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

obeyed his DEGREES. Luxuries gave way
to the bare necessaries of life and the
children labored for bread when they
should have been at play.
Z Not SO with their chief. Like the
famed devil-fsh, he fastened upon all
who came within his reach and held
them in his powerful clutch until he had
drained the life blood of their hopes and
ambitions.
Bear in mind, the Mormon leaders
claim, and their followers profess to
believe, that they hold constant personal
intewseaos wsth God that all their de-
crees are revelations from Him. So fa-
miliar IS this intercourse, assumed to be
that, at the time the Mormons were
resisting the efforts Of the United States
Government to establish a Governor of
Utah in place of Brigham Young he pro-
claimed: 81 am Governor of Utah and
shall remain SO until God Almighty
says, Brigham, you needn't be Governor
any longer" In other words he claim
ed to possess the keys of heaven. His
declarations were but the voice of the
Almighty finding Inference through his
lips.
So, when he promulgated the doctrine
of polygamy, he gave it as an order from
the Lord. To ensure its success, reward
was promised to those who possessed
many wives and children. They were to
be crowned in the next world as saints
of high order, and none failing to obey
the edict could receive such distinction.
If the church commanded man to add
to his household another and yet another
wife, it must be done, for having once
anchored with the Mormon chuch, hav.
ing accepted as law from God one Of
the demands of Brigham Young. they
must accept all or be denounced as apos-
tates; and their leader had early taught
them that to apostatize was death eter.
nal. Fortunate indeed was that man
who, having renounced the absurd doc.
trines, escaped from the murderous
clutches of the emissaries of the Mormon
leaders.
1t mattered not how heavy the bur.
dens imposed, how cruel the sufferings
consequent upon obedienee-it was "obey
or take the consequences; and the
record of the life of Rockwell. the late
"Chief of the Destroying Angels" tells
what those consequences were; the fate
of the settlement of those known as the
"Morrisites," was too we'll known tc
make apostacy inviting.
| am aware that the opinion is quite
prevalent that all Mormons are rude
uncultured creatures, who go about il
clothing the style of which antedates the
food who are mere beasts of burden
Such is not the truth. There are among
them very large number of ignorant
people of both sexes, gathered from al
parts of the world and brought here a.
converts creatures. who, in their native
lands merely lived and moved, with nj
aspirations beyond the black bread o
poverty. 1t would take something NOR,
elevating and refining than the exampl,
of the Mormon leaders or the teaching
of their religion to lift these beings t.
the level of those who were born ant
reared in free country. But to charg
that the Mormon church is composed en-
tirely of this class, would be as wron,
as to say our own churches are made VI
of hypocrites because some members d
not keep their faith. That the ignoran
greatly exceed in numbers the culture'
is also true, and the blind, superstition
faith which possesses them, as we'll a
the duplicity of the man who controlle'
them, is well exemplifed by the follow
ing tale which was told me by Mormons
A poor, ignorant foreigner had los
his leg by amputation. Revolving i
his mind the fact that Brigham Youn
had power to do all things whatsoeve
he would, he called upon him and ez
pressed his desire to have his leg restore
to him. This would seem to be som,
thing to stagger an imposter, but Brig
ham, equal to any emergency. replied !:
Certainly, | can restore your leg
trouble about that at all; but here
the difficulty. At most you have only
| few years to remain in this world. Will
when you cross over Jordan you wi
have an eternity before you. Now wi
it be more to your advantage to hobb
around on one leg here in this worl
rather than go through eternity wit
three legs, for when you enter the ne
Jerusalem your amputated leg will
restored to you?'
Convinced that it was better to hobb
here than play kangaroo hereafter, Il
young man went his way but his fai
in Brigham's poacer to perform miracl
was not weakened one jot or title.
Some idea of the proportion of igno
ant ones may be gathered from the ST
tistics which give the nationalities of t
residents of the Territory. for with ft
notable exceptions, the foreign eleme
is of a low order.