The Portland daily press., 1874-05-05
EnOch Arden in Utah.
BY THE "FAT CONTRIBUTOR"

Tennyson has much to answer for in writ
ing ''Enoch Arden" Since that poem was
published Enoch Ardens have been turning
up all over the country. Men seem to marry
wives and then embark on distant voyages,
just to see il they won't give them up for
dead and marry again, which they generally
do; and no sooner are they comfortably set
tied in thcr 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 a
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 live in
Salt Lake City. But it wasn't one solitary
Annie Lee that Enoch married, as you may
suspect, for he not only married ANNE Lee,
but Mary Ann Lee, and Katrinah Jane Lee,
and Sallie Lee-in short, he married all the
girls old Lee had, something like a dozen.
My informant, venerable Mormon, who
was we'll acquainted with the circumstances,
gave me touching account of the affair.
The real names of the parties have forgot
ten, but that don't signify. Those Tennyson
employed will do as well as any in telling the
story. ''Knew 'em ALL" said the old Mormon
-"Ene Arden, Phil Ray and the Lee girls.
Seen 'em piayin' together by the lake many a
time when they were children"
Who, with any animation at all, can tail 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 Annie and her
sisters were little wives to both alternately.
Then the anger and grief of Philip when
Enoch, stronger made, would hold possession
for week. The old man told me in his SIM
pie 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
could imagine the scene ION the golden au-
| tumn eventide," as the young folks were out
| gatheing 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 Annie
and her eleven sisters-who 'leavn'd the
lump, as you might say-holding their soft
hand in his beseeching them to marry him.
And when, with their twenty four cheeks
suffused in bushes, they consented, and
Enoch rising to his feet clasped them all to
his bosom in one wild, passionate embrace,
Philip "crept down into the hollows of the
woods,'' beat all hollow. He could hear
Enoch waking the echoes of the woods with
triumphant hosanna! 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 possession OF
| twelve lovely and affectionate wives. For
| time all things seemed to conspire together to
make him happy. His mothers-in-law-for
| he had several-came to live with him, and
4 made home little paradise, as is their wont.
4 His wives brothers visited him weeks at a
1 time, smoked his cigars, drank his cider and
1 borrowed money of him. But uninterrupted
I bliss is not for mortals here below. Reverses
/ came, sometimes two at birth. He saw
| his family increasing and his income dimin-
| ishine, He was not a sea-faring man, as
| Tennyson's Enoch was, but the next thing
4 to it-he drove stage. But the Pacific Rail-
A eoad was completed one day; the stages were
\ hauled off, and Enoch was left without en-
1 ployment.
| It unnecessary to make too long story
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 newsstand,
! he left for the diamond fields OF South Africa.
J Why man who hardly Knew how dia-
| mond feels in America should want to try
! those fields in South Africa, is more than
/ can tell, but that was his business. His am.
bition was to make money and give his chill
dren better bringing-up than his had been
or their various mothers. He wanted then
to know more than he did-at least he
wanted them to know more than to marry a
whole family, as he had done.
Months, years fed, and not word from
Enoch. The periodical business proved
failure, and the Arden family were pungeu ps
into poverty. The distressed wives WIZ az
urged to consult a medium and ascertain ,Ie the
whereabouts of Enoch, but, gJnsad '1o 1o
temperance crusade, they were oppose' W
calling up pa.ntine Ardsm spii pPhip Ray got into the
habit ~ dronpipg in to spend an evening
] with his former sweethearts He offered to