SOURCE: “The Keep-A-Pitchinin or the Mormon Pioneer Was Human,” in Brigham Young University Studies, Vol. 14, 1974, pp. 331-44.

In the following essay, Walker claims that the lively wit and satirical humor in the short-lived periodical Keep-A-Pitchinin often contradicted the typical image of the sober, straight-faced Mormon.

If there’s anybody doleful           Just grab him by the fin And lead him to the office           Of the keep-a-pitchinin. 

Keep-A-Pitchinin, March 1, 1870, p. 3.

Salt Lake's short-lived Keep-A-Pitchinin (pronounced “keep a pitchin’in”) was more than one of the West's first illustrated journals and humor periodicals. Written by men of talent, including sons of Mormon apostles and even a distinguished apostle incognito, its boisterous wit demonstrated that the nineteenth century Mormon pioneer was something besides a crabbed and humorless yeoman building a commonwealth. It testified to the early settlers' humanity, providing a valuable but over-looked index to those concerns and qualities which shaped Utah...