The Deeper Melody

By Alice Morrey Bailey

Previous chapter

Chapter 6

Synopsis: Steven Thorpe, a widower with three small children, is in love with Margaret Crain, a registered nurse who has taken care of his baby during an attack of pneumonia. Margaret’s mother, a widow, is temporarily acting as Steven’s housekeeper, and Margaret has accepted the position of night superintendent at the hospital until her marriage to Dr. Rex Harmon. In the meantime Steven has been made vice-president of the Pikes Peak machinery Company and finds himself unwillingly accepting invitations from Miss Tate, his secretary. One night as Steven and Miss Tate are leaving the theatre they meet Margaret and Dr. Harmon.

Steve had never seen Margaret out of uniform before, and he noticed how stunning she was, a second before he recognized her. From looking coldly elegant beside her partner, she suddenly turned radiant when she saw Steve.

“Steve!” she said, “Steve Thorpe.”

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Not long ago, Fordham University student Sandra Arnold was visiting a great aunt in Tennessee. Her great aunt mentioned the graves of Arnold’s great-grandparents, one of them a former slave. When Arnold went to visit the graves, and found her great-grandparents’ graves as well as an area of unmarked slave burials, she later told NPR, “I guess I was expecting a pretty small family plot and it was much bigger than I expected. I tell people all the time that when I got there I remember thinking, wow, this was my family. This wasn’t Alex Haley. This wasn’t Roots, but this was actually my family that I’m looking at.”

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Cumorah Hill

By J.M. White

Fierce raged the fight; a wild, barbarian horde,
Thirsting for blood, surged like a stormy sea,
Around a little band, wielding the spear and sword,
Seeking to live and evermore be free,
Fast fell they there, as grass before the blade,
Until but one remained, who then in deep despair,
By night, in secret there, the tribal records laid,
Then died alone, last of his nation there.

The stately centuries in slow procession passed,
Safely, the record, in security on the hill reposed,
New cities rose, and the Lamanites at last,
Retreated in their turn before more mighty foes.
New sects, new creeds, in clash of bitter strife,
Proclaimed most brazenly, “Ours is the way to go”;
Each heaping curses on the other’s rule of life,
While multitudes looked on, anxious the truth to know.

“Which one is right?” this query frequent came
To Joseph’s mind, when to the inquiring quest,
Came answer, like the lightning’s dazzling flame.
Piercing the cloud and Joseph then found rest,
“If any man doth wisdom lack, let him ask of God,”
This promise old, he trusted, and in the grove,
Fervently he called, upon the emerald sod,
And then in answer, came the messengers of love.

“Join none of them,” came the commandment clear,
And at a later day, Moroni, glorious, came
With his grand revelation, to the obedient seer,
Who felt with heaven’s fire, his soul aflame,
At last the records were unto the world restored,
And now in distant lands and islands of the sea,
Still goes the message, a potent living word,
A sign and wonder to all men, forevermore to be.

(1915)

During much of the 20th century, the Relief Society (and other auxiliaries, for that matter) held a full-scale conference of its own in conjunction with General Conference. At the April 1928 conference, the Relief Society sponsored a breakfast for ward and stake Relief Society presidents – the Church was small enough then for a communal meal to be practicable! – and presidents were invited to ask questions of the General Board. Here are some of them:

Question: Is it advisable for Relief Society women to address each other by first names in Relief Society meetings?

Answer: It is preferable that Relief Society women address each other by the last names in Relief Society meetings: e.g., “Sister Jones,” rather than “Mary” or “Susan.” It is more dignified and tends toward better order and discipline.

Question: Is it proper to give help to inactive church members and non-members when in dire circumstances, and who are even undesirable citizens in some respects?

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The Deeper Melody

By Alice Morrey Bailey

Previous chapter

Chapter 5

Synopsis: Steven Thorpe, a widower with three small children, becomes interested in Margaret Crain, a registered nurse, who has taken care of his baby during an attack of pneumonia. Margaret’s mother, a widow, who has been acting as Steven’s housekeeper temporarily, decides to continue in this position until Margaret’s marriage to Dr. Rex Harmon. In the meantime, Margaret has accepted the position of night superintendent in the hospital, and Steven finds it impossible to see her. He has been made vice-president of the Pikes Peak Machinery Company, when his secretary, Miss Tate, invites him to the symphony.

“Oh, thank you,” Miss Tate murmured and hurried into an explanation of how she had come to have the tickets, quite by accident, she assured him fervently.

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Some of you may protest that this isn’t history, that it’s your life! Good. Tell us what you remember about it.

I’ve recently seen a packet of the materials given to missionaries entering the Salt Lake Missionary Home in 1974, and, with perhaps some variation, in surrounding years. It may take a half dozen posts to share them all. We begin with the daily schedule (compare it to the schedule for 1936 and the schedule for 1946 – have I forgotten any others that have been posted?) and notes for one of the talks given on the first morning.

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Maytime in the Mountains

by Howard R. Driggs

When Maytime comes a-smilin’ through the valleys
After blusterin’ March and fresh’nin’ April rains,
When the sun is pourin’ down its meller brightness,
Then we know for sure that spring is here again.
You kin see it in the wealth o’ burstin’ blossoms,
You kin feel it in the joy that’s everywhere –
Bees a-hummin’, birds a-singin’
Lambs a-bleatin’, kids a-chattin’
And the seagulls shoutin’ gladness through the air.

Mebbe some folks like the winter with its snowflakes,
Or the autumn time with corn and pum’kins too,
Or the summer with its melons and its berries,
But by jing I like the world best when it’s new.
The skies just seem more sunny blue in Maytime,
And the buds like cunnin’ babies fresh and fair –
Sego lilies bright’nin’ up the sagebrush,
Meadowlarks a-whistlin’ sweet and clear,
And the seagulls shoutin’ gladness through the air.

Can’t you see the plowboy turnin’ the brown furrows,
While the cows are feedin’ in the medders green,
Over yender in the cattails blackbirds chatterin’
And the gulls like doves a lightin’ near his team?
Lift yer eyes up to them grand old mountains,
Watch the snow-white clouds a floatin’ there,
Hear the streams a singin’ down the canyons,
Pine trees sighin’, aspens whisperin’
And the seagulls shoutin’ gladness through the air.

(1934)

The J.H. Leyson jewelry company, doing business with various partners under variant company names from the 1870s to the 1980s, was one of Salt Lake City’s most upscale jewelers. It doesn’t surprise me at all that this company came up with what I think is the first souvenir spoon to feature a Mormon or Utah design. Leyson’s “temple spoon” was manufactured in 1893, the same year the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated. These two advertisements appeared in Salt Lake’s newspapers (Salt Lake Herald on the left; Deseret News on the right) day after day for months that year:

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The Deeper Melody

By Alice Morrey Bailey

Previous chapter

Chapter 4

Synopsis: Steven Thorpe, a widower with three small children, is grateful to Margaret Crain, a registered nurse, for taking care of his baby during an attack of pneumonia. Margaret’s mother is acting temporarily as Steven’s housekeeper, while making plans for her daughter’s approaching marriage to Dr. Rex Harmon. In the meantime, Steven wins back the Kettle Creek contract and is reinstated in his job.

“Nonsense!” said Steve. “You’re just hysterical, J.T., on getting this contract. You don’t have to leave me the business to get me back into the company. I’d come under any condition.”

“I’m not hysterical, and this is no snap decision. I’ve been watching you for years, as well as a dozen other young men. Kettle Creek has been a sort of testing ground with me ever since I failed to sell them ten years ago. I knew then that the man who could would be a better man than I. Nobody has succeeded, but I was most disappointed when you failed.”

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Will[iam] H[arrison] Hays (1879-1954), one-time U.S. Postmaster General and chairman of the Republican National Committee, a Presbyterian deacon and the first president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, is best remembered for his work in advising Hollywood studios on acceptable moral content of their movies. The work of his office and its successors from the 1920s to 1950s is generally referred to as censorship or self-censorship, but I don’t really think that its. The code produced by his office was only advisory and did not empower him to edit content or ban films, and his work was solicited by the industry in order to help them get their films past the censorship boards of individual states, which did ban movies or require editing before certain movies could be shown in various states.

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