The mode of burial is singularly careless. A
funeral procession is rarely seen; and such instances are mentioned by
travellers as that of a father bearing to the grave the coffin of his
own child upon his shoulder.
The interiors of the houses are as neat as could be expected,
considering the extent of the families. Very often, three wives, one
husband, and half-a-dozen children will be huddled together in a
hovel containing only two habitable rooms,--an arrangement of course
subversive of decency. Few people are able to purchase carpets, and
their furniture is of the coarsest and commonest kind. There are few, if
any, families which maintain servants. In that of Brigham Young, each
woman has a room assigned her, for the neatness of which she is herself
responsible;--Young's own chamber is in the rear of the office of the
President of the Church, upon the ground floor. The precise number
of the female inmates can often be computed from the exterior of the
houses. These being frequently divided into compartments, each with its
own entrance from the yard, and its own chimney, and being generally
only one story in height, the number of doors is an exact index to that
of residents.
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