From the church magazines of 1948 –

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Three men in a compartment of a train discussed the vagaries of men. One said, “I know a man who writes a very small hand to save ink.”

Said another, “A friend of my father always stops the clock at night to save wear and tear on it.”

“Your men are spendthrifts,” said the third. “I know an old man who won’t read the paper because he says it wears out his glasses.”

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My ward is in a rut as deep as the old wagon ruts in Wyoming – for the third time in the few years I’ve lived in my Salt Lake ward, I was asked to speak on the Sunday closest to Pioneer Day. This is my talk from last Sunday, or at least the talk I intended to give. I didn’t actually write it down until this morning, and some of the planned material was dropped because of, um, significantly uneven division of the time between the two speakers. But it’s what I wanted to say, in honor of some of the best men in Mormon history and as encouragement to modern Saints to carry on in the work of service to each other.

“We Have Left No One Behind”: Agents for Ourselves and for Others

Agency is a significant concept in the plan of salvation. We value the agency each one of us has been given from God to act according to our will. As Lehi taught Jacob,

[T]the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. (2 Nephi 2:26)

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… and in honor of their centennial, I thought I’d reproduce the coloring page from the August 1923 Juvenile Instructor for your artistic enjoyment:

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Our methods in speculation and reasoning about the things of God may often be harmless; but if we depart from the simplicity of God’s word into a spirit of rationalism, we become the victims of vanity, which endangers the true spirit of worship in the human heart. It is not easy for men to give up their vanities, to overcome their preconceived notions, and surrender themselves, heart and soul, to the will of God which is always higher than their own.

The dangers of religious speculations are as great today as they were in the days of Christ, and if we would avoid these dangers we must adhere to the simplicity of our religious beliefs and practices. When men and women realize they are getting into deep water where their footing is insecure, they should retreat, for they may be sure that the course they have been taking will lead them more and more away from their bearings which are not always easy to regain. The religion of the heart, the unaffected and simple communion which we should hold with God, is the highest safeguard of the Latter-day Saints. It is no discredit to our intelligence or to our integrity to say frankly in the face of a hundred speculative questions, “I do not know.”

One thing is certain, and that is, God has revealed enough to our understanding for our exaltation and for our happiness. Let the Saints, then, utilize what they already have; be simple and unaffected in their religion, both in thought and word, and they will not easily lose their bearings and be subjected to the vain philosophies of man.

– Juvenile Instructor, May 1911, 269.

A New York newspaper reported to its readers on 10 March 1906:

Tahiti and the Tuamotu Islands, as already announced by cable, were visited by the most destructive cyclone in their history on February 7 and 8. The wind blew at the rate of 120 miles an hour for nearly sixteen hours, spreading destruction throughout the archipelago. The disturbance was accompanied by a tidal wave, which swept over Papeete, the capital, the streets of which were inundated to a depth of many feet, so that the residents had to swim from their homes. Many of the smaller islands were completely covered, and the inhabitants had to take refuge in the tops of cocoanut trees.

The news of that destructive hurricane had been carried throughout the world by official reports and by private letters, like this one written on February 17, 1906, by William F. Doty, the American Consul on Tahiti, to his Princeton (Class of 1896) classmates:

As I address you, from this remote South Pacific Island, I am somewhat in the mood of a Tahitian overawed by the marvels of the “storm god.”

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Further to part of our discussion in the comments here about the Salt Lake Missionary Home and its location at various eras, I found this article written by the Home’s first president, LeRoi C. Snow, published in the May 1928 Improvement Era, discussing the earliest history of the Home. It was concise enough, and packed with such detail, that I’ve chosen to post it as is. We might have some fun considering how that first Missionary Home was both like and unlike the current training given at the Missionary Training Center. Or, knowing Keepa’s regulars, we’ll have some fun regardless of what direction the comments go.

The Missionary Home

By Elder LeRoi C. Snow

Practically all who are called to represent the Church as missionaries come first to Salt Lake City. Here they receive instruction, go through the temple, are set apart by members of the Council of the Twelve or the First Council of Seventy, arrange for transportation and leave in groups for their mission headquarters. This policy has been followed for many years.

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Well, no, not really. What an extraordinary difference between advertising in 1920 and advertising in 1950!

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Early in the 20th century, the theme of being kind to animals became a prominent, recurring part of both the Sunday School and the Primary schedules. “Humane Sunday” was observed at least once a year. The magazines carried whole sections of stories about dogs who saved families from house fires, old cart horses who brought unconscious masters safely home, and the loyalty of animals of all kinds to children who were kind to them. Sometimes the teachings given to children were really aimed at their parents — a set of photographs showing the humane and the inhumane ways to hold a check rein on a horse, for instance, no doubt caused a few children to correct their fathers when the wrong method was used. I wouldn’t be surprised if Spencer W. Kimball’s memories of the song “Don’t Kill the Little Birdies” had its roots in some youthful church lesson on the humane treatment of animals.

This page from the Juvenile Instructor of 1917 illustrates one of the ways in which Mormon children were taught to notice and consider the lives of the animals around them. Do you suppose this resulted in shrieks of horror from a scandalized child in some chapel in the weeks after its publication?

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The stated purpose of this lesson in our current manual is “to inspire each class member to receive the promised blessings that come from temple work and scripture study” and draws from the stories of Hezekiah and Josiah. Those stories do indeed deal with the temple and the written word of the Lord, but to me they seem very poor choices to illustrate a lesson on the beauties of the temple and the scriptures. The entire point of the experiences of those Old Testament kings appears to be that when a people apostatizes, there comes a time when repentance is too late to avoid the consequences of sin. Their stories do not support the current manual’s “open a conduit to the Lord so that living water can flow in our lives” happy-happy feel good message about temple blessings and scripture study. When the seminary program of the church taught the stories of Hezekiah and Josiah in 1937, their lesson seems to fit the scripture much better than the awkwardness of our manual this year. (Haggai would have been a more apt scriptural text to make this point, I think.)

Sorry. Although I have generally avoided expressing judgment about the relative value of one year’s lessons over another in this series, this time I have to say that the current lesson is a misuse of the scripture. IMO.

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For background, see here
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The Improvement Era asked its readers to submit Mormon-flavored jokes this year, mixed with the magazine’s usual brand of humor. Illustrations were provided by the Era’s in-house artist, Fielding K. (“Smat”) Smith.

Phonetically Correct

The class had been studying the Articles of Faith. Upon returning home one little girl was heard to say; “Mother, why do we say we believe in being chased by an elephant?”

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With Pioneer Day coming on a Saturday this year, many of us in Utah have started a long weekend. We “celebrate” today by having a reduced bus schedule, most businesses are closed, and who knows what day or time this weekend the trash truck will come by? But TOMORROW, tomorrow we have a grand parade in downtown Salt Lake, and there’s a community breakfast on the lawn of our chapel that will serve pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, fruit, juice, and milk to more than a thousand neighbors.

And never mind that the title on this cover is “Days of ’49″ rather than our own “Days of ’47.”  The ’49ers were mighty glad to find the oasis of Great Salt Lake City when they came through, and the goods they left in Utah before pushing on to the gold fields of California were in large measure the temporal salvation of the Latter-day Saints.

Presented Sunday, Jan. 14, 1934 by Church Music Committee

Radio Dramatization of Famous “Mormon” Pioneer Song Written by William Clayton

As another Sabbath nears its thoughtful close we bring you once more the Sunday evening radio service of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tonight, after several weeks’ absence from the air, we resume the dramatic portrayal of some of the hymns of this Church. This series is presented under the direction of Elder George D. Pyper, representing the Church music committee; a group of singers, under the direction of B.F. Pulham, will be heard singing “Send Out Thy Light and Thy Truth.”

It now becomes my pleasure to present George D. Pyper, representing the Church music committee.

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This story, previously published in the Salt Lake Tribune and at Times & Seasons, is revived tonight as a sort of memorial to Corey Buxton, a Las Vegas Boy Scout who died yesterday while hiking in Zion National Park. Because it is a tribute, I would appreciate having any comments focus on the good things that can and have come from Scouting, while avoiding the usual Bloggernacle discussion of why the church should or should not sever its ties with BSA. Thanks.

Utah’s Boy Scouts have had a rough couple of years with forest fires, massive searches for lost Scouts, and the untimely deaths of beloved sons. Although recent tolls have been heavy, the rewards, over time, have been priceless.

Tessie Dalebout turned six in the spring of 1912. On May Day of that year, as the curly-haired child skipped along the banks of Parley’s Creek in Salt Lake City, she lost her footing and slipped into the turbulent waters.

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A glimpse at who we were in 1928 –

Ketterman, West Virginia

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While trying to answer a recent question on the date of the destruction demolition of the old Annex to the Salt Lake Temple (see J.’s post for photographs), I skimmed through the newspaper from February 1962 to February 1963 looking for a story. I was shocked to note how many other historic Mormon buildings had been torn down during that single year.

I know I’m sentimental about the Mormon past, including its material relics. I know that everything can’t be saved – the current church membership must be served; everything can’t remain as a shrine to past church membership. I know that buildings of the past very often don’t serve the needs of the present. And I know that most of these buildings were replaced (albeit with ugly 1960s architecture). And during the same year, the North Visitors’ Center on Temple Square was completed, the Oakland Temple was built, and several important buildings on the BYU campus (including the Harris Fine Arts Center) were built.

Still … I’m shocked by the seemingly cavalier attitude that accompanied the demolition of these buildings, and by how fast they disappeared. Very often, newspaper accounts noting their passing were illustrated by photographs of the wrecking ball in action, as if the demolition were something to cheer. For someone who loves the old, those celebratory wrecking-ball pictures were too ghoulish, too much like photographs of painful, drawn-out executions.

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William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen’s Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers (New York: Knopf, 1958) carries a report of the martyrdom at Carthage from an unusual eyewitness: that of Dr. Thomas L. Barnes, the doctor called in to tend to the wounded John Taylor. Dr. Barnes wrote a letter to his daughter Miranda in 1897 reporting in great detail what he recalled of the events of that day, including these paragraphs:

I suppose by this time you are anxious to know what became of Taylor and Richards? Was they also killed, no they were not. Taylor was severely wounded, Richards was not hurt.

Shall I try to describe the wounds that Taylor received and got over them? Well let me tell you where we found him; I cannot impress your mind of his appearance as he appeared to us when we were called to him by the jailer.

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[The son of George E. Magnusson, second counselor in the Redondo, California, Stake presidency], Scott, age nine, had a problem in mathematics and came to his father, who is a school teacher, for some assistance. His father wanted him to try to figure it out for himself so he gave the boy this problem. – If a missionary spent $35 per week on his mission, how much would he spend per day?

The boy went over to a table and started to figure it out and in a few minutes came and told his father, “The missionary would spend $5.83 per day.”

His father told him that was not the right answer because 35 divided by seven came out to five.

The boy looked at his father and gave this choice answer: “But, Daddy, missionaries don’t buy things on Sunday.”

– “From the Church Editor’s Desk,” Church News, 26 May 1962, 6

This poster showing the goals of the Home Builder program (Home Builders were the oldest girls’ classes in Primary) dates to 1942.

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Although the title and purpose of this lesson in our current manual appears to make the sole point that Elisha took up the mantle of Elijah in both a literal and figurative sense, illustrating that one prophet succeeds another, the content of the lesson actually covers other incidents in Elisha’s ministry. Most of our old manuals include additional events. The lessons here come from Ezra C. Dalby’s Land and Leaders of Israel (Salt Lake City: Church Department of Education, 1930), a text used by the seminaries of the Church.
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Lesson 26: King Solomon: Man of Wisdom, Man of Foolishness

1 Kings 3; 5-11

Purpose

To encourage class members to use their blessings wisely.

Lesson Development

Ask class member to read:

“We generally think of Satan attacking us at our weakest spot. … but weakness is not our only vulnerability. Satan can also attack us where we think we are strong – in the very areas where we are proud of our strengths. He will approach us through the greatest talents and spiritual gifts we possess. If we are not wary, Satan can cause our spiritual downfall by corrupting us through our strengths as well as by exploiting our weaknesses.” – Dallin H. Oaks, “Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall,” Ensign, October 1994, 12.

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For background, see here
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Jokes from the church magazines of 1911. They don’t tell ‘em today like they used to then.

Ginger

Mrs. Borus – “Yes, we’re going to be quite near neighbors of yours at Detroit Lakes this year. We’ll be living just across the bay.”

Miss Sharpe – “Indeed? I hope you’ll drop in some day.”

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U.S. President John F. Kennedy made a visit to five European nations in June, 1963. His first visit was to Germany where, in Berlin, he made his speech with the famous line “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was ‘civis Romanus sum.’ Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’”

Kennedy’s speech in Berlin followed speeches in Cologne, Bonn, and Frankfurt. Everywhere he went, he was greeted by enormous crowds of enthusiastically cheering people. They must have been a blur to him – how could anybody know specifically who was in those crowds?

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(See here for background)

From 1956 –

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(Further to our discussion of Sax Education the other day:)

There is no shortage of anti-rag and anti-jazz material in Church sources from the early 20th century. Here are two samples: one is from a lesson to be discussed by the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums, and the other is a personal contribution from a member – it strikes me as the effort of someone writing an essay for his school newspaper, or perhaps the text of an MIA talk (I know nothing of Bennett and the circumstances of his writing this article, though). These two samples are followed by a goodie from 1966.

Joseph M. Tanner, Improvement Era, 1918:

Jazz. – There is perhaps no more sinful temptation among our young people today than the insinuating sounds that come from the siren voice of a license-loving age. The thoughtful world is just beginning to realize how far the Jazz and kindred music is carrying us from the moorings of our moral safety. I quote from a writer in the Chicago Herald, of November 4,1917. There the celebrated violinist, Isador Berger, says:
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Jacob Moritz, as an alcohol producer and supporter of a 19th century anti-Mormon political party, is not the kind of man I would ordinarily choose for the subject of a Tribune column — not that he wasn’t a fine man according to ordinary lights, but only because I’m not naturally attracted to his story. His grave, though, has become notorious as a rendezvous for high schoolers and the object of their vandalism, to the point where the real man is invisible behind the ghost. It bothers me when people abuse the memory of those who can no longer speak up in their own behalf, no matter who they are. This was my attempt to set that injustice right.

Legions of Salt Lake City’s high school boys have terrified their girlfriends – gallantly offering to protect the girls by holding them close, of course – by the legend of “Emo’s Grave.” If you circle that grave in the City Cemetery, they say, chanting “Emo, Emo, Emo,” and then look quickly into the window at the shattered remains of a vandalized flower urn, you will see Emo’s blood-red eyes glowing back at you.

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XII. Conduct in Places of Worship
II. Visitors in the Home

This lesson, actually the Introduction to the entire set of lessons for young LDS women in 1902, concludes this series. I’ve saved the Introduction for the last entry so that we could evaluate how well the series accomplished what its authors intended. We’ve laughed a little, admired some of the practicalities and surprisingly modern approach to some details, and been mystified by the reasoning behind some other rules. But overall, how rational or practical or silly or over-protective do you think the series was? Do you think today’s Young Women would tolerate advice this extensive on behavior and dress, assuming the lessons were updated to deal with cellphones and private cars and Girls’ Camp?

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“President Howard McDonald of the Salt Lake Temple makes a plea for any and all who come to the temple for marriages, that they refrain from the practice of throwing rice, which collects on the walks outside the temple. He says that some have even thrown rice inside the temple annex, which creates several undesirable effects.

“He says that when the rice becomes wet it ferments and makes the premises ‘smell like a brewery.’”

–”Save Your Rice,” Church News, 24 September 1966, 2

When the Saints in continental Europe were isolated from Church headquarters by the events of World War II, even the Saints in neutral Switzerland were unable to correspond with Salt Lake – letters written to acting mission president Max Zimmer in Basle were returned to the senders; letters written by Bro. Zimmer and others to Church members in the U.S were likewise undeliverable.

Then in June, 1944, a letter from Bro. Zimmer miraculously made it through – the first word received directly from the Swiss Saints for more than two years. This long letter reported the trials and triumphs and plans of the church in Switzerland during those dark days:

Dear President [Thomas Gunn Evans] McKay,

Yesterday [March 26, 1944] there arrived in this office copies of the Church News of Oct. 16, 23, 30, Nov. 6, 13, and 27, 1943, coming through the British Mission Headquarters – the first thing we received from Utah since more than two years. You can hardly imagine how we felt and how happy we are, not only because of these most welcome News but on account of the prospect of coming again in contact with you, even if it be only indirectly. We hope and pray that this letter will reach you and not come back as those in the past did.

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