Brigham Young

“ They are very anxious to know the ways of life, they want to know the ways of God; they want to become acquainted with His character, to know who He is and what He is. They want to understand just as they are directed to understand in the New Testament, and said to be the words of the Savior, "this is eternal life, to know the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent." ”

“ To know that God, and to know Jesus, the people who wish to do right are willing to undergo anything. Those that gather here, if they will do the best they know, will know God, and Jesus whom He has sent, and be as familiar with Him as they can be with any character whose face they see not ”

“ Children from five years old and upwards, will go for miles to their labor early in the morning, winter and summer, and must be at the factory at factory time, and there they must stand upon their feet until they are dismissed for half an hour, or an hour, to eat their breakfast, or their dinner, and all the rest of the time they are upon their feet. They are used to labor, accustomed to being on their feet and walking. ”

“ There is nothing that can be brought before the Latter-day Saints of deeper interest than to know how they can be gathered together, without so great an expense as has hitherto attended the gathering.
We know that our sorrows and our cares in this particular are measurably at an end if we can avoid buying teams and expensive outfits to bring the people here. ”

“ True, in those old countries people are not in the habit of taking journeys of hundreds of miles as the Americans do, but they walk through their towns and counties, throughout their circuits, and walk a great deal more and better than do the Americans. ”

“ Many people have believed that they could not walk much of a distance, if they had to walk right along in a road, but this is not so. Our carpenters, joiners, masons, tenders, road makers, tillers of the soil, and persons of almost all avocations in life, men, women, and children, are subject to continual travel. ”

“ As for health, it is far healthier to walk than to ride, and better every way for the people. When they get up in the morning, instead of wearying the women with running through the long grass hunting the oxen, &c., they are there in camp, and if they wish to do any walking, they can take hold of their little handcarts and go on about their business. When they come to sandy hills, it is then no doubt hard. (Voice, they can then double teams.) Yes, they can easily double teams, for they are right on hand all the time. ”

“ It has been a matter of doubt with many of our Elders who have gone out to preach, and with many who have staid at home, as to the propriety of starting a train upon the Plains for men, women, and children to walk. ”

“ I think it is now proven to a certainty that men, women, and children can cross the Plains, from the settlements on the Missouri river to this place on foot, and draw hand-carts, loaded with a good portion of the articles needed to sustain them on the way. ”

“ They could have been here ten days ago, perhaps twelve, had it not been for waiting for the teams. If persons have a journey to perform and can get at railroad speed with hand-carts, it is better than to drag along with ox teams. ”

“ They are in the habit of working and walking, and their toils and labors are very excessive, and apparently without cessation. Go into the mountainous regions of some of those old countries, and you will see men, women, and children packing soil, like it would be to take it from the banks of Jordan and carry it half way up the sides of these mountains, and, when they can get one, two, or three rods of level surface, making their gardens upon the rocks. ”

“ The common people, the masses that work in the factories, do not own teams in the old countries, and if they wish to visit or go to a fair, they go on foot, If they should get any way of conveyance to places where the railroads have not yet reached, they hire a cart, or perhaps a wagon on springs, and six, eight, twelve, or twenty persons will get in and ride for a few miles ”

“ They will walk on the brinks of precipices, clamber around the rocks, pack up the soil from the bottoms, and thus make a subsistence, raising a few potatoes and whatever vegetables they can, and there they live summer and winter; they are all the time toiling and laboring. ”