Page 247 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Around the World in 80 Days

right-angles,’ as Victor Hugo expresses it. The founder of
the City of the Saints could not escape from the taste for
symmetry which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxons. In this
strange country, where the people are certainly not up to

the level of their institutions, everything is done
‘squarely’—cities, houses, and follies.
The travellers, then, were promenading, at three
o’clock, about the streets of the town built between the
banks of the Jordan and the spurs of the Wahsatch Range.
They saw few or no churches, but the prophet’s mansion,
the court-house, and the arsenal, blue-brick houses with
verandas and porches, surrounded by gardens bordered
with acacias, palms, and locusts. A clay and pebble wall,
built in 1853, surrounded the town; and in the principal
street were the market and several hotels adorned with
pavilions. The place did not seem thickly populated. The
streets were almost deserted, except in the vicinity of the
temple, which they only reached after having traversed
several quarters surrounded by palisades. There were many
women, which was easily accounted for by the ‘peculiar
institution’ of the Mormons; but it must not be supposed
that all the Mormons are polygamists. They are free to
marry or not, as they please; but it is worth noting that it
is mainly the female citizens of Utah who are anxious to

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