The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1880-04-26
THE BEAUTIES OF POLYGAMY.
what Gentle Lady Saw iR Her Utah
Travels.

ISalt Lake Anti -Polygamy Standard
The following was related by the wife
of noted United States explorer to
Gentle lady of this city, who will
vouch for its genuineness:
While travelling in Southern Utah,
we came to a small settlement, where
we were detained by the weather. We
found shelter in the humble, but neat
and hospitable home cf monogamist
saint, whose family hated polygamy,
and through whose influence we were
permitted glance at some OF the beast
illness that characterizes the peculiar
institution. Only short distance
from my friendly entertainers there
stood miserable adobe hut, that could
not consistently be called house,
where lived saint with three wives,
all of whom had families. My hostess
made some neighborly errand an excuse
for paying them visit, and permitted
me to accompany her; but before going
she made me acquainted with the rela-
tionship existing between the three
women who were living with and had
borne children to the same man.
The first and second women were
sisters; the latter had been a widow
with one child when she married her
sisters husband. When this child had
grown to be about sixteen years old her
stepfather had also married her, but
after a few months she left and was
sealed to another man as plural wife,
by whom she had two children. Then
he died, and she returned to her first
hushsnd, bringing her children with
her, the eldest OF whom, at the time /
am speaking of, was girl about fifteen
yoars old, and my informant stated for
a fact that the old wretch had thought
of marrying her, too.
When we entered the hut the scene
that met my eyes totally beggars de-
scription. Imagine one low, smoky,
filthy room serving as a living and
sleeping apartment for three women
and their offspring, some of the latter
almost grown up, the majority, however,
being little children | could never
have dreamed Of such dirt, rags and
squalor existing in Christian country.
/ have seen nothing equal to it even
among the Digger Indians; in fact, the
latter are quite civilized in compari-
son. But the worst of my story is yet
to come.
The young girl of whom my hostess
had spoken as a probable bride of her
grandfather was. sitting in corner,
sobbing and crying. Upon inquiring
the cause of her distress, we were told
quite frankly that her grandfather had
given her severe castigation for speak
ing disrespectfully about polygamy,
and declaring that she would never be-
come the wife of her mothers and her
grandmother husband. When we
left | could not restain my indignation,
and / said: "What lovely religion
this is to make such beasts out of
human creatures !"
''It is not religion, but the lack of it
that makes them such beasts" quietly
replied my hostess, "and you will find
many cases as bad as this one if you
travel far in Utah.
But the sequel is still more horrible.
About a year afterward we had occa-
sion to pass through that particular
section again, and for day were the
guests of our former hostess. She told
me that the young girl was really sealed
to her grandfather, being literally
forced into it by her own mother and
grandmother under circumstances so
revolving that delicacy forbids me from
repeating them even to one of my own
sex. Even in that polygamic commu-
nifty the excitement was so great that
talk was had of lynching the degraded
trio-the man and two elder women
but the feeling soon passed over and
was eventually forgotten or only re-