# Wife No. 19/Chapter 8
### CHAPTER VIII.
#### TROUBLES UNDER THE NEW SYSTEM.

* The Sorrows of My Uncle.
* "It's a Hopeless Fix."
* A Woman's Argument about Polygamy.
* My Mother "labors" with a First Wife.
* Wife No. 2 "Walks Off."
* Marrying a Widow and her Two Daughters.
* Mrs. Webb becomes a Wife No. 2.
* Wife No. 1 throws Brickbats into the Nuptial Chamber.
* She clears the Field of Extra Wives.
* "Building up the Kingdom."
* The Atrocious Villanies of Orson Pratt.
* How he has Seduced Innocent Girls.
* Brigham's Nephew Rebels.
* Trouble in the Prophet's Family.
* Forgetting a Wife's Face.
* A Woman who liked Polygamy.
HERE was literally no end to the muddles in which the Mormon people found themselves while trying to adjust their polygamous affairs.
In our own family it was very smooth sailing, as there were no superfluous members to be accounted for, and the two wives made the best of their unfortunate situation. But the same peace did not prevail in all families. I remember one family quite well where affairs were strangely mixed, and in which the wife exhibited a most amusing inconsistency.
A brother of my father, Milo Webb, had married a very pretty and agreeable woman in Illinois, who was perfectly ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/149 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/150 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/151 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/152 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/153 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/154 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/155 ​"Build up the kingdom, build up the kingdom," has always been the watchword of polygamy. At Nauvoo it was whispered into the ears of those who were considered strong enough in the faith to receive it unquestioningly, but in Utah it is hurled indiscriminately at all alike. "Build up the kingdom, whether you can support it or not," is the almost literal teaching. The pecuniary condition of a man is never taken into consideration. He is expected to take as many wives as he can support, then take a few more to support themselves and their children.
The Apostle Orson Pratt is one of the most persistent polygamists in Utah, and he has nothing to give his wives for their maintenance. They struggle on as best they may, striving in every way to earn a scanty sustenance for themselves and their children. Some of them live in the most wretched squalor and degrading poverty. He, in the mean while, goes on foreign and home missions, and gathers thousands of unsuspecting victims to "Zion." Polygamy is his favorite subject, and he grows very eloquent while. discoursing upon it, quoting Scripture freely in support of The Apostle Orson Pratt,"The Champion of Polygamy." the glorious system, — which, by the way, is the only support he does give it, or that he feels it his duty to afford. After he has once converted and married a girl, she is left to shift for herself, or to starve and die of neglect. Two, at least, have met this fate, — one a very pretty English girl, who was starved, body and heart, and who, with her little children, died from exposure, while her husband was at Salt Lake, being "entertained" by some of his rich brothers in the church.
​He is still the recognized defender of the gospel of polygamy, and is quoted by every one as an authority; his numerous and more pressing duties prevent his caring for his family, and nowhere in Utah are the wives more wretched or neglected, or children more ignorant and uncared for, than the wives and children of Orson Pratt, the eloquent expounder of the beauties and glories of a polygamous life, and the best educated and most able man, intellectually, in Utah.
Another polygamist of the same stamp is Joseph Young, brother to Brigham, and President of the Seventies. He has busied himself in "building up his kingdom" ever since Joseph Smith gave him that precious piece of counsel in Nauvoo. When he was a young man, he married a girl, and lived very happily with her until he learned from the Prophet Joseph that it was not only his privilege, but his duty, to enlarge his kingdom more speedily by marrying more wives.
His first acquisition was a young widow, who listened assentingly to his proposals of a "celestial marriage," and soon after entered his family as a second wife. However, the marriage with her did not avail him much, as she could only be his for time. Her former husband died a Mormon, Joseph Young, Brother of Brigham, and President of the Seventies. and she and her children would belong to him in eternity.
He was past the prime of life, feeble in health, and compelled to accept the support of his brethren; yet all this did not deter him from doing what was required of him by his Prophet. About the time that he married the widow, he took a young girl for his third wife, who was supposed to be his, and his ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/158 ​This paper was of course offensive to Brigham, containing, as it did, some unpleasant truths regarding himself and other authorities in the church, and he determined to put a stop to its publication. Accordingly he sent for his brother Joseph, and said, on his arrival, —
"I want that 'Daily Press' suppressed."
Joseph "did not know how it was to be done."
"I want you to use your influence with your son to accomplish my wish," demanded Brigham.
"I cannot do it," said his brother; "my son will do as he likes."
Brother Brigham grew angry. "You must put a stop to the printing of that paper; I will not endure the annoyance from it any longer."
Joseph's spirit rose to the occasion. If Brigham was his superior in the church, he was also a younger brother, and he didn't like his peremptoriness of manner; so he quietly answered, —
"I shall do nothing more about it than I have done. I have said all to my son that is necessary, and if he does not wish to follow my advice, he can go his own way, and act according to his own judgment; I most certainly shall not interfere."
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