University of Virginia Library

15. XV.
PHELPS'S ALMANAC.

There is an eccentric Mormon at Salt Lake City
of the name of W. W. Phelps. He is from Cortland,
State of New York, and has been a Saint for a good
many years. It is said he enacts the character of
the Devil, with a pea-green tail, in the Mormon initiation
ceremonies. He also publishes an Almanac,
in which he blends astronomy with short moral
essays, and suggestions in regard to the proper
management of hens. He also contributes a poem
entitled “The Tombs” to his Almanac for the current
year, from which I quote the last verse:

Now, I know that poets and tin-pedlars are “licensed,”
but why does W. W. P. advise us to sleep

in the barn with the ostlers? These are the most
dismal Tombs on record, not excepting the Tomb
of the Capulets, the Tombs of New York, or the
Toombs of Georgia.

Under the head of “Old Sayings,” Mr. P. publishes
the following. There is a modesty about the
last “saying” which will be pretty apt to strike the
reader: