The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-12-08
Brigham YOung's Wives.

The great prophet of the Salt Lake Valley
is covered with annoyances; his ills are really
quite as great, as he can bear. Not only has
his card castle been rudely knocked to the
ground, and his sacred rights to court and
marry any woman he might persuade to
have him been questioned i'm the courts of
the land, but, to cap his sheaf of disgrace
and anguish, his wives have been interview
ed, and their personal history been given to
the public. There have been twenty-nine
marriages in Brigham's mad matrimonial ca
reer, and of these women who have shared
the prophets households we are told that the
thirteenth and twenty-second are dead, that
that the sixteenth ran away, and that infor-
nation is absolutely lacking concerning num-
bers twenty-four to twenty-eight. Notwith-
standing the specification of the indictment
charging Brigham with fifteen more women
than he really has a right to, it appears that
there are now actually in existence twenty
one Mrs. Brigham Youngs. The eldest is fif-
ty, and the youngest twenty-four Two of
the wives have become either wholly or par
TALLY insane, the first wife from abandonment
OF herself and children, and the second died a
raving maniac, because she had become con-
vinced that polygamy was wrong, and that
her mistake was irreparable. One is called
the sweet singer of Israel" and has recently
published volume of poems. A great ma
jority of the hymns used in the Mormon
church were written by her. One wife, with
sublime charity which is not so common as
might be wished, has adopted and gives real
mothers care to the three children of the
poor woman who died maniac,
and left her true and loyal hus-
band to become a "plural wife, to
the false prophet. Another, an English Girl.
was taken away from the man to whom she
had given her heart, because the prophet fan
cied her, The twenty-third wife, commonly
called by the Gentiles the 'Light of Harem,"
the real Fatima of this contemplate modern
Bluebeard. is a lovely woman, who, it would
seem, was afflicted with a real affection for
the tickle Brigham, and succeeded by woman
ly artifice in almost entirely winning him
from his other wives.
Indeed, the review of the lives of these I'M
fortunate women shows Brigham Young in
light which makes his pet crime doubly hide
Gus. He has set at naught the love of wo-
man, for he has not only made her sacrifice
it in his favor when it was fixed upon anoth-
er, but he has spurned it away when it was
given entirely to him that he might crafty
fresh caprices. He has wilfully deserted and
neglected, morally, the women to whom he
pICbSlutu Ht udu certain tlU-
ties and has allowed them to rear children
nur5ed in the bitterness of hatred and ieal-
ousy. This grand matrimonial buffoen has
shaken his cap and bells in the face of love
and cut his mad antics in the innermost soc,
red courts of affection. He is represented as a
miserable slave of passion, whose soul was
troubled to its profonndest depths by the sud
den vision OF apretty face, and whose will
alone made victims to his cruel mockery of
marriage yearly. Of heart he does not seem
to possess more than the ordinary allowance,
although one would certainly think little
addition to that important organ necessary
for one who has courted and married and
sworn to cherish twenty-nine wives.
ELECTION ''PAsTERs. Among the can
didates for office at the late California cleo
tion was one who was very anxious. On the
day before the election several acquaintance
suggested that he must procure pasters.-
"You can never win, old fellow, unless YOU
get pasters," said they 'You need a great
number. too, for everybody will Scratch in
your favor" The suggestion was pleasant.
the candidate counted his cash capital which
lay in his right-hand pantaloons pocket
Afterward he walked to printing-house and
ordered the printing of 10000 copies bearing