, 1873-05-10

RESIGNATION OF BRIGHAM YOUNG
From that fertile land Of surprises and
''sensations,", the United States, comes the
extremely surprising and sensational intel
ligence that Brigham Young, the prophet,
priest, and king of the Mormons, has re-
signed. For tWenty-seVen years this ex-
traordinary man-without the slightest ad-
vantages of educat on, and with nothing
to aid him but natural shrewdnes, and per-
feet unscrupulousne>s-ha ruled as an alb
solute despot over the minds, the souls,
the bodies, and the wealth of a set of peo-
pie who in a few years increased ron a
handful to a hot, and who to-day mum
Der more than 100000 souls. In 1916, at
the head of few hundred fanatics, driven
from Illinois aud Missouri, he set forth in
to the almost unknown wilderness lying
between the Missouri. River and the foot Of
the Rocky Mountains, and at the begin
ming of the following year planted in the
lovely valley ofSaIt Lake the city where
he has since ruled as a king and priest,
and which he now abandons, not because
any rival is pushing him from power, but
simply because he has grown weary OF the
game. The entire Norman community
since its first settlement in Utah has been
the slave and servant of this man. For
him they have toiled, and to him they gave
tithes of all they possessed. The wonder
full shrewdness Of the man enabled him to
turn every event, no matter how apparent
ly adverse, to his advantage. When, in
1857, he refused to permit a Governor
appointed by President Buchanan to eXer-
else authority in Utah, and a large army of
United States soldiers was sent against
him, his overthrow and ruin seemed inevi-
table but he at first so skIllfully threw
obstacles in the way of the advance OF the
army that it arrived within striking dis
lance Ouly when lis supplies of food were
exhausted and starvation stared it In the
face, and he then with equal skin suggest
ed compromises 50 tempting that they
Were accepted, and the army which came
to conquer remained to serve the foe-re-
receiving it, supplies from him and paying
for them at rates which Melted him profits
at the contemplation of which contractors
OH this side of the water would faint with
envy. So, also with the Pacific Railway
line began to approach him, and it was ex
ultingIy proclaimed that " the whistle of
the first locomotive would be the dirge of
Mormondom," he went forward to meet
this new danger and to turn it to his own
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT He not only succeeded
in persuading the company to choose for
their line through his territory a route of
his own selection, but he obtained the con-
tract for the construction Of the work, and
then employed upon it his W people at
rates of wages which, prescribed by him
self, left him an ample margin OF profit.
Then, once more, when the discoveries of
the vast mineral wealth of Utah began to
attract attention, he was before everyone
else in this new field of wealth. Many of
the productive mines were worked for
him !; many of the others, whose wealth
was far more p~roblematical, were sold for
him by agents, who did not always disclose
the name of their principal and thousands
of honest English sovereigns exchanged for
shares in worthless mines in Utah are now,
in all probability, safely resting in the