History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

SCIENCE AND MUSIC. 585
ticipated were several of the wives and daughters of
All the actors attended rehearsal each
Brigham. 34
night in the week, except on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
when the performances took place; most of them
found their own costumes, and none received any fixed
remuneration. 35
While the amusements of the people were thus
cared for, there was no lack of more solid entertainment.
All had access to the public library under
proper restrictions, and in the council-house was
opened, in 1853, the first reading-room, which was
supplied with newspapers and magazines from all parts
of the world. Among the scientific associations may
be mentioned the Universal Scientific Society, established
in 1854, with Wilford Woodruff as president,
and the Polysophical Society, over which Lorenzo
Snow presided. 36 The musical talent of Salt Lake
City formed themselves, in 1855, into the Deseret
Philharmonic Society, and in June of that year a music
hall was in course of construction. 37
In the same
century . . . The afterpiece was, on the contrary, very well performed. ' Visit to
S. Lake, 224.
34 Three of Brigham's daughters, Alice, Emily, and Zina, were on the stage.
Hepworth Dixon, who was well acquainted with Alice, the youngest wife of
Elder Clawson, says that she remarked to him one day at dinner, ' I am not
myself very fond of playing, but my father desires that my sister and myself
should act sometimes, as he does not think it right to ask any poor man's
child to do anything which his own children would object to do.' New America,
144.
35 Cooke's Theatr. and Soc. Affairs in Utah, MS., 9-10; Stenhouse's Tell It
All, 380-1. Mrs Cooke states that the performers often remained at rehearsal
until 12 or 1 o'clock, and that after a hard day's work. Occasionally a benefit
was given to the lady actors, and the proceeds divided among them. Her
share during the twelve years that she played amounted to $150. In Theatrical
and Social Affairs in Utah, by Mrs S. A. Cooke, MS., we have, besides the
information which the title-page suggests, a number of items relating to church
matters and the workings of polygamy. Mrs Cooke was well acquainted with
the wife of Heber C. Kimball, Eliza Snow, and other prominent women among
the Mormons. Of English birth, she was for eight years a teacher of music
in the city of New York, and in 1852 set forth for California, reaching S. L. City
in July, where she purposed to remain only until the following spring, but was
converted to Mormonism. For 16 years she was employed as a teacher, among
her pupils in Zion being the children of Brigham Young.
36 There was also a horticultural society, organized in connection with the
Ameiican Pomological Society, and the Deseret Typographical Association
formed for the advancement of their art. Lin/orth's Route from Liverpool,
111.
37 By the members of Capt. Ballo's band. Deseret News, June 27, 1855.