Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-05-27
UTAH-A TERRIBLE SOCIAL PICTURE.
Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune.


GREAT SALT LAKE CRY, Feb. 2, 1857.
Messrs. Gerrish and Morrell arrived here in
the middle of last month, direct from the
States; they had been long time on the way
and had endured many hardshps and priva-
tions; they had been exposed to extreme cold,
and narrowly escaped being overwhelmed and
buried by the tremendous snow storms that
rage in the mountain passes; nevertheless
with indomitable perseverance they overcam
all obstacles and arrived safely in this CITY,
They brought us the extremely welcome news
that United States Marshall had been appoin-
ted from among the Gentle residents of the
Territory, and it is some consolation for us
and the converted Mormons who have endured
the most atrocious and horrible outrages that
dcvilish minds and hands could devise and ex-
ecute, to think that although We have been so
long neglected the Government is doing some
thing to relieve us at last.
Shut in, as we are, from the world at large
by the SHOWS of Winter, and unprotected by
even the show of judiciary, the heads of the
Church have been enabled to perpetrate against
us every species of crime and cruelty. Cen
tiles have been robbed of valuable property;
ted with the fiendsh rites of the ssSaints,''
have been outraged and murdered and even
women, who have presumed to rebel against
the commands of the misnamed Church, have
been mercilessy prosecuted, and driven from
house to house, until they were compelled to
yield to the brutal demands of their tyrants or
seek refuge from them in snicide. On Christ
mas night a young woman cut her throat, as
the only way in which she could escape from
the more terrible fate that plainly awaited her.
Self-destrrction by the less violent means of
laudanum is very common. There is class
Of young girls who, too tmid to resort TO ex-
treme measures, are driven to become the con-
cubnes of the loathsome vl,prs who pretend
to be the ssSaints'' of God. Their hopes and
happiness are forever blasted, and the con-
sciousness of their degradation is continually
gnawing into their hearts OF this the follow
ing is melancholy instance. A man named
Nash came to this Territory last Fall, bringing
with him his daughter, lovely and beautiful
girl of seventeen summers. lie settled ut
Provo, town sixty miles south of this city,
and in consequence of her great beauty, his
daughter was much desired by many of the
vile polygamists. She succeeded. however
in escaping them all until the death of her fa-
ther, her only protector, which happened in
early winter. The funeral rites were perform
ed by Bishop Carter, who; after finishing his
prayer over the newly-made grave, turned to
the heart-broken maiden and roughly told her
that she must now become his wife. The gen
tie girl, left friendless, and seeing no place
wherein she could take refuge and escape
condition she so much dreaded, was obliged
to YIELD and is now doomed to a life of sor-
row and dishonor. She is Carter's seventh
victim. What an amount of blood and tears
of agony will call for judgment against pow
erfui Government, which has knowingly per-
mitted such villainy and outrage to continue
four years unchecked within its jurisdictiou
One of the principal features of Mormonism
is the constant endeavor of the rulers to make
the women mere creatures of passion, and
slaves of their VIII. Tho barriers of modesty
and virtue are ovcrthrown by them in all their
discourses, and all refinement and elegance are
studiously obliterated. They glory, as Heber
G. kimball says, s'in calling things by their
sc right Names" 1t was only a few Sundays
ago that Kimball, in the presence of between
two and three thousand people, delivered
discourse on the intercourse OF the sexes, in
which he made use of language too obscene
and vulgar for the most degraded to utter, lit
erary calling things by their right names
Frequently, to further their villainous designs
they accuse women by name. in the ssward
meetings." of being prostitutes, thus making
them lose all self-rcspect, and inducing them
more easily, as they see there is no incentive
to chastity, to yield to their opportunities. A
certain Bishop in this city took fancy to his
neighbor's wife, beautiful woman. Finding
that she was too pure to consent TO his sugges-
tions, he determined to effect his purposes by
other means. He told her husband that his
wife was unfaithful, and that he knew she had
often been visited by other men while he fthe
husband) was absent; and added, that he would
not have his ward defiled by the presence of
such woman, and unless he turned his wife
away his house would lie pulled down over his
head. The husband, influenced either by the
slanderous tale, or intimdated by the more
powerful threat, discarded his wife, when the
bishop Immediately proposed to her to come
into his family, which she Indignantly refused,
and took refuge in the house of an acquaint-
ance. The Bishop, however, was not to be
foiled so easily. He compelled all the fami-
lies who sheltered her to turn her away, until
the poor woman in her anguish appealed to
Brigham's sympathes, and begged him to pro-
tect her from her prosecutor. But Brigham
ddrised her to be 'ssealed'' to the Bishop, and
t.,