The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-10-05
LIFE AMONG THE MORMONS,

A lady who has lived many years in
the Mormon Territory gave New York
San reporter the benefit of her observa-
tions while in Salt Lake City and other
places in Utah. She said:
GA Gentle myself, / never lost Curl
osity regarding the peculiar institution.
Off and on [ have lived twenty years
among the Mormons. I like the people
and I like their religion, for polygamy is
a religion 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 out 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 proprieties. They are gem
erous, open-handed and whole-souled, as
o general thing, and nowhere on earth
for 1 have travelled far and observed
much, and know whereof I speak-do
women uphold each other so much SIS
the Mormon women, do. They have
sympathy and a charity for each other
that women elsewhere would do well to
emulate. sbeT=aa ussU aa-.s -sa. @r'
Although woman work in the Terri
tory, their work is seldom of character
to increase wealth, and, as each wife
must have her separate rooms or house
and a stipulated allowance to live upon,
it can readily be seen that polygamy was
an ingenious device to keep men from
amassing wealth. I remember well
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
chureh-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. 1t must be done.
The wife and the husband were tenderly
attached. They desired to keep their
means for the education and future main
tonance of their only son, but their pri-
vate 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 acondemned man hears the
erection of the scafold on which he is to
be executed. But being true Mormon,
and believing like her husband that he
was only performing a religious duty,
she prayed for resignation and submis-
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 well. 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. 4s.lsi
''For some time the two wives lived,
one in one wing of the house, the other
III the other. They would meet in the
back yard, common to both, but without
speaking. After the birth of son to
the second wife, her temper, because.
she could not entirely suppIant. the first
wife, became so unbearable that the un.
lucky editor implored Young to grant
him a divorce. After that the second
wife went to what is popularly 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 I
little household. s.ata- ss4 |
"One singular thing In Mormon fam
lilies 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 moro fayoritis1n !.
among his children than among his wives.
I was often amused at these same Nor
mon children. They would come IN 7
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
syes, and cream-and-roses compilations,
all tall, weu-built girls, while their vari-
Ous mothers were of all shapes, all sizes
and compilations, and had every shadeof
hair and eyes. 3aia sta lsu10 8b1 q
stThe Mormons believe that thosewho
10 not practice polygamy are wrong.
md not they: and they. especially the
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