The Vermont Tribune, Ludlow, Friday, August 2, 1889 A VERMONTER IN THE "WILD WEST." 8/2/1889 A Vermonter in the "Wild West." Salt Lake City, Utah, July 15th, 1889, Mr. Editor: Leaving Chicago Tuesday evening, July 2d, at 10:30, I awoke to behold the beautiful prairies of northern Iowa. The corn was the best that I had seen. Took supper at Omaha, which has had an amazing growth since my visit there sixteen years ago. Had a good breakfast at North Platte for twenty-five cents. Here we came to mountain time, and I turned my watch back an hour--the second time after leaving home. From Julesburg, up the South Platte, I saw many herds of fat cattle. This river is a river of sand from thirty or forty rods to a half mile wide. Excepting in times of high water, this stream is appropriated by the up-river people, for irrigation; and those lower down have to whistle. I spent a few days in Logan county, northeastern Colorado, visiting my brother, Capt. L. E. SHERMAN, who, in addition to ranching, locates new comers, attends to notarial business, presides at justice courts, and effects loans of money in his neighborhood. Nearly all the people live in sod houses. They have a sod school-house and church. Miracles have been already wrought by the hand of man, here, in two years; and as one looks over vast fields of corn in what was a treeless waste, the wonder is, how can it be? I have visited Colorado Springs, Manitou, Ute Pass, Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, and other places, which have often been described with more adjectives than I can command. I took the Denver & Rio Grande railroad from Colorado Springs to Utah, passing through the Grand Canon of the Arkansas. It is five miles in length, and the naked ledges of granite rise rough and cragged from one to two thousand feet on either side. The railroad is a marvel of engineering, and one admires the work of man while adoring the Creator of this stupendous wonder of nature. We had an observation car, and our necks were tired when we got through. The sharp curves of this narrow guage railway are not to be beaten anywhere. The next thing is to climb Marshall Pass. We come to a park-like expanse encircled by mighty mountains, with spots of snow glistening in the sunlight. This is repeated with variations. Our train is divided--six cars, with two engines, going ahead; our train consisting of one engine and two cars. The grade, in places, is 217 feet to the mile. Now for the horseshoes! We shake our handkerchiefs to the advance train, coming back hundreds of feet above us. This is repeated several times. Lofty peaks seem to sink, and awful chasms open their mouths. It is twilight. The full moon is in a light haze. I have a slight headache. Pull away, grand old steed! Get up, now! Don't stop! What if you should get to going backward? Or what if the leading train should break in two? It grows dark. The great timberless peaks sink lower. here we are at Summit--10,852 feet above the sea! The chimney of Ludlow woolen mill is 100 feet high. Main street is about 1,000 feet above the sea. Set 100 chimneys one above the other, and you have our road-bed at Marshall Pass. Ludlow mountain is over 2,000 feet above the village. It would take over five stories of that hill to equal this altitude! The next indescribable wonder is Black Canon by clear moonlight. This is some fifteen miles in length. I sat on the rear platform of our sleeper the entire distance. It was after midnight when, almost shivering with cold, I turned into my berth. The Black Canon is like splitting Ludlow mountain range in the centre down to a level with the village, knocking it into a a devious water course, converting it into rock of all shapes and postures imaginable, spreading it irregularly wide enough to admit Black river. Turning the river in, let it go dashing and crashing along for fifteen or twenty miles. Now hew out a railway, make bridges from one side to the other as occasion requires, suspend telegraph wires on poles where you can and on projecting irons stuck in holes drilled in the rock, place your trackmen very near each other with lanterns, place stationary green safety lights in dangerous places, and then take a fifteen-mile ride. Look up to the stars, and at the moonlight as it catches the crags a thousand feet above you. Whirl along. Now you are on a shelf under a dark perpendicular or overhanging mountain of rock. Now you are aiming right at the rocks. here is an open cross-cannon, and you see the moon. But, enough. I wish I could tell you what George Q, CANNON said yesterday at the great Tabernacle. He is First Counsellor to President Wilson WOODRUFF, the power behind the throne--Apostle, ex-delegate to Congress, ex-penitentiary polygamist, and now figuring in the role of semi-martyr, as a spotless victim of persecution under the Edmunds law. President WOODRUFF, Mr. CANNON, and eight other dignitaries, faced about five thousand attentive listeners. The great organ discoursed beautiful melody. Choir and soloist performed well their parts. The speaker said, " Latter Day Saints" were successors of the apostles and primitive church; and the results of their work in the erection of this temple, the gathering of peoples from the ends of the earth, so nearly of one mind and one heart, prove the truth of this assertion. Who had been taught by to do evil? If we have been persecuted and sent to prison, it was not for breaking God's commands. Women and children have been greatly afflicted by this persecution or prosecution--call it which you please. He counseled union. "Divide and quarrel, and God's anger will be kindled against you." "I tremble to think of disunion. Our enemies are like the leaves of the forest. We stand by the power of God." "If we seek God's guidance in all we do, he will save and deliver us and accomplish his great purposes on the earth." These are a few things out of many which were said. He advised peace with one another, and prayer for persecutors. President WOODRUFF, aged eighty-five, in a fifteen minutes address, in a rapid and rigorous style, supplementing "brother CANNON's" speech, which occupied forty-five minutes. he said, Father Abraham was one of the noble spirits sent of god on a great mission. His successors are the Latter Day Saints. Great reformers were always persecuted. You are the heralds of God in this valley of the mountains. You are his people. You have the Holy Priesthood. Descendants of Israel, God has sent us to warn the Gentiles of judgment of which the heavens are full; and the judgments of God will come in spite of earth and hell. F. W. SHERMAN came here a few days in advance, and was able to introduce me to some of the best men of the city, including Alderman SOWLES, formerly of New York state, the Baptist and Episcopal minister etc. I found Frank PIERCE, a former student of Black River academy, who has a fine law practice, which is rapidly growing. He will be heard from, later, in the history of this city. Respectfully, A. F. SHERMAN. Transcribed by Ruth Barton -- Ruth Barton mrgjb@sover.net Dummerston, VT