d by Mr. P. Donan as one of the architectural
curios of the world. It looks like a vast terrapin back, or half of a
prodigious egg-shell cut in two lengthwise, and is built wholly of iron,
glass and stone. It is 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 100 feet high
in the center of the roof, which is a single mighty arch, unsupported by
pillar or post, and is said to have but one counterpart on the globe.
The walls are 12 feet thick, and there are 20 huge double doors for
entrance and exit. The Tabernacle seats 13,462 people, and its acoustic
properties are so marvelously perfect that a whisper or the dropping of
a pin can be heard all over it. The organ is one of the largest and
grandest toned in existence, and was built of native woods, by Mormon
workmen and artists, at a cost of $100,000. It is 58 feet high, has 57
stops, and contains 2,648 pipes, some of them nearly as large as the
chimneys of a Mississippi River steamer.

The choir consists of from 200 to 500 trained voices, and the music is
glorious beyond description. Much of it is in minor keys, and a strain
of plaintiveness mingles with all its majesty and power. All the seats
are free, and tourists from all parts of the world are to be found among
the vast multitudes that assemble at every service. Think of seeing the
Holy Communion broken bread, and water from the Jordan River, instead of
wine, administered to from 6,000 to 8,000 communicants at one time! One
can just fancy the old-time Mormon elders marching in, each followed by
his five or twenty-five wives and his fifty or a hundred children.

Close by is Assembly Hall, also of white granite, and of Gothic
architecture. It has seats for 2,500 people, and is most remarkable for
the costly fresco work on the ceiling, which illustrates scenes from
Mormon history, including the alleged discovery of the golden plates and
their delivery to Prophet Smith by the Angel Moroni.

All around this remarkable city are sights of surpassing beauty. Great
Salt Lake itself ought to be regarded as one of the wonders of the
world. Although an inland sea, with an immense area intervening between
it and the nearest ocean, its waters are much more brackish and salty
than those of either the Atlantic or the Pacific, and its specific
gravity is far greater. Experts tell us that the percentage of salt and
soda is six times as great as in the waters of the Atlantic, and one
great advantage of living in its vicinity is the abundance of go