Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-12-23

truth the absurdItles of the Mormon doc
trine. But there are among this people
those who are thoroughly educated and
who are as well qualified to enter good
society as the best of gentiles. l know
several Mormon ladies-[ use the word
in the truest sense. They are ladies;
intelligent, educated, accomplished Ia
dies /; they are, too. believe, doing
what they conscientiously believe to be
right-bearing their cross for the sake
of their religion, I said to one of them !:
show can you wear such happy face
when your burden is sufficient to crush
you ?" With eyes in, which shone a
light as pure as Gods own sunshine, she
answered !: ..We do not bear these things
alone. When the cross is SO heavy we
almost faint, when our hearts are torn
and crushed and bleeding, We go to our
closets and pray; pray until strength
comes to do our duty"
This woman's history from childhood
is familiar to me. She was the petted
child of wealthy parents in the East.
Coming to Utah with her husband. they
embraced the Mormon faith. By and by
followed the curse, polygamy. To the
other women her husband calls wife she
is all kindness and courtesy. Her chill
dren regard her as almost saint, and |
do not wonder, for if suffering can puri.
fly, her soul must be as white as wool.
And so with others whom I met. 1t
was the same answer: "we pray and
weep; it is woman's lot; but the reward
is hereafter" They do not find the
yoke easy nor the burden light; but
who of US shall say that their path shall
not lead them to the green pastures and
beside the still waters in the Great Here
after where we shall all be judged, not
by what we do or what we do not do
here, SO much as by the motives which
controlled our lives.
Do not fall into the error of thinking
| am defending polyamy. God forbid.
| loathe and hate and despise it. 1t is
a stain which our Government should
stamp out of existence an excrescence
of society which let alone. will sooner OF
later die of its own rottenness. | looked
upon Brigham Young with much the
same feeling as did Margaret ha Wuffnel
a Prussian lady who visited Utah. She
described him as "a human hypopota.
mus a moral monster, calmly setting
all the moral and social laws of the
country at defiance, : and of those men
who were associated with him and are
now carrying on his work, [ see no rea-
son to think better. One man, who
boasted to me of the number of his
wives, plainly told me it was the only
remedy for the social evil. He had
been driven to the wall in argument,
and in desperation. dropped the CLOAK
of religion, revealing the skeleton Of
evil which controlled him.
An anecdote is told of an Irish Judge
who was called upon to sentence mar
who had been convicted of bigamy
When the prisoner rose to hear his doom
the judge said: Faith, an tbs mesel
that sintences ye to 60 free; fur if ye'vt
lived wild two women at once ye've beer
punished entoirly, fur its meself as can
live wild one.'
Arguing from this standpoint many
Mormons say that polygamy is a create
cross to men than to women, for, whil
man may have Joined to himself I
score of wives if he will. no woman Cal
possess herself of more than one livin,
husband. There are cases in Salt LAX
where a man has married, first th
daughter in family, then his widowe'
mother in-law, and so on to the end o
the family. A teacher in Salt LAX
told me of puzzling question asked he
by pupil, who, accompanied by littl
girl younger than himself, came t
school. If any of my readers can an
swer it, l will be happy to enlighte
the teacher.
This was the puzzle the little one
brain told in his own childish way:
Teacher, how is it anyhow? Wha
relation is Jennie to me? My father
her father, and her mother is my grand
mother. And SO it was-a result {
Brigham Young's message from th
Lord; a puzzle for little heads now, br
by and by believe their eyes will /
opened and they will renounce thes
terrible thing.
If the husband was compelled to SUI
port his numerous wives and children
. be would indeed be burdened, and Il
result would be most gratifying for p
E lygamous marriages would be decrease
o in ratio to frighten the reverse.
they do not support the husbands
; some instance, | know they do, they a
at least, self-supporting, and in no way
care or burden to the man whose nan
!. they bear.
e The newest wife, like the latest bab
v is queen for time, but her reign
t usually brief. Brigham Young h;
made Amelia Tolson his favorite, al