The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-12-27
One Happy Wife N Morm0ndoln,


One Happy Wife n Mormondom.
Gail Hamilton writes in The Christ.
ian Union: She was a very pretty.
lady-like, well-dressed little woman.
and one could but think that she was
sent to the front because she could
stand fire. Her husband was a man
whose reputation as gentleman of
education and elegance made photos
phere of light for many miles around
Salt Lake City. She came accompanied
by her husband, and proffered drives
and such little attentions as are usual
under the circumstances. She was
very frank and amicable. When asked
ii it would be quite agreeable to her
to speak of the peculiar customs and
faith of the Mormons, she said, oh.
yes THAT when she first came among
the MOrmons herself she would have
given a great deal to have some one
to whom she could speak freely, and
and from whom she could obtain &C.
curate information and now
that she had become a Mormon she
desired to furnish to others what she
would have been to glad to receive
herself. She had been young lady
living in an eastern city. and was al
ready engaged to be married when she
first met her husband. He had three
wives, one of whom was connection
of hers; and this lady sent by her
husband, who was going east, some
message to her eastern kinswoman.
The message was delivered, and the
thrice married husband and the engag-
ed young lady "fel] in love- on the
the spot. The young lady, though
living in the east, had visited in Utah,
and was sufficiently acquainted with
Mormon customs, though not herself
a Mormon. She Went and prayed and
bemoaned herself her unhappy love,
but dismissed her first lover, and,
after vainly struggling against fate,
became convert to Mormonism. Her
parents opposed her to the last, and
She went to U tah and wasIthere married
to the young man Of her (second)
choice. having first secured the hearty
consent of his three wives, without
which, she assured me, she would
never have agreed to the marriage.
She had been married some six or seven
years. Her husband had taken no
wife since herself. and she did not
think he would ever take another. He
and she lived together in pretty
little cottage, with several children.
The other wives lived 20 or so miles
away outside the city.
These young people seemed truly at
tached to each other. In many quiet
and perfectly proper, indeed, winding
ways; they showed lover-like fond
ness that had survived the engagement
ring and the honeymoon. When asked
il plurality of wives was considered a
duty, or whether it depended on the
inclination, she said that it was cOnsid.
cred a religious duty. How then
would the church consider her hus-
band justified in taking no more wives!
She said there had been some talk
about it, but that many older members
of the church had not so many wives
as he, and that 1t lehooved them to
mend their own ways before taking
any special exception to his; and she
added, with a very un-MOrmOn but
very feminine spark Of spirit, that it
would make no difference if they did.
He would do as be chose about it
w LOU W Clo OnC 4OC11LS Va Ollc WOu!C1l
generally about it! Oh that depended
on what degree Of exaltation they had
attained. If by prayer and submission
and right living they had got into that
spiritual state Of mind which was prop
er and desirabl3 for them, they were
said to be exalted, and then they were
willing their husbands should have
wives. She acknowledged that it was
a rather difficult virtue, that it was
only consideration of the Heavenly
and spiritual blessings accruing from
it that made it tolerable, and that no
height of exaltation could make it in.
herently desirable. She admitted that
she had not reached that height of
spiritual stature in which she would
be willing to see her husband take
another wife.
To me her case was clear as daylight.
She had lived among the Mormons, as
a young lady, long enough to become
familiar with their mode of life aid
thought, and when she saw the young
man she had lost the instructive i'm
possibility of falling in love with man
already married. So she dallied with
the idea, and probably having no posi-
tive opinions or principles of her own,
adopted those which admitted the in
diligence of her inclination and her
fancy. But the very slight veneer
ing of Mormonism by no means inter-
fered with the natural workings of the
heart. She was no more really Nor.
mon in Salt Lake City than she had
been on the Atlantic coast. She was
Mormon enough to be the well-beloved
and netted wife of a man who already