The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-08-31
Brigham YOUNG.

Brigham Young is dead This news
has been flashed all over this land and
Europe. No other American is better
known than was this remarkable man.
His soul took its flight at o'clock on the
afternoon of August 90, after an illness of
six days. He died at his home, if man
of his surroundings could be said to have
| home.
1t would be carrying charity for the
dead too far. and be too great disregard
for truth, to pretend that his death was
loss, or that the world will deplore his de-
parture from it. On the contrary, Brigham |
Young has long been looked upon as the
pillar wherein polygamy rested. the prop |
without which it could not Withstand the
pressure of modern civilization. Conse-
quently, his death brings hope that the
peculiar institution" which is now dis
grazing the continent and demoralizing,
retarding and blighting in every way an
otherwise thrifty territory will disappear.
Therein consists the significance of his
death. This hope may be disappointed.
Things come and go so Unexpectedly in
this strange world that perhaps Brigham,
in this regard, may be more puissant dead
than alive. Be this as it may, the ex-
pectation is certainly reasonable. Very
few men have the iron will and vast ca
pacity for management which the deceased
president of the Mormon church possessed.
His sons are weaklings in comparison, and
,, SO are all the twelve apostles, as the digni-
taries of the Mormon church are called.
The system of polygamy is utterly abhcr-
ent to modern ideas. 1t belongs to an
tiquity and barbarism. Our ancestors,
even as savages, had too much good sense
to practice but the people from whom our
religion came accepted it as a matter of
l course. 1t is probable that great many
i of the Mormons are sincere. Perhaps the
: president of the church was, His course
e in the early days of his Mormonism would
Indicate it. But his thorough absorption
10 worldliness, his exceptional deficiency
e in religious susceptibiIities, his greed for
J property, and above all his coarse animal
ism would indicate that he was prompted
Il by selfshness. rather than fanatjcsm
= BE thie as 1t may, the way Is DOW open for
t the flood tide of genuine civilization to
e beat upon the house of polygamy, and
r built as it is upon the sand Of etfete bar
d barism, it must fall 1t may be long
!, time in going to pieces, but lis doom is
d sealed irrevocably. If anything may be
predicted cf the future, this a safe pre-
- diction.
t, Brigham Young was a Yankee of the
al most pronounced tyne. Born in a little
a out of-the-way town of Vermont, June l,
2, 1901, he possessed the shreWdness and
e tenacity characteristic of the sons of the
e PuritanS. His education was very meagre.
a He was always attracted to region by its
e austerities. The hard doctrines" suited
| well his bent of mind. He Joined the Bap-
to list church early in life 1t is safe to say
d that he would take grim pleasure in being
is immersed 10 river in the dead OF winter
No baptistry would satisfy him. 1t is
&c strange that in borrowing the domestic in
N situations Of the patriarchiai Jews he die
- not borrow also the cruel rite of the He
10 brew church lie joined the Mormon
i church as early as 1912. 10 Ohio. 1t wai
N then in its infancy. 1t had not devel
y oped into a poygamic monstrosity. L
Of was born of that prolific parent Of ia
If naticism, expectation of the bodily sec
4 oDd coming Of Christ. Nearly all tanati
ii cisms in ChristeDdom have had the sam,
20 origin. During the period Of trial anC
n persecution, Young stood heroIcally By
,is his predecessor in the presidency, Jo
Smith. When he led the people, like
second Moses. through the wilderness o
-. the plains to Utah, Il generation ago, h
u did grand thing. That burial of
y. handful of hardy men on the bank
-4 hat a. A II
Lake, was one Of the hravest ant
most admirable enterprises Of history
One cannot but be lost in admiration il
the contemplation Of such indomitabl
determination to meet destiny single
no handed With all its Dante infamies tn
~ Mormon settlement proved a great blessing
"a to the country, furnishing a most con
~, ~ venient and necessary halfway house be
Ie tween the Pacific slope and the east. TIL
',o Pacific railroad project owes more t
,S Brigham Young than to any other man
LLo albeit he had no phianthropIc or patriot
no purposes. He was as destitute of patriot
= ism and philanthropy as an oak tree. Blu
10 the march of events used him for som
- good purposes, aud we may hope that hi
S life will prove to have been public benefit
ne Brigham Young leaves behind him
az vast estate, to be divided among his nun
l en erous wives and children. He kept tn
6n Mormon people in abject poverty, til
aot greater part of them, and appropriated t
esSse himself the wealth they produced Hi
I property ought in strict justice to be con
nc iscated and distributed among the poop!
l nJ whom he deprived off by playing on thei
;.L superstition, But nothing of the kind W:
~, be done His heirs will keep what tn
.o' lawyers do not get But it is morally Gel
~ ~, tain that the Mormon erangers. once free
rs from his personal depotism, will begin to Ia
Gu by for their own families the surplus profit
~ OF their tillage. On the whole, then, th
-o public has Do cause to drop a single tea
t upon the bier OF the dead Mormon. 4
' no he takes his place among the spent force
.o34 OF humanity, he leaves vacancy throug
nu which the sun OF better days may thro
~; ~ his beams upon the people he has SO lon
nc ruled with a rod Of iron.
hls Sneak Thteving.
.1e About 4 o'clock this afternoon youn
es sneak-thef entered the jewe!ry store
lsh Robert Bromley, on Second avenue. duriu