The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-11


the most irreverent style, and storms the holy
inner circle of inspired power with profane
speech and violent pugilistic gestures al,
though each one after the first has usurped
the place of another, not one has been aus
carded for a successor without the keeness sot7
row, and often only after frenzied, but truip-
less resistance.
Polygamy was not a part Of the Mormon
creed, as promulgated by Smith. On the CON
trary, he expressly denounced It, ana ms
widow and sons have discarded the oale Lake
Mormons because of the adulterous practices
committed in the name of the Church. Brig
ham Young is the founder of the pOlygamic
feature of the faith of the Latter Day Saints.
While doubt not that lust had much to do
with its adoption yet, as a means of attaining
despotic power, IL has served an important
purpose. Mr.. Young has four brothers, all
adhering to the Church in this city, and all
with plurality of wives. His sons initiate
his example with flial fidelity; and his daugh-
tiers are married only into harems of the more
intelligent and influential members of the
Church. By this system he is directly related
to every family of importance in Zion, and his
power is perpetuated. BY thus binding the
more intelligent to his cause by marriage ties,
he is enabled to command the complete sub
mission OF the unlearned, by declaring poly
| gamy to be the duty of the faithful, and pro-
missing the heart-broken wives that their
crosses are but creating for them lighter
crowns above.
Ihad much anxiety to see polygamy in the
household, but have failed. Not only are
strangers practically denied acquaintance with
plural wives, but the subject is never well
come one in conversation. have talked with
many Mormons who are polygamists, and in
every instance when / asked respecting their
wives, they responded as if / had introduced
to them some painful and delicate scandal
about their families. l found one who claimed,
o,,l 30 hoxya AxrO in ana
house, and all happy, but only one. In most
instances each wife must have separate house
to hide herself from mutual humiliation and
shame. To all who introduced the subject to
me, / asked the question, "Did your
first wife cheerfully consent to your mar
riage to anotherY'' and in not a single
instance could an affirmative answer be given.
Mormon or Gentile with one accord they re-
volt against it. They must cease to be women,
and descend into the scale of brutes, or even
lower still, before the wives of Salt Lake can
voluntarily consent to such appalling degrada-
ton. One-third of the entire adult male
population of Utah is now practising polygamy,
and in Salt Lake City the proportion is larger.
1t hangs like terrible pail upon the mothers,
wives, and daughters of the Saints. Not only
those who have been enfolded in its Shiny en-
brace mourn from day to day their hard lot,
but those who have thus far escaped its pol
luton know not how soon the spoiler may
enter their firesides, and narrowing anxiety
dims the lustre of their eyes and traces its
shadows upon their faces.
Not only is RIGHTEOUSNESS ever pleading the
cause of polygamy, but the church demands
it of all men who can afford more than one
wife, and women are taught to consent to it
on pain of eternal damnation. / heard four
Mormon sermons on Sunday-twO by fools
and two by knaves. The one, for instance,
who declared that he had seen Joseph Smith
perfectly personated in Brigham Young, when
he thrust Rigden out and assumed the Presi-
dency himself, even to broken front tooth,
was simply a lunatic. In the course of his
sermon he gave the particulars of This CONVEX
sion. He prayed to the Lord that if He would
appear in person to him he would believe, and
the Lord appeared to him, and he thenceforth
became saint. He was followed by one of
the shrewdest of the elders, who argued with
some plausibility that the original Church of
Christ had strayed and broken into descend
ent branches, and that it had been founded
again by Smith and Young, and was
separate from the world and united in
its great work. In the afternoon we
had an incoherent and senseless ha-
raDgue from a cockney, but Brigham Young
pulled him down by the coat-tail in short
time, and took the pulpit himself His speech
would read away in the East like the foolish
ebullition of a conceited blackguard, but never
were remarks more timely or better adapted
to the people he addressed. He argued for
twenty minutes that not one person in forty
knew how to take care of himself in either
temporal or spiritual matters; that all must
have leaders experienced in temporal and in
| spired in religious affairs that they must live
| submissively to those who are competent to
| lead them, or be cut off with the wicked. He
! complained of the selfishness of some of the
saints. Said he:-"People / brought here
! from serfdom, who couldn't own a chicken
before they came, and who were glad to take
| a spade from me to get a crust of bread,
now have lands, and houses, and cattle,
and greenbacks, and carriages; and they
want to dictate to me; they want to sap
the foundations of Zion; but l will not
be dictated to. ! am called of the
Lord and it is mine to teach and yours to
obey. | say what | please; put up this pull
pit with the crimson covering, and paid for it
myself, expressly to go into it and say what
please. l will take it away if like, and stand
on table or chair, for the Lords will can be
declared in one way as well as another" And
thus he rambled, but always with evident
method. After pleading with unity, he told the
young ladies of the Church that they had no
capacity fer taking care of themselves and
their honor, and that the Church, with its
ceremonies and covenants, was their only
safety he closed by demanding that Genties
and apOstates be Stunned in all dealings, even
although it costs more to purchase from a
Saint. ''You may answer" said he "that it
is none of my id business. Perhaps it is
not, just now, but the time will soon come
when it will be my business to testify respect