The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-06-26
ENOCH ARDEN IN UTAH
BY THE FAT CONTRIBUTOR"


writing ''Enoch Arden" Since that poem
was published Enoch Ardeus have been
turning up all over the country. Men
seem to marry wives and then embark on
distant voyages, just to see if they won t
give them up for dead aud marry again,
which they generally do ; and no sooner
are they comfortably settled in their new
home than that good-for-nothing Enoch
comes sneaking back to claim his wife and
make trouble in the family.
They have had an Enoch Arden affair in
nearly every State in the Union, according
to the newspapers, but recently got hold
of case that eclipses anything in that line
ever heard of. 1t is the most complicated
and aggravating case of Enoch Arden that
has happened yet.
| 1t occurred in Utah, and the parties lived
in Salt Lake City But it wasn't one soli-
tary Annie Lee that Enoch married, as you
may suspect, for he not only married An
ME Lee, but Mary Ann Lee and Katharine
Jane Lee, and Sallie Lee-in short. he
married all the girls old Lee had, some
thing like dozen. Ny informant, vener-
able Mormon, who was well acquainted
with the circumstances, gave me touch
ing account of the affair. The real names
of the parties I have forgotten, but that
don't signify. Those Tennysor employed
will do as well as any in telling the story.
| ''KnOw 'em ALL said the old Mormon
''Ene Arden, Phil. Ray and the Lee girls
Seen 'em Playin' together by the Lake
many time when they were children"
Who, with any animation at all, can fail
to picture them as they played keeping
house, in the marrow cave run in beneath
the cliff that Tennyson spoke of. '.Enoch
host one day, Philip the next, while An
ME and her little sister were little wives to
both alternately. Then the anger and
grief of Philip when Enoch, stronger made,
would hold possession for a week. The
Old man told me in his simple way how. as
, they grew up, both came to love those Lee
girls, but they favored Enoch-that is to
say, the majority of them-and I could
imagine the scene con the golden autumn
eventide," as the young folks were out
gathering beech nuts, when Philip Ray.
''---as he climbed the hill,
just where the prone edge of the wood
began
To leather toward the hollow"
saw EnOch down on his knees before An
ME and her eleven sisters-who leaven'd
the lump as you might say-holding their
soft hands in his beseeching them to mar
ry him. And when with their twenty-four
cheeks suff used in bushes, they consent
ed, and Enoch rising to his feet clasped
them all to his bosom in one wild, passion
ate embrace, Philip 'crept down into the
hollows of the woods,'' beat all hollow.
He could hear Enoch waking the echoes
of the woods with his triumphant hosau-
na and then he knew whose Annie she
was, not to mention the rest of the girls
$50 these were wed, and merrily rang
the bells" and Enoch was in the posses
sion of twelve lovely and affectionate wives
For time all things seemed to conspire
together to make him happy. His mother
in-law-for he had severaI-came to live
with him and made home little paradise,
as is their wont. His wives brothers Wis
tied him for weeks at time, smoked his
cigars, drank his cider and borrowed money
of him. But uninterrupted bliss is not for
mortals here below. Reverses came, some
times two at birth. He saw his family
increasing and his income diminishing.
He was nota sea-faring man, as Tennyson's
Enoch was, but the next thing to it-he
drove stage. But the Pacific railroad was
completed one day ; the stages were haul
ed off, and Enoch was left without en-
ployment.
10 ECNrN 81
of this, Enoch, unable to support his nu-
merous increasing family determined to
seek his fortune in a distant land, although
there was plenty of land near home that
he might have worked with profit.
After setting his wives up in a news
stand, he left for the diamond fields of
South Africa. Why man who hardly
knew how diamond feels in America
should want to try those fields in South
Africa, is more than l can tell, but that
was his business. His ambition was to
make money and give his children better
bringing up than his had been, or their
mothers. He wanted them to know more
than to marry whole family as he had
done.
Months, years fed, and not word from
Enoch. The periodical business proved
failure, and the Arden family were plung-
ed into poverty. The distressed wives
were urged to consult medium and ascer-
tain the whereabouts Of Enoch, but, hav-
ing joined the temperance crusade, they
were opposed to calling up Arden' spiriEs
In the meantime Philip Ray got into the
habit OF dropping in to spend an evening
with his former sweethearts He offered
TO educate the children, which he did-at
free school hard by. Aud be kept them
supplied with flour from his mill-because
the -four of the family, as it were. As
time passed and Enoch came not, neither
played in" any of his diamonds, his
wives gradually came to the conclusion
that he was dead. Then Philip urged them
to marry him. They refused for some time
but at length one Of them dreamt she saw