherspoon— Eagle Scout
by Victor Lmdblad
SCOUT EXECUTIVE MT. DIABLO COUNCIL BSA
Henry Drummond once said, "The ultimate goal of the ethical proc- ess is the perfecting of human character. Consummation of happi- ness is a natural outcome of the per- fecting of character, but the perfect- ing can be achieved only through struggle, through discipline, through resistance. It is for him that over- cometh that the crown of life is re- served."
In perfecting our character as part of life's eternal plan, it calls for the best within us, even though we are in full possession of every physical sense and faculty. Ofttimes, however, we are prone to bemoan our lot and attribute our failures to circumstance or to parents or folk who somehow do not seem to understand and ap- preciate us.
Occasionally we are shocked from our complacency by the amazing ac- complishment of some individual who has overcome a great physical handi- cap and achieved a marked measure of success in a given field and has
thus gained the first crown of life.
Jimmie Wotherspoon, a boy blind from birth, recently was awarded scouting's highest recognition, that of Eagle rank.
At the California School for the Blind in the presence of friends and prominent citizens and leaders of the Bay Area, Jimmie's grandmother, Mrs. Mary Baylor, pinned the Eagle badge upon Jimmie following the colorful and impressive investiture.
Officials present paid tribute to the indomitable courage, perseverance, dependability, and sterling character of this young man.
In response to the commendation and congratulations given him, Jim- mie fervently thanked all those who had helped and encouraged him, par- ticularly his scoutmaster, Mr. Budgen, the assistant scoutmaster, Mr. Harde- man, his bishop, W. B. Barton, and the superintendent of the California School for the Blind, Dr. Barthhold Lowenfeld. He challenged the other blind Scouts of the troop to live up
James Wotherspoon receiving his Eagle badge from his grandmother, Mrs. Mary Baylor. Scout Executive Victor Lindblad is looking on.
330
to their capacity and to overcome every seeming obstacle and impossible task.
Jimmie explained how they could learn to identify birds in the field by their song, to learn flowers by touch, and many physical phenomena by sound.
He further challenged his brother Scouts:
A. To keep themselves physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight
B. To live by the code of the Scout oath and law
C. To think through their prob- lems clearly and without prejudice
D. To respond to life's highest ideals and culture
E. To attain spiritual strength
F. To have faith in God and en- courage others to worship
G. To develop their talents and make their own way in the world
H. To make full and constructive use of their time and opportunities
I. To help preserve the American way of life and the blessings they enjoy through the Bill of Rights
J. To have courage when things desired fail to materialize, to have poise and be calm when problems be- set them, to have hope when disap- pointment dampens them, and when effort seems in vain to have the readi- ness and wisdom to begin all over again.
At the close of Jimmie's response, there was not a dry eye in the audi- ence. It is conceivable that every in- dividual present made a silent resolve never to complain again and to make life's adversities steppingstones to high charatcer and worthy accom- plishments.
Jimmie entered Troop 2 at the California School for the Blind, spon- sored by the Lions Club of Berkeley, California, in 1945. Under the sym- pathetic leadership of Scoutmaster George Budgen, a holder of the Sil- ver Beaver, and Assistant Scoutmaster Reed Hardeman, Jimmie made rapid progress.
(Concluded on page 332) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Prog ress
Report
Your Gas Company, continuing its accelerated program during 1954, brought natural gas to more than 11,000 additional customers. This increased the total customers we serve as of January 1, 1955 to more than 115,000, of which about 114,000 are residential and small commercial users.
It is significant to observe that the average price of natural gas paid by our residential customers 25 years ago was 82 cents per thousand cubic feet as compared with 52 cents in 1954.
In its twenty-sixth year, Mountain Fuel Supply Company is steadily increasing its scope of operation in the Intermountain West.
Acceleration is occurring all along the line — in exploration, in number of wells drilled, in new construction, in increased taxes and payrolls, all of which contributes toward community anl state advancement.
The Company's proved gas reserves are more than five times as great as the gas reserves in 1929 although since that time, the number of customers has increased more than six times. All residence requirements in the area have been met and in addition, the Company has supplied substantial amounts of gas to industrial users and others.
Ours is a long-range program, the ever-increasing objective of which is to continue to meet the needs of this fast-growing
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MOUNTAIN FUEL SUPPLY COMPANY
Serving 68 Utah and Wyoming Communities
MAY 1955
JAMES WOTHERSPOON— EAGLE SCOUT
(Concluded from page 330) At the time Jimmie finished his second class requirements, he devel- oped a heart ailment which restricted his activities. He was not allowed to engage in any work calling for physical exertion.
Through his indomitable will and courage, he overcame his heart ail- ment and continued his schoolwork and scouting advancement. He some- how found time to serve as patrol leader, senior patrol leader, junior assistant scoutmaster, and finally assistant scoutmaster.
Jimmie dreamed a great dream — to attain the rank of Eagle, to be an exemplary leader among his fellows and in the community, to study law, and to live his religion, and to mag- nify his priesthood calling.
This young man has the rare ability of deep concentration and seems to catch and remember all im- portant things as he reads them or as they are told to him.
The part of the oath "To help other people at all times" is a living part of Jimmie's life. He patiently explains over and over again the things he has learned to those who are handicapped as he is through the loss of sight.
He is a member of the Balboa Ward, and Bishop W. B. Barton re- ports that Jimmie has advanced through the various callings of the priesthood, having served as presi- dent of the teachers' quorum and in- structor in the priests' and elders' quorums. He is at present a Sunday School teacher and a teacher of the elders' quorum.
As a stake missionary, he has been instrumental in bringing the gospel to many people. Two recent con- verts, an army colonel and an in- structor in swimming and life saving, pay high tribute to Jimmie's mis- sionary efforts.
Even though he is an A student at the University of California, study- ing law, and an assistant scoutmaster in Troop 2 of Berkeley, he never misses his stake quorum meeting or his ward leadership meetings.
Both Bishop Barton and Scout- master Budgen attest to the tremen- dous positive influence exerted by Jim- mie in the lives of the hundreds of young people with whom he asso- ciates. 332
He has developed his musical tal- tured young man has brought honor
ents and plays the piano well, and and recognition to himself, his fam-
sings in two ward choirs. ily, his leaders, his Scout troop, his
This dignified, unassuming, cul- Church, and his community.
^Mnd uje S^>kali ^J\now tke ^Jrvitk . . .
Richard L. Evans
Not too infrequently it would be well to turn our attention to Pilate's timeless question, "What is Truth?" — for on the answer hangs all we are or ever hope to be. On the answer hangs our health and happiness, our peace and pur- pose, and the very issues of life and death, the very meaning of time and eternity. (We can never be assured of health or happiness or peace or settled purpose, unless we face the facts, the truth, about ourselves, our very nature, and about the things we should or shouldn't partake of and the things we should or shouldn't do.) "What is truth?" It has been variously defined. Shakespeare said of it: "Truth is truth to the end of reckoning"1 — which is very like another defini- tion that denotes truth as the absolute opposite of things changing and transitory: ". . . Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come."2 Of this we may be sure: Truth doesn't depend upon the theories and opinions of people. If men are in error, and if we follow them in their errors, that won't change truth. Socrates suggested this when he said: "If you will be per- suaded by me, pay little attention to Socrates, but much more to the truth."3 Some fear the truth. Some have rea- son to. Some suppose it to be dangerous, frightening, un- comfortable— and often it is. Truth is so dangerous it some- times makes martyrs of men. And surely it is dangerous and fatal to falsehood. It is dangerous and disturbing to complacency, to lazy thinking. It is disturbing to minds that are too comfortably closed. And because it is dangerous and disturbing there are always some who would suppress it and some who would dispense it sparingly. But disturb- ing or not, we are faced with this fact: Truth is never so dangerous as falsehood, never so dangerous as error, never so dangerous as deceit, and not nearly so dangerous as ig- norance is. Perhaps the most satisfying utterance of all time as to truth is this sentence from our Lord and Savior: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."4 With this kind of counsel we cannot safely do other than seek the truth wherever it is, wherever it leads. Theories come and go. Popular opinions prevail for awhile. Fashions have their cycles, and conflicting ideas have their seasons of acceptance — but "the spirit of truth is of God"5 and "abideth forever"5 "and hath no end."5 God help us to seek, to see, to say, to accept, to live by the truth, and find it wherever it is, and follow it where it takes us — for it is not nearly so dangerous as ignorance is.
jke SpoLn lA/orJ ™om temple square
PRESENTED OVER KSL AND THE COLUMBIA BROADCASTING
SYSTEM, FEBRUARY 27, 1955
Copyright, 1955
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act V.
2D. & C. 93:24.
3Socrates; in Plato, Phacdo.
4John 8:32.
5D. & C. 93:26; 1:39; 88:66.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
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MAY 1955
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334
"Keep Fit. Be a Man"
(Continued from page 305) drinking was uncontrolled. His cas- ual associations with women became intimate and wicked. His habit of satisfying whatever he lusted after ran wild. His conduct became more and more violent, and his standards sank lower and lower. Recently he had what is probably the most terri- ble experience a man could have in mortality: that of listening to a judge impose sentence upon him for having committed a murder. Thus, a man with everything in his favor became completely destroyed, in body and in soul, because of his inability to bridle his habits.
The most magnificent specimen of true manhood and virility that I have ever known is represented in the per- son of our own beloved President David O. McKay. The fruits of righteous living, of self-conquest, and of obedience to the eternal laws of health and well-being are represented in him. I thank my Heavenly Father for the noble example which he has set.
Occasionally I have visited the famous Hoover Dam, which controls the turbulent Colorado River. This is the highest dam in the world, and in some respects, the most remarkable feat of engineering ever devised by man's ingenuity. Its crest towers some 735 feet into the air, and its base is over 650 feet thick. The most im- pressive thing about the dam is its strength. This giant shield of re- inforced concrete holds back over 32,000,000 acre-feet of water, which produces, at the base of the dam, a pressure of 45,000 pounds each square foot. Think of holding back 45,000 pounds of pressure on every square foot of surface. And yet the dam was built to withstand pressures at least twice that great, and more! This extra strength is known as the safety factor.
Every young man should build in- to his life a safetv factor — he should be stronger than the worst thing that can happen to him, and then some.
Mr. A. Z. Conrad once said: "There is a hollow-eyed, dough-faced vacancy wherever men and women defy laws of health and vigor and give way to sensuality. The law of the harvest is inexorable. Nature's bill must be paid on demand. * * * The amount
(Concluded on page 336) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
this much STILBESTROL has to go
a long way-musf be mixed just right!
and Purina s Exclusive
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Mixing Vi ounce of stilbestrol into one ton of cattle feed presents a big problem to most feed companies. But this kind of mixing is just routine for Purina's Micro-Mixing . . . and only Purina Chows are Micro-Mixed.
Just Vi ounce of stilbestrol in one ton of feed means it is added in the proportion of only 1 part to 90,800 parts. Purina's Micro-Mixing proc- ess is accurate to the I j '10,000,000 part! So you can rest assured when you feed Purina Steer Fatena or Beef Chow with stilbestrol that every bite is mixed just right.
And accurate mixing of stilbestrol is extremely important. You want each steer to get just the right amount every day he's on feed ... so he'll produce maximum gains ... so you can go to market with an even bunch of cattle. Too much stilbestrol in the steer's daily ration can prove toxic. So rely on Purina's Micro-Mixing process to mix and blend every bite just right.
Next time you're in town drop by your Purina Dealer's and ask him to tell you more about Purina Steer Fatena and Beef Chow with stil- bestrol. He's the only man in town who can supply you with Micro-Mixed Purina Chows.
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RALSTON PURINA COMPANY • Pocatello • Denver • Spokane • Oakland
MAY 1955
335
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"KEEP FIT. BE A MAN"
{Concluded from page 334) of personal energy is limited and has to be accounted for. Waste it, and you cannot have it when the demand is greatest. Burn out brain and brawn for a time, and you are as sure to becorne a useless, slimy slacker as the sun is to rise and set. * * * There is absolutely no greatness that is not
buttressed with goodness. Brace to the splendid day's work. Keep fit. Be a man."
May God help us — each of us- — to be men; to play the game of life with all of our strength, and to preserve those ideals which constitute the very meaning of life itself, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
5<A>^>^^\£N9^>^3^3^3\9^J\J^^^5^JVXCN^
m,
breaks —
ie momma the shadows Hee . . .
Richard L. Evans
A sentence recently read from an unknown author offers these words of wise and comforting counsel: "Do not distress yourself with dark imaginings: Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. . . .Ml No doubt most of us at times have turned our troubles over in the hours of the night, when sleep has fled from us. And in the dark hours of night troubles tend to be multiplied and magnified. If our loved ones are out and overdue, it isn't difficult to imagine dark and dire things — in the hours of the night. And then, finally, as they return, well and whole, the load is lifted, and likely we wonder that we so much feared and fretted. The shades of discouragement and despondency are darker and deeper in the hours of night, and small things loom large, and large things sometimes seem utterly in- surmountable. In the restless hours of night it isn't diffi- cult to imagine all manner of maladies and malignancies. Indeed, on a dark and sleepless night, with all its tossings and turnings, we could churn up many troubles inside our- selves. Job poignantly complained that "wearisome nights are appointed to me. ^[When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day."2 But despite all real or imagined difficulty and discouragement that come with darkness, the dawn does come, and the load does lighten with the coming of daylight. Even when our worries are real, and even when they don't altogether disappear, the light of day tends to lift and lighten them. Thank God for light, for the dawning of each new day, for the reassuring brightness of the sun — for much of what darkens and dis- turbs us doesn't seem so darkly serious, so utterly insur- mountable, in the daylight as it did at night. And because the darkness distorts, because it clouds and conceals, in darkness we should make no needless decisions and reach no needless conclusions, but wait to look at our problem in the light — wait for the natural waking hour, when, in the words of the hymn, "the morning breaks; the shadows flee."3
Uke Spoken lA/ord FROM TEMPLE SQUARE
PRESENTED OVER KSL AND THE COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM, MARCH 6, 1955
Copyright, 1955
336
Author Unknown.
2Job 7:3-4.
sFrom a hymn by Parley P. Pratt.
" THE IMPROVElviENT^ERA
Families agree on KSL-TV
The viewer is the number one consideration when planning the Channel 5 program schedule. KSL-TV is proud that, in the past season its programming has met such public approval in the Mountain West. Programming in the family interest will continue as KSL-TV's standard. It's important to have families agree on what they see- when it's on KSL-TV.
im wvj/ wCaji; -Uj^U k«.
MAY 1955
337
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF MORMON
(Continued from page 319)
those two families of probably eight women, it was apparent that the in- fant mortality is terrifically high. The Lacadon Indians are a vanishing peo- ple. The late Dr. Morley stated that there are approximately two hundred of them,4 but our careful inquiries led us to conclude that there are probably not more than one hundred.
Upon being invited into the In- dians' small thatched houses, we ob- served that they had no bedding nor furniture; however, they did possess a few dishes and a grinder used for grinding corn. It appeared that the entire family would probably cuddle together at nighttime on a little straw mat which lay in the corner of the room. Their extreme poverty touched our hearts, and so we gave them all the small articles that were in our pockets and regretted that we hadn't more to give; for example, I gave a wooden clothespin to the woman the group called "Grandma." She seemed delighted and two days later was still holding it in her hand. We also gave them such items as pocket combs, pocketknives, pill bottles, soap, salt, flashlight batteries, a pistol, and sev- eral boxes of bullets. These primitive folk were as happy as children on Christmas morning.
While waiting for the men to re- turn from hunting, Otto Done, using a minute camera, took photographs of the Indians. They beheld their own likeness with astonishment, each one exclaiming, "Who is this?" when shown his own likeness. This seemed to be a new experience for them.
Probably the one thing which im- pressed me most about the Lacadon Indians was the whiteness of their skin. One of the women actually had red hair, and her skin was as white as ours. Jose Petit, a man, also had red hair and white skin. The color of all the others whom we saw ranged from white to a slightly darker cast.
While visiting in Guatemala ap- proximately three weeks before our trip to Bonampak, I was informed by an official guide that, generally speaking, the Quiche Maya Indians of Guatemala were nearly white and that there was another tribe of In- dians— -a primitive, wild people, liv- ing in the jungles of southern Mexico,
*Morley, op. cifc, p. 180.
338
known as Lacadons — who were really white. When I received the fore- going information, I had no idea that I would have the privilege of asso- ciating for three days with the latter people, but suddenly and unexpected- ly we found ourselves being enter- tained by them.
The Lacadon Indians are very small in stature: the men are ap- proximately four and one- half feet to five feet tall and the women approxi- mately six inches shorter. The ma- jority of them have black hair. Both the men and the women part their hair in the middle, permitting it to grow long and fall loosely down their backs. They merely push it back from each side of their faces. Their hair has the appearance of seldom having been combed and rarely if ever having been washed, and so Jose Davila gave the women a bar of soap and taught them how to wash their heads.
The clothing worn by both sexes is made of canvas, which appears to be the same type we use in making tents. Possibly these Indians in- herited tents left in the jungles by chicle workers from which they made their clothing; but since the late Dr. Morley maintained that the Lacadon Indians did a certain amount of weav- ing of coarse cloth from a wild cotton which grows in the jungles, they could have actually woven this canvas -like cloth.5
Men, women, and children all wear similar clothing, their dresses fitting loosely and hanging from their shoulders nearly to their ankles. Since the men are practically beardless, it is difficult to distinguish them from the women; however, the men are slightly taller and larger.
Naturally, my experiences with these Indians caused me to recall the Book of Mormon account of the Nephites being "a white and delight- some people."*5 Although the Laca- don Indians are quite white in color, it is evident that they have degener- ated greatly from the cultural stand- ards of their predecessors of Book of Mormon days.
We waited more than an hour for the men to return from hunting. Upon their arrival, the oldest one — father to the other men, announced
*Jbid.t pp. 405-406. c2 Ne. 30:6.
his name to be Nabor and that of his son to be Juan. They readily consented to guide us to the temple of the "painted walls" on condition that we wait while they ate.
When the meal was served, all of the family members took several turns drinking gruel, or thin corn- meal mush, out of a large bowl.
The food having been consumed, Otto, Jose, and I, accompanied by Nabor and Juan, our guides, headed along the jungle trail toward Bonam- pak. After hiking for approximately two hours' time, we suddenly came to another garden spot with two pic- turesque, thatched huts standing on the bank of a beautiful river. These were the homes of Jose Petit and family.
We requested this family to permit us to take their pictures; thereupon Jose Petit (the other white Indian with red hair previously mentioned), responded. One woman of this house- hold refused to pose for the picture, saying, "No, I haven't a pretty dress." I wondered what made her have such fancy ideas, since her dress was made of canvas and appeared exactly like the dresses worn by the other Laca- don Indians. The following day upon inquiry we learned from Nabor that this Indian woman had been the wife of the late Carlos Frey, the American discoverer of Bonampak.
Approximately two years before our visit to Bonampak, Carlos Frey was guiding a group of Mexican artists to the temple of the "painted walls," beginning a second trip there. While they were crossing the river about a mile below Jose Petit's home, the boat capsized, drowning Mr. Frey and one of the Mexicans. They were buried approximately a mile downstream from Jose Petit's home.
Juan paddled us across the river in a boat which had been made by hol- lowing out a log. We then continued our journey along the jungle trail for another hour. Suddenly our Indian guides stopped and said, "We are going home. We are nearly to Obre- gon's home. He will guide you to Bonampak. We do not want to see him."
We had no more desire to see Obregon than did our Indian guides, and so we replied, "We have hired you, not Obregon, to take us to
(Continued on page 340) THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
a
11
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Folks who like a bargain don't have to look any farther than the gas tanks of their cars. For despite a steady increase in qual- ity, gasoline prices have remained low — and Standard Oil Company of California's table-top refin- eries are one good reason why.
They are pint-size laboratory pilot plants that have enabled our scientists to develop cost- cutting manufacturing methods for each new gasoline before we produce it. With the aid of these rubber and glass forerunners of multi-million gallon refineries, we've worked with car manufac- turers to perfect balanced gaso- lines designed to bring out more efficiency, economy from today's higher compression engines.
We've learned how to squeeze more gasoline from each barrel of crude; and — most important — we've found ways to manufac- ture increasingly better gas at consistently low prices. Today's gasoline, for example, is 50% better than motor fuels of 1925, yet costs just a few pennies more.
The combination of research and competition has held gaso- line prices down so effectively that they've advanced only 17% (excluding taxes) since 1925 while general living costs have gone up 52 %. So, even though Standard's pint-size refineries make gasoline by the drop, they have a power- ful influence on your motoring . . . are one reason why Standard products give you a longer run for your money.
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MAY 1955
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(Continued from page 338)
Bonampak, and you must do it, other- wise you will receive no gifts."
We gave them a box of bullets and exerted much persuasion. Finally they consented to continue with us on condition that we would not permit Obregon to join our party. We as-
sured them that we would not; in fact, we were as definitely opposed to having him accompany us as they were.
Soon thereafter the trail came into a small opening in the jungle and there in front of us stood two thatched huts. Obregon — a naked fellow ex-
y v>^isi>iSiS^iN>2K2;^ '4
1 I
^Arti present or ^recounted ^Ti
fi
or...
T't is a wonderful, comforting, reassuring feeling when par- ents, mentally, can call the roll, and find all the family in — safe and secure. When families are young in years, it is comparatively easy to feel assured that they are some- what safe, or at least to be assured that they are all in. But when they grow older, and their interests and activities widen, and they become more independent, the waiting hours of night are often long, as they come home, one by one. Sometimes children, young and old, wonder why parents worry so much and are so concerned about their unaccounted absences. But both caution and concern come with expe- rience and responsibility — and not without reason. There are so many hazards, so many things that could have hap- pened, and parents cannot, or should not, escape an acute sense of concern for all who are not present or accounted for. Children should and must expect to keep parents in- formed of their absences and activities. It isn't good for anyone of any age to be unaccounted for. Otherwise an unexplained absence or illness could go unknown and de-