Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-06-13
z,,.. tho 81. Louis Republican, May 2s.

From the St. Louis Republican, May 26. {
TUE MORMON TRAGEDY IN ARKANSAS.
TIE EEr MpEESgYNG DETAILS OF THE CIRCUM-
ST.NrES OF ELDER PRATTS DEATH.
Die :, nossesson of all the particulars in the
onf tbe Mormon Apostle, Elder Farley Parker
prati submit the following facts in ADDITION 70
THAT YOU have already published. The following
srtcle from the New Orleans Bulletin OF december
i9, 1856, is, with the exception OF Few an'.spo,
t.nt items a correct statement OF the case as lar Is
it goes:
oWs became acquainted few days since with a
short history of certain transactions partly IN TINS
city and partly out of it which affords very air
illustration of the practical effect OF their oeauu
,st,n IF imposture which is shedding its lights and
sbodows upon the tops of the Western mountains
Possibly our readers may be interested in h-esPe'
sally if thew should ever, in the mutations OF the
future, be thrown within the valley where the Upas
sheds its poison and reveals the CHASTITY carcasses
which strew the ground, they may perhaps be ena'
bled to turn it to practical use.
With this object in view, we will briefly state the
circumstances to which We alude, suppressng names
for the reason that of those affected, and most
erievousy affected by those circumstances, are OF
our own citizens and to whom We would tender our
profoundest sympathies A few years since gen.
temen, his wife, and three infant children like thou
of the Pacific the husband and the wife dreaming
doubtless that in the land of the shining ore they
should soon realise fortune for themselves ana
their children The lady, we may premise, possessed
more than an ordinary share of intellect, which
had been cultivated in highly respectable degree
by the care of fond and doting parents who little
thought of the use to which that intellect would IN
after years. be devoted, how that devotion would
be repaid. Alas they can feel "how sharper than
a serpent's tooth is thankless child, or one that
bringsthem sorrow instead of joy.
The family is settled in San Francisco. Some time
afterwards the gentleman and his wife, in connec'
ton with brother of the latter, CHANGED to step
in on Sunday to hear Mormon missionary from
Utah, who was holding forth in San Francisco
They were prevented by the bad weather and walk.
ing from attending their usual place of worship and
as the house where the Mormon was speaking hap
pened to be in their way, they concluded after leav-
ing home, and from mere curiosity to 60 IN ana
hear him. Fatal curiosity! inauspicious day!-
What the particular subject of the discourse was
which they heard we not advised. After COM
ing out, the husband and brother expressed Them
selves very freely upon the merits OF what they had
heard and pronounced some of it little, if any, short
of blasphemy To the utter establishment Of botb
however the wife and sister expressed herself high
ly pleased with it. AS probable solution of such
mystery, We may say, before proceeding further,
that it subsequently turned that she had heard
Mormon missionary while young lady residing
in one Ct the river towns in Mississippi. Polygamy
was at that time carefully concealed from the out
side Gentiles by the apostles of 10 Smith, and stout
ly denied. Probably the young lady was fascinated
by the romance which the Mormon may have skill
fully woven into the discourse, and seeds OF blast
ing ruin, thus lodged in her mind spring to frsc-
y and bear apples of Sodom to turn to ashes in the
tasting many days after. Be this it may, the la.
dy soon became strongly attached to the Mormon
faith, and went frequently if not constantly to hear
its apostle. In a short time he had acquired suff-
cient influence over to cause her to resolve to quit
her husband-if he would not accompany her-aud
repair to the grand rendezvous of the Latter Day
Saints, they style themselves at Salt Lake City.
The determination once taken, nothing could dis
suade her from her purpose. But the children, what
was to become of them? The mother devoted
ly, passionatey attached to them, and she was de-
ternined 10 take them with her. The father and
brother both became alarmed. 10 prevent her from
going they knew we'll to be impossible, but they
solved to save the children from the yawning gulf
which was about opening to receive them; and in
pursuance of this resolution they determined to send
them to the grand parents in this city. They were
therefore taken when the mother absent, placed
ON board steamer and safely reached New Orle-
ans, and were soon under the loving care and hos
pitable roof their grand parents.
Who, however, can battle or circumvent deter
mined woman, fanatic though she be, when her feel
lgs her pride and her Affection all combine to spur
her on to the accomplishment of her object? The
very next steamer that sailed brought that mother
to this city, chatting like an enraged tigress whose
young have been torn from her. Her parents, who
had been made aware of the circumstances, now de-
termneG that she should not take her children from
them, and that if she was bent upon booming her
self to destruction, she should drag her innocent
babes down into the foul abyss with her.
We pass over the struggles, the watchings that
ensued in this city little more than one ear ago
on the part of the grand parents Of those beautiful
children of some Ten or twelve summers, to keep
the mother from taking them to Utah, and of her
efforts to obtain possession of them for that purpose
Suffice it to say, for the time being she failed. How
completely her whole soul had become wrapped up
in the gross and disgusting deception which had
seized upon her like giant, the reader can judge
when we tell him that rather than relinqush join
ing the vile horde which contaminate the air of
Great Salt Lake by their Nominations she actually
tore herself from the children of her heart and went
without them.
She did not, however, abandon her purpose
Finding herself bafed for the time being, she deter.
mined to change her tactics the more certain to
cure at future day what she could not then effect.
She went to Salt Lake City via St. Louis, and her
parents had the melancholy satisfaction to kno that
If she was lost to them her children at least
safe. These brother and sister, under the bounti-
full and fostering care which they received, budded
like the opening rose beneath the sweet and genial
influences of the Southern Spring.
They heard nothing more of her till one day last
week, when they were struck almost dumb with
amazement by her entrance into the family mansion
We pass over what followed, as the reader can much
better imagine than we describe it. She had been
to Utah, had been teacher there, had boarded at
Gov: Brigham Young 's-only boarded-had seen
much suffering there from famine, and had seen also
the error OF her ways. Said she had been mad, had
now left the Mormons. and had come to live with
her parents and her children, and to do what she
could to make them happy. She asked them to re-
store her once more to their confidence.
Of course the delight of her parents was bound
less She did not profess however, to have renoun.
ced Mormonism, but wished not to return to Utah,
ana SUI, INSISTED that the Mormons were good peo-
pie, and Brigham and his associates in office true