The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-07-31
FIFTEENTH vOLUME--NUMBER 72s.

seemed to think it not positive that they would
Mt have got well anyhow; was rather inclined
to think we'll of Joe Smith; and it was "rather
mixed" when | asked him whether. on the
whole, he thought the system was true one.
Next came one of the aristocrats of tae village,
old man who, in a row Of three adobe houses,
kept an old wife in the middle house, fanked
on either side by young one. His first wife
was dead He spent his time alternately with
the partners Of his subdivided bosom. Polygamy
didn't work we'll in his case, and Various little
disagreemerts had leaked out. The wife in the.
eastern end of his establishment was the young
est and the best cook. One morning when he
should have begun his week at the west end ho
stayed to breakfast 10 the east, and as soon as
he appeared before the sighted bride there was
an interesting ''scene," the particulars of which
were duly detailed by his grandson, q lad whose
mother had gone off with the soldiers and ex-
pected to return to the States. | also heard of
his clothes being gAaffectionaely kicked from door
to door, each fair one declining to wash them.
The old man is a rough old codger, but jealous
Mormon, and says he has seen the stones of the
altar erected by Adam in Missouri, for accord
ing to Mormon doctrine, in that State was the
location of the Garden of Eden. Next in our
course around the fort' We encounter the humble
cot of an honest young English miner and his
wife. lie retains the Mormon faith but is not
afraid to grumble in meeting, and before Gen.
tiles, at some of the Mormon missionaries in
England, who, he says, collected considerable
sums of money from him and others, of which
he was confident a proper use had not been
made. Further on We iud an old woman, quite
a character in the village, whose husband had
had seven wives and thirty-nine children. He
was living somewhere South, but she did not
fn m IN xrifh has
daughter, and support herself. Near by lived
Gentle, brother of the disaffected mechanic
across the fort Like his brother, he had been
brought up in Mormonsm, and while not so
confident that its inception was wrong, was de-
cidedly Of the opinion that with pofygamy it
was running 10 the ground in Utah. A man Of
shrewd sense, though not much of scholar, he
delighted when passage Of Scripture-such as
the one relating to seven women laying hold of
one man-was quoted, in getting the Bible aud
seeking to show by the connection and sense
that the attempted application was absurd,
Taking the road out from this corner Of the
fort, we find, among others, man formerly from
CincinEati, whose family Of two wives aud
several children furnished, as far as L could
judge, an example of harmonious and conscien-
tious polygamy; and further on an old noun
taneer, whose wife had been deserted by her
ioTUeT HuSDaHu, VINO was DaptiZeu Lu6
Mormon church for the sake Of marrying her,
and afterward left her for the States, promising
to return, but falling to keep his word The
mountaincer had had two squaw wives, one OF
whom died and the other two went back to their
tribe. Two hafbreG children-the boy with
father in the States and the offspring Of the last
unon-were growing up in the same family
At this house whskey and tobacco were kept
for sale to the villagers.
Returning to the fort, we find at the corner
next to the one we started from, family con-
sising of husband, two wives, and several
children living in rather piggish style in one
room. The husband, | was told-how truly I
do not knov-had been Concerned in the Noun
tain Meadows massacre Near by an old
Euglisbnan, shiftless fellow, though undoubt-
edy sincere Mormon, who, living 10 little
house of one room, and being quite scantily en-
numbered with this worlds goods, had got
rather notorfetyin the village by his persistent
and unsuccessful efforts to get another wife.
The endoHment house to Which | referred is
an institution the proceedings Of which are not
allowed to be divulged, and Mormons will say
but little about them, except that the exercises
are something Of a masonic nature. Is is be-
lieved among Gentiles, from what has leaked
out from various sources, such as books written
by ex-Mormons, that the temptation in the
similar nature performed, and the candidates
bound up with stringent oaths; and that tho
endowment garments which the candidates re-
ceive, and which are worn as under clothing, are
supposed to be proof against bullets.