The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-10-29

A resident correspondent at Salt LAX
City writes TO the New York Graphic :.
The Utah question has assumed
new phase. It is now industrial and com
mercial rather than moral, political in
stead of religious. Brigham is great Il
his little empire, but silver mines ant
railroads are greater, and even the Nor
mon theocrat is learning to yield grace
fully (when there is no help for it) to tn
inevitable.
"One narrow gauge railroad does more
to break up the exclusiveness of Nor
mon village than would ten missionaries
n rich silver mine is a foe to theocracy
and a dozen Gentle ladies, arrayed il
the latest New York styles, are so many
peripatetic sermons on the folly and cos
OF polvgamy. The 'patriarchal system
WAS all very well when both sexes dressed
in valley tan (the homemade fabrics OF
Utah), and mans wives supported
themselves and helped support him but
now-well, the modern changes have
oveItaken Salt Lake City, and already
their capital is spoken of by provincial
Mormops as luke-warm Laodicea. OF
the religion the well-to-do Mormons of
Salt Lake have precious little they hold
to the system because all their earthly
interests are identified with II.
Momonlsm in n family never out
lasts one generation. The more bigoted
the parent the more certain is the child
to grow up on apostate. Out of thou
sand young saints (this is the modest title
the Mormons give themselves) with
whom L am acquainted / do not know
one exception they are one and all un-
believers. Young saints RS they near
maturity regularly divide into two bodies,
Spiritualists and Infdels. The system
has no moral power over the young !;
they give up the religion of their parents
and adopt no other in its stead, and hav-
ing no philosophy to serve in place of
religion their morality is of very con-
ventional type. While Orson Pratt elo-
quently holds forth at the Tabernacle on
the Divine Authenticity of the Book
of Mormon or laboriously proves from
the Gospel of Isaiah and Joe Smith that
all Gentle governments, that of the
United States in particular, are doomed
to speedy destruction, his son, Arthur,
with equal zeal, serves the hated Gentle
government as United States Marshal,
while another son practices law in the
same Federal Court where his father is
daily liable to be cited AZ q criminal. Heber
Kimball, of pious and vulgar memory,
left some forty SONS; Utah to-day does not
contain male Kimball who is an ortho-
dox saint, nor would any of the girls
be if they were not in polygamy, and
therefore hopeiessly bound. Brigham
Young has something like hun
bred children and grandchildren.
those who are in polygamy
or who have paying positions in the
church, there liz not good saint among
them. he had three legitimate sons by
his first wife. OF these John w. di-
vorced his Mormon wives, repudiating
the whole system, and married Gentle
lady. Joseph A. died last summer of
whisky cramp,' and young Brigham
still holds on, expecting to be his fathers
successor. This is fair average of the
leading families. Obviously Mormonism
must either ne sustained entirely by new
or expire in due time by nat
ural limitation.
"Polygnnly is certainly not on the in
crease. Some people have thought it
WOulu DC lp~eu out OF existence l. Inlllh
it much more apt to be laughed out.
There is something so very ridiculous in
the Mormon theory and practice of
plural marriage that think the govern
ment instead of law might well afford to-
hire dozen or more keen wits and turn
them loose IN Utah with their trenchant
pens. with general instructions to write
the thing up. Here is rich field for
another Nasty who will enter in and
work it, But. to do them justice, the
resident Gentiles have shown this up
pretty we'll. All the local slang, quips,
and jokes seem to turn on polygamy.
They have made it ridiculous, and the
Mormons in this city show in dozen
ways that they are ashamed of it. 1t is
felt by the young saints to be burden
and disgrace, and they refuse to enter
that condition. Now, if L possessed
plenary Legislative power for Utah, I
would establish but one law. If man
married two or more wives would con-
denim him to support them and theirs
and live in one house with both.
Polygamy, in truth, brings its own pun
ishment, and is to poor man twice as
bad as an average penitentiary. Nearly
sill the polygamists are dog poor no
matter how much property they nomi
pally own"