merchant, the ranch-owner and the bonanza-miner all usually own their homes. A condition which has largely contributed to this end, especially among the middle classes, is the many strong and well-conducted building associations. Owing to the fire limits extending well out into the suburbs, all houses are built of fireproof material, either brick or stone, both of which are furnished in a great variety of color and combination. The variety of architecture and its pleasing effect is a notable feature. Surrounding most residences are spacious and beautifully-kept lawns. It is said that no city of its size in the United States has such magnificent and attractive public buildings. The capitol, costing $2,000,000, was built entirely of Colorado materials by Colorado workmen.

It has been shown that the summer climate is equal to that of the northern lakes and of Maine on the Eastern coast. Denver has more sunshine, less wind, a dryer air and a temperature allowing more constant outdoor life than any other city in the country approaching it in size. In a period of thirteen years there were but thirty-two days in which the sun was not visible. The population of Denver has so far doubled every five years, and as the number of people within her limits in 1895 is 160,000, it is predicted that at the beginning of the next century the population will be 320,000.

The first railroad to reach Denver was the Kansas Pacific, now a branch of the Union Pacific, in 1870, at which time the city had a population of less than 5,000. To-day Denver is the terminal of eight trunk lines, which carry freight to and fro over 28,000 miles of track, passing through a country but partially settled, but each year adding to its population and to the variety and volume of its tonnage. The city is regarded by railroad men as the strategic point which will eventually regulate a vast interior business, as it is a geographical as well as a commercial and manufacturing center.

It is claimed that the street car service here is the most perfect in the world. The system embraces one hundred and eighty-one miles, one hundred and twenty-five of which are electric. Transfers are given from line to line so that one can ride from any part of the city to his destination for five cents. The system of the Denver Union Water Company supplies the city and adjacent suburbs, all being furnished from the same source. It has about four hundred and fifty miles of mains and conduits, varying in size from six to forty-four inches in diameter. Attached to the mains are twenty thousand service pipes supplying water for domestic purposes.

Denver's school buildings and school system are the pride and boast of her people. Distinguished educators from the east are filled with surprise and admiration for both. There are three high school buildings, one of which is valued at three-fourths of a million dollars. There are fifty graded school buildings and twenty-one miscellaneous private and sectarian schools. There are also eleven academies and colleges. There are nine public and private libraries, and four daily and seventy weekly, monthly or quarterly papers. There are also one hundred and thirty-three organized churches.

The city has six national banks, whose total resources January 1, 1895, were nearly $25,000,000. The deposits aggregate over $17,000,000. They have a total surplus of $720,000, and the capital stock paid in is $4,100,000. Real estate transactions in 1894 were fairly satisfactory and show a healthful increase over those of 1893, and were far in advance of those of any other city of her class. The aggregate transfers for the year rank sixth in volume of the cities of the United States. The statistics showing the commercial and manufacturing industries are equally remarkable.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SALT LAKE CITY AND THE MORMONS.

JOSEPH SMITH-THE MORMONS IN NEW YORK, OHIO, MISSOURI AND ILLINOIS-THE EXODUS ACROSS THE WILDERNESS-SALT LAKE - BRIGHAM YOUNG, HIS CHAR

ACTER AND WORK-SALT LAKE CITY NOW.

ALT LAKE CITY was founded by the Mormons under Brigham Young in 1847, and in this brief statement is embodied one of the strangest stories in the annals of American civilization. The Mormons, or, as they call themselves, the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," form a religious sect founded by one Joseph Smith, whose story is so well known as to make it unnecessary to more than barely outline it here. Smith was born in Vermont, but while a child removed with his parents to the State of New York. He claimed that an angel appeared to him and informed him that he was the instrument chosen to inaugurate a new gospel. He accepted the mission and soon collected quite a number of followers. These, on account of the prejudice against them were obliged to move to Ohio. Later a colony was established in Missouri which grew rapidly. About this time a body of "apostles" was instituted within the church, and among the number of these was Brigham Young, who had become a convert to the new faith in 1832, and had already shown himself a man of wonderful sagacity and force of character.

In 1838 the whole body of the so-called "saints," some fifteen thousand in number, moved to Illinois. Here their welcome was no more cordial than it had been in other parts of the country, and before long Smith and his brother found themselves in jail. Fearing that the prisoners might be allowed to escape, a band of excited men broke into the jail and killed both of them. Brigham Young was then elected as Smith's successor, and as the hostility against them did not abate, the Mormons, under his guidance, all started for the West. They stopped for a year in Iowa, and then under the strictest discipline marched across the wilderness to the Great Salt Lake.

The first reference to this lake is found in a book of American travels in 1689; but it was first explored and described by John C. Fremont in 1842. It lies in a great valley of the Rocky Mountains and measures nearly one hundred miles in length by a little less than fifty in breadth, and its waters are very shallow. Near its center lie a group of islands, upon some of which are found springs of pure, fresh water, although the waters of the lake are of so saline a character that from seven quarts boiled down there can be extracted

one quart of pure salt. Yet into this
lake rivers of fresh water are
pouring continually; from
the south the fresh waters of
Utah Lake find their
way into it through the
channel of the Jordan,
while from the north it
receives the water of
the Bear River, a swift
mountain stream.
There is no visible out-
let, and its superfluity
of water is supposed to
be evaporated, but there
are many who believe

in the existence of a
subterranean passage-
way having an outlet
at some undiscovered
point.

BRIGHAM YOUNG.

Geologists declare that at a remote period a vast sheet of water filled a far greater area than that now occupied by the Great Salt Lake. In the mighty intervals of time, as indefinite as the geological periods, certain changes in the rainfall caused the waters to evaporate to the present size of the existing lake. This theory is confirmed by the various terraces running in long parallel lines on the sides of the surrounding Wasatch Mountains. These terraces mark off the various intervals at which the waters remained stationary for a while in their gradual lessening of volume. Another remarkable property of the

water is its density. It is next to impossible to sink to the bottom, for one can float upon the surface with the greatest ease.

The so-called "Prophet," Brigham Young, declared that the site of the forthcoming city was indicated to him in a vision by an angel who, standing on a conical hill, pointed out to him the locality where the new temple must be built. Upon the entry of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Basin he beheld the identical mountain he had seen in the vision, with a stream of fresh water flowing at its base. The Prophet immediately commanded his followers to halt and pitch their permanent tents, as they had

1847, the Territory belonged to Mexico, but the next year it became, together with New Mexico, Arizona and the whole of upper California, a portion of the domain of the United States. This was a severe blow to the designs of the Prophet.

With the Mexican government Brigham Young could, in his remote fastnesses, negotiate his own terms and secure for himself and his followers all the concessions necessary for their temporal as well as their peculiar spiritual welfare. Here they could revel in polygamy and indulge in all the doctrines declared to be a part of their faith. But suddenly the war with Mexico closed, and, as if to overthrow their schemes in this remote section, the territory on which they had already begun the erection of