The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-27
THE MAY MAGAZINES.
sold AND NEW"

The May number of Old and Ne,o presents
the following table of contents:-
"Old and New" 'Looking Back Across the
War-gulf," Robert Dale Owen; "Crimean
Captives," N Noyes; ''Now: True Story"
ga Blameless Life" 'No more Sea-" j. w.
Chadwick; "Christ the Life" @. G. Everett;
Mature in Art" ''She Writes" (Chapters V
and VD; Catholicism and Professionalism" j.
b. Torricelli; s'Riding Down." Nora Perry;
'Ili-ili-opae," William L. Brigham; "The
Mormon Problem, Charles 7. Brigham; "The
Tartar Legends" J. p. Lesley; "The Orga-
MIST" f. Townsend, "Ten Times One is
Ten, ," Colonel Frederic Ingham; Religion in
Schools, by Practical Teacher; Cup Gar
ret;" Authority in Religion" Orville Dewey;
"Grass and Roses" j. f. Clarke; "rhe Ex-
aminer;" ''Record of Progress"
From Mr.. Brighams article entitled ''The
Mormon Problem" we take the following
The force of public opinion must be taken
into account as another unfavorable influence
for the Mormon future. Intercourse with
Gentiles has already revealed to many of the
Mormons the fact that their system has no
sympathy outside of their own community,
that the civilized world is against them, and
that they are classed with Pariahs and lepers.
They hear batteries, it is true, batteries from
politicians, from tradesmen, and from doc
tors of divinity; but they are learning that
these batteries are insincere, and that be-
meath this smooth talk there is real disgust
and aversion. The gracious doctor who
praises them from their platform holds them
up to scorn and horror in the pages of his
book. The leaders know, and the people
feel, that more positive public opinion is
massing itself against them in all parts of the
GENTLE world, that there is O rising cry every
where that this state of things in Utah must
cease, this tyranny be crushed, even if the
community be broken up in the process.
They know that the impression of nearly all
these tourists who visit them is unfavorable,
that these tourists are almost ashamed to ex-
cuse the iniquities which they see, or to plead
in abatement the good work which has been
wrought by people SO degraded. They see
that the American people are consentiIg
that the Mormons shall be called
''whited sepulchres," and allow the
phrase as not whit too severe No
one can stay, for day or two even, in Salt
Lake City, without discovering in the con-
versation of prominent Mormons this keen
sense of an adverse public opinion, and with
this an evident wish to make the most favor
able impression. They are no longer care
less what the Gentiles think of them, but have
become very sensitive to criticism. They feel
that they are not out of the world, as they
have been in the years past, but in the world
and subject to its influences. And they see
that in spite of all that they do, the opinion
of the world is more and more against them.
That the institution of polygamy is weak
ness to the Mormon community is not yet
admitted by the leaders in their public dis
course. On the contrary, they pretend to
glory in it. We may believe, however, from
many indications, that they are tired of it,
e Il l. L.
and would get rid of it if they could. 1t is
reported that Brigham Young and some of
its elders are even now seeking a place in
Arizona, or in the farther wilderness, where
they may send such of their people as
hold to polygamy. If it comes to
the alternative, the abandonment of poly
gamy or the annihilation of the State, they
will let polygamy go-so one of their ell
ders has recently said in discourse in Chi
cago. But the custom has existed SO long,
and has been defended by so many argu-
ments, that it cannot be abandoned without
.discarding the good sense and the honor of
the teachers who have defended it. To give
it up is to deny what has been preached for
these many years as the special grace of God
to the people, peculiar blessing and privi-
lege of the saints, part of the revealed will of
the Great Father. Even if polygamy should
be abolished by a new revelation, super
seding all former revelations, it will still
leave its curse in the confusion of family ties
and family rights which will outlast the GUS
tom. Its blight will be felt long after it is
abolished, and the blinded women who now
defend it will mourn as its victims. 1t is
borne as a cross by many of them now, and
there is probably not woman in the Terri
tory whose heart is really reconciled to it, OIL
who would not be glad to be the single wife
of her husband Even if Mr.. Cullom's bill
should be enforced as law, and all plurality Of
wives be treated as concubinage, the evi
fruits of the system will not cease to show
themselves, and the Church will suffer from
the falsehood which it SO long supported