161 Bro. and Sr. Atkinson, who were visiting with us there, and after a while walked over to the "switch" on the mountain side, and returned to Carson City in time for evening service in the court-house. This was our last effort in Carson; it was well attended and we tried to do the best we could-we acknowledge the aid of the Spirit.
From Carson to Franktown, Washo Valley, on Tuesday, where we spoke to fair attendance, with comparatively good liberty. . . . There are good Saints in those valleys, as we are prepared to affirm. Bro. George Smith, of Pleasant Valley, here offered us conveyance to the railway station, via his own home, where we spent a few pleasant hours. We left the house of Bro. J. Twaddle, and the companionship of the brethren there with the kindliest feelings for those who people the plains amid the everlasting hills.
We took train at Steamboat Station; and at Reno, on the main line of the Central Pacific, met Bro. E. Penrod, with whom we journeyed to Battle Mountain. At this place we remained from Thursday, half past one in the afternoon, till Monday the 20th of November, the guest of an old-time playfellow and schoolmate, Bro. Albert Haws. Preached on Sunday at two o'clock in the afternoon and seven o'clock in the evening. Baptized two on Sunday in the Humboldt River, confirming them at the house of Bro. Haws, he assisting in the services.
We bade the Saints of Battle Mountain, few in number, good-bye, on the 20th, and left for Salt Lake City, Utah, where we arrived on the morning of the 21st of November, without having been previously heralded, except to one or two of the brethren. Brn. Thomas Hudson and P. H. Reinsimar met us at the train, and we were soon "at home" with the latter-named brother, who kindly offered us a sojourning place, and who failed not to make us welcome while we stayed. Both he and his family did all that could be done to make the stay pleasant.
We made the entry into Salt Lake City, the "City of the Saints," almost in regal style; for although "unheralded and unannounced," there was but one other passenger over the line, and we almost literally had a whole train to ourselves. The ride in from Ogden is very suggestive, or at least it was to us, for, contending emotions born of the circumstances of our life, condition, service, and the occasion of our visit to these mountain fastnesses, came struggling up for recognition and prominence-and the question, How Will we be received? would constantly recur.
The evidences of thrift, energy, and faithful devotion to the principles, the following of which had brought this people, whom we were going to visit in their principal city, to these plains amid the hills were everywhere visible. We held many things of faith and belief in common with them; some were relatives, many others were acquaintances, once friends-were they so still? We were on an errand antagonistic to the genius of their institutions and their social bond-what ought we to expect from them? These thoughts and many more of a similar nature occupied us as we
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