The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-11
TIE MORMONS.
Balt Lake OIty-DssPOtisn on the GREAT
Plaips-Character of Brig nam fo""g-
ma. vU,v.a-PoIygamy- Among

5,on{taries have made me welcome. Its hos
p;tality encompassed me. It's fruits and flow
s,s its light spots and pleasant recreations
we're all before me. With its humble follow
are and its shadowed household circles,
must repeat the experience Of all other Gen
,ile visitors, and go as l came, stranger
But on every hand, on the streets, in the
homes where crime wears its richest gliding, in
the tabernacle and even in the very fountain
of the polluted stream, are plainly visible the
melancholy evidences of mingled fraud and
;nfatnation, of cunning wrong-doers and de-
luded wrong-sufferers.
The world elsewhere may be sought in vain
for a despOtism so relentless and pitiless as is
Mormonism. Kings and emperors rule mil
ling or unwilling subjects, but there is no
neople in utter abiect servility to their mon
arch There are churches wherein lnial1bllty
IS accorded to the head or limited power of
an absolute character conceded, but in none
eould any spiritual potentate rise up, as did
Brigham Young on Sunday last, before $500
neoDle and prescribe their worldly actions,
their ordinary daily dealings, with the penalty
of eternal damnation proclaimed for disobedi-
ence. At first glance the arrogant exercise of
power by the Mormon leaders, and the
willing submission of their followers, be-
whole theory OF this stupendous fraud
is unravelled, the character Of its sub
ieets studied, the thousand channels through
which absolute power reaches out and ramifes
into almost every household, it ceases to be
incomprehensible. A very large majority of
the Mormon people are the rescued serfs of
the Old World-not so perhaps in name in
most cases, but so in fact. They are ignorant,
superstitious, fanatical, and ready victims for
new doctrine that promises to bring them
into immediate communion with God. When
once brought to the home of the Saints, often
by the generous aid of the Emigration So
eiety, their temporal condition is readily bet
tered, their social status is elevated to recOg-
milton by even the inspired teachers, and they
never learn aught else but submission to the
dOgmas of the Church and the mandates of its
apostles. They, as a rule, remain aliens to the
Government and no claim upon the citizen is
tolerated that in any degree antagonizes the
claims OF doctrines of the Church.
regard Brigham Young as greatly under
estimated man by most persons in the East.
They all judge him mainly by his ribald and
often blasphemOus harangues from the pulpit
do not appreciate him as great administrator
and a leader of SURPRISING attainments. first
saw him in his own business room. lie was
nearly or perhaps quite alone when | entered,
but almost instantly several side doors opened,
and half-a-dozen brothers, sons, secretaries,
ETC., were seated around the little office. /
learn that he never sees any person alone,
unless he knows perfectly the character of the
visitor, and when strangers call on him his
person is guarded from possible assassination
by the apparently casual but evidently sys-
tematic appearance of his immediate friends.
He greets the visitor with serene dig
nifty but faultless courtesy, and con-
verses freely and quite intelhgently ON
all agreeable topics. He was evidently in
no mood for talk about the inside workings
of Mormonism, and an inquiry as to the num-
ber OF his wives and children, and their health,
would doubtless have terminated the inter-
view most abruptly. He is a well-preserved
man of sixty-six years, of medium height,
rather corpulent, with an abundant growth of
Light, auburn hair, and heavy crop of sandy
whiskers, excepting on his upper and lower
lips. His eyes are very light dull blue, and
wanting in expression, his nose sharp and pro-
minent, his lips thick and firmly set, and the
whole give him the appearance of a man of
obstinate will and cold, calculating purpose.
His head is of unusual shape. The face is
quite broad just across the centre, and gradu-
ally narrows to the top of the forehead and
point OF the chin, while his neck is of uncom-
mon thickness, and describes semi-oval line
from the base of the head to the top, tapering
gradually to the crown, giving it a sugar-loaf
finish. He is evidently man of the keenest
percepuOn, OF great Self-r6lance ana WILL oil
the subtlest cunning, and possesses physical
organization capable of the highest measure OF
endurance. In his manners and movements
he is quite graceful, indicating considerable
culture, but really the fruits of his varied
experience and intercourse with all classes OF
men. No man could acquire any needed
quality more readily than Brigham Young
He is eminent as mimic, and often resorts tc
mimicking as his ismOstpowerful weapon in hurl
ing his anathemas against the Gentiles OF
apostates in his sermons. In short, would
put him down, after meeting him in his ofhc'
and leaving him in the pulpit, as a mos
scienced impostor, singularly able, versatile
unscrupulous, and as one who seeks to hid
his revolving, beastly icentiousness by delibe
rate blasphemy.
do not pretend to know the number o
wives and children Brigham Young can boast
believe that no two writers have estimated
them alike, and have found no Mormon, il
the scores with whom have conversed on tn
subject, who professed to know. 1t is con
ceded, however, that he has some fifteen o
twenty who are members of his household
and probably score of others who are simpl,
sealed to him as spiritual wives, so as to shar
his high crown in the future world. Eve
the dead have been welded to him by proxy
TO satisfy the anxiety Of deluded parents
who wished their departed daughters Il
wear starry robes around the prophet i
heaven. OF his living wives, who are sui
iect to his domestic laws, the first, who wa
his lawful wife before polygamy was though
of as part of the Mormon faith, now lives in
pleasant, spacious cottage by herself, some dis
lance from the harem, that is peopled wit