# Wife No. 19/Chapter 36
### CHAPTER XXXVI.
#### BREAKING THE YOKE. — I LEAVE MY HOME.

* The Workings of Destiny.
* A Noble Lawyer.
* A Small Stove and a Large Family.
* Last Interview with Brigham.
* A Startling Proposal.
* Sickness and Gentile Care.
* Brigham's Police.
* A Moral Thunderbolt.
* My Third Baptism.
* A Religious Farce.
* I Decide to Escape.
* A Memorable Day,
* Removing in Forty Minutes.
* The Walker House.
* Among the Gentiles.
* A Perilous Situation.
* New Hopes.
* Interviewed by Reporters.
* Unwelcome Notoriety.
* A Touching Letter.
* A Visit from my Father.
* The Paper War.
* Overshooting the Mark.
* Sueing for a Divorce.
* A Tempting Offer, $15,000 and my Freedom.
* The Prophet Astonished.
Alone at the Hotel.FTER a person has made up his or her mind to take any step in a new direction, it seems as though every event of the life points the same way. It is almost as if decision had been forced upon him, and the course of action was inevitable.
It was but a very few days after my first memorable visit to Mr. and Mrs. Stratton, when I received in my family a gentleman and his wife by the name of Hagan. Mr. Hagan was a lawyer of considerable repute in Salt Lake City, and I found both himself and his wife very pleasant inmates of my home.
My family had increased so, that it was quite impossible to do the necessary amount of cooking on the very small ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/565 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/566 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/567 ​in my resolution, else I might have faltered in my new determination. My plans were quickly laid, and with the assistance of the friends whom I had found in this hour of trouble, were carried into instant execution, before they could be discovered by Mormon spies.
On the 17th of July, 1873, I sent all my furniture to an auction-room, leaving my house stripped and desolate. It was done so quickly that no one had time even to suspect Carrying my Furniture to the Auction Room. my intention. Arrangements having been previously made, three furniture vans came at the same time, and in forty minutes my entire household goods were in charge of the auctioneer. They were sold the next day, and I realized three hundred and eighty dollars from the sale. The furniture was worth almost nothing, being old and worn, and of common quality at its best; but my friends bought it at large prices, "to help the young apostate," as the Tribune said.
​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/569 ​and endanger their lives and their home. So I sought the only place of refuge open to me with untold fear and dread.
I laid awake all night wishing for the day to dawn, yet fearing that I should never see it; and when the first ray of light came through my windows I was relieved and hopeful.
With morning came a new excitement. The news of Excitement in Salt Lake City. my flight from home had gone abroad, and the morning papers were full of it, — the Mormon journals abusing, the Gentile journals praising and congratulating me. This part of the experience had never suggested itself to me. It had never occurred to me that it would be made a public matter, and I shrank from the very thought. I felt myself a marked object. Reporters called on me, seeking interviews for the California, Chicago, and New York papers, and questioned ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/571 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/572 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/573 ​Page:Wife No 19.djvu/574