The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-11-23
a Mormon Audience.

In sketch of the trial of the Mormon
Hawkins at Salt Lake, George Alfred
Townsend thus daguerreotypes the audi
ence present on the occasion
There stand the guilty fold, without the
bar Of the court most Of them look as if
they wanted new razor and square
meaD, the Mormon rank and file. Grave
and listening, and so respectful as to irritate
the prosecuting attorneys very much $50
that they would like to make premeditated
good behavior conspiracy punishable by
law these Mormons, could they speak
aloud, would swell chorus profuse and
unintelligible as on the eve of the miracu-
lous Pentecost-Da and Welshman, Nor
wegian and Finn, Westphalian and Belgian,
hard, nasal Yankee and wide-mouthcd
Northumberland from the collieries of
Newcastle, the purlieus of London, and the
mills of Bradford, they look upon the
United States in blue coat with a led PEN
Gil in its hands as if it were the Man of Sin,
and confined under the same baldish sconce
the epeculiarities of Guy Fawkes and Judge
Jefreys. Simple people in the main, who,
with all their regard to the COM
mand to increase and multiply, feared the
United States census-takers as partners in
their persecution, and cut down the returns
Of their population by sheer shynes from
10000 to $4,000 odd. Docile people, as
well, though not without the courage of the
poor, so that when on the late occasion of
the great Methodist camp meeting Brigham
said to them in the Tabernacle 81 want
you all to go to this camp meeting and
listen to what is said!' they filled it to
overaowing every day, but the mourners
bench remained empty as a lions platter.
And when, on one occasion only, at some
harangue upon polygamy, a mutter arose
over that great congregation, Brigham him.
self present, stood up and waved his finger
and the complaint hushed to utter peace.
People, also, who dance and waltz between
religious benedictions, and yet can listen for
hours in ardent delight to dry dissertations
and discussions in the Tabernacle, which
might make nature snore in her processes.
How infinite are the possibilities of our
nature when we reflect that these grave,
unrebellious people, the waits and findings
Of all lands, many Of them dignified in APP
parel and culture, and steadily ascending
in the scale of comfort and possessions,
hold still with the tenacity of moral pur-
pose to the loose and spreading life of po-
lygamy, preferring this fantastic reproduc-
ton, like the Banyan's branches, to the
straight and peaceful unity of the European
family. | saw in the court jew, lineal
descendant of the old Patriarchs, whom
these Mormons delight to exemplify. His
dark, shining eyes, equiline beak, and wavy
coarseness of hair, made strong contrast
with those Saxon and Scandinavian races.
fair-haired and highly-colored, around him.
He had marched down through two thou
sand years of wandering to accord with the
century and Europe; and these Europeans
had marched back six thousand years to
resume the civilization the Jew had aban-
doned.
What feast for skepticism is this. But
whoever looked closely could see the end
Of all this near at hand, unless famed by
irritation to fanaticisIn again. The weary
faces, long and hollow, told of responsible
ties too burdensome and of. bodies over
taxed. The bright lights which shine in
the face of him who submits to the life and
customs approved by time and wisdom,
were often darkened here. From the win.
dows Of the court, the rolling or serrated
line Of mountains enfolding a valley like the
lawn of Paradise, suggested for different
men and women, and life bounded by
fewer necessities and wider opportunities
for them all life consonant with the
literatures of all these people, consonan
with Christian art, and promising a perioC
OF rest between labor and death. .