# Utah and the Mormons/Chapter 17

CHAPTER XVII.
* Efforts to make female Converts.
* Mode of conducting public Worship.
* Sermon by Parley P. Pratt.
* Schools.
* Deseret News.
* Doctor Richards.
* Deseret Almanac, by W. W. Phelps.
* Language used in public Discourses.
The design of the leading Mormons in gathering their followers into one place was, as will readily be seen, to isolate them from the rest of mankind, and thus the more easily to subject them to their government. Polygamy, though at first introduced for the sole reason that the prophet Smith was a licentious man, is now sought to be extended as a matter of policy, because it renders this isolation the more complete. The man in Utah who becomes a polygamist becomes a fixture, because he is then still more unfit for any other community. In reference to this policy, the Mormon missionaries make especial efforts to gain female converts, esteeming success in this work paramount even to the acquisition of wealthy disciples. When, however, they manage to obtain a lodgment in a family where girls and money both abound, they re​gard themselves in pursuit of a prize for which they will put forth their best exertions. Such a family transferred to Salt Lake City is an object of great consideration. The wealth of the father speedily finds its way into the coffers of the Church, and the daughters are in due time distributed among the high-priests, or have the proud distinction of starting new harems.
Out of the pale of this singular society, it is often a matter for marvel that, in an age which is regarded the most enlightened since the creation of the world, men and women who have been accustomed to the usages of civilized life should remain the passive subjects of such a despotism. But the true Mormon knows little or nothing of what is going on outside of the rim of the Great Basin, except that which is derived from pulpit discourses, and the newspapers and publications which belong to his own faith. All the means of instruction within those boundaries are made instrumental in holding the consciences and bodies of the Saints in subjection. They are generally a churchgoing people. In Salt Lake City, their congregations on the Sabbath are from 2500 to 3000, which, in a population of 8000, is a large proportion.
Their devotional exercises have their peculiarities, though generally resembling those of other communities. Their discourses on these occasions are mostly stereotyped, and are made up of histories of their persecutions, and a description of the glorious destiny in store for the Saints. The reader shall have one of the most favorable specimens, which occurred on Sunday, the 9th of January, 1853.
In the miscellaneous department we find such scraps as these:
"Union.
"The experience of ages shows that 'union' makes heaven eternal, because the sun-lit, moon-tinged, starry hosts above are as they were from the beginning. ​Now I wish and pray for the 'Saints,' as they gather from the nations of the earth, to come to the same union. When this globe was organized, the 'waters were gathered into one place;' so, when we view the Great Basin, we see the waters from all points of the compass run to the centre, or Great Salt Lake, and there is no 'outlet,' but a specimen of union as to coming together, and preservation as to salt. Here, then, let every Saint preserve the union by bringing and manufacturing all that is needed, and not 'casting their pearls before swine,' by buying goods of Japheth's merchantmen, who run back to their 'sties' in the East, O eh, O eh, O eh! how easy we made $500,000 out of the d—d Mormons by charging five hundred per cent. Don't take that pitcher to the well again—'tis cracked! 'Let the dead bury their dead,' or let the world cheat the world; but, Saint, keep thyself unspotted from the world!"
"Hints for Humanity.
"A family hell—a smoky house, a wife never suited, and a few ragged urchins playing cards and scratching their heads.
"Paradise lost—a beautiful girl, after having tasted. of the good word of God, with a prospect of the 'powers to come,' that runs away and marries a 'tare of the field.'"
The General Conference meets every six months, in April and October, which is a general meeting of the Church, and on which occasions speeches are made and sermons delivered. Lectures are also occasionally delivered before the "Female Health Society," an association for the promotion of health, in which the mysteries of curing disease by miraculous agency are more particularly descanted upon. The language of their discourses on devotional, business, and festive occasions, is often low, filthy, obscene, profane, and brutal to a degree shocking to Gentile ears.
In the summer of 1851, Brigham Young delivered a discourse intended to use up the doctors, in which, in vulgar and obscene language, he undertook to show that he was as well acquainted with the different parts of the human body as professional men. One phrase, in particular, has passed into the dignity of "household words." He said he knew that "women had legs, &c., &c., as well as the doctors." The dialect of the blackguard is so common to Brigham as to excite very little attention. In a speech of his, published in the "Deseret News" of April 2d, 1853, against the Gladdenites, such phrases as these occur: "Nasty, sneaking apostate;" "nasty little Smith and his wife;" "go to hell across lots;" "nasty, stinking ribbons." The Governor has a large harem, and sure no one can dispute his full appreciation of the meaning of the word "nasty."
​During the same summer that Brigham used up the doctors, a party of pleasure, men and women, resorted to the top of "Ensign Peak," and, among others, was an address delivered by W. W. Phelps, in which he went on to enlighten the mothers and daughters in Israel as to the proper time and manner in which the work of generation should be carried on, with a minuteness of detail and vulgarity of language which could scarcely have been more broad had he denuded himself by way of illustration. This reached the climax of Mormon obscenity in public speaking, and is often used by way of comparison. When any thing a little richer than common has been elicited, it is said to be almost equal to "Phelps's sermon on the Mount." So much remark was made about it at the time, that he reported the speech for the Deseret News, in which, though bad enough, the grosser portions are omitted.