Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-04-04
"Come over and take an easy chair, Nj

purpose for you. We don't like to see you
sitting on bench when you are so feeble"
she continued in real motherly tone. He
moved over and took the easy chair, with a
lady upon his right and another upon his left,
who asked if he didn't feel better, and if the
noise didn't worry him, and if he felt able to
dance, and how long he could stay, and if he
wouldn't have off his overcoat, and if he
would like cup Of tea, and fifty other ques-
tions that tender-hearted women can ask fas-
ter than man can answer.
The love of the people for Mr.. Young
amounts to veneration, absolute veneration.
He is considered holy man of God, full of
years and good deeds and honors, who, when
called home, will shine as star in the heavens
forever and ever. II have always tried to be
good man." said a Mormon to me the other
day, "but would die this minute, die joyfully,
willingly, happily, if though I stood as sure
a chance to 60 to heaven as Brigham Young"
A YOUNG MORMON.
I fell into conversation with one of Mayor
Wells sons, boy some seventeen years of
age, and so bright and intelligent that I took
a great liking to him.
"Have you good schools here?" l asked.
"Very good" he replied, "as far as they 60.
We haven't any fine colleges and seminaries
like you have in the East, but we will some
time We have to get along now with what
we've got"
Gall these young ladies see seem to be in.
telligent and pretty. Are they all Mormons p
"Yes, sir, every one of them, think. There
are only two Gentiles here besides you, and
one of them is President Young's guard"
care these young ladies pretty well educa.
ted ?" asked.
"Fully as much so as the territory affords
facilities. They are all well up in the prima-
ry branches, and few Of them have studied
the French. AS to music We are considera-
bly, behind, because you know the railroad
has only been built few years, and before
that it took small fortune to get piano
over the plains. Now we can get them easier
and our young ladies have chance to learn
that they never had before.'
"Is it true," I asked, "as have heard it
reported, that the rising generation here are
opposed to polygamy?"
at is not" he replied with emphasis. ave
believe it God.ordained institution, and as
sacred as any other tenet of our religion"
"Would you not yield it in order to get
Utah admitted as State, 80 that you could
get out from under these presumptive judges,
and regulate your own affairs"
"No, sir; we would not yield it for any
thing; it is part Of our religion, and if we
give way to one demand, we will soon have
to to another, and after awhile they will rob
US of all.".
"You speak of the men," 1 said, "and I
don't doubt but what many of you are op-
posed to giving up polygamy; but among the
women it certainly must be different. Sup
pose, in few years, you should marry girl
who loves you, who is devotedly attached to
you, and whose love strengthens with years,
and then, after living with her awhile, you
deliberately marry another, don't you know,
don't know, don't everybody know, that such
course will cause your first wife-loving,
devoted creature that she is-a thousand
times more agony than if you had pierced her
heart with dagger, orsevered her head from
her chaste bod ?"
"There is something in that" he replied,
thoughtfully, "and to tell the truth polygamy
is not popular with all the women. I have
heard girls talk against it like everything, and
then turn right around and marry some man
who has two or three wives already. That is
done repeatedly-indeed, it is done all the
time"
"Wouldn't any of these girls you speak Of
have preferred to marry single men, and have
those men prohibited from marrying anybody
elsew
"Well, yes, of course, but they have to omar-
ry somebody, and if they choose married
man, they save themselves the pang which
they would afterward experience if they took
single man, and he married again"
And right here, to my mind, comes in par
ticularly barbarous part Of the barbarous
matrimonial creed Of the Mormons. Their
daughters are taught that they have to marry
somebody in order to get to heaven, and so
they tie themselves to some old clerical repro
brate, and move into his harem to drag out a
miserable existence, neither loving nor being
loved, and living in hell in this world in or
der to get to heaven in the next.
I pointed this cut to my young friend,
though in milder language, and he acknowl-
edged there was something in il" though he
thought this world made up Of trials and trib-
ulations anyway, and the more we suffered in
the discharge Of our duty, the more apt we
would be to be saved.
"But do you call polygamy a duty?" I
asked.
eyes, we are commanded by God to prac-
tice it."
"When did God give the commando"
"In special revelation to Joseph Smith"
"What evidence have you of it."
"Why, living witnesses, just as we have that
the contents of the book of Mormon was found
engraved on gold plates. Nearly a dozen
witnesses saw the plates, and some Of them are
living, and that is better evidence than we
have of anything in the Old Testament, al.
| though, of course, we believe in the Bible, and
live by it,"
"Where are these plates now?" asked.
"Why, the angel Of the Lord appeared and
took them up to heaven"
There was no arguing against this, and I
did not try. These Mormons always bring
you up against that angel and those gold
plates, and you are at the end Of your row.
You can do nothing but founder about and
say you don't believe it, and then you are
asked what you are going to do about the
plates that were handed Moses out Of heaven,
don't you believe that? Is one any more
probable than the other2 Where are your
witnesses for the Moses translation? You say
you believe one and not the other, and he
says he believes both, and that's the end Of it.
My young Mormon friend told me he had
never smoked, nor chewed tobacco, nor touch.
ed spirituous liquors in any form.
THE GENTLE GENTILEs.
"There are few Gentle boys can say that"
| said.