came next; the "Big Fan" of the thresher that "should thoroughly purge the floor," was tried and dropped. Genesis, xlix. 17, furnished the name that they finally assumed. The verse is quite significant: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." The "Sons of Dan" was the style they adopted; and many have been the times that they have been adders in the path, and many a man has fallen backward, and has been seen no more. At Salt Lake, among themselves, they ferociously exult in these things, rather than seek to deny or extenuate them.
Some of the leading spirits of that band are still in Salt Lake City. Although they do not maintain their organization, being generally merged into "Brigham's Life Guards," yet without the same name, they have performed the same deeds. O. P. Rockwell, the attempted assassin of Governor Boggs, and who was instructed by Smith to commit the deed, Brigham has had into the pulpit to address the meetings! A W. Hickman, against whom many indictments are out in Iowa, and who is publicly known as an "avenger of blood," is one of Brigham's most particular intimates. It is no secret at Salt Lake that several men have disappeared after being last in the company of this man, and no question is raised as to the matter there. This man was one with three other such who left Salt Lake without any ostensible reasons for their journey, traveled near to the spot where Messrs. Margetts and Cowdy were said to have been murdered, and returned bearing the news of their murder. This circumstance is still more significant, remembering that Margetts and Cowdy were
