Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-03
LIFE AMONG the MoRMoAs

sun reporter Inc dement, or ner ODSerVa-
tions while in Salt Lake City and other
places in Utah. She said:
ga Gentle myself, L never lost curl
osity regarding the peculiar institution.
Off and on I have lived twenty years
among the Mormons. like the people
and like their religion, for polygamy is
areigion with them. lido not, Of course,
like this form of their belief. They are
a cheerful, jolly set of folks, their wor-
ship more nearly resembling that of the
Methodists than any religion known to
us. They do not scare you cut Of your
senses with threats of eternal damnation
and hell fire. Even in church, if any
thing funny is said, you are at liberty to
laugh, and are not considered to have
offended the properties. They are gen.
erous, open-handed and whole-souled, as
general thing, and nowhere on earth
for / have travelled far and observed
much, and know whereof I speak-do
women uphold each other so much as
the Mormon women do. They have a
sympathy and charity for each other
that women elsewhere would do well to
emulate.
although woman work in the Terri
tory, their work is seldom of a character
to increase wealth, and, as each wife
must have her separate rooms or house
and stipulated allowance to live upon,
it can readily be seen that polygamy was
an ingenious device to keep men from
amassing wealth. 1 remember well a
case in point. The editor of certain
paper was allowed to live in peace and
happiness with his only wife until the
growing influence of the journal and the
emoluments therefrom attracted Brig
hams attention. The editor was in
formed one day that he had too long
neglected the religious rites of the
church-that he must take another wife.
The editor did not want to, and, as may
be supposed, neither was his wife anx-
ious that he should. But there was no
resisting Brigham. It must be done.
The wife and the husband were tenderly
attached. They desired to keep their
means for the education and future main
tenance of their only son, but their pri-
waite wishes availed nothing. A young
girl was selected as the second wife, and
a wing Was built to their house. The
wife fell sick with grieving and with
jealous torture. As she lay for weeks
on her bed she could hear the hammer
ing going ON, and listened with the same
feelings that condemned man hears the
erection of the scaffold on which he is to
be executed. But being true Mormon,
and believing like her husband that he
was only performing o religious duty,
she prayed for resignation and submits
sion. She succeeded so well that she
was able to attend the wedding, and give
the bride away, as it were, but after that
matters did not work we'll. Although
the first wife tried hard to keep the
peace, the second wife was virago, and
jealous of the love that the husband had
evidently not transferred.
For some time the two wives lived,
one In one wing Of the house, the other
in the other. They would meet in the
= back yard, common to both, but without
speaking. After the birth of a son to
the second wife,. her temper, because
she could not entirely sJlpplant the first
wife, became so zlnbearable that the I'M
lucky editor implored Young to grant
him divorce. After that the second
wife went to what is popularity known as
the bad. The husband induced her to
give the child into the keeping of the
first wife. The two boys have been
reared as brothers, and no other wife
has since disturbed the harmony of the
little household.
"One singular thing in Mormon fam
lies is the perfect good feeling which in
variably exists among the children.
They never quarrel, as step sisters and
brothers do in the States, for they are
early taught that their rights are equal
and respect them, their common father
taking care to show no more iavoritism
among his children than among his wives.
was often amused at these same Nor
mon children. They would come in
and say: Mother, Polly So-and-so is
going to be married to Mr.. What's-his
name. She's going in fifth, or ninth, or
eleventh, as the case might be.
"Another thing that struck me as
strange was that all Brigham's daughters
are lovely and most pronounced blondes,
with golden-tinted hair, heavenly-blue
eyes, and cream and-roses compilations,
all tall, well-built girls, while their vari-
GUS mothers were of all shapes, all sizes
and compilations, and had every shade of
hair and eyes.
"The Mormons believe that those who
do not practice polygamy are wrong,
and not they; and they, especially the
women, are fond of inyeighing against
the immortality of the States-the firta-
ton and worse of Gentle wives, and
the unfaithfulness of Gentle husbands.
l have often had them say to me: How
selfish are you Gentle wives! You get
married to one man. You find him a
good husband, a good provider, and
good father. You know that the women
in the world outnumber the men, so that
there are no longer men enough to go
round, and yet you will not share that
good provider with another woman, al
though you know he would make her as
happy as he has you, and so many poor
woman has to go without any husband