The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-05-19
THE LITTLE MORMON MAID-SERv.
ANT.


Ceiestials have neither godliness nor the
next thing to it, my wife soon discharged
him. and came home one evening to
find that he had packed up his things
and good many OF ours-and was
We had a young China-boy for house
maid but he allowed himself to be in
fiuenced by his discharged fellow-serv-
ant and took French leave the next day.
Misfortunes never come sipgly, nor go
singly.
Nv wife now began to walk the town
over in search of girl. Women-serv-
ants, especially young girls, it is diff
cult for GENTLE families to procure In
some parts of Utah, particularly In
towns of the railroads, where the Nor
mons retain their great prejudice against
the ssforeign element" as the Gentiles
are called, and rarely allow their
daughters to go out to service In Cen
tile families, for fear the young saints
will be estranged from the church, or
contaminated by the worlds people"
as the Mormons express it. Besides,
there are not many young girls in the
Mormon church. They are advised to
marry young, and Mormon men are en-
Outraged to marry a number of wives.
The more wives each man takes the
greater his power in the church.
But my wife's search for a servant
was repaid by introducing her to the
quaint interiors of q number of Mormon
houses to which she had been advised to
go. and for several days we had little
conversation Mt meals beside descrip-
tion of these interiors; and they were
not always appetizing.
Some of the houses to which her
search led her were the homes of Scan
dinavian converts TO Mormonism, houses
of one room, built either of rough, red
granite boulders, or of dull adobes
inside carpeted with loose straw; the
little square windows curtained with
short white conventual curtains, gather
ed on rods at the top and bottom
In many instances q shelf is hinged
against the wall, and serves as a cloth
less dinner table, and can afterwards be
dropped fiat against the wall by folding
its prop, thus making more room in the
hampered quarters.
Some of these houses are enclosed
by rush-woven fences, made of switches
braided horizontally between upright
posts. These fences, looking like the
woven willow cradles in texture give
foreign appearance to the streets they
border, and are so close-weft that child
could not find an aperture large enough
/, TO thrust its little hand through to pluck
the flowers inside.
But the queer fences seemed also 10
quad the young girls In the families as
weIiNs they did the flowers, and my wife
was uASpccessfuI in her search. The
MormonNsothers all told her there had
Deen a ruIeIecently made in the church
that all yoJfg girls under the AGE Of
sixteen, insteaAof going ont to service.
must go to schoosfor the Mormons have
educational estaolls>,pents, but they are
schools where knoledpe comes. but
wisdom fingers" being h,Te instruments
for the diffusion of Mornae,' doctrine.
At last, after days OF frfnless effort.
we found at our very door thatN,r which
we had searched far and wioS II
CHANGED that the Mormon Bishop, 1am
whom we rented our house, hveS
in q rambling house of rough and red
granite, next door to us. He had built
his houses on adjoining lots, and had q
wife and family living in each house
but jealousy sprang up between the two
wives, and the Bishop removed the
youngest and favorite wife to the coun-
my. and rented to MS her vacated house.
One morning, while we were still with
out servant. my wife CHANGED TO step
into the Bishops first wife's house, next
door to see about having sSms but an
.
errand ever takes GENTLE lady into one
Of these Occidental harems. While there
sie happened to remark her great need
of n servant, and was much astonished
at the novel experience of having our
landlords wife offer with alacrity one
of her numerous and Unsupported
daughters for the situation. Her first
thought was that the woman made the
offer simplyto oblige us temporarily, and
she was about to decline it with thanks,
when, after glance over the poverty
stricken room, she concluded that the
offer came from pecuniary necessity in
stead of pure kind-heartedness, and ut
once closed the bargain. Apparently
this Bishop pinched his first wife's fam
lily to indulge the second wife's. for he
was man of some consideration in the
church, and must have had means to
support one family well.
When returned home that evening 1
found young "Saint" established in
the place of our departed Celestial
Ii seemed to give our little Mormon
girl delight so disproportioned In effect
to the cause that she was questioned
by one of the children, why she seemed
so happy. She answered that If she had
not got home with us, she was about
to have been obliged by her father to go
to live with his second wife, where she
would have had hard work would have
lived In the country, which she disliked,
and would have received no wages. In
the poorer Mormon families il is custom
airy for the first wife and her children TO
become virtually servants to the second
wife and her children. The children of
one wife call all the other wives of their
father Aunt"
Our little Mormon maids name was
Julie. She speedily became a great
favorite with the children of our family
who ate with her at the second table.
and learned from her some primitive
table manners. At dinner, on her first
evening IN our service, the children dis
covered that 1t was against the rules of
the Mormon church to drink either tea
or Gomez, and Julie never tasted either
while she lived with us.
On the first Sunday night Julie was
with ne, she was undressing the younger
children in the nursery while their
mother was hearing them recite their
catecnisn. One of the children was
asked
Paul, who made your
And he answered "God."
The next question in the catechismis:
Are there more Gods than one ?"
And again he answered properly, mo,
there 10 but one God"
At this Julie looked up astonished,
and Is Il thinking Pauls catechiser was
abstracted and allowing him to recite
wrong: Julie said, timidly: "Paul an
swered that question wrong, ma'am."
What must I sayT isped Paul, be-
wildered.
Julie answered. "You must saw. Yes.
there are many Gods. 30
Paul's mother protested against her
boys learning this false doctrine, and
Julie protested that it was true, and as
proof, went to her room and brought ont
her well-worn Mormon cats,chisn a. an
end TO the controversy; pointing TO the
question, the answer was truly a aha