I
THIS ISSUE—
HEBER J. GRANT DAVID O. McKAY N. A. PEDERSEN RAMONA W. CANNON
J. REUBEN CLARK, JR. GEORGE D. PYPER CLARISSA A. BEESLEY ANNIE WELLS CANNON
MAY, 1936
Volume 39 Number 5 Return Postage Guaranteed SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Heber J. Grant. John A. Widtsoe,
Editors
Richard L. Evans,
Managing Editor Marba C. Josephson,
Associate Editor
George Q. Morris, General Mgr. Clarissa A. Beesley, Associate Mgr. J. K. Orton, Business Mgr.
'The Glory of God is Intelligence'
COMING
IN JUNE
AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO YOUTH— AN ARTICLE ON THE OPPORTUNITIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE PRESENT GEN- ERATION BY PRESIDENT J. REUBEN CLARK, JR.
BUILDING A LIFE— BY ALBERT E. BOWEN, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THE YOUNG MEN'S MUTUAL IM- PROVEMENT ASSOCIATION. A THOUGHT-PROVOKING ARTICLE WITH WORTHWHILE ELEMENTS OF LIVING GIVEN THEIR PROPER PLACE AND VALUE.
THE STORY OF FARNSWORTH TELE- VISION—BY FAY OLLERTON, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DR. CARL F. EY- RING. A YOUNG MORMON SCIEN- TIST, PHILO T. FARNSWORTH, HAS PRODUCED ONE OF THE FEW PRAC- TICAL METHODS OF TELEVISION. THE STORY OF HIS ACHIEVEMENT IS INFORMATIONAL AND INSPIRATIONAL.
SAVING THE ONE I AM WITH— BY DR. W. W. HENDERSON OF THE UTAH STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. THIS ARTICLE, DIRECTED TO YOUTH, DE- SCRIBES UNFORGETTABLY THE RE- SPONSIBILITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL WITH RESPECT TO THE ACTIONS OF ALL OTHER INDIVIDUALS.
SHALL WE BE LOYAL TO OUR HER- ITAGE—BY DR. JOSEPH F. MERRILL OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE, AND PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN MISSION. IN THIS BRIEF EDITORIAL COMMENT A THOUGHTFUL AMERICAN OVERSEAS LOOKS AT AMERICA IN PERSPECTIVE.
THE SECOND "STORY OF OUR HYMNS" BY GEORGE D. PYPER TELLS THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH "A POOR WAYFARING MAN OF GRIEF" CAME INTO EXISTENCE, AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH IT BECAME SIGNIFICANT IN MORMON HISTORY.
EXECUTIVE AND EDITORIAL OFFICES:
SO North Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah
Copyrght 1932, by the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association Cdrporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All rights reserved. Subscription price, $2.00 a year, in advance; 20c Single Copy.
Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage pro- vided for in section 1103, Act of October, 1917, authorized July 2, 1918.
The Improvement Era is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, but welcomes and will exercise care in handling all contributions.
A MAGAZINE FOR EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY
Improvement
ERA
JUNE, 1936
VOLUME 39 NUMBER 5
"THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH"
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE PRIESTHOOD QUORUMS, MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS, DEPART- MENT OF EDUCATION, MUSIC COMMITTEE, WARD TEACHERS AND OTHER AGENCIES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS,
CONTENTS
ibattonals:
One Man's Memory of an Honored Mother
President Heber J. Grant
A Call to the Priesthood John A. Widtsoe
The Meaning of "Honor" Richard L. Evans
A More Militant Motherhood Marba C. Josephson
267 296 296 297
(church cfeatures:
First American-European Broadcast of the Church 270
First Latter-day Saint Mother E. Cecil McGavin 285
The Story of Our Hymns George D. Pyper 290
A New Plan for Missionary Work in the Stakes of Zion ... 273
Brazil — A New Frontier for the Restored Gospel
Rulon S. Howells 317
The Church Moves On, 298, 299; Ward Teaching, 304; An Important Message From the First Presidency, 305; Aaronic Priesthood, 306; Mutual Messages — Executives, 309; Adults, 309; Photos from the Field, 310 and 312; M Men, 311; Gleaners, 311; Explorers and Scouts, 311; Juniors, 313; Bee-Hive, 313.
Special O/eatures:
Motherhood David O. McKay 269
You and Your Mother Clarissa A. Beesley 274
Those Dionne Sisters C. Frank Steele 275
Exploring the Stratosphere with Captain Orvil A. Ander- son Wilburn C* West 276
The Significance of Motherhood Annie Wells Cannon 282
In and Out of Books N. A, Pedersen 286
The George V Trilogy Ramona W. Cannon 292
A Canadian Tribute to George V Joseph Y. Card 294
Brazil — A Land of Opportunity Marc T* Greene 316
Tulip Time in Holland Frank L Kooyman 321
Exploring the Universe, 302; On the Book Rack, 303; Homing, 308; Your Page and Ours, 328; Our Advertisers, 320.
CJictton ana LPoetry:
Understanding Mother Vera Hinckley Mayhew 300
Moving Mountains (Part 3) Walter L. Bailey 315
Poetry: Frontispiece, Helping Hands, by Thelma P. Seeg- miller, 266; When God Speaks by Clara H. Park, 281; Pioneer Mother by Christie Lund, 284; Poetry Page, 295; A Life by Zena Chlarson, 322.
cJae Cover:
Pioneer Mother is the title of this sculptured group by Avard Fairbanks, noted Mormon sculptor. This monument stands in a park in Tacoma, Washington. A poem by Christie Lund, written for this subject, appears on page 284.
265
Helping Hands
By THELMA PARK SEEGMILLER
TINY hands all wet and soapy, Reaching over mother's knee, As he splashes in the dishpan
Busy as a lad can be; Washing, wiping plates and glasses,
Soaking pinafore with glee, Lifting brown eyes fringed with lashes, 'Baby helping mother, see!
\\i
\"
Little feet come flying faster
When he hears the broom's first sweep. And whichever way the dirt goes,
He must there get down and creep; With the first "fluff, fluff" of pillow
Comes a bouncing curly head Turning somersaults and cartwheels
"Helping mother make the bed/'
Stirring up the cake for dinner,
Hanging out the Monday clothes. Little hands are slightly soiled now,
And there's black on baby's nose. Still he must do mother's sewing,
First the needle, then the thread, While the red lips laugh and chatter,
"Helping mother stitch," they said.
Digging up the favorite flowers,
Picking green fruit from the tree, Until mother slowly sighing,
Takes him up upon her knee; Sings a lullaby so softly;
Little head against her leans; Little eyes shut slowly, surely,
Helping mother now in dreams.
Then she breathes a prayer so holy
As she tucks him in his bed, 'Thanks, Dear God, for busy fingers,
Laughing eyes, and curly head. May his little feet grow stronger,
Working, playing, all he can. Let me teach him to help others
When he grows to be a man."
266
One MAN'S MEMORY
of an HONORED MOTHER
By PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
I thank the Lord for that mother of mine. She was born in New Jersey of noble parents, Caleb Ivins and Edith Ridgeway Ivins — both devout Dutch Quakers, one of whom died when mother was six and the other when she was nine years old. She was raised under Quaker influences in the home of a cousin, in circum- stances of comparative luxury and comfort; and although it was never required of her to engage in house- work she became skilled in the arts of homemaking, and even in the time of poverty that later filled part of the years of her life, she presided over her home with serene and warm hospitality.
At the age of sixteen mother joined the Baptist Church, with the consent of her relatives. Sometime later, while she was visiting at the home of an uncle in Hornerstown, New Jersey, she went to a meeting at which the Mormon missionaries were preaching. Subsequently she met the minister of the Baptist church in which she had a pew, and he said:
"Miss Ivins, you went to hear those awful Mormons. If you go to hear them again your pew in my church will be vacant."
I have understood that there is no one on earth so stubborn as a Scotchman, except a Dutchman, and my father was Scotch and my mother Dutch. What the minister said to my mother got her "Dutch" up, and she said to him:
"My pew is vacant in your church. I shall go to hear these Mormons, and I shall pray. It may be that they have the truth."
She told me that when she at- tended the first Latter-day Saint meeting she only went out of curi- osity and did not listen attentively or prayerfully, but went merely to please her sister and one of her girl friends. That was on a Saturday; but the night after attending her first Mormon meeting on a Sunday she got down on her knees and prayed the Lord to forgive her for doing such a wicked thing as going
IN this brief backward glance at the mother of a prophet is told the story of a serene and gentle life that preached its own sermon. In this man's memory of his mother, virtue, honor, integrity and admirable independence color the pages in a manner which may inspire other mothers and other sons to bring everlasting honor each to the other.
to listen to false prophets on the Sabbath.
But she became converted to the restored Gospel. The men who con- verted her were the Prophet Joseph Smith himself and Erastus Snow. And my mother's brothers who were well-to-do financially offered to set- tle an annuity upon her for life if she would renounce her religion. One of her brothers said to her: "Rachel, you have disgraced the name of Ivins. We never want to see you again if you stay with those awful Mormons," — this was when she was leaving for Utah — "but," he continued, "come back in a year,
come back in five years, come back in ten or twenty years, and no mat- ter when you come back, the latch- string will be out, and affluence and ease will be your portion."
Later, when poverty became her lot, if she actually had not known that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Gospel was true, all she needed to have done was to return east and let her brothers take care of her. But rather than return to her wealthy relatives in the East where she would have been amply provided for, with no struggle for herself or her child, she preferred to make her way among those to whom she was more strongly attached than her kindred who were not believers in her faith. And so she sewed, at first by hand with a needle and thread and later with a sewing machine, and kept boarders to make a living for herself and her little child. Although she had been reared in affluence she adapted herself to con-
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT AND HIS MOTHER, RACHEL RIDGEWAY IVINS GRANT.
267
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
ditions of poverty, and her home was always a pattern of neatness.
]My mother's altered circum- stances came about by reason of my father's death. My father died when I was nine days old, and mother was both father and mother to me; and I thank the Lord for a mother who encouraged her son. She raised me with such close care that I never learned to throw a rock, and yet when I joined a baseball club and told mother I was going to learn to play baseball well enough to play on the team that would win the championship of the territory of Utah, my mother encouraged the ambitions of her son. And when, day after day, I had persisted in coming home from school and throw- ing a ball at Bishop Woolley's barn for practice, she would tie up my arm at night with wet cloths because it would ache so badly. And I did play on the team that won the cham- pionship of the territory, and I have never played a game of baseball since that purpose was accom- plished. My mother encouraged me in all of my righteous and whole- some ambitions.
On one occasion the bishop came into my mother's house when the rain was coming through the roof. He said: "Widow Grant, I shall put a new roof on this house im- mediately, out of the Fast dona- tions."
"No, you will not," Mother said, "I have some sewing here, and when I finish it, it will bring in a few dol- lars, and I will buy some shingles and mend the places in the roof where the rain is coming through. This old house will have to do until my boy grows up and builds me a better one."
I remember working twenty long weeks to get a ten dollar bill — fifty cents each Saturday — while going to school as a boy of fourteen. I had heard of insurance, and with that ten dollars I insured my mother's house. My good bishop said: "My gracious, Heber ought to have given that ten dollars to his mother. Why, if Widow Grant's house were to burn down I would go around this ward, and she has so many friends that within forty-eight hours I would get the money with which to build her a better house than the one she now has."
One of my friends told me this, and I said:
"I can insure my mother's house for enough to build another one if it burns down and I don't care to
268
live in a house built by charity. I would be a little pauper, living in a house not knowing who furnished
THE SERENE nature of President Grant's mother has left a deep impression upon this man\s life — especially since he himself was not calm by nature and has acquired tranquility of mind in later life only by determined effort. Below are ex~ cerpts from the chapter on "Serenity" in "As a Man Thinketh," by James Allen, which President Grant fre~ quently reads and quotes. In his original copy of this book President Grant years ago penciled a note in the margin, as he read the paragraphs on serenity, that of all the women he had ever known, his own mother and her sister, Anthony W. Ivins' mother, were the most calm and serene:
"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indi- cation of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought. * * *
"The calm man, having learned how to govern himself, knows how to adapt himself to others; and they, in turn, reverence his spiritual strength, and feel that they can learn of him and rely upon him. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Even the ordinary trader will find his business pros- perity increase as he develops a greater self-control and equanimity, for people will always prefer to deal with a man whose demeanor is strongly equable.
"The strong, calm man is always loved and revered. He is like a shade-giving tree in a thirsty land, or a sheltering rock in a storm. 'Who does not love a tranquil heart, a sweet-tempered, balanced life? It does not matter whether it rains or shines, or what changes come to those possessing these blessings, for they are always sweet, serene, and calm. That exquisite poise of char- acter which we call serenity is the last lesson of culture; it is the flower- ing of life, the fruitage of the soul. It is precious as wisdom, more to be desired than gold — yea, than even fine gold. How insignificant mere money-seeking looks in comparison with a serene life — a life that dwells in the ocean of Truth, beneath the waves, beyond the reach of tempests, in the Eternal Calm!
" 'How many people we know who sour their lives, who ruin all that is sweet and beautiful by ex- plosive tempers, who destroy their poise of character, and make bad blood! It is a question whether the great majority of people do not ruin their lives and mar their happiness by lack of self-control. How few people we meet in life who are well bal- anced, who have that exquisite poise which is characteristic of the finished character!' "
the money to build it, and therefore not being able to pay it back."
Bishop Woolley remarked after one of these interviews with my mother: "If Widow Grant waits for that boy to build her a home she will never have one. He is the laziest boy in the Thirteenth Ward. He spends his time hour after hour throwing a ball at my barn over the back fence of his mother's lot, in- stead of doing something useful for his mother."
I think this very remark had a stimulating effect upon me in helping me to build my mother a home, which I did before I was twenty-one years of age; and I had the pleasure of asking Bishop Woolley to dedi- cate it. At last he said I was the hardest worker in the Thirteenth Ward, and he said he would decline the honor of dedicating it in favor of President Daniel H. Wells, who was present at the dedication to which my mother had proudly in- vited her friends.
"Touring those days of poverty when I was a small boy my mother often entertained friends and sometimes distinguished guests in a most hospitable way. Reminiscing, she once said: "They loved to come and I loved to have them, and sometimes Heber and I would live on very scanty fare that we might have the greater pleasure of provid- ing something good to share with our friends."
The spirit of quiet dignity and serene self-composure characterized my mother's life. She was an ideal homemaker. Her very presence was restful. She always had friends who were proud of her integrity and her devotion to her religion. She was a woman of mighty faith, and of patient endurance under all cir- cumstances. She served the Church; she was devoted to her son and she stood in humility before her Father in Heaven. So near to the Lord would she get in her prayers that they were a wonderful inspiration to me from childhood to manhood.
I live today in the eightieth year of my life as one whose mother was all to me. She set an example of integrity, of devotion and love, and of determination and honor second to none. Her life was a sermon that rings through my soul to this day. One of the main reasons I am Pres- ident of the Church today is that I have followed the advice and coun- sel and the burning testimony of the divinity of God, which came to me from my mother.
Motherhood
By PRESIDENT DAVID O. McKAY
PRESIDENT DAVID 0. McKAY
Motherhood is the greatest potential influence either for good or ill in human life. The moth- er's image is the first that stamps itself on the unwritten page of the young child's mind. It is her caress that first awakens a sense of security; her kiss, the first realization of affection; her sympathy and ten- derness, the first assurance that there is love in the world. True, there comes a time when father takes his place as exemplar and hero of the growing boy, and in the latter's budding ambition to develop manly traits, he outwardly seems to turn from the more gentle and tender virtues engendered by his mother. Yet that ever- directing and restraining influence implanted during the first years of his childhood lingers with him and per- meates his thoughts and memory as distinctively as perfume clings to each particular flower.
In more than one instance in the life of fiery youth, this lingering influence has proved a safeguard in the hour of temptation — an influence greater in its restrain- ing power than the threat of the law of the land, the ostracism of society, or the fear of violating a command of God. In a moment of youthful recklessness the youth might defy one or all of these forces, and do what his hot blood bade, but at the critical moment, the flash of a mother's confiding trust, the realization of her sorrow if he fail to be true to it have given him power to refrain from indulgence that might blight his entire career. Thus
"The mother, in her office, holds the key Of the soul; and she it is who stamps the coin Of character, and makes the being who would be a savage But for her gentle cares, a Christian man. Then crown her Queen o' the world."
Motherhood consists of three principal attributes or qualities: namely, (1) The power to bear, (2) The ability to rear, (3) The gift to love.
Some women there are who possess only the first, and who, therefore, are unworthy the name of mother. Self- ishly, passionately, they have expressed themselves, as others of their kind, on the low plane of physical life, scorning the responsibility to sacrifice for and to rear their offspring, choking the fountain of love by self and the willful neglect of their children.
In contrast, there are other women who, denied the power to bear children, adopt some as their own, rear
them with an ability characteristic of and inherent in true womanhood, and fill the lives of their darlings with a love that only the yearning soul of such a mother can know. Such are true mothers, indeed, though part of the ex- perience of motherhood be denied them!
This ability and willingness properly to rear children, the gift to love, and eagerness, yes, longing to express it in soul development, make motherhood the noblest office or calling in the world. It is the greatest of all professions, the most beautiful of all arts. She who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions deserves the admiration and the plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, whose immortal souls will exert an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have decayed or shall have been destroyed, de- serves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God. In her high duty and service to humanity, endowing with immortality eternal spirits, she is co-partner with the Creator Himself.
Womanhood, therefore, should be intelligent and pure because it is the living life-fountain from which flows the stream of humanity. She who would pollute that stream by tobacco, poisonous drugs, or by germs that would shackle the unborn, is untrue to her sex and an enemy to the strength and perpetuity of the race.
On the other hand it is every mother's duty and should be every mother's inspiration and supreme joy to make it possible for her children to pay her the tribute that you and I, in the words of the prince, can pay to our mothers :
"She of whom you speak, My mother, looks as whole as some serene Creation minted in the golden moods Of sovereign artists; not a thought, a touch, But pure as lines of green that streak the white Of the first snowdrop's inner leaves."
"Happy he With such a mother; faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall He shall not bind his soul with clay."
The laws of life and the revealed word of God combine in placing upon motherhood and fatherhood the responsi- bility of giving to children not only a pure unshackled birth, but also a training in faith and uprightness. They are to be taught "to understand the doctrine of repent- ance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, when eight years old." To those who neglect this in precept and example, "the sin be upon the heads of the parents." ( D. & C. 68 : 25. )
God give the world today, intelligent, devoted, faith- engendering mothers!
269
Salt Lake Tribune Staff Photo.
VIEW OF PART OF THE CONGREGATION IN ATTENDANCE AT ONE OF THE SESSIONS OF THE ONE HUNDRED SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH
IN THE SALT LAKE TABERNACLE, /,PR!L 4, 5, AND 6, 1936
First american-european
broadcast of the church, with
the first presidency speaking
For the first time in its history, and in one of the most significant events in its whole life, the church spoke to the world as a Church in a General Conference during an Amer- ican-European BROADCAST, SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 1936, TO BEAR SOLEMN WITNESS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HlS LATTER-DAY WORK.
The throngs who crowded the Tabernacle and Temple Square at the third session of the One Hundred and Sixth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sunday morning, April 5, 1936, were wit- nesses of an American-European broadcast during which for the first time in its history, and in one of the most significant events in its whole life, the Church spoke to the world as a Church in a General Confer- ence. The First Presidency voiced the message which the Church gave. Members of the First Pres- idency have appeared individually on nationwide networks on numer- ous previous occasions, and Church features have been released pre- viously on international networks, but this was the first testimony of the Presidency speaking for the Church in General Conference on a nationwide American network 270
broadcast or on an American- European broadcast.
This broadcast is a demonstration of how the Gospel may be preached to every living creature. What the future may hold for the Church in carrying out its divinely ordained mission through this means only the Lord Himself now fully sees and understands.
Concerning the coverage and number of stations releasing this program, which was presented on the regularly scheduled Church of the Air series, the following tele- gram has been received from the Columbia Broadcasting System:
1315 W A New York April 10, 1936 Evans — KSL:
Church of the Air program April 5 from KSL was short waved to Europe from one five on. First five minutes of program was not. Fifty-six stations were scheduled for this program.
Allen.
The time quoted in the above wire
is Eastern standard time. Converted into Mountain time it means that the program was short waved to Europe from eleven five to eleven thirty a. m. The five minutes which were not short waved included the sig- nature music, the first general intro- duction and the opening hymn. The three talks of the First Presidency, on this schedule, would have been transmitted to Europe in full.
In addition to the appearance of the Presidency, an outstanding feature of the broadcast was the congregational singing by near ten thousand voices as they joined in the opening hymn "How Firm a Found- ation," and later sang one chorus of "An Angel From on High," the verse duet of which was sung by Elder Claudius Doty and Sister Ida Hepworth. The congregation closed with the Doxology, in the singing of which the radio audience was invited to join. In honor of the
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
memory of the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, Elder Harold H. Ben- nett sang "The Seer" immediately preceding President Grant's address.
The singing was directed by Elder J. Spencer Cornwall, Tabernacle Choir conductor, with Elder Frank W. Asper, Tabernacle organist, ac- companying. Elder Richard L. Evans, Church radio announcer, conducted and announced the pro- gram under the direction of the Church Radio Committee, Elders Stephen L. Richards, Melvin J. Bal- lard, and Charles A. Callis.
Witnessed by the same congrega- tion of nearly ten thousand, the reg- ular one-hour nation-wide Sunday morning broadcast of the Tabernacle choir had concluded at ten thirty a. m., following which the confer- ence was opened with song and prayer, and one speaker presented. At ten fifty a. m., conference pro- ceedings were interrupted to prepare for the Church of the Air broadcast and instruct the congregation as to what was expected of them.
At eleven o'clock came the signal to start, and before that memorable half-hour had concluded, millions in America and Europe had heard at the same time the solemn and soul- penetrating testimonies of the Lord's living prophet, Heber J. Grant, and his counsellors in latter-day Israel, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and President David O. McKay.
President Grant, who spoke last,
was introduced as follows:
Announcer: — In a brief message directed to members and friends of the Church and to listeners everywhere, the presiding head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Heber J. Grant, will com- ment on some of the fundamental beliefs of this Church as set forth in the Articles of Faith and elsewhere. President Grant —
The President's message is here given in full:
In thinking seriously of the economic condition of the world, I am convinced without doubt, that a revelation in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, known as the Word of Wisdom, given by the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, to the Prophet Joseph Smith over 100 years ago, would solve the economic problems not only of our country but of every other country, if it were obeyed by the people of the world.
This Word of Wisdom teaches the Lat- ter-day Saints to refrain from the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, and liquor, and part of it reads as follows:
"To be sent greeting; not by command- ment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal sal- vation of all Saints in the last days — . . .
"Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have
warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revela- tion-— ...
"And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;
"And shall find wisdom and great treas- ures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
"And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen."
Another thing that is needed is to main- tain the Constitution of our country, and I now have pleasure in reading a declara- tion by Joseph Smith regarding the Con- stitution :
"The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the
PRESIDENT HEBER J. GRANT
wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is, to all those who are privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a weary and thirsty land. It is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of the sun."
I read from a Declaration of Belief re- garding governments and laws in general, adopted by unanimous vote of a general assembly of the Church over 100 years ago:
"We believe that governments were in- stituted of God for the benefit of man; and that He holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.
"We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life. . . .
"We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual priv- ileges, and the individual rights of its mem- bers, as citizens, denied."
The leading officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been accused of exercising unrighteous do- minion, because of the priesthood they hold.
Joseph Smith was sentenced by a court martial to be shot the following morning, and General Alexander D. Doniphan re- fused to carry out the order of his com- manding general, and said that it was cold- blooded murder. This frightened the gen- eral in command of the mob, which was expelling our people from the state of Mis- souri; so they imprisoned the prophet and others in Liberty jail, and while there he received from the Lord one of the most wonderful revelations ever given to our people, regarding the exercise of the priest- hood, and I have pleasure in quoting part of it:
"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of al- most all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will im- mediately begin to exercise unrighteous do- minion.
"Hence, many are called, but few are chosen.
"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love un- feigned;
"By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hy- pocrisy, and without guile —
"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and the showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy.
"That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.
"Let thy bowels also be full of charity toward all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doc- trine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting do- minion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever."
I quote the eleventh, twelfth, and thir- teenth Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obey- ing, honoring, and sustaining the law.
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul: We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report . or praise-worthy we seek after these things."
I close my remarks by bearing my testi- mony to the world : I know, as I know that I live, that God lives, that Jesus Christ is his Son, the Redeemer of the world, who came to the earth with a divinely appointed mission to die on the cross for the sins of mankind. And I bear my testimony that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and the living God.
Preceding President Grant, Pres- ident J. Reuben Clark, Jr., was intro- duced:
Announcer: President J. Reuben Clark,
271
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
Jr., First Counsellor to President Grant in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will now speak on the "Faith, Belief, and Knowl- edge of this Church concerning Jesus Christ." President Clark —
The full text of President Clark's message is given here:
I wish to state the faith, the belief, and the knowledge of the Latter-day Saints re- garding Jesus of Nazareth.
We accept literally the words of John concerning the Christ: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
PRESIDENT J. REUBEN CLARK, JR.
The Christ has declared in our own day: "I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the firstborn."
We also accept John's declaration that Jesus Christ was the creator of the world, that "all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made."
We believe that in a great council of Heaven held before the world was, Satan proposed one plan for creating and ruling the world and its progeny, and that Christ proposed another, that Satan's plan was rejected, as taking away the agency of man, and Christ's was accepted as keeping man's agency.
We believe that in obedience to the plan Christ created the world and all that in it is, first spiritually, then temporally, and that in this work of creation He became one of the Great Trinity of three personages — the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
We believe that following this creation the Lord from time to time showed himself to man, either in person or in vision, or in dream or by speech, beginning with Adam, and later to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Daniel, and others on the eastern hemisphere, and to many prophets on the western continents; in one of the most glorious theophanies of all time, the Lord showed himself, before His birth, to the brother of Jared, the man of greatest faith of His time, saying: "Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood. Behold this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh."
We believe that in the meridian of time
272
Mary the Virgin gave birth to Jesus, the only begotten of the Father, in very deed and fact the son of God; that Jesus was crucified upon the cross; that he was buried and lay in a tomb till the morning of the third day when he was verily resurrected from the dead — that is, his spirit and his body reunited and he rose from the tomb a perfect, glorified, living soul; that thus Christ atoned for Adam's fall from which man is so redeemed, and that all men will, by reason of that atonement, be resurrected — that is, the body and spirit of every per- son born into the world will at some time after death, and in the due course of the Lord, be reunited, thus fulfilling Paul's say- ing: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
We believe that except for this atone- ment of Christ for the fall of Adam, man would, through all the eternities, have re- mained under the penalty of the mortal and spiritual death brought upon the human family by Adam.
We thus believe Christ to be in the full, true, and the most literal sense, the Creator of the world, one of the Godhead, the only begotten of the Father, the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the first fruits of the resurrection, the redeemer of the world.
We believe that some 1800 years after the Son's death and resurrection, the Father and the Son, two glorified personages hav- ing human form, appeared to a boy four- teen years of age, even as the Lord came of old to the child Samuel in the Temple; that the Father, pointing to the Son, said: "This is my beloved Son, hear Him;" and that the Son, responding to the lad's inquiry as to which of the many sectarian creeds was right, told the lad that none of them was right, and that he should join none of them.
We believe that through the instrumen- tality of this same lad, Joseph Smith, grown to maturity, the Lord restored to earth the true Gospel and the Priesthood of God which had been taken from the earth be- cause of the transgressions of men.
Hundreds of thousands of Latter-day Saints, living and dead, have proclaimed their absolute knowledge of the truth of every declaration I have made; some of them have sealed their testimonies with a martyr's blood. To the testimony of the humblest of all these, I wish in humility to add my own.
President David O. McKay was
the first speaker, and was introduced
with these words:
Announcer: — The first speaker today will be President David O. McKay, second Counsellor to President Grant in the First Presidency of the Mormon Church. The subject of his address: "Happiness and strength of character come by losing self for the good of others." President McKay —
President McKay's address fol- lows:
All mankind desire happiness. Many also strive sincerely to make the most and best of themselves. Surprisingly few, however, realize that a sure guide to such achievement may be found in the following declaration by Jesus of Nazareth, "Who- soever will save his life shall lose it: And whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it."
This significant passage contains a secret more worthy of possession than fame or dominion, something more valuable than all the wealth of the world.
It is a principle, the application of which promises to supplant discourage- ment and gloom with hope and gladness; to fill life with contentment and peace everlasting. This being true, its accept- ance would indeed be a boon today to this distracted depression-ridden world. Why then do men and nations ignore a thing so precious?
Is the truth, in the paradoxical state- ment, "losing one's life to find it," so elusive that mankind cannot grasp it? Or is it so in conflict with the struggle for existence that men consider it impractical?
Even so, the fact remains that He who is "the way, the truth, and the life" has herein set forth an immutable law, obedi- ence to which will ameliorate those social and economic conditions in which "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thou- sands mourn."
Specifically stated, this law is: "We live our lives more completely when we strive to make the world better and happier. The law of pure nature — survival of the fittest — is self-preservation at the sacrifice of all else; but in contrast to this law of pure spiritual life is: Deny self for the good of others.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts as fundamental this law of life. Faithful members thereof are con- vinced that only in its application can true happiness be found, or truly great character be developed; and they believe with Emer- son that "character is higher than intellect — a great soul will be fit to live as well as to think." To them, also, the safety and perpetuity of our nation depend upon the character building, law-abiding individual.
Therefore, in the heart of every true
PRESIDENT DAVID 0. McKAY
Latter-day Saint the voice of the Lord is ever whispering this recorded revelation:
"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of the Lord.
"And if it so be that you labor all your days, and bring save it be one soul to me, how great shall be your joy in the Kingdom of my Father."
With this end in view, 50,000 men and women, serving willingly without salary, offer every week to over 500,000 children and youth, instruction and guidance in character building and spiritual growth. In addition to this army of officers and teach- ers, 185,000 men ordained to the priesthood have accepted the obligation to devote their
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
time and talents as far as possible to the scattering of sunshine, joy, and peace among their fellowmen.
In all such efforts these men and women are but actuated by the high ideals of the prophet of the nineteenth century who, exemplifying the teachings of Christ, said: "If my life is of no value to my friends, it's of no value to me."
Never was there a time in the history of the world when the application of this principle was more needed. Therefore let sincere men and women the world over unite in earnest effort to supplant feelings of selfishness, hatred, animosity, greed, by the law of service to others, and thereby promote the peace and happiness of man- kind.
In response to this history-making broadcast statements of appreciation are still arriving from members and non-members of the Church, of which the following quoted excerpts are typical:
Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. New York, April 6, 1936. Dear President Grant:
Permit me to express my appreciation and that of the Columbia Broadcasting System for the excellent broadcast which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presented on our Church of the Air series yesterday. We are most grateful to you, and to President Clark and Presi- dent McKay, for your participation in this program.
It is through such cooperation as you extended in this instance, as well as in the past, that we are able to present to our audience the leaders in religious thought throughout the country.
Again thank you for your courtesy. Sincerely, (Signed) Edward R. Murrow, Director of Radio Talks.
Dr. Herman L. Kretschmer, emi- nent surgeon who performed an operation on President Grant sev- eral years ago, writes from Chicago as follows:
Quite by accident we dialed in on the Tabernacle. The reception was fine and I cannot tell you when I have heard a finer talk than yours. The singing was wonderful. . . .
184 Superior Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., April 6, 1936. Mr. Richard Evans, Announcer, K. S. L., Salt Lake City.
Dear Sir: Yesterday, it was my privilege to listen to the splendid broadcast of your annual meeting of your church, the splendid addresses by the three leading members of the church, also, let me say that I also enjoy your regular Sunday broadcasts.
Yours very truly, S. M. Ellis, A Grandson of Sidney Rigdon.
808 9th Ave., So., Fariboult, Minnesota, April 5th.. Dear Friends of Radio Station K. S. L.:
We, a few Latter-day Saints, have just listened to the Conference addresses of our beloved leaders and we wish to add our humble testimonies to those we heard. We also hear and love the Choir every Sunday morning and that voice from the crossroads of the west. We thank you all for the wonderful programs and hope that they will continue. Thank you. Your Friends, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Wohlford and family.
A NEW PLAN FOR MISSIONARY WORK IN THE STAKES OF ZION
(Submitted and edited for the Improvement Era, by Joseph Fielding Smith)
Tn response to invitation, on March 1 12, 1936, the First Council of Sev- enty transmitted a letter to the Council of the Twelve in which recommenda- tions were made concerning the estab- lishment and carrying forward of mis- sionary work in the stakes of Zion. The recommendations contained in this letter were discussed and approved by the Council of the Twelve, and, with modifications, were forwarded to the First Presidency in a letter dated March 21, 1936, with a recommenda- tion for approval, which letter was prefaced with this paragraph:
"We, the Council of the Twelve, respect- fully recommend that the missionary work in the stakes of Zion be more fully organ- ized than it is at the present time. We suggest the following program as a basis for said proposed organization, the First Council of Seventy concurring."
In response to this recommendation the First Presidency wrote to the Coun- cil of the Twelve, under date of March 23, 1936, as follows:
March 23, 1936. President Rudger Clawson, The Council of the Twelve, Dear President Clawson:
The recommendations submitted in your letter of March 21, 1936, regarding mis- sionary work in the stakes of Zion, which recommendations you say are concurred in by the First Council of Seventy, meet with our hearty approval, and you are hereby authorized to put into operation the program therein outlined.
Referring to the third and fourth items in your letter, we recommend that the First Council of Seventy operate directly through the presidencies of stakes, and that the mission presidents be recommended by the stake presidency rather than by the "stake president."
We feel assured that this plan, when fully operative, will give great impetus to the missionary work in the stakes of Zion. Sincerely your brethren, THE FIRST PRESIDENCY,
By
Heber J. Grant (Signed) David O. McKay (Signed)
Accordingly under date of March 24, 1936, the Council of the Twelve wrote to the First Council of Seventy a letter containing the slightly modified recommendations, which letter appears in full below, and constitutes the plan now approved by the First Presidency for conducting missionary work in the stakes of Zion: —
To the First Council of Seventy, Dear Brethren:
We have given consideration to your letter of March 12, 1936, concerning the establishment and carrying forward of mis- sionary work in the stakes of Zion. We
give our approval to the statement which you have made with reference to the or- ganization and direction of the work, modi- fied as hereinafter submitted.
That the object of this work be to do missionary work within the stakes of Zion.
II.
That a mission be organized in each stake of Zion and that the general super- vision thereof be given to the First Council of the Seventy.
III.
That the First Council of the Seventy operate directly through the presidencies of stakes.
IV.
That the immediate charge of the mis- sion shall be given to a mission president who should preferably be a Seventy but may be a High Priest. In case the most desirable man for this position be an Elder, he must first be ordained a Seventy before appointment. The mission presidents shall be recommended by the stake presidency, after consultation with the local council or councils of Seventy, and approved by the First Council.
V.
That the missionaries to be employed preferably be Seventies but that High Priests and women may be called to serve. Also that prospective missionaries who are taking missionary training courses be used to give them experience.
VI. That the mission be divided into dis- tricts over which district presidents, pre- ferably Seventies be appointed.
VII.
That report forms be prepared by the First Council of the Seventy upon which the activities of the missionaries be reported weekly to the mission president who will report to the First Council and to the stake president monthly.
VIII.
That calls for missionary service be made by the presidents of stakes after consulta- tion with Bishops and the local Council of Seventy upon forms prepared by the First Council. That all missionaries so called be made to understand that the call entails full compliance with all missionary regula- tions and cheerful and faithful response to all assignments.
The stake mission presidents, after con- sultation with presidents of stakes, shall be authorized to grant releases to missionaries.
IX.
That the further detail of the program be left to the First Council, who will of course collaborate with stake presidents, subject, however, to approval of the Coun- cil of Twelve Apostles.
We desire to commend the First Council of Seventy on the comprehensive outline which they have prepared for the work. We should be pleased to receive reports of progress and shall make it a point to con- fer with the council periodically with ref- erence to this important undertaking. With best wishes for success, we are
Very sincerely your brethren, THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE, By
Rudger Clawson (Signed) President
273
Dusk — just before the lamps were lighted. A cheery fire on the hearth; the table set for the evening meal. Curled up on the old-fashioned sofa in the win- dow, waiting for the others to come, a gentle-faced mother and a small, chubby girl of four. This was the hour when she sang to the small listener. Old ballads they were, with a tender charm all their own — "Annie Laurie," "Robin Adair," and, best of all, "Highland Lad." Eagerly the little girl waited for the words, "Oh, where and oh where has your Highland Laddie gone?" and rapturously she would exclaim, "Mother, I know you are the beauti- fullest singer in the whole world!"
This might have been you and your mother. Perhaps the setting was different but the love and the sympathy were the same. In those early days when the world was just opening for you, you two were as one. Your first consciousness was of your mother's love. How she cherished you, her baby daughter! It may be true that mothers are prouder of their boys and that every woman, as Barrie says, wants her first born to be a son, but it is equally true that there is a peculiar tender- ness in the tie that binds her to the little girl who is fashioned in her own image, who will one day be a woman like herself. She hopes — how she hopes — that they two will be companions in the truest sense, that this new being will understand some things that no man, however wise and good, can quite under- stand.
Go back in memory through the years. Were you one of the mis- chievous, tomboy kind who distract- ed the entire household with your pranks and escapades or were you the quiet, shy little miss who needed bringing forward? Whichever you were, it was your mother most of all who understood, who chided or praised, held you back or encour- aged. Your first prayers she taught you, your ideas of God and heaven and life she helped you to form.
Do you recall that first morning you went to school? You did not know it but in the heart of your 274
OU AND YOUR
MOTHER
By CLARISSA A BEESLEY
mother was a good deal of anxiety as to how bravely her "little woman" would make this venture and there was a good deal of loneliness, too, as she left you with the new teacher and realized that the first separation had come.
And then those other wonderful days of your childhood — the glamor of Christmas, your birthdays as they came and went, the day of your baptism into the Church — great events in which you and your mother shared.
After that it seemed but a short time until you were in your 'teens and a woman yourself.
\X7lTH ADOLESCENCE COmes SO
much, so much of new insight into life, so much of contact with new experiences, new pleasures. If this period has brought change to you it has brought change and ad- justments no less to your mother. It must have been hard for her to awaken to the fact that you were no longer her "little girl" for whom she must plan each detail of food and of clothing and whose daily doings she must carefully supervise.
You are often away from her now, perhaps, and she is naturally con- cerned as to how you are meeting the varying situations which come up every day. She is constantly asking herself if you have the neces- sary physical and mental equipment, the strength of character to steady you over the hard places.
How happy is she and how for- tunate are you if, as of old, the two of you can find some quiet corner, perhaps on the couch at dusk, when the firelight or low turned lamps are enfolding the room and you in their soft glow, and give each other once more your confidences!
After all there are not so many
vital differences between sixteen and forty even if some young peo- ple think there are. Why not help your mother to understand your younger life by taking her with you in imagination to the dance hall, the outing, the party? Let her share vicariously your recreational pleas- ures. Why not decide together, "What would I do should this prob- lem, or this, or this arise?" Such a procedure would allay your mother's anxiety and would fortify you tre- mendously in meeting actual situ- ations. There is something in speak- ing aloud the words, "I will," or "I will not do this or that," that strengthens one morally and spir- itually.
As your mother tries to see youth's modern view point, try your- self to see hers regarding those fun- damental principles which have ever made for human happiness. Moder- ation in pleasure, cleanliness and purity of body and mind, honor, love of home and children, love of God and the consciousness that His watchcare is over you — these are the enduring qualities which will make your life beautiful. She will help you to hold on to these and with her devotion and the blessing of your Heavenly Father you will travel safely through this fascinat- ing, joyous time of youth.
You and your mother! Always think of her as the loveliest com- rade, the best pal in the whole world.
MARIE
First we had them in the news- papers, then on the radio, and now in the movies. For those Dionne sisters — Annette, Emelie, Yvonne, Cecile, and Marie — are just about the most celebrated youngsters in the world not except- ing England's Princess Elizabeth or America's Shirley Temple.
We have in this universal acclaim of the Dionne quintuplets a salute to babies. The miracle of their birth, the achievement of Dr. Allan Dafoe, the country doctor of Cal- lander, in keeping the mites alive; their first two years of life at their government-built hospital, a stone's throw from the rude, farm cottage where they were born; their cunning antics in the news reels, and their equally cunning gurgles over the air — all this has been made the sub- ject of reams of newspaper and magazine writing. For the "Quints" became front page news overnight.
Perhaps never have babies come into such fame. Doctors, editors, and motion picture directors search- ed the records for a parallel. They couldn't find one. The "impossible" had happened. The story of the stork's sensational visit to the Dionne home was an epic. And the five famous sisters were set for star- dom from the start. Storming Hollywood, these winsome starlets who came into the world, as Dr. Dafoe says, "dusky, blue-skinned, and spider-limbed," are causing mil- lions to take new interest in baby- hood. The blase modern world has not lost its love of children. The Callander "Quints" have demon- strated that fact.
The starry-eyed "Quints" were
ANNETTE
EMIUE
THOSE DIONNE SISTERS
By C. FRANK STEELE
One of The Improvement Era's Canadian correspond- ents, C. Frank Steele, here
TELLS THE CURRENT FACTS CON- CERNING Canada's famous quin- tuplets AS THEY APPROACH THE
two-year mark of their lives, which occurs May 28, 1936.
born in the merry month of May — May 28, 1934, to be exact — which means that this month they become two years old. Their second birth- day will not be marked by "personal appearances" in great cities where their first screen feature is showing, although this was the hope of many an exhibitor. On the contrary, the vigilant Dr. Dafoe and the other guardians of the babies are seeing to it that no such risks are taken. Their precious wards will celebrate at their Callander home and the "party" will be planned with the utmost care. It will include an order reading something like this: "Din- ner for five, please, James."
Mothers, as they read this, will
World Copyright, 19$6, N, E. A. Service, Inc. YVONNE CECILE
realize at once what that means — feeding five babies rather than one! And that is only part of the story. Think of it — five baths, five mani- cures, five airings, five wardrobes — five everything! The Quintuplets' two nurses have plenty of work. Five-thirty or six o'clock in the morn- ing finds them busy with the daily plans for their charges, and they keep right on going until "lights out" and deep night falls over the On- tario hinterland and its wonder babies.
The routine of the Dionne babies' lives is carried on as cheerfully as it is intelligently. The babies' habits are carefully directed, of course, yet they are not spoon-fed, cuddled, or spoiled. They are growing upi naturally, healthily, and are as play- ful as kittens. The cool competence of science has played an important role in the drama of the "Quints." Yet it must be said that those who have been entrusted with their wel- fare have shown great tenderness, for loving care can be given even in a germ-proof nursery and under rigid scientific discipline.
This institutionalized care of the Quints has been criticized, as has been the placing of the babies under the wing of the Ontario government. But it must be said in connection with this business of "quintuplet- raising" that the government acted in the best of faith. It was mindful first of the health of the babies. Then it desired to protect the chil- dren against unscrupulous commer- cial exploitation, and to save for them and their education such rev- enue as might accrue from photo- graphic rights, cinema contracts, and {Concluded on page 320)
275
Official Photograph, U. S. Army Air Corps CAPTAIN ORVIL A. ANDERSON
THE experiences of one Utah man who piloted the world's largest balloon to the "ceiling of the sky" ace here dramatically described by another Utah man, Wilburn C. West, writer and interviewer of Captain Anderson. Mr. West is a native of Ogden, Utah, a former secretary of the Eastern States Mission, and a former scholarship student of the University of Utah. At the present time he resides in Washington, D. G, where he is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and is engaged also in editorial work with the National Geographic Society. The author, formerly a member of the George Washington University debating team for three years, now is also Washington Correspondent for World Radio, official organ of the British Broadcasting Corporation, London. Both the writer and the sub- ject, Wilburn C. West and Captain Orvil A. Anderson, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. This article describes not only the world-acclaimed, record- making stratosphere flight, but also the colorful steps in the career of Captain Anderson which lead up to tliat achievement.
Piloting the world's largest bal- loon to the highest altitude man has ever attained is the achievement of Captain Orvil A. Anderson, a native of Springville, Utah, former student at Brigham Young University and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- ter-day Saints.
The flight, made in stratosphere 276
Exploring the stratosphere
WITH
CAPT. ORVIL A. ANDERSON
By WILBURN C WEST
Nearly two miles higher than man had ever gone before, is the achievement of captain anderson, pilot of stratosphere balloon explorer ii, in a flight sponsored by the United States Army and the National Geographic Society. It is a thrilling story, but the story of a lifetime of consistent preparation and a long record of lesser ac- complishments, if less spectacular, is no less remarkable.
balloon Explorer II on November 11, 1935, was sponsored by the United States Army and the Na- tional Geographic Society. The al- titude attained was approximately fourteen miles — nearly two miles higher than any previous record.
On the occasion of presenting the Hubbard Gold Medal to Captain Anderson for this service, General John J. Pershing said: "You, Cap- tain Orvil A. Anderson, piloted this aerial laboratory nearly two miles higher than man has ever flown be- fore, and you brought to earth this unique cargo of scientific instru- ments as safely and as gently as if they had descended in an elevator."
But this spectacular and world- acclaimed performance, dramatic details of which are recounted later in this article, is only one of Cap- tain Anderson's remarkable accom- plishments. And a few paragraphs devoted to the lifetime of prepara- tion that led up to this achievement would not be spent amiss.
Captain Anderson was born at Springville, Utah, May 2, 1895, the son of James Anderson and Jensene Hanson Anderson. He attended the local grammar school, the Spring- ville High School, and Brigham Young University. He enlisted in the army during the war, and has since made aviation not only his work, but his hobby.
Shortly after his enlistment in 1917, he served as balloon obser- vation instructor at the Army Bal-
loon School in Omaha, Nebraska, and, after the Armistice, became attached to the Sixty-first Airship Company. A little later he was given command of the company.
Up to the time he took command of the Sixty-first Company the
©National Geographic Society Captain Albert W. Stevens, left, and Captain Orvil A. Anderson, commander and pilot, respec- tively on the stratosphere flight, shown just before the take off from the stratobowl near Rapid City, South Dakota. Clad in heavy garments to protect them against the severe cold of the stratosphere, the flyers are ready to climb into the open porthole of their gondola, shown behind them. To the left above is the giant 80-foot parachute designed to break the fall of the gondola in case of accident to the balloon.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
United States Army had never owned a dirigible. When officials of the War Department decided that the army should experiment with this type of craft, Captain An- derson transferred the Sixty-first Airship Company from Omaha to Langley Field, Virginia, where he set up an organization to receive and care for airships. There he helped organize the Army Airship School, and remained on the teaching staff until July, 1922, when he success- fully flew the A-4, the army's first non-rigid training ship, to Scott Field, Illinois. Undoubtedly, the efficient manner in which he handled this undertaking had much to do with the next important assignment that came to him.
That was back at about the time when that intrepid "dawn to dusk" flier from Logan, Lieutenant Russell Maughan, another Mormon boy, was streaking his Curtis biplane through the skies to fame by break- ing the world's speed record at two hundred forty-eight miles an hour. But another Utah youth, Captain Anderson, was then win- ning his spurs with craft lighter than air.
In those days "blimps" were al- most wholly in the experimental stage. No one knew how they would perform on long journeys. Few American fliers had experience with them. Even in Germany,
where Count Ferdinand von Zep- pelin had built the world's first air- ship factory, ship after ship had been lost. In the fall of 1922, Lieu- tenant Anderson and seven other men were assigned to fly the C-2 from Langley Field, Virginia, across the United States to California and back. For this trip Captain Ander- son was named pilot and navigator of the largest and finest dirigible then in the army service, for the most ambitious dirigible flight the army had yet undertaken.
Tt was in every sense a pioneering project, this transcontinental trip. The fliers hoped to survey the coun- try for an airship route across the United States, to locate emergency landing fields for airplanes and dirigibles, and to demonstrate the capabilities of ships lighter than air. All went well on the trip from Virginia to Ross Field, California. But on the return, as the silver ship nosed its way across the desert, high over the sands of Arizona, trouble developed in the fuel lines. Spurts and sputters interrupted the steady drone of the two motors. To the crew's dismay, they found the lines could not be repaired in the air. A few minutes later the engines died. There was no alternative; a landing had to be made.
For a dirigible's safe landing or take-off, a ground crew is almost
imperative. Here there was no one on the ground to seize drag ropes and steady the descent. Captain Anderson valved out enough gas to bring the craft to earth. When the car slung beneath the bag struck the ground, a propeller was crushed. It gashed an eight-foot hole in the bag, out of which hydrogen began to escape. Had the men been less careful, an explosion would have blown craft and crew to bits. Quickly the men roped the ship to sagebrush. Fortunately, the wind was light, and not strong enough to buffet the ship and break the ropes or tear out the roots of the brush.
While gas was still pouring out, the men cemented a patch over the hole. Before the leak could be stop- ped, however, about 15,000 cubic feet of hydrogen escaped, greatly lessening the ship's lifting power. Then they repaired the fuel lines, so that, under the power of a single motor, the craft pulled off. All equipment and three members of the crew were left behind to reduce the load. Only about an hour and a half elapsed between the forced landing and the take-off. In that hour and a half, Captain Anderson, with fellow members of the crew, performed a feat that stands alone in aviation history. It is probably the only time that airship fliers, forced to land, have effected a major repair and taken off again success-
This photograph of the Explorer II was taken on the day of the record-breaking flight by Master Sergeant G. B. Gilbert, from an airplane piloted by Captain H. K. Baisley which followed the balloon. The tiny white speck below the huge bag is the spherical gondola which housed the crew and more than a score of scientific instruments.
©National Geographic Society
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
©National Geographic Society OUT OF THE STRATOBOWL AND INTO THE SUNLIGHT
The balloon Explorer II of the National Geo- flraphic-Army Air Corps Stratosphere Fliuht just after its take-off, as it emerged from the shadows of the snow-covered natural bowl in the Black Hills of South Dakota and entered the first rays of the early morning sun. Below the balloon is the take-off rino on the floor of the bowl with its circle of flood lights. To the right are the tents and buildings which housed scientists, soldiers and flight staff during the six weeks of waiting for favorable weather.
fully. At El Paso, Texas, the next stop, permanent repairs were made.
In that same year, 1922, Captain Anderson was twice commended by the Chief of the Army Air Corps. A recent bulletin of the Air Corps says the first occasion was for "the cred- itable manner in which he performed his duties as a member of the crew of the Airship C-2 on its round trip transcontinental flight," and the other "for his skill and courage in successfully landing, with but minor damage, and with no injury to any member of the crew, a pony blimp during the course of a flight from Scott Field, Illinois, to Bynum, Ala- bama. Unable to land the blimp due to unforseen high wind and motor failure, Captain Anderson successfully effected a rip landing." 278
He had tried to bring the craft down several times, but because of a forty-mile-an-hour wind was un- successful. Once, as he hovered the ship over a landing field, the ground crew grasped the drag ropes to bring the blimp to earth. But before it could be lowered, a gust of wind swept it upward, jerking the ropes out of the men's hands.
The craft floated on for hours, buffeted by the gale, and darkness overtook the men. Shortly after midnight Captain Anderson heard the wind whistling through trees far below. Listening carefully, he con- cluded the rustling came not from a few trees only, but from many. Then came the thought: "Why not land in the forest, using the tree tops as a cushion?"
In order to lessen their load and reduce the hazards of such an at- tempt, the crew tossed out by im- provised parachutes all of their equipment except a fire extinguisher or two, and some tools. It was so dark they could not see below, but the pilot valved out gas to descend. When he judged he was nearing the trees, Captain Anderson urged the other men to cling fast to the car so they would not be shaken out if it turned over as it struck. As it brushed the trees, the crew pulled the rip cord. The craft settled into the branches, anchoring itself about seventy-five or eighty feet off the ground! Next day four trees had to be chopped down to lower the blimp.
In 1923 Captain Anderson was temporarily employed as pilot of the Shenandoah. But one of his most important assignments came in 1925. The Chief of the Air Corps selected him to run service tests on the RS-1 , the only semi-rigid ship ever built in this country, and the largest one ever operated by the army. Captain Anderson was asked to test the ship thoroughly, under all kinds of weather conditions, and to make a report, telling whether or not he thought it advisable for the army to build up a force of such ships.
He ran the tests for a year and a half, at the end of which time he recommended against acquiring ad- ditional ships of that type. No semi-rigid craft has since been con- structed in America.
"\\7hile on duty a few years ago in the Philippine Islands, 1928- 29, Captain Anderson was chosen to fly a plane to a landing field eighty miles north of Manila and bring back an officer's wife who was
ill, and whose very life depended upon an emergency operation. He flew to the field and landed, but the woman was not there. Upon making inquiry, he learned that she had taken ill eighty or one hundred miles from the airport and was being brought to the field by ambulance. Captain Anderson took off in his plane immediately and flew over the road until he met the ambulance, some sixty miles away. He landed in a rice field at the side of the high- way and transferred the patient to the plane. They arrived at the hos- pital four hours earlier than would have been possible had the pilot waited at the airport for the am- bulance. A week or so later, Cap- tain Anderson received a letter of commendation from his superior of- ficer, General Douglas MacArthur. The operation was successful and the woman recovered.
The Utah Captain was the first man ever to anchor an airship in the open sea. In June, 1933, he took command of the TS-13, a non-rigid coast patrol ship, and ran service tests with it for about six months. During this period, he designed a canvas sea anchor with which he successfully anchored the ship many times at sea.
In the spring of 1934, Captain Anderson took part in another aerial survey of the United States. With Major William E. Kepner, he sought a suitable place for making a balloon flight into the stratosphere. The location had to be one from which the craft could float several hundred miles with the wind and still be over land when it came down. The place had to be protected from ground winds, for a huge balloon could not be inflated while being billowed by brisk breezes. They found just the spot in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a few miles from Rapid City. A large natural bowl, surrounded by cliffs rising four hun- dred fifty to four hundred seventy feet high would give ample protec- tion from the wind.
With the place of take-off select- ed, further preparations for a flight were soon under way, and on the morning of July 28, 1934, Major Kepner, Captain Albert W. Stevens, and Captain Anderson took off for the stratosphere. Their balloon, Explorer I, was the largest con- structed up to that time, capable of holding three million cubic feet of gas. They soared upward to 60,613 feet above sea level. At that point, a rip in the bag, which had expanded
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
to its full capacity because of de- creased atmospheric pressure out- side, forced them to begin to de- scend. The tear grew larger and larger until one whole side of the bag was open. The remaining fabric served somewhat as a parachute for a time, and the gallant crew deter- mined to stay aboard as long as possible.
As they neared the earth, what hydrogen yet remained in the bag exploded, literally blowing out the top. The hollow metal ball, or gon- dola, that enclosed the fliers plunged earthward at tremendous speed. To save their lives, the three men jumped out with parachutes. As the gondola crashed, many of the deli- cate instruments taken aloft were destroyed. For their heroic efforts to save the ship, the men were decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross.
HPheir second attempt to conquer the stratosphere was made last July, one year after the first. Major Kepner found it impossible to take part, and Captain Anderson became pilot, instead of alternate pilot, of the new balloon, Explorer II. It was larger by seven hundred thou- sand cubic feet than the Explorer I. The Explorer II, the largest balloon ever built, had a capacity of three million seven hundred thousand cubic feet. The bag measured one hundred fifteen thousand eight hun- dred forty-five square feet, or two and two-thirds acres of fabric. The weight of the bag, gondola, instru- ments, and crew was fifteen thou- sand and two pounds.
To avoid another explosion, the men inflated the monster craft with helium rather than hydrogen, al- through the lifting power of helium is not quite so great as that of hydro- gen. All night long gas poured into the bag from hundreds of metal con- tainers stacked in the bowl. At dawn, just as the craft stood poised like a mighty exclamation point etched against the cliffs beyond, the fabric tore at the top. The helium rushed heavenward; the magnificent thing collapsed. More than two acres of rubberized cloth fell to the ground, almost trapping several men beneath its smothering folds.
Again disappointment. But no sooner had the bag fallen than Cap- tain Stevens and Captain Anderson sought a way to try again. The fabric was shipped from the site of inflation back to the Goodyear- Zeppelin factory at Akron, Ohio. Workers went over it inch by inch to
find and repair all tiny flaws. By means of electric lights held under the cloth, they X-rayed it thor- oughly. An entire new top, twice as strong as the original, was in- serted.
In Washington, D. C, scientists of the National Bureau of Standards and officials of the National Geo- graphic Society conferred with the balloonists to determine why the bag broke. They concluded the rip panel was at fault. This is the in- strument that "rips" open the bag to free the gas just as the balloon lands so that the gondola will come to a dead stop and not be jounced along the ground. A panel of new design was inserted in the repaired balloon.
npHOUGH preparations were com- pleted by October first, proper weather for a flight did not occur until six weeks later. In the mean- time snow fell. The ground crew, living in tents, became restless.
Then came word to inflate. On Sunday, November 10, 1935, Cap- tain Randolph P. Williams, meteoro- logical officer for the Expedition, an- nounced that during the next twenty-four hours there would be very little wind over the huge natural bowl out of which the balloon was to rise. Better still, the sky would be almost cloudless over a large area so that observations and photo- graphs could be made from the bal- loon during the flight.
Nearly four hundred men, mostly soldiers from Fort Meade, worked all night in near-zero weather to get everything ready for take-off. The balloon "grew up" in the shape of a giant mushroom as the gas poured in. Thirty-six ropes, attach- ed near the top of the bag, held it in place during inflation. Three sol- diers were assigned to each line. Two held it fast while the third warmed himself and received in- structions at a nearby fire. Scien- tists checked and rechecked the in- struments while photographers, newsreel cameramen, and radio technicians bustled from one task to another.
Next morning at seven o'clock (M. S. T. ), the balloon, nearly two hundred feet in diameter, towered three hundred sixteen feet in the air, — about as high as a modern twenty-five story skyscraper. With men and instruments aboard, at 7:01 a. m., M. S. T., Captain Anderson shouted "Up Ship!" It was off.
The craft rose fifty feet, a hun- dred, then five hundred feet! Sud-
©N ational Geographic Society ONE HOUR AFTER THE TAKE-OFF
The gondola of the balloon Explorer II photographed from an army airplane after it had been in the air one hour. The balloon, the bottom of which can be seen, towered three hundred sixteen feet into the air at the time of take-off, but in the upper atmosphere the gas expanded and rounded out the huge bag into a per- fect sphere. On the right of the gondola can be seen the metal arm on the end of which was a small motor-driven fan, which served to rotate the balloon so that scientific instruments in the gondola could be pointed in various directions. This photograph was taken by Master Sergeant G. B. Gilbert from an airplane piloted by Captain H. K. Baisley which followed the balloon.
denly the twenty thousand shivering spectators who lined the cliffs of the bowl to watch the take-off held their breaths, for it seemed the ship, struck by a down-rushing current of air, would be driven into the mountainside. Quickly Captain Anderson dumped nearly eight hun- dred pounds of ballast with an elec- tric switch. The craft responded,
279
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
lurched upward. By lightening the load, the pilot cleared the cliffs and skimmed over the people who were running in all directions to get out of the way. Captain Anderson said later his first sensation was that the bag had burst.
When the fliers were rising stead- ily, they made a final inspection of equipment, both inside and outside their hollow sphere. A radio-equip- ped airplane followed the big white "cloud" as it scudded through the sky, describing for listeners-in the progress of the two aeronauts until the balloon went higher than the plane could fly. After remaining outside on top of the gondola for about twenty minutes, the men crawled inside and with a tiny eight- watt transmitter, contacted the ground. Two-way conversations were held between balloon and ground almost constantly thereafter. Radio listeners heard the noise of instruments, grinding and clicking to gather and record new data.
At 9:07 a. m. the balloon had climbed twenty-one thousand feet and was rising three hundred feet a minute. By 9:25 it reached twenty-eight thousand feet, and Captain Stevens reported the tem- perature outside to be forty degrees Fahrenheit. Sealed tightly in their metal ball, the men released liquid air to keep alive. Three hours later, the balloon reached seventy-two thousand, three hundred ninety-five feet, its highest point. The sky be- low was white, shading into blue. Above was spread a sea of space so dark that it seemed almost black.
"At this point," Captain Ander- son told the writer after he returned
to Washington: "we checked our remaining ballast carefully to be sure we were reserving enough for a safe landing."
"Then you used ballast in taking the ship up and in bringing it down too?" I ventured.
"Ballast adds weight, and of course helps somewhat in bringing a craft down. But to start the Explorer II into its descent, I had to valve out much of the gas in the bag. Some- times I kept the valves wide open for a minute or a minute and a half. The balloon was stubborn. It didn't want to come down. Finally when it began to fall, it moved faster than we wanted it to. That is where the ballast came into play. To slow the craft's descent, we lightened the load by throwing off some of the fine lead shot. Not only did we dump ballast from the Explorer II to slow its approach to the earth, but in the final stage, we attached batteries and pieces of other heavy equipment to parachutes and tossed them out."
Crom about the sixteen thousand foot level, where Captain Stev- ens and Captain Anderson opened the manholes so they could climb outside, the craft responded readily to the pilot, and floated gently to earth. When it nearly touched the ground, both men threw their full weight on the rip cord to let out the gas. According to a man who was in the field at the landing, the gon- dola came down "light as a feather," tipped over on its side "with no bounce at all," and the empty gas bag fell in a heap to one side. "In the final stages of the flight,"
said Captain Anderson after it was over, "we were amused at the auto- mobiles trailing through the fields, intent on being with us at the land- ing. Even before we could get out of the gondola, a man peered in through one of the hatches, greeting us with a sheepish grin."
Half a dozen airplanes arrived almost immediately with workers who roped off a space around the balloon to keep away curious on- lookers. In an incredibly short time, the fliers were on their way to a farmhouse, safe, sound, and "able to walk away," as Captain Ander- son put it. The landing occurred at 3:14 p. m. M. S. T., twelve miles south of White Lake, South Dakota, after eight hours and nine minutes in the air.
A week or two after the flight, the metal gondola, detached from the huge gas bag, was shipped to Wash- ington, D. C, and placed on the front steps of the National Geo- graphic Society's offices on Six- teenth Street.
Leaving the Society's premises in a taxi one afternoon, Captain Stev- ens asked the driver, "What is that curious thing perched there on the steps?"
"Why, haven't you heard? That is the stratosphere."
BACK TO EARTH FROM THE STRATOSPHERE
The fabric of the Explorer II as it appeared a few minutes after the balloon landed in a pasture near White Lake, South Dakota, climaxing a world's record flight to an altitude of 72,395 feet. The bag containing two and two-thirds acres of rubberized cotton is the largest ever built, having a gas capacity of three million seven hundred thousand cubic feet.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
"Oh really," replied the Captain, "it floats?"
"Well, that isn't all of it," said the driver, a little taken back, "that is only the base. They took the top part off."
"Do you think those fellows really went as high as they claim?" queried Captain Stevens, testing the man's credulity.
"Yes," he admitted, "I guess they went that high all right, but I'd like to know what in thunder they did when they got up there!"
It may take months, possibly years, to find out just what the men did accomplish "up there." In his article, "Man's Farthest Aloft," published in the January 1936 issue of the National Geographic Maga- zine, Captain Stevens not only de- scribed the flight in detail, but told something of the scientific achieve- ments.
Air transportation may some day move through the stratosphere, but before that era dawns, many ques- tions must be answered. Are there steady prevailing winds high above the earth? Will it be possible for motors in heavier-than-air machines to function? Perhaps the experi- ments of the balloonists will tell.
Barometric and temperature changes were recorded automatic- ally during the flight. Samples of stratosphere air were brought to earth. Living spores from bread and strawberry mold were taken aloft, to determine the effect of the stratosphere on them. One ap- paratus measured sky brightness at various heights to find the amount of light reflected by the earth, gen- erally estimated to be six times as much as reflected by the moon. Cos- mic ray observations were made, and other information about the mysteries of the void above the earth was gathered. A battery of sixteen cameras, some of them automatic, had their lenses focused on dials and meters to photograph variations registered by the instruments.
Lantern slides were later made from some of the photographs and shown by the fliers, along with mo- tion pictures of the flight, to nearly seven thousand members of the Na- tional Geographic Society who as- sembled to honor the men on De- cember 11, 1935. It was on that occasion when General John J. Pershing presented Captain Ander- son and Captain Stevens each with a Hubbard Gold medal, the highest award of the National Geographic Society. Only ten persons had pre-
viously been so honored, among them being Colonel Lindbergh and Admiral Byrd.
'"Fhe official title of Captain Orvil Anderson is "Pilot of Stratosphere Balloon Explorer II" and he now lives at Kelly Field, Texas, where he is an instructor. Right now he has a leave of absence and will combine vacationing with work, making a few lecture engage- ments en route, presenting to the public for the first time, the official motion pictures and color screen studies of the recent stratosphere flight of the Explorer II which broke all altitude records.
While stationed at Omaha in
©National Geographic Society
A LANDING WITHOUT EVEN A BOUNCE
The gondola of the Explorer II just after it landed in a pasture south of White Lake, South Dakota, at 5:13 p. m., M. SL T., November 11, 1935. The gondola tipped on one side as it landed, and the load-ring to which the balloon ropes were attached is shown. In the foreground is the eighty-foot giant parachute designed to break the gondola's fall in case of disaster to the balloon.
WHEN GOD SPEAKS By Clara Home Park
God said to me on a quiet day, The day of my birth — "You're going away
On a visit to Earth, my son," He said.
With a kindly touch on my arm He led
Me through paths of flow'rs and blossom- ing trees.
"Drink your fill," He said, "and remember these:
The beauty and grace of all things we pass —
The roses, the lilies, the waving grass.
Go thou down to Earth; make gardens like this
For the sun to warm and the rain to kiss."
So now, in the hush of the quiet night, In the heat of the day or soft twilight, I look out upon the wonders I've wrought, For the earth at my bidding's a garden spot. My wearied back aches — my strength is
near gone— Yet something within me urges me on, For God said to me, on a quiet day: "Make a garden on Earth; now go thy
way."
1919, Captain Anderson married Miss Maude L. Miller. She has constantly encouraged him in all his achievements. During the recent stratosphere flight, she was at the "stratocamp" and talked with him by radio while he was in the air.
Throughout the summers of 1934 and 1935, a young representative from the National Geographic So- ciety, who went to Rapid City for all three flight attempts, came in fre- quent contact with Captain Ander- son. After the young man returned, he told the writer across a luncheon table that of all the men he had ever known, he thought Captain Ander- son one of the finest examples of what a man ought to be.
"He is diplomatic, yet firm. When he gives an order, he does it with a smile.
"But most of all," said my friend, "I think I admired Captain Ander- son for defending his religion when that subject arose."
There was a moment's silence.
"Yes," he said thoughtfully, "when I reach his age, I'd like to be as forceful, as courteous, as level- headed, and as genuine as Captain Anderson."
281
ANNIE WELLS CANNON
A mother of twelve children, ■**■ eleven of whom are still living, Annie Wells Cannon is admirably suited to write about the "Signifi- cance of Motherhood." In addition to this qualification, her long service with the Relief Society, beginning when she was fourteen years old and until the present time, makes her particularly interested in the respon- sibility which attaches to mothers. During the World War her ability was recognized with her appointment as the only woman state chairman for European Relief. Since the war, she has served as director on this committee, which has now turned its attention toward bettering conditions for children everywhere,
Annie Wells Cannon is the daugh- ter of Daniel H. Wells, a warm personal friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of Brigham Young. Her mother was Emmetine B. Wells, president of the Relief Society for many years. From her parents she inherited a home environment which makes her know the values of pa- rental influence on children.
From her keen interest in history, as evidenced from her having been the first president of the War Moth- ers and a charter member as well as a past president of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, she adequately searches through the annals of his- tory, and here presents exemplary mothers as patterns for present-day mothers.
The doctrine of the oneness of parenthood — the father and mother in the heavenly home as portrayed in the Mormon hymn "O My Father," brings a vivid pic- ture of the holiness of motherhood. Since the beginning of the world when Adam called his wife's name Eve, "because she is the mother of all living," the word mother has sounded through the ages as the 282
The significance
of
MOTHERHOOD
By ANNIE WELLS CANNON
Of the General Board of the National Woman's Relief Society
From the beginning of the world the word Mother has sounded through the ages as the most sacred emblem of womanhood.
most sacred emblem of womanhood. The burden placed upon Eve that she bear her children in travail and sorrow has been gladly borne by woman even though she pass into the shadow of death for the experi- ence of joy when her own little child is first placed in her arms. Then the soul is lifted to supreme heights in the selfless love of motherhood. The everlasting and divine significance of motherhood is epoch-making along the annals of time. History reveals outstanding names of women whose motherhood, no matter what the sacrifice — and sacrifice is sweet to mothers — has been crowned with fame immortal. Childless Sarah gave to Abraham, her bond-woman Hagar, that he might know the joy of fatherhood. Sarah's reward was a child of her own and through her son Isaac she became the "mother of nations and of kings of people."
Deborah came to the rescue of her nation, not in her name of queen, but in her majesty of mother, for she said, and these words are significant, "I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel." In that guise she rebuilt her nation. De- borah gave in that statement the thought that mother-influence is a greater motivating power than rank or station. To have power as a mother in Israel was no less true in Deborah's day than in all time even in these latter days.
It has always been true of the Hebrew women that they held moth- erhood above all honors. In ancient times the childless women grieved and mourned and sacrificed and like Hannah, mother of Samuel, would joyously have dedicated their sons to the Lord's service, even to their own loss, if their prayers might have been answered as Hannah's were.
So it is today, for every woman is a potential mother and the maternal instinct is inborn. For those women to whom the power to bear children is denied, compensation is vouch- safed in fostering unmothered little ones and bestowing on such as these their tender care.
Dre-eminent before the world stands Mary, mother of the Christ — -the incarnation of all the virtues of motherhood, to whom all women may well turn as the great exemplar; rejoice in her happiness, weep in her sorrow. Sweetly her story runs from first to last — from the manger, the adoration of the magi, to the crucifixion. Not the least en- trancing part is the humanness of it all, though she was divinely blessed.
Like any other mother she suffer- ed untold anxiety, when she thought her boy lost, as she journeyed back to Nazareth after attending the great festival of the Passover at Jerusalem. After searching among the company of friends and kins- folk, she returned to the city with fear for His safety, searched the labyrinth of narrow streets and by- ways, and found Him at last in the temple listening and propounding questions to the learned doctors. When Mary, like any natural mother, expressed a reproof for so distressing them, was she amazed at His answer: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's busi- ness?" Perhaps she was, but always in her heart she remembered His strange sayings.
Again how human was her moth- erly pride at the Jewish wedding feast at Cana in Galilee when she observed the scarcity of wine and whispered to her son of the embar-
rassment. She knew He could find a way, though she knew not how. Turning to the servants, she said, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." It was then she witnessed the miracle when water was turned to wine. Jesus did this for her sake, but it showed His power over the elements.
She must have known of His mar- velous works and followed His teachings though it is not written to any extent in the scriptures, only here and there a phrase, as when she with others sought Him when He was teaching the multitude and He was told, "Behold thy mother and thy brethren await you without." Not going, he strangely answered, "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and moth- er." With an understanding heart she must have felt then, that His work came before her.
What she endured during His persecution, trial, the road to Cal- vary, no mortal can comprehend, for even with all her knowledge He was her son and not spared the agony of death. The story of that mother- hood has furnished the most beauti- ful of all themes for the masters of art, music, and literature and is a glorious pattern of devotion for all women to ponder over and follow.
'J'he achievements of great men, according to their own testi- mony, are largely due to the inspira- tion and guidance of their mothers.
Among the Roman women was Cornelia, famed for her beauty, culture, wealth, and intellectual at- tainments. Though the wife of a Roman tribune who could command homage, when requested by a lady of Campania to show her jewels, she called her sons to her side and replied, "These are my jewels." This reply is said to be more often quoted, translated, and reflected upon than any other anecdote left us by the writers of antiquity. Cor- nelia was twelve times a mother but shortly after her widowhood was bereft of all her children except three, two sons and one daughter. To them she gave such care and devotion that she elicited the ad- miration of the world. Her mis- fortunes she bore bravely. Great as scholar and humanitarian, she is remembered today only for her motherhood. The statue erected in her honor reads: "Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi."
Many women are only known to the world because they are the mothers of great men, yet a study of the characteristics of these dis- tinguished sons, physical, mental, and moral, shows a strong likeness to the mother. It is written of Mary Washington that she was "deeply religious, industrious, courageous, and unyielding in purpose." How like the idolized George Washing- ton! Her discipline was firm but gentle. In reproof for disobedience or neglect of duty she would have her children repeat many times over
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
the commandment "Honor thy father and thy mother" and then explain its meaning and promise. This was her method to impress up- on their minds the dignity of moth- erhood. When Washington was elected president of the united col- onies he made a farewell visit to his mother to receive her blessing. Both were much affected by this parting but especially her son, who held her in his arms and wept. The bravest in war but tenderest in heart! Only a wonderful mother calls forth such devotion.
J^S with Mary Washington so it was with Nancy Hanks, mother of the great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. No two conditions of life could have been more different: one enjoying the ease and comfort of wealth, the other pioneering on the outskirts of civilization, struggling against poverty, ignorance, and ill health. The similarity lies in the truth that from each mother came the characteristics and training that gave greatness to their sons. Lin- coln's countenance of homely strength, with the strangely keen deep-set eyes, was like his mother. The fact that she had only nine short years' association with her son should impress on every mother's mind that in early life the strongest impressions are made. In these precious nine years she taught the boy to read. She inspired within him courage to overcome adversity and to suffer evil rather than commit a wrong. "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." These words of his, so often quoted, tell volumes of her mother-love and training.
Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the prophet Joseph Smith, like the mother of Lincoln, was a typical American pioneer woman, knowing poverty, hardship, and sorrow on a frontier border; like her, too, though their paths never crossed, a mother of a son, martyred for his righteousness.
'J'he name of Lucy Smith may not be found among the great women of secular literature, but among the Latter-day Saints her name is held in reverence. She is endeared among her people, not only because she was the mother of Joseph and Hyrum, the martyred prophet and patriarch, but for her own qualities of heart and soul. One who knew her well, in the Nauvoo days, wrote of her in these words, "Lucy Smith impressed
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THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
me as a woman of great power and force of character. She seemed en- dowed by nature with rare gifts of prophecy, healing. She was one who gave spiritual comfort and con- solation to the sorrowing and af- flicted." She gave to her son Jos- eph from the first, support and sympathy in his work. In her record of his life she gives a sweet word picture of their family life, describing the home evenings when father, mother, brothers, and sisters gathered around this inspired youth to listen while he described the ancient inhabitants of this continent.
Among the pioneer mothers of Mormondom perhaps no one passed through more trying ordeals and came forth "tried as gold in the furnace of fire seven times purified" than Mary Fielding Smith, wife of the martyred patriarch and mother of Joseph F. Smith, sixth president of the Church. President Smith could never speak of his mother without tears welling up in his eyes. He grieved that she could not have lived long enough to share some of the prosperity of his later years.
Mary Fielding was a refined, edu- cated young woman, who embraced the Gospel in England and came to America for her religion. She found herself among a driven and persecuted people. When her son Joseph was born, his father was con- fined under false charges in one of the meanest prisons in the state of Missouri. With the rest of the Saints this delicate and ill girl with her little son was driven from Mis- souri to Illinois.
Her fortitude and dignified bear- ing during all these trying days, even to the tragedy at Carthage, were a marvel to all who knew her. In the exodus from Nauvoo she drove her own yoke of oxen, bring- ing her little son, then eight years old, and other members of her fam- ily from these distressing scenes into another frontier. By her own in- dustry, perseverance, and sagacity she made a home. She taught her family the truths of the Gospel and loyalty to authority. Instilled in their hearts by her own example honesty, industry, frugality, and faith. Her name is handed down in the history of her people as one of the bravest heroines and devoted mothers in all Israel.
"My mother has been to me the guiding star throughout my "whole life" is the expression frequently made by President Heber J. Grant 284
when speaking of his mother — Rachel Ivins Grant. Her greatest gift to him was implanting a firm con- viction of the truth of the Gospel and obedience to its laws, both by teach- ing and example:
HHhe potency of the mother-in- fluence in guiding the destinies of children is clearly manifest as one reflects on the lives of these notable mothers. The fact is evident that the stewardship of the child de- termines largely its future life.
In this constantly changing world conditions of family life necessarily change, but no matter what the change may be the sacredness and holiness of motherhood is eternal, for the child is the gift eternal. The standards of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have not varied in regard to parenthood with any changing condition. The young people who marry in the house of the Lord for time and eternity are admonished to regard parenthood as a sacred rite and holy blessing, and to that end be mindful of their stewardship. The most valuable gift that can come to earth through man is children. That this gift may be, it is imperative that men and women live clean, pure lives, for the possibilities of heredity are inex- haustible. No people have higher standards in that regard than do the Latter-day Saints.
The problems that confront the modern mother are more difficult and complex than those of the great
PIONEER MOTHER
By Christie Lund
Tn spoken word, in marble beauty, we Pay tribute to you, Mother of the Plain, Madonna of the wilds. In memory Enshrined forever you will be — your pain, Your awful loneliness, your steadfast
strength, Though it should be the whole, wide world
in length, The hope that bade you follow where it led Though it should cost the vanquished and
the dead. O Noble woman! Faith has reached new
height, And courage lifts her head in loftier grace Since you have given the world the sacred
sight Of motherhood supreme o'er time and
space. Thank God for woman as divine as you Who caught a vision and then made it true!
mothers of the past. With increased opportunities there are also more al- lurements for young people with the automobile, the cinema, the resorts, and the dance halls. It is therefore well to heed and ponder over some of the facts presented in these nar- ratives, especially that one cannot begin too early to start life's train- ing.
There is no period in family life so much like Paradise as during the early years with little children. All the work, care, and attention en- tailed are nothing when weighed in the balance with the joy and delight- ful entertainment of watching their development and spontaneous hap- piness in everything around them. Children give grace and beauty to the home, for they are lovers of all the natural beauty of the earth. They love the flowers of the hills and fields, the songs of birds in orchards and forests, the ripple of the brook, the sparkle of the sands, and the white caps of the waves. To the watchful mother these things also bring happiness and afford oppor- tunity for many of life's sweetest lessons. This too is the most im- portant time for parents to guard their own conduct for children are great imitators and just as likely to pick up parental hypocrisies and faults as virtues.
Motherhood is not just an ideal as the painter places it on his canvas or the poet in her rhythm, but a sol- emn reality and a grave responsi- bility. If the mother according to her knowledge and wisdom has en- deavored to be neither too strict nor too lenient, neither too indulgent nor too parsimonious, but moderate and considerate, if she has taught both sons and daughters that righteous living is better than indulgence in unseemly conduct she at least may feel the comfort that her discipline was prompted for their welfare and in her judgment she tried to guide them aright. A mother's love is as unchangeable as the stars; even in the face of condemnation it endures when others fail. Every mother re- joices in the success of her children and sorrows in their misfortunes. The mother-love is the golden crown on the brow of woman whe- ther her realm be a palace on the heights, or a cabin in the wilderness.
"Mother! we have all known her, not all of us in the same person, but the same aureole frames each sep- arate face in the glory of its own divinity."
First latter-day saint
By E. CECIL McGAVIN
MOTHER
LUCY MACK SMITH
Superior traits of character were the legacy of Lucy Mack from her mother Lydia Gates and her father Solomon Mack. Lucy Mack Smith was one of the most valiant, uncomplaining, and stead- fast persons who assisted in laying the foundations of this latter-day work. "Mother Smith," as she was affectionately called by her many friends, had nerves of steel, yet was as sympathetic as a child.
To Joseph Smith and Lucy Mack ten children were born.
Mother Smith's first great sorrow was in the autumn of 1823, when their eldest son, Alvin, twenty-five years of age, died from an overdose of calomel. Her next great sorrow came in the autumn of 1840, when her husband passed away. A few moments before he died he said to his wife: "Mother, you are one of the most singular women in the world. You have brought up my children for me by the fireside, and, when I was gone from home, you comforted them. . . . We have of- ten wished that we might both die at the same time, but you must not desire to die when I do, for you must stay to comfort the children when I am gone." In August of 1841 Mother Smith's youngest son, Don Carlos, twenty-five years old, passed away.
After three years of comparative peace, the sad news of the martyr- dom of Joseph and Hyrum spread through Nauvoo, bringing grief and sorrow to their thousands of friends. Still the strong spirit of that little woman was unbroken. Within a month after the secret burial of the martyrs, another son, Samuel, thirty-six years old, died of a broken heart, occasioned, it is said by the assassination of his brothers.
During all of Mother Smith's afflictions, President B r i g h a m Young and the Twelve were solicit- ous of her welfare and always anx- ious to contribute to her comfort and happiness.
A notation in the Journal History for August 2, 1845, reads: "In the afternoon President Brigham Young
rode out in the new Church carriage with Brother Heber C. Kimball and the bishop to look at two blocks of Emma Smith's which she had agreed to sell the Trustees for $550. They selected Blocks 96 and 97 and then went to Mother Lucy Smith's and brought her in the carriage to choose which of the two blocks she would have deeded to herself and her daughters. She selected Block 96 and desired to have the Church build her a house like Brother Kimball's." Another reference reads : "Wed- nesday, October 8: The general conference was continued in Nau- voo. . . . Mother Lucy Smith, the aged and honored parent of Joseph Smith, was invited upon the stand. She spoke at considerable length. . . . She commenced by saying that she was truly glad that the Lord had let her see so large a congrega- tion. . . . She warned parents that they were accountable for their children's conduct; advised them to give them books and work to keep them from idleness; warned all to
be full of love, goodness, and kind- ness. . . . She wished to know of the congregation, whether they con- sidered her a mother in Israel — (up- on which President B. Young said: 'all who consider Mother Smith a mother in Israel, signify it by saying yes!' — One universal 'Yes' rang throughout.) ... I feel that the Lord will let Brother Brig- ham take the people away. Here, in this city, lie my dead; my husband and children; and if so be the rest of my children go with you, (and I would to God they may all go, ) they will not go without me; and if I go, I want my bones brought back in case I die away, and deposited with my husband and children."
When her family did not follow Brigham Young, Mother Smith con- tinued to reside in the Mansion House with her daughter-in-law, Emma Smith Bidamon. On May 5, 1 855, she fell asleep and was buried near her loved ones by the grand old river which had witnessed her many triumphs and tragedies.
285
N AND OUT
BOOKS
KEATS
WHITTIER
STEVENSON
tiEL.Ditr<j K.Smith--
All Hail Macbeth/ What an astonishing fellow he is. A gory murderer but how he liked to talk — and what talk:
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, Out, brief
candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
From the ruin of his brave life rose immortal words. They move with the stately smoothness of a minuet and flash unforgettable pic- tured comparisons. The poor player, how temporary he is, his creations dying with him. Cinema actor Valentino — well do I remember the fame of his little day! But how quickly he strutted to oblivion. Life is like that sometimes. From dust thou art to dust returnest. Dusty death. It's all there— in those two little words. What an opportunity in Shakespeare to hear men and women discourse, from Dame Quickly to Desdemona, from fish- like Caliban to Hamlet.
Poets do have powerful utterance. The old patriarch, Tennyson, for instance, took thirty-nine short words and did more with the eagle, for me, than thirty-nine millenniums had done: 286
By DR. N. A. PEDERSEN
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English, U. S. A. C.
"He clasps the crags with hooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands Ringed with the azure world he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls And like a thunderbolt he falls."
That bird could never be mewed up. One might as well try to put all outdoors into a cage. But poets speak like that. They just play with everything, seem to make it twice as nice as reality, but win acceptance. Why, Robinson Jeffers convinces one that pelicans are more interest- ing than nightingales until one reads John Keats' "Ode to the Nightin- gale," written on brown paper, per- haps, while he was selling headache powders in a London drug store. In both instances, perceptions, hereto- fore held adequate, are enlarged and intensified. This is the service of the poet to unseeing natural man. Jeffers' "tragic drum-roll beating anger" cann'ot be ignored. Like many of his other pieces, his recent poem "Solstice" is pretty grim. Read it. On coming to the latter part you will be lifted up by the power of the poetry as if Tennyson's eagle had seized you "with hooked hands."
When poets like Francis Thomp- son, George Herbert, John Donne, or Whittier start expatiating on faith, only a fool could disbelieve. And love! No one ever seriously loses faith in that, in spite of a few adolescent modern writers. But if ever accosted by doubts, read "The Sonnets of the Portuguese." They, alone, will make you feel ashamed. If not, add to them Browning's Ring and the Book and learn of the love of Pompilia and Caponsacchi and much else besides.
Sometimes poetry makes the head ache because it is composed on the principle of a maximum of thought in a minimum of words. Browning's occasional obscurity made at least one cultured Briton feel, on attempting to read him dur- ing convalescence from illness, that he was losing his mind. And Whit- tier burned a copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman when it first fell into his hands. I wonder if T. S. Eliot himself thoroughly un- derstands Waste Land, which is mere hodge-podge to some readers, and to others "finest contemporary expression of the plight of a gen- eration."
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
N. A. PEDERSEN
7V s student and teacher, and as a ** devoted lover of the written and spoken word, the author has spent many years gathering good things from the world's finer books. Dr. N. A. Pedersen, Dean oi the school of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English at the Utah State Agricul- tural College, received his A. B. de- gree from the University of Utah, his Master's degree from Harvard University and his Ph. D. from the University of California. Says Dr. Pedersen: "I believe a teacher's call- ing is a high one, and I have dedi- cated my life to it without reserve." With this ideal as guide, and with good books as traveling companions, Dr. Pedersen here takes his readers on a delightful journey "In and Out of Books."
SKETCHES BY
FIELDING K. SMITH
are Auslander and Hill. Eight years ago they wrote a book about poetry and poets called The Winged Horse which whets the appetite for a ride upon its back. So does A. E. Hous- man's The Name and Nature of Poetry. I always perk up when a poet speaks of poetry. Housman here tells, among other things, how poetry is made. With him the pro- cess is one of bodily exudation dis- tantly like that of the pearl's coming from the oyster, during which pro- cess the poet is continuously excited, the result being not so much thought as beauty. Just where does that conception place:
"Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime And departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time."
TThis is not to condemn the ballads and sonnets of Longfellow, be it understood. The Name and Nature of Poetry will lead you to try the lyrics of A Shropshire Lad on your
natural man, unlike literary men, wants its fruits without effort. Paul Elmer Moore, author of the Shel- burne Essays, read The Iliad and The Odyssey again and again dur- ing his summer vacations near the Atlantic. Samuel McChord Cro- thers used to read regularly, at Christmas time, Milton's "Ode to the Nativity." Once I heard Rich- ard Greene Moulton recite from memory "The Book of Job." George Herbert Palmer memorized eighty- seven Shakespearean sonnets during his freshman year at college. Such men are exemplary of a vigorous acceptance of poetry's challenge.
Do you know George Herbert Palmer's incomparable prose trans- lation of The Odyssey and his Life of Alice Freeman Palmer? Upon a plaque at the foot of the bell-tower in Reynolds Hall at the University of Chicago are these words:
"Joyfully to remember Alice Freeman Palmer, Dean of Women, these bells make music."
She was a great spirit, joyfully remembered, too, in her husband's biography of her. I think of Palmer and Crothers together as two stim- ulating moderns, both gone now, who pointed the way to rich living.
Often help is needed. Max Eastman's Enjoyment of Poetry is good headache powder. So are the studies of George Santayana, poet, critic, philosopher. Says he:
"The poet dips into the chaos that under- lies the shell of the world and brings up some superfluous image, some emotion dropped by the way, and re-attaches it to the present object; he reinstates things un- necessary; hfe emphasizes things ignored; he paints in again into the landscape the tints which intellect has allowed to fade from it. If he seems sometime to obscure the fact, it is only because he is restoring an experience. The first element which the intellect rejects in forming its ideas of things is the emotion which accompanies the per- ception; and this emotion is the first thing the poet restores. He stops at the image because he stops to enjoy."
See what poetry did, particularly Wordsworth's, in the reanimating of John Stuart Mills' heart and the restoring of his emotional happiness.
Santayana not only thinks well but he writes with beauty. I have never read The Life of Reason, his masterpiece, but I now vow to do so. Other helpers to poetic enthusiasm
fiCSMlTH"^
LONGFELLOW SHAKESPEARE
poetic flute. They play divinely ironic tunes that make life seem all the more precious. Permit a digres- sion. If you want more Shropshire visions read the novels of Mary Webb, Precious Bane, The Golden Arrow, and Gone to Earth. G. K. Chesterton has a preface to the sec- ond, worth a deal of thought. It may send you to Hardy for reading or re-reading to enable comparison with Webb and acceptance or re- jection of G. K. as a critic.
Poetry challenges the mind. The
The latter's "The Gentle Reader" and his other essays are not only delightful in themselves but open tracks to much other reading of de- light and profit.
Among essayists, David Henry Thoreau has long been one of my loves. He stimulates like a cold plunge and always sows the seed of thought. A half-hour's dip into Walden or A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers always brings the full cup. Examples will illustrate his quality. The old
287
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
brown-coated fisherman is thus memorably delineated:
"His fishing was not a sport, nor solely a means of subsistence, but a sort of solemn sacrament and withdrawal from the world, just as the aged read their Bibles."
Elsewhere Thoreau says:
"Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering. They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How would I have looked him in the face?"
One can appreciate the tradition that Thoreau worked his way through Harvard by writing themes for freshmen. He writes with sus- tained excellence. Macbeth and Henry IV have told us how blessed a thing is sleep; David Henry, how blessed to awake from it. He with- drew from the town to the woods in order to live deliberately. His es- says, recording this achievement, are a cool hand upon the brow of a confused and feverish age.
Carlyle says: "Do not be afraid of the man with the seeing eye!" Thoreau had it. So did Richard Jeffries, as "The Open Air" and "Life in the Fields," joyous essay- pictures of Southwestern England, attest. Observe:
"Southwards, the full moon, a red yellow disk, shone over the wheat, which appeared the finest pale amber. A quiver of color — an undulation — seemed to stay in the air, left from the heated day: The sunset hues and those of the red-tinted moon fell as it were into the remnant of day, and filled the wheat: They were poured into it, so that it grew in their colors. Still heavily the shadows deepened in the elms: All was silence, save for the sound of the reapers on the other side of the hedge, slash-rustle, slash-rustle, and the drowsy night came down as softly as an eyelid."
Were is more than meets the eye of the ordinary observer, more than the pleasure of mere recogni- tion. Here is the something beyond, which makes literature in whatever form, and which distinguishes such a writer as Sinclair Lewis, important as he is, from the great.
George Macaulay Trevelyan of Cambridge University is not without that quality. He writes history which all enjoy. Says he: "I can- not abandon the old idea of his- tory that was once popular in Eng- land, that the same book should make its appeal both to the general reader and the historical student." 288
"Blenheim" does just that. Men- tion is made of Trevelyan here be- cause I lately chanced to read an essay from his Clio, A Muse, on "Walking." Try it. It may stand you in good stead when your body and mind are out of gear and you have learned that the world was not created especially to make you happy. DeQuincey, calculated, says the writer, that Wordsworth walked one hundred eighty thousand Eng- lish miles, the result being happiness and poetry.
Ludwig's Bismarck, and into such revealing autobiographies as that of H. G. Wells.
Alfred N. Whitehead makes an important observation in Science and the Modern World, especially applicable to the reading of novel- ists and dramatists:
"When man ceases to wander, he will cease to ascend the scale of being. Physical wandering is still important, but greater still is the power of man's spiritual adventures — adventures of thought, adventures of pas- sionate feeling, adventures of aesthetic ex- perience."
TENNYSON
LAMB
It is easy to get on good terms with essay writers. They are frank, confidential, self-revealing, and con- sequently must have selves that are attractive. Montaigne, the inventor of the familiar essay, and Robert Louis Stevenson had just such per- sonalities, as did Charles Lamb, probably the prince of them all. Not to enjoy "Dream Children" and "Roast Pig" from "The Essays of Elia" is proof that you are not one of the elect, as not to enjoy Keats is proof that pure poetry is not for you. And to be unacquainted with "The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft" is stark personal deprivation. They contain Gissing's matured estimates of the classics he loved, as well as his calm reflections upon life. Ele- gantly and chastely written these essays have the repose of a Sabbath day and the serenity of The Medita- tions of Marcus Aurelius, another genuine expression, this time from the ancient world, of the "peace of a really triumphant soul."
Such books suggest a second branch of personality literature, the friendly letter. How delightful and revealing are those of the Carlyles, Dorothy Osborne, Cowper, Shelley, Fitzgerald. This branch divides again into biography that has flow- ered profusely from Plutarch's Lives to Strachey's Queen Victoria and
For twenty-five years, it is said, the poet William Ellery Leonard has confined himself to a self-imposed prison of six city blocks because of a strange fear of distance. Not many are so afflicted with geograph- ical phobia, but many are afraid of ascending the scale of being through mental traveling. They read little and then, stultifying as it is, only for confirmation of what they al- ready think and in order to experi- ence, in reading, the monotonous emotions of their own petty lives. Little is gained from such a narrow- ing process. The very purpose of epic, novel, and drama is to take us into uncharted seas, not to escape life but to escape spiritual death. Otherwise what tame Odysseys our life stories will be.
Hence we read Dostoievsky's Crime and Punishment not only for its Russian background but to ex- perience the tempestuous life of Raskolnikoff. What a harassed soul. How fully the author gives the mental and emotional reactions of the criminal to his crimes. This is a fine illustration of a completely developed character without blur.
Tt may be just as important to know figures like this one and Hurst- wood in Dreiser's Sister Carrie, an- other full-length portrait, as it is to
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
know Jean-Christophe, the com- pletely delineated artist of Romain Rolland's masterpiece, written to give joy and hope to the reader. Such knowledge helps us see life steadily and see it whole, a feat growing increasingly difficult. Books of this sort are adventures of the mind, travel pieces for the spirit, without which we cannot ascend the scale of being or understand the world in which we live and the times and conditions from which we are emerging.
Again, familiarity with Christian Wahnschaffe from The World's Il- lusion will alone take you into the heart of pre-war Europe resting, as Wassermann well knew, upon wretchedness and crime. Thomas Mann has now finished two volumes of his trilogy depicting New Testa- ment characters and scenes: Young Joseph and Joseph and His Brothers. To ignore them is to miss an oppor- tunity to understand an age that underlies our Christian civilization. Philosophical parts of these novels are difficult reading but the narrative is straight-forward and the charac- terization is superb.
Novels dealing with more homely material, if done by writers with the seeing eye, are also mental, emo-
thor, Cervantes, Laurie Magnus writes in his A History of European Literature:
"So the lean years went by, till, at last, at Valladolid, in the year 1603, and at the rate of a chapter or two a week, with but the stump of a left hand to hold down the leaves of his note book, this middle- aged, silver-bearded, weather-beaten sol- dier and collector wrote the first part of Don Quixote and made himself immortal — This hunting ground for scholars, this mo- saic of romantic antiquaries (referring to the chivalric romances) was transformed by the genius of Cervantes into the grandest story book for men and boys which has yet been composed."
How grand this book is and how clearly its message bears upon our own age of transition and recon- struction it were best to let the reader discover or re-discover for himself.
Drama, because of its brevity, is more difficult than the novel. The reader needs the help of the actor, yet in the private theatre of the imaginative brain the play is potent. When Joseph Wood Krutch, emi- nent American critic, first read Shaw's Man and Superman he ex- claimed with delight that he had no idea such writing was being done. It gave him a new point of view, a new attitude towards the problem of life. Shaw, Ibsen, Galsworthy,
THOREAU CHESTERTON
tional, and aesthetic travel mediums. Jane Austen deals with matters of homely detail through which sig- nificant characters are displayed. Recently I read two rather slight books, Carroll's As the Earth Turns and The White Gate by Deeping — slight, that is, compared with Jean Christophe, Henry Esmond, or Anna Karenina — yet each added unto me. Not great books, yet Odysseys on a small scale. Read them between times and then go back to Don Quixote, Of the au-
Gerhart Hauptmann, and O'Neill opened the closed windows of pre- conceived notions and sent a draft of air through. It is said now by an eminent critic that Clifford Odets is just setting out on a career which promises to be comparable to that of Ibsen. The reader in the first-line trenches will want to watch him. Discovering an author, be he poet or writer of prose, is one of life's kqenest delights, akin to that of Keats when he first read Chapman's Homer.
WORDSWORTH
A word about guides to reading. Book lists are many and often made by competent appraisers. One such is "One Hundred Best Books" published in the American Maga- zine. The author, Will Durant, reads omniverously and thinks well. His list is provocative. Another is "Good Reading," a guide for college students and adult readers, briefly describing about a thousand books, enjoyable to read and largely avail- able in inexpensive editions. The editing has been done by thirty-five professors of English, deans, and librarians, representing as many col- leges and universities. In pamphlet form it may be obtained for twenty cents from the National Council of Teachers of English, 211 West 68th Street, Chicago. Besides such helps, there are the various book-of-the month clubs, directed by competent critics. All these helps are excel- lent for those who need them. They are, however, external guides for readers who are unwilling or un- able to lead themselves. But all such made-to-order aids are hardly per- sonal enough for what is, after all, the most personal of human adven- tures.
The best guide is one's own spirit, which is occasionally seized with "immortal longings" that can be satisfied only by the particular book which speaks to a particular soul crisis. Sir Philip Sidney said, "Look into thine own soul and write." He might have said with equal force, "Look into thine own soul and read." The most stimulating essay it has been my pleasure to read, is that of the poet Virginia Moore, en- titled "Desultory Reading." Get the "Bookman" for December, 1930, and set your soul a-sail.
289
Introduction
The Latter-day Saints have ever been a singing people. Some of our greatest sermons and messages have come through the avenue of song. The Lord Himself acclaimed the power of music when, in July, 1 830, only three months after the Church was organized, He gave a revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, directed to Emma Smith, part of which reads as fol- lows:
"And it shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of sacred hymns, as it shall be given thee, which is pleasing unto me, to be had in my Church. For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you that this is my voice unto all."
Emma Smith selected the hymns, and two volumes were published — the first in 1835 with ninety selec- tions, the second in 1841 with three hundred forty selections. These hymns were for the most part those already in use; nevertheless, there were a number of talented hymnol- ogists in the Church at that time, notably W. W. Phelps and Parley P. Pratt, and Emma Smith's compi- lations contained many of their con- tributions. These early hymns ex- pounded the truths of the newly revealed Gospel and gave the songs of the Church their distinctive char- acteristics. A revised hymn book in general use for many years was published by Brigham Young in 1840. Twenty-five editions of this little volume were published.
Prior to the arrival in Salt Lake valley most of our songs were put to old tunes already used by the peo- ple and whose composers were not known; and even afterwards war tunes and love ditties were com- mandeered to fit the inspirational hymns.
No exclusive inspiration or honor is claimed by the Latter-day Saints for music and song; we are indebted to Isaac Watts, Charles and John Wesley, Dwight L. Moody, Henry F. Lyte, James Montgomery, Bishop Ken, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and others, for many hymns and songs that are in harmony with our faith.
Many of our favorite hymns were written under trying and sometimes tragic circumstances. They have cheered the Saints in time of trouble, 290
The story
OF OUR
Hymns
By GEORGE D. PYPER L (9 Tflu ^father, but Q>ltza [R. Si
mow
GEORGE D. PYPER
The hymns we sing, speak what we ace and what we believe. Faith and sorrow, hope and courage, trust and obedience, joy and thanks- giving— all are spoken from the heart in the songs men sing. George D. Pyper, Superintendent of the Deseret Sunday School Union, former man- ager of old Salt Lake Theater and one of the West's most beloved showmen, writes here as a member of the Church Music Committee in the first of a series that will tell, from month to month, the story of some of the hymns that are sung by the Latter-day Saints.
buoyed them up in their faith, and helped them to "stand firm under the pressure of life."
It is the purpose of the writer to tell the stories of some of these hymns, and inasmuch as May is the month in which "Mothers' Day" is celebrated and the third stanza of "O My Father" deals with a mother in heaven it is thought most appro- priate to begin the series with that hymn written by the poetess, Eliza R. Snow Smith.
Eliza Roxey Snow Smith
IUFany biographical stories of Eliza Roxey Snow Smith have been published. From thirty-five of these the factual data contained in this brief sketch are gleaned.
This remarkable woman, one of the most noted among the women of Mormondom, was born January 21, 1804, in Beckett, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. She was the second daughter of Oliver and Rosetta L. Pittibone Snow. Her grandfather was a revolutionary soldier. In 1 806 the family, consisting of the parents and two daughters, moved to Man- tua, Portage County, Ohio; there five other children were born.
Though Baptists, the Snows were friends to people of all denomina- tions, and their door was open to all of exemplary habits. The children were cultured and trained in all of the Christian virtues. Eliza was especially gifted as a writer of poetry. At the early age of twenty- two she gained considerable local fame by writing, at the request of a number of newspapers, a requiem for John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- son, both of whom passed away on the same day — the day of days to Americans — -July 4, 1826. Her poems brought her into close ac- quaintance with many notable schol- ars and theologians among whom were Alexander Campbell, organizer of the Campbellite church, and his fellow-worker, Sidney Rigdon, who later became associated with the Latter-day Saints.
Eliza's mother and sister, having joined the Church, she herself after a thorough investigation, became converted and was baptized April 5, 1 835. Late in the same year she left her home and moved to Kirtland where she taught a select school for girls, and for a while was gov-
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
erness in the Prophet's family. There her facile pen was kept busy. Under the inspired teaching of the Latter-day Prophet, she advanced in the knowledge and understanding of the Gospel and her whole life became devoted to its spread. Her poems now breathed the inspiration of the new-found truth, catching the glorified vision of her prophet- teacher.
Eliza's father, after his conver- sion, soon brought the mother, brothers and sisters to Kirtland. In 1836 they moved to Far West. From Far West the family moved to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, from which place they were driven and suffered the persecutions incident to those gloomy days. Back to Far West the family moved, then in 1839 to Quincy, Illinois, and next to La Harpe. Later the family settled in Commerce, afterwards named Nau- voo.
In Nauvoo, Eliza again taught school and wrote much. It was here that she wrote "O My Father," the hymn that has preserved her name among the great.
When the first Relief Society was organized, March 17, 1842, Eliza R. Snow was its secretary. On June 29, 1842, she was sealed to Joseph Smith for time and eternity in the celestial law of marriage. On June 27, 1844, the Prophet and his brother Hyrum were martyred.
Grief-stricken but undaunted, Eliza became more devoted than ever to her husband's cause. She was in the exodus of February 28,
1846, wrote comforting songs for the people, and drove an ox team part of the way to Winter Quarters. Her father and mother both died at Walnut Grove, Illinois. She began the pioneer journey in June, arriving in Salt Lake Valley in October
1847. There she was given a home by Brigham Young to whom she was married in 1849, and lived in the Lion House until the time of her death.
From the time of her arrival in Salt Lake Valley until the time of her demise the life of this gifted woman was a busy one. She had charge of the women's work in the Endowment House. In 1866 she was set apart to preside over the Relief Societies of the wards and stakes of Zion, and labored in that capacity for twenty-one years. On October 20, 1872, Eliza began a nine months' journey to the Holy Land, visiting Liverpool, London, Belgium, France,
Genoa, Venice, Rome, Naples, Corfu, Alexandria, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Athens, Constantinople, and Vien- na. This trip included a pilgrimage to the Mount of Olives where the land had been dedicated for the re- turn of the Jews.* In 1875 a volume
ELIZA R. SNOW
O MY FATHER
By Eliza R. Snow
Omy Father, Thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place! When shall I regain Thy presence,
And again behold Thy face? In Thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside; In my first primeval childhood Was I nurtured near Thy side?
For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth, And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth, Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here;" And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.
I had learned to call thee Father,
Through Thy spirit from on high; But until the Key of Knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why. In the heavens are . parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare! Truth is reason, Truth eternal,
Tells me I've a mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by, Father, Mother, May I meet you
In your royal courts on high? When, at length, when I've com' pleted
All you sent me forth to do. With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.
was published by her containing "Correspondence of Palestine Tour- ists."
After her return, Eliza, besides engaging in numerous other ac- tivities, assisted sister Aurelia Spen-
*At this date, May 3, 1936, there are reported to be three hundred thousand Jews in Palestine.
cer Rogers in organizing the first Primary Association. On July 17, 1880, she was set apart by Presi- dent John Taylor as President of the Relief Societies in all the world. Zina D. H. Young and Elizabeth Ann Whitney were her counselors and Sarah M. Kimball her secretary. Temple work at St. George fol- lowed. On July 17, 1882, the Des- eret Hospital was established with Eliza R. Snow as president.
In 1 856 her first volume of poems was published; twenty years later the second volume appeared. A hymn book and tune book she also published. First and Second Speakers, collections of poems and readings for Primary Associations, are credited to her genius.
On December 5, 1887, in her eighty-fourth year, death claimed this remarkable woman. Funeral services were held in the Assembly Hall and interment was in President Brigham Young's private cemetery.
"O My Father"
Q My Father/' by Eliza R. Snow, is considered one of the greatest of all Latter-day Saint hymns, be- cause of its unusual doctrinal con- tent, especially that contained in the third stanza. This remarkable verse projects a new thought into religious philosophy; namely, that we have a heavenly mother in the courts on high.
The hymn was written during a period of exciting conditions that finally had their tragic ending in the death of the Prophet and Patriarch. According to Orson F. Whitney, Eliza's marriage to the Prophet took place June 29, 1842. "O My Father" was written in 1 843. So the poetess wrote it while she was the Prophet's wife. She was also a governess in his family. This close companion- ship gave her abundant opportunity to discuss with the Prophet many great and important things "pertain- ing to the kingdom of God."
It was during this period that Zina D. Huntington (afterwards Zina D. Young) was grieved over an unusual circumstance. Her mother, who had died some time before, had been buried in a tem- porary grave and it became neces- sary to remove the body to a per- manent resting place. When the remains were exhumed it was dis- covered that they were partially petrified. It seemed to Zina as if the very foundation of the doctrine {Concluded on page 314)
291
The Coronation
On June 21, 1911, the eve of the coronation of King George V., I was seated in the Haymarket Theatre watching Sir Beerbohm Tree's performance of Henry VIII. A special feature had been introduced — a duplication of the scene which was to take place in Westminster Abbey in the morn- ing when King George and Queen Mary would be crowned. That night the royal monarchs were Henry and Anne Boleyn, with the magnificent Wolsey ( Sir Beerbohm ) officiating. But the coronation robes, the Golden Ampulla ( eagle ) for the consecrating oil, the golden anoint- ing spoon, and, as I recall, the actual St. Edward's crown and the royal sceptre, to be used on the morrow, had been graciously lent for this occasion. The Ampulla, crown, sceptre, and orb are kept behind iron bars in the Tower of London and, the night before a coronation, are brought to the Abbey and guarded in the Jerusalem chamber.
Seeing this Coronation scene be- fore the Grand procession of the morrow was like reading the last chapter of an interesting book first, but it whetted rather than dimin- ished interest. As we left the theatre, crowds were already lining up along the marching route.
By six in the morning, an incred- 292
The
GEORGE V TRILOGY
By RAMONA W. CANNON
President of the Relief Society in the British Mission
embroidery. One division wore caps made of jewels from which trailed bird of paradise aigrettes.
The Royal Pair themselves, richly robed and bejewelled, were regal indeed in their gilded state coach, drawn by eight matched white horses. Everywhere they were greeted with the wildest snouts of acclamation.
With time, details fade from memory, but one impression of that Coronation Day will always remain — the columns of marching horses — chestnut, bay, black, white horses, beautifully matched, and ridden in superb order. I had sat in the Brit- ish Museum looking long at the frieze of the ancient Parthenon. The stately rhythm of that proces- sion of marble horses, carved in bas relief, with upraised hoofs and curv- ing knees, had flooded me with a sense of perfect beauty. Now be- fore my eyes was such a scene with life breathed into it. There was the grace of movement of each spirited creature, the rhythm of sound as well as of motion, the three dimen- sional bodies, the shining coats, the flashing eyes.
ible flux of humanity was milling about, striving to hold places or to find better ones. It was remarkable how the policemen maintained dis- cipline and inspired confidence among the crowds. It seemed that wherever one looked, one could see a towering, blue-helmeted figure with a black chin strap. Always with the sight came a sense of com- fort. Cordons of policemen and of troops kept the crowds from break- ing through the lines of march. The behavior of both the people and the bobbies could come only from a na- tion in whom is intrinsic love of things well ordered and completely done.
I had an excellent view of the pro- cession. Each nation of the empire had contributed its best in art, beauty, and civilization, the flower of its military and court life, the most noble of its horseflesh. The stately rows of men and beasts filed by in kaleidoscopic splendor: scarlet and white uniforms, medals, and decora- tive orders! The amazing array of head-gear — hot, black bearskins; plumed and feathered helmets; cockades resting on powdered wigs of coachmen and footmen in livery; the dark sailor hats of the Yeoman of the Guard, with white flowers around the crowns, curious above the Elizabethan ruffs and scarlet- hooded capes. Jewelled turbans of silk swathed the heads of dark-skin- ned princes riding with dignity upon steeds that bore bridles and saddles encrusted with gems and
The Jubilee
A few months before the Jubilee, we came to London as mission- aries. It was interesting to watch the preparations for the sixth of May. Officials had decided that after all these smudgy centuries, London should have a clean face for this occasion. The upper pin- nacles of part of the facade of West- minster Abbey were duly scrubbed with a powerful preparation and then washed with skimmed milk for preservative purposes.
The Jubilee floodlighting trans- formed many parts of London. The gardens of St. James* Palace might
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 193
H. M. THE KING, GEORGE V, SURROUND- ED BY THE KNIGHTS OF THE BATH IN HENRY VII CHAPEL AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY, DURING THE CORONATION CERE- MONY, JUNE 22, 1911.
have been another wonder of the world, with their rock grottoes, their fountains, their blossoms with hues transformed by the illumination. The yellow lighting of the imposing buildings along the embankment and their reflection in the Thames under a golden moon gave to old London a new and charming air of romance.
Standards were erected and draped in the red, white, and blue Jubilee colors along the route of the procession. There was no end to the neon lighting and to the festoon- ed cellophane. The English love of flowers gave the most character- istic touch of all to the decorations. Nearly every window sill in London was made lovely with flower boxes. Many of these had been patterned patriotically in red, white, and blue blossoms. In all the embrasures of one large store in Oxford Street suddenly appeared dwarf evergreens and climbing rose trees, bearing masses of large pink blooms. The hard smoky walls were changed into a bower of loveliness.
For days before the Jubilee, the traffic jams were almost continuous and extended for miles. One could have walked across almost any street on the tops of tram cars and busses. One could think all the people in the world must have gathered for this event, and London seemed to be bursting, like a growing boy in last year's suit of clothes.
Hilarity was rampant. Hitherto the war tragedies, in which most families had suffered losses, had left their mark, and even holidays had been somewhat subdued. There was no trace of such a state of mind at the Jubilee.
Everyone was gay and expectant. People sat up all night, taking pro- visions with them, sleeping in win- dows, on the curbs, on beds of straw on the sidewalks, on plinths of mon- uments, on each other's shoulders. Cameramen were out snapping un- suspecting subjects for funny pic- tures.
Everywhere near the line of march the next morning people were crowded to the limit. Cordons of policemen held hands to make a bar- rier, as if playing ring around a rosy, and refused to let the outsider inside. We talked with a good- natured Irish bobby. I told him how wonderful the Coronation had been and how I had hoped to see the Jubilee.
"Did you want sadly to pass through?" he asked.
"Oh, very sadly," I answered.
He dropped his neighbor's hand and let us through, hurriedly closing up the barrier again. Gradually we worked our way near to the front. Troops on horseback held the front lines in place. When there was too much crowding, the horses gently backed their haunches against the pressing throngs, and that started a backward surge. With people standing so near these horses' hoofs, it was rather awful to think of the damage that might be done if one animal should shy. It was amazing how quietly they stood.
Many people were fainting, and were carried to shelters by the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. When they revived, they made their way back to their former place, which no one contested, so mannerly was the throng. Hawkers were selling "periscopes," small mirrors attached to long sticks. They sold at two shillings and sixpence, and could not possibly have cost more than six-
pence. They aided greatly in seeing the procession, if one was not in the very front.
The procession itself was much like the Coronation, only not nearly so long, and not quite so magnificent. It was, however, a wonderful sight. One of the Guards near the Palace fainted under his hot bearskin, just before the procession started. He seemed to make haste to recover in time to be on duty at the important moment, and the spectators cheered him wildly.
The celebration lasted all day. At night the floodlights were on, and people walked and laughed and joked everywhere. They danced on the streets as gayly as if London were Paris. There was a great bon- fire at Piccadilly, and spectators crowded around it. Everyone seemed happy and satisfied as mid- night came and the crowds grad- ually dispersed.
The King is Dead!
TsJine months later came the sud- den death of King George. The news was announced over the radio. Immediately people in moving-pic- ture houses and theatres filed out, silently, dispensing with the "God Save the King" music which invari- ably closes all entertainments in London. Overnight the mighty city went into mourning. Next day practically every man who appeared on the streets wore a black tie.
STREET SCENE DURING THE SILVER JUBILEE OF KING GEORGE AND QUEEN MARY, MAY 6, 1935.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
Windows were draped in purple, black, or both; flags were flying at half mast. On the streets people were selling black boutonnieres, or purple flowers in a black ribbon circlet. Mourning bands were seen on sleeves. "We mourn the loss of our beloved King" was printed on the front of shops. As easily as Lon- don had formerly shed her cloak of
A CANADIAN TRIBUTE TO GEORGE V
ONE OF the most unusual memorial services held in the British Em- pire was at Cardston, Canada, in the Alberta Stake Tabernacle on the 28th of January, 1936, at eleven a. m. In harmony with the occasion the wards in the Alberta, Taylor, and Leth' bridge Stakes of Zion held services in honor of King George V. Fully one thousand persons assembled with Mayor Joseph S. Low presiding. Ser- vices were participated in by Stake President Edward J. Wood for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Reverend Canon S. H. Mid- dleton representing the Anglican Church, and Reverend F. T. Hab- good, the United Church. On the stand were assembled all members of the Cardston Town Council, the Cardston School Board, the President of the Board of Trade, and President of the Rotary Club. Flanking each side of the stand was a Royal Ca- nadian Mounted Policeman in red tunic.
On the right of the speaker were the Boy Scouts of Troops Nos. 1, 2, and 3 of Cardston with their lead- ers, all in full uniform. On the left of the stand were a large number of full-blood Indian Girl Guides from St. Paul's Residential Indian School. Facing the stand were many Indian braves and their wives, some of them veterans of the World War, and a large number of World War veterans who had seen overseas service at the front, many of them carrying scars received in defense of their King.
Every creed and color of the dis- trict was represented. The massed choirs of the two Cardston Wards of the Mormon Church, St. Andrew's Anglican Church, St. Paul's Residen- tial School, and the United Church were under the direction of the veter- an leader, S. S. Newton, with W. G. C. Laidlaw at the organ.
In an impressive two minutes' si- lence, Scouts, Indian Girl Guides, and the other full-blood Indians, veterans, policemen, members of all churches and people of all colors silently paid homage to the memory of a King.
The closing hymn was "Abide With Me," a favorite of the late beloved King. The benediction by President Edward J. Wood was a prayer for unity and peace for the Empire and for the world.
This memorial service was one of the most colorful meetings yet held in the Alberta Stake Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
■ — Joseph Y. Card.
THE EARTHLY REMAINS OF KING GEORGE V LYING IN STATE.
gravity, she now shed her cloak of joy.
King George's body was taken to Westminster Hall for the lying- in-state. The necessary streets were cleared of traffic, and a queue two miles long, reaching down along the Thames to Vauxhall Bridge was formed, people standing nine or ten abreast. From the bridge it doubled back until it was five miles long. Hours and hours in the cold and the wind and the rain, people waited to file past the coffin of the King, and pay their last respects. Move- ment was slow. When a sudden gap occurred, there would be a short, swift run to keep in line. A long wait would ensue — and another five steps. Finally one arrived at the entrance of the historic hall where Charles I received his sentence of death. In two orderly rows, six deep, people were passing on the two sides of the catafalque. Part of the lights were turned up to show the old beams of the famous ceiling, and part of the lights were focused on the raised platform where rested the coffin. Gentlemen of the King's Bodyguard stood guard at the four corners, white trousers emerging from black Wellingtons; scarlet coats with white braid trimmings; and drooping over their bowed heads the heavy white tassels of their tall helmets. In white gaunt- lets their hands rested, one over the other, on their swords. These men were human statues — as motionless as the resting sovereign himself. At the base of the platform stood the Yeomen of the Guard, in their strange medieval costumes. They were equally still. One could not observe the flicker of a muscle. I saw them thus at the end of their half-hour duty. Then came the
changing of the guard in the same absolute silence. A fresh man step- ped beside each waiting form, who gave no sign of recognition, but with military precision marched noise- lessly to formation with his fellows.
At midnight on the eve of the funeral, the four sons of the King took their turn at guard duty beside their father's coffin.
Fewer stands had been erected for the funeral, and the crowds seemed even greater than at the Jubilee. People broke through the barriers in several places and could not be forced back. Such walls of people! Such mass crowding and pressing until the breath was almost squeezed from one's body!
The body of England's beloved King was brought from Sandring- ham and borne on a gun carriage from the station. The orb, sceptre, St. Edward's crown, and one wreath — the Queen's — rested on the draped coffin. Drums were draped and arms reversed. Under the gray skies and through the black draped streets of somber London came the slow procession to Chopin's funeral march. Then the fifes wailed out their melody. The gun carriage was drawn by two hundred "blue caps" or men of the navy.
The new King and his brothers walked with bowed heads behind their father's body. It was a long four mile march for the grief- stricken family and the foreign mon- archs and representatives, many of them aged. The Queen and women of the royal family rode in the glass coach of state drawn by liveried coachmen.
It was indeed a solemn and im- pressive sight to see the long cor- tege go by. One felt the genuine grief and love for the King who will go down in history, we are told, as George the Good.
294
MAY By Cora May Preble
May is a little blue-eyed lass Tiptoeing lightly over the grass! Burnished gold in her flying tresses, Sparkle of silver and sun on her dresses; A song on her lips like a maiden's prayer, Perfume of roses scenting the air; Sweet little May, like an elfin sprite, Trimming the orchard in pink and white; Tossing her golden daffodils, Sprinkling her roses over the hills. May is a little blue-eyed lass Tiptoeing lightly over the grass, Waving a wand of sapphire and gold — Watching myriad treasures unfold!
SACRAMENT MEETING By Katharine Warburton
Here tempered light and pulsing beauty of the organ-song Create in me an inward shrine Whereat my glowing heart may bend to Thee.
Still exaltation throbs
In the voice of a clean-browed young priest:
"O God, the Eternal Father . . ."
I tremble with the Sacrament
That I partake.
There is remembrance living in the years
Of a searing tree against a bitter sky
Of blood, a stinging jeer, and thorns;
"Father, forgive them . . . ,"
And gall pressed to the mouth
Of my dying brother.
A violin sobs and is still.
Father, we ask no carven likeness unto
Thee; Only the ancient wonders of Thy deep
peace; Only Thy sons speaking with measured
reverence Thine imperishable Truths.
Weekly though I pause empty-handed
Beside the still waters
I carry away in my cupped hands
And brimming soul
Fresh harvest of the Gospel's untouchable
glory; The cleansed wisdom of my yesterdays For the task of my tomorrows.
STAIRWAY By Lalia Mitchell Thornton
Your playing made a stair, Shining and white and high, Between the earth and sky — A shining glory there.
Step upon step, each note Was firm and strong and true, So well your fingers knew
Each chord the master wrote.
Earth vanished with its care, And my long seeking soul Reached up and touched its goal;
Your playing made a stair!
TO MY MOTHER By Harry Elmore Htird
'"Pwo beauties I shall sing, and only two — ■*■ When spring is making glad the green- ing hills — The Mayflower's pristine loveliness and
you. O, any flower-loving searcher thrills When he uplifts the lingering autumn leaves And finds arbutus bursting into flower. Much honor to the soil which thus con- ceives And bears the offspring of the sun and shower!
More glory to the one who gave me birth, — The incense of her love is the perfume Of flowered clusters pink against the earth: Her life is starry like the Mayflower's
bloom, Therefore I sing, when spring is on the air, A song of love and beauty . . . and none
other . . . My tune may falter, but my theme is fair, The finest melody on earth, my mother.
HEART'S DESIRE By Grace Zenor Pratt
"Cragments of beauty, thoughts like fall-
*- ing stars,
Jewels of crystal, amethyst, and jade:
Fleeting as shadows, sunbeams o'er a pool,
Elusive fabric of which dreams are made.
Quickly I gather gem by precious gem —
An April wind, an almond bough abloom,
A bird's low note, a baby's tangled curls —
And weave together on a magic loom;
Or sometimes, hastily on silver chain
I hang my wealth of shining precious
pearls — A sigh, a tear, a hush, a waking flame, Opals, and rubies, diamonds sparkling fire. I weave upon a golden thread of words — My heart's desire!
STEPPING-STONES By Carmen Malone
[" pause to lean upon my earthly hoe, ■*• To push my broad straw hat up from
my streaming brow And give the good south wind a chance to
blow A friendly wholesome greeting to it. I peer intently at each tidy row My two tanned hands have helped to
place upon the earth — There is no scene more satisfying — this I
know — Than my own garden as I view it.
I feel the throbbing pulse of fruitful land,
I sense the rhythmic beauty of the uni- verse—
I am a tool of nature — but I understand
Her gifts are heaven-sent.
A rich and bounteous harvest is my goal,
But stepping-stones toward it are made from moments when
I lean upon my hoe and drench my soul
In full and deep content.
REMORSE
By Elizabeth Fechser Hanson
A year ago friends dared me, for a lark To carve my name upon a tall tree
bark. To me the tree seemed as some stately bride, Sheltered by the rugged mountain side. It looked so proud and graceful growing
there, Basking in the canyon's fragrant air. With green leaves gently swaying in the
breeze It seemed to reign o'er all the other trees. And yet — I carved my name.
Some time ago those same friends challenged
me To take a trip, and see who'd find the tree. 'Twas I who found it ragged, torn, and
dead, Its barren branches shivering overhead. I hung my head with shame to know that I Was one, who caused a glorious tree to die.
And as I stood alone with head bowed low, A prayer went up to Him straight from
my_ heart. Forgive us, God, for then we did not know That we would thus destroy your work of
art.
DISTANCES By Clara Aiken Speer
A thousand light years distant, there are stars That pierce the velvet veil of night. Then why, If I seek them for guidance or delight, Are they quite near, and instant to my eye?
Because since first their orbits flamed in space, Before my earliest thought, before my birth, Aye, ere the racial form was struck from clay, Their light was flowing, flowing, toward the earth.
Beyond, aye, far beyond the farthest star Is one whose distance is infinity;
As far above my thoughts as stars above My fingertips is He, eternally.
But as the stars are near through light, so He
Is near, whose love infinity has spanned. I cannot reach Him, but He reaches me.
And holds my life within His gentle hand.
THE SOURCE OF POWER By Roger W. Haglund
Would you so live that life would hold Rich treasure, richer far than gold? Would you have strength to face the task And give what measure life may ask?
Then walk with Christ!
You'll find a power transcending every
need, A power that will bring you To the heights of thought and deed!
295
(bditonai
Ci y^aii to the U^rtestkood
A huge weaving machine stood idle, a useless assemblage of wheels and cogs, of spindles and shuttles. The driving power had been shut off. Later, when the motive power had been restored, every part of the loom was in harmonious action, producing a marvelous cloth, beautifully patterned.
The Priesthood of the Church may be subjected to a similar comparison. A passive Priesthood is useless; an active Priesthood has unlimited power; it may conquer the earth. Do men accept the Priesthood passively, as labels on empty bottles, or do they actively use their new power to promote the latter-day cause of the Lord?
The answer to this question is a measure of the condition of the Church itself. The authority that makes the Church possible, inheres in the Priest- hood; therefore, as the Priesthood is, so is the Church. To "put on the strength" of Zionis "to put on the authority of the Priesthood," said the Lord to the Church when it was young.
The Priesthood is a great brotherhood, the greatest on earth, dedicated to the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord with respect to His children on earth. Every Priesthood bearer is needed for this task. Every man who receives the Priesthood accepts the obligation to use his new power to help his brother as himself. Within the Priesthood the strong must serve the weak, so that all may more perfectly do their assigned tasks, and rise nearer to their divine destiny of joy.
The division of the Priesthood into quorums of moderate size lends itself perfectly to the spirit of brotherhood and mutual helpfulness. The con- dition and needs of every quorum member may be known through the labors of the Personal Welfare Committee which should function actively in every quorum of the Melchizedek Priesthood.
In these trying days, when many families, through no fault of their own, are in want, the Priesthood quorums should earnestly inform them- selves concerning the needs of their members, and set about to provide the necessary assistance. Every quorum should take a pride in the welfare of its members. Within every quorum there is power to care for many of its unemployed and suffering members. This may be accomplished by direct and indirect means, discoverable in each locality. Should the Priesthood rise in the majesty of its divinely conferred power, distress among quorum members would soon be eradicated.
Moreover, though the Priesthood is divided into quorums, it is really one great brotherhood. There- fore, prosperous quorums that need no help are under obligation to give assistance to quorums in distress. By such united action, abundant relief for all may be secured, and the blessings won by sacrifice may be enjoyed by all.
The call has come from the President of the Church, who is the President of the Priesthood, to bring the quorums of the Priesthood into action as
never before. The day calls for help. Let the Personal Welfare Committees proceed, in season and out of season, to seek out the needs of their quorum brethren; then the quorums should bestir themselves to give the needed help. There must be no delay. "He gives twice who gives quickly."
The eyes of the world as of the Lord are upon us. "The number of your converts does not interest me" said a world-famous man who was examining "Mormonism," "but I should like to know how many of your converts remain true to the faith and are active members after conversion." That is the challenge! We must prove that the Gospel may meet the issues of this or any other day; and we must do so in the faith and power and dignity of the eternal Priesthood of God. — /. A. W.
dkelTl
0'
eantng
ofW<
onor
\ne of the earliest chronicled codes of conduct given of the Lord for the guidance of men fixes the injunction to "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Sacred writ definitely invokes it; secular history testifies of it; the laws of men and nations take legal note of it; and the wis- dom and experience of the ages prove its necessity. But the meaning of that word "honor" has been so conveniently interpreted and so variously observed that brief and specific comment upon some of the elements that go into its real meaning may not be unprofitable.
No doubt the tributes we pay mothers on Moth- er's Day is part of the honor due them. To set aside one day in each year for especial recognition, with tangible gifts, family gatherings, and public ceremonies, is a much appreciated form of honor. Certainly neglecting mother on Mother's Day is not to be tolerated. But many mothers, both those who are remembered on Mother's Day and those who are not, are not being honored as they could and should be honored.
Any able son or daughter who fails to sacrifice his own comfort and convenience in the sharing of his shelter and his means as his mother's comfort requires, is failing to that extent, to heed the com- mandment to honor mothers.
Any son who departs from the righteous teach- ings of a righteous mother, is, to the extent of his departure, failing to honor his mother. Any daughter who compromises any principle or ideal of life for the sake of any apparent social ad- vantage, is, to the extent of her compromise, dis- honoring her mother.
Any child who seeks to reach any goal by any unworthy short cut, even though he may seem at the moment to be successful, is to that extent, dishonoring his mother.
No son or daughter who takes into his body — the body that his mother gave him clean and un- blemished— those things which are forbidden by the Lord's law of health, is honoring his mother.
296
No son who dishonors any other man or woman is honoring his mother.
Any son who fails to observe with devotion any principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is to the extent of his failure, not honoring his mother.
No Latter-day Saint who departs in any par- ticular from the truth for which his parents and grandparents have sacrificed, the ideals they have cherished, or the virtues they have guarded, is an honor to his mother, no matter how much personal affection he may show her and no matter how much devotion he may profess.
And while mothers appreciate declarations of love, gifts of flowers, thoughtful attention, and other evidences of regard and affection — and no mother should be denied these outward displays of devotion — no true mother ever lived who would not rather have her son grow to useful manhood, loving integrity, cherishing truth, and living in righteousness, than she would have all of the dem- onstrative, once-a-year evidences of affection that could be heaped upon her.
Honor is an intangible thing — conspicuous in its absence, and treasured more than riches and per- sonal convenience where it is treasured at all. The meaning of honor, the very sum and substance and essence of honor, is the living of a worthy life and the winning of the approbation of the Lord. Any mother who contributes to the building of such a life in any child of hers is honored as only the world's most blessed mothers are honored.
To honor his mother with the greatest of all honor a Latter-day Saint must realize his greatest usefulness in life, must render the highest service of which he is capable, must cherish truth, must love virtue, must esteem character, must uphold on all occasions the highest ideals and principles of which man has any knowledge, must hate evil with an uncompromising hatred, and must love the Gospel and the things it represents more than self.
Life's richest blessings await the sons and the daughters and the mothers who honor each other before men and before the Lord. — R, L. E.
Ct it tore 1 1 Lttitant 1 1 iothemooa
"1VT°THER IN ^SRAEL" nas been an honored title from the time when "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, . . . judged Israel." It has been a revered one, chiefly because it has denoted responsibility.
The world has progressed to so great an extent that it is a very poor mother indeed who cannot care for the physical needs of her i children much better than her grandmother cared for hers. With wise concern, we mothers pore over volumes telling of the latest work in science concerning the calories and the kinds of vitamines our children need. Carefully we decide what clothing they should wear. Yet when it comes to a consideration of what should be done for their mental and spiritual welfare, we have too often been neglectful.
We are told constantly to urge our children to express themselves; to see that they are not in-
hibited; to allow them to do whatever they wish to do. The permission to allow children to do as they please indicates a poor conception of motherhood. The right understanding is to see that they desire to do what it is right for them to do.
We can easily teach children to cleanse their bodies; we need to teach them to keep their souls "unspotted from the world." Even as we are happy when we can see our children externally clean, we shall be doubly blessed when we learn that they have followed after our teachings and have kept their spirits clean.
Cowper said: "The mother's heart is the child's school-room." If that is true, we should do well to assume a more teacherly attitude. We should encourage our children in the constant reading of better books than those they are reading. We should take the time to read to them from the best books. In order to emphasize further the lessons to be gained from literature and religion, we might suggest that the boys and girls dramatize that which we have read. We should discuss vital problems with them at frequent intervals and an- ticipate emotional situations before they arise.
No mother wishes to tie her children to her apron-strings; she desires to make them inde- pendent. By giving them sound principles on which to work, we can be fairly sure of their actions. When they are young, we should give our reasons for asking them to do certain things. As they grow, we can permit them to reason for themselves as to what their actions should be. Solomon said:
"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Often we mothers are guilty of voting into being those things which tend to destroy youth, not only of our own families but of our friends and asso- ciates. The repeal of prohibition placed tempta- tion in the way of young people. And prohibition could not have been repealed if mothers had not voted for that repeal. Often we are careless and allow conditions to exist which create false stan- dards among children. The gambling devices which seem to be flooding many communities at the present time evidence the fact that we are not alert to our opportunities as mothers in the neigh- borhood.
If we Latter-day Saint mothers would only live and teach our children to live the principles of the Gospel, we could loose a force militant enough to revolutionize the world. If all mothers the world over would unite in righteousness they could be a great force in the shaping of current history for the good of mankind.
We should realize that our children are in reality God's. Much as we are concerned with their doing of right, He is doubly concerned with their choice of the good. As mothers in Israel we should pray constantly that He will endow us with wisdom and courage in directing our children's activities. By our prayers we permit His entering to help in the molding of their lives. If we do so, we shall re- ceive inspiration, encouragement, and aid which will carry us through our lives joyfully — and will make us become more fully worthy of having a Mother's Day set apart for us. — M. C. /.
297
octave f. ursenbach
New Head of the French Mission Chosen
■puDER Octave F. Ursenbach was *"-* appointed December 23, 1935, as president of the French mission to suc- ceed Daniel J. Lang, who left Paris, February 4, to sail through the Suez Canal to the Orient, thence to Hawaii, and home via San Francisco. Presi- dent Ursenbach has been in the French mission about one year, laboring largely in Switzerland among people of his own nationality. The French mission now includes France, Belgium, and the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
This mission is growing in strength. Since May 1, 1935, thirty-two converts have been made; four branches have been reopened at Grenoble, Lyons, Orleans, and Besancon; tens of thou- sands of tracts, books, and pamphlets have been distributed; and thousands of people have heard the gospel mes- sage. This information has been com- municated by Max Wheelwright, sec- retary of publicity and advertising for the mission.
Santa Clara Ward — St George Stake
On Sunday, February 9, 1936, Henry Graf was sustained as Bishop of Santa Clara Ward.
Veyo Ward — St. George Stake
Andrew N. Seits was sustained as Bishop of Veyo Ward on Sunday, February 9, 1936.
Barnwell Ward — Lethbridge Stake
This Ward was reorganized on Sun- day, Feb. 9, 1936, with William Gilbert Pierson as Bishop.
Diamond Ward — Lethbridge Stake
Armond W. Sabey was sustained as Bishop of Diamond Ward on Sunday, Feb. 9, 1936.
298
Mapleton Ward— Franklin Stake
On Sunday, Feb. 16, 1936, Guy All- red was sustained as Bishop of Maple- ton Ward.
Cannon Ward — Pioneer Stake
Edward H. Sorenson was sustained as Bishop of Cannon Ward on Sunday, Feb. 23, 1936.
Utah's Oldest Pioneer of 1847 Dies
"\17hen on January 20, 1936, Robert "" Sweeton died, one more link be- tween the band of intrepid Pioneers who braved the hardships of the long
foim-On
westward trek under Brigham Young was broken. Mr. Sweeton was born December 14, 1840, in Kent County, Canada, a son of George and Mary Gardner Sweeton. When he was six years of age, he moved with his mother and stepfather to Nauvoo, Illinois. From there they traveled across the plains, arriving in Salt Lake valley October 1, 1847. In 1859, he moved to Mendon, Cache valley, with the first group to settle there.
All during his life, Mr. Sweeton has been active both religiously and politic- ally, trying to make his community a better place in which to live.
MISSIONARIES LEAVING FOR THE FIELD FROM THE L. D. S.
MISSION HOME
ARRIVED JANUARY 27 AND LEFT FEBRUARY 6
First row, left to right: Elva Preator, Edith Allred, Eva Thorup, Josephine Scott, Velda Baird, Lyona Anderson, Helen Harrop, Mary Parker, Mary Cannon.
Second row right to left: C. Chambers, J. E. James, R. Soelberg, Max G. Capener, President J. H. Taylor, Sister Taylor, John B. Hoge, C. Perry. Roy E. Harris, H. C. Teeples.
Third row, left to right: Levi P. Blatter, Z. T. Champlin, K. S. Corbett, Orson Daines, Leland Huntsman, Wm. B. Thompson Early L. Bingham, Dale Wilson, Glen Garfield.
Fourth row, right to left: Reed Bichmore, Noel C. Devey, Cleon Harris, Eugene Bohne, Lawrence Roberts, W. H. Burgener, Victor K. Boss, Duane H. Hansen, Donald P. Fowler, Leonard Moffatt.
Fifth row, left to right: Lorane 0. Kingsford, E. Leon Mather, Kenneth Hacking, Edward Penman, George C. Henry, Lynn Toolson, Robert Wamsley, Roy McKinnon.
Sixth row, right to left: Edward Larson. Jr., Andrew L. Larsen, John LaThare Hale, Frank R. Slight, Rodney Richenback, Jay W. Oldroyd, Howard Joseph, H. A. Harmon, H. H. Roylance, Frank Duncan.
Seventh row, left to right: Dean White, Eldon Hobbs, Noel Condie, Phillip Moon, Ronald Snarr, Christian Drayer, Hyrum Schneider, Glenn Burdett, H D. Jensen.
Eighth row, right to left: Glen H. Lybbert, LaVor Jensen, Frank Hawkins, Donald P. Seegmiiler, Gordon P. Anderson, Harold D. Taylor, Karl Smith, Archie Parker, Howard Francis, Elmo W. Orr.
Ninth row, left to right: Chas. G. Snow, Lynn Hanson, Harold K. Rowberg, Alden B. Staker, L. G. Dowdijg, Carl R. Cooper, Myron L. Hillstrom, Frank C. Hatch, John B. Cahoon.
Tenth row, right to left: Byard D. Wood, Erwin Winsor, Jay W. Marchant, Cecil C. Naegle.
ARRIVED FEBRUARY 10 AND LEFT FEBRUARY 20, 1936
First row. left to right: Lester Oleen Anderson, Carl S. Coombs, Oswald A. Byrne, Gladys Heder, Gertrude Beth Laxman, Erma Viola Simmons, George T. Thompson, Joseph P. Lambert.
Second row, right to left: William Arthur Lee, Jerald Arthur Anderson, President John H. Taylor, Sister Rachel G. Taylor, Norman Hymas Roberts, Heber Arnold Tippetts, Jay Rosson Holbrook.
Third row, left to right: Bud. D. Evans, Russell Beard, Hyrum Sheridan Cragun, Alvin Gray, Val Dean Stewart, Esbee Orin Myler.Wilmer Val Kone, William Boice Carr.
Fourth row, right to left: Joseph Nalder Revill, Eugene C. Blackham, Frank 0. Nielsen, Carlos Bernell Watkins, William Byron Hawkins, Arthur LaThair Pederson, Mirle Riley Fisher.
Fifth row, left to right: Carl H. Wilcken, Chester Cheney, Marian Eugene Tippetts, William Smith Reeve, Merlin Albert Whitby, Glenn Otto Anderson, Harold Morgan Rex, Robert S. Jensen, Ray Hurd Dixon. Photos Courtesy Acme Photo Company.
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
The Manti Temple
The Manti Temple was re-opened on March 2, 1936, after having under- gone many needed improvements. An addition to the annex provides a large room for the recorders, a private office and a reception room for the president and also a private office for the chief recorder.
President Claw son's Trip
On March 4, 1936, Pres. Rudger Clawson returned from a seventeen day tour of the California Mission. He reported visiting eleven districts and forty-two branches.
Mt. Pleasant Anniversary
Mt. Pleasant, Utah, celebrated the 77th anniversary of its settlement on Friday, March 6, 1936.
College Ward, Logan Stake
The College Ward, Logan Stake, was divided and the Young Ward or- ganized on March 8, 1936, with Allen Olsen as bishop.
Cokeville Ward
The Cokeville Branch was organized as a ward on March 8, 1936, with Sharon Reed Dayton as bishop.
National Boy Scottter's Conference
President Heber J. Grant and Elder ■George Albert Smith attended on March 15, 1936, the National Boy Scouter's Conference held at French Lick Springs, Indiana.
French Mission Moved
The Headquarters of the French Mission were moved from Paris to 65 Rue de Campine, Leige, Belgium.
Pioneer Dies
Elijah N. Freeman, a pioneer of Utah in 1847, died March 14, 1936.
Laramie, Wyoming.
On Sunday, March 29, 1936, Pres- ident Heber J. Grant dedicated the L. D. S. Institute at Laramie, Wyo- ming.
Portraits Hung
The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Jos- eph H. Ridges were hung in the State Capitol Monday, March 30, 1936. Elder Ridges was the builder of the famous Tabernacle Organ.
Argentine Mission
The Argentine Mission has changed its headquarters to Calle Madro 749 (Villa Versailles) Buenos Aires, Ar- gentine.
New Czecho-Slovakian Mission President
ThLder Wallace F. Toronto was ■ appointed on March 11, 1936, pres- ident of the Czecho-Slovakian Mission to succeed Elder Arthur Gaeth. Elder Toronto has previously served in this
mission, being one of the first Elders appointed to that country when the mission was first opened, July 24, 1929, and serving there until December, 1931. Mrs. Toronto and their daughter ac- companied him when he left April 15. Elder Toronto is a graduate of the Latter-day Saints College and the Uni- versity of Utah.
WALLACE F. TORONTO
volumes for the use of the sightless. One hundred and fifty sets have been ordered from the American Printing Society for the Blind at Louisville, Kentucky. The purpose is to place a copy in each of the large libraries of the United States and one in each of the missions. The committee of the Society for the Aid for the Sightless consists of George Albert Smith, pres- ident; S. O. Bennion, vice-president; John Wells, secretary-treasurer; Ne- phi L. Morris, Harrison R. Merrill, and Melvin Ridges, directors.
One Hundred-Sixth Annual
Conference
HPhe one hundred sixth annual con- ference of the Church occurred April 4, 5, 6. Each meeting was well attended and Saints from many sections of the Church were edified by the addresses. The music was furnished by the Tabernacle Choir, under the direction of J. Spencer Cornwall, the Hyrum Stake Choir led by William H. Terry, and the Singing Mothers as- sisted by the P. T. A. Chorus, directed by Charlotte O. Sackett; Frank W. Asper presided at the organ.
Assistant Choir Director Chosen Mrs. a> w# Ivins Passes Qn
[~"\ Sterling Wheelwright was ap- pointed assistant Tabernacle choir director and field manager of the church music committee, on March 26, 1936. Mr. Wheelwright holds a degree in music and has studied with eminent teachers in the eastern part of the United States. At the present time he is studying and teaching music in Chi- cago.
Born at Ogden, Utah, he early be- came active as a conductor of choruses and as an editor of a musical publica- tion. At the present time he is man- aging editor of the Educational Music Magazine which is published in Chi- cago, Illinois.
He will assume his new duties when he returns to Salt Lake City this month.
Samoan Mission Head Chosen
■\17illiam M. Waddoups, president of the Hawaiian temple from its dedication November 27, 1919 until the present time, was appointed on March 25, 1936, to head the Samoan mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to succeed Elder William G. Sears. Ralph E. Woolley has been appointed as president of the Hawaiian temple temporarily.
Book of Mormon in Braille
Added to the great number of lan- ** guages into which the Book of Mormon has been published, is the new Braille publication of the book in seven
IV^rs. Elizabeth Ashby Snow Ivins, -LVA 81, widow of Anthony W. Ivins, late first counselor to President Heber J. Grant, died March 21, 1936, at her home, 519 B Street. Her devotion to her husband and her children has long been known by the members of the Church. While a resident of St. George, she was president of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association, and while in Old Mexico, she served as president of the Relief Society for several years.
She was the mother of nine children, eight of whom survive her. Her eldest son is Antoine R. Ivins, one of the presidents of the First Council of the Seventy.
President Clark Named to Post
"Dres. J. Reuben Clark, Jr., has been appointed on an international Com- mission of Experts of seven members for the codification of international law for the Western Hemisphere. Presi- dent Clark represents the Common Law system of jurisprudence on this Com- mission. His appointment was an- nounced April 17. President Clark was a delegate of the United States to the Seventh International Conference of American States which met in Monte- video, Uruguay, December 4-26, 1934. The Report of the United States Dele- gates states that the setting up of this Commission is under a Conference Resolution "which was developed from a proposal made by Mr. Clark of our Delegation."
299
Mother's day— reunion— gifts — children who come — and go and an
Understanding
mother
By VERA HINCKLEY MAYHEW
MOTHER
T
.he first rosy stream- ers of light were streaking the east- ern sky, when Mother softly opened the front door and stepped out onto the tiny rose-trellised porch. She stopped a moment to breathe deeply of the warm spring air before she went into the garden.
Her heart sang with joy. It was going to be a lovely day. Even na- ture was putting on her best clothes to make Mother's Day perfect. She walked lovingly through the gar- dens to the east fence where the daffodils bloomed in golden pro- fusion.
Her blue eyes were shining as she stooped to break off the great yellow flowers, for everybody knows that daffodils should be picked in the cool of the dawn to be at their love- liest to grace a perfect dinner table. Dinner today must be perfect, be- cause the children were all coming to be with her on her day. Not once since John had gone away to study medicine had they all been home together. Her eyes softened as she thought of her darlings to- gether at her table again. They had planned to surprise her, but one by one they had wondered if a surprise wouldn't be hard on mother. So five letters were hidden away in her bureau drawer. Each one suggested that since they had planned to sur- prise her it might be just as well if she didn't let the others know that this one had written. Dear children, they had not wanted the pleasure of the others in the surprise marred, but they had each wanted Mother to be prepared for them. 300
And how she had prepared. Every inch of her little home shone with the scrubbing she had given it, and cupboards and shelves bulged with the good things she had cooked.
Her arms filled with the bright blooms, she turned back toward the house. But no matter how much her mind told her she must hurry she never could go in without glanc- ing over her garden. A little sigh escaped her for the flowers and bulbs she couldn't afford.
She had felt that way about the children. The things she had to do without for them had caused an actual ache in Mother's heart. It had been especially hard to see Jarvis, her baby son, struggle for the things she wanted to give him. Her face was all joyous tenderness as she gently twisted the ring he had given her around and around on her finger. It was his class ring; the one high school boys reserve for the best beloved. She remembered his telling her, "You're my best girl, see!" The thought of Jarvis and the money he would still need to finish his medical training kept her from caring too much about the flowers.
When she entered the house again she could hear Father stirring. Milk trucks came as early on Sunday as any other morning. It was hard on Father that none of the boys had taken to the farm. He sometimes grumbled a bit at the selfishness of youth, but she knew he would not have it otherwise. They had both believed in letting the young ones have their own choice in matters concerning them- selves. Though Father blustered, he didn't mean all he said.
"What you get up at this un- earthly hour for, Mother, I can't see. You don't have cows to milk.
When you have a 'passel' of little fellows you look forward to the time when they'll be the ones to get up in the dark to milk. Then soon as ever they're big enough they're off about their own affairs."
"Why don't you get the Thomp- son boy to milk for you? He'd be glad enough of a little spare change, and you could stay in bed a while longer of a morning. Seems as though you'd earned it."
Even as she asked the question she knew the answer. The spare change that would be welcome to the Thompson boy would be just as welcome to Jarvis for another year or two. She smiled to herself and loved him the more for his gruff answer: "Oh, kids nowdays don't know how to make a critter give down her milk." He wouldn't put the blame on Jarvis any more than she would.
The morning sped by on wings. Mother brushed through the house again to make sure there wasn't a speck anywhere. Father did the milking, ate his breakfast, and went off to Church. "Aren't you com- ing?" he asked as he prepared to leave the house.
"I thought since it's Mother's Day I'd just stay at home and write each of the children a letter. Seems like I never get time on a week day." If she didn't give her real reason he could be surprised at the home com- ing.
"Looks like they ought to be the ones to write the letters, but have it your way. Say, here's a little present I got you for Mother's Day. Hope you like it." A bit self-con- sciously he put a parcel into her hands.
It felt like a book. Maybe it was that new poetry anthology. She didn't often have time to read, but she loved to pick up a poem occa-
THE IMPROVEMENT ERA, MAY, 1936
sionally, and many were the verses she carried in her heart to make the churning and baking hours more pleasant.
Her fingers fumbled at the string but at last it was open. A Bible dictionary and handy reference com- pendium. Her heart fell. She wasn't one to study the Bible much. Some of the lovely stories and the psalms were a part of her life, but to look up references to prove a point — well — Mother just didn't take her religion that way. She knew it was just what Father wanted and that he would spend many happy hours with it. so she smiled sweetly and gave him a wifely kiss as she hurried him on his way to Church.
She went into the dining room and began to set the table. As she placed the bowl of flowers on the table she heard a car drive up. It was John, her eldest, and his wife, Eve. How handsome he looked as he came swinging up the path. The children were all tall like Father, except Lorna, the baby, and she was tiny as Mother. Tom had said when he was courting her that she had the tiniest hands in the world. "Except Mother's," Jarvis had al- ways added.
/\s John caught sight of Mother he quickened his steps and reached the path as she did. He gathered her into his arms with a mighty hug.
"I can hardly believe you're here," she murmured against his breast.
"You bet I'm here. If half of Mount Oaks gets sick while I'm here they'll just have to get well again. This is one day I'm coming home."
"He was expecting quite an im- portant call and I didn't think we should come," Eve broke in. "But he said the hospital could handle it and here we are."
Eve was a small person as dark as Mother's crowd was fair. Mother didn't feel that she knew Eve very well. Eve handed a large frilly package to Mother. Once again Mother's eyes were starry. She did so love to get presents. Candy a whole five pounds of itl Only Dr. Stephens had banned sweets. She pretended gracefully and placed the large box conspicuously on the buffet.
She was just showing Eve into the tiny bedroom to remove her wraps when she heard voices on the porch. This time the shrill call of
a child, "Grammaw, surprise!" told her that it was Geraldine and Max with Bobby. As she opened the door Bobby all but pushed her over in his exuberance.
"Aren't you surprised, Gram- maw?"
"Surprised as ever I can be and gladder than I can tell you," she said.
"Has Daisy any more calves?"
"Just last week. She seems to time her babies to your visits pretty well."
"Whoops, I'm going out right now!" Flying feet and banging doors — .
"Mercy, it seems good to get where that child has room to take a jump without knocking down the plaster on the apartment below," Geraldine said as she took off her hat and ran her fingers through her shining hair. "And, Moms, here's a little something in honor of the occasion."
Mother took the dainty parcel and opened it with eager fingers. A lovely, silk nightgown! Mother stroked it gently. Her rough finger tips caught in the delicate threads. She could just see Lorna in this ex- quisite creation of lace and silk. Mother was afraid that to wear it herself would make her feel a little foolish.
"Time you were spending some time to doll yourself up a bit now that you have us all off your hands," Geraldine said carelessly.
Mother giggled, a little self-con- sciously.
/\t that minute Gilbert and Jo arrived and the family all circled around them waiting a turn to play with two-year-old Marjorie, who, with her golden curls and big blue eyes was surely Mother's baby. Jo was quite breathless with the effort of getting her packages gath- ered up and in the house. "Hello, Mother, hello, every one," she greet- ed them and dropped her hat, bag, and small suitcase on the bed and held out a tissue wrapped box to Mother. With trembling fingers Mother untied the string and held up a shimmering velvet scarf large enough for a grand piano.
"Oh," Eve sighed. "Where did you get it, Jo? It's exactly what I need to finish my living room just right. I've just redone it and wanted it all finished for Medical Auxiliary next week. Where are you going to put it, Mother?"
Yes, where? Mother's old up-
right on which the children had all "taken" would be buried under a scarf like this, and her dining room was furnished for lighter, simpler things. Her mind was thinking these things as her voice answered: "Oh, anything pretty as this will look well any place."
"Cook, cook," the baby was saying.
"Oh, the love, she remembers where the cookies are kept from that Sunday two months ago. Isn't that cute? Can she have one, Jo?" Mother asked.
"Mercy no, it's almost time for her soup and nap. Here, Gilbert, you take her out in the yard while she forgets, and I'll fix her lunch."
"The baby swing