The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-05 00:00:00

• -- -
The WOMEN of UTAH and POLYGAMY.

' The women of Utah to the number of 22,626, have pre-
sented to Congress an extraordinary memorial, praying the
repeal of all legislation against polygamy, and the admission
of Utah as a State in the Union. Subjoined is a copy of this
memorial:—

Your memorialists, women of Utah, prompted by a
due sense of justice, and inconsideration of those equal
rights so long the proud boast of American citizens,
hereby appeal to your,honourable body, praying you to
grant our petition as shall be herein specified.
"We, rts a people, are willing to submit to and do
strictly obey the constitution and laws of these United
States, as handed down Jo- us by the fathers of our
country, and we do earnestly pray that you will re-
peal the Anti-Polygamy Law of 18G2; also the bill
known as the Poland Bill, both being special and un-
constitutional measures, directed against the people of
Utah, holding the peace and happiness of our lives in
constant jeopardy by imperilling the safety of our
husbands and fathers, by daily and hourly subjecting
them to danger of arrest and imprisonment, which
would deprive no not only of their society but also of
. their. snppoft.and protecticaa. , - - • •
To you, the executives of a great and a powerful
mation; we appeal for protection against these cruel
and oppressive measures, which have shorn our glorious
Constitution of its efficacy, and us of every protection
• but the overruling power of God. We ask to be re-
lieved from the unjust and law-breaking officials
forced upon Us by the Government, and that we may
have the jurisdiction of our own courts and the selection
of our own officers as we had ,in the past, when our
cities were free from dramshops, gambling dens, and
houses of infamy.
A 3 mothers and sisters, we earnestly appeal to you
for help that our sons and brothers may be saved from
drunkenness and vice, and our daughters from the
power of the seducer.
Also, that all laws shall be repealed that will re-
strict us in our religious faith, inasmuch as the Con-
stitution emphatically says "Congress 01%11 make no
law respecting an establishment Of religion or in pro-
hibiting the free exercise thereof." Also, "No reli-
gious tests shall ever be required as a qualification to
any office or public trust under the United States."
And in accordance with our sacred Constitution,
which was bequeathed as a protective boon by our
forefathers, guaranteeing the right of conscience, we,
your memorialists, do humbly pray that no bill or act
shall have the sanction of your _honourable body that
shall in any way conflict or interfere with the belief in
and practice of plural marriage as it is practised by
many of the citizens of Utah, and which most of your
petitioners have adopted as a portion of their religious
faith in all sincerity, believing it to be neces.ary, not
only in remedying evils and providing good in our
present existence, but that without it man cannot
hereafter attain to a fulness of exaltation.
We also ask that each married woman in Utah be
granted the right to homestead, or pre-empt, 160 acres
of land in her own name.
Also, that the citizens of Utah have the rieht to use
for their own benefit the timber growing on Govern-
ment land in Utah, which has been forbidden by the
Government officials to our great detriment, thereby
depriving us of necessary material for building habita-
tions and otherwise improving our homes.
And, furthermore, we do most earnestly pray that
Utah be admitted as a State, with all the rights and
privileges guaranted to every State in this great Re-
public.
•__ _ _

That God, in His mercy, will direct the legislation of
your honourable body that we may promptly receive
the aid we solicit at your hands, your memorialists
will ever pray.
Not one of the 22,626 signMures to this memorial has
been obtained either by enticement or coercion, and no
one under twelve years of age has been permitted to
sign.
6alt Lake City, Dec. 17, 1875.• •4•`-
_ .

41,-,ECLIPSES OF THE BUN.

As regards the eclipses of the sun, it is only too well
jinown by this .time that Something like a-generation
,annst elapse before the almanac maker will be able to
(says .t lagev SiisTtiabiliiencttai
label a firat-class event as "visible at -Greenviich"
•
rioratin
interest
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, past, and now we are lucky if we get 'an observation of
' more than three or four "digits" of the solar surface.
This is all the more provoking; because the 'eclipse of
the 25th of March next is to be of a very peCilliar and
rare kind. It is announced •as an annular eclipse,"
but in any case the golden circle will be as thin as a
• long-worn wedding ring, and Nature suggests that at a
particular sp3t in the North Pacific Ocean—to wit
longitude 140 deg. 16 min. west of Greenwich, and
latitude 35 deg. 39 mm. north, or thereabout, the
phenomenon will be the very rare one called "total
without continuance.". In other words, for the twink-
ling of an eye the image of the moon, being here of
exactly tbe same size as that of the sun will be
exactly superimposed upon it. But the annoyance of
people of advanced civilisation cannot but be increased
at learning upon whom the annular eclipse is to be
wasted. roe nearest approach to civilisation -will be
Vancouver's Island and British Columbia but even
there it is to be feared that smoked glass be the
.chief instrument of observation: For the rest the -
,Sandwich Islands wiD get a sight of it, and its central
line will pies close by CaPtain CoOk's monnment: All
else will be wasted in the North Pacific. It ding cer-
itainly e ein to dna for remark that 'just' as we have
brought our instruments for observation into a state
of something like perfection, it should become neees•
ear), to go something more than halfway round the
world to get at the chance of seeing a respectable
eclipse. 4ll

TRUTH OFTEN SPOKEN IN JEST.—Doctor
Graham, a celebrated quack, while holding forth on
his stage at Chelmsford, in order to promote the sale of
his medicine, told the people that he came there for
their good, and not for want. Then, addressing his
Merry Andrew, "Andrew," said he, "do we come
here for want ?"—" No, faith, sir," replied Andrew;
" we have enough of that at home.

1. boa letiiye

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