The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-10-29
OTHELLO IN UTAH.
Showing How that Tragedy Is Inten'
sified Under Mormon Auspices.

At a Mormon theatre, not long ago,
they played Othello" Othello was
represented, as usual, but polygamy
demanded more than one Desdemona,
so there were fifteen Mrs. Othellos
for this Moor to be jealous of. The
consequence was he grew fifteen times
as jealous as any other Othello on the
stage, and raved and ranted fifteen.
times as loud The actor who under
took the part has been laid up In bed
ever since.
In the first place there were fifteen
Brabantios clamoring for their daugh.
tiers, who had eloped and married the
Moor. The text had to be changed
a little, of course. When brought
before the Senators, charged with
winning fifteen young women of eau
casian blood by the use of charms.
love powders, etc., he said:
"Their fathers loved me, oft invited me /;
Still questioned me the story of my life.
From year to year, the battles, seiges,
fortunes
That had passed"
Fifteen mortified and repentant
fathers Immediately regretted that
they had seemed to countenance ne
gro equality by inviting the black
man to their homes, although he had
fought nobly during the war. Then
Othello drew a touching picture of
the sympathies which his tale excited
in the breasts of the fifteen young
women; how they would hurry
through their housework to listen to
it, half washing their breakfast things
and leaving the chamherwork until
afternoon. He found at length " a
plant hour" when the fifteen suscep-
tible young women are all together,
and drew from them a 4 prayer of
earnest heart, that he would give
them the story entire in one number,
which they got in fragments from day
to day. He consented, and often did
beguile tears from fifteen pairs Of
eyes when speaking of some distress
full stroke that his youth suffered.
Fifteen women power signs rewarded
his story, and then they swore-ff-
teen of M
"a They wished they had not heard it, yet
they wished
man."
They requested him, if he knew of
any promising young man of good in
come who was in love with them, to
teach him how to repeat that enter
tanning yarn of his, and that would
WOO them. On these fifteen hints he
| spoke:
They loved me for the dangers had
And I loved them that they did pity
Here Comes the ladies, let them witness
| it,"
Then the fifteen Desdemonas enter,
perceiying a divided duty between
their husband and their fifteen pater-
nails, but they shake off their pa pas, and
cling to the Moor, thus administering
a salutary rebuke to the opposers OF
universal suffrage.
The plot progresses. !ago excites
the jealous rage of Othello by pre-
tending to find fifteen pocket hand
kerchiefs, that the Moor had given
his wives, in Cassio's bedchamber
They were neatly embroidered hand
kerchiefs, with butterfly in one
corner and his initials, ." q. W. y. !,
/ George Washington Othello), In red
It was hard to make Othello he
| lieye for sometime that his fifteen wives
had gone back on him, but the silly
and treacherous Iago plies his arts
so skillfully that the Moor Is at length
convinced, and resolves to avenge h;
honor. that had received fifteen deao
ly stabs, by making himself wild
over. This he accomplished by
smothering his fifteen wives in thei
fifteen separate bedchambers will
fifteen different holsters, being calico
before the curtain by the enraptureC
audience at the death of each of tn
fifteen Desdemonas.
John COrbin.