Page:The City of the Saints.djvu/287

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Chap. V.
MR. STAINES.—ADOPTION.—FRUIT.
269

was not new; I had been taught the same, in times past, among certain German missionaries who assumed precedence over their wives upon a principle borrowed from St. Paul.

I took the earliest opportunity of visiting, at his invitation, the Prophet's gardens. The grounds were laid out by Mr. W.C. Staines, now on Church business in London.[1] Mr. Staines arrived at Great Salt Lake City an exceptionally poor emigrant, and is now a rich man, with house and farm, all the proceeds of his own industry. This and many other instances which I could quote prove that although, as a rule, the highest dignitaries are the wealthiest, and although the polygamist can not expect to keep a large family and fill at the same time a long purse, the Gentiles somewhat exaggerate when they represent that Church discipline keeps the lower orders in a state of pauperdom. Mr. Staines is also the "son of 'Brigham' by adoption." This custom is prevalent among the Mormons as among the Hindoos, but with this difference, that while the latter use it when childless, the former employ it as the means of increasing their glory in the next world. The relationship is truly one of parent and child, by choice, not only by the mere accident of birth, and the "son," if necessary, lives with and receives the necessaries of life from his "father." Before entering the garden we were joined by Mr. Mercer, who, long after my departure from India, had missionarized at Kurrachee in "Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley."

The May frost had injured the fruit. Grapes were but quarter-grown, while winter was fast approaching. I suggested to the civil and obliging English gardener that it would be well to garnish the trellised walls, as is done in Tuscany, with mats which roll up and can be let down at night. Bacchus appeared in three forms: the California grape, which is supposed to be the Madeira introduced into the New World by the Franciscan Missions; the Catawba—so called from an Indian people on a river of the same name—a cultivated variety of the Vitis labrusca, and still the wine-grape in the States. The third is the inferior Isabella, named after his wife by "ole man Gibbs,"[2] who first attempted to civilize the fox-grape (Vitis vulpina), growing on banks of streams in most of the temperate states. A vineyard is now being planted on the hill-side near Mr. Brigham Young's block, and home-made wine will soon become an item of produce in Utah. Pomology is carefully cultivated; about one hundred varieties of apples have been imported, and of these ninety-one are found to thrive as seedlings: in good seasons their branches are bowed down by fruit, and must be propped up, or they will break under their load. The peaches were in all cases unpruned: upon this important

  1. I have to thank Mr. Staines for kind assistance in supplying me with necessary items of information.
  2. Similarly, the Constantia of the Cape was named after Madam Van Stell, the wife of the governor.