Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-11-19
LFrom the New York Sunday Times.l
A GurnIus NJ VVou,en-


Bishop Calenso, of South Africa, has re-
Gently excited no little surprise and aston
ishment among the religious world in Eng
land by coming out in defense Of polygamy
and entering a plea for the recognition
among the barbarous Kafiirs and Zehus,
whom he is seeking TO convert to the Chris
tian faith Among these people it seems
there is a large surplus of women, whom it
has been the custom to divide up among
the richer portion Of the tribe after the
poorer classes had been duly endowed with
single wife each. Heretofore the mis-
sionaries have endeavored to inculcate the
superior morality of the one wife-system
and have made it q condition Of church fell
lowship after conversion; but great diff
Guilty arose as to what should be done with
the discarded women and their families, and
also what rule should govern the selection
of the favored wife. The first married was
not always the best beloved, and moreover
it was equally difficult to separate children
from their mother or make her responsible
for their maintenance. Thus the question
assumed more complicated and perplexing
forms, until the brethren became greatly
disturbed and were quite unable to deter
mine what was best to do.
In one case the difficulty was happily
solved by hopeful convert who ate the
fattest Of his two wives, but this disposition
of them it would not do to establish as
precedent or as q general rule, and so the
problem remained unsolved as before.
Some of the missionaries to test the self
denial and sincerity Of their converts, in
sisted on their retaining their oldest and
ugliest wives, while others recommended the
the retention of their first only as the most
obvious act of propriety. But here another
demur was occasioned by the fact that the
first wife is often fathers or brothers
widow, who has been received as a sort ofleg-
acy, to be taken care ofin the absence of her
natural protector, and acts as housekeeper
and duenna to the rest of the family.
Finally, however, Bishop Calenso had cut
the Gordian knot by the bold declaration
that polygamy is inevitable, and to be re-
spected, at least among the Kafirs espe-
cially as he can find nothing in the Bible
which condemns it. With only one wife
apiece for the males, there would be a large
surplus female population in that section
who would belong nowhere in particular,
and manage to create an immence amount
of mischief, as women with nothing to do
always have done.
OF course these novel and startling views
on the part of reverend bishop attract
great deal of attention and astound the old
fogies at home, who "won't see it' in the
light he does. But the matter does not rest
here. The English press notice the fact that
there are five hundred thousand more wo-
men than men in Great Britain, and asks,
with some alarm, if the "social evil" the
Mormon emigration, and the "pretty house
breakers" are not due to this preponder-
ance? The cry of the fair and minated
daughters of Delgravia is found to be common
to all classes of English maidens, who are
compelled to transgress the highest social
laws, or live solitary single life and die for
lorn. Strange to say, the Mormon emigra-
ton from England is now composed mainly,
at least, of two-thirds of the gentler sex; q
fact which shows that the poor and unedu-
Gated class of women are less afraid of ri
walls than of an enforced old-maidhood.