matter of course; a counter-nomination is utterly unheard of; and on election-day ——­ would be Delegate as surely as the sun rose.  The mountain-stream that irrigates the city, flowing to all the gardens through open ditches on each side of the street, passes through Brigham’s inclosure:  if the saints needed drought to humble them, he could set back the waters to their source.  The road to the only canon where firewood is attainable runs through the same close, and is barred by a gate of which he holds the sole key.  A family-man, wishing to cut fuel, must ask his leave, which is generally granted on condition that every third or fourth load is deposited in the inclosure, for Church-purposes.  Thus everything vital, save the air he breathes, reaches the Mormon only through Brigham’s sieve.  What more absolute despotism is conceivable?  Here lies the pou-sto for the lever of Governmental interference.  The mere fact of such power resting in one man’s irresponsible hands is a crime against the Constitution.  At the same time, this power, wonderful as it may seem, is practically wielded for the common good.  I never heard Brigham’s worst enemies accuse him of peculation, though such immense interests are controlled by his one pair of hands.  His life is all one great theoretical mistake, yet he makes fewer practical mistakes than any other man, so situated, whom the world ever saw.  Those he does make are not on the side of self.  He merges his whole personality in the Church, with a self-abnegation which would establish in business a whole century of martyrs having a worthy cause.

The cut of Brigham’s hair led me away from his personal description.  To return to it:  his eyes are a clear blue-gray, frank and straightforward in their look; his nose a finely chiselled aquiline; his mouth exceedingly firm, and fortified in that expression by a chin almost as protrusive beyond the rest of the profile as Charlotte Cushman’s, though less noticeably so, being longer than hers; and he wears a narrow ribbon of brown beard, meeting under the chin.  I think I have heard Captain Burton say that he had irregular teeth, which made his smile unpleasant.  Since the Captain’s visit, our always benevolent President, Mr. Lincoln, has altered all that, sending out as Territorial Secretary a Mr. Fuller, who, besides being a successful politician, was an excellent dentist.  He secured Brigham’s everlasting gratitude by making him a very handsome false set, and performing the same service for all of his favorite, but edentate wives.  Several other apostles of the Lord owe to Mr. Fuller their ability to gnash their teeth against the Gentiles.  The result was that he became the most popular Federal officer (who didn’t turn Mormon) ever sent to Utah.  The man who obtains ascendency over the mouths of the authorities cannot fail ere-long to get their ears.