Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-01-17
MORMONDOM.
It's Approaching DOwnfsIi-Brigham's Enemies
Becoming Bolder-Elements
of Discord.

chco IOr Ine people Ol OJdn lTUm
oppressive evils and the fanatcism
with which they have been martyr
ed. Every thing contributes to that
end. The railroad was the death
knell TO Brigham's reign. As il ad-
vanced, rebellion in his own camp
reared its head, and the completion
OF the iron-way was the opening of
the richest mines on the continent.
The kingly Brigham foresaw all
this, and for years fought it hravely.
His ready acceptance at last of the
inevitable railroad was but the
shrewdness of the man. In 90 Cal
ifornia volunteers marched into the
Territory, and Brigham, unable to
prevent it, became joint contractor
for the transportation of their bag
gage and stores, and supplied them
with flour on the way TO the "City
OF the Saints" He has avowed and
denied alternately the existence Of
precious ores within the territorial
domain, just as occasion required,
and when he has avowed that much,
has predicted that none should be
discovered except it was over his
faith. Were ho but ten years young
er. he would soon be the largest land
owner in the Territory but his blood
chills more readily than of yore, and
he sensibly betakes himself devoted
ly TO the instruction of the faithful.
In the days when dissatisfaction
was ostracism and leaving the Terri
tory was three months journey,
"apostacy" was a dangerous expert
ment. 1t demanded huge sacrifices
which few could make, and the whis-
perings of development were fire.
quently stifled. In those dark days
free speech was unheard but the
brighter noon day illumines now
"the valleys of the mountains" and
men and women breath with free
dom. Mistakably, think, hundreds
Of the dissatisfied with Brigham
leave the Territory to follow the
younger Joseph Smith in Illinois,
But mistakably or not, the fact is
suggestive of the change the great
iron highway across the desert has
wrought marvellous work. The
secessionists who stay at home are
daring, and sail into the follies and
unfounded pretentions Of the apos-
ties with an energy that speaks Of
confidence in triumph.
This handful of men have shaken
Brigham beyond any thing that he
ever expected to experience, and at
his death thousands who now ap-
parently hold to him slide from his
successor as from changing dynas-
ty. Long years of association and
the formula of habit still keep them
in the old groove but the tears shed
around his bier will be the last of
their attachment to his Mormonism.
Polygamy has woven and entwined
around the hands and feet Of many
network from which it is almost i'm
possible for those enmeshed to extri-
cate themselves but with Brigham's
iron will removed, if Congress does
not do so before, many a captive
will be set free. 1t is this conscious
ness that is felt to-day and seen in
the changed actions of both men and
women.
THE MINING INFLUENCE.
Walk through the city, pass through
our hotels, behold the faces of stran-
gers from all parts of the earth, see
windows filled with hundreds of
specimens of rich ores, witness those
long mule trains slowly vending
their way through our streets bear
ing their precious burdens to the
railroad depot, and see the laboring
man with greenbacks 10 his hand at
the merchant stores, and there you
have the quiet revolution that is
Transforming Utah from poverty to
afiluence, from mental slavery to in
tellectual grandeur.
A WOMAN SPEAKS OUT.
The Tabernacle has no more ter
rors the espionage of "the teachers"
is rebuked, and the bishops command
no more-they solicit. Women who
have lived a thousand martyrdoms
raise their heads with the conscious
ness of their, at least, equality to
man, and see time at hand when
the aspirations. of the purest natures
can be gratified with the sense of
their "lord's" appreciation of a help
meet in one. The younger offspring
who never knew the Gentle world,
spurn the system that has caused
the suffering to their mothers, and
boldly tell their hatred of the plural
life. A daughter of the greatest of
the apostles thus expresses herself in
the Tribune:
"With me the day of dupedom
and of infallible priesthood is at an
end. | can see the dawn offreedom
from the iron rulings of priesthood
who have SO long kept my sex in
absolute servitude. ! could name
hundreds of women here to-day who
dare not say their souls are their
own"
This is the language of a brave
girl who saw a gentleman assaulted by
ten ruffians because be was a Cen
tile and dared to escort her to the
theatre and back, when even she
was with him with her brothers
consent. A few years ago she could
have found no voice to utter her
grief, but with the change of the
times she fears nothing, and scath-
ingly rebuked them thus:
about ten cowardly Williams, with
han1kercbiefs over their faces to
keep their guilty countenances from
being recognized, completely sur
rounded US, held a pistol to Mr..
Moore's head, and violently seized
and roughly held me so / could see
the kind of iHfliction Gentle gets
for walking with daughter of Zion"
He was brutally struck with some
heavy weapon, which Frustrated
him and frightened me. | called
aloud for help to my father but once,