History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

294 IN THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
break cannon were fired and bands of music passed
through the city, arousing the citizens for the great
events of the day. A flag brought from Nauvoo was
prominently displayed, and a larger flag was hoisted
from the liberty-pole. A procession was formed of
young men and maidens, who in appropriate costumes,
bearing banners and singing, escorted Brigham to the
bowery. They were received with shouts of "Hosanna
to God and the Lamb I" While the governor
and the church dignitaries were passing down the aisle
cheers and shouts of " Hail to the governor of I>eseret!"
greeted them on every side. The declaration
of independence and the constitution were then read,
followed by patriotic addresses. The procession was
then re-formed and marched to the feast served on
tables fourteen hundred feet in length. "The tables
were heavily loaded," says Brigham, "with all the luxuries
of field and garden, and with nearly all the vege-
tables of the world; the seats were filled and refilled
by a people who had been deprived of those luxuries
for years, and they welcomed to their table every
stranger within their border." 21 A greater variety
was provided, as the saints had exchanged for many
luxuries their flour, butter, potatoes, and other produce,
with passing emigrants.
Not only on the pioneer anniversary but on the
4th of July, 22 at Christinas week, and on other occa-
21 'The hospitalities of the occasion were not confined to the saints alone,
but included several hundreds of California emigrants who had stopped to
recruit, as well as threescore Indians,' says Eliza Snow. See Snow's Biography,
95-107, for description of the celebration; also Kane's The Mormons, 80-1;
Hist. B. Young, MS., 108-116, 143; Mrs Home's Migrations, MS., 30; Frontier
Guardian, Sept. 19, 1849. After dinner four and twenty toasts were drunk, followed
by volunteer toasts. President Young declared that he never saw such
a dinner in his life. One of the elders remarked that 'it was almost a marvellous
thing that everybody was satisfied, and. . .not an oath was uttered, not a
man intoxicated, not a jar or disturbance occurred to mar the union, peace,
and harmony of the day.' Frontier Guardian, Sept. 19, 1849. Among the
guests was the Indian chief Walker, who, accompanied by Soweite, chief of
the Utahs, and several hundred Indians, men, women, and children, had visited
the city in Sept. 1848. Utah Early Records, MS., 33.
22 For a description of 4th of July festivities, see Frontier Guardian, July
10, 1850, Oct. 3, 1851; Deseret News, July 12, 1851, July 10, 1852; S. L. G.
Contributor, ii. 271.