The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1871-05-26

ham Young's houses is the only perma.
nent and respectable structure | saw
the only evidence of luxury for II Is n
substantial wall.
Moreover, unless | am deceived, the
younger generation-.thc children OF
Utah, show in their forms the bad fruit
of this hard life. They seemed to me,
as l studied them In the car coming
down, and on the streets next morning,
under-sized, loose built, flabby. Ger
tainly the young girls were pale, and
had unwholesome, wary compilations.
The young men were small and thin,
and looked weak. Now this is not-so
Gentiles here say-the result of polyg-
amy; aud believe this. 1t seemed TO
me more the result of poor living in the
early days; of too hard struggle with
life while these youths were babes.
l should say then that Brigham
Young, prophet and leader of his peo-
pie, made huge blunder when he
brought them so far for so little. Moses
led his people through the wilderness,
but he landed them in Canaan, flowing
with milk and honey. Brigham was a
very poor sort of Moses.
But, said Mormon to whom l gave
these impressions, president Youngs
object was to isolate the people from
the world, and this he accomplished
To that should say polygamy was the
only reason of the secluding of the Nor
mons. If it had not been for polygamy
every State was open TO the Mormons,
and their industry and thrift would
have been welcomed in Missouri, Iowa
or Minnesota. 1t is to polygamy, then,
that the long journey and the lasting
hardships, the too severe toll, the un-
dersized children have to be charged.
Well, not one.tenth of the men in
Utah arc, or can afford to be polygam.
lists.
Polygamy is in the nature Of things,
like slavery, an aristocratic institution.
Bingham Young can afford sixteen
wives prosperous hotel.keeper can
afford three merchant may, if he
does well, support several women but
the laborer, the farmer, the poor man,
struggling to make himself q home,
cannot afford to undertake to make him
self a halfdozen homes for half dozen
wives.
l should say, then, that it is for the
luxury of the favored few, for Young,
for his elders and counsellors and the
prosperous Mormon leaders, in order
that they might crafty their bestial
that this cruel migration
was set on foot and this is the only
plea which Brigham Young can offer,
to shield him from the charge of a dis
graceful blunder.
And now, if he lives TO be eighty, he
will see his whole system crumble. The
Utah Railroad and the Utah silver
mines are killing polygamy, and when
that is broken up, Mormonism, no Ion
ger peculiar, will take an inconspicuous
place among the religious of our conti-
nent. a friend said to me this after
noon: 81 saw a great change in Salt
Lake since L was there three years ago.
The place is free; people no longer
speak in whispers. Three years ago it
was unsafe to speak aloud in Salt Lake
City about Mormonism, and you were
warned to be cautious. Now the Gentle
may say what he likes"
But Brigham has great influence over
his people. Here is an impressive eX-
ample of it, as also of the way in which
he uses it; some years ago an outlying
settlement of Mormons was formed,
near what they believed to be the Mon
ana border but safely within Utah.
With the patient industry Of these peo-
Pile they made themselves comfortable
homes, planted as is their way, vines
and fruit-trees and gardens, and hav-
ing conquered the wilderness, began to
be prosperous. This year their vines
were to bear their full crop, aud they
looked forward with joy to the event.
Six months ago new survey of the
State line showed this settlement TO lie
within Montana. The news was car
ried to Brigham Young. Three months
ago the whole of these Mormon settlers
abandoned their pleasant homes, leav-
ing behind ouses, titled lands, fruit
trees, vines, all that their patient labor
had created, and at Young's orders re-
turned to Utah. That is Mormonism.
n