The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-02 00:00:00

Po ° ',ll ll ' to P e to 110 39; Ban gr e pre' ;s4• r . :_e_f_,l , ND ,abt MRS. SIGOURNEY. ale Z i . 1? b -ci P - 2- 4 , w s. ratan J e 4, 04 _ t ...._____ Orin Ya,./ he Mormons. A Narrative 11 Elder e4perienee. By the Wife of a titled er, ree , Iv, ge and' Co, nt ly from Utah. London I L of th e ~ ki as • golo s i o *. i o l otelli o . I la Which have arisen to mock iety aPtepoetence of the nineteenth century l ' c 'ael i - ' 11(1 atr o 1:°1-18 impudence, blasphemous 4. itedthe.oce.i,o4s wickedness, in any degree tet e 4 No 11 i n of the Mormon §irg e 4 % tiiitiiilla iniquities and soul-destroying ere,P2a, that attempt to describe, or to Itt o Filoo heitto' portion of the labour for its th e 2 , 0 10 re . hging more properly to . the , n ',. 1 % 4 . 'acred office than that exercised '' th e f. of a newspaper. The social boe . TIN' , pr . io n 'timately eti , ovi„ falls more leg' t il ` 4 e voi gee of the latter, and for this It th it ttiel e v,11.110 e whose title stands at the head itn:blackLl furnish ample materials to e . . t v4 tb C 0141,; etliOCe kor pi racy formed among eth of deeloou Prophet for the complete the dis er 11141 an ei leY, and the tyrannous indul ticiltare ofcl unbridled lust. 4t ) t ie appate Mormon . life, as it is here . ioh It itll, to carry In .glY graphic, and so fully in t - to the stated facts as kay 4e unprejudiced inquirer, however t eo e 811 °ek the moral sense, or how re ) P er it c , or e may appear to those feelings of e tr _ and conjugal endearment which „olagest bonds of civilised society The ,tli'le book claims general atte.ntion.from hadive personal experience which she has of Mormon rules I two most striking, as and habits. Of of hand revolting, are well as the most YPheritical the institution of a polygamy, and the practice, SUPPLEMENT TO 9r atlirrimli tantarbf ~~~ ,li.p• AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER. which has arisen out of it, of secret assassination. Of both these social pests the volume contains many striking illustrations. The polygamic sys tem was first promulgated secretly among them, and long denied. It now stands openly acknow ledged, and ifs baneful effets are seen in many an episode told by the wife of the Mormon Elder. Take the following ILLUSTRATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WIFE SYSTEM. There was a man in the company named Peter Short, who, to excessive boorishness or manner, united a most repulsive countenance and forbidding disposition. He was extremely ignorant, having not even mastered the first rudiments of education. But, as might he expected, he was a great devotee, a firm believer in all the visions and miracles of the Prophet, and the firm adherent of all his doctrines. Peter, though already possessing a wife and ten children, seemed to have beer. already struck with the pensive grace and beauty of Ellen. He seemed never to weary of gazing at her, or talking to her, though it was equally perceptible that she loathed and hated him. She rarely looked towards him, answered his questions only by monosyllables, and otherwise manifested every symptom of dislike to him and his society. I had frequent opportuni ties for observing this, and it seemed to me, from the first, that some difficulty would grow opt of it. I was walking a little apart from the others, when Ellen came to me, pale as death, and trembling with agitatica. " Oh, Mrs. Ward !" she said, " I have come to you as the only person on earth in whom I can confide. What shall Ido P Can't you save me from this dreadful fate P" " What is it, Ellen ?" I said soothingly ; " what new trouble has happened to you P" " Oh, that horrible Peter Short! They certainly wish to kill me, or they would save me from him." "My near," said I, " compose yourself, and let me know the whole affair. _ _ _ " And the whole affair can to summed up in a few words. Peter Short has asked me )f Smith for his spiritual wife. Smith has consented, and now commands me to accept him as my husband in the fdth—him I loathe, and hate, and despise, as I never hated man before." "But your mother—cannot sle save you from this fate ?" "My mother is blinded and bigoted. She says that I must obey the commands of the Prophet, and that nothing that he orders can be wrong. But, it cannot be so. Has he not connived at murder, and deception, and all kinds of vice ? Has he not ruined me already, soul and body? Has he not made me a thing to be pitied and abhorred by the pure? But this has overflovn the cup. I might have borne the rest ; I might have hidden my shame and sorrow, and obtained peace and coltentment at last. But to be transferred from one villait to another, is awful— horrible !" " What do they mean by spiritual wife?" " You know Smith teaches that women can only be saved through their husbands; and that unmarried females must be ever debarred from the ?leasures of the blest. Consequently every woman must be provided with a spiritual husband. In that capacity, myself, Mrs. Cook, Mrs. Clarke, and Irene, have been the wives of Smith. Now he has tired of me. He will soon tire of them. Oh, misery !" . Greatly as I pitied the poor girl, it was impossible, under the circumstances, to give her advice; and so assuring her of my sympathy and friendship, and recom mending her to put off the evil day as long as possible, and that probably something might happen to prevent it altogether, I left her. The next morning Ellen was musing; and when search was made, her body was found in the cool depth of a pool that lay a short distance from the ercampment. They laid her out on the smooth green sward, and one after another came to look on the pale, sweet face, and touch the pallid hand. Smith came among the rest, and so did Peter Short. Yet the wan lips uttered no cry of vengeance against them ! the dim eyes no longer turned from their presence. She slept to wake no more. The spiritual wife doctrine was one of the charges brought against the Mormon iniquity from an early stage of its existence, and it was strenuously denied at first ; it is described, although not credited, by Dr. Charles Mackay, in his history of the " Mormons." " Higbee," one of the early leaders in this monstrous faith, de scribed his own ideas of the " spiritual wife " system. He said that "some of the elders had ten or twelve spiritual wives a-piece ; that they entered the names of the women in a large book _ _ which was kept sealed at Hyrum Smith's ; and that when an elder or other Mormon wanted to seduce a woman, he led her to see this book opened, where, if her name was found entered, she was told it.was the will of Heaven that she should submit, and she submitted accordingly." From the villanous system thus treacherously introduced much and fearful individual misery is frequently experienced, while crimes, if possible, blacker in the stain of their iniquity than that already quoted arise out of it. Unsuspecting female emigrants are trapped in their passage across the continent to Oregon, and having been made victims of one species of villany, are ulti mately sacrificed by another. Take as an example the following SUSPICIOUS AND REVOLTING CASE. A young and very prepossessing lady came with an emi grant train bound to Oregon. She became acquainted with a man, apparently a gentleman, who represented himself to her as being single, and possessing a large property. Other arts and intrigues were brought to bear upon her, and she finally consented to become his wife. The marriage took place in the morning, and the same day her friends resumed their journey. But judge of her con sternation and astonishment, on being conveyed to his home, to find it tenanted by a wife, whose appearance be tokened her a perfect tigress. She took no further notice of the new wife, than to order her into the kitchen, and bidding her remember that henceforth that was to be her place._ Julia looked at her husband. . . " Margaret is right," my dear," he said. " You must always obey her; indeed, on that condition only she con sented to my bringing you here." Julia was too deeply grieved to speak, and retired to the kitchen ; and from that hour a system of tyranny and cruelty was practised by the first wife on the second that almost exceeds belief. Julia applied to her husband in vain. " The wife's first duty was obedience," he said. " Obedience to yourself," suggested Julia. " Obedience to me comprises obedience to her likewise," answered the husband, because it is my command that you obey and serve Margaret ; but don't bother me with your fusses." And so Julia was constrained to perform all the household drudgery, and not unfrequently was subjected to physical punishment of a cruel and revolting kind. For though the rules of Mormondom actually forbid the exer cise of authority or punishment by one wife over another, the husband is at perfect liberty to suspend these rules any moment when he sees fit. Julia found the trials and miseries of her lot increasing every day, and she finally informed her husband that she had made up her mind to leave him with the first emigrant train that came along, and one was then expected every day. The husband approved her plan, and said that he would give her money, and seemed perfectly satisfied. But two or three evenings subsequently she disappeared, and was never seen or heard of afterwards. Nothing, however, was done about it. Some of the women ex pressed surprise, but were silenced by a Mormon elder, who assured them that Satan had carried her off bodily, because she presumed to be discontented with her happy lot among the children of God. Another source of mystery and terror in Utah, was the almost constant exercise of Lynch law; and of this, too. women were mostly the victims. Let a woman, if she dare, commit such acts as would be likely to bring poly gamy into disrepute, expose the weakness or sensuality of an elder, or manifest a disapprobation of the existing state of things, and some hideous punishment would be sure to be hers—when, where, or what, it would he impossible to tell, though none the less hideous and certain—that is, if it ever reached the ears of the elect and sanctified. In this respect matters daily, and almost hourly, grew worse. On our first arrival at Salt Lake, and some time .4 1)AI, LOST Losr lost ! lost ! A Re Cutm of countless Price, from the living rock, 41,11 %raved in Paradise ; . Set round with three i ~,,z clear and bright, Large di three timee eight Al'd eae,l with sixty smaller ones, All changeful as the li g h t. 141t -^where th e thoughtl ess throng In Fashions maze s wind. Where thrillet h Folly' s song Leaving a s ti ng behind ; Yet to my hand ,t was given A golden harp to buy, Such as the white -robed choir attune To deathless ninstrel4- Lost! lost! lost ! ~,,I feel all search is vain ; That %ern of countless cost Can tie'er be mine again I offer no reward * For till these heart-strins sever, kn°w that Heaven -entrusted gift Is nett away for ever. Bet when the sea and land Like burning scroll have fled, I'll see it in H is band Who judgeth quick and dead ; And when of scath and loss That man can ne'er repair, 'The dread inquiry m nay so What shall it answereets there? ul, -........---......___..........._