and a very fine choir. The
acoustics of this immense and peculiarly-shaped building are most
perfect. The Temple Gentiles are not allowed to enter. Outside the
irrigation limits the country has a most desolate, desert, hopeless
aspect. What nerve the Mormons had to penetrate to such a spot.[3]

[Footnote 3: _See_ Appendix.]

It may be noted here that one Sidney Rigdon was the compiling genius of
Mormonism; and it was he who concocted the Mormon Bible, not Joe Smith.
And what a concoction! No greater fraud was ever perpetrated.

Hence by Butte, Montana, the great copper-mining city, to Great Falls,
where we crossed the Missouri River, there 4000 miles from the sea, yet
twice as large as the Thames at Windsor. On entering Canadian territory
a remarkable change in the character of the people, the towns and the
Press was at once noticeable. From Calgary by the C.P.R. the trip
through the Selkirk range to Vancouver was one of continuous wonder and
delight--noble peaks, dense pine forests, rushing rivers and peaceful
lakes. Arrived at Vancouver city, a city of illimitable ambition and
bright prospects. I there met in the lobby of the hotel two very old
friends whom I had not seen for many years. They dined with me, or
rather wined and dined, and we afterwards spent a probably uproarious
evening. I say probably, because the end was never evident to me till I
woke up in my bed, whither someone had carried me, with my stockinged
foot burning in a candle; another such illuminant had been lighted and
placed at my head. My waking (and I was "waked" in two senses)
endangered, and at the same time prevented, the probable burning down of
the building. Next morning I was taken suddenly ill, but not due to the
evening's carousal, so went across the bay to Victoria and hunted up a
doctor, who immediately ordered me into hospital (the Victoria Jubilee)
and operated on me the very same day. The operation was the most painful
that I have ever undergone but was entirely successful, though it
detained me in the hospital for over a month.

From Victoria I trained to San Francisco, passing through lovely
Washington and Oregon States, and Northern California; and from San
Francisco took steamer to Honolulu. San Francisco was rising from its
ashes, but still presented a terrible aspect, and gave a good idea of
how appalling the catastrophe must have been. At Honolulu I spent a most
enjoyable two weeks, golfing a little, surf riding, etc. The c