The Cambrian Association has been responsible for bringing artists of distinction to Utah during the festivals mentioned above. The one in 1895 had for its adjudicators such men as Haydn Evans, J. T. Watkins and T. J. Davies, all of Scranton, Pa. In 1898 mainly through the insistence of Mr. John James the association sent to Wales for Dr. Joseph Parry to come as adjudicator. The choice was a wise one as Dr. Parry is known as one of the greatest of Welsh composers. He was head of the Music department of the University of Wales in Cardiff, Glamorganshire. His hymn-tune, "Aberstwyth" to the words of "Jesus Lover of My Soul," is sung in all Churches and Chapels of the English speaking world.
In Salt Lake City Dr. Parry met for the first time Professor Evan Stephens and other leading Welshmen. Never before had Dr. Parry been given such a welcome or such hospitality. After the Eisteddfod, fourteen thousand people heard him give his famous lecture on "The Great Masters of Music." He also, upon request, sang for the first time here his melodious song, "Make New Friends, But Keep the Old." Judge H. M. Edwards, Scranton, Pennsylvania, was the conductor of the 1898 Eisteddfod. The last important Eisteddfod was held in October, 1908 with Dr. Dan Protheroe as Chief adjudicator, and Professor William Ap-Madoc, Chicago, Illinois as Conductor.
The first Eisteddfod held here was on March 1, 1852 in connection with the St. David's Day celebration held in the Daniel Daniel's home but its participants were mainly children. In 1934 there was present at the St. David's day banquet a lady almost 88 years old who as a little girl attended that first Eisteddfod. She was seven years old at that time and recalled the event stating that Mr. Daniels called the turns for the cotillion and played the violin at the same time while she held on to the ends of his long red sash. Her parents were members of that first company of Welshmen who came here in 1849. Mrs. Esther Davis remembered that there was a little confusion in understanding the "calls" because not too many had mastered the English language.
Welsh families today are not easily identified as the second and third generations have intermarried with other nationalites. The Joneses, Thomases, Evanses, Jenkinses, Williamses, and other standard Welsh names no longer have the same meaning in Utah. The blood has thinned out in many, many cases but whenever the Cambrian Association needs [p.52]support for an important project it is to the descendants of the above list of Welshmen that the appeal is made for workers to put over the undertaking. They still cherish the ideals and culture patterns of their parents.
The philosophy of life which all Cambrian Associations try to foster is expressed in the Gorsedd prayer which follows:
"Grant, O God! Thy protection; And in protection, strength; And in strength, understanding; And in understanding, knowledge; And in knowledge, a perception of rectitude; And in perception of rectitude, the love of it; And in that love, the love of every existance; And in the love of every existance, the love of God; God and all goodness."
A new type of festival is to be held in Salt Lake City September 3rd and 4th, 1949. It is the National Gymanfa Ganu�Welsh sacred song festival. For centuries it has been held in Wales, for 18 years it has been held in parts of the United States but this will mark the first time it has been held on a National scale west of Chicago.
�Mrs. Esther Jenkins Carpenter[p.53]
President Brigham Young and his associates were ever zealous in promoting home manufacture. In his message to the legislature January 1852, he said:
"Deplorable indeed must be the situation of that people whose sons are not trained in the practice of every useful avocation and whose daughters mingle not in the hive of industry?. Produce what you consume; draw from the native elements the necessities of life; permit no vitiated taste to lead you into indulgence of expensive luxuries, which can only be obtained by involving yourselves in debt. Let home industry produce every article of home consumption."
He was convinced that the soil and climate were well adapted to silk culture; and when Governor of Utah in 1855 ordered supply of mulberry seed from France. In a few years fifty acres of mulberry trees were planted in orchards or groves, some in the suburbs of Salt Lake and other towns. Numerous shade trees were in the yards and on the sidewalks of the city. From that time mulberry trees have been grown in all parts of the Territory, in nearly every town and village, and they have flourished luxuriantly. It is estimated that there were at least two hundred and fifty acres of mulberry trees in Utah. Several cocooneries were built, and silk worms were imported from France and Italy, and later some were procured from the Agricultural Department at Washington, D.C.