Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1869-04-03
Chronicle Supplement.
Clarksyille, Saturday, April s, 1859
BRIGHAM YOUYG's THEATER.
Portraits from Among the Audience

From Salt Lake Letter to the Boston
Brigham Young owns theater
which cost, it is said, two hundred
thousand dollars, and which has yield
cd large revenue, 1t is a well-built
cdifce, nearly as large as the Boston
theater, with parquet and circle, dress
circle, family circle and gallery
Gentiles are consigned to the dress
circle, though Saints also sit there
Climbing the narrow stairway we find
ourselves in the dress circle, occupy
ing a front seat, giving us a good
position to study the audience. We
are not there to see the play, but the
audience are taking their seats. The
parquet is arranged with slips like
those in a church. At the right
hand side in the parquet circle is
Brigham's family pew-distinguished
from all others by its red plush or
dan.ask upholstery. In the right
hand side Of the parquet is rocking
chair, which Brigham sometimes &C.
cupies when he wishes to be on ia
miliar footing with the Saints.
The light in the building is rather
dim, gas not having been introduced
to Salt Lake, coil-oil being used in
stead, but there is light enough for
us to study the countenances Of these
around us. On seats adjoining ours
are two young girls fresh, fair, rosy
checked, accompanied by young
man well dressed-Gentiles, judge,
from remark dropped now and then.
At our right hand is a woman with a
baby in her arms, three other children
by her side. Beyond her another
woman with baby and great strap
ping fellow with red whiskers by her
side. Behind her are three royster-
ing fellows from the mines of Mon
tana, ogling the girls in the parquet.
They are Gentle wolves. Elder
Williams cautioned the girls last
Sunday to beware of those who come
in sleeps clothing to lead them away
from the church and down to perdi-
ton. These wolves do sometimes
carry off the fairest lambs of the flock.
Some Of the girls prefer the undivi-
ded love of a hardy, good-looking
young Gentle to the fortieth or fif-
tieth part of withered old apostle.
Two seats distant is another baby.
The mother is wrinkled and careworn.
We can see lines ofcare and suffering
across her forehead and in her sunk
en- cheeks, as if Time had been turn
ing deep burrows and his plowshare
had gone down into the sub-soil and
had cut the heartstrings. Not her
alone. We see the same joyless cast
of countenance on every female face.
Artists, who with pen and pencil
paint characters, who can read the
joys and sorrows of life in the lines
of the human face, should come to
Salt Lake City. They would find it
one vast studio--every woman SUBJ
ject. "Dead Affections" would be
an appropriate title to their picture.
Stifed, rather. These women have
never known what it is to love or be
loved. They know only sacrifce.-
They are slaves in bondage to the
church and the devil at the same time.
They are ground to powder between
two mighty mill-stones-the upper
one religious idea, the lower one
the lewdness and lust of rd-heart-
ed men. Heaven and hell are togeth-
er brought in,o action, crushing out
human affections, and the highest and
hottest instincts of the soul.
But there is the man who runs the
mill-the head of the church-Pres
ident and Revelator--in the private
box by the side Of the stage. He is
portly, his hair is nicely brushed
He wears a white vest, black broad
cloth coat, kid gloves, puts an opera
glass to his eye, and looks over to the
gallery containg us Gentiles, to see
who is there. He has q broad fore
head, large nose, and whiskers turn
ing white. Ability, decision, duplic-
ity, shrewdness and cunning-the
good and bad elements of character
are plainly marked in his counten-
ance. Apostle Wells tall, thin spare
man, nearly as old as Brigham, is by
his side.
In Drigham's family circle we see
two Of his concubines and twenty
two of his children-all but three of
them girls, One of the women ia