New-York daily tribune., 1858-09-06


its mother. But neither Of them trayersed an alle
CATION incorporated into the writ from the plain
tiff + petition that Jane Mayer was Mr.. Richards :
wife. Advantage might have been taken oi tins by
the plaintiff counsel to contend that the return of
Mr.. Richards was the return also OF hls wife, for
upon leave TO amend being granted by the Court,
the defendants by their counsel declined to alter
either return. ] cite this incident merely to show
how inevitably the social system of the Mormons
must be subjected to judicial scrutiny. 1t Will be
impossible for any intelligent Judge to be sent here
! by any Administration who can avoid " lnterer-
ence with poygamy" by any means except NAL
| feasance in Office.
August 6, ls5S.
rode yesterday to the cemetery. 1t is situated
just outside the city wall on the slope of a noun
tain about mile northeast from Brigham Young's
house. A cobbe-stOne wall surrounds il, like
! the wall of Fort Bridger, or those around Brig
| hams and Hebers squares. The ground is unduat-
| ing and is traversed by one or two deep eulies.
The soil is parchcd and friable and the only vege
tation is melancholy crop of weeds, conspicuous
among which are stunted sun-fowers, whose leaves
were dropping laDguidly in the heat of the fore
noon. There is not tree, nor hardly a shrub to
| enlivcn the incOslre, which embraces ten acres.
The disproporton of deaths of adults to those of
children, which has been made subject of COM
ment by almost every writer on Mormonism, is es-
pecally noticeable. Considerably more than half
the inscriptions seem 10 be to the memory of chill
dren under four years of age Many of the graves
are marked by headstones, cut from the same rock
from which is quarried the stone used for building
the Temple, but iour-fiths of them are indicated
only 10y rough board on which is scrawed rudely
with pencil or paint, the name and age of the de-
ceased, and line of poetry verse from the
Bible. Among all the Inscriptions did not notice
n single quotation from the Book of Mormon.
There are singular devices on some of the grave
stones one, q crown supported on each side by
three triangles another, three legs arranged as
Ia make figure like a catfish, (the coat or legs
Of-arms of the Isle of Man, On the headboard of
the grave of young girl is pretly painted bOquet
Of roses. On the stone which marks the grave ofa
blacksmith who superlntended workshop in the
Temple square, is sculptured an anvil and ham
mer.
One of the most conspicuous graves is that of
James NJ. MunrOe. who murdered in ISL on
yellow Creek, about 20 miles from Salt Lake City,
by Howard Egan, one of the MOrmons who accom-
panied Col. Kane TO the States. Munroe had had
improper intercourse with one of Egan's wives
during the absence of the latter mission.
Egan was tried for murder before Judge Snow in
October 1851 and was acquitted. Ii was in his
argument on that OCCASION in behalf OF the prison.
er, that George A. Smith, one OF the apostles and
the historian Of the church, employed the following
language:
"The principle the only one that beats and throbs
through the heart of the entire inhabitants ofhS Ter
rtory, is simply this the who seduces his neigh
bor wife must die, and her nearest relative must kill
him.
If Howard Egan did kill James Munroe, it was in
accordance with the established principles of justice
he
style Of old Israel that the nearest relation would be
at hs heels TO fulfill the requirements of justice
" | viii say here, in our own Territory we are the
sovereign people aud to seduce the wife of citizen Is
death 10y the common law"
Were a iuryman | would lie in the iuryroom
until the worms should draw me through the key-hole
doing an act Of justice, for the neglect of which he
would have been damned in the eyes Of the whole com
munity.'
The vicssitudes Uncomfortable and the perils of
emigration across the plains are recorded in many
such inscriptions as these: KILLED by Indians"
Drowned while trying TO rescue mother and
" six children from the Weber River"
There are many instances of bad spelling and
worse grammar. Angels is often written "angles"
on headboard and thou though" and beautiful
"bewtyful." hut the inscriptions are, on the
whole indicative of modest and pious feeling.
There is. however, a total neglect of the graves
after the bodies are once consigned To them. Not
q shrub or a flower has been planted anywhere by
an aflectiOnaie hand. few lots are inclosed by
paEngs. The principal one of these is that of
Marshal DOtSOn, III the corner of the cemetery.
which is assigned ~ the Geutiles, between whose
dust and that of the MormOns there seems to exist
a distinction like that which is made in Catholic
countries between the ashes of faithful churchmen
and of heretics, Or in Turkey between the Moham-
edan and the Gaour. In this lot Judge Shaver is I
buried-the only Judge ever IN the Territory up 10
the time of the present appointments, who seems
10 have commanded the regard OF all parties His
inscription reads:
" In memory OF Hon. Leonidas Shaver, born in Alb
ingdou, Washington County, Virginia died in Great
Salt Lake City June - 1852 in the 32nd year of his
age On the 3lst of August, 1852, he was appointed
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States, IN and for the Territory of Utah Though the
youngest of te United States Judges in Utah. he dis
charged the duties Of his Office aud those Of citizen
with honor to himself and 10 the satisfaction of the
community, and having lived worthy Of respect aud
esteem, died universally lamented."
sought in vain for the grave 0f Jedediah NJ /
Grant, the third member of the First Presidency
of the Church, who died two years sgo. Wherever
II msy be- II is certainly marked by no headstone.
l am told that funeral procession of Mormons
Is rarely seen. There is n hearse in the city bur
IT is seldom used. The dead are usually conveved
Ia burial in carriages. though sometimes ON a bier.
gentleman tells me that morning while loiier.
lhg there, he observed grave dug In the sd, of
one OF the swes Of ground and shortly after ss,va
man enter the cemetery, alone. carving little
coffin eli his shoulder which he proceeded IN Inv
in II. Ii was the body of one uf the man. o,,n
children, and the isther was too poor to afford any
funeral rites.
But this barren cemetery contains bur A small
proportion of all who, according 10 the Normops
have died in the Lord" Along the thon.snd
miles OF road from the Missouri River 10 this Val
/. -. Il