Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-10-14
Utah Correspondence of the Boston Traveller.
A Romance of Morfn onism.

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Touching the character and doings o
many of our Mormon friends, the following
may afford no inapt illustration. The ip
cident, as / call them to mind, were TOLD
to me by an officer of the Utah army, who
got his version direct from the chief char
acter herself, wha is little Swiss woman
with whom this officer happened to NEE,
in one of the cities of this delectable valley
As it appears by the statement of the wo
man, Of whose truthfulness her own fas
falling tears were the best evidence, in the
course of rela ion:-She was of well to
do and respectable family in Switzerland
so it CHANGED that in the course of his pc
regrinations, preacher of the mormon
faith hal come TO her locality, and was
holden forth in the doctrines of the prophe,
and martyr, Joseph. Among other things
he told of the power of the present pro-
phet, number two, which is to say Brig.
ham, to procure to living persons the vi
sion of dead friends or relations. The wo
man Esd but short time previous los,
both father and mother, and in her strong
love and eager desire TO behold again even
their imaged presence, though unsubstan-
tial as the air. she gave way to the argu-
ments brought, and became convert
Having inherited also something like fair
property from her parents, she became an
object of especial solicitude and interest to
the miserable vagrant and imposter to
whom, in an evil hour, she listened. Ev-
erything attractive to her fancy, or sooth-
ing to her deep hopes and desires, was de-
picted as pertaining to the Great Valley
of Salt Lake-the oasis of the Great Amer
ican Dese,t-lhe abiding place of the cho-
sen of the Great Being whose name was
thus blasphemed. This woman, in short,
determined to dispose of her substance, and
journey away to this spacious lands of pro-
mise. -...-..r II
Friends and relatives objected, but her
delusion was complete, and after securing
what she might for her property, she left
clandestinely and with others, took her way
hitberward. Arriving on her journey at
St. Louis, she purchased the usual outfit
for emigrants crossing the plains, inclu-
sive of pair of oxen and wagon, provi-
sions, clothing, DC. What, however, was
her surprise, ON obtaining all this, to be re-
quired, in evidence of faith, TO surrender to
the church whatever she had procured,
and take her way with a hand cart, to be
drawn or pushed forward by herself the
whole distance! In addition, she was invi-
,ad .x ona of tba or.,y of cooundrals how
ing charge of the expedition, to place in lis
hands for safe keeping her stock of jew
elry and small vaiuabies Of whatever de-
scription, not already appropriated BY her
excellent friends and advisers.
For more than eleven hundred miles,
then, over the hot aid barren plains, over
the wild mountains and through the wilder
gorges and conons-over. In short, all
that the army has traversed in its weary
march to Salt Lake Valley, this poor delu
ded woman pushed forward, with its load,
the miserable vehicle assigned to her. That
she persisted not upon the route, like many
another, can only be accounted for by the
strong faith, or more properly, the wilder
fanaticisin, that bore her up among the
living. ..tt
Reaching at length the valley Of MOI
ern 'anointed,' the little Swiss woman nat
urally asked of the kind gentleman who
had volunteered the care of her valdables,
a restoration of the same into her hands,
The reply was Characteristic of that gen
tleman's class, and the applicant Was In
formed that he had, one tay, the curiosi-
ty upon the plains to open the box con-
tainlng the trinkets she valued so highly,
and take ali inspection. He had laid them
out one by one upon the ground, the better
to view their perfection, but being sudden
ly called away, he had, be believed, for
gotten to replace them, and there could be
little doubt they were even now exactly in
the place where be had left them. The
box, however, remained in his hands, and
he took great pleasure in returning it 10 her
quite safe and sound. 81
Thus then she was stripped of even the
last resource of her little property, and left
a wretched dependant and beggar, TO the
tender keeping of the williams who who had
betrayed her. Her great object, however,
was still to see the prophet, and obtain the
the long wished for vision of iief departed
parents. But stay, it was not so easy a
matter, nor yet so common a thing to
achieve an access to his prophetship, Upon
tho first asking, nor was it until con-
siderable time after her entering the valley
that she &as favored with an audience,
while even this was procured by little less
than sheer pertinacity and entreaty. The
prophet Mr.. Brigham Young Of Oneida
Tor some other) county, New York, inform
ed the wretched ddpe, as in reply to her
questions, and the promises Of his priest,
that she should certainly see her father and
mo,her--certainly-but not until the
Great Temple was finished, could the ex-
h,bition come of. Then, to be sure, it was
all to be conceded to her, and the dream
OF her heart-which had reduced her from
aff1uence to beggary, from a home and
friends, to tho 9 wild regions and wilder
inbabtants-thot dream was to be real
lied. In the meantime, though, let her
continue to show her faith by her works;
and in like manner as she had contributed
her property, let her contribute her labor,
to raise up the church of the saints of this
latter day-to the end of Gods glory; and
the salvation of men. And moreover, let
her marry, and bring forth children to be
added to the list of saints, and to be of
those whose high ultimate should be her
own and their exceeding happiness. And
yet, again, as, she was perhaps stranger
in these parts, and might not be wholly
known to the dashing Young fellows about