Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-10
How the NIormons Regard Polygnmy.
 IRav John C. KiIaa,alI in Christian Renistar I

the industry of canning salmon shall contin- ue on their rivers ip future.
 How the nIormons Regard PoIygnmy.
 [Rev. John c. KiInbsll in Christian Register.J
 In studying their faith while in Utah, I was as puzzled as the editor of the Register was to find any rationale for many of its pecuIi- arities, and the temptation was very strong to regard them as based wholly on imposture and fraud,-a thing, however, which all ex- perience shows 1t is never quite safe to do ;;
 but with regard to polygamy, it's main pecu- harity, did hear from themselves explana- tions of its origin and of their present req sons for it's support some of which I have never seen in print, and which, as containing their own philosophy of the matter, may be of interest and afford some suggestion, apart from mere prejudice and sentiment, as to
 what the governments relation to it should
 be.
 The first and usual account of it's origin
 was given me by Mormon enthusiast born in Massachusetts, intelligent and capable, but who saw everything in the light of a super .naturalist's faith, ttMy wife and myself. f.n he said 'were converted to Mormonism sim ply as a religion years before polyganly WAS ever thought of. But while at Nauvoo, we each began having revelations from Heaven night after night, saying that we must go back to the customs of the patriarchs with regard to marriage. The whole thing at first
 
 time we could not receive it. The revela- tlons, however, became clearer and more en- phatic, and at last my wife ventured to com municate to me what the Lord had declared to her. This led to a comparison of experi- ences all around, and we found the same revelation had come to many; and hence it was received and acted upon as the unmis- takable will of Heaven"
 Another explanation. and in some respects the counterpart of this, came from cool shrewd, business-ike, hard headed, New Hampshire born Yankee, without particle of fanaticism about him, also an original Mormon ''The fact is,'' said he, while at Nauvoo, our missionaries in various parts of the world made converts among women, sim gle women especially, great deal faster than among men, women always being most sus- ceptible to religious influences. The conse- quence was that coming into new commu- nity where they had no homes or houses or protectors of their own, we had to parcel them around among our different families This, we found very soon, was giving rise to scandal and to possible illicit attachments and, a matter of deoency and morals, we had to provide some way by which this excess of women could have some normal relation to the families where they were placed. Marrying them to their heads, with all the sanctions and safeguards of religion, seemed to us the only possible way and so, using our common sense, we took that as the will of the Lord"
 The two explanations are not inconsistent with each other, are indeed exactly of the same kind that in all religions we find are given of the same events, by two such classes of minds Of course, it is possible to sheer at them, as it is at the doctrine of the mirac- ulous conception of Jesus Christ, and at scores of things in Judaism, Catholicism and Mohammedanism as deri Ved from the inge- nuity of corrupt leaders. But such treat ment is neither Christian nor philosophical, No religious institution or practice, however much 1t may fall into it afterward, ever orig mates in corruption. And without denying that the element of passion may uncon- sciously have had its influence, these two &C., counts, given out of their own knowledge by men whe were not leaders, suggest how the system at its roots was an honest part of their religious faith.
 AS to it's practice now, there are doubtless many women who accept it, as the Register says, against their instincts, and as a sacrifice essential for their future salvation-thoueh not more, perhaps, than at the East accept monogamy against their feelings and as means simply of securing an earthly home and support. But there are others who take it in far lighter spirit. Talking the matter over in the Mormon family where boarded, consisting of widowed mother and her two daughters, Is and 20 years old, asked the girls how they liked their religion, and es- pecially it's practice of allowing them only part of a husband. They both said very earnestly that they liked their faith itself very much indeed, but that they thought the Gentle way of one husband and one wife making family was far the best. The mother, good, sensible old lady, busy with her knitting, listened to our talk while in silence but at last, laughing, said: That is the way, MT. Kimball all the young girls talk at first, just as among you they begin with saying they never, never, never will marry a widower. But, practically, it de- pends with them very much on the kind of man that comes along. If he is an agreeable gentleman, with wealth enough to give them g good standing in society, it makes very little difference about his having been previ- ously married, he has fair chance of being accepted. But if he is poor stick, no mat ter how single he is, they won't have him anyway. They had rather have the half or the quarter of good man, in spite of senti- ment, than the whole of poor one" Which suppose, is the exact truth in re- gard to it's practical working not very ele- vating one, but very different from the ec- clesiastical and mental bondage in which they are commonly thought to live, and not inconsistent with fair degree of womanly delicacy and moral purity.
 Among the men it is defended, of course, very largely on scripture grounds, with the text of which they are wonderfully familiar, and which they interpret with more than or thodox iteralness and pragmatism; but they are equally ready to argue for it on scientific, economic and moral grounds. ''We apply" they say, ''to the human race precisely the same principles that you gentiles do to the of domestic animals-that of breeding, so far as possible, only from those which are of superior quality" To the ob- equal in numbers, indicating that one of each should come together for family, they an- swer: ''So is there just property enough in the world for every human being to have a fair amount, if it were equally distributed But you gentiles do not organize society on that principle. You say, Let every man have all that by his energy and manhood he can honestly win, even though it leaves others with none at all And what you say with re- gard to property, we say also with regard to each man, with proper religious have all whose affections he can honestly win and properly support and care for afterward. Why, now, is not the prin- ciple as sound in the one case as in the other?'
 To the objection apparently the most se- rious of all, that among the men thus inevi- tably left without wives and without homes she system must be fearful occasion of im- morality, they simply point to the condition of things among them in respect to drunken ness and icentiousness, as compared with
 
 and say, By their fruits ye shall know them; judge between us." And the. objec- tor, it must be confessed, if he looks with honest eyes, has to stand dumb.
 present these arguments of theirs not as them, but as matter of informa- ion and to give them the full benefit of their own presentation of their case. The fact is, ihe experiment. of polygamy in Utah, though nagniied by writers on each side as if it were the chief feature of their system, is practically but trivial part of it, and of no significance in it's results one way or another, Out of 10000 men in the territory, only a lew hundred have more than one wife,-not 10 many probably as in New York, or in any ,f our large cities, are living illegally with nore than one woman. The great body of and the most dangerous, ignorant, anatical of them, are strict monogamists; md the polygamy which, if prActiced by 8 whole people, might indeed affect them in 8 7ery serious degree, now makes hardly a .ipple in their moral life.
 INVENTORS.
 JOHN E. EARLE,